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Twelve Tomorrows: MIT Technology Review SF Annual 2014 now on Sale

Twelve Tomorrows: MIT Technology Review SF Annual 2014 now on Sale

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Twelve Tomorrows MIT Technology Review SF Annual 2014-smallMIT Technology Review has published two highly regarded SF anthologies over the past few years: TRSF (2011) and Twelve Tomorrows (2013). Both included 12 short stories inspired by recent developments reported in the pages of MIT Technology Review and featured an impressive list of contributors, including Neal Stephenson, David Brin, Brian Aldiss, Nancy Kress, Cory Docotorow, Joe Haldeman, and many others.

The 2014 edition has arrived and it looks just as impressive. Edited by Bruce Sterling and featuring original short stories by William Gibson, Pat Cadigan, Cory Doctorow, Warren Ellis, Bruce Sterling, Joel Garreau, Paul Graham Raven, Lauren Beukes, and Christopher Brown, this latest volume envisions the future of the Internet, biotechnology, computing, and much more.

It also includes a gallery of work by the great artist John Schoenherr and an interview with fantasy legend Gene Wolfe. See the complete details at the website.

The volume is currently available at better bookstores around the country. It’s also available for Kindle and the iPad, or in a three-volume bundle with TRSF and Twelve Tomorrows (2013) for just $29.95.

Twelve Tomorrows 2014 was edited by Bruce Sterling and published by MIT Technology Review on August 25, 2014. It is 234 pages in magazine format, priced at $12.95 for the print edition and $9.99 for the digital version.

The cover, by John Schoenherr, was also the cover of the original Ace paperback edition of Frank Herbert’s Dune from 1967 (click the image at left for a high-res version).

Future Treasures: The Lady by K. V. Johansen

Future Treasures: The Lady by K. V. Johansen

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The Lady Johansen-smallThe first novel in K. V. Johansen’s two book Marakand series, The Leopard, appeared in June from Pyr Books and was widely praised. Even the esteemed James Enge was impressed, saying, “I’m hooked. The mix of magic, Tibetan-style religion, and Harold Lamb-style adventure is pretty addicting.”

I’m pleased to see that Pyr isn’t keeping us waiting for the final volume — it will be released in December, barely six months after the first appeared. If you can’t wait, you can always sample her first fantasy novel for Pyr, Blackdog.

Possessed by a ghost who feeds on death, the undying assassin Ahjvar the Leopard has been captured by the Lady of Marakand, enslaved by necromancy to be captain of her Red Masks. His shield-bearer Ghu, a former slave with an uncanny ability to free the captive dead, follows Ahjvar into the war-torn lands of the Duina Catairna to release him, even if that means destroying what is left of Ahj’s tormented soul.

Deyandara, the last surviving heir of the Catairnan queen, rides into a land ravaged by disease and war, seeking the allies she abandoned months before, though they have no hope of standing against the army led by the invulnerable Red Masks of Marakand and the divine terror of the Lady.

In the city of Marakand, former enemies ally and old friends seek one another’s deaths as loyalists of the entombed gods Gurhan and Ilbialla raise a revolt, spearheaded by the Grasslander wizard Ivah, the shapeshifting Blackdog, and the bear-demon Mikki. The Lady’s defenses are not easily breached, though, and the one enemy who might withstand her, the Northron wanderer Moth, bearer of the sword Lakkariss, has vanished.

The Lady will be published December 9, 2014 by Pyr Books. It is 445 pages, priced at $18 in trade paperback and $11.99 for the digital version.

New Treasures: Shifting Shadows by Patricia Briggs

New Treasures: Shifting Shadows by Patricia Briggs

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Shifting Shadows by Patricia Briggs-smallI’ve recently been interested in sampling some of the better urban fantasy on the market. Patricia Briggs would certainly be one of the best places to start — she’s produced several #1 New York Times bestsellers featuring her shapeshifting heroine Mercy Thompson, and Locus magazine says “In the increasingly crowded field of kick-ass supernatural heroines, Mercy stands out as one of the best.” But frankly, I just don’t have time to read many more novels.

The new book Shifting Shadows may be just what I’ve been looking for. It’s a collection of short stories featuring Mercy, which originally appeared in anthologies like On the Prowl, Naked City, and Home Improvement: Undead Edition. It also includes four brand new standalone Mercy stories, which would serve as an ideal entry point for busy readers like me.

Shapeshifter Mercy Thompson has friends in high places — and in low, dark, scary ones. And in this must-have collection of stories, you’ll meet new faces and catch up with old acquaintances — in all their forms…

In a time of fresh starts, Mercy is asked to use an old talent — ghost hunting — in the all-new story “Hollow.” You’ll learn what happens when an ancient werewolf on his last legs befriends a vulnerable adolescent (“Roses in Winter”) and how Mercy’s friend Samuel Cornick became a werewolf (“Silver”). The werewolf Ben finds “Redemption,” and Moira, a blind witch, assists on a search in “Seeing Eye.”

From Butte, Montana, the copper-mining town that vampire Thomas Hao calls home (“Fairy Gifts”), to Chicago, where the vampire Elyna buys and renovates the apartment she lived in while human (“Gray”), you’ll travel the roads that originated with Mercy Thompson and the fertile imagination of Patricia Briggs. Roads that will lead you to places you’ve never been before…

Shifting Shadows was published by Ace Books on September 2. It is 450 pages, priced at $26.95 in hardcover and $10.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Daniel Dos Santos.

Self-Published Book Review: Brush with Darkness by Jamie Maltman

Self-Published Book Review: Brush with Darkness by Jamie Maltman

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If you have a book you’d like me to review, please see the submission guidelines here. I’ve run short on books that I’ve received in the past year, so anything new has a good chance of being reviewed.

BrushWithDarkness-forWeb-reduced

Anyone who’s been reading my reviews for the past year and a half has gotten a pretty good idea of what I like and don’t like. I prefer my fantasy to be epic rather than urban. I was tired of vampires years ago. And I like dwarves and weird westerns. You might want to add one more “like” to that list: Romans. I’ve had a soft spot for these ancient imperialists ever since I took Latin in high school. My own fiction frequently features them, and I’m likely to read any epic fantasy which includes an homage to ancient Rome. It is, in fact, what my wife and I first bonded over. All of which brings us to this month’s self-published novel,  Brush with Darkness.

In  Brush with Darkness, the part of the Romans is played by the Pazians. The Pazians control much of the known world, including the analogs for the Greeks (the Izari) and the Jews (the Benjai). And just like the historical Romans, they are frequently at war with the barbarians living beyond their borders. The story opens with the 7th Legion chasing a group of Scentari raiders, who have just destroyed a Pazian town located in territory the Scentari were driven out of a generation ago. The chase does not go as planned, as the Scentari now have access to dark magic.

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Announcing the Winners of Free Copies of Mark Rigney’s Check-Out Time

Announcing the Winners of Free Copies of Mark Rigney’s Check-Out Time

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Check Out Time Mark Rigney-smallLast month, we told you that you had a chance to win a free copy of Mark Rigney’s latest Renner & Quist novel, Check-Out Time. All you had to do to enter was send us an e-mail with the title “Check-Out Time.” Two winners were drawn at random this morning from all qualifying entries.

We are pleased to announce the winners are:

Barbara Barrett
Galt, CA

Yusuf S Nasrullah
Boston, MA

Congratulations! You should receive your copies in the next 5 – 10 days. In the meantime, enjoy our feature review by William Patrick Maynard, who called the book “Funny, moving, enlightening, entertaining – Mark Rigney’s Renner & Quist series is in a class of its own.”

Check-Out Time will be published by Samhain Publishing on October 7, 2014. It is 250 pages, priced at $15 in trade paperback and $5.50 for the digital edition. Be sure to read Mark’s article on the series, The Adventure Continues: the Return of Renner and Quist, published right here in February.

Thanks to all those who entered our contest and thanks again to Samhain Publishing and Mark Rigney for making it all possible!

Vintage Treasures: The Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Vintage Treasures: The Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs

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Outlaw-of-Torn-Ace-smallTruth be told, I’ve never been much of a fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs. I think he’s a taste you acquire young or not at all, and I missed the window by not reading any ERB before I turned 25. Talk about a wasted youth.

Of course, it’s entirely possible I simply haven’t read the right book yet. If I were going to be shipwrecked on a desert island tomorrow, and I just happened to get tipped off in advance, I would probably grab a copy of The Outlaw of Torn to bring with me. I’ve wanted to read it ever since I laid eyes on it many years ago, and I’ve had it recommended to me many times by ERB fans since.

At seventeen he was the greatest swordsman in England. At eighteen his reputation as a fearless outlaw had spread throughout the land and there was a tremendous price upon his head. At nineteen he was the leader of a fierce band of more than a thousand men, from nobleman to serf, the only requirements being willingness and ability to fight and an oath to obey the Outlaw of Torn.

Who was this Norman of Torn, the fame of whose daring exploits was ringing throughout the land? Where did he come from? Was he of noble blood or was he of commoner origin?

Through savage combats the Outlaw fights his way in his love for the beautiful daughter of the most powerful baron in England to find the secret of his birth.

On the other hand, our resident ERB expert Ryan Harvey didn’t think too much of The Outlaw of Torn, calling it “stodgy and drearily artificial; it lacks the zest of the best of Burroughs’s work” in his feature review. And Ryan has rarely steered me wrong. I suspect he’d suggest a different book for my ill-fated voyage. (Of course, a true friend might also suggest a different travel agent…)

The Outlaw of Torn was originally serialized in New Story Magazine starting in January 1914, and published in hardcover by McClurg in 1927. The Ace paperback edition above was published in 1965; it is 255 pages, priced at $0.75. The cover is by the great Roy Krenkel, Jr. (Click for bigger version.)

Collecting Lovecraft, Part II

Collecting Lovecraft, Part II

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Lovecraft Ballantine Paperback collection-small

It’s almost too easy to get the complete works of H.P Lovecraft. Barnes and Noble, just for example, sells a handsome single-volume complete edition of his work (all 1112 pages!) for just $18. So why on earth would you ever want to spend your time and money collecting vintage paperbacks containing only a fraction of his complete works?

I made a half-hearted attempt to answer that question in the first article of this series, Collecting Lovecraft. Collecting is an emotional hobby, not a rational one, so trying to fathom the collecting urge purely on a rational basis is only going to get you so far. In truth, it usually boils down to something as simple as fondness for cover art, or nostalgia for the particular edition that first introduced you to an author.

Above you can see a colorful assortment of Lancer and Ballantine paperback editions of H.P. Lovecraft originally published between 1967 and 1973: The Colour Out of Space (1967), Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Volume 2, edited by August Derleth (1969), The Shuttered Room and Other Tales of Horror, by Lovecraft and Derleth (1973), The Survivor and Others by Lovecraft and Derleth (1971), and The Spawn of Cthulhu, edited by Lin Carter (1971). Truthfully, I’m not too fond of these covers, and they don’t hold any particular nostalgia for me — they were all out of print long before I discovered Lovecraft. So why was I so determined to buy them?

Back in August the New York Times published a fascinating article about Zero Freitas, the Brazilian millionaire collecting every vinyl record ever made. I don’t mean one copy of every record, I mean every single piece of vinyl with music on it in the world. He’s amassed millions so far. I distinctly remember the first time I read the piece, I nodded along and thought, “Yeah, I get it.”

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Renner & Quist at Their Very Best

Renner & Quist at Their Very Best

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Check Out Time Mark Rigney-smallSamhain Publishing has just ushered in Check-Out Time, their third Renner and Quist occult mystery from the very talented pen of author Mark Rigney.

Longtime readers of my articles will recall my reviews of Rigney’s earlier work, The Skates and Sleeping Bear, which introduced me to his oddball double act.

Renner is a persnickety Unitarian minister, while Quist is a boorish ex-linebacker. Together, this unlikely duo team to solve occult mysteries. This latest addition to the quirky and delightful series takes our heroes from their usual Michigan stomping grounds to downtown Columbus, Ohio.

It seems a long-demolished hotel is doing its best to return to existence. It currently inhabits its original location in another dimension, complete with guests and staff from past decades somehow co-existing. These guests include such celebrated faces from the past as Amelia Earhart, James Thurber, Charles Dickens, and Marilyn Monroe.

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Future Treasures: Touch of Evil by C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp

Future Treasures: Touch of Evil by C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp

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Touch of Evil-smallI don’t read much urban fantasy, and I think that’s a serious oversight. I love dark fantasy, and I love adventure fantasy, and both of those are found in abundance in the best urban fantasy on the market. I just need to be selective.

Maybe I can look to the market for help. Later this month, Tor will offer a handsome trade paperback reprint of the first volume of the popular Thrall Series by C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp, Touch of Evil (originally released in paperback in 2006), and it looks like the kind of dark and creepy urban fantasy I would enjoy. Worth checking out, I think.

When the Thrall Queen Wants You… Run!

In the ER after a minor traffic accident, Kate Reilly s attacked by Monica Micah, the Queen of Denver, Colorado’s Thrall population, The Thrall — vampire parasites — have been preying on humans for thousands of years, using us as both hosts and food. Kate killed a Thrall Queen and became Not Prey, so by the Thrall’s own rules, Monica should be giving Kate a wide berth.

Instead, Monica wants Kate dead. Eventually. First, she wants to force her to become the things she hates most in the world: a new Thrall Queen. Worse, though Monica broke the rules,, Kate can’t: of she hides or flees. she’ll lost Not Prey status.

Not that Kate thinks seriously about running away. Too many people rely on her in one way or another: the tenants in the apartment building she owns; her brothers, her ex-boyfriend and his seriously unpleasant wife; a missing sixteen-year-old girl Kate has promised to find before the Thrall do, and Tom, the handsome werewolf who just moved in downstairs.

No. Kate’s not going anywhere. Kate Reilly is Not Prey. She’s going to fight.

Touch of Evil was originally published in paperback in 2006, and reprinted in 2009. It was followed by two sequels: Touch of Madness (2007) and Touch of Darkness (2008). Touch of Evil will be published in trade paperback on October 14. It is 352 pages, priced at $14.99 in trade paperback and $7.99 for the digital edition.

Goth Chick News New Horror: The Boy Who Drew Monsters

Goth Chick News New Horror: The Boy Who Drew Monsters

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The Boy Who Drew Monsters-smallWhat seems like a million years ago, while digging through stacks of used books at my local library sale, I discovered a tattered copy of Zenna Henderson’s collection of creepy tales, The Anything Box (1977). Within those pages, I found what is today one of my top 10 favorite short stories of all time, “Hush.”

It is the classic literary scare relying on the terror of lurking things that cannot be seen, rather than the in-your-face-violence of things that can. “Hush” tells the story of an ill little boy whose fevered brain gives life to the horrors in his imagination, which in turn, stalk his unwitting babysitter… naturally.

Eerie little kids with large, soulful eyes staring at you from someplace they shouldn’t be – frankly there is almost nothing more frightening, if you ask me.

Flash forward to October, 2014 and a new offering from the New York Times bestselling author of The Stolen Child, Keith Donohue — where once again we have a creepy little kid trapped in his own world, and whose solitary imagination blurs the lines between fantasy and reality.

Ever since he nearly drowned in the ocean three years earlier, ten-year-old Jack Peter (“Kip”) Keenan has been deathly afraid to venture outdoors. When Kip takes up drawing, his parents, Holly and Tim, hope this new creative outlet will help Jip to combat his introversion, agoraphobia and occasionally violent tendencies.

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