May Book Releases

[J-Sun]

It's that time again:

May Releases (a gallery of SF/F/H covers of books coming this month)

Some good reprints in a general sense though, again, little for me because I've already got it, or recognize it but am not personally interested, or it's too expensive. I would (based on long-ago memories) highly recommend the original Lord Valentine's Castle by Silverberg and Anderson's Flandry resort, Flandry’s Legacy. In a sense, I guess the Buck Rogers thing is a reprint and might (maybe possibly) be neat, but is one of those that's too expensive. And I have a vague interest in the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic. I suspect I wouldn't like it but, if I did, I might like it a lot. It's billed as a "Rediscovered Classic" which is fitting because it seems to be suffering from the "classic" syndrome. ("A classic is a book which people praise and don't read.")

This month has a lot of military SF-type anthologies or things with titles like that: Man-Kzin Wars XIII, The Mammoth Book of SF Wars, War and Space: Recent Combat, Zombies vs Robots: This Means War!, etc.

That last, along with some other non-anthology titles, indicate the zombie and/or mashup thing, um, won't die.

I don't think I'll be getting any of those. However, for the military aspect, I did just pick up the next installment of Campbell's continuing milsf saga, The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught and, so long as I enjoy that one, I'll likely be picking up this month's Invincible when it hits paperback in the US.

For other anthologies, I was really excited to find out about Johnson/McDevitt's Going Interstellar awhile back but, when I looked into it more closely, it just didn't actually look that great despite having what ought to be a can't-miss subject, so I may pass.

This month's winner for a lot of people (and I'm really interested, myself) is The VanderMeers' The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories. You could crush a minor Cthulhu critter with this 110 story anthology of 1152 pages. Looks cool, but 30 bucks is too steep for me, even if, per story, it's only a quarter.

So - what little gems in this mass will you be getting or would recommend to others?

[Alex, The G and T]

Wow! The Weird Compendium sounds like a great coffee table book... as in.. flop it on the floor, next to the recliner and set your coffee cup on it. };-}

As for reading it without risk of carnal tunnel syndrome. It looks like an e-edition is forthcoming.

[VideoChrist]

Originally Posted by Alex, The G and T

As for reading it without risk of carnal tunnel syndrome...........

Gotta watch out for that carnal tunnel syndrome..............

[Randy M.]

The Weird ed. by the Vandermeers
The Woman Who Married a Cloud: The Collected Short Stories of Jonathan Carroll
The Croning by Laird Barron
A Tree of Bones by Gemma Files


Of course, this is what I would buy if I could afford to buy everything I might like to buy from that list. I'm likely to be a bit more selective.

Randy M.

[Hypnos164]

The certainties are:

Orb Sceptre Throne: A Novel of the Malazan Empire by Ian C. Esslemont (Tor Books)
Railsea by China Mieville (Del Rey)
The Killing Moon (Dreamblood) by N. K. Jemisin (Orbit)
The King’s Blood (The Dagger and the Coin) by Daniel Abraham (Orbit)

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by Alex, The G and T

Wow! The Weird Compendium sounds like a great coffee table book... as in.. flop it on the floor, next to the recliner and set your coffee cup on it. };-}

As for reading it without risk of carnal tunnel syndrome. It looks like an e-edition is forthcoming.

Having read the same or other stories by the majority of authors in the Weird Compendium I can vouch that it is an excellent introductory anthology for anyone interested in reading 'Weird' stories or more generally stories of the fantastic by many of the best writers old and new in the business....

I second the comment regarding Lord Valentine's Castle. It's one of my favourite Silverbergs and one of the earliest texts I read. In fact I've read the entire Majipoor sequence..but that's another story.

Having read Johnathon Carroll before I've found him to be something of a mixed bag. Tempting but I probably won't be picking that up.

Abraham and Esselmont are normally worth a look (particularly if you are a Malazan fan like myself, in fact I have Orb Sceptre already) and the Mieville I've not acquired, so I'll defintely be getting a copy of that.

The Laird Barron I would also consider acquiring.

[Fried Egg]

Wow, a novel by Laird Barron...that sounds interesting. Let's see how I get on with his second short story collection first though ("Occultation").

[D_Davis]

I love these posts. Very handy. Thanks.

I just pre-ordered Roadside Picnic, and The Last Unicorn: Deluxe Edition

[D_Davis]

Originally Posted by D_Davis

I just pre-ordered Roadside Picnic, and The Last Unicorn: Deluxe Edition

Never mind. The Last Unicorn is a comic book. Looks terrible. I thought it was a nice version of the novel with art work.

[J-Sun]

Originally Posted by Alex, The G and T

Wow! The Weird Compendium sounds like a great coffee table book... as in.. flop it on the floor, next to the recliner and set your coffee cup on it. };-}

Apparently they thought it was a pretty tremendous effort, too. I feel like I'm helping them spam this book but the editors wrote another article to promote it further but it was genuinely interesting to me. (Article.) "At another point, we could not track down the agent for the great surrealist painter who lived on the coast of Mexico. We hatched a plan to get the help of a friend in the Mexican circus who would travel by horse to the author’s house and deliver the contract and our offer in person."

And I was wrong - I picked up the idea of a 30 dollar book of 110 stories but the list price is apparently 40, which makes it worse, and they claim 116 stories, though I still get a count of 110 with a word/line count program. Still tempted but I don't think I've ever paid more than 30-35 bucks for a book and that only a handful of times.

Originally Posted by GOLLUM

Having read the same or other stories by the majority of authors in the Weird Compendium I can vouch that it is an excellent introductory anthology for anyone interested in reading 'Weird' stories or more generally stories of the fantastic by many of the best writers old and new in the business....

Good to know - I've read very few but those that I have seem excellent and the resonance of the author names and story titles seemed good, too.

Originally Posted by D_Davis

Never mind. The Last Unicorn is a comic book. Looks terrible. I thought it was a nice version of the novel with art work.

Sorry about that, but, yeah, you have to look into the details and be careful. I got sort of excited when I saw the Pat Murphy item (despite the title) until I found it was apparently a single story ebook.

Oh, and let me know what you think of Roadside Picnic.

[D_Davis]

Originally Posted by J-Sun

Sorry about that, but, yeah, you have to look into the details and be careful. I got sort of excited when I saw the Pat Murphy item (despite the title) until I found it was apparently a single story ebook.

Oh, and let me know what you think of Roadside Picnic.

Not your fault at all! I really look forward to these threads every month.

I'm excited to read Roadside Picnic. I was the film based on it years ago, and pretty much hated it. But then I was some of the other Tarkovsky films and hated them, too, so I realized it was probably the director's vision and style that I disliked and not the material/stories. I've heard a ton of great things about RSP.

[charleshudgen]

The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, it seems the story is interesting and sounds like a great book. I would definitely review the book and I am excited to see the story and share some inputs here.

[creynier]

The Weird: A compendium of Strange and Dark Stories looks amazing! I've been really excited about it. I agree the price is steep but I've heard it's worth it.