It is also my teaser page of things to come. The further away a release is the less certain is the information, covers can change from week to week and delays are common. This is also a collection of data from public sources that can contain errors or old information. So you can’t trust this calendar like it is written in stone. You might also enjoy Best SF&F Books of 2010  - 2011 Booki Index – New SFF to Read 2011.

Click on the covers for a larger image. Titles in Italic have covers. Recent changes are bold

2012

February 2012

• Tooth and Nail by Jennifer Safrey (Night Shade) – uk us
  
• Exogen (Subterrene War book 2) by T. C. McCarthy (Orbit) – uk us
• Echoes of Betrayal (Paladin’s Legacy 3) by Elizabeth Moon (Orbit/Del Rey) – uk us
• Article 5 (Ember 1) by Kristen Simmons (Tor) – uk us
• Singularity (Star Carrier 3) by Ian Douglas (AvonEos) – amazon uk us
• Ashes of Candesce (Virga 5) by Karl Schroeder (Tor) – uk us
• Guardian of Night by Tony Daniel (Baen) – uk us
• The Fourth Wall (This Is Not a Game 3) by Walter Jon Williams (Orbit) – uk uk
• Arctic Rising by Tobias S. Buckell (Tor) – uk us

March 2012

• Omega Point (Richard & Klein 2) by Guy Haley (Angry Robot) – uk us
• The Games by Ted Kosmatka (Del Rey) – uk us
• Range of Ghosts (The Eternal Sky 1) by Elizabeth Bear (Tor) – uk us
• A Rising Thunder (Honor Harrington 13) by David Weber (Baen)  - uk us
• Body, Inc by Alan Dean Foster (Del Rey) – uk us
• The Intruder (Foreigner 13) by C. J. Cherryh (Daw) – uk us
• Intrusion by Ken MacLeod (Orbit) – uk

April 2012

• Alien Diplomacy (Katherine “Kitty” Katt 5) by Gini Koch (Daw) – uk us
• The Road of Danger (RCN 9) by David Drake (Baen) – uk us
• The Wind Through the Keyhole (The Dark Tower 8) by Stephen King (Scribner) – uk us
• Immobility by Brian Evenson (Tor) – amazon uk us
  
• Shadow Blizzard (Chronicles of Siala 3) by Alexey Pehov (Simon & Schuster) – uk
• Ride the Star Winds (John Grimes Saga 4) by A. Bertram Chandler (Baen) – uk us
• A Song Called Youth by John Shirley (Prime) – uk us
• Lost Everything by Brian Francis Slattery (Tor) - uk us
• Starters by Lissa Price (Doubleday) – uk us debut
• Pearlant (Light 3) by M. John Harrison (Gollancz)?
• Constellation Games by Leonard Richardson (Candlemark & Gleam)

May 2012

• Invincible (Lost Fleet Beyond The Frontier 2) by Jack Campbell (Ace) – uk us
• Toxicity by Andy Remic (Solaris)  - uk us
• No Going Back (Jon & Lobo 5) by Mark L. van Name (Baen) – uk us
• 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit) – uk us
• The Killing Moon (Dreamblood 1) by NK Jemisin (Orbit) – uk us
• Bitterblue (Seven Kingdoms Trilogy 3) by Kristin Cashore (Gollancz|Dial) - uk us
• Deadlocked (Sookie Stackhouse 12) by Charlaine Harris (Gollancz) - uk us
• Railsea by China Mieville (Del Rey) – amazon us uk
• The Devil’s Nebula (Weird Space 1) by Eric Brown (Abaddon) - uk us
• Further: Beyond the Threshold by Chris Roberson (47North) – uk us

June 2012

• Existence by David Brin (Tor) – uk us
• Redshirts by John Scalzi (Tor) – uk us
• Caliban’s War (The Expanse 2) by James S. A. Corey (pseudonym for Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck) (Orbit) – uk us
• The Thousand Emperors (Final Days 2) by Garry Gibson (Tor UK) – uk us
• The Shadowed Sun (Dreamblood 2) by N. K. Jemisin (Orbit) – uk us
• Broken Universe by Paul Melko (Tor) – uk us
• Judgment at Proteus (The Quadrail 5) by Timothy Zahn (Tor) - uk us
• Kop Killer (Kop 3) by Warren Hammond (Tor) - uk us

July 2012

• Energized by Edward M. Lerner (Tor) – uk us
• Earth Unaware (First Formic War 1) by Orson Scott Card & Aaron Johnston (Tor) – uk us
• Heaven’s War (Heaven’s Shadow Trilogy book 2) by Michael Cassutt & David S Goyer (Tor) – uk us
• War Maid’s Choice by David Weber (Baen) – uk us
• vN (Von Neumann Sisters 1) by Madeline Ashby (Angry Robot) - uk us
• Struck by Jennifer Bosworth (Random house) – debut uk us

August 2012

• Fate of Worlds (Ringworld) Larry Niven & Edward M. Lerner (Tor) – uk us
• Ghost Spin (Spin 3) by Chris Moriarty (Spectra) – uk us
• The Traitor Queen (Traitor Spy Trilogy 3) by Trudi Canavan (Orbit) – uk us
• Chimera (The Subterrene War 3) by T. C. McCarthy (Orbit) – uk us
• The Middle Kingdom (Chung Kuo 3) by David Wingrove (Corvus) – uk
• Hellhole Inferno (Hellhole 2) by Kevin J. Anderson & Brian Herbert (Simon & Schuster) – title from wikipedia – uk
• When Diplomacy Fails (Freehold Bodyguards) by Michael Z. Williamson (Baen) – uk us
• Zero Point (Owner Trilogy 2) by Neal Asher (TorUK)

September 2012

• The Fractal Prince (The Quantum Thief 2) by Hannu Rajaniemi (Gollancz) – uk
• The Age of Scorpio (Veteran 3) by Gavin G. Smith (Gollancz) - uk us
• Midst Toil and Tribulation (Safehold book 6) by David Weber (Tor)
• Crown Thief (Giant Thief 2) by David Tallerman (Angry Robots) – uk
• The Black Captain by Miles Cameron (Gollancz) – uk
• Origin by Jessica Khoury (Penguin) YA

October 2012

• Furious (Kris Longknife 10) by Mike Shepherd (Ace) – us
• The Eternal Flame (Orthogonal 2) by Greg Egan (Gollancz) – uk
• Tarnished Knights (Lost Stars 1) by Jack Campbell (Ace)

November 2012

• Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance (Vorkosigan Saga) by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen) – title pending
• Art of Hunting (The Gravedigger Chronicles 2) by Alan Campbell (Tor 2011)

December 2012

• Queen of Nowhere (The Hidden Empire 5) by Jaine Fenn (Gollancz) – uk

2012 date to be decided

• Tale of the Kitty Jay 4 by Chris Wooding (Gollancz) august?
• Clan Chronicles: The Reunification Cycle book 1 by Julie E. Czerneda (DAW) – she started writing it in Oct 2010
• Darkship Renegade (Darkship Thieves book 2) by Sarah A. Hoyt (Baen)
• Bloodstar (Star Corpsman 1) by William Keith (AvonEos) – formerly named Unti
• Inexplicable (Clockwork Century 4) by Cherie Priest – late?
• Shadow of Freedom (Honor Harrington) by David Weber (& Eric Flint?) (Baen) – probably second half of 2012 – title pending
• The Beauty of Murder by A. K. Benedict (Orion) – debut late 2012

2013

January 2013

• Tuf Voyaging by George R. R. Martin (Gollancz)
• Ack-Ack Macaque by Gareth L. Powell (Solaris)

February 2013

• Resonance (Ragnarok book 3) by John Meaney (Gollancz) – uk

April 2013

• Helix Wars (Helix 2) by Eric Brown (Solaris)

May 2013

• Highprince of War (Stormlight Archives 2) by Brandon Sanderson (Gollancz) – title pending – uk
• Untitled Sookie Stackhouse 13 by Charlaine Harris (Gollancz) – uk

June 2013

• Poseidon’s Children Book 2 by Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz) - uk

July 2013

• Heaven’s Fall (Heaven’s Shadow 3) by Michael Cassutt & David S. Goyer (Tor)

August 2013

• Untitled (A Long, Long Sleep 2) by Anna Sheehan (Gollancz) – uk

Autumn 2013

• Warcage (Humanity’s Fire Universe) by Michael Cobley (Orbit)

September 2013

• Proxima by Stephen Baxter (Gollancz) – uk

October 2013

• Cape Grace (Shaman’s Tales 2) by Nathan Lowell
• The Arrows of Time (The Orthogonal 3) by Greg Egan – uk

2013 date to be decided

• A River Across the Sky / River of Light (A Shaol universe book) by Gary Gibson (Tor UK) – title pending
• Evening’s Empires (A Quiet War Novel) by Paul McAuley
• Jupiter War (Owner Trilogy 3) by Neal Asher (TorUK) august?
• Valiant (Kris Longknife 11) by Mike Shepherd (Ace) – October?
• Dandelion Sky (The Expanse 3) by James S. A. Corey
• The Wolfhound Century (Vissarion Lom 1) by Peter Higgins (Gollancz) – early 2013
• The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna (Random House) – debut early 2013
• ACID by Emma Pass (Random House) – debut early 2013
• Serene Invasion by Eric Brown (Solaris) – early 2013
• Penny Royal (A Polity Novel) by Neal Asher (TorUK) – year?
• A Few Good Men (Darkship Thieves universe) by Sarah A. Hoyt (Baen/Naked Press?) – preliminary title and year

2014

2014 date to be decided

• The Winds of Winter (A Song of Ice and Fire 6) by George R. R. Martin

In the Lion’s Mouth by Michael Flynn is best read of the week. It is a fantastic space opera that feels like a Celtic saga. This is part three and the first one I read before listening to the audio book (I don’t think this one is out in audio yet). The steampunk adventures of Captain Cly in Ganymede was a close runner-up. Cherie Priest certainly has a flair for this kind of stories.

Fringe is just awesome at the moment. All this observer action is unprecedented. This weeks Astrid-centric episode with the read and blue teams working together is one of my favorites. Astrid is such a wonderful character and we finally get to know a bit of her background.

/Ove

Featured posts

• Pilot Watch 2012
• 2012 Book Recommendations
• 2011 in Review
• 2011 Fall and Winter Science Fiction & Fantasy Recommendations

My Top Military Science Fiction Series MkII has 34 series or universes of interesting military scifi.

Monthly Posts

Cybermage’s Monthly Journal 2012: January

Book recommendations: January | February

New SFF Books in February

My pick of books for February. Read more here. Click on the covers for larger pictures.

New SFF Books in January

My pick of books for January. Read more here. Click on the covers for larger pictures.

Books read

Click the covers for a larger image and the titles for reviews.

1. Ganymede (Clockwork Century 4) by Cherie Priest (Tor 2011)
2. In the Lion’s Mouth (January Dancer 3) by Michael Flynn (Tor) – uk us

Books reviewed

Click the covers for a larger image and the titles for reviews.

1. Boneyards (Diving 3) by Kristine Katheryn Rush (Pyr) - uk us

Books Received

Click the covers for a larger image and the titles for reviews.

Free Downloads

1. Nemesis worm (A Richard & Klein Investigation novel) by Guy Haley (Angry Robot 2011) - us (free)

Bought by me

1. The Great Game

Welcome to Cybermage and this monthly retrospective.

It started with a happy new year and it still is.

Reading wise Ernest Cline‘s debut novel Ready Player One is Best read. All that gaming and 80′s nostalgia was fun. One of the greatest books of 2011 no doubt.  Of this years books I have to say Boneyards is the best read so far. I was a bit disappointing we didn’t get to explore the the mystic field of space ships they found but now I have something to look forward to in the next.

On the surprise side Mecha Corps was way better than expected. Fun military action. I am looking forward to the sequels.

I am happy with all my reading this month to be honest. League of Peoples and Legion of the Damned are series worth reading.

Television-wise  it is a new year too and I have had a look at the pilots. Not too shabby. Still not much space based science fiction, which is a downer. I would love to see the Adjustment Bureau as a serie. At the same time I am afraid Syfy might mess it up. There is also Beautiful People a pilot about a near future society where androids start to become self aware. We have a surprisingly good Swedish series called Äkta Männsikor [eng. True Humans] (SVT) with a very similar story (our androids are branded Hubots btw). But none of the pilots will be out this winter.

The Winter season so far… Chuck, Oh my god. Has left us. Not everyone liked the ending but I did. Too few series get the chance to have a planned exit like Chuck. Kudos to NBC for giving it. My other favorite series Fringe is up in the ratings but still in the danger zone. Newcomer Alcatraz looks promising as does Touch. Non genre comedy series Rob has also caught my fancy. The later maybe because he is a short guy with a tall beautiful wife like I.

/Ove

ps thanks for the 153.000 visits in January ds

Books Read

Click the covers for a larger image and linked titles for reviews.

1. Giant Thief by David Tallerman (Angry robot 2011)
2. Illegal Alien by Robert J. Sawyer (ACE 2012, 1st 1997)
3. By Force of Arms (Legion of the Damned 4) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 2000)
4. Expendable (League of Peoples 1) by James Alan Gardner (Harper Collins 2009, 1st 1997)
5. Vigilant (League of Peoples 2) by James Alan Gardner (Harper Collins 2007, 1st 1999)
6. Mecha Corps (Armor wars 1) by Brett Patton (Roc 2012)
7. Hunted (League of Peoples 3) by James Alan Gardner (Harper Collins 2009, 1st 2000)
8. Ascending (League of Peoples 4) by James Alan Gardner (Harper Collins 2009, 1st 2001)
9. Radiant (League of Peoples 5) by James Alan Gardner (Harper Collins 2009, 1st 2005)
10. For More Than Glory (Legion of the Damned 5) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 2003)
11. For Those Who Fell (Legion of the Damned 6) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 2004)
12. When All Seems Lost (Legion of the Damned 7) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 2007)
13. When Duty Calls (Legion of the Damned 8) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 2008)
14. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Century 2011)
15. Boneyards (Diving 3) by Kristine Katheryn Rush (Pyr) - uk us
16. A Fighting Chance (Legion of the Damned 9) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2011, 1st 2011)
17. Ganymede (Clockwork Century 4) by Cherie Priest (Tor 2011)

Please see my to be read list and request reviews

Books Received

Click the covers for a larger image

Review copies

1. Autogenesis by David Sikter (Wela Förlag 2012)

Books bought by me

1.  Illegal Alien by Robert J. Sawyer (ACE 2012, 1st 1997)
2. For More Than Glory (Legion of the Damned 5) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontiers 2010, 1st 2003)
3. Mecha Corps (Armor wars 1) by Brett Patton (Roc 2012)
4. For Those Who Fell (Legion of the Damned 6) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 2004)
5. When All Seems Lost (Legion of the Damned 7) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 2007)
6. When Duty Calls (Legion of the Damned 8) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 2008)
7. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Century 2011)
8. Faith by Peter Love (Night Shade 2012)
9. A Fighting Chance (Legion of the Damned 9) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2011, 1st 2011)
10. Boneyards (Diving 3) by Kristine Katheryn Rush (Pyr) - uk us
11. Transmission (Ragnarok book 2) by John Meaney (Gollancz) - uk
12. Blue Remembered Earth (Poseidon’s Children Book 1) by Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz) - uk us
13. In the Lion’s Mouth (January Dancer 3) by Michael Flynn (Tor) – uk us
14. Count to a Trillion (Book 1) by John C. Wright (Tor) - uk us

Easie Damasco is a lovely rascal, a thief that gets by on wit and charm. This book has a great opening scene where he … No I won’t spoil it for you.  The main protagonist kind of steals a giant from an evil warlord who is making a bid for the crown thus the name. It is not giving away any spoilers considering the title and the lovely cover made by Angelo Rinaldi. David Tillerman’s debut novel is a traditional swashbuckling adventure with all the elements you expect. It has an evil villain that does his best to hunt down Damasco. In fact the whole book is one long chase. It also has a fair woman who challenges our hero in more ways than one. She is not a princess, which would be way too traditional. She is the mayor in the next town. I give Kudos to the author for a strong female character in a nontraditional role. There is magic but it is downplayed, this is a story about a thief, not a magician. I liked Giant Thief a lot. It is fast paced fun with a lot of action and just what I needed. I am looking forward to the second book Crown Thief which will be out before the end of this year and a third in 2013.

Book Information

Giant Thief (book 1) by David Tallerman (Angry Robot) uk us - review copy

Meet Easie Damasco, rogue, thieving swine and total charmer.

Even the wicked can’t rest when a vicious warlord and the force of enslaved giants he commands invade their homeland. Damasco might get away in one piece, but he’s going to need help. Big time.

File Under: Fantasy [ Big Trouble | Deception | Saltlick's City | Hang 'im High ]

For a look longer into upcoming releases see my almanac of forthcoming books.

Article 5 

(Ember 1) by Kristen Simmons (Tor) – amazon uk us

New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., have been abandoned.

The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.

There are no more police—instead, there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior—instead, there are arrests, trials, and maybe worse. People who get arrested usually don’t come back.

Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things weren’t always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother, it’s hard for her to forget that people weren’t always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. It’s hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different.

Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow.

That is, until her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings…the only boy Ember has ever loved.

Exogen

(Subterrene War book 2) by T. C. McCarthy (Orbit) – amazon uk us

Exogene (n.): factor or agent (as a disease-producing organism) from outside the organism or system. Also: classified Russian program to merge proto-humanoids with powered armor systems (slang).

Catherine is a soldier. Fast, strong, lethal, she is the ultimate in military technology. She’s a monster in the body of an eighteen year old girl. Bred by scientists, grown in vats, indoctrinated by the government, she and her sisters will win this war, no matter the cost.

And the costs are high. Their life span is short; as they age they become unstable and they undergo a process called the spoiling. On their eighteenth birthday they are discharged. Lined up and shot like cattle.

But the truth is, Catherine and her sisters may not be strictly human, but they’re not animals. They can twist their genomes and indoctrinate them to follow the principles of Faith and Death, but they can’t shut off the part of them that wants more than war. Catherine may have only known death, but she dreams of life and she will get it at any cost.

Echoes of Betrayal 

(Paladin’s Legacy 3) by Elizabeth Moon (Orbit/Del Rey) – amazon uk us

The action continues fast and furious in this third installment of Elizabeth Moon’s celebrated return to the fantasy world of the paladin Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter. This award-winning author has firsthand military experience and an imagination that knows no bounds. Combine those qualities with an ability to craft flesh-and-blood characters, and the result is the kind of speculative fiction that engages both heart and mind.

All is not well in the Eight Kingdoms. In Lyonya, King Kieri is about to celebrate marriage to his beloved, the half-elf Arian. But uncanny whispers from the spirits of his ancestors continue to warn of treachery and murder. A finger of suspicion has been pointed toward his grandmother, the queen of the Ladysforest elves, and that suspicion has only intensified with time and the Lady’s inexplicable behavior. Clearly, she is hiding something. But what? And why?

Meanwhile, in Tsaia, the young king Mikeli must grapple with unrest among his own nobility over his controversial decision to grant the title and estates of a traitorous magelord to a Verrakaien who not only possesses the forbidden magic but is a woman besides: Dorrin, once one of Kieri’s most trusted captains. When renegade Verrakaien attack two of Dorrin’s squires, suspicion and prejudice combine to place Dorrin’s life at risk—and the king’s claim to the throne in peril.

But even greater danger is looming.  The wild offspring of a dragon are on the loose, sowing death and destruction and upsetting the ancient balance of power between dragonkind, humans, elves, and gnomes. A collision seems inevitable. Yet when it comes, it will be utterly unexpected—and all the more devastating for it.

Singularity

(Star Carrier 3) by Ian Douglas (AvonEos) – amazon uk us

There is an unseen power in the universe—a terrible force that was dominating the galaxy tens of thousands of years before the warlike Sh’daar were even aware of the existence of Sol and its planets.

As humankind approaches the Singularity, when transcendence will be achieved through technology, contact will be made.

In the wake of the near destruction of the solar system, the political powers on Earth seek a separate peace with an inscrutable alien life form that no one has ever seen. But Admiral Alexander Koenig, the hero of Alphekka, has gone rogue, launching his fabled battlegroup beyond the boundaries of Human Space against all orders. With Confederation warships in hot pursuit, Koenig is taking the war for humankind’s survival directly to a mysterious omnipotent enemy.

Ashes of Candesce

(Virga 5) by Karl Schroeder (Tor) – amazon uk us

A world of endless sky, with no land, no gravity:  this is Virga. Beginning in the seminal science fiction novel Sun of Suns, the saga of this striking world has introduced us to the people of stubborn pride and resilience who have made Virga their home; but also, always lurking beyond the walls of the world, to the mysterious threat known only as Artificial Nature. In The Sunless Countries, history tutor Leal Hieronyma Maspeth became the first human in centuries to learn the true nature of this threat. Her reward was exile, but now, in Ashes of Candesce, Artificial Nature makes its final bid to destroy Virga, and it is up to Leal to unite the quarrelling clans of her world to fight the threat.

Ashes of Candesce brings together all the heroes of the Virga series, and draws the diverse threads of the previous storylines together into one climactic conflict. Blending steampunk styling with a far-future setting and meditations on the posthuman condition, Ashes of Candesce mixes high adventure and cutting-edge ideas in a fitting climax to one of science fiction’s most innovative series.

Also of interest

• Tooth and Nail by Jennifer Safrey (Night Shade) - amazon uk us
• Guardian of Night by Tony Daniel (Baen) – uk us
• The Fourth Wall (This Is Not a Game 3) by Walter Jon Williams (Orbit) - amazon uk us
• Arctic Rising by Tobias S. Buckell (Tor) – amazon uk

/Ove

Featured posts

• 2012 Book Recommendations
• 2011 in Review
• 2011 Fall and Winter Science Fiction & Fantasy Recommendations

My Top Military Science Fiction Series MkII has 34 series or universes of interesting military scifi.

Monthly Posts

Cybermage’s Monthly Journal 2011: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

New SFF Books in February

My pick of books for February. Read more here. Click on the covers for larger pictures.

New SFF Books in January

My pick of books for January. Read more here. Click on the covers for larger pictures.

Books reviewed

Click the covers for a larger image and the titles for reviews.

1. Boneyards (Diving 3) by Kristine Katheryn Rush (Pyr) - uk us

Books Received

Click the covers for a larger image and the titles for reviews.

Bought by me

1. Transmission (Ragnarok book 2) by John Meaney (Gollancz) - uk
2. Blue Remembered Earth (Poseidon’s Children Book 1) by Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz) - uk us
3. In the Lion’s Mouth (January Dancer 3) by Michael Flynn (Tor) – uk us
4. Count to a Trillion (Book 1) by John C. Wright (Tor) - uk us

This novel’s title is Boneyards and there on the cover is a woman I am sure is Boss the main protagonist striking a pose in front of what looks like a fleet of ship in a field of some sort. So it is plausible to expect the book to turn around that. That is not exactly what the blurb says but that’s what I expected. Expectations are good but also something you can trip on when the book you are reading delivers something different. I am afraid that is what happened to me here. I had the wrong expectations.

Now I think the title also is about what is left behind in the events described. In a way the empire’s research into stealth technology is a boneyard too. With all those victims.

As you might remember Boss was exploring the mysterious ‘Stealth’ technology  (that killed her mother when she was a baby) in Diving into the Wreck and then stumbling on a working Dignity Vessel that was trapped in hyper with its crew in City of Ruins last year.

Now a few years have passed and things have happened that I would have liked to sample. This is where I feel the novel was a bit on the short side (beside the ending). Boss is already in a relationship with Coop, the captain of the Dignity Vessel. Where is the suspense in that? It is somewhat in character with Boss I admit but I want details. No, not those details get your brain out of the gutter. Character building details. As things progress I get some of that but I do feel a bit shortchanged.

We start with the expected search for the fleet which ends up just outside the aforementioned yard. But Boss leaves after a few pages without even crossing into the mysterious field. The rest of the story is about Squishy. I liked all the back story we got on Boss and her friend but multiple time lines that jump back and forth is not my favorite story telling device. It reminds me too much about the Event. And then the book ends without getting back to the great mystery. Frustrated was only the first word of what I was feeling right then.

Boss and Squishy do hit on fundamental questions about friendship and ethics and the length you are willing to go for them. That part was emotional and satisfying to read.

I remember from somewhere that this series was a trilogy but it can’t end here. There are too many unanswered questions! Edit: Kristine confirms that there will be another book on her blog.

I liked Boneyards but it is a bit on the short side, (I read the book on a work night in a few short hours). I will await the next book with even higher expectations (I know, I just do anyway). You should read it.

Book Information

Boneyards (Diving 3) by Kristine Katheryn Rush (Pyr) - uk us

When multiple Hugo Award winner Kristine Kathryn Rusch decided to put her stamp on classic space opera, readers wanted more. Now Rusch’s popular character Boss returns in a whole new adventure, one that takes her far outside her comfort zone, to a sector of space she’s never seen before.

Searching for ancient technology to help her friends find answers to the mystery of their own past, Boss ventures into a place filled with evidence of an ancient space battle, one the Dignity Vessels lost.

Meanwhile, the Enterran Empire keeps accidentally killing its scientists in a quest for ancient stealth tech. Boss’s most difficult friend, Squishy, has had enough. She sneaks into the Empire and destroys its primary stealth tech research base. But an old lover thwarts her escape, and now Squishy needs Boss’s help.

Boss, who is a fugitive in the Empire. Boss, who knows how to make a Dignity Vessel work. Boss, who knows that Dignity Vessels house the very technology that the Empire is searching for.

Should Boss take a Dignity Vessel to rescue Squishy and risk losing everything to the Empire? Or should Boss continue on her mission for her other friends and let Squishy suffer her own fate?

Filled with battles old and new, scientific dilemmas, and questions about the ethics of friendship, Boneyards looks at the influence of our past on our present and the risks we all take when we meddle in other people’s lives.

Boneyards is space opera the way it was meant to be: exciting, fast moving, and filled with passion

Be warned this article may contain spoilers!

It will be interesting to see how it goes. I like to play a little game to see how right or wrong I am when the decision comes in May. But I don’t want to be too cynical so I am doing my dream lineup so I can bitch about how wrong the real pickup is. What’s your dream lineup?

My Dream Lineup

I prefere science fiction with aliens and space travel but there is not much of that in this bunch. I would love to see something that has to do with colonizing space.

666 Park Ave (ABC)

Based on Gabriella Pierce‘s series by the same name. Witches on the upper east side no less according to the books. TV series usually take some liberties.  The show is set in a historic apartment building in New York City and centers on the young couple that become its managers. They unwittingly begin to experience supernatural occurrences, which complicate and endanger the lives of everyone in the residence. Could be a mystery of the week kind of show. A drama pilot from writer David Wilcox (Fringe), Warner Bros.

Antichrist (ABC)

Not much is known about this pilot. It is a drama about a young astrophysics student who learns his destiny lies not in science but somewhere between heaven and hell. It will be set in New York City against the backdrop of the Presidential race of 2012. It is supposedly inspired by the latest presidential elections whatever that means.

Arrow (CW)

Smallville fans rejoice as CW makes a revised take on the DC Comics-turned-”Smallville” hero Green Arrow, a.k.a. Oliver Queen, a billionaire who dresses like Robin Hood and uses trick arrows to fight crime. Guggenheim and Kreisberg will pen the teleplay off a story by Berlanti and Guggenheim, which “sets him in a new world with an original story that is not based on the comics.

Beauty & Beast (CW)

Revival of the cult 1987-1990 series that aims to not only modernize and CW-up the love story but also add a procedural twist.

Beast (ABC)

The ABC orders a pilot of B&B a week after CW announced its pilot. The ABC version is from Jonathan Steinberg (Human Target, Jericho) and described as “a fantastical re-imagining of the classic fairy tale set in a mythical, dangerous world wherein a beautiful and tough Princess discovers an unlikely connection with a mysterious beast.”

Beautiful People (NBC)

Android stories seems to be on the rise. In the near future families of mechanical humans exist to service the human population. Everything is okay until some of the mechanicals begins to “awaken”. It centers on the very wealthy Lydia (Frances Conroy) whose late husband founded the firm that makes Mechanicals. James Murray then is set as her son, “a handsome and very successful attorney who’s lived a rich and privileged life but makes a name for himself by publicly suggesting that Mechanicals might have civil rights – a notion that’s largely scoffed at,” with Patrick Heusinger as “a family man employed as a servant in Lydia’s home who is in fact a Mechanical, but after one of his daughters is killed in a car accident, he proves to be ‘defective’ as he’s plagued with forbidden emotions like grief and loss.” This one sounds promising.

Cult (CW)

Silence of the lambs / Seven-esque drama that tracks the investigation of a string of mysterious deaths and disappearances surrounding the show-within-a-show entitled Cult. A bit iffy genrewise

Dracula (NBC)

Like we don’t have enough vampire shows. Tony Krantz and Colin Callender are developing a period drama at the Peacock and its international channels about Bram Stoker’s signature 1890s vampire, billed as “a big, sweeping international soap opera that is young, sexy and supernatural.” Cole Haddon is penning the script for the potential straight-to-series commitment.

Gotham Untitled Michael Green Project (ABC)

After pursuing a seemingly unsolvable case, a female cop discovers a magical world that exists within New York City.  A world that goes unseen by normal humans, and takes all of the familiar NY landmarks and reinvents them in a magical otherworldly manner

Intercept (ABC)

Intercept stars Danielle Panabaker (Shark), Austin Butler (Switched At Birth), Chloe Wang (The Nightlife) and Nolan Gerard Funk (“Aliens in America”). Intercept is a one-hour technology and action driven drama about a group of college students who get roped into solving crimes when one of them creates a high-tech communication device that intercepts conversations throughout the West Coast.

Isabel (NBC)

Isabel is a comedy centering on an otherwise normal middle-class family that wrestles with the challenges of everyday life while raising a daughter (Sophia Mitri Schloss, Grimm) who has magical abilities. Abigail Mavity and Skyler Gisondo also star.

Joey Dakota (CW)

Based on the Israeli format Danny Hollywood. In this romantic-time-travel-musical, a documentary filmmaker travels back in time to the 1990’s where she meets and falls in love with the rock star subject of her film. When she unexpectedly returns to present day, she must find her way back to the past to reunite with her love and prevent his untimely death.

Last Resort (ABC)

the crew of a U.S. nuclear submarine who, after ignoring an order to fire nuclear missiles, wind up being hunted and escape to a NATO outpost where they declare themselves to be the world’s smallest nuclear nation.

Midnight Sun (NBC)

Drama which revolves around a police investigation into disappearance of a remote cult that slowly uncovers the darkest secrets of the region and its inhabitants, as well as a grander political conspiracy and environmental disaster from which the cult members are attempting to escape. Genre?

Mockingbird Lane Munsters, The (NBC)

An imaginative reinvention of The Munsters

Revolution (NBC)

Described as a high-octane action drama following a group of characters struggling to survive and reunite with loved ones in a world where all forms of energy have mysteriously ceased to exist. In this epic adventure thriller, a family struggles to reunite in a post-apocalyptic American landscape: a world of empty cities, local militias and heroic freedom fighters, where every single piece of technology — computers, planes, cars, phones, even lights — has mysteriously blacked out … forever.

Rewind (Syfy)

The thriller revolves around a team of military field operatives and civilian scientists who must use untested technology to travel back in time to alter past events in order to change the future and avoid a devastating terrorist attack.

Selection, The (CW)

Based on the forthcoming series of books by Kiera Cass, The Selection is an epic romance set 300 years in the future which centers on a poor young woman who is chosen by lottery to participate in a competition to become the next queen of a war-torn nation at a crossroads.

Untitled Dan Fogelman Project (Fox)

About a family that moves into a highly desirable gated community in New Jersey only to discover that the entire neighborhood is made up of aliens disguised as humans. Gertz is on board as Debbie Weaver, the matriarch of the human family; with Templeman as Wilt Chamberlain, the leader of the aliens; Olagundoye as Jackie Joyner Kersee, the matriarch of the lead alien family; and Jo as Joe Montana, son of the alien family.

Untitled Kevin Williamson Project (CW)

Drama about a diabolical serial killer who uses technology to create a cult of serial killers, and the FBI agent who finds himself in the middle of it.

Zero Hour (ABC)

A bizarre twist of fate pulls a man who’s spent 20 years as the editor of a skeptics magazine into one of the most compelling conspiracies in human history.

Zombies & Cheerleaders (CW)

Disney Channel has ordered the music-driven pilot “Zombies and Cheerleaders.” Production on the pilot begins in December in consideration for a Disney Channel series to premiere in 2012. The story follows Zed Necrodopolis, a typical high school student with one small caveat; he happens to be a zombie. Despite a high-tech wristwatch designed to curb any appetite he may have for his classmates, he and his zombie friends remain unpopular with the school’s most influential group, the pom-pom wielding cheerleaders. Never one to back down from a challenge, Zed sets out to improve zombie student body relations and win the attention of Addison, the cheerleading squad’s newest member.

Scripts

• Adjustment Bureau, The (Syfy) - Drama based on the film (based on a short story by Philip K. Dick) of the same name about a secret organization with special powers, which uses them to ensure that people’s lives follow the chairman of the bureau’s plan for them
• Afterthought (NBC) - drama about an unconventional team within the FBI that uses the six-hour window between clinical death and cellular death to solve murders by entering the memories of the recently deceased
• Cyber Crimes (Fox) - Drama about a techno-phobe female FBI agent is partnered with a witty and handsome hacktivist to solve violent crimes with a cyber component
• Cloak & Dagger (ABC) - based on the marvel comic of the same name about tyrone “ty” johnson and tandy bowen, teen runaways in new york city who develop superpowers – he can engulf enemies in darkness, she can emit daggers of light – after being forced to take experimental drugs.
• Damned, The (Showtime) - Drama about a cursed man who is stuck in the middle of a turf war in modern-day chicago where mobsters are demons
• Dark Tower, The (HBO) - Built on Stephen King’s fantasy series about Roland Deschain, the Gunslinger. It has had an on and off status on the pilot list for some time now.
• Dave’s Dead (Fox) - comedy at the network billed as Shaun of the Dead meets My name is Earl.
• Deadman (CW) - small screen take on the DC Comics hero, the spirit of a murdered man who lives on as he inhabits other people’s bodies and helps them solve crises in their own lives
• End of the World (ABC) - comedy about three brilliant scientists who, after making a shocking discovery, and encouraged by their roguish friend to live their lives to the fullest
• Eye, The (ABC) - drama billed as a western with a paranormal twist set in 1871 arizona and centered on a team of pinkerton detectives who search for answers to unexplained phenomena
• Ghost Girls (Syfy) - comedy about a self-proclaimed psychic and a tech wiz who together they attempt to solve paranormal mysteries each week while trying to prove to themselves and their customers that they are competent ghost hunters
• Ghost Projekt (Syfy) - Based on the popular comic series, a female KGB agent and male American weapons inspector form an unlikely partnership when a deadly force is unwittingly unleashed from a Siberian research facility.
• Golddigger (CW) - drama about a young female treasure hunter who tracks down artifacts for a variety of mysterious and interesting clients. Genre?
• Last Hope (Showtime) - drama about the last hospital on planet earth.
• Magicans (Fox) - drama about a group of 20-somethings in new york who study magic and have access to a magical world
• Maybe Angels (CBS) - legal drama about two angels who help their former spouses
• Mockingbird (ABC) - drama featuring the marvel comics character
• RIP (NBC) - single-camera comedy about a reluctant angel who happens to be an asshole dies and in order to get to heaven is forced to return to earth and help people with the help of his simple minded brother
• Robots (Comedy Central) - What if robots attempted to take over the world well before they actually had the ability to do so? This animated show pits a group of household electronics against their slacker owner, Jeff.
• Sector, The (Cinemax) - A high-octane action-crime series in the vein of BLADE RUNNER/DISTRICT 9 which tracks the commander of a paramilitary unit who pursues a dangerous new race of genetically-enhanced humans.
• Seeing Things (Syfy) - a ghost after his violent death and the only person who can help close his last case is a socially awkward man who realizes that the hallucinations he’s had all his life may not be a figment of his imagination.
• Seven Wonders, The (ABC) - drama which tracks an unlikely five-member team as they search the world for seven pieces of an ancient and powerful relic
• Sleepers (CBS) - drama about a woman who has the gift to save people who are caught somewhere between life and death
• Source Code (CBS) - drama based on the film about three former federal agents who are part of a top-secret program that uses technology to jump into the consciousness of people involved in tragic events
• Spectre, The (Fox) - drama based on the DC comics hero, a former cop serving time in afterlife limbo who hunts down earthly criminals on behalf of the dead – and mortals soon to be dead if ultimate justice is not served
• Spellbinder (MTV) - drama about a teenage girl who can communicate with ghosts
• Spirited (ABC) - drama about a recently divorced mother of two whose life is forever changed through her unexpected relationship with Henry Mallet, the ghost of an ’80s English punk rock star
• Stranger Planet (Fox) - drama about a hard-boiled L.A. cop who stumbles upon the existence of aliens living among us and must team up with two aliens in order to solve intergalactic mysteries on earth
• Thunderstuck (AMC) - sci-fi drama about the residents of Great Falls, Montana who must grapple with the dramatic effects and growing mystery of repeated visitations by powerful and enigmatic entities that begin appearing all over the world
• Time Trumpet (Comedy Central)  - A satirical look at pop culture and current events, set 30 years in the future
• Under the Dome (Showtime) - drama based on stephen king’s novel about locals at a maine vacation spot who battle one another when a force field suddenly surrounds their town and cuts them off from the rest of the world
• Untitled Fazekas & Butters Project (CW) - drama about a young woman who, on the first day of her new job, discovers that the cosmetics company for which she is working is actually a cover business for a secret governmental project that monitors alien activity on earth
• Untitled Jeff Rake Drama Project (CBS) - drama about a female detective who finds she can interact with dead people – the victims of murders she investigates
• Untitled M Scott Veach Project (ABC) - no details are available other than it is a time-travel drama
• Untitled Robert Hewitt Wolfe Project (Syfy) - After decades of war, the newly formed Unity Democracy orders a volatile mix of humans and trans-humans to lead the Starship Defender on an expedition in search of lost worlds requiring law and order.
• Untitled Warehouse 13 Spin-Off Project (Syfy) - spin-off of the syfy hit centering on the character of h.g. wells and her adventures in a 1890s steampunk environment
• Untitled Will Gluck Project (ABC) - single-camera comedy about an angel expelled from heaven who is sentenced to live in New York City
• Wasteland (TNT) - drama about a U.S. marshal in the american southwest who is charged with hunting down the supernatural escapees on the run following a federal prison break
• Watchers, The (ABC) - drama about a fallen angel looking for his mortal love
• Wicked Good (ABC) - drama about a family of witches – soldiers in an eternal battle between good and evil – who are dispatched to suburban orange county, where they must root out dark forces while battling the challenges of everyday life in suburbia
• Zero Hour (Fox) - drama about a skeptical everyman who gets swept up in one of history’s greatest conspiracies: a spectacular mystery surrounding the Twelve Apostles
• Zombieland (Fox) - small screen take on the 2009 feature of the same name

Ernest Cline‘s Ready Player One is my pick of the week. Thanks to Mark Chitty on Walker of Worlds for pointing it out to me. It is a complete geek-feast with filled with references to the eighties, my own coming of age decade. It is a damn good action too.

/Ove

Featured posts

• 2012 Book Recommendations
• 2011 in Review
• 2011 Fall and Winter Science Fiction & Fantasy Recommendations

My Top Military Science Fiction Series MkII has 34 series or universes of interesting military scifi.

Monthly Posts

Cybermage’s Monthly Journal 2011: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

New SFF Books in February

My pick of books for February. Read more here. Click on the covers for larger pictures.

New SFF Books in January

My pick of books for January. Read more here. Click on the covers for larger pictures.

Books Read

Click the covers for a larger image and linked titles for reviews.

1. When Duty Calls (Legion of the Damned 8) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 2008)
2. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Century 2011)
3. Boneyards (Diving 3) by Kristine Katheryn Rush (Pyr) - uk us
4. A Fighting Chance (Legion of the Damned 9) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2011, 1st 2011)

Books Received

Click the covers for a larger image and the titles for reviews.

Bought by me

1. A Fighting Chance (Legion of the Damned 9) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2011, 1st 2011)
2. Boneyards (Diving 3) by Kristine Katheryn Rush (Pyr) - uk us

For a look longer into upcoming releases see my almanac of forthcoming books.

Article 5 

(Ember 1) by Kristen Simmons (Tor) – amazon uk us

New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., have been abandoned.

The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.

There are no more police—instead, there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior—instead, there are arrests, trials, and maybe worse. People who get arrested usually don’t come back.

Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things weren’t always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother, it’s hard for her to forget that people weren’t always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. It’s hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different.

Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow.

That is, until her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings…the only boy Ember has ever loved.

Exogen

(Subterrene War book 2) by T. C. McCarthy (Orbit) – amazon uk us

Exogene (n.): factor or agent (as a disease-producing organism) from outside the organism or system. Also: classified Russian program to merge proto-humanoids with powered armor systems (slang).

Catherine is a soldier. Fast, strong, lethal, she is the ultimate in military technology. She’s a monster in the body of an eighteen year old girl. Bred by scientists, grown in vats, indoctrinated by the government, she and her sisters will win this war, no matter the cost.

And the costs are high. Their life span is short; as they age they become unstable and they undergo a process called the spoiling. On their eighteenth birthday they are discharged. Lined up and shot like cattle.

But the truth is, Catherine and her sisters may not be strictly human, but they’re not animals. They can twist their genomes and indoctrinate them to follow the principles of Faith and Death, but they can’t shut off the part of them that wants more than war. Catherine may have only known death, but she dreams of life and she will get it at any cost.

Echoes of Betrayal 

(Paladin’s Legacy 3) by Elizabeth Moon (Orbit/Del Rey) – amazon uk us

The action continues fast and furious in this third installment of Elizabeth Moon’s celebrated return to the fantasy world of the paladin Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter. This award-winning author has firsthand military experience and an imagination that knows no bounds. Combine those qualities with an ability to craft flesh-and-blood characters, and the result is the kind of speculative fiction that engages both heart and mind.

All is not well in the Eight Kingdoms. In Lyonya, King Kieri is about to celebrate marriage to his beloved, the half-elf Arian. But uncanny whispers from the spirits of his ancestors continue to warn of treachery and murder. A finger of suspicion has been pointed toward his grandmother, the queen of the Ladysforest elves, and that suspicion has only intensified with time and the Lady’s inexplicable behavior. Clearly, she is hiding something. But what? And why?

Meanwhile, in Tsaia, the young king Mikeli must grapple with unrest among his own nobility over his controversial decision to grant the title and estates of a traitorous magelord to a Verrakaien who not only possesses the forbidden magic but is a woman besides: Dorrin, once one of Kieri’s most trusted captains. When renegade Verrakaien attack two of Dorrin’s squires, suspicion and prejudice combine to place Dorrin’s life at risk—and the king’s claim to the throne in peril.

But even greater danger is looming.  The wild offspring of a dragon are on the loose, sowing death and destruction and upsetting the ancient balance of power between dragonkind, humans, elves, and gnomes. A collision seems inevitable. Yet when it comes, it will be utterly unexpected—and all the more devastating for it.

Singularity

(Star Carrier 3) by Ian Douglas (AvonEos) – amazon uk us

There is an unseen power in the universe—a terrible force that was dominating the galaxy tens of thousands of years before the warlike Sh’daar were even aware of the existence of Sol and its planets.

As humankind approaches the Singularity, when transcendence will be achieved through technology, contact will be made.

In the wake of the near destruction of the solar system, the political powers on Earth seek a separate peace with an inscrutable alien life form that no one has ever seen. But Admiral Alexander Koenig, the hero of Alphekka, has gone rogue, launching his fabled battlegroup beyond the boundaries of Human Space against all orders. With Confederation warships in hot pursuit, Koenig is taking the war for humankind’s survival directly to a mysterious omnipotent enemy.

Ashes of Candesce

(Virga 5) by Karl Schroeder (Tor) – amazon uk us

A world of endless sky, with no land, no gravity:  this is Virga. Beginning in the seminal science fiction novel Sun of Suns, the saga of this striking world has introduced us to the people of stubborn pride and resilience who have made Virga their home; but also, always lurking beyond the walls of the world, to the mysterious threat known only as Artificial Nature. In The Sunless Countries, history tutor Leal Hieronyma Maspeth became the first human in centuries to learn the true nature of this threat. Her reward was exile, but now, in Ashes of Candesce, Artificial Nature makes its final bid to destroy Virga, and it is up to Leal to unite the quarrelling clans of her world to fight the threat.

Ashes of Candesce brings together all the heroes of the Virga series, and draws the diverse threads of the previous storylines together into one climactic conflict. Blending steampunk styling with a far-future setting and meditations on the posthuman condition, Ashes of Candesce mixes high adventure and cutting-edge ideas in a fitting climax to one of science fiction’s most innovative series.

Also of interest

• Tooth and Nail by Jennifer Safrey (Night Shade) - amazon uk us
• Guardian of Night by Tony Daniel (Baen) – uk us
• The Fourth Wall (This Is Not a Game 3) by Walter Jon Williams (Orbit) - amazon uk us
• Arctic Rising by Tobias S. Buckell (Tor) – amazon uk

When All Seems Lost is book of the week. William C. Dietz’s Legion of the Damned series is the Foreign Legion in space. This particular story is about liberating prisoners of war.

/Ove

Featured posts

• 2012 Book Recommendations
• 2011 in Review
• 2011 Fall and Winter Science Fiction & Fantasy Recommendations

My Top Military Science Fiction Series MkII has 34 series or universes of interesting military scifi.

Monthly Posts

Cybermage’s Monthly Journal 2011: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

New SFF Books in January

My pick of books for January. Read more here. Click on the covers for larger pictures.

Books Read

Click the covers for a larger image and linked titles for reviews.

1. For More Than Glory (Legion of the Damned 5) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 2003)
2. For Those Who Fell (Legion of the Damned 6) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 2004)
3. When All Seems Lost (Legion of the Damned 7) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 2007)

Books Received

Click the covers for a larger image and the titles for reviews.

Review Copies

1. Autogenesis by David Sikter (Wela Förlag 2012)

Bought by me

1. For Those Who Fell (Legion of the Damned 6) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 2004)
2. When All Seems Lost (Legion of the Damned 7) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 2007)
3. When Duty Calls (Legion of the Damned 8) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 2008)
4. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Century 2011)
5. Faith by Peter Love (Night Shade 2012)

  [ missing cover ]   
   [ missing cover ] 

In the Lion’s Mouth

(January Dancer 3) by Michael Flynn (Tor) – Amazon uk us

The previous books (The January Dancer  and Up Jim River ) where awesome in this epic space saga trilogy so I can’t wait to read how it works out for the the Harper and her parents. The whole mystery of the exiles from earth also insists on answers like so many other things here. Think Gaelic space opera.

Boneyards

(Diving 3) by Kristine Katheryn Rush (Pyr) – Amazon uk us

Kristine’s nameless protagonist only known as Boss is one of my favorites. Especially after City of Ruins last year. A whole fleet of Destiny vessels  or the rest of it awaits in what looks like another epic story. You should start with Diving into the Wreck though.

Darkship Renegade

(Darkship Thieves book 2) by Sarah A. Hoyt (Baen)

I love female protagonists and Sarah A. Hoyt’s Athena Hera Sinistra is one of the better. This book is not on the schedule yet but it will be according to the author. Darkship Thieves‘ style was very Heinleinesque.

Omega Point

(Richard & Klein 2) by Guy Haley (Angry Robot) – amazon uk us

Guy Haley has created a fascinating world where The People’s Dynasty hides behind the Great Firewall of China and the United States of North America governed by the three Sams. The AIs have started to clean up centuries of pollution and live in a not to secure peace with humanity. Near-I and AI machines is part of life. I really liked his debut Reality 36. It has a fast pace, is humorous tone, filled with action, combat, robots and a great pair of protagonists. I would say it is modern private eyes meets an alternative to singularity but after the cliffhanger in the last book I am not so sure about the last.

A Rising Thunder

(Honor Harrington 13) by David Weber (Baen)  - amazon uk us

I have read the ARC and it was strong. It is still more political than military action but we are getting there. This is mostly about the Solarian League with a sprinkle of Mesa.

Faith (Debut)

by John Love (Night Shade) uk us

A space opera debut no less. Thanks to Baen’s ebook section I will be able to start reading this tonight. It is an epic fight between mysterious vessels.

Redshirts

by John Scalzi (Tor) - uk us

John Scalzi is into fanfiction at the moment. Last year it was Fuzzy things and this year it will be Redshirts. From the poor unsuspecting crewmen that accompanied Captain Kirk, Spook and the other main casts on away missions on alien planets in the original Star Trek series and ended up dead.  John writes fun twisted tales well that is why I am looking forward to this one.

Caliban’s War

(The Expanse 2) by James S. A. Corey (pseudonym for Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck) (Orbit) - uk us

The intelligent plague impregnated Venus in Leviathan Wakes last year. It was a Cop procedural space opera . I hope Detective Miller and Captain Holden returns in this volume too.

The Fractal Prince

(The Quantum Thief 2) by Hannu Rajaniemi (Gollancz) - uk us

The second book about legendary and flamboyant master thief Jean le Flambeur. The Quantum Thief  was a fun read a bit like a Finnish Tango, it had a strange rhythm to it and it takes you places you never imagined before.

Shadow of Freedom

(Honor Harrington 14) by David Weber (& Eric Flint?) (Baen) – probably second half of 2012 – title pending

It might or might not be out this year but the author thinks so. I hope for some MESA action.

Echoes of Betrayal 

(Paladin’s Legacy 3) by Elizabeth Moon (Orbit/Del Rey) – amazon uk us

This series is sprinkled with strong vibrant female characters. It is thrilling with assassination attempts, undercover kings, love, fire and dragons at the same time warm and caring. Elizabeth Moon is a master of characters and don’t get me started on her world building. I just wish it was March already.

It is also my teaser page of things to come. The further away a release is the less certain is the information, covers can change from week to week and delays are common. This is also a collection of data from public sources that can contain errors or old information. So you can’t trust this calendar like it is written in stone. You might also enjoy Best SF&F Books of 2010  - 2011 Booki Index – New SFF to Read 2011.

Click on the covers for a larger image. Titles in Italic have covers. Recent changes are bold

2012

January 2012

• Faith by John Love (Night Shade) uk us
• Giant Thief by David Tallerman (Angry Robot) uk us - review copy
• In the Mouth of the Whale (Quiet War Universe) by Paul McAuley (Gollancz) – uk us
• Dark Eden by Chris Beckett (Corvus)
  
• In the Lion’s Mouth (January Dancer 3) by Michael Flynn (Tor) – uk us
• Shadows in Flight (The Shadow series (Ender) 5) by Orson Scott Card (Tor)
• Transmission (Ragnarok book 2) by John Meaney (Gollancz) – uk
• Boneyards (Diving 3) by Kristine Katheryn Rush (Pyr) – uk us
• The Great Game (The Bookman 3) by Lavie Tidhar (Angry Robot)
• Blue Remembered Earth (Poseidon’s Children Book 1) by Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz) - uk us

February 2012

• Tooth and Nail by Jennifer Safrey (Night Shade)
• Exogen (Subterrene War book 2) by T. C. McCarthy (Orbit) – amazon uk us
• Echoes of Betrayal (Paladin’s Legacy 3) by Elizabeth Moon (Orbit/Del Rey)
• Article 5 (Ember 1) by Kristen Simmons (Tor)
• Singularity (Star Carrier 3) by Ian Douglas (AvonEos) – amazon uk us
• Ashes of Candesce (Virga 5) by Karl Schroeder (Tor) – amazon uk us
• Guardian of Night by Tony Daniel (Baen) – uk us
• The Fourth Wall (This Is Not a Game 3) by Walter Jon Williams (Orbit)
• Arctic Rising by Tobias S. Buckell (Tor) – amazon uk

March 2012

• Omega Point (Richard & Klein 2) by Guy Haley (Angry Robot) – amazon uk us
• The Games by Ted Kosmatka (Del Rey) – amazon uk us
  
• Range of Ghosts (The Eternal Sky 1) by Elizabeth Bear (Tor) – amazon uk us
  
• A Rising Thunder (Honor Harrington 13) by David Weber (Baen)  - amazon uk
• Body, Inc by Alan Dean Foster (Del Rey) – amazon uk
• The Intruder (Foreigner 13) by C. J. Cherryh (Daw)
• Intrusion by Ken MacLeod (Orbit) – uk us

April 2012

• Alien Diplomacy (Katherine “Kitty” Katt 5) by Gini Koch (Daw) – uk us
• The Road of Danger (RCN 9) by David Drake (Baen) – amazon uk us
  
• The Wind Through the Keyhole (The Dark Tower 8) by Stephen King (Scribner)
  
• Immobility by Brian Evenson (Tor) – amazon uk us
  
• Shadow Blizzard (Chronicles of Siala 3) by Alexey Pehov (Simon & Schuster)
  
• Ride the Star Winds (John Grimes Saga 4) by A. Bertram Chandler (Baen)
• A Song Called Youth by John Shirley (Prime) – uk us
• Lost Everything by Brian Francis Slattery (Tor) - uk us
• Pearlant (Light 3) by M. John Harrison (Gollancz)
• Constellation Games by Leonard Richardson (Candlemark & Gleam)
• Starters by Lissa Price (Random house) debut

May 2012

• Invincible (Lost Fleet Beyond The Frontier 2) by Jack Campbell (Ace) – uk us
• Toxicity by Andy Remic (Solaris)  - uk us
• No Going Back (Jon & Lobo 5) by Mark L. van Name (Baen) – amazon uk us
• 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit) – amazon uk
• The Killing Moon (Dreamblood 1) by NK Jemisin (Orbit) – amazon uk us
• Bitterblue (Seven Kingdoms Trilogy 3) by Kristin Cashore (Gollancz|Dial) – amazon uk us
• Deadlocked (Sookie Stackhouse 12) by Charlaine Harris (Gollancz) – amazon uk us
• Railsea by China Mieville (Del Rey) – amazon us uk
• The Devil’s Nebula (Weird Space 1) by Eric Brown (Abaddon) - uk us
• Further: Beyond the Threshold by Chris Roberson (47North) – uk us
• Tarnished Knights (Lost Stars 1) by Jack Campbell (Ace) probably Fall/Winter

June 2012

• Existence by David Brin (Tor)
• Redshirts by John Scalzi (Tor) – uk us
  
• Caliban’s War (The Expanse 2) by James S. A. Corey (pseudonym for Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck) (Orbit) – uk us
  
• The Thousand Emperors (Final Days 2) by Garry Gibson (Tor UK)
• The Shadowed Sun (Dreamblood 2) by N. K. Jemisin (Orbit) – uk us
• Broken Universe by Paul Melko (Tor) – uk us
• Judgment at Proteus (The Quadrail 5) by Timothy Zahn (Tor) - uk us
• Kop Killer (Kop 3) by Warren Hammond (Tor) - uk us

July 2012

• Energized by Edward M. Lerner (Tor) – uk us
• Earth Unaware (Enderverse prequel) by Orson Scott Card & Aaron Johnston (Tor) – uk us
  
• Heaven’s War (Heaven’s Shadow Trilogy book 2) by Michael Cassutt & David S Goyer (Tor)
• War Maid’s Choice by David Weber (Baen)
• Struck by Jennifer Bosworth (Random house) – debut
• vN (Von Neumann Sisters 1) by Madeline Ashby (Angry Robot) - uk us

August 2012

• Fate of Worlds (Ringworld) Larry Niven & Edward M. Lerner (Tor) – uk us
• Ghost Spin (Spin 3) by Chris Moriarty (Spectra) – uk us
• The Traitor Queen (Traitor Spy Trilogy 3) by Trudi Canavan (Orbit) – uk us
• Chimera (The Subterrene War 3) by T. C. McCarthy (Orbit) – uk
• The Middle Kingdom (Chung Kuo 3) by David Wingrove (Corvus)
• Hellhole Inferno (Hellhole 2) by Kevin J. Anderson & Brian Herbert (Simon & Schuster) – title from wikipedia – uk
• When Diplomacy Fails (Freehold Bodyguards) by Michael Z. Williamson (Baen) – uk us
• Zero Point (Owner Trilogy 2) by Neal Asher (TorUK)

September 2012

• The Fractal Prince (The Quantum Thief 2) by Hannu Rajaniemi (Gollancz) – uk
• The Age of Scorpio (Veteran 3) by Gavin G. Smith (Gollancz) - uk us
• Midst Toil and Tribulation (Safehold book 6) by David Weber (Tor) 

October 2012

• Furious (Kris Longknife 10) by Mike Shepherd (Ace)
• The Eternal Flame (Orthogonal 2) by Greg Egan (Gollancz) – uk

November 2012

• Queen of Nowhere (The Hidden Empire 5) by Jaine Fenn (Gollancz)
• Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance (Vorkosigan Saga) by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen) – title pending
• Art of Hunting (The Gravedigger Chronicles 2) by Alan Campbell (

2012 date to be decided

• Tale of the Kitty Jay 4 by Chris Wooding (Gollancz) august?
• Clan Chronicles: The Reunification Cycle book 1 by Julie E. Czerneda (DAW) – she started writing it in Oct 2010
• Darkship Renegade (Darkship Thieves book 2) by Sarah A. Hoyt (Baen)
• Bloodstar (Star Corpsman 1) by William Keith (AvonEos) – formerly named Unti
• Inexplicable (Clockwork Century 4) by Cherie Priest – late?
• Shadow of Freedom (Honor Harrington) by David Weber (& Eric Flint?) (Baen) – probably second half of 2012 – title pending
• Crown Thief (Tales of Easie Damasco 2) by David Tallerman (Angry robot) – end of the year
• The Beauty of Murder by A. K. Benedict (Orion) – debut late 2012

2013

January 2013

• Tuf Voyaging by George R. R. Martin (Gollancz)
• Ack-Ack Macaque by Gareth L. Powell (Solaris)

February 2013

• Resonance (Ragnarok book 3) by John Meaney (Gollancz) – uk

April 2013

• Helix Wars (Helix 2) by Eric Brown (Solaris)

May 2013

• Highprince of War (Stormlight Archives 2) by Brandon Sanderson (Gollancz) – title pending – uk
• Untitled Sookie Stackhouse 13 by Charlaine Harris (Gollancz)

June 2013

• Poseidon’s Children Book 2 by Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz) - uk

July 2013

• Heaven’s Fall (Heaven’s Shadow 3) by Michael Cassutt & David S. Goyer (Tor)

August 2013

• Untitled (A Long, Long Sleep 2) by Anna Sheehan (Gollancz)

Autumn 2013

Warcage (Humanity’s Fire Universe) by Michael Cobley (Orbit)

September 2013

• Proxima by Stephen Baxter (Gollancz) – uk

October 2013

• Cape Grace (Shaman’s Tales 2) by Nathan Lowell
• The Arrows of Time (The Orthogonal 3) by Greg Egan – uk

2013 date to be decided

• A River Across the Sky / River of Light (A Shaol universe book) by Garry Gibson (Tor UK) – title pending
• Evening’s Empires (A Quiet War Novel) by Paul McAuley
• Jupiter War (Owner Trilogy 3) by Neal Asher (TorUK) august?
• Valiant (Kris Longknife 11) by Mike Shepherd (Ace) – October?
• Dandelion Sky (The Expanse 3) by James S. A. Corey
• The Wolfhound Century (Vissarion Lom 1) by Peter Higgins (Gollancz) – early 2013
• The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna (Random House) – debut early 2013
• ACID by Emma Pass (Random House) – debut early 2013
• Serene Invasion by Eric Brown (Solaris) – early 2013
• Penny Royal (A Polity Novel) by Neal Asher (TorUK) – year?

2014

2014 date to be decided

• The Winds of Winter (A Song of Ice and Fire 6) by George R. R. Martin

This week has been blissful. It took a fortnight to reach the optimum holiday relaxation but it was well worth it. Now I long to return to work.

James Alan Gardner‘s League of Peoples series has been a wonderful acquaintance. It takes place in a universe dominated by highly advanced alien species.  With strong female protagonists like Festima Ramos and Oar.

Best new release was Brett Patton‘s debut Mecha Corps. It is a promising new military science series with features from Transformers and the Mech Warrior universe.

/Ove

Featured posts

• 2011 in Review
• 2011 Fall and Winter Science Fiction & Fantasy Recommendations

My Top Military Science Fiction Series MkII has 34 series or universes of interesting military scifi.

Monthly Posts

Cybermage’s Monthly Journal January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

New SFF Books in January

My pick of books for January. Read more here. Click on the covers for larger pictures.

Books Read

Click the covers for a larger image and linked titles for reviews.

1. Giant Thief by David Tallerman (Angry robot 2011)
2. Illegal Alien by Robert J. Sawyer (ACE 2012, 1st 1997)
3. By Force of Arms (Legion of the Damned 4) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 2000)
4. Expendable (League of Peoples 1) by James Alan Gardner (Harper Collins 2009, 1st 1997)
5. Vigilant (League of Peoples 2) by James Alan Gardner (Harper Collins 2007, 1st 1999)
6. Mecha Corps (Armor wars 1) by Brett Patton (Roc 2012)
7. Hunted (League of Peoples 3) by James Alan Gardner (Harper Collins 2009, 1st 2000)
8. Ascending (League of Peoples 4) by James Alan Gardner (Harper Collins 2009, 1st 2001)
9. Radiant (League of Peoples 5) by James Alan Gardner (Harper Collins 2009, 1st 2005)

Books Received

Click the covers for a larger image and the titles for reviews.

Bought by me

1.  Illegal Alien by Robert J. Sawyer (ACE 2012, 1st 1997)
2. For More Than Glory (Legion of the Damned 5) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontiers 2010, 1st 2003)
3. Mecha Corps (Armor wars 1) by Brett Patton (Roc 2012)

What have I been doing 2011?

I will try to answer that and  give a best of the year list. It is hard to select the best out of so many great books so take it for what it is, my own very subjective list. This year has been hectic at work so it is great for me to have had this outlet, unfortunately I haven’t had so much time to write as I would have liked to. Reading is still the best way I know to relax with your cloths on though.

Reading

I have read an amazing 174 novels (3,3 per week) this year far more than my goal of 120. My goal was to write at least two book reviews every week. A goal I missed by 8 the first half of the year but then it went downhills to a total of 76 book reviews.

Of the books 134 where science fiction, 31 fantasy, 4 steam punk and 3 speculative fiction which reflects my interests pretty well. 67 was by female authors and 122 by male authors (some books had more than one author) which is a disappointing ratio. I have followed my interests when picking books to read. Surprising since I generally like more female authors than male ones. I like Elizabeth Bear, Kristine Kathryn Rush, Jaine Fenn, Elisabeth Moon, Tanya Huff, Justina Robson, Jody Lynn Nye, Julie E. Czerneda and Sarah A. Hoyt to name a few. But they have not published so much science fiction yet this year but they will. In general I read all science fiction releases of the authors I like. The story is different when it comes to fantasy. I have favorite authors whose fantasy releases I have never read. I have no doubt they are as good as the scifi ones but I am trying to cover science fiction as a genre and time is limited.

101 printed books, 42 e-books and 31 audio books read. I have finally invested in an e-reader, A Sony PRS-T1. It is pretty okay but i would have liked more options to organize my books.

In the interest of full disclosure 125 were bought by me, 2 free online, 26 loan from friends and 21 were review copies.

You find more details and a list of all the books I have read this year on the 2011 Book Index

Month By Month

The monthly pages has links to reviews or you can use the 2011 Book Index.

December: Hex by Allen Steel was my best read

November: The Iron Jackal by Chris Wooding was my best read

October: Master of the House of Darts by Aliette de Bodard and Daring by Mike Shepherd were beast reads

September: Reamde by Neal Stephenson and The Recollection by Gareth L. Powell were my best reads

August: Germline by T.C. McCarthy was best read

July: A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber was best read

June: Leviathan Wakes by C. A. Corey was my best read

May: Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi was best read

April: Kings of Eternity by Eric Brown was best read

March: Kings of the North by Elizabeth Moon was best read, Up Against it by M. J. Locke a close second

February: Embedded by Dan Abnett was best read

January: Yarn by Jon Armstrong was best read

Featured Posts

• New SFF to Read 2011
• Almanac of forthcoming SF Books
• Cybermage’s Summer Reading Recommendations
• Books – Military SF Series

Best Books of the Year (Released 2011)

This list of the books I enjoyed most of the books released this year. It is almost impossible to make a perfect list of  the best books but I try. What I enjoy reading depends on many things, my mood not least so it changes over time. You can also weight in different things in what is best. Some people think that language is king but for me it is about ideas, character, dialog and the overall story. I read to immerse myself in the experience and to get a kick out of it. You might have different idea about what is important and that is okay for you.

My absolute favorite is The Kings of Eternity. It is a wonderful personal journey we get to experience as well as a beautiful and emotionally fulfilling love story. Eric Brown is a master at getting you close to the everyday life of his characters and to tell his often epic stories to that backdrop. I am convinced the characters are most important in his stories, they come to life so effortless.  Here he succeeds in mixing that with a style that makes me think of the classic adventure stories of Verne & Wells that usually starts at a club for gentlemen. This one doesn’t but the mysterious summon novelist Daniel Langham and his friends receive from Editor Jasper Carnegie and the strange followings in Hopton Wood are pure golden age including the recurring alien gateway and the strange creatures they discover there. Read my review for the full story.

Debut of the year is Germline by T. C. McCarthy. He impresses the hell out of me with this hard-hitting debut. Germline is a gritty and painfully realistic military science fiction that can stand on its own against the best in the genre. It is dark but also very personal up close. If you have the slightest interest in war stories you should read this. You might also want to read The Big Idea: T. C. McCarthy over at Whatever for more background.

1. The Kings of Eternity by Eric Brown (Solaris 2011) – Book of the Year
2. Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi (Tor 2011)
3. City of Ruins (Diving into the Wreck 2) by Kristine Katheryn Rusch (Pyr 2011)
   
4. Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse 1) by James S. A. Corey (Orbit 2011)
5. Embedded by Dan Abnett (Angry Robot 2011)
6. Kings of the North (Paladin’s Legacy 2) by Elizabeth Moon (Orbit 2011)
7. Germline (The Subterrene War Trilogy 1) by T.C. McCarthy (Orbit) – Debut of the Year
8. Reality 36 (Richard & Klein 1) by Guy Haley (Angry Robot 2011)
9. The Recollection by Gareth L. Powell (Solaris) – debut
10. Up Against It by M. J. Locke (Tor 2011)
11. A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan (Chandlewick Press 2011)
12. The View from the Imperium by Jody Lynn Nye (Baen 2011)
13. A Beautiful Friendship (Honorverse YA) by David Weber (Baen 2011)
14. Grail (Jacob’s Ladder 3) by Elizabeth Bear (Spectra 2011)
15. Hex (Coyote 6) by Allen Steel (Audible Frontiers 2011)
16. The Highest Frontier by Joan Slonczewski (Tor 2011)
17. Debris (The Veiled Worlds 1) by Jo Anderton (Angry Robot)
18. Yarn by Jon Armstrong (Night Shade 2010)
    
19. Anniversary Day (Retrieval Artist 8) by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Audible Frontiers 2011, 1st 2011)
20. The Departure (Owner Trilogy 1) by Neal Asher (Tor UK 2011)

Nine standalone books and eleven in a series. That is a good mix. Last year all books on my list was in a series.

Honorary mentions

I would also like to mention a few other books that impressed me this year.

• Penumbra by Eric brown (Infinity Plus 2011, 1st 1999)
• The Inferior (The Bone world trilogy 1) by Peadar Ó Guilín (Corgi 2008, 1st 2007)
• The Deserter (The Inferior book 2) by Peadar Ó Guilín (David Fickling Books 2011)
• Owner’s Share (A Trader’s Tale in the Age of the Solar Clipper 1) by Nathan Lowell (Podiobook 2011)
• De Vassa tändernas skog (Eng: The Forest of Hands & Teeth) by Carrie Ryan (Styxx fantasy 2011, 1st 2009) – Review copy
• En Död Ängel [A Dead Angel] (Nova Barakel book 2) by Åsa Schwarz ( Telegramförlaget Aug 2011) – review copy
• Armor by John Steakley (Blackstone Audio 2009, 1st 1984)

Welcome to Cybermage and this monthly retrospective.

Hex by Allen Steel is book of the month. This is more classic science fiction as the people from Coyote uncovers another alien  mystery.

Gordon R. Dickson‘s Way of the Pilgrim gets an honorable mention. It is a different solution to the alien invasion meme featuring a rather nifty marketing method years before Guerrilla marketing.

Happy New Year!

Books Read

Click the covers for a larger image and linked titles for reviews.

1. Penumbra by Eric brown (Infinity Plus 2011, 1st 1999)
2. Way of the Pilgrim by Gordon R. Dickson (Ace 1987)
3. Transference Station (Sliding Void 2) by Stephen Hunt (Green Nebula 2011)
4. Sliding Void (Sliding Void 1) by Stephen Hunt (Green Nebula 2011)
5. Empire’s End (Sten 8) by Allan Cole & Chris Bunch (Del Rey 1993)
6. Vortex (Sten 7) by Allan Cole & Chris Bunch (Del Rey 1992)
7. Return of The Emperor (Sten 6) by Allan Cole & Chris Bunch (Del Rey 1990)
8. By Blood Alone (Legion of the Damned 3) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 1999)
9. Revenge of The Damned (Sten 5) by Allan Cole & Chris Bunch (Del Rey 1989)
10. Fleet of The Damned (Sten 4) by Allan Cole & Chris Bunch (Del Rey 1988)
11. Fleet of The Damned (Sten 4) by Allan Cole & Chris Bunch (Del Rey 1988)
12. The Final Battle (Legion of the Damned 2) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 1995)
13. Legion of the Damned (Legion of the Damned 1) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 1993)
14. Rebellion (Star Force 3) by B. V. Larson (Audible Frontiers 2011)
15. Prince of Spartans (CoDominion, Falkenbergs Legion 4) by Jerry Pournelle & S. M. Stirling (Baen 1991)
16. Go Tell The Spartans (CoDominion, Falkenbergs Legion 3) by Jerry Pournell & S. M. Stirling (Baen 1991)
17. Prince of Mercenaries (CoDominion, Falkenbergs Legion 2) by Jerry Pournell (Baen 1989)
    
18. Falkenberg’s Legion (CoDominion, Falkenbergs Legion 1) by Jerry Pournell (Baen 2011)
    
19. Alien Proliferation (Katherine “Kitty” Katt 4) by Gini Koch (Daw 2011)
    
20. Hex (Coyote 6) by Allen Steel (Audible Frontiers 2011)
21. Alien in the Family (Katherine “Kitty” Katt 3) by Gini Koch (Daw 2010)
22.  Alien Tango (Katherine “Kitty” Katt 2) by Gini Koch (Daw 2010)

Please see my to be read list and request reviews

Reviews of Earlier Reads

Click the covers for a larger image and the titles for reviews.

1. K55 Lögnernas Valv [English:K55 Vault of Lies] by Erika Oscarius (Foldspace 2011) – review copy
   

Please see my list of books pending review and request reviews

Books Received

Click the covers for a larger image

Books bought by me

1. Transference Station (Sliding Void 2) by Stephen Hunt (Green Nebula 2011)
2. Sliding Void (Sliding Void 1) by Stephen Hunt (Green Nebula 2011)
3. Penumbra by Eric brown (Infinity Plus 2011, 1st 1999)
4. By Blood Alone (Legion of the Damned 3) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 1999)
5. The Final Battle (Legion of the Damned 2) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 1995)
6. Legion of the Damned (Legion of the Damned 1) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 1993)
7. Rebellion (Star Force 3) by B. V. Larson (Audible Frontiers 2011)
8. Theme Planet (A Novel of The Anarchy 1) by Andy Remic (Solaris 2011)
   
9. Earthbound (Bound 3) by Joe Haldeman (Ace 2011)
   
10. Galactic Courier (John Grimes Saga 3) by  A. Bertram Chandler (Baen 2011) 
11. Hex (Coyote 6) by Allen Steel (Audible Frontiers 2011)
    
12. Artemis by Philip Palmer (Orbit 2011)
    
13. Alien Proliferation (Katherine “Kitty” Katt 4) by Gini Koch (Daw 2011)
    

Way of the Pilgrim by Gordon R. Dickson was book of the week. It is a different solution to the alien invasion meme featuring a rather nifty marketing method years before Guerrilla marketing.

/Ove

Featured posts

2011 Fall and Winter Science Fiction & Fantasy Recommendations

My Top Military Science Fiction Series MkII has 34 series or universes of interesting military scifi.

Monthly Posts

Cybermage’s Monthly Journal January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November

New SFF Books in January

My pick of books for December. Read more here. Click on the covers for larger pictures.

New SFF Books in December

My pick of books for December. Read more here. Click on the covers for larger pictures.

Books Read

Click the covers for a larger image and the titles for reviews.

1. Way of the Pilgrim by Gordon R. Dickson (Ace 1987)
2. Transference Station (Sliding Void 2) by Stephen Hunt (Green Nebula 2011)
3. Sliding Void (Sliding Void 1) by Stephen Hunt (Green Nebula 2011)
4. Empire’s End (Sten 8) by Allan Cole & Chris Bunch (Del Rey 1993)

Books Received

Click the covers for a larger image and the titles for reviews.

Bought by me

1. Transference Station (Sliding Void 2) by Stephen Hunt (Green Nebula 2011)
2. Sliding Void (Sliding Void 1) by Stephen Hunt (Green Nebula 2011)
3. Penumbra by Eric brown (Infinity Plus 2011, 1st 1999)

These are my picks for January.

For a look longer into upcoming releases see my almanac of forthcoming books.

Faith

by John Love (Night Shade) – uk us

This one showed up on a few fellow bloggers’ sites and I am always looking for the next debut. Moby Dick in space sounds interesting.

Moby Dick meets Duel in John Love’s debut novel of Space Opera and Military Science Fiction! Faith is the name humanity has given to the unknown, seemingly invincible alien ship that has begun to harass the newly emergent Commonwealth. 300 years earlier, the same ship destroyed the Sakhran Empire, allowing the Commonwealth to expand its sphere of influence. But now Faith has returned! The ship is as devastating as before, and its attacks leave some Commonwealth solar systems in chaos. Eventually it reaches Sakhra, now an important Commonwealth possession, and it seems like history is about to repeat itself. But this time, something is waiting: an Outsider, one of the Commonwealth’s ultimate warships. Slender silver ships, full of functionality and crewed by people of unusual abilities, often sociopaths or psychopaths, Outsiders were conceived in back alleys, built and launched in secret, and commissioned without ceremony. One system away from earth, the Outsider ship Charles Manson makes a stand. Commander Foord waits with his crew of miscreants and sociopath, hoping to accomplish what no other human has been able to do — to destroy Faith!

Giant Thief

by David Tallerman (Angry Robot) - uk us - review copy

This sounds like a fun book, it is next on my to read list.

Meet Easie Damasco, rogue, thieving swine and total charmer.

Even the wicked can’t rest when a vicious warlord and the force of enslaved giants he commands invade their homeland. Damasco might get away in one piece, but he’s going to need help.

Big time.

File Under: Fantasy [ Big Trouble | Deception | Saltlick's City | Hang 'im High ]

Blue Remembered Earth

(Poseidon’s Children Book 1) by Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz) - uk us

Formerly known ass the 11K trilogy . This is the first volume in a monumental trilogy tracing the Akinya family across more than ten thousand years of future history…out beyond the solar system, into interstellar space and the dawn of galactic society.

One hundred and fifty years from now, in a world where Africa is the dominant technological and economic power, and where crime, war, disease and poverty have been banished to history, Geoffrey Akinya wants only one thing: to be left in peace, so that he can continue his studies into the elephants of the Amboseli basin. But Geoffrey’s family, the vast Akinya business empire, has other plans. After the death of Eunice, Geoffrey’s grandmother, erstwhile space explorer and entrepreneur, something awkward has come to light on the Moon, and Geoffrey is tasked – well, blackmailed, really – to go up there and make sure the family’s name stays suitably unblemished. But little does Geoffrey realise – or anyone else in the family, for that matter – what he’s about to unravel. Eunice’s ashes have already have been scattered in sight of Kilimanjaro. But the secrets she died with are about to come back out into the open, and they could change everything. Or shatter this near-utopia into shards . . .

In the Mouth of the Whale

(Quiet War Universe) by Paul McAuley (Gollancz) - uk us

Quite contrary to my usual taste in singular protagonists I liked the Quiet war books even through they had multiple protagonists .

This is new novel in the same universe that takes place a thousand years later.

You can read an excerpt here

Fomalhaut was first colonised by the posthuman Quick, who established an archipelago of thistledown cities and edenic worldlets within the star’s vast dust belt. Their peaceful, decadent civilisation was swiftly conquered by a band of ruthless, aggressive, unreconstructed humans who call themselves the True, then, a century before, the True beat back an advance party of Ghosts, a posthuman cult which colonised the nearby system of Beta Hydri after being driven from the Solar System a thousand years ago. Now the Ghosts have returned to Fomalhaut, to begin their end game: the conquest of its single gas giant planet, a captured interstellar wanderer far older than the rest of Fomalhaut’s system. At its core is a sphere of hot metallic hydrogen with strange and powerful properties based on exotic quantum physics. The Quick believe it is inhabited by an ancient alien Mind; the True believe it can be developed into a weapon, and the Ghosts believe it can be transformed into a computational system so powerful it can reach into their past, collapse timelines, and fulfil the ancient prophecies of their founder.

In the Lion’s Mouth

(January Dancer 3) by Michael Flynn (Tor) - uk us

The January Dancer was wonderful and Up Jim River was enjoyable so this is one of my most anticipated books of the year.

It’s a big Spiral Arm, and the scarred man, Donavan buigh, has gone missing in it, upsetting the harper Mearana’s plans for a reconciliation between her parents. Bridget ban, a Hound of the League, doubts that reconciliation is possible or desirable; but nonetheless has dispatched agents to investigate the disappearance. 

The powerful Ravn Olafsdottr, a Shadow of the Names, slips into Clanthompson Hall to tell mother and daughter of the fate of Donovan buigh. In the Long Game between the Confederation of Central Worlds and the United League of the Periphery, Hound and Shadow are mortal enemies; yet a truce descends between them so that the Shadow may tell her tale. There is a struggle in the Lion’s Mouth, the bureau that oversees the Shadows—a clandestine civil war of sabotage and assassination between those who would overthrow Those of Name and the loyalists who support them. And Donovan, one-time Confederal agent, has been recalled to take a key part, willingly or no.

Transmission

(Ragnarok book 2) by John Meaney (Gollancz) - uk

I loved book one Absorption. All the characters make me want to come back and know how it goes for them. The aliens are lovely or mysterious and we have only started to scratch on the main plot, it is still much of a bloody mystery to me but it is so compelling to follow. This sequel is high on my most anticipated books for 2012.

The second volume of Meaney’s epic Ragnarok space opera trilogy. The dark matter in the universe is alive and is seeking to pervert human history to its own ends. Its influence has reached back into the dark ages, to the centre of the 3rd Reich and 600 years into the future. The Ragnarok universe not only provides a stunning SF rationale for Norse mythology but posits a world where pilots are locked into symbiotic relationships with their ships and the cities can come alive.

Boneyards

(Diving 3) by Kristine Katheryn Rush (Pyr) - uk us

Kristine is definitely one of my favorite authors at the moment. The Diving started with Diving into the Wreck and City of Ruins and continues now with Boneyard. Time to learn what happened to the Destiny Fleet?

When multiple Hugo Award winner Kristine Kathryn Rusch decided to put her stamp on classic space opera, readers wanted more. Now Rusch’s popular character Boss returns in a whole new adventure, one that takes her far outside her comfort zone, to a sector of space she’s never seen before. 

Searching for ancient technology to help her friends find answers to the mystery of their own past, Boss ventures into a place filled with evidence of an ancient space battle, one the Dignity Vessels lost.

Meanwhile, the Enterran Empire keeps accidentally killing its scientists in a quest for ancient stealth tech. Boss’s most difficult friend, Squishy, has had enough. She sneaks into the Empire and destroys its primary stealth tech research base. But an old lover thwarts her escape, and now Squishy needs Boss’s help.

Boss, who is a fugitive in the Empire. Boss, who knows how to make a Dignity Vessel work. Boss, who knows that Dignity Vessels house the very technology that the Empire is searching for.

Should Boss take a Dignity Vessel to rescue Squishy and risk losing everything to the Empire? Or should Boss continue on her mission for her other friends and let Squishy suffer her own fate? 

Filled with battles old and new, scientific dilemmas, and questions about the ethics of friendship, Boneyards looks at the influence of our past on our present and the risks we all take when we meddle in other people’s lives.

Boneyards is space opera the way it was meant to be: exciting, fast moving, and filled with passion

The Great Game

(The Bookman 3) by Lavie Tidhar (Angry Robot) – us

Quite lovely steampunk alien invasion mystery that started with The Bookman and continued with Camera Obscura in 2011. Can probably be read standalone like the other books.

“The Great Game: The Bookman Histories”. The Lizardine Empire is under threat. When Mycroft Holmes is murdered in London, it is up to retired shadow executive Smith to track down his killer and stumble on the greatest conspiracy of his life. Mycroft’s protégé, the young Lucy Westerna, returns from Abyssinia with an ancient device that wrecks havoc when activated, summoning into being deadly machines that look like giant tripods. And across the ocean, in Vespuccia, a young Harry Houdini faces death… and the return of an enemy once thought vanquished. The Great Game is played in the shadows… and no one is safe. A new century is about to dawn, and the world would change forever. And in the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania an old man weaves a web of dark deceit that would bind them together, in life… and in death. Airship battles, Frankenstein monsters, alien tripods and death-defying acts: The Great Game is a cranked-up steampunk thriller in which nothing is certain not even death.

File Under: Steampunk [ Alternate History! Victorians Bite | End Of Days | Oooo-Laaaaah ]

Dark Eden

by Chris Beckett (Corvus) – uk

This sounds interesting but also a bit creepy.

A marooned outpost of humanity struggles to survive on a startlingly alien world: science fiction as it ought to be from British science fiction’s great white hope.You live in Eden. You are a member of the Family, one of 532 descendants of Angela and Tommy. You shelter beneath the light and warmth of the Forest’s lantern trees, hunting woollybuck and harvesting tree candy. Beyond the forest lie the treeless mountains of the Snowy Dark and a cold so bitter and a night so profound that no man has ever crossed it. The Oldest among you recount legends of a world where light came from the sky, where men and women made boats that could cross between worlds. One day, the Oldest say, they will come back for you. You live in Eden. You are a member of the Family, one of 532 descendants of two marooned explorers. You huddle, slowly starving, beneath the light and warmth of geothermal trees, confined to one barely habitable valley of a startlingly alien, sunless world. After 163 years and six generations of incestuous inbreeding, the Family is riddled with deformity and feeblemindedness. Your culture is a infantile stew of half-remembered fact and devolved ritual that stifles innovation and punishes independent thought.You are John Redlantern. You will break the laws of Eden, shatter the Family and change history. You will be the first to abandon hope, the first to abandon the old ways, the first to kill another, the first to venture in to the Dark, and the first to discover the truth about Eden.

Shadows in Flight

(The Shadow series (Ender) 5) by Orson Scott Card (Tor)

Like the first Ender books where the best the same has been true for the Shadow book.

Bean flees to the stars with three of his children – the three who share the engineered genes that gave him both hyper-intelligence and a short, cruel physical life. The time dilation granted by the speed of their travel gives Earth’s scientists generations to seek a cure, to no avail. In time, they are forgotten – a fading ansible signal speaking of events lost to Earth’s history. But the Delphikis are about to make a discovery that will let them save themselves, and perhaps all of humanity in days to come. For there in space before them lies a derelict Formic colony ship. Aboard it, they will find both death and wonders – the life support that is failing on their own ship, room to grow, and labs in which to explore their own genetic anomaly and the mysterious disease that killed the ship’s colony.

I have spent this time of reflection and tranquility catching up on war. William C. Dietz‘s Legion of the Damned series and Allan Cole & Chris Bunch‘s Sten series to be precise. Legion of the Damned is my favorite of the week.

Sorry for being one day late, but I had a Holiday too.

/Ove

Featured posts

2011 Fall and Winter Science Fiction & Fantasy Recommendations

My Top Military Science Fiction Series MkII has 34 series or universes of interesting military scifi.

Monthly Posts

Cybermage’s Monthly Journal January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November

New SFF Books in January

My pick of books for December. Read more here. Click on the covers for larger pictures.

New SFF Books in December

My pick of books for December. Read more here. Click on the covers for larger pictures.

Books Read

Click the covers for a larger image and the titles for reviews.

1. Vortex (Sten 7) by Allan Cole & Chris Bunch (Del Rey 1992)
2. Return of The Emperor (Sten 6) by Allan Cole & Chris Bunch (Del Rey 1990)
3. By Blood Alone (Legion of the Damned 3) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 1999)
4. Revenge of The Damned (Sten 5) by Allan Cole & Chris Bunch (Del Rey 1989)
5. Fleet of The Damned (Sten 4) by Allan Cole & Chris Bunch (Del Rey 1988)
6. The Final Battle (Legion of the Damned 2) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 1995)
7. Legion of the Damned (Legion of the Damned 1) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 1993)

Books Received

Click the covers for a larger image and the titles for reviews.

Bought by me

1. By Blood Alone (Legion of the Damned 3) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 1999)
2. The Final Battle (Legion of the Damned 2) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 1995)
   

Only two workdays before going on holiday now.

Jerry Pournelle‘s Prince of Sparta is my book of the week.  Falkenberg’s Legion is almost classic military science fiction but not only about the namesake which surprised me a bit. Falkenberg is totally missing from this novel. The insurrection on Sparta warm up again in the death throes of the CoDominium and another leader has to take up the reins. It follows a similar theme as Poul Anderson’s Flandry series – a few honorable men’s fight against the fall of historical darkness. I will have to add this to  My Top Military Science Fiction Series MkII. Now that I think about it there are probably a few more books I read this year I have to add.

/Ove

Featured posts

2011 Fall and Winter Science Fiction & Fantasy Recommendations

My Top Military Science Fiction Series MkII has 34 series or universes of interesting military scifi.

Monthly Posts

Cybermage’s Monthly Journal January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November

New SFF Books in January

My pick of books for December. Read more here. Click on the covers for larger pictures.

New SFF Books in December

My pick of books for December. Read more here. Click on the covers for larger pictures.

Books Read

Click the covers for a larger image and the titles for reviews.

1. Rebellion (Star Force 3) by B. V. Larson (Audible Frontiers 2011)
2. Prince of Spartans (CoDominion, Falkenbergs Legion 4) by Jerry Pournelle & S. M. Stirling (Baen 1991)
3. Go Tell The Spartans (CoDominion, Falkenbergs Legion 3) by Jerry Pournelle & S. M. Stirling (Baen 1991)

Books Received

Click the covers for a larger image and the titles for reviews.

Bought by me

1. Legion of the Damned (Legion of the Damned 1) by William C. Dietz (Audible Frontier 2010, 1st 1993)
2. Rebellion (Star Force 3) by B. V. Larson (Audible Frontiers 2011)