Spontaneous ∂erivation

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Available on February 10th, the eight novel in his acclaimed Culture series. If there’s a “high science-fiction”, then this is it.

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The last book in an alternate history Time’s Tapestry series that began with Emperor in Rome, continued with Conqueror (Dark Ages) and Navigator (late 1400s), and now ends in World War II.

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Telepathic communication between two groups eons upon eons apart, between three Seattlites now and two ultra-evolved beings near the heat-death of the Universe.

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Sample chapters available from Webscriptions.

Lovely beginning:

“Are you a child of DNA?”

Rakesh was affronted; if he’d considered this to be information that any stranger wandering by had a right to know, it would have been included in his précis.

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You would never have guessed it from the cover, but this is a tale involving a strong young adult heroine who lives in a Mars space colony, and stumbles across real Martians. Nevertheless, this is not YA.

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A very big book. Good thing it’s available for the Kindle. Jo Walton has a spectacular post on Tor.com about the book, Anathem: what does it gain from not being our world?

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I reviewed it here. (Note: not a Tor.com review, and rather shorter.)

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Military science fiction, the sequel to Red Lightening, and it name drops Podkayne. (And yes, the character is a third-generation Martian. What is it about that name? Ah, Heinlein.)

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Sample chapters at Webscriptions.

The following summary paragraph put this book on my radar:

Traveling the pocket universes with his wormhole-edged sword Tecmessa in hand and talking cat Bitsy, avatar of the planet-sized computer Endora, at his side, Aristide must find a way to save the multiverse from subversion, sabotage, and certain destruction.

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The third book in the Long Price Quartet, preceeded by books 1 and 2, A Shadow in Summer and A Betrayal in Winter (the latter not yet on the Kindle).

The last in the series, The Price of Spring, is forthcoming later in 2009.

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Another haunting novel, split up into multiple stories set in Japan (“Realer Than You”, “The Suicide Club”, “If You Can Read This You’re Too Close”).

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Ben Gould slips and dies—or should have died. Due to a technical problem, Heaven has placed him and others on indefinite hold, as it were. Which leaves them free to explore the space between life and the afterlife.¹

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The first English translation of one of Chaviano’s works, it’s supernatural historical fiction involving hauntings, imps, and clairvoyants. Winner of the Best Spanish Language Book prize in the 2007 Florida Book Awards.

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The children in a dysfunctional family cope by developing their own alternate reality through a miniature Botch Town, populated with models of people in the neighborhood.

Yes, that venture doesn’t turn out well for them, or at least, it turns out creepy spooky murder mystery.

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Kindle Store (Shadowbridge)
Kindle Store (Lord Tophet)

Shadowbridge and its sequel, Lord Tophet, focus on the adventures of Leodora, an orphaned 16-year-old with a talent for puppetry and storytelling, who walks through a world of mythical creatures and dark chaos energy.

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Lavinia, Aeneas’ second wife, is barely mentioned in the Aeneid. Le Guin takes the tale of Lavinia and spins it out fully, as you would expect.

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Romance, intrigue, and mystery in a mansion by the seaside where an unseen magical bell haunts the town.

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According to Meredith Schwartz in Library Journal: “Her lush prose and dark fantasy cityscape will appeal to fans of China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station and Sarah Monette’s Melusine, but her manipulative, scarred, sexual, unapologetic antiheroine recalls Elizabeth Bear or Melissa Scott.”²

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Featured in Amazon’s Best of June 2008.

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I reviewed it here. (Note: not a Tor.com review.)

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Your favorite agent from the semi-Dilbertian operation known as The Laundry is back—riffing off of spy movies and the disasters of necromancy when a millionaire tries to dredge up the Jennifer Morgue, a device to speak to the dead.

You can read the first two novellas featuring Bob Howard in The Atrocity Archives, as well as reading the free short story Down on the Farm from Tor.com (which comes in Mobipocket downloadable format, perfect for the Kindle).

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In the not-that-sleepy town of Nightside, a new sheriff has shown up in town—the Walking Man, a seemingly magic- and science-proof specter that stalks the streets and dispatches the evil and the indulgent side by side. It’s up to Private Investigator John Taylor to stop the invulnerable menace.

You can read other books in the Nightside series on the Kindle. The full list:

1. Something from the Nightside
2. Agents of Light and Darkness
3. Nightingale’s Lament
4. Hex and the City
5. Paths Not Taken
6. Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth
7. Hell to Pay
8. The Unnatural Inquirer
9. Daemons Are Forever
10. Just Another Judgement Day

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Death by literature—or rather, death from literature. Secret texts from a forgotten time in the land’s history have resurfaced, and someone obviously doesn’t want that, since enterprising scholars are being killed—perhaps by the Noble Dead, the vampires who supposedly wrote the texts.

The first book in a new story arc of the Saga of the Noble Dead, the last two books in the previous cycle are also available on the Kindle: Rebel Fey and Child of a Dead God.

The series has its own site at www.nobledead.com.

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Featured on John Scalzi’s The Big Idea this week, this fairy-tale retelling scores a team of three princesses of yore—Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Snow White—and tells the story of what happened after their supposedly happily-forever-afters. As it turns out, not all princes are gold of heart, and not all stepsisters are dead….

If you loved Fables, you’ll love this book.

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Brand new tales about artificial intelligence and robots:

• “Tempest 43″ by Stephen Baxter
• “The Highway Code” by Brian Stableford
• “Savlage Rights” by Eric Brown
• “The Kamikaze Code” by James Lovegove
• “Adam Robots” by Adam Roberts
• “Seeds” by Tony Ballantyne
• “Lost Places of the Earth” by Steven Utley
• “The Chinese Room” by Marly Youmans
• “Three Princesses” by Robert Reed
• “The New Cyberiad” by Paul Di Filippo
• “That Laugh” by Patrick O’Leary
• “Alles in Ordnung” by Garry Kilworth
• “Sweats” by Keith Brooke
• “Some Fast Thinking Needed” by Ian Watson
• “Dragon King of the Eastern Sea” by Chris Roberson

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Also released alongside The Stepsister Scheme is Hines’ take on Tolkien—from the humorous side of the so-called faceless minions and a hobgoblin named Jig Dragonslayer who would rather not adventure….

The first two books in this series, Goblin Quest and Goblin Hero, are not yet available on the Kindle.

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Immortal vampire art crook falls in love with female federal agent, and there are people out to get them. It’s another vampire romance in the loose Darkyn series with another star-crossed couple.

Also available on the Kindle: Twilight Fall, Evermore, and the eSpecial Master of Shadows.

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In the best of paranormal romance vampire intrigue stories, the death of one vampire lord doesn’t lead to peace, but to a terrible power struggle between three undead clans. The CIA wants to stabilize the situation, and send in agent Jaz and vampire Vayl to undo an assassination plot. In the middle of warring and not terribly rational cold-blooded clans. Yep. Your job doesn’t suck this much, does it?

The latest in the Jaz Parks series, all of which are on the Kindle:

1. Once Bitten, Twice Shy
2. Another One Bites the Dust
3. Biting the Bullet
4. Bitten to Death
5. One More Bite

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Better known for his award-winning alternate history sagas, Harry Turtledove also wrote fantasy—in this case, a tale where a farmer boy is orphaned and must survive in the city. Krispos manages to do so, becoming the chamberlain to the empreror—and drawing the imperial family ire. Which is probably worse than trying not to get knifed in the city streets.

You can also just buy the entire trilogy as one book, The Tale of Krispos, for only $7.96 on the Kindle.

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Edgar Allan Poe’s work is in the public domain and available for free on Feedbooks and elsewhere, but they don’t come with essays and commentary from some of the greatest modern writers, including Stephen King, Lawrence Block, Sue Grafton, and more.

Sixteen of the best Poe stories are here, but it’s the celebration that’s the icing on this collection, including:

• “What Poe Hath Wroth” by Michael Connelly
• “On Edgar Allan Poe” by T. Jefferson Parker
• “Under the Covers with Fortunato and Montresor” by Jan Burke
• “The Curse of Amontillado” by Lawrence Block
• “Pluto’s Heritage” by P. J. Parrish
• “Identity Crisis” by Lisa Scottoline
• “In a Strange City: Baltimore and the Poe Toaster” by Laura Lippman
• “Once Upon a Midnight Dreary” by Michael Connelly
• “The Thief” by Laurie R. King
• “Poe and Me at the Movies” by Tess Gerritsen
• “The Genius of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’” by Stephen King
• “The First Time” by Steve Hamilton
• “The Pit, the Pendulum, and Perfection” by Edward D. Hoch
• “The Pit and the Pendulum at the Palace” by Peter Robinson
• “Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, and Me” by S. J. Rozan
• “The Quick and the Undead” by Nelson DeMille
• “Imagining Edgar Allan Poe” by Sara Paretsky
• “Rantin’ and Ravin’” by Joseph Wambaugh
• “A Little Thought on Poe” by Thomas H. Cook
• “Poe in G Minor” by Jeffery Deaver
• “How I Became an Edgar Allan Poe Convert” by Sue Grafton

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No, indeed we can’t, thinks the female snake who regrets not being a rattlesnake when she’s picked up by a human. How can you resist something that begins:

Call Me Crusher

I had shed a skin the day of my capture. As always, the sloughing left me famished, so I curled up under a shady patch of creosote and eagerly awaited the first rodent to cross my path. Gopher was at the top of my list, though I was so hungry that I’d gladly have settled for even a nasty, gristly little shrew.

A rodent did not cross my path first that morning, however. A lower life form did: a human.

A cute viewpoint from the other side of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.