Ben Gould has a life-changing experience: that is to say, he dies after cracking his head on the sidewalk.
But he isn’t dead.
That’s causing all sorts of complications for the world—both for the inhabitants of the here-and-now, and for those in charge of the afterlife.
What was great in 2008 and possibly early 2009? This year’s Locus Online recommended reading list is up.
Here’s what’s available on the Kindle.
Buy: Kindle Store
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.
Buy: Webscriptions • Paperback
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.)
Buy: Webscriptions • Paperback
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.
Buy:
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.
To be continued next time with First and Young Adult novels.
Ghost at Work by Carolyn Hart
Buy: 9.99
Bailey Ruth Raeburn solves mysteries. Thing is, she’s dead. Like that’s ever stopped her. Cross a cozy with The Lovely Bones and a protagonist that can do something despite being Dearly Departed.
First in a planned series.
Living with the Dead by Kelley Armstrong
Buy: 9.99
A turf war between Otherworld cabals catches a woman and her friends in the crossfire.
The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike
Buy: 9.99
The sequel to the The Witches of Eastwick, which is not yet Kindle-ized.
Star Trek: SCE: Wounds by Keith R. A. DeCandido, Ilsa J. Bick, and Terri Osborne
Buy: 9.59
Another adventure for Commander Gomez and her Corps of Engineers team as they tackle the legacies of the Dominion War. “Demons of the past” used in original blurb.
Pretty Monsters: Stories by Kelly Link
Buy: 9.99
Surreal fantasy tales.
The stories from her first collection, Magic for Beginners, are available under a Creative Commons license in multiple formats, including Mobipocket/Kindle (I made that one).
The Ghost in Love: A Novel by Jonathan Carroll
Buy: 14.85
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.
Amazon’s Kindle Blog
