Out of the Box #2
Back for another week. Starting Monday made a difference with fourteen titles versus last week's handful.
- The Reapers are the Angels (TP) by Alden Bell (pseud. Joshua Gaylord). Though classified as fiction at B&N, this book's a post-apocalyptic tale infested by zombies.
- Enigma (MM) by C.F. Bentley . It completes a duology begun with 2008's Harmony .
- Total Eclipse (MM) by Rachel Caine. Weather Warden #9
- Black Swan Rising (TP) by Lee Carroll - An urban fantays collaboration between novelist Carol Goodman and her husband, poet Lee Slonimsky.
- Omnitopia Dawn (HC) by Diane Duane. Best known for her Young Wizards series, unless you're a reader of Star Trek fiction in which case it's the Rihannsu (Romulans) books which brought her to your attention, Duane's beginning a new series with this title, a techno-thriller about a MMORPG and its impact on the world.
- Elminster Must Die (HC) by Ed Greenwood. Who said playing Dungeons and Dragons is a waste of time and money? Now where did those notes for my homebrew campaign go?
- Death's Excellent Vacation (TC) edited by Charlene Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner . An anthology of 13 original dark and humorous fantasy stories.
- I am Number Four (HC) by Pittacus Lore, a pseudonymn for Jobie Hughes and James Frey (A Million Little Pieces). It's aimed at teens but has a buzz about it. A film adaptation is set for release next February.
- The Osiris Ritual (HC) by George Mann . A steampunk mystery and sequel to The Affinity Bridge . Mann's also the author of Ghosts of Manhattan , another steampunk tale, this time with superheroes, set in New York City.
- Shades of Gray (MM) by Lisanne Norman. The eighth and newest Sholan Alliance novel.
- Unsympathetic Magic (MM) by Laura Resnick. Third in a the Esther Diamond series.
- Labyrinth (HC) by Kat Richardson. The fifth volume in her Greywalker series. Also out in mass market is the fourth entry, Vanished .
- Dream Called Time (MM) by S.L. Viehl. Tenth in the StarDoc series.
- Star Wars Year by Year: A Visual Chronology (HC with slipcase) from DK Publishing. Another huge Star Wars book, this one tracing the development of the franchise along with the changing world around it.
The Reapers are the Angels sounds like one of those *%@#$! episodes of Doctor Who.
See Mary Anne. See Mary Anne scream. Scream, Mary Anne, scream! (Just don't blink . . .)
And I most associate Diane Duane with exotic aliens, like K'tl'k (sp?) in her ST novel The Wounded Sky. But her Rihannsu kick butt as well.
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The Wounded Sky is one of my favorite ST novels. TNG's adaptation of it as "Where No One Has Gone Before" falls short. They simply didn't have time or money enough to do it justice. My Enemy, My Ally is where she really cuts loose with all the various species from the Denebian system. The scene where the Horta Lt.Naraht eats the neutronium door on the Romulan base is great. "It's so rich, sir."
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Makes me wonder if the Horta could have eaten the Giant Ice Cream Cone in "The Doomsday Machine." (In deep space, ice cream cone eats you!)
But Naraht is adorable---if that's the proper word to use for a being that can eat through super-hard mineral compounds.
I enjoyed The Wounded Sky very much and it's been a long time since I've read it; is it still in print? Maybe it should go on our list for the group as a potential pick.
"That armor getting heavy, Jim?"
What armor? wondered Kirk. What's he seeing?
Chills.
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