New Books, 21 February
* Bennett, Robert Jackson : The Troupe
(Orbit US 978-0-316-18752-7, $13.99, 512pp, trade paperback, February 2012)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 21 Feb 2012
Fantasy novel, set in a turn-of-20th-century vaudeville troupe, about a 16-year-old pianist trying to find his father.
• The book’s official site has several audio and text excerpts.
• Publishers Weekly gives this a starred review: “Narrated perfectly by a baffled young man whose zealous pursuit of a father’s love is often outpaced by his alternately endearing and dangerous vanity, Bennett’s finely crafted novel rises on a wave of suspense to a place of beauty and hope.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)
* Bishop, Michael, edited by Michael H. Hutchins : The Door Gunner and Other Perilous Flights of Fancy
(Subterranean Press 978-1-59606-374-7, $40, 536pp, hardcover, January 2012)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 31 Jan 2012
Retrospective collection of 25 stories, first published from 1970 to 2009.
• Titles include “Blooded on Arachne” (1975), “The Samurai and the Willows” (1976), Nebula Award winner “The Quickening” (1981), novella “Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thubana” (1989), and Shirley Jackson Award winner “The Pile” (2008).
• There’s a preface by Michael H. Hutchins and an introduction by Jack McDevitt.
• Amazon still indicates a nominal January 31st publication date, but does not have it in stock. The publisher’s February 19th post indicates it in stock and shipping, with this description and order page including the table of contents.
• The Publishers Weekly review says “Bishop reflects on culture in intensely personal and often sardonic ways… [M]any stories stop before reaching anything like an ending, but that won’t keep readers from appreciating the striking beauty of Bishop’s prose and imagery.”
• Paul Witcover reviewed it in the January issue of Locus Magazine, noting that “What makes The Door Gunner an absolute must-have for Bishop fans is the fact that he has not just personally selected these stories – eight of which are collected for the first time – but significantly revised them, pruning what, from his present vantage point, he considers excess verbiage. … The result, as editor Hutchins puts it in his introduction, ‘constitutes a master class in writing’ that showcases, in Bishop’s words, ‘the definitive text of every featured story.'”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)
* Davis, Aric : A Good and Useful Hurt
(Amazon/47north 978-1612182025, $14.95, 302pp, trade paperback, February 2012)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 21 Feb 2012
Supernatural thriller about people who can communicate with the dead via tattoos made with ashes of the deceased.
• Amazon’s page has a description, its “Look Inside” function providing an excerpt, and a Q&A with the author.
• This is the author’s second novel. He blogs at http://aricdavis.com/.
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)
* Marr, Melissa : Faery Tales & Nightmares
(HarperCollins 978-0-06-185271-8, $17.99, 432pp, hardcover, February 2012)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 21 Feb 2012
Young adult collection of 12 fantasy stories, at least 8 of them previously published, and several of them about the characters in her “Wicked Lovely” series of novels.
• HarperCollins’ site has this description, with a browse inside feature.
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)
* Moon, Elizabeth : Echoes of Betrayal
(Ballantine Del Rey 978-0-345-50876-8, $26, 464pp, hardcover, February 2012)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 21 Feb 2012
• Legend of Paksenarrion #8
Fantasy novel, new book in the author’s “Legend of Paksenarrion” and third in the “Paladin’s Legacy” series following Oath of Fealty (2010) and Kings of the North (2011).
• Del Rey’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• The Publishers Weekly review notes that “Moon’s pacing is as leisurely as a snowball rolling down a mountain, and it leads just as surely to catastrophe; every crisis solved reveals two larger ones, and the intriguing characters must frantically build strength and courage to survive.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)
* Wisker, Gina : Margaret Atwood: An Introduction to Critical Views of Her Fiction
(Palgrave Macmillan 978-1-4039-8712-9, $22, 248pp, tpg, December 2011)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 20 Dec 2011
Critical study of all of Atwood’s fiction to date. The author is Professor of Higher Education and Contemporary Literature at the University of Brighton, UK.
• The publisher’s site has this product page with the table of contents, including separate chapters on various books and on short stories, plus notes, bibliography, and index.
• A $68 hardcover edition is also available.
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)
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