Nathan Barker's Blog, page 10

Giveaway Winner: Congratulations to Seraph Buchanan

We drew our winner on Saturday for the Burn Down The Sky ARC giveaway but hadn't had a chance to announce it until now....

Congratulations to Seraph Buchanan, a follower of our facebook page - she won the ARC in last week's drawing!

This week we'll be giving away an ARC of The Ice Princess - more details tomorrow afternoon.

Google Books Settlement Rejected By Judge

In a stunning setback, Judge Denny Chin today rejected the Google Book Settlement, some 13 months after its final fairness hearing. "In the end, I conclude that the [Settlement Agreement] is not fair, adequate, and reasonable." Chin set a date of April 25th for a status conference, and suggested his concerns with the agreement could be ameliorated with one simple change. "As the United States and other objectors have noted, many of the concerns raised in the objections would be ameliorated if the ASA were converted from an opt-out settlement to an opt-in settlement. I urge the parties to consider revising the ASA accordingly."


Full Publisher's Weekly article here

Print on Demand explained

This post arose out of a Q&A on an email list for booksellers and collectors and was originally fired off quickly in response to some questions - thus, I hope I may be excused for any errors and continuity problems that may exist herein.
The bulk of what used/antiquarian booksellers get in a tizzy over are the marginally respectable POD printers such as Kessinger Publishing (one of the oldest and largest of this type of printer).  Kessinger purchases original copies of out-of-copyright material, scans the books and loads the result to Ingram with plain yellow covers and simple lettering.  They use a boilerplate description of the title which briefly and not too clearly explains that this is a reprint/facsimile copy and therefore identical to the original including errors, stains, library markings, etc.  They offer the titles in both trade paperback and hardcover at a price based on the page count.  After distributor costs and retailer markup, Kessinger is making about $10 profit per copy sold - and charging roughly twice what they ought to be for the titles.  Other smaller companies have taken advantage of this by undercutting Kessinger on the pricing.  The setup cost per title runs about $100 though Kessinger gets a volume discount.  I am fairly certain that Kessinger has Ingram handle the scanning as well - Ingram offers the service and the cost thereof is marginal compared to purchasing your own equipment to do it.
Google uses their own scanners but I think uses Ingram for the printed copies now though their primary grab at the market was for ebook reprints of the library archives of the world.
Dover purchases original copies of the books and re-typesets them.  They use traditional offset printing for most of their books and have the equipment in-house.  Technically, Dover is not publishing POD - though they are beginning to use the technology for backlist titles I believe.
Applewood Books is another reprint house, specializing in out-of-copyright Americana and early children's series (Tom Swift, Nancy Drew, etc.)  They fully re-typeset the book and re-image the original dust jackets, etc.. manufacturing a reprint copy that truly is brand-new and at the same time is a replica of the original save for their markings/pricing.  They produce a very nice facsimile edition of these works at very fair pricing (I think the Tom Swift reprints in hardcover are $14.95 or so).  Again, like Dover, most of their product is traditionally offset print rather than POD but they are likely starting to change that for some titles.
The other type of company that gets people upset lately is Books LLC - a POD house that is dumping Wikipedia articles into book form at insane prices.  They simply have some extraction software that grabs the data from Wikipedia on any subject imaginable and dumps it into book form, loads the result to Ingram.  MANY customers, authors, and others are screaming about this company as their descriptions & titles are blatantly misleading, the prices are outrageous and the ownership of content is dubious at best.
Next up - major houses such as Del Rey, UMich Press, Random House, S&S, Baen books, and many others.  Quite a few of the major houses have partnered with Ingram to keep their backlist titles in print using POD technology.  In this model, publishers with trade or mass-market titles that are still under contract and "in print" but are not selling strongly enough to generate another full offset print-run are being converted into POD format.  The end-result is a slightly higher price to the customer (usually about $16 for a trade paperback) and a slightly lower margin to the bookseller (35% instead of the usual 40%+).  The book in the hands of the customer at the end of the transaction is virtually indistinguishable from the trade paperback that was originally offset print.  Almost all of the Univ presses and major houses have partnered with Lightning Print (Ingram) for this service - allowing them to retain the books "in-print" without the major expense of printing and warehousing an entire new print run for a marginally-selling midlist title.
And thus, we segue into the least recognized but most widely used segment of POD - small presses - In the last 7 years there has been a proliferation of small press publisher using POD technology as an alternative to the massive overhead involved in an offset print run and distribution.  Companies like Permuted Press, Prime Books, Scrybe Press (my own company), Wildside Press, many erotica imprints, several romance publisher, and now Avon, Harlequin, and Amazon.com (under the AmazonEncore label) have all started producing high-quality original titles published exclusively using Ingram's Print-On-Demand technology.  Again, the end result in almost identical.  The trade-off comes in cost-per-unit.  Where a large-volume offset print run can get paperback prices well under $1 in print cost, the minimum charge for a POD copy to the publisher is about $2.50.  Add in royalties, set-up/design/editor costs, and so on and the end result would be close to $20.00 if you maintained traditional pricing structure.  Since the typical customer will likely balk at that price point, most of these companies are shaving the dollar at both ends - releasing the title at $10.00-$15.00 by either reducing author royalty percentage and their own percentage somewhat, shorting the retailer discount or, in the case of Permuted Press recently, eliminating the retailer discount and relying on Amazon to sell the product.  
Also in this category are self-publishers - authors or very small/vanity presses that are utilizing an intermediary company such as Lulu or Createspace to supply an ISBN, formatting, and sometimes design services (at additional fees) to produce the book on behalf of the author/content owner. Typically the set-up/up front costs to the content owner will run between $100 and $500 depending on the level of "service" purchased.   I'll also lump the extremely controversial PublishAmerica into this category - they also use Ingram's POD service and they pretend not to be vanity/self publishing by supposedly exercising editorial control and "buying" the rights (they pay $1 plus very small royalty percentage" - editing costs, etc are extra)
Finally, the last segment of Print on Demand - the in-store or in-house (for a few Universities) Espresso Book Machine - a wonder of modern technology, these fairly compact units (about the size of a traditional counter) can print a nice-looking paperback of any available book in about 2 minutes.  They use a slightly sub-standard method (compared to Ingram's product) but the trade-off comes in affordability levels.  Where Ingram's digital print-presses run about $800,000 each, an Espresso Book Machine is around $50,000.  Inside its case you'd find a pair of high quality laser printers, a ream cutter/trimmer, some robotics, and a perfect-bind glue system.  The attached computer can be tied into Ingram's entire POD catalog as well as Google ebooks or the store/presses own catalog - allowing a customer to select, print, and pay for a copy of Jane Eyre in about 5 minutes start to finish.  
There is a small segment of these Espresso Book Machine locations capitalizing on the capability of these machines to offer self-publishing/one-off print services with extremely varying prices.  Since the "set-up" consists essentially of loading a customer's PDF file into the machine, the debate over pricing can vary as much as the price for this kind of service..  I've seen everything from $10 setup fees up to $500.00 for the same service.
OK, I think I covered the bulk of the uses and types of POD currently being employed.  Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have - either in comments, by email, or on the various email lists I subscribe to.

03/22/11 - New Releases in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Steampunk & more..

This week's new releases feature a stack of titles from Pyr, some great new Teen SF/Fantasy, and new Star Wars and Elizabeth Moon hardcover releases.

Before getting to the list though, I need to make note of two titles that AREN'T on the list this week.  We were forced to cancel our orders for 2 new zombie horror titles from two different publishers this week due to the choice of the publishers to NOT extend standard wholesale discounts to booksellers.  These two titles, one from Permuted Press and the other from Living Dead Press were both carried by our distributor but at "NET" discount - meaning that bookstores have to pay full retail price to order them.  Since we don't normally mark up books over suggested retail price, this would mean that we'd have to pay for the privilege of selling the books for no profit - not exactly a sound business model.  If these stores expect indie retailers to stock their titles, they are going to have to extend industry standard discounts to the bookstores.

[image error] Burton and Swinburne in The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man by Mark Hodder - It is 1862, though not the 1862 it should be...

Time has been altered, and Sir Richard Francis Burton, the king's agent, is one of the few people who know that the world is now careening along a very different course from that which Destiny intended.

When a clockwork-powered man of brass is found abandoned in Trafalgar Square, Burton and his assistant, the wayward poet Algernon Swinburne, find themselves on the trail of the stolen Garnier Collection—black diamonds rumored to be fragments of the Lemurian Eye of Naga, a meteorite that fell to Earth in prehistoric times.

His investigation leads to involvement with the media sensation of the age: the Tichborne Claimant, a man who insists that he's the long lost heir to the cursed Tichborne estate. Monstrous, bloated, and monosyllabic, he's not the aristocratic Sir Roger Tichborne known to everyone, yet the working classes come out in force to support him. They are soon rioting through the streets of London, as mysterious steam wraiths incite all-out class warfare.

From a haunted mansion to the Bedlam madhouse, from South America to Australia, from séances to a secret labyrinth, Burton struggles with shadowy opponents and his own inner demons, meeting along the way the philosopher Herbert Spencer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Florence Nightingale, and Charles Doyle (father of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).

Can the king's agent expose a plot that threatens to rip the British Empire apart, leading to an international conflict the like of which the world has never seen? And what part does the clockwork man have to play?

[image error] Wolfsangel by M. D. Lachlan - The Viking king Authun leads his men on a raid against an Anglo-Saxon village. Men and women are killed indiscriminately, but Authun demands that no child be touched. He is acting on prophecy—a prophecy that tells him that the Saxons have stolen a child from the gods. If Authun, in turn, takes the child and raises him as an heir, the child will lead his people to glory.

But Authun discovers not one child, but twin baby boys. After ensuring that his faithful warriors, witnesses to what has happened, die during the raid, Authun takes the children and their mother home, back to the witches who live on the troll wall. And he places his destiny in their hands.

So begins a stunning multivolume fantasy epic that will take a werewolf from his beginnings as the heir to a brutal Viking king down through the ages. It is a journey that will see him hunt for his lost love through centuries and lives, and see the endless battle between the wolf, Odin, and Loki, the eternal trickster, spill over into countless bloody conflicts from our history and our lives.

This is the myth of the werewolf as it has never been told before and marks the beginning of an extraordinary new fantasy series.

[image error] Return to Canifis (Runescape #2) by T. S. Church - Varrock is the greatest human city in the world, yet it is a city filled with dangerous secrets. People have been disappearing, taken by an inhuman abductor. Its victims are murdered...or worse. For some are spirited away to Morytania, the land where vampires rule. As Kara-Meir and her friends—heroes of the Battle of Falador—gather for the Midsummer Festival, unrest grows against the crown. A conspiracy is unmasked, and the King is forced to send representatives across the holy river to Canifis, the capital of Morytania. For reasons of his own, he selects the now famous heroine Kara, as well as Gar'rth, unique in his knowledge of the land of the dead. They are accompanied by Theodore, Doric the dwarf, the wizard Castimir, and the barbarian priestess Arisha, on a mission that will force Gar'rth to confront his violent heritage, and will reveal secrets that will test their loyalties to the limit.

For the price of failure in Morytania is far worse than death, and if their mission fails then a new King will rule in Varrock. A King who is lord of both the living and the dead.

Kings of the North (Legend of Paksenarrion) by Elizabeth Moon - Elizabeth Moon returns to the fantasy world of the paladin Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter — Paks for short — in this second volume of a new series filled with all the bold imaginative flights, meticulous world-building, realistic military action, and deft characterization that readers have come to expect from this award-winning author. In Kings of the North, Moon is working at the very height of her storytelling powers.

Peace and order have been restored to the kingdoms of Tsaia and Lyonya, thanks to the crowning of two kings: Mikeli of Tsaia and, in Lyonya, Kieri Phelan, a mercenary captain whose royal blood and half-elven heritage are resented by elves and humans alike.

On the surface, all is hope and promise. But underneath, trouble is brewing. Mikeli cannot sit safely on his throne as long as remnants of the evil Verrakaien magelords are at large. Kieri is being hounded to marry and provide the kingdom with an heir — but that is the least of his concerns. A strange rift has developed between him and his grandmother and co-ruler, the immortal elven queen known as the Lady. More problematic is the ex-pirate Alured, who schemes to seize Kieri's throne for himself — and Mikeli's, too, while he's at it. Meanwhile, to the north, the aggressive kingdom of Pargun seems poised to invade.

Now, as war threatens to erupt from without and within, the two kings are dangerously divided. Old alliances and the bonds of friendship are about to be tested as never before. And a shocking discovery will change everything.

Hidden Cities by Daniel Fox - More by chance than good judgment, the young emperor has won his first battle. The rebels have retreated from the coastal city of Santung—but they'll be back. Distracted by his pregnant concubine, the emperor sends a distrusted aide, Ping Wen, to govern Santung in his place. There, the treacherous general will discover the healer Tien, who is obsessed with a library of sacred mage texts and the secrets concealed within—secrets upon which, Ping Wen quickly realizes, the fate of the whole war may turn.

As all sides of this seething conflict prepare for more butchery, a miner of magical jade, himself invulnerable, desperately tries to save his beautiful and yet brutally scarred clan cousin; a priestess loses her children, who are taken as pawns in a contest beyond her comprehension; and a fierce and powerful woman commits an act of violence that will entwine her, body and soul, with the spirit of jade itself. Amid a horde of soldiers, torturers, and runaways, these people will test both their human and mystical powers against a violent world. But one force trumps all: the huge, hungry, wrathful dragon.

[image error] Black Halo (Aeon's Gate #2) by Sam Sykes - The Tome of the Undergates has been recovered...

...and the gates of hell remain closed. Lenk and his five companions set sail to bring the accursed relic away from the demonic reach of Ulbecetonth, the Kraken Queen. But after weeks at sea, tensions amidst the adventurers are rising. Their troubles are only beginning when their ship crashes upon an island made of the bones left behind from a war long dead.

And it appears that bloodthirsty alien warrior women, fanatical beasts from the deep, and heretic-hunting wizards are the least of their concerns. Haunted by their pasts, plagued by their gods, tormented by their own people, and gripped by madness personal and peculiar, their greatest foes may yet be themselves.

The reach of Ulbecetonth is longer than hell can hold.


The Enterprise of Death by Jesse Bullington - As the witch-pyres of the Spanish Inquisition blanket Renaissance Europe in a moral haze, a young African slave finds herself the unwilling apprentice of an ancient necromancer. Unfortunately, quitting his company proves even more hazardous than remaining his pupil when she is afflicted with a terrible curse. Yet salvation may lie in a mysterious tome her tutor has hidden somewhere on the war-torn continent.

She sets out on a seemingly impossible journey to find the book, never suspecting her fate is tied to three strangers: the artist Niklaus Manuel Deutsch, the alchemist Dr. Paracelsus, and a gun-slinging Dutch mercenary. As Manuel paints her macabre story on canvas, plank, and church wall, the young apprentice becomes increasingly aware that death might be the least of her concerns.



Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived by Paul S. Kemp - The second novel set in the Old Republic era and based on the massively multiplayer online game Star Wars®: The Old Republic™ ramps up the action and brings readers face-to-face for the first time with a Sith warrior to rival the most sinister of the Order's Dark Lords—Darth Malgus, the mysterious, masked Sith of the wildly popular "Deceived" and "Hope" game trailers.

Malgus brought down the Jedi Temple on Coruscant in a brutal assault that shocked the galaxy. But if war crowned him the darkest of Sith heroes, peace would transform him into something far more heinous—something Malgus would never want to be, but cannot stop, any more than he can stop the rogue Jedi fast approaching.

Her name is Aryn Leneer—and the lone Knight that Malgus cut down in the fierce battle for the Jedi Temple was her Master. And now she's going to find out what happened to him, even if it means breaking every rule in the book.

Crysis: Legion by Peter Watts - Welcome to the Big Apple, son. Welcome to the city that never sleeps: invaded by monstrous fusions of meat and machinery, defended by a private army that makes Blackwater look like the Red Cross, ravaged by a disfiguring plague that gifts its victims with religious rapture while it eats them alive. You've been thrown into this meat grinder without warning, without preparation, without a clue.

Your whole squad was mowed down the moment they stepped onto the battlefield. And the chorus of voices whispering in your head keeps saying that all of this is on you: that you and you alone might be able to turn the whole thing around if you only knew what the hell was going on.

You'd like to help. Really you would. But it's not just the aliens that are gunning for you. Your own kind hunts you as a traitor, and your job might be a bit easier if you didn't have the sneaking suspicion they could be right. . . .

Vampires: The Recent Undead edited by Paula Guran - The undead are more alive today than ever. Immortal? Indeed! Nothing has sunk its teeth into twenty-first century popular culture as pervasively as the vampire. The fangsters have the freedom to fly across all genres and all mediums - there's even apps for vamps. Whether roaming into romance, haunting horror, sneaking into science fiction, capering into humor, meandering through mystery - no icon is more versatile than the vampire.


Slack your insatiable thirst with the best sanguinary stories of the new millennium: terrifying or tender, deadly or delicious, bad-ass or beneficent, classic or cutting-edge.  Stories from Charlaine Harris, Kelly Armstrong, Holly Black, Rachel Caine, and more.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After by Steve Hockensmith - When we last saw Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy—at the end of the New York Times best seller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies—they were preparing for a lifetime of wedded bliss. Yet the honeymoon has barely begun when poor Mr. Darcy is nipped by a rampaging dreadful. Elizabeth knows the only acceptable course of action is to promptly behead her husband (and then burn the corpse, just to be safe). But when she learns of a miracle antidote being developed in London, she realizes there may be one last chance to save her true love—and for everyone to live happily ever after.

Complete with romance, heartbreak, martial arts, cannibalism, and an army of shambling corpses, Dreadfully Ever After brings the story of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to a thrilling conclusion.

Seduce Me In Dreams by Jacquelyn Frank - Dark. Mysterious. Sensual. When Bronse Chapel, the commander of a specialized unit of the Interplanetary Militia, begins to dream about a beautiful and exotic brunette, he wants to dismiss it as being induced by lack of sleep . . . or perhaps lack of sex. But his instincts tell him it's something different, something far more dangerous.

Ravenna is the leader of the Chosen Ones, a small group of people from her village born with extraordinary powers. She doesn't know that draws her to Bronse's dreams night after night, but she senses that he and his team are in jeopardy. Ravenna can help him, but first Bronse must save the Chosen Ones from those who plan to use their powers for evil. Together, Bronse and Ravenna will be unstoppable. But Ravenna is hiding something that could endanger them all.

Night Magic by Jennifer Lyon - Ailish Donovan is a witch ready to do battle. Raised unaware of her powers, she is just sixteen when her mother tricks her into binding with the demon Asmodeus. Pure-hearted Ailish escapes with the connection incomplete but pays a heavy price: For the next eight years, she is shunned by her earth sisters and tormented by Asmodeus's lust. After hardening her body and mind as a champion kickboxer, Ailish returns home to break the bond—or die.

The Wing Slayer Hunter Phoenix Torq is sworn to protect earth witches, but he is shaken by Ailish's fierce independence—and his own forbidden cravings. Dark, impulsive, and haunted by his troubled past, Phoenix likewise arouses Ailish in ways she finds disturbing—and irresistible. Torn between mistrust and desire, each must go to hell and back to seek the magic that could set them both free.

Tales of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong - Have you ever wondered how lone wolf Clayton Danvers finally got bitten by the last thing he expects: love? Or how the hot-blooded bad-girl witch Eve Levine ensnared the cold, ruthless corporate sorcerer Kristof Nast? Would you like to be a fly on the wall at the wedding of Lucas Cortez and Paige Winterbourne, where nothing goes as planned? Or tag along with Lucas and Paige as they investigate a gruesome crime that may be the work of a rogue vampire? Whether you're new to the Otherworld or a longtime fan, you'll thrill at the discoveries to be found in these eight tales of friendship, adventure, and enduring romance, featuring a cast of superhuman men and women whose fierce passion and undivided sense of purpose make them very human indeed.

Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon - At fourteen, Nick Gautier is sucked into the realm of the Dark-Hunters: immortal vampire slayers who risk everything to save humanity.

Invincible by Sherrilyn Kenyon - The second novel in the new teen series, The Chronicles of Nick, a spin-off from the blockbuster Dark-Hunter series--from #1 New York Times bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon.

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin (TV Tie-In Cover) - In A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin has created a genuine masterpiece, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill the pages of the first volume in an epic series sure to delight fantasy fans everywhere.

In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom's protective wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

[Seriously, this is one of the best novels I have ever had the pleasure of reading.  If you haven't read this yet, do yourself a favor and get a copy.]

The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan - There are many things that Annah would like to forget: the look on her sister's face before Annah left her behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, her first glimpse of the Horde as they swarmed the Dark City, the sear of the barbed wire that would scar her for life. But most of all, Annah would like to forget the morning Elias left her for the Recruiters.

Annah's world stopped that day, and she's been waiting for Elias to come home ever since. Somehow, without him, her life doesn't feel much different than the dead that roam the wasted city around her. Until she meets Catcher, and everything feels alive again.

But Catcher has his own secrets. Dark, terrifying truths that link him to a past Annah has longed to forget, and to a future too deadly to consider. And now it's up to Annah: can she continue to live in a world covered in the blood of the living? Or is death the only escape from the Return's destruction?

The Poison Eaters and Other Stories by Holly Black - Poisonous girls whose kisses will kill. A fateful eating contest with the devil. Faeries who return to Ironside, searching for love. A junior prom turned bacchanalia. In twelve short stories, eerie and brimming with suspense and unexpected humor, Holly Black twists the fantastical creatures you thought you knew in ways you'll never expect.

Wither by Lauren DeStefano - By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.

When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can't bring herself to hate him as much as she'd like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband's strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape—before her time runs out?

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As always, our new stock is at least 10% off cover price (discount shows in shopping cart) and shipping is free on domestic orders over $25.00.  All major credit cards, Google checkout, Paypal, Check, Money orders accepted on our website or order with CC by phone at 1-866-343-4516.

Giveaway: an ARC of Burn Down the Sky by James Jaros

This week we're giving away an ARC (Advance Uncorrected Proof) of BURN DOWN THE SKY by James Jaros - forthcoming in mass market paperback on April 26th, 2011.

"After the destruction of nature and the death of the world . . .

After the Wicca virus drove billions to madness and suicide, replacing order and reason with violence and terror . . .

In the parched ruins of what once was civilization, one commodity is far more valuable than all others combined: female children.

When well-armed marauders roll in at dusk to brutally attack a fiercely defended compound of survivors, Jessie is unable to halt the slaughter—and she can do nothing to prevent the ruthless abduction of innocents, including her youngest child. Now, along with her outraged teenage daughter, Bliss, Jessie must set out on a journey across a blasted landscape—joining up with the desperate, the broken, the half-mad, on an impossible mission: to storm the fortress of a dark and twisted religion and bring the children home."
To be entered to win just 'like' our facebook page or become a follower of this blog (option in right column).  Drawing will be held on Saturday, March 26th, 2011.

Winner Announced: Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult ARC w/CD

Congratulations to Bridget Whalen-Nevin who won this ARC!  Stay tuned for details on our next drawing and as always, just "like" our facebook page or 'follow' our blog to be automatically entered in every drawing!

Retro Review: The Singers of Time by Fredik Pohl and Jack Williamson

The Singers of Time by Frederik Pohl

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This is classic early 80's style SF with Williamson/Pohl's classic humor mixed with hard SF issues.

The "Turtles" came to Earth in the latter part of the 20th century, picking up a few isolated humans near death to learn everything they could about the human race. Then they came down with a plan - to eliminate war and poverty though trade. With their wealth and technology, they conquered the planet with kindness.

Now, a hundred years later, humans live in peace and prosperity.. but without their own developments in science and technology, human science having been eclipsed by the more advanced technology of the Turtles... until a disaster strikes the Turtles home world.. and only the heretical ideas of Earth's 20th century astrophysicists can save the day.

At its core, this is a hard SF adventure novel - with each chapter interspersed by late 20th century university lectures on the nature of the universe and its creation. The main characters are somewhat flat, however, and the writing style somewhat dated. The characterizations are more reminiscent of early Perry Mason novels than anything else that comes to mind.

Overall, an entertaining and lightly humorous novel that combines a fun adventure to save the multi-verse with deep conceptualization on the nature of the Universe itself.



View all my reviews

Sales Tax: Online Retailers vs. States or Me vs. The New York Times

Yesterday's New York Times editorial weighed in on the Amazon vs. Sales Tax issue saying that online retailers'


"frequent exemption from collecting sales tax is "ridiculous now when so many states are in deep fiscal trouble," and that "Collecting state taxes is not an unreasonable burden for online retailers. Amazon already collects taxes in five states, including New York, and it also collects taxes on behalf of physical retailers that sell through Amazon. The best outcome would be for Congress to pass legislation requiring all retailers, online and off, to collect sales taxes everywhere they are due. In the meantime, states should not give in to Amazon's pressure tactics."

In an extremely naive position the Times has equated big box retailers such as Amazon.com with indie bookstores in their ability to keep records. To suggest that collecting sales tax on ALL online sales and remitting that paperwork and monies to all 50 states would not place an "unreasonable burden" on small businesses is ludicrous.

We don't have and can't afford to have software written for us that can automatically calculate sales tax remittance for 50 different states.  Manually calculating the tax due for NY alone is difficult enough... having to break out and total up orders for 50 different states every quarter would take several days each time and conflicting rules for each state would be a nightmare for a small business to attempt to process.

The only feasible (and fair) option for online retailers is to collect a flat "online" sales tax - an equal percentage with a single set of rules.. preferably remitted automatically to a single processing location with sales data by state.  While still difficult, this would be far less an impossible task than to attempt to navigate sales tax rules for 50 different states.

The New York Times should know better.  Amazon.com isn't the only online retailer.

Borders to Close 28 More stores

Borders has decided to close an additional 28 stores - bringing the total to close to 228 - or 47% of their total number of stores prior to filing Chapter 11.  You can see the full list of pending closures here:
http://bordersreorganization.com/Reorganization_Closure_List_3.17.pdf

Acquisitions: A Selection of lightly used Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction

Hands of Flame (The Negotiator, Book 3) by Murphy, C.E. Used: Good 409 pages; spine creasing, edge wear, some wrinkling to front cover; War has erupted among the five Old Races, and Margrit Knight is responsible for the death that has caused it. Now New York City's most unusual lawyer finds herself facing her toughest negotiation yet, in this third Negotiator novel

Unperfect Souls (Connor Grey, Book 4) by Mark Del Franco - Used: Good 338 pages; light spine crease, light edge wear; In the Boston neighborhood known as the Weird, a decapitated body floats out of the sewer, and former Guild investigator Connor Grey uncovers a conspiracy that may bring down the city's most powerful elite.

Blood of the Demon (Kara Gillian, Book 2) by Diana Rowland - Used: Good 369 pages; spine creasing, light edge wear; In the second book in Rowland's stellar new series, a demon wants the body ofcop Kara Gillian. However, a handsome FBI agent has gotten under Kara's skin, while a killer is on the loose in Beaulac, Louisiana.

Orphans of Chaos by John C. Wright - Used: Good 326 pages; spine creasing, light edge wear; Five orphans, raised in a strict British boarding school, discover they are not ordinary human beings. They do not age, while the world outside does. Amelia is apparently a fourth-dimensional being; Victor can control the molecular arrangement of matter around him; Vanity can find secret passageways through solid walls where none had previously been; Colin is a psychic; Quentin is a warlock. Each power comes from a different paradigm or view of the inexplicable universe - and they should not be able to co-exist. The orphans have been kidnapped from their true parents, robbed of their powers and memories, and raised in ignorance by super-beings: pagan gods, fairy-queens, Cyclops, sea-monsters, witches, or things even stranger. Can the children learn to control their strange abilities and escape their captors?

Thinner by Stephen King - Used: Fair  318 pages; heavy spine creasing, heavy edge wear, some cover creases; 'Thinner' - the old gypsy man barely whispers the word. Billy feels the touch of a withered hand on his cheek. 'Thinner' - the word, the old man's curse, has lodged in Billy's mind like a fattening worm, eating at his flesh, at his reason. And with his despair, comes violence.

Bewitched & Betrayed (Raine Benares, Book 4) by Lisa Shearin - Used: Good  366 pages; light spine creasing; Raine Benares is a seeker. She finds lost things and missing people--usually alive. But now she's been bonded with the Saghred, a soul-stealing stone of unlimited power, and must hunt down its escapees. Especially since one of them is also hunting her.

Changeling (Sisters of the Moon, Book 2)  by Yasimine Galenorn Used: Good 293 pages; In this second book of Galenorns series--the follow-up to "Witchling"--the supernatural DArtigo sisters, half-human, half-Faerie supernatural agents, are now enlisted to find the fiends responsible for slaughtering the weres of Rainier Puma Pride.
The Radleys: A Novel by Matt Haig - Used: Good 370 pages; edge wear, some light creasing to covers; Advance Uncorrected Proofs; This is a fast, smart, accessible novel which will be lapped up by young fans of vampire-lit and urban gothic - but with a witty new twist. Meet the Radleys: Peter, Helen and their teenage kids Clara and Rowan. An everyday family who live in a pretty English village and juggle dysfunctional lives. So far, so normal. Except, as Peter and Helen know (but the kids have yet to find out), the Radleys happen to be a family of abstaining vampires. When one night Clara finds herself driven to commit a bloodthirsty act of violence, her parents need to explain a few things: why is their skin is so sensitive to light, why do they all find garlic so repulsive, and why has Clara's recent decision to go vegan had quite such an effect on her behaviour...? But when mysterious Uncle Will swoops into the village, he unleashes a host of shadowy truths and dark secrets that threaten to destroy the Radleys and the world around them.

Gun, With Occasional Music: A Novel by Jonathan Lethem - Used: Very Good 262 pages; some light edge wear, bit of soiling to back cover; The first novel by Jonathan Lethem is a hard-boiled, noir mystery, a dark and funny post-modern romp serving further evidence that Lethem is the distinctive voice of a new generation. Conrad Metcalf has problems. He has a monkey on his back, a rabbit in his waiting-room, and a trigger-happy kangaroo on his tail. (Maybe evolution therapy is not such a good idea). He's been shadowing Celeste, the wife of an Oakland urologist. Maybe falling in love with her a little at the same time. When the doctor turns up dead, Metcalf finds himself caught in a crossfire between the boys from the inquisitor's Office and gangsters who operate out of the back room of the Fickle Muse.

The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes  edited by Martin Greenberg & Carol-Lynn Rossel Waugh - Used: Good 345 pages; spine and cover creasing, edge wear; A collection of 15 short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes and written by such luminaries as Stephen King, John Gardner, Loren D. Estleman, and many more.

Spook Country  by William Gibson - Used: Very Good 480 pages; light edge wear; Tito is in his early twenties. Born in Cuba, he speaks fluent Russian, lives in one room in a NoLita warehouse, and does delicate jobs involving information transfer. Hollis Henry is an investigative journalist, on assignment from a magazine called Node. Node doesn't exist yet, which is fine; she's used to that. But it seems to be actively blocking the kind of buzz that magazines normally cultivate before they start up. Really actively blocking it. It's odd, even a little scary, if Hollis lets herself think about it much. Which she doesn't; she can't afford to. Milgrim is a junkie. A high-end junkie, hooked on prescription antianxiety drugs. Milgrim figures he wouldn't survive twenty-four hours if Brown, the mystery man who saved him from a misunderstanding with his dealer, ever stopped supplying those little bubble packs. What exactly Brown is up to Milgrim can't say, but it seems to be military in nature. At least, Milgrim's very nuanced Russian would seem to be a big part of it, as would breaking into locked rooms. Bobby Chombo is a "producer," and an enigma. In his day job, Bobby is a troubleshooter for manufacturers of military navigation equipment. He refuses to sleep in the same place twice. He meets no one. Hollis Henry has been told to find him.

Jennifer Scales and the Ancient Furnace (Jennifer Scales, Book 1) by MaryJanice Davidson & Anthony Alongi - Used: Very Good 213 pages; faint spine crease, slight edge wear; Jennifer Scales knows that growing up means change, but she's not prepared for the blue scales or the claws, since no one told her that she comes from a bloodline of weredragons.

The Last Starfighter by Alan Dean Foster - Used: Very Good 218 pages; edge wear; Alex Rogan is a small-town teenager with big-time dreams. He's just like everyone else, except Alex has a very special talent... Tonight, a mysterious stranger will call on Alex. He comes from a galaxy that's under attack by an alien force. And Alex's unique ability is their last hope.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Star Trek #17)  by Vonda N. McIntyre - Used: Very Good 297 pages; edge wear; As the crew grieves for Mr. Spock, the awesome Genesis Device, now controlled by the Federation, has transformed an inert nebula into a new planet teeming with life. But Genisis can also destroy existing worlds. The creators of the Device want it given freely to the Galaxy. But Starfleet Command fears that it will become a force for evil. And the enemies of the Federation will not rest until they seize it -- as their most powerful weapon in the battle to conquer the Galaxy!

Moorhaven by Daoma Winston - Used: Good 406 pages; spine creasing, edge wear; The breathtaking romance of Cordelia and Jonathan - the governess and the Master of Moorhaven - begins the stormy saga that spans three generations at Moorhaven, the great stone house built on land stolen from the sea. The strange mystery haunting the house, the passionate family feuds, the secret love affairs, and the life-long hatreds wind their way through the generations as the family prepares itself to meet the final challenge of Moorhaven!

Emergence by David R. Palmer - Used: Good 291 pages; bar code on back cover is hole-punched, spine creased, some edge wear; This is the saga of Candy Smith-Foster, a brilliant, witty girl on the verge of womanhood, survivor of a bionuclear war that destroyed most of humanity, first of a new stage of human evolution - homo post hominem. EMERGENCE is the story of her turbulent odyssey across a scarred America seeking others of her kind and a new future for the people of Earth. Emergence was nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Compton Crook, and Philip K. Dick awards.

Night Myst (Indigo Court #1) by Yasmine Galenorn - Used: Good 342 pages; spine creasing, edge wear; Eons ago, vampires tried to turn the Dark Fae in order to harness their magic, only to create a demonic enemy more powerful than they imagined. Now Myst, the Vampiric Fae Queen of the Indigo Court, has enough power to begin a long prophesied supernatural war.

The Magic Knot by Helen Scott Taylor - Used: Good 308 pages; spine creasing, edge wear, cover curled a bit; Put together a magic set of Tarot cards, a proper accountant looking for her roots in mystical Cornwall, and a bad boy on a motorcycle, and you get a lovers knot that wont ever come undone.

Fire in the Ashes by William W. Johnstone - Used: Good 460 pages; spine creasing, a bit of soiling to front cover; It is 1999 and the world has been destroyed by a nuclear holocaust. Among the survivors is Ben Raines, a retired soldier and mercenary--and the only man alive trained to lead the Resistance and build a new America. But as the Rebel's greatest adversary, the U.S. Government, crushes their dreams, an even greater peril awaits them--an indescructible breed of enemies.

Nightworld by David Bischoff - Used: Very Good 197 pages; light edge wear; By day it was paradise. By night it was a seething hell. Nightworld â€" where for centures werewolves, dragons, griffins, and vampires served a computerized Prince of Darkness . . . Where every sunset brought forth a call for the most heinous acts imaginable by the most frightening creature of all . . . Where a courageous young lord and a determined outworlder set forth on a journey of innumerable terrors to destroy the computer creature known as Satan in its own technologically horrifying haven of hell!