Jared Shurin's Blog, page 122
May 27, 2013
Post-script: +1
A few bits and bobs that bolster existing collections:
John D. MacDonald's The Damned. For years, the first (and only) hardcover edition of a JDM book was the first British printing, generally done by Robert Hale. This is true for the Travis McGee series, especially - making many of the 1960s Hale printings quite valuable. The tradition was revived by Hale in the 2000s, and they produced lavish (perhaps a better word is "lurid") hardcovers of many of JDM's standalones. Again, for many, the f...
May 24, 2013
Underground Reading: The Gutter and the Grave by Ed McBain
This is the latest installment in our scheme to review each and every Hard Case Crime publication, one every week.You can follow along here. Last week was one of the best so far, Lawrence Block's The Girl with the Long Green Heart. The tough task of following Block falls to Ed McBain. Can he handle the pressure?
The Gutter and the Grave(2005) was first published in 1958 as I'm Cannon - For Hire, a Gold Medal paperback written by no other than "Curt Cannon". The rough and tumble Cannon appear...
May 23, 2013
The Lowest Heaven - Launch Party - 13 June
We would be delighted if you could join us for the launch of The Lowest Heavenon 13 June, between 6 pm and 9 pm at the National Maritime Museum.
Guests include over a dozen of the anthology's contributors, including... Alastair Reynolds, James Smythe, E. J. Swift, David Bryher, Maria Dahvana Headley, Simon Morden, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Mark Charan Newton, Lavie Tidhar, Adam Roberts, Esther Saxey, Matt Jones, Archie Black and Sophia McDougall, as well as Marek Kukula, the Royal Observatory'...
May 22, 2013
The Lowest Heaven, The Readers, Knives and a Rocket
No new stuff here today, but a quick round-up of some other adventures:
The first reviews of The Lowest Heavenare out! Anne and I have been bouncing around like ferrets, we're really delighted that people seem to like the astounding stories. We do (hell, we lovethem), but the authors have done amazing work and it is great to see how people respond to it.
Overall it is a well-crafted ensemble and the solar system theme never seems like a constraint.... Starburst has no hesitat...
May 21, 2013
New Releases: The Skybound Sea by Sam Sykes
It is fair to say that this, Sam Sykes'The Skybound Sea(2012) is a review I've been trying to write for almost five months. It isn't a straightforward one, so, with that in mind, I'd like to ask two favours, gentle reader:
Bear with me, as this will be even more wibbly and discursive than usual
Read the whole review (or at least skim it), as any single thought or line won't work out of context
(Bonus favour: don't stomp on me when I use phrases like "gentle reader", as much as I deserve it)...
May 20, 2013
New Releases: Blood Song by Anthony Ryan
Blood Song (2013) is the first volume in Anthony Ryan's Raven's Shadowseries, a new epic fantasy saga published by Orbit. Blood Songhas been lurking around as a self-published ebook for a while (gaining insane reviews) - now it is being released as a book-book.
Blood Song is the story of Vaelin Al Sorna. As a child, he's abandoned at the gates of the Sixth Order by his father, Battle Lord (sort of "high marshal" to King Janus). The orders are monastic organisations - each has its specific fo...
May 19, 2013
Pandemonium Updates: New & Old Titles [Updated!]
New titles, old titles, things moving around:
Speculative Fiction 2012 is now available as an ebook for the Kindle. It took some doing, but thanks to the hard work of Gav (@gavreads & @handebooks), we got there, and last year's best online essays and book reviews are now packaged up in a convenient online format. That is to say, we've made an digital book out of a print book out of digital work. [Amazon US ($3.99)|Amazon UK (£2.99)]
All proceeds from Speculative Fictionare donatedto Room to...
Pandemonium Updates: New & Old Titles
New titles, old titles, things moving around:
Speculative Fiction 2012 is now available as an ebook for the Kindle. It took some doing, but thanks to the hard work of Gav (@gavreads & @handebooks), we got there, and last year's best online essays and book reviews are now packaged up in a convenient online format. That is to say, we've made an digital book out of a print book out of digital work. [Amazon US ($3.99) | Amazon UK (£2.99)]
All proceeds from Speculative Fiction are...
May 17, 2013
Review Round-up: Jesus, Bridesicles and New York City
Three recent releases with very little in common.
Will McIntosh'sLove Minus Eighty (2013) is coming this June. I've not read him before, but from what I understand, Mr. McIntosh is sort of an ebook/indie sensation, not in the "sells like Hugh Howey or Amanda Hocking" way, but in the "there's this guy quietly making great books in the corner" kind of way.Love Minus Eightyis his first UK print publication and it is a corker.
A hundred years in the future, death isn't... conquered, but it is be...
May 15, 2013
Underground Reading: The Girl with the Long Green Heart by Lawrence Block
This is the latest installment in our scheme to review each and every Hard Case Crime publication, one every week. You can follow along here.
Well, one week after my least favourite Hard Case Crime (so far) , I get to review one of my favourites (so far) - Lawrence Block's The Girl with the Long Green Heart.
Originally published as a Gold Medal paperback in 1965, The Girl with the Long Green Heart was reprinted a few times - an Abebooks search finds it in 1985, 1994, 1999, 2005. A...
