Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.
Smithereens
by Steve Aylett
Promo copy:
Steve Aylett has been described as “utterly original” (SFX), “the most original voice in the literary scene” (Michael Moorcock), “an unstoppable master of space and time” (Asimov’s) and “the coolest writer alive today” (Starburst). SMITHEREENS collects 19 stories including ‘The Man Whose Head Expanded’, the prophetic ‘Download Syndrome’, ‘The Burnished Adventures of Injury Mouse’, the full text of ‘Voyage of the Iguana’, the last ever Beerlight story ‘Specter’s Way’, ‘Horoscope’, and the closest thing Aylett has ever written to a traditional SF story, ‘Bossanova’ (featuring a robot and two spaceships!) There are also animal-attack-while-writing reminiscences in ‘Evernemesi’ and top-of-the-line declarative bitterness in ‘On Reading New Books’. Snails, whales and cortical drills. Aylett’s last collection.
As evident in Part I, I’m a big Aylett fan. Back when I was the RevolutionSF fiction editor, I published his short story “Infestation” and for Fantastic Metropolis in 2005, I interviewed Aylett. Anything new by the bizarrely talented Aylett is always a treat. Like donning a costume and getting candy in June!
Promo copy:
Join Madeline, the smallest of 12 little girls in Miss Clavel’s class, and her best friend, her loyal dog Genevieve, as they take the fun to town with six outrageous adventures inspired by Ludwig Bemelmans’ best-selling children’s books!
- Six Adventures, Including:
- Madeline And The Soccer Star
Madeline’s Singing Dog
Madeline And The Missing Clown
Madeline And The Talking Parrot
Madeline And The Big Cheese
Madeline’s Rescue
City of Ruins
by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Cover by Dave Seeley
Promo copy:
Boss, a loner, loved to dive derelict spacecraft adrift in the blackness of space…
But one day, she found a ship that would change everything—an ancient Dignity Vessel—and aboard the ship, the mysterious and dangerous Stealth Tech. Now, years after discovering that first ship, Boss has put together a large company that finds Dignity Vessels and finds “loose” stealth technology.
Following a hunch, Boss and her team come to investigate the city of Vaycehn, where fourteen archeologists have died exploring the endless caves below the city. Mysterious “death holes” explode into the city itself for no apparent reason, and Boss believes stealth tech is involved. As Boss searches for the answer to the mystery of the death holes, she will uncover the answer to her Dignity Vessel quest as well—and one more thing, something so important that it will change her life—and the universe—forever.
Stuff received 6/5/11 Part II was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon