Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.
Predator: South China Sea by Jeff VanderMeer
Promo copy:
On a remote South China Sea island, a deadly hunt is underway… but not the kind of expedition the participants expected. In this remote, jungle-covered island somewhere between Thailand and Indonesia some of the most exotic animals in the world have been gathered as the prizes in a challenge of human against nature. The hunters come from all walks of life. Each has come to the island for personal reasons, some secret, some deadly. But when the encampment’s owner, ex-Khmer Rouge Colonel Rath Preap, finds the fences cut and his security men missing, it’s clear that the game has turned. And as the hunters battle for survival, they discover there is another creature out for blood… an adversary that has faced death on a thousand worlds – a Predator with an unstoppable lust for conquest!
A new VanderMeer novel is always an event worthy of celebration, regardless of subject.
And speaking of VanderMeers:
Fast Ships, Black Sails edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
Promo copy:
Do you love the sound of a peg leg stomping across a quarterdeck? Or maybe you prefer a parrot on your arm, a strong wind at your back? Adventure, treasure, intrigue, humor, romance, danger–and, yes, plunder. Oh, the Devil does love a pirate–and so do readers everywhere.
Swashbuckling from the past into the future and space itself, Fast Ships, Black Sails, edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, presents an incredibly entertaining volume of original stories guaranteed to make you walk and talk like a pirate.
Come along for the voyage with bestselling authors Naomi Novik, Garth Nix, Carrie Vaughn, Dave Freer, Michael Moorcock, and Eric Flint, as well as such other stellar talents as Kage Baker, Sarah Monette, Elizabeth Bear, Steve Aylett, and Conrad Williams–all offering up a veritable treasure chest of piratical adventure, the likes of which has never been seen in the four corners of the Earth. Highlights include a brand-new Garth Nix Sir Hereward & Mr. Fitz novella, as the two clever ne’er-do-wells storm the sea-gates of the scholar-pirates of Sarkoe.
The idea of a Steve Aylett pirate tale alone is worth the price of admission!
Aliens: No Exit by B. K. Evenson
Promo copy:
After thirty years of cryogenic sleep, Detective Anders Kramm awakens to a changed world. The alien threat has been subdued. Company interests dominate universal trade. Terraforming is big money now, with powerful men willing to do anything to assure dominance over other worlds. But Kramm has a secret. He knows why The Company killed twelve of its top scientists. He knows why the aliens have been let loose on the surface of a contested planet. He knows that the information he has is valuable, and that The Company will do everything it can to stop him from telling his secret to the world. Haunted by memories of the brutal murder of his family, Kramm is set adrift amid billion dollar stakes … with aliens around every corner, waiting for him to make a mistake!
And the most exciting new acquisition:
The Dead Man’s Brother by Roger Zelazny
Promo copy:
THE FIRST NEW ZELAZNY NOVEL IN 15 YEARS!
Once an art smuggler, now a respectable art dealer, Ovid Wiley awoke to find his former partner stabbed to death on his gallery floor. That was strange enough—but when a CIA agent showed up to spring him from NYPD custody, things got a lot stranger.
Now the CIA is offering to clear up the murder charge, but only in return for a favor: They want Ovid to fly to Vatican City and trace the trail of a renegade priest who has gone missing with millions in church funds. What’s the connection? The priest’s lover, a woman Ovid knew in his smuggling days…
* First publication ever!
* Features an afterword by the author’s son, Trent Zelazny
* Manuscript was lost among Zelazny’s papers for more than 30 years; this is the only new Zelazny novel since the author’s death more than a decade ago
* Zelazny is the hugely popular author of the “Amber” series of fantasy novels and classics such as Lord of Light, Damnation Alley, and My Name Is Legion
* Zelazny won 6 Hugo Awards and 3 Nebula Awards, and was nominated a record 14 times for each
Books received 10/22/08 was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon
Mood: Happy ]
Mood: Distorted ]
Mood: In Love ]
