This very blog was named as one of Top 45 Sci-Fi Book Blogs of 2010.

Thanks to everyone who reads the blog and the fine folks at RevolutionSF for hosting it. I’m tickled that people seem to enjoy my missives. While totally unexpected, I’m honored to be included among such august company.

For the fine folks over at Moving Pictures, I reviewed the latest Angelina Jolie-starred vehicle Salt.

I found an ultra-rare book tonight at Half Price Books, albeit one of personal interest. Children With Glue was not only Shannon "Too Much Coffee Man" Wheeler‘s first book but also the very first book I ever edited! Published in 1991 by Blackbird Comics, the book never sold all that well (maybe 1000 copies) and a vast majority of the copies that did, often fell apart. Consequently, a book with the cover actually attached often sells in the neighborhood of $50. I only own two intact copies.

This evening, I found a copy with it’s cover attached for $2.48, half the original cover price of $4.95! That’s what’d you call a find.

Got some other good stuff as well. Couple of Hard Case Crime paperbacks, a few other graphic novels. But nothing that excited me as much as finding Children With Glue. I actually squealed a little. I actually got some odd looks from the other patrons looking at the graphic novels. (So a 5’11"/220 lb forty-something guy squealed a bit. Get over it.)

I love the hunt. Especially when I catch some big game!

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

Divine Misdemeanors by Laurell K. Hamilton

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You may know me best as Meredith Nic Essus, princess of faerie. Or perhaps as Merry Gentry, Los Angeles private eye. To protect my unborn children, I have turned my back on the crown, choosing exile in the human world with my beloved Frost and Darkness. Yet I cannot abandon my people. Someone is killing the fey, which has left the LAPD baffled and my guardsmen and me deeply disturbed. I thought I’d left the blood and politics behind in my own turbulent realm. But now I realize that evil knows no borders, and that nobody lives forever—even if they’re magical.

Tracato (Trial of Blood & Steel, Book III) by Joel Shepherd

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In this third title in Joel Shepherd’s gripping quartet, we are reunited with the fearless heroine Sasha, Errollyn and the other familiar characters from SASHA and PETRODOR. The net is really closing in now, with the whole of Rhodia at war and the serrin – the beautiful and dangerous people from beyond the Bacosh – fighting for survival. The revolutionary politics of Tracato, and the clandestine attempts by the feudalists to hold onto power, are gripping and full of intrigue. The characters who were developing in the previous title blossom into their roles here, sharing the arena with Sasha, giving this novel an extra dimension that readers will love.

Wolf’s Cross by S. A. Swann

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S. A. Swann continues to reinvent the werewolf myth in this fantastic new novel set in the medieval world of the celebrated Wolfbreed. Like its predecessor, Wolf’s Cross is unafraid to cross boundaries and break taboos to tell an unforgettable story of romance and adventure that will forever change how you think about werewolves.

Maria lives a simple life in a small Polish village, working for the lord of the nearby fortress. Motherless since birth, Maria has been raised by her father and stepmother. Around her neck she wears—as she has always worn—a silver crucifix, to protect her from the devil. Or so her father tells her.

But when a contingent of badly mauled Teutonic knights, including a handsome and gravely wounded young man named Josef, ask for succor at the fortress, Maria’s quiet and comfortable world shatters. For the knights are Wolfjägers, an order dedicated to the extermination of werewolves, and Maria, unknowingly, is one of the creatures they hunt. Only the crucifix about her neck prevents her body from changing into a lethal killing machine.

When Maria meets Darien, a wolfbreed bent on exacting a terrible revenge on humans, she will learn the truth about herself, and find her loyalties—and her heart—torn in two.

Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong

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For Elena Michaels, being the world’s only female werewolf has its advantages, such as having her pick of the Otherworld’s most desirable males. And she couldn’t have picked a more dangerously sexy and undyingly loyal mate than Clayton Danvers. But now their bond will be put to the ultimate test. A werewolf more wolf than human and more unnatural than supernatural—a creature whose origins spring from ancient legend—is hunting human prey, and Elena and Clayton must track the predator deep into Alaska’s frozen wilderness.

But the personal stakes are even higher. Either Clayton or Elena has been chosen to become the new Pack leader, and every wolf knows that there can be only one Alpha. The couple have always been equals in everything. Now, when their survival depends more than ever on perfect teamwork, will instinct allow one of them to lead and the other to follow?

More in Part II

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

The Chamber of Ten by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon

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From two masters of dark fantasy comes a chilling tale of magic and possession, set in—and beneath—fabulous Venice, a city slowly being swallowed by the very waters that have made it one of the wonders of the world.

Geena Hodge is an American archaeologist working to salvage Venice’s past from the encroaching Adriatic Sea. When she and her lover, Nico, discover the lost library of Petrarch under the Piazza San Marco, they rejoice not only at the historical significance of the find but at the opportunity to bring worldwide attention—and much-needed funding—to their endeavors.

But that find soon leads to another, a room buried more deeply still: the fabled Chamber of Ten, where centuries ago the secret rulers of Venice, in their quest for absolute power, met to plot betrayals and murders. After entering the Chamber, Geena and Nico are thrust into the midst of an ancient feud, a deadly battle of wills and black magic that threatens to poison the city’s future with the evils of its past.

As Lie the Dead (Dreg City, Book 2) by Kelly Meding

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Evangeline Stone, a rogue bounty hunter, never asked for a world divided between darkness and light . . .

. . . or the power to die and live again in someone else’s borrowed body. After a murder plot meant to take her out leaves an entire race of shapeshifters nearly extinct, Evy is gnawed by guilt. So when one of the few survivors of the slaughter enlists her aid, she feels duty-bound to help—even though protecting a frail, pregnant shifter is the last thing Evy needs, especially with the world going to hell around her.

Amid weres, Halfies, gremlins, vamps—and increasingly outgunned humans—a war for supremacy is brewing. With shifters demanding justice, her superiors desperate to control her, and an assassin on her trail, Evy discovers a horrifying conspiracy. And she may be the only person in the world who can stop it—unless, of course, her own side gets her first.

Tempting the Fire by Sydney Croft

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EXTREME HEAT. EXTREME HUNGER.
A JUNGLE EDEN ABLAZE WITH TEMPTATION.

Deep in the Brazilian rain forest, a team of Navy SEALs has been nearly wiped out by something sinister and superhuman, sending shock waves through the Agency for Covert Rare Operatives (ACRO). Now ACRO agents Sela Kahne and Marlena West head to the world’s most unforgiving jungle to find and kill a mythical monstrosity with a taste for human blood. But to succeed in their mission, they will need the help of two men, each hiding his own dark secret.

Sela is an expert on cryptozoology with a sideline skill that could prove invaluable: When she makes love to a man, she engulfs his innermost thoughts. Teamed with Marlena, Sela makes contact with the lone SEAL survivor, Chance McCormack. Meanwhile, Logan Mills, the man who rescued Chance, leads his private company on a hunt that has nothing to do with saving lives. Soon, Sela will put her supernatural charms to work on Logan, determined to extract information about the creature they are seeking. But in this sweat-drenched realm of danger and deception, Logan is more than just a passive target. He has the power to lead a highly trained seducer into a jungle without any rules, without any limits—and with no end to the heat.

The Ocean Dark by Jack Rogan

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In the uncharted waters of the Caribbean, far from the usual shipping lanes, lies a mysterious island surrounded by a graveyard of sunken ships—an island so remote that it’s the perfect rendezvous point for a handful of Central American arms dealers and the Antoinette, a gun-smuggling cargo ship out of Miami. Amid the wreckage of ships new and old, the crew of the Antoinette—and the undercover FBI agent on board—enter what looks like a haven for modern pirates, only to discover that it hides something far more terrifying.

In Washington, two Department of Defense scientists might understand what is about to happen. On an FBI ship monitoring the Antoinette’s illegal trade, armed agents might be able to intervene. But this assumes that the Antoinette’s crew survives their first encounter with a creature virtually unknown to man, yet whose eerie songs nevertheless echo down the corridors of mankind’s darkest legends.

More in Part I

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

The War That Came Early: West and East by Harry Turtledove

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In 1938, two men held history in their hands. One was Adolf Hitler. The other was British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, who, determined to avoid war at any cost, came to be known as “the great appeaser.” But Harry Turtledove, the unrivaled master of alternate history, has launched a gripping saga that springboards from a different fateful act: What if Chamberlain had stood up to Hitler? What would the Nazis’ next move have been? And how would the war—which Hitler had always regretted waiting eleven months to start—have unfolded and changed our world?

Here, Turtledove takes us across a panorama of conflict fueled by ideology and demagoguery. Nations are pitted against nations, alliances are forged between old enemies, ordinary men and women are hurled into extraordinary life-and-death situations. In Japanese-controlled Singapore, an American marine falls in love with a Russian dance hall hostess, while around him are heard the first explosions of Chinese guerilla resistance. On the frontlines of war-ravaged rural France, a weary soldier perfects the art of using an enormous anti-tank gun as a sniper’s tool—while from Germany a killer is sent to hunt him down. And in the icy North Atlantic, a U-boat bearing an experimental device wreaks havoc on British shipping, setting the stage for a Nazi ground invasion of Denmark.

From an American woman trapped in Germany who receives safe passage from Hitler himself to a Jewish family steeped in German culture and facing the hatred rising around them, from Japanese soldiers on the remote edge of Siberia to American volunteers in Spain, West and East is the story of a world held hostage by tyrants—Stalin, Hitler, Sanjuro—each holding on to power through lies and terror even in the face of treacherous plots from within.

As armies clash, and as the brave, foolish, and true believers choose sides, new weapons are added to already deadly arsenals and new strategies are plotted to break a growing stalemate. But one question looms over the conflict from West to East: What will it take to bring America into this war?

Mass Effect: Retribution by Drew Karpyshyn

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Humanity has reached the stars, joining the vast galactic community of alien species. But beyond the fringes of explored space lurk the Reapers, a race of sentient starships bent on “harvesting” the galaxy’s organic species for their own dark purpose.

The Illusive Man, leader of the pro-human black ops group Cerberus, is one of the few who know the truth about the Reapers. To ensure humanity’s survival, he launches a desperate plan to uncover the enemy’s strengths—and weaknesses—by studying someone implanted with modified Reaper technology. He knows the perfect subject for his horrific experiments: former Cerberus operative Paul Grayson, who wrested his daughter from the cabal’s control with the help of Ascension project director Kahlee Sanders.

But when Kahlee learns that Grayson is missing, she turns to the only person she can trust: Alliance war hero Captain David Anderson. Together they set out to find the secret Cerberus facility where Grayson is being held. But they aren’t the only ones after him. And time is running out.

As the experiments continue, the sinister Reaper technology twists Grayson’s mind. The insidious whispers grow ever stronger in his head, threatening to take over his very identity and unleash the Reapers on an unsuspecting galaxy.

This novel is based on a Mature-rated video game.

City of Ghosts (Downside Ghosts, Book 3) by Stacia Kane

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IT’S A THIN LINE BETWEEN ALIVE AND UNDEAD.

Chess Putnam has a lot on her plate. Mangled human corpses have started to show up on the streets of Downside, and Chess’s bosses at the Church of Real Truth have ordered her to team up with the ultra-powerful Black Squad agency to crack the grisly case.

Chess is under a binding spell that threatens death if she talks about the investigation, but the city’s most notorious crime boss—and Chess’s drug dealer—gets wind of her new assignment and insists on being kept informed. If that isn’t bad enough, a sinister street vendor appears to have information Chess needs. Only he’s not telling what he knows, or what it all has to do with the vast underground City of Eternity.

Now Chess will have to navigate killer wraiths, First Elders, and a lot of seriously nasty magic—all while coping with some not-so-small issues of her own. And the only man Chess can trust to help her through it all has every reason to want her dead.

A Princess of Landover by Terry Brooks

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Ben Holiday, mere mortal turned monarch of the magic kingdom of Landover, has grappled with numerous contenders for his throne, but nothing could have prepared him for the most daunting of challengers: his headstrong teenage daughter, Mistaya. After getting suspended from an exclusive private school in our world, Mistaya is determined to resume her real education—learning sorcery from court wizard Questor Thews—whether her parents like it or not. Then, horrified that a repulsive Landover nobleman seeks to marry her, Mistaya decides that the only way to run her own life is to run away from home.

So begins an eventful odyssey peppered with a formidable dragon, recalcitrant Gnomes, an inscrutable magic cat, a handsome librarian, a sinister sorcerer, and more than a few narrow escapes as fate draws Landover’s intrepid princess into the thick of a mystery that will put her mettle to the test—and possibly bring the kingdom to its knees.

Dragongirl by Todd McCaffrey

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Young Fiona, rider of the gold queen Talenth, has returned from the past, where she and a group of dragons and riders fled so that the wounded could heal from their previous battles with Thread and the younger dragons could safely grow to fighting age. Gone only three days, yet aged more than three years, Fiona is no longer a child but a woman prepared to fight against the Thread that threatens to destroy her world.

Fiona’s life takes a pivotal turn when a shocking tragedy thrusts her into a position of authority. Now she finds herself leading weyrfolk who have a hard time trusting a senior Weyrwoman who is both young and an outsider.

But even greater challenges lie ahead: Thread is falling and there are too few dragons to stem the tide. Many have died from the recent plague, and even with the influx of newly mature dragons from the past, the depleted fighting force is no match for the intensifying Threadfall. Fiona knows that something must be done, and what she proposes is daring and next to impossible. But if her plan succeeds, it just might save them all.

With a cast of familiar characters from previous Pern novels—including Lorana, who sacrificed her own queen dragon so that all the dragons of Pern would have a chance to survive, and Kindan, the harper Fiona has loved her whole life—Dragongirl is another triumph for Todd McCaffrey, and a riveting new chapter for the Dragonriders of Pern.

As part of my regular column (co-written with YA scribe Mark London Williams Nexus Graphica, I [interviewed writers Paul Benjamin (Muppet King Arthur), Alan J. Porter (Cars), and Bill Williams (Spike: The Devil You Know). The trio offer some frank, behind-the-scenes commentary on working with licensed
properties.

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

Flight Volume Seven Edited by Kazu Kibuishi

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Flight 7 is the latest volume in the acclaimed graphic novel series, a full-color graphic anthology of short stories by some of the hottest creators in the fields of comics and animation including JP Ahonen, Jason Caffoe, Michel Gagne, Justin Gerard, Paul Harmon, Kazu Kibuishi, Stuart Livingston. Katie Shanahan, Kean Soo, and many others.

The previous volume made my Nexus Graphica Top Ten of 2009. Here’s what I had to say about Volume Six:

Preview of Flight Volume Seven

Fringe: Tales From the Fringe #1 Written by Justin Doble & Adam Gaines and Alex Katsnelson Art by Federico Dallocchio and Shawn Moll

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Introducing an all-new 6-issue miniseries featuring tales set in the world of the hit TV series! In the first story, Peter Bishop is forced to choose between doing the right thing – saving a troubled young man pressed into service as a suicide bomber – or scoring a dream job. In the second story, a high school girl finds herself inexplicably transformed into an adult. Even more shocking, she also discovers she’s an assassin!

Penny Arcade 6: The Halls Below by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik

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FROM UNTOLD STYGIAN DEPTHS, IT RISES

Gaze, if you dare, in benumbed awe upon its unfathomably cyclopean dimensions of obsidian impossibility. Cower before its undulating, multitendriled tales of unutterable horror. Receive into trembling hands that which the nameless ancients foretold in dread whispers that echo still across the black and terrible chasm whence forgotten time disgorges its haunted secrets, etc. Behold—the sixth tome of the Penny Arcade cycle!

Peer within and find
• 2005’s full-color Penny Arcade strips in their behemoth entirety!
• The soul-chilling ramblings of its warped, only partially human creators!
• And more, which no coherent mind could fathom nor human tongue repeat!

More in Part II

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

Black Comix: African American Independent Comics, Art and Culture by Damian Duffy and John Jennings

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The immense popularity of comics and graphic novels cannot be ignored. But in light of the comics boom that has taken place over the past 10 years, the artists, writers and publishers that make up the vibrant African American independent comics community have remained relatively unknown – until now. Black Comix brings together an unprecedented collection of largely unheard of, and undeniably masterful, comics art while also framing the work of these men and women in a broader historical and cultural context.

With a foreword by Keith Knight and over 50 contributors, including Phonzie Davis, Jan-Michael Franklin, Frances Liddell, Kenjji Marshall, Lance Tooks, Rob Stull, Ashley A. Woods and many, more, the cross section of comics genres represented includes manga, superheroes, humor, history, science fiction and fantasy. This book is a must-have for comics readers.

Code:Breaker 1 by Akimine Kamijyo

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THE DEATH DEALERS

Rei seems like an affable transfer student to everyone around him, but quirky high school beauty Sakura sees his true face as a terrifying vigilante—a “nonexistent” Code:Breaker who cannot be touched by the law. And since Sakura has just witnessed the effects of his deadly blue flame, she’s slated to be the next to burn!

Revolver by Matt Kindt

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REVOLVER is a tale of two worlds, and how the both test a man to his limits…

Almost thirty and living in Seattle, Sam shuffles to his bed after a night out at the bars. The next morning he wakes up and catches the bus into the city, starting another day of his dead end life. But today on the radio he hears that the stock market has crashed, news of a bird-flu epidemic erupting in Asia pushes past a report of "radioactive-material-gone-missing-in-Russia." Did Sam really wake up this morning? The world has gone crazy–turned on its head. Sam thinks about riding the bus full loop, going home and pretending that the day hadn’t started.

This terrible day is capped with the destruction of Seattle…

But when Sam wakes up in his small studio apartment the next morning he’s confused. On the bus ride to work he listens to the radio. The world is fine…

Realities begin to bleed into one another as Sam jumps between his dull-drum, everyday life and a dark apocalyptic society…but which is the real one and which one will he have to live with forever? And the most important question: does he have a choice?

More in Part I

I reviewed Inception, one of the most anticipated movies of the summer, for Moving Pictures.