The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature where I talk about books I got over the last week–old or new, bought or received for review consideration (usually unsolicited). Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included.
Last week brought two books that sound wonderful, but first, here’s what happened last week in case you missed it:
- I posted some thoughts on N. K. Jemisin’s brilliant novel The Fifth Season
- I announced which fairly recent debut novel is the March Patreon book
For reviews, I’m working on writing up some thoughts on Last Song Before Night by Ilana C. Myer.
On to the books!
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu
This collection of short stories by Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award-winning author Ken Liu was just released on March 8 (hardcover, ebook, audiobook). The hardcover edition is gorgeous!
I’ve read a couple of these stories before (the Hugo Award-winning “Mono No Aware” and the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award-winning “The Paper Menagerie”) and enjoyed both of them, especially the latter.
A publishing event: Bestselling author Ken Liu selects his award-winning science fiction and fantasy tales for a groundbreaking collection—including a brand-new piece exclusive to this volume.
With his debut novel, The Grace of Kings, taking the literary world by storm, Ken Liu now shares his finest short fiction in The Paper Menagerie. This mesmerizing collection features all of Ken’s award-winning and award-finalist stories, including: “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary” (Finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards), “Mono No Aware” (Hugo Award winner), “The Waves” (Nebula Award finalist), “The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species” (Nebula and Sturgeon award finalists), “All the Flavors” (Nebula award finalist), “The Litigation Master and the Monkey King” (Nebula Award finalist), and the most awarded story in the genre’s history, “The Paper Menagerie” (The only story to win the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards).
A must-have for every science fiction and fantasy fan, this beautiful book is an anthology to savor.
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
All the Birds in the Sky by Hugo and Lambda Literary Award-winning author Charlie Jane Anders was released in January (hardcover, ebook, audiobook). The first four chapters are on Tor.com.
I’ve been hearing this is wonderful and I was intrigued by the little bit I read toward the beginning.
From the editor-in-chief of io9.com, a stunning novel about the end of the world–and the beginning of our future
Childhood friends Patricia Delfine and Laurence Armstead didn’t expect to see each other again, after parting ways under mysterious circumstances during high school. After all, the development of magical powers and the invention of a two-second time machine could hardly fail to alarm one’s peers and families.
But now they’re both adults, living in the hipster mecca San Francisco, and the planet is falling apart around them. Laurence is an engineering genius who’s working with a group that aims to avert catastrophic breakdown through technological intervention into the changing global climate. Patricia is a graduate of Eltisley Maze, the hidden academy for the world’s magically gifted, and works with a small band of other magicians to secretly repair the world’s ever-growing ailments. Little do they realize that something bigger than either of them, something begun years ago in their youth, is determined to bring them together–to either save the world, or plunge it into a new dark ages.
A deeply magical, darkly funny examination of life, love, and the apocalypse.
