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 (often 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.
It’s been a few weeks since I did one of these posts due to moving! Since covering every book I got in that time would take awhile, I’m going to split this post into two parts with part two to come next week. I’m also only going to cover the books I bought and the books in the mail that I think look especially interesting to make it easier to get caught up, and I’m going to leave out a couple of books I think look great because I will be discussing them soon when I give them away!
I still have a lot of unpacking and setting up to do out here and less time to spend doing these things since I’m now working full time again, which is not leaving me with as much time as I’d like for reading and writing reviews. However, I have at least made some progress on a review in the last week, and I finished reading The Young Elites by Marie Lu, a dark (REALLY DARK) young adult fantasy that will be released next month. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to book two!
On to (some) of the books!
Yesterday’s Kin by Nancy Kress
This science fiction book was released earlier this month (trade paperback/ebook), and I was disappointed I couldn’t find it in the first bookstore I checked. I did find it in the second one and snatched it up since I am planning to review this as part of Sci-Fi Month in November. I love both Beggars In Spain and After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress, and I was even more interested in reading Yesterday’s Kin after reading a guest post she wrote at SF Signal about why she writes so much about genetic engineering.
An excerpt from Yesterday’s Kin can be read on Tor.com.
Aliens have landed in New York.
A deadly cloud of spores has already infected and killed the inhabitants of two worlds. Now that plague is heading for Earth, and threatens humans and aliens alike. Can either species be trusted to find the cure?
Geneticist Marianne Jenner is immersed in the desperate race to save humanity, yet her family is tearing itself apart. Siblings Elizabeth and Ryan are strident isolationists who agree only that an alien conspiracy is in play. Marianne’s youngest, Noah, is a loner addicted to a drug that constantly changes his identity. But between the four Jenners, the course of human history will be forever altered.
Earth’s most elite scientists have ten months to prevent human extinction—and not everyone is willing to wait.
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
City of Stairs was released in the US earlier this month (trade paperback/ebook), and it will be released in the UK on October 2 (hardcover/ebook). The cover above is the version I have, the UK edition, and it’s a rather nice hardcover.
I’ve heard nothing but wonderful things about this book so I am very much looking forward to reading it! An excerpt from City of Stairs is available on Tor.com.
You’ve got to be careful when you’re chasing a murderer through Bulikov, for the world is not as it should be in that city. When the gods were destroyed and all worship of them banned by the Polis, reality folded; now stairs lead to nowhere, alleyways have become portals to the past, and criminals disappear into thin air.
The murder of Dr Efrem Pangyui, the Polis diplomat researching the Continent’s past, has begun something and now whispers of an uprising flutter out from invisible corners. Only one woman may be willing to pursue the truth – but it is likely to cost her everything.
The Winter Long (October Daye #8) by Seanan McGuire
The latest book in the October Daye series was released earlier this month (mass market paperback/ebook/audiobook). October Daye is one of my very favorite urban fantasy series, and I’m quite excited about this installment since it’s supposed to reveal a lot that Toby didn’t know.
Toby thought she understood her own past; she thought she knew the score.
She was wrong.
It’s time to learn the truth.
The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord
The Galaxy Game, a companion to Karen Lord’s science fiction novel The Best of All Possible Worlds, will be released in January 2015 (trade paperback/ebook). I really enjoyed The Best of All Possible Worlds and am looking forward to reading more set in the same world.
For years, Rafi Delarua saw his family suffer under his father’s unethical use of psionic power. Now the government has Rafi under close watch, but, hating their crude attempts to analyse his brain, he escapes to the planet Punartam, where his abilities are the norm, not the exception. Punartam is also the centre for his favourite sport, wallrunning – and thanks to his best friend, he has found a way to train with the elite. But Rafi soon realises he’s playing quite a different game, for the galaxy is changing; unrest is spreading and the Zhinuvian cartels are plotting, making the stars a far more dangerous place to aim. There may yet be one solution – involving interstellar travel, galactic power and the love of a beautiful game.
Golden Son (Red Rising #2) by Pierce Brown
Golden Son, the sequel to Red Rising, is scheduled for release in January 2015 (hardcover/ebook). While I had some issues with the first book, I did really enjoy it and am very excited about reading the second book in the trilogy!
With shades of The Hunger Games, Ender’s Game, and Game of Thrones, debut author Pierce Brown’s genre-defying epic Red Rising hit the ground running and wasted no time becoming a sensation. Golden Son continues the stunning saga of Darrow, a rebel forged by tragedy, battling to lead his oppressed people to freedom from the overlords of a brutal elitist future built on lies. Now fully embedded among the Gold ruling class, Darrow continues his work to bring down Society from within. A life-or-death tale of vengeance with an unforgettable hero at its heart, Golden Son guarantees Pierce Brown’s continuing status as one of fiction’s most exciting new voices.
