Forthcoming for March 2008
Feb
24
2008

March appears to be a pretty good month for fantasy and science fiction releases (in the U.S. anyway since several of these are already out in the UK and Canada). I’m especially looking forward to the conclusion to Greg Keyes’s The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, The Born Queen. The series is fairly standard fantasy, but it is entertaining.

All books listed below are forthcoming in the United States. If there is no date with the UK or Canadian link, it means this book is already out on that country’s Amazon. The date right beside the title and author is the US release date.

Note: Before They Are Hanged is already available on Amazon U.S. even though it is not March yet. It says they are in stock, but they do seem to be experiencing a delay since I have ordered mine but it has not shipped yet. It still should arrive well before it is scheduled to be released in the U.S., however.

Fire Study (Study, Book 3) by Maria V. Snyder (March 1)
UK (March 1)
CA (March 1)

Tangled Webs: A Black Jewels Novel (Black Jewels Trilogy) by Anne Bishop (March 4)
UK (March 4)
CA

The Ancient by R.A. Salvatore (March 4)
UK
CA (March 4)

The Hidden City: The House Wars: Book One by Michelle West (March 4)
UK (March 6)
CA (March 4)

Reaper’s Gale: Book Seven of The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson (March 4)
UK
CA

Before They Are Hanged (The First Law: Book Two) by Joe Abercrombie (March 25)
UK
CA

The Born Queen (Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, Book 4) by Greg Keyes (March 25)
UK (March 25)
CA (March 25)

The Dreaming Void by Peter Hamilton (March 25)
UK
CA

Judge by Karen Traviss (March 25)
UK (April 3)
CA (March 12)

A World Too Near: Book Two of The Entire and The Rose (The Entire and The Rose 2) by Kay Kenyon (March 25)
UK (March 12)
CA (April 15)

Nebula Finalists for 2008 Announced
Feb
23
2008

Locus Online (and many other places) have a complete list of the finalists for this year’s Nebula awards.

The finalists for the novel category are as follows:

  • The Accidental Time Machine, Joe Haldeman (Ace)
  • The New Moon’s Arms, Nalo Hopkinson (Warner)
  • Odyssey, Jack McDevitt (Ace 2006)
  • Ragamuffin, Tobias S. Buckell (Tor)
  • The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, Michael Chabon (HarperCollins)

I have yet to read any of these, although I really want to read Buckell’s Crystal Rain and the follow-up Ragamuffin (if I like Crystal Rain anyway).

A Dance with Dragons Cover
Feb
23
2008

Random House has released the cover art for the U.S. edition of the fifth book in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. A large version of the cover can be viewed on the Random House website here.

Bantam Dell’s website lists this book with their forthcoming fall releases as available in October 2008. It is also now available for preorder on Amazon with a release date of September 30. Both of those dates are purely speculation since Martin has said many times on his Not a Blog not to believe the news about a release date until he has posted the announcement on his website after being pestered by hordes of angry fans who did believe the release dates.

It sounds as though there is at least hope that this book will be out by the end of the year, although I don’t dare hope too much since the cover for A Feast for Crows was on Amazon for quite a while before the book actually came out (and when it finally did, it had a completely different cover). Usually I prefer the more generic covers to cover art with the characters because it usually looks as though the cover artist never actually read the book, but in this case, I miss the old covers depicting characters and scenes from the book. I loved the old cover on A Clash of Kings in particular.

Signed Copies of Elantris for Sale!
Feb
19
2008

I read in this post on Brandon Sanderson’s blog today that he has signed and personalized hardback (at least I assume that’s what “harback” is supposed to mean) copies of his first published novel Elantris for sale here. Elantris is harder to find in hardcover now than any of his newer books in the Mistborn series. I’d love to get one but I already promised not to buy any more books until The Born Queen comes out toward the end of next month (having already ordered Joe Abercrombie’s Before They Are Hanged from Amazon the moment I heard it was in stock already – and added Sanderson’s The Well of Ascension to the order because one must get free shipping when ordering from Amazon).

Sanderson also mentioned several items of interest on his previous blog post. He put up artwork for the new paperback copy of Mistborn: The Final Empire (which is supposed to come out in September with a coupon for the third and final book in the series). The cover image says it’s only $4.99 in the U.S. and $5.99 in Canada so that’s not bad at all. I like the picture of Vin, but I still think the cover on the hardcover copy of Mistborn: The Final Empire is much nicer. He also wrote that Hero of Ages, the final book in the trilogy, is up on Amazon for pre-order now (the release date is October 14), and he shared some thoughts on the fifth Wheel of Time book since he has been rereading the series.

So much exciting news! I really want one of those copies of Elantris now… but must be good!

Interview with J. M. McDermott
Feb
18
2008

Amazon’s Omnivoracious blog has an interview with J.M. McDermott, the author of Last Dragon, one of the first books to be published under the Wizards of the Coast’s Discoveries imprint. I have yet to read this book, but I have heard good things about it and would really like to read it. Plus I am curious about Discoveries, which is supposed to be very different from the usual Wizards of the Coast fare, including all types of speculative fiction, not just fantasy.

Tor Books to Create Online Community for Fantasy/Science Fiction
Feb
18
2008

Simon Owens from bloggasm wrote to inform me that free ebooks are only the first of many offerings Tor will soon have available online. Two anonymous sources divulged that Tor plans to build an online community for science fiction and fantasy fans, including social networking, original short fiction, and nonfiction.

The rest of the details on Tor’s new web-based science fiction and fantasy community can be found here.

In case you missed this earlier post about Tor’s free ebooks, here is the place to go to register for their newsletter and free ebooks.