The winners for last week’s giveaway are…
Effie S. of San Francisco, CA
Danny W. of Edmonton, AB
Nakia P. of Arlington, TX
Congratulations to all three winners! Your copies of The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch are on their way, courtesy of the folks at Del Rey.
And for those of you who didn’t win this time, please make sure to check back here regularly, because I’ll have more giveaways coming up soon, as well as the usual mix of reviews and other SF&F-related ramblings!
I’m extremely grateful that my editors at Tor.com agreed to go with my slightly batty idea for this “review” of what’s probably one of the most anticipated fantasy releases of the last few years, and definitely a book where a more serious, traditional review might be in order: The Republic of Thieves, which is the long-awaited third book in the Gentleman Bastard series by Scott Lynch.
But I’d had the idea for the Con Man for a while now, since well before the release date for The Republic of Thieves was finally set. Given how many normal (but perfectly fine) reviews were popping up in the weeks before the book was released, I decided to just go for it and do something different.
I had such a blast writing this that I may just have to bring out the Con Man again, for a future release.
I’ll start out by making an admission: the main thing that drew my attention to Antigoddess, the first installment in Kendare Blake’s new series The Goddess War, was its title. The book didn’t really look like my cup of tea, but, hmm, an Antigoddess… Sounds intriguing, right? Sometimes a good title can be a very effective hook all by itself.
Antigoddess is the story of two separate groups of characters, told in alternating chapters. On one side, you have Athena and Hermes, two gods you may recognize from Greek mythology. (If not, there’s always Homer, or if all else fails, Wikipedia.) These gods are still alive in our present day, but Athena is ill: feathers keep growing inside her body and working their way out. Hermes is also wasting away. Clearly, some big changes are afoot in the world of the gods. Impossible as it seems, someone or something is threatening the lives of these seemingly immortal beings.
Note: this giveaway is now closed. Thanks to everyone who participated!
You may or may not be aware that a little book called The Republic of Thieves is finally out today. It’s the third book in the Gentleman Bastard series, easily one of the most entertaining fantasy series of the last decade or so. (You can read my slightly batty review here.) For a variety of reasons, there’s been a gap of several years between the previous book in the series and the new one, so I’m sure there are some readers who have no idea what all the hoopla is about right now.
So, thanks to the wonderful folks at Del Rey, I have three paperback copies of the first book in the series, The Lies of Locke Lamora, to give away to three lucky readers in the US or Canada. It’s the perfect way to jump in and discover a great series.
To enter, simply send an email with subject line “LOCKE” to fbrgiveaway AT gmail DOT com with your full name and mailing address. One entry per person, please: multiple entries will result in immediate disqualification, but please feel free to tell your friends! Please note again that, at the publisher’s request, this giveaway is limited to the US and Canada only.
The giveaway will end on Sunday, October 13th at 11:59 PM, and I’ll announce the winner the following day. Void where prohibited by law, rules are subject to change, batteries not included, harmful when swallowed.
Curious about the new book? Here’s my review of The Republic of Thieves. Warning – it’s a bit different from my usual reviews!
Just the most basic book description should be enough to set some people running to their preferred purveyor of books to purchase this new title from Subterranean Press: How the World Became Quiet: Myths of the Past, Present and Future is a collection of short stories by Rachel Swirsky.” Yep. That’ll do it for me.
If you follow short-form SF and fantasy at all, you’ll probably be familiar with the author’s name. If you’re like me, the possibility of owning a collection of her stories may send you into the same type of frenzied excitement most commonly seen in felines when people dangle catnip in front of their faces. (“Want. Want! Want NOW!”) And if you’re not familiar with the author yet, you’re in luck, because you can sample some of Swirsky’s finest work at my other home, Tor.com. My personal favorite, out of the ones published there at least, is the stunning, Hugo-nominated “Eros, Philia, Agape.”
So, the abridged version of this review: I love this collection and recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone who has an interest in intelligent, emotionally powerful and occasionally challenging short fiction. Not every story was a slam dunk for me, but taken as a whole, this is an excellent collection.
There are many possible reasons why I’ll choose certain books for review. Most often it’s simply because they look promising. Occasionally it’s because I’m a fan of the author, series, or (sub-)genre. Sometimes I just get drawn in by something intriguing or odd in the publicity copy.
But every once in awhile there’s a book that, I feel, just deserves more attention, a book that’s not getting read enough for some reason. In those cases, it’s wonderful that I can take advantage of the generous platform Tor.com gives me to introduce people to what I consider hidden gems.
Case in point, Linda Nagata’s excellent, independently-published military SF novel The Red: First Light, which, if I can just skip to the point for people who don’t like to read longer reviews, you should go ahead and grab right now, especially if you’re into intelligent, cynical military SF. If you want more detail, read on.
Breq used to be a spaceship, or at least a fragment of the spaceship known as Justice of Toren. The ship controlled innumerable human bodies, known variously as “ancillaries” to the people of the interstellar Radchaai Empire and as “corpse soldiers” to the cultures and planets the Empire has conquered. Those soldiers used to be regular, innocent human beings who, if sufficiently healthy, were slaved to one of the Radchaai ships, their personalities more or less overwritten to become part of one of the Empire’s many-bodied artificial intelligences.
But note: Breq “used” to be a spaceship. Now, she is just Breq, a single person with one body, but with memories of being both an immensely powerful artificial intelligence and its army of soldiers. When we meet Breq, at the start of Ancillary Justice, the spectacular debut novel by Ann Leckie, she is hunting for a gun—a gun that may be able to kill Anaander Mianaai, the immortal and multi-bodied Lord of the Radch.
The name of this website was inspired by the Beyond Reality discussion group, which has been around for almost two decades in various forms and which I’ve been managing for more than half of that time. Because this site’s name took its inspiration from the group, I try to post monthly updates about the group here, including our Books of the Month, our series discussions, and any other special events like giveaways or author visits.
Please consider this an invitation to join us, if you’re interested in SF&F book discussion. And if book discussions aren’t your thing, maybe you’ll find some additional book recommendations in this monthly feature!
The winners for last week’s giveaway are…
Arun S. of Irving, TX
Brendan H. of Scarborough, ON
Patti S. of Winchester, TN
Congratulations to all three winners! Your copies of The Incrementalists by Steven Brust and Skyler White are on their way, courtesy of the very kind people at Tor.
And for those of you who entered but didn’t win this time, please make sure to check back here regularly, because I plan to have more giveaways coming up soon, as well as the usual slew of reviews and other SFF-related ramblings.
Please note: this giveaway is now over, and the winners have been announced. Thanks to everyone who entered, and please check back here again for more giveaways and reviews!
It’s been a while since I’ve done a giveaway, hasn’t it? Well then, time to catch up! Thanks to the kind people at Tor, I have three beautiful hardcover copies of The Incrementalists (my review) by Steven Brust and Skyler White to give away. At the publisher’s request, this review is open to residents of the US and Canada only.
To enter, simply send an email with subject line “INCREMENT” to fbrgiveaway AT gmail DOT com with your full name and mailing address. One entry per person, please: multiple entries will result in immediate disqualification, but please feel free to tell your friends! Please note again that, at the publisher’s request, this giveaway is limited to the US and Canada only.
The giveaway will end on Sunday, September 29th at 11:59 PM, and I’ll announce the winner the following day. Void where prohibited by law, rules are subject to change, harmful when swallowed, and of course, batteries not included. Bunch of cheapskates.
Far Beyond Reality 