Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Promising Sci-fi, horror & Fantasy - November 2016

A month with a scarcity of titles that I am really interested in. But then again, not every month can be prolific, right?

"The Burning Light" by Bradley P. Bieulieu & Rob Ziegler
Disgraced government operative Colonel Chu is exiled to the flooded relic of New York City. Something called the Light has hit the streets like an epidemic, leavings its users strung out and disconnected from the mind-network humanity relies on. Chu has lost everything she cares about to the Light. She’ll end the threat or die trying.
A former corporate pilot who controlled a thousand ships with her mind, Zola looks like just another Light-junkie living hand to mouth on the edge of society. She’s special though. As much as she needs the Light, the Light needs her too. But, Chu is getting close and Zola can’t hide forever.
A thrilling and all-too believable science fiction novella from the authors of Twelve Kings in Sharakhai and Seed.


[This one seems like an interesting little novella, and I do have my faith or Tor.com, so...]

"Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation" Edited/Translated by Keu Liu
Award-winning translator and author Ken Liu presents a collection of short speculative fiction from China. Some stories have won awards; some have been included in various 'Year's Best' anthologies; some have been well reviewed by critics and readers; and some are simply Ken's personal favorites. Many of the authors collected here (with the obvious exception of Liu Cixin) belong to the younger generation of 'rising stars'.
In addition, three essays at the end of the book explore Chinese science fiction. Liu Cixin's essay, The Worst of All Possible Universes and The Best of All Possible Earths, gives a historical overview of SF in China and situates his own rise to prominence as the premier Chinese author within that context. Chen Qiufan's The Torn Generation gives the view of a younger generation of authors trying to come to terms with the tumultuous transformations around them. Finally, Xia Jia, who holds the first Ph.D. issued for the study of Chinese SF, asks What Makes Chinese Science Fiction Chinese?
   


[Translated stories from China should be quite good, and 'Ken Liu' is someone who has amazed me in the past.]

"Dominion" by Peter Mclean
In the tunnels deep under London, the Earth elementals are dying. Hunted by something they know only as the Rotman, the elementals have no one trustworthy they can turn to.
Enter Don Drake, diabolist and semi-reformed hitman, and an almost-fallen angel called Trixie. When the Matriarch tells Don that Rotman is actually the archdemon Bianakith, he knows this is going to be a tough job.
Bianakith is the foretold spirit of disease and decay whose aura corrupts everything it comes near, and even the ancient foundations of London will crumble eventually. Now Don, Trixie and the Burned Man have to hatch a plan to keep Bianakith from wiping out the elementals and bringing down the city.
But the Burned Man has other plans, and those may have dire consequences for everyone.
The past never stays buried, and old sins must be atoned for. Judgement is coming, and its name is Dominion.



[Second book in 'The Burned Man' series, and I am a diligent little member of the 'Robot Army' still.]

"The Iron Beast" by Andy Remic
A war is being waged in an impossible world.
The Skogsgra and the Naravelle have launched their final offensive, and Private Jones and his companions are caught in the melee.
Tens of thousands will die before the battle is over.
They travel deep underground, to find and release the Iron Beast... the one creature that can end not one world war, but two.
But at what cost . . . ?
The Iron Beast is the high-octane conclusion to Remic’s phenomenal Song For No Man’s Land trilogy.
 


[The charismatic Andy Remic writes the concluding part of another trilogy, I can't wait to devour the whole series.] 

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