FICTION
Released: Jan. 3, 2012
"A head-shakingly perfect blend of zombie schlock, deadpan wit, startling profanity, desperate improvisation and inventive brilliance."
A remarkable debut, LA noir with eye-bulging refinements, from a poet and short-story writer who says of himself: "As a writer he strives to be a hack. Hacks get paid. He's not sure if hacks talk about themselves in the third person, though. That might just be a side effect of his meds."
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FICTION
Released: Jan. 24, 2012
"Enthralling, dizzying and as impressive as they come."
Third entry (
The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man, 2011, etc.) in Spain-resident Englishman Hodder's time-travel/alternate-reality/steampunk saga; though originally billed as a trilogy, the ending here leaves considerable scope for further augmentation.
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FICTION
Released: Feb. 28, 2012
"A truly spellbinding work even audiences jaded by standard U.S./U.K. fantasy will devour. Kudos to the publishers for taking the plunge--but what took them so long?"
First English translation of a work written in Russian in 1997, from an award-winning Ukrainian husband-and-wife team now resident in Moscow.
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FICTION
Released: March 27, 2012
"Gripping, perfectly balanced and highly recommended."
Beginning of a new historical-fantasy trilogy, set in the same Mongol Khanate–style universe as the short novel
Bone and Jewel Creatures (2010).
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FICTION
Released: May 1, 2012
"Tends toward the claustrophobic at times, but superior and fulfilling."
New ancient Egypt–flavored fantasy from the New York resident author of
The Broken Kingdoms (2010, etc.).
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FICTION
Released: June 1, 2012
"Independently intelligible but best appreciated after volume one--and with a huge surprise twist in the last sentence. "
Part two of the topnotch space opera begun with
Leviathan Wakes (2011), from Corey (aka Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck).
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FICTION
Released: July 3, 2012
"Readers familiar with Stross' dazzling science fiction should relish this change of pace and direction. "
Fourth in the series (
The Fuller Memorandum, 2010, etc.) about the Laundry: a weirdly alluring blend of superspy thriller, deadpan comic fantasy and Lovecraftian horror.
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FICTION
Released: July 17, 2012
"Grim indeed, yet eloquent and utterly compelling."
Independently intelligible sequel to the dark fantasy
Bitter Seeds (2010), something like a cross between the devious, character-driven spy fiction of early John le Carré and the mad science fantasy of the X-Men.
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FICTION
Released: Oct. 2, 2012
"All the more impressive for being a significant departure from previous entries."
Beginning a sort of spinoff series taking place, chronologically, between Campbell's last two outings (
Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught, 2011, and
Beyond The Frontier: Invincible, 2012) wherein the influence of "Black Jack" Geary is palpable, though he makes no actual appearance.
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FICTION
Released: Oct. 9, 2012
"Sheer delight."
Addition to Banks' wonderful space-opera series (without the middle initial, he also writes impressive mainstream novels) about the far-future galactic Culture (
Surface Detail, 2010, etc.), a liberal-anarchic, multispecies civilization guided and sustained, more or less invisibly, by Minds, artificial intelligences that take such physical forms as spaceships and habitats.
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FICTION
Released: Nov. 6, 2012
"A top-notch, edge-of-the-seat thriller in which there are no villains, only mysteries."
This first collaboration from McDevitt (
Firebird, 2011, etc.) and Resnick (
The Doctor and the Kid, 2011, etc.), developed from a 2010 story by McDevitt (spoiler alert: don't read the story first), takes the form of a conspiracy involving the moon landings. And no, Stanley Kubrick didn't fake them.
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FICTION
Released: Dec. 24, 2012
"Astonishing stuff that leaves readers with plenty of work to do."
Second installment of Wright's ferociously dense and convoluted far-future space opera involving hyperintelligence, aliens and artificial evolution (
Count to a Trillion, 2011). Warning up front: read the first book first.
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