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New & Notable Fiction: October 2012 (page 3)

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Cover art for MERGE / DISCIPLE
FICTION
Released: Oct. 2, 2012
MERGE / DISCIPLE: TWO SHORT NOVELS FROM CROSSTOWN TO OBLIVION
by Walter Mosley
"For thoughtful readers, the questions posed by the book are well worth pondering."
Two more novellas in one volume, continuing Mosley's Crosstown to Oblivion series (The Gift Of Fire / On The Head Of A Pin, 2012), the common theme being, "a black man destroys the world." Read full book review >
Cover art for IRONSKIN
FICTION
Released: Oct. 2, 2012
IRONSKIN
by Tina Connolly
"An intriguing and ambitious fantasy tale."
Connolly, in her debut, delivers a supernatural spin on Jane Eyre set in a gothic, alternate version of the Victorian era, in the aftermath of a war with powerful, forest-dwelling beings called the fey. Read full book review >
Cover art for BLASPHEMY
FICTION
Released: Oct. 2, 2012
Kirkus Star BLASPHEMY: NEW AND SELECTED STORIES
by Sherman Alexie
"Whether recent or from his earliest period, these pieces show Alexie at his best: as an interpreter and observer, always funny if sometimes angry, and someone, as a cop says of one of his characters, who doesn't "fit the profile of the neighborhood.""
Sterling collection of short stories by Alexie (Ten Little Indians, 2003, etc.), a master of the form. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE HYDROGEN SONATA
FICTION
Released: Oct. 9, 2012
Kirkus Star THE HYDROGEN SONATA
by Iain M. Banks
"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. Read full book review >
Cover art for ILLUMINATIONS
FICTION
Released: Oct. 9, 2012
Kirkus Star ILLUMINATIONS: A NOVEL OF HILDEGARD VON BINGEN
by Mary Sharratt
"The ideal companion to the elevation of Hildegard by the pontiff who rebuked American nuns for their outspokenness, an irony the saint herself might have relished."
A fictionalized biography of medieval mystic Hildegard von Bingen. Its publication will coincide with her appointment as a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE NEWS FROM SPAIN
FICTION
Released: Oct. 11, 2012
Kirkus Star THE NEWS FROM SPAIN: SEVEN VARIATIONS ON A LOVE STORY
by Joan Wickersham
"Short stories don't get much better than this, and for once, the overarching framework strengthens rather than dissipates their effectiveness."
Elegantly structured, emotionally compelling fiction from novelist/memoirist Wickersham (The Suicide Index, 2008, etc.). Read full book review >