The Last Legion
© Macmillan AudioBooks
Audio Treatment for Manfredi’s The Last Legion
By: Pat FerraraDate: Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Myth Adventures author Robert Asprin unveils a collection of SF war novels, Manfredi’s The Last Legion leaps onto the audiobook format, and an F. Paul Wilson’s classic gets the collector’s rendition in this edition of the Weekly Book Buzz.
Much like the film industry’s theatrical release schedule, it appears that the second week in February is a slow time for new book releases as well. Although there are only a handful of new releases this Tuesday, there are still some books worth noting.
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, authors of The Tomorrow Log (2007), finish the Great Migration Duology with the release of Crystal Dragon on paperback through Meisha Merlin Publishing. The sequel to 2006’s Crystal Soldier, Crystal Dragon continues the smuggler’s tale of Cantra and her efforts to escape peril in a galaxy quickly spiraling into chaos.
Overlook Connections Press gives F. Paul Wilson’s The Frey a “definitive” re-make with a new hardcover edition. Complete with fresh artwork and a foreword by the author himself, this signed copy of the 17-year-old classic is sure to please fans with its very reasonable price, which is not much higher than a traditional hardback release.
Italian archaeologist and historical novelist Valerio Massimo Manfredi is having a big year with the upcoming film release of THE LAST LEGION based on his book by the same name. Directed by Doug Lefler, the second unit director of SPIDERMAN and infrequent collaborator on the XENA and HERCULES television series, THE LAST LEGION tells the story of the Roman Empire’s final days and the initial founding of the Pendragon feudal line. Although I’m very leary about the film adaptation slated for a September 2007 debut, the book sounds great and you can now check it out on tape through MacMillan Audiobooks.
Last but not least Robert Asprin’s The Asprin Wars collects some of the author’s most noted science fiction and fantasy literature from the late 1970s including The Cold Cash War, The Bug Wars, and Tambu. This special collection of unique war literature also includes the ‘role-playing novel’ Cold Cash Warrior, an apparently more interactive form of the Choose Your Own Adventure books. I must admit that I’m not terribly familiar with Asprin’s work, but this RPG novel sounds amazing and you can bet I’ll be checking it out the next time I’m at my bookstore. I guess I just miss the refreshing freedom of the Choose Your Own Adventure books that dominated my childhood, reminiscent sigh.
New in Hardcover:
Witch Faith © Thomson Gale Publishing
Magda, trained to be a doctor at one of Solfleet's best medical establishments, ends up in a world where technology has been lost. Magic is strong, however, and Magda finds that she wields it. But not everyone welcomes a witch here. She and her three friends, also witches, are recovering from injuries sustained in a recent civil war. Confusion is added to the war's aftermath by the arrival of Sebastian, an Arc priest who worships the space-faring founders of this world. He has reports of an "Arc vessel" which has crashed on an island off the west coast. Magda suspects the vessel may be a spaceship from Earth and determines to find it. Despite the danger, the witches decide to investigate. On their journey the witches are met with awe and love - but also with fear and hatred. And death. The sequel to 2005’s Witch Honour.
The Asprin Wars, Robert Asprin (Meisha Merlin Publishing)
A collection of three of Robert Asprin’s science fiction novels from the 1970s, including The Cold Cash War (1977), The Bug Wars (1979), and Tambu (1979). The Cold Cash War tells of a very different kind of corporate war-one fought with trained mercenary armies! The Bug Wars is a novel of alien warfare waged between the Tzen-fierce warriors and master strategists (and reptiles), and their Enemy-savage conquerors and brilliant technicians (and insects). Can the Tzen defend themselves and their world from a swarm of winged invaders? In Tambu, we meet the mysterious figure who has long held the settled planets in his reign of terror through the fleet of pirates under his command. Now, for the first time, the legendary warlord has granted a reporter an interview. The truth will finally be known about Tambu's origin and power...that is, as long as the reporter is allowed to leave alive with his story!
Master of Darkness, Susan Sizemore (Thomson Gale Publishing)
"When vampire hunter Eden Faveau mistakes Laurent, a renegade vampire of Tribe Manticore, for her new partner, he's not about to correct her. He's stolen a laptop full of sensitive files from the Tribe leader, Justinian, and needs help cracking the encryption. At first he wants sexy and intelligent Eden only for her computer wizardry -- but soon he wants her for much, much more. Working by night and growing closer every day, Laurent and Eden struggle with the passion that threatens to overwhelm them. But when Justinian captures Eden, and Laurent proves his loyalty to his Tribe in the most shocking of ways, Eden vows to kill Laurent for his deception. Can he find a way to prove his love for her before a full-on war breaks out between vampires and humans? Large print series.
The Tery: The Definitive Edition © 
Heroes don't always look the part. He was a tery, a lean, bearish creature with no name. The human soldiers left dead. Just another dumb animal on their extermination list. But he didn't die. Animals weren't the only beings on the list. Certain humans were marked for extinction as well. A fugitive band found him and brought him back from the brink. He became their pet, their mascot. And still he had no name. He was simply "the tery." He soon learned that these were no ordinary humans, and learned too that he was no ordinary tery. The humans had no idea that the creature they fed table scraps and patted on the head would soon turn their world upside down and change it forever. By then he had a name. The Tery, a beauty-and-the-beast fable that only F. Paul Wilson could tell, is full of wonder and horror, brimming with strange landscapes and hideous mutations from science run amok. An unforgettable tale of the extremes of the human spirit—of bravery and depravity, of innocence and evil. The Signed Limited Hardcover is the first world hardcover edition published! This Special Edition features: a foreword by F. Paul Wilson, color endpaper artwork by Cortney Skinner, interior art by Stephen Fabian, and cover art by Rick Sardinha.
New in Paperback:
Superstitions of Sailors, Angelo S. Rappoport (Dover Publications)
Handed down from generation to generation, these intriguing maritime legends from around the globe portray a magical world beneath and above the waves. Stories include accounts of sightings of phantom galleys and St. Elmo's light, the mischievous deeds of mermaids and watersprites, and tall tales of sea monsters and enchanted islands.
The Halls of Stormweather, Ed. by Philip Athans (Wizards of the Coast Publishing)
The Greatest Fantasy Setting of Our Generations Begins Here. Sembia is a land of wealth and power, where rival families buy and sell everything imaginable—even life itself. In that unforgiving realm, the Uskevren family may hold the rarest commodity of all: honor. But even they have their secrets, and at least as many enemies. This anthology of seven stories introduces not just one realm of good and evil, not just one family of troubled heroes, but the whole of the remarkable Forgotten Realms world. Their adventure, and yours, begins here. Featuring Forgotten Realms creator Ed Greenwood and The New York Times best-selling authors Lisa Smedman and Paul S. Kemp. Also featuring Clayton Emery, Dave Gross, Voronica Whitney-Robinson, and Richard Lee Byers. The first book in the Sembia – Gateway to the Realms series.
Crystal Dragon, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller (Meisha Merlin Publishing)
What do you do when home is a conspiracy that's been discovered and destroyed? When home is a planet in a star system that's gone missing? When home means working for the destroyers of galaxies? When home is a spaceship that's calling out to the enemy? Cantra 'yos Phelium isn't a quitter, but she has more than a little bit of a problem: the Enemy has accelerated its attacks and how do you fight an Enemy whose major form of attack is the de-crystallization of everything around itself? A smuggler with a rogue soldier for a co-pilot, and a tree with an attitude for crew, Cantra's the only one who can get close to the man who holds equations that just might thwart the Enemy. All she has to do is help a young pilot from a missing world; juggle a slippery promise she never quite made to a pair of wizards; and then forget who she is along with everything, and everyone, she's ever known. Book two in the Great Migration Duology, Crystal Dragon follows 2006’s Crystal Soldier.
Grey © Night Shade Books
For Michael Rivers, life is perfect. He is tall, handsome and worshipped by billions of fans around the globe. He is wealthy beyond measure, the heir apparent to one of the high-tech corporations that controls the world. He is fashionable, setting trends with his wardrobe of immaculate designer suits. And Michael is in love with Nora, his beautiful, witty and equally perfect fiancée. When an assassin's bullets pierce Michael's body before the cameras at a press junket, everything changes. Forcibly separated from Nora, his illusions shattered, Michael seeks to uncover the reasons behind the attempted assassination. Michael delves deep into his past, finding that all paths lead to a time when he was the golden boy, dancing furiously to the beat of notorious all-night Rage parties thrown by his father. Hrmm, odd way to end the synopsis of a book.
New on Audiobook:
The Last Legion, Valerio Massimo Manfredi (MacMillan Audiobooks)
The story opens on the day that the Western Roman Empire finally collapses in 470 AD, with the city itself overrun. In the preceding months a small group of British Roman soldiers, led by a true hero, have journeyed to the city and have arrived just before the final climax. The task they have set themselves is to save the spirit of the empire by rescuing the young son of the last Emperor, Romulus Augustus. Having found him and taken him away they decide to journey across northern Europe as there are strong rumors that an entire Legion of the Roman Army has remained loyal to Rome and has become an independent unit. They hope by finding the Legion and establishing the boy as the legitimate Emperor a stand can be taken and the Empire revived. However, their search is fruitless and eventually the leader and the child return to the Britain of the Dark Ages, where they re-emerge in legend as Merlin and Arthur Pendragon. Film tie-in version, narrated by Martin Shaw.
Alright that raps up this week’s edition of the Weekly Book Buzz. Be sure to stop back next Tuesday for all the latest on new sci-fi, fantasy, and horror book releases. Questions or comments? Hit me up at PFerrara.mania@gmail.com.
