Philip K. Dick, New Inspector Chen and K.J. Anderson Jams

By: Pat Ferrara
Date: Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Slim-pickings this week for sci fi and fantasy releases with only a handful of paperbacks and one hardcover hitting the shelves today. Night Shade Books releases the second Inspector Chen novel with the highly-anticipated The Demon And The City while Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly gets a handsome film tie-in rendition and Dedalus Limited Publishing makes a chunk of Finnish fantasy widely available for the first time in the states.

Gabriel Mesta has churned up an amalgam of H.G. Wells works into a coherent and fully believable tale in The Martian War where Wells himself takes the front seat as protagonist. Presupposing that Wells' literary works were not just entertainment but warnings based on actual fact hinting at an alien invasion, Mesta weaves an interesting and original story with classics most of us already know and love.

Gollancz SF Publishing releases a film tie-in edition today of A Scanner Darkly to coincide with the movie's theatrical release. Author Philip K. Dick, who's work is no stranger to the silver screen, has wrote more than four dozen books and numerous short stories with at least seven being adapted for the big screen (including Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report). This new version of a Philip K. classic also comes only shortly after more information has been released about the author's upcoming, untitled film biopic. Steering away from a typically dry authorial documentary, this proposed film will mix Dick's life story with elements from his science fiction. As of now Paul Giamatti is poised to play the man himself so keep your fingers crossed and hope for a smooth transition into pre-production.



New in Hardcover:

The Demon And The City, Liz Williams, Night Shade Books

When Detective Inspector Chen leaves with his family for a long-overdue Hawaiian vacation, he expects his second-in-command, the demon inspector Zhu Irzh, to fill in for him. After a series of murders with seemingly demonic origin plagues Singapore III Chen returns to unravel a case that threatens the fate of the world. A follow-up adventure to Snake Agent (2005), Williams returns to the world of Detective Inspector Chen with a blending of Chinese mythology and elements of an old-fashioned murder mystery. One of the freshest Sci Fi stand-alone series to come out in years, The Demon And The City is a great read that layers a top-notch detective story amongst a backdrop that's both hellish and futuristic. Think uber high-tech Earth meets Dante's Inferno.


New in Paperback:

Windmaster's Bane, Tom Deitz, Ingalls Publishing Group, Inc.

David Sullivan, a north Georgia teenager, reads about the gods of Irish myth and enjoys fantasies drawn from these stories. When a chance encounter with a funeral procession him with Second Sight, however, the reality of the world of Faerie proves as dangerous as it is fantastic. When David's brother is stolen and his beloved uncle felled by faerie magic, David enlists his friends Alec McLean and Liz Hughes as companions on the quest to save their lives. ... The first installment of the Tales of David Sullivan series, Windmaster's Bane was originally published in 1986 and has become a fantasy classic; a book grounded in the author's extensive knowledge of Celtic lore and a Southern Appalachian sense of place. Gods of Celtic myth threaten the peace of rural north Georgia and David Sullivan finds the heroes to save his family within himself and his friends. This collector's edition has been updated and re-written lightly by the author, but retains the charm and energy of the original. Tom Deitz fanatics should definitely pick this up, but don't expect any new substance of merit from a "lightly re-written" reissue.

The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy, Ed. by Johanna Sinisalo, Dedalus Limited Publishing

This collection of Finnish fantasy has a wide range of story content and writing style with tales written as early as 1870 and as late as 2003. The anthology however remains coherent by sharing two common denominators in all of its stories: nature and war. Finland, having been torn between the empires of Sweden and Russia, was center-stage to observe warfare in the past while its sparsely populated geography forces its citizens to form close ties with nature. Wolf Bride, by Aino Kallas, is an eerie fairy-tale set in the mid-17th century. Aalo, a woodsman's wife, watches a wolf hunt and later joins the wolves in the forest to become a werewolf. At night she runs with wolves, by day she plays the part of a devoted wife. Tove Jansson is best known for her Moomintroll stories, but her piece is very adult. Following an unspecified disaster, a wife shops for her injured husband by climbing through shattered windows and looking for food among the wreckage. The editor's own offering, Transit, tells how a young autistic girl speaks for the first time in 14 years and persuades a drunken hellraiser to help her steal some dolphins. Translated by David Hackston, The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy is an interesting, albeit strange, sampling of foreign folklore and contemporary fantasy; an insightful look at how the genre has evolved in Finland since the late 19th Century.

Killing with the Edge of the Moon, A.A. Attanasio, Wildside Press

A hickory-faced crone tries to explain to Chet, a shy kid with eyeglasses and pocket protector, why he can't take her granddaughter to the high school dance; for quiet, elfin Flannery is not like other kids. A living Blud-eye-eth, she has caught the attention of the faerie, beautiful (yet evil) creatures from a mysterious Otherworld, who seduce their victims with moonlight raves before feeding them to a dragon. And they have taken Flannery for one of their own which means she won't be going to the school dance... unless Chet rescues her. I have to admit that this isn't a terribly bad premise, but can Attanasio's slim 160 page soft cover live up to its cool title?

The Martian War: A Thrilling Eyewitness Account of the Recent Invasion As Reported by Mr. H.G. Wells, Gabriel Mesta, Pocket Books

Classic science fiction author H.G. Wells's most memorable and compelling novel was arguably The War of the Worlds, but what if the Martian invasion was not entirely the product of Wells's vivid imagination? What if Wells witnessed something that spurred him to write The War of the Worlds not as a form of entertainment but as a warning to the complacent people of Earth? Gabriel Mesta explores that tantalizing theory in this novel that evokes the Victorian era and takes the reader on a journey with Wells and his companions from drafty London flats to the surface of the moon and beyond. Discover the truth about the Martian invasion not only from Wells himself but also from The Invisible Man's Dr. Hawley Griffin, astronomer Percival Lowell (yea that Martian canals guy), and from the enigmatic Dr. Moreau (who by the way documents the very first alien autopsy). Anyone still a little skeptical of this ambitious ruse should know that Gabriel Mesta is the pseudonym for Kevin J. Anderson, critically acclaimed author of the Dune and Saga of the Seven Suns series. Even I'm going to check this guy out (and not just say I did).

Pictures from an Expedition, Alexander C. Irvine, Night Shade Books

A collection of fantasy and science fiction stories from the award-winning author of A Scattering of Jades, One King, One Soldier and The Narrows. This Alexander C. Irvine collection features 13 stories; unfortunately though only one of them is brand spankin' new.


A Scanner Darkly, Philip K. Dick, Gollancz SF Publishing

Perhaps it should be no surprise that the most unnerving drug novel ever written is also an industrial-grade stress test of identity. A Scanner Darkly explores the perverse symbiosis of cop and criminal, observer and observed. Bob Arctor is a dealer of the lethally addictive drug Substance D. Fred is the police agent assigned to tail and eventually bust him. To do so, Fred takes on the identity of a drug dealer named Bob Arctor and since Substance D, which Arctor takes in massive doses, gradually splits the user's brain into two distinct, combative entities, Fred doesn't realize he is narcing on himself. Caustically funny, eerily accurate in its depiction of junkies, scam artists, and the walking brain-dead, Philip K. Dick's hardcore science fiction thriller is as unnerving as it is enthralling. This film tie-in edition coincides with production tidbits from the movie by the same title that's in theaters now (though not in as wide of a release as I would like). Fans of Philip K should brush up on this heady read before being mesmerized by those sick Waking Life graphic overlays.

That's your weekly book buzz. Questions or comments hit me up at PFerrara.cinescape@gmail.com.