"Starcraft: Firstborn of the Dark Templar"
© Saga Pocket Books
The Saga Continues
By: Pat FerraraDate: Tuesday, May 22, 2007
In light of the biggest gaming news of 2007 (thus far), this Tuesday’s schedule reinforces the fact that some of the best genre narratives don’t have to originate from the traditional literary form. Greetings all you Maniac readers and welcome to this week’s edition of the Buzz.
Limited Edition-extraordinaire publisher Subterranean Press has set their sights on Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora and Gordon Dahlquist’s The Glass Book of the Dream Eaters. This week both of the fantasy smash hits are getting a deluxe hardcover facelift by the best in the business. Having produced the deluxe lettered editions of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, Subterranean is no stranger to vamping up the collector’s editions of the genre’s greatest tomes.
Games Workshop’s Sandy Mitchell unveils new tales and old set in the Warhammer 40K universe this week. Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium, an omnibus collection of Cain’s adventures in the 41st Millennium, provides an in-depth look at the commissar’s skirmishes and battles with the 296th Valhallan troops while Duty Calls provides a whole new tale.
One of the best SF stories released this Tuesday comes in the novelization form of Blizzard Entertainment’s rousing Starcraft game franchise. In light of the long overdue announcement of Starcraft II’s development, longtime Blizzard writer Christie Golden pens the opener to the Dark Templar Saga, a series exploring the accidental psychic fusion of a Terran scientist and a seemingly deceased Protoss dark templar. Pound for pound the Starcraft series has not only been one of the best sci fi strategy games ever made, but also one of the coolest genre stories ever visualized. With the Warcraft franchise already heading to the big screen, I say bring on Starcraft!
New in Hardcover:
The Lies of Locke Lamora: Signed Limited Edition, Scott Lynch (Subterranean Press)
Subterranean Press is proud to announce the limited edition of one of the best fantasies of the past decade. The Thorn of Camorr is said to be an unbeatable swordsman, a master thief, a ghost that walks through walls. Half the city believes him to be a legendary champion of the poor. The other half believe him to be a foolish myth. Nobody has it quite right. Slightly built, unlucky in love, and barely competent with a sword, Locke Lamora is, much to his annoyance, the fabled Thorn. He certainly didn't invite the rumors that swirl around his exploits, which are actually confidence games of the most intricate sort. And while Locke does indeed steal from the rich (who else, pray tell, would be worth stealing from?), the poor never see a penny of it. All of Locke's gains are strictly for himself and his tight-knit band of thieves, the Gentlemen Bastards. Locke and company are con artists in an age where con artistry, as we understand it, is a new and unknown style of crime. The less attention anyone pays to them, the better! But a deadly mystery has begun to haunt the ancient city of Camorr, and a clandestine war is threatening to tear the city's underworld, the only home the Gentlemen Bastards have ever known, to bloody shreds. Caught up in a murderous game, Locke and his friends will find both their loyalty and their ingenuity tested to the breaking point as they struggle to stay alive... The Lies of Locke Lamora will be illustrated with a full color cover and four full page illustrations by Edward Miller. Pick this one up on Amazon for modest $47.25.
Cleansing Hunt, Greg Park (Bladestar Publishing)
The Hunt Begins After the brazen attack on Fairimor Palace by the Hand of the Dark, the allied nations of the Nine Lands begin preparations for a prolonged war against the refleshed dreadlord Throy Shadan. Even now, his army is poised to enter Kelsa with enough shadowspawn to ravage the entire nation. But word has come from the south of the discovery of a lost Temple of Elderon which contains a Blood Orb of Elsa, a talisman powerful enough to heal a dying world. With his friends at his side, Jase Fairimor undertakes a dangerous and desperate journey to retrieve the Talisman before it can fall into the hands of the enemy. In Trian, Elison Brey continues his war against the Con'Kumen, determined to eradicate their dark brotherhood from the ancient city, while the traitor Zeniff plots Elison's assassination and the overthrowing of the kingdom. Meanwhile, Croneam Eries enlists the help of the Gifted who have been drawn out of hiding by the crowning of Fairimor Dome with Fire. Led by a handful of Dymas who survived the Battle of Greendom, these noble warriors move eastward to engage Shadan's armies in an attempt to hold them back long enough for the Fairimors to fulfill their mission. But there is danger even in success, for Jase's earlier misuses of the Power have him nearing the realm of the Agla'Con. Jase Fairimor, powerful and chosen, is now the Earthsoul's greatest hope, and its greatest threat. Brilliantly conceived, with more than six thousand years of history, The Earthsoul Prophecies is a magnificent tale of a dying world's struggle for survival and an insightful look into mankind's proven capacity for good and evil. Follows 2005’s Veil of Darkness.
Glass Book of the Dream Eaters, Gordon Dahlquist (Subterranean Press)
It begins with a simple note. Roger Bascombe wishes to inform Celeste Temple that their engagement is forthwith terminated. But, Celeste, for all her lack of worldly experience, is determined to find out why her fiancé should have thrown her over so cruelly. Adopting a disguise, she follows her erstwhile lover to the forbidding Harschmort manor, where she discovers a world—by turns dizzyingly seductive and utterly shocking—she could never have imagined, and a conspiracy so terrifying as to be almost beyond belief. Seething with danger, terror and romance, The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters is a mammoth work of the imagination, a deliriously readable, heartstoppingly suspenseful, and darkly erotic masterpiece of storytelling.
Mouse Guard Volume One: Fall 1152, David Petersen (Archaia Studio Press)
In the world of Mouse Guard, mice struggle to live safely and prosper amongst harsh conditions and a host of predators. Thus the Mouse Guard was formed: more than just soldiers that fight off intruders, they are guides for common mice looking to journey without confrontation from one hidden village to another. The Guard patrol borders, find safeways and paths through dangerous territories and treacherous terrain, watch weather patterns, and keep the mouse territories free of predatory infestation. They do so with fearless dedication so that they might not just exist, but truly live. Saxon, Kenzie and Lieam, three such Guardsmice, are dispatched to find a missing merchant mouse that never arrived at his destination. Their search for the missing mouse reveals much more than they expect, as they stumble across a traitor in the Guard's own ranks.
New Amsterdam, Elizabeth Bear (Subterranean Press)
Abigail Irene Garrett drinks too much. She makes scandalous liaisons with inappropriate men, and if in her youth she was a famous beauty, now she is both formidable—and notorious. She is a forensic sorceress, and a dedicated officer of a Crown that does not deserve her loyalty. She has nothing, but obligations. Sebastien de Ulloa is the oldest creature she has ever known. He was no longer young at the Christian millennium, and that was nine hundred years ago. He has forgotten his birth-name, his birth-place, and even the year in which he was born, if he ever knew it. But he still remembers the woman who made him immortal. He has everything, but a reason to live. In a world where the sun never set on the British Empire, where Holland finally ceded New Amsterdam to the English only during the Napoleonic wars, and where the expansion of the American colonies was halted by the war magic of the Iroquois, they are exiles in the new world—and its only hope for justice.
Dark of the Gods, P.C. Hodgell (Meisha Merlin Publishing)
Whether you are meeting the Kencyr Jame for the first time or reawakening an old friendship, Dark of the Gods is the place to start. Dark of the Gods is an omnibus collection of P. C. Hodgell's first two books God Stalk and Dark of the Moon, along with her short story "Bones", which takes place between the two novels. Jame is a Kencyrath, the chosen people of the Three-Faced God, who fights the demonic entity called Perimal Darkling. At the same time she fights an internal battle for her honor, because three thousand years ago the leader of the Kencyrath betrayed his people to the Darkness for his own immortality. She also must find her ten year older twin brother Tori and return to him the sword and ring of their father. If that is not enough, she has to kill a god, resurrect a god, stand before the rathorns, wear the cloak of living snakes, and visit a council room ablaze with stained glass.
The Kip Brothers, Jules Verne (Wesleyan University Press)
Castaways on a barren island in the South Seas, Karl and Pieter Kip are rescued by the brig James Cook. After helping to quell an onboard mutiny, however, they suddenly find themselves accused and convicted of the captain’s murder. In this story, one of his last Voyages Extraordinaires, Verne interweaves an exciting exploration of the South Pacific with a tale of judicial error reminiscent of the infamous Dreyfus Affair. This Wesleyan edition brings together the first English translation with one of the first detailed critical analyses of the novel, and features all the illustrations from the original 1902 publication. Translated by Stanford Luce and edited by Arthur B. Evans.
New in Paperback:
Starcraft: Firstborn, Christie Golden (Pocket Books)
Jake Ramsey—an unassuming, yet talented archaeologist—has been given the chance of a lifetime. Hired to investigate a recently unearthed Xel'Naga temple, he knows this latest assignment will open up whole new possibilities for his career. Yet, when Jake discovers the remains of a long-dead protoss mystic, his hopes and dreams are irrevocably drowned in a flood of alien memories. Bonded to the spirit of the dead protoss, Jake has become the sole inheritor of the protoss's total history—every event, every thought—every feeling. Struggling to maintain his own fragile identity amidst the raging psychic storm in his mind, Jake soon realizes that he has stumbled upon a secret so cataclysmic in magnitude—that it will shake the very foundations of the universe. An original tale of space warfare based on the bestselling computer game series from Blizzard Entertainment. The first novel of the Dark Templar Saga.
A Murder in Marienberg, David Bishop (Games Workshop)
Marienburg is the greatest port of the Old World, a melting pot of different cultures and races. When he is made a captain of the watch, ex-Imperial army officer Kurt Schnell soon finds his promotion is a poison chalice. His watch station is in the worst part of town, his men are scum, strange creatures prowl the streets at night… what more could possibly go wrong? A novel set in the Warhammer universe.
Resonance, Chris Dolley (Baen Books)
Graham Smith is a 33 year-old office messenger. To the outside world he's an obsessive-compulsive mute – weird but harmless. But to Graham Smith, it's the world that's weird. And far from harmless. He sees things others can't… or won't. He knows that roads can change course, people disappear, and office blocks migrate across town. All at night when no one's looking. The world's an unstable place, still growing, sloughing off layers of reality like dead skin. One day you drive by, and it's changed. Annalise Mercado hears voices, all from girls calling themselves Annalise. Sometimes she thinks they're spirit guides, sometimes she thinks she's crazy. But then they start telling her about Graham Smith and the men who want to kill him. That's when they meet. So begins the story of two people whose lives are fragmented across alternate realities. And how they hold the key to the future of a billion planets…
Bad-Ass Faeries, Ed. by Ackley McPhail (Marietta Publishing)
Clap Your Hands...Now! Because you better believe the world is full of Bad-Ass Faeries! Toss out your childhood notions of faeries that are all goodness and light. No golden pixies clothed in gossamer, dancing on the wind, here to make the rainbows shine and the birds sing. These tales are of faeries on the raw edge, battle-worn and in black leather, with a glimmer of darkness in their eyes, if not their very hearts. From the meanest city streets to one dusty, disturbing saloon, on the wing or the back of a Harley, no matter where you look, they are headed your way, trailing attitude, bodies, and a dust devil of magic in their wake. Good or bad or just plain rotten, you'll never look at faeries the same way again. Featuring the works of Monica Richards (of Faith and The Muse), Adam P. Knave, Lee Hillman, Den C. Wilson, Brian Koscienski, Christ Pisano, Jeff Lyman, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Jesse Harris, Lorne Dixon, L. Jagi Lamplighter, James Chambers, Vincent Collins, Elaine Corvidae, R. Allen Leider, Danielle Ackley-McPhail, John Sunseri, Patrick Thomas, and the supernatural CJ Henderson.
Helix, Eric Brown (Solaris Books)
Helix is a fast-paced action adventure novel following the plight of four humans when they crashland on what they think is a desolate, ice-bound planet. Daylight brings the discovery that the planet is one of thousands arranged in a vast spiral wound about a central sun. They set off to discover a more habitable, Earth-like world and come across strange races of aliens, and life-threatening perils, on their way.
Walking to the Moon, Sean McMullen (Wildside Press)
A short story collection by the author of the The Greatwinter Trilogy and the Moonworld series, Walking To The Moon includes many of Sean McMullen's critically-acclaimed short fiction together, featuring a never-before-seen original story set in the world of Greatwinter, "Dragon Black." With an introduction by Jack Dann, the author of The Man Who Melted.
Unveiling the Sorceress, Saskia Walker (Juno Books)
Secret love and forbidden liaisons mix with the deadly implications of the enemy's plans in this sensual story of danger, passion and intrigue with the exotic allure of 1001 Arabian Nights. Betrothed to the ineffectual son of the evil Empress of Karseedia, Elishiba's planned marriage is to be a symbolic pact sealed between two neighboring countries. But nothing is as it seems. Elshiba finds herself enmeshed in a growing web of political machinations with magic and romance weaving their own vibrant and inexorable threads; her love for a man considered an enemy may place her in further jeopardy.
Star Trek: Reap the Whirlwind, David Mack (Star Trek Books)
The mystery of the Taurus Reach is about to be revealed. Ancient secrets lie on the fourth planet of the Jinoteur system, and three great rivals are fighting to control it. The Federation and the Klingon Empire want to wield its power; the Tholian Assembly wants to bury it. But the threat stirring on that distant world is more dangerous than they realize. The Shedai, who ruled the Taurus Reach aeons ago, have risen from their ages of deathlike slumber—to gather, marshal their strength, and take their revenge. To keep Jinoteur from falling into enemy hands, the crews of Starbase Vanguard and the U.S.S. Sagittarius must risk everything: friends...loved ones...their own lives. But the sacrifices they make may prove too terrible for them to bear. The third novel of the Star Trek: Vanguard series.
Twists of the Tale, Ellen Datlow (Wildside Press)
In ancient Egypt they were worshiped. In the Middle Ages they were crucified. From a gentle purr to a sudden scratch, enter the dark, secret world of the creature who is definitely not man's best friend - and who likes it just fine that way. In this extraordinary collection, 24 master storytellers look into the inscrutable eyes of felis catus, and see a reflection of the frightening, the fantastic and the bizarre. From birds' feet left at your door to a howl in the night, from a preen to a pounce, find out who they really are... if you dare.
Duty Calls, Sandy Mitchell (Games Workshop)
While assisting local forces quell widespread civil disorder, Commissar Cain and his regiment of Valhallans discover sinister forces are at work behind the scenes. With a rioting populace, aliens on the rampage, and the Inquisition poking their noses everywhere, how can the wily commissar ever find the easy life he prefers? A novel set in the Warhammer 40K universe.
Master of Shadows, Janet Lorimer (Juno Books)
As a child, Ariel McPherson was warned about a ferocious creature that allegedly stalked the forest near her family's summer cottage during the full moon. But surely those were merely stories meant to warn a little girl of dangers that lurk in any wood? When her adult world collapses, Ariel takes refuge in the cottage. Forced to go on an errand of mercy during a night of the full moon, Ariel finds legend crashing into reality. She meets a mysterious stranger, Louvel, in the forest. He will not allow her to see his face, but still strangely captures her heart. Then Ariel's life is shattered by a mysterious death; secrets are revealed and suspicions raised. Ariel's search for answers endangers her own life. Louvel may possess powers that can protect and help her... or he may a beast more fearsome than any found in a fairy tale.
Japanese Dreams, Sean Wallace (Wildside Press)
The first volume in a series of anthologies offering short stories drawn from the storehouse of world mythology, Japanese Dreams takes the reader to the islands of fire and smoke: where shape-shifters, demons and lovers all populate a landscape blossoming with story. Contributions by such authors as Richard Parks, Catherynne Valente, Jeannette Westwood, Eugie Foster, Ekaterina Sedia, Erzebet YellowBoy, Yoon Ha Lee, Jenn Reese, Sarah Prineas, Jim C. Hines and Steve Berman all offer us a glimpse of a silken sleeve or the red fur of the fox as she slips between the rushes, daring us to follow.
Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium, Sandy Mitchell (Games Workshop)
The adventures of wily Commissar Cain, his malodorous aide Jurgen, and the 296th Valhallans have proved great favourites among Black Library fans. This omnibus edition is an attractive introduction to a very popular series. A novel set in the Warhammer 40K universe.
Retief’s Peace, William Keith (Baen Books)
Peace, it's wonderful! Except when the Peace Movement is actually a subterfuge by the warlike and imperialistic Krll to get the Terrans to get off of a planet, leaving it defenseless and ripe for conquest. The Terran diplomats have their usual primary concerns: covering their, ah, flank and not doing anything that might threaten their careers, which means that they're not about to do anything, period. Once again, it's up to Retief to thwart the would-be conquerors, even if the unthinkable happens, and he's drummed out of the Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne! And Retief has never been more dangerous to the villains than when he's operating outside the rules of diplomacy!
Alright folks that’ll do it for this week’s edition of the Buzz, be sure to check back next Tuesday for all the latest news on current sci fi, fantasy, and horror book releases. Questions or comments? Hit me up at PFerrara.mania@gmail.com.
