Spider-Man - The Ultimate Guide
© DK Publishing, Inc.
Ultimate Guides!
By: Pat FerarraDate: Tuesday, March 20, 2007
I don’t know what it is about the word ‘ultimate’ and franchise guides, but there’s no doubt that DK Publishing is one of the best in the business for in-depth and aesthetic guides on your favorite media series. This week Tom Defalco helms a comprehensive update of DK’s Spider-Man guide with Spider-Man: The Ultimate Guide while Star Wars expert Ryder Windham returns with a special edition of 2005’s The Ultimate Visual Guide to Star Wars.
Top o’ the week to all you Maniac readers and welcome to this Tuesday’s edition of the Weekly Book Buzz. For the first time since I started writing this column back in July we’ve got more hardcover debuts than paperback releases! After a sluggish start to 2007 Tor Books has kicked their presses into full gear and this week offers a wide range of sci fi and fantasy literature that completely dominates this Tuesday’s release schedule.
Amidst talks of a Dabel Brothers’ adaptation to a series of graphic novels, Jane Lindskold’s Firekeeper Saga churns onward with the hardback release of the sixth novel, Wolf’s Blood, through Tor Books today. Sarah Zettel concludes the four book Isavalta series with Sword of the Deceiver and Building Harlequin’s Moon co-author Brenda Cooper flies solo on a new (and very intriguing) original sci fi piece titled The Silver Ship and the Sea.
Peter David, Keith DeCandido, & Sarah Shaw take over the reins of the Star Trek: Mirror Universes series to pen the second volume, Obsidian Alliances. Released on paperback today through Star Trek Books, this installment in the Mirror Universes continues to explore the temporal rift that has connected memorable characters and crews from the Voyager, New Frontiers, and Deep Space Nine universes.
Perhaps the most curious debut this week comes from the mind of an author who died over six years ago. Three-time Hugo Award winner Gordon R. Dickson returns from the grave (via his assistant David Wixon) to propel his famous Childe Cycle series. The twelfth novel, Antagonist, was constructed from Dickson’s extensive notes on the epic concerning the future of the human race and Bleys Ahrens’ lean toward darkness. Whether Wixon’s writing stacks up with his late mentor’s work… well, only you the readers can decide!
New in Hardcover:
Spider-Man: The Ultimate Guide, Tom Defalco (DK Publishing, Inc.)
Marvel authority Tom DeFalco unmasks the history of the beloved websling in this updated edition of DK's definitive guide, which includes more than 600 full-color illustrations from the Spider-Man comics, along with original illustrations, detailed character profiles, and descriptions of the latest developments in the Marvel Universe.
Wolf’s Blood, Jane Lindskold (Tor Books)
Raised in the wild by intelligent, language-using wolves, in her teens Firekeeper was abducted back into the lands of men, where her upbringing as a wolf helped her survive the deadly intrigues of human beings. One of the first things she learned in Hawk Haven was that magic was a thing to be feared and despised. Long ago, all the human kingdoms were ruled by powerful sorcerers. Then a plague came and the sorcerers died. Nobody misses them. Much was lost—but still, nobody misses them. Yet as Firekeeper has traveled and grown wiser in the ways of human beings, she's learned that the true story was more complex. In coming to the country of the Liglim, she, Derian Carter, and Blind Seer discovered that magic is still working in the world, and that it isn't always the evil they'd been warned against. But it also turned out that the old plague specifically targeted magic users. And when Firekeeper and her friends learned to open the gates between worlds, the plague came back with them. Firekeeper, Blind Seer, and Derian Carter survived the plague: not unchanged, but still themselves. Now Firekeeper is determined to learn the nature of the plague… and if she can, to end it forever. What happens next will be the culmination of the remarkable fantasy epic that began with Through Wolf's Eyes (2002). Book six in the Firekeeper Saga.
The Ultimate Visual Guide to Star Wars Special Edition © DK Publishing, Inc.
Providing fans and newcomers everything they need to know about the highest-grossing movie saga ever, this is the first-ever visual guide to the entire Star Wars franchise. Originally released in October of 2005, The Ultimate Visual Guide to Star Wars boasts over 500 full color photographs in one of the most comprehensive Star Wars guides to date. This hardback edition offers fans an in-depth look in all things Star Wars including history, galactic conflicts, and much more from Episodes I – VI. This bad boy clocks in at 160 pages, a full 14 more than the original version (although exactly what makes this Special Edition unique has remained a mystery).
Sword of the Deceiver, Sarah Zettel (Tor Books)
For five hundred years, the great southern empire of Hastinapura has flourished, ruling the world of Isavalta with an iron fist. But nothing lasts forever… The day of her womanhood ceremony finds Princess Natharie of Sindhu happily celebrating with her family, joyfully awaiting her marriage to a prince of another realm. However, when the Empire demands that her family send someone to court, Natharie realizes that she is the only one who can satisfy the Emperor's wishes. As Natharie spends time in the Hastinapura court, she learns of the Empire's bloodthirsty worship of the Mothers, and that their High Priest, Divakesh, is intent on spreading their worship beyond the Empire, including into neighboring Sindhu, at any cost. At the court, Natharie learns of plots that threaten to pit her homeland against Hastinapura in a disastrous war. Appalled by the power and brazenness of Samudra, she realizes, as each day brings war ever nearer, that the powerful prince may be her only hope to prevent a war that could destroy them all. The fourth and final novel in the Isavalta series.
Investigating Farscape © I.B. Tauris & Co., Ltd.
"My name is John Crichton. I'm lost. An astronaut. Shot through a wormhole. In some distant part of the universe. I'm trying to stay alive. Aboard this ship. This living ship. Of escaped prisoners." During its fourth and—for the present—final season, FARSCAPE was the Sci-Fi Channel's highest rated original series. With its dedicated fan-base, FARSCAPE seasons are still top-billing Sci Fi DVDs. This first substantial analysis of the show, written by a scholar-fan, uncovers FARSCAPE’s layers and those of the living spaceship Moya. Jes Battis proposes that FARSCAPE is as much about bodies, sex and gender, as it is about wormholes, space ships and interstellar warfare. It is this straddling of genres that makes the show so viewable to such a broad audience, of which almost half are women. He explores FARSCAPE’s language and characters, including Moya, its creation of family and home, of masculinity and femininity, and the transformation of an all-American boy. Although I was a big fan of the series, and this book does sound like it could be interesting, Investigating ‘Farscape’: Uncharted Territories of Sex and Science Fiction sounds too much like a college essay for my liking. Who knows though, if the scholar-fan Jes Battis can write, it may be worth checking out. I say wait for reviews.
The Quest For the Trilogy, Mel Odom (Tor Books)
The secret to protecting the civilized world from an ancient threat may lie in the pages of three books…and it is up to master librarians of the past and present to secure these pages of knowledge. Set in the years after Lord of the Libraries, young halfer Juhg is still growing into his job as Grandmagister when an ally from the past, the wizened wizard Craugh returns with warnings of an ancient threat that may resurface—the so-called "Kharrion's Wrath" which endangers the existence of the world. Juhg must now unlock the secrets contained in the journals of his now absent mentor Wick, the former Grandmagister and legendary hero known as "The Rover." He must also continue his documented but clandestine search for a trilogy of books, which brings him through many different realms of their very dangerous world…and into conflict and contact with other races (elves, dwarves, and men) whose fates are all intertwined among the pages of the great book of Time. The Quest for the Trilogy weaves three separate quests into one as the young historian races against the clock to protect not just his world, but all others as well. A novel set in the Rover series.
The Silver Ship and the Sea © Tor Books
The colony planet Fremont is joyous, riotous, and very wild. Its grasses can cut your arms and legs to ribbons, the rinds of its precious fruit can skewer your thumbs, and some of the predators are bigger than humans. Meteors fall from the sky and volcanoes erupt. Fremont is verdant, rich, beautiful, and dangerous. Fremont’s single town, Artistos, perches on a cliff below rugged mountains. Below Artistos lie the Grass Plains, which lead down to the sea. And in the middle of the Grass Plains, a single silver spaceship lies quiet and motionless. The seasons do not dull it, nor do the winds scratch it and the fearful citizens of Aristosos wont go near it. Chelo Lee, her brother Joseph, and four other young children have been abandoned on the colony planet. Unfortunate events have left them orphaned in a human colony that abhors genetic engineering… and these six young people are genetically enhanced. With no one to turn to, Chelo and the others must now learn how to use their distinct skills to make this unwelcome planet home, or to find a way off it. They have few tools: an old crazy woman who wanders the edges of town, spouting cryptic messages; their appreciation and affection for each other; a good dose of curiosity; and that abandoned silver space ship that sits locked and alone in the middle of the vast grass plain.
Antagonist, Gordon Dickson & David Wixon (Tor Books)
Gordon R. Dickson's "Childe Cycle" of novels depicting the future of the human race has been one of the grand epics of science fiction. At the time of his death in 2001, Dickson was writing Antagonist, the tale of Bleys Ahrens' turn toward darkness. Now Dickson's assistant David W. Wixon has brilliantly finished the long-awaited book, working from Dickson's copious notes. Antagonist is a fitting capstone to one of the most ambitious series in SF history. The Childe Cycle is the story of a new human evolution: the development of a real, hardwired sense of "responsibility" shared by all human beings. Donal Graeme was a Dorsai, a mercenary soldier, and also a mutant gifted with insight into the path forward for the human race. Through his gifts Donal would come to bend time and live three lifetimes—and, in the process, run into problems he had not expected: first, his own flaws, and second, the existence of another mutant, Bleys Ahrens. Following Young Bleys (1991) and Other (1994), Antagonist advances the story of the formidably powerful Bleys Ahrens. Bleys is a man with a clear vision of the struggle in which he's involved--but an increasingly deficient sense of human values. He and his organization, the Others, are tracking down an elusive interplanetary opposition. Meanwhile, Bleys' own intricate conspiracies and devisings, and his quest for power, which began with the best of motives, have become something darker and fiercer. He's committed to his plans. They may bring about the advent of Homo superior. And they may destroy the human race.
New in Paperback:
Day Watch © Miramax Books
The second book in the internationally bestselling fantasy series, Day Watch begins where Night Watch left off, set in a modern-day Moscow where the 1,000-year-old treaty between Light and Dark maintains its uneasy balance through careful vigilance from the Others. The forces of darkness keep an eye during the day, the Day Watch, while the agents of Light monitor the nighttime. Very senior Others called the Inquisitors are the impartial judges insisting on the essential compact. When a very potent artifact is stolen from them, the consequences are dire and drastic for all sides. Day Watch introduces the perspective of the Dark Ones, as it is told in part by a young witch who bolsters her evil power by leeching fear from children’s nightmares as a counselor at a girls’ summer camp. When she falls in love with a handsome young Light One, the balance is threatened and a death must be avenged. Day Watch is replete with the thrilling action and intricate plotting of the first tale, fuelled by cunning, cruelty, violence, and magic. It is a fast paced, darkly humorous, haunting world that will take root in the shadows of your mind and live there forever. Translated by Andrew Bromfield.
Matters of the Blood, Maria Lima (Juno Books)
Keira Kelly, half-breed descendant of a powerful paranormal family has chosen to live apart from her clan and among humans in the Texas Hill Country. When she experiences a prophetic vision that foretells the vicious murder of her human cousin, Marty Nelson, she vows to determine the truth. Keira begins to uncover long-concealed secrets and risks alienating everyone she knows, from her former lover, Sheriff Carlton Larson, to the enigmatic Adam Walker, once a friendly acquaintance and now much more.
Obsidian Alliances, Peter David, Keith DeCandido, & Sarah Shaw (Star Trek Books)
Some say the line between good and evil is narrower than we imagine -- a divide as subtle as a mirror, and perhaps just as deep. To peer into its black, reflective glass is to know the dark potential we each possess, and we cross that obsidian boundary at our peril… into a world where we no longer recognize who we are or what we believed ourselves capable of. In the late twenty-fourth century, decades after the fall of the once-mighty Terran Empire, the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance dominates the worlds that, in another reality, made up the United Federation of Planets. Humanity and its former subject races are now bound together by their shared oppression, slaves to their cruel and brutal conquerors. But a downtrodden few have found the courage and the strength of will to act. Inspired by visitors from another continuum to fight for their freedom, they have rekindled hope… and rediscovered an ancient truth: that every revolution begins with a vision. Star Trek: VOYAGER: A rebel ship commanded by a former slave named Chakotay attempts to evade pursuit in the Badlands… only to encounter a strange ship that was catapulted seventy thousand light-years across the galaxy. On board the craft are two aliens, one of whom has the potential to completely alter the balance of power within the Alliance. But as both sides of the struggle race to get to the stranger first, treachery throws all schemes into a tailspin. Star Trek: NEW FRONTIER: Following the Terran Empire's collapse, its longtime rival, the Romulan Star Empire, has absorbed many of the fringe civilizations spread across that part of the galaxy. One of the Romulans' slaves is M'k'nzy of Calhoun, a savage and unpredictable Xenexian who dreams of death… and who learns the value of freedom from the unlikeliest of teachers, a Romulan named Soleta. Star Trek: DEEP SPACE NINE: One fallen dictator's struggle to regain her power and her position leads to the discovery of a bold rebel plan for a decisive military strike against the Alliance. But while Kira Nerys navigates the dangerous road of politics, sex, and military intrigue that she believes will lead her back to reclaiming the Intendancy, cracks form in the rebel leadership, leading to a showdown that will change the course of the Mirror Universe. The second installment of the Star Trek: Mirror Universe series.
Expiration Date © Tor Books
Powers has created a strange and wonderful Los Angeles in which to set this novel: a city full of ghosts - and full, too, of unpleasant characters who extend their lives and enhance their power by catching and absorbing the ghosts of the recently dead. Young Koot Parganas is growing up in Los Angeles in the 1990's, but his parents won't let him do anything normal. His weirdo parents venerate the spirits of dead Mahatmas. At the age of eleven, Koot has disobeyed his parents, broken into a plaster bust of Dante, stolen the small glass vial concealed inside it, and set in motion events that will change his own life, and everyone else's. For trapped in the vial was the preserved ghost of Thomas Alva Edison, and there is no telling what power the possession of that ghost could confer. The exposure of Edison's ghost lights up a beacon for those who can see such things. Koot is pursued through the dark underside of the city, aided by allies as strange as his enemies: a bum and his dog; a man concealed by the ghostly mask of Houdini; a psychiatrist sorceress; and a former television child-star who has been dead for several years, but who is not yet ready to leave his body and abandon his revenge on the woman who murdered his godfather.
Euryale, Kara Dalkey (Juno Books)
Fantasy, magic and romance deftly woven into a story of gods and monsters, dark secrets and strange omens… Veiled against the world, and served only by the blind and short-sighted, a mysterious woman comes to Republican Rome to gain the answer to the riddle: "What can change stone into living flesh?"
Black Sheep, Ben Peek (Wildside Press)
This is the story of Isao Dazai, a Japanese-born man who has recently immigrated to Australia with his family. The future that Isao lives in is a world of mass race segregation where each of the world's cities have been divided into three separate walled ghettos, defined by three 'mass racial' categories: Asian, African and Caucasian. Living in Asian-Sydney, Isao knows that simply wanting to cross the city's boundaries is one of the greatest of crimes in this new world, as is his inability to leave his Japanese culture behind. Within months of arriving in Sydney, he is charged with the crime of multiculturalism and sentenced to Assimilation, a radical and invasive punishment created by the Australian Government. This new punishment strips Isao of his personality and skin pigmentation and leaves him with cold, white skin, and nothing but a number to identify himself with.
That’s it for this week’s edition of the Buzz. Be sure to check back next week 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.
