0 Comments | Add
Rate & Share:
Related Links:
Info:
Weekly Book Buzz: 2009 Locus Award Winners Announced
The Buzz reviews the Batcave Companion By
Tim Janson
June 30, 2009
The Batcave Companion by Michael Eury and Michael Kronenberg(2009).
© TwoMorrows Publishing
Lots of releases across the board this week. A few solid fantasy books, a new Star Trek: The Next Generation novel…but the things that really stand out to me are this week’s new horror releases. Leisure has three new books from writers that I’ve really come to enjoy. First, Robert Dunbar who gave us 2008’s “The Pines” is back with “The Shore”, a new tale of small town evil. Nate Kenyon’s “The Bone Factory” looks to be a very different type of novel than last year’s “The Reach” (Which was very good by the way. Finally, Ed Gorman, one of the best suspense writers in the business, gives us his latest “The Midnight Room”.
Also in the horror vein is the latest zombie fiction from Permuted Press titles “The Estuary” and IDW is out with their latest trade paperback collection in their popular 30 Days of Night series. Get your horror faces on!
One trend that seems to be growing without end in horror/urban fantasy is the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” knockoffs…you know…female hero who slays vampires, demons, werewolves, etc…we have several new releases of this type of fiction this week including “Eve of Chaos” by S.J. Day; “Darkness Calls” by Marjorie M. Liu; and “City of Souls” by Vicki Petterson. I suppose there must be a fairly strong audience for these types of novels for a fairly slow book market to support so many similarly themed characters. However it would certainly be nice to see more of an effort to original ideas.
The 2009 Locus Award Winners were announced June 27 in Seattle, WA and here are your highlights:
Best Science Fiction Novel: Anathem, Neal Stephenson (Morrow)
Best Fantasy Novel: Lavinia, Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt)
Best First Novel: First Novel: Singularity's Ring, Paul Melko (Tor)
Best Young-Adult Book: The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins)
Best Anthology: The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin's)
Best Publisher: Tor
Best Artist: Michael Whelan
I’ve said it before and I will say it again…I hate to see Gaiman’s brilliant, and often chilling “The Graveyard Book” labeled as young adult. I think it does the book a real disservice and limits the scope of the book. This is a great novel for adults as well as teens and I think one of the best books of 2008. Gaiman has some stiff competition but I am predicting that “The Graveyard Book” wins the Hugo for best novel in August at the Hugo Awards ceremony.
New in Fantasy
Vicious Circle Linda Robertson (Pocket)
Being a witch doesn't pay the bills, but Persephone Alcmedi gets by between reading Tarot cards, writing her syndicated newspaper column, and kenneling werewolves in the basement when the moon is full -- even if witches aren't supposed to mingle with wolves. She really reaches the end of her leash, though, when her grandmother gets kicked out of the nursing home and Seph finds herself in the doghouse about some things she's written. Then her werewolf friend Lorrie is murdered...and the high priestess of an important coven offers Seph big money to destroy the killer, a powerful vampire named Goliath Kline. Seph is a tough girl, but this time she bites off more than she can chew. She needs a little help from her friends -- werewolf friends. One of those friends, Johnny, the motorcycle-riding lead singer for the techno-metal-Goth band Lycanthropia, has a crush on her. And while Seph has always been on edge around this 6'2" leather-clad hunk, she's starting to realize that although their attraction may be dangerous, nothing could be as lethal as the showdown that awaits them.
Red Gold Bridge Patrice Sarath (Ace)
A year ago, Lynn Romano and Kate Mossland stumbled through the gordath, a portal between our world and the war-torn society called Aeritan. Now, a powerful Aeritan general has crossed through to Earth, and his obsession with Kate could tear both worlds apart.
Eve of Chaos S.J. Day (Marked, Book 3) (Tor)
How do you tell Satan that you ran over his hellhound? Evangeline Hollis has no idea and she doesn't want to find out. Living with the Mark of Cain -- and the two sexy brothers who come with it -- is trouble enough. She doesn't need to borrow more. Too bad Satan is too pissed to oblige her. Incensed at the loss of his pet, Satan has put a bounty on Eve's head, and Hell's denizens are converging en masse. The proliferation of Infernals is complicating Eve's hunts and creating chaos in her once orderly life. They've also brought her to the attention of an overzealous reverend who is certain she's Jezebel reincarnate.
Dragonseed: A Novel of Dragon Age James Maxey (Solaris)
After the death ok King Albekizan, Shandrazel and his allies struggle to keep the kingdom intact as the radical human prophet, Ragnar gathers forces to launch a full scale rebellion against the dragons. When all out war erupts, legendary dragon hunter, Bitterwood, must face his own personal demons and choose where his loyalty really lies.
Darkness Calls Marjorie M. Liu (Ace)
Demon hunter Maxine Kiss, inked with living tattoos, is on a mission to rescue the man she loves from a bloodthirsty army. To save him, Maxine has only one choice: to lose control—and release her own powers of darkness.
Witches Incorporated (Rogue Agent) K.E. Mills (Orbit)
It's a case of espionage, skullduggery and serious unpleasantness…And it's also Gerald's first official government assignment. He's hunting down a deadly saboteur, and time is quickly running out. Old enemies and new combine forces to thwart him. Once again, innocent lives are on the line. He needs his friends. He can't do this alone.
But Princess Melissande and Reg have troubles of their own. With the help of Monk Markham's brilliant, beautiful sister, they've opened a one-stop-shop witching locum agency, where magical problems are solved for a price. Problem is, the girls are struggling to keep the business afloat. Things are looking grim for Witches Incorporated - and that's before they accidentally cross paths with Gerald's saboteur.
Suddenly everybody's lives are on the line and Gerald realizes, too late, that there's a reason government agents aren't supposed to have friends ...
City of Souls (Sign of the Zodiac, Book 4) Vicki Pettersson (Eos)
In Sin City, a little girl suffers from a strange and terrible malady. If she dies, the Light will die along with her.
Warrior, avenger, Joanna Archer has survived countless otherworldly terrors—and has found her rightful place among the agents battling the all-pervasive evil of Shadow . . . even as she struggles against the darkness within herself.
A war is raging for Las Vegas—a city without a heart—one that catapults Joanna into a new world hidden from mortal sight. In this lethally seductive alternate dimension the lines blur between good and evil, love and hate, and here lies the last hope for the Light. But Joanna's price of admission is a piece of her own soul—and the odds of her escaping are slim . . . to none.
Warhost of Vastmark (The Wars of Light and Shadow series) Janny Wurts (Harper Collins)
Tricked once more by his wily half-brother, Lysaer, Lord of Light, arrives at the tiny harbor town of Merior to find that Arithon's ship yards have been abandoned and meticulously destroyed, and that the Master of Shadow has disappeared as if into thin air. Meanwhile Arithon and the Mad Prophet Dakar are traveling on foot through the treacherous Kelhorn Mountains towards the Vastmark clans, there to raise further support for his cause. But raising a warhost is a costly business. Is it mere coincidence that Princess Talith—Lysaer's beautiful, headstrong wife—is taken captive and held for a vast ransom by a master brigand? The forces of light and shadow circle and feint, drawing ever closer to a huge conflict. And in the background the Fellowship of Seven Sorcerers and the Koriani Enchantresses watch and plan, and wait.
New In Science Fiction
Star Trek: TNG: Losing the Peace (Star Trek, the Next Generation) William Leisner (Star Trek Books)
Fortune has smiled on Lieutenant Jasminder Choudhury, chief of security on the U.S.S Enterprise.™ She has survived. But her homeworld, Deneva, one of the planets targeted in the massive Borg invasion, has not. The entire surface has been wiped clean of everything, killing anyone who did not evacuate and rendering the planet uninhabitable. Choudhury is left to wonder whether her family was one of the displaced. Or are they all gone forever?
The Enterprise is just one ship, and Jasminder Choudhury is just one officer, yet her story is being repeated over and over across the galaxy. Hundreds of thousands of displaced persons haunt the space ways, seeking comfort, looking for someplace safe, somewhere, anywhere to find solace. Captain Jean-Luc Picard is ordered to do everything he can to rescue and if need be to recover the lost souls from the Borg invasion.
For the first time in generations, citizens of the Federation know want, uncertainty, and fear. Bloodied yet unbowed, the Federation now stands on the edge of a precipice. The captain of the Enterprise finds himself in the unenviable position of wondering whether it is true that those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace.
The Fox Run (Endworld) David Robbins (Leisure Books)
As the descendants of the few survivors of the nuclear holocaust that leveled the earth struggle to rebuild a vanished civilization within the walls of The Home, savage barbarian trolls plot to plunder, ravage, and destroy their nascent world. This is a reissue edition but this is one very fun sci-fi/adventure series.
2042: The Battle is Coming Frederick Ransom (Tate)
Everyone fights. Few survive... In 2042: The Battle is Coming, brilliant bio-chemical discoveries elevate the Dark Forces of Evil (DFOE) to superpower status. Emperor Vuunderjahr's relentless pursuit of global domination leads him to a systematic enslavement and dehumanization of the world's population. Only three wayward field operatives remain active from the once-prominent Free World. The agents unexpectedly join allegiance with wacky rebels, known as Beaters. Their mission: vanquish Dr. Vuunderjahr and the DFOE empire, thereby restoring freedoms to a lost world. Meanwhile, they're all too familiar with the realization that The Battle is Coming.
The New Space Opera 2: All-new stories of science fiction adventure Gardner Dozois (Eos)
The New Space Opera 2 features 19 all-new stories. These entertaining and stimulating tales of interstellar adventure, written by some of the genre’s best range from Mike Resnick's Catastrophe Baker and a Canticle for Leibowitz, a campy misadventure that follows a larger-than-life freelance hero on his quest to regain a musical theater producer's lost song, to John Meaney's From the Heart, set in his Nulapeiron universe, which revolves around spy Carl Blackstone and an unlikely—and surprisingly poignant—love story at the galactic core.
New In Horror
30 Days of Night: 30 Days til Death David Lapham (IDW Graphic Novel)
In 30 Days 'til Death, the horrible events of the Barrow have rippled throughout the world. A war has started in the secret society of vampires. A reaping. A death squad of elders has come to America to "thin the heard" of the troublesome new breed. Rufus doesn't care about anything but his own survival and he's willing to do anything to ensure it, including getting a dog, and a girlfriend, pretending to like his neighbors, and going to extreme lengths to hide his insatiable craving for blood...
The Shore Robert Dunbar (Leisure Horror)
As a winter storm tightens its grip on the small shore town of Edgeharbor, the residents are frightened of much more than pounding waves and bitter winds. A series of horrible murders has the town cowering in fear. Mangled victims bear the marks of savage claws, and strange, bloody footprints mar the beach. A young policewoman and a mysterious stranger are all that stand between this isolated community and an ancient, monstrous evil.
The Midnight Room Ed Gorman (Leisure Horror)
It started as a burglary. That would have been bad enough. But when the masked intruder forced Dr. Olson at gunpoint to open his safe, the doctor knew he was really in trouble. In the safe were two DVDs, private movies he had made of those girls he had kidnapped…and killed. Suddenly the burglary became blackmail. But blackmailing a serial killer can be a dangerous game. Especially when he’s as smart—and good with a scalpel—as Dr. Olson.
Island Life William Meike (Ghostwriter Publications)
On a small, sparsely populated island in the Scottish Outer Hebrides, a group of archeology students are opening what seems to be an early Neolithic burial mound. Marine biologist Duncan McKenzie is also working on the island, staying with the lighthouse caretakers, Dick and Tom, while he completes his studies of the local water supply.
One afternoon the three men are disturbed in their work by the appearance of a dazed female student from the excavation, who is badly traumatized. She tells of the slaughter of the rest of her party by something released from the mound.
Soon everyone Duncan knows is either missing or dead and there are things moving in the fog…Large, hulking, unholy things…Things with a taste for human flesh.
The Estuary Derek Gunn (Permuted Press)
Journalist John Pender has returned to his home town of Whiteshead to rekindle his marriage. Ex-British Intelligence Officer Dave Johnson has arrived to isolate himself after his fiancée is murdered during a mission that went terribly wrong. But excavations for the new shopping centre unearth a mysterious contagion that threatens to throw their lives into chaos. Now the residents of Whiteshead are trapped within a quarantine zone with the military on one side and ravenous hordes on the other. Escape is no longer an option. Far out in the mouth of the estuary a small keep sits forlornly surrounded by an apron of jagged rocks. This refuge has always been unassailable, a place of myth and legend that has grown in folklore through the years. Now, it's the survivors' only hope of sanctuary. But there are thousands of flesh-eating infected between them and the keep and time is running out...
The Bone Factory Nate Kenyon (Leisure Horror)
The biggest news in the small northern town of Jackson was the reopening of the local hydropower plant. Until the deaths. First a farmer was found horribly mutilated in his field. Then a little girl disappeared from her home. Deep in the woods a deputy came upon a chamber of horrors straight from a nightmare. And through it all, one child is haunted by visions of the mysterious “blue man,” a madman who brings with him blood and pain and terror, a terror spawned by forces no one can understand.
Dream Walk (Sentinels) Meg Allison (Samhain publishing)
Some nightmares are deadly real. The Sentinels, Book 1 Camille Bryant is a gifted medium being slowly driven insane by terrifying dreams. When she is forced to accept help from a Sentinel-a mysterious warrior of her race-her comfort zone is quickly invaded. Try as she might, she can't seem to stop the erotic visions that fill her mind when her rescuer is near. Ian Spain is a dream walker who's been assigned to banish the dream demon from Camille's restless nights. But complications quickly ensue. This is no ordinary demon and Camille is no ordinary woman: both are far stronger than anyone realizes. So strong, Ian suddenly isn't sure he has the power to vanquish her demon-not when his own hound his every step. Their passion ignites even as the body count rises and their courage is put to the test in a battle as old as time. Winner takes all. Warning: Scenes of leather-clad hero may induce spontaneous drooling, erotic fantasies, and unfair comparisons to spouse or significant other.
Creepy Archives Vol. 4 (Dark Horse Publishing)
Pulpy, smart, and scary, the stories in Creepy constituted some of the best short-form horror fiction ever told in comics. With legendary comics writer/editor Archie Goodwin both editing the magazine and crafting most of its storytelling, Creepy was at once a newsstand favorite with fright fans, and a vaunted showcase of fine comics art for serious fans of the art form. For decades, the only sources for these stories were the expensive, collectible, original issues. Now Dark Horse is collecting all of the original material from the history of Creepy magazine into a hardcover archive library that is garnering rave reviews from fans and critics alike!
Reviews
The Batcave Companion Michael Eury and Michael Kronenberg (TwoMorrows Publishing)
Contrary to what the title may imply, this new book from TwoMorrow’s Publishing isn’t a guide to Batman’s secret lair but rather an exhaustive look at Batman comic books of the 1960s and 1970s. We may find it hard to believe today but in the early 60s, the Batman comic titles were on the brink of cancellation. Sales of Batman and Detective Comics had declined to the point where they were given just one last chance to survive. This book takes a look at how Batman had fallen to such near-fatal depths and how the titles were eventually rescued.
Michael Eury, a renowned comic book historian and editor of “Back Issue” Magazine and his partner Michael Kronenberg guide readers through this tumultuous period in the Dark Knight’s career. Batman was on the verge of cancellation due to years of poorly conceived stories involving monsters and aliens. As noted, the editor at the time, Jack Schiff, became the scapecoat although Schiff insists the monster stories were mandated by his boss, Mort Weisinger. The titles would be handed over to Julius Schwartz who was given six months to turn the titles around.
The book features recent interviews with many of the talents that helped turn the franchise around including artists Carmine Infantino and Neal Adams, and writer Denny O’Neil. The turnaround came with a redesigned look to the Batman but also to the Batcave and Batmobile. Everything was modernized. Infantino didn’t just stop there but produced some of the most dynamic covers of the period including the re-introduction of the Riddler in Batman #171 in 1965.
One of the revelations in the book is just how little involvement Bob Kane had with his creation. While Kane was given issue credits, the art and stories were often written by others. In Fact, it was writer Bill Finger who wrote many of the Batman stories. Finger said it was he who had designed many of Batman’s distinguishing costume characteristics including the bat ears on the cowl and the bat-winged gloves. Finger also stated he created characters such as The Joker, Catwoman, Penguin and others. This set off a firestorm of controversy in the mid-1960s. An open letter written by Bob Kane is reprinted that tries to refute Finger’s claims. What can’t be refuted is how artists like Jerry Robinson and Sheldon Moldoff actually drew the stories while Kane was given credit. In the Infantio interview, Carmine can barely control his disdain for Kane.
In all the book contains 26 chapters that take a look at this era from every angle. Chapter 17 takes a look at the Joker’s return to being a homicidal maniac courtesy of Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams in 1973. There is a chapter on how horror influenced Batman stories of the time and a chapter devoted to the creation of Ra’s Al Ghul, one of his greatest foes. Many people consider Neal Adams to be the definitive Batman artist and in a 2003 interview with Kronenberg, Adams talks about his approach to Batman’s look and some of the stories he worked on.
Finally, the book wraps up with a complete index to every Batman and Detective Comics issue from 1969- 1979, noting the release date, writer and artist credits, story title, synopsis, and key notes about the issue. Grade A
LOGIN
REGISTER
RSS
HOME
