|
12/27/02 New Simon R.
Green, Peshawar Lancers PB, and Tor Cover for Neal Asher's
Gridlinked
|
|
I did not expect to
enjoy the first Simon R. Green book I got,
and it took some convincing on the part of
my good friends Andy Fairclough, from
HorrorWorld,
and Mark V. Ziesing, bookseller
extraordinaire, to get me to read it. But
in the end I loved 'Drinking
Midnight Wine'. So this recently
arrived hardcover exntensino of the
Deathstalker saga definitely has me
intrigued. It just arrived int he mail
today. Yes, I'm a lucky guy. Now, if you
had asked me one year ago, "Would you,
Rick, be looking forward to another
chapter in a space opera saga you've never
read?", I'd'a told yez I had some
litrachur to be reading. But, having
actually read Green's stuff, I found his
prose excellent, his characters
read-worthy and his book overall quite
funny and enjoyable. So here I am signing
up for another one in the queue. It'll
probably go in the SF of 2003 column,
along with Asher's latest and Richard
Morgan's latest, both burning my nerve at
the top of my queue.
|
|
|
All hail the new, less
costly and more loanable version of 'The
Peshawar Lancers' from S. M. Stirling. I
loved the novella set in this world, which
can be found in 'Worlds
That Weren't'. I haven't actually read
this, but my ultra-picky reading buddy gave
it high marks. Let me tell you, she's really,
really viscious when it comes to criticism.
She'll gut a book and hang it out on the
laundry lines for failing to meet her high
standards, which are higher than mine. But
she loved this novel, and so I've got to
expect that it's pretty damn good. Let me
know what you think if you read it.
|
|
|
|
Speaking of picky readers,
both Jan and my wife enjoyed these books.
They're hoping that Harris does more with her
undead hunk in the upcoming titles. These
vampires have a lot of history that's left
unexcavated. There are possibilities that
Harris can and should explore. Let's hope she
does, as both women think that the lead
character is pretty spot-on.
|
|
|
And here, direct from
Neal Asher is a copy of the cover for the US
version of 'Gridlinked'.
It's my intuition that Asher will do very well in
the US. This cover for 'Gridlinked' should help him
attract the right audience, though I liked the UK
version as well. Time will tell if Asher will hit
-- but he's sure got all the right ingredients.
|
