Three More Kindle Releases Materialize

Three more Pyr books have appeared for the Kindle.

Ian McDonald's River of Gods

Justina Robson's Mappa Mundi

David Louis Edelman's MultiReal (Volume II of the Jump 225 Trilogy)

That was fast!

A Mass of D'Ammassa

On his website Critical Mass, author and former Science Fiction Chronicle reviewer Don D'Ammassa reviews Alexis Glynn Latner's debut novel, Hurricane Moon, which will be coming out in just a few weeks.

"I've been reading short stories by Latner for about ten years now, almost all of them in Analog, and have found her to be a reliable source of interesting and accessible stories of hard science fiction. At long last we have a chance to read her at novel length, and it was worth the wait, although I hope we don't have to wait as long for her next. It's an old fashioned space adventure, but with more contemporary sensibilities and healthy doses of intelligent and not too abstruse science... Extremely well written, tightly plotted, full of that old fashioned sense of wonder about the universe. I hope to see much more from this author in the future."

Meanwhile, I've found a host of Pyr reviews that I mostly missed in his 2006 archive. Don says that the reviews "were written for Science Fiction Chronicle, but most were never used." So let's look at some of them here!

Fast Forward 1, edited by Yours Truly:

"Lou Anders has put together a collection of twenty original stories, designed to be the first in an ongoing series along the lines of Terry Carr’s Universe series or Damon Knight’s Orbit collections, although the emphasis appears to be on hard SF. There are stories by some of the best known writers in that sub-genre – Stephen Baxter, Larry Niven, Ken Macleod – as well as representatives of the more literary end of the spectrum – Gene Wolfe, Paul Di Filippo, Pamela Sargent. Non-theme anthologies are almost always more readable than specialized ones and this is no exception, very high quality throughout and enough variation to reward almost any reader’s taste."

Sagramanda (A Novel of Near-Future India) by Alan Dean Foster:

Near future India is the setting for this surprisingly low key novel, surprising because there are a lot of violent things happening in it. The central plot is the theft by a scientist of a revolutionary new, but undescribed, discovery which he is trying to sell to a competitor... Nicely understated, and a depressing and unfortunately not entirely inaccurate portrayal of the future of much of the urban world, and not just India."

Starship: Pirate by Mike Resnick:

"Resnick combines space opera, a touch of military, more than a touch of humor, and his usual talent for creating larger than life characters in this new series. Consistently good fun from beginning to end."

Mappa Mundi by Justina Robson:

"This one might well have been packaged as a contemporary thriller rather than SF, and it’s a good one regardless of your mind set while you’re reading it."

Infoquake by David Louis Edelman:

"A debut novel and the first in a trilogy, set in a future when multi-national corporations have become virtual governments... Lots of interesting speculation and a plausible and interesting plot. I found the prose a bit awkward from time to time but not so much that it significantly interfered with my enjoyment of the story."

Paragaea: A Planetary Romance by Chris Roberson:

"The cover blurbs compare this to Edgar Rice Burroughs and Leigh Brackett, and with some justification.... a bit difficult to take seriously at times, but if you just let go and enjoy the ride, Roberson conducts a pretty rousing tour of his universe."

New Dreams for Old by Mike Resnick:

"I am so used to thinking of Mike Resnick as primarily a novelist that it came as a surprise to read through the table of contents of this new collection and discover how many of them I remembered. And how many of them have appeared on Hugo and Nebula ballots. Although a few have been previously collected, most appear in book form for the first time... Some are funny, some are dead serious. All are nifty. This is a big, representative, and above all very satisfying selection of his short fiction."

Resolution: Book III of the Nulapeiron Sequence by John Meaney:

"The final volume of the Nulapeiron trilogy concludes this sequence set in a future so remote and different that it is sometimes difficult to identify with the characters and situations. Technology and mental powers have advanced to the point where they are indistinguishable from magic....You'll have to suspend your disbelief pretty radically for this one, but if you can get yourself into the story, you'll have a wild and exciting ride ahead of you."

The Destiny Mask by Martin Sketchley:

"Pyr Books has been reprinting quite a few British and Australian novels which had not previously appeared in the US, including this, the second in a series. The setting is an interstellar empire and the plot is one familiar to readers even outside the genre, the rivalry between two twins, separated as babies and ignorant of each other's existence, who become pivotal players in a battle between rebels and a repressive interplanetary dictatorship. I liked this one considerably better than its predecessor, The Affinity Trap. The characters are more realistic and the plot tighter and more involving."

The Liberty Gun by Martin Sketchley

"I had a mixed reaction to the first two novels in the Structure series, but the third is a much more satisfying space adventure that mixes time travel, aliens, military SF, and general intrigue. ...the situation is considerably more complicated than any of the characters realize. It takes a while to get into the story, but once you’re there, you won’t want out."

Genetopia by Keith Brooke:

"Pyr has reprinted several British SF novels that have not previously been available in the US, including this one from 1999. Brooke should have been discovered earlier because he has definite talent... Many of the things Flint encounters are fascinating ideas, but after a while it becomes just a parade of wonders and readers may find themselves impatient to get to the destination."

Note: Genetopia is an original novel, first published by Pyr. Don is apparently confusing it with a previously published short story of the same name. Meanwhile, with this profusion of Pyr reviews, Don has put my own personal archive of our books' reviews over the 500 mark. And while I'm sure I have missed some somewhere, I'm happy to report that out of some 503 reviews I've tracked since we launched - appearing everywhere from tiny websites I'd never previously heard of to huge venues like the Washington Post and Entertainment Weekly - I've only logged 27 negative ones! Which is nice.

Crowing About Pyr

Tomas L. Martin has posted two reviews in the recent edition of SF Crowsnest.

Of Justina Robson's brilliant near-future thriller, Mappa Mundi,Tomas has this to say:

"Mappa Mundi is an excellent second novel, with great characterisation and an intriguing plot idea. It's certainly worth reading and Justina Robson is an extremely promising writer but I felt this book strayed a bit too far in its extrapolation to function as a great thriller. As it is, it's simply a good book."

Not arguing with a good review - just feel compelled to add that I love the "straying." For me, the book starts off like any Michael Crichton thriller, but goes in the opposite direction. So much of his work - as well as the Hollywood treatment of SFnal tropes - is about putting genies back in the bottle, while we science fiction types know that that is rarely possible...

Meanwhile, Tomas's thoughts on my own Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edgeare equally appreciated:

"There are some excellent stories here. In his introduction, Anders mentions that he aspires to produce a similar collection to that of Damon Knight's prestigious Orbit series that was so influential in its twenty-one volumes. This is heady competition to put onto a new publication but happily it isn't too difficult to see Fast Forward becoming a similarly established name in original SF anthology history.... Fast Forward 1 has more than enough original and exciting new stories to make it important reading and worthy of more than a couple more editions to follow. Lou Anders has done a good job with this first volume and I hope he continues producing original anthologies if they are as good as this one."

Mappa Mundi Enters Neth Space

Ken at Neth Space posts his review of Justina Robson's Mappa Mundi:

"...allows enjoyment for both the thinking and the escapist reader, while providing the excitement and twists of a typical thriller. After its slow start, the pace increases to evoke the cliché reaction: I couldn’t put it down. On my 10-point rating scale, Mappa Mundi scores a 7 and a solid recommendation in spite of a few hang-ups. I’m looking forward to reading other offerings from Robson."

The Map of the World @ SFFWorld

Rob H. Bedford, of SFFWorld, on Justina Robson's Mappa Mundi:

"Justina Robson is one of the more interesting SF writers to have emerged from the UK in recent years. In a relatively short time, she’s produced some of the more thought-provoking, critically acclaimed novels in the genre, with nominations for awards such as the Philip K. Dick award and the British Science Fiction Association award. Her second novel, Mappa Mundi, published in the UK in 2000, now appears on US shelves through Pyr, is no exception. The novel is part medical thriller, part spy/geopolitical thriller, and Big Idea SF novel... While the technology of mapping the human mind may not be readily available, one gets the sense that it might be something the government is working behind closed doors. The political climate and global settings also resonated with those of today’s world. It isn’t always easy for an SF writer to blur this line, and Robson did so very effectively. ...with Mappa Mundi, Robson proves she is a smart and thought-provoking writer with her hand on of the pulse and thoughts of today’s world."

Entertainment Weekly Gives Mappa Mundi an A-, SFFWorld Loves Resnick

Justina Robson's Mappa Mundi has just received a great review in the September 15th issue of Entertainment Weekly:

"For fans of Brave New World or Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, if they met Thomas Pynchon in a cybercafé. Lowdown: A lyrical, attentively written anti-utopia. Grade: A-"

Meanwhile, Rob H. Bedford, over at SFFWorld, has this to say about Mike Resnick's New Dreams for Old:

"New Dreams for Old, with its gorgeous Stephan Martiniere cover, is terrific collection displaying Mike Resnick’s wonderful storytelling abilities across the range of speculative fiction. What makes these stories so great is, despite their far out and fantastical settings, how intimately they touch upon the human condition, both now and in the future, even through the eyes of robots and elephants."

I'm particularly gratified Rob mentions the Stephan Martiniere cover, as I love seeing artists getting their due. Stephan also provided the cover for Mappa Mundi as well.

New Books by Robson & Meaney Out This Month

This month, we have two new books making their debut (and already spotted on the shelf at a local B&N). Coincidentally, both are tales of technological mind-control, albeit one is a techno-thriller set just around the corner from now and the other takes place in the future on a world far, far away.

Justina Robson's Mappa Mundi is a novel of hard SF exploring the nature of identity both inherited and engineered, from one of Britain’s most acclaimed new talents. In the near future, when medical nanotechnology has made it possible to map a model of the living human brain, radical psychologist Natalie Armstrong sees her work suddenly become crucial to a cutting-edge military project for creating comprehensive mind-control. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Jude Westhorpe, FBI specialist, is tracking a cold war defector long involved in everything from gene sequencing to mind-mapping. But his investigation has begun to affect matters of national security—throwing Jude and Natalie together as partners in trouble—deep trouble from every direction. This fascinating novel explores the nature of humanity in the near future, when the power and potential of developing technologies demand that we adapt ourselves to their existence—whatever the price.

Publishers Weekly gave Mappa Mundi a starred review, saying, "Robson's third novel to appear in the U.S. ... maintains throat-tightening suspense from its teasingly enigmatic introduction of its major characters to its painful conclusion that evil will succeed if well-meaning people try to achieve good at any cost....Shortlisted for the 2001 Arthur C. Clarke Award, this near-future SF thriller presents convincing characters caught in profound moral dilemmas brought home through exquisite attention to plot details and setting."

John Meaney's To Hold Infinity is a stand-alone novel set in the same universe as (but centuries before) his acclaimed Nulapeiron Sequence.

Devastated by her husband’s death, Earth-based biologist Yoshiko Sunadomari journeys to the paradise world of Fulgar to see her estranged son in the hope of bridging the gulf between them. But Tetsuo is in trouble. His expertise in mu-space technology and family links with the mysterious Pilots have ensured his survival — so far. Now he’s in way over his head — unwittingly caught up in a conspiracy of illegal tech-trafficking and corruption, and in the sinister machinations of one of Fulgar’s ruling elite: the charismatic Luculentus, Rafael Garcia de la Vega. When his home is attacked, Tetsuo flees to the planet’s unterraformed wastes, home to society’s outcasts and eco-terrorists.

So Yoshiko arrives on Fulgar to discover Tetsuo gone ... and wanted for murder. Ill at ease in this strange, stratified new world seething with social and political unrest but desperate to find her son and clear his name, she embarks on a course of action that will bring her face to face with the awesome, malevolent mind of Rafael.

Connie Willis says of John Meaney's To Hold Infinity: “Dazzlingly imagined and dazzlingly executed…this is a work of true uniqueness by a true talent. Wow!” Publishers Weekly claims that Meaney “...brings a bright lights/big city sensibility to the normally streetwise milieu of advanced neuro-tech.”