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Columns:
Editorial License
US
Books
UK
Books
Can
Books
Comics
DVD
Events/Cons:
CanVention 22 and the Aurora Awards
If It's Tuesday,
this must be TOR
Feature Interview:
Ken Macleod
Feature Review:
Cosmonaut Keep by Ken Macleod
Book Reviews:
The Alchemists Door
by Lisa Goldstein
Alternate Generals
ed by Harry Turtledove
Argonaut
by Stanley Schmidt
Fire
Logic by Laurie J. Marks
The
Iron Grail by John Woodstock
The Sacred Pool by L. Warren Douglas
The Sky So Big And Black by John Barnes
Spaceland by Rudy Rucker
Straw Men by Michael
Marshall Smith
Sisters of the Raven by Barbara Hambly
To Trade The Stars
by Julie
E. Czerneda
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Ellen Datlow and
Terri Windling
Graphic Novel:
Murder Mysteries. Original short
story and radio play by Neil Gaiman. Graphic story script and art by P.
Craig Russell
Zine:
The
Journal of Pulse Pounding Narratives
SFMedia:
Film:
Austin Powers:
GoldMember
Metropolis (2002)
Restoration
& Metropolis Essay
PowerPuff Girls
Reign of Fire
Signs
Simone
|
UK July 2002 Releases
by
Iain Emsley
           
(Images
are linked to their respective
Amazon.co.uk pages.)
Iain Emsley continues his stand in
the breach while John Berlyne plays the Count in a production of
The Marriage of Figaro.
- Ernest Lilley
August has continued being a
quiet month in UK publishing with a few big titles coming through to
wind the season into the normal September and October frenzy.
The
Voyager Classics continue to come through with Megan Lindholm’s
Cloven Hooves (Voyager, £8.99), a brilliant story of magic in
everyday life from a fantasy writer whose early work is being the light
that it deserves. The slightly surprising, but in no fashion unworthy,
release is Doris Lessing’s Shikasta (Voyager, £8.99). Lessing is
well know for her mainstream writing but this series deserves to come
back into the light and be considered in within her oeuvre.
The other two releases are The Illustrated Man
by Ray Bradbury (Voyager, £8.99), reportedly an influence upon the
Books of Blood by Barker, and the Sapphire Rose by David
Eddings (Voyager, £8.99). The other Voyager hardback publications are
Phase Space by Stephen Baxter (Voyager, £17.99), a collection of
Stephen Baxter’s short fiction that stretches through his entire corpus
as well as his final book for Harper Collins before he goes to Gollancz
in entirety. David and Leigh Eddings have returned to the thriller genre
with
Regina’s Song (Harper Collins, £17.99). Published in the main list
is Michael Marshall Smith’s new novel, The Straw Men (Harper
Collins, £9.99), a psychological thriller advertised as in the tradition
of Thomas Harris.
 Orion’s
paperback list has produced the second half of the Infinities
hardback collection, a bind up in Ace back-to-back fashion of Reality
Dust (Stephen Baxter) and Making History (Paul McAuley)
(Orion, £4.99).
Forests of the Heart by Charles de Lint (Orion, 6.99) tells the tale
of the Gentry from Ireland who have followed the settlers to America.
Also published is The Onion Girl (Orion, £16.99 and 9.99), his
new Newford novel featuring Jilly Coppercorn.
Debt
of Bones (Orion, £4.99) by Terry Goodkind
is a prequel of sorts to his ‘Sword of Truth’ series but
ultimately fails to deliver the impact he hopes that it will. The other
major new release is Kim Wilkins’ Falling
Angel (Orion, 6.99) which is another
magical horrific romp in seventeenth century London.
Simon
and Schuster have come up with two gems this month. Robert Holdstock’s
Iron Grail (Earthlight, £16.99) is the follow up to Celtika
and re-affirms his place as one of Britain’s most exciting fantasts.
Christopher Priest has come up with the goods in The Separation
(Scribner, £10.99), a triumphant novel which explores how the choices of
men can change the course of history. A welcome return to this much
underrated author outside of the genre.
Occasionally
there is a small press which brings to our attention a complete oddball.
Creation have published Blood Electric (Creation, £9.95) by Kenji
Siratori which takes cyber-punk into the arena of language and imagery.
Steve Aylett meets William Burroughs via The Devil’s Dictionary?
A difficult one to encapsulate.
Neil Gaiman’s Coraline (Bloomsbury, £9.99) has
just been published in the UK. Unfortunately this edition does not carry
the fabulously creepy Dave McKean illustrations found in the US edition.
However it remains a fantastic read and is a must for all fans of dark,
contemporary or children’s fantasy or those in search a fine read.
__________________________________
The Marriage
of Figaro plays at The New Victoria Theatre,
Newcastle-Under-Lyme from August 2nd to August 24th and at
The Stephen Jospeh Theatre,
Scarborough from 10th to 28th September. Anyone approaching John
after the show in the bar stating that they came to see the show
specifically due to this flagrant plug will be bought a drink by our
erstwhile actor/correspondent! |
