UK Books

October 2002
© 2002 Ernest Lilley / SFRevu
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October 2002 Canadian Releases by Asta Sinusas

Canadian publisher publishes SF!

Green Music by Ursula Pflug (Tesseract,1895836778, C$ 28.95, hardcover) (Tesseract, 1895836751, C$16.95, simultaneous trade paperback) is a wonderful debut novel. (see review).

The Burning Crown by J. Fitzgerald McCurdy (Saratime, 0968871313, $29.95) The serpent from the last story may have died, but not before laying eggs in the dead King of the Elves. This time the target is The Golden Crown, which is being taken out of its secure location. Whoever is crowned controls the Elves, and evil doers, including a newly-hatched serpent, are around to thwart Miranda and company from seeing the Prince of Ellesmere take his rightful place. McCurdy seems more comfortable with her writing, but the story has less emotional depth and the characters seem more lackluster, although her descriptions of evil are a wonder to revel in. (see previous review) and visit www.theserpentsegg.com

Below the 49th parallel:

Paragon Lost by Dave Duncan (Eos, 0380978962, C $34.95/ $24.95) A fourth book in the Chronicle of the King's Blades series. Fans of Duncan are sure not to be disappointed.

I'm still waiting for West of January, by Duncan and as the Stoddart warehouse closes down, authors were allowed to buy their books back at a discount, but few have been willing to take part in the offer. Most cite the difficulty of warehousing 5,000 books in their apartment as the main problem. The books have gone on to a remainder dealer, but sound like they should be appearing soon on a discount table near you.

THE SUNBURST AWARD FOR CANADIAN LITERATURE OF THE FANTASTIC

The best news to come out of Canada this month is the winner -

When Alice Lay Down With Peter by Margaret Sweatman (Knopf Canada, 0676973159)

The $1,000 cash prize and medal were awarded on September 26th at the Winnipeg International Writers Festival.

The other shortlisted works, representing the finest of novel-length Canadian fantastic literature published during the year 2001 were:

Paradigm Of Earth by Candas Jane Dorsey (Tor, 031287796X)
The Kappa Child by Hiromi Goto (Red Deer Press, 0889952280)
Salamander by Thomas Wharton (McClelland and Stewart, 0771088337)
The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor, 0312873840) (see SFRevu's review)
For more information visit www.sunburstaward.org

To those partying at V-con www.v-con.ca in Vancouver this month, hope you have a great time!

Until next month, if there's something I missed mentioning about the Great White North, please email me at asta@sfrevu.com or astasin@hotmail.com .