I have a real soft-spot for the Mission: Impossible movies. This trailer for the next instalment in the franchise makes it look like it’ll be a lot of fun. In cinemas in July 2015.
Upcoming
Upcoming: DUNE 50th Anniversary Edition
Today, Hodderscape unveiled the cover for the 50th anniversary edition of Frank Herbert’s Dune. Designed by Sean O’Connell, as you can see, it’s a pretty stunning cover:
I’ve never actually read Dune, despite many people recommending it (clearly, I’m just difficult). With this new edition, perhaps I will have no excuse…? The 50th anniversary edition will be published in the UK by Hodder on July 16th, 2015. In case you aren’t familiar with it, here’s the novel’s synopsis:
Melange, or ‘spice’, is the most valuable — and rarest — element in the universe; a drug that does everything from increasing a person’s life-span to making intersteller travel possible. And it can only be found on a single planet: the inhospitable desert world Arrakis.
Whoever controls Arrakis controls the spice. And whoever controls the spice controls the universe.
When the Emperor transfers stewardship of Arrakis from the noble House Harkonnen to House Atreides, the Harkonnens fight back, murdering Duke Leto Atreides. Paul, his son, and Lady Jessica, his concubine, flee into the desert. On the point of death, they are rescued by a band for Fremen, the native people of Arrakis, who control Arrakis’ second great resource: the giant worms that burrow beneath the burning desert sands.
In order to avenge his father and retake Arrakis from the Harkonnens, Paul must earn the trust of the Fremen and lead a tiny army against the innumerable forces aligned against them.
And his journey will change the universe.
DC Comics’ TV Universe Expands Even Further…
Hot on the heels of the Lucifer trailer, two more trailers have surfaced online these past couple of days, for two new series that will be hitting small screens soon.
First up was the lengthy Supergirl (CBS) featurette, which has divided fans online — some see it as a welcome breath of fresh air in an otherwise grim-‘n’-gritty TV and movie universe, which has seen heroes become darker and more grey, walking the fine line between champion and violent vigilante. Others see it as twee and lame. Personally, I am reserving judgement, but it looks like this series could offer something lighter, and appeal to both the super-hero and (loosely) the teen drama fandoms — both of which are highly lucrative. I’ll wait to see how it shapes up, but I’m certainly interested in giving it a fair shot. Here’s the featurette:
Secondly, and spinning out of the hugely successful Arrow and The Flash, is DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (CW), which features the aforementioned Flash, plus a number of other guest stars and villains from those two shows (both of which I’m now way behind on). This looks like it could be fun, and maybe even a venue for the now-cancelled Constantine to show up? That’s pure speculation, probably inspired only by the fact that the time traveler in the trailer is from London, and so is Constantine… (What a lazy route to a hypothesis…)
It’s a grand time to be a fan of super-heroes and TV, but I worry that this is the first step towards the comicification of TV: endless spin-offs, tie-ins and crossovers that have novelty value the first time, but eventually just make everyone annoyed…
Cover Reveal and Q&A: THE WATCHERS by Neil Spring (Quercus)
On September 24th, Quercus Books will publish Neil Spring’s THE WATCHERS. To the right you can see the rather excellent cover. Here’s the synopsis:
At the height of the Cold War, officials at the Ministry of Defence conducted a highly secret investigation into unusual events that occurred along a strip of rugged coastline within the Pembrokeshire National Park nicknamed ‘The Broad Haven Triangle’.
The events made national headlines: lights and objects hovering in the sky, ghostly figures peering into farmhouse windows, cowering animals, and poltergeists plaguing a terrified family of witnesses.
Thirty years later, official files pertaining to these occurrences were finally released for public scrutiny at the National Archives. The disclosure prompted a new witness to come forward to speak of what he knew. His testimony rocked the very foundations of the British Government.
This is his story.
As a bonus, JFB have provided a quick Q&A with Neil. Read on for more about the novel, Neil’s writing and more… Continue reading
Trailer: LUCIFER, Season 1
Fox has unveiled the first trailer for the upcoming TV series adaptation of the comic series Lucifer, published by Vertigo Comics. Spinning out of Neil Gaiman’s genre-redefining Sandman, the books were written by Mike Carey — who also wrote (among others) the Felix Castor urban fantasy novels, The Unwritten comic series (also published by Vertigo), and one of my favourite novels: The Girl With All the Gifts (Orbit).
The series is directed by Len Wiseman (Underworld), and stars Tom Ellis as Lucifer. I’m rather looking forward to this.
I would highly recommend the aforementioned The Girl With All the Gifts, as well the Lucifer comic series, which has been collected into five omnibus editions:
Upcoming: CHILDREN OF TIME by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor)
Hot(ish) on the heels of stand-alone fantasy novel Guns of the Dawn, the details of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s first sci-fi novel have emerged! Children of Time is due to be published by Tor Books in the UK in June 2015. To the right is the rather nice cover, and here is the synopsis:
WHO WILL INHERIT THIS NEW EARTH?
The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age – a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind’s worst nightmare. Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?
Also on CR: Interview with Adrian Tchaikovsky; Guest Posts on “Nine Books, Six Years, One Stenwold Maker” and “The Art of Gunsmithing – Writing Guns of the Dawn“; Excerpt from Guns of the Dawn; Reviews of Empire in Black & Gold and The Bloody Deluge
Upcoming: CITY OF BLADES by Robert Jackson Bennett
I loved the first novel in Robert Jackson Bennett‘s new series, City of Stairs. Not long ago, Bennett’s US publisher Crown unveiled their cover for the sequel, City of Blades:
Today, though, I spotted the UK cover for City of Blades over on Quercus’s website (below). Sadly, fans of the series will have a bit of a wait — the novel is not due to be published until January 2016.
Here’s the synopsis (from Goodreads):
The city of Voortyashtan was once the domain of the goddess of death, war, and destruction, but now it’s little more than a ruin. General Turyin Mulaghesh is called out of retirement and sent to this hellish place to try to find a Saypuri secret agent who’s gone missing in the middle of a mission, but the city of war offers countless threats: not only have the ghosts of her own past battles followed her here, but she soon finds herself wondering what happened to all the souls that were trapped in the afterlife when the Divinities vanished. Do the dead sleep soundly in the land of death? Or do they have plans of their own?
Also on CR: Interview with Robert Jackson Bennett; Guest post on “City of Stairs & the Super Tropey Fantasy Checklist”; Reviews of City of Stairs and The Company Man
Upcoming from Jo Fletcher Books/Quercus…
Here are just a handful of interesting titles coming out soon (and a couple not-so-soon) from Jo Fletcher Books/Quercus. We’re really living in a new golden age of fiction, if you ask me…
David Hair, PYRE (JFB UK, June 4th, 2015)
Mandore, Rajasthan, 769 AD: Ravindra-Raj, the evil sorcerer-king, devises a deadly secret ritual, where he and his seven queens will burn on his pyre, and he will rise again with the powers of Ravana, demon-king of the epic Ramayana. But things go wrong when one queen, the beautiful, spirited Darya, escapes with the help of Aram Dhoop, the court poet.
Jodhpur, Rajasthan, 2010: At the site of ancient Mandore, teenagers Vikram, Amanjit, Deepika and Rasita meet and realize that the deathless king and his ghostly brides are hunting them down. As vicious forces from the past come alive, they need to unlock truths that have been hidden for centuries, and fight an ancient battle… one more time.
A new novel by the author of the Moontide Quartet series – so far including Mage’s Blood, Scarlet Tides and Unholy War. The Moontide Quartet is also published in the US by Quercus.
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Trevor Hoyle, THE LAST GASP (JFB UK, April 2016)
It began with the Tokyo Alert – men, women and children collapsing on the street, gasping through blackened lips for the world’s most vital resource: air.
Man-made pollution has poisoned the oceans and eaten through a crucial link in the planet’s life-support system. The seas that recycle the world’s air have reached saturation point and the supply is running out, fast.
Now a breakaway group of men and women from corrupt institutions in America and Russia must work together to find a solution before Environmental war destroys the Earth completely.
This edition of The Last Gasp is a rewritten version of the 1983 novel. (This means the novel is as old as I am… Which, strangely, makes me want to read it more.) It would be really interesting to do a comparison of the two versions.
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Peter Liney, IN CONSTANT FEAR (JFB UK, August 6th, 2015)
Over a year has passed since Clancy and the gang managed to escape from the hell that was the City. Pursued by the ruthless leader of Infinity – the corporation behind the mass murders of thousands of ‘lower class’ citizens – they’ve been on the run ever since; constantly looking over their shoulders.
Despite this, they have forged a new life working the land on an abandoned smallholding on the other side of the mountains. Hidden there, they are as close to happy as they can be.
Until strange things start to happen in the valley: too many unlucky coincidences convince them that another power is rising against them, and there are many questions to be answered: what is the shadow maker? And who – or what – has begun to howl in the night?
This is the third novel in Liney’s dystopian series, following The Detainee and Into the Fire. Liney’s series is published in the US by Quercus US.
Also on CR: Interview with Peter Liney; Guest Post on “Seeds in the Desert”; Excerpt from The Detainee
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Stephanie Saulter, BINARY (Quercus US, May 5th, 2015)
Zavcka Klist has reinvented herself: no longer the ruthless gemtech enforcer determined to keep the gems they created enslaved, she’s now all about transparency and sharing the fruits of Bel’Natur’s research to help gems and norms alike.
Neither Aryel Morningstar nor Dr. Eli Walker are convinced that Klist or Bel’Natur can have changed so dramatically, but the gems have problems that only a gemtech can solve. In exchange for their help, digital savant Herran agrees to work on Klist’s latest project: reviving the science that drove mankind to the brink of extinction.
Then confiscated genestock disappears from a secure government facility, and the more DI Varsi investigates, the closer she comes to the dark heart of Bel’Natur and what Zavcka Klist is really after-not to mention the secrets of Aryel Morningstar’s own past…
The second novel in the marvellous Revolution series coming out in the US! This is a great series, and a must-read for all. Quercus US also publishes the first novel, Gemsigns.
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Stephanie Saulter, REGENERATION (JFB UK, August 6th, 2015)
The gillungs – waterbreathing, genetically modified humans – are thriving. They’ve colonised riverbanks and ports long since abandoned to the rising seas and the demand for their high-efficiency technologies is growing fast.
But as demand grows, so do fears about their impact on both norm businesses and the natural environment.
Then, a biohazard scare at Sinkat, their colony on the Thames, fuels the opposition and threatens to derail the gillungs’ progress. But was it an accident, or was it sabotage?
DCI Sharon Varsi has her suspicions, but her investigations are compromised by family ties. And now there is a new threat: Zavcka Klist is about to be released from prison – and she wants her company back.
The third novel in the Revolution series, out soon in the UK — Gemsigns and Binary also published in the UK by Jo Fletcher Books.
Also on CR: Review of Gemsigns; Guest Post on “Influences & Inspirations”; Excerpt from Gemsigns
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENING Teaser 2
Just saw this. Goosebumps… Can’t wait to see this movie.
Trailer: Ant-Man
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWdKf3MneyI]
This looks… Fun. I’m still surprised that Marvel picked this one to make before a whole host of other, more “commercial” or “mainstream” heroes, but it does look like it’ll be fun and on the lighter side of Marvel Studio’s output. Which is no bad thing — some humour in amongst the bleak and gritty is a necessity.
Civilian Reader 