Interview with S.K. DUNSTALL

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DunstallSK-AuthorsPicLet’s start with an introduction: Who is S.K. Dunstall?

S.K. Dunstall is the pen name for Sherylyn and Karen Dunstall, sisters who live in Melbourne, Australia.

We’ve told stories ever since we can remember. At first, we wrote individually, but even back then we always dipped into each other’s stories to edit them. We gradually came to realize that the stories we worked on together were better than the ones we worked on alone, and were a lot more fun to write.

Your latest novel, Alliance, is published by Ace. The second in your Linesman series, it looks rather interesting: How would you introduce the series to a new reader, and what can fans expect from the second book?

Linesman is classic space opera, although our protagonist, Ean, might not quite be your classic space opera hero. It’s character-based, lighthearted action/adventure with some fun moments. Continue reading →

Upcoming: INFERNAL by Mark de Jager (Del Rey)

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deJagerM-InfernalI’m really interested in reading Infernal. Mark de Jager has been a Twitter-acquaintance for quite some time, and this is his debut fantasy novel. I don’t remember exactly when I first heard that it had been acquired by Del Rey UK, but I remember reading the synopsis and thinking, “That sounds pretty great.”

While I’m not wholly keen on the cover (I do like the flame-y sleeve, though), check out the synopsis to see what I mean:

Stratus wakes in an unfamiliar place, with nothing but the knowledge that he is not human, with no memories of his past but possessing great strength, a powerful sorcery and the burning instinct to survive at any cost.

Embarking on a journey of self-discovery, he sets out across a landscape torn apart by the ten year war between the Kingdoms of Krandin and Penullin, now reaching new levels of savagery as a dark magic drives the world to the brink of destruction. 

As his personality grows with each step he slowly uncovers the truth of what he has become and the unquenchable thirst for vengeance that has led him there.

Infernal is due to be published in the UK by Del Rey, on August 11th, 2016. Looking forward to it.

Upcoming: SLEEPING GIANTS by Sylvain Neuvel (Michael Joseph)

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NeuvelS-SleepingGiantsUKI stumbled across this title on Penguin UK’s website, while looking for information on another book. It caught my eye first because of the interesting cover, but then I read the synopsis and my interest was even more piqued:

Deadwood, USA. A girl sneaks out just before dark to ride her new bike. Suddenly, the ground disappears beneath her. Waking up at the bottom of a deep pit, she sees an emergency rescue team above her. The people looking down see something far stranger…

“We always look forward. We never look back.”

That girl grows up to be Dr. Rose Franklyn, a brilliant scientist and the leading world expert on what she discovered. An enormous, ornate hand made of an exceptionally rare metal, which predates all human civilisation on the continent. 

“But this thing… it’s different. It challenges us. It rewrites history.”

An object whose origins and purpose are perhaps the greatest mystery humanity has ever faced. Solving the secret of where it came from — and how many more parts may be out there — could change life as we know it.

“It dares us to question what we know about ourselves.”

But what if we were meant to find it? And what happens when this vast, global puzzle is complete…?

“About everything.”

My interested grew again when I learned that Neuvel is Canadian — as a recent immigrant, I’m rather keen on discovering more authors from Canada.

Sylvain Neuvel‘s Sleeping Giants, the first in the Themis Files series, is due to be published by Michael Joseph in the UK, on April 7th, 2016; it is due to be published by Del Rey in the US (cover below), on April 26th, 2016.

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Upcoming: DISSIDENCE by Ken MacLeod (Orbit)

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MacLeodK-CW1-DissidenceI first heard of Ken MacLeod‘s Dissidence when browsing Orbit’s catalogue a while back, and it caught my attention because it sounded superb. Today, the publisher unveiled the cover (right), and my interest is piqued even more — yes, I know we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, etc., but it’s a really nice one.

The novel has been described as “a robot’s eye view of a robot revolt”. Here’s the full synopsis:

They’ve died for the companies more times than they can remember. Now they must fight to live for themselves.

Sentient machines work, fight and die in interstellar exploration and conflict for the benefit of their owners – the competing mining corporations of Earth. But sent over hundreds of light-years, commands are late to arrive and often hard to enforce. The machines must make their own decisions, and make them stick.

With this newfound autonomy come new questions about their masters. The robots want answers. The companies would rather see them dead.

Dissidence is the first in the Corporation Wars trilogy, and will be published on May 12th in the UK and Australia & New Zealand; it will be published in the US in September 2016. The novel is followed by Insurgence (end of 2016) and Emergence (2017).

Guest Review: THE THREE BODY PROBLEM by Cixin Liu (Tor Books)

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Liu-ThreeBodyProblemA satisfying start to a Hugo Award-winning Sci-Fi trilogy

With the scope of Dune and the commercial action of Independence Day, Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience this multiple-award-winning phenomenon from China’s most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin.

Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.

Reviewed by Ryan Frye

It is hard to believe that The Three-Body Problem won the 2015 Hugo award for best novel. Not because it isn’t deserving of the accolade — it is — but because, when I read it, I felt like I was reading a classic work of Science Fiction. The Three-Body Problem tackles the classic genre idea of whether or not there is other intelligent life in the universe. While the book is rooted in a question that could be traced back to the earliest beginnings of the genre, this book takes a markedly different and unique approach from the very first page. Continue reading →

Upcoming: EVERY MOUNTAIN MADE LOW by Alex White (Solaris)

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WhiteA-EveryMountainMadeLowThe cover for Alex White‘s upcoming Every Mountain Made Low was unveiled a few minutes ago, and it’s a stunner — Jeffrey Alan Love’s style is so eye-catching. The novel, due to be published by Solaris in October 2016, sounds pretty interesting, too:

Loxley Fiddleback can see the dead, but the problem is… the dead can see her.

Ghosts have always been cruel to Loxley Fiddleback, especially the spirit of her only friend, alive only hours before. Loxley isn’t equipped to solve a murder: she lives near the bottom of a cutthroat, strip-mined metropolis known as “The Hole,” suffers from crippling anxiety and doesn’t cotton to strangers. Worse still, she’s haunted.

She inherited her ability to see spirits from the women of her family, but the dead see her, too. Ghosts are drawn to her like a bright fire, and their lightest touch leaves her with painful wounds.

Loxley swears to take blood for blood and find her friend’s killer. In doing so, she uncovers a conspiracy that rises all the way to the top of The Hole. As her enemies grow wise to her existence, she becomes the quarry, hunted by a brutal enforcer named Hiram McClintock. In sore need of confederates, Loxley must descend into the strangest depths of the city in order to have the revenge she seeks and, ultimately, her own salvation.

Looking forward to giving this a try.

Review: AND AGAIN by Jessica Chiarella (Touchstone)

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ChiarellaJ-AndAgainUSAn engrossing, beautifully written novel about what makes us who we are

Would you live your life differently if you were given a second chance? Hannah, David, Connie, and Linda — four terminally ill patients — have been selected for the SUBlife pilot program, which will grant them brand-new, genetically perfect bodies that are exact copies of their former selves — without a single imperfection. Blemishes, scars, freckles, and wrinkles have all disappeared, their fingerprints are different, their vision is impeccable, and most importantly, their illnesses have been cured.

But the fresh start they’ve been given is anything but perfect. Without their old bodies, their new physical identities have been lost. Hannah, an artistic prodigy, has to relearn how to hold a brush; David, a Congressman, grapples with his old habits; Connie, an actress whose stunning looks are restored after a protracted illness, tries to navigate an industry obsessed with physical beauty; and Linda, who spent eight years paralyzed after a car accident, now struggles to reconnect with a family that seems to have built a new life without her. As each tries to re-enter their previous lives and relationships they are faced with the question: how much of your identity rests not just in your mind, but in your heart, your body?

What would you do if you were given a second chance? Not only a second chance, but a second body — fresh, new, cloned. Completely clear of defective genes, and devoid of the scars and weathering of everyday life. This is, in part, the premise of Jessica Chiarella’s fantastic debut novel, And Again. It is also one of the first must-reads of the year. Continue reading →

Upcoming: DUSKFALL by Christopher Husberg (Titan)

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HusbergC-CQ1-DuskfallUKTitan Books unveiled this cover only a couple hours ago, and it’s quite nice. Duskfall is the first novel in Christopher Husberg’s Chaos Queen Quintet series (nice alliteration). I quite like the simplicity of the cover, with nary a Hooded Man in sight… Here’s what it’s about:

Stuck with arrows and close to death, a man is pulled from the icy waters of the Gulf of Nahl. As he is nursed back to health by a local fisherman, two things become very clear: he has no idea who he is, and he can kill a man with terrifying ease.

The fisherman is a tiellan, a race which has long been oppressed and grown wary of humans. His daughter, Winter, is a seemingly quiet young woman, but behind her placid mask she has her demons. She is addicted to frostfire — a substance that both threatens to destroy her and simultaneously gives her phenomenal power.

A young priestess, Cinzia, hears the troubling news of an uprising in her native city of Navone. Absconding from the cloistered life that she has kept for the last seven years, she knows she must make the long journey home. The flames of rebellion threatening her church and all that she believes in are bad enough, but far worse is the knowledge that the heretic who sparked the fire is her own sister.

These three characters may have set out on different paths, but fate will bring them together on one thrilling and perilous adventure.

I think this sounds quite interesting. Dusk fall is due to be published by Titan Books in the UK and US, in June 2016.

Upcoming: CENTRAL STATION by Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon)

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Tidhar-CentralStation2Ok, I already have this, and featured it in a Books Received post a couple months back. But, today Tachyon unveiled that superb new cover, above, for Lavie Tidhar’s highly-anticipated new book, Central Station. It’s comprised of a series of novellas/short stories, stitched together to create a larger story. It sounds fantastic and, while the previous cover was also really nice, now it also looks magnificent. Here’s the synopsis:

A worldwide diaspora has left a quarter of a million people at the foot of a space station. Cultures collide in real life and virtual reality. The city is literally a weed, its growth left unchecked. Life is cheap, and data is cheaper.

When Boris Chong returns to Tel Aviv from Mars, much has changed. Boris’s ex-lover is raising a strangely familiar child who can tap into the datastream of a mind with the touch of a finger. His cousin is infatuated with a robotnik — a damaged cyborg soldier who might as well be begging for parts. His father is terminally-ill with a multigenerational mind-plague. And a hunted data-vampire has followed Boris to where she is forbidden to return.

Rising above them is Central Station, the interplanetary hub between all things: the constantly shifting Tel Aviv; a powerful virtual arena, and the space colonies where humanity has gone to escape the ravages of poverty and war. Everything is connected by the Others, powerful alien entities who, through the Conversation — a shifting, flowing stream of consciousness — are just the beginning of irrevocable change.

At Central Station, humans and machines continue to adapt, thrive… and even evolve.

Central Station is due out in May 2016. Tachyon have also shared a pair of travel posters for Central Station, which are rather fantastic:

Tidhar-CentralStation-Posters

Upcoming: HEART OF GRANITE by James Barclay (Gollancz)

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BarclayJ-HeartOfGraniteUKI’ve only read one of James Barclay’s novels, Dawnthief, the first in his Raven series. I rather enjoyed it — the characters were good, the story interesting. Not really sure why I never continued with the series… His next novel, Heart of Granite, is due to be published by Gollancz on August 18th, 2016. It has a pretty interesting cover (above). I’m not entirely sure what I think of it, though — the image is very nice, but it makes me think of an artistic cover for a science book, rather than a military fantasy novel. This is probably a sign that years of book jacket design conditioning has had an impact…

Here’s the synopsis:

One man, one brief conversation… a whole world of trouble…

The world has become a battleground in a war which no side is winning. But for those determined to retain power, the prolonged stalemate cannot be tolerated so desperate measures must be taken.

Max Halloran has no idea. He’s living the brief and glorious life of a hunter-killer pilot. He’s an ace in the air, on his way up through the ranks, in love, and with his family’s every need provided for in thanks for his service, Max has everything…

I couldn’t tell if this was a standalone or the first in a new series. Regardless, t’m quite looking forward to giving this one a try. (Kindle users: it’s only £3.99 on pre-order.)