More July 2012 book arrivals, including what promises to be a major new novel from M. John Harrison and significant new single-author collections of short fiction from Kathleen Ann Goonan and Jonathan Carroll.
"No point is more central than this, that empty space is not empty. It is the seat of the most violent physics," John A. Wheeler, is the lead epigraph in the new novel,
Empty Space: A Haunting by M. John Harrison. I expect it will be one of the important science fiction novels of 2012. This is the third in a loosely related series. The earlier books were the landmark novel
Light (2002), winner of the James Tiptree Jr Award, and
Nova Swing (2006), winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Harrison is one of the major literary talents in the science fiction genre, mostly unknown in the United States.
The Song of Synth and
Absinth, two novels by Sebastien Doubinsky, presented back-to-back, each with its own cover, like the old Ace Double paperbacks. This is a high-quality hardback from PS Publishing. There are introductions for each novel: one by Lucius Shepard, one by Paul Witcover.
Black Wings II: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror edited by S. T. Joshi contains stories by John Shirley, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Nick Mamatas, and Brian Evenson, just to name a few.
Eat Jellied Eels and Think Distant Thoughts, or The Conspirocrats by Kris Saknussemm. Saknussemm is the author of
Zanesville and
Enigmatic Pilot.
The Lonely Hunter by John Grant. Grant won a non-fiction Hugo Award and a World Fantasy Award as co-editor with John Clute of
The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997).
The Wurms of Blearmouth: A Tale of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach by Steven Erikson is the latest in a series of stories featuring two characters from his enormous
Malazan Book of the Fallen series.
Angels and You Dogs by Kathleen Ann Goonan is the first collection of the author's short fiction. Goonan has created a significant body of excellent work, both in novels and short fiction. Her first novel,
Queen City Jazz (1994), began her
Nanotech Quartet. Her sixth novel,
In War Times (2007), won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. It was followed by a sequel,
This Shared Dream, which your humble blog correspondent thinks is one of the best SF novels of 2011.
I've been an admirer of Jonathan Carroll's short fiction since reading "Friend's Best Man" in the January 1987 issue of F&SF. It's a pleasure to receive this generous-sized collection of 38 of his stories,
The Woman Who Married a Cloud: Collected Stories by Jonathan Carroll. His novels are worth your attention, too.
The Coldest War by Ian Tregillis is the second in his Milkweed series. The first book was
Bitter Seeds (2010).
The new fiftieth anniversary edition of
The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard, the author's second novel. This edition includes an introduction by Martin Amis.