Pipeline: September 2010

This regular feature of Salon Futura will highlight a number of significant book releases (and occasionally items in other media as well) in the month the issue is published. The selections will be made by Salon Futura contributors and staff, and occasionally by our podcast guests and interviewees.

Zoo City, Lauren Beukes (Angry Robot) [Purchase] — The latest novel by this month’s interviewee, Lauren Beukes, should be in the shops in the UK by now. Check out the interview to see what it is all about. — Cheryl Morgan

Moxyland, Lauren Beukes (Angry Robot) [Purchase] — Lauren’s other novel, Moxyland, should be thundering it’s way into US and Canadian shops right now. I’ve read this and love it. Again check the interview. — Cheryl Morgan

Winter Song, Colin Harvey (Angry Robot) [Purchase] — Talking of Angry Robots, it would be remiss of us not to mention that our good friend Colin Harvey also has a book in their US launch. Winter Song is a classic tale of man and woman against the elements on an inhospitable alien planet. — Cheryl Morgan

What I Didn’t See and Other Stories, Karen Joy Fowler (Small Beer Press) [Purchase] — Karen Joy Fowler has produced some memorable (and controversial) short stories. This new collection from Small Beer includes the Shirley Jackson Award winning “The Pelican Bar” and the Nebula Award winning “What I Didn’t See”. — Cheryl Morgan

Zero History, William Gibson (Putnam) [Purchase] — The Hubertus Bigend Trilogy, begin with Pattern Recognition and continued with Spook Country, finally comes to a conclusion with Zero History. Gibson is as good at it gets. I’ll be getting this as soon as it is available. — Cheryl Morgan

An Artificial Night, Seanan McGuire (DAW) [Purchase] — Urban Fantasy may be ubiquitous right now, but that doesn’t mean it is all bad. McGuire’s blend of hard-boiled San Francisco detective with Shakespearean fairies works far better than it sounds. — Cheryl Morgan

The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi (Gollancz) [Purchase] — Hannu Rajaniemi is one of the smartest people I know. He eats quantum physics problems for breakfast. That he should turn out to be a good writer does not surprise me. But with the likes of John Clute, Gary Wolfe and Jonathan Strahan all expressing excitement about this book it looks like he’s turning out to be a great writer. — Cheryl Morgan

The latest entrant in the hard-sf-thriller market, lots of buzz for this one. — Karen Burnham

How To Live Safely In A Science Fiction Universe, Charles Yu (Atlantic Books) [Purchase] — This new novel by Charles Yu stars a time-travel engineer called Charles Yu who can only work himself out of a tricky time- loop by reading a book called How To Live Safely In A Science Fiction Universe given to him by a future version of Charles Yu… And if that sounds tricksy, it’s because it is. But for once all the metafictional playing around promises to be thoroughly intriguing, not to mention amusing. Also, at its heart, this novel promises a good old fashioned ripping yarn and a steady look at what it means to be human. — Sam Jordison

Finch, Jeff VanderMeer (Atlantic Books) [Purchase] — Hard boiled detectives take on alien fungoid creatures with very evil plans for humanity. What’s not to love? I know this is already out in the US, but it’s new in the UK! — Sam Jordison

One of my Hugo nominees from last year. — Cheryl Morgan

The Reapers Are The Angels, by Alden Bell (Holt McDougal) [Purchase] — Someone on Twitter described this to me as “Zombies meet The Road“. Sounds like a marked improvement on McCarthy. If only they’d thought of that for the film… — Sam Jordison

The Living Dead 2, John Joseph Adams (Night Shade) [Purchase], — The sequel to his first zombie anthology. Zombies still seem to have a lot of life in them, as recent releases such as Amelia Beamer’s The Loving Dead indicate. The first volume had quite a few award-worthy stories, and I have high hopes for this one. — Karen Burnham

A Star Shall Fall, Marie Brennan (Tor) [Purchase] — The third in her secret-history-of-England-with-faery-involvement sequence, I mightily enjoyed the first ones. So did my mother, who is an historian. I shall be picking up copies for each of us. — Karen Burnham

Blameless, Gail Carriger (Little, Brown) [Purchase] — The third in her steampunk-alt-history-Victorian-bodice-ripper-with-werewolves-and-vampires sequence, I enjoyed the first two much more than I had any right to. Swift, smart, and fun. — Karen Burnham

The Evolutionary Void, Peter F. Hamilton (Pan Macmillan) [Purchase] — I’ve already got about 1400 pages invested in this trilogy, so I’m not going to miss its concluding volume. — Karen Burnham