This week’s releases include a handful of books that continue several different series- from Mercedes Lackey’s Elemental Masters series to Daniel Wilson’s follow up to Robopocalypse, to the collaborative efforts of Stephen Baxter and Terry Prachett’s in their Long Earth series. Standing out among the crowd, however, is perhaps George R.R. Martin’s edited collection Rogues, which features 21 original stories by authors like Neil Gaiman, Garth Nix, Scott Lynch, Patrick Rothfuss, and Joe Abercrombie. Most notably, this collection includes a brand new Song of Ice and Fire story from Martin himself, something to hopefully satisfy those of us who are lamenting Sunday’s season finale of Game of Thrones!
Check out the books below and be sure to pick up your favorites at your local bookstore!
Blood Red
By Mercedes Lackey
From Barnes and Noble:
Rosamund lives with her Earth Magician mentor deep in Germany’s Black Forest. As the first woman Hunt Master, she carries a heavy responsibility: She must vanquish the werewolves and shapeshifters who would destroy the fae creatures from the forest. As if her job wasn’t dangerous enough, Rosamund’s latest assignment has a disconcerting wrinkle: One of the two Elemental Magicians who have come from Hungary to ask her assistance is a werewolf. Having witnessed the savage violence of the species before, she cannot stop worrying even as she pursues her mission. A fantasy novel by a popular genre author whose work perfectly blends suspense and human feeling.
Robogenesis
by Daniel H. Wilson
Overview:
The stunningly creative, epic sequel to Wilson’s blockbuster thriller and New York Times bestseller Robopocalypse
“The machine is still out there. Still alive.”
Humankind had triumphed over the machines. At the end of Robopocalypse, the modern world was largely devastated, humankind was pressed to the point of annihilation, and the earth was left in tatters . . . but the master artificial intelligence presence known as Archos had been killed.
In Robogenesis, we see that Archos has survived. Spread across the far reaches of the world, the machine code has fragmented into millions of pieces, hiding and regrouping. In a series of riveting narratives, Robogenesis explores the fates of characters new and old, robotic and human, as they fight to build a new world in the wake of a devastating war. Readers will bear witness as survivors find one another, form into groups, and react to a drastically different (and deadly) technological landscape. All the while, the remnants of Archos’s shattered intelligence are seeping deeper into new breeds of machines, mounting a war that will not allow for humans to win again.
Daniel H. Wilson makes a triumphant return to the apocalyptic world he created, for an action-filled, raucous, very smart thrill ride about humanity and technology pushed to the tipping point.
by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
From Publishers Weekly:
The third Long Earth installment (after The Long War) sees humanity spreading out across infinite parallel worlds, with several key figures trailblazing in different ways. Commander Maggie Kauffman leads an expedition to catalog hundreds of millions of Earths, many of which prove far stranger and less hospitable than imagined. Sally Linsay is recruited by her father to explore the alternates of the newly-discovered Long Mars in search of intelligent life. Joshua Valiente encounters the emerging Next, a new breed of superintelligent humans raised in Long Earth, whose development is bringing them at odds with baseline humanity. These first two threads offer up fascinating and inventive takes on planetary development, though they fly by at dizzying speeds. The third feels too much like a conventional “us vs. them” plot. Nonetheless, Baxter and Pratchett remain in fine form, their collaboration producing another thoughtful page-turner. (June)
Rogues
Edited by George R.R. Martin, Featuring original stories by Neil Gaiman, Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch, Gillian Flynn, Patrick Rothfuss, and more
From Library Journal
Everyone loves a scoundrel. As themes go, this outstanding collection has chosen one with a generous flexibility and a surefire appeal. Beyond the general setup of characters who are a little dangerous, a little nefarious, and very unpredictable, the stories unfold in a delightful number of directions. Contributions from well-known mystery and thriller writers, as well as offerings from those who are better known for sf and fantasy, are included. The table of contents alone will make fans from all genre aisles salivate, as it lists 21 new pieces from the likes of Gillian Flynn, Neil Gaiman, Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch, Steven Saylor, and many more. VERDICT The wide array of styles and genres mean that this is easiest to dip in and out of rather than read cover to cover, but there is not a single bad story in the bunch. Perhaps inevitable owing to Martin’s coediting (with skilled anthologist Dozois), some of the most exquisitely written are the fantasy descriptions: Gaiman’s latest entry in his Neverwhere world, a brilliant tale from Patrick Rothfuss featuring Bast from the “Kingkiller Chronicles,” and Abercrombie’s entertaining roller-coaster fable of nonstop thievery. Last but not least is a story that offers us a slice of history from the world of Martin’s Game of Thrones. [A June 2014 LibraryReads Pick.—Ed.]
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