The BoSS for 06/06/10

I nearly exploded the other day, truth be told, when a package from Gollancz containing both The Dervish House and Hannu Rajaniemi's incredibly promising debut arrived through my letterbox. Werthead's glowing review of the latter has me very excited to read The Quantum Thief, and a new Ian McDonald is always a treat, especially when those in the know have tipped his latest as a serious candidate for the big genre awards still to come in 2010.

It's going to be a diet of hard sci-fi for me this week, I think. Would that I had some astronaut food to munch while I read!

Click through to read Meet the BoSS for an introduction and an explanation as to why you should care about the Bag o' Speculative Swag.

Read on for a sneak peek at some of the books - past, present and future - you can expect to see coverage of here on The Speculative Scotsman in the coming weeks and months.

***

The Dervish House
by Ian McDonald

Release Details:

Published in the UK on

29/07/10 by HarperCollins

Review Priority:

5 (Immediate)

Plot Synopsis: "In the Chaga novels McDonald brought an Africa in the grip of a bizarre alien invasion to life, in River of Gods he painted a rich portrait of India in 2047, in Brasyl he looked at different Brazils, past present and future. Ian McDonald has found renown at the cutting edge of a movement to take SF away from its British and American white roots and out into the rich cultures of the world. The Dervish House continues that journey and centres on Istanbul in 2025. Turkey is part of Europe but sited on the edge, it is an Islamic country that looks to the West. The Dervish House is the story of the families that live in and around its titular house; it is at once a rich mosaic of Islamic life in the new century and telling novel of future possibilities."

Commentary: Without question the most exciting book of the week for me; for the forseeable future, in fact. Of Ian McDonald's storied back-catalogue I've only read River of Gods, but it was an extraordinary experience, and with critics tipping The Dervish House as this year's big award-winner, I'll be digging into this one just as soon as I have the chance. It's at the top of the stack.

The Poison Tree

by Erin Kelly

Release Details:

Published in the UK on

03/06/10 by Hodder & Stoughton

Review Priority:

3 (Moderate)

Plot Synopsis: "It is the sweltering summer of 1997, and Karen is a strait-laced, straight-A university student. When she meets the impossibly glamorous Biba, a bohemian orphan who lives in a crumbling old mansion in Highgate with her enigmatic brother Rex, she is soon drawn into their world – but something terrible is about to happen, and someone's going to end up dead..."

Commentary: What's with all the poison? There was The Poison Throne a while back, The Poison Diaries last week, and now we have The Poison Tree. This, though, is crime fiction, and Erin Kelly's debut has apparently been drawing comparisons to Tana French, which = win if you ask me. In the Woods, which I reviewed under another name for a certain site way back (wouldn't you like to know), was one of the most powerful crime fiction debuts I've read in the last decade, and if The Poison Tree is a sliver as impressive as that, I'm in.

Lord of the Changing Winds
by Rachel Neumeier

Release Details:

Published in the UK on

03/06/10 by Orbit

Review Priority:

3 (Moderate)

Plot Synopsis: "The desert winds have come to the village of Menas Ford. Griffins, creatures of fire, have appeared in a burning haze, turning the sky a blazing golden-red and the land to dry, cracked earth. These majestic beasts, half-lion, half-eagle, spread the arid desert wherever they roam. Iaor, the King of Feierabiand, will not tolerate the destruction of his people's farmland. Sending forth his army, he means to rid the griffins from his domain - whether by negotiation or brute force. But not all those who encounter the griffins fear them. Kes, a timid village girl with hidden mage powers, is summoned to heal the King of the Griffins himself. She will discover her affinity with these creatures, and may be the only one to understand the importance of their presence. For they are fleeing a menace which poses a greater threat to her people than even the blazing fires of the desert."

Commentary: Sounds like fun, and what I've read of the posts Rachel Neumeier has made to the Orbit blog have rather endeared her to me, so the odds are good that I'll at least check Lord of the Changing Winds out. It's book one of The Griffin Mage trilogy, and if I'm going to start a new series anyplace, it's going to be at the start.

The Quantum Thief

by Hannu Rajaniemi

Release Details:

Published in the UK on

30/09/10 by Gollancz

Review Priority:

4 (Very High)

Plot Synopsis: "Jean le Flambeur is a post-human criminal, mind burglar, confidence artist and trickster. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but his exploits are known throughout the Heterarchy - from breaking into the vast Zeusbrains of the Inner System to steal their thoughts, to stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of the Moving Cities of Mars. Except that Jean made one mistake. Now he is condemned to play endless variations of a game-theoretic riddle in the vast virtual jail of the Axelrod Archons - the Dilemma Prison - against countless copies of himself. Jean's routine of death, defection and cooperation is upset by the arrival of Mieli and her spidership, Perhonen. She offers him a chance to win back his freedom and the powers of his old self - in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed."

Commentary: Adam Whitehead of The Wertzone awarded this hard SF debut his highest honour, five shiny red asterisks out of five, and on the strength of that recommendation alone - not that the somewhat mind-boggling synopsis hurts at all - I will read The Quantum Thief. Doesn't hurt that the author has some Scottish heritage - the home team advantage, you might say. The Lies of Locke Lamora, perhaps, but smart, and in space? One can only hope...

The Map of All Things

by Kevin J. Anderson

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
03/06/10 by Orbit

Review Priority:

2 (Fair)

Plot Synopsis: "After terrible atrocities by both sides, the religious war between Tierra and Uraba has spread and intensified - the series of skirmishes erupting into a full-blown crusade. Now that the Uraban leader Soldan-Shah Omra has captured the ruined city of Ishalem, his construction teams discover a priceless ancient map in an underground vault - a map that can guide brave explorers to the mysterious Key to Creation. Omra dispatches his adoptive son Saan to sail east across the uncharted Middlesea on a quest to find it. In Tierra, Captain Criston Vora has built a grand new vessel, and sets out to explore the great unknown and find the fabled land of Terravitae. But Criston cannot forget his previous voyage that ended in shipwreck and disaster... and the loss of his beloved wife Adrea - who is now the wife of the soldan-shah in far-off Uraba, fighting to survive against palace intrigues and constant threats against her life."

Commentary: See last week's edition of The BoSS. This is book two of Terra Incognito and the sequel to The Edge of the World, which I haven't yet decided if I'll give a go or not. The consensus amongst the Amazon reviewers is that it's not Kevin J. Anderson at his best, and from the co-author of the dreadful Dune prequels and sequels which have waged a sustained campaign on my memories of one of the greatest fantasy sagas of all time, that's saying something. But then, maps and monster and ships at sea. I like these things, and I shouldn't dismiss a series out of hand simply because of negative preconceptions, so time permitting, I'll dip my toes into the first Terra Incognito tome and see how I feel about it.

Leviathan

by Scott Westerfeld

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
27/05/10 by Simon & Schuster

Review Priority:

3 (Moderate)

Plot Synopsis: "Two opposing forces are on the brink of war. The Clankers - who put their faith in machinery - and the Darwinists - who have begun evolving living creatures into tools. Prince Aleksandar, the would-be heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, comes from a family of Clankers, and travels the country in a walker, a heavily-fortified tank on legs. Meanwhile Deryn Sharp, a girl disguised as a boy, works for the British Empire, crewing the ultimate flying machine: an airship made of living animals. Now, as Alek flees from his own people, and Deryn crash-lands in enemy territory, their lives are about to collide..."

Commentary: Apparently the hippest author in all Young Adult fiction, this is the paperback release of Scott Westerfeld's fantastic Leviathan. I've read this, actually. Earlier in the year, I read this, but I didn't review it at the time, because I was dreadfully lazy. Expect this failing to be remedied shortly.

The Folding Knife

by K. J. Parker

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
03/06/10 by Orbit

Review Priority:

4 (Very High)

Plot Synopsis: "Basso the Magnificent. Basso the Great. Basso the Wise. Basso the Murderer. The First Citizen of the Vesani Republic is an extraordinary man. He is ruthless, cunning and, above all, lucky. He brings wealth, power and prestige to his people. But with power comes unwanted attention, and Basso must defend his nation and himself from threats foreign and domestic. In a lifetime of crucial decisions, he's only ever made one mistake. One mistake, though, can be enough."

Commentary: Folding knives are terrifying. Here in Scotland, at least, knife crime is a real problem. Literacy too. We are illiterate, rotten-toothed stabbers in kilts and sporrans that eat sheep intestines for breakfast, lunch and supper. Can't possible imagine why we've such a bad name internationally... oh, to be Irish instead.

But, um, the book. Actually, I'm very excited to have received a copy of The Folding Knife. I've heard great things about K. J. Parker, his Engineer trilogy in particular, and this seems to be a standalone fantasy - the perfect way for me to get a sense of the author's voice and technique without immersing myself in a tale that stretches beyond the bounds of a single book. Another sure thing, this one: it's high on the stack.