Some filthy festive book pr0n and an early resolution

Santa obviously decided I'd been a good blogger this year, as he brought me this tasty haul of books:

I thought Mieville's The Scar was superb, so am looking forward to checking out Perdido Street Station. I think I read A Wizard of Earthsea way back in my younger years, but have always wanted to re-read it since it's a classic of the genre.  M. John Harrison is a name I've heard mentioned here and there, and not often in a positive way (though I rather suspect that this negativity has more to do with his infamous "worldbuilding is for geeks" argument). Anyway, I'll get the chance to check him out with Viriconium. Ricardo Pinto's The Chosen didn't appeal to me when it surfaced at the start of the decade, but my tastes have developed since then and now I'm intrigued enough to give it a go. I've been meaning to read some Fritz Leiber for a long time now, so Santa's kind delivery of The First Book of Lankhmar gives me the chance. Ditto for Guy Gavriel Kay - heard many good things about him, so am expecting decent things of The Summer Tree (sounds quite traditional but I'm kinda in the mood for something like that).

You might have noticed that all these books are pretty old - I think the most recent is Perdido Street Station, and that was published in 2001. The reason for this is because my blogging resolution for 2010 is to read more genre classics. I still consider myself inadequately read in terms of older books in the genre, so really want to rectify this next year. In 2009 I caught up with many of the more recent big releases (The Name of the Wind, The Painted Man, etc) but I feel now it's time to check out some of the older big guns. 

Anyway, that's for next year. Right this minute, I'm going to go off and see if I can find some more chocolate and beer. Hope you're all enjoying your holiday season! :)

More Saturday morning book pr0n

Just like last week, I get to start my weekend with some book pr0n. Thanks very much to Allison and Busby, who were kind enough to send me a secksy hardback of Tim Lebbon's latest Noreelan novel, The Island.

And while I remember, here's a photo of a really cool hardback edition of Gene Wolf's Book of the New Sun that I picked up in an Oxfam shop - it's a first edition Science Fiction Book Club printing. Pretty cool.

Hope you all have a good weekend. If you fancy catching a film but are not sure what to watch, I highly recommend The Hangover. Very good fun.

Saturday morning book pr0n

Nothing like a filthy bit of book pr0n to kick off your weekend...

Many thanks to Gollancz for Consorts of Heaven, Retribution Falls and Jasmyn; and to Tor for God of Clocks (in teh shiny hardback 4tw) and Orbus - yet another Neal Asher book (how quickly does this guy write? I seem to get one of his books every month!).

Right, coffee...

Pan Mac book pr0n

Received some tasty morsels this morning from Pan Macmillan...

Starting in the top left, we have Nights of Villjamur, by Mark Charan Newton (at last...been waiting a while for that one), then Twisted Metal by Tony Ballantyne (know nothing about it but it sounds cool), and then lastly Shadow of the Scorpion by Neal Asher (that's not some sort of mystic light seeping from it, but merely the glare of the camera flash...). 

Thanks to Chloe for sending the above. I was slightly alarmed when I saw the Royal Mail sticker on the front of the package that said "OMG WE'VE DAMAGED YOUR GOODS. HAVE A NICE DAY." Fortunately the contents escaped mostly unscathed, save for a tiny scuff on the front of Nights of Villjamur (would have to be that one...). Still, that might have already been on there. Proofs have a tendency to be a bit knackered, it's all part of their charm!

Book pr0n!

Some book pr0n for all you voyeurs out there. ;) 

Received these recently, courtesy of Pan Macmillan and Orbit:

There's been quite a buzz building behind the Brent Weeks novel, so that's jumped right up my reading pile. Wasn't sure about the artwork originally, but having seen the finished article I think it looks very smart indeed. Artwork featuring figures has really become popular; Orbit especially seem to use it quite a lot (Cannavan, Miller, Weeks, etc). 

I've always wanted to read some more Hal Duncan ever since I enjoyed his short story in the Solaris Book of New Fantasy, so his novel Vellum seemed a good place to start. Really like this guy's prose. 

I've read somewhat mixed reviews of Campbell's Scar Night, but I like the premise so thought I'd give it a go. Evidently one of my cats, Keiko, decided she fancied it as well: