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Book Giveaway: Gemsigns by Stephanie Saulter
Thanks to the good people at Jo Fletcher Books we have 5 autographed copies of Stephanie Saulter’s debut book Gemsigns to give away. For your chance to win all you have to do is re-tweet our tweet, share our FB post, or leave a comment below! Do all three and triple your chances. The contest is open to all and will last until next Monday when we’ll draw 5 names from the hat.
Jo Fletcher Books, an imprint of Quercus Publishing, is a specialist science fiction, fantasy and horror imprint in the UK with plans to come stateside. Jo Fletcher’s own personal tastes in fiction have always been wonderfully eclectic and JFB is dedicated to being as broad a church as possible, hopefully publishing something for everyone. WWEnd has the complete JFB catalog in our database so check out the selection on the JFB publisher page.
Gemsigns
by Stephanie Saulter
For years the human race was under attack from a deadly Syndrome, but when a cure was found – in the form of genetically engineered human beings, Gems – the line between survival and ethics was radically altered.
Now the Gems are fighting for their freedom, from the oppression of the companies which created them, and against the Norms, who have always seen them as slaves. The conference at which Dr Eli Walker has been commissioned to present his findings on the Gems is the key to that freedom.
But with the Gemtech companies fighting to keep the Gems enslaved, and the horrifying godgangs determined to rid the earth of these ‘unholy’ creations, the Gems are up against forces that might just be too powerful to oppose.
From the publisher:
Gemsigns is a fast-paced and exciting story, full of engaging, memorable characters. It’s old-fashioned storytelling in that there is a clear sense of what is at stake, who is on which side, and that the threat is huge and horrifying; but it’s unusual and quite modern in that it leaves it up to the reader to decide what they think is the right answer to the central moral question. There are characters you will probably like but not necessarily agree with, and characters you might find appalling, but think are actually in the right. And the ending is a real shocker – almost no one who’s read it sees what’s coming. Will you?
About the Author:
Stephanie Saulter has been a real estate developer, restaurant manager, corporate executive, public policy wonk, management consultant and founder of the Scriptopus interactive website for writing short fiction. She doesn’t have a poor attention span; on the contrary she finds lots of things interesting, and figures you learn more by doing. Few of her jobs would appear to have any relationship to her combined degree in literature and anthropology from MIT, but she would disagree. She’s finally settled down to writing more-or-less full time, which lets her continue to explore lots of different lives without actually having to leave the house. Born in the Caribbean, she now lives in Devon.
For those of you participating in the Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge, Mz. Saulter would be an excellent choice for a new author since this is her first book or even to satisfy the 1 random author requirement. I’m looking forward to seeing some reviews for this one. Good luck to all!
Edit: We just added an excerpt for Gensigns so you can get a little taste.
You only *think* you’ve read all the Fantasy Masterworks
Last week we posted a dozen new books to the SF Masterworks list and now we’re back again with some new Fantasy Masterworks! Gollancz has re-started the series with 6 new books for your reading pleasure. But more than just new books they’ve totally re-designed the cover art for the new additions into something very clean and iconic. The new look is a complete departure from the previous books in the series but they’re coming out of the gate with some strong titles so I don’t think anyone will mind all that much. I would have preferred something that relates to the old design a bit more, like the relationship between the old and new SF series artwork, but these really are quite beautiful.
So what do you think of the new titles and the new design? Are you as excited as I am that they’ve resurrected the series? I always thought they stopped too short at just 50 titles.
Ben Bova for the UK
WWEnd monitors Amazon’s Daily Deals, and if we see a good deal on SF/F/H books, we usually tweet it. Sometimes, we see one that is so good, it’s blog worthy. Today’s UK deal is one of those. If you live in the United Kingdom, you can get any of five Ben Bova novels for £0.99 each.
Four of these books are part of the Grand Tour series. They’re pretty much random volumes, so it’s a good thing they were meant to be read in no particular order. Here they are:
Mars
Moonwar
Return to Mars
Moonrise
The fifth book, Voyagers III, is part of the Voyagers series, which probably will require reading the first two books.
You only *think* you’ve read all the SF Masterworks – Part Deux
You know how you want to read all the SF Masterworks? Well, Gollancz seems hell-bent on making that impossible. Every year they add more and more books to the list and then they don’t even bother telling us about it. They want it to be a surprise, I guess. Just when you think you’ve polished off the last one you accidentally find out there are another dozen to go. Fiendishly clever and just a tad sadistic methinks.
So here is another batch to go with the last update back in September. Wikipedia says that Alastair Reynold’s book, Revelation Space, is supposed to be part of the series this year too but, try as I might, I could not find a cover image for it. (Edit: Thanks, Charlie, for the link to the new image.) Speaking of cover images, this bunch has some really nice ones. I can’t decide which is my favorite but I really love A Canticle for Leibowitz and To Say Nothing of the Dog and the green space of Double Star.
One strange typo I found is that the cover for This is the Way the World Ends is actually missing the word “is” in the title rendering it as “This the Way the World Ends.” I didn’t care for that so I added the “is” back into the image. I don’t know if the actual book cover will have the error but it’s all over the net with the missing word.
So what do you think of these additions? Anything surprising in there? Are we missing any that you know of ? If you have the Revelation Space cover we’d love to add that to the list too.
Genre Highlights in the “Fiction for Men” List
I’m an occasional reader of The Art of Manliness blog, but somehow I missed a huge book list they posted last week: Fiction for Men as Suggested by Art of Manliness Readers.
Some of the genre book highlights from the list include:
Snag a Hugo nominated novel in this crazy two-fer deal!
we decided to put this on the blog STAT.By the way, when I got our Leviathan Wakes bookmark signed by both authors at last year’s Worldcon, I had one sign James and the other sign Corey. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one with that signature (at least they told me I was the first who asked for it that way). Have I just ruined my unique status by letting that slip? Damnit.
An Incredible Shrinking Price
Today’s Amazon “Deal of the Day” is the Kindle edition of Richard Matheson‘s classic, The Shrinking Man (you may know it as The Incredible Shrinking Man, as it was later redubbed). Here is your opportunity to tick this one off of your Genre Lit-Flicks list (see what we did there?). The movie version can be found (as can all Genre Lit-Flicks) listed in the corresponding novel page.
New Film(!) List: Genre Lit-Flicks
Anyone paying close attention to our novel pages today may have noticed a curious thing. Many of our novels now have a section for “Film & Television Adaptations.” This was added to tie into our brand new shiny book list, Genre Lit-Flicks. This begins our project to build what we hope will be the definitive list of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror novels adapted for feature films and television. Here are some fun facts to whet your appetite:
Did you know…
…the children’s classic The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has been adapted a total of three times: once animated, once as live-action for the BBC, and most recently as a special effects extravaganza by Disney?
…John Carpenter’s horror film The Thing (1982) was adapted from the novel Who Goes There?, which also spawned the film The Thing from Another World (1951) and the prequel The Thing (2011)?
…legendary actor Marlon Brando’s most infamous role was in the critically panned The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)?
…the novel The Body Snatchers was adapted four times as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Body Snatchers (1994), and The Invasion (2007)?
…auteur director Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker was an adaptation of the SF Masterworks novel Roadside Picnic?
…the ur-Horror novel Dracula has been adapted to film so many times we didn’t even try to list them all?
These and many other fun facts await your perusal at the Genre Lit-Flicks list.
But wait… there’s more!
That’s right! In addition to providing our loyal WWEnd members with the most comprehensive and up-to-date list of genre novel adaptations, we are launching a new blog series entitled Hell is Adaptations (series is not yet rated), which will document our ongoing trudge through the mire of Hollywood’s idea of what makes for good genre storytelling.
See any glaring omissions in our list? Think we should add a book to our database that was made into your favorite movie? Let us know in the comments below! Just be aware that we are not planning to add adaptations to the list until they have a theatrical or (shudder) direct-to-DVD release. We do know that World War Z is on its way, thanks…
WoGF Review: Typhon’s Children by Toni Anzetti
Jack Dowden (JDowds) doesn’t review Sci-Fi/Fantasy books on his blog 100 Stories 100 Weeks. Instead, he’s set himself the unbelievably naive task of writing 100 short stories in 100 weeks. The results are often disastrous. He came to WWEnd to talk to people about Sci-Fi/Fantasy books though, and is having a wonderful time doing it! This is his first review on the site, and his first review for the WoGF Reading Challenge.
First, a disclaimer. I finished this book while reeling from the after-effects of the whiskey mixed with wine concoction my friends and I put together for New Year’s. So yeah, I was hung over. Still am a little, actually. Please don’t hold it against me, I’m doing my very best not to let the horse bucking around inside my skull taint my perception of this novel.
To make a long story short, this book was okay. Ann Zeddies (or Toni Anzetti as she calls herself here) managed to create a rich, biologically fascinating aquatic alien world. I rarely come across a world as interesting and diverse as Typhon in my reading. From ketos, to Round People, to Boogers, to the giant leviathans of the Deep, the inhabitants of Typhon are remarkable and very exciting to read about.
The biology of this book is what makes it stand out. The aliens you find here aren’t just some cleverly disguised humans. They’re alien. Communication via echolocation and scents excreted into the water, memories recorded in the form of underwater dance. Even the plant life briefly seen in the beginning of the book is given its fair shake. According to the back flap, Ms. Zeddies has been interested in biology and aquatic life since age three, and it shows here. The world of Typhon is fully realized and refreshing.
Book Gift Suggestions: Fantasy
We’ve all had those friends and family members who just don’t “get” genre fiction–who think that Fantasy is all about Hogwarts or football, who think that Science Fiction is no more than J.J. Abram’s oeuvre, who think that Horror is just a zombie in a hockey mask slicing up co-eds. You can either continue to inwardly seethe at these ignoramuses, or man up and buy them some fiction that will blow their minds and make them addicts just like you. To that end, we at Worlds Without End have put our heads together to come up with a list of books for the genre-clueless people in your life.
Today’s list contains half a dozen Fantasy books or franchises to knock the socks off the people who don’t have good genre taste… yet.
The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher
Butcher’s series about the self-deprecating wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden serves as a great introduction to the Urban Fantasy subgenre. Nearly every fantasy trope ends up on Harry’s to-do list at some point: vampires, warlocks, werewolves, faeries, ghosts, demons, archangels, and even the Shroud of Turin. The stories are frequently funny and always fast-paced, which makes the failure of its small-screen adaptation all the more perplexing.
Perfect For: Readers of thrillers and mystery novels.
First books in this series:
- Storm Front – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
- Fool Moon – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
- Grave Peril – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
- Summer Knight – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
- Death Masks – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
Some have described this series as Harry Potter for grownups. That’s a trite way of interpreting Rothfuss’ story about a polymath ne’er do well trying to survive through a school that focuses on alchemy and magical theory. It’s a lot smarter than the premise makes it sound. Rothfuss is well-educated himself, and he claims to have spent the better part of a decade writing and rewriting the first novel. This actually turns out to be a good thing.
Perfect For: The over-educated smartasses in your life.
First books in this series:
- The Name of the Wind – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
- The Wise Man’s Fear – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
The Dark Tower, by Stephen King
As far as I know, this series is King’s longest foray into Fantasy. Despite being only seven novels long (with an eighth “midquel” just published), it took King twenty-two years to complete the whole thing, publishing the last three in a great burst from 2003-4. Alternatively a magical realist action-adventure story and a running metafictional commentary, King considers this to be his magnum opus, and it has been a hit with his fans.
Perfect For: Lovers of complex and referential storytelling.
First books in this series:
- The Gunslinger – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
- The Drawing of the Three – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
- The Waste Lands – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
- Wizard and Glass – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
- Wolves of the Calla – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
This 800-page doorstopper is an alternative history of England during the time of the Napoleonic Wars if magic had been a real historical phenomenon. The novel is written as a faux-history text, and I have to admit that Clarke even had me fooled into thinking that many of the references to pagan and medieval magic traditions were taken from the real world. It’s a love story mingled with the methodical restoration of magical practice, and all of its societal implications.
Perfect For: Admirers of alternate history, world-building, and the Romantic literary movement.
- Purchase – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
The Once and Future King, by T.H. White
The four-book series (and a fifth posthumous volume) on the life and adventures of King Arthur’s royal court was a big hit when the first volume was published way back in 1938. This is not a thorough retelling of the Arthurian body of legends, but rather a selection of episodes (mostly well-known from Malory) that allow White to focus on the themes of war and morality that, being and Englishman writing during World War II, were heavy on his mind. The whimsical idea that Merlin is a backwards traveler through time has its origins here, and the Disney film The Sword in the Stone is a loose adaptation of White’s first volume of the same name.
Perfect For: Anyone who likes the show Merlin but wishes it were a bit smarter.
- Purchase – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
Grendel, by John Gardner
Gardner as a novelist has nearly disappeared from the American literary scene, despite once having multiple novels on the bestseller lists. Even though he’s now appreciated almost entirely for his books about writing, Grendel has remained a perennial favorite. Telling the story of Beowulf from the monster’s point of view gives Gardner the opportunity to dramatically explore (as he claims) the darker aspects of Jean-Paul Sartre’s existential philosophy. The novel also incorporates many of the postmodern conceits popular at the time, and despite its serious subject is laced with humor and irony.
Perfect For: Someone who read Wicked but thought the witch was the villain.
- Purchase – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
