Luna iunie ne ofera carti noi semnate de James S.A. Corey, Stephen King, Alastair Reynolds, Will McIntosh, Neil Gaiman, Terry Prachett, Stephen Baxter, Christopher Priest si Graham Joyce. Ce poate sa-si doreasca mai mult un iubitor de science-fiction si fantasy?
4 iunie: James S. A. Corey – Abaddon’s Gate (Orbit)
Spre deosebire de multi dintre cei cu care discut online, mie mi-a placut Leviathan Wakes mult de tot. Nu a facut nimic nou, dar a fost o combinatie intre space-opera si horror impecabil scrisa si mi-a oferit unele dintre cele mai palpitante si placute ore de lectura din 2011. Cu cat citesc mai multe carti scrise de Daniel Abraham cu atat de sunt mai impresionat de talentul imens pe care il are si care practic ii da posibilitatea sa scrie fara nici un fel de efort, in absolut orice gen si subgen literar. Din nefericire, spre deosebire de China Mieville, el a ales sa scrie serii, dar si acest lucru este un punct pozitiv pentru majoritatea cititorilor. Dupa Leviathan Wakes, care mi-a placut si care oferea foarte multe promisiuni legate de urmatoarea carte, am fost dezamagit de Caliban’s War, care nu a facut nimic nou fata de predecesorul, nici in privinta personajelor, care nu evolueaza, nici in cea a universului, care nu este dezvoltat, si nici in privinta actiunii, care nu prea duce povestea mai departe. La sfarsitul recenziei lui Caliban’s War am spus ca voi mai acorda o sansa celui de-al treilea volum si din ceea ce putem citi mai jos sunt sperante ca macar o parte din promisiuni sa fie respectate.
For generations, the solar system – Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt – was humanity’s great frontier. Until now. The alien artefact working through its program under the clouds of Venus has emerged to build a massive structure outside the orbit of Uranus: a gate that leads into a starless dark.
Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are part of a vast flotilla of scientific and military ships going out to examine the artefact. But behind the scenes, a complex plot is unfolding, with the destruction of Holden at its core. As the emissaries of the human race try to find whether the gate is an opportunity or a threat, the greatest danger is the one they brought with them.
04 iunie: Stephen King – Joyland (Titan/Hard Case Crime)
O carte politista de Stephen King, in asteptarea continuarii romanului The Shinning.
Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever.
04 iunie: Alastair Reynolds – Doctor Who: Harvest of Time (Broadway)
Nu ma pasioneaza Dr. Who, dar am vazut cateva episoade si stiu cateva ceva despre mitologia acestui serial. Insa ma pasioneaza foarte mult Alastair Reynolds si ii voi citi toate cartile, chiar daca reprezinta novelizarea unui serial pe care nu il urmaresc in mod constant.
After billions of years of imprisonment, the vicious Sild have broken out of confinement. From a ruined world at the end of time, they make preparations to conquer the past, with the ultimate goal of rewriting history. But to achieve their aims they will need to enslave an intellect greater than their own…
On Earth, UNIT is called in to investigate a mysterious incident on a North Sea drilling platform. The Doctor believes something is afoot, and no sooner has the investigation begun when something even stranger takes hold: The Brigadier is starting to forget about UNIT’s highest-profile prisoner. And he is not alone in his amnesia.
As the Sild invasion begins, the Doctor faces a terrible dilemma. To save the universe, he must save his arch-nemesis… The Master.
11 iunie: Will McIntosh – Love Minus Eighty (Orbit US)
McIntosh a scris in 2011 Soft Apocalypse, un roman care este cu usurinta una dintre cele mai bune carti despre Apocalipsa din ultimii ani, iar in 2013 i-a aparut Over There, cea mai buna nuveleta SF pe care am citit-o in ultima perioada. Premiza din Love Minus Eighty este extrem de interesanta si am foarte multa incredere ca Will McIntosh, una dintre cele mai bune voci aparute in SF-ul american in ultimii 5 ani, o va duce cu bine pana la capat.
Years in the future, dead women in cryogenic dating farms await rich, lonely suitors to resurrect them and take them home. LOVE MINUS EIGHTY follows interconnected lives touched by these dating farms. There’s Rob, who accidentally kills a jogger, then sells everything to visit her, seeking her forgiveness but instead falling in love. Veronika, a socially-awkward dating coach, finds herself responsible for the happiness of a man whose life she saved against his will. And Mira, a gay woman accidentally placed in the heterosexual dating center near its inception, desperately seeks a way to reunite with her frozen partner as the centuries pass. In this daring and big-hearted novel based on the Hugo-winning short story, the lovelorn navigate a world in which technology has reached the outer limits of morality and romance.
18 iunie: Neil Gaiman – The Ocean at the End of the Lane (HarperCollins/Morrow)
Neil Gaiman nu a mai scos un roman pentru adulti de nu mai putin de 8 ani. Cei care au citit The Ocean at the End of the Lane spun ca este cea mai buna carte a lui Gaiman de pana acum, ceea ce nu e deloc putin lucru avand in vedere ca vorbim probabil despre cel mai mare creator de fantastic in viata. The Ocean va fi cu usurinta marea favorita la castigarea premiului Hugo din 2014, dar ceea ce este cel mai important pentru noi romanii este ca exact in 18 iunie, ziua in care ultima carte a lui Gaiman va aparea in Anglia si State, o sa o avem si noi de la editura Paladin. Aceasta lansare, in aceeasi zi cu cea din limba originala, este o premiera pentru Romania si aduce piata de carte SF&F romaneasca, chiar daca pentru putin timp, la acelasi nivel cu cea de limba engleza, oferind cititorilor romani sansa sa citeasca cot la cot cu cei straini. Sper ca acest model sa fie tot mai des abordat de catre editurile romanesti, pentru ca este una dintre cele mai importante posibilitati prin care ele pot concura cu editurile si cartile straine.
THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE is a fable that reshapes modern fantasy: moving, terrifying and elegiac – as pure as a dream, as delicate as a butterfly’s wing, as dangerous as a knife in the dark, from storytelling genius Neil Gaiman. It began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond the world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive: there is primal horror here, and menace unleashed – within his family and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it. His only defense is three women, on a farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duckpond is an ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang.
18 iunie: Terry Prachett & Stephen Baxter – The Long War (Harper)
The Long Earth a fost una dintre cele mai relaxante lecturi ale verii trecute si nu vad de ce al doilea roman al seriei nu ar continua sa combine cu succes umorul si umanul lui Prachett cu gravitatea si imaginile grandioase ale lui Baxter.
The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter follows the adventures and travails of heroes Joshua Valiente and Lobsang in an exciting continuation of the extraordinary science fiction journey begun in their New York Times bestseller The Long Earth.
A generation after the events of The Long Earth, humankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by “stepping.” A new “America”—Valhalla—is emerging more than a million steps from Datum—our Earth. Thanks to a bountiful environment, the Valhallan society mirrors the core values and behaviors of colonial America. And Valhalla is growing restless under the controlling long arm of the Datum government.
Soon Joshua, now a married man, is summoned by Lobsang to deal with a building crisis that threatens to plunge the Long Earth into a war unlike any humankind has waged before.
20 iunie: Christopher Priest – The Adjacent (Gollancz)
The Adjacent s-a nascut ca un omagiu adus pilotilor bombardierelor britanice din al Doilea Razboi Mondial, piloti care au fost dati la o parte cu rusine si uitati dupa incheierea razboiului. Pentru mine, orice noua carte a lui Priest – pentru ca acestea apar destul de rar, dar si pentru ca sunt fabuloase – este cea mai asteptata aparitie a lunii respective. Iar faptul ca sumarul suna atat de bine face ca The Adjacent sa fie, in ce ma priveste, cea mai asteptata carte nu numai a lunii iunie, ci poate chiar a anului.
A photographer returns to a near-future Britain after the death of his wife in a terrorist incident in Afghanistan. And finds that the IRGB has, itself, been suffering terrorist attacks. But no-one knows quite what is happening or how. Just that there are similarities between what killed the photographer’s wife and what happened in West London. Soon he is drawn into a hall of mirrors at the heart of government. In the First World War a magician is asked to travel to the frontline to help a naval aerial reconnaissance unit hide its planes from the German guns. On the way to France he meets a certain H.G. Wells. In the Second World War on the airfields of Bomber Commands there is also an obsession with camouflage, with misdirection. With deceit. And in a garden, an old man raises a conch shell to his ear and initiates the first Adjacency.
20 iunie: Graham Joyce – The Year of the Ladybird (Gollancz)
Joyce a anuntat de cateva zile ca sufera de leucemie. Din fericire, spre diferenta de neoplaziile lui Jay Lake si Iain Banks, boala lui Joyce pare tratabila, astfel ca avem sperante ca The Year of the Ladybird sa fie doar cel mai nou roman a lui Graham Joyce, si nu si ultimul. Joyce continua sa redefineasca fantasticul englez, creand un fel de realism magic britanic, care nu este cu nimic mai prejos decat literatura lui Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
It is the summer of 1976, the hottest since records began and a young man leaves behind his student days and learns how to grow up. A first job in a holiday camp beckons. But with political and racial tensions simmering under the cloudless summer skies there is not much fun to be had.
And soon there is a terrible price to be paid for his new-found freedom and independence. A price that will come back to haunt him, even in the bright sunlight of summer.
As with SOME KIND OF FAIRY TALE, Graham Joyce has crafted a deceptively simple tale of great power. With beautiful prose, wonderful characters and a perfect evocation of time and place, this is a novel that transcends the boundaries between the everyday and the supernatural while celebrating the power of both.