A time of readings, a season of reviews

Having recovered of my reviewer´s block, I´ve been reading a lot lately. Some of these readings I already published here and mirrored in Fantasy Book Critic (which I´ll still be doing every time I post award-related reviews, mostly). Other reviews, however, you can expect to read only here. Below, a small list of things to come in the next few weeks:

. Fast Forward 2 - This excellent anthology edited by Lou Anders was one of the finalists of the Philip K. Dick Award but I couldn´t review it in time. Too bad, you think? In a way, because they sure deserved to win (I would have voted for them to be in the tie, in place of David Walton´s Terminal Mind - I have nothing against Walton, mind you, I simply didn´t like the story and I think in that case Adam-Troy Castro´s Emissaries from the Dead should have won hands down, all by itself). But it´s not too late for you, my dear reader, to read this collection of stories. Just wait a few more days.

Judge - The finale to Karen Traviss´s Wess´har Wars series was tough to get by - not because of the story. The whole concept of ecological balance between alien species is very interesting and really well-written. I´m not a fan of miiltary SF, and I confess I just start reading the whole six-book-pack because of the PKD Award (both her first book of the series, City of Pearl, and this last one, were finalists). But this was none of your average Honor Harrington-type series, thank God; Shan Frankland, the hard-to-kill (very literally) protagonist, is as complex a character as they come, and that - and the story, that kept getting better and better - just made me want more. Expect a review of Judge in FBC - and a review of the entire series here.

The Postmodern Mariner and Engelbrecht, Again!, by Rhys Hughes - I started reading Hughes recently through his story Castor on Troubled Waters, featured in the anthology Fast Ships, Black Sails. He reminded me of some "B" authors of the Cyberpunk Movement: Paul Di Filippo, Walter Jon Williams, and Howard Waldrop - crazy writers, authors without borders. Authors who shamelessly use humor in their stories - and who aren´t afraid of using all their creativity to concoct absurd plots, and yet, plots that are perfectly acceptable. Expect the Mariner for FBC and Engelbrecht here.

The only day I will be definitely scheduling for a book review here is for the much announced new China Miéville novel, The City and the City. Yes, I´ve got the ARC from the publishers and I´m already reading it and enjoying it hugely. The post will be published here May 15th, the day of its UK publication (26th in US).

Right after that, there are at least three major awards´s finalists I want to review: Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke... and the Hugo, of course. More on those three later. For now, three other novels I´ll be reviewing exclusively here:

Wake, by Robert Sawyer - I read Flashforward last week. I loved it. Rob Sawyer is a great storyteller. Expect not only a review, but also an interview with him.

This Is Not a Game, by Walter Jon Williams - I haven´t got to read this book yet, but Alternate Reality Games interest me very much, and so does Williams. I´m eager to read this novel.

Mind Over Ship, by David Marusek - Recently, at my parents´s home, I found the old Asimov´s magazine that published We were out of ourselves with joy, the first Marusek story I´ve ever read and that captured my attention to his writing. I´ve got this book from David himself. Expect a review - and, maybe, an interview.