I only have a few more pictures left before hitting a long wall of silence on this feature. I don’t buy books terribly often, just in large quantities, and I don’t expect to add many more books to my library in the next few months. This volume involves some books I discovered a week or so ago at Books-a-Million, some stuff I bought for an independent study I’m working on, some things I won, and some things I discovered at the Friends of the Library book sale (the second one I’ve gone to, though I didn’t buy as much this time). So, here’s the picture:And the books are, from left to right, top to bottom (descriptions taken from Amazon.com and Wyrm Publishing): 1. Tides of the New Worlds by Tobias S. Buckell (signed limited edition; independent study) Caribbean born novelist Tobias Buckell established himself as a gifted new voice in science fiction with his stunning first novel Crystal Rain. Now, in his first collection, Buckell demonstrates his strengths in the short form, offering readers a collection of stories that are compelling, smart, wonderfully imagined, and entertaining. Tides from the New Worlds contains 19 stories that range from multicultural science fiction to magical realism, some in print for the first time. Table of Contents: * Fish Merchant * Anakoinosis * Aerophilia * In The Heart of Kalikuata * The Shackles of Freedom (with Mike Resnick) * Shoah Sry (with Ilsa Bick) * Her * In Orbite Medievali * Four Eyes * Trinkets * Spurn Babylon * Death’s Dreadlocks * Smooth Talking * Tides * Something In The Rock * A Green Thumb * All Her Children Fought * Necahual * Toy Planes 2. Sly Mongoose by Tobias S. Buckell (signed first edition; independent study) Welcome to Chilo, a planet with corrosive rain, crushing pressure, and deadly heat. Fortunately, fourteen-year-old Timas lives in one of the domed cities that float 100,000 feet above the surface, circling near the edge of a monstrous perpetual storm. Above the acidic clouds the temperature and pressure are normal. But to make a living, Timas like many other young men, is lowered to the surface in an armored suit to scavenge what he can. Timas’s life is turned upside down when a strange man crash lands on the city. The newcomer is fleeing an alien intelligence intent on invading the planet and discovering the secret hidden deep inside the perpetual storm—a secret that could lead to interplanetary war. As the invaded cities fall silent one by one, Chilo’s citizens must race against time to stop the enemy. And Timas will find out what kind of man he has become in the harsh conditions of Chilo’s surface. 3. Ragamuffin by Tobias S. Buckell (signed first edition; independent study) The Benevolent Satrapy rule an empire of forty-eight worlds, linked by thousands of wormholes strung throughout the galaxy. Human beings, while technically “free,” mostly skulk around the fringes of the Satrapy, struggling to get by. The secretive alien Satraps tightly restrict the technological development of the species under their control. Entire worlds have been placed under interdiction, cut off from the rest of the universe. Descended from the islanders of lost Earth, the Ragamuffins are pirates and smugglers, plying the lonely spaceways around a dead wormhole. For years, the Satraps have tolerated the Raga, but no longer. Now they have embarked on a campaign of extermination, determined to wipe out the unruly humans once and for all. But one runaway woman may complicate their plans. Combat enabled, Nashara is more machine than flesh, and she carries inside her a doomsday weapon that could reduce the entire galaxy to chaos. A hunted fugitive, she just wants to get home before she’s forced to destroy civilization—and herself. 4. Crystal Rain by Tobias S. Buckell (signed first edition; independent study) Long ago, so the stories say, the old-fathers came to Nanagada through a worm’s hole in the sky. Looking for a new world to call their own, they brought with them a rich mélange of cultures, religions, and dialects from a far-off planet called Earth. Mighty were the old-fathers, with the power to shape the world to their liking—but that was many generations ago, and what was once known has long been lost. Steamboats and gas-filled blimps now traverse the planet, where people once looked up to see great silver cities in the sky. Like his world, John deBrun has forgotten more than he remembers. Twenty-seven years ago, he washed up onto the shore of Nanagada with no memory of his past. Although he has made a new life for himself among the peaceful islanders, his soul remains haunted by unanswered questions about his own identity. These mysteries take on new urgency when the fearsome Azteca storm over the Wicked High Mountains in search of fresh blood and hearts to feed their cruel, inhuman gods. Nanagada’s only hope lies in a mythical artifact, the Ma Wi Jung, said to be hidden somewhere in the frozen north. And only John deBrun knows the device’s secrets, even if he can’t remember why or how! Crystal Rain is the much-anticipated debut novel by one of science fiction’s newest and most promising talents. 5. Canal Dreams by Iain Banks (book sale) By the author of “The Wasp Factory” and “Walking on Glass”, this book is set in Japan and on the Panama Canal. It concerns a world famous Japanese cellist, who refuses to fly, and as a result finds herself involved in the ominous realm of global “realpolitik”.|Hisako Onoda, world famous cellist, refuses to fly. And so she travels to Europe as a passenger on a tanker bound through the Panama Canal. But Panama is a country whose politics are as volatile as the local freedom fighters. When Hisako’s ship is captured, it is not long before the atmosphere is as flammable as an oxy-acetylene torch, and the tension as sharp as the spike on her cello. CANAL DREAMS is a novel of deceptive simplicity and

Well, another edition of the stuff I bought for myself. You’re all so very interested in this, aren’t you? A little narcissism never hurt anybody. I actually purchased these books during a huge sale that Night Shade Books was having about a month or so back, and I actually got lucky with one of the books below. Apparently they ran out of paperbacks, which were the cheapest, and so the fine folks at Night Shade sent me the hardcover instead. How’s that for service? But enough about that. Below are the books (after the fold): And the books are, from left to right, top to bottom (take from Amazon.com and Night Shade):1. Dark Mondays by Kage Baker (signed limited edition) Kage Baker, celebrated creator of the Company novels and the standout collection Mother Aegypt now brings together pirates, primates, eldritch horrors, maritime ghosts, and much more in Dark Mondays. This captivating new collection of fantastic short fiction is sure to cement her reputation as one of the most original storytellers working in the fantasy and speculative fiction genres today. Dark Mondays features five never-before-published stories, including the forty-one-thousand word pirate novel, “The Maid on the Shore,” which chronicles the lesser known aspects of Captain Henry Morgan’s infamous sacking of Panama City. 2. Mother Aegypt and Other Stories by Kage baker A brand new short story collection from Kage Baker, including an original novella set in her ongoing series of The Company, “Mother Aegypt.” The Company novels are being released by Tor, and include The Graveyard Game and The Life of the World to Come. 3. A Cruel Wind: A Chronicle of the Dread Empire by Glen Cook Before there was Black Company, there was the Dread Empire, an omnibus collection the first three Dread Empire novels: A Shadow of All Night’s Falling, October’s Baby and All Darkness Met. 4. A Fortress in Shadow: A Chronicle of the Dread Empire by Glen Cook Once a mighty kingdom reigned, but now all is chaos. In the vast reaches of the desert, a young heretic escapes certain death and embarks on a mission of madness and glory. He is El Murid – the Disciple – who vows to bring order, prosperity, and righteousness to the desert people of Hammad al Nakir. After four long centuries, El Murid is the savior who is destined to build a new empire from the blood his enemies. But all is not as it seems, and the sinister forces pulling the strings of empire come into the light. Who and what lies behind El Murid’s vision of a desert empire? 5. Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse edited by John Joseph Adams Famine, Death, War, and Pestilence: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the harbingers of Armageddon – these are our guides through the Wastelands… From the Book of Revelations to The Road Warrior; from A Canticle for Leibowitz to The Road, storytellers have long imagined the end of the world, weaving tales of catastrophe, chaos, and calamity. Gathering together the best post-apocalyptic literature of the last two decades from many of today’s most renowned authors of speculative fiction, including George R.R. Martin, Gene Wolfe, Orson Scott Card, Carol Emshwiller, Jonathan Lethem, Octavia E. Butler, and Stephen King, Wastelands explores the scientific, psychological, and philosophical questions of what it means to remain human in the wake of Armageddon. 6. Eclipse Three edited by Jonathan Strahan To observe an eclipse is to witness a rare and unusual event. Under darkened skies the sun becomes a negative image of itself, its corona transforming the landscape into a strange space where anything might happen, and any story may be true… In the spirit of classic science fiction anthologies such as Universe, Orbit, and Starlight, master anthologist Jonathan Strahan (The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year) presents the non-themed genre anthology Eclipse: New Science Fiction and Fantasy. Here you will find stories where strange and wonderful things happen – where reality is eclipsed by something magical and new. 7. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi In this Time Magazine top 10 book of the year, Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen’s Calorie Man in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok’s street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history’s lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko. Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engineered being, creche-grown and programmed to satisfy the decadent whims of a Kyoto businessman, but now abandoned to the streets of Bangkok. Regarded as soulless beings by some, devils by others, New People are slaves, soldiers, and toys of the rich in a chilling near future in which calorie companies rule the world, the oil age has passed, and the side effects of bio-engineered plagues run rampant across the globe. What Happens when calories become currency? What happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits, when said bio-terrorism’s genetic drift forces mankind to the cusp of post-human evolution? In The Windup Girl, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi returns to the world of The Calorie Man; (Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award-winner, Hugo Award nominee, 2006) and Yellow Card Man (Hugo Award nominee, 2007) in order to address these poignant questions. This title has been nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula awards. This title was also on the best book lists of the year for Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. 8. Shadow of the Scorpion by Neal Asher Ian Cormac’s Early Years! Raised to adulthood during the end of the war between the human Polity and a vicious alien race, the Prador, Ian Cormac, is haunted by childhood memories of a sinister scorpion-shaped war drone and the burden of losses he doesn’t remember. Cormac signs up with Earth Central Security and is sent out to help restore and maintain order on worlds devastated by the war. There he discovers that though