A few books that came in the post...

I'm trying to get my head round what I want to say about 'Shadows Linger' (for my next 'Black Company Re-Read' post) so while I do that I thought you might like to check out some books that came through the door today. All of them specifically requested by me and therefore all due to be reviewed over the next... well, however long it takes (but hopefully not that long). Go on, have a look :o)

'Wasp'

The war had been going on for nearly a year and the Sirian Empire had a huge advantage in personnel and equipment. Earth needed an edge. Which was where James Mowry came in.

If a small insect buzzing around in a car could so distract the driver as to cause that vehicle to crash, think what havoc one properly trained operative could wreak on an unsuspecting enemy. Intensively trained, his appearance surgically altered, James Mowry is landed on Jaimec, the 94th planet of the Sirian Empire. His mission is simple: sap morale, cause mayhem, tie up resources, wage a one-man war on a planet of eighty million.

In short, be a wasp.

'Slow River'

She awoke in an alley to the splash of rain. She was naked, a foot-long gash in her back was still bleeding, and her identity implant was gone. Lore van de Oest had been the daughter of one of the world's most powerful families... and now she was nobody, and she had to hide.

Then out of the rain walked Spanner, predator and thief, who took her in, cared for her wound, and taught her how to reinvent herself again and again. No one could find Lore now: not the police, not her family, and not the kidnappers who had left her in that alley to die. She had escaped... but the cost of her new found freedom was crime and deception, and she paid it over and over again, until she had become someone she loathed.

Lore had a choice: She could stay in the shadows - stay with Spanner - and risk losing herself forever. Or she could leave Spanner and find herself again by becoming someone else: stealing the identity implant of a dead woman, taking over her life, and creating a new future. 

 'Take Back Plenty'

It is carnival time on Mars, but Tabitha Jute isn't partying. She is in hiding from the law, penniless and about to lose her livelihood and her best friend, the space barge "Alice Liddell". Then, the intriguing Marco Metz offers her some money to take him to Plenty, and then the adventure begins. 

'The Sea and Summer'

Francis Conway is Swill - one of the millions in the year 2041 who must subsist on the inadequate charities of the state. Life, already difficult, is rapidly becoming impossible for Francis and others like him, as government corruption, official blindness and nature have conspired to turn Swill homes into watery tombs. And now the young boy must find a way to escape the approaching tide of disaster.

Like Gav, my 2013 is going to be all about reading projects. I'm already almost half way through my 'Black Company Re-Read' and reading some SF/Fantasy Masterworks is something that I've been meaning to do for a long time. It's not like I don't have enough on my shelf already but these four caught my eye and I had to get hold of copies. I'm reading 'Wasp' at the moment.

'Ghost Omnibus Volume 4'

After what seems like a lifetime trying to reconstruct the events that led to her death, Ghost finally nears the white-hot core of the truth. But like pieces of a broken window, the shards of the past can be dangerous and razor-sharp, and sometimes the truth goes deeper than anyone would want. And for the Spectral Avenger, a past revealed may mean a future destroyed.

 'The Goon: Them That Raised Us Lament'

Zombie rockabillies, superheroes with hilarious gay abandon, and the tragicomedy of carny folk are just a few bizarre tales in this new Goon collection from Dark Horse Comics! This volume collects The Goon #38-#41. 

You'll see 'Ghost Volume 3' reviewed here first but I've never read the stories collected in this final volume so I'm looking forward to having a few questions answered. I spent this afternoon reading 'The Goon' and... I'm not so sure about this one. I need to get my thoughts sorted before I post them but this was a slim volume in more ways than one... More on that some other time.

Any of these catch your eye?