March 2-6 Book Porn

I actually received 8 books this time, but I forgot to take a picture of Charles Coleman Finlay's short story collection, Wild Things (he is one of two authors I'm going to be interviewing this month for another publication. More details when both interviews go live). Only two of these are review copies, the rest being new books purchased from Amazon, direct from a publisher, or else used books purchased for various reasons. Unlike many weeks where I receive unsolicited copies of books I doubt I would read, I expect reviews of some sort of the other for most, if not all, of these books, including a few in the next couple of weeks.

Left: Bill Ectric, Tamper (I have come to know Ectric from conversations we've had at Jeff VanderMeer's Ecstatic Days website, and he asked me a month or two ago if I would be willing to read and possibly review a book he was in the process of editing. I agreed and after I finish a few commitments this month, I plan on reading it and commenting on it by the end of the month); Yuri Andrukhovych, The Moscoviad (I loved the English translation of his Perverzion that came out four years ago, so when I heard his second book was now available, I immediately ordered it and read it over a few hours divided over a couple of days. Not disappointed at all and will comment further in the coming weeks).




Left: Charles Coleman Finlay, The Prodigal Troll (this is the first of two books of his that I'm reading in preparation for an interview and despite the rather odd cover, I'm looking forward to reading this expansion of a novella that I originally read in Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine several years ago); Michael Moorcock, Duke Elric (fourth volume in Del Rey's reissues of these seminal 1960s-2000s short fiction and novels starring the Elric iteration of the Eternal Champion. Read this in galley form at the beginning of the year and enjoyed it at least as much as the preceding three volumes. Looking forward to the fifth and sixth volumes whenever they are released).




Left: Zoran Živković, The Bridge (Živković is a favorite author of mine and this novella in three parts that are united by the metaphorical and concrete (pun!) nature of the bridge was a worthwhile read for me. Will need to re-read it before I can decide what specifically I want to say about it, as this is the type of tale that has more layers than what it might seem); Jonathan Littell, The Kindly Ones (just finished reading it a couple of hours ago. Sprawling, dark, confessional story of a German officer who experienced the atrocities of the Eastern Front in World War II and whose muddled past made for a read that was the equivalent of some drivers rubbernecking as they pass by the scene of a horrific accident. Will review this one within the next couple of weeks, if not sooner).




Left: Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan (this is the 1946 American first edition that I bought new for around $20 or so. Thought some might want to see the cover art and to note how its label is that of "gothic novel," rather than anything directly related to fantasy. I used to have all three volumes in an omnibus format, but I gave it as a gift to an overseas female friend of mine, as I thought eventually that I would replace the three volumes with separate volumes of the first editions, if at all possible. Will be re-reading this in the next few days and will have a review up soon afterward, since it seems this is the current frontrunner to win in the poll I have up).