Books in the Mail W/E 2014-09-06 - Used Book Edition

In lieu of a regular Books in the Mail post today, I’m switching it up slightly. You see, no new review books arrived this week, so I’ll talk about the books I picked up at The Book Trader recently after trading in some books I’ve had for over a couple of years and never read (or plan to read). As I’ve opined in other posts, The Book Trader (once in Rahway, NJ now a few miles down the road and a right turn away in Colonia, NJ) is the used bookshop against which I judge all others. I can always find good books there, and more often than not, the majority of the specific books I’m trying to find, plus the occasional gem I wasn’t expecting or a book or two I didn't realize I was looking for until I saw it on one of their shelves. So, what did I pick up on this little trip? You might notice a theme or two. First the snapshot of the books followed by the explanations.

After reading and enjoying Elizabeth Bear’s fantasy, I wanted to try a novel-length science fiction novel from her. This book, Dust just jumped out at me from the shelves. Here’s the blurb/book description:

On a broken ship orbiting a doomed sun, dwellers have grown complacent with their aging metal world. But when a serving girl frees a captive noblewoman, the old order is about to change....

Ariane, Princess of the House of Rule, was known to be fiercely cold-blooded. But severing an angel’s wings on the battlefield—even after she had surrendered—proved her completely without honor. Captive, the angel Perceval waits for Ariane not only to finish her off—but to devour her very memories and mind. Surely her gruesome death will cause war between the houses—exactly as Ariane desires. But Ariane’s plan may yet be opposed, for Perceval at once recognizes the young servant charged with her care.

One author on my hunting list was Melanie Rawn and her Big Fat Fantasy saga, The Dragon Prince Trilogy, which fittingly enough, begins with Dragon Prince. Rawn and this book is another writer/series I’ve been intending to read for years, many years, for a few reasons.

Quite a few people spoke pretty well of her, specifically these books, in the SFFWorld forums, where I've been virtually hanging out for the better part of a decade and a half.

Joe Sherry (a blogger pal whose opinion I trust quite well, who also happens to be a beer snob and a bowler like me) holds these books in high esteem, and one of my primary web publishers, Tor.com, is running a re-read of the series. It doesn’t hurt that the book is adorned in a classic Michael Whelan cover.

While the second and third book of this series (The Star Scroll and Sunrunner's Flame) were both on the shelf, I wanted to hold off to make sure I liked this one enough to continue. Also, see the other books I acquired on this trip.

I love me some omnibus books and few publishers keep their authors in print as well as DAW with their omnibus editions.  Confederation of Valor, an omnibus of the first two Confederation Military SF novels from Tanya Huff. In this case, Tanya Huff is somebody I’ve had on my mental to read list for a while. I picked up The Silvered earlier this year at Brandon Sanderson’s signing I attended in Philadelphia, PA based on Joshua Bilmes’s recommendation post at SF Signal. He’s also her agent, and I’ve come to learn that I really enjoy a majority of his client authors (i.e. Elizabeth Moon, Myke Cole, Peter Brett, Brandon Sanderson, Sylvia Izzo Hunter to name only a few).

Last and certainly not least was the big score, the three books I had at the top my my hunting list on this trip: books 5, 6, and 7 of Kate Elliott’s Crown of Stars series, The Gathering Storm, In the Ruins, and Crown of Stars respectively. I’ve been intending to finish reading the series for years  and I last read book 4 (Child of Flame) about a decade ago. This was just before review copies began to arrive in droves and drown out other books I intended to read. I recall really enjoying what I read of the series, I remember a very magical aura and feel to these books.

I picked up the second book, Prince of Dogs, at JerseyDevilCon back in 2002 from one of the dealers. Much to my pleasant surprise, the book was a signed by Kate Elliott.

Also, following Kate on twitter and especially after her recent appearance on Rocket Talk, I wanted even more to get reconnect and catch-up with the series, so next year I’m planning to make Crown of Stars my re-read-and-catch-up series. I might even blog about it as I read through the series. I know, us biblioholics and our silly notions of "reading plans."

Any thoughts on these books, let me know in the comments.

Used Book p0rn - Science Fiction July 2013

Another trip to the used book shop against which I judge all used book shops, The Book Trader in Colonia, NJ. As I've said in other posts of this nature, I've been going to this shop for a couple of decades now and every time I go I find more books than I can take home. It isn't the biggest shop, but they haven't disappointed in terms of walking out with a stack of books.  I walked in with a bunch of books I either read and thought 'meh' or books I know I'd never read received as review copies. 

The photo above shows the books that left the store with me.  Some more information:

Eric Brown - I've read three books by him, thoroughly enjoyed all three. In fact, I ranked Kings of Eternity by Mr. Brown as my favorite book the year it published. The two books here, Xenopath and Cosmopath are books 2 and 3 respectively in his Bengal Station trilogy, a far future series featuring telepath Jeff Vaughn. I read and enjoyed the first, Necropath, and have been wanting to finish out the series for a while. 

Arthur C. Clarke - I've only one of  his novels, Songs of a Distant Earth. Clearly, I need to catch up with the late ACC of the Big Three.

Julie E. Czerneda - She's been on my radar for a while, since I was member of the Science Fiction Book Club years ago and I've intended to read her for a while. More recently, her guest post on Aidan's blog and my desire to read more SF by women pushed that even more. A Thousand Words for Stranger is her debut novel.

R.M. Meluch - Her Tour of the Merrimack space opera/military SF has been on my radar for a while, I'd received later books in this series for review and they intrigued me. Moreover, Jo Walton's and Liz Bourke's pieces on Tor.com convinced me (as do many of their pieces) I need to get a start on these books. The Myriad is the launch of the series. 

Larry Niven - Another classic I've yet to read but have been meaning to for years, Ringworld. I read a couple of the later sequels he wrote with Edward M. Lerner (actually enjoyed the first in the sequence Fleet of Worlds quite a bit, but that enjoyment dwindled a lot with the next installment). 

John Steakley - Armor is one of the definitive and foundational Military SF novels and yet another classic I've yet to read.  The shop had two versions of the book, I went with the more classic/earlier cover.

Robert Charles Wilson - Like Brown, everything I've read by RCW (albeit, limited compared against his oeuvre) has been excellent. I consider Spin one of the best SF novels of the past decade.  Blind Lake looks interesting and if past experience with RCW holds, I'll enjoy this one a great deal.

Used Book Pr0n - June Edition

Another trip to the Book Trader and another haul of used books, because, hey, I’d rather have 10 books I know I’ll read than 20 books I know I won’t read. Sully read all the books already and is exhausted.



Here’s the rundown, from top to bottom:

The Evergence Trilogy (The Prodigal Son, The Dying Light , and The Dark Imbalance ) by Sean Williams and Shane Dix – I enjoyed the Geodesica duology by the same author team, LOVED what Sean Williams did by himself in Books of the Cataclysm and sort of enjoyed Astropolis. I’d wanted to read this trilogy for a while, but it’s been out of print for a while so I was happy to find the whole trilogy used since more often than not at these used books stores when I want to buy a series, at least one book of sequence is missing.

Earth by David Brin – The only book I’ve read by Brin is The Postman and this book is one that’s been on my radar for quite some time.

Legend by David Gemmell – Geek admission – I’ve never read this book. I did read the first two novels in his Rigante sequence as well as Echoes of the Great Song plus I have a bunch of his older books I found in perfectly good condition in the trash area (the books were in bags and boxes and untouched by real garbage) in my old Townhouse years ago, but not this book.

The Lost Fleet: Dauntless by Jack Campbell – I received the 2 most recent novels in this sequence for review from the publisher, and based on Mark Chitty’s praise for the books, I do want to read them but figured the first book might be the best spot to start

The Alien Years and Lord Valentine’s Castle by Robert Silverberg – I’ve read a bunch of shorts and a couple of books by Silverbeg but have always wanted to read his stab at Epic Fantasy and since Lord Valentine’s Castle is out of print, I made sure to snatch this one. The Alien Years is a book on my radar since it first published and it was a main selection of the Science Fiction Book Club. Plus, the new (and terrific) show Falling Skies has put me in the mood for some good ol’ alien invasion entertainment.


Field of Dishonor and The Short Victorious War by David Weber– By now, readers of my blog should know I’ve become a big fan of Weber, these are the third and fourth book in his massively popular Honor Harrington sequence.

Used Book Pr0n - Donaldson & Hambly

A fairly small haul this visit, but significant, I think. For years I've been hunting used book shops for a full set of Stephen R. Donaldson's Gap Cycle and I finally found it in what I consider the best used book shop in NJ - The Book Trader. When I was a lot younger, I visited this book shop quite often, they have a very good selection of old SF/F paperbacks and a lot of the yellow-spined DAW paperbacks. The store moved to a new location a few years ago and it seems more spacious. I hadn't visited the shop in years since being married and having moved close to an hour or so away. I also picked up Barbara Hambly's Dragonsbane, a novel that's been on my back burner/mental to read list for a while.