Recent Arrivals at Attack of the Books

There’s nothing like opening the mail to find new books. Except, perhaps, finding a great deal on a book you’ve long wanted to read.

That feels pretty good, too.

Here’s a few of the books that have arrived at our house recently.

Foz Meadows’ review of Ancillary Justice on A Dribble of Ink, Aidan Moher’s blog, had me in three paragraphs. I ordered it before I returned to the post to finish reading.

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.

Breq is both more than she seems and less than she was. Years ago, she was the Justice of Toren–a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of corpse soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

An act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with only one fragile human body. And only one purpose–to revenge herself on Anaander Mianaai, many-bodied, near-immortal Lord of the Radch.

Set in a world where a virus has started to turn humans into vampires, V-Wars is a collection of stories by various authors, including James A. Moore, author of the Attack of the Books! reviewed Seven Forges.

They are already here. They hide among us. They hunt us. They feed on us. The ARE us. V-Wars is the chronicle of the first Vampire War. From the savage murders committed by the patient zero of the plague to full-out battles with vampire terrorist cells, these are the stories of the most terrifying war mankind has ever faced!

I’m looking forward to this one: Angry Robot’s newest ARC in my mailbox is The Iron Wolves: Book 1 of The Rage of Kings:

Thirty years ago, the Iron Wolves held back mud-orc hordes at the Pass of Splintered Bones, and led a brutal charge that saw the sorcerer Morkagoth slain. This ended the War of Zakora, and made the Iron Wolves heroes.
 
Now, a new terror stalks the realm. In hushed whispers, it is claimed the Horse Lady, Orlana the Changer, has escaped from the Chaos Halls and is building an army, twisting horses, lions and bears into terrible, bloody hunters, summoning mud-orcs from then slime and heading north to Vagandrak where, it said, the noble King Yoon has gone insane…
 
After hearing a prophecy from a blind seer, aged General Dalgoran searches to reunite the heroes of old for what he believes will be the final battle. But as mud-orcs and twisted beasts tear through the land, Dalgoran discovers the Iron Wolves are no longer heroes of legend… Narnok is a violent whoremaster, Kiki a honey-leaf drug peddler, and Prince Zastarte a drinker, a gambler, amoral and decadent: now he likes to hear people scream as they burn…
 
United in hate, the Iron Wolves travel to the Pass of Splintered Bones; and as half a million mud-orcs gather, General Dalgoran realizes his grave error. Together, the Iron Wolves hold a terrible secret which has tortured them for three decades. Now, they only wish to be human again…

Also recently arrived, this from Strange Chemistry, is The Almost Girl by Amalie Howard:

 Seventeen-year-old Riven is as tough as they come. Coming from a world ravaged by a devastating android war, she has to be. There’s no room for softness, no room for emotion, no room for mistakes. A Legion General, she is the right hand of the young Prince of Neospes, a parallel universe to Earth. In Neospes, she has everything: rank, responsibility and respect. But when Prince Cale sends her away to find his long-lost brother, Caden, who has been spirited back to modern day Earth, Riven finds herself in uncharted territory.

Thrown out of her comfort zone but with the mindset of a soldier, Riven has to learn how to be a girl in a realm that is the opposite of what she knows. Riven isn’t prepared for the beauty of a world that is unlike her own in so many ways. Nor is she prepared to feel something more than indifference for the very target she seeks. Caden is nothing like Cale, but he makes something in her come alive, igniting a spark deep down that goes against every cell in her body. For the first time in her life, Riven isn’t sure about her purpose, about her calling. Torn between duty and desire, she must decide whether Caden is simply a target or whether he is something more.

Faced with hideous reanimated Vector soldiers from her own world with agendas of their own, as well as an unexpected reunion with a sister who despises her, it is a race against time to bring Caden back to Neospes. But things aren’t always as they seem, and Riven will have to search for truth. Family betrayals and royal coups are only the tip of the iceberg. Will Riven be able to find the strength to defy her very nature? Or will she become the monstrous soldier she was designed to be?

Perusing the used books sale at the library, I found a copy of Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death. I’ve not read any fiction by Okorafor, yet, but I enjoyed her essay in Writers of the Future Volume 29, so I thought I’d give it a try.

 In a far-future, post-apocalyptic Saharan Africa, genocide plagues one region. When the only surviving member of a slain village is brutally raped, she manages to escape, wandering farther into the desert. She gives birth to a baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand, and instinctively knows her daughter is different. She names her daughter Onyesonwu, which means “Who Fears Death?” in an ancient African tongue.

Reared under the tutelege of a mysterious and traditional shaman, Onyesonwu discovers she possesses a remarkable and unique magic. The journey to fulfill her destiny will force her to confront nature, tradition, history, the spiritual mysteries of her culture, and eventually to learn why she was given the unusual name she bears: Who Fears Death?

Related articles

• One to watch out for: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (aidanmoher.com)
• Do Want! – Upcoming Books on my Radar (sffbookreview.wordpress.com)
• Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (thewertzone.blogspot.com)
• Character Math #20: Mark Darcy + The Vampire Lestat = ? (bookriot.com)
• Three Disapointing Recent SF Novels, “Burning Paradise, The One Eyed Man and Ancillary Justice” (with comments by Liviu Suciu) (fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com)