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Barnes and Noble Bookseller’s Picks for March

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Barnes and Noble Bookseller’s Picks for March

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Published on March 7, 2012

Barnes & Noble Bookseller's Picks for October 2012
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Barnes & Noble Bookseller's Picks for October 2012

For over a decade, Barnes & Noble buyer Jim Killen has been a driving force behind Barnes & Noble’s science fiction and fantasy sections. Each month on Tor.com, Mr. Killen curates a list of science fiction & fantasy titles, sometimes focused on upcoming titles and sometimes focused on a theme.

Here’s the Barnes & Noble science fiction and fantasy picks for March.

Barnes & Noble Bookseller’s Picks for March

Joe Golem and the Drowning City by Mike Mignola with illustrations by Christopher Golden (March 27, St. Martin’s Press)

 Fifty years have passed since the great earthquake and the Drowning City is full of scavengers and water rats, poor people trying to eke out an existence, and those too proud or stubborn to be defeated by circumstance. Among them are fourteen-year-old Molly McHugh, on the run. Her flight will lead her into the company of a mysterious man, and his stalwart sidekick, Joe Golem, whose own past is a mystery to him, but who walks his own dreams as a man of stone and clay, brought to life for the sole purpose of hunting witches.

 

Timeless (Parasol Protectorate Series #5) by Gail Carriger (March 2, Orbit)

Alexia Tarabotti, Lady Maccon, has settled into domestic bliss. Until, that is, she receives a summons from Alexandria that cannot be ignored. With husband, child, and Tunstells in tow, Alexia boards a steamer to cross the Mediterranean. But Egypt may hold more mysteries than even the indomitable Lady Maccon can handle. What does the vampire Queen of the Alexandria Hive really want from her? Why is the God-Breaker Plague suddenly expanding? And how has Ivy Tunstell suddenly become the most popular actress in all the British Empire?

 

Soulless: The Manga by Gail Carriger with illustrations by Rem (March 2, Orbit)

The first in Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series is now in Manga form! Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she’s a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette. Where to go from there? If you haven’t read this series yet, here is a great place to start.

 

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi by Troy Denning (March 13, Del Rey)

In the stunning finale of the epic Fate of the Jedi series, Jedi and Sith face off—with Coruscant as their battlefield. For the Sith, it’s the chance to restore their dominance over the galaxy that forgot them for so long. For Abeloth, it’s a giant step in her quest to conquer all life everywhere. For Luke Skywalker, it’s a call to arms to eradicate the Sith and their monstrous new master once and for all.

 

 

Fair Game (Alpha and Omega) by Patricia Briggs (March 6, Ace)

They say opposites attract. And in the case of werewolves Anna Latham and Charles Cornick, they mate. The son—and enforcer—of the leader of the North American werewolves, Charles is a dominant alpha. While Anna, an omega, has the rare ability to calm others of her kind.  Now that the werewolves have revealed themselves to humans, they can’t afford any bad publicity. Infractions that could have been overlooked in the past must now be punished, and the strain of doing his father’s dirty work is taking a toll on Charles.

 

Bridge of Dreams (Ephemera Series) by Anne Bishop (March 6, Penguin)

When wizards threaten Glorianna Belladonna and her work to keep Ephemera balanced, her brother Lee sacrifices himself in order to save her—and ends up an asylum inmate in the city of Vision.

But a darkness is spreading through Vision, perplexing the Shamans who protect it. And Lee is the only one who can shed any light on its mysteries…

 

 

 

The Wise Man’s Fear (Kingkiler Chronicles Series #2) Paperback by Patrick Rothfuss (March 6, Penguin)

Now in paperback—this book was voted Number One novel of the year in the Tor.com Readers’ Poll.

In The Wise Man’s Fear, Kvothe searches for answers, attempting to uncover the truth about the mysterious Amyr, the Chandrian, and the death of his parents. Along the way, Kvothe is put on trial by the legendary Adem mercenaries, forced to reclaim the honor of his family, and travels into the Fae realm. There he meets Felurian, the faerie woman no man can resist, and who no man has ever survived…until Kvothe.

Now, Kvothe takes his first steps on the path of the hero and learns how difficult life can be when a man becomes a legend in his own time.

 

Costume Not Included: To Hell and Back, Book 2 by Matthew Hughes (March 27, Osprey Limited)

Chesney’s efforts to Save The Day and Win the Girl make slow progress. Meanwhile, Boss Greeley’s deal with the Devil makes him ever-stronger, and untouchable, while the Reverend Hardacre digs deeper and finds that not everything in reality is quite what it seems…

 

 

 

 

By a Thread (Elemental Assassin Series #6) by Jennifer Estep (Feb. 28, Pocket Books)

How often does an assassin live long enough to enjoy her retirement? In this line of work, you either get lucky or you get dead. And since I destroyed my nemesis Mab Monroe a few weeks ago, all of Ashland’s lowlifes are gunning to make a name for themselves by taking out the lethal Spider—me, Gin Blanco. But this time, the danger is hot on my trail, and not even my elemental Ice and Stone magic may be enough to save me from getting buried in the sand—permanently.

 

Legion of the Damned (Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine Battle Series) by Rob Sanders (March 27, Games Workshop)

Following the trajectory of a blood-red comet, the berserk World Eaters blaze a path of destruction across the galaxy in its wake. The small cemetery world of Certus Minor appeals to the Space Marines of the Excoriators Chapter for protection, but the force dispatched to deal with this grim threat is far too small and their losses against the renegades are high. Just as all seems lost, salvation is borne out of legend itself as sinister spectral warriors descend upon this planet of the dead, and the enemies of the Imperium come face to face with those who have already travelled beyond the realm of the living…

 

Age of Aztec by James Lovegrove (March 27, Solaris)

The Aztecs’ reign is one of cruel and ruthless oppression, encompassing regular human sacrifice. In the jungle-infested city of London, one man defies them: the masked vigilante known as the Conquistador. Then the Conquistador is recruited to spearhead an uprising, and discovers a terrible truth about the Aztec and their gods. The clock is ticking. Apocalypse looms, unless the Conquistador can help assassinate the mysterious, immortal Aztec emperor, the Great Speaker. But his mission is complicated by Mal Vaughn, a police detective who is on his trail, determined to bring him to justice.

 

Fated: An Alex Versus Novel by Benedict Jacka (Feb 28, Penguin)

Alex Verus is part of a world hidden in plain sight, running a magic shop in London. And while Alex’s own powers aren’t as showy as some mages, he does have the advantage of foreseeing the possible future—allowing him to pull off operations that have a million-to-one-chance of success. But when Alex is approached by multiple factions to crack open a relic from a long-ago mage war, he knows that whatever’s inside must be beyond powerful. And thanks to his abilities, Alex can predict that by taking the job, his odds of survival are about to go from slim to none…

 

A Rising Thunder by David Weber (March 6, Baen)

Honor Harrington is back as the thunder of battle rolls and the Solarian League directs its massive power against the Star Kingdom. Once again, Honor Harrington is thrust into a desperate battle that she must win if she is to survive to take the fight to the real enemy of galactic freedom–the insidious puppetmasters of war who lurk behind the Mesan Alignment!

 

 

 

Check back with us at the beginning of April for next month’s B&N Picks, and keep an eye out tomorrow for Independent Bookseller Picks from WORD in Brooklyn.

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o.m.
2 years ago

So, what did we learn today?

The humans are not alone in fitting blinkenlights to their covert ops communicators. Another few centuries of R&D, and they’ll cut it down to perky chirps. And the shuttles are armed. Is that new?

I’m not sure how I think about the Vulcan approach to planetary sovereignty. How they deal with their dissidents is up to them, it seems, as long as they take their Vulcan advice meekly. And how did the Vulcans ever keep their reputation that they don’t lie?

Was the getting-out-of-the-ropes sequence supposed to be eye candy? If they had spent less time speaking and more time working the knots, they might have gotten out in time … to get killed, maybe.

Avatar
2 years ago

@1: “Hey, Vulcans, do you lie?”

“No.”

“Is that a lie?”

“Since we do not lie, logic dictates that it must not be.”

“Huh… checks out.  Hey everyone, Vulcans never lie!”

ChristopherLBennett
2 years ago

I found this episode rather unfocused. It’s got some cute business with Shran wanting to repay his debt so he can get some sleep — it establishes that he has integrity, but in a way that maintains his irascibility and unfriendlines. But unfortunately, the part that stands out most in my memory is the sophomoric bondage sequence. This show’s producers had a terrible approach to sex appeal, contriving to put the female leads in accidentally revealing or (supposedly) titillating situations, which took away their agency and consent and was thus rather prurient. There’s a lot about TOS we justifiably see as sexist, but at least the female characters there were usually trying to be sexy and seductive, so they had more agency than T’Pol getting Archer’s face mushed against her chest or Hoshi in the season finale losing her top when she drops out of a vent.

It occurs to me I haven’t mentioned how miscast I felt Gary Graham was as Soval, at least initially. I first got to know Graham as the lead of the Alien Nation TV series from 1989-97 (counting the revival movies), and he did a great job there playing a very emotional character, a constantly angry guy who had a sensitive soul and wore his heart on his sleeve. But I felt for most of ENT’s run that he did a poor job dialing back his emotional intensity enough to be convincing as a Vulcan. It wasn’t until season 4 that I felt he finally got a handle on Vulcan acting, and after that he was quite good at it.

Although as the series went on, a lot of other actors would have similar issues, playing Vulcan characters with far too much emotionality — Robert Foxworth as Administrator V’Las in season 4 in particular. But by then, it kind of worked in the stories’ favor, since it was established that the Vulcans had lost touch with Surak’s true teachings.

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Delos
2 years ago

I first saw Gary Graham in the legendary, thoughtful, nuanced, artistic triumph known as… Robot Jox. He was pretty emotional there, too.

ChristopherLBennett
2 years ago

@4/Delos: Oh yeah, Robot Jox. Not a bad film, actually, for what it was. It had a pretty smart script by noted SF novelist Joe Haldeman, though it got somewhat dumbed down in rewrites.

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Delos
2 years ago

Yup, Robot Jox is fun, in sort of that boffo social commentary school of sci-fi flick. Paul Verhoeven must’ve been a fan, I would imagine.

I believe it’s free to watch on Tubi or one of those other streamers right now.

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ED
2 years ago

 I’m not going to lie, that bit with Captain Archer & T’Pol almost managing to wriggle their way out of their restraints struck me as a first-rate bit of physical comedy … right up until they made a boob of the ending (Although seeing those terrorists rush in right after Our Heroes got loose gave me the strong impression that those guards had been watching the entire time, quite possibly taking bets and maybe a bit TOO distracted by their surprise at these two ‘guests’ actually making a go of their escape).

 Also, it’s absolutely delightful to see T’Pol get her due after being absolutely indispensable for so many episodes (Possibly even better than seeing Shran back in town, though it’s a close-run thing either way); it’s also amusing to see that Doctor Phlox’s tendency to pilfer from the plates of others alive & well (I’m beginning to suspect that the Denobulan sense of personal space extends no further than the outer limits of their skin!).

 One interesting question this episode presents us is “What might have become of NX-01 with Captain Gardner in charge?” (While Ambassador Soval’s support for the man suggests somebody perhaps a little too in awe of the Vulcans, I doubt the Good Captain was anything but an exemplary professional – something Captain Archer occasionally struggles to be).

 

 @3. ChristopherLBennett: In all honesty the fact that Vulcans are not actually emotionless (except for those who’ve pursued Logic all the way to Kolinahr) strikes me as adequate justification for some Vulcans being at least a little emotive – especially by comparison with Mr Spock, who (let us remember) has always had more to prove than most when it comes to walking the Way of Surak and was for much of his more life more a ‘Model Vulcan’ than a completely representative one (Very much in the same way Mr Worf was a ‘Model Klingon’).

 To be honest I think the ideal Vulcan performance is controlled, not genuinely passionless (A balance that Ms. Blalock has proven herself to be rather good at striking thus far in the rewatch; in all honesty that’s something I missed on my first encounters with ENTERPRISE, during it’s initial run), although I do agree that sort of feeling is better kept simmering beneath the surface than bubbling up around the edges.

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Bob
2 years ago

“And T’Pol falling boobs-first on Archer was just cringe-inducing.”

So very cringe. Bakula talking to John Stewart about it is also cringe: 
https://www.cc.com/video/09l92h/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-scott-bakula

At the time I didn’t care much for T’Pol, but rewatching the series I can only commend Blalock for doing as well as she did with such limited material. 

 

ChristopherLBennett
2 years ago

@7/ED: Of course Vulcans aren’t emotionless, but my point is that there’s a right and a wrong way for an actor to emote as a Vulcan. The right way is the way Nimoy did it, by internalizing the emotion and expressing it subtly beneath a surface of control and discipline. Tim Russ and Jolene Blalock did it fairly well also. When they wanted to convey irritation, for instance, they did it with a subtle tension to the voice, a slight narrowing of the eyes or lips. Compared to that, Soval’s shows of irritation in seasons 1-2 were practically J. Jonah Jameson tantrums.

Avatar
2 years ago

@5 – “”it’s as if I’d had a child who started out well and then sustained brain damage.”” Joe Haldeman on Robot Jox.

And yet, seven years later and with a whole new production crew, they still had Kirk grabbing Uhura’s breasts and grinning at her during the bar fight.  Instead of her silly pushing him off of her, she should have been the one to deck him and knock him out cold.

It seems that Star Trek never learns.

Watching this makes me wonder how the galaxy wasn’t in a state of perpetual war until Archer and the rest of the humans showed up.  Nobody seems to get along with anyone else without at least the suggestion of force.  It would have been interesting to see what happens when Starfleet screwed up but good.  How would humanity react?  How would the crew?  The Vulcans?  But. our intrepid crew are the ones in the credits so they always have to come out on the right side of things, even though mistakes happen in the real world.  

Let’s see Archer doing what he things is the right thing and pushing an alien race to do something that turns out horribly wrong because he didn’t fully understand the situation or the races invited and how they would react.  Show us something going so badly that it brings in the Prime Directive.

Instead, we get these guys versus those guys versus those other guys with Archer in the middle working it all out 5 minutes before the end of the episode so we have time for the tag.

Yes, this is a follow up to a prior episode but the destruction of the monastery plays a surprisingly small part.  Mostly, it’s played to give Shran a chance to get out of Archer’s debt.  And speaking of Shran, has he been following the Enterprise, just waiting for such a chance?  If not, then space, which should be very, very big is shown as very, very small.

 

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