Crack’d Pot Trail – A peek at Steven Erikson’s new novella
If you’re a regular (and especially if you have a real monitor) at BSC you’ll notice that we are all about Crack’d Pot Trail this week! This is the latest novella by Steven Erikson chronicling the adventures of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, coming to us from PS Publishing. I touched on it briefly back in August, and now that PS has it ready for pre-order (available in two editions, the hardcover and signed traycase), BSC is pleased to present two images from the December release. These are by Dick Berger, and as far as I know this is the first time most people will have seen them. I love me some Steven Erikson and anything in the Malazan setting.
Travel by warren and check them out after the jump…
Read the First 5 Chapters of The Choir Boats by Daniel A. Rabuzzi
Today we have the first five chapters of Daniel A. Rabuzzi’s forthcoming The Choir Boats, set to be published by Chizine Publications this September. The author tells us that within these pages we will be confronted by a mysterious letter, knuckledogs, carkodrillos, smilax root, goat stew, and one very fierce golden cat. How many of those in the first 5 chapters?
Read on after the jump and find out…..
Exclusive – The Stranger by Max Frei (excerpt)
Today at BSC I have an exclusive excerpt from a novel I’ve been hearing a lot about for several months now. Max Frei’s The Stranger is set to be published by Overlook Press on April 15th.
Synopsis:
Russian literary sensation Max Frei makes his English language debut in The Stranger, a highly philosophical comic fantasy infused with extraordinary wit, a voice that is beyond unique, and a complex web of clues that keeps the pages turning. A bestseller in Europe for years, this astonishing story is the fantasy epic for a new century.
Once a self-described “classic loser” who, if it weren’t for bad luck, wouldn’t have any luck at all, Max is an insomniac who sleeps all day, a night owl in a world of larks, a social outcast and a glutton with nothing to show for himself but empty cigarette packs. At twenty-something, Max is never the early bird and he never gets the worm. Then one day he suddenly finds himself transplanted into an alternate dream universe in the city of Echo, summoned by the chief of the Secret Police. In this world, he is deemed a species of magical secret agent, is made a member of the Department of Absolute Order, and must solve unimaginably extravagant cases with his exceptional new powers. Fate smiles on Max in the city of Echo, where everything that happens to him happens for a reason, and the one-time slacker is known reverently as the “unequalled Sir Max.” As Max learns how to navigate through his bizarre new reality, he takes readers on the journey of a lifetime punctuated by incredible events and a cast of unforgettable characters.
In an additional twist of fantasy, the true author behind the endearing narrator of The Labyrinths of Echo series is revealed in reality as Russian writer Svetlana Martynchik.
BSC would like to thank Overlook Press for allowing us to present the following excerpt at our venue!
Please check out all of our other exclusives for more chapters/excerpts from novels and complete short stories from collections and anthologies. BSC is the choice for publishers to bring you the goods!
I hope you enjoy!
Exclusive – China Underground by Zachary Mexico (Chapter excerpt)
While the BSC has a team at the NY Comicon, I’ve got an exclusive excerpt for all of you to take into the weekend! This one’s from a forthcoming book from Soft Skull Press. This is a complete chapter from China Underground by Zachary Mexico. The chapter is entitled The Killers.
Synopsis:
At the beginning of the 21st century, it is hard to imagine a place more exciting than China. Westerners hear much about China’s role as the next “global superpower,” but they know less about the young people who make up China’s varied and fascinating subcultures.
Drawn by the streets humming with the energy of constant change, Zachary Mexico, who had spent two years in China, returned there in the summer of 2006 to conduct formal research on how the changing environment has affected the Chinese of his generation. Readers are introduced to a wannabe rock star from the desert of Xinjiang, trying to make it big in Shanghai; a disillusioned journalist; a budding screenwriter; a vagabond ladies’ man; a straight-A student at China’s best university; a Chinese mafia kingpin; a punk band trying their best to stay relevant; a prostitute; the world’s most polluted city; Beijing’s drug-fueled club scene; and many others.
This is an engaging firsthand account of a young American writer’s encounter with the new China and the young people who are pursuing their future there. China Underground tells their stories, and some of Mexico’s own.
The BSC would like to thank Soft Skull Press for allowing us to present the following excerpt at our venue!
Please check out all of our other exclusives for more chapters/excerpts from novels and complete short stories from collections and anthologies. BookSpot Central is the choice for publishers to bring you the goods!
I hope you enjoy!
Exclusive – The Dragon’s Nine Sons by Chris Roberson (Chapters 1-3)
Today we have another exclusive sampler for you! The BSC has three chapters from The Dragon’s Nine Sons by Chris Roberson. This is the first book in Roberson’s Celestial Empire series and was published by Soalris Books in 2008. Chris Roberson is a multiple time World Fantasy Award finalist, and a winner of the Sidewise Award for his fiction. His novels include Here There and Everywhere, The Voyage of Night Shining White, and Paragaea: A Planetary Romance. He also will be writing a spin-off miniseries to the popular Vertigo title Fables called Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love.
Synopsis:
In a distant future where the Chinese have seized control of the world and colonised the stars, a disgraced naval captain and a commando who knows secrets he should never have learned are picked to lead a suicide mission. Piloting a salvaged Mexica spacecraft to Xolotl, the asteroid stronghold of their enemies, they are armed with enough explosives to reduce the Mexica base to dust. But when they arrive to find dozens of Chinese prisoners destined to be used as human sacrifices, their suicide mission suddenly becomes a rescue operation. This is a clash of empires old and new.
The BSC would like to thank Chris Roberson and Solaris Books for allowing us to present the following excerpt at our venue!
Please check out all of our other exclusives for more chapters/excerpts from novels and complete short stories from collections and anthologies. BookSpot Central is the choice for publishers to bring you the goods!
I hope you enjoy!
Exclusive – Lamentation by Ken Scholes (Prelude and 1st Chapter!)
The BSC is starting the day off with some exclusive excerpt goodness! Today we have a sample from a forthcoming release from Tor, Lamentation. Written by Ken Scholes, Lamentation is scheduled for a February 2009 Release, and is the first installment to his Psalms of Isaak series.
You can keep up to date with Scholes and his work at his livejournal.
Synopsis:
An ancient weapon has completely destroyed the city of Windwir. From many miles away, Rudolfo, Lord of the Nine Forest Houses, sees the horrifying column of smoke rising. He knows that war is coming to the Named Lands.
Nearer to the Devastation, a young apprentice is the only survivor of the city – he sat waiting for his father outside the walls, and was transformed as he watched everyone he knew die in an instant.
Soon all the Kingdoms of the Named Lands will be at each others’ throats, as alliances are challenged and hidden plots are uncovered.
This remarkable first novel from an award-winning short fiction writer will take readers away to a new world – an Earth so far in the distant future that our time is not even a memory; a world where magick is commonplace and great areas of the planet are impassable wastes. But human nature hasn’t changed through the ages: War and faith and love still move princes and nations.
The BSC would like to thank Ken Scholes and Tor Books for allowing us to present the following excerpt at our venue!
Please check out all of our other exclusives for more chapters/excerpts from novels and complete short stories from collections and anthologies. BookSpot Central is the choice for publishers to bring you the goods!
I hope you enjoy!
Exclusive – Eve of Darkness by S.J. Day (Chapter I)
First week the ’09 and the BSC is here with the exclusive goods to inform you on your buying decisions! What we have here is a look at a forthcoming novel that kicks off a trio of releases from Tor! Bestselling novelist S.J. Day enters the Urban Fantasy arena with her Marked series. Here we have the first chapter to the initial book, Eve of Darkness, scheduled for an April release. The following two novels (Eve of Destruction and Eve of Chaos) are scheduled to follow it up the month after!
For more information Ms. Day has a rather pretty, spiffy, clean, pro looking site. I love that; easy to navigate, and very clear.
Synopsis:
Cursed by God, hunted by demons, desired by Cain and Abel… All in a day’s work.
For Evangeline Hollis, a long ago fling with a bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks just became a disaster of biblical proportions. One night with a leather-clad man of mystery has led to a divine punishment: the Mark of Cain.
Thrust into a world where sinners are drafted into service to kill demons, Eve’s learning curve is short. A longtime agnostic, she begrudgingly maneuvers through a celestial bureaucracy where she is a valuable but ill-treated pawn. She’s also become the latest point of contention in the oldest case of sibling rivalry in history…
But she’ll worry about all that later. Right now she’s more concerned with learning to kill while staying alive. And saving the soul she’d never believed she had.
The BSC would like to thank S.J. Day and Tor Books for allowing us to present the following excerpt at our venue!
Please check out all of our other exclusives for more chapters/excerpts from novels and complete short stories from collections and anthologies to sample from all the best publishers in the world! BookSpot Central is the choice for publishers to bring you the goods!
I hope you enjoy!
Exclusive – Milk, Sulphate, and Alby Starvation by Martin Millar (Excerpt)
New Years Eve and the BSC isn’t taking the day off! We represent to the end! Today we have an exclusive excerpt from Milk, Sulphate, and Alby Starvation by Martin Millar being republished by Soft Skull Press in early 2009!
I’m pretty easy. All you have to do is have a line like “I like comics, especially Conan and Spiderman.” and I’m at least down for 50 more pages! Then the dude mentions the Surfer, and I’m the type of guy who automatically anointed Crimson Tide a classic just because of such a mention!
Millar, writing under “Martin Scott” won the World Fantasy Award for best novel in 2000.
Synopsis:
A re-issue of Martin Millar’s classic novel which recounts the life of Alby Starvation, the first true British anti-hero of the giro generation. A strange and wonderful story of Brixton low-life, seedy gutter violence and manic paranoia that’s as relevant now as when first published in the 1980s.
BSC would like to thank Soft Skull Press and Martin Millar for allowing us to present the following excerpt at our venue!
Please check out all of our other exclusives for more chapters/excerpts from novels and complete short stories from collections and anthologies to sample from all the best publishers in the world! BookSpot Central is the choice for publishers to bring you the goods!
I hope you enjoy!
Exclusive – Evil Ways by Justin Gustainis (Chapter Excerpt)
More sneak peaks at forthcoming content! Today we have an excerpt from Evil Ways by Justin Gustainis, coming from Solaris Books at the end of the month!
Synopsis:
In a story that ranges from Baghdad to Los Angeles, EVIL WAYS sees eccentric billionaire, Walter Grobius, attempt to unleash a devastating magical apocalypse. Quincey Morris, and his partner, white witch Libby Chastain, are drawn into their most deadliest case yet…
This is the second book in the Quincey Morris Supernatural Investigation series, following up Black Magic Woman.
BSC would like to thank Solaris Books and Justin for allowing us to present the following excerpt at our venue!
Please check out all of our other exclusives for more chapters/excerpts from novels and complete short stories from collections and anthologies to sample from all the best publishers in the world! BookSpot Central is the choice for publishers to bring you the goods!
I hope you enjoy!
Exclusive – Dragonfly Falling by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Chapter I – excerpt)
Kick off the work week with some exclusive goodness with the BSC! BookSpot Central is pleased to present the first chapter the first chapter to Dragonfly Falling by Adrian Tchaikovsky. This is the second installment of his Shadows of the Apt trilogy that was kicked off earlier this year with Empire in Black and Gold. It will be published in February 2009 by Pan Macmillan.
Synopsis:
Two young companions, Totho and Salma, arrive at Tark to spy on the menacing Wasp army, but are there mistakenly apprehended as enemy agents. By the time they are freed, the city is already under siege. Over in the imperial capital the young emperor, Alvdan, is becoming captivated by a remarkable slave, the vampiric Uctebri, who claims he knows of magic that can grant eternal life. In Collegium, meanwhile, Stenwold is still trying to persuade the city magnates to take seriously the Wasp Empire’s imminent threat to their survival. In a colourful drama involving mass warfare and personal combat, a small group of heroes must stand up against what seems like an unstoppable force.
This volume continues the story that so brilliantly unfolded in Empire in Black and Gold – and the action is still non-stop.
BookSpot Central hosted a sample from the previous novel as well, and you can check out an interview I conducted with Mr. Tchaikovsky earlier this year.
I want to thank Pan Macmillan for choosing BookSpot Central to present the following excerpt! Some of you might have seen it made available via Pan’s newsletter recently, be we present it again for all readers!
Please check out all of our other exclusives for more chapters/excerpts from novels and complete short stories from collections and anthologies to sample from all the best publishers in the world! BookSpot Central is the choice for several publishers to bring you the goods!
I hope you enjoy!
Exclusive – Thirteen Orphans by Jane Lindskold (Excerpt)
We keep them coming – more exclusive previews for the BookSpot Central Family! Before I get to the excerpt, you should first take notice that you have just until tomorrow to get in on a previously announced contest to win a signed copy of Thirteen Orphans by Jane Lindskold – so go handle that first! When you have done that, what I have for you today is an exclusive excerpt from the book! Thirteen Orphans was published by Tor in November 2008.
Synopsis:
As evocative and moving as Charles de Lint’s Newford books, with the youthful protagonists and exciting action of Mercedes Lackey’s fantasies, Thirteen Orphans makes our world today as excitingly strange and unfamiliar as any fantasy realm . . .and grants readers a glimpse of a fantasy world founded by ancient Chinese lore and magic.
As far as college freshman Brenda Morris knows, there is only one Earth and magic exists only in fairy tales.
Brenda is wrong.
A father-daughter weekend turns into a nightmare when Brenda’s father is magically attacked before her eyes. Brenda soon learns that her ancestors once lived in world of smoke and shadows, of magic and secrets.
When that world’s Emperor was overthrown, the Thirteen Orphans fled to our earth and hid their magic system in the game of mah-jong. Each Orphan represents an animal from the Chinese Zodiac. Brenda’s father is the Rat. And her polished, former child-star aunt, Pearl – that eminent lady is the Tiger.
Only a handful of Orphans remain to stand against their enemies. The Tiger, the Rooster, the Dog, the Rabbit . . . and Brenda Morris. Not quite the Rat, but not quite human either.
I would like to thank Tor and Ms. Lindskold for allowing us to present the following sampler to our readers!
Please check out all of our other exclusives for more chapters/excerpts from novels and complete short stories from collections and anthologies to sample from all the best publishers in the world! BookSpot Central is the choice for several publishers to bring you the goods!
I hope you enjoy!
Exclusive – The Hoard of Mhorrer by M.F.W. Curran (Chapter I)
More exclusive content! Today at BookSpot Central we have the lengthy first chapter from The Horde of Mhorrer by M.F.W. Curran. This is scheduled for publication in January 2009 from Pan Macmillan and is the second book in Curran’s The Secret War series that was kicked off by the novel of the same name in 2007.
Synopsis:
Prepare to confront the incarnation of evil. It is 1820 and the world is on the brink.
A fearless cohort of soldier-monks, led by Lieutenant William Saxon, has been dispatched to Egypt on the most important mission in history. For thousands of years a great secret has been kept: a stockpile of appalling malevolence, which, if let loose, will plunge the world into eternal damnation. This is the Hoard of Mhorrer. The soldiers must find and destroy the Hoard before the daemonic agents of the evil Count Ordrane of Draak locate it. In a heart-stopping race against time, ranging from Papal Rome to the desolate heart of Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, the soldiers must battle murderous militiamen and pitiless daemons, and finally, terrifyingly, the bloodthirsty Guardians of the Horde.
If William and his men succeed, the clandestine war between Heaven and Hell will at last begin to favour the forces of light. But if they fail, and the agents of Hell claim the Hoard, then they will unleash an army of invincible daemons, and humankind – what is left of it – will come to know the true meaning of evil.
I would like to thank Pan Macmillan and M.F.W. Curran for allowing us to present the following sampler to our readers!
Please check out all of our other exclusives for more chapters/excerpts from novels and complete short stories from collections and anthologies to sample from all the best publishers in the world! BookSpot Central is the choice for several publishers to bring you the goods!
I hope you enjoy!
