Locus, December 2012
Page 27
Midst Toil and Tribulation by David Weber made its debut at number one on the hardcover list this month, with The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks coming in second place. The new runner-up was Slow Apocalypse by John Varley (Ace) with 47 titles nominated, up from the 37 we saw last month.
George R.R. Martin continues to lead the paperback list with A Game of Thrones in first place, followed by Ghost Story by Jim Butcher in second place. The runner-up was Bloodstar by Ian Douglas (Harper Voyager) with 54 titles nominated, up from last month’s 48.
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien took first place on the trade paperback list this month. The runner-up was Cast in Peril by Michelle Sagara with 45 titles nominated, up significantly from the 32 we saw last month.
Star Trek: Voyager: The Eternal Tide by Kirsten Beyer returned in first on the media-related titles this month and there was no new runner-up. There were ten titles nominated, down slightly from last month’s 12.
Forgotten Realms: Charon’s Claw by R.A. Salvatore remained at number one in the gaming-related titles, and there was no new runner-up. There were 13 titles nominated, down quite a bit from the 26 we saw last month.
Compiled with data from: Bakka-Phoenix (Canada), Barnes and Noble (USA), Borderlands (CA), McNally Robinson (two in Canada), Mysterious Galaxy (CA), Toadstool (two in NH), Uncle Hugo’s (MN), White Dwarf (Canada). Data period: September 2012.
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B&N/B. Dalton (print)
HARDCOVERS
1) A Dance with Dragons, George R.R. Martin (Bantam)
2) The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien (Del Rey)
3) Redoubt, Mercedes Lackey (DAW)
4) Midst Toil and Tribulation, David Weber (Tor)
5) The Blinding Knife, Brent Weeks (Orbit)
6) 1635: Papal Stakes, Eric Flint & Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
7) Into the Woods, Kim Harrison (HarperVoyager)
8) Wards of Faerie, Terry Brooks (Del Rey)
9) The Hydrogen Sonata, Iain M. Banks (Orbit)
10) Stormdancer, Jay Kristoff (Thomas Dunne)
PAPERBACKS
1) The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien (Del Rey)
2) A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin (Bantam)
3) A Feast for Crows, George R.R. Martin (Bantam)
4) A Clash of Kings, George R.R. Martin (Bantam)
5) A Perfect Blood, Kim Harrison (HarperVoyager)
6) Fury’s Kiss, Karen Chance (Signet)
7) Seeds of Earth, Michael Cobley (Orbit)
8) Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card (Tor)
9) Changes, Mercedes Lackey (DAW)
10) Death’s Rival, Faith Hunter (Roc)
TRADE PAPERBACKS
1) Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (Simon & Schuster)
2) The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien (Del Rey)
3) A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin (Bantam)
4) A Storm of Swords, George R.R. Martin (Bantam)
5) A Clash of Kings, George R.R. Martin (Bantam)
MEDIA-RELATED
1) Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan, Drew Karpyshyn (Del Rey)
2) The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury, Robert Kirkman & Jay Bonansinga (Thomas Dunne)
3) The Walking Dead: The Rise of the Governor, Robert Kirkman & Jay Bonansinga (Thomas Dunne)
4) Star Wars: The Jedi Path, Daniel Wallace (Chronicle)
5) Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith: The Collected Stories, John Jackson Miller (Del Rey)
GAMING-RELATED
1) Halo: The Thursday War, Karen Traviss (Tor)
2) Warhammer 40,000: Shadows of Treachery, Christian Dunn & Nick Kyme (Black Library US)
3) Halo: Glasslands, Karen Traviss (Tor)
4) Warhammer 40,000: The Horus Heresy: Fear to Tread, James Swallow (Black Library US)
5) Forgotten Realms: Charon’s Claw, R.A. Salvatore (Wizards of the Coast)
audible.com (audio)
SCIENCE FICTION
1) 14, Peter Clines (Audible Frontiers)
2) 11/22/63, Stephen King (Simon & Schuster Audio)
3) The Lost Stars: Tarnished Knight, Jack Campbell (Audible Frontiers)
4) Zombie Fallout, Mark Tufo (Tantor Audio)
5) Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card (Macmillan Audio)
6) The Stand, Stephen King (Random House Audio)
7) Ready Player One, Ernest Cline (Random House Audio)
8) Treason, Orson Scott Card (Blackstone Audio)
9) A Plague Upon Your Family, Mark Tufo (Tantor Audio)
10) The End, Mark Tufo (Tantor Audio)
11) Alive in a Dead World, Mark Tufo (Tantor Audio)
12) Dune, Frank Herbert (Macmillan Audio)
13) The End Has Come and Gone, Mark Tufo (Tantor Audio)
14) World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, Max Brooks
(Random House Audio)
15) Fire Season, David Weber & Jane Lindskold (Audible Frontiers)
16) Ex-Patriots, Peter Clines (Audible Frontiers)
17) Farnham’s Freehold, Robert A. Heinlein (Blackstone Audio)
18) Mogworld, Yahtzee Croshaw (Open Book Audio)
19) Bowl of Heaven, Larry Niven & Gregory Benford (Audible Frontiers)
20) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
(Random House Audio)
FANTASY
1) The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien (Recorded Books)
2) The Fellowship of the Ring, J. R. R. Tolkien (Recorded Books)
3) The Twelve, Justin Cronin (Random House Audio)
4) The Two Towers, J. R. R. Tolkien (Recorded Books)
5) The Return of the King, J. R. R. Tolkien (Recorded Books)
6) Into the Woods, Kim Harrison (Harper Audio)
7) A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin (Random House Audio)
8) The Passage, Justin Cronin (Random House Audio)
9) A Storm of Swords, George R.R. Martin (Random House Audio)
10) A Clash of Kings, George R.R. Martin (Random House Audio)
11) A Feast for Crows, George R.R. Martin (Random House Audio)
12) A Dance with Dragons, George R.R. Martin (Random House Audio)
13) Shadow of Night, Deborah Harkness (Penguin Audio)
14) Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs, Molly Harper (Audible)
15) Dark Storm, Christine Feehan (Penguin Audio)
16) Skinwalker, Faith Hunter (Audible Frontiers)
17) Nice Girls Don’t Date Dead Men, Molly Harper (Audible)
18) Nice Girls Don’t Live Forever, Molly Harper (Audible)
19) Monster Hunter Legion, Larry Correia (Audible Frontiers)
20) Death’s Rival, Faith Hunter (Audible Frontiers)
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NEW AND NOTABLE
Stephen Baxter, Iron Winter (Gollancz 8/12) The third and concluding book in the Northland series, set in an alternate past where medieval traders, scholars, and ordinary people struggle to keep civilization and themselves alive in the face of a coming ice age.
Elizabeth Bear, Shoggoths in Bloom (Prime 11/12) The latest story collection from this versatile author includes 20 stories from the past six years, with one original, ‘‘The Death of Terrestrial Radio’’, and an introduction by writer Scott Lynch. Also features both of her Hugo Award-winning stories ‘‘Tideline’’ and ‘‘Shoggoths in Bloom’’.
Gregory Benford & Larry Niven, Bowl of Heaven (Ace 10/12) Two giants of hard SF come together to begin an ambitious new duology about spacefaring humans discovering a ‘‘Big Smart Object’’: a huge bowl-shaped structure that moves through space powered by a captive star. ‘‘One of those dream-team arrangements that publishers and readers, um, dream about… the first half of a hefty two-decker novel of exploration, alien encounter, and Holy-Cow-Will-Ya-Lookitthat! engineering.’’ [Russell Letson]
Libba Bray, The Diviners (Little, Brown 9/12) The celebrated YA author returns to fantasy with the first of a planned quartet of sprawling adventures set in a 1920s New York menaced by supernatural ev
il. ‘‘Bray’s finest and most assured work yet, The Diviners is an undeniable standout of the year.’’ [Gwenda Bond]
Tobias S. Buckell & Joe Monti, eds., Diverse Energies (Tu 11/12) This YA anthology features a dozen dystopian stories (with three reprints, and a novel excerpt from Daniel H. Wilson’s Robopocalypse), including original stories by K. Tempest Bradford, Malinda Lo, Ken Liu, Greg van Eekhout, and more.
Peter Dickinson, Earth and Air (Big Mouth House 9/12) This collection of six original middle-grade fantasy ‘‘Tales of Elemental Creatures’’ concludes the Elemental series begun with Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits and Fire: Tales of Elemental Spirits (both prior volumes co-written with Robin McKinley). ‘‘Read it with your mind open, senses alert… and prepare for a marvelously bumpy ride.’’ [Faren Miller]
Kate Griffin, Stray Souls (Orbit 10/12) Griffin (a pen name for Catherine Webb) launches the new Magicals Anonymous series, a spin-off from the Matthew Swift books, about an urban shaman and a ragtag group of misfit supernatural beings trying to save the soul of London itself. Griffin ignores ‘‘the standard fictional divisions between mundane and occult… to reveal a potent mix of horror, humor and raw power in things we tend to take for granted.’’ [Faren Miller]
Liz Grzyb & Talie Helene, eds. The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy & Horror 2011 (Ticonderoga 8/12) This anthology gathers 31 stories (and one poem) representing the best of genre writing by Australian authors, with stories by Peter M. Ball, Lee Battersby, Stephen Dedman, Terry Dowling, Richard Harland, Margaret Mahy, Tansy Raynor Roberts, Lucy Sussex, Kaaron Warren, and others, plus a ‘‘Year in Review’’ essay by the editors and an obituary of Sara Douglass by Lucy Sussex.
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Elizabeth Hand, Errantry (Small Beer 11/12) The third collection from one of our most talented fantasists includes ten stories from the past half a dozen years, including World Fantasy Award winner ‘‘The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon’’, which ‘‘never quite verges into fantasy or SF (though there are bits to permit such a reading), but… ends up feeling a little like both, and it’s this negotiation between modes that has become increasingly one of Hand’s trademarks in the past few years.’’ [Gary K. Wolfe]
Lisa L. Hannett & Angela Slatter (Ticonderoga Press 11/12) An original collection of 13 collaborations (one a reprint) by a pair of up-and-coming Australian authors. The tales are interwoven and linked by the travels of Odin’s raven Mymnir across time and space, from ancient Vinland to modern America.
Rudy Rucker, Turing & Burroughs (Transreal 11/12) This ‘‘Beatnik SF Novel’’ exemplifies Rucker’s overstuffed, gonzo approach to SF, presenting an alternate history where computing legend Alan Turing escapes assassination and becomes the lover of Beat writer William Burroughs – which leads inevitably to the pair shapeshifting, raising the dead, and tampering with hydrogen bombs at Los Alamos.
Brandon Sanderson, The Emperor’s Soul (Tachyon 11/12) This gripping novella, loosely connected to the author’s acclaimed Elantris series, concerns a thief captured and given a daunting magical task: to Forge a new soul for the emperor before the people discover his soulless state and the empire collapses into turmoil.
Robert Shearman, Remember Why You Fear Me (ChiZine 11/12) One of our strangest and most eclectic horror writers presents 20 stories, six original, running the gamut from the satirical, to the terrifying, to the surreal, including World Fantasy Award nominee ‘‘Damned If You Don’t’’ and British Fantasy Award finalists ‘‘George Clooney’s Mustache’’ and ‘‘Roadkill’’. Shearman’s previous collections have won World Fantasy and Shirley Jackson Awards.
Charles Tan, ed. Lauriat: A Filipino-Chinese Speculative Fiction Anthology (Lethe 8/12) This original anthology gathers 14 stories by Filipino-Chinese authors, with stories drawing on both cultures and the intersections between them. ‘‘The best are quite good – my favorites being ‘The Perpetual Day’ by Crystal Koo, about a community which cannot go to sleep, and ‘The Stranger at my Grandmother’s Wake’ by Fidelis Tan.’’ [Rich Horton]
Ann VanderMeer, ed. Steampunk III: Steampunk Revolution (Tachyon 11/12) The third volume in an impressive series of new and classic steampunk works includes 27 stories (three original) and four essays (three original), with fiction by Christopher Barzak, Jeffrey Ford, N.K. Jemisin, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Nick Mamatas, Cherie Priest, Vandana Singh, Karin Tidbeck, Carrie Vaughn, and others.
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TERRY BISSON: THIS MONTH IN HISTORY
December 19, 2019. Last call. Road rage rules in nationwide run on liquor stores as distilleries pull stock, protesting new FDA rule requiring graphic DUI victim images on bottles. 766 deaths in Cincinnatti alone.
December 24, 2040. Prophets Day. Responding to Ecumenical Retail Council request, Congress declares the last Monday in December a federal holiday celebrating the births of Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ, and Isaac Newton.
December 3, 2114. ‘‘Hoover’’ hit. UNASA’s celebrated clean-up satellite is struck by a meteor, scattering debris that will brighten night skies and down airliners for decades to come.
December 11, 2313. Paradise found. Surprising scientists, scholars and Christians alike, the actual Biblical Heaven, filled with immortal blessed souls, is discovered in the Oort cloud by a prospector drone. It’s tiny.
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OBITUARIES
Author KEVIN O’DONNELL, JR., 61, died November 7, 2012 in Campbell CA of complications from cancer.
His first story was ‘‘The Hand Is Quicker’’ in Analog (1973), and he published more than 50 SF stories in the following 25 years, as well as mystery fiction and non-fiction articles. First SF novel Bander Snatch appeared in 1979, followed by SF novels Mayflies (1979), War of Omission (1982), ORA:CLE (1984), Fire on the Border (1990), and horror novel The Shelter (1990, with Mary Kittredge). He is best known for the Journeys of McGill Feighan series, beginning with The Journeys of McGill Feighan: Book I: Caverns (1981), followed by three more installments.
Kim & Kevin O’Donnell, Jr. (1986)
Born November 29, 1950 in Cleveland OH, O’Donnell grew up in nearby Fairview Park. After his mother’s death in 1965, his father became Peace Corps director for Korea, and O’Donnell lived with his family in Seoul for four years. He attended Yale University, graduating in 1972 with a degree in Chinese Studies, and taught in Taipei, Taiwan for a year, moving to New Haven CT in 1974. That year he married Lillian Kia Chou ‘‘Kim’’ Tchang. They lived in Philadelphia before relocating to Campbell CA in 1985.
O’Donnell was managing editor of Empire: For the SF Writer from 1979-81, and served as publisher until 1983. He was active in SFWA in the ’90s and 2000s, serving on various committees, acting as business manager for the Bulletin, and maintaining the website. He retired as Chairman of the SFWA Grievance Committee in 2005, the same year he received a Service to SFWA Award. He is survived by his wife.
•
Writer and editor JANET BERLINER, 73, died October 24, 2012 in Las Vegas NV after a long illness.
Berliner won a Bram Stoker Award for story ‘‘Children of the Dusk’’ (1997, with George Guthridge), and also published stories in Shayol, F&SF, and numerous anthologies, sometimes in collaboration with Dave Smeds and Lawrence Schimel. Some of her short work was gathered in Exotic Locals (2000), a CD-Rom collection co-authored with Guthridge.
Her novels include Execution Exchange (1980, as Janet Gluckman, with Woody Greer), Rite of the Dragon (1981, as Gluckman), The Madagascar Manifesto series (as Janet Berliner, with George Guthridge), and Artifact (2003, with Kevin J. Anderson, F. Paul Wilson, and Matthew J. Costello). She also conceived the story idea for The Unicorn Sonata by Peter S. Beagle (1996) and shepherded that project to completion.
Janet Berliner (1982)
She got her start editing with a book of dark erotic fiction, Desire Burn: Women’s Stories from the Dark Side of Passion (1995), an
d also worked to develop Peter S. Beagle’s Immortal Unicorn (1995), David Copperfield’s Tales of the Impossible (1995), and David Copperfield’s Beyond Imagination (1996). She co-edited anthology Snapshots: 20th Century Mother-Daughter Fiction with Joyce Carol Oates in 2000.
Berliner was born September 24, 1939 in Cape Town, South Africa, where she began writing with reviews and an advice column for a local newspaper. After turning 21, she traveled with her husband Michael Gluckman (later divorced) to the US in 1960, becoming an American citizen in 1966. They had two daughters. Berliner attended college and worked as a literary agent in New York. The family moved to Cupertino CA in 1972, where she established Professional Media Services to do translation, writing, and editing work.
Berliner developed an auto-immune disorder, and her health began to decline, but despite many setbacks and hospitalizations she continued working for decades. She spent some time in Grenada with Bob Fleck, her companion of the past twenty years, before they settled in Las Vegas in the ’90s.
JANET by Kevin J. Anderson
Sometimes, the passing of a friend is sudden and unexpected. This morning I received an e-mail I’ve been expecting and dreading for a long time, letting us know that Janet Berliner had passed away at dawn in her hospital room.
Janet left us in stages. We first met Janet in the early 1990s, riding high on the publication of her ambitious novel Child of the Light, written with George Guthridge. We got to know her through San Francisco Bay Area fandom, and soon became very good friends. She and Bob Fleck moved to Grenada, and then to Las Vegas, where she spent her last years, and we remained close throughout that time.
Janet was vibrant, full of imagination and full of ambition – when she got a big idea, she chased after it. When she first proposed doing an action series called ‘‘The Daredevil’s Club’’ she went straight to Evel Knievel himself to see if he would partner on it. (That project eventually became Artifact, with contributions by Janet, F. Paul Wilson, Matt Costello, and myself.) When she wanted to do a magic-themed anthology, she got a commitment from Ray Bradbury and then convinced David Copperfield to spearhead the project. She worked with Peter S. Beagle to develop The Unicorn Sonata and anthology The Immortal Unicorn, convincing him that he still had more to do with unicorns after all.