The Hobbit remained in first place on the trade paperback list this month. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday) was the new runner-up, with 37 titles nominated, down from the 41 we saw last month.
Daniel Falconer’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Chronicles: Art & Design debuted in first place on the media-related titles this month, and Star Trek: The Old Republic: Annihilation by Drew Karpyshyn (Pocket) was the new runner-up. There were 22 titles nominated, up from last month’s 16.
Karen Traviss kept first place, but with a different book this month, Halo: The Thursday War, in the gaming-related titles, and there was no new runner-up. There were 13 titles nominated, down from the 15 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 (NH), Uncle Hugo’s (MN), University Bookstore (WA), White Dwarf (Canada). Data period: December 2012.
B&N/B. DALTON (print)
HARDCOVERS
1) A Memory of Light, Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson (Tor)
2) Ever After, Kim Harrison (Harper Voyager)
3) The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien (Del Rey)
4) A Dance with Dragons, George R.R. Martin (Bantam)
5) Cold Days, Jim Butcher (Roc)
6) Imager’s Battalion, L.E. Modesitt, Jr. (Tor)
7) Great North Road, Peter F., Hamilton (Del Rey)
8) A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin (Bantam)
9) The Dog in the Dark, Barb & J.C. Hendee (Roc)
10) Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
PAPERBACKS
1) A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin (Bantam)
2) The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien (Del Rey)
3) The Host, Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown)
4) A Clash of Kings, George R.R. Martin (Bantam)
5) A Storm of Swords, George R.R. Martin (Bantam)
6) A Feast for Crows, George R.R. Martin (Bantam)
7) Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card (Tor)
8) The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien (Del Rey)
9) A Song of Ice and Fire box set, George R.R. Martin (Bantam)
10) The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien (Del Rey)
TRADE PAPERBACKS
1) The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
2) Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (Simon & Schuster)
3) The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
4) A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin (Bantam)
5) The Host, Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown)
MEDIA-RELATED
1) Star Wars: Scoundrels, Timothy Zahn (Del Rey)
2) Star Wars: Darth Plagueis, James Luceno (Del Rey)
3) Doctor Who: The Wheel of Ice, Stephen Baxter (Ace)
4) Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse, Troy Denning (Del Rey)
5) Star Trek: The Next Generation: Cold Equations: The Body Electric, David Mack (Pocket)
GAMING-RELATED
1) Assassin’s Creed: Forsaken, Oliver Bowden (Ace)
2) Warhammer 40K: Ravenwing, Gav Thorpe (Black Library US)
3) Halo: The Thursday War, Karen Traviss (Tor)
4) Warhammer 40K: The Horus Heresy: Angel Exterminatus, Graham McNeill (Black Library US)
5) Forgotten Realms: Neverwinter, R.A. Salvatore (Wizards of the Coast)
audible.com (audio)
SCIENCE FICTION
1) 14, Peter Clines (Audible Frontiers)
2) Star Wars: Scoundrels, Timothy Zahn (Random House Audio)
3) 11-22-63, Stephen King (Simon & Schuster Audio)
4) Redshirts, John Scalzi (Audible Frontiers)
5) Empire, B. V. Larson (Audible Frontiers)
6) Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card (Macmillan Audio)
7) Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson (Audible Frontiers)
8) World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, Max Brooks (Random House Audio)
9) Til Death Do Us Part, Mark Tufo (Tantor)
10) One Second After, William R. Forstchen (Blackstone)
11) The Stand, Stephen King (Random House Audio)
12) Swarm, B. V. Larson (Audible Frontiers)
13) Walk the Plank: The Human Division, Episode 2, John Scalzi (Audible Frontiers)
14) The Second Ship, Richard Phillips (Brilliance)
15) Pushing Ice, Alastair Reynolds (Tantor)
16) Ready Player One, Ernest Cline (Random House Audio)
17) The Host, Stephenie Meyer (Hachette Audio)
18) Zombie Fallout, Mark Tufo (Tantor)
19) The Mote in God’s Eye, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle (Audible Frontiers)
20) The B-Team: The Human Division, Episode 1, John Scalzi (Audible Frontiers)
FANTASY
1) A Memory of Light, Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson (Macmillan Audio)
2) The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien (Recorded Books)
3) The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien (Recorded Books)
4) A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin (Random House Audio)
5) Ever After, Kim Harrison (Harper Audio)
6) A Clash of Kings, George R.R. Martin (Random House Audio)
7) A Storm of Swords, George R.R. Martin (Random House Audio)
8) The Two Towers, J.R.R. Tolkien (Recorded Books)
9) A Feast for Crows, George R.R. Martin (Random House Audio)
10) A Dance with Dragons, George R.R. Martin (Random House Audio)
11) The Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien (Recorded Books)
12) The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan (Macmillan Audio)
13) The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss (Brilliance)
14) Theft of Swords, Michael J. Sullivan (Recorded Books)
15) Hard Magic, Larry Correia (Audible Frontiers)
16) Grave Peril, Jim Butcher (Buzzy Multimedia)
17) The Fiery Cross, Diana Gabaldon (Recorded Books)
18) Monster Hunter International, Larry Correia (Audible Frontiers)
19) Cold Days, Jim Butcher (Penguin Audio)
20) The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires, Molly Harper (Audible)
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NEW AND NOTABLE
Neal Asher, The Departure (Night Shade 3/13) The long-awaited US edition (Tor UK 2011) of the first volume in Asher’s dark SF series The Owner is here at last. Set in the 22nd century on an overpopulated dystopian Earth and a Mars colony struggling for survival, this delivers Asher’s usual blend of ‘‘vivid, graphic violence; widescreen special-effects sequences; ruthless, damaged, more-than- or not-exactly-human heroes and villains… and a high-stakes conflict.’’ [Russell Letson]
Kage Baker & Kathleen Bartholomew, Nell Gwynne’s on Land and at Sea (Subterranean 12/12) The ladies of the upscale Victorian brothel (and front for a secret spy organization) Nell Gwynne’s take a summer vacation by the sea, but instead of relaxation, they find intrigue in the form of a scheming American with a dangerous plot. This novella in the late Kage Baker’s Company series was completed by the author’s sister. ‘‘The story is madcap… steampunk science fiction reduced (or should I say elevated?) to the level of opera buffa…. Baker was a true ornament to our field. She is sorely missed, and all praise is due to her sister… for preserving and enhancing her heritage.’’ [Richard A. Lupoff]
R.S. Belcher, The Six-Gun Tarot (Tor 1/13) Set in a fantasy version of the Old West where the remote town of Golgotha is beset by unnatural terrors, this debut novel by a striking new voice ‘‘features a genre mix that’s very much in vogue these days: the dark and twisted Western…. Belcher takes to it like a natural, with no signs of newbie hesitation. He jumps right in!’’ [Faren Miller]
Marie Brennan, A Natural History of Dragons (Tor 2/13) Subtitled ‘‘A Memoir by Lady Trent,’’ this charming novel is ostensibly the life story of world-famous dragon naturalist Isabella, Lady Trent, written in the style of a Victorian autobiography.
Peter V. Brett, Daylight War (Del Rey) The third book in the Demon Cycle, begun with The Warded Man and The Desert Spear, escalates the conflict between former-friends-turned-bitter-rivals Arlen and Jardir. Only one of them can truly be the fabled Deliverer, destined to save humankind from a plague of demons – but as they battle one another, their common enemy grows stronger.
Gail Carriger, Etiquette & Espionage (Little, Brown 2/13) The beloved steampunk author turns to YA fiction for the first time with this spin-off set earlier in the world of her popular Parasol Protectorate series, with 14-year-old Sophronia shipped off to a finishing school that secretly teaches spycraft and assassination along with more refined social skills.
Cory Doctorow, Homeland (Tor Teen 2/13) This sequel to the bestselling Little Brother again pits socially conscious young people in the near future against the oppressive apparatus of the security state. Hacker legend Marcus receives a drive filled with Wikileaks-style stolen secrets and wrestles with the decision of whether or not to release it online, while dangerous forces try to seize the data for their own purposes.
New and Notable continues after ad.
Paula Guran, ed., Future Games (Prime 1/13) This reprint anthology gathers 16 SF stories of sports, games, and competitions, with work by Orson Scott Card, Cory Doctorow, George R.R. Martin, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Howard Waldrop, and Kate Wilhelm, among others.
Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson, A Memory of Light (Tor 1/13) Twenty-three years after the publication of The Eye of the World, the late Robert Jordan’s epic Wheel of Time series draws to a close in this fourteenth volume, as Rand al’Thor finally confronts the Dark One in the prophesied Last Battle. Like the previous two volumes, this was written by Sanderson based on notes, outlines, and scenes left by Jordan, with the assistance of Jordan’s widow Harriet McDougal.
Jay Lake, Kalimpura (Tor 2/13) The third volume in the fantasy adventure series begun with Green follows the courtesan-assassin as she attempts to rescue two girls taken hostage by a guild, while doing her best to avoid the deadly attentions of the gods.
Richard Parks, Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter (Prime 1/13) This collection by the celebrated author of fantasy stories set in ancient Japan provides a fresh take on the monster-hunter genre with ten stories (one original) about Yamada no Goji, an impoverished nobleman and freelance killer of demons and other supernatural threats.
Tim Powers, Salvage and Demolition (Subterranean 2/13) This twisty, thought-provoking time-travel novella from the master of secret history combines Beat poetry, romance, rare book dealing, and the sacred texts of a dead Sumerian god. ‘‘An uncommon and engaging chamber piece from an author most often engaged in more symphonic forms.’’ [Gary K. Wolfe]
Robert V.S. Redick, The Night Swarm (Del Rey 2/13) The fourth book in the Chatrand Voyage series brings the ambitious fantasy sequence to a harrowing close, as the heroes cope with the devastating magical fallout of the dark sorcerer Arunis’s death: the arrival of the demonic Swarm of Night, which feasts on death itself.
Will Self, Umbrella (1/13) This is the first US publication of last year’s Man Booker prize finalist, a challenging and rewarding novel in the Modernist tradition with surreal elements, exploring the complicated history of a mental patient in 1971 London and a psychiatrist’s attempts to treat her.
Return to In This Issue listing.
TERRY BISSON: THIS MONTH IN HISTORY
March 2, 2021. Jobs hosts Oscars. In a Hollywood holographic first, the late Apple CEO hosts the 93rd Academy Awards to mixed reviews. iCar sales soar.
March 6, 2036. Alone Star State. Texas denied re-entry into US. House rejects repatriation petition in 435-0 roll-call vote hailed as “second Alamo” by Vice President Rivera-Goldberg.
March 23, 2087. Boot gets boot. Supreme Court bans Arizona’s forty-pound penalty shoe for student loan scofflaws, declaring it ‘‘cruel if not unusual.’’
March 12, 2104. Cologne Cathedral falls. Once the tallest building in the world, the medieval landmark is brought down by a single suitcase bomb, thought to be in response to a Papal cartoon lampooning Scientology.
–Terry Bisson
Return to In This Issue listing.
OBITUARIES
ANNE JORDAN, 69, former managing editor of F&SF, died February 2, 2013 after battling lung cancer.
Anne Devereaux Wilson Jordan Crouse of Mansfield Center CT was a graduate of the University of Michigan (BA and MA), where in 1968, she received the Avery and Jule Hopwood Awards in poetry and short stories. Anne Jordan was an editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction from 1979-1989. With Edward L. Ferman, she co-edited The Best Horror Stories from the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (1988). In 1991, she edited Fires of the Past: Thirteen Contemporary Fantasies About Hometowns, an original anthology that included two Hugo award finalists.
Anne Jordan (1982)
She founded the Children’s Literature Association in 1973. She served as its executive secretary/treasurer as well as the director of the Annual Conference in Children’s Literature until 1976. In 1992, she was the first recipient of the ‘‘Anne Devereaux Jordan Award,’’ established in her honor and now given annually by The Children’s Literature Association for outstanding contributions to the field of children’s literature.
She was the author or editor of nine other books under her name. She ghostwrote one adult nonfiction book on black history and nine adolescent nonfiction books. Additionally, she reviewed books for the New York Times Book Review, published poetry in F&SF, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, and Star*Line, the magazine of the Science Fiction Poetry Association.
Jordan spent much of her career teaching with positions at Eastern Connecticut State University, Wesleyan University, Central Connecticut State University, the University of Connecticut, the University of Hartford and Western Michigan University. From 1994 to 1998, she was a senior editor of TALL (Teaching and Learning Literature for Children and Young Adults) for which she also wrote two bimonthly columns. She has also served as a literary consultant with a number of legal firms.
She is survived by one child, David Frederic Crouse of Alexandria Virginia.
–David Crouse with Sheila Williams and Gordon van Gelder
ANNE JORDAN REMEMBRANCE by Sheila Williams
One of the most joyous aspects of my career in science fiction has been my friendship with Anne Jordan. Anne’s conversation was always witty and insightful. She was a wonderful listener, but also an endless fount of knowledge on all sorts of subjects. Her deep knowledge of folklore and children’s literature made her a formidable secret weapon for the defense in civil suits filed against some very famous movies and well-known figures of popular culture. Anne always stayed with us when she was in town to act as an expert witness, which is why I now know a great deal about medieval French love songs, Polynesian headdresses, and legends about changeling children.
Nothing fazed her. When Omni Magazine held its tenth anniversary party at the Guggenheim Museum, Anne hauled me over to meet her new friend, Malcolm Forbes. I protested that I would have nothing to say to a multimillionaire, and she countered that nobody did. That’s why everyone else at the party was studiously ignoring him. Unlike most of the other men, the publisher and his gorgeous bodyguard were dressed in tuxedos. They graciously kissed our hands and then Anne and Malcolm launched into a spirited conversation about their shared love of Harley-Davidsons. Naturally, Anne and I drifted on to talk with other people, but as they left for the evening, Malcolm and his bodyguard sought us out to bid us adieu and kiss our hands once more, before putting on their matching helmets and taking off into the night on their Harleys.
Anne Jordan, Craig Shaw Gardner, Sheila Williams (1986)
Attending events with Anne was often like bringing along my own soundtrack to Mystery Science Theater 3000. The most uproarious occasion was certainly the night that she and I went to the Grand Ole Opry along with Connie Willis and Cynthia Felice. The mus
ic was great and the jokes were as corny as one would expect, but the evening was made transcendent by Anne’s running commentary. When we returned to the World Fantasy Convention in Nashville, it seemed that no one else had had quite the hilarious evening that we’d had, but then, they hadn’t seen the show in Anne’s company.
My husband and I always thought we were very lucky to be friends with Anne. We were also fortunate to have her sweet son David as the ring bearer at our wedding twenty-five years ago. I will miss Anne terribly, but I am very glad that she was such an important part of my life for nearly 30 years.
–Sheila Williams
•
Italian SF translator and critic ANTONIO CARONIA, 69, died January 30, 2013 in Milan after a long illness. Caronia developed an interest in SF in the late ’70s, joining Milanese SF club ‘‘Ambiguous Utopia’’ (named in honor of Le Guin’s The Dispossessed), where he worked on their magazine. He wrote numerous essays on SF in the ’80s and ’90s, and wrote and edited many books on SF, notably Il Cyborg (1985), about artificial humans in SF literature. Caronia was born in Genoa in 1944, and earned a degree in mathematics. He was a professor of communications at Accademia di Brera for many years, and also taught at Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti.
•
DEATH NOTED:
Artist H.R. VAN DONGEN, 89, died February 27, 2010 in a Canandaigua NY hospital.
Henry Richard Van Dongen was born August 20, 1920 in Rochester NY. He served on a B-24 bomber in WWII and spent nearly a year as a prisoner of war after being shot down. He studied art at the Rochester Institute of Technology and the Woodbury Ross School of Painting, and did work in advertising and as a photo retoucher before turning to SF art. His first work in the field was the September 1950 issue of Super Science Stories, but he’s best known for his more than 40 covers for Astounding, beginning with the August 1951 issue, as well as numerous interior illustrations. He was a finalist for a Hugo Award for Best Artist in 1959, but in 1961 he left the genre to focus on commercial art. He returned in 1976 to paint book covers, principally for Del Rey and DAW titles, and did several covers for Analog before his retirement in 1987.
He was survived by his wife of 64 years, Eleanor, a daughter, four sons, nine grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
Locus, March 2013 Page 29
