June 2011 Releases

Done with May 2011 Releases? Here are June 2011 Releases. To see further dates, check Reading Wishlist.

[REVIEW] The Repossession Mambo (Repo Men) – Eric Garcia

Eric Garcia
The Repossession Mambo [also published as Repo Men]
Scribe (AU: 4th May 2009); HarperCollins (CA: 1st March 2010; US: 9th March 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

I remember adding Eric Garcia to my authorial wishlist. Karin Slaughter was at the Melbourne Writers Festival, and talked of how she was more nitpicky of the locations in the Vincent Rubio series, when really she should’ve questioned the realism of a dinosaur going undercover in contemporary America. Dinosaurs, crime and humour? I was hooked. Those three books have been long out of print, though, so I’ve never acquired them.

I have, however, read Matchstick Men (which is okay) and Cassandra French’s Finishing School for Boys (which is great). But Eric Garcia’s crowning glory is this magnificent tome: The Repossession Mambo, later republished as Repo Men. The premise is irresistible: people can have transplanted artificial organs, but if they don’t keep up the payments, the artiforgs are repossessed.

Our unnamed narrator has been through five marriages and subsequent divorces, driven tanks in wartime Africa, and worked as a Bio-Repo man for the Credit Union. But now he’s hiding out, writing his memoirs while he’s still alive – which may not be for much longer.

Simply put, I adore this novel. I love the premise, the narrator’s voice, the humour, the looping internal structure, the world-building, and even the romance. I’m not usually one for romance, but the ending totally made me coo, “Aw!” If I was a writer, I’d totally want to write something as awesome as this.

Be sure to stick around for the author’s essay, The Taming of the Mambo, which charts the twelve-year journey from idea to short story to novel to screenplay and back to novel. I haven’t seen the film, Repo Men, which unfortunately went straight to DVD in Australia, so I can’t tell you how the book and film measure up against each other.

And no, I’m not familiar with Repo!: The Genetic Opera, so I can’t talk comparisons, similarities and differences.

8 New Covers: Hart, Jones, Littlefield, Ryan, Stiefvater, Tentler & Turner

[REVIEW] The Bradbury Report – Steven Polansky

Steven Polansky
The Bradbury Report
Perseus Weinstein Books (US: 4th October 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

When someone needs a new organ, he can obtain one from his clone – or any clone. The copies live in the Clearances, deliberately separated from their originals, and never the two shall meet. But one of the copies has escaped, and anti-cloning protestor Anna recognises him. Thus sixty-something-year-old widower Ray meets his twenty-something-year-old clone.

The anti-cloning group plans for Ray to write a report about life with his copy, Alan. Anna and Ray become Alan’s teachers, caretakers, and family, meant to groom him for becoming an anti-cloning spokesperson.

The framing device is pseudonymous “Ray’s” report. On page 2 he states, “I have never had a sense of humour,” which immediately makes it difficult for readers to want to connect with him. His specialty is teaching mathematics, so he admits he’s not much of a writer. That could explain why Steven Polansky’s publishers let him keep infodump – and naming characters Anna and Ann, both mentioned in the same sentence – under the guise of being true to Ray’s character or whatever, but it doesn’t work. I came close to quitting this on more than one occasion.

My favourite TV shows are boundary-pushing animated comedies, thus The Bradbury Report is an unexpected delight that may well suit fans of South Park and the works of Seth MacFarlane – you’ll understand why. But it’s also heart-breaking, particularly when echolalia-ridden Alan is told of how and why he came into existence.

The Bradbury Report has a sci-fi heart in a literary body. The subject matter is fascinating, but often presented in a way that didn’t immediately connect with this genre-preferring reader. This is similar to my experience with Liz Jensen’s The Rapture – the structure often made me lose interest, but when the story’s good, it’s very bloody good.

The Bradbury Report is a slow novel, almost seeming like vignettes rather than a cohesive whole, and Mr. Polansky has won awards for a short-story collection. But The Bradbury Report creates a strange but unforgettable reading experience. A paperback edition is due out later this year – you’d be wise to give it a crack.

6 New Deals

Kelley Armstrong‘s Omens and Shadows trilogy to Dutton (US) for publication in 2013-15. Starring a very different heroine from the Otherworld series.

Janet Edwards’s Earth Girl for publication 2012. A quirky 18-year-old girl manipulates her way into an archaeological dig on Earth in the year 2788.

David Levithan & Andrea Cremer‘s The Invisibility Curse to Philomel (World Rights) for publication in 2013. A boy burdened by invisibility meets a girl who has the power to see him & possibly cure him.

Demitria Lunetta‘s post-apocalyptic YA trilogy to HarperTeen (World English). Set in a future in which Earth has been ravaged by predatory creatures. 17-year-old Amy thinks that she & the toddler she rescued from a desolate grocery store are the only humans left alive – until they find refuge in a survivors’ colony called New Hope. But as Amy is drawn deeper into its secrets, she comes to realise that all is not what it seems. The dark truth she uncovers about this brutal new world will change everything. In the After is scheduled for 2012.

Kat Richardson‘s next 3 urban fantasies in the Greywalker series to Ace. About a private inspector, who is forced to risk the hard-won love & stability she has finally found in order to protect the world & the Grey, & defend those caught where ghosts roam & magic sings.

Kat Zhang‘s Hybrid trilogy. A 15-year-old girl must conceal her 2nd soul or be locked up by the government. Pitched as The Golden Compass meets Girl, Interrupted.

[REVIEW] Hereafter – Tara Hudson

Tara Hudson
Hereafter (Hereafter, Book 1)
HarperCollins (CA: 27th May 2011; US: 7th June 2011; AU: 1st July 2011; UK: 7th July 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

Amelia knows her name, and that she died at eighteen years, drowned in the river under the infamous High Bridge Road. As a ghost, she can’t feel things…until she finds Joshua Mayhew drowning in her river.

Amelia’s had twelve years of nothing, and though we understand why she can feel Joshua, their connection still has a whiff of “special snowflake” about it. Indeed, Joshua takes the news of Amelia being a ghost rather well.

Eli Rowland is a slave to his ego, but only because he’s lonely? He makes Amelia almost beg for information about their predicament, and claims he “owns” her. Of course, Amelia’s having none of that, but still the hereafter is confusing. And in a wasted opportunity, the coven provides only very mild tension.

Amelia doesn’t seem to practise using her newfound powers much, yet they work magnificently just when she needs them to. She even glows fiery colours. The story’s danger and conflicts aren’t as heavy as they could be, and they’re overcome far too easily.

The setting is gorgeous. Hereafter quietly sprawls with a Gothic menace, a pleasant read for a lazy afternoon. It may not push boundaries, but should find a nice audience with fans of Jessica Verday’s The Hollow.

Rachel Caine’s Melbourne Bloggers Breakfast

I attended Rachel Caine’s Melbourne Bloggers Breakfast on Sunday as a guest blogger for Penguin Books Australia’s “Between the Lines”. Here’s my report.

Michelle Rowen’s BLEEDING HEART

When it comes to anthologies, I just read the stories by the authors I know and love, and those on my wishlist. Such is the case when I picked up Primal – forget Lora Leigh, Ann Aguirre, and Jory Strong; I’m only it for Michelle Rowen.

This novella, Bleeding Heart, fits between Nightshade and Bloodlust in the two-book Jillian Conrad series, and if this story is anything to go by, readers will be wishing for more dark urban fantasy from this talented author.

Jill was temping in the same building as a pharmaceutical company when she was held hostage, and injected with a serum that makes her blood both irresistible and deadly to vampires. Declan Reyes is her protector, a scarred dhampyr whose left eye was clawed out before he met Jill. He, too, seems to have been injected with something, leaving him emotionless.

Looking to cure Jill of the poison killing her, the pair meets with Dr Victor Reynolds to prepare for Jill’s haemodialysis. But the doctor has his own agenda, and his assistant has another plan entirely.

I’m all for parachemistry, and I love this particular Rowenverse. Primal is worth acquiring for Bleeding Heart alone. Now, to get Nightshade and Bloodlust…

Nightshade: Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Primal: Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Bloodlust: Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

10 New Covers: Caine, Cremer, Fitzpatrick, Meding, Rusch, Stiefvater, Vincent & Wendell