Category: Recent picks

Our picks of the new material in different subject areas. Find your next read! See also our full lists of what’s new, and our other lists that feature a mix of old and new material.

Browse below or select a topic:

“At night, here in the library, the ghosts have voices”: New SF and fantasy

Neil

via GIPHY

At night, here in the library, the ghosts have voices.

Alberto Manguel, The Library at Night

Welcome to another of our monthly round ups of our recently acquired science fiction and fantasy titles. It’s another month of rich variety, well demonstrated by the most recent title that caught our particular attention — a new horror anthology called Ghosts from the library : lost tales of terror and the supernatural.

Haunted libraries are a bit of thing, so we have taken this golden opportunity to look at some supposedly real-life haunted libraries!

First up is St. John’s College Library in Cambridge in the UK — this ancient library dates back to 1624. St John’s is said to be haunted by the headless ghost of Archbishop William Laud who supposedly terrifies readers by kicking his ghostly head along the floor — he was beheaded in 1645. It has been a very long time since anyone has reported seeing him doing this, though the sounds of unaccompanied footsteps have been reported in more recent times.  As the Deputy Librarian said of the hauntings  “we do know that Laud cared passionately about his library, and we like to think he has a friendly presence here.”

Felbrigg Hall library in Norfolk is haunted by its former owner who is said to return periodically to finish off reading books he didn’t have a chance to read when he was alive (we know that feeling well!). People report seeing his ghost seated at a library table or in a reading chair, and there is even one report that he can be summoned when a certain selection of his favourite books are put out.

One of the most haunted libraries in the world  is Senate House Library in London, which holds The famous Harry Price Collection of Magical Literature. This huge collection was amassed by paranormalist Harry Price 1881-1948 and focusses on work about witchcraft, occult, magic and the paranormal, as well as prophecies and spiritual phenomena. Many of the books in the collection are ultra-rare. Reported ghostly activity includes whispering when no one is around, floating books, loud laughter and even a mysterious spectral ‘Blue Lady.’

The State Library of Victoria in Melbourne dates back to 1854 and is said to be haunted by numerous ghosts, including a former librarian called Grace — said to be a benevolent elderly spirit. The library’s music room is also supposedly haunted by a snazzily dressed moustachioed ghost. In fact, there have been so many reports of hauntings in The State Library that several clairvoyants have been brought in to investigate.

Here in New Zealand, we can also lay claim to a library ghost — The Parliament Library built in 1883 and continued in 1899 is rumoured to be haunted, amongst others, by the ghost of former Dunedin MP William Larnach. William Larnach tried his hand at gold-digging, farming and then  worked as a banker before  eventually entering  Parliament as an MP in 1875. Records of the time report that he was known in parliament for his practical jokes as well as his ‘robustious egotism’ and ‘rough and blundering modes of speech’. Sadly he took his own life after financial and relationship troubles, however his ghost is alleged to cause disturbances in the library to this day.

Ghosts from the library : lost tales of terror and the supernatural
“It is said that books are written to bring sunshine into our dull, grey lives – to show us places we want to escape to, lives we want to live, people we want to love. But there are also stories that can only be found in the deepest, darkest corners of the library. Stories about the unexplained, of lost souls, of things that go bump before the silence. Before the screaming. And some stories just disappear. Stories printed in old newspapers, broadcast live on the wireless, sometimes not even published at all – these are the stories you cannot find on even the dustiest of library shelves. Ghosts from the Library resurrects forgotten tales of the supernatural by some of the most acclaimed mystery authors of all time.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The curator : a novel / King, Owen
“Dora, a former domestic servant at the university has a secret desire — to find where her brother went after he died, believing that the answer lies within The Museum of Psykical Research, where he worked when Dora was a child. With the city amidst a revolutionary upheaval, where citizens like Robert Barnes, her lover and a student radical, are now in positions of authority, Dora contrives to gain the curatorship of the half-forgotten museum only to find it all but burnt to the ground, with the neighboring museums oddly untouched. Robert offers her one of these, The National Museum of the Worker. However, neither this museum, nor the street it is hidden away on, nor Dora herself, are what they at first appear to be.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The fairy bargains of Prospect Hill / Miller, Rowenna
“On Prospect Hill, you can get nearly anything you want from the Fae — if you know how to ask and if you can pay the price. Generations ago, the first farmers on Prospect Hill learned to bargain small trades to make their lives a little easier — Alaine Fairborn’s family, however, was always superstitious, and she still hums the rhymes to find her lost shoe and ensure dry weather on her sister Delphine’s wedding day. But when Delphine confides her new husband is not the man she thought he was, Alaine will stop at nothing to help her sister escape his abuse… ” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The lies of the Ajungo / Utomi, Moses Ose
“The Lies of the Ajungo, follows one boy’s epic quest to bring water back to his city and save his mother’s life. They say there is no water in the City of Lies. They say there are no heroes in the City of Lies. They say there are no friends beyond the City of Lies. But would you believe what they say in the City of Lies? In the City of Lies, they cut out your tongue when you turn thirteen, to appease the terrifying Ajungo Empire and make sure it continues sending water. Tutu will be thirteen in three days, but his parched mother won’t last that long. So Tutu goes to his oba and makes a deal: she provides water for his mother, and in exchange he will travel out into the desert and bring back water for the city…” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Flux : a novel / Chong, Jinwoo
“A blazingly original and stylish debut novel about a young man whose reality unravels when he suspects his mysterious new employers have inadvertently discovered time travel — and are using it to cover up a string of violent crimes…” (Adapted from Catalogue) Also available, Flux eBook

Assassin of reality : a novel / Di︠a︡chenko, Marina
“In Vita Nostra, Sasha Samokhina, a third-year student at the Institute of Special Technologies, was in the middle of taking the final exam that would transform her into a part of the Great Speech. After defying her teachers’ expectations, Sasha emerges from the exam as Password, a unique and powerful part of speech. Accomplished and ready to embrace her new role, she soon learns her powers threaten the old world, and despite her hard work, Sasha is set to fail. However,  dark mentor, finds a way to bring her out of the oblivion and back to the Institute for his own selfish purposes…” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The ten percent thief / Lakshminarayan, Lavanya
“A bold, bitingly satirical near-future mosaic novel about a city run along ‘meritocratic’ lines, the injustice it creates, and the revolution that will destroy it” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Feed them silence / Mandelo, Lee
“What does it mean to “be-in-kind” with a nonhuman animal? Or in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon’s case, to be in-kind with one of the last remaining wild wolves? Using a neurological interface to translate her animal subject’s perception through her own mind, Sean intends to chase both her scientific curiosity and her secret, lifelong desire to experience the intimacy and freedom of wolfishness. To see the world through animal eyes; smell the forest, thick with olfactory messages; even taste the blood and viscera of a fresh kill. And, above all, to feel the belonging of the pack.  Her research methods threaten her mind and body. And the attention of her VC funders could destroy her subject, the beautiful wild wolf whose mental world she’s invading.” (Adapted from Catalogue) Also available, Feed them Silence eBook

“Life! Don’t talk to me about life!”: New science fiction and fantasy

Neil

alan rickman GIF

Image via Giphy

Life! Don’t talk to me about life!

One of our recently acquired science fiction and fantasy titles this month (find all our picks further below) is a modern science fiction reimagining of The Secret Garden called Moongarden. One of the hugely enjoyable characters in the book, is a daring and spirited robot sidekick nicknamed Bin-ro. Of course, funny or brave robot sidekicks have long been a staple of science fiction films and novels, so we thought what better excuse to take a slight detour and highlight a few of our favourite robot sidekicks in no particular order, and also spotlight some of our items they appear in, that  you can borrow from our collections

Our first pick is of course astromech droid R2-D2 and  protocol droid C-3PO, the real heroes and heart  and soul of the original Star Wars movies. Borrow the original Star Wars trilogy.

Next, we have K9, Doctor Who’s robot companion dog. K9 first appeared in 1977 and was so popular he has appeared in three separate spin-off series. Check out  K9’s adventures in the excellent Sarah Jane Smith Adventures.

Baymax is  the friendly  inflatable computerized medical robot in Big Hero 6. He has also had a series of super hidden cameos in the following films Zootopia, Moana, Ralph Breaks the Internet and even Frozen II. Borrow Big Hero 6.

One of our favourite literary Robot sidekicks is of course Marvin the Paranoid Android from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. Have a browse of our range of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy films, books and Audiobooks.

Gardening robots Huey, Dewey, and Louie (named after Donald Duck’s nephews) star in the visionary (if dated) 1972 ecological science fiction film Silent Running, directed by 2001 special effects wizard Douglas Trumbull.

And after that segue, delve into our picks of this month’s science fiction and fantasy below!

Our picks of the recent science fiction and fantasy:

Moongarden / Barry, Michelle A.
“Crumbling under the pressure at her elite school on the moon, misfit Myra Hodger discovers a lab full of toxic plants and uses her botanical magic to weed out its secrets, but quickly discovers some will do anything to take those secrets to the grave. A stellar update of The Secret Garden, with a little science fiction, a lot of magic, a vibrant heroine, and a plucky robot sidekick to rival R2-D2.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The fish / Stubbs, Joanne
“A few decades into the twenty-first century, in their permanently flooded garden in Cornwall, Cathy and her wife Ephie give up on their vegetable patch and plant a paddy field instead. Thousands of miles away, expat Margaret is struggling to adjust to life in Kuala Lumpur, now a coastal city. In New Zealand, two teenagers marvel at the extreme storms hitting their island. But they are not the only ones adapting to the changing climate. The starfish on Cathy’s kitchen window are just the start. As all manner of sea creatures begin to leave the oceans and invade the land, the new normal becomes increasingly hard to accept.”(Adapted from Catalogue)

The future is female! : more classic science fiction stories by women. Volume two, The 1970s
“These twenty-three wild, witty, and wonderful classics dramatize the liberating energies of the 1970s: separatist female utopias by Joanna Russ and Sonya Dorman Hess furiously upend the sexual politics of their day; near-future dystopias from Lisa Tuttle and C. J. Cherryh imagine world-destroying alliances of science and patriarchy; nuanced space operas by Kathleen Sky and Joan D. Vinge give center stage to women and alien-gendered characters; and chilling tales by Eleanor Arnason and James Tiptree, Jr…” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Into the riverlands / Vo, Nghi
“Wandering cleric Chih of the Singing Hills travels to the riverlands to record tales of the notorious near-immortal martial artists who haunt the region. On the road to Betony Docks, they fall in with a pair of young women far from home, and an older couple who are more than they seem. As Chih runs headlong into an ancient feud, they find themselves far more entangled in the history of the riverlands than they ever expected to be. Accompanied by Almost Brilliant, a talking bird with an indelible memory, Chih confronts old legends and new dangers alike as they learn that every story bears more than one face…” (Adapted from Catalogue) Also available as an eBook.

Into the windwracked wilds / Baker, A. Deborah
“When the improbable road leaves Avery and Zib in the land of Air and at the mercy of the Queen of Swords, escape without becoming monsters may be impossible. But with the aid of the Queen’s son, the unpredictable Jack Daw, they may emerge with enough of their humanity to someday make it home. Their journey is not yet over; the dangers are no less great.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Grime : a novel / Berg, Sibylle
“The first English translation of celebrated Swiss-German novelist Sibylle Berg’s Grime.  Grime is a manifesto for fury, escape, and individual revolt. The author sprays her fury across the whole landscape of technological and economic manias that are rendering the 21st century intolerable. At turns hilarious, hectoring,  full of hyperbolic prose,  a book which isn’t so much propulsive as relentless. Described by one reviewer as a novel so caustic it should be printed with hydrochloric acid .” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Station eternity / Lafferty, Mur
“Mallory Viridian is constantly embroiled in murder cases that only she has the insight to solve. But outside of a classic mystery novel, being surrounded by death doesn’t make you a charming amateur detective, it makes you a suspect and a social pariah. So when Mallory gets the opportunity to take refuge on a sentient space station, she thinks she has the solution. Surely the murders will stop if her only company is alien beings. At first her new existence is peacefully quiet…and markedly devoid of homicide. But when the station agrees to allow additional human guests, Mallory knows the break from her peculiar reality is over…” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The deluge / Markley, Stephen
“In 2013 California, environmental scientist Tony Pietrus, after receiving a death threat, is linked to a colorful cast of characters, including a brazen young activist who, in the mountains of Wyoming, begins a project that will alter the course of the decades to come.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Kraken calling : a novel / McBay, Aric
“In 2028 environmental activists hesitate to take the fight to the extreme of violent revolution. Twenty years later, with the natural environment now seriously degraded, the revolution is brought to the activists, rather than the other way around, by an authoritarian government willing to resort to violence, willing to let the majority suffer from hunger and poverty, in order to control its citizens when the government can no longer provide them with a decent quality of life. So it is the activists who must defend their communities, their neighbors, through a more humane and in some ways more conservative status quo of care and moderation. And the outcome here is determined by the actions of those who resist more than it is by the actions of the nominally powerful.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Parallel universes: Recently acquired science fiction and fantasy

Neil

I like libraries. It makes me feel comfortable and secure to have walls of words, beautiful and wise, all around me. I always feel better when I can see that there is something to hold back the shadows.
― Roger Zelazny, Nine Princes in Amber

Welcome to our first selection of newly acquired science fiction and fantasy titles for 2023. We have a rich diversity of voices, themes and approaches in this month’s selection. From Aotearoa, we have Melanie Harding Shaw’s enemies to lover’s, romantic, paranormal, urban fantasy set in a post-apocalyptic, decaying Wellington called City of souls. We also have a collection of short stories from the legend that is Alan Moore, and a fabulous new novel from Hugo and Nebular winner Mary Robinette Kowal called The Spare Man.

Also in this months selection we have a very welcome reissue of Science fiction titan Roger Zelazny’s The chronicles of Amber. Roger Zelazny was both a poet and science fiction writer who won both the Hugo and Nebula awards on numerous occasions. Born in Ohio in 1937, his later work had several recurring themes such as portraying characters from myth, having mortals turned into gods and gods turned into mortals, and the subsequent ramifications of these transformations. He would often include mythical characters from the likes of Norse Mythology, Arthurian mythos, and Egyptian mythology to name but a few in his works. He was also an early proponent of the multiple parallel universe idea. This multiple universe concept plays a key part in The chronicles of Amber series .

He stated that his writing style was often influenced by hardboiled crime authors like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler which accounts for his sharp quick fire and highly readable dialogue. Neil Gaiman described him as the author who influenced him the most, both in the topics he writes about and his writing style.

The SF masterworks omnibus of The chronicles of Amber featured in this blog covers the first five works. The concluding omnibus is due shortly  and you can access further information on that title here.

The chronicles of Amber / Zelazny, Roger
“Amber is the one real world, casting infinite reflections of itself – Shadow worlds, that can be manipulated by those of royal Amberite blood. But the royal family is torn apart by jealousies and suspicion; the disappearance of the Patriarch Oberon has intensified the internal conflict by leaving the throne apparently up for grabs. In a hospital on the Shadow Earth, a young man is recovering from a freak car accident; amnesia has robbed him of all his memory, even the fact that he is Corwin, Crown Prince of Amber, rightful heir to the throne – and he is in deadly peril.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

City of souls / Harding-Shaw, Melanie
“Bounty hunter Hel’s life depends on staying below the radar and passing as human. But when the infuriating Lord of the City of Souls discovers her hidden power is the key to solving his problems, he reclaims her bond-debt and drags her into the spotlight. He’ll protect her secrets on one condition: that she does everything he asks. Winged necromancer Bastion would do anything to save the city he rules from the strange magic menacing their world. Even blackmail the angry, intriguing bounty hunter who despises him. As the rulers of the elemental courts converge to face the threat, he’s not sure who hates him more–them or Hel. ” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Illuminations : stories / Moore, Alan
“In his first-ever short story collection, which spans forty years of work, Alan Moore presents a series of wildly different and equally unforgettable characters who discover–and in some cases even make and unmake–the various uncharted parts of existence. In “Illuminations,” a nostalgic older man decides to visit a seaside resort from his youth and finds the past all too close at hand. And in the monumental novella “What We Can Know About Thunderman,” which charts the surreal and Kafkaesque history of the comics industry’s major players over the last seventy-five years, Moore reveals the dark, beating heart of the superhero business. ” (Adapted from Catalogue) Also available as an eBook.

Archangel’s resurrection / Singh, Nalini
“For thousands of years, the passion between Alexander, Archangel of Persia, and Zanaya, Queen of the Nile, burned furious and bright, seemingly without end. But to be an archangel is to be bound to power violent and demanding. Driven by its primal energy, Alexander and Zanaya fought as fiercely as they loved. Locked in an endless cycle of devotion and heartbreak, it is only Zanaya’s decision to Sleep that ends their love story. Eons later, it is the Cascade of Death that wakens them both. The passion between them a flame that yet burns, Alexander and Zanaya stand together in one last battle against the ultimate darkness…” (Adapted from Catalogue)
Singer distance / Chatagnier, Ethan
“In December 1960, Rick Hayworth drives his genius girlfriend, Crystal, and three other MIT grad students across the country to paint a message in the desert. Mars has been silent for thirty years, since the last time Earth solved one of the mathematical proofs the Martian civilization carved onto its surface. The latest proof, which seems to assert contradictory truths about distance, has resisted human understanding for decades. Crystal thinks she’s solved it, and Rick is intent on putting her answer to the test–if he can keep her from cracking under the pressure on the way…” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The spare man / Kowal, Mary Robinette
“Hugo and Nebula Award Winner Mary Robinette Kowal blends her no-nonsense, hard-SF approach to life in space with her talent for creating glittering high society in this stylish SF mystery. Tesla Crane, a brilliant inventor and an heiress, is on her honeymoon via an interplanetary space liner. Cruising between the Moon and Mars, she’s traveling incognito and reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and the festering chowderheads who run security have the audacity to arrest her spouse. Armed with banter, martinis, and her small service dog, Tesla is determined to solve the crime so that the newlyweds can get back to canoodling –And keep the real killer from striking again.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Will do magic for small change : a novel of what might have been / Hairston, Andrea
” Cinnamon Jones dreams of stepping on stage and acting her heart out like her famous grandparents, Redwood and Wildfire. But she’s always been theatrically challenged.  But her family life is a tangle of mysteries and secrets, and nobody is telling her the whole truth. Before her brother died, he gave Cinnamon The Chronicles of the Great Wanderer–a tale of a Dahomean warrior woman and an alien from another dimension who perform at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. They are a story of magic or alien science, but the connection to Cinnamon’s past is unmistakable. When an act of violence wounds her family, Cinnamon and her theatre squad determine to solve the mysteries and bring her worlds crashing together.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Neom / Tidhar, Lavie
“The city known as Neom is many things to many beings, human or otherwise. It is a tech wonderland for the rich and beautiful; an urban sprawl along the Red Sea; and a port of call between Earth and the stars. In the desert, young orphan Elias has joined a caravan, hoping to earn his passage off-world. But the desert is full of mechanical artefacts, some unexplained and some unexploded. Recently, a wry, unnamed robot has unearthed one of the region’s biggest mysteries: the vestiges of a golden man. In Neom, childhood affection is rekindling between loyal shurta-officer Nasir and hardworking flower-seller Mariam. But Nasu, a deadly terrorists, has come to the city with missing memories and unfinished business…” (Adapted from Catalogue)