Hot Off Our Review Press!


Check out what we (MG staff and friends) have recently read and enjoyed, and other recommended reads.

You can also check out what each staff member is reading.

 


$26.00
ISBN-13: 9780812992793
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House, 1/2012

Pak Jun Do, the child of a “disappeared” mother and a heartbroken father, rises up through the labrynthine and insane world of North Korean politics. The titular Orphan Master’s son, Pak Jun Do, grows up unattached and unloved, first in his father’s orphanage, then as a tunnel soldier and finally becoming another man high up in the regime through a bold act of impersonation. Johnson’s novel is shaded with paranoia and the propaganda on which the country runs, and also with startling humor and humanity.

The Orphan Master’s Son is a masterful thriller and the portrait of a shadowy nation. Somehow he captures what it might be like to grow up with the constant fear of a violent regime — it’s a very gripping read. — LF


Equations of Life (Mass Market Paperback)

$7.99
ISBN-13: 9780316125185
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Orbit, 4/2011
So my man Ozzie — good friend and regular Mysterious Galaxy customer — got me started on Simon Morden’s Equations of Life. It’s a thriller, set in a future London where Russian, Japanese, and local gangs duke it out, and the police are powerless bystanders. Life sucks, at least in the marginal areas, so, yes, this is a dystopia, but the people in the novel make up for this by their verve and their general bigheartedness. The main guy is Petrovich, genius Russian physicist with a shady past. The main girl is Sister Madeleine, a nun with a very big gun, who ditches her habit to help Petrovich rescue the other main girl, Sonya, the damsel in distress and daughter of the local Japanese crime lord. Throw in a rogue AI and the scientific discovery of all time, and you’ve got a fast-paced, quick-witted, culturally savvy sf thriller of the highest caliber. Enthusiastically recommended! — DJ

Erekos (Paperback)

$20.95
ISBN-13: 9781936460038
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Candlemark & Gleam, 9/2011
This carefully crafted debut novel will reward thoughtful fantasy readers with a rich universe peopled by men, women, gods and others who are dealing with the collision of cultures at war, and consequences of their actions. Swamp witch Achane, never able to heal her beloved ailing sister, raises the deceased Shabane as a zombi; even the evidence of her own eyes and heart is not enough to persuade her to relinquish the semblance of life she has granted her sister’s corpse. King Milaus crosses paths with the sisters, and kidnaps Achane, determined to persuade her to create an army of zombi soldiers who can continue to wage a costly border war that is harming his nation, which is also suffering from natural disasters. Erekos is also peopled by scholars and warriors from the “opposition” side, and gods, who walk often-unrecognized among the combatants. This quietly emotional novel reminds me of the best of Jo Clayton’s works of grand schemes, and their impact on individuals. Highly recommended. — MeH

Seed (Hardcover)

$24.99
ISBN-13: 9781597803236
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Night Shade Books, 11/2011

The world’s gone to hell. Post humans walk the Earth. The ecosystem is in ruins, from dust bowl to complete wasteland, and from blistering heat to arctic freeze. America’s broken. Corporations rule. One such, Satori, is both corporation and living city, and the only real provider of foodstuffs to the hungry migrant masses that roam the land in search of sustenance. The ineffectual United States government and its military exist primarily as Satori’s distribution network. Satori’s own personnel are bio-engineered into castes that serve their master. Into this mix are thrown a tough secret service agent soldier, an AWOL Satori designer, and a couple of nomadic brothers. All will come together to change the face of the planet forever.

Seed is post-apocalyptic eco-punk and corporate/political horror story with a liberal dash of bio-punk and military science fiction. Future Earth or alternate Earth? I’ll let you decide. It is also very much in keeping with one of my favorites, Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl, all environmental collapse and dystopic awesomeness. But where The Windup Girl was often “every man for himself,” Seed is more about family ties: brothers, lovers, fathers, etc. Oh, and what the hell, add a couple thousand years and a few sandworms, and you could very easily be on Dune. He who controls the Seed, controls the universe! Seed is Rob’s first novel and I can’t wait to see what grows out of it. — PMH


A Dark Dividing (Paperback)

$14.95
ISBN-13: 9781934609804
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Felony & Mayhem, 6/2011

I was helping a customer find a book when A Dark Dividing by Sarah Rayne literally jumped off the shelf at me. I’m not exaggerating — I had my back turned and it just hopped off and hit the ground. I was immediately intrigued by the synopsis on the back. (I did help the customer find their book first though).

Two sets of conjoined twins born nearly a century apart but linked together in a most mysterious way (that pun was unintentional — but there’s not a lot of ways to get around it), turn of the century haunted English workhouses, traveling sideshows, more than one murder, and a psychotic nurse make for an exciting read. Rayne manages to take subjects that from another writer’s pen could easily turn hokey, and manages to keep the intrigue moving through multiple story lines without ever becoming confusing or convoluted. Her characters are fleshed out, and I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I googled Philip Fleury to see if he existed. I’ll let you solve that mystery on your own. Sarah Rayne now has a new fan and I can’t wait to read more from her. — LH


The Drop (Hardcover)

$27.99
ISBN-13: 9780316069410
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Little, Brown and Company, 11/2011

It will be no surprise to Michael’s fans that The Drop is another winning entry in the much beloved Harry Bosch series. Harry is back in the Open-Unsolved Unit where new evidence is now possible because of advances in DNA technology that did not exist when their cases were first open. Harry’s new case is a 1989 rape and murder that can now be connected to a man with a known record for similar crimes. The only problem is that this suspect was only eight years old at the time the crime was committed.

In the meantime, Harry is summoned by the Chief of Police to look into the death of the son of (Harry’s nemesis) Councilman Irvin Irving, who was found outside the Chateau Marmont in what is initially presumed to be an act of suicide. Harry works both cases, meets a possible love interest, and maintains his relationship with daughter Maddie, now 15 years old with a yen to solve crimes.

The Drop in the title refers to both Harry’s current cases and to the acronym used to refer to the Deferred Retirement Option Plan which has allowed Harry to continue working after retirement, but which mandates that he retire after a one-time extension. Connelly assures us that he will continue writing about Harry Bosch until he must retire him, but also reminds us that he has been planting seeds in his books as to what (or who) may follow Harry into the field. — tlg

Signed copies available while supplies last.

 


11/22/63 (Hardcover)

$35.00
ISBN-13: 9781451627282
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Scribner, 11/2011

Wow.

That’s pretty much the only reasonable reaction to Stephen King’s magnificent 11/22/63. The time-travel novel nominally focuses on an effort to change the future by preventing Lee Harvey Oswald from assassinating JFK, but it’s about so much more, including personal responsibility, the costs (and benefits) of love, the differences between America in 2011 and in the late 1950s and early ‘60s. It includes nods to earlier favorites (including Christine and It), but this one, while offering suspense of the highest order, rejects the supernatural and instead offers an explanation for its events rooted in current theoretical physics. 11/22/63 is a seminal work by an American master at the peak of his powers. Don’t miss it. — JJM


$25.95
ISBN-13: 9780525952596
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Dutton Adult, 1/2012

Elle Beene is beyond happy with her new life that includes husband Joe and his two children who call her Mommy and have filled her life with joy, after years of trying to be a mother with her previous husband. She lives in beautiful surroundings in Northern California where every day is a blessing of organically grown food in a small town filled with family and security. Until one day…

Elle’s life falls apart when her husband is killed by a rogue wave while out taking pictures. And then everything gets worse. The family business is floundering and the children’s birth mother who abandoned them three years prior is now back in their lives threatening everything Elle holds dear … and everything that is holding her together in the midst of tragedy. I thought this was a beautifully written debut about family and finding one’s way back to joy. — tlg


$14.95
ISBN-13: 9781607012900
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Prime Books, 10/2011
The reissue of The Bone Key comes with a sexy new cover and classic chills. Set in an alternate post-WWII America that reads a little like Victorian England, the book is haunted by ghosts, demons, incubi--the whole host of horrors. Monette opens with a dedication to M.R. James and H.P. Lovecraft, and these stories definitely fall into that tradition, but with the added bonus of things that James and Lovecraft didn’t acknowledge (strong women and homosexuality, for example). The stories follow archivist Kyle Murchison Booth: wry, witty, and uncomfortable in his own skin, and his encounters with the arcane and terrifying. Monette has understatement down to an art, and her tightly controlled prose just makes the monsters more terrifying. Full of ghouls and all-too-human humans, it’s a great read for those who prefer their horror chilling as opposed to graphic. — LP