Fantasic Firsts Speculative Fiction

Patrick has a reputation far and wide for picking the next great SF/Fantasy title. Now that we have expanded our staff, we have some additional support for our Speculative Fiction Pick, but you can be sure, you will be hearing from Patrick too.

• Sign up for one year and get 10 to 12 books we highly recommend and believe are likely to be collectible ... books you’ll value having on your shelves. There is no fee to join.
• Subscribers receive 20% off cover price of selected titles with one-year subscription. To qualify for this discount, you are agreeing to purchase all of our club selections.
• We will keep your credit card information on file in a secure location and charge you each month as titles are available.
• You may pick up your new book at either Mysterious Galaxy location.
• Standard shipping rates apply for shipped titles. Titles held for pick up in store will be billed and shipped if not picked up within two weeks of notification.
• This is a great gift-giving opportunity. We are happy to send our selections each month as a gift to the book lover of your choice.
• Many, but not all selections will be signed.

To sign up, or for more information, contact the staff in San Diego (858-268-4747). Club membership lists will be maintained by the San Diego location, but all fantastic titles can be picked up in either store, or shipped to you!

A new title will be revealed each month!

May Fantastic First Pick:

NOS4A2 (Hardcover)

By Joe Hill

$28.99

ISBN-13: 9780062200570
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: William Morrow, 4/2013

Other Editions of this Title

Description

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NOS4A2 is a spine-tingling novel of supernatural suspense from master of horror Joe Hill, the New York Times bestselling author of Heart-Shaped Box and Horns.

Victoria McQueen has a secret gift for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. On her Raleigh Tuff Burner bike, she makes her way to a rickety covered bridge that, within moments, takes her wherever she needs to go, whether it’s across Massachusetts or across the country.

Charles Talent Manx has a way with children. He likes to take them for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the NOS4A2 vanity plate. With his old car, he can slip right out of the everyday world, and onto the hidden roads that transport them to an astonishing – and terrifying – playground of amusements he calls “Christmasland.”

Then, one day, Vic goes looking for trouble—and finds Manx. That was a lifetime ago. Now Vic, the only kid to ever escape Manx’s unmitigated evil, is all grown up and desperate to forget. But Charlie Manx never stopped thinking about Victoria McQueen. He’s on the road again and he’s picked up a new passenger: Vic’s own son.

About the Author

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Joe Hill is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Horns and Heart-Shaped Box and the prizewinning story collection 20th Century Ghosts. He is also the Eisner award–winning writer of an ongoing comic book series, Locke & Key. His new novel, NOS4A2, will be published in May 2013. You can follow Joe on Twitter, where he goes by the inspired handle of @joe_hill.

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Wool (Hardcover)

By Hugh Howey

$26.00

ISBN-13: 9781476735115
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Simon & Schuster, 3/2013

Other Editions of this Title

Our April Pick is Signed! (Shipping with the March Pick.)

Description

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In a ruined and toxic landscape, a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them. Sheriff Holston, who has unwaveringly upheld the silo’s rules for years, unexpectedly breaks the greatest taboo of all: He asks to go outside.

His fateful decision unleashes a drastic series of events. An unlikely candidate is appointed to replace him: Juliette, a mechanic with no training in law, whose special knack is fixing machines. Now Juliette is about to be entrusted with fixing her silo, and she will soon learn just how badly her world is broken. The silo is about to confront what its history has only hinted about and its inhabitants have never dared to whisper. Uprising.

About the Author

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Hugh Howey is the author of Wool, a book he wrote while working as a bookseller, writing each morning and during every lunch break for nearly three years. Originally self-published in 2011, Wool has grown into a New York Times bestseller. He now lives in Jupiter, Florida, with his wife Amber and their dog Bella. For more information visit HughHowey.com/wool/.

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Dreams and Shadows (Hardcover)

By C. Robert Cargill

$24.99

ISBN-13: 9780062190420
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Harper Voyager, 2/2013

Other Editions of this Title

Our March pick is signed! (Shipping with our April pick.)

Description

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Screenwriter and acclaimed film critic C. Robert Cargill makes his fiction debut with Dreams and Shadows, taking beloved fantasy tropes, giving them a twist, and turning out a wonderful, witty, and wry take on clash between the fairy world and our own.

Something is missing from Ewan and Colby’s lives. Residing in the corners of their memories is their time in Limestone Kingdom, a realm filled with magic and mystery, a world where only some may travel amongst the menagerie of mystical souls and sinister demons.

Cargill offers well-crafted characters and an absorbing, intricate plot that will appeal to fans of Neil Gaiman and Lev Grossman. Dreams and Shadows pulls you into an extraordinary universe of darkness that exposes the magic and monsters in our world, and in ourselves.

Praise for Dreams and Shadows…

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Cargill, a longtime contributor to pop-culture website “Ain’t It Cool News,” adapts the rallying cry of local independent businesses, “Keep Austin Weird,” to a novel where things are indeed weird, in the darkly fantastic sense of the word. Ewan is taken as an infant by the fairies. The unhappy and resentful Knocks is the changling left in Ewan’s place. A chance encounter with a djinn leads Colby to become Ewan’s friend and champion. As adults, Colby is a great magician, Ewan is a dissatisfied rock star wannabe, and both are the focus of unwanted attention by a host of magical creatures with varying motivations. Recommended to fans of Bill Willingham’s Fables, and other dark fantasy works where it doesn’t pay to become emotionally attached to any characters.

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The Daylight War: Book Three of The Demon Cycle (Hardcover)

By Peter V. Brett

$28.00

ISBN-13: 9780345503824
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Del Rey, 2/2013

Other Editions of this Title

Signed! 

In The Daylight War, the women behind the men who would be Deliverer come to the fore. In the north, Arlen’s love of Renna binds him to the world of men, but her desire to be always at his side may just cost her her humanity. In the south, Jardir didn’t come to his exalted position among the tribes of Krasia on his own. His First Wife, Inevera, wields a significant power of her own, and even Jardir is wary of that power. And let us not forget Leesha, behind and between both men. She might just have a little something to deliver herself. The Deliverer has come, oh yes, but who it is has yet to be decided, and if the world of men remains divided, can even the Deliverer save it?

In the world of The Demon Cycle, humankind use wards to keep the demons at bay. In our world, Brett weaves words to bring that world and the characters within it to life. And live they most certainly do. I just love this series and will suffer along with the rest of you until Brett delivers books four and five of the Cycle. Honest word.

--Patrick

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A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent (Hardcover)

By Marie Brennan

$25.99

ISBN-13: 9780765331960
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Tor Books, 2/2013

Other Editions of this Title

Our January Pick

Signed!

If you like historical fiction you will love A Natural History of Dragons. Lady Isabella Trent is a woman ahead of her time. Whatever that time may be. No time period or location is ever mentioned. However, in my mind I was reading about the late 18^th century on the British Isles. Scotland perhaps?  Lady Trent accompanies her husband on an excursion to find, capture and kill a dragon for purposes of study. Her job is to act as secretary to the men, recording through writing and drawings everything they learn about the evasive beasts. I very much enjoy the voice of Isabella. She’s witty without being overly-proud of her wit, and she’s smart without looking down at those less fortunate in either educational or financial status. If you’ve ever doubted the existence of dragons, this book will have you rethinking the question.

- Nicole

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