Views from Medina Road

Big day at the bookstore today, with three much-anticipated volumes going on sale: Stephen King's final Dark Tower novel; Neal Stephenson's final "Baroque Cycle" volume, The System of the World; and the 11th volume of Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events", The Grim Grotto. I bought 2 of them, hoping that the publisher of the 3rd will send me a review copy, as they did of the previous volume...

Actually, the book I was most excitied to find today was the one I found by chance (having overlooked its entry on the forthcoming books list): Geoff Ryman's Air, a new novel by one of my favorite authors, and a novel that has been frustratingly delayed since its announcement some... 2 years? ago. (Apparently there was a final rewrite that took place after its initial announcement.) The book is subtitled "Or, Have Not Have" and is based on a 2001 story, "Have Not Have" that was a Sturgeon Award finalist, that placed 12th on the Locus Poll that year, and that was reprinted in Dozois's 19th annual anthology. Which I mention to justify my text-unread recommendation. In fact, I will be so helpful as to post this handy link so you can order a copy yourself...