Waiting on Wednesday 10/09/13

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that lets us feature upcoming releases that we can't wait to get our hands on!

Mogsy's Pick

Heartwood by Freya Robertson: October 29, 2013 (Angry Robot) 

Angry Robot has a lot of upcoming titles that interest me, and this is just one of many. And what's pretty cool, is I just found out on Freya Robertson's website that she loves Guild Wars 2, one of my favorite MMOs! Looking forward to checking out her epic fantasy!

"A dying tree, a desperate quest, a love story, a last stand.

Chonrad, Lord of Barle, comes to the fortified temple of Heartwood for the Congressus peace talks, which Heartwood’s holy knights have called in an attempt to stave off war in Anguis. But the Arbor, Heartwood’s holy tree, is failing, and because the land and its people are one, it is imperative the nations try to make peace.

After the Veriditas, or annual Greening Ceremony, the Congressus takes place. The talks do not go well and tempers are rising when an army of warriors emerges from the river. After a fierce battle, the Heartwood knights discover that the water warriors have stolen the Arbor’s heart. For the first time in history, its leaves begin to fall...

The knights divide into seven groups and begin an epic quest to retrieve the Arbor, and save the land."

Wendy's Pick

Two Serpents Rise by Max Gladstone: October 24, 2013 (Tor)

I recently read the first book in Gladstone's Craft Sequence series, Three Parts Dead, and was so fascinated by the world of Craft, law and religion that he created. I can't wait to see what else goes on in this unique realm.

Shadow demons plague the city reservoir, and Red King Consolidated has sent in Caleb Altemoc — casual gambler and professional risk manager — to cleanse the water for the sixteen million people of Dresediel Lex. At the scene of the crime, Caleb finds an alluring and clever cliff runner, crazy Mal, who easily outpaces him.

But Caleb has more than the demon infestation, Mal, or job security to worry about when he discovers that his father — the last priest of the old gods and leader of the True Quechal terrorists — has broken into his home and is wanted in connection to the attacks on the water supply.

From the beginning, Caleb and Mal are bound by lust, Craft, and chance, as both play a dangerous game where gods and people are pawns. They sleep on water, they dance in fire... and all the while the Twin Serpents slumbering beneath the earth are stirring, and they are hungry.

Cover Lover: #DiversityinSFF

Today's cover lover is inspired by the hashtag #DiversityinSFF.

In Conversations with Octavia Butler, my favourite author explains to her various interviewers that, when she began writing science fiction, the genre was dominated by 30 year old white male protagonists. Initially, she attempted to follow suit, but decided her work was crap. When she embraced a more diverse world and universe, an inspirational award winning author was born.

As a person of colour myself, I don’t actively hunt down books by PoC authors or featuring PoC characters, but it certainly makes me happy when I do find them. A new favourite  author, N.K. Jemisin inspired me to pick up and subsequently love love love her book, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, largely thanks to this quote:

This [fantasy] genre is rooted in the epic — and the truth is that there are plenty of epics out there which feature people like me. [...] So given all these myths, all these examinations of the possible...how can I not imagine more? How can I not envision an epic set somewhere other than medieval England, about someone other than an awkward white boy? How can I not use every building-block of my history and heritage and imagination when I make shit up?

But sometimes, all it takes is a cover to immediately attract my attention. I’m a sucker for a beautiful, vibrant, stunning cover and I most recently fell for the beautiful, vibrant, stunning ladies on the covers of these books.

Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone is now high on my to-read list, and you may have already seen Ascension: A Tangled Axon Novel a few times here at BiblioSanctum. Ascension’s diversity goes far beyond skin deep and impressed me so much that I had to interview author Jacqueline Koyanagi to learn more.

There is a growing number of books about and being told by diverse people. These are merely the two that recently caught my eye. Science fiction and fantasy, of all genres, give us the opportunity to step so far away from our prejudices, and I'm really glad to see authors (and now publishers) finally realizing that there is more to our world and beyond than stories about 30 year old white guys.