It’s time for the first of Coolthulhu’s Bi-Monthly Updates, where you get a chance to take a peek at some of what we heathens here at Sci-Fi & Scary are reading a couple of times a month. (This is technically the monthly wrap-up for December 2016.) Links go to Goodreads.
What We’re Reading:
In the Days of the Comet by H.G. Wells
This is the first book on the Decades of Sci-Fi list. In the Days of the Comet was published in 1906.
” In the midst of a world war, the tail of a comet brushes the atmosphere of earth, causing everyone to lose consciousness for a few hours. When the world awakens, everyone has an expanded understanding of the meaning of things. The war is quickly ended; a new utopia is created; even crime is reduced to near zero. What caused the transformation–or was there one?” – Goodreads
Ararat by Christopher Golden
This is an Advanced Review Copy. Ararat is due to be published on April 18th, 2017.
“When a newly engaged couple climbs Mount Ararat in Turkey, an avalanche forces them to seek shelter inside a massive cave uncovered by the snowfall. The cave is actually an ancient, buried ship that many quickly come to believe is really Noah’s Ark. When a team of scholars, archaeologists, and filmmakers make it inside the ark for the first time, they discover an elaborate coffin in its recesses. The artifact tempts their professional curiosity; so they break it open. Inside, they find an ugly, misshapen cadaver—not the holy man that they expected, a hideous creature with horns. A massive blizzard blows in, trapping them in that cave thousands of meters up the side of a remote mountain…but they are not alone.” – Goodreads
The Mote in God’s Eye by Larry Niven & Jerrry Pournelle
This was first published in 1974. I’ve got it in audiobook format. I’m reading it for the Sci-Fi & Fantasy Book Club’s A New Hope challenge.
“In 3016, the 2nd Empire of Man spans hundreds of star systems, thanks to faster-than-light Alderson Drive. Intelligent beings are finally found from the Mote, an isolated star in a thick dust cloud. The bottled-up ancient civilization, at least one million years old, are welcoming, kind, yet evasive, with a dark problem they have not solved in over a million years. ” – Goodreads
The Devil’s Prayer by Luke Gracias.
This is a review copy given to me by the author for review consideration. It was published in 2016.
“A nun commits suicide in front of thousands in Spain. In Australia, Siobhan Russo recognises that nun as her mother, Denise Russo, who disappeared six years ago. | In search of answers, Siobhan travels to the isolated convent where her mother once lived. Here she discovers Denise’s final confession, a book that details a heinous betrayal that left her crippled and mute, and Denise’s subsequent deal with the Devil to take revenge. In the desperate bargain Denise made with the Prince of Darkness, she wagered Siobhan’s soul. | As Siobhan discovers the fate of her soul, she learns that hidden within the pages of her mother’s confession is part of The Devil’s Prayer, an ancient text with the power to unleash apocalyptic horrors. | And now her mother’s enemies know Siobhan has it. | Can Siobhan escape an order of extremist monks determined to get the Prayer back? Can she save the world from its own destruction?” – Goodreads
Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell by Paul Kane.
This is a self-purchased copy. It was published in 2016.
“Sherlock Holmes faces his greatest challenge yet when he meets the Cenobites, the infamous servants of hell. | Late 1895, and Sherlock Holmes and his faithful companion Dr John Watson are called upon to investigate a missing persons case. On the face of it, this seems like a mystery that Holmes might relish – as the person in question vanished from a locked room – and something to occupy him other than testing the limits of his mind and body.| But this is just the start of an investigation that will draw the pair into contact with a shadowy organisation talked about in whispers and known only as ‘The Order of the Gash’. As more and more people go missing in a similar fashion, the clues point to a sinister asylum in France and to the underworld of London. However, it is an altogether different underworld that Holmes will soon discover – as he finds himself face to face not only with those followers who do the Order’s bidding on Earth, but those who serve it in Hell: the Cenobites… ” – Goodreads
What We’ve Read:
Review copy provided by narrator
Review copy provided by author
Self-purchased, re-read
Review copy provided by Tor
Christmas Gift.
Read in December, but not listed by cover: Emerging by Thomas S. Flowers , Atavus Falls by Jack J. Carroll, Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older, The Two Faces of Temperance by Ichabod Temperance, 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson, Patriarch Run by Benjamin Dancer, The Lovecraft Squad: All Hallows Horror by John Llewellyn Probert, We Are Legion, We Are Bob by Dennis E. Taylor, The Devil You Know by Mike Carey, Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor, The Last Machine in the Solar System by Matthew Isaac Sobin, First Contact by Kat Green, Sarah by Teri Polen, Shadows of Tomorrow by Jessica Meats, Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement
What’s Up Next:
Review copy provided by Doubleday
Review copy provided by Solaris
Christmas gift. For Wired Into Sci-Fi Challenge
Self-purchased. For Decades of Sci-Fi Challenge
This is a derivative of WWW Wednesday, hosted by Taking on a World of Words. Feel free to leave your links to WWW Wednesday or This Week in Books below.
