Portada y contenidos de The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, de Ken Liu

Se acaban de revelar la portada y contenidos de The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, la colección de relatos de Ken Liu que Saga Press publicará en noviembre de este año.

Los cuentos escogidos, entre los que se encuentran muchas de las mejores obras de Liu así como una historia nueva, son (he enlazado aquellos que están disponibles online de forma gratuita):

• The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species
• State Change
• The Perfect Match
• Good Hunting
• The Literomancer
• Simulacrum
• The Regular
• The Paper Menagerie
• An Advanced Readers Picture Book of Comparative Cognition
• The Waves
• Mono no aware
• All the Flavors
• A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel
• The Litigation Master and the Monkey King
• The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary

Sinopsis y portada: A Darker Shade of Magic, de V.E. Schwabb

Se ha anunciado la nueva novela de V.E. Schwabb, autora de la estupenda Vicious. Llevará por título A Darker Shade of Magic y saldrá a la venta en febrero del próximo año. 

Ésta es su sinopsis:

From V.E. Schwab, the critically acclaimed author ofVicious, comes a new universe of daring adventure, thrilling power, and parallel Londons, beginning with A Darker Shade of Magic. 

Kell is one of the last Travelers—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel universes—as such, he can choose where he lands. 

There’s Grey London, dirty and boring, without any magic, ruled by a mad King George. Then there’s Red London, where life and magic are revered, and the Maresh Dynasty presides over a flourishing empire. White London, ruled by whoever has murdered their way to the throne—a place where people fight to control magic, and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. And once upon a time, there was Black London…but no one speaks of that now. 

Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, personal ambassador and adopted Prince of Red London, carrying the monthly correspondences between the royals of each London. Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see—a dangerous hobby, and one that has set him up for accidental treason. Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs afoul of Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations, first robs him, then saves him from a dangerous enemy, and then forces him to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure. 

But perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, Kell and Lila will first need to stay alive—and that is proving trickier than they hoped.

Portada y sinopsis: A Man Lies Dreaming, de Lavie Tidhar

Se han desvelado la portada y sinopsis de la que será la próxima novela de Lavie Tidhar, que llevará por título A Man Lies Dreaming y se pondrá a la venta el 23 de Octubre de este año. 

Ésta es la sinopsis:

Deep in the heart of history’s most infamous concentration camp, a man lies dreaming. His name is Shomer, and before the war he was a pulp fiction author. Now, to escape the brutal reality of life in Auschwitz, Shomer spends his nights imagining another world – a world where a disgraced former dictator now known only as Wolf ekes out a miserable existence as a low-rent PI in London’s grimiest streets. 

An extraordinary story of revenge and redemption, A Man Lies Dreaming is the unforgettable testament to the power of imagination.

Sinopsis y portada: The Affinities, de Robert Charles Wilson

Se han anunciado algunos datos acerca de la próxima novela de Robert Charles Wilson, que se titulará The Affinities y saldrá publicada en marzo del año que viene. Podéis ver la portada junto a estas líneas y su sinopsis a continuación:

From the author of the Hugo-winning Spin, a compelling science fiction novel about the next ways that social media will be changing everything.

In our rapidly-changing world of “social media”, everyday people are more and more able to sort themselves into social groups based on finer and finer criteria. In the near future of Robert Charles Wilson’sThe Affinities, this process is supercharged by new analytic technologies–genetic, brain-mapping, behavioral. To join one of the twenty-two Affinities is to change one’s life. It’s like family, and more than family. Your fellow members aren’t just like you, and they aren’t just people who are likely to like you. They’re also the people with whom you can best cooperate in all areas of life–creative, interpersonal, even financial. At loose ends both professional and personal, young Adam Fisk takes the suite of tests to see if he qualifies for any of the Affinities, and finds that he’s a match for one of the largest, the one called Tau. It’s utopian—at first. Problems in all areas of his life begin to simply sort themselves out, as he becomes part of a global network of people dedicated to helping one another—to helping him. But as the differing Affinities put their new powers to the test, they begin to rapidly chip away at the power of governments, of global corporations, of all the institutions of the old world. Then, with dreadful inevitability, the different Affinities begin to go to war–with one another. What happens next will change Adam, and his world, forever.

Portada y sinopsis de The Grace of Kings, de Ken Liu

Se han hecho públicas la portada y sinopsis de The Grace of Kings, la primera novela de Ken Liu. El libro, que se publicará en abril del próximo año, será el inicio de la trilogía The Dandelion Dynasty. La espera será larga, pero parece que merecerá le pena.

Ésta es la sinopsis:

Wily, charming Kuni Garu, a bandit, and stern, fearless Mata Zyndu, the son of a deposed duke, seem like polar opposites. Yet, in the uprising against the emperor, the two quickly become the best of friends after a series of adventures fighting against vast conscripted armies, silk-draped airships, soaring battle kites, conspiring goddesses, underwater boats, magical books, as a streetfighter-cum-general who takes her place as the greatest tactitian of the age. Once the emperor has been overthrown, however, they each find themselves the leader of separate factions—two sides with very different ideas about how the world should be run and the meaning of justice.

Fans of intrigue, intimate plots, and vast battles will find a new series to embrace in the Dandelion Dynasty.

Portada de The Three Body Problem, de Liu Cixin

La editorial Tor ha hecho pública la que será la portada de The Three Body Problem, la primera parte de la trilogía de ciencia ficción del autor chino Liu Cixin. Esta novela saldrá a la venta en octubre de este año con traducción de Ken Liu. La espectacular ilustración, que podéis ver bajo estas líneas, es obra de Stephan Martiniere. 

Hace ya algún tiempo que tuve la suerte de leer esta novela y os puedo asegurar que es aún más alucinante que lo que hace intuir la maravillosa portada. Espero que, cuando se publique, reciba la buena cogida que sin duda merece y que pronto podamos ver traducidas sus dos continuaciones así como el resto de obras de este magnífico autor. 

Portada y sinopsis de My Real Children, de Jo Walton

La cosa va de portadas. Después de presentar ayer la de Echopraxia de Peter Watts, hoy quiero dedicar esta entrada a otra de un estilo totalmente diferente pero que también me ha encantado. La imagen que podéis ver junto a este párrafo corresponde a My Real Children, la novela que Jo Walton publicará en mayo del próximo año.

A juzgar por la sinopsis del libro (bajo estas líneas), la portada consigue captar la esencia del argumento de forma perfecta. Una novela que se presenta francamente interesante.

It's 2015, and Patricia Cowan is very old. "Confused today," read the notes clipped to the end of her bed. She forgets things she should know—what year it is, major events in the lives of her children. But she remembers things that don’t seem possible. She remembers marrying Mark and having four children. And she remembers not marrying Mark and raising three children with Bee instead. She remembers the bomb that killed President Kennedy in 1963, and she remembers Kennedy in 1964, declining to run again after the nuclear exchange that took out Miami and Kiev. 

Her childhood, her years at Oxford during the Second World War—those were solid things. But after that, did she marry Mark or not? Did her friends all call her Trish, or Pat? Had she been a housewife who escaped a terrible marriage after her children were grown, or a successful travel writer with homes in Britain and Italy? And the moon outside her window: does it host a benign research station, or a command post bristling with nuclear missiles? 

Two lives, two worlds, two versions of modern history. Each with their loves and losses, their sorrows and triumphs. My Real Children is the tale of both of Patricia Cowan's lives...and of how every life means the entire world. 

Portada de Echopraxia, de Peter Watts

Hace algunos días, Peter Watts reveló la que será la portada de su próxima novela, Echopraxia, que se espera para mediados del próximo año. La ilustración, que podéis ver junto a estas líneas, es obra de Richard Anderson.

Como Watts explica en su entrevista para la editorial Fata Libelli, esta novela transcurre al mismo tiempo que los acontecimientos de la excelente Blindsight (Visión ciega), pero se desarrolla en la Tierra. 

Ni que decir tiene que es uno de los libros que con más ganas espero y está preciosa portada sólo sirve para hacerme la boca agua un poquito más. ¿Es ya 2014?