Nothing will prevent a person from keeping up with the things she loves like university courses. And to think that I imagined a second degree would be a good idea. Time will tell. . . .

Needless to say, trying to read the books that I want to review is problematic when it’s coming up against the requirement to read whole books on the history of rhetoric and visual rhetoric and every other kind of rhetoric you can think of. And then there was that issues in publishing course which, while incredibly fun, assigned rather detailed projects like creating a magazine prospectus and putting together a publisher’s seasonal catalog.

Yet the prospect of having even more troublesome classes next semester does nothing to diminish my delight over the announcement of Pyr’s Fall/Winter releases for 2010-2011. I’m going to be a very, very busy reader during the fall, and not just because I’ll be taking Japanese I.

Not only are two books that I’d previously heard about finally getting released—Vampire Empire: The Greyfriar, Book 1 and The Buntline Special—but so are a slew of other books that sound absolutely fantastic. I’ll admit, I had to stop myself from printing out the entire post and organizing what I want to read using multi-colored highlighters.

I’m sure by now that most of my friends know that I intend to read through the majority of the Pyr catalog despite what my university classes may require of me. But Pyr makes it so very easy to want to. As it is, I’ve only been delaying my purchase of Ghosts of Manhattan because I needed to wait until payday. But payday is today. . . so I expect you’ll know where to find me later.

On the listing for the upcoming season, I’m especially looking forward to The Cardinal’s Blades and The Scar-Crow Men (I’m a sucker for period settings and historical characters, what can I say?), The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, The Horns of Ruin, Tome of the Undergates, Legends of the Raven, Cowboy Angels, and the Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov books. And, of course, The Greyfriar and The Buntline Special.

And if you think that I’ve just named everything on the list, you’d almost be right. As for the rest, I simply haven’t read the first ones in the series yet . . . but I’ll get there.

With intriguing new titles from our friends at Pyr, it’s going to be a great season.

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Viz has done it again.

Which is to say they’ve done something amazing, in my opinion, and it just goes to show how long I’ve been neglecting the major manga publishers when something like this slips by my notice.

Haikasoru is Viz’s new(ish) publishing imprint dedicated to Japanese speculative fiction. The tagline on the website reads “Space Opera. Dark Fantasy. Hard Science.”

Well, I’m in. In fact, I feel an online order coming on any time now.

Foreign SF/F (most notably by Japanese and Hispanic writers) has been an interest of mine for some time, but since it’s nigh impossible to get ahold of such books, I’ve had very little to read in that area. Japanese fiction in particular is difficult because I don’t read Japanese and, therefore, can’t simply import a book or two written in its native language (Spanish fiction I could at least read, though it might take a while to get through an entire book). I can think of very few Japanese science fiction titles (that is to say, novels rather than manga) that have been translated into English. Off the top of my head, I want to include The Crimson Labyrinth by Yusuke Kishi, but that’s really not an SF title at all–more of a survivalist thriller.

Needless to say, I’m excited about this, and I’ve already picked out which book(s) I’ll be ordering first. Their catalogue so far is short, and it shouldn’t be that difficult to catch up. But before I talk about their current line-up, let me point out one thing:

Battle Royale (by Koushun Takami) is being rereleased as a new, revised edition. It will include a new introduction, an interview with the Battle Royale filmmaker, and an afterword by the author. It’s due to release on November 17.

This is definitely on my birthday list. Sure, I have the original release of Battle Royale–I’ve read it and I love it. But who can resist a new edition with new material? Not I.

If you’ve seen and enjoyed the movie, then you must read this book. There’s so much more detail and story to take in. Granted, it’s quite long, and if you’re not accustomed to Japanese names, then you might get a little confused at first–but it’s certainly worth it.

Here are the other books being released by Haikasoru, in order of availability:

All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka–Available Now
Usurper of the Sun by Housuke Nojiri–Available Now
The Lord of the Sands of Time by Issui Ogawa–Available Now
Zoo by Otsuichi–Available Now
Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe, (paperback release)–11.17.09
The Book of Heroes by Miyuki Miyabe — 1.19.10
Yukikaze by Chōhei Kambayashi–1.19.10

Stop by the Haikasoru website for more information and for summarizes of these titles.

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Angry Robot will be making its official UK launch on Saturday, October 10, at the Forbidden Planet Megastore. Everyone is invited, so stop by to meet several Angry Robot authors, including Dan Abnett, Colin Harvey, and Andy Remic; each of these authors will be signing copies of their latest books. You’ll also have the chance to meet the Angry Robot crew: Marc Gascoigne, Lee Harris, and Chris Michaels.

Forbidden Planet Megastore is located at 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London.

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Ever since I learned how to use Google Reader (properly, that is), I’ve found it so much easier to keep track of the blogs that have been languishing, unseen, in my bookmarks folder. Not only that but, because I’ve actually been able to read new posts as they come out, I’ve stumbled across several articles and new blogs that I plan to add to the list.

This morning on BSCreview, I read a great article about book reviews and reviewers entitled “The Paradox of Book Reviewing.” The author, Charles Tan, makes an excellent point: readers should be discerning about which reviewers they choose to believe. Not because any reviewer’s opinion of a book is wrong, but because some will jive better with a particular reader’s tastes. Readers should find reviewers who enjoy similar things; after all, it would be pointless to take suggestions from someone who dislikes the very things that you do like.

Definitely read this article. It’s engaging, well-written, and makes a sensible argument.

Additionally, reading this article on BSCreview directed me to Charles Tan’s blog Bibliophile Stalker. Here he keeps a series of links to blogs, articles, and news as well as, interviews, reviews, and rants of his own. I’ll definitely be watching this site–I find Charles Tan’s writing to be both professional and engaging, not to mention that the list of links that he posts each day are extremely useful (I’ve wasted hours browsing them already…). I can only imagine the time that it takes for him to organize and post them all; I can’t let all that work go unappreciated, now can I?

One of the first things that I noticed when browsing Bibliophile Stalker was the new book Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. Now, I knew that I’d heard of Cherie Priest before, but I couldn’t put my finger on where. A search of her books yielded nothing that I’d ever read before, but it did produce more information on Boneshaker. There are already several reviews posted about the book–which releases on September 29–all of which are quite positive. The summary alone was enough to peak my curiosity (not to mention the book cover, which given my interests was quite eye-catching), but the more I read about it, the more determined I became to buy a copy when it comes out.

I then became curious about the author herself, so I visited her website as well as her blog, both of which I enjoyed reading.

After that, I went back to Amazon.com in order to look at another book that I’d noticed while looking up Boneshaker. Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld also sounds like something I might pick up on its release date. Of coure it’s a hardcover, so I may need to save a few dollars. But it sounds like an interesting alternate history meets steampunk novel, and I’d like to see how Westerfeld handles this altered version of the world.

Speaking of steampunk, I also came across the article (or rant…whatever you prefer to call it) “Getting Back Up to Steam (Hold the ‘Punk’)” via one of the sites I visited today (though which one, specifically, I can no longer remember). The writer here makes a few good points about genre naming conventions. I’m not sure that I agree with everything he says about moving the SF genre into a more “literary” sphere, but it gives you something to think about nevertheless. Especially when considered next to this article from SciFi Wire. While I’ve never had a problem with the terms “steampunk” and “cyberpunk,” I have to admit that it’s getting a little silly when you pull in terms like “elfpunk,” “greenpunk,” “mannerpunk,” and “nanopunk.” Can’t we think of any more accurate, not to mention more interesting, descriptors?

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