Reviewing the Mail: Week of 6/26

Just like every week, I got mail this week, and now I'm going to tell you about it. I haven't read either of these books yet, but I can tell that they're both just spiffy and that a significant fraction of you would love one or the other (or both!) of them.

First up is George Mann's steampunk mystery The Affinity Bridge -- now in a more affordable trade paperback edition, published by Tor on April 27th -- purely because it's the book whose cover I could find online. George is a great guy, and this is a mystery novel set in a clanking 1901 London that even has an airship on the cover -- how can you not love it?

The other book this time out is Beth Bernobich's debut novel Passion Play. Tor will publish Passion Play as a hardcover in October, so it's a little early for the cover art to be all over the web. (I tried to scan it from the galley, but there's a prominent "contact me for more information" sticker with the publicist's e-mail address and phone number, and I don't think I should be spreading that across the Internets.) This is a secondary world fantasy, with back cover copy that hints heavily at sex without actually saying anything gauche (it's all "every pleasure has a price" and "the other half of her heart" and "intrigue, seduction, and treachery"), treading -- as far as I can tell -- in the sexy fantasy footsteps of Jacqueline Carey, among others. It also features a fantasy kingdom named Melnek, which may or may not be on the continent of the Lower East Side. If you like your fantasy to come with heaving bosoms -- and why wouldn't you? -- it looks like Passion Play would be a great read.
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Listening to: B. Fleischmann - 24.12.
via FoxyTunes