Alan Lee, the Academy Award-winning conceptual designer for Peter Jackson’s insanely successful LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, is set to get fans’ tongues wagging this fall with THE LORD OF THE RINGS SKETCHBOOK. The book includes more than 150 of Lee’s illustrations, showing how his imagery progressed from page to screen. The volume also features 20 full-color plates.
Lee will be embarking on a 10-city tour to promote the book with signings, Q&A and a slide show. The schedule is as follows:
• Oct. 22 / Books of Wonder, New York City, NY
• Oct. 24 / Friends Select School, Philadephia, PA
• Oct. 25 / Chapter 11, Atlanta, GA
• Oct. 26 / BookPeople, Austin, TX
• Oct. 27 / Tattered Cover, Denver, CO
• Oct. 28 / Borders, Murray, UT
• Oct. 29 / Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA
• Oct. 30 / The Booksmith, San Francisco , CA
• Oct. 31 / University Bookstore, Seattle, WA
• Nov. 1 / Powell’s Books, Beaverton, OR
The SKETCHBOOK is due out Oct. 19, but you can preorder it now.
On one hand, I’m relieved to find out that Jack Ketchum’s THE GIRL NEXT DOOR was inspired by a true story, because I don’t want to think that the man’s imagination is so demented that he dreamt all this up by himself.
On the other hand, I’m repulsed to find out it was inspired a true story, because the subject matter is so horrific, it sickens me to think people like this actually exist.
Originally published in 1989 but just now back in print from Leisure Horror, the novel starts out innocently enough, with the narrator David recalling the summer in the late 1950s when he was 12. The memories he evokes are nostalgic, reminiscent even of several Ray Bradbury works. But then David meets Meg, aka THE GIRL NEXT DOOR. With she and her crippled younger sister freshly orphaned, Meg has come to live with her distant aunt Ruth, a single mother to three scrappy sons.
Meg knows her new environment is going to be an adjustment, but she has no idea what she’s in for. Nobody does. With no reason at all (perhaps the most chilling aspect of this tale), Ruth utilizes her basement as a torture chamber for Meg. Soon her boys join in. Before long, so do other kids in the neighborhood, with the level of depravity and violence escalating every day. David bears witness to several of the beatings (not to mention other atrocities) and is rightly terrified, but also finds something strangely attractive about it.
If this book doesn’t dig right under your skin and bother you, you’re soulless. At times you will find it difficult to progress; at other times you will want to throw it across the room. But you won’t, because Ketchum does such a compelling job at ratcheting up the suspense that you absolutely must see what happens next, even if next makes you want to jump into the story and choke these bastards yourselves. I have to give him credit for sending a chill up my spine with Chapter 24, which consists of a mere seven words.
That alone is enough to give THE GIRL NEXT DOOR a solid recommendation (at least to the strong-willed), but Leisure sweetens the pot by throwing in some value-added extras. In addition to an essay by Ketchum about why he wrote the book, two of his short stories are included, one of which is seeing print for the first time. Too bad neither is lucid enough to be effective, but chances are anything that would dare follow the harrowing main feature would pale greatly in comparison.
Sci-fi book giant Tor Books has joined forces with sci-fi TV giant The Sci-Fi Channel for the Sci-Fi Essential Books program. Each month, one new noteworthy novel will be picked for the stamp of approval, which will be visible on the book’s spine and cover. The spotlighted books also will be promoted online, including at the program’s own website.
The program started last month, and the titles announced thus far are:
• JULY: SOMEONE COMES TO TOWN, SOMEONE LEAVES TOWN by Cory Doctorow
• AUGUST: LADY OF MAZES by Karl Schroeder
• SEPTEMBER: THE ROAD TO DUNE by Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
• OCTOBER: NIGHT TRAIN TO RIGEL by Timothy Zahn
• NOVEMBER: THE CHILDREN OF THE COMPANY by Kage Baker
Today’s notable new releases:
• Clive Cussler has written a jillion adventure novels, all of which were bestsellers, so why should POLAR SHIFT be any different? Cussler has given us such titles as SAHARA and BLACK WIND, and all of them hold some interest for me, but I’ve already got a backlog of stuff to read that’ll take me years. Maybe when I’m old like my dad, I’ll start reading Cussler. My dad’s had the same dog-eared copy of RAISE THE TITANIC on his nightstand for at least two decades. Like I said, he is old.
• With an Antonio Banderas ZORRO sequel that I don’t think anyone was anticipating about to hit theaters, Penguin Classics weighs in with THE MARK OF ZORRO, Johnston McCulley’s 1919 novel that introduced the legendary swashbuckling character. It was originally titled THE CURSE OF CAPISTRANO until a year later, when Douglas Fairbanks filmed it, moviegoers turned out in droves and McCulley made the brightest move of his long career by changing the title to match it.
• While you’re waiting for Neil Gaiman’s ANANSI BOYS to come out, why not pick up his SMOKE AND MIRRORS: SHORT FICTIONS AND ILLUSIONS, finally out in mass-market paperback today (and including a preview of the highly anticipated ANANSI). This book collects 30 of Gaiman’s short stories – ranging from horror to sci-fi and fantasy – from more anthologies than you could ever keep track of. Oh, and it’s also damned good. I read it a couple years ago just as I was experiencing severe AMERICAN GODS withdrawal. He’s since published enough stories to fill a second edition, so hopefully that won’t be far off in the future.
You buying anything? Post your take below.
Mike Resnick had a great idea for an anthology: Take the formula of the pulp detective genre – you know, the first-person narrative, the voluptuous dames, the double-crosses – and place it in a sci-fi setting. The result is DOWN THESE DARK SPACEWAYS, and Resnick is lucky that five of the six novellas within work, even exceedingly well.
The best include David Gerrold’s timequake-driven serial killer story “In the Quake Zone,” Jack McDevitt’s alien art conspiracy “The Big Downtown” and Robert J. Sawyer’s “Identity Theft,” concerned not with a stolen name, but an entire consciousness. Only Robert Reed’s confusing “Camoflauge” buries its own chances for fun by losing the private-eye angle in boring SF details. Otherwise, this strange but satisfying anthology is a unique little gem.
