An omnibus of five books.
By Blood We Live – John Joseph AdamsThe The Best Horror of the Year: Volume One – Ellen DatlowHow to Make Friends with Demons – Graham JoyceMadness of Flowers – Jay LakeHouse of Windows – John Langan
An almost all reprint vampire anthology. It isn’t a best vampire stories of all time, [...]
Continue reading about Night Shade Books October 2009 – Jeremy Lassen
The Reality Dysfunction
Space opera horror monster massive tome.
The start of a humongous trilogy, and with so many pages to fill Hamilton is able to come up with all sorts of stuff.
The Confederation is divided basically on religious grounds between those that use organic technologically to actually bond with computers and animals, and those [...]
Continue reading about The Night’s Dawn Trilogy – Peter F. Hamilton
An omnibus.
Shadow Games – Glen Cook
After this, the series starts to lose its way a little, but this installment is still quite good. There are some nasty problems with more than one shape shifter, and of course, those undead wizards are still highly problematic for those in the company.
4 out of 5
Dreams of Steel – [...]
An omnibus of two books
Soldiers Live – Glen CookA very neat little twist indeed, contained in this story for that grumpy old man Croker. Very apt use of the title, and I was pleasantly surprised by the end. I really thought I wouldn’t like this much at all. Cook has done well to finish the [...]
Continue reading about The Many Deaths Of the Black Company – Glen Cook
An omnibus
Bleak Seasons
One of the weakest Black Company novels. If you like the others though, this is still good enough to read, as the whole sordid saga continues. Sordid from the point of view of the Company, anyway, and the conditions they have to endure to survive. That seems to have always been the [...]
Continue reading about The Return Of the Black Company – Glen Cook
This is an omnibus of the three Nikolai Dante novels:
The Strangelove GambitImperial BlackHonour Be Damned
Nikolai Dante had a mentor – James Di Grizoz, apparently a very slippery thief.
Not slippery enough to get past the Tsar forever, apparently, unlike his protege.
There are also eggs, and eggs – the particular Faberge in this volume is a [...]
An interesting anthology of books, a 5, a 4.5, a 4.0, a 3.5 and 3.0! So nicely ordered and very good value. Basically a webscription to me is a good deal if you have two books that you want, as then you get 3 of 4 others for a few dollars. Less than [...]
Continue reading about Night Shade Books September 2009 – Jeremy Lassen
A webscriptions omnibus of this particular part of Grimes’ career, out of his official role, doing his own thing, and getting into plenty of trouble.
The Far TravellerStar CourierTo Keep the ShipMatilda’s StepchildrenStar LootThe Anarch LordsThe Last AmazonThe Wild Ones
Grimes has apparently managed to get himself in a fair bit of trouble in the Survey Service, [...]
Continue reading about John Grimes Far Traveller Couriers – A. Bertram Chandler
Omnibus edition that includes
The House On the BorderlandThe Boats Of the Glen CarrigThe Ghost PiratesThe Night Land
It includes an introduction by China Mieivlle, giving something of Hodgson’s history – an ex-seafaring bodybuilder type, apparently.
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You could say that The House On the Borderland is what you get if you take a H. P. Lovecraft type set-up [...]
Continue reading about The House On the Borderland and Other Novels – William Hope Hodgson
Another great value omnibus bundle of the seven books detailing John Grimes’ career in the Federation Survey Service, including collections and novels.
The Road to the Rim by A. Bertram ChandlerTo Prime the Pump by A. Bertram ChandlerThe Hard Way Up by A. Bertram ChandlerSpartan Planet by A. Bertram ChandlerThe Broken Cycle by A. Bertram ChandlerThe [...]
Continue reading about John Grimes Federation Survey Service – A. Bertram Chandler
A omnibus edition of Swords In the Mist and Swords Against Wizardry, with an introduction by Raymond Feist.
Another Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser collection. The best story in this book is most definitely ‘Lean Times in Lankhmar’. The pair are a bit grumpy with each other, and are fed up with the [...]
Continue reading about Lean Times In Lankhmar – Fritz Leiber
An omnibus of the entire X-Men Chaos Engine trilogy.
The first of the Chaos Engine trilogy.
The X-Men are with Roma and her underling, when the aforementioned notices something very wrong with the 616 Earth and surrounds, and it is centred on Psylocke, or Betsy Braddock.
The X-Men, sans Xavier are sent to investigate, and given a deadline [...]
Continue reading about The Chaos Engine Trilogy – Steven A. Roman
An omnibus of two novels written in the same setting as Henry Kuttner’s Free Companion mercenary companies and domed cities on Venus – and the changes brewing in the society there. See Clash By Night, and Fury, by the aforementioned author, online, for comparison. Well worth it.
Also includes a non-fiction account of the [...]
Apparently this month is short fiction month. Hard to imagine a better way to celebrate it than buying this great anthology/omnibus. Six books, including two collections and two anthologies. A Jonathan Strahan megaspecial if you like. The two Eclipse volumes, the second of which is certainly one of the best original [...]
Continue reading about Night Shade Books April 2009 – Jeremy Lassen
A new omnibus edition of some excellent Elric stories, with a great cover by Picacio.
The foreword is by Alan Moore, which was certainly a surprise, and he entitles it ‘The Return of the Thin White Duke’, which is rather clever.
Moorcock’s introduction talks about the reception from some people of the stories, given their ironic tone, [...]
Continue reading about The Stealer Of Souls – Michael Moorcock
Pretty hard for me to think of a better combination in this Ace Double anthology, Howard and Brackett.
Great stuff.
The novel length Conan work. An aging Conan is now in a position of responsibility, being King of Aquilonia.
His reign is threatened by a very powerful sorcerer, whom Conan is unable to stop by mundane means, [...]
An omnibus of the first three Black Company books.
The Black CompanyShadows LingerThe White Rose
The Black Company is a mercenary for hire unit with a lot history and traditions. One of these is recording its own exploits and personnel via the Annals – which also provides commanders a reference and advice for future situations.
What is [...]
Continue reading about Chronicles Of the Black Company – Glen Cook
An omnibus edition of :
The Lord of the TreesThe Mad Goblin
The second of the Lord Grandrith novels, with the same conceit. The book is part of his autobiography, changed a bit by the author to protect people.
Most of this is military, really, as a parachute jump and some squad level actions are made by [...]
Continue reading about Lord of the Trees and the Mad Goblin – Philip Jose Farmer
An omnibus edition of :
The Lord of the TreesThe Mad Goblin
The second of the Lord Grandrith novels, with the same conceit. The book is part of his autobiography, changed a bit by the author to protect people.
Most of this is military, really, as a parachute jump and some squad level actions are made by [...]
Continue reading about Empire Of the Nine – Philip Jose Farmer
Ibooks omnibus version of :-
To Die In ItalbarA Dark Traveling
F. Paul Wilson’s Healer was (a considerably superior) variant of this novel, in which a man is afflicted with both being a plague carrier and a disease healer depending on his cycle.
This is thanks to a strange, powerful alien presence in a cave.
Such a man can [...]
http://www.webscription.net/p-1003-ns200901-january-2009-night-shade-books.aspx
The third montly Night Shade Bundle is an excellent one, coming out at a high 3.80 average. The fourth Inspector Chen novel you can actually only get here so far, which is pleasant surprise seeing they have included the others in a previous bundle.
Two Glen Cook science fiction novels this time (we hope for [...]
Continue reading about Night Shade Books January 2009 – Jeremy Lassen
http://www.webscription.net/p-970-ns200812-december-night-shade-books.aspx
An anthology or omnibus (or both) depending on how you look at it, and a very varied group of books it is. Two heroic fantasy novels in one (that is an omnibus), a super powered super agent space opera, a New Weird fantasy, a hard sf tour, a zombie anthology, a post apocalyptic anthology [...]
Continue reading about Night Shade Books December 2008 – Jeremy Lassen
http://www.webscription.net/p-939-night-shade-halloween-2008-bundle.aspx
An eight book omnibus (ten noting that the Glen Cook is a three book omnibus) anthology of eclectic material, from transported to another world military fantasy, through Singaporean urban fantasy, epic fantasy, and wild singularity SF. Comes out at a 3.44 book average, so a fine deal.
After the DownfallImplied SpacesIce, Iron and GoldA Cruel [...]
Continue reading about Night Shade Books Halloween 2008 – Jeremy Lassen
An omnibus of the three Cobra novels:
CobraCobra StrikeCobra Bargain
An episodic novel that tells the story of a young man who signs up for a space force army when it seems that war with an alien race is inevitable.
He then is picked to get what is the 24 million dollar man treatment – full bionics, [...]
Am omnibus of five books, two from the Pellucidar series, three from the Barsoom series.
Pellucidar
David the Emperor is back, and getting into trouble on the way – he is also getting a navy built, thanks to his his friend.
Gorilla-sheep people, lizard men, giant hyena dogs, and raising the technology level of the locals are [...]
Continue reading about Science Fiction Classics – Edgar Rice Burroughs
http://www.rifters.com/real/Behemoth.htm
Watts says this was supposed to be one novel, but split for publisher beancounter reasons. Only allowed to have long books if you write fantasy I suppose.
So here’s a virtual omnibus :-
B-Max
According to Watts, this is one of those American split the book in two deals. Not having read the earlier two as [...]
A Fortress In Shadow is an omnibus edition of The Dread Empire prequel duology, detailing the origins and coming together (whether as friends or enemies) of many of the important characters in the main trilogy.
This Night Shade webscription is a great deal, for a 2-in-1.
The Fire In His Hands
A Dread Empire prequel.
Here we see [...]
A Cruel Wind is an omnibus edition of The Dread Empire trilogy, detailing the growing conflict between East and West in this particular secondary world – but focusing more on characters in the latter. Armies clash, wizards plot, assassins and monsters abound, along with other strangeness. Very consistent in quality.
This Night Shade webscription [...]
A Baen omnibus of the third and fourth Heritage Universe books
Transcendence
Zardalu hunt.
Not being believed that the race of scary alien space monsters is actually back among the living, or in existence, Darya Lang and company have to find proof and bring it back.
Apart from having dodgy rogues to deal with, the fact remains [...]
A Baen omnibus of the first two heritage universe novels, with the second better than the first.
Shaky builders.
Not sure I’d want to live on a planet named Quake, really.
However, that is where the parties of interest are going this Summertide – the astronomical event that brings two planets close to their sun’s orbit. [...]
Continue reading about Convergent Series – Charles Sheffield
This is one of those whacky ‘double’ books, this one from Ace. You can’t read them straight through, you have to flip over to read the second story.
A collection of the two Eric John Starks novella extensions : of Queen of the Martian Catacombs and Black Amazon of Mars. Both the originals and [...]
Continue reading about The People Of the Talisman and The Secret Of Sinharat – Leigh Brackett
A collection of the two Eric John Starks novella extensions : of Queen of the Martian Catacombs and Black Amazon of Mars. Both the originals and the different longer versions are class stories. A collection of all class stories is a great collection.
Eric John Stark Outlaw Of Mars : The Secret of Sinharat [...]
Continue reading about Eric John Stark Outlaw Of Mars – Leigh Brackett
An omnibus edition from the 70s of all three of the Eric John Stark novels.
Book Of Skaith : The Ginger Star – Leigh Brackett Book Of Skaith : The Hounds of Skaith – Leigh Brackett Book Of Skaith : The Reavers of Skaith – Leigh Brackett
The Dark Mark cometh.
The title refers to the color [...]
King Of Stars – Edmond HamiltonAn eight book ominbus thanks to Baen, mostly of old-school space opera, but with some entertaining fantasy like ‘A Yank at Valhalla (The Monsters of Jotunheim)’ thrown in. Generally a brave adventurer meets a smart, beautiful woman and has much peril to overcome. The City at World’s End [...]
The Selina Rosen Collection – Selina RosenAn omnibus containing five books. The first two are part of the Drewcila Qwah series, the second pair are part of the Chains series, and it appears another of these is forthcoming. The last is a standalone, as far as I am aware.
Rosen definitely has a liking [...]
Continue reading about The Selina Rosen Collection – Selina Rosen
Starwolves and the Interstellar Patrol – Edmond HamiltonAnother cool Baen omnibus bundle – this time combining Edmond Hamilton’s Starwolf trio of novels, and the various stories about the Interstellar Patrol.
Two different types of work – one focused on the antihero super space raider Morgan Change, whereas the Patrol stories are crazy intergalactic scale adventures with [...]
Continue reading about Starwolves and the Interstellar Patrol – Edmond Hamilton
Starwolf – Edmond HamiltonA heavy gravity world man falls out with a bunch of spaceraiders – the Starwolves, these sort of physical advantages and developmental are handy in that line of work.
When he has a disagreement with them they are also handy when running away.
No-one at all likes you then, pretty much. Not the [...]
Robot Titans Of Gotham – Norvell Pagehttp://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/P04-TheSpiderCD/TheSpiderCD/The%20Spider-Robot%20Titans%20of%20Gotham/The_Spider-Robot_Titans_of_Gotham.htm
This Baen omnibus includes two Spider novels by Norvell Page, and one of the two Skull-Killer stories, the Octopus.
The cover is by Steranko, and references the first Spider novel, with iron men laying waste to New York streets, and there is an amusing little intro piece featuring the author [...]
Continue reading about Robot Titans Of Gotham – Norvell Page
The Solar System – Leigh BrackettA second fabulous a Leigh Brackett omnibus from Baen, to follow on from The Eric John Stark Saga. Now the Stark stories are the best stuff she did in general, but this is only slightly lesser quality. Lesser is somewhat relative when it is this good, too, perhaps.
The [...]
Galactic Empires – Brian AldissAn omnibus edition of the two Brian Aldiss Galactic Empires anthologies.
Part of a series of books supposedly looking at lighter adventure type stories, and in particular Galactic Empires, of course, even if again, Aldiss doesn’t manage to hold to that particularly rigorously.
He also claims to want to rescue magazine stories, as [...]
The Eric John Stark Saga – Leigh BrackettI’d say this might be the commercial ebook deal of the millenium. Eight books comprising all the Eric John Stark stories (if you don’t count the precursor stories Black Amazon of Mars and Queen of the Martian Catacombs that you find in Sea-Kings of Mars and Otherworldly [...]
Continue reading about The Eric John Stark Saga – Leigh Brackett
Four Past Midnight – Stephen KingAn omnibus of four short novels, or a collection of four novellas, however you like to look at it.
Although at close to 700 pages in small hardback and 800 in tie-in paperback they are monstrously long novellas.
I’d guess this book is 300,000 words, making them 75,000 words on average. [...]
Penguin Science Fiction Omnibus – Brian AldissAn omnibus collection of the three Penguin Science Fiction anthologies in series that Aldiss edited in the sixties. At 4,3.5 and 4, pretty much sounds to me like we give this a 4 overall.
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A 1960s anthology, and a good one. In the introduction Aldiss talks about what he [...]
Continue reading about Penguin Science Fiction Omnibus – Brian Aldiss
X-Files Goblins Whirlwind – Charles L. GrantAm omnibus of the first couple of X-Files books, Goblins and Whirlwind.
Goblins
First tie-in seen.
When a tv show gets really popular, particularly of this sort, there are bound to be books to follow.
In this case, it wasn’t a particularly good one, unfortunately.
Mulder and Scully and some hangers [...]
Continue reading about X-Files Goblins Whirlwind – Charles L. Grant
Lord Darcy – Randall GarrettAn omnibus of rather large size than puts together the earlier collections Murder and Magic, and Lord Darcy Investigates, with a serialized novel, and a couple of stray stories, in a rather nifty volume.
Lord Darcy : Lord Darcy 01 The Eyes Have It – Randall Garrett
Lord Darcy : Lord Darcy 02 [...]
Opus – Isaac AsimovOpus is an omnibus edition of both Opus 100 and Opus 200, prior retrospectives in which the author writes about himself and the first couple of hundred books he wrote.
As he says: “Frankly, I never planned it that way.”
This is a collection of excerpts, extracts, stories and essays taken from Asimov’s first [...]
Three Books Of Known Space – Larry NivenAm omnibus collection that contains World of Ptavvs, A Gift From Earth and Tales of Known Space.
Also included at the start is a comprehensive timeline of Niven’s Known Space Future History, as well as introduction, afterword, and a pretty decent looking bibliography of Niven work up to that [...]
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The Darkangel Trilogy – Meredith Ann PierceOne of those hybrid sort of books. Throw in fantasy, horror, and a bit of SF, and see what you get. Something like a little of the later Tepper, perhaps. Slightly phantasmagorical, or something like that.
Anyway, I didn’t find it too compelling, and struggled through the [...]
Continue reading about The Darkangel Trilogy – Meredith Ann Pierce
The Great Book of Amber – Roger ZelaznyA book that is a fabulous deal. The adventures and schemes and wars of a family of megapowerful platonic ideal seeking, reality manipulating bastards and bitches. You are getting 10! books in this collection even though obviously they are not the lengthy doorstops that seem to [...]
Continue reading about The Great Book of Amber – Roger Zelazny
Midnight Blue – Nancy A. CollinsA omnibus collection of the first three Sonja Blue novels:
Sunglasses After Dark
In the Blood
Paint It Black
Vampire hybrid slayer’s mental reintregration.
Sonja Blue follows in the tradition of Blade, but her unfortunate torture and medical intervention incident comes at a much later age. Attacked by a vampire she managed to avoid the [...]
The Fu-Manchu Omnibus Volume 1 – Sax RohmerThis contains the first three Fu-Manchu books.
The titles they give them are:
The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu
The Devil Doctor
The Si-Fan Mysteries
The breathless but brave and unrelenting goofball Nayland Smith and his stoic offsider and chronicler Petrie pursue the genius superman, the ultimate embodiment of the Yellow Peril, Dr [...]
Continue reading about The Fu-Manchu Omnibus Volume 1 – Sax Rohmer
The Conan Chronicles 1 – Robert JordanThe first omnibus collection of Robert Jordan’s Conan Chronicles. Unfortunately, this has a truly atrocious cover, compared to some of the individual books.
The guy on the front has hips like a girl, less muscles than I had at that age, and looks like a teenage lothario from a [...]
Continue reading about The Conan Chronicles 1 – Robert Jordan
The Further Chronicles of Conan – Robert JordanAm omnibus collection of three reasonable Robert Jordan Conan pastiches. They try hard to be confusing with Conan publishing, with Chronicles all over the place, and with his name Robert as well, sheesh.
Conan the Magnificent is actually quite a reasonable pastiche. The barbarian runs into a female [...]
Continue reading about The Further Chronicles of Conan – Robert Jordan
The Book of Jhereg – Steven BrustAm omnibus edition containing the first three Vlad Taltos books.
The first book of Brust’s most excellent Vlad Taltos series. Vlad is making his way in the world as an assassin and low level crimelord in the House of the Jhereg.
What is unique about him (apart from being an assassin [...]
The Book of Athyra – Steven BrustThis is an omnibus containing two books, Athyra and Orca.
Vlad has been living the wandering life for a couple of years, not being an assassin and just generally trying to keep himself together.
He meets a young apprentice, and decides to teach him a few things, for his own reasons. [...]
The Book of Taltos – Steven BrustThis is an omnibus containing Taltos and Phoenix
A novel in three parts, or streams. Vlad is involved in some heavy duty witchcraft, is looking back at his earlier life in some greater detail than in earlier books, and is also showing us how he met Morrolan.
As far as the [...]
The Lost Swords The First Triad – Fred SaberhagenThis is an omnibus edition of three books. Woundhealer’s Story, Sightbinder’s Story and Stonecutter’s Story, or the first, second and third books of lost swords.
In general, I found these stories fairly dull. Prince Mark runs around, with the swords ominpresent, seeing what they can do.
2 [...]
Continue reading about The Lost Swords The First Triad – Fred Saberhagen
The Eternal Champion : Tale of the Eternal Champion Volume 2 – Michael MoorcockAn omnibus edition from Millenium, subtitled The Tale of the Eternal Champion Volume 2.
It contains The Eternal Champion, Phoenix in Obsidian and The Dragon in the Sword.
The Eternal Champion
A human man, John Daker, has troubling dreams. He discovers that he is an [...]
Hyperion Cantos – Dan SimmonsFabulous novel. One even the literary snob types might like, given the structure and all the Keats work.
The novel has a Canterbury Tales type feel, as a group of men and women travelling to the important planet Hyperion tell their stories.
Travel is instantaneous throughout the galaxy thanks to the TechnoCore, an [...]
Elric of Melnibone The Tale of the Eternal Champion Volume 8 – Michael MoorcockThis is the Millenium edition in their Tales of the Eternal Champion series. It is basically four books, Elric of Melnibone, The Fortress of the Pearl, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, and the Weird of the White Wolf, although [...]
The Elric Saga Part II – Michael MoorcockThe second of the Doubleday editions, this contains The Vanishing Tower, The Bane of the Black Sword and Stormbringer.
The Vanishing Tower
This book is also known as The Vanishing Tower. Elric is not a fan of the sorcerer Theleb K’aarna. In fact he is so much not a fan [...]
Continue reading about The Elric Saga Part II – Michael Moorcock
The Elric Saga Part I – Michael MoorcockA Doubleday book.
An Omnibus edition that includes three books.
Elric of Melnibone
Elric is the emperor of a declining civilisation. It is threated from without, by the ‘lesser’ races of humanity.
He also has to deal with the power plays and ambitions of his relatives, and has his own illnesses to [...]
Continue reading about The Elric Saga Part I – Michael Moorcock
Corum – Michael MoorcockAn omnibus edition from Millenium the Tale of the Eternal Champion 4, with an introduction.
Moorcock notes that this is one of the only times he used a historical type of setting for a series, because he was stuck with a not so good Cornish-English dictionary, partly.
Corum Jhaelen Irsei, the Prince in the [...]
The Cornelius Chronicles 1 – Michael MoorcockThis Fontana edition contains the first two books of the Jerry Cornelius Quarter, The Final Programme and A Cure For Cancer.
Jerry Cornelius may be one of the wackiest and wildest superhero adventurer types ever created. Deliberately created by Moorcock to be the ultimate chameleon, which has seen him featured [...]
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Sailing To Utopia – Michael MoorcockAn Orion publication, subtitled Tales of the Eternal Champion Volume 5. It includes The Ice Schooner, The Black Corridor, The Distant Suns, and Flux. So, you get Arflane, Ryan, Jerry Cornelius and Von Bek version of the Eternal Champion in this one volume. This is a pretty eclectic bunch of [...]
Von Bek – Michael MoorcockFrom Millenium, it is also subtitled The Tale of the Eternal Champion 1.
It contains The Warhound and the World’s Pain, The City in the Autumn Stars and the Pleasure Gardes of Felipe Sagittarius.
This omnibus collection contains two Von Bek novels and ends with a short story that features yet another of [...]
The Nomad of Time – Michael MoorcockA Granada book, it contains all of the Oswald Bastable series.
Oswald Bastable – 1 The Warlord of the Air
Oswald Bastable is an English army officer, sent on a mission to the mountains in the Nepal region. It does not go too well, and sick and delirious he stumbles into [...]
The Adventures of Lando Calrissian – L. Neil SmithA series of three novels, all fairly ordinary. This is the story of some of Lando Calrissian’s adventures before the events in Star Wars. Here, he has a lot of success in card games. He wins the Millenium Falcon, and then he wins a droid. A lot [...]
Continue reading about The Adventures of Lando Calrissian – L. Neil Smith
The Executioner Trilogy – Don PendletonA nice deal, this three-in-one, in a pretty decent looking edition. Handy lists in the back of all the Pinnacle series published up to that time, as well, very useful.
Mack Bolan is a US Army sergeant, and a sniper in the Vietnam war. In fact, he is so good at [...]
Continue reading about The Executioner Trilogy – Don Pendleton