Amazon: Four Books You Might’ve Missed
Jeff VanderMeer • October 8th, 2007 @ 6:28 pm • Book Reviews
On the Amazon book blog, I talk about four books you might have missed, all of them worthy of your undivided attention: Simon Ings’ The Weight of Numbers, Kelley Eskeridge’s Dangerous Space, Brian Francis Slattery’s Spaceman Blues, and Corey Redekop’s Shelf Monkey.
Of these, I would like to highlight the Ings and the Eskeridge because I think they completely flew in under the radar, at least in the U.S. I know the Ings got a lot of attention in the UK.
Update: Matt Stagg’s interview with Corey Redekop.
October 8, 2007 at 7:07 pm
I’m a big fan of Simon Ings, all the way back to City of the Iron Fish. From email conversations, he’s a nice guy too.
October 8, 2007 at 7:17 pm
Yes, he’s very nice. And he has a reprint story from Interzone in our New Weird antho–one of my favorites.
JV
October 8, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Ditto the thumbs up on the Eskridge book. And you’re right about Aqueduct regularly publishing worthy stuff, but why can’t their covers do the books justice?
October 10, 2007 at 3:42 am
Nice to see people digging Ings’ ‘Weight’.
I picked it up after Lionel Shriver said something like, ‘if the phone book were written this well I’d read it’.
Blew me away. And it’s shocking that it received very little praise.
Damn shame the overrated David Mitchell didn’t grace it with his holy blurb, which may have helped sales/recognition factor, but undoubtedly he didn’t want anything competing with is then new book.
Further proof that the Booker and, basically, people, read crap.
Any I’ll cast my vote in for also saying he’s a swell guy (over email).
October 10, 2007 at 9:02 am
It’s weird, my initial reaction to the Ings was ambivalence, but it has stuck with me longer than most novels. I think I’ll have to revisit.