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ABOUT THE STORE : NEWSLETTER
DISPATCHES FROM THE BORDER
Events and News from Borderlands Books
October, 2011
Chapter One - Event Information, News, and Special Features
Upcoming Author Events
Litquake SF in SF event at the Variety Preview Room (582
Market Street) with authors Terry Bisson, Rudy Rucker and Carter
Scholz, Friday, October 14th at 7:00 pm
Blake Charlton drop-by signing, SPELLBOUND (Tor, Hardcover, $24.99)
Saturday, October 15th at 12:00 pm
Litquake's LitCrawl at Borderlands Books with authors Ray Garton,
Richard Kadrey, Thomas Roche and Naamen Tilahun, Saturday, October 15th
at 7:15 pm
Litquake's LitCrawl at Borderlands Cafe (870 Valencia Street) with
authors Steven R. Boyett, Mira Grant, Kirsten Imani Kasai and Tim
Pratt, Saturday October 15th at 8:30 pm
Vernor Vinge, CHILDREN OF THE SKY (Tor, Hardcover, $25.99) Sunday,
October 16th at 3:00 pm
Serena Valentino, HOW TO BE A WEREWOLF and HOW TO BE A ZOMBIE
(Candlewick Press, Hardcovers, $14.99 each) Saturday, October 22nd at
3:00 pm
Richard Kadrey, ALOHA FROM HELL: A SANDMAN SLIM NOVEL (Harper,
Hardcover, $23.99)
SF in SF with authors Cecelia Holland and Kim Stanley Robinson at the
Variety Preview Room (582 Market Street), Saturday, November 12th at
7:00 pm
(for more information check the end of this section)
News
* This summer, NPR solicited listener input to choose the Top
100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books. <http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books>.
Because
science
fiction fans are nothing if not helpful, we'd like to
repost this witty flowchart from T.N. Tobias at SF Signal: <http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/09/flowchart-for-navigating-nprs-top-100-sff-books/>.
Thanks
to
Charlotte and Claud who tipped us off to its existence!
* An engaging rebuttal to the first part of Alan's article about
Amazon: <http://www.thepassivevoice.com/09/2011/amazon-threat-or-menace/>
* Congratulations to fellow independent genre booksellers Mysterious
Galaxy, who have opened a second (yes, also physical!) store location
in Redondo Beach, California! Their Grand Opening Ceremony is
Wednesday, October 12th at 10:00 a.m. at 2810 Artesia Blvd. Redondo
Beach, CA. <http://mystgalaxy.com/>
* We're sorry to report the death of Australian fantasy author Sara
Douglass at the age of 54. Tor.com has a nice tribute here: <http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/09/a-tribute-to-sara-douglass>
From the Office
Amazon is Nobody's Friend, part 2 (click
here
for
part 1)
by Alan Beatts
Last month I discussed some of the more objective problems with
Amazon's general business practices <http://www.borderlands-books.com/about_newsletter_09-11.html#Amazon_Article>.
This
month
I'm going to talk about how they just don't play nicely --
not with customers, authors, publishers, or the public at large.
But first I need to correct something that I suggested in last month's
article. When I was talking about the number of companies owned
by Amazon, one of businesses I mentioned was LibraryThing <http://www.librarything.com/>.
I
suggested
that the way that they list sellers for books was
influenced by Amazon's 40% ownership of the company. A very kind
reader who is familiar with that company pointed out my implication was
not true and that I was doing a disservice to an independent company
run by a very independent man, Tim Spalding. After doing some
research (which I should have done before I published), I discovered
that the gentleman who contacted me was absolutely right and I was
wrong. Then I got in touch with Tim to apologize. He was
very pleasant and took the whole thing with more grace that I probably
would have, were our situations reversed.
The short version is that, though the facts that I presented were
accurate (i.e. that Amazon's purchase link (along with AbeBooks, which
is owned by Amazon) appears more prominently than links to other sites
(like Barnes and Noble)), the reasons for it had nothing to do with
Amazon's ownership interest in LibraryThing. Instead, the reason
is Amazon has a policy that, if a site uses their data, which
LibraryThing does, along with the data from more than 900 (!) other
services, that site _must_ list Amazon's purchase links at the main
purchase page and may not list any other business. Tim doesn't
like this rule and as a result made sure that the secondary purchase
page was well designed and very accessible.
Tim also clarified something about the ownership of LibraryThing.
Amazon's stake through ABE is now actually less than 40% due to the
2009 purchase of a non-majority interest in LibraryThing by CIG, the
parent company of Bowker, the company behind Books in Print. Tim
still retains majority ownership and in still in charge.
LibraryThing is a very cool site, a great service, and run by a fine,
independent, and reasonable man. I recommended it highly.
On the other hand, Amazon has --
(A) Edited customer reviews with a bias towards creating sales rather
than maintaining objectivity.
(B) Removed book listings to coerce authors and publishers.
(C) "Hidden" books based on arbitrary standards.
(D) Maintained unhealthy and unsafe working conditions for their
employees.
(E) Fallen far short of usual expectations for charitable giving.
In the first part of this article I talked about issues that seemed to
be more systemic within Amazon's business operations that what I'll be
adressing this month. That Amazon has: 1) been a deceptive and
pervasive influence on ecommerce, 2) consistently tried to eliminate
other businesses to increase their hold on the book market, 3) engaged
in pricing designed to cripple competition and manipulate its suppliers
and customers, 4) made avoiding sales tax a cardinal part of their
business model, and 5) chosen an ebook business model and format that's
bad for the consumer -- are all things demonstrated by their business
practices over the years. You could say that it's all part of
their corporate "DNA".
On the other hand, except for the first and last items on the list, the
following things are single incidents. The first and last items,
editing customer reviews and Amazon's record when it comes to charity,
may be parts of the company's usual practices but don't really effect
the core questions about how they treat authors, publishers, and
consumers. However, I think that the following give a picture of
the general "character" of the company (if a company can be said to
have such a thing) that is more telling that anything I mentioned last
month.
(A) "Edited customer reviews with a bias towards creating sales rather
than maintaining objectivity."
I support completely the right for anyone running a site that features
product or customer reviews to remove content that fails to meet their
standards. But I think that posting reviews of that sort gives
the site a responsibility to be fair and objective as possible when
removing them. My favorite example of this is Yelp.com which, in
general, doesn't remove reviews -- instead they "filter" them and stop
them from showing when a page is viewed normally. But anyone can
see the filtered reviews with a mouse-click.
In my personal, certain knowledge, there have been two cases in which
Amazon has removed even-handed, critical, one star reviews of
books. By personal, certain knowledge I mean that I saw the
review and, when I came back later, it was gone. One of the books
in question was Christopher Paolini's second novel. A cursory
search will find a number of complaints about this problem (1), even on
Amazon's discussion boards (2). I suppose that the two cases that
I saw both could have been the result of the author of the review
removing it, but that seems unlikely, especially in the face of all the
other complaints about this practice.
Further, a friend of mine was part of a group of professional writers
who conducted an experiment. They each left two negative reviews
on Amazon -- one was for a recent ebook from a major publisher, and
complained that the price was too high. The second was for an
independently published ebook at a very low price, and complained that
the quality of the book was poor. Consistently the negative
review for the higher priced book was left and the review of the lower
priced book was removed. I wish I could quote or cite the
specific writer or group of writers who conducted that experiment but
they asked to remain anonymous (because they were concerned about
punitive actions on the part of Amazon).
The reasonable assumption on the part of customers is that the reviews
they see are an accurate representation of people's opinions but
actually there are an edited tool to sell products. One can
perhaps argue that such removals are within Amazon's policy for
reviews, but if so, that doesn't make it any less deceptive.
Regardless of what Amazon's published "rules" say, the way that the
reviews are presented and the general understanding about how
customers' reviews work gives any reader the impression that they are
objective and not selected to help sell product. During this
article I'll be coming back to this idea that customer expectations and
our unwritten but understood social rules are important, valid, and
something that Amazon pays attention to or ignores at their convenience.
(B) "Removed book listings to coerce authors and publishers."
This topic splits into two parts. The first is the way that
Amazon responded to Macmillan Publishing's promotion of the agent-model
for ebook sales. I've covered that in my last article but it's
important to point out here that Amazon's response to a failure to come
to an agreement with Macmillan was to delist almost _all_ of their
titles from Amazon, not just the ebooks. You can make an argument
that removing the ebooks was reasonable since the terms under which
they were for sale were up in the air -- but the print books too?
The second part is complete hearsay. It is nothing I can cite nor
can I find anyone willing to discuss it for the record so, please, take
it with a grain (or a whole bag) of salt. Over the years I have
run into a truly surprising number of authors and editors who are very
uncomfortable saying anything negative about Amazon publicly.
They are even reticent to speak privately against Amazon. Several
of them have openly commented that they are concerned that the
consequences of doing so would be "bad". This includes my source
about the experiment with customer reviews that I mention
previously. I've also talked to another author who said that they
"wouldn't want all their positive reviews to vanish". Finally I
talked to a independent publisher who candidly said that they were
concerned that, if they kept complaining about Amazon, the shipping
times might increase for no clear reason.
As I said, all hearsay and I almost decided not to mention it but I've
heard these concerns so many times and, if true, it seems such a misuse
of Amazon's position that I finally decided to print it.
(C) " 'Hidden' books based on arbitrary standards."
Many of you probably remember the huge blowup, generally called "amazon
fail", from early 2009. In brief, Amazon removed the sales
ranking for an extensive list of books relating to queer / homosexual
topics. Sales ranking is the way that books appear on many of
Amazon's lists, which are a very important way that people find
them. The net result is that a number of books became much harder
to find on Amazon.
It was later explained as the result of a "glitch" that caused books
with homosexuality as a topic to be classed as "adult" material, which
it is Amazon's policy to remove from sales rankings. The exact
text of their response to inquiries was,
"In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult"
material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since
these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also
be excluded from that feature." (3)
However, there are a number of things that make this explanation a bit
questionable, not the least of which is that Playboy: The Complete
Centerfolds was still showing a sales rank as were a number of, um,
"marital aids". That division suggests to me that the definition
of "adult" includes much of that which is "queer" but not much (at all)
of that which is can be considered "straight". The whole thing
blew over when Amazon explained that it was a "computer error" and the
sales ranks were reinstated. But I am unaware of any proof that
it was a glitch nor has Amazon given a full explanation that I can find
of what, exactly, the "glitch" was. And, even if it was, it does
seem to show a pretty comprehensive set of blinders when it comes to
the relative merits of "straight" values versus "queer" ones.
Lilith Saintcrow discussed this at much greater (and more entertaining)
length on her blog at http://www.lilithsaintcrow.com/journal/2009/04/this-is-not-a-glitch-amazonfail/
.
Within the reading, publishing, and book-buying community there is a
long standing (and accurate) assumption that booksellers are second
only to liberians when it comes to supporting freedom of speech and
condemning censorship. This assumption is another unwritten rule
in our society. Though there are bookstores that have a
published, public stance against censorship, most bookstores do not and
don't need one. Amazon, in its capacity of "Earth's Biggest
Bookstore" and by constantly pushing the idea that it has the same
values as other booksellers, has benefitted from this reputation.
But, rather than seeing this reputation as something that is precious
and that must be considered during their day to day operations (as I
know many bookstores, my own included, do), it is something of such
little importance that a underlying assumption about what is "adult"
and what is not can cause a "glitch" that amounts to discrimination and
censorship.
(D) "Maintained unhealthy and unsafe working conditions for their
employees."
As someone who has worked as a picker in the warehouse, the recent
revelations about the working conditions in some of Amazon's
fulfillment centers struck me on a very visceral level. At one of
their facilities in Pennsylvania this summer employees were working
while the temperature index (which is temperature factoring in
humidity) within the building exceeded 110 degrees. The Federal
Occupational Health agency became involved after being contacted by a
local emergency room doctor in June who was concerned by the number of
admissions to his hospital for heat-related problems.
Though employees were allowed to take the day off when temperatures
reached the 110 degree level, employees who were unable or unwilling to
work had two choices if they went home. If they got a doctor's
note saying they couldn't work in the heat, they were fine but, if they
didn't get a note, they received "points" on their records.
Accumulate too many points and you would be fired. These were the
same sort of points that were given for work-place safety violations or
for arriving late to work.
Put that in context for a second -- you're desperate for work because
the economy sucks. You get the job but it's the equivalent of 112
degrees while your working, you're getting dizzy and your vision is
blurring. Finally you can't take it anymore and ask to go
home. So that you don't run the risk of losing your job, you'd
better go see a doctor and get a note. Not a big deal, if you've
got insurance. But what are the chances of that? Once OSHA
got in the picture, the situation improved but it was still pretty
bad. More fans were added, cooling headbands and vests were
issued, plus employees were supposed to be given breaks every hour when
the heat index exceeded 100 degrees. Whether these breaks were
actually given is unclear. But throughout, performance goals were
unchanged, despite theoretically longer breaks and the resulting
shorter working hours.
And those performance goals were high. And by high, I'm talking
about being expected to retrieve 1200 items in the course of a 10 hour
shift. That's one item every 30 seconds . . . for ten
hours. The particular employee who's rate was that high was in
his 50s. And damn, what a bad-ass! Of the group of 100
people he was hired with, he was one of five left at the company seven
months later . . . when he was fired for not meeting his quota.
Another employee tells of being expected to unpack, scan, and bin 500
items per hour. That's one item every 7 seconds. Another
picker like the 50 year old mentioned above says that his quota went to
a high of 125 an hour. And failure to meet quota meant you got
fired.
The icing on the cake is that most of the people working were hired
from a temp agency and were told that, if they worked well, they would
be hired permanently by Amazon. However, based on statements from
a number of former staff, the actual practice was to work the temp
employees into the ground and then replace them when they quit or were
fired for not meeting quota. And added plus to this rapid
turnover was that it made it effectively impossible for the employees
to unionize.
One reporter interviewed 20 current and former employees (13 from temp
agencies and 7 who were employed by Amazon) and found only _one_ who
thought that it was "a good place to work". (4)
(E) "Fallen far short of usual expectations for charitable giving."
Of all the things that I've run across about Amazon over the years,
this is the one that surprised me the most. I'm not sure that
"far short" is even the right term to use. Can you say that
someone has fallen short of something when they didn't even try?
Amazon's annual charitable donations are zero. Not only does the
company make no donations at a national or international level, they
don't even make any donations within the city of Seattle. (5)
And neither, apparently, does Jeff Bezos, despite being the 30th
richest man in the world this year, according to Forbes.
I'm not saying that I think that companies or individuals have an
obligation to make donations. I don't think that I'm entitled to
make that sort of judgement. But, it's a reasonable expectation
that even small businesses will be charitable. It is normal
business conduct that, while not required, is how businesses both
promote themselves and also give back to their community.
Giving donations doesn't make a company ethical, nice, or anyone's
friend. But what does it say about the overarching character of a
company when it is willing to disregard a relatively basic piece of the
voluntary conduct that is part of the unwritten but understood
relationship between it and the larger world? Again, Amazon
chooses which social expectations are convenient and which are not.
And what other parts of those understandings that are the basis of our
commercial culture does Amazon ignore now? And which ones will
they ignore in the future?
When people think of Amazon, they tend to see it alongside other
companies who have shaped our interactions with the internet over the
past decade. But I don't believe that Amazon can reasonably be
grouped with companies like Apple, Google, or Yahoo. I'm not
saying that any of those companies are perfect, ethical, or run by
saints. But, based on their actions over the years, I think they
feel a deep and abiding sense of obligation to their employees,
communities, and customers.
Amazon does not. To Amazon, you are a source of income -- nothing
more. If they think it will be profitable for them, they'll sell
you or anyone else down the river in a heartbeat.
They're not your friend or anyone else's.
To be completely clear -- I am not calling for a boycott of
Amazon. I am not even urging people to shop less at Amazon
(though, if you come to that conclusion based on what I've written,
that's fine with me). Further, I'm not saying that Amazon is all
bad or even mostly bad. But I hope that this article will prompt
people to consider how Amazon conducts their business and the possible
consequences of Amazon's growing dominance of ecommerce,
bookselling, and, specifically, ebooks.
The closest comparable business to Amazon is not Google or Apple or
even Barnes and Noble -- it is Walmart.
Like Walmart, their business ethics are questionable, they treat their
employees poorly, and they have built their business on offering
products as cheaply as possible while either buying up the competition
or putting it out of business. For Amazon and Jeff Bezos, it is
all about the money, nothing else.
Citations
1 http://tuckermaxdoucebag.blogspot.com/2006/04/amazoncom-is-deleting-only-bad-reviews.html
and http://www.bucksright.com/amazon-deleting-negative-pelosi-book-reviews-en-masse-304
2 http://www.amazon.com/is-Amazon-removing-negative-reviews/forum/FxUR1GPOALTEHL/Tx1CUHJGFNLAR61/1?asin=0071459588
3 http://jezebel.com/5209088/why-is-amazon-removing-the-sales-rankings-from-gay-lesbian-books
4 http://articles.mcall.com/2011-09-17/news/mc-allentown-amazon-complaints-20110917_1_warehouse-workers-heat-stress-brutal-heat
5 http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2009/03/the_new_scrooge.html
Top Sellers At Borderlands
Hardcovers
1. Reamde by Neal Stephenson
2. A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin
3. Legacy of Kings by C.S. Friedman
4. Tears of the Sun by S.M. Stirling
5. Departure by Neal Asher
6. Rule 34 by Charles Stross
7. Embassytown by China Mieville
8. Magician King by Lev Grossman
9. Ghost Ship by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
10. How Firm a Foundation by David Weber
Mass Market Paperbacks
1. One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire
2. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
3. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
4. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
5. A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin
6. Black Prism by Brent Weeks
7. Truth of Valor by Tanya Huff
8. The High King of Montival by S.M. Stirling
9. Kill the Dead by Richard Kadrey
10. Ghost of a Smile by Simon R. Green
Trade Paperbacks
1. Zero History by William Gibson
2. The Panama Laugh by Thomas Roche
3. World War Z by Max Brooks
4. The Urban Fantasy Anthology edited by Peter S. Beagle and Joe R.
Lansdale
5. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
Book Club Info
The QSF&F Book Club will meet on Sunday, October 9th, at 5
pm to discuss APPLESEED by John Clute. Please contact the group
leader, Christopher Rodriguez, at cobalt555@earthlink.net, for more
information.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Club will meet on Sunday, October
16th, at 6 pm to discuss ZERO HISTORY by William Gibson. (This bookclub
was postponed from September.) The book for November is UNCERTAIN
PLACES by Lisa Goldstein, and the author will visit the bookclub.
Please contact bookclub@borderlands-books.com for more information.
Upcoming Event Details
Litquake SF in SF event at the
Variety Preview Room (582 Market Street) with authors Terry Bisson,
Rudy Rucker and Carter Scholz, Friday, October 14th at 7:00 pm - We are
very excited to help SF in SF welcome these authors, who will discuss
the new collection KAFKAESQUE: STORIES INSPIRED BY FRANZ KAFKA, edited
by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel. Authors will schmooze &
sign books after in the lounge. Books available for sale courtesy of
Borderlands Books. Seating is limited, so first come, first
seated. Bar proceeds benefit Variety Childrens Charity - learn
more at <http://www.varietync.org/>.
We
REALLY encourage you to take BART into the City, or use MUNI to get
here - parking can be problematic in San Francisco, to say the
least. We are less than one block away from the Montgomery St.
station. Trust us - you don't want to be looking for parking and
be late for the event! Phone (night of event) 415-572-1015.
Questions? Email sfinsfevents@gmail.com.
Blake Charlton drop-by signing, SPELLBOUND (Tor, Hardcover, $24.99)
Saturday, October 15th at 12:00 pm - Blake Charlton, author of
SPELLWRIGHT and SPELLBOUND, will drop by informally to sign our stock
and greet fans. If you're in the neighborhood, c'mon over and say
"hi"!
Litquake's LitCrawl at Borderlands Books with authors Ray Garton,
Richard Kadrey, Thomas Roche and Naamen Tilahun, Saturday, October 15th
at 7:15 pm - We are delighted to once again take part in one of the
most exciting literary events in San Francisco - the LitCrawl! This is a
three-hour pub-crawl-style literary event with dozens of venues and
hundreds of authors, all taking place right here in the Mission
District. A diverse group of science fiction, fantasy, and
horror authors who will take you places entertaining, unanticipated,
and frightening (sometimes all in the same story): Ray Garton is the
Grand Master Award-winning author of 60+ books. His latest thriller,
MEDS, is a prescription for terror with potentially deadly side
effects. <http://www.raygartononline.com>.
Richard
Kadrey is the author of seven novels including SANDMAN SLIM,
KILL THE DEAD, and BUTCHER BIRD. His weirdest job was writing for The
Smurfs. <http://www.richardkadrey.com/>.
Thomas
Roche’s debut novel,THE PANAMA LAUGH (2011), is an ultraviolent
crypto-Spiritualist SF-noir zombie apocalypse about viral media,
cryogenics, maritime piracy, and LOLZ. <http://thomasroche.com/>.
Naamen Tilahun is a Bay Area-based writer whose work appeared in SO
SPEAK UP, COLLECTIVE FALLOUT, and is forthcoming in the anthology
FAGGOT DINOSAUR. <http://naamenblog.wordpress.com/>.
Litquake's LitCrawl at Borderlands Cafe (870 Valencia Street) with
authors Steven R. Boyett, Mira Grant, Kirsten Imani Kasai and Tim
Pratt, Saturday October 15th at 8:30 pm - The LitCrawl continues right
next door! Genre fiction as modern mythology, stories we create
to explain an unfathomable world. Come explore dark avenues
teeming with powerful metaphors…and occasionally zombies. Steven
R. Boyett’s novels include MORTALITY BRIDGE, ELEGY BEACH, and ARIEL. He
is also a well-known DJ who created the Podrunner workout music series.
<http://steveboy.com/>.
Mira Grant is the author of the Newsflesh trilogy of science-fiction
zombie thrillers, which means she watches horror movies professionally.
She likes monsters. <http://www.miragrant.com/>.
Dark
fantasy/erotic horror writer Kirsten Imani Kasai is the author of
ICE SONG and TATTOO, about a gender-swapping single mother living among
half-human mutants. <http://www.icesong.com/>
Hugo
Award-winner Tim Pratt’s fiction has appeared in The Best American
Short Stories, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and other nice
places. <http://www.timpratt.org/>.
Vernor Vinge, CHILDREN OF THE SKY (Tor, Hardcover, $25.99) Sunday,
October 16th at 3:00 pm - We are very excited to welcome Vernor Vinge
to Borderlands for the first time! From the book jacket: "After
nearly twenty years, Vernor Vinge has produced an enthralling sequel to
his memorable bestselling novel A FIRE UPON THE DEEP. Ten years
have passed on Tines World, where Ravna Bergnsdot and a number of human
children ended up after a disaster that nearly obliterated humankind
throughout the galaxy. Ravna and the pack animals for which the
planet is named have survived a war, and Ravna has saved more than one
hundred children who were in cold-sleep aboard the vessel that brought
them. While there is peace among the Tines, there are those among
them - and among the humans - who seek power. . . and no matter the
cost, these malcontents are determined to overturn the fledgling
civilization that has taken root since the humans landed. On a
world of fascinating wonders and terrifying dangers, Vernor Vinge has
created a powerful novel of adventure and discovery that will entrance
the many readers of A FIRE UPON THE DEEP. Filled with the
inventiveness, excitement, and human drama that have become hallmarks
of his work, this new novel is sure to become another great milestone
in Vinge’s already stellar career."
Serena Valentino, HOW TO BE A WEREWOLF and HOW TO BE A ZOMBIE
(Candlewick Press, Hardcovers, $14.99 each) Saturday, October 22nd at
3:00 pm - The fantastic GLOOMCOOKIE and NIGHTMARES & FAIRYTALES
creator Serena Valentino joins us to show off her new books --
instructional manuals for would-be werewolves: ("Celebrate your inner
beast -- and harness that newfound animal magnetism! --
with this essential guide to the lycanthropic lifestyle. Are you
subject to savage moods, extreme and unexplained buffness, and cravings
for meat on the rare side? Do you long for super speed and reflexes,
along with rapid healing and maybe a talent for telepathy? Welcome to
the pack -- and get ready to howl -- as you sink your claws into
this guide to everything life as a werewolf has to offer.") and
zombies - ("So you’re a zombie. What now? Slow down -- and
flesh out the life of the mindless with this essential guide for the
newly undead. The vacant stare, the shambling gait, the sense
that you’re falling apart -- adjusting to 'life' as a zombie
takes a little getting used to. And what’s with the sudden obsession
with brains? Time to get your outstretched hands on this comprehensive
handbook spelling out all things z-o-m-b-i-e.")
Richard Kadrey, ALOHA FROM HELL: A SANDMAN SLIM NOVEL (Harper,
Hardcover, $23.99) - We're happy to welcome local author Richard Kadrey
back to the store for Sandman Slim's third adventure, ALOHA FROM HELL!
From the press release: "In ALOHA FROM HELL, the riveting new urban
fantasy/noir from acclaimed author and artist Richard
Kadrey! James Stark, a.k.a. Sandman Slim, just wants an end
to the killing. He’s battled the generals of Hell. He’s battled
the angels. He’s gone up against Lucifer, and God is, well,
just on vacation. Perhaps permanently. But not everyone is
on vacation. Now that Lucifer has ascended to heaven, the
infernal battle is in full flame. Everyone wants to be the Crown
Prince of the abyss, including the insane serial killer Mason, the man
who killed Stark’s girlfriend, Alice, and damned Stark to
hell. Mason isn’t going to let Stark rest on his bloody
laurels -- because Stark is the man to beat for the
ascendancy. So Mason kidnaps Alice straight out of Heaven to draw
Stark back to Hell. And thus, in ALOHA FROM HELL, Stark must
rally himself from self-imposed anti-infernal exile and head back down
to his old stomping grounds to rescue his long-lost love, stop a sadist
hell-bent on domination, prevent both Good and Evil from completely
destroying each other and stop the demonic Kissi from ruining the party
for everyone. Even for Sandman Slim, that’s a tall order. And it’s only
the beginning."
SF in SF with authors Cecelia Holland and Kim Stanley Robinson at the
Variety Preview Room (582 Market Street), Saturday, November 12th at
7:00 pm - We are delighted to help SF in SF welcome these
authors! Each author will read a selection from their work,
followed by Q&A from the audience moderated by author Terry
Bisson. Authors will schmooze & sign books after in the
lounge. Books available for sale courtesy of Borderlands Books.
Seating is limited, so first come, first seated. Bar proceeds
benefit Variety Childrens Charity - learn more at <http://www.varietync.org/>.
We
REALLY encourage you to take BART into the City, or use MUNI to get
here - parking can be problematic in San Francisco, to say the
least. We are less than one block away from the Montgomery St.
station. Trust us - you don't want to be looking for parking and
be late for the event! Phone (night of event) 415-572-1015.
Questions? Email sfinsfevents@gmail.com.
Borderlands event policy - all events are free of charge. You are
welcome to bring copies of an author's books purchased elsewhere to be
autographed (but we do appreciate it if you purchase something while at
the event). For most events you are welcome to bring as many
books as you wish for autographs. If you are unable to attend the
event we will be happy to have a copy of any of the author's available
books signed or inscribed for you. We can then either hold it
until you can come in to pick it up or we can ship it to you.
Just give us a call or drop us an email. If you live out of town,
you can also ship us books from your collection to be signed.
Call or email for details.
Dispatches from the Border
Editor - Jude Feldman
Assistant Editor - Alan Beatts
All contents unless otherwise noted are the property of
Borderlands Books
866 Valencia St.
San Francisco, CA 94110
415-824-8203
http://www.borderlands-books.com
Comments and suggestions should be directed to editor@borderlands-books.com
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