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Here’s our round-up of fantastic and fantastical reading for August. We take in adult SFF and other Fiction, creative and socially minded Non-Fiction, Children’s and YA and Graphic Novels. Whether you’re a general or genre reader or a bookshop looking to make sure your customers aren’t missing out we try to balance an inclusion of the biggest titles with slipstream / crossover hits and those hidden gems for all concerned.

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Welcome to our new look / new content Monthly Recommends for January 2016! We’re here to champion the wildly imaginative and the thought provoking, worthy titles taking in the hits and those hidden gems and the ground between. As of now we’ll be doing so in a more integrated fashion, bringing you our picks of fantastical fiction, engaging non-fiction, kids books for all ages (ie. adults as well as the target audience), and graphic novels combined into these articles.

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And so to the end of 2015, and what a year of fantastical and speculative publishing! September and October carry some big titles and a lot of, but there’s still some last great books coming your way in the final month of the year.

Enjoy!

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Again, September and October are traditionally the months when publishers bring out their big guns ready for the festive season. Amongst other greatness in our picks of the month you’ll find mainstream blockbusters, some highly noteworthy sequels and the first of an intruigingly scheduled trilogy that will be released over the last three months of the year.

So read on and prepare to part with your hard earned primitive Earth money. On presents? Sure – for yourself!

An early merry bah humbug from the land of Carabas to you 😉

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September seems to mark endings and beginnings. Publishing from Corgi Children’s is the final Discworld novel by the great and much missed Terry Pratchett; but then there’s a new talent touted for greatness by Pratchett’s friend and co-conspirator (Good Omens) Neil Gaiman. Two trilogies end and there’s some noteworthy series beginning. In fact, given at Carabas we’re especially up for urban fantasy and steampunk, noteworthy is completely inadequate when the world’s leading urban fantasy author begins a new steampunk sequence!

And then there’s David Duchovny writing about cows. Yes cows. Yes that David Duchnovny. It’s kind of like Californication meets the X-Files – with cows; possibly.

It’s September. It’s when publishers start bringing out the big guns.

Tell your bank account to duck.

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The two months following August are where publishers traditionally bring out their big guns ready for a certain festive season; that said August is a pretty heavyweight month as far as we’re concerned, with some cracking mass market paperbacks, not to mention trades and hardbacks of particular note.

And our top picks aren’t the end of the either, so check out the individual Publisher links for their July to December output: plenty more on those as well!

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Having just worked through the next 6 months of fantastical output we’re finding it as hard as ever to restrain our top picks; just so much great stuff! But there really is something about July this year where we’ve straightforwardly had to say ‘whatever – all this must go in’… And these aren’t even the end of the story – check out the individual Publisher articles for their July to December output as they come: plenty more on those as well!

It’s just a great month of books.

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And then there was June – and what a June it is. Noteworthy debuts of the dark and the Pratchett-esque, a bevy of YA and Children’s picks for the enjoyment of all ages by some of the best writers for any age group, and a new London-set steampunk work by one of the ever-popular genre’s founding fathers! And that’s before you get to some awesome sequels, grim dark masters, urban fantasy and zombie’s besides!

What a haul of a month…

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May brings another great package of debuts, latest-in-series, hardbacks and new in paperbacks of the science fictional and fantastical – here’s our top recommends of the month!

Generally if we have to limit our picks (and we do!) we’ll err on the side of new titles and those now in mass market paperbacks. But there’s a bunch of fabulous reissues in May, no less than four, that we just couldn’t not include – one being a top personal favourite: Michael Marshall Smith’s Only Forward. If you haven’t already bought and read you really have to do yourself and favour and do so now! Similarly, and having endeavored to limit ourselves to a single ‘Top Recommend’ over the last months, we just had to go for two in May.

Both have actually been out in a different form before. One has been a YA wattpad phenomenon, now deservedly in print; the other was released by the author in a limited print edition a few years back and now has its mainstream debut.

And if you don’t know what these might be then read on and find out – but don’t go too fast and miss the rest of the awesome publishing in May!

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April brings us another great package of debuts, latest in series, hardbacks and new in paperbacks of the science fictional and fantastical – here’s our top recommends of the month!

As ever our special pick is rather arbitrary and just a little something we wanted to wave a slightly larger flag for after reading an extract of a previous work the author’s editor posted online and blew us away… But whether or not that (no spoilers – read on!) tickles your fancy there’s a whole bunch of treats from which to select your next read… Read the rest of this entry »

April brings us another great package of debuts, latest in series, hardbacks and new in paperbacks of the science fictional and fantastical – here’s our top recommends of the month! As ever our special pick is rather arbitrary and just a little something we wanted to wave a slightly larger flag for after reading an extract of a previous work the author’s editor posted online and blew us away… But whether or not that (no spoilers – read on!) tickles your fancy there’s a whole bunch of treats from which to select your next read… Read the rest of this entry »

Another month of amazing books coming up (days away as of time of writing) with a mix of debuts and eagerly awaited follow-ups and conclusions whether as first edition hardbacks and trades, ‘new in paperback’, or straight into mass market PB. This is our shortlist of the great titles coming and, as ever, our pick of the month is a tough call; but similarly something we just thought deserved a good shout out about. This time it’s neither London set or authored, but a writer getting touted by such names as a certain Mr G.R.R. Martin, and of the steampunk genre to boot.

But it’s another incredible month of the fantastical and speculative, so read on and see what delights await in March!

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(Condensed intro – read in full HERE)

It’s a real A-List zone in February – hard to get down to something approaching a concise shortlist of recommended titles, and selecting a Book of the Month is more or less impossible…

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The first month of 2015 brings readers a superb list from which to pick their next read, and anyone attempting to recommend an unenviable task in trying to pick the best – one we couldn’t quite achieve without allowing ourselves a joint award. Read the rest of this entry »

We can’t remember seeing a November this good! Still we do have our most looked forward to and thus the Carabas Recommend of the Month; read on to find out what the crown jewel amongst the rest of these treasures is.

That’s it to the end of the year on the book front but the first recommends of next years should be up shortly. So stock up on the good stuff below and hibernate with those and thoughts of what’s yet to come. (There’s also our New Book Recommends for October to check as well)

Happy reading for the rest of 2014!

Click MORE to visit the individual titles page with full copy…

	Author	ISBN	Fmt	RRP	Pub.	Series	Vol.
	William Gibson	9780670921553	HB	18.99	Penguin	N/A	N/A
	THE PERIPHERAL
	The Peripheral by William Gibson is a thrilling new novel about two intertwined futures, from the bestselling author of Neuromancer. [MORE]
	Richard Kadrey	9780062339287	PB	8.99	Voyager	N/A	N/A
	DEAD SET
	A chance encounter at a used record store, where the vinyl holds not music but lost souls, has opened up a portal to the world of the restless dead. It’s here that the shop’s strange proprietor offers Zoe the chance to commune with her dead father. The price? A lock of hair. Then a tooth. Then . . . [MORE]
	Caitlin Kittredge	9780062316912	PB	8.99	Voyager	Hellhound Chronicles	1
	BLACK DOG
	The first installment in a fabulous dark urban fantasy series—think Kill Bill with demons and gangsters instead of martial arts—from the award-winning author of the Iron Codex trilogy and Vertigo comic Coffin Hill. [MORE]
	Joe Sacco	9780224101981	TPB	12.99	Cape	N/A	N/A
	BUMF
	Joe Sacco is renowned for his non-fiction books of comics journalism like Palestine, Safe Area Gorazde and Footnotes in Gaza. Now in Bumf he returns to his early days as a satirist and underground cartoonist. In the vein of the old underground comix like ZAP or Weirdo, Bumf will be puerile, disgusting, and beyond redemption. It will go where it wants to go, and do what it wants to do. It will also be very funny. [MORE]
	Ben Aaronovitch	9780575132504	HB	14.99	Gollancz	Rivers of London	5
	FOXGLOVE SUMMER – *** CARABAS PICK OF THE MONTH! ***
	In the fifth of his bestselling series Ben Aaronovitch takes Peter Grant out of whatever comfort zone he might have found and takes him out of London – to a small village in Herefordshire where the local police are reluctant to admit that there might be a supernatural element to the disappearance of some local children… [MORE]
	Simon Ings	9780575119871	PB	8.99	Gollancz	N/A	N/A
	WOLVES
	A story about technology becomes a personal quest into a changed world and the pursuit of a secret from the past. A secret about a missing mother, a secret that could hide a murder. This is no dry analysis of how a technology might change us, it is a terrifying thriller, a picture of a dark tomorrow that is just around the corner. Ings takes the satire and mordant satirical view of J.G. Ballard and propels it into the 21st century. [MORE]
	Robert Holdstock	9781473205451	PB	8.99	Gollancz	The Mythago Cycle	1
	MYTHAGO WOOD
	Deep within the wildwood lies a place of myth and mystery, from which few return, and none remain unchanged… A GREAT READ REISSUED [MORE]
	Joanne M Harris	9781473211681	HB	14.99	Gollancz	N/A	N/A
	THE GOSPEL OF LOKI
	For fans of THE AVENGERS, this is the first adult epic fantasy novel from the multi-million-copy bestselling author of CHOCOLAT, Joanne Harris. [MORE]
	David Towsey	9781782064367	TPB	14.99	Jo Fletcher	Your Brothers Blood	2
	YOUR SERVANTS AND YOUR PEOPLE
	Seven years after Thomas returned as a Walkin’, the McDermott family are looking for a new life and Thomas has set his heart on starting a farmstead near the remote outpost of Fort Wilson. But the teachings of J.S. Barkley are not so easily forsaken – there are those who would see the sinners dead, and they are slowly closing in… [MORE] (Just in case anyone out there likes ZOMBIES?)
	Stephen Baxter	9780575116870	HB	£20	Gollancz	Proxima	2
	ULTIMA
	Fresh from his latest collaboration with Terry Pratchett on the Long Earth sequence Stephen Baxter now returns to the mysteries and challanges first hinted at in his acclaimed novel PROXIMA… [MORE]

As Christmas approaches publishers roll out their big (plasma / rail / laser / insert choice of fantasy equivalent) guns and, like September we’re spoiled for choice! Big names, big books and big ideas: all really top titles for the season so, to make sure you don’t miss out on anything, you’ll have to read through to discover our personal TOP PICK.

But go forth with the Christmas spirit and buy for a friend – then read and keep it for yourself! Humbug to the lot of you!

😉 – Tim Read the rest of this entry »