Received:// Countdown to Armageddon / A Stranger in Paradise, by Edward M. Lerner

Well better late than never, this one was sent through from the nice people at Wildside Press, but since I disappeared I never managed to post anything up. I know zero about Edward M. Lerner, and whilst that red cover is fugly as hell, it is tempting to have a read. I may just dive into the short story collection side of the book instead.

In the tradition of the old "Ace Doubles" two-in-one books (flip one over to read the second title) -- here is the second Wildside Double . . .

"Countdown to Armageddon," by Edward M. Lerner:

Hezbollah has obtained an atomic bomb and a would-be martyr eager to deliver it-and that's the good news. The bad news, unknown even to Hezbollah, is that their physicist has also found a way to take his new bomb back to a turning point in European history.

Harry Bowen, an American physicist, and Terrence Ambling, a British agent turned historian, are determined to stop Abdul Faisel and prevent the nullification of all Western civilization. Their mission can be accomplished, if at all, only in the darkest of the Dark Ages-

And there, too, time is running out.

"A Stranger in Paradise," by Edward M. Lerner, collects five of the bestselling author's science fiction stories: "The Night of the RFIDs," "Two kinds of People," "Better the Devil You Know," "Small Business," and "A Stranger in Paradise."

Received:// Tides From The New Worlds - Tobias Buckell

Buy From: Amazon.com (Kindle Store)/iBooks

Caribbean born novelist Tobias Buckell established himself as a gifted new voice in science fiction with his stunning first novel Crystal Rain. Now, in his first collection, Buckell demonstrates his strengths in the short form, offering readers a collection of stories that are compelling, smart, wonderfully imagined, and entertaining.

Tides from the New Worlds contains 19 stories that range from multicultural science fiction to magical realism, some in print for the first time.

Spotted this in my feeds, it's previously been published as a rather gorgeous looking limited edition hardcover from Wyrm Publishing, which is a little out of my price range once shipping to the UK is added. Thankfully it's been released as an ebook for cheap dates like me and you can get it at either the Kindle store or iBooks. Not sure about iBooks but it's $2.99 at Amazon or $3.51 for my fellow tea drinkers due to the stupid 'VAT on ebooks but not paper books' rule we have.

The author has very kindly sent me a copy to review, so I'm going to stick this at the top of my reading list in thanks and hopefully get a review up as soon as real life will allow.