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The Mediocre Assassin's Handbook$15.95 add to cart

Hyabusa Jao isn't much of an assassin--at least he hasn't been since his partner and lover Waya was killed. Jao's sadistic boss has given him one more chance to get his head straight, if he doesn't: he won't be a mediocre assassin, he'll be a dead one.

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The Windup Girl$16.95 add to cart

Continuing a stellar awards season in which it has already won the Nebula Award and been nominated for a Hugo, Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl just won the John W. Campbell Award. The Award will be presented to Bacigalupi at this year's Campbell Conference. Canadian Robert Charles Wilson placed second in the juried prize's balloting for Julian Comstock: A Novel of 22nd-Century America, China Miéville's The City and the City was third.

The Theodore Sturgeon Award for best short science fiction will also be presented at the Campbell Conference, with this year's prize going to James Morrow's novella Shambling Towards Hiroshima.

Influential comic creator Harvey Pekar passed away early in the morning of July 12th at his Cleveland, Ohio home. A Harvey Award winner in 1995 for his graphic novel Our Cancer Year, Pekar got his start in comics in 1976, collaborating with celebrated underground cartoonist R. Crumb to begin American Splendor. The title would continue over many years and at many publishers; 2003 saw an Academy Award nominated movie based on Pekar's life and work, in which actor Paul Giamatti assumed the role of Pekar. Harvey Pekar's recent work included the graphic novel The Quitter, illustrated by Dean Haspiel and an adaptation of Stud Terkel's Working.

The Sunburst Award, named for author Phyllis Gotlieb's first novel, is a juried prize celebrating Canadian literature of the fantastic. It has both an adult and young adult category.

The nominees for the 2010 award are:

Adult:

• The Mystery of Grace-Charles de Lint
• Indigo Springs-A.M. Dellamonica
• Makers-Cory Doctorow
• The Sunless Countries-Karl Schroeder
• Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America-Robert Charles Wilson

Young Adult:

• Give Up the Ghost-Megan Crewe
• Amy By Any Other Name-Maureen Garvie
• Half World-Hiromi Goto
• Wondrous Strange-Lesley Livingston
• The Hunchback Assignments-Arthur Slade

The winners of the Sunburst Award will be announced Fall 2010. Jurors for 2010 are Don Bassingthwaite, Gemma Files, Susie Moloney, Ursula Pflug, and Edward Willett.