House Of The Scorpion$11.50 add to cart

Does the idea of human clones raise the hair on the back of your neck? What would they be used for? How would they feel? Or would they even have feelings?

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer takes a prescient look at some of these questions. The story follows the clone of a powerful drug lord from his cultivation to his escape and beyond.

The book is packed with unputdownable action, as well as thoughtful responses to cruelty. Farmer also takes a complex look at the future of the drug empires that shift between the U.S. and Mexico.

Set in the near future, this book has won many awards and any teenager will love it.

Black Man$24.95 add to cart

This year's winner is Richard Morgan's Black Man, a tale about a genetically engineered assassin.

In knocking off its mainstream literary competition, Morgan's novel has returned the Arthur C. Clarke Award to its pure science fiction roots.

Clarke established the prize in 1987. The inaugural winner was Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Other winners include Geoff Ryman, China Miéville, Amitav Ghosh, M. John Harrison for last year's Nova Swing.

Saskatoon author Guy Vanderhaeghe is one of the five Canadians awarded a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellowship for 2008, worth $225,000.

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John Hart's thriller Down River has captured the Edgar for Best Novel, and Tana French was award the Prize for Best First Novel for In the Woods. Megan Abbott's Queenpin won for Best Paperback Original, and Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters received the Critical/Biographical Edgar.

The Awards are presented by the Mystery Writers of America and named for Edgar Allen Poe, who is credited with the invention of the detective fiction genre.

For a complete list of the nominees, click here.

Nick DiChario will be launching his new novel Valley of Day-Glo, a post-apocalyptic comedy, at our Grant Park location May 17th in a joint launch with fellow science fiction authors Robert J. Sawyer and Hayden Trenholm. DiChario, who previously held a science fiction/fantasy writer's workshop event for us, was kind enough to answer a few of my questions via email.

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Bev writes:

My nephew is 13 and autistic. He is celebrating his Bar Mitzvah and is very interested in all things to do with Judaism. My sister suggested a coffee table like book with pictures. Can you advise?

We turned this one over to Rachel, who had several suggestions for you. As she put it, "Choosing a bar mitzvah gift can be tricky since it all depends on interests and reading level." That being said, she thinks the following recommendations might be just the thing....

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The 2008 New York Comic Convention has come and gone. A lot of hints were dropped as to what to expect for the next several months of comic publishing. Far too many in fact to be able to report on it all here, but you will find some highlights after the jump.

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Valley Of Day Glo$23.95 add to cart

In the grand tradition of Vonnegut's absurdist fiction, Nick DiChario's second novel Valley of Day-Glo, a post apocalyptic satire, tells the story of young Indian brave named Broadway Danny Rose and his search for the mythic titular valley where "death becomes life".

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Sheila writes:

Help! I have about 100 pages left in the Dave Duncan series The Seventh Sword and I have no idea which author to read next. I prefer fantasy series; I want to become part of what I am reading. I have read all of David Eddings, George R. R. Martin, Stephen R. Lawhead, Robert Jordan, Sara Douglass, Raymond E. Fiest, Jack Whyte, Bernard Cornwell's Arthur series, Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy, and Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry. I always go back to Eddings and Kay when I have nothing else. I have read a few Terry Brooks and Piers Anthony but would not pick them up again.

Chad Ginther, who is better versed in such matters than anyone we know, makes the following recommendations...

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