Book Haul Glasgow World Con part 1

Well, I’ve written about my general world con experience but a good portion of the time I was there for the books.

I picked up a wide array of titles from indies, small press and trad publishers. So let’s run through what got picked up.

First up described as a lyrical, poetic, folk horror fantasy by the Queen of Grimdark. A Sword of Bronze and Ashes by Anna Smith Spark was one that I have been meaning to pick up for ages. Back in the before times I Interviewed Anna on the podcast. I am looking forward to getting my teeth into this one. I also signed up for Anna’s table talk at the convention and it was lovely to connect in person.

I love Anna’s prose, and folk horror is my jam so I am looking forward to meeting Kanda and her daughters and see what is coming for them from the woods.

Next up is Rerun to Eden by Jim Alexander. I got talking to Jim who is a Glasgow-based

Indie Author. We had a bit of a chat about his work and I picked up a couple of things from him. A collection of short stories called Rerun to Eden.  He told me that this collection is a series of short stories which are linked and do all tie together at the the End.  I also picked up a copy of one of his graphic novels called Savant which was a one off that sounded really interesting. Lode is from the planet Savant and she has gone walkabout around the Universe where she seeks out warzones to chronicle the lives of the dying.  The artwork for this is by Will Pickering and Fin Cramb is the Colorist. The art is beautiful and the premise sounds powerful.

I think everybody I knew bought a copy of I want that Twink Obliterated. A pulpy collection of queer short stories edited by Trip Galey, Robert Berg and C.L McCartney. Their stand had tentacles and they talked a good game about the collection plus had pins which I also had to get to add to collection. With contributions from James Bennett, Aliette de Boddard and Anthony Oliveira alongside many more this looks like a heap of fun with its sprayed pink edges and its camp aesthetics.  And I for one am here for it.

My final selection in part one is LR Lam’s Dragon Fall.

Again I was lucky enough to get onto LR Lam’s table talk at this Convention and I got to have a great chat with LR about thier process and what their journey in publishing has been like over the last few years.  I have followed them since their first trilogy Pantomime and I am genuinely pleased to see the success that this novel is bringing them.  This is also the novel I have started reading since getting home.  The background of this novel is once humans and dragons lived side by side and were linked. Humans did what humans do and abused that power and the dragons withdrew to another dimension.  Everen is the last male dragon and he finds himself falling from his dimension back to the human one where he is trapped accidentally by Arcady. Things get more complicated from this point onwards.

All of these were bought without the aid of a Womble. Though in part two I did get some based on his recommendations.