Real highstreet book shops still have their appeal, especially when you know you want something, but are not sure what. The stack of books beside my bed was sadly lacking in decent SF so I wandered into Waterstones in Chelmsford to see what I could find. After signing their stock of my books, I started browsing, and was glad I did. Remembering authors I have enjoyed, picking up and handling books and reading the cover blurbs certainly works. I discovered quite a few that were in the ‘I must get that’ category, but then forgot to get. Here’s my haul:

Alastair Reynolds produces few duds, which means I’ll always buy his next book, and I’ve heard good things about this one.

Always loved Greg Egan’s stuff, but it’s sadly lacking in my collection. Reading the first bit of the blurb ‘A million years from now…’ was quite enough.

Greg Bear is another writer I’ve always liked, and I looked up this one when I found it on the Salamander Award shortlist with The Skinner, and thought then that I really should buy it.

I very much enjoyed Eric Brown’s stories in Interzone, many years ago, and it’s quite daft that I’ve never read one of his books. And reading the blurb of this it looks like this is an oversight I’m going to enjoy correcting.