Bonus weekend shift for the accessions department, here.

The Giles because it sounds like the most interesting Clarke winner in a long long time, and lots of people whose opinions I value are speaking highly of it. Plus, y’know, sf poetry? Rare it even gets published, let alone wins awards. Gotta be worth a punt.

The Holland is a reading-group selection, from the burgeoning subgenre of fantasy-remixes-of-folk-stories. No advance knowledge on my part of book, author or source material; not exactly leagues outside my comfort zone, but probably not something I would have picked up on my own whim.

And the Newitz because, well, that’s another one where all the reviews suggest strongly that I’m going to get along well with it. And top marks to the design department at Orbit: the immediate response from L____—who is very much not an sf reader—on seeing I’d picked this up was “wow, that looks great, what’s it about?” (It also stands out nicely among the sea of yellows and pinks and purples which are dominating the genre shelves at present.)