This is a first of what will be bi-weekly round-ups that will be noted here summarizing content from the prior two weeks. I used to do this at my own blog but it probably serves better purpose here as we bring something like the weekly update of our old site (Fantasybookspot.com) while still having the daily content update style of BookSpotCentral. In short, a short and sweet recap of the two weeks that were. This first post will have some extra information about our new site. Essentially it’s a pseudo-newsletter that not only allows us to cater to readers who check in daily (how we are now set-up) and those who just want that spot to get all their information a couple times a month.

BookSpotCentral Launch Info/What You Need to Know

We are now BookSpotCentral. Regarding content we are much the same, we are just more aptly describing the nature of our existing content . We have always covered most modes of fiction be it Science Fiction, Comic Books, Graphic Novels, Horror, Mystery, Crime or Fantasy and whatever. It is our opinion we are all just readers. In this regard the change is - to a point - superficial but it was easy and one that better describes all who contribute at our site.

Beyond that, there is little change; we are still a venue for reviews from all kinds of perspective be it the reader who wants a summary and a quip or somebody who prefers a more substantial look at reads - we welcome and covet all. We have always been an interview site and you can expect more of that as usual as well as our newer features, exclusive excerpts; first looks and samples from essentially every publisher the speculative fiction fan knows and loves.

BookSpotCentral is a brand new site. Old links will no longer work. For a site as large as ours, giving those (links) up from a webmaster perspective isn’t something to take lightly but we wanted to improve our site and if we needed to take two steps back to take ten forward that’s what we will always do. For this reason we would greatly appreciate anyone who links to us, be it readers, or authors linking to content we have, to please change those links and we would also appreciate anyone just mentioning we are now launched. The new site is www.Bookspotcentral.com

Feeds

The old site had all kinds of separate feeds everywhere making people sign up to all of them to get all the information. What we do now gets reflected on our main page as it happens - reviews, interviews, contests, exclusive excerpts, articles, or news etc, etc. Anything that happens on our front end can be viewed via this feed.

To keep up with our community and forums that feed is here.

To check out all what’s going on at BookSpotCentral hosted blogs catch that here.

BookSpotCentral Hosted Blogs

Think you have something to say? Have a project you think needs a site? Let us know and will be more than happy to host a Wordpress blog for you.

Let’s start the stroll through memory lane now, from soft launch to now:

Exclusive Content/Excerpts

BookSpotCentral continues to be the venue for exclusive content and samples for the speculative fiction fans:

- We have the first two chapters of Light Breaker by Mark Tempo, a novel coming from Night Shade Books in October of 2008.

- Offering a reader a chance to sample a new author’s debut. We have the second chapter of Adrian Tchaikovksy’s Empire in Black and Gold. This was published in July by Pan Macmillan, and you can read the first chapter at their site.

- Solaris Books brings us the first chapter of Eric Brown’s Necropath - to be published in the U.S. at the end of this month and in the UK a week after.

- 4 chapters from a recent novel by former Sturgeon, Campbell, Nebula, and Hugo award winner, Nancy Kress. Great opportunity to sample Dogs.

We’d like to thank Solaris, Night Shade Books, Tachyon and Pan for choosing BookSpotCentral to bring these first-looks to you. I can tell you now that I have a nice, complete story coming up soon from one of the best short fiction writers on the planet.

Reviews

- Rob kicks us off with a review of Steven Erikson’s Reapers Gale. I’m glad to see more of these books getting reviewed, as a lot of time reviews of books within very large series are often read but not reviewed, and there is great stuff in Erikson’s series and as Rob mentions - I’ll tell you why you should have liked his latest a bit later this month.

He also continues his look at Clarke’s Odyssey work with 2061: Odyssey III. I really dig Rob’’s reviews because as most sites pop up and only cover what they are told will be hot, I like that we have somebody diggn’ through the crates.

We can’t debut without a little George R.R. Martin coverage and Rob’s got us covered with Starlady an Fast Friend two novelettes collected by Subterranean Press.

Brandon Sanderson has a lot on his plate finishing up Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, but Rob tells us how he is doing with his own projects, with a review of Hero of Ages, the last book in the Mistborn trilogy.

- Brian maintains his street rep and reviews Severance Package by Duane Swierczynski

At a time when workers feel increasingly insecure about their positions with The Company Severance Package acts as a pretty savage critique of corporate culture.

He also shows his sensitive side and brings us the word, via poetry by Billy Collins in his Ballisitc.

Not to be confined to a mere two dimensions, the guy then gets critical on critical with a look at Lexicon Urthus by Michael Andre-Driussi - a companion/analysis of Gene Wolfe’s New Sun work.

- Trina adds that historical fiction element to BSC and reviews Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault, a kick-off to a series that:

have long been viewed as the definitive historical novels when it comes to Alexander the Great.

- Dragonwomant covers a graphic novel and an anthology for us. First she has a review of the first TPB of Samurai Elf by Miguel Guerra.

She also gives us a look at the John Joseph Adams edited The Living Dead. This features writers like Joe Hill, George R.R. Martin, Jeffrey Ford, Neil Gaiman and more, and was published by Night Shade Books.

- No Trek for Jeremy this time, but he doesn’t go too far from the sanctity that is television and reviews CSI:NY Four Walls by Keith R.A. DeCandido.

- Amberdrake brings us thoughts on The Dragons of Manhattan by John Grant.

- Craig Gidney on Bestiary by Nicholas Christopher:

Christopher’s prose is elegant and a pleasure to read. His sentences balance poetry and erudition:

- Always last, always least; and as I was telling Rob the other day, I’m not even sure that I even write what are actually reviews anymore, but I offered my thoughts on Broken, the first TPB collecting material from Dark Horse’s Star Wars: Legacy series by John Ostrander and Jan Durssema.

- I also reviewed Brad Meltzer’s one-shot from DC Comics, Last Will and Testament. Solid, solid stuff here as - so far- all the Final Crisis tie-ins have been in my opinion.

Contests

BookSpotCentral constantly has at least one contest going on any given day. Currently we have one contest active (though I will be adding another very soon). Right now, you can enter to win a signed copy of Dogs by Nancy Kress. As noted above BookSpotCentral has the first 4 chapters to this novel for you peruse as well. Get information on this book and how you can enter here

During the last two weeks we have named winners for signed books by Adrian Tchaikovsky and Barb and J.C. Hendee and have more coming all the time! You can see what current contests we running at any time by clicking the Tickets button on our main pages that takes you here.

I want to thank all the authors and publishers for these fantastic prizes and I have a hot one coming up to add soon!

Not a bad two weeks!

Publicity/Reviewers/Misc.

- We are always looking for more voices to add to the site. If you want to review or write articles on books, comics, movies, DVD’s, conduct interviews or anything you might think we’d find interesting, please let us know at admin@fantasybookspot.com

Do not assume we won’t be interested - let us decide!

- Publishers, publicists, writer, artists, advertisers, anybody interested in what BookSpotCentral can do for you visit our Guidelines page.

- To learn more about the people who contribute to the site visit our new About Us page and for a quick look at our likes in various media check out our Staff Favorites.

Thanks

BookSpotCentral would like to give special thanks to Noah Barrett, Mark Adamoyurka, and Rob (aka Valashain on the site) for help putting this all together. We’d also like to thank our contributors and our readers for their patience while we were in limbo putting this together and for those who offered opinions during the process.

The Near Future

I’ve got a couple of brand new features that will be kicked off soon and you’ll know when they hit! Always more reviews, interviews, contests and exclusive material being added so check in daily! Personally, I have some reviews of material by people named Stover, Swierczynski, Erikson, and Lapham coming and an interview with Adrian Tchaikovsky.

As I mentioned above, I also have a contest to be announced soon and another exclusive, short story. I also know that Heliotrope is being worked on now for a redesign in time for our next big issue that’s line-up looks something like Alan Moore, Paul S. Kemp, Neil Gaiman, Chris Roberson, Bryan Talbot, Rhys Hughes, Hal Duncan, Catherynne M. Valente, Jeff VanderMeer with art supplied by Noah Barrett.

Nothing but power moves in this joint!

See you in 14!

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Topics: Round-Up