Press Release: "The Thousand Year Beach"

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

VIZ MEDIA’S HAIKASORU SCIENCE FICTION IMPRINT RELEASES TOBI HIROTAKA’S THE THOUSAND YEAR BEACH

 

An Idyllic World Inhabited By A.I. Beings Faces Extinction From Malevolent Invaders

San Francisco, CA, May 22, 2018 – VIZ Media’s Haikasoru science fiction imprint delivers a new literary release with the publication of THE THOUSAND YEAR BEACH on June 19th.

THE THOUSAND YEAR BEACH, by TOBI Hirotaka, will be released in print with an MSRP of $16.99 U.S. / $22.99 CAN. An eBook edition will also debut on June 19th for the Amazon Kindle, and in Apple’s iBooks Store, Barnes & Noble’s Nook Book Store, the Kobo eBooks Store, and the Google Play Store.

Designed to imitate a harbor town in southern Europe, the Realm of Summer is just one of the zones within the virtual resort known as the Costa del Número. It has been more than a thousand years since human guests stopped coming to the Realm, leaving the AIs alone in their endless summer. But now all that has come to a sudden end, as an army of mysterious Spiders begin reducing the town to nothing. As night falls, the few remaining AIs prepare for their final, hopeless battle… War between the virtual and the real begins in book one of the Angel of the Ruins series.

“THE THOUSAND YEAR beach presents an idyllic virtual world, still running long after having been abandoned by humans, that suddenly finds itself invaded by an impossible force,” says Nick Mamatas, Editor. “Renowned among SF fans and critics, we invite readers to discover TOBI Hirotaka’s first full-length novel this summer.”

Author TOBI Hirotaka was born in 1960 and won the Sanseido SF Story Contest while still a student at Shimane University. From 1983 to 1992 he actively contributed short stories to Japan’sSF Magazine. After a hiatus of ten years, he returned in 2002 with his first full-length novel, THE THOUSAND YEAR BEACH, which took Second Prize in SF Magazine's Best SF of 2002. In 2004, Kaleidoscape, his collection of revised and new works, took top honors in that year's Best SF awards in the magazine, as well as the 2005 Japan SF Award. One of the stories from the collection, “Shapesphere,” also won the 2005 Seiun Award for Best Japanese Short Story of the Year. In 2010, “Autogenic Dreaming: Interview with the Columns of Clouds” earned TOBI his second Seiun Award for Best Japanese Short Story. The work also appeared in English in The Future Is Japanese anthology (published by VIZ Media). He won his third Seiun Award for “Sea Fingers” in 2015, which appeared in English in Saiensu Fikushon 2016.

For more information on THE THOUSAND YEAR BEACH and the Haikasoru imprint, please visit Haikasoru.com.

For more information on other titles available from VIZ Media, please visit viz.com.

About VIZ Media, LLC

Established in 1986, VIZ Media is the premier company in the fields of publishing, animation distribution, and global entertainment licensing. Along with its popular digital magazine WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP and blockbuster properties like NARUTO, DRAGON BALL, SAILOR MOON, and POKÉMON, VIZ Media offers an extensive library of titles and original content in a wide variety of book and video formats, as well as through official licensed merchandise. Owned by three of Japan's largest publishing and entertainment companies, Shogakukan Inc., Shueisha Inc., and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, Co., Ltd., VIZ Media is dedicated to bringing the best titles for English-speaking audiences worldwide.

Learn more about VIZ Media and its properties at viz.com.

Lenni Reviews: "Escape Velocity" Jason M. Hough

*This book was sent to me in exchange for an honest review.

After the destruction of their ships, Captains Skyler Luiken and Gloria Tsandi with their crews are stranded within enemy compounds, scattered and separated with no escape and surrounded by the Scipio; having survived a huge attack, and now must find a way to find their comrades, defeat an armada, and get out alive.

Despite the flurry of characters, this is an interesting space opera with some high handed concepts that feel bigger than they really are. Other than my personal curiosity about the previous books in this series, this one stands alone just fine. It's enjoyable, the characters and writing kept me interested but not enough to get truly lost in it and I found myself easily distracted instead of engaged. It comes in, does its thing, then it leaves fulfilling its task. Not bad, though. 3 out of 5.

Lenni Reviews: "The Thirteenth Man" by J.L. Doty

*I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

When Charlie Cass - the unacknowledged son of a duke - is freed from a POW camp, he returns to find a kingdom on the cusp of war. The dukes are plotting against one another and the king and now with the presumed dead Charlie back in the picture, they fear he will interfere with their plans. But Charlie refuses to go down without a fight.

I'm not usually a fan of military sci-fi but I honestly have to say this was the characters that kept me interested in this book. Charlie is a compelling, sensible character who is smart enough to surround himself with competent, loyal, and colorful people. Especially the prostitutes. They made me laugh. The techno jargon and political dancing were a little much but I just let it wash over me until the cool stuff started happening again. All that posturing and double meaning give me a headache. It's why I could never be a politician...

As this book was filled with all these thrilling space battles and has a satisfying conclusion to the main conflict, I felt the epilogue deflated everything; especially after such a climactic ending. I honestly can't think of another way to mend all those plot threads together without adding a few hundred pages to the book so I'll let the exposition dump slide. For unexpectedly entertaining me despite being out of my usual tastes, I give this a 3.7 out of 5.

For more reviews, check out Lenni's blog: Haunting Hypatia.