Simon and Schuster.biz already has Viz’s schedule for September 2012-January 2013 up and it includes 3 new titles and at least one that has been rescheduled and a paperback version of a title previously in hardback.
First up, a paperback edition of Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights is scheduled for November 20, 2012. It will be $14.99 now as opposed to the $25.99 hardback version released last November.
Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriot by Project Itoh is still on the listings, still scheduled for June 19, 2012. Hopefully it comes out this time!
Now for the new titles!
First is Belka, Why Don’t You Bark? by Hideo Furukawa, scheduled for October 16, 2012. Here is the information from the listing, “Belka, Why Don’t You Bark? begins in 1943, when Japanese troops retreat from the Aleutian island of Kiska, leaving four military dogs behind. One of them dies in isolation, and the others are taken under the protection of U.S. troops. Meanwhile, in the USSR, a KGB military dog handler kidnaps the daughter of a Japanese yakuza. Named after the Russian astronaut dog Strelka, the girl develops a psychic connection with canines. A multi-generational epic as seen through the eyes of man’s best friend, the dogs who are used as mere tools for the benefit of humankind gradually discover their true selves, and learn something about us.”
And also from the listing, an author bio, “Hideo Furukawa was born in 1966. After working as an editor, freelance writer, and stage director, he made his debut in 1998 with 13 (Thirteen). In 2002, he won the Mystery Writers of Japan Prize and the Japan Science Fiction Award for Arabia no yoru no shuzoku (The Arabian nightbreeds), a fantasy novel set in 13th-century Egypt. His other major novels include SOUNDTRACK and the Mishima Prize-winner Love.”
Next is Virus by Sakyo Komatsu, currently scheduled for November 20, 2012; it is currently listed as being hardback with a list price of $25.99. Here’s the summary listed on the page: “In this classic of Japanese SF from 1964, American astronauts on a space mission discover a strange virus and bring it to Earth, where rogue scientists transform it into a fatal version of the flu. After the virulent virus is released, nearly all human life on Earth is wiped out save for fewer than one thousand men and a handful of women living in research stations in Antarctica. Then one of the researchers realizes that a major earthquake in the now-depopulated United States may lead to nuclear Armageddon…”
The final new book is Self Reference ENGINE by Enjoe Toh, scheduled for January 15, 2013 (paperback, $14.99). Only sort of summary listed on the page is the following, “Science, surrealism, number theory, and more dead Sigmund Freuds than you can shake a stick at” which I personally find both amusing and worrisome. Not a fan of psych (ask my psych major roommate!), but phrasing it as “more dead Sigmund Frueds than you can shake a stick at” is sure amusing!
Relatedly, I found a page with a short story he wrote, in English (located here; Toh’s piece is entitled Silverpoint). The page asks for a donation to the Red Cross for relief efforts, but the story (and others) are technically free to download. I’ve only glanced at the story thus far, but it seems interesting, so I’m interested to see other works from Toh.
lite reading 