This page is updated as books are received throughout the month.
Shallow Grave by Lori G. Armstrong
Medallion, $7.95, ~400pp, pb, 9781933836188. Mystery. On-sale date: November 2007.
Surveillance on an insurance fraud case in Bear Butte County unfolds tragically for PI Julie Collins and her partner, Kevin Wells. The reappearance of a mysterious hole—cause of the fatal accident—brings about the landowner’s unsettling confession; bones were recently uncovered on that remote ridge. Fearing repercussions from their illegal off-season hunting, the hunters reburied the remains and kept quiet.
Now the hole is back, but the bones have vanished.
Were the bones part of an ancient Indian burial ground? Connected to the unsolved disappearance of a Native American woman? The overworked, understaffed sheriff asks for Julie’s help.
But the case opens old wounds and she finds herself at odds with the Standing Elk family, discovering they withheld information from her in the months before Ben’s death. And Julie’s relationship with Tony Martinez hits a rough spot when she agrees to go undercover in his strip club.
On the wrong side of tribal politics, family disputes, and employee rivalries, Julie continues to dig for answers… while the personal stakes climb. In a brutal fight for her life, Julie finally comes face to face with her brother’s killer… and realizes not all deceptions run deep.
Q-FAQ by Tom Bacchus
Haworth Positronic Press, $12.95, 206pp, tp, 9781560236931. Gay Male Fiction and Literature / Science Fiction and Fantasy.
A sexy, genre-bending spin on contemporary culture—and sexual repression.
Q-FAQ follows the erotic adventures of Afaik, a gay Arab alleged terrorist, in the near future. Bombed out of his Manhattan home by rightwing federal agents who create “terrorist” acts to continue their campaign for the newly installed Puritan Party, Afaik escapes into the arms of Aces Bannon, a surly soldier with a few special replacement parts. Together, they zoom across the Divided States of America and discover an underground network of hunky pilots, arms dealers, and circuit party orgies in this thrilling ride of sex and science fiction satire. Q-FAQ is a unique blend of sexuality, humor, and science fiction that thrusts you into the world of the near future—whether you like it or not.
The H-Bomb Girl by Stephen Baxter
Faber, £9.99, 268pp, hc, 9780571232796. Science fiction. On-sale date: 20 September 2007.
Liverpool 1962: A place and time of danger and passion.
H-Bomb Girl, listen to yourself. You are a fourteen-year-old girl, stuck in a hole in the ground, in Liverpool. How can you talk about causing wars or not? How can you talk about choosing futures? Who do you think you are, the Virgin Mary or Supergirl?
The H-Bomb Girl is a compelling and thought-provoking look at what it must have been like to be growing up during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Stephen Baxter is the internationally reknowned author of over forty science fiction and non-fiction books for adults and children. His work has won numerous awards including the Philip K. Dick Award and the British Science Fiction Association Award. Stephen Baxter has written scripts for TV and film, and columns for all the major broadsheet newspapers. He has worked as a maths and physics teacher and ni 1991 applied to become a cosmonaut—aiming for the guest slot on Mir eventually taken by Helen Sharman—but fell at an early hurdle. He was born in Liverpool and now lives in Northumberland with his wife.
Vampires In Their Own Words: An Anthology of Vampire Voices edited by Michelle Belanger
Llewellyn, $15.95, 245pp, tp, 9780738712208. Body, Mind Spirit / Occultism / Vampires. On-sale date: September 2007.
Michelle Belanger, an expert on vampirism, author of The Psychic Vampire Codex, and self-professed psychic vampire, convinced nearly two dozen real-life vampires to break the silence that has so often kept their community shrouded in suspicion and secrecy.
A diverse collection of contributors—including Madame X and Sanguinarius—speak candidly about their beliefs, practices, and how they awakened to their identities as vampires. These fascinating firsthand accounts come from both psychic vampires who feed on energy for spiritual and physical nourishment, and sanguine vampires who drink actual blood.
Their true stories shed light on the compulsion to feed and what it feels like, working with donors, living with a social stigma, ethical principles, and other aspects of modern vampire culture.
[Contributors: Kris Steaveson; Sedona of House Aeterno; Midnight Childe; Michelle Belanger of House Kheperu; Jodi Lee; Larae of Darkness Embraced; Sylverë ap Leanan; Kiera of House AVA; Rev. Vicutus, Dominus de Ordo Sekhemu; Anshar Seraphim of House Lost Haven; Autumn Rain; Gryphon Mandrakken of House Kheperu; Khan; Sphynxcat; Raven Kaldera; Mairi of ShadowLore; LadyBlak; Ravena Lee of House Lost Haven; Eclecta of House AVA; Sanguinarius; Belfazaar Ashantison; Alexander DuCoeur; Madame X of House of the Dreaming; Camille Thomas; Alexzandria and James Baker; and Mora.]
The Last Knight by Hilari Bell
(a Knight and Rogue novel), Eos, $16.99, 359pp, hc, 9780060825034. Teen fantasy.
Meet Fisk, a streetwise con-man redeemed from jail by Sir Michael, a nobleman’s younger son who has taken up being a professional hero two hundred years too late. Now Fisk must serve out an indefinite sentence as squire to the last knight in the world.
Rescuing a damsel in distress is Sir Michael and Fisk’s first mission, but after they free her from imprisonment in a tower they discover she was there for good reason: awaiting trial for poisoning her husband. Now the would-be heroes must find Lady Ceciel and return her to justice or be condemned themselves.
Join the hero Sir Michael and his reluctant squire in The Last Knight as they embark upon their first quest as Knight and Rogue, encountering magic, mystery and adventure along the way.
The Prophecy by Hilari Bell
Eos, $6.50, 195pp, tp, 9780060599454. Teen fantasy.
This is the story, as told by the bards, of Prince Perryndon, who set out to slay the black dragon guided by the words of a prophecy.
Prince Perryndon loves books and with his kingdom in grave danger, he unearths a prophecy that could save his land. But with time running out, Perryn learns that a scholar’s job is not merely to seek the truth but to understand its worth—and that the power of the prophecy lies in his own hands.
Intimate Relations with Strangers by David Valentine Bernard
Atria Books, $23.00, 247pp, hc, 9781416540366. Fantasy. On-sale date: 4 September 2007.
Fighting a war on foreign soil to avenge the death of the American leader, a soldier finds himself trapped in the hazy, chaotic crossfire between reality and fantasy as events and memories challenge his sanity, his perceptions—and his very existence.
In Intimate Relations with Strangers, David Valentine Bernard weaves a spellbinding story set in the near future that upends conventional notions of fate, destiny, and being. At once a thoughtful commentary on current affairs and an existential mediation on human nature, here the horror and atrocities of battle unfold against the shifting fabric of time and space, depicting a world in crisis and a man struggling to make sense of it all.
Held captive in a remote African prison camp by enemy forces and subjected to unimaginable torture, somehow the soldier single-handedly takes out the heavily armed guards and frees twenty fellow POWs. Then he collapses, his body riddled with bullets. Facing certain death, his mind drifts away and fills with thoughts of a woman…
He flashes back to a childhood spent growing up in a post-September 11th nation, a place of rampant fear and gung-ho patriotism. A loner, he plays happily in the woods behind his house every day, his powerful imagination conjuring up a series of elaborate scenarios. His self-containment worries his parents; their two older kids were so different from this frighteningly aloof and mature boy.
One afternoon, he sees a shocking scene as a person emerges naked from a muddy pit. Incredibly, it’s a young girl and she’s alive. Moving from terror to recognition in a flash, he feels like he knows her, as if a vital and unbreakable connection binds them.
When she comes to, he’s in for a stunning revelation: she tells him it’s wrong that they are so young, they are actually adults and married! As they kiss, a strange sensation engulfs him. Suddenly they are drifting through a dimension of light, with scenes taking place all around them and centuries of history on display before his eyes.
Then in an instant it’s over. He remembers the girl but little else from this transcendent experience. But according to his family, nothing ever happened. Was it an illusion? Or a glimpse of the supernatural? The only fact he knows for certain is that he is forever changed.
He dedicates himself to pretending to be normal, excelling at school and sports though fiery emotions swirl beneath the placid facade. Years pass. The girl is always there in his nightly dreams, images so vivid he’s not sure if they are recollections or premonitions.
By the time he is a senior in high school, the wars of September 11th have been raging for a decade. When the president and half his cabinet are killed in a White House bombing, an African despot is charged with engineering the conspiracy. Despite his acceptance at Harvard, the young man joins the military and is soon deployed to the frontlines.
Stationed in the heartt of the Sahara, grappling with the psychic toll of combat and carnage, the soldier must finally tackle the cosmic questions that have been haunting him for ages. Who is he really? Is he living a lie or the ultimate truth?
As he tries to piece together the clues to his past and his future, he encounters several strangers who could be real or hallucinations. And following these shadowy figures will either lead him to a reunion with the woman he loves or plunge him deeper into a bloody nightmare as Intimate Relations with Strangers takes readers on a mind-bending odyssey that challenges expectations at every astonishing turn.
The Aftermath by Ben Bova
(Book Four of the Asteroid Wars), Audio Renaissance, $44.95, 10CDs/13 hours, 9781427201065. Science fiction audiobook.
Award-winning author and science and space expert Ben Bova has written over 100 books of science fact and fiction, including his acclaimed “Asteroid Wars” sequence, which recounts the exciting adventures about the human race’s expansion through the solar system. With The Aftermath, Ben Bova continues this sequence he began with The Precipice, The Rock Rats, and The Silent War. The multi-narrator audiobook of The Aftermath highlights the author’s strong portrayals of a huge cast of characters, as well as his first-rate action. In a recent interview, Bova said, “Audio storytelling is what people did originally. They spoke their stories to an audience… [and] with modern electronics, the spoken word can go out to millions of people”; the audio program of his most recent work lives up to that “noble” tradition Bova praises.
While other science fiction writers have abandoned our solar system to cast their imaginations to the ends of the galaxy and beyond, Bova has chosen to remain closer to home. His “Grand Tour” and “Asteroid Wars” series combine romance, adventure, and the highest degree of scientific and technological accuracy (a hallmark of his writing) to show how the human race will expand through the solar system, and the impact this will have on individual human lives and society as a whole. Bova says he tries to “write about the real world even though it’s set in the future and places where no human being has gone as yet,” and his belief in grounding his stories in issues that are familiar and relevant to listeners is evident once again in The Aftermath.
Ben Bova believes, “Science and technology is what is pushing our society, what’s making the big changes… What governments do is only a small part of what shapes history… Science thrives on finding new information. That’s why most politicians are worried about science, and actually fear it—because scientists are always changing their minds.” In his books and writings, Bova has predicted many modern discoveries and technological developments, including the Space Race, solar power satellites, the discovery of organic chemicals in interstellar space and of ice on the Moon, human cloning, the advent of international peacekeeping forces, and electronic book publishing. All listeners, both science fiction fans and those simply interested in the changing world around us, will enjoy Bova’s latest addition to his engaging body of work and his tradition of anticipating future directions and developments in technology, politics, and society. Pulsing with intensity and action, and resonating with hope, purpose, and fury, The Aftermath will draw listeners in from the very first word.
Diamondback by Phil Bowie
Medallion, $7.95, ~350pp, pb, 9781933836430. Mystery. On-sale date: November 2007.
In 1838, soldiers came with bayonets to drive the Cherokees from their home in the Great Smoky Mountains. But not before the people managed to hide their gold mines. They kept their secret as they were driven like animals to the Oklahoma reservation. Many died on that infamous Trail of Tears, and their secrets died with them.
Now, more than a century and a half later, solitary prospector Moses Kyle discovers one of the ancient lost mines. And disappears.
Among those seeking Moses and his discovery are hot-shot pilot John Hardin and beautiful Cherokee biker Kitty Birdsong. Unfortunately, also on the hunt in the misty folds of the Smokies is a murderous family clan rootes in the worst kind of evil, along with a group of cult memebrs who are led by a fanatical snake-handling preacher, and who will do anything he asks of them.
When naked greed erupts into violence, John and Kitty find they must fight for their lives.
The Expendable One: Volume 2: The Boob Versus the Boobs by Jason M. Burns
Viper Comics, $11.95, tp, 9780979368028. Graphic novel.
In his first adventure, the bumbling Twigs Dupree was almost castrated by the maniacal cult leader known only as The Animal. Now, one year later, the invincible hero returns to face his greatest threat yet… really hot women and their KILLER bodies. Boobs and bullets and blood! Oh my!
A Dummy’s Guide to Danger written by Jason M. Burns, illustrated by Ron Chan
Viper Comics, $11.95, tp, 9780979368004. Graphic novel.
Combining elements of humor, mystery and horror, private investigator Alan Sirois and his partner Mr. Bloomberg, a paraplegic ventriloquist dummy that Alan believes was shot in the back by an assailant and became crippled when the bullet became lodged in his spine, track down a gruesome killer known only as the Flesh Collector.
Lust, Caution: The Story, the Screenplay, and the Making of the Film by Eileen Chang
(screenplay by Wang Hui Ling and James Schamus; preface by Ang Lee), Pantheon, $22.95, 308pp, hc, 9780375425240. Performing Arts. On-sale date: 4 September 2007.
Lust, Caution: The Story, the Screenplay, and the Making of the Film is the official hardcover tie-in edition to director Ang Lee’s new major motion picture, Lust, Caution, based on the short story by Eileen Chang, to be released in theaters on 28 September.
This volume contains Chang’s original short story, along with the complete screenplay by Wang Hui Ling and James Schamus, notes on the script by Mr. Schamus, stills from the film, and a preface by Ang Lee. Lust, Caution is Lee’s first film since his Academy Award win for Brokeback Mountain.
In an espionage thriller set in WWII-era Shanghai, Asian cinema icon Tony Leung stars as Mr. yee, a powerful political figure in 1940s Shanghai. Tang Wei, a rising star in mainland China, makes her feature film debut as Wang Chia-chih, a young woman who gets swept up in a dangerous game of emotional intrigue with Mr. Yee.
Set in the lush, tense atmosphere of Shanghai during the Japanese occupation, Lust, Caution follows these two characters as they move through the complex political environment of the city. Mr. Yee, whose wife holds elaborate mah-jong parties while he interrogates dissidents as a member of the Chinese collaborationist government during the Japanese occupation, does not suspect that the beautiful young student from Hong Kong staying in his apartment is in fact a member of the resistance sent to stop him at any cost. But Wang Chia-chih never thought that on her mission she would fall in love with the man who represents all that she wishes to overthrow. And as their romance blossoms into a passionate affair, both of their hidden agendas threaten to come to the surface.
The Queen of Wolves by Douglas Clegg
(Book Three of the Vampyricon Series), Ace, $23.95, 314pp, hc, 9780441015238. Fantasy. On-sale date: 4 September 2007.
In the final book of The Vampyricon, Douglas Clegg’s alternate history interweaving nations of vampires and humans, resumes the adventures of medieval peasant-turned-vampire Aleric. After rescuing Pythia, the creature who turned him into a vampire, Aleric follows her back to the land of the Saracens. There, they must raise an army, for Aleric’s lost love, Enora, has become the Queen of the Wastelands. Aided by her minions and her legions of wolves, she has begun the quest to call the Dark Madonna from beyond the Veil into the world of man. To stop the end of all, Aleric must become what he was destined to be—the Messiah of the Damned—and lead the undead in a final battle against the Mother of Darkness.
Dancing with Dragons: Invoke their Ageless Wisdom and Power by D.J. Conway
Llewellyn, $18.95, 296pp, tp, 9781567181654. Body, Mind, Spirit / Magick. On-sale date: October 2007.
Why do all cultures, distant and diverse, have similar tales of dragons? Dragons have captured our imagination since time immemorial—they call to us, pique our curiosity, and arouse our fears.
These mystical beasts are real and their power, their influence, and especially their magick can be captured. Building upon rituals and drawing on their energy, learn to befriend these inspirational creatures and become partners with them on a spiritual journey.
Reap the Wild Wind by Julie E. Czernada
(Stratification #1), DAW, $24.95, 454pp, hc, 9780756404567. Science fiction. On-sale date: September 2007.
In 1997, Julie E. Czernada made her science fiction debut with A Thousand Words for a Stranger, the first novel in The Trade Pact Universe trilogy. This remarkable trilogy introduced readers to the Clan, refugees from the distant world of Cersi who built an empire few humans even knew existed.
Now, Reap the Wild Wind returns to a far earlier period in the Clan’s history, when they have not yet left Cersi. Cersi is a land with deep divisions between the three tribal races that occupy it. The races coexist on three inviolate principles: 1) the world has always been divided this way and must remain so; 2) passage—a once in a lifetime, coming-of-age event when individuals are permitted to trespass all territorial boundaries in search of a mate; 3) nothing on Cersi can be allowed to change—ever.
Reap the Wild Wind explores a pivotal moment in this alternate universe’s history, when the Trade Pact worlds have begun to explore Cersi, upsetting the balance between the three races. It is also a time when young Aryl Sarc of the Ynea Clan is on the verge of mastewring a forbidden secret that could prove the salvation or ruin of her entire species.
Goth Craft: The Magickal Side of Dark Culture by Raven Digitalis
Llewellyn, $16.95, 300pp, tp, 9780738711041. Body, Mind, Spirit / Witchcraft & Wicca. On-sale date: September 2007.
From shadow magick to spellcasting on the dance floor, Goth Craft revels in the enchanting convergence of Gothic culture and modern Pagan spirituality. “Dark does not mean evil. Nor does Goth. Nor does Witch,” explains author Raven Digitalis.
From everyday rituals to ethics and philosophy, Goth Craft sheds light on two of the most misunderstood cultural and spiritual movements of our time.
Discover dozens of darksider ideas for enchanting each aspect of your look—clothing, makeup, hair, and jewelry—transforming daily routine into a profoundly spiritual experience. Explore the magickal power of tattoos and body modification.
For those drawn to the raw beauty and emotion of this less-traveled path, the darkness of night leads to the balance of a new dawn, and each day softly fades to a night of endless possibility.
The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois
St. Martin’s, $21.95, 662pp, tp, 9780312363352. Science fiction anthology.
Gardner Dozois has won the Hugo Award for Best Editor fourteen times, and his supreme knowledge of the art of science fiction has been recognized time and again with praise for The Year’s Best Science Fiction, his 2004 Locus Award-winning anthology. Long considered a necessary read for fans of science fiction, the twenty-fourth edition of this venerable collection continues to uphold its traditional standard of excellence with stories from Robert Reed, Ian McDonald, Stephen Baxter, Michael Swanwick, Paolo Bacigalupi, Kage Baker, Walter Jon Williams, Alastair Reynolds, Charles Stross, and many others.
With masters of the form and the brightest stars of the future along with an extensive recommended reading guide and a summation of the year in science fiction, The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection is the best resource for essential SF reading.
[A full list of contents and a discussion of the book is available in this article.]
Oddly Normal Family Reunion written by Otis Frampton, illustrated by Sergio Quijada
Viper Comics, $11.95, tp, 9780977788392. Graphic novel.
When Ragnar and Reggie’s father returns home with plans to use Oopie in his scientific experiments, turmoil engulfs Fignation. Only Oddly and the gang can save the day with the help of a mop, some magic, and more than a bit of luck.
Shadowbridge by Gregory Frost
Del Rey, $13.95, 272pp, tp, 9780345497581. Fantasy. On-sale date: 26 December 2007.
From Gregory Frost, the critically acclaimed author who has been a finalist for nearly every major award in the fantasy field, comes Shadowbridge, an engrossing, beautifully written literary fantasy and the first novel in a two-book adventure.
Spring from a timeless dream, Shadowbridge is a world of linked spans arching high above glittering seas. It is a world of parading ghosts, inscrutable gods, and dangerous magic. Most of all, it is a world of stories. No one knows those stories better than Leodora, a young shadow-puppeteer who travels Shadowbridge collecting the intertwining tales and myths of each place she passes through, then retells them in performances whose genius has begun to attract fame… and less welcome attention. For Leodora is fleeing a violent past, as are her two companions: her manager, Soter, an elderly drunkard who also served Leodora’s father; and Diverus, her musical accompanist, a young man who has been blessed, and perhaps cursed, by the touch of a nameless god. Now, as the strands of destiny begin to tighten around her, Leodora is about to cross the most perilous bridge of all—the one leading from the past to the future.
Book two in the duology will be published by Del Rey in Summer 2008.
Moon in the Mirror by P.R. Frost
(a Tess Noncoiré Adventure), DAW, $24.95, 389pp, hc, 97807564046. Fantasy. On-sale date: September 2007.
P.R. Frost returns to the world of best-selling fantasy writer Tess Noncoire in Moon in the Mirror. Tess is a wildly successful writer, but very few know that Tess’s novels are based on her own adventures as a martial arts master trained by the Sisterhood of the Celestial Blade Warriors. In Moon in the Mirror, Tess, along with her sidekick, the cigar-smoking, mischievous imp Scrap, encounters the most threatening adversaries yet. When Tess returns to New England to recover from her adventures and get some writing done, she is confronted by Windago demons, vicious garden gnomes, and a mysterious WindScribe. Will Tess survive her trip to write another novel?
Crashing Paradise by Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Sniegoski
(a novel of the Menagerie), Ace, $7.99, 278pp, pb, 9780441015320. Dark fantasy. On-sale date: 28 August 2007.
In the fourth novel of the Menagerie novels, Crashing Paradise, by Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Sniegoski, the Legion of Doom is hell-bent on breaking into Eden, and they’ve got the perfect captive to help them: Eve, mother of all humanity—and all vampires. Only Doyle and the Menagerie can stop them from turning a blessed garden into a paradise lost.
Ghost Worlds: A Guide to Poltergeists, Portals, Ecto-Mist & Spirit Behavior by Melba Goodwyn
Llewellyn, $14.95, 241pp, tp, 9780738711959. Body, Mind, Spirit / Parapsychology. On-sale date: September 2007.
From communicating with spirits to witnessing orbs burst from an inter-dimensional portal, as a psychic spirit investigator author Melba Goodwyn has seen it all. In Ghost Worlds, she offers original insights into the nature of ghosts and haunting, true stories of her thrilling adventures, and practical ghost hunting tips.
* How are poltergeists different from traditional ghosts?
* How does a place, house, or object become haunted?
* What are orbs, ecto-mist, vortexes, and energy anomalies?
Goodwyn defines different kinds of ghosts and entities, how they manifest, and why they are attracted to certain places. Active and armchair ghost hunters alike discover how to create an environment conducive for attracting spirits, record their presence, and even conduct a ghost interview.
Guards of Haven: The Adventures of Hawk & Fisher by Simon R. Green
(includes Wolf in the Fold, Guard Against Dishonor, and The Bones of Haven), Roc, $16.00, 567pp, tp, 9780451461698. Fantasy. On-sale date: September 2007.
They’re lovers. They’re partners. They’re cops.
Condensed to one action-packed volume, Guards of Haven encompasses three Hawk and Fisher tales: Wolf in the Fold, Guard Against Dishonor, and The Bones of Haven. New York Times bestselling author Simon R. Green has created one of the most memorable duos in speculative fiction history: battle-scarred crime busters that cling to each other to bring justice to the treacherous streets of Haven. Haven is a dark and violent city overrun with spell casters, demons, and thieves. Green delights in narrating the unforgettable couple’s quest against evil.
The Anubis Murders by Gary Gygax
(introduction by Erik Mona), Planet Stories, $12.99, 207pp, tp, 9781601250421. Fantasy. On-sale date: 15 August 2007.
The Anubis Murders by Gary Gygax, a novel of fantastic mystery set in Ancient Egypt and Dark Ages England, is now available in trade paperback. The book is Paizo Publishing’s first release in the company’s new science fiction and fantasy imprint, Planet Stories.
The Anubis Murders weaves a fantastic tale of warring wizards that spans the world from the pyramids of ancient Egypt to the mist-shrouded towns of medieval England. Someone is murdering the world’s most powerful sorcerers, and the trail of blood leads straight to Anubis, the solemn god known as the Master of Jackals. Can Magister Setne Inhetep, personal philosopher-wizard to the Pharaoh, reach the distant kingdom of Avillonia and put an end to the Anubis Murders, or will he be claimed as the latest victim? Gary Gygax co-created the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game over 30 years ago and has watched it grow to become of the largest entertainment sources in the hobby gaming industry. Dungeons & Dragons has been played by tens of millions worldwide and the name Gygax is instantly recognizable to any fans of the game, past or present.
“Having been a devoted reader of mystery stories as well as science fiction and fantasy since 1950, I was struck by there being so few books in the latter two genres that were mysteries,” Gygax said. “So I set about to write some myself, that effort ending up to be a trilogy about an Egyptian wizard-priest on a parallel earth where magic works… and despite that fact there are still murderers aplenty.”
[We reviewed this book in this article.]
Many Bloody Returns: Tales of Birthdays with Bite edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner
Ace, $24.95, 356pp, hc, 9780441015521. Fantasy anthology. On-sale date: 4 September 2007.
The fun and unique collection that is Many Bloody Returns: Tales of Birthdays with Bite contains thirteen all new, never before published stories by today’s hottest vampire writers, each one offering a fresh take on the concept of what birthdays mean to the undead. Many of the contributors have set their stories in the worlds of their bestselling novels.
Suspenseful, surprising, sometimes dark, and sometimes humorous—these thirteen original stories will ensure you’ll never think of vampires or birthdays quite the same again. A must-have for fans of the genre!
[Contributors: Kelley Armstrong, Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, Bill Crider, P.N. Elrod, Christopher Golden, Carolyn Haines, Tate Hallaway, Charlaine Harris, Tanya Huff, Toni L.P. Kelner, Jeanne C. Stein, and Elaine Viets.]
The Flyer by Marjorie Jones
Medaillion, $7.95, ~350pp, pb, 9781933836225. Historical romance. On-sale date: September 2007.
Paul Campbell has fought the Turks, Germans, and the occasional rogue crocodile. A confirmed bachelor, veteran of the Great War and Jack-of-all-Trades in the rough country of Western Australia, he is free to live the rest of his life in peace. He has only one goal: to make life easier on the residents of the Outback by flying medicine, supplies, and the occasional letter to those who live in Australia’s sprawling interior. That is, until a wounded woman lands on his doorstep begging for a gentle hand and a warm kiss—even if she doesn’t know it yet.
A new doctor, Helen Stanwood leaves the relative comfort of her San Francisco home with a mission. She will abandon and forget the pain of her former existence by devoting herself to helping those in need. But when she arrives in Australia she is faced with the realization that she can’t run away from herself, her past, or…
The Flyer.
Kiss Me Deadly by Susan Kearney
Tor, $6.99, 326pp, pb, 9780765356673. Romantic Suspense.
Mandy Newman and her coworkers won the biggest lottery in history… then someone stole the ticket. Now Mandy’s fellow winners are being murdered one by one, and an attempted drowning convinces Mandy she’s next on the killer’s hit list. In urgent need of protection and help to recover the ticket, she finds both, wrapped in the sexy form of DEA agent Zachary Taylor.
But Zack abandoned Mandy once before, so relying on him doesn’t come easy. If she’s going to trust him, he needs to start telling her the truth. And she must do the same—since Mandy has a secret that could devastate them both. While on the run, Mandy and Zack struggle between sparking sensuality and latent distrust. But can they overcome their past as a killer attempts to destroy their future?
Red Spikes by Margo Lanagan
Knopf, $16.99, 176pp, hc, 9780375843204. Fantasy collection for younger readers. On-sale date: 9 October 2007.
Looking for a great fantasy read? Well, Random House Children’s Books has one that teenage and adult fantasy lovers are sure to enjoy. Red Spikes by award-winning Australian author Margo Lanagan, is 10 captivating short stories filled with fantasy, reality, intrigue, and fear. It is a collection that readers will be hard-pressed to put down.
The electrifying stories in Red Spikes take place in worlds not quite our own, and yet each one illuminates what it is to be human. In “Baby Jane,” a young boy breathes life into an array of tiny figures that includes a bear, a bald servant, and a pregnant queen. When the queen goes into labor, only the boy is able to hear her cries and help deliver the baby. And then he is bestowed with a present like no other. “A Feather in the Breast of God” finds a higher being seeking refuge in the body of a family bird in order protect a daughter from the damaging effects of drugs and an older man. And in “Under Hell, Over Heaven” the way a soul gains entrance into heaven is revealed through the character of Leah, a soul forced to walk the Outer limits since she was never baptized. Readers will enter worlds where anything is possible—where man can create a mouse through magic, and little girls can travel to a fairyland to find the twin they never knew existed.
Margo Lanagan’s magical prose will surely leave an imprint on readers of all ages, who will be wowed by all ten stories found in Red Spikes. Lanagan continues to be a remarkable literary talent, as evidenced by these remarkable stories.
[Contents: “Baby Jane,” “Monkey’s Paternoster,” “A Good Heart,” “Winkie,” “A Feather in the Breast of God,” “Hero Vale,” “Under Hell, Over Heaven,” “Mouse Maker,” “Forever Upward,” and “Daughter of the Clay.”]
Hurricane Moon by Alexis Glynn Latner
Pyr, $15.00, 399pp, tp, 9781591025450. Science fiction.
In the late twenty-first century, Earth is wracked by political and ecological crises, and the Aeon Foundation launches a starship to find a new world and found a new civilization, with all the advances of science and without the mistakes made on Earth. Catharin Gault is the idealistic astronaut-physician of in Aeon‘s primary crew. Along with the rest of the crew and passenger-colonists, she goes into stasis—cold suspended animation—for the long journey across the stars, their collective fate surrendered to the ship’s artificial intelligence.
Things go amiss even before the new world’s beginning. Programmed to search for a planet with a large moon (the only way to guarantee stable seasons, tides, and an Earthlike ecosystem after terraforming), the ship takes far too long, then finds a destination better than Catharin ever dared hope for: two Earth-sized planets locked in orbit around each other. The one dubbed “Planet Green” has abundant plant life and a paucity of large animals. “Planet Blue” is an oceanic world covered with hurricanes. Several things about Blue baffle Aeon‘s planetary scientists. To everyone else, it’s simply a big, blue moon.
Revived from stasis more than a thousand years after the starship left Earth, Catharin makes a horrible discovery. The long stasis damaged the complex organic molecules in human bodies. Unless the human genome can be repaired, there will be no future on idyllic Planet Green. Aeon has tremendous biomedical resources, but Catharin needs more. Shen eeds a genetic miracle-worker—and she has one. She revives Joseph Devreze: a uniquely talented molecular biologist and maddeningly irresponsible genius. A crown prince of the science of his century, Devreze made a terrible mistake, followed a seductive line of research too far, and made one powerful enemy too many. In a trap of his own unwitting making, he saw only one way out: escape to the other side of the stars. Now, Catharin must rely on this untrustworthy maverick to help her save humanity on Green. Their mutual attraction ratchets up as their conflict with each other escalates. Together Catharin and Joe must decide how they can face, and embrace, a future utterly at odds with the Foundation’s plans and their own expectations.
And all the while the mystery of the Hurricane Moon loomms over them.
The Best of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet: Unexpected Tales of the Fantastic & Other Odd Musings edited by Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant
Del Rey, $14.95, 396pp, tp, 9780345499134. Fantasy anthology. On-sale date: 28 August 2007.
In 1996, a small zine with a large name and larger ambitions appeared out of nowhere on the literary scene. From the very start, it was clear that something special, even historic, was happening between its covers. With a fertile mix of fiction and non-fiction (and hybrids that blurred the two) from established writers and talented unknowns, with eccentric lists and odd compendiums, and an acerbically witty advice column, “Dear Aunt Gwenda,” Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet quickly became an indispensable pleasure for discerning readers.
Now, to celebrate a decade of success, editors Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant have combed back issues to find the very best, now collected in The Best of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. The result is an astonishing harvest of first-rate writing that slips across and between genres, featuring such award-winning talents as Karen Joy Fowler, Jeffrey Ford, Molly Gloss, James Sallis, Nalo Hopkinson, and Link herself, along with up-and-coming stars like Tim Pratt, Sarah Monette, Karen Russell, and Theodora Goss.
Isn’t it time you caught up with Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet?
[Contributors: David Blair, Gwenda Bond, John Brown, Richard Butner, Dan Chaon, Becca De La Rosa, K.E. Duffin, David Findlay, Amy Beth Forbes, Jeffrey Ford, Karen Joy Fowler, Nan Fry, Geoffrey H. Goodwin, D.M. Gordon, Theodora Goss, Seana Graham, Gavin J. Grant, Nalo Hopkinson, Sunshine Ison, Jan Lars Jensen, John Kessel, Douglas Lain, Kelly Link, Ian McDowell, Sarah Micklen, David Moles, Sarah Monette, Margaret Muirhead, David Erik Nelson, Philip Raines & Harvey Welles, Deborah Roggie, Mark Rudolph, Karen Russell, James Sallis, Veronica Schanoes, Lawrence Schimel & Sara Rojo, David J. Schwartz, William Smith, Cara Spindler & David Erik Nelson, and Ray Vukcevich.]
Do You Believe in Magic? by Ann Macela
Medallion, $7.95, ~380pp, pb, 9781933836167. Paranormal romance. On-sale date: October 2007.
According to lore, an ancient force called the soulmate imperative brings together magic practitioners and their mates. They always nearly fall into each other’s arms at first sight. Always… or so the story goes.
But what happens if they don’t? What happens when one mate rejects the other—in fact won’t have anything to do with him? Who doesn’t even believe in magic to begin with?
Computer wizard Clay Morgan is in just such a position. Francie Stevens has been badly hurt by a charming and good looking man and has decided to avoid any further involvements. Although the hacker plaguing her company’s system forces her into an investigation led by the handsome practitioner, she vows to keep her distance from Clay.
The imperative has other ideas, however, and so does Clay. He must convince Francie that magic exists and he can wield it. It’s a prickly problem. Especially when Francie uses the imperative itself against him in ways neither it, nor Clay, ever anticipated.
The Princes of the Golden Cage by Nathalie Mallet
Night Shade Books, $7.99, 312pp, pb, 9781957800907. Fantasy.
Prince Amir lives in a lavish and beautiful cage. He shares a palace with over a hundred of his brothers, all barred from ever leaving until he, or one of them, becomes the next Sultan. Living under constant threat of death at the hands of his scheming brothers, Amir has chosen a life of solitude and study. But his scholarly and alchemical pursuits bring him under suspicion when, one by one, his brothers are struck down by darkest sorcery.
Amir’s monastic existence is also turned upside-down when he falls passionately in love with the beautiful Princess Eva, an exotic visitor from a far-off kingdom. Alas, the princess is destined to marry the next Sultan—and Amir has dozens of more ambitious brothers vying for the throne… assuming they survive the unnatural menace preying on their royal blood.
To clear his name, Amir must track down the true source of the darkness stalking the palace. But even if he can somehow save his rival brothers, must he then watch one of them wed the woman he loves? Or will he die without ever setting foot outside his opulent cage?
Stan Lee: Conversations edited by Jeff McLaughlin
University Press of Mississippi, $20.00, 237pp, tp, 9781578069859. Comic Studies / Biography.
Stan Lee humanized the super-hero and gained new respect for comics.
Stan Lee (b. 1922) is one of the most successful and influential writers and publishers in comics. Lee, the co-creator of seminal superheroes such as the Amazing Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, and the Uncanny X-Men, instilled the genre with angst, contemporary politics, and pop culture. His role as a spokesperson and impressario for Marvel Comics paved the way for the superhero genre to be taken seriously by mainstream American culture.
Stan Lee: Conversations collects interviews ranging from 1968 to 2005. Editor Jeff McLaughlin has assembled conversations that display Lee’s charm, good humor, and keen business sense. Featured in this book are spirited conversations with cartoonists Harvey Kurtzman and Garry Trudeau, talk show host Dick Cavett, and Jenette Kahn, executive editor of DC Comics (Marvel’s arch nemesis).
Lee speaks with candor about his adherence to a high standard for his comics. In a 1968 television interview with Dick Cavett, Lee explains his intention when creating a comic book. “We try to write them well, we try to draw them well; we try to make them as sophisticated as a comic book can be.”
The volume concludes with a new interview conducted by the editor. Stan Lee: Conversations is an insightful look at one of comics’ most significant figures.
Street of Death by Mary Ann Mitchell
Medallion, $7.95, ~350pp, pb, 9781932815847. Horror. On-sale date: October 2007.
It is 15th Century Spain and the Inquisition is raging. Countless hapless souls find a torturous death bound to the fiery hell of burning stakes.
Though her father is burned as a Jewish heretic, Susanna Diego escapes and gives birth to a daughter, Teresa, at a convent. Her prayer is that the child will never know of her Jewish background and suffer persecution from the Inquisition. And then, as Susanna lays dying, she asks that her skull be fixed above the lintel of the Diego family home.
Twenty years later, the nuns send Teresa to care for wealthy Roberto Velez, a former Jew, who has converted to Roman Catholicism. Teresa quickly learns, however, the conversion is false… and it is not the only danger the family, and now she herself, is in.
Roberto’s son Louis is bewitched by the lovely Teresa. To keep her at his side after his father’s death, he informs her he know who her birth mother was—and where her skull resides—and offers a burial in a Christian cemetery. But, caught with the skull, Louis is arrested by the Inquisition, and Teresa is accused of being a witch. Has Teresa finally found her fate, the fate of those who lived on The Street of Death?
N-Space by Larry Niven
Tor, $15.95, 534pp, tp, 9780765318244. Science fiction collection.
Multiple Hugo and Nebula award winner Larry Niven presents us with a collection of his science fiction masterpieces in N-Space. On an L.A. talk show Arthur C. Clarke was once asked to name his favorite writer. “Larry Niven” was his answer. Numerous others agree. The Baltimore Sun and Kirkus Reviews have both hailed Niven as “the premier writer of hard SF,” and Gregory Benford has acclaimed him as “the paradigm of SF personality of the last several decades.”
First published in hardcover (Tor, 1990) this new edition of N-Space includes:
* An introduction by Tom Clancy, one of Niven’s biggest fans
* Excerpts from some of his most loved novels, including World of Ptavvs, A Gift from Earth, Ringworld, and The Mote in God’s Eye
* His best short fiction, including, “Bordered in Black,” “The Fourth Profession,” “Madness Has Its Place,” and many others
* Notes from Niven describing his inspirations and building blocks for his writing
N-Space contains the best SF of his career—marvelous fiction, a wealth of anecdotes and gossip, plus Niven’s own special brand of wit and excitement. A retrospective of Niven’s career, N-Space entertains every science fiction reader.
One Beastly Beast (Two Aliens, Three Inventors, Four Fantastic Tales) by Garth Nix (illustrated by Brian Biggs)
Eos, $15.99, 158pp, hc, 9780060843199. Children’s fantasy.
One of the most praised fantasy writers of our time, internationally best-selling author Garth Nix brings middle-grade readers One Beastly Beast, a new collection of short stories perfect for young imaginative minds.
There’s something for everyone in this collection of humorous fantasy-adventure stories. A girl befriends a fierce serpent who is frightening her entire town. A boy is transported into a world of pirate rats. A princess faces a beastly beast lingering just outside her castle walls. And aliens try to adopt (or is that kidnap?) a boy inventor. They’re all illustrated with funny black and white line art by Brian Biggs.
Laugh-out-loud funny and delightfully dark, One Beastly Beast is tailor-made for younger readers who love a taste of adventure, magic and fantasy.
Ivory: A Legend of Past and Future by Mike Resnick
Pyr, $15.00, 322pp, tp, 9781591025467. Science fiction.
In the year 6303, when Earth is bare of anything larger than an insect or a mouse and most people have left for the stars, Duncan Rojas receives a most unusual visitor. His name is Bukoba Mandaka, and he is the last of the Maasai.
Mandaka wants Rojas, senior researcher for Braxton’s Records of Big Game, to find the tusks of the Kilimanjaro Elephant, tusks that weigh over 200 lb. each. Why? Mandaka will not say, but he will pay enormous sums for them. And Rojasa cannot resist the challenge of tracing something lost for 3000 years.
Back and forth through time, in card games, wars, and rivalries, Rojas searches. But as he begins to glimpse the elusive, lost power of ancient Africa, he is seduced, and before long the quest has become his own.
With Ivory, Mike Resnick has created a powerful novel spanning worlds and centuries, an exploration of the nature of history and legend, and a riveting parable for our times.
Selling Out by Justina Robson
(Quantum Gravity, Book Two), Pyr, $15.00, 288pp, tp, 9781591025979. Fantasy. On-sale date: October 2007.
Book two of the Quantum Gravity series sees Lila Black drawn into the intoxicatingly dangerous demon realm. Capricious, in love with beauty, demons are best left to themselves. This is not easy when they can’t resist tampering with humans.
Justina Robson’s new series is a joyful melding of science fiction and fantasy brought together in the figure of the dangerously lovely Lila Black, a 21-year-old secret agent who’s had much of her body replaced with weapon-and-armor-heavy intelligent metal and who isn’t sure where her mind ends and her installed AI begins. Lila’s world is one where demons, elves, and elementals live alongside people. And somehow Lila and the other agents of the security agency have to provide security for all and stay alive themselves.
Gossamer Hall by Erin Samiloglu
Medallion, $7.95, ~380pp, pb, 9781932815894. Horror. On-sale date: October 2007.
Juan Fuentes has a special gift. He can make objects appear out of nowhere, true pieces of matter created only with the fragments of his imagination, and on a stormy night during a history class at Brookhaven College, Juan makes the dead come alive.
Ruthless nineteenth century murderers Mack “Mad” Maron and his three henchmen rise from their unmarked graves bloodthirsty, ripe for vengeance, and the night becomes one of survival for the students of Gossamer Hall—Lars, a criminal on the run. Reagan, a woman recovering from the suspicious death of her daughter. Lily, a beautiful girl with a dark secret. Josh and Caleb, two jocks on the rebond after a brush with drugs. Mark, a savvy whiz kid.
As the night deepens into a hole of death, as the thunder and lightning rage war in the sky, it becomes clear there is only one way to stop the undead evil, and the secret lies within the dark rooms of Gossamer Hall…
Death and the Devil by Frank Schatzing
(translated by Mike Mitchell), William Morrow, $25.95, 391pp, hc, 9780061349485. Historical mystery / fantasy.
Death and the Devil debuted in Germany in 1995 and became a sensation. Over a quarter of a million copies have been sold, and the book has become a bestseller across Europe. The author, Frank Schatzing, has been praised for his fast-paced writing, impeccable historical recreation, and ability to bring a medieval city to life on the page. He’s won several major writing awards, and his 2004 book The Swarm garnered attention around the world. This is the first time Death and the Devil is available in English translation.
The spectacular Cologne Cathedral took over six hundred years to complete and became the world’s tallest building when the last stone was laid on this iconic structure. Millions of tourists visit the beautiful German church every year.
But most people don’t know the dark secret lurking in its past. In 1260 architect Gerhard Morart plummeted from the roof of the cathedral to his death below. Some say Master Gerhard took a wrong step on the uneven, unfinished surface, and his demise was merely a tragic accident. Others said he was building too high, too close to God, and this was God’s punishment. The superstitious people of Cologne feared something much more sinister: the devil came to take Gerhard down to hell.
Now, 747 years later, Cologne-based novelist Frank Schatzing became convinced that it was neither an honest mistake nor Lucifer himself—it was a true medieval mystery. He fleshes out this scenario in vivid and intriguing detail in his international bestseller Death and the Devil.
American readers will find themselves immediately immersed in the political turmoil of thirteenth century Cologne, a thriving commercial center full of wealth and controlled by the city’s power brokers. Rich families control import and export, which pits them against Cologne’s Lord Archbishop. From the midst of this ongoing struggle rises one of the most ambitious buildings of the era. No one but the brilliant and adored Master Gerhard Morart could have planned such a strong but delicate design; he was the first to bring the gothic style to Cologne.
Gerhard’s death kicks off a terrifying string of murders all over the city. Jacob the Fox, the witness, a street smart beggar and thief, is very superstitious, and fears the Angel of Death has come to earth. Swift, intelligent, and strong, the killer leads a life entangled with the wealthy families’ darkest secrets and basest desires. Add to this fascinating cast of characters a beautiful woman, her drunken father, an argumentative doctor—as well as a cruel conspiracy—and you have a historical mystery that will reverberate with readers.
Vampire Transgression by Michael Schiefelbein
St. Martin’s Griffin, $14.95, 268pp, tp, 9780312374396. Fantasy. On-sale date: September 2007.
Taut with complexity, Michael Schiefelbein’s Vampire Transgression is the culmination of his two previous novels—Vampire Vow and Vampire Thrall—and the undead world they have built.
Victor Decimus is a two thousand year old vampire, having last seen the sun when he was a Roman soldier posted to Nazareth at the time of Christ. There are few rules that govern a vampire’s existence but those rules are absolute: 1) Vampires are not allowed to associate with other vampires and 2) Once a vampire convinces a human to take his place as a vampire, he must leave the earthly realm for the Dark Kingdom.
Now Victor has broken both rules—he’s sired his human lover Paul as a vampire and stayed behind with him on earth as his lover. The two enjoy an intense life as vampire lovers, living in Georgetown and mingling at their private nightclub where little is forbidden. But their transgression is not taken lightly and agents for the Dark Realm are now on the prowl, looking to enforce the rules and, if necessary, punish Paul and Victor by threatening all that remains precious to them.
Eye of the Beholder by Shari Shattuck
Signet, $6.99, 387pp, pb, 9780451221995. Fantasy. On-sale date: 4 September 2007.
Greer Sands is seeing thingws. She has always tried to ignore her psychic abilities and downplay her visions but she can’t ignore the warnings anymore. In Shari Shattuck’s new novel, Eye of the Beholder, Greer is trying to start a new life, and open a new branch of her spa business in a quiet and peaceful suburb of Los Angeles. Greer and her teenage son, Joshua, are settling in nicely to their new home town. But Greer can feel something evil brewing in the neighborhood. Joshua is starting to sense his mom’s fears and begins having visions of his own. With no knowledge of his mother’s gift he doesn’t understand what it all means. But when he sees visions of his missing friend Joy, he knows he has to use his power to find her. Can Greer and Joshua team up and save their new community from the danger that surrounds them?
The Sunrise Lands by S.M. Stirling
Roc, $24.95, 453pp, hc, 9780451461704. On-sale date: September 2007.
S.M. Stirling, whose masterful hand created the alternate Oregon that drew readers into the compelling trilogy of Dies the Fire, The Protector’s War, and A Meeting at Corvallis, returns to that absorbing world with the refreshing perspective of a new generation.
A generation has passed since The Change that rendered technology inoperable around the world, and western Oregon has finally achieved a degree of peace. But a new threat has risen in Paradise Valley, Wyoming. A man known as The Prophet presides over the Church Universal and Triumphant, teaching his followers to continue God’s work by destroying the remnants of technological civilization and those who dare to use them.
Rudi Mackenzie, son and heir of the mystic Juniper and the High Priestess of the Clan Mackenzie, must journey with seven friends across a continent in chaos to the Sunrise Lands to solve the riddle of what destroyed civilization. As the friends journey farther into the interior, enemies may be within their own band as well as outside it. His quest across the changed land that was once America is sure to ignite the imagination and set the heart ablaze.
Necronomicon Tarot by Donald Tyson, artwork by Anne Stokes
Llewellyn, $26.95, boxed kit (includes 78-card deck, 240-page book, and black organdy bag), 9780738710860. Body, Mind, Spirit / Divination / Tarot. On-sale date: September 2007.
Donald Tyson strikes again with another innovative tribute to renowned occult writer H.P. Lovecraft. Tyson’s trilogy of works—inspired by the magical adventures of the mad sorcerer Abdul Alhazred—achieves brilliant completion with Necronomicon Tarot.
Gruesome gods, sinister monsters, and other strange creatures lurk throughout this fully functional tarot deck. All seven rulers of the old ones from Tyson’s Necronomicon star among the deck’s trumps. Including the great amphibian deity Dagon as the Hierophant and the ancient witch I’thakuah as the Hermit. The symbolism of these vividly illustrated cards corresponds with astrology, the elements, and the Golden Dawn, while the deck’s structure honors the boundaries of traditional tarot.
Donald Tyson has written more than a dozen nonfiction books on Western occult subjects such as divination, ceremonial magic, and the Kabbalah. He is also the creator of rune dice and author of three novels. His book Secrets of the Necronomicon, included in this kit, features detailed descriptions of the cards and the meanings for both upright and reversed positions. Tyson also offers divination guidance and a special divination spread.
The Remarkable Invention that Save Zion by Yehudit Stupniker
(a tale of TRIZ), Pitspopany, $18.95, 293pp, hc, 9781932687743. Young adult science fiction.
The Theory of Invention Problem Solving (TRIZ) forms the scientific basis of this fast-paced adventure story that takes place in Israel’s future.
Four Israeli students, along with their visiting American cousin, gain a sneak preview of a Professor’s latest invention. This machine, if utilized in the hands of the wrong people, could change the very foundation of Israel’s society. Unwittingly, the foursome’s curiosity creates a Pandora’s box of troubles as the invention is stolen by an unscrupulous spy.
Discovering the thief’s identity and uncovering his purpose will hopefully save the country and reawaken the bond that exists between the Land and its People. In order to ferret out the spy and get back the invention, the group uses a TRIZ technique that will both amaze the reader and reveal how to unlock the ability to solve any problem with the innate logic of your mind.
The Aremac Project by Gerald M. Weinberg
Dorset House, $23.95, 368pp, tp, 9780932633705. Science fiction techno-thriller.
Can the Aremac Project save a bomb-shattered Chicago from terrorists bent on destruction and extortion?
To find out, read The Aremac Project, a new sci-fi thriller by award-winning author Jerry Weinberg that pits technology against terrorism in a body-strewn race against time.
Drawing on neuroscience and nanotechnology, grad students Roger Fixman and Tess Myers develop the software and machinery to take pictures of a person’s memory. Unwittingly, these earnest researchers provide the US government—and its enemies—with a new and deadly form of interrogation.
The Aremac Roger and Tess develop is just what FBI agents Don Capitol and Lucinda Duke need as they attempt to identify and pursue a terrorist group that is bombing landmarks in Chicago and attempting to extort millions from the city.
Desperate for clues, Agents Capitol and Duke hire Roger and Tess to delve into a suspect’s mind. But just as their prisoner’s defenses start to crumble, a murderer puts an end to their progress.
The Aremac holds the key to identifying the murderer, which makes the machine—and its developers, Roger and Tess—the next terrorist target.
Lady of Light and Shadows by C.L. Wilson
(the finale of Lord of the Fading Lands), Leisure, $7.99, 386pp, pb, 9780843959789. Paranormal romance. On-sale date: November 2007.
Author C.L. Wilson has already generated substantial buzz in the publishing industry for her October debut novel Lord of the Fading Lannds. Featured on DearAuthor.com as well as USAToday.com, Wilson is making a name for herself as a powerful writer of epic-fantasy romance.
In this captivating conclusion to Wilson’s debut, Lady of Light and Shadows continues the journey readers began in Lord of the Fading Lands. This sequel fulfills all the promise of Wilson’s first novel, bringing back readers’ favorite characters and delving even more deeply into the rich and magical world Wilson has created.j Fey King Rain Tairen Soul must prove to his truemate Ellysetta that he is worthy of her love and that together they are strong enough to drive back the darkness and save their struggling worlds.
Publishers Weekly praised Lord of the Fading Lands as “a promising start, this series should have great appeal for fans of fantasy and will likely reward romance readers…” Readers who enjoyed Wilson’s first book and found themselves desperate for more from this talented writer will not be disappointed. Lady of Light and Shadows will once again prove Wilson a gifted writer of epic, magical romance.