This page is updated as books are received throughout the month.
Moon’s Fury by C.T. Adams & Cathy Clamp
(a tale of the Sazi), Tor, $6.99, 371pp, pb, 9780765356642. Paranormal romance.
Cara Salinas has been leading the small Mexican red wolf pack in Tedford County, Texas, since she was thirteen.
Adam Mueller, formerly a beat cop from the toughest part of Minneapolis and now the new country sheriff, must find a way to integrate his exiled Minnesotan wolves with Cara’s red wolves.
Cara and Adam clash in the way only fated mates ever do—and both refuse to accept their destiny. But when a pack of vicious Sazi raptors start to feed on the wolf-children of both packs, Cara and Adam must learn to respect each other, and embrace their future together to save the future of the Texan wolves.
Hailed as the “premiere authors of paranormal romance” and “true genre luminaries” by Romantic Times BOOKreviews, and winners of the 2006 Romantic Times Award for Best Werewolf Romance for Moon’s Web, Cathy Clamp & C.T. Adams are back with another tale of shapeshifters, passion, and pack politics in Moon’s Fury.
The Front Porch Prophet by Raymond Atkins
Medallion, $25.95, 320pp, hc, 9781933836386. Mainstream fiction. On-sale date: June 2008.
What do a trigger-happy bootlegger with pancreatic cancer, an alcoholic helicopter pilot who is afraid to fly, and a dead guy with his feet in a camp stove have in common?
What are the similarities between a fire department that cannot put out fires, a policeman who has a historic cabin fall on him from out of the sky, and an entire family dedicated to a variety of deceased authors?
Where can you find a war hero named Termite with a long knife stuck in his liver, a cook named Hoghead who makes the world’s worst coffee, and a supervisor named Pillsbury who nearly gets hung by his employees?
Sequoyah, Georgia, is the answer to all three questions. They arise from the relationship between A.J. Longstreet and his best friend since childhood, Eugene Purdue. After a parting of ways due to Eugene’s inability to accept the constraints of adulthood, he reenters A.J.’s life with terminal cancer and the dilemma of executing a mercy killing when the time arrives.
Take this gripping journey to Sequoyah, Georgia, and witness A.J.’s battle with mortality, euthanasia, and his adventure back to the past and people who made him what he is—and helps him make the decision that will alter his life forever.
One for Sorrow by Christopher Barzak
Bantam, $12.00, 309pp, tp, 9780553384369. Fiction.
Adam McCormick had just turned fifteen when the body was found in the woods. It is the beginning of an autumn that will change his life forever. Jamie Marks was a boy a lot like Adam, a boy no one paid much attention to—a boy almost no one would truly miss. And for the first time, Adam feels he has a purpose. Now, more than ever, Jamie needs a friend.
But the longer Adam holds on to Jamie’s ghost, the longer he keeps his friend tethered to a world where he no longer belongs… and the weaker Adam’s own ties to the living become. Now, to find his way back, Adam must learn for himself what it truly means to be alive.
Chernobyl Murders by Michael Beres
Medallion, $25.95, 512pp, hc, 9781933836294. International thriller. On-sale date: June 2008.
1985, a year before the Chernobyl disaster. Hidden away in a wine cellar in the western Ukraine, Chernobyl engineer Mihaly Horvath, brother of a Kiev Militia detectiva Lazlo Horvath, reveals details of unnecessary risks being taken at the Chernobyl plant. Concerned for his brother and family, Lazlo investigates—irritating superiors, drawing the attention of a CIA operative, raising the hackles of an old school KGB major, and discovering his brother’s secret affair with Juli Popovics, a Chernobyl technician.
When the Chernobyl plant explodes scores of lives are changed forever. As Lazlo questions his brother’s death in the blast, Juli arrives in Kiev to tell the detective she carries his brother’s child. If their lives aren’t complicated enough, KGB major Grigor Komarov enters the fray, reawakening a hard-line past to manipulate deadly resources.
Now the Ukraine is not only blanketed with deadly radiation, but becomes a killing ground involving pre-perestroika factions in disarray, a Soviet government on its last legs, and madmen hungry for power as they eye Gorbachev’s changes.
With a poisoned environment at their backs and a killer snapping at their heels, Lazlo and Juli flee for their lives—and their love—toward the Western frontier.
Shadows on the Soul by Jenna Black
(Book Three of the Guardians of the Night), Tor, $6.99, 293pp, pb, 9780765357175. Paranormal romance.
The third book in the Guardians of the Night series brings out the baddest of the bad boys…
Gabriel is a five hundred year old vampire with the soul of a Killer. He has defeated his mother in a battle for the territory of Baltimore, and vowed to take vengeance upon his father, the Master of Philadelphia, for a centuries-old betrayal.
Jezebel, Gabriel’s new fledgling, is a soul as scarred as his own, yet Gabriel finds that the ice around his heart slowly melts when she is near. But one of Gabriel’s ancient enemies has targeted her—and if Gabriel wants to save her, he will have to abandon his plans for revenge and join forces with his father.
The question is not whether or not Gabriel can redeem himself from his past, but whether he can ever forgive himself…
Dzur by Steven Brust
(the newest adventure of Vlad Taltos), Tor, $6.99, 285pp, pb, 9780765341549. Fantasy.
From the bestselling author of the Vlad Taltos novels comes the long-awaited tenth installment in his swashbuckling adventure fantasy. Dzur picks up where Dragon and Issola left off with its sharp-witted assassin, Vlad, on the run, dodging a price on his head and trying to repair some old relationships. Long-time readers will enjoy another formidable cast of characters and an increasingly rich storyline in the Vlad Taltos world.
Vlad Taltos, short-statured, short-lived human in an Empire of tall, long-lived dragaerans, has always had to keep his wits about him. Long ago, he made a place for himself as a captain of the Jhereg, the noble house that runs the rackets in the great imperial city of Adrilankha. But love, revolution, betrayal, and revenge ensued, and for years now Vlad has been a man on the run, struggling to stay a step ahead of the Jhereg who would kill him without hesitation.
Now Vlad’s back in Adrilankha. The rackets he used to run are now under the control of the mysterious “Left Hand of the Jhereg”—a secretive cabal of women who report to no man. His ex-wife needs his help. His old enemies aren’t sure whether they want to kill him, or talk to him and then kill him. A goddess may be playing tricks with his memory. And the Great Weapon he’s carrying seems to have plans of its own.
The Time Thief by Linda Buckley-Archer
(Book Two in the Gideon Trilogy), Simon & Schuster, $17.99, 491pp, hc, 978146915270. Middle grades fantasy. On-sale date: 26 December 2007.
What happens when a 17th century bad guy has 21st century technology at his disposal?
In the first volume of the acclaimed Gideon Trilogy, an accident with an anti-gravity machine catapulted Peter Schock and Kate Dyer into 1763. As The Time Thief opens, a bungled rescue attempt has left Peter stranded in the 18th century while a terrifying villain, The Tar Man, takes his place and explodes onto 21st century London. Concerned about the potentially catastrophic effects of time travel, the NASA scientists responsible for the situation question whether it is right to rescue Peter. Kate decides to take matters into her own hands, and contacts Peter’s father for help. But things don’t go as planned, and soon the physical effects of time travel begin to have a disturbing effect on Kate. Meanwhile, in present day London, The Tar Man wreaks havoc in a city whose police force are powerless to stop him…
Accurate historical detail comes alive as Buckley-Archer weaves together the past and present and trials of Gideon, Kate, Peter, and The Tar Man. Set against a background of contemporary London and revolutionary France, The Time Thief is the breathtaking sequel to the acclaimed book one of the Gideon Trilogy, The Time Travelers, formerly titled Gideon the Cutpurse.
Captain’s Fury: Book Four of The Codex Alera by Jim Butcher
Ace, $24.95, 451pp, hc, 9780441015276. Fantasy. On-sale date: 4 December 2007.
Jim Butcher is primarily known for his New York Times bestselling urban fantasy series starring Harry Dresden. Published by Roc, The Dresden Files was made into a popular television show on the Sci-Fi Channel earlier this year. But Butcher is also the author of a traditional fantasy series, The Codex Alera. Publisher’s Weekly calls the series “marvelously entertaining” and Locus describes the books as “fascinating.” This December, the epic continues with Captain’s Fury: Book Four of The Codex Alera. Dresden Files fans will not be disappointed when they discover this new series.
After two years of war with the invading Canim warriors, Tavi of Calderon, Captain of the First Aleran Legion, realizes that there is another and more dangerous enemy facing their homes in Alera. The enemy that forced the citizens of Canim out of their homeland and into Alera is hte terrifying vord that will stop at nothing to kill and destroy. Now, Tavi must find a way to overcome the centuries-old animosities between Alera and Canim to forge an alliance against their mutual enemy.
The Pocket Essential Philip K. Dick by Andrew M. Butler
Trafalgar Square, £4.99, 160pp, pb, 9781904048923. Literary criticism, science fiction.
With a reputation that is still rising as the world catches up with the prodigious outpouring of his imagination, and Hollywood repeatedly raiding his tories—Blade Runner, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly—Philip K. Dick remains an intriguing literary and cultural figure. At a time when most science fiction was about cowboys in outer space, Dick explored the landscapes of the mind, conjured fake realities, and was able to make readers believe six impossible things before breakfast. Perhaps best-known for Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, he embodied the counterculture a decade before the 1960s. This fully revised and updated look at Dick’s world is a glimpse into a reality where psychiatrists come in suitcases, God speaks through cat food commercials and comes in a handy aerosol can, and where you might be a figment of someone else’s imagination. This pocket-sized volume reviews and analyzes each of Dick’s novels and provides a listing of other books and articles which have grappled with this genius.
A War of Gifts by Orson Scott Card (read by Scott Brick and Stefan Rudnicki)
(an Ender story), Audio Renaissance, $19.95, 2 CDs (2.5 hours unabridged), 9781593976316. Science fiction audiobook.
“Ender’s Game,” Orson Scott Card’s first short story, was published in the August 1977 issue of Analog. “Ender’s Game” was the foundation of Card’s career and was eventually developed into the Hugo and Nebula award-winning novel of the same name. The novel, Ender’s Game, subsequently published in 1985, has now sold well over a million copies and readers of every genre have made it one of the most popular science fiction novels ever written. Warner Brothers has optioned the film rights for both Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow and a screenplay is currently in the works.
Now, Orson Scott Card offers a Christmas gift to his millions of fans with A War of Gifts, a short audiobook set during Ender’s first years at the Battle School where it is forbidden to celebrate religious holidays.
In a recent conversation with fellow science fiction legend Ben Bova and the authors’ shared audiobooks producer Stefan Rudnicki, Orson Scott Card said, “I feel about the audio of my books as if that’s the real production of it… The print is the script that the readers use to create the audio performance.” Listeners can experience A War of Gifts in Card’s preferred book format with this audiobook, read by producer Rudnicki and acclaimed audiobook readers Scott Brick.… Brick and Rudnicki use their longtime experience narrating and producing Orson Scott Card’s works to deepen the listener’s appreciation of the author’s storytelling in A War of Gifts. As Card himself has said, “The oral performance of the book is the way that it is designed to be received… When somebody reads aloud, you can hear the music of the language.”
In A War of Gifts, the children at the Battle School come from many nations and many religions. And while they are being trained for war, religious observance of any kind between them is not on the curriculum. But Dink Meeker, one of the older students, doesn’t see it that way. He thinks that giving gifts isn’t exactly a religious observation, and on Sinterklaas Day he tucks a present into another student’s show. This small act of rebellion sets off a battle royal between the students and the staff, but some surprising alliances form when Ender comes up against a new student, Zeck Morgan. The War over Santa Claus will force everyone to make a choice.
The Pearls by Deborah Chester
(Book One of The Pearls and the Crown), Ace, $7.99, 295pp, pb, 9780441015481. Fantasy. On-sale date: 27 November 2007.
National bestselling author Deborah Chester enraptured readers with her acclaimed fantasy trilogy, The Sword, The Ring, The Chalice. Now she introduces the first book in a breathtaking new epic, The Pearls.
In this terrific new fantasy romance, the dark and evil Lord Shadrael is ordered to kidnap a member of the royal family. He chooses to take the younger sister of Emperor Caelan, the beautiful and virtuous Lady Lea. Lord Shadrael knows the princess is good-hearted and innocent but he doesn’t know she’s magically gifted with the ability to see into the heart of others. And when she sees something that moves her to tears, the tears are transformed into flawless pearls.
Despite his hardened warrior heart, Shadrael is drawn to the princess’s goodness and beauty, and while they are headed back to his home land, he begins to geel something he’s never felt before. Lady Lea can see his real inner beauty and knows her destiny is to save Shadrael from his own darkness. Torn between the orders of his brother and the love he never thought he could feel, Shadrael must choose between a life of virtue and goodness with Lady Lea and the life he’s always known. Knowing that this blossoming new love could create wars between the two families, Lady Lea must choose between her brother and her abductor.
The Psychology of Joss Whedon: An Unauthorized Exploration of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly bedited by Joy Davidson, PhD
BenBella, $17.95, 215pp, tp, 9781933771250. Psychology/Television.
What is it about a series with a goody name like Buffy the Vampire Slayer that made it become one of the best-loved TV series of all time, even spawning a successful spin-off show? And what about a space travel/Western series that was cancelled after less than one season could inspire such a devoted fan following that a major studio greenlit a feature film version?
Many fans and critics would find the answer obvious—it’s the incredible psychological depth delivered by the mind of series creator Joss Whedon. In the new collection The Psychology of Joss Whedon: An Unauthorized Exploration edited by Joy Davidson, PhD, experts dissect the psychological make-up of Whedon’s beloved creations.
With inquiries into the series that are both funny and profound, The Psychology of Joss Whedon examines ongoing themes including Angel’s mommy issues, terror management aboard Serenity, the effect of deep friendships within a peer group on the lifespan of a vampire slayer and Whedon’s ongoing use of radical feminist theory in his work.
Essays cover fascinating psychological terrain, like Buffy’s serial vampire-dating—despite being chosen to kill their kind; the link between sexual intimacy and the genuine possibility of losing one’s soul for Angel; and the strange circumstances of characters like Spike and River Tam, whose personalities drastically change as the result of psychological experimentation.
From free will to Christ-complexes, the provocative and entertaining essays in The Psychology of Joss Whedon will provide fans of the Whedonverse with new perspectives that will enrich viewings of these much-loved shows.
[Contributors: Robert Kurzban, Carol Poole, Thomas Flamson, Nicholas R. Eaton & Robert F. Krueger, Tracy R. Gleason & Nancy S. Weinfield, Brian Rabian & Michael Wolff, Wind Goodfriend, C. Albert Bardi & Sherry Hamby, Misty K. Hook, Bradley J. Daniels, Siamak Tundra Naficy & Karthik Panchanathan, Stephanie R. Delusé Mikhail Lyubansky, Ed Connor, and Joy Davidson.]
Serenity Found: More Unauthorized Essays on Joss Whedon’s Firefly Universe edited by Jane Espenson
BenBella, $17.95, 217pp, tp, 9781933771212. Television/Film.
The odyssey of Joss Whedon’s failed television series Firefly is one of the most unusual in Hollywood history—cancelled halfway through its first season, it seemed that the potential of this cutting-edge series would forever remain untapped. However, thanks to the cult-like following of Firefly‘s devoted fans and record-breaking DVD sales for the series box set, Firefly was made into a full-length feature film, Serenity, released theatrically in 2005.
Serenity Found: More Unauthorized Essays on Joss Whedon’s Firefly Universe is the follow-up to Finding Serenity, BenBella’s bestselling collection of essays on the television series. Serenity Found incorporates developments from the film Serenity in new essays edited by Firefly writer Jane Espenson, also known for her work on Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.
Essays include submissions from insiders, including Nathan Fillion’s (who played Captain Mal Reynolds, the lead character on the TV show and movie) memories from the set and ruminations on how playing the character Mal has affected him. Loni Peritere, Joss Whedon’s visual effects supervisor for Firefly and Serenity (as well as Buffy and Angel) discusses how “good visual effects are always about the story” and explains the theories behind how technology “works” in the Firefly universe. Serenity Found also includes essays on:
* The upcoming Firefly-based Multiverse online game (the most recently announced re-invention of the series)
* How the characterization in Firefly/Serenity sets it apart from other science fiction universes
* The role of Christianity and faith in the series and film
* The similarities (and dissimilarities) between the Alliance-Independents war and the American Civil War
* Mal as a libertarian political philosopher
* Whedon’s continual use of strong yet realistic female characters in all of his work
In these thoughtful and provocative essays, Serenity Found provides Browncoats with even more reasons to keep discussing (and re-watching!) this singular series and film.
[Contributors: Jane Espenson, Orson Scott Card, Maggie Burns, Natalie Haynes, Michael Marano, Nathan Fillion, P. Gardner Goldsmith, Shanna Swendson, Eric Greene, Alex Bledsoe, Lani Diane Rich, Loni Peristere, Natasha Giardina, Ken Wharton, Corey Bridges, Geoff Klock, Bruce Bethke, Evelyn Vaughn, and Jacob Clifton.]
Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams
Chicken House/Scholastic, $17.99, 480pp, hc, 9780439871778. On-sale date: January 2008.
Scholastic is proud to bring to America Tunnels, the best-selling debut fantasy novel by British authors Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams. Released to critical acclaim and widespread media attention in the United Kingdom in June 2007, film rights to the book were sold to Relativity Media for more than $1 million and the book has been licensed for more than 20 foreign editions. Co-authors Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams are the latest discoveries of publisher Barry Cunningham, whose previous finds include Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling and international best-selling author Cornelia Funke.
Tunnels is a suspenseful story that is sure to have generations of readers digging holes in their backyards. Fourteen-year-old Will Burrows has little in common with his strange, dysfunctional family. But he does share one bond with his odd father: an obsession with archaeological digs. When the two discover an abandoned tunnel buried beneath modern-day London, they believe they’re on the brink of a major find. But when his dad mysteriously vanishes, Will is compelled to uncover the truth behind his father’s disappearance. What he unearths is unbelievable: a subterranean society time forgot. But “The Colony” is no benign capsule of a bygone era, its citizens are enslaved by a strange, cruel sect, the Styx. Soon Will is lost in a dark underworld—and the deeper he descends, the deadlier it gets.
The Science of Dune: An Unauthorized Exploration into the Real Science Behind Frank Herbert’s Fictional Universe edited by Kevin R. Grazier, PhD
BenBella, $17.95, 209pp, tp, 9781933771281. Non-fiction. On-sale date: January 2008.
Set in a galaxy far away, more than 20,000 years in the future, the fictional world of Dune was created by Frank Herbert in 1965. Herbert’s Dune series explores real issues of political dissension, religious strife, ecological turmoil, technological advances and human relationships within the context of a fictional environment. It is the first best-selling hardcover sci-fi novel ever and is considered one of the best science fiction novels in history. Dune was also made into a movie in 1984 and a television miniseries in 2000.
The Science of Dune: An Unauthorized Exploration into the Real Science Behind Frank Herbert’s Fictional Universe, edited by sci-fi historian Kevin R. Grazier, PhD, offers a superb collection of expert analysis into the issues raised by this innovative and groundbreaking experiment in the science fiction genre.
Part of the BenBella Books Science of Pop Culture series, The Science of Dune provides a detailed study into Herbert’s Duniverse through 15 insightful and diagnosticc essays. The Science of Dune scrutinizes the feasibility and accuracy of Herbert’s intricate fictitious world, investigating topics such as physics, anthropology, chemistry, ecology, evolution, psychology, technology and genetics. The essayists featured in The Science of Dune debate and speculate the realness of the characters of Dune, the feasibility of various plot lines and the accurateness of technology and science featured in the Dune culture and society. The Science of Dune attempts to answer some of the most boggling questions raised by the Dune series including:
* Are the Bene Gesserit and mentat capabilities possible?
* Could humans really evolve in the absence of selection pressures as Herbert suggests?
* Is it theoretically possible to get information from the future?
* Are the technological inventions in Dune possible and have some of them already been created in modern society?
Through expert debate and research, The Science of Dune explores the probability of the science, technology and cultural experiments of Duniverse, while also uncovering how much of Herbert’s sci-fi sensation are still purely fictional musings in today’s society.
[Contributors: Carol Hart, Sergio Pistoi, Sibylle Hechtel, Ralph Lorenz, Sandy Field, Sharlotte Neely, Kevin J. Grazier PhD, John Smith, Csilla Csori, Ges Seger, and David M. Lawrence.]
The Future We Wish We Had edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Rebecca Lickiss
DAW, $7.99, 306pp, pb, 9780756404413. Science fiction anthology.
In the opening decade of the twenty-first century, many things which were predicted in science fiction stories of the twentieth century have become an accepted part of everyday life. Many other possibilities have not yet been realized but hopefully will be one day. For everyone who thought that by now they’d be motoring along the skyways in a personal jet car, or who assumed we’d have established bases on the Moon and Mars, or that we would have conquered disease, slowed the aging process to a crawl, eliminated war, social injustice, and economic inequity, here are sixteen stories of futures that might someday be ours or our children’s.
From a young man’s first sports sub… to a star-crossed Romeo and Juliette thwarted by twists in time… to a young woman who wants her wedding to be perfect in every detail, even if it takes an android father to accomplish it, here are tantalizing glimpses of times, places, and events that have long been part of science fiction’s future expectations.
[Contributors: Rebecca Lickiss, Esther M. Friesner, Sarah A. Hoyt, Dave Freer, Brenda Cooper, Kevin J. Anderson, Alan L. Lickiss, P.R. Frost, Loren L. Coleman, Mike Resnick & James Patrick Kelly, Lisanne Norman, Annie Reed, Julie Hyzy, Dean Wesley Smith, Irene Radford, Rebecca Moesta, and Kristine Kathryn Rusch.]
MechWarrior: Dark Age: The Last Charge by Jason M. Hardy
Roc, $6.99, 293pp, pb, 9780451461834. Science fiction.
It is a time of trials for the Marik-Stewart Commonwealth. Besieged by enemies on all sides, their once mighty forces are struggling to survive—as is their leader…
Anson Marik is at his wit’s end. His Lyran enemies—aided by the warriors of Clan Wolf—are pressing on the borders of the Commonwealth. His chief tactician has resigned in the midst of the chaos. And his abilities as a leader are failing him. He finds himself unable to summon the legendary rage that brings focus to his mind, and the loss couldn’t have happened at a worse time.
For his enemies are already on the move, taking the Commonwealth planet by planet, forcing Marik to pull his forces back in a bravely fought running retreat. And if Marik cannot gather his strength to stop the invasion, his people will be doomed.
Horrors Beyond 2: Stories of Strange Creations edited by William Jones
Elder Signs Press, $15.95, 333pp, tp, 9780977987634. Horror anthology.
Uncanny contraptions, weird devices, technologies beyond the control of humanity abound in the universe. Sometimes there are things that resist discovery. When science pushes the boundaries of understanding, terrible things push back. Often knowledge comes at a great cost. 21 unsettling tales of dark fiction are gathered in this volume, exploring the horrors beyond our reality.
Featuring Lovecraftian horror, dark fiction and science fiction by William C. Dietz, Richard A. Lupoff, A.A. Attanasio, Jay Caselberg, Robert Weinberg, John Shirley, Stephen Mark Rainey, Paul S. Kemp, Gene O’Neill, David Niall Wilson, Lucien Soulban, C.J. Henderson, Paul Melniczek, Greg Beatty, Ekaterina Sedia, Michail Velichansky, Tim Curran, Ron Shiflet, Alexis Glynn Latner, John Sunseri, and William Jones.
The Guin Saga by Kaoru Kurimoto (translated by Alexander O. Smith with Elye J. Alexander)
(Book One: The Leopard Mask), Vertical, $22.95, 231pp, hc, 9781932234510.
Wearing a leopard mask he cannot remove, the land’s mightiest warrior awakens in a forest. Beaten, half-starved, with no recollection of his past and only a faint recollection of his name.
He is Guin… and Guin is not happy…
More than a hundred books strong and growing, The Guin Saga is a phenomenon with sales in excess of twenty-five million copies in Japan.
High Deryni by Katherine Kurtz
Ace, $24.95, 449pp, hc, 9780441015269. Fantasy. On-sale date: 4 December 2007.
New York Times bestselling author Katherine Kurtz revisits her original trilogy with the concluding volume of the Deryni Chronicles< the series that launched her career. Now available for the first time in hardcover, High Deryni is the revised and expanded version of the original published in 1973.
Kelson Haldane sits upon the throne of Gwynedd. He is the legitimate heir of the crown that threatens the leaders of the Church of the land. The priesthood of the Eleven Kingdoms decried the Deryni as witches and heretics many generations ago. They drove them underground, and usurped control of the kingdom that rightfully belongs to Kelson and the Deryni. Now, Kelson will fight for his crown while inciting a civil war. But Kelson is not prepared for the tactics and magic these so called priests will use to keep what they see as theirs.
The Phoenix Unchained: Book One of The Enduring Flame by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory; read by William Dufris
Tantor Audio, $37.99, 11 CDs (13 hours, 30 minutes), Fantasy.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory first teamed up to write the Obsidian Trilogy, which was set in a wondrous world filled with magical beings, competing magic systems, and a titanic struggle between good and evil.
That world proved so popular with the creators and readers alike that Lackey and Mallory have returned to it again, with The Phoenix Unchained, the opening volume of a new epic fantasy trilogy.
After a thousand years of peace, much Magick has faded from the world. The Elves live far from humankind. Bisochim, a powerful, rare Wild Mage, is determined to reintroduce Darkness to the world, believing that it is out of Balance.
After saving Tiercel, a young nobleman, from an attack by Bisochim, Harrier, who had been next in line to be Harbormaster of Armethaliehand, is dismayed to realize that he is actually destined to become a hero. He and Tiercel begin a marvelous journey to uncover their destinies. Along the way, they meet a charming female centaur, several snooty Elves, and the most powerful dragon their world has ever known.
Trial of Flowers: A Novel of the City Imperishable by Jay Lake
Night Shade, $14.95, 263pp, tp, 9781597800563.
Trial of Flowers, by Campbell Award-winning author Jay Lake, explores the City Imperishable. Gods long since laid to rest now spread terror in the night, while invading armies race the oncoming snows of winter to besiege the walls. The City Imperishable’s secret master and heir to the long-vacant throne has vanished from a locked room, as politics have turned deadly in a bid to revive the City’s long-vanished empire.
The City’s dwards, stunted from spending their childhoods in confining boxes, are restive. Bijaz the Dwarf, leader of the Sewn faction among the dwards, fights their persecution. Jason the Factor, friend and apprentice to the missing master, works to maintain stability in the absence of a guiding hand. Imago of Lockwood struggles to revive the office of Lord Mayor in a bid to turn the City Imperishable away from the path of destruction.
These three must contend with one another as they strive to resolve the threats facing the City. A decadent urban fantasy in the tradition of Perdido Street Station, City of Saints & Madmen, and The Etched City, Trial of Flowers is a tour de force that demonstrates why Jay Lake is considered one of speculative fiction’s hottest talents.
The Missing by Sarah Langan
Harper, $6.99, 400pp, tp, 9780060872915. Suspense.
A remote and affluent Maine community, Corpus Christi was untouched by the environmental catastrophe that destroyed the neighboring blue-collar town of Bedford. But all that will change in a heartbeat…
The nightmare is awakened when third-grade schoolteacher Lois Larkin takes the children on a field trip to Bedford. There in the abandoned woods, a small, cruel boy unearths an ancient horror—a contagious plague that transforms its victims into something violent, hungry… and inhuman.
The long, dark night is just beginning. And all hope must die as the contagion feeds—for the malevolence will not rest until it has devoured every living soul in Corpus Christi… and beyond.
Staked by J.F. Lewis
Pocket, $14.00, 352pp, tp, 9781416547808. Fantasy. On-sale date: March 2008.
Unrepentent. Unimpressed. And totally undead.
Eric’s got issues. His short-term memory problem, for one. He has short-term and long-term memory problems; he can’t remember who he ate for dinner yesterday, much less how he became a vampire in the first place. His best friend, Roger, is souring on the strip club he and Eric own together. And his girlfriend, Tabitha, keeps pressuring him to turn her so she can join him in undeath. It’s almost enough to put a Vlad off his appetite. Almost.
Eric tries to solve one problem, only to create another: he turns Tabitha into a vampire, but finds that once he does, his desire for her fades—and her younger sister, Rachel, sure is cute. And when he kills a werewolf in self-defense, things really get out of hand. Now a pack of born-again lycanthropes is out for holy retribution, while Tabitha and Rachel have their own agendas—which may or may not include helping Eric stay in one piece.
All Eric wants to do is run his strip club, drink a little blood, and be left alone. Instead, he must survive car crashes, enchanted bullets, sunlight, sex magic, and werewolves on ice—not to mention his own nasty temper and forgetfulness.
Because being undead isn’t easy, but it sure beats the alternative.
Immensely appealing, witty, and subversive, Staked introduces an unforgettable new anti-hero to the fantasy game.
Victory Conditions by Elizabeth Moon
(the fifth and last volume of Vatta’s War), Del Rey, $26.00, 416pp, hc, 9780345491619. Science fiction. On-sale date: 19 February 2008.
Reading military science fiction by award-winning and bestselling author Elizabeth Moon is like stepping onto the interstellar battlefield yourself. Danger, deception, sabotage, and political intrigue surface on the pages of her fast-paced adventures. Now, the Nebula Award-winning author and Marine Corps veteran brings her Vatta’s War series to a thrilling conclusion in Victory Conditions, the last installment in the series featuring heroine Kylara Vatta.
For Ky, it’s not just about liberating the star systems subjugated by Turek and defending the rest of the galaxy’s freedom. There’s also a score to be settled and payback to be meted out for the obliteration of the Vatta Transport dynasty… and the slaughter of Ky’s family. But the enemy have their own escalation efforts under way—including the placement of covert agents among the allies with whom Ky and the surviving Vattas are collaborating in the war effort. And when a spy ring linked to a wealthy businessman is exposed, a cracked pirate code reveals a galaxywide conspiracy fueling the proliferation of Turek’s warship fleet.
Matching the invaders’ swelling firepower will mean marshaling an armaded of battle-ready ships for Ky to lead into combat. But a violent skirmish leaves Ky reeling—and presumed dead by her enemies. Now, as Turek readies an all-out attack on the Nexus system—a key conquest that could seal the rest of the galaxy’s doom—Ky must rally to the challenge, draw upon every last reserve of her strategic skills, and reach deep if she is to tear from the ashes of tragedy her most decisive victory.
The Metatemporal Detective by Michael Moorcock
Pyr, $25.00, 331pp, hc, 9781591025962.
Seaton Begg and his constant companion, pathologist Dr. “Taffy” Sinclair, both head the secret British Home Office section of the Metatemporal Investigation Department—an organization whose function is understood only by the most high-ranking government people around the world—and a number of powerful criminals.
Begg’s cases cover a multitude of crimes in dozens of alternate worlds, generally where transport is run by electricity, where the internal combustion engine is unknown, and where giant airships are the chief form of international carrier. He investigates the murder of English Prime Minister “Lady Ratchet,” the kidnaping of the king of a country taken over by a totalitarian regime, and the death of Geli Raubel, Adolf Hitler’s mistress. Other adventures take him to a wild west where “the Masked Buckaroo” is tracking down a mysterious red-eyed Apache known as the White Wolf; to 1960s’ Chicago where a girl has been killed in a sordid disco; and to an independent state of Texas controlled by neocon Christians with oily (and bloody) hands. He visits Paris, where he links up with his French colleagues of the Sûreté du Temps Perdu. In several cases the fanatical Adolf Hitler is his opponent, but his arch-enemy is the mysterious black sword wielding aristocrat known as Zenith the Albino, a drug-dependent, charismatic exile from a distant realm he once ruled.
In each story the Metatemporal Detectives’ cases take them to worlds at once like and unlike our own, somtimes at odds with and sometimes in league with the beautiful adventuresses Mrs. Una Persson or Lady Rosie von Bek. At last Begg and Sinclair come face to face with their nemesis on the moonbeam roads which cross between the universes, where the great Eternal Balance itself is threatened with destruction and from which only the luckiest and most daring of metatemporal adventurers will return.
These fast-paced mysteries pay homage to Moorcock’s many literary enthusiasms for authors as diverse as Clarence E. Mulford, Dashiell Hammett, Georges Simenon, and his boyhood hero, Sexton Blake.
Wizadry & Wild Romance: A Study of Epic Fantasy by Michael Moorcock
Monkeybrain, $18.95, 206pp, tp, 9781932265071. Fantasy / nonfiction.
Always political, polemical, with disdain for received opinions and second hand thinking, with a passionate love of the field and a merciless eye for its failings, with radical opinions and old school precision, Wizadry & Wild Romance is a classic, perhaps an anti-classic, of fantasy. It is scandalous when it goes out of print, and a matter of immense satisfaction when it comes back in. Long may it remain so.
—China Miéville, from his Introduction
Wizadry & Wild Romance, a Michael Moorcock classic, returns! Newly revised and expanded by the author, with a new introduction by China Miéville and a new afterword by Jeff VanderMeer.
Wizadry & Wild Romance represents one of Moorcock’s expeditions to expand the world, and readers’ understanding of it. As with all of Moorcock’s efforts, it is an act of generosity. Wizadry rewards, as they say, repeated re-reading. MonkeyBrain Books should be commended for bringing it back into print. And you should acquire enough copies to send to anyone you know who cares about fantasy, epic or otherwise.
—Jeff Vandermeer, from his Afterword
Cry of Justice by Jason Pratt
Bittersea, $25.00, 444pp, hc, 9780977888405. Fiction/Fantasy/Epic.
Monsters wander the world of Mikon.
Caught in the aftermath of a vicious international war, thousands of refugees have fled the Coastal States, bringing their dangers with them into the wilderness near the untamed MIddlelands.
Castaways from an imploding civilization—fighting to find and to understand the most dangerous of treasures…
Portunista: innovative, ambitious, intemperate; a maga seeking her path to Imperial glory…
Seifas: dark and lethal, alienating, poetic; a hunter whose words are his tears…
Gaekwar: lanky, laconic, sardonic; “only a cowherd,” yet wielding exotic weaponry…
Othon: the Implacable One; a quiet, quick-thinking giant of a man…
Dagon: arrogant, insecure, buffoonish; a miserable commander with a knack for solving puzzles…
Pooralay: ruthless and compassionate, loud and brusque—when he wants to be; a thug on a mystical quest…
Bomas: renegade killer planning a subtle genocide; Artabanus: self-proclaimed Arbiter, drawing every power to himself; Praxiteles: incompetent madman, possessing and possessed by the Roguent Gamin…
In their increasingly desperate struggles—for food, for knowledge, for life itself—
—what will make the difference between brigades and bands of brigands?
The Dragon Niumbus Novels, Volume #2 by Irene Radford
(contains The Dragon’s Touchstone and The Last Battlemage), DAW, $8.99, 714pp, pb, 9780756404536. Fantasy.
The Dragon’s Touchstone:
Three hundred years before the time of The Glass Dragon, Coronnan is a kingdom at war with itself, magic is wild, and magicians uncontrolled, each working separately for his own goal. At the height of this age of chaos, the dragons decide to intervene, making their presence known to mortals through the healer Myrilandel.
The Last Battlemage:
Nimbulan, the last Battlemage and the founder of the school for Communal Magic, is seeking to create a permanent protection for the kingdom of Coronnan, a spell-crafted border to keep enemies out. His search for the key to this magic leads him to a terrifying discovery—the dragons, the guardians of magic, are in terrible danger…
Prophet by Mike Resnick
BenBella, $14.95, 243pp, tp, 9781933771335. Science fiction.
Since Penelope Bailey was a little girl, all humanity has been frightened by her awesome psychic talent, and worried that she can bend events—and men—to her will. Many have called her a monster, but she has chosen a different name for herself: Prophet. Twice, Penelope has managed to escape the “Iceman,” a hired assassin, but he’s been sent after her again, with higher stakes. This time, the Prophet has hidden herself in plain sight on a planet so obscure most don’t know its name, and what’s most surprising of all is that she wants to be found.
This is My Funniest 2: Leading Science Fiction Writers Present Their Funniest Stories Ever edited by Mike Resnick
BenBella, $14.95, 410pp, tp, 9781933771229. Science fiction anthology.
Science fiction readers—and writers—appreciate a good laugh. In a genre sometimes known for grim and ominous themes, sci-fi can still tickle the funny bone using traditional conventions, such as alien abductions and futuristic technology, to satirize and parody itself.
This is My Funniest 2: Leading Science Fiction Writers Present Their Funniest Stories Ever, edited by award-winning science fiction novelist Mike Resnick, is the sequel to This is My Funniest, an anthology of uproarious short science fiction personally chosen by the authors themselves.
Featuring 29 stories, This is My Funniest 2 includes a preface by each author describing the inspiration or reasoning behind their choice. Contributor Terry Bisson says in his playful author preface, “This is my funniest. How do I know? My others aren’t all that funny… Plus, this one [“He Loved Lucy”] was originally published in Playboy, and nobody knows funny better than a horny old man in a mansion.”
This is My Funniest 2 has a fresh batch of science fiction writers and includes more of the genre’s best, such as David Drake, Gregory Benford, Janis Ian, Gene Wolfe, Brian Hopkins, Kevin Anderson and many more. The much-loved stories include “Tapestries,” “Rattler,” “The Robot Who Came to Dinner” and “The Acid Test.” The stories range frmo an account told in Oklahoma dialect of a Chevy-eating alien to a satirical how-to guide to writing scientific essays. Other stories are a series of letters from the future spoofing futuristic language to a young woman’s sexual encounter that was perfectly timed with Godzilla’s ray-gun demise.
Like the immensely popular This is My Funniest, This is My Funniest 2 delivers an engaging, laugh-out-loud read. As Resnick advises in the introduction, sci-fi fans will “turn the pages and start chuckling.”
[Contributors: Ron Goulart, Mercedes Lackey, Janis Ian, Jack Dann, Gregory Benford, Kevin J. Anderson, Kay Kenyon, David Drake, Alan Dean Foster, Tobias S. Buckell, D.S. Moen, Gene Wolfe & Brian Hopkins, Eric Flint, Terry Bisson, Linda J. Dunn, Dean Wesley Smith, Sarah A. Hoyt, Michael Bishop, Chris Roberson, Barbara Delaplace, Michael F. Flynn, Pat Cadigan, Anthony R. Lewis, Louise Marley, Greg Bear, John Gregory Betancourt, Frank M. Robinson, Larry Niven, Joe Pumilia & Bill Wallce, and Mike Resnick.]
The Key to Rondo by Emily Rodda
Scholastic, $16.99, 342pp, hc, 9780545035354. Fantasy. On-sale date: February 2008.
Emily Rodda, author of the bestselling Deltora Series, introduces readers to an entirely new world in her new novel The Key to Rondo. Quiet Great-Aunt Bethany has left Leo her prized music box with these strict rules…
IMPORTANT!
Turn the key three times only.
Never turn the key while the music is playing.
Never pick up the box while the music is playing.
Never close the lid until the music has stopped.
The box has been carefully handed down through Leo’s family for hundreds of years. Painted scenes of villages, mysterious forests, a castle on a hill and a queen in a long blue gown decorate its sides. While Leo respects the rules, his least favorite cousin, Mimi Langlander, does not. When the rules are broken, Leo’s ordered life is changed forever as he and Mimi plunge together into a thrilling quest in the fantastic world of Rondo.
The Philosophy of Science Fiction Film edited by Steven M. Sanders
University Press of Kentucky, $35.00, 240pp, hc, 9780813124728. Film / Philosophy. On-sale date: 14 December 2007.
Whether it is the idea of time travel, the fantastic imagery, or the futuristic technology that pulls us in, science fiction films have entertained audiences for over a century. Providing more than just entertainment, however, these films are often used as mediums for social commentary and philosophical inquiry. From Metropolis to The Matrix, The Philosophy of Science Fiction Film edited by Steven M. Sanders looks to both classic and contemporary science fiction films in search of answers to some of philosophy’s most vexing questions: What does it mean to be human? What is the nature of individuality? What are the implications of science and technology? What does the future hold?
Sanders brings together thirteen eminent scholars who draw from their expertise to expound upon these philosophical topics in the context of numerous popular science fiction films. The first section of the book questions the nature of personal identity, moral agency, and what it means to be human through the films, Blade Runner, Dark City, Total Recall, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Frankenstein (1931). In the first essay, Deborah Knight and George McKnight analyze the importance of memory and emotion to the individual in Blade Runner and Dark City. They give insight into Rick Deckard, Blade Runner‘s main character, suggesting that he is a replicate, one of the artificial humans he is charged with hunting down. In addition, Jennifer L. McMahon delves into 1931 version of Frankenstein to investigate the human fear of death and the psychological distress it can cause.
In the second section, extraterrestrial visitation, time travel, and artificial intelligence are explored through The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Terminator, 12 Monkeys, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. In one piece, Aeon J. Skoble questions the ethics of using force by looking at the 1950s film The Day the Earth Stood Still. He points out, “The reasons why the soldier acted badly in shooting Blaatu… point us toward more general ethical principles about the use of force.” Later, Kevin L. Stoehr contemplates the dangers of technology, a major theme of 2001: A Space Odyssey, linking it to the loss of intensity in bodily senses, creating “a subsequent sense of disconnection or dislocation.”
The four essays in the third question the future and our place in it. Jerold J. Abrams’ explains how Metropolis serves as a critique of enlightenment by showing a dystopian vision of modernity gone awry, anticipating later philosophic treatments of the subject by nearly two decades. Later, Mark T. Conrad attempts to dispel the widely accepted idea that the blockbuster film The Matrix is actually an analog of Plato’s allegory of the cave, as these two works present very dissimilar epistemological and metaphysical views.
The Philosophy of Science Fiction Film will attract both the philosopher and the science fiction fan alike. Not only do distinguished scholars discuss philosophical questions about humanity, personal identity, the future, and technology through doctrines like existentialism, nihilism, and dialects, their observations and theories are made accessible to the general public by using examples from pop culture uniquely suited to such explorations.
[Contributors: Steven M. Sanders, Deborah Knight and George McKnight, Shai Biderman, Jennifer L. McMahon, Aeon J. Skoble, William J. Devlin, Kevin L. Stoehr, Jason Holt, Jerold J. Abrams, R. Barton Palmer, Alan Woolfolk, and Mark T. Conrad.]
Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready
Pocket, $14.00, 382pp, tp, 9781416551768. Urban fantasy. On-sale date: May 2008.
Wicked Game is a tart and romantic urban fantasy about a woman who takes a job at a radio station populated by vampire DJs…
Former con artist Ciara Griffin is doing everything she can to redeem herself, attending college and taking crummy internship positions to help pay the bills. Her latest internship is at a local radio station, WMMP, which is currently fighting off a corporate takeover. Known for its eccentric disc jockeys—40s blues, 80s punk, 90s grunge, etc.—WMMP needs a bold new marketing stratregy, or it will be bought by Skywave, a communications behemoth that will fire the DJs and turn the station into something mainstream, derivative, and boring.
But Ciara soon discovers that the DJs have a secret. They’re vampires, each stuck musically and psychologically in the era in which they were changed. The station has become their home—without it, they would “fade,” like most old vampires, growing slowly insane as fossils of another time, vulnerable in a world unaware of their existence.
Though daunted by their bloody diets and bizarre idiosyncrasies, Ciara keeps her new job, since she’s determined to live the straight life, not to mention hopelessly attracted to 90s grunge DJ Shane McAllister. She devises a brilliant marketing plan, changing the station’s call letters and coming up with a slogan: “WVMP, the Lifeblood of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” She hides the DJs’ vamprie nature in plain sight, playing up their musical authenticity and capitalizing on the public’s lust for these “fictional” monsters. But the gimmick enrages a posse of ancient vampires who aren’t so eager to be brought into the light. Soon the stakes are higher—and the perils gravers—than any con game Ciara’s ever played…
The River Horses by Allen Steele
Subterranean Press, $35.00, 119pp, deluxe hardcover, 9781596061323. Science fiction.
Allen Steele’s novels about the frontier planet of Coyote—Coyote, Coyote Rising, and Coyote Frontier—have been among the most acclaimed works of the decade, earning praise from critics and readers alike. Now, in The River Horses, he returns to this world for a story of adventure, love, and survival.
Three misfits—a young man and woman, along with a posthuman Savant—are exiled from the colonies and sent forth to explore Coyote’s uncharted wilderness. Mistrustful of one another, they find themselves contending not only with the perils of the unknown, but the mysteries of the heart as well.
Taking place between the events of Coyote Rising and Coyote Frontier, this book-length novella—originally published in the 30th anniversary issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction—is an important new chapter in an epic by a Hugo-winning author.
[We reviewed this book in this article.]
The Watcher by Jeanne C. Stein
(an Anna Strong, Vampire Novel), Ace, $7.99, 291pp, pb, 9780441015467. On-sale date: 27 November 2007.
Bestselling author Jeanne Stein continues her contemporary vampire series with a terrific new addition to the Anna Strong Chronicles. Featuring a kick-ass bounty-hunter turned vampire, Anna Strong is faced with a new set of problems in The Watcher: Book Three of the Anna Strong Chronicles. The last few years haven’t been easy for Anna Strong. Ever since being attacked by a vampire, she’s been caught between two worlds, the world of the living and the world of the undead.
In The Watcher, Anna tries to adapt and accept her new life, even though she’s holding on to her human identity. But when this bounty-hunter turned vampire watcher finds out a vampire serial killer abducts the love of her life, the vampire within Anna might be the only weapon she’s got against this serial killing vampire that’s holding her human boyfriend hostage. The only problem is the more she lets the vampire within her out, the harder it will be to hold on to her human self and everything that’s in the world of the living, including her lover.
Frak You! The Ultimate Unauthorized Guide to Battlestar Galactica by Jo Storm
ECW Press, $17.95, 251pp, tp, 9781550227895. Non-fiction television tie-in. On-sale date: 24 November 2007.
Time Magazine named Battlestar Galactica “The Best Show of the Year” in 2005. Newsweek called it “indisputably, hands-down and without question, the best show on television.” And USA Today proclaimed, “You don’t have to love sci-fi to love Battlestar Galactica… a great TV series.”
nbsp; Frak You! The Ultimate Unauthorized Guide to Battlestar Galactica by Jo Storm examines the universe of BSG—a drastically reduced population livingg in an apocalyptic world, fighting for the survival of the human race. This book includes a look at the different ways in which apocalyptic events are depicted in science fiction; how the show blends current political content into a science fiction setting, dealing with topical subjects like treatment of war prisoners, armistice breaking, and the rules of engagement; how the current show compares to the original 1970s series and how the characters resemble their original namesakes; and it looks at how war and survival are portrayed on the series, using themes of apocalypse, losing one’s home, capturing enemies, political torture, and the choices we make in desperate situations.
With bios of the seven principal cast members and an in-depth episode guide to the first three seasons of the show—analyzing the history of the Cylons and the show’s use of mythology, religion, and politics—and the interim “webisodes” that aired online between seasons two and three, Frak You! is the only guide to this amazing show that fans will need.
Pete Von Sholly’s Capitol Hell
Denis Kitchen Publishing, $11.95, postcard book, 9780971008090.
Ever get the creepy feeling that the government is sucking your blood (or wallet) dry? Do certain presidents, vice-presidents or their henchmen crush your wide-eyed idealism? Have you witnessed the mindless zombies that talk the halls of Congress? Do certain presidential candidates make your skin crawl and leave you screaming in the night!?
…If so, you’ll feel right at home with the monstrous politicians in Capitol Hell! Under searing satirical light, Pete Von Sholly tears the respectable shrouds from Dr. Jekyll politicos to starkly reveal the Mr.—or Ms.—Hyde inside.
Twenty-four all different postcards. Perforated for easy tear-out! Torment sensitive or misguided Republicans & Democrats you know—mail cards of their cherished role model or hand-picked candidates to them. Sheer political terror has never been so much fun!
Marseguro by Edward Willett
DAW, $7.99, 400pp, pb, 9780756404642. Science fiction. On-sale date: 5 February 2008.
Marseguro, a water world far distant from Earth, is home to a small colony of unmodified humans known as landings, and to the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created by geneticist Victor Hansen from modified human DNA. For seventy years the Selkies and the unmodified landings have dwelled together in peace, safe from pursuit by the current theocratic rulers of Earth—a group intent on maintaining human genetic and religious purity.
Then landing Chris Keating, a misfit on any world, seeks personal revenge on Emily Wood and her fellow Selkies by activating a distress beacon taken from the remains of the original colony ship. When the Earth forces capture the signal and pinpoint its origin, a strike force, with Victor Hansen’s own grandson Richard aboard, is sent to eradicate this abomination.
Yet Marseguro will not prove as easy to conquer as the Earth force anticipates. And what Richard Hansen discovers here may alter not only his own destiny but that of Marseguro and Earth as well.…
The Blue-Haired Bombshell by John Zakour
DAW, $7.99, 354pp, pb, 978-756404550. Science fiction.
John Zakour returns to the futuristic escapades of the world’s only private eye, Zachary Taylor Johnson, in the humorous and clever Blue-Haired Bombshell, the fifth novel of a series that is an ode to the great heyday of pulp fiction—both science fiction and detective novels.
Zach, HARV (Zach’s A.I. companion wired directly to his brain) and Carol are hired by Shannon Cannon, World Council member Sexy Sprocket’s bodyguard, to find the assassin who murdered Sexy and two other council members. Zach follows a hunch and heads to the moon, where he discovers the Moon’s leader, Bo Sputnik, is planning to break away from the Earth and have the Moon become an independent planet. Zach also learns that almost all women born on the moon are powerful psi’s and that Bo is raising a master race.
In The Blue-Haired Bombshell, it is up to Zach to solve another murder case and, in the meantime, engage in futuristic mayhem to stop the Earth and Moon from destroying each other.