This page is updated as books are received throughout the month.
Snow Blind by Lori G. Armstrong
Medallion, $7.95, 526pp, pb, 9781933836591. Mystery. On-sale date: October 2008.
The frigid winter months are mighty slow in the PI biz for Julie Collins and her partner, Kevin Wells—until the duo is hired by a young woman to investigate problems at her grandfather’s assisted living facility, where they encounter lax security, unqualified healthcare personnel, and a shady senior volunteer organization.
Julie barely has time to delve deeper into the puzzling case before she reluctantly finds herself in an isolated cattle shelter on the Collins ranch with her father during a raging blizzard. There is no escape from her father or from the biting cold and bitter memories.
A missing hired ranch hand found dead on the ranch only complicates matters further. In trying to uncover the truth about the man’s death, Julie is forced to wrestle with issues that make her question old wounds and new family loyalties.
Kevin’s reckless involvement with their new client tests the bounds of professionalism, and Julie’s relationship with Tony Martinez is strained, as he deals with power struggles within the Hombres organization, putting them both in jeopardy.
When the bodies and the snow piles up, Julie seems at odds with everyone, leaving her to wonder if she’s being blinded to the cold, hard truths in her life by love… or by hate.
Seeing Redd by Frank Beddor
Dial, $17.99, 371pp, hc, 9780803731554. Children’s fantasy.
With several impressive weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, Frank Beddor is making a name for himself, yet again. Beddor, a producer of the smash his There’s Somethign About Mary and a two-time former World Cup freestyle ski champion, added to his long list of accomplishments with the publication of the widely popular and top-selling, The Looking Glass Wars. The Wall Street Journal hailed it, “An exciting story that will set hearts pounding in children age 10 and up” and The Washington Post lauded, “It is so meticulously imagined that it takes on a compelling life of its own.” This fall, Speak (a Division of Penguin Young Readers Group) is pleased to publish the exciting and highly anticipated follow up paperback: Seeing Redd (on-sale: 16 October 2008; $8.99/Ages 12 & Up, 978-4-14-241209-1 Fiction, Paperback).
Since the brutal murder of her parents and the devastating coup led by her vicious Aunt Redd in Part I, Alyss has finally become queen and rightfully restored power to Wonderland. She has also reunited with her childhood companion and love interest Dodge Anders and even has a new bodyguard, the faithful Homburg Molly. Peace seems to be finally returning to Wonderland, but sadly, the fight for the Queendom is far from over. King Arch, in nearby Borderland, is planning to overthrow everything for which Alyss and her friends have fought so hard. A series of phantom sightings set fire to an urban myth that Redd has freed herself and her chief assassin, the Cat, from the confines of Heart Crystal to challenge her niece once again. Has King Arch found an ally? If not, then who has resurrected Redd’s army, the Glass Eyes, and set them loose to attack Wonderland on all sides? Battles will rage, looking glasses explode and the Alyssians are once again uniting to defend White Imagination and all the wonders of Wonderland in Seeing Redd.
This fast paced, roller-coaster of a sequel filled with marvelously evil new villains and fantastic battle scenes will both satisfy fans of the first book and those new to the trilogy. Seeing Redd is sure to have young readers begging for more information about this Queen named Alyss. Long Live Wonderland!
Kllrs by Phil Bowie
Medallion, $7.95, 456pp, pb, 9781605420608. Mystery. On-sale date: November 2008.
Hotshot pilot John Hardin has a dark history.
He and his beautiful Cherokee girlfriend, Kitty Birdsong, are enjoying life in the Great Smoky Mountains when Nolan Rader, a former BATF agent, emerges from John’s violent past and demands help to save his younger brother, Clint Rader, from the vengeance of an outlaw motorcycle gang known as the Satan’s Ghosts.
A warped genius called Brain controls Satan’s Wraiths, an elite cadre of trained hitters within the worldwide gang, and Brain is privately conducting psychological research on Clint prior to killing him.
John must agree to help Nolan Rader or face exposure about his past—and the only way to find out what he must know to save Clint Rader is to infiltrate the biker gang. This leads him down a lethally dangerous path between the law and the outlaws, ranging from Canada to the Bahamas.
As events close in and the execution draws near, can John find some way to save Clint Rader before time runs out?
The Gypsy Morph by Terry Brooks
(Books Three of the Genesis of Shannara), Del Rey, $27.00, 416pp, hc, 9780345484147. Fantasy. On-sale date: 26 August 2008.
For over 30 years, Terry Brooks has been at the head of the fantasy field. He has written more than twenty-five bestselling books and there are over 21 million copies in print of his US editions alone. In 1977, Terry Brooks won instant acclaim with his phenomenal New York Times bestseller The Sword of Shannara. He gave the genre a darkly compelling contemporary twist in his trilogy of the Word and the Void. In 2006, Brooks began the Genesis of Shannara trilogy with Armageddon’s Children, which united two unique worlds. The Elves of Cintra followed in 2007. Now, that trilogy comes to a shattering conclusion in The Gypsy Morph.
Eighty years into the future, the United States is a no-man’s land: its landscape blighted by chemical warfare, pollution, and plague; its government collapsed; its citizens adrift, desperate, fighting to stay alive. In fortified compounds, survivors hold the line against wandering predators, rogue militias, and hideous mutations spawned from the toxic environment. While agains them all stands an enemy neither mortal nor mercidul: demons and their minions bent on slaughtering and subjugating the last of humankind. But from around the country, allies of good unite to challenge the rampaging evil. Logan Tom, wielding the magic staff of a Knight of the Word, has a promise to keep—protecting the world’s only hope of salvation—and a score to settle with the demon that massacred his family. Angel Perez, Logan’s fellow Knight, has risked her life to aid the elvish race, whose peaceful, hidden realm is marked for extermination by the forces of the Void. Kirisin Belloruus, a young elf entrusted with an ancient magic, must deliver his entire civilization from a monstrous army. And Hawk, the rootless boy who is nothing less than destiny’s instrument, must lead the last of humanity to a latter-day promised land before the final darkness falls.
The Gypsy Morph is an epic saga of a world in flux as the mortal realm yields to a magical one; as the champions of the Word and the Void clash for the last time to decide what will be and what must cease; and as, from the remnants of a doomed age, something altogether extraordinary arises.
The Rabid written by Jason M. Burns, illustrated by Guy Lemay
Viper Comics, $11.95, tp, 9780980238501. Graphic novel.
When a canine infected with a mutated rabies virus escapes from a lab, a small town is flipped on its head as the disease spreads into the human population, causing family, friends and neighbors to turn on each other. As a violent war rages, one sheriff will do whatever it takes to keep his family safe and to stop his town from slipping into an unrecognizable hell.
The Grin of the Dark by Ramsey Campbell
Tor, $25.95, 387pp, hc, 9780765319395. Horror.
From award-winning horror writer Ramsey Campbell comes the tale of a silent movie star, a horde of grinning clowns, and a tormented, down-on-hi luck film critic. The Grin of the Darkis set in contemporary Britain, rendered with dark, evocative strokes by the author. We follow Simon Lester as he investigates the silent film star Tubby Thackeray, who, after a career marred by censorship and the death of an audience member, disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Lester’s reputation as a critic, and his relationship with the beautiful Natalie, are both on the line.
After his magazine’s demise, Simon Lester becomes a gas-station attendant. His only comfort comes from Natalie, his loving girlfriend, and her young son, but even that is tarnished by her wealthy family’s obvious disapproval. When a former professor offers him the chance of a lifetime—and a fat check, to write a book on silenet film stars, particularly the maniacal, Tubby Thackery, Lester can’t refuse.
Lester is flummoxed at first by the paucity of information available regarding Thackery, but he soon finds what he is looking for in an old videocassette with a badly degraded clip of Tubby. Finding it impossible to identify, he turns to the internet, where he meets a disturbingly well-informed adversary.
Meanwhile, Simon seems to be seeing fat, laughing clown faces wherever he goes. Soon he falls prey to a series of bizarre events—misunderstandings, hallucinations, identity theft and worse. As the mystery of Tubby Thackeray begins to close around him, Simon realizes too late that he is dealing with forces much older and more powerful than the dead comedian.
The Last Theorem by Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl
Del Rey, $27.00, 336pp, hc, 9780345470218. Science fiction. On-sale date: 5 August 2008.
Two of science fiction’s most renowned writers join forces for a storytelling sensation in The Last Theorem. The historica collaboration between Frederik Pohl and his fellow founding father of the genre, Arthur C. Clarke, is both a momentous literary event and a fittingly grand farewell from the late, great visionary author of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The Last Theorem is a story of one man’s mathematical obsession, and a celebration of the human spirit and the scientific method. It is also a gripping intellectual thriller in which humanity, facing extermination from all-but-omnipotent aliens, the Grand Galactics, must overcome differences of politics and religion and come together… or perish.
The Last Theorem is the first and only collaboration by literary legends Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl. It is also Arthur C. Clarke’s last novel.
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
Doubleday, $25.95, 480pp, hc, 9780385524940. On-sale date: 5 August 2008.
Sometimes a novel just plain defies description. We have tried comparing our upcoming publication The Gargoyle to everything from The English Patient to The Name of the Rose to In the Shadow of the Wind to The Time Traveler’s Wife. But we keep returning to the fact that this book is so fresh, so riveting and so magical that no comparison seems quite right. The mesmerizing tale of a beautiful sculptress of gargoyles who appears in the burn unit one day and tells the narrator that they were lovers in medieval times when she was a scribe and he was a mercenary, The Gargoyle is an epic love story that will have readers believing in the impossible.
The author, Andrew Davidson, had this to say about the premise of the book: “I imagine that everyone has had a relationship end with the feeling of having been burned. It is a cliched image to be sure, but it is a cliche because it is apt and true. I was intrigued by the idea of a relationship that did not end with the feeling of being burned, but one that began with such a feeling. So, with the license that fiction allows, I took it to the most literal level, that of an actual horrendous burn. The novel would begin with the roasting of the narrator’s body and, with this event, a chain of events would be started that would allow the narrator to find and accept love—rather than curse it, as we so often do when a failed relationship leavses us feeling burned.”
The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois
St. Martin’s, $35.00, 652pp, hc, 9780312378592. Science fiction anthology.
Because of its uninhibited, imaginative nature, science fiction is beloved to readers all over the world. By allowing the writer to wander into physical and technological realms to which we as of yet have no access, science fiction brings forth fascinating questions about the nature of our future world, and these philosophical musings can in turn affect our present world in a very real way. Perhaps the most famous example of this is Orwell’s depiction of the totalitarian state with complete access to the lives and minds of its inhabitants in the epic novel 1984. The image he created and shared with readers is so powerful that references to it continue to pervade the dialogue about censorship and the acceptable role of government. 80 years after the genre was coined, science fiction continues to grow in readership and respect. The Year’s Best Science Fiction, now in its 25th year, continues in this vein.
Edited by Gardner Dozois, recipient of the Hugo Award for Best Editor 15 times over, the book showcases great authors. From strange foreign planets to infinite digital copies of a human mind, The Year’s Best Science Fiction, 25th Edition is a truly wonderful collection of imaginative and inventive stories.
[Contributors: David Moles, Ken MacLeod, John Barnes, Gwyneth Jones, James Van Pelt, Ian McDonald, Una McCormack, Chris Roberson, Greg Egan, Robert Silverberg, Neal Asher, Ted Chiang, Justin Stanchfield, Bruce Sterling, Stephen Baxter, Alastair Reynolds, Michael Swanwick, Vandana Singh, Kage Baker, Brian Stableford, Pat Cadigan, Elizabeth Bear, Keith Brooke, Nancy Kress, Tom Purdom, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Ted Kosmatka, Benjamin Rosenbaum & David Eckert, Robert Reed, and Gregory Benford.]
Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypseby Victor Gischler
Touchstone, $14.00, 324pp, tp, 9781416552253. Science fiction.
Mortimer Tate was an insurance salesman on the verge of a nasty divorce when he holed up in a mountain cave in Tennessee and rode out the global apocalypse. As a flu epidemic, an earthquake, and a nuclear detonation ended civilization as he knew it, Mortimer whiled away his time reading, hunting and, truth be told, not thinking all that much about the rest of the world—or whether it still existed.
Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse by Victor Gischler, begins nine years later, when a chance encounter forces Mortimer to kill the first three human beings he’s laid eyes on in nearly a decade. Finally curious about the outside world, he loads up his sled with trade goods, sets off into the snow, and emerges into a bizarre landscape filled with hollow reminders of an America that no longer exists.
Since “The Fall,” highways are lined with abandoned automobiles, for which there is no fuel. Houses stand empty, devoid of the bustling population Mortimer remembers. What little civilization remains revolves around a string of franchised strip clubs called Joey Armageddon’s Sassy-a-Go-Go, where the beer is cold, the lap dancers are hot, the bouncers are armed with M-16s—and electricity is generated by indentured servants pedaling stationary bicycles.
In a last-ditch effort for a return to some kind of sanity, Mortimer sets out on a desperate quest through this broken world to find his estranged wife. Instead, he and his cowboy sidekick, Buffalo Bill, get swept into the battle against the Red Stripes, an army with a mysterious leader known only as “The Czar”. Teaming up with two gorgeous and lethal women named Sheila and Tyler, their journey leads them to the Lost City of Atlanta—and an explosive final showdown that just might determine the fate of humanity.
Gone by Michael Grant
HarperTeen, $17.99, 561pp, hc, 9780061448768. Teen science fiction.
In the blink of an eye, everyone disappears. Gone.
Except for the young: Teens. Middle schoolers. Toddlers. But not a single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. And just as suddenly, there are no phones, no internet, no television. No way to get help, no way to figure out what’s happened.
Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals begin mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day.
It’s a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen, a fight is shaping up. Townies against rich kids. Bullies against the weak. Powerful against powerless. And time is running out; On your fourteenth birthday, you disappear just like everyone else…
The Dimension Next Door edited by Martin H. Greenberg & Kerrie Hughes
DAW, $7.99, 291pp, pb, 9780756405090. Fantasy anthology.
Movements glimpsed out of the corner of your eye, inexplicable sounds, things that mysteriously vanish and just as mysteriously reappear, knowledge for which there is no rational explanation, dreams that seem as real as our own everyday life—products of overactive imaginations, or unexpected glimpses into dimensions beyond our own?
Join thirteen intrepid writers as they explore those unknown territories that may be foundin any of countless Dimensions Next Door. From Benjamin Franklin’s best kept secret… to a Celtic knot maze that could trap an unwary archaeologist… to a young woman who has inadvertently become a counselor for ghosts… to a virtual reality anti-terrorist expert… to an Internet site that offers to bring karmic balance into one man’s life… to a man bespelled to walk the future in the service of his queen… to voices and vision that can open the way to the hells and beyond, here are original tales of the strange, challenging, and often wondrous worlds just waiting to be discovered by those with the ability to perceive them.
[Contributors: Anton Strout, Jody Lynn Nye, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Chris Pierson, Steven Schend, Irene Radford, Donald J. Bingle, Lillian Stewart Carl, Bradley P. Beaulieu, Paul Genesse, Brenda Cooper, Fiona Patton, and Alexander B. Potter.]
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
Knopf, $24.95, 502pp, hc, 9780307268860. Science fiction. On-sale date: 4 September 2008.
Welcome to the vivid, twisted, hilarious world of Nick Harkaway. In his debut novel, The Gone-Away World, author Nick Harkaway gives us a sci-fi adventure, a romance, a mystery, a friendship tale, a roman à clef, and a war story. (Think A Clockwork Orange with a little “Mad Max” thrown in.) And it all comes with a plot twist that will leave you breathless—and thanking the literary gods for the arrival of this stunningly inventive authorial voice.
And there are ninjas. Did we mention the ninjas?
Gonzo Lubitch and his crach team of fellow superheroes (and best friends) are called upon to save the world, and they form an ad hoc task force, the Haulage and HazMat Emergency Civil Freebooting Company, to keep the Livable Zone (which is encompassed by the Jorgmund Pipe—which is now, unfortunately, on fire) liveable. Along with our friends and the Pipe, The Gone-Away World has phantoms, pirates, bandits, monsters, and nightmares left in the wake of the Go-Away War. If this sounds at all complicated, don’t worry: all will be revealed—and your attention duly rewarded—by the time you close the book.
We follow our hero as he navigates this crisis and experiences the highs (“It is the perfect night to be a young man; it is a night to tear off your shirt and howl at the sky and run…”), and lows (“Chained to a wall by an implacable enemy. Situation: v. bad.”) of superheroism and growing up generally.
The Gone-Away World is as ambitious, accomplished, and unique a debut as you are likely to encounter this, or any, publishing season. But then again, accomplishment does run in Harkaway’s family; his father is none other than the spy novel master himself, John le Carré.
I hope you’ll find that this book bends your brain and shatters your preconceptions about storytelling and about the world itself. I hope it touches you and reframes your idea of good abd bad, and makes you think again about what a hero looks like. And Nick Harkaway wanted me to be sure to tell you he hopes you have a good time reading The Gone-Away World. That might be the most important thing.
Nick Harkaway was born in Cornwall in 1972 and lives in London.
Leapfrod by Steve Hendry
Medallion, $15.95, 278pp, tp, 9781933836508. Science Fiction. On-sale date: November 2008.
In a test to the human race, highly advanced aliens decide to offer free secrets that will enable universal space travel without time or distance constraints. Earth snaps at the challenge and collectively musters resources to develop the most advanced starship ever built on Earth, which is appropriately named, Leapfrog, for the technological jump over existing science. Unfortunately, corrupt secret services, greedy politicians, and overly wary generals condemn this mission from the start.
While in deep cryogenic sleep, the crew of Leapfrog encounters a disastrous meteor shower that destroys the main engines. Thousands of years pass while the stricken ship slowly meanders its way back to earth with two hundred and seventy five humans solidlty frozen in deep suspended animation.
As the crew finally awakens, they find Earth is no longer the same. Seeking clues as to what has happened; the survivors attempt to re-colonize, only to discover that a new ultra-evolved creature now predominates and ruthlessly rules the top of the food chain.
The explorers are forced to abandon their derelict starship and face a horrifying battle among cannibal Neanderthals and the ultra-evolved creatures, barely escaping with their lives.
The Lost Books of Eve: Volume 1 by Josh Howard
Viper Comics, $11.95, tp, 9780979368080. Graphic novel.
Creation is still in its infancy. Man is just a myth. And the Garden of Eden is a place of perfect peace and tranquility. That is, until its keeper, Adam, is abducted. Now, his wife Eve, young and new to the world, must venture outside the safety of the Garden for the first time to go in search of her husband, all the while battling monsters, demons, and even the gods themselves. But Eve’s quest for Adam soon becomes part of a bigger search for wisdom and knowledge as Eve struggles to find her own—and the human race’s—place in the world.
Broken Wing by Judith James
Medallion, $7.95, 432pp, pb, 9781933836447. Historical romance. On-sale date: November 2008.
Abandoned as a child and raised in a brothel, Gabriel St. Croisx has never known tenderness, friendship, or affection. Although fluent in sex, he knows nothing of love. Lost and alone inside a nightmare world, all he’s ever wanted was companionship and a place to belong. Hiding physical and emotional scars behind an icy façade, is only relationship is with a young boy he has spent the last five years protecting from the brutal reality of their environment. But all that is about to change. The boy’s family has found him, and they are coming to take him home.
Sarah Munroe blames herself for her brother’s disappearance. When he’s located, safe and unharmed despite where he has been living, Sarah vows to help the man who rescued and protected him in any way she can. With loving patience she helps Gabriel face his demons and teaches him to trust in friendship and love. But when the past catche sup wtih him, Gabriel must face it on his own.
Becoming a mercenary, pirate and a professional gambler, Gabriel travels to London, France, and the Barbary Coast in a desperate attempt to find Sarah again and all he knows of love. On the way, however, he will discover the most dangerous journey, and the greatest gamble of all, is within the darkest reaches of his own heart.
Duainfey by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
Baen, $24.00, 400pp, hc, 9781416555520. Fantasy. On-sale date: 2 September 2008.
New fantasy adventure novel, with strong romance crossover appeal, from the authors of the top-selling Liaden series. If Jane Austen wrote about elves…
Rebecca Beauvelley is a ruined woman. In a moment of girlish folly, she allowed a high-flying young man to take her up in his phaeton, not realizing that he was drunk. When he dropped the ribbons, she recovered them, but not in time to avoid disaster. The young man was killed in the accident. Rebecca survived, with a withered arm to remind her of the wages of folly, and a reputation in tatters.
Against all expectation, her father has found someone, an elderly rogue, who will marry her. Rebecca’s life seems set, and she resigned to it, when Altimere, a Fey, appears and uses his magic to show her two futures: In the first, she is abused and neglected as the dutiful wife; in the second, she is dressed and bejeweled like a princess. Rebecca chooses the second future and elopes with Altimere. Unfortunately, Altimere has an agenda of his own…
The Wild Road by Marjorie Liu
(A Dirk & Steele Novel), Leisure, $7.99, 306pp, pb, 9780943959390. Paranormal romance. On-sale date: August 2008.
Hailed as a star by publications from Publishers Weekly to Booklist, multiple-RITA nominated author Marjorie M. Liu has taken the romance industry by storm. With a unique blend of romance, mystery, urban fantasy, and action, Liu has created a style that leaves her in a league all her own. In her newest novel, The Wild Road, Liu will not only satisfy dedicated fans, but will draw new readers, with one of her most interesting and romantic novels yet.
In The Wild Road, a woman wakes in a strange room covered in blood and surrounded by dead men. With no memory of who or where she is, she runs… straight into the arms of a strange man she does not know if she can trust. Gargoyle Lannes Hannelore doesn’t know if he can trust the mysterious woman either, but something about her calls to him, and for once, he is willing to risk not just his heart, but his very soul.
Liu’s novels have been universally well-reviewed. Booklist ranked Soul Song one of The Top 10 Romance Novels of 2007 and Publishers Weekly ranked Shadow Touch among the Top 100 Best Books of 2006. While also becoming known for her urban fantasy writing and her upcoming Marvel comic book series NYX, which is part of the X-Men universe, Liu still writes her Dirk & Steele series exclusively with Dorchester Publishing.
Nightmare Academy #2: Monster Madness by Dean Lorey
HarperCollins Children, $10.99, 304pp, tp, 9780061693717. Children’s fantasy.
Welcome back to the fantastic world of Nightmare Academy!
Dean Lorey tops high point after high point as the Monster Hunters from the Nightmare Academy battle the bad guys and explore new parts of the Nether. In a desperate race to save the one creature who can keep the Named from reaching earth, Charlie, Thedore, Violet, and Brooke battle out of this world new creatures including Darklings, Dangeroos, Bang Jellies and Hydras, and two more fearsome—and in different ways crazed—mega-monsters, Tyrannus and Slagguron.
Dean Lorey was co-executive producer of the cult TV hit Arrested Development. After its demise, he took time off from writing for TV and movies to write something based on his personal enthusiasms for video games and imagined worlds. Dean Lorey lives in Calabasas, California, with his wife, Elizabeth, and their sons Chris (first reader for Nightmare Academy: Monster Hunters) and Alex (too young to read).
Razor Girl by Marianne Mancusi
Shomi, $6.99, 308pp, pb, 9780505527806. Action romance. On-sale date: 26 August 2008.
One of the inaugural authors in the Shomi line, Marianne Mancusi has returned with an edgy all-new tale, Razor Girl, filled with fast-paced action and a heroine strong enough to mold her own destiny. In a Shomi novel, where anything is possible, fresh, strong heroines are the norm and they are just right for proving that any woman can be a heroine.
In Razor Girl, Molly Anderson just wants to be like every other girl at school, fitting in and dating cute boys. Unfortunately, her doomsday-predicting father has other plans. Altering her physically to resemble his favorite story character and become a real Razor Girl, he plans for Molly to save the world. Now, six years after the apocalypse, Molly meets up with her high school sweetheart, Chase Griffin, and together they must escape to the most magical place on earth in order to save the few remaining humans from a deadly disease, and the horrible monsters it created.
Marianne Mancusi is an Emmy Award-winning teleivsion producer turned writer and has earned both high praise and a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for her boundary-challenging romance novels.
The Last Realm: Book One, Dragonscarpe written and illustrated by Pat McNamara, Michal Dutkiewicz & Gary Turner
Angel Phoenix, $39.95, 320pp, hc, 9789829109019.
Fiery heroics, doomed love and vengeful betrayal are the cornerstones of the visually rich and cinematically paced, illustrated novel series The Last Realm, an ambitious epic-fantasy series inspired by classic fantasy titans: John Carter Warlord of Mars, Pern, and the tales of Lost Worlds. Infused with the darkly twisting contemporary sensibilities of modern genre icons Star Wars, Babylon 5, and Buffy, this is a Lord of the Rings for the new generation. Dragonscarpe, the first colossal 320-page coffee-table-sized hardback volume of this groundbreaking epic features more than one hundred and fifty pages of stunning, full color art by multi-award winning illustrator and master pin-up artist Michael Dutkiewicz (Batman, Wolverine, and Lost in Space). Written by rising author Pat McNamara (co-creator of the Ditmar and Aurealis Award nominated The Unknown Soldier), from a story by conceptualist Gary Turner, it is a “must-have” series for the lover of breathtaking art and fantastic storytelling.
The storm of war as engulfed the Realms. Five years suffering the ravages of the hellish Rifts and their brutal spawn, the Rifters, has brought a long peace to the edge of ruin. Thrust into the heart of the turmoil is Zayd Mon Awes, Paladin of the Dragonscarpe. With a doomed love already weighing heavily upon him, Zayd is set the impossible task of training four beautiful Elementalists who could hold the key to winning the war—if they don’t kill each other first. But when betrayal sees Rifters let loose on the once unconquerable Dragonscarpe, the vengeful Outcast Velcca, architect of the turmoil, reveals the truth of the Rifts, and Zayd discovers that the only hope for survival lies in a past deliberately forgotten—beyond the barrier to the terrifying Last Realm…
Warhammer 40,000: The Killing Ground by Graham McNeill
Black Library/Solaris, $19.99, 320pp, hc, 9781844165629. Science fiction tie-in.
The long-awaited return of the Ultramarines series!
In the nightmare world of Warhammer 40,000, no servants of the Imperium are more dedicated than the Ultramarines, who follow the teachings of the legendary Codex Astartes to the letter. Having escaped from the Eye of Terror, Uriel Ventris and Pasanius now face an epic journey through a hostile universe in their quest to get home to Ultramar to safety and redemption.
Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik
(Temeraire, book five), Del Rey, $25.00, 335pp, hc, 9780345496881. Fantasy / alternate history.
Naomi Novik’s triumphant debut, His Majesty’s Dragon, introduced a dynamic new pair of heroes to the annals of fantasy fiction: the noble fighting dragon Temeraire and his master and commander, Capt. Will Laurence, who serves Britain’s peerless Aerial Corps in the thick of the raging Napoleonic Wars. Since the publication of His Majesty’s Dragon in May 2006, the Temeraire series has been translated into twenty-six different languages. In September 2006, Peter Jackson, the Academy Award-winning director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, optioned the entire Temeraire series and one year later, the fourth book in the series, Empire of Ivory, hit the New York Times bestseller list. Now, in Victory of Eagles, the first hardcover in this dazzling series, Temeraire and Laurence soar to new heights of breathtaking action and brilliant imagination.
It is a grim time for the dragon Temeraire. On the heels of his mission to Africa, seeking the cure for a deadly contagion, he has been removed from military service—and his captain, Will Laurence, has been condemned to death for treason. For Britain, conditions are grimmer still: Napoleon’s resurgent forces have breached the Channel and successfully invaded English soil. Napoleon’s prime objective: the occupation of London.
Separated by their own government and threatened at every turn by Napoleon’s forces, Laurence and Temeraire must struggle to find each other amid the turmoil of war and to aid the resistance against the invasion before Napoleon’s foothold on England’s shores can become a stranglehold. If only they can be reunited, master and dragon might rally Britain’s scattered forces and take the fight to the enemy as never before—for king and country, for their own liberty. But can the French aggressors be well and truly routed, or will a treacherous alliance deliver Britain into the hands of her would-be counquerors?
Naomi Novik’s hardcover debut, Victory of Eagles, is the fifth installment in this stunningly popular series.
In Twilight’s Shadow by Patti O’Shea
Tor, $6.99, 370pp, pb, 9780765355805. Paranormal romance.
Magic, love, and perilous consequences come together in Twilight’s Shadow. Author Patti O’Shea returns to the world of the Light Warrior with a seductive new tale of how far one woman will go for the people she loves.
Maia Frasier thought she’d escaped the world of troubleshooters and demons when she’d ceded her magical power years earlier. Now a wounded enforcer has turned up in her home, claiming Maia’s sister is in danger.
Creed Blackwood needs Maia’s help to hunt the demon he’s after, but he’s keeping secrets from everyone—including Maia. His powers are failing, becoming erratic. And then there are the blackouts…
As they spend more and more time together, Maia begins to fear Creed has fallen to the dark forces himself, and with his strong magic, that makes him as dangerous to her and her sister as any demon could be.
In Twilight’s Shadow, the past comes to haunt the present and new love defends the old. Patti O’Shea has crafted a tale of seductive power that will thrill and entice. With fierce conflict and heat to space, In Twilight’s Shadow is a sexy must-read.
The Last Vampire by Patricia Rosemoor & Marc Paoletti
Del Rey, $7.99, 339pp, pb, 9780345501042. Fiction.
In The Last Vampire, an engaging first book in a new series, an ancient evil, meant to be the last in its brutal line, has been reborn. Salvation from the last vampire rests in the hands of two people—but can they overcome an evil that was spawned in alchemy and blood?
Deep in a Texas cave, the military unearths a five-hundred-year-old corpse, its desiccated flesh teeming with mysterious DNA that can transform mortals into beings of unimaginable power.
Commander Scott Boulder, leader of a Black Ops unit that has been endowed with these superhuman abilities, is among the first to benefit from the find. But when—with the help of a voodoo priestess—the creature is conjured to life, unleashing an ancient evil bent on reinstating its poisonous kind on earth, Scott knows he must rerturn the monster to the grave. But this is no ordinary vampire. Once a brutal torturer in the Spanish Inquisition, it can bend the laws of science and magic in horrifying new ways.
Powerless to fight this evil alone, Scott grudgingly seeks the aid of reclusive anthropologist Leah Maguire, an expert in the mystical rituals of the past. To keep humanity from entering a new Dark Age, Scott and Leah will battle unspeakable horrors and will sacrifice everything they hold dead—including their own humanity—to destroy the last vampire.
King’s Shield by Sherwood Smith
(Book Three of Inda), DAW, $25.95, 594pp, hc, 9780756405007. Fantasy.
Sherwood Smith’s highly acclaimed Inda trilogy, following Inda and The Fox, concludes with King’s Shield. Inda, on the verge of adulthood, is at last coming home. At age eleven he’d been exiled from his kingdom, but when he learns that his homeland is about to be invaded, he ends his exile to report the imminent attack. Pressed into service as the king’s “royal shield arm,” Inda must now defend the kingdom—for his reputation as the captain who defeated the most dangerous pirate fleet in history makes him the only man who stands a chance to defeat his country’s ancient enemy.
The Bearskin Rug by Jennifer Stevenson
Ballantine, $6.99, 297pp, pb, 9780345500243. Paranormal romance.
Continuing their fun romps from The Brasss Bed and The Velvet Chair, sassy fraud investigator Jewel, her 200-year-old sex demon Randy and her con-artist-turned-partner Clay are back investigating a new case on the enchanted streets of Chicago.
Something seriously weird is going on at an erotic film studio. Jewel and her sexy partner, Clay, take the case—and Randy finds an outlet for his special skills.
But that’s not the only problem commitment-phobe Jewel faces. She has a live-in sex demon who keeps her up at night, and a hunky human partner who reminds her that he can make her fantasties come true, too. She’s got two hotties—and one really hard decision to make.
If Jewel’s the luckiest girl in Chicago, how come she’s sleeping alone so much?
Dororo Volume 2 by Osamu Tezuka
Vertical, $13.95, 288pp, tp, 9781934287170. Graphic Novel/Manga.
The action-adventure series Dororo is ready with a searing second volume of swordplay just in time for summer. Our prosthetic-assembled hero Hyakkimaru and rogue companion Dororo will be slashing villains overtime as each is plagued by wicked monsters and demons of the past. Hyakkimaru will come face-to-face with his father on the battlefield, an encounter that will end with a fratricidal skirmish with his brother. Meanwhile Dororo’s nostalgia for his deceased mother will blind him to the dangers of a woman plotting to serve him to a wicked face-stealing spirit.
Dororo, serialized in 1967 and 1968, quickly turned into an anime series, followed by a cult-classic videogame and smash-hit action film in 2007. As with all Osamu Tezuka’s work, Dororo scales the manga charts, this time with his panoramic execution of frenzied swordplay and candid depiction of the underbelly of humanity.
Osamu Tezuka, encouraged by his mother to choose the profession he truly enjoyed, became a manga artist after studying and receiving a medical degree. The aftermath of war left Osamu Tezuka with a deep appreciation for life, and his later works are marked by that respect for all living beings. Tezuka’s manga and anime had an increidble impact on Japan’s postwar youth, inspiring artists in an array of genres, an influence still very much present in manga today.
Other Worlds, Better LIves: A Howard Waldrop Reader: Selected Long Fiction, 1989-2003 by Howard Waldrop
Old Earth Books, $15.00, 272pp, tp, 9781882968381. Science fiction collection. On-sale date: September 2008.
Howard Waldrop has spent over three decades writing some of the finest short stories in America, leading Locus magazine to call him a “National Treasure,” and the Washington Post Book World to describe him as: “The resident Weird Mind of his generation, he writes like a honky-tonk angel.”
Other Worlds, Better Lives is Old Earth Books’ second retrospective of this distinguished author’s works. Here are seven novellas accompanied by afterwords by the author. Many of these are award nominees and winners. All expand your world-view with a unique delight and wit that can only be described as “Waldropian.”