This page is updated as books are received throughout the month.
Seeds of Change edited by John Joseph Adams
Prime, $19.95, 240pp, hc, 9780809573103. Science fiction anthology.
Imagine the moment when the present ends and the future begins—when the world we knew is no more and a brace new world is thrust upon us. Gathering stories by nine of today’s most incisive minds, Seeds of Change confronts the pivotal issues facing our society today: racism, global warming, peak oil, technological advancement, and political revolution. Many serve as a call to action. Will you be ready?
[Contributors: Ted Kosmatka, Jay Lake, K.D. Wentworth, Blake Charlton, Ken MacLeod, Jeremiah Tolbert, Mark Budz, Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, and Tobias S. Buckell.]
The Horror Writers Association Presents: Blood Lite edited by Kevin J. Anderson
Pocket, $16.00, 400pp, tp, 97814165678337. Fiction anthology. On-sale date: October 2008.
Warning: this anthology contains works of fictio nthat are gruesome, disturbing, horrifying, and drop-dead hilarious!
Charlaine Harris reveals the dark side of going green, when a quartet of died-hard environmentalists host a fundraiser with a gory twist… In Jim Butcher’s all-new Harry Dresden story, there’s no such thing as a day off for the Chicago P.D.’s wizard detective… Sherrilyn Kenyon turns a cubicle-dwelling MBA with no life into a demon-fighting seraph with one hell of an afterlife… Kelley Armstrong goes behind the scenes at Jaime Vegas’s sold-out séance tour, where a disgruntled ghost has a bone to pick with the celebrity necromancer.
Plus tales guaranteed to get under your skin—in a good way.
[Contributors: Kelley Armstrong, Janet Berliner, Jim Butcher, Don D’Ammassa, Charlaine Harris, Nancy Holder, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Nancy Kilpatrick, J.A. Konrath & F. Paul Wilson, Joe R. Lansdale, Will Ludwigsen, Sharyn McCrumb, Mark Onspaugh, Mike Resnick, Steven Savile, D.L. Snell, Eric James Stone, Jeff Strand, Lucien Soulban, Matt Venne, and Christopher Welch.]
Shadow of the Scorpion by Neal Asher
Night Shade, $14.95, 248pp, tp, 9781597801393.
Raised to adulthood during the end of the war between the human Polity and a vicious alien race, the Prador, Ian Cormac is haunted by childhood memories of a sinister scorpion-shaped war drone and the burden of losses he doesn’t remember.
Cormac signs up with Earth Central Security and is sent out to help restore and maintain order on worlds devastated by the war. There he discovers that though the Prador remain as murderous as ever, they are not anywhere near as treacherous or dangerous as some of his fellow humans, some closer to him than he would like.
Amidst the ruins left by wartime genocides, Cormac will discover in himself a cold capacity for violence and learn some horrible truths about his own past while trying to stay alive on his course of vengeance.
City at the End of Time by Greg Bear
Del Rey, $27.00, 479pp, hc, 9780345448392. Science Fiction.
Multiple Hugo and Nebula award-winning author, Greg Bear is one of sciencce fiction’s most accomplished writers. Bold scientific speculation, riveting plots, and a fierce humanism reflected in characters who dare to dream of better worlds distinguish his work. Now, in City at the End of Time, Bear has written a mind-bendingly epic novel that may well be his masterpiece.
Do you dream of a city at the end of time?
In a time like the present, in a world that may or may not be our own, three young people—Ginny, Jack, and Daniel—dream of a doomed, decadent city of the distant future: the Kalpa. Ginny’s and Jack’s dreams overtake them without warning, leaving their bodies behind while carrying their consciousnesses forward, into the minds of two inhabitants of the Kalpa—a would-be warrior, Jebrassy, and an inquisitive explorer, Tiadba—who have been genetically retro-engineered to possess qualities of ancient humanity. As for Daniel: He dreams of an empty darkness—all that his future holds.
But more than dreams link Ginny, Jack, and Daniel. They are fate-shifters, born with the ability to skip like stones across the surface of the fifth dimension, inhabiting, alternate versions of themselves. And each guards an object whose origin and purpose are unknown: gnarled, stony artifacts called sum-runners that persist unchanged through all versions of time.
Hunted by others with similar powers who seek the sum-runners on behalf of a terrifying, goddess-like entity known as the Chalk Princess, Ginny, Jack, and Daniel are drawn, despite themselves, into an all but hopeless mission to rescue the future—and conplete the greatest achievement in human history.
Harmony by C.F. Bentley
DAW, $24.95, 389pp, hc, 9780756404857. Science fiction/fantasy.
Harmony is the first book in a brand new series of C.F. Bentley and blends together the best elements of science fiction and fantasy. Bentley is a museum-trained historian whose interests and reading range from ancient history to spiritual meditations, space stations, and other eclectic topics. These interests come together in Harmony to produce a unique novel of military science fiction, New Age mysticism, and magic, sure to be enjoyed by readers of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover books.
The world of Harmony has long ago isolated itself from the rest of the universe. Yet, its inhabitants now face a crisis: the impending invasion by the alien Marillon Empire, the widening gulf between rich and poor, and the increasingly unstable planet itself all threaten to destroy this world. One young woman may be the key to saving Harmony, but only if she doesn’t doom it, first.
The highly original novel Harmony is a must-read for all science fiction and fantasy fans and is the start of a fantastic new series to be enjoyed for many years to come.
The Good Neighbors, Book One: Kin by Holly Black, illustrated by Ted Naifeh
Scholastic, $16.99, 118pp, hc, 9780439855624. Children’s graphic novel. On-sale date: October 2008.
Holly Black, bestselling author of The Spiderwick Chronicles and the acclaimed teen novel Tithe, makes her graphic novel debut with The Good Neighbors, Book One: Kin, illustrated by Eisner-nominated comic creator Ted Naifeh.
Rue Silver’s life has been turned upside down: her mother has disappeared and her father is blamed for her murder. Is her mother dead? Is her father guilty? Or is there a deeper truth underneath it all?
As Rue digs deeper into her family’s past, she is startled to discover her mother is a faerie, vanished back into the faerie realm because of a broken promise. In order to get her mother back Rue must plunge into the depths of her own identity and follow the sinister twists of her own fate.
Holly Black again creates a mysterious, dark world full of threat, romance, and illusion… this time matched by the fantastic imagination of graphic artist Ted Naifeh.
Necropath by Eric Brown
(Book One of the Bengal Station Trilogy), Solaris, $7.99, 416pp, pb, 9781844166022. Science fiction. On-sale date: October 2008.
Bengal Station: an exotic spaceport that dominates the ocean between India and Burma. Jaded telepath, Jeff Vaughan, is employed by the spaceport authorities to monitor incoming craft for refugees from other worlds. When he discovers a sinister cult that worships a mysterious alien god, he’s drawn into a deadly investigation. Not only must he attempt to solve the murders, but he has to save himself from the psychopath out to kill him. Fresh from success with Helix and Kethani, Necropath is Eric Brown’s triumphant return to hard SF.
Plague War by Jeff Carlson
Ace, $7.99, 292pp, pb, 9780441016174. Science fiction.
Last year, bestselling author Jeff Carlson astonished readers with his nail-biting post-apocalyptic thriller debut, Plague Year. Now, Carlson goes further into the aftermath of a deadly nano-tech pandemic in Plague War.
The human race has been struck by a nano-tech plague spawned from a machine that destroys warm-blooded life below 10,000 feet of elevation. Nearly 5 billion people, mammals and birds at low altitudes have been wiped out. Now researcher Ruth Goldman has developed a vaccine with the potential to inoculate the world’s few survivors against the plague that devastated humanity. But the US government wants to keep the vaccine secret in order to exterminate enemies, invade new lands, and establish a new world order. Ruth and survivor Cam Najarro must brave through the devastated wasteland that is now Earth, encountering the best and worst in human nature, in an odyssey to save what remains of the human race.
The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas
Orb, $14.95, 286pp, tp, 9780765320827.
Originally published in 1980, Suzy McKee Charnas’ revoluationary tale, The Vampire Tapestry, has become a classic novel for readers of the genre today. Charnas, a Nebula and Hugo award winning author crafted an evocative read that has received an unprecedented amount of amazing reviews, drawing comparisons to the likes of Bram Stoker and Anne Rice. Now, this keepsake edition of the vampire book that bestselling author, Stephen King called, “Scary, entertaining, suspenseful… unputdownable” has joined the distinguished Orb family.
Dr. Edward Weyland isn’t your typical vampire: He’s a high-order product of evolution. After spending several decades in hibernation, he has reestablished himself in society as a professor specializing in dream therapy at the elite Cayslin College. His days are spent in the front of the classroom, but when night falls, Weyland’s predatory impulses overpower his psyche, driving him to hunt for human blood.
Cayslin College is the ideal location for a vampire. Weyland lures in his casualties under the premise of scientific research only to victimize them for his own blood cravings. Weyland soon finds out that living amongst your victims isn’t always easy when a near-fatal encounter with a vampire huntress leaves the lonesome Weyland struggling to survive.
Written in five serial novellas, The Vampire Tapestry takes the reader on a thrilling journey where good meets evil and vampires become more realistic than ever before. Suzy Charnas’ unique ability to develop fresh characters with psychological depth, combined with her distinctive writing style, make for an exhilarating read.
The Last Theorem by Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl
Del Rey, $27.00, 301pp, hc, 9780345470218. Science fiction.
Two of science fiction’s most renowned writers join forces for a storytelling sensation in The Last Theorem. The historic 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.
In 1637, the French mathematician Pierre de Fermat scrawled a note in the margin of a book about an enigmatic theorem: “I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain.” He also neglected to record his proof elsewhere. Thus began a search for the Holy Grail of mathematics—a search that didn’t end until 1994, when Andrew Wiles published a 150-page proof. But the proof was burdensome, overlong, and utilized mathematical techniques undreamed of in Fermat’s time, and so it left many critics unsatisfied—including young Ranjit Subramanian, a Sri Lankan with a special gift for mathematics and a passion for the famous “Last Theorem.”
When Ranjit writes a three-page proof of the theorem that relies exclusively on knowledge available to Fermat, his achievement is hailed as a work of genius, bringing him fame and fortune. But it also brings him to the attention of the National Security Agency and a shadowy United Nations outfit called Pax per Fidem, or Peace Through Transparency, whose secretive workings belie its name. Suddenly Ranjit—together with his wife, Myra de Soyza, an expert in artificial intelligence, and their burgeoning family—finds himself swept up in world-shaking events, his genius for abstract mathematical thought put to uses that are both concrete and potentially deadly. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to anyone on Earth, an alien fleet is approaching the planet at a significant percentage of the speed of light. Their mission: to exterminate the dangerous species of primates known as homo sapiens.
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.
Reading the Wind by Brenda Cooper
Tor, $25.95, 446pp, hc, 9780765315984. Science fiction.
The isolationist planet of Fremont has been invaded. Not by blood-thirsty aliens or imperialist powers, but by undesirables. Like a gated community on a grand scale, the wild planet was colonized to become an exclusive new home for a pure, unadulterated race. Marked by razor sharp grasses, unruly indigenous beasts, and violent and unpredictable weather, the planet’s inhospitable terrain is matched only by its inhabitants’ hatred towards people who have been genetically altered.
In The Silver Ship and the Sea, Brenda Cooper introduced us to this grandly imagined world, and to the group of genetically altered teens unfortunate enough to be stranded on it. They vowed to get home by any means necessary, but not all of them made it. Chelo Lee remained on Fremont, though her brother Joseph escaped. Now in Reading the Wind, the teens who made it back find the people of their home world incensed. Believing the people of Fremont killed the castaways, they’re bent on wiping out everyone on the planet. It’s now up to the teens and their father to return to Fremont to save their friends, who also face elimination.
Combining articulate and thoughtful hard SF with richly drawn characters, Brenda Cooper introduces hot-button topics relatable to our own world. Problems of playing God, what it means to be human, and the tensions of love play themselves out in this beautifully crafted world, in a story taut with suspense and excitement.
In conjunction with this release, Brenda Cooper will be posting a series of related blogs on her website, http://www.brenda-cooper.com, through the months of July and August. These blog entries will explore a diverse array of topics that affect our own world, and how they tie in with the issues presented in Reading the Wind.
The Horus Heresy: Battle for the Abyss by Ben Counter
Black Library, $7.00, 416pp, pb, 9781844165490. Fantasy.
The next installment of the Horus Heresy!
Battle for the Abyss rejoins the action of the Heresy in full force. Now that news of Horus’s treachery is in the open, a time of testing has come. Some Legions have already declared their allegiance to the Warmaster, while the loyalty of others lies firmly with the Emperor. As Horus deploys his forces, loyalist Astartes learn that a massive enemy fleet is heading to Ultramar—home of the Ultramarines. A small group of marines try to intercept and delay the enemy until reinforcements arrive, but there are still those in their midst that must choose a side.
Ben Counter is fast becoing one of the Black Library’s most popular authors. He has two successful series—Soul Drinkers and Grey Knights, and soon another Horus Heresy hit to go with Galaxy in Flames. Ben is an ancient history graduate and an avid miniature painter; he lives near Portsmouth, England.
The Horus Heresy is a great new series from The Black Library set in a world 30,000 years in the future. With each new title, in the series, sales grow stronger and stronger.
Dark Whispers by Bruce Coville
(The Unicorn Chronicles: Book III), Scholastic, $17.99, 463pp, hc, 9780590459518. Chirldren’s fantasy.
Fans of Bruce Coville’s Unicorn Chronicles books 1 and 2, Into the Land of the Unicorns (1994) and Song of the Wanderer (1999), respectively, have been waiting nearly ten years for the third installment of the Unicorn Chronicles. This August, they will finally get their wish.
Unicorn Chronicles Book 3: Dark Whispers is a tale of two quests. In the first, Cara Diana Hunter searches for an ancient story that may unravel the secret of the long enmity between the unicorns and the monstrous delvers. In the second, Cara’s father journeys to free her mother from the Rainbow Prison. As Cara travels through the underground world of the delvers to the court of the centaur king, her father travels from India to the depths of the Rainbow prison itself. In these mysterious and terrifying travels, who can be trusted, and who is the enemy?
Into the Land of the Unicorns by Bruce Coville
(The Unicorn Chronicles: Book I), Scholastic, $6.99, 161pp, tp, 9780545068246. Chidren’s fantasy.
One unicorn dwells on Earth. Hundreds fight in Luster. Their legends are recorded in The Unicorn Chronicles.
As each chime sounds, Cara climbs faster up the steep bell tower. Eleven! She must be on the roof when the next bell tolls. Twelve! With a deep breath, and only half believing she will survive, Cara jumps off the church roof and into Luster, land of the unicorns.
In Luster, Cara meets many wonderful creatures, but the most magnificent of all is Lightfoot, a rebellious young unicorn. Cara’s band of friends comes to include a hairy creature named the Dimblethum and the monkey-like Squijim. Together, they set out to reach the Unicorn Queen before the mysterious man who is following them does—to prevent the destruction of all unicorns forever.
Song of the Wanderer by Bruce Coville
(The Unicorn Chronicles: Book II), Scholastic, $6.99, 333pp, tp, 9780545068253. Children’s fantasy.
One unicorn dwells on Earth. Hundreds fight in Luster. Their legends are recorded in The Unicorn Chronicles.
Cara must return to Earth to save her grandmother, the Wanderer. But to do so, Cara must first travel through the wilderness of Luster, land of the unicorns, full of unknown creatures and perilous adventure around every bend in the road. Only at the back of the dragon Ebillan’s cave will she find the gate that can return her to Earth.
Embarking on the journey of her life, Cara will face vicious terrain, delver attacks, and a surly dragon. Beyond all this looms one more danger: Beloved, Cara’s infamous ancestor, who has dedicated a lifetime to ridding the earth of unicorns. Is Cara strong enough to resist Beloved’s ruthless magic and trickery? Can she bear betraying her own blood?
MultiReal by David Louis Edelman
(Volume 2 of the Jump 225 trilogy), Pyr, $15.00, 525pp, tp, 9781591026471. Science fiction.
David Louis Edelman’s debut novel Infoquake was called “the love child of Donald Trump and Vernor Vinge” and hailed as the best science fiction debut of 2006. The story of this far-future corporate thriller continues with MultiReal, the stunning second book in the Jump 225 trilogy.
Natch has just won his first battle with the Defense and Wellness Council for control of MultiReal technology. But now the Council has unleashed the ruthless cunning of Lieutenant Executive Magan Kai Lee. Lee decides that if Natch’s company can’t be destroyed from without, it must be destroyed from within. As black code continues to eat away at Natch’s sanity, he faces a mutiny from his own apprentices, a legal onslaught from the government, and the return of enemies old and new. In desperation, the entrepreneur turns to some unlikely allies: a radical politician with an agenda of his own, and a childhood enemy to whom he has done a terrible wrong.
Natch’s struggle will take him from the halls of power in Melbourne to the ruined cities of the diss. Hanging in the balance is the fate of MultiReal, a technology that could end the tyranny of the Council forever—or give the Council the ultimate weapon of oppression.
Budayeen Nights by George Alec Effinger
Golden Gryphon, $14.95, 235pp, tp, 9781930846562. Science fiction collection. On-sale date: September 2008.
Welcome to the Budayeen, the walled city in the sand, a city of dark shadows and even darker inhabitants, where George Alec Effinger has created a Raymond Chandleresque vision—hardboiled, noir, futuristic—but with a twist: Here, in the Budayeen, Orthodox Islam meets brain-wiring technology.
In “Schrödinger’s Kitten”—Effinger’s best known story, and winner of the Nebula, Hugo, Theodore Sturgeon, and Japanese Seiun Awards—a young girl’s visions portend myriad possible quantum futures, all focused around her likely encounter with a would-be rapist. We are then treated to a day in the life of sex goddess and screen star Honey Pílar, and the making of her latest blockbuster sex moddy, “Slow, Slow Burn.”
This collection also includes four tales of Marîd Audran—former street punk and “fix it” man, now grandson and protégé of Friedlander Bey, the local godfather figure—the protagonist in Effinger’s three highly acclaimed Budayeen novels: When Gravity Fails (Hugo and Nebula Awards finalist), A Fire in the Sun (Hugo Award finalist), and The Exile Kiss. In the previously unpublished “Marîd Throws a Party,” Audran, in an alcohol-induced haze, unknowingly becomes embroiled in a death at his nightclub while celebrating his own birthday.
A Darkness Forged in Fire by Chris Evans
(Book One of The Iron Elves), Pocket, $26.00, 419pp, hc, 9781416570516. Fantasy.
Shaking up the science fiction world this summer is the exciting adventure and debut novel by Chris Evans—First in a stunning series, A Darkness Forged in Fire introduces an unforgiving world of musket and cannon… bow and arrow… magic, diplomacy, and oaths—each wielding terrible power in an Empire teetering on the brink of war.
In this world, Konowa Swift Dragon, former commander of the Empire’s elite Iron Elves, is looked upon as anything but ordinary. He’s murdered a Viceroy, been court-martialed, seen his beloved regiment disbanded, and finally been banished in disgrace to the one place he despises the most—the forest.
Now, all he wants is to be left alone with his misery… but for Konowa, nothing is ever that simple. The mysterious and alluring Visyna Tekoy, the highborn daughter of an elfkynan governor, seeks him out in the dangerous wild with a royal decree that he resume his commission as an officer in Her Majesty’s Imperial Army, effective immediately.
For in the east, a falling Red Star heralds the return of a magic long vanished from the earth. Rebellion grows within the Empire as a frantic race to reach the Star unfolds. It is a chance of Konowa to redeem himself—even if the entire affair appears doomed to be a suicide mission… and the soldiers recruited for the task are not at all what he expects. And worse, his key adversary in the perilous race for the Star is the dreaded Shadow Monarch—a legendary elf-witch whose machinations for absolute domination spread deeper than Konowa could ever imagine. A Darkness Forged in Fire will keep many lights on late into the night this summer as readers find themselves hooked to the last page.
Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
Penguin, $15.00, 363pp, tp, 9780143113560.
Thursday Next returns to rescue reading from certain destruction… again.
Fourteen years after she pegged out at the 1988 SuperHoop, Thursday Next is grappling with a host of problems in the BookWorld: a recalcitrant new apprentice, the death of Sherlock Holmes, and the inexplicable departure of comedy from the once-hilarious Thomas Hardy novels. The Council of Genres is trying to broker a peace deal between certain antagonistic genres: Racy Novel has been recklessly placed between Ecclesiastical and Feminist, and they are at each other’s throats. Meanwhile, back in Swindon, the government is reporting a dangerously high stupidity surplus, and Thursday’s idle sixteen-year-old son would rather sleep all day than follow his destiny as a member of the ChronoGuard. Not only does she captain the ship Moral Dilemma to the very limits of acceptable narrative possibilities, but Thursday also finds she must face down her most vicious enemy yet: herself.
Lord Tophet by Gregory Frost
(A Shadowbridge Novel), Del Rey, $14.00, 225pp, tp, 9780345497598. Fantasy.
From Gregory Frost, the critically acclaimed author who has been a finalist for nearly every major award in the fantasy field, comes Lord Tophet, the second novel in the two-book adventure that began with Shadowbridge.
Daughter of the legendary shadow-puppeteer Bardsham, Leodora has inherited her father’s skills… and his enemies. Together with her manager—Soter, keeper of her father’s darkest secrets, and a gifted young musician named Diverus, Leodora has traveled from span to span, her masked performances given under the stage name Jax, winning fame and fortune.
But Jax’s success may be Leodora’s undoing. Years ago, following a performance by Bardsham, the vengeful god known as Lord Tophet visited a horrific punishment upon the span of Colemaigne and its citizens, a reprisal inflicted without warning or explanation. And as the genius of Jax gives rise to rumors that Bardsham has returned, Lord Tophet takes notice and dispatches a quintet of deadly killers to learn the truth behind the mask.
Now, upon the cursed span of Colemaigne, where her father achieved his greatest triumph and suffered his bitterest tragedy, Leodora is about to perform the most shocking story of all.
Lord Tophet is the completion of a two-book adventure.
The Science of Michael Crichton: An Unauthorized Exploration into the Real Science Behind the Fictional Worlds of Michael Crichton edited by Kevin Grazier, PhD
BenBella, $17.95, 173pp, tp, 9781933771328. Science.
Stamp-sized microchips that control the brain, dinosaurs cloned from million-year-old mosquitoes and deadly alien diseases that threaten to end the human race are all just some of Michael Crichton’s inventive plots that have captivated millions of readers. But even though these imaginary scenarios seem to defy logic and real science, they are not always so far from becoming a scientific reality.
The Science of Michael Crichton: An Unauthorized Exploration into the Real Science Behind the Fictional Worlds of Michael Crichton edited by Kevin R. Grazier, PhD, examines the scientific validity of Crichton’s bestselling novels—including Disclosure, Congo, The Andromeda Strain, and Jurassic Park. Through ten insightful essays penned by molecular biologists, novelists, computer engineers, journalists and other scientists, The Science of Michael Crichton reveals how close, or sometimes far, Crichton’s science is from being realized.
A graduate of Harvard’s Medical School, Crichton seamlessly blurs fiction with cutting edge invention, historical facts, medical studies, scientific research and intelligence reports in his sci-fi thrillers. The Science of Michael Crichton dissects Crichton’s trademark style to reveal how he pushes the boundaries of believability and suspense, causing his readers to question what is possible, if not plausible.
Discussing each bestseller’s premise, The Science of Michael Crichton analyzes:
* If life can actually evolve from the dense molecular structure of a crystal like it did in The Andromeda Strain
* How Crichton relies on his reader’s fears and negative perceptions in the creation of his brute, Neanderthal-like characters in Eaters of the Dead
* Crichton’s cynicisms of the politics of science and how it affects global warming—as expressed through protagonist John Kenner in State of Fear
* How Crichton’s progressive, almost futuristic plot of his 1969 thriller, The Terminal Man, predicted how computer chips would one day be implanted into human brains
From time travel to cloning, Crichton’s plausible narratives continue to challenge, test and inspire modern-day science. The Science of Michael Crichton is a necessary read for every Crichton fan.
[Contributors: Kevin R. Grazier, PhD, Sergio Pistoi, Ray Kurzweil, Ian Tattersall, Dario Maestripieri, PhD, Sandy Becker, Joel N. Shurkin, Larry Yaeger, David M. Lawrence, and Phill Jones.]
Misspent Youth by Peter F. Hamilton
Del Rey, $26.00, 416pp, hc, 9780345461643. Science fiction. On-sale date: 16 September 2008.
Forty years in the future, following decades of research and money spent on genetic manipulation, the European Union is finally in a position to rejuvenate a human being. Jeff Baker—elderly philanthropist and creator of the INternet’s replacement, the datasphere—will be the first subject for treatment. After eighteen months in a German medical facility, the seventy-eight year-old patient returns home looking like a healthy twenty-year-old.
But the effect is not what he expected. His reappearance changes his relationships with family and friends, from his still-young trophy wife Sue and teenage son Tim to his long-time pals, who are now themselves all retired and starting to resent what Jeff has become—and the surprising consequences of his newly misspent youth.
With his unique storytelling craft, Hamilton delivers the tale of an increasingly probable, and disturbing, future life.
Seaborn by Chris Howard
Juno, $7.99, 380pp, pb, 9780809572816. Contemporary fantasy.
There’s a world deep under the sea, a kingdom that has endured thousands of years without the knowledge of the modern world. Those who dwell there are Thalassogeneis: SEABORN.
Kassandra is the King of the Seaborn’s granddaughter. She comes from the sea, but has spent her whole life in exile on the surface, struggling to learn about the frightening powers she possesses. She’s already defeated her murderous grandfather once, but now she declaring an all-out war—and she’ll stop at nothing to win.
Corina Lairsey, a California college student who loves to scuba dive, has just clawed her way free from one controlling relationship when she finds herself in another—only this guy, Aleximor, an ancient Seaborn sorcerer—has really gotten under her skin. Literally. He’s inside her head and is wearing her body. Corina desperately schemes to regain control of her self, fighting against time as Aleximor trades pieces of her life away as he raises an army of the drowned dead.
Aleximor, seeking revenge for four centuries of imprisonment, threatens to destroy both young women and the entire world of the Seaborn…
Dancing with Fire by Susan Kearney
Tor, $6.99, 373pp, pb, 9780765358455. Romantic suspense.
USA Today bestselling author Susan Kearney knows how to thrill an audience, and she’s at the top of her game with Dancing with Fire, a tale of sacrifice and seduction, in which one woman must rise from the ashes of her former life.
Accident or murder? Dance instructor Kaylin Danner gave up on Broadway to help her father raise her younger sisters in Florida. When her father’s laboratory blows sky high and his priceless formula for a revolutionary new fuel disappears, Kaylin is left with nothing but her father’s business partner, Sawyer Scott, and a cache of deadly trouble.
Life or death? When the Danner home is vandalized and her sisters threatened, Sawyer and Kaylin team up to unmask the killer terrorizing her family. Sawyer is bent on pursuing both Kaylin and the missing formula, but Kaylin fights the attraction, believing Sawyer is a dreamer like her father—and in her experience, dreamers end up dead.
Will Kaylin run from Sawyer, or will she succumb to the flames of passion? The pair may live or die by her decision. With mystery and romance to spare, Dancing with Fire is a hot read for a sultry summer day.
The Wreck of the Godspeed and Other Stories by James Patrick Kelly
Golden Gryphon, $24.95, 358pp, hc, 9781930846517. Science fiction collection.
For thirty years James Patrick Kelly has been writing award-nominated and -winning short fiction, and these thirteen stories of his recent work are of the high quality and cutting style that is synonymous with him. In Nebula-winner “Burn” a supposedly idyllic world comes to grip with environmental responsibility and environmental terrorists, coupled with the personal decisions that are never clear or easy. In “Men are Trouble,” nominated for the Nebula award, “devils” have eliminated men from Earth and “seed” women for procreation. In the Hugo nominated “The Best Christmas Ever” mechanicals must keep the last man on Earth happy, and do so by throwing him the best, and possibly last, Christmas ever. In the Hugo-nominated morality tale “Bernardo’s House” we meet a high-tech house and artificial woman, controlled by an AI, pining away awaiting the return of Bernardo—that is, until someone does visit. A HAL-like interstellar ship and a colorful group of pilgrims seek new worlds to explore in “The Wreck of the Godspeed,” but is the ship’s AI acting a bit strange? Is the AI going insane, or is something unique happening? The man who killed the last mammoth; will he be remembered as the hero, with “Luck”? To what extent will TV programs of the future go to get ratings? Ask the sentient “The Leila Torn Show.” In “The Dark Side of Town” the problems and tempatations of a happy virtual reality versus a dismal real life are examined. What would it be like if one had to pass a test before one could become a “Mother”? A colony ship’s captain is behaving weirdly on “Dividing the Sustain,” and the ship needs a fully functional captain. Where is he, and how will he make his appearance? The Garden of Eden story is retold from the serpent’s view, in “Serpent.” What hath God wrought? Where is “The Edge of Nowhere” and what is past nowhere? “The Ice is Singing” in harmony? Does it sing to you? This collection of Kelly’s recent work provides the reader with new insights into the human psyche, as well as some of the best speculative SF fiction available.
The Guin Saga, Book Five: The Marches King by Kaoru Kurimoto, translated by Alexander O. Smith with Elye J. Alexander
Vertical, $9.95, 287pp, tp, 9781934287200. Fiction/Fantasy.
The Guin Saga: The Marches King is the fifth and final book of the first story arc within the currently 120-volume series. Stepping out of Tolkien-inspired fantasy, The Guin Saga is a pulp-styled classic akin to native growths like Indiana Jones and Conan the Barbarian. In his final battle, our invincible hero takes us through a mercurial world of creatures on his way to vanquish his human foes.
A blustering introduction before the assembly of the Lagon giants proves to be trickier than Guin thought, but fate does not let him fail. While the enemy camp mourns the loss of Count Marus, their heartless leader Amnelis develops a plan to annihilate the Sem ape-men. The divided Sem are powerless against the wrath of the vindictive human invaders and flee toward Dog’s Head. As promised, Guin returns in time with the Lagon, bludgeoning the knights into a final retreat. The Sem and Lagon create a pact to protect their lands together and name Guin their ruler.
Kaoru Kurimoto is one of the world’s leading fantasy writers. Starting the series in 1979 and continuing through three decades, Kurimoto has established a huge fan base that is still growing today, especially overseas. Over 25 million copies of her series have been sold. Born and raised in Tokyo, her age remains as deep a mystery as the identity of her masked hero Guin.
What if…? by Steve N. Lee
Blue Zoo, $25.99, 350pp, hc, 9780955652516.
What if…? is a mainstream suspense thriller which incorporates all the customary elements of shootouts, double-crosses, cliff-hangers and mystery but which stands out from the crowd through its philosophical exploration of ecological and humanitarian issues. Here’s the nutshell version of what it’s about:
During the US Presidential election, a disillusioned journalist and a charismatic healer embark on a crusade to bring equality and prosperity to the world. This thrusts them into a life or death struggle with corporate America, organized crime, and even the White House which all fear losing their power.
Kiss of a Traitor by Cat Lindler
Medallion, $6.95, 590pp, pb, 9781933836515. Historical romance. On-sale date: January 2009.
Wilhelmina Bellingham is an ardent Tory and has two goals in her young life: catching the rebel traitor, General Francis Marion, and avoiding marriage to the fool to whom her father betrothed her when she was only a babe, a man neither she nor her father has ever met. Her first goal is within reach. Willa knows South Carolina’s swamps and byways as well as any rebel. With judicious searching and a large dose of luck, she will eventually catch the partisan general. Shedding her betrothed is another matter.
Captain Brendan Ford, a spy with Marion’s patriots, stumbles across the perfect way to infiltrate the Loyalist high command when his half brother is killed shortly after arriving in Carolina. Ford assumes his brother’s identity as Lord Montford, fiancé to Wilhelmina Bellingham. But his masquerade requires he actually court her, and the untidy little wren of a girl is not a female to inspire courtship. He is thankful his ruse will end as soon as the patriots drive the British from South Carolina.
Neither Willa nor Brendan are prepared for the consequences of war or the betrayals of the heart—but will their allegiance to outside forces keep them from the love they just might find within each other’s arms?
The Academy by Bentley Little
Signet, $7.99, 392pp, pb, 9780451224675.
The Academy is the newest spine-chilling novel from the author whom Stephen King hailed as the “Master of Macabre,” Bentley Little.
An unassuming high school in Southern California has, until recently, been beholden to a reactionary school board and archaic traditions. So the teachers are thrilled by the news that it is to become a charter school, with more freedom and a democratic leadership. But it doesn’t last: leadership qiuckly devolves into dictatorship, with a tyrannical principal and her toadying secretary running the show.
But that’s not all that’s wrong. Strange, unexplainable events begin to manifest on school grounds. Janitors are afraid to work nights because of what they see and hear, and students and parents are frightened by odd occurences that defy rational explanation. But there is an explanation—it’s just not something that anyone can begin to believe…or hope to survive.
Enchantment Place edited by Denise Little
DAW, $7.99, 338pp, pb, 9780756405106. Fantasy anthology.
A new mall is always worth a visit, especially if it’s filled with one-of-a-kind specialty stores. And the shops in Enchantment Place couldn’t be more special. For Enchantment Place lives up to its name, catering to a rather unique clientele, ranging from vampires and were-creatures, to wizards and witches, elves and unicorns. In short, anyone with shopping needs not likely to be met in the chain stores.
Here are seventeen shopping expeditions you’lll never forget, from a were-tiger hoping to bond with his newly transformed son… to a young woman working in a store that sells the highest quality familiars… to the non-magical daughter of a magic-filled family who is left to mind the family jewelry store though she has no means to defeat an enchanting thief… to a woman running a Wiccan supply store who is suddenly faced with an IRS audit.…
[Contributors: Mary Jo Putney, Esther M. Friesner, Sarah A. Hoyt, Susan Sizemore, Jody Lynn Nye, Diane A.S. Stuckart, Pamela Luzier, Laura Resnick, Phaedra M. Weldon, Melanie Fletcher, Christina F. York, Deb Stover, Elizabeth A. Vaughan, Laura Hayden, Diane Duane, Peter Morwood, and Kristine Kathryn Rusch.]
Clementa by Jim Martin
Lupine, $15.00, 377pp, tp, 9780980014006. On-sale date: October 2008.
This is the place where we’d normally reprint the press release that accompanied the book, but in this particular case, at least twice, that press release has been quoted as a glowing review by SFScope. Therefore, we’ve removed the press release, and warn our readers that the only positive reviews we’ve seen about the book have been the publisher’s own press release.
The Time Engine by Sean McMullen
(The fourth book of the Moonworlds Saga), Tor, $27.95, 302pp, hc, 9780765318763. Science Fiction.
Widely acclaimed for his fine characters, strong storytelling, and remarkable world-building, Sean McMullen has quickly become a favorite in the SF/Fantasy genre. Having earned comparisons to Terry Pratchett and the legendary H.G. Wells, he has won dozens of national awards in his native Australia, including numerous Ditmar Awards and the Aurealis Award. The author of the critically lauded Greatwinter Trilogy, McMullen’s work is a mixture of romance, invention, and adventure, peopled by dynamic, strange, and often hilarious characters. In his latest tale, The Time Engine, McMullen once again crafts a marvelously entertaining adventure set in a zany and captivating world.
The Time Engine begins with the young Inspector Danolarian enjoying a quiet ale at the notorious Mermaid’s Slipper. Unfortunately for him, this will be his last moment of peace before he and his man-turned-cat Constable Wallace are suddenly and inexplicably kidnapped by a wayward teenager with a stolen time engine from thousands of years in the future. While the Inspector handily escapes, he is left to roam utterly confused in a world that bears little resemblance to his own; a world fixated on etiquette, in which giving offence is the highest crime.
After uniting with the time engine’s maker, an alluring and liberated woman, the three embark on a plan to return Danolarian and Wallace to their own time as well as correct some mistakes in history along the way. But everything goes wrong and they end up in the ancient past on the run from five thousand naked, psychopathic horsemen.
While the daring Inspector avoids an early (or old) death, his narrow escape sends him another three million years back to a perfect land of castles and splendor. Despite the beauty, Danolarian knows something is amiss. As reality starts to unravel, the Inspector is in for the ultimate surprise.
The Time Engine is set in the same fascinating world as McMullen’s previous Moonworlds books—Voyage of the Shadowmoon, Glass Dragons, and Voidfarer—but is still enjoyable as a standalone novel. This story has plenty of surprises, but also features the splendid return of several characters, including Wayfarer Inspector Danolarian and his cat-Constable Wallace. The Time Engine is an alternately poignant and hilarious tale of twisted time travel, rollicking adventure, and remarkable technology that echoes H.G. Wells in its futuristic imagination.
Inevitable Sentences by Tekla Dennison Miller
Medallion, $7.95, 368pp, pb, 9781934755013. Fiction. On-sale date: January 2009.
Big Bay Point Lighthouse, on Michigan’s Lake Superior, has illuminated rocky shoals for more than a hundred years. Transformed into a safehouse, these days the stout old tower shelters women and children from emotional turbulence. Celeste Brookstone, as pnew owner and director of the safehouse, has found a satisfying life mission following the murder of her daughter, Pilar. Celeste is also taking full advantage of the proximity of the Lighthouse to the new man in her life, retired prison warden, Max Whitefeather. That the shelter is so close to Hawk Haven Prison, where Pilar’s murderer is serving a life sentence, seems immaterial to Celeste. After all, she has played a part in seeing Chad Wilbanks locked away in maximum security isolation.
Or is he? When Chad escapes with the help of his groupie, Lizzie Chatfield, and Priscilla, Lizzie’s best friend and a volunteer at the safehouse, he, too, is on a mission: settling the score with Celeste. Once Chad leaves the two women for dead he heads to the lighthouse. The worst November storm on record creates the perfect cover for Chad’s approach—but Celeste is better prepared than he expects.
What Celeste is not prepared for is a shocking truth in the form of a ghost from her past. Now it’s not only about saving her life, but saving her sanity.
Mage-Guard of Hamor by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
(The new novel in the Saga of Recluce), Tor, $27.95, 619pp, hc, 9780765319272. Fantasy.
For fourteen books, bestseling author L.E. Modesitt, Jr. has thrilled fans with his internationally acclaimed Recluce series. Now, he returns to his most popular world with the anxiously awaited sequel to The New York Times bestseller Natural Ordermage, Mage-Guard of Hamor.
Mage-Guard of Hamor is the second of two volumes that follow Rahl, the young scribe from Recluce, turned mage, turned exile, as he works to improve his rare abilities as a natural ordermaster in the midst of political intrigue and war. Now apprenticed to the powerful mage-guard Taryl, Rahl resides in Hamor, the continent far across the sea from Recluce where the story began. There, Rahl’s education continues as he must learn to control his increased powers and determine who he can trust.
Rahl becomes a powerful mage, but as political rebellion escalates into civil war and Rahl is sent out into the field to command an army company against the rebels’ chaosmasters, the stakes are even higher and the amount of trouble that he can get in to is even greater. As he works to protect his adopted land, it becomes clear the line beween good and evil cannot be drawn between order and chaos. Mage-Guard of Hamor is the story of how Rahl gains both more knowledge and power, and more self-control. And in the end, it may be Rahl who holds the key to victory for Hamor and its emperor!
A Shadow in the Flames by Michael G. Munz
VBW, $14.95, 303pp, tp, 9781602641044. Science fiction.
Set in the fictional, decaying city of Northgate in the mid-21st century, A Shadow in the Flames is a self-contained novel beginning a larger series. It focuses on a young man named Michael Flynn who has come to the city with the dream of making a difference as part of a futuristic caste of knights. When arson destroys all that he owns, he finds the chance to realize that dream: Michael’s mentor, his last remaining friend, enlists him to help stop the arsonist. But neither mentor nor arsonist is all they appear to be. He soon finds himself caught in webs of deception, and as a secret society struggles to unlock the secrets of a covert discovery on the lunar surface, they have their eyes on Michael as well.
Immortals: The Crossing by Joy Nash
Love Spell, $7.99, 324pp, pb, 9780505527677. Paranormal romance. On-sale date: October 2008.
USA Today bestselling author Joy Nash returns to the Immortals series and the world of magic and demons to bring the much anticipated story of Mac, the action starved and sex-loving demigod in Immortals: The Crossing. In the newest book in this sexy and gripping paranormal series, readers will find what happens after two lovers brave the magic and make The Crossing.
In Immortals: The Crossing, the only thing Celtic demigod and musician, Manannan mac Lir wanted was to get far away from fangirls and the strange feelings that an immortal Sidhe demigod should not have. But then there is a death magic attack on a faerie village an dan infant almost dies—an infant that was supposed to be under Mac’s protection. While searching for the would-be assassin, Mac encounters Artemis Black, a dangerous woman who can inconceivably mix life magic with death magic. He knows he should bring her directly to the Sidhe Council to be destroyed, but her vulnerable eyes call to him and he makes a choice that will take him to Hell and back—literally.
The Age of the Conglomerates: A Novel of the Future by Thomas Nevins
Ballantine, $14.00, 295pp, tp, 9780375503917. Science fiction.
Ballantine Books is proud to publish Thomas Nevins’ The Age of the Conglomerates: A Novel of the Future, a futuristic novel about the transcending power of love and family in a time of political and cultural dictatorship.
Forty years in the future, in a world where Big Brother runs amok, a powerful political party known as the Conglomerates has emerged, vowing to enforce economic martial law at any cost. Dr. Christine Salter, director of genetic development at a New York medical center, is in charge of “genetic contouring,” the much-in-demand science of producing the ideal child. But Christine is increasingly troubled by odd events, including the strange disappearance of Gabriel Cruz, a co-worker for whom she has a developing affection, and the fact that her latest assignment—making the Conglomerate chairman more youthful through genetic engineering—is an especially dangerous task.
As mandated by the Family Relief Act, Christine’s parents are relocated to a government-designed community in the American Southwest, along with other Coots (the official term given to the elderly), who are considered an economic and social burden to family and society. But even in this cold, cruel age, the Conglomerates can only control so much.
In his enthralling debut, Thomas Nevins The Age of the Conglomerates thrillingly chronicles a brave new world where one family struggles to survive by keeping alive feelings of mercy, loyalty, and love.
Shorn by Larissa N. Niec
Mercury Retrograde, $16.95, 348pp, tp, 9780981665405. Fiction fantasy series. On-sale date: 1 October 2008.
Shorn is the first volume of The Sky Seekers, a planned series of four. A fantasy novel about oppression and resilience, the consequences of vengeance, and the malleable nature of truth, Shorn represents an exciting new voice in fantasy.
In Shorn, the land of Avelos is beset by enemies conspiring to destroy her—and killing winds that confound her wisest seers. But the greatest danger may lie with the Avelune, once the rules of Avelos and now an abused minority. Their oppression, and the truth suppressed by those who fear them, may prove the country’s undoing.
Fairies and Fairy Stories: A History by Diane Purkiss
Tempus, $19.95, 384pp, tp, 9780752440736. Folklore & Mythology.
Whether on top of the Christmas tree, at the bottom of the garden, or in school plays, today fairies are considered sweet, dainty creatures with wands and butterfly wings. But, as Diane Purkiss shows, they have far more wicked origins as troublemakers, child snatchers, seducers, and changelings, representing society’s deepest fears and desires regarding birth, sex, and death. From these dangerous beings of ancient myths and medieval folklore to the sanitized “wingy thingies” of Shakespeare and the Victorians, and even modern myths of alien abduction, this is a riveting chronicle of the need to believe in fairies.
Pawsitively Guilty by Cindy Keen Reynders
Medallion, $7.95, 394pp, pb, 9781933836607. Mystery. On-sale date: December 2008.
Lexie Lightfoot, owner of the Saucy Lucy Café, doesn’t have an ounce of law enforcement training in her body. However, due to previous escapades, she’s learned a thing or two about killers and their murderous tendencies.
When Lexie and her sister, Lucy, find a friend who had gone missing buried in her rose garden, the sisters are devastated. Always ready to right a wrong, both siblings feel the need to take action. During their crime-solving spree, the sisters adopt an oversize canine investigator by the name of Lurch who will lend them a hand, actually a paw, in ferreting out the murderer.
As luck would have it, the sisters manage to rattle a few old skeletons and dig up secrets that folks would rather leave hidden in their closets. One clue leads to another and the sisters soon realize that some things are better left alone. The action really starts to simmer when Lexie and Lucy discover, to their horror, that a family member has been targeted for foul play. It’s now entirely up to them to keep evil from coming home to roost in their own backyards.
Claws that Catch by John Ringo and Travis S. Taylor
Baen, $25.00, 416pp, hc, 9781416555872. Science Fiction. On-sale date: November 2008.
It’s Not Over Til The Skinny Lady Sings…
Working off of a piece of intelligence from the alien Hexosehr, the Vorpal Blade is dispatched to investigate rumors of an ancient and powerful civilization that may have been the creators of the “black box” that drives humanity’s only space ship. Any remnant technology would be nice but what the Blade finds is much more than they bargained for. Worse, the ship is infested by an alien species of scorpion-like arachnoids that has the potential to wipe out a world. Worst of all, instead of being Astrogator, Captain William Weaver is now the XO and he is not getting along with the new commander. And the new commander does not get along with Weaver, the ship’s female savant-linguist or most of the rest of the original crew. And what is that weird noise the ship makes every time it’s in hard maneuvers?
Leave it to the oddball geniuses of the Blade to sort it all out. And the Dreen are not going to like the answers.
Harvest of Changelings by Warren Rochelle
Golden Gryphon, $24.95, 313pp, tp, 9781930846524.
Ten years ago Ben Tyson, a librarian living in Garner, NC, met and loved Valeria, a Daoine Sidhe woman. Valeria’s death left Ben to raise their child, Malachi, alone, and for ten years the two of them lived a fairly ordinary life. Everything changed when Malachi turned ten and began to manifest his fey powers, but without the control a full-blooded fairy would have. Ben has to get ihs son through the nearest gate to Faerie before these powers kill him. But, where is the gate? Where are the other three children Malachi dreams of—earth, fire, and water to his air? Why are there reports of such things as dragon sightings and why are bookstores selling out of titles on the occult and witchcraft? All Ben knows is the date the gate can next be opened, Halloween. What he doesn’t know is that the powers in Faerie have called home the descendents of changelings left here generations ago. Ben doesn’t know there are evil forces in both universes trying to prevent this return.
More than a straightforward fairy tale, this is a story of the Other: those who are different—physically, mentally, and in their lifestyles. The four part-fairy children are taunted by their classmates because of these differences; two have been abused by their parents. All four are outsiders. As they find each other, they find they must learn how to survive together, and unite to overcome the apathy and prejudice of humans, as well as the evil Fomorii.
The Psychology of Superheroes: An Unauthorized Exploration edited by Robin S. Rosenberg, PhD
BenBella, $17.95, 259pp, tp, 9781933771311. Graphic Novels/Film.
They are fearless. They are formidable. They dare to wear brightly colored underwear on the outside. But eye-catching costumes and nifty utility belts aside, what is it about the tried and true comic book superhero that continues to captivate and inspire?
Part of BenBella Books’ “Psychology Of” series, The Psychology of Superheroes: An Unauthorized Exploration edited by Robin S. rosenberg, Phd, delves deep into the previously uncharted territory of the superhuman psyche by examining the origins and flaws of widely cherished characters—including Superman, Spider-Man, the X-Men, Wonder Woman, and Batman. Rich in essays crafter by expert psychologists, this anthology tirelessly digs up the grand roots of pop culture’s favorite mythic heroes.
The Psychology of Superheroes examines the eccentric ticks and dual personalities common to superhero stardom. The Incredible Hulk’s volatile temper is traced to unresolved issues from Bruce Banner’s unhappy childhood. Superman is exposed to have a darker, condescending attitude—a “superman complex” that continually threatens to destroy him. Batman’s hostile aggression, voracious pursuit of criminals and coldness towards those he saves raises suspicions about his superhero status. As each essay reveals, the curse of extraordinary powers coupled with a nagging desire fopr justice can have serious psychological effects.
The Psychology of Superheroes also poses previously unasked questions about the birth of the comic book demigod, including:
* If Uncle Ben had not been shot and killed by the petty thief whom Peter Parker let go free, would Spider-Man cease to exist?
* Would Superman show traits of modesty and humility if raised in New York City instead of a sleepy town in Kansas?
* As Amazonian warrior and official diplomat to the rest of the world, would Wonder Woman be such an appealing figure if borne of a male-dominated society?
Composed with a refreshing level of fondness and deference for the fantasties of childhood, The Psychology of Superheroes lends credence to the study of larger than life figures and the impact they have on society at large.
[Contributors: Christopher Peterson and Nansook Park; Wind Goodfriend, PhD; Robin S. Rosenberg, PhD; Michael Spivey, PhD, and Steven Knowlton; Robert Biswas-Diener; Mikhail Lyubansky, PhD; Bryan J. Dik, PhD; Peter A. Hancock and Gabriella M. Hancock; William J. Ickes, PhD; Chuck Tate, PhD; Andrew R. Getzfeld, PhD; Siamak Tundra Naficy; Stephanie R. deLuse, PhD; Bradley J. Daniels; Christopher J. Patrick, PhD, and Sarah K. Patrick; Kerri L. Johnson, Leah E. Lurye, and Jonathan B. Freeman; and Peter DeScioli and Robert Kurzban, PhD.]
Warhammer: Curse of the Necrarch by Steven Savile
Black Library, $7.99, 416pp, pb, 9781844165537. Fantasy.
A hero of the Empire has one last chance to reclaim family honor!
In the Vampire Wars trilogy Steven Savile explored the dark and bloody history of the Von Carstein’s. In his latest book, Curse of the Necrarch, he explores the mad and depraved necrarchs. Feared and reviled, the reclusive necrarch vampires lurk in their lairs, engrossed in mad experiments and dreams of depraved glory. When one of these foul creatures invades an Empire town and slaughters the inhabitants, its knight protector, the aging hero Reinhardt Metzger swears vengeance. Gathering an army, he leads his men to the vampire’s castle for an epic confrontation against the forces of evil.
Steven Savile shambles the streets of Stockholm, Sweden at night followed by a zombie horde carrying his typewriters. During the day he is a mild mannered writer of fantasy. He won the Writers of the Future award in 2004 and is a Bram Stoker Award nominee. His books include Inheritance and Dominion. He has just edited an anthology called Elemental for Tor, profits of which will be donated to Tsunami Relief, and has co-edited two collections of Fritz Lieber classic horror stories.
The Autopsy and Other Tales by Michael Shea
Centipede, $95.00, 565pp, hc (signed), limited edition of 500 copies, 9781933618371. Collection. On-sale date: September 2008.
Michael Shea is an American fantasy horror and science fiction author living in California. He is a multiple winner of the World Fantasy Award and his works include Nifft the Lean (1982) (winner of the World Fantasy Award) and The Mines of Behemoth (1997) (later republished together as The Incomplete Nifft, 2000), as well as The A’Rak (2000) and In Yana, the Touch of Undying (1985).
The Nifft stories, modeled on Jack Vance, are notable for their imaginative depiction of the world of demons (which could be read as a satire on 1980s greed and consumerism) and their blend of horror, flowery diction, and occasionally humor. One earlier novel, The Color Out of Time, is an homage to H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space.”
This new collection includes 19 short stories—including several that have never been reprinted and one original to this collection—and two short novels, The Color Out of Time and I, Said the Fly. Loaded with illustrations from John Stewart and a host of scientific color artwork, this is a beautiful, oversize volume.
The collection also includes a new introduction by Laird Barron, and an afterword by Michael Shea.
[Contents: “Introduction” by Laird Barron, “The Angel of Death,” “The Horror on the #33,” “Fast Food,” “Grunt XII Test Drive,” “Salome,” “Fat Face,” “Uncle Tuggs,” “Fill it with Regular,” “Nemo Me Impune Lacessit,” “Polyphemus,” “That Frog,” “The Extra,” “The Growlimb,” “The Autopsy,” “The Rebuke,” “The Delivery,” “For Every Tatter in its Mortal Dress,” “The Pearls of the Vampire Queen,” “I Said the Fly,” “Tsathoggua,” and “The Color Out of Time.”]
Angel Unaware by Elizabeth Sinclair
Medallion, $7.95, 360pp, pb, 97819336317. Paranormal romance. On-sale date: December 2008.
Dora de Angelo was never supposed to be an angel. Her soul was placed with the angels instead of the mortals and, as a result, she has never fit in and has an undying wish to be a mortal. Maybe that’s why she is one of the most inept angels Heaven has ever had the misfortune to employ in the Celestial Maintenance Department.
Finally, Dora is sent to Earth. For the three weeks prior to Christmas she must help a mortal fmily, and return to Heaven on Christmas Eve. During that time, she must help a man find his faith in family again and his ability to trust in love. Dora must also help a little girl become a child again and get past the guilt she feels for the death of her parents. Doing so, Dora finds more than just a challenge to her questionable angel skills.
Dora loses her wings. But she gains something she has always wanted with all her heart. She also finds her family… and discovers love. And hope for a future she’s only dreamed of…
The Divine Talisman by Eldon Thompson
(Book Three of The Legend of Asahiel), Eos, $25.95, 530pp, hc, 9780060741549. Fantasy.
Torin, king of Alson, is dead, having given his life to try and stop the horrible Illysp from destroying his people. Now, as his best friend and his former bride try to pull the kingdom together to face their enemies, a treacherous assault costs them their most powerful weapon—the fabled Crimson Sword. Lacking that, the war looks desperate.
Meanwhile, resurrected and possessed by one of the fiendish Illysp, Torin is an unwilling captive as the battle rages. Surrendering to evil, he awakes the hideous bone dragon and turns against those he sacrificed himself to save. And only the words of the Dragon God offer a chance at redemption… for Torin, and for the kingdom.
But the quest is perilous, and not all gods are trustworthy.…
Warhammer 40,000: Angels of Darkness by Gav Thorpe
Black Library, $7.99, 283pp, pb, 9781844165704. Science fiction.
Back in print—a new edition of a fan-favorite Dark Angels novel.
The Dark Angels Space Marines are devout servants of the Imperium, but the secretive nature of their Chapter has led some to question their motives. For the Chapter harbors a dark and horrific secret that stretches back over ten thousand years to the time of the Horus Heresy. Angels of Darkness foreshadowed the events that have become the best selling Horus Heresy series and hass become one of our most requested titles.
Gav Thorpe spent years toiling in obscurity as a games designer for Games Workshop before catapulting to cult hero as a Black Library author (that’s how we like to explain it at least). He has other several best selling fantasy and science fiction titles for the Black Library over the years and has recently gone to full-time writer. He lives in Nottingham, UK.
A Lost Touch of Magic by Amy Tolnitch
Medallion, $7.95, 470pp, pb, 9781934755518. Paranormal romance. On-sale date: December 2008.
Veiled by the mists of the highlands are tales of beautiful, magical, and somtimes dangerous worlds. One such realm, Paroseea, dwells hidden within the stone walls of a medieval fortress, Castle MacCoinneach. Yet danger has escaped paradise and stalks the halls of Castle MacCoinneach seeking vengeance, patiently waiting for the return of the fallen laird.
You must return.
Those words, uttered by the ghost of Padruig MacCoinneach’s beloved sister, send him back to the highlands and a life he foreswore. To save his remaining sister and aid his clan, Padruig will do anything. He never expected that he would have to marry his ally’s daughter, whom he deems both a reckless child and a potent temptation.
You are the price.
With these callous words, Padruig destroys a fantasy Aimili de Grantham has long nurtured, created from her memories of Padruig himself. A cool, dismissive stranger has replaced the golden man of her dreams, a stranger she must wed. Worse, the fey part of her senses that evil lurks in the shadows of Castle MacCoinneach, and she has nowhere to turn.
One true laird and one of fey blood.
Strangers they may be, but Padruig and Aimili are destined to join together to defeat a force beyond their imaginings. It will take trust, faith, and most of all, love to save themselves, their clan, and discover… A Lost Touch of Magic.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars by Karen Traviss
Del Rey, $20.00, 259pp, hc, 9780345508980. Science fiction/movie novelization.
The raging Clone Wars illuminate dark motives and darker destinies until one question must be answered: Does the end ever justify the means? It’s time the Jedi found out.
Star Wars takes on a dazzling new look in the first-ever animated feature from Lucasfilm Animation from executive producer George Lucas and director Dave Filoni.
The exciting new adventures and characters are being brought to life in book form in Star Wars: The Clone Wars by none other than #1 New York Times bestselling Star Wars author Karen Traviss.
Across the galaxy, the Clone Wars are raging. The Separatists, led by Count Dooku, the onetime Jedi and now secret Sith Lord, continue to press forward, and more and more worlds are either falling, or seceding and joining the cause. Under the leadership of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, the Republic heroically battles on, championed by its huge army of cloned soldiers and their Jedi generals.
Anakin Skywalker, believed by some to be the prophesied “Chosen One” destined to bring balance to the Force, is now a Jedi Knight under the tutelage of his Jedi Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Death is a constant possibility—but there’s no time for Anakin to question his latest orders: He and Obi-Wan have been assigned a new mission, and failure is not an option. Jabba the Hutt’s infant son has been kidnapped, and the vile gangster has sought to enlist the Jedi for help. Much is at stake: A grateful Jabba might allow the Republic access to the Hutt-controlled space lanes that the Grand Army desperately needs in order to beat the Separatists into submission.
It’s up to Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Anakin’s new apprentice Ahsoka, a brash and inexperienced young Padawan to track down the evidence and retrieve the missing Huttlet. But the Republic is not the only power that craves access to those space lanes. Count Dooku, determined to win the prize for the Separatists, has set a trap for the Jedi. When they find the Huttlet, they will also find Dooku’s master assassin, Asajj Ventress, and countless legions of battle droids waiting to spring a trap.
The Man with the Iron Heart by Harry Turtledove
Del Rey, $27.00, 544pp, pb, 9780345504340. Alternate history.
Harry Turtledove, award-winning, New York Times bestselling author and master of alternate history asks the question: What if V-E Day didn’t end World War II in Europe? What if, instead, the Allies had to face a potent, even fanatical, postwar Nazi resistance? Such a movement, based in the fabled Alpine Redoubt, was in fact a real threat, ultimately neutralized by Germany’s flagging resources and squabbling officials. But had SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, the notorious Man with the Iron Heart, not been assassinated in 1942, fate might have taken a different turn. We might likely have seen a German guerilla war launched against the conquerors, presaging by more than half a century the protracted conflict with an unrelenting enemy that now engulfs the United States and its allies in Iraq. How might today’s clash of troops versus terrorists have played out in 1945? That scenario comes to life in The Man with the Iron Heart.
In this imagined world, Nazi forces resort to unconventional warfare, using the quick and dirty tactics of terrorism to overturn what seemed to be a decisive Allied victory. In November 1945, a truck bomb blows up the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, where high-ranking Nazi officials are about to stsand trial for war crimes. None of the accused are there when the bomb goes off, but their judges, all of them present and accounted for, are annihilated. Worse acts of terrorism follow all over Europe.
Suddenly the Allies—especially the United States—must battle an invisible enemy and sacrifice countless lives in a long, seemingly pointless, unwinnable conflict. On the home front, patriotism corrodes, political fortunes are made and lost in the face of an antiwar backlash, and a once-proud country wonders how the righteous fight for freedom overseas has collapsed into a hopeless quagmire.
At once a novel of thrilling military suspense, intriguing alternate history, and fascinating parallels that resonate in today’s world, The Man with the Iron Heart is a tour de force by a storyteller of exceptional imaginative power. As USA Today says, “Turtledove is the standard-bearer of alternate history.”
The Dark River by John Twelve Hawks
(Book Two of the Fourth Realm trilogy), Vintage, $7.99, 414pp, pb, 9780307389237. Fiction.
Some time in the future… Society has found itself under constant surveillance of the ‘Vast Machine,’ a sophisticated computer network run by a ruthless group. While most are unaware of their virtual imprisonment, Gabriel and Michael Corrigan, brothers who were raised ‘off the grid,’ have recently learned that they are Travelers like their long-lost father, and part of a centuries-old line of prophets able to journey to different realms of consciousness and enlighten the world. This power affects the brothers differently: as Gabriel hesitates under the weight of the new responsibility, Michael seizes the opportunity—and joins the enemy.
The Dark River, the long-anticipated seccond book of Fourth Realm trilogy, opens with the stunning news that Gabriel’s father, who has been missing for nearly twenty years, may still be alive and trapped somewhere in Europe. Gabriel and his Harlequin protector, Maya, immediately mobilize to escape New York and find the long-lost Traveler. Simultaneously, Michael orders the Brethren—the ruthless group that has been hunting Gabriel—into a full-scale search. Gabriel yearns to find his father to protect him; Michael aims to destroy the man whose existencce threatens his newfound power. The race moves frmo the underground tunnels of New York and London to ruins hidden beneath Rome and Berlin, to a remote region of Africa that is rumored to harbor one of history’s greatest treasures. As the story moves toward its chilling conclusion, Maya must decide is she will risk everything to rescue Gabriel.
Grimoire of the Necronomicon by Donald Tyson
Llewellyn, $18.95, 194pp, tp, 9780738713380. Body, Mind, Spiirit / Occultism.
On the heels of his widely successfuly trilogy of works honoring H.P. Lovecraft, Donald Tyson now unveils a true grimoire of ritual magic inspired by the Cthulhu mythos. Grimoire of the Necronomicon is a practical system of ritual magic based on Lovecraft’s mythology of the alien gods known as the Old Ones.
Fans of Lovecraft now have the opportunity to safely get in touch with the Old Ones and draw upon their power for spiritual and material advancement. Tyson expands upon their mythology and reintroduces these “monsters” in a new, magical context—explaining their true purpose for our planet. As a disciple, you choose one of the seven lords as a spiritual mentor, who will guide you toward personal transformation. Daily rituals provide an excellent system of esoteric training for individual practitioners. This grimoire also provides structure for an esoteric society—Order of the Old Ones—devoted to the group practice of this unique system of magic.
Cross County by Tim Waggoner
Wizards of the Coast Discoveries, $21.95, 336pp, hc, 9780786950386. Horror. On-sale date: September 2008.
Widely praised horror author Tim Waggoner has created yet another work that is destined to chill and entertain readers. The next title releasing for Wizards of the Coast Discoveries on 2 September 2008, Cross County is part murder mystery, part supernatural terror.
Cross County is a small community with dark secrets—secrets that had been guarded by local tribes when settlers seized the land hundreds of years ago. When a grisly murder that hearkens back to a series of long-forgotten killings from years ago rattles the community, it’s up to the tough female sheriff with unique psychic gifts to track down a killer.
Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams
Night Shade, $24.95, 265pp, hc, 9781597801256. Science fiction.
When every need is serviced by artificial intelligence, and death is only a minor inconvenience, what does it mean to be human?
Aristide, a semi-retired computer scientists turned swordsman, is a scholar of the implied spaces, seeking meaning amid the accidents of architecture in a universe where reality itself has been sculpted and designed by superhuman machine intelligence. While exploring the pre-technological world Midgarth, one of four dozen pocket universes created within a series of vast, orbital matrioshka computer arrays, Aristide uncovers a fiendish plot threatening to set off a nightmare scenario, perhaps even bringing about the ultimate Existential Crisis: the end of civilization itself.
Traveling the pocket universes with his wormhole-edged sword Tecmessa in hand and talking cat Bitsy, avatar of the planet-szied computer Endora, at his side, Aristide must find a way to save the multiverse from subversion, sabotage, and certain destruction.
From Walter Jon Williams comes Implied Spaces, a new novel of post-singularity action, pyrotechnics, and intrigue. Williams, whose name has long been synonymous with state-of-the-art science fiction, builds on the prophetic futurism of Vernor Vinge and Charles Stross, adding his own brand of poetic prose, masterful plotting, and engagin storytelling.
King of Sword and Sky by C.L. Wilson
Leisure, $7.99, 467pp, pb, 9780843960594. Fantasy. On-sale date: 30 September 2008.
One of the most exciting writers to grace the literary world in nearly a decade, C.L. Wilson became an overnight sensation with her back-to-back debut novels Lord of the Fading Lands and Lady of Light and Shadows in the fall of 2007. Wilson captured the hearts of readers and reviewers everywhere by successfully pairing incredible world building fantasy with passionate, emoitionally fulfilling romance. A New York Times, USA Today, B&N and Bookscan bestselling author, she not only introduced an entirely new genre but has set the gold standard for all that will follow in her path.
In the next captivating chapter of her Tairen Soul series, Wilson raises the stakes even higher. The best way to describe King of Sword and Sky is to ask you to imagine if Tolkien had fully explored the developing relationship of Aragorn and Arwen in his Lord of the Rings trilogy. King of Sword and Sky contains the battle of two individuals to remain courageous and loyal in the face of total darkness.
Wilson’s first novels garnered her not only critical praise, but multiple awards, including the 2007 Year’s Best Debut Paranormal from Romance: B(u)y the Book at LifetimeTV.com for Lord of the Fading Lands and the 2007 Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence for Lady of Light and Shadows.