This page is updated as books are received throughout the month.
Warhammer 40,000: Ravenor: The Omnibus by Dan Abnett
Black Library, $13.99, 768pp, tp, 9781844167371. Fantasy.
Ravenor is back in a big bundle book.
In the war-torn future of the 41st millennium, the Inquisition fights a secret war against the darkest enemies of mankind—the alien, the heretic and the daemon. The three stories in this omnibus tell the tale of Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor and his lethal band of operatives, whose investigations take them across time and space. Wherever they go, and whatever dangers they face, they will never give up until their enemies are eliminated. Ravenor: The Omnibus contains three novels—Ravenor, Ravenor Returns and Ravenor Rogue as well as a new introduction by the author and a short story.
Murder at Midnight by Avi
Scholastic, $17.99, 260pp, hc, 9780545080903. Children’s fantasy. On-sale date: September 2009.
Set prior to his bestselling Medieval mystery Midnight Magic, master storyteller Avi returns readers to this delightful blend of history and magic in Murder at Midnight.
A plot to overthrow King Claudio is brewing in the Kingdom of Pergamontio, Italy. Mangus the Magician has been marked as an easy scapegoat for the traitor lurking within the king’s court. Against all odds, his faithful new servant boy, Fabrizio, sets out to solve the mystery and prove his master’s innocence before the stroke of midnight…
Intricate plotting and surprise twists make for another gripping and suspenseful page-turner that stands alone or sets the stage for more adventure in Avi’s Midnight Magic.
Dark Time: Mortal Path, Book One by Dakota Banks
Eos, $7.99, 306pp, pb, 9780061687303. Urban Fantasy.
A new, sassy twist on supernatural thrillers—Lara Croft meets Elektra—an edge-of-your-seat, action-packed debut that fans of Vicki Pettersson and James Rollins won’t want to miss.
Burned at the stake as a witch, Susannah Layton made a deal with a devil for revenge and immortality. More than 200 years later, she has killed more people for her demonic master than she can count, and only wants to be free.
But infernal contracts don’t have an easy “out” clause, and the only way Susannah—now Maliha—can retire without ending up in the deepest levels of hell is by saving one life for every one that she has taken. Her quest will take the former assassin from the fast-paced urban jungles of New York and Chicago to the actual wilds of Peru and Nepal, from corporate espionage to tomb-raiding.
The Hotel Under the Sand by Kage Baker
Tachyon, $8.00, 180pp, tp, 9781892391896. Fantasy.
Captain Doubloon took the wheel of the By-the-Wind-Sailor and let her out, and she headed out to sea. Emma, watching over her stern, saw the cable chain rise dripping from the water as it pulled taut. It jerked, and jumped tight as a guitar-string, sending drops of water flying everywhere.
“The hotel is beginning to move!” cried Emma, watching through the spyglass as the Grand Wenlocke jolted forward a foot or so. Only a little further, and it began to slide across the sand. It moved so easily that Emma wondered if it hadn’t been designed to travel all along. Perhaps that had been why it had sunk under the sand in the first place.
But, just as everything seemed to be going well, Emma heard another pistol shot…
Nightchild by James Barclay
(Chronicles of the Raven), Pyr, $16.00, 403pp, tp, 9781591027850. Fantasy. On-sale date: November 2009.
It begins with a tidal wave.
There is a new power coming. It will sweep aside the four colleges of magic. It is the power of the land, and it has manifested itself in Lyanna, a five year old girl. Unknowingly, she could destroy Balaia.
Desperate to maintain their power, the colleges will do anything to control the child. If that fails, they will kill her.
Terrified, Lyanna’s mother, Erienne the mage, takes her into hiding. But they can’t hide forever. As the hunt goes on, Lyanna starts to test her powers and nature itself begins to turn on Balaia.
Her father, Denser of The Raven, is also desperate to find her. But can even The Raven find Erienne and her child when they do not want to be found? And if they do find them, what then should they do? Lyanna is ripping the world apart. Thousands are dying. Can The Raven afford to let her live?
Player’s Ruse by Hilari Bell
(a Knight and Rogue novel), HarperTeen, $17.99, 384pp, hc, 9780060825096. Fantasy. On-sale date: January 2010.
Sir Michael Sevenson and his squire Fisk were just beginning to enjoy the quiet life. They really should have known better. When Lady Rosamund runs away from home to marry a traveling player, former knight errant Michael makes a noble promise to help the object of his unrequited love. The quest takes our would-be heroes to the coastal town of Huckerston, where savage sea pirates called “wreckers” terrorize the coast. With the help of a reluctant Fisk, Michael plans on catching the wreckers and winning back his lady; but when mysterious murders and dangerous accidents threaten the town and its players, love might be the least of his problems…
Part buddy novel, part medieval whodunit, the latest installment of Hilari Bell’s Knight and Rogue novels continues the boys’ saga with another classic tale of mishaps, wit, and adventure. You never can tell what danger awaits this unlikely pair, but whatever trouble Michael and Fisk get themselves into, readers are sure to follow.
Enigma by C.F. Bentley
(sequel to Harmony), DAW, $24.95, 340pp, hc, 9780756405649. Science fiction.
Sequel to the highly original Harmony, Enigma is packed with the same combination of military science, New Age mysticism and magic. C.F. Bentley makes a triumphant return to “a world that will capture the attention of science fiction and fantasy readers.” (Darque Reviews)
Long isolated from the rest of the universe, Harmony and its colony planet send High Priestess Sissy and Confederated Star System Agent Jake to space station Labyrinthe VII in hopes of opening up diplomatic relations. But those ties, tenuous at best, are tested to the limit when an alien ship crashes into the Harmony Diplomatic Wing of Labyrinthe VII, leaving the station at a dangerous breaking point.
A Fire in the North by David Bilsborough
(Book Two of the Annals of Lindormyn), Tor, $15.99, 480pp, tp, 9780765321213. Fantasy.
Author David Bilsborough, the fresh and talented voice new to the fantasy genre returns in the rousing sequel to the Tolkienesque debut fantasy The Wanderer’s Tale with A Fire in the North. Bilsborough has created a passionately imagined vision of Lindormyn, a world teeming with peoples, history, cultures; a world rich with fabulous landscapes and hidden terrors; a world with compelling characters—human and other—some of whom are deadly, others of whom are simply remarkable.
Five hundred years ago a huge force defeated an evil, supernaturally powerful tyrant who terrorized and ravaged those who cowered under his lash and that of his equally predatory minions. Now, terrible news from the north suggests that someone or some thing is once again preying upon the northern lands, threatening to once again darken the lives of those whose forebears still remember the horrific past.
Now, a small motley band face a daunting challenge. Led by a brave warrior and a visionary priest, they have finally reached the land to the north. They have seen wonders and endured terrifying experiences, barely escaping from a dizzying series of perils, magical and otherwise. But the direst perils lie before them as they approach the evil that once gripped the lands and which now has risen again, its dread power terrorizing and enslaving all who oppose it. Finally, the Wanderer, fated to face the ultimate test, will confront his destiny. A world and its trembling masses await the outcome.
Bilsborough’s writings explore a world of wonders that will surprise and captivate readers. A Fire in the Northis a masterfully woven tapestry of lives entrapped by the play of Time and Chance, Good and Evil, on a grand scale. It’s a sweeping epic that will enrapture the imagination of readers everywhere.
Knights of the Lunch Table #2: The Dragon Players by Frank Cammuso
Graphix/Scholastic, $9.99, 128pp, tp, 9780439903233. Children’s graphic novel/humor. On-sale date: September 2009.
Eisner Award-nominated graphic novelist Frank Cammuso gives the legend of King Arthur a fun, modern spin! Join Artie King and the gang in their latest adventure at Camelot Middle School.
It’s Dragon Day, the annual fair and festival at Camelot Middle School. Artie and his pals Wayne and Percy have big plans to build a remote-controlled dragon, enter the robot joust, and win the coveted Dragon Cup.
But before you know it, Artie and his friends are battling each other. Then the Horde builds a bigger, better dragon bot. Now Artie is besieged on all sides!
Duplikate by Cherry Cheva
HarperTeen, $16.99, 256pp, tp, 9780061288548. Fantasy. On-sale date: October 2009.
In this hilarious second novel, Family Guy writer Cherry Cheva introduces a character who has been granted the wish of overscheduled teens everywhere—two of herself.
Getting into Yale has been Kate Larson’s dream for years—and being overworked and under-rested is the price of admission. But when she opens her eyes after falling asleep on her keyboard one night, she comes face-to-face with, well, herself.
Meet Kate’s computer-generated twin. Kate doesn’t know why she’s here or how to put her back where she belongs, but she’s real. And she’s the last thing Kate has time to deal with right now. Unless… could having a double be the answer to Kate’s prayers?
Secret of the Seventh Son by Glenn Cooper
Harper, $7.99, 394pp, pb, 9780061721793. Fiction.
In his crackling, explosive debut novel, Secret of the Seventh Son, Glenn Cooper weaves together complex storylines involving the investigation of eight murders in present day New York City, a post World War II expedition into the crypts of a clandestine medieval society and an abandoned monastery where an unwanted son, born on the seventh day of the seventh month of the year 777 holds an earth shattering secret.
Assigned to the high-profile “Doomsday” serial-killing case, legendary FBI profiler Will Piper is hitting dead end after dead end. The victims seems to have nothing in common: age, background, or even the way they die. All that connects them is a postcard each received in the mail, sent from Las Vegas, announcing his or her date of death. Just when agent Piper finds a credible lead, he’s removed from the case. Continuing the investigation on his own, he must outwith a ruthless team of covert operatives protecting the government’s greatest secret. From a medieval monastery to a cutting-edge government laboratory, Secret of the Seventh Son spans centuries and continents to deliver a richly detailed, thought-provoking exploration of fate, predestination, and the choices made in life.
Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia
Baen, $7.99, 736pp, pb, 9781439132852. Science fiction.
Five days after Owen Zastava Pitt pushed his insufferable boss out of a fourteenth story window, he woke up in the hospital with a scarred face, an unbelievable memory, and a job offer.
It turns out that monsters are real. All the things from myth, legend, and B-movies are out there, waiting in the shadows. Officially secret, some of them are evil, and some are just hungry. On the other side are the people who kill monsters for a living. Monster Hunter International is the premier eradication company in the business. And now Owen is their newest recruit.
It’s actually a pretty sweet gig, except for one little problem. An ancient entity known as the Cursed One has returned to settle a centuries old vendetta. Should the Cursed One succeed, it means the end of the world, and MHI is the only thing standing in his way. With the clock ticking towards Armageddon, Owen finds himself trapped between legions of undead minions, belligerent federal agents, a cryptic ghost who has taken up residence inside his head, and the cursed family of the woman he loves.
Business is good…
Welcome to Monster Hunter International.
The 13th Reality, Book Two: The Hunt for Dark Infinity by James Dashner
Shadow Mountain, $18.95, 446pp, hc, 9781606410349. YA Fantasy.
It’s been a quiet summer for Tick, Paul, and Sodia, but the latest message from Master George changes everything.
The Realities are in danger—and from something more terrible than Mistress Jane and the mutated Chi’karda of the Thirteenth Reality. People from all Realities are inexplicably going insane. Worse, some Realities are fragmenting, disintegrating into nothingness. Master George has learned that Mr. Chu from the Fourth Reality is working on a mysterious new weapon called Dark Infinity. But no one has any idea how to stop the weapon—or even if it can be.
To make matters worse, Tick and his friends have been kidnapped, forced to wink from Reality to Reality, solving impossible riddles in order to survive the dangerous and deadly traps that surround them.
Mistress Jane and Tick find themselves in a race to reach the weapon first—but who will destroy it and who will become its master?
This Crooked Way by James Enge
Pyr, $16.00, 414pp, tp, 9781591027843. Fantasy. On-sale date: October 2009.
Travelling alone in the depths of winter, Morlock Ambrosious (bitterly dry drunk, master of all magical makers, wandering swordsman, and son of Merlin Ambrosious and Nimue Viviana) is attacked by an unknown enemy.
To unmask his enemy and end the attacks he must travel a long crooked way through the world: past the soul-eating Boneless One, past a subtle and treacherous master of golems, past the dragon-taming Khroi, past the predatory cities of Sarkunden and Aflraun, past the demons and dark gnomes of the northern woods.
Soon he will find that his enemy wears a familiar face, and that the duel he has stumbled into will threaten more live than his own, leaving nations shattered in its chaotic wake.
And at the end of his long road waits the death of a legend.
A Darkness Forged in Fire by Chris Evans
(Book One of The Iron Elves), Pocket, $9.99, 620pp, pb, 9781416570523. Fantasy.
Shaking up the science fiction world this summer is the exciting adventure by Chris Evans now in paperback—the 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 for 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.
The Light of Burning Shadows by Chris Evans
(Book Two of The Iron Elves), Pocket, $26.00, 368pp, hc, 9781416570530. Fantasy.
Shaking up the science fiction world again, this summer readers will embrace the second in the thrilling Iron Elves series by Chris Evans, The Light of Burning Shadows.
Musket and cannon, bow and arrow, and magic and diplomacy vie for supremacy once again in the second epic fantasy adventure from acclaimed author Chris Evans. As the human-dominated Calahrian Empire struggles to maintain its hold on power in the face of armed rebellion from within, the Iron Elves’ perilous quest to defeat the power-hungry witch, the Shadow Monarch, takes on greater urgency.
The Iron Elves, shunned by their own people for bearing the mark of the Shadow Monarch, and desperately wanting to forever erase this shame, became legendary for their prowess on the battlefield as the Calhrian Imperial Army’s elite shock troops. But when their commanding officer, Konowa Swift Dragon, murdered the Viceroy of Elfkyna, he was exiled, and these brave elves were banished to a remote desert outpost, doomed and leaderless, their honor in tatters.
Recalled to duty to reform his regiment from the dregs of the Imperial Army, Konowa thwarted the plans of the Shadow Monarch at the Battle of Luuguth Jor—ensuring that the fabled Red Star, a source of great natural energy, did not fall into Her hands. Now Konowa must cross storm-tossed seas to seek out the lost elves and the prophesied return of another Star somewhere in a desert wasteland roiling with mysterious power, infernos of swirling magic, and legends brought back to life in new and terrible ways. And the fate of every living creature will come to depend on a small band of ragged and desperate soldiers, whose very loyalty to the Empire they have sworn to serve is no longer certain. When death is but a temporary condition, a terrifying question arises: who is the true ally—and fearsome enemy—in a growing conflict that threatens all? The Light of Burning Shadows will keep a strong hold of readers as they seek to find resolution in this thrilling epic.
Grantville Gazette V edited and created by Eric Flint
Baen, $25.00, 464pp, hc, 9781439132791. Science fiction.
The most popular alternate history series of all continues. When an inexplicable cosmic disturbance hurls your town from twentieth century West Virginia back to seventeenth century Europe—and into the middle of the Thirty Years War—you’d better be adaptable to survive. And the natives of that time period, faced with American technology and politics, need to be equally adaptable. Here’s a generous helping of more stories of Grantville, the American town lost in time, and its impact on the people and societies of a tumultuous age.
* Cardinal Richelieu, France’s insidious master plotter and power behind the throne, learns of his prominent role in Dumas’ not-yet-written novel The Three Musketeers (not to mention the several movie versions), and starts a search for the “real” D’Artagnan.
* Grantville is selling crystal radio sets so that Europeans can tune in to the Voice of America broadcasts, but the technicians from the future are at wit’s end, trying to reproduce “primitive” early twentieth century broadcasting equipment by trial and error—until a trained library researcher shows up in town.
* Wilhelm Krieger, one of Germany’s greatest philosophers, comes to Grantville to learn the philosophy of the future—and meets a contrarian cracker-barrel philosopher.
* The Dalai Lama of the seventeenth century receives a strange gift: an image of the Buddha which glows by a strange mystical force called “electricity.”
And much more, including stories by the New York Times best-selling writers Eric Flint and Virginia DeMarce, in the latest installment of this best-selling alternate history series.
1634: The Bavarian Crisis by Eric Flint and Virginia DeMarce
Baen, $7.99, 1014pp, pb, 9781439132760. Science fiction.
The Thirty Years War continues to ravage 17th century Europe, but a new force is gathering power and influence: the Confederated Principalities of Europe, an alliance between Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, and the West Virginians from the 20th century led by Mike Stearns who were hurled centuries into the past by a mysterious cosmic accident.
The CPE has the know-how of 20th century technology, but needs iron and steel to make the machines. The iron mines of the upper Palatinate were rendered inoperable by wartime damage, and American know-how is needed on the spot to pump them out and get the metal flowing again—a mission that will prove more complicated than anyone expects. In the maelstrom that is Europe, even a 20th century copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica can precipitate a crisis, when readers learn of the 1640 Portuguese revolt, a crisis that will involve Naples as well. Another factor: Albanian exiles in Naples, inspired by the Americans, are plotting to recover lost Albanian turf, which will precipitate yet another crisis in the Balkans.
This troubled century was full of revolutions and plans for more revolutions before the Americans arrived, and gave every would-be revolutionary an example of a revolution that succeeded. Europe is a pot coming to a boil, and Mike Stearns will have his hands full seeing that it doesn’t boil over on to Grantville and the CPE.
Belisarius III: The Flames of Sunset by Eric Flint and David Drake
(contains The Tide of Victory and The Dance of Time), Baen, $23.00, 928pp, hc, 9781439132791. Fantasy.
Concluding the popular Belisarius saga, with two full-length novels in one volume:
The Tide of Victory: The creators of the monster called Link once were human, but that was distant ages in their past. Now, from the far future, they have sent their creation back to rule the Malwa Empire, then to conquer and shape the world of the sixth century A.D. into the form that will make their own foul existence possible. Those in the future who never were human have sent their own messenger to the past: Aide, a gleaming jewel who has come to Belisarius, the greatest general of the sixth century and perhaps any century. Between them they have forged an alliance of all the world against the evil fro the far future—and an army that can be the spear through evil’s heart.
The Dance of Time: The Malwa and their evil have been driven back to their Indian heartland, but there they coil to strike again. Ruled by a monster from the future that is part computer and part demon, they prepare a fresh attack whose success will leave them rulers of the world—and the monster that guides the Malwa will rule the whole future. Guided by Aide, Belisarius has arrayed the forces of Mankind against the Malwa evil. There is no hope for Mankind if he fails—so he must not fail! The triumphant conclusion of the Belisarius saga.
Destined for an Early Grave by Jeaniene Frost
(a Night Huntress novel), Eos, $7.99, 385pp, pb, 9780061583216. Fantasy.
Sometimes to beat the Grave, you have to join it. After their recent war with rogue vampires, Cat thinks a little rest and relaxation are in their future. But she’s plagued by dreams of a Master vampire who claims to be from her past. As the dreams intensify and the shadowy figure in them proves to be more than a figment of her subconscious, she realizes there are parts of her past that have been hidden. To unlock these memories and deal with a growing danger to herself and Bones, Cat may have to venture all the way into the grave. But finding out the truth could rock what she knows about herself—and her relationship with Bones.
The Path of Razors by Chris Marie Green
(Vampire Babylon, book five), Ace, $14.00, 325pp, tp, 9780441017201. Fantasy.
The Path of Razors is the fifth book in Chris Marie Green’s gripping Vampire Babylon series.
Stuntwoman turned vampire-hunter Dawn Madison is in London on a mission to find the local vampire Underground and wipe it out. She and her team have located the vampire lair at a private school for girls. But the vicious pack is starting to realize that its greatest threat may be from within its own ranks; one of them, it seems, may be a traitor!
As unrest rocks the Underground, Dawn begins to fall prey to her own dark desires; her psychic powers, along with her urge to hunt, grow, as the line between good and evil blurs. Dawn, who fears her humanity is slipping away, must confront the beautiful but deadly creature who basks in the suffering of her own kind…
The Book of Ghosts selected and illustrated by Michael Hague and Devon Hague
HarperCollinsChildrens, $19.99, 144pp, hc, 9780688140083. Fantasy.
If you’re weak of heart, beware. Don’t turn another page. Or if you dare, do so at your own risk. The tales within these pages will haunt long after this book is closed, when the lights have dimmed and something—somewhere—is lurking. Is it the thunderous beating of a heart, the silent ascent of a headless horseman, or perhaps a demon arrived from the underworld through a secret portal?
The master of all things magical, Michael Hague delves into the formidable realm of ghosts. Adapted from legendary writers Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, Oscar Wilde, and a host of others, the classic ghost stories within this collection will send shivers up and down your spine.
Seeking Spirits: The Lost Cases of the Atlantic Paranormal Society by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson with Michael Jan Friedman
Pocket, $16.00, 288pp, tp, 9781439101155. Nonfiction. On-sale date: September 2009.
Seeking Spirits: The Lost Cases of the Atlantic Paranormal Society is a follow up to the New York Times bestselling book Ghost Hunting. Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, heads of The Atlantic Paranormal Society, are plumbers by day and paranormal investigators by night. They are “sensitives”, people who can sense otherworldly phenomena that others can’t.
This time, the founders of T.A.P.S. share their most memorable (and chilling!) early cases—none of which have ever appeared on their hit television show. These cases include:
Jason and Grant investigate reports of a Connecticut woman who seems to exist in two places at once…
Jason and Grant try to help a distraught woman who dreams of paranormal events before she experiences them…
On the trail of an animal killer, Jason and Grant stumble on a group of devil worshippers in the deep woods…
For the first time fans can experience their heroes’ earliest and spookiest adventures! And with plenty of full-color photos, even skeptics will be both frightened and amazed.
Farmer in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein
Baen, $7.99, 290pp, pb, 9781439132777. Science fiction.
The Earth is crowded and food is rationed, but a colony on Ganymede, one of the moons of Jupiter, offers an escape for teenager Bill Lermer and his family. Back on Earth, the move sounded like a grand adventure, but Bill soon realizes that life on the frontier is dangerous, and in an alien world with no safety nets, nature is cruelly unforgiving of even small mistakes. Bill’s new home is a world of unearthly wonders—and heartbreaking tragedy. He will face hardships, survive dangers, and grow up fast, meeting the challenge of opening up a new world for humanity and finding strengths within himself that he had never suspected existed.
The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein
Baen, $14.00, 320pp, tp, 9781439132838. Science fiction.
First came the news that a flying saucer had landed in Iowa. Then came the announcement that the whole thing was a hoax. End of story. Case closed.
Except that two agents of the most secret intelligence agency in the U.S. government were on the scene and disappeared without reporting in. And four more agents who were sent in also disappeared. So the head of the agency and his two top agents went in and managed to get out with their discovery: an invasion is underway by slug-like aliens who can touch a human and completely control his or her mind. What the humans know, they know. What the slugs want, no matter what, the human will do. And most of Iowa is already under their control.
Sam Cavanaugh was one of the agents who discovered the truth. Unfortunately, that was just before he was taken over by one of the aliens and began working for the invaders, with no will of his own. And he has just learned that a high official in the Treasury Department is now under control of the aliens. Since the Treasury Department includes the Secret Service, which safeguards the President of the United States, control of the entire nation is near at hand…
The Winds of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, read by Scott Brick
Macmillan Audio/Tor, $59.99, 14 CDs (17.5 hours), audio book, 9781427207630. Science fiction.
Welcome back to the Dune universe. Herbert and Anderson’s newest book in this landmark series skillfully takes up the ideas developed by Frank Herbert and gives them new life with well-developed characters and a real sense of wonder. In this installment, the authors throw us back into the saga, beginning right where the Dune Messiah ended.
When we reenter this world, the characters are in the midst of drama. Paul has walked off into the sand blind, and is presumed dead. Jessica and Gurney are on Caladan. Alia is trying to hold the Imperial government together with Duncan. Mohiam is dead at the hands of Stilgar. Irulan is imprisoned. Paul’s former friend, Bronso of Ix, now seems to be leading opposition to the House of Atreides.
There’s no one better to convey these developments than Scott Brick. The award-winning narrator is at home in the Dune series and, as always, brings a comforting sense of continuity and accessibility to the complex plot. Brick’s ease with the Dune language is thanks in part to a glossary from Frank Herbert himself. In describing his preparation for Dune, Brick said he asked Brian Herbert if his dad kept any notes and soon he was sent pages and pages of detailed descriptions of pronunciations. “Suddenly I looked at my fax machine and there were Frank Herbert’s notes coming out of it. I felt a chill when I got them,” said Brick. He deftly passes his own enthusiasm on to the listener in Winds of Dune.
Chapterhouse: Dune by Frank Herbert, introduction by Brian Herbert
Ace, $25.95, 423pp, hc, 9780441017218. Science fiction.
Now available in a special hardcover edition, Frank Herbert’s Chapterhouse: Dune is the sixth and final book in the classic Dune series, with a new introduction by Brian Herbert.
The desert planet Arrakis, called Dune, has been destroyed. The Bene Gesserit, heirs to Dune’s power, have colonized a green world and are turning it into a desert, mile by scorched mile. The Bene Gesserit still find themselves questioning the Golden Path of humanity set by the God Emperor Leto II. Now they must survive the Honored Matres, whose reckless conquest of the Old Empire threatens Bene Gesserit survival. The Sisters must reassess their timeless methords: does ultimate survival go beyond calculated manipulation? Is there greater purpose to life than consolidating power?
Seeker’s Bane by P.C. Hodgell
(contains Seeker’s Mask and To Ride a Rathorn), Baen, $14.00, 889pp, tp, 9781439132975. Fantasy.
Two epic novels of fantasy adventure in one volume:
Seeker’s Mask: After an epic adventure that will become the stuff of legend, Jame has been reunited with her older brother Torisen and with her people, the Kencyrath. But when she is placed in the Women’s Halls and expected to become a normal, quiet Kencyr lady, normal and quiet are not what the Women’s Halls are going to get. Shadow Guild Assassins, ghosts, and other strange beings are soon after her, sprung not only from her own adventurous past but from the tragic, mysterious events that nearly annihilated her family in her father’s time.
To Ride a Rathorn: Jame’s adventures continue as she arrives at the randon military college Tentir to face cut-throat competition and find even more buried, poisonous family secrets. The Kencyr have a phrase, “to ride a rathorn”, referring to a task too dangerous either to accomplish or to give up. This is true for Jame both figuratively, given her military career in a college which no Highborn girl has ever attended before, and literally, in that she is being stalked by one of these murderous, ivory-clad creatures whose mother she killed and who is now after her blood. All in all, Jame’s school days are shaping up to be anything but golden.
Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
Eos, $22.99, 388pp, hc, 9780061714306. Urban fantasy.
Guns, drinking binges, car thieves, suicidal depression, uncontrollable rage, contempt for the celestial forces that control the universe, kung fu movies and magic that hurts: an urban fantasy for the pissed off asshole in all of us.
This is the story of Stark, the best natural magician alive, which isn’t as much fun as it sounds. It got him snatched to Hell, trapped there for eleven years, serving as a hitman to the generals of Lucifer’s army. But when his girlfriend is brutally murdered on the physical plane, the assassin from Hell stages his own coup and escapes back “upstairs” to Los Angeles.
Welcome to the world of Sandman Slim. Set in modern day Los Angeles, James Stark comes back a man out for blood and revenge, but humorously absent on the last dozen years of history and modernization. To make it by, he’ll need a little help from people he can’t be sure are his friends: a two-century old French alchemist named Vidocq, and a young, street-wise, punk girl named Allegra.
Stark, aka Sandman Slim, soon begins hunting his enemies no matter what realm or plane of existence they may happen to take residence in. From posh night clubs to Japanese anime stores to vast underground caverns even to the realms of chaos and nothingness, there isn’t a force in the universe that can stop Stark from getting his revenge.
This creates more than a few enemies for Stark and he soon not only has his opponents chasing him, but also other earthly magicians, the full ranks of Heaven and Hell, and worst of all, US Homeland Security. Stark responds the only way he know how—by fighting back. He can kill with magic, but he’s just as happy to keep hitting people until he gets their attention.
And just when Stark thinks he’s heard everything, an angel assigned to watch over the Earth tells him about the Kissi—God’s bastard children that were born into darkness and seek to corrupt everything in existence, including him. No, James Stark is not having a good day at all.
Sandman Slim delivers a powerful punch to the gut. Not for fans of boy wizards in glasses, this is a piece of magical literature you take with you into a bar fight.
Part Paradise Lost, part hard-boiled American crime fiction, part Sergio Leone spaghetti western, and all pureed with the black comedy of writers such as Chuck Palahniuk and Christopher Moore, Sandman Slim will teach you that if life gives you lemons, shoot life in the head and bury it in the back yard.
Demon Inside by Stacia Kane
(sequel to Personal Demons), Pocket/Juno, $7.99, 353pp, pb, 9781439155073. Fantasy.
Demon Inside by author Stacia Kane revists gutsy heroine Megan Chase as she returns to deal with a monstrous new demon in this page-turning follow up to the action-packed, funny, sexy Personal Demons.
Three months after discovering that the world is filled with personal demons, Megan Chase is again faced with a tough, supernatural undertaking. When the Yezer Ha Ra, the demons who are the source of human misery—start spontaneously exploding, they look to their new leader, Megan, for answers. Unfortunately Megan, psychologist and psychic—has no idea how to help them.
Megan never wanted ot be bound to the personal demons and she doesn’t like the strange new desires that are now making life more confusing by the day. She has enough on her plate—her passionate demon lover Greyson Dante is being strangely evasive, and the truth about her past is finally coming within reach. But when there’s a monstrous new demon in town, trying to take both the Yezers’ and Megan’s lives, she finds that she can’t hide from her responsibilities any longer. With the help of her demon lover and a few friends, Megan discovers the truth about her past… and learns how to face her future.
Veeps: Profiles in Insignificance by Bill Kelter and Wayne Shellabarger
Top Shelf, $19.95, 296pp, hc, 9781603090032. History/politics/humor.
We care about them exactly once every four years. We’re lucky we even know them at all unless a misjudgment or misadventure affords them the headlines that otherwise elude them. They’re our American Vice Presidents, and practically to a man they’re paragons of insignificance. Who are these people? You know about the one who shot his hunting partner in the face, but how about the one who was too frequently inebriated to serve out the whole of his term? Over more than 200 years, the American voters have sent a platoon of rogues, cowards, drunks, featherweights, doddering geriatrics, pillars of hapless ambition, bigots, and atrocious spellers to Washington D.C. to sit one bullet, cerebral hemorrhage, or case of pneumonia away from the highest office in the land, waiting (most often in vain) for their call to step up and sit in the biggest chair in America.
Prime by Nate Kenyon
Apex, $13.95, 156pp, tp, 9780982159620. Science fiction.
When simulated interactions are an essential part of life, a programming glitch can be devastating, especially for the company that controls the sims.
William Bellow is an experienced bug hunter who comes as close as any human to the anticipated Transformation that links man to machine. As he digs into the problems surrounding New London’s most advanced programming, the nature of his own memories and the events of his past are called into question. Desperate manipulations and complex deceptions take him from the corporate towers to the underground resistance as Bellow’s work quickly escalates into a fight for his life in both the physical and virtual worlds.
Kenyon’s fast-paced, twisting thriller tracks Bellow’s progress forward through the case and backward through his own questionable past.
Amulet, Book 2: The Stonekeeper’s Curse by Kazu Kibuishi
Graphix/Scholastic, $9.99, 224pp, tp, 9780439846837. Children’s fantasy graphic novel. On-sale date: September 2009.
Eisner Award-nominated comic artist Kazu Kibuishi continues his incredible adventure series set in a magical and dangerous world and starring two courageous children intent on saving their mother.
Emily, Navin, and their new friend Miskit must journey to the watery city of Kanalis to seek a cure for the poison that has sickened their mother. But what they find is new allies and old enemies, all while Emily is struggling with the amulet’s strange power—which is getting stronger all the time…
The Red Tree by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Roc, $16.00, 387pp, tp, 978451462763. Fantasy.
The Red Tree is a chilling dark fantasy novel from genre legend Caitlin R. Kiernan. After the end of a tumultuous relationship and diagnosis of epilepsy, writer Sarah Crowe leave Atlanta to live alone in an old house in Rhode Island. She begins to study the notes left behind by the last occupant, a parapsychologist obsessed with an ancient oak growing on a desolate corner of the property, and her sanctuary reveals a darker side. When an odd painter arrives and leases the attic apartment of the old house as his studio, Sarah finds herself entwined in a mystery between the painter and the tree. With her physical and mental health fading, Sarah begins to realize that she has her own role to play in satisfying the tree’s hunger…
And Less Than Kind by Mercedes Lackey and Roberta Gellis
Baen, $7.99, 880pp, pb, 9781439132845. Fantasy.
When it became certain that Edward VI was dying, the duke of Northumberland, who had been ruling England in his name, made a plan that would let him hold onto his power. He dared not let Mary come to the throne because she was fiercely Catholic and he had espoused the Protestant cause. He did not want Elizabeth to rule because he knew her imperious nature would never defer to him. But there was more than one puppet master at work: The evil elf-lord Vidal Dhu had no intention of losing the flood of power the misery of Mary’s reign would bring the Dark Court, and intervened so that Mary was proclaimed queen.
Urged by her Chancellor and the Imperial ambassador to order Elizabeth’s death, Mary chose a different to insure that Elizabeth would never reign. She must marry and bear a child to be the Catholic heir. Vidal Dhu, replete with power from the pain and terror of Mary’s burning of heretics, agreed with Mary. Vidal Dhu had very special plans for that child. And since Oberon and Titania had disappeared, there now was no one except the double pair of twins to stand between the mortals of England and the rule of Evil.
Daughters of the Sea: Hannah by Kathryn Lasky
Scholastic, $16.99, 320pp, hc, 9780439783. YA fantasy.
Newbery Honor winner and bestselling author Kathryn Lasky brings readers Daughters of the Sea: Hannah, the first book in a magical new fantasy series about mermaids.
Hannah Albury is not like other girls in the turn-of-the-century Boston orphanage where she grew up. Instead of seasickness, she gets land-sickness. Billowing waves exhilarate her, but flat land away from the ocean leave her dried out, parched, and ill. She leaves a ring of salt in the tub when she bathes, and sometimes she sees the faint tracing of scales on her delicate feet. It’s freakish, horrifying… and deeply confusing to her. As Hannah becomes a young woman, she can sense that a powerful change is coming. A choice lies ahead, and Hannah must discover if she is a creature of the land—or the sea.
Night’s Master by Tanith Lee
(Tales from the Flat Earth: Book One), Norilana/TaLeKa, $24.95, 246pp, hc, 9781607620433.
Norilana Books is proud to reissue the first of a series of great fantasy classics by the award winning beloved British author Tanith Lee, via the new imprint TaLeKa, dedicated to showcasing the literary works of Tanith Lee and the art of John Kaiine.
Night’s Master is the first book of the stunninig arabesque high fantasy series Tales from the Flat Earth, which, in the manner of the One Thousand and One Nights portrays an ancient world in mythic grandeur via connected tales.
Long time ago when the Earth was Flat, beautiful indifferent Gods lived in the airy Upperearth realm above, curious passionate demons lived in the exotic Underearth realm below, and mortals were relegated to exist in the middle. Azhrarn, Lord of the Demons and the Darkness was the one who ruled the Night, and many mortal lives were changed because of his cruel whimsy. And yet, Azhrarn held inside his demon heart a profound mystery which would change the very fabric of the Flat Earth forever…
Come within this ancient world of brilliant darkness and beauty, of glittering palaces and wondrous elegant beings, of cruel passions and undying love.
The Fire King by Marjorie Liu
(a Dirk & Steele novel), Leisure, $7.99, 307pp, pb, 9780843959406. Paranormal Romance.
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 leaegue all her own. In her newest novel, The Fire King, Liu explores the fate of a mythic and mysterious chimera, which will not only satisfy dedicated fans, but draw new readers as well.
In The Fire King, chimera shape-shifter Karr is awakened against his will after a centuries-long sleep. In his day he may have been king, but now he is only a creature of torment and tragedy. Now a scarred, yet brilliant young linguist, Soria, must help this ancient predator navigate the modern world and in doing so, she may be risking her soul.…
The Grave Thief by Tom Lloyd
(Book Three of The Twilight Reign), Pyr, $16.00, 498pp, tp, 9781591027805. Fantasy. On-sale date: September 2009.
For Isak, the time for heartless decisions and ruthless action has come if he is to save the land from its oppressors…
Scree has been wiped from the face of the Land in a brutal demonstration of intent. While those responsible scatter to work on the next step in their plan, the stakes are raised—all the way to the heavens—as the Gods themselves enter the fray. Returning home to a nation divided by fanaticism, Lord Isak is haunted both by the consequences of his actions in Scree and by visions of his own impending death. As the full extent of Azaer’s schemes become clearer, he realizes prophecy and zealotry must play their part in his battle-plans if there is to be any chance of surviving the coming years. As a white-eye, Isak has had to embrace the darker parts of his own soul, but now the savage religious fervor sweeping his nation must also be accepted and turned to purpose, in the name of survival.
With the battle lines vague and allegiances uncertain, the time for heartless decisions and ruthless action has come. Two figures oppose Isak and his allies: the greatest warrior in history, who dreams of empire and Godhood, and a newborn baby whose dreams have no limit.
Necroscsope: Harry and the Pirates, and Other Tales from the Lost Years by Brian Lumley
Tor, $23.99, 192pp, hc, 9780765323385. Horror.
Brian Lumley, author of the acclaimed and international bestselling Necroscope series, returns with a new collection of Harry Keogh stories never before published in the US. Distinguished as a Grand Master of Horror and honored with the British Fantasy Award for short fiction, Lumley has seen his work published in more than a dozen countries and served as inspiration for mediums from comic books to role-playing games to television adaptations. Now, over a decade after it was first released, Lumley is back with Harry Keogh, the original and most popular Necroscope, in Necroscope: Harry and the Pirates.
Harry Keogh, the first Necroscope, is arguably Brian Lumley’s greatest creation. In the Necroscope series, readers saw Harry learn to use his powers to talk with the dead and travel instantaneously to any point in space and time. They saw him take arms against the evil and twisted, metamorphic alien vampires who sought to feed off humans and enslave mankind. They saw him suffer a great personal loss and then recover his family, and later his humanity, through a new love. And they saw Harry wage the grimmest battle of his life—against the vampire he himself was becoming!
Even after Harry’s story was done, Brian Lumley continued to write books about Harry’s legacy—the other Necroscopes who ineherited his weird talents. But Harry himself would not go quietly into that darkness that lies beyond an author’s imagination… and now Brian Lumley has written three new long short stories about Harry and his supernatural adventures, which are published for the first time in the US in his exciting new book Harry and the Pirates.
Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev
Feiwel and Friends, $16.99, 368pp, hc, 9780312380960. YA fantasy.
From the fanciful imagination of debut author Lisa Mantchev comes a young adult novel that is a treat for thespians and non-thespians alike. Eyes Like Stars, the first book in the Théâtre Illuminata trilogy, is a witty, romantic, and original novel by a gifted new writer.
Beatrice Shakespeare Smith is not an actress, yet she lives in a theater.
She’s not an orphan, but she has no parents.
She knows every part, but she has no lines of her own.
That is, until now…
Behind the curtain at the Théâtre Illuminata, one can find the characters of every play ever written. They were born to play their parts, and they are bound to the Théâtre by The Book—an ancient and magical tome of scripts. Bertie is not one of them, but htese players are her family and the theatre is her home. Faced with a daunting ultimatum, Bertie must prove that although she is an outsider, she can still be an asset to the theatre. Should she fail to show her worth, she will be cast out and lose all that is dear to her. As Bertie struggles to find her place in this fantastical world, she must confront each challenge with determination and unwavering confidence.
Readers wil find the rebellious and strong Bertie a memorable heroine, drawn in the tradition of Kate from Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Independent and stubborn, Bertie must reconcile the questions surrounding her unknown past in order to successfully find a foothold in the future of the theatre. With the help of a humorous gang of fairies, a little bit of magic, and a dash of good old-fashioned luck, Bertie navigates her way through an unpredictable world where people aren’t always who they appear to be and it’s nearly impossible to know who to trust.
Lisa Mantchev smoothly intertwines her playwriting experience with flawless prose to create a dramatic story filled with an ensemble cast that is pulled from a spectrum of famous plays. Delightfully engaging and enchanting, Eyes Like Stars ushers into the spotlight a fresh voice in the young-adult world that will leave readers satisfied with this story and looking forward to the second book in the Théâtre Illuminata trilogy.
Desolation Road by Ian McDonald
Pyr, $15.98, 365pp, pb, 9781591027447. Science fiction.
It all began thirty years ago on Mars, with a greenperson. But by the time it all finished, the town of Desolation Road had experienced every conceivable abnormality from Adam Black’s Wonderful Travelling Chautauqua and Educational ‘Stravaganza (complete with its very own captive angel) to the Astounding Tatterdemalion Air Bazaar. Its inhabitants ranged from Dr. Alimantando, the town’s founder and resident genius, to the Babooshka, a barren grandmother who just wants her own child—grown in a fruit jar; from Rajendra Das, mechanical hobo who has a mystical way with machines to the Gallacelli brothers, identical triplets who fell in love with—and married—the same woman.
Fablehaven by Brandon Mull
(Book One), Aladdin, $7.99, 360pp, tp, 9781416947202. YA fantasy.
For centuries mystical creatures were gathered into a hidden refuge called Fablehaven to prevent their extinction. The sanctuary is one of the last strongholds of true magic. Enchanting? Absolutely. Exciting? You bet. Safe? Well, actually, quite the opposite…
Kendra and her brother, Seth, have no idea that their grandfather is the current caretaker of Fablehaven. Inside the gated woods, ancient laws keep order among greedy trolls, mischievous satyrs, plotting witches, spiteful imps, and jealous fairies. However, when the rules get broken, powerful forces of evil are unleashed, and Kendra and her brother must face the greatest challenge of their lives to save their family, Fablehaven, and perhaps even the world.
A Sense of Infinity by Howard L. Myers
Baen, $7.99, 586pp, pb, 9781439132784. Science fiction.
The future will be stranger than you can imagine…
* In a post-apocalyptic world, telepaths are common, but young Starn had no trace of telepathic ability, and was persecuted by those who had the talent—until he discovered he possessed an even more unusual ability.
* A criminal mastermind has been captured by the Space Patrol, and a Patrol ship is carrying him to a prison planet. Escape seems impossible, but he has a secret weapon. It’s only water—but water with a very unusual property.
* In the afterlife, it turns out that one’s existence is dependent on being remembered by the living. As you are forgotten, you shrink. How do you avoid this? Why, hire an unearthly public relations firm, of course.
These stories and more, including two full-length novels, fill a large volume of entertaining space adventure and humorous fantasy Inventive by a writer noted for original ideas developed with a sardonic wit.
[Contents: “His Master’s Vice”, “The Pyrophylic Saurian”, “Polywater Doodle”, Cloud Chamber, “Ten Percent of Glory”, “Bowerbird”, “Man Off a White Horse”, “Soul Affrighted”, The Infinity Sense, and “The Mind-Changer”.]
Edge of Dawn by Patti O’Shea
Tor, $6.99, 336pp, pb, 9780765361691. Paranormal romance.
Magic, love, and inspiration make for an intoxicating mixture in Edge of Dawn. Author Patti O’Shea returns to the world of her Magical Troubleshooters series with a seductive new tale of one man’s choice between betraying his honor… or losing the only woman he could ever love.
Up-and-coming glass artist Shona Blackwood has lost her ability to create. Instead of panic, however, all she feels is apathy. Her detachment is shaken when she narrowly avoids being mugged, thanks to a timely rescue by a man who makes all her senses come roaring to life.
Logan Andrews is a magical troubleshooter assigned to protect Shona from an unseen enemy. Shona is unaware that magic actually exists and Logan is under orders not to tell her, but it isn’t long before he finds his loyalty torn between his people and the passionate woman he is guarding.
He thought this would be a straightforward job, but Logan quickly realizes that his assignment is full of more danger—and more desire—than is visible on the surface. As Shona and Logan fight for their survival, they become engaged in an edgy contest between magic and passion in which love is destined to win…
Edge of Dawn proves that O’Shea’s romances keep getting better and better. With peril lurking around every corner and dormant sensuality bubbling to the surface, Edge of Dawn is a sexy, stunning must-read.
Spider: City of Doom by Norvell Page
(contains The City Destroyer, The Faceless One, and The Council of Evil), Baen, $7.99, 589pp, pb, 9781493132869. Mystery/adventure.
Three complete novels in one volume of the adventures of the mysterious masked crime fighter known as The Spider, hunted by the underworld and the police alike.
* First, in The Spider and the Faceless One, a reign of terror grips New York, a city stalked by a killer with no face of his own, disguised with the tortured faces of his victims. Can even The Spider defeat such an incredible foe?
* Then, in The Council of Evil, one of The Spider’s deadliest enemies, long thought to be dead, has returned, and is using an inexplicable power to control the minds of others, beginning by turning The Spider’s most trustworthy allies against their leader.
* Finally, the Master of Men faces his most ruthless and deadly opponent in The City Destroyer as an unknown criminal mastermind uses an incredible device to melt the steel in the city’s towering skyscrapers, bringing them crashing down in an orgy of destruction. Can The Spider unmask the madman before all of Manhattan is reduced to blood-spattered rubble?
Forty-Eight X: The Lemuria Project by Barry Pollack
Medallion, $24.95, 344pp, hc, 9781934755020. Thriller. On-sale date: December 2009.
A colonel with a shadowy past…
A military science experiment out of control…
The human race facing extinction…
On the tropical island of Diego Garcia in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the United States has gathered together its most talented geneticists to conduct top secret experiments. Their goal—to create a revolutionary new warrior. A warrior so strong, so valiant, so expendable that the age of “casualties of war” would become only a sad and distant memory. And so the Lemuria Project is brought to life. Haunted by a dark and dangerous past, Colonel Link McGraw is the officer chosen to train these new “soldiers.” He understands the rules of engagement and agrees to serve his country, reestablish his professional reputation, and secure his freedom in the process. As a trained and commissioned officer in the United States Armed Forces, McGraw knows what constitutes the perfect soldier. It’s simple: follow orders without question.
When Egyptian beauty Fala al Shodaha and Israeli Joshua Lantz, scientists in their own right, stumble across the top secret project, they are determined to uncover its true nature and pursue their quest to Diego Garcia. Tensions mount as Lantz and McGraw clash over the project—and vie for the affection of the lovely Fala. When they discover they aren’t the only ones on the island competing for her attention, shocking truths are revealed.
Is it too late to save themselves—and the entire human race—from almost certain annihilation?
Emily the Strange: Stranger and Stranger by Rob Reger and Jessica Gruner, illustrated by Rob Reger and Buzz Parker
HarperTeen, $16.99, 280pp, hc, 9780061452321. Fantasy. On-sale date: January 2010.
Emily the Strange stands for: Do it yourself; think for yourself; be yourself. She is anti-cool, a subculture of one, and a follower of no one but herself.
With over 2.5 million fans, Emily the Strange clothing and accessories are sold around the world—from high fashion in Italy, to the “Emily the Strange” stores in Asia, to her roots in the Bay Area. Emily the Strange is also the star of comic books and a line of stationery products as well as the anti-hero of upcoming feature film.
In her second adventure, Emily the Strange: Stranger and Stranger, thirteen-year-old, black-clad Emily accidentally duplicates herself, which at first thrills her, but all too soon turns sinister once Emily realizes that her clone has become her nemesis!
Again told in diary format, like Emily the Strange: The Lost Days, this second novel features Emily’s penchant for Top 13 lists and is illustrated with black-and-red art representing Emily’s own sketches, doodles, and archival photographs.
The Book of Swords by Hank Reinhardt
Baen, $20.00, 256pp, tp, 9781439132821. Nonfiction, illustrated.
The sword is the most revered of all of man’s weapons. Although the club is older, the knife more universal, and the firearm much more efficient, it is to the sword that most decoration, myth, mysticism and reverence has been given. The katana has been called “The Soul of the Samurai,” the Vikings lavished love, care and attached wonderful names to their weapons. The sword has been the symbol of Justice, of Vengeance, and of Mercy. No one artifact has so captured the imagination as has the sword.
As our society has grown more and more advanced, and more reliant on technology, there has been an increased interest in the weapons of the past. The romance of the sword is very much alive—but movies, books and fiction of all types have romanticized the past, and particularly the sword, beyond all recognition of the real thing.
Drawing on information from grave excavations, illustrations of battle scenes, and many classical and medieval literary sources, this book discusses how contemporaries showed swords were used. Building on Oakeshott and other authoritative writers on the subject, this volume, representing ten years of writing and a lifetime of experience, will add to the body of knowledge of the history of swords by illustrating not only the beauty of the form of the sword, but also their beauty of function.
Stalking the Dragon by Mike Resnick
(A Fable of Tonight), Pyr, $15.98, 296pp, tp, 9781591027454. Fantasy.
It’s Valentine’s Day and private detective John Justin Mallory is planning on closing up the office early and taking his partner, Col. Winnifred Carruthers, out to dinner, since he’s sure no one else will do so. But before he can turn off the lights and lock the door, a panic-stricken Buffalo Bill Brody visits them. It seems that the Eastminster pet show is being held the next day, and his dragon, Fluffy, the heavy favorite, has been kidnapped.
Mallory’s nocturnal hunt for the miniature dragon takes him to some of the stranger sections of this Manhattan—Greenwitch Village (which is right around the corner from Greenwich Village and is populated by witches and covens); a wax museum where figures of Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre come alive; Gracie Mansion (which is haunted by the ghosts of former mayors); and the Bureau of Missing Creatures, a movie set where they’re filming a PBS documentary on zombies and various other denizens of the Manhattan night. As Mallory follows the leads and hunts for clues, he comes up against one dead end after another.
Along the way he meets a few old friends and enemies, and a host of strange new inhabitants of this otherworldly Manhattan. Aided by a strange goblin named Jeeves, Mallory has only one night to find a tiny dragon that’s hidden somewhere in a city of seven million.
Night of Demons by Tony Richards
Harper, $7.99, 400pp, pb, 9780061474675. Fantasy. On-sale date: October 2009.
Night of Demons is the newest novel by celebrated British writer Tony Richards. If you’re a fan of Jim Butcher, Kim Harrison, or Simon Green, you’ll enjoy this fabulously dark fantasy about a small New England town where the descendants of the Salem witches have lived and ruled, undiscovered for centuries.
The premise of this novel is fascinating. What if the Salem witch trials, instead of eradicating the witches of New England, merely forced them to conceal themselves from humankind? Raine’s Landing, Massachusetts, appears on the surface to be an ordinary small New England town, yet anyone who stumbles in wants to leave immediately, and as soon as they leave, they forget they were ever there. And there’s another problem: it can’t be located on a map.
But the town’s ultimate nightmare comes from the outside world, when a crazed serial killer with an apocalyptic fixation stumbles on Raine’s Landing one dark, rainy night. Ross Devries and Cassandra Mallory are called upon to keep supernatural disaster at bay and preserve their peaceful hollow. But the serial killer has a weapon that may be too powerful to overcome: a magical device that releases demons upon the town. What follows is a high-stakes, supernatural battle that is as thrilling as it is horrifying.
Vanished by Kat Richardson
(a Greywalker novel), Roc, $23.95, 351pp, hc, 9780451462770. Fantasy.
Vanished is the highly anticipated fourth book in Kat Richardson’s Greywalker series. This unique cross between fantasy and noir mystery features Harper Blaine, a Seattle PI who is drawn into the chilling world of the paranormal.
As a “Greywalker”, Harper has a reputation for dealing with the uncanny. But even to her, some things remain a mystery. When Harper begins digging into her own past, she discovers a difficult truth that leaves her with even more unanswered questions. On her quest to solve the mystery of her father’s death, Harper pursues an investigation in London, only to find the unpleasant surprise that awaits her.
Eye of the Storm by John Ringo
Baen, $26.00, 420pp, hc, 9781439132739. Science fiction.
Beneath A Banner Burned…
In an instant the world changed for Lieutenant General Michael O’Neal. His beloved Corps of the last remaining ACS destroyed beneath the guns of the Fleet, his staff shot before his eyes, arrested on the charge of war crimes, he faces a short, one-sided, trial, a trip to the Fleet Penal Facility and a bullet to the back of the head while trying to “escape”.
The Boundaries Blur
General Tam Wesley faces trying one of the most beloved heroes in Federation, not to mention a friend of decades, on trumped up charges. He alternative is having the last corps of humans that haven’t sold their souls to the Darhel be taken apart like a chicken.
Then he finds out the bad news…
The Chaos Has Returned
With a new invasion from a previously unknown race threatening the Federation capital, Darhel Tir Dal Ron faces his ultimate nightmare: He is going to have to reinstate the one man human soldiers trust, a man with the power and knowledge to destroy the Darhel oligarchy forever. And instead convince him, against all logic, to save the Darhel.
Somebody is going to die. General Michael O’Neal, Supreme Commander, Federation Forces, just has to pick.
The Tuloriad by John Ringo and Tom Kratman
Baen, $26.00, 384pp, hc, 9781439133040. Science fiction. On-sale date: October 2009.
The Enemy of My Enemy…
Of the once innumerable battle clans of the possess only a handful survive. And that on the sufferance of a group of despised Indowy and Himmit. Plucked from the maelstrom on Earth they are cast out into the eternal blackness of the stars with only a slightly insane Indowy and a computer virus to guide them.
What follows is a trail of tears and remembrance as the Posleen retrace the footsteps of their ancestors in a search for their homeworld. A search to determine if the Posleen posess the one thing no Human would give them credit for: A soul.
Returned to their beginnings, the question remains: Is there a new path for the Tular Posleen?
Chasing the Dragon by Justina Robson
(Quantum Gravity book four), Pyr, $15.98, 401pp, tp, 9781591027461. Fantasy.
Lila Black returns in the fourth volume of high-octane, high-magic, high-tech adventures.
Ever since the Quantum Bomb of 2015 things have been different; the dimensions have fused and suddenly our world is accessible to elves, demons, ghosts, and elementals—and their worlds are open to us. Things have been different for Special Agent Lila Black too: she’s been tortured and magic-scarred by elves; rebuilt by humans into a half-robot, part-AI, nuclear-fueled walking arsenal; married to a demon; and is in love with a recently deceased elf. It was confusing enough before she was catapulted fifty years into her own future.
Returning to the life of a secret agent, Lila finds herself left all of her former boss’s old offices and whatever mysteries they contain, as the elf has disappeared some fifty years previously. Appointed head of the new android division, she can see all too clearly what’s in store for her if the growth of the alien technologies in her cyborg body continue unchecked.
But there are more immediate concerns. Like resurrecting her lover, Zal. And her husband, the demon Teazle, is embroiled in a fatal plot in Demonia, and her magic sword is making itself happy as a pen whose writing has the power to affect other worlds. The world is off its rocker and most everyone is terrified of faeries. And all the while, she hears the voices of the machine—material projections of an immaterial form, The Signal. The signal talks constantly—if only she knew what it meant.
Chasing the Dragon is bright, fast moving and accessible SF that mixes in fantasy and a cool cult-lit sensibility to create a series that will appeal to fans of Laurell K. Hamilton and Peter Hamilton.
The Sheriff of Yrnameer by Michael Rubens
Pantheon, $22.95, 273pp, hc, 9780307378477. Fiction.
The Sheriff of Yrnameer is a fast-paced, action- and satire-packed tour of a new science fiction universe by former Daily Show with Jon Stewart producer Michael Rubens.
Our hero, Cole, a hapless space scoundrel on the run, is having a bad day. His sidekick has run off with his girlfriend. His spaceship has been disintegrated by an officious traffic robot. And now the space yacht he’s stolen to escape from a tentacled alien bounty hunter—after Cole for some serious gambling debts—turns out to be filled with freeze-dried orphans. Their destination: the mysterious—and possibly nonexistent—planet of Yrnameer, the last unspoiled and unsponsored world in the galaxy (hence the name: yrnameer being a contraction of “your name here,” a planet without a corporate sponsor).
Reluctantly compelled by his nagging conscience to deliver the defenseless children to safety. Cole teams up with Nora, an alluring and annoyingly righteous intergalactic relief worker; Baachi, a heartless criminal; Peter the ‘Puter, the stupidest example of artificial intelligence in the universe; and “Fred,” an alien whose disdain for humans is matched only by his skill at long-form poetry. All the while Cole is stalked by the book’s most inspired comic creation: Kenneth, a hideous and deadly alien with a mellifluous voice and a heartless world view, softened only by an inexplicable obsession with human romantic love.
Readers are hurtled from the advertising-saturated worlds of Funworld, Funworld World, Funworld World II, and Investco 3, to the zombie-infested corporate seminar satellite Success!Sat 1, to the bandit-besiged artist colony on the mythical planet of Yrnameer, where Cole and his friends must stand up to the infamous and murderous outlaw Runk. Cole is the worst man for the job—or is he?
The Dame by R.A. Salvatore, read by Erik Singer
Macmillan Audio/Tor, $49.95, 10 CDs (12 hours), audio book, 9781427206831. Fantasy.
In this thrilling fantasy quest, Salvatore returns with his cast of exciting characters in war-torn Corona, where two powerful lairds fight for supremacy of a hoped-for united kingdom. Bransen Garibond, the Highwayman, is not interested in this clash, but when he’s thrown in the middle of the factions he has no choice but to embark on another dangerous adventure.
The story follows Garibond who has arrived back in the land of Honce with the head of the evil Ancient Badden to please Dame Gwydre of Vanguard. With this task successfully completed, Garibond wants only to return to his wife and home. Instead, he’s falsely accused of treachery and forced to once again take on a perilous trek. Along the way, Bransen finds himself on a quest for the truth and a mission to put right over wrong while confusion, fraud and blurring morality stand in his way.
Salvatore, an expert in the genre, brings listeners along for the treacherous undertaking, complete with political entanglements, religious struggles and gripping battles. Narrator Erik Singer’s engaging performance adds excitement to battle scenes and a connection to the characters and story. Together, these two create an engrossing journey that will draw science fiction fans further into the Saga of the First King.
Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia by Brandon Sanderson
(the Alcatraz Smedry series, book 3), Scholastic, $16.99, 320pp, hc, 9780439925556. Fantasy. On-sale date: October 2009.
When Alcatraz and Grandpa Smedry make a pilgrimage to the Free Kingdom city of Crystallia, the Smedry home base, Alcatraz is shocked to see that he is, in fact, a legend. When he was a baby he was stolen by the Evil Librarians, and his mother, a Librarian herself, was behind the whole scheme. Now, with his estranged father, who is acting indeed strange, Bastille, who has been stripped of her armor, and Grandpa Smedry, who is, as always, late to everything (that’s his Talent), Alcatraz tries to save a city under siege. From who? Why, the Librarians of course!
Sasha: A Trial of Blood and Steel by Joel Shepherd
Pyr, $16.00, 514pp, tp, 978159102787X. Fantasy. On-sale date: October 2009.
Sasha is a fighter, the like of which the highland country of Lenayin has never seen.
Spurning her royal heritage to be raised by the great warrior, Kessligh, her exquisite swordplay astonishes all who witness it. But Sasha is still young, untested in battle and often led by her rash temper. In the complex world of Lenayin loyalties, her defiant willfulness is attracting the wrong kind of attention.
Lenayin is a land almost divided by its two faiths: the Verenthane of the ruling classes and the pagan Goeren-yai, amongst whom Sasha now lives. The Goeren-yai worship swordplay and honor and begin to see Sasha as the great spirit—the Synnich—who will unite them. But Sasha is still searching for what she believes and must choose her side carefully.
When the Udalyn people—the symbol of Goeren-yai pride and courage—are attacked, Sasha will face her moment of testing. How will she act? Is she ready to lead? Can she be the saviour they need her to be?
Quatrain by Sharon Shinn
Ace, $24.95, 368pp, hc, 9780441017584. Fantasy. On-sale date: 6 October 2009.
National bestselling author Sharon Shinn’s “outstanding” Twelve Houses novels have fascinated readers and critics alike with their irresistible blend of fantasy, romance, and adventure. Now, in Quatrain, Shinn returns with four original novellas, each set in one of her distinctive worlds.…
Flight
To be chosen as the lover of an angel is the highest honor in Samaria, but Salome knows the hidden dangers of such a life. After years spent atoning for her mistakes, an unexpected trip forces Salome to face the love that she betrayed and the life she tried to forget.…
Blood
As a gulden man, nothing is more important to Kerk than race and pride, except the prospect of finding his long-lost mother. His search leads him to the Lost City, where his steadfast beliefs are shaken when an eccentric indigo girl becomes the only one he can turn to for help.…
Gold
On the eve of war, Crown Princess Zara is sent to the kingdom of Alora for safekeeping. But the magical realm and its people have their own seductive dangers, and the longer she stays, the more she forgets her home and the love she left behind.…
Flame
In the world of the Twelve Houses, to be born a mystic is to receive both a gift and the curse of a solitary existence. Senneth can make fire do her bidding, but when she extinguishes a blaze, she exposes her gift in a small town where her power alone is enough to condemn her.…
Tentacles by Roland Smith
(sequel to Cryptid Hunters), Scholastic, $16.99, 336pp, hc, 9780545166881. Middle grades science fiction. On-sale date: September 2009.
Master of middle-grade adventure and animal expert Roland Smith brings readers action and exciting storytelling in the long awaited sequel to Cryptid Hunters, which Booklist called a “nonstop” and “well-paced jungle adventure.”
Thirteen-year-old twins Marty and Grace O’Hara’s globe-trotting parents disappeared while on assignment for a nature magazine, and now they’re living with their uncle Wolfe, a scientist fascinated by cryptids—creatures that appear in myths and folktales but haven’t been proven to exist, like Sasquatch and the Loch Ness Monster.…
Roland Smith’s trademark flair of adventure storytelling, combined with factual science, will leave readers clamoring for more!
Treason’s Shore by Sherwood Smith
(Inda book #4), DAW, $25.95, 691pp, hc, 9780756405731. Fantasy. On-sale date: October 2009.
Sherwood Smith is back with the fourth book in her wildly popular Inda series. Smith’s writing is “filled with magic and glamour… rich details and imagery tie this story together. Complex and compelling.” (San Jose Mercury News on the Inda series). Treason’s Shore is a “first-rate fantasy novel” (Orson Scott Card) that is guaranteed to please readers young and old alike.
Inda returns from the battlefield a hero, and takes his place beside the king as Harskialdna, the King’s Shield. But thir enemies are far from vanquished, and only someone with a reputation like Inda’s can unite the squabbling kingdoms to repel the enemies. During the fighting, King Evred gives Inda the order to take over the strait once the fighting is finished. But the years Inda spent as a pirate tell him that is a very bad idea, leaving him with an impossible choice: obey his liege or commit treason.
Dragons & Dwarves by S. Andrew Swann
(contains Dragons of the Cuyahoga and The Dwarves of Whiskey Island, DAW, $7.99, 442pp, pb, 9780756405663. Fantasy.
Kline Maxwell was a serious political reporter. He wasn’t interested in working on “fuzzy gnome” stories, or any of the other unbelievable tales that should end up only in sensationalist rags. But twelve years ago a magical Portal had opened into Cleveland, a Portal that had ruined much of Cleveland’s modern-day technology even as it released magical energy all over town. And suddenly there was a shift in the population as humans fled the burg while dwarves, elves, dragons, ogres, gnomes, mages, and every other denizen of the fantasy realm on the other side of the Portal began moving into town.
And whether he wanted to or not, Maxwell had found himself covering stories that sometimes took him far from his political beat and into way too much danger both magical and mundane. Still, he took his job seriously, and when he was assigned to cover a dragon’s death by crash-landing into the Cuyahoga, he headed over to the accident site with only a few curses. But what should have been a simple accident report soon led Maxwell in search of a much bigger story—one that would see him kidnapped by elves, framed for murder, holding secret meetings with dragons, and fleeing not only from the cops but from pretty much everybody!
Then, just when he thought he was safe again, a mysterious phone call from a dwarf who wanted to give him information about the unexplained suicide of the former City Council President drew him into a case that had dark spells, danger, destruction, and death written all over it…
May Earth Rise by Holly Taylor
Medallion, $15.95, 414pp, pb, 9781933836577. Fantasy. On-sale date: November 2009.
The Y Dawnus are known as Gifted. Those irreplaceable members of High King Arthur’s early medieval society live in a mysterious land in 500 A.D. The Dreamers, the Devin, the Druids, and the Bards, these chosen ones are his talented pillars. Without them his empire cannot survive. When they are taken captive by the Coranians in a battle for Kymru, the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
In this Fourth Book of the Dreamer’s Cycle, cruel deprivation and a full-scale conflict bring the Y Dawnus to the brink of annihilation. Confronting his mortal enemy, Havgan the Warleader, Arthur and his forces must fight a formidable opopnent backed by menacing powers that threaten to end their magical, elite kingdom. Loyal to King Arthur, Gwydion, the Dreamer of Kymru, must contemplate the loss of Rhiannon, former heir to the Ardewin. She alone is the love of his soul. If he fails, he will never see her again. A daring escapade against the Coranians threatens to separate them forever.
In a treacherous realm where captives are collared and sacrificed, where ruthless territorial boundaries are drawn and enforced, where death by poisoning and torture are the norm, the highest morals are at stake in love and hate. Only the strongest survive in the pursuit of freedom. And only the deepest passion will drive away the evil that lurks in a mystical land of fragile kingdoms, powerful war leaders, and ancient magic.
Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn
HarperTeen, $16.99, 320pp, hc, 9780061798948. Fantasy. On-sale date: March 2010.
A distinctly twenty-first-century tale of dragons and cell phones, love and war, and a friendship that crosses a seemingly unbridgeable divide, from New York Times bestseller Carrie Vaughn.
When modern technology clashes with ancient monsters, seventeen-year-old Kay and her unlikely dragon friend, Artegal, are caught in the middle. Can their friendship stop a war?
Warhammer: Grey Seer by C.L. Werner
(a Thanquol and Boneripper novel), Black Library, $7.99, 416pp, pb, 9781844167395. Fantasy.
When the noxious artefact known as the Wormstone is discovered, only one being in the insidious skaven Under-Empire is vicious and ruthless enough to dare harness its awful power: Grey Seer Thanquol. But when the artefact is stolen by smugglers, Thanquol must recover it. Not only that, but a mysterious wizard and his band of henchmen are also trying to stop him. Only by finding the Wormstone, avoiding the murderous attentions of his treacherous subordinates and dodging the displeasure of his superiors in Skavenblight will Thanquol realise his plan to bring the kingdoms of both man and ratkin to their knees…
Warhammer 40,000: Emperor’s Mercy by Henry Zou
(a Bastion Wars novel), Black Library, $7.99, 416pp, pb, 9781844167357. Fantasy.
Inquisitor Roth and his henchmen Silverstein are sent to the worlds of the Medina Corridor to uncover the location of a set of ancient artifacts. At the same time, the Ironclads, a force of Chaos traitors, invade the subsector in search of the same artifact for their own purposes. With the Ironclads’ indomitable army crushing all before it, the Inquisitor races against time to save Medina. The Black Library introduces a new writer with a fresh look at inquisitors in a new sector of the 40K universe.