This page is updated as books are received throughout the month.
Darkling Fields of Arvon by James G. Anderson & Mark Sebanc
(Legacy of the Stone Harp: Book Two), Baen, $14.99, 448pp, tp, 9781439133538. Fantasy. On-sale date: June 2010.
In the wake of the catastrophic invasion that has leveled the Stoneholding, the last bastion of order in the world of Ahn Norvys, Kalaquinn Wright Pursues the mission entrusted to him. Freshly invested as High Bard, sets forth across lands that lie under a dark cloud of uncertainty and strife, charged with the task of finding the lost Prince Starigan. This is but the first step in rekindling the Sacred Fire and restoring peace to a broken world.
The task, however, will not be an easy one, for the Talamadh, the golden harp that binds together heaven and earth in sacred harmony, remains in the clutches of the tyrant Ferabek. After securing safe haven for the remnant folk of his clanholding, Kal and his companions venture into the lowlands of Arvon, a place of looming danger. Despite the adversities of a world sinking into the world sinking into the twilight of darkness and chaos, the young Holdsman keeps faith and its sustained by the loyalty of friends, the resources he begins to discover in himself, and unwavering hope. In his quest for the lost prince, moreover, Kal learns that royalty is to be found in unexpected quarters.
By fate’s caprice, Kal falls prey to his enemies. In the trail that befalls him, his mettle is tested, and he draws upon an inner strength that he has never known before. He also discovers that the Talamadh, with which Ardiel, once High King of Arvon, inaugurated the Great Harmony, though weak faltering, still retains a vestige of its ancient potency. But will it be enough to stem the tide of chaos that floods over darkling fields of Arvon?
The Heavenstone Secrets by V.C. Andrews
Pocket, $7.99, 438pp, pb, 9781439154953. Fiction.
Secrets are at home here…
The Heavenstone sisters live with their mother and father in a grand old mansion in bluegrass Kentucky. Semantha, the younger and prettier one, is afraid of so many things—darkness, strange noises, mysterious whispers in the night. But nothing frightens her more than her sister, Cassie. She is older and wiser, and always telling Semantha what to do, what to wear, and how to behave around those wicked boys at school. Semantha has her eye on one special guy—but Cassie has other plans for her. In the Heavenstone house, big sister knows best.
…and there’s no escape.
When tragedy strikes like a lightning bolt from heaven, Semantha’s life becomes a living hell. Under Cassie’s constant, watchful eye, she feels like a prisoner—a helpless pawn in her sister’s cruel game. When Cassie begins wearing their mother’s clothes and vying for their father’s affections, Semantha realizes she must bring their twisted sibling rivalry to an end… before a new generation is born.
Fantastic Texas by Lou Antonelli, introduction by Howard Waldrop
Fantastic, $13.99, 156pp, tp, 9781604599114. Speculative fiction collection.
From ancient nuclear wars, to the secret of sexual attraction, with stops along the way for Bigfoot, ancient demons, and the truth behind alchemy, the stories in this book will take you on a truly fantastic journey through versions of Texas that were, could never be, and might have been.
Steam played a big part in the first rocket launch from Texas, which was about a century earlier than we thought (“A Rocket for the Republic”). An unexpected experiment still running in the abandoned Superconducting Supercollider will introduce you to “The Witch of Waxahachie”. And where would you go if global warming forced you out of Dallas? Maybe “Rome, If You Want To”? After that, ask yourself if a flying saucer is worth a silver dollar (“The Silver Dollar Saucer”).
The possibilities are limitless in Lou Antonelli’s new collection, Fantastic Texas. Born in Massachusetts, Antonelli is a newspaper editor and up-and-coming author of speculative fiction.
[Contents: Introduction by Howard Waldrop; Greetings from Deepest, Darkest East Texas; “A Rocket for the Republic”; “The Witch of Waxahachie”; “The Cast Iron Dybbuk”; “Avatar”; “Silence is Golden”; “The Rocket-Powered Cat”; “Rome, If You Want To”; “Big Girl”; “The Silver Dollar Saucer”; “Body by Fisher”; “Video Killed the Radio Star”; and “Professor Malakoff’s Amazing Ethereal Telegraph”.]
The Sharing Knife, Volume Four: Horizon by Lois McMaster Bujold
Eos, $7.99, 435pp, pb, 9780061375378. Fantasy.
The concluding volume in the epic fantasy saga from multiple Hugo Award-winning author Lois McMaster Bujold.
A Lakewalker entrusted with protecting the populace from malices—terrifying remnants of ancient magic—Dag Redwing Hickory never expected to fall in love with Fawn Bluefield, the farmer girl he rescued. When they joined in marriage, defying their kin, they bridged the perilous split between their peoples. Now Dag’s extraordinary maker abilities have grown—along with his fears about who and what he is becoming, and his frustration with the disdain in which Lakewalker soldier-sorcerers are expected to hold their farmer neighbors.
Fawn and Dag’s world is changing, and the traditional Lakewalker practices cannot continue to hold every malice at bay. At the end of their long journey home, the pair must at last answer the question they’ve grappled with for so long: When the old traditions fail disastrously, can their untried new ways stand against their world’s deadliest foe?
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: The Killing Jar by Donn Cortez
Pocket, $7.99, 346pp, pb, 9781439153703. Media tie-in.
Meet the little known and even less understood heroes of police work in Las Vegas—the forensic investigators. Led by the remarkable team assigned to the Criminalistics Bureau’s graveyard shift—including Catherine Willows, Nick Stokes, and Greg Sanders—these investigators must combine cutting-edge scientific methods and old-fashioned savvy as they work to untangle the evidence behind the yellow police tape.
A teenager is found dead in his motel room, the cause of death: millipede poison… Now crime scene investigator Gil Grissom must aid CSI’s Nick Stokes and Riley Adams against a serial killer whose knowledge of entomology rivals his own—a brutal murderer who is not only using insects as the tools of destruction, but actually modeling the attacks after their behavior… In the meantime, CSI’s Catherine Willows and Greg Sanders must investigate a bizarre death, where the victim had gotten mixed up with two very different groups of people—one involved in using and dealing crystal meth, the other an avant-garde group of artists—a collision of subcultures where everyone is a suspect and nothing is as it seems.…
Wilderness by Dennis Danvers
Eos, $7.99, 376pp, pb, 9780380806461. Fantasy.
Alice White has a secret. There is no friend or family member she can confide in—and she cannot trust it to the strangers she chooses for the fevered one-night stands that are as close as she dares come to love. Then she meets Erik Summers, college professor and biologist, who draws Alice from her cage, igniting a passion within her that she can’t control or deny. Though he shares her fire and a deep spiritual and emotional kinship, Erik recoils from Alice’s apparent delusions and dark truths. But in the vast Canadian wilderness, he will be forced to confront a staggering reality—when the moon shines down on Alice White… and the change begins again.
Tails of Wonder and Imagination edited by Ellen Datlow
Night Shade, $15.95, 463pp, tp, 9781597801706. Speculative fiction anthology.
Felines, thought to be domesticated by happenstance rather than intent, have always been considered a mysterious animal. Canines are pretty up front about their feelings—they’re considered to be loyal, obedient, and cheerful. Dogs, the oldest domesticated animal, have anthropomorphized themselves—become more like people. Cats have done very little of that. They are still strangers in the house. The cat does what it wants and goes its own way, which conjures up the darker images of willfulness, self-interest, and mystery.
What is it about cats? Why do they lend themselves to fiction so easily? There is no other animal about which writers from all genres seem to be obsessed.
Tails of Wonder and Imagination, edited by legendary anthologist Ellen Datlow, contains more than 200,000 words of cats, kitties, Manticores, Sphinxes, Pumas, Jaguars, Saber Tooth Tigers and other feline beasties.
Herein you will find stories in which cats are the heroes and some in which they’re the villains. There are domestic cats, tigers, lions, mythical part-cat beings, people transformed into cats, and cats transformed into people. There’s science fiction, fantasy, mystery, horror, and even one mainstream cat story. And yes, a few cute cats.
[Contributors: Lewis Carroll, A.R. Morlan, Neil Gaiman, Charles de Lint, Michael Marshall Smith, Ray Vukcevich, Jeffrey Ford, Kelly Link, Michaela Roessner, George R.R. Martin, Michael Bishop, Peter S. Beagle, Lucius Shepard, Tanith Lee, Mary A. Turzillo, Lawrence Block, Joyce Carol Oates, Jack Ketchum, Reggie Oliver, Nancy Etchemendy, Carole Nelson Douglas, Elizabeth Hand, Stephen King, John Kessel, Graham Joyce, Nicholas Royle, Edward Bryant, John Crowley, Catherynne M. Valente, Nancy Springer, David Sandner, Carol Emshwiller, Sharyn McCrumb, Kaaron Warren, Lucy Sussex, Christine Lucas, Daniel Wynn Barber, Susanna Clarke, Dennis Danvers, and Theodora Goss.]
Geosynchron by David Louis Edelman
(Volume 3 of the Jump 225 trilogy), Pyr, $16.00, 508pp, tp, 9781591027928. Science fiction.
The last book of the Jump 225 trilogy, Geosynchron brings this business science fiction saga to a stunning conclusion.
The Defense and Wellness Council is enmeshed in full-scale civil war between Len Borda and the mysterious Magan Kai Lee. Quell has escaped from prison and is stirring up rebellion in the Islands with the aid of a brash young leader named Josiah. Jara and the apprentices of the Surina/Natch MultiReal Fiefcorp still find themselves fighting off legal attacks from their competitors and from Margaret Surina’s unscrupulous heirs—even though MultiReal has completely vanished.
The quest for the truth will lead to the edges of civilization, from the tumultuous society of the Pacific Islands to the lawless orbital colony of 49th Heaven; and through the deeps of time, from the hidden agenda of the Surina family to the real truth behind the Autonomous Revolt that devastated humanity hundreds of years ago.
Meanwhile, Natch has awakened in a windowless prison with nothing but a haze of memory to clue him in as to how he got there. He’s still receiving strange hallucinatory messages from Margaret Surina and the nature of reality is buckling all around him. When the smoke clears, Natch must make the ultimate decision—whether to save a world that has scorned and discarded him, or to save the only person he has ever loved: himself.
Incandescence by Greg Egan
Night Shade, $14.95, 264pp, tp, 9781597801294. Science fiction.
The Amalgam spans nearly the entire galaxy, and is composed of innumerable beings from a wide variety of races, some human or near it, some entirely other. The one place that they cannot go is the bulge, the bright, hot center of the galaxy. There dwell the Aloof, who for millions of years have deflected any and all attempts to communicate with or visit them. So when Rakesh is offered an opportunity to travel within their sphere, in search of a lost race, he cannot turn it down.
Roi is a member of that lost race, which is not only lost to the Amalgam, but lost to itself. In their world, there is but toil, and history and science are luxuries that they can ill afford. When she meets Zak, the male who will become her teacher and mentor, everything starts to change. Their strange world is under threat, and it will take an unprecedented flowering of science to save it.
Rakesh’s journey will take him across millennia and light years. Roi’s will take her across vistas of learning and discovery just as vast. Greg Egan’s blend of dazzling speculation and gripping storytelling will leave you stunned by the depth of his intellectual rigor and the wondrous world of the deep future that he has created.
At the Gates of Darkness by Raymond E. Feist
(book two of the Demonwar sage), Eos, $26.99, 320pp, hc, 9780061468377. Fantasy. On-sale date: 6 April 2010.
The renowned New York Times bestselling fantasist returns with the second entry in the Demonwar Saga series, set in his wildly popular Midkemia.
Ten years after the terrible Darkwar finally ended, catastrophe once again threatens to engulf Midkemia and Kelewan, for the Demon King and his Dread Legion are determined to conquer this world of magic and wonder. To avert disaster, the magician Pug, Midkemia’s brave defender, and its clandestine protectors, the Conclave of Shadows, attempted the impossible, uniting enemies and bitter lovers. But danger looms greater than ever before.
Jim Dasher, agent of the Conclave of Shadows, discovers bloody evidence of a horrific sacrifice in a hidden desert fortress. This monstrous rite is only the beginning of a summoning of an ancient evil, as the powerful Demon King continues his quest to infiltrate the realm of Midkemia. Barely escaping with his life, Jim alerts the great magician Pug and the rest of the Conclave to the coming onslaught. Still in mourning following the loss of his wife and son to the demon legion, Pug must put aside personal pain as he leads the Conclave and their allies—two renegade Star Elves and an untested young Knight-Adamandt—against this latest threat to their world.
Term Limits by Vince Flynn
Pocket, $9.99, 610pp, pb, 9781439148105. Thriller.
In one bloody night, three of Washington’s most powerful politicians are executed with surgical precision. Their assassins then deliver a shocking ultimatum to the American government: set aside partisan politics and restore power to the people. No one, they warn, is out of their reach—not even the president. A joint FBI-CIA task force reveals the killers are elite military commandos, but no one knows exactly who they are or when they will strike next. Only Michael O’Rourke, a former U.S. Marine and freshman congressman, holds a clue to the violence: a haunting incident in his own past with explosive implications for his country’s future.…
Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman
Harper, $7.99, 363pp, pb, 9780060515232. Fiction collection.
The second collection of short fiction from Neil Gaiman, New York Times bestselling author of Anansi Boys, The Graveyard Book, Coraline, and many, many more.
The distinctive storytelling genius of Neil Gaiman has been acclaimed by writers as diverse as Norman Mailer and Stephen King. Fragile Things, his second collection of short fiction, contains thirty previously published pieces of short fiction—stories, verse, and an American Gods novella—plus one new piece (“How to Talk to Girls at Parties”, which was nominated for a Hugo Award and won the Locus Award) written especially for this volume. Guaranteed to dazzle your senses, haunt your imagination, and move you to the depths of your soul, Fragile Things is a gift of wonder and delight from one of the most unique literary artists of our day.
[Contains: Introduction; “A Study in Emerald”; “The Fairy Reel”; “October in the Chair”; “The Hidden Chamber”; “Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire”; “The Flints of Memory Lane”; “Closing Time”; “Going Wodwo”; “Bitter Grounds”; “Other People”; “Keepsakes and Treasures”; “Good Boys Deserve Favors”; “The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch”; “Strange Little Girls”; “Harlequin Valentine”; “Locks”; “The Problem of Susan”; “Instructions”; How Do You Think It Feels?”; “My Life”; “Fifteen Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot”; “Feeders and Eaters”; “Diseasemaker’s Croup”; “In the End”; “Goliath”; “Pages from a Journal Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Louisville, Kentucky”; “How to Talk to Girls at Parties”; “The Day the Saucers Came”; “Sunbird”; “Inventing Aladdin”; and “The Monarch of the Glen”.]
Freefall by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams
(book 3 in the Tunnels series), Chicken House/Scholastic, $18.99, 608pp, hc, 9780545138772. Children’s fantasy.
Scholastic is proud to publish Freefall, the newest saga in to the “underground” phenomenon and international bestselling novels Tunnel and Deeper, by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams. Movie rights for Tunnels have been acquired by Relativity Media and the book has been licensed for forty foreign editions to date.
Deeper ended with Will and Chester head over heels in “freefall”—tumbling through the subterranean Pore with the evil Rebecca twins in hot pursuit, both toting phials of the lethal Dominion virus. When, where, will they ever land? The boys find themselves in a realm of near-zero gravity, on a spongy fungus concealing artifacts from some prehistoric Eden at the center of the earth. They may be on the edge of an underground heaven—but with the Styx dead-set on enslaving Topsoilers, all heck’s breaking loose up above.
Horns by Joe Hill
William Morrow, $25.99, 370pp, hc, 9780061147951. Horror.
Ignatius Martin Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke the next morning with a headache, put his hands to his temples, and felt something unfamiliar, a pair of knobby pointed protuberances. He was so ill—wet-eyed and weak—he didn’t think anything of it at first, was too hung-over for thinking or worry.
But when he was swaying above the toilet, he glanced at himself in the mirror over the sink and saw he had grown horns while he slept. He lurched in surprise, and for the second time in twelve hours he pissed on his feet.
So begins a twisted, terrifying new novel of psychological, supernatural suspense called Horns, from Joe Hill, the bestselling author of Heart-Shaped Box.
The second son of a renowned musician and doting mother, and the younger brother of a late-night TV star, Ig Perrish had a privileged life and expectations of a bright future with his childhood sweetheart, Merrin Williams. But his seemingly perfect life takes an unexpected and horribly dark turn when Merrin is brutally murdered and suspicion falls hard on Ig.
A year passes, but Ig is nowhere near over his grief or his rage—feelings that come to a head in a lost evening of drinking and hate. When he awakes the next morning he discovers that he has undergone a surreal transformation, and is in possession of an incredible power. Everyone he encounters has the uncontrollable urge to tell him things about their innermost desires and intentions, and whenever Ig touches someone, he instantly knows their darkest secrets. It isn’t long before he turns his terrible new abilities toward vengeance. Unfortunately Ig is about to learn that when it comes to revenge, the devil is in the details…
Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb
(Volume One of The Rain Wilds Chronicles), Eos, $26.99, 474pp, hc, 9780061561627. Fantasy.
Dragon Keeper, Book One of the Rain Wilds Chronicles by New York Times bestselling author Robin Hobb, opens with a riveting account of a tangle of sea serpents migrating up a river toxic with acidity. Their goal: to find a protected riverbank where they can cocoon and transform into full-fledged dragons. Yet, when the few creatures who survive the harrowing journey eventually hatch, all are malformed or stunted in some manner.
As they mature, the dragons wreak such havoc on the shoreline and the economy of the nearby communities of Cassarick and Bingtown that they are sent upriver. Their destination: Kelsingra, the ancient, long-lost city of dragons.
The dragons, neither strong nor healthy enough to travel unaided, are accompanied by human misfits of the Rain Wilds community, who are recruited to serve as “dragon keepers.” Among them are Thymara, a young woman of sixteen, and Alise Kincarron Finbok, a self-educated dragon expert and bitterly unhappy wife of a Bingtown Trader. Shepherding the disparate group is a charismatic riverboat captain who captivates Alise, earns the grudging regard of the dragons and navigates the dangerous Rain Wilds River.
The Devil’s Punchbowl by Greg Iles
Pocket, $9.99, 710pp, pb, 9781416524557. Fiction.
A new day has dawned… but the darkest evils live forever in the murky depths of a Southern town.
Penn Cage was elected mayor of Natchez, Mississippi—the hometown he returned to after the death of his wife—on a tide of support for change. Two years into his term, casino gambling has proved a sure bet for bringing new jobs and fresh money to this fading jewel of the Old South. But deep inside the Magnolia Queen, a fantastical repurposed steamboat, a depraved hidden world draws high-stakes players with money to burn on their unquenchable taste for blood sport and the dark vices that go with it. When an old high school friend hands him blood-chilling evidence, Penn alone must beat the odds tracking a sophisticated killer who counters his every move, placing those nearest to him—including his young daughter, his renowned physician father, and a lover from the past—in grave danger, and all at the risk of jeopardizing forever the town he loves.
Cruel Intent by J.A. Jance
Pocket, $7.99, 375pp, pb, 9781416566359. Suspense.
A cold-blooded murderer lures former newscaster Ali Reynolds into a chilling web of online romance—and doom—in this exciting thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Hand of Evil.
Ex-television journalist Ali Reynolds just wants a break from excitement to remodel her new home. But when the savagely murdered body of stay-at-home mom Morgan Forester is found, Ali’s contractor Bryan is the prime suspect. Bryan swears he has nothing to do with his wife’s murder—but as the investigation progresses, Ali seems to be the only person who believes him. Determined to prove Bryan’s innocence, she logs onto singleheart.com, a dating site for “married singles,” and unknowingly lands herself directly in the path of a calculating killer. With her “trademark breathless pace” (Publishers Weekly), New York Times bestselling author J.A. Jance ramps up the suspense as Ali races to decode the actions of a vengeful computer hacker… before he uses his wicked website to find her.
Pallid Light: The Waking Dead by William Jones
Elder Signs, $14.95, 304pp, tp, 9781934501115. SF/Horror.
The world ends with the flip on a switch.
Thundering storms strike across the world, searing the earth, leaving destruction in their wake. Few will survive.
For the folks living in Temperance, Illinois, the nightmare is just beginning. When the sky roils in luminous colors, the people of the small town begin to die, and Randall Clay decides to escape. What he didn’t expect was the dead to come back to life—or the nightmare that came after that.
The Anthology of Dark Wisdom: The Best of Dark Fiction edited by William Jones
Elder Signs, $14.95, 336pp, tp, 9781934501146. SF/Horror/Fantasy anthology.
Featuring horrifying and fantastical tales from the eponymous magazine, previously unpublished works, and award-winning short stories, this anthology of macabre fiction explores the unseen folds of urban life, other places, and other times. From the monstrous to the psychological, these tales fearlessly venture into the hidden world of the supernatural, where strange creatures stalk the night and eldritch investigators search for the unknown.
 [Contributors: Tom Piccirilli, Tim Curran, C.J. Henderson, John Pelan & Paul Melniczek, Wendy Leeds, Sherry Decker, John Shirley, Neddal Ayad, Rachel Gray, Alan Dean Foster, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Peter Straub, Patricia Lee Macomber & David Niall Wilson, Christopher T. Leland, Richard A. Lupoff, Christopher Welch, Gene O’Neill, Bruce Boston & Lee Ballentine, Deanna Hoak, Christian Klaver, Lee Clarke Zumpe, Gerard Houarner, Sam W. Anderson, Richard Wright, and James Argendeli.]
Kazan on Directing by Elia Kazan (foreword by John Lahr; preface by Martin Scorsese)
Vintage, $17.95, 368pp, tp, 9780307277046. Performing Arts/Directing.
This remarkable book, edited by Robert Cornfield and drawn from Kazan’s notebooks, letters, interviews, and autobiography, reveals Kazan’s method: how he uncovered the “spine,” or core, of each script; how he analyzed each piece in terms of his own experience; and how he determined the specifics of his production. Kazan offers real insight into his revolutionary use of naturalistic acting, poetic staging, dynamic action, use of location, and rigorous naturalism. And in the final section, “The Pleasures of Directing”—written during Kazan’s final years—he becomes a wise old pro offering advice and insight for budding artists, writers, actors, and directors. Kazan’s list of Broadway and Hollywood successes—A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, On the Waterfront, to name a few—is a testament to his profound impact on the art of directing.
Copper by Kazu Kibuishi
Graphix/Scholastic, $16.99, 96pp, tp, 9780545098939. Graphic novel.
From the creator of the New York Times bestselling graphic novel Amulet, Kazu Kibuishi’s popular webcomic Copper now has been collected into a graphic novel featuring all new Copper comics and stories.
Copper is curious, Fred is fretful. And together boy and dog are off on a series of adventures, soaring through marvelous worlds, powered by Copper’s limitless enthusiasm and imagination. Sailing, surfing, shrimp racing… (shrimp racing?)—the two have a knack for getting into all sorts of odd situations. Copper’s good cheer always smooths the way—and Fred can usually be won over if there’s food involved.
This definitive collection of the popular webcomic also includes a special section on the making of Copper.
The Best of All Flesh: Zombie Anthology edited by James Lowder
Elder Signs, $14.95, 280pp, tp, 9781934501160. Horror/humor anthology.
The dead have risen. No place, no time, is safe. God help the living!
The Best of All Flesh gathers the most startling and innovative stories from the award-winning Books of Flesh anthologies into a single volume. Collected here are tales of zombie horror and humor, chronicling the walking dead from the bloody battlefields of the Civil War to the far-flung last days of life on Earth.
[Contributors: Rebecca Brock, Warren Brown & Lana Brown, Tobias S. Buckell, Jesse Bullington, Myke Cole, Kris Dikeman, Scott Edelman, Charles Coleman Finlay, Ed Greenwood, Jim C. Hines, Barry Hollander, Michael Jasper, Michael Laimo, Claude Lalumiere, Robin D. Laws, Mark McLaughlin, Christine Morgan, Scott Nicholson, Tim Piccirilli, Lucien Soulban, Shane Stewart, and Jeremy Zoss.]
The Clone Codes by Patricia C. McKissack, Frederick L. McKissack, and John McKissack
Scholastic, $16.99, 174pp, hc, 9780439929837. YA science fiction.
Acclaimed authors Patricia C. McKissack and Frederick L. McKissack have collaborated with their son, John, to deliver a powerful science fiction adventure trilogy that blends a futuristic society with pivotal moments in world history.
In the novel, the Cyborg Wars are over and Earth has peacefully prospered for more than one hundred years. Yet sometimes history must repeat itself until humanity learns from its mistakes. In the year 2170, despite technological and political advances, cyborgs and clones are treated no better than slaves, and an underground abolitionist movement is fighting for freedom. Thirteen-year-old Leanna’s entire life is thrown into chaos when The World Federation of Nations discovers her mom is part of the radical Liberty Bell Movement.
Show No Fear by Perri O’Shaughnessy
(a Nina Reilly novel), Pocket, $7.99, 438pp, pb, 9781416548676. Thriller.
Working as a paralegal and attending law school at night, Nina has her hands full. She’s fighting for custody of her young son Bob and overseeing a medical malpractice lawsuit on behalf of her mother, Virginia Reilly, whose health is rapidly declining after she suffered complications from an acupuncture procedure. Nina knows the emotional toll a lawsuit can take, but Ginny is determined to sue her doctor—she wants to leave some money for Nina and her troubled brother Matt, when she dies. But Nina’s personal stresses are ramped up when a local tragedy plunges Nina into a hunt for a killer—a killer only she believes exists.
When a woman falls to her death off a bridge near Big Sur, Nina suspects there is more to the accident than the authorities are saying. Embarking on her solitary quest for the truth and stirring up trouble along the way, Nina catches the killer’s attention—and the only official help Nina gets is from homicide cop Paul van Wagoner. Now, moving dangerously close to the shattering truth, Nina finds the missing link in the shadowy case only when she recognizes a crucial, overlooked fact: sometimes people bury their secret desires, even from those who love them the most.
Show No Fear illumines what makes the brilliant Nina Reilly tick—and, in this fascinating prequel to an illustrious career, begins a love affair for her fans and readers of complex, gripping thrillers everywhere.
The Maze of the Enchanter: Volume 4 of the Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith by Clark Ashton Smith (edited by Scott Connors and Ron Hilger)
Night Shade, $39.95, 300pp, hc, 9781597800310. Fantasy collection.
The Maze of the Enchanter is the fourth volume of the five volume Collected Fantasies series. Editors Scott Connors and Ron Hilger have compared original manuscripts, various typescripts, published editions, and Smith’s notes and letters, in order to prepare a definitive set of texts.
This series presents Smith’s fiction chronologically, based on composition rather than publication. The editorial decision to present these finely crafted tales chronologically, as opposed to thematically, was made in order to present Smith’s fiction as part of a continuum—Smith’s style evolved as he grew older, and gained access to the commercial markets. The ebb and flow of his prose over the course of his lifetime can be charted via the five volumes of this series.
The Maze of the Enchanter includes, in chronological order, all of his stories from “The Mandrakes” (February 1933) to “The Flower-Women” (May 1935). This volume also features an introduction by Gahan Wilson, and extensive notes on each story.
[Contents: Introduction by Gahan Wilson; “The Mandrakes”; “The Best of Averoigne”; “A Star-Change”; “The Disinterment of Venus”; “The White Sybil”; “The Ice-Demon”; “The Isle of the Torturers”; “The Dimension of Chance”; “The Dweller in the Gulf”; “The Maze of the Enchanter”; “The Third Episode of Vathek: The Story of the Princess Zulkaïs and the Prince Kalilah”; “Genius Loci”; “The Secret of the Cairn”; “The Charnel God”; “The Dark Eidolon”; “The Voyage of King Euvoran”; “Vulthoom”; “The Weaver in the Vaults”; “The Flower-Women”; Story Notes; Alternate Conclusion to “The White Sybil”; “The Muse of Hyperborea”; Added Material for “The Dweller in the Martian Depths”; and Bibliography.]
Embrace the Night Eternal by Joss Ware
(book two of The Envy Chronicles), Avon, $7.99, 370pp, pb, 9780061734021. Paranormal romance.
This is the second novel in Joss Ware’s The Envy Chronicles, a post-apocalyptic romantic adventure, with a paranormal twist.
Readers were introduced to Sage Corrigan and Simon Japp as secondary characters in The Envy Chronicle‘s debut, Beyond the Night. Now Sage and Simon are taking the spotlight in a fast paced, passionate escapade of their own.
After living a life of violence, Simon Japp would have given anything to start over again. When he emerges from the Sedona cave to find that not only has the world miraculously given him the chance for rebirth, but that he’s acquired a special power, he is determined to make a difference… and to refrain from slipping back into his old ways.
Sage Corrigan is a quiet, intelligent computer analyst working to help stop the Strangers, and although Simon is immediately attracted to her, he would never dare to make a move—not only is ethereal beauty too pure and innocent for someone with so much blood on his hands, but she’s already been “claimed” by another of his friends.
But when Simon and Sage are sent on a mission and have to pretend to be man and wife, Simon finds his new-found morality tested… and when a blast from his past shows up, he’s going to have to choose between Sage’s safety and the life he tried to leave behind.