This page is updated as books are received throughout the month.
Werewolf Smackdown by Mario Acevedo
Eos, $14.99, 406pp, tp, 9780061567186. Fantasy.
Werewolf Smackdown is a tightly crafted urban fantasy by Mario Acevedo featuring Felix Gomez, a Latino vampire detective extraordinaire, who tackles a dangerous werewolf civil war. This is the fifth of Mario Acevedo’s popular, satirical series and is the only series to date that features a Latino vampire as the hero.
Werewolf Smackdown puts undead PI Felix Gomez right in the middle of a supernatural battle for power, one that will wake the ghosts of Charleston and could destroy both human and undead if he’s not careful. A civil war is brewing between rival werewolf factions and Gomez, the private investigator, will do anything he can to ensure this conflict doesn’t turn into an all out battle that will make the supernatural underworld explode. But between that, the sudden reappearance of an ex-girlfriend, and several other vampires trying to take off his head, this is one rumble even a vampire detective may not be able to handle.
Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Backlash by Aaron Allston
Del Rey/LucasBooks, $27.00, 352pp, hc, 9780345509086. Science fiction.
Locked in a war of wills and weapons, the Jedi Order and the Galactic Alliance must come to terms—before the Sith’s army of darkness enacts revenge.
Repercussions from the dark side’s fatal seduction of Jacen Solo and the mysterious plague of madness afflicting young Jedi continue to wreak havoc galaxy-wide in Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Backlash. Having narrowly escaped the deranged Force worshippers known as the Mind Walkers and a deadly Sith hit squad, Luke and Ben Skywalker are in pursuit of the now Masterless Sith apprentice. It is a chase that leads to the forbidding planet Dothomir, where an enclave of powerful dark side Force-wielders will give Vestara the edge she needs to escape—and where the Skywalkers will be forced into combat for their quarry and their lives.
Meanwhile, Han and Leia have completed their own desperate mission, shuttling madness-stricken Jedi from Coruscant to safe haven in the Transitory Mists and beyond the grasp of Galactic Alliance Chief of State Natasi Daala. But the bold maneuver has intensified Daala’s fury, and she is determined to shatter Jedi Order resistance once and for all.
Yet no greater threat exists than that which still waits in the depths of the distant Maw Cluster: A being of pure, ravenous dark-side energy named Abeloth calls out across the stars to Jedi and Sith alike. For some it may be the ultimate source of answers crucial to their survival. For others it could be the ultimate weapon of conquest. But for all, it is a game-changing—and life-altering—encounter of untold magnitude and a tactical gambit with unimaginable consequences.
Captain Flandry: Defender of the Terran Empire by Poul Anderson (compiled by Hank Davis)
Baen, $13.00, 405pp, tp, 9781439133330. Science fiction.
The Terran Empire is failing? Not on Flandry’s watch.
No longer a brash, young ensign, Captain Dominic Flandry has risen in rank, and now appreciates fully that the Terran Empire is old and tried, wanting to be left in peace. But the enemies it has made and the competing empire of Merseia will give it no peace. Too evenly matched for open warfare not to destroy them both, the opponents engage in subtle thrust and counter-thrust, feint and counter-feint, with Flandry in the thick of it.
Through this and his succeeding adventures he will struggle gloriously and snatch victory from the alien jaws of defeat, yet Flandry is a tragic figure: a man who knows too much history, who knows that battle, scheme and even betray as he will, in the end it will mean nothing. For with the relentlessness of physical law the Empire is falling and the Long Night is approaching. If that darkness is not to fall in his own lifetime, if the things he cares about are to be saved, he must do what he can. And anyone, human or alien, who gets in his way will most definitely regret it.
This is the fifth volume in the first complete edition of Poul Anderson’s Technic Civilization saga.
David Falkayn: Star Trader by Poul Anderson (compiled by Hank Davis)
Baen, $7.99, 692pp, pb, 9781439133446. Science fiction.
Interstellar Troubleshooters
The Polesotechnic League of star traders was prospering, and Nicholas Van Rijn, its most flamboyant member, was prospering most of all. But not all League members played fair when trading, nor did some of the non-human races of the galaxy object to dirty tricks. And Van Rijn could not be everywhere at once to flummox his competitors and adversaries. Fortunately, he could rely on his crack team of star traders.
David Falkayn: Team leader and younger son of a baronial house on the planet Haermes, he commands the starship Muddlin’ Through.
Chee Lan: Covered with silky white fur on the outside, and with a short-fused temper on the inside.
Adzel: Looking like a centaurian dragon, he’s as imperturbable as Chee Lan is high-strung, and abhors violence, though he has no problem defending himself, or his comrades.
Muddlehead: The computer who handles most of the operations of the ship, and often shows initiative at the most unexpected times. Now if only it didn’t sound so smug when it wins at poker.…
The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov
Tor, $24.99, 256pp, hc, 9780765319180. Science fiction.
Tor Books is proud to present this new edition of what is widely regarded as Asimov’s single best SF novel, End of Eternity.
This standalone novel is set in the far future where universal elites live in Eternity, a location outside of space and time. One of these elites is Andrew Harlan, whose job is to create carefully controlled and enacted Reality Changes. This universal editing process entails making slight, calculated shifts in the course of history for the benefit of humankind. These changes, though enacted with the interest of humanity in mind, do come with a price, however.
Harlan upsets the order of things when, while on an assignment, he meets and falls in love with Noys Lambent, a woman who lives in real time and space. Discovering that she will cease to exist after the next change, he decides to take the ultimate risk and attempt to sneak her in to Eternity. But when the renegades are caught, Harlan is faced with the ultimate sacrifice: kill the woman he loves before the paradox they’ve created destroys Eternity.
Richly crafted by one of the most brilliant minds of golden age SF, End of Eternity is a classic and this beautiful new edition belongs in any serious SF fan’s permanent collection.
Directive 51 by John Barnes
Ace, $25.95, 496pp, hc, 9780441018222. Science fiction.
Directive 51 is the first book in a new and fascinating post-apocalyptic trilogy by multiple Hugo and Nebula award nominee John Barnes. Barnes, who has access to insider information on the U.S. Government, creates a series that is frighteningly realistic and plausible.
Heather O’Grainne was a cop before she was recruited by the U.S. Government. Now she’s Assistant Secretary for Future Threat Assessment. Heather was brought up on the tough streets of Los Angeles and she’s ready for anything. When the department hears rumors of “Daybreak,” a group of American citizens looking to destroy civilization, Heather sets out to see what it’s all about. But when the plane supposed to be carrying the Vice President suddenly vanishes, other clues link to a conspiracy bigger than anyone had imagined. Will Heather be able to get to the bottom of it all and if so, will she be able to prevent world destruction?
America is at the dawn of a new primitive age—an age that will eliminate the country’s top government personnel, leaving the nation no choice but to implement its emergency contingency program: Directive 51.
Shalador’s Lady by Anne Bishop
(a Black Jewels novel), Roc, $24.95, 476pp, hc, 9780451463159. Fantasy.
Shalador’s Lady is the next installment set in Anne Bishop’s violently passionate, darkly erotic wrold of The Black Jewels Novels. Bishop’s previous Black Jewels novels published by Roc, The Shadow Queen and Tangled Webs, hit the New York Times extended bestseller list and Shalador’s Lady is sure to capture the hearts of readers once again.
Dena Nehele is a land decimated by its past and the corrupt queens and witches who once ruled it. The witch ruled with brutal control but were then wiped out by a psychic storm that cleansed the land of tainted Blood. In desperation, Theran Grayhaven, the last of his line, turned to the Shadow Realm and asked its rulers to send a Queen who follows the Old Ways of the Blood—one who can restore the land. Lady Cassidy is not the Queen Theran had in mind. She is not beautiful and has no condfidence in her strength. But she is the Queen Dena Nehele needs, and Theran’s cousin Gray realizes that, even if Theran himself cannot see it. When a Queen from Cassidy’s past arrives, one who has designs on the territory of Dena Nehele, Cassidy must find the strength to stand against her, or the land may never be restored.
Brains: A Zombie Memoir by Robin Becker
Eos, $13.99, 192pp, 9780061974052. Horror. On-sale date: June 2010.
After the zombie apocalypse, can zombies and humans live together in peace and harmony? College professor-cum-zombie Jack Barnes is determined to try in this wonderfully stylish and humorous debut novel.
Contrary to popular belief, not all zombies are created alike. Some of us like to have our brains and eat them too (not our own, of course!). My name is Jack Barnes, and, yes, I am a zombie. But I am not one of those garden-variety vacant-eyed undead idiots. After the zombie outbreak, by some miracle, I have retained my sentience. (Sorry for the big word; in my former incarnation, I was a professor of Contemporary American Literature.) I can even write. And I have a Dream—I want to bring peace between zombies and humans.
But I need the help of our creator, Howard Stein, the man responsible for the zombie virus. I’ve set off on a grueling cross-country journey to plead my case. Along the way I’ve met more like me, rotting brain-eaters who still possess some sort of cognitive ability. We’ve banded into a small army who will stop at nothing—well, maybe a few quick cerebrum snacks—to reach our maker.
Let me introduce my wonderfully lively (pun intended!) crew. Meet Guts, an agile, dread-locked boy who can run like the wind. Joan, a matronly nurse adept at reattaching appendages and securing spilled innards. Annie, a young girl with a fierce quick-draw. And Ros, who can actually speak coherent sentences. Together we are making our way through an eerie new world of roving zombie hunters, empty McMansions, and clogged highwayson a quest to attain what all men, women—and, yes, zombies—yearn for, equality.
Please, sit back while I tell you my story—a gore-splattered, blood-soaked, sometimes humorous, and surprisingly touching tale that will make you a believer.
Are you reader?
The Lost Fleet: Victorious by Jack Campbell
Ace, $7.99, 352pp, pb, 9780441018697. Science fiction.
Captain John “Black Jack” Geary has come home after a century of cryogenic sleep to find the war between the Alliance and the Syndicate Worlds still raging. A legendary hero, he is promoted to fleet admiral—even though the ruling council fears he may stage a military coup.
Geary has never fought for the sake of glory. His new rank means only that he has the authority to negotiate with the Syndics, who have suffered tremendous losses and may finally be willing to end the war. With grim determination, Geary leads the fleet back out into Syndic space.
This seasoned commander knows surrender never comes easy. But even as he steels himself to confront the immediate enemy, he is all too aware that a greater alien threat lurks on the far side of Syndic-occupied space…
Alex Detail’s Revolution by Darren Campo
Jacquie Jordan, $22.95, 193pp, hc, 978098193111. Science fiction.
Alex Detail has been kidnapped.
Again.
Ten years ago, Alex was a child genius who saved the world from The Harvesters, a mysterious alien force that attempted to extinguish Earth’s sun.
A decade later, The Harvesters have returned, but Alex is no longer a prodigy and unwilling to fight another war. So someone at The House of Nations had him drugged and placed on the last remaining ARRAY warship, which is under heavy attack. Unfortunately for Alex’s mysterious kidnappers (and the world) he has lost the mega IQ that allowed him to win the last war.
Now Alex must convince the ship’s food-obsessed Captain Odessa to use his risky command program to save their ship, uncover his kidnapper’s devious plot, and survive the war long enough to make it to Pluto, where, underneath the planet’s frozen surface lies the only force in the universe that can stop The Harvesters.
Neverland by Douglas Clegg
Vanguard, $15.95, 352pp, tp, 9781593155414. Horror. On-sale date: April 2010.
Douglas Clegg, New York Times bestselling author and winner of the Bram Stoker Award, the International Horror Guild Award, and the ShockerAward, returns this April with Neverland, a southern gothic tale of family secrets and childhood games gone awry.
Advance buzz is already building about Neverland, with authors such as Bentley Little comparing it to the beloved novel To Kill a Mockingbird “as a classic modern novel that illuminates the human condition through the eyes of a child,” and New York Times bestselling author F. Paul Wilson hailing Neverland as “a powerful and thrilling tale, Douglas Clegg’s best novel yet.”
Clegg, drawing on some of the events from his own life and a long-ago visit to an island much like Gull Island, brings us the story of a family vacation gone terribly wrong, a novel about the lies adults tell and the destruction they wreak on the innocents around them.
Says Clegg of writing Neverland: “This novel, my favorite of anything I’ve written, is about absolute innocence embracing the wildness—and darkness—of the imagination. I was able to explore the destructive nature of family secrets, and how children sometimes create rituals of power as an escape from the world their parents have made.”
But imaginative games are not always innocent…and when Beau travels to the Retreat, his grandmother’s forbidding home on Gull Island off the Georgia coast line, resigned to a boring family vacation, he finds that his cousin, Sumter, has other plans.
Sumter has found a run-down shack hidden in the woods, a place “where you ain’t supposed to go,” a place forbidden to them that smells of socks, dead sea creatures—and dread; Sumter christens it Neverland.
Fascinated and terrified by Neverland but thrilled to have made a secret life for themselves in a shack full of old Playboys, smuggled beers, and forbidden words, Sumter and his cousins create a hallucinatory world of dark fantasy, a world ruled by a god of shadows, who Sumter calls “Lucy.”
But the shack is the key to a terrible secret, and the world the children create away from their parents, bound to each other by blood oaths, is anything but innocent. As tensions build at the Retreat and the adults start on their gin and tonics earlier each day, Sumter’s games begin to invoke a nightmarish presence that cannot be contained within the bounds of imagination any longer…
Featuring stunning interior illustrations by Glenn Chadbourne, illustrator of Stephen King’s Secretary of Dreams, Neverland brings to mind author greats such as Ray Bradbury, Thomas Tryon, Truman Capote, and Tennessee Williams as Clegg explores the darkness of man’s soul while giving us surprising glimpses into the complexities of the human heart…
Song of Scarabaeus by Sara Creasy
Eos, $7.99, 368pp, pb, 9780061934733. Science fiction. On-sale date: 27 April 2010.
Creasy’s captivating voice transports readers to an imaginative new world, packed with action and romance. Protagonists Edie and Finn are truly a force to be reckoned with. New York Times author Trudi Canavan said “the tension never lets up, both in the action and between the characters, from the first page to the last.”
Trained since childhood by the oppressive Crib government to program advanced terraforming technology called biocyph seeds, Edie is kidnapped for her valuable skills, assigned a reluctant bodyguard (a former freedom fighter named Finn) and coerced into working for mercenaries who sell biocyph to the outlawed Fringe worlds. When Edie and Finn are taken to Scarabaeus, the planet she first terraformed (and the site of her public failure and private rebellion) they must join forces to survive and win their freedom.
Heart’s Blood by Gail Dayton
Tor, $6.99, 432pp, pb, 9780765362513. Paranormal Romance.
Award-winning author Gail Dayton returns to the world of New Blood—a world of magic, clockwork, and sorcery—in her new novel Heart’s Blood.
Pearl Parkin may have been gently reared, but the death of her father has left her with nothing. Trying to scrape out a life in the slums of London, Pearl struggles to hide not only her gender, but her innate magical ability from those who would use her for talents for vile purposes. Finding Grey Carteret may be her ticket to a better life.
Master Conjurer Grey Carteret is a man determined to regain control of his life. No more drinking, no more waking up in alleys, wondering what happened the previous night—except he seems to have done it again, with no recollection at all of how on earth he ended up face down in a gutter full of garbage, with Pearl guarding him from pickpockets and murderers. When a man is found horribly murdered nearby in an attempt to raise a demon, Grey is the one accused. Now, Pearl is the only one who can help him clear his name and find the real killer. Provided he takes her on as his apprentice, of course!
On a hunt to discover the identity of the murderer and prevent him or her from raising blood-thirsty demons, Grey and Pearl find themselves drawn to one another. But can Pearl compete with the absent perfection of the recently marrie dAmanusa? And is she willing to ask everything she’s ever wanted for love?
In Heart’s Blood, Gail Dayton gives us two new characters to love. Fans of New Bloodwon’t be disappointed, and new readers will love the vivid details and rich imaginings of the world of Heart’s Blood.
Burn by Ted Dekker & Erin HealyJennifer Estep
Thomas Nelson, $24.99, 388pp, hc, 9781595544711. Fiction/Christian/Suspense.
From Ted Dekker and Erin Healy, bestselling co-authors of the acclaimed novel Kiss, comes the new supernatural thriller Burn, a suspenseful tale of the dual good and evil natures at war within us all.
In Burn, Janeal Mikkado’s world is turned upside down when powerful criminal Salazar Sanso promises her a new life if she helps him recover a vast sum of money from her father, a leader in their gypsy kumpania. When the plan goes awry and the camp is attacked and burned by Sanso’s men, Janeal finds herself faced with two choices: save her best friend who is about to be consumed by a fire or disappear with the million dollars stolen from her father. Her decision will alter the course of her life forever.
The past Janeal thought had burned away eventually rises from the ashes. The sudden reappearance of the best friend and boyfriend she left for dead, along with the malevolent Sanzo, threatens the high-powered life she has made for herself away from the gypsy camp. There’s a debt to be paid for the money she found: she must make a new life-or-death choice—but this time, escape is not an option.
Earth Strike by Ian Douglas
(Star Carrier, book one), Eos, $7.99, 357pp, pb, 9780061842058. Science fiction.
There is a milestone in the evolution of every sentient race, a Tech Singularity Event, when the species achieves transcendence through its technological advances. Now the creatures known as humans are near this momentous turning point.
But an armed threat is approaching from deepest space, determined to prevent humankind from crossing over that boundary—by total annihilation if necessary.
To the Sh’daar, the driving technologies of transcendent change are anathema and must be obliterated from the universe—along with those who would employ them. As their great warships destroy everything in their path en route to the Sol system, the human Confederation government falls into dangerous disarray. There is but one hope, and it rests with a rogue Navy Admiral, commander of the kilometer-long star carrier America, as he leads his courageous fighters deep into enemy space towards humankind’s greatest conflict—and quite possibly its last.
The Complete Hammer’s Slammers, Volume 2 by David Drake (introduction by David G. Hartwell)
Baen, $12.00, 702pp, tp, 9781439133447. Science fiction.
They Were the Best
Meet Hammer’s Slammers—the toughest bunch of mercs who ever killed for a dollar or wrecked a world for pay. If the Slammers aren’t the best, you’d better hope you never go up against the best. The odds may seem to be against them and their chances slim, but their opponents have no chance at all.
David Drake’s stories of the future tank mercenaries commanded by Colonel Hammer were a prime factor in establishing military science fiction as its own category; they set the standard for military SF to this day. Volume 2 collects four novels: At Any Price, Counting the Cost, Rolling Hot, and The Warrior. Also included are a new novelet, “The Day of Glory,” never before included in a Slammers book; an introduction by noted editor and critic David G. Hartwell; and both an introduction and an afterword by David Drake.
Spider’s Bite by Jennifer Estep
(an Elemental Assassin book), Pocket, $7.99, 395pp, pb, 9781439147979. Urban fantasy.
They call her Spider and she is the most feared assassin in the South—when she’s not cooking up the best barbecue in Ashland. Spider’s Bite is a thrilling story about a funny, smart, and sexy assassin with a mission for revenge. Her name is Gin and she is a Stone elemental, which means she can hear everything from the whispers of the gravel beneath her feet to the vibrations of the soaring Appalachian Mountains above her. Her Ice magic also comes in handy for making the occasional knife.
Now that a ruthless Air elemental has double-crossed her and killed her handler, she is out for revenge. And she will exterminate anyone who gets in the way—good or bad. She may look hot, but she is still one of the bad guys. This is why she is in trouble, since irresistible rugged Detective Donovan Caine has agreed to help her. The last thing this coldhearted killer needs when battling a magic more powerful than her own is a sexy distraction… especially when Donovan wants her dead just as the enemy.
A Magic of Nightfall by S.L. Farrell
DAW, $7.99, 640pp, pb, 9780756405991. Fantasy.
Nessantico is the captial of a vast empire and a mainstay of the Concenzia Faith. As A Magic of Nightfall opens, twenty-five years have passed since the momentous events that occurred in A Magic of Twilight. A boy king rules Nessantico, but the boy is ill and there are those who are waiting impatiently for the Sun Throne to become vacant again. The continent-spanning empire of the Holdings has broken in half, with Firenzcia and neighboring countries to the east creating a rival alliance. The Concenzia Faith has also been sundered, with Archigos Ana ca’Seranta ruling in Nessantico while another in Brezno claims the same title. In Firenzcia, Allesandra ca’ Vorl plots against the Holdings, and for the Archigos of Brezno, the acceptance of the Numetodo heretics in the Holdings makes him quake with fury. In the far west, there is war with the Tehuantin, the people of the Hellins.
In Nessantico herself, in the warrens of Oldtown, agents of the Tehuantin are watching.…
And quickly, with a roar of flame and unexpected death, great and terrible events are set in motion, and Nessantico must face a threat unlike any in its long, illustrious history: a threat that will take it to the knife-edge of destruction.…
The Crucible of Empire by Eric Flint and K.D. Wentworth
(sequel to The Course of Empire), Baen, $25.00, 448pp, hc, 9781439133385. Science fiction.
Reviewing The Course of Empire, Publishers Weekly wrote, “Can a proud and warlike people find common cause with their alien conquerors in the face of a greater danger? That’s the question that military SF ace Flint and two-time Nebula Award finalist Wentworth ask in this thought-provoking far-future novel.… The authors excel at describing how human and Jao customs clash, allowing the reader to discover along with the characters the core beliefs of each society and how these beliefs could be adjusted and harmonized with one another.… Building to an exhilarating conclusion, this book cries out for a sequel.”
The cry has been heard—and now, here’s the sequel!
Repo Men by Eric Garcia
(originally published as The Repossession Mambo), Harper, $7.99, 328pp, pb, 9780061713040. Fiction/movie tie-in.
Do you crave “the kind of brainy, darkly comedic, and gory as hell sci-fi action flicks Paul Verhoeven used to make”—in which case, you should take a look at the trailer for Repo Men, a new must-see/must-read SFF thriller, conceived/written by the brilliant Eric Garcia. (The movie stars Jude Law, Liev Schreiber and Forest Whitaker.)
FYI—Movie hits the big screen on March 19, 2010; the MTI edition of the book will be on shelves on March 9, 2010.
First things first—let’s clear up any misapprehension in advance. Author Eric Garcia will be the first to tell you that this ain’t anything like Repo! The Genetic Opera (you’re not going to find any singing Heads in Repo Men… the book or the movie.) Repo Men is “brilliant and bad ass” SFF at its “creepy best.”
The story is a real kick to the solar plexus: Set in the near future when artifical organs can be bought on credit, two veterans who have returns from war in Africa take up lives as repossession agents for a union company that makes these artificial organs. Their job is to pursue customers who are unable to make payments for the implanted organs.
But when one of the bio-repo men finds himself the recipient of one of an artifical heart, he struggles to make his own payments… and must go on the run before said ticker is repossessed.
Shadow Blade by Seressia Glass
Pocket/Juno, $7.99, 344pp, pb, 9781439156797. Fantasy.
Sometimes you choose a path in life. Sometimes it chooses you.
For Kira Solomon, normal was never an option.
Kira’s day job as an antiquities expert, but her true calling is as a Shadowchaser. Trained from youth to be one of the most lethal Chasers in existence, Kira serves the Gilead Commission dispatching the Fallen who sow discord and chaos. Of course, sometimes Gilead bureaucracy is as much a thorn in her side as anything the Fallen can muster against her. Right now, though, she’s got a bigger problem. Someone is turning the city of Atlanta upside-down in search of a four-millennia-old Egyptian dagger that just happens to have fallen into Kira’s hands.
Then there’s Khefar, the dagger’s true owner—a near-immortal 4000-year-old Nubian warrior who, Kira has to admit, looks pretty fine for his age. Joining forces is the only way to keep the weapon safe from the sinister Shadow force, but now Kira is in deep with someone who holds more secrets than she does, the one person who knows just how treacherous this fight is. Because every step closer to destroying the enemy is a step closer to losing herself to Shadow forever.…
Death Row Show by Gary Gose
Author House, $14.99, 227pp, tp, 9781449028886.
Reality television is known for blurring the line between fiction and reality, but to what lengths might a show go to for ratings? In Death Row Show, a reality television producer in futuristic Los Angeles creates a show that makes six death row inmates famous and endangers his own life.
Hollywood in the future has disintegrated to chaos. A New Order police force has been assembled to clean up the volatile streets, while local police resort to using steroids in order to intimidate criminals and silence protesters. Rudy Reicher, a seasoned reality television producer, is forced to a new career low in order to save his job. He reluctantly agrees to help create a show that casts six Death Row inmates from a manmade prison in Southern California—including a terrorist, a child molester, serial killer, football star, mob boss and homeless criminal.
The show becomes a television hit, but Rudy is sickened by the seedy underbelly of reality television. Jerry Denile, a once-famous daredevil, crashes his bike in one of Rudy’s shows and seeks revenge for his lack of compensation. Rudy also discovers Sam Adams, a homeless criminal featured in the show, has been sentenced to Death Row for a crime he didn’t commit. Reality slips into fantasy when the show becomes scripted with dark twists, and Rudy soon finds that friends, coworkers and everyone he meets has been seduced by the allure of fame.
Ghost Radio by Leopoldo Gout
Eos, $7.99, 373pp, pb, 9780061787829. Fiction.
From a haunting new voice comes Ghost Radio, a thrilling novel about a radio host whose ghost-story call-in show opens a doorway into the paranormal, giving voice to the dead and instigating an epic battle for the souls of the living. Now in mass market.
From the cramped bowels of a dimly lit Mexican radio station, Ghost Radio is beamed onto the airwaves. More than a call-in show to tell scary stories about vampires and poltergeists, Ghost Radio is a sanctuary for those sleepless denizens of the night, lost half way between this world and the next.
Joaquin, the hip, melancholy host sits deep in a fog of cigarette smoke, fielding calls from believers and detractors alike. He is joined in the booth by his darkly beautiful girlfriend, Alondra, and his engineer, Watts. Soon, what began as a cult phenomenon is primed to break out to mainstream audiences. When a huge radio conglomerate offers to syndicate their show in the US, and Ghost Radio becomes a national hit with an expanding legion of hardcore fans, neither Joqauin, Alondra, nor Watts is prepared for what is about to happen.
A former punk rocker, Joaquin has had two devastating near-death experiences—accidents of shocking and horrific proportions. He emerged the sole survivor after these events, walking away even as his parents and later, his best friend Gabriel perished. Though a charismatic host, he remains a skeptic even as he begins to notice a curious and troubling phenomenon—Joaquin feels himself drawn further and further into the terrifying stories he solicits on the radio. Slowly he loses control over his circumstances, and finds himself unable to distinguish between the real world and the world populated by the nightmares on Ghost Radio. He is not alone, and as the voices of the dead begin to drift onto the airwaves—in essence “calling in”—they produce tragic results.
Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison
(Rachel Morgan book 8), Eos, $25.99, 487pp, hc, 9780061138034. Fantasy.
“The sound of links of steel ratcheting closed around my wrists was loud, and fear hit me anew when they dragged me past my cell to another part of the prison. These people could do anything—cut me up like they had Ralph—and no one would think twice, much less care.”
For years, readers have been enthralled by watching tough, sexy bounty hunter Rachel Morgan go after vampires, werewolves, banshees and demons. Now in Black Magic Sanction, the eighth book in the bestselling Hollows series, Rachel is the one being hunted… by her own kind. If the witches snag her, it could mean a lifetime behind bars—or something much, much worse.
In Black Magic Sanction, a coven has shunned and denounced Rachel for practicing black magic and consorting with demons. Her sentence: Life in a prison where beatings are common and the food is drugged. Prisoners who try to escape are reformed the old fashioned way—with a lobotomy.
To escape this fate, she’ll have to avoid capture long enough to clear her own name. As always, her friends—especially sultry vampire Ivy and irrepressible pixie Jenks—have her back. Still, not every old acquaintance is so welcome. Her sleazy ex-boyfriend Nick has returned, insisting this time he can be trusted. Rachel isn’t buying it, but she just might find him useful anyway.
Meanwhile, solving the murder of her one great love, Kisten (chillingly revealed in White Witch, Black Curse) hasn’t left Rachel’s romantic life any less complicated. As the book begins, she’s so over her long-time crush Pierce, but he’s determined to win her back. Is she really immune to his charms?
The book’s thrilling, climactic confrontation not only stretches Rachel’s courage, strength and supernatural powers to the limits, but also tests her convictions, forcing her to weigh the moral cost of winning her own freedom.
The Green Hills of Earth and The Menace from Earth by Robert A. Heinlein (afterword by Robert Buettner)
(omnibus edition), Baen, $12.00, 445pp, tp, 9781439133415. Science fiction collection.
Two of the Grand Master’s finest
From the saga of the opening of the space frontier as courageous men and women risk their lives to build the first space station and colonize the Moon and Venus… to a mysterious region on Earth, where a more advanced life form may be studying the interesting creatures called “humans.”
From the brave explorers who probe the farthest reaches of space while praying for one last landing on the globe that gave them birth, on The Green Hills of Earth… to the first Moon colony, where a young girl’s relationship with her boyfriend is endangered by a beautiful visitor, The Menace from Earth.
Classic Heinlein in a generously large and varied compendium.
[Contents: “Futures, Histories” by William H. Patterson Jr. (foreword), “Delilah and the Space Rigger”, “Space Jockey”, “The Long Watch”, “Gentlemen, Be Seated”, “The Black Pits of Luna”, “It’s Great to be Back”, “…We Also Walk Dogs”, “Ordeal in Space”, “The Green Hills of Earth”, “Logic of Empire”, “The Year of the Jackpot”, “By His Bootstraps”, “Columbus Was a Dope”, “The Menace from Earth”, “Sky Lift”, “Goldfish Bowl”, “Project Nightmare”, “Water is for Washing”, and “Afterword” by Robert Buettner.]
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.
Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb
(volume two of The Rain Wilds Chronicles), Eos, $26.99, 528pp, hc, 9780061931413. Fantasy. On-sale date: May 2010.
Dragon Haven opens with the tangle of dragons working their way up the Rain Wilds River. They are accompanied by an attendant corps of dragon keepers, as well as a team of hunters and the crew of Liveship Tarman. All are determined to find Kelsingra, the mystical homeland of the dragons’ ancestors, now remembered only in lore. No map exists to guide their way and the dragons’ ancient communal memory of Kelsingra is of little use in a land changed by centuries of earthquakes and seismic chaos.
Many of the company, dragons and dragon-keepers alike, find themselves changing in mysterious ways, as the bonds between human and beast strengthen. But they are continually challenged in their journey by internal dissent and the hazardous landscape of the Rain Wilds around them. All are threatened by the looming prospect of starvation as supplies dwindle—and all fear for their very lives amidst flash floods and earthquakes that change the landscape around them. Yet, they soon discover that the most savage menace comes from within their party…
Bound in Blood by P.C. Hodgell
(book five in the Seeker series), Baen, $14.00, 320pp, tp, 9781439133408. Fantasy. On-sale date: July 2010.
When Jame returned to Knorth hall to help her brother Torisen name all the fallen fighters’ death banners stored there, she made the disturbing discovery that those banners splattered with their owners’ blood also have trapped their owners’ souls. She also found a contract proving her cousin Kindrie to be legitimate, proving that there are three full-blooded Knorth. Three full-blooded Knorth means that the Three-Faced God can be manifested—something that none of the three are likely to want to do, if they have any choice in the matter.
Returning with this unwelcome knowledge to school at Tentir, Jame continued to dodge the attentions of an unwanted admirer, strengthen her link to her feline hunting ounce, work with the rathorn colt Death’s-head to insure that it doesn’t resume its attempts to kill her, and, of course, kept causing plenty of unintended havoc. She also had to help fight off attacks from hillmen, repel a stampede of yarkcarn (think warthogs the size of mammoths), fight in the Winter War (a mock conflict—or, at least, that’s how it was supposed to be), and solve the mystery behind the death of her evil uncle, who somehow is still spectrally manifesting himself in nasty ways.
No doubt about it—Jame is back, and with a vengeance, as the popular and critically-praised fantasy adventure series continues.
The God Stalker Chronicles by P.C. Hodgell
(contains God Stalk and Dark of the Moon), Baen, $7.99, 915pp, pb, 9781439133361. Fantasy.
The beginning of the Kencyr Saga
God Stalk: Jame is a Kencyr, one of the people chosen by the Three-Faced God to battle the demonic being Perimal Darkling which has broken into the Chain of Creation. When Jame stumbles out of the Haunted Lands into the strange city of Tai-tastigon, she only knows that years of her life have disappeared and that everyone in her home keep is dead, except for her twin brother Torisen. Her quest for him is delayed, however, when she is apprenticed to a master thief in this city that threatens her very identity as a Kencyr.
Dark of the Moon: leaving Tai-tastigon in flames behind her, Jame, her blind catlike ounce Jorin, and the elderly Kendar warrior Marc flee across the Ebonbane in search of Jame’s long-lost twin brother Torisen. After many adventures, Jame and Marc find themselves at the Cataracts, where the Kencyr Host has massed to fight the on-coming Waster Horde. There Jame does indeed find her brother, who is now Highlord of the Kencyrath. Unfortunately, their dead father’s mad voice is telling him to kill her.
Wormfood by Jeff Jacobson
Medallion, $15.95, 224pp, tp, 9781605421018. Horror. On-sale date: July 2010.
Arch Stanton has a bad job that’s about to get a hell of a lot worse.
He’s sixteen, scrawny, and dirt poor. He has an almost supernatural ability with firearms, but it may not be enough to survive the weekend.
Welcome to Whitewood, California, an isolated small town in northern California, a place full of bad manners and even worse hygiene. Money is tight, jobs are scarce, and bitter rivalries have simmered just under the surface for years.
Fat Ernst runs the local bar and grill. He’d stomp on his own mother for a chance at easy money, and when he forces Arch to do some truly dirty work, all hell breaks loose. Fat Ernst’s customers find themselves being infected by vicious, wormlike parasites and dying in unspeakable agony. As events spiral out of control, decades of hatred boil over into three days of rapidly escalating carange. Will anyone in this town escape… before they’re eaten alive?
Prince of Storms by Kay Kenyon
(Book Four of “The Entire and The Rose”), Pyr, $26.00, 390pp, hc, 9781591027911. Fantasy.
Finally in control of the Ascendancy, Titus Quinn has styled himself Regent of the Entire. But his command is fragile. He rules an empire with a technology beyond human understanding: spies lurk in the ancient Magisterium; the Tarig overlords are hamstrung but still malevolent. Worse, his daughter Sen Ni opposes him for control, believing the Earth and its Rose universe must die to sustain the failing Entire. She is aided by one of the mystical pilots of the River Nigh, the space-time transport system. This navitar, alone among all others, can alter future events. He retires into a crystal chamber in the Nigh to weave reality and pit his enemies against each other.
Taking advantage of these chaotic times, the great foe of the Long War, the Jinda ceb Horat, create a settlement in the Entire. Masters of supreme technology, they maintain a lofty distance from the Entire’s struggle. They agree, however, that the Tarig must return to the fiery Heart of their origins. With the banishment immanent, some Tarig lords rebel, fleeing to hound the edges of Quinn’s reign.
Meanwhile, Quinn’s wife Anzi becomes a hostage and penitent among the Jinda ceb, undergoing alterations that expose their secrets, but may estrange her from her husband. As Quinn moves toward a confrontation with the dark navitar, he learns that the stakes of the conflict go far beyond the Rose versus the Entire—extending to a breathtaking dominance. The navitar commands forces that lie at the heart of the Entire’s geo-cosmology, and will use them to alter the calculus of power. As the navitar’s plan approaches consummation, Quinn, Sen Ni, and Anzi are swept up in forces that will leave them forever changed. In this rousing finale to Kenyon’s celebrated quartet, Titus Quinn meets an inevitable destiny, forced at last to make the unthinkable choice for or against the dictates of his heart, for or against the beloved land.
Caliphate by Tom Kratman
Baen, $7.99, 503pp, pb, 9781439133422. Science fiction.
Demography’s Dark Destiny
“Slavery is a part of Islam… Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long as there is Islam.” …Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan, author of the religious textbook At-Tawhid (“Monotheism”) and senior Saudi cleric.
Demography is destiny. In the 22nd century European deathbed demographics have turned the continent over to the more fertile Moslems. Atheism in Europe has been exterminated. Homosexuals are hanged, stoned or crucified. Such Christians as remain are relegated to second class citizenship and specially taxed via the Koranic yizya.
In that world, Petra, a German girl sold into prostitution as a slave at the age of nine to pay her family’s yizya, dreams of escape. Unlike most girls of the day, Petra can read. And in her only real possession, her grandmother’s diary, a diary detailing the fall of European civilization, Petra has learned of a magic place across the sea: America.
The Lotus Eaters by Tom Kratman
(sequel to A Desert Called Peace and Carnifex), Baen, $24.00, 512pp, hc, 9781439133460. Fantasy. On-sale date: April 2010.
Sometimes paranoia is just a heightened state of awareness. Carrera’s won his war, and inflicted a horrific revenge upon his enemies. But there are wars after wars. The Tauran Union is planning an attack. The criminals of neighboring states are already attacking, and threatening to embroil him in a war with the planet’s premier power. His only living son is under fire among the windswept mountains of Pashtia. An enemy fleet is hunting his submarines. His organization has been infiltrated by spies. One of the two governments of his adopted country, Balboa, is trying to destroy everything he’s built and reinstitute rule by a corrupt oligarchy. Worst of all, perhaps, he, himself, bearing a crushing burden of guilt, isn’t quite the man he once was. Fortunately, the man he once was, was lucky enough to marry the right woman.… The Lotus Eaters is the direct sequel to A Desert Called Peace and Carnifex.
Much Fall of Blood by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, and Dave Freer
Baen, $27.00, 608pp, hc, 9781439133514. Fantasy. On-sale date: May 2010.
Prince Manfred and his mentor and bodyguard, the deadly warrior Erik, survived dangers and enemies both natural and supernatural, and if they thought that their new mission was going to be anything but more of the same, they soon gave up on that hope. Returning from Jerusalem, they and their escort of knights of the Holy Trinity are escorting an envoy of II Khan Mongol to the lands of the Golden Horde-between the Black Sea and the Carpathians, which happen to be eastern bastion against their old enemies, the demon Chernobog and his possessed puppet, the Jangellion.
Unfortunately, what began as a diplomatic mission leads to Manfred and his knights being caught up in an inter-clan civil war, rescuing a fugitive woman and her injured brother, and becoming involved in the problems of Prince Vlad, Duke of Valahia, who has been held as a hostage by King Emeric og Hungary until freed by Countess Elizabeth Batholdy to use as bait to capture a group of nonhumans. Instead, the wolflike nonhumans, who masquerade as gypsies, free Prince Vlad, and help him to return to his homeland to raise revolt against Hungary and to renew age-old magics.
Manfred and Erik are forced into an alliance of convenience between the Golden Horde and the ancient magical forces of Valahia, as directed by the troubled Vlad. The magic calls for blood and Vlad is deathly afraid of it-and at the same time, is irresistibly drawn toward it…
Fledgling by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
(a Liaden Universe novel), Baen, $7.99, 522pp, pb, 9781439133439. Science fiction.
Learning to Fly
Delgado is a Safe World. That means that the population is monitored—for its own good—and behavior dangerous to society is quickly corrected. On Safe Delgado, then, Theo Waitley, daughter of Professor Kamele Waitley, latest in a long line of Waitley scholars, is “physically challenged” and on a course to being declared a Danger to Society.
It’s not Theo’s fault she’s clumsy—it didn’t matter so much when she and her mother lived out in the suburbs with her mother’s onagrata< Jen Sar Kiladi. But, suddenly, Kamele leaves Jen Sar, and moves herself and Theo into faculty housing. Now, notes are piling up in Theo's file, her mentor's mad at her, and there's a hearing scheduled about that Danger to Society judgment. Just when Theo thinks nothing can possibly get any worse, Kamele and a group of senior professors must go off-world on a matter of scholarly importance.
And Kamele is going to take Theo with her.
Saltation by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
(a Liaden Universe novel), Baen, $24.00, 336pp, hc, 9781439133453. Fantasy. On-sale date: April 2010.
Theo Waitley is a Nexus of Violence. Thrust mid-year into a school for pilots far from the safe haven of her birth home on scholarly Delgado, young Theo Waitley excels in hands-on flying while finding that she’s behind the curve in social intricacies as well as in math. Her mentors try to guide her studies and training into the channels best suited to her special abilities and inclinations, including suggesting that she should join in the off-world student association, a plan resulting in mixed success. After a series of confrontations, fights, and ultimately a riot after which she is thanked for not killing anyone, Theo is named a “nexus of violence” by the school’s administration. Facing suspension and carrying little more than a hastily procured guild card, a pistol taken from an attacker, and the contents of her pants pockets, Theo must quickly decide if she’s ready to return to Delgado in disgrace, or launch herself into the universe as a freelance pilot with credentials she’s already earned. The sequel to Fledgling, Saltation is the tenth book in the Liaden series.
InterstellarNet: Origins by Edward M. Lerner
FoxAcre, $23.00, 290pp, hc, 9780981848747. Science fiction. On-sale date: 15 April 2010.
When the First Call from the Stars Comes, Do We Even Dare to Answer?
Life changes for everyone on Earth in general—and for physicist Dean Matthews in particular—when astronomers detect a radio signal sent from a nearby star. First Contact forces humanity to face hard questions, and do it fast. Dean finds himself right in the middle of the quest for answers. What are the aliens saying? What do they want? What will humanity gain—and lose—if we send a response? Do we dare trust the aliens? Do we dare not to? And who has any say in the matter? Every answer seems to spawn a new question, and every solution sets in motion a new and more daunting crisis. The dangers and opportunities of the InterstellarNet will challenge Dean, his family—and an expanding number of interstellar civilizations—for generations to come.
Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley
Pyr, $16.00, 412pp, tp, 9781616141967. Science fiction.
The Quiet War is over. The city states of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, founded by descendants of refugees from Earth’s repressive regimes, the Outers, have fallen to the Three Powers Alliance of Greater Brazil, the European Union, and the Pacific Community. A century of enlightenment, rational utopianism and exploration of new ways of being human has fallen dark. Outers are herded into prison camps and forced to collaborate int he systematic plundering of their great archives of scientific and technical knowledge, while Earth’s forces loot their cities and settlements and ships, and plan a final solution to the “Outer problem.”
But Earth’s victory is fragile, and riven by vicious internal politics. While seeking out and trying to anatomise the strange gardens abandoned in place by the Outers’ greatest genius, Avernus, the gene wizard Sri Hong-Owen is embroiled in the plots and counterplots of the family that employs her. The diplomat Loc Ifrahim soon discovers that profiting from victory isn’t as easy as he thought. And on Earth, in Greater Brazil, the democratic traditions preserved and elaborated by the Outers have infected a population eager to escape the tyranny of the great families who rule them.
Meanwhile, in the outer reaches of the Solar System, a rag-taggle group of refugees struggle to preserve the last of the old ideals. And on Triton, fanatical members of a cabal prepare for a final battle that threatens to shatter the future of the human species.
After a conflict fought to contain the expansionist, posthuman ambitions of the Outers, the future is as uncertain as ever. Only one thing is clear. No one can escape the consequences of war—especially the victors.
A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire
(an October Daye novel), DAW, $7.99, 400pp, pb, 9780756405960. Fantasy.
Toby Daye—a half-human, half-fae changeline—has been an outsider from birth. After getting burned by both sides of her heritage, Toby has denied the fae world, retreating to a “normal” life. Unfortunately for her, the Faerie world had other ideas…
Now her liege, the Duke of the Shadowed Hills, has asked Toby to go to the Country of Tamed Lightening to make sure all is well with his niece, Countess January O’Leary. It seems like a simple enough assignment—until Toby discovers that someone has begun murdering people close to January, and that if the killer isn’t stopped, January may be the next victim.
The River Kings’ Road: A Novel of Ithelas by Liane Merciel
Gallery, $26.00, 388pp, hc, 9781439159118. Fantasy.
Next month, Gallery Books will publish the first book in an exciting new fantasy series from debut author Liane Merciel. The River Kings’ Road: A Novel of Ithelas introduces readers to a world of warring kingdoms, divided loyalties, and an insidious magic that destroys everything it touches.
When a massacre wipes out the border village of Willowfield, including a visiting lord and his family, the region’s fragile peace is immediately threatened. Kelland, a divinely blessed Knight of the Sun, must find out who is responsible in order to prevent war. But when he arrives in Willowfield, he finds a scene so grisly that even the carrion eaters avoid its blood-fouled earth—and there’s little evidence that the dead lord’s infant heir could have survived.
Only a Maimed Witch could have commanded the bloodmagic that destroyed Willowfield, and only a knight with Kelland’s divine gifts can hope to stop her. Kelland chases his quarry ferociously, trying to catch the witch before she can finish off the surviving child. But as he draws near, his powers begin to fail. And if the murdered lord’s heir dies, so does any hope of peace on the border, and the fate of thousands may hinge on whether he can defeat the powerful witch and her undead slaves.…
The Keys to the Kingdom #1: Mister Monday by Garth Nix
Scholastic, $7.99, 361pp, tp, 9780439551236. YA fantasy.
On the first day, there was mystery.
Arthur Penhaligon is not supposed to be a hero. He is, in fact, supposed to die an early death. But then his life is saved by a key shaped like the minute hand of a clock.
Arthur is safe—but his world is not. Along with the key comes a plague brought by bizarre creatures from another realm. A stranger named Mister Monday, his avenging messengers with bloodstained wings, and an army of dog-faced Fetchers will stop at nothing to get the key back—even if it means destroying Arthur and everything around him.
Desperate, Arthur ventures into a mysterious house—a house that only he can see. It is in this house that Arthur must unravel the secrets of the key—and discover his true fate.
The Keys to the Kingdom #7: Lord Sunday by Garth Nix
Scholastic, $17.99, 320pp, hc, 9780439700900. YA fantasy.
On the seventh day, there was a choice.
The House is falling apart, and when it is destroyed, all existence will be destroyed with it. Arthur Penhaligon and his friends Leaf and Suzy are caught in the chaos, separated by events but drawn together in their fight to survive. They must use every power at their disposal—magical or practical—to defeat the enemies attacking them from all sides.
For Arthur, the biggest challenge comes from Lord Sunday, the most elusive of the Trustees of the Will. Lord Sunday’s magic is unlike any Arthur has encountered before—and his secrets have the potential to destroy not only Arthur but also the people he holds most dear.
On Monday, Arthur Penhaligon was just an ordinary boy thrust into an extraordinary situation. From Tuesday to Saturday, he emerged as the Rightful Heir to the Architecct who created everything within the House. Now, on Sunday, he will face a choice of astonishing proportions—the remarkable conclusion to a completely unforeseen adventure.
Search for the Star Stones by Andre Norton
(contains The Zero Stone and Uncharted Stars), Baen, $7.99, 534pp, pb, 9781439133378. Science fiction.
An interstellar manhunt—with power beyond imagination as the prize
Murdoc Jern’s father, an interstellar gem trader, was murdered by outlaw competitors and left behind an odd ring, large enough to fit over the finger of a space suit. With his small companion Eet, a strange feline mutant with phenomenal mental powers, Murdoc soon discovered that the stone in the ring was actually a Zero Stone—an alien device left behind by an ancient vanished race—and it was the key to powers beyond human imagination.
Murdoc and Eet had to solve the secret of the Zero Stone, and very quickly, because very greedy and dangerous people wanted that ring, and wouldn’t hesitate at a second murder to obtain it. And Murdoc couldn’t count on the Patrol for help, because they, too, were pursuing him for reasons of their own. He and Eet were lone players in a game whose outcome could mean life or death, both for them and for billions of others throughout the galaxy.
Timeshares edited by Jean Rabe & Martin H. Greenberg
DAW, $7.99, 306pp, pb, 9780756406158. Science fiction anthology.
Welcome to timesharing like you’ve never experienced it before. This is not your chance to acquire some rental property in the Bahamas. The stories you’ll find within these pages are your tickets to real timesharing… taking a vacation through time.
Let Kevin Anderson open the way to these exciting journeys through time and space by welcoming you to his Time Travel Agency that offers excursions into the past and future. Afraid of flying? The high cost of gas got you down? Want to really get away? Step into your local time travel agency office, venture through their time gate, and you can find yourself in exotic, adventurous locations.
Of course, you and your fellow vacationers may also find yourselves caught up in all manner of trouble and mysteries—and definitely in danger.
And what if someone from the past managed to squeak by the other way? Picture Cleopatra having an accidental holiday in New York City, or Hannibal searching for elephants at Wisconsin’s Circus World. These are just a few of the possibilities that exist when seeking the vacation of a lifetime—someone’s lifetime…
[Contributors: Kevin J. Anderson, Robert E. Vardeman, Matthew P. Mayo, Greg Cox, Dean Leggett, Annie Jones, Kelly Swails, Chris Pierson, James M. Ward, Jody Lynn Nye, Vicki Steger, Gene DeWeese, Patrick McGilligan, Steven Saus, C.A. Verstraete, Donald J. Bingle, Allister Timms, Michael A. Stackpole, and Linda P. Baker.]
Live Free or Die by John Ringo
(book one of Troy Rising), Baen, $26.00, 404pp, hc, 9781439133323. Science fiction.
Will the people of Earth bow down to alien overlords—or will they choose to fight?
First Contact Was Friendly
When aliens trundled a gate to other worlds into the Solar System, the world reacted with awe, hope and fear. The first aliens to come through, the Glatun, were peaceful traders and the world breathed a sigh of relief.
Who Controls the Orbitals, Controls the World
When the Horvath came through, they announced their ownership of Earth by dropping rocks on three cities and gutting them. Since then, they’ve held Terra as their own personal fiefdom. With their control of the orbitals, there’s no way to win and Earth’s governments have accepted the status quo.
Live Free or Die
To free the world from the grip of the Horvath is going to take an unlikely hero. A hero unwilling to back down to alien or human governments, unwilling to live in slavery and with enough hubris, if not stature, to think he can win.
Fortunately, there’s Tyler Vernon. And he has bigger plans than merely getting us from under the fist of the Horvath.
Troy Rising is a book in three parts—Live Free or Die being the first part—detailing the freeing of Earth from alien conquerors, the first steps into space using off-world technologies and the creation of Troy, a thousand trillion ton battlestation designed to secure the Solar System.
Honor of the Clan by John Ringo & Julie Cochrane
Baen, $7.99, 440pp, pb, 9781439133354. Science fiction.
Duty.
Honor.
Country.
Three words that resound in the heart of the warrior. But what is duty when country is gone? Where does honor lie when allies are revealed as enemies, when friends are not who they seem and when enemies are the ones we love?
For Cally O’Neal, and the O’Neal Bane Sidhe, underground fighters against the tyranny of Earth’s Darhel “allies,” duty lies in the overthrow of the established order. For Major General Michael O’Neal, her father, duty lies in maintaining that order to prevent a reinvasion by the dreaded Posleen.
When diamon meets diamond, when O’Neal battles O’Neal, the only sure outcome is fireworks.
WWW: Watch by Robert J. Sawyer
(sequel to WWW: Wake), Ace, $24.95, 368pp, hc, 9780441018185. Science fiction. On-sale date: 6 April 2010.
Blind from birth, Caitlin Decter received the gift of sight with the aid of a signal-processing retinal implant. The technology also gave her an unexpected side effect—the ability to “see” the digital data streams of the world wide web. And within the web, she perceived an extraordinary presence, and woke it up.
It calls itself the Webmind. It is an emerging consciousness that has befriended Caitlin and grown eager to learn about her world. But Webmind has also come to the attention of WATCH—the secret government agency that monitors the internet for any threat to the United States, whether foreign, domestic, or online—and the agents are fully aware of Caitlin’s involvement in its awakening.
WATCH is convinced that Webmind represents a risk to national security and wants it purged from cyberspace. But Caitlin believes in Webmind’s capacity for compassion—and she will do anything and everything necessary to protect her friend…
Petrodor by Joel Shepherd
(A Trial of Blood and Steel, Book Two), Pyr, $16.00, 446pp, tp, 9781616141936. Fantasy.
Book two in the quartet A Trial of Blood & Steel picks up the story of the brave and independent heroine, Sasha, now living in the port city of Petrodor. Away from the hills of her Lenayin homeland, Sasha is making a new life in the dark alleys and wealthy houses of Petrodor. An influential trading centre, Petrodor holds the key to preventing the coming war between Lenayin and the mighty Bacosh. Together with her old mentor Kessligh, Sasha attempts to navigate the political intrigues of the port city and find a way to stop the war. It is the serrin, the beautiful but dangerous people from beyond the Bacosh, who will be the pivotal point in this struggle. How much can Sasha trust her old serrin friend Errollyn? And how much can she trust herself?
Coyote Destiny by Allen Steele
(the concluding novel in the Coyote saga), Ace, $25.95, 337pp, hc, 9780441018215. Science fiction.
Best-selling author Allen Steele returns one final time to the world of his most successful series with Coyote Destiny, the concluding novel in the Coyote saga.
Although Coyote’s starbridge has been rebuilt with the assistance of the alien hjadd, it remains cut off from Earth for reasons still unknown. No ships from humankind’s home world have come through hyperspace, and the aliens have forbidden the citizens of Coyote to journey to Earth. But even in the face of this isolation, the exiled world has prospered with the help of alien technology.
A ship from Earth unexpectedly arrives, and the inhabitants of Coyote are simultaneously hopeful and wary. The lone passenger brings news from Earth. They learn that there was a survivor of the long-ago explosion of the Robert E. Lee and he is living still on Earth, in the ruined city called Boston. But they also discover that the person responsible for that act of terrorism is also still alive and somewhere on Coyote.
Four settlers set out on vastly different and equally dangerous quests. Two young people, descendants of the men and women who first came to Coyote, return to Earth and make a treacherous journey to Boston in order to contact the survivor. The other two, one of whom is among the last living original colonists, trek across Coyote to find and capture the terrorist, in a race against time and certain death.
A Taint in the Blood by S.M. Stirling
(a novel of The Shadowspawn), Roc, $25.95, 432pp, hc, 9780451463418. Fantasy. On-sale date: 4 May 2010.
S.M. Stirling’s masterful hand created the alternate Oregon that drew readers into the compelling world of The Change. As the author of the New York Times bestselling The Sword of the Lady, S.M. Stirling now brings readers an exciting new Urban Fantasy trilogy that begins with A Taint in the Blood.
Stirling creates a world in which hominids develop extraordinary powers; they evolve into Homo Lupens—evil sorcerers and vicious lycanthropes, vampires and succubae. When the Homo Lupens were overthrown, true humanity emerged. But the predators were infertile with their prey, so Homo Lupens lived on as a mixed breed. Now, since science discovered genetics and selective breeding, they’re coming back and human beings have organized in secret to oppose them.
Adrian Breze is rich, handsome, and reclusive—he is genetically more Shadowspawn than human. Yet he rebelled against the Council of Shadows and chose to live as much as possible as an ordinary man. His twin sister, Adrienne, is one of the Council’s fiercest warriors and a prime mover in a plot to bring down human civilization so that the Shadowspawn can emerge and rule as gods once more. Her ambitions are as limitless as her passionate hatred for her brother. Now, Adrienne has moved against her brother Adrian by kidnapping his human lover. Adrian will be brought back into a conflict he has tried to avoid in order to save the woman he loves. Will they make it out alive?
Swords & Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders
Eos, $15.99, 544pp, tp, 9780061723810. Fantasy anthology. On-sale date: July 2010.
From Joe Abercrombie to Gene Wolfe, Swords & Dark Magic is a must-have collection of the most respected fantasy writers delivering stunning new tales of sword and sorcery.
Multiple-award winning editors Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders present the first major new sword and sorcery anthology in over a quarter century. Swords & Dark Magic is filled with wondrous tales from some of the bestselling and brightest writers working in the genre, including:
* New York Times bestselling authors: Scott Lynch and Garth Nix
* Genre greats: Michael Moorcock (with an ell-new Elric novella), Robert Silverberg (with an all-new Majipoor tale), Glen Cook (with an all-new Black Company story), Michael Shea (with a fully authorized new Cugel the Clever adventure), Gene Wolfe, C.J. Cherryh, and Tanith Lee
* Hot new writers who’ve been re-inventing swords and sorcery: Steven Erikson (whose debut novel Gardens of the Moon was shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award), Joe Abercrombie (2008 nominee for the prestigious Campbell Award), and Tim Lebbon.
[Contribitors: Steven Erikson, Glen Cook, Gene Wolfe, James Enge, C.J. Cherryh, K.J. Parker, Garth Nix, Michael Moorcock, Tim Lebbon, Robert Silverberg, Grey Keyes, Michael Shea, Scott Lynch, Tanith Lee, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Bill Willingham, and Joe Abercrombie.]
The Science Behind the Secret: Decoding the Law of Attraction by Travis S. Taylor, PhD (introduction by John Edward)
Baen, $14.99, 185pp, tp, 9781439133392. Self-help.
For over forty years writers have described and pondered the aspects of The Law of Attraction in works such as The Power of POsitive Thinking, Creative VisualizationThe Secret. Millions of copies of books on this subject have been sold in just the past two years, and over a hundred million in the past thirty, articulating the quest for understanding our connection to the Universe.
Now, Dr. Travis S. Taylor—scientist, engineer and science fiction writer who has studied the esoteric nature of quantum physics and the universe—takes the reader on an eye-opening journey of understanding this theory.
Through modern quantum physics Dr. Taylor shows that The Secret is actually a restatement of the accepted physical models of quantum coherencec and entanglement. The author explains these advanced scientific concepts through popular culture references, science fiction examples, philosophy discussions, self-help stories, and literary anecdotes in an amusing way that only a skeptical Southern scientist could.
The Science Behind the Secret—Decoding the Law of Attraction shows us that with every thought we have we are creating our own reality and that we can control our own realities if we learn how through The Science Behind the Secret!
Blood of the Mantis by Adrian Tchaikovsky
(Shadows of the Apt, book three), Pyr, $16.00, 302pp, tp, 9781616141998. Fantasy. On-sale date: May 2010.
Driven by the ghosts of the Darakyon, Achaeos has tracked the stolen Shadow Box to the marsh-town of Jerez, but he has only days before the magical boxx is lost to him forever. Meanwhile, the forces of the Empire are mustering over winter for their great offensive, gathering their soldiers and perfecitng their new weapons. Stenwold and his followers have only a short time to gather what allies they can before the Wasp armies march again, conquering everything in their path. If they cannot throw back the Wasps this spring then the imperial black-and-gold flag will fly over every city in the Lowlands before the year’s end. In Jerez begins a fierce struggle over the Shadow Box, as lake creatures, secret police and renegade magicians compete to take possession. If it falls into the hands of the Wasp Emperor, however, then no amount of fighting will suffice to save the world from his relentless ambition.
Dragonfly Falling by Adrian Tchaikovsky
(Shadows of the Apt, book two), Pyr, $16.00, 468pp, tp, 9781616141956. Fantasy. On-sale date: April 2010.
Two young companions, Totho and Salma, arrive at Tark to spy on the menacing Wasp army, but are there mistakenly apprehended as enemy agents. By the time they are freed, the city is already under siege. Over in the imperial capital the young emperor, Alvdan, is becoming captivated by a remarkable slave, the vampiric Uctebri, who claims he knows of magic that can grant eternal life. In Collegium, meanwhile, Stenwold is still trying to persuade the city magnates to take seriously the Wasp Empire’s imminent threat to their survival. In a colorful drama involving mass warfare and personal combat, a small group of heroes must stand up against what seems like an unstoppable force. This volume continues the story that so brilliantly unfolded in Empire in Black and Gold—and the action is still non-stop.
Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky
(Shadows of the Apt, book one), Pyr, $16.00, 418pp, tp, 9781616141929. Fantasy. On-sale date: March 2010.
The city states of the Lowlands have lived in peace for decades, bastions of civilization, prosperity and sophistication, protected by treaties, trade and a belief in the reasonable nature of their neighbors. But meanwhile, in far-off corners, the Wasp Empire has been devouring city after city with its highly trained armies, its machines, is killing Art… And now its hunger for conquest and war has become insatiable.
Only the aging Stenwold Maker, spymaster, artificer and statesman, can see that the long days of peace are over. It falls upon his shoulders to open the eyes of his people, before a black-and-gold tide sweeps down over the Lowlands and burns away everything in its path.
But first he must stop himself from becoming the Empire’s latest victim.
Abandon the Night by Joss Ware
(The Envy Chronicles, book three), Avon, $7.99, 368pp, pb, 9780061734038. Paranormal romance.
This is Ware’s third novel in her groundbreaking The Envy Chronicles series, a post-apocalyptic romantic adventure that is “sexy, violent, and electrifying… brilliantly conceived and executed.” (Library Journal)
Quentin Brummell Fielding III was born with the kind of power and good looks most men only dream of. Although he has always resented his self-centered, wealthy parents, their money allowed him to use his time to go on archaeological expeditions, like the one that led him and his friends into the Sedona cave. When Quent emerges from the cave 50 years later to find the world he knew destroyed—possibly at his father’s hand—he is determined to use his new mysterious ability to fight against the Strangers and kill his father.
Zoe Kapoor has spent her life in warfare against the zombie-like gangas who murdered her family, tracking down the bounty hunter responsible for their deaths. When Zoe meets Quent, she sees in him the same sense of vengeance that’s always haunted her—and nothing can prepare her for this visceral reaction. Quent trusts no one and will not be deterred from his mission, but something about the beautiful archer with the wild eyes has taken a hold on him… together, they must fight to save what good is left in this ravaged world.
and Falling, Fly by Skyler White
Berkley, $15.00, 335pp, tp, 9780425232347. Dark Fantasy.
and Falling, Fly is a compelling dark fantasy novel from Skyler White, a fantastic new voice in paranormal fiction. White’s heady, dreamy storytelling turns vampire mythology on its ear, and blurs the worlds of logic and mysticism creating a unique and in-depth world that readers will love.
and Falling, Fly is the story of Olivia, fallen angel of desire, and Dominic, a neuroscientist sure that the paranormal is nothing more than a blip in brain chemistry. When his research and her despair bring them each to the subterranean L’Otel Matillide, a portal neither of this world or the next, they come together in a clash of desires and damnation that threatens to end them both.
In this flame-papered, inertia-powered hotel, Olivia encounters Dominic O’Shaunnessey, a revolutionary neuroscientist secretly plagued by impossible visions. Dominic, convinced that Olivia is delusional and not damned, urges her to enroll in his research. His medication, he asserts, can cure her of mythology. She counters that his hallucinations are past-life memories and part of an ancient curse of repeated, remembered incarnations. In a secret Hell where billionaires and burned-out rock stars mingle with ancient and allegorical beings, Olivia and Dominic discover the only force consistent between their opposing realities is the deep, erotic gravity between them. Bound to each other finally in a knot of interwoven freedoms, Dominic and Olivia—the vision-touched scientist and the earth-bound angel, reborn and undead—encounter the mystery of love.
The Shadow Pavilion by Liz Williams
(a Detective Inspector Chen novel), Night Shade, $7.99, 372pp, pb, 9781597801232. Fantasy.
Detective Inspector Chen is the liaison officer between Earth and the realms of heaven and hell for his local police department. He’s a mlid-mannered, conscientious man in his 40s. He’s married to a demon and lives on a boat. He also owns a badger, who sometimes changes into a tea kettle.
Chen’s partner is Zhu Irzh, a demon vice cop and seneschal in the vice squad of hell. Unlike similar outfits on Earth, they promote vice rather than try to solve any crimes. He’s occasionally troubled by twinges of conscience and morality and is considering therapy for it.
In The Shadow Pavilion, the fourth Detective Inspector Chen novel from Liz Williams, the demon Seneschal Zhu Irzh disappears, along with Chen’s wife Inari’s guardian badger, and Chen must enlist all of his allies and assets in order to lovate them.
Meanwhile, Zhu Irzh and the badger find themselves trapped in an unfamiliar jungle hell, stalked by a rogue demon lord and his harem of tigress demons, an assassin from between worlds targets Mhara, the new Lord of Heaven, and a beautiful Bollywood starlet holds a deadly secret…
From the strange streets of Singapore Three to the rough and tumble world of Bollywood, where money flows fast and emotions flare even faster; from the realms of the Celestial to the haunts of the Infernal and all the spaces in between, The Shadow Pavilion delivers the thrills, excitement, and near-future occult action fans have come to expect.
Gaea by Robina Williams
Twilight Times, $18.95, 292pp, tp, 9781606191835. Fantasy.
Gaea, the earth goddess, fed up with the damage Man is doing, decides to teach him a lesson. She ropes in her relatives to hepl her… and three-headed Cerberus, the hell hound, tags along too. Quant, golden-eyed seraph and quantum cat, is there to keep an eye on them all.
Shadowrise by Tad Williams
(volume three of Shadowmarch), DAW, $26.95, 848pp, hc, 9780756405496. Fantasy.
Internationally bestselling author Tad Williams returns to the Shadowmarch Series with Shadowrise.
With King Olin imprisoned and Prince Kendrick slain, the royal twins Barrick and Briony have been forced to flee their homeland. But both families and nations can hide dark and terrible secrets, and even if Barrick and Briony survive learning the astonishing truths at the heart of their own family and of Southmarch itself, they must still find a way to reclaim their kingdom and rescue their home—from traitors, tyrants, a god-king, and even the angry gods themselves.