This page is updated as books are received throughout the month.
Serpent Moon by C.T. Adams & Cathy Clamp
(a Tale of the Sazi), Tor, $6.99, 372pp, pb, 9780765364258. Paranormal romance.
Throughout Adams and Clamp’s award-winning Sazi series, petrifying danger has percolated beneath the surface. That ancient menace explodes in the culmination of this outstanding series. The world this amazingly talented duo has created has been vivid and imaginative—with characters who leap off the page—and fans will be thrilled to see all of their favorites return one more time.
Even though she’s one of them, Holly Sanchez has a complicated relationship with the shapeshifting Sazi. Recently, it’s gotten even more complicated: a vicious band of Sazi attacked her, intending the kill her. Miraculously, Holly survived—and has become one of the rare Sazi healers.
Eric Thompson is an incredibly powerful Sazi wolf. His howl can ruin electronics and bring aircraft tumbling down from the sky. Too dangerous even for the knife-edge Sazi community, Eric has lived a life of isolation and distrust. But when someone starts killing shape-shifters, Eric knows he must do everything in his power to defend his people.
In Serpent Moon, Holly and Eric team up to track down a killer—even though Holly’s not convinced that saving the Sazi is something she should be doing. Then she’s offered a chance to have her old life back and faces an excruciating choice—a life with Eric, as a Sazi, or life as a “normal” human being?
C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp have been teaming up for over ten years, giving readers USA Today bestselling tales of daring shifters, evil vampires, and ruthless men and women willing to fight for their lives and the lives of those they love. Serpent Moon, the final book in Adams and Clamp’s Tales of the Sazi, is one of their best books yet and definitely not to be missed!
Destroyermen: Distant Thunders by Taylor Anderson
(Destroyermen book 4), Roc, $24.95, 400pp, hc, 9780451463333. Fantasy. On-sale date: June 2010.
In Taylor Anderson’s acclaimed Destroyermen series, a parallel universe adds an extraordinary layer to the drama of World War II.
Now the fight for survival in an alternate world will push Lieutenant Commander Matthew Reddy and the crew of USS Walker to the breaking point found between friend and foe.
In the aftermath of the terrible battle in which the men of the destroyer Walker and their Lemurian allies repelled the savage assaults of the Grik, Reddy is shocked by the arrival of a strange ship captained by one Commodore Jenks of the New Britain Imperial Navy—an island nation populated by the descendants of British East Indiamen swept through the rift centuries before.
With the Walker in dry dock undergoing much-needed repairs, Reddy has a great deal on his plate already. For the Grik have only been fended of, not defeated, and Reddy will need all hands on deck to fight them when they next attack. But Jenks’s uncertain loyalties make Reddy question whether he can trust the man.
As tension between the Allies and the Imperials mounts, Reddy will come to realize that his suspicions are not misplaced… and that a greater danger than the Grik is closer than he ever suspected.
No Quarter by Robert Asprin, Eric Del Carlo, and Teresa Patterson
Dark Star, $15.95, 290pp, tp, 9780981986609. Fantasy.
Sunshine comes to New Orleans looking for her elusive dreams, but the tempting night life of the French Quarter caters to her darker desires—cheap drugs, bad men, and the thrill of living on the edge. Her search leads her into the wrong patch of darkness and a brutal death at the point of an unusual knife. The crime scene—her body framed by the remnants of a botched Voodoo ritual—creates a brief media sensation but leaves the NOPD with nothing but a cold trail and false leads.
Three unlikely friends, drawn together by shared grief and anger, embark on a quest to find Sunshine’s murderer and exact vengeance. Maestro, a master of both the pool cue and the rapier, prefers to live under the radar, but to avenge Sunshine he’ll risk exposing his less-than-savory past. To Bone and Alex, Sunshine was family, and the pain of her savage murder is made even more crushing by their recent estrangement from her.
They find unexpected allies among other denizens of the French Quarter, but their hunt leads them to the darkest corners of the Quarter, into the dangerous depths that lie beneath its benign party-town surface—and into shattering revelations about themselves.
Death and destruction lie in the cards, and blood will lead to blood before honor and desire are satisfied.
Ark by Stephen Baxter
(sequel to Flood), Roc, $24.95, 544pp, hc, 9780451463319. Science fiction. On-sale date: May 2010.
Ark is the sensational follow up to tale of aquatic Armageddon in 2009’s Flood, this story of survival that takes the reader from the endless seas that now cover the Earth to the vast ocean of space, Stephen Baxter continues with his fascinating apocalyptic vision of a world beset by the dangers of both mankind and nature.
It is the year 2041 and the oceans have risen rapidly. Soon the entire planet will be submerged but hope has risen with the discovery of another life-sustaining planet light years away. There is hope for a chosen few to leave the soon-to-be submerged Earth and Holle Groundwater is one of the candidates. She has been training for this purpose since she was a child, when the possibility first became known and the ships called Ark One and Ark Three were being built. If she makes the cut she will survive. If not, she will be left to face a watery doom. But in desperate circumstances, the competition can kill human compassion. And as Holle prepares to endure life aboard the Ark, she comes to realize that her attempts at escape may be more dangerous than anything trying to stay afloat on a drowning planet. Humanity faces a war for survival on two fronts, both here on Earth and up among the stars.
A Handful of Pearls & Other Stories by Beth Bernobich (introduction by James Patrick Kelly)
Lethe, $15.00, 248pp, tp, 9781590210109. Fantasy collection. On-sale date: June 2010.
A Handful of Pearls & Other Stories showcases author Beth Bernobich’s versatile talent. Quoted as offering the following advice to writers—
Mix characters and plot. Blend well and set aside to rise. Stir together equal helpings of conflict and tension. Remember that the pacing used to stir will affect the story’s consistency and flavor. When characters and plot are ready, layer these with backstory, setting, and description. For a fuller heavier story, fortify with theme, subtext, and allusion. Add whimsy and logic to taste. Top with a climax and resolution. Sprinkle with surprises. (Do not overdo.) Beat prose until smooth.
—Bernobich follows that perfect recipe to the letter and offers stories that will linger in the imagination of readers. Inside these pages are tales of talented painters, tween anthropod aliens, bitter explorers, and a wistful Medusa.
[Contents: Introduction by James Patrick Kelly; “Chrysalide”; “Poison”; “Remembrance”; “Marsdog”; “A Handful of Pearls”; “Watercolors in the Rain”; “Medusa at Morning”; “Jump to Zion”; and “Air and Angels”.]
Embers by Laura Bickle
June/Pocket, $7.99, 368pp, pb, 9781439167656. Fantasy.
Truth Burns.
Unemployment, despair, anger—visible and invisible unrest feed the undercurrent of Detroit’s unease. A city increasingly invaded by phantoms now faces a malevolent force that further stokes fear and chaos throughout the city.
Anya Kalinczyk spends her days as an arson investigator with the Detroit Fire Department, and her nights pursuing malicious spirits with a team of eccentric ghost hunters. Anya—who is the rarest type of psychic medium, a Lantern—suspects a supernatural arsonist is setting blazes to summon a fiery ancient entity that will leave the city in cinders. By Devil’s Night, the spell will be complete, unless Anya—with the help of her salamander familiar and the paranormal investigating team—can stop it.
Anya’s accustomed to danger and believes herself inured to loneliness and loss. But this time she’s risking everything: her city, her soul, and a man who sees and accepts her for everything she is. Keeping all three safe will be the biggest challenge she’s ever faced.
Morticai’s Luck by Darlene Bolesny
Dark Star, $15.95, 246pp, hc, 9780981986623. Fantasy.
Meet Morticai. He’s a rogue and a ladies’ man, a gambler and a thief, a duelist and… a lawman!
Surviving on the mean streets of Watchaven wasn’t easy for an unwanted corryn orphan, but Morticai managed to escape the criminal underworld by joining the Northmarch, the kingdom’s elite peacekeeping force.
When Morticai discovers that a nest of Droken—the same bloodthirstiy devotees of an outlawed god who murdered his parents—have infiltrated his city, he will risk his commission and his life to bring them to justice.
It’s not the first time that Morticai has found himself in over his head, but it may turn out to be the last.
Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs
(a Mercy Thompson novel), Ace, $24.95, 342pp, hc, 9780441018192. Fantasy.
Mercy Thompson returns in Silver Borne, the highly anticipated fifth book in Patricia Briggs’ #1 New York Times bestselling urban fantasy series. Briggs’ rich storylines and complex characters are sure to excite fans and entice new readers—with kick-butt Mercy Thompson as the novel’s heroine, you never know what to expect!
Mercy, car mechanic and shapeshifter, lives in a world in which witches, werewolves, and vampires live amongst ordinary people. In Silver Borne, Mercy is about to learn that while secrets can be dangerous, those who seek them are deadly. When she attempts to return a powerful fae book she’d previously borrowed in an act of desperation, she finds the bookstore has closed down and its owner is missing. The magical fae will do anything to keep what’s in the book a secret, but when Mercy’s friend Samuel struggles with his wolf side, things get even more complicated. Mercy has to cover for Samuel and try to appease the implacable foe, but if she isn’t careful, her life may be at risk…
The Weiser Field Guide to Cryptozoology by Deena West Budd
Weiser, $14.95, 193pp, tp, 9781578634507. New Age.
The Weiser Field Guide to Cryptozoology includes information, interviews, and stories about forty different cryptids seen in various places all over the world by credible eyewitnesses like policemen, rangers, and doctors. Readers will learn where and how to find flying humanoids, hairy humanoids, giants of all kinds including rabbits, bats and spiders, goblins, vampires, werewolves, demons, aliens and ghosts.
In an exciting addition to The Weiser Field Guides, BellaOnline paranormal editor Deena West Budd surveys the still-emerging field of cryptozoology—a term coined in the 1950s by a French zoologist named Bernard Heuvelmans—the study of “hidden” or “unknown” animals not recognized in standard zoology. From traditional cryptids like Big Foot, the Abominable Snowman and Nessie, to mythical cryptids like unicorns, vampires, dragons, and werewolves, to lesser-known cryptids like bunyips (waterhorses), Encantado (Dolphin Men of Brazil), thunderbirds, mothmen, and chupacabra, these creatures are very much alive, says Budd, even if beyond the realm of normal perception.
Changes by Jim Butcher
(a novel of the Dresden Files), Roc, $25.95, 553pp, hc, 9780451463173. Fantasy.
Harry Dresden returns in what is the most shocking, action-packed, and magically addictive installment yet: Changes: A Novel of the Dresden Files.
As Chicago’s only professional wizard private detective, Harry Dresden has made a few enemies in his day. On a day like any other, Harry answers the phone to hear not a client—but his old flame, and now vampire, Susan Rodriguez, who tells Harry he has a daughter he has never known… and that the girl has been kidnapped.
Long ago, when Susan was Harry’s lover, she was attacked by his enemies, leaving her torn between her own humanity and the bloodlust of the vampiric Red Court. Disappearing to South America, Susan thought she could fight both her savage gift and those who cursed her with it.
Now Arianna Ortega, Duchess of the Red Court of vampires, blames Harry for the death of her husband—and she wants vengeance. Discovering that Harry is the true father of Susan’s child, Arianna will stop at nothing to avenge Harry through killing his long-lost daughter. With the White Council of Wizards and the Red Court in a state of détente, Harry finds himself working alone, supported only by resources inadequate to challenge the forces of the entire vampire Court. In the past, there has always been a line Harry was never willing to cross, and though dark powers tempted him time and again, he never gave in. But then, only his own life had been at stake before. How far will he go, and what bargains will he make, to bring home the child he never knew he had?
The twelfth novel in this series, Changes is the most exhilarating and rip-roaring installment yet, and will leave both newcomers to the genre and long-time Harry Dresden fans riveted, entertained, and thrilled in the way only a wizard of fiction like Jim Butcher can do.
The Dalai Lama’s Little Book of Wisdom: The Essential Teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Hampton Roads, $10.95, 400pp, tp, 9781571746283. Religion/Buddhism.
In this small-format, easy-to-peruse book, one of the world’s most important spiritual teachers speaks volumes about our biggest concerns: how to live and how to die. This companion volume to The Dalai Lama’s Little Book of Inner Peace contains the essence of the Dalai Lama’s teachings, presented in a package that is ideal for bringing words of wisdom into our busy lives. Designed to fit easily into a purse, backpack, or briefcase, The Dalai Lama’s Little Book of Wisdom is the quintessential gift to oneself, a new graduate, a mentor, or to anyone who seeks wisdom about life’s greatest questions.
Among the topics covered here are: Contentment, Joy and Living Well; Facing Death and Dying; Dealing with Anger and Emotion; Compassion—the Basis for Human Happiness; and Giving and Receiving.
Firefly Rain by Richard Danksy
Gallery, $15.00, 343pp, tp, 9781439148631. Fiction.
Richard Dansky’s Firefly Rain weaves the suspenseful tale of Jacob Logan, who left home for a new life, and pretty much forgot all about Maryfield, North Carolina. But Maryfield never forgot him. Or forgave him. After a failed business venture in Boston, Jacob comes back to the small Southern town of his childhood and takes up residence in the isolated house he grew up in. Here, the air is still. The nights are black. And his parents are buried close by. It should feel like home—but something is terribly wrong.
Jacob loses all his belongings in a highway accident. His car is stolen from his driveway, yet he never hears a sound. The townspeople seem guarded and suspicious. And Carl, the property caretaker with so many secrets, is unnervingly accommodating. Then there are the fireflies that light the night skies… and die as they come near Jacob’s home. If it weren’t for the creaking sounds after dark, or the feeling that he is being watched, Jacob would feel so alone. He shouldn’t worry. He’s not.
And whatever’s with him isn’t going to let him leave home ever again. Firefly Rain, a “classic horror&8230; a tightly paced tale of mystery and terror” [Library Journal] will keep readers up through the night, glued in suspense until the very end.
The New Space Opera 2 edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan
Eos, $7.99, 626pp, pb, 9780061468353. Science fiction anthology.
The much anticipated New Space Opera 2 dares to up the ante with the biggest names in science fiction’s biggest genre, now in mass market.
This solid follow-up anthology to 2007’s The New Space Opera includes 19 new stories that show how far space opera has come since its pulp beginnings in the ’30s and ’40s. These entertaining and provocative tales of interstellar adventure, written by a laundry list of genre heavyweights, range from Mike Resnick’s “Catastrophe Baker and a Canticle for Leibowitz,”—a campy misadventure that follows a larger-than-life freelance hero on his quest to regain a musical theater producer’s lost song, to John Meaney’s “From the Heart,”—set in his Nulapeiron universe, which revolves around spy Carl Blackstone and an unlikely—and surprisingly poignant—love story at the galactic core. The impressive diversity of stories reaffirms that soap opera is alive and well, and where some of the genre’s most innovative writing is taking place.This solid follow-up anthology to 2007’s The New Space Opera includes 19 new stories that show how far space opera has come since its pulp beginnings in the ’30s and ’40s. These entertaining and provocative tales of interstellar adventure, written by a laundry list of genre heavyweights, range from Mike Resnick’s Catastrophe Baker and a Canticle for Leibowitz”,—a campy misadventure that follows a larger-than-life freelance hero on his quest to regain a musical theater producer’s lost song, to John Meaney’s From the Heart,”—set in his Nulapeiron universe, which revolves around spy Carl Blackstone and an unlikely—and surprisingly poignant—love story at the galactic core. The impressive diversity of stories reaffirms that soap opera is alive and well, and where some of the genre’s most innovative writing is taking place.[Contributors: Neal Asher, John Barnes, Cory Doctorow, John Kessel, Jay Lake, John Meaney, Elizabeth Moon, Garth Nix, Mike Resnick, Justina Robson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, John Scalzi, Bruce Sterling, Peter Watts, Sean Williams, Tad Williams, Bill Willingham, Robert Charles Wilson, and John C. Wright.]
The Long Man by Steve Englehart
Tor, $25.99, 384pp, hc, 9780765317308. Fantasy.
Magic and reality collide in a fast-paced thriller by a comics legend.
In 1981, Steve Englehart wrote The Point Man, which thrust Max August into a hidden war between the forces of chaos and order, where he learned how to use magick and become timeless.
Twenty-five years later in The Long Man, Max is summoned by a dying friend to save Dr. Pamela Blackwell from a mysterious force using magick to kill her. Pam’s research could save the lives of countless millions, putting her in the crosshairs of the FRC, a cabal of powerbrokers intent on world domination.
From San Francisco to Barbados to the shores of Suriname, Max and Pam must fight off magick-wielding assassins and legions of zombies. Max may be powerful… and timeless, but he’s not indestructible. He is going to have to keep his wits about him if he is going to stop the FRC before they kill millions.
Supernatural enemies, dazzling magic, and romance abound in this page-turner from a longtime master of storytelling.
A Magic of Dawn by S.L. Farrell
(a novel of The Nessantico Cycle), DAW, $24.95, 752pp, hc, 9780756405977. Fantasy.
S.L. Farrell began his new fantasy series—The Nessantico Cycle—in 2008 with A Magic of Twilight. The series is an epic tale of murder and magic, deception and betrayal, Machiavellian politics, star-crossed lovers, and a world on the brink of devastating war. A Magic of Nightfall continued the story and now Farrell concludes the series with A Magic of Dawn.
Farrell, best known for his Cloudmages trilogy, takes readers into the city of Nessantico. Over the centuries, Nessantico slowly spread its influence in all directionsand gathered to itself all that was intellectual, all that was rich, and all that was powerful. There was no city in the world that could rival it.
Kraljica Allesandra sits on the Sun Throne of a much-diminished Holdings empire, while her son Jan rules the rival Coalition of Firenzcia. the schism between them threatens to tear apart the realm when they need solidarity the most. Facing powerful threats, from the rising influence of the Numetodo sect to the fundamentalist preacher Nico Morel—as well as the army of Tehuantin from across the sea—Allesandra and Jan must each find a pathway to survival for themselves and their people.
Nebula Awards Showcase 2010 edited by Bill Fawcett
Roc, $16.00, 420pp, tp, 9780451463166. Science fiction anthology.
An annual commemoration, the Nebula Awards are presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America to those members whose imaginations refine and redefine the infinite storytelling possibilities found within the genre. Nebula Awards Showcase represents the best of the best in one indispensable volume.
From her Annals of the Western Shore epic, Ursula K. Le Guin tells the story of an escaped slave with the ability to see the future in an excerpt from her novel Powers. Look into Catherine Asaro’s “The Spacetime Pool” at an alternate universe where a young woman comes between two royal brothers and the fate of an empire. A wealthy family seeks prospective husbands for their two daughters only to find an unsuitable suitor in “Pride and Prometheus” by John Kessel. Nina Kiriki Hoffman presents a culture populated by “Trophy Wives” who are more than they seem.
Also featuring:
* The short story “The Streets of Ashkelon” from 2009 Grand Master Harry Harrison and an Appreciation of Harrison by Tom Doherty.
* The short story “Talking About Fangs” by the Author Emerita, M.J. Engh.
* An excerpt from the Andre North Award-winning novel Flora’s Dare: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room) by Ysabeau S. Wilce.
[Contributors: Robert Weinberg, Catherine Asaro, David Drake, Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert Silverberg, Algis Budrys, Kate Wilhelm, Martin H. Greenberg, Frederik Pohl & Elizabeth Ann Hull, John Kessel, Kevin J. Anderson, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Lynn Abbey, M.J. Engh, Mike Resnick, Greg Beatty, F.J. Bergmann, Catherynne M. Valente, Ysabeau S. Wilce, Jody Lynn Nye, Joss Whedon, Tom Doherty, and Harry Harrison.]
At the Gates of Darkness by Raymond E. Feist
(Book Two of the Demonwar Saga), Eos, $27.99, 302pp, hc, 9780061468377. Fantasy.
At the Gates of Darkness is the second installment of New York Times bestselling author Raymond E. Feist’s Demonwar Saga. Set in Feist’s signature world of Midkemia, this rollicking story picks up where Rides a Dread Legion left off, a decade after the conclusion of the events chronicled in the three-volume Darkwar Saga.
Raymond Feist is one of the most revered and bestselling fantasy authors of our time. His novels have been translated into numerous languages and have sold more than 15 million copies around the world. He has dazzled readers worldwide sincce his first book, Magician, was published in 1982. Since then he has written more than 25 novels, most of them set in his magically complex realm of Midkemia. The fascinating characters, creatures, lore, and history Feist has created in his books have gained him an enthusiastic following around the globe.
Rides a Dread Legion by Raymond E. Feist
(Book One of the Demonwar Saga), Eos, $7.99, 402pp, pb, 9780061468353. Fantasy.
Raymond E. Feist’s all-new Midkemia series begins ten years after the conclusion of the Darkwar Saga (Wrath of a Mad God). Laromendis is a conjurer from another world—a world inhabited by a race of high elves whose home is being ravaged by the Dread Legion of the Demon King. The elves’ only hope lies in finding the lost homeworld of their ancient legends. Midkemia is that lost world, Laromendis tells his people—and now they must reclaim it, at any cost!
In Midkemia, the magician Pug and the Conclave of Shadows believe the elves to be refugees and potential allies, for they know the true threat is the demons who invaded the elves’ world. To battle this fearsome enemy, Pug summons the help of a demon master, the warlock Amirantha, and a holy demon-taming cleric, Sandreena of the Order of Dala. Unwittingly, Pug has reunited two former lovers whose parting was bitter and who just might have secret agendas of their own. For Sandreena has a shadowy past and is as fierce a soldier as any man in her order, and Amirantha is brother to Pug’s sworn enemy who may be in service to the Demon King Maag himself.
Above all hangs the question: Can the beleagured elves be trusted, or are they as dire a threat as the demons who pursue them?
From Hell with Love by Simon R. Green
(a Secret Histories novel), Roc, $24.95, 368pp, hc, 9780451463326. Fantasy. On-sale date: June 2010.
“Take some James Bond and throw in some of Green’s own Nightside, and mix liberally with the epic over-the-top action of his Deathstalker novels, and you’re somewhere in the right neighborhood” (The Green Man Review) of this all-new urban fantasy mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of The Spy Who Haunted Me.
It’s no walk in the bloody park, being a Drood—one of the family who has protected ordinary humanity from the things that go bump in the night for centuries. We’re not much liked—by those things whose arses we kick regularly, by ungrateful ordinary humanity, or even by one another.
Now our Matriarch is dead. Murdered. Maybe by one of us. Maybe not.
It’s been left up to me, Eddie Drood, acting head of the family, to figure out whodunit. And that’s not going to be very easy. You see, opinion is divided evenly between two camps of thought: those who think my best girl, Molly, was actually the killer and those who think I was actually the killer.
And I know for a fact that I didn’t do it.
Petrogypsies by Rory Harper
Dark Star, $15.95, 192pp, tp, 9780981986616. Fantasy.
For Sprocket and Henry Lee, it was love at first blow-out.
Henry Lee MacFarland is a big ugly man, a farmer who is so strong that he has to be gentle, whether he’s dealing with livestock or normal people.
Sprocket is a hundred and twelve feet of healthy young male Driller, dark as a moonless night, with a spiked tongue that can bore four miles into the earth in his relentless quest fopr the thing he loves best—Texas heavy crude oil.
Doc, Razer, Big Mac, and the others in Sprocket’s crew are the roughest, rowdiest bunch in the oilpatch. They live inside of Sprocket’s body and travel like gypsies from one drilling job to another. They work like animals. Party like ’em, too.
Then there’s Star, the stunning Casing gypsy who has a hankering for fine cigars, a killer instinct at poker, and a taste for big, ugly, strong men.
Looking for adventure, Henry Lee leaves the farm behind and signs on with Sprocket’s crew. He gets a helluva lot more “adventure”—as in monsters, murder, and mayhem—than he bargained for.
Migration by James P. Hogan
Baen, $23.00, 304pp, hc, 9781439133521. Science fiction. On-sale date: May 2010.
The world of the past eventually died in the conflagration toward which it had been doggedly heading. A more fragmented and diversified order has emerged from the ruins and technology has reappeared to a greater or lesser degree in some places and not at all in others.
Unique among them is the nation-state of Sofi, with an exceptional population that has rediscovered advanced science. However, as the old patterns that led to ruin before begin to reassert themselves across the rest of the world, a scientific-political movement within Sofi embarks on a years-long project to build a generation starship that will enable them to create their own world elsewhere.
The circumstances and thinking of future generations growing up in the totally unknown situation of a space environment cannot be known. Accordingly, the mission will include different groups of idealists, reformers, misfits, and dissidents who are not satisfied with the world-in-miniature that constitutes the original mother ship, to go out and build whatever they want. Hence, what arrives at the distant star generations hence will be a flotilla of variously run city states, frontier towns, religious monasteries, pleasure resorts, urban crushes, rural spreads, academic retreats, and who-knows what else.
The trouble began, of course, when all the old patterns that they thought they were getting away from started reappearing…
The Crossroads by L. Ron Hubbard
Galaxy, $9.95, 136pp, tp, 9781592123681. Fantasy.
Frustrated with a government that pays him to bury surplus produce in order to “fix” the economy while city folks starve, farmer Eben Smith decides to take matters into his own hands. He piles up a wagon with ripe fruits and vegetables and sets out for the first time to barter his goods in the big city.
Being Eben’s first city trip and all, the way soon becomes uncertain. But when Eben comes across a strange crossroads, he discovers that he’s fallen into a nexus in time. Soon he’s bartering a lot more than goods with different cultures in alternative realities… accidentally wreaking havoc and chaos in each.
Also includes the fantasy stories “Borrowed Glory” and “The Devil’s Rescue.”
A Matter of Matter by L. Ron Hubbard
Galaxy, $9.95, 152pp, tp, 9781592123667. Science fiction.
Meet Chuck Lambert, who, though not exactly a fool, is guilty of letting his imagination get the best part of his wits. That’s because our young, naive Lambert wants his own planet. But rather than purchase one legally from the Interior Department of the Outer Galactic Control, he soon succumbs to the flashy advertising of an unsavory galactic swindler named Madman Murphy—the purported King of Planetary Realtors.
What Madman is the king of, is selling the unwary a planet that isn’t quite right, a planet where one can’t sit down because there’s something the matter with its matter. And that’s exactly what becomes the matter for our unlucky voyager, after Chuck toils for eleven grueling years to scrape together enough money to finally buy a planet of his own.
Also includes the science fiction stories “The Conroy Diary,” “The Planet Makers” and “The Obsolete Weapon.”
Demon Possessed by Stacia Kane
(Megan Chase, book 3), Pocket/Juno, $7.99, 336pp, pb, 9781439167618. Fantasy.
A romantic interlude… or a date with hell?
Psychologist and psychic Megan Chase has grown remarkably comfortable hanging out with demons. The demon “family” she leads is happy, her solo practice is stabilizing, and she and her steamy demon lover Greyson Dante are closer than ever. But when the couple books a week at a luxury hotel to attend a meeting of demon leaders, some unanticipated problems appear. An FBI agent with an unhealthy interest in less-than-legitimate demon business practices shows up; the demon community is urging her to undergo the rite that will make her a real demon; and a slightly shady minister is holding one of his wildly popular “Weekend Exorcisms” just down the road. And oh, yes, someone with scary magical abilities is attempting to kill her. Then, just when it seems as if things couldn’t possibly get any worse, a secret comes to light that jeopardizes Megan and Greyson’s future—if Megan manages to live that long. With things heating up, it’s becoming difficult for her to keep a cool head…
Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
Roc, $26.95, 573pp, hc, 9780451463302. Fantasy.
In Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay invites readers into his beautifully crafted world inspired by Tang Dynasty China in the 8th century. A dazzling blend of history and fantasy, Guy Gavriel Kay brilliantly weaves elements of mythology and ancient Chinese culture to create the story of one man’s courageous journey. Kay has created an astounding and captivating novel after years of extensive research.
To honor his father’s memory, Shen Tai has spent two years of official mourning at the battle site by the blue waters of Kuala Nor—alone. Each day he digs graves in hard ground to bury the bones of the dead Kitan and their Taguran foes. At night Tai can hear the ghosts moan and stir. During a routine supply visit, Tai learns that others, much more powerful than himself, have taken note of his vigil. The White Jade Princess Cheng-wan, 17th daughter of the Emperor of Kitai, presents him with two hundred and fifty Sardian horses as royal recognition of the honor he has done the dead. With this gift, comes a heavy burden—Tai could easily by killed for these highly valued horses on his way back to the imperial city. Tai must get himself back to the court and his own emperor, alive. But his return from solitude towards civilization proves more dangerous than anyone could have imagined.
Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead edited by Nancy Kilpatrick
Edge, $15.95, 320pp, tp, 9781894063333. Horror and dark fantasy anthology. On-sale date: September 2010.
Vampires have Evolved
Kelley Armstrong, Tanya Huff, and twenty-two other Canadian dark fantasy and horror writers re-imagine the future of vampires in this new collection of all-original short fiction—one of the most unusual and original vampire anthologies ever compiled.
[Contributors: Kelley Armstrong, Tanya Huff, Claude Lalumière, Mary E. Choo, Sandra Kasturi, Bradley Somer, Kevin Cockle, Rebecca Bradley, Heather Clitheroe, Colleen Anderson, Sandra Wickham, Rhea Rose, Ronald Hore, Bev Vincent, Jennifer Greylyn, Steve Vernon, Michael Skeet, Kevin Nunn, Victoria Fisher, Rio Youers, Gemma Files, Natasha Beaulieu, Claude Bolduc, and Jerome Stueart.]
The Phoenix Lights: A Skeptic’s Discovery that We are Not Alone by Lynne D. Kitei, M.D.
Hampton Roads, $18.95, 252pp, tp, 9781571746320. New Age/UFOs.
On March 13, 1997, something strange happened in the skies over Phoenix, Arizona. On that clear evening, a one-mile-wide, V-shaped formation of glowing amber globes silently glided through the heavens. The unidentified flying objects grabbed the attention of at least 10,000 people across the state of Arizona. Among them was Lynne D. Kitei, a physician and health educator who had also worked for various NBC television affiliates as a health reporter. Watching the phenomena from her own home—which offers a panoramic view of the city and the skies over Phoenix—the doctor and former reporter moved from skeptic to convinced believer as she observed and photographed the UFOs.
As days passed, she was shocked to note that the phenomena that she had seen with her own eyes and documented with her camera were not taken seriously by many of those who were in power. In fact, then-governor Fife Symington wore to his press conference a hat shaped like an alien creature as he downplayed the otherworldly visitation.
Kitei just had to get the word out. She brought together her documentation—along with a wide-ranging overview of the history of UFOs—in the 2004 edition of this book. Now her new, expanded and updated edition of The Phoenix Lights: A Skeptic’s Discovery that We Are Not Alone provides startling new testimony about the event. Here, a military pilot confirms that he saw the lights. Moon-walking astronaut, Dr. Edgar Mitchell, attests that these phenomena are real. And even former governor Symington admits that he was witness to something that was out of this world.
Kitei also documents the experience of “missing time,” which she and many others have undergone in the face of observing UFOs, and she writes about the failed attempt of our military to reproduce the phenomena that were seen in Phoenix. And that’s not all. She also presents information about similar phenomena observed elsewhere and brings together quotes from distinguished experts about the existence of these otherworldly “unknowns.”
Whether you open this book as a skeptic or a believer, by the time you turn the last page, you’re bound to be convinced that we Earthlings are not alone.
Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch
DAW, $7.99, 389pp, pb, 9780756406004. Science fiction.
It was just another day in Arizona—and then the monster showed up.…
Marketing manager Katherine “Kitty” Katt had just finished a day on jury duty. When she stepped out of the Pueblo Caliente courthouse, all she was thinking about was the work she had to get caught up on. Then her attention was caught by a fight between a couple—a domestic dispute that looked like it was about to turn ugly. But ugly didn’t even begin to cover it when the “man” suddenly transformed into a huge, winged monster right out of a grade Z science fiction movie and went on a deadly killing spree. In hindsight, Kitty realized she probably should have panicked and run screaming the way everyone around her was doing. Instead she got mad, searched her purse for a weapon, and, armed with a Mont Blanc pen, sprinted into action to take down the alien.
In the middle of all the screeching and the ensuing chaos, a tall handsome hunk of a guy in an Armani suit suddenly appeared beside her, examined the body, introduced himself as Jeff Martini with “the agency,” called out to an Armani-clad colleague to perform crowd control, and then insisted on leading her to a nearby limo to talk to his “boss.”
And that was how Kitty’s new life among the aliens began.…
Descent into Dust by Jacqueline Lepore
Avon, $13.99, 375pp, tp, 9780061878121. Fantasy.
Twenty-five year-old widow Emma Andrews has no idea what danger awaits her when she arrives at her cousin’s country manor in the dreary March of 1862. The locals are dying of a strange “wasting disease”, cryptic Latin inscriptions are written in odd places around the manor house, and Emma’s young niece, Henrietta, claims she is communicating with a ghost named Marius. When Emma starts seeing specters, she’s not sure if she has inherited her mother’s legendary madness, or if what she’s seeing is real.
Only handsome stranger and mysterious fellow manor guest Valerian Fox can help Emma discover the truth. For, in Descent into Dust, the first installment of a new historical gothic series by debut author Jacqueline Lepore, Emma will discover that she has a special destiny: she is Dhampir—a vampire hunter.
And when the life of young Henrietta falls into jeopardy, Emma will be forced to accept the inheritance that runs through her blood… and enter a shadowy world of unimagined evil, dark mythology, and a foe known only as The Dracula.
Combining the pulse-pounding paranormal adventure of Kim Harrison, the intricate mythology of Anne Rice, and the gas-list shadows of Victorian England, Descent into Dust is just the beginning for an unforgettable new heroine.
Cyberstealth by S.N. Lewitt
Fantastic, $14.99, 208pp, tp, 9781604599183. Science fiction.
Cyberstealth pilots. The best of the breed. The only problem: one’s a traitor.…
Cargo’s a down-and-dirty street kid with a crash-and-burn future—until the Bishop offers him a shot at the stars. A chance to fly a batwing, the ultimate in stealth technology. A ship as much at home at sea level as in deepest space, it is the deadliest flying machine mankind’s ever created.
Cargo’s the pilot; the alien Ghoster, his eyes. They’re the elite, a top-gun team fusing their skills and talents with a machine that knows no limits. It’s the dream of a lifetime.
But street rules apply to the stars as well-and even ace jobs don’t come free.
First, there’s a war to be fought. Then, the death of a friend closer than a brother. And someone in Cargo’s squadron is a spy… one who’s leaking stealth technology to the enemy.
Cyberstealth… it has its costs.
Ghosts of Manhattan by George Mann
Pyr, $16.00, 240pp, tp, 9781616141943. Fantasy.
Introducing the world’s first steampunk superhero.
1926. New York. The Roaring Twenties. Jazz. Flappers. Prohibition. Coal-powered cars. A cold war with a British Empire that still covers half of the globe. Yet things have developed differently to established history. America is in the midst of a cold war with a British Empire that has only just buried Queen Victoria, her life artificially preserved to the age of 107. Coal-powered cars roar along roads thick with pedestrians, biplanes take off from standing with primitive rocket boosters and monsters lurk behind closed doors and around every corner. This is a time in need of heroes. It is a time for The Ghost.
A series of targeted murders are occurring all over the city, the victims found with ancient Roman coins placed on their eyelids after death. The trail appears to lead to a group of Italian-American gangsters and their boss, who the mobsters have dubbed “The Roman”. However, as The Ghost soon discovers, there is more to The Roman than at first appears, and more bizarre happenings that he soon links to the man, including moss-golems posing as mobsters and a plot to bring an ancient pagan god into the physical world in a cavern beneath the city. As The Ghost draws nearer to The Roman and the center of his dangerous web, he must battle with foes both physical and supernatural and call on help from the most unexpected of quarters if he is to stop The Roman and halt the imminent destruction of the city.
Starfinder by John Marco
(a Skylords novel), DAW, $7.99, 324pp, pb, 9780756406102. Fantasy.
Another World
Young Moth had grown up in Calio, the mountain city—and he considered himself lucky to live in this very special place. For in Calio a man could be a Skyknight, one of the elite pilots who flew the fragile, beautiful, newfangled flying machines called dragonflies. Any man who dreamed of flying belonged in only one place, Calio, the city on the edge of the world. And young Moth, who had worked at the aerodrome since he was ten, wanted to fly more than anything.
To the north of Calio stretched the Reach, looking like a sea of fog that never ended. There were numerous tall tales about the lands beyond the Reach, and Moth heard the oddest of them regularly now that he was living with Leroux. When Moth was ten, and first taken in by Leroux, he had been especially fascinated by Leroux’s stories of the Skylords, but at the grown-up age of thirteen, Moth was becoming increasingly skeptical about the existence of these mysterious, powerful, and frightening beings from beyond the Reach.
But Moth’s life was about to change in ways he could not even imagine, and soon the land of the Skylords would become more real and more threatening than the most outlandish tales Leroux could have spun. For soon Moth would have a key to another world—the world beyond the Reach.…
The Wolfman novelization by Jonathan Maberry
Tor, $9.99, 343pp, tp, 9780765365163. Movie tie-in.
The Wolfman is one of the great classics of modern horror. Now, Tor Books is proud to present The Wolfman, a terrifying new novelization written by award-winning horror author Jonathan Maberry and based on the screenplay for the upcoming action-horror film written by Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self, which is based on the 1941 motion picture screenplay by Curt Siodmak. Tor Books developed the novelization through a licensing agreement with Universal Partnerships & Licensing.
Inspired by the classic Universal film that launched a legacy of horror, The Wolfman brings the myth of a cursed man back to its legendary origins. Benicio Del Toro stars as Lawrence Talbot, a haunted nobleman lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reuinted with his estranged father, Sir John (Anthony Hopkins), Talbot sets out to find his brother… and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself.
Lawrence Talbot’s childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother’s fiancee, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt), tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline (Hugo Weaving) has come to investigate.
As Talbot pieces together the gory puzzle, he hears of an ancient curse that turns the afflicted into werewolves when the moon is full. Now, ifhe has any chance of ending the slaughter and protecting the woman he has grown to love, Talbot must destroy the vicious creature in the woods surrounding Blackmoor. But after he is bitten by the nightmarish beast, a simple man with a tortured past will uncover a primal side of himself… one he never imagined existed.
Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories by Sandra McDonald
Lethe, $15.00, 284pp, tp, 9781590210949. Fantasy collection. On-sale date: June 2010.
A writer of whimsy and passion, Sandra McDonald has collected her most evocative short fiction to offer readers in Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories. A beautiful adventuress from the ancient ocity of New Dalli sets off to reclaim her missing lover. What secrets does she hide beneath her silk shirts? A gay cowboy flees the Great War in search of true love and the elusive undead poet Whit Waltman, but at what cost? A talking statue sends an abused boy spinning through a great metropolis, dodging pirates and search for a home. On these quests, you will meet macho firefighters, tiny fairies, collapsible musicians, lady devils and vengeful sea witches. These are stories to stir the heart and imagination.
McDonald’s stories have appeared in many national, small press and online magazines and anthologies including Asimov’s, Strange Horizons, Realms of Fantasy and Best New Paranormal Romance. She is the author of a series of novels—The Outback Stars, The Stars Down Under, and The Stars Blue Yonder—about an Australian military lieutenant, her handsome sergeant, and their adventures in deep space.
[Contents: “Graybeard and the Sea”; “Diana Comet and the Disappearing Lover”; “Pieter and the Sea Witch”; “In the Land of Massasoit”; “Fay and the Goddesses”; “Diana Comet and the Lovesick Cowboy”; “What You Wish For”; “The Goddess and Lieutenant Teague”; “The Fireman’s Fairy”; “Nets of Silver and Gold”; “The Instrument”; “Kingdom Coming”; “Diana Comet & the Collapsible Orchestra”; and “Women of the Lace”.]
The Immune by Doc Lucky Meisenheimer
LJS&S, $23.95, 384pp, hc, 9780966761221. Science fiction. On-sale date: 13 May 2011.
In the not-so-distant future, a biological crisis becomes a threat of international importance in The Immune. Biogenetically manufactured organisms (known as airwars) attack and kill at random. Despite having captured and sequestered the airwar’s creator, a hastily formed world government appears more effective in consolidating power than managing the crisis.
Hope emerges when a navy admiral discovers there are individuals born genetically immune to the deadly stings of the creatures. As the “immunes” struggle to protect humanity, they bemoan escalating governmental control. There is, however, one key “immune” with the intelligence and leadership to look beyond the crisis. As the government unfolds its secret plans to end the crisis, the destined future of humanity may well rest on his shoulders.
Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve
Scholastic, $17.99, 336pp, hc, 9780545207195. YA SF.
Scholastic is proud to publish Fever Crumb, a post-apocalyptic novel for teens set in the world of Reeve’s acclaimed Mortal Engines series, which the Daily Telegraph called “[U]tterly captivating in its imaginative scope and energy.” Haunting, arresting, and astonishingly original, Fever Crumb will delight and surprise readers at every fast-paced, breathless turn.
Fourteen-year-old Fever Crumb was adopted and raised by Dr. Crumb, a member of the Order of Engineers, where she serves as apprentice. Soon though, she must say good-bye to Dr. Crumb—nearly the only person she’s ever known—to assist archaeologist Kit Solent on a top-secret project. As her work begins, Fever is plagued by memories that are not her own, and Kit seems to have a particular interest in finding out what they are. Fever has also been singled out by city dwellers, who declare that she is part Scriven.
The Scriveners, not human, ruled the city some years ago but were hunted down and killed in a victorious uprising by the people. If there are any remaining Scriven, they are to be eliminated. All Fever knows is what she’s been told: that she is an orphan. But is Fever a Scriven? And Scriven or not, whose memories does she hold?
The Business of Science Fiction by Mike Resnick and Barry N. Malzberg
McFarland, $35.00, 270pp, tp, 9780786447978. Non-fiction. On-sale date: July 2010.
Two prolific and award-winning science fiction writers, Mike Resnick and Barry N. Malzberg, have been publishing a “Dialogue” in every issue of the SFWA Bulletin, official publication of the Science Fiction Writers of America, for more than a decade. These collected columns explore every aspect of the literary genre, from writing to marketing to publishing, combining wit and insight with decades of experience in 25 topics.
Mike Resnick has been named Locus magazine’s all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short science fiction. He is the author of 58 novels, 225 short stories, and 2 screenplays, and is the editor of 48 anthologies. Barry N. Malzberg is the author of more than 90 books and has edited science fiction anthologies and magazines. He won the first John Campbell Memorial Award, has won two Locus Awards for essay collections, and is a Hugo and Nebula Award nominee.
WWW: Watch by Robert J. Sawyer
(sequel to WWW: Wake), Ace, $24.95, 368pp, hc, 9780441018185. Science fiction.
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…
The Road Through Wonderland: Surviving John Holmes by Dawn Schiller
Medallion, $15.95, 474pp, tp, 9781605420837. Non-fiction biography.
In the middle of the 1970s pornography craze, John Holmes emerged on the film scene and skyrocketed to fame with his trademark body and style. While entrapped in a world of exploitation, money, and substance abuse, Holmes captured the heart of an innocent teenager named Dawn Schiller. Passionate and physical, their unorthodox relationship escalated into love and then dive-bombed into violence. Often under the influence of cocaine, Holmes no longer acted in his right mind and succumbed to the pressures of his high-profile career. Separated by his wife, Sharon, and ensnared by the notorious drug lord Eddie Nash, Holmes was eventually arrested for his affiliation with Nash during the time the Los Angeles Wonderland murders occurred in 1981. Holmes was acquitted, but he died of complications from AIDS in 1988.
The Road through Wonderland is Schiller’s autobiographical account of her volatile years with Holmes. Her story was first seen in the 2003 movie Wonderland, starring Val Kilmer and Kate Bosworth. Affection and outrage permeate her memories of a lover caught up in a legal sex-trade profession that degraded his body as well as his soul. Schiller paints a realistic picture of a dangerous Hollywood subculture fighting the hangover of overindulgence in a decade that condoned overconsumption to the point of madness.
Few have seen the private side of John Holmes. Fewer still have heard the inspiring story of a young girl, caught up in a lifestyle of drugs and insanity, who overcame her past and ultimately became a powerful example of the courage and resiliency of the human spirit.
Cthuluhu’s Reign edited by Darrell Schweitzer
DAW, $7.99, 309pp, pb, 9780756406165. Fantasy anthology.
Some of the darkest hints in all of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthuluhu Mythos relate to what will happen after the Old Ones return and take over the Earth. In “The Dunwich Horror,” the semi-human half-breed Wilbur Whateley speaks in his dairy of traveling to nonhuman cities at the Earth’s magnetic poles “when the Earth is cleared off,” and hints at his own promised “transfiguration.” Very few Mythos stories have ever touched on this. What happens when the Stars Are Right, the sunken city of R’lyeh rises from beneath the waves, and Cthulhu is unleashed upon the world for the last time? What happens when the other Old Ones, long since banished from our universe, break through and descend from the stars? What would the reign of Cthulhu be like, on a totally transformed planet where mankind is no longer the master?
It won’t be simply the end of everything. It will be a time of new horrors and of utter strangeness. It will be a time when humans with a “taint” of unearthly blood in their ancestry may come into their own. It will be a time foreseen only by authors with the kind of finely honed imaginative visions as those included in Cthulhu’s Reign.
[Contributors: Ian Watson, Don Webb, Mike Allen, Ken Asamatsu, Will Murray, Matt Cardin, Darrell Schweitzer, John R. Fultz, John Langan, Jay Lake, Gregory Frost, Brian Stableford, Laird Barron, Richard A. Lupoff, and Fred Chappell.]
The Last Man by Mary Shelley
Fantastic, $10.95, 362pp, tp, 9781604599350. Classics/post-apocalyptic fiction.
Mary Shelley founded modern science fiction with her 1816 classic Frankenstein. A decade later, she inaugurated the subgenre of post-apocalyptic sf with the less-lauded and less-known The Last Man. Shelley used the found-manuscript trope for this book, claiming to have discovered a series of seemingly connected stories on various pages in the Cumaean Sibyl’s Cave, and stitched them together into this originally three-volume work. The story told here, of a far-future (late 21st century), is related by the last man, the sole survivor of a planet-wide plague that has brought an end to human civilization.
The Last Man was published during a more optimistic time, and arrived on the scene to poor reviews and poor sales, perhaps because it was a novel out of time. It languished for a century and a half, until its scholarly rediscovery in the 1960s, which had its own pessimistic outlook. Now, in an era where global disaster through causes seen or unforeseen becomes increasingly plausible, Shelley’s tale of the “stormy and ruin-fraught passions of man” finds a new home, and a new audience.
The Last Man is published here complete and unabridged, in one volume, with Shelley’s own footnotes and introduction.
Secrets in the Fields: The Science and Mysticism of Crop Circles by Freddy Silva
Hampton Roads, $24.95, 333pp, tp, 9781751743220. New Age/Earth Mysteries.
For years, people have been both fascinated and mystified by complex designs that suddenly appear at night on fields of grain. Nobody knows how they got there, or why. They leave the grain stalks in flattened swirls, virtually undamaged. They exhibit mathematical precision; they demonstrate principles of geometry and portray ancient religious symbols. Since the 1980s, some 10,000 crop circles have appeared, seemingly by magic. Each year the count grows and the designs get more intricate, even fantastic.
Secrets in the Fields provides the most thoroughly researched, most comprehensive account of crop circles ever published. For the first time, readers are offered the complete history of the phenomenon, the anomalies that defy the boundaries of science, the source, and why they are here now.
Illustrated with over 400 images and diagrams—including a photo of a Circle-maker—this is a book for anyone interested in the Gnostic mysteries, sacred geometry, sound, physics and metaphysics, ancient symbolism, subtle energies, ancient sacred sties, UFOs, Earth cycles and 2012 prophecies. It provides information on:
* How to distinguish a hoax from an authentic crop circle.
* The role of UFOs/aliens in the creation of crop circles.
* What crop circles might mean.
* How a theory of music may account for their creation.
Pythagoras: His Life and Teachings: A Compendium of Classical Sources by Thomas Stanley (edited by James Wasserman and J. Daniel Gunther)
Ibis, $24.95, 410pp, tp, 9780892541607. Biography, History, Philosophy.
The timeless brilliance of Thomas Stanley’s exhaustive study of the life and teachings of Pythagoras remains as enlightening today as it was when it was first published in 1687. Add to that editing and rendering of the work into more contemporary English and the result is a truly readable and approacable volume for today’s reader.
Unquestionably the most comprehensive study fo the great philosopher, this massive and magisterial work makes it clear why Pythagoras is known as the Father of Philosophy. Pythagoras: His Life and Teachings tells us that the great philosopher was celebrated in his own day as well as ours. His contemporaries even called him “the divine Pythagoras.” While many people today think of this genius as a great mathematician with special talents in geometry, Pythagoras also made significant contributions to the fields of religion, mysticism, symbolic numbers, philosophy, music, astronomy, politics, health, and nutrition. He also founded a spiritual academy in which active intellectual curriculum was augmented by a highly disciplined program of character development—making it one of the true Mystery schools of the ancient world.
Illustrated with diagrams by Stanley, modern geometrical figures, and depictions of ancient coins from Pythagoras’ day, this book is an excellent introduction to a seminal figure in world history.
A King of Infinite Space by Allen Steele
Fantastic, $14.99, 292pp, tp, 9781604599190. Science fiction.
“This is the story of the last day of my life, and everything that happened after that.”
Back in print after a decade, A King of Infinite Space is the final volume of Allen Steele’s award-winning Near-Space series, and a cult-favorite among readers. Ranging from a Lollapalooza concert of 1995 to the asteroid belt of 2099, it’s the tale of a young man who dies, becomes reborn, and crosses the solar system in search of his lost love… and grows to be a better man, despite himself.
Theater of Illusion by Kathy Steffen
Medallion, $15.95, 342pp, tp, 9781605420868. Historical fiction. On-sale date: August 2010.
Raised by an abusive father who believed he wielded the power of God, Sarah Perkins suffered a traumatic childhood, and then witnessed his murder as her mother killed him to save an innocent victim from his incoherent rage. Immersed in a twisted religion that supported traditional gender roles at the expense of human life, Jared Perkins died vowing revenge.
Ten years later in 1910, this independent and ambitious woman embarks on an adventure aboard the Spirit of the River, the premier paddleboat on the Ohio and Mississippi. All her life she dreamed of piloting this ship and spent hours behind the wheel under the supervision of the captain. Jeremy Smith, her friendly rival and romantic interest, beats her to the license, removing the challenge from her existence. In defiance of her upbringing, Sarah longs to prove that she’s as good as a man. She resents being sidelined because she’s a woman, but on this trip she gets her wish.
Sarah is put to the test in ways a pilot cannot imagine when a Russian member of Le Theatre d’Illusion, a traveling troupe of entertainers, disappears under suspicious circumstances. While a mysterious illness afflicts the passengers, resulting in incapacitation and death, time is running out. A thrilling excursion turns into madness and mayhem aboard this early twentieth-century cruise through hell.
Dragonfly Falling by Adrian Tchaikovsky
(Shadows of the Apt: Book 2), Pyr, $16.00, 468pp, tp, 9781616141950. Fantasy.
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.
Mission of Honor by David Weber
(an Honor Harrington novel), Baen, $27.00, 608pp, hc, 9781439133613. Science fiction. On-sale date: July 2010.
The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven have been enemies for Honor Harrington’s entire life, and she has paid a price for the victories she’s achieved in that conflict. And now the unstoppable juggernaut of the mighty Solarian League is on a collision course with Manticore. The millions who have already died may have been only a foretaste of the billions of casualties just over the horizon, and Honor sees it coming.
She’s prepared to do anything, risk anything, to stop it, and she has a plan that may finally bring an end to the Havenite Wars and give even the Solarian League pause. But there are things not even Honor knows about. There are forces in play, hidden enemies in motion, all converging on the Star Kingdom of Manticore to crush the very life out of it, and Honor’s worst nightmares fall short of the oncoming reality.
But Manticore’s enemies may not have thought of everything after all. Because if everything Honor Harrington loves is going down to destruction, it won’t be going alone.