This page is updated as books are received throughout the month.
Destroyermen: Rising Tides by Taylor Anderson
Roc, $25.95, 434pp, hc, 9780451463883. Science fiction.
In Taylor Anderson’s acclaimed Destroyermen series, a parallel universe adds an extraordinary layer to the drama of World War II.
And as Lieutenant Commander Matthew Reddy and the crew of USS Walker, continue their battle for both freedom and survival, the stakes become much more personal.…
Reddy has found an unlikely buy invaluable ally in Commodore Jenks of the New Britain Imperial Navy. And now they are united in their desire to hunt down the traitor who abducted two women both men would die to protect: Reddy’s love, nurse Sandra Tucker, and young Princess Rebecca of the New British Empire.
But first they have a new battle to win.
However, this battle will not be fought with broadsides and broadswords, but with cunning and intrigue. For when Reddy and Jenks report the situation to the New Britain Company, they are met with scorn and disbelief. It soon becomes obvious that the ruthless Company is attempting to overthrow the Imperial Throne—and that someone involved knows where Sandra and Rebecca are.
From the halls of power to the ballrooms of the nobility, Reddy must navigate through a tempest of politics, deception, and betrayal if he is ever going to save the hostages and live to fight another day.…
Zombiesque edited by Stephen L. Antczak, James C. Bassett, and Martin H. Greenberg
DAW, $7.99, 312pp, pb, 9780756406585. Fantasy anthology.
Zombies have long stalked and staggered through the darkest depths of human imagination, pandering to our fears about death and what lies beyond. But must zombies always be just shambling, brain-obsessed ghouls? If zombies actually maintained some level of personality and intelligence, what would they want more than anything? Could zombies integrate themselves into society? Could society accept zombies? What if a zombie fell in love?
These are just some of the questions explored in original stories that take readers from a tropical resort where visitors can become temporary zombies, to a new-made zombie determined to protect those he loves, to a cheerleader who won’t let death kick her off the team, to a zombie seeking revenge for the ancestors who died on an African slave ship. Here’s your chance to take a walk on the undead side in these unforgettable tales told from a zombie’s point of view.…
[Contributors: Nancy A. Collins, Charles Pinion, Tim Waggoner, Richard Lee Byers, Robert Sommers, Seanan McGuire, G.K. Hayes, Jim C. Hines, Sean Taylor, Jean Rabe, Gregory Nicoll, Del Stone Jr., S. Boyd Taylor, Laszlo Xalieri, Nancy Holder, and Wendy Webb.]
Demonstorm by James Barclay
(Legends of the Raven 3), Pyr, $17.00, 405pp, tp, 9781616142520. Fantasy.
This is the end.… The dragons have gone home, the elves are safe. The Raven have kept their promises. But fate has not finished with them.
As the war between the colleges rages on, an old enemy senses that his chance to revenge a bitter defeat has come. Tessaya, Lord of the Paleon Tribes, has waited patiently for his moment and now, with Balaia in flames, he makes his move and unleashes the Wesmen hordes. In Xetesk, his forces scattered, Dystran, Lord of the Mount, faces certain defeat by the Wesmen unless he unleashes the horrifying power of dimensional magics. And Dystran has not come this far to be beaten at the last by a rabble of ignorant tribesmen. And so the veil between dimensions is torn.… And beyond, a predatory evil stirs. Demons catch the scent of countless souls in Balaia.
Can even The Raven prevail when the world is coming to an end? A fantasy milestone is reached. James Barclay brings his sensational saga of The Raven to a heart-stopping conclusion.
Daybreak Zero by John Barnes
(sequel to Directive 51), Ace, $26.95, 400pp, hc, 9780441019755. Science fiction. On-sale date: 1 March 2011.
It has been ten months since the mysteriously organized entity known as “Daybreak” began its assault on the “Big System.” For the most part, its attempts to knock humanity back in to the Stone Age have been largely successful, as plastic-eating biotes and metal-corroding nanoswarms have rendered most preexisting technology and equipment into sludge.
Several major nuclear attacks have also destroyed nearly all existing government officials, sending the few who are left scrambling to rebuild the country according to their own designs. While trying to avoid a second Civil War, the two centers of civilization in Olympia, WA and Athens, GA must also defend their citizens against the increasing aggression of the “tribals” who have reverted to anarchical barbarianism. The future is a harsh and terrifying place, where an unlikely few must fight not only for their lives but for the survival of the human race.
Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? by Max Brallier
Gallery, $16.00, 384pp, tp, 9781451607758. Fiction.
Inside the pages of Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? lies unspeakable horror—bone-crunching, blood-splattering, brain-impaling horror—the horror of the zombie apocalypse.
But this time, YOU—the reader—get to make the decisions. Written in a Choose Your Own Path format, Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? is the first of its kind to enter the zombie genre, placing the reader’s destiny in his own hands with 150 paths, 75 endings, and countless references making homage to the zombie culture which preceded it.
Zombies have invaded New York City, and you’re a twenty-fjive year old who’s willing to do what it takes to stay alive and keep your overprices studio apartment.
You have choices to make—lots of them.
If you want to grab the shotgun and head for the roof, turn to page 35.
Stay in the city and begin looting? Flip to page 80.
Steel a car, cross the George Washington Bridge, and head for the countryside? Flip to page 45.
If you want to ignore the call and start pounding beers, turn to page 190.
Head down to Union Square and try to escape with the military? Turn to page 326.
If you’ve got balls the size of coconuts and you want to risk your life to save the boy, turn to page 96.
Will you join the Hell’s Angels, hang with zombie strippers, or watch some Zombie Yankees play baseball? Try to escape to Brooklyn, or swim to Staten Island?
Perfectly combining the nostalgia of a classic series with the blockbuster zombie genre, Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? is a 100% original take on the ever-increasingly popular genre of zombie literature.
Blackveil by Kristen Britain
(the sequel to The High King’s Tomb), DAW, $25.95, 720pp, hc, 9780756406608. Fantasy.
Over a millennium ago, Mornhavon the Black, heir to the Arcosian Empire, crossed the great sea hoping to replenish his depleted country by conquering the rich lands of Sacoridia. Bot Mornhavon underestimated the defenders of this faraway land, and after years of siege, Mornhavon and his armies were vanquished—but not before their general had descended into madness and resorted to desperate, dark magics that rendered his twisted spirit immortal. Finally, Mornhavon had been captured and imprisoned in Blackveil Forest, and Blackveil’s perimeter had been enclosed and protected by the magical D’Yer Wall.
For the thousand years since the end of that Long War, Blackveil Forest has been a dangerous place—corrupted by the spirit of this eternally malicious entity, its flora and fauna twisted in monstrous ways. But int he many centuries since the war’s end, knowledge of the working of magic has slowly disappeared from Sacoridia, due to the fear and prejudice of a people traumatized by the memory of the terrifying sorceries of Mornhavon’s invading army. Even the protective magic that created and maintained the D’Yer Wall has been lost.
Karigan G’ladheon is a Green Rider—a seasoned member of the elite messenger corps of King Zachary of Sacoridia. Though Karigan was recruited to the Riders seemingly by chance, she has achieved more than any Rider since the corps was founded during the Long War, and has even been made a Knight of the Realm—the first to be so honored in over two hundred years. Karigan wears the magical brooch of the First Rider, an artifact that enables her to “gade,” sometimes to the point of traversing the barriers of time and space. Because of this extraordinary ability, she was able to enter Blackveil and transport the spirit of Mornhavon into the future, buying precious time for her country. Time for the Riders to scour the land searching for lost magical documents, and for members of Clan D’Yer to study the wall, hoping to uncover the secrets of their ancestors.
Farlander by Col Buchanan
(Book One of the Heart of the World), Tor, $24.99, 400pp, hc, 9780765331052. Fantasy.
Debut novelist Col Buchanan gives us a gripping story that grabs you and pulls you through to the astonishing conclusion in the first book of his Heart of the World series, Farlander. The Heart of the World is torn by strife. The Holy Empire of Mann, ruled by the Holy Matriarch Sasheen, marches its way across the world, conquering nation after nation and leaving behind priests and diplomats trained as subtle predators.
The Holy Empire only seems invincible and eternal. In an act of sheer hubris, the son of the Holy Matriarch murders a noblewoman who has purchased the protection of the Roshun, an elite group of assassins who fulfill their contracts through vendetta. Ash, a once legendary but now aging assassin, is the Roshun charged with killing one of the most powerful men in the world. However, he can’t do it alone.
Advancing age and deteriorating health have plagued Ash’s declining years, and the sudden charge forces him to do something he swore he would never do: take an apprentice. Fate brings him Nico, a young runaway living in a besieged city, slowly starving to death. Even knowing the dangers, Nico joins eagerly, thinking that any life is better than the one he had stealing scraps.
As Ash and his young apprentice work to fulfill their orders, the two assassins are set on a path that may destroy an empire and irrevocably change the world. Farlander is epic fantasy at its most surprising, filled with enticing characters, a gripping plot, and beautifully imagined landscapes that all come together in a conclusion that will shock, surprise, and absolutely undermine the expectations of any fan of the genre, leaving readers clamoring for more. It’s a perfect read for fans of Mark Charan Newton, Brent Weeks, and Steven Erikson.
The Books of Umber: The End of Time by P.W. Catanese
Aladdin, $16.99, 421pp, hc, 9781416975205. YA Fantasy.
Get ready for the third and final installment in the critically acclaimed Books of Umber fantasy trilogy, when the adventures of Happenstance and Umber reach their epic, surprising, and emotional conclusion. As Happenstance struggles to master his unusual abilities, he realizes that time is running out—because Umber’s rivals threaten to undo all the good he has achieved, while an unexpected new enemy with terrible destructive power approaches the kingdom.
Hap still cannot control the powers he must master in order to save Umber’s old world from destruction, and time is running out. Umber’s magnificent home, the Aerie, and the life Hap enjoys there with Umber and his friends are under siege.
A hostile king threatens to strip Umber of his influence. Deep under the Aerie, the imprisoned sorceress Turiana is predicting unspeakable disaster. Umber himself has unwittingly unleashed menacing creatures whose small size belies their awesome power. And for Hap, a life-or-death battle with a mighty enemy looms. But most frightening of all is the mysterious threat from the distant Far Continent, with powers of destruction beyond anything Hap’s world has ever seen.
To fulfill his destiny, Hap must abandon everything he holds most dear—and undertake a terrifying heroic journey that will leave nothing as it was before.
The memorable characters, fantastic creatures, and fast-paced action readers embraced in Happenstance Found and Dragon Games are all here in the heart-stopping conclusion to P.W. Catanese’s acclaimed series The Books of Umber.
Tourquai by Tim Davys
(Book Three of the Mollisan Town Quartet), Harper, $19.99, 336pp, hc, 9780061797453. Fantasy.
The third book in Tim Davys’ Mollisan Town quartet, Tourquai follows the fictional neighborhood of the same name, which is inhabited by stuffed animals that are neither cuddly nor sweet. Oswald Vulture, a rich and powerful fiance mogul, is one of these stuffed animals. When he is found beheaded in his office, it sets off a chain of events for the stuffed animal citizens of Mollisan Town that questions whether they are free or whether they are ruled by destiny.
In Tourquai, Superintendent Larry Bloodhound is the keeper of the peace and rule of the streets. But what he soon learns is that some rich stuffed animals—animals whose place amongst the elite wield them power and money—are often above the law. The day Oswald Vulture is found headless in his pristine office on the top floor of the most impressive building in Mollisan Town, Bloodhound knows this will not be a normal murder investigation.
Along with his team—Anna Lynx and Falcon Ecu—and with the help of his closest friend and private investigator Phillip Mouse, Bloodhound must infiltrate the world of the privileged, face his own weaknesses, find Vulture’s head, and solve the case. But which animal could have removed the head so precisely if no one was seen entering or leaving Vulture’s office? The suspects start to build up including Vulture’s slithery and sexy secretary Emanuelle Cobra, his seductive mistress Jasmine Squirrel, and Igor Panda, a stuffed animal whose gambling debts may have pushed him to do the unthinkable.
Like Davys’ previous novels, Tourquai weaves together an intricate plot and tackles problems—such as class issues, drug problems, and unrequited love—that reveal greater truths about the world of humans.
The King of the Crags by Stephen Deas
(The Memory of Flams, Book II), Roc, $25.95, 386pp, hc, 9780451463760. Fantasy.
Stephen Deas’ The King of Crags is a fast moving and action-fuelled fantasy that has everything readers are looking for—great characters, palace intrigue, heart-stopping battles and incredible dragons. The King of Crags is the stunning follow-up novel to Stephen Deas’ The Adamantine Palace, which received glowing reviews upon its release.
In The Adamantine Palace< Prince Jehal murdered, poisoned and betrayed his way to the top. In The King of Crags, as the new speaker for the realms, Prince Jehal’s opposition has been crushed and now all he has to do is enjoy the fruits of power. But although he married his now wife for power, Prince Jehal feels more for her than he should and his lover senses this much. He cannot rest easy on the throne because he is aware that out in the realms those loyal to the old regime are still plotting against him. Plus, there are rumours that the Red Riders, heralds of revolution and doom, are on the rise. The famous white dragon may still be alive—the dragon that, if it lived, will have long since recovered from the effects of the alchemical liquid fed to the dragons of the realms to keep them docile, to block their memories of a time when they ruled and the world burned. The empire is falling and the dragons are on the rise!
Dragon’s Ring by Dave Freer
Baen, $7.99, 448pp, pb, 9781439134115. Fantasy.
Bet on the black… dragon
Tasmarin is a place of dragons, where dragons can be dragons and humans can be dinner. Fionn—the black dragon—calmly tells anyone who will listen that he’s going to destroy the place. Of course he’s a joker, a troublemaker and a dragon of no fixed abode. No one ever believes him. But he’s dead serious.
Others strive to refresh the magics that built Tasmarin. The problem is they need a human mage, and dragons systematically eliminated those centuries ago. Their augury has revealed that there is one, and they seek her desperately. Unfortunately, she’s fallen in with Fionn, who has his own reasons and dark designs.
The part he hadn’t worked out is that she will affect his plans too. Chaos, roguery, heroism, theft, love, kidnapping, magic and war follow. And more chaos.
Pale Demon by Kim Harrison
Harper Voyager, $26.99, 439pp, hc, 9780061138065. Fantasy.
An Elf, a Pixie, a Living Vampire and a Witch Take a Cross-Country Road Trip…
With more than 2.5 million copies currently in print of her bestselling Hollows novels, New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison is one of the leading voices in urban fantasy. And, now in the proud tradition of Jack Kerouac (a very twisted Jack Kerouac) and American Gods, Kim takes her fiction for a road trip… begging the question, what happens when an elf, a pixie, a living vampire and a witch who dabbles in black magic are forced to travel 2300 miles cross-country (in three days or less), jammed into an ’89 blue Buick?
Hell on wheels.
Pale Demon brings Rachel Morgan out of The Hollows, a surreal cityscape reminiscent of Cincinnati. She’s got less than three days to get to the annual witches convention in San Francisco, where she will be tried before a jury of her peers for working black magic. Worst case scenario: Rachel, if convicted, will be condemned to death. And there are a lot of demons in Hell who’d like to see her in the ever-after.
Banned from the airways, Rachel’s options for getting across the country are slim, until she grudgingly agrees to travel with elven tycoon Trent Kalamack, who has his own secret agenda on the West Coast.
Coming along with the duo are Rachel’s associates, the living vampire Ivy and Jenks, a pixy… and legions of assassins out to ensure they never reach their destination. .The fun really starts when someone frees a fearsome, day-walking demon from his eternal prison under the Arch in St. Louis. It’s been a rough couple of millennia and this soul-devourer is hungry for vengeance… and Rachel is his ultimate prize. While this powerful witch with nerves of steel will do absolutely anything to stay alive, even embracing her own demonic nature may not be enough to save her.
From the Midwest to Albuquerque and the Petrified Forest; from Las Vegas to Hell’s Kitchen (the newly gentrified NYC neighborhood has nothing on this veritable Inferno of appetite), Pale Demon is an epic journey through an alternate America where to venture off the highway is to flirt with death… bringing a whole new level of meaning to “off-road adventuring.”
Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb
Harper Voyager, $7.99, 494pp, pb, 9780061561658. Fantasy.
Too much time has passed since the powerful dragon Tintaglia helped the people of the Trader cities stave off an invasion of their enemies. The Traders have forgotten their promises, weary of the labor and expense of tending earthbound dragons who were hatched weak and deformed by a river turned toxic. If neglected, the creatures will rampage—or die—so it is decreed that they must move farther upriver toward Kelsingra, the mythical homeland whose location is locked deep within the dragons’ uncertain ancestral memories.
Thymara, an unschooled forest girl, and Alise, wife of an unloving and wealthy Trader, are among the disparate group entrusted with escorting the dragons to their new home. And on an extraordinary odyssey with no promise of return, many lessons will be learned—as dragons and tenders alike experience hardships, betrayals… and joys beyond their wildest imaginings.
Burton & Swinburn in: The
Curious Case of the Clockwork Man by Mark Hodder
Pyr, $16.00, 364pp, tp, 9781616143596. Steampunk. On-sale date: March 2011.
It is 1862, though not the 1862 it should be…
Time has been altered, and Sir Richard Francis Burton, the king’s agent, is one of the few people who know that the world is now careening along a very different course from that which Destiny intended.
When a clockwork-powered man of brass if found abandoned in Trafalgar Square, Burton and his assistant, the wayward poet Algernon Swinburne, find themselves on the trail of the stolen Garnier Collection—black diamonds rumored to be fragments of the Lemurian Eye of Naga, a meteorite that fell to Earth in prehistoric times.
His investigation leads to involvement with the media sensation of the age: the Tichborne Claimant, a man who insists that he’s the long lost heir to the cursed Tichborne estate. Monstrous, bloated, and monosyllabic, he’s not the aristocratic Sir Roger Tichborne known to everyone, yet the working classes come out in force to support him. They are soon rioting through the streets of London, as mysterious steam wraiths incite all-out class warfare.
From a haunted mansion to the Bedlam madhouse, from South America to Australia, from seances to a secret labyrinth, Burton struggles with shadowy opponents and his own inner demons, meeting along the way the philosophy Herbert Spencer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Florence Nightingale, and Charles Doyle (father of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).
Can the king’s agent expose a plot that threatens to rip the British Empire apart, leading to an international conflict the like of which the world has never seen? And what part does the clockwork man have to play?
Burton and Swinburne’s second adventure—The Clockwork Man of Trafalgar Square—is filled with eccentric steam-driven technology, grotesque characters, and a deepening mystery that pushes forward the three-volume story arc begun in The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack.
Bound in Blood by P.C. Hodgell
(a new Kencyrath novel), Baen, $7.99, 434pp, pb, 9781439134238. Fantasy.
Blood Will Tell
When Jame returned to Knorth Hall to help her brother Torisen, her job was to 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.
No doubt about it—Jame is back, and with a vengeance!
Moon Flower by James P. Hogan
Baen, $7.99, 426pp, pb, 9781439134375. Science fiction.
Manhunt on an alien world
Something strange is happening on the planet Cyrene. A newly discovered planet, it is in the early phases of being developed by the mammoth interworld Restructuring Corporation. Terrans from the base there have been disappearing. Myles Callen, a ruthlessly efficient “Facilitator,” is sent to investigate.
Also with the mission is Marc Shearer, a young, idealistic quantum physicist, disillusioned with the world, who’s on his way to join a former colleague, Evan Wade. On arrival he finds that Wade too has vanished—and doesn’t want to be found by the Terran authorities.
Wade has arranged contact via the Cyreneans, however. Accompanied by two companions that he has befriended, Shearer embarks on a journey to find his friend that will change Cyrene—and Earth itself.
Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick
(a Tale of the Kin), Roc, $7.99, 432pp, pb, 9780451463906. Fantasy. On-sale date: 5 April 2011.
Ildrecca is a dangerous city, if you don’t know what you’re doing. It takes a canny hand and a wary eye to run these streets and survive. Fortunately, Drothe has both. He has been a member of the Kin for years, rubbing elbows with thieves and murderers from the dirtiest of alleys to the finest of neighborhoods. Working for a crime lord, he finds and takes care of trouble inside his boss’s organization—while smuggling relics on the side.
But when his boss orders Drothe to track down whoever is leaning on his organization’s people, he stumbles upon a much bigger mystery. There’s a book, a relic any number of deadly people seem to be looking for—a book that just might bring down emperors and shatter the criminal underworld.
A book now inconveniently in Drothe’s hands…
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy: The Edge by Rudy Josephs
Simon Spotlight, $7.99, 250pp, tp, 9781442412408. YA science fiction/tie-in.
Presenting The Edge, the second installment in the brand new Star Trek: Starfleet Academy series for teen audiences—featuring young Kirk, Sulu, Uhura, Chekhov, and Spock as members of the Starfleet Academy.
The year is 2250, and it has been six months since James Kirk joined Starfleet Academy. A rebellious young man, Kirk is used to doing things his way—and whenever he feels like it. However, the Academy is changing him little by little, showing him how to transform his headstrong attitude and ambition into qualities that make him a leader. Krik’s behavior often brings him to clash with another Starfleet Academy member, a half-Vulcan, half-human named Spock. This book series will delve into the lives and relationships of Kirk and the other recruits at the Academy, their training, their missions, and their romances.
In The Competitive Edge, Kirk finds out how much of a toll the intense training classes and grueling schedule of academy life is taking on all the cadets, including himself. But some recruits seem better equipped to handle the challenges. Is there something that is giving them an edge? Kirk is determined to find out, especially since one of the cadets with a little something extra is his new girlfriend.
License to Ensorcell by Katharine Kerr
(a Nola O’Grady novel), DAW, $7.99, 328pp, pb, 9780756406561. Fantasy.
Psychic agent Nola O’Grady isn’t sure that returning to San Francisco, and living so close to her very unusual family, is a good idea. Her job, with a psychic agency so obscure that even the CIA doesn’t know it exists, can be perilous, and she’s afraid of the relatives getting involved. Plus the warnings she’s been receiving lately from saints and angels are not making the situation any eassier.
Then the Agency saddles her with an Israeli secret agent named Ari Nathan, currently attached to Interpol, and she realizes she has an even bigger problem on her hands, because tact and compromise are not Ari’s strong points.
They are forced to work together, however, to track down a serial killer who seems to have an obsession about werewolves. He sees them everywhere and shoots whenever he thinks he has one in his sights. Ari assumes that the man’s merely psychotic, but in truth, this mystery man is murdering actual werewolves. Nola should know. Her younger brother Pat, a lycanthrope, was the killer’s first victim.
Can Nola’s psychic talents and Ari’s skill with guns keep them alive long enough to unravel the greater mystery that lies behind the killings? And can they save the werewolves and the world while stopping Nola’s family from running headlong into danger?
The Amazon Legion by Tom Kratman
Baen, $24.00, 432pp, hc, 9781439134269. Science fiction. On-sale date: May 2011.
On the colony planet of Terra Nova, Carrera has achieved his revenge, destroying those who had destroyed his life by killing his wife and children in a terrorist strike. And, with the help of his second wife, he has thwarted an attempted coup that would have restored the rule of the oligarchy and undone his hard-won victory. But his fight is not over yet…
The problem of the Tauran Union’s control of the Transitway between Terra Nova and Earth remains, as does the problem of the nuclear armed United Earth Peace Fleet, orbiting above the planet. The Taurans will not leave, and the Balboans—a proud people, with much recent success in war—will not tolerate that they should remain.
And yet, with one hundred times the population and three or four hundred times the wealth, the Tauran Union outclasses little Balboa in almost every way, even without the support of Old Earth. Sadly, they have that support. Everything, everyone, will have to be used to finish the job of freeing the country and, if possible, the planet. The children must fight. The old must serve, too. And the women?
This is their story, the story of Balboa’s Tercio Amazona, the Amazon Regiment.
Countdown: The Liberators by Tom Kratman
Baen, $7.99, 694pp, pb, 9781439134023. Military fiction.
Back in Action
Old soldiers never die… except inside, when they lack a reason to live. Old soldier Wes Stauer is dying inside, from sheer lack of purpose.
And then comes the knock on the door: “Our leader’s son and heir has been kidnapped. We don’t know where he is. We need you to get him back for us. The people who have him are numerous, warlike, and well armed. But money is no object.”
And then old soldiers—sailors and airmen, too—stop fading away and come back into sharp focus.
Wolfsangel by M.D. Lachlan
Pyr, $16.00, 362pp, tp, 9781616143572. Fantasy. On-sale date: March 2011.
The Viking king Authun leads his men on a raid against an Anglo-Saxon village. Men and women are killed indiscriminately, but Authun demands that no child be touched. He is acting on prophecy—a prophecy which tells him that the Saxons have stolen a child from the gods. If Authun, in turn, takes the child and raises him as an heir, the child will lead his people to glory.
But Authun discovers not one child, but twin baby boys. After ensuring that his faithful warriors, witnesses to what has happened, die during the raid, Authun takes the children and their mother home, back to the witches who live on the troll wall. And he places his destiny in their hands.
So begins a stunning multivolume fantasy epic that will take a werewolf from his beginnings as the heir to a brutal Viking king down through the ages. It is a journey that will see him hunt for his lost love through centuries and lives, and see the endless battle between the wolf, Odin, and Loki, the eternal trickster, spill over into countless bloody conflicts from our history and our lives.
This is the myth of the werewolf as it has never been told before and marks the beginning of an extraordinary new fantasy series.
Much Fall of Blood by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, & Dave Freer
(Book One of the Heirs of Alexandria), Baen, $7.99, 856pp, pb, 9781439134160. Fantasy.
The Epic Fantasy Begun in The Shadow of the Lion Continues
Prince Manfred and his mentor and bodyguard, the deadly warrior Erik Hakkonsen, have survived dangers and enemies both natural and supernatural. But if they thought that their new mission was going to be easy duty, they soon gave up on that hope.
Returning from Jerusalem with a troop of Knights of the Holy Trinity, they are escorting an envoy of the Ilkhan Mongols to the lands of the Golden Horde. But what began as a diplomatic mission leads to Manfred and his knights being caught up in an inter-clan civil war. They also become involved in the problems of Prince Vlad, Duke of Valahia, the grandson and namesake of the notorious Dragon.
Manfred and Erik are forced into an alliance of convenience between the Golden Horde and the ancient forces of Valahia, as directed by the troubled Vlad. The alliance requires blood magic, of which Vlad is deathly afraid—and at the same time, irresistibly drawn toward…
Invasion by Mercedes Lackey with Steve Libbey, Cody Martin, and Dennis Lee
(Book One of the Secret World Chronicle), Baen, $26.00, 416pp, hc, 9781439134191. Fantasy. On-sale date: March 2011.
The world had become used to the metahumans—people sometimes perfectly ordinary, but sometimes quite extraordinary in appearance—who mostly worked with their governments as high-powered peace officers, fighting crime, and sometimes fighting rogue metahumans who had become super-criminals. Then that comfortable world ended in just one terrifying day.
Suddenly, all world governments were simultaneously attacked by soldiers in giant mecha robotic suits with the swastika symbol of the Third Reich on their metal arms. If these were Nazis, where had they been hiding since the end of World War II? And where had they gotten armor and weapons far in advance of anything on the planet? Weapons against which even the metahuman heroes seemed to be helpless…
The Agent Gambit by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
Baen, $12.00, 655pp, tp, 9781439134074. Science fiction.
Two fugitives on the run from relentless pursuers find common cause—and something more…
Agent of Change: Val Con yos’Phelium was “recruited” by a shadowy Liaden agency and brainwashed into an Agent of Change—a ruthless covert killer. Fleeing his latest mission, he saves the life of ex-mercenary Miri Robertson, a Terran on the run from interplanetary assassins. Thrown together by circumstances, Val Con and Miri struggle to elude their enemies and stay alive without killing each other—or surrendering to the unexpected passion that flares between them.
Carpe Diem: The sequel to Agent of Change. Val Con and Miri had assumed new identities as musicians, but a war has forced them to reveal their alien combat skills—and doubt their own growing partnership of trust and love. And a relentless assassin is closing in on their trail. Time to seize the day—if they can.
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
Atria, $24.00, 224pp, hc, 9781439192313. Fantasy. On-sale date: 17 May 2011.
A captivating debut novel that is as romantic as it is terrifying…
Newcomer writer Isaac Marion has a new take on the iconic tale of Romeo and Juliet. Sure, Romeo and Juliet is the classic love story, but it’s also a story of doomed love. In his brilliant debut novel, Warm Bodies, Marion takes matters into his own hands and envisions an entirely new ending for two disparate people who triumph through love.
Instead of star-crossed lovers, his protagonists are an existentially tormented zombie shuffling through a destroyed America and a feisty 19-year-old Living girl. And what makes their story so different from Shakespeare’s tragic tome is that they aren’t doomed. In fact, amid the visceral horror of a zombie’s existence and the requisite rending of flesh and brains, they find that with hope, love, and courage, they have the power to change their devastated world.
Isaac Marion is am amazing storyteller who writes from his heart, or from his viscera, as the case may be. Warm Bodies stems loosely from his short story “I am a Zombie Filled with Love” which he transformed into a poignant and darkly clever novel that explores the power of hope and optimism—and the idea that we can correct the errors of our history and actually change things for the future.
Cowboy Angels by Paul McAuley
Pyr, $16.00, 370pp, tp, 9781616142513. Science fiction.
The first Turing gate, a mere hundred nanometers across, is forced open in 1963, at the high-energy physics laboratory in Brookhaven; three years later, the first man to travel to an alternate history takes his momentous step, and an empire is born.
For fifteen years, the version of America that calls itself the Real has used its Turing gate technology to infiltrate a wide variety of alternate Americas, rebuilding those wrecked by nuclear war, fomenting revolutions and waging war to free others from communist or fascist rule, and establishing a Pan-American Alliance. Then a nation exhausted by endless strife elects Jimmy Carter on a reconstruction and reconciliation ticket, the CIA’s covert operations are wound down, and the Real begins to wage peace rather than war.
But some people believe that it is the Real’s manifest destiny to impose its idea of truth, justice, and the American way in every known alternate history, and they’re prepared to do anything to reverse Carter’s peacenik doctrine. When Adam Stone, a former CIA field officer, one of the Cowboy Angels who worked covertly in other hisotires, volunteers for reactivation after an old friend begins a killing spree across alternate histories, his mission uncovers a startling secret about the operation of the Turing gates and leads him into the heart of an audacious conspiracy to change the history of every America in the multiverse—including our own.
Cowboy Angels is a vivid, helter-skelter thriller in which one version of America discovers the true cost of empire building, and one man discovers that an individual really can make a difference.
Man-Kzin Wars XII created by Larry Niven, written by Paul Chafe, Hal Colebatch, and Matthew Joseph Harrington
Baen, $12.00, 366pp, pb, 9781439134108. Science fiction.
The formerly invincible kzin had a hard time dealing with their ignominious defeat by the leaf-eating humans, but life went on as some plotted new strategies while others cooperated with the contemptible humans, at least for the time being. In war and in uneasy peace, kzin and human continue their adventures, as told by Paul Chafe, Hal Colebatch, and Michael Joseph Harrington, expanding on the concepts created by New York Times best-selling writer Larry Niven.
* On a planet newly occupied by the kzin, a human secret agent and her hired kzin companion discover that humans were ont he planet before the dawn of space travel, and claim to be part of the Roman Empire.
* A man wakes up with over a month’s gap in his memory, and finds that he is suspected of murder—and a kzin is threatening him with much worse than anything the police could do.
* One of the Protectors—secret powerful ancestors of the human race—drafts an involuntary human helper into a desperate mission to keep the kzin from gaining a source of unimaginable power.
Death’s Sweet Embrace by Tracey O’Hara
(a Dark Brethren novel), Harper Voyager, $7.99, 325pp, pb, 9780061783142. Urban fantasy.
Following the award-winning supernatural debut of Night’s Cold Kiss comes the highly anticipated continuation of Tracey O’Hara’s acclaimed Dark Brethren series, Death’s Sweet Embrace.
Death’s Sweet Embrace is a sizzling supernatural take on Romeo and Juliet, as forbidden lovers must track down and stop a deadly killer. Kitt Jordan and Raven Matokwe are from opposing shapeshifter tribes—Kitt’s alternate form is a snow leopard, where Raven is a werewolf—and banned from ever being together despite their love.
But when a deranged serial killer begins murdering the youth of both their clans, they must join together to stop him, aided by fan favorites Antoinette, Christian, and Oberon (from Night’s Cold Kiss).
Will they catch the killer before he wipes out the future of both tribes? Will they be strong enough to fight their romantic urges? Death’s Sweet Embrace is a suspenseful, passionate adventure sure to please fans of the series, fulfilling their desires while leaving them wanting more.
The Unremembered by Peter Orullian
Tor, $27.99, 672pp, hc, 9780775325716. Fantasy. On-sale date: 12 April 2011.
The Unremembered begins a stunning, sweeping story arc from a new name destined to join the greats in epic fantasy. This spring, Peter Orullian will make one of the most anticipated debuts of 2011 with the first novel in The Vault of Heaven, introducing readers to the wild, dangerous world of Aeshau Vaal.
The gods, makers of worlds, seek to create balance—between matter and energy; and between mortals who strive toward the transcendent and the natural perils they must tame or overcome. But one of the gods fashions a world filled with hellish creatures far too powerful to allow balance; he is condemned to live for eternity with his most hateful creations in that world’s distant Bourne, restrained by a magical veil kept vital by the power of song.
Millennia pass, awareness of the hidden danger fades to legend, and both song and veil weaken. The most remote cities are laid to waste by fell, nightmarish troops that escaped from the Bourne. Some people dismiss the attacks as mere rumor. Instead of standing against the real threat, they persecute those with the knowledge, magic, and power to fight these abominations, denying the inevitability of war and annihilation. And the evil from the Bourne swells.…
The troubles of the world seem far from the Hollows where Tahn Junell struggles to remember his lost childhood and to understand words he feels compelled to utter each time he draws his bow. Trouble strikes when two strangers arrive—an enigmatic man wearing the sigil of the feared Order of Sheason and a beautiful woman of the legendary Far. They’ve come to take Tahn, his sister, and his two best friends on a dangerous, secret journey. Tahn knows neither why nor where they will go. He knows only that terrible forces have been unleashed upon mankind and he has been called to stand up and face that which most daunts him—his own forgotten secrets and the darkness that would destroy him and his world.
The Alchemist in the Shadows by Pierre Pevel (translated by Tom Clegg)
Pyr, $16.00, 286pp, tp, 9781616143657. Fantasy.
Welcome to Paris, in 1633, where dragons menace the realm. Cardinal Richelieu, the most powerful and most feared man in France, is on his guard. He knows France is under threat, and that a secret society known as the Black Claw is conspiring against him from the heart of the greatest courts in Europe. They will strike from the shadows, and when they do the blow will be both terrible and deadly. To counter the threat, Richelieu has put his most trusted men into play: the Cardinal’s Blades, led by Captain la Fargue. Six men and a woman, all of exceptional abilities and all ready to risk their lives on his command. They have saved France before, and the Cardinal is relying on them to do it again.
So when la Fargue hears from a beautiful, infamous, deadly Italian spy claiming to have valuable information, he has to listen… and when La Donna demands Cardinal Richelieu’s protection before she will talk, la Fargue is even prepared to consider it. Because La Donna can name their enemy. It’s a man as elusive as he is manipulative, as subtle as Richelieu himself, an exceptionally dangerous adversary: the Alchemist in the shadows…
Citadel by John Ringo
Baen, $26.00, 390pp, hc, 9781439134009. Science fiction.
Humans: small fry in an ocean full of sharks
Between the Solar Array Pumped Laser and Troy—the two trillion ton nickel-iron battlestation created by eccentric billionaire Tyler Vernon—Earth has managed to recapture the Sol system from their Horvath conquerors and begin entering the galactic milieu.
But when the Rangora Empire rapidly crushes humanity’s only ally, it becomes clear the war is just beginning. At the heart of nickel iron and starlight are the people—Marines, Sailors and civilians—who make Troy a living, breathing, engine of war. Survivors of apocalypse, they know the cost of failure.
If this Troy falls, no one will be left to write the epic.
The Tuloriad by John Ringo & Tom Kratman
Baen, $7.99, 520pp, pb, 9781439134092. Science fiction.
The enemy of my enemy…
Of the once innumerable battle clans of the Posleen only a handful survive. And that only on the sufferance of a group of despised Indowy and Himmit. Plucked from the maelstrom on Earth, they are cast out into the eternal blackness of the stars with only a slightly insane Indowy and a computer virus to guide them.
What follows is a trail of tears and remembrance as the Posleen retrace the footsteps of their ancestors in a search for their homeworld. A search to determine if the Posleen possess the one thing no Human would give them credit for. A soul.
Returned to their beginnings, the question remains: Is there a new path for the Tular Posleen?
Golden Reflections by Fred Saberhagen et. al., edited by Joan Spicci Saberhagen and Robert E. Vardeman
Baen, $20.00, 457pp, hc, 9781439134153. Science fiction anthology.
Trouble Over Time
Mike Gabrieli’s brother Tom has always had one talent: getting into trouble. But this time, Tom has disappeared after mysteriously gaining possession of a priceless Aztec artifact. Mike sets out to find Tom, never suspecting that he is about to be shuttled back and forth in time, and between alternate universes, as he learns that the descendants of the Incas have a plan to keep Pizarro and his conquistadors from overthrowing their ancestors’ empire. So begins Fred Saberhagen’s classic novel The Mask of the Sun.
Golden Reflections presents the novel Mask of the Sun followed by seven original stories, each set in Saberhagen’s alternate universe where Incas and Aztecs war for control of time lines and the Mask, a device that allows the wearer to see the future, is the ultimate weapon. Kings, fools, soldiers, the shipwrecked, the willing and the not so willing encounter the Mask. Far-ranging understates the scope and epth of these stories from the Pharaohs’ Egypt, Mexico, the Gulf Coast, the Pueblo Revolt, the alamo, the American Revolution, to Nazi Germania 2032.
The outstanding contributing writers are New York Times best-selling authors David Weber and Harry Turtledove, along with veteran storytellers Walter Jon Williams, John Maddox Roberts, Jane Lindskold, Daniel Abraham and Dean Wesley Smith.
WWW: Wonder by Robert J. Sawyer
(WWW trilogy, book three), Ace, $25.95, 352pp, hc, 9780441019762. Science fiction. On-sale date: 5 April 2011.
Robert J. Sawyer, the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author who “explores the intersection between big ideas and real people” (Robert Charles Wilson) presents the thrilling conclusion to the trilogy that began with WWW: Wake and WWW: Watch.
The advent of Webmind—a vast consciousness that spontaneously emberged from the infrastructure of the World Wide Web—is changing everything. From curing cancer to easing international tensions, Webmind seems a boon to humanity.
But Colonel Peyton Hume, the Pentagon’s top expert on artificial intelligence, is convinced Webmind is a threat. He turns to the hacker underground to help him bring Webmind down. But soon hackers start mysteriously vanishing. Is Webmind killing them before they can mount an attack?
Caitlin Decter—the once-blind sixteen-year-old math genius who discovered Webmind—desperately tries to protect her friend. Can this new world of wonder survive—or will everything, Webmind included, come crashing down?
Con & Conjure by Lisa Shearin
(a Raine Benares novel), Ace, $7.99, 336pp, pb, 9780441020188. Fantasy. On-sale date: 29 March 2011.
Raine Benares is a Sorceress Seeker of average powers—a finder of things lost and people missing. But then she is accidentally linked to the Saghred, an ancient soul-stealing stone with limitless power to destroy, and she starts developing all kinds of powers. Now Raine is the most popular girl in town, and everyone wants to get their hands on her—and the power she controls.
An especially devious goblin black mage has figured out that by killing Raine, he can get revenge and take the Saghred’s power for his people in a 2-for-1 deal. But to get Raine, the goblins first have to go through the paladin Mychael: Raine’s significant other and self-appointed protector. The goblins have hired the best assassin (living, dead, or otherwise) to handle the job—and Raine should know, she used to date him until she found out what he did for a living.
Now Raine and her friends must thwart the assassin and stop the goblin black mage before he gets his hands on the Saghred. Because it may have limitless power, but that power is fueled by one thing: souls. And if the goblins take control of it, they intend to use it—and the slaughter will be horrific…
Messiah by S. Andrew Swann
(Apotheosis: Book Three), DAW, $7.99, 369pp, pb, 9780756406578. Science fiction.
In this final volume of the Apotheosis trilogy, the seemingly unstoppable alien Al Adam has cast his nano-cloud of destruction across the known universe. All who stand against him are turned to dust. All who accept him as their god are absorbed into his consciousness. And as solar system after solar system falls under his sway, there are only a few who hold any hope of breaking Adam’s stranglehold on all sentient life.
In the heart of the Vatican waits a “man” from the past who might point the way to a future beyond Adam.…
The fleets surrounding the world of Bakunin will sacrifice what they must in a last-ditch effort to defeat the undefeatable.…
And on Bakunin itself—amid a planetwide campaign of conquest—humanity’s last hope may lie with Nickolai Rajasthan, a Moreau who has believed, all his life, that the human race that created his kind is already damned beyond redemption.…
Black Halo by Sam Sykes
(The Aeons’ Gate, Book 2), Pyr, $16.00, 520pp, tp, 9781616143558. Fantasy.
The Tome of the Undergates has been recovered…
…and the gates of hell remain closed. Lenk and his five companions set sail to bring the accursed relic away from the demonic reach of Ulbecetonth, the Kraken Queen. But after weeks at sea, tensions amidst the adventurers are rising. Their troubles are only beginning when their ship crashes upon an island made of the bones left behind from a war long dead.
And it appears that bloodthirsty alien warrior women, fanatical beasts from the deep, and heretic-hunting wizards are the least of their concerns. Haunted by their pasts, plagued by their gods, tormented by their own people, and gripped by madness personal and peculiar, their greatest foes may yet be themselves.
The reach of Ulbecetonth is longer than hell can hold.
The Griffin’s Flight by K.J. Taylor
(The Fallen Moon, Book Two), Ace, $7.99, 495pp, pb, 9780441019977. Fantasy.
Ace Books is thrilled to announce The Fallen Moon series by K.J. Taylor as we release all three books in three consecutive months! The series brings fantasy readers what they are looking for—an amazing story about humans and their intelligent magical companions—but with a twist! Told from the point of view of the anti-hero, The Dark Griffin will have readers cheering for the “dark side.” Set in the land of Cymria, K.J. Taylor transports readers to a place where humans and griffins rule side by side.
Following the release of The Dark Griffin in January 2011, The Griffin’s Flight is the next adventure of K.J. Taylor’s remarkably fresh fantasy series and will conclude with The Griffin’s War.
In The Griffin’s Flight, protagonist Arren Cardockson is brought back to life by a power beyond his understanding. After exacting revenge on those who wronged him, Arren flees home in hopes of reaching the place of his ancestry. Along the way, he comes across a wild woman who may hold the key to making his lifeless heart beat once again.
Welcome to the Greenhouse: New Science Fiction on Climate Change edited by Gordon Van Gelder
OR Books, $17.00, 352pp, tp, 9781935928270. Science fiction anthology.
Forty years ago, Walt Kelly’s comic strip character Pogo famously intoned: ‘We have met the enemy, and he is us.’ Now, as the evidence for climate change becomes overwhelming, we learn the hard reality behind that witticism. The possible destruction, and certain transformation, of the ecosphere has been brought about by our own activities.
“What will our new world look like? How will we—can we—adapt? The clash of a rapidly changing environment with earth’s self-styled ruling species, humans, provides ample creative fodder for this riveting anthology of original science fiction. In Welcome to the Greenhouse, award-winning editor Gordon Van Gelder has brought together sixteen new speculative stories by some of the most imaginative writers of our time, both familiar names and relative unknowns. Terrorists, godlike terraformers, and humans, both manipulative and hapless, populate these pages. The variety of stories here reflects the possibilities of our future: grim, hopeful, fantastic and absurd.
[Contributors: Elizabeth Kolbert, Brian W. Aldiss, Jeff Carlson, Judith Moffett, Matthew Hughes, Gregory Benford, Michael Alexander, Bruce Sterling, Joseph Green, Pat MacEwen, Alan Dean Foster, David Prill, George Guthridge, Paul Di Filippo, Chris Lawson, Ray Vukcevich, and M.J. Locke.]
Torch of Freedom by David Weber & Eric Flint
Baen, $8.99, 870pp, pb, 9781439134085. Science fiction.
Keepers of the flame
As the slavemasters of Mesa plot against the Star Empire of Manticore and the newly liberated slave planet of Torch, Anton Zilwicki and the notorious Havenite secret agent Victor Cachat set off on a dangerous mission to uncover the truth concerning a wave of mysterious assassinations that have been launched against Manticore and Torch. Most people are sure that the Republic of Haven is behind the assassinations, but Zilwicki and Cachat suspect that what “everyone knows” might be wrong.
Meanwhile, powerful forces in the Solarian League are maneuvering against each other to gain the upper hand in what they all expect to be an explosive crisis that threatens the very existence of the League itself.
In Fire Forged by David Weber, Jane Lindskold, & Timothy Zahn
Baen, $26.00, 318pp, hc, 9781439134146. Science fiction.
Welcome Back to the Honorverse
Come explore the universe of Honor Harrington with such top writers as Jane Lindskold, New York Times bestselling author Timothy Zahn, and David Weber himself.
* “Ruthless” by Jane Lindskold tells of a refugee from a theocratic planet whose infant daughter has been kidnapped. She will be returned to her—if she can persuade her very close friend, Crown Prince Michael, to perform a public act that permanently disgraces him.
* “An Act of War” by Timothy Zahn reintroduces a con man who once sold the People’s Republic of Haven a military secret which turned out to be disastrously worthless. Now, the Republic’s rulers have caught up with him, and his life depends on convincing them that the plan he has formulated, to provoke war between Manticore and another star nation, will work.
* “Let’s Dance” by David Weber, an all-new Honor Harrington adventure. We see what happens when a mob of space pirates makes the mistake of tangling with young Commander Harrington. (Hint: fatal mistake—for the pirates.)
* “An Introduction to Modern Starship Armor Design” gives a wealth of technical information about the ships of the Honorverse and the technology which protects them in battle.
Cobra Guardian by Timothy Zahn
(Cobra War, Book 2), Baen, $24.00, 296pp, hc, 9781439134061. Science fiction.
Trapped on an enemy-occupied planet
Earth had won its war with the alien Troft by using the formidable Cobra warriors, who had high-tech weaponry implanted in their bodies, invisible but deadly. Generations later, colony worlds settled after the war have grown doubtful that the Cobras are worth the high expense of their equipment and training. That was a mistake.
Jasmine Moreau Broom, descendant of a now-legendary Cobra family, had received a cryptic message urging her to come to the planet Qasama, a world colonized by a human faction who were hostile both to the Troft and the Cobra worlds. But she had hardly arrived before Troft starships descended in force to seize control of the planet. After desperate battles with the invaders, Jasmine had escaped on a starship, hoping to get help from other Cobra worlds. What she had not expected was that Troft forces had invaded the Cobra worlds as well.
Still, matters are not hopeless. The Troft are not a monolithic society, but are divided into tribe-like demesnes. One demesne has initiated hostilities, but other demesnes are doubtful of the wisdom of starting a new war with the humans. Still, they are not willing to go up against the belligerent demesne, unless the humans can win a battle against the invaders—a victory that will demonstrate that the option of siding with the humans is not futile.
And the key to such a victory may lie with a political figure on one of the beleaguered Cobra worlds. He has a secret that might turn the tide—if Cobra Lorne Broom can manage to smuggle him and his assistant off a planet occupied by the Troft invaders.