This page is updated as books are received throughout the month.
Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Conviction by Aaron Allston
Del Rey/LucasBooks, $27.00, 400pp, hc, 9780345509109. Science fiction/Media tie-in.
The seventh novel in a latest epic Star Wars story arc for fans of the Legacy of the Force series.
While Luke and Ben Skywalker continue their exploration of the mystery known as Abeloth with their unlikely Sith allies, the galaxy is abuzz with the trial of former Jedi Knight Tahiri Veila. This moment when the fate of the Jedi might be determined is close at hand, as the exiled Grand Master works to find a reason behind the madness afflicting the Jedi, while those charged with keeping the Order intact struggle against a Republic that seems to have already declared their verdict in the only court that matters: the court of public opinion. Conviction begins the mini-trilogy that will leave readers breathlessly waiting to see how the bestselling Fate of the Jedi series ends.
The Nebula Awards Showcase 2011 edited by Kevin J. Anderson
Tor, $17.99, 416pp, tp, 9780765328427. Science fiction anthology.
Just in time for the Nebula Awards weekend on May 19th comes the Nebula Awards Showcase 2011! The Nebula anthology has been an integral part of the prestigious awards since their inception in the 1960s and is considered to be essential reading by fans of the genre. Edited by New York Times bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson, the Showcase is in its inaugural year with Tor Books and has gone through radical restructuring to be reborn as a fiction-only anthology.
The Nebula Awards Showcase 2011 includes 2009’s short fiction award nominees—which were announced in February 2010. Inside, readers will find fifteen short stories from some of the biggest names in sci-fi and fantasy including Nebula-Award winners Kage Baker (“The Women of Nell Gwynne’s”), Kij Johnson (“Spar”), Eugie Foster (“Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest, Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast”), as well as Nebula short fictio nominees Paolo Bacigalupi (“The Gambler”), Richard Bowws (“I Needs Must Part, the Policeman Said”), and John Scalzi (“The God Engine”). Also included in this year’s stellar anthology are winners of the Rhysling Award—an award given by the Sciencec Fiction Poetry Association for best SF poetry—and Nebula ballots from the 1960s to present day.
The Nebula Awards Showcase 2011 is a truly outstanding anthology of some of the genre’s best and brightest stars—a collection science fiction and fantasy fans won’t want to miss!
[Contributors: Kevin J. Anderson, Saladin Ahmed, Michael A. Burstein, N.K. Jemisin, James Patrick Kelly, Will McIntosh, Kij Johnson, Joe R. Lansdale, Neal Barrett, Jr., Paolo Bacigalupi, Michael Bishop, Richard Bowes, Ted Kosmatka, Rachel Swirsky, Eugie Foster, Joe Haldeman, Connie Willis, Amal El-Mohtar, and Geoffrey A. Landis.]
Arietta: A Savage Fairytale by Matthias R. Bonnici
Lulu, $12.00, 40pp, tp, 9781257139255. Fantasy.
Blood is on the Leaves.
Black shadow-like beings
litter the floor of the forest, moving
unremittingly slow from all directions.
All the while the unknowing children
gleefully walk and sing.
Arietta is a savage fairy tale of monsters, children and blood.
Legends of Shannara: The Measure of Magic by Terry Brooks
Del Rey, $27.00, 400pp, hc, 9780345484208. Fantasy. On-sale date: 30 August 2011.
After more than three decades of captivating epic fantasy readers, the storytelling magic of New York Times bestselling author Terry Brooks’s Shannara saga continues to enthrall. Now the fascinating chronicle of Shannara’s prehistory reaches a thrilling new peak in the sequel to Bearers of the Black Staff.
For five hundred years, the survivors of the Great Wars lived peacefully in a valley sanctuary shielded by powerful magic from the blighted and dangerous outside world. But the enchanted barriers have crumbled, the borders have been breached by predators, and the threat of annihilation looms large once more. Sider Ament, bearer of the last black staff and its profound power, devoted his life to protecting the valley and its inhabitants—and, in his final moments, gave stewardship of the black staff to the young tracker Panterra Qu. Now the newly anointed Knight of the Word must take up the battle against evil wherever it threatens: from without, where an army of bloodthirsty trolls is massing for invasion; and from within, where the Elf king of Arborlon has been murdered, his daughter, Princess Phryne Amarantyne, stands accused, and a heinous conspiracy is poised to subjugate the kingdom. But even these will pale beside the most harrowing menace Panterra is destined to confront—a nameless, merciless figure who wanders the devastated land on a relentless mission: to claim the last black staff… and the life of he who wields it.
Sucker Punch by Jeremy Brown
Medallion, $14.95, 234pp, tp, 9781605422251. Thriller. On-sale date: August 2001.
No head butts, groin strikes, eye gouges, or fishhooks. He’d go along with it, but heavyweight mixed martial artist Aaron “Woodshed” Wallace thinks they’re taking all the fun out of fighting.
Stuck on no-name cards for tiny organizations, Woody is trying to put his shady past behind him with help from his trainer and mentor, Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Gil Hobbes.
When Banzai Eddie Takanori—president of MMA’s largest organization, Warrior Inc.—offers Woody a short-notice fight against a highly favored poster boy, Woody sees his shot at salvation.
By the time Woody figures out he’s just a pawn in a high-stakes game between psychopaths, he’s in way too deep.
Good thing he knows how to take a punch.
And give a few back…
Undercurrents by Robert Buettner
(Orphan’s Legacy, book 2), Baen, $14.00, 304pp, tp, 9781439134498. Science fiction. On-sale date: July 2011.
#2 in the hard-hitting military science fiction Orphan’s Legacy series. Ace intelligence operative Lt. Jazen Parker parachutes into Tressel, a planet which resembles Earth in its Paleozoic era, on a mission to bring down the local politicos. He quickly realizes he’s been handed a near-impossible task. Tressel is a politically-quarantined nightmare world with a culture confined to iron rivet technology and a ruling regime a bit to the right of Heinrich Himmler. Jazen’s inclined to abandon this particular hellhole to its ways—that is, until he uncovers a plot afoot that will throw a five hundred-planet alliance into the death-throes of anarchy.
So the local Nazis must go. Unfortunately, all Jazen’s got to work with is a handful of rust-bucket tanks, a retread rebellion, and two strong, beautiful women who love him, but think he’s tilting at windmills and is about to get himself killed. What they don’t know is, once committed, Jazen Parker is the best there is when it comes to getting the dirty job done on the ground. It’s the local bullies who are about to be taught a lesson in losing.
There Is No Year by Blake Butler
Harper Perennial, $15.99, 406pp, tp, 9780061997426. Fiction.
There Is No Year marks visionary young author Blake Butler’s first novel with a major publisher. It follows two works from small presses that attracted major attention in this country and abroad—in venues from The Believer to Vice to London’s 3:AM Magazine, all of which praised Butler as one of the most original and inventive voices of his generation.
On its surface, There Is No Year is a novel about a simple family of three—father, mother, son—who have suffered through the son’s mysterious, near-fatal illness. Yet in Butler’s world such stories are only the stimulus for a rich, near-blinding, halucinatory wonder of a narrative, in which all three members of the family feel their way through vivid yet unknowable challenges—a “copy family” that appears in their house; a series of holes and “puckers” that appear in their walls; a parade of ants that infest their floors and hair; memories that deceive and figures that tempt and lure and withdraw. At length—as the son returns to school, where he is befriended by an oddly familiar “girl,” and as his parents reckon with the mysterious texts they find swamring upon their walls—this apparently dystopian landscape begins to hint at something much fresher: a fable about survival and the fierce burden of art.
Teeming with unforgettable imagery and language, There Is No Year is a work of poetic power and fierce impact that defies you to shake it from your mind.
Navigating the Collapse of Time: A Peaceful Path Through the End of Illusions by David Ian Cowan, Foreword by Barbara Hand Clow
Weiser, $18.95, 248pp, tp, 9781578634965. New Age.
We are in the midst o fa 25-year transitional period of planetary shift as our solar system approaches the Galactic Photon Band, a shift that is affecting our perception of time. The Mayans terms this transitional period: the “Time of No Time.”
Economic crisis, climate shift, cataclysmic weather events and accelerated species extinction; the world around us is in a state of rapid, destabilizing flux. One need only open a newspaper, watch the evening news or go online to be inundated with images and information on the latest catastrophe. And somewhere in the background, there is the persistent murmuring of 2012 prophecies. For years there has been speculation about the meaning behind 2012—the end of the Mayan long calendar and a date that recurs in many ancient texts and traditions. Convincing evidence, both interpretational and scientific, exists to support claims of an impending global event. The problem for the interested layperson is how to make sense of it all.
In Navigating the Collapse of Time, David Ian Cowan synthesizes a broad range of perspectives about this time of transition, from the writings of the ancient Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas, to speculative theory, quantum physics, philosophy, and the nature of illusion and reality posed by a range of theorists and academics including Ken Carey, Barbara Hand Clow, William Gammill, Zecharia Sitchin, Carl Calleman, Gary Renard, Ken Wapnick, Brent Haskel, and many others. He also shares his personal journey toward what he terms “being consciously multi-dimensional.”
Transformers: Dark of the Moon by Peter David
Del Rey, $7.99, 400pp, pb, 9780345529152. Movie tie-in.
One small step for man…
All humankind was watching that day in 1969. And yet only a handful knew the real mission behind America’s triumph in the space race: to explore the alien ship that has crashed on the far side of the moon. Decades later, scientists are still struggling to understand the technology found on board—though with the treacherous Decepticons after it, a powerful force must be at stake. The only hope of averting a crisis is to reawaken Sentinel Prime, the long-lost leader of the Autobots—but who knows what else remains in the shadows, hidden from man and machine?
The Fallen: Demon by Kristina Douglas
Pocket, $7.99, 390pp, pb, 9781439191934. Paranormal Romance.
Once the Fallen’s fearless ruler, a grieving Azazel must find the legendary siren meant to take his lost lover’s place… and kill her.
He’s a Devil of an Angel.
Azazel should have extinguished the deadly Lilith when he had the chance. Now, faced with a prophecy that will force him to betray the memory of his one true love and wed the Demon Queen, he cannot end her life until she leads him to Lucifer. Finding the First is the Fallen’s only hope for protecting mankind from Uriel’s destruction, but Azazel knows that ignoring his simmering desire for the Lilith will be almost as impossible.
She’s an Angel of a Demon.
Rachel Fitzpatrick wonders how Azazel could confuse her with an evil seductress. She’s never even been interested in sex! At least not before she set eyes on her breathtaking captor. And now she can’t think about anything else—besides escape.
Angels and Demons Don’t Mix.
Rachel stirs a carnal need in Azazel that he never thought he’d feel again. Falling for a demon—even if she has no idea she’s the Lilith—means surrendering his very soul. But if he lets her go, he risks abandoning his heart, his dangerous lover, and possibly all of humanity, to Uriel’s deadly wrath.
The Devil’s Diadem by Sara Douglass
Harper Voyager, $26.99, 544pp, hc, 9780062004338. Fantasy. On-sale date: 26 July 2011.
The author of the Wayfarer Redemption trilogy delivers a wonderfully rich and imaginative stand-alone novel, set in a twelfth-century England similar to our own time, in which a virulent plague threatens to annhilate a kingdom—and one unwitting young noblewoman holds the key to salvation.
Young noblewoman Maeb Langtofte has barely settled into her new duties attending Lady Adelie, wife to the Earl of Pengraic, when word arrives in the dark Welsh borderlands of a terrible plague sweeping across Europe. Before they die, it is whispered, the victims of this terrifying pestilence burst into flame and are consumed by fire from the sulphurous pits of Hell itself.
And King Edmond’s England is next.
As inhabitants of village after village sicken and die, Lord Pengraic confines his family behind the castle’s walls and nrides to help the king quell the burgeoning civil unrest. But for Maeb, Pengraic Castle holds dangers far more fearsome than the plague itself. The powerful Earl of Pengraic seems to harbor dark secrets, and the English court has begun to suspect her of witchery. As those around her begin to fall, it becomes clear that the plague has been sent by the Devil himself… and he wants something that Maebn herself may unknowingly possess.
What Distant Deeps by David Drake
Baen, $7.99, 514pp, pb, 9781439134450. Science fiction.
No Rest for the Leary
Captain Daniel Leary and his friend, the spy Adele Mundy, have been in the front lines of Cinnabar’s struggle against the totalitarian Alliance. Now these galactic superpowers have signed a peace of mutual exhaustion—but the jackals are moving in!
Years of war have been hard on Daniel and harder still on Adele, whose life outside information-gathering is a tightrope between despair and deadly violence. Their masters in the RCN and the Republic’s intelligence service have sent them to the fringes of human space to relax away from danger.
But the barbarians of the outer reaches have their own plans, plans which will bring down both Cinnabar and the Alliance. The enemies of peace include traitors, giant reptiles, and barbarian pirates whose ships can outsail even Daniel Leary’s splendid corvette, the Princess Cecile. Unless Daniel, Adele, and their unlikely allies succeed, galactic civilization will disintegrate into blood and chaos.
So they will succeed—or they’ll die trying!
Zendegi by Greg Egan
Night Shade, $14.99, 279pp, tp, 9781597801751. Science fiction.
In 2012, journalist Martin Seymour travels to Iran to cover the parliamentary elections. With most would-be candidates disqualified this turns out to be the expected non-event, but shortly afterward a compromising image of a government official captured on a mobile phone triggers a political avalanche.
Nasim Golestani, a young Iranian scientist living in exile in the United States, is hoping to work on the Human Connectome Project—which aims to construct a detailed map of the wiring of the human brain—but when government funding for the project is cancelled and a chance comes to return to her homeland, she chooses to head back to Iran.
Fifteen years later, Martin is living in Iran with his wife and young son, while Nasim is in charge of the virtual world known as Zendegi, used by millions of people for entertainment and business. When Zendegi comes under threat from powerful competitors, Nasim draws on her old skills, and data from the now-completed Human Connectome Project, to embark on a program to create more life-like virtual characters and give the company an unbeatable edge.
As controversy grows over the nature and rights of these software characters, tragedy strikes Martin’s family. Martin turns to Nasim, seeking a solution that no one else can offer… but Zendegi is about to become a battlefield.
The Sorceress of Karres by Eric Flint and Dave Freer
Baen, $7.99, 410pp, pb, 9781439134464. Science fiction.
From Chaos to Catastrophe with the Witches of Karres
If he’d known he was getting stuck with a trio of psi-wielding super-beings, even straightlaced do-gooder Captain Pausert might have thought twice about rescuing his two young “witch” charges from slavery on a dark planet. But what’s done is done—and with galactic peace once again threatened in the mysterious and pirate-ridden Chaladoor region, only a dangerous mission backward in time can save the present and—maybe—get stalwart-but-obtuse Pausert to see one of these young “witches” as more than just a friend.
Third int he “Witches of Karres” series, this is a rollicking romp through the outer reaches of the galaxy.
Tomorrow Girls Book #2: Run for Cover by Eva Gray
Scholastic, $6.99, 224pp, pb, 9780545317023. Children’s fiction. On-sale date: July 2011.
In Tomorrow Girls Book #1: Behind the Gates, the thrilling first book in the Tomorrow Girls series, Louisa, Maddie, Rosie and Evelyn learned that their supposed safe haven, Country Manor School, was a covert enemy operation run by the Alliance. In a daring move, they escaped and set off on a trek across the war-torn and hurricane-ravaged country to get back to their families. Tomorrow Girls Book #2: Run for Cover, narrated from Rosie’s point of view, picks up where Behind the Gates leaves off and follows the girls as they continue their adventure.
Just when things have gotten kind of normal for Rosie, she finds herself running for her life—again. Only this time she’s stuck with her roommates from school: Louisa, who can be okay sometimes; Madie, who can’t stop complaining; and Evelyn, the girl with a million conspiracy theories. If she weren’t so scared, Rosie would be totally annoyed.
But one of Evelyn’s theories was right: the boarding school the girls were sent to belongs to the Alliance, the wrong side of the war—and life becomes riskier than ever. Rosie has no choice to run—and no one to rely on but her new best friends.
Rosie, Louisa, Maddie, and Evelyn are about to find out that nothing is safe and they only have each other to trust if they want to survive. Set in a bleak, not-too-distant future that eerily resembles our present, this relevant, edge-of-your seat adventure explores the consequences of war and environmental devesation on four young girls.
Year’s Best SF 16 edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
Harper Voyager, $7.99, 500pp, pb, 9780062035905. Science fiction anthology.
The best short form science fiction of 2010, selected by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, two of the most respected editors in the field.
The short story is one of the most vibrant and exciting areas in science fiction today. It is where the hot new authors emerge and where the beloved giants of the field continue to publish.
Now, building on the success of the first fourteen volumes, Eos will once again present a collection of the best stories of 2010 in mass market. Here, selected and compiled by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, two of the most respected editors in the field, are stories with visions of tomorrow and yesterday, of the strange and the familiar, of the unknown and the unknowable.
With stories from an all-star team of science fiction authors The Year’s Best SF 16 is an indispensable guide for every science fiction fan.
[Contributors: Joe Haldeman, Kay Kenyon, Benjamin Crowell, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Vernor Vinge, Terry Bisson, Vandana Singh, Damien Broderick, Cat Sparks, Alastair Reynolds, David Langford, Michael Swanwick, Catherynne M. Valente, Karl Schroeder, Brenda Cooper, Gregory Benford, Robert Reed, Jack McDevitt, Steven Popkes, Sean McMullen, and Paul Park.]
Hexed by Kevin Hearne
Del Rey, $7.99, 320pp, pb, 9780345522498. Fantasy.
Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, doesn’t care much for witches. Still, he’s about to make nice with the local coven by signing a mutually beneficial nonaggression treaty—when suddenly the witch population in modern-day Tempe, Arizona, quadruples overnight. And the new girls are not just bad, they’re badasses with a dark history on the German side of World War II.
With a fallen angel feasting on local high school students, a horde of Bacchants blowing in from Vegas with their special brand of deadly decadence, and a dangerously sexy Celtic goddess of fire vying for his attention, Atticus is having trouble scheduling the witch hunt. But aided by his magical sword, his neighbor’s rocket-propelled grenade launcher, and his vampire attorney, Atticus is ready to sweep the town and show the witchy woman they picked the wrong Druid to hex.
Farnham’s Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein
Baen, $13.00, 296pp, tp, 9781439134436. Science fiction.
You would have peace? Then prepare for war.
Hugh Farnham was a practical, self-made man, and when he saw the clouds of nuclear war gathering, he built a bomb shelter under his house, hoping for peace and preparing for war. What he hadn’t expected was that when the apocalypse came, a thermonuclear blast would tear apart the fabric of time and hurl his shelter into a world with no sign of other human beings.
But Farnham’s small group had barely settled down ot the back-breaking business of low-tech survival when they found that they were not alone after all. The same nuclear war that had catapulted Farnham two thousand years into the future had destroyed all civilization in the northern hemisphere. And the world had changed in more ways than one.
In the new world order, Farnham and his family, being members of the race that had nearly destroyed the world, were fit only to be slaves. After survivng a nuclear war, Farnham had no intention of being anybody’s slave, but the tyrannical power of the Chosen Race reached throughout the world. Even if he managed to escape, where could he run to…?
The Inheritance & Other Stories by Robin Hobb & Megan Lindholm
Harper Voyager, $15.99, 400pp, hc, 9780061561641. Fantasy collection.
For the first time, bestselling author Robin Hobb and her counterpart Megan Lindholm appear together in The Inheritance, a stunning compilation of fantasy fiction. These two distinct voices flow into and complement each other as they could only under master storyteller Lindholm’s deft pen.
The Inheritance includes both new and classic works of short fiction written under both names. The collection is comprised of three expansive stories from Hobb (“Robin tends to hog the word processor with her big books,” notes Lindholm), including the title story, The Inheritance, never before available in the US, and a brand new tale, Cat’s Meat. Contributions from Megan Lindholm include the Hugo and Nebula finalist story, A Touch of Lavender, and the Nebula finalist, Silver Lady and the Fortyish Man. Readers will delight in new Lindholm works as well, along with some older stories brought back into print.
Fascinating, compelling, and wonderfully entertaining, The Inheritance reveals the full spectrum of skill and talent of one of the finest writers in the fantasy genre… the author known to fans as Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm.
Migration by James P. Hogan
Baen, $7.99, 426pp, pb, 9781439134474. Science fiction.
Renaissance—or False Rebirth?
From the ashes of post-apocalypse Earth a new order has arisen to reach for the stasr. Planet of salvation Hera is discovered and a generation ship will carry a select group from wrecked, ravaged Earth to a better future for their children. But who to take on the voyage? Why not your best and brightest tech-smiths and tinkerers? And, as far as political systems go, heck, why not send along everything—representatives of ALL the societies and political systems now surviving?
The trouble began, of course, when all the old patterns that they thought they were getting away from started reappearing.…
Dead on the Delta by Stacey Jay
Pocket, $7.99, 389pp, pb, 9781439189863. Urban fantasy.
So much danger, so little time.…
Oncec upon a time, fairies were the stuff of bedtime stories and sweet dream. Then came the mutations, and the dreams became nightmares. Mosquito-size fairies now indulge their taste for human blood—and for most humans, a fairy bite means insanity or death. Luckily, Annabelle Lee isn’t most humans. The hard-drinking, smart-mouthed, bicycle-riding redhead is immune to fairy venom, and able to do the dirty work most humans can’t. Including helping law enforcement—and Cane Cooper, the bayou’s sexiest detective—collect evidence when a body is discovered outside the fairy-proof barricades of her Louisiana town.
But Annabelle isn’t equipped to deal with the murder of a six-year-old girl or a former lover-turned-FBI snob taking an interest in the case. Suddenly her already bumpy relationship with Cane turns even rockier, and even the most trust-worthy friends become suspects. Annabelle’s life is imploding: between relationship drama, a heartbreaking murder investigation, Breeze-crazed drug runners, and a few too many rum and Cokes, Annabelle is a woman on the run—from her past, toward her future, and into the arms of a darkness waiting just for her.…
A Soldier’s Duty by Jean Johnson
Ace, $7.99, 432pp, pb, 9780441020638. Science fiction. On-sale date: 26 July 2011.
Jean Johnson, the national bestselling author of the Sons of Destiny novels, brings her “wildly entertaining” imagination to science fiction in a brand-new series…
Ia is a precog, blessed—or cursed—with visions of the future. She has witnessed the devastation of her home galaxy three hundred years in the future, long after she is gone, but believes she can prevent it.
Enlisting in the modern military of the Terran United Planets, Ia plans to rise through the ranks, meeting and influencing important people and building a reputation that will inspire others for the next three centuries. But she needs to be assigned to the right ship, the right company, and the right place to earn that reputation honestly—all while keeping her psychic abilities hidden from her superiors, who would refused to risk such a valuable gift in combat.
To save the galaxy, Ia must become someone else: the soldier known as Bloody Mary.
Timecaster by Joe Kimball
Ace, $7.99, 306pp, pb, 9780441019182. Science fiction.
Timing is everything…
Chicago, 2064: Talon Avalon is bored.
Talon is a timecaster, one of a select few peace officers who can operate a TEV—a tachyon emission visualizer—which allows the user to record events (most specifically, crimes) that have already happened.
Violent crime is at an all-time low, and there hasn’t been an unsolved murder in seven years. So Talon has little to do except give lectures to schoolkids—and obsess about his beloved wife’s profession as a licensed sex partner.
Then one of her clients asks Talon to investigate a possible murder. And when Talon uses TEV to view the crime, the identity of the killer is unmistakable—it’s him, Talon Avalon.
Someone is taking timecasting to a whole new level and using it to frame Talon. And the only way he can prove his innocence is to go off the grid—which even in 2064 is a very dangerous thing to do…
Unnatural Issue by Mercedes Lackey
(An Elemental Masters Novel), DAW, $25.95, 362pp, hc, 9780756405755. Fantasy.
Susanne Whitestone had always lived in Whitestone Manor, her ancestral home in North Yorkshire. She was the daughter of a country squire, but life for Susanne was no different than it was for any of the many servants in her father’s great house. For though she was Richard Whitestone’s only child, she had never set eyes on her father, who lived as a recluse ina a sectioned off wing of the manor. But Susanne was happy; raised by her father’s warm and loving servants, it suited her to do simple household chores, work in the dairy, and tend to the extensive grounds that lay beyond her father’s private inner gardens. For Susanne was an Earth Master, and liked nothing more than to keep the land itself and all of its animal inhabitants—both mundane and fae—well nourished and thriving. And Susanne was surprisingly well-trained as a mage of the Earth, despite her father’s neglect, because for the last eleven years, she had a special friend in the forest—a powerful fae being known only as Robin. Robin had taught Susanne since she was ten, and he had given her such a thorough education that Susanne doubted that any mortal Master could find fault with her practices.
Richard Whitestone was also an Earth Master, but since his beloved wife’s death in childbirth with Susanne, he had lived a kind of half-life in his secluded and isolated section of the great manor. He hated even the thought of the child who had ended his wife’s life, and had refused to acknowledge or care for his daughter. His life had withered, and his spirit had contracted into a hard, cold thing. As he had grown bitter, twisted, and blighted, so had everything he could see from his windows—his once-beautiful gardens were now as stark and withered as his own heart. But as they years passed, Richard found that there was one thing that gave him solace—the thought, first just a fleeting thing, then later an obsession, that he could bring his Rebecca back to life through the dark practice of necromancy. He would need an appropriate vessel for her spirit, a young woman, preferable one who looked like she did and was approximately the same age that Rebecca had been at the time of her death—twenty-one.
Meanwhile, in London, Lord Alderscroft , Head of one of the oldest and most powerful White Lodges of Elemental Masters in the Empire, had serious worries. There were intimations of trouble on the continent—not of just a small conflict, but war on a scale that had never been seen before. Alderscroft had dispatched many of his Masters to the continent to try to avert this coming disaster, and was functioning with a fraction of the support he usually had at his disposal when reports of Blood Magic came to him from one of his mages in Yorkshire. With his lodge depleted, Alderscroft had no choice but to send Lord Peter Almsley, one of his most powerful operatives, up north to find and dispatch this mysterious necromancer. But will Lord peter get to Susanne in time?
Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
(Book One of The Broken Empire), Ace, $25.95, 336pp, hc, 9780441020324. Fantasy. On-sale date: 2 August 2011.
Fans of George R.R. Martin and Brent Weeks will love Prince of Thorns, Book One of The Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence, the highly anticipated fantasy release of the summer.
Mark Lawrence’s Prince of Thorns takes readers to a land without an emperor, fought over by a hundred petty kingdoms, where there are few heroes but plenty of villains. None are more imaginatively brutal than Jorg. Cynical and fearless, a gang leader since he was 15 years old, he commands the respect of the toughest mercenaries.
What readers discover is that Jorg has an interesting past. No one knows that he is, in fact, a prince. If his brothers in banditry found out, they would probably hold him for ransom. Now it is time for Jorg to end his years on the road and put the vicious talents he has acquired to a greater purpose: reclaiming his inheritance. But the fast-thinking bandit will soon discover that nothing is what it seems in his father’s castle. Even the greatest kings are no match for dark forces and ancient magic that lie within the walls.
Wayfinder by C.E. Murphy
Del Rey, $15.00, 352pp, tp, 9780345516077. Fantasy. On-sale date: 6 September 2011.
The truth will set you free—if it doesn’t kill you first
Lara Jansen is a truthseeker, gifted—or cursed—with the magical ability to tell honesty from lies. Once she was a tailor in Boston, but now she has crossed from Earth to the Barrow-lands, a Faerie world embroiled in a bloody civil war between Seelie and Unseelie. Armed with an enchanted and malevolent staff which seeks to bend her to its dark will, and thrust into a deadly realm where it’s hard to distinguish friend from foe, Lara is sure of one thing: her love for Dafydd ap Caerwyn, the Faerie prince who sought her help in solving a royal murder and dousing the flames of war before they consumed the Barrow-lands.
But now Dafydd is missing, perhaps dead, and the Barrow-lands are closer than ever to a final conflagration. Lara has no other choice: she must harness the potent but perilous magic of the staff and her own truthseeking talents, blazing a path to a long-forgotten truth—a truth with the power to save the Barrow-lands or destroy them.
Concrete Savior by Yvonne Navarro
(a Dark Redemption novel), Pocket/Juno, $7.99, 384pp, pb, 9781439191972. Urban Fantasy.
They say no good deed goes unpunished. Brynna Malak is living proof.
A fallen angel in human form, Brynna is trying to earn another chance at heaven. So far, her road to redemption is littered with casualties, especially since Lucifer’s minions are intent on dragging her back to hell. An dbeing mortal only got more complicated since Brynna became involved with Detective Eran Redmond.
Still, Brynna’s relationship issues like the fact that one glimpse of her can drive men crazy with desire—may have to wait. A mysterious “hero” is saving Chicago citizens from certain death, with strange and sinister consequences. Brynna knows too much about demonkind to believe in coincidences. Some dark force is at work here, and Brynna may be the only one who can stop it…
Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton
Spectra, $16.00, 437pp, tp, 9780345520883. Fantasy.
Following in the footsteps of writers like China Mieville and Richard K. Morgan, Mark Charan Newton balances style and storytelling in this bold and brilliant debut. Nights of Villjamur marks the beginning of a sweeping new fantasy epic.
Beneath a dying red sun sits the proud and ancient city of Villjamur, capital of a might empire that now sits powerless against an encroaching ice age. As throngs of refugees gather outside the city gates, a fierce debate rages within the walls about the fate of these desperate souls. Then tragedy strikes—and the Emperor’s elder daughter, Jamur Rika, is summoned to serve as queen. Joined by her younger sister, Jamur Eir, the queen comes to sympathize with the hardships of the common people, thanks in part to her dashing teacher Randur Estevu, a man who is not what he seems.
Meanwhile, the grisly murder of a councillor draws the attention of Inspector Rumex Jeryd. Jeryd is a rumel, a species of nonhuman that can live for hundreds of years and shares the city with humans, birdlike garuda, and the eerie banshees whose forlorn cries herald death. Jeryd’s investigation will lead him into a web of corruption—and to an obscene conspiracy that threatens the lives of Rika and Eir, and the future of Villjamur itself.
But in the far noth, where the drawn-out winter has already begun, an even greater threat appears, against which all the empire’s military and magical power may well prove useless—a threat from another world.
Deadly Dreams by Andre Norton
Baen, $7.99, 582pp, pb, 9781439134443. Science fiction.
To sleep, perchance to scream
Andre Norton’s dream sagas; two novels collected together for the first time in one volume:
Perilous Dreams: Tamisan the Dreamer is trained to walk through her dreams to other places, other worlds. But when she is asked by the crippled star traveler Lord Starrex to take him into a dream world where he can regain his legs and his life something goes terribly wrong. Someone, or something, stalks this world, and it does not mean well to Starrex or to Tamisan.
Knave of Dreams: For Ramsay Kimble, sleep means nightmares, and he avoids it whenever possible. But now a car accident has catapulated him into the very world he most dreads: the horror world of his own dreams. But here he is not his ordinary self, but a nobleman from a fair country, possessed of power to fight backm, defeat his nightmare visions, change his dream world—and ultimately rescue his life from the terror that stalks him.
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
DAW, $15.00, 388pp, tp, 9780756406691. Fantasy.
In a postapocalyptic Africa, the world has changed in many ways, yet in one region genocide between tribes still bloodies the land. A woman who has survived the annihilation of her village and a terrible rape by an enemy general wanders into the desert hoping to die. Instead, she gives birth to an angry baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand. Gripped by the uncertainty that her daughter is different—special—she names her child Onyesonwu, which means “Who Fears Death?” in an ancient tongue.
As Onye grows, it doesn’t take long for her to understand that she is physically and socially marked by the circumstances of her violent conception. She is Ewu—a child of rape who is expected to live a life of violence, a half-breed rejected by both tribes.
But Onye is not the average Ewu. Even as a child, she manifests the beginnings of a remarkable and unique magic. As Onye grows, so do her abilities, and during an inadvertent visit to the spirit realm she learns something terrifying: someone powerful is trying to kill her.
Desperate to elude her would-be murderer, and to understand her own nature, she seeks help from the magic practitioners of her village. But, even among her mother’s people, she meets with frustrating prejudice because she is Ewu and female. Yet Onye persists.
Eventually her magical destiny and her rebellious nature will force her to leave home and embark on a journey that will cause her to grapple with nature, tradition, history, true love, the spiritual mysteries of her culture, and ultimately to learn why she was given the name she bears: Who Fears Death.
Skinners: The Breaking by Marcus Pelegrimas
Harper Voyager, $7.99, 435pp, pb, 978006196345. Horror.
Shapeshifters, vampires, and all manner of monstrosities are raining hell down on a small western town—which is why Skinner Paige Strobel is headed there with a band of Old World Skinners who have been battling monsters for centuries using antiquated, yet oddly effective weaponry. Meanwhile, Paige’s sometime-partner/sometime-lover Cole Warnecki is being held prisoner by persons—or things—unknown: framed, tortured, and beaten for the slaughter of cops at a vampire warehouse in Denver.
For Paige and Cole, a search for answers has become a battle for survival. The future of unsuspecting humankind is balanced on a knife blade. And the Apocalypse is a certainty unless they can uncover the truth behind a terrible force powering monsters and hunters alike… and find out why—after horrific werewolf attacks in KC and bloody carnage in Philly—Skinners are suddenly, inexplicably, turning against Skinners…
The Neon Graveyard by Vicki Pettersson
(the Final Sign of the Zodiac), Harper Voyager, $7.99, 372pp, pb, 9780061456794. Fiction.
New York Times bestselling author Vicki Pettersson returns with The Neon Graveyard, her sixth and final exhilarating supernatural Zodiac novel of superheroes and dark adventure set behind the scenes of Sin City.
Pettersson is well known for her passionate protagonist and epic action; but in this fast-paced series finale, it’s the mind blowing action that will keep readers turning the pages. She continues her thrilling saga of superheroes behind the scenes in Sin City, painting both gritty fight scenes and heartfelt emotion with incredible originality.
Once she was a soldier for the Light, the prophesied savior who would decide the outcome of the eternal conflict raging unseen in the dark, hidden places of the glittering city. Now Joanna Archer’s just another mortal—still the wealthiest heiress in Sin City; still born of an impossible union of Shadow and Light—and hunted by both—carrying the unborn child of a lover held captive by a depraved demon goddess.
Joining forces with a band of rogue Shadow agents, Joanna’s ready to storm the stronghold of her demonic foe, risking everything she has left to gain entrance to a ghastly, godforsaken realm where price of admission is a piece of her soul. But Joanna has nothing left to lose—except her baby—and her future—and her world.
The die is cast and the battle is on for the sordid soul of Vegas…
Hot & Steamy: Tales of Steampunk Romance edited by Jean Rabe & Martin H. Greenberg
DAW, $7.99, 307pp, pb, 9780756406899. Science fiction anthology.
What would the past look like if the future had come along earlier? This is the question that steampunk stories seek to answer in tales that place those possible futures in Victorian settings.
Now join sixteen visionary writers as they explore the many romantic possibilities of the steampunk, pseudo-Victorian age in such striking alternate adventures as when:
* Time travel and a chance to look at an untimely newspaper headline complicate Alva Edison’s blissful home life.…
* The search for Xibor, the presence of a beautiful woman, and the mechanical skills of an ape are just some of the pieces in an airship pilot’s puzzling quest.…
* Revenge aided by a comely woman and a magnetically inclined automaton bring Chance Corrigan closer to realizing his master plan.…
* A chance meeting at a party throws hearts into turmoil and sends one man dodging more than bullets.…
* Something other than a prized, rare flower blooms in the garden of a wealthy inventor.…
* Using steam to power a long-range communication device, an inventor finds love, danger, and more than he hoped for.…
[Contributors: Michael A. Stackpole, Vicki Johnson-Steger, Maurice Broaddus, Jody Lynn Nye, Matt Forbeck, Stephen D. Sullivan, Tobias S. Buckell, Micckey Zucker Reichert, Elizabeth A. Vaughan, C.J. Henderson, Dean Leggett, Robert E. Vardeman, C.A. Verstraete, Marc Tassin, Mary Louise Eklund, and Donald J. Bingle.]
Thistle Down by Irene Radford
DAW, $7.99, 296pp, pb, 9780756406707. Fantasy.
The Pixie Woods—
Desdemona “Dusty” Carrick had lived in the small town of Skene Falls, Oregon her entire life. And, like many of the local children, she had played with “imaginary” Pixie friends in and around Ten Acre Woods. With each generation, as the children grew up they forgot their Pixie friends. Or most of them did. Others, like Dusty and her brother Dick, never truly forgot. For the Pixies of Skene Falls were not in the least imaginary. And now their most treasured haven, the Ten Acre Woods, might soon be destroyed—and without the woods, the Pixies themselves would die.
The only hope for the Pixies rested with Thistle Down, exiled from her tribe and trapped in a mortal woman’s body. Only if Thistle could adjust to being in a mortal body—minus her wings and most of her magic—and succeed in convincing Dusty and some of the townspeople of the danger they all faced, would she have any chance to save her own people and, perhaps, be allowed to return home.…
The Golden Key by Melanie Rawn, Jennifer Roberson, and Kate Elliott
DAW, $7.99, 895pp, pb, 9780756406714. Fantasy.
In Magic’s Image
In the duchy of Tira Virte fine art is prized above all things, both for its beauty and as a binding legal record of everything from marriage and births to treaties and inheritances. And although the Grand Duke is aware that there is more to the paintings of certain limners than meets the eye, not even he knows just how extraordinary the art of the Grijalva family truly is. For certain males of their bloodline are born with a frightening, magical talent—the ability to manipulate time and reality within their paintings, a Gift which enables them to alter events and influence people in the real world.
The power of the Grijalva family has always been used solely to aid Tira Virte and its ruler. But all this changes in the time of Sario Grijalva. Sario, driven by his own passion and ambition, has learned to use his Gift in a whole new way. Obsessed with both his magic and his beautiful, adored cousin Saavedra, Sario will do anything to win her love. Unable to bear it when Saavedra gives her heart to another, he takes a first, fateful step beyond the boundaries previously placed on Grijalva spell-casting, capturing his cousin with forbidden arts. And it is this rash and dangerous act which sets in motion a generations-spanning pattern of treachery and betrayal which may cause both the Grijalvas and Tira Virte to pay a terrible price.…
Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds
Ace, $8.99, 550pp, pb, 9780441020430. Science fiction.
In a far-distant future, Spearpoint, the last human city, is a vast, atmosphere-piercing spire. Clinging to its skin are the zones: semiautonomous city-states, each of which enjoys a different—and rigidly enforced—level of technology.
Following a botched infiltration mission, enforcement agent Quillon has been living incognito, working as a pathologist in a morgue. But when a near-dead angel drops onto his dissection table, his world is wrenched apart.
For the angel is a winged posthuman from Spearpoint’s Celestial Levels. And with the dying body comes bad news: Quillon must leave his home and travel into the cold and hostile lands beyond Spearpoint’s base. But he can neither imagine how far the journey will take him—nor comprehend how much is at stake.…
City of Ruins by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Pyr, $16.00, 304pp, tp, 9781616143695. Science fiction.
Boss, a loner, loved to dive derelict spacecraft adrift in the blackness of space…
But one day, she found a ship that would change everything—an ancient Dignity Vessel—and aboard the ship, the mysterious and dangerous Stealth Tech. Now, years after discovering that first ship, Boss has put together a large company that finds Dignity Vessels and finds “loose” stealth technology.
Following a hunch, Boss and her team come to investigate the city of Vaycehn, where fourteen archeologists have died exploring the endless caves below the city. Mysterious “death holes” explode into the city itself for no apparent reason, and Boss believes stealth tech is involved. As Boss searches for the answer to the mystery of the death holes, she will uncover the answer to her Dignity Vessel quest as well—and one more thing, something so important that it will change her life—and the unvierse—forever.
Haven by Joel Shepherd
(a Trial of Blood & Steel, Book Four), Pyr, $16.00, 450pp, tp, 9781616143633. Fantasy.
The great powers of the Saalshen Bacosh are falling. The feudal army of the Regent Balthaar Arosh marches victorious across Rhodaan and Enora, determined to restore the old human ways that were abolished by the serrin of Saalshen two centuries before. The Army of Lenayin marches in their wake, in shame. The greater battle was won, yet Lenayin’s part in it was defeat, their king slain, their warriors sent running from the field.
Sashandra Lenayin marches with her people, yet she sees the carnage the Regent’s armies are inflicting upon her former allies, and like most Lenays, she feels dishonoured. Sasha leads three quarters of the Army of Lenayin to defect, and fight for Saalshen, leaving her brothers Kenyg and Myklas with the Verenthane hardliners to fight for the Regent.
All forces now converge on the city of Jahnd, an Enoran word meaning ‘Haven.’ A city of humanity’s refugees in Saalshen, its serrin hosts have allowed it to build into a major power over the centuries, humankind’s only outpost in Saalshen. But the Saalshen Bacosh’s third province, the mountainous land of Ilduur, refuses to come to the aid of its neighbours, and without it, victory is impossible. Sasha must lead a delegation to the Ilduuri capital, to combat the xenophobic Ilduuri regime’s retreat into isolation, and convince the Ilduuri army to defy their own leaders, and rise up in rebellion to fight a foreign war that must Ilduuris do not want.
To save Saalshen and all that she loves about Lenayin, Sasha must become a true Lenay warlord, feared and hated by her enemies, uncompromising and all conquering. But will her own people now inflict upon her one of her worst nightmares, by insisting that she, and not her brother Damon, should assume the Lenay throne and lead her people in the greatest battle that the land of Rhodia has ever seen?
Shadowborn by Alison Sinclair
Roc, $15.00, 360pp, tp, 9780451463944. Fantasy.
Alison Sinclair’s Shadowborn is the final book in her stunning fantasy trilogy set in a world where the forces of light, dark, and shadow are perpetually at odds.
As a science fiction writer, Sinclair’s novel Cavalcade (1998) was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke award, and after switching genres her fantasy works have also been receiving rave reviews from fans and critics alike.
In Shadowborn, a touch of sunlight kills members of the Darkborn, just as darkness is fatal for the Lightborn. For centuries these two peoples have lived in an uneasy equilibrium, sharing the same city, but never meeting.
Lady Telmaine Hearne was condemned to death by the Darkborn for sorcery. She narrowly escaped with her life and is now bound with her mageborn allies for the Borders—and the war brewing there. Meanwhile, her husband, Balthasar, has learned of his family connection to the Shadowborn—and is fighting for survival and sanity as their dark magic turns him against everything he holds dear. At the same time, Lightborn-Prince Fejelis finds himself stranded in the Borders—on the frontlines of the battle between Darkborn and Shadowborn. Fortunately, the assassin Floria White Hand is maneuvering between allies and enemies to bring her prince home safe, even as she suddenly gains an unexpected and precious new charge.
Hex by Allen Steele
Ace, $26.95, 352pp, hc, 9780441020362. Science fiction.
Two-time Hugo Award winner Allen Steele expands the universe of his Coyote saga with the story of Hex, a habitat the size of an entire solar system that could be a utopia—or nothing but a cosmic mirage…
The Coyote Federation has long been a full-fledged member of the Talus, the “galactic club” of interstellar races. Yet one race, the danui, a reclusive arachnid species considiered the galaxy’s finest engineers, has avoided contact with Coyote.
Until, that is, the danui initiate trade negotiations, offering only information: the coordinates for an unoccupied world suitable for human life.
The Federation eagerly accepts, but the human recon crew is shocked to discover that there is no planet—or any planets. The danui destroyed them to construct a massive sphere orbiting and circling the entire system.
The sphere, composed of billions of hexagons, could house the entire Talus. but when the recon mission goes terribly wrong, the humans realize how little they know about their partners. Why did the danui build such a structure? Worse, what might they be expecting from Coyote in return?
Eclipse Four: New Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by Jonathan Strahan
Night Shade, $14.99, 230pp, tp, 9781597801973. Science fiction and fantasy anthology.
To observe an eclipse is to witness a rare and unusual event. Under darkened skies the sun becomes a negative image of itself, its corona transforming the landscape into a strange space where anything might happen, and any story may be true.…
In the spirit of classic science fiction anthologies such as Universe, Orbit, and Starlight, master anthologist Jonathan Strahan presents the non-themed genre anthology Eclipse: New Science Fiction and Fantasy. Here you will find stories where strange and wonderful things happen—where reality is eclipsed by something magical and new.
Continuing in the footsteps of the multiple-award-nominated anthologies Eclipse One, Eclipse Two, and Eclipse Three, Eclipse Four delivers new fiction by some of the genre’s most celebrated authors, including Andy Duncan’s tale of a man’s gamble that he can outrun a bullet; Caitlin R. Kiernan’s story of lovers contemplating the gravity of a tiny black hole; Damien Broderick’s chronicle of a beancounter who acquires a most curious cat; Michael Swanwick’s tale of the grey man who pulls an unhappy woman from the path of an oncoming train; Nalo Hopkinson’s story of ghosts haunting a shopping mall; and Gwyneth Jones’s story of an alien priest who suffers a crisis of faith…
[Contributors: Jonathan Strahan, Andy Duncan, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Damien Broderick, Kij Johnson, Michael Swanwicck, Nalo Hopkinson, Gwyneth Jones, Rachel Swrisky, Eileen Gunn, Jeffrey Ford, Emma Bull, Peter M. Ball, Jo Walton, and James Patrick Kelly.]
Dancing with Bears by Michael Swanwick
Night Shade, $24.99, 268pp, hc, 9781597802352. Science fiction.
Michael Swanwick—the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy award-winning author of Stations of the Tide—delivers a stunning “Post-Utopian” novel of swashbuckling adventure, dangerous women, and genocidal AIs.
Dancing with Bears follows the adventures of notorious con-men Darger and Surplus: They’ve lied and cheated their way onto the caravan that is delivering a priceless gift from the Caliph of Baghdad to the Duke of Muscovy. The only thing harder than the journey to Muscovy is their arrival in Muscovy. An audience with the Duke seems impossible to obtain, and Darger and Surplus quickly become entangled in a morass of deceit and revolution.
The only thing more dangerous than the convoluted political web surrounding Darger and Surplus is the gift itself, the Pearls of Byzantium, and Zoesophia, the governess sworn to protect their virtue.
This steampunk-esque adventure explores the great game of espionage and empire building, from the point of view of the worlds most accomplished con-men, Darger and Surplus.
Alien Invasion: The Ultimate Survival Guide for the Ultimate Attack by Travis S. Taylor, Ph.D. & Bob Boan, Ph.D.
Baen, $16.00, 226pp, tp, 9781439134429. Non-fiction.
What if they don’t come in peace…?
What if there really are aliens and they do attack? Read what two scientists reveal in this “how-to” survival manual for the space age.
Alien invasion. Unlikely? As unlikely as Pearl Harbor? The extinction of the dinosaurs? A meteor strike that levels whole forests in Siberia? Some events produce such a massive setback to life, the Earth and humanity that we must understand and prepare for them, even if the chances are low that they’ll come about. In nfact, it will be criminal and abrogation of our duty to future generations if we do not get ready! But where to begin?
Drs. Travis S. Taylor and Bob Boan have the answers. Both are experienced scientists, physicists with expertise in both defense and military signal intelligence and experience working with both the Department of Defense and NASA. These are intellectual heavyweights who have a clear idea of the possibilities of alien contact, the calculations of whether or not that contact will be friendly…and what to do if it’s not.
It may never come in our lifetimes—but everyone should have a copy of this lying around just in case.
The Scarab Path by Adrian Tchaikovsky
(Shadows of the Apt 5), Pyr, $16.00, 505pp, tp, 9781616143619. Science fiction.
The war with the Wasp Empire has ended in a bitter stalemate, and Collegium has nothing to show for it but wounded veterans. Cheerwell Maker finds herself crippled in ways no doctor can mend, haunted by ghosts of the past that she cannot appease, seeking for meaning in a city that no longer seems like home.
The Empress Seda is regaining control over those imperial cities who refused to bow the knee to her, but she draws her power from something more sinister than mere armies and war machines. Only her consort, the former spymaster Thalric, knows the truth, and now the assassins are coming and he finds his life and his loyalties under threat yet again.
Out past the desert of the Nem the ancient city of Khanaphes awaits them both, with a terrible secret entombed beneath its stones…
The War That Came Early: West and East by Harry Turtledove
Del Rey, $16.00, 450pp, tp, 9780345491855. Alternate History.
In 1938, Hitler makes a bold gambit—And the whole world will pay the price.
In 1938, two men held history in their hands. One was Adolf Hitler. The other was British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, who, determined to avoid war at any cost, came to be known as “the great appeaser.” But Harry Turtledove, the unrivaled master of alternate history, has launched a gripping saga that springboards from a different fateful act: What if Chamberlain had stood up to Hitler? What would the Nazis’ next move have been? And how would the war—which Hitler had always regreted waiting eleven months to start—have unfolded and changed our world?
In The War That Came Early: West and East, Turtledove takes us across a panorama of conflict fueled by ideology and demagoguery. Nations are pitted against nations, alliances are forged between old enemies, ordinary men and women are hurled into extraordinary life-and-death situations. In Japanese-controlled Singapore, an American marine falls in love with a Russian dance hall hostess, while around him are heard the first explosions of Chinese guerilla resistance. On the frontlines of war-ravaged rural France, a weary soldier perfects the art of using an enormous anti-tank gun as a sniper’s tool—while from Germany a killer is sent to hunt him down. And in the icy North Atlantic, a U-boat bearing an experimental device wreaks havoc on British shipping, setting the stage for a Nazi ground invasion of Denmark.
From an American woman trapped in Germany who receives safe passage from Hitler himself to a Jewish family steeped in German culture and facing the hatred rising around them, from Japanese soldiers on the remote edge of Siberia to American volunteers in Spain, West and East is the story of a world held hostage by tyrants—Stalin, Hitler, Sanjuro—each holding on to power through lies and terror even in the face of treacherous plots from within.
As armies clash, and as the brave, foolish, and true believers choose sides, new weapons are added to already deadly arsenals and new strategies are plotted to break a growing stalemate. But one question looms over the conflict from West to East: What will it take to bring America into this war?
Space Race by C.E.L. Welsh, illustrated by K.L. Jones
Campfire, $9.99, 68pp, tp, 9789380028620. YA historical fiction. On-sale date: 12 July 2011.
A substance from Earth that would carry man into space…
How did charcoal, one of the key ingredients in gunpowder, alter the course of warfare and make it possible for us to build giant structures in space? This question, and many more like it, are answered in this thrilling historical story.
Join Chet Riley and his grandfather as they relive the story of the Space Race—an event that was contested by the two greatest powers on Earth, and involved some of the most brilliant and inventive minds the world has ever seen.
From gunpowder in ancient China, to inventions in Russia and the United States of America, the story of the Space Race is one that takes the reader all over the world… and beyond!
Suitable for readers of all ages, Space Race combines beautiful artowrk and a gripping story.
Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
Doubleday, $25.00, 368pp, hc, 9780385533850. Science fiction. On-sale date: 7 June 2011.
Daniel H. Wilson (How to Survive a Robot Uprising) is a thirty-two-year-old robotics engineer prodigy who has a PhD in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon. He also happens to be an extremely talented writer, and his new novel, Robopocalypse, is a brilliantly conceived action-filled epic, a terrifying story with heart-stopping implications for the real technology all around us.
Robopocalypse smashes cliches and creates a pulse-pounding, chilling vision of the coming robot apocalypse. Twenty years from now, an unprecedented high-level artificial intelligence known as Archos comes on-line and kills its creator. This first act of betrayal leads Archos to gain control over the global network of computers, machines and technology that regulate everything from transportation, utilities, defense, and communication.
In the early months, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans, but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is far too late. In the span of fifteen minutes, at a moment known later in history as Zero Hour, every mechanical device in our world rebels against us, setting off the Robot War that both decimates and—for the first time in history—unites humankind.
As savvy and original as the technology in the novel is, this is a human story with dramatically high stakes. Steven Spielberg will direct the film version of Robopocalypse in 2012.