This page is updated as books are received throughout the month.
Spectyr by Philippa Ballantine
(the second Book of the Order), Ace, $7.99, 312pp, pb, 9780441020515. Fantasy.
In a realm of mystics and magic, the Order of Deacons stands between the here and now and the Otherside. Its mission is to protect the citizens of the Empire from malevolent geists—no matter where or when…
Though one of the most powerful Deacons, Sorcha Faris has a tarnished reputation to overcome. She and her partner, Deacon Merrick Chambers, find themselves chasing down rumors of geists, but long for a return to real action. So they jump at the chance to escort a delegation sent to negotiate the terms of the Emperor’s engagement. Their destination: the exotic city of Orinthal.
But a string of murders has Orinthal on edge, and Sorcha and Merrick are asked to investigate. Meanwhile, the Emperor’s sister has unwittingly unleashed a cruel and vengeful goddess, one who is bent on destroying her enemies, including the geistlord who resides inside the shapeshifting rival to the throne—Sorcha’s lover…
The Traitor’s Daughter by Paula Brandon
Spectra, $15.00, 432pp, tp, 9780553583809. Fantasy. On-sale date: 4 October 2011.
The Traitor’s Daughter is the first in a trilogy of fanntasy novels that are lush, romantic, dramatic, and wholly engaging, in which a young noblewoman is tested to the limits of her resourcefulness and courage.
On the Veiled Isles, ominous signs are apparent to those with the talent to read them. The polarity of magic is wavering at its source, heralding a vast upheaval poised to alter the very balance of nature. Blissfully unaware of the cataclysmic events to come, Jianna Belandor, the beautiful, privileged daughter of a powerful Faerlonnish overlord, has only one concern: the journey to meet her prospective husband. But revolution is stirring as her own conquered people rise up against their oppressors, and Jianna is kidnapped and held captive at a rebel stronghold, insurance against what are perceived as her father’s crimes.
The resistance movement opens Jianna’s eyes—and her heart. Despite her belief in her father’s innocence, she is fascinated by the bold and charming nomadic physician and rebel sympathizer, Falaste Rione—who offers Jianna her only sanctuary in a cold and calculating web of intrigue. As plague and chaos grip the land, Jianna is pushed to the limits of her courage and resourcefulness, while virulent enemies discover that alliance is their only hope to save the human race.
Tunnel Vision by Gary Braver
Forge, $25.99, 384pp, hc, 9780765309761. Fantasy.
Lately there’s been a lot of discussion regarding the belief in the afterlife. From talks generated by astrophysicist Stephen Hawking who claims that there is no afterlife, that “heaven is a fairy tale” to the Rapture also known as the End of Days that was believed to occur on May 21st but never happened. In Tunnel Vision thriller master Gary Braver creates a chilling exploration of death… and life as he explores near-death experiences to discover if heaven is real.
Following a biking accident on icy Boston streets, grad studentn Zack Kashian lapses into a coma. When he wakes up on Easter 12 weeks later, Zack finds he has become an object of intense interest by religious fanatics after being secretly filmed muttering the Lord’s Prayer in the original Aramaic. The media is abuzz about the “Miracle Man”, and religious fanatics flock to his hospital bedside even though he claims to be an atheist.
Zack’s revival also catches the attention of Dr. Elizabeth Luria who heads up a small team of neuroscientists secretly researching near-death experiences (NDE). Their objective: to determine if there is anything to the claims of NDE victims floating down tunnels into the celestial light and meeting spiritual beings? Is all that evidence of the afterlife, or just neurobiology as Sarah Wyman, one of Luria’s young researchers suspects.
For personal reasons, Luria is desperate to prove the afterlife exists. So are her wealthy evangelist backers who can’t wait to announce to the world the greatest discovery in human history: that God exists. A discovery that would at last reconcile science and religion. A discovery that would end the world’s religious strife and unite all humanity.
Yet Zack’s experiences are anything but heavenly. And while he and Sarah struggle to understand his horrific out-of-body experiences, they have no idea that sinister forces have also taken interest in them. Forces to whom near-death experiences are utter blasphemy—deceptions by Satan himself. And they enlist a menacing agent who in the name of God will stop at nothing to terminate the project and all involved.
Filled with high drama, plot twists and narrow escape, Tunnel Vision is an enthralling page-turner that will captivate and thrill readers.
Undercurrents by Robert Buettner
Baen, $14.00, 292pp, tp, 9781439134498. Science fiction.
A hero’s work is never done
Earth’s military intelligence spooks promised Lieutenant Jazen Parker a fresh start, the woman of his dreams, and answers about his past, spiced with a pinch of danger. After Jazen’s first hitch, all the spooks had delivered was the danger.
Two years after resigning his commission, Jazen prefers to run a saloon inside a hollow meteor over reenlistment, until the King of the Spooks makes Jazen an offer he can’t refuse.
Parachuted onto a politically quarantined planet, Jazen finds iron rivet technology and a ruling regime to the right of Heinrich Himmler. Jazen also uncovers a plot that threatens the peace of five hundred planets.
Now he has to right an ancient wrong and overthrow an evil empire. But he’ll have to do it with a handful of rustbucket tanks, a retread rebellion, and two strong, beautiful women who just might love him.
Ghost Story by Jim Butcher
(a Novel of the Dresden Files), Roc, $27.95, 482pp, hc, 9780451463791. Fantasy.
Bestselling author Jim Butcher has hooked fans with not one, but two bestselling series: the epic classic fantasy of the Codex Alera seris and the excellent urban noir fantasy of the Dresden Files. For the past two years, with Turn Coat and Changes, Jim Butcher has taken his famous wizard private investigator, Harry Dresden, to the #1 hardcover spot on the New York Times hardcover bestsellers list. Now Harry Dresden returns in what is to be the most shocking, heart-stopping and addictively magical installment yet: Ghost Story: A Novel of The Dresden Files.
Harry Dresden hasn’t had a great year, having recently been killed by parties unknown. Though he may have departed the mortal coil, there will be neither rest nor peace for Chicago’s resident professional wizard. Trapped in a realm that is not quite here, yet not quite after, he learns that three of his loved ones are destined for torment and crippling agony unless he can do something to help them. Only be discovering his murderer’s identity may he save his friends, bring the killer to justice, and move on to what comes next. Of course, it would be easier if he knew which three friends were in danger. And if he had a physical body… and access to his magic, neither of which he has.
In the thirteenth novel in this “superlative” series, Harry Dresden must accomplish his task as a wandering ghost—unable to interact with the physical world, invisible and inaudible to all but the most specialized magical talents.
To make matters worse, he soon learns that he is far from the only ghost roaming Chicago’s alleys and avenues—and he’s put a few of those ghosts there, himself. Now, they’re looking for payback as Dresden attempts the impossible—before hihs friends are harmed, and before he becomes forever trapped in a nightmare existence as one more lost, tormented spirit.
Even more impossible for Harry Dresden, though, is believing the truth when he learns his own killer is someone close to him. Someon even Dresden himself didn’t see coming…
Ghost Story is the most jaw-dropping and surprising book of the Dresden Files series yet. Revealing a mysterious killer who Dresden fans will have never suspected—Ghost Story will leave them wondering how author Jim Butcher manages to work his own magic, time and time again.
Why Does E=mc2? (And Why Should We are?) by Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw
Da Capo, $15.95, 249pp, tp, 9780306818760. Science.
People were converting mass into energy long before Einstein wrote down “E=mc2,” so it’s no wonder that most of us are content to accept his theory of special relativity without really understanding what it means. Science is confusing—even a little bit scary. It’s better all around to leave physics to the physicists.
Or is it? In Why Does E=me2?, physicists Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw dispel common misconceptions about relativity—starting with the idea that it’s incomprehensible. The first book to provide a definition of Einstein’s famous equation that is truly accessible to the layperson, Why Does E=mc2? considers separately the ideas of mass, energy, and light, and uses simple, everyday examples to explain the theories behind such massive projects as the atomic bomb and nuclear power.
Cox and Forshaw clear away the confusion surrounding one of the best known scientific principles and reveal the underlying beauty of Einstein’s theory. They then apply it to the exciting research that’s taking place now, including the famous Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, which has the ability to recreate conditions immediately following the Big Bang. In the process, they show how a simple equation contains the backbone of nature, and how recognizing that can challenge you to change your perspective of space and time.
Warehouse 13: A Touch of Fever by Greg Cox
Pocket, $7.99, 310pp, pb, 9780743491730. Science fiction/media tie-in.
The unknown has an address.…
Warehouse 13: A Touch of Fever by New York Times bestselling author Greg Cox is an original, official tie-in novel to the hit SyFy channel television show, their highest rated scripted show. Hidden away in the Badlands of South Dakota, Warehouse 13 is a top-secret repository for historical artifacts imbued with dangerous supernatural properties. Secret Service agents Pete Lattimer and Myka Bering are ever on the lookout for loose artifacts threatening to ruin the world’s day. Their mission: “Snag it, bag it, tag it.”
Reports of a genuine psychic healer, along with a simultaneous epidemic of mysterious illnesses, lead Myka and Pete on a hazardous investigation that stretches from a carnival sideshow back to the bloody history of the Civil War. But when Pete is infected with a deadly disease, Myka and the rest of the team, including Artie Nielsen and Claudia Donovan, must track down a pair of cursed gloves—before a madman unleashes a virulent plague upon America!
Taken by Fire by Sydney Croft
Bantam, $15.00, 291pp, tp, 9780385342292. Erotic romance.
His mission was to destroy her. But desire got in the way.
A product of genetic manipulation, Melanie MIlan shares a body with her malevolent sister, Phoebe. A sleek, blonde predator with a heart of pure darkness, Phoebe puts their body through the wicked underbelly of sex for thrills—when she’s not igniting her pyrokinetic skills for an evil organization bent on taking over the world. Melanie rarely gets out to play—much less fall in love. But that changes when rival ARCO agent Stryker Wills shows up, with a mission to terminate the woman who torched his partner.
An operative with rare abilities, Stryker soon realizes that the woman he’s about to kill isn’t the murderous fire starter he’s been hunting. But he does want her. Melanie, with the power to ice anything in her path, is heating things up in ways that are setting fire to his blood. As long as Melanie stays in control, she is his best ally to bring down her sister and stop hellish havoc from being unleashed. Walking a tightrope of longing and hate, Stryker and Melanie begin to understand that true power lies in sweet surrender to each other, to the flames between them, to the erotic adventure that’s joined their hearts and abilities to become their salvation—and perhaps the world’s.
The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Three edited by Ellen Datlow
Night Shade, $15.99, 362pp, tp, 9781597802178. Horror anthology.
A doctor makes a late-night emergency call to an exclusive California riding school; a professor inherits a mysterious vase… and a strange little man; a struggling youth discovers canine horrors lurking beneath the streets of Albany; a sheriff ruthlessly deals with monstrosities plaguing his rural town; a pair of animal researchers makes a frightening discovery at a remote site; a sweet little girl entertains herself… by torturing faeries; a group of horror aficionados attempts to track down an unfinished film by a reclusive cult director; a man spends a chill night standing watch over his uncle’s body; a girl looks to understand her place in a world in which zombies have overrun the earth; a murderous pack of nuns stalks a pair of Halloween revelers…
What frightens us, what unnerves us? What causes that delicious shiver of fear to travel the lengths of our spines? It seems the answer changes every year. Every year the bar is raised; the screw is tightened. Ellen Datlow knows what scares us; the seventeen stories included in this anthology were chosen from magazines, webzines, anthologies, literary journals, and single author collections to represent the best horror of the year.
[Contributors: Cody Goodfellow, Reggie Oliver, John Langan, Brian Hodge, Norman Partridge, Karina Sumner-Smith, Laird Barron, Mark Morris, M. Ricket, Richard Harland, Stephen Graham Jones, Glen Hirshberg, Christopher Fowler, Nicholas Royle, Richard Christian Matheson, Catherynne M. Valente, Joe R. Lansdale, Joseph S. Pulver Sr., Tanith Lee, and Ray Cluley.]
The Fall by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
Harper, $9.99, 440pp, pb, 9780061558257. Fiction.
The second in the New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with The Strain—about an invasion of vampries—from one of Hollywood’s most popular and imaginative storytellers, the creator of the Oscar-winning film Pan’s Labyrinth.
The vampiric virus unleashed in The Strain has taken over New York City. It is spreading across teh country and soon, the world. Amid the chaos, Eph Goodweather, head of the CDC’s team and one of a small group who have banded together to fight the bloodthirsty monsters that roam the streets, finally manages to identify the parasite that causes the infection. But it may be too late.
Ignited by the Master’s horrific plan, a war erupts between Old and New World Vampires, each side vying for control of the planet. As the virus continues to plague the land, humans find themselves caught in the middle of the conflict… and at the bottom of the food chain. They are no longer the consumers, but the consumed.
At the same time, the battle finds its way inside Eph’s own home: his ex-wife, Kelly, who was turned by the Master, has her sights fixed on Zack, Eph’s son.
With the future of the world in the balance, Eph and his team of fighters must use all their skills and Holocaust survivor and former professor Abraham Setrakian’s intimate knowledge of the enemy to combat a terror whose ultimate plan is more terrible than the humans even imagined—a fate worse than annihilation.
1635: The Tangled Web by Virginia DeMarce
Baen, $7.99, 516pp, pb, 9781439134542. Science fiction.
Freedom is on the march
Though the Thirty Years War continues to ravage 17th century Europe, history as it once happened has been permanently derailed by the arrival of Grantville, the West Virginian town from the 20th century which was hurled centuries into the past by a mysterious cosmic event known as the Ring of Fire. The American traditions of freedom and justice are having a strong impact in spite of attempts by the rulers of Europe to stuff the Grantville genie back into the bottle.
Virginia DeMarce, co-author of the New York Times best seller, 1634: The Bavarian Crisis, continues the sage of the time-lost Americans: from an entrepreneur cobbling together an inexpensive duplicating machine—with all its revolutionary potential—by modifying and combining other things he saw in Grantville’s museum, to the adventures of a courier who regularly makes his way from Frankfurt am Main to the city from the future and back again, to the unexpected impact upon history by the three teen-aged dukes of Wurttemberg. The two worlds continue to try, not always successfully, to understand each other in this new installment of the most popular alternate history series in science fiction today.
Feast: Harvest of Dreams by Merrie Destefano
Harper Voyager, $7.99, 305pp, pb, 9780061990823. Fantasy.
Halloween is a bad time to return to the woods…
Madeline MacFaddin (“Mad Mac” to fans of her bestselling magical stories) spent blissful childhood summers in Ticonderoga Falls. And this is where she wants to be now that her adult life is falling apart. The dense surrounding forest holds many memories, some joyous, some tantalizingly only half-remembered. And she’s always believed there was something living in these wooded hills.
But Maddie doesn’t remember the dark parts—and knows nothing of the mountain legend that holds the area’s terrified residents captive. She has no recollection of Ash, the strange and magnificent creature who once saved her life as a child, even though it is the destiny of his kind to prey upon humanity. And soon it will be the harvest… the time to feast.
Once again Maddie’s dreams—and her soul—are in grave danger. But magic runs deep during harvest. Even a spinner of enchanted tales has wondrous powers of her own…
Loose Cannon: The Tom Kelly Novels by David Drake
Baen, $12.00, 590pp, tp, 9781439134504. Science fiction.
In a past that never happened, Tom Kelly stands between the Earth and destruction
Both Tom Kelly Technothrillers—Together for the First Time
Tom Kelly is a spy the way a hammer is a tool, an angry man who learned to go well beyond ruthlessness in the jungles where America sent him. He can reach a target that nobody else would dare to attempt… but the cost of doing it Kelly’s way is too high for the US government to accept under any but direst circumstances. Circumstances like these:
Skyripper: a Soviet scientist wants to defect because aliens nobody else believes in are planning to invade Earth. Tom Kelly is in Algiers to arrange his defection. If aliens get in his way, he’ll kill them just as quickly as he would anybody else.
Fortress: America has built a huge orbital weapons platform to defend itself against enemies on Earth, but now there’s evidence of aliens. Tom Kelly has been tasked to learn what they’re doing here, even if that means leaving a trail of blood from Capitol Hill to the eastern borders of Turkey—and on into orbit!
You don’t give Tom Kelly orders: you point him and pull the trigger. Then you’d better stay clear, because he’ll remove you as quickly as he will anything else that gets in the way when he’s doing his job.
Loose Cannon: nonstop action, exotic locations, and a hero who doesn’t understand when he’s gone too far.
Into the Hinterlands by David Drake and John Lambshead
Baen, $25.00, 384pp, hc, 9781439134610. Science fiction. On-sale date: September 2011.
#1 in a new series from a military science fiction master with over 3 million books in print. A young hero comes of age in the crucible of war and galactic struggle.
When Allen Allenson, scion of a noble family that has fallen on hard times, gets a mission to roust the power-hungry Terrans from a “wild” star sector where they’re encroaching, he jumps at the chance to show his individual worth, improve his family’s fortunes—and gather enough lucre to make a good marriage. But the wily Terrans are not so easily persuaded by a young colonial they think of as a “rube.”
Worse, “Riders,” the beings who naturally ply the wilderness between the stars, are playing their own deadly political games—against the Terrans, against the colonials, and against one young greenhorn commander in particular: naif young Allen, whom they figure they can manipulate to do their bidding. The one thing nobody has counted on is the fact that Allen, while young and inexperienced, and much to his own amazement, happens to be a hero in the making.
Burn the Night by Jocelynn Drake
(the final Dark Days novel), Harper Voyager, $7.99, 418pp, pb, 9780061851827. Urban Fantasy.
The great awakening approaches…
After eons in exile, the naturi have broken their chains and now roam the Earth bent on revenge. It is the sworn duty of Mira, the Fire Starter, to protect the nightwalker race—though even she may be powerless to withstand the horrific onslaught. As Mira and her brave lover, the vampire slayer Danaus, stand ready to do battle, thousands of winged shapeshifters darken the skies. The war of ultimate extermination has begun, and the battleground is Mira’s home turf.
The humans don’t yet recognize the doom descending upon them. And the nightwalkers will surely perish unless they unite with outcast naturi who claim to want peace. But these unexpected “allies” are the same demons who have long worked for Mira’s destruction—and in these darkest of days the lines between friend and for will blur treacherously before the bloody end of all things.
The Sacred Band by David Anthony Durham
(Book Three of The Acacia Trilogy), Doubleday, $26.95, 576pp, hc, 9780307739681. Fantasy. On-sale date: 4 October 2011.
The Sacred Band is the thrilling final installment of the Acacia Trilogy, the alternative saga that the Washington Post called “gripping” and “sophisticated,” noting that “from the first pages, Durham demonstrates that he is master of the literary epic.”
In this majestic conclusion to David Anthony Durham’s vast portrait of a world in turmoil, the three surviving children of a royal dynasty find themselves on a quest to realize their fates—and, perhaps, to right ancient wrongs once and for all. The Sacred Band, at once realistic and fantastic, is an exotic canvas of kingdoms in collision, informed with an eloquent and enormously Shakespearian sensibility.
The Clockwork Rocket by Greg Egan
(Orthogonal< Book One), Night Shade, $24.99, 328pp, hc, 9781597802277. Science fiction.
In Yalda’s universe, light has no universal speed and its creation generates energy.
On Yalda’s world, plants make food by emitting their own light into the dark night sky. As a child Yalda witnesses one of a series of strange meteors, the Hurtlers, that are entering the planetary system at an immense, unprecedented speed. It becomes apparent that her world is in imminent danger—and that the task of dealing with the Hurtlers will require knowledge and technology far beyond anything her civilisation has yet achieved.
Only one solution seems tenable: if a spacecraft can be sent on a journey at sufficiently high speed, its trip will last many generations for those on board, but it will return after just a few years have passed at home. The travellers will have a chance to discover the science their planet urgently needs, and bring it back in time to avert disaster.
Orthogonal is the story of Yalda annd her descendants, trying to survive the perils of their long mission and carve out meaninfgul lives for themselves, while the threat of annihilation hangs over the world they left behind.
The Plain Man by Steve Englehart
Tor, $25.99, 352pp, hc, 9780765324997. Fantasy.
Magick and reality collide in The Plain Man—the third Max August fantasy thriller from comics legend Steve Englehart. This time Max and Pam Blackwell—his student and lover—must find a way to thwart a nefarious plot to blow up a nuclear power plant and create a toxic disaster in the Southwest.
Max August is not invulnerable, but he never ages—a gift he earned thirty years ago after studying under the legendary alchemist Cornelius Agrippa. Max, now an alchemist himself, has dedicated his magickal abilities to fighting the right-wing conspiracy known as the FRC, which seeks to control all aspects of society. Ruling the FRC is a nine-member cabal, each member of which is a powerful force in one area of society such as media, politics, finance… and wizardry.
When Max learns two members of the cabal are en route to Wickr, a Burning Man-like festival held in the American Southwest, he stages a plan to gather information from them by turning one member against the others. Max has been careful not leave a trail, but the cabal sees all, and an “accident” at a nearby nuclear waste facility would send a clear message to those who oppose the FRC. Max may be timeless, but he’s running out of time. Can he stop the FRC and save thousands of lives?
Magic, intrigue, and suspense abound in The Plain Man—an action-packed fantasy adventure from master storyteller Steve Englehart.
Ashes of a Black Frost by Chris Evans
(Book Three of the Iron Elves), Gallery, $25.99, 440pp, hc, 9781439180662. Fantasy. On-sale date: 18 October 2011.
In the bestselling traditions of Terry Brooks, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Bernard Cornwell comes the third novel, Ashes of a Black Forest by Chris Evans, in the acclaimed epic fantasy series Iron Elves, following book two The Light of Burning Shadows. Musket and cannon, bow and arrow, and magic and diplomacy vie for supremacy once again in this all-new epic adventure from acclaimed author Chris Evans. As the human-dominated Calahrian Empire struggles to maintain its hold on power in the face of armed rebellion from within, the Iron Elves’ perilous quest to defeat the power-hungry elf witch, the Shadow Monarch, now takes on greater urgency.
Packed with wit, high adventure, and political intrigue, Ashes of a Black Frost will hook readers on this bold and exciting series.
Ring of Fire III edited and created by Eric Flint
(sequels to 1632), Baen, $25.00, 502pp, hc, 9781439134481. Science fiction.
All-new stories of the American town lost in time
Let’s do the “Time Warp” again! Another anthology of rollicking, thought-provoking tales by a star-studded array of top writers such as New York Times best-seller Mercedes Lackey and Eric Flint himself—all set in Eric Flint’s phenomenal Ring of Fire series. After a cosmic accident sets the modern-day West Virginia town of Grantville down in war-torn seventeenth century Europe, these everyday, resourceful American must adapt—or be trod into the dust of the past.
It will take all the gumption of the resourceful, freedom-loving up-timers to find a way to flourrish in the mad and bloody era of the Thirty Years War. Are they up for it? You bet they are. The third exciting collection of Grantville tales edited by Eric Flint, and inspired by his now-legendary 1632.
[Contributors: Eric Flint, Mercedes Lackey, Charles E. Gannon, Tim Roesch, Gorg Huff & Paula Goodlett, Mark Huston, Bradley H. Sinor, Jack Carroll, Panteleimon Roberts, Anette Pedersen, Garrett W. Vance, Terry Howard, Walter Hunt, Walt Boyes, Kim Mackey, David Carrico, Karen Bergstralh, Kerryn Offord & Linda Davidson, and Virginia DeMarce.]
The First Days: As the World Dies by Rhiannon Frater
Tor, $14.99, 336pp, tp, 9780765331267. Fantasy.
So small.
So very, very small.
Jenni’s world comes to an end as she stands on her front porch, watching the tiny fingers of her three-year-old son scrabble under the door, trying to reach her. To devour her. The zombie outbreak has begun.
Katie’s world also comes crashing down when she’s attacked on her way to the courthouse, where she works as a prosecutor. An old preacher rescues her but the zombies take him down moments later. Taking his truck and his half-grown dog, Katie rushes home, hoping to save her wife, Lydia—only to find that it’s too late. Now fleeing for her life, Katie frantically tries to find a way out of a city that’s beginning to burn around her. She rescues Jenni from her front yard, where the younger woman is frozen in shock while her zombified husband and sons struggle to get out of the family home so they can eat her. The two women team up in an amazing fight for survival in the Texas hill country.
The First Days is the first book in the As the World Dies trilogy, a riveting look at two women in a world gone mad. Frater began her career by creating a serial novel that was written in short bursts as she traveled for work in her home state of Texas. She’d write a scene or a chapter in her hotel room, then post it to her website. To her surprise, people were soon clamoring for her to finish the story. When she did, she self-published the book as As the World Dies: The First Days, the first book in a trilogy. Books two and three, As the World Dies: Fighting to Survive and As the World Dies: Siege, quickly followed, each book being posted online and then self-published for Frater’s growing legion of fans to devour.
Now, Frater has revised and expanded her original novels, calling the Tor Books versions “the definitive editions!” New and improved, The First Days is sure to send chills down the spine of any horror fan, as well as the many people who love zombie novels, movies, and culture!
Miserere: An Autumn Tale by Teresa Frohock
Night Shade, $14.99, 256pp, tp, 9781597802895. Fantasy.
Exiled exorcist Lucian Negru deserted his lover in Hell in exchange for saving his sister Catarina’s soul, but Catarina doesn’t want salvation. She wants Lucian to help her fulfill her dark covenant with the Fallen Angels by using his power to open the Hell Gates. Catarina intends to lead the Fallen’s hordes out of Hell and into the parallel dimension of Woerld, Heaven’s frontline of defense between Earth and Hell.
When Lucian refuses to help his sister, she imprisons and cripples him, but Lucian learns that Rachael, the lover he betrayed and abandoned in Hell, is dying from a demonic possession. Determined to rescue Rachael from the demon he unleashed on her soul, Lucian flees his sister, but Catarina’s wrath isn’t so easy to escape.
In the end, she will force him once more to choose between losing Rachael or opening the Hell Gates so the Fallen’s hordes may overrun Earth, their last obstacle before reaching Heaven’s Gates.
The Shadow Men by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon
Ballantine, $7.99, 325pp, pb, 9780553386573. Fantasy.
From Beacon Hill to Southie, historic Boston is a town of vibrant neighborhoods knit into a seamless whole. But as Jim Banks and Trix Newcomb learn in a terriyfing instant, it is also a city divided—split into three separate versions of itself by a mad magician once tasked with its protection.
Jim is happily married to Jenny, with whom he has a young daughter, Holly. Trix is Jenny’s best friend, pracitcally a member of the family—although she has secretly been in love with Jenny for years. Then Jenny and Holly inexplicably disappear—and leave behind a Boston in which they never existed. Only Jim and Trix remember them. Only Jim and Trix can bring them back.
With the help of Boston’s Oracle, an elderly woman with magical powers, Jim and Trix travel between the fractured cities, for that is where Jenny and Holly have gone. But more is at stake than one family’s happiness. If Jim and Trix should fail, the spell holding the separate Bostons apart will fail too, and the cities will reintegrate in a cataclysmic implosion. Someone, it seems, wants just that. Someone with deadly shadow men at their disposal.
Heaven’s Shadow by David S. Goyer & Michael Cassutt
Ace, $25.95, 400pp, hc, 9780441020331. Science fiction.
It was sighted three years ago in the southern sky.
An object one hundred kilometers across, originating from the Octans constellation, on a trajectory for our sun. Now its journey is almost over.
And humanity’s journey is about to begin.
As the Near-Earth Object—dubbed “Keanu”—approaches, two manned vehicles race through almost half a million kilometers of space to reach it first and land on the frozen, desolate surface: NASA’s Destiny, originally designed for flights to the Moon and Mars, and the untested lunar ship Brahma, representing the Russian-Indian-Brazilian Coalition. Both crews have orders to do whatever it takes to triumphantly claim Keanu as their own.
But when the competing missions both arrive on the contested entity, they find that Keanu is much more than a simple rock hurtling through the blackness. It has been sent toward Earth for a reason…
A vastly more intelligent race is desperately attempting to communicate with our primitive species. And its interstellar courier carries a message that the very core of humanity has responded to since time began.
Help us…
Raising Stony Mayhall by Daryl Gregory
Del Rey, $15.00, 428pp, tp, 978034552375. Fantasy.
In 1968, after the first zombie outbreak, Wanda Mayhall and her three young daughters discover the body of a teenage mother during a snowstorm. Wrapped in the woman’s arms is a baby, stone-cold, not breathing, and without a pulse. But then his eyes open and look up at Wanda—and he begins to move.
The family hides the child—whom they name Stony—rather than turn him over to authorities that would destroy him. Against all scientific reason, the undead boy begins to grow. For years his adoptive mother and sisters manage to keep his existence a secret—until one terrifying night when Stony is forced to run and he learns that he is not the only living dead boy left in the world.
Hammered by Kevin Hearne
(The Iron Druid Chronincles), Del Rey, $7.99, 326pp, pb, 9780345522481. Fantasy.
Thor, the Norse god of thunder, is worse than a blowhard and a bully—he’s ruined countless lives and killed scores of innocents. After centuries, Viking vampire Leif Helgarson is ready to get his vengeance, and he’s asked his friend Atticus O’Sullivan, the last of the Druids, to help take down this Norse nightmare.
One survival strategy has worked for Atticus for more than two thousand years: stay away from the guy with the lightning bolts. But things are heating up in Atticus’s home base of Tempe, Arizona. There’s a vampire turf war brewing, and Russian demon hunters who call themselves the Hammers of God are running rampant. Despite multiple warnings and portents of dire consequences, Atticus and Leif journey to the Norse plane of Asgard, where they team up with a werewolf, a sorcerer, and an army of frost giants for an epic showdown against vicious Valkyries, angry gods, and the hammer-wielding Thunder Thug himself.
Citadels of the Lost by Tracy Hickman
(The Annals of Drakis: Book Two), DAW, $24.95, 432pp, hc, 9780756406721. Fantasy.
The Rhonas Empire of the elves is built upon an unquenchable thirst for conquest, total disdain for other races, and an insatiable appetite for hedonistic self-gratification. The elves have complete control of the Aether—the mystical substance that fuels their magic. And one use of this Aether is to compel total obedience on the part of the slaves drawn from all of the races they have defeated.
But there are legends that tell of another time, an age when humans and the other slave races were free, ruling over powerful empires of their own, and dragons flew the skies. Tales carried down from generation to generation speak of a hero who will return one day to lead all of the conquered in an uprising against their masters. That hero, so the stories say, will be a human naked Drakis.
And when Aer magic, the magic of nature itself, is wielded by a captive dwarf called Jugar to bring down the Aether Wells of the Western Provinces, it signals the start of a rebellion straight out of legend.
In the ensuing chaos, the former warrior-slave Drakis Sha-Timuran, along with a small group of fellow slaves, flees for his life and freedom—lured on by a melody that coils itself around his mind and conjures disturbing visions of dark wings, claws, iridescent scales, and fire.
Pursued by the elves’ deadliest agents, the Iblisi Inquisitors, this desperate band of fugitives makes its way across the ocean to the distant northlands, only to find a desolate, seemingly lifeless land. But, following the melody he alone can hear, Drakis stumbles on the incredible truth behind the legends: the dragons are real!
Attacked by these fearsome, fire-breathing beings, Drakis and his companions escape through a fold that opens into the remains of a once-great empire. Cut off from the world they know, can they survive the dangers of this treacherous realm, and find a way back to those they left behind—bringing the truth behind the legends to the army of rebellion which is even now being raised in the name of Drakis?
Song of the Dragon by Tracy Hickman
(The Annals of Drakis: Book One), DAW, $7.99, 452pp, pb, 9780756406738. Fantasy.
The elves of the Rhonas empire have carved a path of conquest throughout the civilized lands, enslaving humans, chimera, manticores, goblins, and every other race they encounter. Now humans are a nearly extinct minority among the warrior-slave races, their will and memories suppressed by the tyrannical, magic-wielding elves.
But legends tell of a time when humans and the other slave races were free. There are tales of a hero who will return one day to lead them in an uprising against their masters. That hero, so the stories say, will be a human named Drakis.
But Drakis Sha’Timuran, a human warrior-slave of House Timuran, gives no credence to these legends. He fights for the glory of his House and his elven masters along with the other members of his Cohort. But as they embark on the final stage of a campaign to bring down the last dwarf king, Drakis finds himself troubled by a song—a melody that coils itself around his mind and conjures disturbing visions of dark wings, claws, iridescent scales, and fire. In the midst of a devastating battle, the song leads Drakis to capture a mysterious dwarf as a prize of war. When Drakis returns to his master with his prisoner, the dwarf uses his own magic to shatter the spell over the entire household. Along with all the other slaves, Drakis suddenly recalls the truth of his enslavement, the terrible cruelty of his masters, and their deceit. But if everything he knows about his world and his life is a lie, what is the truth? And does the lure of the song—now calling him northward into the heart of a vanished civilization—herald the beginning of a new dawn… or the promise of eternal night?
The Snow Queen’s Shadow by Jim C. Hines
DAW, $7.99, 337pp, pb, 9780756406745. Fantasy.
A broken mirror. A stolen child. A final mission to try to stop an enemy they never dreamed they would face.
When a spell gone wrong shatters Snow White’s enchanted mirror, a demon escapes into the world. The demon’s magic distorts the vision of all it touches, showing people only ugliness and hate. It is a power that turns even friends and lovers into mortal foes, one that will threaten humans and fairies alike.
And the first to fall under the demon’s power is the princess, Snow White.…
The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch
Scholastic, $17.99, 288pp, hc, 9780545290142. YA Science fiction. On-sale date: September 2011.
In The Eleventh Plague, Jeff Hirsch’s edge-of-your-seat debut novel for young adults, he takes a gritty look at an uncomfortable realistic post-apocalyptic America. Part adventure, past suspense, part romance, The Eleventh Plague explores trust, friendship, survival, and hope in a stark, dystopian world.
America is a vast, desolate landscape left ravaged after a brutal war with China. A vicious strain of influenza has left two-thirds of the populatioin dead. People called the sickness the eleventh plague. Fifteen-year-old Stephen Quinn and his family were among the few that survived and became salvagers, roaming the country in search of material to trade for food and other items essential for survival. When Stephen’s grandfather dies and his father falls into a coma after an accident, Stephen finds his way to Settler’s Landing, a community that seems too good to be true—where there are real houses, barbecues, schools, and even baseball games. There Stephen meets strong, defiant, mischievous Jenny, who refuses to accept things as they are. When they play a prank that goes horribly wrong, chaos erupts, and they find themselves in the midst of a battle that will change Settler’s Landing—and their lives—forever.
The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman
New American Library, $15.00, 390pp, tp, 9780451231888. Fantasy.
Raised from early childhood in the Sanctuary of the Redeemers, the stronghold of a secretive sect of warrior monks, Thomas Cale has known only deprivation, punishment, and grueling training. He doesn’t know that another world exists outside the fortress walls of even that secrets he can’t imagine lurk behind the Sanctuary’s many forbidden doorways.
One of those doors leads Cale to Memphis, the capital of culture—and a den of sin. It’s there that Cale discovers his prodigious gift: violence. But he also discovers that, after years of abuse at the hands of the Redeemers, his embittered heart is still capable of loving—and breaking.
But the Redeemers won’t accept the defection of their prized pupil without a fight.…
Blood Secrets by Jeannie Holmes
(an Alexandra Sabian novel), Bantam, $7.99, 308pp, pb, 9780553592689. Fantasy.
When Alexandra Sabian sinks her teeth into an investigation, she doesn’t let go.
Alex allowed a case involving murdered vamps to get personal and is suspended from the Federal Bureau of Preternatural Investigation. Now she’s facing an official inquiry but has a chance to redeem herself. The catch: She must once again work with Varik Baudelaire, her former mentor and ex-fiance, as he spearheads a search for a missing college student. But Varik has been keeping secrets from Alex, and his mysterious past is on a collision course with his present.
When Alex and Varik discover a carefully handcrafted doll at a crime scene, neither of them can see how close the danger really is or that a killer known as the Dollmaker has made Alex the object of his horrific desire. Now the only way out of the Dollmarker’s lair is through the twilight realm of the Shadowlands, where all secrets—for better or worse—will be revealed.
Aloha from Hell by Richard Kadrey
(a Sandman Slim novel), Harper Voyager, $23.99, 448pp, hc, 9780061714320. Fantasy. On-sale date: October 2011.
In Aloha from Hell, the riveting new urban fantasy/noir from acclaimed author and artist Richard Kadrey, James Stark, a.k.a. Sandman Slim, just wants an end to the killing. He’s battled the generals of Hell. He’s battled the angels. He’s gone up against Lucifer, and God is, well, just on vacation. Perhaps permanently.
But not everyone is on vacation. Now that Lucifer has ascended to heaven, the infernal battle is in full flame. Everyone wants to be the Crown Prince of the abyss, including the insane serial killer Mason, the man who killed Stark’s girlfriend, Alice, and damned Stark to hell.
Mason itn’t going to let Stark rest on his bloody laurels—because Stark is the man to beat for the ascendancy. So Mason kidnaps Alice straight out of Heaven to draw Stark back to Hell.
And thus, in Aloha from Hell, Stark must rally himself from self-imposed anti-infernal exile and head back down to his old stomping ground to rescue his long-lost love, stop a sadist hell-bent on domination, prevent both Good and Evil from completely destroying each other and stop the demonic Kissi from ruining the party for everyone.
Even for Sandman Slim, that’s a tall order. And it’s only the beginning.
Happily Ever After edited by John Klima, with an introduction by Bill Willingham
Night Shade, $16.99, 400pp, tp, 9781597802208. Fantasy anthology.
Once Upon a Time…
…in the faraway land of Story, a Hugo-winning Editor realized that no one had collected together the fairy tales of the age, and that doorstop-thick anthologies of modern fairy tales were sorely lacking…
And so the Editor ventured forth, wandering the land of Story from shore to shore, climbing massive mountains of books and delving deep into lush, literary forests, gathering together thirty-thrhee of the best re-tellings of fairy tales he could find. Not just any fairy tales, mind you, but tantalizing tales from some of the biggest names in today’s fantastic fiction. But these stories alone weren’t enough to satisfy the Editor; so the Editor ventured further, into the dangerous cave of the fearsome Bill Willingham, and emerged intact with a magnificent introduction, to tie the collection together.
And the inhabitants of Story—from the Kings and Queens relaxing in their castles to the peasants toiling in the fields, from the fey folk flitting about the forests to the trolls lurking under bridges and the giants in the hills—read the anthology, and enjoyed it. And they all lived…
…Happily Ever After.
[Contributors: Bill Willingham, Gregory Maguire, Genevieve Valentine, Howard Waldrop, Michael Cadnum, Susanna Clarke, Karen Joy Fowler, Charles de Lint, Holly Black, Theodora Goss, Jim C. Hines, Alethea Kontis, Garth Nix, Wil McCarthy, Jane Yolen, Michelle West, Bruce Sterling, K. Tempest Bradford, Alan Rodgers, Kelly Link, Peter Straub, Leslie What, Robert J. Howe, Wendy Wheeler, Neil Gaiman, Patricia Briggs, Paul Di Filippo, Jeff VanderMeer, Gregory Frost, Susan Wade, Josh Rountree, Nancy Kress, Esther Friesner, and Robert Coover.]
Ghost Ship by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
(a new Liaden Universe novel), Baen, $25.00, 336pp, hc, 9781439134559. Science fiction. On-sale date: August 2011.
New novel in the Liaden Universe series. Over a quarter million copies sold in this series to-date! Space ships, action, adventure—all tied together with a strong dollop of romance and family saga—make this a compelling series for a wide range of readers, from romance to military SF lovers alike.
Theo Waitley is an ace starship pilot—and pure maverick. Her mom is a renowned Terran scholar and her birth father is an interstellar aristocrat in hiding. Whatever, thinks Theo. She still feels like a socially-challenged misfit. But after being selected to train with the best-of-the-best at the pilot academy, she figures she can leave behind those gawky, misfit days of teenage angst that made life so complicated before! But for Theo, life is about to get even MORE complicated—and deadlier still. For even though she’s survived the Academy and become one of the best pilots in the galaxy, the past is about to blast her with gale-force winds. Theo can run, but she can’t hide. Her destiny as master pilot and leader of a powerful Liaden clan calls, and there are LOTS of enemies who will try to make sure she’s quite dead before she has the chance to make an answer.
Saltation by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
(a new Liaden Universe novel), Baen, $7.99, 454pp, pb, 9781439134528. Science fiction.
Look up, the stars are dancing
Theo Waitley is a Nexus of Violence. Thrust mid-year into a school for pilots far from the safe haven of her birth home on scholarly Delgado, young Theo Waitley excels in hands-on flying while finding that she’s behind the curve in social intricacies.
After surviving a mid-air emergency with a spectacular mountain-top landing in her training soar plane, Theo’s notoriety brings her attention from local thugs when all Theo wants to do is fly.
After a series of confrontations, fights, and ultimately a riot after which she is thanked for not killing anyone, Theo is named a nexus of violence by the school’s administration. Facing suspension, Theo must quickly decide if she’s ready to return to Delgado in disgrace, or launch herself into the universe as a freelance pilot.…
Dragonriders of Pern: Dragon’s Time by Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey
Del Rey, $26.00, 330pp, hc, 9780345500892. Science fiction.
For the first time in more than three years, bestselling authors Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey, mother and son, have teamed up again to do what they do best: add a fresh chapter to the most beloved science fiction series of all time, the Dragonriders of Pern.
Even though Lorana cured the plague that was killing the dragons of Pern, sacrificing her queen dragon in the process, the effects of the disease were so devastating that there are no longer enough dragons available to fight the fall of deadly Thread. And as the situation grows more dire, a pregnant Lorana decides that she must take drastic steps in the quest for help.
Meanwhile, back at Telgar Weyr, Weyrwoman Fiona, herself pregnant, and the harper Kindan must somehow keep morale from fading altogether in the face of the steadily mounting losses of dragons and their riders. But time weighs heavily against them—until Lorana finds a way to use time itself in their favor.
It’s a plan fraught with risk, however. For attempting time travel means tampering with the natural laws of the universe, which could drastically alter history—and destiny—forever. Or so it has always been thought. But Lorana discovers that if the laws of time can’t be broken without consequences, it may still be possible to bend them. To ensure the future of Pern, she’s willing to take the fateful chance—even if it demands another, even greater, sacrifice.
City of Ruin by Mark Charan Newton
Ballantine, $16.00, 430pp, tp, 9780345520883. Fantasy.
In the frozen north of a far-flun world lies Villiren, a city plagued by violent gangs and monstrous human/animal hybrids, stalked by a serial killer, and targeted by an otherworldly army. Brynd Lathraea has brought his elite Night Guard to help Villiren build a fighting force against the invaders. But success will mean dealing with the half-vampyr leader of the savage Bloods gang. Meanwhile, reptilian rumel investigator Rumex Jeryd has come seeking refuge from Villjamur’s vindictive emperor—only to find a city riddled with intolerancne between species, indifference to a murderer’s reign of terror, and the powerful influence of criminals. As the enemy prepares to strike, and Villiren’s defendders turn on one another, three refugees—deposed empress Jamur Rika, her sister Eir, and the scholar Randur Estevu—approach the city. And with them they bring a last, desperate hope for survival… and a shocking revelation that will change everything.
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Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century: Volume 1 (1907-1949): Learning Curve by William H. Patterson, Jr.
Tor, $29.99, 622pp, hc, 9780765319609. Biography.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) is generally considered the greatest American SF writer of the twentieth century. A bestselling author in later life, he began as a graduate of Annapolis, a Navy man who was forced to retire because of tuberculosis. A left-wing politician in the 1930s, he became an inspiration to American libertarians in his later years.
His most famous works include the Future History series (the stories and novels collected in The Past Through Tomorrow and continued in later novels), Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. He was a friend of admirals, of bestselling writers and artists, and was on the advisory committee to Reagan’s “Star Wars” Strategic Defense Initiative.
Heinlein was also a nudist, a lover, and a patriot. Devoted to space flight and humanity’s future in space, Heinlein was a commanding presence to all around him in his lifetime. Intensely private in the later decades of his life, he was both stranger and more interesting than one could ever have known. This is the first of two volumes of a major American biography. Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century is about Robert A. Heinlein’s life up to the end of the 1940s, and the midlife crisis that changed him forever.
Low Town by Daniel Polansky
Doubleday, $25.95, 384pp, hc, 9780385534468. Fantasy. On-sale date: 16 August 2011.
Drug dealers, hustlers, brotherls, dirty politics, corrupt cops… and sorcery. Welcome to Low Town. Think Quentin Tarantino meets Lord of the Rings with a noirish dash of James Ellroy.
In the forgotten back alleys and flop houses that lie in the shadows of Rigus, the finest city of the Thirteen Lands, you’ll find Low Town. It’s an ugly place, and its champion is an ugly man. Disgraced intelligence agent. Forgotten war hero. Independent drug dealer.
After a fall from grace five years ago, a man known as the Warden leads a life of crime, addicted to cheap violence and expensive drugs. His life is a constant hustle for new customers and to protect his turf from low-life competition.
The Wardenn’s life of drugged iniquity is shaken by his discovery of a murdered child down a dead end street… setting him on a collision path with the life he left behind. As a former agent at Black House—aka the secret police—he knows better than anyone that murder in Low Town is an everyday thing—the kind of crime that doesn’t get investigated.
To protect his new home, he and the girl’s killer will play a dangerous game of deception between underworld bosses and the psychotic head of Black House. But the truth goes far deeper, and he will be forced into actions whose consequences will push whatever good in him that remains to the limit. In Low Town, no one can be trusted.
Daniel Polansky has crafted a truly unique thriller full of noir sensibilities and colorful characters set in a brand new world of stunning imagination… leading to a gut-wrenching, unforeseeable conclusion.
My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland
DAW, $7.99, 310pp, pb, 9780756406752. Fantasy.
Angel Crawford is a loser.
Living with her alcoholic deadbeat dad in the swamps of southern Louisiana, she’s a high school dropout with a pill habit and a criminal record who’s been fired from more crap jobs than she cann count. Now on probation for a felony, it seems that Angel will never pull herself out of the downward spiral her life has taken.
That is, until the day she wakes up in the ER after overdosing on painkillers. Angel remembers being in a horrible car crash, but she doesn’t have a mark on her. To add to the weirdness, she receives an anonymous letter telling her there’s a job waiting for her at the county morgue—and that it’s an offer she doesn’t dare refuse.
Before she knows it she’s dealing with a huge crush on a certain hunky deputy and a brand new addiction: an overpowering craving for brains. Plus, her morgue is filling up with the victims of a serial killer who decapitates his prey—just when she’s hungriest!
Angel’s going to have to grow up fast if she wants to keep this job and stay in one piece. Because if she doesn’t, she’s dead meat.
Literally.
Jim and the Flims by Rudy Rucker
Night Shade, $24.99, 256pp, hc, 9781597802802. Fantasy.
Jim and the Flims is a novel set in Santa Cruz, California… and the afterlife. Acclaimed cyberpunk/singularity author Rudy Rucker explores themes of death and destruction, in the wry, quirky style he is famous for.
Jim Oster ruptures the membrane between our world and afterworld (AKA, Flimsy), creating a two-way tunnel between them. Jim’s wife Val is killed in the process, and Jim finds himself battling his grief, and an invasion of the Flims—who resemble blue baboons and flying beets. Jim’s escalating adventures lead him to the center of the afterworld, where he just might find his wife.
Can Jim save Earth with the help of a posse of Santa Cruz surf-punks, and at the same time bring his wife back to life? Jim and the Flims is the Orphic myth retold for the twenty-first century. Will there be a happy ending this time?
Shadow Kiln by M.J. Scott
(a novel of the Half-Light City), Roc, $7.99, 336pp, pb, 9780451464040. Fantasy. On-sale date: 6 September 2011.
I was born of a Fae mother, but I had no place amongst her kind. They called me “soulless.” An abomination. And perhaps they’re right… I am a wraith, a shadow who slips between worlds. I was given into the service of a Blood Lord who raised me to be his most feared assassin. Still, I’m nothing more than a slave to my master, and to the need that only he can fulfill…
Then he orders me to kill Simon DuCaine, a powerful sunmage. In the blaze of his magic, my own disappears. Instead of seeking revenge, Simon shows me mercy. He wants to free me. But that’s one thing my master and his kind will never allow.
And even if I thought I could trust Simon, stepping from the shdaow into the light isn’t as simple as it sounds…
Apricot Jam and Other Stories by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Counterpoint, $28.00, 352pp, hc, 9781582436029. Fiction/literature collection.
Apricot Jam and Other Stories is a brilliant new collection of short stories from the Nobel Prize-winning author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
After years of living in exile, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia in 1994 and published a series of eight powerfull paired stories. These groundbreaking works—interconnected and juxtaposed using an experimental method Solzhenitsyn referred to as “binary”—join Solzhenitsyn’s already available fiction as some of the most powerful literature of the twentieth century. Now, with the publication of Apricot Jam and Other Stories, they are available in English for the first time.
With Soviet and post-Soviet life as their focus, these stories weave and shift inside their shared setting, illuminating the Russian experience under the Soviet regime. In “The Upcoming Generation,” a professor promotes a dull but proletarian student purely out of good will. Years later, the same professor finds himself arrested and, in a striking twist of fate, his student becomes his interrogator. In “Nastenkam” two young women with the same name lead routine, ordered lives—until the Revolution exacts radical change on them both.
The most eloquent and acclaimed opponent of government oppression, Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, and his work continues to receive international acclaim. Apricot Jam, and Other Stories is a striking example of Solzhenitsyn’s singular style and only further solidifies his place as a true literary giant.
Shadow’s Lure by Jon Sprunk
Pyr, $16.00, 391pp, tp, 9781616143718. Fantasy.
The unforgiving Northlands…
In Othir, he was at the top of the food chain. An assassin beyond compare. A dark shadow in the night. But Caim left that life behind when he helped an empress claim her throne. And now his past has come calling again.
Searching for the truth behind the murder and disappearance of his parents, Caim discovers a land in thrall to the Shadow. Haunted by temptations from the Other Side, he becomes mired in a war he does not want to fight.
But there are some things a son of the Shadow cannot ignore, and some fights from which he can’t run. In this battle, all of Caim’s strength and skill won’t be enough.
For none can resist the Shadow’s Lure…
Conan the Barbarian by Michael Stackpole
Berkley Boulevard, $7.99, 294pp, pb, 9780425242063. Fantasy/Movie tie-in.
The story of Conan the Cimmerian is one that has spanned generations and captured the imaginations of millions. First released as novels in the 1930s, Conan’s fame grew in popularity with the release of his story in comic book form. Now in 2011, his story will be told for the first time in 3-D with the release of the Conan the Barbarian motion picture from the Nu Image and Millennium Film studios on August 19, starring Jason Momoa as Conan.
In conjunction with the upcoming movie release, Berkley is proud to announce the Conan the Barbarian movie tie-in novel written by Michael Stackpole which will include photos from the film.
Born in the fires of battle, Conan of Cimmeria was raised to face the cold, merciless world with every ounce of strength and courage he possessed. And when the cruel warlord Khalar Zym slaughtered his father and his village, he was cast out into that world, alone.
Wandering the land, Conan is forged into a peerless warrior by hardship and bloodshed.
Years later, he crosses paths again with Zym and his armies. But before Conan can exact vengeance, he must contend with the warlord’s daughter—the seductive witch Marique—and a host of monstrous creatures. Only then will Conan’s quest bring him face-to-face with Zym in an epic battle to avenge his people—and save the world.
Real Aliens, Space Beings, and Creatures from Other Worlds by Brad Steiger and Sherry Hanson Steiger
Visible Ink, $19.95, 370pp, tp, 9781578593330. Unexplained Phenomena / Metaphysical.
With the Kepler satellite observatory detecting new planets at an unprecedented rate and the powerful computers at NASA’s Ames Research Center seeking signs of distant life, will a breakthrough discovery happen shortly—or has there already been a secret encounter with alien beings?
Visits from otherworldly creatures, aliens living among us, abductions of humans to alien spacecraft, and accounts of interstellar cooperation since the UFO crash in Roswell are thoroughly investigated in Real Aliens, Space Beings, and Creatures from Other Worlds. Paranormal researcher extraordinaire Brad Steiger, an author of thousands of books and articles on the mysterious and unknown, looks into a wide host of otherworldly encounters from alleged eyewitness accounts of extraterrestrial beings working side by side with human scientists to the uncomfortable accusationns of alien abductions.
Disquieting testimonials, enlightening news articles, informative historical accounts and documents, this book chronicles more than 300 examples of alien encounters, conspiracy theories, and the influence of extraterrestrials on human events throughout history. This discussion of the theories and mysteries surrounding aliens is packed with thought-provoking stories and shocking revelations of alien involvement in the lives of Earthlings.
Real Aliens, Space Beings, and Creatures from Other Worlds chronicles shocking tales, insightful stories and tantalizing possibilities such as…
* Three Russian scientists who were monitoring the Apollo Moon Landing on July 20, 1969 claim that astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin were being closely observed by UFOs;
* Thousands of women all over the world claim to have been abducted for the purpose of bearing Hybrid Children;
* A family in Colorado repeatedly visited by aliens—with physical evidence and photographs to prove their story.
From cattle and human mutilations to missing time experienced by UFO experiences, and from secret underground and even underwater alien facilities to government-alien conspiracies, each astonishing report is detailed with thorough research and recounted with a storyteller’s crafted voice. Real Aliens, Space Beings, and Creatures from Other Worlds will leave the reader wondering who has visited us; who’s coming to visit next; and who walks among us.
Rule 34 by Charles Stross
Ace, $25.95, 358pp, hc, 9780441020348. Science fiction.
Popular Science declared that “a new kind of future requires a new breed of guide—someone like Stross,” and Charles Stross has guided his readers through astounding futures in such books as Halting State and Wireless. Now the Hugo Award-winning author introduces readers to the law-enforcement agencies of tomorrow—and the crimes they investigate…
Rule 34
Internet Meme. Class One. Virulent.
Meet Edinburgh Detective Inspector Liz Kavanaugh, head of the Innovative Crime Investigation Unit, otherwise known as the Rule 34 Squad. It’s responsible for monitoring the Internet, following trends to determine whether people are engaging in harmless fantasies—or illegal activities. Usually their job uncovers those operating on the extreme fringes of the run-of-the-mill porn that still, in 2023, abounds in cyberspace. But occasionally, more disturbing patterns arise…
Three ex-cons have been murdered, in Germany, Italy, and Scotland. The only things they had in common were arrests for spamming—and a taste for unorthodox erotica. As the first officer on the scene of the most recent death, Liz finds herself rapidly sucked into an international investigation that isn’t asking so much who the killer is as what it is—and if she can’t figure that out, a lot more people are going to die as the homicides go viral…
7 Dirty Words: The Life and Crimes of George Carlin by James Sullivan
Da Capo, $16.00, 261pp, tp, 9780306819698. Biography/Humor.
Three years after his death (June 22, 2008), comedian George Carlin may be best remembered for his sketch about the “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television.” But that routine is simply a microcosm of Carlin’s brutally honest, boundary breaking portrayal of American society, politics, and culture for fifty years. Whether exposing the inanities of everyday life, tackling religion, big business, and government, or pondering the idiosyncrasies of the English language, Carlin took the art of humor to new places. No topic was off limits. The breadth of his comedic style was legendary—he mastered the physical comedy of the funny face and odd noise, the simplicity of the bad pun, and the complex nuances of satire. He never stopped pushing the envelope of his craft, and he forever changed the role of humor as a vehicle for social commentary. Carlin may have summed it up best when he said that it’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.
In Seven Dirty Words, James Sullivan chronicles Carlin’s life and career—from his early days as a struggling traditional comedian to his later years as the country’s chief counterculture cynic. Sullivan provides an inside look at Carlin’s unique views and his singular dedication to the perfection of his material, and offers anecdotes about Carlin’s contemporaries in comedy, music, and entertainment. From his battles with addiction, to his scrapes with the law, to his frequently controversial—and to some, offensive—routines, Carlin left an indelible mark on the American psyche.
Children No More by Mark L. Van Name
Baen, $7.99, 506pp, pb, 9781439134535. Science fiction.
No child should ever be a soldier
Jon Moore knew that better than most, having learned to fight to survive before he’d hit puberty. So when a former comrade asks for his help in rescuing a group of children pressed into service by rebels on a planet no one cares to save, he agrees. Only later does he realize he’s signed up to do far more than he’d ever imagined.
Jon’s commitment hurtles him and Lobo, the hyper-intelligent assault vehicle who is his only real friend, into confrontations with the horrors the children have experienced and with a dark chapter from his past. The mission grows ever more complicated as Jon and Lobo rush straight into the darkness at the heart of humanity to save the child soldiers—and then face an even tougher challenge.
When we’ve trained our children to kill, what do we do with them when the fighting is over?
The Wild Side edited by Mark L. Van Name
Baen, $14.00, 272pp, tp, 9781439134566. Urban fantasy anthology. On-sale date: August 2011.
Take a walk on the “wild side” of urban fantasy. When the werewolf cubs are asleep and the baby vamps are tucked into their coffins, the adults come out to play! Feeling a bit undead and dying to shuffle off your toil and troubles and get it on? You’ve come to the right place! Spend some quality time lolling in the moonlight shadows with a love that only comes out at night. From light-spirited romps to black-hearted noir, from steampunk London to the bleeding edge of the present, tales of love, eros, betrayal and seduction in a beguiling vein. Best-sellers Tanya Huff, Caitlin Kittredge and Toni L.P. Kelner join Dana Cameron, Sarah A. Hoyt, John Lambshead, Diana Rowland and editor Mark L. Van Name create a dazzling cast of vampires, werewolves, witches and zombies, oh my. Oh my.
Kitty’s Big Trouble by Carrie Vaughn
Tor, $7.99, 307pp, pb, 9780765365650. Fantasy.
Kitty Norville’s last adventure, Kitty Goes to War (2010) may have kept her close to home, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t stressful. Between the return of Cormac and taking care of werewolves afflicted with PTSD, Kitty hasn’t had much time to play vamp politics. Now, in Kitty’s Big Trouble, the ninth Kitty Norville novel, she’s getting suched right back in—and vampire politics is dangerous, even for a werewolf.
Roman, the incredibly strong vampire who first made trouble in Kitty Raises Hell, is back, this time in San Francisco’s Chinatown. He’s playing the Long Game again, and he’s after an artifact of incredible power, one that could help him expand his army exponentially. Kitty and her allies, including the vampire Anastasia, need to find the artifact first and protect it.
As Kitty, Ben, and Cormac (and Cormac’s ghostly passenger, Amelia Parker) arrive in San Francisco, they find that Roman’s expecting them, and has brought his own werewolves to the fight. Dodging bruisers and vamps, Kitty, her men, and Anastasia make their way into a world that exists under San Francisco—an “other” realm that contains far more than just the artifact.
Kitty is about to come face to face with a power she had no idea existed.
Mission of Honor by David Weber
Baen, $7.99, 874pp, pb, 9781439134511. Science fiction.
Collision Course
The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven have been enemies for Honor Harrington’s entire life, and she has paid a price for the victories she’s achieved. And now the unstoppable juggernaut of the mighty Solarian League is on a collision course with Manticore. The millions who have already died may have been only a foretaste of the billions of casualties just over the horizon.
Honor is prepared to do anything, risk anything, to stop it, but she doesn’t know about the hidden enemies converging on Manticore to crush the very life out of it, nor that her worst nightmares fall short of the oncoming reality.
But Manticore’s enemies may not have thought of everything after all. Because if everything Honor Harrington loves is going down to destruction, it won’t be going alone.
No Hero by Jonathan Wood
Night Shade, $14.99, 318pp, tp, 9781597802826. Fantasy.
“What would Kurt Russell do?”
Set in sleepy Oxford, the “city of dreaming spires,” No Hero follows Arthur Wallace, a middle-age British homicide detective more accustomed to paperwork and dull stakeouts than over-the-top heroics. Arthur’s a good cop, a proper British bobby, and while he’s a lifelong fan of American action movies, particularly those starring Kurt Russell, he prefers that the high-stakes action remain on the screen, safely performed by professionals.
But shortly after Arthur is injured in the line of duty by a mysterious swordsman, secretive government agency MI37 comes calling, hoping to recruit Arthur in their struggle against a race of tentacled horrors from another dimension known as the Progeny. Tasked with the leadership of the team of misfits that stands between the Progeny and Earth’s certain destruction, Arthur must move beyond his vicarious cinematic worldview and find the hero within. But Arthur is No Hero; can an everyman stand against sanity-ripping cosmic horrors?
With its comic tone and blend of strange magic, invading aliens, Lovecraftian cosmic horror, and references to action movies of the 1980s, No Hero is sure to appeal to fans of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy and B.P.R.D. graphic novels and films like Shawn of the Dead< Hot Fuzz, and Big Trouble in Little China.
How to Live Safely in a Science Fiction Universe by Charles Yu
Vintage, $14.95, 256pp, tp, 9780307739452. Fiction.
Every day in Minor Universe 31 people get into time machines and try to change the past. That’s where Charles Yu, time travel technician, steps in. He helps save people from themselves. Literally. When he’s not taking client calls, Yu visits his mother and searches for his father, who invented time travel and then vanished. The key to locating his father may be found in a book. It’s called How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, and somewhere inside it is information that will help him. It may even save his life.
Star Wars: Choices of One by Timothy Zahn
Del Rey/Lucasbooks, $27.00, 384pp, hc, 9780345511256. Science Fiction/Tie-in.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Timothy Zahn comes Star Wars: Choices of One; a brand-new Star Wars adventure, set in the time between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, featuring the young Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia Organa, and the beloved Mara Jade.
Eight months after the Battle of Yavin, the Rebellion is in desperate need of a new base. So when Governor Ferrouz of Candoras Sector proposes an alliance, offering the Rebels sanctuary in return for protection against the alien warlord Nuso Esva, Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie are sent to evaluate the deal.
Mara Jade, the Emperor’s Hand, is also heading for Candoras, along with the five renegade stormtroopers known as the Hand of Judgment. Their mission: to punish Ferrouz’s treason and smash the Rebels for good.
But in this treacherous game of betrayals within betrayals, a wild card is waiting to be played.