This page is updated as books are received throughout the month.

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Kindling the Moon by Jenn Bennett
(an Arcadia Bell novel), Pocket, $7.99, 360pp, pb, 9781451620528. Urban Fantasy.
     Meet Arcadia Bell: bartender, renegade magician, fugitive from the law.…
     Being the spawn of two infamous occultists (and alleged murderers) isn’t easy, but freewheeling magician Arcadia “Cady” Bell knows how to make the best of a crummy situation. After hiding out for seven years, she’s carved an incognito niche for herself slinging drinks at the demon-friendly Tambuku Tiki Lounge.
     But she receives an ultimatum when unedxpected surveillance footage of her notorious parents surfaces: either prove their innocence or surrender herself. Unfortunately, the only witness to the crimes was an elusive Aethyric demon, and Cady has no idea how to find it. She teams up with Lon Butler, an enigmatic demonologist with a special talent for sexual spells and an arcance library of priceless stolen grimoires. Their research soon escalates into a storm of conflict involving missing police evidence, the decadent Hellfire Club, a ruthless bounty hunter, and a powerful occult society that operates way outside the law. If Cady can’t clear her family name soon, she’ll be forced to sacrifice her own life… and no amount of running will save her this time.

Energy Work: The Secrets of Healing and Spiritual Growth by Robert Bruce
Hampton Roads, $16.95, 200pp, tp, 9781571746658. New age.
     This step-by-step approach to physical and emotional health shows how to use the body’s energy centers to speed healing.
     In Energy Work, Robert Bruce offers a simple, easy-to-learn apparoach to self-healing based on his breakthrough system of Body Awareness Tactile Imaging energy work. Bruce explains how to use tactile imaging based on one’s sense of touch rather than visualization to stimulate the flow of vital energy throughout the body. This is a system that anyone can use, regardless of age, health, or previous experience. Readers learn how to awaken the body’s energy centers and move healing, vital energy throughout the body.
     Energy Work offers exercises to:
     * Imrpove immune system function
     * Enhance vitality and self-healing abilites
     * Increase psychic and spiritual abilities
     * Develop stronger and more intimate relationships
     Bruce provides easy-to-follow illustrations along with a series of exercises that encourage safe, rapid results. This is a valuable guide for anyone seeking to take charge of his or her physical, spiritual, and emotional health.

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.

Working Stiff by Rachel Caine
Roc, $7.99, 308pp, pb, 9780451464132. Fantasy.
     From the voice that brought readers the New York Times bestselling Morganville Vampire series and the fan-favorite Weather Warden novels comes the first in a brand new zombie trilogy by Rachel Caine. Working Stiff: A Revivalist Novel is a fun, fresh twist on zombies that will resonate with urban fantasy readers ready for something new.
     Bryn Davis is a young woman with her priorities in order, and her priorities are simple: get a good job, save money, meet a nice young man, have a family. Normal stuff. That picket-fence dream takes a dramatic left turn when Bryn takes a job at the Fairview Mortuary. She discovers that the director has a side business selling an illegal drug that can bring people back from the dead. When Pharmadene, the pharmaceutical company developing the drug, sends anti-corporate espionage types to stop the sales and protect their trade secrets, Bryn is killed in the crossfire.
     Working Stiff is more than a zombie tale; it is fun and filled with non-stop action and a touch of romance, but also offers readers a frightening glimpse into the potential abuse of pharmaceutical companies. As Sandy Amazeen, reviewer for the popular genre website MonstersandCritics, so deftly states, “At a time when pharmaceutical companies spend more money pushing drugs for ED than researching new antibiotics, this tale of greed presents a chilling peek at how a powerful drug could potentially be misused.”

Den of Thieves by David Chandler
(The Ancient Blades Trilogy, Book One), Harper Voyager, $7.99, 460pp, pb, 9780062021243. Fantasy.
     Den of Thieves: The Ancient Blades Trilogy: Book One by David Chandler is an astounding, extremely commercial and equally gritty new fantasy series of thieves and cutpurses, intrigue, knights and demons, in the bestselling vein of Brent Weeks and Scott Lynch.
     Malden is born and raised in the slums, a cutpurse and thief whose one bad mistake indentures him to the cut-throat, deadly thieves guild. Croy is a knight, born to honor and nobility and the sacred charge of bearing an Ancient Blade. Cythera, the witch, holds a dark secret and powerful, forbidden magic that can kill with a kiss. A desperate choice to steal a crown will change Malden’s entire life, intertwine the lives of thief, knight and witch, and bring Malden to a destiny he could never imagine.

The Witches’ Book of the Dead by Christian Day, foreword by Raven Grimassi
Weiser, $19.95, 288pp, tp, 9781578635061. New age. On-sale date: October 2011.
     A modern-day warlock’s guide to contacting the spirit world.
     The dead can be powerful allies and helpmates to those who—armed with the proper tools and knowledge—dare to call them back from the grave.
     In The Witches’ Book of the Dead, famed modern-day warlock Christian Day reveals the history of necromancy and its long relationship to witchcraft. He provides the intrepid reader with rituals, spells and incantations on how to open the doorway to the spirit world (and how to close it again), guidance on how to build an ancestral altar, and descriptions of the tools necessary for successful necromancy—as well as where and how to obtain them ethically.
     A comprehensive and comprehensible guide to a secretive and powerful practice, The Witches’ Book of the Dead is destined to become an essential resource for any serious magical practitioner.

Resistance: A Hole in the Sky by William C. `Dietz
Del Rey, $7.99, 320pp, pb, 9780345508430. Science fiction.
     In this official prequel to Resistance 3, prospects are not looking up for planet Earth of Lieutenant Joseph Capelli. With the Chimera invasion in full swing, America has crumbled under the fierce alien juggernaut, its defenses overrun, millions dead, the rest left to fend for themselves. Many try to avoid the alien virus that turns humans into Chimeran killing machines.
     Capelli may be a pariah to the army for killing hero Nathan Hale, but he is still a patriot fighting to save the country and its citizens. However, some soldiers are ready to shoot him on sight—not to mention that Hale’s beautiful sister has every reason in the world to want him stone dead. But Capelli’s used to being in dangerous situationsand taking crazy risks. And the next move he intends to make is pure suicide.

Omnitopia: Dawn by Diane Duane
(Omnitopia: Volume One), DAW, $7.99, 392pp, pb, 9780756406783. Science fiction.
     In the virtual twenty-first century multiplayer on-line games have become one of the most popular forms of entertainment. And the most popular gaming universe of all is Omnitopia, created by genius programmer Dev Logan.
     For millions of people around the world, Omnitopia is an obsession, a passionate pastime, almost a way of life. Omnitopia is a virtual place where dreams come true—players can create their own universes within the game’s structure and participate in the profits if their piece of the universe is a hit. Ten million players routinely play in Omnitopia, and at any given time, nearly a million of them are on-line, living in a world more real to them than their own.
     Now Dev and his people are preparing to roll out a major new expansion to the Omnitopia system. And even as players, staff, the media, and the heavy hitters on the world financial scene wait eagerly for this fast-approaching and momentous event, there are others preparing to play a very different game—one that is meant to strike at the heart of Omnitopia and bring the entire system crashing down.…

Rip Tide by Kat Falls
Scholastic, $16.99, 314pp, hc, 9780545178433. Middle-grade sciencec fiction.
     Kat Falls’ acclaimed debut middle-grade dystopian novel Dark Life has been sold to eighteen international markets, and is in development at Disney with Robert Zemeckis attached to direct. Now readers are able to return to the subsea frontier of the future with Ty and Gemma in the much anticipated sequel Rip Tide.
     The mysteries of the deep are deadlier than ever when Ty’s parents are kidnapped by the hostile and mysterious Topsiders known as the Surfs. With time running out for his parents, Ty’s desperation leads Ty and Gemma into an alliance with the outlaws of the Seablite Gang. But one mystery soon leads to another. How has an entire township disappeared? Why is the local sealife suddenly so aggressive? And can the Seablite Gang be trusted… or are Ty and Gemma in deeper water than they realize?

The Secrets of Doctor Taverner by Dion Fortune, foreword by Diana L. Paxson
Weiser, $16.95, 240pp, tp, 9781578633371. Fantasy.
     Death hounds, shape shifters, and vampires are among the patients treated by the Holmes-like Dr. Taverner and his assistant Dr. Rhodes in this work of supernatural fiction by acclaimed spiritualist and occult writer Dion Fortune.
     First published in 1926, the adventures of Dr. Taverner and Dr. Rhodes take readers across the marshy moonlit fields of nightfall, hunting spirits and keeping watch over souls. Suffering from vampirism? Being stalked by a death hound? Haunted by past life debts? Family under a suicidal curse? From across the countryside patients and their desperate families come to seek treatment for unconventional diseases from an unconventional doctor. His secret? Treating the diseases of the occult.
     Though Fortune wrote The Secrets of Doctor Taverner as her first novel, she maintained that all the events were based on true occurrences. Many believe Taverner to be Fortune’s own spiritual teacher, Dr. Moriarty, and Rhodes to be based on Fortune herself.

Seduce Me in Flames by Jacquelyn Frank
(a Three Worlds novel), Ballantine, $7.99, 368pp, pb, 9780345517685. Paranormal romance.
     Icy Reception
     Ambrea Vas Allay is the rightful heir to the throne of Allay. But when she is summoned home from exile, she discovers that her father, who had executed her mother, has died and her young half-brother, controlled by their uncle, has taken power. Torn by an impossible choice—renounce the crown or waste away in prison—the last thing Ambrea expects is to be liberated by a huge, tattooed Tarian… or to feel a searing passion for her mysterious rescuer.
     Smoldering Deception
     Rush “Ender” Blakely loves being part of the elite force of the INterplanetary Militia and the mission to save the princess Allay. But the tough Tarian hides a fiery secret—a blazing power that makes him literally too hot to handle. He must be crazy to carry a torch for this strong, beautiful princess—when any intimacy between them is bound to be explosive.
     Blazing Insurrection
     As Ambrea steels herself to take back the throne, does she dare entrust this scorching stranger with the fate of an empire—and, even more so, with her heart?

Rigor Amortis edited by Jaym Gates and Erika Holt
Edge, $9.95, 134pp, tp, 9781894063630. Fiction N(flash fiction), horror, erotica.
     Horror and erotica. Zombies and romance. Rigor Amortis.
     Maybe a tender love story is your thing, a husband doting on his wife’s rotting corpse. Or perhaps a forbidden encounter in a secret cafe, serving up the latest in delectable zombie cuisine, or some dirty, dirty dancing in the old-time honky-tonk. Voodoo sex-slaves and vending machine body-parts? You’ll find those here, too.
     Whatever your flavor, these short tales of undead Romance, Revenge, Risk, and Raunch will leave you shambling, moaning, and clawing for more.
     [Contributors: Pete “Patch” Alberti, Damon B, Renee Bennett, Xander Briggs, Jennifer Brozek, J.R. Campbell, Johann Carlisle, Nathan Crowder, Carrie Cuinn, R. Schuyler Devin, Annette Dupree, Michael Ellsworth, Jay Faulkner, Kaolin Imago Fire, M.G. Gillett, Sarah Goslee, Kay T. Holt, Calvin D. Jim, Alex Masterson, Edward Morris, Don Pizarro, Michael Phillips, John Nakamura Remy, V.R. Roadifer, Andrew Penn Romine, Armand Rosamilia, Jacob Ruby, Steven James Scearce, Lance Schonberg, Luucia Starkey, R.E. VanNewkirk, and Wendy N. Wagner.

The Difference Engine by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling, introduction by Cory Doctorow
(20th Anniversary Edition), Ballantine, $16.00, 494pp, tp, 9780440423621. Science fiction.
     In 1991, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling took the science fiction community by storm, envisioning a world in which the technology of today was created during the Victorian era by means of steam power. Thus began a growing fascination with what would later be termed “steampunk,” a marrying of a popular era with a speculative dream advancing mankind ahead of history’s pace. On July 26, experience The Difference Engine all over again with the first ever trade paperback edition, including new material from the authors and an introduction from Cory Doctorow.
     1855: The Industrial Revolution is in full swing, powered by steam-driven cybernetic Engines. Charles Babbage perfects his Analytical Engine, and the computer age arrives a century ahead of its time. Three extraordinary characters race toward a rendezvous with the future: Sybil Gerard—fallen woman, politician’s tart, daughter of a Luddite agitator; Edward “Leviathan” Mallory—explorer and paleontologist; Laurence Oliphant—diplomat, mystic, and spy. Their adventure begins with the discovery of a box of punched Engine cards of unknown origin and purpose. Cards someone wants badly enough to kill for.
     Part detective story, part historical thriller, The Difference Engine took the science fiction community by storm when it was first published twenty years ago. This special anniversary edition features an Introduction by Cory Doctorow and a collaborative essay from the authors looking back on their creation. Provocative, compelling, intensely imagined, this novel is poised to impress a whole new generation.

Shadow Fall by Seressia Glass
(Shadowchasers: Book Three), Pocket/Juno, $7.99, 384pp, pb, 9781439158784. Urban fantasy.
     Truth is the most dangerous weapon of all…
     Kira Solomon’s life has never been simple. Battling against the Fallen, serving the Egyptian goddess Ma’at, becmoing romantically involved with a 4000-year-old Nubian warrior—these are now everyday realities. But something is changing. Kira’s magic is becoming dangerously unpredictable, tainted by the Shadow she has been trained to destroy.
     Matters grow worse when an Atlanta museum exhibit based on the Egyptian Book of the Dead turns out to have truly sinister properties. As the body count rises, even long-trusted allies start to turn against Kira. She can hardly blame them—not when the God of Chaos is stalking her dreams and the shocking truth about her origins is finally coming to light. As one of the good guys, Kira was a force to be reckoned with. But if the only way to stop a terrifying adversary is to fight Shadow with Shadow, then she’s ready to find out just how very bad she can be.…

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Ascension by Christie Golden
Del Rey/LucasBooks, $27.00, 432pp, hc, 9780345509161. Science fiction/tie-in.
     How long can the Jedi remain in power?
     How far will the Sith go to rule supreme?
     What chance do both stand against Abeloth?
     The eighth novel in the bestselling Fate of the Jedi series, Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Ascension follows Luke Skywalker, his son Ben, and the Sith girl Vestara as they are in hot pursuit of the dread power called Abeloth, who has joined forces with the Sith in a bid to take over the galaxy. The leadership of the government is uncertain, torn apart by power struggles and infiltrators, while the sith have a terrible secret that could shake the Jedi Order to its core…
     As Luke and Ben Skywalker pursue the formidable dark-side being Abeloth, the Lost Tribe of the Sith is about to be sundered by an even greater power—which will thrust one Dark Lord into mortal conflict with his own flesh-and-blood.
     On Coruscant, a political vacuum has left tensions at the boiling poit, with factions racing to claim control of the Galactic Alliance. Suddenly surrounded by hidden agendas, treacherous conspiracies, and covert Sith agents, the Jedi Order must struggle to keep the GA government from collapsing into anarchy.
     The Jedi are committed to maintaining peace and ensuring just rule, but even they are not prepared to take on the combined threats of Sith power, a deposed dictator bent on galaxywide vengeance, and an entity of pure cunning and profound evil hungry to become a god.

World of Warcraft: Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects by Christie Golden
Gallery, $26.00, 325pp, hc, 9781416550884. Media tie-in.
     In this follow-up to her New York Times bestsellers Arthas and The Shattering, Christie Golden delivers a sensational tie-in to the newest World of Warcraft game expansion. World of Warcraft: Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects is an epic exploration of the universe’s key characters, most notably Thrall, the wise shaman and warchief of the Horde, who has sensed a disturbing change.
     Over ten thousand years ago, a betrayal by the maddened black Dragon Aspect, Deathwing, shattered the strength and unity of the dragonflights. His most recent assault on Azeroth—the Cataclysm—has left the world in turmoil. At the Maelstrom, the center of Azeroth’s instability, former Horde warchief Thrall and other accomplished shaman struggle to keep the world from tearing apart in the wake of Deathwing’s attack. Yet a battle also rages within Thrall regarding his new life in the shamanic Earthen ring, hampering his normally unparalleled abilities.
     Unable to focus on his duties, Thrall undertakes a seemingly menial task from an unexpected source: the mysterious green Dragon Aspect, Ysera. This humble endeavor soon becomes a journey spanning the lands of Azeroth and the timeways of history itself, bringing Thrall into contact with ancient dragonflights. Divided by conflict and mistrust, these dragons have become easy prey to a horrific new weapon unleashed by Deathwing’s servants… a living nightmare engineered to exterminate Azeroth’s winged guardians.
     Of even greater concern is a bleak and terrifying possible future glimpsed by Ysera: the Hour of Twilight. Before this apocalyptic vision comes to pass, Thrall must purge his own doubts in order to discover his purpose in the world and aid Azeroth’s dragonflights as they face the twilight of the aspects.

Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel
Del Rey, $16.99, 480pp, hc, 9780345523310. YA fiction. On-sale date: 18 October 2011.
     In Dearly, Departed, romance meets walking-dead thriller, spawning a madly imaginative novel of rip-roaring adventure, spine-tingling suspense, and macabre comedy that forever redefines the concept of undying love.
     The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria. Nora, a very human teenager living in high society, falls in love with Bram, a handsome and polite eighteen-year-old captain who happens to be suffering from “the Laz,” a disease that has transformed him into one of the walking dead. Bram is fully conscious and healthy enough to take on Nora, killer zombies, and the treacherous humans that plague his life—at least for now. But is it only a matter of time before the Laz will take him away from Nora forever?

Ghost Files: The Collected Cases from Ghost Hunting and Seeking Spirits by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson with Michael Jan Friedman
Gallery, $18.00, 550pp, tp, 9781451633108. On-sale date: 13 September 2011.
     An omnibus edition, Ghost Files is the real-life adventures of the paranormal investigators from the hit Syfy show Ghost Hunters. In Ghost Hunters, Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, heads of The Atlantic Paranormal Society, combine their unique ability to sense otherworldly phenomena that others can’t.
     Ghost Hunting (which was a New York Times bestseller) and Seeking Spirits contain an in-depth look at some of Jason and Grant’s most memorable investigations—many of which have never appeared on television. Featuring plenty of full-color photos that will frighten and amaze, Ghost Files is an essential addition to the collection of any Ghost Hunters fan.
     Jason Hawwes and Grant Wilson head up TAPS, The Atlantic Paranormal Society. Built on Jason and Grant’s interest in getting to the bottom of everyday, paranormal occurrences, TAPS is an eclectic but unified bunch. TAPS has developed an impressive reputation for helping people with “unusual domestic problems.” It has been more than a decade since Jason and Grant first met, and since then TAPS has grown in size and scope to become one of the most respected paranormal-investigation groups in America. It now has branches across the United States and affiliates in 12 other countries.

Ghost Trackers by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson with Tim Waggoner
Gallery, $12.99, 336pp, tp, 9781451651171. Horror. On-sale date: 13 September 2011.
     Fifteen years ago, four high school seniors who were into the paranormal decided to explore a notorious haunted house in their town. While there, they unleashed a dark force and experienced two hours of missing time for which they cannot account. The traumatic experience caused the friends to go their separate ways.
     On the eve of their fifteenth high school reunion, three of the friends—Drew, Trevor, and Amber—reunite to deal with the sinister force they unleashed long ago on that night: a force that’s now embodied in their forgotten fourth companion. After the events of Ghost Trackers, Drew, Trevor, and Amber will continue to work together as paranormal investigators in order to help people suffering from the trauma of threatening supernatural manifestations, in the hope of bringing the same healing to these people that they experienced by defeating the dark force from their past. They specialize in helping individuals and families suffering from traumatic manifestations that have a negative impact on their lives.
     Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson head up TAPS, The Atlantic Paranormal Society is an eclectic but unified bunch.
     Tim Waggoner has published over 70 stories of fantasy and horror, as well as hundreds of nonfiction articles. In addition to writing fiction, Tim has worked as an editor and a newspaper reporter. He currently teaches creative writing at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, OH, and in the MA in Writing Popular Fiction program at Seton Hall University.

The Secret of Crickley Hall by James Herbert
Tor, $17.99, 640pp, tp, 9789765328885. Horror.
     British author James Herbert has been an international sensation since the publication of his first novel, The Rats, in 1974. His books have sold over forty-two million copies, earning him a comparison to Stephen King in the United Kingdom. Last year, Herbert was presented with the title of Grand Master at the World Horror Convention for his outstanding achievements in the horror genre. Now, he prepares to take the United States by storm with the release of The Secret of Crickley Hall—a blood chilling novel that puts a unique spin on a classic horror theme: the haunted house.
     Would you stay in a haunted house for more than one night?
     Would you live in a place where ghostly occurrences kept happening? Where a cellar door you locked the night before is mysteriously open the following morning? Where child-like whimpers and cries are heard inside the walls? Where white shadows steal through the darkness as soon as you turn the lights out? Where you feel the presence of evil all around you?
     The Caleigh family did, but they had their reasons. They thought they could escape a traumatic event, start over in the idyllic countryside in the house of their dreams. For a while, they ignored the cellar door that seemed to open by itself and the hushed whimpering of children that seemed to emanate from the walls. They should have known better. For as the terror mounts, they realize their sanity is at stake—and so are their lives. For the secret of Crickley Hall is beyond all nightmares…
     Haunted houses have always been a popular concept in horror literature, and few authors are able to capture the depth of their characters and the horror of their situation better than James Herbert. A chilling summer read, The Secret of Crickley Hall is sure to terrify the most resolute of horror readers and makes James Herbert a household name on this side of the pond.

Fireborn: Embers of Atlantis by Tracy Hickman
Fantasy Flight Games, $8.99, 304pp, pb, 9781616611002. Fantasy.
     Ethan Gallows knows plenty about the world. He knows magic exists, and he knows he wants nothing to do with it.
     But when he’s sent on a seemingly menial assignment to London, Ethan discovers that he has a lot more to learn. After witnessing a violent display of sorcery, the world-weary camerman finds himself haunted by disturbing visions. Ethan must now place his trust in Sojourner—a woman claiming to be the descendant of an ancient race—and he must quickly discover the remarkable details of his own forgotten past before dark forces consume the world forever.

Sword of Fire and Sea by Erin Hoffman
(The Chaos Knight, Book One), Pyr, $16.00, 277pp, tp, 9781616143732. Fantasy.
     Three generations ago Captain Vidarian Rulorat’s great-grandfather gave up an imperial commission to commit social catastrophe by marrying a fire priestess. For love, he unwittingly doomed his family to generations of a rare genetic disease that follows families who cross elemental boundaries, Now Vidarian, the last surviving member of the Rulorat family, struggles to uphold his family legacy, and finds himself chained to a task as a result of the bride price his great-grandfather paid: the Breakwater Agreement, a seventy-year-old alliance between his family and the High Temple of Kara’zul, domain of the fire priestesses.
     The priestess Endera has called upon Vidarian to fulfill his family’s obligation by transporting a young fire priestess named Ariadel to a water temple far to the south, through dangerous pirate-controlled territory. A journey perilous in the best of conditions is made moreso by their pursuers: rogue telepathic magic-users called the Vkortha who will stop at nothing to recover Ariadel, who has witnessed their forbidden rites.
     Together, Vidarian and Ariadel will navigate more than treacherous waters: Imperial intrigue, a world that has been slowly losing its magic for generations, secrets that the priestesshoods have kept for longer, the indifference of their elemental goddesses, gryphons—once thought mythical—now returning to the world, and their own labyrinthine family legacies. Vidarian finds himself at the intersection not only of the world’s most volatile elements, but of colliding universes, and the ancient and alien powers that lurk between them…

Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard
Del Rey, $7.99, 286pp, pb, 9780345531230. Movie tie-in.
     Robert E. Howard is famous for creating such immortal heroes as Conan the Cimmerian, Solomon Kane, and Bran Mak Morn. Now, joining the successful Del Rey library of Robert E. Howard’s classic works, Conan the Barbarian features the classic stories that inspired the blockbuster film.
     Conan the Barbarian is one of the greatest fictional heroes ever created—a swordsman who cuts a swath across the lands of the Hyborian Age, annihilating powerful sorcerers, deadly creatures, and whole armies of ruthless foes. Today his name is synonymous with the epic battles of ancient times, but Conan originated in the early decades of the twentieth century with one of the founding fathers of fantasy, the visionary Robert E. Howard. The unforgettable stories collected here form a thrilling adventure, following Conan from his mercenary youth to his bloody conquests on the frontier and even the high seas. Bold and enduring, the legend of Conan the Barbarian continues to grow in popularity and influence.

The Other by Matthew Hughes
Underland, $15.95, 240pp, tp, 9780982663967. On-sale date: 8 November 2011.
     Meet Luff Imbry, an insidiously clever confidence man… He like good wine, good food, and good stolen goods, and he always maintains the upper hand. When a business rival gets the drop on him, he finds himself abandoned on Fulda—a far-off, isolated world with a hisotry of its own. Unable to blend in and furious for revenge, Imbry has to rely on his infamous criminal wit to survive Fulda’s crusade to extinguish The Other.
     Hailed as the heir apparent to Jack Vance, Matthew Hughes brings us this speculative, richly imagined exploration of society on the far edges of extreme. A central character in Black Brillion, Luff Imbry is at last front and center in Hughes’s latest rollercoaster adventure through a far-future universe.

Gateways edited by Elizabeth Anne Hull
Tor, $15.99, 416pp, tp, 9780765326638. Science fiction/non-fiction anthology.
     Original tales from eighteen bestselling, award-winning science fiction authors!
     Frederik Pohl, the bestselling, multiple-award-winning author of Gateway, is the dean of science ficiton. In a career that has remarkably spanned more than seventy years, he has done it all. In short, he is one of the giants of the field, given the Grand Master Award by his peers.
     Gateways is a gift to him—and to all SF readers—from many of those peers. It is a cornucopia of entertaining, thought-provoking stories, all-original tales by a “who’s who” of science fiction written especially for this volume. Here you’ll find works that range from deep, powerful novellas by David Brin, Cory Doctorow, and Frank M. Robinson, to brilliant shorter works by Greg Bear, Gegory Benford and Elisabeth Malartre, Joe Haldeman, and Gene Wolfe, to smart, funny pieces by Ben Bova, Neil Gaiman, Harry Harrison, Larry Niven, Mike Resnick, Vernor Vinge, and others.
     Here, too, are reminiscences about Pohl by a number of other writers, including Isaac Asimov, Gardner Dozois, David Marusek, Robert J. Sawyer, Robert Silverberg, Joan Slonczewski, Emily Pohl-Weary, and Connie Willis.
     These personal anecdotes and diverse fictions are a fitting tribute to a man who has written a mind-boggling array of stories and novels, and fostered the careers of many talented writers. These tales, set everywhere from the depths of prehistory to the distant future, here on Earth and among the distant stars, will delight the legions of these authors’ many readers.
     [Contributors: David Lunde, Elizabeth Anne Hull, David Brin, Phyllis & Alex Eisenstein, Isaac Asimov, Joe Haldeman, Larry Niven, Gardner Dozois, James Gunn, Gregory Beford & Elisabeth Malartre, Connie Willis, Vernor Vinge, Greg Bear, Robert J. Sawyer, Frank M. Robinson, Gene Wolfe, Robert Silverberg, Harry Harrison, Jody Lynn Nye, David Marusek, Brian W. Aldiss, Ben Bova, Joan Slonczewski, Sheri S. Tepper, Neil Gaiman, Emily Pohl-Weary, Mike Resnick, Cory Doctorow, and James Frenkel.]

A Soldier’s Duty by Jean Johnson
(Theirs Not to Reason Why book one), Ace, $7.99, 422pp, pb, 9780441020638. Science fiction.
     This month from Jean Johnson, the national bestselling author of the Songs of Destiny novels, comes A Soldier’s Duty, the first in a brand new military science-fiction series from Ace Books. Johnson has long entertained readers with her strong female characters, and once again she brings those skills to bear with her new heroine in this brand new space epic.
     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 Ia believes she can use her abilities to 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 in order to earn that reputation honestly—all while keeping her psychic abilities hidden from her supervisors, who would refuse to risk such a valuable gift in combat.
     To save the galaxy, Ia must become someone else entirely: the soldier who will forever be known as Bloody Mary.

Steelhands by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett
Spectra, $26.00, 430pp, hc, 9780553807707. Fantasy.
     With Havemercy, Shadow Magic, and Dragon Soul, the acclaimed writing team of Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett has fused magic and technology into something that can only be termed “magicpunk.” Their distinctive style, featuring a chorus of quirky first-person narrators and brilliantly sophisticated world-building, has won these young writers the plaudits of fans and critics.
     In Steelhands, their fourth installment of the series, Jones and Bennett plunge readers into a fantastic world of war and magic, where peace is but an illusion and everyone has a secret. Owen Adamo, the hard-as-nails ex-Chief Sergeant of the Dragon Corps, learns that Volstov’s ruler has been secretly pursuing the possibility of resurrecting magically powered robot dragons—even at the risk of igniting a war. Adamo will not allow this. Though he is not without friends—Royston, a powerful magician, and Balfour, a former corpsman—there is only so much he and his allies can do. He has been put out to pasture, given a professorship at the University. Royston, already exiled once, dares not risk the Esar’s wrath a second time. And Balfour, who lost both hands in the war, is now a diplomat who spends most of his time trying to master his new hands—metal replacements that operate on the same magical principles as the dragons and have earned him an assortment of nicknames of which “Steelhands” is the least offensive.
     But sometimes help comes from where you least expect it. In this case, from two first-year university students freshly arrived from the country: Laurence, a feisty young woman whose father raised her to be the son he never had, and Toverre, her fiance, a brilliant and neurotic dandy who would sooner share his wife-to-be’s clothes than her bed. When a mysterious illness strikes the first-year students, Laurence takes her suspicions to Adamo—and unwittingly sets in motion events that will change Volstov forever.
     Told in Jones and Bennett’s brilliant four-character harmony, this novel continues the story started in Havemercy and that has been adding fans with each subsequent stand-alone adventure. The authors’ unique collaborative style, of passing the book from one to the other when one runs out of ideas, leads to a fresh, fluid energy, and plot twists that surprise not only readers but occasionally the authors themselves.

Tattoo by Kirsten Imani Kasai
Del Rey, $15.00, 368pp, tp, 9780345508829. Fantasy.
     Kirsten Imani Kasai returns to the fragile world of 2009’s Ice Song with Tattoo. In an environmentally fragile world where human and animal genes combine, the rarest mutation of all—the Trader—can instantly switch genders. One such Trader, the female Sorykah, is battling her male alter, Soryk, for dominance and the right to live a full life.
     Sorykah has rescued her infant twins from mad Matuk the Collector. Her children are safe. Her journey, she believes, is over, but Matuk’s death has unleashed darker, more evil forces. These forces, led by the Colector’s son, cast nets of power that stretch from the glittering capital of Neubonne to the murky depths below the frozen Sigue, where the ink of octameroons is harvested to make addictive, aphrodisiacal tattoos. Bitter enemies trapped within a single skin, Sorykah and Soryk are soon drawn into a sinister web of death and deceit.

Android: Free Fall by William H. Keith
Fantasy Flight Games, $8.99, 334pp, pb, 9781616610975. Science fiction.
     It is the future, and while the world has changed, crime has not.
     When an influential lawyer is murdered miles above the earth’s surface, Captain of Detectives Rick Harrison reluctantly accepts the case. Harrison quickly finds himself at the center of a deepening conspiracy. Why did the killer use a mining laser, an unwieldy weapon? What is the connection between the victim and the powerrful anti-android lobby? And the toughest question Harrison never expected to ask: what defines humanity?

Buji and Me by Wendy Kelly
Medallion, $12.95, 186pp, tp, 9781605421117. Pets/Self Help. On-sale date: November 2011.
     Head held high, I walked out of the shelter with the dog others had deemed hopeless. Minutes later, I was banished from my own car by bared teeth and bristled fur, caught in the rain and dripping wet, foiled by the very creature whose cause I had just championed.
     Never in my life had I asked so many times, “What was I thinking?”
     When I rescued Buji, little did I know he would teach me some of life’s most valuable lessons—and all he had to do to get my attention was save my life.
     In Buji and Me, psychological therapist and animal behaviorist Wendy Kelly shares the principles of a dynamic, life-changing force that occurs when we allow our pets to become our teachers. If we are open and aware, they will guide us to being, well, better beings—present, honest, aware, focused, joyful, kind, and loving. Unleash the seven secrets of living the “pawsitive” life… starting today.

Water to Burn by Katharine Kerr
(a Nola O’Grady novel), DAW, $7.99, 325pp, pb, 9780756406912. Fantasy.
     Just when Nola O’Grady thinks she has it all…
     Nola’s the new head of the San Francisco branch of the Agency, the psychic organization so secret that even the CIA doesn’t know it exists. What’s more, for some mysterious reason, Interpol has assigned her lover, Israeli secret agent Ari Nathan, to her new bureau as her permanent “bodyguard.”
     But everywhere she looks she sees a Chaos manifestation spying on her. Inexplicable “rogue waves” are sweeping innocents to a watery death before she can save them. She has two increasingly dangerous searches on hand, for Rob Ezekiel, the supposedly dead prophet from Ari’s past, and for the mysterious “Brother Belial,” head of the Chaos cult they had managed to take down.
     To top it off, her brother Michael is dragging Nola and Ari into his attempt to rescue his girlfriend from a radioactive alternate dimension.
     How is Nola supposed to serve the forces of Harmony and maintain the balance between Chaos and Order when she can’t even keep her own family under control?

Lord of Souls: An Elder Scrolls Novel by Greg Keyes
Del Rey, $15.00, 336pp, tp, 9780345508027. Fantasy. On-sale date: 27 September 2011.
     A great evil grows in the Empire and threatens all of the various races, groups, and denizens of the world. A sinister floating city and an army of undead warriors have laid waste to much of the world, and it is now up to the emperor’s son, Attrebus Mede, and a group of mages, thieves, and warriors to put things right. But are they strong enough to overcome the ancient evil that has awoken in Tamriel? This completely original tie-in novel continues the story of The Elder Scrolls: Infernal City and the fourth edition of the game Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

Evolve Two: Vampire Stories of the Future Undead edited by Nancy Kilpatrick
Edge, $14.95, 224pp, tp, 9781894063623. Horror and dark fantasy anthology.
     Vampires: friend of foe? Either way, time is on their side, and they are more powerful than ever before!
     Meet the eternal predator that humanity never ceases to find both fascinating and terrifying. Evolve Two: Vampire Stories of the Future Undead moves this creature beyond 2012, through this century and into the next. We humans will evolve, but so will they! Whatever apocalyptic events that lie ahead for our species, for the planet, Vampires will be there too, helping or hindering, effecting or infecting us. Time is on their side, but it may not be on ours. They are vampires, and more powerful than ever before!
     Hot on the heels of the best seller, Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead, Nancy Kilpatrick does it again with twenty-two original stories that explore the evolution of vampires.
     [Contributors: Tanith Lee, Kelley Armstrong, John Shirley, Thomas Roche, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Heather Clitheroe, Erika Holt, Ivan Dorin, Michael Lorenson, Jason Ridler, David Beynon, Eileen Bell, Peter Sellers, Sandra Wickham, William Meikle, David Tocher, Leanne Trembley, Ryan McFadden, Steven Vernon, Bev Vincent, Anne Mok, and Sandra Kasturi.]

The Knowledge of Good & Evil by Glenn Kleier
Tor, 384pp, $24.99, hc, 9780765323774. Suspense thriller.
     Since ancient times many people fortunate enough to have survived near death experiences have claimed to see an “Other Side.” Accounts of long white tunnels, out-of-body travels, encounters with deceased family members—all quite familiar. Indeed much research, scientific experimentation, discussions and debates have been devoted to discovering what, if anything, awaits after death. And yet the question of an afterlife remains Life’s greatest unsolved mystery.
     No Longer… It’s been a decade since Glenn Kleier’s internationally acclaimed and controversial novel The Last Day thrust a contentious female messiah onto the world. Now he returns with a second suspense thriller, equally irreverent and certain to raise a bigger stir.
     The Knowledge of Good & Evil wrestles the ultimate question: What lies Beyond, and what does it hold for humanity? A high-concept, epic odyssey of a man driven to penetrate the barrier of Death and return alive with its secrets. It centers around a true story:
     On December 4, 1968, theologian Father Thomas Merton visited the ancient Dead City of Polonnaruwa, Ceylon, entered the Cave of the Spirits of Knowledge, and experienced a vision. It’s claimed he found a backdoor to the afterlife. That he looked into the Mind of God and escaped with a secret so powerful it could change the world; bring wars to a standstill; end forever the age-old hatreds between races, creeds and cultures. Yet before Merton could announce his discovery at a religious conference, he suffered a horrific death under mysterious circumstances. But the secret did not die with him. He left behind a journal…
     Years later, beautiful psychologist Angela Weber and her trouble fiance, Ian Baringer, are on the hunt for Merton’s long-lost journal and its door to the afterlife. Angela, an agnostic, wants to help Ian heal the wounds of a traumatic childhood plane crash that took the lives of his parents. Ian, a defrocked priest, no longer trusts in religion’s promise of eternal life. He must know for certain if he will ever see his parents again, obsessed with finding out firsthand what lies beyond and what it holds for humanity. Together, Ian and Angela plunge headlong into a global chase, pursued by a shadowy cult, dead bodies and destruction in their wake. To succeed, Ian and Angela must defy the gates of heaven and hell to uncover a Knowledge hidden from the world since the dawn of time.
     The Knowledge of Good & Evil is a fast-paced, provocative tale that probes the darkest corners of the Great Unknown, exposing humanity’s deepest fears and challenging its most-cherished beliefs. An enthralling page-turner that will captivate and thrill readers.

Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
(Book One of The Broken Empire), Ace, $25.95, 324pp, hc, 9780441020324. Fantasy.
     Fans of George R.R. Martin and Brent Weeks will love Prince of Thorns, Book One of The Broken Empire series 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. Nnone 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.
     Prince of Thorns will hook readers from the beginning. Lawrence is a fresh, new voice in fantasy litearture that you won’t want to miss.

The Restoration Game by Ken MacLeod
Pyr, $16.00, 240pp, tp, 9781616145255. Science fiction. On-sale date: September 2011.
     There is no such place as Krassnia. Lucy Stone should know—she was born there. In that tiny, troubled region of the former Soviet Union, revolution is brewing. Its organizers need a safe place to meet, and where better than the virtual spaces of an online game? Lucy, who works for a start-up games company in Edinburgh, has a project that almost seems made for the job: a game inspired by The Krassniad, an epic folk tale concocted by Lucy’s mother, Amanda, who studied there in the 1980s. Lucy knows Amanda is a spook. She knows her great-grandmother Eugenie also visited the country in the ’30s, and met the man who originally collected Krassnian folklore and who perished in Stalin’s terror. As Lucy digs up details about her birthplace to slot into the game, she finds the open secrets of her family’s past, the darker secrets of Krassnia’s past—and hints about the crucial role she is destined to play in The Restoration Game.…
     Combining international intrigue with cutting-edge philosophical speculation, romance with adventure, and online gaming with real-life consequence, The Restoration Game delivers as science fiction and as a sharp take on our present world from the viewpoint of a complex, engaging heroine who has to fight her way through a maze of political and family manipulation to take control of her own life.

Path of the Sun by Violette Malan
(a novel of Dhulyn and Parno), DAW, $7.99, 424pp, pb, 9780756406806. Fantasy.
     Mercenary Partners Dhulyn Wolfshead and Parno Lionsmane have been assigned the task of escorting the Princess of Arderon to her wedding with the new Tarkin of Menoin. But they soon learn that the Mercenary Brotherhood has a second job for them—a secret msision to find out what happened to two Brothers who were sent on assignment to Menoin a year ago, and who have disappeared. Once in Menoin they discover that their old friends Gundaron and Mar-eMar, there as Scholars investigating old Caid ruins, suspect that the disappearance of the Mmercenary Brothers is linked to a series of bizarre, ritualistic killings.
     When the Princess of Arderon’s corpse is found, mutilated in the same way as the others, Dhulyn and Parno track the killer into the Path of the Sun, an ancient labyrinth from which people rarely return. But Mercenaries are not ordinary people, and Dhulyn and Parno draw on their skills to reach the heart of the Path. What they find there is the entrance to another world, a world in which the Red Horsemen—Dhulyn’s nomad people—have not been wiped out, a world in which the Marked—whether Finder, Mender, Healer, or Seer—are hunted down and killed as “broken.”
     Can Dhulyn and Parno locate their missing Brothers, identify and stop the killer, and find their way back through the Path of the Sun before Dhulyn’s own Mark qualifies her for execution?

Ghosts of War by George Mann
Pyr, $16.00, 232pp, tp, 9781616143671. Steampunk.
     Ghosts of War picks up the story a month after the end of Ghosts of Manhattan. New York City is being plagued by a pack of ferocious brass raptors—strange, skeleton-like creations with bat-like wings that swoop out of the sky, attacking people and carrying them away into the night. The Ghost has been tracking these bizarre machines, and is close to finding their origin: a deranged military scientist who is slowly rebuilding himself as a machine.
     However, this scientist is not working alone, and his scheme involves more than a handful of abductions. He is part of a plot to escalate the cold war with Britain into a full-blown conflict, and he is building a weapon—a weapon that will fracture the dimensional space and allow the monstrous creatures that live on the other side to spill through. He and his co-conspirators—a cabal of senators and businessmen who seek to benefit from the war—intend to harness these creatures and use them as a means to crush the British.
     But the Ghost knows only too well how dangerous these creatures can be, and the threat they represent not just to Britain, but the world. The Ghost’s efforts to put an end to the conspiracy bring him into an uneasy alliance with a male British spy, who is loose in Manhattan, protecting the interests of his country. He also has the unlikely assistance of Ginny, a drunken ex-lover and sharpshooter, who walks back into his life, having disappeared six years earlier in mysterious circumstances.
     Suffering from increasingly lucid flashbacks to WWI and subjected to rooftop chases, a battle with a mechanized madman, and the constant threat of airborne predators, and with the fate of the world hanging in the balance, can the Ghost derail the conspiracy and prevent the war with the British from escalating beyond control?

The Goblin Corps by Ari Marmell
Pyr, 305pp, $16.00, tp, 9781616143770. Fantasy.
     Morthul, the dreaded Charnel King, has failed. Centuries of plotting from the heart of the Iron Keep, deep within the dark lands of Kirol Syrreth—all for naught. Foiled at the last by the bumbling efforts of a laughable band of so-called heroes, brainless and over-muscled cretins without sense enough to recognize a hopeless cause when they take it on. Machinations developed over generations, schemes intended to deliver the world into the Dark Lord’s hands, now devastated beyond salvation. But the so-called forces of Light have paid for their meddling with the life of Princess Amalia, only child of the royal family of Shauntille.
     Now, as winter solidifies its icy grip on the passes of the Brimstone Mountains, disturbing news has reached the court of Morthul. King Dororam, enraged by the murder of his only child—and accompanied by that same group of delusional upstart “heroes”—is assembling all the Allied Kingdoms, fielding an army unlike any seen before. The armies of Kirol Syrreth muster to meet the attack that is sure to come as soon as the snows have melted form the mountain paths, but their numbers are sorely depleted. Still, after uncounted centuries of survival, the Dark Lord isn’t about to go down without a fight, particularly in battle against a mortal! No, the Charnel King still has a few tricks up his putrid and tattered sleeves, and the o nly thing that can defeat him now… may just be the inhuman soldiers on whom he’s pinned his last hopes.
     Welcome to the Goblin Corps. May the best man lose.

The Society of Steam, Book One: The Falling Machine by Andrew P. Mayer
Pyr, 305pp, $16.00, tp, 9781616143763. Steampunk.
     In 1880 women aren’t allowed to vote, much less dress up in a costume and fight crime…
     But nineteen-year-old socialite Sarah Stanton still dreams of becoming a hero. Her opportunity arrives in tragedy wen the leader of the Society of Paragons, New York’s greatest team of gentlement adventurers, is murdered right before her eyes. To uncover the truth behind the assassination, Sarah joins forces with the amazing mechanical man known as The Automaton. Together they unmask a conspiracy at the heart of the Paragons that reveals the world of heroes and high-society is built on a cumbling foundation of greed and lies. When Sarah comes face to face with the megalomaniacal villain behind the murder, she must determine if she has the courage to sacrifice her life of privilege and save her clockwork friend.
     The Falling Machine (The Society of Steam, Book One) takes place in a Victorian New York powered by the discovery of Fortified Steam, a subtance that allows ordinary men to wield extraordinary abilities, and grant powers that can corrupt gentlemen of great moral strength. The secret behind this amazing substance is something that wicked brutes will gladly kill for and one that Sarah must try and protect, no matter what the cost.

Arkham Terror: Ghouls of the Miskatonic by Graham McNeill
(Booke One of the Dark Waters Trilogy), Fantasy Flights Games, $8.99, 334pp, pb, 9781589949652. Horror.
     Horrific Murder Strikes Arkham
     It is the roaring twenties, and strange things are happening in the small Massachusetts town of Arkham. When mutilated bodies are found on the grounds of Miskatonic University, is it the work of a serial killer, or something much darker? While a professor seeks his own answers, nightmarish premonitions plague his most gifted student. Meanwhile, a reporter trawls the town’s dark underbelly for clues, and a bottlegger stumbles upon a strange, otherworldly device. Now, these unlikely investigators must unite to seek answers to a mystery that threatens all they hold dear.

Another Kind of Dead by Kelly Meding
Bantam, $7.99, 384pp, pb, 9780345525779. Urban fantasy.
     She can heal her own wounds. She can nail a monster to a wall. But there’s one danger Evangeline Stone never saw coming.
     Evy Stone has died before—and she’s getting a little tired of it. Been there. Done that. She is a former Dreg Bounty Hunger who died and came back to life with some extraordinary powers. Now all but five people in the world think she is deceased—immolated in a factory fire that was intended to kill her. In the third installment of Meding’s Dreg City series, Evy and Wyatt, her partner/lover, can no longer trust their former allies, especially the highest echelons of the Triads—the army of fighters that keep an unsuspecting public safe from a tide of quarreling, otherworldly monsters. They have reason to be suspicious. When the Triads raided a macabre, monster-filled lab of science experiments and hauled away the remnants, they failed to capture their creator: a brilliant, vampire-obsessed scientist with a wealth of powerful, anti-Dreg weaponry to trade for what he desires most of all—Evy Stone: alive and well, and the key to his ultimate experiment in mad science.

The Griff by Christopher Moore and Ian Corson
William Morrow, $22.99, tp, 9780061977527. Science fiction graphic novel.
     From outrageously funny New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore and award-winning screenwriter and director Ian Carson, The Griff: A Graphic Novel is about an alien invasion of Earth and the motley crew of humans who save the world—sort of…
     How do you conquer the world in four easy steps?
     First, activate an ancient alien beacon that summons a behemoth spaceship from the far reaches of the galaxy. Second, release a stream of pods that unfold into minivan-size griffin-like dragons into Earth’s atmosphere. Third, destroy all human defensive and emergency infrastructures. Finally, systematically kill everyone on the planet.
     Too bad a pesky trio of survivors aren’t about to roll out the red carpet to these alien invaders. Mo, a snarky, sexy, Goth-y leader of a computer game-design team; Steve, a skateboard-punk who has made a career out of disturbing swag at pro skating events; and Curt, the obligatory buff commando type (who seems to know just a little too much about makeup and hair color), are going to take it to the marauding Griff, battling their way from New York to Orlando, where the alien mother ship is the most awesome new attraction.
     And in Florida, another motley band of survivors await, including Liz, a killer whale trainer at Ocean World, and Oscar, a chain-smoking professional squirrel (seriously—he’s paid to wear that squirrel costume).
     Once united, the intrepid warriors will attempt to infiltrate the alien spacecraft, save the world, and begin the fun of repopulating it all over again in this hilarious and beautifully rendered graphic novel.

Heroes at Odds by Moira J. Moore
Ace, $7.99, 340pp, pb, 9780441020645. Fantasy.
     In Heroes at Odds, Moira J. Moore continues her epic tale of a land beset by natural disasters, where only the magical abilities of the bonded Pairs make it livable.
     Dunleavy “Lee” Mallorourgh is a Shield, bound to protect her Source, Shintaro “Taro” Karish, from the dangerous magical forces he must wield to defuse the latest earthquake or hurricane. Lee wanted someone reliable, steady, and not too exciting. Instead, she got stuck for life with the incredibly handsome—and notorious—Taro.
     Lee and Taro are growing accustomed to life in the duchy of Westsea, their new assignment. If only they weren’t constantly being plagued by people who either want the title for themselves or think Taro is the rightful Duke! He abjured the title years ago, but some are still having trouble accepting his decision.
     On top of that, Lee’s orderly world is shattered when her family informs her she was betrothed as a child as part of an alliance with another merchant clan. On, and by the way, her “fiance” is on his way to Westsea to demand she fulfill the terms of the contract—and go through with the marriage…

The Cold Commands by Richard K. Morgan
Del Rey, $26.00, 512pp, hc, 9780345493064. Fantasy. On-sale date: 11 October 2011.
     The Cold Commands continues award-winning author Richard K. Morgan’s brilliant epic fantasy series, following fan favorite The Steel Remains, which was published by Del Rey in trade paperback in January 2010.
     In this genre-defying fantasy, Morgan brings us Ringil Eskiath, hero to many but friend to few, an aging warrior thrust back into the violent life that he thought he’d left behind. Ringil may be growing more comfortable with his return to the hero’s life, but at the same time the stakes against him are being raised. A major threat is gathering on the horizon, one that Ringil will soon realize he cannot defeat by himself.

The Moon Maze Game by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes
Tor, $25.99, 368pp, hc, 9780765326663. Science fiction.
     Larry Niven and Steven Barnes’ Dream Park series has been hailed as an extremely influential science fiction classic since the release of the first novel, Dream Park, in 1982. Set in a futuristic fantasy theme park full of holographic attractions and the latest Virtual Reality technology, the series centers around a type of gaming in which players believably role play—a style that remains enormously popular today. The third novel in the series, The California Voodoo Game, was released in 1992, and sci-fi fans have been eagerly anticipating the continuation of this acclaimed series. Now, Larry Niven and Steven Barnes have returned with The Moon Maze Game—the riveting standalone fourth installment that has players battling for their lives on the surface of the moon.
     2085: Humanity has spread throughout the solar system, and a stable lunar colony is agitating for independence. Lunar terrorism is on the rise…
     Professional “Close Protection” specialist Scotty Griffin, fresh off a disastrous assignment, has been offered the opportunity of a lifetime: shepherd Ali Kikaya, the teenaged heir to the Republic of Kikaya, through the first live action role playing game on the surface of the Moon. Having left Luna—and a treasured marriage—years ago due to a near-tragic accident, Scotty leaps at the chance.
     Live Action Role Playing attracts a very special sort of individual: brilliant, unpredictable, resourcesful, and addicted to problem solving. By kidnapping a dozen gamers in the middle of the ultimate game, they have thrown down an irresistible gauntlet: to “win” the first game that ever became “real”. Soon the gamers find themselves pursued by armed and murderous terrorists, forced to solve gaming puzzles to stay a jump ahead and to juggle multiple psychological realities as they do—this is the game they have prepared for their entire lives, and they’re going to play it for all it’s worth.
     Full of the suspense and complex gaming that made the series a classic of its kind, The Moon Maze Game is cutting-edge science fiction at its best from two of the genre’s most powerful voices.

Ravenwood by Andrew Peters
Chicken House/Scholastic, 368pp, $16.99, hc, 9780545305501. YA Fantasy.
     Super-tall author Andrew Peterds (he’s 6’8″!) has grown up used to a bird’s eye view of things—which perhaps inspired the creation of an amazing world in a sky-high canopy. With all the best elements of classic fantasy and a twist of “eco-punk” heroism, Ravenwood delivers humor, bravery, and idealism in an action-packed adventure.
     The last forested island of the future, Arborium is a mile-high, evergreen world carved from the tallest branches of a vast canopy of trees. Fourteen year-old Ark has the lowest of jobs. As a poor plumber’s apprentice, he unclogs toilets. Ark believes the forest kingdom to be the safest, if dullest, place on earth, until he stumbles across a plot between a corrupt politician and a clandestine envoy from the rival realm of Maw. This glass-and-steel industrial superpower is scheming to wield its “axes of evil” to strip Arborium of its wood—a natural resource now more precious than gold. Plunged into danger, Ark must make the treacherous climb down to the darkest roots of Ravenwood to rescue his endangered tree-home!

Low Town by Daniel Polansky
Doubleday, $25.95, 342pp, hc, 9780385534468. Fantasy.
     Drug dealers, hustlers, brothels, dirty politics, corrupt cops… and sorcery. Welcome to Low Town. Think Quentin Tarantino meets Lord of the Rings with a noirish dash of James Ellory.
     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 Warden’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.

The Diviner by Melanie Rawn
DAW, $24.95, 496pp, hc, 9780756406813. Fantasy.
     Melanie Rawn is one of the most beloved authors of fantasy. The New York Times bestselling author of the Dragon Prince, Dragon Star and Exiles series, fans have been eagerly awaiting a new novel. And this summer, Rawn will make her triumphant return to high fantasy with The Diviner.
     The only survivor of royal treachery that eliminates his entire family, Azzad al-Ma’aliq flees to the desert and dedicates himself to vengeance. With the help of Shagara, a nomadic tribe of powerful magicians, he begins to take his revenge—but at a terrible cost to himself.

Kris Longknife: Daring by Mike Shepherd
Ace, $7.99, 368pp, pb, 9781937007034. Science fiction. On-sale date: 25 October 2011.
     Lieutenant Commander Kris Longknife leads a Fleet of Discovery on a reconnaissance of the vast uncharted regions of space. No one, least of all Kris, expects to find an alien starship, certainly not one that comes out firing. Faced with a fight-or-flight situation, Kris fires back, blowing the ship to bits.
     Half a universe away from her superiors, facing a possible mutiny from officers insisting on retreat, Kris holds the fate of humanity in her hands as she struggles to determine the extent of the alien threat—and whether to start an interstellar war…

The Marvelous Book of Magical Horses by Eva Steele-Saccio
Klutz, $19.99, tp, 9781591749264. Fantasy/activity book, ages 6 and up.
     Budding young equestrians, fashion-lovers, and girls with great imaginations will delight in Klutz’s new take on paper dolls.
     Imagine a glittery mare galloping through a fantasy forest. A rainbow-maned unicorn explores a sparkling castle. A winged pegasus soars through the clouds. Who knew paper dolls could be so enchanting?
     The Marvelous Book of Magical Horses comes with six gorgeous paper ponies and two paper-doll fairies. Plus, of course, everything you need to dress them up and play to your heart’s content: a dozen fabulous wings and more than 250 punch-out saddles, manes, tails, bows, crowns, and other horse and fairy fashions. Four fabulous illustrated backgrounds inspire all sorts of imaginative play.
     But this book is more than just glitters and rainbows. The frustration-proof adhesive technology that makes The Fabulous Book of Paper Dolls such a hit is here, too. Simply stick a sticky dot to your horse, add the fashion, and you’re ready to go. No old-fashioned tabs here! Finally, when you’re finished horsing around for the day, a convenient, built-in storage envelope keeps dolls and accessories in perfect order, happily ever after.

Reamde by Neal Stephenson
William Morrow, $35.00, 1056pp, hc, 9780061977969. Fiction. On-sale date: September 2011.
     Reamde is the latest adventure from Neal Stephenson, the critically acclaimed #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem and Cryptonomicon. In this return to the terrain of his other groundbreaking books, Stephenson delivers his most accessible novel to date—a high-intensity, high-stakes, action-packed global adventure thriller in which a tech entrepreneur gets caught in the very real crossfire of his own online war game.
     Four decades ago Richard Forthrast, the black sheep of his Iowa-based family, fled to a wild and mountainous corner of British Columbia to avoid the draft. Quickly realizing that he could make a lot of fast cash carrying backpack loads of high-grade marijuana across the border into Northern Idaho, he began to amass an enormous and illegal fortune. Living an affluent but lonely and monotonous life in Canada, Richard became addicted to the online fantasy game World of Warcraft, and like many serious players of the game, he also fell into the habit of purchasing virtual gold pieces and other desirables from Chinese gold farmers—young men who make a living playing the game and accumulating virtual weapons and armor that can be sold to American and European buyers who have more money than time. Luckily for Richard, it was the perfect opportunity to launder his aging hundred dollar bills and begin a new business venture to further expand his fortune. But now the head of a major computer gaming group called Corporation 9592 with its own super-successful online fantasy game, T’Rain, Forthrast is caught in the center of a global thriller and a virtual war for dominance that is accidentally triggered by a young gold farmer.
     Set in the present-day modern world, Reamde has global intrigue, hired assassins, suspense, computer hacking, online gaming, cool gadgets, sex and drugs and fear and adrenaline and a couple of dumb kids caught in the middle of an international nightmare. And Richard Forthrast, a loner-millionaire, genius, who has to figure out how to set things right—without getting killed.

Bad Island by Doug TenNapel
Graphix/Scholastic, $12.99, 220pp, tp, 9780545314800. YA fantasy grpahic novel.
     Eisner award-winning author Doug Ten Napel, acclaimed creator of the character Earthworm Jim and graphic novels like Ghostopolis, is back with Bad Island, a thrilling adventure about a family of castaways.
     When a family takes a boating trip, the last thing they expect is to be shipwrecked on an island—especially an island with weird, otherworldly plants and animals. Now what started out as a bad vacation turns into a terrible one as Lyle, Karen, and their two kids, Janie and Reese, must find a way off the island while they dodge its strange and dangerous inhabitants.
     Is the island alive? Is it from another world? In this rousing, Swiss-Family-Robinson tale with a twist, the answers to these questions could save them… or spell their doom…

The Waters Rising by Sheri S. Tepper
Voyager, $14.99, 498pp, tp, 9780061958854. Science fiction.
     Sheri S. Tepper returns with The Waters Rising, a stunning novel, now in trade paperback, in which a dreadful killing power is resurrected from the past… and only a dying woman, a child and a man who has come to help them can turn the tide on humanity’s extinction. Tepper is the acclaimed author of The Margarets and Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, both of which were shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including Best Fantasy Novel of the Year (Locus). Tepper is one of the few writers to have titles in both the SF and Fantasy Masterworks lists.
     Long before the waters began to rise over the surface of the world was the time of the “Big Kill,” when Slaughterers walked the earth unseen, killing, departing, and repeatedly returning to kill again. Since then mountains have risen, deserts have fallen, the last of humankind has scattered, and the rising waters are changing the world.
     In the west, the people of Norland live in small kingdoms, surviving as their forests drown, swamps become lakes, and roads disappear. Hosues—whole towns—are hitched to teams of oxen and moved upward. But this misery is compounded when the Sea King declares war. No ships may sail on the new, growing oceans, and refugees from sunken islands continue to arrive.
     IN Norland is Xulai, an orphan from Tingawa, who implores the kind wanderer, Abasio, for his help in fulfilling the last request of the dying Princess Xu-i-lok, wife of Norland’s Duke Justinina. Xulai is Princess Xu-i-lok’s Soul Carrier—and there is one task Xulai must complete before she can bring the Princess’s long-suffering soul home to Tingawan. Dark forces are abroad in the land, and upon the sea: a hideous evil from ages past has been revived. Powers are being used. Curses are being laid, and an ancient killer awakens to fulfill an awful destiny; Xulai and Abasio may be the only ones who can help avert this evil maelstrom.
     Note: The Waters Rising is the long-awaited and much-demanded sequel to A Plague of Angels, continuing the story of Abasio, a man who goes hithter and yon, helping orphans in a world where renascent mythical beasts and fairy tale archetypes walk the earth and swims the oceaens.

Gears of War: Coalition’s End by Karen Traviss
Gallery, $26.99, 444pp, hc, 9781439183953. Media tie-in.
     Gears of War: Coalition’s End is the eagerly anticipated bridge novel for the Gears of War trilogy—continuing the harrowing story of Delta Squad and their struggle to save the remnants of humanity in a world overrun by a brutal enemy, the Locust Horde.
     When the Locust Horde burst from the ground fifteen years ago to slaughter the human population of Sera, mankind began a desperate war against extinction. Now after a decade and a half of bloody fighting, and with billions dead, the survivors—the Gears of the Coalition of Ordered Governments, along with a small band of civilians—have been forced to destroy their own cities and sacrifice their entire civilization to halt the Locust advance.
     The last-ditch measures have succeeded, but at an enormous cost: the survivors have been reduced to a handful of refugees.
     Escaping to a haven on the remote island of Vectes, they begin the heartbreaking task of rebuilding their devastated world. For a while, there’s hope… making peace with old enemies, and once again planning for the future.
     But the short respite is shattered when Vectes comes under siege from an even deadlier force than the Locust—the Lambent, a hideous and constantly mutating life-form that destroys everything in its path. As the Lambent’s relentless assault spreads from the mainland to the island, the refugees finally understand what drove the Locust from their underground warrens and sparked the global war.
     While Marcus Fenix and the Gears struggle to hold back the invasion, the Coalition faces a stark choice—fight this new enemy to the last human, or flee to the wastelands to take their chances and live like the human pariahs known as the Stranded… even as Coalition chairman Richard Prescott still guards one last, terrible secret about the Locust, the Lambent, and the future of mankind.…

The War that Came Early: The Big Switch by Harry Turtledove
Del Rey, $27.00, 425pp, hc, 9780345491862. Alternate history.
     Hailed by USA Today as “the standard-bearer of alternate history,” Harry Turtledove is a Hugo Award winning and critically acclaimed writer of science fiction, fantasy, and alternate history. The War that Came Early: The Big Switch is Turtledove’s newest installment in the extraordinary World War II retelling that asks the question: what if Neville Chamberlain, instead of appeasing Hitler, had stood up to him in 1938? The Big Switch imagines Hitler reacting by lashing out at the West, promising his soldiers that they will reach Paris by the New Year. They don’t. Three years later, his genocidal apparatus not fully in place, Hitler has barely survived a coup, while Jews cling to survival. But England and France wonder whether the war is still worthwhile.
     Weaving together a cast of characters that ranges from a brawling American fighter in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain to a woman who has seen Hitler’s evil face-to-face, Harry Turtledove takes readers into a world shaping up very differently than our own did in 1941. The Germans and their Polish allies have slammed into the gut of the Soviet Union in the west, while Japan pummels away in the east. In trench warfare in France, French and Czech fighters are outmanned but not outfought by their Nazi enemy. In England, Winston Churchill dies in an apparent accident and the gray men who walk behind his funeral cortege wonder who their real enemy is. The USSR, fighting for its life, makes peace with Japan—and Japan’s war with America is about to begin.
     Continuing the series that begins with West and East and Hitler’s War, The Big Switch is a sweeping saga of human passions, foolishness, and courage, of families and lovers and soldiers by choice and by chance. For history buffs and fans of big, blood-and-guts fiction, Harry Turtledove delivers a panoramic clash of ideals as powerful as armies themselves.

The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities: Exhibitis, Oddities, Images, and Stories from Top Authors and Artists edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
Harper Voyager, $22.99, 336pp, hc, 9780062004758. Fantasy.
     An unconventional and spellbinding follow-up to Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s wildly popular faux medical anthology—The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases (2003)—The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities is not just another run-of-the-mill sequel. Rather, it’s a story-driven revisiting of a fantasy world, and a thrilling cross-genre expedition that has gained a cult following around the globe.
     Filled with everything from traditional tales to more eccentric departues, and more than 70 awe-striking original images, this compilation is the ultimate playground where some of the world’s foremost imaginations have let loose. Editors Ann and Jeff VanderMeer showcase their unparalleled knowledge and passion for the fields of steampunk and science fiction, creating a delicate balance in these pages between fiction and graphic artwork. The perfect melding of contributions from genre heavyweights, like Hellboy‘s Mike Mignola, Holly Black and China Mieville with mainstream stars like Lev Grossman, Charles Yu and Helen Oyeyemi—this book affectively crumbles the barrier between genre and mainstream, and is a must-have for every fantasy-lover’s bookshelf.
     The death of Dr. Thackery T. Lambshead in 2003 at his house in Wimpering-on-the-Brook, England, revealed an astonishing discovery: the remains of a remarkable cabinet of curiosities, each involving an amazing story of intrigue, adventure and mystery. Many of these artifacts, curios, and wonders related to anecdotes and stories in the doctor’s personal diaries. Others, when shown to the doctor’s friends, elicited more stories.
     In keeping with the bold spirit exemplified by Dr. Lambshead and his exploits, The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities weaves all these tales into one volume—combining stories with “archival” images—documents, photos, newspaper clippings, and reproductions of pages from the doctor’s records. This fantastical exercise in imagination stands as an intriguing curiosity all on its own.
     [Contributors: Minister Faust, Kelly Barnhill, Will Hindmarch, Ted Chiang, Carrie Vaughn, Garth Nix, Jeffrey Ford, Naomi Novik, Holly Black, Tad Williams, Cherie Priest, Lev Grossman, Michael Moorcock, China Mieville, Helen Oyeyemi, Reza Negarestani, Michael Cisco, Amal El-Mohtar, Stepan Chapman, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Jay Lake, Charles Yu, Alan Moore, N.K. Jemisin, Rachel Swirsky, Mur Lafferty, Ekaterina Sedia, Brian Evenson, S.J. Chambers, and Gio Clairval.]

The Robot by Paul E. Watson
Razorbill, $16.99, 266pp, hc, 9781595143726. YA Science Fiction.
     This summer Penguin Young Readers is thrilled to publish The Robot by Paul E. Watson. Evoking side-splitting movies like Superbad and Weird Science, The Robot is about two adolescent boys chasing a runaway she-bot.
     Best friends Gabe and Dover just became high school freshmen, and they aren’t having much luck in the social life department. When Gabe’s parents go away for the weekend, girl-crazy Dover convinces Gabe, the lovable science geek, to check out dad’s strictly off-limits basement laboratory. What they discover is a smoking hot babe, there’s just one thing—she’s a robot!
     While the boys argue over what to do with the leggy blonde she-bot, “Trina” escapes the lab and flees the house. Gabe’s dad is going to kill him if the boys don’t get Trina back into that lab, but not before she makes them the most popular freshmen at a high school party, saves their lives a bunch of times, and leads them on a wild chase. The chase is on!
     The Robot is full of zippy one-liners, a realistic friendship, and a hot robot, all tied up in an uproarious madcap adventure. Paul E. Watson knows how to heat up the summer with this fun, fast-paced YA novel.

Six Days by Philip Webb
Chicken House, $17.99, 338pp, hc, 9780545317672. YA Science Fiction. On-sale date: September 2011.
     In Philip Webb’s heart-pounding, futuristic debut novel, Six Days, he introduces readers to Cass and Wilbur: scavengers living in the wastelands of a dystopian London racing against time to find a relic of extraordinnary power. The only catch is that they must find the relic within six days, or the world will come to an end.
     Webb masterfully blends technology and science fiction as readers share in Cass and Wilbur’s race against time to save the world. Complete with newly appointed Russian overlords in London, outsiders from a faraway place to help, and the potential devastation of a spaceship crashing into earth, Six Days is an adventure story for the curious science-fiction and fantasy readers.

Wolf Among the Stars by Steve White
Baen, $25.00, 256pp, hc, 9781451637540. Science Fiction. On-sale date: November 2011.
     A near-future Earth has shaken off the devastating colonization by alien Lokaran invaders and totalitarian rule by the alien’s puppets, the Earth First party. But now Earth is flung into galactic intrigue and war. The Lokaron empire teeters on the edge of a fratricidal meltdown and a cabal of ancient enemies hope to use Earth as a proxy to destroy the empire and rule over a new Galactic Dark Age.
     Now Captain Andrew Roark, the son of heroes of the rebellion and an officer trained in Lokaran space warfare tactics, joins with a highly capable Lokar who opposes the empire but wishes to see it transformed rather than destroyed. Together they must uncover a conspiracy to control Earth, and then obtain the secret key to defeating it. War for galactic control looms, and freedom for Earth—so recently escaped from under the boot-heel of one oppressor—is once again in the balance.

Future Media edited by Rick Wilber
Tachyon, $16.95, 432pp, tp, 9781616960209. Technology/Science Fiction anthology.
     Mass media is changing more rapidly now than ever before. If, according to Marshall McLuhan, the medium is the message, what are we to make of the Web, social media, and smart phones—and what are they making us, and our world, into?
     Future Media collects extraordinary fiction and nonfiction from the best and the brightest visionaries of the future. Combining their prescient works, this is an exploration of mass media, personal and public, pervasive and powerful. Optimistic as much as cautionary, this groundbreaking anthology challenges and engages readers with glimpses of a future that will not be ignored.
     Extraordinary fiction comes from Aldous Huxley, excerpted from Brave New World, his iconic totalitarian society; Norman Spinrad, and his outrageous and accurate take on reality television; Ray Bradbury, revisiting his censorship-driven classic Fahrenheit 451; and James Tiptree, Jr. (aka Alice Sheldon), with her cyberpunk tragedy of love and corporate greed.
     Nonfiction luminaries include Marshall McLuhan, who famously posited that the medium is the message; Cory Doctorow, and his insight into the fate of digital age copyright; NIcholas Carr, who argues that Google is—and will continue to be—making us stupid; and Timothy Berners-Lee, a pioneering developer of the World Wide Web, and now a guide to its very future.
     [Story contributors: Gregory Benford, Ray Bradbury, Pat Cadigan, Joe Haldeman, Aldous Huxley, James Patrick Kelly, Kit Reed, Robert Sheckley, Norman Spinrad, James Tiptree, Jr., and Kate Wilhelm. Essay contributors: Timothy Berners-Lee, Vannevar Bush, Nicholas Carr, Cory Doctorow, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Henry Jenkins, Paul Levinson, Ragael Lozano-Hemmer, Marshall McLuhan, Andrew Postman, Allucquere Rosanne Stone, and Judy Wajcman.]

The Black Lung Captain by Chris Wooding
Spectra, $16.00, 540pp, tp, 9780345522504. Fantasy.
     In the Black Lung Captain, Chris Wooding’s thrilling follow up to Retribution Falls< protagonist Darian Frey returns to a fantastical world of spectacular sky battles and high-flying heroics for another epic steampunk adventure.
     Deep in the heart of the Kurg rainforest lies a long-forgotten wreck. On board, behind a magically protected door, an elusive treasure awaits. Good thing Darian Frey, captain of the airship Ketty Jay, has the daemonist Crake on board. Crake is their best chance of getting that door open—if they can sober him up that is. For a prize this enticing, Frey is willing to brave the legendary monsters of the forbidding island and to ally himself with a partner who’s even less trustworthy than he is.
     But what’s behind that door is not what any of the fortune hunters expect. Nor is the identity of their fiercest competitor for the treasure—a woman from Frey’s past who also happens to be the most feared pirate in the skies.