This page is updated as books are received throughout the month.
Young Flandry by Poul Anderson
Baen, $7.99, 736pp, pb, 9781439134658. Science fiction collection.
Enter Dominic Flandry—the James Bond of Science Fiction
It is the twilight of the Terran Empire. The warriors who made it great are long gone now, and the traders of the Polesotechnic League who made it possible are the dimly remembered stuff of legend. Alien enemies prowl its outer precincts, and Sector Governors conspire for the Throne of Man. On Terra herself, those who occupy the labyrinthine corridors of power busy themselves with trivialities and internal politics, as outside the final darkness gathers.
IN this scene of terminal disarray one man stands like a giant: Dominic Flandry, Agent of the Terran Empire. In three full-length novels, he will rise from young ensign to lieutenant commander as he outthinks rivals and thwarts adversaries, blazing a trail across the galaxy in defense of an Empire which barely appreciates him and against alien enemies who appreciate him all too well.
This is the fourth volume in the first complete edition of Poul Anderson’s Technic Civilization saga.
[Contents: “Enter a Hero, Somewhat Flawed” by Hank Davis; Ensign Flandry; Circus of Helis; The Rebel Worlds; and Appendix: “Chronology of Technic Civilization” by Sandra Miesel.]
Ravensoul by James Barclay
(Legends of the Raven, book 4), Pyr, $16.00, 432pp, tp, 9781616143817. Fantasy.
Death cannot separate them.
For those who believe that death is the end, is unbroken rest and peace, here is the wake-up call. For those who believed that the defeat of the demons had finally secured peace for Balaia, here is an enemy far more deadly, far more ruthless and far, far colder.
The Garonin: dimensional travelers seeking new worlds to rape of the element of magical power. Technologically advanced in weaponry and armour, and facing only swords and magic, they are destroying everything in their path.
Surely this is not a battle The Raven can win, even with allies both elven and dragon. But prevail they must, somehow. One thing we know for sure is that they will not subside meekly into the void.
For aficionados of The Raven, this is the ultimate challenge. It cuts to the very heart of them. From calls beyond the veil of death, to dissension in their ranks, to the greed of men who cannot see they are about to die, to betrayal by one they loved. But above it all, the heroism and selfless sacrifice that brings tears to the eyes of even the most hardened fantasy reader.
This is The Raven, older, wiser, some returned from the grave. Grieving and seeking nothing but rest from conflict. Something the world will not grant them. But still The Raven. Still answering when the call comes. Still the force most likely to survive and bring the world with them. Still willing to die so that those they love can live.
Stone Spring by Stephen Baxter
(The Northland Trilogy), Roc, $25.95, 512pp, hc, 9780451464187. Science fiction. On-sale date: 1 November 2011.
Praised as “one of the most inventive writers science fiction has ever produced” (SF Site), national bestselling author Stephen Baxter introduces a new saga of a world that could have easily become our own in Stone Spring. Ten thousand years ago, a vast, fertile plain linked the British Isles to Europe. Home to a tribe of simple hunter-gatherers, Northland teems with nature’s bounty, but it is also subject to its whims.
Fourteen-year-old Ana calls Northland home, but her world is changing. The air is warming, the ice is melting, and the seas are rising. One day Ana meets a traveler from a far-distant city called Jericho—a town that is protected by a wall. And she starts to imagine the impossible…
So begins a colossal engineering project that will take decades: the building of a wall that stretches for hundreds of miles—a wall that becomes an act of defiance against the implacable forces of nature, and an act of devotion as the bones of the dead are added to it. A wall that will change the geography of the world and its history forever.
Legends of Shannara: The Measure of the Magic by Terry Brooks
Del Rey, $27.00, 386pp, hc, 9780345484208. Fantasy.
The storytelling magic of New York Times bestselling author Terry Brooks’s Shannara saga continues to enthrall. Now the fascinating chronicle of Shannara’s prehistory reaches a thrilling new peak in the sequel to Bearers of the Black Staff: Legends of Shannara: The Measure of the Magic.
For five hundred years, the survivors of the Great Wars lived peacefully in a valley sanctuary shielded by powerful magic from the blighted and dangerous outside world. But the enchanted barriers have crumbled, the borders have been breached by predators, and the threat of annihilation looms large once more. Sider Ament, bearer of the last black staff and its profound power, devoted his life to protecting the valley and its inhabitants—and, in his final moments, gave stewardship of the black staff to the young tracker Panterra Qu. Now the newly anointed Knight of the Word must take up the battle against evil wherever it threatens: from without, where an army of bloodthirsty trolls is massing for invasion; and from within, where the Elf king of Arborlon has been murdered, his daughter, Princess Phryne Amarantyne, stands accused, and a heinous conspiracy is poised to subjugate the kingdom. But even these will pale beside the most harrowing menace Panterra is destined to confront—a nameless, merciless figure who wanders the devastated land on a relentless mission: to claim the last black staff… and the life of he who wields it.
First Day on Earth by Cecil Castellucci
Scholastic, $17.99, 160pp, hc, 9780545060820. YA Science Fiction. On-sale date: November 2011.
Acclaimed author Cecil Castellucci presents an idiosyncratic story about finding yourself and the place you belong in First Day on Earth.
Mal lives on the fringes of high school—angry and misunderstood. Quiet, but with so many words bubbling just below the surface.
Years ago, Mal disappeared for three days. Everyone tells him it was a breakdown, a seizure, something medical, something explainable. But Mal knows it was something different—an alien abduction. But no one will believe him. There is no proof. No way back to find them.
At an abductees’ support group, Mal meets Hooper, who seems to have some otherworldly secrets of his own. Suddenly, the truth is closer than it has ever been, and with Hooper maybe Mal can find his way home.
White Tiger by Kylie Chan
(Dark Heavens, Book One), Voyager, $7.99, 516pp, pb, 97800621994050. Urban Fantasy.
When 28-year-old Emma Donahoe signed on to become a live-in nanny to handsome and mysterious Mr. Chen’s daughter, Simone, her only expectations were that she’d be earning a living, spending time teaching English to a wonderful little girl and—just maybe—falling in love. However, within hours of moving in, Emma gets the sense that something isn’t quite right in the Chen house.
It quickly becomes clear that the mysteriousness she initially deemed an endearing dimension of Mr. Chen’s character is something far more serious, and dangerous, than Emma had thought. And when Simone becomes the target of several aggressive kidnapping attempts, Emma is thrust to the very forefront of an urgent fight against powerful forces that she doesn’t fully understand.
Despite her vulnerability in the rapidly escalating situation, Emma finds herself unable to leave as her feelings for the little girl, and Mr. Chen, grow stronger with each passing day. And as Emma unearths the shocking truth about who—and what—her employer John Chen actually is, she quickly realizes that she must learn to fend for herself.
She begins to train in martial arts with Mr. Chen, who turns out to be the God of martial arts himself, but will it be enough to protect Simone from the onslaught of dangerous magical forces who want to see her destroyed? And how will she protect herself when she’s falling for a man that nearly all of the demons in hell want to see dead?
The Ancient Blades Trilogy, Book One: Den of Thieves by David Chandler
Voyager, $7.99, 460pp, pb, 9780062021243. Fantasy.
Den of Thieves begins 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.
Blood Rules by Christine Cody
(a novel of the Bloodlands), Ace, $7.99, 310pp, pb, 9780441020768. Fantasy.
Blood Rules is the exciting second chapter in Christine Cody’s brand new post-apocalyptic trilogy that began with the release of Bloodlands. Ace is publishing all three books in back-to-back-to-back months and will conclude with In Blood We Trust (October).
In the Bloodlands, no one—or thing—is what it seems to be. And sometimes, the monsters don’t even know themselves. After the man named Gabriel came into her world, Mariah Lyander was forced to face her true nature—and to admit to the terrible things she had done. And Gabriel rejected her when he knew the truth.
Now, to redeem herself, she determines to go in search of a rumored cure for were-creatures. She hopes to recover her own humanity—and Gabriel’s love. But what she finds will bring them only to more questions—and for Mariah, to the thing she fears the most.
CollegeHumor. The Website. The Book. by the Writers of CollegeHumor
DaCapo, $20.00, 266pp, tp, 9780306820267. Humor.
Founded in 1999 by two college freshmen, CollegeHumor.com now has over 1.5 million subscribers and over 15 million unique visitors per month. Catering to young adults ages 18-34, the writers of CollegeHumor.com have discovered the perfect balance o fsarcasm, raunchiness, humor, and truth that has readers coming back again and again.
CollegeHumor. The Website. The Book. is a compilation of some of the best articles that have appeared online during the iconic website’s first decade as well as a number of unpublished articles from the site’s archives. Written and illustrated by the award winning CollegeHumor staff, the book features all manner of written humor, from prose to graphs and charts to comics and, yes, even a poem. Favorites include:
* Drunk-O-Vision
* Honest Cyber Sex
* Heaven’s Suggestion Box
* Instant Messaging With Mom
* Great Historical Pick Up Lines
With imagined scenarios of what could happen if you angered Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to what grandpa might do if he really found a quarter behind your ear, CollegeHumor. The Website. The Book. is sure to leave you laughing page after page.
Circle of Enemies: A Twenty Palaces Novel by Harry Connolly
Del Rey, $7.99, 320pp, pb, 9780345508911. Urban Paranormal.
The third book in a new urban paranormal series (following Child of Fire and Game of Cages), Circle of Enemies follows former car thief Ray Lilly, now the expendable grunt of a sorcerer responsible for destroying extradimensional predators summoned to our world by power-hungry magicians. Luckily, Ray has some magic of his own, and so far it’s kept him alive. But when a friend from his former gang calls him back to his old stomping grounds in Los Angeles, Ray may have to face a threat even he can ‘t handle. A mysterious spell is killing Ray’s former associates, and they blame him. Worse yet, the spell was cast by Wally King, the sorcerer who first dragged Ray into the brutal world of the Twenty Palace Society. Now Ray will have to choose between the ties of the past and the responsibilities of the present, as he and the Society face not only Wally King but a bizarre new predator.
Blood and Other Cravings edited by Ellen Datlow
Tor, $25.99, 320pp, hc, 9780765328281. Horror anthology.
Once again, Ellen Datlow lives up to her reputation as the premier horror anthology editor of the day with Blood and Other Cravings—an exquisitely eerie collection that sets out to expand and redefine the traditional definitions of vampire and vampirism with seventeen deliciously terrifying stories that will chill readers to the marrow.
It’s not just about blood anymore.…
Inside, readers will find truly unique fiction from some of horror and fantasy’s most delightfully dark voices with stories of predation, exploitation, infestation and evisceration; tales of life essence stolen. In addition to the traditional fanged vampires, Datlow presents stories about the leeching of emotion, the draining of the soul, and other dark deeds that will delight hardcore horror fans and lovers of short fiction.
Renowned as the fiction editor of Omni and Sci.Fiction and for brilliantly original, high-quality anthologies working both solo and with others, Ellen Datlow has amassed an outstanding roster of awards and praise—more than any other editor working today. For over thirty years, her collections have kept hackles raised and readers sleeping with the lights on. With Halloween just around the corner, Blood and Other Cravings is a sure bet for frightening fall reading.
[Contributors: Laird Barron, Elizabeth Bear, Richard Bowes, Michael Cisco, Steve Duffy, Carol Emshwiller, Kathe Koja, Margo Lanagan, John Langan, Nicole J. LeBoeuf, Barry N. Malzberg & Bill Pronzini, Reggie Oliver, Barbara Roden, Melanie Tem, Steve Rasnic Tem, Lisa Tuttle, and Kaaron Warren.]
Grave Expectations by Charles Dickens and Sherri Browning Erwin
Gallery, $15.00, 390pp, tp, 9781451617245. Fiction.
From the author of Jayne Slayre and in the bestselling tradition of such “monster classics” as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies comes a clever retelling of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations featuring Pip as a werewolf and Estella as a vampire slayer. Grave Expectations is a reimagining of Charles Dickens’ with some supernatural surprises!
Bristly, sensitive, and meat-hungry Pip is a robust young whelp, an orphan born under a full moon. Between hunting escaped convicts alongside zombified soldiers, trying not to become one of the hunted himself, and hiding his hairy hands from the supernaturally beautiful and haughty Estella—whose devilish moods keep him chomping at the bit—Pip is sure he will die penniless or a convict like the rest of his commonly uncommon kind.
But then a mysterious benefactor sends him to Londo for the finest werewolf education money can buy. In the company of other furry young gentlemen, Pip tempers his violent transformations and devours the secrets of his dark world. When he discovers that his beloved Estella is a slayer of supernatural creatures, trained by the corpse-like vampire Miss Havisham, Pip’s desire for her grows stronger than his midnight hunger for rare fresh beef. But can he risk his hide for a truth that will make Estella his forever—or will she drive one last silver stake through his heart?
Context: Further Selected Essays on Productivity, Creativity, Parenting, and Politics in the 21st Century by Cory Doctorow, foreword by Tim O’Reilly
Tachyon, $14.95, 240pp, tp, 9781616960483. Technology/nonfiction. On-sale date: 15 October 2011.
One of the Internet’s most celebrated hi-tech culture mavens returns with his second collection of essays and polemics. Discussing complex topics in an accessible manner, Cory Doctorow shares visions of a future where artists control their own destinies and where freedom of expression is tempered with the view that creators need to benefit from their own creations. From extolling the Etsy makerverse to excoriating Apple for dumbing-down technology while creating an information monopoly, each unique piece is brief, witty,k and at the cutting edge of tech. Now a stay-at-home dad as well as an international activist, Doctorow writes as eloquently about creating Internet real-time theater with his daughter as he does in lambasting the corporations that want to limit and profit from inherent intellectual freedoms.
The collection also features a foreword by Tim O’Reilly. O’Reilly is the founder of the multinational technology publisher O’Reilly Media, which specializes in reference books, magazines, and textbooks, as well as spurring innovation in the development of new technologies through conferences and international summits.
Against All Things Ending by Stephen R. Donaldson
(The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant), Ace, $16.00, 596pp, tp, 9780441020812. Fantasy.
Ace Books is proud to release Stephen R. Donaldson’s Against All Things Ending, the third and next-to-last installment in the popular Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Full of the compelling high-brow fantasy that millions of fans have come to expect, Donaldson’s newest epic is sure to satisfy!
Thomas Covenant is alive again, restored to his mortal body by the unimaginable combined power of his own white gold ring, Linden Avery’s Staff of Law, and the ancient dagger called High Lord Loric’s krill. His resurrection is Linden’s defiant act of love; despite warnings from mortals and immortals that unleashing this much power would destroy the world. She brought his spirit back from its prison in the Arch of Time, and restored his slain body, so precious to her, his wild white hair like a flame, his face now etched with lines of pain. Thomas Covenant is returned to her.
But the truth is inescapable: the thunder-clap of power from Linden’s action has awakened the Worm of the World’s End, and all of them, and the Land itself, are forfeit to its devouring. If they have any chance to save the Land, it will come from unlikely sources—including the mysterious boy Jeremiah, Linden’s adopted son, whose secrets are only beginning to come to light. And it will come from sacrifices, some freely offered by friends who have traveled far and trusted much, and some taken by force that can be recognized only later as compassion.
Dimly, but holding on to whatever hope leaves behind when hope itself has failed, Linden clings to one prophecy: You would not be driven by mistaken love to bring about the end of all things.
Delilah Street: Paranormal Investigaor: Virtual Virgin by Carole Nelson Douglas
Pocket, $7.99, 370pp, pb, 9781439167793. Urban Fantasy.
Virtual Virgin is the fifth novel in the bestselling urban fantasy series about a sexy paranormal investigator who lives in Las Vegas.
This virtual virgin is a silver screen icon: the robot built with curves in all the right places from the classic silent film, Metropolis. But her gleaming metal exterior harbors a nubile young actress who played two roles: a compassionate girl… and a lethally depraved sex goddess that any of the Las Vegas evil supernatural overlords could use to destroy all that Delilah Street believes in and loves. Worse, the virgin’s hooked on Delilah’s first—and only—love, ex-FBI profiler Ricardo Montoya, who raised this siren from the dead. Is she saint or succubus? Delilah must find out, while battling a demonic drug lord and stopping a murderous ghost.
The Devil’s Diadem by Sara Douglass
Voyager, $26.99, 522pp, hc, 9780062004338. Fantasy.
Sara Douglass, the author of the Wayfarer Redemption Trilogy delivers a wonderfully rich and imaginative stand-alone novel, set in a twelfth-century England similar to our own time, in which a virulent plague threatens to annihilate a kingdom—and one unwitting young noblewoman holds the key to salvation. The Devil’s Diadem is a beautifully written, intricately woven saga of love, loss, familial relationships, and faith.
It is mid-twelfth century Europe. King Edmond sits the throne of England. A young noblewoman, Maeb Langtofte, joins an aristocratic household to attend Adelie, the wif eof the Earl of Pengraic, who is one of the powerful Lords of the March—the dark Welsh borderlands. Maeb settles well into the household, and all seems well. Then word arrives of a plague that has swept Europe and now threatens England. No one survives infection, it is said, and victims die by literally bursting into flames—as if the flames of Hell had suddenly leapt up from their sulphurous pits to claim them.
The plague invades England. The Earl of Pengraic has left his family, together with Maeb, in his home castle in the borderlands, where he thinks they will be safe while he rides to the king’s aid (as the plague spreads, so also does civil disorder, and Edmond has called to him all his lords and their armies that they might quell the unrest.)
But Pengraic castle is not safe. And Maeb is soon to discover that she is in terrible danger—not only from the plague, but from the Earl of Pengraic, who seems to be keeping secrets of his own; the English court, who suspects her of witchery; and perhaps even the blood that runs in her veins. For it turns out that the plague has been sent by the Devil himself, who is seeking something that Maeb herself may unknowingly possess…
DarkGlass Mountain: Book Three: The Infinity Gate by Sara Douglass
Voyager, $7.99, 562pp, pb, 9780060882204. Fantasy.
The stunning finale to the epic fantasy story—the dramatic tale of love, magic, and betrayal set in the world of Sara Douglass’ bestselling Wayfarer Redemption.
Tencendor is no more. The land is gone. But a few Sunsoars still remain, and a new foe walks the world. Isabelle Brunelle, priestess of the Serpent Coil, and Maximillian, the Lord of Elcho Falling, have raised the magic of Elcho Falling, and found new allies against the darkness in the mysterious Lealfast. And more crucially still, Axis Sunsoar, former god and current hero, has rediscovered the magical Star Dance and revived his legendary Strike Force to push back the evil hordes commanded by the Darkglass Mountain.
But their enemy grows stronger through blood and betrayal, the Lealfast have their own agenda, and when unexpected treachery threatens, Axis Sunsoar must face a darkness greater than any he has ever known.
Out of the Waters by David Drake
(The Legions of Fire), Tor, $25.99, 400pp, hc, 9780765320797. Fantasy.
Prepare for adventure in a world cut from the cloth of our past—in Out of the Waters, fantasy legend David Drake returns to the great city of Carce, introduced in the 2010 release of the Legions of Fire. The world of Out of the Waters is an astonishingly rich and nuanced one, based on Europe during the later Roman Empire. Centered on the great city of Carce, this fantastical land combines traditional Western history with Drake’s trademark knack for artfully wrought high fantasy and beautifully rendered magic.
The wealthy Governor Saxa, of the great city of Carce, has generously and lavishly subsidized a religious (and therefore theatrical) event. But during the elaborate staging of Hercules’ founding of a city on the shores of Lusitania, strange and dark magic turns the panoply into a chilling event. The sky darkens and waves crash into the flooded arena. A great creature rises from the sea: a huge, tentacled horror on snake legs. It devastates the city, much to the delight of the crowd. A few in the audience, although not Saxa, understand that this was not mere stagecraft, but something much darker and more dangerous. If all signs are being read right, this illusion could signify a dreadful intrusion of supernatural powers into the real world… and Saxa’s son, Varus, has been the conduit for such an event once before…
Out of the Waters, the new novel in David Drake’s chronicles of Carce, The Books of the Elements, is as powerful and elaborate as that fantastic theatrical event; a major fantasy for this year.
Into the Hinterlands by David Drake and John Lambshead
Baen, $25.00, 374pp, hc, 9781439134610. Science fiction.
The Hour is Coming
Allen Allenson is a young gentleman by birth, though he was born and raised on the distant colonial planet of Manzanita rather than Brasilia, the homeworld. With the help of noble relatives, he expects to work his way to a position of respect in his society. If matter go as he plans, he will end his days as a country squire on a comfortable estate.
Allenson is happy to oblige when his relatives send him on a search for investment opportunities in the Hinterlands, the worlds beyond formal settlement and formal law. In that wilderness, he finds scattered traders, desperate families hoping to make a better life for their children, once-human Riders who range the universe in a symbiotic relationship with great crystalline Beasts—and the soldiers of Terra, whose rivalry with Brasilia is extending to the colonies.
But Allenson finds one more thing in the Hinterlands: his manhood. When rivalry between the homeworlds turns to bloody war, the colonies will need a leader—
and the Hour has Found the Man!
My Soull to Take by Tananarive Due
Washington Square Press, $13.00, 4328pp, tp, 9781439176146. Novel.
My Soul to Take opens with a world in turmoil. A plague has killed hundreds of thousands around the world and threatens to raise the death toll to an unimaginable height. Michel, whose refusal to give up on making 18-year-old Fana his wife despite her reluctance and possible love for another man, has plans to perform a major “cleansing” of the population which would leave millions dead. Michel’s mission goes against everything Fana believes in—healing and helping. She uses her powers, resources and considerable influence to help the sick by providing access to GLOW. Fana enlists Phoenix Smalls, a major international R&B recording artist, to come out of retirement to perform before an audience of sick people. One of Fana’s significant powers is to heal just with her presence and touch.
There was one problem with Fana’s concert: Michel’s furor over her defiance. Not only had she not come to him to wed, she hosted a healing event which directly clashed with the cleansing he was determined to do. Fana is faced with a dilemma: leave her life, family and the man she loves behind to go to Michhel, the only other who was born with “the Blood,” with the hope of convincing him to change his mind or Michel covers the earth with a plague that would achieve depopulation, the ultimate Armageddon. Fana’s emotional lover John Wright, who is one of her most devoted soldiers, races against the clock to stop the wedding and banish Michel from the earth. However, John is the David to Michel’s Goliath; John is a mortal and Michel is immortal.
My Soul to Take also tugs the reader between good and evil, right and wrong. While you root for the good work for which Fana and John risk their lives and that the love they share for one another somehow survives, you also hope as the pages turn that Fana goes to Michel, accepts his love and by doing so, saves the world.
Legacy of Kings by C.S. Friedman
(The Magister Trilogy, book three), DAW, $25.95, 448pp, hc, 9780756406936. Fantasy.
Award-winning author C.S. Friedman concludes her Magister Trilogy with Legacy of Kings, which follows Feast of Souls and Wings of Wrath. The series is true high fantasy complete with vampire-like magical powers, erotic interludes, treachery, war, sorcery, and a draconic creature of horrific power and evil.
The young peasant woman Kamala has proven strong and determined enough to claim the most powerful Magister sorcery for herselfbut now the Magisters hunt her for killing one of their own. Her only hope of survival lies in the northern Protectorates, where spells are warped by a curse called the Wrath that even the Magisters fear. Originally intended to protect the lands of men from creatures known only as souleaters, the Wrath appears to be weakening—and the threat of this ancient enemy is once more falling across the land.
The Hour of Dust and Ashes by Kelly Gay
Pocket, $7.99, 326pp, pb, 9781451625479. Urban Fantasy.
The Hour of Dust and Ashes is Kelly Gay’s eagerly anticipated sequel to her first two critically acclaimed novels, The Better Part of Darkness and The Darkest Edge of Dawn. Detective Charlie Madigan is back, and with her siren partner, Hank, Charlie learns that the addicts of the off-world drug ash have begun taking their own lives. Ash makes humans the perfect vessels for possession, and something or someone is leading them to their deaths. And Charlie is desperate to save her addicted sister, Bryn, from a similar fate. As New Year’s Eve approaches and time runs out, Charlie makes a deadly bargain with an ancient race of beings and embarks on a dangerous journey into hellish Charbydon wiht Hank and the Revenant Rex to save Bryn. Only, for one of them, coming home means facing a fate worse than death…
The Shattered Vine by Laura Anne Gilman
(Book Three of The Vineart War), Gallery, $26.00, 344pp, hc, 9781439101483. Fantasy.
The Shattered Vine is the third book in the Nebula Award-nominated fantasy series The Vineart War, about a world in which magic derives from the process of wine-making…
Jerzy, Ao, and Mahault’s attempt to find the source of the taint poisoning the Lands Vin has ended in tragedy, with Ao severely wounded. As conditions worsen throughout the Lands, Jerzy makes the decision to return to The Berengia, to the soil that gives him strength. There, while the others secure allies and gather information, building their plan of attack, he delves into the quiet magic that has been growing within him, embracing at last the “gift” of apostasy, knowing that his god-forbidden knowledge may be all that stands between the Lands Vin and the mage who wants to destroy it. But if he allows the magic to rise within him, Jerzy himself might become the greatest threat to the Lands Vin’s survival.
The Shattered Vine is complete with magical adventure, political intrigue, and a fascinating look at the art of wine-making. Like a glass of award winning wine, readers are sure to be unwilling to put it down until the very end.
The Rift Walker, Book Two: Vampire Empire by Clay Griffith and Susan Griffith
Pyr, $16.00, 300pp, tp, 9781616145231. Fantasy.
Princess Adele struggles with a life of marriage and obligation as her Equatorian Empire and their American Republic allies stand on the brink of war against the vampire clans of the north. However, the alliance’s horrific strategy for victory drives Adele to abandon duty and embark on a desperate quest to keep her nation from staining its hands with genocide. Reunited with her great love, the mysterious adventurer known to the world as the Greyfriar, Adele is pursued by her own people as well as her vengeful husband, Senator Clark. With the human alliance in disarray, Prince Cesare, lord of the British vampire clan, seizes the initiative and strikes at the very heart of Equatoria.
As Adele labors to bring order to her world, she learns more about the strange powers she exhibited in the north. Her teacher, Mmamoru, leads a secret cabal of geomancers who believe Adele is the one who can touch the vast power of the Earth that surges through ley lines and wells up at the rifts where the lines meet. These energies are the key to defeating the enemy of mankind, and if Princess Adele could ever bring this power under her command, she could be death to vampires. But such a victory will also cost the life of Adele’s beloved Greyfriar. The second book in a trilogy of high adventure and alternate history, The Rift Walker combines rousing pulp action with steampunk style, and brings epic political themes to life within a story of heartbreaking romance, sacrifice, and heroism.
Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction edited by Leigh Grossman
Swordsmith/Wildside, $49.95, 991pp, tp, 9781434430793. Science Fiction anthology.
Sense of Wonder is a broad, inexpensive, single-volume anthology designed to give students a sense both of literature and history. By far the most comprehensive speculative fiction textbook available, Sense of Wonder includes canonical works, stories written in response to those works, and essays on major themes and topics in the field. The book will facilitate a variety of different types of speculative fiction course, whether the course is focused on particular themes, on a chronological look at writers, or on the roots of contemporary SF. Beginning with nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century writers, Sense of Wonder continues up through the most acclaimed present-day writers. Stories are not treated as purely academic exercises, but contextualized, which is vital in reading a genre where most writers know each other and the relationship between writer and reader is a major factor in how stories are created.
The collection includes 225 stories, poems, and bibliographic essays (contributed by professors who teach science fiction and by SF professionals), with an emphasis on the roots of modern SF. Each story author is given a biographical introduction as well.
For the table of contents, see this post.
The Mandel Files, Volume 1 by Peter F. Hamilton
(contains Mindstar Rising and A Quantum Murder), Del Rey, $19.95, 880pp, tp, 9780345526359. Science Fiction.
For the first time in a single volume, Del Rey presents Peter F. Hamilton’s acclaimed novels—Mindstar Rising and A Quantum Murder—set in a near-future so real it seems ripped from tomorrow’s headlines.
In Mindstar Rising, Greg Mandel, gifted—or cursed—with biotechnology that makes him a living lie detector, is hired to investigate corporate espionage by Event Horizon, a powerful company about to introduce a technology that will solve the energy problems of a world decimated by global warming.
Set two years later, A Quantum Murder once again teams Mandel with Event Horizon and its beautiful young owner, Julia Evans, in a locked-room mystery that combines the ingenuity of an Agatha Christie novel with cutting-edge speculative brilliance.
Read together, these novels take on fresh depth and complexity, underscoring the magnitude of Peter F. Hamilton’s creative talent.
Greed by L. Ron Hubbard
Galaxy, $9.95, 152pp, tp, 9781592123698. Science Fiction. On-sale date: October 2011.
It can be said with more than a little truth that a society is lost when it loses its greed, for without hunger as a whip—for power, money or fame—man sinks into a blind sloth and, contented or not, is gone.
There were three distinct classes of men who made up the early vanguard into space—and they were all greedy.
First were the explorers, the keen-eyed, eager and dauntless few who wrenched knowledge from the dark and unwilling depths of the universe.
Next were the rangers, called variously the “space tramps,” “space nuts” and “star hobos,” who wandered aimlessly, looking, prospecting, seeing what was to be seen and wandering on.
And last were the exploiters, the hardheaded, quick-eyed and dangerous few who accomplished, according to a standard and learned work of the times, the “rape of space.”
[Contents: “Greed”, “Final Enemy”, “The Automagic Horse”, and Story Preview: “Beyond All Weapons”.]
Greed by L. Ron Hubbard
Galaxy, $9.95, 2 CDs (about 2 hours), 9781592122431. Science Fiction. On-sale date: October 2011.
Once there had been a single government of Earth controlled by the western races, but the long-oppressed people of Asia finally struck back with a “cohesion projector.” In an instant, the device established a solid, invisible wall of space—creating a dividing line between the superpowers, with the Asiatic Federation inside and the United Continents outside.
Both powers are tenuously perched on the brink of war until George Marquis Lorrilard comes along. A sometime lieutenant of the pitiful handful of space guards known as the United Continents Space Navy, he’s used the experience to become a space exploiter. Far less driven by altruism than by the ferocious thirst and hunger of greed, Lorrilard sets a course to change forever the fate of Earth and the stars.
The Truth of Valor by Tanya Huff
(a Confederation novel), DAW, $7.99, 404pp, pb, 9780756406844. Science Fiction.
Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr was the very model of a Confederation Marine. She’d survived more deadly encounters than anyone in the Corps. No one who’d ever served with her could imagine her walking away from the Corps. But that was before Torin had learned the truth about the war the Confederation was fighting… before she’d been declared dead and had spent time in a prison that shouldn’t exist.…
It was Salvage Operator Craig Ryder who had refused to believe Torin was dead. Craig who found and rescued Torin. And so, when her mission was complete, Torin resigned from the Marines to start a new life with Craig aboard his tiny salvage ship, the Promise.
But civilian life was a lot rougher than Torin had imagined. The salvage operators were losing cargo and lives to pirates. Because salvagers were an independent lot unwilling ot turn to the OutSector Wardens for help, no one in authority seems to take this ever-increasing threat seriously.
Then, on their first real run together, pirates attacked the Promise, kidnapping Craig and leaving Torin to die. However, leaving former Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr behind to die was never a good strategy. Against all odds, Torin survived, and certain—despite no evidence to prove her correct—that Craig was still alive she decided to mount a rescue mission. When Craig’s salvager friends refused to join her, Torin had no choice but to call in the Marines—some very special Marines. then she discovered why the pirates had been trying to kidnap salvagers. And suddenly Torin’s mission expanded from saving Craig to stopping the pirates from changing the balance of power in known space.…
Blackdog by K.V. Johansen
Pyr, $17.00, 546pp, tp, 9781616145217. Fantasy.
Long ago, in the days of the first kings in the north, there were seven devils… And long ago, in the days of the first kings in the north, the seven devils, who had deceived and possessed seven of the greatest wizards of the world, were defeated and bound with the help of the Old Great Gods… And perhaps some of the devils are free in the world, and perhaps some are working to free themselves still…
In a land where gods walk on the hills and goddesses rise from river, lake, and spring, the caravan-guard Holla-Sayan, escaping the bloody conquest of a lakeside town, stops to help an abandoned child and a dying dog. The girl, though, is the incarnation of Attalissa, goddess of Lissavakail, and the dog a shape-changing guardian spirit whose origins have been forgotten. Possessed and nearly driven mad by the Blackdog, Holla-Sayan flees to the desert road, taking the powerless avatar with him.
Necromancy, treachery, massacres, rebellions, and gods dead or lost or mad, follow hard on their heels. But it is Attalissa herself who may be the Blackdog’s—and Holla-Sayan’s—doom.
Kill the Dead by Richard Kadrey
Voyager, $7.99, 450pp, pb, 9780062017369. Fiction.
Richard Kadrey returns with the high-octane follow-up to his addicting Sandman Slim, now in paperback.
What do you do after you’ve crawled out of Hell to wreak bloody revenge? In Stark’s case, he goes freelance, tracking and taking out whatever rogue monsters people will pay him to kill. He hates the work, but he needs the money.
Things get more interesting when Lucifer comes to town as technical advisor on a movie of his life and hires Stark as his bodyguard. Through Lucifer, Stark meets Brigitte Bardo, the French porn star, who has come to LA to become a legit actress. It isn’t love, but after eleven years of demonic chastity, it’s better than being alone.
When a zombie plague breaks out, Brigitte is bitten and so is Stark. And just what happens to a human-angel half-breed when he’s bitten by a zombie? Stark feels as if his human half is dying, leaving him nothing but an unstoppable angel of death. Even if Stark does find a cure for the zombie infection, will he take it?
The Total Novice’s Guide to UFOs: What You Need to Know… by T.L. Keller
2FS Press, $34.95, 484pp, tp, 9780982798805. Nonfiction.
Come along for the armchair journey of your lifetime!
Join the author, T.L. Keller, on a voyage to otherworldly places and understand the reality of UFOs, alien beings and how they get from wherever they are to planet Earth. This book is part of The Total Novice’s Guide series of books intended for those who know little or nothing about a particular subject and want to know more. In this book we deal with unidentified flying objects, and it’s intended for those who want to learn the basics of the phenomenon just in case it’s real. And it is…
You will be escorted through the Roswell and Aztec incidents involving crashed alien spaceships, Project Galileo, and read testimony from government officials and former military whistle-blowers who have had first-hand experiences with the unknown.
Learn about the long-rumored Area 51/S4; what is called “Missing Time”, and the little-understood nature of human abductions. You will learn how alien vehicles travel here; and, more importantly, why they are here. Read how you will be impacted when the reality of UFOs and alien beings becomes known to the world. And it may be just around the corner…
Amulet Book 4: The Last Council by Kazu Kibuishi
Graphix/Scholastic, $10.99, 220pp, tp, 9780545208871. Middle grades fantasy graphic novel.
Eisner-nominated comic artist Kazu Kibuishi brings readers the fourth volume in his epic New York Times bestselling Amulet series—Amulet Book 4: The Last Council.
Emily and her friends think they’ll find the help they so terribly need in the city of Cielis but something isn’t right. Streets that were once busy are deserted, and the townspeople who are left live in fear. Emily is soon escorted to the Academy, where she’s expected to compete for a spot on the Guardian Council, a group of the most powerful Stonekeepers. But as the number of competitors gets smaller and smaller, an awful secret is slowly uncovered—a secret that, if left buried, mean the certain destruction of everything Emily fights for…
Countdown: M Day by Tom Kratman
Baen, $7.99, 710pp, pb, 9781439134641. Military fiction.
Bad Neighbor Policy
In a worldwide economic depression, the price of oil has tanked. And Venezuela has little but oil to sell. The people are unhappy, the revolution is in danger! Fortunately, Venezuela has long claimed about three fourths of their neighboring country Guyana, and there’s nothing quite like a foreign crisis and war to take people’s minds off their petty domestic concerns and save the revolution.
The only problem might be a regiment of American mercenaries who’ve based themselves in Guyana and who call themselves “M Day, Incorporated.” They’re old, but they’re mean. They like their new home and intend to keep it. But how does a mere private military corporation wage war against a sovereign nation?
The regiment that is M Day doesn’t know—but they sure intend to try.
The Crystal Variation by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
Baen, $13.00, 1185pp, tp, 9781439134634. Science fiction.
A universe cast in crystal
Crystal Soldier & Crystal Dragon
Before Clan Korval, the Department of the Interior, the Terran Party—before the very planet of Liad, there was a galaxy worn down by generations of war against an implacable enemy that had long ago sacrificed its humanity for the power and perfection of crystal. An enemy that sees life as a blight, an untidiness in the way of its dominion of the stars. An enemy grown so strong and so strange that no one can hope to stand before them.
M. Jela Granthor’s Guard is a soldier on the side of life in a galaxy under siege. Given a covert mission which might save some tiny portion of the crowded galaxy’s population, Jela forcibly enlists the not-completely-trustworthy aid of Cantra yos’Phelium, a smuggler and ace pilot. Cantra is more interested in preserving her own life than fighting for humankind, and determines to shake Jela as soon as opportunity arises.
Unfortunately, he’s not easy to shake. Before they know it, Cantra and Jela form a team. A good team. But are they good enough to save the galaxy?
Balance of Trade
In the early days of trade, Liadens and Terrans happen across each otherand neither is impressed. For the most part, Terrans stick with Terran ports and Liadens with Liaden ports, but—money is a powerful motivator, and some ports hold profit for both.
On one such mixed port, Jethri Gobelyn, a young Terran with the ambition to learn high trade, does a Liaden Master Trader a good turn, and is taken up as her apprentice. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, and if Jethri succeeds in his apprenticeship, he will be the first Terran Master Trader.
If he fails his apprenticeship, well, then—he’ll be dead.
Three novels of Liaden Universe history, together for the first time in one omnibus volume.
Blood Sacrifice by Maria Lima
(Book Five of the Blood Lines Series), Juno, $7.99, 384pp, pb, 9781451612699. Urban fantasy.
All’s fair in blood and war.…
Talk about wedding crashers from hell. Keira Kelly and her sexy vampire king, Adam, are about to tie the proverbial knot—sort of—when an uninvited blood relative shows up to cast a long, dark shadow over the happy occasion. Adam’s brother Gideon comes bearing the one-size-fits-all gift of bad news: an ancient, convoluted Challenge thrown down upon the entire Kelly clan. It seems the dreaded forces of the Dark Fae have declared war on Keira’s family, and at stake is the land that is rightfully theirs. But while the Kellys gather their troops in a historic San Antonio hotel to strategize, there’s mayhem back in Rio Seco. The old cemetery is vandalized, fires break out, and—worst of all—the Kelly clan matriarch and leader, Keira’s great-great-grandmother Minerva, goes missing. Should Keira risk breaking the Challenge rules by returning to her beloved home, or should she continue the waiting game that seems the only other option? With everything she loves and maybe even her life on the line, she has only one chance to get the answer right.
Goodbye Milky Way—An Earth in Jeopardy Adventure by Dan Makaon
eFfusion, $27.95, 436pp, hc, 9780833785949. Science Fiction. On-sale date: 1 October 2011.
Not in 65 million years has Earth faced a threat like this.
An interstellar anomaly is on a deadly path toward Earth. As it approaches even nearer, it will bring about earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and catastrophic weather of unprecedented destructive power, ultimately dooming all of mankind to extinction. The world’s governments have no clue how to stop it. Earth’s only hope is The Guardian, an extraterrestrial from a highly advanced civilization, who has monitored mankind’s development for ages. Recognizing the planet’s peril, he appears to the worold’s leaders and warns them, but all of them choose secrecy and cover-up to avoid a worldwide panic. A few scientists discover the truth about the threat and, joining forces with The Guardian, band together to form the Star-Slayer Team, dedicated to saving the planet.
Full of twists and turns, Goodbye Milky Way captures the human response to impending doom in riveting detail as the Star Slayers fight for their lives, the lives of their loved ones and all the people of the Earth. The team’s astrophysicist is kidnapped, a mob boss makes a play to get in on the action, team members fall in love, and an extremist religious cult attacks the project’s facilities. Failure is not an option!
C by Tom McCarthy
Vintage, $15.00, 400pp, tp, 9780307388216. Fiction.
Opening in England at the turn of the twentieth century, C is the story of a boy named Serge Carrefax, whose father spends his time experimenting with wireless communication while running a school for deaf children. Serge grows up amid the noise and silence with his brilliant but troubled older sister, Sophie: an intense sibling relationship that stays with him as he heads off into an equally troubled larger world.
Serge’s life follows the tumultuous course of the twentieth century. After a fling with a nurse at a Bohemian spa, he serves in World War I as a radio operator for reconnaissance planes. When his plane is shot down, he is taken to a German prison camp, from which he must escape. Back in London, he’s recruited for a mission to Cairo on behalf of the shadowy Empire Wireless Chain, which carries Serge to a fitful—and perhaps fateful—climax at the bottom of an Egyptian tomb.
Only a writer like Tom McCarthy could pull off a story with this effortless historical breadth, psychological insight, and post-modern originality.
One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire
(an October Daye novel), DAW, $7.99, 354pp, pb, 9780756406837. Fantasy.
October “Toby” Daye is finally doing all right. She’s settling into her new role as the Countess of Goldengreen; she’s actually dating again; she’s even agreed to take on Quentin as her official squire. Life is looking up all around—and that inevitably means it’s time for things to take a turn for the worse.
Someone has kidnapped the sons of Duchess Dianda Lorden, regent of the Undersea Duchy of Saltmist. To prevent a war between land and sea, Toby must not only find the missing boys, but also prove that the Queen of the Mists was not behind their abduction. She’ll need all her tricks and the help of all her allies if she wants to make it through this in one piece.
Toby’s search will take her from the streets of San Francisco to the lands beneath the waves, and her deadline is firm; she must find the boys in three days’ time, or all of the Mists will pay the price. But someone is determined to stop her—and whoever it is isn’t playing by Oberon’s Laws.…
As the battle grows more and more personal, one thing is chillingly clear. When Faerie goes to war, not everyone will walk away.
To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal
Little Brown, $24.99, 440pp, hc, 9780316127394. Fiction.
Native Nebraskan Judith Whitman believes in the sort of love that “picks you up in Akron, Ohio and sets you down in Rio de Janeiro.” But life took her to Los Angeles. Twenty-five years earlier, Judith was 17, living in the breathtaking open spaces of Nebraska, reveling in the love she shared with Willy Blunt, the ever-decent, soft-hearted carpenter whose pale blue eyes and easy smile awakened in Judith the reckless girl he alone imagined her to be. Back then, marrying Willy seemed natural and inevitable, until acceptance to a prestigious university carried Judith away from the plains and into a bigger, richer world.
Today, Judith Whitman is midlife, mid-marriage, and mid-child-rearing; her husband Malcolm may or may not be having an affair, and Judith fears that she “hasn’t properly inhabited her role as a mother.” She begins acting in ways that are curious, even to herself; ways that include taking on a fake identity, and renting a storage unit to preserve a replica of her childhood bedroom. Through it all, memories of Willy occupy her thoughts, just as his boyhood photo ever occupies her wallet. She sits near a phone, number in hand, and decides to finally reach out to the man who long ago believed it when she said she loved him. So opens To Be Sung Underwater, a new literary fiction novel by Tom McNeal—critically acclaimed author whose first novel Goodnight, Nebraska, won the 1999 James A. Michener Memorial Prize.
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Zombies by Matt Mogk
Gallery, $15.00, 290pp, tp, 9781451641578. Nonfiction.
The zombie is a complex topic, requiring a guide to untangle all the various strands of zombiedom. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Zombies is that guide, the first up-to-date, comprehensive handbook on zombies to be published since Max Brooks’ New York Times bestseller, The Zombie Survival Guide.
Founder of the Zombie Research Society, Matt Mogk takes a scientific, high-brow look at the world of zombies, talking with scientists, doctors and other experts to explore many questions, including, “Could zombies ever actually exist in our world?” and “How would society survive if zombies were real?”
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Zombies thoroughly covers multiple aspects of the study of zombies from a realistic, scientific approach:
* Modern Zombie Basics: zombie background, their evolution, what makes them original
* Zombie Science: a look at zombie brain function, genetic make-up, eating habits, defensive skills
* Zombie Survival: humanity’s best chances for defending itself and surviving an outbreak
* Popular Culture: explores zombie fanaticism, trends, and the reasons behind them
Mogk is the founder and head of the Zombie Research Society, and the leading global authority on all things zombies. He has been directly involved in most major advances in zombie scholarship over the decade, elevating the subject to an intellectual, scholarly level.
The Zombie Research Society was founded in 2007, and is made up of an Advisory Board of leading experts in their fields—including medical doctors, neuroscientists, pop culture experts, theologians, and even George Romero, director of the 1968 classic zombie film, Night of the Living Dead.
Using these reputable resources, Mogk compiled Everything That You Ever Wanted to Know About Zombies in order to mke an up-to-date, all-purpose guide for both zombie enthusiasts and neophytes alike. Answering any and every question anyone could have about the subject, the book is the most inclusive zombie handbook ever to be published.
Wayfinder by C.E. Murphy
Del Rey, $15.00, 352pp, tp, 9780345516077. Fantasy.
The Truth will set you free… If it doesn’t kill you first.
Lara Jansen is a truthseeker, gifted—or cursed—with the magical ability to tell honesty from lies. Once she was a tailor in Boston, but now she has crossed from Earth to the Barrow-lands, a Faerie world embroiled in a bloody civil war between Seelie and Unseelie. Armed with an enchanted and malevolent staff which seeks to bend her to its dark will, and thrust into a deadly realm where it’s hard to distinguish friend from foe, Lara is sure of one thing: her love for Dafydd ap Caerwyn, the Faerie prince who sought her help in solving a royal murder and dousing the flames of war before they consumed the Barrow-lands.
But now Dafydd is missing, perhaps dead, and the Barrow-lands are closer than ever to a final conflagration. Lara has not other choice: she must harness the potent but perilous magic of the staff and her own truthseeking talents, blazing a path to a long-forgotten truth—a truth with the power to save the Barrow-lands or destroy them. Wayfinder is the sequel to Truthseeker.
Technicoor Ultra Mall by Ryan Oakley
Edge, $14.95, 280pp, tp, 9781894063548. Science fiction. On-sale date: 1 October 2011.
The world’s ecosystems have been destroyed by genetic pollution and cities have evolved into mega malls.
Budgie is a knife wielding, brass knuckled young man from the impoverished and brutal red section of Toronto’s T-Dot Center. When his best friend is murdered and Budgie falls in love with the woman responsible, he learns that there’s more to life than drugs, blood or money.
To escape his past he must give up everything and everyone he knows and sell his perceptions to an enigmatic and dangerous gang leader. Fighting for survival and unwittingly involved in a scheme that only he can stop, Budgie must ask himself: Does he want to?
Technicolor Ultra Mall is an ultra-violent science fiction dystopic novel about the value of being human in a completely commodified world.
Sound Bender by Lin Oliver & Theo Baker
Scholastic, $16.99, 272pp, hc, 9780545196925. Teen sf. On-sale date: November 2011.
New York Times bestselling author Lin Oliver and her son, debut novelist Theo Baker, are taking middle-grade readers on a thrilling adventure that spans the globe with their exciting new novel Sound Bender.
Life has gotten hard for Leo Lomax. After their parents’ plane goes down over the ocean, he and his brother Hollis are forced into the custody of their rich, sinister, and enigmatic uncle Crane, a dealer of rare and probably illicit antiques. But almost as soon as he’s settled—or as close to settled as he can get in the bleak Brooklyn warehouse, surrounded by his uncle’s dubious staff—Leo receives a mysterious package his father put together long ago, to be opened on his thirteenth birthday. A package that introduces him to a power he never knew he had—Leo is a sound bender. He can hear the history of any object by touching it. Stumbling upon a mysterious and haunting object in Crane’s warehouse, he is drawn into a vortex of adventure that has everything to do with his destiny.
From the depths of industrial to Brooklyn, to the wilds of the pacific tropics, Leo Lomax sets out on on an exhilarating adventure that spans the globe—a journey of great consequence and risk. And it’s only his newfound power that can provide answers to the life-and-death questions that Leo is forced to ask.
Hellbent by Cherie Priest
Spectra, $15.00, 352pp, tp, 9780345520623. Fantasy.
Cherie Priest—the acclaimed author of Boneshaker, the hottest steampunk novel of 2009—returned with the second novel in her hip urban fantasy series, following February’s Bloodshot, Hellbent.
Vampire thief Raylene Pendle doesn’t need more complications in her life. Her Seattle home is already overrun by a band of misfits, including Ian Stott, a blind vampire, and Adrian deJesus, an ex-Navy SEAL/drag queen. But Raylene still can’t resist an old pal’s request: seek out and steal a bizarre set of artifacts. Also on the hunt is a brilliant but certifiably crazy sorceress determined to stomp anyone who gets in her way. But Raylene’s biggest problem is that the death of Ian’s vaunted patriarch appears to have made him the next target of some blood-sucking sociopaths. Now Raylene must snatch up the potent relics, solve a murder, and keep Ian safe—all while fending off a psychotic sorceress.
Half Empty by David Rakoff
Anchor, $14.95, 240pp, tp, 9780767929059. Humor.
“You know that theory that says that in this random, anarchic universe that cares not one jot for you or me, wishing will not make it som, but stating your worst fears just might? Okay, it’s not a theory, I made i tup myself, but only through direct and repeated observational proof.”
So writes David Rakoff in “The Satisfying Crunch of Dreams Underfoot,” in which he chronicles the time he was cast in the film The First Wives Club and thought he would be freed from his underpaid and humiliating publishign job. But, of course, he was fired from the movie. That experience, and many others, helped cement Rakoff’s worldview that hope and optimism are to be avoided at all costs.
Witheringly astute and inimitably funny, Rakoff has been a cult favorite for nearly twenty years. Half Empty continues a tradition begun in the writer’s ‘first two essay collections by lobbing off deeply funny—and sneakily poignant—essays that turn modern life on its ear. This is an extended paean to pessimism, defending the commonsensical notion that you should always assume the worst, because you’ll never be disappointed. But don’t mistake Rakoff for a hopeless curmudgeon: by jettisoning unbridled, idiotic optimism for all the scorned emotions—dread, anxiety, misgiving, to name a few— he discovers diferent more fruitful forms of human satisfaction, like appreciation for what is, or beauty, even.
These essays range frmo the personal to the universal, combining stories frmo Rakoff’s reporting and accounts of his own experiences, all woven together by his usual brand of Oscar Wilde-worthy cultural criticism. Whether he’s laceraring the musical Rent for its cutesy depiction of AIDS and the glorification of rent evasion; discussing the nature the charm (“there’a s reason it’s called that. It is a trick, like all false magic, it never lasts”); taking down self-help gurus, or dealing with personal tragedy in his life, his sharp observations on contemporary culture and humorist’s flair for the absurd keep the pages turning and the laughs coming.
The Demi-Monde: Winter by Rod Rees
William Morrow, $26.99, 528pp, hc, 9780062070340. Fiction. On-sale date: 27 December 2011.
Previously released in the UK to wide critical acclaim, William Morrow is proud to be bringing The Demi-Monde: Winter, first in a gripping, brilliantly imagined series by author Rod Rees, to American readers.
The Demi-Monde is the most sophisticated, complex—and unpredictable—computer simulation ever created. The brainchild of the US military, the Demi-Monde was created as a virtual training ground for soldiers preparing for the battlefields of modern urban warfare.
This world of eternal civil war is ruled by “Dupes”—cyber-duplicates of some of history’s cruelest tyrants: Reinhard Heydrich, Shaka Zulu, Ivan the Terrible, Maximilien Robespierre, Aleister Crowley. The walls of virtual reality start crumbling when the Demi-Monde, a self-teaching program, begins to empower the uber-villains that inhabit the districts.
It’s clear something has gone horribly wrong in this dystopian cyber-landscape when the President’s daughter, Norma, is trapped in the Demi-Monde by Dupes of two of history’s most infamous villains. Sent in to rescue her is young jazz singer Ella Thomas—who soon discovers that the shadow world and its thirty million “avatars” are more dangerous than anyone anticipated… and could destroy the Real World as well.
Editor Amanda Bergeron says, “Rees has created a compelling ‘slipstream’ work, taking the classic science fiction model, spinning it about and turning it on its head, smashing together dystopia and steampunk. What he creates is a consuming, captivating, utterly entertaining epic tale.”
Down to the Bone by Justina Robson
(Quantum Gravity, Book Five), Pyr, $16.00, 428pp, tp, 9781616143794. Fantasy.
Lila Black is now a shapeshifting machine plugged into the Signal—the total dataset of all events in the known universe and all potential events: Zal, the elf rock star with a demon soul, is now a shadowform animated and given material actualization by firelight; Teazle the demon has taken up the sword of Death and is on the way to becoming an angel. To say this puts some pressure on their three-way marriage is an understatement.
Meanwhile the human world is seeing an inexplicable influx of the returning dead, and they’re not the only ones. Many old evils are returning to haunt the living following three harbingers of destruction created in the ancient past. What seems epic is revealed as personal to all concerned as events unfold and that which cannot be escaped must be faced. Heroic destinies unravel as greater powers reveal themselves the true masters of the game and survival may be the only winning hand.
Circle tide by Rebecca K. Rowe
Edge, $14.95, 280pp, tp, 9781894063593. Science fiction.
Noah is a rebellious son of privilege caught up in a brutal murder in a city ravaged by the eco-catastrophe Circle Tide. Promising his dying friend that he’ll deliver a highly confidential datasphere, Noah plunges into a gritty subterranean world where he collides with knife-wielding monks, a crew of oddball hackers and a smart intelligence bent on his destruction.
Enter Rika, a street-smart data thief.
Heavily in debt from getting mind enhancements that fail, Rika is given one more chance to prove herself and right past wrongs—she must save the city from Circle Tide.
But to do this she needs to steal Noah’s datasphere…
Thus begins an adventure that takes Noah and Rika from Los Angeles’ deepest catacombs in the Underground to the most exclusive rooftop gardens. Through their separate worlds of hardship and affluence, and accused of a crime they did not commit, the unlikely duo must find clues to prove their innocence, as they seek to find a killer, and stop an eco-disaster from destroying the planet.
Shadow Kin by M.J. Scott
Roc, $7.99, 325pp, pb, 9780451464040. Fantasy.
Shadow Kin is a beautifully written debut fantasy novel from author M.J. Scott featuring Lily, a wraith who can slip between the dark and light worlds, and must capture and assassinate the formidable Simon DuCaine for the Blood Lord.
As a child Lily was bought by a Blood Lord who raised her to be his most feared slayer. She can walk through walls and disappear at will, making her the perfect assassin. She must now fulfill his orders to kill Simon DuCaine in return for blood that The Blood Lord keeps her addicted to.
Simon DuCaine is a powerful mage who derives power from the sun—which makes him an impossible target for an assassin who draws her strength from darkness. Lily has met her match. The unexpected relationship that develops between Lily and Simon threatens to tear asunder the already polar relationship between good and evil.
Blood Spirits by Sherwood Smith
DAW, $24.95, 368pp, hc, 9780756406981. Fantasy.
Before last summer, I was just a normal grad student from California with a passion for ballet and fencing and a hopelessly romantic view of the world. But then I went to Europe to track down my grandmother’s family and my life changed forever.
Mistaken for a runaway princess, drugged, abducted, and taken to an obscure kingdom in Eastern Europe, I found out more about my lineage than I ever imagined possible in my wildest, most fanciful dreams… or nightmare.
Gran came to California when my mom was just two. She never spoke about her past, so neither Mom nor I knew anything about the handsome man in the silver-framed photo that Gran always kept on her bedside table. But we didn’t know anything about Gran’s own family, either. All we knew was that she came from Europe, but anyone would have been able to tell that from the beautiful, aristocratic French she customarily spoke.
I found out the hard way that I was descended from royalty. Me, Kim Murray from LA—royalty! Apparently I was a member of one of the competing royal families of Dobrenica, a tiny and very unusual little kingdom. And Gran had had a twin sister, which is why I looked so much like my cousin Ruli, the “runaway princess.” The handsome man who kidnapped me was Alec, Ruli’s fiance, the man who was slated to rule Dobrenica. Like so many things in Dobrenica, their marriage would have had a magical component—for when certain members of two royal lines married at a particular point in time, Dobrenica… vanished.
The solution should have been simple, right? Find Ruli and bring her home. Except Ruli didn’t want to come home. Alec and Ruli disliked each other, and to complicate matters further, Alec and I… well, I’ve always been a romantic at heart. What I never banked on was falling for a prince, especially a prince who felt the same way about me.
In the end I did the “right thing” and left Alec for Ruli to marry. Brokenhearted yet resolute, I returned to America and took a teaching job in Oklahoma. Far enough from home that I wouldn’t have to visit, hear Gran’s accent, and think of Dobrenica. But I just couldn’t forget.
When winter break came and I returned home, I learned that Mom had gone to Europe to meet the family, and that Dad had bought plane tickets for him, Gran, and me to join them. Ruli and Alec had married, but the hoped-for magic had failed, and no one knew why. Dobrenica was still in our world. In my world.
So back I went—with the most innocent of intentions, of course—to try to help in whatever way I could.
But my trip became even more dangerous than it was the first time. I expected personal conflict and politics, even replete with deadly sword fighting! I was also prepared for the ghosts I had seen last time. What I was not prepared for was murder and mystery, or the chillingly real presence of the undead!
Coronets and Steel by Sherwood Smith
DAW, $7.99, 440pp, pb, 9780756406851. Fantasy.
My Mysterious Heritage
Too much imagination was tantamount to lying—that’s what my grandmother taught me. So when I first got the sense that someone was following me, I ignored it. Who’d waste time following me?
Me, being Aurelia Kim Murray, a grad student from California with a passion for ballet and fencing, and a hopelessly romantic vision of the world. I had come to Europe to track down my grandparents’ families, but so far I’d had no luck.
I couldn’t explain the sense of urgency that drove me, even to myself. It had begun that day four months ago when my grandmother lay restlessly in her bed, her eyes glittering with fever as she gripped my hand. “Your mother is too gentle,” she’d whispered in her aristocratic Parisian French. “I cannot send her to seal the breach.”
Breach? What breach? With her family? With my grandfather’s family? Neither Mom nor I knew anything about Grandmother’s family or the handsome man in the silver-framed photo that Gran always kept on her bedside table.
“She wouldn’t talk about her life before California,” my mom had said, as we waited in yet another specialist’s office, hoping to find out why, though Gran had recovered from her fever, she had not spoken since.
Nothing had come of my search in Paris, or Vienna, and no matter how fast I walked along the grand boulevards, I knew I couldn’t outpace my sense of failure.
And that’s when I met my first ghost.
But seeing ghostss wasn’t my biggest problem. I was being followed, and I was about to find out more about my lineage than I had ever imagined possible in my wildest, most fanciful dreams… or nightmares.
Star Wars: Darth Vader: A 3-D Reconstruction Log
Scholastic, $191.99, 24pp, hc, 9780545312158. Science fiction tie-in.
In the same style of Star Wars: Millennium Falcon, Star Wars: Darth Vader features never-before-seen cross-sections of Darth Vader’s suit, and the man behind the mask. In this 24-page book, the galaxy’s most famous villain is dissected layer-by-layer, revealing the incredible technology that keeps him alive—and as deadly as ever.
Witness the rebirth of the Empire’s black knight!
The 3-D Reconstruction Log provides information straight from the surgical droids who carried out the Emperor’s wishes and transformed Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader.
Each page examines the technology of a different cyborg or biological system with a precisely illustrated cutout. When the log is closed, the cutouts fit together to create a three-dimensional model of the infamous Sith Lord.
The Tears of the Sun by S.M. Stirling
(a Novel of the Change), Roc, $26.95, 530pp, hc, 9780451464156. Science fiction.
Rudi Mackenzie has traveled from the land where the sun sets to the land where it rises and back. He has found his weapon—the Sword crafted for him before he was born. He has made friends from among his enemies and found enemies where he expected friends. He has won the heart and hand of the woman he has loved his entire life.
Now Rudi is Artos, High King of Montival, with his final destiny awaiting him. He must face and defeat the forces of the Church Universal and Triumphant. Everything in the present, everything in the future, depends on the outcome of the conflict.
And like his father before him, Rudi knows that in winning the war he might well lose his life.…
Ragnarok by Patrick A. Vanner
Baen, $7.99, 473pp, pb, 9781439134665. Science fiction.
Locked in a war for survival
Sol System, 2198. Unconditional surrender. Those are the terms on offer to an Earth reeling from brutal alien attack. Yet after near disaster, Earth’s young space fleet has survived to fight again. What the Fleet needs is a breathing space to rebuild. What it gets is a traitor in its midst. Liberty or alien domination: for battle-seasoned starship captain Alexandra McLaughlin and gutsy Marine officer Stewart Optika there’s no choice. It’s victory or death, damn the torpedoes and semper fi.
The fight for Earth’s freedom is on.
Kitty’s Greatest Hits by Carrie Vaughn
Tor, $14.99, 318pp, tp, 9780765329578. Fantasy collection.
Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series began life as a short story, called “Doctor Kitty Solves All Your Love Problems,” where a late-night talk radio host who also happens to be a werewolf gets an unexpected visit from a caller while she’s on the air. As happens with many writers, Carrie found that there were too many characters—and too many stories they wanted to tell—to fit in just one short story. So she wrote another (“Kitty Loses Her Faith”). And another. Soon, she had written a novel. And then another. And another. Now, the Kitty Norville series currently stands at nine books, with Carrie hard at work on book ten.
But a novel doesn’t always tell the whole story, and not all stories need to be as long as a novel. Writing short stories became Carrie’s way to more fully develop Kitty’s world and the characters that inhabit it. Originally published in anthologies and magazines, these stories are now collected for the very first time in Kitty’s Greatest Hits.
Not only does Kitty’s Greatest Hits feature many previously written works, it also includes a brand new story, “You’re on the Air,” which tells the tale of what happens to one of Kitty’s callers after he hangs up the phone, as well as the new novella “Long Time Waiting.” This novella is sure to be eagerly devoured, as it explains, for the first time, what really happened to fan-favorite character Cormac Bennett while he was locked away in prison. Sending Cormac to prison, and thus removing him from center stage for several books, was a controversial decision for Carrie, who says “I have gotten more emails and feedback over that decision than just about anything else in the series.” But rest assured, Cormac didn’t just sit around and twiddle his thumbs while serving time! In “Long Time Waiting,” Carrie finally explains what happened to Cormac, and how he met his ghostly companion, Amelia.
One of the great things about these short stories is that they allow Carrie, and now her fans, to get inside the heads of characters other than Kitty. In this collection, you’ll find out how Rick the vampire came to America (“Conquistador de la Noche”), how T.J. became a werewolf (“Wild Ride”), how Ben and Cormac’s relationship developed (“Looking After Family”), and several interesting looks at history—what if Daniel survived the lions’ den because he was a werelion (“The Book of Daniel”)? There are stories featuring Kitty as well, as she deals with zombies, office staff parties, and deadly mosh pits, all taking place either before the series begins, or in between novels.
Kitty’s Greatest Hits belongs on the playlist of every Carrie Vaughn fan, as well as anyone who loves to dance with the strange creatures that inhabit Kitty’s world!
Rogue by Michael Z. Williamson
Baen, $24.00, 341pp, hc, 9781439134627. Science fiction.
Sanity May Not be an Advantage…
Kenneth Chinran commanded the elite unit assigned to take out an entire planet in a terrible war. Millions died; billions more perished in the aftermath. One doesn’t send a sociopath on such a mission. A sociopath might not stop. Chinran did stop—but in the process nearly lost his sanity and his soul.
But one of Chinran’s men was a sociopath going in. Now he’s a trained sociopath with the knowledge and firepower to take out entire tactical teams, evaporate security cordons and change identity at will. Who do you send after a killer like that? There’s only one answer: the man who trained him. The man who made him.
The Exciting Sequel to The Weapon.
Star Wars: Heir to the Empire (The 20th Anniversary Edition) by Timothy Zahn
Del Rey/Lucasbooks, $30.00, 496pp, hc, 9780345528292. Science fiction/tie-in.
This September Del Rey and LucasBooks are proud to present a special 20th anniversary annotated edition of the #1 New York Times bestselling novel that reignited the entire Star Wars publishing phenomenon—featuring an introduction and annotations from award-winning author Timothy Zahn, exclusive commentary from Lucasfilm and Del Rey Books, and a brand-new novella starring the ever-popular Grand Admiral Thrawn. One of the biggest events in the history of Star Wars books, Heir to the Empire follows the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia after they led the Rebel Alliance to victory in Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi.
Five years after the Death Star was destroyed and Darth Vader and the Emperor were defeated, the galaxy is struggling to heal the wounds of war, Princess Leia and Han Solo are married and expecting twins, and Luke Skywalker has become the first in a long-awaited line of new Jedi Knights.
But thousands of light-years away, the last of the Emperor’s warlords—the brilliant and deadly Grand Admiral Thrawn—has taken command of the shattered Imperial fleet, readied it for war, and pointed it at the fragile heart of the New Republic. For this dark warrior has made two vital discoveries that could destroy everything the courageous men and women of the Rebel Alliance fought so hard to create.
The explosive confrontation that results is a towering epic of action, invention, mystery, and spectacle on a galactic scale—in short, a story worthy of the name Star Wars.