This page is updated as books are received throughout the month.
Firestorm by Taylor Anderson
(A Destroyermen novel), Roc, $25.95, 422pp, hc, 9780451464170. Alternate history.
In Taylor Anderson’s acclaimed Destroyermen series, a parallel universe adds an extraordinary new scope to the drama of World War II. Readers are flocking to military science fiction novels and this gripping series has grown in popularity with each book.
The fifth book in Anderson’s compelling alternate history series, Rising Tides, debuted at #21 on the New York Times bestseller list, and Firestorm, the sixth Destroyermen installment, is sure to do even better. The Allies and the empire of New Britain Isles now stand united against the attacks of both the savage Grik and the Japanese. But Designated Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces and captain of the USS Walker Matthew Reddy has a new foe to contend with: the Holy Dominion, a warped mixture of human cultures whose lust for power overshadows even the hated Grik’s. Forced to fight a desperate battle on two fronts, Reddy is plunged into a firestorm of loyalty, betrayal, and sacrifice. However, nothing he has endured can prepare him for a devastating new Grik weapon that could destroy the Allies and the Empire once and for all…
Carnelians by Catherine Asaro
(a Skolian Empire novel), Baen, $25.00, 374pp, hc, 9781451637489. Science fiction.
If you would have peace, prepare for rock
The leaders of the Eubian Empire and Skolian Imperialate survived political intrigue, military coups and murder attempts as they forged their controversial peace treaty. Now comes the hard part—making that treaty work.
Assassins are poised on both sides. their mission: eliminate the leaders for the “crime” of striving to end half a millennium of hatred between their empires. The main players in the peace process must navigate the Byzantine convolutions surrounding the negotiations. And as if Kelric, the Skolian Imperator ,didn’t have enough problems, his own brother—who happens to be a rock star of galactic proportions—sings the explosive “Carnelians Finale,” a politically inflammatory response to Eubian atrocities that sweeps across three civilizations. The violence escalates until the militaries on both sides must be called in, all in the hopes of keeping everyone alive for the first ever peace summit.
Will the summit set the stage for the peace these war-weary civilizations have never before known—or will it become a trap that annihilates all they’ve worked so hard to achieve? Deadly intrigue is afoot as the baroque old order has no intention of giving up its war-bought privilege and power without a fight to the death—and they don’t care if they take the rest of galactic civilization down with them.
Myth-Interpretations by Robert Asprin
Baen, $7.99, 418pp, pb, 9781451637533. Science fiction.
The Man and the Myth…
Presenting a collection of short novels and stories set in the many worlds of Robert Asprin. One of his most popular creations was the “Myth” series, chronicling the misadventures of Skeeve and Aahz, a magician who has lost his power and his hapless human apprentice, as they travel through strange and varied worlds in pursuit of wealth and glory, but mostly getting into one Myth-ical mess after another. Collected in this volume for the first time are all the Myth stories of less-than-novel length.
Also included are other short works by Asprin, including his award-winning novelette “Cold Cash War,” and several unpublished stories discovered after the writer’s death. Asprin’s many fans, as well as all readers who enjoy humorous fantasy and science fiction, will find a treasure trove of enjoyable reading. As editor Bill Fawcett puts it, “His stories are always fun, but never predictable.”
Conquer the Dark by L.A. Banks
Pocket, $7.99, 340pp, pb, 9781451608847. Urban Fantasy.
The rapidly approaching battle between Dark and Light threatens to destroy mankind in this action-packed new series from New York Times bestselling author L.A. Banks.
Celeste Jackson never had much hope for the future—and certainly never imagined that she would be living in an abandoned warehouse in Philadelphia with her magnificent protector Azrael, the angel of death, and a fierce battalion of warrior angels. But although her powers have bestowed the angels with the freedom to return to the Light or stay within the mortal realm, they need her more than ever.
Celeste is one of the few remaining half-human, half-angel Remnant, with a unique ability to locate others of her kind. The search leads Azrael and his celestial brothers to Egypt to recover a powerful relic that can raise an army of bloodthirsty fallen if it falls into the wrong hands. It is a relic the dark angel Asmodeus will do anything to possess—and his quest puts Celeste in mortal danger. Soon Azrael faces an impossible decision: Can he surrender the woman who has become his salvation… or will he save her and allow all of humanity to perish?
Archon by Sabrina Benulis
Voyager, $22.99, 400pp, hc, 9780062069405. Fantasy. On-sale date: January 2012.
Angela Mathers is plagued by visions of angels, supernatural creatures who haunt her thoughts by day and seduce her dreams by night. Newly released from a mental institution where she was locked away for two years, she hopes that her time at the Vatican’s university, the West Wood Academy, will give her a chance at a normal life. Unlike ordinary humans, Angela is a blood head—a freak, a monster, the possible fulfillment of a terrifying prophecy of overwhelming death and destruction. Only in Luz, the Vatican’s wondrous enclave, are blood heads accepted and encouraged to discover what kind of powers or special abilities they might possess.
But within West Wood, a secret coven plots, and demons and angels roam the streets searching for the key to open Raziel’s book—a secret tome from a lost archangel. Some are determined to destroy Raziel, while others, like the beautiful Supernal Israfel, one of the highest of the high, wish to free him. And when the Archon—the human chosen to possess the spirit of a dead angel—rises as foretold, they will control the supernatural universe.
Torn between mortal love and angelic obsession, Angela holds the key to Heaven and Hell—and both will stop at nothing to possess her.
The Haunting of Twentieth-Century America by William J. Birnes and Joel Martin
Forge, $15.99, 464pp, tp, 9780765327857.
In this follow up to The Haunting of America, national bestselling authors Joel Martin and William J. Birnes bring up to the present the story of how paranormal events influenced and sometimes even drove political events; The Haunting of Twentieth Century America is history like you’ve never learned it before.
In unearthing the roots of America’s fascination with the ghosts, goblins and demons that possess our imaginations and nightmares, Martin and Birnes show how the paranormal has driven America’s political, public, and military policies. The authors examine the social history of the United States through the lens of the paranormal and investigate the spiritual events that inspired momentous national decisions: UFOs that frightened the nation’s military into launching nuclear bomber squadrons toward the Soviet Union, out-of-body experiences used to gather sensitive intelligence on other countries, and even spirits summoned to communicate with living politicians.
The Haunting of Twentieth-Century America is a thrilling evidence-based exploration of the often unexpected influences of the paranormal on science, medicine, law, the government, the military, psychology, theology, death and dying, spirituality, and pop culture.
Perfect for the historian, the conspiracy theorist, the spiritualist and everyone in between, don’t miss out on this latest from Birnes and Martin. Likewise, be sure to check out The Haunting of America, now available as a paperback from Forge Books.
The Little Book of True Ghost Stories by Echo Bodine
Hampton Roads, $14.95, 208pp, tp, 9781571746504.
Barroom brawler ghosts, a ghost prayer group, Peeping Tom ghosts, a ghost who hates children, and even a ghost who didn’t know he was dead, are just a few of the wild assortment of characters in Echo Bodine’s delightful new collection of true ghost stories.
Ghostbuster and psychic Echo Bodine welcomes us into her wonderful world of ghosts, and gives us the inside scoop on their antics, why they choose to stick around, and what their day-to-day existence is like. In The Little Book of True Ghost Stories she tells the story of how she became a ghost buster, sharing tales of the ghosts, hauntings, and possessions she’s encountered along the way.
Wondering if those flickering lights, jangling door knobs, and mumbling sounds in the middle of the night mean you have a ghost? Bodine offers step-by-step instructions for getting rid of them, along with clearing and protection prayers to keep them away. These funny, sometimes unnerving, and always entertaining stories will provide reassurance to anyone who has ever encountered things that go bump in the night.
Echo Bodine is a world renowned psychic, spiritual healer, teacher, and ghostbuster. She is the author of several books, including Echoes of the Soul. She lives in Minneapolis.
Day by Day Armageddon: Origin to Exile by J.L. Bourne
Gallery, $18.00, 514pp, tp, 9781451633030. Horror.
The acclaimed thrillers of the zombie apocalypse—Day by Day Armageddon and Day by Day Armageddon: Beyond Exile—now in an omnibus edition! With a brand new short story, “If You Can Read This…”
Day by Day Armageddon: Origin to Exile features J.L. Bourne’s first two terrifying zombie apocalypse thrillers in his acclaimed series—Day by Day Armageddon and Day by Day Armageddon: Beyond Exile—as well as a brand new short story.
In J.L. Bourne’s Day by Day Armageddon series, readers are brought deep into the mind of a military officer and survivor of the zombie apocalypse, as he kept a journal chronicling the fight against the millions of undead.
Sporadic news reports indicate chaos and violence spreading through US cities. An unknown evil is sweeping the planet. The dead are rising to claim the Earth as the new dominant species in the food chain. This is the handwritten journal depicting one man’s struggle for survival. Trapped in the midst of global disaster, he must make decisions—choices that ultimately mean life, or the eternal curse to walk as one of them. Enter if you will into his world. The world of the undead.
Author J.L. Bourne began the Day by Day Armageddon series as an online-only story in 2004. It became an internet sensation, leading Bourne to self-publish his story. Simon and Schuster’s Gallery Books teamed with Permuted Press, known for their apocalyptic novels, to re-release Day by Day Armageddon in 2009.
The Traitor’s Daughter by Paula Brandon
Spectra, $15.00, 432pp, tp, 9780553583809. Fantasy.
On the Veiled Isles, ominous signs are apparent to those with the talent to read them. The polarity of magic is wavering at its source, heralding a vast upheaval poised to alter the very balance of nature in Paula Brandon’s The Traitor’s Daughter, the first in a trilogy of fantasy novels that are lush, romantic, dramatic, and wholly engaging, in which a young noblewoman is tested to the limits of her resourcefulness and courage.
Blissfully unaware of the cataclysmic events to come, Jianna Belandor, the beautiful, privileged daughter of a powerful Faerlonnish overlord, has only one concern: the journey to meet her prospective husband. But revolution is stirring as her own conquered people rise up against their oppressors, and Jianna Belandor, the beautiful, privileged daughter of a powerful Faerlonnish overlord, has only one concern: the journey to meet her prospective husband. But revolution is stirring as her own conquered people rise up against their oppressors, and Jianna is kidnapped and held captive at a rebel stronghold, insurance against what are perceived as her father’s crimes.
The resistance movement opens Jianna’s eyes—and her heart. Despite her belief in her father’s innocence, she is fascinated by the bold and charming nomadic physician and rebel sympathizer, Falaste Rione—who offers Jianna her only sanctuary in a cold and calculating web of intrigue. As plague and chaos grip the land, Jianna is pushed to the limits of her courage and resourcefulness, while virulent enemies discover that alliance is their only hope to save the human race.
iBoy by Kevin Brooks
Chicken House/Scholastic, $17.99, 304pp, hc, 9780545317689. YA science fiction. On-sale date: November 2011.
Acclaimed author and YA master Kevin Brooks is back with an exciting new thriller and a brand new hero for the digital age. Teens will find protagonist Tom Harvey both fascinating and relatable as he deals with the moral dilemmas facing all teens, superpowers or none. At turns electrifying, heartbreaking, and gritty, iBoy will keep readers plugged in until the last page.
Before the attack, Tom Harvey was just an average teenagers. But a head-on collision with high technology has turned him into an actualized App. Fragments of a shattered iPhone are embedded in his brain. And they’re having an extraordinary effect on his every thought. Because now Tom knows, sees, and can do more than any normal kid ever could.
But with his new powers comes a choice: to avenge Lucy, the girl he loves, while he hunts down the vicious gangsters who hurt her? Will he take the law into his own electric hands and exterminate them from the South London housing projects, where, by fear and violence, they rule? Not even his mental search engine can predict the shocking outcome of iBoy’s actions.
Thawed Out & Fed Up by Ryan Brown
Gallery, $15.00, 292pp, tp, 9781439171561. Neo-Western thriller.
Sam Bonham—ex-husband, father, and unrepentant badass—is running from the law for a murder he doesn’t remember committing. He high tails it out of modern-day East Texas and lands in Blistered Valley, an ersatz Wild West boomtown being held hostage by a lawless band of malevolent rustlers who fancy themselves cowboys. The town needs a hero and in an unexpected twist, Sam may yet become that man—with the help of the legendary John Wayne. That’s right, the Duke himself—the greatest cowboy who ever strapped on a set of spurs—is back from cyrogenic stasis to teach Sam how to become the man he was always meant to be. An audacious thriller that rockets America’s mythic western straight into the 21st century, Thawed Out & Fed UP packs equal parts heart and suspense with non-stop action.
Still a man of true grit—and nowhere near as dead as everyone thought—in his “defrosted” state the Duke is showing his full seventy-two years and is definitely the worse for wear. But his character still soars and he’s just the man to show a guy like Sam how to cowboy up. Sam discovers how to save not only a town but his soul—and he’s hoping that’s enough to win back the love he left behind.
Somewhere between John Ford’s mythic Wild West and Rod Sterling’s twisted imagination, Ryan Brown stakes his claim with this hardboiled and wholly original neo-Western thriller.
Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold
Baen, $7.99, 434pp, pb, 9781451637502. Science fiction.
Miles Vorkosigan is Back
Kibou-daini is a planet obsessed with cheating death. Barrayaran Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan can hardly disapprove—he’s been cheating death his whole life, on the theory that turnabout is fair play. But when a Kibou-daini cryocorp, which shepherds its frozen patrons into an unknown future, attempts to expand into the Barrayaran Empire, Emperor Gregor dispatches his top troubleshooter to check it out.
On Kibou-daini, Miles finds a young boy with a passion for pets and a dangerous secret, a Snow White trapped in an icy coffin, and a mysterious crone who is the very embodiment of the warning Don’t mess with the secretary. Bribery, corruption, conspiracy, kidnapping—something is rotten on Kibou-daini, and it isn’t due to power outages in the Cryocombs. And Miles is in the middle—of trouble!
The Sharing Knife, Volume One: Beguilement by Lois McMaster Bujold
Voyager, $7.99, 372pp, pb, 9780061139079. Fantasy.
Troubled young Fawn Bluefield seeks a life beyond her family’s farm. But on the way to the city, she encounters a patrol of Lakewalkers, nomadic soldier-sorcerers from the northern woodlands. Feared necromancers armed with mysterious knives made of human bone, they wage a secret on-going war against the scourge of the “malices,” immortal entities that draw the life out of their victims, enslaving human and animal alike. It is Dag—a Lakewalker patroller weighed down by past sorrows and present responsibilities—who must come to Fawn’s aid when she is taken captive by a malice. They prevail at a devastating cost—unexpectedly binding their fates together as they embark upon a remarkable journey into danger and delight, prejudice and partnership… and perhaps even love.
The Sharing Knife, Volume Three: Passage by Lois McMaster Bujold
Voyager, $7.99, 422pp, pb, 9780061375354. Fantasy.
Young Fawn Bluefield and soldier-sorcerer Dag Redwing Hickory have survived magical dangers, but the bigotry of blood kin cannot be easily overcome. Leaving behind all that they have ever known, they set off to find fresh solutions to the perilous split between their peoples—a passage that will not be ventured alone. New companions join them on their road: Fawn’s brother, Whit, escaping a hopeless future on the family farm; two novice Lakewalker patrollers fleeing the catastrophic consequences of an honest mistake; a young flatboat captain searching for her vanished father and fiance; a shrewd backwoods hunter; and a farmer boy unintentionally beguiled by Dag’s growing magery. On an eventful journey to where great rivers join, the ill-assorted crew will be sorely tested and tempered as they encounter a new world of hazards both human and uncanny.
The Sharing Knife, Volume Four: Horizon by Lois McMaster Bujold
Voyager, $7.99, 435pp, pb, 9780061375378. Fantasy.
A Lakewalker entrusted with protecting the populace from terrifying remnants of ancient magic, Dag Redwing Hickory never expected to fall in love with farmer girl Fawn Bluefield. When they joined in marriage, defying their kin, they bridged the perilous split between their peoples. Now Dag’s extraordinary maker abilities have grown—along with his fears about who and what he is becoming, and his frustration with the disdain in which Lakewalker soldier-sorcerers hold their farmer neighbors.
Fawn and Dag’s world is changing, and the traditional Lakewalker practices cannot continue to hold every malice at bay. At the end of their long journey home, the pair must answer the question they’ve grappled with for so long: When the old traditions fail disastrously, can their untried new ways stand against their world’s deadliest foe?
Landertop, Volume 1 by Orson Scott Card and Emily Janice Card, illustrated by Honoel A. Ibardolaza
Tor/Seven Seas, $10.99, 192pp, tp, 9780765324603. Science fiction manga.
One of the true stars of science fiction and fantasy writing, Hugo and Nebula Award winner Orson Scott Card joins his daughter Emily Janice Card for the first time to coauthor an all-new science fiction manga epic with Laddertop, Volume 1. Illustrated by award-winning Honoel A. Ibardolaza, Laddertop, Volume 1 follows an elite crew of children in a space station, in the tradition of Ender’s Game.
Twenty-five years ago, the alien Givers came to Earth. They gave the human race the greatest technology ever seen—four giant towers known as Ladders that connect to power-providing space stations 36,000 miles up in space. Then, for reasons unknown, the Givers disappeared. Due to the unique alien construction of the Laddertop stations, children are chosen to perform the maintenance necessary to keep the stations up and running.
On Earth, competition is fierce to enter Laddertop Academy, an honor few students will achieve. Robbi and Azure, two eleven-year-old girls who are the best of friends, are selected as candidates for the Academy. When they arrive at Laddertop, they are put through vigorous training. They are shocked to learn that the process of selection is random and subject to the signals of an alien machine that the adults are unsure how to use or understand. The true significance of Laddertop is a mystery to all. As Robbi and Azure become determined to learn the stations’ true purpose, Laddertop may help them solve the riddle of the Givers… if it doesn’t destroy the Earth itself!
The first book of three, Laddertop, Volume 1 showcases the Cards’ spellbinding storytelling skills and Ibardolaza’s masterful illustrations. Robbi and Azure’s lively, unforgettable adventures will captivate both Ender fans and manga readers.
Red Phoenix by Kylie Chan
(Dark Heavens Book Two), Voyager, $7.99, 563pp, pb, 9780061994098. Urban fantasy.
Immortals, Martial Arts, Gods, and Demons
The intrigue deepens as the demon threat closes around mortals and gods alike…
When Emma Donahoe took the position of nanny to John Chen’s daughter Simone, she never expected to be caring for the child of a Chinese god, and she didn’t expect that demons would want him dead. Nor has moving from nanny to partner in his heavenly realm made Emma’s life any easier.
Now a powerful race of demons has been created to hunt her and her family from Hong Kong to Europe. And she and Simone have become targets—pawns to be used in a deadly celestial power play.
A Thief in the Night by David Chandler
(The Ancient Blades trilogy, book two), Voyager, $7.99, 510pp, pb, 9780062021250. Fantasy.
Circumstance made him a criminal. Destiny may make him a hero.
As a thief, Malden is unparalleled in the Free City of Ness, and happy there. But by saving the life of the knight Croy, Malden has bound himself to an ancient, noble brotherhood… and he now possesses one of only seven Ancient Blades capable of destroying demons.
Malden fears accompanying Croy the barbarian Morget on their quest to dispatch a foul creature of nightmare… nor does he want to disturb the vengeful dead. But with an assassin on his heels, the young cutpurse is left with no choice. And there is the comely sorceress, Cythera, to consider—promised to croy but in love with Malden—not to mention the fabulous treasure rumored to be hidden in the depths of the demon’s lair…
Magebane by Lee Arthur Chane
DAW, $7.99, 488pp, pb, 9780756406790. Fantasy.
The Kingdom of Evrenfels is the last bastion of magic in the world, cut off from the outside by the Great Barrier through which magic cannot penetrate.
For centuries, the MageLords have ruled their kingdom with an iron hand, while beyond the Barrier both magic and the MageLords have faded into an almost forgotten myth, replaced by low-level technology. Now all of that is about to change, for one man, Lord Falk, the Minster of Public Safety—the most powerful of the MageLords—has plans to assassinate the king and his heir, to break down the Barrier, and to conquer the lands beyond.
All it will take is the lives of two innocents: Prince Karl and Falk’s own ward, a girl named Brenna—a small sacrifice, to Lord Falk’s way of thinking. One is the heir and the other is the legendary Magebane, anathema to all magic.
But there is one thing Lord Falk hasn’t foreseen, one thing that could unbalance all of his plans—the unexpected arrival of a young man whose airship suddenly comes sailing over the top of the Great Barrier.…
Himmler’s War by Robert Conroy
Baen, $25.00, 384pp, hc 9781451637618. Alternate history.
Only days after Normandy, Hitler is taken out of the equation and Heinrich Himmler, brutal head of the SS, assumes control of the Reich. On the Allied side, there is confusion. Should attempts be made to negotiate with the new government or should unconditional surrender still be the only option? With the specter of a German super-weapon moving closer to completion and the German generals finally allowed to fight the kind of war at which they are masters, the allies are pushed toward a course of accommodation or even defeat. Will the soldiers of the Grand Alliance find the courage and conviction to fight on in the face of such daunting odds? And can alliance leaders put into place a new plan in time to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by the German war machine? A new and terrible battle for a free world is on.
Dead Six by Larry Correia and Mike Kupari
Baen, $7.99, 725pp, pb, 9781451637588. Military fiction.
Only one will win…
Michael Valentine, veteran and former member of an elite private military company, has been recruited by the government to conduct a secret counter-terror operation in the Persian Gulf nation of Zubara. The unit is called Dead Six. Their mission is to take the fight to the enemy and not get caught.
Lorenzo, assassin and thief extraordinaire, is being blackmailed by the world’s most vicious crime lord. His team has to infiltrate the Zubaran terrorist network and pull off an impossible heist or his family will die. When Dead Six compromises his objective, Lorenzo has a new job: Find and kill Valentine. As allegiances are betrayed and a nation descends into bloody civil war, Lorenzo and Valentine must face off.
Two men. Two missions. Only one will win.
The Death Cure by James Dashner
(the final book in the Maze Runner trilogy), Delacorte, $17.99, 336pp, hc, 9780385738774. Science fiction.
This October, The Maze Runner fans will get answers to their burning questions in the hotly anticipated novel, The Death Cure by James Dashner. The action-packed conclusion to the bestselling Maze Runner trilogy follows Thomas and the Gladers out of the Scorch and into the real world, where more danger awaits.
The governments of the surviving nations have combined forces, forming WICKED, a group meant to fight the new problems of this world. They claim that they’ve collected all they can from the Trials and must rely on the Gladers’ fully restored memories to help them with their ultimate mission. Now it’s up to the Gladers to complete the blueprint for the cure to the Flare with a final voluntary test. WICKED says the time for lies is over, but what the group doesn’t know is that something’s happened that no Trial or Variable could have foreseen. Thomas has remembered far more than they think. And he knows that he can’t believe a word WICKED says.
The time for lies is over. But the truth is more dangerous than Thomas could ever imagine. Will anyone survive The Death Cure?
Sacred Band by David Anthony Durham
(Book Three of The Acacia Trilogy), Doubleday, $28.95, 564pp, hc, 9780307739681. Fantasy.
The Sacred Band is the epic conclusion to David Anthony Durham’s vast alternative saga of a world at battle with itself. An exotic canvas of kingdoms in collision, at once realistic and fantastic, The Sacred Band is informed with an eloquent and enormously Shakespearean sensibility.
With the first two books in the Acacia Trilogy, Acacia and The Other Lands, David Anthony Durham created a vast and engrossing vision of a world in turmoil, and of the surviving children of a royal dynasty on quests to realize their fates—and perhaps right ancient wrongs once and for all. As The Sacred Band begins, one of them, Queen Corinn, bestrides the world with her mastery of spells found in The Song of Elenet. Her younger brother, Dariel, becomes a mythic figure in the Other Lands, while her sister Mena travels to the far noth to confront an invasion from a brutal race intent on conquering the Known World. Their separate trajectories converge in several tumultuous battles, all rendered with vivid detail and in heroic scale.
David Anthony Durham concludes his award-winning tale of empires in collision in grand style, with a historian’s eye for detail, Shakespearean complexity, and a unique vision of a fantastical world.
Spider’s Revenge by Jennifer Estep
Pocket, $7.99, 368pp, pb, 9781439192642. Urban fantasy.
Old habits die hard for assassins. And I plan on murdering someone before the night is through.
Killing used to be mu regular gig, after all. Gin Blanco, aka the Spider, assassin-for-hire. And I was very, very good at it. Now, I’m ready to make the one hit that truly matters: Mab Monroe, the dangerous Fire elemental who murdered my family when I was thirteen. Oh, I don’t think the mission will be easy, but turns out it’s a bit more problematic than expected. The bitch knows I’m coming for her. So now I’m up against the army of lethal bounty hunters Mab hired to track me down. She also put a price on my baby sister’s head. Keeping Bria safe is my first priority. Taking Mab out is a close second. Good thing I’ve got my powerful Ice and Stone magic—and my irresistible lover, Owen Grayson—to watch my back. This battle has been years in the making, and there’s a good chance I won’t survive. But if I’m going down, then Mab’s coming with me… no matter what I have to do to make that happen.
Ashes of a Black Frost by Chris Evans
(Book Three of The Iron Elves), Gallery, $25.99, 440pp, hc, 9781439180662. Fantasy.
The acclaimed epic fantasy series Iron Elves by Chris Evans captured readers with A Darkness Forged in Fire and The Light of Burning Shadows, and now has followers eagerly anticipating the third and final in the Iron Elves series, Aashes of a Black Frost. Amidst a scene of carnage on a desert battlefield blanketed in metallic snow, Major Konowa Swift Dragon sees his future, and it is one drenched in shadow and blood. Never mind that he has won a grand victory for the Calahrian Empire. He came here in search of his lost regiment of elves, while the Imperial Prince came looking for the treasures of a mystical library, and both ventures have failed. But Konowa knows, as do the Iron Elves—both living and dead—that another, far more important battle now looms before them. The campaign in the desert was only the latest obstacle on the twisted, darkening path leading inexorably to the Hyntaland, and the final confrontation with the dreaded Shadow Monarch.
In this third novel of musket and magic in Chris Evans’s Iron Elves saga, Konow’s ultimate journey is fraught with escalating danger. A vast, black forest finds a new source of dark power, spawning creatures even more monstrous than the blood trees from which they evolve. The maniacqally unstable former emissary of the Shadow Monarch hungers for revenge, leading an army of ravenous beasts bent on utterly destroying the Iron Elves. A reluctant hero, Private Alwyn Renwar, struggles to maintain his connection to this world and that of the loyalty of the shades of the dead. And in a maze of underground tunnels, Visyna Tekoy, whom Konowa counts among those he has loved and lost, fights for her life against the very elves he so desperately wants to find.
And so Konowa sets off from this Canyon of Bones, pursuing his freedom from a curse that has cast his life in darkness. For though his long, violent trek may indeed lead him to his destiny, he is ill prepared for the discovery he will make… with the fate of the Iron Elves, and the world, hinging on the courage of one wrathful elf.
Destination Truth: Memoirs of a Monster Hunter by Josh Gates
Gallery, $15.00, 258pp, tp, 9780743491723. Paranormal.
World adventurer, international monster hunter, and host of the popular Syfy channel reality show, Destination Truth, Josh Gates has careened through nearly 100 countries, investigating frightening myths, chilling cryptozoological legends, and terrifying paranormal phenomena. Now, in his memoir and official Syfy channel tie-in, Destination Truth: Memoirs of a Monster Hunter, he invites fans to get a behind-the-scenes look at these breathtaking experiences.
Follow Gates from the inception of the groundbreaking hit show (at the summit of Kilimanjaro) to his hair-raising encounters with dangerous creatures in the most treacherous locations on earth.
Among his many adventures, he shares:
* Unearthing the flesh-crawling reality of the Mongolian Death Worm
* Challenging an ancient curse by spending the night in King Tut’s tomb
* Descending into a centuries-old mine to search for an alien entity in subterranean darkness
* Pursuing ghosts in the radioactive shadow of Chernobyl
* Exploring reported sightings of Bigfoot in the leech-infested rain forests of Malaysia and the dizzying heights of the Himalayas
Part journey into the unexplained, part hilarious travelogue, part fascinating look at the making of a reality-based TV show—featuring never-before-publishing photographs—Destination Truth is a companion to the show that takes readers on the supernatural expedition of a lifetime.
Destination Truth is Syfy’s second-highest rated reality show, after Ghost Hunters—which Josh has made guest appearances on multiple times. The season 3 premiere hit a series high with 2.1 million viewers, and then quickly broke that record after their fourth episode, with 2.3 million viewers. Season 5 begins in 2012.
The Shattered Vine by Laura Anne Gilman
(Book Three of The Vineart War), Gallery, $26.00, 344pp, hc, 9781439101483. Fantasy.
Nebula Award nominee Laura Anne Gilman’s novels of vine, earth, and deceit have been hailed as a “dramatic, authentic, and potent” (Publishers Weekly) fantasy series. Now, with The Shattered Vine: Book Three of the Vineart War, two opposing forces are drawn into a duel of magic and will…
Two thousand years ago, a demigod changed the world, splitting authority between Vinearts and men of power, and setting his heirs, the Washers, to guard the balance. But even gods may fail, and now the Lands Vin are racked by rumor and revolt, hunger and inexplicable violence.
Vineart Jerzy was set to track the source of these rumors and violence, accompanied by the three people in the world he trusts: a trader crippled by a sea monster’s attack, a young woman with no place in the world, and a prince who abandoned his people. They have their enemy’s name, and they know his plan. What they don’t know is how to stop him.
As Jerzy takes command of the House of Malech and unrest in the land increases, he realizes he must delve deeper into forbidden magic if he is to lure his unknown enemy out into the open. Because in a world where everyone knows their place, only a former slave is free to act. Laura Anne Gilman’s The Shattered Vine will capture readers from the start and keep them along for an imaginative adventure, straight through to the end.
Uncharted: The Fourth Labyrinth by Christopher Golden
Del Rey, $15.00, 326pp, tp, 9780345522177. Science fiction tie-in.
The official novel of Naughty Dog’s award-winning video game franchise.
In the ancient world there was a myth about a king, a treasure, and a hellish labyrinth. Now the doors to that hell are open once again.
Nathan Drake, treasure hunter and risk taker, has been called to New York City by the man who taught him everything about the “antiquities acquisition business.” Victor Sullivan needs Drake’s help. Sully’s old friend, a world-famous archaeologist, has just been found murdered in Manhattan. Dodging assassins, Drake, Sully, and the dead man’s daughter, Jada Hzujak, race from New York to underground excavations in Egypt and Greece. Their goal: to unravel an ancient myth of alchemy, look for three long-lost labyrinths, and find the astonishing discovery that got Jada’s father killed. It appears that a fourth labyrinth was built in another land and another culture—and within it lies a key to unmatched wealth and power. An army of terrifying lost warriors guards this underground maze. So does a monster. And what lies beyond—if Drake can live long enough to reach it—is both a treasure and a poison, a paradise and a hell.
Welcome to The Fourth Labyrinth.
Vampire Empire, Book Two: The Rift Walker by Clay Griffith & Susan Griffith
Pyr, $16.00, 400pp, tp, 9781616144231. 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, Mamoru, 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.
Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel
Del Rey, $16.99, 472pp, hc, 9780345523310. Fantasy.
Love conquers all, so they say. But can Cupid’s arrow pierce the hearts of the living and the dead—or rather, the undead? Can a proper young Victorian lady find true love in the arms of a dashing zombie? The first book in an addictive new young adult series, Dearly, Departed is a steampunk romance-meets-zombie thriller that spawns a madly imaginative novel of adventure and suspense, macabre comedy and star-crossed love.
The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses.
But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal virus that raises the dead—and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble… and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.
In Dearly, Departed, romance meets walking-dead thriller, in a debut novel of rip-roaring adventure and spine-tingling suspense that forever redefines the concept of undying love.
Ghost Trackers by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson with Tim Waggoner
Gallery, $12.99, 372pp, tp, 9781451651171. Fiction.
In this spine-tingling new series, the stars of TV’s Ghost Hunters introduce readers to a team of paranormal investigators in Ghost Trackers who reunite to defeat a sinister force they unleashed long ago…
For fifteen years, Amber, Drew, and Trevor have barely been able to recall—let along explain—what happened the terrifying night they decided to explore the old, abandoned Lowry House. According to local legend, the house was cursed by a dark past and inhabited by evil. It burst into flames on the night of their visit, leaving the friends traumatized and nearly dead with only vague memories of the frightening events they had witnessed inside. Now, on the eve of their high school reunion, they have gathered to reopen their investigation and figure out, once and for all, what took place that fateful night… before the supernatural entity they escaped threatens to overtake them again.
Ghost Trackers is a thrill ride that will fasten readers to its plot and keep them side by side with Amber, Drew, and Trevor until they reach the end.
Starman Jones by Robert A. Heinlein
Baen, $13.00, 234pp, tp, 9781451637496. Science fiction.
Reach the stars—or die trying
The stars were closed to Max Jones. To get into space you either needed connections, a membership in the arcane Guild, or a whole lot more money than Max, the son of a windowed, poor mother, was ever going to have. What Max does have going for him are his uncle’s prized astrogation manuals—book on star navigation that Max literally commits to memory word for word, equation for equation.
When Max’s mother decides to remarry a bullying oaf, Max takes to the road, only to discover that his uncle Chet’s manuals, and Max’s near complete memorization of them, is a ticket to the stars. But serving on a spaceship is no easy task. Duty is everything, and a mistake can mean you and all aboard are lost forever. Max loves every minute of his new life, and he steadily grows in the trust of his superior officers, and seems to be on course for a command track position.
Then disaster strikes, and it’s going to take every trick Max ever learned from his tough life and his uncle’s manuals to save himself and the ship from a doom beyond extinction itself.
Slayers by C.J. Hill
Feiwel & Friends, $16.99, 384pp, hc, 9780312614140. YA Fantasy.
Dragons are supposed to be mythical creatures. Plenty of kids like studying them, drawing them, and reenacting times when dragons are said to have roamed the earth. The St. George Dragon Camp is geared toward these young dragon-geeks—but it’s also meant to attract Slayers, an elite group of teens who have not yet realized their dragon-fighting powers.
Senator’s daughter Tori is one of those teens, She’s a little embarrassed about wanting to go to Dragon Camp, but she can’t help herself; she dreams about dragons, and even imagines she can hear their heartbeats sometimes. But Tori’s enjoyment of camp is soon replaced by her realization that the heartbeats she’s been hearing are real. Dragons exist!
Dragons are ferocious, and they’re smart: Before they were killed off by knights, they rendered a select group of eggs dormant, so their offspring would survive. But the dragon eggs have fallen into the wrong hands. The Slayers must work together to stop the eggs from hatching. They will fight; they will fall in love. But will they survive?
Honor’s Pardox by P.C. Hodgell
(a new Kencyrath novel), Baen, $15.00, 288pp, tp, 9781451637625. Fantasy. On-sale date: December 2011.
The sequel to Bound in Blood and exciting sixth entry in the Godstalker Chronicles by epic fantasy world-builder extraordinaire, P.C. Hodgell.
Jame is one of the last of the Kencyrath line, born to battle a world-destroying Lord of Darkness and resuscitate her ancestral heritage. Jame’s youth was spent hard and low in a desert wasteland. Now she has discovered her past and her heritage as Highborn—and, with it, the power to call souls out of their bodies and slay the occasional god or two (as well as to resurrect them).
First, though, Jame must survive the politics and dangers of haunted Tentir College, a school for warriors where she’s a student. At Tentir, Jame saves a young protégé from possession by a powerful, evil soul in search of a body, while combating jealous students who see her as a danger to their ambition for power and want her expelled—and blinded and dead, in the bargain! Then, just as graduation approaches, Jame’s exemption from the sacred laws of the tribe of her youth expires and she is expected to wed immediately, plus take on a family. To make matters worse, she’s challenged to a mounted combat duel to decide who is Tentir “top gun”—a competition she must win to graduate. It’s trial by fire, as Jame moves closer to a magnificent destiny she both fears—and knows she must face.
Transformers: Exiles by Alex Irvine
Del Rey, $7.99, 384pp, pb, 9780345519863. Science fiction tie-in.
The epic battles between Optimus Prime and Megatron have long thrilled Transformers fans. But these two giants weren’t always great leaders and bitter foes. This new novel continues the electrifying saga that started with Transformers: Exodus, unveiling the origins of the conflict—the explosive events that unfolded before Optimus and Megatron arrived Earthside, forever altering the destiny of their kind.
Once allies, Optimus and Megatron are now enemies in a civil war. To prevent Cybertron from falling into Megatron’s hands, Optimus jettisons the planet’s heart, the AllSpark, into space, then sets out to find it with Megatron hot on his heels. Optimus is determined to defeat Megatron, bring the AllSpark home, and restore Cybertron to its former glory.
But a saboteur lurks aboard Optimus’s spaceship, and ahead llie lost colonies, some of them hostile. Optimus needs help of the highest caliber, but from whom? Heroes such as Solus, Nexus, and Vector Prime are just names from make-believe stories of long ago. Or are they? Maybe it’s time for Optimus Prime to find out. Maybe it’s the only chance he has to vanquish mighty Megatron.
Mirror Maze by Michaele Jordan
Pyr, $16.00, 368pp, tp, 9781616145293. Fantasy.
An erotic, chilling ghost story in an authentic, Victorian setting
Jacob Aldridge is still utterly devastated by the death of his fiancee when he suddenly encounters her doppelganger. Livia Aram’s uncanny resemblance to the late Rhoda Carothers so transcends coincidence that Jacob becomes obsessed with her. The intensity of his passion terrifies her until her compassion is roused by his desperate plight. A demon is stalking him, a succubus-like entity that feeds on human pain and desire. With the help of Jacob’s sister, Cecily, and Livia’s guardian, the mysterious Dr. Chang, they overcome the demon. Or so it appears.…
Jacob, Livia, and Cecily are all victims of a single curse, a curse which entrapped and destroyed their parents before them. Now fate has drawn their descendants together again, and the curse is playing out. Nothing can help them, until Cecily’s husband returns from abroad. Colonel Beckford has been missing for years; he has seen strange things and acquired strange powers in his absence. Now he will do whatever it takes to free his wife and eliminate the demon and its curse once and for all.
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan by Drew Karpyshyn
Del Rey, $27.00, 336pp, hc, 9780345511348. Science fiction tie-in. On-sale date: 15 November 2011.
There’s something out there: a juggernaut of evil bearing down to crush the Republic—unless one lone Jedi, shunned and reviled, can stop it.
Revan: hero, traitor, conqueror, villain, savior. A Jedi who left Coruscant to defeat Mandalorians—and returned a disciple of the dark side, bent on destroying the Republic. The Jedi Council gave Revan his life back, but the price of redemption was high. His memories have been erased. All that’s left are nightmares—and deep, abiding fear.
What exactly happened beyond the Outer Rim? Revan can’t quite remember, yet can’t entirely forget. Somehow he stumbled across a terrible secret that threatens the very existence of the Republic. With no idea what it is, or how to stop it, Revan may very well fail, for he’s never faced a more powerful and diabolic enemy. But only death can stop him from trying.
StarCraft: Ghost: Spectres by Nate Kenyon
Pocket Star, $7.99, 418pp, pb, 9781439109380. Media tie-in.
StarCraft: Ghosts: Spectres explodes from the universe of StarCraft II, the eagerly anticipated sequel to Blizzard Entertainment’s top-selling science-fiction real-time strategy game.
Nova, an elite stealth operative with exceptional telepathic and telekinetic powers, embarks on a heart-stopping mission that pits her against her own kind and forces her to confront her tragic, hidden past.
Ghosts epitomize the height of terran evolution and physical conditioning. Born with incredible psionic potential, these individuals are recruited and quarantined for government training from childhood. Like most ghosts, Nova Terra had all memories of her prior life buried when she became a member of this elite corps of covert operatives. Unlike most, however, Nova actually wanted to erase her personal history and put all of her painful memories to rest. Now, one of the most powerful ghosts in the Terran Dominion is about to be haunted by her former life when a forgotten friend joins her mission to lovate missing members of the ghost program. The shocking secrets they discover will pit Nova against both the shadows of her past and the future terran psionic warriors: specters.
World of Warcraft: Wolfheart by Richard A. Knaak
Gallery, $26.00, 378pp, hc, 9781451605754. Fantasy tie-in.
In this follow-up to his New York Times bestseller, World of Warcraft: Stormage, Richard A. Knaak delivers a sensational tie-in to the World of Warcraft game expansion. In World of Warcraft: Wolfheart, Knaak continues the thrilling story in the world of Azeroth.
In the wake of the Cataclysm, conflict has engulfed every corner of Azeroth. Hungering for more resources amid the turmoil, the Horde has pressed into Ashenvale to feed its burgeoning war machine. There, acting warchief Garrosh Hellscream has employed a brutal new tactic to conquer the region and crush its night elf defenders, a move that will cripple the Alliance’s power throughout the World of Warcraft.
Unaware of the disaster brewing in Ashenvale, the night elves’ legendary leaders, High Priestess Tyrande Whisperwind and Archdruid Malfurion Stormrage, conduct a summit near Darnassus in order to vote the proud worgen of Gilenas into the Alliance. However, resentment of Gilneas and its rules, Genn Gremayne, runs deep in Stormwind’s King Varian Wrynn. His refusal to forgive Geen for closing his nation off from the rest of the world years ago endangers more than just the summit: it threatens to unravel the Alliance itself.
Varian’s animosity is the only one of many unsettling developments in Darnassus. An uneasiness creeps over the once-immortal night elves as the first of them fall victim to the infirmities of age. While they cope with their mortality, tensions flare over the reintroduction of the Highborne, formerly the highest caste of night elf nobility, into their society. Many night elves are unable to pardon the Highborne for the destruction unleashed on Azeroth millennia ago by their reckless use of magic.
When a murdered Highborne is discovered on the outskirts of Darnassus, Malfurion and Tyrande move to stop further bloodshed and unrest by appointing one of the many elves’ most cunning and skilled agents to find the killer: the renowned warden Maiev Shadowsong. Yet with all that is transpiring in Darnassus, the Alliance might be powerless to stop the relentless new warchief Garrosh from seizing the hole of Ashenvale.
Changes by Mercedes Lackey
(Book Three of The Collegium Chronicles, a Novel of Valdemar), DAW, $25.95, 336pp, hc, 9780756406929. Fantasy.
In Mercedes Lackey’s classic coming-of-age story, the orphan Magpie pursues his quest for his parent’s identity with burning urgency—while also discovering another hidden talent and being trained by the King’s Own Herald as an undercover agent for Valdemar. Shy Bardic Trainee Lena has to face her famous but uncaring father, one of Valdemar’s most renowned Bards. And Healing Trainee Bear must struggle against his disapproving parents, who are pressuring Bear to quit the Healers’ Collegium because he lacks the magical Healing Gift.
Each of the three friends must face his or her demons and find their true strength as they seek to become the full Heralds, Bards, and Healers of Valdemar.
The Best of the Bolos: Their Finest Hour created by Keith Laumer, selected by Hank Davis
Baen, $7.99, 452pp, pb, 9781451637526. Science fiction anthology.
Knights sans peur et sans reproche
Controlled by their tireless electronic brains, the gigantic robot tanks known as Bolos were almost indestructible, and nearly unstoppable. Their artificial intelligences were designed to make them selflessly serve and protect humans throughout the galaxy, and made them far more noble than may of the humans who gave them their orders.
Created by Keith Laumer, the saga of the Bolos has been extended by several of the best writers in science fiction. Now, the best stories of the saga are collected in one volume, including work by New York Times best-selling writers David Weber, Mercedes Lackey, and S.M. Stirling, military science fiction grand master David Drake, and Laumer himself, who recount the exploits of the dauntless Bolos in Their Finest Hour.
[Contributors: David Weber, Keith Laumer, S.M. Stirling, Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon, Linda Evans, David Drake, and William H. Keith, Jr.]
Stan Lee’s How to Write Comics by Stan Lee
Watson-Guptill, $24.99, 224pp, hc, 9780823000845. Non-fiction.
Spider-Man. Iron Man. Thor. The Incredible Hulk. X-Men.
What these characters have in common is that they were brought to life by the written words of the one and only Stan Lee—writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television and film personality, and the former President and Chairman of Marvel Comics. In Stan Lee’s How to Write Comics, Stan has set about to teach everything he knows about writing and creating comic book characters. In these pages, aspiring comics writers will learn how to write their own comic book stories, complete with easy-to-understand instruction, tips of the trade, and invaluable advice for even more advanced writers. From the secrets to creating concepts, plots, to writing the script, the incomparable Stan Lee is your guide to the world of writing and creating comics.
Stan Lee’s How to Write Comics is the definitive authority on writing comics. From developing the plot and creating characters to the final script, the legendary man of comics is your personal guide to the world of creating comics. This book begins with a history and overview of comics, including the History of Marvel and DC Comics. Then, Stan gets into the nitty gritty—the tools you’ll need, and the basic genres of comics and how to put together a script. How do you create a character? How do Marvel’s “Plot First” scripts differ from other scripts? How do you make your dialogue pop? What are the best stories to tell? And most importantly, what do you do when you finally finish your creation and want to get it published? Stan offers invaluable tips, plus advice from industry insiders to make sure you’re well on your way to success.
The Book of Cthulhu edited by Ross E. Lockhart
Night Shade, $15.99, 544pp, tp, 9781597802321. Horror anthology.
First described by visionary author H.P. Lovecraft, the Cthulhu mythos encompass a pantheon of truly existential cosmic horror: Eldritch, uncaring, alien god-things, beyond mankind’s deepest imaginings, drawing ever nearer, insatiably hungry, until one day, when the stars are right.…
Now that day has come, Cthulhu and the Elder Gods have risen. Anthologist Ross E. Lockhart has selected twenty-seven of the best sanity-shattering stories of tentacles, terror, and madness from some of the biggest names in horror and fantastic fiction, including Ramsey Campbell, Charles Stross, Kage Baker, Joe R. Lansdale, Elizabeth Bear, Thomas Ligotti, Cherie Priest, John Langan, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Gene Wolfe, Ann K. Schwader, and David Drake. Not only does this doorstop-thick anthology draw from the best Cthulhu mythos tales of the last thirty years, but it also brings two brand new stories to the table: Shirley Jackson Award-winning author Laird Barron’s “The Men from Porlock,” a menacing combination of lumberjacks and cosmic horror, and John Hornor Jacobs’ “The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife,” a strange and macabre take on Lovecraft’s “The Shadow over Innsmouth.”
The Book of Cthulhu goes where no collection of Cthulhu mythos tales has before: to the very edge of madness… and beyond!
[Contributors: Caitlin R. Kiernan, Ramsey Campbell, Charles Stross, Bruce Sterling, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, W.H. Pugmire, Molly Tanzer, Michael Shea, Elizabeth Bear, T.E.D. Klein, David Drake, Charles R. Saunders, Thomas Ligotti, Kage Baker, Edward Morris, Cherie Priest, John Hornor Jacobs, Brian McNaughton, Ann K. Schwader, Steve Duffy, Joe R. Lansdale, Brian Lumley, Tim Pratt, Gene Wolfe, Joseph S. Pulver Sr., John Langan, and Laird Barron.]
Star Wars: Darth Plagueis by James Luceno
Del Rey, $27.00, 416pp, hc, 9780345511287. Science fiction tie-in. On-sale date: 27 December 2011.
He was the most powerful Sith lord who ever lived. But could he be the only one who never died?
“Did you ever hear the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? It’s a Sith legend. Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise that he could use the Force to influence the midi-chlorians to create life. He had such a knowledge of the dark side that he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying.” —Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith
Darth Plagueis: one of the most brilliant Sith Lords who ever lived. Possessing power is all he desires. Losing it is the only thing he fears. As an apprentice, he embraces the ruthless ways of the Sith. And when the time is right, he destroys his Master—but vows never to suffer the same fate. For like no other disciple of the dark side, Darth Plagueis learns to command the ultimate power… over life and death.
Darth Sidious: Plagueis’s chosen apprentice. Under the guidance of his Master, he secretly studies the ways of the Sith, while publicly rising to power in the galactic government, first as Senator, then as Chancellor, and eventually as Emperor.
Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious, Master and acolyte, target the galaxy for domination—and the Jedi Order for annihilation. But can they defy the merciless Sith tradition? Or will the desire of one to rule supreme, and the dream of the other to live forever, sow the seeds of their destruction?
The Restoration Game by Ken MacLeod
Pyr, $16.00, 240pp, tp, 9781616145255. Science fiction.
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 Edinburg, 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.
Weird Ways of Witchcraft by Dr. Leo Louis Martello, foreword by Reverend Lori Bruno
Weiser, $16.95, 178pp, tp, 9781578635160.
Weird Ways of Witchcraft is the work of the late, Dr. Leo Louis Martello, founder of the Witches’ Anti-Defamation League and pioneer of the 1960’s Witches’ Liberation Movement. The outspoken Martello raged against the Catholic Church with his infamous Witch Manifesto, becoming one of the most controversial figures of the 20th century occult movement. Here, in a voice uniquely his own, Martello enlightens, entices, and enchants a new generation of readers with spells, incantations, folklore, and accounts of contemporary Witch history.
Weird Ways of Witchcraft provides a snapshot in time, when the seeds of the Neopagan movement and the teachings of witchcraft began to spread throughout the counterculture, in the heady days of women’s liberation, gay liberation, and ongoing revolts against church, state, and the status quo.
This new edition includes a foreword by renowned psychic and strega, Reverend Lori Bruno.
Down These Strange Streets edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
Ace, $26.95, 496pp, hc, 9780441020744. Fantasy anthology.
Ace Books is thrilled to announce the publication of Down These Strange Streets. This is a stellar collection of all-new urban fantasy stories edited by none other than #1 New York Times bestselling author of Game of Thrones George R.R. Martin and the legendary Gardner Dozois.
Featuring 16 original stories, this all-new collection explores the places where mystery waits at the end of every alley and where the things that go bump in the night have something to fear—all set against an urban backdrop. Martin and Dozois have collected stories from some of the biggest names working in the genre today.
Fans will not want to miss the contributions of the New York Times bestsellers including:
* “Death by Dahlia” from Charlaine Harris featuring the vampire Dahlia Lynley-Chivers and set in the world of her Sookie Stackhouse series.
* Patricia Briggs’ “In Red, with Pearls,” a thrilling story about a werewolf PI who is trying to crack a case involving zombies, witches and lawyers.
* “Lord John and the Plague of Zombies” by Diana Gabaldon which follows John’s adventures in Jamaica investigating a mystery with spiders, snakes, revolutionaries, and of course, zombies.
This collection also includes all-new contributions from: Glen Cook, Bradley Denton, Simon R. Green, M.L.N. Hanover, Conn Iggulden, Laurie R. King, Joe R. Lansdale, John Maddox Roberts, Steven Saylor, Melinda Snodgrass, S.M. Stirling, Lisa Tuttle, and Carrie Vaughn.
Planesrunner by Ian McDonald
(Everness Book One), Pyr, $18.00, 290pp, hc, 9781616145415. Science fiction.
There is not one you. There are many yous. There is not one world. There are many worlds. Ours is one of billions of parallel earths.
When Everett Singh’s scientist father is kdinapped from the streets of London, he leaves young Everett a mysterious app on his computer. Suddenly, this fourteen-year-old has become the owner of the most valuable object in the multiverse—the Infundibulum—the map of all the parallel earths, and there are dark forces in the Ten Known Worlds who will stop at nothing to get it. They’ve got power, authority, and the might of ten planets—some of them more technologically advanced than our Earth—at their fingertips. He’s got wits, intelligence, and a knack for Indian cooking.
To keep the Infundibulum safe, Everett must trick his way through the Heisenberg Gate his dad helped build and go on the run in a parallel Earth. But to rescue his Dad from Charlotte Villiers and the sinister Order, this Planesrunner’s going to need friends. Friends like Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth, her adopted daughter Sen, and the crew of the airship Everness.
Can they rescue Everett’s father and get the Infundibulum to safety? The game is afoot!
The Cold Commands by Richard K. Morgan
(Book Two of A Land Fit for Heroes), Del Rey, $26.00, 500pp, hc, 9780345493064. Fantasy.
With The Steel Remains, award-winning science fiction writer Richard K. Morgan turned his talents to sword and sorcery. The result: a genre-busting masterwork hailed as a milestone in contemporary epic fantasy. Now, in The Cold Commands, Morgan continues the riveting saga of Ringil Eskiath—Gil, for short—a peerless warrior whose love for other men has made him an outcast and pariah.
Only a select few have earned the right to call Gil friend. One is Egar, the Dragonbane, a fierce Majak fighter who comes to respect a heart as savage and loyal as his own. Another is Archeth, the last remaining daughter of an otherworldly race called the Kiriath, who once used their advanced technology to save the world from the dark magic of the Aldrain—only to depart for reasons as mysterious as their arrival. Yet even Egar and Archeth have learned to fear the doom that clings to their friend like a grim shadow… or the curse of a bitter god.
Now one of the Kiriath’s uncanny machine intelligences has fallen from orbit—with a message that humanity faces a grave new danger (or, rather, an ancient one): a creature called the Illwrack Changeling, a boy raised to manhood in the ghostly between-world realm of the Grey Places, home to the Aldrain. A human raised as one of them—and, some say, the lover of one of their greatest warriors—until, in a time lost to legend, he was vanquished. Wrapped in sorcerous slumber, hidden away on an island that drifts between this world and the Grey Places, the Illwrack Changeling is stirring. And when he wakes, the Aldrain will rally to him and return in force—this time without the Kiriath to stop them.
An expedition outfitted for the long and arduous sea journey to find the lost island of the Illwrack Changeling. Aboard are Gil, Egar, and Archeth: each fleeing from ghosts of the past, each seeking redemption in whatever lies ahead. But redemption doesn’t come cheap these days. Nor, for that matter, does survival. Not even for Ringil Eskiath. Or anyone—god or mortal—who would seek to use him as a pawn.
Vamparazzi by Laura Resnick
(an Esther Diamond novel), DAW, $7.99, 390pp, pb, 9780756406875. Fantasy.
Everything you know about vampires is wrong…
…as struggling actress Esther Diamond finds out after taking a job as a scantily clad victim in The Vampyre, an off-Broadway cult hit in Manhattan. Not only is she besieged by black-clad, fang-wearing vampire groupies, fanatical anti-vampire activists, and the bloodsucking paparazzi, but she has to put up with an annoyingly broody lead actor, Daemon Ravel, who drives fans wild by claiming to be a real vampire.
Aggravating, to be sure, but hey, any acting gig is better than waiting tables, right? At least until fate bites them all in the neck when one of Daemon’s devoted fan girls turns up dead—and drained of all her blood.
Determined to help her anxious co-star—who has become the main suspect in the NYPD murder investigation—Esther turns to her old friend Max, a 350-year-old magician and bookstore owner in Greenwich Village. Meanwhile, Detective Connor Lopez, Esther’s ex-almost-boyfriend, is convinced that Esther herself is the blood-sucking killer’s next target.
Pursued by crazed vamparazzi, real vampires, and an ancient cult of vampire hunters, Esther soon learns that being a succulent snack for a bloodthirsty prince of the night isn’t nearly as much fun as she makes it look onstage.
The Highest Frontier by Joan Slonczewski
Tor, $26.99, 448pp, hc, 9780765329561. Science fiction.
Hard science fiction author Joan Slonczewski is back with her first novel in over a decade. Slonczewski is most famous for the incredible novel A Door Into Ocean (winner of the John Campbell Award for Science Fiction), as well as The Children Star. Now, she continues her tradition of combining compelling storylines with incredibly detailed and feasible science in The Highest Frontier.
The Highest Frontier is the story of Jennifer Ramos Kennedy, daughter of a rich and politically influential clan, who is leaving to attend Frontera College, the first college built in orbit.
Bereft from the death of her twin brother, Jenny only wants a normal life: to study, make friends, and maybe even go out on a few dates. Normal is relative though; the Earth is altered by global warming, and an invasive alien species called ultraphytes threatens the surviving ecosystem. Now the ultraphytes are beginning to appear at Frontera, where they could permanently upset the delicate balance of the orbital station’s ecosystem. Dealing with problems both completely familiar to modern readers as well as ones that are truly out of this world, Jenny shows us her world—a world everyone, young or old, will want to explore.
What draws many fans to Slonczewski’s work is the detail and accuracy in her science, and for good reason. Slonczewski is the chair of the biology department of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, and her work there definitely informs how she envisions our future. In addition to the John Campbell award for her fiction, Slonczewski has been given the Robert Tomisch Award for outstanding achievement in research in science and was a Silver Medalist in the National Professor of the Year Program, a program run by Council for Advancement and Support of Education in Washington, DC. In The Highest Frontier, Slonczewski proves that science and fiction absolutely do belong together.
Antiquitas Lost: The Last of the Shamalans by Robert Louis Smith, illustrations by Geof Isherwood
MedLock, $14.95, 616pp, tp, 9780615460475. Fantasy.
From American cardiologist Robert Louis Smith comes the unique fantasy novel Antiquitas Lost, peppered with more than seventy eye-popping illustrations by Marvel Comics legend Geof Isherwood. This epic fantasy tells the story of a 15 year old boy named Elliott, a lonesome kid with deformities on his hands and feet who is uprooted from his home after his mother falls gravely ill. After moving to New Orleans so his grandfather can help care for her, Elliott learns that the old man’s eighteenth century mansion hides an ancient secret. From the dungeon-lile basement, Elliott strays through an ancient doorway into a tumultuous parallel world called Pangrelor, full of bizarre creatures and warring races. He discovers that he has wondrous abilities he never dreamed he possessed, and an abiding connection to the primitive, alien world that will forever change him.
But he must proceed carefully. For he soon learns that his actions in the ancient world will impact the upcoming battle for Harwelden, Pangrelor’s greatest civilization, and will also resonate all the way back to New Orleans, perhaps deciding whether his own mother lives or dies.
Reamde by Neal Stephenson
William Morrow, $35.00, 1056pp, hc, 9780061977969. Fiction.
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.
A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber
(a Star Kingdom novel), Baen, $18.99, 362pp, hc, 9781451637472. Science fiction.
A friend in need
Stephanie Harrington always expected to be a forest ranger on her homeworld of Meyerdahl… until her parents relocated to the frontier planet of Sphinx in the distant Star Kingdom of Manticore. It should have been the perfect new home—a virgin wilderness full of new species of every sort, just waiting to be discovered. But Sphinx is a far more dangerous place than ultra-civilized Meyerdahl, and Stephanie’s explorations come to a sudden halt when her parents lay down the law: no unsupervised trips into the wild!
Yet Stephanie is a young woman determined to make discoveries, and the biggest one of all awaits her: an intelligent alien species.
The forest-dwelling treecats are small, cute, smart, and have a pronounced taste for celery. And they are also very, very deadly when they or their friends are threatened… as Stephanie discovers when she comes face-to-face with Sphinx’s most lethal predator.
Beginning a New Space Adventure Series Set in the Universe of Honor Harrington
How Firm a Foundation by David Weber
Tor, $27.99, 608pp, hc, 9780765321541. Fantasy.
The Charisian Empire, born in war, has always known it must fight for its very survival. What most of the Empire’s subjects don’t know even now, however, is how much more it’s fighting for. Emperor Cayleb, Empress Sharleyan, Merlin Athrawes, and their innermost circle of most trusted advisers do know. And because they do, they know the penalty if they lose will be far worse than their own deaths and the destruction of all they know and love.
For five years, Charis has survived all the Church of God Awaiting and the corrupt men who control it have thrown at the island empire. The price has been high and paid in blood. Despite its chain of hard-fought naval victories, Charis is still on the defensive. It can hold its own at sea, but if it is to survive, it must defeat the Church upon its own ground. Yet how does it invade the mainland and take the war to a foe whose population outnumbers its own fifteen to one? How does it prevent that massive opponent from rebuilding its fleets and attacking yet again?
Charis has no answer to those questions, but needs to find one… quickly. The Inquisition’s brutal torture and hideous executions are claiming more and more innocent lives. Its agents are fomenting rebellion against the only mainland realms sympathetic to Charis. And Merlin Athrawes, the cybernetic avatar of a young woman a thousand years dead, has finally learned what sleeps beneath the far-off Temple in the Church of God Awaiting’s city of Zion.
Those fighting for freedom and tolerance have built a foundation for their struggle in the Empire of Charis with their own blood, but will that foundation be firm enough to survive?