This page is updated as books are received throughout the month.
The Voodoo Hoodoo Spellbook by Denise Alvarado, foreword by Doktor Snake
Weiser, $19.95, 288pp, tp, 9781578635139.
The Voodoo Hoodoo Spellbook is a rich compendium of more than 300 authentic Voodoo and Hoodoo recipes, rituals, and spells from a native New Orleans practitioner.
Cultural psychologist and root worker Denise Alvarado draws on a lifetime of recipes and spells passed down from family, friends, and fellow practitioners. She traces the history of African-based folk magic from the slaves of New Orleans (both African & Native American), through the later influences of Catholicism and Pentecostalism. She shares her research into folklore collections and 19th- and 20th-century formularies along with her own magical arts.
The Voodoo Hoodoo Spellbook contains essential information on:
* The Pantheon of Voodoo Spirits
* The Seven African Powers
* Important Loas & their Corresponding Saints
* Prayers, Novenas, and Psalms
* Oils and Potions
* Hoodoo Powders and Gris Gris
* Talismans and Candle Magic
* Spells, Curses and Hexes
The Power of Illusion by Christopher Anvil
Baen, $7.99, 582pp, pb, 9781451637601. Science fiction collection.
Now You See It…
Now You Don’t.…
The overwhelming power of massed starship armadas can be undone in a moment—by the subtle power of illusion, as demonstrated in this collection of stories by the master of humorous science fiction adventure, including:
* The full-length novel, The Day the Machines Stopped—what happens, not just to civilization, but to humanity and its chances of survival when all the machines stop working at once?
* A man is captured by aliens who have science and technology far in advance of humans—but, unfortunately for them, they have never developed the human art of bluffing.
* For the first time in book form, Anvil’s stories of Richard Verner, who is called in to solve apparently insoluble problems, such as explaining why experimental missiles keep failing for no apparent reason, or locating a kidnapped judge, or even solving an inexplicable murder that’s interrupting his vacation.
And much more, in a generous volume of sardonically humorous science fiction.
[Contents: “A Taste of Poison”, “The Gold of Galileo”, The Day the Machines Stopped, “The Missile Smasher”, “The Problem Solver and the Killer”, “The Hand from the Past”, “The Problem Solver and the Hostage”, “The Problem Solver and the Defector”, “Key to the Crime”, “The Problem Solver and the Burned Letter”, “Warped Clue”, “The Coward”, “A Sense of Disaster”, “Destination Unknown”, “High Road to the East”, “A Tourist Named Death”, “The Knife and the Sheath”, “The Anomaly”, “In the Light of Further Data”, “Apron Chains”, and “The Power of Illusion”.]
Slabscape: Reset by S. Spencer Baker
Blip, £8.99, 312pp, pb, 9780956738707. Science fiction.
Louie Drago had been born into a broken world during the closing moments of the twentieth century.
Seventy-five years later, he was pornographically wealthy, had travelled to all the parts of the Earth he had any desire to visit, had experienced as many risky and thrilling experiences as he could reasonably endure and had variously drunk, eaten or inhaled as many legal, semi-legal or wildly illegal substances as his robust constitution could tolerate. He’d been there, seen it, done it and stubbornly refused to buy any t-shirts, postcards or anything that would ever require dusting. He was also terminally bored.
The were building a spaceship. A huge, interstellar spaceship. They needed two things: young, healthy volunteers and a lot of money. He bought himself a one-way ticket, but because the ship wouldn’t be ready for at least another thirty years and Louie had no guarantee of living that long, he had his entire personality digitised and downloaded into a triple-encrypted, quadruple-redundant data core. On his eightieth birthday he held a party that people would talk about for years and, while the Bacchanalian festivities were at their peak, had his body ceremonially placed into cryonic suspension.
As far as Louie was concerned, that was the last time that anything had gone according to plan.
Stone Spring by Stephen Baxter
(The Northland Trilogy), Roc, $25.95, 500pp, hc, 9780451464187. Alternate history.
Praised as “one of the most inventive writers that science fiction has ever produced,” 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.
The Black Hawk by Joanna Bourne
Berkley Sensation, $7.99, 324pp, pb, 9780425244531. Historical Romance.
He is her enemy.
He is her lover.
He is her only hope.
Someone is stalking agent Justine DeCabrillac through London’s gray streets. Under cover of the rain, the assassin strikes—and Justine staggers to the door of the one man who can save her. The man she once loved. The man she hated. Adrian Hawkhurst.
Adrian wanted the treacherous beauty known as “Owl” back in his bed, but not wounded and clinging to life. Now, as he helps her heal, the two must learn to trust each other to confront the hidden menace that’s trying to kill them—and survive long enough to explore the passion simmering between them once again…
Dark Heavens, Book Three: Blue Dragon by Kylie Chan
Harper Voyager, $7.99, 588pp, pb, 9780061994135. Urban Fantasy.
Martial Arts, Magic, Demons and Science
The forces of Hell are poised to strike…
When Emma’s relatives come to visit her, they are totally freaked out by what they learn… Emma’s beloved, John Chen, is a 3,000-year-old Chinese god. Not only that, John is becoming weaker by the day. Demons pursue him relentlessly, hoping to use Emma and his child, Simone, as bargaining tools against him.
Emma battles to defend Simone as John’s energy is drained by the effort of both living in the mortal world and protecting them. While Emma is nagged by doubts about her own nature, she must find the courage to go on…
Reap the East Wind by Glen Cook
(The Last Chronicle of the Dread Empire: Vol. 1), Night Shade, $14.99, 244pp, tp, 9781597803182. Fantasy.
It has ended. It begins again. In Kavelin: Lady Nepanthe’s new life with the wizard Varthlokkur is disturbed by visions of her lost son, while King Bragi Ragnarson and Michael Trebilcock scheme to help the exiled Princess Mist re-usurp her throne—under their thumb. In Shinsan: a pig-farmer’s so takes command of Eastern Army, while Lord Kuo faces plots in his council and a suicide attack of two million Matayangans on his border.
But in the desert beyond the Dread Empire: a young victim of the Great War becomes the Deliverer of an eons-forgotten god, chosen to lead the legions of the dead. And the power of his vengeance will make a world’s schemes as petty as dust, blown wild in the horror that rides the east wind.
This volume marks the beginning of the end. Reap the East Wind is the first step on the road to the long-delayed final chapter of Glen Cook’s legendary Dread Empire series.
Spellbound by Larry Correia
(Book II of the Grimnoir Chronicles), Baen, $25.00, 442pp, hc, 9781451637755. Urban Fantasy.
The Grimnoir Society’s mission is to protect people with magic, and they’ve done so—successfully and in secret—since the mysterious arrival of the Power in the 1850s. But when a magical assassin makes an attempt on the life of President Franklin Roosevelt, the crime is pinned on the Grimnoir. The knights must become fugitives while they attempt to discover who framed them.
Things go from bad to worse when Jake Sullivan, former private eye and knight of the Grimnoir, receives a telephone call from a dead man—a man he helped kill. Turns out the Power jumped universes because it was fleeing from a predator that eats magic and leaves destroyed worlds in its wake. And that predator has just landed on Earth.
Thomas World by Richard Cox
Night Shade, $14.99, 396pp, tp, 9781597803083. Science fiction.
Thomas Phillips knows he’s losing his mind
He’s been losing it for as long as he can remember. And yet, when a strange old man asks him to consider that only he, out of everyone in the world, knows the real truth, Thomas’ life begins to spiral out of control.
He loses interest in his job and is fired. He refuses his wife’s suggestion of psychiatric care, and she leaves him. In the end, Thomas is aloe. Except he’s not, because someone seems to be following him.
What if you were Thomas? Where would you go? What would you do? What if you realized every person in your life had been scripted to be there? And what if the person watching all this time was you?
Thomas World explores what happens when the borders of reality begin to weaken, become porous… when things start bleeding through the edges, challenging ones perceptions of the universe.
Heart of Darkness by Lauren Dane
(a Bound by Magick novel, first in a new series), Berkley Sensation, $7.99, 292pp, pb, 9780425244517. Paranormal Romance.
From national bestselling author Lauren Dane comes a white-hot new series about a dangerous family legacy and sensual paranormal passions played to the death on the knife-edge of darkness…
Meriel Owen, next in line to control the largest organization of witches in the country, is asked to investigate the owner of a notorious club reportedly siphoning magick from the font of the clan. It’s a direct violation of the clan’s rules, but one look at Dominic Bright and Meriel’s willing to make a deal. One taste of the sexually feral outlaw witch and she’s eager to go further: He’s her bond-mate, a legal conduit into the world of clan witches and their magick.
Playing by the rules isn’t Dominic’s style, but bonding with Meriel—night after explosive night—is. However, Meriel has unwittingly invited someone else into her world: Dominic’s mother, a dangerous and poisonously influential magick addict whose lust for death and power corrupts all she touches. Now her shadow is closing in on Merial, her clan and the man Merial loves, and it’s casting them all into the inescapable heart of darkness.
Necropolis by Michael Dempsey
Night Shade, $14.99, 362pp, tp, 9781597803151. Science fiction.
In a future where death is a thing of the past… how far would you go to solve your own murder?
Paul Donner is a NYPD detective struggling with a drinking problem and a marriage on the rocks. Then he and his wife get dead—shot to death in a “random” crime. Fifty years later, Donner is back—revived courtesy of the Shift, a process whereby inanimate DNA is re-activated.
This new “reborn” underclass is ot only alive again, they’re growing younger, destined for a second childhood. The freakish side-effect of a retroviral attack on New York, the Shift has turned the world upside down. Beneath the protective geodesic Blister, clocks run backwards, technology is hidden behind a noir facade, and you can see Bogart and DiCaprio in The Maltese Falcon III. In this unfamiliar retro-futurist world of flying Studebakers and plasma tommy guns, Donner must search for those responsible for the destruction of his life. His quest for retribution, aided by Maggie, his holographic Girl Friday, leads him to the heart of the mystery surrounding the Shift’s origin and up against those who would use it to control a terrified nation.
Worlds: The Best of Eric Flint’s Short Fiction by Eric Flint
Baen, $7.99, 780pp, pb, 9781451637519. Science fiction.
Worlds of Imagination and Adventure
Known for his New York Times best-selling alternate history novels, Flint is equally a master of shorter forms, and this large volume gathers the best of Flint’s shorter works, including:
* Several stories and a short novel set in Flint’s celebrated Ring of Fire alternate history series.
* Two stories from Flint’s Joe’s World humorous fantasy series.
* A planetary adventure story with Dave Freer, set in their popular Rats, Bats and Vats series.
* A military SF novella set in Flint and David Drake’s Belisarius series; and a shared-universe story set in David Drake’s Foreign Legions universe.
* And a short novel set in David Weber’s best-selling Honor Harrington universe.
In addition to the fiction, Eric Flint has written an overall introduction, plus an introduction for each story telling how it came to be written, making this an irresistible book for the many thousands of Eric Flint fans.
[Contents: Islands, The Wallenstein Gambit, “Portraits”, “Steps in the Dance”, “Postage Due”, From the Highlands, “Entropy, and the Strangler”, “The Realm of Words”, “Genie Out of the Bottle” (with Dave Freer), and “Carthago Delenda Est“.]
The Twilight of Lake Woebegotten by Harrison Geillor
Night Shade, $14.99, 280pp, tp, 9781597802840. Horror.
A small town… a plucky heroine, a shiny vampire, and a hunkey Native American rival with a secret. But all is not as it seems in Lake Woebegotten. Let Harrison Geillor reveal what lies beneath the seemingly placid surface. You’ll Laugh. We promise.
When Bonnie Grayduck relocates from sunny Santa Cruz, California to the small town of Lake Woebegotten, Minnesota, to live with her estranged father, chief of the local two-man police department, she thinks she’s leaving her troubles behind. But she soon becomes fascinated by another student—the brooding, beautiful Edwin Scullen, whose reclusive family hides a terrible secret. (Psst: they’re actually vampires. But they’re the kind who don’t eat people, so it’s okay.) Once Bonnie realizes what her new lover really is, she isn’t afraid. Instead, she sees potential. Because while Bonnie seems to her friends and family to be an ordinary, slightly clumsy, easily distracted girl, she’s really manipulative, calculating, power hungry, and not above committing murder to get her way—or even just to amuse herself. This is a love story about monsters… but the vampire isn’t the monster.
The Hollows Insider: New Fiction, Facts, Maps, Murders, and More in the World of Rachel Morgan by Kim Harrison
Harper Voyager, $25.99, 306pp, hc, 9780061974335. Nonfiction tie-in/fiction.
New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison has won legions of fans with her sexy supernatural novels featuring bounty-hunting witch Rachel Morgan. And now comes a unique look inside her beloved Hollows series that no fan should miss.…
The Hollows Insider
In the Hollows, the supernatural Inderlanders rule, and humanity must abide by their conventions, or else.
To survive among vampires, witches, Weres, gargoyles, trolls, fairies, and banshees—to say nothing of demons—humanity needs a guide. And now, written by Kim Harrison herself, here is an insider’s look at the supernatural world of the Hollows, from an overarching new story to character profiles, maps, spell guides, charm recipes, secret correspondence from the elusive Trent Kalamack, and much more.
Sisterhood of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
Tor, $27.99, 496pp, hc, 9780765322739. Science fiction. On-sale date: 3 January 2012.
It is eighty-three years after the last of the thinking machines were destroyed in the Battle of Corrin, after Faykan Butler took the name of Corrino and established himself as the first Emperor of a new Imperium. Great changes are brewing that will shape and twist all of humankind.
The war hero Vorian Atreides has turned his back on politics and Salusa Secundus. The descendants of Abulurd Harkonnen Griffen and Valya have sworn vengeance against Vor, blaming him for the downfall of their fortunes. Raquella Berto-Anirul has formed the Bene Gesserit School on the jungle planet Rossak as the first Reverend Mother. The descendants of Aurelius Venport and Norma Cenva have built Venport Holding , using mutated, spice-saturated Navigators who fly precursors of Heighliners. Gilbertus Albans, the ward of the hated Erasmus, is teaching humans to become Mentats… and hiding an unbelievable secret.
The Butlerian movement, rabidly opposed to all forms of “dangerous technology,” is led by Manford Torondo and his devoted Swordmaster, Anari Idaho. And it is this group, so many decades after the defeat of the thinking machines, which begins to sweep across the known universe in mobs, millions strong, destroying everything in its path.
Every one of these characters, and all of these groups, will become enmeshed in the contest between Reason and Faith. All of them will be forced to choose sides in the inevitable crusade that could destroy humankind forever.…
Infidel by Kameron Hurley
(Volume Two of the Bel Daem Apocrypha), Night Shade, $14.99, 376pp, tp, 9781597802246. Science fiction.
The only thing worse than war is revolution. Especially when you’re already losing the war…
Nyx used to be a bel dame, a government-funded assassin with a talent for cutting off heads for cash. Her country’s war rages on, but her assassin days are long over. Now she’s babysitting diplomats to make ends meet and longing for the days when killing people was a lot more honorable.
When Nyx’s former bel dame “sisters” lead a coup against the government that threatens to plunge the country into civil war, Nyx volunteers to stop them. The hunt takes Nyx and her inglorious team of mercenaries to one of the richest, most peaceful, and most contaminated countries on the planet—a country wholly unprepared to host a battle waged by the world’s deadliest assassins.
In a rotten country of sweet-tongued politicians, giant bugs, and renegade shape shifters, Nyx will forge unlikely allies and rekindle old acquaintances. And the bodies she leaves scattered across the continent this time… may include her own.
Because no matter where you go or how far you run in this world, one thing is certain: the bloody bel dames will find you.
Aloha from Hell by Richard Kadrey
(a Sandman Slim novel), Voyager, $23.99, 438pp, hc, 9780061714320. Fantasy.
In Aloha from Hell, the riveting new urban fantasy/noir from acclaimed author and artist Richard Kadrey, James Stark, aka Sandman Alim, just wants an end to the killing. He’s battled the generals of Hell. He’s battled the angels. He’s gone up against Lucifer, and God is, well, just on vacation. Perhaps permanently.
But not everyone is on vacation. Now that Lucifer has ascended to heaven, the infernal battle is in full flame. Everyone wants to be the Crown Prince of the abyss, including the insane serial killer Mason, the man who killed Stark’s girlfriend, Alice, and damned Stark to hell.
Mason isn’t going to let Stark rest on his bloody laurels—because Stark is the man to beat for the ascendancy. So Mason kidnaps Alice straight out of Heaven to draw Stark back to Hell.
And thus, in Aloha from Hell, Stark must rally himself from self-imposed anti-infernal exile and head back down to his old stomping grounds to rescue his long-lost love, stop a sadist hell-bent on domination, prevent both Good and Evil from completely destroying each other and stop the demonic Kissi from ruining the party for everyone.
Even for Sandman Slim, that’s a tall order. And it’s only the beginning.
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan by Drew Karpyshyn
Del Rey, $27.00, 300pp, hc, 9780345511348. Science fiction/tie-in.
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…
On December 20, 2011, BioWare and LucasArts—creators of the hugely popular Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic video game—will at long last launch one of the most anticipated massively multiplayer online role-playing games ever: Star Wars: The Old Republic. Beginning last summer, Del Rey Books provided readers and gamers alike the opportunity to experience the game universe with the New York Times bestselling Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance, and Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived. Now, the third novel set in the Old Republic era, Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan by Drew Karpyshyn, ramps up the action.
Revan: hero, traitor, conqueror, villain, savior. A Jedi who left Coruscant to defeat the 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.
The Clone Redemption by Steven L. Kent
Ace, $7.99, 354pp, pb, 9781937007022. Science fiction.
Earth, A.D. 2517. The Unified Authority spread human colonies across the Milky Way, keeping strict order with a powerful military made up almost entirely of clones. But now the clones have formed their own empire—and they aim to keep it…
Born and bred to fight for the U.A., clone Marine Wayson Harris has unleashed his fury as he and his brethren rebel against their former masters. But there is a greater threat approaching.
The aliens known as the Avatari are on the move, incinerating the new remaining inhabited planets as they make their way toward Earth while the Clone Empire and the U.A. vie for control of the doomed galactic republic.
Now Harris must race against an unstoppable enemy while battling the ruthless U.A. forces even as he struggles with the question he has asked for years: Is he truly self-willed, or is he still being controlled in a way he cannot imagine?
Legends of the Dragonrealm, Volume III by Richard A. Knaak
Gallery, $18.99, 672pp, tp, 9781451651386. Fantasy/Epic.
The classic Dragonrealm series comes alive once again in this heart-pounding, action-packed omnibus that features two complete novels and three bonus novellas.
In The Crystal Dragon, sinister dreams haunt the wizard Cabe Bedlam, leading him and Darkhorse to the desolate peninsula of Legar. Here a desperate band of wolf raiders, their empire in ruins, have discovered the resting place and sorcerous artifacts of the inhuman Quel. Now Cabe, Darkhorse, and the Gryphon are trapped between two hellish hordes and to defeat them, Cabe must become the willing pawn of the oldest, most enigmatic drake of all… the Crystal Dragon.
In The Dragon Crown, the young, shape-shifting drake Kyl, heir to the dragon emperor’s throne, is the focus of many who seek to control the realm’s destiny. Cabe most of all hopes that this new emperor will be the signal for peace among drakes and men, but knows that he might just as well prove the spark that brings the land to war. However, first Kyl must survive and in trying to assure that, Cabe will have to confront a nightmarish foe from his distant past, one who can strike at him even from within the wizard’s own sanctum…
This omnibus also features three novellas, now available for the first time in print: Past Dance, Storm Lord, and The Still Lands.
Fenrir by M.D. Lachlan
Pyr, $16.00, 448pp, tp, 9781616145279. Fantasy.
The Vikings are laying siege to Paris. As the houses on the banks of the Seine burn, a debate rages in the Cathedral on the walled island of the city proper. The situation is hopeless. The Vikings want the Count’s sister, and in return they will spare the rest of the city. Can the Count really have ambitions to be Emperor of the Franks if he doesn’t do everything he can to save his people? Can he call himself a man if he doesn’t do everything he can to save his sister? His conscience demands one thing, the state demands another.
The Count and the church are relying on the living saint, the blind and crippled Jehan of St. Germain, to enlist the aid of God and resolve the situation for them. But the Vikings have their own gods. And outside their camp a terrifying brother and sister, priests of Odin, have their own agenda—an agenda of darkness and madness. And in the shadows a wolfman lurks.
M.D. Lachlan’s stunning epic of mad Gods, Vikings, and the myth of Fenrir, the wolf destined to kill Odin at Ragnarok, powers forward into new territories of bloody horror, unlikely heroism, dangerous religion, and breathtaking action.
Z: Zombie Stories edited by J.M. Lassen
Night Shade, $12.99, 296pp, tp, 9781597803120. YA Horror Anthology.
When the zombie apocalypse comes, it’s not just those crusty old folks who will struggle against the undead, it’s the young people. What happens when you come of age during the zombie apocalypse? Z: Zombie Stories has the answer.
This addictively gory YA anthology gathers together some of the hottest zombie fiction of the last two decades, from authors including Kelly Link, Jonathan Maberry, and Catherynne M. Valente. These stories focus on those who will inherit a world overrun with the living dead: a young man who takes up the family business of dealing with the undead, a girl struggling with her abusive father… who has become a zombie, a poet who digs up the wrong grave, and a Viking maiden imprisoned with the living dead. There’s also a brand new story by author Thomas S. Roche. If your zombie cravings call for gore, guts and kick-ass teenage protagonists, Z: Zombie Stories will satisfy your hunger… and more.
[Contributors: Jonathan Maberry, Kelly Link, Catherynne M. Valente, Christine Morgan, Scott Nicholson, Darrell Schweitzer, Marie Atkins, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, David Barr Kirtley, Scott Edelman, and Thomas S. Roche.]
Mouse & Dragon by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
(a new Liaden Universe novel), Baen, $7.99, 502pp, pb, 9781451637595. Science fiction.
After the Happy Ending…
Aelliana Caylon has endured much, and finally, she appears to have won all: a spaceship, comrades, friends—and the love of a pilot she adores. Even better than her lover—a man as much a loner as she—is also the Delm of Korval, with the power to remove her and protect her from the toxic environment of her home Clan. Best of all, he agrees to sit as her copilot and her partner in a courier business.
Even happy endings sometimes show a few flaws. Such as Aelliana’s home clan being not as agreeable to letting her go as it had first seemed. And the fact that someone is stealing pilots in the Low Port, which falls within the Delm of Korval’s honor. Oh, and the revelation that the man she loves isn’t quite the man she thought he was. And finally, she discovers that even the lift from Liad she’d so fervently desired, is part of a larger plan, a plan requiring her to be someone she never thought she was, or could be.
Firebird by Jack McDevitt
(an Alex Benedict novel), Ace, $24.95, 375pp, hc, 9780441020737. Science fiction.
Dr. Christopher Robin was a renowned physicist whose fringe science theories about life after death and the existence of the multiverse—endless alternate universes where Earth’s history and people’s lives differ from known reality—earned him both admirers and enemies. Forty-one years ago, he vanished during the Great Kolandra Earthquake.
Now his widow has died and Alex Benedict has been asked to handle the auction of the physicist’s artifacts—leading the public to once again speculate on the mystery surrounding Robin’s disappearance. Did he die in the quake? Was he murdered to protect certain corporate interests? Or did he finally find the door between universes that he had long sought?
Intrigued, Benedict and Chase Kolpath embark on their own investigation as they follow the missing man’s trail into the unknown to uncover the truth—a truth people are willing to kill for…
Drink Deep by Chloe Neill
(a Chicagoland Vampires novel), NAL, $15.00, 338pp, tp, 9780451234865. Fantasy.
Clouds are brewing over Cadogan House, and recently turned vampire Merit can’t tell if this is the darkness before the dawn or the calm before the storm. With the city in turmoil over paranormals and the state threatening to pass a paranormal registration act, times haven’t been this precarious for vampires since they came out of the closet. If only they could lie low for a bit and let the mortals calm down.
That’s when the waters of Lake Michigan suddenly turn pitch-black—and things really start getting ugly.
Chicago’s mayor insists it’s nothing to worry about, but Merit knows only the darkest magic could have woven a spell powerful enough to change the very fabric of nature. She’ll have to turn to friends old and new to find out who’s behind this, and stop them before it’s too late for vampires and humans alike.
Moonsinger’s Quest by Andre Norton
Baen, $12.00, 419pp, tp, 9781451637564. Science fiction.
The Moonsinger Returns
Two outstanding novels continuing the interstellar adventures of Lady Maelen, the Moonsinger.
Flight to Yiktor: Farree was a hunchbacked orphan in the slum of a tough, lawless world on the edge of the known galaxy. His only friend was a war-beast rescued from starvation and the fighting pits with whom he has a telepathic connection. He had no memory of how he came to be on a planet which obviously is not his homeworld, and no hope of escaping the wretched slum where he barely manages to survive—until he encountered star-traveler Krip Vorlund and the psychic sorceress Lady Maelen, the Moonsinger.
Dare to Go A-Hunting: Farree has discovered a portion of his true heritage as one of the ancient Little People, the Faery Folk of legend—but so far as he knows, he is the only one of his kind to survive. Then his compatriot, Lady Maelen, finds a clue on a distant frontier outpost world which points to the location of Farree’s birthplace. But others are looking for that place, as well. And those others do not mean the inhabitants well. Now Farree must find and defend a family and people he does not remember, but who hold the key top his own strange destiny.
The concluding novels in Andre Norton’s Moonsinger saga, together in one volume for the first time.
Skinners: Extinction Agenda by Marcus Pelegrimas
Harper Voyager, $7.99, 402pp, pb, 9780061986383. Horror.
The human race is under siege—with shapeshifters, vampires, and half-blood werewolves freely prowling the streets of the world’s cities… and Full Bloods about to descend en masse from out of the dark wilderness. The police and the military are helpless, and only the Skinners can forestall the tactical nuke strikes the Army has planned as a last resort.
Skinners, partners, lovers, Paige Strobel and Cole Warnecki know Armageddon is at hand, and seek a union with the mysterious European blood hunters, the Gypsy Amriany, as a final, desperate means to preventing the monster apocalypse. But power-mad traitors from the ranks of their own kind could doom humanity’s valiant efforts to survive. And the only possible outcome at the end of the ultimate war is total extinction. But for whom… or what?
Mastiff: Beka Cooper, Book Three (A Tortall Legend) by Tamora Pierce
Random House, $18.99, 596pp, hc, 9780375814709. Fantasy.
The Hunt is on!
Three years have passed since Beka Cooper almost died in the sewers of Port Caynn, and she is now a respected member of the Provost’s Guard. But her life takes an unexpected turn when her fiance is killed on a slave raid. Beka is faced with a mixture of emotions as, unbeknownst to many, she was about to call the engagement off.
It is as Beka is facing these feelings that Lord Gershom appears at her door. Within hours, Beka; her partner, Tunstall; her scent hound, Achoo; and an unusual but powerful mage are working on an extremely secretive case that threatens the future of the Tortallan royal family, and therefore the entire Tortallan government. As Beka delves deeper into the motivations of the criminals she now Hunts, she learns of deep-seated political dissatisfaction, betrayal, and corruption. These are people with power, money, and influence. They are able to hire the most skilled of mages, well versed in the darkest forms of magic. And they are nearly impossible to identify.
This case—a Hunt that will take her to places she’s never been—will challenge Beka’s tracking skills beyond the city walls, as well as her ability to judge exactly whom she can trust with her life and her country’s future.
I, Robot: To Protect by Mickey Zucker Reichert
Roc, $24.95, 386pp, hc, 9780451464194. Science fiction.
Isaac Asimov is known as the most prolific author to ever write science fiction. The novels he first began to publish in the 1950s formed the canon from which all contemporary science fiction has evolved. Most famous among his many titles were those that belonged to his Robot series: The Caves of Steel (1954), The Naked Sun (1957), The Robots of Dawn (1983), and Robotos and Empire (1985). Exploring the very definitions of humanity, these works introduced the now famous Three Laws of Robotics:
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey all orders given by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
With authorization from the Estate of Isaac Asimov, Roc is proud to present I, Robot: To Protect, the prequel to his celebrated Robot series. Mickey Zucker Reichert (author of the Renshai Trilogy) was carefully selected by Asimov’s estate to write this newest installment because her long career as a medical doctor provided her with the authentic voice to write the protagonist of Dr. Susan Calvin.
The year is 2035 and robotic technology has evolved into the realm of self-aware, sentient mechanical entities. The future of the human race is to be inevitably linked with its most brilliant creation. Intelligent and driven, Dr. Susan Calvin is beginning her residency in psychiatry at Manhattan Hasbro teaching hospital, where a select group of patients is receiving the latest in diagnostic advancements—nanotechnology. The possibilities for such groundbreaking technology are almost endless. But what no one knows is that a technology that promised to improve life is now under the control of those who seek to spread only death.
Citadel by John Ringo
Baen, $7.99, 547pp, pb, 9781451637571. Science fiction.
Hold the Citadel
Of all the hosts of Eurotas the Troias were the most fell. For they were born of Winter.
Between the Solar Array Pumped Lasser and Troy, the two trillion ton nickel-iron battlestation created by eccentric billionaire Tyler Vernon, Earth has managed to recapture the Sol system from their Horvath conquerors and begin entering the galactic milieu.
But when the Rangora Empire rapidly crushes humanity’s only ally it becomes clear the war is just beginning. At the heart of nickel iron and starlight are the people—Marines, Navy and civilians—who make Troy a living, breathing, engine of war. Survivors of apocalypse, they know the cost of failure.
If this Troy falls, no one will be left to write the epic.
The Panama Laugh by Thomas S. Roche
Night Shade, $14.99, 300pp, tp, 9781597802901. Horror.
Ex-mercenary, pirate, and gun-runner Dante Bogart knows he’s screwed the pooch after he hands one of his shady employers a biological weapon that made the dead rise from their graves, laugh like hyenas, and feast upon the living. Dante tried to blow the whistle via a tell-all video that went viral—but that was before the black ops boys deep-sixed him at a secret interrogation site on the Panama-Colombia border.
When Dante wakes up in the jungle with the five intervening years missing from his memory, he knows he’s got to do something about the laughing sickness that has caused a world-wide slaughter. The resulting journey leads him across the nightmare that was the Panama Canal, around Cape Horn in a hijacked nuclear warship, to San Francisco’s mission district, where a crew of survivalist hackers have holed up in the pseudo-Moorish-castle turned porn-studio known as The Armory.
This mixed band of anti-social rejects has taken Dante’s whistle blowing video as an underground gospel, leading the fight against the laughing corpses and the corporate stooges who’ve tried to profit from the slaughter. Can Dante find redemption and save civilization?
Boneyards by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Pyr, $16.00, 302pp, tp, 9781616145439. Science fiction. On-sale date: January 2012.
When multiple Hugo Award winner Kristine Kathryn Rusch decided to put her stamp on classic space opera, readers wanted more. Now Rusch’s popular character Boss returns in a whole new adventure, one that takes her far outside her comfort zone, to a sector of space she’s never seen before.
Searching for ancient technology to help her friends find answers to the mystery of their own past, Boss ventures into a place filled with evidence of an ancient space battle, one the Dignity Vessels lost.
Meanwhile, the Enterran Empire keeps accidentally killing its scientists in a quest for ancient stealth tech. Boss’s most difficult friend, Squishy, has had enough. She sneaks into the Empire and destroys its primary stealth tech research base. But an old lover thwarts her escape, and now Squishy needs Boss’s help.
Boss, who is a fugitive in the Empire. Boss, who knows how to make a Dignity Vessel work. Boss, who knows that Dignity Vessels house the very technology that the Empire is searching for.
Should Boss take a Dignity Vessel to rescue Squishy and risk losing everything to the Empire? Or should Boss continue on her mission for her other friends and let Squishy suffer her own fate?
Filled with battles old and new, scientific dilemmas, and questions about the ethics of friendship, Boneyards looks at the influence of our past on our present and the risks we all take when we meddle in other people’s lives. Boneyards is space opera the way it was meant to be: exciting, fast moving, and filled with passion.
Kris Longknife: Daring by Mike Shepherd
Ace, $7.99, 358pp, pb, 9781937007034. Science fiction.
Lieutenant Commander Kris Longknife leads a Fleet of Discovery on a reconnaissance of the vast uncharted regions of space. No one, least of all Kris, expects to find an alien starship, certainly not one that comes out firing. Faced with a fight-or-flight situation, Kris fires back, blowing the ship to bits.
Half a universe away from her superiors, facing a possible mutiny from officers insisting on retreat, Kris holds the fate of humanity in her hands as she struggles to determine the extent of the alien threat—and whether to start an interstellar war…
Pathfinder Tales: Death’s Heretic by James L. Sutter
Paizo, $9.99, 400pp, pb, 9781601253699. Fantasy tie-in.
Nobody Cheats Death
A warrior haunted by his past, Salim is a problem-solver for a church he hates, bound by the death goddess to hunt down those who would rob her of her due. Such is the case in the desert nation of Thuvia, where a merchant on the verge of achieving eternal youth via a magical elixir is mysteriously murdered, his soul stolen from the afterlife. The only clue is a magical ransom note offering to trade the merchant’s spirit for his dose of the fabled potion. But who could steal a soul from the boneyard of Death herself? Enter Salim, whose unique skills should make solving this mystery a cinch. There’s only one problem: The investigation is being financed by the dead merchant’s stubborn and aristocratic daughter—and she wants to go out with him. Together, the two must embark on a tour of the Outer Planes, where devils and angels rub shoulders with fey lords and mechanical men, and nothing is as it seems.
From noted author and game designer James L. Sutter comes an epic mystery of murder and immortality, set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
Wolf Among the Stars by Steve White
(sequel to Eagle Against the Stars), Baen, $25.00, 245pp, hc, 9781451637540. Science fiction.
Freedom in the balance…
A near-future Earth has shaken off the stultifying economic domination of the alien Lokaron and totalitarian rule by the aliens’ puppets, the Earth First party. But now Earth is flung into galactic intrigue and war. The Lokaron star nations teeter on the edge of a fratricidal meltdown and a cabal of ancient enemies hope to use Earth as a proxy to destroy the Lokaron galactic order and rule over a new galactic dark age.
Now Captain Andrew Roark, the son of heroes of the rebellion and an officer trained in Lokaron space warfare tactics, joins with a highly capable Lokar who opposes his own rulers but wishes to see their regime transformed rather than destroyed. Together they must uncover a conspiracy to control Earth, and then obtain the secret key to defeating it. War for galactic control looms, and freedom for Earth—so recently escaped from under the boot heels of one oppressor—is once again in the balance.
Death Magic by Eileen Wilks
(a Novel of the Lupi), Berkley Sensation, $7.99, 402pp, pb, 9780425245125. Paranormal romance.
When Lily sees a ghost at a shooting range, she has no idea who the specter is or was or what it wants—but she feels it is a premonition of things to come…
Lily’s boss, Ruben, is recovering from an attempt on his life that nearly succeeded—and they don’t know which traitor in the Bureau tried to kill him. But he reveals to Lily and her fiance, lupi Rule Turner, that he’s used his recovery period to form a ghost unit that will operate in secret… and outside the law. Lily’s conscience won’t let her join. Rule has no such reservations, though. His people’s most ancient enemy is active once more. The lupi are at war.
But when a senator is killed by a dagger imbued with death magic and Lily is assigned to the investigation, so much more hangs in the balance than Lily can guess. Her decision becomes a matter of life and death and all the magic in between…