This page is updated as books are received throughout the month.
Flandry’s Legacy by Poul Anderson
(The Technic Civilization Saga, compiled by Hank Davis), Baen, $7.99, 820pp, pb, 9781451637793. Science fiction collection.
The long night comes—and after it, a new dawn
Sir Dominic Flandry is now an admiral, but takes little joy in his new rank. He sees the rot in the Terran Empire on every hand and knows that the Long Night will inevitably fall upon the galaxy. His consolation is that measures he has taken while fighting to postpone the final collapse may shorten the coming galactic dark age and hasten the rise of a new interstellar civilization. In the meantime, he’ll always be ready for one more battle against the Empire’s enemies.
This concluding volume of the Technic Civilization saga, one of the milestones of modern science fiction, includes two full-length novels:
* A Stone in Heaven—When the daughter of Flandry’s mentor asks for help, he intervenes to thwart a would-be dictator’s plans to seize control of the Empire.
* The Game of Empire—Flandry’s daughter, Diana, and her felinelike alien friend have discovered a Merseian conspiracy against the Empire. Even with the help of her illustrious father, can they stop it in time?
Plus four novellas, all in this seventh volume of the first complete edition of Poul Anderson’s Technic Civilization saga.
[Contents: “The Wheel Turns” by Hank Davis; A Stone in Heaven; The Game of Empire; “A Tragedy of Errors”; “The Night Face”; “The Sharing of Flesh”; “Starfog”; and Appendix: “Chronology of Technic Civilization” by Sandra Miesel.]
Iron Gray Sea by Taylor Anderson
(a Destroyermen novel), Roc, $25.95, 421pp, hc, 9780451464545. Science fiction.
Iron Gray Sea is the seventh book in New York Times bestselling author Taylor Anderson’s compelling Destroyermen series. Set in a parallel universe, these books add an extraordinary new layer to the drama of World War II-era warfare.
Roc published the first Destroyermen novel, Into the Storm, in 2008 and the series has continued to grow in popularity with the release of each new book. The fourth book, Distant Thunders hit the Wall Street Journal‘s Best-Selling Hardcover Science Fiction Books list, and Anderson’s most recent book, Firestorm, debuted at #25 on the New York Times bestseller list. Praised as “well-researched, well thought-out, and even better written,” [David Weber] this newest installment in the action-packed Destroyermen series is one readers won’t want to miss!
War has engulfed the “other” earth. With every hard-won victory and painful defeat, Lieutenant Commander Matthew Reddy and the Allies encounter more friends—and even more diabolical enemies. Cutting short his honeymoon, Reddy and the crew of the USS Walker are on a mad pursuit of the rogue Japanese destroyer Hidoiame that is wreaking havoc in allied seas. Armed with the latest “new” technology, he hopes his battle-tested four-stacker has an even chance in a straight-up fight against the bigger ship—and he means to take her on.
Hunter and Fox by Philippa Ballantine
(a Shifted World novel), Pyr, $17.95, 277pp, tp, 9781616146238. Fantasy.
In a world that is in constant shifting, where mountains can change to plains and then to lakes, Talyn is the Hunter for the Caisah, and a wreck of a once-proud person. She has lost her people, the Vaerli, and her soul working for the man who was their destruction. Unknowingly, she carries within her a Kindred, a chaos creature from the center of the earth that wants to help bring the Vaerli back to power, but she is blind to that hope.
Yet hope is coming regardless, and it wears the face of gentleness and strength. Finn is a teller of tales who carries his own dreadful secret, but he is on the trail of Talyn. He knows the danger and yet is drawn to her. Their fates are bound together.
Meanwhile, the Hunter’s lost brother, Byre, is searching for his own solution to the terrible curse places on the Vaerli. He sets forth on a treacherous journey of his own, one that will intersect in the most unlikely place with that of Talyn and Finn.
The ramifications of this encounter will be felt by all the people in Conhaero, from the lost Vaerli to the Caisah on his throne.
Paradox Resolution by K.A. Bedford
(a Spider Webb novel), Edge, $14.95, 254pp, tp, 9781894063883. Science fiction. On-sale date: August 2012.
Aloysius “Spider” Webb fixes time machines for a living. He hates his job; he hates his life, and hates time travel even more. He simply wants to get on with his life. He’s a hard working Australian bloke—a good man in a bad situation who is willing to do almost anything to regain his self-respect and the affection of his nearly ex-wife, Molly; a mad sculptress on her way to international fame and fortune.
Spider’s life and his world are changing. After quitting the Western Australian Police Service, Spider studied to become a time machine repair mechanic, eking out a sparse living fixing broken down machines. But the repair business isn’t what it used to be. Once, time machines were as big as cars; but now they’re smaller and compact, portable, and cost too much to get fixed so it’s easier for people to simply buy a new one. Times are tough and there is no end in sight.
Meanwhile, Spider’s new boss at the Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait franchise needs help: his secretly built, totally illegal, radically overclocked, hotrod time machine has been stolen, and Spider is the right man to get it back before it falls into the wrong hands, or worse inadvertently destroys the entire universe.
Spider’s journey begins with a simple favor to help his almost ex-wife, Molly, and moves to the icy wastes of the far, far future.
Surprise and shock are the only constants in Spider’s life; why should this job be any different?
Wake of the Bloody Angel by Alex Bledsoe
(an Eddie LaCrosse novel), Tor, $14.99, 352pp, tp, 9780765327451. Fantasy.
Set sail on the high seas with swashbuckling sword jockey Eddie LaCrosse in Wake of the Bloody Angel. This time, the private eye sets out to earn his twenty-five gold pieces a day by tracking down a notorious pirate and his legendary treasure.
Twenty years ago, a barmaid in a harbor town fell for a young sailor who turned pirate to make his fortune. But what truly became of Black Edward Tew remains a mystery—one that has just fallen into the lap of wise-cracking, freelance sword jockey Eddie LaCrosse.
For years, Eddie has kept his office above Angelina’s tavern, so when Angelina asks him to find out what happened to the dashing pirate who stole her heart, he can hardly say no—even though the trail is two decades old. Some say Black Edward and his ship, The Bloody Angel, went to the bottom of the sea, taking with it a king’s fortune in treasure. Others say he rules a wealthy, secret pirate kingdom. And a few believe he still sails under a ghostly flag with a crew of the damned.
To find the truth and earn his gold, Eddie must take to sea in the company of a former pirate queen in search of the infamous Black Edward Tew and solve the mystery of the ghost ships.
Bledsoe’s readership continues to grow with each standalone installment in this fantastic series. Fans of mystery and fantasy alike won’t want to miss Wake of the Bloody Angel.
Existence by David Brin
Tor, $27.99, 560pp, hc, 9780765303612. Science fiction.
From New York Times bestselling author David Brin comes Existence—his first major novel in more than a decade! As he did with his bestselling, ecological thriller Earth—which foreshadowed global warming, cyberwarfare, and several near-future trends—Brin has issued another high-concept, globe-spanning page-turner that address the rapidly accelerating rate of change in technology in a very human way.
Gerald Livingston is an orbital garbage collector. For a hundred years, people have been abandoning things in space, and someone has to clean it up. But one day he finds something spinning a little bit higher than he expects, something that isn’t on the decades’ old orbital maps. An hour after he brings it in, rumors fill Earth’s infomesh about an “alien artifact.”
Thrown into the maelstrom of the worldwide shared experience, the artifact is a message in a bottle; an alien capsule that wants to communicate. The world reacts as humans always do: with fear and hope and selfishness and love and violence. And insatiable curiosity.
Packed with tension and brimming with ideas about humanity’s future, Existence is Brin’s next big book—and everyone will be talking about it.
Krampus by Brom
Harper Voyager, $27.99, 368pp, hc, 9780062095657. Fantasy. On-sale date: November 2012.
One Christmas Eve, in a small hollow in Boone County, West Virginia, a failed songwriter named Jesse witnesses a strange spectacle: seven thugs cloaked in black attacking a man in a red suit with a sleigh. When Jesse steps in to help, the mysterious figures all disappear, leaving behind a large sack—a magical bag that will plunge the down-on-his luck singer into a twisted adventure. The bag is the property of Krampus, trickster, a devil who punishes the wicked—and who asserts that he is Jesse’s master, one who will teach him the truth about the cherry-cheeked, jolly old fellow who imprisoned Krampus for five centuries and usurped the pagan god’s own magic. Now, the former Yule Lord has broken free, and is determined to destroy his enemy and reclaim his holiday.
With wild magic running loose in the darkest corners of Appalachia, Jesse may be able to salvage his dreams and create a new future for his daughter… and all the children of the land.
Tarnished by Karina Cooper
(the St. Croix Chronicles), Avon, $7.99, 373pp, pb, 9780062127648. Fiction.
A choking fog blankets Victorian London—and in a stroke of discriminatory genius, Society has raised London to the sky.
My name is Cherry St. Croix. Society would claim that I am a well-heeled miss with an unfortunate familial reputation. They’ve no idea of the truth of it. In my secret world, I hunt down vagrants, thieves… and now, a murderer. For a monster stalks London’s streets, leaving a trail of mystery and murder below the fog.
Eager for coin to fuel my infatuations, I must decide where my attentions will turn: to my daylight world, where my scientific mind sets me apart from respectable Society, or to the compelling domain of London below. Each has a man who has claimed my time as his—for good or for ill. Though as the corpses pile, and the treacherous waters of Society gossip churn, I am learning that each also has its dangers. One choice will see me cast from polite company… the other might just see me dead.
The Monster Hunters by Larry Correia
(contains Monster Hunter International, Monster Hunter Vendetta, and Monster Hunter Alpha), Baen, $24.00, 1200pp, hc, 9781451637847. Fantasy omnibus.
No monster problem too small—no firearm too big
Got a problem with werewolves, vampires, zombies, and other such supernatural creatures which don’t exist—officially? Monster Hunter International will solve your monster problems through superior firepower, as demonstrated in these three exciting novels.
Monster Hunter International: Owen Pitt went from a dull life as an accountant to an exciting one as one of Monster Hunter International’s newest recruits. Now, with the clock ticking toward Armageddon, he must face down legions of undead minions—and the cursed family of the woman he loves.
Monster Hunter Vendetta: On his first mission, Owen Pitt made himself the enemy of the most powerful beings in the universe. Now an evil death cult is after Owen for revenge. Of course, they plan to rule the world, too.
Monster Hunter Alpha: Earl Harbinger, leader of Monster Hunter International, is also a werewolf—but he has it under control. Now, his greatest foe, an ex-KGB werewolf, has surfaced and Earl is in his crosshairs. But Earl is an alpha wolf for a reason, and he’s not about to roll over and play dead.
The first three novels in the New York Times best-selling series, for the first time in one massive hardcover omnibus.
The Sacrifice Game by Brian D’Amato
Dutton, $29.95, 645pp, hc, 9780525952411. Fantasy.
In the Courts of the Sun by Brian D’Amato was Dutton’s “2012 book” back in 2009, quietly amassing a cult following of fans, science fiction and literary alike. Now that we’ve reached one of the most pivotal and anticipated, years in history, the stakes are higher than ever. The Sacrifice Game is D’Amato’s brilliant and mind-bending continuation of the story, one that takes readers from the height of Maya civilization to an awe-striking present and back again—just before time runs out.
Readers first met math prodigy and Mayan descendant Jed DeLanda in In the Courts of the Sun. Gifted with the rare ability to play the “Sacrifice Game,” a divination ritual that the ancient Maya used to predict the destiny of civilizations, Jed is recruited by a shadowy organization to have his mind downloaded into that of a Mayan king living in AD 664. Once there, he is charged with recovering lost mastery of the original Sacrifice Game, which could save the world from imminent destruction.
However, the download doesn’t go as planned, and Jed arrives inside the body of a respected ballplayer named Chacal, rather than the body of a Mayan ahau. As Jed settles into his new life, his quest for world-saving information looks like it just might succeed…
The Sacrifice Game also opens with Jed DeLanda, but in a very different role—as a threat to the world, rather than its potential savior. While his duplicate self in AD 664 is doing his best to save the world, racing to recover the Sacrifice Game, the original Jed sets into motion a chain of events which will end the world’s pain and suffering once and for all. But before the plan can be completed, the mysterious organization that sent him into the past discovers his intention and devotes every resource to stop him. Bloody battles, unspeakable torture, shifting alliances, and elaborate games are only a few of the obstacles Jed must survive to ensure the fate of the world.
D’Amato’s epic tale is heart-pounding, sharply written, and darkly funny. Transporting readers to the dizzying action of ancient times, The Sacrifice Game is an imaginative, breathtaking odyssey.
Infinity Ring, Book One: A Mutiny in Time by James Dashner
Scholastic, $12.99, 192pp, hc 9780545386968. Action/Adventure, grades 3-7. On-sale date: 28 August 2012.
History is broken.…
When best friends Dak Smyth and Sear Froste stumble upon the key to time travel—a handheld device known as the Infinity Ring—they’re swept up in a centuries-long secret war for the fate of mankind. Recruited by the Hystorians, a secret society founded long ago by Aristotle, the kids learn that history has gone disastrously off course. Now it’s up to Dak, Sera, and young Hystorian Riq to travel back in time to fix the Great Breaks… and to save Dak’s missing parents while they’re at it.
The Night Eternal by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
Harper, $9.99, 542pp, pb 9780061558276. Fiction.
The Earth lies shrouded in darkness… And it is our world no longer.
Two years have passed since the vampiric virus was first unleashed upon humanity—and nuclear winter has cast the poisoned world into eternal night. The remnants of the living who were not turned have been subjugated—with many imprisoned in camps to be bred and bled for the sustenance of the Master’s vast vampire army.
Yet the fight continues. Dr. Eph Goodweather, of the Centers for Disease Control’s biological threats team; his former colleague and lover, Dr. Nora Martinez; and the exterminator Vasily Fet lead a band of freedom fighters aided by Mr. Quinlan, the half-breed offspring of the Master, who now is bent on revenge. At human-kind’s darkest hour, one of them may hold the key to salvation. But a traitor is among them. And who will be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice so that others may live?
Angel’s Ink by Jocelynn Drake
Harper Voyager, $14.99, 352pp, tp, 9780062117854. Fantasy. On-sale date: October 2012.
Think very hard… what do you wish for? What could you use a little more of in your life? Luck? Money? Charm? With the right combination of ink and… special ingredients… a gifted tattoo artist can get you all of that and more. For the right price, of course. Stinginess can mean a spoiled leprechaun hair in the mix, and all that good luck you wanted? You might as well have broken a mirror while walking under a ladder behind a black cat. In her trade paperback debut, Angel’s Ink, Jocelynn Drake introduces readers to the magical world of Low Town and The Asylum Tattoo Parlor, where everyone is something more than they seem.
Owner of The Asylum Tattoo Parlor, Gage is the best artist in town, but he’s hiding dangerous secrets from his co-workers and the rest of Low Town. He is a warlock-in-hiding, a refugee from the magical ivory towers where those who show aptitude are held and viciously educated in the mystical arts. Once trained, they serve the unwilling world as gatekeepers, judges, and ultimately, executioners. No one has ever left the towers alive until Gage… and that’s pissed off a few of his old magical mentors.
Gage has managed to keep a low profile for years, but one too-powerful ingredient in an ink mix makes one of his clients immortal and draws powerful eyes to him. Now he’s being attacked from all quarters—warlocks, vampires, and death itself are after him, and he’s only got three days to solve this sticky immortality problem if he has any hope of making it through this enchanted world alive.
With a compelling premise and a style that fans of Kim Harrison, Jim Butcher, and Simon Green will love, Angel’s Ink is set to put Jocelynn Drake on the urban fantasy map.
Wildcatter by Dave Duncan
Edge, $9.95, 168pp, tp, 9781894063906. Science fiction. On-sale date: August 2012.
“As long as there is money to be made, there will be Wildcatters.” —Dave Duncan
Throughout human history wildcatters, the first great explorers and prospectors to lay claim to newly discovered lands, have marched to the beat of a different drummer—motivated by a deep yearning to be the first to walk on uncharted land and benefit from treasures yet to be discovered.
In the future, wildcatters in space will travel to exoplanets, located in The Big Nothing, to search for new chemicals which, when transformed into pharmaceuticals, might bring untold wealth and fame to the individuals and corporations that stake their claim for exclusive exploitation rights.
Such is the quest of the crew of the independent starship Golden Hind, whose mission is to travel a year and a half to “Cacafuego”, beat the larger corporations to the exoplanets’ resources, and strike it rich for themselves.
But will a yellow warning flag, already planted above the planet, stop them? Or will the Golden Hind’s prospector foray to the planet’s surface, possibly never to return alive?
Wildcatter is a raucous tale of mystery, greed and passion, told by master story teller Dave Duncan, once himself a real wildcatter!
Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction by Jonathan R. Eller and William F. Touponce
Kent State University Press, $38.00, 320pp, hc, 9780873387798. Nonfiction.
Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction is the first comprehensive textual, bibliographical, and cultural study of sixty years of Bradbury’s fiction. Drawing on correspondence with his publishers, agents, and friends, as well as archival manuscripts, The Life of Fiction examines the story of Bradbury’s authorship over more than a half-century, from his earliest writings, which include The Martian Chronicles, to his most recently published novel, Let’s All Kill Constance. It shows in detail the often devious and unsuspected interconnections between his unpublished fiction, his story collections, and his most celebrated novels.
1636: The Kremlin Games by Eric Flint, Gorg Huff & Paula Goodlett
Baen, $25.00, 408pp, hc, 9781451637762. Science fiction.
Mission to Moscow
After carving a place for itself in war-torn 17th century Europe, the modern time-displaced town of Grantville, West Virginia has established its new mission and identity. Yet, some have been left behind—people like Bernie Zeppi, courageous in battle, but unable to figure out what to do with himself in a world that’s utterly changed. Then Russian emissary Vladimir Gorchacov arrives in Grantville and hires Bernie to journey to Moscow and bring the future to a Russia mired in medieval serfdom and byzantine imperial plots. Bernie jumps at the chance. He figures it to be an easy gig, complete with high pay and hot-and-cold running women.
But one thing Bernie hasn’t counted on is the chance to find his purpose in Mother Russia.
Bernie Zeppi, former Grantville auto mechanic, is going to have the chance to prove he’s not the loser he believed himself to be. For now Bernie’s task is to save the woman he loves and the country he has come to call his own from collapse into a new Dark Age.
Crackpot Palace by Jeffrey Ford
William Morrow, $14.99, 352pp, tp, 9780062122599. Fiction collection. On-sale date: August 2012.
A new collection of short fiction from the Edgar Award-winning author of The Girl in the Glass and The Shadow Year.
Welcome to Crackpot Palace… a house in which dream and memory become one in twenty stories, including one written expressly for this book. In here you will find room upon room stuffed full of all manner of dark and fantastic treasure—a sword that turns enemies to coral, a bottled city, Native American legends, magical creatures, and, perhaps most disturbing, yourself. Crackpot Palace… Enter at your own risk.
[Contents: “Polka Dots and Moonbeams”; “Down Atsion Road”; “Sit the Dead”; “The Seventh Expression of the Robot General”; “86 Deathdick Road”; “After Moreau”; “The Hag’s Peak Affair”; “The Coral Heart”; “The Double of My Double Is Not My Double”; “Daltharee”; “Ganesha”; “Every Richie There Is”; “The Dream of Reason”; “The War Between Heaven and Hell Wallpaper”; “Relic”; “Glass Eels”; “The Wish Head”; “Weiroot”; “Dr. Lash Remembers”; and “Daddy Longlegs of the Evening”.]
Professor Gargoyle: Tales from Lovecraft Middle School #1 by Charles Gilman
Quirk, $13.99, 176pp, hc, 9781594745911. Middle grade horror. On-sale date: 25 September 2012.
The publisher of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies introduces the first volume in a new series of middle-grade novels: Professor Gargoyle: Tales from Lovecraft Middle School #1 by Charles Gilman.
Every vollume in the Lovecraft Middle School series features a state-of-the-art lenticular cover with an unprecedented 12-16 frames of animation—you’ve never seen anything quite like them. When displayed on bookshelves, the cover characters appear to “morph” into monsters as viewers walk past.
The stories themselves are packed with spooky mystery, suspense, and humorous horror. As Professor Gargoyle opens, everyone in the quiet village of Dunwich, Massachusetts is talking about Lovecraft Middle School. The brand-new school is housed in ultra-modern facility with state-of-the-art LCD bulletin boards and touchpad-operated lockers. But for seventh-grader Robert Arthur, Lovecraft is hardly perfect: thanks to a neighborhood redistricting, he’s the only one of his friends attending the new school. To make matters worse, the one familiar face he sees on the first day of school is none other than his grade-school bully, Glenn Torkells.
But bullies are the least of his problems. Strange things are happening at Lovecraft Middle School. After discovering an ancient attic above his school library—and finding a bizarre two-headed rat in his backpack—Robert learns that his science teacher, Professor Goyle, may be hiding a sinister secret—a secret that could threaten the entire school. Soon Robert is facing off against giant spiders, thrashing tentacles, mysterious vortexes, and other horrific forces, all in a loving homage to legendary American author (and Weird Tales pioneer) H.P. Lovecraft.
With its exciting narrative, fifteen black-and-white illustrations by Eugene Smith, and a creepy-cool lenticular cover, Professor Gargoyle will thrill and delight readers ages 10 and up.
Heaven’s War by David S. Goyer & Michael Cassutt
Ace, $25.95, 436pp, hc, 9780441020928. Science fiction.
David S. Goyer, the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of the blockbuster films The Dark Knight and Batman Begins and Michael Cassutt, one of the writers of the classic Twilight Zone television series and author of over thirty science-fiction and fantasy short stories, bring readers Heaven’s War, the second book in a thrilling Science-Fiction series that began with with Heaven’s Shadow (July 2011).
The premise of the series begins like a disaster movie, with the discovery of an object of unknown origin headed toward Earth. The two teams of astronauts sent to explore the Near-Earth Object, named Keanu, quickly realize that it’s a giant alien spacecraft traveling toward Earth with a message: Help us.
In Heaven’s War, the aliens begin transporting small groups of humans into the vast interior habitats of the spacecraft where they need to first learn to survive and then figure out why the Architects brought them there. But when Keanu begins moving away from earth, they realize they must find a way to take control of the spacecraft or be forever lost in space. Blending science fiction and suspense, Goyer and Cassutt spin a web rich with the unexplainable that pushes the boundaries of what is imaginable.
Bad Glass by Richard E. Gropp
Del Rey, $15.00, 432pp, tp, 9780345533937. Fantasy. On-sale date: 25 September 2012.
Debut author Richard E. Gropp is the winner of the spring 2011 Suvudu Writing Contest, which gave writers the chance to win an edit from then Del Rey Editor-in-Chief Betsy Mitchell. Out of 700 manuscripts, Gropp emerged with a story that was too good to let go. Bad Glass is one of the most hauntingly original dark fantasy debuts in years.
In Bad Glass, the military has evacuated and locked down the city of Spokane, Washington after a series of unexplained phenomena. Even so, disturbing rumors and images seep out onto the Internet, spreading curiosity, skepticism, and panic. For what they show is—should be—impossible: strange creatures that cannot exist, sudden disappearances that violate the laws of physics, human bodies fused with inanimate objects, trapped yet still half alive.
Dean Walker, an aspiring photographer, sneaks into the city hoping to make a name for himself by documenting the unimaginable. Joining up with a group of outcasts led a beautiful young woman named Taylor—a woman as damaged and seductive as the city itself—Dean embarks on a journey into the heart of the mystery. Caught up in a web of interlacing secrets and betrayals, Dean, Taylor, and their friends must make their way through this ever-shifting maze of a city, a city that is actively hunting them down, herding them toward a shocking destiny. In searching for the meaning of Spokane’s transformation, Dean may discover the meaning of his own life… if he doesn’t go insane first.
Blending elements of literary fiction, horror, psychological thriller, and science fiction Bad Glass transforms the familiar into the unknown. With his debut, Richard E. Gropp has crafted a gripping genre spanning tale with the same intrigue as ABC’s Lost and Mark Danielewski’s House of Leaves.
Glimmering by Elizabeth Hand
Underland, $14.95, 360pp, tp, 9780982663929. Science fiction.
Afterward he would think, we should have known it was coming.
As the New Millennium approaches, the sky is afire, the oceans are rising—and mankind is to blame.
Jake Finnegan lives on the fringes of crumbling society in his decaying mansion, struggling to keep his life afloat and his loved ones safe while battling that most modern of diseases—AIDS. When a friend gives him a mysterious elixir called Fusax, a medicine rumored to cure the incurable, Jack discovers the “side effects” of the drug and gets mixed up with a bizarre entourage of rock stars, Japanese scientists, corporate executives, and religious terrorists. While these larger players compete to control mankind’s fate in the 21st century, Jack is forced to choose his own role in the world’s end.
Originally published in 1997 and newly revised by the author, Glimmering is a visionary mix of fantasy and science fiction about a world in which humanity struggles to cope with the ever-approaching “End of the End.”
Into the Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond by Kim Harrison
Harper Voyager, $24.99, 528pp, hc, 9780061974328. Fantasy. On-sale date: October 2012.
Fans have fallen for bounty hunter and witch Rachel Morgan. Through banishment and road trips, deadly supernatural duels and lost loves, they have avidly cheered her on, eagerly awaiting the next installment in her adventures. This collection of short works adds a whole new dimension to the Hollows saga, featuring tales involving Rachel and her coterie of friends and enemies. Into the Woods contains original works, including:
Million Dollar Baby—an original novella about what happens when elven tycoon Trent Kalamack and Jenks the pixy team up to rescue Trent’s daughter
“Spider Web” and “Grace’s Fall”—original novelettes set in brand-new fantasy worlds
Here too are reprinted short stories, including:
Undead in the Garden of Good and Evil—an Ivy novella from Dates from Hell
“Dirty Magic”—a Mia the banshee short story from Hotter Than Hell
“The Bridges of Eden Park”—a Kisten/Rachel short from the mass market edition of For a Few Demons More
Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel—a Robbie/Rachel/Pierce novella from Holidays Are Hell
“The Bespelled”—a Ceri/Al short story from the mass market edition of The Outlaw Demon Wails
Ley Line Drifter—a Bis/Jenks novella from Unbound
Faun by Trebor Healey
Lethe, $15.00, 286pp, tp, 9781590213858. Urban Fantasy. On-sale date: 5 October 2012.
One morning Gilberto Rubio wakes up with a five o’clock shadow. Puberty. But why are his legs getting so furry? And what are these little horn nubs pushing out of his scalp? What’s that nub of a tail that’s making it so hard to sit on anything but couches?
His peers begin to treat him like a freak, while his anxious mother Lupita crosses herself and worries about his eternal soul and what might be happening to it. When his mere presence begins to stir the hormones of anyone nearby and the pregnancy rate suddenly skyrockets at Buenaventura High, Gilberto panics and, hopping aboard his trusty skateboard, vanishes into Hollywood before hitchhiking out of Los Angeles to find the mysterious stranger he met online, who just might have some answers.
So begins an urban fantasy, a new fairy tale about lust and faith, Los Angeles and devotion, as only award-winning author Trebor Healey can evoke, in the pages of Faun.
Assignment in Eternity by Robert A. Heinlein
Baen, $13.00, 246pp, tp, 9781451637853. Science fiction.
Two Short Novels
Robert A. Heinlein is widely and justly regarded as the greatest practitioner of the art of science fiction who has ever lived. Here are two of his greatest short novels:
Gulf
In which the greatest superspy of them all si revealed as the leader of a league of supermen and women who can’t quite decide what to do with the rest of us.… Prequel to the New York Times best seller, Friday.
Lost Legacy
In which it is proved that we are all members of that league—or would be, if we but had eyes to see.…
Plus two great stories
Two of the Master’s finest: one on the nature of Being [“Elsewhen”], the other on what it means to be a Man [“Jerry was a Man”].
Citadels of the Lost by Tracy Hickman
(The Annals of Drakis: Book Two), DAW, $7.99, 438pp, pb, 9780756407315. Fantasy.
The Rhonas Empire of the elves is built upon an unquenchable thirst for conquest. The elves control the Aether—the mystical substance that fuels their magic. And one use of this Aether is to compel total obedience on the part of the slaves drawn from the races they have defeated.
But there are legends that tell of an age when humans and the other slave races were free, ruling powerful empires of their own. Tales carried down from generation to generation speak of a hero who will return to lead an uprising against the empire. That hero, so the stories say, will be a human named Drakis.
When a captive dwarf called Jugar works Aer magic to destroy the Aether Wells of the Western Provinces, it signals the start of a rebellion straight out of legend. In the ensuing chaos, the warrior-slave named Drakis, along with a small group of fellow slaves, flees—lured on by a melody that coils itself around his mind and conjures disturbing visions of dark wings, claws, iridescent scales, and fire.
Pursued by the Rhonas Iblisi Inquisitors, this desperate band of fugitives makes its way across the ocean only to find a desolated, seemingly lifeless land. Following the melody he alone can hear, Drakis stumbles on the incredible truth: the dragons are real!
Attacked by these fierce, fire-breathing beings, the group escapes through a fold that opens into the remains of a once-great empire. Cut off from the world they know, can they survive the dangers of this treacherous realm, and find a way back to those they left behind—bringing the truth of the legends to the army of rebellion even now being raised in the name of Drakis?
The Legend of Jig Dragonslayer by Jim C. Hines
(Omnibus collection of Goblin Quest, Goblin Hero, and Goblin War), DAW, $16.00, 668pp, tp, 9780756407568. Fantasy.
Now available for the first time: an omnibus of the complete Goblin trilogy
DAW Books is thrilled to announce the entire Goblin TRilogy from Jim C. Hines together in a trade paperback omnibus! Now readers can follow the epic (if mostly accidental) exploits of Jig: a puny, clumsy, bespectacled runt of a goblin whose intelligence, wit and unbelievable luck allow him to survive when fate thrusts him into a world much larger—and far more dangerous—than any he ever imagines. The Legend of Jig Dragonslayer includes three full-length novels:
Goblin Quest
Jig is a scrawny little nearsighted goblin—a runt even among his puny species. Captured by a party of adventurers searching for a magical artifact, and forced to guide them, Jig encounters every peril ever faced on a fantasy quest.
Goblin Hero
After barely surviving an adventure he never wanted, Jig is now known as Jig Dragonslayer, and has the power of healing, thanks to the forgotten god he worships. But being a hero isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Not when the goblin leader wants him dead, and everyone else actually expects him to keep doing heroic—and incredibly dangerous—things
Goblin War
Despite impossible odds, Jig was still alive. He’d survived an adventurer’s quest against a dragon and a necromancer, a pixie invasion that had ogres and trolls dropping like flies, and, most frightening of all, the threat of being made chief of the goblins. He wasn’t sure how much more he could stand. Naturally, he was about to find out. War was brewing in the world outside the Mountain, and when the goblin’s lair was invaded by human warriors in search of the Rod of Creation, Jig knew it was just the start of another really bad day.
This Dark Earth by John Hornor Jacobs
Gallery, $15.00, 340pp, tp, 9781451666663. Horror.
In his post-apocalyptic horror novel, This Dark Earth, John Hornor Jacobs writes of a bleak, zombie-ridden future, that focuses on a dystopian society fighting for survival, led by a teenager.
Spanning the time frame of five years, This Dark Earth begins as humanity goes into crisis mode, with a mysterious illness infecting and killing its victims, only to have the dead rise again and attack the living. Ten year old prodigy Gus, his physician mother, Lucy, and the gentle giant Knock-Out, along with others, come to develop Bridge City in what was once Arkansas: part medieval fortress, part Western outpost, and the last chance for civilization.
The years go by, and Gus turns into a battle-hardened young man. As he’s groomed to be the next leader of men by his mother, Gus must deal with the issues facing his society’s survival: clean water, hunting and gathering; personal conflicts between members of the group. Not to mention, zombies still roam the earth, trying to feed on the living. But, he designed Bridge City to protect the living few from the shamblers eternally at the gates.
Yet, it seems that humanity may be able to destroy themselves without the help of zombies. Via escaped prisoners, Gus receives word that an army of torturers are on their way to wage war against Bridge City, steal their resources, and take control of the society. Seeing not other choice, Gus prepares the people of Bridge City for war, and possibly, the end of all mankind.
Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce
Doubleday, $24.95, 310pp, hc, 9780385535786. Fiction.
Graham Joyce’s Some Kind of Fairy Tale: A Novel asks the question: What really happened to Tara Martin? Was it all just a fairy tale? Twenty years ago, teenaged Tara Martin disappeared in the dense—some say enchanted—forest known as the Outwoods on the edge of a small town in central England. Her parents and her brother, Peter, feared the unthinkable; her troubled boyfriend, Richie, was the last known person to be with her, but there were no signs of any wrongdoing. Police and neighbors searched the Outwoods for days, but weeks turned into months and her family slowly gave up hope. Tara’s disappearance was left unsolved.
Now, twenty years after her disappearance, a knock at the door on Christmas Day brings an overwhelming sight: Tara, disheveled and exhausted but very much alive. Her explanation for her absence comes hesitantly, and does not seem logical—especially when she confides to Peter, now a forty-year-old husband and father, that if she were to tell the full story no one would ever speak to her again. What is most unsettling is that Tara looks barely older than the day she vanished.
Tara’s tale—slowly revealed—is either magical or delusional, dreamlike or terrifying. For Richie, who never recovered from the disgrace of suspicion, Tara’s return offers the chance to regain the love of his life, although for all the longing he’s felt for twenty years, a new blackess seems to overtake him with Tara’s renewed presence. As those who love and missed Tara attempt to understand where she’s been for two decades, they begin to ask the same question: Has Tara lost her sanity, or have they?
Award-winning author Graham Joyce masterfully explores the world that exists between dreams and reality, the known and the unknown. Some Kind of Fairy Tale is a unique journey every bit as magical as its title implies and as real and unsentimental as the world around us.
Devil Said Bang by Richard Kadrey
(a Sandman Slim novel), Harper Voyager, $24.99, 416pp, hc, 9780062094575. Fantasy. On-sale date: September 2012.
The last we saw Richard Stark, Lucifer had just consigned him to the Devil. Literally. Samael had handed over the keys to the Kingdom, so to speak, and had ascended to bask in the glory of the Heavenly Father. Which Stark knew would be nothing more than an ironic experience for the bastard.
Because only Stark, as Sandman Slim, knows that God had a complete mental meltdown. And now, he’s embodied by five different personalities, who inhabit different places in the world above, below and in-between—and they are at war with each other. With angels, Hellions, humans (and everything else) caught in the crossfires of the raging battle.
But, even with all Hell breaking loose, Stark’s gotta admit that there are perks to the Lucifer gig. The Ironman all-powerful, all-protective armor, for one. The hellhounds are pretty cool too. But Sandman Slim’s got better and bigger things to do than be the biggest paper-pusher in the down-below, which is the devil in the details of this damned job. Doesn’t help that the Generals of Hell are still gunning for him—everyone wants him dead. But that’s nothing new.
What is new is the infernal war being waged on the streets of Los Angeles. Sandman Slim is a monster who kills monsters: he has conquered the Kissi, diverted a zombie plague, and cannily skirmished with LA’s reigning cabal of soulless fiends. But now, he’s going up against gods and ghosts. What is he supposed to do about a serial killer spirit running wild, with a kill-list that includes unholy high rollers, dreamers, and the undead alike?
And now, only Sandman Slim can ensure that the tourist trap province on the outskirts of Hell that is Los Angeles is going to survive an infernal plague. The Stark reality is that Lucifer’s got to do what Lucifer’s go to do.…
Legends of the Dragonrealm: Shade by Richard A. Knaak
Gallery, $16.00, 336pp, tp, 9781451656077. Fiction. On-sale date: September 2012.
Survivor of a once-mighty race of sorcerers, the spellcaster known to those of the Dragonrealm simply as Shade struggles to find an end to the curse he brought upon himself millennia ago in his hope to escape death… and worse. Instead of immortality, he was condemned to an endless series of lives alternating between darkness and light, with “death” only resurrecting him over and over. His blurred features and unstable but terrible powers a threat to friend and foe alike, the hooded sorcerer must struggle against not only those who would manipulate him, but also his very self. Worse, he must do so always aware that even the very land itself may have its own sinister designs upon him.…
Cannibal Reign by Thomas Koloniar
Harper, $7.99, 502pp, pb, 9780062025821. Thriller.
Inspired by such apocalyptic films as Omega Man and Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later as well as Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, debut author Thomas Koloniar explores the lengths humans will go to survive in Cannibal Reign.
At a decommissioned missile silo in Nebraska, former Green Beret Jack Forrest and his four comrades have begun quietly gathering a group of civilians and stockpiling food, weapons, and supplies… because they know something the American public doesn’t.
Meanwhile, in California, astronomer Marty Chittenden makes a major discovery—an asteroid is heading straight for North America, on track to hit in 80 days with devastating consequences. Only when the Secret Service comes after him does he see the depth of the cover-up, and his responsibility to expose the truth. But his warning can do nothing to prevent the massive impact of the asteroid, and the social chaos, mass death, climate devastation, and sweeping famine that results.
The devastating effects of the asteroid killed most of the remaining population and reduced survivors to desperate measures. But a hardy group of former soldiers, the civilians they protect, and the astronomer who broke the news of the asteroid band together to survive a dark new world where the only rule is “eat or be eaten.” For a year after the asteroid strike, Jack Forrest and the other Green Berets manage to keep themselves and a group of women and children alive and comfortable in their underground refuge. But when they are forced to go above ground, what they find is worse than they could ever have imagined. In a nightmarish post-apocalyptic landscape, the grim circumstances have rendered the surviving humans desperate and feral.
Forrest, Chittenden, and the group dependent on their leadership must use every weapon at their disposal to find safety in this desolate world, populated by hungry soldiers with nothing left to lose—and ultimately, find the will to carry on toward an uncertain future.
Cannibal Reign is a fast-paced action packed thriller that will take readers on an epic journey filled with courage, hope and survival.
Home from the Sea by Mercedes Lackey
(an Elemental Masters novel), DAW, $25.95, 312pp, hc, 9780756407278. Fantasy.
Mari Prothero had grown up on the outskirts of a tiny fishing village on the west coast of Wales. She lived alone with her father, Daffyd, a master fisherman who seemed able to weather any storm, no matter how severe, and still bring his coracle back into port with his nets full. Although the sea had never harmed her father, Mari still worried every time he went out in extreme weather, for Mari’s mother and older brother had been drowned by a rogue wave when Mari was just an infant. Her father was all she had left, and Mari was not blind to the possibility of losing him.
The Protheros’ cottage was far finer than any fisherman’s cottage in the village, and had been in the family for as long as anyone could remember. And the family itself was an old one—dating back to the mythical days before Arthur and the Merlin.
But though the Protheros were well established in the village, Mari had always kept to herself. Partly, it was a habit she had learned from her father—it would not be wise to call attention to how much more prosperous the Protheros were than any other fisherman’s family, and Daffyd was very careful to sell half his catch in one of the larger towns down the seacoast before coming home. He was out in every storm, pulling in fish where no other man could, and Daffyd’s fish were always the fattest, the tastiest. But their unusual good fortune was not the only reason for Mari’s reclusive behavior.
For as long as she could remember, Mari had seen things—things that shouldn’t, that couldn’t be real: Tiny manlike creatures that were mischievous and wore only seaweed, and tiny beings that spoke to her kindly but seemed to be made of water. When she was a child, she had asked her father about these creatures, but Daffyd was clearly so upset by these conversations that Mari had given up trying to talk to him. Now, on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, she was convinced that she was going mad.
But Mari was not going mad, and on the morning of her eighteenth birthday, her father finally told her the great secret of the Prothero Luck… and what they must do to keep it. Her mother and brother were not dead after all. But neither were they human. They were shape-shifters of the sea, the half-human, half-seal people known as the Selch, and they had returned to their watery domain. Since ancient times, the Prothero family had kept a covenant with these magical creatures. In exchange for protection on the water, a member of the Prothero family would take a Selch to marry, only to relinquish their spouse and one of their children to the sea after a brief number of years. Now Mari’s time had come and her father told her that she must abide by her family’s ancient magical compact, or face dire consequences.
However, Mari was a headstrong Edwardian woman, and she did not take kindly to the concept of marrying merely to provide offspring, especially to an uncaring inhuman being who would then steal her child.
But Mari was not without protectors, for the tiny creatures she had seen her whole life, which she now knew were real, counseled her to “bargain” with her mother’s people.
Meanwhile in faraway London, Lord Alderscroft, the head of the Elemental Masters, was aware that a powerful but untrained Water Master on the far coast of Wales was being threatened by some of the Elemental Elder Spirits, and he had dispatched some very unique champions to come to Mari’s aid.…
Technomancer by B.V. Larson
47North, $14.95, 374pp, tp, 9781612182322. Fiction.
Somewhere between Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files and J.R. Rain’s Vampire for Hire series is Unspeakable Things, best-selling author B.V. Larson’s thrilling new series starring supernatural gushoe Quentin Draith.
When Quentin Draith wakes up in a private sanatorium after a mysterious accident, he has no memory of who he is. It doesn’t take long, however, to realize the hospital staff is more concerned with keeping him sedated than getting him well.
After a narrow escape, Quentin discovers he is an investigator and blogger specializing in the supernatural, a job that comes in handy considering he belongs to a special breed of people with unusual powers. But when he falls under suspicion for a series of murders involving seemingly mundane objects, Quentin’s search for the truth behind his identity becomes a desperate race to clear his name.
Bristling with energy and bone-chilling suspense, Technomancer (Unspeakable Things: Book One) is a captivating tale that will draw you to the very edge of your seat.
Pathfinder Tales: Blood of the City by Robin D. Laws
Paizo, $9.99, pb, 9781601254566. Fantasy. On-sale date: August 2012.
Heroes for Hire
Luma is a cobblestone druid, a canny fighter and spellcaster who can read the chaos of Magnimar’s city streets like a scholar reads books. Together, she and her siblings in the powerful Derexhi family form one of the most infamous and effective mercenary companies in the city, solving problems for the city’s wealthy elite. Yet despite being the oldest child, Luma gets little respect—perhaps due to her half-elven heritage. When a job gone wrong lands Luma in the fearsome prison called the Hells, it’s only the start of Luma’s problems. For a new web of bloody power politics is growing in Magnimar, and it may be that those Luma trusts most have become her deadliest enemies…
From visionary game designer and author Robin D. Laws comes a new urban fantasy adventure of murder, betrayal, and political intrigue set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
Energized by Edward M. Lerner
Tor, $27.99, 336pp, hc, 9780765328496. Science Fiction.
From Edward M. Lerner, acclaimed author of Small Miracles and Fool’s Experiments and co-author, with Larry Niven, of the Fleet of Worlds series, comes Energized—a thought-provoking near-future thriller about energy politics brimming with innovative ideas and page-turning action.
No one expected the oil to last forever. How right they were…
A geopolitical miscalculation tainted the world’s major oil fields with radioactivity and plunged the Middle East into chaos. The few countries still able to export oil and natural gas—Russia chief among them—have a stranglehold on the world economy. And then, from the darkness of space, came Phoebe. Rather than divert the onrushing asteroid, American captured it in Earth orbit.
Solar power satellites—cheaply mass-produced in orbit with resources mined from the new moon to beam vast amounts of power to the ground—offer America its last, best hope of avoiding servitude and economic ruin. But the remaining petro powers are prepared to do anything to protect their newfound dominance of world affairs.
NASA engineer Marcus Judson is determined to make the powersat demonstration project a success. And he will—even though nothing in his job description mentions combating an international cabal, or going into space to do it.
Adaptation by Malinda Lo
Little, Brown BFYR, $17.99, hc, 9780316197960. YA Science Fiction. On-sale date: September 2012.
Malinda La, critically acclaimed fantasy author and Nebula Award Finalist, jumps into modern sci-fi with her upcoming novel Adaptation.
Across North America, flocks of birds hurl themselves into plane engines, causing at least a dozen to crash, killing thousands. All flights are grounded in the US, and millions of travelers are stranded. Reese and David are heading home from a debate tournament in Arizona when it happens. On their drive to San Francisco, along an empty highway in Nevada, a bird flies straight into their headlights. Reese loses control of the car, and blacks out when it flips over. She wakes up in a military hospital, and the doctor won’t tell her what happened, where she is—or how she’s been miraculously healed.
Things become even stranger when Reese returns home, and can’t shake the feeling that someone is following her. Then Reese unexpectedly collides with the beautiful Amber Gray, and her search for the truth is forced in an entirely new direction—threatening to expose a global conspiracy that the government has worked for decades to keep secret. Readers will race along the pages with Reese to uncover the shocking truth in Adaptation, a taut and uniquely powerful sci-fi story from a remarkable writer.
False Covenant by Ari Marmell
(a Widdershins Adventure), Pyr, $16.95, 281pp, hc, 9781616146214. Fantasy.
A creature of the other world, an unnatural entity bent on chaos and carnage, has come to stalk the nighttime streets of the Galicien city of Davillon. There’s never a good time for murder and panic, but for a community already in the midst of its own inner turmoil, this couldn’t possibly have come at a worse one. Not for Davillon, and not for a young thief who calls herself Widdershins.
It’s been over half a year since the brutal murder of Archbishop William de Laurent during his pilgrimage to Davillon. And in all that time, Widdershins has truly tried her best. She has tried to take care of Genevieve’s tavern and tried to make a semihonest living in a city slowly stagnating under the weight of an angry and disapproving Church. She has tried to keep out of trouble, away from the attentions of the Davillon Guard and above the secrets and schemes of the city’s new bishop.
But she’s in way over her head, with no idea which way to turn. The Guard doesn’t trust her. The Church doesn’t trust her. Her own Thieves’ Guild doesn’t trust her.
Too bad for everyone, then, that she and her personal god, Olgun, may be their only real weapon against a new evil like nothing the city has ever seen.
Dragonriders of Pern: Sky Dragons by Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey
Del Rey, $26.00, 344pp, hc, 9780345500915. Fantasy.
From the New York Times bestselling mother-and-son team of Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey comes the final installment in the riveting Pern saga that began with Todd’s solo novel, Dragonsblood. Now, with all of Pern imperiled by the aftereffects of a plague that killed scores of dragons and left the planet helpless against the fall of deadly Thread, the only hope for the future lies in the past.
There, on an unexplored island, a group of dragonriders led by Xhinna, a brave young woman who rides the blue dragon Tazith, must battle lethal Merows and voracious tunnel-snakes to build a safe home for themselves and the dragons, whose offspring will one day—if they survive—replenish Pern’s decimated dragon population. But as the first female rider of a blue dragon, and the first female Weyrleader in the history of Pern, Xhinna faces an uphill battle in winning the respect and loyalty of her peers… especially after an unforeseen tragedy leaves the struggling colony reeling from a shattered loss.
Amid the grieving, one girl, Jirana, blessed—or cursed—with the ability to foresee potential futures, will help Xhinna find a way forward. The answer lies in time… or rather, in timing it: the awesome ability of the dragons to travel through time itself. But that power comes with risks, and by venturing further into the past, Xhinna may be jeopardizing the very future she was sworn to save.
Bared Blade by Kelly McCullough
(a Fallen Blade novel), Ace, $7.99, 308pp, pb, 9781937007676. Fantasy.
Fighting for purpose…
Former temple assassin Aral Kingslayer is a man with a price on his head and a mark on his soul. After his goddess was murdered, Aral found refuge in the shadow jack business, fixing problems for those on the fringes of Tien’s underworld. It’s a long step down from working for the goddess of justice, but it gives Aral and Triss—the living shadow who is his secret partner—a reason to get up in the morning.
Unfortunately, it’s not a very noble reason. So when two women hit a rough spot in the tavern Aral uses for an office, he and Triss decide to lend a helping hand. But soon their good deed lands them in the middle of a three-way battle to find an artifact that just might be the key to preventing a war. And with so many factions on their trail, Aral and Triss are attracting a lot more attention than anyone featured on ten thousand wanted posters can afford…
Changeling by Kelly Meding
Gallery, $7.99, 374pp, pb, 9781451620931. Urban Fantasy.
It’s hard to catch a good guy when you’re always chasing bad guys.
The second in a new series by popular urban fantasy author Kelly Meding, Changeling is about an X-Men-like group of young people with superpowers who must find a way to work together.
Five months ago, Dahlia Perkins was a struggling newspaper journalist whose biggest responsibility was paying her rent on time. After learning she has the ability to absorb and deflect massive amounts of heat and fire, Dahlia is struggling to find her place as the newest hero in an established team of former Rangers freelancing their abilities in post-Meta War Los Angeles.
The team’s first major case: two discarded human skins. One is a John Doe, the other was a janitor for Weatherfield R&D, a scientific research and development firm Dahlia once investigated—and she’s itching to investigate them again. The ability to use and shed another person’s skin isn’t a power any of them have encountered before, nor something any of their former Meta enemies possess. But when a third skin appears and one of Dahlia’s teammates is nearly killed by an assassin’s bullet, it’s clear someone else besides Weatherfield is targeting the Rangers—and their killer may not be Meta at all.
Tin Swift: The Age of Steam by Devon Monk
Roc, $15.00, 370pp, tp, 9780451464538. Fantasy.
In steam age America, men, monsters, machines, and magic battle to claim the same scrap of earth and sky. In this chaos, one man fights to hold on to his humanity—and his honor.…
Life on the frontier is full of deceit and danger, but bounty hunter Cedar Hunt is a man whose word is his bond. Cursed with becoming a beast every full moon, Cedar once believed his destiny was to be alone. But now Cedar finds himself saddled with a group of refugees, including the brother he thought lost.
Keeping his companions alive is proving to be no easy task, in part because of a promise he made to the unpredictable Madder brothers—three miners who know the secret mechanisms of the Strange. To fulfill his pledge, Cedar must hunt for a powerful weapon known as the Holder—a search that takes him deep into the savage underbelly of the young country and high into the killing glim-field skies defended by desperate men and deadly ships.
But the battles he faces are just a hint of a growing war stirring the country. To keep his word, Cedar must navigate betrayal, lies, and treacherous alliances… and risk everything to save the lives of those he has come to hold dear.
Pathfinder Tales: Nightglass by Liane Merciel
Paizo, $9.99, 357pp, hc, 9781601254405. Fantasy.
Embrace the Shadow
In the grim nation of Nidal, carefully chosen children are trained to practice dark magic, summoning forth creatures of horror and shadow for the greater glory of the Midnight Lord. Isiem is one such student, a promising young shadowcaller whose budding powers are the envy of his peers. Upon coming of age, he’s dispatched on a diplomatic mission to the mountains of Devil’s Perch, where he’s meant to assist the armies of devil-worshiping Cheliax in clearing out a tribe of monstrous winged humanoids. Yet as the body count rises and Isiem comes face to face with the people he’s exterminating, lines begin to blur, and the shadowcaller must ask himself who the real monsters are…
From Liane Merciel, critically acclaimed author of The River King’s Road and Heaven’s Needle, comes a tale of darkness and redemption set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
The Pilots of Borealis by David Nabhan
$12.00, 202pp, tp, 9781463777968. Science Fiction.
It was helium-3 that powered humanity’s far-flung civilization, feeding fusion reactors from the Alliances on Earth, to the Terran Ring. Mars, the Jovian colonies, and all the way out to even distant Titan. The supply, scooped up from the surface of the Moon, had once seemed limitless. That was a long time ago, though. Borealis, the glittering, fabulously rich city astride the lunar North Pole, had amassed centuries of unimaginable wealth harvesting it. She was the first to realize that those innocent days of ostensibly endless supplies were now over. The helium-3 was running out, and the energy crisis was real.
The Great Planetary Wars, having decimated Earth, still left 500 billion survivors in competing Alliances to contest for their fair share of what remained. The Terran Ring, though—impossibly powerful, on the ascendant, ruthless regarding its security—was only interested in satisfying its unquenchable demand for energy, and fairness had little to do with their leaders’ calculations. Earth, Borealis and the Terran Ring would discover through the indomitable spirit of an Earth-born, war-weary mercenary turned piloting enthusiast—a sport possible only on the Moon in one sixth gravity—that the mightiest force in the Solar System wasn’t mined on the lunar surface, but was instead found so much closer to home.
Science writer David Nabhan crafts the intelligent foundation on which an incredibly fast-moving, highly literate, and thoroughly unpredictable view of the future is built, one that is astounding, sublime, terrifying, and more than anything… plausible.
No Peace for the Damned by Megan Powell
47North, $14.95, 266pp, tp, 978161283602. Fiction.
A woman with supernatural powers meets a secret organization looking to defeat her kind in No Peace for the Damned, a debut novel from an exciting new voice in dark urban fantasy.
Magnolia Kelch has spent every day of her life in hiding. And every day she has been found, bound, and tortured. Until today. After making a harrowing escape from her family’s estate, Magnolia is finally free. But with freedom comes complications. She’s quickly recruited into the Network, an organization dedicated to fighting criminals with powers just like hers, and whose number one target is Magnolia’s own family.
Yet, the battle is far from black and white. Magnolia’s control over her abilities begins to slip; new, untested powers start to emerge; and her growing attraction to Theo Mahle, a team member, proves that not all of her impulses are mystical. To succeed, she’ll have to trust the one person who is also her greatest threat: herself.
Year Zero by Rob Reid
Del Rey, $25.00, 368pp, hc, 9780345534415. Science fiction.
In the hilarious tradition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Rob Reid takes you on a headlong journey through the outer reaches of the universe—and the inner workings of our absurdly dysfunctional music industry in Year Zero.
Low-level entertainment lawyer Nick Carter thinks it’s a prank, not an alien encounter, when a redheaded mullah and a curvaceous nun show up at his office. But Frampton and Carly are highly advanced (if bumbling) extraterrestrials. And boy, do they have news.
The entire cosmos, they tell him, has been hopelessly hooked on humanity’s music ever since “Year Zero” (1977 to us), when American pop songs first reached alien ears. This addiction has driven a vast intergalactic society to commit the biggest copyright violation since the Big Bang. The resulting fines and penalties have bankrupted the whole universe. We humans suddenly own everything—and the aliens are not amused.
Nick Carter has just been tapped to clean up this mess before things get ugly, and he’s an unlikely galaxy-hopping hero: He’s scared of heights. He’s also about to be fired. And he happens to have the same name as a Backstreet Boy. But he does know a thing or two about copyright law. And he’s packing a couple of other pencil-pushing superpowers that could come in handy.
Soon he’s on the run from a sinister parrot and a highly combustible vacuum cleaner. With Carly and Frampton as his guides, Nick now has forty-eight hours to save humanity, while hopefully wowing the hot girl who lives down the hall from him.
Hank Reinhardt’s Book of Knives: A Pracitcal and Illustrated Guide to Knife Fighting by Hank Reinhardt
Baen, $13.00, 184pp, tp, 9781451637557. Nonfiction instructional.
The lore of the knife—told by an expert and master of edged weapons
Deadlier than the club, more ubiquitous than the sword, the knife is the universal edged weapon of all human kind. Knives can be objects of beauty, objects of utility, and many of us carry one on a daily basis. In this compulsively readable volume you will find a clear-cut, illustrated guide to fighting with a knife if you have to—and the reasons why you really want not to have to.
“There are historians of the edged weapons, from sword to dagger. There are master practitioners of fighting with the blade. There are experts in the craft and the metallurgy of these tools. And there are those who have actually used them to fight. To get that expertise together would normally take a large, round table of separate masters.
“Or, you could just meet Hank Reinhardt.” So says Massad Ayoob, founder of the Lethal Force Institute and the Massad Ayoob Group. In Hank Reinhardt’s Book of Knives you can do just that.
Stalking the Zombie by Mike Resnick
American Fantasy, $25.00, 240pp, hc, 9780961035259. Fantasy/Mystery/Humor. On-sale date: 22 August 2012.
American Fantasy Press will publish Mike Resnick’s Stalking the Zombie for release at this August’s World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago. Stalking the Zombie is the first collection of short stories featuring Mike Resnick’s hard-boiled detective John Justin Mallory from the author’s fantasy novels: Stalking the Unicorn, Stalking the Vampire and Stalking the Dragon.
Mallory is a sharp private investigator caught up in the intrigues of a dangerous Manhattan, but it’s not our Manhattan (or his). Trapped in another world, he has to cope with mysteries involving leprechauns, a Blue-Nosed Reindeer, frightened goblins, The Chinese Sandman, pink elephants (no, not that kind), Card Sharks, and lamia eggs as well as the odd Zombie. And in the background there is always the powerful demon who rules the whole East Coast underworld, The Grundy, Mallory’s sworn mortal enemy.
Evoking the best of ’30s detective fiction with witty dialogue reminiscent of a ’30s comedy, the collection will delight Resnick fans and urban fantasy fans alike. As Connie Willis writes in her preface: “Stalking the Zombieis the fun, funny, tall-tale-telling Mike at his cutting-loose best. It’s inventive, satiric, fast-paced, a rollercoaster ride of a book. And you’re going to have a whale—oops, pink elephant—of a time reading it!”
American Fantasy Press continues its tradition of publishing unconventional books by some of today’s leading authors. There will be a trade clothbound hardcover edition and a 250-copy signed leather-bound edition available (signed by Mike Resnick, Connie Willis and Douglas Klauba).
[Contents: Preface by Connie Willis; Introduction; “Post Time in Pink”; “The Blue-Nosed Reindeer”; “Card Shark”; “The Chinese Sandman”; “The Amorous Broom”; “The Long and Short of It”; “Shell Game”; and “Stalking the Zombie”.]
Doctor Who: Shada by Gareth Roberts (The Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams)
Ace, $25.95, 385pp, hc, 9780425259986. Science fiction.
Ace Books is proud to present this “lost” script in novel form as Doctor Who: Shada. Novelized by Gareth Roberts, a veteran script-writer for the Doctor Who series and with the approval of the Adams estate, readers can now experience this bonus adventure told with all the wit and style that Adams is known for.
In Doctor Who: Shada, the Doctor’s old friend and fellow Time Lord, Professor Chronotis, has retired to Cambridge University where, among the other doddering old professors, nobody will notice if he lives for centuries. He took with him a few little souvenirs—harmless things really. But among them, carelessly, he took The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey. Even more carelessly, he has loaned this immensely powerful book to clueless graduate student Chris Parsons, who intends to use it to impress girls. The Worshipful and Ancient Law is among the most dangerous artifacts in the universe; it cannot be allowed to fall into the wrong hands.
The hands of the sinister Time Lord Skagra are unquestionably the wrong-est ones possible. Skagra is a sadist and an egomaniac bent on universal domination. He is also clueless about the state of fashion on Earth; he also wears terrible platform shoes. He is on his way to Cambridge. He wants the book. And he wants the Doctor…
Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues by Diana Rowland
DAW, $7.99, 312pp, pb, 9780756407506. Fantasy.
Angel Crawford is finally starting to get used to life as a brain-eating zombie, but her problems are far from over. Her felony record is coming back to haunt her, more zombie hunters are popping up, and she’s beginning to wonder if her hunky cop-boyfriend is involved with the zombie mafia. Yeah, that’s right—the zombie mafia.
Throw in a secret lab and a lot of conspiracy, and Angel’s going to need all of her brainpower—and maybe a brain smoothie as well—in order to get through it without falling apart.
Tales from Super-Science Fiction edited by Robert Silverbeg
Haffner, $32.00, 424pp, hc, 9781893887480. Science fiction anthology.
Super-Science Fiction was a short-lived magazine launched during the SF boom of the mid-190s. For 18 bimonthly issues (Dec. 1955 to Oct. 1959), garish covers by Ed Emshwiller and Frank Kelly Freas drew readers to stories by Isaac Asimov, Robert Bloch, Harlan Ellison, James Gunn, Robert Silverberg, Jack Vance, and others.
Robert Silverberg has assembled this collection of 14 stories from the entire span of Super-Science Fiction‘s brief history and details the magazine’s genesis as an outlet for numerous colonization/expedition stories to its demise as a “monster magazine” (with stories like “Creatures of the Green Slime”, “Beasts of Nightmare Horror” and “Vampires from Outer Space”) as the science fiction magazine market collapsed.
With full color endpapers reproducing all 18 covers, and each story decorated with its original illustration, Tales from Super-Science Fiction is a fun—and fond—look back at this obscure and long-vanished era in science fiction.
[Contents: Introduction by Robert Silverberg; “Catch ’em All Alive” by Robert Silverberg; “Who Am I?” by Henry Slesar; “Every Day is Christmas” by James E. Gunn; “I’ll Take Over” by A. Bertram Chandler; “Song of the Axe” by Don Berry; “Broomstick Ride” by Robert Bloch; “Worlds of Origin” by Jack Vance; “The Tool of Creation” by J.F. Bone; “I Want to Go Home” by Robert Moore Williams; “Hostile Life-Form” by Daniel L. Galouye; “The Gift of Numbers” by Alan E. Nourse; “First Man in a Satellite” by Charles W. Runyon; “A Place Beyond the Stars” by Tom Godwin; and “The Loathsome Beasts” by Dan Malcolm (aka Silverberg).]
Elfhome by Wen Spencer
Baen, $24.00, 376pp, hc, 9781451637830. Fantasy.
She didn’t start out to be an elf princess—it just happened
Elfhome. A world of powerful magic, beautiful elves, man-eating trees, frost-breathing wargs, and god-like dragons. Pittsburgh. A city stranded deep in virgin elfin forest. Its population of sixty thousand humans and a handful of elves are pitted in war that will only end in genocide. Winter is coming. Supplies are running low. And a hidden vanguard of oni are attacking from the shadows.
And children are disappearing.
Girl genius Tinker was once a human orphan, growing up on the Pittsburgh streets. Now she’s an elf princess with all the bells and whistles, ruling over a melting pot of humans, elves, half-oni, and the crow-like tengu. Prejudices are rampant, but hoverbike races, concerts of rock fused with elf music, and artist communes of human and elves prove that both can live in Pittsburgh in freedom.
Tinker is determiend to make her city a place of such freedom. She’s going to have to kick butt and take names. And she has to do it quickly. Seven elf children are missing—and the oni eat their prisoners when they outlive their usefulness.
Tinker uncovers ancient secrets and a web of betrayal as she searches for the children. The oni will stop at nothing to win, so neither can she. At five foot nothing, Tinker’s greatest weaspon has always been her intelligence. Politics, she discovers, is a battle of wits, and she’s heavily armed.
Some Remarks: Essays and Other Writing by Neal Stephenson
William Morrow, $25.99, 336pp, hc, 9780062024435. Essays. On-sale date: August 2012.
One of the most talented and creative authors working today, Neal Stephenson is renowned for his exceptional novels—works colossal in vision and mind-boggling in complexity. Exploring and blending a diversity of topics, including technology, economics, history, science, belief, and philosophy, his books are the product of a keen and adventurous intellect.
Not surprisingly, Stephenson is regularly asked to contribute articles, lectures, and essays to numerous outlets, from major publications and academic symposiums to websites and blogs. His writing probes a wide variety of topics including—but not limited to—the importance of genre, Isaac Newton and metaphysics, Star Wars, and 300. This remarkable collection is a compilation of Stephenson’s prolific, short nonfiction pieces as well as a new essay written specifically for this volume.
By turns amusing and profound, critical and celebratory, yet always entertaining, Some Remarks offers a fascinating look into the mind of this extraordinary writer.
Exiled: Clan of the Claw by S.M. Stirling, Harry Turtledove, John Ringo, Jody Lynn Nye, and Michael Z. Williamson
Baen, $7.99, 408pp, pb, 9781451637885. Fantasy.
Reptiles vs. Felines: the Battle for the Earth
In a universe where the extinction asteroid did not strike the Earth and the few surviving species didn’t get moved back to square one, the dinosaurs kept evolving—but so did the mammals. And instead of the forerunners of the apes leading the climb to dominant species, another species developed big brains and took on a humanoid shape. The dinosaurs kept evolving at the same time, become smaller—and smarter.
In a heroic, Bronze Age world, the Mrem Clan of the Claw and its sister warbands are expanding their rough-and-tumble territory, but now they face the Lishkash, masters of an empire of slave armies and magic. It’s mammalian courage and adaptation against reptile cunning in a clash of steel and wits that will determine who shall inherit the Earth.
The Apocalypse Codex by Charles Stross
(a Laundry Files novel), Ace, $25.95, 326pp, hc, 9781937007461. Science fiction.
The fourth book in a series that hilariously blends the espionage fiction of Ian Fleming with the supernatural horror of H.P. Lovecraft, The Apocalypse Codex continues the story of Bob Howard, the hapless hero for the top-secret intelligence agency known only to a very, very select few as the Laundry.
Charles Stross published his first novel, Singularity Sky, with Ace Books in 2003 and rapidly established himself as one of today’s premier authors of speculative fiction. In 2005, The Concrete Jungle won the Hugo Award for best novella. Stross has also received the Locus and Prometheus awards for best science fiction novel. His most recent novel, Rule 34, was named to both Kirkus‘ and NPR’s year’s best lists for 2011.
In The Apocalypse Codex, Bob Howard is on the fast track for promotion to management within the Laundry, the super-secret British government agency tasked with defending the realm from occult threats. So when Ray Schiller—an American televangelist with the uncanny ability to miraculously heal the ill—becomes uncomfortably close to the Prime Minister, it’s Bob’s job to prevent a global threat that even the Laundry may be unable to clean up…
The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury: A Critical Edition: Volume I: 1938-1943 edited by William F. Touponce & Jonathan R. Eller
Kent State University Press, $65.00, 544pp, hc, 9781606350713. Science fiction.
Inaugurating a critical edition of one of America’s most popular storytellers
In the past, collections of Bradbury’s works have juxtaposed stories with no indication as to the different time periods in which they were written. Even the mid- and late-career collections that Bradbury himself compiled contained stories that were written much earlier—a situation that has given rise to misconceptions about the origins of the stories themselves. In this new edition, editors William F. Touponce and Jonathan R. Eller present for the first time the stories of Ray Bradbury in the order in which they were written. Moreover, they use texts that reflect Bradbury’s earliest settled intention for each tale. By examining his relationships with his agent, editor, and publisher, Touponce and Eller’s textual commentaries document the transformation of the stories—and Bradbury’s creative understanding of genre fiction—from their original forms to the versions known and loved today.
Volume 1 covers the years 1938 to 1943 and contains thirteen stories that have never appeared in a Bradbury collection. For those that were previously published, the original serial forms recovered in this volume differ in significant ways from the versions that Bradbury popularized over the ensuing years. By documenting the ways the stories evolved over time, Touponce and Eller unveil significant new information about Bradbury’s development as a master of short fiction.
Each volume in the proposed three-volume edition includes a general introduction, chronology, summary of unpublished stories, textual commentary for each story, textual apparatus, and chronological catalog. The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury is edited to the highest scholarly standards by the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies and bears the Modern Language Association’s seal of approval for scholarly editions.
The Coldest War by Ian Tregillis
(sequel to Bitter Seeds), Tor, $25.99, 352pp, hc, 9780765321510. Science fiction.
In the first book of the Milkweed series, Bitter Seeds, Ian Tregillis crafted a stunning new version of World War II. The Nazis have supermen, the British have demons, and one perfectly normal man, Raybould Marsh, was caught in between. Now in the direct sequel The Coldest War, Marsh strives to defend Queen and country, and by doing so he must confront his nation’s darkest secrets from World War II.
A precarious balance of power maintains the peace between Britain and the USSR. For decades, Britain’s warlocks have been all that stands between the British Empire and the Soviet Union—a vast domain stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the shores of the English Channel. Now each wizard’s death is another blow to Britain’s national security.
Meanwhile, a brother and sister escape from a top-secret facility deep behind the Iron Curtain. Once subjects of a twisted Nazi experiment to imbue ordinary people with superhuman abilities, then prisoners of war in the immense Soviet research effort to reverse-engineer the Nazi technology, they head for England.
Because that’s where former spy Raybould Marsh lives. And Gretel, the mad seer, has plans for him. As Marsh is once again drawn into the world of Milkweed, he discovers that Britain’s darkest acts didn’t end with the war. And while he strives to protect queen and country, he is forced to confront his own willingness to accept victory at any cost.
With The Coldest War, Ian Tregillis boldly retells history in an exciting and unique way. An epic story of a supernatural alternate history, The Coldest War is a wildly entertaining thriller filled with intrigue and adventure that will captivate and delight readers.
No Going Back by Mark L. Van Name
(a Jon & Lobo novel), Baen, $22.00, 324pp, hc, 9781451638103. Science fiction.
Enough is Enough
Jon and Lobo are back—and everything is about to change.
If they both survive.
Haunted by memories of children he could not save, Jon Moore is so increasingly self-destructive that even his best friend, the hyper-intelligent Predator-Class Assault Vehicle, Lobo, is worried. When Jon risks meeting a woman from his distant past and undertakes a high-stakes mission, Lobo fears this will be their last.
The job is illegal.
They have to take on one of the oldest, most powerful men alive.
Two different security forces are tracking them.
And Jon is falling in love.
Desperate and out of options on a world so inhospitable that its statues and monuments outnumber its living inhabitants, Jon and Lobo encounter their deadliest challenges yet. They must make decisions from which there truly is no going back.
The Wild Side edited by Mark L. Van Name
Baen, $7.99, 392pp, pb, 9781451637861. Fantasy anthology.
Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side of urban fantasy
When night falls and the shadows stir, the adults come out to play!
In this all-new collection, ten top writers of fantasy, science fiction, and mystery explore the intersection of adventure and romance with tales of love, just plain lust, betrayal, and seduction thatrange in time from the present to over a century ago, in places from rural America to teeming London, and in tone from lighthearted comedy to noir.
Best-selling writers Tanya Huff, Caitlin Kittredge, and Toni L.P. Kelner join Dana Cameron, Sarah A. Hoyt, John Lambshead, Diana Rowland, Mark L. Van Name, and two hot new talents to create a dazzling cast of vampires, werewolves, witches, zombies, and more in a world where lovers are, literally, dying for it.
War Maid’s Choice by David Weber
Baen, $26.00, 598pp, hc, 9781451638356. Science fiction.
The devils are in the details
The Dark Gods’ conquest of the continent of Norfressa will give them control of an entire universe.
The wizard lords of Kontovar have spent 1,200 years preparing to give them that conquest, and the odds are heavily in their favor. There are still a few problems standing in the way of an orderly occupation, though. Problems like the Order of Tomanak, led by Bahzell Bahnakson of the Horse Stealer Hrdani and the other champions of the war god. Problems like Prince Bahnak Karathson’s unification of the barbarian hradani into Norfressa’s newest kingdom. Problems like the fact that the hradani’s traditionally bitter and genocidal enemies, the horse-breeding Sothoii, are actually feeling their way towards an alliance with Prince Bahnak. Or like the newly emerged phenomena of the psionically gifted magi and the uppity, independent-minded war maids of the Sothoii.
It’s all very frustrating for Phrobus, ruler of the Dark Gods, and hsi children. They’ve tried—and failed—three times now to eliminate Bahzell and those around him, for they recognize that in all the manifold possible destinies of Norfressa, those are the opponents most likely to defeat them. Now it’s time for them to try again… And succeed.
This time they’ve brought in champions of teir own, more powerful than any champion of Tomanak, to crush Bahzell, and Carnadosa’s wizards have suborned one of the most powerful nobles of the Sothoii to prevent any hradani alliance by reducing the entire Sothoii kingdom to interminable civil war and bloodshed. Even the redoubtable Bahzell Bahnakson will find himself unable to dela with this threat without lots of help. But fortunately for him, even deities can overlook the odd detail or two.
In this case, the details are a young war maid named Leeana Hanathafressa and a one-eyed courser mare named Gayrfressa. They may be the only two individuals in all of Norfressa who are even less concerned with conventional behavior—and even more stubborn—than Bahzell Bahnakson, and they’re squarely in the Dark’s way.
They may not be able to stop it, either, but they’ve chosen to try… and they’re perfectly willing to die trying it that’s what it takes.
The Hollow City by Dan Wells
Tor, $25.99, 336pp, hc, 9780765331700. Horror/mystery/triller.
Dan Wells won instant acclaim in 2010 for his three-novel debut about the adventures of John Wayne Cleaver, a heroic young man who is a potential serial killer. Everyone who read the trilogy (I am Not a Serial Killer, Mr. Monster, and I Don’t Want to Kill You) were struck by the distinctive and believable voice Wells created for John and held at the edge of their seats with the thrills and chills Wells spun. He further has proven his talent with his acclaimed young adult novel Partials.
Now he returns with The Hollow City, another innovative thriller told in a very different, equally unique voice. A voice that comes to us from the realm of insanity.
Michael Shipman is paranoid schizophrenic; he suffers from hallucinations, delusions, and complex fantasies of persecution and horror. That’s bad enough. But what can he do if some of the monsters he sees turn out to be real?
Who can you trust if you can’t even trust yourself? The Hollow City is a mesmerizing journey into madness, where the greatest enemy of all is your own mind. Dan Wells has created another fascinating narrator that makes you question his experience at every turn. Part horror story, part mystery/thriller, The Hollow City is a unique and compelling book that readers won’t be able to put down this summer.
Rogue by Michael Z. Williamson
Baen, $7.99, 470pp, pb, 9781451637878. Science fiction.
Sanity may not be an advantage…
Kenneth Chinran commanded the elite unit assigned to take out an entire planet in a terrible war. Millions died; billions more perished in the aftermath. One oughtn’t send a sociopath on such a mission. A sociopath might not stop. Chinran did stop—but in the process nearly lost his sanity and his soul.
But one of Chinran’s men was a sociopath going in. Now he’s a trained sociopath with the knowledge and firepower to take out entire tactical teams, evaporate security cordons and change identity at will. Who do you send after a killer like that? There’s only one answer: the man who trained him. The man who made him.
The exciting sequel to The Weapon.
The Last Policeman: A Novel by Ben H. Winters
Quirk, $14.95, 320pp, tp, 9781594745768. Science fiction mystery.
The first in a planned trilogy, Edgar Award nominee and New York Times best-selling author Ben H. Winters’s engrossing and fast-paced mystery, The Last Policeman: A Novel, confronts readers with a pre-apocalyptic America, in which a rookie detective seeks answers and justice six months prior to the world’s end. It is an America that Winters brings vividly to life through a riveting story that raises questions about work ethic, moral responsibility, and mortality.
Detective Hank Palace, like the rest of the world, has only six months left to live. Maia, the massive asteroid formally known as 2011GV1, is hurtling toward Earth with no confirmed point of impact. Across the globe, those who refuse to wait for death decide instead to take matters into their own hands, and most of the cases that Palace sees in his town of Concord, New Hampshire are suicides; as he observes, Concord is a “hanger town,” referring to the locally popular method. When Palace is called to a Mcdonald’s to what appears to be the scene of just one more suicide, the evidence leads him to question the cause of death.
There, in the fast-food-restaurant bathroom, is the body of Peter Zell, a local insurance man. Palace instantly recognizes that something is off… but what, he does not yet know. His colleagues downplay Palace’s nagging suspicion that Zell’s death was not self-inflicted. After all, with only six months left to live, is it really necessary to investigate another apparent suicide? Palace thinks so and sets off to first prove Zell was murdered and then find his killer.
As Palace investigates Zell’s death he is confronted with colorful characters and world on the brink of chaos. Laws are being swiftly adjusted, and due process has been thrown out the window. Previously minor crimes are being punished with lifelong sentences; and even converting a car from running on fuel to operating on cooking oil will land a person in jail. Armed guards are escorting FedEx trucks, hospitals are understaffed, and the pharmacies are facing depletion. And while Palace collects evidence and encounters both leads and setbacks, he must face an even bigger mystery, when his brother-in-law disappears and he is tasked to find him.
Smart, gritty, and humane—and compulsively readable—The Last Policeman will leave readers asking themselves, “What would I do?”