[[[Forge of Darkness]]] by Steven Erikson. (Book One of the Kharkanas Trilogy), Tor, $27.99, 688pp, hc, 9780765323569. Fantasy.

In 2011, Canadian archaeologist, anthropologist, Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate, and New York Times bestselling author, Steven Erikson accommplished the rarest feat imaginable: with The Crippled God, the final novel in The Malazan Book of the Fallen, he actually completed a ten volume epic fantasy series. And not just any series: one of the most masterful, original and ambitious epic stories of any genre.

Now, Erikson returns with a hefty new tome: Forge of Darkness, the first novel of the dark and revelatory new Kharkanas Trilogy which takes place before the events of that first Malazan series.

Forge of Darkness takes readers to Kurald Galain, the warren of Darkness, and tells an epic tale of a realm whose fate plays a crucial role in the fall of the Malazan Empire. This is the story of the early years of Anomander Rake, and his brothers, Andarist and Silchas Ruin. It is a tale that begins within the Age of Darkness and the Birth of Light and involves the forging of a sword unlike any other, and tells of the tragedy that was the collapse of the realm of the Tiste Andii. It is the story of the devastating civil war that tore their world apart; of bitter family rivalries; of jealousies and betrayals; of wild magic and unfettered power; of death and terrifying destruction. It is the story of how the goddess of the Tiste, Mother Dark, abandoned her children and turned her back on her people. It is: The Story — a real treat for fans of the Malazan series, as well as a fantastic way for unfamiliar readers to get into Steven Erikson’s fantastic worlds.

 

[[[Three Parts Dead]]] by Max Gladstone. Tor, $24.99, 225pp, hc, 9780765333100. Fantasy.

Max Gladstone graduated from Yale, taught two years in rural China, and wrote a short story that became a finalist int he Writers of the Future competition. Now Tor Books will publish his new novel Three Parts Dead. An urban fantasy, Three Parts Dead presents to readers a vivid cast of characters who must navigate the shifting ethical landscape of a world where justice operates via hive-mind police, necromancers ride lightning to client meetings, and gargoyles haunt city skies.

A god has died, and it’s up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart.

Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without Him, the metropolis’s steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot.

Tara’s job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in. Her only help: Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead god, who’s having an understandable crisis of faith.

When Tara and Abelard discover that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb’s courts — and their quest for the truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and Alt Coulumb’s slim hope of survival.

Suspenseful and evocative by turns, Three Parts Dead introduces readers to an ethical landscape in which the line between right and wrong blurs.

 

[[[The Kingmakers]]] by Clay Griffith & Susan Griffith. (Vampire Empire, Book 3), Pyr, $17.95, 392pp, tp, 9781616146740. Fantasy.

A war to the death.

Empress Adele has launched a grand crusade against the vampire clans of the north. Prince Gareth, the vampire lord of Scotland, serves the Equatorian cause, fighting in the bloody trenches of France in his guise as the dashing Greyfriar. But the human armies are pinned down, battered by harsh weather and merciless attacks from vampire packs.

To even the odds, Adele unleashes the power of her geomancy, a fearsome weapon capable of slaughtering vampires in vast numbers. However, the power she expends threatens her own life even as she questions the morality of such a weapon.

As the war turns ever bloodier and Adele is threatened by betrayal, Gareth faces a terrible choice. Their only hope is a desperate strike against the lord of hte vampire clans — Gareth’s brother, Cesare. It is a gamble that could win the war or signal the final days of the Greyfriar.

The Vampire Empire trilogy rushes to a heart-wrenching conclusion of honor and love, hatred and vengeance, sacrifice and loss.

 

[[[Into the Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond]]] by Kim Harrison. Harper Voyager, $24.99, 518pp, hc, 9780061974323. Fantasy collection.

For centuries, the woods have been a pivotal part of the wonder and danger of fairy tales, for once you enter anything can happen. Elves, druids, fairies — who knows what you will find once you dare step into the forest?

And now, New York Times bestselling author Kim harrison ventures into these mysterious, hidden lands of magic and mystery in her first short-story collection. Into the Woods brings together an enchanting mix of brand-new, never-before-published stories and tales from Harrison’s beloved, bestselling Hollows series.

The tales here include an original Hollows novella, Million-Dollar Baby, about Trent Kalamack’s secret elven quest in Pale Demon; two original short stories, “Pet Shop Boys” and “Temson Woods,” that explore just what happens when humanity and the supernatural collide; and two novelettes, “Spider Silk” and “Grace,” set in new worlds of imagination and adventure. Into the Woods also contains all of the previously published Hollows short stories — together in one volume for the very first time.

Step into the woods and discover the magic for yourself.

 

[[[Ghost Town]]] by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson with Tim Waggoner. Gallery, $15.00, 308pp, tp, 9781451613827. Paranormal.

In this spine-tingling series with a team of paranormal investigators, the stars of TV’s Ghost Hunters brings us the second highly anticipated installment Ghost Town.

Welcome to exeter, the “most haunted town in America,” thanks to a deadly flood that unleashed an army of ghosts decades ago. And when ghost trackers Amber, Drew, and Trevor attend a conference during Exeter’s spookiest week of the year, the ghouls grow restless. First, an innocent bookstore worker is mysteriously killed, setting off a string of strange deaths that point to a shadowy spirit known as the Dark Lady.

With a paranormal revolution ensuing, the team must stop the twisted bloodbath. But a past horror involving the death of a former teammate has them spinning faster than a specter in a storm, especially when they learn that it’s his ghost who awakened the Dark Lady. Now, with their lives on the line and the entire town at stake, the three must decide whether to trust the spirit of their old friend or to finally put a stake through his heart. Ghost Town is a thrill ride that will fasten readers to its plot and keep them side by side with Amber, Drew, and Trevor until they reach the end.

 

[[[Deprivation, or, Benedetto furioso: an oneiromancy]]] by Alex Jeffers. Lethe, $18.00, 314pp, tp, 9781590210925. Magical Realism/Romance. On-sale date: 28 February 2013.

Sleep deprivation does funny things to your head. Steeped in the romance of Renaissance Italian literature, Ben Lansing isn’t coping well with the routines of his first post-college job, his daily commute from Providence, Rhode Island, to Boston, the inevitable insomnia and lack of sleep, or the peculiarly vivid dreams when he does manage to sleep.

For Ben “wished to be a paladin. He wished to mount Ariosto’s hippogriff and fly to the moon. He wished to sing a Baroque aria of stunning, shocking brilliance, bringing the audience to its feet roaring, ‘Bravo! Bravissimo.’ He wished to run mad for love.”

When Ben encounters a lost prince squatting in a derelict South Boston warehouse with his little sister and elder brother, exiles of an imaginary Italy, he resolves to rescue Dario and Dario’s family — and himself. Stumbling from dream to real life and back again, Ben begins a fabulous quest. Amid visions of futures, pasts, strangely altered presents, he encounters mythic personages — raffish bike messenger/artist Neddy, dilettante translator Kenneth, his own mother and father. He falls in and out of love. He witnesses the flight of the hippogriff and the collapses of the New England economy and his parents’ marriage. He discovers what he never knew he was looking for all along.

In Deprivation, a novel as real as a fairy tale or romantic Renaissance epic, neither Ben nor the reader can ever fell certain of being awake or dreaming, walking the streets of Boston or the mazy paths of dreamland. Can you separate wish from fulfillment? Do you want to?

 

[[[Live by Night]]] by Dennis Lehane. William Morrow, $27.99, 416pp, hc, 9780060004873. Novel.

Dennis Lehane is a force to be reckoned with. his bestselling novels include Gone, Baby Gone, Mystic River, Shutter Island, The Given Day, and Moonlight Mile, and big-screen adaptation have been helmed by Ben Affleck, Clint Eastwood, and Martin Scorsese. Called “as much social historian as mystery writer,” by The Chicago Tribune, Lehane will once again showcase his ability to create suspenseful historical fiction in October with his first stand-alone novel in four years. The popularity of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and Ken Burns’ Prohibition mini-series have set the stage for Live by Night, a Prohibition-era tale that catapults readers between 1920s Boston and Florida, introducing a cast of hard-living gangsters, petty criminals, and two unforgettable dames.

Live by Night begins in 1926, a time when the black market’s maze of underground distilleries and speakeasies is home to gangsters and corrupt cops. Joe Coughlin, the youngest son of one of Boston’s most promising police officers, has strayed from the straight and narrow and lives a life of crime in the employ of one of the city’s toughest mob bosses. But when Emma Gould crosses Joe’s path during a bold robbery, their entanglement puts him in the sights of Albert White, the gangster singlehandedly responsible for rubbing out Joe’s old boss, and lands Joe in prison. But while serving out his sentence, Joe falls under the protection of mobster Maso Pescatore, and on release, heads down to Florida to establish a bootlegging operation on behalf of the old man and his Italian “friends.”

Setting up a stronghold of illegal activity in Tampa’s Latin Quarter, Joe comes to rule Florida’s dark underworld with an iron fist, keeping his friends close and his enemies closer. But as the years pass, a cadre of rumrunners, evangelists, and vindictive Klansmen begin to make trouble for Joe and his affiliates. And the reappearance of a Boston-based foe threatens to put him out of business permanently.

A tale of swindling and strong-arming in Boston, Florida, and Cuba that pits one gangster against another in a fight for respect, superiority, and firm control of the Atlantic Coast’s rum business, Live by Night gives readers the page-turning opportunity to experience Dennis Lehane’s masterful suspense and his new historical landscape.

 

[[[Out of Oz]]] by Gregory Maguire. (The Final Volume in the Wicked Years), William Morrow, $15.99, 568pp, tp, 9780060859732. Fantasy.

New York Times bestselling author, Gregory Maguire began his Wicked Years series with the groundbreaking novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which was adapted into one of the most successful Broadway musicals in history. Now three books later, and with 7.5 million copies of the four-book series currently in print, he completes the saga of the Wicked Years with Out of Oz: The Final Volume in the Wicked Years.

In Wicked, Maguire created a rich fantasy world based on the characters and setting of The Wizard of Oz, as told from the point of view of the antagonist of L. Frank Baum’s classic tale. Offering a different look into the land of Oz, one of political and social unrest, Maguire first introduced readers to a little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, the misunderstood creature who grows up to become the infamous villain of Baum’s beloved story. The first novel in the series was followed by the hugely successful and bestelling novels Son of a Witch, the story of Elphaba’s son Liir, and A Lion Among Men, the story of the Cowardly Lion named Brrr. With the publication of this fourth volume, the millions of copies in print, and the musical Wicked celebrating its eighth year on Broadway, including a multitude of traveling road companies, books in the Wicked Years series have also been published in twenty countries and have been embraced by young and old alike.

Now in Out of Oz, Maguire brings the world of Oz full circle, as he once again takes readers back to the marvelous land of Oz, where the Emerald City is mounting an invasion of Munchkinland, Glinda is held under house arrest, and the Cowardly Lion is on the run from the law. And Dorothy Gale of Kansas makes something more than a cameo appearance. Amidst the chaos, Elphaba’s granddaughter, Rain, comes of age to take up her broom in an Oz wracked by war.

Out of Oz is an imaginative and stunning conclusion to what has not only become a cultural phenomenon, but has also become one of the most beloved and bestselling series in modern American literature.

 

[[[Be My Enemy]]] by Ian McDonald. (Everness, Book Two), Pyr, $16.95, 268pp, hc, 9781616146788. YA science fiction.

Everett Singh has escaped with the Infundibulum from the clutches of Charlotte Villiers and the Order, but at a terrible price.

His father is missing, banished to one of the billions of parallel universes of the Panoply of All World, and Everett and the crew of the airship Everness have taken a wild, random Heisenberg Jump to a random parallel plane. Everett is smart and resourceful, and, from a frozen earth far beyond the Plenitude, he plans to rescue his family. But the villainous Charlotte Villiers is one step ahead of him.

The action traverses the frozen wastes of iceball earth; to Earth 4 (like ours, except that the alien Thryn Sentiency occupied the moon in 1964); to the dead London of the forbidden plane of Earth 1, where the remnants of humanity battle a terrifying nanotechnology run wild — and Everett faces terrible choices of morality and power. But Everett has the love and support of Sen, Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth, and the rest of the crew of Everness — as he learns that hte deadliest enemy isn’t the Order or the world-devouring nanotech Nahn — it’s yourself.

 

[[[Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d’Art]]] by Christopher Moore. William Morrow, $16.99, 406pp, tp, 9780061779756. Fiction.

From celebrated New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore comes Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d’Art, a love story, the portrait of a young artist, the portrait of the young artist’s mysterious girlfriend, a mystery, and a hilarious comedy — all about the color blue.

Set in the Impressionist art world of the Belle Epoch, this tale begins when Vincent Van Gogh is murdered (yes, murdered — not commits suicide) in the wheat fields of Auvers. Meanwhile, back in Paris, his close friends Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and our young protagoinst — a struggling artist/baker named Lucien Lessard — try to piece together how their friend Vincent died. For something sinister is going on in the thriving art world of Paris, and other artistic luminaries of the era — including Renoir, Monet, Pissarro, Manet, Cezanne, Seurat, Gaugin — are also somehow connected and play pivotal roles in this imaginatively dark and funny tale. Could the diabolical answer lie with The Colorman — a twisted little gnome of a man who is always tempting artists with his lush pigments, most notably a bewitching shade of blue known as Sacre Bleu? And what role does the intoxicatingly beautiful Juliette play? She is the lover and muse of our young hero, Lucien, and she has an uncanny gift for discovering artistic talent… and a secret connection to The Colorman.

And what of the role of the color blue itself, one might ask? Sacre Bleu, or “sacred blue,” named for the color of the cloak of the Virgin Mary, is made from crushed lapis lazuli, a gemstone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense blue hue. Brought from the Orient by camel and ship, across deserts and over mountains, the finest blue pigment is infused with danger and adventure and, some say, supernatural powers. Interestingly, there is nary of mention of the color blue in all the extant writing of the ancient Greeks and Romans; nor does Roman Catholic liturgy mention the color blue until the 12th century.

Al these fascinating historical details about art and the great artists of this period play out through the inimitable wit and satiric genius of Christopher Moore. A mystery, a love story, and an art history lesson all rolled into one — with a bonus of crusty French bread, absinthe, and can-can girls — Sacre Bleu shows once again why Moore is one of the most entertaining novelists writing today.

 

[[[The Doctor and the Rough Rider: a Weird West Tale]]] by Mike Resnick. Pyr, $17.95, 290pp, tp, 9781616146900. On-sale date: December 2012.

It’s August 19, 1884. The consumptive Doc Holliday is preparing to await his end in a sanitarium in Leadville, Colorado, when the medicine man Geronimo enlists him on a mission. The time the great chief has predicted has come, the one white man he’s willing to treat with has crossed the Mississippi and is heading to Tombstone — a young man named Theodore Roosevelt. The various tribes know that Geronimo is willing to end the spell that has kept the United States from expanding west of the Mississippi. In response, they have created a huge, monstrous, medicine man named War Bonnet, whose function is to kill Roosevelt and Geronimo and keep the United States east of the river forever. And War Bonnet has enlisted the master shootist John Wesley Hardin.

So the battle lines are drawn: Roosevelt and Geronimo against the most powerful of the medicine men, a supernatural creature that seemingly nothing can harm; and Holliday against the man with more credited kills than any gunfighter in history. It does not promise to be a tranquil summer.

 

[[[The Skybound Sea]]] by Sam Sykes. (The Aeons’ Gate Book Three), Pyr, $17.95, 495pp, tp, 9781616146764. Fantasy.

She comes.

The skies bleed. The earth groans. The sea howls. The world is rent asunder as the Kraken Queen claws her way from hell. And the only ones standing in her way are a young man with a piece of steel and a voice in his head, his many companions, and their many, many problems.

As Lenk journeys to the Island of Jaga, the tomb of Ulbecetonth, he is hunted. By enemies, by the woman he loves, by the demon he has to kill, by an army of any number of bloodthirsty purple berserkers, savage lizardmen, vicious monsters, and colossal demons.

In the lands where sky and sea have forgotten they were ever separate, Lenk and the companions’ destinies await at the tip of a sword and the mouth of hell.

 

[[[The New Ray Bradbury Review]]] Number 3 (2012) edited by William F. Touponce. Kent State University Press, $25.00, 132pp, tp, 9781606351475. Nonfiction.

 

[[[Supervolcano: All Fall Down]]] by Harry Turtledove. Roc, $26.95, 432pp, hc, 9780451464811. Science fiction. On sale date: 4 December 2012.

From New York Times bestselling author Harry Turtledove, comes Supervolcano: All Fall Down, the second installment in the exciting Supervolcano series. In Supervolcano: Eruption, one of nature’s most destructive forces released its ferocity on an unsuspecting world. In Supervolcano: All Fall Down, Turtledove continues his thrilling chronicle of survival by revealing how the survivors of the disaster adapt to their new environment.

In the aftermath of the supervolcano’s eruption in Yellowstone Park, North America is covered in ash. Farmland cannot produce food. Machinery has been rendered useless. Cities are no longer habitable, and the climate across the globe grows colder with each day.

Former police officer Colin Ferugson’s family is spread across the United States, separated by the catastrophe and struggling to survive as the nation attempts to recover and reestablish some measure of civilization…

 

[[[Initiate’s Trial]]] by Janny Wurts. (The Wars of Light and Shadow, Volume Nine; Book One of Sword of the Canon), Harper Voyager, $9.99, 578pp, pb, 9780007217830.

The last Prince of Rathain, Arithon s’Ffalenn, is held captive by the Order of the Koriathain. The desperate Order have forced through the perilous bargain that spared him, their sole hope of unity Arithon lives only to battle Marak’s horde of free wraiths.

But on the day the last wraith is redeemed, the inflexible terms sealed by Dakar’s oath of debt will be forfeit…

The fanatical True Sect’s high priesthood is consumed by its thwarted ambition: to conquer Havish, the backbone of order that secures the terms of Paravian survival. Lysaer s’Ilessid must fight the pull of the Mistwraith’s curse, and battle for sanity to uphold his just ethic. Another young defender will stand at his side, newly sworn by the Sorcerer’s auspices.

As Arithon’s life again becomes the fulcrum that shifts the game board, Elaira’s choice might save or break the unstable future; while at large and answerable to no mortal law, Davien and the dragon that holds his service throw in the wild card no one predicts…

 

 

[[[Star Wars: Scoundrels]]] by Timothy Zahn, Del Rey/LucasBooks, $27.00, 432pp, hc, 9780345511508. Science fiction/tie-in. On-sale date: 26 December 2012.

With more than eight million copies of his books in print, Tim Zahn, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Heir to the Empire, is one of the most celebrated storytellers in the Expanded Universe. In his new standalone novel, Star Wars: Scoundrels, Zahn thrillingly returns to the most beloved era in Star Wars as Han Solo, Chewbacca and an ensemble crew prepare for the ultimate heist.

Han solo should be basking in his moment of glory. After all, the cocky smuggler and captain of the Millennium Falcon just played a key role in the daring raid that destroyed the Death Star and landed the first serious blow to the Empire in its war against the Rebel Alliance. But after losing the reward his heroics earned him, Han’s got nothing to celebrate. Especially since he’s deep in debt to the ruthless crime lord Jabba the Hutt. There’s a bounty on Han’s head — and if he can’t cough up the credits, he’ll surely pay with his hide. The only thing that can save him is a king’s ransom. Or maybe a gangster’s fortune? That’s what a mysterious stranger is offering in exchange for Han’s less-than-legal help with a riskier-than-usual caper. The payoff will be more than enough for Han to settle up with Jabba — and ensure he never has to haggle with the Hutts again.

All he has to do is infiltrate the ultra-fortified stronghold of a Black Sun crime syndicate underboss and crack the galaxy’s most notoriously impregnable safe. It sounds like a job for miracle workers… or madmen. So Han assembles a gallery of rogues who are a little of both — including his indispensable sidekick Chewbacca and the cunning Lando Calrissian. If anyone can dodge, deceive, and defeat heavily armed thugs, killer droids, and Imperial agents alike — and pull off the heist of the century — its Solo’s scoundrels. But will their crime really pay, or will it cost them the ultimate price?