[[[The Beautiful Land]]] by Alan Averill. Ace, $16.00, 362pp, tp, 9780425265277.

Skillfully blending non-stop action with compassionate characters and a sharp sense of humor, Alan Averill’s debut novel The Beautiful Land is unique in both style and scope. It’s a love story in different dimensions; a horror novel that relies on none of the cliches and a gripping tale about the nature of memory, heartache, and redemption in a world where alternate realities collide.

In The Beautiful Land, Tak, a former adventure show host, receives a phone call. The Axon corporation is on the other line. They want to employ his skills to maximize profits. They do so by altering the past, present, and future with a mysteriously acquired device. Samira, a translator, has returned from the war in Iraq with PTSD. Her and Tak have been in an unspoken love since their days in school. If Axon succeeds, her future will cease to exist. Tak, with only Samira to lose, steals the machine to save her — and subsequently — the world as we know it.

 

[[[World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War]]] by Max Brooks, performed by an all-star cast. Random House Audio, $25.00, 12 hours on 10 CDs, 9870449806951. Fantasy.

We survived the zombie apocalypse, but how many of us are still haunted by that terrible time? We have (temporarily?) defeated the living dead, but at what cost? Told in the haunting and riveting voices of the men and women who witnessed the horror firsthand, World War Z is the only record of the plague years.

Performed by: F. Murray Abraham, Alan Alda, Rene Auberjonois, Becky Ann Baker, Dennis Boutsikaris, Bruce Boxleitner, Max Brooks, Nicki Clyne, Common, Denise Crosby, Frank Darabont, Dean Edwards, Mark Hamill, Nathan Fillion, Maz Jobrani, Frank Kamai, Michelle Kholos, John McElroy, Ade M’Cormack, Alfred Molina, Parminder Nagra, Ajay Naidu, Masi Oka, Steve Park, Kal Penn, Simon Pegg, Jurgen Prochnow, Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner, Henry Rollins, Jeri Ryan, Jay O. Sanders, Martin Scorsese, Paul Sorvino, David Ogden Stiers, Brian Tee, John Turturro, Eamonn Walker, Ric Young, and Waleed Zuaiter.

 

[[[CarniePunk]]]. Gallery, $16.00, 448pp, tp, 9781476714158. Fantasy anthology. On-sale date: 23 July 2013.

The stories in CarniePunk are linked by the concept of a creepy, mysterious, and possibly magical world of a traveling carnival, with each author weaving his or her own unique tale. Rachel Caine writes of vampires through the eyes of a naive teenager; Jennifer Estep’s much-loved Elemental ASsassin, Gin Blanco, investigates the Wheel of Death and some creepy clowns; Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid discover secrets of the Kansas Wheat Festival; Seanan McGuire narrates the return of the carnival to a dangerous town after twenty years; and Rob Thurman follows a psychopath stalking two you carnies.

CarniePunk also features stories from nine other popular Urban Fantasy authors, including Delilah S. Dawson, Kelly Gay, Mark Henry, Hillary Jacques, Jackie Kessler, Kelly Meding, Allison Pang, Nicole D. Peeler, and Jaye Wells.

Featuring stories grotesque and comical, outrageous and action-packed, CarniePunk is the first anthology to channel the energy and attitude of Urban Fantasy into the bizarre world of creaking machinery, twisted myths, and vivid new magic.

 

[[[Death of an Empire]]] by M.K. Hume. (The Merlin Prophecy–Book 2), Atria, $16.00, 498pp, tp, 9781476715148. Fiction.

Death of an Empire — The Legend of Merlin Continues

Merlin is the product of a brutal rape. Determined to uncover his father’s identity, he sets sail from Celtic Britain with his band of loyal companions. Their journey through war-ravaged France, Rome, and Ravenna to Constantinople will push their strength to the limit and shape Merlin’s reputation as a great healer.

The Roman Empire is under attack. Bound by an oath to relieve suffering the talented apothecary saves thousands of warriors from total destruction. a bloodier conflict between opposing powers arises, and Merlin must use all his resolve if he wishes to survive the death of an empire.

M.K. Hume has won the praise of readers and critics alike with her original take on the beloved and enduring Merlin legend. Her background in Arthurian literature lends historical accuracy to a trilogy wrought with passion, heart, and adventure.

 

[[[Tunnel Out of Death]]] by Jamil Nasir. Tor, $25.99, 304pp, hc, 9780765306111. Science fiction.

Tor Books is excited to publish the fifth novel from imagination powerhouse Jamil Nasir, Tunnel Out of Death. Flowing through multiple dimensions, with elements of science fiction, urban paranormal fantasy, and noir detective tales, this exquisitely layered story will turn any preconceptions on their head and show just how alien our world can be.

Heath Ransom is a former police psychic turned cyborg “endovoyant” private investigator. While on the case hunting a consciousness gone astray, Heath falls through a tear in the very fabric of reality and into an astonishing metaphysical shadow play. Caught up in a war between secret government agencies battling across various ethereal planes, and exposed to a terrifyingly mysterious nonhuman entity known only as “Amphibian,” Heath’s life, reality, and sanity are in grave danger.

Tunnel Out of Death will pull you into a world both teasingly familiar and frighteningly foreign. An exotic adventure of the consciousness, this novel is unique in a sea of worn tropes — don’t miss out.

 

[[[Mending the Moon]]] by Susan Palwick. Tor, $24.99, 336pp, hc, 9780765327581. Fiction.

Tor is excited to present acclaimed author Susan Palwick’s Mending the Moon, a poignant novel of hope in the wake of unimaginable loss. Palwick made a name for herself in genre fiction with the Crawford Award-winning Flying in Place and the Alex Award-winning The Necessary Beggar — two incredibly powerful fantasy tales. With Mending the Moon, Palwick brings her talent to mainstream fiction in a beautifully crafted work of grief and recovery that will stay with the reader long after the final page is turned.

It begins with the brutal murder of sixty-four-year-old Melinda Soto, who is killed while vacationing in Mexico. Left to cope with this tragic loss is her nineteen-year-old adopted son Jeremy, with whom she has a fraught relationship. Joining in his grief is Melinda’s tight-knit group of friends: Veronique, a jaded English professor who always feels on the outskirts of the group; Rosemary, a hospital chaplain who is losing her husband to Alzheimer’s; Hen, the sympathetic priest at Melinda’s church.

It does not take long for the police to discover the identity of Melinda’s murderer: a young American tourist named Percy who flies home to Seattle and drowns himself days later. Left to deal with their only child’s horrifying actions are his mother Anna, a devoted homemaker, and his father, William, an art dealer. As her marriage disintegrates, Anna makes a surprising decision to connect with Melinda’s loved ones. It is through this extraordinary action that all may finally begin to heal.

Woven throughout the main story is the fictional comic book Comrade Cosmos, a pop-cultural phenomenon with a huge fan base, including Jeremy and Percy. As Melinda’s and Percy’s survivors try to image what might have happened in Mexico and struggle with how to continue their lives, Comrade Cosmos mirrors their journeys, offering signposts and community in unexpected forms. Mending the Moon is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the odd paths that lead to home.

 

[[[Romulus Buckle & the City of the Founders]]] by Richard Ellis Preston, Jr. 47North, $14.95, 504pp, tp, 9781611099188. Fiction. On-sale date: 2 July 2013.

Swashbuckling adventure reigns supreme in the first book of Richard Ellis Preston, Jr.’s The Chronicles of the Pneumatic Zeppelin series.

In a brutal future where alien bombardment has reduced humanity to warring clans and steam-powered technology, the dashing Romulus Buckle captains a zeppelin and leads an elite — if fractious — crew against all odds and enemies. When the kidnapping of three powerful clan leaders derails a peace conference, Buckle mounts an impossible rescue mission into a deadly prison citadel. There, despite their hidden agendas and secret loyalties, the crew must unite if they’re to survive and destroy those who would eradicate humanity’s last chances for survival.

Richard Preston, Jr. reveals a brilliantly imagined world that embodies all that readers have come to love about steampunk, with larger-than-life characters, epic landscapes, and ferocious battles. He lives in California.

 

[[[A Private Little War]]] by Jason Sheehan. 47North, $14.95, 496pp, tp, 9781611098945. Science Fiction. On-sale date: June 2013.

He felt something in his belly twist up like cold fingers curling into a fist. This is it, he’d thought. This is when it all goes bad…

Welcome to Flyboy, Inc., a private “security” firm that has a new mission on the planet Iaxo: In one year, put down an insurrection; exploit the ancient enmities of an indigenous, tribal society; and kill the hell out of one group of natives to facilitate negotiations with the surviving group over 110 million acres of mixed terrain.

At first, the double-hush, back-burner project seemed to be going well. Considering they had their advantages — their ten-century technological leap on the locals, the logistical support of a distant and powerful private military company, and negotiated aid from several other similar outfits already on the ground — a year of combat seemed to be a reasonable assessment. Everyone was going to come out of this safe and sound and very, very rich.

Of course, no one told the natives of Iaxo that this was a pushover job. And now the pilots of Flyboy, Inc. are mired in a war that should already be over, waiting on support that may never be coming…

A Private Little War is the debut novel from acclaimed, James Beard Award-winning food critic Jason Sheehan that examines a war nobody knows about — a war not only being fought against the natives of a distant planet, but a struggle to stay sane in a world that makes no sense.

 

[[[Haunters]]] by Thomas Taylor. Chicken House/Scholastic, $17.99, 336pp, hc, 9780545496445. Middle grades science fiction/horror. On-sale date: June 2013.

When ghosts are time travelers from the future, does the past have a ghost of a chance?

Artist Thomas Taylor makes his middle grade writing debut with Haunters, a supernatural adventure novel filled with thrills and chills.

Eddie, Adam, David. Three boys, three generations, one gift: the ability to travel through time. Using their dreams, they can appear as ghosts, wherever and whenever they want.

The first boy, Eddie, is the genius who has sworn to protect the past and carry on the dreamwalker’s code. The second, Adam, is a Haunter, a dream-terrorist, dead-set on changing history for his own nefarious ends. The third, David, is the neophyte who must fight for the future by keeping the other two apart. Can he surf the time warps, back and forth between 1940s London and today, to save the present from total oblivion?