[[[Clockwork Angels: The Novel]]] by Kevin J. Anderson; from a story and lyrics by Neil Peart. ECW Press, $24.95, 320pp, hc, 9781770411210. Science fiction.

In an innovative combination of music and literature, bestselling science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson and Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart have collaborated to convert the legendary rock band’s latest album, Clockwork Angels, into a full-length steampunk novel.

The music throughout Clockwork Angels — the band’s 20th studio album — forms the backbone of a colorful adventure story, which is now fully realized in Clockwork Angels: The Novel.

The story tells of a young man caught between the grandiose forces of order and chaos. On a quest to follow his dreams, he travels across a lavish and colorful world of steampunk and alchemy, with lost cities, pirates, anarchists, exotic carnivals, airships and steam engines, and a rigid Watchmaker who imposes precision on every aspect of daily life.

 

[[[Jack Templar: Monster Hunter]]] by Jeff Gunhus. (The Templar Chronicles – Book One), Seven Guns Press, $10.95, 184pp, tp, 9780988425903. YA sf.

Orphan Jack Templar has no memory of his parents and only the smallest details from his Aunt Sophie about how they died.. The day before Jack’s fourteenth birthday, things start to change for him. At first it’s great: A sudden new strength helps him defend his nose-picking friend “T-Rex” from the school bully, and even his crush, Cindy Adams, takes notice. But then a mysterious girl named Eva arrives and tells him two facts that will change his life forever. First, that he’s the descendent of a long line of monster hunters and he’s destined to be in the family business. Second, that there’s a truce between man and monster that children are off-limits… until their fourteenth birthday! Jack has only one day before hundreds of monsters will descend on his little town of Sunnyvale and try to kill him.

As if that weren’t enough, things get even more complicated when Jack discovers that the Lord of the Creach (as the monsters are collectively known) holds a personal grudge against him and will do anything to see that Jack has a slow and painful death. To stay alive and save his friends, Jack will have to battle werewolves, vampires, harpies, trolls, zombies and more. But perhaps the most dangerous thing he must face is the truth about his past. Why do the other hunters call him the last Templar? Why do they whisper that he may be the “One?” Why do the monsters want him dead so badly? Even as these questions plague him, he quickly discovers survival is his new full-time job and that in the world of monster hunters, nothing is really what it seems.

 

[[[Hunted]]] by Kevin Hearne. (Book Six of The Iron Druid Chronicles), Del Rey, $7.99, 400 pages, pb, 9780345533630. Fantasy.

For a two-thousand-year-old Druid, Atticus O’Sullivan is a pretty fast runner. Good thing, because he’s being chased by not one but two goddesses of the hunt — Artemis and Diana — for messing with one of their own. Dodging their slings and arrows, Atticus, Granuaile, and his wolfhound, Oberon, are making a mad dash across modern-day Europe to seek help from a friend of the Tuatha De Danann. His usual magical option of shifting planes is blocked, so instead of playing hide-and-seek, the game plan is… run like hell.

Crashing the pantehon marathon is the Norse god Loki. Killing Atticus is the only loose end he needs to tie up before unleashing Ragnarok — aka the Apocalypse. Atticus and Granuaile have to outfox the Olympians and contain the god of mischief if they want to go on living — and still have a world to live in.

 

[[[Kill City Blues]]] by Richard Kadrey. (a Sandman Slim novel), Harper Voyager, $24.99, 400pp, hc, 9780062094599. Fiction. On-sale date: August 2013.

James Stark, aka Sandman Slim, has managed to get out of Hell, renounce his title as the new Lucifer, and settle back into life in L.A. But he’s not out of trouble yet. Somewhere along the way he misplaced the Qomrama Om Ya, a weapon from the banished older golds who are also searching for their lost power.

The hunt leads Stark to an abandoned shopping mall — a multi-story copy of L.A. — infested with Lurkers and wretched bottom-feeding Sub Rosa families, squatters who have formed tight tribes to guard their tiny patches of this fake L.A. Somewhere in the kill zone of the former mall is a dead man with the answers Stark needs. All Stark has to do is find the deadman, get back out alive, and outrun some angry old gods — and a few killers — on his tail.

 

[[[The Curiosity]]] by Stephen P. Kiernan. William Morrow, $25.99, 432pp, hc, 9780062221063. Science fiction.

Michael Crichton meets Audrey Niffenegger in The Curiosity, Stephen P. Kiernan’s powerful debut novel about a man frozen in the Arctic for more than a century. Waking up in present day Boston, he must cope with an entirely new world, a cultural and political frenzy that not only questions our moral code but also throws him into uncharted and dangerous territory.

In present time, Dr. Kate Philo and her scientific exploration team make a breathtaking discovery in the Arctic: the body of a man buried deep in the ice. As a scientist in a groundbreaking project run by the egocentric and paranoid Erastus Carthage, Kate has brought small frozen creatures — plankton, krill, shrimp — back to life. Never have the team’s methods been attempted on a large life form.

Heedless of the consequences, Carthage orders that the frozen man be brought back to the lab in Boston, and reanimated. As the man begins to regain his memories, the team learns that he was/is a judge, Jeremiah Rice, and the last thing he remembers is falling overboard into the Arctic Ocean in 1906. When news of the Lazarus Project and Jeremiah Rice breaks, it ignites a media firestorm and massive protests by religious fundamentalists.

Thrown together by circumstances beyond their control, Kate and Jeremiah forge an unlikely bond. A gripping and poignant thriller, The Curiosity is a provocative debut novel raising disturbing questions about the very nature of life and humanity — man as a scientific subject, as a tabloid plaything, as a living being: a curiosity.

 

[[[The Silver Six]]] by A.J. Lieberman & Darren Rawlings. Graphix/Scholastic, $10.99, 190pp, tp, 9780545370981. Middle grades sf graphic novel.

Comic veteran A.J. Lieberman teams up with designer, animator, and illustrator Darren Rawlings to create The Silver Six, a futuristic full-color graphic novel about a group of orphans who are thrown together under mysterious circumstances and are fighting to save the world.

When a group of orphans discover they have more in common than they could have imagined, plucky heroine Phoebe leads her new friends in a daring escape from their orphanage to an uninhabited moon. But their idyllic paradise is shattered when the powerful corporate boss who caused the deaths of their parents sends a relentless henchman to track them down. Now, with nowhere left to turn and tired of being on the run, these resourceful kids decide there’s only one thing left to do: Fight back!

 

[[[Spirit Animals Book 1: Wild Born]]] by Brandon Mull. Scholastic, $12.99, 208pp, hc, 9780545522434. Middle grades fantasy. On-sale date: 10 September 2013.

In the world of Erdas, four children are about to discover if they have a spirit animal, a rare bond between human and beast that gives great powers to both. Separated by vast distances, Conor, Abeke, Meilin, and Rollan each see a flash of light… and then the animals emerge.

Wolf, leopard, panda, falcon. Each of the children has summoned a beast from legend. Now their fate is set. The four new heroes and their animals must band together on a dangerous quest. A dark force from the past is rising, and only they have the power to stop it.

The fate of Erdas has fallen on the shoulders of these brave strangers… and on you.

 

[[[Star Trek: The Next Generation: On Board the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D]]] by Denise and Michael Okuda. Barrons, $18.99, 4opp + CD, hc, 9780764166068. TV tie-in/Star Trek.

Famed for its original storylines, endearing and complex characters as well as the sheer enjoyment of watching, Star Trek is a serious hobby for some, a part-time job for others, and a rich source of fun for all. On Board The U.S.S. Enterprise is your golden ticket for a once-in-a-lifetime personal tour of the fabled corridors of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D.

In the pages of this book, you’ll find a vivid account of the Enterprise‘s history, notes on her most memorable voyages, her propulsion and tactical abilities, plus spectacular fold-out pages, showcasing the starship from all angles.

Adding to the excitement of this one-of-a-kind Star Trek experience is the accompanying CD-ROM that will take you on a virtual 3D tour of the ship. Wander around the engineering room, check out the sickbay, crew quarters and other famous locations, all of which have been painstakingly digitally recreated with the delivery of a master historian and rendered in 3D with fine attention to detail to get you as close as possible to the real thing.

 

[[[Tommysaurus Rex]]] by Doug TenNapel. Graphix/Scholastic, $10.99, 140pp, tp, 9780545483834. YA fantasy graphic novel.

Acclaimed artist and author Doug TenNapel creates a dinosaur adventure int he tradition of Old Yeller in Tommysaurus Rex about the heartwarming friendship between a boy and his Tyrannosaurus Rex. Originally published in black-and-white in 2004, this new edition of Tommysaurus Rex has been expanded with 32 new pages of art and is now in full color.

When Ely’s beloved dog, Tommy, is hit by a car, he goes to his grandpa’s farm for the summer to get his mind off things. While exploring a nearby cave one day, he discovers a full-grown but friendly Tyrannosaurus Rex. As the news of the dinosaur grows around town, so does the friendship between Ely and his Jurassic pet. But Randy, the mean kid down the street, decides he’s going to make life miserable for Ely and his dinosaur, to devastating effect.

 

[[[The Scroll of Years]]] by Chris Willrich. (a Gaunt and Bone novel), Pyr, $15.95, 270pp, tp, 9781616148133. Fantasy. On-sale date: 10 September 2013.

Persimmon Gaunt Imago Bone are a romantic couple, partners in crime. Persimmon is a poet from a well-to-do family, who found herself looking for adventure, while Imago is a thief in his ninth decade who is double-curse, and his body has not aged in nearly seventy years. Together, their services and wanderlust have taken them into places better left unseen, and against odds best not spoken about. Now, they find themselves looking to get away, to the edge of the world, with Persimmon pregnant with their child, and the most feared duo of assassins hot on their trail. However, all is never what it seems, and a sordid adventure — complete with magic scrolls, gangs of thieves, and dragons both eastern and western — is at hand.