[[[Elisha Barber]]] by E.C. Ambrose. (Book One of the Dark Apostle), DAW, $24.95, 400pp, hc, 9780756408350. Fantasy.

DAW books is thrilled to present the first in an all-new fantasy series from E.C. Ambrose — Elisha Barber, a powerful, energetic historical fantasy series set in an alternate 14th century England.

Elisha, the protagonist of the series, has a mission to heal. He begins the series as a barber-surgeon, at the lowest ranks of the medical profession: it’s the only healer’s path available to a peasant’s son. Soon, sent away to serve on the battlefront of an unjust war, he discovers he has an affinity for an unpleasantly deadly sort of magic, and is drawn into the clandestine world of sorcery by the enchanting young witch Brigit — who has baffling ties to his past, and ambitious plans for his future.

First with his exceptional medical skill, and then with something more, Elisha fights against the darkness of his world. But will he be able to overcome the darkness inside himself? Or will this “gift” prevent him from becoming the healer he aims to be?

For readers of Naomi Novik and J. Gregory Keyes, Elisha Barber is a gritty new take on sorcery, witchcraft and fantastical adventure.

 

[[[The Dark Legacy of Shannara: Witch Wraith]]] by Terry Brooks. Del Rey, $28.00, 420pp, hc, 9780345523532. Fantasy.

From New York Times bestselling author Terry Brooks comes the final thrilling novel in a brand-new trilogy — The Dark Legacy of Shannara!

For centuries the Four Lands enjoyed freedom from its demon-haunted past, protected by magic-enhanced borders from the dark dimension known as the Forbidding and the profound evil imprisoned there. But now the unthinkable is happening: the ancient wards securing the barrier between order and mayhem have begun to erode — and generations of bloodthirsty, monstrous creatures, fueled by a rage thousands of years in the making, are poised to spill forth, seeking revenge for what was done to them.

Young Elf Arling Elessedil possesses the enchanted means to close the breach and once more seal the denizens of the Forbidding in their prison. But when she falls into the hands of the powerful Federation’s diabolical Prime Minister, her efforts may be doomed. Only her determined sister, Aphen, who bears the Elfstones and commands their magic, has any hope of saving Arling from the hideous fate her captor has in store.

Meanwhile, Railing Ohmsford — desperate to save his imprisoned brother — seeks to discover if his famed by ill-fated ancestor Grianne is still alive and willing to help him save the world… no matter the odds or the consequences.

 

[[[H.P. Lovecraft’s Dark Arcadia: The Satire, Symbology and Contradiction]]] by Gavin Callaghan. McFarland, $40.00, 288pp, tp, 9780786470792. Non-fiction.

This volume attempts an objective reassessment of the controversial works and life of American horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. Ignoring secondary accounts and various received truths, Gavin Callaghan goes back to the weird texts themselves, and follows where Lovecraft leads him: into an arcane world of parental giganticism and inverted classicism, in which Lovecraft’s parental obsessions were twisted into the all-powerful cosmic monsters of his imaginary cosmology.

 

[[[Monster Hunter Legion]]] by Larry Correia. Baen, $7.99, 521pp, pb, 9781451639063. Science fiction.

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas–permanently

Monster Hunter International might be the premier monster eradication company in the business, but they’ve got competition.

When hunters from around the world gather in Las Vegas for a conference, a creature left over from a World War Two weapons experiment wakes up and goes on a rampage across the desert. A not-so-friendly wager between the rival companies turns into a race to see who can bag the mysterious creature first.

Only there is far more to this particular case than meets the eye, and as Hunters fall prey to their worst nightmares, Owen Zastava Pitt and the staff of Monster Hunter International have to stop an ancient god from turning Sin City into a literal hell on earth.

 

[[[Star Wars: Crucible]]] by Troy Denning. Ballantine/LucasBooks, $27.00, 320pp, hc, 9780345511423. Science fiction/tie-in.

In the first big follow-up to Fate of the Jedi, Han, Luke, and Leia are back in action — older and wiser, but as ready as ever to leap headlong into adventure! From the New York Times bestselling author, Troy Denning, comes the latest Star Wars adventure, Crucible. Three of our most beloved characters return for a challenge they never expected — on that will forever alter their understanding of life and the Force.

When Han and Leia Solo arrive at Lando Calrissian’s Outer Rim mining operation to help him thwart a hostile takeover, their aim is just to even up the odds and lay down the law. Then monstrous aliens arrive with a message, and mere threats escalate into violent sabotage with mass fatalities. When the dust settles, what began as corporate warfare becomes a battle with much higher stakes — and far deadlier consequences.

Now Han, Leia, and Luke team up once again in a quest to defeat a dangerous adversary bent on galaxy-wide domination. Only this time, the Empire is not the enemy. It is a pair of ruthless geniuses with a lethal ally and a lifelong vendetta against Han Solo. And when the murderous duo gets the drop on Han, he finds himself outgunned in the fight of his life. To save him, and the galaxy, Luke and Leia must brave a gauntlet of treachery, terrorism, and the untold power of an enigmatic artifact capable of bending space, time, and even the Force itself into an apocalyptic nightmare.

 

[[[This River Awakens]]] by Steven Erikson. Tor, $15.99, 432pp, tp, 9780765335005. Fiction.

In the spring of 1971, Owen Brand and his family move to the riverside town of Middlecross in a renewed attempt to escape poverty. For twelve-year-old Owen, it’s the opportunity for a new life and an end to his family’s isolation. He quickly falls in with a gang of three local boys and forms a strong bond with Jennifer, the rebellious daughter of a violent, alcoholic father. As summer brings release from school, two figures preside over the boys’ activities: Walter Gribbs, a benign old watchman at the yacht club, and Hodgson Fisk, a vindictive farmer tormented by his past. Then the boys stumble on a body washed up on the riverbank — a discovery whose reverberations will result, as the year come full circle, in a cataclysm that envelops them all…

Steven Erikson’s first novel, This River Awakens, is a lyrical, tender, and disturbing portrayal of a rite of passage that is both harsh and revelatory. Published for the first time in the U.S., the acclaimed author of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series brings a coming-of-age tale that reads like Stand by Me reimagined by the Coen brothers.

 

[[[On the Razor’s Edge]]] by Michael Flynn. Tor, $25.99, 304pp, hc, 9780765334800. Science fiction.

The conclusion of the acclaimed saga that began with January Dancer

In 2009, Michael Flynn introduced readers to the scarred man, Donovan buigh, and the fascinating world of the Spiral Arm in the Prometheus Award-nominated novel The January Dancer. In 2010, he continued Donovan’s story with the critically acclaimed Up Jim River, followed by 2012’s In the Lion’s Mouth. On the Razor’s Edge mixes actions, surprise, and fantastic technology — a smashing conclusion to Flynn’s grand multi-volume space epic.

The secret war among the Shadows of the Name is escalating, and there are hints that it is not so secret as the Shadows had thought. The scarred man, Donovan buigh, half honored guest and half prisoner, is carried deeper into the Confederation, all the way to Holy Terra herself, to help plan the rebel assault on the Secret City. If he does not soon remember the key information locked inside his fractured mind, his rebel friends may resort to torture to pull it from his subconscious.

Meanwhile, Bridget ban has organized a posse — a pack of Hounds — to go in pursuit of her kidnapped daughter, despite knowing that Ravn Olafsdottr kidnapped the harper precisely to lure Bridget ban in her wake. The Hound, the harper, and the scarred man wind deeper into a web of deceit and treachery certain of only one thing: nothing, absolutely nothing, is what it seems to be.

On the Razor’s Edge brings the intellectual far-future space opera that is the Spiral Arm series to a stunning finale, destined to become a science fiction classic.

 

[[[The World of the End]]] by Ofir Touche Gafla. Tor, $24.99, 368pp, hc, 9780765333568. Fantasy.

Death is just another Life

This June, Tor Books is proud to publish The World of the End by Ofir Touche Gafla. Originally released in the author’s native Israel in 2005, this award winning novel is now available for the first time in English. An Orpheus tale for the 21st century, The World of the End is at turns darkly humorous or deeply philosophical, but at all times gripping, inventive, and entertaining.

Some men would admit defeat when the love of their life meets an untimely end. Ben Mendelssohn is not one of those men. Unwilling to move on without his wife, Ben kills himself to follow his beloved and thereby enters the Other World. Lost and confused in a God-less afterflife both strange and familiar — and utterly unexpected — Ben searches for Marian with the help of an afterlife investigator. As he reaches goal, Ben’s journey has surprising consequences both int he land beyond and this one, with even more unexpected results.

Gafla is a bestselling author in his native Israel, where The World of the End won the 2005 Geffen Award for Best Novel. Translated from the original Hebrew with care and intelligence by Mitch Ginsberg, Gafla’s first novel now makes its auspicious English-language debut. Though fantastical, The World of the End is at its heart a novel about the resilience and fragility of love, as well as the best and worst in human nature, as explored by a deeply thoughtful and nuanced writer.

 

[[[Pathfinder Tales: The Wizard’s Mask]]] by Ed Greenwood. Paizo, $9.99, 428pp, pb, 9781601255303. Fantasy.

Into the Shattered Tomb

In the war-torn lands of Molthune and Nirmathas, where rebels fight an endless war of secession against an oppressive military government, the constant fighting can make for strange alliances. Such is the case for the man known only as The Masked, the victim of a magical curse that forces him to hide his face, and an escaped halfling slave named Tantaerra. Thrown together by chance, the two fugitives find themselves conscripted by both sides of the conflict and forced to search for a magical artifact that could help shift the balance of power and end the bloodshed for good. But in order to survive, the thieves will first need to learn the one thing none of their adventures have taught them: how to trust each other.

From New York Times best-selling author and legendary game designer Ed Greenwood comes a new adventure of magic, monsters, and unlikely friendships, set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

 

[[[Noah’s Boy]]] by Sarah A. Hoyt. Baen, $15.00, 294pp, tp, 9781451639049. Urban Fantasy.

(sequel to Draw One in the Dark and Gentleman Takes a Chance)

A Dragon of Mass Destruction

Rafiel Trall, one of Goldport’s finest, walks the fine line between enforcing human law and protecting other shifters like himself. A lion shifter, he finds comfort in his friendship with Tom Ormson, a dragon shifter, and Kyrie Smith, a panther shifter. They have aided and abetted him for years. But when the Great Sky Dragon is taken down by a dread force, Tom becomes the new Great Sky Dragon.

Nothing prepares Tom or Rafiel or Kyrie for the immense power that devolves upon Tom, nor the complications of Tom’s finding himself the head of a — mostly criminal — dragon syndicate. To make things worse, there’s a ravishing female dragon on the lam, and Rafiel falls for her hard, all while trying to keep Tom from becoming a dragon of mass destruction.

 

[[[Wolf in Shadow]]] by John Lambshead. Baen, $15.00, 400pp, tp, 9781451639100. Urban Fantasy.

London, the money and the daemons

Rhian, a girl from the Welsh valleys on the run from tragedy and herself, finds a new home in the modern East End of London, where the world’s largest financial center spins a web of money and power from glistening towers of chrome and glass. Beneath the digital facade lurks the old East End where the layers of two thousand years of dramatic and violent history slide over one another like glaciers, spilling out in avalanches that warp the real world.

As bodies begin to litter the East End streets, The Commission dispatches its best enforcers to deal with the situation: Karla is not human, and Jameson left his humanity behind in pieces in Northern Ireland and Afghanistan. Rhian makes new friends, dangerous friends, and where Rhian goes, the wolf is always in her shadow, just a heartbeat away.

Among the bankers and traders of the East End walk demons in human form and who is to say which are the monsters? London is a magical bomb waiting to explode and somewhere a fuse is hissing.

 

[[[A Liaden Universe Constellation: Volume 1]]] by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. Baen, $15.00, 454pp, tp, 9781451639230. Science fiction.

A constellation of far-flung adventure

The nationally best-selling Liaden Universe novels are treasured by space opera aficionados for their wit, world building, strong characterizations, tender romance, and edge-of-the-chair action. Since 1995, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller have also created shorter tales, illuminating additional facets of the Liaden experience.

Here is a vast tapestry of tales of the scouts, artists, traders, priestesses, sleight of hand magicians, and pilots who fill the Liaden Universe with the excitement, action, and romance that readers of the hit series have come to adore.

 

[[[The Republic of Thieves]]] by Scott Lynch. Del Rey, $28.00, 672pp, hc, 9780553804690. Fantasy. On-sale date: 8 October 2013.

“A bright new voice in the fantasy genre” (George R. R. Martin), acclaimed author Scott Lynch continues to astound and entertain with his thrillingly inventive, wickedly funny, suspense-filled adventures featuring con artist extraordinaire Locke Lamora. And The Republic of Thieves is his most captivating novel yet.
 
With what should have been the greatest heist of their career gone spectacularly sour, Locke and his trusted partner, Jean, have barely escaped with their lives. Or at least Jean has. But Locke is slowly succumbing to a deadly poison that no alchemist or physiker can cure. Yet just as the end is near, a mysterious Bondsmage offers Locke an opportunity that will either save him or finish him off once and for all.

Magi political elections are imminent, and the factions are in need of a pawn. If Locke agrees to play the role, sorcery will be used to purge the venom from his body—though the process will be so excruciating he may well wish for death. Locke is opposed, but two factors cause his will to crumble: Jean’s imploring—and the Bondsmage’s mention of a woman from Locke’s past: Sabetha. She is the love of his life, his equal in skill and wit, and now, his greatest rival.

Locke was smitten with Sabetha from his first glimpse of her as a young fellow orphan and thief-in-training. But after a tumultuous courtship, Sabetha broke away. Now they will reunite in yet another clash of wills. For faced with his one and only match in both love and trickery, Locke must choose whether to fight Sabetha—or to woo her. It is a decision on which both their lives may depend.

 

[[[The Executioner’s Heart]]] by George Mann. Tor, $27.99, 353pp, hc, 9780765327765. Steampunk.

The fourth Newbury & Hobbes steampunk mystery pits the detectives against the most frightening villainess England has yet seen

A thrilling new, stand-alone tale in the Newbury & Hobbes collection, The Executioner’s Heart follows the adventures of Victorian special agent Sir Maurice Newbury and his determined assistant Miss Veronica Hobbes as they confront an exciting new villain with a clockwork heart.

Its Charles Bainbridge, Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard third murder he has come across where the victim’s chest has been cracked open and their heart torn out. Bainbridge suspects there’s a symbolic reason for the stolen hearts, so he sends for supernatural specialist Sir Maurice Newbury and his assistant, Miss Veronica Hobbes.

Unfortunately, neither of them are in much shape to take the case. Veronica has been hunting for some way to alleviate the mysterious forces that have been hounding her family of late, and Newbury has been retained by a private client: Edward, Prince of Wales, who’s concerned that his mother, the Queen of England, is losing her grip on the nation.

However, the two detectives pull together long enough to determine that the killings may be the work of a mercenary known as the Executioner. The Executioner is famed throughout Europe, with legends going back for hundreds of years. Something is keeping her in a form of living stasis, but her heart is damaged, leaving her an emotionless shell, inexplicably driven to collect her victims’ hearts as trophies.

Who is the Executioner targeting, and who hired her? Newbury and Hobbes will have to somehow work together to unearth the secret of the Executioner’s Heart.

Chilling, suspenseful, and exhilarating, The Executioner’s Heart is a gratifying mystery that will keep the readers guessing to the very end.

 

[[[The Dead Run]]] by Adam Mansbach. Harper Voyager, $25.99, 304pp, hc, 9780062199652. Fiction. On-sale date: 24 September 2013.

Filled with creepy chills and crackling suspense, an unnerving supernatural thriller, set in the netherworld of the U.S./Mexican borderland, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Go the F**ck to Sleep and the acclaimed Rage Is Back.

On both sides of the Mexican-American border, girls are going missing and bodies are beginning to surface, a deadly epidemic of crime that plunges a small-town police chief into a monster of an investigation he’s unequipped to handle.

Sherry Nichols is one of those disappeared girls. Miraculously, she’s managed to escape. As the young woman soon discovers, freeing herself was the easy part. Lost and alone, she’s got to make it through the desert. Alive.

In a Mexican jail, an unjustly imprisoned man named Galvan is offered a devil’s bargain. Freedom and the beloved daughter from whom he is estranged — if he successfully carries a sinister package across the border in twenty-four hours.

But there are more than coyotes (human and animal) roaming the desert in search of prey. An ancient evil has returned, and now everyone must face their deepest terrors.

With The Dead Run Adam Mansbach delivers an eerie high-concept thriller, mixing horror, the supernatural, and suspense in a chilling, high-octane read.

 

 

[[[Star Wars: Kenobi]]] by John Jackson Miller. Ballantine/LucasBooks, $27.00, 400pp, hc, 9780345546838. Science fiction/tie-in. On-sale date: 27 August 2013.

The Republic has fallen. Sith Lords rule the galaxy, and Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi has lost everything… but hope. From the New York Times bestselling author John Jackson Miller comes Star Wars: Kenobi, a standalone novel and the first adult book to focus on Obi-Wan during the period between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV A New Hope.

Tatooine — a harsh desert world where farmers toil in the heat of two suns while trying to protect themselves and their loved ones from the marauding Tusken Raiders. A backwater planet on the edge of civilized space. And an unlikely place to find a Jedi Master in hiding, or an orphaned infant boy on whose tiny shoulder rests the future of a galaxy.

Known to locals only as “Ben,” the bearded and robed offworlder is an enigmatic stranger who keeps to himself, shares nothing of his past, and goes to great pains to remain an outsider. But as tensions escalate between the farmers and a tribe of Sand People led by a ruthless war chief, Ben finds himself drawn into the fight, endangering the very mission that brought him to Tatooine.

Ben — Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, hero of the Clone Wars, traitor to the Empire, and protector of the galaxy’s last hope — can no more turn his back on evil than he can reject his Jedi training. And when blood is unjustly spilled, innocent lives threatened, and a ruthless opponent unmasked, Ben has no choice but to call on the wisdom of the Jedi — and the formidable power of the Force — in his never-ending fight for justice.

 

[[[The Goliath Stone]]] by Larry Niven and Matthew Joseph Harrington. Tor, $24.99, 320pp, hc, 9780765333230. Science fiction.

Tor Books is thrilled to present The Goliath Stone — the visionary new tale from Larry Niven and Matthew Harrington. Filled with smart tech and even smarter dialogue, this adventure in the not-so-distant future is a fun and thrilling ride.

The year is 2052 and Dr. Toby Glyer has effected miracle cures with the use of nanotechnology. But Glyer’s controversial nanites are living things — a new form of life — and they have more uses than just medical. They also have the potential to make everyone on Earth rich from mining the mineral wealth of asteroids… if he can control them.

Unfortunately, as every parent learns, when you produce a new, thinking being, the plans it makes are not necessarily your plans. And when a two-hundred-gigaton asteroid that rivals the rock that felled the dinosaurs is hurtling toward Earth on a collision course, you don’t have time to argue. Will Glyer’s nanites be Earth’s salvation or destruction?

 

[[[Under a Graveyard Sky]]] by John Ringo. Baen, $25.00, 384pp, hc, 9781451639193. Fantasy. On-sale date: September 2013.

A family of survivors who fight back against a zombie plague that has brought down civilization. Zombies are real. And we made them. Are you prepared for the zombie apocalypse? The Smith family is, with the help of a few marines.

When an airborne “zombie” plague is released, bringing civilization to a grinding halt, the Smith family, Steven, Stacey, Sophia and Faith, take to the Atlantic to avoid the chaos. The plan is to find a safe haven from the anarchy of infected humanity. What they discover, instead, is a sea composed of the tears of survivors and a passion for bringing hope.

For it is up to the Smiths and a small band of Marines to somehow create the refuge that survivors seek in a world of darkness and terror. Now with every continent a holocaust and every ship an abattoir, life is lived under a graveyard sky.

 

[[[Sybil the Backpack Fairy, Book 4: Princess Nina]]] by Michel Rodrigue, illustrated by Antonello Dalena & Manuela Razzi. Papercutz, $10.99, 48pp, hc, 9781597074155. Children’s graphic novel.

Nina, the intrepid hero of Sybil the Backpack Fairy, thought life would settle down to something resembling normal after her father’s dramatic return in our last volume, but she’s in for a big surprise! Now that mean girl Laurie has the no-good Amanite as her own backpack fairy, Nina doesn’t even have to go to Sybil’s world for mystical menaces — they’re right here in gym class.

In Princess Nina, the latest chapter of the critically acclaimed middle grade fantasy series, Sybil tries to deal with Laurie’s machinations and a looming homework assignment with a poorly planned trip through time. To get back home in one piece, Nina will have to fight past Amanite’s many monsters but also use the booksmarts that have suffered from all her recent fairy-assisted schoolwork. And sidekick Pandigole… well, he has a few creative ways of using books to get out of a jam!

 

[[[The Initiate Brother Duology]]] by Sean Russell. DAW $16.00, 950pp, tp, 9780756408022. Fantasy.

For the first time, Russell’s two-part epic-fantasy masterpiece, together in one volume

Plague and warfare have disturbed the peace of the ancient kingdom of Wa. The new emperor, Akantsu, is fearful of all who might seek to wrestle the Empire from his grasp, but the one he fears the most is Lord Shonto, the brilliant leader whose influence could rally the Great Houses against the throne. For not only is Shonto the greatest military genius of the age, but with him is a young man gifted with extraordinary martial arts skills and unbelievable magical abilities, Initiate Brother Shuyun of the Botahist Order.

 

[[[Tech Anxiety: Artificial Intelligence and Ontological Awakening in Four Science Fiction Novels]]] by Christopher A. Sims. McFarland, $45.00, 252pp, tp, 9780786466481. Non-fiction.

This project examines the representation of anxiety about technology that humans feel when encountering artificial intelligences in four science fiction novels: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Neuromancer, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Cloud Atlas. By exploring this anxiety, something profound can be revealed about what it means to be a person living in a technologically saturated society. While many critical investigations of these novels focus on the dangerous and negative implications of artificial intelligence, this work uses Martin Heidegger’s later writings on technology to argue that AIs might be more usefully read as catalysts for a reawakening of human thought.

 

[[[Beginnings]]] by David Weber, with Charles E. Gannon, Joelle Presby, and Timothy Zahn. (Worlds of Honor #6), Baen, $25.00, 377pp, hc, 9781451639032. Science Fiction.

The hottest military science fiction series of all time continues. The mission: to boldly explore David Weber’s Honorverse; to deliver all the action, courage, derring-do, and pulse-pounding excitement of space naval adventure with tales set in a world touched by the greatness of one epic heroine: Honor Harrington.

This sixth volume in the popular World of Honor series includes stories by New York Times best seller and Star Wars phenomenon, Timothy Zahn, popular space adventure writer Charles E. Gannon, Joelle Presby, and two new stories by David Weber himself. One of Weber’s contributions is an all-new novella featuring a young Manticoran Royal Navy commander who goes by the name of Harrington and her first mission with her treecat.

With over seven and a half million copies of his books in print and eighteen titles on the New York Times best seller list, David Weber is the science fiction phenomenon of the new millennium. In the hugely popular Honor Harrington series, the spirit of C.S. Forester’s Horation Hornblower and Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander live on — into the galactic future.

 

[[[Chimera: A Jim Chapel Mission]]] by David Wellington. William Morrow, $24.99, 426pp, hc, 9780062248770. Thriller.

David Wellington has quickly become a rising star in the horror/sci-fi community with his “Monster Island” trilogy. In Chimera, Wellington’s break-out action thriller, he combines heart-stopping scientific horrors with non-stop action in a race to stop a group of genetically-modified killers.

When wounded Special Forces veteran Jim Chapel came home from Afghanistan, he thought his career in military intelligence was over. Chapel has been stuck behind a desk rather than out in the field. But now medical technology has finally caught up with Chapel’s ambitions, and coupled with his unstoppable determination he’s able to get back to where he thrives: the thick of the action.

Ten years after his return, Chapel is drafted into a new war, this time on American soil. A small band of fugitives has escaped from a top secret upstate NY military facility, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. Four men are loose in America, men with superhuman speed and strength, men carrying a deadly virus, men with a mission: kill an innocent civilian. And they will not stop until their mission is complete.

Chapel is tasked with hunting down the group of escapees and unraveling the mystery behind their existence. Aided by a mysterious woman named Angel and a courageous, beautiful veterinarian, Chapel begins a cross-country hunt to stop the murders. But are the killers really rogues, or are they part of a sinister conspiracy that reaches the highest levels?

 

[[[When Diplomacy Fails…]]] by Michael Z. Williamson. Baen, $7.99, 488pp, pb, 9781451639117. Science fiction.

Lots of Enemies = A Target-Rich Environment

Alex Marlow and Ripple Creek Security’s best personal security detail return to action. This time, they really don’t like their principal, World Bureau Minister Joy Herman Highland — a highly placed bureaucrat with aspirations to elected office. Even worse, Highland’s assistant wants to publicize every movement for his boss’s pending campaign, which is anathema to good security.

With a person of this status, it’s not a case of someone wanting her dead. The only question is how many people want her dead, and what are they bringing to the fight?

The enemies are from without, within and all over. They have resources, funding and political cover. Ripple Creek needs to be cautious.

But the enemy also needs to worry. They’re going to be getting in each others’ way carrying out their plans. But all publicity is good publicity, and Ripple Creek has no qualms about explosions on galactic news, so long as they are the ones causing the explosions.

 

[[[The Best of Connie Willis: Award-Winning Stories]]] by Connie Willis. Del Rey, $28.00, 480pp, hc, 9780345540645. Science fiction collection.

Few authors have had careers as successful as that of Connie Willis. Inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and recently awarded the title of Grant Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Willis is still going strong. Her smart, heartfelt fiction runs the gamut from screwball comedy to profound tragedy, combining dazzling plot twists, cutting-edge science, and unforgettable characters.

From a near future mourning the extinction of dogs to an alternate history in which invading aliens were defeated by none other than Emily Dickinson; from a madcap convention of bumbling quantum physicists in Hollywood to a London whose Underground has become a storehouse of intangible memories both foul and fair — here are the greatest stories of one of the greatest writers working in any genre today.

All ten of the stories gathered here are Hugo or Nebula ward winners — some even have the distinction of winning both. With a new Introduction by the author and personal afterwords to each story — plus a special look at three of Willis’s unique public speeches — this is unquestionably the collection of the season, a book that every Connie Willis fan will treasure, and, to those unfamiliar with her work, the perfect introduction to one of the most accomplished and best-loved writers of our time.