[[[Bitten]]] by Kelley Armstrong. Plume, $9.99, 530pp, pb, 9780452296640. Fiction/tie-in.

Elena Michaels seems like the typically strong and sexy modern woman. She lives with her architect boyfriend, writes for a popular newspaper, and works out at the gym. She’s also a werewolf.

Elena has done all she can to assimilate to the human world, but the man whose bite changed her existence forever, and his legacy, continue to haunt her. Thrown into a desperate war for survival that tests her allegiance to a secret clan of werewolves, Elena must reckon with who, and what, she is in this passionate, page-turning novel.

[[[The Forever Engine]]] by Frank Chadwick. Baen, $15.00, 340pp, tp, 9781451639407. Science fiction.

Forever may not be very long…

London,1888. His Majesty’s airships troll the sky, powered by antigrav liftwood, while a cabal of Iron Lords tightens its hold on a Britain choked by the fumes of industry. Mars has been colonized, and clockwork assassins stalk the European corridors of power. And somewhere far to the east, the Old Man of the Mountains plots the end of the world with his Forever Engine.

Enter Jack Fargo, scholar and former special forces operator in Afghanistan, a man from our own near future who’s been thrust back in time—or to wherever it is that this Brave Victorian World actually exists. Aided only by an elderly Scottish physicist, a young British officer of questionable courage, and a beautiful but mysterious spy for the French Commune, Fargo is a man on a desperate mission: save the future from irrevocable destruction before the Forever Engine is brought to full power and blows this universe—and our own—to smithereens.

[[[1636: Seas of Fortune]]] by Iver P. Cooper. Baen, $15.00, 463pp, tp, 9781451639391. Science fiction.

From the New World to Feudal Japan…

A cosmic catastrophe, the Ring of Fire, strands the West Virginia town of Grantville back in time in the middle of the Thirty Years War. The repercussions of that event is transforming Europe, and the impact is now being felt across two great oceans, the Atlantic and Pacific, as told in two exciting novellas:

Stretching Out: The United States of Europe seeks out resources—oil, rubber and even aluminum ore—to help it wage war against the foes of freedom. Daring pioneers cross the Atlantic and found a new colony on the Wild Coast of South America. The colonists hope that with the up-timers’ support and knowledge they can prosper in the tropics without resort to Indian and African slavery. Then a slave ship visits the colony, seeking water… and the colonists must make a fateful choice.

Rising Sun: In 1633, the wave of change emanating from the Ring of Fire reaches Japan. The Shogun is intrigued by samples of up-time technology, but it is his learning what fate has in store for Japan in the old time line that has the greatest impact—setting events in motion whose tremors are felt thousands of miles away and for years to come, as Japan pulls back from a policy of isolation and stakes out its own claim in the brave new world created by the arrival of the time-lost Americans.

[[[Work Done for Hire]]] by Joe Haldeman. Ace, $25.95, 288pp, hc, 9780425256886. Science fiction.

Joe Haldeman has been one of the most respected names in science fiction since the release of his classic novel The Forever War in 1974. He has received the Hugo, Nebula and John W. Campbell awards and is a SFWA Grant Master and inductee to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. In Work Done for Hire, Haldeman switches it up with a dark yet humorous near-future thriller that is sure to be counted among his best work.

Jack Daley suffers nightmares from his time as a sniper during the war. He finds some solace in his writing career and his girlfriend, Kit. When he receives an opportunity to write a thriller based on a Hollywood script outline, Jack jumps at the opportunity—it promises to give his career the boost it needs. But when a package containing a sniper rifle, silencer and ammunition arrives on his doorstep with the first installment of $100,000 payment to kill a “bad man,” Jack realizes his writing isn’t the only talent that is in demand. And if he doesn’t take the job, Kit will be in the crosshairs instead.

[[[A Study in Ashes]]] by Emma Jane Holloway. (Book Three in The Baskerville Affair), Del Rey, $7.99, 662pp, pb, 9780345537201. Fantasy.

As part of her devil’s bargain with the industrial steam barons, Evelina Cooper is finally enrolled in the Ladies’ College of London. However, she’s attending as the Gold King’s pet magician, handcuffed and forbidden contact with even her closest relation, the detective Sherlock Holmes.

But Evelina’s problems are only part of a larger war. The Baskerville affair is finally coming to light, and the rebels are making their move to wrest power from the barons and restore it to Queen Victoria. Missing heirs and nightmare hounds are the order of the day—or at least that’s what Dr. Watson is telling the press.

But their plans are doomed unless Evelina escapes to unite her magic with the rebels’ machines—and even then her powers aren’t what they used to be. A sorcerer has awakened a dark hunger in Evelina’s soul, and only he can keep her from endangering them all. The only problem is… he’s dead.

[[[A Study in Darkness]]] by Emma Jane Holloway. (Book Two in The Baskerville Affair), Del Rey, $7.99, 536pp, pb, 9780345537195. Fantasy.

When a bomb goes off at 221B Baker Street, Evelina Cooper is thrown into her uncle Sherlock’s world of mystery and murder. But just when she thought it was safe to return to the ballroom, old, new, and even dead enemies are clamoring for a place on her dance card.

Before Evelina’s even unpacked her gowns for a country house party, an indiscretion puts her in the power of the ruthless Gold King, who recruits her as his spy. He knows her disreputable past and exiles her to the rank alleyways of Whitechapel with orders to unmask his foe.

As danger mounts, Evelina struggles between hiding her illegal magic and succumbing to the darker aspects of her power. One path keeps her secure; the other keeps her alive. For rebellion is brewing, a sorcerer wants her soul, and no one can protect her in the hunting grounds of Jack the Ripper.

[[[A Study in Silks]]] by Emma Jane Holloway. (Book One in The Baskerville Affair), Del Rey, $7.99, 550pp, pb, 9780345537188. Fantasy.

Evelina Cooper, the niece of the great Sherlock Holmes, is poised to enjoy her first Season in London Society. But there’s a murderer to deal with—not to mention missing automatons, a sorcerer, and a talking mouse.

In a Victorian era ruled by a council of ruthless steam barons, mechanical power is the real monarch and sorcery the demon enemy of the Empire. Nevertheless, the most coveted weapon is magic that can run machines—something Evelina has secretly mastered. But rather than making her fortune, her special talents could mean death or an eternity as a guest of Her Majesty’s secret laboratories. What’s a polite young lady to do but mind her manners and pray she’s never found out?

But then there’s that murder. As Sherlock Holmes’ niece, Evelina should be able to find the answers, but she has a lot to learn. And the first decision she has to make is whether to trust the handsome, clever rake who makes her breath come faster or the dashing trick rider who would dare anything for her is she would only ask.

[[[Swords of Good Men]]] by Snorri Kristjansson. (The Valhalla Saga, Book 1), Quercus/Jo Fletcher, $24.95, 298pp, hc, 9781623650742. Fantasy.

To weary Viking Ulfar Thormodsson, the town of Stenvik is the penultimate stop on the return leg of a long and perilous journey. It has been particularly challenging for Thormodsson, who has been charged with protecting the life of his high-born cousin. Having traveled the oceans of the world for two years, all he wants is to go home. But Stenvik awaits.

The small coastal town is home to a colorful array of individuals, from the beautiful and tragic Lilia, who captures Thormodsson’s rough heart, to solitary blacksmith Audun Arngrimsson, whose past hides many dark secrets. The travel-worn Vikings also discover that King Olav is marching on Stenvik from the east, determined to bring the White Christ to the masses at the point of his sword—even as a host of bloodthirsty raiders led by a mysterious woman sails from the north.

Meanwhile, there is trouble brewing between two of the town’s competing factions, a conflict that threatens to sweep all of them, natives and visitors alike, into the jaws of war. Thormodsson and his companions soon learn that in this conflict between the old gods and the new, there are enemies everywhere—outside the walls of Stenvik as well as within.

[[[The Past That Might Have Been, the Future That May Come: Women Writing Fantastic Fiction, 1960s to the Present]]] by Lauren J. Lacey. McFarland, $40.00, 208pp, tp, 9780786478262. Nonfiction.

This book explores how contemporary fantastic fiction by women writers responds to the past and imagines the future. The first two chapters look at revisionist rewritings of fairy tales and historical texts; the third and fourth focus on future-oriented narratives including dystopias and space fiction. Writers considered include Margaret Atwood, Octavia E. Butler, Angela Carter, Ursula K. Le Guin, Doris Lessing, and Jeanette Winterson, among others. The author argues that an analysis of how past and future are understood in women’s fantastic fictions brings to light an “ethics of becoming” in the texts—a way of interrupting, revising and remaking problematic power structures that are tied to identity markers like class, gender and race. The book reveals how fantastic fiction can be read as narratives of disruption that enable the creation of an ethics of becoming.

[[[Revolution]]] by Mercedes Lackey with Cody Martin, Dennis Lee, and Veronica Giguere. (Book Three of the Secret World Chronicle), Baen, $25.00, 544pp, hc, 9781451639322. Science fiction.

Too many enemies, too few heroes

From New York Times best-seller and science fiction and fantasy mistress of adventure Mercedes Lackey comes Book Three in a new pulse-pounding saga of modern-day humans with superpowers. These all too human heroes must learn to control their amazing abilities, and then to wield them in a global life or death struggle.

To complicate matters, the metaheroes are under attack on two fronts. They must deal with supervillain Verdegris, who seeks to destroy them from within, before turning their attention back to the Thulian conspiracy and its super-science weapons.

It’s go time once again for the meta-heroes including fire-bender John Murdock, hacker-witch Vikki Nagy, healer Belladona Blue, super-quick Mercurye—and most of all for their ghostly ally, Seraphym, the spirit of the world, whom Verdegris must trap and destroy is he is to take down the metas.

Continuing the new shared universe epic series of super-powered heroes and villains

[[[A Liaden Universe Constellation: Volume 2]]] by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. Baen, $16.00, 465pp, tp, 9781451639445. Science fiction collection.

Space opera and romance on a grand scale

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. Now those shorter works in the series have been gathered together in two volumes, of which this book is the second volume.

It’s a big galaxy, filled with danger, adventure, and romance as revealed in the far-flung colorful canvas created by the brilliant imaginations of Lee and Miller, who have also created a multitude of equally colorful characters. The large cast of characters on hand includes scouts, artists, traders, priestesses, sleight of hand magicians, pilots and more, who fill the Liaden Universe series with the excitement, action, and romance.

[[[The Iron Breed]]] by Andre Norton. Baen, $7.99, 534pp, pb, 9781476736198. Science fiction.

Not all people are human

The invaders are here; and they call themselves humans. Two popular Andre Norton science fiction adventure novels in one omnibus volume.

Iron Cage: Johnny has always loved and been protected by the People, the bearlike inhabitants of the planet he calls home. But when a starship arrives carrying Johnny’s original species, humans—humans who seek to exploit the People for their own ends—Johnny is forced to choose between loyalty to the creatures he considers his family, and the need to reconnect with his long lost heritage.

Breed to Come: On a distant future Earth, humans have polluted the planet and departed, leaving their pets behind to inherit a wrecked world. But from that devastated past, a new breed of intelligence arises: the catlike People. Now humans are returning and the People are in no mood to deal once again with the “demons” who abandoned them to fate so long ago.

[[[Innocent Blood]]] by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell. (The Order of the Sanguines Series), William Morrow, $27.99, 438pp, hc, 9780061991066. Thriller.

Last year James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell left readers on the edge of their seats at the end of The Blood Gospel, the debut novel in “The Order of the Sanguines Series” about an ancient Vatican order who seek the answers to a mystery found within the pages of a gospel written in Christ’s own blood. Reviewers praised the first in the new series as “captivating” (Military Press), a “page-turner” (Associated Press) and “The Da Vinci Code meets vampires” (Booklist).

Now the winning writer-ly duo opens the next chapter in a world of shadow and light, of salvation and damnation, where the fate of the heavens is locked within a child of Innocent Blood.

A vicious attack at a ranch in California thrusts archaeologist Erin Granger back into the folds of the Sanguines, an immortal order founded on the blood of Christ and tasked with protecting the world from the beasts haunting its shadows. Following the prophetic words found in the Blood Gospel—a tome written by Christ and lost for centuries—Erin must again join forces with Army Sergeant Jordan Stone and Father Rhun Korza to discover and protect a boy believed to be an angel given flesh.

But an enigmatic enemy of immense power and terrifying ambition seeks the same child—not to save the world, but to hasten its destruction. For any hope of victory, Erin must discover the truth behind Christ’s early years and understand His first true miracle, an event wrapped in sin and destruction, an act that yet remains unfulfilled and holds the only hope for the world.

The search for the truth will take Erin and the others across centuries and around the world, from the dusty plains of the Holy Land to the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean, from the catacombs of Rome to an iron fortress in the Mediterranean Sea, and at last to the very gates of Hell itself, where their destiny—and the fate of mankind—awaits.

With The Blood Gospel, Rollins and Cantrell breathtakingly combined science, myth, and religion and introduced a world where miracles hold new meaning and the fight for good over evil is far more complicated than we ever dreamed. In Innocent Blood they again take us to the edge of destruction… and into the deepest reaches of imagination.

[[[Lockstep]]] by Karl Schroeder. Tor, $26.99, 352pp, hc, 9780765337269. Science fiction. On-sale date: 25 March 2014.

As one of the most influential Canadian writers of science fiction and fantasy, Karl Schroeder brings hard science fiction to a whole new level, drawing from his career as a professional futurist to create an incredible amount of detail in his world-building while at the same time providing the non-stop action that readers of Larry Niven’s Ringworld series are sure to enjoy.

Lockstep is Schroeder’s latest stand-alone novel that explores a unique far future society and the technology that drives it.

When seventeen-year-old Toby McGonigal finds himself lost in space, separated from his family, he expects his next drift into cold sleep to be his last. After all, the planet he’s orbiting is frozen and sunless, and the cities are dead. But when Toby wakes again, he’s surprised to discover a thriving planet, a strange and prosperous galaxy, and something stranger still—that he’s been asleep for 14,000 years.

Welcome to the Lockstep Empire, where civilization is kept alive by careful hibernation. Here citizens survive for millennia, traveling in slumber for decades on the long voyages between worlds, awakened for mere weeks at a time. Not only is Lockstep the new center of the galaxy, but Toby is shocked to learn that the Empire is still ruled by its founding family: his own.

Toby’s brother Peter has become a terribly tyrant. Suspicious of the return of his long-lost brother, and protective of the McGonigal DNA that controls the Lockstep hibernation cycles, Peter sees Toby as a threat to his regime. Now, with the help of a Lockstep girl named Corva, Toby must survive the forces of this new Empire, outwit his siblings, and save human civilization.

[[[The Barrow]]] by Mark Smylie. Pyr, $18.00, 700pp, tp, 9781616148911. Fantasy. On-sale date: 4 March 2014.

To find the Sword, unearth the Barrow.
To unearth the Barrow, follow the Map.

When a small crew of scoundrels, would-be heroes, deviants, and ruffians, discover a map that they believe will lead them to a fabled sword buried in the barrow of a long-dead wizard, they think they’ve struck it rich. But their hopes are dashed when the map turns out to be cursed and then is destroyed in a magical ritual. The loss of the map leaves them dreaming of what might have been, until they rediscover the map in a most unusual and unexpected place.

Stjepan Black-Heart, suspected murderer and renegade royal cartographer; Erim, a young woman masquerading as a man; Gilgwyr, brothel owner extraordinaire; Leigh, an exiled magus under an ignominous cloud; Godewyn Red-Hand, mercenary and troublemaker; Arduin Orwain, scion of a noble family brought low by scandal; and Arduin’s sister Annwyn, the beautiful cause of that scandal: together they form a cross-section of the Middle Kingdoms of the Known World, brought together by accident and dark design, on a quest that will either get them all in the history books, or get them all killed.

[[[Blood and Iron]]] by Jon Sprunk. (The Book of the Black Earth, Part One), Pyr, $18.00, 445pp, tp, 9781616148935. Fantasy. On-sale date: 11 March 2014.

It starts with a shipwreck following a magical storm at sea. Horace, a soldier from the west, had joined the Great Crusade against the heathens of Akeshia after the deaths of his wife and son from plague. When he washes ashore, he finds himself at the mercy of the very people he was sent to kill, who speak a language and have a culture and customs he doesn’t even begin to understand.

Not long after, Horace is pressed into service as a house slave. But this doesn’t last. the Akeshians discover that Horace was a latent sorcerer, and he is catapulated from the chains of a slave to the halls of power in the queen’s court. Together with Jirom, an ex-mercenary and gladiator, and Alyra, a spay in the court, he will seek a path to free himself and the empire’s caste of slaves from a system where every man and woman must pay the price of blood of iron. Before the end, Horace will have paid dearly in both.

[[[Rise Again: Below Zero]]] by Ben Tripp. Gallery, $16.00, 342pp, tp, 9781451668322. Fantasy.

From author ben Tripp comes Rise Again: Below Zero, the sequel to the acclaimed debut novel Rise Again. Picking up two years after the dead begins to rise, Rise Again: Below Zerostands on its own as a post-apocalyptic story of survival in a wrecked world.

With a truly original storyline, Rise Again: Below Zero breathes new life into the genre of zombie fiction. In the apocalyptic world, there is a hierarchy—moaners, hunters, thinkers, and then there are those who appear somewhere between alive and undead.

Picking up where Rise Again leaves off, Sheriff Danielle Adelman, a troubled war veteran has tracked down her runaway kid sister Kelly across the country. Kelly is definitely undead—yet she still somehow retains part of her humanity.

It is unquestionable—the undead have evolved. Now, besides the shambling, mindless cannibals are the hunters—cunning and fast, like wolves—and the thinkers, whose shocking intelligence and single-minded predatory obsession may mean the downfall of what’s left of humanity.

As Danny leads a ragtag band of the living through the remnants of the American Midwest, rumors arise of a safe place somewhere east. But the closer they get to it, the more certain Danny becomes that something evil waits for them at the end of the line.

With an unspeakable secret riding beside her and an unbreakable promise made to a small, silent boy, Danny must stake everything she has—her leadership, her sanity, and her life—in order to defeat the ultimate horror in a terrifying and dying world.

Filled with adventurous human drama—and shocking inhuman horror—this sequel to the acclaimed novel Rise Again continues the story begun in a vivid and powerful fiction debut.

[[[A Rising Thunder]]] by David Weber. Baen, $7.99, 626pp, pb, 9781476736129. Science fiction.

Honor Harrington has spent her entire life fighting or preparing to fight the Republic of Haven. Now, she faces a new war where no one knows who the enemy truly is. The thunder is rising, rolling towards the Star Empire Honor serves, and the lightning is furnace hot, but her foes should have remembered… a salamander thrives in the heart of the furnace.

[[[Sunset of the Gods]]] by Steve White. Baen, $7.99, 306pp, pb, 9781476736167. Science fiction.

Sunset for the gods—or for all humanity?

Jason Thanou: a time traveler with a burning mission. When the gods of ancient Greece proved not only to be monstrously real, but totally alien—and plotting to dominate humanity forever—Jason took care of the situation, at least in Minoan Crete. Now he’s got what looks like a normal assignment: leading a time travelling expedition of scholars to the battle of Marathon and recording for the benefit of future historians the magnificent stand of Greece’s hoplite warriors against Persian invaders.

But the Olympians are not done with their plans to dominate humanity: now the god Pan is afoot in Greece. It’s up to Jason to discover Pan’s secret, thwart a conspiracy that stretches for millennia—and save the birthplace of democracy from the corruptions of gods and twisted humans.

[[[Robot Uprisings]]] edited by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams. Vintage, $15.95, 496pp, tp, 9780345803634. Science fiction anthology.

Humans beware! In April 2014, Vintage Books will publish Robot Uprisings, an anthology edited by New York Times bestselling author Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams. Full of tales of robotic revolution and human resistance from some of the biggest names in science fiction, Robot Uprisings is a collection that will shock, stun, and entertain you—although you may never look at your Smartphone in the same way again…

Asrobots continue to become a ubiquitous aspect of our dailylives, bringing with them revolutionary innovations, convenience, and advancement, it is hard not to also feel an impending sense of doom. What horrifying scenarios might unfold if our technology were to suddenly go awry? From sentient robotic toys to intelligent machines violently malfunction, Robot Uprisings brings to life the half-formed questions and fears we all have, but dare not voice, about the increasing presence of robotics in our lives.

Featuring contributions from a mix of bestselling, award-winning, and up-and-coming writers, such as Scott Sigler, Charles Yu, Robin Wasserman, Cory Doctorow and a rare story from Dr. John McCarthy, “the father of artificial intelligence,” Robot Uprisings meticul;ously describes a thrilling and terrorizing near-future in which humanity can only survive by outthinking the rebellious machines that it has created.

[Contributors: Scott Sigler, Charles Yu, Anna North, Genevieve Valentine, Hugh Howey, Ernest Cline, Cory Doctorow, Jeff Abbott, Julianna Baggott, Alastair Reynolds, Alan Dean Foster, Ian McDonald, Robin Wasserman, John McCarthy, Seanan McGuire, Nnedi Okorafor, and Daniel H. Wilson.]