[[[Fallout]]] by James K. Decker. Roc, $7.99, 384pp, pb, 9780451413413. Science fiction. On-sale date: 4 February 2014.

Overpopulation, disease, and ecological disaster were edging humanity toward extinction. Hope arrived in the haan, an alien race that promised us a future. And what they wanted in exchange seemed so harmless….

Sam Shao has found out too much about the haan by accident. All humans have to get along with them — we owe them our lives — and Sam even counts a haan among her best friends. But the more she learns, the less she trusts them.

It doesn’t help that the building of new haan colonies seems to be coinciding with a rash of missing-persons cases. Sam and her hacker friends are determined to reveal the truth about the haan before it’s too late. The aliens are still promising salvation, and they seem set to deliver, but with things already spinning out of control, Sam is confronted with a possibility no one wants to admit — that what salvation means to humankind and what it means to the haan may be two horribly different things.

[[[The Pilgrims]]] by Will Elliott. Tor, $26.99, 448pp, hc, 9780765331885. Fantasy. On-sale date: 18 March 2014.

Will Elliott’s debut novel, The Pilo Family Circus, co-won the Aurealis Award for best horror, the Golden Aurealis for best novel, and the Australian Shadows Award. Now Elliott turns his brilliantly subversive imagination to The Pilgrims, his first title in The Pendulum Trilogy, where he twists the conventions of the genre to provide an experience readers will not soon forget.

Eric Albright is a twenty-six-year-old lazy would-be journalist living in London. But this luckless slakcer isn’t all bad — he has a soft spot for his sometimes friend Stuart “Case” Casey, the homeless old drunk who lives under the railway bridge near his flat. Eric is willing to let his life just pass him by until the day a small red door appears on the graffiti-covered wall of the bridge, and a gang of strange-looking people — including a giant — dash out of the door and rob the nearby newsagent. From that day on, Eric and Case haunt the arch, waiting for the door to reappear.

When it does, both Eric and Case choose to go through, and they find themselves in the land of Levaal, a place where a mountain-sized dragon with the powers of a god lies sleeping beneath a great white castle. In the castle the sinister Lord Vous rules with an iron fist, and his Project, designed to effect his transformation into an immortal spirit, nears completion. Bot Vous’s growing madness along with his fear of an imaginary being named Shadow is close to consuming him, and soon Eric may lend substance to that fear. Additionally, an impossibly vast wall divides Levaal, and no one has ever seen what lies beyond. Eric and Casey are called Pilgrims, and may have powers that no one in either world yet understands, and soon the wall may be broken. But what will enter from the other side?

[[[Year’s Best SF 18]]] edited by David G. Hartwell. Tor, $15.99, 416pp, tp, 9780765338204. Science fiction anthology.

Once again, the finest short-form SF offerings of the year have been collected in a single volume. With Year’s Best SF 18, acclaimed, award-winning editor and anthologist David G. Hartwell demonstrates the amazing depth and power of contemporary speculative fiction, showcasing astonishing stories from some of the genre’s most respected names as well as exciting new writers to watch. In every volume of this series, Hartwell tries to represent the varieties of tone, voice, and attitude that keep the science fiction genre entertaining and responsive to the changing realities of science and everyday life.

As Harwell reflects on 2012’s best science fiction, he comments, “what struck me most this year was the unremitting pressure of new writers seeking a place in the field. In spite of everything, a really talented new crop of writers has emerged online and in fringe markets in recent years…. Some of them are in this book.” Prepare to travel light years from the ordinary into a tomorrow at once breathtaking, frightening, and possible with some of the greatest tales of wonder published in 2012.

[Contributors: Megan Lindhol, Paul Cornell, Robert Reed, Yoon Ha Lee, Gene Wolfe, Eleanor Arnason, Sean McMullen, C.S. Friedman, John Barnes, Naomi Kritzer, Indrapramit Das, Pat Cadigan, Lewis Shiner, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Andy Duncan, Aliette de Bodard, Ken Liu, Catherine H. Shaffer, Paul McAuley, Gwyneth Jones, Gregory Benford, Deborah Walker, Tony Ballantyne, Michael Swanwick, Linda Nagata, Joe Pitkin, Nikki J. North, and Bruce Sterling.]

[[[Sorcerers in Space]]] by Larry Hodges. Class Act Books, $17.99, 376pp, tp, 9781938703232. YA fantasy.

It is 1969, at the height of tensions between the US and the Soviet Union.

Neil, 13, badly wants to be someone. Instead, he is stuck as a sorcerer’s apprentice for Gus, “the meanest sorcerer in the world.”

Gus creates a magical talisman to spy on the Soviets, but instead, it spies on them and sends text into space.

A Giant Face in the Sky shows up, reading the text. Since whoever gets to the Face first will have the world at their mercy, the Race to the Face begins. The Soviets invade the US in their attempts to kill Neil, who is prophesied to defeat them. A floating, talking meteor assassin named Buzz becomes Neil’s companion — but in one week, Buzz must kill Neil.

President Kennedy puts together a motley crew that includes Neil, Gus, Buzz, a dragon, the god, Apollo, a 2-D sorcerer, and the sorceress, Jackie Kennedy. Can they make it to the Face before the Soviets? And before Buzz kills Neil?

[[[Lost Covenant: A Widdershins Adventure]]] by Ari Marmell. Pyr, $17.95, 279pp, hc, 9781616148119. YA fantasy.

It’s been six months since the thief Widdershins and her own “personal god” Olgun fled the city of Davillon. During their travels, Widdershins unwittingly discovers that a noble house is preparing to move against the last surviving bastion of the Delacroix family. Determined to help the distant relatives of her deceased adopted father, Alexandre Delacroix, she travels to a small town at the edge of the nation. There, she works at unraveling a plot involving this rival house and a local criminal organization, all while under intense suspicion from the very people she’s trying to rescue. Along the way she’ll have to deal with a traitor inside the Delacroix family, a mad alchemist, and an infatuated young nobleman who won’t take no for an answer.

[[[Dangerous Women]]] edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. Tor, $32.50, 784pp, hc, 9780765332066. Fantasy anthology.

With three starred trade reviews and landing on Best of 2013 lists already, Tor Books is proud to present an exciting collection of stories edited by bestselling author George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois: Dangerous Women. All new and original to this volume, the 21 stories in Dangerous Women include work by twelve New York Times bestselling authors, and seven stories set in bestselling continuities — including a new “Outlander” story by Diana Gabaldon, a tale of Harry Dresden’s world by Jim Butcher, a story from Lev Grossman set in the world of The Magicians, and a 35,000-word novella by George R.R. Martin about the Dance of the Dragons, the vast civil war that tore Westeros apart nearly two centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones.

Also included are original stories of dangerous women — heroines and villains alike — by Brandon Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, Sherilynn Kenyon, Lawrence Block, Carrie Vaughn, S.M. Stirling, Sharon Kay Penman, and many others.

Truly epic, Dangerous Women is required reading material for the authors’ numerous fans, and especially for fans of the hit HBO series Game of Thrones who are looking for something to hold them over while waiting for the new season (and the next book)! However, even those unfamiliar to the authors’ previous works will find plenty of excitement, surprises, and compelling tales in a variety of genres to keep them glued to the page this winter.

Writes Gardner Dozois in his Introduction for Dangerous Women, “Here you’ll find no hapless victims who stand by whimpering in dread while the male hero fights the monster or clashes swords with the villain, and if you want to tie these women to the railroad tracks, you’ll find you have a real fight on your hands. Instead, you will find sword-wielding women warriors, intrepid women fighter pilots and far-ranging spacewomen, deadly female serial killers, formidable female superheroes, sly and seductive femmes fatale, female wizards, hard-living Bad Girls, female bandits and rebels, embattled survivors in Post-Apocalyptic futures, female Private Investigators, stern female hanging judges, haughty queens who rule nations and whose jealousies and ambitions send thousands to grisly deaths, daring dragonriders, and many more.”

[Contributors: Joe Abercrombie, Megan Abbott, Cecelia Holland, Melinda Snodgrass, Jim Butcher, Carrie Vaughn, Joe R. Lansdale, Megan Lindholm, Lawrence Block, Brandon Sanderson, Sharon Kay Penman, Lev Grossman, Nancy Kress, Diana Rowland, Diana Gabaldon, Sherrilyn Kenyon, S.M. Stirling, Sam Sykes, Pat Cadigan, Caroline Spector, and George R.R. Martin.]

[[[Starters]]] by Lissa Price. Random House, $9.99, 336pp, tp, 9780385742481. YA sf thriller.
[[[Enders]]] by Lissa Price. Random House, $17.99, 288pp, hc, 9780385742498. YA sf thriller.

Starters and its upcoming sequel Enders by Lissa Price, are high-concept, fast-paced futuristic thrillers that will fill The Hunger Games and Divergent readers’ need for their next captivating read. These books are a total thrill ride, smashing cliches and creating a character-driven pulse-pounding thriller that’s sure to entertain.

In a world where only children, teens, and the elderly have survived and “body borrowing” has become a reality, who do you trust? And how do you create a future for yourself?

Sixteen-year-old Callie lost her parents when the genocide spore wiped out everyone except those who were vaccinated first — the very young and very old. With no grandparents to claim her and her little brother, they go on the run, living as squatters. Hope comes via Prime Destinations, run by a mysterious figure known only as The Old Man, which hires teens to rent their bodies to seniors (Enders) who get to be young again. Lured by the promise of a better life for her and her brother, Callie joins but things take a startling turn when Callie discovers that Prime Destinations’ plans are more evil than she could ever have imagined.

Picking up shortly after Starters left off, in Enders, someone is after Starters like Callie and Michael — teens with chips in their brains who can be controlled and manipulated. Someone wants to experiment on anyone left over from Prime Destinations. Enders can still get inside Callie’s mind and make her do things she doesn’t want to do. Like hurt someone she loves. Who is real and who is masquerading in a teen body? No one is ever who they appear to be, not even the Old Man. Determined to find out who he really is and grasping at the hope of a normal life, Callie is ready to fight for the truth. Even if it kills her.

Debut author Lissa Price has created an epic and imaginative world with Starters and Enders, yet, as with the best science fiction, Price taps into emotions and struggles that are human and relatable for readers of today. Callie’s breathless story arc will captivate readers until the last page of Enders< the second and final book.

[[[To Sail a Darkling Sea]]] by John Ringo. Baen, $25.00, 400pp, hc, 9781476736211. Horror. On-sale date: 4 February 2014.

Book II in the Black Tide Rising series from the New York Times best-selling author. Sequel to Under a Graveyard Sky. A family of survivors fights back against a zombie plague that has brought down civilization.

A World Cloaked in Darkness

With human civilization annihilated by a biological zombie plague, a rag-tag fleet of yachts and freighters known as Wolf Squadron scours the Atlantic, searching for survivors. Within every abandoned liner and carrier lurks a potential horde, safety can never be taken for granted, and death and turning into one of the enemy is only a moment away.

The Candle Flickers

Yet every ship and town holds the flickering hope of survivors. One and two from lifeboats, a dozen from a fishing village, a few hundred wrenched by fury and fire from a ship that once housed thousands…

Light a Flame

Now Wolf Squadron must take on another massive challenge: clear the assault carrier USS Iwo Jima of infected before the trapped Marines and sailors succumb to starvation. If Wolf Squadron can accomplish that task, an even tougher trial awaits: an apocalyptic battle to win a new dawn for humanity. The war for civilization begins as the boats of the Wolf Squadron become a beacon of hope on a Darkling Sea.

[[[V-S Day]]] by Allen Steele. Ace, $26.95, 320pp, hc, 9780425259740. Science Fiction. On-sale date: 4 February 2014.

With a gift for visionary fiction that “would make Robert A. Heinlein proud” (Entertainment Weekly), three-time Hugo Award-winning author Allen Steele now imagines an alternate history rooted in an actual historical possibility: What if the race to space had occurred in the early days of World War II?

It’s 1941, and Wernher von Braun is ordered by his Fuhrer to abandon the V-2 rocket and turn German resources in a daring new direction: construction of a manned orbital spacecraft capable of attacking the United States. Work on the rocket — called Silbervogel — begins at Peenemunde. Though the plan is top secret, British intelligence discovers it and brings word to Franklin Roosevelt. The American president determines that there is only one logical response: The United States must build a spacecraft with the ability to intercept Silbervogel and destroy it. Robert Goddard, inventor of the liquid-fuel rocket, agrees to head the classified project.

So begins a race against time between two secret military programs and two brilliant scientists whose high-stakes competition will spiral into a deadly game of political intrigue and unforeseen catastrophes played to the death in the brutal skies above America.

[[[Something More Than Night]]] by Ian Tregillis. Tor, $25.99, 304pp, hc, 9780765334329. Noir fantasy.

Something More Than Night is a Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler inspired murder mystery set in Thomas Aquinas’s vision of Heaven. It’s a noir detective story unlike any other, starring fallen angels, the heavenly choir, nightclub stigmatics, a priest with a dirty secret, a femme fatale, and the actual Voice of God.

Somebody has murdered the angel Gabriel. Worse, the Jericho Trumpet has gone missing, putting Heaven on the brink of a truly cosmic crisis. But the twisty plot that unfolds from the murder investigation leads to something much bigger: a con job one billion years in the making. Because this is no mere murder, a small band of angels has decided to break out of heaven, but they need a human patsy to make their plan work.

Angels and gunsels, dames with eyes like fire, and a grand MacGuffin, Something More Than Night is a murder mystery for the cosmos.