Joanna Russ passed away this morning following a series of strokes. She was 74 years old.
Ms. Russ was an influential feminist SF author, winner of almost every award in science fiction including 1 Hugo Award, 1 Nebula Award, 2 James Tiptree, Jr. Awards, 1 Locus Award, 1 Gaylactic Spectrum Award, 1 Pilgrim Award and many more nominations.
Russ was not a prolific writer but was well-known in the genre for her ground-breaking novel The Female Man. She came out as a lesbian in 1969 near the time that The Female Man was published. In addition to her ground-breaking novel, she was more prolific with her short fiction and garnered most of her awards in that field. At least 4 different collections of her short fiction were published - including one by Baen and another by St. Martin's.
Russ was also a professional reviewer and an outspoken critic in the genre. Her non-fiction books were often as notable as her fiction. Since 1970, Russ had been a full-time professor of English, teaching at various colleges including her alma mater, Cornell University.
Though she had not published much in recent years due to her declining health, her influence on modern science fiction is unmistakable, her writing having inspired an entire generation of young authors.
Rest in Peace, Joanna.
a frequent blog about bookselling, publishing, science fiction, fantasy, horror, and more.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
A Dance with Dragons is Complete
Let the rejoicing commence!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
04/26/11 - [Part 2] New Releases in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal & more..
Undead and Unfinished by MaryJanice Davidson - Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor returns in the ninth novel in the New York Times bestselling series. Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor is having a tough time getting through the Book of the Dead-until the Devil strikes a bargain. She offers Betsy a chance to finish the cursed (literally!) thing, and finally discover all its mysteries. There's just one catch... Betsy and her half-sister Laura have to go to Hell long enough for Laura to embrace her dark heritage (after a rebellious youth of charity work) and finally make nice with her mother, aka Lucifer. That means interacting with their family's past. In doing so, they're impacting the future in ways they never anticipated. Of course that's what Mother wanted all along. Damn her.
What began as a quest for truth has become a struggle for survival for Luke Skywalker and his son, Ben. They have used the secrets of the Mind Walkers to speak with the spirits of the fallen, risking their lives in the process. They have faced a team of Sith assassins and beaten the odds to destroy them. And now the death squad’s sole survivor, Sith apprentice Vestara Khai, has summoned an entire fleet of Sith frigates to engage the embattled father and son. But the dark warriors come bearing a surprising proposition that will bring Jedi and Sith together in an unprecedented alliance against an adversary more ancient and alien than they can imagine. For in the treacherous web of black holes that is the Maw, the Skywalkers and their Sith allies will have to fight an unimaginable evil, and Luke will be rocked by a staggering truth.
Man Plus by Frederik Pohl - The Nebula Award–winning masterwork by the author of Gateway.
In the not-too-distant future, a desperate war for natural resources threatens to bring civilization to a crashing halt. Nuclear warships from around the globe begin positioning themselves as the American government works feverishly to complete a massive project to colonize Mars. Former astronaut Roger Torraway has agreed to be transformed by the latest advances in biological and cybernetic science into something new, a being that can survive the rigors of Mars before it is terraformed. Becoming Man Plus will allow him to be the linchpin in opening the new Martian frontier…but not without challenging his humanity as no man has ever been challenged before.
A bestselling, Nebula Award–winning novel when first published more than thirty years ago, this book is now more relevant than ever, as the battle between corporate interests and those who seek to save Earth’s natural resources steadily escalates. The question of where man will go once the world’s food, water, and oil have run out has yet to be answered. Man Plus by Frederick Pohl is a brilliantly imagined, compelling possible scenario that has enthralled countless readers.
Theories of Flight by Simon Morden - Theorem: Petrovitch has a lot of secrets.
Proof: Secrets like how to make anti-gravity for one. For another, he's keeping a sentient computer program on a secret server farm - the same program that nearly destroyed the Metrozone a few months back.
Theorem: The city is broken.
Proof: The people of the OutZone want what citizens of the Metrozone have. And then burn it to the ground. Now, with the heart of the city destroyed by the New Machine Jihad, the Outies finally see their chance.
Theorem: These events are not unconnected.
Proof: Someone is trying to kill Petrovitch and they're willing to sink the whole city to do it.
Ember and Ash by Pamela Freeman - The old ones will have their revenge.
Two peoples have been fighting over the same land for a thousand years. Invaders crushed the original inhabitants, and ancient powers have reluctantly given way to newer magics. But Ember was to change all this with a wedding to bind these warring people together - until her future goes up in flames.
Ember's husband-to-be is murdered by a vengeful elemental god, who sees peace as a breach of faith. Set on retribution, she enlists the help of Ash, son of a seer. Together they will pit themselves against elementals of fire and ice in a last attempt to end the conflicts that have scarred their past. They must look to the present, as old furies are waking to violence and are eager to reclaim their people.
Two peoples have been fighting over the same land for a thousand years. Invaders crushed the original inhabitants, and ancient powers have reluctantly given way to newer magics. But Ember was to change all this with a wedding to bind these warring people together - until her future goes up in flames.
Ember's husband-to-be is murdered by a vengeful elemental god, who sees peace as a breach of faith. Set on retribution, she enlists the help of Ash, son of a seer. Together they will pit themselves against elementals of fire and ice in a last attempt to end the conflicts that have scarred their past. They must look to the present, as old furies are waking to violence and are eager to reclaim their people.
Dark Descendent by Jenna Black - From the acclaimed author of the Morgan Kingsley, Exorcist books comes the gripping first novel in a new series about a private eye who discovers, to her surprise, that she’s an immortal huntress.
Nikki Glass can track down any man. But when her latest client turns out to be a true descendant of Hades, Nikki now discovers she can’t die. . . . Crazy as it sounds, Nikki’s manhunting skills are literally god-given. She’s a living, breathing descendant of Artemis who has stepped right into a trap set by the children of the gods. Nikki’s new “friends” include a descendant of Eros, who uses sex as a weapon; a descendant of Loki, whose tricks are no laughing matter; and a half-mad descendant of Kali who thinks she’s a spy. But most powerful of all are the Olympians, a rival clan of immortals seeking to destroy all Descendants who refuse to bow down to them. In the eternal battle of good god/bad god, Nikki would make a divine weapon. But if they think she’ll surrender without a fight, the gods must be crazy. . . .
Tangled Threads by Jennifer Estep - I’d rather face a dozen lethal assassins any night than deal with something as tricky, convoluted, and fragile as my feelings.
But here I am. Gin Blanco, the semi-retired assassin known as the Spider. Hovering outside sexy businessman Owen Grayson’s front door like a nervous teenage girl. One thing I like about Owen: he doesn’t shy away from my past—or my present. And right now I have a bull’s-eye on my forehead. Cold-blooded Fire elemental Mab Monroe has hired one of the smartest assassins in the business to trap me. Elektra LaFleur is skilled and efficient, with deadly electrical elemental magic as potent as my own Ice and Stone powers. Which means there’s a fifty-fifty chance one of us won’t survive this battle. I intend to kill LaFleur—or die trying—because Mab wants the assassin to take out my baby sister, Detective Bria Coolidge, too. The only problem is, Bria has no idea I’m her long-lost sibling . . . or that I’m the murderer she’s been chasing through Ashland for weeks. And what Bria doesn’t know just might get us both dead. . . .
The President's Vampire by Christopher Farnsworth - The ultimate secret. The ultimate agent. Nathaniel Cade returns.
For 140 years, Nathaniel Cade has been the President's Vampire, sworn to protect and serve his country. Cade's existence is the most closely guarded of White House secrets: a superhuman covert agent who is the last line of defense against nightmare scenarios that ordinary citizens only dream of.
When a new outbreak of an ancient evil-one that he has seen before- comes to light, Cade and his human handler, Zach Barrows, must track down its source. To "protect and serve" often means settling old scores and confronting new betrayals . . . as only a centuries-old predator can.
The Hidden Goddess by M. K. Hobson - In a brilliant mix of magic, history, and romance, M. K. Hobson moves her feisty young Witch, Emily Edwards, from the Old West of 1876 to turn-of-the-nineteenth-century New York City, whose polished surfaces conceal as much danger as anything west of the Rockies.
Like it or not, Emily has fallen in love with Dreadnought Stanton, a New York Warlock as irresistible as he is insufferable. Newly engaged, she now must brave Dreadnought’s family and the magical elite of the nation’s wealthiest city. Not everyone is pleased with the impending nuptials, especially Emily’s future mother-in-law, a sociopathic socialite. But there are greater challenges still: confining couture, sinister Russian scientists, and a deathless Aztec goddess who dreams of plunging the world into apocalypse. With all they must confront, do Emily and Dreadnought have any hope of a happily-ever-after?
Noise Revealed by Ian Whates - A time of flux, a time of change… While mankind is adjusting to its first ever encounter with an alien civilisation – the Byrzaens – black ops specialist Jim Leyton reluctantly allies himself with the mysterious habitat in order to rescue the woman he loves. This brings him into direct conflict with his former employers: the United League of Allied Worlds government. Scientist and businessman Philip Kaufman is fast discovering there is more to the virtual world than he ever realised. Yet it soon becomes clear that all is not well within the realm of Virtuality. Truth is hidden beneath lies and there are games being played, deadly games with far reaching consequences. Both men begin to suspect that the much heralded ‘First Contact’ is anything but first contact, and that a sinister con is being perpetrated with the whole of humankind as the victim. Now all they have to do is prove it.
Vampire Maker by Michael Scheielbein - Victor Decimus has been a vampire for over 2,000 years. Once a Roman Legionnaire, for millennia Victor has remained a step or two ahead of rivals, would-be executioners, and the mysterious Dark Kingdom, which sets the rules for vampires' existence. Having left New York and his lover - the vampire he made then abandoned to escape the vengeance of the Dark Kingdom -Victor sets himself up again, with his thrall, in New Orleans.
But in New Orleans, his thrall becomes the point of a new, larger conflict. On the one hand, a local priest seeks to break Victor's hold over the thrall; on the other, the Dark Kingdom fears that Victor is going to become a Vampire Maker - one who continually creates new vampires, while refusing to take his place on the next plain of existence and thus creating an imbalance in the powers of the universe. And between both walks Victor, determined to have his own way, exerts control and remains defiant to the end.
Blind Man's Bluff (Star Trek: The New Frontier #18) by Peter David - Captain MacKenzie Calhoun has faced incredible odds before, but nothing he has ever experienced could prepare him for the simultaneous threats from two of the most destructive forces he’s ever encountered. The first is the D’myurj—a mysterious and powerful alien race bent on either the complete domination of humanity or its destruction . . . a potentially massive risk to the very foundations of Starfleet, one that goes so deep it’s impossible to determine whom to trust. The second is even more alarming: Morgan Primus, once a living creature with a soul and a conscience, now an incredibly sophisticated computer simulation taking up residence within the very core of the U.S.S. Excalibur . . . and quickly becoming a growing menace for the Federation. MacKenzie Calhoun is playing a dangerous game as he attempts to outwit and outmaneuver these new enemies, with the fate of the Excalibur crew members and potentially the lives of billions at stake. . . .
As You Wish by Gabi Stevens - Born into a magical family, Reggie Scott is content to live out her life as a normal human until the moment she’s informed that she’s a newly appointed fairy godmother. Left struggling to deal with powers the never thought she’d have, Reggie faces a curse, a plot to overthrow the Arcani, and an entirely too enthusiastic mother—all in a matter of days.
Jonathan Bastion is a man of power and wealth—and a dangerous secret. He desperately hopes that Reggie's new powers will hold the answer to his problem and he isn't above using her to achieve his goals. What he doesn't expect is how much Reggie will affect him. Her honor, her honesty, and her strength quickly make cracks in his ruthless exterior.
As danger from the Arcani swirls around them both, Jonathan realizes that what was once a ploy to get Reggie to assist him has become a battle to keep her safe and protected…in his arms.
The Unincorporated War by Dani and Eytan Kollin - The Kollin brothers introduced their future world, and central character Justin Cord, inThe Unincorporated Man. Justin created a revolution in that book, and is now exiled from Earth to the outer planets, where he is a heroic figure. Corporate society, which is headquartered on Earth and rules Venus, Mars, and the orbital colonies, wants to destroy Justin and reclaim hegemony over the outer planets. The first interplanetary war begins as the military fleet of Earth attacks.
Filled with battles, betrayals, and triumphs, The Unincorporated War is a full-scale space opera that catapults the focus of the earlier novel into the solar system. Justin remains both a logical and passionate fighter for the principles that motivate him, and the most dangerous man alive.
The first novel in this thought-provoking series, The Unincorporated Man, won the 2009 Prometheus Award for best novel.
The Legions of Fire by David Drake - In this novel of magical menace to the survival of all humanity, David Drake introduces a new fantasy world, Carce, based on Europe during the later Roman Empire.
Far in the north, a group of magicians perform a strange dance on a volcanic island intended to open a gateway for supernatural creatures that will allow them to devastate the whole Earth and destroy all life. Two young men, Corylus and Varus, and two women, Hedia and Alphena, separately pursue the answer to mysterious happenings in Carce, the center of civilization. Through magical voyages in other realities where fantastic creatures, and even gods, help or hinder them, each of them must succeed or the world will end in fire.
Dead Space: Martyr by Brian Evanson - We have seen the future.
A universe cursed with life after death.
It all started deep beneath the Yucatan peninsula, where an archaeological discovery took us into a new age, bringing us face-to-face with our origins and destiny.
Michael Altman had a theory no one would hear.
It cursed our world for centuries to come.
This, at last, is his story.
The Hammer of Darkness by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. - Martin Martel is an exile in trouble with the gods in this SF novel by the bestselling writer L. E, Modesitt, Jr, now back in a new papeback edition from Tor.
After finding out that he has unusual powers, he is banished from the planet Karnak. Martin is thrust into the tranquil world of Aurore, vacation paradise for the galaxy. There he finds that the reality of Aurore is much different from its serene veneer. The gods are wantonly cruel and indifferent to the chaos they cause: are they really gods or just men and woman with larger-than-life powers? Whatever the answer Martin Martel must challenge their supremacy to defend his life, love, and the fate of all mankind.
The Necromancer by Michael Scott - The fourth book in the New York Times bestselling series The Secrets of the Nicholas Flamel—The Necromancer
San Francisco:
After fleeing to Ojai, then Paris, and escaping to London, Josh and Sophie Newman are finally home. And after everything they've seen and learned in the past week, they're both more confused than ever about their future. Neither of them has mastered the magics they'll need to protect themselves from the Dark Elders, they've lost Scatty, and they're still being pursued by Dr. John Dee. Most disturbing of all, however, is that now they must ask themselves, can they trust Nicholas Flamel? Can they trust anyone?
Alcatraz:
Dr. Dee underestimated Perenelle Flamel's power. Alcatraz could not hold her, Nereus was no match for her, and she was able to align herself with the most unlikely of allies. But she wasn't the only one being held on the island. Behind the prison's bars and protective sigils were a menagerie of monsters-an army for Dee to use in the final battle. And now Machiavelli has come to Alcatraz to loose those monsters on San Francisco.
Perenelle might be powerful, but each day she weakens, and even with Nicholas back at her side, a battle of this size could be too much for her. Nicholas and Perenelle must fight to protect the city, but the effort will probably kill them both.
London:
Having been unable to regain the two final pages of the Codex, Dee has failed his Elder and is now an outlaw-and the new prey of all the creatures formerly sent to hunt down Flamel.
But Dee has a plan. With the Codex and the creatures on Alcatraz, he can control the world. All he needs is the help of the Archons. But for his plan to work, he must raise the Mother of the Gods from the dead. For that, he'll have to train a necromancer. And the twins of legend will make the perfect pupils. . .
The Dark Zone by Dom Testa - With the help of the mysterious alien force known as the Cassini, the teenage crew of Galahad has managed to navigate safely through the minefield of the Kuiper Belt. But just as they exit the Belt, they are confronted by their next challenge: a group of incredibly fast and maneuverable organisms waiting in their path—like vultures. With no way of knowing if the organisms are friends or foes, Triana and her Council decide to push forward, setting into motion a chain of events that will lead to the opening of a wormhole (a shortcut across space and time), and the first death aboard Galahad….
The Disunited States of America by Harry Turtledove - Justin’s having the worst trip ever. He and his mother are Time Traders, traveling undercover to different alternate realities of Earth so they can take valuable resources back to their own timeline. In some of these worlds, Germany won World War I or the world has been destroyed by nuclear warfare. Justin and his mother are in an America that never became the United States: each state is like a country, and many of them are at war with each other. Their mission takes them to Virginia, which is on the verge of bloody violence with Ohio.
Beckie is from California, and like the rest of her world, unaware that Time Traders exist. The only reason she’s in small town Virginia is because her grandmother dragged her there to visit old relatives. Beckie is just as horrified by the violence and racism of the alternate Virginia as Justin is, and the two are drawn to one another. But when full-fledged war breaks out between the States, including a biologically designed plague, will either of them manage to get back home? Forget about home: Will they make it out alive?
Future Imperfect by K. Ryar Breese - The story of an even-keeled high school oracle who's addicted to his ability, and must find a way to change the future after he sees himself murder his future girlfriend's best guy-friend in a fit of rage.
04/26/11 - [Part 1] New Releases in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal & more..
The new release list today is fairly large - 40+ titles and an interesting variety of genres - I'm splitting today's release blog into two (somewhat more manageable) parts. Kicking it off - two steampunk titles from Angry Robot - an imprint that I can't say enough good things about. I'll be reviewing one of their upcoming releases later this week.
Camera Obscura by Lavie Tidhar - CAN'T FIND A RATIONAL EXPLANATION TO A MYSTERY?
CALL IN THE QUIET COUNCIL.
The mysterious and glamorous Lady De Winter is one of their most valuable agents. A despicable murder inside a locked and bolted room on the Rue Morgue in Paris is just the start. This whirlwind adventure will take Milady to the highest and lowest parts of that great city - and cause her to question the very nature of reality itself.
Infernal Devices by K. W. Jeter - HE INHERITED A WATCHMAKER'S STORE - AND A WHOLE HEAP OF TROUBLE. But idle sometime-musician George has little talent for clockwork. And when a shadowy figure tries to steal an old device from the premises, George finds himself embroiled in a mystery of time travel, music and sexual intrigue. A genuine lost classic, a steampunk original whose time has come.
The Scarab Path by Adrian Tchaikovsky - The war with the Wasp Empire has ended in a bitter stalemate, and Collegium has nothing to show for it but wounded veterans. Cheerwell Maker finds herself crippled in ways no doctor can mend, haunted by ghosts of the past that she cannot appease, seeking for meaning in a city that no longer seems like home.
The Empress Seda is regaining control over those imperial cities that refused to bow the knee to her, but she draws her power from something more sinister than mere armies and war machines. Only her consort, the former spymaster Thalric, knows the truth, and now the assassins are coming and he finds his life and his loyalties under threat yet again.
Out past the desert of the Nem the ancient city of Khanaphes awaits them both, with a terrible secret entombed beneath its stones...
Heaven's Needle by Liane Mercial - The mountain fortress of Duradh Mal was mysteriously destroyed centuries ago. And now, in its shadow, evil stirs. . . .
Unaware of the danger, two inexperienced Illuminers set out for the village of Carden Vale, at the foot of Duradh Mal, to minister to the people. The warrior Asharre, her face scarred with runes, her heart scarred by loss, is assigned to protect the young clerics. But in Carden Vale they find unspeakable horrors—the first hint of a terrifying ghost story come true.
The Sun Knight Kelland has been set free by the woman he loves, the archer Bitharn, but at the cost of undertaking a mission only he can fulfill.
Joined by a Thornlord steeped in the magic of pain, they too make their way to Duradh Mal. There lies the truth behind the rumors of the dead come back to life, flesh ripped from bones, and creatures destroying themselves in a violent frenzy. And if Kelland cannot contain the black magic that has been unleashed after six hundred years, an entire world will fall victim to a Mad God’s malevolent plague. . . .
Haven by Joel Shepherd - The great powers of the Saalshen Bacosh are falling. The feudal army of the Regent Balthaar Arosh marches victorious across Rhodaan and Enora, determined to restore the old human ways that were abolished by the serrin of Saalshen two centuries before. The army of Lenayin marches in their wake, in shame. The greater battle was won, yet Lenayin's part in it was defeat, their king slain, their warriors sent running from the field.
Sashandra Lenayin marches with her people, yet she sees the carnage the Regent's armies are inflicting upon her former allies, and like most Lenays, she feels dishonored. Sasha leads three quarters of the army of Lenayin to defect and fight for Saalshen, leaving her brothers Koenyg and Myklas with the Verenthane hardliners to fight for the Regent.
All forces now converge on the city of Jahnd, an Enoran word meaning "Haven." A city of humanity's refugees in Saalshen, its serrin hosts have allowed it to build into a major power over the centuries, humankind's only outpost in Saalshen. But the Saalshen Bacosh's third province, the mountainous land of Ilduur, refuses to come to the aid of its neighbors and without it victory is impossible. Sasha must lead a delegation to the Ilduuri capital, to combat the xenophobic Ilduuri regime's retreat into isolation, and convince the Ilduuri army to defy their own leaders and rise up in rebellion to fight a foreign war that most Ilduuris do not want.
To save Saalshen and all that she loves about Lenayin, Sasha must become a true Lenay warlord, feared and hated by her enemies, uncompromising and all conquering. But will her own people now inflict upon her one of her worst nightmares, by insisting that she, and not her brother Damon, should assume the Lenay throne and lead her people in the greatest battle that the land of Rhodia has ever seen?
Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding - Sky piracy is a bit out of Darian Frey’s league. Fate has not been kind to the captain of the airship Ketty Jay—or his motley crew. They are all running from something. Crake is a daemonist in hiding, traveling with an armored golem and burdened by guilt. Jez is the new navigator, desperate to keep her secret from the rest of the crew. Malvery is a disgraced doctor, drinking himself to death. So when an opportunity arises to steal a chest of gems from a vulnerable airship, Frey can’t pass it up. It’s an easy take—and the payoff will finally make him a rich man.
But when the attack goes horribly wrong, Frey suddenly finds himself the most wanted man in Vardia, trailed by bounty hunters, the elite Century Knights, and the dread queen of the skies, Trinica Dracken. Frey realizes that they’ve been set up to take a fall but doesn’t know the endgame. And the ultimate answer for captain and crew may lie in the legendary hidden pirate town of Retribution Falls. That’s if they can get there without getting blown out of the sky.
Five Odd Honors by Jane Lindskold - The Thirteen Orphans and their allies have opened the ninth gate into the Lands Born from Smoke and Sacrifice . . . and discover that the Lands have been altered almost beyond recognition, transformed by magic into an apparently uninhabited world where land shifts beneath one’s feet and fire burns blue. Investigating, the Orphans learn that the Center of the world is sealed behind nearly-impassable barriers composed of each of the five elements of Chinese myth. Combining ancient and modern magics, a scouting party penetrates the barriers, only to be captured and given over to tortures designed to separate the Orphans from their magical abilities.
On Earth, Pearl Bright, the Tiger, is attacked—is this treachery by our world’s magical traditions or has one of the Orphans betrayed her? Brenda Morris learns of the Orphans’ dangers when it is nearly too late—but along with the sidhe, who are drawn to her Irish heritage, Brenda risks her life to help rescue those trapped in the Lands.
A story of betrayal and redemption, of bravery in the face of terror, and of loyalty and hatred that reach beyond the grave, Five Odd Honors continues Jane Lindskold’s stunning Breaking the Wall series.
Caledor by Gav Thorpe - The rise of the Druchii has driven the land of Ulthuan into a brutal civil war. As conflict rages through the cities and forests, sides must be chosen and old allegiances and friendships will be torn apart forever. After by the betrayal by Malekith and the murder of his court, Prince Imrik adopts the name of his grandfather, the mighty Caledor, and the bloodshed escalates. No elf can escape the fighting, and the mighty dragons are awakened to the call of battle once more. Only a confrontation between legends can decide the future of Ulthuan, with Malekith and Caledor meeting blade to blade in a long-overdue reckoning. But even worse is to follow, as Malekith launches a final, desperate plan to triumph...
Caledor is the epic conclusion to The Sundering trilogy, telling the incredible tale of the battles that would change the fate of the elves forever.
The Alchemist in the Shadows by Pierre Pevel - Welcome to Paris, in 1633, where dragons menace the realm. Cardinal Richelieu, the most powerful and most feared man in France, is on his guard. He knows France is under threat, and that a secret society known as the Black Claw is conspiring against him from the heart of the greatest courts in Europe. They will strike from the shadows, and when they do the blow will be both terrible and deadly. To counter the threat, Richelieu has put his most trusted men into play: the Cardinal's Blades, led by Captain la Fargue. Six men and a woman, all of exceptional abilities and all ready to risk their lives on his command. They have saved France before, and the Cardinal is relying on them to do it again.
So when la Fargue hears from a beautiful, infamous, deadly Italian spy claiming to have valuable information, he has to listen ...and when La Donna demands Cardinal Richelieu's protection before she will talk, la Fargue is even prepared to consider it. Because La Donna can name their enemy. It's a man as elusive as he is manipulative, as subtle as Richelieu himself, an exceptionally dangerous adversary: the Alchemist in the shadows ...
Star Trek: Watching the Clock [ST: Dept. of Temporal Investigations] by Christopher L. Bennett - There’s likely no more of a thankless job in the Federation than temporal investigation. While starship explorers get to live the human adventure of traveling to other times and realities, it’s up to the dedicated agents of the Federation Department of Temporal Investigations to deal with the consequences to the timestream that the rest of the Galaxy has to live with day by day. But when history as we know it could be wiped out at any moment by time warriors from the future, misused relics of ancient races, or accident-prone starships, only the most disciplined, obsessive, and unimaginative government employees have what it takes to face the existential uncertainty of it all on a daily basis . . . and still stay sane enough to complete their assignments.
That’s where Agents Lucsly and Dulmur come in—stalwart and unflappable, these men are the Federation’s unsung anchors in a chaotic universe. Together with their colleagues in the DTI—and with the help and sometimes hindrance of Starfleet’s finest—they do what they can to keep the timestream, or at least the paperwork, as neat and orderly as they are. But when a series of escalating temporal incursions threatens to open a new front of the history-spanning Temporal Cold War in the twenty-fourth century, Agents Lucsly and Dulmur will need all their investigative skill and unbending determination to stop those who wish to rewrite the past for their own advantage, and to keep the present and the future from devolving into the kind of chaos they really, really hate.
The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught by Jack Campbell - The Alliance woke Captain John "Black Jack" Geary from cryogenic sleep to take command of the fleet in the century-long conflict against the Syndicate Worlds. Now Fleet Admiral Geary's victory has earned him the adoration of the people-and the enmity of politicians convinced that a living hero can be a very inconvenient thing.
Geary knows that members of the military high command and the government question his loyalty to the Alliance and fear his staging a coup-so he can't help but wonder if the newly christened First Fleet is being deliberately sent to the far side of space on a suicide mission.
The Age of Darkness edited by Christian Dunn - After the betrayal at Isstvan, Horus begins his campaign against the Emperor, a galaxy-wide war that can lead only to Terra. But the road to the final confrontation between father and son is a long one – seven years filled with secrecy and silence, plans and foundations being formed across distant stars. An unknown history is about to be unveiled as light is shed on the darkest years of the Horus Heresy, and revelations will surface that will shake the Imperium to its very foundation...
The Sorrow King by Andersen Prunty - The papers call it "The Suicide Virus." The teenagers of Gethsemane, Ohio, are killing themselves at an alarming rate.
Steven Wrigley is trying to survive his senior year of high school, still reeling from the death of his mother and adjusting to life with his father. Along the way, he meets a girl who becomes another kind of obsession: Elise Devon.
Elise's secrets keep her distanced from everyone. She has a special place she calls the Obscura. She goes there when she is depressed or angry. The Obscura makes her feel like nothing she's ever felt before. When she loses herself to the Obscura, she fears she also gives herself to something much darker, something much more powerful. Something calling itself the Sorrow King.
Who is the Sorrow King?
He is carved from wood and bone.
He smells like wax, dead leaves, and memories.
He travels by moonlight and drinks the sorrow of others.
Can love exact vengeance on a monster made from madness, depression, and misery? Or will the Sorrow King bleed the town dry before satiating himself and moving on?
Uncertain Allies by Mark Del Franco - After a night of riots and fires, the Boston neighborhood known as the Weird is in ruins. And when a body is found drained of its essence, ex- Guild investigator Connor Grey is drawn into the case against his will. And he has reason to be wary. Because the case will lead to an explosive secret that threatens to tear apart the city-and the world.
The Sable Queen by Brian Jacques - Buckler the hare, Blademaster of the Long Patrol, must save the youngsters of Redwall Abbey-kidnapped by the vile Vilaya the Sable Quean-and stop the villain's conquest of Mossflower Wood.
Gods and Monsters by Lyn Benedict - Sylvie Lightner is no ordinary P.I. She specializes in cases involving the unusual and unbelievable. When she finds the bodies of five women in the Florida Everglades, Sylvie believes them to be the work of a serial killer and passes the buck. But when the bodies wake and shift shape, killing the police, Sylvie finds herself at the head of a potentially lethal investigation.
The Cold Kiss of Death by Suzanne McLeod - When sidhe-blooded Genny Taylor's friend is murdered and all evidence points to her, she goes on the run. But she's being pursued by some of the most powerful supernaturals in town-and one of them is most certainly the killer.
The Green Hills of Earth / Menace From Earth by Robert A. Heinlein - Two of the Grand Master’s finest:
The saga of the opening of the space frontier as courageous men and women risked their lives to build the first space station and colonize the Moon and Venus, while praying for one last landing on the globe that gave them birth, to return to The Green Hills of Earth.
From a mysterious region on Earth, where a more advanced lifeform may be studying the interesting creatures called “humans,” to the first moon colony, where a young girl’s relationship with her boyfriend is endangered by the beautiful Menace from Earth.
Classic Heinlein, in a new two-for-one package.
Prescription for Chaos by Christopher Anvil - Science and technology have made our lives easier, cured diseases, with achievements that an earlier age would have considered impossible. But once in a while, the law of unintended consequences breaks loose. Christopher Anvil considers the two faces of technological innovation: Sometimes the result is a literal life-saver; but at other times a breakthrough may not break quite the way it was supposed to.
A new wonder drug has the unexpected side effect of making people happy. Not a problem - everybody should want to be happy, right? But should people be happy all of the time? Suppose being happy required you never to disappoint anyone, no matter what they're requesting. . . .
Then there was the energy source for every home that would free the country from its dependence on foreign oil—except that the prototype was rushed into production a bit too fast.
Back on the bright side, another device not only couldn't possibly work by every known law of science, but didn't have any obvious uses. Then alien invaders landed and suddenly the crackpot device was the world's only hope.
The upside and downside of marvelous new gadgets, as told by a master of science fiction adventure with a prescription for fun.
The Lotus Eaters by Tom Krautman - Sometimes paranoia is just a heightened state of awareness.
Carrera's won his war, and inflicted a horrific revenge upon his enemies. But there are wars after wars. The Tauran Union is planning an attack. The criminals of neighboring states are already attacking, and threatening to embroil him in a war with the planet's premier power. His only living son is under fire among the windswept mountains of Pashtia. An enemy fleet is hunting his submarines. His organization has been infiltrated by spies. One of the two governments of his adopted country, Balboa, is trying to destroy everything he's built and reinstitute rule by a corrupt oligarchy. Worst of all, perhaps, he, himself, bearing a crushing burden of guilt, isn't quite the man he once was.
Fortunately, the man he once was, was lucky enough to marry the right woman...
The Medusa Amulet by Robert Masello - Benvenuto Cellini—the master artisan of Renaissance Italy: goldsmith, sculptor . . . necromancer. Creator of a beautifully carved amulet that was once the proud possession of popes and princes, queens and conquerors. A work of unimaginable power . . . and menace.
In this new spine-tingling thriller by Robert Masello, the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of Blood and Ice, the quest to recover a legendary artifact—and plumb its secrets—depends upon one man: David Franco, a brilliant but skeptical young scholar at Chicago’s world-renowned Newberry Library.
What begins as a simple investigation quickly spirals into a twisting, turning tale of suspense and intrigue, a race against time that carries Franco across continents and centuries in a desperate search for the ultimate treasure—and an answer to a riddle that has puzzled mankind since the beginning of time.
Aided only by a beautiful young Florentine with a conspirator’s mind and dark secrets, Franco is soon caught up in a life-and-death struggle from which there is no escape. Relentlessly pursued by deadly assassins and demons of his own, in the end he must confront—and defeat—an evil greater than anything conjured in his worst nightmares.
Packed with breathtaking invention and breakneck adventure, The Medusa Amulet is a harrowing ride from the streets of Chicago to the châteaux of France, from the ramparts of the French Revolution to the palazzos of Rome, a story where historical fact meets with fascinating conjecture . . . and the impossible becomes terrifyingly real. Like a masterpiece from the hand of Cellini himself, The Medusa Amulet is a unique and powerful work, as inviting as it is forbidding, as ingenious as it is bold.
CALL IN THE QUIET COUNCIL.
The mysterious and glamorous Lady De Winter is one of their most valuable agents. A despicable murder inside a locked and bolted room on the Rue Morgue in Paris is just the start. This whirlwind adventure will take Milady to the highest and lowest parts of that great city - and cause her to question the very nature of reality itself.
Infernal Devices by K. W. Jeter - HE INHERITED A WATCHMAKER'S STORE - AND A WHOLE HEAP OF TROUBLE. But idle sometime-musician George has little talent for clockwork. And when a shadowy figure tries to steal an old device from the premises, George finds himself embroiled in a mystery of time travel, music and sexual intrigue. A genuine lost classic, a steampunk original whose time has come.
The Empress Seda is regaining control over those imperial cities that refused to bow the knee to her, but she draws her power from something more sinister than mere armies and war machines. Only her consort, the former spymaster Thalric, knows the truth, and now the assassins are coming and he finds his life and his loyalties under threat yet again.
Out past the desert of the Nem the ancient city of Khanaphes awaits them both, with a terrible secret entombed beneath its stones...
Unaware of the danger, two inexperienced Illuminers set out for the village of Carden Vale, at the foot of Duradh Mal, to minister to the people. The warrior Asharre, her face scarred with runes, her heart scarred by loss, is assigned to protect the young clerics. But in Carden Vale they find unspeakable horrors—the first hint of a terrifying ghost story come true.
The Sun Knight Kelland has been set free by the woman he loves, the archer Bitharn, but at the cost of undertaking a mission only he can fulfill.
Joined by a Thornlord steeped in the magic of pain, they too make their way to Duradh Mal. There lies the truth behind the rumors of the dead come back to life, flesh ripped from bones, and creatures destroying themselves in a violent frenzy. And if Kelland cannot contain the black magic that has been unleashed after six hundred years, an entire world will fall victim to a Mad God’s malevolent plague. . . .
Sashandra Lenayin marches with her people, yet she sees the carnage the Regent's armies are inflicting upon her former allies, and like most Lenays, she feels dishonored. Sasha leads three quarters of the army of Lenayin to defect and fight for Saalshen, leaving her brothers Koenyg and Myklas with the Verenthane hardliners to fight for the Regent.
All forces now converge on the city of Jahnd, an Enoran word meaning "Haven." A city of humanity's refugees in Saalshen, its serrin hosts have allowed it to build into a major power over the centuries, humankind's only outpost in Saalshen. But the Saalshen Bacosh's third province, the mountainous land of Ilduur, refuses to come to the aid of its neighbors and without it victory is impossible. Sasha must lead a delegation to the Ilduuri capital, to combat the xenophobic Ilduuri regime's retreat into isolation, and convince the Ilduuri army to defy their own leaders and rise up in rebellion to fight a foreign war that most Ilduuris do not want.
To save Saalshen and all that she loves about Lenayin, Sasha must become a true Lenay warlord, feared and hated by her enemies, uncompromising and all conquering. But will her own people now inflict upon her one of her worst nightmares, by insisting that she, and not her brother Damon, should assume the Lenay throne and lead her people in the greatest battle that the land of Rhodia has ever seen?
But when the attack goes horribly wrong, Frey suddenly finds himself the most wanted man in Vardia, trailed by bounty hunters, the elite Century Knights, and the dread queen of the skies, Trinica Dracken. Frey realizes that they’ve been set up to take a fall but doesn’t know the endgame. And the ultimate answer for captain and crew may lie in the legendary hidden pirate town of Retribution Falls. That’s if they can get there without getting blown out of the sky.
On Earth, Pearl Bright, the Tiger, is attacked—is this treachery by our world’s magical traditions or has one of the Orphans betrayed her? Brenda Morris learns of the Orphans’ dangers when it is nearly too late—but along with the sidhe, who are drawn to her Irish heritage, Brenda risks her life to help rescue those trapped in the Lands.
A story of betrayal and redemption, of bravery in the face of terror, and of loyalty and hatred that reach beyond the grave, Five Odd Honors continues Jane Lindskold’s stunning Breaking the Wall series.
Caledor is the epic conclusion to The Sundering trilogy, telling the incredible tale of the battles that would change the fate of the elves forever.
So when la Fargue hears from a beautiful, infamous, deadly Italian spy claiming to have valuable information, he has to listen ...and when La Donna demands Cardinal Richelieu's protection before she will talk, la Fargue is even prepared to consider it. Because La Donna can name their enemy. It's a man as elusive as he is manipulative, as subtle as Richelieu himself, an exceptionally dangerous adversary: the Alchemist in the shadows ...
Star Trek: Watching the Clock [ST: Dept. of Temporal Investigations] by Christopher L. Bennett - There’s likely no more of a thankless job in the Federation than temporal investigation. While starship explorers get to live the human adventure of traveling to other times and realities, it’s up to the dedicated agents of the Federation Department of Temporal Investigations to deal with the consequences to the timestream that the rest of the Galaxy has to live with day by day. But when history as we know it could be wiped out at any moment by time warriors from the future, misused relics of ancient races, or accident-prone starships, only the most disciplined, obsessive, and unimaginative government employees have what it takes to face the existential uncertainty of it all on a daily basis . . . and still stay sane enough to complete their assignments.
That’s where Agents Lucsly and Dulmur come in—stalwart and unflappable, these men are the Federation’s unsung anchors in a chaotic universe. Together with their colleagues in the DTI—and with the help and sometimes hindrance of Starfleet’s finest—they do what they can to keep the timestream, or at least the paperwork, as neat and orderly as they are. But when a series of escalating temporal incursions threatens to open a new front of the history-spanning Temporal Cold War in the twenty-fourth century, Agents Lucsly and Dulmur will need all their investigative skill and unbending determination to stop those who wish to rewrite the past for their own advantage, and to keep the present and the future from devolving into the kind of chaos they really, really hate.
Geary knows that members of the military high command and the government question his loyalty to the Alliance and fear his staging a coup-so he can't help but wonder if the newly christened First Fleet is being deliberately sent to the far side of space on a suicide mission.
The Age of Darkness edited by Christian Dunn - After the betrayal at Isstvan, Horus begins his campaign against the Emperor, a galaxy-wide war that can lead only to Terra. But the road to the final confrontation between father and son is a long one – seven years filled with secrecy and silence, plans and foundations being formed across distant stars. An unknown history is about to be unveiled as light is shed on the darkest years of the Horus Heresy, and revelations will surface that will shake the Imperium to its very foundation...
Steven Wrigley is trying to survive his senior year of high school, still reeling from the death of his mother and adjusting to life with his father. Along the way, he meets a girl who becomes another kind of obsession: Elise Devon.
Elise's secrets keep her distanced from everyone. She has a special place she calls the Obscura. She goes there when she is depressed or angry. The Obscura makes her feel like nothing she's ever felt before. When she loses herself to the Obscura, she fears she also gives herself to something much darker, something much more powerful. Something calling itself the Sorrow King.
Who is the Sorrow King?
He is carved from wood and bone.
He smells like wax, dead leaves, and memories.
He travels by moonlight and drinks the sorrow of others.
Can love exact vengeance on a monster made from madness, depression, and misery? Or will the Sorrow King bleed the town dry before satiating himself and moving on?
The Sable Queen by Brian Jacques - Buckler the hare, Blademaster of the Long Patrol, must save the youngsters of Redwall Abbey-kidnapped by the vile Vilaya the Sable Quean-and stop the villain's conquest of Mossflower Wood.
Gods and Monsters by Lyn Benedict - Sylvie Lightner is no ordinary P.I. She specializes in cases involving the unusual and unbelievable. When she finds the bodies of five women in the Florida Everglades, Sylvie believes them to be the work of a serial killer and passes the buck. But when the bodies wake and shift shape, killing the police, Sylvie finds herself at the head of a potentially lethal investigation.
The Green Hills of Earth / Menace From Earth by Robert A. Heinlein - Two of the Grand Master’s finest:
The saga of the opening of the space frontier as courageous men and women risked their lives to build the first space station and colonize the Moon and Venus, while praying for one last landing on the globe that gave them birth, to return to The Green Hills of Earth.
From a mysterious region on Earth, where a more advanced lifeform may be studying the interesting creatures called “humans,” to the first moon colony, where a young girl’s relationship with her boyfriend is endangered by the beautiful Menace from Earth.
Classic Heinlein, in a new two-for-one package.
A new wonder drug has the unexpected side effect of making people happy. Not a problem - everybody should want to be happy, right? But should people be happy all of the time? Suppose being happy required you never to disappoint anyone, no matter what they're requesting. . . .
Then there was the energy source for every home that would free the country from its dependence on foreign oil—except that the prototype was rushed into production a bit too fast.
Back on the bright side, another device not only couldn't possibly work by every known law of science, but didn't have any obvious uses. Then alien invaders landed and suddenly the crackpot device was the world's only hope.
The upside and downside of marvelous new gadgets, as told by a master of science fiction adventure with a prescription for fun.
Carrera's won his war, and inflicted a horrific revenge upon his enemies. But there are wars after wars. The Tauran Union is planning an attack. The criminals of neighboring states are already attacking, and threatening to embroil him in a war with the planet's premier power. His only living son is under fire among the windswept mountains of Pashtia. An enemy fleet is hunting his submarines. His organization has been infiltrated by spies. One of the two governments of his adopted country, Balboa, is trying to destroy everything he's built and reinstitute rule by a corrupt oligarchy. Worst of all, perhaps, he, himself, bearing a crushing burden of guilt, isn't quite the man he once was.
Fortunately, the man he once was, was lucky enough to marry the right woman...
In this new spine-tingling thriller by Robert Masello, the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of Blood and Ice, the quest to recover a legendary artifact—and plumb its secrets—depends upon one man: David Franco, a brilliant but skeptical young scholar at Chicago’s world-renowned Newberry Library.
What begins as a simple investigation quickly spirals into a twisting, turning tale of suspense and intrigue, a race against time that carries Franco across continents and centuries in a desperate search for the ultimate treasure—and an answer to a riddle that has puzzled mankind since the beginning of time.
Aided only by a beautiful young Florentine with a conspirator’s mind and dark secrets, Franco is soon caught up in a life-and-death struggle from which there is no escape. Relentlessly pursued by deadly assassins and demons of his own, in the end he must confront—and defeat—an evil greater than anything conjured in his worst nightmares.
Packed with breathtaking invention and breakneck adventure, The Medusa Amulet is a harrowing ride from the streets of Chicago to the châteaux of France, from the ramparts of the French Revolution to the palazzos of Rome, a story where historical fact meets with fascinating conjecture . . . and the impossible becomes terrifyingly real. Like a masterpiece from the hand of Cellini himself, The Medusa Amulet is a unique and powerful work, as inviting as it is forbidding, as ingenious as it is bold.
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As always, our new genre titles are at least 10% off on our site (discount appears in shopping cart) and we offer free domestic shipping on orders over $25.00. So why not shop Kayleighbug?
Monday, April 25, 2011
Massive Book giveaway - multiple chances to win multiple books
Hey there loyal fans, friends, customers, and reading enthusiasts. It's been a couple weeks since I held my last giveaway and since I've promised to do them weekly, I've decided to up the ante this week.
I'm giving away 5 advance copies of top notch thrillers/mysteries - as well as another Iron Fey poster/button/bookmark pack.
To win: you must be a follower of us in some way - either by following this blog with Google, Following us on Twitter, being a friend of my personal page on facebook, or 'liking' our Kayleighbug Books facebook page. Any of those things will get you automatically entered into each of the 6 drawings. Want more chances to win? Following us on Twitter AND facebook doubles your chances to win. Following this blog as well triples them. Want more? Retweet, Share on facebook or blog about this giveaway and we'll add another TWO entries for each of those things. For the bonus entries to count, please post a comment on this blog with a link to the post, tweet, or wall you shared it on.
We'll be holding the drawing on Saturday, April 30th using Random.org to generate the winning numbers from a pool of all entries.
When this individual blog post tops 1,000 views, I'll be adding even more books to the list so retweet, share, post, blog it everywhere and I'll update with more titles to give away!
Finally, here's the books:
Love You More by Lisa Gardner - WHO DO YOU LOVE?
One question, a split-second decision, and Brian Darby lies dead on the kitchen floor. His wife, state police trooper Tessa Leoni, claims to have shot him in self-defense, and bears the bruises to back up her tale. For veteran detective D. D. Warren it should be an open-and-shut case. But where is their six-year-old daughter?
AND HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO . . .
As the homicide investigation ratchets into a frantic statewide search for a missing child, D. D. Warren must partner with former lover Bobby Dodge to break through the blue wall of police brotherhood, seeking to understand the inner workings of a trooper’s mind while also unearthing family secrets. Would a trained police officer truly shoot her own husband? And would a mother harm her own child?
. . . TO SAVE HER?
For Tessa Leoni, the worst has not yet happened. She is walking a tightrope, with nowhere to turn, no one to trust, as the clock ticks down to a terrifying deadline. She has one goal in sight, and she will use every ounce of her training, every trick at her disposal, to do what must be done. No sacrifice is too great, no action unthinkable. A mother knows who she loves. And all others will be made to pay.
Dominance by Will Lavender - From the "New York Times" bestselling author of "Obedience" comes a new puzzle thriller that will keep you guessing until the final terrifying moments
Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz & David Hayward -
Lutz, the "New York Times"-bestselling author of the Spellman comedic crime novels, conspires with--or should we say "against"--co-author Hayward to write an original and hilarious tag-team crime novel.
The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg - For the first time in English, the psychological thriller debut of No 1 bestselling Swedish crime sensation Camilla Lackberg. Returning to her hometown after the funeral of her parents, writer Erica Falck finds a community on the brink of tragedy. The death of her childhood friend, Alex, is just the beginning. Her wrists slashed, her body frozen in an ice-cold bath, it seems, at first, that she has taken her own life. Erica conceives a memoir about the beautiful but remote Alex, one that will help to overcome her writer's block as well as answer questions about their own past. While her interest grows to an obsession, local detective Patrik Hedstrom is following his own suspicions about the case. But it is only when they start working together that the truth begins to emerge about this small town with a deeply disturbing past!
Iron House by John Hart - Two babies left to die in an icy creak. Two boys who must fight to survive. Two men, two very different lives. One unbreakable bond. When a twelve-year-old boy murders his tormentor in their brutal orphanage, his older brother takes the blame and runs to New York - into the heart of organized crime. Two decades later, Michael returns to North Carolina with a sentence on his head, the mob in hot pursuit and his long-lost brother in trouble of a different kind. With vast sums in play, political fortunes at risk and bodies piling up, the brothers must reunite to solve the mystery of their shared past
________________________________________________
UPDATE: Added another book today - Robopocalypse ARC by Daniel H. Wilson - SF Thriller about the Robot Revolution written by a robotics researcher, already in development for a Spielberg-directed feature film slated for 2013 release.
I'm giving away 5 advance copies of top notch thrillers/mysteries - as well as another Iron Fey poster/button/bookmark pack.
To win: you must be a follower of us in some way - either by following this blog with Google, Following us on Twitter, being a friend of my personal page on facebook, or 'liking' our Kayleighbug Books facebook page. Any of those things will get you automatically entered into each of the 6 drawings. Want more chances to win? Following us on Twitter AND facebook doubles your chances to win. Following this blog as well triples them. Want more? Retweet, Share on facebook or blog about this giveaway and we'll add another TWO entries for each of those things. For the bonus entries to count, please post a comment on this blog with a link to the post, tweet, or wall you shared it on.
We'll be holding the drawing on Saturday, April 30th using Random.org to generate the winning numbers from a pool of all entries.
When this individual blog post tops 1,000 views, I'll be adding even more books to the list so retweet, share, post, blog it everywhere and I'll update with more titles to give away!
Finally, here's the books:
One question, a split-second decision, and Brian Darby lies dead on the kitchen floor. His wife, state police trooper Tessa Leoni, claims to have shot him in self-defense, and bears the bruises to back up her tale. For veteran detective D. D. Warren it should be an open-and-shut case. But where is their six-year-old daughter?
AND HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO . . .
As the homicide investigation ratchets into a frantic statewide search for a missing child, D. D. Warren must partner with former lover Bobby Dodge to break through the blue wall of police brotherhood, seeking to understand the inner workings of a trooper’s mind while also unearthing family secrets. Would a trained police officer truly shoot her own husband? And would a mother harm her own child?
. . . TO SAVE HER?
For Tessa Leoni, the worst has not yet happened. She is walking a tightrope, with nowhere to turn, no one to trust, as the clock ticks down to a terrifying deadline. She has one goal in sight, and she will use every ounce of her training, every trick at her disposal, to do what must be done. No sacrifice is too great, no action unthinkable. A mother knows who she loves. And all others will be made to pay.
Lutz, the "New York Times"-bestselling author of the Spellman comedic crime novels, conspires with--or should we say "against"--co-author Hayward to write an original and hilarious tag-team crime novel.
________________________________________________
UPDATE: Added another book today - Robopocalypse ARC by Daniel H. Wilson - SF Thriller about the Robot Revolution written by a robotics researcher, already in development for a Spielberg-directed feature film slated for 2013 release.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Video: Augmented Reality App For Librarians Instantly Shows Which Books Are Misfiled | Popular Science
One of the best ideas in augmented reality technology applications that I've seen. Bravo!
Thanks to Steve Ball for the tip on this one.
Thanks to Steve Ball for the tip on this one.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Game of Thrones renewed for Second Season after 1st episode
HBO has not yet announced where or when they will begin production on Season 2 but the Belfast Telegram reports that Northern Ireland Screen is campaigning diligently to get HBO to return to Northern Ireland for production of Season 2. Reports indicate that filming of Season 1 injected over 20 million pounds into the local economy and created more than 800 local jobs.
Reviews of the series have been mixed - with the vast majority of geekdom absolutely loving it, a slightly smaller set absolutely loving it but a bit disturbed by the harsh sex, multiple beheadings, and overall massive amounts of violence and nudity in the first episode alone. Those few reviewers (the NYT) that posted negative feelings about the first episode were harshly trounced on Twitter and the blogosphere shortly thereafter.
Doctor Who's Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith) dies at age 63
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Orbit Launches Short Fiction ebooks
04/19/11 - New Releases in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal & more..
It's a very light release list this week but we're headlining it with a (semi) exclusive Collector's Edition Pack for the new Amanda Quick novel.
Quicksilver by Amanda Quick - Includes Limited Edition collector's pack with Signed Arcane Society bookplate, card, Quicksilver mirror, and more. Collector's Pack is available only from JAK-Friendly bookstores.
Virginia Dean wakes at midnight beside a dead body, with a bloody knife in her hand and no memory of the evening's events. Dark energy, emanating from the mirrors lining the room, overpowers her senses. With no apparent way in or out, she is rescued by a man she has met only once before, but won't soon forget.
Owen Sweetwater inherited his family's talent for hunting the psychical monsters who prey on London's women and children, and his investigation into the deaths of two glass-readers has led him here. The high-society types of the exclusive Arcane Society would consider Virginia an illusionist, a charlatan, even a criminal, but Owen knows better. Virginia's powers are real-and they just might be the key to solving this challenging case.
The River of Shadows by Robert V. S. Redick - In the gripping sequel to Robert V. S. Redick’s acclaimed epic fantasy novels The Red Wolf Conspiracy and The Ruling Sea, the crew of the vast, ancient ship Chathrand have reached the shores of the legendary southern empire of Bali Adro. Many have died in the crossing, and the alliance of rebels, led by the tarboy Pazel Pathkendle and the warrior Thasha Isiq, has faced death, betrayal, and darkest magic. But nothing has prepared them for the radically altered face of humanity in the South.
They have little time to recover from the shock, however. For with landfall, the battle between the rebels and centuries-old sorcerer Arunis enters its final phase. At stake is control of the Nilstone, a cursed relic that promises unlimited power to whoever unlocks the secrets of its use—but death to those who fail. And no one is closer to mastering the Stone than Arunis.
Desperate to stop him, Pazel and Thasha must join forces with their enemies, including the depraved Captain Rose and the imperial assassin Sandor Ott. But when a suspicious young crewmember turns his attentions to Thasha, it is the young lovers themselves who are divided—most conveniently for Arunis. As the mage’s triumph draws near, the allies face a terrible choice: to break their oaths and run for safety, or to hunt the world’s most dangerous sorcerer through the strange and deadly dream kingdom known as the River of Shadows, and to face him a last time among the traps and horrors of his lair.
Brimming with high adventure, dark enchantment, and unforgettable characters, The River of Shadows deftly secures Redick’s place in the ranks of epic fantasy’s most original and enthralling storytellers.
Mercy Burns by Keri Arthur - Mercy Reynolds is a reporter in the San Francisco Bay area, but she’s also more—and less—than human. Half woman, half air dragon, she’s a “draman”—unable to shift shape but still able to unleash fiery energy. Now something will put her powers to the test.
Mercy’s friend Rainey has enlisted her help to solve her sister’s murder. Then a horrible accident claims Rainey’s life, leaving Mercy only five days to find the killer: If Mercy fails, according to dragon law, Rainey’s soul will be doomed to roam the earth for eternity. But how can Mercy help when she herself is a target? With nowhere else to turn, she must join forces with a sexy stranger—the mysterious man they call “Muerte,” or death itself, who’s as irresistible as he is treacherous. But can even Death keep Mercy alive for long enough to find her answers?
Defiance by Lili St. Crow - Now that sixteen-year-old Dru's worst fears have come true and Sergej has kidnapped her best friend Graves, she'll have to go on a suicidal rescue mission to bring him back in one piece.
That is, if she can put all of Christophe's training to good use, defeat her mother's traitor, Anna, once and for all, and manage to survive another day.
Eona: The Last Dragoneye by Alison Goodman - Once she was Eon, a girl disguised as a boy, risking her life for the chance to become a Dragoneye apprentice. Now she is Eona, the Mirror Dragoneye, her country’s savior — but she has an even more dangerous secret.
She cannot control her power.
Each time she tries to bond with her Mirror Dragon, she becomes a conduit for the ten spirit dragons whose Dragoneyes were murdered by Lord Ido. Their anguish floods through her, twisting her ability into a force that destroys the land and its people.
And another force of destruction is on her trail.
Along with Ryko and Lady Dela, Eona is on the run from High Lord Sethon’s army. Sethon has declared himself Emperor. In order to stop him, the renegades must find Kygo, the young Pearl Emperor, who needs Eona’s power if he is to wrest back his throne.
Eona, with its pulse-pounding drama, thrilling fight scenes, sizzling tension — and many surprises — brings to a close an epic story.
Twelfth Grade Kills by Heather Brewer - As a teenage vampire, Vlad has spent the last four years trying to handle the pressures of school while sidestepping a slayer out for his blood. Now he's a senior, and in this final, action-packed book in the series, Vlad must confront the secrets of the past, unravel the mystery of who he really is, make decisions about his future, and face his greatest enemy. It’s a senior year that totally bites.
Virginia Dean wakes at midnight beside a dead body, with a bloody knife in her hand and no memory of the evening's events. Dark energy, emanating from the mirrors lining the room, overpowers her senses. With no apparent way in or out, she is rescued by a man she has met only once before, but won't soon forget.
Owen Sweetwater inherited his family's talent for hunting the psychical monsters who prey on London's women and children, and his investigation into the deaths of two glass-readers has led him here. The high-society types of the exclusive Arcane Society would consider Virginia an illusionist, a charlatan, even a criminal, but Owen knows better. Virginia's powers are real-and they just might be the key to solving this challenging case.
They have little time to recover from the shock, however. For with landfall, the battle between the rebels and centuries-old sorcerer Arunis enters its final phase. At stake is control of the Nilstone, a cursed relic that promises unlimited power to whoever unlocks the secrets of its use—but death to those who fail. And no one is closer to mastering the Stone than Arunis.
Desperate to stop him, Pazel and Thasha must join forces with their enemies, including the depraved Captain Rose and the imperial assassin Sandor Ott. But when a suspicious young crewmember turns his attentions to Thasha, it is the young lovers themselves who are divided—most conveniently for Arunis. As the mage’s triumph draws near, the allies face a terrible choice: to break their oaths and run for safety, or to hunt the world’s most dangerous sorcerer through the strange and deadly dream kingdom known as the River of Shadows, and to face him a last time among the traps and horrors of his lair.
Brimming with high adventure, dark enchantment, and unforgettable characters, The River of Shadows deftly secures Redick’s place in the ranks of epic fantasy’s most original and enthralling storytellers.
Mercy’s friend Rainey has enlisted her help to solve her sister’s murder. Then a horrible accident claims Rainey’s life, leaving Mercy only five days to find the killer: If Mercy fails, according to dragon law, Rainey’s soul will be doomed to roam the earth for eternity. But how can Mercy help when she herself is a target? With nowhere else to turn, she must join forces with a sexy stranger—the mysterious man they call “Muerte,” or death itself, who’s as irresistible as he is treacherous. But can even Death keep Mercy alive for long enough to find her answers?
Defiance by Lili St. Crow - Now that sixteen-year-old Dru's worst fears have come true and Sergej has kidnapped her best friend Graves, she'll have to go on a suicidal rescue mission to bring him back in one piece.
That is, if she can put all of Christophe's training to good use, defeat her mother's traitor, Anna, once and for all, and manage to survive another day.
She cannot control her power.
Each time she tries to bond with her Mirror Dragon, she becomes a conduit for the ten spirit dragons whose Dragoneyes were murdered by Lord Ido. Their anguish floods through her, twisting her ability into a force that destroys the land and its people.
And another force of destruction is on her trail.
Along with Ryko and Lady Dela, Eona is on the run from High Lord Sethon’s army. Sethon has declared himself Emperor. In order to stop him, the renegades must find Kygo, the young Pearl Emperor, who needs Eona’s power if he is to wrest back his throne.
Eona, with its pulse-pounding drama, thrilling fight scenes, sizzling tension — and many surprises — brings to a close an epic story.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Manga pioneer Tokyopop Closes US Division
Recent downturns in the publishing industry combined with disastrous effect of the Borders' bankruptcy filing (Borders owes Tokyopop a rather significant amount of money) caused extensive layoffs las month and, ultimately, the decision to close their US Operations.
Friday, April 15, 2011
2010 Shirley Jackson Awards Nominees Announced
Full details on the awards are available at the awards website
NOVEL
NOVEL
- Dark Matter, Michelle Paver (Orion)
- A Dark Matter, Peter Straub (Doubleday)
- Feed, Mira Grant (Orbit)
- Mr. Shivers, Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit)
- The Reapers Are the Angels, Alden Bell (Holt)
- The Silent Land, Graham Joyce (Gollancz)
- The Broken Man, Michael Byers (PS Publishing)
- Chasing the Dragon, Nicholas Kaufmann, (Chizine Publications)
- “Mysterium Tremendum”, Laird Barron (Occultation, Night Shade)
- One Bloody Thing After Another, Joey Comeau (ECW Press)
- Subtle Bodies, Peter Dubé (Lethe Press)
- The Thief of Broken Toys, Tim Lebbon (Chizine Publications)
- “--30--,” Laird Barron (Occultation, Night Shade)
- “The Broadsword,” Laird Barron, (Black Wings, PS Publishing)
- “Holderhaven,” Richard Butner, (Crimewave 11: Ghosts)
- “The Redfield Girls,” Laird Barron (Haunted Legends, Tor)
- “Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains,” Neil Gaiman (Stories: All New Tales, William Morrow)
- “As Red as Red,” by Caitlin R. Kiernan (Haunted Legends, Tor)
- “Booth’s Ghost,” Karen Joy Fowler (What I Didn’t See, Small Beer Press)
- “The Foxes,” Lily Hoang (Haunted Legends, Tor)
- “six six six,” Laird Barron (Occultation, Night Shade)
- “The Things,” Peter Watts (Clarkesworld, Issue 40)
- Occultation, Laird Barron (Night Shade)
- The Ones That Got Away, Stephen Graham Jones (Prime Books)
- The Third Bear, Jeff Vandermeer (Tachyon)
- What I Didn’t See, Karen Joy Fowler (Small Beer Press)
- What Will Come After, Scott Edelman (PS Publishing)
- Black Wings: Tales of Lovecraftian Horror, edited by S. T. Joshi (PS Publications)
- Haunted Legends, edited by Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas (Tor)
- My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales, edited by Kate Bernheimer (Penguin)
- Stories: All New Tales, edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio (William Morrow)
- Swords and Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery, edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders (Harper Voyager)
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Newly arrived Signed/Rare SF, Horror, and Fantasy
We're offering a nice selection of rare and/or signed titles today:
Off Beat: Uncollected Stories by Richard Matheson, edited by William F. Nolan - Signed, limited edition; Signed by both Richard Matheson and William F. Nolan on the signature pages; front board is lightly warped. #701 of 750 printed; Out of Print. Off Beat is cause for celebration -- a brand new Richard Matheson collection of fantasy, horror and shock tales that includes four never-before-published stories!
William F. Nolan has penned a very personal introduction, and selected the contents with Matheson's full cooperation, and the master himself has also contributed an "afterword/story notes" section. Stories include: Relics; Blunder Buss; And Now I'm Waiting; All and Only Silence; Phone Call From Across the Street; Maybe You Remember Him; Mirror, Mirror...; Two O'Clock Session; And in Sorrow; The Prisoner; Always Before Your Voice; That Was Yesterday.
Also includes a bibliographic checklist of Richard Matheson first editions; Hardcover 1st edition w/jacket; VG+ condition; $99.00
Worlds of Weber: Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington and Other Stories by David Weber - slight edge wear to jacket, small edge tear at top-rear jacket flap; Out of Print. Signed by David Weber on a bound-in signature page. Subterranean Press is proud to present a mammoth (over 250,000 words) career retrospective collection by New York Times Best-Selling Writer David Weber. Treecats, starships, dragons, alternate history, self-aware Bolo supertanks, wizards, sailing ships, ironclads....
For twenty years, David Weber has been taking readers to destinations strange and fantastical, from his best-selling Honor Harrington novels and short stories to the swords-and-sorcery of Norfressa and the shared universes of his own and other writers. If you haven't already read these stories, you should. Find out how Giles Habibula really joined Jack Williamson's Legion of Space. Visit 17th-century Magdeburg for the creation of the United States Navy a hundred and fifty years early, and go with John Paul Jones as he wins the Revolutionary War...for George III. Fight dragons and demons with U.S. Marines in a most unexpected campaign, find out how humans and treecats first met, share Honor Harrington's very first battle, and discover the true cost of self-awareness for war machines who learn to care. Open the door and peep inside, but be careful! Once you step into the worlds of Weber, you may not want to go home again. $99.00
Table of Contents:
Introduction
A Certain Talent
In the Navy
The Captain from Kirkbean
Sir George and the Dragon
Swordbrother
A Beautiful Friendship
Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington
Miles to Go
The Traitor
The Palace at Midnight: (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Vol. 5) by Robert Silverberg - corners lightly bumped, front board is dinged at the edge; Somehow, for all my outward pretence of cold-eyed professionalism, all my insistence that writing is simply a job like any other, I’ve discovered to my surprise and chagrin that there’s more than that going on around here, that I write as much out of karmic necessity and some inescapable inner need to rededicate my own skills constantly to my—what? My craft? My art? My profession? I wrote these stories because the only way of earning a living I have ever had has been by writing, but mainly, I have to admit, I wrote these stories because I couldn’t not write them. Well, so be it. They involved me in a lot of hard work, but for me, at least, the results justify the toil. I’m glad I wrote them. Writing them, it turns out, was important for me, and even pleasurable, in a curiously complex after-the-fact kind of way. May they give you pleasure now too.
—Robert Silverberg, from his Introduction $24.00
Full Table of Contents available here.
Journeys by Ian R. MacLeod - Signed, Limited edition, #286 of 750 printed copies, signed by Ian MacLeod on the bound-in signature page; Journeys will take you to extraordinary places. From a changed Jerusalem to windmills which draw their own wind. From windswept British campsites to vast slave empires which have never been. MacLeod's breadth of vision in this collection is extraordinary, but what unites these stories is his abiding interest in humanity, and the way in which he combines the fantastically strange and with the memorably everyday. Expect widescreen wonder in Journeys, with many surprising truths, and some dazzling writing, along the way. Despite a distinguished record as a novelist, which has recently won him both the Arthur C Clarke and John W Campbell Awards for his novel Song Of Time, Ian R MacLeod is probably still most widely known as one of the great writers of shorter fiction. He says that it's still his own abiding love in the genre, and, after more than twenty years of writing, the area where he feels you can take the biggest risks, have the most fun, and make the biggest (and most entertaining) mistakes. $24.99
The Sky That Wraps by Jay Lake - Signed, Limited Edition, #172 of 1,000 copies printed; corners bumped lightly;
This collection of short fiction from award winning-author Jay Lake represents his favorites of his own work, both current and classic. With an emphasis on recent publications since his last short fiction collection in 2007, The Sky That Wraps showcases his reach in fantasy, science fiction, and the ambiguous territory in between.
This volume includes two all-new stories, “Coming for Green” and “To Their Late Escape”, as well as previously uncollected fan favorites “The American Dead” and “The Sky That Wraps The World Round, Past the Blue and Into the Black.” Twenty other stories round out this wide-ranging survey of Lake’s work.
Lesser Demons by Norman Partridge - Deluxe Hardcover Edition; some shelf wear, light scuffing to jacket, corners lightly bumped; Tales of hardboiled horror and Twilight Zone noir. Cross-genre blowtorches with bad guys and worse guys. Love stories both dark and bittersweet. A brand new novella and extensive story notes. You’ll find this and more in the fifth collection from three-time Bram Stoker award-winner Norman Partridge, an author Locus calls “one of the most dependable, exciting, and entertaining practitioners of dark suspense and dark fantasy... emphasis on the dark.”
In Lesser Demons, Partridge explores the kind of fiction that made him both a horror fan and a writer. Using the shotgun prose of a crime novel, the title story draws a deadly bead on H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. “The Iron Dead” introduces Chaney, a monster-hunting pulp hero with a mechanical hand built in hell. “Carrion” cuts a mean swath through Robert E. Howard territory, while “The Big Man” explores dark shadows of American life never imagined in the atom-age horror movies of the fifties.
Part celebration, part reinvention, Lesser Demons only serves to underscore RevolutionSF’s verdict: “Norman Partridge is the finest writer of short horror fiction going.” $18.00
A Pleasure to Burn: Fahrenheit 451 Stories by Ray Bradbury - some light scuffing to jacket, corners lightly bumped; "A Pleasure to Burn" is the ideal companion to Bradbury's great novel "Fahrenheit 451." Edited by Bradbury authority Donn Albright, this generous volume gathers 16 vintage stories and novellas for a significant publishing event for scholars, aficionados, and casual readers. $19.99
The Ammonite Violin and Others by Caitlin R. Kiernan - In Caitlín R. Kiernan’s The Ammonite Violin & Others, one of contemporary dark fantasy’s most bewitching and distinctive voices is back with another banquet of the weird and unexpected. In his introduction, Jeff VanderMeer (City of Saints and Madmen, Finch) writes, “Kiernan creates her own light in this remarkable collection, and shines it on dark places. In doing so, she gives us gritty, lyrical, horrible, beautiful truths.”
In The Ammonite Violin & Others, the author rises to meet the high expectations she set with such collections as Tales of Pain and Wonder, A is for Alien, and the World Fantasy Award-nominated To Charles Fort, With Love. Within these pages, you’ll discover a dazzling suite of stories situated on the borderlands between the unspeakbale and the erotic, the grotesque and the sublime. Here are stories of dream and metamorphosis, strange lands and beings existing beyond the veil of death and beyond this earth. Here is a selkie who’s lost her sealskin, a woman with a blackhole in her heart, a fairie girl fallen to the Queen of Decay, the descent of a modern-day Orpheus, and a killer who has fashioned the most exquisite musical instrument from the remains of one of his victims. Here are dreams, nightmares, and worse things yet.
The Ammonite Violin & Others is comprised of stories first published in the subscription only Sirenia Digest, run by Caitlin for her most devoted readers. $30.00
The Juniper Tree and Other Blue Rose Stories by Peter Straub - dust jacket is lightly scuffed; Peter Straub's Blue Rose trilogy (Koko, Mystery, and The Throat) is one of the landmark accomplishments of modern popular fiction. Ranging from the Caribbean to Vietnam to the American Midwest and spanning decades of tumultuous history, these books are both unforgettable narratives and indelible portraits of people in extremis, struggling to survive in a world marked by grief, loss, pain, trauma, and homicidal madness. The four stories gathered here are offshoots of that larger fictional universe. Each one stands entirely on its own. Together, they shine a revelatory light on the mysteries and hidden corners of the novels that inspired them.
"Blue Rose" recounts a defining moment in the childhood of Koko's Harry Beevers, the moment when the ten-year-old Harry discovers his capacity for violence and brutality. "The Juniper Tree" describes, with almost unbearable clarity, a lonely young boy's encounter with adult betrayal, and with the darker aspects of human sexuality. "The Ghost Village" takes us to the phantasmagoric landscape of Vietnam, where the barriers between the living and the dead begin to dissolve, to mesmerizing effect. "Bunny is Good Bread" is arguably Straub's single most harrowing story. With relentless attention to detail, it anatomizes the creation of a human monster through abuse, cruelty, and neglect.
These disturbing, beautifully written stories have a moral weight and emotional resonance that only the finest fiction achieves. They are the clear product of a master storyteller at the very top of his game. No one who reads them is likely to forget them, or come away unchanged. $21.00
Strange Wonders: A Collection of Rare Fritz Leiber Works by Fritz Leiber - "In regards to Fritz Leiber, I believe that publication of such unpublished and uncollected works only strengthens his literary greatness. Through fragments, drafts and practice writings, we can clearly see the evolution from Leiber, the amateur, to Leiber, the professional. We are exposed to the clear way in which he dedicated his life to the written word and trained his abilities to produce the award-winning masterpieces that we read even today. While some may object to such a volume, I ask them this—is not the dream just as important as the empire that had been built from it? Are not the blueprints and sketches as impressive as the buildings and the artwork? We must place all this into perspective, and see that publishing such works is not a smear upon Leiber’s legacy. Rather, it completes a full circle. If we are asked to be thorough in the biography of an individual, then we must also do so for their bibliography." — Benjamin Szumskyj, from his Introduction
Kingmaker by Tony Shillitoe - 385 pages; spine creasing, light edge wear; Shillitoe's 2nd novel and the second book of the Andrakis trilogy.
An ancient prophesy predicts that one bearing the mark of the moon will rise and defeat the Dragon Lords, whose swarming armies have besieged the Kingdom of Thana. The evil sorceror and Royal Adviser, A Ahmud Ki, schemes to use the prophesy to further his own quest for absolute power, but first the legendary sword of King Aian Abreotan must be found.
In this spellbinding sequel to Guardians, Andra, Kingdom Warrior and Guardian of the Vale, embarks on a perilous journey to recover the sword of Abreotan.
In the depths of the ancient castle of Cennedynss, Andra and his companions discover the true meaning of the prophesy, and the power of Abreotan's legacy... [mass market paperback] $40.00
William F. Nolan has penned a very personal introduction, and selected the contents with Matheson's full cooperation, and the master himself has also contributed an "afterword/story notes" section. Stories include: Relics; Blunder Buss; And Now I'm Waiting; All and Only Silence; Phone Call From Across the Street; Maybe You Remember Him; Mirror, Mirror...; Two O'Clock Session; And in Sorrow; The Prisoner; Always Before Your Voice; That Was Yesterday.
Also includes a bibliographic checklist of Richard Matheson first editions; Hardcover 1st edition w/jacket; VG+ condition; $99.00
For twenty years, David Weber has been taking readers to destinations strange and fantastical, from his best-selling Honor Harrington novels and short stories to the swords-and-sorcery of Norfressa and the shared universes of his own and other writers. If you haven't already read these stories, you should. Find out how Giles Habibula really joined Jack Williamson's Legion of Space. Visit 17th-century Magdeburg for the creation of the United States Navy a hundred and fifty years early, and go with John Paul Jones as he wins the Revolutionary War...for George III. Fight dragons and demons with U.S. Marines in a most unexpected campaign, find out how humans and treecats first met, share Honor Harrington's very first battle, and discover the true cost of self-awareness for war machines who learn to care. Open the door and peep inside, but be careful! Once you step into the worlds of Weber, you may not want to go home again. $99.00
Table of Contents:
Introduction
A Certain Talent
In the Navy
The Captain from Kirkbean
Sir George and the Dragon
Swordbrother
A Beautiful Friendship
Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington
Miles to Go
The Traitor
The Palace at Midnight: (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Vol. 5) by Robert Silverberg - corners lightly bumped, front board is dinged at the edge; Somehow, for all my outward pretence of cold-eyed professionalism, all my insistence that writing is simply a job like any other, I’ve discovered to my surprise and chagrin that there’s more than that going on around here, that I write as much out of karmic necessity and some inescapable inner need to rededicate my own skills constantly to my—what? My craft? My art? My profession? I wrote these stories because the only way of earning a living I have ever had has been by writing, but mainly, I have to admit, I wrote these stories because I couldn’t not write them. Well, so be it. They involved me in a lot of hard work, but for me, at least, the results justify the toil. I’m glad I wrote them. Writing them, it turns out, was important for me, and even pleasurable, in a curiously complex after-the-fact kind of way. May they give you pleasure now too.—Robert Silverberg, from his Introduction $24.00
Full Table of Contents available here.
Journeys by Ian R. MacLeod - Signed, Limited edition, #286 of 750 printed copies, signed by Ian MacLeod on the bound-in signature page; Journeys will take you to extraordinary places. From a changed Jerusalem to windmills which draw their own wind. From windswept British campsites to vast slave empires which have never been. MacLeod's breadth of vision in this collection is extraordinary, but what unites these stories is his abiding interest in humanity, and the way in which he combines the fantastically strange and with the memorably everyday. Expect widescreen wonder in Journeys, with many surprising truths, and some dazzling writing, along the way. Despite a distinguished record as a novelist, which has recently won him both the Arthur C Clarke and John W Campbell Awards for his novel Song Of Time, Ian R MacLeod is probably still most widely known as one of the great writers of shorter fiction. He says that it's still his own abiding love in the genre, and, after more than twenty years of writing, the area where he feels you can take the biggest risks, have the most fun, and make the biggest (and most entertaining) mistakes. $24.99
This collection of short fiction from award winning-author Jay Lake represents his favorites of his own work, both current and classic. With an emphasis on recent publications since his last short fiction collection in 2007, The Sky That Wraps showcases his reach in fantasy, science fiction, and the ambiguous territory in between.
This volume includes two all-new stories, “Coming for Green” and “To Their Late Escape”, as well as previously uncollected fan favorites “The American Dead” and “The Sky That Wraps The World Round, Past the Blue and Into the Black.” Twenty other stories round out this wide-ranging survey of Lake’s work.
In Lesser Demons, Partridge explores the kind of fiction that made him both a horror fan and a writer. Using the shotgun prose of a crime novel, the title story draws a deadly bead on H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. “The Iron Dead” introduces Chaney, a monster-hunting pulp hero with a mechanical hand built in hell. “Carrion” cuts a mean swath through Robert E. Howard territory, while “The Big Man” explores dark shadows of American life never imagined in the atom-age horror movies of the fifties.
Part celebration, part reinvention, Lesser Demons only serves to underscore RevolutionSF’s verdict: “Norman Partridge is the finest writer of short horror fiction going.” $18.00
A Pleasure to Burn: Fahrenheit 451 Stories by Ray Bradbury - some light scuffing to jacket, corners lightly bumped; "A Pleasure to Burn" is the ideal companion to Bradbury's great novel "Fahrenheit 451." Edited by Bradbury authority Donn Albright, this generous volume gathers 16 vintage stories and novellas for a significant publishing event for scholars, aficionados, and casual readers. $19.99
In The Ammonite Violin & Others, the author rises to meet the high expectations she set with such collections as Tales of Pain and Wonder, A is for Alien, and the World Fantasy Award-nominated To Charles Fort, With Love. Within these pages, you’ll discover a dazzling suite of stories situated on the borderlands between the unspeakbale and the erotic, the grotesque and the sublime. Here are stories of dream and metamorphosis, strange lands and beings existing beyond the veil of death and beyond this earth. Here is a selkie who’s lost her sealskin, a woman with a blackhole in her heart, a fairie girl fallen to the Queen of Decay, the descent of a modern-day Orpheus, and a killer who has fashioned the most exquisite musical instrument from the remains of one of his victims. Here are dreams, nightmares, and worse things yet.
The Ammonite Violin & Others is comprised of stories first published in the subscription only Sirenia Digest, run by Caitlin for her most devoted readers. $30.00
"Blue Rose" recounts a defining moment in the childhood of Koko's Harry Beevers, the moment when the ten-year-old Harry discovers his capacity for violence and brutality. "The Juniper Tree" describes, with almost unbearable clarity, a lonely young boy's encounter with adult betrayal, and with the darker aspects of human sexuality. "The Ghost Village" takes us to the phantasmagoric landscape of Vietnam, where the barriers between the living and the dead begin to dissolve, to mesmerizing effect. "Bunny is Good Bread" is arguably Straub's single most harrowing story. With relentless attention to detail, it anatomizes the creation of a human monster through abuse, cruelty, and neglect.
These disturbing, beautifully written stories have a moral weight and emotional resonance that only the finest fiction achieves. They are the clear product of a master storyteller at the very top of his game. No one who reads them is likely to forget them, or come away unchanged. $21.00
An ancient prophesy predicts that one bearing the mark of the moon will rise and defeat the Dragon Lords, whose swarming armies have besieged the Kingdom of Thana. The evil sorceror and Royal Adviser, A Ahmud Ki, schemes to use the prophesy to further his own quest for absolute power, but first the legendary sword of King Aian Abreotan must be found.
In this spellbinding sequel to Guardians, Andra, Kingdom Warrior and Guardian of the Vale, embarks on a perilous journey to recover the sword of Abreotan.
In the depths of the ancient castle of Cennedynss, Andra and his companions discover the true meaning of the prophesy, and the power of Abreotan's legacy... [mass market paperback] $40.00
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