It’s a vampire-free edition of New Science Fiction Book Releases. Wizards, time travelers, air pirates, and a steampunk Sherlock Holmes are featured in this week’s picks. For those of you hooked on vampires, fear not. I threw in a book with a werewolf boyfriend to hold you over. For the sci-fi funnybone, check out the formerly out-of-print parodies in Bug-eyed Monsters and Bimbos. If none of those are your cup of tea, there’s a brand spanking new Starcraft novel. Have a happy Read-A-New-Book Month everybody!
The Shadow of the Staff: A Wizard’s Revenge by M.A. Haddad (Sep 30, 2011) 280 pages Publisher: Vantage Press The Land of Hatu was settled thousands of years ago by Men, Trolls, Orcs, Dwarves and Elves. Shortly after an army led by the evil wizard Portia attempted to destroy everything but was defeated by the great king, Master Milton Brew. 500 years later, Milton’s descendant, Burton, and his mentor Tordin are on their way to a festival and come across signs of marauding Orcs. All races must set aside their differences to fight armies of Orcs and Trolls led by a new evil, the wizard Maloneaous. | |
The Revisionists by Thomas Mullen (Sep 28, 2011) 448 pages Publisher: Mulholland Books Zed is an agent from a future when the world’s problems have been solved. Hunger and war are a thing of the past and he intends to keep it that way. Even if it means making sure every monumental disaster throughout history runs it’s course-especially The Great Conflagration, an imminent catastrophe in our timeline that Zed has been ordered to protect at all costs. But will he finish his final mission before the present takes precedence over a perfect future? | |
Abarat: Absolute Midnight by Clive Barker (Sep 27, 2011) 592 pages Publisher: HarperCollins Absolute Midnight is a new chapter in the YA story of sixteen-year-old Candy and her journeys through the world of the Abarat, where every hour is an island in one eternal day, and nothing is as it seems. Candy travels through the Abarat with an unlikely group of friends including the escaped prisoner Malingo the Geshrat, and the quarrelsome John Brothers, who all share the same body but never the same opinion. Candy soon discovers that the woman known as Mater Motley is willing to darken the skies by extinguishing the suns, moons and stars in order to become the ruler of the Abarat. Over one hundred paintings by Clive Barker illustrate the text. | |
All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen (Sep 27, 2011) 464 pages Publisher: Tor Books This steampunk novel is inspired by Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, and takes place in a Victorian London where “mad science makes the impossible possible. “ Violet Adams wants to attend the widely renowned school for the most brilliant up-and-coming scientific minds, Illyria College. The school is run by Ernest Illyria, the son of the greatest scientist of his time, who believes that the small, exclusive college remains male-only. Violet disguises herself as her twin brother, Ashton, and gains entry. She soon finds out that it’s hard to keep her secret when mysterious killer automata start roaming the school grounds. | |
The Immorality Engine by George Mann (Sep 27, 2011) 352 pages Publisher: Tor Books Victorian special agent and opium-addict Sir Maurice Newbury has solved many seemingly impossible cases for Queen Victoria with the help of his determined assistant, Miss Veronica Hobbes. While having a secret affair with the Queen, Veronica is consumed by worry and care for her prophetic sister Amelia. The Chief Investigator at Scotland Yard tries to hide Newbury’s addiction from the public as much as possible, but when the body of a well-known criminal turns up, The Chief and Veronica find Newbury in an opium den and drag him out to help them with the case. Soon, a crime is discovered that has all the signs of the deceased criminal’s modus operandi. Is there a copycat on the loose or can a dead man commit a crime? | |
Ganymede (Clockwork Century) by Cherie Priest (Sep 27, 2011) 352 pages Publisher: Tor Books Andan Cly is an air pirate that has decided to go straight…ish. If the money is good, Andan is happy to smuggle alcohol guns, but doesn’t want anything to do with sap, or its horrible side-effects. As it turns out, his first legal run will be financed with sap money. At the same time, his former flame, a prostitute (with a heart of gold?) named Jo offers him a strange piloting job. This gives Andan a chance to finish two jobs at once. It turns out that Jo’s job involves an immense war machine at the bottom of a lake; A submersible by the name of the Ganymede that has the power to end the war. | |
Bug-Eyed Monsters and Bimbos: A Hilarious Collection of Parodies by Some of the Greatest Writers of Science Fiction by Mike Resnick, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Poul Anderson (Sep 28, 2011) 268 pages Publisher: Phoenix Pick This irreverent collection of science fiction parodies was originally published exclusively for Nolacon II (Worldcon 1988) under the title of Shaggy BEM Stories. It includes all of the original tales plus one new poem by Michael F. Flynn. | |
Alterant (Belador Code) by Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love (Sep 27, 2011) 432 pages Publisher: Pocket Star Sometimes the most dangerous demons are those you harbor inside. Evalle tries to convince the gods of the Tribunal that she is an Alterant who can be trusted around humans. But they hold her responsible for three dangerous Alterants that escaped their prisons. She is given a choice to either recapture those three who will lose their freedom forever or face the same sentence. Evalle takes on an impossible task only to learn that the entire future of the Beladors rides on her success–and the only person who can help her is the one who wants to gut her. | |
Bloodstone (A Deadtown Novel) by Nancy Holzner (Sep 27, 2011) 336 pages Publisher: Ace The city’s quarantined section for its inhuman and undead residents is known as Deadtown and most humans stay far from its borders – but Victory Vaughn, Boston’s only professional demon slayer, isn’t quite human. When mutilated human corpses begin turning up in Boston’s South End, the entire city takes notice. Victoria, her aunt, Mab, and her werewolf boyfriend, Kane’s investigation points to the killer-dubbed the South End Reaper who uses a curved blade for his grisly work. And even though there’s no real evidence pointing to a paranormal culprit, the deaths are straining the already-tense relations between Boston’s human and inhuman residents. | |
StarCraft: Ghost–Spectres (Starcraft (Unnumbered) by Nate Kenyon (Sep 27, 2011) 432 pages Publisher: Pocket Star This is a story based on the never released StarCraft: Ghost console game. Dominion ghosts are snipers that epitomize the best of terran evolution and physical conditioning. Augmented by technology that amplifies their psionic abilities, they use telepathy to destroy the enemies of the Dominion. But when the hunters become the hunted and ghosts start disappearing without a trace, even the most dangerous human soldiers shudder in fear. The Emperor orders the ghost Nova Terra to find her missing friends. She soon learns that there is a mysterious connection between the missing, her past, and a new breed of psionic warrior known as spectres. |