Books in the Mail (W/E 2014-05-17)

Fiefdom (A Kingdom Novel) by Dan Abnett & Nik Vincent (Abaddon Books Paperback 07/08/2014) – This one takes a story begun in comic book format and spins into a prose novel. Genetic engineering, post apocalypse and military SF come together in this tale.

New York Times best selling author Dan Abnett is to write an original novel set in the world of his hit comics series Kingdom for legendary British comic book 2000 AD. Co-written with Nik Vincent, Fiefdom is set one hundred years after the events of Kingdom, in which a genetically engineered dog-soldiers fought giant marauding insects in a post-apocalyptic future.

The last of humanity has taken refuge in hibernation at the poles, hiding from the giant invading insects that have conquered the Earth. Defending these outposts against bug attacks are genetically engineered dog soldiers, loyal and unquestioning to the Masters' voices in their heads. At least they were, but things have changed on the Earth. The Masters voices have gone and a new peace has arrived in the northern hemisphere. The legend of a masterless rogue soldier from the distant South has spread, and in the new Fiefdoms of old Germany something very dangerous is about to happen.

In a not-too-distant future, amongst ruins in the the ancient city of Berlin the Aux's live in clans, fighting amongst themselves. Their ancient enemey, Them - giant marauding insects, are a folk memory. Young Evelyn War however will be the first to realise that this quiet is not what it seems, that the Auxs themselves, having been bred for hand-hand combat in a war long-thought to be over, and now idling violently in peace in the subways and collapsing buildings Europe, must set aside their petty hostilities if they are to face the battle to come. Evelyn is the only one to see the oncoming storm, but the clan leaders and her elders do not believe her warnings, and time is running short.

Cibola Burn (The Expanse #4) by James S.A. Corey (Orbit Hardcover 06/17/2014) – The 'upgrade' to hardcover indicates the boys known as Jimmy Corey have done quite well with these book, to say the least. I loved the first three and listed this one as a book I couldn’t wait to read when I was on the SF Signal podcast back in February.

ENTER A NEW FRONTIER.

"An empty apartment, a missing family, that's creepy. But this is like finding a military base with no one on it. Fighters and tanks idling on the runway with no drivers. This is bad juju. Something wrong happened here. What you should do is tell everyone to leave."

The gates have opened the way to a thousand new worlds and the rush to colonize has begun. Settlers looking for a new life stream out from humanity's home planets. Ilus, the first human colony on this vast new frontier, is being born in blood and fire.

Independent settlers stand against the overwhelming power of a corporate colony ship with only their determination, courage, and the skills learned in the long wars of home. Innocent scientists are slaughtered as they try to survey a new and alien world. The struggle on Ilus threatens to spread all the way back to Earth.

James Holden and the crew of his one small ship are sent to make peace in the midst of war and sense in the midst of chaos. But the more he looks at it, the more Holden thinks the mission was meant to fail.

And the whispers of a dead man remind him that the great galactic civilization that once stood on this land is gone. And that something killed it.

Two Serpents Rise (Craft Sequence #2) by Max Gladstone (Tor Trade Paperback 05/06/2014) – Second installment in Gladstone’s fantasy/legal thriller hybrid sequence and I see nothing but good things about these books. I now have all three and thanks to Max for sending me this one signed!.

In Two Serpents Rise by Max Gladstone, shadow demons plague the city reservoir, and Red King Consolidated has sent in Caleb Altemoc—casual gambler and professional risk manager—to cleanse the water for the sixteen million people of Dresediel Lex. At the scene of the crime, Caleb finds an alluring and clever cliff runner, Crazy Mal, who easily outpaces him. 

But Caleb has more than the demon infestation, Mal, or job security to worry about when he discovers that his father—the last priest of the old gods and leader of the True Quechal terrorists—has broken into his home and is wanted in connection to the attacks on the water supply.

From the beginning, Caleb and Mal are bound by lust, Craft, and chance, as both play a dangerous game where gods and people are pawns. They sleep on water, they dance in fire...and all the while the Twin Serpents slumbering beneath the earth are stirring, and they are hungry.

The Mirror Empire (Worldbreaker Saga #1) by Kameron Hurley (Angry Robots, Trade Paperback 09/02/2014) – When this book was announced in January, the books’s ranking in my want-to-read list steadily rose. I read and enjoyed God’s War and have been following the author on twitter for some time. She’s one of the best young voices in the genre today. Also, just look at that stunning cover.

From the award-winning author of God’s War comes a stunning new series…

On the eve of a recurring catastrophic event known to extinguish nations and reshape continents, a troubled orphan evades death and slavery to uncover her own bloody past… while a world goes to war with itself.

In the frozen kingdom of Saiduan, invaders from another realm are decimating whole cities, leaving behind nothing but ash and ruin. As the dark star of the cataclysm rises, an illegitimate ruler is tasked with holding together a country fractured by civil war, a precocious young fighter is asked to betray his family and a half-Dhai general must choose between the eradication of her father’s people or loyalty to her alien Empress.

Through tense alliances and devastating betrayal, the Dhai and their allies attempt to hold against a seemingly unstoppable force as enemy nations prepare for a coming together of worlds as old as the universe itself.

In the end, one world will rise – and many will perish.

File Under: Science Fiction

Cyador’s Heirs (The Saga of Recluce #17) by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. (Tor Hardcover 05/20/2014) – I read and enjoyed (a lot more than I expected, the 20th Anniversary of the first in the series last year so I’ve got just a wee bit of catching up to do.

Cyador's Heirs -- the new novel in L. E. Modesitt, Jr.'s New York Times bestselling Saga of Recluce.

Decades after the fall of Cyador, its survivors have reestablished themselves in Cigoerne, a fertile country coveted by hostile neighbors in less hospitable lands. Young Lerial, the second son of Duke Kiedron, lives in the shadow of his older brother Lephi, the heir to their father's realm. Lerial’s future seems preordained: He will one day command his brother’s forces in defense of Cigoerne, serving at his older sibling’s pleasure, and no more.

But when Lerial is sent abroad to be fostered by Major Altyrn to learn the skills and wisdom he will need to fulfill his future duties, he begins a journey into a much larger world that brings out his true potential. Lerial has talents that few, as yet, suspect: He is one of those rare beings who can harness both Order and Chaos, the competing natural forces that shape the world and define the magic that exists within it. And as war finally engulfs the fringes of Cigoerne, Lerial’s growing mastery of Order and Chaos is tested to its limits, and his own.

Exoprachia by Peter Watts (Tor Hardcover 08/24/2014) – Sequel to Watt’s highly popular Blindsight, which Mark reviewed back in 2006.

Prepare for a different kind of singularity in Peter Watts' Echopraxia, the follow-up to the Hugo-nominated novel Blindsight 

It's the eve of the twenty-second century: a world where the dearly departed send postcards back from Heaven and evangelicals make scientific breakthroughs by speaking in tongues; where genetically engineered vampires solve problems intractable to baseline humans and soldiers come with zombie switches that shut off self-awareness during combat. And it’s all under surveillance by an alien presence that refuses to show itself.

Daniel Bruks is a living fossil: a field biologist in a world where biology has turned computational, a cat's-paw used by terrorists to kill thousands. Taking refuge in the Oregon desert, he’s turned his back on a humanity that shatters into strange new subspecies with every heartbeat. But he awakens one night to find himself at the center of a storm that will turn all of history inside-out. 

Now he’s trapped on a ship bound for the center of the solar system. To his left is a grief-stricken soldier, obsessed by whispered messages from a dead son. To his right is a pilot who hasn’t yet found the man she's sworn to kill on sight. A vampire and its entourage of zombie bodyguards lurk in the shadows behind. And dead ahead, a handful of rapture-stricken monks takes them all to a meeting with something they will only call “The Angels of the Asteroids.”

Their pilgrimage brings Dan Bruks, the fossil man, face-to-face with the biggest evolutionary breakpoint since the origin of thought itself.

The Red Knight by Miles Cameron and Embedded by Dan Abnett

Mark takes a look at a hot new Epic/High Fantasy from an established non-genre author trying something new under a slightly changed name and I pull a review from the (not so old) archives. Let’s take a look, shall we?


A book that’s been generating a fair amount of buzz on both sides of the Atlantic is the subject of Mark’s review. While The Red Knight; the first installment of Miles Cameron’s The Traitor’s Son Cycle publishes in the US in early 2013, Mark reviewed the UK edition (logically since he lives there) which published this past October (2012):

In essence we have a siege tale that starts simply but becomes increasingly more epic, both in scale and complexity. The book begins with The Red Knight setting out with his company of men and women to help people in need. A convent has been attacked and the people inside killed by something monstrous.
…

In terms of characters there is an impressive range, from the King and his knights to the lower class mercenaries, and from those in court to those living in the Wild. Fantasy readers usually enjoy such a complicated setup, as such a technique does give that impression of a broad canvas. However, some may find the stylistic conceit used here of moving from one character’s perspective to another, often after a mere paragraph, can be a challenge. I must admit that initially with each change it did take me a while sometimes to remember who each character was, what they were doing, and where a character had got to and why. It was a little annoying to find that sometimes once I had then remembered all of this, I was whisked off to another character to start the process again, although given time the characters become recognizable.

I pull a review from the archives today since I don’t yet have a review for the book I’m currently reading (The Coldest War by Ian Tregillis). Last year I read Dan Abnett’s original SF debut and the short review I wrote disappeared from its original place on teh intarwebs so rather than let it be relegated to The Nothing, I beefed up a bit for SFFWorld. Here's the standard linkage, cover, and review preview for Embedded:

In this milieu, the United Status (US) has settled worlds far beyond Earth, and it is on one of these planets in which the action in Embedded takes place. The planet designated Settlement 86, where conflict has existed between the US and the Central Bloc (Russian powers) for 300 years is where protagonist Les Falk has his consciousness literally embedded in the body of Nestor Bloom, a soldier on the front lines of the conflict. When Bloom’s body is shot, then Falk personality becomes the dominant mind in the body. This gives the first person narration familiar to many military SF novels a new twist and one that works very well over the course of the rather than just a change to the norm for change’s sake.
…
Abnett’s greatest skills in this novel are two fold –his ability to keep the tension high through minimal details. Not that the novel isn’t layered and detailed, but Abnett manages to hold enough information from the reader to keep the curiosity level very high, which translates into rapid page turns. The other skill that is readily apparent was his pacing, although the mystery/tension did help to build great pace.

Books in the Mail (W/E 2012-04-07)

This is one of the largest batches of arrivals at the 'o Stuff household in quite some time. Lots from Black Library the mass markets for late April/Early May from Del Rey, the monthly (May 2012) Mass Markets from DAW, the May 2012 releases from Ace and an upcoming red little dandy from Orbit.


Prospero Burns (Audio) (Horus Heresy) by Dan Abnett and read by Martyn Eliis (Black Library, Abridged CD 04/10/2012) – Two Horus Audio adaptations this week. The BL folks are bouncing around the series not putting these things out in the same order in which the books were publisherd.

The Emperor is enraged. Primarch Magnus the Red of the Thousand Sons Legion has made a terrible mistake that endangers the very safety of Terra. With no other choice, the Emperor charges Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space Wolves, with the apprehension of his brother from the Thousand Sons home world of Prospero. This planet of sorcerers will not be easy to overcome, but Russ and his Space Wolves are not easily deterred. With wrath in his heart, Russ is determined to bring Magnus to justice and bring about the fall of Prospero.

Invincible (The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier #2) by Jack Campbell (Ace Hardcover 05/01/2011) – I read the first installment of this sequels series The Lost Fleet: Dreadnaught about a year ago when it first published and enjoyed it. So, when the opportunity arose for me to write and participate in Military Science Fiction on Tor.com I jumped at the chance to contribute an appreciation for The Lost Fleet: Dauntless. In other words, I’ll be reading this one, which arrived almost exactly a year after the previous volume and as I was reading his earlier work on the Hemry name Stark’s War.

Admiral John "Black Jack" Geary earned his rank after being revived from cryogenic sleep to lead the Alliance to victory against the Syndicate Worlds. But his superiors question his loyalty to the regime. Now in command of the First Fleet, Geary is tasked with exploring the frontier beyond Syndic space, a mission he fears deliberately puts the fleet--and himself--in harm's way. An encounter with the alien enigmas confirms Geary's fears. Attacked without warning, he orders the fleet to jump star systems--only to enter the crosshairs of another hostile alien armada. Ignoring all of the First Fleet's attempts to communicate peaceful intentions, this system's species sends its ships into battle on suicide runs while it guards the exiting jump point with a fortress of incalculable power. Now, with a faction of his officers determined to eliminate this new threat at any cost, Geary must figure out how to breach the enemy's defenses so the fleet can reach the jump point without massive casualties--even though the enigmas could be waiting on the other side.

Battleship by Peter David (Del Rey Mass Market Paperback 04/24/2012 ) – Peter David is THE go-to guy for film novelizations. Not sure what to think of a movie based off of a board game, but this film does have Liam Neeson.

YOU SANK THE WRONG BATTLESHIP

During a routine naval drill at Pearl Harbor, American forces detect a ship of unknown origins that’s crashed in the Pacific Ocean. Lieutenant Alex Hopper, an officer aboard the USS John Paul Jones, is ordered to investigate the ominous-looking vessel—which turns out to be part of an armada of ships that are stronger and faster than any on Earth. And that’s when the Navy’s radar goes down. Ambushed by a ravenous enemy they cannot see, a small U.S. fleet makes their last stand on the open ocean, armed with little more than their instincts, to defend their lives—and the world as we know it.

The official novel of the blockbuster film!
Based on the screenplay by Erich Hoeber and Jon Hoeber


The Emperor’s Gift by Aaron Dembski-Boween (Black Library, Hardcover 06/07/2012) –Dembski-Bowden seems to have a book a month publishing with Black Library and the good thing about that is this – his WH fiction is well regarded. This is seemingly the launch of a new series and odd thing about the hardcover, it doesn’t have a dust jacket.


The Grey Knights are all that stands between mankind and the ravages of Chaos. Since their secretive beginnings during the Horus Heresy, these legendary Space Marine daemon hunters have journeyed into the dark realms of the warp – and beyond – in pursuit of their supernatural enemies. Through an intensive regime of psychic training, new recruits are brought to the clandestine fortress of Titan to join the hallowed and vaunted ranks of the 666th Chapter. More than ever, these legendary battle-brothers must be vigilant and ever ready to defend the Imperium for the forces of Chaos are never truly defeated, and Armageddon beckons…


(Star Wars: Scourge by Jeff Grubb (Del Rey Mass Market Paperback 04/24/2012 ) – Grubb has done A LOT of work for Wizards of the Coast/Dungeons and Dragons, I think this is his first Star Wars novel

In the heart of crime-ridden Hutt Space, a Jedi Scholar searches for justice.

While trying to obtain the coordinates of a secret, peril-packed, but potentially beneficial trade route, a novice Jedi is killed—and the motive for his murder remains shrouded in mystery. Now his former Master, Jedi archivist Mander Zuma, wants answers, even as he fights to erase doubts about his own abilities as a Jedi. What Mander gets is immersion into the perilous underworld of the Hutts as he struggles to stay one step ahead in a game of smugglers, killers, and crime lords bent on total control.


Tricked (The Iron Druid Chronicles #4) by Kevin Hearne (Del Rey, Mass Market Paperback 04/24/2012) – This is one of my more highly anticipated 2012 releases, not only because my review of Hammered is blurbed don the front, but because I also really enjoyed Hounded, loved it and posted the Hexed.

Druid Atticus O’Sullivan hasn’t stayed alive for more than two millennia without a fair bit of Celtic cunning. So when vengeful thunder gods come Norse by Southwest looking for payback, Atticus, with a little help from the Navajo trickster god Coyote, lets them think that they’ve chopped up his body in the Arizona desert.

But the mischievous Coyote is not above a little sleight of paw, and Atticus soon finds that he’s been duped into battling bloodthirsty desert shapeshifters called skinwalkers. Just when the Druid thinks he’s got a handle on all the duplicity, betrayal comes from an unlikely source. If Atticus survives this time, he vows he won’t be fooled again. Famous last words.

Life Guard in the Hamptons (Willow Tate #4) by Celia Jerome (DAW Mass Market Paperback 05/07/2012 ) – The continuing the adventures of Jerome’s artist who can bring things from Faerie into the real world.

SOMETHING'S FOUL IN PAUMANOK HARBOR.

Graphic novelist Willow Tate has never wanted supernatural powers. But if you're from the little Long Island town of Paumanok Harbor you don't always have a choice. Still, she's managed to survive a giant red troll, night mare horses, and fire-setting bugs. This time it's a creature from Unity who needs her help. And it doesn't hurt that handsome veterinarian Matt Spenser is ready and willing to assist Willow in her efforts...

God Save the Queen (Immortal Empire #1) by Kate Locke (Orbit Hardcover 07/03/2012) – Locke is a pseudonym for Kate Cross, and with this novel, she seemingly takes a page out of Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula and launches a new pan-name and alternate history / urban fantasy / Steampunk / vampire saga.

The undead matriarch of a Britain where the Aristocracy is made up of werewolves and vampires, where goblins live underground and mothers know better than to let their children out after dark. A world where being nobility means being infected with the Plague (side-effects include undeath), Hysteria is the popular affliction of the day, and leeches are considered a delicacy. And a world where technology lives side by side with magic. The year is 2012 and Pax Britannia still reigns.
Xandra Vardan is a member of the elite Royal Guard, and it is her duty to protect the Aristocracy. But when her sister goes missing, Xandra will set out on a path that undermines everything she believed in and uncover a conspiracy that threatens to topple the empire. And she is the key-the prize in a very dangerous struggle.

Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin (Bantam Spectra, Mass Market Paperback 04/24/2012) – With the MASSIVE popularity of A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones Bantam is re-releasing GRRM’s backlist in mass market. Some consider this book to be his best.

A THRILLING REINVENTION OF THE VAMPIRE NOVEL BY THE MASTER OF MODERN FANTASY, GEORGE R. R. MARTIN

Abner Marsh, a struggling riverboat captain, suspects that something’s amiss when he is approached by a wealthy aristocrat with a lucrative offer. The hauntingly pale, steely-eyed Joshua York doesn’t care that the icy winter of 1857 has wiped out all but one of Marsh’s dilapidated fleet; nor does he care that he won’t earn back his investment in a decade. York’s reasons for traversing the powerful Mississippi are to be none of Marsh’s concern—no matter how bizarre, arbitrary, or capricious York’s actions may prove. Not until the maiden voyage of Fevre Dream does Marsh realize that he has joined a mission both more sinister, and perhaps more noble, than his most fantastic nightmare—and humankind’s most impossible dream.

Eye of Vengeance (Space Marines) by Graham McNeill, Narrated by Sean Barrett, performed by Rupert Degas and Saul Reichlin (Black Library, Abridged CD 05/10/2012) –One of the growing library of audio dramas BL is releasing, focusing on McNeill’s popular Space Marines.

When the twisted Dark Mechanicus priests of the Bloodborn descend upon Quintarn, the Ultramarines are quick to move in defence of their prized agri-world. However, it soon becomes apparent that the planet’s fate will not be decided by the massed battle companies of the Space Marines, but by the actions of just one lowly sergeant – Torias Telion. A master marksman and Scout with a long history of service to the Chapter, Telion must now face the worst of the Bloodborn’s technological terrors and secure the city of Idrisia from the enemy advance, if the Ultramarines are to have any hope of prevailing against an enemy whose numbers swell with every victory.


A Thousand Sons (Audio) (Horus Heresy) by Graham McNeill and read by Martyn Ellis (Black Library, Abridged CD 4/10/2012) –These audio versions are a lot of fun, as my reviews for Horus Rising and False Gods might suggest. The folks at BL jumped a few volumes in the saga but this tale takes place around the time of the second book, so it makes chronological sense

Censured at the Council of Nikea for his flagrant use of sorcery, Magnus the Red and his Thousand Sons Legion retreat to their homeworld of Prospero to continue their use of the arcane arts in secret. But when the ill-fated primarch forsees the treachery of Warmaster Horus and warns the Emperor with the very powers he was forbidden to use, the Master of Mankind dispatches fellow primarch Leman Russ to attack Prospero itself. But Magnus has seen more than the betrayal of Horus and the witnessed revelations will change the fate of his fallen Legion, and its primarch, forever.

A Thousand Sons is the story of Primarch Magnus the Red and the Thousand Sons Legion of Space Marines, mainly taking place before the Heresy starts. Following a reprimand by the Emperor for dabbling in sorcery, Magnus and his Legion secretly continue to study the forbidden subjects. Around the time of Horus' corruption (Book 2), Magnus learns through sorcery of his brother's impending betrayal. He tries – again through sorcery – to warn the Emperor, believing that the gravity of the news would justify his disobedience. However, Magnus overreaches with his powers and damages the vital and secret project the Emperor was undertaking (Book 1), endangering the safety of Terra itself in the process. The Emperor is enraged and orders Primarch Leman Russ and his Space Wolves Legion, accompanied by other Imperial forces, to Prospero, the Thousand Sons Legion's home world. They are to bring Magnus and his Legion to Terra to account for themselves

Chicory Up (The Pixie Chronicles #2) by Irene Radford (DAW Mass Market Paperback 5/7/2012) – This series continues with the spice and herb flavored titles about a girl with pixie friends from Oregon.

Halloween approaches and the town of Skene Falls is gearing up for one of its most important fund-raising festivals. The best part of the soggy scarecrows, witch hats, and fake cobwebs strewn about town will be the haunted maze inside the beloved Ten Acre Wood.

But Haywood Wheaton has escaped from jail and mutated into an insane half-Pixie, half-Faerie with a vengeance. He’s leading bands of enthralled dandelion Pixies and attacking humans as well as other Pixies. Will his poison dipped hawthorn spike swords and his fascination with fire destroy the entire festival before it gets started?

Once again Thistle Down gathers her friends, both Pixie and human, to save the town. But it may send her back to Pixie forever and end the deep love between her and Dick.

POD by Stephen Wallenfels (Ace Mass Market Paperback 04/24/2012) – This is an alien invasion story, and quite frankly, we haven’t had quite as many of them lately. From the little I gathered on the intarwebs, it looks like Mr. Wallenfels published an earlier version of this novel with a small press. .

Surviving a massive alien siege is one thing-­surviving humanity is another.

I'm all cried out. I'm still alone. The sky is full of giant spinning black balls that kill anyone stupid enough to go outside. I've only been out of the car twice-once to pee and once to look at the sky. That one look was enough for me. Now I sit alone in the car, staring out the window like a rat in a cage. But I don't have anyone to look at. The parking garage is empty, except for twisted-up cars, broken glass, and the smell of leaking gasoline.

POD is the story of a global cataclysmic event, told from the viewpoints of Megs, a twelve-year-old streetwise girl trapped in a hotel parking garage in Los Angeles; and sixteen-year-old Josh, who is stuck in a house in Prosser, Washington, with his increasingly obsessive-compulsive father. Food and water and time are running out. Will Megs survive long enough to find her mother? Will Josh and his father survive each other?

Shadow Raiders (The Dragon Brigade #1) by Margaret Weis and Robert Krammes (DAW, Mass Market Paperback 05/07/2012) – That Margaret Weis sure likes writing about dragons, this is the first in a ‘swashbuckling’ series with a new co-author..

Lord Captain Stephano de Guichen, formerly of the Dragon Brigade, and his disparate group of friends who call themselves the Cadre of the Lost, are hired by the powerful Countess de Marjolaine, to find a Royal Armory journeyman who has mysteriously vanished, along with an invention that could revolutionize warfare. The Countess fears the invention may fall into the hands of their enemies. Always in need of money, Stephano and his friends undertake what they think is an easy job, only to discover they are being dogged by spies and targeted by assassins.

Meanwhile, Father Jacob Northrop, a priest of the feared Arcanum, and his Knight Protector, Sir Ander Martel, are dispatched to investigate the massacre of a hundred nuns at the Abbey of Saint Agnes. A lone survivor claims the nuns were attacked by demons from Hell.

Stephano and his friends take to the skies in their airship, the Cloud Hopper, still on the trail of the journeyman. Their route takes them near the Abbey of Saint Agnes. As they draw near, the Cloud Hopper comes under attack by what appear to be demons riding giant bats. Stephano teams with Father Jacob and Sir Ander and a dragon from his old brigade to fight the hellish forces.

After the battle, one question is on everyone's mind: Are these truly demons sent by the Evil One? Is this the Apocalypse?

As Father Jacob searches the Abbey to find the answer, he uncovers a startling secret that nearly gets him and Sir Ander killed. Stephano's search for the journeyman almost ends in disaster, as he and his friends encounter the deadly Freyan assassin, Sir Henry Wallace.
Schemes and tricks, lies and intrigues culminate in an exciting chase through the skies that comes to a shocking end, when friends and foes alike are caught up in the unexpected and terrifying conclusion.

Books in the Mail (W/E 2012-02-11)

It’s a frigid Sunday in February here at the local o’ Stuff. Some books arrived this week, primarily forthcoming releases from the great folks at Black Library, thought not quite as many as in past weeks. This is a good thing because I can only read so many books. Anyway, here's the rundown....

Know No Fear (Horus Heresy #19) by Dan Abnett (Black Library, Mass Market Paperback 03/07/2012) – The man who launched the mega-selling saga of Far Future Civil war returns with the 19th Installment!


Unaware of the wider Heresy and following the Warmaster’s increasingly cryptic orders, Roboute Guilliman returns to Ultramar to muster his Legion for war against the orks massing in the Veridian system. Without warning, their supposed allies in the Word Bearers Legion launch a devastating invasion of Calth, scattering the Ultramarines fleet and slaughtering all who stand in their way. This confirms the worst scenario Guilliman can imagine – Lorgar means to settle their bitter rivalry once and for all. As the traitors summon foul daemonic hosts and all the forces of Chaos, the Ultramarines are drawn into a grim and deadly struggle in which neither side can prevail.

When war comes to Calth and set the planet aflame, the Ultramarines face annihilation against a foe who will use any means to settle their bitter grudge.


Path of the Renegade (Eldar/Warhammer 40,000) by Andy Chamber (Black Library Mass Market Paperback 03/07/2012) – Andy Chambers was lead designer for Games Workshop for many years, went to work for Blizzard and comes back to pen a new novel of the Dark Elves for his old friends.


Andy Chambers returns to the Black Library with the first novel in a new dark eldar trilogy, exploring the dark kin and their ominous city in unprecedented detail.

For millennia, Asdrubael Vect has ruled the dark city of Commorragh, crushing any who dare to cross him. His reach is long and his position unassailable... or so he thinks. Yllithian, an ambitious archon with the desire to unseat the tyrant, joins forces with a twisted haemonculus in an attempt to revive a long-dead warrior and challenge the might of the overlord, both racing to achieve their goal before Vect discovers their treachery. But a cataclysm is coming, and Yllithian’s actions may in fact be the cause...


The Ruined City by Paula Brandon (Spectra Trade Paperback 02/28/2012) –Sequel / Second in the series to / of Brandon’s earlier novel, The Traitor’s Daughter, which has been getting quite a nice buzz.

Paula Brandon’s epic and captivating trilogy continues as magic and mystery wreak havoc with the very fabric of existence.

Reality is wavering. Soon its delicate balance will shift and an ancient force will return to overwhelm the Veiled Isles. Now those with the arcane talent forge an uneasy alliance in hopes that their combined abilities are enough to avert an eerie catastrophe. Yet it may be too late. The otherworldly change has begun. The streets of the city are rife with chaos, plague, and revolt. And it is here that Jianna Belandor, once a pampered daughter of privilege, returns to face new challenges.

The dead walk the streets. The docile amphibian slaves of humanity have taken up arms. Jianna’s home lies in ruins. Her only happiness resides in her growing attraction to Falaste Rione, a brilliant nomadic physician whose compassion and courage have led him to take dangerous risks. Jianna, stronger and more powerful than she knows, has a role to play in the unfolding destiny of her world. But a wave of madness is sweeping across the land, and time is running out—even for magic.


Theif’s Covenant: (Book One of Widdershins) by Ari Marmell (Pyr Hardcover 02/24/2012) – I enjoyed The Conqueror’s Shadow and thought The Goblin Corps was a blast. This is the first of a new YA series for PYR’s YA program.

Once she was Adrienne Satti. An orphan of Davillon, she had somehow escaped destitution and climbed to the ranks of the city ’s aristocracy in a rags-to-riches story straight from an ancient fairy tale. Until one horrid night, when a conspiracy of forces—human and other—stole it all away in a flurry of blood and murder.

Today she is Widdershins, a thief making her way through Davillon’s underbelly with a sharp blade, a sharper wit, and the mystical aid of Olgun, a foreign god with no other worshippers but Widdershins herself. It’s not a great life, certainly nothing compared to the one she once had, but it’s hers.

But now, in the midst of Davillon’s political turmoil, an array of hands are once again rising up against her, prepared to tear down all that she’s built. The City Guard wants her in prison. Members of her own Guild want her dead. And something horrid, something dark, something ancient is reaching out for her, a past that refuses to let her go. Widdershins and Olgun are going to find answers, and justice, for what happened to her—but only if those who almost destroyed her in those years gone by don’t finish the job first.




Iron Warriors: The Omnibus (The Space Marines) by Graham McNeill (Black Library, Mass Market Paperback 3/14/2012) – Graham McNeill is vying with Harry Turtledove and Dan Abnett for most review books to arrive at the o’ Stuff househould since I started doing these weekly posts. This is an omnibus of some of his early WH40K stuff.

Follow the schemes of the embittered Warsmith Honsou in his struggles against the hated Space Marines of the Imperium. Containing the novel Storm of Iron and the novella Iron Warrior, gathered alongside several Iron Warrior shorts, including two new stories.

On the nightmare battlefields of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, few foes spark more fear and dread than the Chaos Space Marines. Nurturing a hatred that is millennia-old, they attack without mercy, spreading terror and destruction in their wake. Now hell has come to Hydra Cordatus, for a massive force of terrifying Iron Warriors, brutal assault troops of Chaos, have invaded the planet and lain siege to its mighty imperial citadel. But what prize could possibly be worth so much savage bloodshed and destruction and how long can the defenders possibly hold out?

The brutal Iron Warriors lay siege to a huge imperial fortress in the classic novel Storm of Iron, collected alongside the full range of Iron Warriors short stories and novellas.


Knights of the Blazing Sun by Josh Reynolds (Black Library, Mass Market Paperback 3/14/2012) – Reynolds has written quite a bit of short fiction, this is his first Warhammer novel, which focuses on the Old Empire.

The Knights of the Blazing Sun are a noble and venerable order of templars dedicated to the warrior-goddess Myrmidia. The young knight Hector Goetz is sent to the distant island of Svunum to investigate the disappearance of a group of knights. Reunited with his comrades, he battles vicious pirates and bloodthirsty raiders, but from his increasingly disturbing nightmares Goetz realises that there is more to the place than meets the eye. As northern savages lay siege to the island, a deadly secret is revealed that threatens to damn his order for all eternity.

Books in the Mail (W/E 2011-09-17)

A decent batch of arrivals, with a substantial portion being the October 2011 Black Library releases, plus a few other in the mix as well as "finished" (the copy you see on the bookshelves in bookstores) versions of ARCs I've previously received.


Salvation’s Reach (A Gaunt’s Ghost’s #13) by Dan Abnett (Black Library 10/04/2011) – Black Library’s most popular author, penning what is (arguably) one of (if not THE) most popular Military SF series (not just from Black Library, but Military SF, period) latest adventure.

The Tanith First-And-Only embark on a desperate mission that could decide the fate of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade in the thirteenth book of this popular Imperial Guard series.

The Ghosts of the Tanith First-and-Only have been away from the front line for too long. Listless, and hungry for action, they are offered a mission that perfectly suits their talents. The objective: the mysterious Salvation’s Reach, a remote and impenetrable stronghold concealing secrets that could change the course of the Sabbat Worlds campaign. But the proposed raid is so hazardous, it’s regarded as a suicide mission, and the Ghosts may have been in reserve for so long they’ve lost their edge. Haunted by spectres from the past and stalked by the Archenemy, Colonel-Commissar Gaunt and his Ghosts embark upon what could be their finest hour… or their final mission.

Sabbat Worlds (A Gaunt’s Ghost’s Anthology) by Dan Abnett (Black Library 10/04/2011) – Although Gaunt’s Ghost’s and Sabbat Worlds are indeed owned by Black Library, they are very much Dan Abnett’s babies and this anthology gives other writers from the BL stable a chance to join in the fun.

Across the Sabbat Worlds, a bitter conflict is fought, a conflict that can only end in victory or annihilation. The innumerable forces of the Arch enemy attack without mercy, and planet after planet burns with the flames of war. Yet even amidst this nightmare, the Imperial Guard stand stoic against their foes. The Phantine Air Corps battle the enemies of mankind across burning skies, while the Gereon resistance tries to break the foothold of Chaos on their beleaguered world and the legendary Gaunt’s Ghosts fight in the most violent and bloody of warzones. This anthology opens the gateway to the Sabbat Worlds like never before, featuring new stories from some of the Black Library’s best-known authors including Dan Abnett, Graham McNeill, Aaron Dembski-Bowden and many more.


Firestorm (Destroyermen Book 6) by Taylor Anderson (Roc Hardcover 10/04/2010) – I’ve read and enjoyed the first trilogy (Into the Storm, Crusade, and Maelstrom) and recently read the fourth (Distant Thunders) which goes to show that Anderson is really steaming along in this series, though I personally thought the fourth seemed to be half of a novel stretched a bit.

"I cannot recommend Taylor Anderson too highly." -David Weber, author of Out of the Dark

Lieutenant Commander Matthew Reddy and the crew of the USS Walker find themselves caught between the nation they swore to defend and the allies they promised to protect. For even as the Allies and the Empire of New Britain Isles stand united against the attacks of both the savage Grik and the tenacious Japanese, the "Holy Dominion"-a warped mixture of human cultures whose lust for power overshadows even the Grik-is threatening to destroy them both with a devastating weapon neither can withstand.

The Traitor’s Daughter by Paula Brandon (Spectra Trade Paperback 10/04/2011) –This could be a promising debut from fellow NJ native Paula Brandon, what with a very nice blurb from Jacqueline Carey. I don’t know the name of the trilogy nor does the author yet have a Web site so information, other than what is on BN.com, is somewhat scarce.



Here’s the beginning of a lush, epic, wholly original new trilogy that shines with magic, mystery, and captivating drama.

On the Veiled Isles, ominous signs are apparent to those with the talent to read them. The polarity of magic is wavering at its source, heralding a vast upheaval poised to alter the very balance of nature. Blissfully unaware of the cataclysmic events to come, Jianna Belandor, the beautiful, privileged daughter of a powerful Faerlonnish overlord, has only one concern: the journey to meet her prospective husband. But revolution is stirring as her own conquered people rise up against their oppressors, and Jianna is kidnapped and held captive at a rebel stronghold, insurance against what are perceived as her father’s crimes.

The resistance movement opens Jianna’s eyes―and her heart. Despite her belief in her father’s innocence, she is fascinated by the bold and charming nomadic physician and rebel sympathizer, Falaste Rione—who offers Jianna her only sanctuary in a cold and calculating web of intrigue. As plague and chaos grip the land, Jianna is pushed to the limits of her courage and resourcefulness, while virulent enemies discover that alliance is their only hope to save the human race.

The Riftwalker (A Vampire Empire #2) by Clay and Susan Griffith (Pyr Trade Paperback 09/09/2011) – Second novel in the Griffith’s entertaining mix of Steampunk and Vampire Romance..

Princess Adele struggles with a life of marriage and obligation as her Equatorian Empire and their American Republic allies stand on the brink of war against the vampire clans of the north. However, the alliance's horrific strategy for total victory drives Adele to abandon her duty and embark on a desperate quest to keep her nation from staining its hands with genocide. Reunited with her great love, the mysterious adventurer known to the world as the Greyfriar, Adele is pursued by her own people as well as her vengeful husband, senator Clark. With the human alliance in disarrray, Prince Cesare, lord of the British vampire clan, seizes the initiative and strikes at the very heart of Equatoria.

As Adele labors to bring order to her world, she learns more about the strange powers she exhibited in the north. Her teacher, Mamoru, leads a secret cabal of geomancers who believe Adele is the one who can touch the vast power of the Earth that surges through ley lines and wells up at the rifts where the lines meet. These energies are the key to defeating the enemy of mankind, and if Princess Adele could ever bring this power under her command, she could be death to vampires. But such a victory will also cost the life of Adele's beloved Greyfriar.

The Rift Walkeris the second book in a trilogy of high adventure and alternative history. Combining rousing pulp action with steampunk style, the Vampire Empire series brings epic politcal themes to life within a story of heartbreaking romance, sacrifice, and heroism.

Uncharted: The Fourth Labyrinth by Christopher Golden (Del Rey Trade Paperback 09/09/2011) – This video game series seems a spiritual successor to the old classic Pitfall. Golden is a proven writer so his authorship of the novelization seems a smart choice.

The official novel of Naughty Dog’s award-winning videogame franchise!

In the ancient world there was a myth about a king, a treasure, and a hellish labyrinth. Now the doors to that hell are open once again.

Nathan Drake, treasure hunter and risk taker, has been called to New York City by the man who taught him everything about the “antiquities acquisition business.” Victor Sullivan needs Drake’s help. Sully’s old friend, a world-famous archaeologist, has just been found murdered in Manhattan. Dodging assassins, Drake, Sully, and the dead man’s daughter, Jada Hzujak, race from New York to underground excavations in Egypt and Greece. Their goal: to unravel an ancient myth of alchemy, look for three long-lost labyrinths, and find the astonishing discovery that got Jada’s father killed. It appears that a fourth labyrinth was built in another land and another culture—and within it lies a key to unmatched wealth and power. An army of terrifying lost warriors guards this underground maze. So does a monster. And what lies beyond—if Drake can live long enough to reach it—is both a treasure and a poison, a paradise and a hell.

Welcome to The Fourth Labyrinth.

Transformers: Exiles by Alex Irvine (Del Rey Mass Market Paperback 10/04/2011) – Irvine has written some terrific novels outside of shared worlds/media tie-in and he seems to be building a nice base of shared world novels. This is his second Transformers novel:

The epic battles between Optimus Prime and Megatron have long thrilled Transformers fans. But these two giants weren’t always great leaders and bitter foes. This new novel continues the electrifying saga that started with Transformers: Exodus, unveiling the origins of the conflict—the explosive events that unfolded before Optimus and Megatron arrived Earthside, forever altering the destiny of their kind.

Once allies, Optimus and Megatron are now enemies in a civil war. To prevent Cybertron from falling into Megatron’s hands, Optimus jettisons the planet’s heart, the AllSpark, into space, then sets out to find it with Megatron hot on his heels. Optimus is determined to defeat Megatron, bring the AllSpark home, and restore Cybertron to its former glory.

But a saboteur lurks aboard Optimus’s spaceship, and ahead lie lost colonies, some of them hostile. Optimus needs help of the highest caliber, but from whom? Heroes such as Solus, Nexus, and Vector Prime are just names from make-believe stories of long ago. Or are they? Maybe it’s time for Optimus Prime to find out. Maybe it’s the only chance he has to vanquish mighty Megatron.

Prospero Regained (Book Three of Children of Prospero) by L. Jagi Lamplighter (Tor (Hardcover 09/13/2011) – Third and concluding volume in Lamplighter’s retelling/continuation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest

Prospero, the sorcerer on whose island of exile William Shakespeare set his play, The Tempest, has endured these past many centuries. His daughter Miranda runs the family business, Prospero, Inc. so smoothly that the vast majority of humanity has no idea that the Prosperos’ magic has protected Earth from numerous disasters. But Prospero himself has been kidnapped by demons from Hell, and Miranda, aided by her siblings, has followed her father into Hell to save him from a certain doom at the hands of vengeful demons. Time is running out for Miranda, and for the great magician himself. Their battle against the most terrifying forces of the Pit is a great fantasy adventure.

MetaMauas: MetaMaus: A Look Inside a Modern Classic, Maus by Art Spiegelman (Pantheon Trade Paperback 10/04/2011) – A DVD-style edition of the Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel, with a ton of extras and behind the scenes history (including a DVD).

Visually and emotionally rich, MetaMaus is as groundbreaking as the masterpiece whose creation it reveals.

In the pages of MetaMaus, Art Spiegelman re-enters the Pulitzer prize–winning Maus, the modern classic that has altered how we see literature, comics, and the Holocaust ever since it was first published twenty-five years ago.

He probes the questions that Maus most often evokes—Why the Holocaust? Why mice? Why comics?—and gives us a new and essential work about the creative process.

MetaMaus includes a bonus DVD that provides a digitized reference copy of The Complete Maus linked to a deep archive of audio interviews with his survivor father, historical documents, and a wealth of Spiegelman’s private notebooks and sketches.


Compelling and intimate, MetaMaus is poised to become a classic in its own right.


Thanquols Doom (A Thanquol and Boneripper [#3]) by C.L. Werner (Black Library Mass Market Paperback 10/04/2011) – Werner’s third novel featuring the Grey Seer (wizard, prophets of the Horned Rat) and his Rat Ogre bodyguard. The series, set in the Warhammer Old World is a spin-off of the popular Gotrek and Felix

Upon his return to the Old World, the ambitious Grey Seer Thanquol is coerced into leading an army against the dwarfs of Karak Angkul. Renowned for its engineer clans, this city will not fall easily, but the true object of Thanquol’s fascination is their secret artefact of incredible power which he believes will assure his ascension to the Council of Thirteen. His efforts are thrown into disarray when the infamous skaven Ikit Claw usurps control of the army for his own nefarious schemes, and so Thanquol must act quickly before the warlock can unleash his ultimate weapon – the Doomsphere.

Horus Rising by Dan Abnett

One review this week (so far) at SFFWorld and it is something a bit different, at least from my perspective. What makes it different, you, my fine readers may ask? Well, the book which is the subject of this weeks review is an audio-book and the first audio book I have reviewed. It is also one of the first audio offerings from the fine folks at the Black Library, but they smartly went with one of their most popular authors, Dan Abnett, and one of their most popular series, The Horus Heresy. The book is Horus Rising, read brilliantly by Martyn Ellis:

Although the title is in reference to Warmaster Horus, Abnett focuses his story on a young Captain rising within the ranks of Horus’s Lunar Wolves. The Captain is Gavriel Loken and Horus Rising brings to light how Loken becomes part of the Mournival, Horus’s inner circle of advisors. In this respect, I like Abnett’s choice of POV character as it provides a view into the story from more of an outsider perspective than if the story was told through the eyes of Horus himself.

...

The mythology of the universe comes through quite well, a paranoid mood is projected, and an utter reverence for the Emperor as a living god are all prevalent. Comparatively, I’ve only read a few Warhammer 40,000 novels, but one of the aspects I enjoyed the most was the melding of a far future setting of space-ships, cloning, and galactic struggle and the mythic over-tones associated with the Emperor and the God-like reverence with which he is held. Again, Abnett pulls that off very well here.

Books in the Mail (W/E 2011-01-15)

Apparently, all the authors whose surnames begin with the letterA are releasing books in the next month.

Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch (Del Rey, Mass Market Paperback 02/01/2011) – First in a new Paranormal Police procedural by a writer with experience on the Doctor Who franchise. This book goes by the title Rivers of London in the UK.


Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

Thunder and Steel by Dan Abnett (Black Library Trade Paperback 01/25/2011) – It seems every other week I get a different book Dan Abnett has authored. This here is an omnibus of three of his Warhammer Fantasy novels and a graphic novel.

Across the Old World, the powers of Chaos seek to bring corruption and death, poisoning the minds of men and filling them with hatred and fury. Only the bravest dare stand against them – two Empire soldiers, marching into the cold wastes of Kislev to face the barbaric Northern hordes, where one will lose his soul to the Ruinous Powers. The high elf Gilead Lothain, who seeks to strike at the servants of the Dark Gods in a quest for vengeance that can never end. The ranks of the noble White Wolves, who stand to defend the majestic city of Middenheim until the last man, never backing down in the face of their enemies.

Thunder and Steel is an epic collection of Dan Abnett’s Warhammer fantasy, including the novels Riders of the Dead, Gilead’s Blood and Hammers of Ulric, plus short stories and the full graphic novel of The Warhammer.


Rising Tides (Destroyermen Book 5) by Taylor Anderson (Roc Hardcover 06/01/2010) – I’ve read and enjoyed the first trilogy (Into the Storm, Crusade, and Maelstrom) in the series plus I’ve still go the fourth book sitting unread. These are fun books, perhaps I’ll do a back-to-back reading of #4 and #5.

In Taylor Anderson's acclaimed Destroyermen series, a parallel universe adds a extraordinary layer to the drama of World War II. Now, as Lieutenant Commander Matthew Reddy and the crew of the U.S.S. Walker continue their battle for both freedom and survival, the stakes become much more personal...and much more perilous.



Zombiesque edited by Stephen L. Antczak, James C. Basset, and Martin Greenberg (DAW , Mass Market Paperback 2/1/2011) – The February 2011 Monthly themed anthology from DAW: ZOMBIES!

From a tropical resort where visitors can become temporary zombies, to a newly-made zombie determined to protect those he loves, to a cheerleader who won't let death kick her off the team, to a zombie seeking revenge for the ancestors who died on an African slave ship-- Zombiesque invites readers to take a walk on the undead side in these tales from a zombie's point of view.



Hidden Cities (Moishu, the Books of Stone and Water #3) by Daniel Fox (Trade Paperback 03/25/2011 Del Rey) – Final book in a trilogy about mythic China.

The mythic beasts and glorious legends of feudal China illuminate a world at war in this, the conclusion to Daniel Fox’s critically acclaimed series.

Whatever they thought, this was always where they were going: to the belly of the dragon, or the belly of the sea.

More by chance than good judgment, the young emperor has won his first battle. The rebels have retreated from the coastal city of Santung—but they’ll be back. Distracted by his pregnant concubine, the emperor sends a distrusted aide, Ping Wen, to govern Santung in his place. There, the treacherous general will discover the healer Tien, who is obsessed with a library of sacred mage texts and the secrets concealed within—secrets upon which, Ping Wen quickly realizes, the fate of the whole war may turn.

As all sides of this seething conflict prepare for more butchery, a miner of magical jade, himself invulnerable, desperately tries to save his beautiful and yet brutally scarred clan cousin; a priestess loses her children, who are taken as pawns in a contest beyond her comprehension; and a fierce and powerful woman commits an act of violence that will entwine her, body and soul, with the spirit of jade itself. Amid a horde of soldiers, torturers, and runaways, these people will test both their human and mystical powers against a violent world. But one force trumps all: the huge, hungry, wrathful dragon.



Star Wars: The Old Republic: Decieved by Paul S. Kemp (Del Rey, Trade Paperback 03/25/2011) – I enjoyed Kemp’s Erevis Cale novels, he seems to be doing very well with Star Wars now.

The Sacking of Coruscant. It was the crowning achievement of the Sith Empire’s ambitious military strategy and the moment that changed the history of the Old Republic forever. You may have read about it before, but our first cinematic trailer captures this event with breathtaking action and beautiful detail.

Republic leaders have traveled to Alderaan to engage in promised peace talks with the Sith Empire. The most powerful Jedi have accompanied them to safeguard against an Imperial deception. The Empire’s real motive, however, was simply to lure the Republic’s strongest defenders away from Coruscant and set the stage for an audacious attack. Under the command of Lord Angral, the Sith fleet approaches the Republic’s capital planet for the first time in centuries. In advance of the fleet, the strongest Sith Warriors have flown a stolen Republic ship into Coruscant’s orbit. Their mission is critical – to destroy the planet’s defense grid mainframe hidden in the heart of the Jedi Temple.



License to Ensorcell (Nola O’Grady Book 1) by KatherineKerr (DAW Mass Market Hardcover 02/01/2011) – Kerr’s Deverry saga is enormous and enormously popular and she’s just closed out the series. So what does she do? She starts an urban fantasy/psychic detective series with this book.

Psychic Agent Nola O'Grady isn't sure returning to San Francisco, and living near her unusual family, is a good idea. Her job, with a psychic agency so obscure even the CIA doesn't know it exists, can be perilous, and she's afraid of the relatives getting involved.

Then the Agency saddles her with Israeli secret agent Ari Nathan, and she has a bigger problem on her hands, because tact and compromise are not Ari's strong points. Their mission is to track down a serial killer obsessed with werewolves. He sees them everywhere and shoots whenever he thinks he has one in his sights. Ari assumes the man's psychotic, but in truth he's murdering actual werewolves. Nola should know. Her younger brother Pat, a lycanthrope, was the first victim.

Can Nola's psychic talents and Ari's skill with guns keep them alive long enough to unravel the greater mystery behind the killings? Can they save the werewolves and the world while stopping Nola's family from running headlong into danger?



Cowboy Angels by Paul J. McAuley (Del Rey, Trade Paperback 01/11/2011) – Mark/Hobbit really liked this one when it originally published in the UK over 3 years ago.

The first Turing gate, a mere hundred nanometers across, is forced open in 1963, at the high-energy physics laboratory in Brookhaven; three years later, the first man to travel to an alternate history takes his momentous step, and an empire is born.

For fifteen years, the version of America that calls itself the Real has used its Turing gate technology to infiltrate a wide variety of alternate Americas, rebuilding those wrecked by nuclear war, fomenting revolutions and waging war to free others from communist or fascist rule, and establishing a Pan-American Alliance. Then a nation exhausted by endless strife elects Jimmy Carter on a reconstruction and reconciliation ticket, the CIA's covert operations are wound down, and the Real begins to wage peace rather than war.

But some people believe that it is the Real's manifest destiny to impose its idea of truth, justice, and the American way in every known alternate history, and they're prepared to do anything to reverse Carter's peacenik doctrine. When Adam Stone, a former CIA field officer, one of the Cowboy Angels who worked covertly in other histories, volunteers for reactivation after an old friend begins a killing spree across alternate histories, his mission uncovers a startling secret about the operation of the Turing gates and leads him into the heart of an audicious conspiracy to change the history of every America in the multiverse—including our own.

Cowboy Angels is a vivid, helter-skelter thriller in which one version of America discovers the true cost of empire building, and one man discovers that an individual really can make a difference.

Enigmatic Pilot: A Tall Tale Too True by Kris Saknussemm (Del Rey, Trade Paperback 3/28/2011) – This is the author’s second novel, after the controversial Zanesville:

Enigmatic Pilot is Kris Saknussemm’s outrageously brilliant yet profoundly moving exploration and excavation of the American dream—and nightmare.

In 1844, in a still-young America, the first intimations of civil war are stirring throughout the land. In Zanesville, Ohio, the Sitturd family—Hephaestus, a clubfooted inventor; his wife, Rapture, a Creole from the Sea Islands; and their prodigiously gifted six-year-old son, Lloyd, whose libido is as precocious as his intellect—are forced to flee the only home they have ever known for an uncertain future in Texas, whence Hephaestus’s half-brother, Micah, has sent them a mysterious invitation, promising riches and wonders too amazing to be entrusted to paper.

Thus begins one of the most incredible American journeys since Huck Finn and Jim first pushed their raft into the Mississippi. Along the way, Lloyd will learn the intricacies of poker and murder, solve the problem of manned flight, find—and lose—true love, and become swept up in an ancient struggle between two secret societies whose arcane dispute has shaped the world’s past and threatens to reshape its future. Each side wants to use Lloyd against the other, but Lloyd has his own ideas—and access to an occult technology as powerful as his imagination.



Messiah (Apotheosis Book Three) by S. Andrew Swann (DAW Mass Market Paperback 02/01/2011) – I enjoyed the first book in the trilogy, Prophets, when I read it a couple of years ago. Now that the trilogy is complete, I’ll finish it out myself.

The last stand against the self-proclaimed God, Adam, has retreated to the anarchic planet Bakunin-a world besieged by civil war. Humanity's last hope lies with Nickolai Rajasthan, a Moreau who believes that the human race that created his kind is already damned beyond redemption.

Books in the Mail (2010-12-18)

Only a few books this week, two of which are from Black Library.


Horus Rising (Audio) (Horus Heresy) by Dan Abnett and read by Martyn Eliis (Black Library, Abridged CD 1/4/2011) – Last week when I received the most recent Horus Heresy novel, I remarked that I haven’t read the first in the series. Well, here it is in CD-Audio format. 6 hours of what I hope is SF goodness. I’ll be listening to this one for sure, my first review of an audio book.

It is the 31st millennium. Under the benevolent leadership of the Immortal Emperor, the Imperium of Man hasstretched out across the galaxy. It is a golden age of discovery and conquest. But now, on the eve of victory, the Emperor leaves the front lines, entrusting the great crusade to his favourite son, Horus. Promoted to Warmaster, can the idealistic Horus carry out the Emperor’s grand plan, or will this promotion sow the seeds of heresy amongst his brothers? Horus Rising is the first chapter in the epic tale of the Horus Heresy, a galactic civil war that threatened to bring about the extinction of humanity.


God King (Book Three of The Sigmar Trilogy /Time of Legends) by Graham McNeill (The Black Library Mass Market Paperback January 2011) – I now have all three books in this trilogy which will bump it up the pile even more. McNeill won the David Gemmell Legend Award in 2010 for Empire, which further helps to bump it up the pile.

Sigmar, the first Emperor, is a god amongst men, a peerless leader and an unbreakable warrior. Having defeated the Chaos invasion of Middenheim, the Empire knows a measure of peace. But in the vast deserts of Nehekhara, another empire is rising. Nagash, the most feared of necromancers, is determined to claim dominance over the Old World, crushing all before him with an unstoppable and nightmarish army. Legions of unnatural creatures swarm the Empire. Sigmar must defend the lands of the living from the hordes of the dead and prevent Nagash's terrible vision of power coming true.



The Keep (Adversary Cycle #1) by F. Paul Wilson (Tor, Trade Paperback 12/07/2010) – F. Paul Wilson is a consistent, engaging writer who flies under the radar. Whether horror or dark/urban fantasy, his style is very smooth. This is the first novel in his Adversary Cycle and a modern classic of the horror genre.

“Something is murdering my men.”

Thus reads the message received from a Nazi commander stationed in a small castle high in the remote Transylvanian Alps. Invisible and silent, the enemy selects one victim per night, leaving the bloodless and mutilated corpses behind to terrify its future victims.

When an elite SS extermination squad is dispatched to solve the problem, the men find something that's both powerful and terrifying. Panicked, the Nazis bring in a local expert on folklore--who just happens to be Jewish--to shed some light on the mysterious happenings. And unbeknownst to anyone, there is another visitor on his way--a man who awoke from a nightmare and immediately set out to meet his destiny.

The battle has begun: On one side, the ultimate evil created by man, and on the other...the unthinkable, unstoppable, unknowing terror that man has inevitably awakened