Back in August, I posted an article HERE that showcased Upcoming 2009 Book Releases. That spotlight really only scratched the surface of what 2009 had to offer though, so now I’m back with Part Two, which is a little bigger, and hopefully, better. So enjoy, and please note that all release dates are subject to change and that the covers depicted are not necessarily the final version:
“Contagious” by Scott Sigler. Release Date: December 30, 2008. Published by Crown. From the acclaimed author of “Infected” comes an epic and exhilarating story of humanity’s secret battle against a horrific enemy…
Across America, a mysterious pathogen transforms ordinary people into raging killers, psychopaths driven by a terrifying, alien agenda. The human race fights back, yet after every battle the disease responds, adapts, using sophisticated strategies and brilliant ruses to fool its pursuers. The only possible explanation: the epidemic is driven not by evolution but by some malevolent intelligence.
Standing against this unimaginable threat is a small group, assembled under the strictest secrecy. Their best weapon is hulking former football star Perry Dawsey, left psychologically shattered by his own struggles with this terrible enemy, who possesses an unexplainable ability to locate the disease’s hosts. Violent and unpredictable, Perry is both the nation’s best hope and a terrifying liability. Hardened CIA veteran Dew Phillips must somehow forge a connection with him if they’re going to stand a chance against this maddeningly adaptable opponent. Alongside them is Margaret Montoya, a brilliant epidemiologist who fights for a cure even as she reels under the weight of endless horrors.
These three and their team have kept humanity in the game, but that’s not good enough anymore, not when the disease turns contagious, triggering a fast countdown to Armageddon. Meanwhile, other enemies join the battle, and a new threat—one that comes from a most unexpected source—may ultimately prove the most dangerous of all…
Catapulting the reader into a world where humanity’s life span is measured in hours and the president’s finger hovers over the nuclear button, rising star Scott Sigler takes us on a breathtaking, hyper-adrenalized ride filled with terror and jaw-dropping action. “Contagious” is a truly grand work of suspense, science, and horror from a new master.
Official Scott Sigler Website
Preorder “Contagious” HERE
“Contagious” by Scott Sigler. Release Date: December 30, 2008. Published by Crown. From the acclaimed author of “Infected” comes an epic and exhilarating story of humanity’s secret battle against a horrific enemy…Across America, a mysterious pathogen transforms ordinary people into raging killers, psychopaths driven by a terrifying, alien agenda. The human race fights back, yet after every battle the disease responds, adapts, using sophisticated strategies and brilliant ruses to fool its pursuers. The only possible explanation: the epidemic is driven not by evolution but by some malevolent intelligence.
Standing against this unimaginable threat is a small group, assembled under the strictest secrecy. Their best weapon is hulking former football star Perry Dawsey, left psychologically shattered by his own struggles with this terrible enemy, who possesses an unexplainable ability to locate the disease’s hosts. Violent and unpredictable, Perry is both the nation’s best hope and a terrifying liability. Hardened CIA veteran Dew Phillips must somehow forge a connection with him if they’re going to stand a chance against this maddeningly adaptable opponent. Alongside them is Margaret Montoya, a brilliant epidemiologist who fights for a cure even as she reels under the weight of endless horrors.
These three and their team have kept humanity in the game, but that’s not good enough anymore, not when the disease turns contagious, triggering a fast countdown to Armageddon. Meanwhile, other enemies join the battle, and a new threat—one that comes from a most unexpected source—may ultimately prove the most dangerous of all…
Catapulting the reader into a world where humanity’s life span is measured in hours and the president’s finger hovers over the nuclear button, rising star Scott Sigler takes us on a breathtaking, hyper-adrenalized ride filled with terror and jaw-dropping action. “Contagious” is a truly grand work of suspense, science, and horror from a new master.
Official Scott Sigler Website
Preorder “Contagious” HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic's Review of "Infected"
“Twelve” by Jasper Kent. UK Release Date: January 1, 2009. Published by Bantam Press UK. The voordalak—a creature of legend; tales of which have terrified Russian children for generations. But for Captain Aleksei Ivanonvich Danilov—a child of more enlightened times—it is a legend that has long been forgotten. Besides, in the autumn of 1812, he faces a more tangible enemy—the Grande Armée of Napoleon Bonaparte.
City after city has fallen to the advancing French, and now it seems that only a miracle will keep them from Moscow itself. In desperation, Aleksei and his comrades enlist the help of the Oprichniki—a group of twelve mercenaries from the furthest reaches of Christian Europe—who claim that they can turn the tide of the war. It seems an idle boast, but the Russians soon discover that the Oprichniki are indeed quite capable of fulfilling their promise.
Unnerved by the fact that so few can accomplish so much, Aleksei remembers those childhood stories of the voordalak. And as he comes to understand the true, horrific nature of these twelve strangers, he realizes that they’ve unleashed a nightmare in their midst…
Full of authentic historical detail and heart-stopping supernatural moments, “Twelve” is storytelling at its most original and exciting…
Official Jasper Kent Website
Preorder “Twelve” HERE
Read An Excerpt HERE
Read Reviews via SFF World
“The Hoard of Mhorrer” by M.F.W. Curran. UK Release Date: January 2, 2009. Published by Pan Macmillan New Writing. The Secret War continues. . .
Prepare to confront the incarnation of evil. It is 1820 and the world is on the brink.
A fearless cohort of soldier-monks, led by Lieutenant Williams Saxon, has been dispatched to Egypt on the most important mission in history. For thousands of years a great secret has been kept: a stockpile of appalling malevolence, which, if let loose, will plunge the world into eternal damnation. This is the Hoard of Mhorrer. The soldiers must find and destroy the Hoard before the demonic agents of the evil Count Ordrane of Draak locate it.
In a heart-stopping race against time, ranging from Papal Rome to the desolate heart of Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, the soldiers must battle murderous militiamen and pitiless daemons, and finally, terrifyingly, the bloodthirsty Guardians of the Horde.
If William and his men succeed, the clandestine war between Heaven and Hell will at last begin to favor the forces of light. But if they fail, and the agents of Hell claim the Hoard, then they will unleash an army of invincible daemons, and humankind—what is left of it—will come to know the true meaning of evil…
Official M.F.W. Curran Website
Preorder “The Hoard of Mhorrer” HERE
“Beat the Reaper” by Josh Bazell. US Release Date: January 7, 2009. Published by Little, Brown and Company. UK Release Date: February 5, 2009. Published by William Heinemann Ltd. In this wild and hilarious debut thriller, a doctor with a past, a secret, and a gun has 24 hours to save himself and beat the reaper…
Meet Peter Brown, a young Manhattan emergency room doctor with an unusual past that is just about to catch up with him. His morning begins with the quick disarming of a would-be mugger, followed by a steamy elevator encounter with a sexy young pharmaceutical rep, topped off by a visit with a new patient—and from there Peter’s day is going to get a whole lot worse and a whole lot weirder, because that patient knows Peter from his other life . . . when he had a different name and a very different job. The only reason he’s a doctor now is thanks to the Witness Protection Program—and even that can’t protect him from the long reach of the New Jersey mob. Now he’s got to do whatever it takes to keep his patient alive so he can buy some time . . . and beat the reaper.
Not only will “Beat the Reaper” be compared to Quentin Tarantino’s films, Grey’s Anatomy, and Chuck Palahniuk, it’s also the most original and entertaining debut thriller you’ll read this year and announces the arrival of a writer in the spirit of Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen, Jeff Lindsay, and the aforementioned Chuck Palahniuk.
Josh Bazell has a BA in writing from Brown University and a MD from Columbia University. He is currently a medical resident at the University of California, San Francisco, and is working on his second novel. “Beat the Reaper” is Josh’s first novel and has already sold in over twenty countries, with sales totaling more than one million dollars.
Preorder “Beat the Reaper” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)
“The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death” by Charlie Huston. Release Date: January 13, 2009. Published by Ballantine Books. Los Angeles Times bestselling and critically acclaimed author Charlie Huston has become a favorite of booksellers and reviewers alike having crafted a classic ‘wrong man’ conceit in the Henry Thompson trilogy, twisted the vampire tale in the Joe Pitt series, and having turned the coming-of-age story upside down in The Shotgun Rule. Now Huston is back and at his gritty, suspenseful and wickedly comic best with “The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death”…
A white-knuckle thriller set in Los Angeles, “The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death” is populated by the author’s trademark mile-a-minute dialogue and introduces us to another one-of-a-kind character, Webster Filmore Goodhue.
Web Goodhue is quite possibly the least likely person in Los Angeles County to be working with a crime scene clean-up crew. After all, not only is he a disaffected slacker with no ambition, thanks to a recently suffered traumatic event he also has a weak stomach. But when his only friend in the world lets him know that his freeloading days are over, he finds himself in a pinch and joins the large and stressed-out Po Sin and the odd and dangerous Gabe on their daily rounds, reporting to the homes of the recently deceased to scrub and spray and bag.
Then this already screwed up situation gets weirder when the daughter of a Malibu suicide they’ve only just mopped up asks Web for a favor: her brother’s in trouble and they could use somebody who knows how to clean up a mess. Every living cell in Web’s brain is telling him he should turn her down, but something keeps him on the phone. The way he made her laugh. The desperate tone to her voice. Something. But whatever it is, he offers a hand. And in no time at all he finds himself in way over his head, getting his face kicked in, facing down some gun-toting L.A. cowboys, hanging on for dear life. And that’s only the beginning…
“The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death” is vintage Charlie Huston—funny, violent and surprising―set in a new city and featuring a new and thoroughly enjoyable hero, and is sure to satisfy old fans and draw in new ones…
Charlie Huston is the author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller The Shotgun Rule (Reviewed HERE), the Henry Thompson Trilogy (which includes the Edgar Award-nominated Six Bad Things), and the Joe Pitt Casebooks (Reviewed HERE). He is also the writer of the recently relaunched Moon Knight comic book. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Virginia Louise Smith.
Official Charlie Huston Website
Preorder “The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death” HERE
“Eagle Rising” by David Devereux. UK Release Date: January 22, 2009. Published by Gollancz. “My name is unimportant, but you can call me Jack. I'm a musician by choice, a magician by profession, and a bastard by disposition. I'd been doing the magic thing for about five years when they found me. They said I had a talent, that I was smart enough and fit enough and enough of a shit that I could serve my country in a way most people never even get to hear about. And I did want to serve my country, didn't I? I didn't really want to contemplate what might happen if I said no.”
Jack's back! And this time he must face a terrifying supernatural threat from Europe's recent past…
“Eagle Rising” takes Jack to the rotten heart of big business and the dark secrets of a neo-nazi magical sect intent on giving the world back to a terror from the darkest days of the 1940s. Jack must infiltrate the closed corridors of big business and reach the core of a conspiracy amongst some of the most high-powered city executives in the country—a cabal of business men with occult interests and an insane hunger for the return of an old and dark order…
Described as a mix of Dennis Wheatley and Ian Fleming, David Devereux lives up to the billing with his new novel which is the exciting sequel to “Hunter’s Moon”…
Official David Devereux Website
Preorder “Eagle Rising” HERE
“The Sharing Knife: Horizon” by Lois McMaster Bujold. Release Date: January 27, 2009. Published by EOS Books.
When Dag Redwing Hickory rescued Fawn Bluefield from a vicious malice attack, neither expected to fall in love. Nor did they plan to marry, collect a motley band of followers, or travel down the river to the sea, saving each other from dangers both magical and human.
Now at the end of their river journey, Dag and Fawn must retrace their steps . . . if only they knew where they were headed. As Dag’s magical abilities have grown, so has his concern about who—or what—he is becoming. Apprenticed to a master groundsetter in a southern Lakewalker camp, Dag learns to harness his powers, even as he grows frustrated with the camp’s rigid mores that adversely affect Fawn.
But the world as Dag and Fawn know it is changing, and the traditional Lakewalker ways cannot hold every malice at bay forever. When the couple and a small band of friends and followers resume their journey north, they will be confronted by Dag’s biggest fear and worst nightmare: a malice that grew unnoticed, and may now be too strong to control…
“Horizon” is the highly anticipated conclusion to the sweeping New York Times bestselling Sharing Knife series, hailed as “a saga of daring deeds and unlikely romance . . . with unique monsters and an original approach to magic” —Library Journal
Official Lois McMaster Bujold Website
Preorder “The Sharing Knife: Horizon” HERE
“Last Watch” by Sergei Lukyanenko. Release Date: January 27, 2009 (US Debut). Published by Miramax Books/Hyperion.
Part fantasy, and part detective potboiler, the Night Watch series is the most successful science fiction series of all time in Russia, and a true international sensation. In “Night Watch”, Sergei Lukyanenko introduced the Others, an ancient race of humans with supernatural powers, who must swear allegiance to either the Dark or the Light. The agents of Light—the Night Watch—oversee nocturnal activity, while their Dark counterparts cover the daytime. That first novel—about a Night Watch agent named Anton who stumbles upon an Other with magnificent and terrifying potential—received significant attention and was made into a film regarded as the first Russian blockbuster.
Now, in the breathtaking final novel in the series, Anton is sent on a mission that takes him from Edinburgh to Uzbekistan to Moscow and back again, as a murder investigation spirals into a larger, more complex, and more terrifying threat than the world has ever faced…
Sergei Lukyanenko was born in Kazakhstan and educated as a psychiatrist. He began publishing science fiction in the 1980s and has published more than twenty-five books. The three previous volumes of the Night Watch series have sold more than two million copies worldwide.
Official Sergei Lukyanenko Website
Preorder “Last Watch” HERE
NOTE: “Last Watch”, first published in 2006 in Russia, was released in the UK on November 6, 2008 and Canada on November 25, 2008.
“Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand” by Carrie Vaughn. Release Date: January 27, 2009. Published by Grand Central Publishing.
Already the alpha pair of Denver's werewolf pack, Kitty and Ben now plan to tie the knot human-style by eloping to Vegas. Kitty is looking forward to sipping fru-fru drinks by the pool and doing her popular radio show on live TV, but her hotel is stocked with werewolf-hating bounty hunters.
Elsewhere on the Strip, an old-school magician might be wielding the real thing; the vampire community is harboring a dark secret; and the irresistible star of a suspicious animal act is determined to seduce Kitty. Sin City has never been so wild, and this werewolf has never had to fight harder to save not only her wedding, but her very life…
“Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand” is the fifth novel in Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville urban fantasy series after Kitty and the Midnight Hour (2005), Kitty Goes to Washington (2006), Kitty Takes a Holiday (2007), and Kitty and the Silver Bullet (2008). Book six, “Kitty Raises Hell”, comes out February 24, 2009.
Official Carrie Vaughn Website
Preorder “Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand” HERE
“Dragon In Chains” by Daniel Fox. Release Date: January 27, 2009. Published by Del Rey. From award-winning author Daniel Fox comes a ravishingly written epic of revolution and romance set in a world where magic is found in stone and in water, in dragons and in men—and in the chains that bind them…
Deposed by a vicious usurper, a young emperor flees with his court to the small island of Taishu. There, with a dwindling army, a manipulative mother, and a resentful population—and his only friend a local fishergirl he takes as a concubine—he prepares for his last stand.
In the mountains of Taishu, a young miner finds a huge piece of jade, the potent mineral whose ingestion can gift the emperor with superhuman attributes. Setting out to deliver the stone to the embattled emperor, Yu Shan finds himself changing into something more than human, something forbidden.
Meanwhile, a great dragon lies beneath the strait that separates Taishu from the mainland, bound by chains that must be constantly renewed by the magic of a community of monks. When the monks are slaughtered by a willful pirate captain, a maimed slave assumes the terrible burden of keeping the dragon subdued. If he should fail, if she should rise free, the result will be slaughter on an unimaginable scale.
Now the prisoner beneath the sea and the men and women above it will shatter old bonds of loyalty and love and forge a common destiny from the ruins of an empire…
Official Daniel Fox Website
Official Daniel Fox Blog
Preorder “Dragons In Chain” HERE
“The Domino Men” by Jonathan Barnes. Release Date: January 27, 2009 (US Debut). Published by William Morrow. All is not well in the house of Windsor…
More than a century ago, Queen Victoria made a Faustian bargain with a nefarious entity. Now the bill—all the souls of London—is due. When young filing clerk Henry Lamb is pulled into the Directorate’s secret war against the House of Windsor, nothing is as it seems. His grandfather was a spy, his office mate has a nefarious agenda, and something evil lurks in the cellar beneath 10 Downing Street—two grown men who dress like schoolboys, and seem strangely familiar. And then things get really odd…
In the sequel to the crazed Victoriana of “The Somnambulist”, the imaginative and brilliant Jonathan Barnes brings his invention, satire, and curiosities up-to-date in an addicting—and Lovecraftian—spy thriller full of eccentricity and intrigue…
Preorder “The Domino Men” HERE
“Twelve” by Jasper Kent. UK Release Date: January 1, 2009. Published by Bantam Press UK. The voordalak—a creature of legend; tales of which have terrified Russian children for generations. But for Captain Aleksei Ivanonvich Danilov—a child of more enlightened times—it is a legend that has long been forgotten. Besides, in the autumn of 1812, he faces a more tangible enemy—the Grande Armée of Napoleon Bonaparte.City after city has fallen to the advancing French, and now it seems that only a miracle will keep them from Moscow itself. In desperation, Aleksei and his comrades enlist the help of the Oprichniki—a group of twelve mercenaries from the furthest reaches of Christian Europe—who claim that they can turn the tide of the war. It seems an idle boast, but the Russians soon discover that the Oprichniki are indeed quite capable of fulfilling their promise.
Unnerved by the fact that so few can accomplish so much, Aleksei remembers those childhood stories of the voordalak. And as he comes to understand the true, horrific nature of these twelve strangers, he realizes that they’ve unleashed a nightmare in their midst…
Full of authentic historical detail and heart-stopping supernatural moments, “Twelve” is storytelling at its most original and exciting…
Official Jasper Kent Website
Preorder “Twelve” HERE
Read An Excerpt HERE
Read Reviews via SFF World
“The Hoard of Mhorrer” by M.F.W. Curran. UK Release Date: January 2, 2009. Published by Pan Macmillan New Writing. The Secret War continues. . .Prepare to confront the incarnation of evil. It is 1820 and the world is on the brink.
A fearless cohort of soldier-monks, led by Lieutenant Williams Saxon, has been dispatched to Egypt on the most important mission in history. For thousands of years a great secret has been kept: a stockpile of appalling malevolence, which, if let loose, will plunge the world into eternal damnation. This is the Hoard of Mhorrer. The soldiers must find and destroy the Hoard before the demonic agents of the evil Count Ordrane of Draak locate it.
In a heart-stopping race against time, ranging from Papal Rome to the desolate heart of Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, the soldiers must battle murderous militiamen and pitiless daemons, and finally, terrifyingly, the bloodthirsty Guardians of the Horde.
If William and his men succeed, the clandestine war between Heaven and Hell will at last begin to favor the forces of light. But if they fail, and the agents of Hell claim the Hoard, then they will unleash an army of invincible daemons, and humankind—what is left of it—will come to know the true meaning of evil…
Official M.F.W. Curran Website
Preorder “The Hoard of Mhorrer” HERE
“Beat the Reaper” by Josh Bazell. US Release Date: January 7, 2009. Published by Little, Brown and Company. UK Release Date: February 5, 2009. Published by William Heinemann Ltd. In this wild and hilarious debut thriller, a doctor with a past, a secret, and a gun has 24 hours to save himself and beat the reaper…Meet Peter Brown, a young Manhattan emergency room doctor with an unusual past that is just about to catch up with him. His morning begins with the quick disarming of a would-be mugger, followed by a steamy elevator encounter with a sexy young pharmaceutical rep, topped off by a visit with a new patient—and from there Peter’s day is going to get a whole lot worse and a whole lot weirder, because that patient knows Peter from his other life . . . when he had a different name and a very different job. The only reason he’s a doctor now is thanks to the Witness Protection Program—and even that can’t protect him from the long reach of the New Jersey mob. Now he’s got to do whatever it takes to keep his patient alive so he can buy some time . . . and beat the reaper.
Not only will “Beat the Reaper” be compared to Quentin Tarantino’s films, Grey’s Anatomy, and Chuck Palahniuk, it’s also the most original and entertaining debut thriller you’ll read this year and announces the arrival of a writer in the spirit of Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen, Jeff Lindsay, and the aforementioned Chuck Palahniuk.
Josh Bazell has a BA in writing from Brown University and a MD from Columbia University. He is currently a medical resident at the University of California, San Francisco, and is working on his second novel. “Beat the Reaper” is Josh’s first novel and has already sold in over twenty countries, with sales totaling more than one million dollars.
Preorder “Beat the Reaper” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)
“The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death” by Charlie Huston. Release Date: January 13, 2009. Published by Ballantine Books. Los Angeles Times bestselling and critically acclaimed author Charlie Huston has become a favorite of booksellers and reviewers alike having crafted a classic ‘wrong man’ conceit in the Henry Thompson trilogy, twisted the vampire tale in the Joe Pitt series, and having turned the coming-of-age story upside down in The Shotgun Rule. Now Huston is back and at his gritty, suspenseful and wickedly comic best with “The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death”…A white-knuckle thriller set in Los Angeles, “The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death” is populated by the author’s trademark mile-a-minute dialogue and introduces us to another one-of-a-kind character, Webster Filmore Goodhue.
Web Goodhue is quite possibly the least likely person in Los Angeles County to be working with a crime scene clean-up crew. After all, not only is he a disaffected slacker with no ambition, thanks to a recently suffered traumatic event he also has a weak stomach. But when his only friend in the world lets him know that his freeloading days are over, he finds himself in a pinch and joins the large and stressed-out Po Sin and the odd and dangerous Gabe on their daily rounds, reporting to the homes of the recently deceased to scrub and spray and bag.
Then this already screwed up situation gets weirder when the daughter of a Malibu suicide they’ve only just mopped up asks Web for a favor: her brother’s in trouble and they could use somebody who knows how to clean up a mess. Every living cell in Web’s brain is telling him he should turn her down, but something keeps him on the phone. The way he made her laugh. The desperate tone to her voice. Something. But whatever it is, he offers a hand. And in no time at all he finds himself in way over his head, getting his face kicked in, facing down some gun-toting L.A. cowboys, hanging on for dear life. And that’s only the beginning…
“The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death” is vintage Charlie Huston—funny, violent and surprising―set in a new city and featuring a new and thoroughly enjoyable hero, and is sure to satisfy old fans and draw in new ones…
Charlie Huston is the author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller The Shotgun Rule (Reviewed HERE), the Henry Thompson Trilogy (which includes the Edgar Award-nominated Six Bad Things), and the Joe Pitt Casebooks (Reviewed HERE). He is also the writer of the recently relaunched Moon Knight comic book. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Virginia Louise Smith.
Official Charlie Huston Website
Preorder “The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death” HERE
“Eagle Rising” by David Devereux. UK Release Date: January 22, 2009. Published by Gollancz. “My name is unimportant, but you can call me Jack. I'm a musician by choice, a magician by profession, and a bastard by disposition. I'd been doing the magic thing for about five years when they found me. They said I had a talent, that I was smart enough and fit enough and enough of a shit that I could serve my country in a way most people never even get to hear about. And I did want to serve my country, didn't I? I didn't really want to contemplate what might happen if I said no.”Jack's back! And this time he must face a terrifying supernatural threat from Europe's recent past…
“Eagle Rising” takes Jack to the rotten heart of big business and the dark secrets of a neo-nazi magical sect intent on giving the world back to a terror from the darkest days of the 1940s. Jack must infiltrate the closed corridors of big business and reach the core of a conspiracy amongst some of the most high-powered city executives in the country—a cabal of business men with occult interests and an insane hunger for the return of an old and dark order…
Described as a mix of Dennis Wheatley and Ian Fleming, David Devereux lives up to the billing with his new novel which is the exciting sequel to “Hunter’s Moon”…
Official David Devereux Website
Preorder “Eagle Rising” HERE
“The Sharing Knife: Horizon” by Lois McMaster Bujold. Release Date: January 27, 2009. Published by EOS Books.When Dag Redwing Hickory rescued Fawn Bluefield from a vicious malice attack, neither expected to fall in love. Nor did they plan to marry, collect a motley band of followers, or travel down the river to the sea, saving each other from dangers both magical and human.
Now at the end of their river journey, Dag and Fawn must retrace their steps . . . if only they knew where they were headed. As Dag’s magical abilities have grown, so has his concern about who—or what—he is becoming. Apprenticed to a master groundsetter in a southern Lakewalker camp, Dag learns to harness his powers, even as he grows frustrated with the camp’s rigid mores that adversely affect Fawn.
But the world as Dag and Fawn know it is changing, and the traditional Lakewalker ways cannot hold every malice at bay forever. When the couple and a small band of friends and followers resume their journey north, they will be confronted by Dag’s biggest fear and worst nightmare: a malice that grew unnoticed, and may now be too strong to control…
“Horizon” is the highly anticipated conclusion to the sweeping New York Times bestselling Sharing Knife series, hailed as “a saga of daring deeds and unlikely romance . . . with unique monsters and an original approach to magic” —Library Journal
Official Lois McMaster Bujold Website
Preorder “The Sharing Knife: Horizon” HERE
“Last Watch” by Sergei Lukyanenko. Release Date: January 27, 2009 (US Debut). Published by Miramax Books/Hyperion.Part fantasy, and part detective potboiler, the Night Watch series is the most successful science fiction series of all time in Russia, and a true international sensation. In “Night Watch”, Sergei Lukyanenko introduced the Others, an ancient race of humans with supernatural powers, who must swear allegiance to either the Dark or the Light. The agents of Light—the Night Watch—oversee nocturnal activity, while their Dark counterparts cover the daytime. That first novel—about a Night Watch agent named Anton who stumbles upon an Other with magnificent and terrifying potential—received significant attention and was made into a film regarded as the first Russian blockbuster.
Now, in the breathtaking final novel in the series, Anton is sent on a mission that takes him from Edinburgh to Uzbekistan to Moscow and back again, as a murder investigation spirals into a larger, more complex, and more terrifying threat than the world has ever faced…
Sergei Lukyanenko was born in Kazakhstan and educated as a psychiatrist. He began publishing science fiction in the 1980s and has published more than twenty-five books. The three previous volumes of the Night Watch series have sold more than two million copies worldwide.
Official Sergei Lukyanenko Website
Preorder “Last Watch” HERE
NOTE: “Last Watch”, first published in 2006 in Russia, was released in the UK on November 6, 2008 and Canada on November 25, 2008.
“Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand” by Carrie Vaughn. Release Date: January 27, 2009. Published by Grand Central Publishing.Already the alpha pair of Denver's werewolf pack, Kitty and Ben now plan to tie the knot human-style by eloping to Vegas. Kitty is looking forward to sipping fru-fru drinks by the pool and doing her popular radio show on live TV, but her hotel is stocked with werewolf-hating bounty hunters.
Elsewhere on the Strip, an old-school magician might be wielding the real thing; the vampire community is harboring a dark secret; and the irresistible star of a suspicious animal act is determined to seduce Kitty. Sin City has never been so wild, and this werewolf has never had to fight harder to save not only her wedding, but her very life…
“Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand” is the fifth novel in Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville urban fantasy series after Kitty and the Midnight Hour (2005), Kitty Goes to Washington (2006), Kitty Takes a Holiday (2007), and Kitty and the Silver Bullet (2008). Book six, “Kitty Raises Hell”, comes out February 24, 2009.
Official Carrie Vaughn Website
Preorder “Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand” HERE
“Dragon In Chains” by Daniel Fox. Release Date: January 27, 2009. Published by Del Rey. From award-winning author Daniel Fox comes a ravishingly written epic of revolution and romance set in a world where magic is found in stone and in water, in dragons and in men—and in the chains that bind them…Deposed by a vicious usurper, a young emperor flees with his court to the small island of Taishu. There, with a dwindling army, a manipulative mother, and a resentful population—and his only friend a local fishergirl he takes as a concubine—he prepares for his last stand.
In the mountains of Taishu, a young miner finds a huge piece of jade, the potent mineral whose ingestion can gift the emperor with superhuman attributes. Setting out to deliver the stone to the embattled emperor, Yu Shan finds himself changing into something more than human, something forbidden.
Meanwhile, a great dragon lies beneath the strait that separates Taishu from the mainland, bound by chains that must be constantly renewed by the magic of a community of monks. When the monks are slaughtered by a willful pirate captain, a maimed slave assumes the terrible burden of keeping the dragon subdued. If he should fail, if she should rise free, the result will be slaughter on an unimaginable scale.
Now the prisoner beneath the sea and the men and women above it will shatter old bonds of loyalty and love and forge a common destiny from the ruins of an empire…
Official Daniel Fox Website
Official Daniel Fox Blog
Preorder “Dragons In Chain” HERE
“The Domino Men” by Jonathan Barnes. Release Date: January 27, 2009 (US Debut). Published by William Morrow. All is not well in the house of Windsor…More than a century ago, Queen Victoria made a Faustian bargain with a nefarious entity. Now the bill—all the souls of London—is due. When young filing clerk Henry Lamb is pulled into the Directorate’s secret war against the House of Windsor, nothing is as it seems. His grandfather was a spy, his office mate has a nefarious agenda, and something evil lurks in the cellar beneath 10 Downing Street—two grown men who dress like schoolboys, and seem strangely familiar. And then things get really odd…
In the sequel to the crazed Victoriana of “The Somnambulist”, the imaginative and brilliant Jonathan Barnes brings his invention, satire, and curiosities up-to-date in an addicting—and Lovecraftian—spy thriller full of eccentricity and intrigue…
Preorder “The Domino Men” HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic's Review of "The Somnambulist"
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Interview with Jonathan Barnes
“Bone Crossed” by Patricia Briggs. US Release Date: February 3, 2009. Published by Ace Books. UK Release Date: February 5, 2009. Published by Orbit Books.
Car mechanic and sometime shapeshifter Mercy Thompson has learned, the hard way, why her race was almost exterminated. When European vampires immigrated to North America, they found Mercy's people had a hidden talent—for vampire slaying.
Unfortunately for Mercy, the queen of the local vampire seethe has discovered her true identity. She's also furious when she learns Mercy has crossed her and killed one of her vampires. Mercy may be protected from direct reprisals by the werewolf pack—and her interesting relationship with its Alpha—but that just means Marsilia will come after Mercy some other way. So Mercy had better prepare to watch her back…
“Bone Crossed” is the fourth Mercy Thompson novel after “Moon Called”, “Blood Bound” and “Iron Kissed”.
Official Patricia Briggs Website
Preorder “Bone Crossed” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)
“The Vampire Maker” by Michael Schiefelbein. Release Date: February 3, 2009. Published by St. Martin’s Press. Victor Decimus—2,000 year old vampire and vampire-maker—returns, in his most compelling conflict to date…
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 Paul Lewis, 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 plane of existence and thus creating an imbalance in the powers of the universe. And between both walks Victor—determined to have his own way and exert control, remains defiant to the end…
Michael Schiefelbein is the author of six books, including the Lambda Literary Award-nominated novels “Vampire Vow” and “Vampire Thrall”.
Preorder “The Vampire Maker” HERE
“The Walls of the Universe” by Paul Melko. Release Date: February 3, 2009. Published by Tor Books. John Rayburn thought all of his problems were the mundane ones of an Ohio farm boy in his last year in high school. Then his doppelgänger appeared, tempted him with a device that let him travel across worlds, and stole his life from him. John soon finds himself caroming through universes, unable to return home—the device is broken. John settles in a new universe to unravel its secrets and fix it.
Meanwhile, his doppelgänger tries to exploit the commercial technology he’s stolen from other Earths: the Rubik’s Cube! John’s attempts to lie low in his new universe backfire when he inadvertently introduces pinball. It becomes a huge success. Both actions draw the notice of other, more dangerous travelers, who are exploiting worlds for ominous purposes. Fast-paced and exciting, “The Walls of the Universe” is SF adventure at its best from rising star, Paul Melko (Singularity’s Ring)…
Official Paul Melko Website
Preorder “The Walls of the Universe” HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “Singularity’s Ring”
“The Séance” by John Harwood. Release Date: February 3, 2009 (US Debut). Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. A haunting tale of apparitions, a cursed manor house, and two generations of women determined to discover the truth, by the author of the 2004 International Horror Guild Award-winning “The Ghost Writer”…
“Sell the Hall unseen; burn it to the ground and plow the earth with salt, if you will; but never live there . . .”
Constance Langton grows up in a household marked by death, her father distant, her mother in perpetual mourning for Constance’s sister, the child she lost. Desperate to coax her mother back to health, Constance takes her to a séance: perhaps she will find comfort from beyond the grave. But the meeting has tragic consequences. Constance is left alone, her only legacy a mysterious bequest that will blight her life.
So begins “The Séance”, John Harwood’s brilliant second novel, a gripping, dark mystery set in late-Victorian England. It is a world of apparitions, of disappearances and unnatural phenomena, of betrayal and blackmail and black-hearted villains—and murder. For Constance’s bequest comes in two parts: a house and a mystery. Years before, a family disappeared at Wraxford Hall, a decaying mansion in the English countryside with a sinister reputation. Now the Hall belongs to Constance. And she must descend into the darkness at the heart of the Wraxford Mystery to find the truth, even at the cost of her life…
Preorder “The Séance” HERE
“Dexter By Design” by Jeff Lindsay. UK Release Date: February 5, 2009. Published by Orion.
Being a blood spatter analyst who hates the sight of blood has always made Dexter's work for the Miami PD tough. But it means he's very neat when it comes to his out-of-hours hobby: murder. Of course, the fact Dexter only kills bad people helps too.
Now Dex is facing a disturbing situation. He's used to blood at work, and blood when he's out with the dark passenger—the voice that guides him on his deadly outings. But he's not sure what to make of the man who says blood is art. Using bodies as his canvas, someone is out there expressing themselves in the most lethal and painful of ways.
If Dexter is to escape the scalpel and avoid becoming the latest exhibit, he needs somewhere to run . . . and he might just have found the perfect place. With his wedding looming, completing his nice-guy disguise, Dexter's honeymoon might just save his skin…
From the most original voice in crime fiction, “Dexter By Design” is an enthralling, macabre and gruesomely entertaining thriller.
Official Jeff Lindsay Website
Preorder “Dexter By Design” HERE
NOTE: “Dexter By Design” is the fourth Dexter novel after “Darkly Dreaming Dexter”, “Dearly Devoted Dexter” and “Dexter in the Dark”.
“The Rise of the Iron Moon” by Stephen Hunt. UK Release Date: February 9, 2009. Published by Voyager. From the author of “The Court of the Air” and “The Kingdom Beyond the Waves” comes a thrilling new adventure set in the same Victorian-style world…
Born into captivity as a product of the Royal Breeding House, friendless orphan Purity Drake suddenly finds herself on the run with a foreign vagrant from the North after accidentally killing one of her guards. Her strange rescuer claims he is on the run himself from terrible forces who mean to enslave the Kingdom of Jackals as they conquered his own nation.
Purity doubts his story, until reports begin to filter through from Jackals' neighbours of the terrible Army of Shadows, marching across the continent and sweeping all before them. But there's more to Purity than meets the eye.
As Jackals girds itself for war against an army of near-unkillable beasts serving an ancient evil with a terrible secret, it soon becomes clear that their only hope is a strange little royalist girl and the last, desperate plan of an escaped slave…
Official Stephen Hunt Website
Preorder “The Rise of the Iron Moon” HERE
Read An Excerpt HERE
“Tuck” by Stephen R. Lawhead. Release Date: February 10, 2009. Published by Thomas Nelson. UK Release Date: April 2, 2009. Published by Atom Books. For centuries, the legend of Robin Hood and his band of thieves has captivated the imagination. Now, the old familiar tale takes on new life, fresh meaning, and an unexpected setting…
As King Raven, Bran ap Brychan is Lord of the Forest. But his true crown seems out of reach. Bran is still fighting to bring his people justice from the shadows of the green wood. But Abbot Hugo is used to playing the long game and has been watching—and learning.
Abbot Hugo plans to bring the invading Norman marchogi to the forest in force, heralding the start of a campaign to wipe out King Raven and his band once and for all. Their merciless attack, the first of many, marks a dark day for the realm. And the dream of seeing a true king take the throne of Elfael seems increasingly remote. Bran and his few stalwarts desperately need encouragement and reinforcement if they are to survive. Friar Tuck, a most unconventional priest, may just have a solution to their dilemma…
“Tuck” is the thrilling conclusion to Stephen R. Lawhead’s King Raven Trilogy.
Official Stephen R. Lawhead Website
Preorder “Tuck” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)
“Hater” by David Moody. US Release Date: February 17, 2009. Published by Thomas Dunne Books. UK Release Date: February 19, 2009. Published by Gollancz.
A man stops in fear and terror in a city crowd and suddenly lunges at a complete stranger, stabbing her to death with the end of his umbrella. A teenage girl stares at her best friend in frightened loathing and without warning, kills her. Seemingly without provocation a man strangles his wife of more than thirty years, with his bathrobe sash. Called “Haters” by the media, these attackers strike without warning in an escalating crescendo of inexplicable violence. In seconds, rational, normal people become remorseless killers. Anyone—or everyone— can become a victim—or a Hater.
When mortal terror roams abroad—what happens to a society? When neighbor fears neighbor, when no one knows whether he may be killed or become a killer—who is safe? And who can be trusted?
In the tradition of H.G. Wells and Anthony Burgess, with the punch of recent hits like World War Z, I Am Legend, and the 28 Days Later film series, this is one man’s story of his place in a world gone mad—a world infected with fear, violence and hate. “Hater” reads like a roller coaster ride through hell, stopping long enough to call into question the issues of trust and fear that can build and destroy civilizations…
David Moody self-published “Hater” in 2006 and sold the film rights to director/producer Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy 1 & 2, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Hobbit) and producer Mark Johnson (The Chronicles of Narnia) without an agent. With the official publication of “Hater”, David is poised to make a significant mark as a writer of “farther out” genre books of all description.
“A head-spinning thrill ride, a cautionary tale about the most salient emotion of the 21st century...Hater will haunt you long after you read the last page...” —Guillermo del Toro, director of Hellboy 1 & 2, Pan’s Labyrinth, and the upcoming Hobbit movies
“David Moody’s Hater is a brutal, eerie, and hugely entertaining novel that grips you with its grim and nihilistic attitude from page one. The attention to detail used to paint an average man’s often frustrating life is as disturbing as the bloody violencethat follows, giving us one of the year’s most readable nerve-shredders.” —Tom Piccirilli, author of The Midnight Road
“With Hater David Moody spins paranoia into a deliciously dark new direction. Eerie, violent and infused with a dark magic. Moody is one scary guy.” —Jonathan Maberry, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Ghost Road Blues and Patient Zero
“Hater touches something universal and truly scary—the little voice in all of our heads that tells us the difference between 'us' and 'them'. Subtly drawn, engrossing characters take us inside a landscape of paranoia and fear.” —David Wellington, author of Monster Island, 99 Coffins, and Vampire Zero
Official David Moody Website
Preorder “Hater” HERE
“The Manual of Detection” by Jedediah Berry. Release Date: February 19, 2009. Published by Penguin Press. UK Release Date: March 5, 2009. Published by William Heinemann Ltd. In this tightly plotted yet mind-expanding debut novel, an unlikely detective, armed only with an umbrella and a singular handbook, must untangle a string of crimes committed in and through people’s dreams…
In an unnamed city always slick with rain, Charles Unwin toils as a clerk at a huge, imperious detective agency. All he knows about solving mysteries comes from the reports he’s filed for the illustrious detective, Travis Sivart. When Sivart goes missing and his supervisor turns up murdered, Unwin is suddenly promoted to detective, a rank for which he lacks both the skills and the stomach. His only guidance comes from his new assistant—who would be perfect if she weren’t so sleepy—and from the pithy yet profound Manual of Detection (think The Art of War as told to Damon Runyon).
Unwin mounts his search for Sivart, but is soon framed for murder, pursued by goons and gunmen, and confounded by the infamous femme fatale Cleo Greenwood. Meanwhile, strange and troubling questions proliferate: why does the mummy at the Municipal Museum have modern-day dental work? Where have all the city’s alarm clocks gone? Why is Unwin’s copy of the manual missing Chapter 18?
When he discovers that Sivart’s greatest cases—including the Three Deaths of Colonel Baker and the Man Who Stole November 12th—were solved incorrectly, Unwin must enter the dreams of a murdered man and face a criminal mastermind bent on total control of a slumbering city…
“The Manual of Detection” will draw comparison to every work of imaginative fiction that ever blew a reader’s mind—from Carlos Ruiz Zafón to Jorge Luis Borges, from The Big Sleep to The Yiddish Policeman’s Union. But, ultimately, it defies comparison and is a brilliantly conceived, meticulously realized novel that will change what you think about how you think.
Official Jedediah Berry Website
Preorder “The Manual of Detection” HERE
”The Caryatids” by Bruce Sterling. Release Date: February 24, 2009. Published by Del Rey. In the vein of William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition and Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, The Caryatids looks at the near future and forecasts not just problems, but incredible solutions using technology currently under development.
The caryatids are three identical clone sisters: Vera, a pollution expert who’s dealing with worldwide cleanup efforts; Mila, media star extraordinaire and member of the most powerful family-firm in southern California; and Sonja, a medical specialist stationed deep within China’s Gobi Desert. All three have the brains and the talents desperately needed to save a world suffering from global warming, runaway pollution, and uncontrolled political maneuvering. Too bad their explosive family history has left them hating each other…
“A tour de force. . . . Of all the horde of SF novels about clones written since that trope was pulled mewling from its artificial womb, Caryatids is the first one that nails it.”—Benjamin Rosenbaum, author of The Ant King: and Other Stories
Bruce Sterling is the Hugo Award-winning author of ten novels, three of which were selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. A renowned futurist, he has delivered keynote speeches to, or served on the boards of, such diverse organizations as NASA, the Institute for New Cultures Technology in Vienna, and the MIT Media Lab. He has written for many magazines, including Newsweek, Fortune, and Wired, to which he was a longtime contributing editor.
Official Bruce Sterling Wikipedia Website
Preorder “The Caryatids” HERE
“Palimpsest” by Catherynne M. Valente. Release Date: February 24, 2009. Published by Bantam Spectra. There is a city you have never heard of. It is a city of dreams and flesh, of night-terrors and exaltation. It is a city that exists as a virus, passed from person to person, on skin and on bone, streets and alleys and factories and orchestral halls crawling and thriving, infinitesimally small, on the bodies of those who have been touched by Palimpsest. And once you have entered this place, once you have tasted it, you will do anything to get back…
Catherynne M. Valente's mythmaking two volume masterpiece, known collectively as the Orphan's Tales, was published to wide acclaim, receiving starred reviews from Kirkus, Library Journal, and Booklist. The first novel in the series was also shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award, appeared on the New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age List, and won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. Now, in “Palimpsest”, she weaves a lyrically erotic spell of a place where the grotesque and the beautiful reside and the passport to our most secret fantasies begins with a stranger's kiss…
Between life and death, dreaming and waking, at the train stop beyond the End of the World is the city of Palimpsest. To get there is a miracle, a mystery, a gift, and a curse-a voyage permitted only those who've always believed there's another world than the one that meets the eye. Those fit to make the passage recognize each other on sight and are marked forever by a map of that wondrous city tattooed on their flesh after a single orgasmic night. To this kingdom of ghost trains, lion-priests, living kanji, and cream-filled canals come four travelers: Oleg, a locksmith from a vanished Manhattan; the beekeeper November; Ludovico, a binder of rare books; and a young Japanese woman named Sei. They've each lost something important—a wife, a lover, a sister, a direction in life—and what they will find in Palimpsest is more than they could ever imagine exists…
Official Catherynne M. Valente Website
Preorder “Palimpsest” HERE
“White Witch, Black Curse” by Kim Harrison. Release Date: February 24, 2009. Published by EOS Books. Some wounds take time to heal . . . and some scars never fade.
Rachel Morgan, kick-ass witch and bounty hunter, has taken her fair share of hits, and broken lines she swore she would never cross. But when her lover was murdered, it left a deeper wound than Rachel ever imagined, and now she won’t rest until his death is solved . . . and avenged. Whatever the cost.
Yet the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and when an apex predator moves to the top of the Inderlander food chain, Rachel’s past comes back to haunt her. Literally…
New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison returns to the sinister and seductive Hollows for the newest blockbuster adventure featuring Rachel Morgan, witch and bounty-hunter.
Official Kim Harrison Website
Preorder “White Witch, Black Curse” HERE
“Kitty Raises Hell” by Carrie Vaughn. Release Date: February 24, 2009. Published by Grand Central Publishing. Sometimes what happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas…
Kitty and Ben flee The City That Never Sleeps, thinking they were finished with the dangers there, but the sadistic cult of lycanthropes and their vampire priestess have laid a curse on Kitty in revenge for her disrupting their rituals. Starting at the next full moon, danger and destruction in the form of fire strikes Kitty and the pack of werewolves she's sworn to protect.
Kitty enlists the help of a group of TV paranormal investigators—one of whom has real psychic abilities—to help her get to the bottom of the curse that's been laid on her. Rick, the Master vampire of Denver, believes a deeper plot lies behind the curse, and he and Kitty argue about whether or not to accept the help of a professional demon hunter—and vampire—named Roman, who arrives a little too conveniently in the nick of time.
Unable to rely on Rick, and unwilling to accept Roman's offer of help for a price, Kitty and her band of allies, including Vegas magician Odysseus Grant and Kitty's own radio audience, mount a trap for the supernatural being behind the curse . . . a supernatural being that none of them ever thought to face…
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Interview with Jonathan Barnes
“Bone Crossed” by Patricia Briggs. US Release Date: February 3, 2009. Published by Ace Books. UK Release Date: February 5, 2009. Published by Orbit Books.Car mechanic and sometime shapeshifter Mercy Thompson has learned, the hard way, why her race was almost exterminated. When European vampires immigrated to North America, they found Mercy's people had a hidden talent—for vampire slaying.
Unfortunately for Mercy, the queen of the local vampire seethe has discovered her true identity. She's also furious when she learns Mercy has crossed her and killed one of her vampires. Mercy may be protected from direct reprisals by the werewolf pack—and her interesting relationship with its Alpha—but that just means Marsilia will come after Mercy some other way. So Mercy had better prepare to watch her back…
“Bone Crossed” is the fourth Mercy Thompson novel after “Moon Called”, “Blood Bound” and “Iron Kissed”.
Official Patricia Briggs Website
Preorder “Bone Crossed” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)
“The Vampire Maker” by Michael Schiefelbein. Release Date: February 3, 2009. Published by St. Martin’s Press. Victor Decimus—2,000 year old vampire and vampire-maker—returns, in his most compelling conflict to date…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 Paul Lewis, 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 plane of existence and thus creating an imbalance in the powers of the universe. And between both walks Victor—determined to have his own way and exert control, remains defiant to the end…
Michael Schiefelbein is the author of six books, including the Lambda Literary Award-nominated novels “Vampire Vow” and “Vampire Thrall”.
Preorder “The Vampire Maker” HERE
“The Walls of the Universe” by Paul Melko. Release Date: February 3, 2009. Published by Tor Books. John Rayburn thought all of his problems were the mundane ones of an Ohio farm boy in his last year in high school. Then his doppelgänger appeared, tempted him with a device that let him travel across worlds, and stole his life from him. John soon finds himself caroming through universes, unable to return home—the device is broken. John settles in a new universe to unravel its secrets and fix it.Meanwhile, his doppelgänger tries to exploit the commercial technology he’s stolen from other Earths: the Rubik’s Cube! John’s attempts to lie low in his new universe backfire when he inadvertently introduces pinball. It becomes a huge success. Both actions draw the notice of other, more dangerous travelers, who are exploiting worlds for ominous purposes. Fast-paced and exciting, “The Walls of the Universe” is SF adventure at its best from rising star, Paul Melko (Singularity’s Ring)…
Official Paul Melko Website
Preorder “The Walls of the Universe” HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “Singularity’s Ring”
“The Séance” by John Harwood. Release Date: February 3, 2009 (US Debut). Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. A haunting tale of apparitions, a cursed manor house, and two generations of women determined to discover the truth, by the author of the 2004 International Horror Guild Award-winning “The Ghost Writer”…“Sell the Hall unseen; burn it to the ground and plow the earth with salt, if you will; but never live there . . .”
Constance Langton grows up in a household marked by death, her father distant, her mother in perpetual mourning for Constance’s sister, the child she lost. Desperate to coax her mother back to health, Constance takes her to a séance: perhaps she will find comfort from beyond the grave. But the meeting has tragic consequences. Constance is left alone, her only legacy a mysterious bequest that will blight her life.
So begins “The Séance”, John Harwood’s brilliant second novel, a gripping, dark mystery set in late-Victorian England. It is a world of apparitions, of disappearances and unnatural phenomena, of betrayal and blackmail and black-hearted villains—and murder. For Constance’s bequest comes in two parts: a house and a mystery. Years before, a family disappeared at Wraxford Hall, a decaying mansion in the English countryside with a sinister reputation. Now the Hall belongs to Constance. And she must descend into the darkness at the heart of the Wraxford Mystery to find the truth, even at the cost of her life…
Preorder “The Séance” HERE
“Dexter By Design” by Jeff Lindsay. UK Release Date: February 5, 2009. Published by Orion.Being a blood spatter analyst who hates the sight of blood has always made Dexter's work for the Miami PD tough. But it means he's very neat when it comes to his out-of-hours hobby: murder. Of course, the fact Dexter only kills bad people helps too.
Now Dex is facing a disturbing situation. He's used to blood at work, and blood when he's out with the dark passenger—the voice that guides him on his deadly outings. But he's not sure what to make of the man who says blood is art. Using bodies as his canvas, someone is out there expressing themselves in the most lethal and painful of ways.
If Dexter is to escape the scalpel and avoid becoming the latest exhibit, he needs somewhere to run . . . and he might just have found the perfect place. With his wedding looming, completing his nice-guy disguise, Dexter's honeymoon might just save his skin…
From the most original voice in crime fiction, “Dexter By Design” is an enthralling, macabre and gruesomely entertaining thriller.
Official Jeff Lindsay Website
Preorder “Dexter By Design” HERE
NOTE: “Dexter By Design” is the fourth Dexter novel after “Darkly Dreaming Dexter”, “Dearly Devoted Dexter” and “Dexter in the Dark”.
“The Rise of the Iron Moon” by Stephen Hunt. UK Release Date: February 9, 2009. Published by Voyager. From the author of “The Court of the Air” and “The Kingdom Beyond the Waves” comes a thrilling new adventure set in the same Victorian-style world…Born into captivity as a product of the Royal Breeding House, friendless orphan Purity Drake suddenly finds herself on the run with a foreign vagrant from the North after accidentally killing one of her guards. Her strange rescuer claims he is on the run himself from terrible forces who mean to enslave the Kingdom of Jackals as they conquered his own nation.
Purity doubts his story, until reports begin to filter through from Jackals' neighbours of the terrible Army of Shadows, marching across the continent and sweeping all before them. But there's more to Purity than meets the eye.
As Jackals girds itself for war against an army of near-unkillable beasts serving an ancient evil with a terrible secret, it soon becomes clear that their only hope is a strange little royalist girl and the last, desperate plan of an escaped slave…
Official Stephen Hunt Website
Preorder “The Rise of the Iron Moon” HERE
Read An Excerpt HERE
“Tuck” by Stephen R. Lawhead. Release Date: February 10, 2009. Published by Thomas Nelson. UK Release Date: April 2, 2009. Published by Atom Books. For centuries, the legend of Robin Hood and his band of thieves has captivated the imagination. Now, the old familiar tale takes on new life, fresh meaning, and an unexpected setting…As King Raven, Bran ap Brychan is Lord of the Forest. But his true crown seems out of reach. Bran is still fighting to bring his people justice from the shadows of the green wood. But Abbot Hugo is used to playing the long game and has been watching—and learning.
Abbot Hugo plans to bring the invading Norman marchogi to the forest in force, heralding the start of a campaign to wipe out King Raven and his band once and for all. Their merciless attack, the first of many, marks a dark day for the realm. And the dream of seeing a true king take the throne of Elfael seems increasingly remote. Bran and his few stalwarts desperately need encouragement and reinforcement if they are to survive. Friar Tuck, a most unconventional priest, may just have a solution to their dilemma…
“Tuck” is the thrilling conclusion to Stephen R. Lawhead’s King Raven Trilogy.
Official Stephen R. Lawhead Website
Preorder “Tuck” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)
“Hater” by David Moody. US Release Date: February 17, 2009. Published by Thomas Dunne Books. UK Release Date: February 19, 2009. Published by Gollancz.A man stops in fear and terror in a city crowd and suddenly lunges at a complete stranger, stabbing her to death with the end of his umbrella. A teenage girl stares at her best friend in frightened loathing and without warning, kills her. Seemingly without provocation a man strangles his wife of more than thirty years, with his bathrobe sash. Called “Haters” by the media, these attackers strike without warning in an escalating crescendo of inexplicable violence. In seconds, rational, normal people become remorseless killers. Anyone—or everyone— can become a victim—or a Hater.
When mortal terror roams abroad—what happens to a society? When neighbor fears neighbor, when no one knows whether he may be killed or become a killer—who is safe? And who can be trusted?
In the tradition of H.G. Wells and Anthony Burgess, with the punch of recent hits like World War Z, I Am Legend, and the 28 Days Later film series, this is one man’s story of his place in a world gone mad—a world infected with fear, violence and hate. “Hater” reads like a roller coaster ride through hell, stopping long enough to call into question the issues of trust and fear that can build and destroy civilizations…
David Moody self-published “Hater” in 2006 and sold the film rights to director/producer Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy 1 & 2, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Hobbit) and producer Mark Johnson (The Chronicles of Narnia) without an agent. With the official publication of “Hater”, David is poised to make a significant mark as a writer of “farther out” genre books of all description.
“A head-spinning thrill ride, a cautionary tale about the most salient emotion of the 21st century...Hater will haunt you long after you read the last page...” —Guillermo del Toro, director of Hellboy 1 & 2, Pan’s Labyrinth, and the upcoming Hobbit movies
“David Moody’s Hater is a brutal, eerie, and hugely entertaining novel that grips you with its grim and nihilistic attitude from page one. The attention to detail used to paint an average man’s often frustrating life is as disturbing as the bloody violencethat follows, giving us one of the year’s most readable nerve-shredders.” —Tom Piccirilli, author of The Midnight Road
“With Hater David Moody spins paranoia into a deliciously dark new direction. Eerie, violent and infused with a dark magic. Moody is one scary guy.” —Jonathan Maberry, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Ghost Road Blues and Patient Zero
“Hater touches something universal and truly scary—the little voice in all of our heads that tells us the difference between 'us' and 'them'. Subtly drawn, engrossing characters take us inside a landscape of paranoia and fear.” —David Wellington, author of Monster Island, 99 Coffins, and Vampire Zero
Official David Moody Website
Preorder “Hater” HERE
“The Manual of Detection” by Jedediah Berry. Release Date: February 19, 2009. Published by Penguin Press. UK Release Date: March 5, 2009. Published by William Heinemann Ltd. In this tightly plotted yet mind-expanding debut novel, an unlikely detective, armed only with an umbrella and a singular handbook, must untangle a string of crimes committed in and through people’s dreams…In an unnamed city always slick with rain, Charles Unwin toils as a clerk at a huge, imperious detective agency. All he knows about solving mysteries comes from the reports he’s filed for the illustrious detective, Travis Sivart. When Sivart goes missing and his supervisor turns up murdered, Unwin is suddenly promoted to detective, a rank for which he lacks both the skills and the stomach. His only guidance comes from his new assistant—who would be perfect if she weren’t so sleepy—and from the pithy yet profound Manual of Detection (think The Art of War as told to Damon Runyon).
Unwin mounts his search for Sivart, but is soon framed for murder, pursued by goons and gunmen, and confounded by the infamous femme fatale Cleo Greenwood. Meanwhile, strange and troubling questions proliferate: why does the mummy at the Municipal Museum have modern-day dental work? Where have all the city’s alarm clocks gone? Why is Unwin’s copy of the manual missing Chapter 18?
When he discovers that Sivart’s greatest cases—including the Three Deaths of Colonel Baker and the Man Who Stole November 12th—were solved incorrectly, Unwin must enter the dreams of a murdered man and face a criminal mastermind bent on total control of a slumbering city…
“The Manual of Detection” will draw comparison to every work of imaginative fiction that ever blew a reader’s mind—from Carlos Ruiz Zafón to Jorge Luis Borges, from The Big Sleep to The Yiddish Policeman’s Union. But, ultimately, it defies comparison and is a brilliantly conceived, meticulously realized novel that will change what you think about how you think.
Official Jedediah Berry Website
Preorder “The Manual of Detection” HERE
”The Caryatids” by Bruce Sterling. Release Date: February 24, 2009. Published by Del Rey. In the vein of William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition and Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, The Caryatids looks at the near future and forecasts not just problems, but incredible solutions using technology currently under development.The caryatids are three identical clone sisters: Vera, a pollution expert who’s dealing with worldwide cleanup efforts; Mila, media star extraordinaire and member of the most powerful family-firm in southern California; and Sonja, a medical specialist stationed deep within China’s Gobi Desert. All three have the brains and the talents desperately needed to save a world suffering from global warming, runaway pollution, and uncontrolled political maneuvering. Too bad their explosive family history has left them hating each other…
“A tour de force. . . . Of all the horde of SF novels about clones written since that trope was pulled mewling from its artificial womb, Caryatids is the first one that nails it.”—Benjamin Rosenbaum, author of The Ant King: and Other Stories
Bruce Sterling is the Hugo Award-winning author of ten novels, three of which were selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. A renowned futurist, he has delivered keynote speeches to, or served on the boards of, such diverse organizations as NASA, the Institute for New Cultures Technology in Vienna, and the MIT Media Lab. He has written for many magazines, including Newsweek, Fortune, and Wired, to which he was a longtime contributing editor.
Official Bruce Sterling Wikipedia Website
Preorder “The Caryatids” HERE
“Palimpsest” by Catherynne M. Valente. Release Date: February 24, 2009. Published by Bantam Spectra. There is a city you have never heard of. It is a city of dreams and flesh, of night-terrors and exaltation. It is a city that exists as a virus, passed from person to person, on skin and on bone, streets and alleys and factories and orchestral halls crawling and thriving, infinitesimally small, on the bodies of those who have been touched by Palimpsest. And once you have entered this place, once you have tasted it, you will do anything to get back…Catherynne M. Valente's mythmaking two volume masterpiece, known collectively as the Orphan's Tales, was published to wide acclaim, receiving starred reviews from Kirkus, Library Journal, and Booklist. The first novel in the series was also shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award, appeared on the New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age List, and won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. Now, in “Palimpsest”, she weaves a lyrically erotic spell of a place where the grotesque and the beautiful reside and the passport to our most secret fantasies begins with a stranger's kiss…
Between life and death, dreaming and waking, at the train stop beyond the End of the World is the city of Palimpsest. To get there is a miracle, a mystery, a gift, and a curse-a voyage permitted only those who've always believed there's another world than the one that meets the eye. Those fit to make the passage recognize each other on sight and are marked forever by a map of that wondrous city tattooed on their flesh after a single orgasmic night. To this kingdom of ghost trains, lion-priests, living kanji, and cream-filled canals come four travelers: Oleg, a locksmith from a vanished Manhattan; the beekeeper November; Ludovico, a binder of rare books; and a young Japanese woman named Sei. They've each lost something important—a wife, a lover, a sister, a direction in life—and what they will find in Palimpsest is more than they could ever imagine exists…
Official Catherynne M. Valente Website
Preorder “Palimpsest” HERE
“White Witch, Black Curse” by Kim Harrison. Release Date: February 24, 2009. Published by EOS Books. Some wounds take time to heal . . . and some scars never fade.Rachel Morgan, kick-ass witch and bounty hunter, has taken her fair share of hits, and broken lines she swore she would never cross. But when her lover was murdered, it left a deeper wound than Rachel ever imagined, and now she won’t rest until his death is solved . . . and avenged. Whatever the cost.
Yet the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and when an apex predator moves to the top of the Inderlander food chain, Rachel’s past comes back to haunt her. Literally…
New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison returns to the sinister and seductive Hollows for the newest blockbuster adventure featuring Rachel Morgan, witch and bounty-hunter.
Official Kim Harrison Website
Preorder “White Witch, Black Curse” HERE
“Kitty Raises Hell” by Carrie Vaughn. Release Date: February 24, 2009. Published by Grand Central Publishing. Sometimes what happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas…Kitty and Ben flee The City That Never Sleeps, thinking they were finished with the dangers there, but the sadistic cult of lycanthropes and their vampire priestess have laid a curse on Kitty in revenge for her disrupting their rituals. Starting at the next full moon, danger and destruction in the form of fire strikes Kitty and the pack of werewolves she's sworn to protect.
Kitty enlists the help of a group of TV paranormal investigators—one of whom has real psychic abilities—to help her get to the bottom of the curse that's been laid on her. Rick, the Master vampire of Denver, believes a deeper plot lies behind the curse, and he and Kitty argue about whether or not to accept the help of a professional demon hunter—and vampire—named Roman, who arrives a little too conveniently in the nick of time.
Unable to rely on Rick, and unwilling to accept Roman's offer of help for a price, Kitty and her band of allies, including Vegas magician Odysseus Grant and Kitty's own radio audience, mount a trap for the supernatural being behind the curse . . . a supernatural being that none of them ever thought to face…
Official Carrie Vaughn Website
Preorder “Kitty Raises Hell” HERE
“Jailbait Zombie” by Mario Acevedo. Release Date: February 24, 2009. Published by EOS Books. “The Araneum, the worldwide network of vampires, has one standing order: Destroy all zombies. The reason? We must ruthlessly protect the Great Secret—the existence of the supernatural world—from humans. Their disbelief of the supernatural was what kept us vampires safe. Against their growing technical prowess and corporate savagery, what chance did we the undead have? Our best hope for survival was to remain cloaked by superstition and fable. Protecting the Great Secret is what I do for the Araneum. My day job is private detective. My real job is the pro bono work I do as a vampire enforcer.” —Felix Gomez
The suburbs of Denver were bad enough. Now the Colorado mountains are being overrun with the undead—the kind of supernatural folk that spell trouble for Felix Gomez and his kind. To kill an army of zombies run by gangsters, the vampire detective must team up with a precocious teen with clairvoyant powers. But she demands something big in return: she wants to be undead too…
Official Mario Acevedo Website
Preorder “Jailbait Zombie” HERE
“Road Trip of the Living Dead” by Mark Henry. Release Date: February 24, 2009. Published by Kensington Books. Funny, sexy, ghoulish, and fabulous—Mark Henry’s second Amanda Feral novel after “Happy Hour of the Damned” brings Seattle’s favorite fashionable zombie back for more outrageously ghoulish adventures…
Thanks to her friend Gil’s latest money-grabbing scheme gone wrong, Amanda Feral is now zombie non grata at all of Seattle’s hottest events—pure hell for a fashionable undead socialite like herself.
The answer: a road trip with Amanda’s best zombie friend Wendy and the clueless Gil, which will allow his enemies time to cool down and give Amanda a chance to visit her dying mother, a woman who’s never been in touch with her maternal instincts. Along the way they’ll confront unfriendly ghosts, a kraken, and a super-hot werewolf, plus assorted murderous fiends. And it’ll take more than biting wit and a flair for accessorizing for Amanda to get herself and her friends out of this one (semi) alive…
Official Mark Henry Website
Preorder “Road Trip of the Living Dead” HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “Happy Hour of the Damned”
“Raven” by Giles Kristian. UK Release Date: February 26, 2009. Published by Bantam Press UK.
For two years Osric has lived a simple life, apprentice to the mute old carpenter who took him in when others would have him cast out. But when Norsemen from across the sea burn his village they also destroy his new life, and Osric finds himself a prisoner of these warriors. Their chief, Sigurd the Lucky, believes the Norns have woven this strange boy's fate together with his own, and Osric begins to sense glorious purpose among this Fellowship of warriors.
Immersed in the Norsemen's world and driven by their lust for adventure, Osric proves a natural warrior and forges a blood bond with Sigurd, who renames him Raven. But the Norsemen's world is a savage one, where loyalty is often repaid in blood and where a young man must become a killer to survive. When the Fellowship faces annihilation from ealdorman Ealdred of Wessex, Raven chooses a bloody and dangerous path, accepting the mission of raiding deep into hostile lands to steal a holy book from Coenwolf, King of Mercia.
There he will find much more than the Holy Gospels of St Jerome. He will find Cynethryth, an English girl with a soul to match his own. And he will find betrayal at the hands of cruel men, some of whom he regarded as friends...
Official Giles Kristian Website
Preorder “Raven” HERE
“Patient Zero” by Jonathan Maberry. US Release Date: March 3, 2009. Published by St. Martin’s Griffin. UK Release Date: April 16, 2009. Published by Gollancz.
From multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author Jonathan Maberry comes a major new thriller which mixes together the best of the New York Times bestselling books “World War Z” by Max Brooks and James Rollins’ Sigma Force novels to kick-off a new series featuring Joe Ledger and the Department of Military Sciences…
When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week there’s either something wrong with your world or something wrong with your skills . . . and there’s nothing wrong with Joe Ledger’s skills. And that’s both a good, and a bad thing. It’s good because he’s a Baltimore detective that has just been secretly recruited by the government to lead a new taskforce created to deal with the problems that Homeland Security can’t handle. This rapid response group is called the Department of Military Sciences or the DMS for short. It’s bad because his first mission is to help stop a group of terrorists from releasing a dreadful bio-weapon that can turn ordinary people into zombies. The fate of the world hangs in the balance…
“Patient Zero is high-octane excitement from beginning to end, and the start of a fabulous new series. Joe Ledger and the DMS have my vote as the team to beat when combating terrorist threats on a grand scale.” —David Morrell, New York Times-bestselling author of First Blood and Creepers
“Jonathan Maberry’s Patient Zero strips today’s headlines and offers a frightening tale of how far extremists will go to succeed. Brilliant, shocking, horrifying, it puts the terror back in terrorist.” —James Rollins, New York Times-bestselling author of The Judas Strain
Jonathan Maberry is the author of “Ghost Road Blues”, first of a trilogy of thrillers with a supernatural bite. He is a professional writer and writing teacher and since 1979 has sold more than 1100 articles, seventeen nonfiction books, six novels, as well as short stories, poetry, song lyrics, video scripts, and two plays. In 2004, Jonathan was inducted into the International Martial Arts Hall of Fame largely because of his extensive writings in that field.
Official Jonathan Maberry Website
Preorder “Patient Zero” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)
Read An Excerpt HERE
Read Reviews via Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review + The Wertzone
“Thicker Than Water” by Mike Carey. UK Release Date: March 5, 2009. Published by Orbit UK. Old ghosts of different kinds come back to haunt Fix, in the fourth gripping Felix Castor novel…
Names and faces he thought he'd left behind in Liverpool resurface in London, bringing Castor far more trouble than he'd anticipated. Childhood memories, family traumas, sins old and new, and a council estate that was meant to be a modern utopia until it turned into something like hell . . . these are just some of the sticks life uses to beat Felix Castor with as things go from bad to worse for London’s favourite freelance exorcist.
See, Castor’s stepped over the line, this time, and he knows he’ll have to pay; the only question is: how much? Not the best of times, then, for an unwelcome confrontation with his holier-than-thou brother, Matthew. And just when he thinks things can't possibly get any worse, along comes Father Gwillam and the Anathemata. Oh joy…
Official Mike Carey Website
Preorder “Thicker Than Water” HERE
“Seeds of Earth” by Michael Cobley. Release Date: March 5, 2009. Published by Orbit UK.
First contact was not supposed to be like this. The first intelligent species to encounter Mankind attacked without warning and swarmed locust-like through the solar system. Merciless. Relentless. Unstoppable. With little hope of halting the savage invasion, Earth’s last, desperate roll of the dice was to send out three colony ships, seeds of Earth, to different parts of the galaxy. Earth may perish but the human race would live on . . . somewhere.
150 years later, the human colony on the planet Darien has established a new world for Humanity and forged a peaceful relationship with the planet’s indigenous race, the scholarly, enigmatic Uvovo. But there are secrets buried beneath the surface of Darien’s forest moon. Secrets that go back to an apocalyptic battle fought between ancient forerunner races at the dawn of galactic civilization.
Life is about to change for the last children of Earth, as surprises spring from below and above. How will the Darien colonists react when all they have worked for is overturned at a stroke? And what choices will the Uvovo make when their true nature is revealed and the skies grow dark with enemies?
“Seeds of Earth” is the first volume in Michael Cobley’s Humanity’s Fire sequence—a multi-layered, 21st century take on the classic tropes of space opera by a bold new voice in British science fiction.
Official Michael Cobley Website
Preorder “Seeds of Earth” HERE
“Vlad: The Last Confession” by C.C. Humphreys. UK Release Date: March 5, 2009. Published by Orion. Dracula. A name of horror, depravity and the darkest sensuality…
Yet the real Dracula was just as alluring, just as terrifying, his story not of a monster but of a man and a contradiction. For the one they called 'The Devil's Son' was both tyrant and lawgiver, crusader and mass slaughterer, torturer and hero, lover and murderer.
His tale is told by those who knew him best. The only woman he ever loved and whom he has to sacrifice. His closest comrade and traitor. And his priest, betraying the secrets of the confessional to reveal the mind of the man history would forever remember as Tepes—'The Impaler'.
But Vlad's actions defy such labels. His extraordinary life burns with passion, taking him from his years as hostage to the Turk, through torture, battle, triumph and betrayal, ultimately to a last crusade—there perhaps, beneath the twin banners of the Dragon and the Cross, to find redemption for his innumerable sins.
“Vlad: The Last Confession” spins legend and facts together into a monumental novel of blood, love and terror. This is the true story of Dracula as it has never been told before…
Official C.C. Humphreys Website
Preorder “Vlad: The Last Confession” HERE
“Hell’s Horizon” by D.B. Shan. UK Release Date: March 9, 2009. Published by Voyager. “Hell’s Horizon” is the second volume—after “Procession of the Dead”—in a noirish, gritty urban fantasy series for adults from the bestselling author otherwise known as Darren Shan…
The Cardinal is the City and the City is The Cardinal. They are joined at the soul. When Al Jeery is seconded by The Cardinal from guard duties at Party Central to investigate the murder of a woman at a hotel, he little suspects that the dead woman will turn out to be his girlfriend. Soon he is involved in a terrifying mystery that draws in the dead, the city's Incan forefathers, the imposing figure of The Cardinal himself, and the near-mythical assassin, Paucar Wami.
Wami is a law unto himself, a shadowy, mysterious figure who can apparently kill anyone he chooses without fear of punishment or retribution. And Al is about to find out that he has a lot more in common with Wami than he could ever have imagined...
Official D.B. Shan Website
Preorder “Hell’s Horizon” HERE
“The Warded Man” by Peter V. Brett. Release Date: March 10, 2009 (US Debut). Published by Del Rey. “There’s a wide world out there, for those willing to brave the dark . . . ”
As darkness falls each night, the corelings rise, demons who well up from the ground like hellish steam. They possess supernatural strength and burn with a consuming hatred of humanity—ready to slaughter anyone unlucky enough to be outside a warded building after sunset.
When tragedy strikes his tiny village and his family, young Arlen decides to brave the night roads as the kingdom’s Messengers do: facing the demons across thin air, with only the barrier of dirt-drawn wards to protect him.
Soon, armed with a mysterious set of fighting wards, Arlen discovers an ancient artifact and becomes a legendary demon-fighter—the Warded Man. With the help of Leesha, a brave, expert healer, and Rojer, whose music can hold demons at bay, Arlen attempts something not dreamt of since ancient times: a stand against the night…
“There is much to admire in Peter Brett’s writing, and his concept is brilliant. Action and suspense all the way.” —Terry Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of The Gypsy Morph
“Tremendously readable . . . a great adventure novel.”—Charlaine Harris, New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse series
Official The Warded Man Forum
Preorder “The Warded Man” HERE
NOTE: “The Warded Man” was released in the UK on September 1, 2008 under the title, “The Painted Man” (Harper Voyager), and is the first book in the Demon Trilogy. Reviews of the book can be found via Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review, NextRead, SFRevu, and The Wertzone. A review from Fantasy Book Critic will be posted in the near future.
“The Mystery of Grace” by Charles de Lint. Release Date: March 17, 2009. Published by Tor Books. Three years after his last major adult novel, Charles de Lint returns with a new tale of magic, loss, and redemption. Centered on a remarkable female protagonist and entirely self-contained, this is modern contemporary fantasy as invented and pioneered by de Lint himself…
Altagracia—her friends call her Grace—has a tattoo of Nuestra Señora de Altagracia on her shoulder; she’s got a Ford Motor Company tattoo running down her leg, and she has grease worked so deep into her hands that it’'ll never wash out.
Grace works at Sanchez Motor Works, customizing hot rods. A few blocks around her small apartment building is all her world—from the grocery store where she buys beans, tamales, and cigarettes, to the library, the little record shop, and the Solona Music Hall. Which is where she meets John Burns, just two weeks too late.
Grace and John fall for one another, and that would be wonderful, except that they’re both haunted by unfinished business. Before their relationship can be resolved, they’re both going to have to learn things they don't know about the world of the living, and the world beyond. About why it's necessary to let some things go…
Charles de Lint’s evocative novels—including Moonheart, The Onion Girl, and Widdershins—have earned him a devoted following and critical acclaim as a master of contemporary magical fiction in the manner of storytellers like John Crowley, Jonathan Carroll, Alice Hoffman, Ray Bradbury, and Isabel Allende.
Official Charles de Lint Website
Preorder “The Mystery of Grace” HERE
NOTE: The image above is the John Jude Palencar painting that was done for the book cover to “The Mystery of Grace”. Unfortunately, the painting was deemed too grim for the story, so another piece by the artist has been commissioned. I’m a big fan of Palencar’s artwork, so even though this piece won’t be used for the cover, I still wanted to showcase it :)
“Aftershock and Others: 19 Oddities” by F. Paul Wilson. Release Date: March 17, 2009. Published by Forge. A striking collection of exciting stories by the bestselling author of the Repairman Jack novels…
Aftershock & Others is the third collection of short fiction by New York Times bestselling author F. Paul Wilson, hailed by the Rocky Mountain News as “among the finest storytellers of our times.” The title novelette won the Bram Stoker Award and its companions touch on the past, present, and future—from the inflationary insanity of Weimar Germany (“Aryans and Absinthe”) to disco club–era Manhattan (“When He Was Fab”), to the rationing of medical services in a grim near future (“Offshore”). Wilson’s stylistic diversity and versatility are on display in stories that pay tribute to Ray Bradbury (“The November Game”), use a sentient killer virus as a point-of-view character (“Lysing toward Bethlehem”), and pay unabashed homage to pure pulp fiction in two yellow peril stories (“Sex Slaves of the Dragon Tong” and “Part of the Game”). And finally, Wilson treats us to his popular antihero Repairman Jack at his most inventive: trapped in a drugstore with four killers (“Interlude at Duane’s”).
Praise for F. Paul Wilson:
“F. Paul Wilson is a great storyteller and a thoughtful one. He speculates about real science to generate real suspense while raising troubling, real issues we may all be dealing with much sooner than we expect.” —David Morrell, New York Times-bestselling author of First Blood and Creepers
“F. Paul Wilson is a writer’s writer, and I grab anything he’s written with enthusiasm.” —Joe R. Landsdale, author of Freezer Burn
“Like the best of Dean Koontz’s work,Wilson’s work combines an action-adventure yarn with a touch of the fantastic.” —The Denver Post
Official F. Paul Wilson Website
Preorder “Aftershock and Others: 19 Oddities” HERE
“One Second After” by William R. Forstchen. Release Date: March 17, 2009. Published by Forge. An end-of-the-world novel to rank with The Stand and Lucifer’s Hammer…
The world is coming to an end.
Is it the Mayan 2012 apocalypse?
The Rapture? Islamic terrorists?
Or high-tech weapons from hell?
Overnight, the world’s trains, planes, cars, trucks, phones, computers, power plants, electronics, and electrical equipment come to a screeching stop. Looting, food riots, and insurrection engulf the globe as the End Time descends. Can it be stopped? A small mountain village in the American South is humanity’s last best hope…
“Civilization slides into the abyss of a new dark age in this horrifying apocalyptic novel. Forstchen has put Bin Laden’s wet dream on paper and, in the process, taken civilization straight to the rack.” —Stephen Coonts, New York Times-bestselling author of The Assassin
“Good storytelling consists very simply of creating characters so believable that the reader forms a deep bond. Forstchen did such a damned fine job with One Second After that shortly after the first page, I had been reeled in hook, line, and sinker.” —David Hagberg, USA Today-bestselling author of Dance with the Dragon
William R. Forstchen, PhD, is a professor of history at Montreat College in Montreat, North Carolina. He received his doctorate from Purdue University and specialized in the American Civil War. He is the coauthor of a New York Times bestselling series of Civil War novels, including Grant Comes East and Day of Retreat.
Official William R. Forstchen Website
Preorder “One Second After” HERE
”The Adamantine Palace” by Stephen Deas. UK Release Date: March 19, 2009. Published by Gollancz. The Adamantine Palace lies at the centre of an empire that grew out of ashes. Once dragons ruled the world and man was little more than prey. Then a way of subduing the dragons alchemically was discovered and now the dragons are bred to be little more than mounts for knights and highly valued tokens in the diplomatic power-players that underpin the rule of the competing aristocratic houses. The Empire has grown fat.
And now one man wants it for himself. A man prepared to poison the king just as he has poisoned his own father. A man prepared to murder his lover and bed her daughter. A man fit to be king? But unknown to him there are flames on the way. A single dragon has gone missing. And even one dragon on the loose—unsubdued, returned to its full intelligence, its fury full—could spell disaster for the Empire. Because of the actions of one unscrupulous mercenary however, the rivals for the throne could soon be facing hundreds of dragons…
Stephen Deas has written a fast moving and action-fuelled fantasy laced with irony, razor-sharp characters, dialogue to die for and dragons to die by…
Official Stephen Deas Website
Preorder ”The Adamantine Palace” HERE
Read Excerpts HERE
Read Reviews via Sandstorm Reviews, SFF World + The Wertzone
“The Twilight Herald” by Tom Lloyd. Release Date: March 24, 2009 (US Debut). Published by Pyr Books.
Lord Bahl is dead and the young white-eye, Isak, stands in his place. Less than a year after being plucked from obscurity and poverty, the charismatic new Lord of the Farlan finds himself unprepared to deal with the attempt on his life that now spells war, and the possibility of rebellion waiting for him at home.
Now the eyes of the land turn to the minor city of Scree, which could soon be obliterated as the new Lord of the Farlan flexes his powers. Scree is suffering under an unnatural summer drought and surrounded by volatile mercenary armies that may be its only salvation.
This is a strange sanctuary for a fugitive abbot to flee to—but he is only the first of many to be drawn there. Kings and princes, lords and monsters, all walk the sun-scorched streets.
As elite soldiers clash after dark and actors perform cruel and subversive plays that work their way into the hearts of the audience, the city begins to tear itself apart—yet even chaos can be scripted.
There is a malevolent will at work in Scree, one that has a lesson for the entire land: nations can be manipulated, prophecies perverted and Gods denied.
Nothing lies beyond the reach of a shadow, and no matter how great a man’s power, there are some things he cannot be protected from…
Official Tom Lloyd Website
Preorder “The Twilight Herald” HERE
NOTE: For a full look at Pyr Book’s Upcoming Spring/Summer 2009 schedule, check out the Pyr Blog post HERE or Download the Catalog HERE.
“Midwinter” by Matthew Sturges. Release Date: March 24, 2009. Published by Pyr Books. Winter comes to the land only once in a hundred years. But the snow covers ancient secrets—secrets that could topple a kingdom…
Mauritaine was a war hero, a captain in the Seelie Army. Then he was accused of treason and sentenced to life without parole at Crere Sulace, a dark and ancient prison in the mountains, far from the City Emerald. But now the Seelie Queen—Regina Titania herself—has offered him one last chance to redeem himself, an opportunity to regain his freedom and his honor.
Unfortunately, it’s a suicide mission, which is why only Mauritaine and the few prisoners he trusts enough to accompany him, would even dare attempt it: Raieve, beautiful and harsh, an emissary from a foreign land caught in the wrong place at the wrong time; Perrin Alt, Lord Silverdun, a nobleman imprisoned as a result of political intrigues so Byzantine that not even he understands them; and Brian Satterly, a human physicist, apprehended searching for the human victims of the faery changeling trade.
Meanwhile, dark forces are at work at home and abroad. In the Seelie kingdom, the reluctant soldier Purane-Es burns with hatred for Mauritaine, and plots to steal the one thing that remains to him: his wife. Across the border, the black artist Hy Pezho courts the whim of Mab, offering a deadly weapon that could allow the Unseelie in their flying cities to crush Titania and her army once and for all.
With time running out, Mauritaine and his companions must cross the deadly Contested Lands filled with dire magical fallout from wars past. They will confront mounted patrols, brigands, and a traitor in their midst. And before they reach their destination, as the Unseelie Armies led by Queen Mab approach the border, Mauritaine must decide between his own freedom and the fate of the very land that has forsaken him…
Official Matthew Sturges Blog
Preorder “Midwinter” HERE
“One” by Conrad Williams. Release Date: April 2, 2009. Published by Virgin Books. This is the United Kingdom, but it's no country you know. No place you ever want to see, even in the howling, shuttered madness of your worst dreams. You survived. One man…
You walk because you have to. You have no choice. At the end of this molten road, running along the spine of a burned, battered country, your little boy is either alive or dead. You have to know. You have to find an end to it all. One hope…
The sky crawls with thick, venomous cloud. and burning red rain. The land is a scorched sprawl of rubble and corpses. Rats have risen from the depths to gorge on the carrion. A strange, glittering dust coats everything. The dust hides a terrible secret. New horrors are taking root. You walk on. One chance…
Official Conrad Williams Website
Preorder “One” HERE
NOTE: The author is offering the First Chapter (PDF) of “One” to anybody who is interested, absolutely free! All you have to do is email Conrad Williams HERE.
“Red-Headed Stepchild” by Jaye Wells. Release Date: April 2, 2009. Published by Orbit UK.
In a world where being of mixed-blood is a major liability, Sabina doesn’t really fit in. And being an assassin—the only profession fit for an outcast—doesn't help matters. But she's never brought her work home. Until now.
Her latest mission is uncomfortably complex, and threatens the fragile peace between the vampire and mage races. As Sabina scrambles to figure out which side she's on, she uncovers a tangled political web, some nasty facts about her family and some unexpected new talents. Any of these things could be worryingly life-changing, but together, they could be fatal…
Official Jaye Wells Blog
Preorder “Red-Headed Stepchild” HERE
“The Absence” by Bill Hussey. UK Release Date: April 2, 2009. Published by Bloody Books. From the author of “Through a Glass, Darkly” comes a new tale of horror inspired by ancient myths and religions…
It was a tragic accident. That is what his family tells young Joe Nightingale who is tormented by visions of his mother’s death.
Now, seven months after the fatal car crash, the Nightingales receive some unexpected news. They have inherited a house from a distant relative—the reclusive Muriel Sutton. Desperate to renew old bonds, the family decides to spend the summer at Daecher’s Mill. Here they hope to escape the shadows of the past.
But dark mysteries await them. Who are the guests that have been brought here over the years? Why did the late Muriel Sutton murder her strange little sister, Alice? And what is the connection between Joe Nightingale and this lonely Fenland millhouse?
There is also a presence in Daecher’s Mill. It looks and sounds like a little girl, but its eyes are old and its voice runs like water. It is a weaver of shadows. A creature of Absence…
Official Bill Hussey Website
Official Bloody Books Blog
Preorder “The Absence” HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “Through a Glass, Darkly”
“Corambis” by Sarah Monette. Release Date: April 7, 2009. Published by Ace Books. From award-winning author Sarah Monette, comes the spellbinding conclusion to The Doctrine of Labyrinths…
Exiled from Mélusine for the crime of heresy, the once powerful Cabaline wizard, Felix Harrowgate, and his half-brother Mildmay—former cat-burglar and assassin—journey to Corambis to face judgment from a ruling body of wizards. Corambis, however, is a land plagued by civil strife.
Kay Brightmore, the Margrave of Rothmarlin, is part of an insurrection to restore the monarchy in the southern half of the country. In desperation, Kay and his rebels seek out the engine of Summerdown, an ancient magical device rumored to have terrible powers. Once the engine is awakened, only a powerful wizard can stop its awesome potential for destruction. Felix and Mildmay arrive just in time for their greatest challenge—and ultimate destiny…
Official Sarah Monette Website
Preorder “Corambis” HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “The Mirador”
NOTE: “Corambis” is the fourth Doctrine of Labyrinths novel after “Mélusine”, “The Virtu” and “The Mirador”.
“Kings and Assassins” by Lane Robins. Release Date: April 21, 2009. Published by Del Rey. A mesmerizing new voice in dark fantasy, Lane Robins has written a glittering, diabolical tapestry of power, desire, treachery, and a remorseless rage that will rule a kingdom . . . or destroy it…
Controlled by an aristocracy whose depraved whims bow to neither law nor gods, the kingdom of Antyre is now under siege from the only man who can save it. He is Janus Ixion, the new Earl of Last, whose matchless fighting abilities and leadership strike terror in Antyre's powerful noble houses.
For Janus is the illegitimate son who has returned from brutal slums to reclaim his birthright. And he will go to any lengths to become king and reverse his country's decline. But with a conquering foreign prince sowing chaos throughout the kingdom, Janus must battle the terrifying power of Antyre's forgotten god, one who has gifted Janus' vengeful wife with mysterious, dangerous skills. And as Antyre nears irrevocable collapse, Janus' manipulations and all-consuming ambition will force him and his country to choose between the rule of resurgent gods . . . or a victor's throne of ashes…
Official Lane Robins Website
Preorder “Kings and Assassins” HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “Maledicte”
NOTE: “Kings and Assassins” is set a few years after the events of “Maledicte”.
“Blood of Ambrose” by James Enge. Release Date: April 21, 2009. Published by Pyr Books. Behind the king's life stands the menacing Protector, and beyond him lies the Protector's Shadow...
Centuries after the death of Uthar the Great, the throne of the Ontilian Empire lies vacant. The late emperor's brother-in-law and murderer, Lord Urdhven, appoints himself Protector to his nephew, young King Lathmar VII, and sets out to kill anyone who stands between himself and mastery of the empire, including the king himself and his ancient but still formidable ancestress, Ambrosia Viviana.
When Ambrosia is accused of witchcraft and put to trial by combat, she is forced to play her trump card and call on her brother, Morlock Ambrosius—stateless person, master of all magical makers, deadly swordsman, and hopeless drunk.
As ministers of the king, they carry on the battle, magical and mundane, against the Protector and his shadowy patron. But all their struggles will be wasted unless the young king finds the strength to rule in his own right and his own name…
Official James Enge Website
Preorder “Blood of Ambrose” HERE
“God of Clocks” by Alan Campbell. US Release Date: April 28, 2009. Published by Bantam Spectra. UK Release Date: September 2009. Published by Pan Macmillan.
Alan Campbell first introduced readers to the awe-inspiring city of Deepgate and its denizens in “Scar Night”, the opening installment of the Deepgate Codex. He continued the plight of traitor assassin Rachel Hael and the fallen angel Dill in “Iron Angel”. Now, in “God of Clocks”, old enemies and new allies join in a battle the outcome of which could spell the end for all who call Deepgate home…
A portal has been opened in the ruined city of Deepgate, releasing entities that threaten to turn the world into a killing field. In the middle, caught between warring gods and fallen angels, humanity finds itself pushed to the brink of extinction. Its only hope is the most unlikely of heroes including the assassin Rachel Hael, the mutated angel Dill, Mina and the tortured god Hasp.
With time running out, Rachel must prepare herself for the final confrontation. It is one she has both sought and feared. And, one so dangerous, it may claim her heart, her life and her soul…
Official Alan Campbell Website
Official Alan Campbell Blog
Preorder “God of Clocks” HERE (US)
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “Iron Angel”
”The Grand Conjunction” by Sean Williams. US Release Date: April 28, 2008. Published by Ace Books. UK Release Date: May 7, 2009. Published by Orbit UK.
Imre Bergamasc is lost. His search for answers has led him up an alley so blind even his sense of self has become uncertain. Before he can save the galaxy from ruin, he must find the strength to carry on and reclaim his ultimate purpose.
But more than two million years in our future, the fight has changed. Former allies are now enemies, and enemies have taken on entirely new forms. Chased from the very edge of humanity's vast empire into the heart of an ancient conspiracy, he must finally come face to face with Himself, for without the truth of his past, humanity's future will never be secured…
Official Sean Williams Website
Preorder ”The Grand Conjunction” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)
NOTE: ”The Grand Conjunction” is the third Astropolis book after “Saturn Returns” and “Earth Ascendant”.
“Twisted Metal” by Tony Ballantyne. UK Release Date: May 1, 2009. Published by Pan Macmillan. In a completely alien but brilliantly realized landscape, “Twisted Metal” is a powerful story of superb action, barbaric cruelty and intense emotional impact…
On a world of intelligent robots who seem to have forgotten their own distant past, it is a time of war as the soldiers of Artemis City set out to conquer everything within range on the continent of Shull, killing or converting every robot they capture to their philosophy, while viewing their own wire-based minds as nothing but metal to be used or recycled for the cause.
Elsewhere, the more individualistic robots of Turing City believe they are something more than metal, but when the Artemisian robot Kavan sets out on a determined crusade to prove himself, even Turing City can't stand against him. Increasingly tied up with Kavan's destiny is Karel, a Turing robot with elements of Artemis' philosophy already woven into his mind . . . as well as Karel's wife Susan, and their recently created child.
Following the inevitable violence and destruction, Artemisian ambition focuses elsewhere and a journey begins towards the frozen kingdoms of the north—and towards the truth about the legendary “Book of Robots”, a text which may finally explain the real history of this strange world…
Official Tony Ballantyne Website
Preorder “Twisted Metal” HERE
”Fall of Thanes” by Brian Ruckley. US Release Date: May 3, 2009. Published by Orbit. UK Release Date: May 7, 2009. Published by Orbit UK.
The Clans of the True Blood are in disarray, their alliance crumbling and their armies humbled by the merciless forces of the Black Road. And as the Clans cling to what little hope remains, their position is further destabilized by Aeglyss the na’kyrim, who casts a shadow across all as he spirals ever deeper into madness. At the court of the High Thane, Anyara faces a savage struggle for survival against the na'kyrim's possessed agent: Mordyn Jerain, the Shadowhand.
In the Glas Valley, Kanin, the embittered Horin-Gyre Thane, plots a desperate rising against the halfbreed. But ultimately it will be Orisian, Thane of a Blood that no longer exists, who must stand face to face with a darkly transcendent Aeglyss and make the sacrifice—of himself and others—required to end the threat he represents.
As events mount to a climax, the world will change and no side can anticipate the twisted pattern of what lies ahead…
Official Brian Ruckley Website
Preorder “Fall of Thanes” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “Winterbirth”
NOTE: “Fall of Thanes” is the third volume in The Godless World epic fantasy series after “Winterbirth” and “Bloodheir”.
“Garbage Man” by Joseph D’Lacey. UK Release Date: May 7, 2009. Published by Bloody Books.
Joseph D’Lacey has an uncanny ability to focus on issues which give us all cause for concern. We know something is wrong with our world, and if we go on ignoring the signs—like meat farming that grossly exceeds need or landfill sites filling up with unstoppable speed—something very serious will happen before we know it. Now, from the author of “Meat”, comes a very powerful second novel, this time tackling the issue of the environment and landfill sites:
One man, a loner, makes regular visits to a landfill site—an oozing, filthy dump situated perilously close to a local town. A link is formed between the man and the landfill, creating a monstrous outcome: the landfill takes on life. Out of the waste of human society comes a thing, and its enemy is human…
With the same visceral language he employed to such devastating effect in “Meat”, Joseph D’Lacey produces a terrifying situation in “Garbage Man”. Who can win . . . man or the waste that man has created?
Official Joseph D’Lacey Website
Official Bloody Books Blog
Preorder “Garbage Man” HERE
“The Island” by Tim Lebbon. Release Date: May 19, 2009. Published by Bantam Spectra.
Kel Boon was once an agent of Noreela's most secret organization, tracking, observing, and eliminating the Strangers as part of an elite Core team. Until one horrifying encounter left his superior officer—and lover—dead amidst an orgy of slaughter from which Kel has been running from ever since. But the worst was still to come…
Forsaking magic, living as a simple woodcarver, Kel came to Pavmouth Breaks because the remote fishing village seemed a place where trouble would never find him. But when a mysterious island rises from the sea after a cataclysmic storm, his Core training tells him to expect the worst.
How can he warn the villagers—especially the beautiful young witch Namior—that the visitors arriving from the island may not be the peace-loving pilgrims they claim to be? Instead, they might be the advance wave of an invasion the Core had feared all along—an invasion Kel may be Noreela's last best chance to stop…
Official Tim Lebbon Website
Official Noreela Website
Preorder “The Island” HERE
NOTE: “The Island” is the fourth and newest book set in Tim Lebbon’s Noreela universe after the “Dusk/Dawn” duology (Reviewed HERE) and “Fallen” (Reviewed HERE). Tim is also the co-author of the Hidden Cities series (Mind the Gap, The Map of Moments) with Christopher Golden.
“The Burning Skies” by David J. Williams. Release Date: May 19, 2009. Published by Bantam Spectra.
In his electrifying debut, “The Mirrored Heavens”—praised by such distinguished science fiction writers as Peter Watts, Stephen Baxter and Jack Campbell—David J. Williams created a futuristic world grounded in the military rivalries, terror tactics, and political wrangling of our own time.
In “The Burning Skies”, life as U.S. counterintelligence agent Claire Haskell once knew it is in tatters—her mission betrayed, her lover dead, and her memories of the past suspect. Even worse, the defeat of the brilliant and mysterious insurgent group known only as Autumn Rain was not as complete as many believed. It is quickly becoming clear that their ultimate goal is not simply to destroy the tenuous global alliances of the 22nd Century, but to rule all of humanity.
Now it's up to Claire, with her ability to jack her brain into the nets of the enemy, to pick up the pieces. Navigating a complex world filled with both steadfast loyalists and ruthless traitors, Claire must be ready for Rain's next move—so she can make hers. But her true enemy may be one step ahead of her…
Official David J. Williams Website
Preorder “The Burning Skies” HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “The Mirrored Heavens”
“Consorts of Heavens” by Jaine Fenn. UK Release Date: May 21, 2009. Published by Gollancz. From the author of “Principles of Angels”, comes a new novel set in that same universe…
When a naked, amnesiac stranger is found outside a remote highland village, he is taken in by Kerin, a widow whose unconventional ways are tolerated because her son Damaru is ‘skytouched’—he appears simple, but is able to affect matter.
All skytouched are tested by the Beloved Daughter, the living goddess who rules the world from the City of Light. If he's found worthy, Damaru will become a Consort of the skymothers, the Gods of this world.
So Kerin and the stranger, nicknamed Sais, accompany Damaru to the City. Accompanying them is a priest who’s helping Sais get back his missing past. But as Sais recovers his memory, he discovers the true nature of the world—and the unimaginable fate of the Consorts. It is a fate Kerin will do anything to prevent her son from sharing…
Official Jaine Fenn Website
Preorder “Consorts of Heavens” HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “Principles of Angels”
“World’s End” by Mark Chadbourn. Release Date: May 26, 2009 (US Debut). Published by Pyr Books.
A dragon firebombs a freeway. Shapeshifters stalk the commercial district. The deadly Wild Hunt wreaks havoc on the highway. The Age of Misrule has dawned…
When Jack Churchill and Ruth Gallagher encounter a terrifying, misshapen giant beneath a London bridge, they are plunged into a mystery which portends the end of the world as we know it. All over the country, the ancient gods of Celtic myth are returning to the land from which they were banished millennia ago. Following in their footsteps are creatures of folklore: fabulous beasts, wonders, and dark terrors. As technology starts to fail, Jack and Ruth are forced to embark on a desperate quest for four magical items—the last chance for humanity in the face of powers barely comprehended.
A pedal-to-the-floor, hi-octane fantasy thriller that pitches magic and wonder into a pop culture mash-up of the modern world. Described as “One part Lord of the Rings, one part Illuminatus!, one part Arthurian romance, one part Harry Potter—100 % original!”…
Official Mark Chadbourn Website
Official Mark Chadbourn Blog
Preorder “World’s End” HERE
NOTE: The Age of Misrule trilogy was originally published in the UK from 1999-2001, then was published as an omnibus in 2006 by Gollancz. The US editions of “Darkest Hour” (Age of Misrule Book II) and “Always Forever” (Age of Misrule Book III) will be published by Pyr on June 23, 2009 and July 28, 2009 respectively.
“Warbreaker” by Brandon Sanderson. Release Date: June 9, 2009. Published by Tor Books. After bursting onto the fantasy scene with his acclaimed debut novel, “Elantris”, and following up with his blockbuster Mistborn trilogy, Brandon Sanderson proves again that he is today’s leading master of what Tolkien called “secondary creation,” the invention of whole worlds, complete with magics and myths all their own…
“Warbreaker” is the story of two sisters, who happen to be princesses; the God King one of them has to marry; the lesser god who doesn’t like his job; and the immortal who’s still trying to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of years ago.
Their world is one in which those who die in glory return as gods to live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren’s capital city and where a power known as BioChromatic magic is based on an essence known as breath that can only be collected one unit at a time from individual people.
By using breath and drawing upon the color in everyday objects, all manner of miracles and mischief can be accomplished. It will take considerable quantities of each to resolve all the challenges facing Vivenna and Siri, princesses of Idris; Susebron the God King; Lightsong, reluctant god of bravery; and mysterious Vasher, the Warbreaker…
Official Brandon Sanderson Website
Preorder “Warbreaker” HERE
NOTE: “Warbreaker” was offered as a Free Download on Brandon’s website while he was writing it, allowing readers the unique opportunity to witness & provide feedback on the book as it evolved from its roughest stages to now a final version and publication.
“Green” by Jay Lake. Release Date: June 9, 2009. Published by Tor Books. From the acclaimed author of “Mainspring” and “Escapement” comes “Green”, a spellbinding new fantasy of decadence, love, and magic…
As a child, Green is sold into concubinage and taken to the great merchant city of Copper Downs where she is raised in seclusion by agents of the Factor, a supplier of women to the aristocracy of the region. There she is named Emerald—Green is her own mockery of the name—and trained to be the next consort of the undying Duke of Copper Downs.
Among her other courses of study, Green is also being secretly trained by the felinoid Dancing Mistress. During this training, Green learns of a conspiracy to overthrow the Duke by breaking his spells of immortality—a magic originally stolen from the Dancing Mistress' people. Green also meets Secundo, a priest of Blackblood, one of Copper Downs’ Old Gods. Secundo believes that with the Duke’s undying magic broken, the Old Gods will awaken once again. Reluctantly, Green agrees to help in the plot against the Duke, and amidst the riot and ruin that follows, she flees Copper Downs in search of her home and family.
But after everything she has been through, home can never be what it once was, and when Dancing Mistress finds her, Green knows she must return to Copper Downs to finish what was started. That includes completing the Dancing Mistress' mission, stopping an invading army, placating the Old Gods, and putting an end to the child trade once and for all…
Official Jay Lake Website
Preorder “Green” HERE
“Johannes Cabal the Necromancer” by Jonathan L. Howard. UK Release Date: June 11, 2009. Published by Headline. US Release Date: July 7, 2009. Published by Doubleday.
Johannes Cabal has never pretended to be a hero of any kind. There is, after all, little heroic about robbing graves, stealing occult volumes, and being on nodding terms with demons. His purpose, however, is noble. His researches are all directed to raising the dead. Not as monstrosities but as people, just as they were when they lived: physically, mentally, and spiritually.
For such a prize, some sacrifices are necessary. One such sacrifice was his own soul, but he now sees that was a mistake—it’s not just that he needs it for his research to have validity, but now he realizes he needs it to be himself. Unfortunately, his soul now rests within the festering bureaucracy of Hell. Satan may be cruel and capricious but, most dangerously, he is bored. It is Cabal’s unhappy lot to provide him with amusement.
In short, a wager: in return for his own soul, Cabal must gather one hundred others. Placed in control of a diabolical carnival—created to tempt to contentiousness, to blasphemy, argumentation and murder, but one may also win coconuts—and armed only with his intelligence, a very large handgun, and a total absence of whimsy, Cabal has one year. One year to beat the Devil at his own game. And isn’t that perhaps just a little heroic?
Preorder “Johannes Cabal the Necromancer” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)
“Nights of Villjamur” by Mark Charan Newton. UK Release Date: June 12, 2009. Published by Pan Macmillan. Book One of Legends of the Red Sun, a colorful new epic fantasy series…
The ancient city of Villjamur is threatened by a long-expected ice age, and thousands of refugees from the coming freeze are camped outside its gates, causing alarm and the threat of disease for the existing population. When the Emperor commits suicide, his elder daughter, Rika, is brought home to inherit the Jamur Empire, but the sinister Chancellor plans to claim the throne for himself.
Meanwhile, an officer in the Inquisition must solve the high-profile murder of a city politician and uncovers a conspiracy to solve the refugee crisis. At the same time, a cultist magician is causing a trail of havoc in his obsessive search for immortality and a gateway to another world.
Gradually the separate strands of romance, jealousy, political intrigue and dark violence converge in a superb new action series of enthralling fantasy…
Official Mark Charan Newton Website
Preorder “Nights of Villjamur” HERE
“Fragment” by Warren Fahy. Release Date: June 16, 2009. Published by Delacorte Press. An unexplored island in the South Pacific. A research ship wired for a reality TV show. A discovery that could shape the fate of mankind…
The time is August, 2010. The place is the Trident, a floating TV studio for the reality show “Sealife”, anchored just off Henders Island. Aboard is a cast of fresh young scientists. With a director dying for drama, the tiny island might just be what the show needs. Until the first scientist sets foot on Henders and discovers an ecosystem unlike any ever seen before—an ecosystem that could topple ours like a house of cards. And so the ultimate test of survival begins…
As brilliantly imagined as Jurassic Park and The Ruins, and lavishly illustrated, “Fragment” is an utterly original, all-too-believable journey into alien life at the heart of our own planet and a pulse-pounding work of imagination that heralds a new voice in suspense fiction.
Official Warren Fahy Website
Preorder “Fragment” HERE
“Best Served Cold” by Joe Abercrombie. UK Release Date: June 18, 2009. Published by Gollancz. US Release Date: July 29, 2009. Published by Orbit.
Mercenaries are a wonderful thing. They fight as you tell them, whom you tell them, and when you tell them, for nothing more precious or complicated than money. And Monzcarro Mercatto and her brother Benna are the two most successful, most popular, and most wealthy mercenaries in Styria.
But wealthy, popular mercenaries are not such a good thing. In fact, they're downright dangerous, which is why Grand Duke Orso of Styria arranges to have them dealt with. Permanently. Unfortunately, it is a decision that he may come to regret. For Monza wants revenge and she’s going to do everything she can to get it. But to do that she needs help: Shivers, the Northman, Cosca, the mercenary, Friendly, the former inmate of a vicious prison—all hard men to do hard, bloody deeds. And where revenge is concerned, the harder and the bloodier the better…
A stunning standalone novel from the author of The First Law trilogy, "Best Served Cold" is a dark, twisted, intriguing tale of blood, politics and revenge, told with Joe Abercrombie’s trademark black humor and superb characterization. This is an essential read for all fantasy lovers.
Official Joe Abercrombie Website
Preorder “Best Served Cold” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Reviews of “The Blade Itself” + “Before They Are Hanged”
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Interview with Joe Abercrombie
“Jasymn” by Alex Bell. UK Release Date: June 18, 2009. Published by Gollancz. One day, without warning, Jasmyn's husband died of an aneurism. Since then, everything has been different…
Wrapped up in her grief, Jasmyn is trapped in a world without colour, without flavour—without Liam. But even through the haze of misery she begins to notice strange events. Even with Liam gone, things are not as they should be, and eventually Jasmyn begins to explore the mysteries that have sprung up after her husband's death . . . and follows their trail back into the events of his life.
But the mysteries are deeper than Jasmyn expects, and are leading her in unexpected directions: Into fairytales filled with swans, castles and bones. Into a tale of a murder committed by a lake and a vicious battle between brothers. And into a story of a lost past, and a stolen love. She's entering a magical story . . . Jasmyn's story…
Preorder “Jasymn” HERE
“The Doomsday Key” by James Rollins. US Release Date: June 23, 2009. Published by William Morrow. UK Release Date: July 9, 2009. Published by Orion.
At Princeton University, a famed geneticist dies inside a biohazard lab. In Rome, a Vatican archaeologist is found dead in the heart of St. Peters Basilica. In Africa, a US Senator's son is slain within a Red Cross camp in Ghana. These three murders on three continents bear a horrifying tie: all the victims are marked by a Druidic pagan cross burned into their flesh.
The bizarre murders thrust Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force into a global hunt for a powerful group of industrialists who have a stranglehold on the world's food supply. Aided by two women from his past, Gray flees a trio of high-tech assassins as he pieces together the clues.
But saving the world comes at a high price: Pierce must sacrifice one of the women. Yet even that price might not be enough, for as he soon discovers, the only true path to salvation lies with the Doomsday Key…
Official James Rollins Website
Preorder “The Doomsday Key” HERE (US) + HERE
NOTE: “The Doomsday Key” is the sixth Sigma Force novel after “The Last Oracle” (Reviewed HERE).
“Shadow Magic” by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett. Release Date: July 28, 2009. Published by Bantam Spectra.
In a unique and imaginative blend of epic fantasy, steampunk, humor, and heroism, the acclaimed young team of Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett follows up their epic fantasy debut “Havemercy” with “Shadow Magic”, a novel that is both a standalone and a sequel, set in the chaotic aftermath of a hundred years of war. Here, amidst a treacherous dance of diplomacy and betrayal lie the darkest secrets of all—and a peace more deadly than war itself.
The metallic dragons of Volstov have defeated their Ke-Han neighbors, but what happens after the last shots are fired? Charged with the tricky task of establishing diplomatic relations as well as a viable succession plan are four new characters: two from the conquering kingdom, and two from the defeated land. From their clash of cultures, a lasting peace must be forged. And amidst politics and plotting, the strengths and loyalties of these four men will be tested in the crucible of peace—which may prove deadlier than the crucible of war…
Official Jones & Bennett Website
Official Jaida Jones Blog
Official Danielle Bennett Blog
Preorder “Shadow Magic” HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “Havemercy”
“The Magicians” by Lev Grossman. Release Date: August 6, 2009. Published by Viking. Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he’s still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.
He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. Something is missing, though. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin’s fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart.
At once psychologically piercing and magnificently absorbing, “The Magicians” boldly moves into uncharted literary territory, imagining magic as practiced by real people, with their capricious desires and volatile emotions. Lev Grossman creates an utterly original world in which good and evil aren’t black and white, love and sex aren’t simple or innocent, and power comes at a terrible price…
Official Lev Grossman Website
Preorder “The Magicians” HERE
“Blood of the Mantis” by Adrian Tchaikovsky. UK Release Date: August 7, 2009. Published by Pan Macmillan. The third novel in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s enthralling Shadows of the Apt epic fantasy sequence…
Driven by the ghosts of the Darakyon, Achaeos has tracked the stolen Shadow Box to the marsh-town of Jerez, but he has only days before the magical box is lost to him forever.
Meanwhile, the forces of the Empire are mustering over winter for their great offensive, gathering their soldiers and perfecting their new weapons. Stenwold and his followers have only a short time to gather what allies they can before the Wasp armies march again, conquering everything in their path. If they cannot throw back the Wasps this spring then the imperial black-and-gold flag will fly over every city in the Lowlands before the year's end.
In Jerez begins a fierce struggle over the Shadow Box, as lake creatures, secret police and renegade magicians compete to take possession. If it falls into the hands of the Wasp Emperor, however, then no amount of fighting will suffice to save the world from his relentless ambition…
Official Shadows of the Apt Website
Preorder “Blood of the Mantis” HERE
“Stalking the Dragon” by Mike Resnick. Release Date: August 25, 2009. Published by Pyr Books.
It’s Valentine’s Day and private detective John Justin Mallory is planning on closing up the office early and taking his partner, Col. Winnifred Carruthers, out to dinner, since he’s sure no one else will do so. But before he can turn off the lights and lock the door, they are visited by a panic-stricken Buffalo Bill Brody. It seems that the Eastminster pet show is being held the next day, and his dragon, Fluffy, the heavy favorite, has been kidnapped.
Mallory’s nocturnal hunt for the miniature dragon takes him to some of the stranger sections of this Manhattan—Greenwitch Village (which is right around the corner from Greenwich Village and is populated by witches and covens); a wax museum where figures of Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre come alive; Gracie Mansion (which is haunted by the ghosts of former mayors); and the Bureau of Missing Creatures, a movie set where they’re filming a PBS documentary on zombies and various other denizens of the Manhattan night. As Mallory follows the leads and hunts for clues, he comes up against one dead end after another.
Along the way he meets a few old friends and enemies, and a host of strange new inhabitants of this otherworldly Manhattan. Aided by a strange gremlin named Jeeves, Mallory has only one night to find a tiny dragon that’s hidden somewhere in a city of seven million…
Official Mike Resnick Website
Preorder “Stalking the Dragon” HERE
NOTE: “Stalking the Dragon” is the third John Justin Mallory novel after “Stalking the Unicorn” and “Stalking the Vampire” (Reviewed HERE). Mike has also written several short stories starring Mallory.
“Nova War” by Gary Gibson. UK Release Date: September 2009. Published by Pan Macmillan.
In “Stealing Light”, Dakota Merrick discovered the Shoal's deadly secret. Now she works towards stopping not only the spread of this knowledge, but also the onset of a Nova War as the balance of power within the galaxy undergoes a major realignment.
Found adrift near a Bandati colony world far away from Consortium space, Dakota and her ally, Lucas Corso, find themselves prisoners of the Bandati. It soon becomes clear to them that humanity's limited knowledge of the rest of the galaxy—filtered through the Shoal—is direly inaccurate. For over fifteen thousand years, the Shoal have been fighting a frontier war with a rival species, the Emissaries.
Realizing that the Shoal may be the galaxy's one chance at sustained peace, Dakota is forced to work with Trader in Faecal Matter of Animals to prevent the spread of deadly knowledge carried onboard the Magi ships. But despite her best efforts, it seems that the breakout of a full-fledged Nova War may be inevitable…
Official Gary Gibson Blog
Preorder “Nova War” HERE (Not Available Yet)
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “Stealing Light”
Preorder “Kitty Raises Hell” HERE
“Jailbait Zombie” by Mario Acevedo. Release Date: February 24, 2009. Published by EOS Books. “The Araneum, the worldwide network of vampires, has one standing order: Destroy all zombies. The reason? We must ruthlessly protect the Great Secret—the existence of the supernatural world—from humans. Their disbelief of the supernatural was what kept us vampires safe. Against their growing technical prowess and corporate savagery, what chance did we the undead have? Our best hope for survival was to remain cloaked by superstition and fable. Protecting the Great Secret is what I do for the Araneum. My day job is private detective. My real job is the pro bono work I do as a vampire enforcer.” —Felix GomezThe suburbs of Denver were bad enough. Now the Colorado mountains are being overrun with the undead—the kind of supernatural folk that spell trouble for Felix Gomez and his kind. To kill an army of zombies run by gangsters, the vampire detective must team up with a precocious teen with clairvoyant powers. But she demands something big in return: she wants to be undead too…
Official Mario Acevedo Website
Preorder “Jailbait Zombie” HERE
“Road Trip of the Living Dead” by Mark Henry. Release Date: February 24, 2009. Published by Kensington Books. Funny, sexy, ghoulish, and fabulous—Mark Henry’s second Amanda Feral novel after “Happy Hour of the Damned” brings Seattle’s favorite fashionable zombie back for more outrageously ghoulish adventures…Thanks to her friend Gil’s latest money-grabbing scheme gone wrong, Amanda Feral is now zombie non grata at all of Seattle’s hottest events—pure hell for a fashionable undead socialite like herself.
The answer: a road trip with Amanda’s best zombie friend Wendy and the clueless Gil, which will allow his enemies time to cool down and give Amanda a chance to visit her dying mother, a woman who’s never been in touch with her maternal instincts. Along the way they’ll confront unfriendly ghosts, a kraken, and a super-hot werewolf, plus assorted murderous fiends. And it’ll take more than biting wit and a flair for accessorizing for Amanda to get herself and her friends out of this one (semi) alive…
Official Mark Henry Website
Preorder “Road Trip of the Living Dead” HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “Happy Hour of the Damned”
“Raven” by Giles Kristian. UK Release Date: February 26, 2009. Published by Bantam Press UK.For two years Osric has lived a simple life, apprentice to the mute old carpenter who took him in when others would have him cast out. But when Norsemen from across the sea burn his village they also destroy his new life, and Osric finds himself a prisoner of these warriors. Their chief, Sigurd the Lucky, believes the Norns have woven this strange boy's fate together with his own, and Osric begins to sense glorious purpose among this Fellowship of warriors.
Immersed in the Norsemen's world and driven by their lust for adventure, Osric proves a natural warrior and forges a blood bond with Sigurd, who renames him Raven. But the Norsemen's world is a savage one, where loyalty is often repaid in blood and where a young man must become a killer to survive. When the Fellowship faces annihilation from ealdorman Ealdred of Wessex, Raven chooses a bloody and dangerous path, accepting the mission of raiding deep into hostile lands to steal a holy book from Coenwolf, King of Mercia.
There he will find much more than the Holy Gospels of St Jerome. He will find Cynethryth, an English girl with a soul to match his own. And he will find betrayal at the hands of cruel men, some of whom he regarded as friends...
Official Giles Kristian Website
Preorder “Raven” HERE
“Patient Zero” by Jonathan Maberry. US Release Date: March 3, 2009. Published by St. Martin’s Griffin. UK Release Date: April 16, 2009. Published by Gollancz.From multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author Jonathan Maberry comes a major new thriller which mixes together the best of the New York Times bestselling books “World War Z” by Max Brooks and James Rollins’ Sigma Force novels to kick-off a new series featuring Joe Ledger and the Department of Military Sciences…
When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week there’s either something wrong with your world or something wrong with your skills . . . and there’s nothing wrong with Joe Ledger’s skills. And that’s both a good, and a bad thing. It’s good because he’s a Baltimore detective that has just been secretly recruited by the government to lead a new taskforce created to deal with the problems that Homeland Security can’t handle. This rapid response group is called the Department of Military Sciences or the DMS for short. It’s bad because his first mission is to help stop a group of terrorists from releasing a dreadful bio-weapon that can turn ordinary people into zombies. The fate of the world hangs in the balance…
“Patient Zero is high-octane excitement from beginning to end, and the start of a fabulous new series. Joe Ledger and the DMS have my vote as the team to beat when combating terrorist threats on a grand scale.” —David Morrell, New York Times-bestselling author of First Blood and Creepers
“Jonathan Maberry’s Patient Zero strips today’s headlines and offers a frightening tale of how far extremists will go to succeed. Brilliant, shocking, horrifying, it puts the terror back in terrorist.” —James Rollins, New York Times-bestselling author of The Judas Strain
Jonathan Maberry is the author of “Ghost Road Blues”, first of a trilogy of thrillers with a supernatural bite. He is a professional writer and writing teacher and since 1979 has sold more than 1100 articles, seventeen nonfiction books, six novels, as well as short stories, poetry, song lyrics, video scripts, and two plays. In 2004, Jonathan was inducted into the International Martial Arts Hall of Fame largely because of his extensive writings in that field.
Official Jonathan Maberry Website
Preorder “Patient Zero” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)
Read An Excerpt HERE
Read Reviews via Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review + The Wertzone
“Thicker Than Water” by Mike Carey. UK Release Date: March 5, 2009. Published by Orbit UK. Old ghosts of different kinds come back to haunt Fix, in the fourth gripping Felix Castor novel…Names and faces he thought he'd left behind in Liverpool resurface in London, bringing Castor far more trouble than he'd anticipated. Childhood memories, family traumas, sins old and new, and a council estate that was meant to be a modern utopia until it turned into something like hell . . . these are just some of the sticks life uses to beat Felix Castor with as things go from bad to worse for London’s favourite freelance exorcist.
See, Castor’s stepped over the line, this time, and he knows he’ll have to pay; the only question is: how much? Not the best of times, then, for an unwelcome confrontation with his holier-than-thou brother, Matthew. And just when he thinks things can't possibly get any worse, along comes Father Gwillam and the Anathemata. Oh joy…
Official Mike Carey Website
Preorder “Thicker Than Water” HERE
“Seeds of Earth” by Michael Cobley. Release Date: March 5, 2009. Published by Orbit UK.First contact was not supposed to be like this. The first intelligent species to encounter Mankind attacked without warning and swarmed locust-like through the solar system. Merciless. Relentless. Unstoppable. With little hope of halting the savage invasion, Earth’s last, desperate roll of the dice was to send out three colony ships, seeds of Earth, to different parts of the galaxy. Earth may perish but the human race would live on . . . somewhere.
150 years later, the human colony on the planet Darien has established a new world for Humanity and forged a peaceful relationship with the planet’s indigenous race, the scholarly, enigmatic Uvovo. But there are secrets buried beneath the surface of Darien’s forest moon. Secrets that go back to an apocalyptic battle fought between ancient forerunner races at the dawn of galactic civilization.
Life is about to change for the last children of Earth, as surprises spring from below and above. How will the Darien colonists react when all they have worked for is overturned at a stroke? And what choices will the Uvovo make when their true nature is revealed and the skies grow dark with enemies?
“Seeds of Earth” is the first volume in Michael Cobley’s Humanity’s Fire sequence—a multi-layered, 21st century take on the classic tropes of space opera by a bold new voice in British science fiction.
Official Michael Cobley Website
Preorder “Seeds of Earth” HERE
“Vlad: The Last Confession” by C.C. Humphreys. UK Release Date: March 5, 2009. Published by Orion. Dracula. A name of horror, depravity and the darkest sensuality…Yet the real Dracula was just as alluring, just as terrifying, his story not of a monster but of a man and a contradiction. For the one they called 'The Devil's Son' was both tyrant and lawgiver, crusader and mass slaughterer, torturer and hero, lover and murderer.
His tale is told by those who knew him best. The only woman he ever loved and whom he has to sacrifice. His closest comrade and traitor. And his priest, betraying the secrets of the confessional to reveal the mind of the man history would forever remember as Tepes—'The Impaler'.
But Vlad's actions defy such labels. His extraordinary life burns with passion, taking him from his years as hostage to the Turk, through torture, battle, triumph and betrayal, ultimately to a last crusade—there perhaps, beneath the twin banners of the Dragon and the Cross, to find redemption for his innumerable sins.
“Vlad: The Last Confession” spins legend and facts together into a monumental novel of blood, love and terror. This is the true story of Dracula as it has never been told before…
Official C.C. Humphreys Website
Preorder “Vlad: The Last Confession” HERE
“Hell’s Horizon” by D.B. Shan. UK Release Date: March 9, 2009. Published by Voyager. “Hell’s Horizon” is the second volume—after “Procession of the Dead”—in a noirish, gritty urban fantasy series for adults from the bestselling author otherwise known as Darren Shan…The Cardinal is the City and the City is The Cardinal. They are joined at the soul. When Al Jeery is seconded by The Cardinal from guard duties at Party Central to investigate the murder of a woman at a hotel, he little suspects that the dead woman will turn out to be his girlfriend. Soon he is involved in a terrifying mystery that draws in the dead, the city's Incan forefathers, the imposing figure of The Cardinal himself, and the near-mythical assassin, Paucar Wami.
Wami is a law unto himself, a shadowy, mysterious figure who can apparently kill anyone he chooses without fear of punishment or retribution. And Al is about to find out that he has a lot more in common with Wami than he could ever have imagined...
Official D.B. Shan Website
Preorder “Hell’s Horizon” HERE
“The Warded Man” by Peter V. Brett. Release Date: March 10, 2009 (US Debut). Published by Del Rey. “There’s a wide world out there, for those willing to brave the dark . . . ”As darkness falls each night, the corelings rise, demons who well up from the ground like hellish steam. They possess supernatural strength and burn with a consuming hatred of humanity—ready to slaughter anyone unlucky enough to be outside a warded building after sunset.
When tragedy strikes his tiny village and his family, young Arlen decides to brave the night roads as the kingdom’s Messengers do: facing the demons across thin air, with only the barrier of dirt-drawn wards to protect him.
Soon, armed with a mysterious set of fighting wards, Arlen discovers an ancient artifact and becomes a legendary demon-fighter—the Warded Man. With the help of Leesha, a brave, expert healer, and Rojer, whose music can hold demons at bay, Arlen attempts something not dreamt of since ancient times: a stand against the night…
“There is much to admire in Peter Brett’s writing, and his concept is brilliant. Action and suspense all the way.” —Terry Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of The Gypsy Morph
“Tremendously readable . . . a great adventure novel.”—Charlaine Harris, New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse series
Official The Warded Man Forum
Preorder “The Warded Man” HERE
NOTE: “The Warded Man” was released in the UK on September 1, 2008 under the title, “The Painted Man” (Harper Voyager), and is the first book in the Demon Trilogy. Reviews of the book can be found via Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review, NextRead, SFRevu, and The Wertzone. A review from Fantasy Book Critic will be posted in the near future.
“The Mystery of Grace” by Charles de Lint. Release Date: March 17, 2009. Published by Tor Books. Three years after his last major adult novel, Charles de Lint returns with a new tale of magic, loss, and redemption. Centered on a remarkable female protagonist and entirely self-contained, this is modern contemporary fantasy as invented and pioneered by de Lint himself…Altagracia—her friends call her Grace—has a tattoo of Nuestra Señora de Altagracia on her shoulder; she’s got a Ford Motor Company tattoo running down her leg, and she has grease worked so deep into her hands that it’'ll never wash out.
Grace works at Sanchez Motor Works, customizing hot rods. A few blocks around her small apartment building is all her world—from the grocery store where she buys beans, tamales, and cigarettes, to the library, the little record shop, and the Solona Music Hall. Which is where she meets John Burns, just two weeks too late.
Grace and John fall for one another, and that would be wonderful, except that they’re both haunted by unfinished business. Before their relationship can be resolved, they’re both going to have to learn things they don't know about the world of the living, and the world beyond. About why it's necessary to let some things go…
Charles de Lint’s evocative novels—including Moonheart, The Onion Girl, and Widdershins—have earned him a devoted following and critical acclaim as a master of contemporary magical fiction in the manner of storytellers like John Crowley, Jonathan Carroll, Alice Hoffman, Ray Bradbury, and Isabel Allende.
Official Charles de Lint Website
Preorder “The Mystery of Grace” HERE
NOTE: The image above is the John Jude Palencar painting that was done for the book cover to “The Mystery of Grace”. Unfortunately, the painting was deemed too grim for the story, so another piece by the artist has been commissioned. I’m a big fan of Palencar’s artwork, so even though this piece won’t be used for the cover, I still wanted to showcase it :)
“Aftershock and Others: 19 Oddities” by F. Paul Wilson. Release Date: March 17, 2009. Published by Forge. A striking collection of exciting stories by the bestselling author of the Repairman Jack novels…Aftershock & Others is the third collection of short fiction by New York Times bestselling author F. Paul Wilson, hailed by the Rocky Mountain News as “among the finest storytellers of our times.” The title novelette won the Bram Stoker Award and its companions touch on the past, present, and future—from the inflationary insanity of Weimar Germany (“Aryans and Absinthe”) to disco club–era Manhattan (“When He Was Fab”), to the rationing of medical services in a grim near future (“Offshore”). Wilson’s stylistic diversity and versatility are on display in stories that pay tribute to Ray Bradbury (“The November Game”), use a sentient killer virus as a point-of-view character (“Lysing toward Bethlehem”), and pay unabashed homage to pure pulp fiction in two yellow peril stories (“Sex Slaves of the Dragon Tong” and “Part of the Game”). And finally, Wilson treats us to his popular antihero Repairman Jack at his most inventive: trapped in a drugstore with four killers (“Interlude at Duane’s”).
Praise for F. Paul Wilson:
“F. Paul Wilson is a great storyteller and a thoughtful one. He speculates about real science to generate real suspense while raising troubling, real issues we may all be dealing with much sooner than we expect.” —David Morrell, New York Times-bestselling author of First Blood and Creepers
“F. Paul Wilson is a writer’s writer, and I grab anything he’s written with enthusiasm.” —Joe R. Landsdale, author of Freezer Burn
“Like the best of Dean Koontz’s work,Wilson’s work combines an action-adventure yarn with a touch of the fantastic.” —The Denver Post
Official F. Paul Wilson Website
Preorder “Aftershock and Others: 19 Oddities” HERE
“One Second After” by William R. Forstchen. Release Date: March 17, 2009. Published by Forge. An end-of-the-world novel to rank with The Stand and Lucifer’s Hammer…The world is coming to an end.
Is it the Mayan 2012 apocalypse?
The Rapture? Islamic terrorists?
Or high-tech weapons from hell?
Overnight, the world’s trains, planes, cars, trucks, phones, computers, power plants, electronics, and electrical equipment come to a screeching stop. Looting, food riots, and insurrection engulf the globe as the End Time descends. Can it be stopped? A small mountain village in the American South is humanity’s last best hope…
“Civilization slides into the abyss of a new dark age in this horrifying apocalyptic novel. Forstchen has put Bin Laden’s wet dream on paper and, in the process, taken civilization straight to the rack.” —Stephen Coonts, New York Times-bestselling author of The Assassin
“Good storytelling consists very simply of creating characters so believable that the reader forms a deep bond. Forstchen did such a damned fine job with One Second After that shortly after the first page, I had been reeled in hook, line, and sinker.” —David Hagberg, USA Today-bestselling author of Dance with the Dragon
William R. Forstchen, PhD, is a professor of history at Montreat College in Montreat, North Carolina. He received his doctorate from Purdue University and specialized in the American Civil War. He is the coauthor of a New York Times bestselling series of Civil War novels, including Grant Comes East and Day of Retreat.
Official William R. Forstchen Website
Preorder “One Second After” HERE
”The Adamantine Palace” by Stephen Deas. UK Release Date: March 19, 2009. Published by Gollancz. The Adamantine Palace lies at the centre of an empire that grew out of ashes. Once dragons ruled the world and man was little more than prey. Then a way of subduing the dragons alchemically was discovered and now the dragons are bred to be little more than mounts for knights and highly valued tokens in the diplomatic power-players that underpin the rule of the competing aristocratic houses. The Empire has grown fat.And now one man wants it for himself. A man prepared to poison the king just as he has poisoned his own father. A man prepared to murder his lover and bed her daughter. A man fit to be king? But unknown to him there are flames on the way. A single dragon has gone missing. And even one dragon on the loose—unsubdued, returned to its full intelligence, its fury full—could spell disaster for the Empire. Because of the actions of one unscrupulous mercenary however, the rivals for the throne could soon be facing hundreds of dragons…
Stephen Deas has written a fast moving and action-fuelled fantasy laced with irony, razor-sharp characters, dialogue to die for and dragons to die by…
Official Stephen Deas Website
Preorder ”The Adamantine Palace” HERE
Read Excerpts HERE
Read Reviews via Sandstorm Reviews, SFF World + The Wertzone
“The Twilight Herald” by Tom Lloyd. Release Date: March 24, 2009 (US Debut). Published by Pyr Books.Lord Bahl is dead and the young white-eye, Isak, stands in his place. Less than a year after being plucked from obscurity and poverty, the charismatic new Lord of the Farlan finds himself unprepared to deal with the attempt on his life that now spells war, and the possibility of rebellion waiting for him at home.
Now the eyes of the land turn to the minor city of Scree, which could soon be obliterated as the new Lord of the Farlan flexes his powers. Scree is suffering under an unnatural summer drought and surrounded by volatile mercenary armies that may be its only salvation.
This is a strange sanctuary for a fugitive abbot to flee to—but he is only the first of many to be drawn there. Kings and princes, lords and monsters, all walk the sun-scorched streets.
As elite soldiers clash after dark and actors perform cruel and subversive plays that work their way into the hearts of the audience, the city begins to tear itself apart—yet even chaos can be scripted.
There is a malevolent will at work in Scree, one that has a lesson for the entire land: nations can be manipulated, prophecies perverted and Gods denied.
Nothing lies beyond the reach of a shadow, and no matter how great a man’s power, there are some things he cannot be protected from…
Official Tom Lloyd Website
Preorder “The Twilight Herald” HERE
NOTE: For a full look at Pyr Book’s Upcoming Spring/Summer 2009 schedule, check out the Pyr Blog post HERE or Download the Catalog HERE.
“Midwinter” by Matthew Sturges. Release Date: March 24, 2009. Published by Pyr Books. Winter comes to the land only once in a hundred years. But the snow covers ancient secrets—secrets that could topple a kingdom…Mauritaine was a war hero, a captain in the Seelie Army. Then he was accused of treason and sentenced to life without parole at Crere Sulace, a dark and ancient prison in the mountains, far from the City Emerald. But now the Seelie Queen—Regina Titania herself—has offered him one last chance to redeem himself, an opportunity to regain his freedom and his honor.
Unfortunately, it’s a suicide mission, which is why only Mauritaine and the few prisoners he trusts enough to accompany him, would even dare attempt it: Raieve, beautiful and harsh, an emissary from a foreign land caught in the wrong place at the wrong time; Perrin Alt, Lord Silverdun, a nobleman imprisoned as a result of political intrigues so Byzantine that not even he understands them; and Brian Satterly, a human physicist, apprehended searching for the human victims of the faery changeling trade.
Meanwhile, dark forces are at work at home and abroad. In the Seelie kingdom, the reluctant soldier Purane-Es burns with hatred for Mauritaine, and plots to steal the one thing that remains to him: his wife. Across the border, the black artist Hy Pezho courts the whim of Mab, offering a deadly weapon that could allow the Unseelie in their flying cities to crush Titania and her army once and for all.
With time running out, Mauritaine and his companions must cross the deadly Contested Lands filled with dire magical fallout from wars past. They will confront mounted patrols, brigands, and a traitor in their midst. And before they reach their destination, as the Unseelie Armies led by Queen Mab approach the border, Mauritaine must decide between his own freedom and the fate of the very land that has forsaken him…
Official Matthew Sturges Blog
Preorder “Midwinter” HERE
“One” by Conrad Williams. Release Date: April 2, 2009. Published by Virgin Books. This is the United Kingdom, but it's no country you know. No place you ever want to see, even in the howling, shuttered madness of your worst dreams. You survived. One man…You walk because you have to. You have no choice. At the end of this molten road, running along the spine of a burned, battered country, your little boy is either alive or dead. You have to know. You have to find an end to it all. One hope…
The sky crawls with thick, venomous cloud. and burning red rain. The land is a scorched sprawl of rubble and corpses. Rats have risen from the depths to gorge on the carrion. A strange, glittering dust coats everything. The dust hides a terrible secret. New horrors are taking root. You walk on. One chance…
Official Conrad Williams Website
Preorder “One” HERE
NOTE: The author is offering the First Chapter (PDF) of “One” to anybody who is interested, absolutely free! All you have to do is email Conrad Williams HERE.
“Red-Headed Stepchild” by Jaye Wells. Release Date: April 2, 2009. Published by Orbit UK.In a world where being of mixed-blood is a major liability, Sabina doesn’t really fit in. And being an assassin—the only profession fit for an outcast—doesn't help matters. But she's never brought her work home. Until now.
Her latest mission is uncomfortably complex, and threatens the fragile peace between the vampire and mage races. As Sabina scrambles to figure out which side she's on, she uncovers a tangled political web, some nasty facts about her family and some unexpected new talents. Any of these things could be worryingly life-changing, but together, they could be fatal…
Official Jaye Wells Blog
Preorder “Red-Headed Stepchild” HERE
“The Absence” by Bill Hussey. UK Release Date: April 2, 2009. Published by Bloody Books. From the author of “Through a Glass, Darkly” comes a new tale of horror inspired by ancient myths and religions…It was a tragic accident. That is what his family tells young Joe Nightingale who is tormented by visions of his mother’s death.
Now, seven months after the fatal car crash, the Nightingales receive some unexpected news. They have inherited a house from a distant relative—the reclusive Muriel Sutton. Desperate to renew old bonds, the family decides to spend the summer at Daecher’s Mill. Here they hope to escape the shadows of the past.
But dark mysteries await them. Who are the guests that have been brought here over the years? Why did the late Muriel Sutton murder her strange little sister, Alice? And what is the connection between Joe Nightingale and this lonely Fenland millhouse?
There is also a presence in Daecher’s Mill. It looks and sounds like a little girl, but its eyes are old and its voice runs like water. It is a weaver of shadows. A creature of Absence…
Official Bill Hussey Website
Official Bloody Books Blog
Preorder “The Absence” HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “Through a Glass, Darkly”
“Corambis” by Sarah Monette. Release Date: April 7, 2009. Published by Ace Books. From award-winning author Sarah Monette, comes the spellbinding conclusion to The Doctrine of Labyrinths…Exiled from Mélusine for the crime of heresy, the once powerful Cabaline wizard, Felix Harrowgate, and his half-brother Mildmay—former cat-burglar and assassin—journey to Corambis to face judgment from a ruling body of wizards. Corambis, however, is a land plagued by civil strife.
Kay Brightmore, the Margrave of Rothmarlin, is part of an insurrection to restore the monarchy in the southern half of the country. In desperation, Kay and his rebels seek out the engine of Summerdown, an ancient magical device rumored to have terrible powers. Once the engine is awakened, only a powerful wizard can stop its awesome potential for destruction. Felix and Mildmay arrive just in time for their greatest challenge—and ultimate destiny…
Official Sarah Monette Website
Preorder “Corambis” HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “The Mirador”
NOTE: “Corambis” is the fourth Doctrine of Labyrinths novel after “Mélusine”, “The Virtu” and “The Mirador”.
“Kings and Assassins” by Lane Robins. Release Date: April 21, 2009. Published by Del Rey. A mesmerizing new voice in dark fantasy, Lane Robins has written a glittering, diabolical tapestry of power, desire, treachery, and a remorseless rage that will rule a kingdom . . . or destroy it…Controlled by an aristocracy whose depraved whims bow to neither law nor gods, the kingdom of Antyre is now under siege from the only man who can save it. He is Janus Ixion, the new Earl of Last, whose matchless fighting abilities and leadership strike terror in Antyre's powerful noble houses.
For Janus is the illegitimate son who has returned from brutal slums to reclaim his birthright. And he will go to any lengths to become king and reverse his country's decline. But with a conquering foreign prince sowing chaos throughout the kingdom, Janus must battle the terrifying power of Antyre's forgotten god, one who has gifted Janus' vengeful wife with mysterious, dangerous skills. And as Antyre nears irrevocable collapse, Janus' manipulations and all-consuming ambition will force him and his country to choose between the rule of resurgent gods . . . or a victor's throne of ashes…
Official Lane Robins Website
Preorder “Kings and Assassins” HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “Maledicte”
NOTE: “Kings and Assassins” is set a few years after the events of “Maledicte”.
“Blood of Ambrose” by James Enge. Release Date: April 21, 2009. Published by Pyr Books. Behind the king's life stands the menacing Protector, and beyond him lies the Protector's Shadow...Centuries after the death of Uthar the Great, the throne of the Ontilian Empire lies vacant. The late emperor's brother-in-law and murderer, Lord Urdhven, appoints himself Protector to his nephew, young King Lathmar VII, and sets out to kill anyone who stands between himself and mastery of the empire, including the king himself and his ancient but still formidable ancestress, Ambrosia Viviana.
When Ambrosia is accused of witchcraft and put to trial by combat, she is forced to play her trump card and call on her brother, Morlock Ambrosius—stateless person, master of all magical makers, deadly swordsman, and hopeless drunk.
As ministers of the king, they carry on the battle, magical and mundane, against the Protector and his shadowy patron. But all their struggles will be wasted unless the young king finds the strength to rule in his own right and his own name…
Official James Enge Website
Preorder “Blood of Ambrose” HERE
“God of Clocks” by Alan Campbell. US Release Date: April 28, 2009. Published by Bantam Spectra. UK Release Date: September 2009. Published by Pan Macmillan.Alan Campbell first introduced readers to the awe-inspiring city of Deepgate and its denizens in “Scar Night”, the opening installment of the Deepgate Codex. He continued the plight of traitor assassin Rachel Hael and the fallen angel Dill in “Iron Angel”. Now, in “God of Clocks”, old enemies and new allies join in a battle the outcome of which could spell the end for all who call Deepgate home…
A portal has been opened in the ruined city of Deepgate, releasing entities that threaten to turn the world into a killing field. In the middle, caught between warring gods and fallen angels, humanity finds itself pushed to the brink of extinction. Its only hope is the most unlikely of heroes including the assassin Rachel Hael, the mutated angel Dill, Mina and the tortured god Hasp.
With time running out, Rachel must prepare herself for the final confrontation. It is one she has both sought and feared. And, one so dangerous, it may claim her heart, her life and her soul…
Official Alan Campbell Website
Official Alan Campbell Blog
Preorder “God of Clocks” HERE (US)
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “Iron Angel”
”The Grand Conjunction” by Sean Williams. US Release Date: April 28, 2008. Published by Ace Books. UK Release Date: May 7, 2009. Published by Orbit UK.Imre Bergamasc is lost. His search for answers has led him up an alley so blind even his sense of self has become uncertain. Before he can save the galaxy from ruin, he must find the strength to carry on and reclaim his ultimate purpose.
But more than two million years in our future, the fight has changed. Former allies are now enemies, and enemies have taken on entirely new forms. Chased from the very edge of humanity's vast empire into the heart of an ancient conspiracy, he must finally come face to face with Himself, for without the truth of his past, humanity's future will never be secured…
Official Sean Williams Website
Preorder ”The Grand Conjunction” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)
NOTE: ”The Grand Conjunction” is the third Astropolis book after “Saturn Returns” and “Earth Ascendant”.
“Twisted Metal” by Tony Ballantyne. UK Release Date: May 1, 2009. Published by Pan Macmillan. In a completely alien but brilliantly realized landscape, “Twisted Metal” is a powerful story of superb action, barbaric cruelty and intense emotional impact…On a world of intelligent robots who seem to have forgotten their own distant past, it is a time of war as the soldiers of Artemis City set out to conquer everything within range on the continent of Shull, killing or converting every robot they capture to their philosophy, while viewing their own wire-based minds as nothing but metal to be used or recycled for the cause.
Elsewhere, the more individualistic robots of Turing City believe they are something more than metal, but when the Artemisian robot Kavan sets out on a determined crusade to prove himself, even Turing City can't stand against him. Increasingly tied up with Kavan's destiny is Karel, a Turing robot with elements of Artemis' philosophy already woven into his mind . . . as well as Karel's wife Susan, and their recently created child.
Following the inevitable violence and destruction, Artemisian ambition focuses elsewhere and a journey begins towards the frozen kingdoms of the north—and towards the truth about the legendary “Book of Robots”, a text which may finally explain the real history of this strange world…
Official Tony Ballantyne Website
Preorder “Twisted Metal” HERE
”Fall of Thanes” by Brian Ruckley. US Release Date: May 3, 2009. Published by Orbit. UK Release Date: May 7, 2009. Published by Orbit UK.The Clans of the True Blood are in disarray, their alliance crumbling and their armies humbled by the merciless forces of the Black Road. And as the Clans cling to what little hope remains, their position is further destabilized by Aeglyss the na’kyrim, who casts a shadow across all as he spirals ever deeper into madness. At the court of the High Thane, Anyara faces a savage struggle for survival against the na'kyrim's possessed agent: Mordyn Jerain, the Shadowhand.
In the Glas Valley, Kanin, the embittered Horin-Gyre Thane, plots a desperate rising against the halfbreed. But ultimately it will be Orisian, Thane of a Blood that no longer exists, who must stand face to face with a darkly transcendent Aeglyss and make the sacrifice—of himself and others—required to end the threat he represents.
As events mount to a climax, the world will change and no side can anticipate the twisted pattern of what lies ahead…
Official Brian Ruckley Website
Preorder “Fall of Thanes” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “Winterbirth”
NOTE: “Fall of Thanes” is the third volume in The Godless World epic fantasy series after “Winterbirth” and “Bloodheir”.
“Garbage Man” by Joseph D’Lacey. UK Release Date: May 7, 2009. Published by Bloody Books.Joseph D’Lacey has an uncanny ability to focus on issues which give us all cause for concern. We know something is wrong with our world, and if we go on ignoring the signs—like meat farming that grossly exceeds need or landfill sites filling up with unstoppable speed—something very serious will happen before we know it. Now, from the author of “Meat”, comes a very powerful second novel, this time tackling the issue of the environment and landfill sites:
One man, a loner, makes regular visits to a landfill site—an oozing, filthy dump situated perilously close to a local town. A link is formed between the man and the landfill, creating a monstrous outcome: the landfill takes on life. Out of the waste of human society comes a thing, and its enemy is human…
With the same visceral language he employed to such devastating effect in “Meat”, Joseph D’Lacey produces a terrifying situation in “Garbage Man”. Who can win . . . man or the waste that man has created?
Official Joseph D’Lacey Website
Official Bloody Books Blog
Preorder “Garbage Man” HERE
“The Island” by Tim Lebbon. Release Date: May 19, 2009. Published by Bantam Spectra.Kel Boon was once an agent of Noreela's most secret organization, tracking, observing, and eliminating the Strangers as part of an elite Core team. Until one horrifying encounter left his superior officer—and lover—dead amidst an orgy of slaughter from which Kel has been running from ever since. But the worst was still to come…
Forsaking magic, living as a simple woodcarver, Kel came to Pavmouth Breaks because the remote fishing village seemed a place where trouble would never find him. But when a mysterious island rises from the sea after a cataclysmic storm, his Core training tells him to expect the worst.
How can he warn the villagers—especially the beautiful young witch Namior—that the visitors arriving from the island may not be the peace-loving pilgrims they claim to be? Instead, they might be the advance wave of an invasion the Core had feared all along—an invasion Kel may be Noreela's last best chance to stop…
Official Tim Lebbon Website
Official Noreela Website
Preorder “The Island” HERE
NOTE: “The Island” is the fourth and newest book set in Tim Lebbon’s Noreela universe after the “Dusk/Dawn” duology (Reviewed HERE) and “Fallen” (Reviewed HERE). Tim is also the co-author of the Hidden Cities series (Mind the Gap, The Map of Moments) with Christopher Golden.
“The Burning Skies” by David J. Williams. Release Date: May 19, 2009. Published by Bantam Spectra.In his electrifying debut, “The Mirrored Heavens”—praised by such distinguished science fiction writers as Peter Watts, Stephen Baxter and Jack Campbell—David J. Williams created a futuristic world grounded in the military rivalries, terror tactics, and political wrangling of our own time.
In “The Burning Skies”, life as U.S. counterintelligence agent Claire Haskell once knew it is in tatters—her mission betrayed, her lover dead, and her memories of the past suspect. Even worse, the defeat of the brilliant and mysterious insurgent group known only as Autumn Rain was not as complete as many believed. It is quickly becoming clear that their ultimate goal is not simply to destroy the tenuous global alliances of the 22nd Century, but to rule all of humanity.
Now it's up to Claire, with her ability to jack her brain into the nets of the enemy, to pick up the pieces. Navigating a complex world filled with both steadfast loyalists and ruthless traitors, Claire must be ready for Rain's next move—so she can make hers. But her true enemy may be one step ahead of her…
Official David J. Williams Website
Preorder “The Burning Skies” HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “The Mirrored Heavens”
“Consorts of Heavens” by Jaine Fenn. UK Release Date: May 21, 2009. Published by Gollancz. From the author of “Principles of Angels”, comes a new novel set in that same universe…When a naked, amnesiac stranger is found outside a remote highland village, he is taken in by Kerin, a widow whose unconventional ways are tolerated because her son Damaru is ‘skytouched’—he appears simple, but is able to affect matter.
All skytouched are tested by the Beloved Daughter, the living goddess who rules the world from the City of Light. If he's found worthy, Damaru will become a Consort of the skymothers, the Gods of this world.
So Kerin and the stranger, nicknamed Sais, accompany Damaru to the City. Accompanying them is a priest who’s helping Sais get back his missing past. But as Sais recovers his memory, he discovers the true nature of the world—and the unimaginable fate of the Consorts. It is a fate Kerin will do anything to prevent her son from sharing…
Official Jaine Fenn Website
Preorder “Consorts of Heavens” HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “Principles of Angels”
“World’s End” by Mark Chadbourn. Release Date: May 26, 2009 (US Debut). Published by Pyr Books.A dragon firebombs a freeway. Shapeshifters stalk the commercial district. The deadly Wild Hunt wreaks havoc on the highway. The Age of Misrule has dawned…
When Jack Churchill and Ruth Gallagher encounter a terrifying, misshapen giant beneath a London bridge, they are plunged into a mystery which portends the end of the world as we know it. All over the country, the ancient gods of Celtic myth are returning to the land from which they were banished millennia ago. Following in their footsteps are creatures of folklore: fabulous beasts, wonders, and dark terrors. As technology starts to fail, Jack and Ruth are forced to embark on a desperate quest for four magical items—the last chance for humanity in the face of powers barely comprehended.
A pedal-to-the-floor, hi-octane fantasy thriller that pitches magic and wonder into a pop culture mash-up of the modern world. Described as “One part Lord of the Rings, one part Illuminatus!, one part Arthurian romance, one part Harry Potter—100 % original!”…
Official Mark Chadbourn Website
Official Mark Chadbourn Blog
Preorder “World’s End” HERE
NOTE: The Age of Misrule trilogy was originally published in the UK from 1999-2001, then was published as an omnibus in 2006 by Gollancz. The US editions of “Darkest Hour” (Age of Misrule Book II) and “Always Forever” (Age of Misrule Book III) will be published by Pyr on June 23, 2009 and July 28, 2009 respectively.
“Warbreaker” by Brandon Sanderson. Release Date: June 9, 2009. Published by Tor Books. After bursting onto the fantasy scene with his acclaimed debut novel, “Elantris”, and following up with his blockbuster Mistborn trilogy, Brandon Sanderson proves again that he is today’s leading master of what Tolkien called “secondary creation,” the invention of whole worlds, complete with magics and myths all their own…“Warbreaker” is the story of two sisters, who happen to be princesses; the God King one of them has to marry; the lesser god who doesn’t like his job; and the immortal who’s still trying to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of years ago.
Their world is one in which those who die in glory return as gods to live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren’s capital city and where a power known as BioChromatic magic is based on an essence known as breath that can only be collected one unit at a time from individual people.
By using breath and drawing upon the color in everyday objects, all manner of miracles and mischief can be accomplished. It will take considerable quantities of each to resolve all the challenges facing Vivenna and Siri, princesses of Idris; Susebron the God King; Lightsong, reluctant god of bravery; and mysterious Vasher, the Warbreaker…
Official Brandon Sanderson Website
Preorder “Warbreaker” HERE
NOTE: “Warbreaker” was offered as a Free Download on Brandon’s website while he was writing it, allowing readers the unique opportunity to witness & provide feedback on the book as it evolved from its roughest stages to now a final version and publication.
“Green” by Jay Lake. Release Date: June 9, 2009. Published by Tor Books. From the acclaimed author of “Mainspring” and “Escapement” comes “Green”, a spellbinding new fantasy of decadence, love, and magic…As a child, Green is sold into concubinage and taken to the great merchant city of Copper Downs where she is raised in seclusion by agents of the Factor, a supplier of women to the aristocracy of the region. There she is named Emerald—Green is her own mockery of the name—and trained to be the next consort of the undying Duke of Copper Downs.
Among her other courses of study, Green is also being secretly trained by the felinoid Dancing Mistress. During this training, Green learns of a conspiracy to overthrow the Duke by breaking his spells of immortality—a magic originally stolen from the Dancing Mistress' people. Green also meets Secundo, a priest of Blackblood, one of Copper Downs’ Old Gods. Secundo believes that with the Duke’s undying magic broken, the Old Gods will awaken once again. Reluctantly, Green agrees to help in the plot against the Duke, and amidst the riot and ruin that follows, she flees Copper Downs in search of her home and family.
But after everything she has been through, home can never be what it once was, and when Dancing Mistress finds her, Green knows she must return to Copper Downs to finish what was started. That includes completing the Dancing Mistress' mission, stopping an invading army, placating the Old Gods, and putting an end to the child trade once and for all…
Official Jay Lake Website
Preorder “Green” HERE
“Johannes Cabal the Necromancer” by Jonathan L. Howard. UK Release Date: June 11, 2009. Published by Headline. US Release Date: July 7, 2009. Published by Doubleday.Johannes Cabal has never pretended to be a hero of any kind. There is, after all, little heroic about robbing graves, stealing occult volumes, and being on nodding terms with demons. His purpose, however, is noble. His researches are all directed to raising the dead. Not as monstrosities but as people, just as they were when they lived: physically, mentally, and spiritually.
For such a prize, some sacrifices are necessary. One such sacrifice was his own soul, but he now sees that was a mistake—it’s not just that he needs it for his research to have validity, but now he realizes he needs it to be himself. Unfortunately, his soul now rests within the festering bureaucracy of Hell. Satan may be cruel and capricious but, most dangerously, he is bored. It is Cabal’s unhappy lot to provide him with amusement.
In short, a wager: in return for his own soul, Cabal must gather one hundred others. Placed in control of a diabolical carnival—created to tempt to contentiousness, to blasphemy, argumentation and murder, but one may also win coconuts—and armed only with his intelligence, a very large handgun, and a total absence of whimsy, Cabal has one year. One year to beat the Devil at his own game. And isn’t that perhaps just a little heroic?
Preorder “Johannes Cabal the Necromancer” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)
“Nights of Villjamur” by Mark Charan Newton. UK Release Date: June 12, 2009. Published by Pan Macmillan. Book One of Legends of the Red Sun, a colorful new epic fantasy series…The ancient city of Villjamur is threatened by a long-expected ice age, and thousands of refugees from the coming freeze are camped outside its gates, causing alarm and the threat of disease for the existing population. When the Emperor commits suicide, his elder daughter, Rika, is brought home to inherit the Jamur Empire, but the sinister Chancellor plans to claim the throne for himself.
Meanwhile, an officer in the Inquisition must solve the high-profile murder of a city politician and uncovers a conspiracy to solve the refugee crisis. At the same time, a cultist magician is causing a trail of havoc in his obsessive search for immortality and a gateway to another world.
Gradually the separate strands of romance, jealousy, political intrigue and dark violence converge in a superb new action series of enthralling fantasy…
Official Mark Charan Newton Website
Preorder “Nights of Villjamur” HERE
“Fragment” by Warren Fahy. Release Date: June 16, 2009. Published by Delacorte Press. An unexplored island in the South Pacific. A research ship wired for a reality TV show. A discovery that could shape the fate of mankind…The time is August, 2010. The place is the Trident, a floating TV studio for the reality show “Sealife”, anchored just off Henders Island. Aboard is a cast of fresh young scientists. With a director dying for drama, the tiny island might just be what the show needs. Until the first scientist sets foot on Henders and discovers an ecosystem unlike any ever seen before—an ecosystem that could topple ours like a house of cards. And so the ultimate test of survival begins…
As brilliantly imagined as Jurassic Park and The Ruins, and lavishly illustrated, “Fragment” is an utterly original, all-too-believable journey into alien life at the heart of our own planet and a pulse-pounding work of imagination that heralds a new voice in suspense fiction.
Official Warren Fahy Website
Preorder “Fragment” HERE
“Best Served Cold” by Joe Abercrombie. UK Release Date: June 18, 2009. Published by Gollancz. US Release Date: July 29, 2009. Published by Orbit.Mercenaries are a wonderful thing. They fight as you tell them, whom you tell them, and when you tell them, for nothing more precious or complicated than money. And Monzcarro Mercatto and her brother Benna are the two most successful, most popular, and most wealthy mercenaries in Styria.
But wealthy, popular mercenaries are not such a good thing. In fact, they're downright dangerous, which is why Grand Duke Orso of Styria arranges to have them dealt with. Permanently. Unfortunately, it is a decision that he may come to regret. For Monza wants revenge and she’s going to do everything she can to get it. But to do that she needs help: Shivers, the Northman, Cosca, the mercenary, Friendly, the former inmate of a vicious prison—all hard men to do hard, bloody deeds. And where revenge is concerned, the harder and the bloodier the better…
A stunning standalone novel from the author of The First Law trilogy, "Best Served Cold" is a dark, twisted, intriguing tale of blood, politics and revenge, told with Joe Abercrombie’s trademark black humor and superb characterization. This is an essential read for all fantasy lovers.
Official Joe Abercrombie Website
Preorder “Best Served Cold” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Reviews of “The Blade Itself” + “Before They Are Hanged”
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Interview with Joe Abercrombie
“Jasymn” by Alex Bell. UK Release Date: June 18, 2009. Published by Gollancz. One day, without warning, Jasmyn's husband died of an aneurism. Since then, everything has been different…Wrapped up in her grief, Jasmyn is trapped in a world without colour, without flavour—without Liam. But even through the haze of misery she begins to notice strange events. Even with Liam gone, things are not as they should be, and eventually Jasmyn begins to explore the mysteries that have sprung up after her husband's death . . . and follows their trail back into the events of his life.
But the mysteries are deeper than Jasmyn expects, and are leading her in unexpected directions: Into fairytales filled with swans, castles and bones. Into a tale of a murder committed by a lake and a vicious battle between brothers. And into a story of a lost past, and a stolen love. She's entering a magical story . . . Jasmyn's story…
Preorder “Jasymn” HERE
“The Doomsday Key” by James Rollins. US Release Date: June 23, 2009. Published by William Morrow. UK Release Date: July 9, 2009. Published by Orion.At Princeton University, a famed geneticist dies inside a biohazard lab. In Rome, a Vatican archaeologist is found dead in the heart of St. Peters Basilica. In Africa, a US Senator's son is slain within a Red Cross camp in Ghana. These three murders on three continents bear a horrifying tie: all the victims are marked by a Druidic pagan cross burned into their flesh.
The bizarre murders thrust Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force into a global hunt for a powerful group of industrialists who have a stranglehold on the world's food supply. Aided by two women from his past, Gray flees a trio of high-tech assassins as he pieces together the clues.
But saving the world comes at a high price: Pierce must sacrifice one of the women. Yet even that price might not be enough, for as he soon discovers, the only true path to salvation lies with the Doomsday Key…
Official James Rollins Website
Preorder “The Doomsday Key” HERE (US) + HERE
NOTE: “The Doomsday Key” is the sixth Sigma Force novel after “The Last Oracle” (Reviewed HERE).
“Shadow Magic” by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett. Release Date: July 28, 2009. Published by Bantam Spectra.In a unique and imaginative blend of epic fantasy, steampunk, humor, and heroism, the acclaimed young team of Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett follows up their epic fantasy debut “Havemercy” with “Shadow Magic”, a novel that is both a standalone and a sequel, set in the chaotic aftermath of a hundred years of war. Here, amidst a treacherous dance of diplomacy and betrayal lie the darkest secrets of all—and a peace more deadly than war itself.
The metallic dragons of Volstov have defeated their Ke-Han neighbors, but what happens after the last shots are fired? Charged with the tricky task of establishing diplomatic relations as well as a viable succession plan are four new characters: two from the conquering kingdom, and two from the defeated land. From their clash of cultures, a lasting peace must be forged. And amidst politics and plotting, the strengths and loyalties of these four men will be tested in the crucible of peace—which may prove deadlier than the crucible of war…
Official Jones & Bennett Website
Official Jaida Jones Blog
Official Danielle Bennett Blog
Preorder “Shadow Magic” HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “Havemercy”
“The Magicians” by Lev Grossman. Release Date: August 6, 2009. Published by Viking. Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he’s still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. Something is missing, though. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin’s fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart.
At once psychologically piercing and magnificently absorbing, “The Magicians” boldly moves into uncharted literary territory, imagining magic as practiced by real people, with their capricious desires and volatile emotions. Lev Grossman creates an utterly original world in which good and evil aren’t black and white, love and sex aren’t simple or innocent, and power comes at a terrible price…
Official Lev Grossman Website
Preorder “The Magicians” HERE
“Blood of the Mantis” by Adrian Tchaikovsky. UK Release Date: August 7, 2009. Published by Pan Macmillan. The third novel in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s enthralling Shadows of the Apt epic fantasy sequence…Driven by the ghosts of the Darakyon, Achaeos has tracked the stolen Shadow Box to the marsh-town of Jerez, but he has only days before the magical box is lost to him forever.
Meanwhile, the forces of the Empire are mustering over winter for their great offensive, gathering their soldiers and perfecting their new weapons. Stenwold and his followers have only a short time to gather what allies they can before the Wasp armies march again, conquering everything in their path. If they cannot throw back the Wasps this spring then the imperial black-and-gold flag will fly over every city in the Lowlands before the year's end.
In Jerez begins a fierce struggle over the Shadow Box, as lake creatures, secret police and renegade magicians compete to take possession. If it falls into the hands of the Wasp Emperor, however, then no amount of fighting will suffice to save the world from his relentless ambition…
Official Shadows of the Apt Website
Preorder “Blood of the Mantis” HERE
“Stalking the Dragon” by Mike Resnick. Release Date: August 25, 2009. Published by Pyr Books.It’s Valentine’s Day and private detective John Justin Mallory is planning on closing up the office early and taking his partner, Col. Winnifred Carruthers, out to dinner, since he’s sure no one else will do so. But before he can turn off the lights and lock the door, they are visited by a panic-stricken Buffalo Bill Brody. It seems that the Eastminster pet show is being held the next day, and his dragon, Fluffy, the heavy favorite, has been kidnapped.
Mallory’s nocturnal hunt for the miniature dragon takes him to some of the stranger sections of this Manhattan—Greenwitch Village (which is right around the corner from Greenwich Village and is populated by witches and covens); a wax museum where figures of Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre come alive; Gracie Mansion (which is haunted by the ghosts of former mayors); and the Bureau of Missing Creatures, a movie set where they’re filming a PBS documentary on zombies and various other denizens of the Manhattan night. As Mallory follows the leads and hunts for clues, he comes up against one dead end after another.
Along the way he meets a few old friends and enemies, and a host of strange new inhabitants of this otherworldly Manhattan. Aided by a strange gremlin named Jeeves, Mallory has only one night to find a tiny dragon that’s hidden somewhere in a city of seven million…
Official Mike Resnick Website
Preorder “Stalking the Dragon” HERE
NOTE: “Stalking the Dragon” is the third John Justin Mallory novel after “Stalking the Unicorn” and “Stalking the Vampire” (Reviewed HERE). Mike has also written several short stories starring Mallory.
“Nova War” by Gary Gibson. UK Release Date: September 2009. Published by Pan Macmillan.In “Stealing Light”, Dakota Merrick discovered the Shoal's deadly secret. Now she works towards stopping not only the spread of this knowledge, but also the onset of a Nova War as the balance of power within the galaxy undergoes a major realignment.
Found adrift near a Bandati colony world far away from Consortium space, Dakota and her ally, Lucas Corso, find themselves prisoners of the Bandati. It soon becomes clear to them that humanity's limited knowledge of the rest of the galaxy—filtered through the Shoal—is direly inaccurate. For over fifteen thousand years, the Shoal have been fighting a frontier war with a rival species, the Emissaries.
Realizing that the Shoal may be the galaxy's one chance at sustained peace, Dakota is forced to work with Trader in Faecal Matter of Animals to prevent the spread of deadly knowledge carried onboard the Magi ships. But despite her best efforts, it seems that the breakout of a full-fledged Nova War may be inevitable…
Official Gary Gibson Blog
Preorder “Nova War” HERE (Not Available Yet)
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “Stealing Light”
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19 comments:
Holy crap, what a list! I've got a good few already on my to-buy list, but now I'll be adding more :)
You do the best shopping lists, like, evah!
Thanks for the stupendous hard work - you've written in excess of 16,000 words. Well done!
Wow. What a fantastic update. Stupendous stuff and some nice surprises even for me. This is one of the reasons I visit your site every day.
Calibandar
WOW Robert!
YOU SO ROCK!!!
this year is going to be the year of barely getting any sleep with such great titles on the way.
Absolutely lovely list. But since I can't stop noting the titles I'm intrested I wonder when I will read them :) Add to this that this week-end I'll buy a new Playstation... :D
Thanks again for the list. A lot of great books here that I'll need to read.
Wow looks like a great list of titles can't wait to jump right in and start reading them! Is it 2009 yet? Thanks Robert!
Like a vision on a crystal ball I can see my money going away...
What I'm certainly to buy from this list:
Twelve-Kent
Domino Men-Barnes
Dragon in Chains-Fox
Raven-Kristian
Patient Zero-Maberry
Seeds of Earth-Cobley
Adamantine Palace-Deas
Midwinter-Sturges
Blood of Ambrose-Enge
Twisted Metal-Ballantyne
Fall of Thanes-Ruckley
Green- Jay Lake
Johannes Cabal-Howard
Nights of Villjamur-Newton
Best Served Cold- Abercrombie
The Magicians-Grossman
Robert, thanks for including RED-HEADED STEPCHILD in this awesome list. My TBR list just got a lot longer thanks to you!
Just wanted to add that RHS is also going to be available in the US on March 31, 2009. Here's a link for the US version on Amazon, if anyone's interested.
Thanks again!
Very impressive list. Now I know what to read when I'm not writing.
-- Mike Resnick
I haven't even finished with this years books yet and look at them all!
Amazing stuff coming and thanks for all the effort in putting that list together!
I just don't know where to start...
Thanks for the comments everyone! I'm really glad you like the list :)
Wow! Over 16,000 words. I didn't realize :)
Mihai, enjoy that PS3!
Calibander, you can't go wrong with any of those titles you listed :D
Jaye, thanks for the US Amazon link. I forgot to include that!
Mike, I appreciate you stopping by :)
Everyone else, thanks again! I'm already working on Part Three, so there's a lot more titles to look forward to...
Lots of good stuff there.
The full list of titles I'm looking forward to (likely to expand further):
A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin
The City and the City by China Mieville
The Judging Eye by R. Scott Bakker
A Memory of Light, Part I by Brandon Sanderson & Robert Jordan
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett
Watcher of the Dead by JV Jones
Fall of Thanes by Brian Ruckley
The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas
Graceling by Kristine Cashore
The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch
Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
The Cold Commands by Richard Morgan
The Price of Spring by Daniel Abraham
The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
Drood by Dan Simmons
The Deserter by Peadar O Guilin
Time of Disdain by Andrzej Sapkowski
Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson
Ark by Stephen Baxter
Warriors, ed by GRRM and Gardner Dozois
Songs of the Dying Earth ed by GRRM and GD
Suicide Kings edited by GRRM
Traitor’s Gate by Kate Elliott
Zima Blue by Alastair Reynolds
The Rats & the Ruling Sea by Robert VS Redick
The Edge of Ruin by Melinda Snodgrass
Malice by Chris Wooding
The Ace of Skulls: A Tale of the Ketty Jay by Chris Wooding
Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton
Avilion by Robert Holdstock
Dragonfly Falling & Blood of the Mantis by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Above the Snowline, Steph Swainston
Dragon Keeper, Robin Hobb
Hawkwood and the Kings & Century of the Soldier by Paul Kearney
Rides a Dread Legion by Raymond E. Feist
Cyberabad Days & Dervish House by Ian McDonald
The Cardinal's Blade by Pierre Pevel
Turn Coat by Jim Butcher
The Sourcerer’s House by Gene Wolfe
Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry
The Best of Gene Wolfe
God of Clocks by Alan Campbell
Jasmyn by Alex Bell
Unseen Academicals and I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett
The Temporal Void by PFH (US)
The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan (US)
The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett (US)
Thanks for the wonderful list Adam! Just goes to show how much more 2009 has to offer :) And as the next batch of publisher catalogs are released, I'm sure even more titles will come to light...
I'm dumbfounded and hope to find some time to read this post in detail.
Anyway a big thank you for this excellent post.
Thanks for plugging CONTAGIOUS! I hope you enjoy it, and that some of your readers snag a copy. Thanks again!
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