New Scifi and Fantasy Releases: Week of July 11th

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I have a really interesting selection of books to present to you this week. At first the list of new releases was quite paltry so I had to do a bit of searching around to help supplement it, which means that I came across a number of titles and publishers that I've never heard of before.

I have to admit that there is nothing here that really grabs me, though Tribal Ways by Alex Archer seems like it could be worth looking into. If you like zombie books then The Loving Dead by Amelia Beamer might be your cup of tea (especially if you like really creepy book covers) and if you are a fan of gay literature then Steve Berman's anthology of the best gay male speculative fiction of 2010 might appeal to you.

I think YA book readers will be the most satisfied with this week's selection of new releases as they have quite a few to choose from, including Sleepless by Cyn Balog, Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus and Siren by Tricia Rayburn.

As for me, I'm probably going to stick with the books currently in the pile beside my bed, which should keep me busy for this week, at least.

Hope you have a great reading week!




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Tribal Ways (Rogue Angel)
Alex Archer
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Gold Eagle
Release Date: July 13

A frigid spring morning at a Native American archaeological dig erupts into sudden and brutal violence, leaving five people dead and one man gravely wounded. And in a hospital, with archaeologist Annja Creed at his side, the last survivor utters his final words to name his killer—a skinwalker. The skinwalker is feared among the Navajo and Apache. It is witchcraft of a most terrible nature that allows a man to take the shape of a wolf—and kill. But as Annja delves into the mystery of the skinwalker, she finds herself pulled into an underworld of violence and vicious radicals, threaded with legend…and sociopathic intent. In this world, Annja is unwelcome. And in this world, she could be the creature's next victim….


X-Isle
Steve Augarde
Genre: YA
Publisher: David Fickling Books
Release Date: July 13

Ever since the floods came and washed the world away, survivors have been desperate to win a place on X-Isle, the island where life is rumored to be easier than on what's left of the mainland. Only young boys stand a chance of getting in, the smaller and lighter the better. Baz and Ray are two of the lucky few to be chosen, but they soon discover that X-Isle is a far cry from paradise. Ruled by Preacher John, a dangerous religious fanatic, it's a violent, unpredictable place, where terrible things can happen at any moment. The boys hatch an extraordinary plan in order to protect themselves-the construction of a mighty weapon of defense. But can they complete this weapon in time, and are they really prepared to use it to secure their freedom?


Sleepless
Cyn Balog
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Release Date: July 13

Eron DeMarchelle isn't supposed to feel this connection. He is a Sandman, a supernatural being whose purpose is to seduce his human charges to sleep. Though he can communicate with his charges in their dreams, he isn't encouraged to do so. After all, becoming too involved in one human's life could prevent him from helping others get their needed rest. But he can't deny that he feels something for Julia, a lonely girl with fiery red hair and sad dreams. Just weeks ago, her boyfriend died in a car accident, and Eron can tell that she feels more alone than ever. Eron was human once too, many years ago, and he remembers how it felt to lose the one he loved. In the past, Eron has broken rules to protect Julia, but now, when she seems to need him more than ever, he can't reach her. Eron's time as a Sandman is coming to a close, and his replacement doesn't seem to care about his charges. Worse, Julia is facing dangers she doesn't recognize, and Eron, as he transitions back to being human, may be the only one who can save her. . . . Even once they've become human again, Sandmen are forbidden to communicate with their charges. But Eron knows he won't be able to forget Julia. Will he risk everything for a chance to be with the girl he loves?

Cyn Balog's follow-up to Fairy Tale has more wit, more supernatural delights, and more star-crossed romance! Teen girls will love this story of a Sandman who falls in love with his human charge.


The Loving Dead
Amelia Beamer
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Release Date: July 13

Kate and Michael, twenty-something housemates working at the same Trader Joe’s supermarket, are thoroughly screwed when people start turning into zombies at their house party in the Oakland hills. The zombie plague is a sexually transmitted disease, turning its victims into shambling, horny, voracious killers. Thrust into extremes by the unfolding tragedy, Kate and Michael are forced to confront the decisions they’ve made, and their fears of commitment, while trying to stay alive. Michael convinces Kate to meet him in the one place in the Bay Area that’s likely to be safe and secure from the zombie hordes: Alcatraz. But can they stay human long enough?


Wilde Stories 2010
Edited by Steve Berman
Genre: Anthology
Publisher: Lethe Press
Release Date: July 13

A newcomer to San Francisco falls in love too fast despite the warnings of a cadre of ghosts haunting his uncle; a businessman comes to regret his ennui when faced with the machinations of an outsider artist; on a train traveling through a dangerous Russian winter, a passenger encounters a wolf on two legs; a mining colony where love has become dangerous but no less passionate; a young man, mourning the loss of his ballet career, may yet get his chance to fly—these are some of the stories in this anthology, stories chosen from magazines, anthologies, literary journals, and single author collections to represent the best gay male speculative fiction of the past year.
Inside these pages are both authors acclaimed (award-winners Laird Barron, Elizabeth Hand, Tanith Lee and Joel Lane) and fresh voices (Tom Cardamone, Georgina Li) offering the best tales of fantastical and weird happenings befalling gay men.

Isinda (Fallen Dragon, Bk 1)
Rhett C. Bruno
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Tate Publishing
Release Date: July 13

"The majestic land of Isinda is trapped in an era of war and chaos. After the collapse of the mighty Deimor on the bloody fields of the Badlands, a glimmer of peace and unity amongst the warring races has shattered. The people of all kingdoms have retreated into superstition and suffering. In the City of Bronze, a king plots to become a god, imposing his will on any who dare to face him; in the forests to the east, the enslaved Blood Scaldor are forced to watch as their children are sacrificed to satisfy the hunger of angry gods. With the land returned to its bloody past, who will rise up as the Deimor did to bring Isinda under a single banner? Could a brutal king exploit the devastation left in the wake of the greatest leaders in the land, the Twin Blades? Or would a single hero rise from the chains of slavery and illuminate a path of peace that none had ever dreamed of before?


An Empire Unacquainted with Defeat (Chronicle of the Dead Empire)
Glen Cook
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Release Date: July 13

The Dread Empire, a gritty world of larger-than-life plots, nation-shattering conflict, maddening magic, strange creatures, and raw, flawed heroes, all shown through the filter of Glen Cook's inimitable war-correspondent prose. The Dread Empire, spanning from the highest peaks of the Dragon's Teeth to the endless desert lands of Hammad al Nakir, from besieged Kavelin to mighty Shinshan, the Empire Unacquainted with Defeat, with its fearless, masked soldiers, known as the Demon Guard...
An Empire Unacquainted with Defeat collects all of Glen Cook's short fiction set in the vast world of the Dread Empire, from "The Nights of Dreadful Silence", featuring the first appearance of Bragi Ragnarson, Mocker, and Haroun bin Yousif, to the culture-clashing novella "Soldier of an Empire Unacquainted with Defeat"; from "Silverheels", Cook's first published work of fiction, to "Hell's Forge", a haunting tale of cursed pirates and strange lands, appearing here for the first time. Also including a detailed introduction and extensive story notes by Glen Cook, An Empire Unacquainted with Defeat charts the development of this influential American author and the massive, multifaceted world that he created.

Shadow Hills
Anastasia Hopcus
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Release Date: July 13

After her sister Athena's tragic death, it's obvious that grief-stricken Persephone "Phe" Archer no longer belongs in Los Angeles. Hoping to make sense of her sister's sudden demise and the cryptic dreams following it, Phe abandons her bubbly LA life to attend an uptight East Coast preparatory school in Shadow Hills, MA -- a school which her sister mysteriously mentioned in her last diary entry before she died. Once there, Phe quickly realizes that something is deeply amiss in her new town. Not only does Shadow Hills' history boast an unexplained epidemic that decimated hundreds of its citizens in the 1700s, but its modern townies also seem eerily psychic, with the bizarre ability to bend metal. Even Zach -- the gorgeous stranger Phe meets and immediately begins to lust after -- seems as if he is hiding something serious. Phe is determined to get to the bottom of it. The longer she stays there, the more she suspects that her sister's untimely death and her own destiny are intricately linked to those who reside in Shadow Hills.


House of Windows
John Langan
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Release Date: July 13

When a young writer finds himself cornered by a beautiful widow in the waning hours of a late-night cocktail party, he seeks at first to escape, to return to his wife and infant son. But the tale she weaves, of her missing husband, a renowned English professor, and her lost stepson, a soldier killed on a battlefield on the other side of the world, and of phantasmal visions, a family curse, and a house - the Belvedere House, a striking mansion whose features suggest a face hidden just out of view - draws him in, capturing him.
What follows is a deeply psychological ghost story of memory and malediction, loss and remorse. This unnerving tour de force, exploring the literary haunted house, from Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, and H. P. Lovecraft to today, incorporates family trauma, abstract art, literary criticism, the occult Dickens, and the war in Afghanistan. From John Langan (Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters) comes House of Windows, a chilling novel in the tradition of Peter Straub, Joe Hill, and Laird Barron.


The Infernal Game: Ghost Dance
Rebecca Levene
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Abaddon
Release Date: July 13

Morgan is sent on a new mission for the Hermetic Divi¬sion, investigating the murder of the world's foremost expert on Elizabethen alchemist John Dee. Her killer - an agent of Mossad with superhuman powers. In the US, Alex, a powerful medium, is employed by the CIA to invesitage a new cult called the Croatans who seem to be able to possess animals. Alex and Morgan's path cross when Morgan is drawn to the US in pursuit of Dee's greatest treasure - and the dangerous young man who plans to use it to achieve immortality!

Sunset Val
Rob St.Martin
Genre: YA Steampunk
Publisher: Weird & Wondrous Books
Release Date: July 12

Thrill to the daring exploits of the infamous pirate queen, recounted in her very own words! In this first adventure she makes friends and enemies alike, frees slaves and hunts down villainous pirates! Admire her perserverance in the face of hardship and adversity as she draws together her cadre of companions, whether human, vampyri, animan, automaidon, or patchwork! Be amazed at how this young girl surmounts so many obstacles to become one of Ayrth's greatest airship pirates!


Siren
Tricia Rayburn
Genre: YA
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Release Date: July 13

Seventeen-year-old Vanessa Sands is afraid of everything--the dark, heights, the ocean--but her fearless older sister, Justine, has always been there to coach her through every challenge. That is until Justine goes cliff diving one night near the family's vacation house in Winter Harbor, Maine, and her lifeless body washes up on shore the next day. Vanessa's parents want to work through the tragedy by returning to their everyday lives back in Boston, but Vanessa can't help feeling that her sister's death was more than an accident.

After discovering that Justine never applied to colleges, and that she was secretly in a relationship with longtime family friend Caleb Carmichael, Vanessa returns to Winter Harbor to seek some answers. But when Vanessa learns that Caleb has been missing since Justine's death, she and Caleb's older brother, Simon, join forces to try to find him, and in the process, their childhood friendship blossoms into something more.

Soon it's not just Vanessa who is afraid. All of Winter Harbor is abuzz with anxiety when another body washes ashore, and panic sets in when the small town becomes home to a string of fatal, water-related accidents . . . in which all the victims are found grinning from ear to ear. As Vanessa and Simon probe further into the connections between Justine's death and the sudden rash of creepy drownings, Vanessa uncovers a secret that threatens her new romance, and that will change her life forever.

Ghostgirl: Lovesick (Ghostgirl, Bk 3)
Tanya Hurley
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Little Brown Books
Release Date: July 12

Before she can rest in peace, Charlotte Usher must return to the tragic site of her death: high school. Once there, her assignment is to help a designated teen solve a personal problem in time for the all-important prom. But no one explained what happens if you fall in love with your class project. Charlotte would die (again) for love but facing the all-too-familiar feeling of invisibility may be too much for her to swallow.