Scifi & Fantasy Releases: Week of September 12

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Although there aren't any particular books that I have been looking forward to this week, while compiling this list I did come across a number of books that caught my interest.

The Vaults by Toby Ball looks like it could be good, especially as it reminds me of Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Shadow of the Wind, at least from the description. Will Power, by A.J Hartley, sounds like a fun book and makes me want to check out the previous book in the series and the release of Antiphon by Ken Scholes reminds me that I really need to try this series already. And while I've never heard of Cinco de Mayo, by Michael J. Martineck, this book looks really promising and I'd love to try it.

If you like the dark side of fantasy there a few different titles here which will probably appeal to you, including The Living Dead 2, Haunted Legends and The House of Dead Maids- all of which really freak me out (but I'm a wimp when it comes to horror. I still haven't recovered from The Dollhouse Murderers, which I read when I was 12)

So how about you? Are there any books here that you plan on diving into?

Hope you have a great reading week!




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The Living Dead 2
Edited by John Joseph Adams
Genre: Paranormal Anthology
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Release Date: September 14

Two years ago, readers eagerly devoured The Living Dead. Publishers Weekly named it one of the Best Books of the Year, and Barnes & Noble.com called it "The best zombie fiction collection ever." Now acclaimed editor John Joseph Adams is back for another bite at the apple -- the Adam's apple, that is -- with 43 more of the best, most chilling, most thrilling zombie stories anywhere, including virtuoso performances by zombie fiction legends Max Brooks (World War Z, The Zombie Survival Guide), Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead), and David Wellington (Monster Island).

From Left 4 Dead to Zombieland to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, ghoulishness has never been more exciting and relevant. Within these pages samurai warriors face off against the legions of hell, necrotic dinosaurs haunt a mysterious lost world, and eerily clever zombies organize their mindless brethren into a terrifying army. You'll even witness nightmare scenarios in which humanity is utterly wiped away beneath a relentless tide of fetid flesh.

The Living Dead 2 has more of what zombie fans hunger for -- more scares, more action, more... brains. Experience the indispensable series that defines the very best in zombie literature.


The Vaults
Toby Ball
Genre:
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date: September 14

In a dystopian 1930s America, a chilling series of events leads three men down a path to uncover their city's darkest secret.
At the height of the most corrupt administration in the City’s history, a mysterious duplicate file is discovered deep within the Vaults---a cavernous hall containing all of the municipal criminal justice records of the last seventy years. From here, the story follows: Arthur Puskis, the Vault’s sole, hermit-like archivist with an almost mystical faith in a system to which he has devoted his life; Frank Frings, a high-profile investigative journalist with a self-medicating reefer habit; and Ethan Poole, a socialist private eye with a penchant for blackmail.
All three men will undertake their own investigations into the dark past and uncertain future of the City---calling into question whether their most basic beliefs can be maintained in a climate of overwhelming corruption and conspiracy.



Darkness Divine
P.C. Cast, Gena Showalter, Maggie Shayne, Rhyannon Byrd
Genre: Paranormal Anthology
Publisher: Mira Books
Release Date: September 17

This title features four wicked tales of paranormal romance and supernatural seduction by bestselling authors, including "House of Night" creator P.C. Cast. "Divine Beginnings" by P.C. Cast - Healer Aine must choose between treating an enigmatic enemy or letting him die. "The Amazon's Curse" by Gena Showalter - Vampire warrior Zane longs to embrace the passion he shares with fierce Amazon Nola. "Voodoo" by Maggie Shayne - In New Orleans, Tessa is haunted by a sinfully sexy man. Yet what does he want from her? "Edge of Craving" by Rhyannon Byrd - Rhys is tormented by his desire for Alia. But can the last scion of a dragon clan capture her heart?



Trinity
Lauren Dane
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Release Date: September 14

One witch, one cat shifter. Add one wolf. Blend. Safety glasses recommended.

Renee Parcell loves her life. Her smoothie/coffee cart business is successful, and she’s deeply in love with her boyfriend, Galen. He makes her laugh, he’s gainfully employed, and he satisfies her as only a sexy cat shifter can. He even puts the toilet seat down.

Yet they both sense something in the air. An anticipation that leaves them both unsettled.

Tall, blond and gorgeous Jack Meyers, Enforcer of National Pack and one of the most beautiful men Renee and Galen have ever seen, stumbles into Renee’s life and the riddle of their expectation is solved—Renee is Jack’s mate. What surprises them all is when the three of them touch, magick creates an unexpected triple bond of witch, cat and wolf.

Even as they learn to navigate the steamy intricacies of their bond, a threat looms over Renee. First in the form of resurrected memories, then in the shape of darker magicks someone is aiming at her. Set on stealing her inherent powers—even her life.

Renee can stand to lose almost anything, except her mates. But there seems to be no talking them out of laying everything on the line for her…



Haunted Legends
Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas
Genre: Anthology/Thriller
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: September 14

Darkly thrilling, these twenty new ghost stories have all the chills and power of traditional ghost stories, but each tale is a unique retelling of an urban legend from the world over.

Multiple award-winning editor Ellen Datlow and award-nominated author and editor Nick Mamatas recruited Jeffrey Ford, Ramsey Campbell, Joe R. Lansdale, Caitlin Kiernan, Catherynne M. Valente, Kit Reed, Ekaterina Sedia, and thirteen other fine writers to create stories unlike any they've written before. Tales to make readers shiver with fear, jump at noises in the night, keep the lights on.

These twenty nightmares, brought together by two renowned editors of the dark fantastic, are delightful visions sure to send shivers down the spines of horror readers.



Personal Demons
Lisa Desrochers
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: September 14


Frannie Cavanaugh is a good Catholic girl with a bit of a wicked streak. She has spent years keeping everyone at a distance---even her closest friends---and it seems as if her senior year is going to be more of the same . . . until Luc Cain enrolls in her class. No one knows where he came from, but Frannie can’t seem to stay away from him.

What she doesn’t know is that Luc is on a mission. He’s been sent from Hell itself to claim Frannie’s soul. It should be easy---all he has to do is get her to sin, and Luc is as tempting as they come. Frannie doesn’t stand a chance. But he has to work fast, because if the infernals are after her, the celestials can’t be far behind. And sure enough, it’s not long before the angel Gabriel shows up, willing to do anything to keep Luc from getting what he came for. It isn’t long before they find themselves fighting for more than just Frannie’s soul.

But if Luc fails, there will be Hell to pay . . . for all of them.



The House of Dead Maids
Claire Dunkle
Genre: YA Horror
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co
Release Date: September 14

Young Tabby Aykroyd has been brought to the dusty mansion of Seldom House to be nursemaid to a foundling boy. He is a savage little creature, but the Yorkshire moors harbor far worse, as Tabby soon discovers. The ghost of the last maid will not leave Tabby in peace, yet this spirit is only one of many. Why do scores of dead maids and masters haunt Seldom House with a jealous devotion that extends beyond the grave?

As Tabby struggles to escape the evil forces rising out of the land, she watches her young charge choose a different path. He is determined to keep Seldom House as his own. Though Tabby tries to befriend the uncouth urchin, her kindness cannot alter his fate. Long before he reaches the old farmhouse of Wuthering Heights, the boy who will become Heathcliff has doomed himself and any who try to befriend him.


Wicked Appetite
Janet Evanovich
Genre:
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date: September 14

Life in Marblehead has had a pleasant predictability, until Diesel arrives. Rumor has it that a collection of priceless ancient relics representing the Seven Deadly Sins have made their way to Boston’s North Shore. Partnered with pastry chef Lizzie Tucker, Diesel bullies and charms his way through historic Salem to track them down—and his criminal mastermind cousin Gerewulf Grimorie. The black-haired, black-hearted Wulf is on the hunt for the relic representing gluttony.

Caught in a race against time, Diesel and Lizzie soon find out that more isn’t always better, as they battle Wulf and the first of the deadly sins.

With delectable characters and non-stop thrills that have made Janet Evanovich a household name, Wicked Appetite will leave you hungry for more.


Reckless
Cornelia Funke
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: September 14

For years, Jacob Reckless has been secretly disappearing to another world, a world behind a mirror, a world for which his father abandoned his family. The mirror world is Jacob's escape from reality. It's a place for treasure hunts and magnificent quests. A world where witches haunt the forests and giants and dwarfs roam. A world locked in a deadly war.

Jacob's secret seems safe, until one day his younger brother Will follows him, with disastrous consequence. Faced with a curse that is quickly turning Will to stone, the Reckless brothers are thrust into a race against time to find a cure before Will is lost forever.

Inspired by the Brothers Grimm, master storyteller Cornelia Funke introduces a lush, enchanting world where fantasy meets reality. Reckless is a thrilling adventure, a tale of heroism and loyalty, filled with danger, mystery, and magic--with fairy tales and legends re-imagined as never before.



Will Power
A.J Hartley
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: September 14

While on the run from Empire guards, Will Hawthorne and his band of thieves are transported to a mysterious land that none of them recognize or know how to get home from. Turns out that they've landed right in the middle of a battle between goblins and humans. Their human allies are practically storybook counterparts to the rough sorts they knew in Stavis, speaking in high-flown prose, dressed to the height of fashion, and dripping with wealth and social propriety. Will's companions are quite taken by these fine folks, but the Fair Folk are appalled by Will's unorthodoxy.

At first Will does whatever he can to try to squirm into their good graces, but just when his efforts are feeling totally futile, he begins to wonder if these too-perfect courtiers and warriors have anything to offer beyond their glamour and their burning hatred of the goblins. But is there any recourse for Will and his friends once it turns out that the humans who are sheltering them may not be on the right side of their eternal conflict?

Will Power is a funny and fleet-footed stand-alone fantasy featuring the characters readers grew to love in Act of Will in an all-new adventure about the danger of first impressions.



Esperanza
Trish J. MacGregor
Genre: Romantic Fantasy
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: September 14

Tess Livingston met Ian Ritter at a roadside stop high in the Andes, waiting for a bus to the mysterious town of Esperanza.

Tess is an FBI agent who remembers being on the track of a group of international counterfeiters. But she doesn’t remember booking a trip to Esperanza. Ian is a journalist who was planning to vacation to the Galapagos Islands. He, too, isn’t quite sure why he has a ticket to Esperanza.

Their meeting will change their lives forever. For they have been brought together because they hold the key in a mystical war between the kind spirits of the dead who guard humanity, and the hungry ghosts who exist only to possess living human bodies, and return however briefly to life.

In the midst of this war, Tess and Ian will find a love that can transcend time, and a cause that not even death will overcome.



Immortal Quest: The Trouble with Mages
Alexandra MacKenzie
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Edge
Release Date: September 15

It’s London, England, and Detective Nick Wilson finds himself confronted by a burglar who insists that Nick is his best friend suffering from amnesia, and that he, the burglar, is a 500-year-old immortal mage. Logic and reason force Nick to believe that this is simply impossible. Complicating matters further is the burglar’s claim than an evil mage named Vere has just been released from limbo, and wants three objects of power that could destroy humankind.



Cinco de Mayo
Michael J. Martineck
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Edge
Release Date: September 15

Suddenly, everyone in the world has a second set of memories along side of their own...
In Chicago, a transit worker now knows enough about the Aryan Brotherhood to mark him for death. In Abu Dhabi, a playboy experiences modern day slavery. A New York advertising executive shares the memories of a blind railroad working living in China. And in Washington, a neurologist now studying the phenomenon must fight back the mystic memories invading her mind. In a world of individuals, sudden intimacy is not for everyone. Some like the openness, some will even kill to keep their secrets.



Antiphon (The Psalms of Isaak, #3)
Ken Scholes
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: September 14

Nothing is as it seems to be.

The ancient past is not dead. The hand of the Wizard Kings still reaches out to challenge the Androfrancine Order, to control the magick and technology that they sought to understand and claim for their own.

Nebios, the boy who watched the destruction of the city of Windwir, now runs the vast deserts of the world, far from his beloved Marsh Queen. He is being hunted by strange women warriors, while his dreams are invaded by warnings from his dead father.

Jin Li Tam, queen of the Ninefold Forest, guards her son as best she can against both murderous threats, and the usurper queen and her evangelists. They bring a message: Jakob is the child of promise of their Gospel, and the Crimson Empress is on her way.

And in hidden places, the remnants of the Androfrancine order formulate their response to the song pouring out of a silver crescent that was found in the wastes.


The Dark Deep
Arthur Slade
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
Release Date: September 14

Transforming his appearance and stealing secret documents from the French is all in a day’s work for fourteen-year-old Modo, a British secret agent. But his latest mission—to uncover the underwater mystery of something called the Ictíneo—seems impossible. There are rumors of a sea monster and a fish as big as a ship. French spies are after it, and Mr. Socrates, Modo’s master, wants to find it first. Modo and his fellow secret agent, Octavia, begin their mission in New York City, then take a steamship across the North Atlantic. During the voyage, Modo uncovers an astounding secret.

The Dark Deeps, the second book in Arthur Slade’s Hunchback Assignments series, is set in a fascinating Steampunk Victorian world. Modo’s underwater adventures and his encounters with the young French spy Colette Brunet, the fearless Captain Monturiol, and the dreaded Clockwork Guild guarantee a gripping read filled with danger, suspense, and brilliant inventions.


Wired
Robin Wasserman
Genre: YA Dystopia
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: September 14

One year ago, Lia Kahn died.
A few days later, she woke up.
She had a new body: Mechanical, unfeeling, inhuman. She had a new family: Mechs like her, who didn’t judge her for what she could no longer be. She had a new life, one that would last forever.
At least, it was supposed to.
But now everything Lia thought she knew has turned out to be a lie; everyone she thought she loved has been stolen away. And someone is trying to get rid of the mechs, once and for all. Lia will risk everything to save herself and the people she can’t live without. But not before facing one final truth: She can’t save everyone.


Low Red Moon
Ivy Devlin
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
Release Date: September 14

The only thing Avery Hood can remember about the night her parents died is that she saw silver—deadly silver, moving inhumanly fast. As much as she wants to remember who killed them, she can't, and there's nothing left to do but try to piece her life back together. Then Avery meets the new boy in school—Ben, mysterious and beautiful, with whom she feels a connection like nothing she's ever experienced. When Ben reveals he's a werewolf, Avery still trusts him—at first. Then she sees that sometimes his eyes flash inhuman silver. And she learns that she's not the only one who can't remember the night her parents died.Part murder mystery, part grief narrative, and part heart-stopping, headlong romance, Low Red Moon is a must-read for teen paranormal fans.


Rot & Ruin
Jonathan Maberry
Genre: YA Dystopia
Publisher:
Release Date: September 14

In the zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America where Benny Imura lives, every teenager must find a job by the time they turn fifteen or get their rations cut in half. Benny doesn't want to apprentice as a zombie hunter with his boring older brother Tom, but he has no choice. He expects a tedious job whacking zoms for cash, but what he gets is a vocation that will teach him what it means to be human.