New SciFi & Fantasy Releases: Week of December 12

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Welcome to this week's list of new science fiction and fantasy releases.

Unfortunately my computer is still out of commission but I managed to get a bit done on an old computer of mine that I had lying around. Though the going is painfully slow. Hopefully I should have my computer up and running tomorrow, if the electricity stays on long enough for it to be repaired (unlike today when the high winds caused the electricity to go out every 20 minutes, all day. Yes, it's been a long day).

Since I didn't put up a list of new releases last week I included some of those releases in this week's list, especially those books that I've had my eye on, such as Juliet Marillier's new Sevenwaters book and The Bards of Bone Plain by Patricia A. McKillip. The science fiction romantic anthology Love and Rockets also looks a lot of fun.

I actually only found a few titles that are being released this week, including Rachel Swirsky & Sean Wallace's People of the Book, which I'm really looking forward to reading. Shadowheart by James Barclay also looks good though it's the second in a series and I haven't yet read the first book.

I'm currently in the middle of reading several different books, including My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me (a title that I love saying) by Kate Bernheimer and Gregory Maguire, Summerland by Michael Chabon and The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer, so it will be a while before I get to any of these new ones. But it's good to know what I have to look forward to.

Hope you have a great reading week!

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Alien Tango
Gini Koch
Genre: Sciene Fiction Romance
Publisher: Daw
Release Date: December 7

It's been five months since marketing manager Katherine "Kitty" Katt started working with the aliens from Alpha Centauri, and she and Jeff Martini are getting closer. But when an experimental spacecraft is mysteriously returned to the Kennedy Space Center, Kitty and the rest of her team are called in to investigate. Now the team must survive murderous attacks, remove a space entity from a group of astronauts, and avoid an unhinged woman with a serious crush on Kitty's high school boyfriend. And that's all before evil masterminds decide Kitty's extermination is vital.

Back to the Moon
Taylor, Travis S. and Les Johnson
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Baen
Release Date: December 7

Decades after the last footprints were left on the Moon, the U.S. was preparing to return to the Lunar surface in a new class of rockets, when the mission suddenly became much more urgent. It would have to be a rescue mission. Unbeknownst to the rest of the world China had sent its own Lunar expedition. A manned expedition. Until a distress call was received, no human outside of China even knew that the mission was manned—or that their ship had crash-landed and couldn’t take off again. Time was running out, and if the four Chinese astronauts were to be rescued, the American lunar mission would have to launch immediately, with only a skeleton crew. Once the heroic U.S. astronauts were underway the army of engineers and scientists back home had the daunting task of deciding what equipment could be left on the Moon to permit the Lunar lander vehicle vehicle to lift safely from the Moon with the two U.S. astronauts and the four stranded Chinese taikonauts! Could the U.S. mount such a mission successfully—and would thousands of years of instilled honor “allow” the Chinese astronauts to accept a rescue?


Bleeding Violet
Dia Reeves
Genre: Young Adult Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: December 7

From Booklist
After her father’s death, 16-year-old Hanna hitchhikes to Portero, Texas, the home of her mother, Rosalee, who abandoned her. Hanna is desperate for Rosalee to love and accept her, and Rosalee reluctantly makes a bargain: Hanna has two weeks to make friends and fit in at her school or she won't be allowed to stay. Hanna has never fit in anywhere, though. Struggling with manic depression, she hears voices and hallucinates, wears only purple dresses, and has a history of violence. Portero is no ordinary town, though, and Hanna learns that it is haunted by doors to other dimensions and plagued by dangerous creatures from those realms. Wyatt, a powerful young initiate in the Mortmaine, a demon-hunting organization, recruits Hanna, and together they struggle to deal with an ancient evil that threatens the town and Hanna’s future. With plenty of sex and violence, this is a book for mature teens, who will find Portero to be an intriguing world and biracial Hanna a startlingly unusual heroine with a poignant, memorable voice. Grades 10-12. --Lynn Rutan --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Day of the Dragon
Rebecca York
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: December 7

Beautiful archaeologist Madison Dartmoor unearths an astonishing find, one of vast importance to a handsome stranger-a man who is not human, and who holds a dangerous secret that may break her heart.



Demon Underground
S.L. Wright
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Roc
Release Date: December 7

Half-human and half-demon, Allay has finally warmed up to her new life feeding off the customers at her downtown bar whens he finds herself brokering a truce between New York City's most powerful demons. But when she senses assassins around every corner, Allay hides out of sight and underground-until combatants in the growing war tempt her back above the surface...

Fables Vol. 14: Witches
Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham
Genre: Graphic Novel
Publisher: Vertigo
Release Date: December 7

While the meek and mild flying monkey Bufkin is trapped in Fabletown's collapsed business office with the evil witch Baba Yaga, Frau Totenkinder and the witches at the Farm upstate prepare to deal with Mister Dark down in what's left of Fabletown.


Finding the Way and Other Tales of Valdemar
Edited by Mercedes Lackey
Genre: Fantasy Anthology
Publisher: DAW
Release Date: December 7

In March 1987, a young author from Oklahoma published her first novel, Arrows of the Queen. This modest book about a magical land called Valdemar was the beginning of a fantasy masterwork series that would span decades and include more than two dozen titles. Now readers can take a journey to the world of Valdemar-including Tanya Huff, Mickey Zucker Reichert, Fiona Patton, and Judith Tarr-each adding their own special touches.


Goddess of Legend
P.C. Cast
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Release Date: December 7


After her car plummets off a bridge, Isabel, a world-weary photojournalist, struggles between life and death when she's saved by the Water Goddess-with one tiny caveat: Isabel must travel to another time to seduce the legendary Lancelot du Lac away from Queen Guinevere.

The handsome knight is a dream for any woman in any century. But Isabel is the one who's seduced by King Arthur. For Isabel, a deal is a deal. Now, the King watches as fate takes from him the mysterious beauty he has come to worship, knowing all too well that any interference on his part could destroy the kingdom he loves.
All day


Last Sacrifice (Vampire Academy, Bk 6)
Richelle Mead
Genre: Young Adult Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Razorbill
Release Date: December 7

The epic finale in Richelle Mead's #1 international bestselling Vampire Academy series.




Love and Rockets
Edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Kerrie Hughes
Introduction by Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Science Fiction Romance Anthology
Publisher: DAW
Release Date: December 7

Space...the final frontier. Or is it? Many say there's no frontier more forbidding than a romantic relationship between a man and a woman. But what if one's a human, and the other's an alien? Here is an original collection of space opera stories where authors take love (unrequited or not), on a spaceship, space station, or planetary colony, and add enough drama, confusion and mayhem to ensure that the path to true love-or short-term infatuation-is seldom free of obstacles.

Right Hand Magic
Nancy A. Collins
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Roc
Release Date: December 7

Like most Manhattanites, aspiring artist Tate can't resist a good rental deal-even if it's in the city's strangest neighborhood, Golgotham, where for centuries werewolves, centaurs, and countless other creatures have roamed the streets.

Her new landlord is a sorcerer name Hexe, who is determined to build his reputation without using dark, left-hand magic. As Tate is drawn into Hexe's fascinating world, they both find that the right hand does not always know what the left hand is doing-and avoiding darkness is no easy trick...

Seer of Sevenwaters (Sevenwaters #5 )
Juliet Marillier
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Roc
Release Date: December 7

The young seer Sibeal is visiting an island of elite warriors, prior to making her final pledge as a druid. It's there she finds Felix, a survivor of a Viking shipwreck, who's lost his memory. The scholarly Felix and Sibeal form a natural bond. He could even be her soul mate, but Sibeal's vocation is her true calling, and her heart must answer. As Felix fully regains his memory, Sibeal has a runic divination showing her that Felix must go on a perilous mission-and that she will join him. The rough waters and the sea creatures they will face are no match for Sibeal's own inner turmoil. She must choose between the two things that tug at her soul-her spirituality and a chance at love...



The Gift (Witch & Wizard #2)
James Patterson
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: December 13

When Whit & Wisty were imprisoned by the wicked forces of the totalitarian regime known as the New Order, they were barely able to escape with their lives. Now part of a hidden community of teens like themselves, Whit and Wisty have established themselves as leaders of the Resistance, willing to sacrifice anything to save kids kidnapped and brutally imprisoned by the New Order. But the One has other plans in store for them: He needs Wisty, for she is "The One Who Has the Gift." While trying to figure out what that means, Whit and Wisty's suspenseful adventures through Overworld and Shadowland lead to a jaw-dropping climax and conclusion: the highly-anticipated fulfillment of the heart-pounding opening prologue of book one... The Execution of the Allgoods.



Entice (Need, Bk 3)
Carrie Jones
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
Release Date: December 14

Zara and Nick are soul mates, meant to be together forever. But that's not quite how things have worked out. For starters, well, Nick is dead. Supposedly, he's been taken to a mythic place for warriors known as Valhalla, so Zara and her friends might be able to get him back. But it's taking time, and meanwhile a group of evil pixies is devastating Bedford, with more teens going missing every day. An all-out war seems imminent, and the good guys need all the warriors they can find. But how to get to Valhalla? And even if Zara and her friends discover the way, there's that other small problem: Zara's been pixie kissed. When she finds Nick, will he even want to go with her? Especially since she hasn't turned into just any pixie. . . She's Astley's queen.


People of the Book: A Decade of Jewish Science Fiction & Fantasy
Edited by Rachel Swirsky & Sean Wallace
Genre: Speculative fiction Anthology
Publisher: Prime Books
Release Date: December 14

From Sholom Aleichem to Avram Davidson, Isaac Bashevis Singer to Tony Kushner, the Jewish literary tradition has always been one rich in the supernatural and the fantastic. In these pages, gathered from the best short fiction of the last ten years, twenty authors prove that their heritage is alive and well - in the spaces between stars that an alphabet can bridge, folklore come to life and histories become stories, and all the places where old worlds and new collide and change.


Shadowheart (Legends of the Raven, Bk 2)
James Barclay
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Pyr
Release Date: December 14

WAR HAS COME.

It has been smoldering for years, but now the conflict between Balaia’s four colleges of magic has finally blazed into furious life. Xetesk, the Dark College, determined to impose its rule, now faces an alliance of Lystern and Dordover. Julatsa is crippled, still struggling to remake its link to Balaia’s flow of Mana. And so the armies mass.

Caught in the flames of war are The Raven. Three of the legendary mercenary band are dead. One of them struggles with a burgeoning power that could herald a new world—and destroy the old. The survivors will keep their promises to lost friends, to the enslaved Protectors, and to the dragon, Sha-Kaan. To Balaia.

The Raven will keep the faith. They will fight and they will triumph. It’s what they do.

Yarn
Jon Armstrong
Genre:
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Release Date: December 14

From the neo-feudalistic slubs and cornfields of his youth to his apprenticeship among the saleswarriors of Seattlehama - the sex-and-shopping capital of the world - to the rarefied heights of power that Tain now treads, Yarn takes its readers on a roller coaster ride through his life. Vada, the stylish revolutionary and love of Tane's life, draws him back into a world he had thought was long behind him. The swirling threads of violence and passion threaten to destroy him and the world he has made for himself.

Author Jon Armstrong returns to the high fashion dystopia first glimpsed in Grey, weaving a stylish and scintillating tale of a dark past colliding with Tane's supposedly safe and secure present.


The Bards of Bone Plain
Patricia A. McKillip
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Ace
Release Date: December 7

Publishers Weekly - World Fantasy Award winner McKillip (The Bell at Sealey Head) offers a rich, resonant story of poetry, riddles, mystery, and magic. Phelan Cle never wanted to be a bard--that's his decidedly unmusical father's ambition for him--but now that he's about to graduate from Bardic School at Caerau, he's determined to make it easy on himself. He chooses what should be a straight-forward thesis topic: Bone Plain, where legend says all poetry originated, where Nairn the Wanderer, the Fool, the Cursed, the Unforgiven, one of the greatest bards in history, failed the mysterious Three Trials and disappeared forever. History surrounds the school and the nearby standing stones, where archaeologist Princess Beatrice digs up an unusual artifact that may hold the key to the mysteries of Bone Plain. McKillip seduces readers with lyrical prose; intriguing, complex characters; and resonant riddles-within-riddles.