Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Tiny Wife by Andrew Kaufman

Posted by Simcha 7:12 PM, under | 8 comments

A thief holds up a bank but instead of demanding money he insists that each of the customers hand over to him the item in their possession which is the most precious to them. One man gives the thief a watch that was a gift from his mother, another hands over his parents' wedding picture. A woman gives the thief a picture of her children and another of the customers gives him the pay stub from his recent promotion. After collecting an object from each person in the room the thief heads to the door, but before leaving he announces that he now has in his possession a piece of each person's soul, which will result in some strange consequences, and that if they don't learn how to grow the pieces of soul back, they will die.

In the days following the bank robbery each of the victims begin to feel the effects prophesied by the thief. One woman's lion tattoo comes to life and begins stalking her, forcing the woman to be constantly on the run. Another woman turns into candy and gets eaten by her hungry husband. And one woman suddenly notices that she has begun shrinking. It's the husband of the shrinking woman who narrates this story, describing the experience of watching his wife, and the mother of his two- year old son, slowly fade away, as well as recounting the the events that befall each of the other bank robbery victims.

I had really been looking forward to reading this novella, which sounded delightfully bizarre, but now that I've read it (twice) I'm not really sure what I think about it.

Other reviews of The Tiny Wife describe it as a modern fairy tale or fable, and I could see where comparisons would be made, but it didn't provide me with any of the satisfaction of a such a tale. Fairy tales, I understand (usually). Witches and step-mothers are evil, princes are romantic and heroic and unfamiliar old women are to be assisted and guided by. But what about thieves? I just didn't know what to make of the thief in this story. He steals and then offers some vaguely wise-sounding, but unhelpful, advice and then crops up a couple more times for no apparent reason before the story is resolved. The thief's role in this story was so ambiguous that I found him more distracting than anything else. I kept waiting for his purpose to be revealed, though it never really is, which really bothered me.

The first time I read The Tiny Wife I didn't get it at all. I had been waiting for events to come full-circle, making sense of the strange occurrences, but this doesn't really happen. After a second reading of the novella I came to understand that the anecdotes are meant to explore how different people respond to the challenges in their lives, their relationships and their fears. Some people manage to conquer them while others, such as the woman who gets eaten by her husband and children, are destroyed by them. But even after a second reading not all of the stories in this novella made sense to me, and in many cases I could see no connection between the object that had been given to the thief and the consequences. Perhaps a third reading would help, but I just don't have the time.

Anyways, try the book. It's short and easy to read and if you have an appreciation for the unusual and bizarre then you'll probably like it. Particularly recommended for fans of Aimee Bender.

Monday, September 26, 2011

New Scifi and Fantasy Releases: Week of September 25

Posted by Simcha 8:33 AM, under | 8 comments

This is a dangerous week for me because there are so many great books here that I need to acquire, and my wallet is still recovering from all the recent back-to school-shopping (If only I could spend as much on my own books as I do on my kids textbooks.)

At the top of my list of Must-Have's is Kate Elliott's Cold Fire, the sequel to Cold Magic, which I have been impatiently waiting the past year for. And after reading Stephanie's enthusiastic review of Daughter of Smoke & Bone, by Laini Taylor, this book raced up to the top of my list as well.

Some other books that caught my interest as I was compiling this list:  All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen, Blood Rights by Kristen Painter (that cover!), Darkness Unbound by Keri Arthur ( I don't usually read her books but this one sounds really good), The Faerie Ring by Kiki Hamilton and The Revisionists by Thomas Mullen. Oh boy, It looks like I better start saving my shekels..

Hope you have a great reading week!


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A Beautiful Dark
Jocelyn Davies
Genre: YA Paranormal/ Urban Fantasy
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: September 27

On the night of Skye’s seventeenth birthday, she meets two enigmatic strangers. Complete opposites—like fire and ice—Asher is dark and wild, while Devin is fair and aloof. Their sudden appearance sends Skye’s life into a tailspin. She has no idea what they want, or why they seem to follow her every move—only that their presence coincides with a flurry of strange events. Soon she begins to doubt not just the identity of the two boys, but also the truth about her own past.
In the dead of a bitingly cold Colorado winter, Skye finds herself coming to terms with the impossible secret that threatens to shatter her world. Torn between Asher, who she can’t help falling for, and Devin, who she can’t stay away from, the consequences of Skye’s choice will reach further than the three of them could ever imagine.

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Absolute Midnight (Abarat #3)
Clive Barker
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: September 27

“I know that many of you here have waited years for this Hour,” Mater Motley said, using that voice that, though it was barely conversational in volume, was somehow heard everywhere. “The waiting is over. Tomorrow there will be no dawn. Only midnight, absolute and eternal.”
And so begins a new chapter in the epic story of sixteen-year-old Candy Quackenbush and her journeys through the world of the Abarat, where every hour is an island in one eternal day, and nothing is as it seems.
Candy travels through the Abarat from island to island and across the sea with an unlikely band of friends: the escaped prisoner Malingo the Geshrat, the quarrelsome John Brothers, who all share the same body but never the same opinion, and the many other colorful characters they meet along the way.
The problem is that trouble finds Candy wherever she goes. And soon she discovers a secret plot, masterminded by the diabolical Mater Motley, who is obsessed with becoming Empress of the Islands. Her method is simple. She will darken the skies, putting out the suns, moons, and stars. She will bring absolute midnight.


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A Book of Horrors
edited by Stephen Jones
Genre: Horror Anthology
Publisher: Jo Fletcher Books
Release Date: September 29

Many of us grew up on The Pan Book of Horror Stories and its later incarnations, Dark Voices and Dark Terrors (The Gollancz Book of Horror), which won the World Fantasy Award, the Horror Critics' Guild Award and the British Fantasy Award, but for a decade or more there has been no non-themed anthology of original horror fiction published in the mainstream. Now that horror has returned to the bookshelves, it is time for a regular anthology of brand-new fiction by the best and brightest in the field, both the Big Names and the most talented newcomers. A Book of Horrors is the foremost in the field: a collection of the very best chiller fiction, from some of the world's greatest writers.


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All Men of Genius
Lev AC Rosen
Genre: Steampunk
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: September 27

Inspired by two of the most beloved works by literary masters, All Men of Genius takes place in an alternate Steampunk Victorian London, where science makes the impossible possible.

Violet Adams wants to attend Illyria College, a widely renowned school for the most brilliant up-and-coming scientific minds, founded by the late Duke Illyria, the greatest scientist of the Victorian Age. The school is run by his son, Ernest, who has held to his father’s policy that the small, exclusive college remain male-only. Violet sees her opportunity when her father departs for America. She disguises herself as her twin brother, Ashton, and gains entry.

But keeping the secret of her sex won’t be easy, not with her friend Jack’s constant habit of pulling pranks, and especially not when the duke’s young ward, Cecily, starts to develop feelings for Violet’s alter ego, “Ashton.” Not to mention blackmail, mysterious killer automata, and the way Violet’s pulse quickens whenever the young duke, Ernest (who has a secret past of his own), speaks to her. She soon realizes that it’s not just keeping her secret until the end of the year faire she has to worry about: it’s surviving that long.


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Alterant
Sherrilyn Kenyon & Dianna Love
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Pocket
Release Date: September 27

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love comes the second book in the Belador series—featuring a league of international warriors with extraordinary abilities who rise up to save mankind from supernatural terrorists.

On the heels of saving mankind from destruction at the hands of the Medb coven, Evalle attempts to convince the Tribunal that she is an Alterant who can be trusted around humans. But the gods and goddess ruling over this Tribunal twist words she’d uttered in the heat of combat and hold her responsible for three dangerous Alterants that escaped their prisons. She is given a choice to either recapture those three who will lose their freedom forever or face the same sentence. Unsure that she can condemn another Alterant to a life she’d die before accepting, Evalle takes on an impossible task only to learn that the entire future of the Beladors rides on her success—and the only person who can help her is the one who wants to gut her.


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Blood Rights
Kristen Painter
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher Orbit
Release Date: September 27

Born into a life of secrets and service, Chrysabelle's body bears the telltale marks of a comarrƩ -- a special race of humans bred to feed vampire nobility. When her patron is murdered, she becomes the prime suspect, which sends her running into the mortal world...and into the arms of Malkolm, an outcast vampire cursed to kill every being from whom he drinks.

Now, Chrysabelle and Malkolm must work together to stop a plot to merge the mortal and supernatural worlds. If they fail, a chaos unlike anything anyone has ever seen will threaten to reign.


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Bloodstone (Deadtown, Bk 3)
Nancy Holzner
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Ace
Release Date: September 27

Boston’s diverse South End is known for its architecture and great restaurants, not its body count. So when mutilated human corpses begin turning up in the area, the entire city takes notice. The killer—dubbed the South End Reaper—uses a curved blade for his grisly work. And even though there’s no real evidence pointing to a paranormal culprit, the deaths are straining the already-tense relations between Boston’s human and inhuman residents.

As the bodies pile up, Vicky, her formidable aunt Mab, and her werewolf boyfriend Kane investigate, only to find that the creature behind the carnage is after something much more than blood…
  

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City of Lies
Lian Tanner
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Release Date: September 27

Goldie Roth is a trained thief and a skilled liar. Along with her friend Toadspit, she's supposed to be one of the Keepers of the mysterious Museum of Dunt. But although she desperately wants to be a Keeper, she will not leave her sick parents to do so.
But when Toadspit's sister Bonnie is stolen, he and Goldie are forced to follow the child-stealers to the neighboring city of Spoke. Along the way, Toadspit too is captured, and Goldie is caught up in the Festival of Lies, where every word she says means something else and no one can be trusted. There, Goldie discovers some dangerous secrets—secrets that the child-stealers will kill to protect. She will need all her skills as a thief and a liar if she is to survive and save her friends.


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Cold Fire (Spiritwalker Trilogy, Bk 2)
Kate Elliott
Genre: Steampunk
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: September 26

Only one thing is certain: when Hallows' Night comes, the Wild Hunt will ride - and it feeds on mortal blood.

Cat and her cousin Bee are caught in a maze of intrigue, treachery, and magic. Everyone seems to want something from them: the Cold Mages are trying to take them prisoner, and the warlord who wants to conquer all of Europa seems sure they have a special destiny to aid him whether they want to or not. Worse, hidden powers deep in the spirit world are rising, and they are the most dangerous of all. Cat must seek allies and figure out who she can trust in order to save the ones she loves. For if she doesn't, everything will be lost.


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Conquer the Dark
L.A. Banks
Genre: Urban Fantasy/ Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Pocket
Release Date: September 27

Just three short months ago, Celeste Jackson was pulled into a supernatural world by her guardian angel, Azrael, only to learn that not only was he super hot, but he was also the Angel of Death. What began as his platonic quest to find her, one of the Remnant, and to save her from the forces of evil hunting for her, quickly evolved into forbidden passion. They joined Azrael’s fellow angels in the Light in a battle against the fallen, and once the dust settled, it appeared as though the Light was victorious.

However that idyllic peace is short-lived when Azrael’s angel brother, Bath Kol, receives a disturbing vision. Those members of the fallen that were conquered have found a key to rebirth within the sacred tombs of Egypt. Now able to raise their full armies of darkness against the small twenty-one angel battalion charged with protecting the Remnant, evil has the advantage. That is unless Celeste, one of only three half-angel/half-human hybrids left on the planet, can sway the balance. If Celeste cannot, countless human lives will be lost, evil will eclipse the earth, the Light will forever be extinguished…and Azrael will be forced to make an awful choice between taking a fall to save the woman he loves or to allow her to perish.


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Darkness Falling
Peter Crowther
Genre: Horror/ Zombies
Publisher: Angry Robot
Release Date: September 27

Zombie monsters struck from the mold of countless drive-in B movies supply mayhem and gore in Darkness Falling. Their onslaught is heralded one day by a predawn flash of unearthly light that cuts off middle-American everyville Jesman's Bend from communication with the outside world. When four employees of local radio station KMRT investigate, they find the town mysteriously depopulated, apparently in the middle of regular routines. Familiar folk reappear shortly afterward, all wearing concealing sunglasses and gloves and driven by malignant alien motives revealed when they descend en masse upon the terrified foursome . . .


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Darkness Falls (Ravenwood, Bk 2)
Mia James
Genre: YA Paranormal
Publisher: Gollancz
Release Date: September 29

April Dunne is having a rough time. There are vampires in her school. Not Goths, or Emos in fancy dress. Dangerous, blood-sucking semi-immortals. They run the school. They pretend to be students at it. And they're using their influence to recruit smart, rich students - aka 'bleeders' - to their own cause. What is that cause? April isn't sure. But she knows they killed a rock star for it, and innocents who got too close to the truth. One of them almost killed her. But that's nothing to what's coming next. Gabriel, her kinda-boyfriend, is dying and unless April can find a cure then not only is she going to be boyfriendless, she's also going to lose one of her major allies in the school. And she really needs allies. Because it turns out April has an ability of her own, one that could prove lethal to the 'Suckers' who've taken over the school. If any of them figure out what she is, then losing her boyfriend will be the least of her problems ...


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Darkness Unbound
Keri Arthur
Genre: YA rban Fantasy
Publisher: Bantam Dell
Release Date: September 27

Risa Jones is as extraordinary as her heritage. Born from a lab-enhanced clone mother and an Aedh father, she can not only talk to the souls of the dying and the dead, but she can see the reapers and walk the gray fields that divide this world from the next.

They are skill she rarely uses, however, preferring to concentrate on the business she shares with her two best friends. But when her mother asks her to help the parents of a little girl locked in a coma, she reluctantly agrees. What she discovers scares the hell out of her. Because the little girl’s soul no longer resides in her body, and it wasn’t death and the reapers that took her.

Someone had ripped her soul from her flesh.

As it turns out, a creature consuming the souls of the innocent–and not so innocent–is the least of her problems.

Because someone wants to rip open the gates that divided hell from earth, and Risa is a key component in their plans.

And the only person standing between her and disaster is a reaper who isn’t exactly on her side.


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Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Laini Taylor
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: September 27

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?


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Dead Bad Things (Thomas Usher, Bk 2)
Gary McMahon
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Angry Robot
Release Date: September 27

HE SOUGHT TO FLEE HIS TRAGIC PAST, but when Thomas Usher hears a clockwork voice on the phone, and sees ever-more disturbing visions in a derelict warehouse, Usher realizes that he has to return home - for the sake of his own sanity.

Meanwhile, a deadly figure from Usher's past threatens to undermine the very fabric of reality.


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Debris
Jo Anderton
Genre: Science Fiction/ Fantasy
Publisher: Angry Robot
Release Date: September 27

In a far future where technology is all but indistinguishable from magic, Tanyana is one of the elite.

She can control pions, the building blocks of matter, shaping them into new forms using ritual gestures and techniques. The rewards are great, and she is one of most highly regarded people in the city. But that was before the “accident”.

Stripped of her powers, bound inside a bizarre powersuit, she finds herself cast down to the very lowest level of society. Powerless, penniless and scarred, Tanyana must adjust to a new life collecting “debris”, the stuff left behind by pions. But as she tries to find who has done all of this to her, she also starts to realize that debris is more important than anyone could guess.

Debris is a stunning new piece of Science Fantasy, which draws in themes from Japanese manga, and classic Western SF and Fantasy to create this unique, engrossing debut from the very exciting young author Jo Anderton.


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The Faerie Ring
Kiki Hamilton
Genre: YA Paranormal
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: September 27

Debut novelist Kiki Hamilton takes readers from the gritty slums and glittering ballrooms of Victorian London to the beguiling but menacing Otherworld of the Fey in this spellbinding tale of romance, suspense, and danger.  

The year is 1871, and Tiki has been making a home for herself and her family of orphans in a deserted hideaway adjoining Charing Cross Station in central London. Their only means of survival is by picking pockets. One December night, Tiki steals a ring, and sets off a chain of events that could lead to all-out war with the Fey. For the ring belongs to Queen Victoria, and it binds the rulers of England and the realm of Faerie to peace. With the ring missing, a rebel group of faeries hopes to break the treaty with dark magic and blood—Tiki’s blood.

Unbeknownst to Tiki, she is being watched—and protected—by Rieker, a fellow thief who suspects she is involved in the disappearance of the ring. Rieker has secrets of his own, and Tiki is not all that she appears to be. Her very existence haunts Prince Leopold, the Queen’s son, who is driven to know more about the mysterious mark that encircles her wrist.
Prince, pauper, and thief—all must work together to secure the treaty…


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Ganymede (The Clockwork Century, Bk 4)
Cherie Priest
Genre: Steampunk
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: September 27

The air pirate Andan Cly is going straight. Well, straighter. Although he’s happy to run alcohol guns wherever the money’s good, he doesn’t think the world needs more sap, or its increasingly ugly side-effects. But becoming legit is easier said than done, and Cly’s first legal gig—a supply run for the Seattle Underground—will be paid for by sap money.

New Orleans is not Cly’s first pick for a shopping run. He loved the Big Easy once, back when he also loved a beautiful mixed-race prostitute named Josephine Early—but that was a decade ago, and he hasn’t looked back since. Jo’s still thinking about him, though, or so he learns when he gets a telegram about a peculiar piloting job. It’s a chance to complete two lucrative jobs at once, one he can’t refuse. He sends his old paramour a note and heads for New Orleans, with no idea of what he’s in for—or what she wants him to fly.

But he won’t be flying. Not exactly. Hidden at the bottom of Lake Pontchartrain lurks an astonishing war machine, an immense submersible called the Ganymede. This prototype could end the war, if only anyone had the faintest idea of how to operate it…. If only they could sneak it past the Southern forces at the mouth of the Mississippi River… If only it hadn’t killed most of the men who’d ever set foot inside it.

But it’s those “if onlys” that will decide whether Cly and his crew will end up in the history books, or at the bottom of the ocean.


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Halloween
edited by Paula Guran
Genre: Anthology
Publisher: Prime Books
Release Date: September 27

Shivers and spirits... the mystical and macabre... our darkest fears and sweetest fantasies... the fun and frivolity of tricks, treats, festivities, and masquerades. Halloween is a holiday filled with both delight and dread, beloved by youngsters and adults alike. Celebrate the most magical season of the year with this sensational treasury of seasonal tales - spooky, suspenseful, terrifying, or teasing - harvested from a multitude of master storytellers.


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House of Fear: An Anthology of Haunted House Stories
edited by Jonathan Oliver
Genre: Horror Anthology
Publisher: Solaris
Release Date: September 27

The tread on the landing outside the door, when you know you are the only one in the house. The wind whistling through the eves, carrying the voices of the dead. The figure glimpsed briefly through the cracked window of a derelict house.

Editor Jonathan Oliver brings horror home with a collection of haunted house stories by some of the finest writers working in the horror genre, including Joe R. Lansdale, Sarah Pinborough, Lisa Tuttle, Christopher Priest, Adam L. G. Nevill, Nicholas Royle, Chaz Brenchley, Christopher Fowler, Gary Kilworth, Western Ochse, Eric Brown, Tim Lebbon, Nina Allan, Stephen Volk, Paul Meloy and more.


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The Hum and the Shiver
Alex Bledsoe
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: September 27

No one knows where the Tufa came from, or how they ended up in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, yet when the first Europeans arrived, they were already there. Dark-haired, enigmatic, and suspicious of outsiders, the Tufa live quiet lives in the hills and valleys of Cloud County. While their origins may be lost to history, there are clues in their music—hints of their true nature buried in the songs they have passed down for generations.

Private Bronwyn Hyatt returns from Iraq wounded in body and in spirit, only to face the very things that drove her away in the first place: her family, her obligations to the Tufa, and her dangerous ex-boyfriend. But more trouble lurks in the mountains and hollows of her childhood home. Cryptic omens warn of impending tragedy, and a restless “haint” lurks nearby, waiting to reveal Bronwyn’s darkest secrets. Worst of all, Bronwyn has lost touch with the music that was once a vital part of her identity.

With death stalking her family, Bronwyn will need to summon the strength to take her place among the true Tufa and once again fly on the night winds. . . .


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In Blood We Trust (Bloodlines, Bk 3)
Christine Cody
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Ace
Release Date: September 27

They are monsters: Mariah, the reluctant rebel who has become a god to others of her kind, and Gabriel, the vampire, who loves her at his own peril. They have returned to the Bloodlands, where their story began-to face the horrors of Mariah's past and the uncertainties of Gabriel's future- and to make a final stand, for their lives-and their love.


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Laddertop: Volume 1
Orson Scott Card, Emily Janice Card & Honoel A. Ibardolaza
Genre: YA Graphic Novel
Publisher: Tor/Seven Seas.
Release Date: September 27


Twenty-five years ago, the alien Givers came to Earth. They gave the human race the greatest technology ever seen— four giant towers known as Ladders that rise 36,000 miles into space and culminate in space stations that power the entire planet. Then, for reasons unknown, the Givers disappeared. Due to the unique alien construction of the Laddertop space stations, only a skilled crew of children can perform the maintenance necessary to keep the stations up and running.
Back on Earth, competition is fierce to enter Laddertop Academy. It is an honor few students will achieve. Robbi and Azure, two eleven-year-old girls who are the best of friends, are candidates for the Academy. They will become entangled in a dangerous mystery that may help them solve the riddle of the Givers...if it doesn’t destroy the Earth first!  


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Lost in Time (Blue Bloods #6)
Melissa de la Cruz
Genre: YA Paranormal/ Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Hyperion
Release Date: September 27

After their beautiful yet brief bonding ceremony in Italy, Schuyler Van Alen and Jack Force are forced to separate. To fulfill the Van Alen Legacy, Schuyler travels to Alexandria to search for Catherine of Siena and the Gate of Promise. But Schuyler quickly discovers that everything she believed about the Gate to be wrong. Meanwhile, Jack makes the difficult decision to return to New York to face his twin and former bondmate, Mimi. But instead of a bitter reunion, he is faced with a choice for which there is no good option.

Mimi, with a most unexpected travel companion in Oliver Hazard-Perry, jets off to Egypt, too, to search for Kingsley Martin, her long lost love. With all roads leading to Hell, Mimi learns that not all love stories have happy endings. But she'll have to put her own feelings aside if she's going to save her crumbling Coven.


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The Mephisto Covenant (The Mephisto Covenant #1)
Trinity Faegen
Genre: YA Paranormal
Publisher:EgmontUSA
Release Date: September 27

Sasha is desperate to find out who murdered her father. When getting the answer means pledging her soul to Eryx, she unlocks a secret that puts her in grave danger—Sasha is Anabo, a daughter of Eve, and Eryx’s biggest threat.

A son of Hell, immortal, and bound to Earth forever, Jax looks for redemption in the Mephisto Covenant—God’s promise he will find peace in the love of an Anabo. After a thousand years, he’s finally found the girl he’s been searching for: Sasha.

With the threat of Eryx looming, Jax has to keep Sasha safe and win her over. But can he? Will Sasha love him and give up her mortal life?


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The Monster’s Corner: Stories Through Inhuman Eyes
edited by Christopher Golden
Genre: Horror/ Fantasy Anthology
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Release Date: September 27

An all original anthology from some of todays hottest supernatural writers, featuring stories of monster's from the monster's point of view.  In most stories we get the perspective of the hero, the ordinary, the everyman, but we are all the hero of our own tale, and so it must be true for legions of monsters, from Lucifer to Mordred, from child-thieving fairies to Frankenstein's monster and the Wicked Witch of the West.  From our point of view, they may very well be horrible, terrifying monstrosities, but of course they won’t see themselves in the same light, and their point of view is what concerns us in these tales.  Demons and goblins, dark gods and aliens, creatures of myth and legend, lurkers in darkness and beasts in human clothing…these are the subjects of The Monster’s Corner.  With contributions by Lauren Groff, Chelsea Cain, Simon R. Green, Sharyn McCrumb, Kelley Armstrong, David Liss, Kevin J. Anderson, Jonathan Maberry, and many others.  


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Mr. Fox
Helen Oyeyemi
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Riverhead
Release Date: September 29

Fairy-tale romances end with a wedding, and the fairy tales don't get complicated. In this book, the celebrated writer Mr. Fox can't stop himself from killing off the heroines of his novels, and neither can his wife, Daphne. It's not until Mary, his muse, comes to life and transforms him from author into subject that his story begins to unfold differently.
Mary challenges Mr. Fox to join her in stories of their own devising; and in different times and places, the two of them seek each other, find each other, thwart each other, and try to stay together, even when the roles they inhabit seem to forbid it. Their adventures twist the fairy tale into nine variations, exploding and teasing conventions of genre and romance, and each iteration explores the fears that come with accepting a lifelong bond. Meanwhile, Daphne becomes convinced that her husband is having an affair, and finds her way into Mary and Mr. Fox's game. And so Mr. Fox is offered a choice: Will it be a life with the girl of his dreams, or a life with an all-too-real woman who delights him more than he cares to admit?

The extraordinarily gifted Helen Oyeyemi has written a love story like no other. Mr. Fox is a magical book, endlessly inventive, as witty and charming as it is profound in its truths about how we learn to be with one another. 


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Redlaw
James Lovegrove
Genre: Paranormal
Publisher: Solaris
Release Date: September 27

They live among us, abhorred, marginalised, despised. They are vampires, known politely as strigoi. The job of policing their community falls to the men and women of the Strigoian Control And Liaison Executive – SCALE. Captain John Redlaw is London’s most feared and respected SCALE officer.

But when the vampires start rioting within their ghettoes, and angry humans respond with violence of their own, even Redlaw may not be able to keep the peace. Especially when political forces are aligning to introduce a radical answer to the strigoi problem, one that will resolve the situation once and for all..


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The Revisionists
Thomas Mullen
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Release Date: September 28

Would you kill to make the world a peaceful place?Zed is an agent from the future. A place where all of the world's problems have been solved. No hunger. No war. No despair.
His mission is to keep that way. Even if it means ensuring every cataclysm throughout history runs its course, especially one just on the horizon.
Zed's mission will ensnare the lives of a disgraced former spy named Leo; a young lawyer, Tasha, grieving over the loss of her brother; Sari, the oppressed employee of a foreign diplomat; and countless others. But will he finish his final mission before the present takes precedence over a perfect future? One that may have more cracks than he realizes?
The Revisionists is a literary tale of action and intrigue that puts a fresh spin on today's global crises, asking questions about the nature of history and the future, and our own roles in shaping them.


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Spider's Revenge
Jennifer Estep
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Pocket
Release Date: September 27

Old habits die hard. And I plan on mur­der­ing some­one before the night is through.

Killing used to be my reg­u­lar gig, after all. Gin Blanco, aka the Spi­der, assassin-for-hire. And I was very good at it. Now, I’m ready to make the one hit that truly mat­ters: Mab Mon­roe, the dan­ger­ous Fire ele­men­tal who mur­dered my fam­ily when I was thir­teen.

Oh, I don’t think the mis­sion will be easy, but turns out it’s a bit more prob­lem­atic than expected. The bitch knows I’m com­ing for her. So now I’m up against the army of lethal bounty hunters she hired to track me down. She also put a price on my baby sister’s head. Keep­ing Bria safe is my first pri­or­ity. Tak­ing Mab out is a close sec­ond.

Good thing I’ve got my pow­er­ful Stone and Ice magic — and my irre­sistible lover Owen Grayson — to watch my back. This bat­tle has been years in the mak­ing, and there’s a chance I won’t sur­vive. But if I’m going down, then Mab’s com­ing with me...no mat­ter what I have to do to make that happen.


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Shifting
Bethany Wiggins
Genre: YA Paranormal
Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers
Release Date: September 27

After bouncing from foster home to foster home, Magdalene Mae is transferred to what should be her last foster home in the tiny town of Silver City, New Mexico. Now that she's eighteen and has only a year left in high school, she's determined to stay out of trouble and just be normal. Agreeing to go to the prom with Bridger O'Connell is a good first step. Fitting in has never been her strong suit, but it's not for the reasons most people would expect-it all has to do with the deep secret that she is a shape shifter. But even in her new home danger lurks, waiting in the shadows to pounce. They are the Skinwalkers of Navajo legend, who have traded their souls to become the animal whose skin they wear-and Maggie is their next target.
Full of romance, mysticism, and intrigue, this dark take on Navajo legend will haunt readers to the final page.


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Sins of the Angels
Linda Poitevin
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Ace
Release Date: September 27

A detective with a secret lineage. An undercover Hunter with a bullet-proof soul. And a world made to pay for the sins of an angel…

Homicide detective Alexandra Jarvis answers to no one. Especially not to the new partner assigned to her in the middle of a gruesome serial killer case—a partner who is obstructive, irritatingly magnetic, and arrogant as hell.

Aramael is a Power—a hunter of the Fallen Angels. A millennium ago, he sentenced his own brother to eternal exile for crimes against humanity. Now his brother is back and wreaking murderous havoc in the mortal realm. To find him, Aramael must play second to a human police officer who wants nothing to do with him and whose very bloodline threatens both his mission and his soul.

Now, faced with a fallen angel hell-bent on triggering the apocalypse, Alex and Aramael have no choice but to join forces, because only together can they stop the end of days


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Slayers
C.J. Hill
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Release Date: September 27

Dragons exist. They’re ferocious. And they’re smart: Before they were killed off by slayer-knights, they rendered a select group of eggs dormant, so their offspring would survive. Only a handful of people know about this, let alone believe it – these “Slayers” are descended from the original knights, and are now a diverse group of teens that includes Tori, a smart but spoiled senator’s daughter who didn’t sign up to save the world.
The dragon eggs have fallen into the wrong hands. The Slayers must work together to stop the eggs from hatching. They will fight; they will fall in love. But will they survive?


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The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #1)
Michelle Hodkin
Genre: Ya Paranormal
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Release Date: September 27

Mara Dyer doesn't think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.
It can.
She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.
There is.
She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love.
She's wrong.


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Vacation
Matthew J. Costello
Genre: Post Apocolypse
Publisher: Thomas Dunne
Release Date: September 27

In the near future after a global crisis causes crops to fail and species to disappear . . .  something even more deadly happens. Groups of humans around the world suddenly become predators, feeding off their own kind. These “Can Heads” grow to such a threat that fences, gated compounds, and SWAT-style police protection become absolutely necessary in order to live.

After one Can Head attack leaves NYPD cop Jack Murphy wounded, Jack takes his wife and kids on a much-needed vacation. Far up north, to a camp where families can still swim and take boats out on a lake, and pretend that the world isn’t going to hell.

But the Can Heads are never far away, and nothing is quite what it seems in Paterville. . . .

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