Monday, July 30, 2012

New Scifi & Fantasy Releases: Week of July 29- August 4

Posted by Simcha 5:15 PM, under | 5 comments

Sorry for getting this list out to you so late though I'm sure you'll forgive me once you see some of the awesome titles that I've got for you here.

There are new books from Illona Andrews,  Steven Erikson, Rob Thurman and even a new YA from Sherwood Smith.

For those horror lovers among you that enjoy reading about decomposing bodies, there's a new zombie anthology and Dave Zeltserman offers a new take on Frankenstein in his novel, Monster. So pick your poison ;)

Hope you have a great reading week!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Science Fiction


Carry The Flame
James Jaros
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Release Date: July 31

Having survived the terror of the Alliance and the single-minded fanaticism of its hideous religion, a caravan of survivors moves quickly into the Great American Desert, the wastes of what once was America's heartland. With her daughters at her side--recently rescued Ananda and her daring older sister, Bliss--Jessie hopes to find sanctuary in the Arctic, now rumored to be temperate. But their enemies are powerful and relentless, and will not rest until they possess the caravan's most precious treasures: their prepubescent female children, a stolen tanker filled with fuel . . . and a pair of frightened twins, whom the Army of God calls "demon."

But the danger in pursuit pales before the horror that lies ahead when Jessie, the marauder-turned-ally Burned Fingers, and the innocents in their care face the savagery, the madness, and the monsters that dwell in the terrifying City of Shade.

vN (The Machine Dynasty, #1)
Madeline Ashby
Publisher: Angry Robot
Release Date: July 31

Amy Peterson is a self-replicating humanoid robot known as a VonNeumann.

For the past five years, she has been grown slowly as part of a mixed organic/synthetic family. She knows very little about her android mother's past, so when her grandmother arrives and attacks her mother, Amy wastes no time: she eats her alive.

Now she carries her malfunctioning granny as a partition on her memory drive, and she's learning impossible things about her clade's history - like the fact that she alone can kill humans without failsafing...


An Officer's Duty (Theirs Not to Reason Why #2)
Jean Johnson
Publisher: Ace
Release Date: July 31

Jean Johnson—the national bestselling author of the Sons of Destiny novels—returns to the world she introduced in A Soldier’s Duty with a terrible vision of the future...

Promoted in the field for courage and leadership under fire, Ia is now poised to become an officer in the Space Force Navy—once she undertakes her Academy training. But on a trip back home to Sanctuary, she finds the heavyworld colony being torn apart by religious conflict. Now Ia must prepare her family and followers to secure the galaxy’s survival. Her plan is to command a Blockade Patrol ship. Her goal, to save as many lives as she can. But at the Academy, she discovers an unexpected challenge: the one man who could disrupt those plans. The man whose future she cannot foresee..





The Incarceration of Captain Nebula & Other Stories 
Mike Resnick
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Release Date: July 31

In his long and storied career, Mike Resnick has won all of science fiction's most prestigious awards. He has won the Nebula, the Hugo, and numerous readers' awards. He has won the Japanese Hugo, as well as major awards in Spain, France, Poland and Croatia.

The Incarceration of Captain Nebula and Other Lost Futures focuses on Mike's most recent award-winners and nominees with the exception of heartbreaking 'The Last Dog,' Mike s very first award-winning short story and his multi-award-winning classic 'Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge.'

From examinations of life and death to questions of eternity, Mike's short fiction explores the range of the human experience--even though his characters include dogs, robots and aliens.

This collection has everything to appeal to the most devoted Mike Resnick fan, including a never-before-seen-in-print novella, 'Six Blind Men And An Alien.' The story, set in Africa like so many of Mike's award-winners, is one of his most spectacular works to date.

The Incarceration of Captain Nebula and Other Lost Futures shows why Mike Resnick is one of science fiction's most treasured writers--and one of its most beloved.




The War That Came Early: Coup d'Etat 
Harry Turtledove
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: July 31

In Harry Turtledove’s mesmerizing alternate history of World War II, the choices of men and fate have changed history. Now it is the winter of 1941. As the Germans, with England and France on their side, slam deep into Russia, Stalin’s terrible machine fights for its life. But the agreements of world leaders do not touch the hearts of soldiers. The war between Germany and Russia is rocked by men with the courage to aim their guns in a new direction.

England is the first to be shaken. Following the suspicious death of Winston Churchill, with his staunch anti-Nazi views, a small cabal begins to imagine the unthinkable in a nation long famous for respecting the rule of law. With civil liberties hanging by a thread, a conspiracy forms against the powers that be. What will this daring plan mean for the European war as a whole?

Meanwhile, in America, a woman who has met Hitler face-to-face urges her countrymen to wake up to his evil. For the time being, the United States is fighting only Japan—and the war is not going as well as Washington would like. Can Roosevelt keep his grip on the country’s imagination?

Coup d’Etat captures how war makes for the strangest of bedfellows. A freethinking Frenchman fights side by side with racist Nazis. A Czech finds himself on the dusty front lines of the Spanish Civil War, gunning for Germany’s Nationalist allies. A German bomber pilot courts a half-Polish, half-Jewish beauty in Bialystock. And the Jews in Germany, though trapped under Hitler’s fist, are as yet protected by his fear of looking bad before the world—and by an outspoken Catholic bishop.

With his spectacular command of character, coincidence, and military and political strategies, Harry Turtledove continues a passionate, unmatched saga of a World War II composed of different enemies, different allies—and hurtling toward a horrific moment. For a diabolical new weapon is about to be unleashed, not by the United States, but by Japan, in a tactic that will shock the world.


Chimera (The Subterrene War #3)
T.C. McCarthy
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: August 1

Escaped Germline soldiers need to be cleaned up, and Stan Resnick is the best man for the job. A job that takes him to every dark spot and every rat hole he can find.

Operatives from China and Unified Korea are gathering escaped or stolen Russian and American genetics, and there are reports of new biological nightmares: half-human things, bred to live their entire lives encased in powered armor suits.

Stan fights to keep himself alive and out of prison while he attempts to capture a genetic, one who will be able to tell them everything they need to know about this new threat, the one called "Project Sunshine."

Fantasy 


The Air War (Shadows of the Apt #8)
Adrian Tchaikovsky
Publisher: Tor UK
Release Date: August 2

All is in turmoil as the world moves towards war. In Solarno, the spies watch each other and ready their knives, while Myna sees the troops muster at its border and emotions run high as it vows never to be enslaved again. In Collegium, the students argue politics, too late to turn the tide. In the heart of the Empire, new pilots have completed their secretive training, generals are being recalled to service and armies are ready to march. Their Empress, the heir to two worlds, intends to claim her birthright. And nothing – either within the Empire or beyond it – will stand in her way. A conflict is coming, the like of which the insect-kinden have never seen.



Blood of the Emperor
Tracy Hickman
Publisher: DAW
Release Date: July 31

It appears that an ancient prophecy is about to be fulfilled as the human named Drakis—formerly one of countless warrior-slaves to the elves of the Rhonas Empire—returns from his quest in the North. Flying into the rebel camp with his surviving companions on the backs of the legendary dragons that were once humankind's most powerful allies, Drakis is hailed as the champion of all the slave races. But it is not a prophecy that drives Drakis in his war against the elves and their emperor. Rather it is his burning desire for revenge against the cruel ruler whom Drakis believes has stolen any chance he has for finding peace. And this hatred will set Drakis and his rebel army on a path that may not only bring down the emperor, but Drakis and his entire world as well....



The Crown of the Usurper
Gav Thorpe
Publisher: Angry Robot
Release Date: July 31

The stunning conclusion to the Crown of the Blood trilogy.

Ullsaard rules the known world. All are subject to his will.

Yet even as another king bows before him, there are those who would wrench his empire from beneath him. He must risk losing the lands he has conquered to confront a foe far more powerful than any he has faced before.

As alliances shift and old enemies return, will he save the empire he has given his life to, or let it fall to ruin?

Exile ( The Outcast Chronicles, Bk 2)
Rowena Cory Daniells
Publisher: Solaris
Release Date: July 31

For over 300 years the mystics have lived alongside the true-men, until King Charald lays siege to the mystic’s island city.

Imoshen, most powerful of the female mystics, is elected to negotiate with the true-man king. The male mystics still resent her, but she has an ally in Sorne, the half-blood, who was raised by true-men. Even though he is vulnerable to her gifts, he gives Imoshen his loyalty. In return, she gives him the most dangerous of tasks, to spy for her.

She negotiates exile for her people. They must pack all their valuables, reach port and set sail by the first day of winter. But to do this they have to cross a kingdom filled with true-men who are no longer bluffed by their gifts. Meanwhile, there are mystics living in the countryside unaware that their people have been exiled.

King Charald announces any mystics who remain behind after they are exiled will be hunted down and executed. 



The Forge of Darkness (The Kharkanas Trilogy #1)
Steven Erikson
Publisher: Bantam Press
Release Date: August 2

Steven Erikson returns to the Malazan world with the first book in a dark and revelatory new epic fantasy that tells the tragic story of ruin of a realm.

This is the story of the early years of Anomander Rake, and his brothers, Andarist and Silchas Ruin.

It is a tale that begins within the Age of Darkness and the Birth of Light and involves the forging of a sword unlike any other, and tells of the tragedy that was the collapse of the realm of the Tiste Andii.

It is the story of the devastating civil war that tore their world apart -- a story of bitter family rivalries, of jealousies and betrayals, of wild magic and unfettered power, of death and terriifying destruction.
It is the story of a how the goddess of the Tiste, Mother Dark, abandoned her children and turned her back on her people.



The Wanderers (The Veiled Isles Trilogy, #3)
Paula Brandon
Publisher: Spectra
Release Date: July 31

Time is running out. Falaste Rione is imprisoned, sentenced to death. And even though the magical balance of the Source is slipping and the fabric of reality itself has begun to tear, Jianna Belandor can think only of freeing the man she loves. But to do so, she must join a revolution she once despised—and risk reunion with a husband she has ample reason to fear.

Meanwhile, undead creatures terrorize the land, slaves of the Overmind—a relentless consciousness determined to bring everything that lives under its sway. All that stands in the way is a motley group of arcanists whose combined powers will barely suffice to restore balance to the Source. But when Jianna’s father, the Magnifico Aureste Belandor, murders one of them, the group begins to fracture under the pressures of suspicion and mutual hatred. Now humanity’s hope rests with an unexpected soul: a misanthropic hermit whose next move may turn the tide and save the world.



The Woman Who Married a Cloud
Jonathan Carroll
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Release Date: July 31

Described by Michael Dirda in The Washington Post as 'sexy, eery and addictive', the fiction of Jonathan Carroll occurs at the point where the ordinary becomes extraordinary, the commonplace becomes unsettling, and yet where we nonetheless always recognize the stories being told because they are always about ourselves and what happens in our deepest, sometimes darkest hearts.

Always better known as a novelist--readers first experienced Carroll s elegant, eloquent, wondrous, terrible and often surreal fiction in his classic debut The Land of Laughs, which he followed with Bones of the Moon, Sleeping in Flame, A Child Across the Sky, and others--Carroll has also created a compelling and deeply moving body of short fiction. Perhaps more eclectic and slant-wise than some of his novels, stories like World Fantasy Award winning 'Friend's Best Man' and Pushcart Prize and Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire honouree 'Home on the Rain' stand amongst his very best work.



Yok 
Tim Davys
Publisher: Harper
Release Date: July 31

In Yok, Mollisan Town's seediest neighborhood, Fox Antonio Ortega, Erik Gecko, Mike Chimpanzee, and Vincent Hare are trapped by ignorance, poverty, mediocrity, and their own insecurities. Yet there is a glimmer of hope, a chance that they can overcome their desperate circumstances and gain the freedom to achieve their dreams. The handsome fox yearns for true love; the gecko seeks redemption and freedom from his abusive brothers; the chimpanzee burns for success; and the hare seeks the secret to a meaningful life. But when they get close to their desires, will happiness slip out of reach, or can they find the power to grab what they want?

Mollisan Town is unlike any world ever created in literature. Within its colorful streets dwell the desires, dark sides, hopes, and expectations of its plush inhabitants. From romance to ambition, jealousy to despair, the stuffed animals of Yok must grapple with the most human of emotions. The tension mounts within these four gripping tales, and each character's journey leads to a truth that reveals something about the animals of this alternate world—and about ourselves. 


Urban Fantasy 




Kitty Steals the Show (Kitty Norville, #10) 
Carrie Vaughn 
Publisher: Tor 
Release Date: July 31 

Kitty has been tapped as the keynote speaker for the First International Conference on Paranatural Studies, taking place in London. The conference brings together scientists, activists, protestors, and supernatural beings from all over the world—and Kitty, Ben, and Cormac are right in the middle of it.

Master vampires from dozens of cities have also gathered in London for a conference of their own. With the help of the Master of London, Kitty gets more of a glimpse into the Long Game—a power struggle among vampires that has been going on for centuries—than she ever has before. In her search for answers, Kitty has the help of some old allies, and meets some new ones, such as Caleb, the alpha werewolf of the British Isles. The conference has also attracted some old enemies, who’ve set their sights on her and her friends.

All the world’s a stage, and Kitty’s just stepped into the spotlight.


Shadows Before the Sun (Charlie Madigan #4) 
Kelly Gay
Publisher: Pocket
Release Date: July 31

After filling out mountains of paperwork, Detective Charlie Madigan sets out for a death-defying trip into heavenly Elysia to rescue her partner Hank and bring the siren home. Of course, she doesn’t expect to leave behind an all out siren revolution or return home to find that jinn crime boss, Grigori Tennin, has begun a massive search for the divine being, Ahkneri. Tennin’s tactics set off a chain reaction that puts Charlie in the crosshairs of the shadowy creature known as Death and awakens Ahkneri from her long sleep. And when Vengeance rises, Atlanta will never be the same. 




Whispers Under Ground (Peter Grant #3) 
Ben Aaronovitch
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: July 31

It begins with a dead body at the far end of Baker Street tube station, all that remains of American exchange student James Gallagher—and the victim’s wealthy, politically powerful family is understandably eager to get to the bottom of the gruesome murder. The trouble is, the bottom—if it exists at all—is deeper and more unnatural than anyone suspects . . . except, that is, for London constable and sorcerer’s apprentice Peter Grant. With Inspector Nightingale, the last registered wizard in England, tied up in the hunt for the rogue magician known as “the Faceless Man,” it’s up to Peter to plumb the haunted depths of the oldest, largest, and—as of now—deadliest subway system in the world.

At least he won’t be alone. No, the FBI has sent over a crack agent to help. She’s young, ambitious, beautiful . . . and a born-again Christian apt to view any magic as the work of the devil. Oh yeah—that’s going to go well.

Gunmetal Magic (Kate Daniels, #5.5)
Ilona Andrews
Publisher: Ace
Release Date: July 31

Some people have everything figured out — Andrea Nash is not one of those people. After being kicked out of the Order of Knights of Merciful Aid, Andrea's whole existence is in shambles. All she can do is try to put herself back together, something made easier by working for Cutting Edge, a small investigative firm owned by her best friend, Kate Daniels.

When several shapeshifters working for Raphael Medrano — the male alpha of Clan Bouda and Andrea's former lover — die unexpectedly at a dig site, Andrea is assigned to investigate ... and must work with Raphael. As her search for the killer leads her into the secret underbelly of supernatural Atlanta, Andrea knows that dealing with her feelings for Raphael might have to take a backseat to saving the world .. 



All Seeing Eye 
Rob Thurman
Publisher: Pocket
Release Date: July 31

Picking up a small pink shoe from the grass forever changed young Jackson Lee’s life. Not only did its presence mean that his sister Tessa was dead—murdered and stuffed in the deep, black water of a narrow well—but the shoe itself told him so. Tessa’s death triggers an even more horrific family massacre that, combined with this new talent he neither wants nor can handle, throws Jack’s life into a tailspin. The years quickly take him from state homes to the streets to grifting in a seedy carnival, until he finally becomes the cynical All Seeing Eye, psychic-for-hire. At last, Jackson has left his troubled past behind him and found a semblance of peace. That is, until the government blackmails him. Helping the military contain the aftermath of a bizarre experiment gone violently wrong, everything Jackson knows about himself will change just as suddenly as it did with his little sister’s shoe. And while change is constant...It’s never for the better.


Sin's Dark Caress 
Tracey O'hara
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Release Date: July 31

"An ancient darkness has risen from the ashes . . . and terror has been loosed upon an unsuspecting world."

Forensic witch Bianca Sin has never seen anything like it: homeless teenage girls torn to pieces by dark magic in the cold shadows of the city. More terrifying still is the symbol written in blood on an alley wall--the unmistakable seal of the Dark Brethren.

Teaming up with NYPD homicide detective Lancelot McManus and an elite task force headed by the shapeshifter Oberon DuPrie, Bianca knows her worst fears have finally come to pass. A new war of annihilation is looming that will plunge the worlds of vampire, shapeshifter, and human into chaos--and two adversarial tribes locked in uneasy truce will need to take up arms together to save the children. Trust will be essential for Sin and McManus, as the hunt forces them to confront their deepest terrors.

For the ultimate evil is no longer approaching. "It's here." 



Darklands (Deadtown, #4) 
Nancy Hozner
Publisher: Ace
Release Date: July 31

They call it Deadtown: the city’s quarantined section for its inhuman and undead residents. Most humans stay far from its border—but Victory Vaughn, Boston’s only professional demon slayer, isn’t exactly human…

Boston’s demons have been disappearing, and Vicky’s clients are canceling left and right. While fewer demons might seem like a good thing, Vicky suspects foul play. A missing Celtic cauldron from Harvard’s Peabody museum leads her to an unwelcome conclusion: Pryce, her demi-demon cousin and bitter enemy, is trying to regain his full powers.

But Pryce isn’t alone. He’s conjured another, darker villain from Vicky’s past. To stop them from destroying everything she loves, she’ll have to face her own worst fear—in the realm of the dead itself.

Blood & Feathers 
Lou Morgan
Publisher: Solaris
Release Date: July 31

Alice isn’t having the best of days. She was late for work, she missed her bus, and now she’s getting rained on. What she doesn’t know is that her day’s about to get worse: the epic, grand-scale kind of worse that comes from the arrival of two angels who claim everything about her life is a lie.

The war between the angels and the Fallen is escalating; the age-old balance is tipping, and innocent civilians are getting caught in the cross-fire. If the balance is to be restored, the angels must act—or risk the Fallen taking control. Forever.

That’s where Alice comes in. Hunted by the Fallen and guided by Mallory—a disgraced angel with a drinking problem and a whole load of secrets—Alice will learn the truth about her own history... and why the angels want to send her to hell.

What do the Fallen want from her? How does Mallory know so much about her past? What is it the angels are hiding—and can she trust either side?

Caught between the power plays of the angels and Lucifer himself, it isn’t just hell’s demons that Alice will have to defeat...

Horror



Devil's Wake 
Tananarive Due & Steven Barnes
Publisher: Atria
Release Date: July 31

The eeriness of Devil’s Wake begins a week after tomorrow. An unprecedented infection has swept across the world, bringing an epidemic of mindless biting attacks from the infected that leave their victims “changed.” Society has broken down. The victims are more than mindless zombies. They are the result of a sinister alien life-form in the wake of the aliens’ insidious plot, humanity ultimately becomes enmeshed in a brutal struggle for control of its home, planet Earth. Part Dawn of the Dead and part Road Warrior, Devil’s Wake is a testimony to courage, friendship, and the power of faith. Horrifying and heartbreaking, exciting and challenging, it is a compelling, brilliant story on the edge of what could be the end of it all.


Odd Apocalypse (Odd Thomas #5) 
Dean Koontz
Publisher: Bantam
Release Date:July 31

The stallion reared over me, silently slashing the air with the hooves of its forelegs, a creature of such immense power that I stumbled backward even though I knew that it was as immaterial as a dream. . . .

The woman astride the ghostly mount reaches out desperately, the latest spirit to enlist the aid of Odd Thomas, the unassuming young fry cook whose gift—or curse—it is to see the shades of the restless dead, and to help them when he can. This mission of mercy will lead Odd through realms of darkness he has never before encountered, as he probes the long-held secrets of a sinister estate and those who inhabit it.

ODD APOCALYPSE Once presided over by a flamboyant Hollywood mogul during the Roaring ’20s, the magnificent West Coast property known as Roseland is now home to a reclusive billionaire financier and his faithful servants. And, at least for the moment, it’s also a port in the storm for Odd Thomas and his traveling companion, the inscrutably charming Annamaria, the Lady of the Bell. In the wake of Odd’s most recent clash with lethal adversaries, the opulent manor’s comforts should be welcome. But there’s far more to Roseland than meets even the extraordinary eye of Odd, who soon suspects it may be more hell than haven.

A harrowing taste of Roseland’s terrors convinces Odd that it’s time to hit the road again. Still, the prescient Annamaria insists that they’ve been led there for a reason, and he’s promised to do his best for the ghost on horseback. Just how deep and dreadful are the mysteries Roseland and her masters have kept for nearly a century? And what consequences await whoever is brave, or mad, enough to confront the most profound breed of evil? Odd only knows. Like his acclaimed creator, the irresistible Odd Thomas is in top-notch form—as he takes on what may well be the most terrifying challenge yet in his curious career.



Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart
Caitlin R. Kiernan
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Release Date: July 31

Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart is the follow-up to Caitlƃ­n R. Kiernan's World-Fantasy Award nominated The Ammonite Violin & Others, a collection that drew comparisons to the writings of such luminaries of the macabre and surreal as Angela Carter, Thomas Ligotti, Shirley Jackson, and Harlan Ellison. Here, again, in her eighth collection, we visit the borderlands where the weird, horrific, mythic, and erotic intersect. Once again, Kiernan sets her masterful, intoxicating prose to the task of retelling fairy tales, spinning sensual post-Lovecraftian yarns, and blurring the lines between pain and pleasure. Here is a celebration of the bizarre and beautiful, and a marriage of unlikely worlds. From a reverence of the dead to the sacrifices the living make to unspeakable gods, from clockwork dreams to tales of merciless revenge, Kiernan blurs the artificial lines of genre, and shows us a world where there is no division between the light and dark. 


Monster
Dave Zeltserman
Publisher: Overlook
Release Date: August 2

In nineteenth-century Germany, one young man counts down the days until he can marry his beloved . . . until she is found brutally murdered, and the young man is accused of the crime. Broken on the wheel and left for dead, he awakens on a lab table, transformed into an abomination. Friedrich must go far to take his revenge --only to find his tormentor, Victor Frankenstein, in league with the Marquis de Sade, creating something much more sinister deep in the mountains. Paranormal and gripping in the tradition of the best work of Stephen King and Justin Cronin, Monster is a gruesome parable of control and vengeance, and an ingenious tribute to one of literature's greatest


Young Adult


The City's Son
Tom Pollock
Publisher: Jo Fletcher Books
Release Date: August 2 (UK)

Expelled from school, betrayed by her best friend and virtually ignored by her dad, who’s never recovered from the death of her mum, Beth Bradley retreats to the sanctuary of the streets, looking for a new home. What she finds is Filius Viae, the ragged and cocky crown prince of London, who opens her eyes to the place she’s never truly seen.

But the hidden London is on the brink of destruction. Reach, the King of the Cranes, is a malign god of demolition, and he wants Filius dead. In the absence of the Lady of the Streets, Filius’ goddess mother, Beth rouses Filius to raise an alleyway army, to reclaim London’s skyscraper throne for the mother he’s never known. Beth has almost forgotten her old life – until her best friend and her father come searching for her, and she must choose between the streets and the life she left behind.



The Far West (Frontier Magic #3)
Patricia C. Wrede
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: August 1

Eff is an unlucky thirteenth child...but also the seventh daughter in her family. Her twin brother, Lan, is a powerful double seventh son. Her life at the edge of the Great Barrier Spell is different from anyone else's that she knows.

When the government forms an expedition to map the Far West, Eff has the opportunity to travel farther than anyone in the world. With Lan, William, Professor Torgeson, Wash, and Professor Ochiba, Eff finds that nothing on the wild frontier is as they expected. There are strange findings in their research, a long prarie winter spent in too-close quarters, and more new species, magical and otherwise, dangerous and benign, than they ever expected to find. And then spring comes, and the explorers realize how tenuous life near the Great Barrier Spell may be if they don't find a way to stop a magical flood in a hurry. Eff's unique way of viewing magic has saved the settlers time and again, but this time all of Columbia is at stake if she should fail.



The Ghost of Graylock
Dan Poblocki
Publisher: Scholastic
Release Date: August 1

Everyone’s heard the stories about Graylock Hall.

It was meant to be a place of healing—a hospital where children and teenagers with mental disorders would be cared for and perhaps even cured. But something went wrong. Several young patients died under mysterious circumstances. Eventually, the hospital was shut down, the building abandoned and left to rot deep in the woods.

As the new kid in town, Neil Cady wants to see Graylock for himself. Especially since rumor has it that the building is haunted. He’s got fresh batteries in his flashlight, a camera to document the adventure, and a new best friend watching his back.

Neil might think he’s prepared for what he’ll find in the dark and decrepit asylum. But he’s certainly not prepared for what follows him home . .



The Spy Princess
Sherwood Smith
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Release Date: August 2

When twelve-year-old Lady Lilah decides to disguise herself and sneak out of the palace one night, she has more of an adventure than she expected--for she learns very quickly that the country is on the edge of revolution. When she sneaks back in, she learns something even more surprising: her older brother Peitar is one of the forces behind it all. The revolution happens before all of his plans are in place, and brings unexpected chaos and violence. Lilah and her friends, leaving their old lives behind, are determined to help however they can. But what can four kids do? Become spies, of course!

Anthologies



The First Last Unicorn and Other Beginnings
Peter S. Beagle
Publisher: Tachyon Publication
Release Date: August 1

Featuring previously unpublished and uncollected treasures from a much-beloved fantasy icon, this lovingly curated collection is a hoard of riches and surprises. A romp through the filing cabinet of Peter S. Beagle’s imagination, it is an unexpected glimpse into the curios, curiosities, and capstones of his later fiction. Included is a novella-length adventure of the last unicorn, in which she bands together with a duo of ambivalent demons to seek out her lost brethren. Additional chapters from A Fine & Private Place, from the unpublished novel Mirror Kingdoms, and even snippets from Beagle’s childhood and teenaged years are included. Correspondence, running commentary, and interviews give delightful insight into the creative process of this beloved master of the genre.




Extreme Zombies
By Nancy A. Collins, Joe R. Lansdale, Edward Lee, George R. R. Martin, David J. Schow, John Shirley 
Publisher: Prime Books
Release Date: August 1

It's too late The living dead have already taken over the world. Your brains have been devoured. Nothing is left but spasms of ravenous need - an obscene hunger for even more zombie fiction. Forget the metaphors and the mildly scary. You want shock, you want grue, you want disturbing, gut-wrenching, skull-crunching zombie stories that take you over the edge and go splat. You want the bloody best of the ultimate undead. You have no choice...you...must...have...Extreme Zombies.



Digital Rapture: The Singularity Anthology
edited by James Patrick Kelly & John Kessel
Publisher: Tachyon Publication
Release Date: August 1

Presenting the posthuman future in its wildest science-fictional imaginings and intriguing speculations, this far-reaching anthology of fiction and nonfiction traces the path of the Singularity, an era when advances in technology totally transform human reality. The featured stories and essays travel from the alien far-future of H. G. Wells and the almost-human, near future of Ray Kurzweil to Elizabeth Bear’s fusion of woman, machine, God, and shark and Isaac Asimov’s evolution of ineffable logic. Daring to peek over the edge of the event horizon as intelligence both figuratively and literally explodes, this collection also includes pieces by Nick Bostrom, Cory Doctorow, Robert Reed, Justina Robson, Charles Stross, Vernor Vinge, and more.

Tags

Book Reviews

Blog Archive

Blog Archive