New Scifi & Fantasy Releases: Week of February 6

After spending quite a bit of time on last week's lengthy list of new releases I have to admit to being rather relieved that this weeks list is much shorter. But despite the brevity of this week's list, all of the titles on it actually look really good to me, which is pretty unusual.

This week's most anticipated title is probably Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes though I have also been seeing a lot of The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney, which is already on my wish list. Though everything else here looks just as good and I would happily add them all to my bookshelf.

How about you? Are any of these books ones that have been on your wish-list?

Hope you have a great reading week!



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A Discovery of Witches
Deborah Harkness
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Viking
Release Date: February 7

A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together.

Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

Debut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense. Diana is a bold heroine who meets her equal in vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and gradually warms up to him as their alliance deepens into an intimacy that violates age-old taboos. This smart, sophisticated story harks back to the novels of Anne Rice, but it is as contemporary and sensual as the Twilight series-with an extra serving of historical realism.


Deep State
Walter Jon Williams
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: February 7


Dagmar Shaw is back at it again. She is the Puppetmaster and this time thousands of gamers are dancing on her strings. But when the game she is running in Turkey comes into conflict with the new, brutal regime, she realizes that games have consequences.
When an old friend approaches Dagmar with a project so insane, so ambitious, she can’t possibly say no, she is plunged into a world of spies and soldiers. Dagmar is a Puppetmaster, but when the bullets are real and her ‘puppets’ start dying, is any cause worth it? A nation hangs in the balance and in a world of intrigue and betrayal, Dagmar needs to figure out just what part she plays.


The Floating Island
Rachel Neumeier
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Release Date: February 8

When Trei loses his family in a tragic disaster, he must search out distant relatives in a new land. The Floating Islands are unlike anything Trei has ever seen: stunning, majestic, and graced with kajurai, men who soar the skies with wings.

Trei is instantly sky-mad, and desperate to be a kajurai himself. The only one who fully understands his passion is Araene, his newfound cousin. Prickly, sarcastic, and gifted, Araene has a secret of her own . . . a dream a girl cannot attain.

Trei and Araene quickly become conspirators as they pursue their individual paths. But neither suspects that their lives will be deeply entwined, and that the fate of the Floating Islands will lie in their hands. . . .

Filled with rich language, and told in alternating voices, The Floating Islands is an all-encompassing young adult fantasy read.

The Heroes
Joe Abercrombie
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: February . 7


They say Black Dow’s killed more men than winter, and clawed his way to the throne of the North up a hill of skulls. The King of the Union, ever a jealous neighbour, is not about to stand smiling by while he claws his way any higher. The orders have been given and the armies are toiling through the northern mud. Thousands of men are converging on a forgotten ring of stones, on a worthless hill, in an unimportant valley, and they’ve brought a lot of sharpened metal with them.
Bremer dan Gorst, disgraced master swordsman, has sworn to reclaim his stolen honour on the battlefield. Obsessed with redemption and addicted to violence, he’s far past caring how much blood gets spilled in the attempt. Even if it’s his own.
Prince Calder isn’t interested in honour, and still less in getting himself killed. All he wants is power, and he’ll tell any lie, use any trick, and betray any friend to get it. Just as long as he doesn’t have to fight for it himself.
Curnden Craw, the last honest man in the North, has gained nothing from a life of warfare but swollen knees and frayed nerves. He hardly even cares who wins any more, he just wants to do the right thing. But can he even tell what that is with the world burning down around him?
Over three bloody days of battle, the fate of the North will be decided. But with both sides riddled by intrigues, follies, feuds and petty jealousies, it is unlikely to be the noblest hearts, or even the strongest arms that prevail…
Three men. One battle. No Heroes.


The Iron Witch
Karen Mahoney
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publisher: Flux
Release Date: February 8


When she was seven, a horrific fey attack killed Donna Underwood’s father and drove her mother mad. Her own nearly fatal injuries were fixed by alchemy—the iron tattoos branding her hands and arms. Now seventeen, Donna feels like a freak, doomed by the magical heritage that destroyed her parents and any chance she had for a normal life. Only her relationship with her best friend, Navin, is keeping her sane.
But when vicious wood elves abduct Navin, Donna is forced to accept her role in the centuries-old war between human alchemists and these darkest outcasts of Faerie. Assisted by Xan, a gorgeous guy with faery blood running through his veins and secrets of his own, Donna races to save Navin—even if it means betraying everything her parents fought to the death to protect.


Kindred
Tammar Stein
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Release Date: February 8

The first time I meet an angel, it is Raphael and I am eighteen.

Miriam is an unassuming college freshman stuck on campus after her spring break plans fall through. She's not a religious girl--when pressed she admits reluctantly to believing in a higher power. Truth be told, she's about as comfortable speaking about her faith as she is about her love life, which is to say, not at all. And then the archangel Raphael pays Miriam a visit, and she finds herself on a desperate mission to save two of her contemporaries. To top it all off, her twin brother, Mo, has also had a visitation, but from the opposite end of the good-evil spectrum, which leaves Miriam to wonder--has she been blessed and her brother cursed or vice versa? And what is the real purpose behind her mission?


The Scar-Crow Men
Mark Chadbourn
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Pyr
Release Date: February 8

The year is 1593. The London of Elizabeth I is in the terrible grip of the Black Death. As thousands die from the plague and the queen hides behind the walls of her palace, English spies are being murdered across the city. The killer's next target: Will Swyfte.
For Swyfte--adventurer, rake, scholar, and spy--this is the darkest time he has known. His mentor, the grand old spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham, is dead. The new head of the secret service is more concerned about his own advancement than defending the nation, and a rival faction at the court has established its own network of spies. Plots are everywhere, and no one can be trusted. Meanwhile, England's greatest enemy, the haunted Unseelie Court, prepares to make its move.
A dark, bloody scheme, years in the making, is about to be realized. The endgame begins on the night of the first performance of Dr. Faustus, the new play by Swyfte's close friend and fellow spy Christopher Marlowe. A devil is conjured in the middle of the crowded theater, taking the form of Will Swyfte's long-lost love, Jenny--and it has a horrifying message for him alone.
That night Marlowe is murdered, and Swyfte embarks on a personal and brutal crusade for vengeance. Friendless, with enemies on every side and a devil at his back, the spy may find that even his vaunted skills are no match for the supernatural powers arrayed against him.



Thirteen Years Later
Jasper Kent
Genre: Alternate History
Publisher: Pyr
Release Date: February 8

Aleksandr made a silent promise to the Lord. God would deliver him--would deliver Russia--and he would make Russia into the country that the Almighty wanted it to be. He would be delivered from the destruction that wasteth at noonday, and from the pestilence that walketh in darkness--the terror by night...
1825, Europe--and Russia--have been at peace for ten years. Bonaparte is long dead and the threat of invasion is no more. For Colonel Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov, life is peaceful. Not only have the French been defeated but so have the twelve monstrous creatures he once fought alongside, and then against, ten or more years ago. His duty is still to serve and to protect his tsar, Aleksandr the First, but now the enemy is human.
However the Tsar knows that he can never be at peace. Of course, he is aware of the uprising fermenting within the Russian army--among his supposedly loyal officers. No, what troubles him is something that threatens to bring damnation down upon him, his family and his country. The Tsar has been reminded of a promise: a promise born of blood...a promise that was broken a hundred years before.
Now the one who was betrayed by the Romanovs has returned to exact revenge for what has been denied him. And for Aleksei, knowing this chills his very soul. For it seems the vile pestilence that once threatened all he believed in and all he held dear has returned, thirteen years later...

Friday Quotes

It's been months since I last did a Friday Quotes post. For a while I thought that I just wasn't coming across any good quotes in the books that I was reading but then I realized that I had actually just stopped looking. When I read a good book I usually lose myself in it completely and only pay attention to the wording if it bothers me enough to jar my concentration.

I hadn't realized that good quotes were something that I had to actually look out for, until I stopped doing it. So now I'm determined to start paying more attention and when I come across a quote or turn of phrase that I particularly like, I'll make an effort to write it down so that I can share it with you.

So I have for you this week just a few quotes that I enjoyed from some of the books that I recently read, or am currently reading:


Grimwood by Jon Courtenay

• There were old firemasters and bad firemasters; there were no old bad firemasters

The House on Darrow Street by Galen Beckett

• "You were not spoiled at all before it was too late, Mrs. Quent, and look what it has done to you. You are practical and somber. No, we must hurry and spoil Lily before its too late for her, and she becomes hopelessly serious."

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

• The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say.

• I think how hope may be the thing that pulls you forward, may be the thing that keeps you going, but that it's dangerous too, that it's painful and risky, that it's making a dare to the world and when has the world ever let us win a dare?

The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas

• Real life is physical. Give me books instead. Give me the invisibility of the contents of books, the thoughts, the ideas, the images. Let me become part of a book. . . . an intertextual being: a book cyborg, or, considering that books aren't cybernetic, perhaps a bibliorg.

The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

• "I tell you to think black thoughts and you come up with that?!" the lieutenant had screamed. "Is a guinea pig bad? Do you consider a guinea pig the representation of all that is evil?"
  "Maybe... if it's an evil guinea pig."
  

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Todd Hewitt is the youngest boy in Prentisstown and in just a month he will become a man.
Todd knows the history of Prentisstown; how the families had arrived twenty years ago from another planet, in search of a place to settle and build a hopeful future. But upon arrival the men caught a virus called Noise which caused their thoughts to float freely in the air, for everyone to hear, and then the women all sickened and died, including Todd’s mother. So now there are no more women, no more children and no more silence.

But just because everyone’s thoughts can be heard doesn’t mean that secrets can’t still be concealed. When Todd is sent into the swamp on an errand by his foster father he is shocked by the discovery of a void within the Noise. Inside one of the decrepit buildings in the swamp he senses a space of pure silence, something that he had never imagined even existed. But because of this discovery Todd is forced to flee Prentisstown, although he has no idea why.

If you intend to read The Knife of Never Letting Go make sure to start early in the morning, on a day when you don’t have anything else planned, because once you begin you won’t want to put this book down.

The story begins right as Todd and his talking dog Manchee (because animals have also been effected by the Noise virus) make the discovery which will forever change Todd’s life. From that point on the tension quickly escalates and the pace speeds up so that I found myself tearing through the pages, unable to put the book down. Ness certainly knows how to pull readers in and keep them hooked. By offering tantalizing hints about Prentisstown’s secrets, without actually revealing very much, the story held me captive until the very end, when all is finally revealed.


But while the story is fast paced and intense I never found the tension too overwhelming, as I sometimes do with such books. There were some well placed interludes in the story that give both the characters and the readers a chance to catch their breath and rest for a bit, before things heated up again. For me this is important because if a book is unrelentingly dark and grim I sometimes have trouble getting myself to keep reading it, bit this was never the case here.

The book's protagonists are engaging and sympathetic, especially Todd, in whose voice the story is told. He comes across as both innocent and fierce. He longs to become a man, counting down each day until his birthday, though at the same time he struggles to understand what being a man actually entails.

Now I want to make a few comments about the ending which I was pretty disappointed with for several reasons, which I will explain in a bit more depth below. While I don’t intend to give a way any spoilers you still might want to skip the next couple of paragraphs if you haven’t yet read the book. If you have read it I would be interested in hearing what your thoughts are.

So, I was not at all happy with the discouraging way the story ended. I wanted the end to provide some meaning and purpose for Todd’s difficult travails; some remuneration other than just a Big Reveal (most of which I had already figured out by then). Instead Todd gets a shocking disappointment that seems to land him back in square one and a cliff hanger that makes me wary about picking up the next book. Who wants to open a door knowing there is a tiger on the other side, about to pounce?

I was also unsatisfied with the reasoning given for why Aaron and the Prentisstown men were hunting Todd. Neither motive made much sense to me and I felt let-down when all the cards were finally put on the table.

---End of spoiler----

While I thoroughly enjoyed The Knife of Never Letting Go the disappointing ending has left me a little wary about reading the sequels, just in case Ness follows the same pattern there. If not for the unsatisfying ending I would have ranked The Knife of Never Letting Go up there with one of my favorite YA dystopia books, The Hunger Games. But despite my feeling about the way the book is concluded I still say it's an excellent book that I would highly recommend.

New Scifi & Fantasy Releases: Week of January 30

This week's list of new releases includes a wonderfully varied selection of books, from mysteries about magical cats (Curiosity Thrilled the Cat by Sofie Kelly) to a biography about Howard Thurston (The Last Greatest Magician in the World: Howard Thurston versus Houdini & the Battles of the American Wizards by Jim Steinmeyer).

Some other interesting looking books that caught my eye include License to Ensorcell by Katharine Kerr, which seems very different from the kind of fantasy I'm used to seeing by her (and includes an Israeli Secret Agent, hmm..) and Journal of a UFO Investigator by David Halperin, which I actually should be receiving for review and really look forward to reading.

And there are two books here that I desperately covet, though I'm unlikely to get my hands on them anytime soon, and those are Brayan's Gold by Peter Brett (because it' so pretty...) and The King of the Crag by Stephen Deas (because I LOVED The Adamantine Palace).

So what about you? Will any of these books be finding a home on your bookshelf?

Hope you have a great reading week!





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The Alchemist 
Paolo Bacigalupi and J. K. Drummond
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Subterranean
Release Date: January 31 

Magic has a price. But someone else will pay. Every time a spell is cast, a bit of bramble sprouts, sending up tangling vines, bloody thorns, and threatening a poisonous sleep. It sprouts in tilled fields and in neighbors' roof beams, thrusts up from between street cobbles, and bursts forth from sacks of powdered spice. A bit of magic, and bramble follows. A little at first, and then more--until whole cities are dragged down under tangling vines and empires lie dead, ruins choked by bramble forest. Monuments to people who loved magic too much.

In paired novellas, award-winning authors Tobias Buckell and Paolo Bacigalupi explore a shared world where magic is forbidden and its use is rewarded with the axe. A world of glittering memories and a desperate present, where everyone uses a little magic, and someone else always pays the price.

In the beleageured city of Khaim, a lone alchemist seeks a solution to a deadly threat. The bramble, a plant that feeds upon magic, now presses upon Khaim, nourished by the furtive spellcasting of its inhabitants and threatening to strangle the city under poisonous vines. Driven by desperation and genius, the alchemist constructs a device that transcends magic, unlocking the mysteries of bramble s essential nature. But the power of his newly-built balanthast is even greater than he dreamed. Where he sought to save a city and its people, the balanthast has the potential to save the world entire--if it doesn t destroy him and his family first.

Blackveil (Green Rider, Bk 4)
Kristen Britain
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: DAW
Release Date: February 1 

Once a simple student, Karigan G'ladheon finds herself in a world of deadly danger and complex magic, compelled by forces she cannot understand when she becomes a legendary Green Rider-one of the magical messengers of the king. Forced by magic to accept a dangerous fate she would never have chosen, headstrong Karigan has become completely devoted to the king and her fellow Riders. But now, an insurrection led by dark magicians threatens to break the boundaries of ancient, evil Blackveil Forest-releasing powerful dark magics that have been shut away for a millennium.

Blood Wine 
Yasmine Galenorn
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: February 1 

The D'Artigo sisters have just turned in their badges to the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. Now that they're free agents they're hoping things will be easier, but when you're half-human, half-Fae, things can go astray at the most inopportune times...especially if you're attempting to go undercover and penetrate the underworld of a vamp society on the brink of war.

Blood of the Rose: The Tudor Vampire Chronicles
Kate Pearce
Genre: Paranormal
Publisher: Signet
Release Date: February 1

When vampire slayer Rosalind Llewellyn had to join forces with her enemy Christopher Ellis to defeat a rogue vampire threatening Henry VIII, their alliance led to a surprising passion. Reunited after a year's separation, they now face a new threat that could destroy their last chance at happiness.

Brayan's Gold (novella)
Peter Brett
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Subterranean
Release Date: January 31

Return to the world of The Warded Man and The Desert Spear in an illustrated new novella by Peter V. Brett.

Humanity has been brought to the brink of extinction. Each night, the world is overrun by demons bloodthirsty creatures of nightmare that have been hunting the surface for over 300 years. A scant few hamlets and half-starved city-states are all that remain of a once proud civilization, and it is only by hiding behind wards, ancient symbols with the power to repel the demons, that they survive. A handful of Messengers brave the night to keep the lines of communication open between the increasingly isolated populace.

Arlen Bales is seventeen, an apprentice Messenger in brand new armor, about to go out for the first time alongside a trained Messenger on a simple overnight trip. Instead Arlen finds himself alone on a frozen mountainside, carrying a dangerous cargo to Count Brayan's gold mine, one of the furthest points in the duchy. And One Arm, the giant rock demon, hunts him still.

But Brayan's Gold may offer a way for Arlen to be free of One Arm forever, if he is willing to wager his life on the chance.

Brendan 
Morgan Llywelyn
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: February 1

This is the story of Saint Brendan the Navigator, whose legendary quest to find the Isle of the Blessed is one of the most remarkable and enduring early Christian tales. Among Irish saints, Brendan the Navigator is second only to Patrick. Founder of several monasteries, he most famously guided a group of monks on a dangerous journey into the unknown vastness of the ocean on a search for Paradise.

Based on the medieval “Life of St Brendan,” Morgan Llywelyn's imaginative retelling of the Christian legend of this most remarkable man is a lyrical and surprising feast for the mind and heart. It is a story of truth and transcendence, and inner strength and daily discipline, a story of love and longing, and a story of towering faith. And of course, miracles.


Curiosity Thrilled the Cat: A Magical Cats Mystery
Sofie Kelly
Genre: Contemporary Fantasy/Mystery
Publisher: Signet
Release Date: February 1 

When librarian Kathleen Paulson moved to Mayville Heights, Minnesota, she had no idea that two strays would nuzzle their way into her life. Owen is a tabby with a catnip addiction and Hercules is a stocky tuxedo cat who shares Kathleen's fondness for Barry Manilow. But beyond all the fur and purrs, there's something more to these felines. When murder interrupts Mayville's Music Festival, Kathleen finds herself the prime suspect. More stunning is her realization that Owen and Hercules are magical-and she's relying on their skills to solve a purr-fect murder.


Darkness Dawns 
Dianne Duvall
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Zebra
Release Date: February 1

Once, Sarah Bingham's biggest challenge was making her students pay attention in class. Now, after rescuing a wounded stranger, she's handed in the middle of a battle between corrupt vampires and powerful immortals who also need blood to survive. Roland Warbrook is the most compelling man Sarah has ever laid hands on. But his desire for her is mingled with a hunger he can barely control...

In his nine centuries of immortal existence, no woman has tempted Roland as much as Sarah. But asking her to love him is impossible - when it means forfeiting the world she's always known, and the life he would do anything to protect.

The Executioness
Tobias S. Buckell and J. K. Drummond
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Subterranean
Release Date: January 31

Magic has a price. But someone else will pay. Every time a spell is cast, a bit of bramble sprouts, sending up tangling vines, bloody thorns, and threatening a poisonous sleep. It sprouts in tilled fields and in neighbors' roof beams, thrusts up from between street cobbles, and bursts forth from sacks of powdered spice. A bit of magic, and bramble follows. A little at first, and then more--until whole cities are dragged down under tangling vines and empires lie dead, ruins choked by bramble forest. Monuments to people who loved magic too much.

In paired novellas, award-winning authors Tobias Buckell and Paolo Bacigalupi explore a shared world where magic is forbidden and its use is rewarded with the axe. A world of glittering memories and a desperate present, where everyone uses a little magic, and someone else always pays the price. Magic has a price.

In Khaim, that price is your head if you're found using it. For the use of magic comes with a side effect: it creates bramble. The bramble is a creeping, choking menace that has covered majestic ancient cities, and felled civilizations. In order to prevent the spread of the bramble, many lose their heads to the cloaked executioners of Khaim. Tana is one of these executioners, taking the job over from her ailing father in secret, desperate to keep her family from starvation. But now her family has been captured by raiders, and taken to a foreign city. So Khaim's only female executioner begins a quest to bring her family back together. A bloody quest that will change lives, cities, and even an entire land, forever. A quest that will create the legend of The Executioness.


Forest Moon Rising ( A Tess Noncoire Adventure)
P. R. Frost
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: DAW
Release Date: February 1 

Tess Noncoiré, successful fantasy writer and Celestial Blade Warrior, has made a deal with the Powers That Be, forfeiting her own dreams in order to save those nearest and dearest to her. Having survived this unprecedented experience, Tess, along with her imp Scrap, is determined to hunt down a demonic intruder from another dimension, the Norglein, who seems bent on ravishing young women, leaving them pregnant, and waiting for the proper time to steal their babies away for his own purposes.


Halfway Hexed
Kimberly Frost
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: February 1 

New witch Tammy Jo Trask has a whole town full of trouble, in the latest from the national bestselling author of Barely Bewitched. First, there are the local residents who form a scripture-spouting posse and kidnap Tammy to "defend" Duvall, Texas, against witchcraft. Next, someone saddles her with a secret package chock full of dangerous visions, just as the president of WAM-the World Association of Magic- arrives with his entourage to investigate her. And who worse to examine Tammy's entanglement with off-limits and drop-dead gorgeous wizard Bryn Lyons than his ex-girlfriend? Not to mention that the clash between the locals and the magical visitors leads to a series of unnatural disasters that may doom them all. While the fate of the town hangs in the balance, one thing's certain: this would-be witch is ready to rumble, Texas style.

Iorich
Steven Brust
Genre:
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: February 1

House Jhereg, Dragaera's organized crime syndicate, is still hunting Vlad Taltos. There's a big price on his head on Draegara City. Then he hears disturbing news. Aliera--longtime friend, sometime ally--has been arrested by the Empire on a charge of practicing elder sorcery, a capital crime. It doesn't make sense. Everybody knows Aliera's been dabbling in elder sorcery for ages. Why is the Empire down on her now? Why aren't her powerful friends--Morrolan, Sethra, the Empress Zerika--coming to her rescue? And most to the point, why has she utterly refused to do anything about her own defense?

It would be idiotic of Vlad to jump into this situation. He's a former Jhereg who betrayed the House. He's an Easterner--small, weak, short-lived. He's being searched for by the most remorseless killers in the world. Naturally, that's exactly why he's going to get completely involved...


Journal of a UFO Investigator 
David Halperin
Genre:
Publisher :Viking
Release Date: February 3

A sparkling debut novel set in the sixties about a boy's emotional and fantastical journey through alien worlds and family pain. Against the backdrop of the troubled 1960s, this coming-of-age novel weaves together a compelling psychological drama and vivid outer-space fantasy.

Danny Shapiro is an isolated teenager, living with a dying mother and a hostile father and without friends. To cope with these circumstances, Danny forges a reality of his own, which includes the sinister "Three Men in Black", mysterious lake creatures with insectlike carapaces, a beautiful young seductress and thief with whom Danny falls in love, and an alien/human love child who-if only Danny can keep her alive-will redeem the planet.

Danny's fictional world blends so seamlessly with his day-to-day life that profound questions about what is real and what is not, what is possible and what is imagined begin to arise. As the hero in his alien landscape, he finds the strength to deal with his own life and to stand up to demons both real and imagined.

Told with heart and intellect, Journal of a UFO Investigator will remind readers of the works of Michael Chabon and Jonathan Lethem.

The Last Greatest Magician in the World: Howard Thurston versus Houdini & the Battles of the American Wizards 
Jim Steinmeyer
Genre: Biography
Publisher: Tarcher
Release Date: February 3

Here is the seminal biography of the magician's magician, Howard Thurston, a man who surpassed Houdini in the eyes of showmen and fans and set the standard fro how stage magic is performed today. Everyone knows Houdini-but who was Thurston? In this rich, vivid biography of the "greatest magician in the world," celebrated historian of stage magic Jim Steinmeyer captures the career and controversies of the wonder-worker extraordinaire, Howard Thurston. The public's fickleness over magicians has left Thurston all but forgotten today. Yet Steinmeyer shows how his story is one of the most remarkable in show business.

During his life, from 1869 to 1936, Thurston successfully navigated the most dramatic changes in entertainment-from street performances to sideshows to wagon tours through America's still-wild West to stage magic amid the glitter of grand theaters. Thurston became one of America's most renowned vaudeville stars, boldly performing an act with just a handful of playing cards, and then had the foresight to leave vaudeville, expanding his show into an extravaganza with more than forty tons of apparatusand costumes. His touring production was an American institution for nearly thirty years, and Thurston earned a brand name equal to Ziegfeld or Ringling Brothers. Steinmeyer explores the stage and psychological rivalry between Thurston and Houdini during the first decades of the twentieth century- a contest that Thurston won. He won with a bigger show, a more successful reputation, and the title of America's greatest magician.

In The Last Greatest Magician in the World, Thurston's magic show is revealed as the one that animates our collective memories.

The Locket
Stacie Jay
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Razorbill
Release Date: February 3

On her seventeenth birthday, Katie discovers a locket and decides to wear it for good luck. But when her boyfriend Isaac finds out she cheated on him— with their mutual best friend Mitch, no less—he dumps her, leaving her devastated.

And then a miracle happens. The locket burns on Katie's chest and she feels herself going back two weeks in time, to the night she cheated with Mitch. At first, Kate is delighted to be a better girlfriend to Isaac this time around. But as other aspects of her life become inexplicably altered, she realizes that changing the past may have had a dangerous effect on her present.

Can she make things right before the locket destroys everything—and everyone—she loves?

Leviathans of Jupiter
Ben Bove
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: February 1

In Ben Bova's novel JUPITER, physicist Grant Archer led an expedition into Jupiter's hostile planetwide ocean, attempting to study the unusual and massive creatures that call the planet their home. Unprepared for the hostile environment and crushing pressures, Grant's team faced certain death as their ship malfunctioned and slowly sank to the planet's depths. However one of Jupiter's native creatures--a city-sized leviathan--saved the doomed ship. This creature's act convinced Grant that the huge creatures were intelligent, but he lacked scientific proof. Now, several years later, Grant prepares a new expedition to prove once and for all that the huge creatures are intelligent. The new team faces dangers from both the hostile environment and from humans who will do anything to make sure the mission is a failure, even if it means murdering the entire crew.

License to Ensorcell
Katharine Kerr
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: DAW
Release Date: February 1

Psychic Agent Nola O'Grady isn't sure returning to San Francisco, and living near her unusual family, is a good idea. Her job, with a psychic agency so obscure even the CIA doesn't know it exists, can be perilous, and she's afraid of the relatives getting involved. Then the Agency saddles her with Israeli secret agent Ari Nathan, and she has a bigger problem on her hands, because tact and compromise are not Ari's strong points. Their mission is to track down a serial killer obsessed with werewolves. He sees them everywhere and shoots whenever he thinks he has one in his sights. Ari assumes the man's psychotic, but in truth he's murdering actual werewolves. Nola should know. Her younger brother Pat, a lycanthrope, was the first victim. Can Nola's psychic talents and Ari's skill with guns keep them alive long enough to unravel the greater mystery behind the killings? Can they save the werewolves and the world while stopping Nola's family from running headlong into danger?

Messiah (Apotheosis: Book Three)
S. Andrew Swann
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: DAW
Release Date: February 1 

The last stand against the self-proclaimed God, Adam, has retreated to the anarchic planet Bakunin-a world besieged by civil war. Humanity's last hope lies with Nickolai Rajasthan, a Moreau who believes that the human race that created his kind is already damned beyond redemption.


Mists of Velvet ( The Immortals of Annwyn: Book Two)
Sophie Renwick
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: NAL
Release Date: February 1 

Hidden from mortals, Annwyn, the Otherworld, is home to shapeshifters, wraiths and dragons. Rhys MacDonald, the mortal great-grandson of a banished prince races to Annwyn to offer help when his ancient homeland is threatened by a dangerous Dark Magick. There he encounters a young goddess and shapeshifter, who thinks he is the mate foreseen in her dreams. Bound together by the flames of desire, they discover that destiny-and the Dark Magick- has other plans for them...


People of the Longhouse 
Michael W. Gear and Kathlean O'Neal Gear
Genre: Alternate History
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: February 1

Six hundred years ago in what would become the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, five Iroquois tribes were locked in bitter warfare. From the ashes of violence, a great Peacemaker was born… Young Odion and his little sister, Tutelo, live in fear that one day Yellowtail Village will be attacked.

When that day comes and Odion and Tutelo are marched away as slaves, their only hope is that their parents will rescue them. Their mother, War Chief Koracoo, and their father, Deputy Gonda, think they are tracking an ordinary war party herding captive children to an enemy village. Koracoo and Gonda do not know that Odion and Tutelo have fallen into the hands of a legendary evil: Gannajero the Trader. Known as the Crow, she is a figure out of nightmare, a witch who captures children for her own nefarious purposes. No one can stand against her powers—except perhaps the mysterious Forest Spirit whose tracks have crisscrossed their own throughout their journey. Odion and the other children struggle to survive their brutal captivity. They, too, have seen the Forest Spirit. But like their parents, they can’t be sure if the Spirit is a friend—or is in league with Gannajero….



The King of the Crags (The Memory of Flames, Book II)
Stephen Deas
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Roc
Release Date: February 1

Prince Jehal has had his way-now his lover Zafir sits atop the Realms with hundreds of dragons and their riders at her beck and call. But Jehal's plots are far from over, for he isn't content to sit back and watch Zafir command the earth and sky. He wants that glory for himself- no matter who he must sacrifice to get it. The one thing Jehal fears is that the white dragon still lives-and if that is so, then blood will flow, on all sides...

Nightshade
Michelle Rowan
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: February 1 

Jillian Conrad never believed in vampires-until she was unwillingly injected with a serum that was supposed to act as a deadly poison to them. Now, tormented half-vampire Declan Reese wants her blood to destroy the undead kingdom. Unfortunately, the serum has also made her blood irresistible to all vampires-including Declan, whose desire for Jillian is more than mere hunger.



On the Hunt 
Gena Showalter, Shannon K. Butcher, Jessica Andersen, Deidre Knight,
Genre: Paranormal Romance Anthology
Publisher: Signet
Release Date: February 1

New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter, Shannon K. Butcher, Jessica Anderson, and Deidre Knight present a steamy collection of all-new novellas featuring sexy paranormal hunters. With shadowy creatures, intoxicating magic, vivdly imagined worlds, and sizzling passion, this is an anthology no fan of paranormal romance will want to miss.


Reaper’s Justice 
Sarah McCarty
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: February 1 

An exciting new paranormal historical romance series set in post- Civil War America.

When the War Between the States came to its end, the battle inside Isaiah Jones raged on. Neither fully human nor fully wolf, he found his peace-and the passion his inner wolf craved-with Adelaide Cameron. Though their union was forbidden by the werewolf soldiers, Isaiah satisfied his urges by guarding her from afar. But when Adelaide is abducted, Isaiah must not only expose his dark nature, but invite her into the shadows with him.

Siren's Surrender ( A Dark Tides Novel)
Devyn Quinn
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Signet
Release Date: February 1 

Never embracing her mermaid heritage, Gwen Lonike lives in the human world as the owner of a Maine B&B. But when the gateway to a lost mermaid kingdom is opened, freeing its dangerous queen, Gwen can no longer hide, nor keep her secret from covert agent Blake Whittaker, who's assigned to trail a strange thread of paranormal activity. How long can Gwen and her sisters remain safe from a destructive queen, and from Blake's superiors, whose ultimate mission could prove the greatest threat of all?



Raven’s Quest
Anya Best
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: February 1 

Epic fantasy romance from the New York Times bestselling author of the Elemental Witch quartet. Branna ta Cattia is the Raven, a high priestess who has come to Numia to defeat its tyrant. It's a journey made on the strength of her prophetic dreams, visions of ancient rituals, sacred spells, and of a handsome stranger destined to help her.


Stations of the Tide
Michael Swanwick
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Orb
Release Date: February 1 

The Jubilee Tides will drown the continents of the planet Miranda beneath the weight of her own oceans. But as the once-in-two-centuries cataclysm approaches, an even greater catastrophe threatens this dark and dangerous planet of tale-spinners, conjurers, and shapechangers. A man from the Bureau of Proscribed Technologies has been sent to investigate. For Gregorian has come, a genius renegade scientist and charismatic bush wizard. With magic and forbidden technology, he plans to remake the rotting, dying world in his own evil image—and to force whom or whatever remains on its diminishing surface toward a terrifying and astonishing confrontation with death and transcendence.

This novel of surreal hard SF was compared to the fiction of Gene Wolfe when it was first published, and the author has gone on in the two decades since to become recognized as one of the finest living SF and fantasy writers.

Storm of Reckoning 
Doranna Durgin
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: February 1

Lisa McGarrity lives to hunt ghosts. With the able assistance of her loyal ghostbusting team, of course . . . and the unexpected powers of Trevarr, a fiercely driven demon-hunter from another dimension. Their last mission—a supposedly simple haunting that turned into a demonic free-for-all—left them battered and ready for some R&R. But rest has to wait. Garrie and her team are summoned by an old friend in Sedona who desperately needs some occult assistance. Making matters worse, Trevarr has reappeared, bloody and bruised . . . and exiled forever from his homeworld.

While happy to have Trevarr back at her side, Garrie is shocked to discover that Sedona’s ethereal breezes are quiet, the usual paranormal activity nearly nonexistant . . . except for some oddball power surges that don’t “taste” like our world at all. Then Garrie’s friend disappears and all hell seems about to break loose as Sedona’s ghosts rise up against Garrie and her team. With Trevarr’s not-cat bond-partner hinting at dire trouble on their trail and Trevarr himself seeing enemies at every turn, Garrie is running out of time to figure out just what’s happening in the Southwest…and to put a stop to it.


The Sea Thy Mistress
Elizabeth Bear
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: February 1 

In this direct sequel to Elizabeth Bear’s highly acclaimed All the Windwracked Stars picks up the story some fifty years after Muire went into the sea and became the new Bearer of Burdens. Beautiful Cathoair, now an immortal warrior angel, has been called back to the city of Eiledon to raise his son--Muire’s son as well, cast up on shore as an infant. It is seemingly a quiet life. But deadly danger approaches…the evil goddess Heythe, who engineered the death of Valdyrgard, has travelled forward in time on her rainbow steed. She came expecting to gloat over a dead world, the proof of her revenge, but instead she finds a Rekindled land, renewed by Muire’s sacrifice. She will have her revenge by forcing this new Bearer of Burdens to violate her oaths and break her bounds and thus bring about the true and final end of Valdyrgard. She will do it by tormenting both Cathoair and his son Cathmar. But Mingan, the gray wolf, sees his old enemy Heythe’s return. He will not allow it to happen again.

Thief of Light
Denise Rossetti
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher:  Berkley
Release Date: February 1

When Prue McGuire is kidnapped by the Necromancer-an evil entity that feasts on souls-Erik the Golden must harness his air Magick to recover the woman he has come to love more than life itself.



Trouble and her Friends 
Melissa Scott
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Orb
Release Date: February 1

India Carless, alias Trouble, managed to stay one step ahead of the feds until she retired from life as a hacker and settled down to run a small network for an artist’s co-op. Now someone has stolen her pseudonym and begun to use it for criminal hacking. So Trouble returns. Once the fastest gun on the electronic frontier, she has been called out of retirement for one last fight. And it’s a killer. Less than a hundred years from now, the forces of law and order crack down on the world of the Internet. It is the closing of the frontier. The hip, noir adventurers who got by on wit, bravado, and drugs, who haunt the virtual worlds of the shadows of cyberspace are up against the edges of civilization. It’s time to adapt or die.


Unseen (Outcast Season: Bk 3)
Rachel Caine
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Roc
Release Date: February 1 

After Cassiel and Warden Luis Rocha rescue an adept child from a maniacal Djinn, they realize two things: the girl is already manifesting an incredible amount of power, and her kidnapping was not an isolated incident. This Djinn-aided by her devoted followers-is capturing children all over the world, and indoctrinating them so she can use their strength for herself. With no other options, Cassiel infiltrates the Djinn's organization-because if Cassiel cannot stop the Djinn's apocalyptic designs, all of humanity may be destroyed.


Uprising Vampire Federation
Sean McCabe
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Signet Select
Release Date: February 1 

A gruesome ritual murder has stained the Oxfordshire countryside. It's just the first incident in a chain of events awakening Detective Inspector Joel Solomon to his worst nightmare-and a dreadful omen of things to come. Because Joel has a secret: he believes in vampires. Alex Bishop is an agent of the Vampire Intelligence Agency. She's tasked with enforcing the laws of the global Vampire Federation, and hunting rogue members of her race. A tough job made tougher when the Federation comes under attack by traditionalist vampires. They have a stake in old-school terror-and in an uprising as violent as it is widespread. Now it's plunging Alex and Joel into a deadly war between the living and the unloving-and against a horrifying tradition given new life by the blood of the innocent.


Visions of Magic
Regan Hastings
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Signet
Release Date: February 1

In the ten years since magic has reemerged in the world, witches have become feared and hunted. For weeks Shea Jameson has been haunted by visions of fire. When she unintentionally performs a spell in public, she becomes one of the hunted. Her only hope is Torin, a dangerously sensual man who claims to be her eternal mate. 


The Werewolf Upstairs 
Ashlyn Chase
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Release Date: February 1

Petty crime never looked so good... Alpha werewolf Konrad Wolfensen sees it as his duty to protect the citizens of Boston, even if it means breaking into their businesses just to prove their security systems don't work. But when his unsolicited services land him in trouble with the law, he'll have to turn to his sexy new neighbor for help. She should know better... Attorney Roz Wells is bored. She used to have such a knack for attracting the weird and unexpected, but ever since she took a job as a Boston public defender, the quirky quotient in her life has taken a serious hit. Until her sexy werewolf neighbor starts coming around...


Zombiesque
Editors: Stephen L. Antczak, James C. Bassett, Martin H. Greenberg
Genre: Anthology
Publisher: DAW
Release Date: February 1 

From a tropical resort where visitors can become temporary zombies, to a newly-made zombie determined to protect those he loves, to a cheerleader who won't let death kick her off the team, to a zombie seeking revenge for the ancestors who died on an African slave ship-- Zombiesque invites readers to take a walk on the undead side in these tales from a zombie's point of view.