If Shakespeare wrote The Three Little Pigs

A really funny rendition of the Three Little Pigs told in the style of Shakespeare.

I have to admit that this skit particularly appealed to me at this time because I'm currently reading Jasper Fforde's The Big Over Easy, which involves a law-suit against the three pigs for premeditated murder of the wolf. Good stuff.

Free Read: Northanger Abbey and Angels and Dragons by Vera Nazarian

If you've been enjoying the recent spate of book mashups then this one is for you:

From the author of Mansfield Park and Mummies...

NORTHANGER ABBEY AND ANGELS AND DRAGONS

Dragons in the skies of Regency England!

Gothic horrors collide with high satire in this elegant, hilarious, witty, insane, and unexpectedly romantic supernatural parody of Jane Austen's classic novel.

Young and naive Catherine Morland is constantly surrounded by angels only she alone can see. Leaving her country home for the first time, to embark on a grand adventure that begins in fashionable Bath, our romantic heroine must not only decrypt the mystery of the Udolpho Code but win her true love Henry Tilney.

Meanwhile she is beset by all the Gothic horrors known to Impressionable Young Ladies -- odious demons, Regency balls, elusive ghosts, pleasure excursions, temperature-changing nephilim, secret clues, ogre suitors, and a terrifying ancient Dragon who has very likely hidden a secret treasure hoard somewhere in the depths of Northanger Abbey.

This ebook is currently available for free on Amazon.

Spellbound (Spellwright #2) by Blake Charlton

Francesca DeVega is a healer in the city of Avel, composing magical sentences that close wounds and disspell curses, but her life is thrown into chaos when a newly dead patient sits up and tells her that she must flee the infirmary or face a fate worse than death. Now Francesca is in the middle of a game she doesn’t understand—one that ties her to the notorious rogue wizard Nicodemus Weal and brings her face-to-face with demons, demigods, and a man she hoped never to see again.

It has been ten years since Nicodemus Weal escaped the Starhaven Academy, where he was considered disabled and useless, where he battled the demon who stole his birthright and murdered his friends. Unable to use the magical languages of his own people, Nico has honed his skills in the dark Chthonic languages, readying himself for his next encounter with the demon. But there are complications: his mentor suffers from an incurable curse, his half-sister’s agents are hunting him, and he’s still not sure what part Francesca DeVega will play. He certainly doesn’t know what to make of Francesca herself….

I really hadn't intended to read Spellbound. While the first book in the series, Spellwright, was enjoyable enough it wasn't quite what I had hoped for and it didn't leave me wanting more. But after reading an interview with the book's author, Blake Charlton, and watching a video of a reading that he did at a bookstore, I had a change of heart. A couple of weeks later I was in possession of a copy of Spellbound (thank you Tor!) and I was ready to plunge back into Blake's world of magical words.

There were two main reasons for my sudden eagerness to read Spellbound. The first had to do with my finding out that this story takes place ten years after the events in Spellwright, and  features a different protagonist. One of the problems that I had with Spellwright was that I didn't particularly care for Nicodemus Weal, the book's hero, and so my interest was piqued when I found out that the sequel features a new protagonists, and a female one, at that. And the excerpt that Blake read at his book signing made think that this was a woman that I would definitely like to read more about.

The second reason has to do with Blake Charlton himself. It's common knowledge among his readers that Blake struggles with dyslexia, which makes the fact that he's published two book very impressive, especially since he wrote them while in medical school. I really don't know much about dyslexia and discovering that an author whose book I read has this reading disability made me curious to learn more about it.  So I was intrigued when I read an interview in which Blake talked about how he incorporated some of his emotional struggles with dyslexia into Spellbound in the form of the book's villain. While all authors put a part of themselves into their books it's unusual to find a fantasy book that reflects a real-life disability in this way, and which gives readers a better understanding of it, through the story.

“Are you alright?” Deirde asked without looking up.
“Oh, I'm cheery as the kitten who ate the cream,” Francesca said as casually as she could, “but my eyes won't...won't...” She couldn't think of the word that started with f and meant “concentrate” or “direct” or “converge.”
Deirde swore and grabbed Francesca's hand and made her walk across the room. “Stay calm. You're aphasic. The Walker is closer...”
Something was bubbling out of the minaret's shaft. When she tried to look at it....she couldn't. It was as if she went blind as she looked at the tendrils of twisting nothingness. She stumbled backward.

As it turns out I'm really glad that I decided to go ahead and read Spellbound. Many of the faults that I found with Spellwright seemed to have been ironed out of this book and I found it to be much smoother and more entertaining read. The writing was tighter, the characters more engaging and three-dimensional and the dialogue was far more interesting. Francesca was a character that I very much enjoyed getting to know and I loved her sarcastic humor and witty repertoire. And while Nicodemeus was no longer the central character he did have a role to play here as well, and he came across as much more complex and appealing than in the last book.

Blake's creative magic system is what had drawn me to the series in the first place and he's developed it even further in Spellbound where we get to see how words are used for healing, air-flight and combat. Each of these different activities is performed by using the body and its muscles in a specific way and I once again enjoyed the vivid descriptions of how this was done. In the case of Francesca, who is a physician, we get to see some of Blake's medical knowledge at work.

There is a lot going on in this book and Blake keeps the story moving swiftly along as the mysteries pile up and the tension builds.  The story gets off to an exciting start as Francesca accidentally kills her patient, who turns out to be a woman possessed by a demon,  with a message for Francesca about the upcoming war. Francesca is then forced to escape the hospital as it is attacked by enemies, which throws her into the path of her ex-boyfriend, Cyrus. Together, Cyrus and Francesca go looking for the rouge wizard Nicodemeus in the hope of getting some answers. Along the way they run into a powerful woman who is also looking for Nicodemeus through Cyrus and Francesca aren't sure who she is and if she be trusted. Eventually they find Nicodemeus, who after years of hiding is now in search of the demon who stole his power to spell so he could restore his powers and save his dying friend. There is also political scheming, werewolves and a lost ghost looking for its owner.

At times I did feel like there was a little too much going on and I had some trouble keeping track of the different political factions as well as some of magical terms.

Since most of the characters in Spellbound were first introduced in the previous book I wouldn't recommend it as a stand-alone novel. Several times I had to go back to Spellwright and look up certain terms, events or characters that I had forgotten and which were pertinent to the current story. But I will say that if you read Spellwright and are on the fence about reading the sequel, I would highly recommend that you do so. Spellwright was good and Spellbound is even better and I now can't wait to see what book three will have to offer.

New Scifi & Fantasy Releases: Week of January 22

Science Fiction

Boneyards
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Publisher: Pyr
Release Date: January 24

When multiple Hugo Award winner Kristine Kathryn Rusch decided to put her stamp on classic space opera, readers wanted more. Now Rusch's popular character Boss returns in a whole new adventure, one that takes her far outside her comfort zone, to a sector of space she's never seen before.

Searching for ancient technology to help her friends find answers to the mystery of their own past, Boss ventures into a place filled with evidence of an ancient space battle, one the Dignity Vessels lost.

Meanwhile, the Enterran Empire keeps accidentally killing its scientists in a quest for ancient stealth tech. Boss's most difficult friend, Squishy, has had enough. She sneaks into the Empire and destroys its primary stealth tech research base. But an old lover thwarts her escape, and now Squishy needs Boss's help.

Boss, who is a fugitive in the Empire. Boss, who knows how to make a Dignity Vessel work. Boss, who knows that Dignity Vessels house the very technology that the Empire is searching for.

Should Boss take a Dignity Vessel to rescue Squishy and risk losing everything to the Empire? Or should Boss continue on her mission for her other friends and let Squishy suffer her own fate?

Filled with battles old and new, scientific dilemmas, and questions about the ethics of friendship, Boneyards looks at the influence of our past on our present and the risks we all take when we meddle in other people's lives.

Boneyards is space opera the way it was meant to be: exciting, fast moving, and filled with passion.

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Fantasy

The Lake
Banana Yoshimoto and Michael Emmerich
Publisher: Melville House
Release Date: January 24

While The Lake shows off many of the features that have made Banana Yoshimoto famous—a cast of vivid and quirky characters, simple yet nuanced prose, a tight plot with an upbeat pace—it’s also one of the most darkly mysterious books she’s ever written.

It tells the tale of a young woman who moves to Tokyo after the death of her mother, hoping to get over her grief and start a career as a graphic artist. She finds herself spending too much time staring out her window, though ... until she realizes she’s gotten used to seeing a young man across the street staring out his window, too.

They eventually embark on a hesitant romance, until she learns that he has been the victim of some form of childhood trauma. Visiting two of his friends who live a monastic life beside a beautiful lake, she begins to piece together a series of clues that lead her to suspect his experience may have had something to do with a bizarre religious cult. . . .

With its echoes of the infamous, real-life Aum Shinrikyo cult (the group that released poison gas in the Tokyo subway system), The Lake unfolds as the most powerful novel Banana Yoshimoto has written. And as the two young lovers overcome their troubled past to discover hope in the beautiful solitude of the lake in the countryside, it’s also one of her most moving.

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Steampunk

Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon (Burton &  Swinburne, #3)
Mark Hodder
Publisher: Pyr
Release Date: January 24

It is 1863, but not the one it should be. Time has veered wildly off course, and now the first moves are being made that will lead to a devastating world war and the fall of the British Empire.

The prime minister, Lord Palmerston, believes that by using the three Eyes of Naga—black diamonds possessing unique properties—he’ll be able to manipulate events and avoid the war. He already has two of the stones, but the third is hidden somewhere in the Mountains of the Moon, the fabled source of the Nile.

Palmerston sends Sir Richard Francis Burton to recover it. For the king’s agent, it’s a chance to redeem himself after his previous failed attempt to find the source of the great river. That occasion had led to betrayal by his partner, John Hanning Speke. Now Speke is leading a rival expedition on behalf of the Germans, and it seems that the battle between the former friends may ignite the very war that Palmerston is trying to avoid!

Caught in a tangled web of cause, effect, and inevitability, little does Burton realize that the stakes are far higher than even he suspects.

A final confrontation comes in the mist-shrouded Mountains of the Moon, in war- torn Africa of 1914, and in Green Park, London, where, in the year 1840, Burton must face the man responsible for altering time: Spring Heeled Jack!

Burton and Swinburne’s third adventure is filled with eccentric steam-driven technology, grotesque characters, and bizarre events, completing the three-volume story arc begun in The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack and The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man.

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Young Adult

Everneath
Brodi Ashton
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release Date: January 24

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever.

She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen.

As Nikki's time grows short and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she's forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's...

Forbidden
Syrie James and Ryan M. James
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: January 24th

Claire Brennan has been attending Emerson Academy for two years now and she’s desperate to stay put for the rest of high school. So there’s no way she’s going to tell her mom about the psychic visions she’s been having or the creepy warnings that she’s in danger. Alec MacKenzie is fed up with his duties to watch and, when necessary, eliminate the descendants of his angelic forefathers. He chose Emerson as the ideal hiding place where he could be normal for once. He hadn’t factored Claire into his plans... Their love is forbidden, going against everything Alec has been taught to believe. But when the reason behind Claire’s unusual powers is revealed and the threat to her life becomes clear, how far will Alec go to protect her?

Havoc (Deviants #2)
Jeff Sampson
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release Date: January 24

Emily Webb thought life would return to normal after the death of the man who attacked her and her fellow “Deviants.” Or as normal as it could be, after discovering that she has nighttime superpowers . . . and she’s a werewolf. But when Emily awakes one night to find an otherworldy Shadowman watching her, she knows the danger has only just begun.

So Emily and her pack-mates set out to find the people who made them what they are, and why. But as they get closer to the truth, they realize they aren’t the only ones in town with special powers: The most popular girls in school might just have a secret of their own–and they might just have it out for Emily.

With shadowy beings stalking them, a mysterious company doing all it can to keep the truth hidden, and the secrecy of her new identity in jeopardy, life threatens to spiral out of control for Emily. Soon these dangers will come together in one terrifying confrontation that may force her to make the toughest choice of her life . . . so far.

 

The Way We Fall
Megan Crewe
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Release Date: January 24th

When a deadly virus begins to sweep through sixteen-year-old Kaelyn’s community, the government quarantines her island—no one can leave, and no one can come back. Those still healthy must fight for dwindling supplies, or lose all chance of survival. As everything familiar comes crashing down, Kaelyn joins forces with a former rival and discovers a new love in the midst of heartbreak. When the virus starts to rob her of friends and family, she clings to the belief that there must be a way to save the people she holds dearest. Because how will she go on if there isn't?

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Paranormal Romance

Darker After Midnight (Midnight Breed, Bk 10)
Lara Adrian and Hillary Huber
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: January 24

In the dark of night, a blood war escalates within the hidden world of the Breed. After existing in secret for many long centuries, maintaining a fragile peace with the humans who walk beside them unaware, a single act of retaliation has put the entire vampire nation at risk of discovery. It falls to the Order-a cadre of Breed warriors pledged to protect their own and humankind alike-to stop Dragos, the power-mad vampire at the center of the conflict, before his push for domination can explode into catastrophe.At the center of the Order's quest is Sterling Chase, once a morally rigid enforcer of Breed law, now a warrior fallen from grace, whose biggest battle is the one he wages against his own savage nature. With addiction beckoning him toward eternal darkness, Chase's path to redemption has never seemed more out of reach-until he finds himself drawn to a beautiful young woman who may be something much more than she seems .

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit and a talent for finding lost things. But when a little old lady turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheck, she’s forced to take on her least favorite kind of job – missing persons.

Being hired by reclusive music producer Odi Huron to find a teenybop pop star should be her ticket out of Zoo City, the festering slum where the criminal underclass and their animal companions live in the shadow of hell’s undertow.

Instead, it catapults Zinzi deeper into the maw of a city twisted by crime and magic, where she’ll be forced to confront the dark secrets of former lives – including her own.

Zoo City is not my typical reading fare. It's dark and gritty and at times heart-breakingly sad. And yet, once I started it I just couldn't bring myself to put it down.

Zinzi December is a former journalist and recovering drug addict whose pet sloth attests to a horrible crime committed in her past. Shunned by society, Zinzi now uses her writing skills to compose spam letters, scamming the rich and soft-hearted out of their money. Zinzi lives in the the ghetto community of Zoo City, in Johannesburg, along with all of the other Aposymbiots, or zoos like herself, whose crimes have earned them an animal companion, from which they can't be parted. But being zoo isn't all bad because it also comes with a magical skill. For Zinzi that skill is finding lost things, a talent that lands her a side-job with the music producer, Odi Huron, to find a teenage pop star who has gone missing.

Zinzi doesn't usually take-on missing person cases but this job could earn her enough to get her back on the path of the straight and narrow, and so she reluctantly accepts it. Putting her sleuthing skills to work Zinzi goes in search of her missing pop-teen, but the trail ends up leading her to a series of zoo murders that may or may not be related to the girl that she is looking for.

Zoo City is a really unique book in so many different ways. First of all, the South African setting is a very unusual one for a genre book, as is the African history and culture that permeates it. You can see parallels between the spread of the Zoo Plague, which causes people's crimes to manifest as an animal that they are forced to shoulder, and the spread of HIV virus through Africa in the 1980's. Africa's grim political past also plays its role, such as in the case of Zinzi's boyfriend, Benoit, who was a child soldier forced to kill his best friend, which is how he earned the pet mongoose that lives by his side. Benoit also had a wife and several children who disappeared while fleeing the FDLR. As I said, it's a rather dark tale. But Zinzi's strength, wit and optimistic attitude sheds enough light to keep the story from becoming overwhelmingly depressing.

The book did not end as I had expected, getting even more gruesome before culminating in a bittersweet ending that left me feeling both sad and hopeful. I haven't been able to find any information about a sequel to Zoo City but I really hope that Beukes intends to write one because there is so much more I still want to know about Zinzi and Zoo Plague. In the meantime, I'll be checking out her other book, Moxyland, in the hope that it's as good as this one was.

Where I protest SOPA by "stealing" Other's content

Many bloggers, and several big websites, are blocking their sites today in protest of the SOPA and PIPA bills which would allow Internet censorship in the US. As a non-US resident I'm not sure how such a bill would affect me or my blog, but the idea of it is still abhorrent to me and so is worth talking about.

For specific reasons why the SOPA and PIPA bills should not be passed, watch this video. Though Jennie Lawson had me at "...it would be like a never ending visit from your parents..for the rest of your life." Yikes! Now that's scary.

 If you are a US citizen and want to help put a stop to the SOPA bill you can sign this petition.
 
And in further protest against SOPA, today I am only going to post content stolen from other blogs. So there! (and this has nothing to do with the fact that I don't have any reviews prepared)

So on with the show....

Last week Jim Hines published an amusing post in which he photographed himself imitating the poses of the heroine's featured on several Urban fantasy covers, with some ridiculous, and painful, results.

Jim's conclusion: 

My sense is that most of these covers are supposed to convey strong, sexy heroines, but these are not poses that suggest strength. You can’t fight from these stances. I could barely even walk.

Anna at Genre Reviews, takes this idea a bit further by posing in the same poses as Jim, as well as imitating the poses of some of Urban Fantasy's male protagonists, and comparing the two.

Anna's conclusion:

Men's poses emphasize strength, capability, perhaps with a bit of mystery. They follow the body's natural lines and actually look like something a real person would do. Women's poses emphasize sexy sexy dangerous sex and most vary from awkward to painful to impossible. What puzzles me most about this is that studies show the vast majority of people who read novels with female protagonists are, in fact, female. Unless they're going for a very specific demographic, marketing assumes we're all cisgendered, so why are we using the cover art to objectify characters we're supposed to identify with? Posing like a pin-up is not the only way to be attractive, and twisting your body to the point of OW robs us of anything beyond "T&A." The men's poses are dynamic and interesting, implying the male characters inside are, too. So what are we saying about our female characters?

While I had often been bothered by the suggestive way women on urban fantasy covers are usually portrayed I never payed much attention to their poses, or how they differ from those of the male models, so these two posts were really eye-opening.

And over at Geek Tyrant I found this beautiful and poignant short CGI animated steampunk film by Colorbleed Studios.

Consurgo from Colorbleed Studios on Vimeo.

Why or why didn't he get out of the street? *sigh*

New Scifi & Fantasy Releases: Week of January 15

This week is the release of The Flame Alphabet, by Ben Marcus,and while I'm not sure if I'll be reading it the book trailer certainly got my attention. It's seriously intense and eerie.

And here are more of this week's new book releases...

Science Fiction

 

Shadows In Flight (Shadow, Bk 5)

Orson Scott Card

Publisher: Tor

Release Date: January 17

Ender’s Shadow explores the stars in this all-new novel...

At the end of Shadow of the Giant, Bean flees to the stars with three of his children--the three who share the engineered genes that gave him both hyper-intelligence and a short, cruel physical life. The time dilation granted by the speed of their travel gives Earth’s scientists generations to seek a cure, to no avail. In time, they are forgotten--a fading ansible signal speaking of events lost to Earth’s history. But the Delphikis are about to make a discovery that will let them save themselves, and perhaps all of humanity in days to come.

For there in space before them lies a derelict Formic colony ship. Aboard it, they will find both death and wonders--the life support that is failing on their own ship, room to grow, and labs in which to explore their own genetic anomaly and the mysterious disease that killed the ship’s colony.

In the Lion's Mouth (January Dancer #3) 

Michael Flynn

Publisher: Tor

Release Date: January 17

It’s a big Spiral Arm, and the scarred man, Donavan buigh, has gone missing in it, upsetting the harper Mearana's plans for a reconciliation between her parents. Bridget ban, a Hound of the League, doubts that reconciliation is possible or desirable; but nonetheless has dispatched agents to investigate the disappearance.

The powerful Ravn Olafsdottr, a Shadow of the Names, slips into Clanthompson Hall to tell mother and daughter of the fate of Donovan buigh. In the Long Game between the Confederation of Central Worlds and the United League of the Periphery, Hound and Shadow are mortal enemies; yet a truce descends between them so that the Shadow may tell her tale. There is a struggle in the Lion’s Mouth, the bureau that oversees the Shadows—a clandestine civil war of sabotage and assassination between those who would overthrow Those of Name and the loyalists who support them. And Donovan, one-time Confederal agent, has been recalled to take a key part, willingly or no.

Blue Remembered Earth

Alastair Reynolds

Publisher: Gollancz

Release Date: January 19

One hundred and fifty years from now, in a world where Africa is the dominant technological and economic power, and where crime, war, disease and poverty have been banished to history, Geoffrey Akinya wants only one thing: to be left in peace, so that he can continue his studies into the elephants of the Amboseli basin. But Geoffrey's family, the vast Akinya business empire, has other plans. After the death of Eunice, Geoffrey's grandmother, erstwhile space explorer and entrepreneur, something awkward has come to light on the Moon, and Geoffrey is tasked - well, blackmailed, really - to go up there and make sure the family's name stays suitably unblemished. But little does Geoffrey realise - or anyone else in the family, for that matter - what he's about to unravel. Eunice's ashes have already have been scattered in sight of Kilimanjaro. But the secrets she died with are about to come back out into the open, and they could change everything. Or shatter this near-utopia into shards ...

 

In the Mouth of the Whale

Paul McAuley

Publisher: Gollancz

Release Date: January 19

Fomalhaut was first colonised by the posthuman Quick, who established an archipelago of thistledown cities and edenic worldlets within the star's vast dust belt. Their peaceful, decadent civilisation was swiftly conquered by a band of ruthless, aggressive, unreconstructed humans who call themselves the True, then, a century before, the True beat back an advance party of Ghosts, a posthuman cult which colonised the nearby system of Beta Hydri after being driven from the Solar System a thousand years ago. Now the Ghosts have returned to Fomalhaut, to begin their end game: the conquest of its single gas giant planet, a captured interstellar wanderer far older than the rest of Fomalhaut's system. At its core is a sphere of hot metallic hydrogen with strange and powerful properties based on exotic quantum physics. The Quick believe it is inhabited by an ancient alien Mind; the True believe it can be developed into a weapon, and the Ghosts believe it can be transformed into a computational system so powerful it can reach into their past, collapse timelines, and fulfil the ancient prophecies of their founder.

Transmission

John Meaney

Publisher: Gollancz

Release Date: January 19 (UK)

The second volume of Meaney's epic Ragnarok space opera trilogy. The dark matter in the universe is alive and is seeking to pervert human history to its own ends. Its influence has reached back into the dark ages, to the centre of the 3rd Reich and 600 years into the future. The Ragnarok universe not only provides a stunning SF rationale for Norse mythology but posits a world where pilots are locked into symbiotic relationships with their ships and the cities can come alive. 

The Flame Alphabet

Ben Marcus

Publisher: Knopf

Release Date: January 17

From one of the most innovative and important writers of his generation: a brilliant, mesmerizingly dark new novel in which the speech of children is killing their parents.
 
At first it's just Jews--then everyone. People are leaving their families to survive. Sam's wife, Claire, is already stricken and near death. In a year or two, as she grows into adulthood, their daughter, Esther, too, will become a victim. Sam and Claire decide to leave Esther on her own, hoping a "cure" will miraculously appear. Sam's car is waved off the road at a government-run laboratory where horrific tests are being conducted to create non-lethal speech. Throngs bang on the doors to be subject volunteers; they're all carried out half-dead. When Sam realizes what's going on, he makes a desperate escape, vowing that if he dies it will be with his family, the only refuge of sanity and love.
 
Ben Marcus's nightmarish vision is both completely alien and frighteningly familiar.

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Fantasy

Orb Sceptre Throne

Ian Cameron Esslemont

Publisher: Bantam UK

Release Date: January 19

The tumult of great powers colliding has passed and the city of Darujhistan and its citizens can at last get on with what matters: trading, bickering, politicking and enjoying all the good things in life. However, not all are ready to leave the past behind. A treasure hunter, digging amongst the burial grounds that surround the city, is about to uncover a hidden crypt. He will open the last of a series of sealed vaults - the one that no other dared touch - and, in so doing, set free something so terrifying that the knowledge of its internment may have been systematically wiped from all history.

Fortune hunters are also at work far to the south. When a fragment of Moon's Spawn, once the home of Anomander Rake, Son of Darkness, crashed into the Rivan Sea it created a chain of small islands. Legends and rumours already surround them. The most potent of these is that here is hidden the Throne of Night, claimed by some to be the seat of Mother Dark herself. Either way, all who seek this ancient artefact - renegade mages, hardened mercenaries, even a Malazan army deserter - believe it will bestow unlimited power upon the eventual possessor. The stakes are high, greed is rife, betrayal inevitable, and murder and chaos lie in wait...

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Urban Fantasy

Dark Victory

Michele Lang

Publisher: Tor

Release Date: January 17

Magda Lazarus was a reluctant witch until the dire threat of Nazi Germany convinced her to assume the mantle of her family’s ancient powers. But though this young, beautiful Jewish woman has fought off Hitler’s SS werewolves and the demon who would rule through the Führer, she has been unable to prevent the outbreak of World War II.

As long as Magda can summon spirits, there is still a chance to save people from the dire threat of the Holocaust. Her family’s guardian angel, Raziel, stands beside her in the battle against the human and supernatural forces of evil arrayed against her people and all of Europe.

In Michele Lang's Dark Victory, as the Nazis prepare to invade Poland, Magda and her beloved Raziel marshal their own army, a supernatural force that will battle Hitler’s minions to the death…or beyond.

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Young Adult

Fracture

Megan Miranda

Publisher: Walker & Company

Release Date: January 17

Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine —despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?

Halflings

Heather Burch

Publisher: Zondervan Publishing

Release Date: January 17

After being inexplicably targeted by an evil intent on harming her at any cost, seventeen-year-old Nikki finds herself under the watchful guardianship of three mysterious young men who call themselves halflings. Sworn to defend her, misfits Mace, Raven, and Vine battle to keep Nikki safe while hiding their deepest secret---and the wings that come with. A growing attraction between Nikki and two of her protectors presents a whole other danger. While she risks a broken heart, Mace and Raven could lose everything, including their souls. As the mysteries behind the boys' powers, as well as her role in a scientist's dark plan, unfold, Nikki is faced with choices that will affect the future of an entire race of heavenly beings, as well as the precarious equilibrium of the earthly world.

Hallowed (Unearthly, Bk2)

Cynthia Hand

Publisher: HarperCollins

Release Date: January 17

For months part-angel Clara Gardner trained to face the raging forest fire from her visions and rescue the alluring and mysterious Christian Prescott from the blaze. But nothing could prepare her for the fateful decisions she would be forced to make that day, or the startling revelation that her purpose—the task she was put on earth to accomplish—is not as straightforward as she thought. Now, torn between her increasingly complicated feelings for Christian and her love for her boyfriend, Tucker, Clara struggles to make sense of what she was supposed to do the day of the fire. And, as she is drawn further into the world of part angels and the growing conflict between White Wings and Black Wings, Clara learns of the terrifying new reality that she must face: Someone close to her will die in a matter of months. With her future uncertain, the only thing Clara knows for sure is that the fire was just the beginning.

Stolen Away

Alyxandra Harvey

Publisher: Walker Childrens

Release Date: January 17

For seventeen years, Eloise Hart had no idea the world of Faery even existed. Now she has been abducted and trapped in the Rath of Lord Strahan, King of Faery. Strahan was only meant to rule for seven years, as Faery tradition dictates, and then give up his crown to another. But he won't comply, and now chaos threatens both worlds. The only one who can break his stranglehold on the Faery court is his wife. . . Eloise's aunt Antonia. Using Eloise to lure Antonia, Strahan captures his wife, desperate to end the only threat to his reign. Now Eloise must become the rescuer. Together with her best friends Jo and Devin, she must forge alliances with other Fae, including a gorgeous protector named Lucas, and Strahan's mysterious son, Eldric-who may or may not betray them.

Tempest

Julie Cross

Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin

Release Date: January 17

The year is 2009.  Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.

That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future.

Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities.

But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time-traveler.  Recruit… or kill him.

Piecing together the clues about his father, the Enemies of Time, and himself, Jackson must decide how far he’s willing to go to save Holly… and possibly the entire world.

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Paranormal Romance

The Thorn and the Blossom: A Two-Sided Love Story

Theodora Goss and Scott Mckowen

Publisher: Quirk Books

Release Date: January 17

One enchanting romance. Two lovers keeping secrets. And a uniquely crafted book that binds their stories forever.

When Evelyn Morgan walked into the village bookstore, she didn’t know she would meet the love of her life. When Brendan Thorne handed her a medieval romance, he didn’t know it would change the course of his future. It was almost as if they were the cursed lovers in the old book itself . . .

The Thorn and the Blossom is a remarkable literary artifact: You can open the book in either direction to decide whether you’ll first read Brendan’s, or Evelyn’s account of the mysterious love affair. Choose a side, read it like a regular novel—and when you get to the end, you’ll find yourself at a whole new beginning.