So long, and thanks for all the fish*

Well guys, I think it's finally time for me to admit that this blog has come to its end.

I've been putting it off as long as I could, in the hope of my life getting back on track enough that I'd have the time again to blog and write reviews, but unfortunately it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon. 

So instead of just disappearing and letting you wonder what happened to me (which I hope that at least a few of you might) I decided to come back for one final goodbye post. 

It's been a great four years and I've really loved getting to meet and connect with so many wonderful book lovers through the blogging community. And even though I won't be blogging here anymore I hope that I'll still run into you over at Goodreads and Twitter, and if you have a blog I'll stop by when I have a chance to see what you're up to and what you've been reading.

And perhaps once things slow down I'll get to join the blogosphere again, though probably heading in a different direction. I admit that I have a yen to start a personal blog, though I'll more likely go with my second choice, blogging about memoirs and non-fiction books (which could use some love).

So, goodbye and thanks for being so awesome.

* Sorry about the misleading title, as there is actually no mention of fish in this post, but I just couldn't resist.

Epic: Legends of Fantasy edited by John Joseph Adams

When Techyon Publications offered to send me a copy of Epic: Legends of Fantasy for review, I jumped at the opportunity. I don't read anthologies very often but I do love a good epic fantasy, and since this collection included stories by many of my favorite authors, I was pretty sure there would be some good stuff here. 

What I didn't realize, though, was that none of the stories in the collection were original. They were either published in earlier anthologies (one from as early as 1961) or were excerpts from the authors' novels.   

I probably should have expected this since all of the authors included in the book are pretty big, but - as I said- I don't often read anthologies and hadn't really given the issue too much thought.  So I was pretty disappointed when I reached the much-anticipated Patrick Rothfuss story only to discover that it was an excerpt from The Wise Man's Fear. Similarly,  Brandon Sanderson's story, which I had also been really looking forward to, turned out to be an excerpt from The Way of Kings.

Luckily the rest of the stories in the book were new to me and my disappointment with the Sanderson and Rothruss stories was quickly forgotten as I got caught up in reading the other stories, which were all quite good. I actually can't think of a single story in the collection that I didn't enjoy, although I did struggle a bit with George R.R. Martin's “The Mystery Knight” (a reprint from his 2012 collection, Warriors, and more of a novella than a short story) which had so many characters that I had a hard time keeping their names straight. I also skipped “While the Gods Laughed” by Michael Moorcock since it involved characters from his Elric of Melinbone series, which I haven't yet read.

The authors in the collection include: Robin Hobb, Ursula K. Le Guin, Tad Williams, Aliette de Bodard, Paolo Bacigalupi, Orson Scott Card, Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sandersonm Michael Moorcock, Melanie Rawn, Kate Elliott, Mark Robinette Kowal, N.K. Jemisin, Carrie Vaughn, Juliet Marilliers, George R.R. Martin.

Epic fantasy is not easily defined but Epic: Legends of Fantasy does a good job at offering a nice variety of stories that give you a taste of almost everything the subgenre has to offer. I say almost because the stories here were a lot more sophisticated than the kind of epic fantasy I remember reading as a kid, and which I still think of as "real" epic fantasy; stories of orphans on a journey to save the world from evil with the assistance of a motley collection of travelers. You know, the kind of books that Terry Brooks and David Eddings are known for. It would have been nice to have one such story in here, to represent the classic epic fantasies, but I'm not really complaining since I thought that the stories here were pretty fantastic. 

I particularly appreciated the fact that the stories were all long enough that I really felt that I got to know each world its characters, which made the stories satisfying despite their brevity. While some of the stories wrapped up nicely in the end others had me rushing to contact the author to find out if they were continued somewhere else (in the case of Kate Elliott's “Riding the Shore of the River of Death” the answer, unfortunately, was no). 

At over 600 pages, Epic: Legends of Fantasy will definitely get you your money' worth and the seventeen stories inside will help satisfy your epic fantasy cravings, or possibly leave you wanting more.  

While I think that this is a great book for long-time fans and newbies alike, if you are someone who is very familiar with these authors' works I would suggest that you check to make sure that you haven't already read some of the stories offered here so that you won't be disappointed at paying for stories that you already read. Perhaps it won't make a difference to you and you'll just enjoy having the stories in a single collection, but I thought it's worth mentioning.

Fantastic Ebook Deal: Spooky Reads at Unbeatable Prices

In my last post I mentioned that I haven't had much success at finding indie books that I enjoy, even though I do want to give indie authors a chance. So I really appreciate what StoryBundle is doing by offering readers a chance to sample books by indie authors- books that they themselves have enjoyed- at unbeatable prices. Seriously, you can't find a better deal than getting to set your own price for a bunch of books.

So thanks to StoryBundle I can buy ebooks that I might not be sure of, at a low price, and if I don't enjoy them I don't feel any pressure to read them, as I do when I accept books for review. It's a win-win. And if you pay a certain amount for a bundle, a couple of bonus books are thrown in.

This month, StoryBundle is offering a special spooky mix, in honor of Halloween:

Riverwatch by Joseph Nassise

Nominated for both the International Horror Guild Award and the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel

A forgotten chamber secreted beneath a river. An ancient evil that lies slumbering in the dark. A guardian determined to fulfill his duty to his last, dying breath.

As something dark and deadly takes to the skies over Harrington Falls, Jake Caruso and his friends, Sam Travers and Katelynn Riley, find themselves drawn into a primeval conflict set in motion centuries before.

When fresh blood is spilled and the death toll mounts, these three friends will find themselves faced with a terror beyond imagination, one that will require every vestige of their strength, faith, and determination to confront.

Taking on the Dead by Annie Walls

Life for Kansas was perfect until the day the world changed.

She has been hiding out for four years in solitude. It's the only way to survive. The only way not to draw the living dead. Helping a small group of people, she learns the new world might not be what she assumes. Venturing out of her refuge and comfort zone, she meets Rudy, who helps her find a greater purpose. She realizes that the world has moved on without her. Only it's not what she expects. Her knowledge of the living dead grows and only makes her more curious as humanity continues to hang on by a thread. While on her search for answers she finds comfort in new friendships and love, but her past seems as if it will haunt her forever.

Kansas takes it upon herself to help other survivors, which would be easy if the famished were the only obstacles.
In a trilogy plot thick with twists and turns, this adult dark fantasy is emotional as much as it is horrifyingly gripping.

A Latent Dark by Martin Kee

Skyla has lived secretly within the city walls of Bollingbrook for eleven years, playing among the airship factories and trainyards. As one of the Gutter District’s nameless destitute, it has gone undiscovered that she has a unique talent: when Skyla looks at a person’s shadow she sees through it and into another world. She can see people’s fears, desires, their past sins--all as swimming, living creatures.

Her mother has never told her the real reasons why they must remain hidden, never explained the true dangers that exist outside the city walls. But when her mother’s past catches up with them both, Skyla finds she must flee out of the city and into a world still recovering from a second Dark Age, a world of adults with secrets only she can see.

For a stranger has recently moved into Bollingbrook, a man some call the Pope of the South, a witch hunter to some and a hero to others. When more children begin to disappear, suspicions are raised and an unlikely search party is formed to find Skyla in the hopes that they aren’t already too late. 

The Drought by Patricia Fulton

Welcome to Junction, Texas

Population: 626 and steadily declining

Odd things have been happening around town. Hugh McManus went out to one of his grazing pastures and shot the better part of a fine herd before shooting himself. Luke Casteel crawled into a drainage pipe and never came back. A herd of wild javelina attacked and killed Rod Sawyer. And the thing is, the dying isn't nearly done.

Jared Riley knows there's something sinister about the heat. It's got people acting crazy and it's got him hearing things. A voice keeps whispering, "It's gonna get mighty hot. Yes sir we like our meatloaf and taters well done, served up pipin' hot." Convinced the heat is tracking them, picking them off one by one, he sets off to find help. Trouble is, the people who have the answers are more dangerous than the heat.

Driven by strong characters and a twisting plot, The DROUGHT delves into the supernatural world where ghosts roam the landscape and a voodoo curse floats on the wind.

Blaze of Glory
  by Weston Ochse For fans of Stephen King, David Gerrold, and Richard Matheson, picture this: the world is being eaten by monsters and there’s nothing you can do about it.

This novel also contains an essay called and The True Adventures of a Monster Screenplay in B-Movie Wonderland, which tells the tale of how the screenplay based on this novel was almost sold to Wesley Snipes, with many of the industry’s top horror movie stars attached to the film. 

Vicarious by Jon F. Merz 

When disgraced ex-FBI agent-turned-Boston-cop Steve Curran finds a corpse with no practical explanation for its death, the nightmares start again. Convinced the serial killer that caused his expulsion from the Bureau is once again haunting him, Curran soon learns his theories are all wrong. When the sister of the latest victim, Lauren Fields, uncovers an old journal detailing the hunt for a creature known only as the Soul Eater, she and Curran must confront the very real prospect that the killer is not of this world at all – and that his motives have little to do with killing, but all to do with something far, far worse.

 
And if you pay $9 you get the following two books thrown in:

Coming of Age: 3 Novellas by Douglas Clegg
Resurrection, Inc. by Kevin J. Anderson

Each book bundle is only available for a limited amount of time so if these sound like books you would enjoy head over to StoryBundle to buy them before the offer expires. Unfortunately I'm not sure when that is. 

In the End by Alexandra Rowland

The Fallen Angel Lucien never expected the world to end. Inconveniently enough, it did. He and Lalael, an angel of the Higher Realm, are abandoned to make their way in what's left of the world.

It has changed, however. Uncountable humans have died or vanished, and leftover groups are determined to survive however they can, fighting off new dangers and killing anything they do not understand.

But demons were not the only thing released into the world at the End: A strange new power fills the world, and no one knows what this might bring.

I’ve been getting a lot of review requests lately for self-published books, most of which I  (somewhat guiltily) decline because my experiences with indie books haven't been that great. It’s just that the few that I have read I didn’t particularly enjoy but I felt like I had to struggle through them anyway because I had committed to writing a review. And then there’s the awkwardness of dealing directly with the author of the book that I’m criticizing, rather than through the comforting barrier of agents and publishers. So all-in-all, it’s a situation I rather avoid.

But I do realize that there must be some gems out there, which is why I occasionally accept an indie book for review, when it sounds interesting enough, or when the author manages to get my attention.  In the case of In the End it was a bit of both (yes, a nice, personalized email can do wonders) that got me to accept Alexandra Rowland’s review request. 

In the End got off to a great start by introducing a variety of colorful characters that quickly engaged my interest. The story then proceeds with the kind of humour and wit that fans of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett would recognize and enjoy.

Now this is probably what impressed me most about the book, the way that Ms. Rowland so successfully manages to transfer humour onto the page and into her character’s personalities and dialogue. Usually when I read a fantasy book that’s meant to be funny the humour feels forced, or the author focuses so much on the humour that character development is sacrificed. So I was really impressed that the humour in In the End felt genuine and the characters were so skilfully brought to life in just a few sentences. Well...for the most part.

Unfortunately I hit a snag about half-way through the book. The story, which had seemed to have been heading purposefully in a particular direction suddenly began meandering in a new direction, after which it never really got back on track. Instead of exploring the effect of the apocalypse on those left behind, including some of those colourful characters that we had met at the beginning of the story ( and who I had really been hoping to get back to) we get treated to a montage of Lucien and Lalael learning to overcome their differences on their path to best-friendship. I could practically hear the music playing in the background during these scenes. And then all the events that follow  seem to occur for the sole purpose of challenging and strengthening this friendship, while ignoring everything else that was going on, such as the end of the world. 

We get told that food is running out and people are attacking each other but  this is all just background noise, except for those events that help drive forward the Lucien and Lalael friendship theme. And then new characters are introduced who don’t add anything to the story but only serve to make it messier. Considering what a great job Ms. Rowland did with characterization in the beginning of the story I was surprised and disappointed at how flat and uninteresting the later characters are.

In the End has a lot going for it but it still has a way to go before it's reader-ready. It definitely needs some cutting, tightening and ironing out. An injection of some good apocalyptic world building and characterization would also help, along with more of that humour that I had so much enjoyed at the start of the story.  And while I really liked the unique friendship portrayed in the book, between Lucien and Lalael, it can't be the only thing that the story is about, after we are promised so much more in the first few pages. 

After a couple more drafts this could be a book that I would really enjoy but, as it is, it was became a real struggle to get through, after the first 100 pages or so.

A Cruel Trick in a Public Park

So I was wandering around the Jerusalem municipality buildings the other day, looking for a comfortable spot to read for a bit, when I came across what looked like a park full of pillows. A park full of large, squishy pillows and couch-sized cushions. In short, it looked like a book-reader's heaven...

Until I noticed the sign...

I bet you can imagine my disappointment.



Seriously, what kind of sick mind thinks that cement cushions are a good idea? Just imagine all the dashed hopes and chipped teeth (Luckily I didn't jump, so my teeth were safe, but  little kids can't read warning signs)

Needless to say, I did not do any reading in this park full of deception and trickery.



P.S. How do you like my artistically modified images? I finally figured out how to use my image editor.

P.P.S. What do you mean where have I been, I was here all along. And I'm sticking to that story.

New SciFi & Fantasy Releases: Week of Sep 30 - Oct 6

Fantasy

 

Redoubt
Mercedes Lackey
Publisher: DAW
Release Date: October 2 Mags, a young Herald trainee in Haven, the capital city of Valdemar, has very rare talents. Recognising this, the King's Own Herald trains Mags as a spy, tasking him with uncovering the secrets of a mysterious new enemy who has taken an interest in Mags himself. Why is an even deeper mystery. The answers can only be found in the depths of Mags' past, if he survives long enough to find them.

Stone of Tymora
R.A. Salvatore
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Release Date: October 2


Meet Maimun—an orphan who couldn’t imagine how unfortunate it would be to discover a stone that makes him forever lucky. Fleeing a powerful demon named Asbeel, Maimun stows away aboard the ship Sea Sprite, where he encounters a cast of characters well-known to Salvatore fans: Captain Deudermont, Drizzt Do’Urden, Wulfgar, Catti-brie, and the dwarf Bruenor. Drizzt becomes a mentor to Maimun and aboard Deudermont’s ship, they sail the treacherous seas of the Forgotten Realms. Hunted by a demon, haunted by a mysterious spellcaster, and chased by a pirate, Maimun, with Drizzt’s help, must unravel the secrets of the Stone of Tymora before his luck runs out! 

Ironskin
Tina Connolly
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: October 2

Jane Eliot wears an iron mask.

It’s the only way to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its scattered victims remain—the ironskin.
When a carefully worded listing appears for a governess to assist with a "delicate situation"—a child born during the Great War—Jane is certain the child is fey-cursed, and that she can help.
Teaching the unruly Dorie to suppress her curse is hard enough; she certainly didn’t expect to fall for the girl’s father, the enigmatic artist Edward Rochart. But her blossoming crush is stifled by her own scars, and by his parade of women. Ugly women, who enter his closed studio...and come out as beautiful as the fey.

Jane knows Rochart cannot love her, just as she knows that she must wear iron for the rest of her life. But what if neither of these things is true? Step by step Jane unlocks the secrets of her new life—and discovers just how far she will go to become whole again.

The Woman Who Died A Lot (Thursday Next, Bk 7)
Jasper Fforde
Publisher: Viking
Release Date: October 2

The Bookworld’s leading enforcement officer, Thursday Next, has been forced into a semiretirement following an assassination attempt, returning home to Swindon and her family to recuperate.

But Thursday’s children have problems that demand she become a mother of invention: Friday’s career struggles in the Chronoguard, where he is relegated to a might-have-been; Tuesday’s trouble perfecting the Anti-Smote shield, needed in time to thwart an angry Deity’s promise to wipe Swindon off the face of the earth; and the issue of Thursday’s third child, Jenny, who doesn’t exist except as a confusing and disturbing memory.

With Goliath attempting to replace Thursday at every opportunity with synthetic Thursdays, and a call from the Bookworld to hunt down Pagerunners who have jumped into the Realworld, Thursday’s convalescence is going to be anything but restful as the week ahead promises to be one of the Next family’s oddest.
 

Between Two Fires
Christopher Buehlman
Publisher: Ace
Release Date: October 2

The year is 1348. Thomas, a disgraced knight, has found a young girl alone in a dead Norman village. An orphan of the Black Death, and an almost unnerving picture of innocence, she tells Thomas that plague is only part of a larger cataclysm—that the fallen angels under Lucifer are rising in a second war on heaven, and that the world of men has fallen behind the lines of conflict.

Is it delirium or is it faith? She believes she has seen the angels of God. She believes the righteous dead speak to her in dreams. And now she has convinced the faithless Thomas to shepherd her across a depraved landscape to Avignon. There, she tells Thomas, she will fulfill her mission: to confront the evil that has devastated the earth, and to restore to this betrayed, murderous knight the nobility and hope of salvation he long abandoned.

As hell unleashes its wrath, and as the true nature of the girl is revealed, Thomas will find himself on a macabre battleground of angels and demons, saints, and the risen dead, and in the midst of a desperate struggle for nothing less than the soul of man.

Science Fiction

1635: The Papal Stakes
Eric Flint & Charles E. Gannon
Publisher: Baen
Release Date: October 2

#15 in the multiple bestselling Ring of Fire Series. It’s springtime in the Eternal City, 1635. But it’s no Roman holiday for uptimer Frank Stone and his pregnant downtime wife, Giovanna. They’re in the clutches of would-be Pope Cardinal Borgia, with the real Pope–Urban VII –on the run with the renegade embassy of uptime Ambassador Sharon Nichols and her swashbuckling downtime husband, Ruy Sanchez de Casador y Ortiz. Up to their necks in papal assassins, power politics, murder, and mayhem, the uptimers and their spouses need help and they need it quickly.

Special rescue teams–including Harry Lefferts and his infamous Wrecking Crew–converge on Rome to extract Frank and Gia. And an uptime airplane is on its way to spirit the Pope to safety before Borja’s assassins can find him. It seems that everything is going to work out just fine in sunny Italy.

Until, that is, everything goes wrong. Now, whether they are prisoners in Rome or renegades protecting a pope on the run, it’s up to the rough and ready can-do attitude of Grantville natives to once again escape the clutches of aristocratic skullduggery and ring in freedom for a war-torn land.
 

 

Merge / Disciple: Two Short Novels from Crosstown to Oblivion
Walter Mosley
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: October 2

Merge: Releigh Redman loved Nicci Charbon until she left him heartbroken. Then he hit the lotto for $26 million, quit his minimum wage job and set his sights on one goal: reading the entire collection of lectures in the Popular Educator Library, the only thing his father left behind after he died. As Raleigh is trudging through the eighth volume, he notices something in his apartment that at first seems ordinary but quickly reveals itself to be from a world very different from our own. This entity shows Raleigh joy beyond the comforts of $26 million dollars...and merges our world with those that live beyond.

Disciple: Hogarth "Trent" Tryman is a forty-two year old man working a dead-end data entry job. Though he lives alone and has no real friends besides his mother, he's grown quite content in his quiet life, burning away time with television, the internet, and video games. That all changes the night he receives a bizarre instant message on his computer from a man who calls himself Bron. At first he thinks it's a joke, but in just a matter of days Hogarth Tryman goes from a data entry clerk to the head of a corporation. His fate is now in very powerful hands as he realizes he has become a pawn in a much larger game with unimaginable stakes - a battle that threatens the prime life force on Earth.

The Lost Stars: Tarnished Knight
Jack Campbell
Publisher: Ace
Release Date: October 2

TARNISHED KNIGHT follows the events in the Midway Star System during the same period as DREADNAUGHT and INVINCIBLE. For the first time, the story of the Lost Fleet universe is told through the eyes of citizens of the Syndicate Worlds as they deal with defeat in the war, threats from all sides, and the crumbling of the Syndicate empire.
 

The Second Ship
Richard Phillips
Publisher: 47North
Release Date: October 2

For sixty years, the National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, has been investigating the powerful technologies of a damaged alien ship, an effort dubbed the "Rho Project." Now, the American government is ready to share the Rho Project discoveries with the world. But as the world scrambles to adopt the alien technologies, three high schoolers make another shocking discovery: hidden inside a cave in the New Mexico wilderness lies another alien ship. As the friends explore the second ship, they begin to unravel a decades-long secret involving an extraterrestrial war, government cover-ups, and secret experimentation using alien technology on humans. A battle has begun, and the secrets of the second ship may be the key to humanity's last chance for survival.

Star Wars: The Essential Reader’s Companion
Pablo Hidalgo
Publisher: LucasBooks
Release Date: October 2

THE DEFINITIVE WORD ON STAR WARS FICTION

The legendary motion picture Star Wars has spawned two big-screen sequels and three prequels—and decades of bestselling fiction. From the original movie tie-in novel through the monumental Fate of the Jedi series, legions of devoted readers have helped expand science fiction’s most celebrated film saga into a page-turning print sensation. Now, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of these sweeping Star Wars adventures is presented in one beautifully illustrated volume.
 
Star Wars: The Essential Reader’s Companion spans the entire galaxy of published Star Wars fiction—movie novelizations, original stand alone and series novels, short stories, eBook novellas, young adult titles, and comics—and features:

• a concise synopsis of each story, including key characters and planets
• exclusive behind-the-scenes facts and anecdotes about authors, plot and character development, continuity notes, and significance in the Star Wars Expanded Universe
• details on which novels are linked to Star Wars comic books from Dark Horse and Marvel
• a chronological listing of titles, spanning the 25,000-year history of the Star Wars universe and placing each story in its proper context
• more than one hundred full-color original paintings throughout by some of fans’ favorite  artists

Whether skimming through fateful eras from the Old Republic to the New Jedi Order; delving deep into the ancient history of the Lost Tribe of the Sith or the tumultuous Clone Wars; crossing paths—and lightsabers—with Dark Lords such as Plagueis or Bane, Sidious or Vader; helming the Millennium Falcon with Han Solo; or mastering the Force with Luke Skywalker, this one-of-a-kind, one-stop reference is a must for fans looking to maximize their knowledge of the sprawling Star Wars Expanded Universe

Urban Fantasy

Dark Currents
Jacqueline Carey
Publisher: Roc
Release Date: October 2
The Midwestern resort town of Pemkowet boasts a diverse population: eccentric locals, wealthy summer people, and tourists by the busload; not to mention fairies, sprites, vampires, naiads, ogres and a whole host of eldritch folk, presided over by Hel, a reclusive Norse goddess.

To Daisy Johanssen, fathered by an incubus and raised by a single mother, it’s home. And as Hel’s enforcer and the designated liaison to the Pemkowet Police Department, it’s up to her to ensure relations between the mundane and eldritch communities run smoothly.

But when a young man from a nearby college drowns—and signs point to eldritch involvement—the town’s booming paranormal tourism trade is at stake. Teamed up with her childhood crush, Officer Cody Fairfax, a sexy werewolf on the down-low, Daisy must solve the crime—and keep a tight rein on the darker side of her nature. For if she’s ever tempted to invoke her demonic birthright, it could accidentally unleash nothing less than Armageddon.  

Daughter of the Sword
Steve Bein
Publisher: Roc
Release Date: October 2

Mariko Oshiro is not your average Tokyo cop. As the only female detective in the city’s most elite police unit, she has to fight for every ounce of respect, especially from her new boss. While she wants to track down a rumored cocaine shipment, he gives her the least promising case possible. But the case—the attempted theft of an old samurai sword—proves more dangerous than anyone on the force could have imagined.

The owner of the sword, Professor Yasuo Yamada, says it was crafted by the legendary Master Inazuma, a sword smith whose blades are rumored to have magical qualities. The man trying to steal it already owns another Inazuma—one whose deadly power eventually comes to control all who wield it. Or so says Yamada, and though he has studied swords and swordsmanship all his life, Mariko isn’t convinced.

But Mariko’s skepticism hardly matters. Her investigation has put her on a collision course with a curse centuries old and as bloodthirsty as ever. She is only the latest in a long line of warriors and soldiers to confront this power, and even the sword she learns to wield could turn against her.
 

Three Parts Dead
Max Gladstone
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: October 2

A god has died, and it’s up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart.

Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without Him, the metropolis’s steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot.

Tara’s job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in. Her only help: Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead god, who’s having an understandable crisis of faith.

When Tara and Abelard discover that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb’s courts—and their quest for the truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and Alt Coulumb’s slim hope of survival.

Death's Rival (Jane Yellowrock, Bki 5)
Faith Hunter
Publisher: Roc
Release Date: October 2

Jane Yellowrock is a shapeshifting skinwalker you don’t want to cross—especially if you’re one of the undead…

For a vampire killer like Jane, having Leo Pellisier as a boss took some getting used to. But now, someone is out to take his place as Master Vampire of the city of New Orleans, and is not afraid to go through Jane to do it. After an attack that’s tantamount to …a war declaration, Leo knows his rival is both powerful and vicious, but Leo’s not about to run scared. After all, he has Jane.

But then, a plague strikes, one that takes down vampires and makes their masters easy prey. Now, to uncover the identity of the vamp who wants Leo’s territory, and to find the cause of the vamp-plague, Jane will have to go to extremes…and maybe even to war.

Sand Witches in the Hamptons (Willow Tate, Bk 5)
Celia Jerome
Publisher: DAW
Release Date: October 2

Successful graphic novelist Willow Tate is a Visualizer, able to draw beings from the Otherworld—home to trolls and elves, night mares and bird fish, and many other fantastical beings—and “draw” them into our world. Somehow they all seem to end up in the weird little town of Paumanok Harbor, nestled in the popular Hamptons region of Long I sland.

As if Willow didn’t have enough problems coping with all these Otherworld visitors, now she has a stalker, her doom-seer father has a secret, and Paumanok Harbor has Otherworld sand-stealers. Willow has bodyguards but absolutely no idea how to solve any of these problems in time for Halloween, when the local witches hold their annual gathering on the beach—if any beach is left by then. Good thing she has the handsome, loving, local vet Matt to come to her assistance.

Mortal Ties (World of Lupi, Bk 9)
Eileen Wilks
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: October 2

FBI agent Lily Yu is living at Nokolai Clanhome with her fiancé, lupi Rule Turner, when an intruder penetrates their territory, stealing the prototpye of a magical device the clan hopes will be worth a fortune--if a few bugs can be worked out . .

But the protoytpe can be dangerously erratic, discharging a bizarre form of mind magic—and it looks like the thief wants it for that very side effect. Worse, whoever stole the device didn’t learn about it by accident. There’s a Nokolai traitor in their midst. Lily and Rule have to find the traitor, the thief, and the prototype. One job proves easy when the thief calls them--and his identity rocks Rule’s world.

As they race to recover their missing property, they find Robert Friar’s sticky footprints all over the place. Robert Friar--killer, madman, and acolyte of the Old One the lupi are at war with--an Old One whose power is almost as vast as her ambition to rock the entire world . . .

Fury's Kiss
Karen Chance
Publisher: Signet
Release Date: October 2

Dory is used to fighting hard and nasty. So when she wakes up in a strange scientific lab with a strange man standing over her, her first instinct is to take his head off. Luckily, the man is actually the master vampire Louis-Cesare, so he’s not an easy kill.

It turns out that Dory had been working with a Vampire Senate task force on the smuggling of magical items and weaponry out of Faerie when she was captured and brought to the lab. But when Louis-Cesare rescues her, she has no memory of what happened to her.

To find out what was done to her—and who is behind it—Dory will have to face off with fallen angels, the maddest of mad scientists, and a new breed of vampires that are far worse than undead…

Werewolf In Denver (Wild About You, Bk 4)
Vicki Lewis Thompson   
Publisher: Signet
Release Date: October 2

Love at first woof. When Denver-based Were blogger and founder of Honoring of Werewolf Legacy (HOWL) Kate Stillman agrees to take on political “bad boy” Duncan MacDowell in a public debate about werewolf segregation, she’s confident she'll sail through the challenge without letting down her guard. And what can go wrong while hanging out with the sexy Scottish founder of Werewolves Optimizing Our Future (WOOF) long enough to convince him his views on interspecies mating are mistaken? Plenty, when Kate discovers that she’s actually wildly attracted to her opponent—who by all accounts prefers dating human women! But what hope can there be when this irresistible werewolf-with-a-cause believes their future depends on Kate losing the argument?

Horror

This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It
David Wong
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Release Date: October 2

Fan favorite David Wong takes readers to a whole new level with this blistering sequel to the cult sensation John Dies at the End, soon to be a movie starring Paul Giamatti


Originally released as an online serial where it received more than 70,000 downloads, John Dies at the End has been described as a "Horrortacular", an epic of "spectacular" horror that combines the laugh out loud humor of the best R-rated comedy, with the darkest terror of H.P. Lovecraft. The book went on to sell an additional 60,000 copies in all formats.

As the sequel opens, we find our heroes, David and John, again embroiled in a series of horrifying yet mind-bogglingly ridiculous events caused primarily by their own gross incompetence. The guys find that books and movies about zombies may have triggered a zombie apocalypse, despite a complete lack of zombies in the world. As they race against the clock to protect humanity from its own paranoia, they must ask themselves, who are the real monsters? Actually, that would be the shape-shifting horrors secretly taking over the world behind the scenes that, in the end, make John and Dave kind of wish it had been zombies after all.

Hilarious, terrifying, engaging and wrenching, This Book Is Full of Spiders, the next thrilling installment, takes us for a wild ride with two slackers from the midwest who really have better things to do with their time than prevent the apocalypse.   

Little Star
John Ajvide Lindqvist
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Release Date: October 2

A man finds a baby in the woods, left for dead. He brings the baby home, and he and his wife raise the girl in their basement. When a shocking and catastrophic incident occurs, the couple’s son Jerry whisks the girl away to Stockholm to start a new life. There, he enters her in a nationwide singing competition. Another young girl who’s never fit in sees the performance on TV, and a spark is struck that will ignite the most terrifying duo in modern fiction.

Little Star is an unforgettable portrait of adolescence, a modern-day Carrie for the age of internet bullies, offensive reality television, and overnight You Tube sensations. Chilling, unnerving, and petrifying, Little Star is Lindqvist’s most disturbing book to date

Young Adult

Pirate Cinema
Cory Doctorow
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: October 2

Trent McCauley is sixteen, brilliant, and obsessed with one thing: making movies on his computer by reassembling footage from popular films he downloads from the net. In the dystopian near-future Britain where Trent is growing up, this is more illegal than ever; the punishment for being caught three times is that your entire household’s access to the internet is cut off for a year, with no appeal.

Trent's too clever for that too happen. Except it does, and it nearly destroys his family. Shamed and shattered, Trent runs away to London, where he slowly he learns the ways of staying alive on the streets. This brings him in touch with a demimonde of artists and activists who are trying to fight a new bill that will criminalize even more harmless internet creativity, making felons of millions of British citizens at a stroke.

Things look bad. Parliament is in power of a few wealthy media conglomerates. But the powers-that-be haven’t entirely reckoned with the power of a gripping movie to change people’s minds….

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There
Catherynne M. Valente
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Release Date: October 2

September returns to Fairyland to reunite with A-Through-L, Saturday, and Gleam, and to confront her shadow-self, who has become the queen of Fairyland-Below, the upside-down world beneath the Fairyland of the first novel, filled with creatures of water and shadow, tales of ancient Fairyland before the human world was born, and not a few hungry buffins, blind birds of ice and moonlight. The yearly revels of Fairyland-Below climax in a mysterious rite September must avert or else lose her shadow forever.

Fire Season
David Weber & Jane Lindskold
Publisher: Baen
Release Date: October 2
Fire weather... That’s what the treecats call those rare seasons when the slightest spark can set aflame the the vast green reaches they call home.

Teenager Stephanie Harrington rapidly learns just how deadly those fires can be. Guided by her treecat companion, Lionheart, Stephanie and her good friend Karl Zivonik venture into the heart of a raging inferno to rescue twin treecats put at risk by human carelessness. Only the trio’s absolute trust for each other stands between them and disaster.

But Sphinx isn’t the only thing ripe for burning. Stephanie has fallen hard for new arrival to Sphinx, Anders Whittaker. When Anders vanishes without a trace, Stephanie is at the forefront of the search. Then a lightning strike sets the CopperwallMountains aflame and as a provisional ranger she is ordered to her post.

Will Stephanie choose to honor the claims of her planet or those of her heart?             

A Novel in the New Space Adventure Series Set in the Universe of Honor Harrington—Sequel to the Hal Clement Award-Winning Novel.

London Eye
Tim Lebbon
Publisher: Pyr
Release Date: October 2

Two years after London is struck by a devastating terrorist attack, it is cut off from the world, protected by a military force known as Choppers. the rest of Britain believes that the city is now a toxic, uninhabited wasteland.

But Jack and his friends — some of whom lost family on what has become known as Doomsday — know that the reality is very different. at great risk, they have been gathering evidence about what is really happening in London — and it is incredible. Because the handful of London’s survivors are changing. Developing strange, fantastic powers. Evolving.

Upon discovering that his mother is still alive inside london, Jack, his sister, and their three friends sneak into a city in ruins. Vast swathes have been bombed flat. Choppers cruise the streets, looking for survivors to experiment upon. the toxic city is filled with wonders and dangers that will challenge Jack and his friends... and perhaps kill them. But Jack knows that the truth must be revealed to the outside world or every survivor will die.

Quantum Coin
E.C. Myers
Publisher: Pyr
Release Date: October 2

Ephraim thought his universe-hopping days were over. He's done wishing for magic solutions to his problems; his quantum coin has been powerless for almost a year, and he's settled into a normal life with his girlfriend, Jena. But then an old friend crashes their senior prom: Jena's identical twin from a parallel world, Zoe.

Zoe's timing couldn't be worse. It turns out that Ephraim's problems have just begun, and they're much more complicated than his love life: The multiverse is at stake—and it might just be Ephraim's fault.

Ephraim, Jena, and Zoe embark on a mission across multiple worlds to learn what's going wrong and how to stop it. They will have to draw on every resource available and trust in alternate versions of themselves and their friends, before it's too late for all of them.

If Ephraim and his companions can put their many differences aside and learn to work together, they might have a chance to save the multiverse. But ultimately, the solution may depend on how much they're willing to sacrifice for the sake of humanity...and each other.

The Assassin's Curse
Cassandra Rose Clarke
Publisher: Angry Robot
Release Date: October 2

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to an allying pirate clan: she wants to captain her own boat, not serve as second-in-command to her handsome yet clueless fiance. But her escape has dire consequences when she learns the scorned clan has sent an assassin after her.

And when the assassin, Naji, finally catches up with her, things get even worse. Ananna inadvertently triggers a nasty curse — with a life-altering result. Now Ananna and Naji are forced to become uneasy allies as they work together to break the curse and return their lives back to normal. Or at least as normal as the lives of a pirate and an assassin can be.

Son (The Giver, Bk 4)
Lois Lowry
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
Release Date: October 2

They called her Water Claire. When she washed up on their shore, no one knew that she came from a society where emotions and colors didn’t exist. That she had become a Vessel at age thirteen. That she had carried a Product at age fourteen. That it had been stolen from her body. Claire had a son. But what became of him she never knew. What was his name? Was he even alive?　 She was supposed to forget him, but that was impossible. Now Claire will stop at nothing to find her child, even if it means making an unimaginable sacrifice. Son thrusts readers once again into the chilling world of the Newbery Medal winning book, The Giver,　as well as Gathering Blue　and　Messenger　where a new hero emerges. In this thrilling series finale, the startling and long-awaited conclusion to Lois Lowry’s epic tale culminates in a final clash between good and evil.

Poltergeeks
Sean Cummings
Publisher: Angry Robot
Release Date: October 2

15-year-old Julie Richardson is about to learn that being the daughter of a witch isn't all it's cracked up to be. When she and her best friend, Marcus, witness an elderly lady jettisoned out the front door of her home, it's pretty obvious to Julie there's a supernatural connection.

In fact, there's a whisper of menace behind increasing levels of poltergeist activity all over town. After a large-scale paranormal assault on Julie's high school, her mother falls victim to the spell Endless Night. Now it's a race against time to find out who is responsible or Julie won't just lose her mother's soul, she'll lose her mother's life.

Whispers At Moonrise (Shadow Falls, Bk 4)
C.C. Hunter
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Release Date: October 2
Even at a camp for supernatural teens, Kylie Galen has never been normal. Not only can she see ghosts, but she doesn’t seem to belong to any one species—she exhibits traits from them all. As Kylie struggles to unlock the secrets of her identity, she begins to worry that Lucas will never be able to accept her for what she is, and what she isn’t…a werewolf.  With his pack standing in their way, Kylie finds herself turning more and more to Derek, the only person in her life who’s willing to accept the impossible.

 As if life isn’t hard enough, she starts getting visits from the ghost of Holiday, her closest confidante.  Trouble is, Holiday isn’t dead…not yet anyway.  Now Kylie must race to save one of her own from an unseen danger before it’s too late—all while trying to stop her relationship with Lucas from slipping away forever.   In a world of constant confusion, there’s only one thing Kylie knows for sure.  Change is inevitable and all things must come to an end…maybe even her time at Shadow Falls.

The breathtaking fourth installment of the New York Times bestselling Shadow Falls series from author C. C. Hunter...Whispers at Moonrise.

Promised (Birthmarked, Bk 3)
Caragh M. O'Brien
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Release Date: October 2

After defying the ruthless Enclave, surviving the wasteland, and upending the rigid matriarchy of Sylum, Gaia Stone now faces her biggest challenge ever.  She must lead the people of Sylum back to the Enclave and persuade the Protectorat to grant them refuge from the wasteland.  In Gaia's absence, the Enclave has grown more cruel, more desperate to experiment on mothers from outside the wall, and now the stakes of cooperating or rebelling have never been higher.  Is Gaia ready, as a leader, to sacrifice what--or whom--she loves most?

Death and the Girl Next Door
Darynda Jones
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Release Date: October 2

Ten years ago, Lorelei's parents disappeared without a trace.  Raised by her grandparents and leaning on the support of her best friends, Lorelei is finally beginning to accept the fact that her parents are never coming home.  For Lorelei, life goes on.

High school is not quite as painful as she thinks it will be, and things are as normal as they can be.  Until the day the school's designated loner, Cameron Lusk, begins to stalk her, turning up where she least expects it,  standing outside her house in the dark, night after night.  Things get even more complicated when a new guy—terrifying, tough, sexy Jared Kovach—comes to school.  Cameron and Jared instantly despise each other and Lorelei seems to be the reason for their animosity.  What does Jared know about her parents?  Why does Cameron tell Jared he can't have Lorelei?  And what will any of them do when Death comes knocking for real?  Thrilling, sassy, sexy, and inventive, Darynda Jones's first foray into the world of teens will leave readers eager for the next instalment.

Summer and Bird
Katherine Catmull
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Release Date: October 2

An enchanting—and twisted—tale of two sisters’ quest to find their parents

When their parents disappear in the middle of the night, young sisters Summer and Bird set off on a quest to find them. A cryptic picture message from their mother leads them to a familiar gate in the woods, but comfortable sights quickly give way to a new world entirely—Down—one inhabited by talking birds and the evil Puppeteer queen. Summer and Bird are quickly separated, and their divided hearts lead them each in a very different direction in the quest to find their parents, vanquish the Puppeteer, lead the birds back to their Green Home, and discover the identity of the true bird queen.

With breathtaking language and deliciously inventive details, Katherine Catmull has created a world unlike any other, skillfully blurring the lines between magic and reality and bringing to life a completely authentic cast of characters and creatures.

Breathe
Sarah Crossan
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Release Date: October 2

Inhale. Exhale.
Breathe.
Breathe.
Breathe . . .
The world is dead.
The survivors live under the protection of Breathe, the corporation that found a way to manufacture oxygen-rich air.

Alina
has been stealing for a long time. She's a little jittery, but not terrified. All she knows is that she's never been caught before. If she's careful, it'll be easy. If she's careful.

Quinn
should be worried about Alina and a bit afraid for himself, too, but even though this is dangerous, it's also the most interesting thing to happen to him in ages. It isn't every day that the girl of your dreams asks you to rescue her.

Bea
wants to tell him that none of this is fair; they'd planned a trip together, the two of them, and she'd hoped he'd discover her out here, not another girl.

And as they walk into the Outlands with two days' worth of oxygen in their tanks, everything they believe will be shattered. Will they be able to make it back? Will they want to?

The Obsidian Mirror
Catherine Fisher
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
Release Date: October 4

Jake's father disappears while working on mysterious experiments with the obsessive, reclusive Oberon Venn. Jake is convinced Venn has murdered him. But the truth he finds at the snow-bound Wintercombe Abbey is far stranger ... The experiments concerned a black mirror, which is a portal to both the past and the future. Venn is not alone in wanting to use its powers. Strangers begin gathering in and around Venn's estate: Sarah - a runaway, who appears out of nowhere and is clearly not what she says, Maskelyne - who claims the mirror was stolen from him in some past century. There are others, a product of the mirror's power to twist time. And a tribe of elemental beings surround this isolated estate, fey, cold, untrustworthy, and filled with hate for humans. But of them all, Jake is hell-bent on using the mirror to get to the truth. Whatever the cost, he must learn what really happened to his father.

Magisterium
Jeff Hirsch
Publisher: Scholastic
Release Date: October 1
On one side of the Rift is a technological paradise without famine or want. On the other side is a mystery.

Sixteen-year-old Glenn Morgan has lived next to the Rift her entire life and has no idea of what might be on the other side of it. Glenn's only friend, Kevin, insists the fence holds back a world of monsters and witchcraft, but magic isn't for Glenn. She has enough problems with reality: Glenn's mother disappeared when she was six, and soon after, she lost her scientist father to his all-consuming work on the mysterious Project. Glenn buries herself in her studies and dreams about the day she can escape. But when her father's work leads to his arrest, he gives Glenn a simple metal bracelet that will send Glenn and Kevin on the run---with only one place to go.

Story Collections

Wonders of the Invisible World
Patricia A. McKillip
Publisher: Tachyon Publications
Release Date: October 1

Stylistically rooted in fairy tale and mythology, imperceptible landscapes are explored in these opulent stories from a beloved fantasy icon. There are princesses dancing with dead suitors, a knight in love with an official of exotic lineage, and fortune’s fool stealing into the present instead of the future. In one mesmerizing tale, a time-traveling angel is forbidden to intervene in Cotton Mather’s religious ravings, while another narrative finds a wizard seduced in his youth by the Faerie Queen and returning the treasure that is rightfully hers. Bewitching, bittersweet, and deeply intoxicating, this collection draws elements from the fables of history and re-creates them in startlingly magical ways.

Night & Demons
David Drake
Publisher: Baen
Release Date: October 2
A collection of horrific, weird, and fantastic tales by a master storyteller and creator of best-selling military science fiction. Here are weird stories set in the present, along with alternative histories filled with gritty realism and exacting detail as well as an assortment of horrors and monsters. Most of all, here are the tough heroes who throughout time master their own fears and face the very real terrors that haunt existence.  Sometimes these heroes win a partial victory.  Sometimes it’s enough to go down fighting.

Before Drake was a best-selling author of military science fiction, he was a prolific writer of horror and fantasy short fiction. “Denkirch,” Drake’s first sale, is here, and well as many stories set in the worlds of his fantasy novels (Ranks of Bronze, Lord of the Isles, and others).

More than just a collection of stories, Night & Demons features extensive story notes that chronicle the development of one of science fiction's most popular writers, and provide detailed snapshots of the larger-than-life editors, publishers, and writers with whom Drake has worked throughout his career.