New Scifi & Fantasy Releases: Week of November 7

Somehow I seem to have missed out on the fact the Jasper Fforde released a new book last week, The Last Dragonslayer, and so I've added it to this week's listing. This is Fforde's first young adult novel and I look forward to seeing how his unique writing style will extend to this genre.

Hope you have a great reading week!



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The Last Dragonslayer
Jasper Fforde
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Release Date: Nov 4

In the good old days, magic was powerful, unregulated by government, and even the largest spell could be woven without filling in magic release form B1-7g.

Then the magic started fading away.

Fifteen-year-old Jennifer Strange runs Kazam, an employment agency for soothsayers and sorcerers. But work is drying up. Drain cleaner is cheaper than a spell, and even magic carpets are reduced to pizza delivery.

So it’s a surprise when the visions start. Not only do they predict the death of the Last Dragon at the hands of a dragonslayer, they also point to Jennifer, and say something is coming.

Big Magic . . .

Bitten in Two
Jennifer Rardin
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: Nov 8

Jaz Parks here. I. Am. Pissed. Just as Vayl and I arrive in Morocco to secure an ancient artifact, he wakes up calling me by another woman’s name. And it’s not even a good one. But since any form of argument transforms him into an unholy terror, I’m forced to play along until the gang and I can figure out what kind of power has so vastly altered his perceptions.
So it’s time for me to do what any well-trained assassin in my position might do. I attack. What follows is a hair-raising, breath-taking bullet train ride to the finish as the crew battles on multiple fronts. I now know what I have to do – I must return to hell one last time.


Doctor Who: Coming of the Terraphiles
by Michael Moorcock
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: B B C Worldwide Americas
Release Date: Nov 9

Miggea - a world on the very edge of reality. The cusp between this universe and the next. A point where space-time has worn thin, and is in danger of collapsing. And the venue for the grand finals of the competition to win the fabled Arrow of Law. The Doctor and Amy have joined the Terraphiles - a group obsessed with all aspects of Earth's history, and dedicated to re-enacting ancient sporting events. They are determined to win the Arrow. But just getting to Miggea proves tricky. Reality is collapsing, ships are disappearing, and Captain Cornelius and his pirates are looking for easy pickings. Even when they arrive, the Doctor and Amy's troubles won't be over. They have to find out who is so desperate to get the Arrow of Law that they will kill for it. And uncover the traitor on their own team. And win the contest fair and square. And, of course, they need to save the universe from total destruction.



Empress of Eternity
L.E Modesitt Jr.
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: Nov. 9

I n the far future, an indestructible and massive canal more than 2,000 miles long spans the mid-continent of Earth. Nothing can mar it, move it, or affect it in any fashion. At its western end, where it meets the sea, is an equally indestructible structure comprising three levels of seemingly empty chambers.

Scientists from three different civilizations, separated in time by hundreds of thousands of years, are investigating the canal. In the most distant of these civilizations, religious rebellion is brewing. A plot is hatched to overthrow the world government of the Vanir, using a weapon that can destroy anything-except the canal. If used at full power it might literally unravel the universe and destroy all life forever. The lives and fates of all three civilizations become intertwined as the forces behind the canal react to the threat, and all three teams of scientists find their lives changed beyond belief.


Full Dark, No Stars
Stephen King
Genre: Horror/Short Story Anthology
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: Nov 9

A new collection of four never-before-published stories from Stephen King.

"I believe there is another man inside every man, a stranger . . ." writes Wilfred Leland James in the early pages of the riveting confession that makes up "1922," the first in this pitch-black quartet of mesmerizing tales from Stephen King. For James, that stranger is awakened when his wife, Arlette, proposes selling off the family homestead and moving to Omaha, setting in motion a gruesome train of murder and madness.

In "Big Driver," a cozy-mystery writer named Tess encounters the stranger along a back road in Massachusetts when she takes a shortcut home after a book-club engagement. Violated and left for dead, Tess plots a revenge that will bring her face-to-face with another stranger: the one inside herself.

"Fair Extension," the shortest of these tales, is perhaps the nastiest and certainly the funniest. Making a deal with the devil not only saves Dave Streeter from a fatal cancer but provides rich recompense for a lifetime of resentment.

When her husband of more than twenty years is away on one of his business trips, Darcy Anderson looks for batteries in the garage. Her toe knocks up against a box under a worktable and she discovers the stranger inside her husband. It’s a horrifying discovery, rendered with bristling intensity, and it definitively ends a good marriage.

Like Different Seasons and Four Past Midnight, which generated such enduring films as The Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me, Full Dark, No Stars proves Stephen King a master of the long story form.


Heavy Metal Pulp: Money Shot
Christopher Rowley
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: Nov 9

Detective Rook Venner was a successful investigating officer for the Hudson Valley Police Department—until the General Sangacha murder case came across his desk and his world exploded.

Now after being dragged through hell and back, Rook is on the run with Plesur, a Pleasure Model who is the one eyewitness to the murder. Plesur carries a secret in her brain that terrifies the powers-that-be. A secret that they will do anything to destroy—even bring in a Tactical Robotic Regiment to track Rook and Plesur down and annihilate them.

The only choice the two have is to locate the coordinates that were planted in the pleasure mod’s head to the isolated mountain ridge where it all began. Deep underground, in a warren of machine halls and ice caves, something so horrific is happening that just knowing three code words is enough to get you killed: Operation Taste Imperative.

Rook and Plesur have no way back and no way out. If they want to survive and have any kind of life together, they must uncover the terrifying secret that lies deep inside the mountain.



Muse and Reverie
Charles de Lint
Genre: Urban Fantasy Anthology
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: Nov 9

From the master of contemporary urban fantasy, a new collection of “Newford” stories

The city of Newford could be any city in North America, bursting with music, commerce, art, love, hate, and, of course magic. Magic in the sidewalk cracks, myth at the foundations of its great buildings, enchantment in the spaces between its people.

In novels like Moonheart, Forests of the Heart, The Onion Girl, and The Mystery of Grace, and in a series of story collections, urban fantasy master Charles de Lint has explored that magic and those spaces, bringing to life a tapestry of people from all walks of life, each looking for a spark of the miraculous to shape their lives and transform their fate.

Here, in the fifth of the story collections, we reencounter old friends such as Jilly, Sophie, and the Crow Girls. We breathe in intimations of the world beyond death, and of magic beyond time. Longtime readers and newcomers alike will find themselves under Charles de Lint’s unique spell.


Phantom Prospect
by Alex Archer
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Harlequin
Release Date: Nov. 9

Intrepid treasure hunters believe they have discovered the final resting place of Fantome, a legendary warship that wrecked off Nova Scotia almost two hundred years ago. She was rumored to have gone down with an extraordinary treasure. But circling beneath the ocean's surface waits something unbelievable… and terrifying. Some unfortunate divers have encountered a massive, thought-to-be-extinct shark known as the megalodon.

Archaeologist Annja Creed has always had a healthy respect for sharks. But when a researcher friend asks for her help, Annja braves the deep, cold waters of the Atlantic, determined to discover the truth. Instead she finds herself hunting an unknown traitor on a sabotaged ship. With death waiting both above and below the ocean's surface, Annja must battle her most dangerous enemy yet.

Pirate Sun
Karl Schroeder
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: Nov 9

This is the third novel, afterSun of Suns and Queen of Candesce, to be set in Virga, a bubble universe artificially separated from our own future universe. “Schroeder's Virga series is highly reminiscent of the Golden Age of SF, when A. E. van Vogt, Isaac Asimov, and E. E. “Doc” Smith were all mixing the pulp heritage with high adventure and innovative scientific projections to create interesting worlds, peoples, and stories.” (The Sacramento Book Review).

Chaison Fanning, the admiral of a fleet of warships introduced in the first book, has been captured and imprisoned by his enemies, but is now rescued and set free. He must flee to his home city to confront the ruler who betrayed him. Perhaps while there he will also regain his lovely, powerful, and subversive wife, Venera. He has not seen her since she fled, careening off into the air of Virga, with the key to the artificial sun, Candesce, at the center of Virga. In Pirate Sun, Schroeder sets a whole new standard for hard SF space opera.


Seed Seeker
Pamela Sargent
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: Nov 9


Several hundred years ago, Ship, a sentient starship, settled humans on the planet Home before leaving to colonize other worlds, promising to return one day. Over time, the colony on Home divided into those who live in the original domed buildings of the colony, who maintain the library and technology of Ship, and those who live by the river, farming and hunting to survive. The Dome Dwellers consider themselves the protectors of “true humanity” and the River People “contaminated,” and the two sides interact solely through ritualized trade: food and goods from the River People in exchange for repairs and recharges by the Dome Dwellers.

Then a new light appears in the night sky. The River People believe it might be Ship, keeping its promise to return, but the Dome Dwellers, who have a radio to communicate with Ship, are silent. So Bian, a seventeen-year-old girl from a small village, travels upriver to learn what they know. As she travels through the colony of Home, gaining companions and gathering news, Bian ponders why the Dome Dwellers have said nothing. Has Ship commanded them to be silent, in preparation for some judgment on the River People? Or are the Dome Dwellers lying to Ship, turning Ship against their rivals?

Whatever the answer, life is about to change radically on both sides of the divide.



The Flock
James Robert Smith
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Forge
Release Date: Nov 9

A remote Florida swamp has been targeted for theme-park development, and the swamp’s inhabitants are none too happy. It doesn’t help that the residents are a colony of intelligent, prehistoric, dinosaur-like birds. This flock of beasts has escaped the mass extinction that killed off the dinosaurs, relying on stealth, cunning, and killer instinct. The creatures have been living in secret, just outside our developed world.

As the developers push to have the recently-discovered animals exterminated, a billionaire rogue environmentalist step in to protect these rare, predatory creatures. A naïve young Fish and Wildlife officer finds himself caught in between these two incredibly powerful forces, and may find out the hard way that man is the most dangerous predator of them all . . .

The Flock is a contemporary eco-thriller about what can happen when man violates nature, and when nature fights back.


The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: 21
Stephen Jones
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Running Press
Release Date: Nov 9

This is the world’s premier annual showcase of horror and dark fantasy fiction, representing the most outstanding new short stories and novellas. It remains the world’s leading anthology dedicated solely to presenting the best in contemporary horror fiction.



The Marbury Lens
Andrew Smith
Genre: YA
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Release Date: Nov 9

Sixteen-year-old Jack gets drunk and is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is kidnapped. He escapes, narrowly. The only person he tells is his best friend, Conner. When they arrive in London as planned for summer break, a stranger hands Jack a pair of glasses. Through the lenses, he sees another world called Marbury.

There is war in Marbury. It is a desolate and murderous place where Jack is responsible for the survival of two younger boys. Conner is there, too. But he’s trying to kill them.

Meanwhile, Jack is falling in love with an English girl, and afraid he’s losing his mind.

Conner tells Jack it’s going to be okay.

But it’s not.

Andrew Smith has written his most beautiful and personal novel yet, as he explores the nightmarish outer limits of what trauma can do to our bodies and our minds.


The Morning Star
Andre Schwarze-Bart
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Overlook Press
Release Date: Nov 11

This story begins in the aftermath of a nuclear war that has reduced our world to ashes. Luckily, a few found their way to the stars and into immortality. In the year 3000, nostalgic for the past, they return to earth in an effort to reconstruct the loves of the people who lived there.
The Morning Star flows between the poetic, the fantastic and the realistic as it weaves the tale of the Jewish people from Abraham to the Holocaust and into the future.


The Painted Boy
Charles de Lint
Genre: YA
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Release Date: Nov 11

Jay Li should be in Chicago, finishing high school and working at his family's restaurant. Instead, as a born member of the Yellow Dragon Clan—part human, part dragon, like his grandmother—he is on a quest even he does not understand. His journey takes him to Santo del Vado Viejo in the Arizona desert, a town overrun by gangs, haunted by members of other animal clans, perfumed by delicious food, and set to the beat of Malo Malo, a barrio rock band whose female lead guitarist captures Jay's heart. He must face a series of dangerous, otherworldly—and very human—challenges to become the man, and dragon, he is meant to be. This is Charles de Lint at his best!


Trio of Sorcery
Mercedes Lackey
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: Nov 9

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Mercedes Lackey presents three exciting short urban fantasy novels featuring three resourceful heroines and three different takes on the modern world and on magics both modern and ancient.

Arcanum 101: Diana Tregarde, practicing witch, romance novelist, Guardian of the Earth. Studying at Harvard, Diana is approached by Joe O’Brian, a young cop who has already seen more than one unusual thing during his budding career. The distraught mother of a kidnap victim is taking advice from a “psychic” and interfering in the police investigation. Will Diana prove that the psychic is a fake? Unfortunately, the psychic is not a fake, but a very wicked witch—and the child’s kidnapper.

Drums: Jennifer Talldeer, shaman, private investigator, member of the Osage tribe. Most of Jennie’s work is regular PI stuff, but Nathan Begay brings her a problem she’s never seen before. His girlfriend, Caroline, is Chickasaw to his Navaho, but that’s not the problem. Somehow, Caroline has attracted the attention of an angry Osage ghost. Thwarted in love while alive, the ghost has chosen Caroline to be his bride in death.

Ghost in the Machine: Ellen McBridge: computer programmer extraordinaire, techno-shaman. The programmers and players of a new MMORPG find that the game’s “boss,” a wendigo, is “killing” everyone—even the programmers’ characters with their god-like powers. A brilliant debugger, Ellen discoveres that the massive computing power of the game’s servers have created a breach between the supernatural world and our own. This wendigo isn’t a bit of code, it’s the real thing . . . and it’s on the brink of breaking out of the computers and into the real world.

Wicked City: The Scarlet Clan (Wicked City, Bk 3)
Hideyuki Kikuchi
Genre:
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: Nov 9

The child conceived by the mortal Taki and the demoness Makie, fellow Black Guard agents whose job it is to preserve the peace between human and demonkind, is about to be born. Many see the upcoming birth as a sign of hope that the child will bring together the demon and human worlds in a new era of lasting peace. For the Shu family, however, which thrives on chaos and destruction, this is the last thing they desire. The infamous demon mob, silent for thousands of years, will stop at nothing to prevent this child from entering the world. With magic snake handlers and fire-spitting demons at their beck and call, the Shus throw everything they have at Taki and the Black Guard in order to stop an event that has been predicted for centuries.


The Wolf Age
James Enge
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Pyr
Release Date: Nov 9

"Spear-age, sword-age:
shields are shattered.
Wind-age, wolf-age:
before the world founders
no man will show mercy to another."

Wuruyaaria: city of werewolves, whose raiders range over the dying northlands, capturing human beings for slaves or meat. Wuruyaaria: where a lone immortal maker wages a secret war against the Strange Gods of the Coranians. Wuruyaaria: a democracy where some are more equal than others, and a faction of outcast werewolves is determined to change the balance of power in a long, bloody election year.
Their plans are laid; the challenges known; the risks accepted. But all schemes will shatter in the clash between two threats few had foreseen and none had fully understood: a monster from the north on a mission to poison the world, and a stranger from the south named Morlock Ambrosius.

Cool Stuff Around the Web

I just finished reading Kate Elliot's Cold Magic, which I loved, but for some reason I'm having a really hard time reviewing. So I have no review for you today and instead will direct you to some other websites and blog posts (which is a lot easier then coming up with original content of my own).

The Bloggess, who I'd never heard of before but will definitely be visiting again, has a funny and entertaining post about meeting Neil Gaiman at WOOtstock (which I'd never heard of either)

He was gracious and sweet and seemed vaguely baffled by me but in a very charming way and I explained that at the Miss Kyle Texas beauty pageant I’d been allowed to ask the contestants a question and that none of them had been able to answer it to my satisfaction so I thought he could give it ago and he was like “Of course. Please continue” and I took a deep breath and asked gravely “In an epic battle for world domination between unicorns and zombies, who would win?” Then Victor gave me a look like “WTF?” because he honestly had no idea that was my question but Neil (without pause, like bad-ass he is) stated confidently “Unicorns, of course”. And I was a little shocked at how quickly he came up with his answer so I was all “Okay, show your math” and he explained that “unicorns not only had the ability to run the zombies through with their horns but also they would be able to hoove the zombies and they’d all turn to sludge. There would be sludge everywhere but unicorns would be victorious” and I probably should have just said “Exactly!” but instead I was all “No. That’s not the right answer at all but I will give you extra points for using ‘hoove’ as a verb because I’d honestly never even considered how much hooving would be going on with unicorns”.

And there is even a picture of Gaiman in a monkey hat, so head over here to check it out yourself.

And at ThinkGee I fell in love with these knife coat hooks which I think would look great in my apartment though I suspect my kids would try to pull them out of the wall to stab each other with, so I'll probably have to pass on them for now.

If you needed additional proof that some of the coolest stuff comes from Israel, check out this jewelery and art made out of bottle caps by Israeli artist, Yoav Kotik.

I love seeing the different tattoos that people decorate their bodies with and I enjoy looking through this site at the photographs that people have sent in of their own tattoos. Some are really cool while others make you wonder what the heck the person was thinking (they do know these are permanent, right?) but it's a fun site to look through.

Things I Love As Much As Books: Krembo

Things I Love as Much As Books
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In addition to books, I also love....




Krembo!


In Israel you know that the winter season has arrived when boxes of krembo appear on the supermarket shelves. This popular Israeli treat is only available for a few months each year, due to the fact that it's made out of egg whites, and my kids and I always look forward to the first krembo of the season. I have fond krembo-eating memories from my childhood and I delight in my own children's pleasure in consuming this delicious, and messy, confection.

Krembos are composed of lightly whipped, vanilla flavored cream which rests on top of a round cookie, all of which is dipped in a thin layer of chocolate. Krembos are also available in mocha flavor, though the vanilla flavored are the most popular.

It is a matter of great debate as to what is the best way to eat a krembo. One opinion is that the krembo should be eaten from the cream filled top, down to cookie bottom. Others believe in eating the cookie first and then the cream. I myself, save the cookie for last though I allow my children the freedom of choosing their own path in the krembo-eating way.

Here are some interesting facts about krembo, from Wikipedia:

• The Krembo was originally invented in Denmark around 200 years ago and was brought to Israel by immigrants, in the 1940's

• The Krembo season in Israel only lasts from October to February, during which time 50 million krembos are sold, each year.

• According to a study funded by Strauss, Israel's leading krembo producer, 69% of Israelis prefer to eat krembos from the top down (starting with the cream), and only 10% start with the biscuit at the bottom

• In the Hebrew version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, translator Gili Bar-Hillel translated Dumbledore's favourite sweet as a Krembo, instead of a sherbert lemon.

And at the blog, Room for Desert, I found a recipe for krembo, which the author says is very close to the original recipe used by a company that produces them. The recipe sounds delicious and I intend to give it a try some time soon to see how it compares to the store-bought krembo.

Audio Book Review: Bloodlist by P.N Elrod

It's 1936 and Jack Flemming has just arrived in Chicago, looking for work as a reporter. A few days later he wakes up on a beach, bruised and bloodied, only to discover that he is now a vampire. Jack has no memory of the past few days and no idea of how ended up stranded at the beach with a hole in his back. As Jack struggles to adjust to his new life as a vampire he determines to find out who had killed him, and why. Together with an overly inquisitive PI, Charles Escott, Jack sets off to hunt down his murderer, bringing him to the attention of the most powerful mobsters in town.

With Chicago's most dangerous criminals gunning for him and Escott, Jack begins piecing together the events that led to his death. Now if only he could get his memory back before he gets himself killed all over again.

Bloodlist was an entertaining paranormal detective novel which I enjoyed for its unique style and the Depression-era atmosphere. The characters were likable and easy to sympathize with, and I rooted for Jack as he blindly navigated through the new, and unfamiliar, challenges facing him as a vampire. Both exhilarated and ashamed by his new powers and the foreign demands of his body, Jack attempts to come to an understanding of what he now is.

Unlike many of the other vampire books which I've read, the romance was only a small element of the story and didn't take over the whole plot, and I found this refreshing. I was surprised to discover, after finishing the book, that P.N Elrod is actually a woman because I haven't read any other paranormal books by a woman, written in this manner. It's also one of the few paranormal books that I've read which is told from a male perspective, as well as from the perspective of a vampire, which was a nice change.

As an audio book, Bloodlist was exactly what I was looking for. It helped the time pass quickly while I worked on a rather boring project at work, though it didn't require too much thought or concentration, so I was able to focus on other things at the same time. The narrator, Barret Whitener, does a pretty good job and my only complains is that the female characters came out sounding a lot like the male ones and I had a hard time distinguishing them.

It's hard for me to tell if I would have enjoyed Bloodlist as much if I had read it, rather than listened to it, because it's a lot different from the books that I usually read. The fantasy elements are minimal and I'm not much of one for detective stories. It reminded me a lot of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files as well as The Sword Edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe and I think that readers that enjoyed those books would probably like this one as well.

New Scifi & Fantasy Releases: Week of Oct 30th

As usual, the start of a new month brings a slew of new book releases and this week's selection is particularly varied and vast. No matter what your preference is within the speculative fiction genre you are likely to find something here that appeals to you.

Wheel of Times fans have probably had this week marked off on their calendars for months since it heralds the release of the newest WOT book from Brandon Sanderson and the late Robert Jordan. I actually never made it past the third book in the series but I have been considering giving it another go, with Brandon Sanderson now at the helm.

This is also the week in which N.K Jemisin's sequel to The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms hits the bookstores as well as a new book from Robin McKinley, whose books I used to love when I was younger.

Since I'm currently in the mood for some light and easy reading the book that appeal to me the most here is the scifi romance by Marcella Burnard, Enemy Within. I plan on looking up some reviews of it and seeing if it's worth trying out. Visitants also looks like an interesting book with it's fallen angel theme and stories from some pretty big authors.

What about you? Anything here that you plan on adding to your bookshelf?

Hope you have a great reading Week!




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Afterlight
Elle Jasper
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date: Nov 2

Savannah's most unconventional tattoo artist, Riley Poe, lives on the edge. Now she's put over the edge when her younger brother is taken by a sinister cult led by vampires. Her only ally is the hot-tempered vampire Eli Dupre, attracted to Riley's beauty and rare blood type. To save her brother from certain un-death, Riley faces dangers she's never dreamed of, ruthless bloodthirsty enemies, and an evil of endless hunger that wants to devour it all...


Blood Spells
Jessica Andersen
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date: Nov 2

Mayan lore and modern science warn that 12/21/2012 will bring a global cataclysm. Dark forces stand poised to crush mankind. The only hope rests with a secret group of modern magic-wielders called the Nightkeepers. But as Patience White-Eagle and her husband, Brandt, team up as a mated warrior pair, they will face a deadly threat that will test their powers-and their love...


Brooklyn Knight
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: Nov 2

Professor Piers Knight is an esteemed curator at the Brooklyn Museum and is regarded by many on the staff as a revered institution of his own if not an outright curiosity. Knight’s portfolio includes lost civilizations; arcane cultures, languages, and belief; and more than a little bit of the history of magic and mysticism.What his contemporaries don't know is that in addition to being a scholar of all things ancient he is schooled in the uses of magical artifacts, the teachings of forgotten deities, and the threats of unseen dangers.
If a mysterious object surfaces, Professor Knight makes it his job to figure it out--and make sure it stays out of dangerous hands.
A contemporary on an expedition in the Middle East calls Knight's attention to a mysterious object in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum … just before it becomes the target of a sorcerous attack that leads to a siege on a local precinct house by a fire elemental.
What looks like an ordinary inscribed stone may unlock an otherworldly Armageddon that certain dark powers are all too eager to bring about--and only Piers Knight stands in their way.


Carousel Tides
Sharon Lee
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Baen
Release Date: Nov 2

From Publishers Weekly : A tourist town in Maine hosts a war of faerie magic in this engaging urban fantasy. The fireworks begin when Kate Archer returns to Archers Beach, Maine, to search for her vanished grandmother, Bonny Pepperidge, and to assume Bonny's role as Guardian of Fun Country, an amusement park whose carousel animals are actually exiled fae criminals. Almost immediately, Kate runs afoul of neighbor Joe Nemeier, a drug smuggler who sets his assassins after her. Then she learns from the local earth spirits that Bonny may have discovered the whereabouts of Kate's mom, newly escaped from a pursuing demonic captor. Lee brings these disparate subplots together in a pyrotechnic finale that plays out magically behind the ordinary facade of smalltown Maine life, evoking much of the romance and magic of her popular Liaden series


Confessions of a Vampire's Girlfriend
Katie Maxwell
Genre: YA Paranormal
Publisher: NAL Trade
Release Date: Nov 2

Two Katie MacAlister vampirenovels—Got Fangs? and Circus ofthe Darned—now back in print andtogether for the first time!Meet Francesca. She’s in Europe, working in atraveling faire along with psychics, magicians, andother really bizarre people. Her life? Not-so-normal.Her boyfriend, Ben? Not-so-alive. And in these twonovels, it’s up to Francesca to redeem his soul, findsomething to wear on their very first date, deal withher emerging psychic talent, and shake the warringViking ghosts she accidentally conjured.


Crossroads (southern Arcane, Bk 2)
Moira Rogers
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Release Date: Nov 2


He’s the last man she should ever want. She’s the last woman he can ever have.
Southern Arcana, Book 2
Coming from a family with psychic gifts, Derek Gabriel was aware of but separate from the dangers of the supernatural world, until a rogue wolf shifter stripped away his humanity. The change he barely survived didn’t drive him insane, but the cultural bias against him as an inferior transformed wolf might. And it doesn’t help that he’s fallen for the daughter of the most powerful wolf in the country.
Almost from the moment she was born, Nicole Peyton started planning her escape from the strict confines of elite shapeshifter society, an old-fashioned world where women are valued only for their bloodlines and bank accounts. In New Orleans she has a bar she loves, friends in decidedly low places, and a smoldering sensual tension with an incredibly attractive and deliciously unsuitable man.
Their forbidden longing erupts into unbridled need—until Nick’s sister burns into town with a strike team hard on her heels. Saving her means Nick has to play by the Conclave’s rules…and give up the man she is growing to love.
Unless Derek does something completely crazy—issue a challenge that could shake the foundations of their world.


Devil at Midnight
Emma Holly
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date: Nov 2

For years, mercenary captain Christian Durand has done everything he can to protect his men. When a beautiful ghost appears to offer comfort, he assumes the strain has finally pushed him over the edge. All he knows for certain is that this woman tugs at both his heart and desires. But now that a vampire queen has set her immortal sights on Christian, he must choose between his darker urges and a powerful love that spans centuries.


Destroyer of Worlds
Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: Nov 2

Worlds closer to the galatic core than Known Space are --or were-- home to intelligent speciers. Some learned of the core explosion in time to flee.Destroyer of Worlds opens in 2670, ten years after Juggler of Worlds closes; with refugee species fleeing in an armada of ramscoops in the direction of the Fleet of Worlds. The onrushing aliens are recognized as a threat; they have left in their trail a host of desolated worlds: some raided for supplies, some attacked to eliminate competition, and some for pure xenophobia.

Only the Puppeteers might have the resources to confront this threat--but the Puppeteers are philosophical cowards... they don't confront anyone. They need sepoys to investigate the situation and take action for them. The source of the sepoys? Their newly independent former slave world, New Terra.



Enemy Within
Marcella Burnard
Genre: Scifi Romance
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date: Nov 2

An intergalactic cold war-and some heated passion- from an inventive new voice in futuristic romance.

After a stint in an alien prison, Captain Ari Rose wonders why she even bothered to survive. Stripped of her command and banished to her father's scientific expedition to finish a Ph.D. she doesn't want, Ari never planned to languish quietly behind a desk. She wasn't built for it, either. But when pirates commandeer her father's ship, Ari once again becomes a prisoner.

As far as pirate leader Cullin is concerned, Ari's past imprisonment puts her dead center in Cullin's sights. If she hasn't been brainwashed and returned as a spy, then he's convinced she must be part of a traitorous alliance endangering billions of lives. Cullin can't afford the desire she fires within him and he'll stop at nothing, including destroying her, to uncover the truth.


Firewalker
Allyson James
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date: Nov 2

Janet Begay's Crossroads Hotel has attracted the supernatural ever since it opened. But a new, dark power is rising, this time inside Janet herself. Her boyfriend Mick, a sexy dragon shapeshifter the Navajo call a Firewalker, know what terrifying magic is threatening to overwhelm Janet and her Stormwalker powers. He watches over her, ready to fight for her, to do anything to keep her safe.
But then a mysterious corpse is found near the Crossroads Hotel-and Janet becomes the main suspect. Now Janet and Mick must uncover what really happened, and their investigation leads to the most perilous decision of their lives...


Game Over
Taylor Keating
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: Nov 2

Video game designer River Weston is ready to sell her soul to smooth out the glitches in her latest project. When she unwittingly taps into a parallel dimension via cutting-edge technology, a Dark Lord is quick to take her up on her inadvertent offer. Trapped in the world she thought she’d created for her game, River finds herself in a very real alternate dimension that she must escape from before her soul can be used to unleash evil--upon this dimension and many others.

River’s only ally is the sexy and mysterious Chase Hawkins. A prisoner of the Dark Lord, Hawk is a man adrift—literally. His body safe at home under the watchful care of the Guardians’ scientists, his astral-traveling spirit has been enslaved by his people’s worst enemy, the Dark Lord. Clinging desperately to his sense of self, Hawk is determined to turn the tables on his captor before the connection to his body is lost. When the beautiful, achingly familiar River enters the picture, he vows he will do everything he can to save her from her bleak fate.

Drawn together with an inescapable force, Hawk and River must wrest her soul from the Dark Lord’s grasp before it’s too late.


In Dreams Begin
Skyler White
Genre: Romantic Fantasy/Time Travel
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date: Nov 2

In a Victorian Ireland of magic, poetry, and rebellion, Ida Jameson, an amateur occultist, reaches out for power-but captures Laura Armstrong, a modern-day graphic artist, instead. When Ida channels Laura into the body of celebrated beauty and Irish freedom-fighter Maud Gonne, Laura falls in love with the young poet W. B. Yeats. Their love affair entwines with Irish history and weaves through Yeats' poetry- until Ida discovers something she wants more than magic in the subterranean spaces between Laura's time and her own. With Laura's Irish past threatening her orderly present, she and Yeats must find a way to make their love last over time, in changing bodies...or lose each other forever.


In the Company of Vampires (Dark Ones, Bk 8)
Katie MacAlister
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date: Nov 2

When Francesca arrives at GothFaire to save her mother from the trickster god, Loki, things go from bad to worse. Her immortal ex, Benedikt, is there, full of secrets-and with a new girlfriend. Now Fran must battle a power-hungry group who wishes to dominate both the immortal and mortal worlds-and the woman who claimed Ben's heart. It's a good thing Fran's no ordinary mortal...


Living Nightmare
Shannon K. Butcher
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date: Nov 2

For nine years, the Sentinel Nika has had one goal-to save her younger sister from the Synestryn who hold her captive. Now, the psychic bond Nika forged with her sibling on that terrible night is fading, and time is running out. But the one man who can unlock the power inside her may be the greatest danger to her.

Luck of the Wolf
Susan Krinard
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Harlequin
Release Date: Nov 2

Branded an outcast by the noble branch of his werewolf clan, Cort Renier had come to San Francisco seeking fortune—and revenge. What he found was a mysterious beauty who could not—or would not—reveal who she truly was. At first glance she seemed vulnerable and afraid, like so many girls caught up in the debauchery of the city's whiskey-soaked gambling dens. But one look into her stunning turquoise eyes and he knew he'd found the winning hand.
Aria di Reinardus had reasons of her own for concealing her identity, but Cort's kisses were more than enough to convince her to go along with his plan to transform her into a missing heiress and return her to her "family." But they were not the only ones with secrets to keep and vengeance in mind, and they were about to discover that some destinies couldn't be outrun….


Magic at the Gate (Allie Beckstrom, Bk 5)
Devon Monk
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date: Nov 2

Allie Beckstrom's lover, Zayvion Jones, is a Guardian of the Gate, imbued with both light and dark magic and responsible for ensuring that those energies don't mix. But Zayvion lies in a coma, his soul trapped in death's realm. And when Allie discovers that the only way to save Zayvion is to sacrifice her very own magical essence, she makes a decision that may have grave consequences for the entire world.


Marked By The Moon (Nightcreatured, Bk 9)
Lori Handeland
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date: Nov 2

Tough-as-nails Alexandra Trevalyn does what most people can't: She kills werewolves. Once part of an elite group of hunters, she's going rogue these days, though no less determined to rid the world of bloodthirsty beasts...once and for all. That's why Alex had no choice but to kill Julian Barlow's wife - and will have to pay the price. Julian's brand of vengeance is downright devious, and now he's turned Alex into a member of his pack. It's only a matter of time before she falls under his spell. With the wild freedom of the wolf in her veins, Alex can't deny that Julian wakes her most primal passions...and draws her that much closer to the moon's call, where evil lies in wait.

Pegasus
Robin McKinley
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date: Nov 2

A gorgeously written fantasy about the friendship between a princess and her Pegasus.
Because of a thousand-year-old alliance between humans and pagasi, Princess Sylviianel is ceremonially bound to Ebon, her own Pegasus, on her twelfth birthday. The two species coexist peacefully, despite the language barriers separating them. Humans and pegasi both rely on specially-trained Speaker magicians as the only means of real communication.
But its different for Sylvi and Ebon. They can understand each other. They quickly grow close-so close that their bond becomes a threat to the status quo-and possibly to the future safety of their two nations.
New York Times bestselling Robin McKinley weaves an unforgettable tale of unbreakable friendship, mythical creatures and courtly drama destined to become a classic.


Rebel (Blades of the Rose, Bk 3)
Zoe Archer
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Kensington Publishing
Release Date: Nov 1


On the Canadian frontier in 1875, nature is a harsh mistress. But the supernatural can really do you in...

A Lone Wolf

Nathan Lesperance is used to being different. He's the first Native attorney in Vancouver, and welcome neither with white society nor his sometime tribe. Not to mention the powerful wildness he's always felt inside him, too dangerous to set free. Then he met Astrid Bramfield and saw his like within her piercing eyes. Now, unless she helps him through the harsh terrain and the harsher unknowns of his true abilities, it could very well get him killed...

And The Woman Who Left The Pack

Astrid has traveled this path before. Once she was a Blade of the Rose, protecting the world's magic from unscrupulous men, with her husband by her side. But she's loved and lost, and as a world-class frontierswoman, she knows all about survival. Nathan's searing gaze and long, lean muscles mean nothing but trouble. Yet something has ignited a forgotten flame inside her: a burning need for adventure, for life—and perhaps even for love...


The Other Side of Dark
Sarah Smith
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Release Date: Nov 2

What good is being able to see and speak to the dead if it doesn't help solve a mystery surrounding them? Fifteen-year-old Katie Mullens can interact with ghosts, including that of her father, though not of her more recently deceased mother. Law Walker is the mixed-race son of activists--an academic father who's a prominent advocate for slavery reparations ("Even in pajamas, standing at the top of the stairs and saying, ‘Susan, I have lost my toothbrush,' his voice quivers with the weight of four hundred years of injustice") and a mother struggling to save a historic Boston building. Forging a friendship as outsiders--their classmates have written off Katie as crazy, and Law is a self-described geek trying to escape his domineering father's shadow--Katie and Law dive into a thickening tangle involving slavery, a treasure, and an old cabal that has modern-day repercussions for living and dead alike. Alternating between the teenagers' distinct and searching first-person narratives, and combining real history with quests for identity both personal and national, adult author Smith's YA debut is much more than just a ghost story.


The Shifters
Alexandra Sokoloff
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Harlequin
Release Date: Nov 1

Charged with overseeing the shapeshifters of New Orleans, Caitlin MacDonald has her reasons for being wary of their kind. So when charismatic bounty-hunting shifter Ryder Malloy blows into town claiming to be on the trail of a horde of malevolent entities called Walk-Ins, Caitlin has no reason to trust him—with her city or her heart. But as tourists start dropping dead from supernatural possession, Cait must team with Ryder to navigate his shadowy, ephemeral world…
Fiercely independent, Ryder usually hunts alone—but this case requires an exception. To prevent a supernatural massacre, he needs the beautiful Keeper on his side—and, if possible, even closer. In his world, appearances can be deceiving and deadly. And the only way they'll survive is if this woman who tempts him like no other trusts in him completely….


Towers of Midnight
Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: Nov 2

The Last Battle has started. The seals on the Dark One’s prison are crumbling. The Pattern itself is unraveling, and the armies of the Shadow have begun to boil out of the Blight.
The sun has begun to set upon the Third Age.
Perrin Aybara is now hunted by specters from his past: Whitecloaks, a slayer of wolves, and the responsibilities of leadership. All the while, an unseen foe is slowly pulling a noose tight around his neck. To prevail, he must seek answers in Tel’aran’rhiod and find a way—at long last—to master the wolf within him or lose himself to it forever.
Meanwhile, Matrim Cauthon prepares for the most difficult challenge of his life. The creatures beyond the stone gateways—the Aelfinn and the Eelfinn—have confused him, taunted him, and left him hanged, his memory stuffed with bits and pieces of other men’s lives. He had hoped that his last confrontation with them would be the end of it, but the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills. The time is coming when he will again have to dance with the Snakes and the Foxes, playing a game that cannot be won. The Tower of Ghenjei awaits, and its secrets will reveal the fate of a friend long lost.
This penultimate novel of Robert Jordan’s #1 New York Times bestselling series—the second of three based on materials he left behind when he died in 2007—brings dramatic and compelling developments to many threads in the Pattern. The end draws near.
Dovie’andi se tovya sagain. It’s time to toss the dice.


Trolls in the Hamptons
Celia Jerome
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date: Nov 2

Willow Tate is a graphic novelist who earns enough money at her craft to keep her rent-controlled Manhattan apartment and still put food in the fridge. But when she decides to write about a ten-foot-tall troll who's a superhero, one suddenly appears, causing mayhem in Manhattan.
When no one else can see the stony red giant, Willy thinks she's gone crazy, until she meets Agent Grant from the Department of Unexplained Events. According to him, Willy has managed to break ages-old cosmic laws that could destroy the Earth as we know it. Now she has to help him save the world, rescue a little boy, and stop a murdering kidnapper who wants to use the power of a little village in the Hamptons to become master of the universe...


Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels and Heavenly Hosts
Edited by Stephen Jones
Genre: Paranormal Anthology
Publisher: Ulysses Press
Release Date: Nov 1

Swooping in from both heaven and hell, the new generation of angels portrayed in Visitants is youthful, immortal and powerful. These ultimate bad beings, capable of both immense destruction and heavenly acts, will captivate fans of this new paranormal fiction phenomenon.
Visitants offers a wide-ranging collection of various authors’ stories about the new angels, including romantic entanglements with winged bad boys, devilish interventions with evil messengers, and bloody battles against ravaging demons. Far from the old sappy TV melodramas where angels touch people’s lives, these stories will challenge readers to reimagine the very idea of how cast-out heavenly spirits would interact with the humans they are now forced to live among.


Under the Poppy
Kathe Koja
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Small Beer Press
Release Date: Nov 2

FROM A WARTIME BROTHEL to the intricate high society of 1870s Brussels, Under the Poppy is a breakout novel of childhood friends, a love triangle, puppet masters, and reluctant spies.
Under the Poppy is a brothel owned by Decca and Rupert. Decca is in love with Rupert but he in turn is in love with her brother, Istvan. When Istvan comes to town, louche puppet troupe in tow, the lines of their age-old desires intersect against a backdrop of approaching war.
Hearts are broken when old betrayals and new alliances—not just their own—take shape, as the townsmen seek refuge from the onslaught of history by watching the girls of the Poppy cavort onstage with Istvan’s naughty puppets.
With the war getting too close, Istvan and Rupert abandon the Poppy and find a place in high society where they try to avoid becoming more than puppets themselves in the hands of those they have helped before and who now want to use them again.
Under the Poppy is a vivid, sexy historical novel as delicious and intoxicating as the best guilty pleasure.


Wolfsbane
Patricia Briggs
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date: Nov 2

For the last ten years, shapeshifting mercenary Aralorn has led a dangerous existence — a far cry from her noble upbringing. Now she must return home under the most unfortunate circumstances. Her father, the Lyon of Lambshold, has passed away. But when Aralorn and her companion Wolf arrive, the combination of their magic uncovers something wonderful yet alarming — her father is not actually dead, but only appears so. Yet a dark mist is also very much alive within him…
The Lyon of Lambshold has been ensorcelled by the ae’Magi, who’s using him as a conduit to finally destroy Aralorn and Wolf. With her father as the pawn, can Aralorn overcome this mysterious sorcery? Or will she finally fall to the blackest of magic, losing not only her one true companion but also her life…?


World of Warcraft: The Essential Sunwell Collection
Richard Knaak
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: TOKYOPOP
Release Date: Nov 2


From the minds of Kim Jae-Hwan, artist of the best-selling King of Hell series, and Richard A. Knaak, the New York Times best-selling author, here is the Warcraft universe like you have never seen it before: The Dragon Hunt Is On!


The Broken Kingdoms
N.K. Jemisin
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: Nov 3

In the city of Shadow, beneath the World Tree, alleyways shimmer with magic and godlings live hidden among mortalkind. Oree Shoth, a blind artist, takes in a strange homeless man on an impulse. This act of kindness engulfs Oree in a nightmarish conspiracy. Someone, somehow, is murdering godlings, leaving their desecrated bodies all over the city. And Oree’s guest is at the heart of it. . .