New Scifi & Fantasy Releases: Week of April 25

Wow, these past few weeks have been so incredibly busy, with all of the preparations for Passover and the celebration of the holiday, that I just haven't had much time to put into blogging. So I apologize to anyone who was disappointed by the lack of a New Releases post last week and I hope to make it up to you with all of the new and exciting titles that I have for you this week.

I'm pretty excited to get a hold of The Alchemist in the Shadows, which looks really good, as well as Retribution Falls, which had already come out in the UK a while ago but which I still haven't read.

I will be posting within the next few days a review of Bumped by Megan McCafferty, which comes out this week, and is a YA dystopian novel focused on the subject of teenage pregnancy, so look out for that.

And make sure to check out my fascinating interview with David Halperin, which is just one post down, and enter to win a copy of his book Journal of a UFO Investigator.

Hope you have a great reading week!

************************************************************************************

Abandon
Meg Cabot
Genre: Young Adult Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Scholastic
Release Date: April 25

Though she tries returning to the life she knew before the accident, Pierce can't help but feel at once a part of this world, and apart from it. Yet she's never alone . . . because someone is always watching her. Escape from the realm of the dead is impossible when someone there wants you back.

But now she's moved to a new town. Maybe at her new school, she can start fresh. Maybe she can stop feeling so afraid.

Only she can't. Because even here, he finds her. That's how desperately he wants her back. She knows he's no guardian angel, and his dark world isn't exactly heaven, yet she can't stay away . . . especially since he always appears when she least expects it, but exactly when she needs him most.

But if she lets herself fall any further, she may just find herself back in the one place she most fears: the Underworld.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Alchemist in the Shadows
Pierre Pevel
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Pyr
Release Date: April 26

Welcome to Paris, in 1633, where dragons menace the realm. Cardinal Richelieu, the most powerful and most feared man in France, is on his guard. He knows France is under threat, and that a secret society known as the Black Claw is conspiring against him from the heart of the greatest courts in Europe. They will strike from the shadows, and when they do the blow will be both terrible and deadly. To counter the threat, Richelieu has put his most trusted men into play: the Cardinal's Blades, led by Captain la Fargue. Six men and a woman, all of exceptional abilities and all ready to risk their lives on his command. They have saved France before, and the Cardinal is relying on them to do it again.

So when la Fargue hears from a beautiful, infamous, deadly Italian spy claiming to have valuable information, he has to listen ...and when La Donna demands Cardinal Richelieu's protection before she will talk, la Fargue is even prepared to consider it. Because La Donna can name their enemy. It's a man as elusive as he is manipulative, as subtle as Richelieu himself, an exceptionally dangerous adversary: the Alchemist in the shadows ...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ascension (Dark Breed, Bk 1)
Sable Grace
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Avon
Release Date: April 25

The gates of hell have opened, and one woman will stand in the crossfire as the Dark Breed—vampyre, demons, shape shifters—and mankind fight their last battle for survival.

Kyana is half Vampyre, half Lychen . . . and the last of her kind. Determined, dangerous, and damned, she has no love for the mortals who have imprisoned and misused her. But when the Order of Ancients entrusts her with a mission—to find the key that will send the Dark Breed back into Hell for eternity—Kyana has no choice but to accept.

She is furious to learn her assignment comes with an escort . . . Ryker, a demigod and fierce warrior who long ago found a way under her skin and stayed there. In a shaky alliance, they discover an ancient cult with dangerous motive and a god who seeks to destroy all others. And as Kyana begins to feel the heat that threatens to bind her to Ryker, she knows she has to resist. For it could only mean the undoing of them both . . .

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As You Wish
Gabi Stevens
Genre: Urban Fantasy/ Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: April 25

Born into a magical family, Reggie Scott is content to live out her life as a normal human until the moment she’s informed that she’s a newly appointed fairy godmother. Left struggling to deal with powers the never thought she’d have, Reggie faces a curse, a plot to overthrow the Arcani, and an entirely too enthusiastic mother—all in a matter of days.

Jonathan Bastion is a man of power and wealth—and a dangerous secret. He desperately hopes that Reggie's new powers will hold the answer to his problem and he isn't above using her to achieve his goals. What he doesn't expect is how much Reggie will affect him. Her honor, her honesty, and her strength quickly make cracks in his ruthless exterior.

As danger from the Arcani swirls around them both, Jonathan realizes that what was once a ploy to get Reggie to assist him has become a battle to keep her safe and protected…in his arms.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Born of Shadows (The League, Bk 4)
Sherrilyn Kenyon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher:
Release Date: April 26

Just when you think you have it all figured out, life belts you to the ground. And when Caillen discovers a truth he'd never suspected about himself, everything in his life is turned on its head.

Desideria has a secret of her own- one that could end her life if anyone ever learns it. The last thing she expects is to meet a criminal in her sheltered world never mind find herself marooned on a hostile colony with him while his enemies try to kill them both.

And as they struggle to survive, her father's favorite curse resonates. "May you get exactly what you want and live long enough to regret it."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bumped
Megan McCafferty
Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction/ Dystopia
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release Date: April 26

When a virus makes everyone over the age of eighteen infertile, would-be parents are forced to pay teen girls to conceive and give birth to their children, making teens the most prized members of society.

Sixteen-year-old identical twins Melody and Harmony were separated at birth and had never met until the day Harmony shows up on Melody’s doorstep. Until now, the twins have followed completely opposite paths. Melody has scored an enviable conception contract with a couple called the Jaydens. While they are searching for the perfect partner for Melody to bump with, she is fighting her attraction to her best friend Zen, who is way too short for the job.

Harmony has spent her whole life in religious Goodside, preparing to be a wife and mother. She believes her calling is to bring Melody back to Goodside and convince her that “pregging” for profit is a sin. But Harmony has secrets of her own that she is running from.

When Melody is finally matched with the world-famous, genetically flawless Jondoe, both girls’ lives are changed forever. A case of mistaken identity takes them on a journey neither could have ever imagined, one that makes Melody and Harmony realize they have so much more than just DNA in common.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Burn Down the Sky
James Jaros
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Harper Voyager.
Release Date: April 26

After the destruction of nature and the death of the world . . .

After the Wicca virus drove billions to madness and suicide, replacing order and reason with violence and terror . . .

In the parched ruins of what once was civilization, one commodity is far more valuable than all others combined: female children.

When well-armed marauders roll in at dusk to brutally attack a fiercely defended compound of survivors, Jessie is unable to halt the slaughter—and she can do nothing to prevent the ruthless abduction of innocents, including her youngest child. Now, along with her outraged teenage daughter, Bliss, Jessie must set out on a journey across a blasted landscape—joining up with the desperate, the broken, the half-mad, on an impossible mission: to storm the fortress of a dark and twisted religion and bring the children home.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Camera Obscura
Lavie Tidhar
Genre: Steampunk
Publisher: Angry Robot
Release Date: April 26

CAN'T FIND A RATIONAL EXPLANATION TO A MYSTERY?
CALL IN THE QUIET COUNCIL.

The mysterious and glamorous Lady De Winter is one of their most valuable agents. A despicable murder inside a locked and bolted room on the Rue Morgue in Paris is just the start. This whirlwind adventure will take Milady to the highest and lowest parts of that great city - and cause her to question the very nature of reality itself.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Dark Zone
Dom Testa
Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: April 26

When the tail of the comet Bhaktul flicks through the Earth’s atmosphere, deadly particles are left in its wake, and mankind is confronted with a virus that devastates the adult population. A renowned scientist proposes a bold plan: to build a ship that will carry a crew of 251 teenagers to a home in a distant solar system. Two years later, Galahad and its crew is launched. If their mission fails, it will be the end of the human race…

With the help of the mysterious alien force known as The Cassini, the teenage crew of Galahad has managed to navigate safely through the minefield of the Kuiper Belt. But just as they exit the belt, they are confronted by their next challenge: a group of incredibly fast and maneuverable organisms waiting in their path—like vultures. With no way of knowing if the organisms are friends or foes, Triana and her Council decide to push forward, setting into motion a chain of events that will lead to the opening of a wormhole (a shortcut across space and time), and the first death aboard Galahad….

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Demon Hunting in Dixie
Lexi George
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Kensington
Release Date: April 26

A warrior, a demon, and the girl next door. . .

Looking For Trouble

Addy Corwin is a florist with an attitude. A bad attitude, or so her mama says, 'cause she's not looking for a man. Mama's wrong. Addy has looked. There's just not much to choose from in Hannah, her small Alabama hometown. Until Brand Dalvahni shows up, a supernaturally sexy, breathtakingly well-built hunk of a warrior from—well, not from around here, that's for sure. Mama thinks he might be European or maybe even a Yankee. Brand says he's from another dimension.

Addy couldn't care less where he's from. He's gorgeous. Serious muscles. Disturbing green eyes. Brand really gets her going. Too bad he's a whack job. Says he's come to rescue her from a demon. Puh-lease. But right after Brand shows up, strange things start to happen. Dogs talk and reanimated corpses stalk the quite streets of Hannah. Her mortal enemy Meredith, otherwise known as the Death Starr, breaks out in a severe and inexplicable case of butt boils. Addy might not know what's going on, but she definitely wants a certain sexy demon hunter by her side when it all goes down. . .

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Embedded
Dan Abnett
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Angry Robot
Release Date: April 28 (UK)

HE'D DO ANYTHING TO GET A STORY.

When journalist Lex Falk gets himself chipped into the brain of a combat soldier, he thinks he has the ultimate scoop - a report from the forbidden front line of a distant planetary war, live to the living rooms of Earth. When the soldier is killed, however, Lex has to take over the body and somehow get himself back to safety once more... broadcasting all the way.

Heart-stopping combat science fiction from the million-selling Warhammer 40,000 author.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ember & Ash
Pamela Freeman
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: April 26

The old ones will have their revenge.

Two peoples have been fighting over the same land for a thousand years. Invaders crushed the original inhabitants, and ancient powers have reluctantly given way to newer magics. But Ember was to change all this with a wedding to bind these warring people together - until her future goes up in flames.

Ember's husband-to-be is murdered by a vengeful elemental god, who sees peace as a breach of faith. Set on retribution, she enlists the help of Ash, son of a seer. Together they will pit themselves against elementals of fire and ice in a last attempt to end the conflicts that have scarred their past. They must look to the present, as old furies are waking to violence and are eager to reclaim their people.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Future Imperfect
K. Ryer Breese
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin.
Release Date: April 26

Ade Patience can see the future and it's destroying his life. When the seventeen-year-old Mantlo High School student knocks himself unconscious, he can see days and decades into his own future. Ade's the best of Denver's "divination" underground and eager to join the heralded Mantlo Diviners, a group of similarly enabled teens. Yet, unlike the Diviners, Ade Patience doesn't see the future out of curiosity or good will; Ade gives himself concussions because he's addicted to the high, the Buzz, he gets when he breaks the laws of physics. And while there have been visions he's wanted to change, Ade knows the Rule: You can't change the future, no matter how hard you try.

His memory is failing, his grades are in a death spiral, and both Ade's best friend and his shrink are begging him to stop before he kills himself. Ade knows he needs to straighten-out. Luckily, the stunning Vauxhall Rodolfo has just transferred to Mantlo and, as Ade has seen her in a vision two years previously, they're going to fall in love. It's just the motivation Ade needs to kick his habit. Only things are a bit more complicated. Vauxhall has an addiction of her own, and, after a a vision in which he sees Vauxhall's close friend, Jimmy, drown while he looks on seemingly too wasted to move, Ade realizes that he must break the one rule he's been told he can't.

The pair must overcome their addictions and embrace their love for each other in order to do the impossible: change the future.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hamlet’s Father
Orson Scott Card
Genre: Science Fiction novella
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Release Date: April 29

We all know Shakespeare's classic ghost story--the young prince Hamlet's dead father appears to him, demanding vengeance upon Hamlet's uncle Claudius, who has usurped the throne and, to add insult to injury, married Hamlet's mother.

Hamlet dithers and delays, coming up with reason after reason to postpone his vengeance. But it's not for the reason Shakespeare told us. It's because Hamlet keeps discovering evidence that things are not quite what they seem in the Kingdom of Denmark--and never have been, throughout Hamlet's entire life.

Once you've read Orson Scott Card s revelatory version of the Hamlet story, Shakespeare's play will be much more fun to watch--because now you'll know what's really going on.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Human Tales
Jennifer Brozek
Genre: Anthology
Publisher: Dark Quest
Release Date: April 25

Be Wary and Beware.... There are tales that every parent knows and must pass on to their child... Tales of warning and terror...of those who break their vows and kill for no reason other than malice. Tales of saving the lovely princess from a prince that is much less than charming...and what it takes to bring her home, of rescuing babes from parents not fit to raise them, and the reason no supernatural can truly win a bargain with such vile creatures. These are Human Tales. Tales by: Ivan Ewert, Matthew McFarland, Seanan McGuire, Ari Marmell, Chuck Wendig, Sara M. Harvey, Spencer Ellsworth, Ryan Macklin, Jess Hartley, Shannon Page, Dylan Birtolo, Deborah Brannon, Alma Alexander, Renee Stern, David Lee Summers, James Sutter, Nathan Crowder.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hush
Cherry Adair
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Pocket Star
Release Date: April 26

A reckless adventure in a deadly paradise.

Thrill seekers Zakary and Gideon Stark travel the globe in search of extreme adventure, but a trip to Venezuela to jump off the world’s highest falls catapults them into a perilous game of life or death—where they don’t know the rules.

A one-night stand that will change his life forever.

Kidnapped with a woman Zak knows nothing about, the brothers are held prisoner deep in the jungle. A risky, deathdefying escape separates them and nearly claims Zak’s life . . . until his recovery reveals a baffling new sixth sense.

An unexpected diversion with lethal consequences.

Now, to find his missing brother, Zak and the mysterious Acadia Gray will have to out-smart, out-gun, and out-maneuver not just the brutal kidnappers but also a new player who joins the adrenaline game: a ruthless opponent who wants the Stark brothers dead—at any cost.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Great Night: A Novel
Chris Adrian
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher:  Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Release Date: April 26

Acclaimed as a “gifted, courageous writer”(The New York Times), Chris Adrian brings all his extraordinary talents to bear in The Great Night—a brilliant and mesmerizing retelling of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

On Midsummer Eve 2008, three people, each on the run from a failed relationship, become trapped in San Francisco’s Buena Vista Park, the secret home of Titania, Oberon, and their court. On this night, something awful is happening in the faerie kingdom: in a fit of sadness over the end of her marriage, which broke up in the wake of the death of her adopted son, Titania has set loose an ancient menace, and the chaos that ensues will threaten the lives of immortals and mortals alike.

Selected by The New Yorker as one the best young writers in America, Adrian has created a singularly playful, heartbreaking, and humorous novel—a story that charts the borders between reality and dreams, love and magic, and mortality and immortality.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gods & Monsters (shadows & Inquiries, Bk 3)
Lyn Benedict
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Ace
Release Date: April 26

Sylvie Lightner is no ordinary P.I. She specializes in cases involving the unusual and unbelievable. When she finds the bodies of five women in the Florida Everglades, Sylvie believes them to be the work of a serial killer and passes the buck. But when the bodies wake and shift shape, killing the police, Sylvie finds herself at the head of a potentially lethal investigation.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heaven's Needle
Liane Merciel
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Pocket Star Books
Release Date: April 26

The mountain fortress of Duradh Mal was mysteriously destroyed centuries ago. And now, in its shadow, evil stirs. . . .

Unaware of the danger, two inexperienced Illuminers set out for the village of Carden Vale, at the foot of Duradh Mal, to minister to the people. The warrior Asharre, her face scarred with runes, her heart scarred by loss, is assigned to protect the young clerics. But in Carden Vale they find unspeakable horrors—the first hint of a terrifying ghost story come true.

The Sun Knight Kelland has been set free by the woman he loves, the archer Bitharn, but at the cost of undertaking a mission only he can fulfill. Joined by a Thornlord steeped in the magic of pain, they too make their way to Duradh Mal. There lies the truth behind the rumors of the dead come back to life, flesh ripped from bones, and creatures destroying themselves in a violent frenzy. And if Kelland cannot contain the black magic that has been unleashed after six hundred years, an entire world will fall victim to a Mad God’s malevolent plague. . . .

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Hidden Goddess
M.K. Hobson
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Spectra
Release Date: April 26

In a brilliant mix of magic, history, and romance, M. K. Hobson moves her feisty young Witch, Emily Edwards, from the Old West of 1876 to turn-of-the-nineteenth-century New York City, whose polished surfaces conceal as much danger as anything west of the Rockies.

Like it or not, Emily has fallen in love with Dreadnought Stanton, a New York Warlock as irresistible as he is insufferable. Newly engaged, she now must brave Dreadnought’s family and the magical elite of the nation’s wealthiest city. Not everyone is pleased with the impending nuptials, especially Emily’s future mother-in-law, a sociopathic socialite. But there are greater challenges still: confining couture, sinister Russian scientists, and a deathless Aztec goddess who dreams of plunging the world into apocalypse. With all they must confront, do Emily and Dreadnought have any hope of a happily-ever-after?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Infernal Devices
K.W. Jeter
Genre: Steampunk
Publisher: Angry Robot
Release Date: April 26

HE INHERITED A WATCHMAKER'S STORE - AND A WHOLE HEAP OF TROUBLE. But idle sometime-musician George has little talent for clockwork. And when a shadowy figure tries to steal an old device from the premises, George finds himself embroiled in a mystery of time travel, music and sexual intrigue. A genuine lost classic, a steampunk original whose time has come.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Last Four Things (Thomas Cale, Bk 2)
Paul Hoffman
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Michael Joseph.
Release Date: April 28

Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell. These are the Last Four Things. Now there are Five. Meet Thomas Cale. Returning to the Sanctuary of the Redeemers, Thomas Cale is told by the Lord Militant that the destruction of mankind is necessary; the only way to undo God's greatest mistake. Cale seemingly accepts his role in the ending of the world: fate has painted him as the Left Hand of God, the Angel of Death. Absolute power is within his grasp, the terrifying zeal and military might of the Redeemers a weapon for him to handle as simply as he once used a knife. But perhaps not even the grim power that the Redeemers hold over Cale is enough - the boy who turns from love to poisonous hatred in a heartbeat, the boy who switches between kindness and sheer violence in the blink of an eye. The annihilation that the Redeemers seek may well be in Cale's hands - but his soul is far stranger than they could ever know.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Legions of Fire
David Drake
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: April 26

In this novel of magical menace to the survival of all humanity, David Drake introduces a new fantasy world, Carce, based on Europe during the later Roman Empire.

Far in the north, a group of magicians perform a strange dance on a volcanic island intended to open a gateway for supernatural creatures that will allow them to devastate the whole Earth and destroy all life. Not knowing the cause, two young men, Corylus and Varus, and two women, Hedia and Alphena, each separately pursue the answer to mysterious and threatening happenings that prefigure disaster in the great city of Carce, the center of civilization. Through magical voyages in other realities where fantastic creatures, and even gods, help or hinder them, each of them must succeed or not just the city but the world will end in fire.

The Legions of Fire is the first of a fantasy quartet set in the world of the city of Carce.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Theories of Flight
Simon Morden
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: April 26

Theorem: Petrovitch has a lot of secrets.

Proof: Secrets like how to make anti-gravity for one. For another, he's keeping a sentient computer program on a secret server farm - the same program that nearly destroyed the Metrozone a few months back.

Theorem: The city is broken.

Proof: The people of the OutZone want what citizens of the Metrozone have. And then burn it to the ground. Now, with the heart of the city destroyed by the New Machine Jihad, the Outies finally see their chance.

Theorem: These events are not unconnected.

Proof: Someone is trying to kill Petrovitch and they're willing to sink the whole city to do it.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti
Genevieve Valentine
Genre: Steampunk
Publisher: Prime Books
Release Date: April 25

The Mechanical Circus Tresaulti travels the landscape of a ruined country under the spectre of war, but when two of its performers become locked in a battle of wills, the circus's own past may be the biggest threat of all.



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Noise Revealed
Ian Whates
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Solaris
Release Date: April 26

A time flux, a time of change. While mankind is adjusting to its first ever encounter with an alien civilisation - the Bryzaens - black-ops specialist Jim Leyton reluctantly allies himself with a mysterious visitation in order to rescue the woman he loves. This brings him into direct conflict with former employers: the United League of Allied Worlds. Scientist and businessman Philip Kaufman is fast discovering there is more to the virtual world than he ever realised, but it soon becomes clear that all is not well within the realm of Virtuality. Truth is hidden beneath lies and there are games being played, deadly games with far reaching consequences. Both men begin to suspect that the much heralded 'First Contact' is anything but first contact, and that a sinister con is being perpetrated with the whole of humankind as the victim. Now all they have to do is prove it


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel
Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris
Genre: Steam Punk
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Release Date: April 26

Evil is most assuredly afoot—and Britain’s fate rests in the hands of an alluring renegade . . . and a librarian.

These are dark days indeed in Victoria’s England. Londoners are vanishing, then reappearing, washing up as corpses on the banks of the Thames, drained of blood and bone. Yet the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences—the Crown’s clandestine organization whose bailiwick is the strange and unsettling—will not allow its agents to investigate. Fearless and exceedingly lovely Eliza D. Braun, however, with her bulletproof corset and a disturbing fondness for dynamite, refuses to let the matter rest . . . and she’s prepared to drag her timorous new partner, Wellington Books, along with her into the perilous fray.

For a malevolent brotherhood is operating in the deepening London shadows, intent upon the enslavement of all Britons. And Books and Braun—he with his encyclopedic brain and she with her remarkable devices—must get to the twisted roots of a most nefarious plot . . . or see England fall to the Phoenix!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Interview with David Halperin and Book Giveaway

David Halperin's first novel, Journal of a UFO Investigator, was released by Viking Press in February and I very much enjoyed this unique coming-of-age story about a teenage UFO investigator. I also enjoyed getting the chance to ask David some questions about the book and about his own experiences as a teenage UFO investigator.




Hi David, thanks so much for taking the time to do this interview.

So your biography mentions that you were a “teenager UFO investigator.” What exactly does being a UFO investigator involve?

Mostly, reading all the UFO books I could get hold of, gathering every crumb of UFO-related news I could find, and exchanging 10- and 20-page letters with other teenage UFO investigators, most of them dateless boys like myself. In these letters, my fellow-“UFOlogists” and I would debate and evaluate what we were reading with what now seems to me a very high degree of intellectual sophistication. (I’ve kept a fair number of my files of UFO correspondence, which I reviewed while working on Journal of a UFO Investigator.) In some ways—the development of critical thinking, within a circumscribed framework—UFOlogy prepared me for college at least as well as high school did.

Every now and then I got lucky, and a UFO was spotted—or actually landed—at some place accessible enough to the Philadelphia suburb where I grew up that I could go out and “investigate” it, take photos of pertinent evidence, interview witnesses and police, and the like. I am amazed, looking back, at how seriously I was taken, at age 16, by the adults. The UFO landing I mentioned took place in Glassboro, NJ, in September 1964; it turned out to be the work of a college-kid prankster who dug holes in the ground and set off a cherry bomb. I put my heart and soul into investigating that landing. It was months if not years before I could bring myself to admit it didn’t really happen.

It was an easy train ride from where I lived to New York City. Occasionally I went there to meet some of the older UFOlogists whose work I knew and admired. Some of them were genuinely very remarkable people. They were the first grownups I’d known who treated me as a full equal, their partner in quest of the truth. For me this was an exhilarating and, I think, on the whole a beneficial experience. That we were all engaged with what I now regard as a shared delusion in no way lessened its value.



How did you first get interested in UFOs?

I read a book: Gray Barker’s They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers This happened in the fall of 1960, when a friend and I were doing research for a paper on UFOs that we’d agreed to write jointly for our eighth-grade science class. I became an instant believer. Not that UFOs were from outer space—it took a while before that began to seem probable to me. But I was convinced they were real, crucially important, and probably the custodians of a terrifying secret. This followed from the stories Barker told in his book, of the “three men in black”—humans? aliens?— who visited those who’d come close to solving the UFO mystery and frightened them into silence.

They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers was a bestseller when it appeared in 1956. It’s a scary read, persuasive to the extent that you trust the author not to have made it all up. What was there in it that carried such conviction for me? I think it was this: the “three men in black” faithfully mirrored the reality I knew from my own household. Our family had a terrible secret, which we hardly dared to utter: namely that my mother was not merely a “semi-invalid,” as we called her, but was slowly dying of an untreatable heart condition. Barker’s book seemed to speak the truth that we couldn’t. That was why I believed it; and if you believed Barker you had to believe in UFOs, and to believe that we’d better solve their mystery pretty quick. Everything followed from that.

Do you still hold any of the same beliefs about UFOs that you did as a teenager?


Only this: that UFOs are immensely important, and that belief in them is something vital—from a purely human perspective—and never to be mocked. My original intuition was right. UFOs don’t come from outer space; they have nothing to do with space travel or life on other planets. They’re about us, our yearnings and our terrors, most especially our confrontation with the end of our existence. (Death is at once an intimate part of us, and the most alien thing we might possibly contemplate.)

After I finished Gray Barker, I tried reading C.G. Jung’s classic Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies (1958). I couldn’t make much of it; I doubt most 13-year-olds could. I sometimes wonder whether I would have understood it better if I’d had someone to explain to me that, when Jung calls UFOs a “myth,” he’s not putting them down but rather emphasizing their importance, even their truth. This is about my current position.


How did you come to write Journal of a UFO Investigator and how much of it based on your own experiences growing up?

The simple answer is that one January morning in 1997, I sat down at my computer and began to write a story based on my experiences, dreams, and fantasies as a teenage UFOlogist. My wife Rose looked at the first few paragraphs and said, “It’s good. Keep on going.” But what brought me there in the first place? This requires a somewhat longer answer.

After going to college and “graduating,” as it were, from UFOlogy, I trained as a specialist in Judaic studies. What sorts of issues did I gravitate toward? Ezekiel’s vision, of the “living creatures” and the “wheels” and so forth—which a few years earlier I’d been ready to call a UFO—and the rabbinic “merkavah mysticism” that seemed to involve an otherworldly journey toward the vehicle that Ezekiel saw. This journey, it turned out, had much the same contours as a UFO abduction. And slowly I came to realize I hadn’t left the UFOs behind me; in large measure I’d sublimated them into more socially acceptable arenas of study. They were an inescapable part of me; and since nothing human is alien to me, as the old poet says, I supposed they were also a part of the human experience that could be explored through my own share in it. And what’s the best way to explore a myth? I decided: to tell it, from the perspective of me who had lived it.

Of course most of the things in Journal of a UFO Investigator didn’t really happen to me. But in a paradoxical sort of way they really were part of my teenage experience. I remember imagining, when I was about 13 years old—and this picture was very vivid within my mind—that I would be standing outside my family’s home, looking into the starry sky, and would see there a luminous red disk blazing its way across the heavens. I never actually saw any such thing. But I was convinced I would see it, I could see it, it was there for me to see. This conviction, or more exactly the memory of this conviction, generated the first scene of my book.

And I remember a dream I had when I was a teenager. (Or maybe it was a waking fantasy; but I incline to think it was a dream.) In this dream, I was in a rambling old house somewhere in the country, at a meeting of ultra-serious teenagers like myself, dedicated to exploring the mysteries that lie just beyond the borders of science. Among them was a beautiful blonde in an evening dress … And this dream, or the memory of this dream, grew into the scene in the novel where Danny Shapiro pays his first visit to the headquarters of the “Super-Science Society,” and meets Rochelle.


Did your parents encourage your interest in UFO investigations or were they as bewildered by it as Danny's father is in Journal?

My mother was bewildered and tolerant, my father bewildered and mostly hostile. Yet he never prohibited me from UFO research, and both my parents enabled my interest in subtle but important ways. (I wouldn’t quite use the word “encourage.”)

This makes more sense if you remember that all three of us were grappling with an almost unbearably painful burden—my mother’s slow decline toward death—which none of us were able to face, much less speak to one another about. The UFOs helped me bear that burden; I’m convinced that by doing so they saved my life. I believe my UFOlogy also served a function for my parents, relieving or channeling tensions that otherwise would have torn the family apart. That’s why they put up with it.

And I can think of at least one time a UFO investigation led to adventure for both my father and me. I’d telephoned a local private airport to get the details of a sighting that had supposedly occurred over that airport. The pilot I spoke to was at first irritated, thinking (I suppose) that he was being pestered by some nut case. When I shamefacedly admitted I was only 15 years old, his anger turned to amusement. He invited me to come to the airport to interview him. I didn’t yet drive; I had to ask my father to take me. To my surprise, he agreed. It was a beautiful, chilly afternoon, autumn or wintertime—I don’t remember. I do remember we had a good time chatting with the pilots. I remember the conversation ended with a special plane ride they gave the two of us. I don’t recall much about that flight beyond that it was an extraordinary experience, for me and I think also my father. For that hour or half-hour, the UFOs had made it possible for us both to take wing.


Have you remained in contact with any of those other UFO investigators from your childhood?

Funny you should ask. The past several months have been almost like a high school reunion—reconnecting with my old UFOlogy buddies, most of whom I hadn’t heard from for at least 20 and sometimes more than 40 years. I’m impressed by how many of them have stayed involved with UFOs. My experience, that the more I thought I was putting the UFOs behind me the more they seemed to follow me, seems to have been true of these people as well.

Among my old/new UFO friends is Jerome Clark, author (almost single-handedly) of the multi-volume UFO Encyclopedia, an extraordinary reference work which no one with any interest in UFOs or UFO belief can afford to ignore. Jerry and I exchanged a voluminous correspondence when I was 15 and he 16, and the distinctive style of his letters is still there in his most recent writings. (We’ve never met face to face.) Another is Gene Steinberg, whom I last saw in Brooklyn in 1965. Now he’s host of The Paracast, a paranormal radio show on which I was interviewed last February. Looking through the Paracast archive has sometimes felt like reading a roster of the teen UFOlogists of my day, all of us now in our sixties.

What are some of the challenges you faced while writing Journal of a UFO Investigator?


The hardest was how to get it down to a manageable length. Originally I wrote the novel in alternating chapters: Danny’s UFO journal, and the story of the day-to-day experiences that are the background and context of the journal story. (These “day-to-day reality” chapters were heavily autobiographical.) These two parallel stories flowed out of me, plenteously. By the summer of 1999, I had 1500 manuscript pages.

Of course this was unpublishable. I cut it down to about 850 pages; still way too long. I set it aside and worked on other projects. When I took it up again, in 2004, a friend of mine who’s a fine novelist read the early chapters and said: you’ve got two stories here, and they keep getting in each other’s way. The UFO story is the more exciting. Keep that; get rid of the other. Which I did. That’s how the novel, in its present form, was born.

There’s some material I cut that I wish I could have kept. In the original draft there was a long section told from the point of view of Danny’s father. In those chapters, Leon Shapiro appears, not as the terrifying ogre that Danny (inevitably) perceives, but as a struggling, limited human being with his own story and his own suffering. I much regret cutting all that; it gave Leon’s character a dimension he’s now lost. But I didn’t have a choice. The story had to be Danny’s.


Are you currently working on any other writing projects?

I’m working on a sequel to Journal, to be entitled The Color of Electrum. (The title is taken from Ezekiel 1:4, ke-eyn ha-hashmal.) This novel begins the year after Journal leaves off, Danny Shapiro is once more the main character … and I think that’s all I want to say about it right now.

There’s also a novel I’ve been working on, off and on, for several years. It’s called The Mending; it’s about a woman psychiatrist (Jewish) in the year 2000, one of whose patients starts to recover memories and dream fragments belonging to a 17th-century Jewish Messiah. Like all my fiction, it draws heavily upon the research I’ve done as a Judaic scholar.


Oh good, I'm really glad to hear that Danny's story will be continuing.


Since all of your books seem to have strong Jewish themes I'm curious if there are any Jewish science fiction authors that have influenced your writing.

The one who comes to mind is Lisa Goldstein, author of The Alchemist’s Door. I’m completely bowled over by her story “Split Light”—a brilliant evocation of the would-be Messiah Sabbatai Zevi, told from a perspective, not of alternate history exactly, but of a world for which an alternate history is thinkable. A perfect example of how science fiction can give insights into religion that no other genre can provide.

Speaking of which, I’ve long been under the influence of Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle for Liebowitz, which I read back in my UFO-investigator years and which strikes me, each time I dip into it, with how extraordinarily good it is. Miller was of course not a “Jewish science fiction author.” To judge from Liebowitz, he was a devout Catholic. Yet the book is not only deeply engaged with religious issues, but features an enigmatic Jewish character who recurs in each of the book’s three sections, each time speaking Hebrew (printed in Hebrew script!). From this, and from the choice of “Saint Liebowitz” as the book’s patron, it’s hard to escape the impression that Miller wanted to use his S-F to say something, not only about his Catholic faith, but about Judaism as well. It’s a book that spoke to me at an impressionable age, and has stayed at the back of my consciousness ever since.

And now for the two questions that I can never resist posing to any new acquaintance, who are three of your favorite authors and what books are you currently reading?

The three that come to mind are all British; I don’t know what that says. The first is George Gissing (1857-1903), a fantastically good, under-appreciated novelist whom I’d love to see in the canon of the Victorian greats. His New Grub Street, published in 1891, gives a description of the London literary life, its squalors and agonies, that feels so contemporary you squirm to read it. The second is George Orwell, born the year Gissing died. I’m not talking primarily of 1984, which I haven’t dared to look at in years; to open that book is to be sucked into a whirlpool of horror that won’t let you go until you’ve read to the gruesome end. I’m thinking of his wonderful so-called “lesser” novels, like A Clergyman’s Daughter and Burmese Days, and the marvelous four-volume Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters, each volume a storehouse of humane wisdom, expressed with a vigor and brilliance that leaves me gasping.

My third favorite is contemporary: Iain Pears. Of his novels, I loved The Dream of Scipio. But An Instance of the Fingerpost is his masterpiece. On the surface, it’s a murder mystery set in the 17th century, but it’s really … And I can’t say what the book is really about, without spoiling it for everyone who intends to read it. It’s something beyond extraordinary.

One book I’m in the middle of reading is Thomas E. Bullard’s The Myth and Mystery of UFOs (University Press of Kansas, 2010), an exploration of UFOs by a trained folklorist who’s also, at least in some measure, a UFO believer. Another is Ke-Zohar ha-Rakeea (“Like the Radiance of the Sky”), by Ben-Gurion University professor Boaz Huss (Ben-Zvi Institute / Bialik Institute, 2008). I’ve been interested in Kabbalah for more than twenty years now, and Boaz has written the book I’ve always wanted to read: an investigation of how the amazing text called the “Zohar” came to be, how it was put together, transmitted and interpreted. He’s a wonderful scholar and a wonderful person, and everything he writes I read with pleasure.

Recently I’ve also gotten caught up in A. Scott Berg’s biography Lindbergh (Berkley Books, 1998). I originally got hold of it for its remarkable story of how Lindbergh and C.G. Jung nearly came to blows over UFOs, Jung allegedly insisting they’re real, Lindbergh that they aren’t. (I’ve discussed this story in two recent blog posts) But I kept on reading, repelled and fascinated by Charles Lindbergh. I no longer have the smallest doubt he was anti-Semitic; his affection and admiration for Hitler and Nazi Germany, of which he seems never to have repented, are vomit-inducing. Yet he was also a genuine hero, and a person of humane sympathies and at least intermittent wisdom. “What a piece of work is a man …”

Thank you so much David for patiently answering all of my questions. I really enjoyed getting to know more about you and about UFO investigating, in general.

And thanks Viking Press I have a copy of Davd Halpren's Journal of a UFO Investigator to give away to one luck reader. To enter please fill out the form below.

The giveaway is open to residents of the US and Canada, and possibly a few other locations as well, though they haven't been specified. So on the form I have asked that you include your country of residence and if the winner lives somewhere other than the US or Canada I will check with the publisher to see if the book can be mailed there.

* Photo of David Halperin credited to Anora McGaha

Friday Quotes

Whenever I get around to it I post here some of my favorite quotes, or a few particular lines or passages that I enjoyed in recent books that I've read (or from somewhere else in the book world).

Enjoy! And feel free to share some of your favorite quotes with me as well.

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

The Book of Tomorrow by Cecilia Ahern

There are those whose minds are merely a bouquet of stalks that bud as they learn new information- a new bud for each fact- but yet they never open, never flourish. They are the people of capital letters and full stops but never of question marks and elipses.

A Tale of Two Castles by Gail Carson Levine

"May I sample one? " I heard awe in my voice. He twittered. I took that as consent. If he'd snatched the packet away, I'd have taken that as consent as well and snatched it back.

Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick

• He let the sentence drift to the floor, stepped past it.

• Dig down and you find the broken fragments of history; look up and you see the growing glory of the future.

I really enjoyed Patrick Rothufuss's response to a question about his beard (which apparently he gets asked about a lot) in a recent interview with Adventures in SciFi Publishing

...Dude, It's just a beard. I get a beard from not shaving everyday. And I understand it's something that not a lot of people have, and yes it is fully majestic, and yes, it proclaims my masculinity and virility to the world but...its sort of like- what would happen if in every interview somebody asked Neil Gaiman about his hair? That would be ...mental.. that's what it would be. And so, similarly- it's a beard!

(And if you are a fan of Patrick Rothfuss I highly recommend that you listen to the rest of this very enjoyable interview with him.)

Clarity by Kim Harrington

Clarity "Clare" Fern sees things. Things no one else can see. Things like stolen kisses and long-buried secrets. All she has to do is touch a certain object, and the visions come to her. It's a gift.

And a curse.

When a teenage girl is found murdered, Clare's ex-boyfriend wants her to help solve the case--but Clare is still furious at the cheating jerk. Then Clare's brother--who has supernatural gifts of his own--becomes the prime suspect, and Clare can no longer look away. Teaming up with Gabriel, the smoldering son of the new detective, Clare must venture into the depths of fear, revenge, and lust in order to track the killer. But will her sight fail her just when she needs it most?

When a book blogger that I follow commented that Clarity was the best YA Paranormal book that she has read this year, I was naturally curious to find out if this book is really that good, and so I got it. And then I proceeded to finish it off within the next few hours.

Kim Harrington throws readers right into the deep end of the story (no dipping your toes here) by opening up with a dramatic scene in which the protagonist, Clare, is being held at gunpoint by a murderer. The story then jumps back nine days, to the day when a dead body was found in the vacation town of Cape Cod.

Clarity Fern , or Clare, is considered a freak by her schoolmates for her ability to see visions just by touching an object. She's gotten used to the constant teasing and taunting and tries not to let her friendless status bother her too much. Clare's brother, Perry, doesn't seem to have such troubles, despite his own strange “gift” of being able to communicate with the dead, and he has no shortage of girls eager to spend time in his company. But despite her brother's womanizing ways Clare still loves him, and considers him her best friend. Together, along with their mind-reading mother, they provide a unique psychic experience for visiting tourists.

When a tourist winds up dead, Clare's ex-boyfriend (who is also the mayor's son) convinces the police to turn to Clare for assistance in identifying the murderer. Clare is less- then delighted to be working with her cheating ex-boyfriend though the thought of working with the attractive detective's son definitely holds some appeal.

But as Clare begins to work on the case she is horrified to discover that her own brother may be involved in the murder of the tourist. Clare is determined to prove her brother's innocence, despite the niggling doubts that have her questioning how well she really knows her own brother.

From the very beginning we are aware that the murderer is someone that Clare is familiar with, based on the conversation that takes place between the two of them on the first page. I was concerned that this might make the culprit's identity too obvious, making the mystery less interesting, but Harrington does a pretty good job at including enough suspicious characters that I was left guessing for most of the book.

While the mystery isn't particularly complex it was still enjoyable book to read, especially due to the interesting cast of characters. The Fern family is at the center of the story, and their psychic business results in a mixed response from the residents of their town. The bullying that Clare has endured for most of her life has resulted in her becoming something of a loner, spending her free time either working in the family business or with her big brother and his best friend, Nate. Clare's mother is a mind-reading hippie who has been raising her two kids on her own, ever since her husband disappeared, many years ago. Perry has gotten the short end of the psychic stick, his talent only working when there are ghosts nearby and when it does work, as Clare says, “he has to listen to a dead person talk.”

The two side characters that receive the most attention are Justin, Clare's ex-boyfriend whom she still had feelings for, and the hot new guy Gabriel, who is drawn to Clare despite his distrust of psychics. And of course this will lead to a love-triangle, which seems to be a requisite of almost all YA books, though this will probably be played out more in future books.

Clarity was like a mixture of Charlaine Harris's Dead Until Dark (girl who is ostracized for her psychic gifts uses them to solve local murders) and Ann Aguirre's Blue Diablo (woman with ability to see vision from objects that she touches helps to solve crimes) distilled for young adults. But since I enjoyed both Harris's and Aguirre's books, this wasn't a problem for me, though it did feel like the story I was reading wasn't wholly original.

Since I haven't read a lot of good YA Paranormal books I guess I could say that Clarity is one of the better ones, and it certainly left me wanting to read more about Clare and her future adventures, which Clarity hints at. Kim Harrington has definitely caught my attention and I look forward to reading more books by her.

The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern

Tamara Goodwin has always got everything she's ever wanted. Born into a family of wealth, she grew up in a mansion with its own private beach, a wardrobe full of designer clothes and all that a girl could ever wish for. She's always lived in the here and now, never giving a second thought to tomorrow. But then suddenly her dad is gone and life for Tamara and her mother changes forever.

Left with a mountain of debt, they have no choice but to sell everything they own and move to the country. Nestled next to Kilsaney Castle, their gatehouse is a world away from Tamara's childhood. With her mother shut away with grief, and her aunt busy tending to her, Tamara is lonely and bored and longs to return to Dublin.When a travelling library passes through Kilsaney Demesne, Tamara is intrigued. Her eyes rest on a mysterious large leather bound tome locked with a gold clasp and padlock. What she discovers within the pages takes her breath away and shakes her world to its core.

Hmm.. I'm not really sure what my feelings are about this book. I nearly gave up on it several times during the first half because the writing style irritated me. I found the introduction to be too melodramatic, especially coming from a teenage girl, and then I had trouble with the way narrator kept switching from the past to the present, and back again. But I did really like the voice of the protagonists, Tamara, which is smart, funny and honest, and therefore I stuck with the book longer than I might otherwise have. About half-way through, the mystery started coming together and I ended up getting completely sucked into the story, finishing the book in one sitting.

But although the story did eventually grab a hold of me and successfully kept me entertained, I'm feeling kind of meh about it, now that I think back to it. I had gotten caught up in the story because I wanted fo find out how all the mysterious events would be explained, but then the big reveal didn't turn out to be as interesting as I had hoped.

Most of all, though, I was disappointed with the way magical, future -telling book is handled. This is actually an issue that I have had with several other books that would be considered "magical realism" and had brought it up as well in my review of The Girl with the Glass Feet. These books incorporate some kind of magical element or object into an every day, non-magical story, as a unique gimmick to make the story more interesting, but it's often not done in a convincing way. So the magical object just kind of conveniently appears to help move the story forward but no explanations are provided for why it is there.

Tamara establishes that the book wants to help her get to the bottom of the strange events taking place, by offering her hints of events to come, but I kept wondering why the book would want to do that. I had expected that some connection would be revealed between the book and the unfolding events, offering a link that would explain the presence of the book at least a little, but none is provided. And I was especially put out with Tamara for what she does with the book in the end, because that is not what one is meant to do with a magical item that has mysteriously appeared to guide you. OK, I know I'm going on and on about this book issue, and I don't think anyone else that has read The Book of Tomorrow could care less about this, which is probably why they all enjoyed the book so much more than I did.

The Book of Tomorrow is an enjoyable enough read, with an engaging protagonist and an interesting storyline, but it ended up falling pretty short of my expectations. If you are looking for a good story about a magical book I would steer you instead towards Seven-Day Magic by Edward Eager, a childhood favorite which has spoiled for me all other stories about magical books.

New Scifi & Fantasy Releases: Week of April 11

After the Golden Age
Carrie Vaughn
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: April 12

Can an accountant defeat a supervillain? Celia West, only daughter of the heroic leaders of the superpowered Olympiad, has spent the past few years estranged from her parents and their high-powered lifestyle. She’s had enough of masks and heroics, and wants only to live her own quiet life out from under the shadow of West Plaza and her rich and famous parents.

Then she is called into her boss’ office and told that as the city’s top forensic accountant, Celia is the best chance the prosecution has to catch notorious supervillain the Destructor for tax fraud. In the course of the trial, Celia’s troubled past comes to light and family secrets are revealed as the rift between Celia and her parents grows deeper. Cut off from friends and family, Celia must come to terms with the fact that she might just be Commerce City’s only hope.

This all-new and moving story of love, family, and sacrifice is an homage to Golden Age comics that no fan will want to miss

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Akata Witch
Nnedi Okorafor
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Release Date: April 14

Twelve-year-old Sunny lives in Nigeria, but she was born American. Her features are African, but she's albino. She's a terrific athlete, but can't go out into the sun to play soccer. There seems to be no place where she fits. And then she discovers something amazing—she is a "free agent," with latent magical power. Soon she's part of a quartet of magic students, studying the visible and invisible, learning to change reality. But will it be enough to help them when they are asked to catch a career criminal who knows magic too?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All the Lives He Led
Frederik Pohl
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: April 12



Two thousand years after Pompeii’s destruction, a thriller of upheaval—volcanic and political—as only SF Grandmaster Frederik Pohl can write it!

With a keen eye for the humanity in any situation, science fiction icon Frederik Pohl has crafted a compelling new novel of a not-too-distant future we can only hope is merely science fiction.

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. it gave so little warning that Pompeiians were caught unawares, and many bodies were preserved in volcanic ash. Two thousand years later, in 2079, Pompeii is a popular theme park eagerly anticipating Il Giubeleo, the Jubilee celebration of the great anniversary. But Vesuvius is still capable of erupting, and even more threatening are terrorists who want to use the occasion to draw attention to their cause by creating a huge disaster. As the fateful day draws near, people from all over the world—workers, tourists, terrorists—caught in the shadow of the volcano will grapple with upheaval both natural and political.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Enclave (Razorland, Bk 1)
Ann Aguirre
Genre: Young Adult SF/Dystopia
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Release Date: April 12

New York City has been decimated by war and plague, and most of civilization has migrated to underground enclaves, where life expectancy is no more than the early 20's. When Deuce turns 15, she takes on her role as a Huntress, and is paired with Fade, a teenage Hunter who lived Topside as a young boy. When she and Fade discover that the neighboring enclave has been decimated by the tunnel monsters—or Freaks—who seem to be growing more organized, the elders refuse to listen to warnings. And when Deuce and Fade are exiled from the enclave, the girl born in darkness must survive in daylight, in the ruins of a city whose population has dwindled to a few dangerous gangs. As the two are guided by Fade’s long-ago memories, they face dangers, and feelings, unlike any they’ve ever known.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rose Red (Fables Vol. 15)
Bill Willingham
Genre: Graphic Novel
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: April 12

Rose Red, sister of Snow White, has finally hit rock bottom. Does she stay there, or is it time to start the long, tortuous climb back up? The Farm is in chaos, as many factions compete to fill the void of her missing leadership. And there’s a big magical fight brewing down in the town square, right under her window.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Gathering (Darkness Rising, Bk 1)
Kelly Armstrong
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: April 12

Strange things are happening in Maya's tiny Vancouver Island town. First, her friend Serena, the captain of the swim team, drowns mysteriously in the middle of a calm lake. Then, one year later, mountain lions are spotted rather frequently around Maya's home—and her reactions to them are somewhat . . . unexpected. Her best friend, Daniel, has also been experiencing unexplainable premonitions about certain people and situations.
It doesn't help that the new bad boy in town, Rafe, has a dangerous secret, and he's interested in one special part of Maya's anatomy—her paw-print birthmark.
(less)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hybrids
Whitley Strieber
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: April 12

For years, people have feared that sexual material removed from victims of alien abductions might lead to the creation of something that modern science considers impossible: hybrids of the alien and the human.
They would think like aliens, but appear human, and be able to do something that full-blooded aliens can't--walk the earth freely.

In Hybrids, Whitley Strieber unleashes his unparalleled skills as a thriller writer and his unique knowledge of the abduction phenomenon to explore, what might happen if hybrids invaded the earth--not from the stars, but from exactly where the aliens told him they would emerge, when one of them said, "We will come from within you."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kingdom Besieged
Raymond E. Feist
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Release Date: April 12

Midkemia’s fifth and final Riftwar—the devastating Chaoswar—explodes in the opening volume of Raymond E. Feist’s spectacular new epic fantasy trilogy of magic, conflict, and world-shattering peril. A Kingdom Besieged is a breathtaking adventure that brings back Pug—first introduced in Feist’s classic debut novel, Magician, and now Midkemia’s most powerful sorcerer—who faces a major magical cataclysm that forces him to question everything he’s ever held as true and dear…including the loyalty of his beloved son Magnus.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Life on Mars: Tales from the New Frontier
Jonathan Strahan
Genre: Science Fiction Anthology
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Release Date: April 14

Mars! The Red Planet! For generations, people have wondered what it would be like to travel to and live there. That curiosity has inspired some of the most durable science fiction, including Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and the work of Isaac Asimov. Now the award-winning anthologist Jonathan Strahan has brought together thirteen original stories to explore the possibilities. After reading Life on Mars, readers will never look at the fourth planet from the sun the same way again.


Includes the following short stories:

1. “Attlee and the Long Walk” by Kage Baker
2. “The Old Man and the Martian Sea” by Alastair Reynolds
3. “Wahala” by Nnedi Okorafor
4. “On Chryse Plain” by Stephen Baxter
5. “First Principle” by Nancy Kress
6. “Martian Chronicles” by Cory Doctorow (novella)
7. “Goodnight Moons” by Ellen Klages
8. “The Taste of Promises” by Rachel Swirsky
9. “Digging” by Ian McDonald
10. “LARP on Mars” by Chris Roberson
11. “Martian Heart” John Barnes
12. “Discovering Life” by Kim Stanley Robinson

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My Unfair Godmother (My Fair Godmother #2)
Janette Rallison
Genre: Young Adult Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers
Release Date: April 12

Tansy Miller has always felt that her divorced father has never had enough time for her. But mistakenly getting caught on the wrong side of the law wasn't exactly how she wanted to get his attention. Enter Chrysanthemum "Chrissy" Everstar, Tansy's fairy in shining, er, high heels. Chrissy is only a fair godmother, of course, so Tansy's three wishes don't exactly go according to plan. And if bringing Robin Hood to the twenty-first century isn't bad enough for Tansy, being transported back to the Middle Ages to deal with Rumpelstiltskin certainly is. She'll need the help of her blended family, her wits, and especially the cute police chief 's son to stop the gold-spinning story from spinning wildly out of control. Janette Rallison pulls out all the stops in this fresh, fun-filled follow-up to the popular My Fair Godmother

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shadow Chaser (Chronicles of Siala, Bk 2)
Alexey Pehov
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: April 12


Saddened because they have left one of their number in a grave in the wilderness, Harold and his companions continue their journey to the dreaded underground palace of Hrad Spein. There, knowing that armies of warriors and wizards before them have failed, they must fight legions of untold, mysterious powers before they can complete their quest for the magic horn that will save their beloved land from The Nameless One. But before they can even reach their goal, they must overcome all manner of obstacles, fight many battles…and evade the frightful enemies on their trail.
Shadow Chaser is a novel of intricate plots, surprising twists and finely drawn characters that will not leave you when you put the book down. Shadow Chaser is truly something different in the world of fantasy, something special; it is something truly Russian, a fantasy that is gripping and haunting, fascinating and imaginative.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Unremembered
Peter Orullian
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: April 12

The gods, makers of worlds, seek to create balance—between matter and energy; and between mortals who strive toward the transcendent, and the natural perils they must tame or overcome. But one of the gods fashions a world filled with hellish creatures far too powerful to allow balance; he is condemned to live for eternity with his most hateful creations in that world’s distant Bourne, restrained by a magical veil kept vital by the power of song.

Millennia pass, awareness of the hidden danger fades to legend, and both song and veil weaken. And the most remote cities are laid waste by fell, nightmarish troops escaped from the Bourne. Some people dismiss the attacks as mere rumor. Instead of standing against the real threat, they persecute those with the knowledge, magic and power to fight these abominations, denying the inevitability of war and annihilation. And the evil from the Bourne swells….

The troubles of the world seem far from the Hollows where Tahn Junell struggles to remember his lost childhood and to understand words he feels compelled to utter each time he draws his bow. Trouble arrives when two strangers—an enigmatic man wearing the sigil of the feared Order of Sheason and a beautiful woman of the legendary Far—come, to take Tahn, his sister and his two best friends on a dangerous, secret journey.

Tahn knows neither why nor where they will go. He knows only that terrible forces have been unleashed upon mankind and he has been called to stand up and face that which most daunts him—his own forgotten secrets and the darkness that would destroy him and his world.