Some Youtube Awesomeness from Felicia Day

I've never spent much time on Youtube but it looks like that is going to change because I just came across a video that is pure awesome, and which is part of Felicia Day's Youtube channel (which I also just discovered), Geek & Sundry.

This video is the first of a series in which kids tell stories which are then made into short movies by professional filmmakers, often with hilarious results.

I absolutely love this idea, which really encourages children to use their imaginations and create original stories, after which they can see them brought to life. This is also a really interesting look at how children perceive the world; which details they find important enough to focus on, and which are given barely a mention.

Scary Smash by Gerald

The second story, Goth Boy, is told by 8 year-old Cici, and you can find that video here. 

But this is not the full extent of the wonders that Geek & Sundry has offer. Patrick Rothfuss recently announced on his blog that he will also be doing a show for Geek & Sundry in which he will be talking about books and storytelling with other people in the biz, kind of like a panel at a convention (which I have never been to, but I've heard are really fun).

And since we are talking about Patrick Rothfuss, if you are a fan then you'll enjoy this video of him and John Scalzi performing a skit based on Scalzi's new book Redshirts.

With all of this awesomeness going on online there is a real danger that I might never get off of the computer.

Flying Dutch by Tom Holt

This past weekend I was in the mood for something light and fun to read but I had nothing on my own bookshelves that fit the bill so I went to my neighbours' house to raid theirs. With my neighbour's recommendation I came away with Flying Dutch by Tom Holt which looked like it would suit nicely. Plus a comment on the cover comparing the book to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy helped seal the deal.

Jane Doland's uneventful life as an accountant for the National Lombard Bank gets a jolt when she comes across a 400 year old insurance policy that has yet to be paid out. Stranger yet, it appears that the owner of the policy is still alive and that the world's economic stability depends on the bank buying his policy back. Curious as to who this long-living policy owner could possibly be Jane sets out to track him down and in the process gets roped into the biggest adventure of her life, largely thanks to her poor sense of smell.

Captain Julius Vanderdecker and his crew have been sailing the world's oceans for the past 400 years all because of a drunken mistake that led them to drink an immorality elixir that they thought was beer. Immortality might not be so bad if they weren't all forced to remain permanently on the ship due to the elixir's side-effect, an unbearable smell that makes it impossible for them to be around other people. But every seven years the smell subsides for a month allowing the captain and crew to enjoy a brief stint on land before being forced back on their ship.

But the sudden hope that there may be a cure for the smell has Captain Vanderdecker searching of the elixir's creator, which brings him in contact with a very determined accountant. Also mixed into the story are secret conspiracies, a frustrated journalist in search of a scoop and an immortal cat. 

The story is based on the legend of the Flying Dutchman, or perhaps on the opera, The Flying Dutchman, which is based on the legend. Truthfully I don't know much about either of them so I can't say how they compare to this story by Holt.

There were a lot of characters, which got to be a bit confusing, and I did feel like the story could have benefited by paring the cast down somewhat. The romance was also rushed as the two characters appear to fall in-love after only having known each other for about a day. But these seem to be regular characteristics of humorous fantasy,  or at least of the books that I've read, so I wasn't particularly surprised. 

I also didn't get a lot of the jokes but I suspect this is because I'm not that familiar with British culture and humour (I had once watched an episode of some British TV show and I didn't get any of the jokes then either).

Reading Flying Dutch was an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours even though it was no Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (now that book is funny, even if you're American). But it was a fun, lighthearted read that suited my mood and introduced me to the legend of the Flying Dutchman, which I'm now curious to find out more about.

New Scifi & Fantasy releases: Week of July 22

This week's New Release list is pretty short, which I have to admit is a bit of a relief for me since having my kids home for summer vacation has me too wiped out to spend time composing lists. I might even be too tired to read (yes, the situation is that drastic). I remember the days when summer vacation was a time that I actually looked forward to *sigh*

Now if I could find that magic book that would keep my kinds enthralled enough to stay out of mischief. 

Hope you guys are having an enjoyable summer full of good books to read and plenty of time to read them.

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Science Fiction 

Jack Glass

Adam Roberts

Publisher: Gollancz

Release Date: July 26 (UK)

Jack Glass is the murderer. We know this from the start. Yet as this extraordinary novel tells the story of three murders committed by Glass the reader will be surprised to find out that it was Glass who was the killer and how he did it. And by the end of the book our sympathies for the killer are fully engaged. Riffing on the tropes of crime fiction (the country house murder, the locked room mystery) and imbued with the feel of golden age SF, JACK GLASS is another bravura performance from Roberts. Whatever games he plays with the genre, whatever questions he asks of the reader, Roberts never loses sight of the need to entertain. JACK GLASS has some wonderfully gruesome moments, is built around three gripping HowDunnits and comes with liberal doses of sly humour. Roberts invites us to have fun and tricks us into thinking about both crime and SF via a beautifully structured novel set in a society whose depiction challanges notions of crime, punishment, power and freedom. It is an extraordinary novel.

Fantasy 

Trinity Rising (The Wild Hunt, Bk 2)

Elspeth Cooper

Publisher: Gollancz

Release Date: July 26 (UK)

The future holds nothing but blood and death . . . and Teia fears there is nothing she can do about it. Her clan is riding to war, but her secret, untrained gift of foretelling has shown her they are riding to their doom. If she cannot turn them from their course, her only hope of saving them will be to betray them to their sworn enemies.

Gair is mourning his past . . . but there is no time to dwell on his grief or hunger for revenge. Pursuing an artefact from the Founding Wars, he travels deep into the hostile southern deserts. As religious tensions erupt into bloody violence around him, he must make an impossible choice: save innocent lives or sacrifice them in the hope that thousands more can be saved later.

And all the while, his grip on his powers is failing.

Urban Fantasy 

Thirteen (Women of the Otherworld, Bk 13)

Kelley Armstrong

Publisher: Dutton Adult

Release Date: July 24

A war is brewing—the first battle has been waged and Savannah Levine is left standing, albeit battered and bruised. She has rescued her half brother from supernatural medical testing, but he’s fighting to stay alive. The Supernatural Liberation Movement took him hostage, and they have a maniacal plan to expose the supernatural world to the unknowing.

Savannah has called upon her inner energy to summon spells with frightening strength, a strength she never knew she had, as she fights to keep her world from shattering. But it’s more than a matter of supernaturals against one another—both heaven and hell have entered the war; hellhounds, genetically modified werewolves, and all forces of good and evil have joined the fray. 

Dragon Justice (Paranormal Scene Investigations #4)

Laura Anne Gilman

Publisher: Luna

Release Date: July 24

WE KNEW THE JOB WAS IMPOSSIBLE WHEN WE TOOK IT...

In my time with PUPI, formally known as Private, Unaffiliated Paranormal Investigations, I've seen a lot. Learned a lot. And not all of it's been good. But what we do-make people accountable for crimes committed with magic-is important work.

Still. Even I need to take a break every now and again. Or so I've just been told (ordered).

So hey, vacation. Maybe I'll finally figure out what's going on with the "special bond" between me and the boss man, Benjamin Venec. Venec seems to like that idea-he's invited me down to join him on a jaunt to Philly. But no sooner do I arrive in the City of Brotherly Love than we're called in to look at a dead body.

And that's when life gets really complicated....

In my time with PUPI, formally known as Private, Unaffiliated Paranormal Investigations, I've seen a lot. Learned a lot. And not all of it's been good. But what we do-make people accountable for crimes committed with magic-is important work.

Still. Even I need to take a break every now and again. Or so I've just been told (ordered).

So hey, vacation. Maybe I'll finally figure out what's going on with the "special bond" between me and the boss man, Benjamin Venec. Venec seems to like that idea-he's invited me down to join him on a jaunt to Philly. But no sooner do I arrive in the City of Brotherly Love than we're called in to look at a dead body.

And that's when life gets really complicated....

Young Adult

Cuttlefish

Dave Freer

Publisher: Pyr

Release Date: July 24

The smallest thing can change the path of history.

The year is 1976, and the British Empire still spans the globe. Coal drives the world, and the smog of it hangs thick over the canals of London.

Clara Calland is on the run. Hunted, along with her scientist mother, by Menshevik spies and Imperial soldiers, they flee Ireland for London. They must escape airships, treachery, and capture. Under flooded London's canals, they join the rebels who live in the dank tunnels there.

Tim Barnabas is one of the underpeople, born to the secret town of drowned London, place of anti-imperialist republicans and Irish rebels, part of the Liberty—the people who would see a return to older values and free elections. Seeing no farther than his next meal, Tim has hired on as a submariner on the Cuttlefish, a coal-fired submarine that runs smuggled cargoes beneath the steamship patrols, to the fortress America and beyond.

When the Imperial soldiery comes ravening, Clara and her mother are forced to flee aboard the Cuttlefish. Hunted like beasts, the submarine and her crew must undertake a desperate voyage across the world, from the Faeroes to the Caribbean and finally across the Pacific to find safety. But only Clara and Tim Barnabas can steer them past treachery and disaster, to freedom in Westralia. Carried with them—a lost scientific secret that threatens the very heart of Imperial power.

Fun Websites for Book Voyeurs

If you always want to know about what everyone else is reading then here are a couple of websites you're sure to enjoy:

Underground New York Public Library

Whenver I see someone reading in public I can't resist trying to casually get a look at the book's cover to see what they are reading. Apparently I'm not the only one who does this because there is a whole Tumbr site dedicated to pictures of people reading in the New York subway. It's facinating to go through it and see the different kind of books that are being read and the variety of people who are reading them.

This site been getting a lot of attention lately since it was recently mentioned in the Huffington Post. I followed a link to it from one of Brent Weeks' Tweet in which he points out that his book, The Way of Shadows, is being read in the featured photo.

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The Books They Gave Me

Make sure that you visit this site when you have plenty of free time because, if you're like me, you'll be hard pressed to tear yourself away.

Each entry tells the story behind a book that someone had received and how the book had impacted them or their relationship. Some of the stories are romantic, others are whimsical or sad. Whenever I visit this site I think back to the books on my shelf and the stories behind some of them. Perhaps someday I'll submit one of my own stories to this site.

I’d seen this girl on the bus several times and thought she was pretty cute, but I was afraid to ask her out. She was always so engrossed in the books she brought on the bus, it seemed impossible to try to talk to her and so I put her out of my mind.

Over time, I started seeing her less and less on the bus. She was taking a different route, I supposed. Eventually, a few weeks had passed and I hadn’t seen her at all.

Finally, I saw her again. I was feeling pretty confident that day and before she was able to pull out her book, I introduced myself. We got to talking and even went to a nearby coffee shop and had a really great conversation. We talked mostly about books and she told me her favorite was Larry McMurty’s All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers. I’d never even heard of it, but she insisted it had one of the best endings in literature. I was about to ask her out when my boss called my cell wondering why I was so late for work. I had to leave before I could even get her number.

A few days later, I saw her again. She was getting on just as I was getting off, but she stopped me. She thrust a book into my hands and insisted that I keep it. I thanked her and started reading as soon as I got home.

All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers is now my favorite book. Not just because it’s incredibly well-written and interesting, but it’s something more: when I reached the end, taped to the last page was a note. It said how she’d kept seeing me on the bus and wished I’d talk to her. How she was so nervous, she’d hold a book in her hands like a shield, stealing glances whenever I wasn’t looking. And she was right, it had one of the best endings ever: her number.

We’ve been married for three years now.

Bitterblue (Graceling Realm #3) by Kristin Cashore

It's been ten years since Leck's reign of terror was brought to an end by Katsa's knife and the kingdom of Monsea is still struggling to pick up the pieces. Bitterblue, as the queen of Monsea,  feels that it is her job to get the kingdom back on its feet and help the citizens recover but her advisers seem determined to keep her on the sidelines. Frustrated by constantly being given the runaround, and with nothing else to do, Bitterblue decides to find out for herself what is going on in her city and why it is that everyone in the castle is acting so strangely.

And so Bitterblue sneaks out of the castle dressed as a boy and sets out to explore the city of Monsea. What she discovers, and the people that she meets, opens up her eyes to the true state of the kingdom and a growing realization that the wounds inflected by Leck still run deep. Armed with this knowledge Bitterblue attempts to bring about some much-needed changes but someone else has different ideas about the way they want things done, and they are willing to kill to accomplish it. With her advisers behaving oddly and her friends occupied with their political activities Bitterblue is on her own in solving this mystery, though she must do so quickly because time may be running out.

I had really enjoyed Kristin Cashore's previous two books, Fire and Graceling, and have been very much looking forward to continuing with Bitterblue's story in this new addition to the series. The story started off strongly with a sinister memory from Bitteblue's childhood of her father, Leck, and his Grace .

WHEN HE GRABS Mama's wrist and yanks her toward the wall-hanging like that, it must hurt. Mama doesn't cry out. She tries to hide her pain from him, but she looks back at me, and in her face, she shows me everything she feels. If Father knows she's in pain and is showing me, Father will take Mama's pain away and replace it with something else.

He will say to Mama, "Darling, nothing's wrong. It doesn't hurt, you're not frightened," and in Mama's face I'll see her doubt, the beginnings of her confusion. He'll say, "Look at our beautiful child. Look at this beautiful room. How happy we are. Nothing is wrong. Come with me, darling." Mama will stare back at him, puzzled, and then she'll look at me, her beautiful child in this beautiful room, and her eyes will go smooth and empty, and she'll smile at how happy we are. I'll smile too, because my mind is no stronger than Mama's. I'll say, "Have fun! Come back soon!" Then Father will produce the keys that open the door behind the hanging and Mama will glide through. Thiel, tall, troubled, bewildered in the middle of the room, will bolt in after her, and Father will follow.

In Graceling and Fire we learned a little bit about Leck and his powerful Grace that allowed him to controls other people's minds and emotions. In Bitterblue we find out just how deeply depraved Leck really was, thorough the memories of his daughter and the broken citizens of Monsea that he had left behind.

Pretty early on in the book it's clear that this story was going to be different from the others. First of all the story is told in a much younger voice than in Fire and Graceling, and I got the feeling that it was meant for a younger audience, more of a middle-grade book than a YA. There really was no reason for Bitterblue to come across as younger and less mature than Katsa or Fire had been because her life was no less difficult than theirs. As the story progressed and new revelations were made about Leck and his horrifying habits I began to suspect that Ms. Cashore had gave the story a younger tone in order to keep it from getting too dark, which could have easily happened. So by the end I was actually impressed by how the author had managed to include all of the dark bits without making the story overwhelming, though it was also not quite as powerful as it could have been.

This story was also a bit messier than the other two and it felt to me like there was a lot going on here that wasn't necessary to the story. For example, all the central characters from the previous books are here but they are all involved in political activities for the Council which didn't have much to do with the central story line.

I also couldn't stop questioning why it was that Bitterblue was just now dealing with issues that she would have been confronting throughout the past ten years. She just suddenly, out of the blue, notices that everyone in the castle is acting strangely and that her kingdom is a mess? I would have liked Ms. Cashore to have made some attempt to offer a logical explanation for this. Perhaps Bitterblue could have been in another kingdom all of these years, training to become queen, or maybe she had pricked her finger on a spindle and fallen asleep. Any explanation would have been better than none. 

And who leaves a ten year old girl to be raised on her own in a castle, without any family or anyone to teach her what she needs to know to become queen, because that is exactly what seems to have occurred here.  After Leck's death Bitterblue's uncle escorted her to the castle and left her there with Leck's old advisers and Katsa's old nursemaid. It's no wonder that she has no idea what's going on and that she falls-in-love with the first boy she meets. I'm just surprised it took her so long to start sneaking out of the castle.

There were also a few other anomalies that bugged me, such as the way the the characters from Graceling were not acting very much in character. Every scene has Katsa wiping away tears and Po came across as kind of wimpy to me.  Though at least they were more interesting than the new characters that we meet, one of whom serves as Bitterblue's love-interest, because I did not feel an emotional connection with any of them. This was a far different experience than reading Fire and Graceling, where I loved the characters and thought about them frequently after finishing each book.

So...as you can probably tell I didn't enjoy Bitterblue as much as I had hoped to. I was actually tempted to give up on the story several times but I kept going because I was just as curious as Bitterblue was to find out what the reasons were for the strange events that were going on and what it was the Leck had been doing behind those locked doors.

I think I might have enjoyed this book more had I not read Fire and Graceling first because I wouldn't have come to it with certain expectations about the story and the way it would be told. But not knowing anything about the events from the previous books would probably have made this story even more confusing, so perhaps that wouldn't have helped either. I'm now wondering which style Ms. Cashore will choose to tell the next story in and admit that I hope it will be close in style to her earlier books that to this one.

New Scifi & Fantasy Releases: Week of July 15th

Science Fiction

Earth Unaware

Orson Scott Card & Aaron Johnston

Publisher: Tor

Release Date: July 17

The mining ship El Cavador is far out from Earth, in the deeps of the Kuiper Belt, beyond Pluto. Other mining ships, and the families that live on them, are few and far between this far out. So when El Cavador’s telescopes pick up a fast-moving object coming in-system, it’s hard to know what to make of it. It’s massive and moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light.

El Cavador has other problems. Their systems are old and failing. The family is getting too big for the ship. There are claim-jumping corporate ships bringing Asteroid Belt tactics to the Kuiper Belt. Worrying about a distant object that might or might not be an alien ship seems…not important.

They're wrong. It's the most important thing that has happened to the human race in a million years. The first Formic War is about to begin.

Energized

Edward M. Lerner

Publisher: Tor

Release Date: July 17

No one expected the oil to last forever. How right they were….

A geopolitical miscalculation tainted the world’s major oil fields with radioactivity and plunged the Middle East into chaos. Any oil that remains usable is more prized than ever. No one can build solar farms, wind farms, and electric cars quickly enough to cope. The few countries still able to export oil and natural gas—Russia chief among them—have a stranglehold on the world economy.

And then, from the darkness of space, came Phoebe. Rather than divert the onrushing asteroid, America captured it in Earth orbit.

Solar power satellites—cheaply mass-produced in orbit with resources mined from the new moon to beam vast amounts of power to the ground—offer America its last, best hope of avoiding servitude and economic ruin.

As though building miles-across structures in space isn’t challenging enough, special interests, from technophobes to eco-extremists to radio astronomers, want to stop the project. And the remaining petro powers will do anything to protect their newfound dominance of world affairs.

NASA engineer Marcus Judson is determined to make the powersat demonstration project a success. And he will—even though nothing in his job description mentions combating an international cabal, or going into space to do it.

Empty Space

M. John Harrison

Publisher: Gollancz

Release Date: July 19 (UK)

We thought we had filled space with a civilization spread across the stars, held together by ships that warped reality.

But there is a lot of empty space in the universe.

The impossible empty space beneath a corpse floating in a dank, future alley way.

The vast empty space inside every atom.

The aching empty space between a mother and a daughter in a quiet west London suburb.

The empty space of the Kefahuchi Tract, hanging above us, seething with strangeness and charm.

And the empty space inside us. Somewhere to go. Somewhere to come back from.

Somewhere haunted.

Entity

Joanne Elder

Publisher: Muse it Up Publishing

Release Date: July 20

Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be changed. The chilling question for Dean Weston is: into what? By the time Dean comes face to face with the foreboding truth, it is too late. A mad man’s quest for ultimate knowledge and power has spawned true evil; an evil capable of tearing down moral barriers and leaving one thirsting for vengeance and retribution. As this evil consumes those closest to Dean, he becomes unknowingly vulnerable, leaving him and the woman he loves in immeasurable danger. Struggling to destroy a malevolent energy life form he barely understands, Dean finds his own humanity coming into question. As his moral fibers start to unravel, Dean grasps at one last thread of hope and does the unthinkable. 

Kill Decision

Daniel Suarez

Publisher: Dutton

Release Date: July 19

Unmanned weaponized drones already exist—they’re widely used by America in our war efforts in the Middle East. In Kill Decision, bestselling author Daniel Suarez takes that fact and the real science behind it one step further, with frightening results.

Linda McKinney is a myrmecologist, a scientist who studies the social structure of ants. Her academic career has left her entirely unprepared for the day her sophisticated research is conscripted by unknown forces to help run an unmanned—and thanks to her research, automated—drone army. Odin is the secretive Special Ops soldier with a unique insight into the faceless enemy who has begun to attack the American homeland with drones programmed to seek, identify, and execute targets without human intervention.

Ripper

David L. Golemon

Publisher: Thomas Dunne

Release Date: July 17

In the tradition of works by James Rollins, Preston and Child and Matthew Reilly, Ripper is the latest in an action-packed series about the nation’s most secret agency—The Event Group. In 1887, the British Empire contracted brilliant American professor Lawrence Ambrose to create a mutant gene to turn an ordinary person into an aggressive fighting machine. But all too quickly, Ambrose was found to be behind a streak of vicious murders, and in a cover-up of massive proportions, Queen Victoria ordered the project, and Ambrose, terminated. Thus the legend of Jack the Ripper was born.

The killings stopped as suddenly as they had begun—but not because Ambrose was caught. Instead, he escaped and returned home to America where he and his formula faded into history. But in 2012, a raid against a Mexican drug lord uncovers a small cache of antiquated notebooks containing long-buried instructions to create blind killers out of normal men. Enter the Event Group and Col. Jack Collins, who are desperate to stop one of their most feared enemies. When the formula is loosed in the underground halls and vaults of the Event Group complex itself, brother will battle brother, and for the first time in many men’s brave lives they will understand the true meaning of fear.

Together, McKinney and Odin must slow this advance long enough for the world to recognize its destructive power, because for thousands of years the “kill decision” during battle has remained in the hands of humans—and off-loading that responsibility to machines will bring unintended, possibly irreversible, consequences. But as forces even McKinney and Odin don’t understand begin to gather, and death rains down from above, it may already be too late to save humankind from destruction at the hands of our own technology

Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury

edited by Sam Weller & Mort Castle

Publisher: William Morrow

Release Date: July 17

Under a joint imprint, Gauntlet Press and Borderlands Press will publish a limited, signed, and numbered edition of SHADOW SHOW a tribute anthology to celebrate the career of Ray Bradbury. In SHADOW SHOW, editors Sam Weller and Mort Castle have assembled short stories from 26 of the most celebrated authors today to honor Ray and his contribution to the literary canon. Also included is an Introduction in the form of a personal essay "Second Homecoming", written by Ray Bradbury, specifically for for the book.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Sam Weller and Mort Castle - Introduction

Ray Bradbury - Second Homecoming

Neil Gaiman - The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury

Margaret Atwood - Headlife

Jay Bonansinga - Heavy

Sam Weller - The Girl In The Funeral Parlor

David Morrell - The Companions

Thomas F. Monteleone - The Exchange

Lee Martin - Cat on a Bad Couch

Joe Hill - By The Silver Water Of Lake Champlain

Dan Chaon - Little America

John McNally - The Phone Call

Joe Meno - Young Pilgrims

Robert McCammon - Children Of The Bedtime Machine

Ramsey Campbell - The Page

Mort Castle - Light

Alice Hoffman - Conjure

John Maclay - Max

Jacqueline Mitchard - Two Of A Kind

Gary Braunbeck - Fat Man And Little Boy

Bonnie Jo Campbell - The Tattoo

Audrey Niffenegger - Backwards In Seville

Charles Yu - Earth: (A Gift Shop)

Julia Keller - Hayleigh's Dad

Dave Eggers - Who Knocks?

Bayo Ojikutu - Reservation 2020

Kelly Link - Two Houses

Harlan Ellison - Weariness

Fantasy

Sharps

K.J. Parker

Publisher: Orbit

Release Date: July 17

For the first time in nearly forty years, an uneasy truce has been called between two neighbouring kingdoms. The war has been long and brutal, fought over the usual things: resources, land, money...

Now, there is a chance for peace. Diplomatic talks have begun and with them, the games. Two teams of fencers represent their nations at this pivotal moment.

When the future of the world lies balanced on the point of a rapier, one misstep could mean ruin for all. Human nature being what it is, does peace really have a chance?

The Coldest War (Milkweed Triptych #2)

Ian Tregillis

Publisher: Tor

Release Date: July 17

Someone is killing Britain's warlocks.

Twenty-two years after the Second World War, a precarious balance of power maintains the peace between Great Britain and the USSR. For decades, the warlocks have been all that stand between the British Empire and the Soviet Union-- a vast domain stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the shores of the English Channel. But now each death is another blow to Britain's security.

Meanwhile, a brother and sister escape from a top-secret research facility deep behind the Iron Curtain. Once subjects of a twisted Nazi experiment to imbue ordinary humans with extraordinary abilities, then prisoners of war in the vast Soviet effort to reverse engineer the Nazi technology, they head for England.

Because that's where former spy Raybould Marsh lives. And Gretel, the mad seer, has plans for him.

As Marsh is drawn back into the world of Milkweed, he discovers that Britain's darkest acts didn't end with the war. And as he strives to protect Queen and country, he's forced to confront his own willingness to accept victory at any cost.

Queen's Hunt (River of Souls, Bk 2)

Beth Bernobich

Publisher: Tor

Release Date: July 17

Ilse Zhalina has left to start a new life in a garrisoned fort, leagues from her estranged lover, Raul Kosenmark. The violent quarrel that ended Ilse and Raul's relationship was quite public. And also, quite fake. They hope to mislead Kosenmark's enemies so that he can continue to influence the politics of the kingdom in an attempt to stave off an ill-advised war, while keeping Ilse safe from royal assassins who would kill anyone Raul is close to. Ilse longs for Raul, but is set on her own quest to find one of the three fabled jewels of Lir. One of the jewels is held by King Dzavek, sworn enemy of Veraene, who has used the jewel's power to live for centuries. Ilse seeks one of the other stones to counterbalance Dzavek's efforts to destroy her country. 

In her search, she encounters a shipwrecked prisoner from another land, a woman who has a secret of her own...and the second jewel in her keeping. The two women become allies in their quest for the third jewel, because finding and controlling these stones could mean salvation for both of their nations. And their failure the ruin of their peoples.

21st Century Dead: A Zombie Anthology

Christopher Golden

Publisher:  St. Martin’s Griffin

Release Date: July 17

The Stoker-award winning editor of the acclaimed, eclectic anthology The New Dead returns with 21st Century Dead, and an all-new lineup of authors from all corners of the fiction world, shining a dark light on our fascination with tales of death and resurrection... with ZOMBIES! The stellar stories in this volume includes a tale set in the world of Daniel H. Wilson’s Robopocalypse, the first published fiction by Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter, and a tale of love, family, and resurrection from the legendary Orson Scott Card. This new volume also includes stories also from other award-winning and New York Times bestselling authors, such as: Simon R. Green, Chelsea Cain, Jonathan Maberry, Duane Swiercyznski, Caitlin Kittredge, Brian Keene, Amber Benson, John Skipp, S. G. Browne, Thomas E. Sniegoski, Hollywood screenwriter Stephen Susco, National Book Award nominee Dan Chaon, and more!

Young Adult

The Wishing Spell (The Land of Stories, #1)

Chris Colfer

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Release Date: July 17

Alex and Conner Bailey's world is about to change, in this fast-paced adventure that uniquely combines our modern day world with the enchanting realm of classic fairytales.

The Land of Stories tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face-to-face with the fairy tale characters they grew up reading about.

But after a series of encounters with witches, wolves, goblins, and trolls alike, getting back home is going to be harder than they thought. 

The Unquiet

Jeannine Garsee

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Release Date: July 17

Sixteen-year-old Rinn Jacobs has secrets: One, she’s bipolar. Two, she killed her grandmother.

After a suicide attempt, and now her parents' separation, Rinn and her mom move from California to the rural Ohio town where her mother grew up. Back on her medications and hoping to stay well, Rinn settles into her new home, undaunted by the fact that the previous owner hanged herself in Rinn's bedroom. At school, her classmates believe the school pool is haunted by Annaliese, a girl who drowned there. But when a reckless séance goes awry, and terrible things start happening to her new friends—yet not to her—Rinn is determined to find out why she can’t be "touched" by Annaliese...or if Annaliese even exists.

With the help of Nate Brenner, the hunky “farmer boy” she’s rapidly falling for, Rinn devises a dangerous plan to uncover the truth. Soon reality and fantasy meld into one, till Rinn finds it nearly impossible to tell the difference. When a malevolent force threatens the lives of everyone she cares about--not to mention her own--she can't help wondering: who should she really be afraid of?

Annaliese? Or herself?

The Girl With Borrowed Wings

Rinsai Rossetti

Publisher: Dial

Release Date: July 19

Controlled by her father and bound by desert, Frenenqer Paje’s life is tediously the same, until a small act of rebellion explodes her world and she meets a boy, but not just a boy--a Free person, a winged person, a shape-shifter. He has everything Frenenqer doesn’t. No family, no attachments, no rules. At night, he flies them to the far-flung places of their childhoods to retrace their pasts. But when the delicate balance of their friendship threatens to rupture into something more, Frenenqer must confront her isolation, her father, and her very sense of identity, breaking all the rules of her life to become free.

New SciFi & Fantasy Releases: July 8- 14

I am really looking forward to reading Seraphina by Rachel Hartman.... and that's about it.


How about you?

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Science Fiction

Year Zero
Rob Reid
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: July 10

 In the hilarious tradition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Rob Reid takes you on a headlong journey through the outer reaches of the universe—and the inner workings of our absurdly dysfunctional music industry.

Low-level entertainment lawyer Nick Carter thinks it’s a prank, not an alien encounter, when a redheaded mullah and a curvaceous nun show up at his office. But Frampton and Carly are highly advanced (if bumbling) extraterrestrials. And boy, do they have news.

The entire cosmos, they tell him, has been hopelessly hooked on humanity’s music ever since “Year Zero” (1977 to us), when American pop songs first reached alien ears. This addiction has driven a vast intergalactic society to commit the biggest copyright violation since the Big Bang. The resulting fines and penalties have bankrupted the whole universe. We humans suddenly own everything—and the aliens are not amused.

Nick Carter has just been tapped to clean up this mess before things get ugly, and he’s an unlikely galaxy-hopping hero: He’s scared of heights. He’s also about to be fired. And he happens to have the same name as a Backstreet Boy. But he does know a thing or two about copyright law. And he’s packing a couple of other pencil-pushing superpowers that could come in handy.

Soon he’s on the run from a sinister parrot and a highly combustible vacuum cleaner. With Carly and Frampton as his guides, Nick now has forty-eight hours to save humanity, while hopefully wowing the hot girl who lives down the hall from him.

Fantasy

The Prisoner of Heaven
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Publisher: Harper
Release Date: July 10

 Once again, internationally acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author Carlos Ruiz Zafón creates a rich, labyrinthine tale of love, literature, passion, and revenge, set in a dark, gothic Barcelona, in which the heroes of The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game must contend with a nemesis that threatens to destroy them.

Barcelona,1957. It is Christmas, and Daniel Sempere and his wife Bea have much to celebrate. They have a beautiful new baby son named Julian, and their close friend Fermín Romero de Torres is about to be wed. But their joy is eclipsed when a mysterious stranger visits the Sempere bookshop and threatens to divulge a terrible secret that has been buried for two decades in the city's dark past. His appearance plunges Fermín and Daniel into a dangerous adventure that will take them back to the 1940's and the dark early days of Franco's dictatorship. The terrifying events of that time launch them on a journey fraught with jealousy, suspicion, vengeance, and lies, a search for the truth that will put into peril everything they love and ultimately transform their lives.

Full of intrigue and emotion, The Prisoner of Heaven is a majestic novel in which the threads of The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game converge under the spell of literature and bring us toward the enigma of the mystery hidden at the heart of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a collection of lost treasures known only to its few initiates and the very core of Carlos Ruiz Zafón's enchanting fictional world.

Long Lankin
Lindsey Barraclough
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Release Date: July 10

 In an exquisitely chilling debut novel, four children unravel the mystery of a family curse - and a ghostly creature known in folklore as Long Lankin.
When Cora and her younger sister, Mimi, are sent to stay with their elderly aunt in the isolated village of Byers Guerdon, they receive a less-than-warm welcome. Auntie Ida is eccentric and rigid, and the girls are desperate to go back to London. But what they don't know is that their aunt's life was devastated the last time two young sisters were at Guerdon Hall, and she is determined to protect her nieces from an evil that has lain hidden for years. Along with Roger and Peter, two village boys, Cora must uncover the horrifying truth that has held Bryers Guerdon in its dark grip for centuries - before it's too late for little Mimi. Riveting and intensely atmospheric, this stunning debut will hold readers in its spell long after the last page is turned.

Urban Fantasy

Mute
Brian Bandell
Publisher: Silver Leaf Books
Release Date: July

 Officer Monique "Moni" Williams, has never lived an easy life -with an abusive ex-con father, a two-timing, pistol-wielding ex-boyfriend and a racist boss -it's hard to see how things could possibly get more difficult for her. After she meets a child that she bonds with, Moni must protect the girl from a mysterious threat stalking everyone near the Indian River Lagoon.

A serial killer is on the loose on Florida’s Space Coast, and Moni has been put in charge of the key witness in the biggest case of her life: an eight-year-old girl called Mariella. The child has gone mute after losing both her parents one harrowing night. Now, Moni struggles to protect the child and break her silence, while more reports of inexplicable deaths and animals with eerie purple eyes pile up. Her bond with the child is tested by a police force demanding answers. What does the lagoon’s rotten stench have to do with a mute little girl? Can Moni save Mariella from what lurks along the water? Who is really facing the most danger? Find out in this suspenseful, page-turner that will keep you guessing until the very end.

No Peace for the Damned Megan Powell Publisher: 47North Release Date: July 10

Magnolia Kelch is no stranger to pain. Beautiful and powerful, she's spent her entire life at the mercy of her sadistic father and the rest of the Kelch clan, who have tortured her and tested the limits of her powers. After one particularly heinous night that leaves Magnolia nearly dead, she finally sees her chance for escape? But this first taste of freedom is short-lived when she collides with Thirteen, head of the Network ? a secret organization dedicated to fighting supernatural criminals ? who recruits her into the group. Even as she's coming to grips with this new life and the horrific memories that still haunt her, she's conflicted by her growing attraction to fellow team member Theo and the emergence of new, untested abilities. After months of grueling training, her loyalty to the team is tested when she learns her target is the Network's most wanted: the Kelch family. Revenge may course through her veins, but so does the blood of the Kelches. And opposing her family may cost her the thing she treasures most. After all, Magnolia is still a Kelch. And the Kelch are damned

Some Kind of Fairy Tale
Graham Joyce
Publisher: Doubleday
Release Date: July 10

 It is Christmas afternoon and Peter Martin gets an unexpected phonecall from his parents, asking him to come round. It pulls him away from his wife and children and into a bewildering mystery.

He arrives at his parents house and discovers that they have a visitor. His sister Tara. Not so unusual you might think, this is Christmas after all, a time when families get together. But twenty years ago Tara took a walk into the woods and never came back and as the years have gone by with no word from her the family have, unspoken, assumed that she was dead. Now she's back, tired, dirty, dishevelled, but happy and full of stories about twenty years spent travelling the world, an epic odyssey taken on a whim.

But her stories don't quite hang together and once she has cleaned herself up and got some sleep it becomes apparent that the intervening years have been very kind to Tara. She really does look no different from the young women who walked out the door twenty years ago. Peter's parents are just delighted to have their little girl back, but Peter and his best friend Richie, Tara's one time boyfriend, are not so sure. Tara seems happy enough but there is something about her. A haunted, otherworldly quality. Some would say it's as if she's off with the fairies. And as the months go by Peter begins to suspect that the woods around their homes are not finished with Tara and his family...

Shadow of Night
Deborah Harkness
Publisher: Viking
Release Date: July 10

Deborah Harkness exploded onto the literary scene with her debut novel, A Discovery of Witches, Book One of the magical All Souls Trilogy and an international publishing phenomenon. The novel introduced Diana Bishop, Oxford scholar and reluctant witch, and the handsome geneticist and vampire Matthew Clairmont; together they found themselves at the center of a supernatural battle over an enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782.

Now, picking up from A Discovery of Witches’ cliffhanger ending, Shadow of Night plunges Diana and Matthew into Elizabethan London, a world of spies, subterfuge, and a coterie of Matthew’s old friends, the mysterious School of Night that includes Christopher Marlowe and Walter Raleigh. Here, Diana must locate a witch to tutor her in magic, Matthew is forced to confront a past he thought he had put to rest, and the mystery of Ashmole 782 deepens.

Deborah Harkness has crafted a gripping journey through a world of alchemy, time travel, and magical discoveries, delivering one of the most hotly anticipated novels of the season.

Young Adult

Dark Water (Siren #3)
Tricia Rayburn
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Release Date: July 10

When seventeen-year-old Vanessa reunites with her biological mother, she faces the dilemma of a siren's existence, that in order to survive she must endanger the lives of those she loves most.

Don't You Wish
Roxanne St. Claire
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Release Date: July 10

When plain and unpopular Annie Nutter gets zapped by one of her dad's whacked-out inventions, she lands in a parallel universe where her life becomes picture-perfect. Now she's Ayla Monroe, daughter of the same mother but a different father—and she's the gorgeous, rich queen bee of her high school.

In this universe, Ayla lives in glitzy Miami instead of dreary Pittsburgh and has beaucoup bucks, courtesy of her billionaire—if usually absent—father. Her friends hit the clubs, party backstage at concerts, and take risks that are exhilirating . . . and illegal. Here she's got a date to lose her V-card with the hottest guy she's ever seen.
But on the inside, Ayla is still Annie.

So when she's offered the chance to leave the dream life and head home to Pittsburgh, will she take it?

The choice isn't as simple as you think

Fury's Fire (Siren's Storm #2) 
Lisa Papademetriou
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Release Date: July 10

At the end of Siren's Storm, the Sirens were defeated, and now the town of Walfang is once again a peaceful beach community.
Or is it? Gretchen and Will are still haunted by the memories of the night the Sirens were destroyed—Gretchen because she can't remember what happened and Will because he doesn't know how to tell Gretchen what he saw. He doesn't even understand what he saw, but he does know now that Gretchen is more than what she seems, more than a human girl. And at the same time, he is more in love with her than ever.

Gretchen knows there's something wrong, too. She feels like an alien in her own body, but she doesn't know why. And she feels a presence stalking her at every turn. Have the Sirens returned to Walfang? Or has some other force come to claim her?

The Forsaken
Lisa M. Stasse
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Release Date: July 10

 As an obedient orphan of the U.N.A. (the super-country that was once Mexico, the U.S., and Canada), Alenna learned at an early age to blend in and be quiet—having your parents taken by the police will do that to a girl. But Alenna can’t help but stand out when she fails a test that all sixteen-year-olds have to take: The test says she has a high capacity for brutal violence, and so she is sent to The Wheel, an island where all would-be criminals end up.

The life expectancy of prisoners on The Wheel is just two years, but with dirty, violent, and chaotic conditions, the time seems a lot longer as Alenna is forced to deal with civil wars for land ownership and machines that snatch kids out of their makeshift homes. Desperate, she and the other prisoners concoct a potentially fatal plan to flee the island. Survival may seem impossible, but Alenna is determined to achieve it anyway.

House of Shadows
Rachel Neumeier
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: July 10

Orphaned, two sisters are left to find their own fortunes.
Sweet and proper, Karah's future seems secure at a glamorous Flower House. She could be pampered for the rest of her life... if she agrees to play their game.
Nemienne, neither sweet nor proper, has fewer choices. Left with no alternative, she accepts a mysterious mage's offer of an apprenticeship. Agreeing means a home and survival, but can Nemienne trust the mage?
With the arrival of a foreign bard into the quiet city, dangerous secrets are unearthed, and both sisters find themselves at the center of a plot that threatens not only to upset their newly found lives, but also to destroy their kingdom.

Insignia (Insignia #1) 
S.J. Kincaid
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: July 10

More than anything, Tom Raines wants to be important, though his shadowy life is anything but that. For years, Tom’s drifted from casino to casino with his unlucky gambler of a dad, gaming for their survival. Keeping a roof over their heads depends on a careful combination of skill, luck, con artistry, and staying invisible.

Then one day, Tom stops being invisible. Someone’s been watching his virtual-reality prowess, and he’s offered the incredible—a place at the Pentagonal Spire, an elite military academy. There, Tom’s instincts for combat will be put to the test, and if he passes, he’ll become a member of the Intrasolar Forces, helping to lead his country to victory in World War Three. Finally, he’ll be someone important: a superhuman war machine with the tech skills that every virtual-reality warrior dreams of. Life at the Spire holds everything that Tom’s always wanted—friends, the possibility of a girlfriend, and a life where his every action matters—but what will it cost him?

Lies, Knives, and Girls in Red Dresses
Ron Koertge, Andrea Dezso (Illustrator)
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Release Date: July 10

Writing in free verse honed to a wicked edge, the incomparable Ron Koertge brings dark and contemporary humor to twenty iconic fairy tales.
Once upon a time, there was a strung-out match girl who sold CDs to stoners. Twelve impetuous sisters escaped King Daddy's clutches to jiggle and cavort and wear out their shoes. A fickle Thumbelina searched for a tiny husband, leaving bodies in her wake. And Little Red Riding Hood confessed that she kind of wanted to know what it's like to be swallowed whole. From bloodied and blinded stepsisters (they were duped) to a chopped-off finger flying into a heroine's cleavage, this is fairy tale world turned upside down. Ron Koertge knows what really happened to all those wolves and maidens, ogres and orphans, kings and piglets, and he knows about the Ever After. So come closer - he wants to whisper in your ear.

The Little Woods
McCormick Templeman
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Release Date: July 10

Are the woods behind St. Bede's Academy really haunted, or does bad stuff just happen there? When Calista Wood, a new student, arrives midway through her junior year, St. Bede's feels like a normal school . . . until she discovers that a girl had disappeared a couple of months earlier. Some kids think she ran away, others think she was murdered, but it's only when Cally starts digging around that she finds the startling truth.

Watch as Cally enters a world of privilege, weekend-long parties, high school romances, and . . . well-kept secrets. This page-turner will appeal to teens looking for a fast-paced thriller. Written in a voice at once gripping and crystal clear, debut novelist, McCormick Templeman, will take readers on a twisting and turning journey as only a "new girl" can experience.

The Orphan King (Merlin's Immortals #1)
Sigmund Brouwer
Publisher: WaterBrook Press
Release Date: July 10

 My greatest fear was that they would find us and make of us a sacrifice beneath a full moon. Now you, Thomas, must help us destroy the circle of evil.

The last words of a dying woman would change the life of young Thomas. Raised behind monastery walls, he knows nothing of his mysterious past or imminent destiny. But now, in the heart of medieval England, a darkness threatens to strangle truth. An ancient order tightens their ghostly grip on power, creating fear and exiling those who would oppose them. Thomas is determined fulfill his calling and bring light into the mysterious world of the Druids and leaves the monastery on an important quest.

Thomas quickly finds himself in unfamiliar territory, as he must put his faith in unusual companions—a cryptic knight, a child thief, and the beautiful, silent woman whom may not be all she seems. From the solitary life of an orphan, Thomas now finds himself tangled in the roots of both comradery and suspicion. Can he trust those who would join his battle…or will his fears force him to go on alone?

The London Stone
Sarah Silverwood
Publisher: Indigo
Release Date: July 12

The prophecy has come to pass. The London Stone has been stolen and the Dark King rules the Nowhere. Only Mona and the new Seer dare to stand against him, leading an underground rebellion in the frozen wasteland...but what chance do they have, against both the Army of the Mad and Arnold Mather's soldiers? There is still hope: if they can recruit a banished race to their cause, maybe Fin and his friends can force a final battle against the Dark King. But that aid will be hard-won, through an almost impossible quest, and even then there are no guarantees. It will come down to three friends, standing together against all odds. And fulfilling their destinies, whatever the cost...

Quarantine: The Loners (Quarantine #1)
Lex Thomas
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Release Date: July 10

It was just another ordinary day at McKinley High—until a massive explosion devastated the school. When loner David Thorpe tried to help his English teacher to safety, the teacher convulsed and died right in front of him. And that was just the beginning.

A year later, McKinley has descended into chaos. All the students are infected with a virus that makes them deadly to adults. The school is under military quarantine. The teachers are gone. Violent gangs have formed based on high school social cliques. Without a gang, you’re as good as dead. And David has no gang. It’s just him and his little brother, Will, against the whole school.

In this frighteningly dark and captivating novel, Lex Thomas locks readers inside a school where kids don’t fight to be popular, they fight to stay alive.

Seraphina (Seraphina #1) 
Rachel Hartman
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Release Date: July 10

Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.

Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.

In her exquisitely written fantasy debut, Rachel Hartman creates a rich, complex, and utterly original world. Seraphina's tortuous journey to self-acceptance is one readers will remember long after they've turned the final page

Graphic Novel

Fever Moon
David Lawrence, Karen Marie Moning and Al Rio
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: July 10

 An all-new Mac & Barrons story by #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Marie Moning, marvelously adapted into a full-color graphic novel by writer David Lawrence and illustrator Al Rio

In Fever Moon, we meet the most ancient and deadly Unseelie ever created, the Fear Dorcha. For eons, he’s traveled worlds with the Unseelie king, leaving behind him a path of mutilation and destruction. Now he’s hunting Dublin, and no one Mac loves is safe.

Dublin is a war zone. The walls between humans and Fae are down. A third of the world’s population is dead and chaos reigns. Imprisoned over half a million years ago, the Unseelie are free and each one Mac meets is worse than the last. Human weapons don’t stand a chance against them.

With a blood moon hanging low over the city, something dark and sinister begins to hunt the streets of Temple Bar, choosing its victims by targeting those closest to Mac. Armed only with the Spear of Destiny and Jericho Barrons, she must face her most terrifying enemy yet.