The Qwillery

Happy Monday! No debuts out this week, but we have some releases from formerly featured Debut Author Challenge Authors:

Harmonized by (Tidewater eNovella) Mary Behre;

Stormbringer (Wyrd 2) by Alis Franklin:

Agents of the Internet Apocalypse (Internet Apocalypse Trilogy 2) by Wayne Gladstone;

The Obsidian Temple ( Desert Rising 2) by Kelley Grant;

and

The Flicker Men by Ted Kosmatka.

July 20, 2015

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Last Wolf Standing (e)(ri)	Rhyannon Byrd	PNR - Bloodrunners 1
Ether & Elephants (e)	Cindy Spencer Pape	SPR - Gaslight Chronicles 8
Twilight Illusions: Beyond Twilight (e)	Maggie Shayne	PNR - Wings in the Night 3

July 21, 2015

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Xenos	Dan Abnett	SF - Warhammer 40,000: Eisenhorn Trilogy 1
Primal Heat Part 2: A Paranormal Shapeshifter Werejaguar Romance	A. C. Arthur	PNR - Shadow Shifters 6
A Cure for Suicide	Jesse Ball	LF/Dys
Rewinder	Brett Battles	SF/TT - Rewinder 1
War Dogs (h2tp)	Greg Bear	SF - War Dogs 1
Harmonized (e)	Mary Behre	PNR - Tidewater Novella
Skinner (Ke)	David Bernstein	H/Oc
The Supernatural Enhancements (h2tp)	Edgar Cantero	LF/Gh
Messi@: A Novel (e)(ri)	Andrei Codrescu	SF
The Blood Countess (e)(ri)	Andrei Codrescu	H
Bridged by Love	Nancy Corrigan	PNR
Bound in Black	Juliette Cross	UF - Vessel Trilogy 3
Fallen Embers	P.G. Forte	PNR - Children of the Night 5
Stormbringer (e)	Alis Franklin	UF - Wyrd 2
Agents of the Internet Apocalypse	Wayne Gladstone	Dys/Satire - Internet Apocalypse Trilogy 2
The First Confessor	Terry Goodkind	F - Richard and Kahlan - Sword of Truth Prequel
The Obsidian Temple (e)	Kelley Grant	F - Desert Rising 2
Dead Man's Reach	D. B. Jackson	HistF - Thieftaker Chronicles 4
The Flicker Men	Ted Kosmatka	Th/SF
The Devil's Bag Man	Adam Mansbach	Th/H/Sup - Jess Galvan 2
The Wars of Atlantis	Phil Masters	F
The House of Small Shadows (h2tp)	Adam Nevill	H
Beautiful You (h2tp)	Chuck Palahniuk	Satire/AP
All Those Vanished Engines (h2tp)	Paul Park	SF
Way Station (e)(ri)	Clifford D. Simak	SF
City (e)(ri)	Clifford D. Simak	SF
Out of Their Minds (e)(ri)	Clifford D. Simak	CF
A Heritage of Stars (e)(ri)	Clifford D. Simak	SF
Time Is the Simplest Thing  (e)(ri)	Clifford D. Simak	SF
All Flesh Is Grass (e)(ri)	Clifford D. Simak	SF
Shakespeare's Planet (e)(ri)	Clifford D. Simak	SF
The Werewolf Principle (e)(ri)	Clifford D. Simak	SF
Enchanted Pilgrimage (e)(ri)	Clifford D. Simak	SF
The Dark Arts of Blood	Freda Warrington	DF/PNR - Blood 4

July 22, 2015

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Ethics and Form in Fantasy Literature: Tolkien, Rowling and Meyer	Lykke Guanio-Uluru	H&C
The Totally Secret Origin of Foxman: Excerpts from an EPIC Autobiography: A Tor.Com Original (e)	Kelly McCullough	SF

July 23, 2015

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Equilibrium (e)	CS Sealey	F

e - eBook
Ke - Kindle eBook only
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
ri - reissue or reprint


Ap - Apocalyptic
Dys - Dystopian
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
DF - Dark Fantasy
F - Fantasy
Gh - Ghosts
H - Horror
H&C - History and Criticism
HistF - Historical Fantasy
LF - Literary Fiction
Oc - Occult
PNR - Paranormal ROmance
SF - Science Fiction
Sup - Supernatural
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy

See Part 1 here

See Part 1.5 here

See Part 2 here

See Part 3 here

See Part 4 here

See Part 5 here

See Part 6 here

See Part 7 here

See Part 8 here

See Part 9 here

See Part 10 here

See Part 11 here

See Part 12 here

See Part 13 here

David Edison

The Waking Engine
Tor Fantasy, May 5, 2015
Mass Market Paperback, 496 pages
Previously published in Hardcover and eBook, February 2014

Welcome to the City Unspoken, where Gods and Mortals come to die.
Contrary to popular wisdom, death is not the end, nor is it a passage to some transcendent afterlife. Those who die merely awake as themselves on one of a million worlds, where they are fated to live until they die again, and wake up somewhere new. All are born only once, but die many times . . . until they come at last to the City Unspoken, where the gateway to True Death can be found.

Wayfarers and pilgrims are drawn to the City, which is home to murderous aristocrats, disguised gods and goddesses, a sadistic faerie princess, immortal prostitutes and queens, a captive angel, gangs of feral Death Boys and Charnel Girls . . . and one very confused New Yorker.

Late of Manhattan, Cooper finds himself in a City that is not what it once was. The gateway to True Death is failing, so that the City is becoming overrun by the Dying, who clot its byzantine streets and alleys . . . and a spreading madness threatens to engulf the entire metaverse.

Richly imaginative, David Edison's The Waking Engine is a stunning debut by a major new talent.

Stephanie Feldman

The Angel of Losses
Ecco, June 15, 2015
Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Previously published in Hardcover and eBook, July 2014

The Tiger’s Wife meets A History of Love in this inventive, lushly imagined debut novel that explores the intersections of family secrets, Jewish myths, the legacy of war and history, and the bonds between sisters.

When Eli Burke dies, he leaves behind a mysterious notebook full of stories about a magical figure named The White Rebbe, a miracle worker in league with the enigmatic Angel of Losses, protector of things gone astray, and guardian of the lost letter of the alphabet, which completes the secret name of God.

When his granddaughter, Marjorie, discovers Eli’s notebook, everything she thought she knew about her grandfather—and her family—comes undone. To find the truth about Eli’s origins and unlock the secrets he kept, she embarks on an odyssey that takes her deep into the past, from 18th century Europe to Nazi-occupied Lithuania, and back to the present, to New York City and her estranged sister Holly, whom she must save from the consequences of Eli’s past.

Interweaving history, theology, and both real and imagined Jewish folktales, The Angel of Losses is a family story of what lasts, and of what we can—and cannot—escape.

Alis Franklin

Stormbringer
Wyrd 2
Hydra, July 21, 2015
eBook 272 pages

In Liesmith, a “wildly entertaining debut novel . . . guaranteed to resonate with fans of mythopoeic fantasy from the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien, George R. R. Martin, and Neil Gaiman” (Library Journal), Alis Franklin introduced a band of charming, unforgettable heroes. Now they’re playing host to reincarnated Norse gods who are settling ancient grudges in the twenty-first century.

Ragnarok—aka the end of the world—was supposed to doom the gods as well. Instead, it was a cosmic rebooting. Now low-level IT tech and comic-book geek Sigmund Sussman finds himself an avatar of a Norse goddess. His boyfriend, the wealthy entrepreneur Lain Laufeyjarson, is channeling none other than Loki, the trickster god. His best friends, Em and Wayne, harbor the spirits of slain Valkyries. Cool, right?

The problem is, the gods who survived the apocalypse are still around—and they don’t exactly make a great welcoming committee. The children of Thor are hellbent on reclaiming their scattered birthright: the gloves, belt, and hammer of the Thunder God. Meanwhile, the dwarves are scheming, the giants are pissed, and the goddess of the dead is demanding sanctuary for herself and her entire realm.

Caught in the coils of the Wyrd, the ancient force that governs gods and mortals alike, Sigmund and his crew are suddenly facing a second Ragnarok that threatens to finish what the first one started. And all that stands in the way are four nerds bound by courage, love, divine powers, and an encyclopedic knowledge of gaming lore.

Wayne Gladstone

Agents of the Internet Apocalypse
Internet Apocalypse 2
Thomas Dunne Books, July 21, 2015
Hardcover and eBook, 224 pages





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Katherine Harbour

Thorn Jack
Night and Nothing / Thorn Jack 1
Harper Voyager, March 10, 2015
Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Previously published in Hardcover and eBook, June 2014

Combining the sorcery of The Night Circus with the malefic suspense of A Secret History, Thorn Jack is a spectacular, modern retelling of the ancient Scottish ballad, Tam Lin—a beguiling fusion of love, fantasy, and myth that echoes the imaginative artistry of the works of Neil Gaiman, Cassandra Clare, and Melissa Marr.

In the wake of her older sister’s suicide, Finn Sullivan and her father move to a quaint town in upstate New York. Populated with socialites, hippies, and dramatic artists, every corner of this new place holds bright possibilities—and dark enigmas, including the devastatingly attractive Jack Fata, scion of one of the town’s most powerful families.

As she begins to settle in, Finn discovers that beneath its pretty, placid surface, the town and its denizens—especially the Fata family—wield an irresistible charm and dangerous power, a tempting and terrifying blend of good and evil, magic and mystery, that holds dangerous consequences for an innocent and curious girl like Finn.

To free herself and save her beloved Jack, Finn must confront the fearsome Fata family . . . a battle that will lead to shocking secrets about her sister’s death.





Look for Bones and Heart: A Night and Nothing Tale in March 2015.

What would the Norse Gods think of all the modern stories about them?

Here’s a weird thing to think about: in the age of the Vikings, between around 800 CE and 1000 CE, the population of the whole of Europe is estimated to’ve been in the vicinity of 30 to 50 million people. In comparison, a little over a thousand years later, in 2012 CE, an estimated 76 million people in the US took themselves off to a cinema to watch the old Viking gods Thor and Loki battle it out in Marvel’s The Avengers.

Or, to put it another way: today, something like twice the entire population of medieval Eu-rope knows who “Thor” and “Loki” are, in one country alone.

Another data point: in 1999, a Japanese woman by the name of Sakura Kinoshita wrote a manga about Loki. Known in English as Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok, it was later made into a TV show. Japan, for the record, is about five thousand miles (by plane), give or take, away from the ancestral home of the Vikings. There’s no evidence the Vikings ever got so far east during their era.

One more: in 1983, approximately one thousand years and ten thousand miles away from Viking lands, yours truly was born in an Australian hospital named after the Norse god of death and wisdom, Odin.

Thirty years later, and these are the things I think of whenever I hear anyone wax poetic on the notion that the old gods are dying. Sure, some of the details of their stories have… evolved over the centuries. But, changes or no, these stories are now told and retold in more ways and more places than ever before in history; in movies, TV shows, novels, video games, and song.

Sometimes, I wonder what Thor and Odin and Loki would think of what we’ve made of them.

Or maybe that’s the wrong question. Because the thing about the Old Norse religion is that it never actually died out. The Vikings officially converted to Christianity over a period of a few hundred years around 1000 CE, but the gods hung around. In modern days, their worship has been revived and has practitioners both in Scandinavia and elsewhere, including places like the United States and Australia. It’s probably a bit of stretch to say there are numerically more people now who believe in Thor and Odin than did a thousand years ago (Loki, on the other hand, who wasn’t actively worshipped in the Viking age now most certainly is), but they definitely do exist and that means that writing about the Norse deities is “borrowing” entities considered sacred in a living religious tradition.

This is something I thought of when I was doing my own modern adaptation as part of Liesmith. The Odin and (in particular) the Loki who appear in that story are very definitely fictionalized versions of their mythological selves. They’re both based on the Old Norse sa-gas, sure. Based on, but… different. And if maybe Odin is a little darker, and if maybe Loki is a little lighter… well. Maybe there are some spoilers there for the book I won’t get into. But, needless to say, I took some artistic license at points, if for no other reason than the sagas saying nothing about giant anthropomorphized archaeopteryxes.

But fictionalized mythology—that is, using sacred figures in secular entertainment—isn’t exactly new. Milton did it with Satan in Paradise Lost. On the other end of the scale, Morgan Freeman played God, literally, in Bruce Almighty, following on from Alanis Morissette who’d done the same in Dogma. Nor is this a trend constrained to Western literary traditions: about 75 years before Milton, in 16th century China, Wú Chéng'ēn wrote the novel Xī Yóu Jì—better known as Journey to the West in, er, the West—featuring versions of Buddhist re-ligious figures like the bodhisattva of compassion, Guanyin.

For the record, Xī Yóu Jì is one of my favorite tales, mostly care of my childhood exposure to it via a Japanese adaptation that used to run, dubbed (badly), on Australian TV under the name of Monkey. I’m hardly alone in my fangirling, and the story remains hugely popular in Asia; walk into just about any shop selling Chinese-language films and I’d bet money there’s at least one poster up depicting a recent adaptation.

There’s just something about retelling myths that humans seem incapable of letting go of.

So this is what we did with the old gods, Vikings and demons and buddhas alike; we turned them into pop culture sensations. And maybe the worship looks a little different—where once people sacrificed animals in Thor’s name, now they sacrifice time and the price of a movie ticket—but… maybe that doesn’t matter.

The old gods live on, bigger and brighter and more loved than ever.

Liesmith
Wyrd 1
Hydra, October 7, 2014
eBook, 308 pages

At the intersection of the magical and the mundane, Alis Franklin’s thrilling debut novel reimagines mythology for a modern world—where gods and mortals walk side by side.

Working in low-level IT support for a company that’s the toast of the tech world, Sigmund Sussman finds himself content, if not particularly inspired. As compensation for telling people to restart their computer a few times a day, Sigmund earns enough disposable income to gorge on comics and has plenty of free time to devote to his gaming group.

Then in walks the new guy with the unpronounceable last name who immediately becomes IT’s most popular team member. Lain Laufeyjarson is charming and good-looking, with a story for any occasion; shy, awkward Sigmund is none of those things, which is why he finds it odd when Lain flirts with him. But Lain seems cool, even if he’s a little different—though Sigmund never suspects just how different he could be. After all, who would expect a Norse god to be doing server reboots?

As Sigmund gets to know his mysterious new boyfriend, fate—in the form of an ancient force known as the Wyrd—begins to reveal the threads that weave their lives together. Sigmund doesn’t have the first clue where this adventure will take him, but as Lain says, only fools mess with the Wyrd. Why? Because the Wyrd messes back.

About Alis

Alis Franklin is a thirtysomething Australian author of queer urban fantasy. She likes cooking, video games, Norse mythology, and feathered dinosaurs. She’s never seen a live drop bear, but stays away from tall trees, just in case.











Website  ~ Twitter @lokabrenna  ~  Google+
Instagram  ~  Pinterest  ~  Tumblr

Cover art and design: Scott Biel; (boy’s face) Masterfile

Cover Art by Chris McGrath

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?

Alis:  Thank you so much for having me, it's great to be here! As to when I started writing... honestly, I can't ever remember not writing. Story exercises were some of my favourite things in kindergarten, and somewhere around then I got my first "publication credit"; an acrostic poem I wrote about a local river. It was collected in an anthology of work from local school children. I still remember most of the words to the poem (it started "Murmuring waters wash / Under, over and / 'Round") because I had to recite it at the book launch. Scary stuff!



TQ:  Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Alis:  Both, I guess. I'll tend to get an idea, let it churn around for a while, write it down as a rough outline, start writing the first draft, then go back to refine the outline if I run into plot walls. It depends on the story.



TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Alis:  Finding time to do it. Like most noob authors I have a day job, and also a husband, both of which take up good chunks of attention. So I have to grab writing time when it comes. Most of Liesmith was written on my iPhone, for example, when standing in queues at the grocery store or, well, sitting on the toilet. (No comments on that one, eh?)



TQ:  Who are some of your literary influences? Favorite authors?

Alis:  Terry Pratchett blew my mind when I was a teenager. There's a real highwire balancing act between writing books that are "clever" and writing books that are "self-indulgent". Pratchett is extremely good at keeping on the "clever" side of that equation; his books are full of references and in-jokes, but I never feel like he's talking down to me if I don't "get" them. Plus he deconstructed fantasy for me so effectively I basically stopped being able to read anything else in the genre for years.

A bit later, Michael Marshall Smith (Spares, Only Forward) made me fall in love with unreliable narrators, first-person POV, and deft foreshadowing. Stephen King taught me the importance of character, and Poppy Z. Brite was the first time I'd ever seen queer sexuality depicted in a genre novel which was, again, mind-blowing, since I'd never seen anything before that allowed for gay characters in fiction that wasn't specifically about being gay.



TQ:  Describe Liesmith in 140 characters or less.

Alis:  "Reincarnated Goddesses, Anthropomorphic Archaeopteryxes, and the End of the World (Again), or, What I Did Over Summer" by Sigmund Sussman.



TQ:  Tell us something about Liesmith that is not in the book description.

Alis:  Liesmith is on third sweet romance, one third urban fantasy action-adventure, and one third wall-oozing horror.



TQ:  What inspired you to write Liesmith?

Alis:  I got really interested in Norse mythology as a teenager, partly due to growing up in a place called the Woden Valley. It was kind of a weird feeling to realise that the bus interchange I sat in every afternoon on my way home from school was named after the Viking god of death and wisdom, and it got me thinking about a place where gods really did name shopping malls after themselves.

The second element in Liesmith came from growing up geeky and studying computer science at university, and realising how much of tech culture is a mythology in its own right. I mean, in oldskool hacker circles, arguments over things like operating systems were called "religious issues" and "holy wars", and we still refer to things like the "Cult of Mac" nowadays. Plus I just kind like the idea that kids who grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons and watching Star Trek wouldn't be particularly phased by encountering things like magic and sentient non-humans. It's kind of what they've been prepping for their entire lives, after all!

Finally, the third element... well. Early on, I latched onto Loki as a favourite of all the Norse gods; he's an outsider, who doesn't always make great decisions, but is loyal in his own way and generally tries to help the gods up until the point he kinda... gets sick of it. But the character I was really fascinated by was his wife, Sigyn. We basically know nothing about her, other than the fact she stayed--at great cost to herself--with her husband after his exile from Asgard. I mean, Loki might spend an eternity being tortured in prison but at least he gets to have his revenge when he gets out. But what about Sigyn? She cares for her husband through all that time, so she must feel something for him, but we never know what it is. Is she resigned to his punishment? Does she think he deserved it? Is she with him out of fear or obligation... or is it love? And if it is love, how pissed off must she be over what happened...

... and what price would she pay to fix it?



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for Liesmith?

Alis:  I read a lot of books on Norse mythology and played a bunch of video games. It was torture, honest.



TQ:  In Liesmith who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Alis:  Lain is the easiest to write. Partly because I've been writing in his POV for years, so I'm used to it, and also because I just find present-tense first person flows really easily. The hardest are probably the gods--Baldr, Sigyn, Loki and so on--because the florid Ye Olde Speake, while fun to indulge in, is way too easy to over over-write. It's also easier to do in present tense, so swapping between the present tense first-person (for Loki) and past tense third person (for Sigyn and Baldr) can be a little tricky.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery lines from Liesmith.

Alis:  There's a scene later on in the book where Lain quotes Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings ("fly you fools!"). It's not the line itself so much as the fact I got to have him say it while... well. When people read that scene, just remember Tolkien based Gandalf on the god Odin.

So basically yeah. I'm a huge dork, it's true.



TQ:  What's next?

Alis:  Next is a holiday! We're off round the world later this year. The Hubby is taking me to New York, I'm taking him to Iceland, and it's basically going to be awesome (albeit extremely cold). Plus a bunch of plane flights should (hopefully) give me some decent blocks of writing time; I owe my publisher some sequels for Liesmith in 2015, so... iPhones out and get typing!



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Alis:  And thank you so much for having me!

Liesmith
Wyrd 1
Hydra, October 7, 2014
eBook, 308 pages

At the intersection of the magical and the mundane, Alis Franklin’s thrilling debut novel reimagines mythology for a modern world—where gods and mortals walk side by side.

Working in low-level IT support for a company that’s the toast of the tech world, Sigmund Sussman finds himself content, if not particularly inspired. As compensation for telling people to restart their computer a few times a day, Sigmund earns enough disposable income to gorge on comics and has plenty of free time to devote to his gaming group.

Then in walks the new guy with the unpronounceable last name who immediately becomes IT’s most popular team member. Lain Laufeyjarson is charming and good-looking, with a story for any occasion; shy, awkward Sigmund is none of those things, which is why he finds it odd when Lain flirts with him. But Lain seems cool, even if he’s a little different—though Sigmund never suspects just how different he could be. After all, who would expect a Norse god to be doing server reboots?

As Sigmund gets to know his mysterious new boyfriend, fate—in the form of an ancient force known as the Wyrd—begins to reveal the threads that weave their lives together. Sigmund doesn’t have the first clue where this adventure will take him, but as Lain says, only fools mess with the Wyrd. Why? Because the Wyrd messes back.

About Alis

Alis Franklin is a thirtysomething Australian author of queer urban fantasy. She likes cooking, video games, Norse mythology, and feathered dinosaurs. She’s never seen a live drop bear, but stays away from tall trees, just in case.











Website  ~ Twitter @lokabrenna  ~  Google+
Instagram  ~  Pinterest  ~  Tumblr

Happy 1st Monday in October! Only 25 days until Halloween! I'm heading off to New York Comic Con this weekend so look for posts about that. The kitchen renovation (for those of you keeping track) is nearing the pause point - countertops will be measured for this week and then I wait for them to be ready (2 to 3 weeks). After the countertops are in, the finishing touches are completed and I have a kitchen again. I can't wait.




This week is full of debuts (6 of the 9 out this month):

Heraclix and Pomp: A Novel of the Fabricated and the Fey by Forrest Aguirre;

The Secrets of Life and Death by Rebecca Alexander;

Liesmith (Wyrd 1) by Alis Franklin;

Lemongrass Hope by Amy Impellizzeri;

Falling Sky by Rajan Khanna;

and

The Undying: An Apocalyptic Thriller by Ethan Reid.


From formerly featured Debut Author Challenge Authors:

The Shotgun Arcana by R.S. Belcher;

The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman;

Silverblind (Ironskin 3) by Tina Connolly;

Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch 2) by Ann Leckie;

and

Knife Sworn (Tower and Knife Trilogy 2) by Mazarkis Williams is out in Trade Paperback.

October 6, 2014

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Mine Tomorrow (e)	Jackie Braun	PNR
Channeling Wonder: Fairy Tales on Television	Pauline Greenhill Jill Terry Rudy	LC/F
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Q are Cordially Uninvited... (e)	Rudy Josephs	SF - Star Trek
Reap & Redeem (e)	Lisa Medley	UF - Reaper 3
In the Void (e)	Sheryl Nantus	SFR - Tales from the Edge 2
Helmut Goes Abroad (e)	Matt Sheehan	UF/AH - Helmut Haase 2

October 7, 2014

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (ri)	Douglas Adams	SF
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (ri)	Douglas Adams	SF
Heraclix and Pomp: A Novel of the Fabricated and the Fey (D)	Forrest Aguirre	HistF
The Secrets of Life and Death (D - US)	Rebecca Alexander	HistF
The Night Garden: A Novel	Lisa Van Allen	R/Magic
Unseaming	Mike Allen	H/DF - Collection
A Vision of Fire	Gillian Anderson Jeff Rovin	SF
The Shotgun Arcana	R. S. Belcher	WW
One Potion in the Grave	Heather Blake	PM - A Magic Potion Mystery 2
Hawk	Steven Brust	F - Vlad Taltos14
The Lesser Dead	Christopher Buehlman	H
The Lost Stars: Imperfect Sword	Jack Campbell	SF - The Lost Stars 3
Ship of the Dead	John L. Campbell	H - Omega Days 2
Autumn Bones (h2mm)	Jacqueline Carey	UF - Agent of Hel 2
Poison Fruit	Jacqueline Carey	UF - Agent of Hel 3
Silverblind	Tina Connolly	HistF - Ironskin 3
Nightmare Carnival	Ellen Datlow (ed)	H - Anthology
Undead and Unwary	MaryJanice Davidson	PNR - Undead/Queen Betsy 13
The Baen Big Book of Monsters	Hank Davis (ed)	SF - Anthology
The Sentinel (h2tp)	Troy Denning	F - D&D: The Sundering
The Protectors (e)	Trey Dowell	SH
Midkemia: The Chronicles of Pug (h2tp)	Raymond E. Feist Stephen Abrams	F - Art
Liesmith (D)	Alis Franklin	UF - Wyrd 1
The Tess Noncoiré Chronicles: Volume I	P. R. Frost	F - Omnibus
Parasite (h2tp)	Mira Grant	SF - Parasitology 1
Gotrek & Felix: Kinslayer	David Guymer	F - Gotrek & Felix 16
Scarlet Tides	David Hair	F - Moontide Quartet 2
Reckoning	S.J. Harper	UF - Fallen Siren 2
Ghost Gone Wild (h2mm)	Carolyn Hart	PM - A Bailey Ruth Ghost Novel 4
Ghost Wanted	Carolyn Hart	PM - A Bailey Ruth Ghost Novel 5
Spark: A Novel	John Twelve Hawks	Th
Beyond This Horizon (ri)	Robert A. Heinlein	SF
Blood Debt (ri)	Tanya Huff	UF - Blood Books 5
Witch Lights (e)	Michael M. Hughes	H - Blackwater Lights Trilogy 2
Broken Soul	Faith Hunter	UF - Jane Yellowrock 8
To Love a King	Shona Husk	PNR - Court of Annwyn 3
The Madness of Cthulhu Anthology	S.T. Joshi (ed)	H - Anthology
A Midwinter's Tail	Sofie Kelly	PM - Magical Cats 6
Falling Sky (D)	Rajan Khanna	SF/Ap/PA
Bastion (h2mm)	Mercedes Lackey	F - Collegium Chronicles 5 / Valdemar
Closer to Home	Mercedes Lackey	F - Herald Spy 1
Ghost Phoenix (e)	Corrina Lawson	PNR - The Phoenix Institute 3
Ancillary Sword	Ann Leckie	SF - Imperial Radch 2
The Last Man Standing (h2tp)	Davide Longo	Dys
Princess Mononoke: The First Story	Hayao Miyazaki	F - Princess Mononoke
Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets : An Anthology of Holmesian Tales Across Time and Space	David Thomas Moore (ed)	SF/F - Anthology
The Dark Defiles	Richard K. Morgan	F - Land Fit for Heroes 3
Above (h2tp)	Isla Morley	Sus/H
The Wolves of London: The Obsidian Heart	Mark Morris	F - Obsidian Heart 1
Citadel (h2tp)	Kate Mosse	Th - Languedoc Trilogy 3
Valhalla	Robert J. Mrazek	Th
Brood	Chase Novak	Gothic
Living Language Dothraki: A Conversational Language Course Based on the Hit Original HBO Series Game of Thrones	David J. Peterson	F - Game of Thrones
The Undying (D)	Ethan Reid	Ap/Th
Orbs II: Stranded: A Science Fiction Thriller	Nicholas Sansbury Smith	SF/Th - Orbs 2
White Sands: An Orbs Prequel	Nicholas Sansbury Smith	SF - Orbs
We Are Not Good People	Jeff Somers	F - Ustari Cycle 2
Fearsome Magics: The New Solaris Book of Fantasy	Jonathan Strahan (ed)	F - Anthology
The Chaplain's War	Brad R Torgersen	SF - Chaplain's War 1
The Steampunk User's Manual: An Illustrated Practical and Whimsical Guide to Creating Retro-futurist Dreams	Jeff VanderMeer Desirina Boskovich	SP
The Mammoth Book of Steampunk Adventures	Sean Wallace (ed)	SP
Immorta1	J.R. Ward	PNR - Fallen Angels 6
A Call to Duty	David Weber Timothy Zahn	SF - Honorverse: Manticore Ascendant 1
The Way of Shadows: The Graphic Novel	Brent Weeks Ivan Brandon Andy MacDonald	F/GN - Night Angel Trilogy 1
Field of Fantasies: Baseball Stories of the Strange and Supernatural	Rick Wilber	F - Anthology
Unbinding	Eileen Wilks	UF - World of the Lupi 11
Knife Sworn (h2tp)	Mazarkis Williams	F - Tower and Knife Trilogy 2

October 8, 2014

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Lemongrass Hope (D)	Amy Impellizzeri	R/TT/MR
Lost Under a Ladder	Linda O. Johnston	PCM - A Superstition Mystery 1

October 9, 2014

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Timebomb (e)	Scott K. Andrews	TT - Timebomb Trilogy 1

D - Debut
e - eBook
h2mm - Hardcover to Mass Market Paperback
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
K e - Kindle eBook
ri - reissue or reprint


AH - Alternate History
Ap - Apocalyptic
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
H - Horror
HistF - Historical Fantasy
LC - Literary Criticism
MR - Magical Realism
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PCM - Paranormal Cozy Mystery
PM - Paranormal Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
R - Romance
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SP - Steampunk
Sus - Suspense
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy

James Tadd Adcox

Does Not Love
Curbside Splendor Publishing, October 14, 2014
Trade Paperback and eBook, 200 pages

Set in an archly comedic, alternate-reality Indianapolis that is completely overrun by Big Pharma, James Tadd Adcox's debut novel chronicles Robert and Viola's attempts to overcome loss through the miracles of modern pharmaceuticals. Their marriage crumbling after a series of miscarriages, Viola finds herself in an affair with the FBI agent who has recently appeared at her workplace, while her husband Robert becomes enmeshed in an elaborate conspiracy designed to look like a drug study.

Forrest Aguirre

Heraclix and Pomp: A Novel of the Fabricated and the Fey
Underland Press, October 7, 20114
Hardcover and eBook, 280 pages

Heraclix and Pomp, Aguirre’s first full-length novel, explores the ideas of identity and immortality through the eyes of a man-like golem and a time-bending fairy who can barely grasp the idea of now, much less the dangers of what’s to come.

Before being sewn-together, Heraclix was dead—merely a pile of mismatched pieces, collected from the corpses of many troubled men. And Pomp was immortal—at least, so she thought. That was before her impossible near-murder at the hands of the necromancer, Heraclix’s creator. But when playing God, even the smallest error is a gargantuan weakness. When the necromancer makes his, Heraclix and Pomp begin their epic flight.

As they travel from Vienna to Prague to Istanbul and, even, to Hell itself, they struggle to understand who and what they are: who was Heraclix before his death and rebirth? What is mortality, and why does it suddenly concern Pomp? As they journey through an unruly eighteenth century, they discover that the necromancer they thought dead might not be quite so after all. In fact, he may have sealed his immortality at the expense of everyone alive . . .

Heraclix and Pomp is a richly textured and decadent read, filled with Baroque ideology and Byzantine political intrigue. Fans of fantasy and historical fiction alike will revel in Aguirre’s layered prose and vivid characterizations. Heraclix and Pomp brings the surreal and the macabre to one of history’s most violent eras, and it does so in a voice sure to resonate among this season’s best new releases.

Rebecca Alexander

The Secrets of Life and Death
Broadway Books, October 7, 2014
Trade Paperback and eBook, 384 pages
(US Debut)

In modern day England, Professor Felix Guichard is called in to identify occult symbols found on the corpse of a young girl. His investigation brings him in contact with a mysterious woman, Jackdaw Hammond, who guards a monumental secret--She's Dead. Or she would be, were it not for magic which has artificially extended her life. But someone else knows her secret. Someone very old and very powerful, who won't rest until they've taken the magic that keeps her alive....

In Krakow in 1585, Dr John Dee, the Elizabethan Alchemist and Occultist, and his assistant Edward Kelley have been summoned by the King of Poland to save the life of his niece, the infamous Countess Elisabeth Bathory. But they soon realize that the only thing worse than the Countess' malady, is the magic that might be able to save her...

As Jackdaw and Felix race to uncover the truth about the person hunting her, it becomes clear that the answers they seek can only be found in the ancient diary of John Dee's assistant, Edward Kelley. Together they must solve a mystery centuries in the making, or die trying.

Trey Dowell

The Protectors
Simon 451, October 7, 2014
eBook, 240 pages

An enthralling debut, The Protectors offers a dark twist on the classic superhero story as fallen hero Scott McAlister embarks on a globe-hopping chase to stop his former teammate—and ex-lover—gone rogue.

Don’t call him a superhero.

Heroes change the world. Scott McAlister? On a good day, he manages to change out of sweatpants.

It wasn’t always like this. Scott used to be leader of the Protectors, the world’s one and only squad of superheroes. It was a decent gig, but far from the shiny force for good the UN advertised. He could abide the publicity stunts, the lies, the ham-fisted government handlers—but when one of the Protectors died under his command, it was too much. Wracked with guilt, Scott stepped down and into an early retirement.

Now, five years later, a desperate CIA chief shows up on Scott’s doorstep with a polite request and a cadre of shock troops to ensure that Scott accepts. His ex-teammate and ex-lover, Lyla Ravzi, has gone rogue. The former Protector has the ability to control minds, and she’s no longer interested in “protecting.” She wants world domination.

Scott’s mission is simple: Find Lyla and stop her. The messy little details are up to him. It’s the last thing Scott needs after five years spent trying to forget the Protectors and to get over Lyla, but the alternative is worse.

As he closes in on his target, Scott is forced to confront his past and face a chilling reality: Can he save the world and the woman he once loved? Or will he have to choose?

Alis Franklin

Liesmith
Wyrd 1
Hydra, October 7, 2014
eBook, 308 pages

At the intersection of the magical and the mundane, Alis Franklin’s thrilling debut novel reimagines mythology for a modern world—where gods and mortals walk side by side.

Working in low-level IT support for a company that’s the toast of the tech world, Sigmund Sussman finds himself content, if not particularly inspired. As compensation for telling people to restart their computer a few times a day, Sigmund earns enough disposable income to gorge on comics and has plenty of free time to devote to his gaming group.

Then in walks the new guy with the unpronounceable last name who immediately becomes IT’s most popular team member. Lain Laufeyjarson is charming and good-looking, with a story for any occasion; shy, awkward Sigmund is none of those things, which is why he finds it odd when Lain flirts with him. But Lain seems cool, even if he’s a little different—though Sigmund never suspects just how different he could be. After all, who would expect a Norse god to be doing server reboots?

As Sigmund gets to know his mysterious new boyfriend, fate—in the form of an ancient force known as the Wyrd—begins to reveal the threads that weave their lives together. Sigmund doesn’t have the first clue where this adventure will take him, but as Lain says, only fools mess with the Wyrd. Why? Because the Wyrd messes back.

Amy Impellizzeri

Lemongrass Hope
Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, October 8, 2014
Trade Paperback and eBook, 302 pages

Set in the past, and present, Lemongrass Hope is a captivating and unpredictable love story, with a dose of magical realism and time travel.

Lemongrass Hope weaves together ordinary lives and events to tell an extraordinary tale of connection, loss, renewal, and of course, hope.

As Kate Sutton’s decade-long marriage to Rob erodes and unravels, Kate fears that the secrets she guards from the world, including Rob’s emergency room proposal, and a whirlwind love affair from her past, have always doomed her fate. When she unwittingly receives a glimpse at what her life could have been like had she made different choices all those years ago, it is indeed all she could have ever wanted. A confirmation of her greatest hope, and her greatest fears.

Lemongrass Hope will draw you in with characters so relatable and real, you will cheer for them one moment and flinch the next. A tale that invites you to suspend disbelief—or perhaps decide to believe once and for all—in the potent power of love and connection over time and choice.

Oh, and the dress. There’s this lemongrass dress . . .

Rajan Khanna

Falling Sky
Pyr, October 7, 2014
Trade Paperback and eBook, 260 pages
Cover Artist: Chris McGrath

Ben Gold lives in dangerous times. Two generations ago, a virulent disease turned the population of most of North America into little more than beasts called Ferals. Some of those who survived took to the air, scratching out a living on airships and dirigibles soaring over the dangerous ground.

Ben has his own airship, a family heirloom, and has signed up to help a group of scientists looking for a cure. But that's not as easy as it sounds, especially with a power-hungry air city looking to raid any nearby settlements. To make matters worse, his airship, the only home he's ever known, is stolen. Ben must try to survive on the ground while trying to get his ship back.

This brings him to Gastown, a city in the air recently conquered by belligerent and expansionist pirates. When events turn deadly, Ben must decide what really matters-whether to risk it all on a desperate chance for a better future or to truly remain on his own.

Mike Meginnis

Fat Man and Little Boy
Black Balloon Publishing, October 14, 2014
Trade Paperback and eBook, 416 pages

Two bombs over Japan. Two shells.

One called Little Boy, one called Fat Man. Three days apart. The one implicit in the other.

Brothers.

The winner of the 2013 Horatio Nelson Fiction Prize, Fat Man and Little Boy pulses with magical realism in an unprecedented approach to its tragic subject matter.

In this powerful debut novel, the atomic bombs dropped on Japan are personified, born on impact as human beings—as a Fat Man and a Little Boy. Their small measure of humanity is a cruelty the brother bombs must suffer. Given life from death, they travel west from Japan to France and later to America. Their journey is one of surreal and unsettling discovery, and author Mike Meginnis transforms these symbols of mass destruction into beacons of longing and hope.

Ethan Reid

The Undying: An Apocalyptic Thriller
Simon451, October 7, 2014
eBook, 272 pages

THEY HAVE COME FROM THE STARS…
In this riveting apocalyptic thriller for fans of The Passage and The Walking Dead, a mysterious event plunges Paris into darkness and a young American must lead her friends to safety—and escape the ravenous “undying” who now roam the crumbling city.

Jeanie and Ben arrive in Paris just in time for a festive New Year’s Eve celebration with local friends. They eat and drink and carry on until suddenly, at midnight, all the lights go out. Everywhere they look, buildings and streets are dark, as though the legendary Parisian revelry has somehow short circuited the entire city.

By the next morning, all hell has broken loose. Fireballs rain down from the sky, the temperatures are rising, and people run screaming through the streets. Whatever has happened in Paris—rumors are of a comet striking the earth—Jeanie and Ben have no way of knowing how far it has spread, or how much worse it will get. As they attempt to flee the burning Latin Quarter—a harrowing journey that takes them across the city, descending deep into the catacombs, and eventually to a makeshift barracks at the Louvre Museum—Jeanie knows the worst is yet to come. So far, only she has witnessed pale, vampiric survivors who seem to exert a powerful hold on her whenever she catches them in her sights.

These cunning, ravenous beings will come to be known as les moribund—the undying—and their numbers increase by the hour. When fate places a newborn boy in her care, Jeanie will stop at nothing to keep the infant safe and get out of Paris—even if it means facing off against the moribund and leaving Ben—and any hope of rescue—behind.

Martin Rose

Bring Me Flesh, I'll Bring Hell: A Horror Novel
Talos, October 28, 2014
Trade Paperback and eBook, 232 pages

Vitus Adamson is falling apart. As a pre-deceased private investigator, he takes the prescription Atroxipine hourly to keep his undead body upright and functioning. Whenever he is injured, he seeks Niko, a bombshell mortician with bedroom eyes and a way with corpses, to piece him back together. Decomposition, however, is the least of his worries when two clients posing his most dangerous job yet appear at his door looking for their lost son.

Vitus is horrified to discover the photo of the couple's missing son is a picture-perfect reproduction of his long dead son. This leads him to question the events of his tormented past; he must face the possibility that the wife and child he believed he murdered ten years ago in a zombie-fugue have somehow survived . . . or is it just wishful thinking designed to pull him into an elaborate trap?

Unfolding like a classic film noir mixed with elements of a B-movie, Bring Me Flesh, I'll Bring Hell is an imaginative spin on the hard-boiled detective genre and a new twist on the zombie novel. In Vitus Adamson, you will find a protagonist you can care about and invest in as he takes you through his emotional journey of betrayal and quest for redemption.