The Great Geek Manual

New Releases

This is a great week for genre fans. I’m particularly excited about the Strange Brew anthology, which is from the same editor and authors of the Mean Streets anthology released in January. Not only is Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files one of the best on-going fantasy series out there, but Kat Richardson really hit her stride in the Mean Streets anthology and I’m looking forward to her newest story, as well.

Also worth noting is that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is finally being released as a paperback this week, though I honestly can’t imagine that there’s anyone left who doesn’t know how that series ends.

The Affinity Bridge by George Mann
Tor Books. (ISBN-13: 978-0765323200) Hardcover. Length: 336pp
Welcome to the bizarre and dangerous world of Victorian London, a city teetering on the edge of revolution. Its people are ushering in a new era of technology, dazzled each day by unfamiliar inventions. Airships soar in the skies over the city, while ground trains rumble through the streets and clockwork automatons are programmed to carry out menial tasks in the offices of lawyers, policemen, and journalists. But beneath this shiny veneer of progress lurks a sinister side.

Queen Victoria is kept alive by a primitive life-support system, while her agents, Sir Maurice Newbury and his delectable assistant Miss Veronica Hobbes, do battle with enemies of the crown, physical and supernatural. This time Newbury and Hobbes are called to investigate the wreckage of a crashed airship and its missing automaton pilot, while attempting to solve a string of strangulations attributed to a mysterious glowing policeman, and dealing with a zombie plague that is ravaging the slums of the capital.

Blood Colony by Tananarive Due
Washington Square Press. (ISBN-13: 978-0743287364) Paperback. Length: 432pp
Acclaimed for seven novels, ranging from supernatural thrillers to historical fiction, which have garnered her a multitude of fans and awards, Tananarive Due now imagines the story of an ancient group of immortals — a hidden African clan that has survived for more than a thousand years — facing one of the most challenging issues of our time: the AIDS/HIV pandemic.

There’s a new drug on the street: Glow. Said to heal almost any illness, it is distributed by an Underground Railroad of drug peddlers. But what gives Glow its power? Its main ingredient is blood — the blood of immortals. A small but powerful colony of immortals is distributing the blood, slowly wiping out the AIDS epidemic and other diseases around the world. Reprint.

Blue Moon: The Immortals by Alyson Noel
St. Martin’s Griffin. (ISBN-13: 978-0312532765) Paperback. Length: 304pp
Just as Ever is learning everything she can about her new abilities as an immortal, initiated into the dark, seductive world by her beloved Damen, something terrible is happening to him. As Ever’s powers are increasing, Damen’s are fading—stricken by a mysterious illness that threatens his memory, his identity, his life.

Desperate to save him, Ever travels to the mystical dimension of Summerland, uncovering not only the secrets of Damen’s past—the brutal, tortured history he hoped to keep hidden—but also an ancient text revealing the workings of time. With the approaching blue moon heralding her only window for travel, Ever is forced to decide between turning back the clock and saving her family from the accident that claimed them—or staying in the present and saving Damen, who grows weaker each day…

The Cerulean Storm: Prism Pentad by Troy Denning
Wizards of the Coast. (ISBN-13: 978-0786950614) Paperback. Length: 352pp
Book 5 of the Pentad. Athas, world of the dark sun: Ruled for thousands of years by power-mad sorcerer-kings, its cities have become vile centers of slavery and corruption. Only heroes of the greatest strength and bravest heart can stand against the might of these overlords. The Prism Pentad is a tale of such heroes.

Rajaat, the First Sorcerer, betrayed by his champions at the moment of his paramount victory, has been imprisoned beyond space and time, but he alone can return Athas to its verdant splendor. Reprint.

By Heresies Distressed by David Weber
Tor Books. (ISBN-13: 978-0765315038) Hardcover. Length: 496pp
The Kingdom of Charis and the Kingdom of Chisholm have joined together, pledged to stand against the tyranny of a corrupt Church. The youthful Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm has wed King Cayleb of Charis, forging a single dynasty, a single empire, dedicated to the defense of human freedom. Crowned Empress of that empire, Sharleyan has found in Cayleb’s arms the love she never dared hope for in a “marriage of state.” In Cayleb’s cause, his defiance of the ruthless Group of Four who govern mother Church, she has found the task to which she can commit her mind and her courage. It is a cause for which she was born.

Yet there are things Sharleyan still does not know. Secrets Cayleb has not been permitted to share, even with her. Secrets like the true story of humanity on Safehold. Like the intricate web of lies, deception, and fabricated “religion” which have chained humanity for almost a thousand years. Like the existence of the genocidal alien Gbaba, waiting to complete mankind’s destruction should humans ever attract their attention once more. Like the existence of a young woman, Nimue Alban, nine hundred years dead, whose heart, mind, and memories live on within the android body of the warrior-monk she knows as Merlin.

Eye of the Storm by John Ringo
Baen. (ISBN-13: 978-1439132739) Hardcover. Length: 432pp
In an instant the world changed for Lieutenant General Michael O’Neal. His beloved Corps of the last remaining ACS destroyed beneath the guns of the Fleet, his staff shot before his eyes, arrested on the charge of war crimes, he faces a short, one-sided, trial, a trip to the Fleet Penal Facility and a bullet to the back of the head while trying to ‘escape.’

General Tam Wesley faces trying one of the most beloved heroes in Federation, not to mention a friend of decades, on trumped up charges. He alternative is having the last corps of humans that haven’t sold their souls to the Darhel be taken apart like a chicken. Then he finds out the bad news…

With a new invasion from a previously unknown race threatening the Federation capital, Darhel Tir Dal Ron faces his ultimate nightmare: He is going to have to reinstate the one man human soldiers trust, a man with the power and knowledge to destroy the Darhel oligarchy forever. And instead convince him, against all logic, to save the Darhel. Somebody is going to die. General Michael O’Neal, Supreme Commander, Federation Forces, just has to pick.

The House of Lost Souls by F.G. Cottam, Thomas Dunne
Thomas Dunne Books. (ISBN-13: 978-0312544324) Hardcover. Length: 352pp
Just weeks after four students cross the threshold of the derelict Fischer House, one of them has committed suicide and the other three are descending into madness.

Nick Mason’s sister is one of them. To save her, Nick must join ranks with Paul Seaton—the only person to have visited the house and survive. But Paul is a troubled man, haunted by otherworldly visions that even now threaten his sanity.

Desperate, Nick forces Paul to go back into the past, to the secret journal of beautiful photographer Pandora Gibson-Hoare and a debauched gathering in the 1920s, and to the dark legacy of Klaus Fischer—master of the unspeakable crime and demonic proceedings that have haunted the mansion for decades.

Because now, the Fischer House is beckoning, and some old friends have gathered to welcome Paul back. . . .

King’s Shield by Sherwood Smith
DAW Hardcover. (ISBN-13: 978-0756405007) Hardcover. Length: 608pp
The third book in the Inda quartet. Inda, on the verge of adulthood, is at last coming home. At age eleven he’d been exiled from his kingdom, but when he learns that his homeland is about to be invaded, he ends his exile to report the imminent attack. Pressed into service as the king’s “royal shield arm,” Inda must now defend the kingdom—for his reputation as the captain who defeated the most dangerous pirate fleet in history makes him the only man who stands a chance to defeat his country’s ancient enemy.

The Pirate King by R.A. Salvatore
Wizards of the Coast. (ISBN-13: 978-0786951444) Paperback. Length: 416pp
The Arcane Brotherhood has long held the city of Luskan in their power, but when corruption eats away at their ranks, Captain Deudermont comes to the rescue of a city that has become a safe haven for the Sword Coast’s most dangerous pirates. But rescuing a city from itself may not be as easy as Deudermont thinks, and when Drizzt can’t talk him out of it, he’ll be forced to help. Reprint.

Drizzt is back in action again, and bringing more changes to the Forgotten Realms setting. This all new hardcover adventure will keep Drizzt fans guessing the whole way, with edge-of-your-seat action and plot twists that even the most casual reader of the Forgotten Realms novel line can’t afford to miss!

Riders of the Storm by Julie E. Czerneda
DAW. (ISBN-13: 978-0756405618) Paperback. Length: 480pp
The second book in the Stratification series. Continuing the story of the origins of the Clan and their discovery of how to travel through and draw upon the power of the M’hir, Riders of the Storm focuses on Om’ray Aryl Sac, who is gifted with this forbidden Talent. Aryl and her companions have found a new home in the mountains, but before long, their haven becomes a magnet for conflict. Reprint.

While trying to rebuild the divided village of Sona, Aryl must also safeguard the secret of her Talent from other arriving Om’ray who seek to use her power. Aryl becomes Clan Speaker to negotiate the peace, but tensions escalate, blood is spilled, and her fate—as well as Sona’s—hangs in the balance.

Rift in the Sky by Julie E. Czerneda
DAW Hardcover. (ISBN-13: 978-0756405601) Hardcover. Length: 432pp
The third book in the Stratification series. Despite all good intentions, the lure of the Talent to move through space using the M’hir dimension is too much for the Om’ray of Cersi to resist. As the awareness of this talent spreads, all those Om’ray who are capable converge on the settlement at Sona. To prevent the disruption of the Agreement and the destruction that it would unleash, the M’hiray, as they now call themselves, agree to leave Cersi forever and try to establish their own haven within the Trade Pact worlds—only to learn that not everybody wants peace.

Seeker’s Bane by P.C. Hodgell
Baen. (ISBN-13: 978-1439132975) Paperback. Length: 896pp
After an epic adventure that will become the stuff of legend, Jame has been reunited with her older brother Torisen and with her people, the Kencyrath. But when she is placed in the Women’s Halls and expected to become a normal, quiet Kencyr lady, normal and quiet are not what the Women’s Halls are going to get. Shadow Guild Assassins, ghosts, and other strange beings are soon after her, sprung not only from her own adventurous past but from the tragic, mysterious events that nearly annihilated her family in her father’s time.

Skinwalker by Faith Hunter
Roc. (ISBN-13: 978-0451462800) Hardcover. Length: 336pp
First in a brand new series from the author of the rogue mage novels

Jane Yellowrock is the last of her kind—a skinwalker of Cherokee descent who can turn into any creature she desires and hunts vampires for a living. But now she’s been hired by Katherine Fontaneau, one of the oldest vampires in New Orleans and the madam of Katie’s Ladies, to hunt a powerful rogue vampire who’s killing other vamps…

Strange Brew edited by P. N. Elrod
St. Martin’s Griffin. (ISBN-13: 978-0312383367) Paperback. Length: 384pp
Today’s hottest urban fantasy authors come together in this delicious brew that crackles and boils over with tales of powerful witches and dark magic!

In Charlaine Harris’ “Bacon,” a beautiful vampire joins forces with a witch from an ancient line to find out who killed her beloved husband. In “Seeing Eye” by Patricia Briggs, a blind witch helps sexy werewolf Tom Franklin find his missing brother—and helps him in more ways than either of them ever suspected. And in Jim Butcher’s “Last Call,” wizard Harry Dresden takes on the darkest of dark powers—the ones who dare to mess with this favorite beer.

Winter Duty by E.E. Knight
Roc Hardcover. (ISBN-13: 978-0451462749) Hardcover. Length: 352pp
Major David Valentine and his fugitive battalion are the remnants of an expeditionary force shattered in its long retreat from disaster in the Appalachians. Between a raging blizzard, bands of headhunters, and the need to recover wounded soldiers lost during the retreat, Valentine is in for the toughest winter of his life.

And Valentine is losing allies fast. Some of the clans in the region have declared themselves in favor of the Kurians, throwing Kentucky into civil war. But the Kurian overlords have determined that the region isn’t worth the effort of another conquest. Their order: extermination.

Wireless by Charles Stross
Ace Hardcover. (ISBN-13: 978-0441017195) Hardcover. Length: 368pp
Prolific novelist Stross pauses to collect short stories that have not (yet) been stitched up into his longer work. Stories that move the U.S.–U.S.S.R. conflict onto a massive disk in another galaxy (Locus Award–winner Missile Gap), offer a spam-filter solution to the Fermi paradox (MAXOS) and suggest clever bargains with the devil in a newly frozen Scotland (Snowball’s Chance) demonstrate Stross’s ability to crisscross genres, blending SF, fantasy, horror and espionage. He also pays homage to his literary forebears, combining Lovecraft and the Iran-Contra scandal (The Colder War) and bringing in Carl Sagan and Stephen Jay Gould as characters. Though individual pieces are well-done and deservedly popular, the collection has an overall sense of early drafts and reworkings of other pieces, as with Trunk and Disorderly, a P.G. Wodehouse–on–Mars test run for 2008′s Saturn’s Children.

Zadayi Red by Caleb Fox
Tor Books. (ISBN-13: 978-0765319920) Hardcover. Length: 352pp
A young Shaman of the Galayi people has had a powerful and frightening vision: it is of the Eagle Feather Cape, the gift of the Thunderbird, which is worn by the Seer of the People to see the future and gain the guidance of the gods. The cape is torn and bloody, and it will no longer bring visions to the Seer of the People. But the Shaman’s vision also tells her of the cure: a child will be born to the People, a hero who will restore the cape and return the goodwill of the gods to the People.

Dahzi may be that hero, if he can survive the hatred of his grandfather. He was born after his mother’s death, as she fled from her father’s anger. But Dahzi carries the hope of all of his People, along with the power to become a great Chief. He will be tested–by his family, by his people, and by the Gods.