"Contagious" by Scott Sigler. Release Date: December 30, 2008. Published by Crown.
 From
the acclaimed author of "Infected" comes an epic and exhilarating story of humanity's
secret battle against a horrific enemy…
Across America, a mysterious pathogen transforms ordinary people into raging killers, psychopaths driven by a terrifying, alien agenda. The human race fights back, yet after every battle the disease responds, adapts, using sophisticated strategies and brilliant ruses to fool its pursuers. The only possible explanation: the epidemic is driven not by evolution but by some malevolent intelligence.
Standing against this unimaginable threat is a small group, assembled under the strictest secrecy. Their best weapon is hulking former football star Perry Dawsey, left psychologically shattered by his own struggles with this terrible enemy, who possesses an unexplainable ability to locate the disease's hosts. Violent and unpredictable, Perry is both the nation's best hope and a terrifying liability. Hardened CIA veteran Dew Phillips must somehow forge a connection with him if they're going to stand a chance against this maddeningly adaptable opponent. Alongside them is Margaret Montoya, a brilliant epidemiologist who fights for a cure even as she reels under the weight of endless horrors.
These three and their team have kept humanity in the game, but that's not good enough anymore, not when the disease turns contagious, triggering a fast countdown to Armageddon. Meanwhile, other enemies join the battle, and a new threat-one that comes from a most unexpected source-may ultimately prove the most dangerous of all…
 "Twelve"
by Jasper Kent. UK Release Date: January 1, 2009. Published by Bantam Press UK.
The voordalak-a creature of legend; tales of which have terrified Russian children for generations. But for Captain Aleksei Ivanonvich Danilov-a child of more enlightened times-it is a legend that has long been forgotten. Besides, in the autumn of 1812, he faces a more tangible enemy-the Grande Armée of Napoleon Bonaparte.
City after city has fallen to the advancing French, and now it seems that only a miracle will keep them from Moscow itself. In desperation, Aleksei and his comrades enlist the help of the Oprichniki-a group of twelve mercenaries from the furthest reaches of Christian Europe-who claim that they can turn the tide of the war. It seems an idle boast, but the Russians soon discover that the Oprichniki are indeed quite capable of fulfilling their promise.
Unnerved by the fact that so few can accomplish so much, Aleksei remembers those childhood stories of the voordalak. And as he comes to understand the true, horrific nature of these twelve strangers, he realizes that they've unleashed a nightmare in their midst…
 "The
Hoard of Mhorrer" by M.F.W. Curran. UK Release Date: January 2, 2009. Published
by Pan Macmillan New Writing. The Secret War continues. . .
Prepare to confront the incarnation of evil. It is 1820 and the world is on the brink.
A fearless cohort of soldier-monks, led by Lieutenant Williams Saxon, has been dispatched to Egypt on the most important mission in history. For thousands of years a great secret has been kept: a stockpile of appalling malevolence, which, if let loose, will plunge the world into eternal damnation. This is the Hoard of Mhorrer. The soldiers must find and destroy the Hoard before the demonic agents of the evil Count Ordrane of Draak locate it.
In a heart-stopping race against time, ranging from Papal Rome to the desolate heart of Egypt's Sinai peninsula, the soldiers must battle murderous militiamen and pitiless daemons, and finally, terrifyingly, the bloodthirsty Guardians of the Horde.
If William and his men succeed, the clandestine war between Heaven and Hell will at last begin to favor the forces of light. But if they fail, and the agents of Hell claim the Hoard, then they will unleash an army of invincible daemons, and humankind-what is left of it-will come to know the true meaning of evil…
 "Beat
the Reaper" by Josh Bazell. US Release Date: January 7, 2009. Published by Little,
Brown and Company. UK Release Date: February 5, 2009. Published by William Heinemann
Ltd.
In this wild and hilarious debut thriller, a doctor with a past, a secret, and a gun has 24 hours to save himself and beat the reaper…
Meet Peter Brown, a young Manhattan emergency room doctor with an unusual past that is just about to catch up with him. His morning begins with the quick disarming of a would-be mugger, followed by a steamy elevator encounter with a sexy young pharmaceutical rep, topped off by a visit with a new patient-and from there Peter's day is going to get a whole lot worse and a whole lot weirder, because that patient knows Peter from his other life . . . when he had a different name and a very different job. The only reason he's a doctor now is thanks to the Witness Protection Program-and even that can't protect him from the long reach of the New Jersey mob. Now he's got to do whatever it takes to keep his patient alive so he can buy some time . . . and beat the reaper.
Not only will "Beat the Reaper" be compared to Quentin Tarantino's films, Grey's Anatomy, and Chuck Palahniuk, it's also the most original and entertaining debut thriller you'll read this year and announces the arrival of a writer in the spirit of Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen, Jeff Lindsay, and the aforementioned Chuck Palahniuk.
Josh Bazell has a BA in writing from Brown University and a MD from Columbia University. He is currently a medical resident at the University of California, San Francisco, and is working on his second novel. "Beat the Reaper" is Josh's first novel and has already sold in over twenty countries, with sales totalling more than one million dollars.
 "The
Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death" by Charlie Huston. Release Date: January
13, 2009. Published by Ballantine Books.
Los Angeles Times bestselling and critically acclaimed author Charlie Huston has become a favorite of booksellers and reviewers alike having crafted a classic 'wrong man' conceit in the Henry Thompson trilogy, twisted the vampire tale in the Joe Pitt series, and having turned the coming-of-age story upside down in The Shotgun Rule. Now Huston is back and at his gritty, suspenseful and wickedly comic best with "The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death"…
A white-knuckle thriller set in Los Angeles, "The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death" is populated by the author's trademark mile-a-minute dialogue and introduces us to another one-of-a-kind character, Webster Filmore Goodhue.
Web Goodhue is quite possibly the least likely person in Los Angeles County to be working with a crime scene clean-up crew. After all, not only is he a disaffected slacker with no ambition, thanks to a recently suffered traumatic event he also has a weak stomach. But when his only friend in the world lets him know that his freeloading days are over, he finds himself in a pinch and joins the large and stressed-out Po Sin and the odd and dangerous Gabe on their daily rounds, reporting to the homes of the recently deceased to scrub and spray and bag.
Then this already screwed up situation gets weirder when the daughter of a Malibu suicide they've only just mopped up asks Web for a favor: her brother's in trouble and they could use somebody who knows how to clean up a mess. Every living cell in Web's brain is telling him he should turn her down, but something keeps him on the phone. The way he made her laugh. The desperate tone to her voice. Something. But whatever it is, he offers a hand. And in no time at all he finds himself in way over his head, getting his face kicked in, facing down some gun-toting L.A. cowboys, hanging on for dear life. And that's only the beginning…
 "Eagle
Rising" by David Devereux. UK Release Date: January 22, 2009. Published by Gollancz.
"My name is unimportant, but you can call me Jack. I'm a musician by choice, a magician by profession, and a bastard by disposition. I'd been doing the magic thing for about five years when they found me. They said I had a talent, that I was smart enough and fit enough and enough of a shit that I could serve my country in a way most people never even get to hear about. And I did want to serve my country, didn't I? I didn't really want to contemplate what might happen if I said no."
Jack's back! And this time he must face a terrifying supernatural threat from Europe's recent past…
"Eagle Rising" takes Jack to the rotten heart of big business and the dark secrets of a neo-nazi magical sect intent on giving the world back to a terror from the darkest days of the 1940s. Jack must infiltrate the closed corridors of big business and reach the core of a conspiracy amongst some of the most high-powered city executives in the country-a cabal of business men with occult interests and an insane hunger for the return of an old and dark order…
 "The
Sharing Knife: Horizon" by Lois McMaster Bujold. Release Date: January 27, 2009.
Published by EOS Books.
When Dag Redwing Hickory rescued Fawn Bluefield from a vicious malice attack, neither expected to fall in love. Nor did they plan to marry, collect a motley band of followers, or travel down the river to the sea, saving each other from dangers both magical and human.
Now at the end of their river journey, Dag and Fawn must retrace their steps . . . if only they knew where they were headed. As Dag's magical abilities have grown, so has his concern about who-or what-he is becoming. Apprenticed to a master groundsetter in a southern Lakewalker camp, Dag learns to harness his powers, even as he grows frustrated with the camp's rigid mores that adversely affect Fawn.
But the world as Dag and Fawn know it is changing, and the traditional Lakewalker ways cannot hold every malice at bay forever. When the couple and a small band of friends and followers resume their journey north, they will be confronted by Dag's biggest fear and worst nightmare: a malice that grew unnoticed, and may now be too strong to control…
 "Last
Watch" by Sergei Lukyanenko. Release Date: January 27, 2009 (US Debut). Published
by Miramax Books/Hyperion.
Part fantasy, and part detective potboiler, the Night Watch series is the most successful science fiction series of all time in Russia, and a true international sensation. In "Night Watch", Sergei Lukyanenko introduced the Others, an ancient race of humans with supernatural powers, who must swear allegiance to either the Dark or the Light. The agents of Light-the Night Watch-oversee nocturnal activity, while their Dark counterparts cover the daytime. That first novel-about a Night Watch agent named Anton who stumbles upon an Other with magnificent and terrifying potential-received significant attention and was made into a film regarded as the first Russian blockbuster.
Now, in the breathtaking final novel in the series, Anton is sent on a mission that takes him from Edinburgh to Uzbekistan to Moscow and back again, as a murder investigation spirals into a larger, more complex, and more terrifying threat than the world has ever faced…
Sergei Lukyanenko was born in Kazakhstan and educated as a psychiatrist. He began publishing science fiction in the 1980s and has published more than twenty-five books. The three previous volumes of the Night Watch series have sold more than two million copies worldwide.
NOTE: "Last Watch", first published in 2006 in Russia, was released in the UK on November 6, 2008 and Canada on November 25, 2008.
 "Kitty
and the Dead Man's Hand" by Carrie Vaughn. Release Date: January 27, 2009. Published
by Grand Central Publishing.
Already the alpha pair of Denver's werewolf pack, Kitty and Ben now plan to tie the knot human-style by eloping to Vegas. Kitty is looking forward to sipping fru-fru drinks by the pool and doing her popular radio show on live TV, but her hotel is stocked with werewolf-hating bounty hunters.
Elsewhere on the Strip, an old-school magician might be wielding the real thing; the vampire community is harboring a dark secret; and the irresistible star of a suspicious animal act is determined to seduce Kitty. Sin City has never been so wild, and this werewolf has never had to fight harder to save not only her wedding, but her very life…
"Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand" is the fifth novel in Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville urban fantasy series after Kitty and the Midnight Hour (2005), Kitty Goes to Washington (2006), Kitty Takes a Holiday (2007), and Kitty and the Silver Bullet (2008). Book six, "Kitty Raises Hell", comes out
 "Dragon
In Chains" by Daniel Fox. Release Date: January 27, 2009. Published by Del Rey.
From award-winning author Daniel Fox comes a ravishingly written epic of revolution and romance set in a world where magic is found in stone and in water, in dragons and in men-and in the chains that bind them…
Deposed by a vicious usurper, a young emperor flees with his court to the small island of Taishu. There, with a dwindling army, a manipulative mother, and a resentful population-and his only friend a local fishergirl he takes as a concubine-he prepares for his last stand.
In the mountains of Taishu, a young miner finds a huge piece of jade, the potent mineral whose ingestion can gift the emperor with superhuman attributes. Setting out to deliver the stone to the embattled emperor, Yu Shan finds himself changing into something more than human, something forbidden.
Meanwhile, a great dragon lies beneath the strait that separates Taishu from the mainland, bound by chains that must be constantly renewed by the magic of a community of monks. When the monks are slaughtered by a willful pirate captain, a maimed slave assumes the terrible burden of keeping the dragon subdued. If he should fail, if she should rise free, the result will be slaughter on an unimaginable scale.
Now the prisoner beneath the sea and the men and women above it will shatter old bonds of loyalty and love and forge a common destiny from the ruins of an empire…
 "The
Domino Men" by Jonathan Barnes. Release Date: January 27, 2009 (US Debut). Published
by William Morrow. All is not well in the house of Windsor…
More than a century ago, Queen Victoria made a Faustian bargain with a nefarious
entity. Now the bill-all the souls of London-is due. When young filing clerk
Henry Lamb is pulled into the Directorate's secret war against the House of
Windsor, nothing is as it seems.
His grandfather was a spy, his office mate has a nefarious agenda, and something
evil lurks in the cellar beneath 10 Downing Street-two grown men who dress like
schoolboys, and seem strangely familiar. And then things get really odd…
In the sequel to the crazed Victoriana of "The Somnambulist", the imaginative
and brilliant Jonathan Barnes brings his invention, satire, and curiosities
up-to-date in an addicting-and Lovecraftian-spy thriller full of eccentricity
and intrigue…
 "Bone
Crossed" by Patricia Briggs. US Release Date: February 3, 2009. Published by Ace
Books. UK Release Date: February 5, 2009. Published by Orbit Books.
Car mechanic and sometime shapeshifter Mercy Thompson has learned, the hard way, why her race was almost exterminated. When European vampires immigrated to North America, they found Mercy's people had a hidden talent-for vampire slaying.
Unfortunately for Mercy, the queen of the local vampire seethe has discovered her true identity. She's also furious when she learns Mercy has crossed her and killed one of her vampires. Mercy may be protected from direct reprisals by the werewolf pack-and her interesting relationship with its Alpha-but that just means Marsilia will come after Mercy some other way. So Mercy had better prepare to watch her back…
"Bone Crossed" is the fourth Mercy Thompson novel after "Moon Called", "Blood Bound" and "Iron Kissed".
 "The
Vampire Maker" by Michael Schiefelbein. Release Date: February 3, 2009. Published
by St. Martin's Press. Victor Decimus-2,000 year old vampire and vampire-maker-returns,
in his most compelling conflict to date…
Victor Decimus has been a vampire for over 2,000 years. Once a Roman Legionnaire, for millennia Victor has remained a step or two ahead of rivals, would-be executioners, and the mysterious Dark Kingdom, which sets the rules for vampires' existence. Having left New York and his lover Paul Lewis, the vampire he made then abandoned to escape the vengeance of the Dark Kingdom, Victor sets himself up again-with his thrall-in New Orleans.
But in New Orleans, his thrall becomes the point of a new, larger conflict. On the one hand, a local priest seeks to break Victor's hold over the thrall; on the other, the Dark Kingdom fears that Victor is going to become a Vampire Maker-one who continually creates new vampires, while refusing to take his place on the next plane of existence and thus creating an imbalance in the powers of the universe. And between both walks Victor-determined to have his own way and exert control, remains defiant to the end…
Michael Schiefelbein is the author of six books, including the Lambda Literary Award-nominated novels "Vampire Vow" and "Vampire Thrall".
 "The
Walls of the Universe" by Paul Melko. Release Date: February 3, 2009. Published
by Tor Books.
John Rayburn thought all of his problems were the mundane ones of an Ohio farm
boy in his last year in high school.
Then his doppelgänger appeared, tempted him with a device that let him travel
across worlds, and stole his life from him. John soon finds himself caroming
through universes, unable to return home-the device is broken. John settles
in a new universe to unravel its secrets and fix it.
Meanwhile, his doppelgänger tries to exploit the commercial technology he's
stolen from other Earths: the Rubik's Cube! John's attempts to lie low in his
new universe backfire when he inadvertently introduces pinball. It becomes a
huge success. Both actions draw the notice of other, more dangerous travelers,
who are exploiting worlds for ominous purposes. Fast-paced and exciting, "The
Walls of the Universe" is SF adventure at its best from rising star, Paul Melko
(Singularity's Ring)…
 "The
Séance" by John Harwood. Release Date: February 3, 2009 (US Debut). Published
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
A haunting tale of apparitions, a cursed manor house, and two generations of women determined to discover the truth, by the author of the 2004 International Horror Guild Award-winning "The Ghost Writer"…
"Sell the Hall unseen; burn it to the ground and plow the earth with salt, if you will; but never live there . . ."
Constance Langton grows up in a household marked by death, her father distant, her mother in perpetual mourning for Constance's sister, the child she lost. Desperate to coax her mother back to health, Constance takes her to a séance: perhaps she will find comfort from beyond the grave. But the meeting has tragic consequences. Constance is left alone, her only legacy a mysterious bequest that will blight her life.
So begins "The Séance", John Harwood's brilliant second novel, a gripping, dark mystery set in late-Victorian England. It is a world of apparitions, of disappearances and unnatural phenomena, of betrayal and blackmail and black-hearted villains-and murder. For Constance's bequest comes in two parts: a house and a mystery. Years before, a family disappeared at Wraxford Hall, a decaying mansion in the English countryside with a sinister reputation. Now the Hall belongs to Constance. And she must descend into the darkness at the heart of the Wraxford Mystery to find the truth, even at the cost of her life…
 "Dexter
By Design" by Jeff Lindsay. UK Release Date: February 5, 2009. Published by Orion.
Being a blood spatter analyst who hates the sight of blood has always made Dexter's work for the Miami PD tough. But it means he's very neat when it comes to his out-of-hours hobby: murder. Of course, the fact Dexter only kills bad people helps too.
Now Dex is facing a disturbing situation. He's used to blood at work, and blood when he's out with the dark passenger-the voice that guides him on his deadly outings. But he's not sure what to make of the man who says blood is art. Using bodies as his canvas, someone is out there expressing themselves in the most lethal and painful of ways.
If Dexter is to escape the scalpel and avoid becoming the latest exhibit, he needs somewhere to run . . . and he might just have found the perfect place. With his wedding looming, completing his nice-guy disguise, Dexter's honeymoon might just save his skin…
NOTE: "Dexter By Design" is the fourth Dexter novel after "Darkly Dreaming Dexter", "Dearly Devoted Dexter" and "Dexter in the Dark".
 "The
Rise of the Iron Moon" by Stephen Hunt. UK Release Date: February 9, 2009. Published
by Voyager.
From the author of "The Court of the Air" and "The Kingdom Beyond the Waves" comes a thrilling new adventure set in the same Victorian-style world…
Born into captivity as a product of the Royal Breeding House, friendless orphan Purity Drake suddenly finds herself on the run with a foreign vagrant from the North after accidentally killing one of her guards. Her strange rescuer claims he is on the run himself from terrible forces who mean to enslave the Kingdom of Jackals as they conquered his own nation.
Purity doubts his story, until reports begin to filter through from Jackals' neighbours of the terrible Army of Shadows, marching across the continent and sweeping all before them. But there's more to Purity than meets the eye.
As Jackals girds itself for war against an army of near-unkillable beasts serving an ancient evil with a terrible secret, it soon becomes clear that their only hope is a strange little royalist girl and the last, desperate plan of an escaped slave…
 "Tuck"
by Stephen R. Lawhead. Release Date: February 10, 2009. Published by Thomas Nelson.
UK Release Date: April 2, 2009. Published by Atom Books.
For centuries, the legend of Robin Hood and his band of thieves has captivated the imagination. Now, the old familiar tale takes on new life, fresh meaning, and an unexpected setting…
As King Raven, Bran ap Brychan is Lord of the Forest. But his true crown seems out of reach. Bran is still fighting to bring his people justice from the shadows of the green wood. But Abbot Hugo is used to playing the long game and has been watching-and learning.
Abbot Hugo plans to bring the invading Norman marchogi to the forest in force, heralding the start of a campaign to wipe out King Raven and his band once and for all. Their merciless attack, the first of many, marks a dark day for the realm. And the dream of seeing a true king take the throne of Elfael seems increasingly remote. Bran and his few stalwarts desperately need encouragement and reinforcement if they are to survive. Friar Tuck, a most unconventional priest, may just have a solution to their dilemma…
"Tuck" is the conclusion to Stephen R. Lawhead's King Raven Trilogy.
 "Hater"
by David Moody. US Release Date: February 17, 2009. Published by Thomas Dunne
Books. UK Release Date: February 19, 2009. Published by Gollancz.
A man stops in fear and terror in a city crowd and suddenly lunges at a complete stranger, stabbing her to death with the end of his umbrella. A teenage girl stares at her best friend in frightened loathing and without warning, kills her. Seemingly without provocation a man strangles his wife of more than thirty years, with his bathrobe sash. Called "Haters" by the media, these attackers strike without warning in an escalating crescendo of inexplicable violence. In seconds, rational, normal people become remorseless killers. Anyone-or everyone- can become a victim-or a Hater.
When mortal terror roams abroad-what happens to a society? When neighbor fears neighbor, when no one knows whether he may be killed or become a killer-who is safe? And who can be trusted?
In the tradition of H.G. Wells and Anthony Burgess, with the punch of recent hits like World War Z, I Am Legend, and the 28 Days Later film series, this is one man's story of his place in a world gone mad-a world infected with fear, violence and hate. "Hater" reads like a roller coaster ride through hell, stopping long enough to call into question the issues of trust and fear that can build and destroy civilizations…
David Moody self-published "Hater" in 2006 and sold the film rights to director/producer Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy 1 & 2, Pan's Labyrinth, The Hobbit) and producer Mark Johnson (The Chronicles of Narnia) without an agent. With the official publication of "Hater", David is poised to make a significant mark as a writer of "farther out" genre books of all description.
"The Manual of Detection" by Jedediah Berry. Release Date: February 19, 2009. Published by Penguin Press. UK Release Date: March 5, 2009.
 Published
by William Heinemann Ltd. In this tightly plotted yet mind-expanding debut novel,
an unlikely detective, armed only with an umbrella and a singular handbook, must
untangle a string of crimes committed in and through people's dreams…
In an unnamed city always slick with rain, Charles Unwin toils as a clerk at a huge, imperious detective agency. All he knows about solving mysteries comes from the reports he's filed for the illustrious detective, Travis Sivart. When Sivart goes missing and his supervisor turns up murdered, Unwin is suddenly promoted to detective, a rank for which he lacks both the skills and the stomach. His only guidance comes from his new assistant-who would be perfect if she weren't so sleepy-and from the pithy yet profound Manual of Detection (think The Art of War as told to Damon Runyon).
Unwin mounts his search for Sivart, but is soon framed for murder, pursued by goons and gunmen, and confounded by the infamous femme fatale Cleo Greenwood. Meanwhile, strange and troubling questions proliferate: why does the mummy at the Municipal Museum have modern-day dental work? Where have all the city's alarm clocks gone? Why is Unwin's copy of the manual missing Chapter 18?
When he discovers that Sivart's greatest cases-including the Three Deaths of Colonel Baker and the Man Who Stole November 12th-were solved incorrectly, Unwin must enter the dreams of a murdered man and face a criminal mastermind bent on total control of a slumbering city…
"The Manual of Detection" will draw comparison to every work of imaginative fiction that ever blew a reader's mind-from Carlos Ruiz Zafón to Jorge Luis Borges, from The Big Sleep to The Yiddish Policeman's Union. But, ultimately, it defies comparison and is a brilliantly conceived, meticulously realized novel that will change what you think about how you think.
"The Caryatids" by Bruce Sterling. Release Date: February 24, 2009. Published by Del Rey.
 In
the vein of William Gibson's Pattern Recognition and Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash,
The Caryatids looks at the near future and forecasts not just problems, but incredible
solutions using technology currently under development.
The caryatids are three identical clone sisters: Vera, a pollution expert who's dealing with worldwide cleanup efforts; Mila, media star extraordinaire and member of the most powerful family-firm in southern California; and Sonja, a medical specialist stationed deep within China's Gobi Desert. All three have the brains and the talents desperately needed to save a world suffering from global warming, runaway pollution, and uncontrolled political maneuvering. Too bad their explosive family history has left them hating each other…
"A tour de force. . . . Of all the horde of SF novels about clones written since that trope was pulled mewling from its artificial womb, Caryatids is the first one that nails it."-Benjamin Rosenbaum, author of The Ant King: and Other Stories
Bruce Sterling is the Hugo Award-winning author of ten novels, three of which were selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. A renowned futurist, he has delivered keynote speeches to, or served on the boards of, such diverse organizations as NASA, the Institute for New Cultures Technology in Vienna, and the MIT Media Lab. He has written for many magazines, including Newsweek, Fortune, and Wired, to which he was a longtime contributing editor.
"Palimpsest" by Catherynne M. Valente. Release Date: February 24, 2009. Published by Bantam Spectra.
 There
is a city you have never heard of. It is a city of dreams and flesh, of night-terrors
and exaltation. It is a city that exists as a virus, passed from person to person,
on skin and on bone, streets and alleys and factories and orchestral halls crawling
and thriving, infinitesimally small, on the bodies of those who have been touched
by Palimpsest. And once you have entered this place, once you have tasted it,
you will do anything to get back…
Catherynne M. Valente's mythmaking two volume masterpiece, known collectively as the Orphan's Tales, was published to wide acclaim, receiving starred reviews from Kirkus, Library Journal, and Booklist. The first novel in the series was also shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award, appeared on the New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age List, and won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. Now, in "Palimpsest", she weaves a lyrically erotic spell of a place where the grotesque and the beautiful reside and the passport to our most secret fantasies begins with a stranger's kiss…
Between life and death, dreaming and waking, at the train stop beyond the End of the World is the city of Palimpsest. To get there is a miracle, a mystery, a gift, and a curse-a voyage permitted only those who've always believed there's another world than the one that meets the eye. Those fit to make the passage recognize each other on sight and are marked forever by a map of that wondrous city tattooed on their flesh after a single orgasmic night. To this kingdom of ghost trains, lion-priests, living kanji, and cream-filled canals come four travelers: Oleg, a locksmith from a vanished Manhattan; the beekeeper November; Ludovico, a binder of rare books; and a young Japanese woman named Sei. They've each lost something important-a wife, a lover, a sister, a direction in life-and what they will find in Palimpsest is more than they could ever imagine exists…
"White Witch, Black Curse" by Kim Harrison. Release Date: February 24, 2009. Published by EOS Books.
 Some
wounds take time to heal . . . and some scars never fade.
Rachel Morgan, kick-ass witch and bounty hunter, has taken her fair share of hits, and broken lines she swore she would never cross. But when her lover was murdered, it left a deeper wound than Rachel ever imagined, and now she won't rest until his death is solved . . . and avenged. Whatever the cost.
Yet the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and when an apex predator moves to the top of the Inderlander food chain, Rachel's past comes back to haunt her. Literally…
New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison returns to the sinister and seductive Hollows for the newest blockbuster adventure featuring Rachel Morgan, witch and bounty-hunter.
"Kitty Raises Hell" by Carrie Vaughn. Release Date: February 24, 2009. Published by Grand Central Publishing.
 Sometimes
what happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas…
Kitty and Ben flee The City That Never Sleeps, thinking they were finished with the dangers there, but the sadistic cult of lycanthropes and their vampire priestess have laid a curse on Kitty in revenge for her disrupting their rituals. Starting at the next full moon, danger and destruction in the form of fire strikes Kitty and the pack of werewolves she's sworn to protect.
Kitty enlists the help of a group of TV paranormal investigators-one of whom has real psychic abilities-to help her get to the bottom of the curse that's been laid on her. Rick, the Master vampire of Denver, believes a deeper plot lies behind the curse, and he and Kitty argue about whether or not to accept the help of a professional demon hunter-and vampire-named Roman, who arrives a little too conveniently in the nick of time.
Unable to rely on Rick, and unwilling to accept Roman's offer of help for a price, Kitty and her band of allies, including Vegas magician Odysseus Grant and Kitty's own radio audience, mount a trap for the supernatural being behind the curse . . . a supernatural being that none of them ever thought to face…
 "Jailbait
Zombie" by Mario Acevedo. Release Date: February 24, 2009. Published by EOS Books.
"The Araneum, the worldwide network of vampires, has one standing order: Destroy all zombies. The reason? We must ruthlessly protect the Great Secret-the existence of the supernatural world-from humans. Their disbelief of the supernatural was what kept us vampires safe. Against their growing technical prowess and corporate savagery, what chance did we the undead have? Our best hope for survival was to remain cloaked by superstition and fable. Protecting the Great Secret is what I do for the Araneum. My day job is private detective. My real job is the pro bono work I do as a vampire enforcer." -Felix Gomez
The suburbs of Denver were bad enough. Now the Colorado mountains are being overrun with the undead-the kind of supernatural folk that spell trouble for Felix Gomez and his kind. To kill an army of zombies run by gangsters, the vampire detective must team up with a precocious teen with clairvoyant powers. But she demands something big in return: she wants to be undead too…
 "Road
Trip of the Living Dead" by Mark Henry. Release Date: February 24, 2009. Published
by Kensington Books.
Funny, sexy, ghoulish, and fabulous-Mark Henry's second Amanda Feral novel after "Happy Hour of the Damned" brings Seattle's favourite fashionable zombie back for more outrageously ghoulish adventures…
Thanks to her friend Gil's latest money-grabbing scheme gone wrong, Amanda Feral is now zombie non grata at all of Seattle's hottest events-pure hell for a fashionable undead socialite like herself.
The answer: a road trip with Amanda's best zombie friend Wendy and the clueless Gil, which will allow his enemies time to cool down and give Amanda a chance to visit her dying mother, a woman who's never been in touch with her maternal instincts. Along the way they'll confront unfriendly ghosts, a kraken, and a super-hot werewolf, plus assorted murderous fiends. And it'll take more than biting wit and a flair for accessorizing for Amanda to get herself and her friends out of this one (semi) alive…
 "Raven"
by Giles Kristian. UK Release Date: February 26, 2009. Published by Bantam Press
UK.
For two years Osric has lived a simple life, apprentice to the mute old carpenter who took him in when others would have him cast out. But when Norsemen from across the sea burn his village they also destroy his new life, and Osric finds himself a prisoner of these warriors. Their chief, Sigurd the Lucky, believes the Norns have woven this strange boy's fate together with his own, and Osric begins to sense glorious purpose among this Fellowship of warriors.
Immersed in the Norsemen's world and driven by their lust for adventure, Osric proves a natural warrior and forges a blood bond with Sigurd, who renames him Raven. But the Norsemen's world is a savage one, where loyalty is often repaid in blood and where a young man must become a killer to survive. When the Fellowship faces annihilation from ealdorman Ealdred of Wessex, Raven chooses a bloody and dangerous path, accepting the mission of raiding deep into hostile lands to steal a holy book from Coenwolf, King of Mercia.
There he will find much more than the Holy Gospels of St Jerome. He will find Cynethryth, an English girl with a soul to match his own. And he will find betrayal at the hands of cruel men, some of whom he regarded as friends...
 "Patient
Zero" by Jonathan Maberry. US Release Date: March 3, 2009. Published by St. Martin's
Griffin. UK Release Date: April 16, 2009. Published by Gollancz.
From multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author Jonathan Maberry comes a major new thriller which mixes together the best of the New York Times bestselling books "World War Z" by Max Brooks and James Rollins' Sigma Force novels to kick-off a new series featuring Joe Ledger and the Department of Military Sciences…
When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week there's either something wrong with your world or something wrong with your skills . . . and there's nothing wrong with Joe Ledger's skills. And that's both a good, and a bad thing. It's good because he's a Baltimore detective that has just been secretly recruited by the government to lead a new taskforce created to deal with the problems that Homeland Security can't handle. This rapid response group is called the Department of Military Sciences or the DMS for short. It's bad because his first mission is to help stop a group of terrorists from releasing a dreadful bio-weapon that can turn ordinary people into zombies. The fate of the world hangs in the balance…
Jonathan Maberry is the author of "Ghost Road Blues", first of a trilogy of thrillers with a supernatural bite. He is a professional writer and writing teacher and since 1979 has sold more than 1100 articles, seventeen nonfiction books, six novels, as well as short stories, poetry, song lyrics, video scripts, and two plays. In 2004, Jonathan was inducted into the International Martial Arts Hall of Fame largely because of his extensive writings in that field.
The Fantasy Book Critic
About the Fantasy Book Critic: After taking a break from the music industry where Robert Thompson was a writer (reviewed albums & concerts, conducted interviews), did publicity (promoted signed & unsigned artists), worked as an A&R scout for Warner Bros. and was the EIC of Kings of A&R, Robert decided to embrace his other passion: books and writing. So, while Fantasy Book Critic was born as a labour of love, he hopes in time that it will become something more. Check The Fantasy Book Critic out over at http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com |
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