Upcoming 2009 fantasy and science fiction book releases - part III
01/12/2008 . Source: The Fantasy Book Critic 
And here's the 3rd and final part of The Fantasy Book Critic's look at the best upcoming 2009 book releases for the scifi and fantasy genre. There's a few SFF novels here that will be on our reading list for next year, that's for sure.  "Thicker
Than Water" by Mike Carey. UK Release Date: March 5, 2009. Published by Orbit
UK.
Old ghosts of different kinds come back to haunt Fix, in the fourth gripping Felix Castor novel…
Names and faces he thought he'd left behind in Liverpool resurface in London, bringing Castor far more trouble than he'd anticipated. Childhood memories, family traumas, sins old and new, and a council estate that was meant to be a modern utopia until it turned into something like hell . . . these are just some of the sticks life uses to beat Felix Castor with as things go from bad to worse for London's favourite freelance exorcist.
See, Castor's stepped over the line, this time, and he knows he'll have to pay; the only question is: how much? Not the best of times, then, for an unwelcome confrontation with his holier-than-thou brother, Matthew. And just when he thinks things can't possibly get any worse, along comes Father Gwillam and the Anathemata. Oh joy…
 "Seeds
of Earth" by Michael Cobley. Release Date: March 5, 2009. Published by Orbit UK.
First contact was not supposed to be like this. The first intelligent species to encounter Mankind attacked without warning and swarmed locust-like through the solar system. Merciless. Relentless. Unstoppable. With little hope of halting the savage invasion, Earth's last, desperate roll of the dice was to send out three colony ships, seeds of Earth, to different parts of the galaxy. Earth may perish but the human race would live on . . . somewhere.
150 years later, the human colony on the planet Darien has established a new world for Humanity and forged a peaceful relationship with the planet's indigenous race, the scholarly, enigmatic Uvovo. But there are secrets buried beneath the surface of Darien's forest moon. Secrets that go back to an apocalyptic battle fought between ancient forerunner races at the dawn of galactic civilization.
Life is about to change for the last children of Earth, as surprises spring from below and above. How will the Darien colonists react when all they have worked for is overturned at a stroke? And what choices will the Uvovo make when their true nature is revealed and the skies grow dark with enemies?
"Seeds of Earth" is the first volume in Michael Cobley's Humanity's Fire sequence-a multi-layered, 21st century take on the classic tropes of space opera by a bold new voice in British science fiction.
 "Vlad:
The Last Confession" by C.C. Humphreys. UK Release Date: March 5, 2009. Published
by Orion.
Dracula. A name of horror, depravity and the darkest sensuality…
Yet the real Dracula was just as alluring, just as terrifying, his story not of a monster but of a man and a contradiction. For the one they called 'The Devil's Son' was both tyrant and lawgiver, crusader and mass slaughterer, torturer and hero, lover and murderer.
His tale is told by those who knew him best. The only woman he ever loved and whom he has to sacrifice. His closest comrade and traitor. And his priest, betraying the secrets of the confessional to reveal the mind of the man history would forever remember as Tepes-'The Impaler'.
But Vlad's actions defy such labels. His extraordinary life burns with passion, taking him from his years as hostage to the Turk, through torture, battle, triumph and betrayal, ultimately to a last crusade-there perhaps, beneath the twin banners of the Dragon and the Cross, to find redemption for his innumerable sins.
"Vlad: The Last Confession" spins legend and facts together into a monumental novel of blood, love and terror. This is the true story of Dracula as it has never been told before…
 "Hell's
Horizon" by D.B. Shan. UK Release Date: March 9, 2009. Published by Voyager.
"Hell's Horizon" is the second volume-after "Procession of the Dead"-in a noirish, gritty urban fantasy series for adults from the bestselling author otherwise known as Darren Shan…
The Cardinal is the City and the City is The Cardinal. They are joined at the soul. When Al Jeery is seconded by The Cardinal from guard duties at Party Central to investigate the murder of a woman at a hotel, he little suspects that the dead woman will turn out to be his girlfriend. Soon he is involved in a terrifying mystery that draws in the dead, the city's Incan forefathers, the imposing figure of The Cardinal himself, and the near-mythical assassin, Paucar Wami.
Wami is a law unto himself, a shadowy, mysterious figure who can apparently kill anyone he chooses without fear of punishment or retribution. And Al is about to find out that he has a lot more in common with Wami than he could ever have imagined...
 "The
Warded Man" by Peter V. Brett. Release Date: March 10, 2009 (US Debut). Published
by Del Rey.
"There's a wide world out there, for those willing to brave the dark . . . "
As darkness falls each night, the corelings rise, demons who well up from the ground like hellish steam. They possess supernatural strength and burn with a consuming hatred of humanity-ready to slaughter anyone unlucky enough to be outside a warded building after sunset.
When tragedy strikes his tiny village and his family, young Arlen decides to brave the night roads as the kingdom's Messengers do: facing the demons across thin air, with only the barrier of dirt-drawn wards to protect him.
Soon, armed with a mysterious set of fighting wards, Arlen discovers an ancient artifact and becomes a legendary demon-fighter-the Warded Man. With the help of Leesha, a brave, expert healer, and Rojer, whose music can hold demons at bay, Arlen attempts something not dreamt of since ancient times: a stand against the night…
NOTE: "The Warded Man" was released in the UK on September 1, 2008 under the title, "The Painted Man" (Harper Voyager), and is the first book in the Demon Trilogy.
 "The
Mystery of Grace" by Charles de Lint. Release Date: March 17, 2009. Published
by Tor Books.
Three years after his last major adult novel, Charles de Lint returns with a new tale of magic, loss, and redemption. Centered on a remarkable female protagonist and entirely self-contained, this is modern contemporary fantasy as invented and pioneered by de Lint himself…
Altagracia-her friends call her Grace-has a tattoo of Nuestra Señora de Altagracia on her shoulder; she's got a Ford Motor Company tattoo running down her leg, and she has grease worked so deep into her hands that it''ll never wash out.
Grace works at Sanchez Motor Works, customizing hot rods. A few blocks around her small apartment building is all her world-from the grocery store where she buys beans, tamales, and cigarettes, to the library, the little record shop, and the Solona Music Hall. Which is where she meets John Burns, just two weeks too late.
Grace and John fall for one another, and that would be wonderful, except that they're both haunted by unfinished business. Before their relationship can be resolved, they're both going to have to learn things they don't know about the world of the living, and the world beyond. About why it's necessary to let some things go…
 "Aftershock
and Others: 19 Oddities" by F. Paul Wilson. Release Date: March 17, 2009. Published
by Forge. A striking collection of exciting stories by the bestselling author
of the Repairman Jack novels…
Aftershock & Others is the third collection of short fiction by New York Times bestselling author F. Paul Wilson, hailed by the Rocky Mountain News as "among the finest storytellers of our times."
The title novelette won the Bram Stoker Award and its companions touch on the past, present, and future-from the inflationary insanity of Weimar Germany ("Aryans and Absinthe") to disco club-era Manhattan ("When He Was Fab"), to the rationing of medical services in a grim near future ("Offshore"). Wilson's stylistic diversity and versatility are on display in stories that pay tribute to Ray Bradbury ("The November Game"), use a sentient killer virus as a point-of-view character ("Lysing toward Bethlehem"), and pay unabashed homage to pure pulp fiction in two yellow peril stories ("Sex Slaves of the Dragon Tong" and "Part of the Game"). And finally, Wilson treats us to his popular antihero Repairman Jack at his most inventive: trapped in a drugstore with four killers ("Interlude at Duane's").
 "One
Second After" by William R. Forstchen. Release Date: March 17, 2009. Published
by Forge.
An end-of-the-world novel to rank with The Stand and Lucifer's Hammer…
The world is coming to an end.
Is it the Mayan 2012 apocalypse?
The Rapture? Islamic terrorists?
Or high-tech weapons from hell?
Overnight, the world's trains, planes, cars, trucks, phones, computers, power plants, electronics, and electrical equipment come to a screeching stop. Looting, food riots, and insurrection engulf the globe as the End Time descends. Can it be stopped? A small mountain village in the American South is humanity's last best hope…
William R. Forstchen, PhD, is a professor of history at Montreat College in Montreat, North Carolina. He received his doctorate from Purdue University and specialized in the American Civil War. He is the coauthor of a New York Times bestselling series of Civil War novels, including Grant Comes East and
 "The
Adamantine Palace" by Stephen Deas. UK Release Date: March 19, 2009. Published
by Gollancz.
The Adamantine Palace lies at the centre of an empire that grew out of ashes. Once dragons ruled the world and man was little more than prey. Then a way of subduing the dragons alchemically was discovered and now the dragons are bred to be little more than mounts for knights and highly valued tokens in the diplomatic power-players that underpin the rule of the competing aristocratic houses. The Empire has grown fat.
And now one man wants it for himself. A man prepared to poison the king just as he has poisoned his own father. A man prepared to murder his lover and bed her daughter. A man fit to be king? But unknown to him there are flames on the way. A single dragon has gone missing. And even one dragon on the loose-unsubdued, returned to its full intelligence, its fury full-could spell disaster for the Empire. Because of the actions of one unscrupulous mercenary however, the rivals for the throne could soon be facing hundreds of dragons…
Stephen Deas has written a fast moving and action-fuelled fantasy laced with irony, razor-sharp characters, dialogue to die for and dragons to die by…
 "The
Twilight Herald" by Tom Lloyd. Release Date: March 24, 2009 (US Debut). Published
by Pyr Books.
Lord Bahl is dead and the young white-eye, Isak, stands in his place. Less than a year after being plucked from obscurity and poverty, the charismatic new Lord of the Farlan finds himself unprepared to deal with the attempt on his life that now spells war, and the possibility of rebellion waiting for him at home.
Now the eyes of the land turn to the minor city of Scree, which could soon be obliterated as the new Lord of the Farlan flexes his powers. Scree is suffering under an unnatural summer drought and surrounded by volatile mercenary armies that may be its only salvation.
This is a strange sanctuary for a fugitive abbot to flee to-but he is only the first of many to be drawn there. Kings and princes, lords and monsters, all walk the sun-scorched streets.
As elite soldiers clash after dark and actors perform cruel and subversive plays that work their way into the hearts of the audience, the city begins to tear itself apart-yet even chaos can be scripted.
There is a malevolent will at work in Scree, one that has a lesson for the entire land: nations can be manipulated, prophecies perverted and Gods denied.
Nothing lies beyond the reach of a shadow, and no matter how great a man's power, there are some things he cannot be protected from…
 "Midwinter"
by Matthew Sturges. Release Date: March 24, 2009. Published by Pyr Books.
Winter comes to the land only once in a hundred years. But the snow covers ancient secrets-secrets that could topple a kingdom…
Mauritaine was a war hero, a captain in the Seelie Army. Then he was accused of treason and sentenced to life without parole at Crere Sulace, a dark and ancient prison in the mountains, far from the City Emerald. But now the Seelie Queen-Regina Titania herself-has offered him one last chance to redeem himself, an opportunity to regain his freedom and his honor.
Unfortunately, it's a suicide mission, which is why only Mauritaine and the few prisoners he trusts enough to accompany him, would even dare attempt it: Raieve, beautiful and harsh, an emissary from a foreign land caught in the wrong place at the wrong time; Perrin Alt, Lord Silverdun, a nobleman imprisoned as a result of political intrigues so Byzantine that not even he understands them; and Brian Satterly, a human physicist, apprehended searching for the human victims of the faery changeling trade.
Meanwhile, dark forces are at work at home and abroad. In the Seelie kingdom, the reluctant soldier Purane-Es burns with hatred for Mauritaine, and plots to steal the one thing that remains to him: his wife. Across the border, the black artist Hy Pezho courts the whim of Mab, offering a deadly weapon that could allow the Unseelie in their flying cities to crush Titania and her army once and for all.
With time running out, Mauritaine and his companions must cross the deadly Contested Lands filled with dire magical fallout from wars past. They will confront mounted patrols, brigands, and a traitor in their midst. And before they reach their destination, as the Unseelie Armies led by Queen Mab approach the border, Mauritaine must decide between his own freedom and the fate of the very land that has forsaken him…
 "One"
by Conrad Williams. Release Date: April 2, 2009. Published by Virgin Books.
This is the United Kingdom, but it's no country you know. No place you ever want to see, even in the howling, shuttered madness of your worst dreams. You survived. One man…
You walk because you have to. You have no choice. At the end of this molten road, running along the spine of a burned, battered country, your little boy is either alive or dead. You have to know. You have to find an end to it all. One hope…
The sky crawls with thick, venomous cloud. and burning red rain. The land is a scorched sprawl of rubble and corpses. Rats have risen from the depths to gorge on the carrion. A strange, glittering dust coats everything. The dust hides a terrible secret. New horrors are taking root. You walk on. One chance…
 "Red-Headed
Stepchild" by Jaye Wells. Release Date: April 2, 2009. Published by Orbit UK.
In a world where being of mixed-blood is a major liability, Sabina doesn't really fit in. And being an assassin-the only profession fit for an outcast-doesn't help matters. But she's never brought her work home. Until now.
Her latest mission is uncomfortably complex, and threatens the fragile peace between the vampire and mage races. As Sabina scrambles to figure out which side she's on, she uncovers a tangled political web, some nasty facts about her family and some unexpected new talents. Any of these things could be worryingly life-changing, but together, they could be fatal…
 "The
Absence" by Bill Hussey. UK Release Date: April 2, 2009. Published by Bloody Books.
From the author of "Through a Glass, Darkly" comes a new tale of horror inspired by ancient myths and religions…
It was a tragic accident. That is what his family tells young Joe Nightingale who is tormented by visions of his mother's death.
Now, seven months after the fatal car crash, the Nightingales receive some unexpected news. They have inherited a house from a distant relative-the reclusive Muriel Sutton. Desperate to renew old bonds, the family decides to spend the summer at Daecher's Mill. Here they hope to escape the shadows of the past.
But dark mysteries await them. Who are the guests that have been brought here over the years? Why did the late Muriel Sutton murder her strange little sister, Alice? And what is the connection between Joe Nightingale and this lonely Fenland millhouse?
There is also a presence in Daecher's Mill. It looks and sounds like a little girl, but its eyes are old and its voice runs like water. It is a weaver of shadows. A creature of Absence…
 "Corambis"
by Sarah Monette. Release Date: April 7, 2009. Published by Ace Books.
From award-winning author Sarah Monette, comes the spellbinding conclusion to The Doctrine of Labyrinths…
Exiled from Mélusine for the crime of heresy, the once powerful Cabaline wizard, Felix Harrowgate, and his half-brother Mildmay-former cat-burglar and assassin-journey to Corambis to face judgment from a ruling body of wizards. Corambis, however, is a land plagued by civil strife.
Kay Brightmore, the Margrave of Rothmarlin, is part of an insurrection to restore the monarchy in the southern half of the country. In desperation, Kay and his rebels seek out the engine of Summerdown, an ancient magical device rumored to have terrible powers. Once the engine is awakened, only a powerful wizard can stop its awesome potential for destruction. Felix and Mildmay arrive just in time for their greatest challenge-and ultimate destiny…
 "Kings
and Assassins" by Lane Robins. Release Date: April 21, 2009. Published by Del
Rey.
Lane Robins has written a glittering, diabolical tapestry of power, desire, treachery, and a remorseless rage that will rule a kingdom . . . or destroy it…
Controlled by an aristocracy whose depraved whims bow to neither law nor gods, the kingdom of Antyre is now under siege from the only man who can save it. He is Janus Ixion, the new Earl of Last, whose matchless fighting abilities and leadership strike terror in Antyre's powerful noble houses.
For Janus is the illegitimate son who has returned from brutal slums to reclaim his birthright. And he will go to any lengths to become king and reverse his country's decline. But with a conquering foreign prince sowing chaos throughout the kingdom, Janus must battle the terrifying power of Antyre's forgotten god, one who has gifted Janus' vengeful wife with mysterious, dangerous skills. And as Antyre nears irrevocable collapse, Janus' manipulations and all-consuming ambition will force him and his country to choose between the rule of resurgent gods . . . or a victor's throne of ashes…
 "Blood
of Ambrose" by James Enge. Release Date: April 21, 2009. Published by Pyr Books.
Behind the king's life stands the menacing Protector, and beyond him lies the Protector's Shadow...
Centuries after the death of Uthar the Great, the throne of the Ontilian Empire lies vacant. The late emperor's brother-in-law and murderer, Lord Urdhven, appoints himself Protector to his nephew, young King Lathmar VII, and sets out to kill anyone who stands between himself and mastery of the empire, including the king himself and his ancient but still formidable ancestress, Ambrosia Viviana.
When Ambrosia is accused of witchcraft and put to trial by combat, she is forced to play her trump card and call on her brother, Morlock Ambrosius-stateless person, master of all magical makers, deadly swordsman, and hopeless drunk.
As ministers of the king, they carry on the battle, magical and mundane, against the Protector and his shadowy patron. But all their struggles will be wasted unless the young king finds the strength to rule in his own right and his own name…
 "God
of Clocks" by Alan Campbell. US Release Date: April 28, 2009. Published by Bantam
Spectra. UK Release Date: September 2009. Published by Pan Macmillan.
Alan Campbell first introduced readers to the awe-inspiring city of Deepgate and its denizens in "Scar Night", the opening installment of the Deepgate Codex. He continued the plight of traitor assassin Rachel Hael and the fallen angel Dill in "Iron Angel". Now, in "God of Clocks", old enemies and new allies join in a battle the outcome of which could spell the end for all who call Deepgate home…
A portal has been opened in the ruined city of Deepgate, releasing entities that threaten to turn the world into a killing field. In the middle, caught between warring gods and fallen angels, humanity finds itself pushed to the brink of extinction. Its only hope is the most unlikely of heroes including the assassin Rachel Hael, the mutated angel Dill, Mina and the tortured god Hasp.
With time running out, Rachel must prepare herself for the final confrontation. It is one she has both sought and feared. And, one so dangerous, it may claim her heart, her life and her soul…
 "The
Grand Conjunction" by Sean Williams. US Release Date: April 28, 2008. Published
by Ace Books. UK Release Date: May 7, 2009. Published by Orbit UK.
Imre Bergamasc is lost. His search for answers has led him up an alley so blind even his sense of self has become uncertain. Before he can save the galaxy from ruin, he must find the strength to carry on and reclaim his ultimate purpose.
But more than two million years in our future, the fight has changed. Former allies are now enemies, and enemies have taken on entirely new forms. Chased from the very edge of humanity's vast empire into the heart of an ancient conspiracy, he must finally come face to face with Himself, for without the truth of his past, humanity's future will never be secured…
 "Twisted
Metal" by Tony Ballantyne. UK Release Date: May 1, 2009.
Published by Pan Macmillan. In a completely alien but brilliantly realized landscape, "Twisted Metal" is a powerful story of superb action, barbaric cruelty and intense emotional impact…
On a world of intelligent robots who seem to have forgotten their own distant past, it is a time of war as the soldiers of Artemis City set out to conquer everything within range on the continent of Shull, killing or converting every robot they capture to their philosophy, while viewing their own wire-based minds as nothing but metal to be used or recycled for the cause.
Elsewhere, the more individualistic robots of Turing City believe they are something more than metal, but when the Artemisian robot Kavan sets out on a determined crusade to prove himself, even Turing City can't stand against him. Increasingly tied up with Kavan's destiny is Karel, a Turing robot with elements of Artemis' philosophy already woven into his mind . . . as well as Karel's wife Susan, and their recently created child.
Following the inevitable violence and destruction, Artemisian ambition focuses elsewhere and a journey begins towards the frozen kingdoms of the north-and towards the truth about the legendary "Book of Robots", a text which may finally explain the real history of this strange world…
 "Fall
of Thanes" by Brian Ruckley. US Release Date: May 3, 2009. Published by Orbit.
UK Release Date: May 7, 2009. Published by Orbit UK.
The Clans of the True Blood are in disarray, their alliance crumbling and their armies humbled by the merciless forces of the Black Road. And as the Clans cling to what little hope remains, their position is further destabilized by Aeglyss the na'kyrim, who casts a shadow across all as he spirals ever deeper into madness. At the court of the High Thane, Anyara faces a savage struggle for survival against the na'kyrim's possessed agent: Mordyn Jerain, the Shadowhand.
In the Glas Valley, Kanin, the embittered Horin-Gyre Thane, plots a desperate rising against the halfbreed. But ultimately it will be Orisian, Thane of a Blood that no longer exists, who must stand face to face with a darkly transcendent Aeglyss and make the sacrifice-of himself and others-required to end the threat he represents.
As events mount to a climax, the world will change and no side can anticipate the twisted pattern of what lies ahead…
 "Garbage
Man" by Joseph D'Lacey. UK Release Date: May 7, 2009. Published by Bloody Books.
Joseph D'Lacey has an uncanny ability to focus on issues which give us all cause for concern. We know something is wrong with our world, and if we go on ignoring the signs-like meat farming that grossly exceeds need or landfill sites filling up with unstoppable speed-something very serious will happen before we know it. Now, from the author of "Meat", comes a very powerful second novel, this time tackling the issue of the environment and landfill sites:
One man, a loner, makes regular visits to a landfill site-an oozing, filthy dump situated perilously close to a local town. A link is formed between the man and the landfill, creating a monstrous outcome: the landfill takes on life. Out of the waste of human society comes a thing, and its enemy is human…
With the same visceral language he employed to such devastating effect in "Meat", Joseph D'Lacey produces a terrifying situation in "Garbage Man". Who can win . . . man or the waste that man has created?
 "The
Island" by Tim Lebbon. Release Date: May 19, 2009. Published by Bantam Spectra.
Kel Boon was once an agent of Noreela's most secret organization, tracking, observing, and eliminating the Strangers as part of an elite Core team. Until one horrifying encounter left his superior officer-and lover-dead amidst an orgy of slaughter from which Kel has been running from ever since. But the worst was still to come…
Forsaking magic, living as a simple woodcarver, Kel came to Pavmouth Breaks because the remote fishing village seemed a place where trouble would never find him. But when a mysterious island rises from the sea after a cataclysmic storm, his Core training tells him to expect the worst.
How can he warn the villagers-especially the beautiful young witch Namior-that the visitors arriving from the island may not be the peace-loving pilgrims they claim to be? Instead, they might be the advance wave of an invasion the Core had feared all along-an invasion Kel may be Noreela's last best chance to stop…
NOTE: "The Island" is the fourth and newest book set in Tim Lebbon's Noreela universe after the "Dusk/Dawn" duology (Reviewed HERE) and "Fallen" (Reviewed HERE). Tim is also the co-author of the Hidden Cities series (Mind the Gap, The Map of Moments) with Christopher Golden.
 "The
Burning Skies" by David J. Williams. Release Date: May 19, 2009. Published by
Bantam Spectra.
In his electrifying debut, "The Mirrored Heavens"-praised by such distinguished science fiction writers as Peter Watts, Stephen Baxter and Jack Campbell-David J. Williams created a futuristic world grounded in the military rivalries, terror tactics, and political wrangling of our own time.
In "The Burning Skies", life as U.S. counterintelligence agent Claire Haskell once knew it is in tatters-her mission betrayed, her lover dead, and her memories of the past suspect. Even worse, the defeat of the brilliant and mysterious insurgent group known only as Autumn Rain was not as complete as many believed. It is quickly becoming clear that their ultimate goal is not simply to destroy the tenuous global alliances of the 22nd Century, but to rule all of humanity.
Now it's up to Claire, with her ability to jack her brain into the nets of the enemy, to pick up the pieces. Navigating a complex world filled with both steadfast loyalists and ruthless traitors, Claire must be ready for Rain's next move-so she can make hers. But her true enemy may be one step ahead of her…
 "Consorts
of Heavens" by Jaine Fenn. UK Release Date: May 21, 2009. Published by Gollancz.
From the author of "Principles of Angels", comes a new novel set in that same
universe…
When a naked, amnesiac stranger is found outside a remote highland village, he is taken in by Kerin, a widow whose unconventional ways are tolerated because her son Damaru is 'skytouched'-he appears simple, but is able to affect matter.
All skytouched are tested by the Beloved Daughter, the living goddess who rules the world from the City of Light. If he's found worthy, Damaru will become a Consort of the skymothers, the Gods of this world.
So Kerin and the stranger, nicknamed Sais, accompany Damaru to the City. Accompanying them is a priest who's helping Sais get back his missing past. But as Sais recovers his memory, he discovers the true nature of the world-and the unimaginable fate of the Consorts. It is a fate Kerin will do anything to prevent her son from sharing…
 "World's
End" by Mark Chadbourn. Release Date: May 26, 2009 (US Debut). Published by Pyr
Books.
A dragon firebombs a freeway. Shapeshifters stalk the commercial district. The deadly Wild Hunt wreaks havoc on the highway. The Age of Misrule has dawned…
When Jack Churchill and Ruth Gallagher encounter a terrifying, misshapen giant beneath a London bridge, they are plunged into a mystery which portends the end of the world as we know it. All over the country, the ancient gods of Celtic myth are returning to the land from which they were banished millennia ago. Following in their footsteps are creatures of folklore: fabulous beasts, wonders, and dark terrors. As technology starts to fail, Jack and Ruth are forced to embark on a desperate quest for four magical items-the last chance for humanity in the face of powers barely comprehended.
A pedal-to-the-floor, hi-octane fantasy thriller that pitches magic and wonder into a pop culture mash-up of the modern world. Described as "One part Lord of the Rings, one part Illuminatus!, one part Arthurian romance, one part Harry Potter-100 % original!"…
NOTE: The Age of Misrule trilogy was originally published in the UK from 1999-2001, then was published as an omnibus in 2006 by Gollancz. The US editions of "Darkest Hour" (Age of Misrule Book II) and "Always Forever" (Age of Misrule Book III) will be published by Pyr on June 23, 2009 and July 28, 2009 respectively.
 "Warbreaker"
by Brandon Sanderson. Release Date: June 9, 2009. Published by Tor Books.
After bursting onto the fantasy scene with his acclaimed debut novel, "Elantris", and following up with his blockbuster Mistborn trilogy, Brandon Sanderson proves again that he is today's leading master of what Tolkien called "secondary creation," the invention of whole worlds, complete with magics and myths all their own…
"Warbreaker" is the story of two sisters, who happen to be princesses; the God King one of them has to marry; the lesser god who doesn't like his job; and the immortal who's still trying to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of years ago.
Their world is one in which those who die in glory return as gods to live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren's capital city and where a power known as BioChromatic magic is based on an essence known as breath that can only be collected one unit at a time from individual people.
By using breath and drawing upon the color in everyday objects, all manner of miracles and mischief can be accomplished. It will take considerable quantities of each to resolve all the challenges facing Vivenna and Siri, princesses of Idris; Susebron the God King; Lightsong, reluctant god of bravery; and mysterious Vasher, the Warbreaker…
NOTE: "Warbreaker" was offered as a Free Download on Brandon's website while he was writing it, allowing readers the unique opportunity to witness & provide feedback on the book as it evolved from its roughest stages to now a final version and publication.
 "Green"
by Jay Lake. Release Date: June 9, 2009. Published by Tor Books.
From the acclaimed author of "Mainspring" and "Escapement" comes "Green", a spellbinding new fantasy of decadence, love, and magic…
As a child, Green is sold into concubinage and taken to the great merchant city of Copper Downs where she is raised in seclusion by agents of the Factor, a supplier of women to the aristocracy of the region. There she is named Emerald-Green is her own mockery of the name-and trained to be the next consort of the undying Duke of Copper Downs.
Among her other courses of study, Green is also being secretly trained by the felinoid Dancing Mistress. During this training, Green learns of a conspiracy to overthrow the Duke by breaking his spells of immortality-a magic originally stolen from the Dancing Mistress' people. Green also meets Secundo, a priest of Blackblood, one of Copper Downs' Old Gods. Secundo believes that with the Duke's undying magic broken, the Old Gods will awaken once again. Reluctantly, Green agrees to help in the plot against the Duke, and amidst the riot and ruin that follows, she flees Copper Downs in search of her home and family.
But after everything she has been through, home can never be what it once was, and when Dancing Mistress finds her, Green knows she must return to Copper Downs to finish what was started. That includes completing the Dancing Mistress' mission, stopping an invading army, placating the Old Gods, and putting an end to the child trade once and for all…
 "Johannes
Cabal the Necromancer" by Jonathan L. Howard. UK Release Date: June 11, 2009.
Published by Headline. US Release Date: July 7, 2009. Published by Doubleday.
Johannes Cabal has never pretended to be a hero of any kind. There is, after all, little heroic about robbing graves, stealing occult volumes, and being on nodding terms with demons. His purpose, however, is noble. His researches are all directed to raising the dead. Not as monstrosities but as people, just as they were when they lived: physically, mentally, and spiritually.
For such a prize, some sacrifices are necessary. One such sacrifice was his own soul, but he now sees that was a mistake-it's not just that he needs it for his research to have validity, but now he realizes he needs it to be himself. Unfortunately, his soul now rests within the festering bureaucracy of Hell. Satan may be cruel and capricious but, most dangerously, he is bored. It is Cabal's unhappy lot to provide him with amusement.
In short, a wager: in return for his own soul, Cabal must gather one hundred others. Placed in control of a diabolical carnival-created to tempt to contentiousness, to blasphemy, argumentation and murder, but one may also win coconuts-and armed only with his intelligence, a very large handgun, and a total absence of whimsy, Cabal has one year. One year to beat the Devil at his own game. And isn't that perhaps just a little heroic?
 "Nights
of Villjamur" by Mark Charan Newton. UK Release Date: June 12, 2009. Published
by Pan Macmillan. Book One of Legends of the Red Sun, a colorful new epic fantasy
series…
The ancient city of Villjamur is threatened by a long-expected ice age, and thousands of refugees from the coming freeze are camped outside its gates, causing alarm and the threat of disease for the existing population. When the Emperor commits suicide, his elder daughter, Rika, is brought home to inherit the Jamur Empire, but the sinister Chancellor plans to claim the throne for himself.
Meanwhile, an officer in the Inquisition must solve the high-profile murder of a city politician and uncovers a conspiracy to solve the refugee crisis. At the same time, a cultist magician is causing a trail of havoc in his obsessive search for immortality and a gateway to another world.
Gradually the separate strands of romance, jealousy, political intrigue and dark violence converge in a superb new action series of enthralling fantasy…
 "Fragment"
by Warren Fahy. Release Date: June 16, 2009. Published by Delacorte Press.
An unexplored island in the South Pacific. A research ship wired for a reality TV show. A discovery that could shape the fate of mankind…
The time is August, 2010. The place is the Trident, a floating TV studio for the reality show "Sealife", anchored just off Henders Island. Aboard is a cast of fresh young scientists. With a director dying for drama, the tiny island might just be what the show needs. Until the first scientist sets foot on Henders and discovers an ecosystem unlike any ever seen before-an ecosystem that could topple ours like a house of cards. And so the ultimate test of survival begins…
As brilliantly imagined as Jurassic Park and The Ruins, and lavishly illustrated, "Fragment" is an utterly original, all-too-believable journey into alien life at the heart of our own planet and a pulse-pounding work of imagination that heralds a new voice in suspense fiction.
 "Best
Served Cold" by Joe Abercrombie. UK Release Date: June 18, 2009. Published by
Gollancz. US Release Date: July 29, 2009. Published by Orbit.
Mercenaries are a wonderful thing. They fight as you tell them, whom you tell them, and when you tell them, for nothing more precious or complicated than money. And Monzcarro Mercatto and her brother Benna are the two most successful, most popular, and most wealthy mercenaries in Styria.
But wealthy, popular mercenaries are not such a good thing. In fact, they're downright dangerous, which is why Grand Duke Orso of Styria arranges to have them dealt with. Permanently. Unfortunately, it is a decision that he may come to regret. For Monza wants revenge and she's going to do everything she can to get it. But to do that she needs help: Shivers, the Northman, Cosca, the mercenary, Friendly, the former inmate of a vicious prison-all hard men to do hard, bloody deeds. And where revenge is concerned, the harder and the bloodier the better…
 "Jasymn"
by Alex Bell. UK Release Date: June 18, 2009. Published by Gollancz.
One day, without warning, Jasmyn's husband died of an aneurism. Since then, everything has been different…
Wrapped up in her grief, Jasmyn is trapped in a world without colour, without flavour-without Liam. But even through the haze of misery she begins to notice strange events. Even with Liam gone, things are not as they should be, and eventually Jasmyn begins to explore the mysteries that have sprung up after her husband's death . . . and follows their trail back into the events of his life.
But the mysteries are deeper than Jasmyn expects, and are leading her in unexpected directions: Into fairytales filled with swans, castles and bones. Into a tale of a murder committed by a lake and a vicious battle between brothers. And into a story of a lost past, and a stolen love. She's entering a magical story . . . Jasmyn's story…
 "The
Doomsday Key" by James Rollins. US Release Date: June 23, 2009. Published by William
Morrow. UK Release Date: July 9, 2009. Published by Orion.
At Princeton University, a famed geneticist dies inside a biohazard lab. In Rome, a Vatican archaeologist is found dead in the heart of St. Peters Basilica. In Africa, a US Senator's son is slain within a Red Cross camp in Ghana. These three murders on three continents bear a horrifying tie: all the victims are marked by a Druidic pagan cross burned into their flesh.
The bizarre murders thrust Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force into a global hunt for a powerful group of industrialists who have a stranglehold on the world's food supply. Aided by two women from his past, Gray flees a trio of high-tech assassins as he pieces together the clues.
But saving the world comes at a high price: Pierce must sacrifice one of the women. Yet even that price might not be enough, for as he soon discovers, the only true path to salvation lies with the Doomsday Key…
 "Shadow
Magic" by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett. Release Date: July 28, 2009. Published
by Bantam Spectra.
In a unique and imaginative blend of epic fantasy, steampunk, humor, and heroism, the acclaimed young team of Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett follows up their epic fantasy debut "Havemercy" with "Shadow Magic", a novel that is both a standalone and a sequel, set in the chaotic aftermath of a hundred years of war. Here, amidst a treacherous dance of diplomacy and betrayal lie the darkest secrets of all-and a peace more deadly than war itself.
The metallic dragons of Volstov have defeated their Ke-Han neighbors, but what happens after the last shots are fired? Charged with the tricky task of establishing diplomatic relations as well as a viable succession plan are four new characters: two from the conquering kingdom, and two from the defeated land. From their clash of cultures, a lasting peace must be forged. And amidst politics and plotting, the strengths and loyalties of these four men will be tested in the crucible of peace-which may prove deadlier than the crucible of war…
 "The
Magicians" by Lev Grossman. Release Date: August 6, 2009. Published by Viking.
Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he's still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.
He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. Something is missing, though. Magic doesn't bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin's fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart.
At once psychologically piercing and magnificently absorbing, "The Magicians" boldly moves into uncharted literary territory, imagining magic as practiced by real people, with their capricious desires and volatile emotions. Lev Grossman creates an utterly original world in which good and evil aren't black and white, love and sex aren't simple or innocent, and power comes at a terrible price…
 "Blood
of the Mantis" by Adrian Tchaikovsky. UK Release Date: August 7, 2009. Published
by Pan Macmillan.
The third novel in Adrian Tchaikovsky's enthralling Shadows of the Apt epic fantasy sequence…
Driven by the ghosts of the Darakyon, Achaeos has tracked the stolen Shadow Box to the marsh-town of Jerez, but he has only days before the magical box is lost to him forever.
Meanwhile, the forces of the Empire are mustering over winter for their great offensive, gathering their soldiers and perfecting their new weapons. Stenwold and his followers have only a short time to gather what allies they can before the Wasp armies march again, conquering everything in their path. If they cannot throw back the Wasps this spring then the imperial black-and-gold flag will fly over every city in the Lowlands before the year's end.
In Jerez begins a fierce struggle over the Shadow Box, as lake creatures, secret police and renegade magicians compete to take possession. If it falls into the hands of the Wasp Emperor, however, then no amount of fighting will suffice to save the world from his relentless ambition…
 "Stalking
the Dragon" by Mike Resnick. Release Date: August 25, 2009. Published by Pyr Books.
It's Valentine's Day and private detective John Justin Mallory is planning on closing up the office early and taking his partner, Col. Winnifred Carruthers, out to dinner, since he's sure no one else will do so. But before he can turn off the lights and lock the door, they are visited by a panic-stricken Buffalo Bill Brody. It seems that the Eastminster pet show is being held the next day, and his dragon, Fluffy, the heavy favorite, has been kidnapped.
Mallory's nocturnal hunt for the miniature dragon takes him to some of the stranger sections of this Manhattan-Greenwitch Village (which is right around the corner from Greenwich Village and is populated by witches and covens); a wax museum where figures of Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre come alive; Gracie Mansion (which is haunted by the ghosts of former mayors); and the Bureau of Missing Creatures, a movie set where they're filming a PBS documentary on zombies and various other denizens of the Manhattan night. As Mallory follows the leads and hunts for clues, he comes up against one dead end after another.
Along the way he meets a few old friends and enemies, and a host of strange new inhabitants of this otherworldly Manhattan. Aided by a strange gremlin named Jeeves, Mallory has only one night to find a tiny dragon that's hidden somewhere in a city of seven million…
NOTE: "Stalking the Dragon" is the third John Justin Mallory novel after "Stalking the Unicorn" and "Stalking the Vampire" (Reviewed HERE). Mike has also written several short stories starring Mallory.
 "Nova
War" by Gary Gibson. UK Release Date: September 2009. Published by Pan Macmillan.
In "Stealing Light", Dakota Merrick discovered the Shoal's deadly secret. Now she works towards stopping not only the spread of this knowledge, but also the onset of a Nova War as the balance of power within the galaxy undergoes a major realignment.
Found adrift near a Bandati colony world far away from Consortium space, Dakota and her ally, Lucas Corso, find themselves prisoners of the Bandati. It soon becomes clear to them that humanity's limited knowledge of the rest of the galaxy-filtered through the Shoal-is direly inaccurate. For over fifteen thousand years, the Shoal have been fighting a frontier war with a rival species, the Emissaries.
Realizing that the Shoal may be the galaxy's one chance at sustained peace, Dakota is forced to work with Trader in Faecal Matter of Animals to prevent the spread of deadly knowledge carried onboard the Magi ships. But despite her best efforts, it seems that the breakout of a full-fledged Nova War may be inevitable…
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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