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Out of this World Originals

Many awesome speculative fiction authors debuted in the U.S. with paperback originals, William Gibson, Richard Morgan, and Naomi Novik, to name just three. Join us as we celebrate these pocketfuls of wonders.  

For the most part these will be science fiction, but we may surprise you occasionally if a truly remarkable fantasy or horror paperback original presents itself. 

 

  • Subscribers receive 20% off cover price of selected titles which can be picked up in store or scheduled to arrive in a special FFBC box shipped by the 20th of each month.
  • You may pick up your new book at either Mysterious Galaxy San Diego or at the Redondo Beach satellite office.
  • Customers have the option of purchasing a FF subscription as a gift in a 3, 6, or 12-month subscription.
  • Many, but not all selections will be signed.
  • And don't forget: FFBC memberships make great gifts!

 

To sign up, or for more information, contact the staff in San Diego (858-268-4747). Club membership lists will be maintained by the San Diego location, but all fantastic titles can be picked up in either store, or shipped to you!

 

A new title will be revealed each month!

 

The Bastard Legion: Book 1 By Gavin G. Smith Cover Image
$13.99
Currently unavailable, email or call for more information.
ISBN: 9781473217256
Published: Gollancz - February 6th, 2018

January 2018

Description


'High octane SF adventure with Smith's trademark twist' Jamie Sawyer
'An exceptional talent' Peter F Hamilton

Four hundred years in the future, the most dangerous criminals are kept in suspended animation aboard prison ships and "rehabilitated" in a shared virtual reality environment. But Miska Corbin, a thief and hacker with a background in black ops, has stolen one of these ships, the Hangman's Daughter, and made it her own. Controlled by explosive collars and trained in virtual reality by the electronic ghost of a dead marine sergeant, the thieves, gangsters, murderers, and worse are transformed into Miska's own private indentured army: the Bastard Legion. Are the mercenaries just for fun and profit, or does Miska have a hidden purpose connected to her covert past?


The Tethered Mage (Swords and Fire #1) By Melissa Caruso Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780316466875
Availability: Not in Stock, Available for Special Order
Published: Orbit - October 24th, 2017

November 2017

Staff Reviews


Melissa Caruson’s The Tethered Mage is a historical fantasy, set in an alternative 17th-century Venice where the doge uses the powers of his magical subjects to rule a Mediterranean empire. The novel is also a charming romance, as heroine Princess Amalia fights tradition to realize her love for the commoner soldier Marcello. Above all, the novel is an intelligent and sophisticated exploration of the political dimension of magic, how the power intrinsic to magic draws people inexorably into relationships based on domination and terror, and subsumes magical individuals into the state’s calculus of advantage and control. At once exciting, romantic, and sophisticated, The Tethered Mage is a fresh take on historical fantasy. Highly recommended!

— From David's Diamonds

Description


In the Raverran Empire, magic is scarce and those born with power are strictly controlled -- taken as children and conscripted into the Falcon Army. 
Zaira has lived her life on the streets to avoid this fate, hiding her mage-mark and thieving to survive. But hers is a rare and dangerous magic, one that threatens the entire empire.
Lady Amalia Cornaro was never meant to be a Falconer. Heiress and scholar, she was born into a treacherous world of political machinations. 
But fate has bound the heir and the mage. And as war looms on the horizon, a single spark could turn their city into a pyre.
The Tethered Mage is the first novel in a spellbinding new fantasy series.


The Tiger's Daughter (Ascendant #1) By K Arsenault Rivera Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9780765392534
Availability: Not in Stock, Available for Special Order
Published: Tor Books - October 3rd, 2017

October 2017 

Description


"Rich, expansive, and grounded in human truth...simply exquisite." --V. E. Schwab, New York Times bestselling author of the Shades of Magic series
Even gods can be slain
The Hokkaran empire has conquered every land within their bold reach--but failed to notice a lurking darkness festering within the people. Now, their border walls begin to crumble, and villages fall to demons swarming out of the forests.
Away on the silver steppes, the remaining tribes of nomadic Qorin retreat and protect their own, having bartered a treaty with the empire, exchanging inheritance through the dynasties. It is up to two young warriors, raised together across borders since their prophesied birth, to save the world from the encroaching demons.
This is the story of an infamous Qorin warrior, Barsalayaa Shefali, a spoiled divine warrior empress, O Shizuka, and a power that can reach through time and space to save a land from a truly insidious evil.
A crack in the wall heralds the end...two goddesses arm themselves...K Arsenault Rivera's The Tiger's Daughter is an adventure for the ages.

 


Skyfarer (The Drifting Lands #1) By Joseph Brassey Cover Image
$8.79
Currently unavailable, email or call for more information.
ISBN: 9780857666765
Published: Angry Robot - September 5th, 2017

September 2017 

Description


An apprentice sorceress is dragged into a vicious quest across an endless sky in this Star Wars-inspired space fantasy

The Axiom Diamond is a mythical relic, with the power to show its bearer any truth they desire. Men have sought for it across many continents for centuries, but in vain. When trainee sorceress Aimee de Laurent's first ever portal-casting goes awry, she and her mentor are thrown into the race to find the gem, on the skyship Elysium. Opposing them are the infamous magic-wielding knights of the Eternal Order and their ruthless commander, Lord Azrael, who will destroy everything in their path...


A Man of Shadows (Nyquist Mysteries #1) By Jeff Noon Cover Image
$14.99
Currently unavailable, email or call for more information.
ISBN: 9780857666703
Published: Angry Robot - August 1st, 2017

August 2017 

Description


The brilliant, mind-bending return to science fiction by one of its most acclaimed visionaries

 

Below the neon skies of Dayzone - where the lights never go out, and night has been banished - lowly private eye John Nyquist takes on a teenage runaway case. His quest takes him from Dayzone into the permanent dark of Nocturna.

 

As the vicious, seemingly invisible serial killer known only as Quicksilver haunts the streets, Nyquist starts to suspect that the runaway girl holds within her the key to the city's fate. In the end, there's only one place left to search: the shadow-choked zone known as Dusk.

 


The Ghost Line: The Titanic of the Stars By Andrew Neil Gray, J.S. Herbison Cover Image
$13.99
ISBN: 9780765394972
Availability: Not in Stock, Available for Special Order
Published: Tordotcom - July 11th, 2017

July 2017 

About the Author


ANDREW NEIL GRAY and J. S. HERBISON are partners in life as well as in writing. The Ghost Line is their first fiction collaboration, but won't be their last. They have also collaborated in the creation of two humans and preside over a small empire of chickens, raspberries and dandelions on Canada's West Coast.

 


The Prey of Gods By Nicky Drayden Cover Image
$16.63
ISBN: 9780062493033
Availability: Not in Stock, Available for Special Order
Published: Harper Voyager - June 13th, 2017

June 2017

Description


 

From a new voice in the tradition of Lauren Beukes, Ian McDonald, and Nnedi Okorafor comes The Prey of Gods, a fantastic, boundary-challenging tale, set in a South African locale both familiar and yet utterly new, which braids elements of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and dark humor.

In South Africa, the future looks promising. Personal robots are making life easier for the working class. The government is harnessing renewable energy to provide infrastructure for the poor. And in the bustling coastal town of Port Elizabeth, the economy is booming thanks to the genetic engineering industry which has found a welcome home there. Yes--the days to come are looking very good for South Africans. That is, if they can survive the present challenges:

A new hallucinogenic drug sweeping the country . . .

An emerging AI uprising . . .

And an ancient demigoddess hellbent on regaining her former status by preying on the blood and sweat (but mostly blood) of every human she encounters.

It's up to a young Zulu girl powerful enough to destroy her entire township, a queer teen plagued with the ability to control minds, a pop diva with serious daddy issues, and a politician with even more serious mommy issues to band together to ensure there's a future left to worry about.

Fun and fantastic, Nicky Drayden takes her brilliance as a short story writer and weaves together an elaborate tale that will capture your heart . . . even as one particular demigoddess threatens to rip it out.

 


Off Rock By Kieran Shea Cover Image
$14.95
Currently unavailable, email or call for more information.
ISBN: 9781785653384
Published: Titan Books - April 18th, 2017

May 2017

Description


"Five awesome and entertaining words to describe this one: 'Bank heist set in space.' Yes, please" - io9 

In the year 2778, Jimmy Vik is feeling dissatisfied. 
After busting his ass for assorted interstellar mining outfits for close to two decades, downsizing is in the wind, his ex-girlfriend/supervisor is climbing up his back, and daily Jimmy wonders if he's played his last good hand. 
So when Jimmy stumbles upon a significant gold pocket during a routine procedure on Kardashev 7-A, he believes his luck may have changed--larcenously so. But smuggling the gold "off rock" won't be easy.
To do it, Jimmy will have to contend with a wily criminal partner, a gorgeous covert assassin, the suspicions of his ex, and the less than honorable intentions of an encroaching, rival mining company. As the clock ticks down, treachery and betrayal loom, the body count rises, and soon Jimmy has no idea who to trust.


Special Purposes: First Strike Weapon By Gavin Smith Cover Image
$16.00
Currently unavailable, email or call for more information.
ISBN: 9781781085219
Published: Abaddon - April 11th, 2017

April 2017

Description


 

At the height of the Cold War, a Russian special forces team target New York with a horrifying new virus. 
Vadim Scorlenski is the sergeant in charge of an elite Spetznaz squad at the height of the Cold War. Sent by the Politburo on a training exercise to the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, Scorlenski and his men discover too late that the practice 'weapon' they're carrying - an exotic chemical agent - is all too real. Betrayed by their allies and cut down by the American police, they go to their deaths... 
...and awaken to a scene of turmoil. New York City has been overwhelmed by a horde of the walking dead, a plague that even now is spreading across the globe. Somehow holding onto their identities where all others have become mindless monsters, Scorlenski and his squad set out to return to Russia, to take revenge for what has been done to them.

 


Staff Pick Badge
Six Wakes By Mur Lafferty Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780316389686
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Orbit - January 31st, 2017

February 2017 

Staff Reviews


 

And Then There Were None meets Alien in this locked-room, SF-thriller, which grips you from the first scene in the frozen depths of space. On the generational starship, Dormire, Maria bolts awake in a cloning vat, her core-self freshly imprinted after she was killed. Five other crewmates have been brutally murdered, and their new incarnations awake near their own floating corpses. The artificial gravity is off, the ship is far off course, and the A.I. that runs the ship is starting to reboot. The cloning machine that saved Maria has been sabotaged, so if someone kills her now, there’s no coming back. One of the Dormire’s crew is the murderer; problem is, all of them have blood on their hands. Two thousand hibernating souls will never revive if she doesn’t stop the killer before she dies again.

— From Rob Crowther

 

Description


 

A space adventure set on a lone ship where the clones of a murdered crew must find their murderer -- before they kill again. 
It was not common to awaken in a cloning vat streaked with drying blood.
At least, Maria Arena had never experienced it. She had no memory of how she died. That was also new; before, when she had awakened as a new clone, her first memory was of how she died. Maria's vat was in the front of six vats, each one holding the clone of a crew member of the starship Dormire, each clone waiting for its previous incarnation to die so it could awaken. And Maria wasn't the only one to die recently...

 


Staff Pick Badge
The Last Sacrifice (Tides of War #1) By James A. Moore Cover Image
$14.99
Currently unavailable, email or call for more information.
ISBN: 9780857665447
Published: Angry Robot - January 3rd, 2017

January 2017 

Staff Reviews


 

Since time began, the Grakhul immortal servants of the gods have taken human sacrifices to keep the world in balance and the gods appeased. When the choose the family of warrior Brogan McTyre, everything changes. 
Brogan begins the toughest battle of his life to free his family from their terrible fate. But when you challenge the gods, you challenge the very fabric of society.Declared an outcast, Brogan and his kin are hunted like criminals but nothing will stand in his way. 
 

— From Out of this World Originals

 

Description


 

Since time began, the Grakhul immortal servants of the gods have taken human sacrifices to keep the world in balance and the gods appeased. When the choose the family of warrior Brogan McTyre, everything changes. 
Brogan begins the toughest battle of his life to free his family from their terrible fate. But when you challenge the gods, you challenge the very fabric of society.Declared an outcast, Brogan and his kin are hunted like criminals but nothing will stand in his way. 

 


The Facefaker's Game By Chandler J. Birch Cover Image
$15.99
Currently unavailable, email or call for more information.
ISBN: 9781501147753
Published: Simon & Schuster/ Simon451 - November 1st, 2016

November 2016 

Description


 

For fans of Brandon Sanderson and Scott Lynch, a fantasy about a clever young beggar who bargains his way into an apprenticeship with a company of thieving magicians and uses his newfound skills in a vendetta against a ruthless crime lord. 
Ashes lives in Burroughside the dirtiest, most crime-ridden district in the huge city of Teranis. His neighbors are gangs of fellow orphans, homeless madmen, and monsters that swarm the streets at nightfall. Determined to escape Burroughside, Ashes spends his days begging, picking pockets, and cheating at cards. When he draws the wrath of Mr. Ragged, Burroughside's brutal governor, he is forced to flee for his life, only to be rescued by an enigmatic man named Candlestick Jack. 
Jack leads a group of Artificers, professional magicians who can manipulate light with their bare hands to create stunningly convincing illusions. Changing a face is as simple as changing a hat. Ashes seizes an opportunity to study magic under Jack and quickly befriends the rest of the company: Juliana, Jack's aristocratic wife; William, his exacting business partner; and Synder, his genius apprentice. But all is not as it seems: Jack and his company lead a double life as thieves, and they want Ashes to join their next heist. Between lessons on light and illusion, Ashes begins preparing to help with Jack's most audacious caper yet: robbing the richest and most ruthless nobleman in the city. 
A dramatic adventure story full of wit, charm, and scheming rogues, The Facefaker's Game introduces an unforgettable world you won t soon want to leave.

 


The Ferryman Institute: A Novel By Colin Gigl Cover Image
$27.03
ISBN: 9781501125324
Availability: Not in Stock, Available for Special Order
Published: Gallery Books - September 27th, 2016

October 2016 

Description


 

In this stunning, fantastical debut novel from a bold new voice in the bestselling traditions of Christopher Moore and Jasper Fforde, a ferryman for the dead finds his existence unraveling after making either the best decision or the biggest mistake of his immortal life. 
Ferryman Charlie Dawson saves dead people somebody has to convince them to move on to the afterlife, after all. Having never failed a single assignment, he's acquired a reputation for success that's as legendary as it is unwanted. It turns out that serving as a Ferryman is causing Charlie to slowly lose his mind. Deemed too valuable by the Ferryman Institute to be let go and too stubborn to just give up in his own right, Charlie's pretty much abandoned all hope of escaping his grim existence. Or he had, anyway, until he saved Alice Spiegel. To be fair, Charlie never planned on stopping Alice from taking her own life that sort of thing is strictly forbidden by the Institute but he never planned on the President secretly giving him the choice to, either. Charlie's not quite sure what to make of it, but Alice is alive, and it's the first time he's felt right in more than two hundred years. 
When word of the incident reaches Inspector Javrouche, the Ferryman Institute's resident internal affairs liaison, Charlie finds he's in a world of trouble. But Charlie's not about to lose the only living, breathing person he's ever saved without a fight. He's ready to protect her from Javrouche and save Alice from herself, and he's willing to put the entire continued existence of mankind at risk to do it. 
Written in the same vein as bestselling modern classics such as The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde and A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore, The Ferryman Institute is a thrilling supernatural adventure packed with wit and humor.

 


Chasing Embers (A Ben Garston Novel) By James Bennett Cover Image
$14.99
Currently unavailable, email or call for more information.
ISBN: 9780316390699
Published: Orbit - September 6th, 2016

September 2016 

Description


 

Behind every myth, there's a spark of truth... 
There's nothing special about Ben Garston. He's just a guy with an attitude in a beat-up leather jacket, drowning his sorrows in a downtown bar. Or so he'd have you believe. 
What Ben Garston can't let you know is that he was once known as Red Ben. That the world of myth and legend isn't just a fantasy, as we've been led to believe. And he certainly can't let you know the secret of what's hiding just beneath his skin... 
But not even Ben knows what kind of hell is about to break loose. A centuries-old rivalry has just resurfaced, and the delicate balance between his world and ours is about to be shattered. 
"A thrilling fusion of myth and modernity, "Chasing Embers "will have you rooting for dragons over humans and loving every minute of it." -- Kevin Hearne, "New York Times" bestselling author of "Hounded"