Speculative Fiction

Uncompromising Honor (Honor Harrington #19) (Hardcover)

By David Weber

$28.00

ISBN: 9781481483506

Availability: Coming Soon - Available for Pre-Order Now

Published: Baen - October 2nd, 2018

HONOR'S FINISHING WHAT SHE STARTED

The Solarian League's navy counts its superdreadnoughts by the thousands. Not even its own government knows how enormous its economy truly is. And for hundreds of years, the League has borne the banner of human civilization, been the ideal to which humanity aspires in its diaspora across the galaxy.

But the bureaucrats known as the "Mandarins," who rule today's League, are not the men and women who founded it so long ago. They are corrupt, venal, accountable to no one . . . and they've decided the upstart Star Kingdom of Manticore must be destroyed.

Honor Harrington has worn the Star Kingdom's uniform for half a century and served her monarch and her people well. In the course of those years, the woman the newsies call the Salamander has grown from a tactically brilliant but politically naïve junior officer to supreme fleet command and a seat on the highest military and political councils of the Grand Alliance.

Very few people know war the way Honor Harrington does. Very few have lost as many men and women, as many friends, as much family, as she has. Yet despite that, hers has been a voice of caution. She knows the Mandarins and the Solarian League Navy are growing increasingly desperate as the truth of their technological inferiority sinks home, but she also knows the sheer size of the League. And she knows how its citizens will react if the Grand Alliance takes the war to the League, attacks its star systems, destroys its infrastructure . . . kills its civilians. Today's victory, bought on those terms, can only guarantee a future war of revenge against a resurgent Solarian League and its navy.

Honor knows the Grand Alliance must find a victory that doesn't require incursions deep into Solarian space, doesn't leave a legacy of bottomless hatred, and the strategy she supports has been working.

The League is sliding towards inglorious defeat as it steadily loses ground in the Protectorates and the Verge. As its central government teeters towards bankruptcy and even some of its core systems opt to secede in the face of the Mandarins' corruption. As the Solarian Navy finally realizes it cannot face an Alliance battle fleet and win.

But the Mandarins have embraced a desperate new strategy, and in pursuit of that strategy, the SLN has committed atrocities such as the galaxy has not known in a thousand years. The League have violated its own Eridani Edict against mass civilian casualties, violated the Deneb Accords prohibition on war crimes.

And they have finally killed too many of the people Honor Harrington loves.

Hers is the voice of caution and compromise no longer, and the galaxy is about to see something it has never imagined.

The Salamander is coming for the Solarian League, and Hell is coming in her wake.

Alternate Routes (Hardcover)

By Tim Powers

$25.00

ISBN: 9781481483407

Availability: Coming Soon - Available for Pre-Order Now

Published: Baen - August 7th, 2018

A New Novel From Award-Winning Master of Fantasy and Science Fiction Tim Powers. A modern ghost story as only Tim Powers can write it.

Something weird is happening to the Los Angeles freeways--phantom cars, lanes from nowhere, and sometimes unmarked offramps that give glimpses of a desolate desert highway--and Sebastian Vickery, disgraced ex-Secret Service agent, is a driver for a covert supernatural-evasion car service. But another government agency is using and perhaps causing the freeway anomalies, and their chief is determined to have Vickery killed because of something he learned years ago at a halted Presidential motorcade.

Reluctantly aided by Ingrid Castine, a member of that agency, and a homeless Mexican boy, and a woman who makes her living costumed as Supergirl on the sidewalk in front of the Chinese Theater, Vickery learns what legendary hell it is that the desert highway leads to--and when Castine deliberately drives into it to save him from capture, he must enter it himself to get her out.

Alternate Routes is a fast-paced supernatural adventure story that sweeps from the sun-blinded streets and labyrinthine freeways of Los Angeles to a horrifying other world out of Greek mythology, and Vickery and Castine must learn to abandon old loyalties and learn loyalty to each other in order to survive as the world goes mad around them.

Outer Earth (Paperback)

By Rob Boffard

$17.99

ISBN: 9780316439077

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Orbit - February 6th, 2018

Welcome to Outer Earth: a vivid, dangerous world where every day is a desperate struggle for survival. Who said in space no one can hear you scream? 
Outer Earth is a huge space station orbiting the ruins of our planet. Dirty, overcrowded and inescapable, it's humanity's last refuge . . . and possibly its final resting place. 
For there are dark forces at work on the station: forces that seek to unleash chaos. If they succeed, there will be nowhere left to run. 
This omnibus edition contains all three of Rob Boffard's adrenaline-fuelled Outer Earth novels: Tracer, Zero-G, and Impact. 

The River Bank: A Sequel to Kenneth Grahame's the Wind in the Willows (Hardcover)

By Kij Johnson, Kathleen Jennings (Illustrator)

$24.00

ISBN: 9781618731302

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Small Beer Press - September 19th, 2017

Washington Post Notable Books: "A charming and funny sequel to Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows."

In this delightful dive into the bygone world of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows staunch Mole, sociable Water Rat, severe Badger, and troublesome and ebullient Toad of Toad Hall are joined by a young mole lady, Beryl, and her dear friend, Rabbit. There are adventures, kidnappings, lost letters, and family secrets--lavishly illustrated throughout by award-winning artist Kathleen Jennings.

Heroine's Journey (Heroine Complex #3) (Paperback)

By Sarah Kuhn

$15.00

ISBN: 9780756414412

Availability: Coming Soon - Available for Pre-Order Now

Published: Daw Books - July 3rd, 2018

The third book in the smart, snarky, and action-packed Heroine series completes the "Heroic Trio" as Bea Tanaka joins her sister, Evie, and diva Aveda Jupiter in their quest to free San Francisco from its demon portal problem

If there's one thing Beatrice Tanaka never wanted to be, it's normal. But somehow, her life has unfolded as a series of "should haves." Her powers of emotional projection should have made her one of the most formidable superheroes of all time. And she should have been allowed to join her older sister Evie as a full-fledged protector of San Francisco, pulverizing the city's plethora of demon threats.

But Evie and her superheroing partner, Aveda Jupiter, insist on seeing Bea as the impulsive, tempestuous teenager she used to be--even though she's now a responsible adult. And that means Bea is currently living a thoroughly normal life. She works as a bookstore lackey, hangs out with best friends Sam Fujikawa and Leah Kim, and calms her workplace's more difficult customers. Sure, she's not technically supposed to be playing with people's mental states. But given the mundanity of her existence, who can blame her?

When a mysterious being starts communicating with Bea, hinting at an evil that's about to overtake the city, she seizes the opportunity, hoping to turn her "should haves" into the fabulous heroic life she's always wanted. But gaining that life may mean sacrificing everything--and everyone--she holds dear...

Heroine Complex (Mass Market Paperbound)

By Sarah Kuhn

$7.99

ISBN: 9780756413279

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Daw Books - July 4th, 2017

Being a superheroine is hard. Working for one is even harder.

 

Evie Tanaka is the put-upon personal assistant to Aveda Jupiter, her childhood best friend and San Francisco's most beloved superheroine. She's great at her job--blending into the background, handling her boss's epic diva tantrums, and getting demon blood out of leather pants.

 

Unfortunately, she's not nearly as together when it comes to running her own life, standing up for herself, or raising her tempestuous teenage sister, Bea.

 

But everything changes when Evie's forced to pose as her glamorous boss for one night, and her darkest secret comes out: she has powers, too. Now it's up to her to contend with murderous cupcakes, nosy gossip bloggers, and supernatural karaoke battles--all while juggling unexpected romance and Aveda's increasingly outrageous demands. And when a larger threat emerges, Evie must finally take charge and become a superheroine in her own right...or see her city fall to a full-on demonic invasion.

Heliopause: The Questrison Saga: Book One (Paperback)

By J. Dianne Dotson

$13.99

ISBN: 9780999408209

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: J. Dianne Dotson - May 29th, 2018

Flashes of light. An unseen menace. Messages from the void. Secrets at the edge of the solar system that threaten to destroy the future.

Mandira Research Station beckons at the heliopause--the brink of interstellar space. After Forster sees flashes outside that no one else can, the captain of an incoming ship is attacked by an invisible foe. Forster and his enigmatic coworker Efron search for a missing daughter who might be the cause of it all. Can the team stop the force from taking over Mandira, and the entire solar system?

Witchy Winter (Hardcover)

By D. J. Butler

$25.00

ISBN: 9781481483148

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Baen - April 3rd, 2018

SEQUEL TO WITCHY EYE. Next in series, which debuted with the stunningly reviewed Witchy Eye. Butler delivers another brilliant Americana flintlock fantasy novel.

 

TOIL AND TROUBLE

 

Sarah Calhoun paid a hard price for her entry onto the stage of the Empire's politics, but she survived. Now she rides north into the Ohio and her father's kingdom, Cahokia. To win the Serpent Throne, she'll have to defeat seven other candidates, win over the kingdom's regent, and learn the will of a hidden goddess--while mastering her people's inscrutable ways and watching her own back.

 

In New Orleans, a new and unorthodox priest arises to plague the chevalier and embody the curse of the murdered Bishop Ukwu. He battles the chevalier's ordinary forces as well as a troop of Old World mamelukes for control of the city and the mouth of the great Mississippi River. Dodging between these rival titans, a crew of Catalan pirates--whose captain was once a close associate of Mad Hannah Penn--grapples with the chevalier over the fate of one of their mates.

 

Meanwhile, a failed ceremony and a sick infant send the Anishinaabe hunter Ma'iingan on a journey across the Empire to Cavalier Johnsland, to a troubled foster child named Nathaniel. Ma'iingan is promised that Nathaniel is a mighty healer and can save his imperiled baby, but first Nathaniel--a pale young man with a twisted ear who hears the voices of unseen beings--must himself be rescued, from oppression, imprisonment, and madness.

Chaos Queen - Blood Requiem (Chaos Queen 3) (Paperback)

By Christopher Husberg

$14.95

ISBN: 9781783299195

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Titan Books (UK) - June 5th, 2018

The Nine Daemons are on the rise.

Once believed dead and gone, Daemons have found a way back into the world. But the only people who can withstand their assault are spread across the face of the Sfaera.

Free at last from the influence of assassins and emperors alike, the psimancer Winter sails back to her hometown--only to find a new trouble stirring. Meanwhile, the heretic sisters Jane and Cinzia Oden are beset by supernatural attacks. And soon their allies, the vampire-girl Astrid and the former assassin Knot, must face the terrifying Black Matron.

As new battles are fought, the Daemons creep ever closer to freedom, and the legend of the Chaos Queen may soon be made anew.

Chaos Queen: Duskfall (Paperback)

By Christopher Husberg

$14.95

ISBN: 9781783299157

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Titan Books (UK) - June 21st, 2016

Pulled from a frozen sea, pierced by arrows and close to death, Knot has no memory of who he was. But his dreams are dark, filled with violence and unknown faces. Winter, a tiellan woman whose people have long been oppressed by humans, is married to and abandoned by Knot on the same day. In her search for him, she will discover her control of magic, but risk losing herself utterly. And Cinzia, priestess and true believer, returns home to discover her family at the heart of a heretical rebellion. A rebellion that only the Inquisition can crush. Their fates and those of others will intertwine, in a land where magic and daemons are believed dead, but dark forces still vie for power.

The Skaar Invasion (Fall of Shannara #2) (Hardcover)

By Terry Brooks

$28.00

ISBN: 9780553391510

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Del Rey Books - June 19th, 2018

Following The Black Elfstone, The Skaar Invasion is the second book of the epic four-part conclusion to the Shannara series from one of the acknowledged masters of the fantasy genre. 

The Four Lands are under siege. Wielding a magical ability virtually impossible to combat, mysterious invaders defeat the most fearsome Troll armies, then focus their savagery on the Druid order--and all hope seems lost.

 

Eventually the invaders reveal a more human face, but understanding their motives in no way mitigates the brutality of their actions. Dar Leah, once the High Druid's Blade, has crossed paths--and swords--with their ruthless leader before. So he knows that if any hope exists, it rests in the hands of the Druid Drisker Arc, now trapped inside vanished Paranor.

 

As Drisker races to find the ancient knowledge that could free him, Dar goes in search of Tarsha Kaynin, the young woman blessed with the powerful gift of the wishsong, whose magic could draw Drisker back into the world of the living. But little do they know that what appeared to be a formidable invading force may only be the forerunner of a much larger army--one intent on nothing less than total conquest.

Peril in the Old Country (Terribly Serious Darkness #1) (Paperback)

By Sam Hooker

$13.99

ISBN: 9780999742303

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Black Spot Books - June 5th, 2018

You've got to have rules. According to the good folk of the Old Country, they're all that's holding the dismal tide at bay. Start playing fast and loose with the rules, and it all comes tumbling down.

First comes the goblins. Nothing entices them quite like minor breaches of etiquette. Cut in a line, say a swear word, or speak the proper name of the Old Country aloud, and your house will be infested with them before you know it.

No one in the Old Country follows the rules half as well as Sloot Peril, who has never so much as given alms to a beggar without getting a certified receipt. He had his entire life planned out to the end and was so looking forward to making as faint a mark on the world as possible. Then he was asked to correct the worst financial report ever written.

Had they called upon a lesser accountant, that report might have gone on to topple financial markets, drive honest people to utter ruin, or quite possibly acquire a taste for human blood and start terrorizing the countryside in bestial form.

Sloot's corrections prevented that annihilation from coming to pass; however, if he'd known what he was setting in motion instead, he might have heard annihilation out.

Sloot will have to set aside his affinity for the rules and go up against underworld kingpins, secret societies, the undead, bloodthirsty cannibals from Carpathia, and even the ruthless Vlad the Invader! If that weren't enough, the steely gaze of Mrs. Knife follows him wherever he goes. Does she really want to murder him, or does she just have one of those faces?

At least Sloot's misadventures bring the lovely Myrtle into his life. She has the sort of smile that makes him want to stand up straighter and invest in some cologne. He's not even bothered by the fact that she's possessed by the laziest philosopher ever to have died.

Will the events put in motion by the ghastly financial report end in Sloot's grisly death? Almost definitely. Is that the worst thing that could happen? Almost definitely not.