Is
your TBR pile as ridiculous as mine? And yet…Monday has rolled around yet again,
and it’s time to look at the week’s new releases in speculative fiction—and you
get to pick which one you’d like to win! Some interesting titles this week,
including the new Dark Divine book from Bree Despain—I really like this YA
series. A new title in Cat Adams’ great Blood Singer series. A great-looking new
urban fantasy from debut author Deb Coates, who’ll be a guest here on the blog
tomorrow. And I keep looking at that David Moody Autumn dystopian series, which
I should just buy now that the whole freaking series is out…Ahhh….So many
books.
What
do you want to read? Leave a comment and tell me, and I’ll draw one name to win
his or her choice. International, as always. And if the book is in a series you
haven’t started, you can always pick the first one in the series instead.
Celia
Graves was once an ordinary human, but those days are long gone. Now she
strives to maintain her sanity and her soul while juggling both vampire
abilities and the powers of a Siren. Warned of a magical “bomb” at a local
elementary school, Celia forces an evacuation. Oddly, the explosion seems to
have no effect, puzzling both Celia and the FBI. Two weeks later, a strangely
persistent bruise on Celia’s leg turns out to be the first sign of a magical
zombie plague. Finding the source of the plague isn’t Celia’s only concern. Her
alcoholic mother has broken out of prison on the Sirens’ island; her little
sister’s ghost has possessed a young girl; and one of Celia’s boyfriends, a
powerful mage, has disappeared.
The
sultan Bokhari Al-Bokhari of Bessa has 365 concubines—until a violent coup puts the city in
the hands of the religious zealot Hakkim Mehdad. Hakkim has no use for the
pleasures of the flesh: he condemns the women first to exile and then to death.
Cast into the desert, the concubines must rely on themselves and each other to
escape from the new sultan’s fanatical pursuit. But their goals go beyond mere
survival: with the aid of the champions who emerge from among them, they intend
to topple the usurper and retake Bessa from the repressive power that now
controls it. But even if they succeed, their troubles will just be beginning—because their most dangerous enemy is
within their own number.
When
Sergeant Hallie Michaels comes back to South Dakota from Afghanistan on ten
days’ compassionate leave, her sister Dell’s ghost is waiting at the airport.
The sheriff says Dell’s death was suicide, but Hallie doesn’t believe it.
Friends and family, mourning Dell’s loss, think Hallie’s letting her grief
interfere with her judgment. The one person who seems willing to listen is the
deputy sheriff, Boyd Davies, who shows up everywhere and helps when he doesn’t
have to. As Hallie asks more questions, she attracts new ghosts, women who
disappeared without a trace. Soon, someone’s trying to beat her up, burn
down her father’s ranch, and stop her investigation.
Wrestling with the
werewolf curse pulsing deep inside of her, Grace Divine was finally able to
find her brother, but it nearly cost her everything. With her boyfriend, Daniel, stuck in wolf
form and Sirhan’s death approaching, time is running out for Grace to stop
Caleb Kalbi and his gang of demons. If she fails, her family and hometown will
perish. Everything rests on Grace’s shoulders. The final installment in The Dark
Divine trilogy. Young Adult.
War rages in Midkemia
but behind the chaos there is disquieting evidence of dark forces at work. Jim
Dasher’s usually infallible intelligence network has been dismantled; nowhere
is safe. He feels that the world is coming apart at the seams and is helpless
to protect his nation. Quiet palace coups are underway in Roldem and Rillanon,
and King Gregory of the Isles has yet to produce an heir. In each kingdom a
single petty noble has risen from obscurity to threaten the throne. An unknown
player appears to be orchestrating these conflicts. Can Pug and the Conclave of
Shadows track down this source before Midkemia is destroyed?
When King Arthur faces a challenge for
his crown from the reinvigorated Roman Empire, he must call his supporters from
every corner of the British Isles. One of these, Sir Lucan—the Black
Wolf of the North—has more reason than most to join the coming campaign.
Lucan’s wife, Trelawna,
hoping to lead a new, better life in Italy, absconded with a young Roman
officer. Lucan, already a fierce
warrior but now with tainted blood due to his battle with the Penharrow Worm, thus turns the mission
into a bitter personal vendetta.
Just as Sophie Mercer
has come to accept her extraordinary magical powers as a demon, the Prodigium
Council strips them away. Now Sophie is defenseless, alone, and at the mercy of
her sworn enemies—the Brannicks, a family of warrior women who hunt down the
Prodigium. Or at least that’s what Sophie thinks, until she makes a surprising
discovery. The Brannicks know an epic war is coming, and they believe Sophie is
the only one powerful enough to stop the world from ending. But without her
magic, Sophie isn’t as confident. Young Adult.
Go to school. Get good
grades. Stay out of trouble. That’s the mandate for most kids. But Nick Gautier
isn’t the average teenager. He’s a boy with a destiny not even he fully
understands. And his first mandate is to stay alive while everyone, even his
own father, tries to kill him. He is
on the brink of becoming either the greatest hero mankind has ever known. Or he’ll be the one who ends the world.
With enemies new and old gathering forces, he will have to call on every part
of himself to fight or he’ll lose everyone he cares about. Young Adult.
This debut from Nebula
Award and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award finalist Ted Kosmatka is a tale of
science cut loose from ethics, set in an amoral future where genetically
engineered monstrosities fight each other to the death in an Olympic event.
Silas Williams is the geneticist in charge of preparing the U.S. entry into the
Olympic Gladiator competition, an internationally sanctioned bloodsport with
only one rule: no human DNA is permitted in the design of the entrants. Silas
lives and breathes genetics; his designs have led the United States to the gold
in every previous event. But the other countries are catching up. Now,
desperate for an edge, Silas’s boss engages an experimental supercomputer to
design the genetic code for a gladiator that cannot be beaten. The result is a
highly specialized killing machine. Not even Silas, with all his genius and
experience, can understand the horror he had a hand in making.
Christine, the
princess and heir to the real world of Chrysanthe, is kidnapped as a small
child by a powerful magician and exiled in a Made World that is a version
of our present reality. In exile, she undergoes bogus memory recovery therapy,
through which she is forced to remember childhood rape and abuse by her parents
and others. She is stunted emotionally by this plot, but at seventeen
discovers it is all a lie. Christine escapes with a rescuer, a
knight from Chrysanthe, in a chase across realities. Once home, the
magical standoff caused by her exile is broken, and a war begins, in spite
of the best efforts of her father, the king, and his wizard, Melogian.
It’s been three months
since a killer disease wiped out 99 percent of the population. Three months
since the dead reanimated. The living are few and far between now, and those
who are still alive stick together to give themselves the best chance of
continuing to survive. One small group has established a community on an
inhospitable island. A second, much larger band of refugees have made their
base in a fortified castle on the coast. When the survivors from the island
unknowingly encroach on the other group’s territory, tensions are immediately
raised. Under siege from an army of corpses, the survivors on the mainland
launch a desperate attempt to take over the island and claim it for their own.
Winter, 1862. A
malevolent spirit roams the gloomy streets of Victorian London, the vampiric
ghost of John Polidori, the onetime physician of the mad, bad and dangerous
Romantic poet Lord Byron. Polidori is also the supernatural muse to his nice
and nephew, poet Christina Rossetti and her artist brother Dante Gabriel. But
Polidori’s taste for debauchery has grown excessive. He is determined to
possess the life and soul of an innocent young girl—and he has resurrected
Dante’s dead wife, transforming her into a vampire. The Rossettis know the time
has come—Polidori must be stopped. Joining forces with the girl’s parents, they
are plunged into a supernatural London underworld whose existence they never
suspected.
Callie lost her
parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and
sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters
and fighting off renegades. Callie’s only hope is Prime Destinations, a place
in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man. He hires
teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again.
Callie, desperate for money, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place
in Callie’s head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter,
living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator’s
grandson. It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her
renter intends to do more than party. First in a new series. Young Adult.
When the cards tell
Ophelia Leoni she’s supposed to marry the Prince of Hansarda, the gunrunner
grits her teeth and boards the starship that comes for her. It doesn’t matter
if the ship’s commander is the gorgeous stranger whose bed she just spent a
wild, drunken night in. As a Diviner, she’s painfully aware the cards don’t
lie. Ever. Boone O’Keirna knows Ophelia is trouble the second he sees the way
she moves. Not about to let the deadly little hellcat marry his sadistic
half-brother, Boone pretends to be the Prince’s emissary and kidnaps Ophelia.
Too bad they can’t be in the same room without him wanting to throw her out an
airlock–or into bed.
After escaping the
horrors of the Dark Dimension, Elena can’t wait to attend Dalcrest College, the
beautiful ivy-covered campus where her parents met. Life with Stefan is better
than ever, and even Damon seems changed and is getting along with everyone. But
moving away from Fell′s Church doesn′t mean she and her friends are free from
danger. When students start to disappear from campus, suddenly every new
acquaintance is a potential enemy. Then Elena uncovers a long-hidden secret,
one that shocks her to the core, and realizes tragedy may be unavoidable. Young
Adult.
Stefan and Damon thought they knew evil. But nothing compares to
Samuel, the ruthless vampire hell-bent on avenging Katherine’s death by
destroying the Salvatore brothers. Reeling from Samuel’s latest attack, Stefan
and Damon find help in the most unlikely of places—a secret coven of witches.
Together they discover Samuel’s plan is more sinister than they ever could have
imagined. Their only hope is to stop him before he secures the power to control
humans and vampires alike. Young Adult.
Of all the women the
Count Saint-Germain has loved, the most popular is the beautiful, ever-youthful
Madelaine de Montalia. In Commedia della Morte, Saint-Germain
learns that Madelaine—now a vampire—has been arrested by France’s Revolutionary
Tribunal and is soon to lose her head. Desperate to rescue her, the Count
sneaks into France with a troupe of actors led by the glamorous Photine, who
soon becomes Saint-Germain’s mistress. Photine’s teenage son, driven by
jealousy and revolutionary fervor, betrays the him. Now, Saint-Germain’s life,
as well as Madelaine’s, hangs in the balance.
Decisions,
decisions! As always, four entries possible: +1 for comment to tell me what
book (any book) you want, +1 for blog follow, +1 for Twitter follow
@Suzanne_Johnson, and +1 for a Tweet or RT about the contest. This contest is
international. Contests end at midnight CDT U.S., and winners are announced on
Sunday’s blog. It’s the responsibility of the winner to contact me with their
mailing info. Books unclaimed after a month will go into a general giveaway
pile.
Now….go!
