Ya know, this section could really use a theme song. Like, something from a live band? And then maybe an announcer to introduce me before I walk out on stage and start telling topical jokes? Oh, and I could have a big desk and… Rats, I got book release blogging confused with late night talk show hosting. Oh well.
Welcome to another round of the SFF Book Releases This Week! If you are an indie or small press author and would like your book included in this list, email us at adventuresinscifipublishing [at] gmail [dot] com. If you love free books, reviews, egg salad sandwiches, and podcasts, sign up to our AISFP Wormhole newsletter.
And now it’s time for books!
Genrenauts: The Shootout Solution
by Michael R. Underwood
First book in the series
Leah Tang just died on stage. Well, not literally. Not yet.
Leah’s stand-up career isn’t going well. But she understands the power of fiction, and when she’s offered employment with the mysterious Genrenauts Foundation, she soon discovers that literally dying on stage is a hazard of the job!
Her first assignment takes her to a Western world. When a cowboy tale slips off its rails, and the outlaws start to win, it’s up to Leah – and the Genrenauts team – to nudge the story back on track and prevent a catastrophe on Earth.
But the story’s hero isn’t interested in winning, and the safety of Earth hangs in the balance…
The Lost Branch
by Donna Cook
The sequel to Cook’s “Gift of the Phoenix”
A portion of Phoenix ash is stuck on the altar at the Rock of Light, leading to the discovery of a mysterious new threat. In this follow-up to the epic fantasy adventure, Gift of the Phoenix, Corren embarks on a perilous quest for the secrets of a long-extinct branch of the Order. In his absence, a menacing illness threatens the extinction of the earth faeries. But is it Nicolai they need or Corren’s powerful staff? And while Marcellus delves further into his bond with the element of water, he quickly finds it may require more than he’s able to give. In this intriguing continuation of Cook’s epic saga, the Three discover the power of ancient secrets, new enemies, and treacherous desires. Together, they must protect their world from its most dangerous threat yet. If it isn’t already too late.
Mobius
by Vincent Vale
Theron Mobius has worked his entire life on a Dimensional Gateway that will propel humankind into a new era of space travel. When it’s sabotaged by a mysterious entity, he uncovers a plot against humanity that’s been underway for millennia. Theron is driven against all odds to stop the entity, only to discover he’s an integral part of the entity’s sinister plan. Together with a small group of travelers, he must journey across galaxies in search of an ancient Guardian of the universe. If he fails, humankind will face oblivion.
Skyborn
by David Dalglish
The first of Dalglish’s “Seraphim” series
Six islands float high above the Endless Ocean, where humanity’s final remnants are locked in brutal civil war.
Their parents slain in battle, twins Kael and Brenna Skyborn are training to be Seraphim, elite soldiers of aerial combat who wield elements of ice, fire, stone and lightning.
When the invasion comes, they will take to the skies, and claim their vengeance.
Wild Cat
by Christine Feehan
Part of Feehan’s “Leopard” series
A simple request for Siena Arnotto: deliver a gift to her grandfather’s friend. One look at Elijah Lospostos, hard-bodied and stripped to the waist, and Siena succumbs to a feline stirring she never felt before, and to Elijah’s reckless and pleasurable demands. But when that pulse-throbbing moment ends in the murder of an unexpected intruder, Elijah accuses the shaken and confused Siena of setting him up. Then Siena discovers the truth of her Leopard heritage, of the secrets in her grandfather’s inner circle, and the sinister plot of revenge that has put her in jeopardy. When Siena’s grandfather is assassinated, she realizes the only man she can trust is Elijah. Now as her Leopard rises from within, Siena and Elijah share not only an animal instinct for survival-but a desire so raw and wild it may be the only thing that can save them.
Warheart
by Terry Goodkind
All is lost. Evil will soon consume the D’Haran Empire. Richard Rahl lies on his funeral bier. It is the end of everything.
Except what isn’t lost is Kahlan Amnell. Following an inner prompting beyond all reason, the last Confessor will wager everything on a final desperate gambit, and in so doing, she will change the world forever.
Beatlebone
by Kevin Barry
It is 1978, and John Lennon has escaped New York City to try to find the island off the west coast of Ireland he bought nine years prior. Leaving behind domesticity, his approaching forties, his inability to create, and his memories of his parents, he sets off to find calm in the comfortable silence of isolation. But when he puts himself in the hands of a shape-shifting driver full of Irish charm and dark whimsy, what ensues can only be termed a magical mystery tour.
Angel of Storms
by Trudi Canavan
The second book of Canavan’s “Millenium’s Rule” series
Tyen is teaching mechanical magic at a school respected throughout the worlds. News arrives that the formidable ruler of all worlds, long believed to be dead, is back and enforcing his old laws – including the one forbidding schools of magic. As teachers and students flee, Tyen is left with no home and no purpose…except the promise he made to Vella, the sorcerer imprisoned in a book. Tyen must decide what he is willing to do to free her.
After five years among the tapestry weavers of Schpeta, Rielle’s peaceful new life has been shattered by a local war. As defeat looms, the powerful Angel of Storms appears and invites Rielle to join the artisans of his celestial realm. But what will he require in return for this extraordinary offer?
Death Wave
by Ben Bova
In Ben Bova’s previous novel New Earth, Jordan Kell led the first human mission beyond the solar system. They discovered the ruins of an ancient alien civilization. But one alien AI survived, and it revealed to Jordan Kell that an explosion in the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy has created a wave of deadly radiation, expanding out from the core toward Earth. Unless the human race acts to save itself, all life on Earth will be wiped out.
When Kell and his team return to Earth, many years after their departure, they find that their world has changed almost beyond recognition. Not only has a second wave of greenhouse flooding caused sea levels to rise, but society has been changed by the consequences of the climate shift. Few people want to face Jordan Kell’s news. He must convince Earth’s new rulers that the human race is in danger of extinction unless it acts to forestall the death wave coming from the galaxy’s heart.
Forgotten Magic
by Vicky Garlick
November 20
Magic was plentiful, until those with the gift were mysteriously wiped out. Now, one woman’s once dormant power has been awakened. Determined to rule, her vicious creations roam the unsuspecting land to conquer it, because she knows no one can stop her… Twin siblings, Kiræ and Tom embark on an adventure of combat training to follow in the footsteps of their guardian, Vala. Their goal is to help protect the citizens from the vicious mingual, the murderous creations of Bælana, the only known human to possess magic. As they try to juggle physical training and written theory, they stumble upon a life changing secret that may provide a clue to Bælana’s destruction. Meanwhile, Vala travels the land with her army and friends in order to try and defeat the ever growing mingual army and get one step closer to Bælana’s lair and victory. But with citizens turning against them, her journey is far from easy and she soon finds that the mingual aren’t all that they seem…
Lock & Key
by Gordon Bonnet
November 20
What if your future lies in your past? When Darren Ault meets his friend Lee McCaskill for dinner, he doesn’t expect the second course to be a gunshot to the head. Even more unexpected is the fact that the bullet doesn’t kill him-instead, it causes the rest of humanity to vanish. Darren’s attempted murder has caused a temporal paradox extending back over a thousand years, and now it’s up to him to repair the damage. Embarking on a mind-bending journey through time, Darren encounters Vikings, a depressed Norwegian silversmith, an insane highwayman, a cult that believes in salvation through pain, a beautiful Hebridean lass, and Archibald Fischer-the foul-mouthed, Kurt Cobain-worshiping Head Librarian of the Library of Timelines, where all of the possibilities that could ever happen are catalogued, tracked, and managed.
The Humanity of Monsters
Edited by Michael Matheson. Features stories from Neil Gaiman, Catherynne M. Valente, Kij Johnson, Chinelo Onwualu, and others
We are all of us monsters. We are none of us monsters. Through the work of twenty-six writers, emerging to award-winning and masters of their craft, The Humanity of Monsters plumbs the depths of humane monsters, monstrous humans, and the interstices between. Monstrous heralds of change, the sight of whom only children can survive. Monsters born of the battlefield, in gunfire and frost and blood, clothed in too-familiar flesh. Monsters, human and otherwise, born of fear, and love, and retribution all, wrapped tight and inextricable one from the other: the Fallen outside of time, lovers and monsters in borrowed skin, and creatures from beyond the stars and humans who have travelled to them. Dreams of lost and siren-song depths – of other half-held, half-remembered lives. And the things we have survived, and the things we might yet survive, in the face of greater, eviscerating loss. In stories by turns surreal, sublime, brutal, and haunting, there are no easy answers to be found, no simple nor uncomplicated labels to be had. Only the surety that though there be monsters, you will name them false. And when you meet those who truly are, you will not know them.
Out of the Blue Valise
by Mari Gayatri Stein
November 19
When a cancer diagnosis begins to drain author Mila’s vital force, a hippopotamus with magical powers comes to her rescue, inspiring a brand new story. “Out of the Blue Valise” takes us from Oregon to Malibu, Paris to Africa, unpacking such delights as a Hollywood artist sober on AA, a lovable red-and-white zebra, twin can-do British aristocrats, and s supersized villain you will love to hate. With whimsy and pathos, humor and heart, Mila is writing for her life.
Byron Dunn is an AISFP Contributor, a friend to werewolves, and thinks he’s funny.
Don’t tell him otherwise. He’ll cry.
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