This week’s SFF BOOK RELEASES (THIS WEEK) are all about big franchises. And small franchises. And some books that will be big franchises when they grow up. And then there’s some other stuff that could be big or might stay little but you’ll only know for sure if you read them.
And don’t forget: If you’re 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, and podcasts, sign up to our AISFP Wormhole newsletter.
Alien – Invasion (Rage War 2)
by Tim Lebbon
For centuries Weyland-Yutani has tried to weaponize the aliens. Now someone has beaten them to it, sweeping through Yautja space and turning predator into prey.
Faced with the overwhelming forces of the Rage, Earth envoys forge an unprecedented alliance with the Predators. Yet even the combined might of two races may not be enough to stop the carnage, as an unstoppable swarm of Xenomorphs topples planet after planet, penetrating ever deeper into the Human Sphere.
Barren Cove
by Ariel S. Winter
Sapien is a relic of a bygone age, searching for meaning in a world where his outdated allegiances to a time long past have left him isolated and hopeless. Seeking peace and quiet, he retires to a beach house at Barren Cove, a stately Victorian manor even more antiquated than he.
He becomes increasingly fascinated with the family whose lives are entwined with the home—angry and rebellious Clark; flamboyant Kent; fragile, beautiful Mary; and most of all, Beachstone, the mysterious man whose history may hold all the answers Sapien has been searching for. As Sapien unlocks their secret loves and betrayals, the dangerous past of Barren Cove will indelibly change him…and who he is fated to become.
Bound (Silverton Chronicles 2)
by Carmen Fox
Florian has it all: excellent fashion sense, a kickass job with his best friend, and a hard-won place among Silverton’s werewolves. When a pack of females pads into their territory, Flo’s alpha dispatches him to handle a merger. Total cakewalk. Except Keely, their alpha, has no intention of submitting her wolves to Flo’s larger pack. Worse, a single glance from her baby blues sends his eloquence on vacation and his heartbeat into overdrive. His flirtations seem welcome too, but there’s a snag. She doesn’t know he’s a vampire.
While Flo struggles with his conflicts–obey his alpha or win over Keely–his estranged sire blasts into town with a catalog of radical ideas. And hanging out with unsophisticated werewolves didn’t make the list.
With violence in the air and all sides testing his loyalties, Florian must bite back, even if showing his fangs costs him the girl.
Captain America: Dark Designs
by Stefan Petrucha
Captain America has battled soldiers, terrorists and villains of all kinds. Now he’ll face a far more complicated enemy: his own body. When S.H.I.E.L.D. discovers that Cap is harboring an extinction-level pathogen hidden in his cells for decades, Cap’s greatest fear is realized: Until the virus can be cured, he’ll have to go into deep freeze. But he won’t be alone. Years ago, Cap’s greatest enemy managed the biggest coup of his career when he implanted his mind into a clone of Steve Rogers’ body – virus and all. And Red Skull isn’t the sacrificial type. Cap will have to put his arch-nemesis on ice – without exposing the virus. Can Cap stay alive along enough to capture Red Skull and return to his deepest nightmare?
The Days of Tao (Tao 4)
by Wesley Chu
Cameron Tan wouldn’t have even been in Greece if he hadn’t gotten a ‘D’ in Art History.
Instead of spending the summer after college completing his training as a Prophus operative, he’s doing a study abroad program in Greece, enjoying a normal life—spending time with friends and getting teased about his crush on a classmate.
Then the emergency notification comes in: a Prophus agent with vital information needs immediate extraction, and Cameron is the only agent on the ground, responsible for getting the other agent and data out of the country. The Prophus are relying on him to uncomplicate things.
Easy.
Easy, except the rival Genjix have declared all-out war against the Prophus, which means Greece is about to be a very dangerous place. And the agent isn’t the only person relying on Cameron to get them safely out of the country—his friends from the study abroad program are, too. Cameron knows a good agent would leave them to fend for themselves. He also knows a good person wouldn’t. Suddenly, things aren’t easy at all.
Star Trek – Elusive Salvation
by Dayton Ward
An all-new Star Trek adventure across time—the latest of the acclaimed Original Series novels!
The Arctic Circle, 1845: Escaping the tyranny under which their people have lived for generations, aliens from a distant planet crash land on Earth’s inhospitable frozen wastes. Surviving the harsh conditions will pose a challenge, but over time the aliens will migrate to more populated areas, with decades passing as they work to conceal their presence from their former oppressors, who continue to hunt them at any cost.
San Francisco, 2283: When a mysterious craft is detected entering the solar system, Admiral James Kirk is dispatched by Starfleet to confront the vessel. He meets with an emissary from the Iramahl, a previously unknown alien race who have come in search of their brothers and sisters thought to have gone missing in this area of space centuries earlier. Having recently thrown off the last chains of subjugation by another species, the Ptaen, they now believe their lost people hold the key to saving their entire race from eventual extinction.
New York, 1970: Roberta Lincoln, young protégé of the mysterious agent Gary Seven, is shocked when she receives the oddest request for help—from the future…
Emperor of the Eight Islands (Tale of Shikanoko 1)
by Lian Hearn
In the opening pages of the action-packed Book One of Lian Hearn’s epic Tale of Shikanoko series–all of which will be published in 2016–a future lord is dispossessed of his birthright by a scheming uncle, a mountain sorcerer imbues a mask with the spirit of a great stag for a lost young man, a stubborn father forces his son to give up his wife to his older brother, and a powerful priest meddles in the succession to the Lotus Throne, the child who is the rightful heir to the emperor barely escaping the capital in the arms of his sister. And that is just the beginning.
As destiny weaves its rich tapestry, a compelling drama plays out against a background of wild forests, elegant castles, hidden temples, and savage battlefields. This is the medieval Japan of Lian Hearn’s imagination, where animal spirits clash with warriors and children navigate a landscape as serene as it is deadly.
Fall of Light (Kharkanas Trilogy 2)
by Steven Erikson
It is a bitter winter and civil war is ravaging Kurald Galain. Urusander’s Legion prepares to march on the city of Kharkanas. The rebels’ only opposition lies scattered and weakened – bereft of a leader since Anomander’s departure in search of his estranged brother. The remaining brother, Silchas Ruin, rules in his stead. He seeks to gather the Houseblades of the Highborn families to him and resurrect the Hust Legion in the southlands, but he is fast running out of time.
The officers and leaders of Urusander’s Legion, led by the ruthless Hunn Raal, want the Consort, Draconus, cast aside and their commander to marry Mother Dark and take his place at the side of the Living Goddess. But this union will be far more than simply political. A sorcerous power has claimed those opposing Mother Dark: gven form by the exiled High Priestess Syntara, the Cult of Light rises in answer to Mother Dark and her Children.
Far to the west, an unlikely army has gathered, seeking an enemy without form, in a place none can find, and commanded by a Jaghut driven mad with grief. It seems Hood’s call has been heard, and the long-abandoned city of Omtose Phellack is now home to a rabble of new arrivals: Dog-Runners from the south, and Jheck warriors. From the Western Sea strange ships have grounded upon the harsh shore bearing blue-skinned strangers to offer Hood their swords. And from mountain fastnesses and isolated valleys of the North, Toblakai arrive to pledge themselves to Hood’s seemingly impossible war. Soon, they will set forth – or not at all – under the banners of the living. Soon, weapons will be drawn, with Death itself the enemy.
Beneath the chaos of such events, and spanning the realm and those countless other realms hidden behind its veil, magic now bleeds into the world. Unconstrained, mysterious and savage, the power that is the lifeblood of the Azathanai, K’rul, runs loose and wild – and following its scent, seeking the places of wounding and hurt where the sorcery rushes forth, entities both new and ancient are gathering . . . and they are eager to feed.
Understanding at last what his gift of blood has unleashed, a weakened K’rul sets out, in the company of a lone guardian, to bring order to this newborn sorcery and in the name of order seeks its greatest avowed enemy.
Fire Bound (Sea Haven 5)
by Christine Feehan
Flame-haired Lissa Piner is a skilled glass blower whose delicate gift conceals a burning inner strength that can destroy as exquisitely as it can create. Commissioned to design chandeliers for a string of luxury hotels, her remarkable skills have taken her to Italy. But Lissa’s real mission there is a secret. For her entire life has been a lie, leading to a chance to avenge a terrible wrong.
Enlisted as her bodyguard is Casmir Prakenskii, a trained assassin living off the grid. In Lissa, he sees a kindred spirit—something unexpected and wicked, mysterious and sensual. But more than desire is about to bring them together: because both of their pasts cry out for revenge. And for two people with this many secrets, this much passion, and this many enemies, someone is bound to get burned.
In Shining Armor (Pax Arcana 4)
by Elliott James
When someone kidnaps the last surviving descendant of the Grandmaster of the Knights Templar, it’s bad news. When the baby is the key to the tenuous alliance between a large werewolf pack and the knights, it’s even worse news. They’re at each other’s throats before they’ve even begun to look for baby Constance.
But whoever kidnapped Constance didn’t count on one thing: she’s also the goddaughter of John Charming. Modern-day descendant of a long line of famous dragon slayers, witch finders, and wrong-righters. John may not have any experience being a parent, but someone is about to find out that he can be one mean mother.
Jilo (Witching Savannah 4)
by J.D. Horn
Aged Mother Jilo is wise in the ways of magic…but once upon a time, she was just a girl.
1950s Georgia: King Cotton has fallen. Savannah is known as the “beautiful woman with a dirty face,” its stately elegance faded by neglect, its soul withering from racial injustice and political corruption.
Young Jilo—fiercely independent, intelligent, and ambitious, but thwarted by Savannah’s maddeningly genteel version of bigotry—finds herself forced to embrace a dark power that has pursued her family for generations, an ancient magic that may prove her salvation…or her undoing.
King of the Worlds
by M. Thomas Gammarino
Dylan had always wanted to live as many lives as he could–that was the appeal of being an actor. But at the end of a brief, bright stint as a Hollywood heartthrob, Dylan loses the lead in Titanic and exiles himself and his wife to a recently settled exoplanet called New Taiwan.
At first, life beyond Earth seems uncannily un-wondrous. Dylan teaches at an American prep school, raises a family with his high school sweetheart, and lives out his restlessness through literature. But then a box of old fan mail (and the hint of a galaxy-wide conspiracy) offers Dylan a chance to recapture the past. As he tries to balance this transdimensional midlife crisis against family life, Dylan encounters a cast of extraordinary characters: a supercomputer with aspirations of godhood, a Mormon-fundamentalist superfan, an old-school psychoanalyst, a sampling of his alternate selves, and, once again, the love of his lives.
Lightning Sealed (The Lucent Series 2)
by Lila Felix
The Fray is calling Theo. Every day, the voices get louder. Every minute, he gets pulled closer. Every second, their love is tested. Their life is a constant question of who they can trust and who they can’t.
Sanctum, Theo’s brother and enemy, stalks them like a predator, waiting for his chance to pounce.
Theo will leave Colby soon to do what he, as the Eidolon, was born to do. He can’t deny the yearning in his heart to go, but he can’t find it in his heart to leave.
Colby will be left with a decision. She can wither like the mates of Eidolon before her or she can go after the Synod, the women who murdered her grandmother, while Theo is gone.
With Theo missing and Colby desperate, Sanctum is only too eager to fill in.
Leviathan (The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier 5)
by Jack Campbell
Two Syndicate Worlds star systems have fallen prey to a mysterious fleet of warships—a fleet controlled entirely by artificial intelligence—that is now targeting Alliance space. The warships are no mystery to Admiral John “Black Jack” Geary. They were developed by his government to ensure security, but malfunctioned. If the Syndics learn the truth, the war with the Alliance will resume with a vengeance.
As the government attempts to conceal the existence of the AI warships—and its role in their creation—Geary pursues them, treading a fine line between mutiny and obedience. But it soon becomes clear that his fleet is no match for the firepower of the machine-piloted armada.
With the help of the Dancer species of aliens, Geary has tracked the AI ships to their secret base in the supposedly mythical Unity Alternate star system, where his fleet, the last hope for the Alliance’s future, will end the conflict at any cost.
News From the Squares
by Robert Llewellyn
Gavin Meckler is trying to get back to the present, but something is amiss. He soon realises he has travelled sideways through time to another possible future, as unlike Gardenia as our own era.
Arriving in a teeming megacity, Gavin discovers a highly technologically developed society in a vast urban landscape constructed around a seemingly endless series of squares dense with lush vegetation and trees.
Much of what Gavin sees is recognisable. But there is one important difference. Here, women make up the majority of the global population and run the majority of institutions, including the vast and mysterious Institute of Mental Health where Gavin is required to live.
Piece of Infinity (The Curse Trilogy 3)
by Emily Bold
Sam returns to the present day from seventeenth-century Scotland, reunited with her love, Payton, and relieved that the curse has been lifted. But their happiness is tempered by Sam’s unsettling feeling that all is not yet right. Overburdened with the guilt she feels for unwittingly causing the curse that destroyed Payton’s life for nearly three centuries, Sam is determined to return to the past to fix it. Fearing that the love of his life will want to remain with his past self, Payton follows Sam into history, desperate to bring her back to the present—and to the new life they’ve made together.
As the past and present clash, the two lovers face the most difficult choice of their lives: allow their history to remain as it was, with all its dangers, injustices, and pain, or fight to improve it—and risk the very love that binds them together.
Water’s Wrath (Air Awakens 4)
by Elise Kova
The Solaris Empire found victory in the North and, at the cost of her heart and her innocence, Vhalla Yarl has earned her freedom. But the true fight is only beginning as the secret forces that have been lurking in the shadows, tugging at the strings of Vhalla’s fate, finally come to light. Nowhere is safe, and Vhalla must tread carefully or else she’ll fall into the waiting arms of her greatest foe. Or former lover.
Wings of the Fallen (The Shepherd 2)
by Anthony Pryor
Alex St. John is the Shepherd, a goddess’s champion who protects the world from things that go bump in the night. Now he’s caught in a war between billionaire Roger Dandridge, a family of brutal street thugs, and a motorcycle gang made up of millennia-old demons. A beautiful woman holds the key, and Alex must help her reclaim a lost heritage that could save the world—or doom it.
Byron Dunn is an AISFP Contributor, a friend to werewolves, and is running out of jokes for this last spot. If you have any jokes, gags, or witticisms that you think would work here, please send then through your tin-foil hat to the Merry Magic Garbageman in the Sky who will send them via rainbows and television waves to Byron’s brain.
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