Dec 192017
 

Cover of An Amish Arrangement by Jo Ann Brown.Jeremiah Stoltzfus hopes the Amish community of Harmony Creek will provide a fresh start…until days before closing on his new farm, he finds a beautiful trespasser. Mercy Bamberger claims the property is hers, promised by her late grossdawdi. Jeremiah can’t turn out the single mom and her daughter, nor can he leave. His solution: temporarily sharing the farm until ownership is settled. Once a city kid adopted by a Mennonite family, Mercy yearns to make the farm a haven for unwanted children. But living beside the handsome Amish farmer has her yearning for everything that’s eluded her…laughter, love and a forever family.

 December 19, 2017  Tagged with: ,
Dec 192017
 

Cover of The Will to Battle by Ada Palmer.The third book of 2017 John W. Campbell Award winner Ada Palmer’s Terra Ignota series—a political science fiction epic of extraordinary audacity.

The long years of near-utopia have come to an abrupt end.

Peace and order are now figments of the past. Corruption, deception, and insurgency hum within the once steadfast leadership of the Hives, nations without fixed location.

The heartbreaking truth is that for decades, even centuries, the leaders of the great Hives bought the world’s stability with a trickle of secret murders, mathematically planned. So that no faction could ever dominate. So that the balance held.

The Hives’ façade of solidity is the only hope they have for maintaining a semblance of order, for preventing the public from succumbing to the savagery and bloodlust of wars past. But as the great secret becomes more and more widely known, that façade is slipping away.

Just days earlier, the world was a pinnacle of human civilization. Now everyone—Hives and hiveless, Utopians and sensayers, emperors and the downtrodden, warriors and saints—scrambles to prepare for the seemingly inevitable war.

 December 19, 2017  Tagged with: ,
Dec 122017
 

Cover of Watchmen: The Annotated Edition by Leslie S. Klinger.DC Comics is proud to present an all-new retrospective edition of one of the greatest graphic novels ever in WATCHMEN: THE ANNOTATED EDITION. This book examines each of the series’ twelve issues in unprecedented detail, moving page by page and panel by panel to reveal the hidden foundations of this milestone in modern storytelling.

Edited with notes by Leslie S. Klinger, this new edition draws upon critical and scholastic commentary, in-depth interviews with Dave Gibbons, and previously unseen original source material.  Klinger provides the reader with a unique and comprehensive view of WATCHMEN as both a singular artistic achievement and a transformative event in the history of comics as a medium.

Set in a world in which history has been forever altered by the existence of superheroes, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ monumental graphic novel WATCHMEN is one of the most influential comic book series of all time. Following two generations of masked crime-fighters from the end of World War II to the height of the Cold War, this compelling tale unfolds from a simple murder mystery into an epic saga of power, corruption and the ultimate meaning of humanity.

More than 30 years after it was first published, Moore and Gibbons’ masterpiece continues to inspire and entertain readers around the world. Named one of Time magazine’s 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century, WATCHMEN has won countless critical accolades and honors, including the Eisner Award and the Hugo Award.

 December 12, 2017  Tagged with: ,
Dec 112017
 

Cover of Windhome by Kristin Landon.Earth has sent out exploratory expeditions in a desperate attempt to discover the nature of an alien force that has wiped out the intelligent inhabitants of at least one extrasolar world and now threatens Earth itself. As it nears its destination, one of these ships is raided by aliens while its crew is helpless in cold sleep. Light years from Earth and with no hope of rescue, the few survivors are marooned among the inhabitants of the icy world of Windhome, which was attacked from space only centuries before. The survivors’ descendants still live in fear, and many see the humans as a threat. The humans must struggle to stay alive, to understand this harsh world and its few, grim people—and, somehow, to fulfill their mission and send a warning to Earth.

Thrown into an unwilling alliance with a Windhome outsider faction, exiled into wilderness, two of the human crew must live by this world’s bitter laws, accept the ways of its people, and, in the end, make a terrifying choice.

Windhome is character-driven SF adventure in the grand tradition, set against the backdrop of an unforgettable world.

 December 11, 2017  Tagged with: ,
Dec 052017
 

Cover of Canto Bight by Saladin Ahmed.Soon to be seen in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, welcome to the casino city of Canto Bight. A place where exotic aliens, captivating creatures, and other would-be high rollers are willing to risk everything to make their fortunes. Set across one fateful evening, these four interconnected stories explore the deception and danger of the lavish casino city.

• An honest salesman meets a career criminal as a dream vacation turns into the worst nightmare imaginable, in a story by Saladin Ahmed.

• Dreams and schemes collide when a deal over a priceless bottle of wine becomes a struggle for survival, as told by Mira Grant.

• Old habits die hard when a servant is forced into a mad struggle for power among Canto Bight’s elite, in a tale by Rae Carson

• A deadbeat gambler has one last chance to turn his luck around; all he has to do is survive one wild night, as told by John Jackson Miller.

In Canto Bight, one is free to revel in excess, untouched from the problems of a galaxy once again descending into chaos and war. Dreams can become reality, but the stakes have never been higher—for there is a darkness obscured by all the glamour and luxury.

 December 5, 2017  Tagged with: ,
Dec 052017
 

Cover of Fleet Insurgent by Susan R. Matthews.Collected for the first time, here is the complete Under Jurisdiction body of work falling outside of Matthews’ celebrated novels: long out-of-print short stories fleshing out details of the personal histories of favorite characters, including Joslire Curran and Security Chief Stildyne; substantial novellas—two published here for the first time ever—covering critical events in the life of the series, such as the devil’s bargain between Andrej Koscuisko and Captain Lowden on the Ragnarok; and many more novelettes, stories, and vignettes from The Life and Hard Times of “Uncle” Andrej Koscuisko, who is Not a Nice Man.

 December 5, 2017  Tagged with: ,
Dec 052017
 

Cover of Hymn: The Final Volume of the Psalms of Isaak by Ken Scholes.Ken Scholes completes his five-book epic that began with his acclaimed first novel Lamentation. The battle for control of The Named Lands has captivated readers as they have learned, alongside the characters, the true nature of world called Lasthome.

Now the struggle between the Andro-Francine Order of the Named Lands and the Y’Zirite Empire has reached a terrible turning point. Believing that his son is dead, Rudolfo has pretended to join with the triumphant Y’zirite forces—but his plan is to destroy them all with a poison that is targeted only to the enemy.

In Y’Zir, Rudolfo’s wife Jin Li Tam is fighting a war with her own father which will bring that Empire to ruin.

And on the Moon, Neb, revealed as one of the Younger Gods, takes the power of the Last Home Temple for his own.

 December 5, 2017  Tagged with: ,
Nov 142017
 

Cover of Creatures of Will and Temper by Molly Tanzer.Victorian London is a place of fluid social roles, vibrant arts culture, fin-de-siècle wonders . . . and dangerous underground diabolic cults. Fencer Evadne Gray cares for none of the former and knows nothing of the latter when she’s sent to London to chaperone her younger sister, aspiring art critic Dorina.

At loose ends after Dorina becomes enamored with their uncle’s friend, Lady Henrietta “Henry” Wotton, a local aristocrat and aesthete, Evadne enrolls in a fencing school. There, she meets George Cantrell, an experienced fencing master like she’s always dreamed of studying under. But soon, George shows her something more than fancy footwork—he reveals to Evadne a secret, hidden world of devilish demons and their obedient servants. George has dedicated himself to eradicating demons and diabolists alike, and now he needs Evadne’s help. But as she learns more, Evadne begins to believe that Lady Henry might actually be a diabolist . . . and even worse, she suspects Dorina might have become one too.

Combining swordplay, the supernatural, and Victorian high society, Creatures of Will and Temper reveals a familiar but strange London in a riff on Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray that readers won’t soon forget.

 November 14, 2017  Tagged with: ,
Nov 072017
 

Cover of Anne Perry's A Christmas Return.’Tis the season of giving—and with this wonderful book, New York Times bestselling author Anne Perry shares a brand-new holiday mystery filled with bygone relationships and hidden secrets.

As Charlotte Pitt’s grandmother Mariah Ellison finds herself investigating a long-unsolved slaying, it becomes clear that grappling with intrigue and foul play runs in the family. A festive Christmas package left on Mariah’s doorstep contains an ominous present, sparking memories of a twenty-year-old murder that shattered her friendship with the victim’s widow. Though the gift is a bitter reminder of that tragic time, in the spirit of the season Mariah travels to Surrey in hopes of reconciling with her estranged friend and solving the crime that drove them apart.

On arrival, Mariah joins forces with the murdered man’s grandson, a sleuth in his own right who’s discovered promising evidence as well as a suspect. But Surrey’s picturesque hills conceal dark doings and shocking revelations that could make the holiday anything but calm and bright.

Decked with intrigue and trimmed with Yuletide spirit, A Christmas Return is a holiday treat wrapped in the glorious storytelling talents of the reigning master of Victorian mystery.

 November 7, 2017  Tagged with: ,
Nov 072017
 

Cover of The Selfie Generation by Alicia Eler.Whether it’s Kim Kardashian uploading picture after picture to Instagram or your roommate posting a mid-vacation shot to Facebook, selfies receive mixed reactions. But are selfies more than, as many critics lament, a symptom of a self-absorbed generation?

Millennial Alicia Eler’s The Selfie Generation is the first book to delve fully into this ubiquitous and much-maligned part of social media, including why people take them in the first place and the ways they can change how we see ourselves. Eler argues that selfies are just one facet of how we can use digital media to create a personal brand in the modern age. More than just a picture, they are an important part of how we live today.

Eler examines all aspects of selfies, online social networks, and the generation that has grown up with them. She looks at how the boundaries between people’s physical and digital lives have blurred with social media; she explores questions of privacy, consent, ownership, and authenticity; and she points out important issues of sexism and double standards wherein women are encouraged to take them but then become subject to criticism and judgment. Alicia discusses the selfie as a paradox—both an image with potential for self-empowerment, yet also a symbol of complacency within surveillance culture The Selfie Generation explores just how much social media has changed the ways that people connect, communicate, and present themselves to the world.

 November 7, 2017  Tagged with: ,