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Future Treasures: Gold Throne in Shadow by M.C. Planck

Future Treasures: Gold Throne in Shadow by M.C. Planck

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Gold Throne in Shadow-smallIn her review of the first book in M.C. Planck’s new series, Sarah Avery said “Sword of the Bright Lady deals in surprising juxtapositions of familiar tropes… This is a fun book.” She also said it “ends just a breath beyond a cliff-hanger… I want to see Crazy Pater Christopher get even crazier. I want to gawk like a peasant at what he comes up with next.”

Now she’ll finally get the chance, as the second volume, Gold Throne in Shadow, will be released in trade paperback by Pry Books next week.

Christopher Sinclair was a mechanical engineer — until he stepped into a world where magic works and no one has heard of a pistol. Now he’s a priest of war, raised from the dead and promoted to take command of the army regiment he trained and equipped. Sent south to an allegedly easy posting, he finds himself in the way of several thousand rabid dog-men. Guns and fortifications turn back the horde, but Christopher’s troubles are only beginning.

Lalania is a bard with a connection to a mysterious group of scholars Christopher hopes can help him find his way back to his wife and home. But the journey to the scholars is long, and Lalania’s motivations are too murky for him to truly trust her.

Christopher has problems that connot be solved with mere firepower: a wicked assassin, hostile clergymen, dubious allies, and worst of all his own impolite tongue. But all of these pale to mere distractions once he discovers that the true enemy is hidden and is playing the kingdom like a puppet master’s stage. Lalania claims she can help — but will it be enough? And will it get him any closer to returning to our world?

Gold Throne in Shadow will be published by Pyr Books on October 13, 2015. It is 315 pages, priced at $17 in trade paperback and $11.99 for the digital version. The cover is by Gene Mollica.

A Gentle Introduction to Unspeakable Horrors: A Picnic at the Mountains of Madness

A Gentle Introduction to Unspeakable Horrors: A Picnic at the Mountains of Madness

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I love kids books. I have three children who were very used to being read to, and would spend long hours each week curled up in my lap — or on the corner of the couch, if my lap was otherwise occupied — listening to the works of Eric Carle, Dr. Seuss, Alan Snow, and William Joyce (and Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, when I could sneak them in).

I enjoyed all kinds of kids books, but the ones I loved the most were those with a sly adult humor. Which is precisely why I so enjoyed A Picnic at the Mountains of Madness, by Neil Baker and Maya Sugihara, published last month by April Moon Books.

On the surface, this is a thoroughly enjoyable adventure story. Harry and Kaylee receive a mysterious map in the mail from their “Uncle Howard,” showing some curious ruins at the south pole. Packing a lunch and some warm clothes, they dash into the garage and climb into the family biplane (passing the family submarine and family excavator on the way), and in moments they’re in the air, on their way to the very bottom of the world.

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New Treasures: A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

New Treasures: A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

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Paul Tremblay is the author of No Sleep till Wonderland, The Little Sleep, and (with Stephen Graham Jones) Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn’t Fly. His latest, A Head Full of Ghosts, has perhaps the most intriguing premise for a horror novel I’ve read in years — and it’s getting some of the most breathless reviews of the year, as well. Is it worth the hype? Here’s the lowdown from Nathan Ballingrud:

I just finished Paul Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts. The hype is not hyperbole; this book is outstanding. Creepy, surprising, occasionally funny, always compassionate, and both a love song to horror fiction and an interrogation of its assumptions, this easily stands as one of the best horror novels I’ve read in years.

I’m definitely looking forward to this one. Here’s the description.

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Future Treasures: She Walks in Shadows, edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles

Future Treasures: She Walks in Shadows, edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles

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Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles were the editors of the marvelous Innsmouth Magazine, which released its last issue last summer. But they haven’t been resting in the interim — if anything, in fact, it seems like they’ve revved their engines, releasing the Swords & Sorcery/Cthulhu anthology Sword & Mythos, and this brand new collection of Lovecraftian fiction and art from women creators.

She Walks in Shadow ships next week, and includes 25 short stories by Gemma Files, Penelope Love, Angela Slatter, Molly Tanzer, E. Catherine Tobler, Mary Turzillo, Wendy N. Wagner, and many others.

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New Treasures: Rooms by Lauren Oliver

New Treasures: Rooms by Lauren Oliver

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Ah, October. When suddenly you’re not the only one on your block reading ghost stories. It’s the one month a year when my reading choices actually feel normal.

Lauren Oliver is the author of a series of bestselling YA novels, including Vanishing Girls, Before I Fall, and the Delirium Trilogy. Her latest, Rooms, is something very different: an adult ghost story in the tradition of The Lovely Bones and The Ocean at the End of the Lane, a tale of family, ghosts, secrets, and mystery. Caroline and her two children move into the home of her ex-husband after his death, but what they find is not what they expected… including the ghosts of two long-dead strangers, Alice and Sandra, with secrets of their own.

Rooms was published in hardcover by Ecco in September 2014, and reprinted in trade paperback on September 15, 2015. It is 320 pages and priced at $14.99, or $9.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Jeffrey Alan Love. Click on the above images for bigger versions.

New Treasures: The Incorruptibles and Foreign Devils by John Hornor Jacobs

New Treasures: The Incorruptibles and Foreign Devils by John Hornor Jacobs

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The Incorruptibles-small Foreign Devils John Hornor Jacobs-small

John Hornor Jacobs’ first novel was Southern Gods (2011), which was shortlisted for the Bram Stoker Award. His new fantasy series began with The Incorruptibles (2014), and the second volume, Foreign Devils, was just published by Gollancz in the UK. Both novels feature the mercenaries Fisk and Shoe, in a fantasy western setting that mixes ancient Rome, savage elves, the wild west, daemons, and the Autumn Lords’ Empire, which hides a terrible truth at its heart.

Here’s Black Gate author Myke Cole on the first volume:

The Incorruptibles gives us the very thing we read fantasy for: something new. The Incorruptibles joins Red Country in what I hope will become a new sub-genre, the fantasy western. Westerns are American stories, and Jacobs’ Arkansas roots show in his gritty, hard-bitten tone. The Incorruptibles shakes like a rattlesnake, sings like a bullet, whispers like a tumbleweed dancing over hardscrabble.

And Pat Rothfuss on the same volume:

One part ancient Rome, two parts wild west, one part Faust. A pinch of Tolkien, of Lovecraft, of Dante. This is strange alchemy, a recipe I’ve never seen before. I wish more books were as fresh and brave as this.

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Future Treasures: The Stephen King Companion: Four Decades of Fear from the Master of Horror by George Beahm

Future Treasures: The Stephen King Companion: Four Decades of Fear from the Master of Horror by George Beahm

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The Stephen King Companion Four Decades of Fear from the Master of Horror-smallI believe I’ve read more novels by Stephen King than by any other writer. King has done more to promote and publicize the horror genre — and, by association, his fellow horror writers — than any other person in the last half-century. His books are highly collectible, and he’s produced such an enormous body of work, some of it connected in enigmatic and cool ways, that he makes a fascinating study.

No surprise then that there have been many books about King. But I think George Beahm’s massive new volume The Stephen King Companion, an authoritative look at King’s personal life and professional career, from Carrie to The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, is something special. It’s mind bogglingly complete, with lengthy chapters dedicated to each of his major works, and crammed full of photos and interesting tidbits — including a 16-page color section devoted to Micheal Whelan’s striking cover art.

But best of all, it’s extraordinarily readable, packed to the brim with all kinds of fascinating details, such as the phone call between King and Don Grant that finally got King to agree to reprint The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, and how King saw his first photos of his father. This is the kind of book you pick up to check a quick detail, and wind up reading for hours. Highly recommended, for both dedicated fans and casual readers alike.

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Ghost Stories, Lovecraft, and a Monster Detective: The Dark Fantasy of IFWG Publishing

Ghost Stories, Lovecraft, and a Monster Detective: The Dark Fantasy of IFWG Publishing

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IFWG Publishing is a small, independent speculative fiction press based in Melbourne, Australia. Two of their recent dark fiction/horror titles caught my eye: a horror-Lovecraftian-noir detective mashup from Canadian horror writer Shaun Meeks, and a huge 800-page collection of ghost stories from Robert Hood, the father of Australian horror.

The Gate at Lake Drive by Shaun Meeks
Meet Dillon, the Monster Dick. He’s a detective of sorts, a man hired to hunt down things that have come into our world that have no right to be here. Whether it’s a monster made up of paint cans and rags, spirits that hide in carpets, or animals possessed by demons, Dillon will dispatch them as soon as he finds them. His new job is up in northern Ontario, where the mayor has hired him to deal with creatures that seem to be coming from a whirlpool in the middle of the lake. When he hears this, he’s more worried than he’s ever been. In all the years Dillon has been a hunter, he’s never once heard of a flock of monsters coming into this realm. Dillon heads there with his new friend, Rouge Hills, and finds nothing is what it seems. It’s not just one type of monster, but something far worse trying to be born into our world. The odds are stacked against him, but since the money is good, there’s no turning back.

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New Treasures: If Then by Matthew De Abaitua

New Treasures: If Then by Matthew De Abaitua

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If Then Matthew De Abaitua-smallI spend a lot of talking talking to publicists, reading review copies, following blogs, and generally keeping up on the latest books and hot new writers in the genre. But to really stay informed, nothing beats a trip to a well-stocked bookstore. Case in point: Matthew De Abaitua’s latest novel If Then, which I discovered on the New Releases shelf on my Saturday trip to Barnes & Noble. The book description piqued my interest — and when I saw it was published by Angry Robot, that sealed the deal.

In the near future, after the collapse of society as we know it, one English town survives under the protection of the computer algorithms of the Process, which governs every aspect of their lives. The Process gives and it takes. It allocates jobs and resources, giving each person exactly what it has calculated they will need. But it also decides who stays under its protection, and who must be banished to the wilderness beyond. Human life has become totally algorithm-driven, and James, the town bailiff, is charged with making sure the Process’s suggestions are implemented.

But now the Process is making soldiers. It is readying for war — the First World War. Mysteriously, the Process is slowly recreating events that took place over a hundred years ago, and is recruiting the town’s men to fight in an artificial reconstruction of the Dardanelles campaign. James, too, must go fight. And he will discover that the Process has become vastly more sophisticated and terrifying than anyone had believed possible.

Matthew De Abaitua’s first novel, Red Men, was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

If Then was published by Angry Robot on September 1, 2015. It is 412 pages, priced at $7.99 in paperback and $6.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Raid 71. Learn more at Angry Robot.

Future Treasures: The Last Witness by K. J. Parker

Future Treasures: The Last Witness by K. J. Parker

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The Last Witness-smallBestselling fantasy author K.J. Parker, author of The Scavenger trilogy and The Engineer trilogy, disclosed that he’s actually famed British novelist Tom Holt on the Coode Street Podcast on April 22. It was a revelation that stunned many (me included), as over the last 17 years Holt has continued his prolific output under his own name, while simultaneously writing over a dozen novels as K.J. Parker. That’s an impressive accomplishment. Parker’s latest release is the fifth book in Tor.com‘s new line of premium novellas. The Last Witness is a classic Parker tale, with a strong supporting cast of princes, courtiers, merchants, academics, and generally unsavory people.

When you need a memory to be wiped, call me.

Transferring unwanted memories to my own mind is the only form of magic I’ve ever mastered. But now, I’m holding so many memories I’m not always sure which ones are actually mine, any more. Some of them are sensitive; all of them are private. And there are those who are willing to kill to access the secrets I’m trying to bury…

Check out all ten Tor.com fall novellas (including sample chapters!) here.

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