Black Gate

American readers, I think, could use a little more exposure to European fantasy. So I’m pleased to see Jo Fletcher Books bringing German author Markus Heitz to this side of the pond.

His series The Dwarves was an international bestseller, and now he launches a brand new series with Righteous Fury, originally published in Germany in 2009.

In Dsôn Faïmon, realm of the cruel and surpassingly beautiful artist-warriors known as the älfar, the military is planning a campaign against the enemies of the empire. Caphalor and Sinthoras are separately looking to enlist a powerful demon to strengthen their army, but the two älfar have very different goals.

While Caphalor is determined to defend the borders of the empire, the ambitious Sinthoras is intent on invasion. In order to expand the borders of Dsôn Faïmon, he has set his sights on the kingdoms of dwarves, elves, and men — a decision that, should it come to pass, may have far-reaching consequences for him and for the älfar.

Righteous Fury, the first volume of The Legends of the Älfar, was published by Jo Fletcher Books on February 10, 2015. It is 402 pages, priced at $24.99 in hardcover and $11.99 for the digital edition. It was translated from the German by Shelagh Alabaster.

See all of our recent New Treasures here.

Caitlin R. Kiernan has received a lot of attention for her recent horror novels, especially The Red Tree (2009) and The Drowning Girl (2012). Her Siobhan Quinn urban fantasy novels had an unusual genesis, as she explains in the Author’s Note to this volume:

My thanks to my agent, Merrilee Heifetz, who urged me to do this after reading Chapter One of Blood Oranges, which I’d actually written on a lark, as a joke, a protest against what “paranormal romance” has done to the once respectable genre of urban fantasy. I honestly never intended to write a whole Quinn book, much less three.

Cherry Bomb is the third (and final?) volume in the series, following Blood Oranges (2013) and Red Delicious (2014). All three were published under Caitlin R. Kiernan’s pseudonym, Kathleen Tierney.

Here’s the back cover copy.

Meet Siobhan Quinn — Half vampire, half werewolf, and retired monster hunter. Or so she thought…

…

Read More Read More

S.G. Redling’s first novel Flowertown, a taunt conspiracy thriller set in a town quarantined by an experimental pesticide spill, appeared in 2012. Since then she’s dabbled in a variety of genres, including space adventure (Damocles, 2013), and industrial thrillers (The Widow File and its sequel Redemption Key, both 2014).

Now she turns her hand to the vampire novel with Ourselves, the first novel in The Nathan Series, which introduces readers to the mysterious Nathan, a secret society concealing a vampiric race hiding among us in plain sight.

Dangerous, deadly, invisible — and they have always been among us.

An ancient, enigmatic race, the Nahan have protected their secret world by cultivating the myths of fanged, bloodsucking monsters that haunt legends. Yet they walk through our world as our coworkers and our neighbors, hiding in plain sight and coexisting in peace. They survive… and they prosper.

A shy young dreamer, Tomas wanders through his life with help from his good friends and influential family on the ruling Council. Now, he’s decided his future lies with the Nahan’s most elite class: the mysterious Storytellers. But his family is troubled by his new choice — and by his new girlfriend, Stell, a wild, beautiful, and deadly outcast from a fanatical Nahan cult.

As Tomas descends into the dark wonders of the Nahan’s most powerful culture, Stell answers her own calling as an exceptional assassin. But when a lethal conspiracy threatens their destinies, Tomas and Stell must unite their remarkable talents against the strongest — and most sinister — of their kind.

Ourselves was published by 47North on January 27. It is 322 pages, priced at $14.95 in trade paperback, and $4.99 in digital format. The cover was designed by Stewart A. Williams.