Black Gate

Ah, Halloween. That gorgeous, short-lived season when publishers cram a year’s worth of spooky fiction into a single month.

If you pay attention for the next few weeks, you’ll see a delicious flood of horror for all ages in your local bookstore. New novels and collections by Stephen King, Laird Barron, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Robert Aickman, and many others.

There’s plenty for younger readers, too (after all, they tend to embrace the Halloween spirit even more than us old folks). One of the more intriguing releases for younger readers to cross my desk recently was Dr. Fell and the Playground of Doom, by David Neilsen. It’s a Middle Grade horror story written by someone who does one-man performances based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft… who can resist that??

When the mysterious Dr. Fell moves into the abandoned house that had once been the neighborhood kids’ hangout, he immediately builds a playground to win them over. But as the ever-changing play space becomes bigger and more elaborate, the children and their parents fall deeper under the doctor’s spell.

Only Jerry, Nancy, and Gail are immune to the lure of his extravagant wonderland. And they alone notice that when the injuries begin to pile up on the jungle gym, somehow Dr. Fell is able to heal each one with miraculous speed. Now the three children must find a way to uncover the doctor’s secret power without being captivated by his trickery.

“Recommended for school libraries that need to breathe life into their traditional mystery collections.” —School Library Journal

Dr. Fell and the Playground of Doom was published by Crown Books for Young Readers on August 9, 2016. It is 240 pages, priced at $16.99 in hardcover and $10.99 for the digital version.

Over at Kirkus Reviews, the tireless John DeNardo itemizes the 13 “must-read science fiction and fantasy books being released in October.” And John reads even more than I do, so he should know. Here he is on Faller by Will McIntosh, which will be released by Tor Books on October 25.

The people of the world find themselves on floating islands of rock, with no memory of who they are, how they got there, or what happened. A man calling himself Faller discovers in his pocket a photo of himself with a woman… thus prompting him to find the woman he can no longer remember… This science fiction thriller starts with a mystery that will make you not want to put the book down.

And Impersonations by Walter Jon Williams (Tor.com, October 4).

After the fall of an evil empire that subjugated both humans and aliens, a hero emerged from the civil war that followed. But Caroline Sula offended her superiors by winning a battle without their permission, and now she is posted to old Earth to keep her quiet. But the powers that be aren’t content; someone is manufacturing evidence that would lead to her false imprisonment… This is a sweeping space opera with an emphasis on adventure.

And Yesternight by Cat Winters (William Morrow, October 4).

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