"Soon I Will Be Invincible" by Austin Grossman.
© Knopf Publishing Group
Places To Be, People To Kill
By: Pat FerraraDate: Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Of all the genre collections that hit bookshelves daily, this week’s release schedule’s got one with the coolest unifying element I’ve ever encountered: one that pays homage to the stand-up citizens who provide death for hire.
Happy Tuesday all you Maniac readers and welcome to a fully-fleshed edition of the Buzz. While powerhouse publisher Tor Books is strangely absent from this week’s list, Penguin Group USA has more than picked up the slack to offer a variety of vampire intrigue, hard line military SF, and even some feudal samurai mayhem.
With his first major project Austin Grossman steps into the spotlight with the release of Soon I Will Be Invincible, a superhero/supervillian throwback released simultaneously on hardcover and on audiobook. Focusing on the moral intricacies of humanity’s dichotomous nature, Invincible is the perfect novel for those more comfortable with the comic and graphic novel mediums.
Author Anne Bishop kicks off her new Black Jewels Trilogy with the paperback release of Daughter of the Blood while Laurell K. Hamilton continues her seemingly unstoppable Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series with the fifteenth volume, The Harlequin, released on hardcover.
Lian Hearn completes her Tales of Otori epic with the fourth and final novel of the series set in her medieval, ninja vs. samurai Japan. Released on paperback, The Harsh Cry of the Heron wraps up the literary branch of Hearn’s intense, wuxia-style martial arts genre.
Last but not least Penguin Group USA has released a completely original collection of a dozen stories focusing solely on one of the coolest character roles in all of narrative fiction: the assassin. Places To Be, People To Kill, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Brittainy A. Koren on paperback, features authors such as military SF extraordinaire Tanya Huff (who also has two other releases this week: The Heart of Valor in hardcover and Smoke and Ashes on paperback). Enjoy!
New in Hardcover:
Soon I Will Be Invincible, Austin Grossman (Knopf Publishing Group)
Doctor Impossible—evil genius, diabolical scientist, wannabe world dominator—languishes in a federal detention facility. He's lost his freedom, his girlfriend, and his hidden island fortress. Over the years he's tried to take over the world in every way imaginable: doomsday devices of all varieties (nuclear, thermonuclear, nanotechnological) and mass mind control. He's traveled backwards in time to change history, forward in time to escape it. He's commanded robot armies, insect armies, and dinosaur armies. Fungus army. Army of fish. Of rodents. Alien invasions. All failures. But not this time. This time it’s going to be different... Fatale is a rookie superhero on her first day with the Champions, the world's most famous superteam. She's a patchwork woman of skin and chrome, a gleaming technological marvel built to be the next generation of warfare. Filling the void left by a slain former member, we watch as Fatale joins a team struggling with a damaged past, having to come together in the face of unthinkable evil. Soon I Will Be Invincible is a thrilling first novel; a fantastical adventure that gives new meaning to the notions of power, glory, responsibility, and (of course) good and evil.
The Harlequin, Laurell K. Hamilton (Penguin Group USA)
Readers haven't seen anything yet-new in the "fabulously imagined series" (Publishers Weekly) from the #1 New York Times bestselling author. Anita Blake is about to face the challenge of her life. Into her world-a world already overflowing with power-have come creatures so feared that powerful, centuries-old vampires refuse to mention their names. It is forbidden to speak of The Harlequin unless you've been contacted. And to be contacted by The Harlequin is to be under sentence of death. Long-time rivals for Anita's affections, Jean-Claude, Master Vampire of the City, and Richard, alpha-werewolf, will need to become allies. Shapeshifters Nathaniel and Micah will have to step up their support. And then there's Edward. In this situation, Anita knows that she needs to call the one man who has always been there for her... The fifteenth tome in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series.
Cry of Justice, Jason Pratt (Bittersea Publications)
Hope and love, price and honor. Monsters wander the world of Mikon. Caught in the aftermath of a vicious international war, thousands of refugees have fled the Coastal States, bringing their dangers with them into the wilderness near the untamed Middlelands. Castaways from an imploding civilization, fighting to find and to understand the most dangerous of treasures... Portunista: innovative, ambitious, intemperate; a maga seeking her path to Imperial glory. Seifas: dark and lethal, alienating, poetic; a hunter whose words are his tears. Gaekwar: lanky, laconic, sardonic; 'only a cowherd', yet wielding exotic weaponry. Othon: the Implacable One; a quiet, quick-thinking giant of a man. Dagon: arrogant, insecure, buffoonish; a miserable commander with a knack for solving puzzles. Pooralay: ruthless and compassionate, loud and brusque, when he wants to be; a thug on a mystical quest. Bomas: renegade killer planning a subtle genocide; Artabanus: self-proclaimed Arbiter, drawing every power to himself. Praxiteles: incompetent madman, possessing and possessed by the Roguent Gamin. In their increasingly desperate struggles for food, for knowledge, for life itself… what will make the difference between brigades and bands of brigands?
The Alton Gift, Marion Z. Bradley & Deborah J. Ross (Penguin Group USA)
After the tragic, untimely death of Regis Hastur, a ruler who struggled lifelong to save the beloved world of his birth from the ambitions of the ruthless Terran Federation, the Terrans have finally abandoned Darkover to pursue interstellar civil war. As Lew Alton, returned home to the world of his birth after decades spent in exile as the Darkovan representative to the Terran Senate, wrestles with the dark shadows from his past, his daughter Marguerida's psychic Gifts warn her of impending danger. But danger to whom? For though her precognitive senses fill her with a feeling of imminent doom, she can see nothing specific in her visions of the ever-changing, uncertain future. Her husband Mikhail, as powerful head of the Hastur Domain, is her most obvious concern for he's a likely target for assassination. Far too many would stand to gain from his demise. Meanwhile, unknown to Marguerida, her son, Domenic, searches for his place in a world of shifting loyalties… torn between love for two very different women, and struggles to come to terms with his destiny as the heir to Hastur. But while Francisco Ridenow, longtime adversary of the Hastur clan, plots to bring down Mikhail and Marguerida, and the rulers of Darkover think only of their own political issues, a far greater threat is facing their world. Even as increasingly desperate refugees flood the streets of Thendara, Darkover's capital city, in the wilds of the far-distant Hellers an ancient menace rises once again, a power against which neither swords nor the psychic sorcery of Darkover can prevail. Only an outlaw Terran, fleeing from a past he cannot remember, may hold the key to Darkover's survival. The first installment of the Children of Kings SF epic.
Dead Easy, Wm Mark Simmons (Baen Books)
What do you get when you mix a squid-headed Ancient One, a mystical force-five hurricane, Rasputin's privates, the city of New Orleans, and an undead Captain Nemo? Christopher Cséjthe is back, and is going to find out, whether he wants to or not, in Dead Easy: An underwater Mardi Gras of epic proportions complete with an army of drowned vampire zombies and a Lovecraftian take on Gidget and the Creature From The Black Lagoon… Hah, drowned vampire zombies, I’m interested in this fourth installment in Simmons’ Halflife Chronicles series.
The Man With the Golden Torc, Simon R. Green (Penguin Group USA)
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Deathstalker and Nightside series comes a new kind of hero in an old kind of war. All those things you hear about as a kid? The boogeyman under the bed? The creature in the closet? They're for real, people. Eddie Drood knows they're for real. His family has kept humanity safe from the things that go bump in the night. For ages, they've held back the nightmares, locked the doors, barred the gates, and put righteous boot to monster arse on a nightly basis. But now Eddie's in trouble. One of his own has convinced the rest of the family that Eddie's become a menace, and that humanity needs to be protected from him. So he's on the run, using every trick in the book, magical and otherwise, hoping he lives long enough to prove his innocence. And he knows how dangerous the Droods can be… because he's one of them. What the hell is a Torc?
The Hanging Mountains, Sean Williams (Prometheus Books)
Ancient enemies stalk ghostly fog forests as legends come to life. The Divide is flooded. Habryn Kail and the Homunculus are missing, presumed dead. Sal and his companions seek the source of the flood in the legendary Hanging Mountains, hoping to head off a crisis that was put in motion a thousand years ago. As conflict erupts between two long-forgotten civilizations, the outsiders find that allies are hard to come by. Taken captive and separated, they uncover uncomfortable truths about the world and how it relates to the one that came before… our world. Something dark and deadly is stirring in the heart of the mountains. And the closer it comes to waking, the more certain it seems the Homunculus may not have been the enemy at all. The third novel of the Books of the Cataclysm series.
The Heart of Valor, Tanya Huff (Penguin Group USA)
Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr's goal is to keep both her superior officers and her troops alive as they face missions throughout the galaxy. But she's been sidelined with endless briefings and debriefings for a while, so she jumps at the chance to go to Crucible-the Marine Corps training planet-as temporary aide to Major Svensson. The major was reduced to little more than a brain and spinal cord in his last combat, and now he and his doctor are eager to field test his new body. It's supposed to be an easy assignment—after all, Crucible was set up to simulate battle situations so recruits could be trained safely. But Torin's barely on the planet when someone starts blasting the training scenarios to smithereens...
One Jump Ahead, Mark L. Van Name (Baen Books)
Jon Moore: A nanotech-enhanced warrior who wants nothing more than a quiet life and a way back to his strange home world. Lobo: An AI-enhanced Predator-Class Assault Vehicle, a mobile fortress equipped for any environment from the seabed to interstellar space. Two wolves in a galaxy of larger predators. Jon Moore wanted only to relax on the pristine planet of Macken—but Macken was the secret battleground of two megacorporations, both determined to control the local jump gate and the riches of an undeveloped world. Moore was too valuable a tool not to be used, whether or not he was willing. What the corporations didn't realize was that Moore had a mind of his own and a conscience that wouldn't let him quit until he'd righted the wrong they'd tricked him into making. And Moore had Lobo—or just possibly Lobo had Jon Moore, because this Assault Vehicle had a mind of its own too… Finding allies and enemies among terrorist groups and elite mercenaries, gun-runners and the only kind of government possible on a frontier short on rules and long on riches, Jon and Lobo fight to a climax with a corporate army that can't afford to leave any witnesses. Exotic settings, fast action, real tech, mechanically-enhanced animals and a beautiful woman who's as deadly as a cobra! The first novel in the Jon & Lobo series.
New in Paperback:
Gambit’s End, Chad Corrie (Aspirations Media, Inc.)
In the spirit of Eragon, Lord of The Rings, Dragonlance and Sword of Shanara, Gambit's End is the final book in The Divine Gambit Trilogy. A fantasy/action-adventure following up the two well-received previous volumes of the series (Seer's Quest and Path of Power), Gambit's End is a powerful and perfect end to this three part story. Though written for a slightly older market, it can still be enjoyed by tweens to teens and adults of all ages. In Gambit's End, The Divine Gambit Trilogy draws to a close when the mercenaries who have been drawn together since Seer's Quest, face off with The Master one last time. Unable to stop him from claiming his goal of godhood, those that survive discover the full scope of his plans and ultimately see just how large this gambit really is. With this greater revelation the three surviving mercenaries go on a desperate journey to try and find a way to stop The Master from not only claiming Tralodren as his own but all the power of the Tralodroen Pantheon as well. They are not alone in this as the gods have taken action, and sides, adding more complexity and uncertainly to the outcome. Between the various divine factions and alliances, surviving members of a mercenary band desperate to find the key to a weapon they hope to use against The Master, and two cosmic forces who are playing everyone as pawns in their own game, the gambit comes to an end that many had not been expecting. Illustrated by Ed Waysek III.
Chanur’s Endgame, C. J. Cherryh (Penguin Group USA)
This omnibus contains the final two Chanur novels, Chanur's Homecoming and Chanur's Legacy. This groundbreaking series chronicles the compelling first contact between humans and multiple alien races, and is noted for its unique viewpoint: that of the alien protagonists.
Aliens: Cauldron, Diane Carey (Dark Horse Publishing)
On the spaceship Umiak, an elite troupe of cadets is forced into servitude by an unscrupulous captain commanding the ship to a smuggler’s rendezvous. During the transaction aboard the eerily silent Virginia, the cadets unwittingly transport an unexpected cargo: a hive of hibernating aliens. As the aliens begin to awake, a terrifying battle erupts between the cadets, the smugglers, the captain, and the emergent monsters. The cadets soon realize that in space, no one can hear them scream.
Phytosphere, Scott Mackay (Penguin Group USA)
After settlement negotiations between humanity and the alien Tarsalans go horribly wrong, the Earth is engulfed in a mysterious green sphere-blocking all sunlight from reaching the surface. Only two scientists-one isolated on the Moon's lunar colony, the other trapped on a dying Earth-possess the minds and the means to destroy the sphere before it renders the world completely barren...
Burning Bridges, Laura Anne Gilman (Luna Books)
The best Retrievers go unnoticed: sliding into shadows, gliding through crowds without entanglement. Wren Valare used to be almost invisible. But now she's not only being seen, she's getting involved. Recent attacks against nonhuman Fatae have escalated into hate crimes against magic users in general—humans included. With the Mage Council distracted by internal power struggles, Wren is guilted into stepping up as a spokesperson for the fragiley united Fatae and lonejack communities… And, because the cosmos deems her without enough complications, her partner-lover Sergei is drowning in his own problems. But not only can't she help him—she's the cause. With lives on the line—including her own—Wren's going to have to break the lonejack credo, ditch her long-cherished invisibility and take a stand. But burning bridges can be deadly…
Wraith, Phaedra Weldon (Penguin Group USA)
First in an excitingly different and new paranormal series. Zo‘ Martinique has turned her unusual ability into a career. When she's traveling, she can't be seen which makes her an ideal professional snoop. Industrial espionage, surveillance, whatever. But one night things get out of hand while she's out of body. She witnesses a murder and a soul stealing, and discovers she has unwelcome company: Trench Coat, a ghostly killer who can see and hurt her. Teaming up with a blue-eyed police detective, she tries to solve the case and improve her love life. She also enlists the support of her psychic mother and the ghostly couple who haunt her house. And with murderers, kidnappers, and a desperate ex-porn star involved, Zo‘ needs all the help she can get.
Smoke and Ashes, Tanya Huff (Penguin Group USA)
Fledgling wizard Tony is now an assistant director on "Darkest Night," the syndicated TV series about a vampire detective. But it's hard to concentrate on the latest episode when a Demonic Convergence is allowing lesser demons entry to our world, and the sexy stuntwoman, Leah, is also an immortal Demongate whose death would open the way to unimaginable peril. Can Tony halt the Convergence, keep Leah alive, and still have a career? Or will his artistic ambitions-not to mention the rest of the world-go up in smoke?
Places To Be, People To Kill, Ed. by Martin H. Greenberg & Brittiany A. Koren (Penguin Group USA)
Assassins, are they born or made? Do they choose this role out of necessity, because they are forced to, or because they enjoy killing? And what do they do in their spare time? These are just a few of the questions answered in this all-original collection of twelve tales by fantasy's finest, focusing on killers of all kinds. From Vree, Tanya Huff's well-known assassin from her Quarters novels, to a woman whose father's vengeful spirit forced her down dark magic's bloody path, to an assassin seeking to escape his Master's death spell, here are spellbinding stories of murder and mayhem, and the shadowy figures who sell death for a living.
Mechwarrior: A Rending of Falcons, Victor Milan (Penguin Group USA)
The epic science fiction action saga continues: She has found her vision, and it is of doom... Jade Falcon Galaxy Commander Malvina Hazen and her warriors are encamped on the planet Skye in their Occupation Zone, overseeing the consolidation of power on the worlds they've wrested from The Republic. When a ship appears at Skye's jump point and its commander declares a Trial of Possession for the wartime doctrine he claims Malvina stole from Clan Hell's Horses, Malvina sees her vision unfolding: she agrees to single BattleMech combat. Malvina emerges from the fray victorious and inspired to ride her growing reputation into Clan Jade Falcon's halls of power. But her bold actions may herald the beginning of a civil war that could unmake not simply her own Clan, but the entire Clan way of life.
The Harsh Cry of the Heron, Lian Hearn (Penguin Group USA)
The Harsh Cry of the Heron: The Last Tale of the Otori is a truly epic novel. It is the rich and satisfying conclusion to the Tales of the Otori series that both completes the characters' lives-prophesied and otherwise-and brilliantly illuminates unexpected aspects of the entire Otori saga. The Harsh Cry of the Heron is the only fitting end to such a stirring series: a book that takes the storytelling achievement of Lian Hearn's fantastic medieval Japanese world to startling new heights of drama and action. Hearn's Otori series is the best (and only) literary expression of a cultural phenomenon that has swept through cinema (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), comics (manga), and popular culture at large. And, with this book, Hearn delivers in full ninja vs. samurai fashion the kinetic, simultaneously heartbreaking and uplifting resolution that the Otori's hundreds of thousands of fans richly deserve… whose epic satisfaction will surely draw even more readers into the fold.
Daughter of the Blood, Anne Bishop (Penguin Group USA)
Seven hundred years ago, a Black Widow witch saw an ancient prophecy come to life in her web of dreams and visions. Now the Dark Kingdom readies itself for the arrival of its Queen, a Witch who will wield more power than even the High Lord of Hell himself. But she is still young, still open to influence… and corruption. Whoever controls the Queen controls the darkness. Three men, sworn enemies, know this. And they know the power that hides behind the blue eyes of an innocent young girl. And so begins a ruthless game of politics and intrigue, magic and betrayal, where the weapons are hate and love and the prize could be terrible beyond imagining... The first novel of the Black Jewels Trilogy.
The Spider: Robot Titans of Gotham, Norvell Page (Baen Books)
Two complete novels in one volume of the adventures of the mysterious masked crime fighter known as The Spider, hunted by the underworld and the police alike. In one, the Spider battles an army of giant robots that has New York City under siege -a storyline so fraught with action and peril that the very creators of Superman had borrowed it for one of the Man of Steel's comic strip adventures. It also was the inspiration for the major motion picture, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. In the second novel, the spider battles a criminal mastermind who threatens the entire northeast with thousands of poison-fanged vampire bats unless his terms are met. Can even the Spider, hunted by the law as never before after faked evidence has branded him as the master of the killer bats, unmask the identity of the Vampire King before thousands die horribly?
New in Audiobook:
Soon I Will Be Invincible, Austin Grossman, J.P. Boehmer, & Coleen Marlo (Highbridge Co., Unabridged)
A wildly entertaining first novel about good and evil, narrated by a cape-wearing superhero and a nefarious supervillain. Doctor Impossible—evil genius, mad scientist, diabolical time-traveler, wannabe world dominator—has just broken out of prison… again. He's tried to take over the world in every conceivable way: doomsday devices (nuclear, thermonuclear, nanotechnological), armies (robot, insect, dinosaur, fungus, fish), mass mind control, even a corporate conquest (Impossible Industries LLC). Each time, he has been foiled. This time, it's going to be different. Fatale, a gleaming technological marvel built by the NSA as the next generation of warfare, is living in Boston, watching TV and listening to the police scanner. A woman of skin and chrome with a long silver ponytail, she's given the chance every superheroine dreams of: to join a once-famous group of beautiful young heroes, newly reunited to stop Dr. Impossible. In alternating chapters, we see Dr. Impossible plan his comeback, and we watch the good guys—Fatale, Damsel, Blackwolf, Feral, CoreFire—come together in the face of unspeakable evil. Featuring a cast of superheroes and supervillains with remarkably human emotions who inhabit a world strangely similar to our own, this is an outrageous adventure with a literary bent—a smart take on power and celebrity, glory and responsibility, and those old standbys, truth and justice.
Alright guys that’ll do it for this edition of the Weekly Book Buzz, be sure to check back next Tuesday for all the latest news on current sci fi, fantasy, and horror book releases. Questions or comments? Hit me up at PFerrara.mania@gmail.com.
