Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

The Ape Man’s Brother

by Joe R. Lansdale
Cover and interior illustrations by Ken Laager

Promo copy:

Orphaned by a plane crash, raised in the wilds of a lost world hidden somewhere beneath a constant mist, The Big Guy and his ape-man brother from another mother are living a life of danger amongst rampaging dinosaurs, giant birds, warring ape tribes, and all manner of deadly beasts. It’s a wonderful existence for someone like The Big Guy and his furry brother, except for the flea problem. Then an expedition of explorers from the outside turn his world inside out. Or rather a very blonde beauty called The Woman does. It leads to his and his ape brother being convinced to fly to New York by zeppelin, where they become the toast of the town. They even make Hollywood movies. It seems perfect. At least until The Big Guy does something that comes quite naturally to him in the wild, but leads to public humiliation in this new found world. To make matters worse, his ape brother has grown to not only love the pampered life, meals he doesn’t have to chase down, good cigars, fine wines and statuesque women, he’s come to like the Wrong Woman.

Changes are afoot. They lead to a return to the world beneath the mist, and a deadly and unexpected encounter with a foe that is in many ways far worse than any dinosaur. Envy, jealousy, greed, fleas, and pyramids under the mist, are all part of this rollicking novella of the sort only Joe R. Lansdale could write. And don’t forget dinosaurs.

Lansdale and apes.. need I say more?

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I’ve been woefully tardy on posting my new arrivals recently, so here’s the beginnings of my attempt to catch up.

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

Raising Steam 

by Terry Pratchett
Cover by Justin Gerard

Promo copy:

Steam is rising over Discworld, driven by Mister Simnel, the man with a flat cap and a sliding rule. He has produced a great clanging monster of a machine that harnesses the power of all of the elements—earth, air, fire, and water—and it’s soon drawing astonished crowds.

To the consternation of Ankh-Morpork’s formidable Patrician, Lord Vetinari, no one is in charge of this new invention. This needs to be rectified, and who better than the man he has already appointed master of the Post Office, the Mint, and the Royal Bank: Moist von Lipwig. Moist is not a man who enjoys hard work—unless it is dependent on words, which are not very heavy and don’t always need greasing. He does enjoy being alive, however, which makes a new job offer from Vetinari hard to refuse.

Moist will have to grapple with gallons of grease, goblins, a fat controller with a history of throwing employees down the stairs, and some very angry dwarfs if he’s going to stop it all from going off the rails…

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Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

Blood and Iron
The Book of the Black Earth
Part One

by Jon Sprunk
Cover by Jason Chan

Promo Copy:

This action-heavy EPIC FANTASY SERIES OPENER is like a sword-and-sorcerySpartacus set in a richly-imagined world.

It starts with a shipwreck following a magical storm at sea. Horace, a soldier from the west, had joined the Great Crusade against the heathens of Akeshia after the deaths of his wife and son from plague. When he washes ashore, he finds himself at the mercy of the very people he was sent to kill, who speak a language and have a culture and customs he doesn’t even begin to understand.

Not long after, Horace is pressed into service as a house slave. But this doesn’t last. The Akeshians discover that Horace was a latent sorcerer, and he is catapulted from the chains of a slave to the halls of power in the queen’s court. Together with Jirom, an ex-mercenary and gladiator, and Alyra, a spy in the court, he will seek a path to free himself and the empire’s caste of slaves from a system where every man and woman must pay the price of blood or iron. Before the end, Horace will have paid dearly in both.

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Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

Empty Hearts
Stories by Mark Finn

Cover by Sharon Nash

 Promo copy:

A young woman alone in the big city, a mobster looking to make a fresh start, an old monster hunter with one last job to do, a magical grocery store where love grows like tomatoes on a vine… These are just some of the people and places you’ll meet in Empty Hearts, a new collection of stories by Mark Finn. Set in and around the magic-steeped city of San Cibola, the characters come to life in Finn’s deft prose with humor, warmth, and compassion. Even the unlikeable people have strange and fascinating stories that make them compelling. The stories in Empty Hearts all turn on the theme of love, passion, and desire. Whether it’s a misguided crook’s tributes to an underworld organization, a passionate academic’s pet theory, or a child’s love of Christmas, the characters and stories in Empty Hearts ultimately reflect ourselves with humor, horror, and a dash of magic.

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