Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.
The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V. S. Redick
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Scant years after a terrible war that shook empires, a six-hundred-year-old ship sets sail for enemy lands in an attempt to forge an enduring peace between the world’s two greatest monarchies. A vast city afloat, the ancient vessel bears a royal bride-to-be; a stowaway tribe of foothigh warriors; an honest young tarboy with a heritage of treason; a rat with a magical secret; and a dark conspiracy centered around the Red Wolf, a legendary and dangerous artifact.
When the conspiracy is uncovered, the voyage takes a turn into perilous waters, and the sword-wielding young bride and her quick-witted tarboy companion must face deadly assassins, treacherous mermaids, and monstrous slavers to uncover secrets at the highest levels of power—secrets that will send heroes and traitors alike careening towards a mysterious destination that could destroy both empires at a stroke.
A publishing sensation in England, The Red Wolf Conspiracy marks the debut of a remarkably gifted young writer.
Goats: Infinite Typewriters by Jonathan Rosenberg
The first-ever book collection of the wildly popular webcomic Goats—a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for the Internet Age
With webcomics like Penny Arcade and Megatokyo being published successfully in book format, the webcomics scene is fast becoming the red-hot incubator of comics talent. The Goats site (www.Goats.com) has one of the most devoted followings on the web, and has more than 1.5 million hits a month.
Goats’ wicked, weird, and deliciously geeky sense of humor places it in the tradition of such cult favorites as Futurama and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy—it’s a major sci-fi parody epic. In Infinite Typewriters, two lowly techies are tasked with saving the universe from utter destruction. Along the way, they’ll encounter cyborg goldfish, omnisexual aliens, satanic chickens, random celebrities, Mayan death gods, and the other strange and wonderful denizens of the Goats universe.
The first of three Goats collections from Del Rey, Goats: Infinite Typewriters will also include some book only bonus features: an introduction by Penny Arcade cocreator Jerry Holkins’s alter ego, Tycho, and newly created material intended to welcome readers to the saga.
The Island by Tim Lebbon
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The worst has come and one man must rise to lead the fight against it. . . .
He thought he’d seen the worst . . .
No one knew about the Strangers from beyond Noreela, and it was the Core’s job to make sure it stayed that way. Kel Boon was once an agent of the land’s most secret organization, tracking, observing, and eliminating the Strangers as part of an elite Core team. But then one horrifying encounter left his superior officer—and lover—dead, along with many innocents. And Kel has been running ever since.
But the worst was still to come. . . .
Forsaking magic, living as a simple wood-carver, Kel came to the fishing village of Pavmouth Breaks to hide. But when a mysterious island appears out to sea during a cataclysmic storm, sending tidal waves to smash the village, his Core training tells him to expect the worst. How can he warn the surviving villagers—especially the beautiful young witch Namior—that the visitors sailing in from the island may not be the peace-loving pilgrims they claim to be? That this might be the invasion the Core has feared all along . . . and that he, Kel Boon, may be Noreela’s last chance?
The Patriot Witch (Traitor to the Crown) by C. C. Finlay
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The year is 1775. On the surface, Proctor Brown appears to be an ordinary young man working the family farm in New England. He is a minuteman, a member of the local militia, determined to defend the rights of the colonies. Yet Proctor is so much more. Magic is in his blood, a dark secret passed down from generation to generation. But Proctor’s mother has taught him to hide his talents, lest he be labeled a witch and find himself dangling at the end of a rope.
A chance encounter with an arrogant British officer bearing magic of his own catapults Proctor out of his comfortable existence and into the adventure of a lifetime, as resistance sparks rebellion and rebellion becomes revolution. Now, even as he fights alongside his fellow patriots from Lexington to Bunker Hill, Proctor finds himself enmeshed in a war of a different sort–a secret war of magic against magic, witch against witch, with the stakes not only the independence of a young nation but the future of humanity itself.