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

Thirteen Years Later
by Jasper Kent
Cover by Paul Young

Promo copy:

Aleksandr made a silent promise to the Lord. God would deliver him–would deliver Russia–and he would make Russia into the country that the Almighty wanted it to be. He would be delivered from the destruction that wasteth at noonday, and from the pestilence that walketh in darkness–the terror by night…

1825, Europe–and Russia–have been at peace for ten years. Bonaparte is long dead and the threat of invasion is no more. For Colonel Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov, life is peaceful. Not only have the French been defeated but so have the twelve monstrous creatures he once fought alongside, and then against, ten or more years ago. His duty is still to serve and to protect his tsar, Aleksandr the First, but now the enemy is human.

However the Tsar knows that he can never be at peace. Of course, he is aware of the uprising fermenting within the Russian army–among his supposedly loyal officers. No, what troubles him is something that threatens to bring damnation down upon him, his family and his country. The Tsar has been reminded of a promise: a promise born of blood…a promise that was broken a hundred years before.

Now the one who was betrayed by the Romanovs has returned to exact revenge for what has been denied him. And for Aleksei, knowing this chills his very soul. For it seems the vile pestilence that once threatened all he believed in and all he held dear has returned, thirteen years later…

I thoroughly enjoyed this book’s predecessor Twelve. Excellent, creative vampire fiction.

The Remembering: Book Three of The Meq
by Steve Cash
Cover by Kathleen Lynch

Promo copy:

THEIR ORIGINS ARE A MYSTERY.
THEIR FUTURE IS AT HAND.

For thousands of years the Meq have existed side by side with humanity—appearing as twelve-year-old children, unsusceptible to wounds and disease, dying only by extraordinary means. They have survived through the rise and fall of empires and emperors, through explorations, expansions, and war. Five sacred stones give a few of them mystical powers, but not the power to understand a long-destined event called the Remembering.

In the aftermath of the nuclear bombing of Japan in 1945, Zianno Zezen finds himself alone, while the fate of the other Meq and his beloved Opari, carrier of the Stone of Blood, is unknown. But Z’s archenemy, the Fleur-du-Mal, survives. In the next half century Z will reunite with far-flung friends both Meq and human, as American and Soviet spies vie to steal and harness the powers and mysteries of the timeless children. With the day of the Remembering rapidly approaching, Z must interpret the strange writing on an ancient etched stone sphere. In those markings, Z will discover messages within messages and begin a journey to the truth about his people and himself.

Lyrical and mesmerizing, The Remembering spans the world and history, from the first humans to a secret that has never been told before. The Remembering is the moving saga of the Meq—their purpose, past, and future among us.

The Raven Queen
by Jules Watson
Cover by Juliana Kolesova

Promo copy:

In this dazzling retelling of one of Ireland’s most stirring legends, acclaimed author Jules Watson brings to life the story of Maeve, the raven queen, who is as fierce as she is captivating.

She was born to be a pawn, used to secure her father’s royal hold on his land. She was forced to advance his will through marriage—her own desires always thwarted. But free-spirited Maeve will no longer endure the schemes of her latest husband, Conor, the cunning ruler of Ulster. And when her father’s death puts her homeland at the mercy of its greedy lords and Conor’s forces, Maeve knows she must at last come into her own power to save it.

With secret skill and daring, Maeve proves herself the equal of any warrior on the battlefield. With intelligence and stealth, she learns the strategies—and sacrifices—of ruling a kingdom through treacherous alliances. And to draw on the dangerous magic of her country’s oldest gods, Maeve seeks out the wandering druid Ruan, whose unexpected passion and strange connection to the worlds of spirit imperil everything Maeve thought true about herself—and put her at war with both her duty and her fate.

Part II

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

Grail
by Elizabeth Bear
Cover by Carl Galian

Promo copy:

Rife with intrigue and betrayal, heroism and sacrifice, Grail brings Elizabeth Bear’s brilliant space opera to a triumphant conclusion.

At last the generation ship Jacob’s Ladder has arrived at its destination: the planet they have come to call Grail. But this habitable jewel just happens to be populated already: by humans who call their home Fortune. And they are wary of sharing Fortune—especially with people who have genetically engineered themselves to such an extent that it is a matter of debate whether they are even human anymore. To make matters worse, a shocking murder aboard the Jacob’s Ladder has alerted Captain Perceval and the angel Nova that formidable enemies remain hidden somewhere among the crew.

On Grail—or Fortune, rather—Premier Danilaw views the approach of the Jacob’s Ladder with dread. Behind the diplomatic niceties of first-contact protocol, he knows that the deadly game being played is likely to erupt into full-blown war—even civil war. For as he strives to chart a peaceful and prosperous path forward for his people, internal threats emerge to take control by any means necessary.

The Scarab Path (Shadows of the Apt)
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Cover by Jon Sullivan

Promo copy:

The war with the Wasp Empire has ended in a bitter stalemate, and Collegium has nothing to show for it but wounded veterans. Cheerwell Maker finds herself crippled in ways no doctor can mend, haunted by ghosts of the past that she cannot appease, seeking for meaning in a city that no longer seems like home. The Empress Seda is regaining control over those imperial cities who refused to bow the knee to her, but she draws her power from something more sinister than mere armies and war machines. Only her consort, the former spymaster Thalric, knows the truth, and now the assassins are coming and he finds his life and his loyalties under threat yet again. Out past the desert of the Nem the ancient city of Khanaphes awaits them both, with a terrible secret entombed beneath its stones..

Deus Ex: Icarus Effect
by James Swallow
Cover by Jim Murray

Promo copy:

IT’S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD. BUT YOU CAN SEE IT FROM HERE.

In the near future, with physical augmentation gaining ground and nano-cybernetics only years away, the dawn of limitless human evolution is just beyond the horizon, and a secret corporate cabal of ruthless men intends to make sure that humankind stays under its control. But two people on opposite sides of the world are starting to ask questions that could get them killed.

Secret Service agent Anna Kelso has been suspended for investigating the shooting that claimed her partner’s life. Anna suspects that the head of a bio-augmentation firm was the real target, and against orders she’s turned up a few leads concerning a covert paramilitary force and a cadre of underground hackers. But the cover-up runs deep, and now there’s a target on her back. Meanwhile, Ben Saxon, former SAS officer turned mercenary, joins a shadowy special ops outfit. They say they’re a force for good, but Saxon quickly learns that the truth is not so clear-cut. So begins a dangerous quest to uncover a deadly secret that will take him from Moscow to London, D.C. to Geneva, and to the dark truth—if he lives that long.

The year is 2027; in a world consumed by chaos and conspiracy, two people are set on a collision course with the most powerful and dangerous organization in history—and the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.

Part I

I reviewed writer-director Jorge Michel Grau’s debut feature We Are What We Are (Somos lo que hay) for Moving Pictures.

So much for the popular conception that I hate everything…

RevolutionSF has struck again. A third selection (following Flex Mentallo and Chase) from Uncanny Un-Collectibles, our late September/early October ’10 six day extravaganza of comics that have never been collected (or were currently not available) but really should be is being collected this summer. In the very first entry of the first day, Paul O. Miles lamented the lack of a Sugar and Spike book.

Apparently the folks from DC heard his cries, because hidden among the solicitations for March was this gem.

Three down, 49 titles left to go…

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

Daytripper
by Fábio Moon & Gabriel Bá

Promo copy:

The acclaimed DAYTRIPPER follows Bras de Olivias Dominguez during different periods in his life, each with the same ending: his death.

DAYTRIPPER follows the life of one man, Bras de Olivias Dominguez. Every chapter features an important period in Bras’ life in exotic Brazil, and each story ends the same way: with his death. And then, the following story starts up at a different point in his life, oblivious to his death in the previous issue – and then also ends with him dying again. In every chapter, Bras dies at different moments in his life, as the story follows him through his entire existence – one filled with possibilities of happiness and sorrow, good and bad, love and loneliness. Each issue rediscovers the many varieties of daily life, in a story about living life to its fullest – because any of us can die at any moment.

Dungeon Quest: Book Two
by Joe Daly

Promo copy:

What if Cheech & Chong lived in a RPG?

In 2010’s Dungeon Quest Book One, Millennium Boy decided to grab his hobo stick, his bandana, and his Swiss Army knife, bid his mom goodbye, and head off on a quest for adventure. Joined by his best friend Steve (weapon: baseball bat; clothing: wife beater, cargo pants and sandals), the muscle-bound Lash Penis, and the silent but deadly Nerdgirl, he began a mystical quest to find the missing parts of the Atlantean Resonator Guitar.

In this second book, our heroes continue their quest by wandering through the primeval gloom of Fireburg Forest in search of the prophet and poet Bromedes, who can unlock the mysteries of Atlantis for them. Along the way, they encounter giant spiders, river trolls, and copious amounts of killer weed. Joe Daly’s delightfully unique stoner/philosopher dialogue and distinctive character designs, coupled with hilarious over- the-top Role Playing Game action (complete with periodic updates for each character’s status in ten criteria, including “dexterity,” “intelligence,” and “money”), propel Daly’s story into heretofore unachieved action-comedy heights.

Hotwire: Deep Cut Issue 3
Created by Steve Pugh & Warren Ellis
Written and Illustrated by Steve Pugh

Promo copy:

Alice Hotwire is locked in a bitter race against Burtus Rantz and his gang of mercenaries, to hunt down the phantom soldier. Plowing through the busy streets, and a panicking population, they face a final showdown at the city hospital where Rantz has set his trap. But, unknown to the two ghost hunting antagonists, the soldier’s hostage is not yet beyond help. Can they set aside their deadly rivalry in time to save a mother and child on the edge of death?

Suicide Squad: Trial by Fire
Written by John Ostrander
Art by Luke McDonnell & others

Promo copy:

When Super-Villains get caught, it’s up to the government to keep them in captivity. Amanda Waller, a tough-as-nails federal agent, has other plans. She’s heading up Task Force X (a.k.a. The Suicide Squad) as an ultimatum to the world’s biggest villains. Join her shady, near-impossible missions in the name of democracy, or rot in jail. And one other thing: Most operatives don’t make it back alive!

Finally! For what seems like forever, DC has been teasing geeks with potential collections of the classic Ostrander Suicide Squad. A b&w Showcase would pop up on the schedule but would then suddenly disappear. This is a full color collection of the first eight issues and their appearance in Secret Origins. Let’s hope, much like they did with the Question, DC produces several volumes of these excellent adventures.

My review of The Eagle makes me three-for-three in the negative department this year. Over at Moving Pictures, I wrote:

How I long for a decent film…

For Omnivoracious (Amazon’s book blog), I interviewed first time novelist Stina Leicht about her book Of Blood and Honey.

This is but a small snippet of the lengthy interview. Stina and I also discuss the Fey, researching prisons, the art of violence, and why women find it easy to write male characters.

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

Other Kingdoms
by Richard Matheson

Promo copy:

For over half a century, Richard Matheson has enthralled and terrified readers with such timeless classics as I Am Legend, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Duel, Somewhere in Time, and What Dreams May Come. Now the Grand Master returns with a bewitching tale of erotic suspense and enchantment.…

1918. A young American soldier, recently wounded in the Great War, Alex White comes to Gatford to escape his troubled past. The pastoral English village seems the perfect spot to heal his wounded body and soul. True, the neighboring woods are said to be haunted by capricious, even malevolent spirits, but surely those are just old wives’ tales.

Aren’t they?

A frightening encounter in the forest leads Alex into the arms of Magda Variel, an alluring red-haired widow rumored to be a witch. She warns him to steer clear of the wood and the perilous faerie kingdom it borders, but Alex cannot help himself. Drawn to its verdant mysteries, he finds love, danger…and wonders that will forever change his view of the world.

Other Kingdoms casts a magical spell, as conjured by a truly legendary storyteller.

Matheson has crafted some of all time favorite books and short stories. A new novel from him is always a thrill.

Shadowfever
by Karen Marie Moning

Promo copy:

“Evil is a completely different creature, Mac. Evil is bad that believes it’s good.”

MacKayla Lane was just a child when she and her sister, Alina, were given up for adoption and banished from Ireland forever.

Twenty years later, Alina is dead and Mac has returned to the country that expelled them to hunt her sister’s murderer. But after discovering that she descends from a bloodline both gifted and cursed, Mac is plunged into a secret history: an ancient conflict between humans and immortals who have lived concealed among us for thousands of years.

What follows is a shocking chain of events with devastating consequences, and now Mac struggles to cope with grief while continuing her mission to acquire and control the Sinsar Dubh—a book of dark, forbidden magic scribed by the mythical Unseelie King, containing the power to create and destroy worlds.

In an epic battle between humans and Fae, the hunter becomes the hunted when the Sinsar Dubh turns on Mac and begins mowing a deadly path through those she loves.
Who can she turn to? Who can she trust? Who is the woman haunting her dreams? More important, who is Mac herself and what is the destiny she glimpses in the black and crimson designs of an ancient tarot card?

From the luxury of the Lord Master’s penthouse to the sordid depths of an Unseelie nightclub, from the erotic bed of her lover to the terrifying bed of the Unseelie King, Mac’s journey will force her to face the truth of her exile, and to make a choice that will either save the world . . . or destroy it.

Beautifully designed book.

The Alchemist in the Shadows
by Pierre Pevel
Translation by Tom Clegg
Cover by Jon Sullivan

Promo copy:

Welcome to Paris, in 1633, where dragons menace the realm. Cardinal Richelieu, the most powerful and most feared man in France, is on his guard. He knows France is under threat, and that a secret society known as the Black Claw is conspiring against him from the heart of the greatest courts in Europe. They will strike from the shadows, and when they do the blow will be both terrible and deadly. To counter the threat, Richelieu has put his most trusted men into play: the Cardinal’s Blades, led by Captain la Fargue. Six men and a woman, all of exceptional abilities and all ready to risk their lives on his command. They have saved France before, and the Cardinal is relying on them to do it again. So when la Fargue hears from a beautiful, infamous, deadly Italian spy claiming to have valuable information, he has to listen …and when La Donna demands Cardinal Richelieu’s protection before she will talk, la Fargue is even prepared to consider it. Because La Donna can name their enemy. It’s a man as elusive as he is manipulative, as subtle as Richelieu himself, an exceptionally dangerous adversary: the Alchemist in the shadows …

The Super Hero Squad Show: Quest For The Infinity Sword Volume Three

Promo copy:

Can the world’s greatest superheroes keep Super Hero City safe by preventing Dr. Doom and his hysterically evil minions from collecting all the fragments of the legendary Infinity Sword? Find out as Iron Man, Wolverine, the Hulk, the Silver Surfer, Thor, the Falcon and their friends return to face Super Hero City’s zaniest villains in Quest For The Infinity Sword’s third fun-filled volume!

Features the guest voices of Taye Diggs (Daybreak), Michelle Trachtenberg (Buffy The Vampire Slayer), Adrian Pasdar (Heroes), LeVar Burton (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Kevin Sorbo (The Legendary Adventures Of Hercules) and Shawn Ashmore (X-Men).

More in Part II

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

Santa Sangre
Directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky

Promo copy:

In the 1970s, his legendary films El Topo and The Holy Mountain redefined movies as both art and entertainment while changing the face of cinema forever. And in 1989, visionary writer/director Alejandro Jodorowsky returned with his modern masterpiece: It is the story of a young circus performer, the crime of passion that shatters his soul, and the macabre journey back to the world of his armless mother, deaf-mute lover, and murder. It is an odyssey of ecstasy and anguish, belief and blasphemy, beauty and madness. It is unlike any movie you have ever seen before…or ever will. Axel Jodorowsky, Blanca Guerra and Guy Stockwell star in this epic of surreal genius, now fully restored and featuring more than five hours of exclusive Extras that reveal the mind behind one of the most provocative and unforgettable motion picture experiences of our time. On DVD for the first time ever in America.

WOW!

Demonstorm (Legends of the Raven 3)
by James Barclay
Cover by Raymond Swanland

Promo copy:

THIS IS THE END …The dragons have gone home, the elves are safe. The Raven have kept their promises. But fate has not finished with them. As the war between the colleges rages on an old enemy senses that his chance to revenge a bitter defeat has come. Tessaya, Lord of the Paleon Tribes has waited patiently for his moment and now, with Balaia in flames, he makes his move and unleashes the Wesmen hordes. In Xetesk, his forces scattered, Dystran, Lord of the Mount faces certain defeat by the Wesmen unless he unleashes the horrfying power of dimensional magics. And Dystran has not come this far to be beaten at the last by a rabble of ignorant tribesmen. And so the veil between dimensions is torn …And beyond, a predatory evil stirs. Demons catch the scent of countless souls in Balaia. Can even the Raven prevail when the world is coming to an end? A fantasy milestone is reached. James Barclay brings his sensational saga of The Raven to a heartsopping conclusion.

Driver for the Dead #3
Created and Written by: John Heffernan
Pencils and Inks by: Leonardo Manco
Paints by: Kinsun Loh and Jerry Choo

Promo copy:

Alabaster Graves is the Driver for the Dead. He and his hearse, Black Betty, handle the more “lively” cases in New Orleans: vampires, angry ghosts, the not-quite-dead. Earlier tonight he was sent to retrieve the body of one of the town’s most famous and beloved spirit healers, Mose Freeman, with Mose’s granddaughter Marissa along for the ride.

Unbeknownst to Graves, he was not the only one after Mose’s body. A necromancer, named Fallow, along with his gang of undead toughs, was also in town murdering other supernatural practitioners and stealing their powers by attaching powerful pieces of their corpses to his own piecemeal, undead personage.

Now, Fallow has injured Graves, stolen Mose’s body and kidnapped Marissa. Graves, rescued by a group of woodsmen and their mysterious leader, has discovered three things: who Marissa is, why she’s so important to Fallow… and the only possible way to save her: He must hunt down the fabled Loup Garoux, an ancient and deadly werewolf created by Marissa’s own grandmother, kill the creature, and steal the voodoo-cursed knitting needle from its chest. And that’s the easy part…

Welcome to the Greenhouse
Edited and with an introduction by Gordon Van Gelder
Preface by Elizabeth Kolbert
Cover by Eric Drooker

Promo copy:

The shotgun man barked, “That will not save us. Not save the Arctic. Our beautiful home.” He had a knotted face and burning eyes beneath heavy brows.
She talked fast, hands up, open palms toward him. “All that SkyShield nonsense won’t stop the oceans from turning acid. Only fossil—”
“Do what you can, when you can. We learn that up here.”
—from Welcome to the Greenhouse

Forty years ago, Walt Kelly’s comic strip character Pogo famously intoned: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” Now, as the evidence for climate change becomes overwhelming, we learn the hard reality behind that witticism. The possible destruction, and certain transformation, of the ecosphere has been brought about by our own activities.

What will our new world look like? How will we—can we—adapt? The clash of a rapidly changing environment with earth’s self-styled ruling species, humans, provides ample creative fodder for this riveting anthology of original science fiction. In Welcome to the Greenhouse, award-winning editor Gordon Van Gelder has brought together sixteen speculative stories by some of the most imaginative writers of our time. Terrorists, godlike terraformers, and humans both manipulative and hapless populate these pages. The variety of stories reflects the possibilities of our future: grim, hopeful, fantastic and absurd.

Included is new work by Brian W. Aldiss, Jeff Carlson, Judith Moffett, Matthew Hughes, Gregory Benford, Michael Alexander, Bruce Sterling, Joseph Green, Pat MacEwen, Alan Dean Foster, David Prill, George Guthridge, Paul Di Filippo, Chris Lawson, Ray Vukcevich and M. J. Locke.

Part I

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

Enigmatic Pilot: A Tall Tale Too True
by Kris Sanussemm

Promo copy:

Enigmatic Pilot is Kris Saknussemm’s outrageously brilliant yet profoundly moving exploration and excavation of the American dream—and nightmare.

In 1844, in a still-young America, the first intimations of civil war are stirring throughout the land. In Zanesville, Ohio, the Sitturd family—Hephaestus, a clubfooted inventor; his wife, Rapture, a Creole from the Sea Islands; and their prodigiously gifted six-year-old son, Lloyd, whose libido is as precocious as his intellect—are forced to flee the only home they have ever known for an uncertain future in Texas, whence Hephaestus’s half-brother, Micah, has sent them a mysterious invitation, promising riches and wonders too amazing to be entrusted to paper.

Thus begins one of the most incredible American journeys since Huck Finn and Jim first pushed their raft into the Mississippi. Along the way, Lloyd will learn the intricacies of poker and murder, solve the problem of manned flight, find—and lose—true love, and become swept up in an ancient struggle between two secret societies whose arcane dispute has shaped the world’s past and threatens to reshape its future. Each side wants to use Lloyd against the other, but Lloyd has his own ideas—and access to an occult technology as powerful as his imagination.

I lavished praise upon Saknussemm’s first novel Zanesville, so I’m looking forward to the second volume in his Lodemania Testament.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived
by Paul S. Kemp

Promo copy:

The second novel set in the Old Republic era and based on the massively multiplayer online game Star Wars®: The Old Republic™ ramps up the action and brings readers face-to-face for the first time with a Sith warrior to rival the most sinister of the Order’s Dark Lords—Darth Malgus, the mysterious, masked Sith of the wildly popular “Deceived” and “Hope” game trailers.

Malgus brought down the Jedi Temple on Coruscant in a brutal assault that shocked the galaxy. But if war crowned him the darkest of Sith heroes, peace would transform him into something far more heinous—something Malgus would never want to be, but cannot stop, any more than he can stop the rogue Jedi fast approaching.

Her name is Aryn Leneer—and the lone Knight that Malgus cut down in the fierce battle for the Jedi Temple was her Master. And now she’s going to find out what happened to him, even if it means breaking every rule in the book.

Hidden Cities
by Daniel Fox

Promo copy:

The mythic beasts and glorious legends of feudal China illuminate a world at war in this, the conclusion to Daniel Fox’s critically acclaimed series.

Whatever they thought, this was always where they were going: to the belly of the dragon, or the belly of the sea.

More by chance than good judgment, the young emperor has won his first battle. The rebels have retreated from the coastal city of Santung—but they’ll be back. Distracted by his pregnant concubine, the emperor sends a distrusted aide, Ping Wen, to govern Santung in his place. There, the treacherous general will discover the healer Tien, who is obsessed with a library of sacred mage texts and the secrets concealed within—secrets upon which, Ping Wen quickly realizes, the fate of the whole war may turn.

As all sides of this seething conflict prepare for more butchery, a miner of magical jade, himself invulnerable, desperately tries to save his beautiful and yet brutally scarred clan cousin; a priestess loses her children, who are taken as pawns in a contest beyond her comprehension; and a fierce and powerful woman commits an act of violence that will entwine her, body and soul, with the spirit of jade itself. Amid a horde of soldiers, torturers, and runaways, these people will test both their human and mystical powers against a violent world. But one force trumps all: the huge, hungry, wrathful dragon.