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

The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals: The Evil Monkey Dialogues by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer

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Whimsically illustrated, this bite-sized bestiary is the deciding vote on which fantastical creatures are kosher. Embarking on an undomesticated romp from A to Z, the ritual cleanliness of E.T., hobbits, Mongolian Death Worms, and the elusive chupacabra are discussed. This hilarious kashrut is the offspring of a debate that began on Jeff Vandermeer’s blog, between his alter-ego, Evil Monkey, and his editor/wife. Addressing questions such as Is a vegetable-lamb a vegetable or a lamb? Does licking the Pope make you trayf? What exactly is a Pollo Maligno? and Is Sasquatch roast stringy? this irreverent abecedary is a perfect gift for anyone seeking to broaden their imaginary culinary experiences guilt-free.

Read more about this unusual book over at Ecstatic Days.

Beyond the Night by Joss Ware

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A man with no future . . .

When Dr. Elliott Drake wakes from a mysterious fifty-year sleep, the world as he knew it is gone. Cities are now desolate, and civilization is controlled by deadly immortals. Stranger still is Elliott’s extraordinary new "gift"—he has the power to heal, but it comes with fatal consequences.

A woman with a past . . .

Jade barely escaped the immortals and is now hell-bent on revenge. She trusts no one . . . until Elliott. His piercing gaze and tempting touch shatter her defenses, but the handsome doctor seems to have dangerous secrets of his own. Is it safe to trust him with her heart?

If they are to survive in this dark new world, Jade and Elliott must work together to fight the forces that take them beyond danger.

Beyond desire.

This book came with a brain squeeze toy promoting Joss Ware‘s zombie romances.

Mr. Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett

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It is the time of the Great Depression.

Thousands have left their homes looking for a better life, a new life. But Marcus Connelly is not one of them. He searches for one thing, and one thing only. Revenge.

Because out there, riding the rails, stalking the camps, is the scarred vagrant who murdered Connelly’s daughter. No one knows him, but everyone knows his name: Mr. Shivers.

In this extraordinary debut, Robert Jackson Bennett tells the story of an America haunted by murder and desperation. A world in which one man must face a dark truth and answer the question-how much is he willing to sacrifice for his satisfaction?

Sleepless by Charlie Huston

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From bestselling author Charlie Huston comes a novel about the fears that find us all during dark times and the courage and sacrifice that can save us in the face of unimaginable odds. Gripping, unnerving, exhilarating, and haunting, Sleepless is well worth staying up for.

What former philosophy student Parker Hass wanted was a better world. A world both just and safe for his wife and infant daughter. So he joined the LAPD and tried to make it that way. But the world changed. Struck by waves of chaos carried in on a tide of insomnia. A plague of sleeplessness.

Park can sleep, but he is wide awake. And as much as he wishes he was dreaming, his eyes are open. He has no choice but to see it all. That’s his job. Working undercover as a drug dealer in a Los Angeles ruled in equal parts by martial law and insurgency, he’s tasked with cutting off illegal trade in Dreamer, the only drug that can give the infected what they most crave: sleep.

After a year of lost leads and false trails, Park stumbles into the perilous shadows cast by the pharmaceuticals giant behind Dreamer. Somewhere in those shadows, at the nexus of disease and drugs and money, a secret is hiding. Drawn into the inner circle of a tech guru with a warped agenda and a special use for the sleepless themselves, Park thinks he knows what that secret might be.

To know for certain, he will have to go deeper into the restless world. His wife has become sleepless, and their daughter may soon share the same fate. For them, he will risk what they need most from him: his belief that justice
must be served. Unknown to him, his choice ties all of their futures to the singularly deadly nature of an aging mercenary who stalks Park.

The deeper Park stumbles through the dark, the more he is convinced that it is obscuring the real world. Bring enough light and the shadows will retreat. Bring enough light and everyone will see themselves again. Bring enough light and he will find his way to the safe corner, the harbor he’s promised his family. Whatever the cost to himself.

It is July 2010.

The future is coming.

Open your eyes.

I loved Huston’s previous crime/noir novel The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, calling it "a thoroughly entertaining novel" in my San Antonio Current review. Really looking forward to this one.

[  Currently: Listening to Joe Crowe’s annual compilation of funny Christmas music ]
Jews often find Christmas to be one of the most boring days of the year. Almost everything is closed, most of your friends are busy, and TV sucks.

As a child, we engaged in what we called "Jewish Christmas."

I don’t mean Chanukkah. Only the uninformed equate the eight day Festival of Lights to Christmas. A relatively minor Jewish holiday, Chanukkah only achieved prominence for its proximity to Christmas.

For most of my pre-teen years, I’d eat Chinese food with my grandparents, mother, and sister on Christmas and then my mom, sister, and I would head out to the movies. That is a Jewish Christmas!

I don’t remember most of the movies except for the magical 1978 Christmas screening of Superman: The Movie. Only a dozen people or so attended the showing!

As I entered my teen years, I started spending Christmas with my gentile friends. Then later with my Christian girlfriends. After I married my first wife, we always spent the holiday with her Catholic family.

After our divorce, I took up the tradition once again with friends.

When I first explained this idea to Brandy, she’d never heard of the concept. All it took was one Jewish Christmas and it became our annual tradition. We may not always eat Chinese food (sometimes fittingly enough Jewish food instead) or see a movie (though we often do), but we always have a fun, relaxing holiday. There is no other way I’d rather spend the day.

(Sadly this year, Brandy developed a stomach bug, so we didn’t go out to eat or see a movie. We’ve promised each other Chinese food –hopefully dim sum– and a movie before the end of the year.)

In celebration of Michael Moorcock’s 70th birthday, I’m reprinting my essay "Michael Moorcock: No Ordinary Buckaroo." I originally crafted this piece in 2001 for a Salon essay contest. I didn’t win. This essay first appeared in my book Geek Confidential. This is the first online appearance.

Nearly ten years after I crafted this piece, everything I wrote about his drive still holds true. I imagine it’ll still be the same when he reaches 80 and 90. Michael Moorcock can’t help but push the limits of creativity by him and those around him. That’s the core of what makes him an incredible author, visionary editor, and a guiding light to countless writers and artists.

Happy Birthday to one extraordinary gentleman, Mike Moorcock!

Michael Moorcock: No Ordinary Buckaroo

Buckaroo is one of those weird words in the English language; funny sounding and almost antiquated. The truly odd thing is that it is the favorite word of one of the most forward thinking literary minds of the 20th century. And like the buckaroos of the past, Michael Moorcock is often on a mission.

Moorcock first rode unto the public consciousness when, after a ten year editing career for other British pulps, he became the editor of New Worlds in 1964 at the age of 24. Worlds was Britain’s answer to Astounding and Amazing and was established in the SF pulp mode. Almost immediately Moorcock changed all that. He had seen the future in Burroughs. Not the more traditional SF Edgar Rice, creator of Tarzan, but rather William S., king of the hipsters and writer of Naked Lunch. In Burroughs, Moorcock saw a new and unconventional type of SF, one that focused on entertainment and was a reflection of the times. During the next 35+ years, Michael Moorcock’s career as a writer and editor would feature unconventional entertainment that not only reflected the times, but also shaped them.

From his saddle atop New Worlds, Moorcock oversaw a literary movement, the New Wave, which created ripples that are still being felt today. The list of writers whose work appeared in New Worlds reads like a who’s who of fantastic fiction. J.G. Ballard, Harlan Ellison, Samuel Delany, Roger Zelazny, John Brunner, Thomas Disch, Norman Spinrad, D.M. Thomas, M. John Harrison, and Moorcock himself all produced some of their best works for New Worlds.

This New Wave, guided by a Moorcockian vision, revolutionized not only the worlds of fantastic fiction but some 15 years later would be a significant force behind the cyberpunk movement of the early 80’s. Visionary writers like William Gibson and Bruce Sterling mention Moorcock and several other New Wave writers as influences.

It was one of Moorcock’s own pieces from New Worlds that could arguably be cited as the very first cyberpunk story. 1965 saw the serialization of the first Jerry Cornelius novel, The Final Programme. Cornelius was the ultimate postmodern anti-hero, a master manipulator of everything from people to reality itself. Moorcock’s melancholy and streetwise character would later inspire the anarchistic and bleak future of the cyberpunks.

However, Moorcock’s influence extends far beyond the cyberpunks. He popularized what he terms the multiverse. The origin of the word and concept may sometimes be in doubt, but there is no question that Moorcock is the trail boss in this arena. The multiverse is a literary construct in which multiple parallel realities co-exist and are constantly intersecting. Moorcock has created many characters that exist in different parallel realities. The characters’ lives and worlds interact from time to time, sliding between worlds like we cross the street. It can all make for some chaotic fun.

First appearing in the early 60’s, the most popular creation from Moorcock’s multiverse is Elric, the exiled albino king. His tragic tale of exile, illicit love, and the battles between the forces of Chaos and Order would be showcased in a fantasy sequence unlike anything the world had ever seen. Elric was Conan gone mad. He would become one of the most popular anti-heroes in fantasy fiction and eventually an industry unto himself. In the 1980’s the popular British acid band Hawkwind recorded an entire Elric-themed album, The Chronicle Of The Black Sword, and Blue Oyster Cult had a minor hit with the song Black Blade, based on the adventures of Elric and his soul sucking sword. (BOC also recorded the Moorcock-penned song Veteran of the Psychic Wars for the cult film Heavy Metal.) There have been comics, games, posters, figures and other merchandise. Almost forty years after his initial appearance Moorcock recently produced his most ambitious Elric work to date, The Dreamthief’s Daughter to much fanfare and delight.

His ability to transcend the limitations of a genre is the thing that makes Michael Moorcock truly unique. To him there are no boundaries. Considered to be his best book, Mother London is one of the finest novels ever written about the great city and was nominated for the prestigious Whitbread Prize. Using genre elements, Moorcock created a mainstream novel that captures essence of London.

Like his New Wave co-conspirator J.G. Ballard, Moorcock transcended the genre ghetto and emerged as one of the most important and influential literary minds of his generation. And the sun has yet to set on this buckaroo as evidenced by the recent U.K. release King of the City (And soon to be available in the States). This sequel to Mother London is being heralded by critics and readers alike as a literary epic.

As Michael Moorcock, editor and writer, enters the sixth decade of his professional life, his outlook and work remains as fresh and diverse as the day he began. This buckaroo is still in the saddle and riding lead.

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

Star Trek: A Comic Book History by Alan J. Porter

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Now for the first time the complete history of the Star Trek universe in comic books and newspaper strips from all over the world. Written by pop-culture historian Alan J. Porter, author of the bestselling James Bond: The History of the Illustrated 007, this book will be the definitive history on the subject. Nine information-packed chapters detailing the history of Star Trek in comic books and newspaper strips from the first Gold Key comic books, to the English newspaper strip, to the Marvel and DC titles, to the present day. Exhaustively covers all publications of the entire Star Trek universe. Includes creator interviews, unpublished artwork and a detailed checklist. Published to coincide with the release of the new Star Trek movie. Boldly goes where no book has gone before!

Alan J. Porter is a RevSF contributing editor and blogger. I interviewed him last year about his James Bond book.

The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett

Sita Sings The Blues

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Sita is a Hindu goddess, the leading lady of India’s epic the Ramayana and a dutiful wife who follows her husband Rama on a 14 year exile to a forest, only to be kidnapped by an evil king from Sri Lanka. Despite remaining faithful to her husband, Sita is put through many tests. Nina (the filmmaker Nina Paley herself) is an artist who finds parallels in Sita’s life when her husband – in India on a work project – decides to break up their marriage and dump her via email. Three hilarious Indonesian shadow puppets with Indian accents – linking the popularity of the Ramayana from India all the way to the Far East – narrate both the ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the epic.

In her first feature length film, Paley juxtaposes multiple narrative and visual styles to create a highly entertaining yet moving vision of the Ramayana. Musical numbers choreographed to the 1920’s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw feature a cast of hundreds: flying monkeys, evil monsters, gods, goddesses, warriors, sages, and winged eyeballs. A tale of truth, justice and a woman’s cry for equal treatment. Sita Sings the Blues earns its tagline as "The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told."

To learn more about this extraordinary film, check out sitasingstheblues.com for trailers, etc.

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

Caliber: First Canon Of Justice Written by Sam Sarkar Art by Garrie Gastonny

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The Arthurian legend of Excalibur is reborn in the Old Pacific Northwest – a world in which shamans replace wizards, gunfighters ride without a knight’s armor, and a mystical six-shooter forged from the metal of the fabled sword will change the world. In a land where lawlessness runs rampant, only Arthur can bring balance to the scales of justice, and only Caliber can bring justice to the land.

City of Dust Written by Steve Niles Art by Zid, Brandon Chng, and Garrie Gastonny

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From the dark mind of legendary horror writer Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) comes a story set in the aftermath of our world’s collapse. Records show the Earth once known was consumed by religious wars, spurred by the suppression of free thought and where creative expression is now viewed as the rot and infestation of the mind. This chilling vision of the future unveils a world where the police now patrol for crimes of the imagination, or Mind Crimes as their called. This beliefs, along with any tales of false heroes, idols or gods, are illegal. Special detective Philip Khrome doesn’t enforce Imagination, instead he works in homicide; thats where the action is, and he has seen it all before. But criminals evolve and the world is forever changing. When a killing spree hits his department, Khrome finds himself face-to-face with a perpetrator who has merged reality with superstition, something is not what it seems. This enemy of folklore will require old-fashioned detective techniques to bring to justice, but the only problem is it will take one’s imagination to find the source of this new evil.

Shrapnel: Aristeia Rising Created by Mark Long & Nick Sagan Written by M. Zachary Sherman Art by Bagus Hutomo

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Venus, 2250. After five years of war, the last free colony in the Solar System is about to fall. Unknown to the attacking Marines – or even the colonists themselves – the most infamous heroine of the war has gone into hiding in exile on their planet. Now she must organize a revolt against the very Marines she once fought alongside and lead the colonists to freedom.

Incarnate by Nick Simmons

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From Nick Simmons, son of rock legend Gene Simmons and star of A&E’s top-rated television series Gene Simmons Family Jewels, comes his first breakout American Manga comic book for which he serves as creator, writer, and artist! Mot is a boy who cannot die. Riddle him with bullets, burn him at the stake, douse him with napalm, hang him from the gallows… still, he will walk away. He is a Revenant – an immortal, ageless creature that has existed since time immemorial. Their origins are a mystery – they have been worshipped as gods, feared as monsters, and scorned as devils. But they have always been there living in plain sight in the bright altars and dark corners of every ancient civilization since the beginning of humanity. There has never been a force on this earth that has been able to give them the death that Mot secretly seeks. Until now. Now, something is different. Now they are being hunted! A shadow organization known only as Sanctum has discovered a way to kill the Revenants, and is carrying out a secret genocide that spans the globe. Mot, his protege Connor, and the rest of the Revenants now must decide how to ensure their place at the top of the food chain.

Hercules: The Thracian Wars Written by Steve Moore Art by Admira Wijaya

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Nearly 3,200 years ago, a tormented soul walked the Earth as neither man nor god: Hercules, powerful son of the god-king Zeus, and for this he received nothing but suffering. After 12 arduous labors and the loss of his family, this dark, world-weary soul turned his back on the gods, finding solace only in bloody battle. Over the years, he warmed to the company of six similar souls, bonded by their love of fighting and the presence of death – never questioning where they go or who they fight, just how much they will be paid. Now the King of Thrace has hired these mercenaries to turn his men into the greatest army of all time, which means training them to be as bloodthirsty and ruthless as their own reputation. It is time for this band of lost souls to finally have their eyes opened to how far they have fallen – and the narrow, perilous path to their own redemption.

Hotwire: Requiem For The Dead by Steve Pugh and Warren Ellis

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In the near future, the living and the dead share the same space. Most of the "Blue Lights" are harmless, witless drones, as lost in death as they were in life. Some want revenge. Some want power. Some even want company to join them in the ranks of the departed. Enter Alice Hotwire, Detective Exorcist. She’s the best there is at keeping the peace on the Blue Light beat, and her fellow officers hate her for it. It’s a job she doesn’t want, in a world she doesn’t understand – but when a break-in at the Maximum Security Necropolis sets off a surge of violent, brutal hauntings, Alice Hotwire knows she’s the only one that can pull the city from the brink of chaos.

The KandyLand primer concludes with a tour of key locations. Next week begins the final published KandyLand adventure.

Story by Rick Klaw Art by Newt Manwich

Click on image to enlarge

KandyLand Primer Part One

To learn more about the characters and events mentioned, check out the KandyLand/LemonHead story from the beginning.

Over at SF Site, Mark London Williams and I conclude the annual countdown of our favorite graphic novels/comics/funny books of the year. We each picked the top ten titles that we encountered over the past year or so. Here’s a visual recap of 5-1.

Check out the column for what we said about each selection.

In case you missed it, here’s Part One.

In his Henckels Steak Knives review of King Kong Is Back!, Tim Janson pays special attention to my contribution "Thirty-Three," referring to it as a "great essay."

Janson concludes his review with his overall impression of King Kong Is Back!

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

Catalyst by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

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Pilot, navigator, engineer, doctor, scientist—ship’s cat? All are essential to the well-staffed space vessel. Since the early days of interstellar travel, when Tuxedo Thomas, a Maine coon cat, showed what a cat could do for a ship and its crew, the so-called Barque Cats have become highly prized crew members. Thomas’s carefully bred progeny, ably assisted by humans—Cat Persons—with whom they share a deep and loving bond, now travel the galaxy, responsible for keeping spacecraft free of vermin, for alerting human crews to potential environmental hazards, and for acting as morale officers.

Even among Barque Cats, Chessie is something special. Her pedigree, skills, and intelligence, as well as the close rapport she has with her human, Janina, make her the most valuable crew member aboard the Molly Daise. And the litter of kittens in her belly only adds to her value.

Then the unthinkable happens. Chessie is kidnapped—er, catnapped—from Dr. Jared Vlast’s vet clinic at Hood Station by a grizzled spacer named Carl Poindexter. But Chessie’s newborn kittens turn out to be even more extraordinary than their mother. For while Chessie’s connection to Janina is close and intuitive, the bond that the kitten Chester forms with Carl’s son, Jubal, is downright telepathic. And when Chester is sent into space to learn his trade, neither he nor Jubal will rest until they’re reunited.

But the announcement of a widespread epidemic affecting livestock on numerous planets throws their future into doubt. Suddenly the galactic government announces a plan to impound and possibly destroy all exposed animals. Not even the Barque Cats will be spared.

With the clock racing against them, Janina, Jubal, Dr. Vlast, and a handful of very special kittens will join forces with the mysterious Pshaw-Ra—an alien-looking cat with a hidden agenda—to save the Barque Cats, other animals, and quite possibly the universe as they know it from total destruction.

Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane

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THE DEPARTED HAVE ARRIVED.

The world is not the way it was. The dead have risen, and the living are under attack. The powerful Church of Real Truth, in charge since the government fell, has sworn to reimburse citizens being harassed by the deceased.

Consequently, there are many false claims of hauntings from those hoping to profit. Enter Chess Putnam, a fully-tattooed witch, freewheeling Debunker, and ghost hunter. She’s got a real talent for nailing human liars and banishing the wicked dead. But she’s keeping a dark secret from the Church: a little drug problem that’s landed her in hot and dangerous water.

Chess owes a lot of money to a murderous drug lord named Bump. And Bump wants immediate payback. All Chess has to do is dispatch a very nasty species of undead from an old airport. But the job involves black magic, human sacrifice, a nefarious demonic creature, and crossing swords with enough wicked energy to wipe out a city of souls. Toss in lust for a rival gang leader and a dangerous attraction to Bump’s ruthless enforcer, and Chess begins to wonder if the rush is really worth it. Hell, yeah.

Spellbent by Lucy A. Snyder

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In the heart of Ohio, Jessie Shimmer is caught up in hot, magic-drenched passion with her roguish lover, Cooper Marron, who is teaching her how to tap her supernatural powers. When they try to break a drought by calling down a rainstorm, a hellish portal opens and Cooper is ripped from this world, leaving Jessie fighting for her life against a vicious demon that’s been unleashed.

In the aftermath, Jessie, who knows so little about her own true nature, is branded an outlaw. She must survive by her wits and with the help of her familiar, a ferret named Palimpsest. Stalked by malevolent enemies, Jessie is determined to find out what happened to Cooper. But when she moves heaven and earth to find her man, she’ll be shocked by what she discovers—and by what she must ultimately do to save them all.

Starfist: Double Jeopardy by David Sherman and Dan Cragg

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The thrilling pace of the Starfist space epic quickens as the explosive series rockets to dazzling new heights, packed with the hell-for-leather action only two battle-hardened and decorated combat vets like David Sherman and Dan Cragg can provide.

The Confederation has finally disclosed the existence of Skinks, fierce aliens bent on wiping out humankind, and announced its plan to find and destroy their home world. While the rest of the universe grapples with the news, the Skink-savvy Marines of the Confederation’s Thirty-fourth Fleet Initial Strike Team (FIST) have their own take on the situation.

Though they’re no longer in danger of being exiled to a ghastly netherworld for spilling the beans about the deadly aliens, the men still can’t transfer out of the unit where they’ve been confined since they first laid eyes on the Skinks. The reason is obvious: Who else but the legendary Thirty-fourth FIST has the skills and experience to spearhead the invasion of the Skinks’ home world?

Morale isn’t improved by a report of Skinks on the uncolonized world of Ishtar near a mercenary force engaged in slave-driven mining operations there—which means that FIST must turn around and head right back into the jaws of hell with no downtime. But none of that matters to Lieutenant Charlie Bass and the third platoon of Company L. They’re Marines, they’re the best, and they’ve got a job to do.

The Marines will find a planet ripped apart by all-out war, with enemies on all sides. The only certainty is that the fighting will rage red-hot and relentless, and Charlie Bass and his men will be right in the thick of the action.

Starfist: Wings of Hell by David Sherman and Dan Cragg

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Planet Haulover has been invaded by Skinks. Until now, the aliens’ existence has been hushed up. But Force Recon’s shocking report leaves the Confederation no choice but to mount a military campaign against these alien predators bent on human destruction. Meanwhile, back home, the Confederation’s president is being denounced as a warmonger out to exterminate "harmless" aliens. If she loses the upcoming elections, the Confederation will have a lot more Skinks to worry about than the ones on Haulover.

Newly promoted Lieutenant Charlie Bass and his third platoon have more pressing concerns, such as staying alive. But what would be a suicide mission for most—whether it’s raiding a hidden Skinks base or destroying the enemy’s most lethal weapons during a desperate firefight—is just another job for the Thirty-fourth FIST.

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

Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley

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The Quiet War is over. The city states of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn have fallen to the Three Powers Alliance of Greater Brazil, the European Union and the Pacific Community. A century of enlightenment, rational utopianism and exploration of new ways of being human has fallen dark. Outers are herded into prison camps and forced to collaborate in the systematic plundering of their great archives of scientific and technical knowledge, while Earth’s forces loot their cities, settlements and ships, and plan a final solution to the ‘Outer problem’. But Earth’s victory is fragile, and riven by vicious internal politics. While seeking out and trying to anatomise the strange gardens abandoned in place by Avernus, the Outers’ greatest genius, the gene wizard Sri Hong-Owen is embroiled in the plots and counterplots of the family that employs her. The diplomat Loc Ifrahim soon discovers that profiting from victory isn’t as easy as he thought. And in Greater Brazil, the Outers’ democratic traditions have infected a population eager to escape the tyranny of the great families who rule them. After a conflict fought to contain the expansionist, posthuman ambitions of the Outers, the future is as uncertain as ever. Only one thing is clear. No one can escape the consequences of war – especially the victors.

Empire in Black and Gold (Shadows of the Apt 1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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Seventeen years ago Stenwold witnessed the Wasp Empire storming the city of Myna in a brutal war of conquest. Since then he has preached vainly against this threat in his home city of Collegium, but now the Empire is on the march, with its spies and its armies everywhere, and the Lowlands lie directly in its path. All the while, Stenwold has been training youthful agents to fight the Wasp advance, and the latest recruits include his niece, Che, and his mysterious ward, Tynisa. When his home is violently attacked, he is forced to send them ahead of him and, hotly pursued, they fly by airship to Helleron, the first city in line for the latest Wasp invasion.Stenwold and Che are Beetle-kinden, one of many human races that take their powers and inspiration each from a totem insect, but he also has allies of many breeds: Mantis, Spider, Ant, with their own particular skills. Foremost is the deadly Mantis-kinden warrior, Tisamon, but other very unlikely allies also join the cause. As things go from bad to worse amid escalating dangers, Stenwold learns that the Wasps intend to use the newly completed railroad between Helleron and Collegium to launch a lightning strike into the heart of the Lowlands. Then he gathers all of his agents to force a final showdown in the engine yard…

Petrodor by Joel Shepherd

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Book Two in the quartet, A Trial of Blood & Steel, picks up the story of the brave and independent heroine, Sasha, now living in the port city of Petrodor. Away from the hills of her Lenayin homeland, Sasha is making a new life in the dark alleys and wealthy houses of Petrodor. An influential trading center, Petrodor holds the key to preventing the coming war between Lenayin and the mighty Bacosh. Together with her old mentor Kessligh, Sasha attempts to navigate the political intrigues of the port city and find a way to stop the war. It is the serrin, the beautiful but dangerous people from beyond the Bacosh, who will be the pivotal point in this struggle. How much can Sasha trust her old serrin friend Errollyn? And how much can she trust herself?

Flagship (Starship, Book 5) by Mike Resnick

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The date is 1970 of the Galactic Era, almost three thousand years from now, and the Republic, created by the human race but not yet dominated by it, finds itself in an all-out war against the Teroni Federation, an alliance of races that resent Man’s growing military and economic power. The rebel starship, the Theodore Roosevelt, under the command of Wilson Cole, is preparing to lead Cole’s ragtag armada into the Republic, even though he is outnumbered thousands to one. Cole is convinced that the government has become an arrogant and unfeeling political entity and must be overthrown. The trick is to avoid armed conflict with the vast array of ships, numbering in the millions, in the Republic’s Navy. For a time Cole’s forces strike from cover and race off to safety, but he soon sees that is no way to conquer the mightiest political and military machine in the history of the galaxy. He realises that he must reach Deluros VIII, the headquarters world of the Republic (and of the race of Man), in order to have any effect on the government at all – but Deluros VIII is the best-protected world in the Republic. But a new threat looms on the horizon. Cole, the Valkyrie, David Copperfield, Sharon Blacksmith, Jacovic, and the rest of the crew of the Teddy R face their greatest challenge yet, and the outcome will determine the fate of the entire galaxy.