![](\"http:\/\/ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51o5GfZiGpL._SL500_AA240_.jpg\")
<\/p>\nLet\u2019s take a quick look to see what\u2019s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound. <\/p>\n
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Dragon in Chains<\/span> by Daniel Fox<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Promo copy:<\/span><\/p>\n Set in an imaginary realm that both is and isn’t feudal China, Dragon in Chains<\/span> is at once period piece and fantasy novel. Fox’s book fills a unique niche while at the same time presents familiar archetypes that every fan of classic fantasy can relate– pirates, monks, and magicians, with a dragon at the center of the tale. Dragon in Chains<\/span> is a beautifully written historical fantasy with unparalleled story and mythos.<\/p>\n Deposed by a usurper, the rightful emperor– a young boy name Chien– is forced to flee to the remote island of Taishu. In the mountains of this island, a young miner finds a huge stone of jade– a magical mineral whose ingestion gifts the emperor with superhuman attributes. Meanwhile, a vicious pirate captain has slaughtered a community of monks, and his boy slave has assumed the terrible burden of keeping a great dragon imprisoned beneath the strait separating Taishu from the mainland.<\/p>\n Anyone want try and decipher that first paragraph?<\/span><\/p>\n \n The Engine’s Child<\/span> by Holly Phillips<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Promo copy:<\/span><\/p>\n From acclaimed author Holly Phillips comes a major work of visionary fantasy in the vein of Jeff Vandermeer and China Mi\u00e9ville. As richly detailed as it is evocative, the vivid prose of this ambitious novel illuminates a lushly imagined world poised on the brink of revolution.<\/p>\n Lanterns and flickering bulbs light the shadowy world of the rasnan, the island at the edge of a world-spanning ocean that harbors, in its ivory towers and mossy temples, the descendants of men and women who long ago fled a world ruined by magical and technological excess. But not all the island\u2019s inhabitants are resigned to exile. A mysterious brotherhood seeks to pry open doors that lead back to their damaged, dangerous homeland. Others risk the even greater danger of flight, seeking new lands and new freedoms in the vast, uncharted sea.<\/p>\n Amid a web of conspiracy and betrayal, three people threaten to shatter this fragile world. Scheming Lord Ghar, faithful to lost gods and forbidden lore, plays an intricate power game; Lady Vashmarna, an iron-willed ruler, conceals a guilty secret behind her noble fa\u00e7ade; and Moth, a poor, irreverent novice, holds perhaps the darkest power of all: a mysterious link to a shadowy force that may prove to be humanity\u2019s final hope\u2013or its ultimate doom.<\/p>\n Gears of War: Aspho Fields<\/span> by Karen Traviss<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Promo copy:<\/span><\/p>\n For the first time, fans of the blockbuster Gears of War video games get an in-depth look at Delta Squad\u2019s toughest fighters\u2013soldier\u2019s soldier Marcus Fenix and rock-solid Dominic Santiago\u2013as well as a detailed account of the pivotal battle of the Pendulum Wars.<\/p>\n As kids, the three of them were inseparable; as soldiers, they were torn apart. Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago fought alongside Dom\u2019s elder brother Carlos at Aspho Fields in the epic battle that changed the course of the Pendulum Wars. There\u2019s a new war to fight now, a war for mankind\u2019s very survival. But while the last human stronghold on Sera braces itself for another onslaught from the Locust Horde, ghosts come back to haunt Marcus and Dom. For Marcus\u2013decorated war hero, convicted traitor\u2013the return of an old comrade threatens to dredge up an agonizing secret he\u2019s sworn to keep.<\/p>\n As the beleaguered Gears of the Coalition of Ordered Governments take a last stand to save mankind from extermination, the harrowing decisions made at Aspho Fields have to be re-lived and made again. Marcus and Dom can take anything the Locust Horde throws at them\u2013but will their friendship survive the truth about Carlos Santiago?<\/p>\n The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Promo copy:<\/span><\/p>\n Here are Howard\u2019s greatest horror tales, all in their original, definitive versions. Some of Howard\u2019s best-known characters\u2013Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, and sailor Steve Costigan among them\u2013roam the forbidding locales of the author\u2019s fevered imagination, from the swamps and bayous of the Deep South to the fiend-haunted woods outside Paris to remote jungles in Africa.<\/p>\n The collection includes Howard\u2019s masterpiece \u201cPigeons from Hell,\u201d which Stephen King calls \u201cone of the finest horror stories of [the twentieth] century,\u201d a tale of two travelers who stumble upon the ruins of a Southern plantation\u2013and into the maw of its fatal secret. In \u201cBlack Canaan\u201d even the best warrior has little chance of taking down the evil voodoo man with unholy powers\u2013and none at all against his wily mistress, the diabolical High Priestess of Damballah. In these and other lavishly illustrated classics, such as the revenge nightmare \u201cWorms of the Earth\u201d and \u201cThe Cairn on the Headland,\u201d Howard spins tales of unrelenting terror, the legacy of one of the world\u2019s great masters of the macabre.<\/p>\n \nIt doesn’t get much better than this. I’ve previously written extensively about REH and even blogged about this book in particular<\/a>.<\/p>\n Plus, it’s The December selection for the Dark Forces Book Group<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Let\u2019s take a quick look to see what\u2019s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound. Dragon in Chains by Daniel Fox Promo copy: Set in an imaginary realm that both is and isn’t feudal China, Dragon in Chains … Continue reading ![](\"http:\/\/ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51edNDvoM4L._SL500_AA240_.jpg\")
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