RECENT AND UPCOMING TITLES
from
SPECTRUM LITERARY AGENCY
THE BLOOD OF ALEXANDER
by Tom Wilde
Fast-paced thriller with enough intriguing historical clues and conspiracies to satisfy DA VINCI CODE readers. Jonathan Blake works as a procurer of art works, often by illegal means. He is assigned to an undercover mission with US government agent named Caitlin; After they get caught in a gun battle between two mysterious bidders for one of Napoleon’s gold eagle standard, Caitlin is taken hostage. In his attempts to rescue Caitlin, he infiltrates a sinister cult whose leader is obsessed with finding Alexander’s tomb, believed to have been spirited from Egypt by Napoleon in a “Nautilus” submarine designed by steamboat engineer Robert Fulton. Blake must rescue Caitlin, solve the mysteries of the whereabouts of Napoleon and Alexander’s remains, while battling cults and secret societies. Forge Books, 2013
THE BOWL OF HEAVEN
by Larry Niven and Gregory Benford
Eighty years after a starship bound for a distant star system has left Earth, with all but a small crew in cryogenic slumber, the Captain and several key scientists are awakened. There does not seem to be enough supplies to reach their destination – and an artificial world they nickname “Cupworld” is discovered. Upon landing, the humans who have gone planetside are attacked, some held hostage, others escaping and running for their lives from creatures who have evolved from large birds. The horror and desperation of the humans increases, as they struggle to save themselves from death on this fascinating but savage world. First of two volumes by the authors of Ringworld (Niven) and Timescape (Benford). Sequel: SHIPSTAR
RISING SUN
by Robert Conroy
Alternate history: What might have happened if the American forces had not succeeded in taking the Midway; Hawaii falls to the Japanese forces, who also invade America’s west coast and pay sabateurs to cripple the country. Real life historical characters plus fictional characters on all sides of the conflicts, by the winner of the Sidewise Award for the Best Alternate History Novel (for his novel 1942). Dec., 2012
LORD VORPATRIL’S ALLIANCE
New Vorkosigan novel by Lois McMaster Bujold
To avoid trumped-up kidnapping charges and to protect a young lady fleeing some vicious goons, Ivan hurriedly performs a Barrayaran marriage ceremony. Later Ivan finds that he wants more than a temporary arrangement, though dealing with in-laws from one of the notorious Houses in Jackson’s Whole is a lot more than Ivan bargained for. Another novel in Bujold’s bestselling Vorkosigan series.
ENERGIZED
by Edward M. Lerner
NASA Engineer Marcus Judson takes up the challenge of building a massive solar power satellite that will beam power to Earth. More than his engineering skills are tested as he struggles to defend his ambitious project against groups bent on its destruction. Author is a computer scientist who has worked at NASA Publishers Weekly said, “Lerner delivers a taut near-future thriller about an energy-starved Earth held hostage by a power-mad international cartel… Lerner’s vision of the future is both topical and possible in this crisp, fast-paced hard SF adventure.”
DEVIL’S WAKE
by Steven Barnes and Tananarieve Due
Combining adventure, romance and horror, this new series follows a group of young people as they struggle to survive in a world gone mad. A plague that induces zombie-like and aggressive behavior wreaks havoc on America. Having lost her parents and beloved grandfather to the plague, Kendra hooks up with fellow teenagers headed for an isolated enclave. Tragedy strikes again when the boy she comes to love is infected. Unbeknownst to Kendra, she picks up a slight infection from their final kiss before the boy leaves; she is able to access, via her dreams, hints of how some of the infected are evolving into very different beings.
Atria, July 2012 Publisher’s Description: “The first book of an exciting new paranormal series … about what happens when an alien race brings Earth to the brink of the Apocalypse.
QUINTESSENCE
by David Walton
Tor March 2013: A fantasy novel where magic is explored through the lens of archaic science. Set in an alternate sixteenth century England, well under the influence of Spanish rule, the alchemists’ theories about turning led to gold, the philosopher’s stone of restoring life, the theory that the Earth is still, the sun moves around it and one could literally sail off the cliff of the world, are all real. An amazing and highly original work.
THE CREATIVE FIRE by Brenda Cooper
Ruby is on a multigenerational spaceship whose crew, over the years, has evolved to a strict hierarchy of the privileged and drone-level works who carry out the hard tasks and lead short, exhausted lives. Ruby’s sudden ascent via her charm and her voice to a higher level contributes to a growing rebellion, and Ruby finds herself cast as their champion. A fast-moving novel, the first of two volumes called “Ruby’s Song”. (Pyr Books, Nov. 2012)
THE JANUARY DANCER UP JIM RIVER IN THE LION’S MOUTH
by Michael Flynn
Far future space opera, where many factions and governments hunt for an alien artifact that grants unprecedented power to the person in physical possession of this entity. One of the series’ ironies is that the artifact influencing humans. Third novel in the series, IN THE LION’S MOUTH follows the same characters through twists and turns; 4th novel in the series to be released next year. ON THE RAZOR’S EDGE “Reminiscent of the tall tales and cautionary stories of Mike Resnick and revealing the talent of a master storyteller” Library Journal Starred Publishers Weekly: “Space opera fans will be swept away by the poetic rhythm and subtle plot construction, and the open-ended conlusion will leave them clamoring for future Donovan buigh adventures.”
CAPTIVE DREAMS by Michael Flynn
“Fine literary writingmeets Science Fiction. A thematic tour-de-force exploring the concept of being human through the eyes of imperfect protagonists struggling with their demons. More than just great SF, these are just great stories toldwith style, wit and sensitivity….While great writing, vivid scenarios, and thoughtful commentary outshine the scientific concepts, the stories will linger after the last page is turned." —Publishers Weekly Starred Review Includes his acclaimed “Melodies of the Heart” where a doctor whose young daughter has progeria and is dying of old age, solves a riddle about the age of an ancient patient.
THE DOCTOR AND THE ROUGH RIDER by Mike Resnick
The third novel in the author’s Weird West series (after THE BUNTLINE SPECIAL and THE DOCTOR AND THE KID (featuring gunslinger Doc Holiday in both, Edison and Geronimo in Book #1, Billy the Kid in Book #2). Now Doc teams up with one of America’s most exuberant and inventive heroes, Teddy Roosevelt. December 2012
Publishers Weekly writes (re Book #2): “Resnick has done his research, and fast guns, fast plotting and a comfortably entertaining writing style make this novel a rollicking Western with a steampunk twist.”
DREAD ON ARRIVAL A FETE WORSE THAN DEATH
by Claudia Bishop
The 17th and (2013) 18th “Hemlock Falls” novels in her popular mystery series featuring the Quilliam sisters Sarag (Quill) and Meg, who run an Inn in upstate New York. Great dialogue, characterization and general hilarity are hallmarks of the Hemlock Falls series.
DREAD ON ARRIVAL: It’s hate at first sight when two roadshow antiques dealers – one a British aristocrat who produces “Your Ancestor’s Attic”, the other a loud, crude American producer of “Pawn-O-Rama” -- converge at Hemlock Falls for a cooking contest . When the aristocrat is found dead, Quill and Meg set out to solve another murder.
A FETE WORSE THAN DEATH (Feb.2013) When the mayor’s wife resigns in a huff from organizing Hemlock Falls’ annual festival, a fair organizer is brought in, to the displeasure of several residents. The body of the organizer is found, and another perpetrator must be uncovered by Quill and Meg.
NEBULA AWARDS SHOWCASE 2012
ed. by John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly
A wonderful collection of Nebula Award-winning fiction and some runner’s up, published each year by arrangement with SFWA Inc. NEBULA SHOWCASE 2013, edited by Catherine Asaro, sold to Prometheus Books
THE MOON MAZE GAME
by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes
It’s 2085, and tourism on the Moon is booming. Scotty Griffin, son of Dream Park’s security chief Alex Griffin (featured in previous novels DREAM PARK, THE BARSOOM PROJECT and THE CALIFORNIA VOODOO GAME), plays bodyguard to an African president’s son who has entered the greatest role-playing game ever televised – and the first set on the Moon. Scotty must confront terrorists set on kidnapping the President’s son and overcome his fears of outer space.
FATE OF WORLDS
Book #5 in the Niven/Lerner “Ringworld” universe
For decades, the spacefaring species of Known Space have battled over the largest artifact—and grandest prize—in the galaxy: the all-but-limitless resources and technology of the Ringworld. But without warning the Ringworld has vanished, leaving behind three rival war fleets. Humans on New Terra and Puppeteers on the Fleet of Worlds scheme to save their civilization.
THE CHRONICLES OF LUCIFER JONES Volumes I-IV by Mike Resnick
Combination of old and new stories told by the fun-loving, hard-living, self-styled “man of the cloth”, the Right Reverend Lucifer Jones, who manages to get himself into such barrel-fulls of trouble, that he is inevitably invited to leave not only the country, but the continent. Here, for the first time, are his adventures on four land masses: Africa (Vol. I), Asia (Vol. II) Europe (Vol. III and South America (Vol. IV).
CARNELIANS
by Catherine Asaro
Jabriol Cox is Emperor of the vast Eubian Empire, and he must keep many secrets
from his Byzantine-like court while he and his queen navigate deadly intrigues to survive – and put an end to the war with the Skolian Empire. Fourteenth novel in Catherine Asaro’s highly-acclaimed Ruby Dynasty/Skolian Empire series, that has been compared favorably by Booklist with the DUNE series. Stories set in this world “Light and Shadow” and “The City of Cries”.
GOLDEN REFLECTIONS
Fred Saberhagen’s novel THE MASK OF THE SUN and seven new stories, set in that universe, by bestselling authors including David Weber, Harry Turtledove, Walter Jon Williams, John Maddox Roberts and Jane Lindskold, set in that world. Novel description: When Mike Gabrieli’s brother Tom disappears after gaining possession of an Aztec artifact, Mike’s efforts to find his brother land him in in an alternate universe where descendants of the Incas are plotting to keep Pizarro and his conquistidors from overthrowing their ancestor’s empire. But despite Mike’s sympathy for the cause, he realizes this may wipe out his own world and its people.
MAYAN DECEMBER by Brenda Cooper
Alice, an archeoastronomer studying how the Mayans looked at the stars, and her young daughter travel to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula for an international gathering in December 2012 when, according to Mayan lore, the current world is supposed to end, or shift, and a new cycle or “world” begin. A slice in time from 1,000 years earlier intersects with their lives; their actions may save the lives of a doomed couple from a millennial-old past.
New Publication of classics
THE RIVER OF DANCING GODS by Jack L. Chalker
RIVER OF THE DANCING GODS
First of 5 wonderful “Dancing Gods” novels by Jack L. Chalker
Something strange happens to Joe and Marge on the way to El Paso. They run into Throckmorton P. Ruddygore, a strange wizard who informs them that they are going to die in nineteen minutes and eighteen seconds.But they also have a choice. They can take a ferryboat across the Sea of Dreams to a new life in a new world, full of magic, fairies and wonder – and where the battle of Good and Evil rages.
SIMULACRON-3 DARK UNIVERSE by Daniel Galouye
DARK UNIVERSE follows a young man whose people have lived underground, in the dark, for generations, unknowing that the nuclear disaster they feared is no longer a threat. SIMILACRON-3 was the first book to deal with “humans” who find that they do not live in the real world, but inside a computer – made into Fassbinder’s “World on a Wire” and more recently a film release as THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR.
LEST DARKNESS FALL by L. Sprague de Camp
Time travelers return to Ancient Rome – but one very different from our world’s history.
THE BEST OF EDMOND HAMILTON
Edited by Leigh Brackett
The finest stories by science fiction master Edmond Hamilton, selected by fellow
writer (and his wife) Leigh Brackett. New edition from Arc Manor Books
Classics by SFWA Grandmaster and Horror Writers of America Grandmaster
Jack Williamson
Dragon’s Island – 1st novel to use the term “genetic engineering”
The Humanoids – Humanity subjected to the domination of their machines
Darker Than You Think – One of the great horror classics: a race, who can transform into werewolves, are at war with humanity
Manseed – In a future world, intelligent machines desire human passion, and humans resent the machines’ immortality