Incoming Books: September 18, 2012

It’s our: Incoming Books feature for September 18th, 2012.

I’ve included the book covers, some publication information and the publisher’s blurb for the book. Also the book covers link to the publisher’s sites for more information on the book, author and perhaps an excerpt or two.

Now please tell us: Which of these recently released books (or almost new) would you pick up and read first?

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Macmillan/Tor

Jane: The Woman Who Loved Tarzan ~ by Robin Maxwell; Tor Books; 9/18/2012; Trade Paperback; 320 pages.

Cambridge, England, 1905. Jane Porter is hardly a typical woman of her time. The only female student in Cambridge University’s medical program, she is far more comfortable in a lab coat dissecting corpses than she is in a corset and gown sipping afternoon tea. A budding paleoanthropologist, Jane dreams of traveling the globe in search of fossils that will prove the evolutionary theories of her scientific hero, Charles Darwin.

When dashing American explorer Ral Conrath invites Jane and her father to join an expedition deep into West Africa, she can hardly believe her luck. Africa is every bit as exotic and fascinating as she has always imagined, but Jane quickly learns that the lush jungle is full of secrets—and so is Ral Conrath. When danger strikes, Jane finds her hero, the key to humanity’s past, and an all-consuming love in one extraordinary man: Tarzan of the Apes.

Jane is the first version of the Tarzan story written by a woman and authorized by the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate. Its publication marks the centennial of the original Tarzan of the Apes.

Check out a fabulous Q & A with Robin Maxwell and an excerpt for the book.

In War Times ~ by Kathleen Ann Goonan; Tor Books; August 2012; Trade Paperback; 352 pages; (originally published in May 2007.)

Winner of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel.

Kathleen Ann Goonan burst into prominence with Queen City Jazz, the start of her Nanotech Quartet. The Bones of Time, her widely acclaimed second novel, was a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2000. In War Times is deeply satisfying SF. Sam, the protagonist, is a young enlisted man in 1941 when his older brother Keenan is killed at Pearl Harbor. Seduced by a mysterious woman, Sam gives her plans for a device that will end not just the war, but perhaps even the human predilection for war.

Sam spends his war years trying to construct the device and discovers only later that it worked. Sam falls in love with a spy, and they both become involved in preventing the JFK assassination in the 1960s. Over the decades it becomes deeply meaningful that his world is strangely transformed by the enigmatic device.

The Immortality Factor ~ by Ben Bova; Tor Books; August 2012; Trade Paperback; 480 pages (original publication -April 2009.)

Provocative, gripping, startling: with The Immortality Factor bestselling author Ben Bova delivers a knockout read with his trademark blend of cutting-edge science and unrelenting suspense....

Some see stem-cell research as mankind's greatest scientific breakthrough. Others see a blasphemous attempt to play God. Suddenly, the possibility of immortality exists. Two brothers, both doctors, stand on opposite sides of the controversy. To Dr. Arthur Marshak, his work is a momentous gift to humanity. To Dr. Jessie Marshak, it is a curse. Between them stands a beautiful, remarkable woman both brothers will do anything to save. Somehow, before it's too late, Arthur and Jessie Marshak must bridge the gap that divides them...on an issue that could mean nothing less than life or death for millions.

This Case is Gonna Kill Me ~ by Phillipa Bornikova; Tor Books, September 2012, Trade Paperback, 320 pages.

What happens when The Firm meets Anita Blake? You get the Halls of Power—our modern world, but twisted. Law, finance, the military, and politics are under the sway of long-lived vampires, werewolves, and the elven Alfar. Humans make the best of rule by “the Spooks,” and contend among themselves to affiliate with the powers-that-be, in order to avoid becoming their prey. Very loyal humans are rewarded with power over other women and men. Very lucky humans are selected to join the vampires, werewolves, and elves—or, on occasion, to live at the Seelie Court.

Linnet Ellery is the offspring of an affluent Connecticut family dating back to Colonial times. Fresh out of law school, she’s beginning her career in a powerful New York “white fang” law firm. She has high hopes of eventually making partner.

But strange things keep happening to her. In a workplace where some humans will eventually achieve immense power and centuries of extra lifespan, office politics can be vicious beyond belief. After some initial missteps, she finds herself sidelined and assigned to unpromising cases. Then, for no reason she can see, she becomes the target of repeated, apparently random violent attacks, escaping injury each time through increasingly improbable circumstances. However, there’s apparently more to Linnet Ellery than a little old-money human privilege. More than even she knows. And as she comes to understand this, she’s going to shake up the system like you wouldn’t believe….

We have a giveaway for This Case is Gonna Kill Me (US & Canada), but only for a few more days!

Titan Books

The Cocktail Waitress ~ by James M. Cain; UK -Titan Books (US -Random House) 272pp;  21 September 2012.

Following her husband’s death in a suspicious car accident, beautiful young widow Joan Medford is forced to take a job serving drinks in a cocktail lounge to make ends meet and to have a chance of regaining custody of her young son. At the job she encounters two men who take an interest in her, a handsome young schemer who makes her blood race and a wealthy but unwell older man who rewards her for her attentions with a $50,000 tip and an unconventional offer of marriage…

Includes a 4,000 word feature on the locating of this “lost” Cain novel, by Hard Case Crime editor, Charles Ardai.

Read my 4.5 star review of The Cocktail Waitress.

Cedar Fort

The Turning Point: Conquering Stress with Courage, Clarity and Confidence ~ by Balasa Prasad and Preetham Grandhi;  Cedar Fort, Inc. (December 11, 2012) 176 pages.

Available for the first time in book form, the proven Turning Point Program offers you a life totally free from stress. Through poignant personal experiences and actual patient case studies, you'll discover a systematic approach to understanding the nature of stress and how it affects you. Refreshing and realistic, this book will guide you step by step to a stress-free future!

Hodder & Stoughton

The Dirty Streets of Heaven (Bobby Dollar #1) ~ by Tad Williams; US Publication 9/4/2012; Pages: 400; by DAW; UK Publication September 13th 2012 by Hodder & Stoughton.

Bobby Dollar is an angel—a real one. He knows a lot about sin, and not just in his professional capacity as an advocate for souls caught between Heaven and Hell. Bobby’s wrestling with a few deadly sins of his own—pride, anger, even lust.

But his problems aren’t all his fault. Bobby can’t entirely trust his heavenly superiors, and he’s not too sure about any of his fellow earthbound angels either, especially the new kid that Heaven has dropped into their midst, a trainee angel who asks too many questions. And he sure as hell doesn’t trust the achingly gorgeous Countess of Cold Hands, a mysterious she-demon who seems to be the only one willing to tell him the truth.

When the souls of the recently departed start disappearing, catching both Heaven and Hell by surprise, things get bad very quickly for Bobby D. End-of-the-world bad. Beast of Revelations bad. Caught between the angry forces of Hell, the dangerous strategies of his own side, and a monstrous undead avenger that wants to rip his head off and suck out his soul, Bobby’s going to need all the friends he can get—in Heaven, on Earth, or anywhere else he can find them.

You’ve never met an angel like Bobby Dollar. And you’ve never read anything like The Dirty Streets of Heaven.

Brace yourself—the afterlife is weirder than you ever believed.

Tomorrow the Killing ~ by Daniel Polansky ; Hodder; UK publication is 11th October 2012;  368 pages.

Once he was a hero of the Great War, and then a member of the dreaded Black House. Now he is the criminal linchpin of Low Town.

His name is Warden.

He thought he had left the war behind him, but a summons from up above brings the past sharply, uncomfortably, back into focus. General Montgomery's daughter is missing somewhere in Low Town, searching for clues about her brother's murder. The General wants her found, before the stinking streets can lay claim to her, too.

Read John’s review of the first book in this series – Low Town - and a guest post from the author Daniel Polansky

Simon & Schuster - Atria

Map of the Sky ~ by Felix J. Palma; Atria Books, September 2012; Hardcover, 608 pages.

The New York Times bestselling author of The Map of Time returns with a mesmerizing novel casting H.G. Wells in a leading role, as the extraterrestrial invasion featured in The War of the Worlds is turned into a bizarre reality.

A love story serves as backdrop for The Map of the Sky when New York socialite Emma Harlow agrees to marry millionaire Montgomery Gilmore, but only if he accepts her audacious challenge: to reproduce the extraterrestrial invasion featured in Wells’s War of the Worlds. What follows are three brilliantly interconnected plots to create a breathtaking tale of time travel and mystery, replete with cameos by a young Edgar Allan Poe, and Captain Shackleton and Charles Winslow from The Map of Time.

Read John’s 4.5 star review for The Map of Time, from last year.

Lyons Press

Journeys on the Silk Road ~ by Joyce Morgan and Conrad Walters; Pub Date: 09/04/2012; Lyons Press; Pages: 336.

A desert explorer, Buddha's secret library, and the unearthing of the world's oldest printed book.

A literary thriller-meets-travel adventure-meets-popular history rife with a fascinating cast of characters that includes a misfit explorer named Aurel Stein, a cunning abbot, and a fox terrier named Dash the Great, all set against the land of dunes, sandstorms, and the mysteries of the East.

When a Chinese monk broke through a hidden door in 1900, he uncovered one of history's greatest literary secrets: a 1000-year-old time capsule of life along the ancient Silk Road. Inside the chamber on the edge of the Gobi Desert, documents were piled from floor to ceiling. The gem among them was the Diamond Sutra of 868 AD, now recognized as the world's oldest printed book.

The sutra, a key Buddhist teaching, was made more than 500 years before printing transformed European civilization. The book's journey — by camel through treacherous deserts, by boat to London's curious scholars, by train to evade the bombs of World War II — merges an explorer's adventures, political intrigue and continued controversy.

The words of the Diamond Sutra have inspired Jack Kerouac, Aldous Huxley and the Dalai Lama. Its path from East to West has coincided with the growing appeal of Buddhism in the contemporary world. As the Gutenberg Age cedes to the Google Age, the discovery of the Silk Road's greatest treasure is an epic tale of survival, a literary investigation and an evocation of the traveling power of the book.

ChiZine

The Indigo Pheasant (Longing for Yount #2) ~ by Daniel A. Rabuzzi; illustrated by Deborah Mills; Paperback, 406 pages; September 2012; Chizine Publications.

London 1817.     

Maggie Collins, born into slavery in Maryland, whose mathematical genius and strength of mind can match those of a goddess, must build the world's most powerful and sophisticated machine—to free the lost land of Yount from the fallen angel Strix Tender Wurm. Sally, of the merchant house McDoon, who displayed her own powers in challenging the Wurm and finding Yount in The Choir Boats, must choose either to help Maggie or to hinder her. Together—or not—Maggie and Sally drive to conclusion the story started in The Choir Boats—a story of blood-soaked song, family secrets, sins new and old in search of expiation, forbidden love, high policy and acts of state, financial ruin, betrayals intimate and grand, sorcery from the origins of time, and battle in the streets of London and on the arcane seas of Yount.

The Choir Boats  (Longing for Yount #1) ~ by Daniel A. Rabuzzi; Paperback, 350 pages; September 2009; Chizine Publications.

London, 1812 | Yount, Year of the Owl

What would you give to make good on the sins of your past? For merchant Barnabas McDoon, the answer is: everything.

When emissaries from a world called Yount offer Barnabas a chance to redeem himself, he accepts their price—to voyage to Yount with the key that only he can use to unlock the door to their prison. But bleak forces seek to stop him: Yount's jailer, a once-human wizard who craves his own salvation, kidnaps Barnabas's nephew. A fallen angel—a monstrous owl with eyes of fire—will unleash Hell if Yount is freed. And, meanwhile, Barnabas's niece, Sally, and a mysterious pauper named Maggie seek with dream-songs to wake the sleeping goddess who may be the only hope for Yount and Earth alike.

Entangled Publishing

Paradise 21 (A New Dawn, #1) ~ by Aubrie Dionne; Entangled Publishing; 248 pages; August 2011.

Aries has lived her entire life aboard mankind’s last hope, the New Dawn, a spaceship traveling toward a planet where humanity can begin anew—a planet that won’t be reached in Aries’ lifetime. As one of the last genetically desirable women in the universe, she must marry her designated genetic match and produce the next generation for this centuries-long voyage.

But Aries has other plans.

When her desperate escape from the New Dawn strands her on a desert planet, Aries discovers the rumors about pirates—humans who escaped Earth before its demise—are true. Handsome, genetically imperfect Striker possesses the freedom Aries envies, and the two connect on a level she never thought possible. But pursued by her match from above and hunted by the planet’s native inhabitants, Aries quickly learns her freedom will come at a hefty price.

The life of the man she loves.

Simon & Schuster – Pocket Books

Lust for Life (WVMP Radio #4)~ by Jeri Smith-Ready; Pocket Books, November 2012; Mass Market Paperback; 384 pages.

EVERYONE’S OUT FOR BLOOD—HERS

Ciara’s con-artist parents taught her three keys to survival: keep low, keep quiet, and most of all, keep moving. But managing WVMP, the Lifeblood of Rock ’n’ Roll—not to mention becoming a vampire herself—has kept her in one place long enough to fall madly in love, adopt an undead dog . . .

. . . and make more enemies than she can shake a stake at.

A psychotic DJ, a wanna-be necromancer, and a posse of vengeful hippies would all love to see Ciara get her day in the sun—literally. To protect Ciara, her fiancé, Shane, has traded his flannel shirt and guitar for a flak jacket and crossbow. If she survives to walk down the aisle, will she recognize the man waiting at the altar?

In this final chapter of the award-winning WVMP RADIO series, Ciara must decide who to trust, whom to love—and whom to kill.

All Seeing Eye ~ by Rob Thurman; Pocket Books, July 2012; Mass Market Paperback, 400 pages.

The New York Times bestselling author of the Cal Leandros series delivers a bold new supernatural thriller where one man’s extraordinary abilities come with an equally phenomenal cost.

Picking up a small, pink shoe from the grass forever changed young Jackson Lee’s life. Not only did its presence mean that his sister Tessa was dead—murdered and stuffed in the deep, black water of a narrow well—but the shoe itself told him so. Tessa’s death triggers an even more horrific family massacre that, combined with this new talent he neither wants nor can handle, throws Jack’s life into a tailspin. The years quickly take him from state homes to the streets to grifting in a seedy carnival, until he finally becomes the cynical All Seeing Eye, psychic-for-hire. At last, Jackson has left his troubled past behind and found a semblance of peace.

That is, until the government blackmails him. After Jackson is forced to help the military contain the aftermath of a bizarre experiment gone violently wrong, everything he knows about himself will change just as suddenly as it did with his little sister’s shoe.

And while change is constant . . . it’s never for the better.

Harlequin/Mira

The Demoness of Waking Dreams (Company of Angels #2) ~ by Stephanie Chong; Harlequin MIRA; Sep 2012; Paperback; 400 pages.

Ex-cop Brandon Clarkson is an angel with an edge. His tough exterior is the perfect camouflage for his job—hunting down the most dangerous criminals on earth. A self-reliant and demanding lone wolf, Brandon is the perfect angel to track and capture demoness Luciana Rossetti.

Beneath the surface of Luciana's cool, green-eyed beauty lurks the heart of a malevolent killer. In the winding streets of Venice, she lures Brandon into her dark world of pleasure.

They are perfectly matched. Angel and demon. Man and woman. But only one can win the battle of wills, of strength and of desire.

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That’s all for this month.  And please let us know in the comments:

Which of these books have you read (and what did you think), but most importantly which one would you choose to read first?