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When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

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Another ten-release month in sci-fi, but mostly because the Genre Benders category (see tomorrow’s list) has grown so big with books that combine traditional genre elements in different ways. Still, this month you’ll find new releases from Neal Asher (Owner Trilogy), L.E. Modesitt Jr., and Jason M. Hough (Dire Earth Cycle), plus a chance to try out some new authors—and that’s usually a good thing!

Fiction Affliction details releases in science fiction, fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and “genre-benders.” Keep track of them all here.

Note: All title summaries are taken and/or summarized from copy provided by the publisher.

WEEK ONE

23 Years on Fire (Cassandra Kresnov #4)Joel Shepherd (September 3, Pyr)

Commander Cassandra Kresnov has her hands full. She must lead an assault against the Federation world of Pyeongwha, where a terrible sociological phenomenon has unleashed hell against the civilian population. Then she faces the threat from a portion of League space known as New Torah, in which a ruthless regime of surviving corporations are building new synthetic soldiers but taking the technology in alarming directions. On the Torahn world of Pantala, Sandy encounters betrayal, crisis, and conspiracy on a scale previously unimaginable. She also meets three young street kids who stir emotions in her she didn’t think she was capable of. What will be the cost if she is forced to choose between them and her mission, not only to her cause, but to her soul?

Cain’s Blood: A NovelGeoffrey Girard (September 3, Touchstone)

The DNA of the world’s most notorious serial killers has been cloned by the U.S. Department of Defense to develop a new breed of bioweapon. Now in Phase Three, the program includes dozens of young men who have no clue as to their evil heritage. Scientists raise some of the clones with loving families and others in abusive circumstances. Everything changes when the most dangerous boys are set free by their creator. Former black ops soldier Shawn Castillo is hot on their trail. But Castillo didn’t count on the quiet young man he finds hiding in an abandoned house, a boy who has just learned he is the clone of Jeffrey Dahmer. Castillo must protect the boy who is the embodiment of his biggest fears, and who may also be his last hope.

Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot: To ObeyMickey Zucker Reichert (September 3, Roc)

Susan Calvin is about to enter her second year as a psych resident at the Manhattan Hasbro teaching hospital when a violent crime strikes her very close to home. When she was young, Susan lost her mother in a terrible car wreck that also badly injured her father. She now believes the accident was an attempted murder by government powers who wanted her parents dead. Susan has always known that there was a faction of the U.S. government that wanted to hijack her father’s work for military use. As she struggles to overcome her pain as well as deal with her studies, Susan finds herself hunted by violent anti-tech vigilantes and watched very closely by extremists who want high-tech genocide. Somehow she must find a way to stop them both.

The Savage DeadJoe McKinney (September 3, Pinnacle)

It starts in a laboratory. A man-made strain of flesh-eating virus created by a power-hungry cartel capable of turning victims into brain-dead carnivores. Smuggled aboard a cruise ship that’s about to set sail, one by one, the passengers are exposed. Some will be infected. Others will survive. But no one will be spared if the outbreak isn’t contained, and the dead outnumber the living. Enter Delta Force operative Juan Perez. He’s fought the deadliest killers in the darkest hellholes on earth. But he’s never seen anything like this: an apocalyptic cargo of pure zombie mayhem heading for the coast. If Perez and his SEAL team can’t stop it, America, and quickly the entire population of the world, are finished. The plague years will begin.

 

WEEK TWO

Homeworld (Odyssey One #3)Evan Currie (September 10, 47North)

The consequences of Earth’s exploration of the Galaxy come home to roost when the Drasin track a human ship back to Earth. Mounting a desperate defense, the crew of the NAC spacecraft Odyssey, their allies, and the people of Earth face an overwhelming force of invading alien ships wielding terrible power. Doomed from the start, but with nowhere to retreat, Captain Eric Weston commits his ship to the defense of the human race even as the human outposts in Sol system fall one by one before the unrelenting Drasin onslaught.

The Arrows of Time (Orthogonal #3)Greg Egan (September 10, Night Shade)

In the alien universe of The Clockwork Rocket and The Eternal Flame, the travelers on the generation ship Peerless have completed a long struggle to develop advanced technology that could save their home world. But as tensions mount over the risks of turning the ship around and starting the long voyage home, a new complication arises: the prospect of constructing a messaging system that will give the Peerless news of its own future. While some see this as a guarantee of safety and a chance to learn of their mission’s ultimate success, others are convinced that the knowledge will be oppressive. When these differences lead to violence, four of the crew must embark on the strangest journey they have ever undertaken: visiting a world where the arrow of time is reversed.

 

WEEK THREE

Guys Read: Other WorldsJon Scieszka and others (September 17, Walden Pond)

Middle Grade. The fourth volume in Jon Scieszka’s Guys Read anthology series for tween boys, features ten new tales of science fiction and fantasy from authors including Rick Riordan, who has written an all-new Percy Jackson tale, Tom Angleberger of Origami Yoda fame, Newbery medalist Rebecca Stead, Shannon Hale, D. J. MacHale, Eric Nylund, Kenneth Oppel, Neal Shusterman, Shaun Tan, and the late Ray Bradbury.

Jupiter War (Owner Trilogy #3)Neal Asher (September 17, Night Shade)

The third book of the Owner trilogy concludes Neal Asher’s action-packed series chronicling the struggles for political dominance in a resource-scarce future. Power vacuums and new despots spring up across the solar system, in the wake of the events of The Departure and Zero Point. Alan Saul continues to be in the middle of the chaos and destruction that make up Jupiter War.

The One-Eyed Man: A Fugue, With Winds and AccompanimentL.E. Modesitt Jr. (September 17, Tor)

The colony world of Stittara is no ordinary planet. For the interstellar Unity of the Ceylesian Arm, Stittara is the primary source of anagathics: drugs that have more than doubled the human life span. But the ecological balance that makes anagathics possible on Stittara is fragile, and the Unity government has a vital interest in making sure the flow of longevity drugs remains uninterrupted. Offered the job of assessing the ecological impact of the human presence on Stittara, freelance consultant Dr. Paulo Verano jumps at the chance to escape the ruin of his personal life. He gets far more than he bargained for. He must survive the hurricane winds, distrustful settlers, and secret agendas that impede his investigation at every turn.

 

WEEK FOUR

The Plague Forge (The Dire Earth Cycle #3)Jason M. Hough (September 24, Del Rey)

The automated alien ship came and built us a space elevator, an impervious thread connecting Darwin, Australia to the heavens. We took advantage of the Builder’s gift and established orbital colonies along the cord. Then, years later, a plague almost completely obliterated the world’s population.


Author Suzanne Johnson is the author of the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series from Tor Books, whose third release, Elysian Fields, came out on August 13. She can be found on Facebook and her daily book blog, Preternatura.

About the Author

About Author Mobile

Suzanne Johnson

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Urban fantasy author with a new series, set in immediate post-Katrina New Orleans, starting with ROYAL STREET on April 10, 2012, from Tor Books. Urban fantasy author with a new series, set in immediate post-Katrina New Orleans, starting with ROYAL STREET on April 10, 2012, from Tor Books.
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