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

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Eighteen new releases appear on the science fiction shelves this month, with new adult titles from, among others, William C. Dietz (Mutant Files), W.C. Bauers, Irene Radford (Stargods), John Ringo (Black Tide Rising), Joel Shepherd (Cassandra Kresnov), and Pierce Brown (Red Rising).

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

City 1 (Revolution 19 #3)—Gregg Rosenblum (January 6, HarperTeen)

Young Adult. In the explosive conclusion to the Revolution 19 series, the time has come to win the cities back from the bots, or die trying. After finally reuniting at a rebel camp, siblings Nick, Kevin, and Cass are willing to do anything to stay together, and free their parents from bot rule. But the leader of the rebel camp has her own ideas. Cruel and determined, General Clay won’t let anything stand in the way of her plan to destroy the robots and all the brainwashed humans. This means their parents’ lives are at stake, but Nick, Kevin, and Cass can’t desert the rebels when they’re so close to freedom. How far will they go to save the world they believe in?

Collide (The Taking #3)—Melissa West (January 6, Entangled Teen)

Young Adult. Military legacy Ari Alexander has survived alien spies, WWIV, and a changing world order. When the new leader of Earth uses Jackson, the only boy she’s ever let herself care about, to get to her, Ari has no choice but to surrender. She agrees to travel to the national bases to train others to fight. What she discovers is a land riddled with dying people. Ari has the power to heal by turning the fighters into aliens, half-breeds like her. If she succeeds, they have a chance at overthrowing the alien leader, Zeus. If she fails, everyone she holds dear will be wiped away forever. Loyalties are tested, lies are uncovered, and no one can be trusted. If Ari and Jackson have any hope at survival and at preserving a life for the future, they must fight the final war with their eyes wide open. (Digital)

EvensongJohn Love (January 6, Night Shade)

The future is a dangerous place. Keeping the world stable and peaceful has only gotten harder over the years. That’s the United Nations’ job. When the UN’s “soft” diplomacy fails, it has harder options: The Dead, biologically enhanced secret operatives created by the UN to solve the problems no one else can. Anwar Abbas is one of The Dead. Anwar is asked to protect Olivia del Sarto, the host of an important upcoming UN conference. Olivia is head of the world’s fastest-growing church, but in her rise to power she has made enemies. Anwar is one of the deadliest people on earth, but her enemies have something which kills people like him. Anwar must uncover the conspiracy that threatens to destroy her, the UN, and even The Dead.

Golden Son (Red Rising Trilogy #2)—Pierce Brown (January 6, Del Rey)

As a Red, Darrow grew up working the mines deep beneath the surface of Mars, enduring backbreaking labor. The Society he faithfully served was built on lies. Darrow’s kind have been betrayed and denied by their elitist masters, the Golds. Their only path to liberation is revolution. Darrow sacrifices himself in the name of the greater good for which Eo, his true love and inspiration, laid down her own life. He becomes a Gold, infiltrating their privileged realm so that he can destroy it from within. Darrow must confront the treachery arrayed against him, overcome his all-too-human desire for retribution, and strive not for violent revolt but a hopeful rebirth. Darrow must choose to follow Eo’s principles of love and justice to free his people. He must live for more.

Hive Invasion (Deathlands #120)—James Axler (January 6, Gold Eagle)

Ryan Cawdor and his crew of misfits travel together for survival and sanity. Known as Deathlands, this lawless hellscape is defined by destruction, death and despair. Only those who persevere with the belief in a better future stand a chance in this world. Desperate to find water and shelter on the barren plains of former Oklahoma, Ryan and his team come upon a community that appears to be peaceful. Then the ville is attacked by a group of its own inhabitants, people infected with a parasite that has turned them into slave warriors for an unknown overlord. The companions try to help fend off the enemy and protect the population. When Ryan is captured during a second ambush, all hope seems lost. Especially when he launches an assault against his own crew.

Originator (Cassandra Kresnov #6)—Joel Shepherd (January 6, Pyr)

A quarter of a million people die in the destruction of the moon Cresta. The League civil war is accelerating out of control. In the aftermath of Cresta’s destruction, Sandy Kresnov discovers the alien Talee operative Cai in Tanusha, there to learn just how far the technologically-induced insanity has gone. Sandy’s old nemesis Renaldo Takewashi comes to the Federation seeking asylum. Talewashi may even have a cure, previously unknown Talee technology implanted into a human child subject, Sandy’s little boy, Kiril. Sandy must fight to save her family from a terrible new threat. What final secret are the Talee protecting about the origins of synthetic humans like Sandy that could either liberate Sandy’s fellow synthetics from bondage or spell disaster for all humanity?

Strands of Sorrow (Black Tide Rising #4)—John Ringo (January 6, Baen)

A hardened group of survivors fights back against a zombie plague that has brought down civilization. With the world consumed by a devastating plague that drives humans violently insane, what was once a band of desperate survivors bobbing on a dark Atlantic ocean has now become Wolf Squadron, the only hope for the salvation of the human race. Banding together with what remains of the U.S. Navy, Wolf Squadron, and its leader Steve Smith, not only plans to survive, he plans to retake the mainland from the infected, starting with North America. Smith’s teenage daughters have become zombie hunters of unparalleled skill, both at land and on the sea, and they may hold the key to the rebirth of civilization on a devastated planet.

The Galaxy GameKaren Lord (January 6, Del Rey)

For years, Rafi Delarua saw his family suffer under his father’s unethical use of psionic power. Now the government has Rafi under close watch, but, hating their crude attempts to analyse his brain, he escapes to the planet Punartam, where his abilities are the norm, not the exception. Punartam is also the centre for his favourite sport, wallrunning, and thanks to his best friend, he has found a way to train with the elite. But Rafi soon realises he’s playing quite a different game, for the galaxy is changing; unrest is spreading and the Zhinuvian cartels are plotting, making the stars a far more dangerous place to aim. There may yet be one solution, involving interstellar travel, galactic power and the love of a beautiful game. (U.S. Release)

The Stargods TrilogyIrene Radford (January 6, DAW)

Operating on the wrong side of interstellar law one time too many, the three O’Hara brothers find themselves in a life-or-death flight from intergalactic police forces. They stumble across what must be a lost or abandoned colony world. Forced to bring their shuttle down in search of repair facilities, the O’Haras encounter humans who have returned to a hunter-gatherer level. Here is a place where technology can make them seem like gods, a land where they will remain trapped unless they can find a way to mine and manufacture the things they need to repair their ship. They don’t believe the legends about dragons and magic. They are certain technology will see them through. Until they confront their first dragon and feel their own powers expanding beyond their control.

 

WEEK TWO

Near Enemy (Spademan #2)—Adam Sternbergh (January 13, Crown)

It’s a year after Shovel Ready. Persephone is ensconced with her newborn upstate; Simon the Magician is struggling to keep control of Harrow’s evangelical empire; and Spademan has accepted a seemingly routine job: to snuff out a no-good bed-hopper named Lesser. Lesser has been causing headaches all over the limnosphere, racking up enemies left and right. Lesser comes back from the dream with a wild claim: that the terrorists have found a way to infiltrate the limnosphere, to hijack the luxury virtual escape from the inside. They’re doing it from somewhere in New York. Spademan is not used to having enemies, but he tries to stay vigilant about the dangers that lurk right under our noses. He’s about to find out just how close these new enemies are, and how dangerous they can be.

The DeepNick Cutter (January 13, Gallery)

A strange plague called the ’Gets is decimating humanity on a global scale. It causes people to forget, small things at first, then the not-so-small things. Then their bodies forget how to function involuntarily. Far below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, deep in the Marianas Trench, an heretofore unknown substance hailed as “ambrosia” has been discovered, a universal healer, from initial reports. In order to study this phenomenon, a special research lab, the Trieste, has been built eight miles under the sea’s surface. But now the station is incommunicado, and it’s up to a brave few to descend through the lightless fathoms in hopes of unraveling the mysteries lurking at those crushing depths, and perhaps to encounter an evil blacker than anything one could possibly imagine.

Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the SeaAdam Roberts (January 13, St. Martin’s Griffin)

It is 1958 and the France’s first nuclear submarine, Plongeur. leaves port for the first of its sea trials. On board, one of the Navy’s most experienced captains and a tiny skeleton crew of sailors, engineers and scientists. The Plongeur makes her first dive and goes down, and down and down. The submarine plummets to a depth where the pressure will crush her hull, killing everyone on board, and beyond. The pressure builds, the hull protests, the crew prepare for death, the boat reaches the bottom of the sea and finds nothing. Her final dive continues, the pressure begins to relent, but the depth gauge is useless. They have gone down hundreds of miles, thousands. The crew succumbs to madness, betrayal, religious mania and murder. Has the Plongeur left the limits of our world and gone elsewhere? (U.S. Release)

UnbreakableW.C. Bauers (January 13, Tor)

The colonists of the planet Montana are accustomed to being ignored. Situated in the buffer zone between two rival human empires, their world is remote. As a provisional member of the Republic of Aligned Worlds, Montana merits little consideration. When pirate raids threaten to destabilize the region, the RAW deploys its mechanized armored infantry. Leading the assault is Marine Corps Lieutenant and Montanan expatriate Promise Paen. Promise was driven to join the Marines after her father was killed by such a raid. The RAW’s most bitter rival, the Lusitanian Empire, has been watching events unfold in the Montana system. Their forces have been awaiting the right moment to gain a beachhead in Republic territory, and with Promise’s Marines decimated, they believe the time to strike is now.

Unmade (Entangled #2)—Amy Rose Capetta (January 13, HMH)

Young Adult. Cadence is in a race against time and space to save her family and friends from the Unmakers, who are tracking the last vestiges of humanity across the cosmos. As the epic battle begins, Cade learns that letting people in also means letting them go. The universe spins out of control and Cade alone must face the music.

 

WEEK THREE

Polaris (Avalon #2)—Mindee Arnett (January 20, Balzer + Bray)

Young Adult. Jeth Seagrave and his crew are on the run. Jeth is desperate to find the resources and funding he needs to rescue his mother from an ITA’s research lab and leave this whole galaxy behind. The ITA is just as desperate, and soon Jeth finds himself pursued by a mysterious figure hell-bent on capturing Jeth and his crew, dead or alive. Jeth enters into a bargain with the last person he ever thought he’d see again: Dax Shepherd, the galaxy’s newest and most fearsome crime lord. Upon arriving back at Peltraz spaceport for the first time since he witnessed the death of his old employer, Jeth discovers Dax has a new partner: Jeth’s mother, Marian. Jeth has to once again ask himself how much he’s willing to invest in a morally bankrupt galaxy in the hopes of saving those he cares for.

The Prey (The Hatchery #1)—Tom Isbell (January 20, HarperTeen)

Young Adult. Omega, they called that day. The end of the end. One enormous burst of electromagnetic radiation and everything that was even remotely electronic was fried to a crisp. The new government declared it the Republic of the True America, imposed martial law, and separated all survivors into settlement camps. Twenty years later, three sixteen-year-olds uncover the dark truth: All this time they’ve been labeled Less Thans. Feared by society, they’re being raised to be hunted for sport. Their only hope for survival is to escape with their friends. They search for the fabled new territory in a flight to freedom, with hunters and the government’s soldiers on their trail. Led by the unlikely Book and fearless Hope, these orphaned teens seek the best in themselves to fight the worst in their enemies.

Damage: A Tor.Com OriginalDavid D. Levine (January 21, Tor)

In the extremities of war, we may know what we’ve been, but not what we will become. “Damage” is a tale of desperate times, desperate measures, and the inner life of a fighter spacecraft. (Digital)

 

WEEK FOUR

Deadeye (Mutant Files #1)—William C. Dietz (January 27, Ace)

In the year 2038, an act of bioengineered terrorism decimated humanity. Those who survived were either completely unaffected or developed horrible mutations. Nations are now divided between areas populated by “norms” and lands run by “mutants”. Detective Cassandra Lee of Los Angeles’s Special Investigative Section has built a fierce reputation taking down some of the city’s most notorious criminals. The serial cop killer known as Bonebreaker, who murdered Lee’s father, is still at large. Duty calls when the daughter of Bishop Screed, head of the Church of Human Purity, is kidnapped by mutants and taken into the red zone. Lee must trust her new partner, mutant lawman Deputy Ras Omo, to guide her not only through the unfamiliar territory but through the prejudicial divisions between mutants and norms.


Suzanne Johnson is the author of the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series, including the upcoming Pirate’s Alley. You can find Suzanne on Facebook and on her website.

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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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