Breach Zone by Myk Cole

Breach Zone is the third book in Myke Cole's Shadow Ops series, due later this month from Headline (£7.99):

“The Great Reawakening introduced magic into an already volatile world. Many of those with new-found powers have been conscripted by the US Army ... but when the barriers between our reality and the source of this magic starts to fall, they will have to decide who they are really fighting for.”

Snowblind by Christopher Golden

Snowblind by Christopher Golden sees publication 16 January 2014 (Headline £13.99).

 “Twelve years ago the small town of Coventry, Massachusetts was in the grasp of a particularly brutal winter. And then came the Great Storm. It hit hard. Not everyone saw the spring. Today the families, friends and lovers of the victims are still haunted by the ghosts of those they lost so suddenly. If only they could see them one more time, hold them close, tell them they love them.

It was the deadliest winter in living memory. Until now. When a new storm strikes, it doesn't just bring snow and ice, it brings the people of Coventry exactly what they've been wishing for. And the realisation their nightmare is only beginning.”

“Snowblind is instantly involving and deeply scary. Throw away all those old ‘it was a dark and stormy night’ novels; this one is the real deal." — Stephen King.

The Copper Promise by Jen Williams

The Copper Promise by Jen Williams, her first novel, is due next February (Headline £13.99).

“There are some far-fetched rumours about the caverns beneath the Citadel: some say the mages left their most dangerous secrets hidden there; others, that great riches are hidden there; even that gods have been imprisoned in its darkest depths. For Lord Frith, the caverns hold the key to his vengeance. Against all the odds, he has survived torture and lived to see his home and his family taken from him ... and now someone is going to pay.

For Wydrin of Crosshaven and her companion, Sir Sebastian Carverson, a quest to the Citadel looks like just another job. There's the promise of gold and adventure. Who knows, they might even have a decent tale or two once they're done. But sometimes there is truth in rumour. Sometimes it pays to listen. Soon this reckless trio will become the last line of defence against a hungry, restless terror that wants to tear the world apart. And they're not even getting paid.”

Rags & Bones edited by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt

Rags & Bones, edited by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt, is out in a week or so (Headline £12.99):

“There are some stories that will always be told, tales as timeless as they are gripping. There are some authors who can tell any story.

In Rags & Bones, award-winning and best-selling authors retell classic fairy tales and twisted tales in the way that only they can. With magic and love, they bring these stories - whether much loved or overlooked - back to life.

Read ‘Sleeping Beauty’ as only Neil Gaiman can tell it. See ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ through the eyes of Kami Garcia. And learn of Rudyard Kipling's ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ from the inimitable Garth Nix.”

This fine-looking anthology includes twelve stories in all. In addition to the afore mentioned writers, you get tales from Gene Wolfe, Kelley Armstrong and Holly Black amongst others. Add to this a number of beautiful drawings by Charles Vess, you have superb value for money for this hardcover book.

Conquest by John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard

Conquest by John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard marks the start of a new YA series (Headline £12.99 – out later this month):

“Earth is no longer ours. It is ruled by the Illyri, a beautiful, civilised yet ruthless alien species. But humankind has not given up the fight, and Paul Kerr is one of a new generation of young Resistance leaders waging war on the invaders.

Syl Hellais is the first of the Illyri to be born on Earth. Trapped inside the walls of her father's stronghold, hated by the humans, she longs to escape.

But on her sixteenth birthday, Syl's life is about to change forever. She will become an outcast, an enemy of her people, for daring to save the life of one human: Paul Kerr. Only together do they have a chance of saving each other, and the planet they both call home.

For there is a greater darkness behind the Illyri conquest of Earth, and the real invasion has not yet even begun...”

Affliction by Laurell K Hamilton

Affliction is the latest Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novel from Laurell K Hamilton (Headline £18.99), out on 4 July:

“It's a typical day at work for Anita Blake, if your day job is raising the dead and being a US Marshal for the preternatural branch. One phone call changed everything. It was from the mother of one of her live-in boyfriends. Micah Callahan's father was in the hospital and he was dying. Micah had been estranged from his family for years, but now, his mother wants Anita to bring the prodigal son home for a last good-bye.”

The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones

"A jumble of entries, written in different hands, different languages, and different times. They tell of a rumour. A shadow. A killer. The only interest that Oxford Professor Charles Meredith has in the diaries is as a record of Hungarian folklore ... until he comes face to face with a myth.

For Hannah Wilde, the diaries are a survival guide that taught her the three rules she lives by: verify everyone, trust no one, and if in any doubt, run. But Hannah knows that if her daughter is ever going to be safe, she will have to stop running and face the terror that has hunted her family for five generations.

And nothing in the diaries can prepare her for that."

The String Diaries is out early July from Headline. The book has already been selected for the Simon Mayo Book Club on Radio 2. And you can watch the video here.

New Gaiman on its way...

All at Piper are eagerly awaiting this book, due in June from Headline.

New books -- round up

The Shape Stealer by Lee Carroll. Bantam £12.99

The Devil’s Looking Glass by Mark Chadbourn. Bantam £7.99

The City by Stella Gemmell. Bantam £18.99 (April)

Wolfhound Century by Peter Higgins. Gollancz £14.99

The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones. Coming from Headline

Slaine: The Grail War by Pat Mills et al. 2000AD £17.99

Indigo Prime: Anthropocalypse by John Smith et al. 2000AD 14.99

Among Others by Jo Walton. Corsair £7.99

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness is published next week by Headline (£7.99).

“Historian Diana Bishop, descended from a line of powerful witches, and long-lived vampire Matthew Clairmont have broken the laws dividing creatures. When Diana discovered a significant alchemical manuscript in the Bodleian Library, she sparked a struggle in which she became bound to Matthew. Now the fragile coexistence of witches, daemons, vampires and humans is dangerously threatened.

Seeking safety, Diana and Matthew travel back in time to London in 1590. But they soon realise that the past may not provide a haven. Reclaiming his former identity as poet and spy for Queen Elizabeth, the vampire falls back in with a group of radicals known as the School of Night. Many are unruly daemons, the creative minds of the age, including playwright Christopher Marlowe and mathematician Thomas Harriot.

Together, Matthew and Diana scour Tudor London for the elusive manuscript Ashmole 782, and search for the witch who will teach Diana how to control her remarkable powers...”

Fortress Frontier by Myke Cole

Myke Cole’s latest is Fortress Frontier (Headline £7.99), out later this month:

“The Great Reawakening did not come quietly. Suddenly people from all corners of the globe began to develop terrifying powers – summoning fire, manipulating earth, opening portals and decimating flesh. Overnight the rules had changed ... but not for everyone.

Alan Bookbinder might be a Colonel in the US Army, but in his heart he knows he's just a desk jockey, a clerk with a silver eagle on his jacket. But one morning he is woken by a terrible nightmare and overcome by an ominous drowning sensation. Something is very, very wrong.

Forced into working for the Supernatural Operations Corps in a new and dangerous world, Bookbinder's only hope of finding a way back to his family will mean teaming up with former SOC operator and public enemy number one: Oscar Britton. They will have to put everything on the line if they are to save thousands of soldiers trapped inside a frontier fortress on the brink of destruction, and show the people back home the stark realities of a war that threatens to wipe out everything they're trying to protect.”

Fuse by Julianna Baggott

Fuse is the second book in Julianna Baggott’s Pure trilogy (headline £12.99) – due next month.

“When the end came, the world was divided. Those considered perfect, the Pure, sheltered inside the controlled Dome. Outside, the Wretches struggled in a destroyed world, crippled by the fusings that branded them after the apocalypse that changed everything.

Partridge, a Pure, has left the safety of the Dome in search of the truth. Pressia, a Wretch, is desperate to decode the secret that will cure her people of their fusings forever. Together, they must seek out the answers that will save humankind, and prevent the world's annihilation. But the betrayal of Partridge's departure has not been forgotten. As the Dome unleashes horrifying vengeance upon the Wretches in an attempt to get Partridge back, Partridge has no choice but to return to face the darkness that lies there, even as Pressia travels to the very ends of the world to continue their search.

Theirs is a struggle against a formidable foe, and it is a fight that will push them over boundaries of land and of sea, of heart and of mind. They can only hope for success because failure is unimaginable...”

Interview with the Vampire: Claudia’s Story. Graphic novel review

Interview with the Vampire: Claudia’s Story. Adapted by Ashley Marie Witter (Headline £13.99).

Reviewed by Peter Coleborn

Ashley Marie Witter has done a fabulous job in adapting Anne Rice’s seminal novel, which was published in the 1970s – that’s when I first read it. Actually, I’ve only read it the once after finding the sequel less gripping and I am yet to see the movie version – something about that deters me. Anyway, when I started this graphic novel adaptation I quickly found myself engrossed and read the book in one sitting.

Unlike the novel, the young reporter to whom Louis tells his story doesn’t appear, and the graphic novel does not suffer for this omission. Witter dives straight in to the story, when Lestat converts the girl – Claudia – into one of the undead. Witter’s version is told from Claudia perspective. Louis becomes emotionally attached to the girl – forever doomed to remain a child even though her imagination, her knowledge, becomes that of an adult woman. It’s a sort of curse – as she expresses so succinctly when in Paris.

As I read this version my memories of the novel percolated my mind: the adaption seems, to me, to be quite faithful to the Rice original. My initial reservation about starting this novel vanished after a few pages.

The artwork is stunning. Witter used a monochrome style but using a sepia-toned pen with occasional touches of colour – red of course. The layouts speed on the reader, perhaps too quickly: there are very few natural pauses if you have to break off reading for any reason. The only thing that would’ve improved the book is a larger format. The artwork deserved a bigger canvas. But for the price this hardback graphic novel is excellent value. It will make a grand Christmas gift.

Based on this book I hope that Witter becomes a mainstay of the graphic novel and I look forward to seeing more of her work.

New Gaiman book on its way

Headline has acquired UK rights for The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. Personally, I can't wait.

Messenger's Angels by Heather Killough-Walden

Messenger's Angel by Heather Killough-Walden (Headline £6.99) continues the Lost Angels series:

“Four archangels each with their own soulmate: As dangerous forces array against them, will they be able to find a love that was cast down from heaven? Sexy, dangerous, immortal - these archangels are definitely no angels...

In the second in Heather Killough-Walden's paranormal series, The Lost Angels, it is the turn of Gabriel, the Messenger Archangel, to seek his soul mate. Gabriel has always called Scotland his true home. Nevertheless, he is stunned when his archess suddenly appears in the land closest to his heart. Juliette Andersen's encounter with the gorgeous silver-eyed stranger changes their worlds for ever. But even as they find each other, enemies surround them. With danger closing in, they will have one chance to fulfil a destiny written for them in the stars...”

Control Point by Myke Cole

Control Point is Myke Cole’s debut novel, out next month (Headline £7.99):

“All over the world people are 'coming up latent' - developing new and terrifying abilities. Untrained and pan­icked, they are summoning storms, raising the dead, and setting every­thing they touch ablaze.

US Army Lieutenant Oscar Britton has always done his duty, even when it means working alongside the feared Supernatural Operations Corps, hunting down and taking out those with newfound magical talents. But when he manifests a rare, startling power of his own and finds himself a marked man, all bets are off. On the run from his former colleagues, Britton is driven into an underground shadow world, where he is about to learn that magic has changed all the rules he's ever known ... and that his life isn't the only thing he's fighting for.”

Kiss the Dead by Laurell K Hamilton

Kiss the Dead by Laurell K Hamilton (now available from Headline £16.99) is an Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novel – which mixes mystery, fantasy, horror and erotica in tales about the ubiquitous vampire hunter, who is also a US Marshall:

“When a fifteen-year-old girl is abducted by vampires, it's up to me to find her. And when I do, I'm faced with something I've never seen before: a terrifyingly ordinary group of people - kids, grandparents, soccer moms - all recently turned and willing to die to avoid serving their vampire master. And where there's one martyr, I know there will be more... But even vampires have monsters that they're afraid of. And I'm one of them...”

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller is published by Headline in August (£14.99):

“The Road – but with hope. Hig, bereaved and traumatised after global disaster, has three things to live for - his dog Jasper, his aggressive but helpful neighbour, and his Cessna aeroplane. He's just about surviving, so long as he only takes his beloved plane for short journeys, and saves his remaining fuel. But he picks up a message from another pilot, and the temptation to find out who else is still alive becomes irresistible. So he takes his plane over the horizon, knowing that he won't have enough fuel to get back. What follows is scarier and more life-affirming than he could have imagined.”