Angel City by Jon Steele

Angel City by Jon Steele is out now from Bantam (£18.99).

“Jay Harper, one of the last 'angels' on Planet Earth, is hunting down the half-breeds and goons who infected Paradise with evil. Intercepting a plot to turn half of Paris into a dead zone, Harper ends up on the wrong side of the law and finds himself a wanted man. That doesn't stop his commander, Inspector Gobet of the Swiss Police, from sending him back to Paris on a recon mission ... a mission that uncovers a truth buried in the Book of Enoch. 

Katherine Taylor and her two year old son Max are living in a small town in the American Northwest. It's a quiet life. She runs a candle shop and spends her afternoons drinking herbal teas, imagining a crooked little man in the belfry of Lausanne Cathedral, a man who believed Lausanne was a hideout for lost angels. And there was someone else, someone she can't quite remember ... as if he was there, and not there at the same time.

A man with a disfigured face emerges from the shadows. His name is Astruc. He's obsessed with the immortal souls of men. Like a voice crying in the wilderness, he warns the time of The Prophecy is at hand ... a prophecy that calls for the sacrifice of the child born of light...”

Dragon Queen by Stephen Deas

Now available: Dragon Queen by Stephen Deas (Gollancz £16.99).

“In the years before the Dragons laid waste to man's empire, the fearsome monsters were used for war and as gifts of surpassing wealth to buy favour in the constant political battles that tore at the kingdoms. Notorious in these battles was the Dragon Queen. And now she is a prisoner. But no-one is more dangerous than when caged...”

Dragon Queen is a companion volume to the Memory of Flames trilogy.

Harvest by William Horwood

William Horwood’s Harvest, a Hyddenworld novel is published later this month (Pan £8.99).

“It is August, time of the first harvest, traditional time of plenty. But at the farthest reaches of the Hyddenworld, in sea-bound Englalond, disaster looms. A blight in the land is growing, marked by quakes and increasingly unnatural blizzards. Judith is tasked with healing the land, but this burden is almost unbearable. Lonely and lovelorn, she threatens to reap a terrible harvest of her own.

Yet a trio of hydden travellers hold out hope – for both the land and the war threatening the hydden people. For Jack and Katherine, Judith’s parents, the shadow of the hydden Empire’s army looms large. They must muster allies or it will mean disaster for the city of Brum. And only Bedwyn Stort, Brum’s famed scrivener, has the courage to unravel a secret that could heal their world. The lost gem of Autumn must be found and Stort must risk death to seek it. Only his love for Judith will give him the will to endure – and bring her the gem she needs to tame the wild earth.”

A Blink of the Screen by Terry Pratchett

Coming next week: A Blink of the Screen by Terry Pratchett (Corgi £7.99).

“In the four decades since his first book appeared in print, Terry Pratchett has become one of the world's best-selling and best-loved authors. Here for the first time are his short stories and other short form fiction collected into one volume. A Blink of the Screen charts the course of Pratchett's long writing career: from his schooldays through to his first writing job on the Bucks Free Press; to the origins of his debut novel, The Carpet People; and on again to the dizzy mastery of the phenomenally successful Discworld series.

Here are characters both familiar and yet to be discovered; abandoned worlds and others still expanding; adventure, chickens, death, disco and, actually, some quite disturbing ideas about Christmas, all of it shot through with his inimitable brand of humour. 

With an introduction by Booker Prize-winning author A.S. Byatt, colour illustrations by the late Josh Kirby and drawings by the author himself.”

You can read a taster here.

Children of Fire by Drew Karpyshyn

Children of Fire by Drew Karpyshyn is out now (Del Rey £16.99).

“Long ago the gods chose a great hero to act as their agent in the mortal world and to stand against the demonic spawn of Chaos. The gods gifted their champion, Daemron, with three magical Talismans: a sword, a ring, and a crown. But the awesome power at his command corrupted Daemron, turning him from saviour to destroyer. Filled with pride, he dared to challenge the gods themselves. Siding with the Chaos spawn, Daemron waged a titanic battle against the Immortals. In the end, Daemron was defeated, the Talismans were lost, and Chaos was sealed off behind the Legacy — a magical barrier the gods sacrificed themselves to create. 

Now the Legacy is fading. On the other side, the banished Daemron stirs. And across the scattered corners of the land, four children are born of suffering and strife, each touched by one aspect of Daemron himself — wizard, warrior, prophet, king. Bound by a connection deeper than blood, the Children of Fire will either restore the Legacy or bring it crashing down, freeing Daemron to wreak his vengeance upon the mortal world.”

The Secrets of Life and Death by Rebecca Alexander

The Secrets of Life and Death by Rebecca Alexander (Ebury £12.99) hits the bookshops shortly.

Krakow, 1585: Summoned by the King of Poland to help save his dying niece, Edward Kelley and his master, alchemist and scholar Dr John Dee, discover a dark secret at the heart of The Countess Bathory’s malady. But perhaps the cure will prove more terrifying than the alternative...

England, 2013: Jackdaw Hammond lives in the shadows, a practitioner and purveyor of occult materials. But when she learns of a young woman found dead on a train, her body covered in arcane symbols, there’s no escaping the attention of police consultant Felix Guichard. Together they must solve a mystery centuries in the making, or die trying…”

Deeply Odd by Dean Koontz

Deeply Odd is the sixth Odd Thomas thriller from Dean Koontz (Harper £7.99).

“Our reluctant hero is drawn once more into a strange encounter with the lingering dead.

Later that morning, when I walked downtown to buy blue jeans and a few pairs of socks, I met a guy who offered to neuter me with a .45 pistol.

In a sinister encounter with a rogue truck driver, Odd – who has the gift of seeing the dead and the soon-to-be dead – has a disturbing vision of the slaughter of three innocent children.

Across California, into Nevada and back again, Odd embarks on a road chase to prevent the tragedy. But he is to discover that he is not up against a single twisted sociopath but a mysterious network of evil men and women whose resources appear supernatural.”

The Witch’s Daughter by Paula Brackston

Coming in December: The Witch’s Daughter by Paula Brackston (Corsair £7.99).

“In the spring of 1628, young Bess Hawksmith watches her mother's body swing limp from the Hanging Tree. She knows that only one man can save her from the same fate – Gideon Masters, the Warlock. She knows, too, that his help comes at a steep price.

In present-day England, Elizabeth has built a quiet life for herself. She has spent the centuries in solitude, moving from place to place, surviving plagues, wars and the heartbreak that comes with immortality. Her loneliness comes to an abrupt end when she is befriended by a teenage girl called Tegan. Against her better judgment, Elizabeth opens her heart to Tegan and begins teaching her the ways of the Hedge Witch. But Gideon is still hunting her. He will stop at nothing, determined even after centuries to claim her soul. And now, Bess is not fighting to save herself alone: now, she must protect the girl she has grown to love like a daughter.”

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson is now available from Gollancz (£12.99).

"Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics. But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his wills. 

Nobody fights the Epics ... nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them. And David wants in. He wants Steelheart – the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning – and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience. He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.”

Knight of Shadows by Toby Venables

Hunter of Sherwood: Knight of Shadows by Toby Venables is published by Abaddon (£7.99)

“England, 1191. Richard Lionheart has left the realm bankrupt and leaderless in his quest for glory. Only Prince John seems willing to fight back the tide of chaos threatening England – embodied by the traitorous ‘Hood.’ But John has a secret weapon: Guy of Gisburne, outcast, mercenary, and now knight. His first mission: to intercept the jewel-encrusted skull of John the Baptist, sent by the Templars to Philip, King of France. Gisburne’s quest takes him, his world-weary squire Galfrid in tow, from the Tower of London to the hectic Crusader port of Marseilles – and into increasingly bloody encounters with the ‘White Devil’: the fanatical Templar de Mercheval.”