Spend less time searching for new genre fiction and more time reading it as I watch for the best in newly-released genre fiction in the
Kindle Store so you don't have to. Recent genre fiction releases in fantasy and science fiction include:
Fantasy
Home Improvement: Undead Edition edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner. Ace, 2011. Print Length: 352 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (6 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $14.48. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"There's nothing like home renovation for finding skeletons in the closet or otherwordly portals in the attic. Now, for any homeowner who's ever wondered,
What's that creaking sound? or fans of 'how to' television who'd like a little unreality mixed in with their reality shows, editors Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner return with an all-new collection of the paranormal perils of Do-It-Yourself. Sookie Stackhouse resides in these pages, in a never-before-published story... New York Times bestselling authors Patricia Briggs, James Grady, Heather Graham, Melissa Marr, and nine other outstanding writers have constructed more frightening and funny fixer-upper tales guaranteed to shake foundations and rattle readers' pipes." - Publisher.
The Measure of the Magic: Legends of Shannara by Terry Brooks. Del Rey, 2011. Print Length: 400 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (5 reviews). Kindle edition $13.99; Hardcover $14.51. Text-to-Speech: Enabled. This is book two in the author's Legends of Shannara duology following
Bearers of the Black Staff. If you're new to the Shannara series, you may want to consult the
Wikipedia entry for the series. It lists all the books in the series in Terry Brooks' suggested reading order starting with
The Sword of Shannara.
"For five hundred years, the survivors of the Great Wars lived peacefully in a valley sanctuary shielded by powerful magic from the blighted and dangerous outside world. But the enchanted barriers have crumbled, the borders have been breached by predators, and the threat of annihilation looms large once more. Sider Ament, bearer of the last black staff and its profound power, devoted his life to protecting the valley and its inhabitants - and, in his final moments, gave stewardship of the black staff to the young tracker Panterra Qu. Now the newly anointed Knight of the Word must take up the battle against evil wherever it threatens: from without, where an army of bloodthirsty trolls is massing for invasion; and from within, where the Elf king of Arborlon has been murdered, his daughter, Princess Phryne Amarantyne, stands accused, and a heinous conspiracy is poised to subjugate the kingdom..." - from the hardcover edition.
Spell Bound by Kelley Armstrong. Dutton, 2011. Print Length: 336 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (34 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $16.29. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"It's been ten years since
Bitten, the first novel in Kelley Armstrong's New York Times bestselling
Otherworld series. In that time hundreds of thousands of fans have ravenously devoured the adventures of Armstrong's witches, demons, and werewolves. Now, in
Spell Bound, she brings them all together for her most sweeping tale yet. Savannah Levine is in terrible danger, and for once she's powerless to help herself. At the heartbreaking conclusion of
Waking the Witch, Savannah swore that she would give up her powers if it would prevent further pain for a young orphan. And now, witch-hunting assassins, necromancers, half-demons, and rogue witches all seem to be after her. The threat is not just for Savannah; every member of the Otherworld might be at risk. While most of her fellow supernaturals are circling the wagons at a gathering of the council in Miami, Savannah is caught on the road, isolated from those who can protect her and unable to use her vast spell-casting talent..." - Publisher.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Doubleday, 2011. Print Length: 400 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (58 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $15.68. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway - a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love - a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands..." - from the hardcover edition.
Basilisk by Rob Thurman. Penguin Publishing, 2011. Print Length: 352 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (12 reviews). Kindle edition $7.99; Paperback $7.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled. This book is a sequel to Thurman's 2010 novel
Chimera.
"Stefan Korsak and his genetically-altered brother have evaded the Institute for three years. When they learn the new location of the secret lab, they plan to break in and save the remaining children there. But one of the little ones doesn't want to leave. She wants to kill..." - Publisher.
The Magician King by Lev Grossman. Viking, 2011. Print Length: 416 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (4 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $14.82. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"The Magicians was praised as a triumph by readers and critics of both mainstream and fantasy literature. Now Grossman takes us back to Fillory, where the Brakebills graduates have fled the sorrows of the mundane world, only to face terrifying new challenges. Quentin and his friends are now the kings and queens of Fillory, but the days and nights of royal luxury are starting to pall. After a morning hunt takes a sinister turn, Quentin and his old friend Julia charter a magical sailing ship and set out on an errand to the wild outer reaches of their kingdom. Their pleasure cruise becomes an adventure when the two are unceremoniously dumped back into the last place Quentin ever wants to see: his parent's house in Chesterton, Massachusetts..." - Publisher.
Science Fiction
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Crown, 2011. Print Length: 384 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (19 reviews). Kindle edition $11.99; Hardcover $13.80. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place. Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune - and remarkable power - to whoever can unlock them. For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved - that of the late twentieth century. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig. And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.Suddenly the whole world is watching..." - Publisher.
Legacy: An Event Group Thriller by David L. Golemon. Thomas Dunne Books, 2011. Print Length: 416 p. Amazon customer rating: none yet. Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $16.28. Text-to-Speech: Enabled. This is book six in Golemon's
Event Group series about an ultra-secret group whose mission is to uncover hidden truths behind the myths and legends of history. The earlier volumes - all available in Kindle editions - are Event, Legend, Ancients, Leviathan and Primeval.
"The United States is ready to make a triumphant return to the moon, striking out boldly into the solar system in an attempt to regain the confidence of the heady days of the Apollo program. The first of what are to be many missions to the lunar surface was designed to find the frozen water needed to prepare to build a base to launch an assault on Mars. But a shocking discovery at Shackleton Crater brings the first Prometheus mission to an abrupt halt. Remote robots uncover human skeletal remains and a base that had been destroyed countless millennia ago. The information is sent back to earth where forensic analysis at NASA reveals the corpse to be over seven hundred million years old. A secret this devastating cannot be kept forever, and the news is leaked to the world. Soon nations are thrown into a head-long collision, pitting governments against their own citizens as the flames of fundamentalism start a conflagration that threatens to engulf the world... The Event Group is tasked to unravel the mystery and to offer something that can either explain our ancient visitor or, at least, keep the world from descending into chaos. Colonel Jack Collins once again leads a team of the world's greatest scientists and philosophers on a journey that will take the Event Group to the airless world of space..." - Publisher.
Machine Man by Max Barry. Vintage, 2011. Print Length: 288 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (9 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99; Paperback $9.32. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Scientist Charles Neumann loses a leg in an industrial accident. It's not a tragedy. It's an opportunity. Charlie always thought his body could be better. He begins to explore a few ideas. To build parts. Better parts. Prosthetist Lola Shanks loves a good artificial limb. In Charlie, she sees a man on his way to becoming artificial everything. But others see a madman. Or a product. Or a weapon. ... a gruesomely funny unraveling of one man's quest for ultimate self-improvement." - from the paperback edition.
Cowboys & Aliens by Joan D. Vinge. Tor Books, 2011. Print Length: 384 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $7.99; Paperback $7.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled. This is a novelization of the screenplay of the Cowboys & Aliens movie starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford.
"1875. New Mexico Territory. A stranger with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don’t welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde. It’s a town that lives in fear. But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known. Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force." - Publisher.
Vortex by Robert Charles Wilson. Tor Books, 2011. Print Length: 336 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (12 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $17.15. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"In the not-too-distant future, the Sun nears its end as an enigmatic alien race, the Hypotheticals, becomes responsible for enabling humanity's survival. Psychiatrist Sandra Cole works at an intake facility in Houston, assessing the mental states of people taken into custody for evaluation. The drudgery of her job is disrupted when a police officer brings in a seemingly-placid man who writes down things he doesn't understand. His journals present the story of Turk Findley, who returned to the world after 10,000 years, finding himself in the midst of warfare between those who seek direct communication with the aliens, and those who regard such a course as suicidal. Cole's initial view that the writings are simply a pointless joke is shaken when oversight of Cole's case is transferred on a pretext, to another doctor..." -
Publishers Weekly.
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Spend less time searching for good reads and more time reading as I watch for newly-released genre fiction in the Kindle Bookstore so you don't have to. If you enjoy fantasy novels, you won't want to miss these new releases by some of the best authors in the field:
"In the midst of the Wars of Consolidation, Quaeryt, the scholar advisor to Bhayar, the ruler of Telaryn, attempts to escape the poisonous politics surrounding Bhayar by persuading Bhayar to send him to the rebellious province of Tilbor. 
"Not so very long ago, Eragon - Shadeslayer, Dragon Rider - was nothing more than a poor farm boy, and his dragon, Saphira, only a blue stone in the forest. Now the fate of an entire civilization rests on their shoulders. Long months of training and battle have brought victories and hope, but they have also brought heartbreaking loss. And still, the real battle lies ahead: they must confront Galbatorix. When they do, they will have to be strong enough to defeat him. And if they cannot, no one can. There will be no second chances." - Publisher.
"Jaded religion reporter Christine Temetri and Mercury, a renegade angel, have just thwarted two diabolical plots to destroy the world. But their work isn’t finished yet: mysterious powers outranking even the Heavenly bureaucracy seem intent on keeping the Apocalypse on track. While the world is plagued by natural disasters and nations prepare for war, crazed billionaire Horace Finch plots to use a secret device hidden beneath the African desert to discover the deepest secrets of the Universe - even if he has to destroy the Universe to do it. Meanwhile, unassuming FBI investigator Jacob Slater tries in vain to find a rational explanation for the mysterious destruction of downtown Anaheim..." - Publisher.
"Once peaceful and prosperous, the spectacular Land of Oz is knotted with social unrest: The Emerald City is mounting an invasion of Munchkinland, Glinda is under house arrest, and the Cowardly Lion is on the run from the law. And look who’s knocking at the door. It’s none other than Dorothy. Yes. That Dorothy. Yet amidst all this chaos, Elphaba’s granddaughter, the tiny green baby born at the close of Son of a Witch, has come of age. Now it is up to Rain to take up her broom - and her legacy - in an Oz wracked by war...a magical journey rife with revelations and reversals, reprisals and surprises - the hallmarks of the unique imagination of Gregory Maguire." - Publisher.
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