Fantasy
Hammered by Kevin Hearne. Del Rey, 2011. Print Length: 336 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (20 reviews). Kindle edition $7.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled. This is book three in the author's Iron Druid Chronicles, following Hounded and Hexed.
"Thor, the Norse god of thunder, is worse than a blowhard and a bully - he’s ruined countless lives and killed scores of innocents. After centuries, Viking vampire Leif Helgarson is ready to get his vengeance, and he’s asked his friend Atticus O’Sullivan, the last of the Druids, to help take down this Norse nightmare. One survival strategy has worked for Atticus for more than two thousand years: stay away from the guy with the lightning bolts. But things are heating up in Atticus’s home base of Tempe, Arizona..." - Publisher.The Chronicles of Kale: A Dragon's Awakening by Aya Knight. Old Line Publishing, 2011. Print Length: 396 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (45 reviews). Kindle edition $4.95; Paperback $16.56. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Kale Firehart is a young dragon, and the sole survivor of his race. As a tyrannical general and his massive bloodthirsty army close in on Kale - the most unexpected circumstance transpires. With time against him, Kale’s trusted friend, a veteran arcane sorcerer, transforms him into the one thing he despises most - a human. Kale must unwillingly live among human-kind as he embarks upon an extraordinary journey. With a band of unlikely friends by his side, can Kale overcome the obstacles before him and return to the life he once knew? The age of dragons is all but over..." - Publisher.
Ghost Story: A Novel of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Roc, 2011. Print Length: 496 p. Amazon customer rating: none yet. Kindle edition $14.99; Hardcover $14.71. Text-to-Speech: Enabled. This is book thirteen in Butcher's Dresden Files series that began with Storm Front. A word to the wise: It's a good idea to read the series in order if you wish to keep track of the characters and plot twists. Click here for a list of the earlier volumes, all of which are available in Kindle editions.
"When we last left the mighty wizard detective Harry Dresden, he wasn't doing well. In fact, he had been murdered by an unknown assassin. But being dead doesn't stop him when his friends are in danger. Except now he has nobody, and no magic to help him. And there are also several dark spirits roaming the Chicago shadows who owe Harry some payback of their own. To save his friends - and his own soul - Harry will have to pull off the ultimate trick without any magic..." - Publisher.Science Fiction
7th Sigma by Steven Gould. Tor Books, 2011. Print Length: 384 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (11 reviews). Kindle edition $11.99; Hardcover $16.49. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Welcome to the territory. Leave your metal behind, all of it. The bugs will eat it, and they’ll go right through you to get it... Don’t carry it, don’t wear it, and for god’s sake don’t come here if you’ve got a pacemaker. The bugs showed up about fifty years ago - self-replicating, solar-powered, metal-eating machines. No one knows where they came from. They don’t like water, though, so they’ve stayed in the desert Southwest. The territory. People still live here, but they do it without metal. Log cabins, ceramics, what plastic they can get that will survive the sun and heat. Technology has adapted, and so have the people. Kimble Monroe has chosen to live in the territory. He was born here, and he is extraordinarily well adapted to it. He’s one in a million. Maybe one in a billion...an extraordinary SF novel of survival and personal triumph against all the odds." - Publisher.BioShock: Rapture by John Shirley. Tor Books, 2011. Print Length: 432 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (4 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99; Hardcover $16.32. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"It's the end of World War II. FDR's New Deal has redefined American politics. Taxes are at an all-time high. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has brought a fear of total annihilation. The rise of secret government agencies and sanctions on business has many watching their backs. America's sense of freedom is diminishing...and many are desperate to take that freedom back. Among them is a great dreamer, an immigrant who pulled himself from the depths of poverty to become one of the wealthiest and admired men in the world. That man is Andrew Ryan, and he believed that great men and women deserve better. And so he set out to create the impossible, a utopia free from government, censorship, and moral restrictions on science - where what you give is what you get. He created Rapture - the shining city below the sea. But as we all know, this utopia suffered a great tragedy. This is the story of how it all came to be... " - Publisher.
Rule 34 by Charles Stross. Ace, 2011. Print Length: 368 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (12 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover: $16.77. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Hugo winner Stross blends plausible near-future SF and crime in this brisk sequel to 2007's Halting State. In the mid-2020s, the police monitor the Internet full-time to prevent crime. In Edinburgh, this job falls to DI Liz Kavanaugh's Rule 34 Squad (whose name refers to the Internet truism that 'if it exists, there's porn about it'). Kavanaugh views the position as a demotion, but she has a chance to get her once-promising career back on track when she is called to supervise the inquiry into the death of drug dealer Michael Blair..." - Publishers Weekly."...draws on tomorrow's technologies to create a story that features intriguingly offbeat characters and a labyrinthine puzzle of a plot. Fans of modern cyber-fi literature as well as technological thrillers should enjoy this thinking person's sf adventure." - Library Journal.
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