Oh how I love the Fall — the changing of the leaves, jacket weather, Halloween, my birthday (!). And on my birthday wish list is typically a slew of books by my favorite authors and publishers released from early September through November. Anne Rice’s The Vampire Armand, Clive Barker’s Abarat, Max Brooks’s World War Z all came out during this season, and nearly every Fall Neil Gaiman (Coraline, The Graveyard Book) offers up something new.
For 2009, here are some of this Fall’s coolest literary offerings of vampires, zombies, monsters, mysteries, and more. Note, I’ve kept the list to just novels (meaning, no graphic novels), and remember, these are just items that I’m interested in. If you have more suggestions, we’d love to know ’em!
A few weeks ago, I received a publicist’s email asking me if I’d like a copy of Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter for review. I didn’t read any further before I hit Reply with an “Absolutely” as my response. Serious, Queen Victoria as a demon hunter, that’s really all I needed to know. When the book arrived, I figured I’d leaf through it and take a few seconds to familiarize myself with it; next thing I knew I was a third of the way through the book. Yes, it was that good.
I’m a big fan of historical fiction, so even if various types of demon folk weren’t involved, I think I’d have enjoyed the story of a young Victoria coming of age as the Queen of England and falling in love with Prince Albert nevertheless. But add in the Queen’s inherent ability to battle demons, along with demons, zombies, reanimators, and two-headed creatures, and damn if that’s not good stuff. It’s an historical fiction/horror mash-up sprinkled with humor in all the right places. One of my favorite characters is a manservant who becomes zombie lunch only to return to life … to continue being a manservant! Seriously, I love this guy, and you will too.
On Tuesday, October 27, The Gathering Storm, the newest edition to Robert Jordan‘s bestselling fantasy series Wheel Of Time, will be released. In conjunction with this grand event, Tor has given us three (3) prize sets to give to our U.S., UK, and Canadian readers!
The Gathering Storm, which is the first of three novels to conclude the Wheel of Time series, was written by Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, so to get you all ready for the new book, each prize set will have two of Tor’s best “Fantasy Firsts” by the authors.
What do you have to do to get a chance to win? Glad you asked ’cause it’s really easy. Just make sure you’re a subscriber to our email digest, and then fill out and submit the handy form below. (Form is here after the jump.)
Good luck!
TO ENTER: There’s just two simple steps:
(1) Make sure you’re subscribed to the Geeks of Doom email digest. If you’re not then click here and sign up. (If you’re already a subscriber, then go right to the next step.)
(2) Our contest form is working again so fill out the entry form here below and submit.* Just leave a comment on this post. Say what you want and use whatever ‘name’ you’d like, but please enter the email address (which is hidden from the public) that you used to sign up to the email digest. Make sure it’s a valid email address, as we will be using it to contact you if you win. [Note, your email address will not be sold or shared with outside parties.]
I know I’m not the only one looking forward to the October 27, 2009 release date of The Gathering Storm, the first posthumous novel in Robert Jordan‘s massive Wheel of Time series (the book was co-written by Brandon Sanderson).
On this day, the second anniversary of the author’s death, Tor Books has blessed us by releasing the first chapter of The Gathering Storm on their webpage. If you go to Tor.com and register (registering is free), you too can read the first chapter.
The chapter, titled “Tears of Steel,” starts as every other Wheel of Time book begins, with the familiar phrase “The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.”
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press
