Del Rey Spectra 2011 E-Sampler (DEARLY, DEPARTED exclusive)

DEARLY, DEPARTED by Lia Habel - BEARERS OF THE BLACK STAFF by Terry Brooks - CHILD OF FIRE by Harry Connolly - STAR WARS: CHOICES OF ONE by Timothy Zahn - EMBASSYTOWN by China Mieville - HOUNDED by Kevin Hearne - STEELHANDS by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett - RAISING STONY MAYHALL by Daryl Gregory Dear Reader,
Del Rey and Spectra are proud to present a sampling of our newest titles—some already in print, others about to hit the shelves. Whether you like zombie action, epic fantasy, urban paranormal, Star Wars, or slipstream literary fiction, there will be something here to fulfill your reading desires.
We have excerpts of new fiction from debut author Lia Habel, and beloved storytellers such as Terry Brooks, China Miéville, Timothy Zahn, Kevin Hearne, and much more.
We’d love to know what you think of any or all of these. Please email us at delreybooks@randomhouse.com or visit us on Suvudu.com or Facebook.
DEARLY, DEPARTED by Lia Habel
The first book in an addictive page-turning new series, Dearly, Departed is a steampunk romance-meets-zombie thriller that spawns a madly imaginative novel of adventure and suspense, macabre comedy, and star-crossed love. The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria. Nora, a very human teenager living in high society, falls in love with Bram, a handsome and polite eighteen-year-old lieutenant who happens to be suffering from “the Laz,” a disease that is slowly turning him into one of the walking dead. Bram is fully conscious and healthy enough to take on Nora, killer zombies, and the treacherous humans that plague his life—at least for now. But it is only a matter of time before the Laz will take him away from Nora forever. BEARERS OF THE BLACK STAFF: Book 1 of the Legends of Shannara by Terry Brooks
TERRY BROOKS has written many adventures in the Shannara epic fantasy series. His latest, Bearers of the Black Staff, is an excellent entry point for anyone new to this magical world. Bearers of the Black Staff is set in the future of our own world at a strange and dangerous time. Five hundred years before the story begins, our world fell into the hands of once-men and demons. Only a few humans, Elves, and others escaped the apocalyptic disaster, feeling into a remote mountain valley walled in by impenetrable magic. For centuries the survivors lived peacefully, learning to coexist and building a new world with the limited resources and skills available. Now the magic that kept them safe for so many centuries is wearing down. Frightening creatures are penetrating the barriers and wreaking havoc on the valley within. In this excerpt from Bearers of the Black Staff, Sider Ament, last of the Knights of the Word, meets an unexpected ally. CHILD OF FIRE by Harry Connolly
Ray Lilly is living on borrowed time. He’s the driver for Annalise Powliss, a high-ranking member of the Twenty Palace Society, a group of sorcerers devoted to hunting down and executing rogue magicians. But because Ray betrayed her once, Annalise is looking for an excuse to kill him—or let someone else do the job. Unfortunately for both of them, Annalise’s next mission leaves her critically injured. With the little magic he controls, Ray must complete her assignment alone. Not only does he have to stop a sorcerer who’s sacrificing dozens of innocent lives in exchange for supernatural power, he must find—and destroy—the source of that inhuman magic. Jim Butcher, author of the Dresden Files, is a Harry Connolly fan. He describes Child of Fire as “Excellent reading … a truly dark and sinister world, delicious tension and suspense, violence so gritty you'll get something in your eye just reading it, and a gorgeously flawed protagonist.” In this excerpt from Child of Fire, Ray Lilly and his boss come face to face with the victims of a bizarre supernatural predator. STAR WARS: CHOICES OF ONE by Timothy Zahn
In 1991, the Star Wars universe was once again expanded into the world of books with the #1 New York Times bestseller Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn. This groundbreaking novel was the first title set after the events of Return of the Jedi, featuring characters from the original trilogy. Now, twenty years—and almost two hundred novels—later, Del Rey is proud to present Star Wars: Choices of One, an all-new novel from Zahn, set in the time between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, and following the adventures of Han, Luke, Leia, and Chewbacca in that galaxy far, far away … Eight months after the Battle of Yavin, the Rebellion is in desperate need of a new base. So when Governor Ferrouz of Candoras Sector proposes an alliance—offering the Rebels sanctuary in return for protection against an alien warlord—Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie are sent to evaluate the deal. Mara Jade, the Emperor’s Hand, is also heading for Candoras, along with five renegade stormtroopers known as the Hand of Judgment. Their mission: to punish Ferrouz’s treason and smash the Rebels for good. But in this treacherous game of betrayals within betrayals, a wild card is waiting to be played. EMBASSYTOWN by China Miéville
The big ideas don’t get any bigger than in China Miéville’s new stand-alone science fiction title, Embassytown. On a distant planet in the far future, humans and an alien race coexist in a nonviolent but nonetheless uncomfortable arrangement. In general, they don't hurt one another, but they're not necessarily happy to share the city together. It is a marriage of convenience, arranged for economic reasons. But when a new group of humans arrives on the planet, one current citizen—Avice Benner Cho, immerser—begins to realize that things are about to change for the worse. At the heart of this unfolding drama is Language: that particular form of communication that the local population on Arieka—known as the Hosts—cannot share with their human counterparts. Here, at the far reaches of space, conflict stirs when a new Ambassador arrives and sparks conflict between the Hosts and their human guests. In this setting, China Miéville explores the roots and confines of language, as well as any linguist, all while providing the pulse-pounding and thought-provoking literary fiction that he has become renowned for. HOUNDED by Kevin Hearne
Here’s a greatly abbreviated list of the reasons Hounded should be your #1 must-read this year—(greatly abbreviated, because, why are you reading this silly list when you could be reading Hounded?): a badass 2,000-year-old Druid hero who looks like a young rock star; a coven of gorgeous witches who escaped Nazi Germany; an Icelandic vampire lawyer; a wickedly seductive death goddess; a talking Irish wolfhound; a feisty bartender possessed by the soul of a Hindu witch … not to mention the smartest, funniest writing in urban fantasy since Jim Butcher. Ever since this manuscript materialized in our offices over a year ago, we have been proselytizing Kevin’s work with messianic fervor; everyone at Del Rey has become a roving band of Kevin Hearne fanatics. And as soon as you start reading this excerpt, you may find yourself converted into a die-hard Kevin Hearne fan, too. Indeed, Kevin’s work is so addictively readable, we knew that we couldn’t keep Kevin’s fans waiting. AfterHounded, we published two more books in the Iron Druid Chronicles right away: Hexed, in which Atticus battles a coven of sexy leather-clad witches, and Hammered, which takes our hero to Asgard for a major war against the Norse pantheon. STEELHANDS by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett
With Havemercy, Shadow Magic, and Dragon Soul, Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett have fused magic and technology into something that can only be termed magicpunk. Their distinctive style, featuring a chorus of quirky first-person narrators and brilliantly sophisticated world-building, has won these young writers the plaudits of fans and critics alike. Mechanical dragons won Volstov its last war, but destroying them was one of the provisions of the shaky peace treaty that now exists between Volstov and its newest ally. Only now Volstov’s ruler seems intent on resurrecting the beasts—and reigniting that war. Caught up in the mess is Adamo, the hard-as-nails ex-sergeant of the Dragon Corps, now put out to pasture as a professor at the University. And so is Balfour, the littlest dragon-rider, who lost both his hands in the war. And then there are two fresh-from the-country University students: Laurence, a feisty young woman whose father raised her to be the son he never had, and Toverre, her fiancé, a brilliant if neurotic dandy who would sooner share his wife-to-be’s clothes than her bed. If you haven’t read any of these delightful, stand-alone novels, here is your chance to discover why Charlaine Harris raves: “I’ve read and re-read this series. I think it’s great.” And why SF Reviews said of their debut novel,Havemercy: “These ladies write like a house on fire, delivering fantasy’s most pleasant surprise since Temeraire himself took wing in 2006. Jones and Bennett have reinvented dragons yet again, this time in a steampunk context. But the bulk of their story is driven by some of the most sensitive and authentic attention to character you're likely to see this side of Westeros.” Welcome to Volstov! RAISING STONY MAYHALL by Daryl Gregory
“After the 1968 zombie outbreak, everyone thinks the last of the Living Dead (LDs) have been quarantined or killed, but Wanda Mayhall and her three daughters discover a dead teen mother cradling a small, gray baby boy—who is very much undead! Wanda and her girls take the baby in to their rural Iowa farm, name him Stony, and set about protecting him from a world that wants to see him exterminated. Growing up is tough enough for the living; imagine how so for a LD child in a human world. But Stony does grow up and learns that he is not the only surviving LD. In fact, there is a whole network of zombies covertly fighting for rights and recognition. As Stony radicalizes he attracts the attention of the enemy and must gently navigate his way through a society that would just as soon see him dead. Poignant, darkly funny, and introspective, Raising Stony Mayhall is a unique take on the zombie genre from a truly talented author. ICE SONG by Kirsten Imani Kasai
“I’m loving it—it’s like furry sexy biopunk arctic witchery.”—Annalee Newitz, io9.com Here at Del Rey, we are all fans at heart, and like many fans, one of the things we love about fantasy is the “shock of the new”—encountering new worlds and new ideas unlike any we have ever experienced before. So when we first read Kirsten Imani Kasai’s Ice Song, it electrified us with its originality. Though she’s been frequently compared with Ursula K. Le Guin, what she really shares with her illustrious predecessor is her utter singularity. No one writes quite like Kirsten Imani Kasai. Annalee Newitz’s ecstatic description is just the beginning: The world of Ice Song reinvents everything we know about gender, biology, social constructs, and identity. But it has more than daring ideas and provocative themes:Ice Song is a cabinet of wonders and marvels. From its gender-switching heroine, the unforgettable Sorykah/Soryk, to the surreal ‘somatics,’ half-human, half-animal mutants, to the beautiful and violent ice world of Ostara, Ice Song brings the beauty of the uncanny, and the joy of intellectual daring, back to speculative fiction.