Excerpt

Excerpt: WHEN WE CHASED THE LIGHT by Emily Meeker (Lake Union)

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Tomorrow, Lake Union is due to publish the latest novel by Emily Beeker: When We Chased the Light. A new novel set in Golden Age Hollywood, here’s the synopsis:

A Hollywood legend. A legacy of secrets. An epic and emotional novel about forgiveness, fame, family, and truly unconditional love by the bestselling author of When We Were Enemies.

Christie’s auction house, Beverly Hills. The effects of Hollywood icon Vivian Snow are up for bid. In the collection is a set of hand-drawn postcards spanning six decades. The sender is Antonio Trombello, a soldier, POW, priest, and Vivian’s confidant. Each postcard sheds new light on a deeply private woman the public only thinks it knows.

It’s World War II. Vivian is a USO showgirl traveling the world when her husband goes AWOL, disappears, and is presumed dead. Facing increasing suspicion, she leans on her dear friend Father Trombello for support. He’s her confessor, her savior, the elusive love of her life, and when it comes to her husband’s death, the keeper of Vivian’s secrets.

As Vivian rises from canteen dream girl to starlet to bona fide legend, she navigates the highs and lows of Hollywood, new romances, and tumultuous family relationships ― all in the shadow of her past and the guilt, unmet longing, and buried truths that could still upend the lives of everyone she loves.

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Excerpt: SHADOW OF THE ENDLESS by Stephen Gaskell (Titan)

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In a couple of weeks, Titan Books is due to publish the latest novel by Stephen Gaskell — a brand new novel tying into the acclaimed Endless franchise: Shadow of the Endless. The novel is pitched as “Perfect for fans of the Endless series as well as readers of space opera and YA science fiction.” Here’s the synopsis:

While her starring people are being hunted by an implacable enemy, a young caver discovers a traitor in their ranks and must undertake a transformative journey across the galaxy to save everything she has ever known.

Persecuted for their worship of the Endless ― an ancient, galactic-spanning race of god-like power, who disappeared long ago ― the Pilgrims escaped the world of Raia almost a century ago, fleeing the despotic rule of the United Empire in a dozen space-faring fleets. The Pilgrims of the Horizon of Light fleet have spent two long years being hunted by an especially determined Empire foe. Now though, it appears they’ve finally caught a break, laying low on a non-descript comet that’s hurtling into deep space.

Young Pilgrim Sewa Eze wants to become a caver―and head into the depths on deserted moons, asteroids, and worlds to secure whatever the fleet needs: precious resources, Endless relics, even Dust. However, a strange device is discovered deep in the ice of the comet they shelter on ― suggesting dark forces are afoot ― and Sewa is instead selected for a leadership role at the Ceremony of Duties and must reassess her life, beginning with finding the traitor in their ranks who threatens her entire fleet’s existence.

The course of Sewa’s life changes forever as she is forced to confront treachery, discover the secrets of the ancient past and travel to the very heart of the tyrannical United Empire.

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Excerpt: TINY TIME MACHINE by John E. Stith

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Today, we have an excerpt from John E. Stith’s Tiny Time Machine, which collects the author’s trilogy of the same name. It’s a sci-fi adventure for younger readers. To mark the occasion, we have an excerpt from the book. First, though, here’s the synopsis:

When Meg’s mother died in a hospital mishap, her scientist father set out on an obsessed journey to develop a tiny time machine to save her. He became so angry that he and Meg have rarely spoken since the death of her mother.

Now a loner preoccupied with combating polluters, Meg meets Josh at a break-in at a paint company in efforts to expose their practices when they suddenly find themselves on the run from the cops. Meg heads for the one man who should always take her in — her father.  But when they reach him, they find him dying before he can perfect his device.

It’s all up to Meg and Josh to fix a disaster set to render the Earth uninhabitable, dive back into the past to rescue Mom and Dad, and overcome an adversary who wants the Tiny Time Machine for his own purposes. Can they succeed?

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Excerpt: WE OUGHTA KNOW by Andrea Warner (ECW Press)

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WarnerA-WeOughtaKnowCAHCOn October 15th, ECW Press is due to publish We Oughta Know by Andrea Warner. The book is an essay collection that examines “How Céline, Shania, Alanis, and Sarah Ruled the ’90s and Changed Music”. To mark the book’s publication, the publisher has allowed CR to share the Introduction. Before we get to the excerpt, though, here is the synopsis:

A lively collection of essays that re-examines the extraordinary legacies of the four Canadian women who dominated ’90s music and changed the industry forever

Fully revised and updated, with a foreword by Vivek Shraya

In this of-the-moment essay collection, celebrated music journalist Andrea Warner explores the ways in which Céline Dion, Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette, and Sarah McLachlan became legit global superstars and revolutionized ’90s music. In an era when male-fronted musical acts were given magazine covers, Grammys and Junos, and serious critical consideration, these four women were reduced, mocked, and disparaged by the media and became pop culture jokes even as their recordings were demolishing sales records. The world is now reconsidering the treatment and reputations of key women in ’90s entertainment, and We Oughta Know is a crucial part of that conversation.

With empathy, humor, and reflections on her own teenaged perceptions of Céline, Shania, Alanis, and Sarah, Warner offers us a new perspective on the music and legacies of the four Canadian women who dominated the ’90s airwaves and influenced an entire generation of current-day popstars with their voices, fashion, and advocacy.

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Excerpt: CLEVER GIRL by Hannah McGregor (ECW Press)

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McGregorH-CleverGirlCAHCNext month, ECW Press is due to publish the next book in their Pop Classics series, which is a range of “Short books that pack a big punch… intelligent, fun, and accessible arguments about why a particular pop phenomenon matters.” (Looking at the range, I have a feeling I’m going to be reading a few of these.) Hannah McGregor‘s Clever Girl focuses on Jurassic Park — a movie that I saw in theatres when I was only 10yrs old, and a franchise that I’ve followed pretty much ever since. To celebrate the upcoming release, the publisher has provided CR with an excerpt to share with you all. First, though, here’s the synopsis:

A smart and incisive exploration of everyone’s favorite dinosaur movie and the female dinosaurs who embody what it means to be angry, monstrous, and free

The Jurassic Park series is one of the most famous and profitable movie franchises of all time — an entire generation of people has never known life without these CGI dinosaurs. The movie spectacle broke film and merchandising records, pioneered special effects, and made Jeff Goldblum into an unlikely sex symbol, and now it has also been re-envisioned as a classic of queer feminist storytelling.

In Clever Girl, Hannah McGregor argues that the female-only dinosaurs of Jurassic Park are stand-ins for monstrous women, engineered by men to be intelligent, violent, and adaptive, and whose chaos resists the systems designed to control them. As they run wild through their prison, a profit-driven theme park, they destroy the men and structures who mistakenly believed in their own colonialist and capitalist power, showing the audience what it means to be angry, monstrous, and free. The velociraptors were not just jump scares for children but also revelatory and predatory symbols of feminist rage. Clever girls, indeed.

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Excerpt: I THINK WE’VE BEEN HERE BEFORE by Suzy Krause (Radiant Press)

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KrauseS-IThinkWeveBeenHereBeforeCAIn a couple of weeks, Radiant Press is due to publish the latest novel from Suzy Krause, I Think We’ve Been Here Before. To mark the occasion, the publisher has provided CR with an excerpt to share with readers. Before we get to it, though, here’s the synopsis…

Marlen and Hilda Jorgensen’s family has received two significant pieces of news: one, Marlen has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Two, a cosmic blast is set to render humanity extinct within a matter of months. It seems the coming Christmas on their Saskatchewan farm will be their last.

Preparing for the inevitable, they navigate the time they have left together. Marlen and Hilda have channeled their energy into improbably prophetic works of art. Hilda’s elderly father receives a longed-for visitor from his past, her sister refuses to believe the world is ending, and her teenaged nephew is missing. All the while, her daughter struggles to find her way home from Berlin with the help of an oddly familiar stranger. For everyone, there’s an unsettling feeling that this unprecedented reality is something they remember.

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Excerpt: THE DARK KING SWALLOWS THE WORLD by Robert G. Penner (Radiant Press)

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PennerRG-DarkKingSwallowsTheWorldIn October, Radiant Press are due to publish The Dark King Swallows the World, the latest novel by Robert G. Penner, a coming-of-age, historical fiction, and fantasy novel. Today, we have an excerpt to share with our readers. Here’s the synopsis:

While isolated and friendless in World War II Cornwall, Nora, a precocious American adolescent, loses her younger half-brother in a car crash. Overwhelmed by grief, Nora’s mother becomes involved with Olaf Winter, the self-professed necromancer Nora believes is responsible for the accident. Desperate to win back her mother’s love from the nefarious Mr. Winter, Nora embarks on an epic journey and is plunged into a world of faeries, giants, and homunculi. Eventually she reaches the land of the dead where she confronts the dark king who rules that realm, attempts to retrieve her half-brother, and heal her mother’s broken heart.

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Excerpt: DARKSIDE by Michael Mammay (Harper Voyager)

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MammayM-P4-DarksideUSHCIn a couple of weeks (September 24th), Harper Voyager is due to publish the fourth action-packed installment in the Planetside by Michael Mammay: in Darkside, retired Colonel Carl Butler gears up for another investigation, full of danger, corporate intrigue, and technology that people would kill for. To mark the imminent release, we have an excerpt to share! Here’s the synopsis:

Colonel Butler has paid his dues and just wants to enjoy his retirement on a remote planet. But the galaxy has had other plans.  He has been roped into searching for a politician’s missing son and an industry magnate’s missing daughter. He has been kidnapped, violated numerous laws, and caused the destruction of colonial facilities. He’s famous — or infamous, depending on who you ask — praised and reviled in equal measure across the galaxy for his exploits.

And he is determined to never let the government drag him into another investigation.

But when a runaway twelve-year-old girl whose father has gone missing asks him for help, well… it’s a lot harder to say no.

The girl’s father, Jorge Ramiro, was supposed to have been on Taug, a moon orbiting the gas giant Ridia 5, working on a dig with a famous archaeologist. But now there’s no sign of him and no record of him being there. Mining operations on the moon are run by two different consortiums, Caliber and Omicron — both of which have tried to kill Butler in the past. Butler doesn’t believe in coincidence.

Landing on Taug with his right-hand man Mac, computer genius Ganos, and an elite security squad, Butler soon finds that they’ve charged back into the crosshairs — because Ramiro is not the only who has disappeared, and the perpetual darkside of this moon is hiding more than the truth about a missing archeologist…

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Excerpt: JEKYLL & HYDE: CONSULTING DETECTIVES by Tim Major (Titan Books)

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MajorT-JekyllHyde1-ConsultingDetectivesIn a couple of weeks (September 3rd), Titan Books will publish the latest novel from Tim Major, Jekyll & Hyde: Consulting Detectives. With an intriguing premise, this should appeal to fans of classic fiction mash-ups and mystery novels alike. To introduce the character(s) to readers, the publisher has provided us with the first chapter to share with you. First, though, here’s the synopsis:

When Muriel Carew attends a lavish society party, the last person she expects to bump into is her ex-fiancée Henry Jekyll, a man she’s not seen for many years. When Jekyll turns out to be investigating a series of missing persons in London, Muriel is intrigued. But Jekyll is not working alone, and if Muriel wants to aid in the investigation, she must work with both Henry and his partner, the monstrous and uncouth Mr Hyde.

As their search takes a dark turn and a missing persons case becomes a murder investigation, Muriel finds herself deep in a mystery involving a nefarious group exploring their own hidden alter-egos within the beating heart of London’s high society.

To solve the case and bring those responsible to justice, Muriel must find a way to place her trust in Mr Hyde, which might mean uncovering secrets about her own life she never dreamed of discovering.

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Excerpt: TO REIGN IN HELL by Steven Brust (Tor Books)

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BrustS-ToReignInHellUSPB2024Next month, Tor Books is due to release a new Tor Essentials edition of To Reign in Hell by Steven Brust. First published in 1984, the novel is a retelling of Satan’s revolt against Heaven. This new edition, due out on October 15th, features an introduction from Roger Zelazny. The publisher has allowed CR to share the first chapter with our readers. First, here’s the synopsis:

The time is the Beginning. The place is Heaven. The story is the Revolt of the Angels—a war of magic, corruption and intrigue that could destroy the universe.

Heaven is threatened by the reemergence of a cataclysmic event, a wave of energy that can destroy life and result in the loss of many angels. In preparation for this Fourth Wave, the angel Yaweh consults the angel Satan. A plan to build Earth, a new and larger Heaven that would be equipped to withstand the disaster, is constructed. Satan questions the plan because doing so will sacrifice the lives of other angels, much like the Fourth Wave itself threatens to do. Charged with convincing their fellow angels to lay down their lives, Satan has reservations about their right to ask for such a sacrifice. This doubt, and the questioning of ethics, opens the door for a devious figure to manipulate Satan, developing a heavenly war.

This re-examination of Paradise Lost that calls morality and villainy into question through the lens of epic fantasy is a prescient early classic with an enduring legacy and a formative text of the genre.

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