2012 Debut Author Challenge - January 2012 Debuts

Here is the first list for 2012. I'm very excited about starting the Challenge again!

The January debut authors and their novels are listed in alphabetical order by author. Pick one or more and let us know in the comments which one(s) you'll be reading. If I've missed any, let me know in the comments.

I'm also including the December 27, 2011 Debuts because of how late they were released in 2011. They are listed below the January Debuts.

Happy Reading!


City of the Lost
Author:  Stephen Blackmoore
Series:  Joe Sunday
Format:  Trade Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher:  DAW (January 3, 2012)
Price:  $15.00
Language:  English
Genre:   Urban Fantasy Noir
ISBN:  9780756407025

Joe Sunday has been a Los Angeles low-life for years, but his life gets a whole lot lower when he is killed by the rival of his crime boss-only to return as a zombie. His only hope is to find and steal a talisman that he learns can grant immortality. But, unfortunately for Joe, every other undead thug and crime boss in Los Angeles is looking for the same thing.

You can read Stephen's guest blog - Our Lady of the Shadows - here.



Nameless
Author:  Kyle Chais
Format:  Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher:  Gallery Books/Karen Hunter Publishing (January 10, 2012)
Price:  $15.00
Language:  English
Genre:  Fantasy
ISBN:  9781439187258

In the in between are the Nameless; names are for masters and they have none. They live in the Nameless realm; between being saved and being destroyed. They are Fallen.

One Nameless spends his time watching humans in New York City and, in his endless eternity of boredom, becomes intrigued by a drunk named Aurick Pantera. One day Aurick, a reckless gambler, is about to be killed by a gang over his debts. Nameless feels sorry for him, and possesses his body to save his life. He then decides that he rather likes being in a human body; the chance to taste, smells, and touch. He uses Aurick’s body to fulfill all of his wildest dreams – become a rock star, have a successful psychiatric practice, and pursue star journalist Helena Way.

Until, three years after possessing Aurick, the other Fallen take notice of these random achievements and begin appearing to Aurick. They are tired of waiting in Nameless and are ready to start a war—their only chance to cease this painful eternity of waiting and either be saved or be released. Aurick is stuck in the middle. Join the ranks and finally be released to Null for atrocities against mankind, or can his love for Helena, his budding friendships, and his growing concern for all humans grant him salvation?

Control Point
Author:  Myke Cole
Series:  Shadow Ops
Format:  Mass Market Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher:  Ace (January 31, 2012)
Price:  $7.99
Language:  English
Genre:  Military Science Fiction
ISBN:  9781937007249

Lieutenant Oscar Britton of the Supernatural Operations Corps has been trained to hunt down and take out people possessing magical powers. But when he starts manifesting powers of his own, the SOC revokes Oscar's government agent status to declare him public enemy number one.

You can read Myke's guest blog - Why are we so Interested in Military Speculative Fiction? - here.



Seven Princes
Author:  John R. Fultz
Series:  Books of the Shaper
Format:  Trade Paperback, 544 pages
Publisher:  Orbit (January 3, 2012)
Price:  $15.99
Language:  English
Genre: Epic Fantasy
ISBN:  9780316187862

It is an Age of Legends.

Under the watchful eye of the Giants, the kingdoms of Men rose to power. Now, the Giant-King has slain the last of the Serpents and ushered in an era of untold peace and prosperity. Where a fire-blackened desert once stood, golden cities flourish in verdant fields.

It is an Age of Heroes.

But the realms of Man face a new threat-- an ancient sorcerer slaughters the rightful King of Yaskatha before the unbelieving eyes of his son, young Prince D'zan. With the Giant-King lost to a mysterious doom, it seems that no one has the power to stop the coming storm.

It is an Age of War.

The fugitive Prince seeks allies across the realms of Men and Giants to liberate his father's stolen kingdom. Six foreign Princes are tied to his fate. Only one thing is certain: War is coming.

SEVEN PRINCES.

Some will seek glory.

Some will seek vengeance.

All will be legends.

Taft 2012
Author: Jason Heller
Format  Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher:  Quirk (January 17, 2012)
Price:  $14.95
Language:  English
Genre: Fantasy/Time Travel/Alternate History/Satire
ISBN: 978-1-59474-550-8

He is the perfect presidential candidate. Conservatives love his hard-hitting Republican résumé. Liberals love his passion for peaceful diplomacy. The media can’t get enough of his larger-than-life personality. Regular folks can identify with his larger-than-life physique. And all the American people love that he’s an honest, hard-working man who tells it like it is.

There’s just one problem: He is William Howard Taft... and he was already U.S. president a hundred years ago. So what on earth is he doing alive and well and considering a running mate in 2012?

Jason Heller’s extraordinary debut novel presents the Vonnegut-esque satire of a presidential Rip Van Winkle amid 21st-century media madness. It’s the ultimate what-if scenario for the 2012 election season!

You can read Jason's guest blog - The fine (okay, accidental) art of genre-busting - here.



Faith
Author: John Love
Format  Trade Paperback, 376 pages
Publisher:  Night Shade Books (January 3, 2012)
Price:  $14.99
Language:  English
Genre: Space Opera/Military Science Fiction
ISBN:  9781597803908

Moby Dick meets Duel in John Love's debut novel of Space Opera and Military Science Fiction! Faith is the name humanity has given to the unknown, seemingly invincible alien ship that has begun to harass the newly emergent Commonwealth. 300 years earlier, the same ship destroyed the Sakhran Empire, allowing the Commonwealth to expand its sphere of influence. But now Faith has returned! The ship is as devastating as before, and its attacks leave some Commonwealth solar systems in chaos. Eventually it reaches Sakhra, now an important Commonwealth possession, and it seems like history is about to repeat itself. But this time, something is waiting: an Outsider, one of the Commonwealth's ultimate warships. Slender silver ships, full of functionality and crewed by people of unusual abilities, often sociopaths or psychopaths, Outsiders were conceived in back alleys, built and launched in secret, and commissioned without ceremony. One system away from earth, the Outsider ship Charles Manson makes a stand. Commander Foord waits with his crew of miscreants and sociopath, hoping to accomplish what no other human has been able to do - to destroy Faith!

To Walk the Night
Author:  E.S. Moore
Series:  Kat Redding
Format  Mass Market Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher:  Kensington (January 3, 2012)
Price:  $7.99
Language:  English
Genre:  Urban Fantasy
ISBN:  978-0-7582-6872-3

Even a vampire has to face her inner demons…

Kat Redding is the very thing she hunts: a vampire, thirsting for blood, capable of killing any creature unlucky enough to get in her path. The difference is, Kat kills her own kind in order to protect human Purebloods. She’s good at what she does. Good enough to earn the nickname Lady Death—and the enmity of every bloodthirsty being around. But now a vampire Count is intent on merging his House with a werewolf cult to create a force of terrifying power.

Kat can’t allow that to happen. Even if it means taking on a den of weres and a vampire more ruthless than any she’s encountered before. She has the weapons, the skill, and a few allies. But that may not be enough to eliminate the Count before her own dark nature rises to the surface—and costs her whatever is left of her humanity…

You can read E.S. Moore's guest blog - Judging Covers - here.



The Rook
Author:  Daniel O'Malley
Format  Hardcover, 496 pages
Publisher:  Little, Brown  and Company (January 11. 2012)
Price:  $25.99
Language:  English
Genre:  Fantasy/Thriller
ISBN:  9780316098793

"The body you are wearing used to be mine." So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and track down the agents who want to destroy her.

She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organization called the Chequy that battles the many supernatural forces at work in Britain. She also discovers that she possesses a rare, potentially deadly supernatural ability of her own.

In her quest to uncover which member of the Chequy betrayed her and why, Myfanwy encounters a person with four bodies, an aristocratic woman who can enter her dreams, a secret training facility where children are transformed into deadly fighters, and a conspiracy more vast than she ever could have imagined.

Filled with characters both fascinating and fantastical, THE ROOK is a richly inventive, suspenseful, and often wry thriller that marks an ambitious debut from a promising young writer.

Giant Thief
Author: David Tallerman
Series: Tales of Easie Damasco
Format  Mass Market Paperback, 416 pages
Publisher:  Angry Robot Books (January 31, 2012)
Price:  $7.99
Language:  English
Genre:  Epic Fantasy
ISBN:  9780857662118

Meet Easie Damasco, rogue, thieving swine and total charmer.

Even the wicked can’t rest when a vicious warlord and the force of enslaved giants he commands invade their homeland. Damasco might get away in one piece, but he’s going to need help.

Big time.

File Under: Fantasy [ Big Trouble | Deception | Saltlick's City | Hang 'im High ]

December 27, 2011

Archon
Author:  Sabrina Benulis
Series:  The Books of Raziel
Format:  Hardcover, 400 pages
Publisher:  Harper Voyager (December 27, 2011)
Price:  $22.99
Language:  English
Genre:  Fantasy
ISBN:  9780062069405

There are some things worse than death . . .

For years, Angela Mathers has been plagued by visions of a supernatural being—an angel with beguiling eyes and magnificent wings who haunts her thoughts and seduces her dreams. Newly freed from a mental institution where she had been locked away for two years, Angela hopes that attending Westwood Academy, the Vatican’s exclusive university, will bring her peace and a semblance of normality.

But Angela isn’t normal. With her stain of dark red hair and alabaster skin, she is a blood head—a freak, a monster, and the possible fulfillment of a terrifying prophecy. Blessed with strange, mystical powers, blood heads hold a special place in the Academy. Among them, one special blood head is more powerful than them all: the Archon, the human reincarnation of the dead angel Raziel. And when the Archon arises as foretold, it will rule the supernatural universe.

Barely in control of her own life, Angela has no ambition to conquer an entire universe, not when she’s suddenly contending with a dangerous enemy who is determined to destroy her and a magnetic novitiate who wants to save her. But the choice might not be her own . . .

Torn between mortal love and angelic obsession, the young blood head must soon face the truth about herself and her world. It is she who holds the key to Heaven and Hell—and both will stop at nothing to possess her.

In Archon, Sabrina Benulis has created a dazzlingly imaginative tale set in a lush, vivid supernatural world filled with gargoyles and candlelight, magic and murder, in which humans, angels, demons, and those in between battle for supremacy—and survival.

You can read the 2011 DAC Interview with Sabrina here.



Empire State
Author:  Adam Christopher 
Format: Trade Paperback, 416 pages
Publisher:  Angry Robot Books (December 27, 2011)
Price: $12.99
Language:  English
Genre:  Science Fiction, Noir
ISBN:   9780857661937

The stunning superhero-noir fantasy thriller set in the other New York.

It was the last great science hero fight, but the energy blast ripped a hole in reality, and birthed the Empire State – a young, twisted parallel prohibition-era New York.

When the rift starts to close, both worlds are threatened, and both must fight for the right to exist.

Adam Christopher’s stunning debut novel heralds the arrival of an amazing new talent.

File Under: Science Fiction [ Pocket Universe | Heroes or Villains | Speak Easy | Loyalties Divided ].

You can read Adam's guest blog - In Blackest Night: blending science fiction and noir - here.



Babylon Steel
Author:  Gaie Sebold
Series:  Babylon Steel
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 544 pages
Publisher: Solaris (December 27, 2011)
Price:  $7.99
Language:  English
Genre:  Fantasy
ISBN:  9781907992384

Babylon Steel, ex-sword-for-hire, ex-other things, runs the best brothel in Scalentine; city of many portals, two moons, and a wide variety of races, were-creatures, and religions, not to mention the occasional insane warlock. She's not having a good week. The Vessels of Purity are protesting against brothels, women in the trade are being attacked, it's tax time, and there's not enough money to pay the bill. So when the mysterious Darask Fain offers her a job finding a missing girl, Babylon decides to take it. But the missing girl is not what she seems, and neither is Darask Fain. In the meantime twomoon is approaching, and more than just a few night's takings are at risk when Babylon's hidden past reaches out to grab her by the throat.

You can read Gaie's guest blog - Things I Didn't Know - here.