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Sunday, January 10, 2016

What's Up for the Debut Author Challenge Authors? - Part 20


This is the twentieth in a series of updates about formerly featured Debut Author Challenge authors and their 2015 works published since the last update and any upcoming works for 2016. The year in parentheses after the author's name is the year she/he was featured in the Debut Author Challenge.



Part 1 herePart 11 here
Part 2 herePart 12 here
Part 3 herePart 13 here
Part 4 herePart 14 here
Part 5 herePart 15 here
Part 6 herePart 16 here
Part 7 herePart 17 here
Part 8 herePart 18 here
Part 9 herePart 19 here
Part 10 here



Anthony Ryan (2013)

An Aria For Ragnarok
Slab City Blues 5
October 1, 2015
eBook, 172 pages

The fifth and final story in the SF Noir series from Anthony Ryan, the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Raven's Shadow Series.

Alex McLeod has a score to settle. Back on the Slab and newly promoted to head of Special Homicide, Alex decides it’s time to finally bring down Mr Mac - his longest-standing enemy and the most powerful criminal kingpin in the Confederation of Autonomous Orbiting States. But, before the hunt can begin he finds himself lumbered with the inconvenient and spectacularly bloody murder of a famous industrialist. A swift but violent resolution to the case raises more questions than it answers and Alex’s inability to tolerate a mystery soon uncovers a far greater threat than he has ever faced before. Ragnarok is coming. To stop it, Alex must call on the help of both friends and foes, as well as placing himself in an alien and hostile environment: it’s time for a return visit to Planet Earth.


Slab City Blues - The Collected Stories: All Five Stories in One Volume
Slab City Blues
October 1, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 390 pages

Presenting in one volume all five stories in the Sci-fi Noir series by New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Anthony Ryan, author of the acclaimed Raven's Shadow Trilogy.

WELCOME TO THE SLAB. A vast orbiting slum where rats grow big, sweat falls in rain and the gene-spliced come in all shapes and sizes.

Slab City Blues - There's a stranger on the Slab, a stranger with very sharp claws and a penchant for killing assassins. Finding him is the job of Inspector Alex McLeod, detective, disfigured war veteran and reluctant widower. Some days are worse than others on the Slab but today is going to be a gem.

A Song for Madame Choi - An old enemy embroils Inspector Alex McLeod in the hunt for a kidnapped girl. With no leads he finds himself reluctantly seeking help from drug dealer and fellow war veteran Madame Choi. But can he really trust her?

A Hymn to Gods Long Dead - Inspector Alex McLeod, recently suspended for excessive force and nurturing a growing addiction to bourbon, has been reduced to tending bar when an improbably beautiful vampire comes to him with a bizarre theory: there’s a killer on the Slab, a killer with a liking for recreating ancient myth, in bloody and spectacular fashion. But who exactly is this vampire, and how does she know so much? And what kind of killer can walk through security systems without a trace, leaving deadly traps for those hunting him?

The Ballad of Bad Jack - The Asteroid Belt, home to mining corporations and those who prefer to live beyond the heavily policed habitats of Earth orbit – the perfect hunting ground for Bad Jack, captain of the Dead Reckoning and the most feared pirate in the solar system. About to embark upon the biggest job of his career, Jack finds himself in need of a specialist, but is unaware his latest recruit has a new face, a new name and an agenda of his own. Chief Inspector Alex McLeod has been reset to war mode, and things are about to get very ugly. The fourth story in the Slab City Blues series, The Ballad of Bad Jack is an all-action future-crime thriller from the best-selling author of the Raven’s Shadow trilogy.

An Aria for Ragnarok - Alex McLeod has a score to settle. Back on the Slab and newly promoted to head of Special Homicide, Alex decides it’s time to finally bring down Mr Mac - his longest-standing enemy and the most powerful criminal kingpin in the Confederation of Autonomous Orbiting States. But, before the hunt can begin he finds himself lumbered with the inconvenient and spectacularly bloody murder of a famous industrialist. A swift but violent resolution to the case raises more questions than it answers and Alex’s inability to tolerate a mystery soon uncovers a far greater threat than he has ever faced before. Ragnarok is coming. To stop it, Alex must call on the help of both friends and foes, as well as placing himself in an alien and hostile environment: it’s time for a return visit to Planet Earth.


Queen of Fire
A Raven's Shadow Novel
Ace, June 7, 2016
Trade Paperback, 656 pages
Hardcover and eBook, July 7, 2015

[cover not yet available]
The thrilling conclusion to the “deftly and originally executed” (Booklist) New York Times bestselling Raven’s Shadow trilogy from the author of Blood Song and Tower Lord.

After fighting back from the brink of death, Queen Lyrna is determined to repel the invading Volarian army and regain the independence of the Unified Realm. To accomplish her goals she must not only rally her loyal supporters, but also align herself with forces that possess the strange and varied gifts of the Dark, and take the war to her enemy’s doorstep.

Victory rests on the shoulders of Vaelin Al Sorna, Battle Lord of the Realm. However, the Volarians have a new weapon on their side that Vaelin must destroy if the Realm is to prevail: a mysterious Ally with the ability to grant unnaturally long life to his servants. And defeating one who cannot be killed is a nearly impossible challenge, especially when Vaelin’s blood-song, the mystical power that has made him the epic fighter he is, has gone ominously silent…


The Waking Fire
The Draconis Memoria 1
Ace, July 5, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 592 pages

[cover not yet available]
The New York Times bestselling Raven’s Shadow Trilogy was a perfect read for “fans of broadscale epic fantasy along the lines of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series and George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire novels.”* Now, Anthony Ryan begins a new saga, The Draconis Memoria…

Throughout the vast lands controlled by the Ironship Syndicate, nothing is more prized than the blood of drakes. Harvested from the veins of captive or hunted Reds, Green, Blues and Blacks, it can be distilled into elixirs that give fearsome powers to the rare men and women who have the ability harness them—known as the blood-blessed.

But not many know the truth: that the lines of drakes are weakening. If they fail, war with the neighboring Corvantine Empire will follow swiftly. The Syndicate’s last hope resides in whispers of the existence of another breed of drake, far more powerful than the rest, and the few who have been chosen by fate to seek it.

Claydon Torcreek is a petty thief and an unregistered blood-blessed, who finds himself pressed into service by the protectorate and sent to wild, uncharted territories in search of a creature he believes is little more than legend. Lizanne Lethridge is a formidable spy and assassin, facing gravest danger on an espionage mission deep into the heart of enemy territory. And Corrick Hilemore is the second lieutenant of an ironship, whose pursuit of ruthless brigands leads him to a far greater threat at the edge of the world.

As lives and empires clash and intertwine, as the unknown and the known collide, all three must fight to turn the tide of a coming war, or drown in its wake.

*Library Journal




Sofia Samatar (2013)

The Winged Histories
Small Beer Press, March 15, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 300 pages

Four women, soldier, scholar, poet, and socialite are caught up on different sides of a violent rebellion. As war erupts and their families are torn apart, they fear they may disappear into the unwritten pages of history. Using the sword and the pen, the body and the voice, they struggle not just to survive, but to make history.




Kerry Schafer (2013)

The Nothing
Between Trilogy 3
Kerry Schafer, March 22, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 326 pages

In the riveting conclusion to the Between Trilogy, Vivian has one chance to save the worlds, but it could cost her everything.

In Wakeworld, a mysterious illness is killing healthy people in their sleep. While doctors and world leaders scramble to determine the source of the epidemic, Vivian Maylor travels through an increasingly unstable Between on a quest to stop it. She already knows the source of the disaster: Aidan the dragon queen has poisoned the dreamworlds. Every time a dreamworld dies, any dreamer caught up in that dream dies too. Much as Vivian despises the dark magic of the Sorcieri, they hold the secrets she needs to be able to pursue Aidan through the locked gates into the Forever. She has one chance to save the worlds—if she can persuade the Sorcieri to share their secrets, and if she is willing to sacrifice everything she loves…


Dead Before Dying
Diversion Publishing, February 9. 2016
Shadow Valley Manor Mysteries 1
Trade Paperback and eBook, 236 pages

Twisting and eerie, sharp and unforgettable, DEAD BEFORE DYING brings a heroine worthy of Sue Grafton to a terror worthy of Dean Koontz.

In this supernatural thriller, shot through with biting wit, Maureen Keslyn checks herself in to Shadow Valley Manor to recuperate and rehabilitate from her last job. There, she runs afoul of the stern director and makes friends with some of the other residents, mostly older, all harboring either a secret or a grudge. With secrets of her own, like why she has her own Federal Agent checking up on her, and how she injured herself in the first place, Maureen fits right in, even as she sticks out like a thorn.

But Shadow Valley isn’t just for rest—Maureen is working undercover, seeking to find and eradicate whatever forces are picking off the residents (and staff) at a grisly clip. With her resources dwindling one death at a time, and unnatural forces seething to rise up once more, Maureen’s experience fighting the supernatural will be her only hope to destroy a clever and powerful evil—and her only chance at surviving it. She'll need people as paranoid as she is—from the sheriff, to the undertaker's daughter, to a cook whose knife skills in the kitchen could prove deadly out of it—if she is going to bring rest to the weary, and peace to the dead…


As Kerry Anne King

Closer Home
Lake Union Publishing, March 22, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook,320 pages

When Lise Redding’s estranged sister, country-pop star Callie Redfern, is killed during a publicity stunt, the small-town music teacher is dragged from her quiet life into the spotlight.

Lise hadn’t spoken with Callie in ten years, ever since Callie’s betrayal split them apart, so she’s shocked to discover that she’s inherited her sister’s massive estate. Not only that, but Lise is now the guardian of her sixteen-year-old niece, Ariel, to whom she’s practically a stranger.

Overwhelmed by grief and her new responsibilities, Lise thinks things couldn’t get worse. But overnight she becomes the paparazzi’s latest obsession. Suddenly she and her longtime friend Dale are plastered over the front pages of the tabloids. Desperate to escape both the media and her memories, Lise sets off with Ariel on a search for the girl’s father. Yet instead of granting Lise a reprieve, the quest brings her face-to-face with long-buried secrets. Only by learning to forgive will she be able to find her way back home.




V.E. Schwab (2013)

A Darker Shade of Magic
Darker Shade of Magic 1
Tor Books, January 19, 2016
Trade Paperback, 416 pages
Hardcover and eBook, February 24, 2015

STEP INTO A UNIVERSE OF DARING ADVENTURE, THRILLING POWER, AND MULTIPLE LONDONS.

Kell is one of the last Travelers-magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel universes, connected by one magical city.

There's Grey London, dirty and boring, without any magic, and with one mad king-George III. Red London, where life and magic are revered-and where Kell was raised alongside Rhys Maresh, the rougish heir to a flourishing empire. White London-a place where people fight to control magic, and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. And once upon a time, there was Black London. But no one speaks of that now.

Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, ambassador of the Maresh empire, carrying the monthly correspondences between the royals of each London. Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive.


A Gathering of Shadow
Darker Shade of Magic 2
Tor Books, February 23, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 512 pages

Four months have passed since the shadow stone fell into Kell's possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Rhy was wounded and the Dane twins fell, and the stone was cast with Holland's dying body through the rift, and into Black London.

In many ways, things have almost returned to normal, though Rhy is more sober, and Kell is now plagued by his guilt. Restless, and having given up smuggling, Kell is visited by dreams of ominous magical events, waking only to think of Lila, who disappeared from the docks like she always meant to do. As Red London finalizes preparations for the Element Games-an extravagent international competition of magic, meant to entertain and keep healthy the ties between neighboring countries-a certain pirate ship draws closer, carrying old friends back into port.

But while Red London is caught up in the pageantry and thrills of the Games, another London is coming back to life, and those who were thought to be forever gone have returned. After all, a shadow that was gone in the night reappears in the morning, and so it seems Black London has risen again-and so to keep magic's balance, another London must fall.




Luke Scull (2013)

Sword of the North
The Grim Company
Roc, March 1, 2016
Mass Market Paperback, 480 pages
Hardcover and eBook, May 5, 2015

In The Grim Company, Luke Scull introduced a formidable and forbidding band of anti-heroes battling against ruthless Magelords and monstrous terrors. The adventure continues as the company—now broken—face new dangers on personal quests…  

As Davarus Cole and his former companions were quick to discover, the White Lady’s liberation of Dorminia has not resulted in their freedom. Anyone perceived as a threat has been imprisoned or exiled, leaving the White Lady’s rule absolute. But Eremul the Halfmage has learned of a race of immortals known as the Fade—a threat not only to the White Lady, but to all of humanity.

Far to the north, Brodar Kayne and Jerek the Wolf find themselves caught in a war between a demon horde and their enemy of old, the Shaman. And in the wondrous city of Thelassa, Sasha must overcome demons of her own.

Because the Fade are coming…



Dead Man's Steel
The Grim Company 3
Roc, December 6, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 432 pages


[description not yet available]


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