Monday, May 29, 2023

Cover Reveal News Round-Up, Including Books By Jim Butcher, Peter S. Beagle, Matthew Ward, Josiah Bancroft, Michael J. Sullivan, Jennifer A. Nielsen, Jeff Kinney, And F.H. Batacan

It's mostly Science Fiction/Fantasy books that are a hit in this edition of cover revelations, but a few stragglers outside this genre also made their way through. Featuring authors like Jim Butcher, Peter S. Beagle, Matthew Ward, Josiah Bancroft, Michael J. Sullivan, Jennifer A. Nielsen, Jeff Kinney, and F. H. Batacan...

The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher

The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher

Synopsis

The fate of the Cinder Spires may be decided by crossed swords in the next exhilarating fantasy adventure from the author of the Dresden Files, in this New York Times bestselling series of noble families, swordplay, and airships.

For centuries the Cinder Spires have safeguarded humanity, rising far above the deadly surface world. Within their halls, aristocratic houses rule, developing scientific marvels and building fleets of airships for defense and trade.

Now, the Spires hover on the brink of open war.

Everyone knows it's coming. The guns of the great airship fleets that control the skies between the last bastions of humanity will soon speak in anger, and Spire Albion stands alone against the overwhelming might of Spire Aurora's Armada and its new secret weapon--one capable of destroying the populations of entire Spires.

A trading summit at Spire Olympia provides an opportunity for the Spirearch, Lord Albion, to secure alliances that will shape the outcomes of the war, and to that end he dispatches privateer Captain Francis Madison Grimm and the crew of the AMS Predator to bolster the Spirearch's diplomatic agents.

It will take daring, skill, and no small amount of showmanship to convince the world to stand with Spire Albion--assuming that it is not already too late.


The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher will be released on November 7, 2023.

A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle

A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle

Synopsis

Jonathan Rebeck is homeless. Bankrupt. He has dropped out of society and has been living quietly in a local cemetery, under the care of a raven who is quite good at stealing sandwiches.

Far from being lonely, however, Jonathan is able to converse with the ghosts around him, and finds himself following two new spirits, Michael Laura, as they fall in love with each other. He becomes invested in, and part of, their cautious romance. But the circumstances behind Michael's death are slipping from his memory, and the further from life they drift, the closer the loss of love feels.

When a visiting widow stumbles across Jonathan in his graveyard home, will the living world begin to intrude on this fine and private place?

Peter S. Beagle's legendary, beautiful debut novel is filled with all his characteristic warmth and humanity. With a new introduction by Neil Gaiman, A Fine and Private Place is a timeless classic from the author of The Last Unicorn.


A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle will be released on October 12, 2023.

The Darkness Before Them by Matthew Ward

The Darkness Before Them by Matthew Ward

Synopsis

The sprawling Kingdom of Khalad stands alone. Severed from the rest of the world by an ancient, arcane war, its folk toil behind a wall of living mist, beholden to an undead king and his barons.

But hope lies with two figures: Kat, an accomplished thief, and Vallant, a rebel and folk hero. Together they will light a fire that will burn away the corruption and tyranny of King Diar's rule.

But only if they succeed...


The Darkness Before Them by Matthew Ward will be released on November 9, 2023.

The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft

The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft

Synopsis

The Hexologists, Iz and Warren Wilby, are quite accustomed to helping desperate clients with the bugbears of city life. Aided by hexes and a bag of charmed relics, the Wilbies have recovered children abducted by chimney-wraiths, removed infestations of barb-nosed incubi, and ventured into the Gray Plains of the Unmade to soothe a troubled ghost. Well-acquainted with the weird, they never shy away from a challenging case.

But when they are approached by the royal secretary and told the king pleads to be baked into a cake - going so far as to wedge himself inside a lit oven - the Wilbies soon find themselves embroiled in a mystery that could very well see the nation turned on its head. Their effort to expose a royal secret buried under forty years of lies brings them nose to nose with a violent antiroyalist gang, avaricious ghouls, alchemists who draw their power from a hell-like dimension, and a bookish dragon who only occasionally eats people.

Armed with a love toughened by adversity and a stick of chalk that can conjure light from the darkness, hope from the hopeless, Iz and Warren Wilby are ready for whatever springs from the alleys, graves, and shadows next.


The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft will be released on September 28, 2023.

Esrahaddon by Michael J. Sullivan

Esrahaddon by Michael J. Sullivan

Synopsis

A hero to some. A villain to many. The truth forever buried.

The man who became known as Esrahaddon is reported to have destroyed the world’s greatest empire ― but there are those who believe he saved it. Few individuals are as divisive, but all agree on three facts: He was exiled to the wilderness, hunted by a goblin priestess, and sentenced to death by a god ― all before the age of eight. How he managed to survive and why people continued to fear his name a thousand years later has always been a mystery... until now.

From the three-time New York Times best-selling author Michael J. Sullivan, Esrahaddon is the final novel in The Rise and Fall trilogy. This latest set of stories sits snugly between the Legends of the First Empire series and the Riyria books (Revelations and Chronicles). With this tale, Michael continues his tradition of unlikely heroes who must rise to the call when history knocks, demanding to be let in. This is the nineteenth full-length novel in a body of work that started in 2008 and spans four series.


Esrahaddon by Michael J. Sullivan will be released on December 5, 2023.

Uprising by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Uprising by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Synopsis

#1 New York Times bestselling author of Iceberg, Jennifer A. Nielsen inspires readers with a brand-new thriller based on the remarkable true story of a young Polish girl who bravely fought, participating in the Warsaw city uprising, and took a stand in the name of freedom.

Twelve-year-old Lidia is outside her grandfather's house when planes fly overhead, bearing the Nazi cross on each wing. Before the bombs hit the ground, Lidia realizes her life is about to change forever. Poland has fallen under German occupation, and her father makes the brave decision to join the Polish army to fight against the Nazis. Lidia wants to follow him into war, but she's far too young, and she's needed by her mother and brother.

After her family returns to Warsaw, where life has changed irrevocably, Lidia continues to play the piano, finding comfort in Chopin, Bach, and Beethoven. But she also wants to aid the Jewish people held captive in the Warsaw Ghetto. With the help of a friend, Lidia begins to smuggle wheat and food into the ghetto. Still, she feels like she could be doing so much more. She wants to fight. After her brother joins the resistance, Lidia wants only to follow in his footsteps. Soon, she begins to work as a courier, smuggling weapons and messages for the resistance throughout the city.

When the Warsaw city uprising begins―one year after the more well-known Warsaw Ghetto uprising by Polish Jews―with gunfire and bombs echoing throughout the streets, Lidia joins the Polish nationalists’ fight, too, and she and her peers fight with everything they’ve got. Life will continue to surprise Lidia, as she and the resistance fighters do their best to defeat the German soldiers. No matter the consequences, they’re willing to defend their freedom and their homes from the Nazi invaders―even with their lives.

Drawing on the extraordinary real-life story of Polish teenager Lidia Zakrzewski, bestselling author Jennifer A. Nielsen presents an inspiring and dramatic account of the Polish resistance fighters who struggled to force out their Nazi occupiers and reclaim their nation's freedom from tyranny.


Uprising by Jennifer A. Nielsen will be released on March 5, 2024.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: No Brainer by Jeff Kinney

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: No Brainer by Jeff Kinney

Synopsis

In No Brainer, book 18 of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series from #1 international bestselling author Jeff Kinney, it’s up to Greg to save his crumbling school before it’s shuttered for good.

Up until now, middle school hasn’t exactly been a joyride for Greg Heffley. So when the town threatens to close the crumbling building, he’s not too broken up about it.

But when Greg realizes this means he’s going to be sent to a different school than his best friend, Rowley Jefferson, he changes his tune. Can Greg and his classmates save their school before it’s shuttered for good? Or is this the start of a whole new chapter for Greg


Diary of a Wimpy Kid: No Brainer by Jeff Kinney will be released on October 24, 2023.

Accidents Happen by F.H. Batacan

Accidents Happen by F.H. Batacan

Synopsis

A short story collection as relentlessly intense and darkly compelling as Batacan’s debut, the Filipino crime landmark Smaller and Smaller Circles

F.H. Batacan’s first novel, Smaller and Smaller Circles, was an instant classic when it was published in 1999, a masterpiece of Filipino crime that won the Philippine Book Award. In this, her second work of fiction, she gives us a far-ranging collection that explores the darkest corners of human experience, depicting with pitch black humor the systems of class and politics that her characters are trapped in, and the moments violence—accidental or otherwise—that can, at any moment, shatter their lives.

The driver for a wealthy family witnesses the aftermath of the disappearance of the family’s twelve-year-old son. A field investigator for the World Health Organization travels the world giving presentations about a biomedical enzyme that will lead to the extinction of the human race. And Father Augusto Saenz, the Jesuit priest and forensic anthropologist from Smaller and Smaller Circles, returns to investigate the murder of a woman whose secretive life holds the key to her death.

Sure to cement Batacan’s status as a crime writer of global status, Accidents Happen is a probing and relentless series of dark excursions into worlds where the smallest moments are infused with life and vibrating with menace, and death is always close at hand.


Accidents Happen by F.H. Batacan will be released on June 4, 2024.

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