Sunday, November 19, 2023

Cover Reveal News Round-Up, Including Books By Stephen King, James S. A. Corey, Seanan McGuire, And Ann Leckie

A collection of horror stories, a new Sci-Fi series opener, an alternate multiversal super-hero tale, and a rebanradning to a classic that's been loved for a decade! What more can you ask for from Stephen King, James S. A. Corey, Seanan McGuire, and Ann Leckie. And the books are a varied genre to boot!

You Like It Darker: Stories by Stephen King

You Like It Darker: Stories by Stephen King

Synopsis

From legendary storyteller and master of short fiction Stephen King comes an extraordinary new collection of twelve short stories, many never-before-published, and some of his best EVER.

“You like it darker? Fine, so do I,” writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life—both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel “the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind,” and in You Like It Darker, readers will feel that exhilaration too, again and again.

“Two Talented Bastids” explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills. In “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream,” a brief and unprecedented psychic flash upends dozens of lives, Danny’s most catastrophically. In “Rattlesnakes,” a sequel to Cujo, a grieving widower travels to Florida for respite and instead receives an unexpected inheritance—with major strings attached. In “The Dreamers,” a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored. “The Answer Man” asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful.

King’s ability to surprise, amaze, and bring us both terror and solace remains unsurpassed. Each of these stories holds its own thrills, joys, and mysteries; each feels iconic. You like it darker? You got it.


You Like It Darker: Stories by Stephen King will be released on May 21, 2024.

The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey

The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey

Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Expanse comes a spectacular new space opera that sees humanity fighting for its survival in a war as old as the universe itself.

How humanity came to the planet called Anjiin is lost in the fog of history, but that history is about to end.

The Carryx – part empire, part hive – have waged wars of conquest for centuries, destroying or enslaving species across the galaxy. Now, they are facing a great and deathless enemy. The key to their survival may rest with the humans of Anjiin.

Caught up in academic intrigue and affairs of the heart, Dafyd Alkhor is pleased just to be an assistant to a brilliant scientist and his celebrated research team. Then the Carryx ships descend, decimating the human population and taking the best and brightest of Anjiin society away to serve on the Carryx homeworld, and Dafyd is swept along with them.

They are dropped in the middle of a struggle they barely understand, set in a competition against the other captive species with extinction as the price of failure. Only Dafyd and a handful of his companions see past the Darwinian contest to the deeper game that they must play to survive: learning to understand – and manipulate – the Carryx themselves.

With a noble but suicidal human rebellion on one hand and strange and murderous enemies on the other, the team pays a terrible price to become the trusted servants of their new rulers.

Dafyd Alkhor is a simple man swept up in events that are beyond his control and more vast than his imagination. He will become the champion of humanity and its betrayer, the most hated man in history and the guardian of his people.

This is where his story begins.


The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey will be released on August 6, 2024.

Marvel: What If... Wanda Maximoff and Peter Parker Were Siblings? by Seanan McGuire

Marvel: What If... Wanda Maximoff and Peter Parker Were Siblings? by Seanan McGuire

Synopsis

Wanda and Peter Parker embrace great responsibility in the next adventure of an epic multiversal series that reimagines iconic Marvel origin stories.

So many worlds, so little time. Infinite possibilities, creating infinite realities. Long have I watched death court the Scarlet Witch. But . . . what if Wanda didn’t have to suffer her grief alone?

All Wanda has ever known is her friendly little neighborhood in Queens. As an infant, after her parents died, she was adopted into a family where her doting Aunt May and Uncle Ben will always be at the breakfast table. One that includes her idiot brother, Peter Parker, who thinks hiding a spider bite, joining a secret fight club, and becoming a superhero are somehow good ideas.

When Wanda’s own powers emerge, blood, chaos, and suspicion follow in their wake. But as she harnesses her power under the guidance of Doctor Strange, Peter is standing beside her in the Sanctum Sanctorum. And as they try to protect New York City, the Parker siblings learn that with great powers, there must also come great responsibilities—and greater loss.

Reeling from tragedy, Wanda finds herself truly alone for the first time in her life. Peter is lost to his own grief, and so she must strike out on her own. But on her first solo outing, she runs into a mysterious speedster—a man named Pietro. And everything she has ever known shatters like glass.

Faced with unbelievable truths, Wanda is forced to choose between the life she knows and the life she could have.


Marvel: What If... Wanda Maximoff and Peter Parker Were Siblings? (A Scarlet Witch & Spider-Man Story) by Seanan McGuire will be released on July 9, 2024.

Ancillary Justice (10th Anniversary Edition) by Ann Leckie

Ancillary Justice (10th Anniversary Edition) by Ann Leckie

Synopsis

A gorgeous new hardcover edition that celebrates the 10th anniversary of Ann Leckie's bestselling and Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke award-winning debut.

Special features include a striking new cover and illustrated endpapers, a foil stamped case, and a new introduction from the author.

From New York Times-bestselling and multi award-winning author Ann Leckie comes the first book in the masterful Imperial Radch series, in which a warship trapped in a human body is on a quest for revenge.

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.

Once, she was the Justice of Toren—a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.


Ancillary Justice (10th Anniversary Edition) by Ann Leckie will be released on November 28, 2023.