Dust
Joan Frances Turner
Ace, Sep 7 2010, $24.95
ISBN: 9780441019281

After not buckling her seatbelt, she died at fifteen in a car accident and was interred in a zone void of humans. She wakes up inside her coffin and though she has only one good arm as her right was almost severed off in the accident, she pushes her way out of the coffin and digs through the dirt. The teen immediately knows what she is: a revenant (zombie) and joins a pack of her kind. They live in a human-free zone where they hunt animals for food.

Jessie is an undead who does not suffer from zombie amnesia as she remembers her previous mortal life though nine years have passed since she passed. She has feelings for those she considers family (past and present) though humans lock them away with putting electrical security fences their homes as if they were illegal immigrants and the police have standing orders to kill at first sight. However an inexplicable plague arises like none before as this pandemic disease can kill human and revenant. If a miracle cure is not found soon, both species will go way of the dinosaur turning into fossils and Dust.

This is a first rate urban fantasy that “humanizes” zombies who are not mindless shark like predators, but a different sentient life form with feelings for others. Jessie is a strong willed resolute soul who thrives on coping with whatever splitter fastball life throws at her head. Readers will root for her while enjoying Joan Frances Turner’s sensual revamping of zombie fever.

Harriet Klausner

The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer And The Undead
Mark Twain and Don Borchert
Tor, Aug 3 2010, $13.99
ISBN: 9780765327291

The plague turned people into zombies who could only be stopped by beheading them or shooting them in the head. People like young Tom Sawyer and his Aunt Polly adapted to the Zum as southerners called the zombies with some safety adjustments to normal living like sharpening the top of wooden fences. Tom ever the imp causing Polly and the townsfolk despair was punished for a misdeed by being forced to perform zombie antiterrorist fence sharpening, but conned the other lads into doing his work.

Tom, Huck and their friend play pirate on a nearby island. They stay for days and rumors spread amongst the townsfolk they were dead until they miraculously return home. Another time Tom and Huck get lost in a cave with Becky Thatcher and the Zum serial killer Injun’ Joe.

This is amusing historical fantasy uses the prime cast and story line from the Mark Twain classic, but adds Zum fever to the tale. The cast is solid, but the plot is clearly owned by the mischievous title character and his prime adversary the Undead Injun’ Joe serial killing Zum. Readers who enjoyed zombie invasion of the classics like the respective tales by Seth Grahame-Smith and Steve Hockensmith starring Jane Austen or W. Bill Czolgosz’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim will want to read Tom’s undead farce with Injun’ Joe.

Harriet Klausner

The War That Came Early: West and East
Harry Turtledove
Del Rey, Jul 27 2010, $27.00
ISBN 9780345491848

Following Chamberlain’s rejection of appeasement, Hitler’s War continues on three fronts. He attacks France planning to take Paris soonest. His troops head east towards Soviet Russia and the oil fields. Finally his military machine heads north to Scandinavia starting with Denmark.

However, the three German fronts don’t go as well as planned. In Czechoslovakia, the tank blitzkrieg runs into some opposition from freedom fighter using antitank rifles. In France, his forces are behind schedule in his demand that Paris is burning. Finally only in the northern front are things going somewhat smoothly. In the Pacific, the Japanese are rolling all over Asia uncontested.

The second entry in the alternate history of The War That Came Early series continues to extrapolate events based on Chamberlain taking a stand in 1938. The story line is exciting and fast-paced but is at its best when Harry Turtledove takes his audience to the real fronts where those who will never make it into the history texts star. When the plot seeks the big picture of a world at war it loses some of its in depth and the personal horrors of what happens in war even at the home front away from the battlefield. Fans will root for the everyday person on both sides of the conflict as Mr. Turtledove takes his readers to the Atlantic and Pacific, to Singapore, Japan, Siberia and all over Europe as even the maniac Hitler shows some soul when he enables an American to escape Germany.

Harriet Klausner

The Web of Titan
Dom Testa
Tor, Jun 29 2010, $8.99
ISBN: 9780765360786

The tail of the comet Bhaktul flew inside the Earth’s atmosphere. This quickly proved not a close miss though contact did not occur; the tail left a virus behind that killed anyone over eighteen and killed anyone who turned eighteen in the future. The human species is heading to extinction. To save the human species, a ship was constructed to take two hundred and fifty-one of the planet’s top teens less than sixteen to colonize a planet in a distant solar system. Two years later the Galahad leaves with a sabotaging stowaway on board (see The Comet’s Curse).

When the Galahad reaches the Saturn moon of Titan, they pick up a metal pod. The teen crew has no idea what it is or why it was so important that they pick it up. They retrieve the pod, which contains two chambers; the adult compartment is empty while the smaller one holds a cat. At the same they pick up the object, several crew members become extremely ill and the ion drive suddenly accelerates to a point that if it does not stop, the Galahad will explode. Desperate ship commander Triana directs the crew to focus on the two emergencies.

The second Galahad young adult science fiction thriller is action-packed but also contains a strong cast, who make the voyage and the current crises seem genuine. Readers will relish the frantic efforts to survive that are mindful of Scotty’s save the Enterprise of original Star Trek. Triana is the charismatic leader who encourages the crew not to quit though solutions are not working in spite of incredible efforts to save themselves as they are humanity’s last hope.

Harriet Klausner

Blood of the Mantis
Adrian Tchaikovsky
PYR, May 25 2010, $16.00
ISBN: 9781616141998

With the Darakyon spirits as companions of sorts forcing him to complete his mission, Achaeos reaches Jerez an isolated marsh town. He knows time is running out before the Shadow Box is possessed by the Wasp Emperor. Achaeos struggles with regaining the stolen artifact before disaster strikes as not just the Wasp ruler wants it, so do beasts and traitors desire ownership; all know the possessor rules the world.

In the Lowlands, the other the tribes of the Empire hope to strike back as the divided groups prepare for a counter surge against the mighty Wasp army expected spring invasion. Led by spymaster Stenwald Maker, they know their chances are bleak once the spring offensive from their enemy begins. However, the real fight is in Jerez.

The third Shadows of the Apt military fantasy (see Dragonfly Falling and Empire in Black and Gold) is a great tale that contains two strong subplots. First there is the owning of the Shadow Box, which dictates in many ways (but not all) who the winner will be in the conflict and then there is the military preparation leading to the bloody spring offensive. Blood of the Mantis is a wonderful entry in a powerful saga as AdrianTchaikovsky provides another intelligent parable of the foibles of society with racism, fear-mongering, and loathing the cornerstones of a military-magical solution.

Harriet Klausner

Chimera
Rob Thurman
Roc, Jun 2010, $7.99
ISBN 9780451463425

A decade ago someone kidnapped young Lukas Korsak. The lad just disappeared from sight with no ransom or any demand. His family grieved their loss as the assumption was he was murdered.

Lukas’s older brother Stefan has never forgotten his sibling. Working for the Russian Mafia, he still searches for Lukas when he can. Following a lead, he assaults a top secret human laboratory that brainwashes and genetically modifies kids turning them into lethal assassins. There Stefan finds a teen who looks identically like Lukas adding ten years of maturity to the mental image the mobster has maintained. Freeing the teen, they flee from the facility’s leader who sends a horde of transformed young trained killers after them.

Using technology rather than supernatural as the means of conversion, Rob Thurman provides a strong, faster than a speeding Flash thriller. Intriguing that both brothers are killers; yet the older one trusts their DNA and shared past while the younger sibling distrusts everyone as he has been thoroughly brainwashed so that his instincts are to kill regardless of collateral damage. Readers will relish this tale of brotherly love as Stefan tries to save his brother from what the Madhouse did to him, but soon believes he will be Abel to Lukas’ Cain.

Harriet Klausner

Bitter Seeds
Ian Tregillis
Tor, Apr 13 2020, $25.99
ISBN: 9780765321503

Wanting to build a superman and superwoman, German scientist Dr. von Westarp chooses WWI German orphans as his base for his experiments. Although many die and others are deformed, by 1939 the mad scientist has succeed in constructing his master race. However as WW II breaks out, he plans to use them to insure The Third Reich is victorious and remains in power for a thousand years. However, one of the successful test subjects Klaus fears his sister Gretel is using her precognitive skills to manipulate the team, but what agenda is remains unclear.

Meanwhile British secret agent Raybould Marsh, who has his own father figure in Stephenson, knows first hand how powerful the enemy supervillains are as the German war machine blitzkriegs through all enemies. He enlists mage Will Beauclerk to help the British side, whose chances of victory seem slim. Will brings on allies from the warlock community including Olivia whom Marsh marries and has a daughter with her. When he ignores the warning not to deal with the mysterious Eidelons who will offer little and demand a lot, Will sees no other hope as the Germans are winning in the air, land and sea due to being the superpower.

Although the cast is never fully developed beyond comic book stereotypes, readers will enjoy this entertaining action-packed alternate historical thriller. With homage to Moore’s Watchmen, fans of action-packed WWII dramas will appreciate the loaded Bitter Seeds as superpower German warriors battle the mages of Britain for control of the continent and ultimately the world.

Harriet Klausner

What Lies Within
S.D. Tooley
Full Moon Publishing, Mar 2010, $16.95
http://www.fullmoonpub.com
ISBN: 9780982035238

Chasen Heights, Illinois Police Chief Murphy takes disciplinary action against Detectives Jake and Frank for allowing a murder suspect to jump to her death. Murphy rejects the extenuating circumstances alibi so both work as animal control officers for a month. The humiliated partners are in the Ember’s building looking for a cat when they break through a wall that hides a staircase which leads to the fourth floor of a three-story edifice

Inside an apartment lies the mummified body of a woman sitting in a chair posed to be looking at a TV screen. The deceased turns out to be the woman Murphy was crazy about in his youth and who disappeared on the same day a bank robbery where he worked as a guard occurred. Murphy, running for mayor, learns his two cops dug up the body of a man on property that the realtor says belong to the Chief, but he denies owning it. There is further evidence surfacing that implicates Murphy as the killer of both victims. Ironically he hires Jake’s wife Sam Casey, a former homicide detective turned private eye, to investigate who is framing him. She takes the case though he is major reason she quit the force. Her uncanny psychometric skill to paranormally see thing she touches helps her, but it is normal detecting that leads her closer to the truth.

Known as one of the first to write paranormal mysteries, S.D. Tooley also writes the exciting Chase Dagger series under the name Lee Driver. The fast-paced investigative story line grips the reader as increasingly the evidence hangs the Chief who depends on a former employee he helped drive off the force. Character driven by mostly Sam, but somewhat by a beleaguered Murphy, fans will enjoy the latest Casey paranormal whodunit (see When the Dead Speak and Echoes From the Grave) as the Sin City segment of Chasen Heights was just two weeks from having its secrets interred forever.

Harriet Klausner

Well of Sorrows
Benjamin Tate
Daw, May 4 2010, $16.00
ISBN: 978-0756406028

In the landof Andover, the Twelve Families of the Court prepare for a Feud that will eventually be an all out war tearing apart the country. Citizens from each of the Families travel on ships across the Arduon Ocean to escape the fighting and to settle on land promised to them. Colin Harten and his parents travel to Portstown, which belongs to House Carente, who does not welcome the refugees from the Twelve Families war or their allies.

The Hartens, who belong to the Bontari Family, are forced to live in a city where they cannot find work. The situation gets so bad that the Proprietor ruler of the establishment plans to destroy the Lean-to city where the refugees live. He tells the residents that they can go on a wagon train to begin a new settlement trying to be created by the Family and the Church. Colin’s dad leads the wagon train knowing no one who left for the Plains ever returned. They encounter the Alvritshi warriors who warn them to go back. However, the refugees decide to continue though afraid as they have nothing to return to. The Dwarren hate humans who betrayed treaties with them attack them while the dark forest contains Shadows who kill without leaving a trace. Colin barely survives but the Faelehgre spirits of light get him the drink of Life Blood from the Well of Sorrows. He stays there for several years and is no longer human. After six decades he returns to human lands and realizes there is no place for him but he is needed.

This is a huge fantasy in which the above paragraphs fails to even come close to what is going on as the details are extraordinary. Colin obviously plays a critical role in the Colonies now called Provinces. Using the colonization of the Americas as a background, Benjamin Tate builds his own fantasized world that seems real and most critical the three prime species seem genuine. Mindful of Kate Elliot and, Terry Goodkind. Fans will enjoy this strong thriller while anticipating the next installment.

Harriet Klausner

Dragonfly Falling
Adrian Tchaikovsky
Pyr, Apr 27 2010, $16.00
ISBN 9781616141950

For generations, the methodical Wasp kinden Empire has slowly conquered the Lowlands. Only recently has some enlightened members of the other species realize the perilous threat of the advancing Wasp horde.

Currently the Wasp army threatens Collegium, a city with a mix of opinions as the resistance is strong here and so are the deniers. Stenwold so far has failed to persuade the Collegium leadership that the Wasp threat endangers the city.

In Tark, Totho and Salma are arrested as spies by a fearful of strangers law enforcement officials who determine guilt based mainly on one’s status. They are released, but seemingly too late as the Wasp army has the city under siege.

This is a fascinating second tale (see Empire in Black and Gold) in a unique fantasy in which the world built by Adrian Tchaikovsky engages the audience. The strife is reminiscent of the Greco-Persan Wars (the movie 300 is one major battle) , but with the refreshing insectoid spin. Fans who appreciate something different in their military-social fantasies will want to read the strong Shadows of the Apt saga as a deep entrenched caste system struggles with survival since the invasion changes everything previously accepted as the divine order.
Harriet Klausner