Close
post-featured-image

Every Paperback from Tor in Spring 2024

It’s Spring, and flower’s aren’t all that’s growing! We’ve got paperback books springing up left and right! 

Check them out 😎


April 2, 2024

one for my enemy by olivie blakeOne for My Enemy by Olivie Blake

In modern-day Manhattan where we lay our scene, two rival witch families fight to maintain control of their respective criminal empires. On one side of the conflict are the Antonova sisters — each one beautiful, cunning, and ruthless — and their mother, the elusive supplier of premium intoxicants, known only as Baba Yaga. On the other side, the influential Fedorov brothers serve their father, the crime boss known as Koschei the Deathless, whose ventures dominate the shadows of magical Manhattan. After twelve years of tenuous co-existence, one family member brutally crosses the line. Bad blood reignites old grudges; at the same time, fate intervenes with a chance encounter between enemies. In the wake of love and vengeance, everyone must choose a side. As each of the siblings struggles to stake their claim, bloodshed is inevitable. The question is: Whose?

tress of the emerald sea by brandon sandersonTress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

The only life Tress has known on her island home in an emerald-green ocean has been a simple one, with the simple pleasures of collecting cups brought by sailors from faraway lands and listening to stories told by her friend Charlie. But when his father takes him on a voyage to find a bride and disaster strikes, Tress must stow away on a ship and seek the Sorceress of the deadly Midnight Sea. Amid the spore oceans where pirates abound, can Tress leave her simple life behind and make her own place sailing a sea where a single drop of water can mean instant death?


April 9, 2024

forge of the high mage by ian c. esslemontForge of the High Mage by Ian C. Esslemont

After decades of warfare, Malazan forces are poised to consolidate the Quon Tali mainland. Yet it is at this moment that Emperor Kellanved orders a new, some believe foolhardy campaign: the invasion of Falar that lies far to the north . . . And to fight on this new front, a rag-tag army raised from orphaned units and broken squads is been brought together under Fist Dujek, and joined by a similarly motley fleet under the command of the Emperor himself. So the Malazans head north, only to encounter an unlooked-for and most unwelcome threat. Something unspeakable and born of legend has awoken and will destroy all who stand in its way. Most appalled by this is the Empire’s untested High Mage, Tayschrenn. All too aware of the true nature of this ancient horror, he fears his own inadequacies when the time comes to confront it. Yet confront it he must. 


April 16, 2024

the cradle of ice by james rollinsThe Cradle of Ice by James Rollins

To stop the coming apocalypse, a fellowship was formed. A soldier, a thief, a lost prince, and a young girl bonded by fate and looming disaster. Each step along this path has changed the party, forging deep alliances and greater enmities. All the while, hostile forces have hunted them, fearing what they might unleash. Armies wage war around them. For each step has come with a cost—in blood, in loss, in heartbreak. Now, they must split, traveling into a vast region of ice and to a sprawling capital of the world they’ve only known in stories. Time is running out and only the truth will save them all.

dual memory by sue burkeDual Memory by Sue Burke

Antonio Moro lost everything to the Leviathan League. Now he’s alone in a city on an Arctic island fighting the ruthless, global pirates with the chance to be the artist he always wanted to be. Unfortunately, he thinks it’s a cover story for his real purpose—spying on sympathizers. When things look bleak, he discovers an unusual ally. His new personal assistant program, Par Augustus. It’s insolent, extroverted, moody, and a not-quite-legal nascent A. I. Together they create a secret rebellion from unlikely recruits to defend the island from ideological pirates with entitlement and guns, and capitalist pirates with entitlement and money.


April 30, 2024

stan lee's the devil's quintet: the shadow society by stan lee & jay bonansingaStan Lee’s The Devil’s Quintet: The Shadow Society by Stan Lee & Jay Bonansinga

Ever since The Armageddon Code, the Devil’s Quintet have been using their demonic powers to fight evil and protect the world, while remaining nothing but an urban legend to the general public. But the Devil is not about to let them keep using his powers for good. Created by Satan himself to counter the Quintet, the Shadow Society are five saintly men and women that have been secretly (and strategically) possessed by five of Hell’s most powerful demons. Granted supernatural powers of their own, they are part of a literally diabolical plot to strike at the very heart of the Quintet—and destroy humanity’s last hope!

web of angels by john m fordWeb of Angels by John M. Ford

Originally published in 1980, the legendary John M. Ford’s first published novel was an uncannily brilliant anticipation of the later cyberpunk genre—and of the internet itself. The Web links the many worlds of humanity. Most people can only use it to communicate. Some can retrieve and store data, as well as use simple precoded programs. Only a privileged few are able to create their own software, within proscribed limits. And then there are the Webspinners. Grailer is Fourth Literate, able to manipulate the Web at will—and use it for purposes unintended and impossible for anyone but the most talented Webspinner. Obviously, he cannot be allowed to live. Condemned to death at the age of nine, Grailer must go underground, hiding his skills, testing his powers- until he is ready to do battle with the Web itself. With a new introduction from Cory Doctorow, written especially for this edition.


May 7, 2024

the silverblood promise by james loganThe Silverblood Promise by James Logan

Lukan Gardova is a cardsharp, academy dropout, and—thanks to a duel that ended badly—the disgraced heir to an ancient noble house. His days consist of cheap wine, rigged card games, and wondering how he might win back the life he threw away. When Lukan discovers that his estranged father has been murdered in strange circumstances, he finds fresh purpose. Deprived of his chance to make amends for his mistakes, he vows to unravel the mystery behind his father’s death. His search for answers leads him to Saphrona, fabled city of merchant princes, where anything can be bought if one has the coin. Lukan only seeks the truth, but instead he finds danger and secrets in every shadow. For in Saphrona, everything has a price—and the price of truth is the deadliest of all.


May 14, 2024

malarkoi by alex phebyMalarkoi by Alex Pheby

Nathan Treeves is dead, murdered by the Master of Mordew, his remains used to create the powerful occult weapon known as the Tinderbox. His companions are scattered, making for Malarkoi, the city of the Mistress, the Master’s enemy. They are hoping to find welcome there, or at least safety. They find neither – and instead become embroiled in a life and death struggle against assassins, demi-gods, and the cunning plans of the Mistress. Only Sirius, Nathan’s faithful magical dog, has not forgotten the boy. Bent on revenge, he returns to the shattered remains of Mordew – only to find the city morphed into an impossible mountain, swarming with monsters. The stage is set for battle, sacrifice, magic and treachery in the stunning sequel to Mordew. Welcome to Malarkoi.


May 21, 2024

fractal noise by christopher paoliniFractal Noise by Christopher Paolini

July 25th, 2234: The crew of the Adamura discovers the anomaly.

On the seemingly uninhabited planet Talos VII: a circular pit, 50 kilometers wide. Its curve not of nature, but design. Now, a small team must land and journey on foot across the surface to learn who built the hole and why. But they all carry the burdens of lives carved out on disparate colonies in the cruel cold of space. For some the mission is the dream of the lifetime, for others a risk not worth taking, and for one it is a desperate attempt to find meaning in an uncaring universe. Each step they take toward the mysterious abyss is more punishing than the last. And the ghosts of their past follow.


June 4, 2024

wolfsong by tj klune with orange sprayed edgesWolfsong by TJ Klune (with beautiful sprayed edges!)

Oxnard Matheson was twelve when his father taught him a lesson: Ox wasn’t worth anything and people would never understand him. Then his father left. Ox was sixteen when the energetic Bennett family moved in next door, harboring a secret that would change him forever. The Bennetts are shapeshifters. They can transform into wolves at will. Drawn to their magic, loyalty, and enduring friendships, Ox feels a gulf between this extraordinary new world and the quiet life he’s known, but he finds an ally in Joe, the youngest Bennett boy. Ox was twenty-three when murder came to town and tore a hole in his heart. Violence flared, tragedy split the pack, and Joe left town, leaving Ox behind. Three years later, the boy is back. Except now he’s a man – charming, handsome, but haunted – and Ox can no longer ignore the song that howls between them.


June 11, 2024

the first bright thing by j r dawsonThe First Bright Thing by J. R. Dawson

Ringmaster — Rin, to those who know her best — can jump to different moments in time as easily as her wife, Odette, soars from bar to bar on the trapeze. And the circus they lead is a rare home and safe haven for magical misfits and outcasts, known as Sparks. With the world still reeling from World War I, Rin and her troupe — the Circus of the Fantasticals — travel the midwest, offering a single night of enchantment and respite to all who step into their Big Top. But threats come at Rin from all sides. The future holds an impending war that the Sparks can see barrelling toward their show and everyone in it. And Rin’s past creeps closer every day, a malevolent shadow she can’t fully escape. It takes the form of another circus, with tents as black as midnight and a ringmaster who rules over his troupe with a dangerous power. Rin’s circus has something he wants, and he won’t stop until it’s his.

icehenge by kim stanley robinsonIcehenge by Kim Stanley Robinson

SF titan Kim Stanley Robinson’s breakout novel, now in a Tor Essentials edition with a new introduction by Henry Farrell

Decades before his massively successful The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson wrote one of SF’s greatest meditations on extended human lifespan, the limitations of human memory, and the haunted confabulations that go with forgetting. On the North Pole of Pluto there stands an enigma: a huge circle of standing blocks of ice, built on the pattern of Earth’s Stonehenge—but ten times the size, standing alone at the edge of the Solar System. What is it? Who could have built it? The secret lies in the chaotic decades of the Martian Revolution, in the lost memories of those who have lived for centuries.


June 18, 2024

ebony gate by julia vee & ken bebelleEbony Gate by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle

Emiko Soong belongs to one of the eight premier magical families of the world. But Emiko never needed any magic. Because she is the Blade of the Soong Clan. Or was. Until she’s drenched in blood in the middle of a market in China, surrounded by bodies and the scent of blood and human waste as a lethal perfume. The Butcher of Beijing now lives a quiet life in San Francisco, importing antiques. But when a shinigami, a god of death itself, calls in a family blood debt, Emiko must recover the Ebony Gate that holds back the hungry ghosts of the Yomi underworld. Or forfeit her soul as the anchor. What’s a retired assassin to do but save the City by the Bay from an army of the dead?


June 25, 2024

foul days by genoveva dimovaFoul Days by Genoveva Dimova

As a witch in the walled city of Chernograd, Kosara has plenty of practice treating lycanthrope bites, bargaining with kikimoras, and slaying bloodsucking upirs. There’s only one monster she can’t defeat: her ex, the Zmey, known as the Tsar of Monsters. She’s defied him one too many times and now he’s hunting her. Betrayed by someone close to her, Kosara’s only choice is to trade her shadow—the source of her powers—for a quick escape.

Unfortunately, Kosara soon develops the deadly sickness that plagues shadowless witches—and only reclaiming her magic can cure her. To find it, she’s forced to team up with a suspiciously honorable detective. Even worse, all the clues point in a single direction: To get her shadow back, Kosara will have to face the Foul Days’ biggest threats without it. And she’s only got twelve days. But in a city where everyone is out for themselves, who can Kosara trust to assist her in outwitting the biggest monster from her past?

the frugal wizard's handbook for surviving medieval england by brandon sandersonThe Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson

A man awakes in a clearing in what appears to be medieval England with no memory of who he is, where he came from, or why he is there. Chased by a group from his own time, his sole hope for survival lies in regaining his missing memories, making allies among the locals, and perhaps even trusting in their superstitious boasts. His only help from the “real world” should have been a guidebook entitled The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, except his copy exploded during transit. The few fragments he managed to save provide clues to his situation, but can he figure them out in time to survive?

post-featured-image

Five Books for Full Moon Enthusiasts

Ah, the full moon – a powerful time for releasing negative energy, emotions, or habits. While some engage in practices such as journaling, burning photos of their exes, or engaging in a cleansing ritual, others are… I don’t know. Shifting into werewolves, fighting intergalactic battles, and facing cosmic forces that have the power to shape destinies… no pressure or anything.

Let’s explore some books that will have you over the moon (no pun intended)!


9781250766755 The Cradle of Ice by James Rollins

The second book in the New York Times bestselling Moonfall series from thriller-master James Rollins, The Cradle of Ice is a page-turning tale of action, adventure, betrayal, ambition, and the struggle for survival in a harsh world that hangs by a thread. With the moon casting its light over the icy terrain, ancient mysteries and modern-day threats collide in a pulse-pounding race against time.

9780765395818Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone

Get ready for a smart, swashbuckling, wildly imaginative adventure; the saga of a rag-tag team of brilliant misfits, dangerous renegades, and enhanced outlaws in a war-torn future. Think cosmic battles, celestial wonders, and a moon that shines as a beacon of hope in a universe on the brink of chaos.

9781250890313Wolfsong by TJ Klune

Discover love, loyalty, and transformation in the Green Creek Series’ Wolfsong, from beloved fantasy romance sensation and New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune. Follow the journey of a young man discovering his destiny amidst a pack of werewolves. The moon’s phases mirror inner turmoil, adding depth to this captivating tale of werewolves and destiny. Deep, right?

9781250236968The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal

Amidst Earth’s escalating climate crisis due to meteor impacts, widespread riots, and space program sabotage, a determined protagonist faces the challenge of navigating both a deteriorating planet and the conflicts within a moon colony. It’s like House of Cards meets Space: The Final Frontier. Need I say more?

9781250264947Sweep of Stars by Maurice Broaddus

Maurice Broaddus’s Sweep of Stars is the first in a trilogy that explores the struggles of an empire. Get to know the Muungano empire—a coalition of city-states stretching from O.E. to Titan—as it faces escalating threats and internal power struggles. This one’s a must-read!

post-featured-image

Tor’s February eBook Deals of 2024

February might be month number 2, but Tor’s eBook deals are number 1!

Check ’em out!


stan lees the devil's quintet the shadow society by stan lee & jay bonansinga

Stan Lee’s The Devil’s Quintet: The Shadow Society by Stan Lee & Jay Bonansinga — $2.99

Ever since The Armageddon Code, the Devil’s Quintet have been using their demonic powers to fight evil and protect the world, while remaining nothing but an urban legend to the general public. But the Devil is not about to let them keep using his powers for good. Created by Satan himself to counter the Quintet, the Shadow Society are five saintly men and women that have been secretly (and strategically) possessed by five of Hell’s most powerful demons. Granted supernatural powers of their own, they are part of a literally diabolical plot to strike at the very heart of the Quintet—and destroy humanity’s last hope!

kindle top nook top ebooks top google play top ibooks2 56 kobo top


mystic skies by jason denzelMystic Skies by Jason Denzel — $2.99

The world is Changed. Fifty-four years have passed since Crow Tallin, the catastrophic celestial event that merged Fayün and the human world. One devastating result of that cataclysm is that most human babies are born fused with fay spirits. The Mystics of Kelt Apar, once beloved, are blamed for this worldwide phenomenon. On the island of Moth, the Barons have declared the Myst illegal and imprisoned all Mystics under house arrest. Under the watchful eyes of deadly Hunters, a much-older Pomella AnDone now lives as a prisoner at Kelt Apar with her granddaughter and apprentice Mia, as well as the rapidly declining High Mystic of Moth, Yarina Sineese. When the time comes to conduct the ceremony intended to pass the title of High Mystic from Yarina to her successor Vivianna, something goes horribly wrong, leaving the lineage of Mystics in doubt. With new rivals seeking to claim Moth for their own, Pomella must undergo a dangerous dreamwalk into the mind-bending and heart-wrenching Mystic Skies in order to learn the mystical name of the island itself.

kindle nook ebooks.com Poster Placeholder of google play- 50 ibooks2 51 kobo

post-featured-image

Every Book Coming From Tor in Spring 2023

Ah, spring! Blue skies are returning, flowers are blooming, and—what’s this? New books?! YES. New books are releasing!

Check out everything coming from Tor Books this spring here!


One for My Enemyone for my enemy by olivie blake by Olivie Blake

In modern-day Manhattan, two rival witch families fight to maintain control of their respective criminal empires. On one side of the conflict are the Antonova sisters — each one beautiful, cunning, and ruthless — and their mother, the elusive supplier of premium intoxicants, known only as Baba Yaga. On the other side, the influential Fedorov brothers serve their father, the crime boss known as Koschei the Deathless, whose community extortion ventures dominate the shadows of magical Manhattan. After twelve years of tenuous co-existence, a change in one family’s interests causes a rift in the existing stalemate. When bad blood brings both families to the precipice of disaster, fate intervenes with a chance encounter, and in the aftershocks of a resurrected conflict, everyone must choose a side. As each of the siblings struggles to stake their claim, fraying loyalties threaten to rot each side from the inside out. If, that is, the enmity between empires doesn’t destroy them first.

On Sale 4/4/23


Tress of the Emerald SeaTress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson by Brandon Sanderson

The only life Tress has known on her island home in an emerald-green ocean has been a simple one, with the simple pleasures of collecting cups brought by sailors from faraway lands and listening to stories told by her friend Charlie. But when his father takes him on a voyage to find a bride and disaster strikes, Tress must stow away on a ship and seek the Sorceress of the deadly Midnight Sea. Amid the spore oceans where pirates abound, can Tress leave her simple life behind and make her own place sailing a sea where a single drop of water can mean instant death?

On Sale 4/4/23


Image Place holder  of - 12King Rat by China Miéville

Something is stirring in London’s dark, stamping out its territory in brickdust and blood. Something has murdered Saul Garamond’s father, and left Saul to pay for the crime. But a shadow from the urban waste breaks into Saul’s prison cell and leads him to freedom: a shadow called King Rat. King Rat reveals to Saul his own royal heritage, a heritage that opens a new world for him, the world below London’s streets. With drum-and-bass pounding the backstreets, Saul must confront the forces that would use him, the ones that would destroy him, and those that have shaped his own bizarre identity. Now with a new introduction by Tim Maughan, author of Infinite Detail.

On Sale 4/4/23


The WardenThe Warden by Daniel M. Ford by Daniel M. Ford

There was a plan. She had the money, the connections, even the brains. It was simple: become one of the only female necromancers, earn as many degrees as possible, get a post in one of the grand cities, then prove she’s capable of greatness. The funny thing about plans is that they are seldom under your control. Now Aelis de Lenti, a daughter of a noble house and recent graduate of the esteemed Magisters’ Lyceum, finds herself in the far-removed village of Lone Pine. Mending fences, matching wits with goats, and serving people who want nothing to do with her. But, not all is well in Lone Pine, and as the villagers Aelis is reluctantly getting to know start to behave strangely, Aelis begins to suspect that there is far greater need for a Warden of her talents than she previously thought. 

On Sale 4/18/23


Furious Heaven by Kate ElliottFurious Heaven by Kate Elliott

The Republic of Chaonia fleets, under the joint command of Princess Sun and her formidable mother, Queen-Marshal Eirene, have defeated and driven out an invading fleet of the Phene Empire, though not without heavy losses. But the Empire remains undeterred. While Chaonia scrambles to rebuild its military, the Empire’s rulers are determined to squash Chaonia once and for all. They believe their military might is strong enough to defeat the enemy, but they also secure a secret alliance with a deadly religious sect skilled in the use of assassination and covert ops, to destabilize the republic. On the eve of Eirene’s bold attack on the rich and populous Karnos System, an unexpected tragedy strikes the republic. Sun must take charge or lose the throne. Will Sun be content with the pragmatic path laid out by her mother for Chaonia’s future? Or will she choose to forge her own legend? Can she succeed despite all the forces arrayed against her?

On Sale 4/18/23


In the Lives of PuppetsIn the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune by TJ Klune

In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots—fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They’re a family, hidden and safe. The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio–a past spent hunting humans. When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming. Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?

On Sale 4/25/23


Red Team Blues by Cory DoctorowRed Team Blues by Cory Doctorow

Martin Hench is 67 years old, single, and successful in a career stretching back to the beginnings of Silicon Valley. He lives and roams California in a very comfortable fully-furnished touring bus, The Unsalted Hash, that he bought years ago from a fading rock star. Martin is a—contain your excitement—self-employed forensic accountant, a veteran of the long guerilla war between people who want to hide money, and people who want to find it. He knows computer hardware and software alike, including the ins and outs of high-end databases and the kinds of spreadsheets that are designed to conceal rather than reveal. He also knows the Valley like the back of his hand, all the secret histories of charismatic company founders and Sand Hill Road VCs. Because he was there at all the beginnings. Now he’s been roped into a job that’s more dangerous than anything he’s ever agreed to before—and it will take every ounce of his skill to get out alive.

On Sale 4/25/23


Tsalmoth by Steven BrustTsalmoth by Steven Brust

Vlad Taltos is in love. With a former assassin who may just be better than he is at the Game. Women like this don’t come along every day and no way is he passing up a sure bet. So a wedding is being planned. Along with a shady deal gone wrong and a dead man who owes Vlad money. Setting up the first and trying to deal with the second is bad enough. And then bigger powers decide that Vlad is the perfect patsy to shake the power structure of the kingdom. More’s the pity that his soul is sent walkabout to do it. How might Vlad get his soul back and have any shot at a happy ending? Well, there’s the tale…

On Sale 4/25/23


Spring's Arcana by Lilith SaintcrowSpring’s Arcana by Lilith Saintcrow

Nat Drozdova is desperate to save a life. Doctors can do little for her cancer-ridden mother, who insists there is only one cure—and that Nat must visit a skyscraper in Manhattan to get it. Amid a snow-locked city, inside a sleek glass-walled office, Nat makes her plea and is whisked into a terrifying new world. For the skyscraper holds a hungry winter goddess who has the power to cure her mother…if Nat finds a stolen object of great power. Now Nat must travel with a razor-wielding assassin across an American continent brimming with terror, wonder, and hungry divinities with every reason to consume a young woman. For her ailing mother is indeed suffering no ordinary illness, and Nat Drozdova is no ordinary girl. Blood calls to blood, magic to magic, and a daughter may indeed save what she loves…if it doesn’t consume her first.

On Sale 5/2/23


Stan Lee’s The Devil’s Quintet: The Shadow SocietyStan Lee's The Devil's Quintet: The Shadow Society by Stan Lee & Jay Bonansinga by Stan Lee & Jay Bonansinga

Ever since The Armageddon Code, the Devil’s Quintet have been using their demonic powers to fight evil and protect the world, while remaining nothing but an urban legend to the general public. But the Devil is not about to let them keep using his powers for good. Created by Satan himself to counter the Quintet, the Shadow Society are five saintly men and women that have been secretly (and strategically) possessed by five of Hell’s most powerful demons. Granted supernatural powers of their own, they are part of a literally diabolical plot to strike at the very heart of the Quintet—and destroy humanity’s last hope!

On Sale 5/9/23


Dual Memory by Sue BurkeDual Memory by Sue Burke

Antonio Moro lost everything to the Leviathan League. Now he’s alone in a city on an Arctic island fighting the ruthless, global pirates with the chance to be the artist he always wanted to be. Unfortunately, he thinks it’s a cover story for his real purpose—spying on sympathizers. When things look bleak, he discovers an unusual ally. His new personal assistant program, Par Augustus. It’s insolent, extroverted, moody, and a not-quite-legal nascent A. I. Together they create a secret rebellion from unlikely recruits to defend the island from ideological pirates with entitlement and guns, and capitalist pirates with entitlement and money.

On Sale 5/16/23


Fractal NoisePlace holder  of - 51 by Christopher Paolini

July 25th, 2234: The crew of the Adamura discovers the Anomaly. On the seemingly uninhabited planet Talos VII:a circular pit, 50 kilometers wide. Its curve not of nature, but design. Now, a small team must land and journey on foot across the surface to learn who built the hole and why. But they all carry the burdens of lives carved out on disparate colonies in the cruel cold of space. For some the mission is the dream of the lifetime, for others a risk not worth taking, and for one it is a desperate attempt to find meaning in an uncaring universe. Each step they take toward the mysterious abyss is more punishing than the last. And the ghosts of their past follow.

On Sale 5/16/23


The Woods of ArcadyThe Woods of Arkady by Michael Moorcock by Michael Moorcock

In the 1970s, Michael Moorcock, a writer of genre fiction, attempts to save his failing marriage by taking his wife and daughters to Paris. One night in a bar he is amazed to find himself drinking with heroes of story and history. The next day he awakens aboard a sailing ship, kidnapped into another reality by a French highwayman and the four Musketeers, who know Moorcock well from adventures in London’s Alsacia…but that was another Moorcock, from another world. Soon after they reach Africa, the company are rescued from ambush by Antara, a poet-adventurer who offers to lead them across the desert and through several realities to the estate of Lord and Lady Blackstone. The trip is full of wonders Moorcock has read, dreamed, or written: an underground civilization of nonhuman creatures; a magical oasis where the lion lies down with the lamb; a lush garden inhabited by miniature dinosaurs.

On Sale 6/6/23


The First Bright ThingThe First Bright Thing by J.R. Dawson by J.R. Dawson

Ringmaster — Rin, to those who know her best — can jump to different moments in time as easily as her wife, Odette, soars from bar to bar on the trapeze. And the circus they lead is a rare home and safe haven for magical misfits and outcasts, known as Sparks. With the world still reeling from World War I, Rin and her troupe — the Circus of the Fantasticals — travel the midwest, offering a single night of enchantment and respite to all who step into their Big Top. But threats come at Rin from all sides. The future holds an impending war that the Sparks can see barrelling toward their show and everyone in it. And Rin’s past creeps closer every day, a malevolent shadow she can’t fully escape.

On Sale 6/13/23


The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval EnglandThe Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson by Brandon Sanderson

A man awakes in a clearing in what appears to be medieval England with no memory of who he is, where he came from, or why he is there. Chased by a group from his own time, his sole hope for survival lies in regaining his missing memories, making allies among the locals, and perhaps even trusting in their superstitious boasts. His only help from the “real world” should have been a guidebook entitled The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, except his copy exploded during transit. The few fragments he managed to save provide clues to his situation, but can he figure them out in time to survive?

On Sale 6/27/23

post-featured-image

Excerpt Reveal: Stan Lee’s The Devil’s Quintet: The Shadow Society by Stan Lee & Jay Bonansinga

amazon-1 bn-1 booksamillion-1 ibooks2 7 indiebound-1

Stan Lee's The Devil's Quintet: The Shadow Society by Stan Lee & Jay Bonansinga

Born of the legendary imagination that brought us Spider-Man, The Avengers, The X-Men, and an enduring universe of marvelous heroes and villains, Stan Lee’s The Devil’s Quintet return to take on a fiendish new adversary: The Shadow Society.

Ever since The Armageddon Code, the Devil’s Quintet have been using their demonic powers to fight evil and protect the world, while remaining nothing but an urban legend to the general public. But the Devil is not about to let them keep using his powers for good.

Created by Satan himself to counter the Quintet, the Shadow Society are five saintly men and women that have been secretly (and strategically) possessed by five of Hell’s most powerful demons. Granted supernatural powers of their own, they are part of a literally diabolical plot to strike at the very heart of the Quintet—and destroy humanity’s last hope!

Please enjoy this free excerpt of Stan Lee’s The Devil’s Quintet: The Shadow Society by Stan Lee & Jay Bonansinga, on sale 5/9/23.


1

The Anointing of the Sick

London sits atop a dark labyrinth. The true nature and extent of the tunnels, tube stations, nineteenth-century sewers, and connective conduits between key points of egress are closely guarded secrets known only to the supervisory staff at the Greater London Authority, Scotland Yard, and MI5. In fact, to call London’s subterranean architecture otherworldly is to traffic in major understatement. The atmosphere of the tunnels is that of a fever dream. Dark, dank, desolate, rat infested, airless, and fairly close to impassable, the lower tunnels that link the catacombs beneath the Palace Gardens and the streets of Greater Kensington have seen very few humans traverse the fetid passageways in their three centuries of existence.

All of which is why the five operatives who materialize at the west end of Tunnel PG1—striding purposefully, two abreast, down the claustrophobic channel of corroded stone toward Palace Green—are hyperalert, each feeling like a stranger in a strange land. They wear matching black body armor, Kevlar, and bulletproof helmets. Each cradles a lightweight assault rifle across their chest. They navigate the gloom courtesy of night-vision goggles, and communicate via closed-circuit radio mikes attached to their collars. There are three men and two women.

At the present moment, only one of the men speaks—in a low, dour voice, a faint Texas twang marinating his words: “According to satellite imagery and on-the-ground intel, the Israeli embassy was breached at precisely 4:37 p.m. BST, on the afternoon of 10 August 2022. That’s yesterday for those of you checking your calendars. So far, the bloodhounds at The Sunday Times and Channel Four have not smelled anything. Looks like we’re getting in just under the wire. Captors haven’t squawked any demands yet.”

The others listen as they march along, their green-tinted visual fields latching on to the far end of the tunnel, their destination the landing beneath the service entrance of 4 Palace Green.

The one called Spur continues his rundown: “Benefiting from a week of surveillance, the hijacking of a delivery van, a series of forged documents, and a few phony workmen’s uniforms, the intruders gained entry to the Israeli embassy via the loading dock on the north side of the property.” Spur cocks his helmet toward the darkness twenty meters ahead of them. “That’s about ten meters up yonder there, above the tunnel intersect.”

Spur stops, and the rest of them halt behind him. He clicks his halogen light and points it up at the tunnel ceiling. They all see the underside of an ancient manhole cover.

“We’ll join the party through here,” he says. “Through the boiler room.”

A bowlegged, muscle-bound former athlete moving into middle age, Spur serves as the de facto leader of this very special unit. He has the command position not because he is the most gifted, or the smartest, or the strongest, or the most skilled—far from it. All five operatives carry the burden of being endowed with special powers that are both preternatural and highly classified. But Spur is the natural-born leader, with a knack for psychological warfare.

“Okay, let’s switch over,” he says, shrugging off his Kevlar vest, revealing a medieval military coat, chain mail, and broad-sword under the innocuous SWAT team attire. The imposing costume underneath the black Kevlar is the “psy-ops” element of the operation, the regalia designed not only to disguise their identities but also to intimidate—to frighten and rattle their adversaries. Spur and his supervisor at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency have been carefully crafting the five personas over the last year.

The helmets and vests come off one by one. The smallest of the group, the petite Asian assassin, code name Boo, now sheds her black military garb and reveals the formfitting robe of a Shaolin monk. The other woman in the group, a dark, exotic-looking Latina code-named Pin-Up, peels off her SWAT gear to reveal the gilded breastplate and black widow corset of a warrior priestess. She grips her machete and slices the air with it. “Come on, slowpokes,” she taunts the two other men as they hurriedly transform into dreamlike ronin.

The tall, rangy African American sheds his Kevlar and reveals a multicolored shamanic robe of feathers draping his lean body, complete with beaded gauntlets and a bejeweled scabbard, an hourglass engraving across the gilded breastplate. His code name is Ticker, and he does not appreciate Pin-Up’s wise-cracks. “Hardy-har-har,” he says as he takes the safety off his Glock and holsters it. “Pin-Up, I’ll be done with the mission before you get your skinny ass up to the first floor.”

“That’s enough tongue waggin’, now cork your goddamn pistols,” Spur says in his Texas drawl. “I want safeties off, and silencers on, all mikes live now.” He glances at a small index card taped to his gauntlet. “According to CENTCOM we got three hostiles currently in the building, a half dozen friendlies, mostly staff, and one member of the Israeli diplomatic corps. Hack? Can you tap into the line from here? Give us the geography?”

The fifth member of the unit—a younger man, his dark hair and handsome face shaded by the hood of a leather duster— climbs a series of steps embedded in the tunnel wall. Known for his acumen with all things digital, Hack yanks a cable loose from decades of congealed calcium deposits and grit in the ceiling.

He pinches the end of the cable, and the others watch his body begin to glitter with the blue-metal phosphorus of live current. “Two of the hostiles are on the second floor,” he says in a strange droning voice, his eyes swimming with flickering signal from the building’s security system. “Looks like they got all the friendlies up there, holding them at gunpoint. Third hostile on the ground floor checking windows and door locks. Each hostile has what looks like a MAC-10 machine pistol, extended clip, .45 ACP rounds, one in each chamber. At least that’s what it looks like to me, but what do I know?”

“All right, y’all,” Spur says, climbing the steps, drawing his sword, and prying open the manhole cover with its tip. He pauses and looks over his shoulder at the others. “We’ll take down the yahoo on the ground floor first. I want this quick and decisive, in and out.”

They all nod as Pin-Up mutters to herself, “That’s what she said.”

━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━

2

According to official government records, Spur and his operatives no longer exist. They are deceased, killed in the line of duty, each of them buried at Arlington Cemetery. Their mere existence is known only to a handful of people in the global intelligence community. In fact, only one human being on earth knows the full extent of their uncanny powers: Colonel Sean McDermott—code name Silverback—a section chief at the DIA.

It took quite a bit of convincing for a military mind like McDermott’s to grasp and process what had happened to the five members of the Quintet back in Karakistan a little over a year ago. The cover story that they all had subsequently agreed upon was pure comic book: Supposedly, while hunting down the warlord Abu Osamir, the five were exposed to radiation, which somehow, through some genetic mash-up, had enhanced their natural skills. But what had really happened to them was far more Théâtre du Grand-Guignol. After being ambushed and thrown into a dungeon straight out of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, they were about to be tortured and killed when an unlikely savior came to the rescue, a gruesome revenant with a changing face, dripping with ancient evil.

“A transaction is what I propose . . . a proposition, if you prefer,” the Devil had said to them in the fetid shadows of that torture chamber. And the deal was as simple as it was sinister: Satan would grant them incredible powers beyond their wildest dreams, powers that would enable them to easily escape the dungeon. And all he asked in return was for them to occasionally, on a freelance basis, hunt down and kill individuals who are in breach of contract. These individuals have, to put it coarsely, skipped town on the Devil.

Once they are terminated, Satan explained with a wink of his yellow reptilian eye, “I will take it from there, and damn them for eternity.”

“Why don’t you just hunt down these rascals yourself?” Spur had asked the Beast.

“Alas,” the Devil explained, “the laws of the universe prevent me from directly killing a soul.”

But the Quintet would soon be in breach itself, the members choosing to double-cross the creature with the horns and the tail by using these powers in service of mankind. And Colonel Sean McDermott was prescient enough to realize that the five could be transformed into urban folktales through a few wellplaced leaks in the intelligence community, ghost stories that would live on in the hearts and imaginations of the bad guys.

Which is, as far as the upper echelon back in the States has been led to believe, the reason Spur chose the moniker the Devil’s Quintet for his special unit. The idea is to scare enemy combatants, to put the fear of God in them. This is the single aspect of the five and their unearthly skills about which everyone other than McDermott has been misled.

“All right, hush up now, everybody,” Spur whispers into his neck mike as they approach the door to the ground-floor lobby. “I want to go in quiet as a tumbleweed in a tornado. Hack, you get the door lock. Boo, you got the point position. Go in first, disarm, and then, Hack, follow up with the wipe. Let’s boogie, chillun. Three, two, one . . . go.”

Hack brushes his fingertips across the biometric lock, and the door latch disengages with a faint spark like a match tip striking flint. Hack carefully pulls the door back far enough for Boo to slip through the gap.

On the other side of the door she silently scales the wall.

Out of the corner of her eye she can see the trespasser strolling back and forth behind the front entrance a hundred feet away, a wiry-thin zealot with his back turned, a machine pistol clutched like a metal baby against his skinny solar plexus. Boo uses the ceiling joists as handholds, lifting herself up, and then crawls spiderlike, faceup, twelve feet above the floor toward the target.

The gunman looks down at the floor as she approaches. He notices her shadow passing between him and the recessed lighting, and with a start he looks up just as Boo pounces on him.

She lands on the man’s shoulders before he has a chance to pull the trigger, her slender legs vise-gripping down on his neck and carotid artery and windpipe as they both fall to the floor with a muffled thump. The trespasser can’t breathe, can’t yell for help, cannot even move. His tendons seize up, his hands freezing on the gun. Boo squeezes and squeezes until the man passes out, sagging beneath her, going still and silent.

The sound of footsteps softly pads toward her. She looks up and sees Hack approaching with a shit-eating grin and a wink, offering her a hand. He helps her up and she backs off.

Hack kneels by the unconscious gunman. As though anointing the sick with the laying on of hands, he lightly touches the temple on each side of the gunman’s cranium.

The electrical waves from the man’s brain spark a connection, flowing into Hack, shooting up his tendons into his brain. Emotions of anger and vengefulness and homicidal righteousness flicker across Hack’s mind’s eye, the luminescent proteins tracing through Hack’s visual field like comet tails. Hack’s neuropeptides wash away the invading flames, putting out the fire, erasing, obliterating the man’s memory and hatred. The streaks of light fade out and vanish, leaving behind no trace of themselves. On the floor the man’s head lolls, empty now, episodic amnesia setting in.

“He won’t remember a thing,” Hack murmurs, lifting his hands from the man’s temples. Hack rises and steps back. “Like a newborn baby terrorist.”

Boo moves in with zip ties and shackles the man’s wrists behind his back.

Looking on, Hack says with a nod, “Next stop, second floor, ladies’ lingerie.”

━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━

3

The code name Hack was bestowed upon Aaron Boorstein early in his career. Born in Flatbush, New York, and raised in Crown Heights, New York, he grew up a smart-ass street kid who ultimately rebelled against joining his father’s button-down accounting firm and instead enlisted in the Navy. He rose up the ranks quickly as a genius-level tech sergeant on nuclear submarines and eventually became a Navy SEAL. All of which was how he ultimately caught the eye of Paul “Spur” Candell. But who would have ever guessed that Hack would see his natural propensities for hacking into the most complex virtual ecosystems turned into a superpower by the Devil himself?

Maybe it was fate. Hack had always felt more at home in cyberspace, slipping through back doors and accessing fortresses of protected data. “Sometimes I think you’d rather have a girlfriend made out of ones and zeroes instead of flesh and blood,” one of his many disgruntled exes once told him, and there was truth in it. Hack had left more than his share of disastrous breakups along the side of the road over the years. It had left a hole in his heart, a longing for love that he couldn’t quite seem to fulfill. Maybe that’s why, for the last twelve months, he has immersed himself in the mastery of his superpower, which is something he innately understands: altering himself on a cellular level, becoming pure digital signal, moving through circuitry as fluidly as water moves through an aqueduct.

That day, Hack and his fellow members of the Quintet gain access to the embassy through the service-elevator shaft on the far east side of the building, one by one, climbing up through the trapdoor at the top of the enclosure, then silently scaling the twenty feet or so of cables to the second-floor landing. They perch themselves on the ledge inside the shaft in a neat little row, shoulder to shoulder, capes and scabbards dangling off the edge—vultures waiting patiently for the roadkill.

Hack taps into the wiring, and gets an eyeball on the situation through the security cam. “Looking at all six friendlies scrunched against the wall, west end of the main corridor.” He announces this in a low, soft whisper into his mike. “One hostile patrolling the hallway, the other one, big guy, looks like the muscle, keeping his short barrel trained on the hostages.”

“That it?” Spur’s query crackles in Hack’s earbud.

Hack shakes his head. “What else do you want, their shoe sizes?”

“Weak links, soft spots.”

“Believe it or not, the big gorilla looks shaky, sweaty, not too sure of himself.”

“Pin-Up, can you lock on to this yahoo from this distance? Draw his attention away from the friendlies? Avoid any collateral mishap?”

Pin-Up’s voice: “Ticker. You’re closest to the door. Can you give me a clear shot?”

“Why don’t I just hit the pause button, then go in nice and calm?”

“Negative,” Spur says. “I don’t want to drain you right away, might need you at full power at some point.”

With a nod Ticker silently draws his cutlass and carefully wedges the business end into the seam between the elevator doors. He levers them open about a centimeter. Pin-Up leans over and peers through the crack at the people on the other side of the floor. The six captives bunch together, stone-still with fear.

Pin-Up can see the big guy—broad shoulders, beard, wild mop of dark hair, eyes shifting nervously across the group of hostages—reeking of nervous tension. “Got him,” Pin-Up mutters, locking on to him. She sniffs him with her mind. She absorbs his deepest fear and feels the cellular structure of her skin changing as she whispers, almost to herself, “The Jinn.”

It’s a process not unlike a chameleon instinctively triggering a color shift. The layers of her skin begin to transform, pigmentation changing, the inner strata reshaping, her dark complexion becoming matted black fur, her bones elongating into monstrous, malformed limbs, her skull swelling and growing into the massive incarnation of the gunman’s worst nightmare from his earliest childhood memories. Pin-Up’s new eyes now burn like embers, her fangs dripping blood, the illusion complete.

She pushes the double doors apart and steps into the corridor.

Like a school of fish reacting violently and suddenly to the advent of a bigger, stronger species entering their habitat, the hostages press backward against the wall, some of them letting out gasps, others turning away, the big gunman standing paralyzed, gaping, bug-eyed, rapt with terror as he encounters the embodiment of his primal fears, the Jinn, the ghoul that has haunted many a society down through the ages.

The other trespasser starts bellowing loudly in a foreign language that Pin-Up can’t decipher.

She does not hesitate. Does not blink. She knows she’s about to be shot. With one quick and fluid movement she reaches behind her back, feeling for her pistol, which is wedged under a belt. She draws it and fires—four blasts, two and two—three of the rounds going into the big guy’s upper chest and neck, sending blood mist across the wall, spattering half the hostages.

Pin-Up turns and sees the second gunman raising the machine pistol at her and firing a burst, and that’s all she registers—a flicker in her eyes and a series of enormous pops in her eardrums.

Copyright © 2023 from Stan Lee & Jay Bonanasinga

Pre-order Stan Lee’s The Devil’s Quintet: The Shadow Society Here:

Place holder  of amazon- 2 Poster Placeholder of bn- 5 Image Placeholder of booksamillion- 61 ibooks2 75 indiebound

The owner of this website has made a commitment to accessibility and inclusion, please report any problems that you encounter using the contact form on this website. This site uses the WP ADA Compliance Check plugin to enhance accessibility.