I swear, the fact that I have a terrible cold and feel like one of the walking dead has nothing to do with why I've picked The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga, as the first title to highlight today. I love this series (on TV) and hated that Dish blocked it for a while, while they fought with AMC over the broadcast rights. I'm sending this one to my Kindle to be read soon.Book Description
In the Walking Dead universe, there is no greater villain than The Governor. The despot who runs the walled-off town of Woodbury, he has his own sick sense of justice: whether it’s forcing prisoners to battle zombies in an arena for the townspeople’s amusement, or chopping off the appendages of those who cross him. The Governor was voted “Villain of the Year” by Wizard magazine the year he debuted, and his story arc was the most controversial in the history of the Walking Dead comic book series. Now, for the first time, fans of The Walking Dead will discover how The Governor became the man he is, and what drove him to such extremes.
The Aylesford Skull ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), a new novel in James P. Blaylock's Tale of Langdon St. Ives series, dropped first dropped at B&N, but has now caught up at Amazon. For those new to his work, you are in luck, as Subterranean Press has the omnibus edition, The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives, on sale for $4.99. At over 500 pages, it includes both of the earlier novels and several short stories in the series, along with an introduction by Tim Powers and illustrations by JK Potter.Book Description
It is the summer of 1883 and Professor Langdon St. Ives - brilliant but eccentric scientist and explorer - is at home in Aylesford with his family. However, a few miles to the north a steam launch has been taken by pirates above Egypt Bay; the crew murdered and pitched overboard. In Aylesford itself a grave is opened and possibly robbed of the skull. The suspected grave robber, the infamous Dr. Ignacio Narbondo, is an old nemesis of Langdon St. Ives.
When Dr. Narbondo returns to kidnap his four-year-old son Eddie and then vanishes into the night, St. Ives and his factotum Hasbro race to London in pursuit...
The first new steampunk novel in over twenty years from one of the genre's founding fathers!
The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination: Original Short Fiction for the Modern Evil Genius ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), an anthology edited by John Joseph Adams, is worth picking up if you spot even one of your favorite authors below.Book Description
From Victor Frankenstein to Lex Luthor, from Dr. Moreau to Dr. Doom, readers have long been fascinated by insane plans for world domination and the madmen who devise them. Typically, we see these villains through the eyes of good guys. This anthology, however, explores the world of mad scientists and evil geniuses—from their own wonderfully twisted point of view.
An all-star roster of bestselling authors—including Diana Gabaldon, Daniel Wilson, Austin Grossman, Naomi Novik, and Seanan McGuire…twenty-two great storytellers all told—have produced a fabulous assortment of stories guaranteed to provide readers with hour after hour of high-octane entertainment born of the most megalomaniacal mayhem imaginable.
Everybody loves villains. They’re bad; they always stir the pot; they’re much more fun than the good guys, even if we want to see the good guys win. Their fiendish schemes, maniacal laughter, and limitless ambition are legendary, but what lies behind those crazy eyes and wicked grins? How—and why—do they commit these nefarious deeds? And why are they so set on taking over the world?
If you’ve ever asked yourself any of these questions, you’re in luck: It’s finally time for the madmen’s side of the story.
At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.
Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death ($1.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo) is the first novel in James Runcie's Grantchester Mystery series. Looks like another novel is due out this year for this series, but no pre-order pages are up yet. Instead, you mightconsider his standalone novel, The Colour of Heaven, currently on sale at $3.79, although it doesn't have the same reviews as his more recent work.Book Description
It is 1953, the coronation year of Queen Elizabeth II . Sidney Chambers, vicar of Grantchester and honorary canon of Ely Cathedral, is a thirty-two-year-old bachelor. Tall, with dark brown hair, eyes the color of hazelnuts, and a reassuringly gentle manner, Sidney is an unconventional clerical detective. He can go where the police cannot.
Together with his roguish friend, inspector Geordie Keating, Sidney inquires into the suspect suicide of a Cambridge solicitor, a scandalous jewelry theft at a New Year’s Eve dinner party, the unexplained death of a jazz promoter’s daughter, and a shocking art forgery that puts a close friend in danger. Sidney discovers that being a detective, like being a clergyman, means that you are never off duty, but he nonetheless manages to find time for a keen interest in cricket, warm beer, and hot jazz—as well as a curious fondness for a German widow three years his junior.
With a whiff of Agatha Christie and a touch of G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown, The Grantchester Mysteries introduces a wonderful new hero into the world of detective fiction.
Farside ($1.99 Kindle, B&N) is definitely a must-buy for fans of Six-time Hugo-Award winner Ben Bova, at this price.Book Description
Farside, the side of the Moon that never faces Earth, is the ideal location for an astronomical observatory. It is also the setting for a tangled web of politics, personal ambition, love, jealousy, and murder.
Telescopes on Earth have detected an Earth-sized planet circling a star some thirty light-years away. Now the race is on to get pictures of that distant world, photographs and spectra that will show whether or not the planet is truly like Earth, and if it bears life.
Farside will include the largest optical telescope in the solar system as well as a vast array of radio antennas, the most sensitive radio telescope possible, insulated from the interference of Earth’s radio chatter by a thousand kilometers of the Moon’s solid body.
Building the Farside observatory is a complex, often dangerous task. On the airless surface of the Moon, under constant bombardment of hard radiation and infalling micrometeoroids, builders must work in cumbersome spacesuits and use robotic machines as much as possible. Breakdowns—mechanical and emotional—are commonplace. Accidents happen, some of them fatal.
What they find stuns everyone, and the human race will never be the same.
At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.
Saved by the Rancher ($0.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), the first novel in The Hunted series by Jennifer Ryan, is for romance fans, so you don't think I've forgotten about you.Book Description
From the moment rancher Jack Turner rescues Jenna Caldwell Merrick, he is determined to help her. Soon, he is doing more than tend her wounds; he is mending her heart. Jenna is a woman on the run—hunted down by her ex-husband, David Merrick, from the day she left him, taking part of his company with her, to the second she finds herself in the safety of Jack's ranch. More than just a haven, Jack's offering the love, family, and home she thought were out of reach.
Jack's support will give Jenna the strength she needs to reclaim her life. The hunted will become the hunter, while David gets what he deserves, when they have an explosive confrontation in the boardroom of Merrick International. But not before Jack and Jenna enter into a fight … for their lives.
If you are a programmer, you know that computer books can be costly and you always need to keep up-to-date. O'Reilly has a special on their pre-release books right now. Get 50% off using coupon code WKEARSE (expires Mar. 7, 2013) and remember that you'll get all updates to their books, for life, it purchased direct.
