Debut Showcase Round-Up

I got a bit behind in debut announcements over the past two weeks and I spent an hour at Fantasy Book Critic last week getting caught up (thanks, Robert!). I'll be handling my debut showcases in batches on the weekend for the next few weeks, as a summer slowdown. I expect a nifty little device to be delivered next week that will free up some of my evening time. However, after that it will be the Fourth of July, and the weekend after that I'll be on vacation.

Promise of the Wolves
by Dorothy Hearst
Hardcover
Simon and Schuster

Blurb:
What is the promise of the Wolf? Never consort with humans. Never kill a human unprovoked. Never allow a mixed-blood wolf to live. At least that’s what the wolves of the Wide Valley believe. Until a young wolf dares to break the rules–and forever alters the relationship between wolves and the humans who share their world.

This is the story of such a wolf. Born of a forbidden mixed-blood litter and an outcast after her mother is banished, Kaala is determined to earn a place in the Swift River pack. But her world is turned upside down when she saves a human girl from drowning. Risking expulsion from their pack and exile from the Wide Valley, Kaala and her young packmates being to hunt with the humans and thus discover the long-hidden bond between the two clans. But when war between wolves and humans threatens, Kaala learns the lies behind the wolf’s promise. Lies that force her to choose between safety for herself and her friends and the survival of her pack–and perhaps of all wolf- and humankind.

Set 14,000 years ago, Promise of the Wolves takes us to a land where time is counted in phases of the moon, distance is measured in wolflengths, and direction by the scent of the nearest trail. Years of research into the world of wolves combines with mythical tale-telling to present a fantastical adventure set in a world filled with lore.

Wow; another prehistory novel. This sounds fascinating. I can see myself reading this one.


Gordath Wood
by Patrice Sarath
Mass Market Paperback
Ace Books
Excerpt

Blurb:
Something strange is happening in Gordath Wood, the old woods surrounding a training stable called Hunter’s Chase. The police think Lynn Romano and Kate Mossland have been murdered, but what actually occurred is much stranger. They’ve gone through a hole between worlds, into a medieval society at war. In a world that doesn’t ordinarily have use for women, the danger is great—good thing Lynn and Kate aren’t your ordinary women.

I wish this blurb were more descriptive. It appears to have a parallel story--the investigation about their disappearance and their trip to the older world. Portal novels are always fun.


Havemercy
by Jaida Jones + Danielle Bennett
Hardcover
Spectra

Blurb:
Thanks to its elite Dragon Corps, the capital city of Volstov has all but won the hundred years’ war with its neighboring enemy, the Ke-Han. The renegade airmen who fly the corps’s mechanical, magic-fueled dragons are Volstov’s greatest weapon. But now one of its more unruly members is at the center of the city’s rumor mill, causing a distraction that may turn the tide of victory.


With Volstov immersed in a scandal that may have international repercussions, the Ke-Han devise an ingenious plan of attack. To counter the threat, four ill-assorted heroes must converge to save the kingdom they love: an exiled magician, a naive country boy, a young student—and the unpredictable ace airman who flies the city’s fiercest dragon, Havemercy.


But on the eve of battle, these courageous men will face something that could make the most formidable of warriors hesitate, the most powerful of magicians weak, and the most unlikely of men allies in their quest to rise against it....

This blurb is also a bit vague, but that's ok because it's getting so much attention that all you need do is Google it and you'll see a bunch of reviews, including these.