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.

Debut Showcase: The Mirrored Heavens

The Mirrored Heavens (Amazon UK, Canada)
by David J. Williams (website, blog, blog)
Bantam Spectra
Trade Paperback
Excerpt

Blurb:

In the 22nd century, the first wonder of a brave new world is the Phoenix Space Elevator, designed to give mankind greater access to the frontier beyond Earth. Built by the U.S./Pan-Asian Coalition, the Elevator is also a grand symbol of superpower alliance following a second cold war. And it’s just been destroyed.

The South American insurgent group Autumn Rain claims responsibility for the attack, but with suspicions rampant, armies and espionage teams are mobilized across the globe and beyond. Enter Claire Haskell and Jason Marlowe, U.S. counterintelligence agents, and former lovers—though their memories may only be constructs implanted by their spymaster. Forced to set aside the enigma of their past, their agenda is to trust no one. For in a time of shifting loyalties, the enemy could be anyone—from a shadowy assassin working a questionable mission on the dark side of the moon, to a Euro data thief working under deep cover and wooed into a dangerous pact.

As the crisis mounts, and the search for Autumn Rain spans both Earth and Moon, the lives of all those involved will converge in one explosive finale—and a startling aftermath that will rewrite everything they’ve ever known—about their mission, their world, and themselves.

The website for this novel is absolutely fascinating, and even has a "Treaty of Zurich," complete with fourteen articles. It also has maps, timelines, "Earth-Moon System Lagrangian Points," and an illustration of the Phoenix Space Elevator. This appears to be hard science fiction at its best, along with spies, a love story and possibly-cloaked memories. Now I want a copy.

Birmingham, 35 Miles by James Braziel

BIRMINGHAM, 35 MILES (Amazon USA, UK, Canada)
by James Braziel
Bantam
Trade Paperback
Excerpt

Blurb:

When the ozone layer opened and the sun relentlessly scorched the land, there was nothing left but to hope. Mathew Harrison had always heard of a better life as close as Birmingham, only thirty-five miles away—zones of blue sky, wet grass, and clean breathable air. But to him it’s a myth, a place guarded by soldiers, off limits to all but the lucky few. Meanwhile Mat works alongside his father, mining only the red clay that the once fertile Alabama soil can offer.

Now, with the killing deserts on the move again and the woman he loves on a Greyhound heading north, Mat has a travel visa and every reason to leave. But his roots in this lifeless soil inexplicably hold him firmly to the past. Torn between hope and resignation, with time running out, Mat must make a fateful choice between a new life and the one that isn’t ready to let him go.

This debut releases tomorrow. I wasn't able to find a website for this author. If I find one, I'll update this post. I enjoy post-apocalyptic novels, and the idea of an off-limits paradise in the midst of a wasteland intrigues me. I do believe I will read the excerpt.