Spontaneous ∂erivation

Buy: Kindle Store

The beginning of a brand new supernatural private investigator series starring one Sylvie Lightner, whose beat covers south Miami Beach.

Buy: Kindle Store

The continuing adventures of Raine Benares, a Seeker who can’t stay out of trouble, with a sarcastic bite and and an amulet that’s taken control of her life.

This time, demon hordes, a gate that’s yawned into hell, and what can only be called Elric’s Bane, all threaten to pull her down.

Oh, and she’s managed to get bonded to two powerful men, each on opposing sides of good and light. I’m pretty sure this is an archetype story element by now.

The previous two books in this series are both on the Kindle: Magic Lost, Trouble Found and Armed & Magical.

Buy: Kindle Store

The newest chapter in the Lost Fleet series. I’m not sure I can concisely describe what’s going on from the multiple synopses on the web. One may need to start from the beginning of the series to appreciate what’s going on.

I rather liked John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series, and this series keeps getting recommended to me on a fairly consistent basis, so I need to try one of these some day.

For the curious, the Lost Fleet series is entirely available on the Kindle:

1. Dauntless
2. Fearless
3. Courageous
4. Valiant

Oh, SF/F series and your naming patterns. Never change.

Buy: Kindle Store

Far future space opera writ on enormous time scales across this series, following one post-human, Imre Bergamasc: pervious engram incarnation, previous murder victim, previous ruler of the galaxy, now abdicated, having brought along a sort of peace.

But peace never does last.

The other books in the Astropolis series are available in the Kindle store: Saturn Returns and
Earth Ascendant.

Buy: Kindle Store

I think I’m going to cry. Robert Asprin has been gone since last May. Almost a year now. He was a funny man.

This is obviously a legacy written while he was still alive from the previous year, only now published, and a sequel to Dragons Wild, in the world of underworld dragons. Who run speakeasies and gambling joints.

Godspeed, Mr. Asprin.

Buy: Kindle Store

Finally, book one of this series starring Kate Daniels, mercenary with a BFS in an alternate Atlanta where magic has invaded reality.

The series is now almost complete on the Kindle, alongside Magic Burns and Magic Strikes, save for an upcoming fourth book.

Buy: Kindle Store

Sawyer is back in full form with Wake, the start of the WWW series. The Internet has woken up. That is so very cool and full of awesome.

There’s also an intelligent monkey and Chinese revolutionary bloggers battling against a (still) repressive government. What more can you ask for? Well, okay, ninjas and pirates. Still.

Buy: Kindle Store

A makeup artist with the magic power to literally transform people (not that they’re entirely aware of it). If this means fewer hours under latex mold creation, I’m sure this is every SF/F TV/movie actor’s dream.

Her latest client unfortunately becomes possessed by a powerful and dark forest god.

The previous book in the saga of the LaZelle family, A Fistful of Sky, is also available on the Kindle. I don’t believe there are any other LaZelle books around, print or not.

Buy: Kindle Store

Magic cyberpunk. Ravirn is thrown into an alternate universe and must hack his way back into our reality.

The previous books in this series—which is a definite you-should-not-miss if you’re a tech geek who also happens to love fantasy—are all available on the Kindle:

1. WebMage
2. Cybermancy
3. Codespell

Buy: Kindle Store

Another paranormal crime series with a strong female lead, Tess Corday (an OSI, Occult Special Investigator). Her beat is Vancouver, and now I want this book, because it covers Vancouver.

(Supernatural investigator books have a strong presence of specific city, usually, like Dresden’s Chicago or Chen’s Singapore Three.¹ Books in “our age” usually are deeply tied to a modern city, not always where the author lives.

You can pretty much identify each such series by city. It’s like they all stake out their own claim in Idea Space.)

The other book in this series, Night Child, is also available in the Kindle store.

Buy: Kindle Store

Do you miss good fantasy world-building?

In Lamentation you’ll find a far-future war brewing between kingdoms against a background of culture and history that’s forgotten us—but remains, as ever, extremely human. Yes, there is magic.

There’s quite a bit of free material out there if you want to explore the world of Lamentation a bit:

Free short story for everybody:
A Weeping Czar Beholds the Fallen Moon

Free story for members of Tor.com (registration is free):
Last Flight of the Goddess

An excerpt from the history of The Named Lands:
An Excerpt from The Rise of the Named Lands: A Brief History of the Settlement of the New World and the Establishment of Kin-Clave

Free previews:
Prelude and Chapter 1
Chapter 2

Author speaks:
An Unexpected Novel and the Influences Behind It
Interview with Jay Lake (YouTube)

Buy: Kindle Store

The prequel to Truancy, read about the origins of a future totalitarian city with an oppressive school system that makes Little Brother look like Judy Blume… and the underground group of students who will take it down.

Buy: Kindle Store

A heist-and-caper novel set in a fantasy Elizabethan England, where an unlikely and highly pragmatic hero, normally a playwright, ends up on a mission to Save the World.

Buy: Kindle Store

A reclusive cartoonist, who normally resides in California, is sent a mysterious package from a relative to deliver to his uncle in New Cyprus—and discovers that the package isn’t what it seems, and that his uncle is part of an organization that originates from the Knights of Templar, entrusted to salvaging and protecting magical artifacts. Of course, nothing works as planned.

Buy: Kindle Store

She wants a normal life, for Chrissakes. She didn’t want to inherit the family business.

But when Death is kidnapped for a non-Holiday, she must take his place—but that’s proving to be harder than simply returning home to chair Death, Incorporated.

Buy: Kindle Store

She likes to kill things. In particular, vampires. After the events of the previous book, Break of Dawn, she leaves Hollywood for England to exterminate the next vampire lair and perhaps work out some problems. This is, of course, never easy.

All of the previous books are also available in the Kindle store:

1. Night Rising
2. Midnight Reign
3. Break of Dawn

Buy: Kindle Store

A return to the world of Coyote, a series of Golden Age Heinlein-esque stories about interstellar colonists settling the Coyote planet, seen mostly through the eyes of adolescents Wendy Gunther and Carlos Montero. In this novel, Coyote has been partly settled by the hjadd, a mysterious alien race, who’ve opened up an embassy—but not necessarily anything else.

The previous books are also all available on the Kindle:

1. Coyote
2. Coyote Rising
3. Coyote Frontier
4. Spindrift

Buy: Kindle Store

The third book in the Alchemist series, a medieval alternate history where the cranky Nostradamus’ powers of prediction are real, and he and his apprentice Alfeo Zeno solve murder mysteries.

The previous books, The Alchemist’s Apprentice and The Alchemist’s Code, are also available on the Kindle.

Buy: Kindle Store

Atlanta: a city where magic and technology struggle in a never-ending battle for reality, and Kate Daniels lives by the sword. A different kind of urban fantasy.

The first book, Magic Bites, isn’t available on the Kindle, but the second book, Magic Burns, is.

Buy: Kindle Store

The fourth book in a fantasy series tracing the adventures of an uneasy partnership between court magician Felix Harrowgate and assassin/cat burglar Mildmay the Fox.

The previous books are also available for the Kindle:

1. Mélusine
2. The Virtu
3. The Mirador

Buy: Kindle Store

The beginning of another paranormal private investigator series, starring Sylvie Lightner, in a world where Greek Mythology can really kick your ass.

Buy: Kindle Store

High school life can really suck, especially when vampire jocks kill you. Of course, you’re just undead, but it’s not really a life enhancing experience in this world. So Elizabeth is going to take some pages out of Salem’s Lot and see how that works out.

Buy: Kindle Store

A new book in the fantasy series The Black Jewels, a world of three parallel fae realms (and Hell) with a caste system based on the magic in your blood (or, perhaps, lack thereof).

All but one of the previous books in this series are available for the Kindle:

1. Daughter of the Blood
2. Heir to the Shadows
3. Queen of the Darkness
4. Dreams Made Flesh (not yet available)
5. Tangled Webs
6. The Invisible Ring

Buy: Kindle Store

Another book in a supernatural P.I. series involving Cal Leandros, half-human, half-monster, all detective. And you really, really don’t want to meet his family.

The previous book in this series, Madhouse, is also available on the Kindle.

Buy: Kindle Store

All the stories of Private Investigator Gil “The Arm” Hamilton, science fiction mysteries set in the future.

Buy: Kindle Store

You are a veterinarian. Your husband comes back from Romania as a werewolf. Discuss.

Buy: Kindle Store

Paranormal romance, involving witches and the men who hunt them (who lose a piece of their soul if they happen to kill someone who’s an innocent witch, rather than someone who’s sold their soul to demons).

Buy: Kindle Store

Three sister-clones of a Balkwan war criminal must try to save a world that is self-destructing environmentally, geopolitically, and economically.

(Hmmm. That kind of sounds like today.)

Oh, and they all hate each other.

Buy: Kindle Store

A vicious plague of demons has reduced humanity to a post-apocalyptic state, hiding in small villages protected by magic wards, or so they hope. Young Arlen, Leesha, and Rojer grow up in different wards, but find they must explore the dangerous world for themselves.

For writers who wonder a little about the editing process, Brett can tell you more.

Buy: Kindle Store

The sequel to The Dreaming Void, where a Second Dreamer has triggered a galaxy-ending expansion of the Void. Chaos results.