Stepto, author and Yale University Professor, debuts a work based on his lectures that juxtaposes the life-changing experiences of Barack Obama with prolific African-American writers, W. E. B. DuBois, Toni Morrison, and Frederick Douglass among them. Composed in two parts and six essays, Stepto begins by drawing from Obama's book, Dreams from My Father, to examine his struggle to find identity as a bi-racial American male while dealing with the absence of his black father. Stepto astutely relates Obama to Douglass by referencing Douglass's historical autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom, from 1855, in which Douglass examined identity. Parallels are drawn between the two leaders; both struggled to come into their own as black men among people with little or no concept of black male identity. By juxtaposing Dreams from My Father with a variety of texts, including critical pieces on African-American literature, Stepto illuminates the lasting validity of these classics and their importance to our modern times. (May)

Reviewed on 07/05/2010 | Release date: 05/01/2010 | Details & Permalink

Completing Douglass' DarkGlass Mountain Trilogy (after 2009's The Twisted Citadel), this sweeping saga focuses on the monumental battles that Icarii leader Axis SunSoar wages to defend the city of Elcho Falling against the Lealfast, winged minions of an evil god called The One. Meanwhile, Maxel and Ishbel, lord and lady of Elcho Falling, begin a lonely quest to demolish DarkGlass Mountain and destroy The One. Nothing in this minutely detailed narrative turns out quite as it originally seems. Intrigue, magic, and betrayals abound throughout multiple storylines staffed by a mind-numbingly large cast of characters. Like most Tolkienesque world-builders, Douglass revels in making her actors do, but neglects to allow them to convincingly be. Though often uneven, this final installment of familiar good-versus-evil warfare allows plenty of vicarious thrills along its tortuous way. (Jun.)

Reviewed on 07/05/2010 | Release date: 06/01/2010 | Details & Permalink

Harlow's unfocused paranormal suspense debut is unlikely to find fans among either thriller or paranormal romance readers. Bad-ass Baltimore cop Angela Giacomelli, en route to prison after a conviction for murder, is kidnapped and recruited by a covert government organization. L.O.S.T. (the Last Option Special Team) is dedicated to achieving its missions by any means, and its methods and morals are virtually indistinguishable from those of the Solution, its target. Despite her massive trust issues, Angela, now going by the name Jax Cassidy, almost immediately falls into mutual lust with Marcus Cross, a vampire Solution operative. As Marcus commits murder and mayhem to exert pressure on an influential senator, Angela/Jax works to infiltrate and shut down the organization. Messy battle scenes, an underdeveloped mythology, and sex in lieu of emotional connections won't help this story stand out in the crowded field. (Jun.)

Reviewed on 07/05/2010 | Release date: | Details & Permalink

Moss's eerie, sophisticated debut novel drops readers into the middle of Greenland's Arctic summer during an archeological dig to unearth traces of lost Viking settlements. A team of three men and three women from the United States and Europe – each with their own dramatic histories – settles into uneasy domesticity, worried about a looming pandemic that threatens to annihilate the world. Meanwhile, ghosts of the ruins haunt neurotic Englishwoman Nina (already the least qualified of the six), making her companions even edgier. To further complicate matters, the group's remote location cripples communication with the outside world, and a fatal mistake by the team leader makes the archeologists realize how hopelessly ill-equipped they are for the looming winter. Moss uses letters written by her characters to their loved ones as an intimate first-person narrative device; while this works well in sections, the form feels contrived at times. Nevertheless, the correspondence amplifies their struggle and endears them to the reader. While the fear of a worldwide pandemic may have diminished since the writing of this book, Cold Earth still serves as a chilling reminder of the fragility of human existence. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 07/05/2010 | Release date: 04/01/2010 | Details & Permalink

The next installment in Quirk's much-heralded sci-fi/classics mashup series, this steampunk take on Anna Karenina discards tsarist Russia for an alternate reality where a miracle metal, gronzium, has fueled the development of a thriving robot culture. Carriages and candlesticks persist, but everything is mechanized, including the servants: at the peak of the robot hierarchy are the near-sentient "Class IIIs," humanoid robots who aid and comfort their upper-class owners. These futuristic additions are more than background filler, though; Winters incorporates an entire action-packed sci-fi sub-plot, with terrorist attacks from a group of renegade scientists, an alien invasion, and the growing menace of a certain scorned cyborg husband. The sci-fi elements are carefully accomplished, sometimes brilliantly extrapolated from the original. The Class IIIs, for example, also act as telling externalizations of their masters: cold, duty-bound Karenin becomes half-robot and childish Kitty gets a pink, mechanized ballerina companion. Tolstoy's text is more than strong enough to stand up to this sort of treatment, its force attenuated just enough to allow Winters (Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters) to integrate his additions—a feat he manages with aplomb. Illustrations. (Jun.)

Reviewed on 07/05/2010 | Release date: 06/01/2010 | Details & Permalink

The first book in Australian writer Canavan's "Traitor Spy Trilogy" picks up some time after the Black Magician series, yet remains adventurous and accessible for new and old readers alike. Lorkin, the son of Sonea, Canavan's past protagonist, takes the lead in this series when he is drafted by Dannyl to join the new ambassador in tracking down books on the history of the land. Meanwhile, Cery, a thief, returns home to find his family massacred, possibly by the same mysterious figure currently killing his fellow thieves. Worse, all signs point to the murderer also being a rogue magician. Sonea too is concerned with the safety of her family, and for good reason, as Lorkin finds himself getting into trouble abroad, when an attempt on his life leads to his involvement with a group of rebels called Traitors. Canavan balances the plotlines on both fronts nicely, deftly mixing the internal politics of the magicians and the ambassadors with the street-level drama facing her grieving thief. (May)

Reviewed on 07/05/2010 | Release date: 05/01/2010 | Details & Permalink

Baxter's riveting follow-up to bestseller Flood tempers the hope of humanity coming together in the face of a crisis with an often brutal undercurrent of realism, resulting in a sequel that surpasses the original in almost every way. Set during the later years of the earth-destroying flood, the book follows Holle Groundwater and her friends as they go from being six-year-old students of an experimental space academy to a years-long trip through the cosmos in search of Earth 2. The best-laid plans are often, and unexpectedly, disrupted at almost every stage; the ship must deal with stowaways, unqualified applicants, infighting, and even mutiny. Characteristic of Baxter's writing, the novel can be depressing at times but still serves as a study of humanity's ability to adapt and make painful decisions for the greater good. With an almost completely new cast, readers old and new will be engaged by the strength and scope of Baxter's vision, and the all-too-human characters he creates. (May)

Reviewed on 07/05/2010 | Release date: 05/01/2010 | Details & Permalink

Connolly fulfills and sustains the promise of his 2009 rural noir debut, Child of Fire, with this thoughtful Lovecraftian sequel. Catherine Little works for the Twenty Palace Society, a group of lethal sorcerers committed to controlling all the universe's supernatural entities and magic. She contacts ex-convict Ray Lilly at his mundane supermarket job and recruits him to assist her with an emergency situation. Ray's actions are supposed to be limited to assisting his assigned peer, but an interdimensional predator has escaped and the society needs all the help it can get. Connolly doesn't shy away from tackling big philosophical issues—whether good ends justify evil means, how many civilian deaths can be justified in the pursuit of creatures that can destroy the world—amid gory action scenes and plenty of rapid-fire sardonic dialogue. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/05/2010 | Release date: 08/01/2010 | Details & Permalink

Stock characters and a predictable plot mar Kennedy's second contemporary western romance (after Cowboy Trouble). Charlie Banks, a perky Rutgers graduate student and devout PETA member, leaves New Jersey for Wyoming, expecting to research a genuine horse whisperer. Instead she finds handsome but inarticulate cowboy Nate Shawcross, whose ex-girlfriend advertised a dude ranch, took the customers' money, and skipped town. The supposed contrast between Charlie's animal rights activism and Nate's career vanishes by chapter three, when Charlie decides that "[m]aybe horses didn't mind being ridden... like Nate said." The rest of the story—Charlie falls hard for Nate, copes easily with his quirky uninvited guests, puts her city smarts to work helping him handle his avaricious ex—would be a better fit for a much shorter book. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/05/2010 | Release date: 09/01/2010 | Details & Permalink

Barton (Dead by Midnight) delivers a solid mix of romance and terror in her latest thriller. When the bodies of kidnapped women are discovered with long-dead babies in their arms, J.D. Cass of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation gets called in. Therapist Audrey Sherrod, a counselor for families of the victims, has dark secrets in her own family's past. The two despise each other at first, but are slowly brought together when Audrey befriends J.D.'s rebellious teenage daughter, Zoe. Barton paces the romance nicely, intertwining it with the mystery and an ever-growing list of suspects. Occasional sloppy prose hurts the flow of the book, but readers willing to overlook this will enjoy the action sequences and the leads' antagonistic attraction as well as the assorted twists in the murder case. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/05/2010 | Release date: 09/01/2010 | Details & Permalink