New Releases by Adam-Troy Castro

CONFINS GALACTIQUES. Planète Vlhan. Les natifs de ce monde reculé, manière de géants sphériques dotés de membres longs et souples pareils à des fouets, se livrent chaque année au rituel le plus étrange qui soit : le Ballet. Une danse qu’aucune race sentiente ne parvient à décrypter, un partage codifié impénétrable auquel participent des dizaines de milliers d’individus. Susceptible de durer plusieurs jours, le Ballet s’achève irrévocablement par un climax terrifiant : la mort de ceux qui y prennent part. De tous les coins de la Galaxie, ils sont nombreux à venir assister au déroulé de cette fascinante coutume, humains en tête. À ceci près que depuis peu, beaucoup chez ces derniers ne se contentent plus du rôle de spectateurs, mais brûlent de s’impliquer dans l’événement — au prix de transformations physiques radicales, et pour une finalité mortelle connue de tous. Pourquoi répondre à semblable appel ? Quel secret se cache dans la trame séculaire du Ballet ? Paul Royko est un shooteur de neuropics à succès. Et il compte bien offrir à son auditoire la clef de ce mystère qui enivre les foules. Sauf qu’il est loin, très loin, d’imaginer la nature de la porte qu’il s’apprête à ouvrir... « Un grand talent qui opère avec une efficacité maximale. » HARLAN ELLISON

Futur lointain. Planète Vlhan. Ils sont tous là. Ambassadeurs et représentants de la plupart des mondes et intelligences connus. Sur leur estrade, serrés les uns contre les autres, le regard tourné vers une seule direction, tendus. Car ceux qu’ils observent, ces êtres impénétrables, colossaux, que d’aucuns nomment les marionnettes, s’apprêtent à se livrer au plus singulier des rituels : lu00ade Ballet, une communion frénétique de plusieurs jours à l’issue de laquelle ils mourront — par dizaines de milliers. Nul ne comprend les motivations de ce sacrifice annuel ultime qui fascine toute la Galaxie. À commencer par Alex Gordon, exolinguiste au service de la Confédération terrienne, qui va y assister pour la troisième fois. Mais alors que les marionnettes, par myriades, agitent leurs fouets immenses, Alex distingue une silhouette inattendue et résolument non extraterrestre au sein de la mêlée : une jeune femme appareillée de façon étrange qui semble sur le point de se joindre à la danse alien. Cette femme n’a rien à faire là, et elle se prépare à mourir. À moins que... « Un grand talent qui opère avec une efficacité maximale. » HARLAN ELLISON

Andrea Cort. Genius. War Criminal. Crime-Solver. An emergency summons brings Andrea and her partners, Oscin and Skye Porrinyard, to an isolated research station, where a brilliant scientist lies brutally murdered. Who committed the crime is no mystery. But it may be impossible to prosecute, because the culprit has arranged a strange transformation for himself, and may no longer be the same person who committed the crime. For Andrea, who has recently begun planning the next stage in her own personal evolution, the issue cuts straight to the atrocities of her own past...and the question that might destroy her: can she escape the guilt that has always pursued her? This collection is set in the award-winning Andrea Cort series, featuring the titular novella "Hiding Place," as well as the short stories "Among the Tchi" and "Down, Please: The Only Recorded Adventure of Lars Fouton, Captain''s Lift Operator on the Starship Magnificent."

Now available in English for the first time, War of the Marionettes is the final novel in Adam-Troy Castro''s award-winning Andrea Cort series. Vlhan. Where a race of incredibly intelligent, and sometimes unpredictably dangerous, aliens yearly perform a dance where tens of thousands of their kind die, all in pursuit of a mysterious purpose vital not only to their own survival but also to that of the human race. But something has gone wrong... Andrea Cort. Genius. Misanthrope. War Criminal. Solver of Crimes. She has traveled to Vlhan with her lovers, the linked pair known as the Porrinyards. Now, against the backdrop of a sudden and bloody war, she must not only find a missing girl, not only prevent a catastrophe that might spell the end of the human race...but also make a decision that will change her own future beyond imagining. Previous stories about the Vlhani have been nominated for two Nebulas and one Hugo. The Andrea Cort stories have been also been Nebula-nominated, and the first novel, Emissaries From The Dead, won the Philip K. Dick Award. Now Andrea Cort arrives on Vlhan for the confrontation that will change everything!

A Hollywood hookup becomes a nightmare for a woman who discovers that the predators in the hills seem to include one very hungry tiger... The last people on Earth look for final distractions in a once-great city being consumed by desert wastelands... A barfly pauses by an elaborate sand castle and finds herself attacked by armored defenders... A man suggests to his new love that it''s time for them to share their worst secrets, only to hear that hers is a little harder to swallow... How the human race will spend their last amounts of time on this planet... All this and more in nine memorable stories from one of today''s most unpredictable writers. Beyond the reach of human range... a drop of hell...a touch of strange.

"Compulsively readable space mysteries ... Highly recommended."— i09 Andrea Cort, convicted war criminal and legal Counselor for the Diplomatic Corps, has received an urgent summons from the very last people in the universe who should have any reason to contact her: the ruthless family of munitions manufacturers known as the Bettelhines. Bettelhine technology has destroyed worlds. The Bettelhine Corporation is responsible for millions of deaths. But a summons to the Bettelhine homeworld, Xana, is too important to ignore, especially for a woman like Andrea, who is already fighting her own secret war. She arrives on Xana with her lovers, a man and a woman with a single shared personality, and finds out almost immediately that there are people on Xana who want her dead...and there will be more deaths before she stands even a slight chance of getting the answers she needs. It all comes down to just who she is...and who is ruthless enough to use the ancient alien weapon known as the Claw of God. Includes the novella "Knives That Carve the Marionettes," set chronologically after The Third Claw of God. "I''m particularly fond of blends of SF and the detective story, particularly when they''re as well done as this one."— Critical Mass Adam-Troy Castro''s fiction has won the Seiun and Philip K. Dick Awards, and received two nominations for the Hugo, three for the Stoker, and eight for the Nebula. Andrea Cort Novels Emissaries from the Dead The Third Claw of God The War of the Marionettes Andrea Cort short stories With Unclean Hands The Coward''s Option and Tasha''s Fail-Safe Unseen Demons The Knives that Carve the Marionettes

The Cutting Edge of Modern Short Fiction A three-time Hugo Award nominated magazine, this issue of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine offers up twenty-one fantastic stories by some of the best writers working in modern short fiction. No genre limitations, no topic limitations, just great stories. Attitude, feel, and high-quality fiction equals Pulphouse. “This is definitely a strong start. All the stories have a lot of life to them, and are worthwhile reading.” —Tangent Online on Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, Issue #1 Includes: “The Problematic Navigation of the Vessel Clayton Booker” by J. Steven York “The Forgiving Execution” by Rob Vagle “How Fred the Opossum Mobilized the Microbes and Saved the Universe” by Mary Jo Rabe “Cards on the Table” by Adam-Troy Castro “Big Green Man” by Don Webb “The Wall” by Lisa Silverthorne “He Who Howls” by O’Neil De Noux “The Train in the Ladies’ Room” by Kent Patterson “The Secret of Catnip” by Stefon Mears “Ashes to Ashes” by Jerry Oltion “The Short Life and Horny Times of a Teenage Mantis” by David H. Hendrickson “The Pillow of Disappointment and What Was Found Beneath It” by Scott Edelman “Love the Way She Saw It” by C.H. Hung “Erwin or Ralph” by Ray Vukcevich “Gossamer Ghosts” by Robert J. McCarter “Far From Home” by R.W. Wallace “The Devil Went Down to the Sunset Strip” by Dayle A. Dermatis “Like a Hole in the Head” by Jason A. Adams “Shadows on the Moon” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch “The Last Julian” by Annie Reed “Voyage of the Dog-Propelled Starship” by Robert Jeschonek

A silent leviathan deals daily death to the inhabitants of a typical American city... A man sees visions of his next incarnation as a crustacean... A lovelorn junk collector seeks a time traveler''s assistance in a matter of the heart... A strange visitor from another planet, with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men, is found by people less promising than a pair of kindly Kansan farmers... ...take a taste of the latest from an award-winning writer of science fiction, fantasy and horror.

Toujours à la poursuite des Démons Invisibles, responsables de la mort de ses parents, Andrea Cort se rend sur la lointaine planète Vlhan. Ses imposants habitants y pratiquent un rituel qui tient tout autant du spectacle de danse que du suicide collectif. Une fois, par le passé, le ballet a dégénéré, et les habitants de Vlhan se sont retournés contre les spectateurs présents pour les massacrer. Andrea est convaincue qu''élucider le mystère à l''origine de cette tragédie peut la mener à ses Démons Invisibles. Mais la disparition d''une jeune fille vient rapidement compliquer sa quête personnelle. Vlhan est une planète dangereuse et Andrea ignore à quel point elle s''apprête à danser avec la mort.

En choisissant ses nouveaux maîtres, Andrea Cort a été bien récompensée : elle est devenue Procureure extraordinaire pour le Corps diplomatique de la Confédération homsap. Enfin libérée de la plupart des liens hiérarchiques, elle n''a plus à rendre compte de ses déplacements. Invitée par la famille Bettelhine - des marchands d''armes qui sont moralement complices de nombreux massacres et génocides -, elle se rend sur Xana. Andrea méprise les Bettelhines, mais la curiosité est plus forte : elle aimerait savoir ce qu''ils lui veulent. A peine arrivée au port orbital, des assassins tentent de l''éliminer avec une arme extraterrestre vieille de 15 000 ans : la troisième griffe de Dieu. Une arme aux effets effroyables. Piégée dans un ascenseur spatial, Andrea va devoir mener l''enquête la plus périlleuse de sa carrière. Adam-Troy Castro est l''auteur d''une vingtaine de romans et de cinq recueils de nouvelles. La trilogie Andrea Cort (Emissaires des morts, La Troisième griffe de Dieu, La Guerre des Marionnettes) est son oeuvre la plus connue. Le premier roman, Emissaire des morts a reçu le prix Philip K. Dick.

"As great as I''d hoped...Andrea Cort and her universe have terrific scope for future development." — i09 The place is One One One, a gigantic enclosed space station constructed by the AIsource, a mysterious software collective that may be the most advanced, most powerful creatures in the known universe. They have seeded the world with creatures of their own devising, and invited a delegation of human beings to observe. But now the little research community has been rocked by murder...and it appears that the AIsource may be playing a deeper game. Enter Andrea Cort. Prosecutor. War Criminal. Misanthrope. Genius. She has been sent to get to the bottom of these heinous crimes. But she is facing enemies both human and more than human...and the solution to the mystery just might change her very relationship to the world she knows... Praise for Emissaries from the Dead "A brilliantly executed novel, fully successful as both science fiction and murder mystery. Indeed, it evidences a writer at the peak of his career, and it shows none of the flaws one expects from first novels... Emissaries from the Dead is one of the best science fiction novels of the year so far, and it can be recommended especially to fans of science fiction mysteries." — SciFi Weekly "A uniquely absorbing read. It envelops you in a truly exotic and alien environment, and gives you a heroine to root for... It offers mystery, action, a few good jolts, and a bit of the old redemption sans mawkishness. All of the ingredients for a story sure to knock ''em dead." — SF Reviews "Adam-Troy Castro''s Emissaries from the Dead is SF at its best: Silence of the Lambs as Larry Niven might have written it. A clever, thought-provoking page-turner. Bravo!" —Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Rollback "Adam-Troy Castro has given us the ultimate high-wire thriller." —Jack McDevitt

Welcome to Greeve. A sun-drenched backwater world, where people earn their keep from the sea. It''s nowhere important, far from any of Mankind''s petty politics and intrigues. Few of its residents are more familiar than old John, who''s been fishing its waters for decades. He keeps to himself, mostly. Nobody really knows him. No one knows where he came from. But how dangerous can he be? Then another off-worlder settles in, with no apparent goal other than devoting the rest of his days to local drugs and local women. Old John is horrified to recognize him at once. How dangerous can Old John be? As dangerous as any man alive...

Two stories from the early years of Andrea Cort, later the heroine of the Philip K. Dick Award-winning novel, Emissaries from the Dead. "The Coward''s Option": On the hostile home-world of the Caith, Andrea Cort has been assigned the case of a murderer who''s been condemned to a horrible death. All legal options have been exhausted, but the Caith offer a rarely-used alternative to execution, one that purports to ensure that the accused will never break the law again. Alas, it''s not so much another chance at life, but deliverance into a hell far worse than mere death... "Tasha''s Fail-Safe": Once, she and Andrea Cort hated each other. Now, the victim of a savage assassination attempt by a traitor to the Confederacy, she lies in an unresponsive state, the identity of her assailant locked inside her head. Can Andrea penetrate a vital secret she never even knew existed? Other Andrea Cort stories available from JABberwocky: With Unclean Hands Unseen Demons

Gustav and Fernie continue their journey through Dark Country in this new title! In the final installment of Adam-Troy Castro''s creepy Gustav Gloom series, the fate of the Dark Country rests on Gustav and Fernie''s shoulders. After weeks of traveling on a quest to find their fathers, Fernie and Gustav finally come face-to-face with their nemesis—the evil Lord Obsidian. Filled with heroic action sequences, terrifying chills, and plenty of humor, this final book will keep fans on the edge of their seats.

Gustav and Fernie continue their journey through Dark Country! Gustav and Fernie’s adventures in the Dark Country continue as they search for their families. But as they get closer to discovering their families’ fates, their mission is once again threatened by old foes—as well as some new, even more treacherous, ones. Will Gustav and Fernie be able to battle their way through and rescue their families before it’s too late?

Original Novella: New Beaches by Daniel Hatch: Power, corruption, and danger rise with the tides. Short Story: Man or Mech by Rebecca McFarland Kyle: Underneath the shiny, indestructible surface is the soul of a man. Novella: Invisible Friends by Steven Sawicki: He''s just an all American boy with a dog that loves to drive his car, some talking monkeys, and a few damned aliens. Short Story: Canceled by Edward J. McFadden III The damnedest things can happen when a man comes face to face with the reality of his past. Reviews: Area 51 1/2 by Steven Sawicki - A damn alien shares his opinion of Earth''s so-called culture. Reviews: The Fan by Carol McDonnell - Carole McDonnell reviews five dystopian YA novels with teen saviors. Reviews: The Remake Chronicles: In which Leito Leaps Twice by Adam-Troy Castro - Multiple Hugo and Nebula nominee Adam-Troy Castro examines the stories that movies keep returning to. This column will alternate with A-TC''s regular video recommendations.

The Amazing Race is a reality show like no other and it has the best set around. Best-selling novelist, Adam-Troy Castro, explores The Amazing Race in My Ox is Broken! one of the first books ever published about one of the best reality television programs around. From Thailand to Greenland, this show has consistently gone where no other show has gone before, and Castro continues the excitement of the Race in a book that is funny, entertaining, and unique—just like the show itself. The Amazing Race has hooked viewers for all the right reasons and it doesn''t show any signs of stopping. My Ox is Broken! is the best reading companion for any fan of this hit show or for any fan of reality television at its best.

ANDREA CORT. War criminal. Genius. Outcast. Heroine. Sent to the home-world of the Zinn, a once-powerful race now on the long path to extinction, she''s expected to sign the approval for a simple prisoner transfer -- but why are the Zinn so eager to take custody of an unremarkable human murderer? What brutal crime is being planned against an innocent? What hidden agenda threatens to topple the balance of power? This Nebula-Award nominated novella is the earliest adventure of Andrea Cort, heroine of the Philip K.Dick Award winning novel, Emissaries From The Dead. Other Andrea Cort stories available from JABberwocky: The Coward''s Option (and Tasha''s Fail Safe) Unseen Demons

As Fernie and Gustav battle the Shadow Eater, who seeks The Nightmare Vault for his master, the evil Lord Obsidian, Fernie learns about Gustav''s mysterious past and just what happened to his missing parents.

Fernie What, an adventurous young horror fan, moves into the house across the street from the dark mansion of a mysterious boy whose residence is haunted by evil shadows.

He thinks suicide is the end of all his troubles. He''s wrong. He doesn''t know that he will immediately find himself imprisoned in a strange and alien place, where the souls of despairing creatures from the breadth of space and time are tapped for the energy that only they possess. He also doesn''t know that he''s about to meet the oldest and most terrifying of all of Mankind''s enemies: an obsessed, all-powerful creature who has wiped out entire civilizations, in its single-minded quest to destroy everything human. He doesn''t know that he is about to come face-to-face with everything we''ve ever been, and everything we ever stand a chance of becoming. But there''s something the Beast doesn''t know about him. He has a power he never knew he had. This edition includes a special introduction by the author.

In Gustav Gloom and the Four Terrors, things are not always what they seem in the Gloom Mansion. Gustav decides that he needs to rescue his father from the Dark Country, but he can’t do that without Fernie’s help. After Gustav convinces Fernie’s safety-conscious father to enter the Gloom Mansion with Fernie and Pearlie, there is a prison break from the Hall of Shadow Criminals and it’s up to Fernie to save her family and Gustav before it’s too late. Featuring a unique paper-over-board cover, a die-cut window with printed acetate, and beautifully dark full-page illustrations by Kristen Margiotta.

When Gustav convinces Fernie''s safety-conscious father to enter the Gloom Mansion with Fernie and Perlie to help rescue Gustav''s father from the Dark Country, there is a prison break from the Hall of Shadow Criminals, endangering them all.

As Fernie and Gustav battle the Shadow Eater, who seeks The Nightmare Vault for his master, the evil Lord Obsidian, Fernie learns about Gustav''s mysterious past and just what happened to his missing parents.

Fernie What, an adventurous young horror fan, moves into the house across the street from the dark mansion of a mysterious boy whose residence is haunted by evil shadows.

HELL TO THE CHIEF All United States Presidents have the same lesson to learn, and they all learn it early on the first full morning of their respective Administrations. They are all confronted with the horrific secret at the heart of the White House...the one that subjects them to a blood-soaked, savage battle for survival. To commemorate the 2012 election season, Hugo, Nebula and Stoker Nominee Adam-Troy Castro presents a newly-updated edition of one of his all-time strangest short stories, a one-of-a-kind mixture of political satire and relentless zombie horror that pits a new President against a siege by...the Founding Fiends. Will Democracy survive...and what will be left of it?

On a savage backwater world, the last ragged survivors of an expedition to hunt down the infamous war criminal known as The Beast Magrison set off into an inhospitable wilderness in search of the alien village that may be sheltering this beast. The hunters are aliens from two different species, the village is inhabited by strange aliens of yet another species, and Magrison himself is no sterling advertisement for humanity. Who''s human in this situation? The answer may surprise and upset you. This novella from acclaimed SF writer Adam-Troy Castro explores the fate of the dread Magrison. Readers can find out more about the world that spawned Magrison by tracking down his Andrea Cort novels, Emissaries from the Dead and The Third Claw of God. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.