May 2010 Releases | Penguin UK

The Complete Cosmiconics by Italo Calvino

Publisher: Penguin Classic
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780141189680

Release Date: 06/05/10
Genre: Classic
Series/Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Publisher's Blurb: Enchanting stories about the evolution of the universe, with characters that are fashioned from mathematical formulae and cellular structures. They disport themselves among galaxies, experience the solidification of planets, move from aquatic to terrestrial existence, play games with hydrogen atoms - and have time for a love life.

'Naturally, we were all there, - old Qfwfq said, - where else could we have been? Nobody knew then that there could be space. Or time either: what use did we have for time, packed in there like sardines?'


Dracula (RED) by Bram Stoker

Publisher: Penguin Classic
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 97801194332

Release Date: 20/05/2010
Genre: Classic
Series/Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Publisher's Blurb: Count Dracula's castle in Transylvania is a hellish world where night is day, pleasure is pain and the blood of the innocent is priceless. When the unsuspecting Jonathan Harker is summoned there to meet the count, he has no idea of the horrors that await him. Soon an epic battle begins, in which Jonathan must protect the living - including his beautiful fiancée Mina - from the gathering forces of the undead.

Books can change lives. Penguin Classics have inspired the imaginations of millions of readers over the world, transforming the way people think and feel forever. And now we have partnered with (RED) to bring you our selection of some of the best stories ever written, books are going to help save lives too.


And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer

Publisher: Penguin
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780141042138

Release Date: 27/05/10
Genre: Science Fiction
Series/Stand Alone: Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Part six of three

Publisher's Blurb: Arthur Dent's accidental association with that wholly remarkable book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has not been entirely without incident.

Arthur has travelled the length, breadth and depth of known, and unknown, space. He has stumbled forwards and backwards through time. He has been blown up, reassembled, cruelly imprisoned, horribly released and colourfully insulted more than is strictly necessary. And, of course, he has comprehensively failed to grasp the meaning of life, the universe and everything.

Arthur has, though, finally made it home to Earth. But that does not mean he has escaped his fate.

For Arthur's chances of getting his hands on a decent cuppa are evaporating along with the world's oceans. Because no sooner has he arrived than he finds out that Earth is about to be blown up . . . again.

May 2010 Releases | Headline Publishing Group

Wintercraft by Jenna Burtenshaw

Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780755370962

Release Date: 13/05/2010
Genre: Young Adult
Series/Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Publisher's Blurb: Ten years ago Kate Winters' parents were taken by the High Council's wardens to help with the country's war effort. Now the wardens are back...and prisoners, including Kate's uncle Artemis, are taken south on the terrifying Night Train. Kate and her friend Edgar are hunted by a far more dangerous enemy. Silas Dane -- the High Council's most feared man -- recognises Kate as one of the Skilled; a rare group of people able to see through the veil between the living and the dead. His spirit was damaged by the High Council's experiments into the veil, and he's convinced that Kate can undo the damage and allow him to find peace. The knowledge Kate needs lies within Wintercraft -- a book thought to be hidden deep beneath the graveyard city of Fume. But the Night of Souls, when the veil between life and death is at its thinnest, is just days away and the High Council have their own sinister plans for Kate and Wintercraft.

April 2010 Releases | Penguin UK

Demon Defenders: Playground Plague by Jake Lancing

Publisher: Puffin

Age: 8-12

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 9780141324616

Release Date: 01/04/10

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher's Blurb: When another experiment goes disastrously wrong and the gang end up falling through the ceiling into the bathroom (where a shower-cap adorned Tabbris sits fuming at his young angel charges) the gang decide a change of leadership is required. Spit takes over and suddenly things seem to be going OK - trouble seems to be a distant memory. That is, until the gang's pet rat goes missing and the footprints in the fridge are bigger than any rat they've ever seen - or ever want to . . .

Angelology by Danielle Trussoni

Publisher: Michael Joseph

Format: Hardback

ISBN: 9780718155582

Release Date: 01/04/2010
ePub Release Date: 01/04/2010

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher's Blurb: The Nephilim were on the earth in those days Genesis 6:4. When Sister Evangeline finds mysterious correspondence between Mother Innocenta of the Saint Rose Convent and legendary philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller, it confirms Angels walked among us - and their descendants, the cruel Nephilim, still do. Indeed, the Nephilim are hunting for artefacts concealed by Abigail Rockefeller during the Second World War - objects that will ultimately allow them to enslave mankind - and have so far been prevented from reaching their apocalyptic goal by one, clandestine organisation: The Angelology Society. And if the Angelologists are to stand any chance of winning this new battle in the ages-old war, they must find the artefacts first. But their fate rests in the hands of innocent Sister Evangeline, who holds the key to unlocking Abigail Rockefeller's hiding places ...and whose own destiny may yet find her prey to the terrifying Nephilim army, with horrifying consequences for humanity.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Publisher: Penguin

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 9780141047553

Release Date: 15/04/2010

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher's Blurb: While clearing out her grandmother's cottage for sale, Connie Goodwin finds a hidden parchment inscribed with the name Deliverance Dane. And so begins the hunt to uncover the woman behind the name, a hunt that takes her back to Salem in 1692 ...and the infamous witchcraft trials. But nothing is entirely as it seems and when Connie unearths the existence of Deliverance's spell book, the Physick Book, the situation takes on a menacing edge as interested parties reveal their desperation to find this precious artefact at any cost. What secrets does the Physick Book contain? What magic is scrawled across its parchment pages? Connie must race to answer these questions - and reveal the truth about Salem's women - before an ancient family curse once more fulfils its dark and devastating prophecy...

April 2010 Releases | Newcon Press

Conflicts edited by Ian Whates

Publisher: Newcon Press
Format: Ltd Edition Hardback/Paperback
ISBN: Hardback: 9781907069109, Paperback: 9781907069116

Release Date: April 2010
Genre: Sci-Fi
Series/Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Publisher's Blurb: A spaceship hurtles into the unknown carrying humanity’s last hope, but does it also carry the seeds of its own doom? The galaxy’s ultimate facilitator finds himself pursued by relentless enemies, while, of greater importance, there’s a puzzle to be solved. A trivial disagreement between two off-duty super soldiers out for some R&R escalates and escalates, eventually endangering an entire world. Thirteen tales of human striving, of ingenuity, brilliance, desperate action, violence, and resolution. Thirteen tales of Conflict, of Science Fiction at its absolute best. All stories are original.

1 - Introduction – Ian Whates
2 - Psi.Copath – Andy Remic
3 - The Maker’s Mark – Michael Cobley
4 - Sussed – Keith Brooke
5 - The Cuisinart Effect – Neal Asher
6 - Harmony in My Head – Rosanne Rabinowitz
7 - Our Land – Chris Beckett
8 - Fallout – Gareth L. Powell
9 - Proper Little Soldier – Martin McGrath
10 - War Without End – Una McCormack
11 - Dissimulation Procedure – Eric Brown
12 - In the Long Run – David L. Clements
13 - Last Orders – Jim Mortimore
14 - Songbirds – Martin Sketchley


The Unlikely World of Faraway Frankie by Keith Brooke

Publisher: Newcon Press
Format: Ltd Edition Hardback/Paperback
ISBN: Hardback: 9781907069123, Paperback: 9781907069130

Release Date: April 2010
Genre: Fantasy
Series/Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Publisher's Blurb: We’ve all dreamt of Faraway, a place so like the world we know but where we make the rules. For Frankie Finnegan, a boy whose sister has died, whose family is in meltdown and whose school life is blighted by bullies, such dreams have a keener edge. Until one day he wakes up in Faraway. His World; His Rules; His Dream; where Grace is still alive and his parents can be happy again.
Yet it soon becomes clear that he’s not the only one with power in Faraway, and the mysterious ‘Owner’ doesn’t take kindly to interference. Things start to unravel, and Frankie’s Dream slides inexorably towards Nightmare…


Orgasmachine by Ian Watson

Publisher: Newcon Press
Format: Ltd Edition Hardback/Paperback
ISBN: Hardback: 9781907069147, Paperback: 9781907069154

Release Date: April 2010
Genre: Sci-Fi
Series/Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Publisher's Blurb: Forget Stepford Wives; this goes way beyond anything seen in Stepford.

The Three Laws of Feministics:
1. Your body is not your own; it belongs to another. Therefore you may not damage it nor, through inaction, allow it to be damaged.
2. You must obey all orders given you by your owner (or in cases of loss of ownership, by any man) even if such orders conflict with the First Law.
3. You may not injure any man, nor through failure to comply with the Second Law, cause him displeasure or mental injury.

Women as chattels, as customised sexslaves; bodies freakishly modified to their owners’ dictates, personalities preset to order. Welcome to the world of the Orgasmachine. But Jade and Mari escape their masters and dream of revenge, of revolution, of freedom…

April 2010 Releases | BBC Books

Doctor Who: The Forgotten Army by Brian Minchin

Publisher: BBC Books
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 184607987X
Release Date: 22/04/2010
Genre: Sci-Fi/Tie In
Series/Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Publisher's Blurb: 'Let me tell you a story. Long ago, in the frozen Arctic wastes, an alien army landed. Only now, 10,000 years later, it isn’t a story. And the army is ready to attack.’

New York – one of the greatest cities on 21st century Earth... But what’s going on in the Museum? And is that really a Woolly Mammoth rampaging down Broadway? An ordinary day becomes a time of terror, as Ice Age creatures come back to life, and the Doctor and Amy meet a new and deadly enemy. The vicious Army of the Vykoid are armed to the teeth and determined to enslave the human race. Even though they’re only three inches high.

With the Vykoid army swarming across Manhattan and sealing it from the world with a powerful alien forcefield, Amy has just 24 hours to find the Doctor and save the city. If she doesn’t, the people of Manhattan will be taken to work in the doomed asteroid mines of the Vykoid home planet. But as time starts to run out, who can she trust? And how far will she have to go to free New York from the Forgotten Army?

A thrilling, all new adventure featuring the Doctor and Amy, as played by Matt Smith and Karen Gillan in the spectacular hit series from BBC Television

Doctor Who: Night of the Humans by David Llewellyn

Publisher: BBC Books
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 1846079691
Release Date: 22/04/2010
Genre: Sci-Fi/Tie In
Series/Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Publisher's Blurb: 'This is the Gyre – the most hostile environment in the galaxy...’

250,000 years’ worth of junk floating in deep space, home to the shipwrecked Sittuun, the carnivorous Sollogs, and worst of all – the Humans. The Doctor and Amy arrive on this terrifying world in the middle of an all-out frontier war between Sittuun and Humans, and the countdown has already started. There’s a comet in the sky, and it’s on a collision course with the Gyre...

When the Doctor is kidnapped, it’s up to Amy and “galaxy-famous swashbuckler” Dirk Slipstream to save the day. But who is Slipstream, exactly? And what is he really doing here?

A thrilling, all new adventure featuring the Doctor and Amy, as played by Matt Smith and Karen Gillan in the spectacular hit series from BBC Television

Doctor Who: Apollo 23 by Justin Richards

Publisher: BBC Books
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 184607200X
Release Date: 22/04/2010
Genre: Sci-Fi/Tie In
Series/Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Publisher's Blurb: 'For a few moments this afternoon, it rained on the moon...'

An astronaut in full spacesuit appears out of thin air in a busy shopping centre. Maybe it’s a publicity stunt. A photo shows a well-dressed woman in a red coat lying dead at the edge of a crater on the dark side of the moon – beside her beloved dog ‘Poochie’. Maybe it’s a hoax. But as the Doctor and Amy find out, these are just minor events in a sinister plan to take over every human being on earth. The plot centres on a secret military base on the moon – that’s where Amy and the TARDIS are.

The Doctor is back on Earth, and without the TARDIS there’s no way he can get to the moon to save Amy and defeat the aliens. Or is there? The Doctor discovers one last great secret that could save humanity: Apollo 23.

A thrilling, all new adventure featuring the Doctor and Amy, as played by Matt Smith and Karen Gillan in the spectacular hit series from BBC Television

April 2010 Releases | Pendragon Press

Silversands by Gareth L Powell

Publisher: Pendragon Press
Format: Hardback/Paperback
ISBN: 9781906864064
Release Date:10/04/2010
Genre: Sci-Fi
Series/Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Publisher's Blurb:In an age where interstellar travel is dangerous and unpredictable, and no-one knows exactly where they’ll end up, Avril Bradley is a Communications officer onboard a ship sent to re-contact as many of these lost souls as possible.

But a mysterious explosion strands her in a world of political intrigue, espionage and subterfuge; a world of retired cops, digital ghosts and corporate assassins who fight for possession of computer data that had lain undisturbed for almost a century. . .

This is the debut novel from the critically-acclaimed author of the short story collection The Last Reef, Gareth L Powell, with stunning cover artwork by Vincent Chong.

April 2010 Releases | Random House/Century

Star Wars - Fate of The Jedi: Backlash by Aaron Allston
Publisher: Century/Lucas Books (Random House)
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 184605687X

Release date: 15th April 2010
Genre: Science Fiction/Space Opera
Series/Standalone: Fourth in a series

Publisher Blurb:

Repercussions from the dark side’s fatal seduction of Jacen Solo and the mysterious plague of madness afflicting young Jedi continue to wreak havoc galaxy-wide in STAR WARS™: FATE OF THE JEDI: BACKLASH. Having narrowly escaped the deranged Force worshippers known as the Mind Walkers and a deadly Sith hit squad, Luke and Ben Skywalker are in pursuit of the now Masterless Sith apprentice. It is a chase that leads to the forbidding planet Dathomir, where an enclave of powerful dark side Force-wielders will give Vestara the edge she needs to escape—and where the Skywalkers will be forced into combat for their quarry and their lives.

Meanwhile, Han and Leia have completed their own desperate mission, shuttling madness-stricken Jedi from Coruscant to safe haven in the Transitory Mists and beyond the grasp of Galactic Alliance Chief of State Natasi Daala. But the bold maneuver has intensified Daala’s fury, and she is determined to shatter Jedi Order resistance once and for all.

Yet no greater threat exists than that which still waits in the depths of the distant Maw Cluster: A being of pure, ravenous dark-side energy named Abeloth calls out across the stars to Jedi and Sith alike. For some it may be the ultimate source of answers crucial to their survival. For others it could be the ultimate weapon of conquest. But for all, it is a game-changing—and life-altering—encounter of untold magnitude and a tactical gambit with unimaginable consequences.