Come inside and take a seat; the show is about to begin . . . Outside any city still standing, the Mechanical Circus Tresaulti sets up its tents. Crowds pack the benches to gawk at the brass-and-copper troupe and their impossible feats: Ayar the Strong Man, the acrobatic Grimaldi Brothers, fearless Elena and her aerialists who perform on living trapezes. War is everywhere, but while the Circus is performing, the world is magic. That magic

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With the heart of an Atwood tale and the visuals of a classic Asian period drama, Nghi Vo's The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a tightly and lushly written narrative about empire, storytelling, and the anger of women. A young royal from the far north, is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes...

The long-planned raid on the heart of the Grik Empire has grown more ambitious-and dangerously ill defined. Only Matthew Reddy, commander of the old destroyer USS Walker, seems focused on its original intent. Many Lemurians see an opportunity to reconquer their sacred homeland, which was stolen long ago, and have no intention of simply striking a blow and then pulling back. Others, Lemurian and human, have their own agendas-which may not be in the...

Another high-octane thriller featuring Patrick McLanahan, hero from Flight of the Old Dog and Night of the Hawk. When a nuclear-empowered Iran begins throwing its weight around the Persian Gulf, the U.S. uneasily stands by, its military weakened by years of budget cuts and unpopular, inconclusive police actions. But the new president realizes there is one weapon he can use: the newest secret cell of the CIA's Intelligence Support Agency, code-named...

"Hessa is an Eangi: a warrior priestess of the Goddess of War, with the power to turn an enemy's bones to dust with a scream. After raiders raze her village and obliterate the Eangi priesthood, Hessa is thrust into a battle between the gods of the Old World and the New."--Provided by publisher.

"On a mission to recover the Book of the Wars, Leif and his team are diverted by a prophecy that foretells of sinister guardians who will decimate the enemies of the ArC. As they try to stop the guardians, danger creeps closer to home. The implications could tear them apart"--

The third novel in Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter's Long Earth series, which Io9 calls a brilliant science fiction collaboration.-- 2040-2045. In the years after the cataclysmic Yellowstone eruption there is massive economic dislocation as populations flee Datum Earth to myriad Long Earth worlds. Sally is contacted by her long-vanished father and inventor of the original Stepper device, Willis Linsay. He tells her he is planning a fantastic voyage...

Summer faery princess, half human, Meghan is deserted by the Winter prince she thought loved her, becomes a prisoner of the Winter faery queen, and loses her own fey powers. As war looms between Summer and Winter, Meghan knows that the real danger comes from the Iron fey--ironbound faeries that only she and her absent prince have seen. But no one believes her--and trusting a seeming traitor could be deadly.

After the battle in which the men of the destroyer Walker and their Lemurian allies repelled the savage Grik, Lieutenant Commander Matthew Reddy is shocked by the arrival of a strange ship captained by one Commaner Jenks of the New Britain Imperial Navy-an island-nation populated by the descendants of British East Indiamen swept through the rift centuries before. With the Walker undergoing repairs, Reddy already has a great deal on his hands. For...

"Daeson finds himself a prisoner in a tribal world where the law of survival rules. Gone is the hope of the promised homeworld given by the mighty Immortal, Ell Yon. Daeson must fight to restore a future to the Raylean people, but to succeed he must overcome the marauders of cruel worlds, the tragedy of quantum peril, and the arch-enemy of the Sovereign Ell Yon, Lord Dracus. The odds are mounting against him. The relentless loyalty of his friend,...