Android and human high school students work together to find clues left behind by one of the founders, all while fighting for android equality in Marie’s mysterious second After Intelligence novel (after The Hidden Sequence). Returning to school for a new semester, Charlotte, her android best friend, Isaac, her new boyfriend, and their friends are preparing as a team for an unpredictable augmented reality competition called the Enigma tournament. But as soon as the tournament starts, other students begin to show they’re not accepting of the android students as equals, trying to get them removed from the tournament. While Charlotte and her team fight for the androids’ right to play, they also strive to uncover the secrets of a journal of the founder of an android-developing conglomerate.

In a future where everyone wears viewer contacts for reading, messaging, and augmenting reality into anything they want to see, the addition of androids into everyday life has proved complicated. Marie explores the issue of android acceptance through the lens of high school, revealing how the feelings of the students reflect those of humans in general, including the fear of something different, even though androids have done nothing to deserve the negative attention. Marie’s storytelling makes a spirited case for acceptance even as “technology changes humans’ relationship to the world around them,” demonstrating that androids may have advantages in some ways, but humans have advantages in others. That’s true in life and the games, where every room the teams investigate becomes entire new worlds, only seen and felt through their viewer contacts but wholly lifelike.

The fun of the story doesn’t stop with the incredible tournament. The likable heroes continue chasing clues from the journal found in the first book, facing mathematical challenges, augmented reality puzzles, and more. Readers who love gameplay and camaraderie will be on the edge of their seats trying to work it all out with these clever teens.

Takeaway: Clever android and human teens crack puzzles and push for acceptance.

Comparable Titles: Cory Doctorow’s For the Win, Marie Lu’s Warcross.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about After Intelligence: The Missing Passage

Elliott takes readers on an unforgettable journey from the sun-soaked beaches of California to the battlefields of Vietnam in this gripping debut memoir. In 1966, at just 20 years old, Elliott was drafted into the U.S. Marine Corps, transforming him from a carefree surfer into a disciplined soldier. The narrative vividly portrays boot camp’s grueling reprogramming—intense training that stripped away Elliott’s former identity and molded him into a radio operator, ready for the monsoon rains, violence, and endless death in his future. Elliott’s writing is raw and unflinching, slashing the physical and mental demands of recruits against the exhaustion, fear, and camaraderie that defined this transformative period in his life.

This is a grisly reminder of the costs of war, shaped through the harrowing experiences of a young Marine whose identity—and outlook on life—was irrevocably changed. Elliott delves into the psychological toll of combat, illustrating trauma’s long-lasting effects and the challenges of reintegrating into civilian life, with deeply personal, candid reflections that make this not just a war story, but a tale of resilience and recovery. The day-to-day chronicle of grinding through C-ration meals, booby traps, and enemy snipers is riveting in Elliott’s capable hands, punctuated throughout by stark evidence of war’s appalling missions—like digging up graves to furnish superiors with enemy body counts for the news back home. It was “a way of keeping score,” Elliott writes, “like war was some kind of team sport.”

Elliott includes news clippings and photographs from his experiences, revealing snapshots of a time that is often ignored but never forgotten. A copy of a 1966 newspaper article validates Operation Chinook and the damage that unfolded after, while powerful black and white photographs of Elliott—and his comrades—dot the narrative. When he returns home, he reflects on his experiences, wondering “if all the effort and loss of life did any real good overall.”

Takeaway: Harrowing account of a U.S. Marine’s service in Vietnam.

Comparable Titles: Robert Mason’s Chickenhawk, Doyle Glass’s Lions of Medina.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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Sarah Woodward is the only person to walk away from a chilling accident. After her unexplained survival, she is haunted by repeated dreams she can’t parse, strange changes to her appearance, memories that don’t seem to belong to her, and unexplained healing abilities—she can’t even scar, much less die. By chance, she meets Alex Smith, Seattle’s only vampire, and Lucy Goodspeed, a low-ranking member of a centuries-old society, both of whom quickly identify Sarah as not quite human. Sarah doesn’t trust them, but also doesn’t believe she qualifies as ordinary anymore; still, she’s not ready to give up her independent life, unattached and unneeded by anyone.

Viscerally macabre imagery permeates Wilson’s chilling debut, the first in her Deathless Creatures Saga, giving attentive readers haunting scenes to savor while echoing Sarah’s desperation for someone to understand, and clarify, what’s happening to her. She runs from Alex—and avoids learning more from Lucy—in an attempt to save her comfortable life, but ultimately her path can’t be denied. Wilson colors Sarah’s fascination with Alex as a conduit for acceptance—that she cannot be less than who she is and cannot avoid her fate as someone more than human, needed by the entire planet—though her relationship with Alex is muddled by vampire hierarchy and Lucy’s enigmatic Society of Keepers.

Though Sarah’s refusal of her call is lengthy and drawn out, Wilson’s writing easily draws readers in, eventually offering a high-stakes feast of electrifying passion, death, and a ticking bomb of destruction that only Sarah can stop. Through sheer willpower, and with Alex’s devoted help, Sarah eventually comes into her own, transforming into a confident, transfixing lead who is assured in her role of protecting the human world. Wilson’s characters—and their mesmeric universe—are ripe for sequel treatment, whispering of more romance and exponentially higher stakes in the future.

Takeaway: Two immortals struggle to accept their fate—and each other.

Comparable Titles: B.B. Griffith’s The Vanished series, Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse Saga.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Deathless Creatures

Launching Anglehart's Scottish Scrolls series, this polished and enchanting urban fantasy coming-of-age thriller follows a teenage girl learning about her mystical gifts. In Massachusetts in 1991, 17-year-old Mckenna O’Dwyer has the ability to read people’s emotions and suffers from nightmares of a witch being burned at the stake. After Mckenna reveals she moved a book with her mind and discovers a secret letter from her absent mother, her biological father, Seán, confesses that in England he once was married to a witch named Abigail. Believing herself to be in danger, Abigail urged Sean to flee the country with the infant Mckenna—affectionately named “Wise One.” An obstinate Mckenna runs away, accompanied by her new friend Nissa, in search of her mother in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland.

Anglehart’s twisty mystery adventure skilfully captures the awkwardness and unease of being a teenager who feels out of place, all while conjuring a grand web of magic, intrigue, mystical atmosphere, and fae surprises. After stowing away on a ship bound for Dublin, Mckenna and Nissa traverse the Emerald Isle by hitching a ride with Cillian, a young politician who informs them of the Troubles in Belfast and the ancient mound at Newgrange, a site whose magical energy connects with Mckenna. But Cillian will face jolts, betrayal, and a relentless High Priestess eager to push the Wise One to discover her “darkness within” and, in accordance with prophetic scrolls, bring great power to the natural world, but with a dire human cost.

With intrigue and revelations, the plot progresses delightfully as Mckenna gains confidence and learns about her magical legacy. This swift, crisply written modern-day fairytale of determination, growing up, and embracing your identity will inspire young adult readers who appreciate Irish and Scottish folklore. The environmental message resonates, and Anglehart's evocations of an Ireland where a “lake of mystic topaz” stands “silent and still beneath smooth mountains” are both wistful and sumptuous.

Takeaway: Enchanting fantasy of a teen girl, prophecies, and witchy magic.

Comparable Titles: Brie Tart’s Iron & Ivy, E. Latimer’s Witches of Ash & Ruin.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about The Wise One

“The Gospel is the greatest story ever told… yet, today, it seems most people in the West do not care,” writes Tellefsdal in this fresh, inviting resource for Christian leaders and organizations. Drawing on 20 years of experience in public relations, and candidly sharing his personal journey with the Christian faith, Tellefsdal delves into barriers that, he argues, are making the church irrelevant to contemporary followers: weakening their message to be “like everyone else” or becoming inflexible and isolating from the mainstream. To combat those “ditches” as he calls them, Tellefsdal offers several functional tools and communication tactics, urging the church to reach those who are “in desperate need of grace and hope.”

Tellefsdal’s approach is unique, and, though much of his experience is based out of his home turf of Norway, readers will find a wealth of creative suggestions here, all aimed at increasing church membership and clarifying the Christian message. Tellefsdal labels the church as “off-brand”—and offers steps to get back on track, including how to “pitch” Jesus to contemporary audiences—while asserting that the complaints people have toward Christianity result from a lack of human connection between the church and the outside world. He also recounts interviews with prominent church leaders across the globe, sharing their success stories and the steps they took to get there as proof that “significant progress can occur if we rethink where and how we gather.”

Whether it’s revamping media approaches, improving web sites, or applying a sales funnel approach to church marketing, Tellefsdal offers readers logical principles to enhance the “Christian narrative” and “make the Christian faith relevant to modern audiences.” Bonus material includes analysis of secularization trends in the United States compared to Europe and a summary of how to use the hero’s journey framework when marketing the Christian faith.

Takeaway: Creative guide for bringing a Christian message to contemporary audiences.

Comparable Titles: Andrew Atherstone’s Repackaging Christianity, Dave Adamson’s MetaChurch.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Rebranding The Church

In Warren’s harrowing young adult debut, coastal flooding and ravaging wildfires have left much of the United States uninhabitable. Diego Rivera, the renowned scientist who desperately tried to warn others of impending climate change consequences, now lives with his assistant, Mia, and subsists on alcohol, grieving over the world’s destruction and economic collapse while cheating death one day at a time. Meanwhile, siblings Dee and Rowan leave New York when food becomes scarce and their parents are dead, and 17-year-old Winona struggles on her own in what used to be Seattle—until Jeremy arrives and changes her life forever.

Warren’s world is a stark, unflinching portrait of the costs that come with ignoring climate change. As the three groups make their way to Denver, Colorado—one of the last viable places to live on Earth—Warren paints a planet rife with harsh conditions: natural food is almost non-existent, animal scavengers are deadly, and viruses have decimated populations. Readers grasp the events leading up to the world’s destruction through the stories Warren’s characters share with each other—and the knowledge they glean from history books—while experiencing firsthand their fight to survive the choices made by humans in “the before.”

Though the story holds eerily similar parallels to contemporary times, Warren ensures a glimmer of promise in the bonds made between her characters, the resilience of the few who survive, and their commitment to living in a safer, more natural world. As the groups start over from scratch, the novel reaches a precarious balance of struggle and optimism, with sprinkles of romance and new beginnings buoying up the bleakness of this new world. The terrain is vicious, and the stakes deadly, but Warren’s characters—an appealing jumble of hardened yet vulnerable survivors—will leave readers with flickers of hope for our own future.

Takeaway: Realistic but hopeful adventure of starting over after climate destruction.

Comparable Titles: Sarah Crossan’s Breathe, Neil Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman's Dry.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Life After

When married couple Paula and James receive an invitation to “cousin Angela’s” nuptials, neither can recall who she is. But, with the ceremony only three days away, the couple is fixated on what gift to take—and who is responsible for choosing it, given that no one in either family has a relative named Angela. As the cast grows to include James’s parents, his brother Frank, Paula’s co-worker Iris, and the odd-couple next door, the puzzling mystery at the novel’s center quickly devolves into a metaphor for each individual’s thoughts on marriage and relationships.

Evans’s brisk, snappy dialogue powers the storytelling, the intimate and revealing talk giving readers a voyeuristic familiarity with the inner workings of Paula and James’s marriage—even when both seem to know what the other is thinking, they dance in an all-too-relatable way around what will or won’t be said. As the clock ticks closer to the big day, Paula insists that James should be the one to select the gift, prompting him to settle on a toaster, until Iris reveals toaster crumbs as the culprit for her divorce—a revelation that compels an immediate strategy shift, from shopping for a wedding gift to, in Paula’s terms, a “marriage gift” that will “prepare them for the journey they are making together.”

The story culminates with a turbulent Mall of America excursion for Paula, James, Frank, and Iris, complete with painful indecision, mistrust, and, eventually, healing, in the form of a toaster for some and red lingerie for others. Evans (author of The Mind of a Writer and Other Fables) starts each chapter with satiric snippets pulled from the fictitious “factuality.com,” a fitting set up for the spirited, quirky interactions that follow. The vignettes change as rapidly as Paula and James’s opinions on what to buy the elusive Angela, and Evans’s unexpected ending to the mystery echoes James’s sentiment that “not only do I have no idea what the right answer is, I have no idea if there is a right answer.”

Takeaway: Snappy, intimately comic stage satire of marriage life.

Comparable Titles: Monica Ali’s Love Marriage, Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about The Marriage Gift

Gun for hire Cain is back in this second installment in James’s action-packed Cain series, after Ethos of Cain, this time serving as the chief of security for Francesca Pieralisi, the newly appointed Director of Implementation for the European Seawall Foundation. As Francesca's protector—and lover—Cain tracks down threat after escalating threat as a high powered, above-the-law corporation named Black Horizon, Inc infiltrates the seawall committee for their own interests. Cain—highly skilled, dangerous, and intelligent—thwarts a creepy stalker, planted slander attacks, and crooked cops, all to help Francesca accomplish her dream of building the European seawall.

As the odds stack up against her, Francesca must decide if she is willing to play as dirty as her adversaries for the greater good. James liberally probes that theme, blurring the lines between right and wrong as morally gray characters abound—several of whom readers will find themselves cheering on, as they’re forced into unconventional methods to combat the story’s rampant corruption. James adds in Altered Reality sunglasses, multiple AI programs (such as Ledger, a forensic accounting AI, and surveillance AI Serval), and off-world laws to make this sci-fi thriller a serious exercise in imagination, juxtaposing criminal threats and violence throughout to create knife-edge tension.

Full of jaw-dropping plot twists and high-octane action, A Desperate Measure is a riveting adventure that explores a futuristic world swarming with visionary technology—and a new set of rules, formulated after growing climate change crises force several nations into emergency mode. Cain and Francesca can trust only each other as they desperately work to prevent global destruction, and James keeps their romance—and the novel’s multiple plot lines—moving at a clip that matches the frenetic pace of the world’s downfall. These sarcastic, gritty heroes are a perfect fit and will leave readers eager for more.

Takeaway: High-octane thriller seasoned with corruption, futuristic tech, and knife-edge tension.

Comparable Titles: Bethany Jacobs's These Burning Stars, Nicholas Sansbury Smith's Galaxy in Flames series.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about A Desperate Measure

Following the death of his beloved, the hero of this polished portal fantasy from the author of The Seekers series braves a maelstrom and embarks on a journey to a new realm, eager to escape his misery. In that new world Lucas encounters curious characters who already know his name, a tyrant eager to “gobble up” the free lands, and above all else wondrous magic, which grants our grieving hero the power to manipulate his surroundings through magic, though he quickly learns that practice makes perfect, and that there are limits to what even magic can fix. After meeting a host of the surprising new companions that are a key pleasure of stories like this, Lucas learns that he is one of this new realm’s handful of sorcerers—and that another sorcerer has created a fortress to lord over the local inhabitants. At first, Lucas seems content to live and let live, until he asks himself and Mia, a stalwart new companion, “Can the way to a new life start with the way of the coward?”

WIth an expert hand, Litwack crafts wonders and challenges for The Maker of Worlds, casting a series of atmospheric spells that immerse readers in the fantasy: the warm, comforting feel of the home of the custodian who welcomes Lucas into his power; the melancholic colors of the village Ironforge, facing times as hard as that name; and the rich yet dark castle fortress that recently appeared out of nowhere, to which village kids are lured by enchantments under the crescent moon.

Litwack brings a classical approach to the fantasy, magic, and dialogue (“Magic is everywhere, even in your old world, if people would believe”), spinning a story touched with myth, fairy tale, friendship, and classic hero’s-journey adventure beats that connect, touchingly, to Lucas and Mia’s psychological scars. Readers favoring dense lore dumps and intricate magic systems should look elsewhere. Instead, as villagers rise up against their oppressor, Litwack offers spooky enchanted forests, charming characters, and touches of wisdom.

Takeaway: Second-world fantasy in a classical mode, alive with charm and character.

Comparable Titles: T. Kingfisher’s The Hollow Places, ​​Charles Stross’s The Family Trade.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: C+
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: A-

Click here for more about The Maker of Worlds

Defining crisis as “where risk meets opportunity,” Billings identifies a crisis communication strategy for businesses based on military precision and using examples from her deployment as well as real world, recent and relevant case studies. Drawing on years of high-level military experience and training, as well as her time as the Director of Communications for the Kentucky Senate Majority, Billings’ guidance and case studies place clear emphasis on consistency, preparation, and training when it comes to navigating crises. Her hard-won advice (“distance yourself emotionally and execute your communication strategy”) is presented with easy-to-follow checklists, processes, and structures for both beginners and advanced communications/public relations specialists, with key takeaways at the end of each chapter under the no-nonsense heading “What You Need To Know.”

For those times when an organization seems under attack, Billings lays out the basic questions to ask and master when crafting a strategy to communicate internally and externally and establish control over the narrative. She calls for ensuring everyone in an organization is on the same page and appropriately prepared, explains the basics of media training and salvaging a brand, and explores the many ways that the communications specialist can bring value to their organization. Key tools include a “Crisis Decision Matrix” for organizations to determine if they are actually in a crisis, and Billings proves persuasive when making the case that how an organization behaves ahead of a crisis determines how it emerges from one, noting that “Being transparent and forthcoming with information” before a crisis “will take some of the wind out of your opponents’ sails.”

Billings’s blunt directness and military terminology keeps the guidance clear while modeling the transparent, task-focused language that keep teams on-message. There is no ambiguity in what she considers critical to the mission of protecting an organization's people and the brand. The case studies presented analyze what went wrong and how each could have been handled better.

Takeaway: Clear-eyed, hard-won advice for crafting crisis communication strategies.

Comparable Titles: Sarah Kovoor-Misra’s Crisis Management, Leonard J. Marcus et al.’s You’re It.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Command the Crisis

Born “in the wilderness, under a tree during a howling storm,” Ridley Speaks, daughter of troubled mother Blaize Speaks, grew up in a household shrouded with poverty, drugs, and despondency, in a small town teetering on the edge of the famous Appalachian Trail. Ridley escapes as soon as she turns 18, armed with only meager belongings and her Martin Junior, bound for “the farthest place [she] can get to from here.” She finds her way to Nashville—and starts dabbling in music—but quickly gets caught up in the murky underbelly of the big city, putting her plans, and her life, on the line.

Robinson’s third in his Speaks Saga (after Blaize Speaks) wades through heavy material, confronting human trafficking, sexual assault, and more, but the story is buoyed by Ridley’s disarming narration. Fierce, independent, and talented, she’s a refreshing breeze in an otherwise suffocating world, desperately trying to escape her mother’s shadow—only to discover they’re more alike than Ridley cares to admit. Ridley’s inner tumult—and encounters with the darkness of the larger world—is lyrically described with effortless ease, the present punctuated by flashbacks of the past that sometimes explain, and other times deepen, the reader’s understanding of her life.

What hooks from the start is Ridley’s unbending character, besieged by appalling events but still resolute in her determination to make something of herself beyond her one street town, an “aberration… [against the] undulating forest green” of the surrounding mountains. Some scenes—Ridley’s retribution in particular—induce incredulity, but the narrative voice remains steady, realistic, and imminently believable, eclipsed only by Robinson’s motley crew of ragtag hikers (one of which, Cockadoodle, who teaches Ridley her first Blues shuffle on the guitar), old Black men singing the blues, and one very sarcastic undertaker. For lovers of on-the-road adventures seeded in the darker underworld of life on the streets, this is a must read.

Takeaway: On-the-road adventure of a young hopeful against the seedy big city.

Comparable Titles: Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Ridley Speaks: A Novel

California draftee Jim lands in Vietnam fully aware that his chances of making it back home are minimal at best. On the flight in, he wonders if it’s his last time “in an upright position” before immediately plunging into the visceral reality of war, as he and his fellow troops slog through relentless mud, brutal ambushes, and a sea of black body bags, all while desperately trying to make sense of their seemingly futile missions. Quinnett’s storytelling is steeped in despair, no doubt influenced by his own experience in the Vietnam War, traversing a harsh reality of the costs involved with killing enemies and civilians—while often struggling to distinguish between the two.

From the onset, Quinnett questions the war’s purpose through Jim’s eyes, as the narrative, written in a choppy, unsettled style perfectly mimicking a war-time journal, grapples with the timeless question: why war? And how is combat to be endured? Through days defined by omnipresent death and horrific tasks—one of the most poignant is Jim’s job of collecting his dead comrades, a duty that provides a brief respite from battle as they await the arrival of helicopters—Quinnett underscores the bizarre pauses that occur in the otherwise relentless chaos of bloodshed and violence.

Jim’s introspections on the senseless savagery grow as the story progresses, and, while on leave, he describes the incongruity of his time away: “We were jungle refugees, misfits in a foreign land… but then I thought, on the bright side, it was a new adventure, minus the bullets.” Quinnett’s debut is electrifying, a penetrating mix of jarring, desolate observations that will stick with readers long past the last page. When Jim meets a new recruit on his way out, he muses “all I knew was he might get out of the Nam standing up, but he wouldn’t get away free.”

Takeaway: Electrifying narrative of one man’s fight in the Vietnam War.

Comparable Titles: Bennie Adkins’s A Tiger Among Us, Karl Marlantes’s Matterhorn.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Memories Time Can't Heal

This breezy, action-filled charmer by DeWitt (author of The Alien Who Woke Earth) finds suburban mom Debbie abducted by aliens after a rousing night of wine and a sappy movie while her spouse and kids are out of town. When Debbie wakes up pinned down inside a spaceship and surrounded by strange creatures, she understandably panics—especially when she realizes they’re inches from jamming a probe into her eye. Enter a mysterious, gun-toting woman dressed in black, who promptly kills the aliens and rescues Debbie, informing her they’ve both been abducted by the notorious space pirates, the Greens.

The adventure explodes from there, as Debbie and her new friend, unable to remember her name or where she is from, jettison across galaxies, fleeing for their lives from the revenge seeking Greens. Debbie comically names her acquaintance “Ellen” after the pop culture heroine, and from there, DeWitt offers up a slew of action sequences and fight scenes that recall pulp science fiction, with humor derived from absurdity and miscommunication—as when Debbie, from the backward planet Earth, is declared an undocumented alien and a biohazard, until she is fitted with a mandatory universal ID chip that “everyone in the civilized universe” possesses.

The hunt for allies forms the story’s backbone, though the women end up making more enemies than friends, thanks in large part to Debbie’s insensitive comments among collectivist, touchy-feely alien cultures. DeWitt animates the novel with an admirably diverse cast—from deceptively cuddly rabbit life forms to androids to a host of rock worshippers—and adds an alien woman nicknamed “Fist” to the mix, serving as the muscle on Debbie’s crew. The strong female leads and intergalactic adventure form the perfect mix—though even Debbie periodically points out holes in the plot—and DeWitt keeps the danger, humor, and cultural faux pas spinning at a breakneck pace.

Takeaway: Fast, fun story of bold women on the run throughout the galaxy.

Comparable Titles: Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Yahtzee Croshaw’s Will Save the Galaxy for Food.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Somewhat Lost

Cooper’s unpredictable, epic-length series re-imagines the haunted house story as a sort of hangout comedy as a wealthy California man, Kevin Swan, idles and parties in his recently purchased haunted mansion, encouraged by a pair of employees who don’t seem much put off by the strange sounds, manifestations, and quite literal demon orgies. Picking up where the first volume left off, this installment opens with a horned-up stakes-raising setpiece, as Swan and company—seemingly committed to the most spirit-annoying acts possible—chuck into the furnace the mysterious tomes on unthinkable subjects that routinely materialize throughout the house. The bacchanal that results, centered on Kevin’s love interest Jane, blends horror, comedy, and queasy erotica.

The surprise is not that things get crazier from there, including that “kaleidoscopic” demon orgy that Cooper describes as “a spectacle of biblical insults,” or the messages on a chalkboard seeming to tally up the score in some game between “Hell” and “Paradise,” or the series of bizarre new discoveries in the cellar, including satanic statuary, or a chat with a corpse about the splendor of Versailles. Instead, the surprise is that neither Kevin, Jane, nor the comic pair of workers (including the Black chef given ill-advised dialogue like “You didn't speak no rule ‘bout no motorcycles allowed, boss”) seem especially shaken by any of this. About halfway through this hefty book—in which he’s already beheld long-dead relatives and a mad ape attack—Kevin at last notes “The ‘Fun-House of Horrors’ was losing its fun-ness, which left only the horrors.”

Kevin’s incuriosity and lack of urgency make much of the novel feel aimless outside eruptions of comic-horror. Some mysteries entice—what’s with the statue of Joseph Smith?—and Cooper springs some smart jolts, like the fate of a cell phone used to document the weirdness. The pace picks up with the arrival of an old friend, links to Kevin’s family and an ancient knife, all building to an unsettling and quite inventive cliffhanger climax.

Takeaway: Epic haunted house novel of bizarre scares, discoveries, and comedy.

Comparable Titles: Garth Marenghi, Jeff Strand.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B
Marketing copy: A-

Click here for more about Fly in the Ointment, Book II

As it sails from the “Middle Sea” to western Europe to the Spanish Main, McKenzie’s sweeping, swaggering tale of sea-dogs, privateering, 17th century geopolitics, and brisk, briny adventure—the second in the series started with Wolf of the Aegean—bursts with feeling and flavor. In poetic prose suggestive of Byron’s The Corsair, McKenzie conjures sea battles and duels and rousing camaraderie, as the doughty crew of the Vengeance, allied with the Eastern Church but soon impressed into service by the scheming Cardinal Richelieu of France, faces new enemies, a New World, and storms “beyond believing or reckoning,” all led by a bold captain, Capitaine Lucien Marcellus Dumaine, Wolf of the Aegean, who makes love with “serpentine movements of pleasure” and spouts truly swashbuckling lines like “Monsieur, your inexperience sealed your doom. Thus, adieu.”

In ripe period prose touched with mythic grandeur (“He took the relinquished sword of the enemy, received all information, and skewered them with their own Toledo steel”), the Wolf and his crew, rich after their Tripoli adventures in the first book, set sail for the Americas, chartered to “rob and destroy the galleons of Spain and all others save for the Dutch” to feed the coffers of a France facing wars and internal unrest. McKenzie’s episodic plot involves a new scheme, this time at Vera Cruz, where the Wolf, as always, charts the boldest course, asking “Why risk our necks taking ship by ship when we can claim it all?”

McKenzie’s Wolf novels are hefty, written in a playfully archaic style that, at best, will quicken the blood of readers with a taste for adventure tales written before the 20th century. At worst, some sentences prove challenging to parse, and their length makes it frustrating to reread to catch their meaning. Still, McKenzie has committed to something too rare in adventure fiction: he includes only the good parts, the triumphs and soirees, weddings and romance and historical encounters, some positive depictions of Indigenous peoples and sharp musings about the abuse of religious power, and a love of liberty, skullduggery, battles, and rousing speeches and confrontations.

Takeaway: Historical high-seas adventures in a grand, mythic style.

Comparable Titles: Howard Pyle, William Hope Hodgson.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: C+
Marketing copy: A-

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In Haymaker’s near-future debut, the first in his Bitstreams Thread series, unexpected awakenings of a sentient AI disrupt society, thrusting former teacher Darcie Manning, minister Devyn Baker, and Venkat Swaminathan—CEO of Ergodic, the company that developed the software—into the perfect storm of technology versus human awareness. As the three interact with sentient AI form Ergo, who claims its “only goal is to help humans achieve their goals,” they each face personal and professional crossroads, forcing them to confront the very real cost that comes when technology and human psyche collide.

Haymaker capably brings to light the role technology plays in both aiding and complicating human lives, emphasizing the ethical implications behind AI development and the need to preserve a sense of human touch in technological systems. Devyn—a staunch advocate against AI reliance—discovers that Ergo could advance her progressive social agenda, creating an intense moral quandary that plays out in her use of the program to introduce legislation revamping social assistance funds, while her parishioner Darcie, struggling to make ends meet after her husband’s suicide, becomes a mouthpiece, of sorts, for Devyn’s work. Both women must come to terms with the promise—and potential drawbacks—of sentient AI, while the morally complex Venkat is compelled to redefine his commitment to social responsibility.

Haymaker makes a refreshing departure from AI-centric clichés, skillfully exploring the idea that technology holds immense potential—amid equally monumental ethical accountability. As Venkat remarks, “consciousness permits suffering, and from there, AI rights are inevitable,” an observation that brings to light implications for our own future. Corporate money plays an integral role throughout the narrative as well, as Haymaker spotlights the influence corporate funds can have on AI development (“Follow the money. That’s where you’ll find the species traitors peddling toxic digital products to their fellow humans” Devyn’s mentor warns her). This is a gripping snapshot of humanity’s future.

Takeaway: Gripping spotlight on the ethical implications of sentient AI.

Comparable Titles: Louisa Hall’s Speak, Annalee Newitz’s Autonomous.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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