It’s tough being the black sheep of the family. But what if your family are a bunch of serial killers who get off on torturing people? Such is the premise of Brother (paperback, digital), the new horror novel by author Ania Ahlborn (Within These Walls, The Bird Eater). Though in talking to her about it, it seems writing a book about being the black sheep in a family of serial killers wasn’t all that tough.
From James Bond to Jason Bourne, fictional spies always have a lot of balls. Literally. But in his first novel, The Lady Was A Spy (paperback, digital), writer T.R. Garrison introduces us to Jean Webb, a spy during World War II who finds out the war doesn’t always end when the history books say it does. Though in talking to Garrison, it’s clear it wasn’t just a desire to be different that prompted him to write about a really ballsy spy.
Ben Bova is one of the most iconic science fiction writers of our time. But for his new novel, Power Surge (hardcover, digital), he’s crafted a tale that, sadly, may not be as fictional as we might hope. In it, Dr. Jack Ross heads to Washington D.C. in hopes of changing our nation’s energy policy for the better, only to be rebuffed by politicians with another agenda. “Like many of my novels,” Bova says, “Power Surge examines the interaction of high technology with national and international politics.” What makes the book work so well, though, is that for Bova, this story isn’t as fictional as we might think for different reasons.
Paperback copies of the upcoming Halo novel, Halo Last Light, will include a download code for a free Halo 5 Guardians “REQ Pack.”
As a child growing up in the late-’70s and early-’80s, I was convinced a nuke was going to end the world. But that fear has since been replaced by the idea that mankind will instead be wiped out by a plague, maybe even one we make ourselves. Which is why I’m afraid to read The ALTA Project, a biological apocalypse novel by real life medicine man Dr. David Chen. With the book now available in hardcover and paperback after years as a digital title, I spoke to the good doctor about what inspired him to write it, how scientific he got, and what is this rash on my leg, oh god, AM I DYING!?!
Just as most science fiction authors have never been to outer space, most writers of espionage novels have never done any spying. Well, except maybe on their older siblings.
But that’s not the case with Howard Kaplan, who’s not only the author of the recently rereleased ’80s spy novel Bullets Of Palestine (paperback, digital), but he also, as he puts it, “smuggled manuscripts out of the Soviet Union.”
With Bullets Of Palestine newly back in print, I spoke to Agent Kaplan about its plot, the upcoming movie of his previously rereleased spy novel The Damascus Cover, and what else he has planned for his “Jerusalem Spy” series.
Like a lot of kids, Zack Lightman — the main character of Ernest Cline’s second novel, Armada (hardcover, digital) — has dreamed about being a space pilot since he saw Star Wars. It’s one of many reasons he spends his free time playing a space dogfighting video game. But when the alien invaders from his favorite game invade Earth for real, Zack realizes he’s hasn’t been playing a game all these years, he’s been training.
Writer Sarah Ghoshal is a new mom, a college poetry professor, and a suburban wife. But before you dismiss the poems in her new book Changing The Grid (paperback) and her upcoming chapbook The Pine Tree Experiment (due out in July) because you think they must read like Hallmark cards, you should consider — as she reveals in the following interview — how she’s also been inspired by Jim Morrison, The Descendants, and not that most middle-of-the-road of rock stars, Kid Rock.
Many music fans know Chris Gorman as the drummer from the band Belly. Still others know him as the professional photographer he’s been since Belly split up nearly twenty years ago. And I know him as the T.A. of my college video class who I used to interview when he was in the band Belly. But now, with the release of Indi Surfs (hardcover), Gorman has a new role: children’s book author and illustrator. I spoke to him about the inspirations for this book, both personal and artistic, and what it was like writing a children’s book about your own kid.