50 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ SEPTEMBER 9, 2019
Review_FICTION Review_FICTIONwise impressive adventure. (Nov.)A Midnight Clear
Edited by Lindy Ryan. Black Spot, $15.99
trade paper (228p) ISBN 978-1-73359-944-3
The whimsy of the holiday season turns
dark and absurd in this wickedly amusing
anthology of six stories. Jolly elves are
forced to try the North Pole’s first murder
case in Sam Hooker’s “The Dauntless.”
Alcy Leyva’s hilarious “Tidings of the
New Moon” inverts classic werewolf
tropes when a well-to-do wolf is bitten by
a wild human. Laura Morrison’s “Movin’
On Up” also remixes a familiar story:
three demons, darker versions of Dickens’s
Christmas ghosts, visit a saintly woman
slated to die on Christmas morning and
pitch her on spending the afterlife in hell.
In Cassondra Windwalker’s “The Poetry
of Snow and Stars,” a family spends
Christmas in a haunted hotel where their
holiday is derailed by a mysterious death.
A young girl with a dying uncle learns the
importance of the cycle of seasons in Dalena
Storm’s “Sleep, Sweet Khors.” Seven Jane’s
“Snow Angel,” the weakest of the six, fol-
lows a harried single mother so preoccupied
with the logistics of the season that she
forgets the true meaning of Christmas and
turns to ice. This selection of darkly comic
yuletide stories is perfect for horror readers
who appreciate a bit of holiday spirit. (Nov.)The Best of Greg Egan
Greg Egan. Subterranean, $45 (736p) ISBN 978-
1-59606-942-8
Egan (Perihelion Summer) poses questions
about the future of humanity and day-
dreams and warns about as-yet unrealized
scientific developments in this hard science
fiction collection. The stories are arranged
chronologically and begin in 1990; early
works “Learning to Be Me” and “Closer”
feature a device which, when embedded in
the human brain,
learns from and
eventually
replaces that
organ, effec-
tively granting
immortality.
“Bit Players,”
“3-adica,” and
“Instantiation,”
all from the
2010s, featureself-aware digital characters forging their
way to independent existence. Though the
technical math and science can prove
daunting, accessible action elements in
such stories as the particularly satisfying
“Luminous” and “Dark Integers,” about
the weaponization of math itself, provide
a nice balance. Egan’s talent for creating
well-drawn characters shines in “Oracle,”
which imagines a debate between stand-ins
for Alan Turing and C.S. Lewis, and “Zero
for Conduct,” in which a young Afghan
woman invents “the world’s first room-
temperature superconductor.” Although
demanding, this doorstopper will prove
rewarding for anyone interested in technol-
ogy’s role in shaping the world. (Nov.)Icehaven (Sum of All Tears, Book 1)
Kim Cresswell and M.K. Chester. KC, $14.99
trade paper (210p) ISBN 978-1-9995588-1-9
Crime writer Cresswell (Deadly Shadows)
and romance author Chester (Tied Together)
successfully step into the postapocalyptic
genre with this tale of good intentions and
terrible results. August Madison is in the
audience for the unveiling of her father’s
technology to fix Earth’s warming climate
when the auditorium comes crashing down
on her. When she next opens her eyes, she
sees nothing but snow and ice. Soon she
learns that she’s somehow come back to life
several weeks after the disaster—and that
her father’s intended climate repair has
instead turned the entire planet to frozen
tundra. With new friends, she fights to sur-
vive, battling both the weather and other
factions looking for supplies. Meanwhile,
Coast Guard cadet Brandon Church, a
childhood friend of August’s, is stranded
with his crew and their fortunately well-
stocked ship in the middle of the frozen
ocean. They’re rescued by financier Graysen
Marx, who helped fund the cooling project,
and taken to Liberty, a prototype biodome
Graysen created that’s now the only
chance of survival on Earth. August and
her crew eventually make their way to
Liberty, hoping to find peace and safety
there, but power goes to Graysen’s head,
leading him to make deadly choices. The
survivors’ fear and desperation will keep
readers engrossed from the beginning.
Fans of apocalyptic stories looking for a
change from tales of melting ice caps will
enjoy this cooler treat. (BookLife)Romance/Erotica
Wolf Rebel
Paige Tyler. Sourcebooks Casablanca, $7.99
mass market (320p) ISBN 978-1-4926-7059-9
The high-impact action and tender
romance that fans expect from Tyler’s
Special Wolf Alpha Team (SWAT) series
shine in this 10th urban fantasy (following
Wolf Instinct). Knox Lawson, a former Navy
SEAL, fell in with a group of werewolf
hunters without realizing how brutal they
could be. During an attack on a werewolf
compound, he was grazed by a bullet,
activating his dormant werewolf DNA.
Rachel Bennett, werewolf and member of
the Dallas, Tex., SWAT team, is keeping a
secret from her packmates: when their com-
pound was assaulted, she had the chance to
kill one of the attackers, but something in
his eyes led her to let the man escape. Two
months later, Rachel, the woman Knox has
been following since she let him live, is the
only one he trusts to help him understand
his condition. When both are hired to pro-
tect an assistant district attorney and her
family—Rachel with SWAT, Knox with a
private security firm—sparks fly as they
work to keep both their client and one
another safe. Though the procedural ele-
ments are often predictable, the love story
is by turns spicy and sweet. Series readers
will delight in returning to the SWAT
universe. Agent: Bob Mecoy, Creative Book
Services (Dec.)Reckless in Red
Rachael Miles. Zebra, $7.99 mass market
(384p) ISBN 978-1-4201-4656-1
The suspenseful fourth in Miles’s
Muses’ Salon series (after Tempting the Earl)
captivates with clever prose and an uncon-
ventional heroine. In 1820 London, painter
Lena Frost drifts on the fringes of society
due to her checkered past, but she hopes
that her upcoming exhibition will catapult
her into artistic fame. Her hopes are dashed
when her business partner disappears with
all of their money. Then several people,
all with some connection to Lena, are
murdered. Enter Clive Somerville, who is
the younger brother of a duke and is a sur-
geon who serves among the Home Office’s
investigative ranks. His inquiries into the
rash of killings lead him straight to Lena’s
doorstep. His fascination with Lena blurs