Book picks similar to
Straggletaggle by J.M. McDermott


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steampunk
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Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 160 (January 2020)


Neil Clarke - 2020
    This was published as a Clarkesworld audiobook podcast in 2020.

The Vorrh


Brian Catling - 2012
    It is a place of demons and angels, of warriors and priests. Sentient and magical, the Vorrh bends time and wipes  memory. Legend has it that the Garden of Eden still exists at its heart. Now, a renegade English soldier aims to be the first human to traverse its expanse. Armed with only a strange bow, he begins his journey, but some fear the consequences of his mission, and a native marksman has been chosen to stop him. Around them swirl a remarkable cast of characters, including a Cyclops raised by robots and a young girl with tragic curiosity, as well as historical figures, such as writer Raymond Roussel, heiress Sarah Winchester, and photographer Edward Muybridge.  While fact and fiction blend, the hunter will become the hunted, and everyone’s fate hangs in the balance under the will of the Vorrh.

Tainted


Alexandra Moody - 2014
    All she has ever known are the artificial confines of underground fallout shelter, the ARC. Under the Council’s rule, ruthless officials roam the hallways, community comes first and everyone lives in fear of failing their annual testing. With one simple blood test you could be taken away without any warning or a word of goodbye.There are only a few people in the ARC who Elle truly cares about and she desperately tries to keep them at arm’s length away for fear of losing someone else. Especially, her best friend Sebastian who she denies her feelings for, even from herself. Chilling secrets and mysterious disappearances plague the ARC, but Elle would never dare to voice the forbidden questions that linger on her lips. That is until they take the wrong person.No one is truly safe in the ARC and Elle is about to experience her own personal apocalypse. With nothing left to lose she will risk everything to uncover the truth about the tainted.Will she find what she's looking for or are some secrets better left buried deep underground?Don't miss the first book in this young adult series!

The Night People


Jack Finney - 1977
    

Typhon Pact: The Khitomer Accords Saga: Plagues of Night, Raise the Dawn, and Brinkmanship


David R. George III - 2012
    For almost three years, the Federation and the Klingon Empire, allied under the Khitomer Accords, have contended with the nascent coalition on a predominantly cold-war footing. But as Starfleet rebuilds itself, factions within the Typhon Pact grow restive, concerned about their own inability to develop a quantum slipstream drive to match that of the Federation. Will leaders such as UFP President Bacco and RSE Praetor Kamemor bring about a lasting peace across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, or will the cold war between the two alliances deepen, and perhaps even lead to an all-out shooting war? Raise the Dawn After the disastrous events in the Bajoran system, Captain Benjamin Sisko must confront the consequences of the recent choices he has made in his life. At the same time, the United Federation of Planets and its Khitomer Accords allies have come to the brink of war with the Typhon Pact. While factions within the Pact unsuccessfully used the recent gestures of goodwill—the opening of borders and a joint Federation-Romulan exploratory mission—to develop quantum-slipstream drive, they have not given up their goals. Employing a broad range of assets, from Romulus to Cardassia, from Ab-Tzenketh to Bajor, they embark on a dangerous new plan to acquire the technology they need to take control of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. While UFP President Bacco and Romulan Praetor Kamemor work feverishly to reestablish peace, Captains Sisko, Jean-Luc Picard, and Ro Laren stand on the front lines of the conflict...even as a new danger threatens the Bajoran wormhole as it once more becomes a flashpoint of galactic history. Brinkmanship The Venette Convention has always remained independent, but it is about to become the flashpoint for a tense military standoff between the two power blocs now dominating interstellar space—the United Federation of Planets and the recently formed Typhon Pact. The Venetan government turns to the Typhon Pact’s Tzenkethi Coalition for protection in the new order, and has agreed to allow three of their supply bases for Tzenkethi use. But these bases—if militarized—would put Tzenkethi weapons unacceptably close to Federation, Cardassian, and Ferengi space. While Captain Ezri Dax and the crew of the U.S.S. Aventine are sent to investigate exactly what is happening at one of the Venette bases, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the U.S.S. Enterprise are assigned to a diplomatic mission sent to the Venette homeworld in order to broker a mutually acceptable resolution. But the Cardassian delegates don’t seem particularly keen on using diplomacy to resolve the situation, which soon spirals out of control toward all-out war. . .

De Bello Lemures, Or The Roman War Against The Zombies Of Armorica


Lucius Artorius Castus - 2009
    The power of the zombie horde is amplified by the chaos of Ancient Rome's competing religions and superstitions, and the terror the undead bring in their wake foreshadows the incipient medieval darkness already creeping into the world at the end of Rome's Antonine age.Richly annotated, this mashup of survival horror and alternate history takes the reader on a bracing journey into one of ancient Rome's dark corners.

The Wraith's Story


Natalie K. French - 2015
     THIS BOOK CONTAINS ADULT CONTENT DANGEROUS BEAUTY... This first novella in an exciting new series will take you to a future unlike anything you’ve ever seen. The world of BRIGAND is as beautiful as it is cruel - a landscape of sharp edges and sharper characters. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes harsh, always sexy, it's a world filled with people who play power games that span multiple planets and the life of a scut can be bought for a few ounces of fresh water. Genetically modified and cybernetically augmented before she even left the womb, Subject 11 was to be one of the Mandate of St. Nicolo's most potent tools of statecraft. With her contract bid out to one of the great families of Marajo Lift, she would become a crucial wheel within the many thousands of wheels that formed the Mandate's legendary engine of intrigue. But 11 had other plans... NOTE: The cover illustration for this novella has been changed to more accurately reflect the main character. DO NOT buy it if you have already purchased The Wraith's Story. ~22,000 words

Before You Sleep: Three Horrors


Adam Nevill - 2016
    In this book you'll find two ghost stories and a tale of ancestral demoniac horror. In the big white house on the hill angels are said to appear . . . When the children left the house, their toys remained . . . A confused and vengeful presence occupies the home of a first-time buyer . . .

The Thing Itself


Adam Roberts - 2015
    Two men while away the days in an Antarctic research station. Tensions between them build as they argue over a love-letter one of them has received. One is practical and open. The other surly, superior and obsessed with reading one book - by the philosopher Kant. As a storm brews and they lose contact with the outside world they debate Kant, reality and the emptiness of the universe. The come to hate each other, and they learn that they are not alone.

The Blacktongue Thief


Christopher Buehlman - 2021
    His debt has driven him to lie in wait by the old forest road, planning to rob the next traveler that crosses his path.But today, Kinch Na Shannack has picked the wrong mark.Galva is a knight, a survivor of the brutal goblin wars, and handmaiden of the goddess of death. She is searching for her queen, missing since a distant northern city fell to giants.Unsuccessful in his robbery and lucky to escape with his life, Kinch now finds his fate entangled with Galva's. Common enemies and uncommon dangers force thief and knight on an epic journey where goblins hunger for human flesh, krakens hunt in dark waters, and honor is a luxury few can afford.

A Stranger in the Citadel


Tobias S. Buckell - 2021
    Buckell.“You shall not suffer a librarian to live.”Growing up in Ninetha, Lilith has known this law all her life. The city’s every need is provided for by a god-machine called the cornucopia, which can produce food, clothing, anything in response to a thought. The gods provided this bounty on one condition: that humanity give up reading and writing. Then, a librarian, an actual seeker of forbidden written knowledge, walks through the gates of the citadel, his very presence unraveling the life Lilith has known. She learns her father, the Lord Musketeer himself, has been harboring a secret - one that turns Ninetha against Lilith’s family. Forced to flee, forced to throw in her lot with the librarian, Lilith uncovers even greater secrets - about the lie her life has been, and about the very nature of their world.

Pete, Drinker of Blood


Scott S. Phillips - 2012
    He’s also a vampire. He lives alone and avoids the other vampires in L.A., but Pete’s simple life goes haywire when he falls for Angie, the cute bartender at a Sunset Strip dive -- and when sinister vampire lord Carson Fitzgerald returns to claim his children, Pete learns that nothing's ever easy for a creature of the night.

Shadowbreaker


Steve Parker - 2019
    Now recovered from the injuries sustained on his previous mission, Codicier Karras must lead Talon Squad in the hunt for a missing inquisitor. Their only clue is the name of an Imperial planet that has been taken over by the T’au. Is the missing inquisitor alive, or dead? Worse still, has she gone rogue, jeopardizing one of the Inquisition’s most secret projects? Karras must lead his team against a whole planet of hostile T’au and survive the deadly internal politics of the Inquisition to succeed in his mission, codenamed Shadowbreaker. Action, intrigue and excitement are seamlessly woven together by the master of high-octane science fiction, Steve Parker.

Fifth Harmonic


F. Paul Wilson - 2003
    Paul Wilson, the best-selling and acclaimed author of the Repairman Jack series, comes a lightning-paced, whip-smart thriller sure to please both die-hard fans and newcomers to Wilson's spellbinding world. Will Burleigh is a hard-nosed, no-nonsense M.D. totally dedicated to the health and welfare of the patients in his practice. But when he himself is diagnosed with throat cancer, he can't bear the idea of undergoing massive radiation and radical surgery that will leave him permanently disfigured--all with no guarantee he will live at all.Having made peace with his decision to die, Will is nonetheless convinced by a former patient to visit a healer, a mysterious and beautiful woman named Maya who claims she can help him, but only if he opens himself up completely to her and the harmony of the world around him.To find that harmony, she insists, Will must follow her to Mesoamerica, to the home of her people, to search for what she calls the Fifth Harmonic. Will agrees, but he secretly brings along what he calls a "Kevorkian Kit" to give him a quick end in case his rapidly spreading tumor gets the best of him. Maya too, has her secrets, and as Will unravels them, he begins to fear he might have made a terrible mistake.

The Surge


Willow Rose - 2017
    However, giving it to them would mean the death of someone you love. What would you do?When The Chinese arrive in Ridge Manor, Florida; Sheriff Wayne is the only one who knows they are coming. He tried to warn the rest of the town, but no one would listen, and now it is too late. Joanna Marks has just come back to town after ten years on the run from her parents who did not want her to have the child she was carrying at only sixteen. The sudden death of her husband and father of her child forces her to come home just in time for the invasion. As the days pass in the small town, now heavily invaded by soldiers, Joanna and Wayne both realize something is off with this invasion and with their invaders. Why are there so many of them, especially in their little town, and why is the highest in command settling at City Hall? Why are there no airplanes in the sky, tanks or bombs going off? Where is their military and how could they invade the entire country so quickly? Each step closer to the truth is more terrifying than the last, and Joanna finds herself moving further from the world she knows and soon she dives into a world she did not know existed. ˃˃˃ This exhilarating new novel serves up a double dose of nail-biting, chilling suspense, twists, and shocking revelations as only Willow Rose can. This is determined to terrify you. No one is more addicting than the Queen of Scream. Fans of Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Blake Crouch, George Orwell, A.G. Riddle, and Andrew Mayne will be gripped by this page-turning Post-Apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, guaranteed to keep you reading till the next morning. Scroll up and grab this new release from a bestselling author at a low introductory price today.