John Hadd

Kip, Kira, and Leslie are outliers, even in the metal scene they love. In arch-conservative backwoods Florida in the 1980s, just listening to heavy metal can get you arrested—but the risk is worth taking, because music is what leads them to each other. Different from one another as they are, the three of them form a family of sorts, one that proves safer and more loving than the broken homes they come from. Together, they make the pilgrimage from Florida's swamp country to L.A.'s fabled Sunset Strip—but the beautiful new life they've dreamed of soon proves a mirage.

Dennis E. Taylor, author of the best-selling Bobiverse trilogy, explores a whole different, darker world in this sci-fi stand-alone. Determined to give his wife and children a better life back home, Ivan Pritchard ventures to the edge of known space to join the crew of the Mad Astra as an asteroid miner. He's prepared for hard work and loneliness—but not the unthinkable. After coming into contact with a mysterious alien substance, Pritchard finds an unwelcome entity sharing his mind, and a disturbing physical transformation taking place.

The Malazan Empire simmers with discontent, bled dry by interminable warfare, bitter infighting and bloody confrontations with the formidable Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii, ancient and implacable sorcerers. Even the imperial legions, long inured to the bloodshed, yearn for some respite. Yet Empress Laseen's rule remains absolute, enforced by her dread Claw assassins.