Some of the new titles hitting shelves this week are:
Ooh, I can't wait for this one! The Demi-Monde: Winter is the first in a series of four steampunk thrillers by Rod Rees. We're a bit behind the UK, who released this first installment a while ago. I believe book two, Spring, is already out there as well. At any rate, Winter hits shelves stateside on Tuesday, December 27 (just in time for those holiday gift cards!). The Demi-Monde:
1. A subclass of society whose members embrace a decadent lifestyle and evince loose morals.
2. A shadow world where the norms of civilized behavior have been abandoned.
3. A massive multiple-player simulation technology that re-creates in a wholly realistic cyber-milieu the threat-ambiance and no-warning aspects of a hi-intensity, deep-density, urban Asymmetric Warfare Environment.
4. Hell.
Welcome to the Demi-Monde, the ultimate in virtual reality—a military training ground and vivid, simulated world of cruelty and chaos run by psychopaths, madmen and fanatics.
If you die here, you die in the Real World . . .
In the year 2018, the Demi-Monde is the most sophisticated, complex and unpredictable computer simulation ever created, devised specifically to train soldiers for the nightmarish reality of urban warfare. A virtual world of eternal civil conflict, its thirty million inhabitants—“Dupes”—are ruled by cyber-duplicates of some of history’s cruelest tyrants: the fanatical Nazi butcher Reinhard Heydrich; Stalin’s arch executioner Lavrentii Beria; the torture-loving Grand Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada; the Reign of Terror’s bloodthirsty mastermind Maximilien Robespierre.
But something has gone horribly wrong inside the Demi-Monde, and the U.S. president’s daughter, Norma, has been lured into this terrifying shadow world, only to be trapped there. Her last hope of rescue is Ella Thomas, an eighteen-year-old jazz singer and very reluctant heroine. But when Ella infiltrates the Demi-Monde and begins her hunt for Norma, she soon discovers the walls containing the evils of this simulated environment are dissolving—and the Real World is in far more danger than anyone knows. With the help of resistors determined to understand their world, Ella must race to save Norma and stop an apocalypse . . . but the clock is ticking.
Blending fact and fantasy, history and religion, military and existential themes, epic adventure and dark wit, dystopia and steampunk in a wholly original and driving narrative stream, The Demi-Monde: Winter is inventive fiction at its finest.
ANGRY ROBOT SIGNS DEBUT NOVELIST IN TWO-BOOK DEAL
Angry Robot has signed debut novelist, Lee Battersby for two books in a new fantasy series. The first title - The Corpse-Rat King - will be published in autumn 2012, with the second to follow in 2013. The deal included world English rights in physical and electronic formats.
In the highly imaginative The Corpse-Rat King, readers are introduced to Marius Helles as he plunders the bodies of the dead after a major battle - a crime punishable by death. The dead tell Marius that they need a King - the King is God's representative, and they need someone to speak to God and remind him where they are, thank you very much! He doesn’t actually want the job, but when the alternative is to deny a legion of angry corpses, it’s that or find a suitable compromise - and quickly: the dead aren’t known for their patience...
The deal was negotiated by Angry Robot editor Lee Harris, and Battersby’s agent Richard Henshaw of the Richard Henshaw Group, after The Corpse-Rat King came to Angry Robot’s attention during their first Open Door Month open submission period, earlier this year.
British-born Battersby, who now lives in Australia, said: "To publish a novel has been a long-held dream. To achieve it with such a progressive and forward-thinking publisher, based in the town of my birth, just makes it all the more special. Angry Robot think about speculative fiction the same way I do - that it is a warped and twisted fabric that should be used to pervert the minds of the young and the innocent."
Editor, Lee Harris stated: "Lee’s twisted worldview is ideal for Angry Robot’s many followers. The Corpse-Rat King is a great read - funny, exciting and very, very addictive - and I can’t wait for people to read this!"
------------
Check out www.leebattersby.com for the low-down on Lee's work to-date and if you're Tweet-inclined, he's @LeeBattersby - give him a follow and make him feel welcome!
What's up world? I've not been hiding under a rock. I'll have an explanation for my frequent absences and brain farts next week, I promise. 
Some of the new titles hitting shelves this week are:
You may not have heard of this week's pre-pub, but if you're like me, you're going to want it. Bad. 
So I finished The Iron Knight last evening. Guess I needed a little reading break after whizzing through that new King. Iron Knight took me just as long to read at about a third of the length!