There's something I must tell you. It's not easy to admit; indeed, I'm a little shy about revealing this. It's the sort of embarrassing fact that spills out drunkenly at a jousting party, and then you're forever outed as one of those people. But yes, all right, here it is: I am writing a novel.

You see, it's National Novel Writing Month, and as it happens, my scribe is off on vacation somewhere dangerous-sounding (a place called "Ah-rhu-bah"), so I thought I'd try my hand in the scriptorium. What with one thing and another, well, I found myself several parchment sheets in, and I thought: why not? I will say, though, I have no intention of ever being published. They say to write what you know, and who wants to read about a dashing knight running about saving far-off kingdoms and averting sorcerous catastrophe?

In the meantime, I'll be pausing in my endeavours for a number of titles this month, including Alan Dean Foster's Quofum, set in the same universe as his Pip & Flinx adventures; Dragonheart by Todd McCaffrey, a new novel of Pern; a collection of horror stories by the late, great Robert E. Howard; A Woman Worth Ten Coppers, a new fantasy from Morgan Howell; and the official tie-in to Gears of War, Aspho Fields, written by Karen Traviss, whose comments thereupon (which you'll find in the sidebar) made me anxious to crack open a copy. Anything to avoid writing the end of this scene.

Read well and be merry,

Sir Kaitlin
kheller@randomhouse.com

The grim specter of sickness looms over the Weyrs of Pern, felling fire-lizards and posing a potentially devastating threat to their dragon cousins, Pern's sole defense against the deadly phenomenon that is Thread. Fiona, the youngest and only surviving daughter of Lord Bemin, is just coming of age, and about to assume the duties of a Weyrwoman, when word spreads that dragons have indeed begun succumbing to the new contagion. With the next season of Threadfall quickly approaching, and the already diminished ranks of the dragons once more under siege, every Weyr across Pern is in crisis mode. As more dragons sicken and die, leaving only a new generation of weyrlings too young to succeed them, Weyrleader B'Nik and queen rider Lorana arrive from Benden Weyr to comb Fort Weyr's archives in a desperate search for clues from the past that may hold the solution to the plague.

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Bestselling author Alan Dean Foster's new adventure takes place in the amazing Humanx Commonwealth, home of the ever-popular Pip & Flinx. Although the dynamic redhead and his daring minidrag do not appear in Quofum, this knockout thriller sets the stage for their explosive date with destiny in the duo's final climactic adventure, Flinx Transcendent.

The mission to planet Quofum is supposed to be a quickie for Captain Boylan and his crew. Boylan is tasked with delivering four scientists—two men, one woman, and one thranx—to the unknown world, setting up camp while the experts investigate flora and fauna, then ferrying them safely home. There are many revelations, more highly evolved species waiting to be identified, even tantalizing clues to a civilization light-years ahead of the Commonwealth's. But the crew members are not ready for the real shockers, because none of them expect to find a killer in their midst, or to discover that their spaceship is missing and, with it, all means of communication.

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As the last surviving Sith, Darth Bane promulgated a harsh new directive: the Rule of Two.

Two there should be; no more, no less.
One to embody the power, the other to crave it.

Now Darth Bane is ready to put his policy into action, and he thinks he has found the key element that will make his triumph complete: a student to train in the ways of the dark side. Though she is young, Zannah possesses an instinctive link to the dark side that rivals his own. With his guidance, she will become essential in his quest to destroy the Jedi and dominate the galaxy. But there is one who is determined to stop Darth Bane: Johun Othone, Padawan to Jedi Master Lord Hoth, who died at Bane's hands in the last great Sith War. As Johun continues his dogged pursuit of the man who killed his master, Zannah, faced unexpectedly with a figure from her past, begins to question her embrace of the dark side. And Darth Bane is led by Force—induced visions to a moon where he will acquire astonishing new knowledge and power-power that will alter him in ways he could never have imagined...

Years ago, United Nations peacekeeper Bisesa Dutt played an instrumental role in humanity's race against time to stop a doomsday event: a massive solar storm triggered by the alien Firstborn designed to eradicate all life from the planet. That fate was averted at an inconceivable price. Now, twenty-seven years later, the Firstborn are back. This time, they are pulling no punches: They have sent a "quantum bomb." Speeding toward Earth, it is a device that human scientists can barely comprehend, that cannot be stopped or destroyed-and one that will obliterate Earth. Bisesa's desperate quest for answers sends her first to Mars and then to Mir, which is itself threatened with extinction. The end seems inevitable. But as shocking new insights emerge into the nature of the Firstborn and their chilling plans for mankind, an unexpected ally appears from light-years away.

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Seer, healer, goddess, slave-she is all these things and more.

Yim is a young woman suddenly cast into slavery, a gifted seer with a shocking secret-and a great destiny. Honus is a Sarf, a warrior dedicated to the service of the compassionate goddess Karm. A Sarf's sole purpose is to serve a holy person called a Bearer. But Honus's Bearer has been killed by the minions of an evil god known only as the Devourer. Masterless and needing someone to bear his pack, Honus purchases Yim for the price of ten coppers-and their fates are forever entwined.

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For the first time, fans of the blockbuster Gears of War video games get an in-depth look at Delta Squad's toughest fighters-soldier's soldier Marcus Fenix and rock-solid Dominic Santiago-as well as a detailed account of the pivotal battle of the Pendulum Wars.

As kids, the three of them were inseparable; as soldiers, they were torn apart. Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago fought alongside Dom's elder brother Carlos at Aspho Fields in the epic battle that changed the course of the Pendulum Wars. There's a new war to fight now, a war for mankind's very survival. But while the last human stronghold on Sera braces itself for another onslaught from the Locust Horde, ghosts come back to haunt Marcus and Dom. For Marcus-decorated war hero, convicted traitor-the return of an old comrade threatens to dredge up an agonizing secret he's sworn to keep.

As the beleaguered Gears of the Coalition of Ordered Governments take a last stand to save mankind from extermination, the harrowing decisions made at Aspho Fields have to be re-lived and made again. Marcus and Dom can take anything the Locust Horde throws at them-but will their friendship survive the truth about Carlos Santiago?

The collection includes Howard's masterpiece "Pigeons from Hell," which Stephen King calls "one of the finest horror stories of [the twentieth] century," a tale of two travelers who stumble upon the ruins of a Southern plantation-and into the maw of its fatal secret. In "Black Canaan" even the best warrior has little chance of taking down the evil voodoo man with unholy powers-and none at all against his wily mistress, the diabolical High Priestess of Damballah. In these and other lavishly illustrated classics, such as the revenge nightmare "Worms of the Earth" and "The Cairn on the Headland," Howard spins tales of unrelenting terror, the legacy of one of the world's great masters of the macabre.

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