Sagas & Series - More2Read Books
 

Sagas & Series

 

 

The Sagas & Series

 

Books under 200 pages, in a series, in various genres, in no particular order.
These have been selected due to myself liking them and many worth checking out considering general buzz and readers liking them.

 

Michael McDowell & Blackwater

 

 

About Michael McDowell:

Michael McDowell was born June 1, 1950 in Enterprise, Alabama and attended public schools in southern Alabama until 1968. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in English from Harvard, and in 1978 he was awarded his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Brandeis.

His seventh novel written and first to be sold, The Amulet, was published in 1979 and would be followed by over thirty additional volumes of fiction written under his own name or the pseudonyms Nathan Aldyne, Axel Young, Mike McCray, and Preston Macadam. His notable books include the Southern Gothic horror novel The Elementals (1981), the serial novel Blackwater (1983), which was first published in a series of six paperback volumes, and the trilogy of “Jack & Susan” books.

By 1985 he was writing screenplays for television, including episodes for a number of anthology series such as Tales from the Darkside, Amazing Stories, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Tales from the Crypt. He went on to write the screenplay for Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice (1988) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), as well as the script for Thinner (1996). McDowell died December 27, 1999 from AIDS-related illness. Tabitha King, wife of author Stephen King, completed an unfinished McDowell novel, Candles Burning, which was published in 2006.

 

  • The Flood (#1) by Michael McDowell | January 1st 1983 | Avon Books |  Goodreads
  • The Levee ( #2)  | February 1st 1983 | Avon Books |  Goodreads
  • The House (#3) | March 1st 1983 | Avon Books |  Goodreads
  • The War ( #4) | April 1st 1983 | Avon Books | Goodreads
  • The Fortune (#5) | May 1st 1983 | Avon Books | Goodreads
  • Rain ( #6) | June 1st 1983 | Avon Books | Goodreads
  • Blackwater: The Complete Saga | October 2nd 2017 | Valancourt Books
  • | Amazon U.S.A & U.K | Goodreads

 

 

 

Tade Thompson & Molly Southbourne

 

 

@tadethompson

 

About Tade Thompson:

Tade Thompson is the author of the sci-fi novel ROSEWATER, a John W. Campbell Award finalist, and The Kitschies Golden Tentacle Award winning novel MAKING WOLF. His novella THE MURDERS OF MOLLY SOUTHBOURNE has been optioned for screen adaptation. He also writes short stories, notably THE APOLOGISTS which was nominated for a British Science Fiction Association award. Born in London to Yoruba parents, he lives and works on the south coast of England where he battles an addiction to books.

About First Book:

Every time she bleeds a murderer is born. Experience the horror of Tade Thompson’s The Murders of Molly Southbourne.

The rule is simple: don’t bleed.

For as long as Molly Southbourne can remember, she’s been watching herself die. Whenever she bleeds, another molly is born, identical to her in every way and intent on her destruction.

Molly knows every way to kill herself, but she also knows that as long as she survives she’ll be hunted. No matter how well she follows the rules, eventually the mollys will find her. Can Molly find a way to stop the tide of blood, or will she meet her end at the hand of a girl who looks just like her? 

 

 

 

  • The Murders of Molly Southbourne ( #1) by Tade Thompson 
  • October 3rd 2017  Tor.com  | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads

 

  • The Survival of Molly Southbourne (#2)
  • July 9th 2019  Tor.com  | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads

 

 

 

Martha Wells & The Murderbot Diaries

 

 

@marthawells1

 

About Martha Wells:

Martha Wells has written many fantasy novels, including The Books of the Raksura series (beginning with The Cloud Roads), the Ile-Rien series (including The Death of the Necromancer) as well as YA fantasy novels, short stories, media tie-ins (for Star Wars and Stargate: Atlantis), and non-fiction. Her most recent fantasy novel is The Harbors of the Sun in 2017, the final novel in The Books of the Raksura series. She has a new series of SF novellas, The Murderbot Diaries, published by Tor.com in 2017 and 2018. She was also the lead writer for the story team of Magic: the Gathering’s Dominaria expansion in 2018. She has won a Nebula Award, two Hugo Awards, an ALA/YALSA Alex Award, a Locus Award, and her work has appeared on the Philip K. Dick Award ballot, the USA Today Bestseller List, and the New York Times Bestseller List.

 

 

About First Book:

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth. 

 

  • All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells
  • May 2nd 2017  Tor.com | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads 

 

 

 

Caitlín R. Kiernan & Tinfoil Dossier

 

 

Photo by Kyle Cassidy

@auntbeast

 

About Caitlín R. Kiernan:

Caitlín R. Kiernan is the author of science fiction and dark fantasy works, including novels (Silk, Threshold, The Red Tree); many comic books (DC’s The Dreaming, Dark Horse’s Alabaster); and more than two hundred published short stories, novellas, and vignettes. They are also the author of scientific papers in the field of paleontology. They have won numerous awards, including two World Fantasy Awards, two Bram Stoker Awards, and a James Tiptree Jr. Award.

 

 

 

 

About The First Book:

A government special agent known only as the Signalman gets off a train on a stunningly hot morning in Winslow, Arizona. Later that day he meets a woman in a diner to exchange information about an event that happened a week earlier for which neither has an explanation, but which haunts the Signalman.

In a ranch house near the shore of the Salton Sea a cult leader gathers up the weak and susceptible—the Children of the Next Level—and offers them something to believe in and a chance for transcendence. The future is coming and they will help to usher it in.

A day after the events at the ranch house which disturbed the Signalman so deeply that he and his government sought out help from ‘other’ sources, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory abruptly loses contact with NASA’s interplanetary probe New Horizons. Something out beyond the orbit of Pluto has made contact.

And a woman floating outside of time looks to the future and the past for answers to what can save humanity.

 

  • Agents of Dreamland (Tinfoil Dossier #1) by Caitlín R. Kiernan
  • February 28th 2017  Tor.com | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads
  • The Tindalos Asset  (#3)
  • October 13th 2020 Tor.com | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads

 

 

 

Alan Baxter & Eli Carver

 

 

@AlanBaxter

 

 

About Alan Baxter:

Alan Baxter is a multi-award-winning British Australian author of horror, supernatural thrillers, and dark fantasy liberally mixed with crime, mystery, and noir. He’s also a martial arts expert, a whisky-soaked swear monkey, and dog lover. He creates dark, weird stories among dairy paddocks on the beautiful south coast of NSW, Australia, where he lives with his wife, son and hound. Find him online at alanbaxter.com.au

 

 

About The First Book:

Following a psychotic break, Eli Carver finds himself on the run, behind the wheel of a car that’s not his own, and in the company of a terrified woman he doesn’t know. As layers of ugly truth are peeled back and dark secrets are revealed, the duo find themselves in a struggle for survival when they unravel a mystery that pits them against the most dangerous forces in their lives.

A contemporary southern gothic thriller with frightening supernatural overtones, Alan Baxter’s Manifest Recall explores the tragic life of a hitman who finds himself on the wrong side of his criminal syndicate. Baxter’s adrenaline-fueled approach to storytelling draws readers into Eli Carver’s downward spiral of psychosis and through the darkest realms of lost memories, human guilt and the insurmountable quest for personal redemption.

 

  • Manifest Recall (Eli Carver #1) by Alan Baxter
  • June 26th 2018 Grey Matter Press | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads
  • Recall Night (#2)
  • August 25th 2020 Grey Matter Press | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads

 

 

 

K. J. Parker & Prosper’s Demon

 

 

About K. J. Parker:

K.J. Parker is a pseudonym for Tom Holt. Tom Holt is a British novelist.
He was born in London, the son of novelist Hazel Holt, and was educated at Westminster School, Wadham College, Oxford, and The College of Law, London.
Holt’s works include mythopoeic novels which parody or take as their theme various aspects of mythology, history or literature and develop them in new and often humorous ways. He has also produced a number of “straight” historical novels writing as Thomas Holt and fantasy novels writing as K.J. Parker.

 

 

About The First Book:

In a botched demonic extraction, they say the demon feels it ten times worse than the man. But they don’t die, and we do. Equilibrium.

The unnamed and morally questionable narrator is an exorcist with great follow-through and few doubts. His methods aren’t delicate but they’re undeniably effective: he’ll get the demon out — he just doesn’t particularly care what happens to the person.

Prosper of Schanz is a man of science, determined to raise the world’s first philosopher-king, reared according to the purest principles. Too bad he’s demonically possessed.

 

  • Prosper’s Demon by K.J. Parker
  • January 28th 2020  Tor.com | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads

 

 

 

Chad Lutzke & The Neon Owl

 

 

@ChadLutzke

 

About Chad Lutzke:

Chad has written for Famous Monsters of Filmland, Rue Morgue, Cemetery Dance, and Scream magazine. He’s had dozens of short stories published, and some of his books include: OF FOSTER HOMES & FLIES, STIRRING THE SHEETS, SKULLFACE BOY, THE SAME DEEP WATER AS YOU, THE PALE WHITE, THE NEON OWL and OUT BEHIND THE BARN co-written with John Boden. Lutzke’s work has been praised by authors Jack Ketchum, Richard Chizmar, Joe Lansdale, Stephen Graham Jones, Elizabeth Massie and his own mother.

He can be found lurking the internet at www.chadlutzke.com

 

 

 

About The First Book:

Jinx is a record-collecting, middle-aged minimalist whose dreams of becoming a detective are waylaid by love and laziness. But when he inherits his late aunt’s rundown motel, The Neon Owl, his passion for investigative work reignites while he searches for answers as to who keeps shitting in the bushes. His findings lead to a full-blown murder mystery where he and new-found friend, Roddy, the elderly, one-legged handyman, set out to find the killer.A crime noir-ish whodunnit rife with humor, grit, and ranch dressing.

 

  • When the Shit Hits the Van (The Neon Owl #1) by Chad Lutzke
  • January 12th 2020  Independently Published | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads

 

 

 

John F.D. Taff & The Fearing

 

 

@johnfdtaff

 

About John F.D. Taff:

John F.D. Taff is a multi-Bram Stoker Award short-listed dark fiction author with more than 30 years experience, and more than 100 short stories and seven novels in print.

His novels include The Bell Witch, Kill-Off and the serialized apocalyptic epic The Fearing. Thunderstorm Books and Grey Matter Press will release a one-volume version of The Fearing in 2021, in limited edition hardcover, soft cover and digital. Short fiction collections include Little Deaths: The Definitive Collection and Little Black Spots, both published by Grey Matter Press.

Taff’s novella collection, The End in All Beginnings, was called one of the best novella collections by Jack Ketchum and was a Stoker Award Finalist. His short “A Winter’s Tale” was also a Stoker Finalist.

His upcoming anthology Dark Stars, a tribute to that seminal ’80s work Dark Forces, will be published by Tor/Nightfire 11/2/21.

His website is at johnfdtaff.com.

 

 

 

About The First Book:

In the American high desert, vacationers returning from a road trip are thrust into a heart-stopping flight from death as they try to avoid a cataclysmic end. In rural Missouri, the lives of a group of high school students are destroyed after their small town is devastated and they’re forced to confront the end of everything they’ve ever known.

And on the eastern seaboard, there’s someone else. An enigmatic man who thrives on despair and embraces all fear. A man with his own dark and sinister goals. Someone who wants to ensure humanity goes out with the biggest bang possible.

 

  • Fire & Rain (The Fearing #1) by John F.D. Taff
  • July 9th 2019 by Grey Matter Press | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads
  • Water and Wind (#2)
  • August 20th 2019 Grey Matter Press | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads
  • Air & Dust (#3)
  • October 1st 2019 Grey Matter Press | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads
  • Earth & Ember (#4)
  • November 12th 2019 Grey Matter Press | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads
  • Blood & Brimstone (#5)
  • October 31st 2020 Saturday Morning Scenarios | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads

 

 

 

Kealan Patrick Burke & Timmy Quinn

 

 

@KealanBurke

 

 

About Kealan Patrick Burke:

Hailed by BOOKLIST as “one of the most clever and original talents in contemporary horror,” Kealan Patrick Burke was born and raised in Ireland and emigrated to the United States a few weeks before 9/11. Since then, he has written five novels, among them the popular southern gothic slasher KIN, and over two hundred short stories and novellas, including PEEKERS, SOUR CANDY and THE HOUSE ON ABIGAIL LANE, all of which have been optioned for film.

A five-time Bram Stoker Award-nominee, Burke won the award in 2005 for his coming-of-age novella THE TURTLE BOY, the first book in the acclaimed Timmy Quinn series.

Most recently, he adapted his work to comic book format for four volumes of John Carpenter’s TALES FOR A HALLOWEEN NIGHT series of anthologies and contributed a short story to Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden’s HELLBOY: AN ASSORTMENT OF HORRORS. He is currently at work on a new novel, MR. STITCH.

He lives in an unhaunted house in Ohio with a Scooby Doo lookalike rescue pup named Red.

kealanpatrickburke.com

 

 

 

About The First Book:

School is out and summer has begun. For eleven year old Timmy Quinn and his best friend Pete Marshall, the dreary town of Delaware Ohio becomes a place of magic, hidden treasure and discovery. But on the day they encounter a strange young boy sitting on the bank of Myers Pond a pond playground rumor says may hide turtles the size of Buicks everything changes. For it soon becomes apparent that dark secrets abound in the little community, secrets which come cupped in the hands of the dead, and in a heartbeat, Timmy and Petes summer of wonder becomes a season of terror, betrayal and murder.

 

  • The Turtle Boy (Timmy Quinn #1) by Kealan Patrick Burke
  • 2004 Necessary Evil Press | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads
  • The Hides (#2)
  • May 1st 2005 Cemetery Dance Publications | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads
  • Vessels (#3)
  • November 21st 2006 Bloodletting Press | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads
  • Peregrine’s Tale (#4)
  • August 2010 Cemetery Dance Publications | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads

 

 

 

William Meikle & S-Squad

 

 

@williemeikle

 

About William Meikle:

William Meikle is a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with more than thirty novels published in the genre press and over 300 short story credits in thirteen countries.

He has books available from a variety of publishers including Dark Regions Press, Crossroad Press and Severed Press, and his work has appeared in a number of professional anthologies and magazines.

He lives in Newfoundland with whales, bald eagles and icebergs for company.

When he’s not writing he drinks beer, plays guitar, and dreams of fortune and glory.

For full details see http://www.williammeikle.com

 

 

 

About The First Book:

It was supposed to be a simple mission. A suspected Russian spy boat is in trouble in Canadian waters. Investigate and report are the orders.
But when Captain John Banks and his squad arrive, it is to find an empty vessel, and a scene of bloody mayhem.
Soon they are in a fight for their lives, for there are things in the icy seas off Baffin Island, scuttling, hungry things with a taste for human flesh.
They are swarming.
And they are growing.

 

  • Infestation (S-Squad #1) by William Meikle
  • November 6, 2017  Severed Press  | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads
  • S-Squad (11 book series) @ Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads

 

 

 

Cassandra Khaw & Persons Non Grata

 

 

@casskhaw

 

About Cassandra Khaw:

Cassandra Khaw is an award-winning game writer, whose fiction work has been nominated for several awards. You can find their fiction in places like F&SF, Year’s Best of Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Tor.com. Their next book Nothing But Blackened Teeth is coming out in 2021.

Cassandra Khaw is a senior scriptwriter at Ubisoft Montreal. Her next novella NOTHING BUT BLACKENED TEETH is a haunted house story where messy people make really bad decisions.

 

 

 

About The First Book:

John Persons is a private investigator with a distasteful job from an unlikely client. He’s been hired by a ten-year-old to kill the kid’s stepdad, McKinsey. The man in question is abusive, abrasive, and abominable.

He’s also a monster, which makes Persons the perfect thing to hunt him. Over the course of his ancient, arcane existence, he’s hunted gods and demons, and broken them in his teeth.

As Persons investigates the horrible McKinsey, he realizes that he carries something far darker than the expected social evils. He’s infected with an alien presence, and he’s spreading that monstrosity far and wide. Luckily Persons is no stranger to the occult, being an ancient and magical intelligence himself. The question is whether the private dick can take down the abusive stepdad without releasing the holds on his own horrifying potential.

 

  • Hammers on Bone (Persons Non Grata #1) by Cassandra Khaw 
  • October 11th 2016 Tor.com | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads

 

 

 

Becky Chambers & Monk & Robot

 

 

About Becky Chambers:

Becky Chambers is a science fiction author based in Northern California. She is best known for her Hugo Award-winning Wayfarers series, which currently includes The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, A Closed and Common Orbit, and Record of a Spaceborn Few. Her books have also been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Locus Award, and the Women’s Prize for Fiction, among others. Her most recent work is To Be Taught, If Fortunate, a standalone novella.

Becky has a background in performing arts, and grew up in a family heavily involved in space science. She spends her free time playing video and tabletop games, keeping bees, and looking through her telescope. Having hopped around the world a bit, she’s now back in her home state, where she lives with her wife. She hopes to see Earth from orbit one day.

https://www.otherscribbles.com

 

 

 

 

About The First Book:

It’s been centuries since the robots of Earth gained self-awareness and laid down their tools.
Centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again.
Centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend.

One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of “what do people need?” is answered.

But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how.
They’re going to need to ask it a lot.

Becky Chambers’ new series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?

 

  • A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot #1) by Becky Chambers
  • July 13th 2021 Tordotcom | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads

 

 

 

Adrian Tchaikovsky & Expert System

 

 

 

About Adrian Tchaikovsky:

Adrian Tchaikovsky was born in Lincolnshire and studied zoology and psychology at Reading, before practising law in Leeds. He is a keen live role-player and occasional amateur actor and is trained in stage-fighting. His literary influences include Gene Wolfe, Mervyn Peake, China Miéville, Mary Gently, Steven Erikson, Naomi Novak, Scott Lynch and Alan Campbell.

 

 

 

About The First Book:

After an unfortunate accident, Handry is forced to wander a world he doesn’t understand, searching for meaning. He soon discovers that the life he thought he knew is far stranger than he could even possibly imagine.

Can an unlikely saviour provide the answers to the questions he barely comprehends?

  • The Expert System’s Brother (Expert System #1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky 
  • July 17th 2018  Tor.com | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads
  • The Expert System’s Champion (#2) 
  • July 17th 2018  Tor.com | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads

 

 

 

Todd Keisling & Monochrome Trilogy

 

 

Photo by Erica Keisling

@todd_keisling

 

About Todd Keisling:

TODD KEISLING is a writer and designer of the horrific and strange. He is the author of several books, including Devil’s Creek, Scanlines, and The Final Reconciliation, among other shorter works. He lives somewhere in the wilds of Pennsylvania with his family where he is at work on his next novel.

https://www.toddkeisling.com

 

 

 

About The First Book:

WHO IS DONOVAN CANDLE?

In A Life Transparent, first published in 2007, Todd Keisling welcomed readers to the Monochrome—a nightmarish parallel reality—and introduced Donovan Candle: a modern everyman experiencing an early mid-life crisis. Now, Bloodshot Books is proud to present a revised and expanded edition, featuring Keisling’s all-new afterword series, “Who is Donovan Candle?”

 

  • A Life Transparent (Monochrome Trilogy #1)
  • March 2nd 2021 Bloodshot Books | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads

 

 

 

Stephen King & Richard Chizmar & The Button Box

 

 

@RichardChizmar

 

About Richard Chizmar:

Richard Chizmar is a New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Amazon, and Publishers Weekly bestselling author.

He is the co-author (with Stephen King) of the bestselling novella, Gwendy’s Button Box and the founder/publisher of Cemetery Dance magazine and the Cemetery Dance Publications book imprint. He has edited more than 35 anthologies and his short fiction has appeared in dozens of publications, including multiple editions of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories. He has won two World Fantasy awards, four International Horror Guild awards, and the HWA’s Board of Trustee’s award.

Chizmar (in collaboration with Johnathon Schaech) has also written screenplays and teleplays for United Artists, Sony Screen Gems, Lions Gate, Showtime, NBC, and many other companies. He has adapted the works of many bestselling authors including Stephen King, Peter Straub, and Bentley Little.

Chizmar is also the creator/writer of the online website, Stephen King Revisited. His fourth short story collection, The Long Way Home, was published in 2019. With Brian Freeman, Chizmar is co-editor of the acclaimed Dark Screams horror anthology series published by Random House imprint, Hydra.

His latest book, The Girl on the Porch, was released in hardcover by Subterranean Press, and Widow’s Point, a chilling novella about a haunted lighthouse written with his son, Billy Chizmar, was recently adapted into a feature film.

Chizmar’s work has been translated into more than fifteen languages throughout the world, and he has appeared at numerous conferences as a writing instructor, guest speaker, panelist, and guest of honor.

https://richardchizmar.com/

 

 

About The First Book:

The little town of Castle Rock, Maine has witnessed some strange events and unusual visitors over the years, but there is one story that has never been told… until now.

There are three ways up to Castle View from the town of Castle Rock: Route 117, Pleasant Road, and the Suicide Stairs. Every day in the summer of 1974 twelve-year-old Gwendy Peterson has taken the stairs, which are held by strong (if time-rusted) iron bolts and zig-zag up the cliffside.

At the top of the stairs, Gwendy catches her breath and listens to the shouts of the kids on the playground. From a bit farther away comes the chink of an aluminum bat hitting a baseball as the Senior League kids practice for the Labor Day charity game.

One day, a stranger calls to Gwendy: “Hey, girl. Come on over here for a bit. We ought to palaver, you and me.”

On a bench in the shade sits a man in black jeans, a black coat like for a suit, and a white shirt unbuttoned at the top. On his head is a small neat black hat. The time will come when Gwendy has nightmares about that hat…

Journey back to Castle Rock again in this chilling new novella by Stephen King, bestselling author of The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, and Richard Chizmar, award-winning author of A Long December.

 

  • Gwendy’s Button Box (The Button Box #1) by Stephen King & Richard Chizmar
  • May 16th 2017 Cemetery Dance Publications | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads
  • Gwendy’s Magic Feather (#2) by Richard Chizmar
  • November 19th 2019  Cemetery Dance Publications | | Amazon U.S.A & U.K  | Goodreads

 

 

 

Reviewed by Lou Pendergrast on 10 February 2021