New Releases by Austin Grossman

READ THE THRILLING, ACERBIC AND HILAROUS NOVEL FROM THE AUTHOR OF SOON I WILL BE INVINCIBLE ''The Avengers meets The Breakfast Club... wry and engaging'' James Swallow, Sunday Times bestselling author of Nomad ''A spiky, fierce, erudite riff on the wonderful world of silver age superheroes'' Charles Stross, bestselling author of The Atrocity Archives ---- Dr Rick Tower is a mild-mannered English professor easing into middle-age at a medium-sized New England college. A genial blur, he thinks. Even his vices are unremarkable. But it wasn’t always like this. Not until they changed his name, altered his looks and told him: ‘pretend you were never different’. Because, decades earlier after a very bad day at high school, he was committed to a secret government facility with three other kids, Cat, Jack and Stephanie, each special in their own way. Tested, tutored and trained, this extraordinary quartet were then told to save the world. It was the best thing that ever happened to them. Until it became the worst. Now, twenty years after the tragedy that forced him into academic non-entity, a mysterious disappearance means Tower must reunite with his former comrades. Each returns with their own agenda. And while great power might come with great responsibility, there’s little of that on display from any of them. Combining compelling storytelling and fierce imagination with a rich cast of characters, Fight Me is a page-turning and distinctive thriller, a unique tale of good and evil, and a memorable portrait of man trying to do the right thing at any cost. Against impossible odds . . . ---- ''Hugely enjoyable... kept me up till 3am'' Conn Iggulden, Sunday Times bestselling author of Lion ‘Combining a coming-of-age story with costume thrills . . . it has sly, smart things to say’ Herald ''Fight Me embraces the fun of the genre, while treating its battle-weary characters with heart and empathy. A noir-tinged Big Chill for the superhero set'' Bob Proehl, author of The Nobody People ‘A treasure that manages to be sad, funny, and hilariously fun at all once. A thrilling adventure but also a searing, intimate look at what it would really cost to have such incredible power, and yet still be human’ Peng Shepherd, bestselling author of The Cartographers ''There is a vibrancy to the writing, and a beating heart, reminiscent of my favourite coming-of-age novels'' Nick Cutter ''A sucker-punch of sheer delight, and couldn''t be happier to be on the receiving end'' Adam Christopher

Award-winning novelist Austin Grossman reimagines the Cold War as an epic battle against the occult waged by the ultimate American antihero: Richard Nixon. Richard Milhous Nixon lived one of the most improbable lives of the twentieth century. Our thirty-seventh president''s political career spanned the button-down fifties, the Mad Men sixties, and the turbulent seventies. He faced down the Russians, the Chinese, and ultimately his own government. The man went from political mastermind to a national joke, sobbing in the Oval Office, leaving us with one burning question: how could he have lost it all? Here for the first time is the tale told in his own words: the terrifying supernatural secret he stumbled upon as a young man, the truth behind the Cold War, and the truth behind the Watergate cover-up. What if our nation''s worst president was actually a pivotal figure caught in a desperate struggle between ordinary life and horrors from another reality? What if the man we call our worst president was, in truth, our greatest? In Crooked, Nixon finally reveals the secret history of modern American politics as only Austin Grossman could reimagine it. Combining Lovecraftian suspense, international intrigue, Russian honey traps, and a presidential marriage whose secrets and battles of attrition were their own heroic saga, Grossman''s novel is a masterwork of alternative history, equal parts mesmerizing character study and nail-biting Faustian thriller.

When Russell joins Black Arts games, brainchild of two visionary designers who were once his closest friends, he reunites with an eccentric crew of nerds hacking the frontiers of both technology and entertainment. In part, he''s finally given up chasing the conventional path that has always seemed just out of reach. But mostly, he needs to know what happened to Simon, his strangest and most gifted friend, who died under mysterious circumstances soon after Black Arts'' breakout hit. As the company''s revolutionary next-gen game is threatened by a software glitch, Russell finds himself in a race to save his job, Black Arts'' legacy, and the people he has grown to care about. The deeper Russell digs, the more dangerous the glitch appears -- and soon, Russell comes to realize there''s much more is at stake than just one software company''s bottom line.

The popular Postmortem column in Game Developer magazine features firsthand accounts of how some of the most important and successful games of recent years have been made. This book offers the opportunity to harvest this expertise with one volume. The editor has organized the articles by theme and added previously unpublished analysis to reveal successful management techniques. Readers learn how superstars of the game industry like Peter Molyneux and Warren Spector have dealt with the development challenges such as managing complexity, software and game design issues, schedule challenges, and changing staff needs.

“A no-holds-barred collection” of evil genius stories from Diana Gabaldon, Grady Hendrix, Austin Grossman, Naomi Novik, and eighteen other popular writers (Library Journal, starred review). From Victor Frankenstein to Lex Luthor, from Dr. Moreau to Dr. Doom, readers have long been fascinated by insane plans for world domination and the madmen who devise them. Typically, we see these villains through the eyes of good guys. This anthology, The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination, however, explores the world of mad scientists and evil geniuses—from their own wonderfully twisted point of view. An all-star roster of bestselling authors—including Diana Gabaldon, Daniel Wilson, Austin Grossman, Naomi Novik, and Seanan McGuire . . . twenty-two great storytellers all told—have produced a fabulous assortment of stories guaranteed to provide readers with hour after hour of high-octane entertainment born of the most megalomaniacal mayhem imaginable. Everybody loves villains. They’re bad; they always stir the pot; they’re much more fun than the good guys, even if we want to see the good guys win. Their fiendish schemes, maniacal laughter, and limitless ambition are legendary, but what lies behind those crazy eyes and wicked grins? How—and why—do they commit these nefarious deeds? And why are they so set on taking over the world? If you’ve ever asked yourself any of these questions, you’re in luck: It’s finally time for the madmen’s side of the story. “Veteran anthology editor Adams succeeds again . . . [His] entertaining story introductions set the stage for villains to find their own definitions and identities.” —Publishers Weekly

Doctor Impossible—evil genius, would-be world conqueror—languishes in prison. Shuffling through the cafeteria line with ordinary criminals, he wonders if the smartest man in the world has done the smartest thing he could with his life. After all, he''s lost every battle he''s ever fought. But this prison won''t hold him forever. Fatale—half woman, half high-tech warrior—used to be an unemployed cyborg. Now, she''s a rookie member of the world''s most famous super-team, the Champions. But being a superhero is not all flying cars and planets in peril—she learns that in the locker rooms and dive bars of superherodom, the men and women (even mutants) behind the masks are as human as anyone. Soon I Will Be Invincible is a wildly entertaining first novel, brimming with attitude and humor—an emotionally resonant look at good and evil, love and loss, power and glory.