[Manabi]

This month's Kindle First selections are out, they are:

Infinity Lost (The Infinity Trilogy Book 1) by S. Harrison [Genre: Science-Fiction Thriller]

In the near future, one corporation, Blackstone Technologies, has changed the world: no disasters, no poverty, and life-altering technology. Blackstone has the impunity to destroy—or create—as it sees fit.

Infinity “Finn” Blackstone is the seventeen-year-old daughter of Blackstone’s reclusive CEO—but she’s never even met him. When disturbing dreams about a past she doesn’t remember begin to torment her, Finn knows there’s only one person who can provide answers: her father.

After Finn and an elite group of peers are invited to Blackstone’s top-secret HQ, Finn realizes she may have a chance to confront her father. But when a highly sophisticated company AI morphs into a killing machine, the trip descends into chaos. Trapped inside shape-shifting walls, Finn and her friends are at the mercy of an all-seeing intelligence that will destroy everything to get to her.

With no hope of help, Finn’s dream-memories may be the only chance of survival. But will she remember in time to save her own life and the lives of those around her?

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

One of the reasons I so admire debut author S. Harrison’s Infinity Lost is that it’s great science fiction. The reason I love the book, however, is that it’s also a fantastically thrilling tale full of adventure and just the right number of explosions. Great science fiction—like Star Trek, which imagined automatic sliding doors, and Snow Crash, which showed the possibilities of a virtual reality universe—helps us envision the world we are on the cusp of living in.

And that’s what Infinity Lost does—its near-future setting is both eerily familiar and alluringly different from our present reality. The novel is told from the perspective of seventeen-year-old Infinity “Finn” Blackstone as she and a group of her peers gain access to the highly secretive headquarters of the world’s most powerful technology company. What initially appears to be the soul-searching of one young woman on the verge of adulthood quickly reveals itself to be something much more complex and sinister. The story gently eases you into the futuristic atmosphere even as the plot rapidly escalates around the nature of Finn’s identity. The stakes don’t get much higher than trying to sort out who you are while simultaneously attempting to escape a nearly omnipotent artificial intelligence that really seems to hate you.

In some ways, Infinity Lost reminds me of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but instead of Oompa Loompas, the “factory” is filled with armored robots controlled by an AI with murderous intent and a treasure trove of menacing tools that would make Q, James Bond’s gadget wizard, jealous. The futuristic elements coalesce into an exhilarating story that makes me wonder about just what sort of future awaits us. As for Finn and her fate, I’m eagerly awaiting the continuation of her story in Infinity Rises, out in January 2016.

- Courtney Miller, Editor

The Mentor by Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli [Genre: Mystery]

As Scotland Yard chief forensics detective Eric Shaw works a case with some resemblance to a crime he investigated twenty years earlier, he is convinced it is just a coincidence. But when more deaths occur in a style similar to those killings from the past, Shaw suspects that he has a serial killer on his hands—one who is pursuing a personal, cold-blooded vendetta.

Working closely with his protégée, Detective Miriam Leroux, Shaw analyzes the crimes down to the finest detail. He finds himself increasingly drawn to the lab, where criminologist Adele Pennington, a beautiful, enigmatic woman more than two decades his junior, proves distracting. Determined to maintain his professionalism despite the attraction, Shaw struggles to keep her at arm’s length. Yet Pennington’s unique insight proves critical, and as the investigation develops, so does their personal connection. With a killer on the loose, Shaw must follow a winding, blood-soaked trail that will take him in an unexpected and terrifying direction.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

The Mentor raised my blood pressure. Was it the emotionally charged beginning that started the spike? I was in turmoil, reading frantically and feeling as vulnerable as the characters on the page. As the story unfolded, a paranoid feeling grew inside me that made me question the characters’ every motive. Everyone is a potential suspect.

The book opens with a valiant police officer—Eric Shaw of Scotland Yard—coming to the rescue as a young girl realizes the gruesome murder of her family was not just a dream. Eric’s strong presence and calm voice immediately assure her that she is safe now, she can come out from under the bed, he can help her.

Twenty years later we meet an older, more established Eric leading Scotland Yard’s forensics department and see that our trust in him was well placed. He is assisted by a promising (and beautiful) young protégé who tries to lure him out of his comfort zone. There is no greater compliment than “I look up to you,” but how close is too close? In this line of work, Eric knows not to get his emotions involved. And can he afford distractions when a killer is on the loose?

If the twists and turns torment you and drive you to increasingly paranoid thoughts, remember: it’s only fiction.

- Gabriella Page-Fort, Editor

The Concealed (The Lakewood Series Book 1) by Sarah Kleck (Author), Michael Osmann (Translator), Audrey Deyman (Translator) [Genre: Romantic Fantasy]

After her parents died in a car accident when she was just a child, Evelyn Lakewood was left alone in the world. Now grown up, she enrolls at Oxford University, where she begins to create a new, stable life.

But when she encounters Jared Calmburry, who she later discovers is an orphan with his own tragic history, the equilibrium she was striving for is thrown off. Instantly drawn to this mysterious stranger with the incredible blue eyes, and confounded by the unusual events that occur whenever they meet, Evelyn resolves to investigate further. What she finds will startle her beyond measure: an ancient legacy of magic, a centuries-old secret society, and a foreboding legend with her and Jared at its center. As she follows a cryptic trail, Evelyn will discover clues to her own painful past, answers she hadn’t even been looking for—and a passionate love she cannot resist despite the dangers it brings.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

“They say time heals all wounds. I am still waiting…” From the opening lines of Sarah Kleck’s romantic fantasy, I found myself so completely immersed in our heroine Evelyn’s plight that I pushed aside other plans—no laundry, dinner, or favorite TV show. I sensed that something more than coincidence lay behind the mysterious death of Evelyn’s parents years before and the recent—seemingly random—murder of her sister. But this is no crime story. The Concealed is a fantastical love story of truly mythic proportions.

The pages flew by as I followed Evelyn to Oxford, where she experiences love at first sight when she encounters the enigmatic, intense Jared. My incredulity at learning the truth about Evelyn’s family and her legacy mirrored her own. What initially seemed to be a story of tortured attraction quickly proved to be both darker and more epic. My laundry remained unwashed.

The Concealed is a tale of a journey toward self-discovery and a quest for truth, rich with mysterious and secretive characters, shocking revelations, and menacing supernatural forces that grow more threatening as the story unfolds.

The final pages left me eager for the second book, The Revealed, in which we learn the fate of Jared, Evelyn, and the secrets that inextricably bind them. Their quest to remain united is nothing short of a battle of good versus evil. Luckily, I don’t have too long to wait because The Revealed releases in November 2016.

A final note: an earlier version of The Concealed was briefly published by the author. We’re proud to present the fully edited and reworked version.

- Elizabeth DeNoma, Editor

Life and Other Near-Death Experiences by Camille Pagán [Genre: Contemporary Fiction]

Libby Miller has always been an unwavering optimist—but when her husband drops a bomb on their marriage the same day a doctor delivers devastating news, she realizes her rose-colored glasses have actually been blinding her.

With nothing left to lose, she abandons her life in Chicago for the clear waters and bright beaches of the Caribbean for what might be her last hurrah. Despite her new sunny locale, her plans go awry when she finds that she can’t quite outrun the past or bring herself to face an unknowable future. Every day of tropical bliss may be an invitation to disaster, but with her twin brother on her trail and a new relationship on the horizon, Libby is determined to forget about fate. Will she risk it all to live—and love—a little longer?

From critically acclaimed author Camille Pagán comes a hilarious and hopeful story about a woman choosing between a “perfect” life and actually living.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

What if the worst thing that ever happened to you was also the best? That’s the question that Camille Pagán poses in her extraordinarily entertaining new novel, and after finishing it, I wanted to ask myself that question over and over again. Reading the novel was so enjoyable—like having a best friend sit on the couch with me, drinking a glass of wine and discussing life’s problems, laughing and crying the whole time. The experience changed me.

Our protagonist, Libby Miller, receives a double dose of bad news, and her seemingly perfect world is upended. Usually sunny and unflappable, she reacts in a distinctly un-Libby way: she decides to change everything that has embodied her life up until that moment. A “last-chance” trip to the Caribbean ensues, where she discovers things about herself and the world that she never imagined.

Pagán has written the kind of story you think about long after turning the last page, recommend to friends, and post about online. It is a frank, funny, and tear-inducing examination of this beautiful mess called life.

- Danielle Marshall, Editor

This is the Night by Jonah C. Sirott [Genre: Literary Fiction]

In a world at war, four youths try to determine what’s really worth fighting for.

For more than twenty years, the Homeland has been immersed in a brutal, unwinnable war. Young men are drafted and sent to fight in a faraway jungle. Those who come back are scarred in body and mind. Lance, two weeks shy of turning eighteen, has watched his older brothers leave and his mother fall apart when they fail to return. He’s never imagined a different future for himself—until he meets an idealistic young woman named Lorrie and impulsively flees town with her.

In Western City North, on the edge of the Homeland, Lance and Lorrie move into the same building as Benny and Joe, two friends up for induction. Along with Alan, a young runaway, they frantically evade Registry agents intent on tracking down draft dodgers. With induction day looming and paranoia rampant, the only way for any of them to stay free is to uncover the truth about their uncertain world—and the forces seeking to control it. Jonah C. Sirott’s breathtaking debut is about hope, survival, and the challenge of pushing past the limits our world draws around us.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

From the first lines of This Is the Night, I knew the writer had it. He had that rare innate writing skill that kept me reading. By the second chapter, I fluffed my pillows and prepared to stay up all night reading this genre-bending literary novel.

I need effortless writing and clear-as-day characters in my books. I look for writing that cuts right to the bone and language as precise as poetry. Jonah C. Sirott’s mesmerizing storytelling allowed me to imagine a country at war for twenty-five years, a place where everyone is painfully aware that time is ticking, because at age eighteen all men must report for duty. In This Is the Night, fighting is a way of life, and most people have long forgotten to question it. At the center of the novel is a love story between a young female war protester and a draft dodger who discovers that his fight against the regime has far greater consequences than he imagined.

The best speculative tales are gripping because they portray a parallel universe where life has gone awry. Human emotions and relationships are the same, but the rules of society are terribly twisted. That’s what I loved about this novel. Jonah’s memorable characters and their intricate, layered relationships are ultimately what drive this breathtaking novel to its fantastic, climactic ending.

- Carmen Johnson, Editor

Here & There by Joshua V. Scher [Genre: Experimental Fiction]

It was supposed to be a simple proof of concept. The physics were sound. Over one hundred teleportation experiments had already been successfully performed...

Debate rages over whether the Reidier Test’s disastrous outcome resulted from human error, government conspiracy, or sabotage. No one has actual knowledge of the truth. But hidden from the public eye, there exists a government report commissioned from criminal psychologist Dr. Hilary Kahn, chronicling the events that took place.

Dr. Kahn disappeared without a trace.

Now her son Danny has unearthed and revealed the report, fueling controversy over the details of Reidier’s quest to reforge the fabric of reality and hold his family together. Exposed with little chance of finding his mother, Danny goes underground to investigate. But nothing can prepare him for what he discovers.

In this thrilling saga, a paradigm-shattering feat may alter humanity’s future as quantum entanglement and teleportation collide.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

Every so often, I read a novel that can best be described with one word that encompasses all I’ve come to love about stories that reimagine the world: beautiful. I am amazed at the amount of research, time, and structural layers that went into making Here & There what it is. And what it all amounts to is a truly beautiful book.

Debut author Joshua V. Scher’s ambitious, innovative writing style is perfectly suited to a story told through different characters’ eyes. Joshua goes one step further, however, and employs unconventional “voices” too: buried government documents, hidden diary entries, newspaper articles, science-experiment transcripts, and personal interviews. Through the novel’s interplay of voice and text, by the end, I was left wondering what was fact and what was fiction.

Here & There’s narrators—Danny and his mother, Dr. Hilary Kahn, who both have their own agendas—weave an account of the brilliant physicist Kerek Reidier, who boldly goes where no one has gone before. His tale is one of science, conspiracies, secrets, and above all, his obsessive love for his wife. And like the characters themselves, in reading this book, I was faced with what it means to be me—whether that part of my existence that makes me truly distinct can be taken apart and put back together again without changing who I am.

In that way, Here & There is a beautifully imagined Frankenstein for the modern age, and the results can be truly monstrous. Prepare to be thoroughly creeped out.

- Adrienne Lombardo, Editor