Titan Song by Dan Stout (English) Paperback Book

Description: Titan Song by Dan Stout The third book in the acclaimed Carter Archives noir fantasy series returns to the gritty town of Titanshade, where danger lurks around every corner.Forbidden magic, murder... and disco. Carters day keeps getting worse.With the return of spring, new life floods into Titanshade. The sun climbs higher and stays longer, the economy is ascendant, and ever more newcomers arrive to be part of the citys rebirth. Even pop culture has taken notice, with a high-profile concert only days away. When a band members murder threatens to delay the show, the diva star performer demands that the famous Detective Carter work the case. But Carter has secrets of his own, and his investigation unearths more victims and dark secrets, triggering a spiral of deceit, paranoia, and nightmarish magical transformations.As conspiracies are exposed, Carter is sucked even deeper into the machinations of the rich, the powerful, and the venerated. Soon the very foundations of the city threaten to collapse and Carters own freedom is on the line as he navigates between old enemies and fragile new alliances while racing to learn the true cause of this horrific series of deaths. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography Dan Stout writes about fever dreams and half-glimpsed shapes in the shadows. His fiction draws on travels throughout Europe, Asia, and the Pacific Rim as well as an employment history spanning everything from subpoena server to assistant well driller. Dans stories have appeared in publications such as The Saturday Evening Post, Nature, and Intergalactic Medicine Show. Review Praise for Titanshade"Take a little Mickey Spillane, some Dashiell Hammett, a bit of Raymond Chandler, and mix it with Phillip K. Dicks Blade Runner; add a taste of C. J. Box, and Craig Johnson, and youve got a masterpiece of a first novel. I hate to call any novel a work of genius, but Stouts Titanshade taps all the right keys." —W. Michael Gear, New York Times bestselling author of the Donovan novels"Debut author Stout combines a pitch-perfect noir tone and a richly detailed world full of human, amphibian, and less-identifiable characters in this instantly gripping fantastical mystery.... Stout handles this complex mystery with ease, invoking the best elements of classic noir mysteries, while fearlessly making this world, with its retro style and multilayered mythology, all his own." —Publishers Weekly (starred)"Titanshade is entirely unique: its a gritty noir murder mystery on an alien world with multiple species, a strange form of sorcery, a powerful religion, and large-scale political intrigue. And its set in the 1970s, with pay phones, 8-track tapes, racial tensions, and arguments about disco music. Whats amazing is how good it is at being all of these: the genuinely compelling mystery lives in a hugely original sf world and an immersive historical milieu." —ALA Booklist (starred)"Dan Stouts debut novel is flawless. Titanshade is set in an original, gritty fantasy world, like enough to ours to take you by the throat as the detective noir plot roars along, yet filled with intriguing other beings and moments of remarkable magic. Highly recommended." —Julie E. Czerneda, author of The Gossamer Mage"If you like rollicking detective stories with some action-adventure and alien culture to overlay the mystery, you should give this one a look. I can almost guarantee it wont be what you expect." —SFRevu"All in all, the book grows on the reader, slowly at first, but then with the speed of a rabid kudzu vine egged on by supervillainess Poison Ivy. By the end of the book Titanshade satisfies well enough to make you start over at the beginning to see what you missed." —New York Journal of Books"Titanshade was a wonderful blend of magical realism, police procedural, and thriller." —Genre Minx"This is a solid debut, giving us a fascinating new world, some fun characters who feel real, and a story which, I guarantee will keep you turning pages into the wee hours." —Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reviews Review Quote Praise for Titanshade "Take a little Mickey Spillane, some Dashiell Hammett, a bit of Raymond Chandler, and mix it with Phillip K. Dicks Blade Runner ; add a taste of C. J. Box, and Craig Johnson, and youve got a masterpiece of a first novel . I hate to call any novel a work of genius, but Stouts Titanshade taps all the right keys." --W. Michael Gear, New York Times bestselling author of the Donovan novels "Debut author Stout combines a pitch-perfect noir tone and a richly detailed world full of human, amphibian, and less-identifiable characters in this instantly gripping fantastical mystery.... Stout handles this complex mystery with ease, invoking the best elements of classic noir mysteries, while fearlessly making this world, with its retro style and multilayered mythology, all his own." -- Publishers Weekly (starred) " Titanshade is entirely unique: its a gritty noir murder mystery on an alien world with multiple species, a strange form of sorcery, a powerful religion, and large-scale political intrigue. And its set in the 1970s, with pay phones, 8-track tapes, racial tensions, and arguments about disco music. Whats amazing is how good it is at being all of these: the genuinely compelling mystery lives in a hugely original sf world and an immersive historical milieu." -- ALA Booklist (starred) " Dan Stouts debut novel is flawless . Titanshade is set in an original, gritty fantasy world, like enough to ours to take you by the throat as the detective noir plot roars along, yet filled with intriguing other beings and moments of remarkable magic. Highly recommended." --Julie E. Czerneda, author of The Gossamer Mage "If you like rollicking detective stories with some action-adventure and alien culture to overlay the mystery, you should give this one a look. I can almost guarantee it wont be what you expect." --SFRevu "All in all, the book grows on the reader, slowly at first, but then with the speed of a rabid kudzu vine egged on by supervillainess Poison Ivy. By the end of the book Titanshade satisfies well enough to make you start over at the beginning to see what you missed." --New York Journal of Books " Titanshade was a wonderful blend of magical realism, police procedural, and thriller ." --Genre Minx "This is a solid debut, giving us a fascinating new world , some fun characters who feel real, and a story which, I guarantee will keep you turning pages into the wee hours." --Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reviews Excerpt from Book 1 Look, its not that I hate disco. There are plenty of things that I do hate. Predators who lurk in shadows, targeting the weak and the weary; villains who find joy in snuffing out the tiny lights of individual kindness and stealing the warmth that makes life worth living. Those are the people Ive dedicated my life to finding and dragging into the light of justice. Compared to them, why would I be bothered by a garish, repetitive squeal of synthesized sludge pawned off onto vapid club-dwellers too tweaked out to recognize a decent melody if it walked up and bit them in the ass? So no, I dont hate disco. But I sure as Hells dont like it, either. Despite that fact, Id been listening to the radio blare overproduced bilge for the better part of an hour as I drove across the ice plains. The reason for that was the cop who shared my ride; he loved the stuff. Jax drummed his hands on the dashboard of the snow-runner, roughly matching what passed for a beat as I gripped the steering wheel tighter and hoped that the radio signal would hurry up and die. My partners biting jaws were slightly open, reverberating a hum past jagged tusks the size of my fingers, self-harmonizing with the whistle from his speaking mouth, a hole set low in his throat, just above his necktie. It would have been impressive, if he hadnt been off-beat and out of tune. "Can you not do that?" I raised my voice above the rumble of treads on densely packed snow. We were due north of the city, the profile of the Mount retreating in our sideview mirrors, and with it the warmth of the geo-vents that made Titanshade an oasis on the snow-swept ice plains. The vents continuous output of sulfur-scented heat was the only thing that allowed the city to exist and cloak itself in something akin to civilization. "Do what?" Jaxs eyes were concealed behind wraparound shades, making it impossible to see if they were crinkled with amusement, and nothing so expressive as a smile would ever grace the rigid bones of his biting jaws. Southerners were often intimidated by Mollenkampi faces and the frozen mask of perpetual aggression they conveyed to human eyes. Some people thought they looked dangerous, but I held no such uncertainty--the fact that my left hand was two fingers short of the usual allotment proved that a Mollenkampis bite was far worse than their appearance. I peered at the ice plains through my own sunglasses. Shades were obligatory on the ice plains in daylight. While the sun was out the vast, unbroken white expanse was as blinding as it was deadly. The fuzzy radio signal brought us a track from Dinah McIntire, the pop queen whose heavily processed voice had dominated the citys radio playlists since shed announced she was bringing a music festival to our town. Big-name artists rarely toured in Titanshade. It was too far to travel, the climate too inhospitable. The rest of the world had always been content to forget about us, as long as we supplied them with oil. That was one more thing that had changed in recent months. "Its not my fault you cant feel the music in your heart," Jax said. In fact, I felt it too deeply. The blend of static and song echoed the buzzing sounds and the overwhelming, aching hunger that came when I crossed the invisible spiderwebs of sorcery. Sensations that I needed to keep secret. I snapped back to reality when Jax stretched a hand in front of me, pointing at a speck on the horizon Id been eyeing for the last little while. "Is that it?" he asked. "Yeah, kid. Thats it." The Shelter in the Bend rig site grew larger with each second, and soon we were able to make out the outline of the temporary tents nestled in its shadow like the citys buildings nestled against the Mount. The entire structure had been thrown up in the last two weeks, amidst much speculation and excitement. As much as I thought they were crazy, I had to admire the organizers audacity. If we rarely had big-names concerts in Titanshade, the thought of a dozen playing for more than a week outside the city was unheard of. The Titanshade city leadership was thrilled about it. A festival located hours from the city would cause no traffic jams and require no police coordination. It was even far enough from the manna strike that the military encampment wasnt concerned about accidental tourists. The festival made headlines for hiring furloughed rig workers for the structural work and security. The short-term salve for the unemployed made it an easy sell. It was a win for everyone. It was a shame they needed a pair of Homicide detectives. -- Id never been to Shelter in the Bend before, but it had clearly been transformed into a tiny village of commerce. Signs welcomed us to Dinah McIntires "Ice on Her Fingers" festival. In a bold move, shed made Titanshade the crown jewel of her promotions, a two-week-long festival with a large number of bands and events. The airwaves had been inundated with announcements: Ten Days of Dancing, Decadence, and the Divine D.M . Now that we were on-site, we were confronted with larger-than-life banners commanding us to look for her new single, "Titans Song" in stores. The site belonged to Rediron Drilling, whod loaned out the facility to the pop star for her special event. Like all the rigs on the ice plains, its operations had been frozen two months earlier when the raw essence of magic had been discovered below the ice plains. The man whod struck manna, Harlan Cedrow, had been willing to pay any price to find his treasure. Things had ended badly for him, and for all of us whod been at the rig where the manna strike occurred. I parked near a pair of snow-runners identical to ours, the TPD shields on their sides a match for the badges in our pockets. One of them had a light dusting of snow while the other was clean, as if it had arrived recently, its engine still warm. Probably the crime scene techs or patrol cops there to secure the scene. Our response time to this call was much longer than usual. Most drill rigs were far enough from Titanshade that they fell outside our jurisdiction. The oil fields kept their own rough laws, only turning to the authorities in cases of emergency. But maybe a bunch of southern musicians were more inclined to call in the police than a crew of roughnecks. "Alright," I said. "Lets gear up." Jax and I began securing the heavy coats customary for travel on the ice plains. Department-issue coats had only a few nods to utility, such as the heavy mitten tops that folded back to allow access to weapons. It was a struggle in the cramped quarters of the snow-runner, and the vehicle swayed as the wind drove into it, creeping through cracks and stripping away the interior warmth even in the short time wed been there. Jax peered at the festival signs. "You think the band is already here? Theyd have to be, right?" He was excited, but also dragging a bit more than his usual eager young self. "Whats wrong, kid?" I said. "Another late night alone with your books?" It was usually fun to watch his reaction when I prodded him about his college education and academic bent. Instead, Jax pointed at the central spire of the derrick. "Really impressive what theyve done here!" The high-toned clicks in his voice were artificially chipper. I frowned at the sudden change of subject. I knew hed been spending an increasing amount of time with Talena, my daughter for all purposes, if not by blood or legal marriage. Id helped raise her, or at least had done my best not to screw up too bad while I was with her mom. I shot a look his way, and found hed pulled out a handkerchief and taken a sudden interest in polishing his tusks. I grunted and peered out the window, studying the layout of the site. The prospect of a ten-day festival on the ice plains was mind-bogglingly stupid. Even with our layers, Jax and I could only spend a limited time in the frigid air. But the marvels of engineering never ceased to amaze, and the transformation of the drill site certainly fell into that category. Structures of various sizes littered the area, but they were dwarfed by the central tent. It was a massive swell of tan-and-green-striped fabric, and the tip of the derrick raised through the center spire like the pole of a monstrous circus big top. "They hung it right on the thribble board," I said. "Huh?" "Pipes sections stack," I said. "This derricks a big one. It can stack three. A single, a double, a thribble." "You mean a triple." I clapped my hands together, making sure the fit of the gloves was proper. "Did your old man work the rigs? Mine did, and thats a thribble board." Jax sighed. He was a newcomer to Titanshade, and didnt have oil in his blood. "Should I even ask what they call the fourth level?" "A fourble." "I genuinely dont know if youre messing with me or not." We stared at one another for a moment, then I killed the engine and opened the door. The wind grabbed hold of it, yanking it from my grasp and making the hinges squeal even as it snatched the warmth from the car and the air from my lungs. I climbed out of the snow-runner and slammed the door shut, eager to keep moving. Each inhalation was a sharp jab to the ribs as the cold bit me from the inside. I was instantly grateful for all those bulky layers. Jax came around the vehicle and stood by my side. "Youre the expert," he said, "which way do we go now?" I considered our options. To one side of the parking area was a wide field of smaller tents and domed huts. These were rentals, heavily advertised as the perfect option for fans who didnt want to miss a single moment of the show. The whole thing seemed like a guarantee for frostbite. But the main tent held the m Details ISBN0756417481 Author Dan Stout Series The Carter Archives Language English Year 2022 ISBN-10 0756417481 ISBN-13 9780756417482 Publication Date 2022-05-03 Series Number 3 Format Paperback Pages 400 Imprint DAW Books Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2022-05-03 NZ Release Date 2022-05-03 US Release Date 2022-05-03 UK Release Date 2022-05-03 Publisher Astra Publishing House Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:141720545;

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