THE SWARM BY FRANK SCHATZING: The Swarm is technically not a new book, but was originally published in 2004 in German by Frank Schatzing under the title of Der Schwarm, where it immediately climbed onto the bestseller lists and has stayed there ever since.  In 2006 the book was translated and published in Britain and the United States; a paperback edition was released in May, and in August The Swarm will be released in mass market edition.  In the style of Kim Stanley Robinson’s trilogy starting with Forty Signs of Rain, and Michael Crichton when he was at his best some books ago, and The Day After Tomorrow, this is an eco-thriller set in today’s world with a story that while fantastical is not completely out of the realm of possibility. CONTINUED . . .

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES BY SETH GRAHAME-SMITH: Wait a minute!  Check that again.  Did you read it correctly?  Yep.  Definitely says Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  And the cover proves it.  Well now, there’s something you don’t see everyday. Writer Seth Grahame-Smith has an eclectic oeuvre, author of Pardon My President, The Spider-Man Handbook, and The Big Book of Porn; he’s now a member of a growing group of writers who’ve decided there’s more to Pride and Prejudice than just the words penned by Jane Austen.  In Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Grahame-Smith works on a simple premise: what if in the world of Mr. Darcy getting to know Miss Bennett the dead did not stay dead, but became zombies searching for delicious brains. CONTINUED . . .