Avatar took the Golden Globes for director and film and usually this means they are favored for the Academy Awards. It also has become the third biggest film of all time and looks to go higher.

Kitty’s House of Horrors
Carrie Vaughn
Grand Central, $$7.99
ISBN: 9780446199551

One of the talk radio hosts on KNOB is werewolf Kitty Norville, who was forced to change on the air. Since her outing, other supernaturals that include weres, vampires and psychics have also come out in the open. Mortals either believe or think strongly a conspiratorial fraud is occurring. The paranormal want acceptance in a mundane world so when SuperByte approaches Kitty to join others of her supernatural kind on a reality TV show, she accepts.

They are flown to a lodge in the mountainous wilds of Montana with no one around for miles. At first the filming proceeds like any reality show, but soon the weres, vampires, and psychics wake up to find all electrical power cut off and three crewmen dead in the plane and three others missing. They are further trapped and isolated by silver fences and weapons. The contestants know they are in mortal danger. A natural leader, Kitty takes charge with resolute determination to kill her enemy before they kill her. Lives are lost on both sides as Kitty struggles to prevent a massacre in the lodge prison.

Romance, action, and mystery come together in this fabulous urban fantasy mindful in a paranormal way of Christie’s And Then There Was None. Kitty is an alpha Lara Croft type heroine who goes into danger with her eyes wide open and a grit to be the predator and not the prey. She not only becomes the leader, she is there only hope of survival as slim as that seems as Kitty’s House of Horrors is a death trap.
Harriet Klausner

The Silver Skull
Mark Chadbourn
Pyr, $16.00
ISBN: 9781591027836

Will Swyfte may be Elizabethan England's greatest spy, but he is used to thwarting no one as his image is just that, a façade to give the beleaguered people a hero. However, this time his superior Walsingham assigns Swyfte to a real project. He must prevent the Faerie and their Spanish minion from acquiring the Skull, the Key and the Shield; if the enemy obtains the three magical artifacts Britain as we know it will be no more.

The Cold War between England and Spain appears ready to turn hot as Spain and its ally Faerie are posed to invade. However, the Queen's sorcerer Dr John Dee has brought back some balance between the adversaries. It is now up to the swashbuckling showman to prove he is the real deal with Dee providing him the latest in magical and mundane technology.

The first Swords of Albion Elizabethan historical fantasy is a fun swashbuckling thriller with a James Bond in a late sixteenth century paranormal England and somewhat Spain set up. The story line is fast-paced and filled with action while also somewhat reminding readers of Elizabeth Bear’s Prometheus Age series. From Drake with love to the Armada, to a deep connection to modern issues of national security vs. personal freedoms including the torture debate, THE SILVER SKULL is a fabulous Swyfte thriller. Harriet Klausner

The Devil's Alphabet
Daryl Gregory
Ballantine, $15.00
ISBN: 9780345501172

Teenager Paxton Martin fled Switchcreek, Tennessee to avoid the impact of a deadly retrovirus that either killed people or changed them into grotesque creatures and to never see his father again. The disease never went beyond the small town, but Pax vowed to never return to “Pandemonium”.

However, thirteen years after he left, he learns of the suicide death of his friend Jo Lynn so he comes home for her funeral. She had been changed by the virus into a seal skin baldie beta as opposed to becoming a towering argo or an obese Charlie like others became. His plan includes avoiding his dad, but he alters his scheme when he learns that Jo Lynn may not have hung herself and that a small town in Ecuador has suffered the same fate. He begins the investigation even as his brain tells him leave immediately.

This is a terrific evolutionary science fiction small town horror thriller that as its underlying basis asks the audience to define human. The story line is fast-paced throughout as Paxton returns home to a town that has evolved into four distinct races in a survival of the fittest scenario. The key, which makes The Devil’s Alphabet enthralling is each of the key characters representing the four primes seem genuine, which makes their race appear realistic. Although the father-son relationship seems to ramble, fans will enjoy Daryl Gregory’s strong tale. Harriet Klausner