CCP, one of the world’s leading independent game developers, has announced the results for the election of nine delegates to the Council of Stellar Management (CSM), a democratically-elected representative council of players chosen by fellow EVE Online players after an exciting two-week voting period that ended May 16.

“Since the earliest days of EVE’s development, we have relied heavily on collaboration with our playerbase regarding world issues. CCP has followed and nurtured what governing and organizational structures emerge within EVE and also brought best practices from the real world into the virtual world,” said CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Petursson. “The formation of the Council of Stellar Management signifies to us that that EVE has extended beyond the parameters of being ‘just a game’ into something more meaningful. As this first group of Councilors works with us over the course of the next six months, we look forward to seeing how our combined efforts can further expand the potential for virtual worlds to entertain, educate and inspire.”

Recovering con artist Ciara Griffin is trying to live the straight life, even if it means finding a (shudder!) real job. She takes an internship at a local radio station, whose late-night time-warp format features 1940s blues, 60s psychedelia, 80s Goth, and more, all with an uncannily authentic flair. Ciara soon discovers how the DJs maintain their cred: they’re vampires, stuck forever in the eras in which they were turned.

To boost ratings and save the lives of her strange new friends, Ciara re-brands the station as “WVMP, the Lifeblood of Rock ’n’ Roll.” In the ultimate con, she hides the DJs’ vampire nature in plain sight, disguising the bloody truth as a marketing gimmick. But the “gimmick” enrages a posse of ancient and powerful vampires who aren’t so eager to be brought into the light. Soon the stakes are higher-and the perils graver-than any con game Ciara’s ever played…

Review by Jenn Moffatt.

For any of you who were frustrated or disappointed with Midnight Alley (Book Three), you’re in for a treat with Feast of Fools. Feast of Fools takes all that we learned or thought we learned from Midnight Alley and puts it all together in a very entertaining package. I could not put Feast of Fools down, and there aren’t a lot of books that I’ve read lately that I can say that about.

There is a level of tension in the Morganville books that keeps you on the edge of your seat, even in the background scenes you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. And it always does. Rachel Caine abuses her characters like a pro, and she doesn’t shirk because these are YA books. Claire and her friends go through hell just trying to survive in Morganville.

Review by Jenn Moffatt.

Gen Con is pleased to announce that once again Wizards of the Coast, will be a co-sponsor of Gen Con Indy. Fans of all ages come to Gen Con each year to see and experience the latest in analog and digital gaming, and Wizards’ participation is a highlight for many fans. This year, Wizards of the Coast will be showing off their latest offerings, including the release of Dungeons & Dragons® 4th Edition.

“We are so pleased to have Wizards of the Coast once again be a sponsor of Gen Con. Its long history with the show, as well as the popularity of its products makes it an integral part of the entire Gen Con experience,” said Adrian Swartout, president of Gen Con.

In 2062, the Year of the Fiftieth Harvest, a Man confined to the sewers, tunnels and caverns of the underworld will venture above ground, into the cities-turned-wilderness left behind after the apocalypse, in a last bid to stop the alien Harvesters and the terrible Other Gods working their puppet-strings. Only a few things stand in […]

Elder Signs Press is excited to announce the title The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia by Daniel Harms, available in summer 2008.

This is the third edition of his popular and extensive encyclopedia of the Cthulhu Mythos. Updated with more fiction listings and recent material, this unique book spans the years of H.P. Lovecraft’s influence in culture, entertainment, and fiction. The voluminous entries make The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia invaluable for anyone knowledgeable about the Cthulhu Mythos and necessary for those longing to learn about the Cosmic Horrors from past and present decades.

With characters working for the CIA, this series is ripe for social commentary on what it means to work for the government, and how to deal with conflicts between their ideals and yours. Unfortunately, the author hasn’t picked up this golden opportunity to create fiction that would really resonate with readers. And I think this is why I’m not connecting with this series ?

It isn’t doing what it could.

Review by Tez Miller

Arc Dream Publishing and Pagan Publishing are working together again to produce a new collection of terrors for Delta Green.

Last year, Arc Dream and Pagan Publishing produced the long-awaited Delta Green: Eyes Only, a gorgeous hardcover sourcebook for Pagan’s award-winning Delta Green game setting. Despite having only 1,000 copies released, Eyes Only is now a finalist for the industry-standard Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Game Supplement of 2007.

We want to do it again with Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity. The authors of Delta Green have been working on material for Targets of Opportunity for years. This fundraiser will tell us if there’s enough interest to finish developing it and to print a limited hardcover edition of the same quality as Delta Green: Eyes Only.

The second installment of the Elemental Witches perhaps unintentionally brings up the question of who’s more evil: demons, or the warlocks who summon them. Or, if you prefer: guns, or the people who use them. The answer in this novel seems to be demons (guns), which is good news for me, who had a thing for hot French warlock Stefan Faucheux in a previous installment.

Another perhaps unintentional issue is what’s more important: being protected, or being independent?

Review by Tez Miller

Marcus Alexander Hart’s apocalyptic novel The Oblivion Society has been chosen as a semi-finalist in the Fantasy & Science-Fiction category of the Independent Publisher’s Book Awards (IPPYs).

With over 3,100 entries for this year’s competition, the Independent Publisher Book Awards (since 1996) award the best indie-published books of the year in 65 categories.

View the full list of this year’s semi-finalists here.

Like a lot of folks ’round these parts, I’m a huge fan of Robert E. Howard. I think he had all the imagination of Tolkien, and for my money, was a better writer. Your mileage may vary, of course, but that’s all moot.

I own all of the Del Rey collections: The Coming of Conan, the Bloody Crown of Conan, the Conquering Sword of Conan, Bran Mak Morn: the Last King, Kull: Exile of Atlantis, The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane, Crimson Shadows,and Grim Lands. I eagerly look forward to the day when they finally release collections of his western stories, and would love to own collections of his letters (though I currently don’t).

I guess you could say that as a writer I hold the man in high esteem.

Review by Jason Vey

Suddenly, there’s a new kid at school today. No one has lived in the Mayfair House for as long as you can remember, maybe even as long as you’ve been alive. Like a big gray toad nestled into the woods, it gazes down on the corner, eyes empty and soulless. But that’s all changed. You […]

The power-mad Warlord stands poised to conquer–or destroy!–the universe itself. Can anyone stand in his way?

Enter the Sentinels: College student Lyn Li… brilliant inventor and smart-alec Esro Brachis… beloved hero Ultraa… flamboyant showman Damon Sinclair… and mysterious alien powerhouse Vanadium.

When at last they all clash atop the Warlord’s floating city, can the world itself survive?

Digital Adventures, LLC and Pinnacle Entertainment Group are proud to present Savage Worlds Online, a new community designed to support and bring together gamers using the Savage Worlds Ruleset for Fantasy Grounds II to play their favorite Savage setting online with friends across the globe!

At the moment Savage Worlds Online (SWO) supports a forum for everything Savage World and Fantasy Grounds, and a gaming calendar for linking up with other SWO members to find or host a game. There will also be product giveaways from Savage Worlds licensees, gaming and development blogs, officially sponsored PEG events, product support, gaming advise, and all great geekness associated with the Savage Worlds setting from Australia to Denmark to England to Arizona!

The World of Darkness Through Innocent Eyes

Monsters don’t just lurk in remote forests, nightclubs, slums and the rooftops of the city. They’re in your neighborhood, watching you as you walk to school. They’re waiting for you in the woods behind your house as you and your friends build your fort. They’re under your bed.

Adults have learned to live in the World of Darkness by ignoring the supernatural, by pretending it isn’t there and going about the lives they have made for themselves. You don’t have that luxury. You see the world through a child’s eyes, and that means you haven’t learned to look away.

The line between good and evil is clearly drawn in the first Elemental Witches novel. Coven = good. Duskoff Cabal = evil. Mira Hoskins doesn’t know she’s an air witch until there’s a home invasion, where she’s rescued/kidnapped by fire witch Jack McAllister who claims he’s hiding her away for her own good. Jack trains Mira to use her magick until the time comes to move to the Coven in Chicago.

Review by Tez Miller

The countdown has begun and gaming enthusiasts all across the country are planning their annual trek to Indianapolis in anticipation of what gamers everywhere know to be as The Best Four Days in Gaming. With 91,000 turnstile attendees, Gen Con Indy is understandably the place where consumers and the industry come together to see and play all that is gaming. For the sixth year in a row, the event will be held at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, taking place August 14 through 17.

“Blood of the Dead isn’t what you think it is. Sure—it starts out as a zombie jamboree that drags you through Hell on Earth, but then it goes further . . . a lot further . . . and takes you straight to Hell and back again. This is the stuff of nightmares, boys and girls, with some unnerving and frightening action scenes that will have you on the edge of your seat and haunt your dreams.”
– Rick Hautala, author of The Wildman and Occasional Demons

Pre-Order Blood of the Dead at Horror-Mall.com.

In 2037 there will be an outbreak (a plague, maybe) that kills a whole lot of people. Don’t say I never warned you.

Excluding the prologue, this novel takes place in 2093. The world is now divided into four parts: the Northern Waste, the Equatorial Band, Africa and the Southern Hemisphere. Born in a laboratory in the icy Northern Waste, Tatiana is now free. But there’s something seriously screwed with her genes, clearly evident when she slices off a bloke’s hand with no weapons other than her own hands.

Review by Tez Miller.

The new game by the Origins Award-winning author of Legend of the Five Rings and 7th Sea!

Ambition. Lust. Revenge. You cannot have one without the others.

Thousands of years ago, the ven ruled the world. They were a passionate people, obsessed with Romance and Revenge, opera and theater, and all the forbidden delights their decadent culture provided. In the end, that which made them beautiful was also the key to their own destruction. Houses of the Blooded is a game about tragic obsession. Set in the fantastic world of ven myth and legend, players take the roles of powerful characters bent on conquering their world, destroying their enemies and possessing all they desire.