The latest novels by Lavie Tidhar and Will Elliott are published today in the US.

First up, Lavie Tidhar’s critically-acclaimed alternative history/super-hero novel, THE VIOLENT CENTURY is published by Thomas Dunne (above). Here’s the synopsis…

They never meant to be heroes.

For seventy years they guarded the British Empire. Oblivion and Fogg, inseparable friends, bound together by a shared fate. Until one night in Berlin, in the aftermath of the Second World War, and a secret that tore them apart.  But there must always be an account… and the past has a habit of catching up to the present.

Now, recalled to the Retirement Bureau from which no one can retire, Fogg and Oblivion must face up to a past of terrible war and unacknowledged heroism – a life of dusty corridors and secret rooms, of furtive meetings and blood-stained fields – to answer one last, impossible question:

What makes a hero?

THE VIOLENT CENTURY is published in the UK by Hodder, it is also available as a limited edition from PS Publishing. Lavie’s works have been lavished with praise from all quarters, including being described as ‘an emerging master’ (Locus), ‘Young, ambitious, skilled and original’ (Christopher Priest) and ‘remarkable and ambitious’ (China Mieville).

Lavie’s latest novel, A MAN LIES DREAMING, was also published in the UK by Hodder in October 2014 (paperback due out in March), also to a tsunami of critical acclaim.

Secondly, Will Elliott’s SHADOW is published by Tor Books. The second novel in the author’s Pendulum Trilogy, it follows THE PILGRIMS. Here’s the synopsis…

Eric Albright was a luckless journalist living in London. He had a so-so life… until the day he opened a battered red door that appeared on the graffiti-covered wall of a local bridge, and entered Levaal, a magical world between worlds. A place populated by power damaged mages, stone giants, pit devils—and dragons, Levaal’s possible creators, who are imprisoned in a sky prison. It is also where the mad Lord Vous rules with an iron fist and is busy working on a scheme to turn himself into a god. Vous has been defeated so far because Levaal has been contained by the great Wall at World’s End.

But the Wall at World’s End has been brought down, war is coming to the land, and Eric and his newfound friends are caught in the thick of it. They are forced to flee from the Tormentors, dreadful creatures that have poured through the breach, and there are rumors that one of the great dragons has escaped its sky prison.

Worse yet, Vous’s journey to godhood is almost complete, and a mysterious being called Shadow (who is not but looks remarkably like Eric) is wandering Levaal with great power but no purpose it yet understands.

The end might be coming faster than anyone thinks.

You can read an excerpt from SHADOW here. SHADOW and THE PILGRIMS, as well as WORLD’S END, were published in the UK by Jo Fletcher Books. The trilogy has also been released as an eBook bundle.