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Editorial Content for Icefall: The Rise of the Nine

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

ICEFALL, the first collaboration between veteran thriller author Jon Land and newcomer Michael Newman, is a winner on every level. When a novel is billed as a cross between Alien and The Avengers, my attention is officially grabbed. I was not disappointed.

The prologue is set 1,500 years ago in the Veyrion. This is where a team of superbeings known as “the Nine” are being sentenced to a mission to serve the Crown Arc on a faraway planet (Earth) that one day will require their help to save it from annihilation. Read More

Teaser

An alien ship crashed into Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier 150,000 years ago and froze within the ice...until glacial melting thawed out its deadly inhabitants in the present day. Kai and Jules Bevins, both professors of astrobiology at Caltech, are roused from their home and whisked away to the site where a special division of the army has taken charge. But not before something escaped through a breach in the hull. Thousands of miles away in Pakistan, the Nine --- a team of superbeings placed on Earth a million years ago by intergalactic colonizers that seeded our planet to create human life --- are lifted from their long slumber. This all leads to a confrontation on a volcanic island that will determine the fate of civilization, even as the Nine uncover the shattering truth behind their own tragic paths and learn of a much greater battle to come.

Promo

An alien ship crashed into Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier 150,000 years ago and froze within the ice...until glacial melting thawed out its deadly inhabitants in the present day. Kai and Jules Bevins, both professors of astrobiology at Caltech, are roused from their home and whisked away to the site where a special division of the army has taken charge. But not before something escaped through a breach in the hull. Thousands of miles away in Pakistan, the Nine --- a team of superbeings placed on Earth a million years ago by intergalactic colonizers that seeded our planet to create human life --- are lifted from their long slumber. This all leads to a confrontation on a volcanic island that will determine the fate of civilization, even as the Nine uncover the shattering truth behind their own tragic paths and learn of a much greater battle to come.

About the Book

A team of superbeings are all that stands between Earth and total annihilation at the hands of a predatory alien species.

An alien ship crashed into Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier 150,000 years ago and froze within the ice...until glacial melting thawed out its deadly inhabitants in the present day.

Kai and Jules Bevins, both professors of astrobiology at Caltech, are roused from their home and whisked away to the site where a special division of the army has taken charge. But not before something escaped through a breach in the hull.

Meanwhile, a pair of Alaska state troopers locate a missing Amazon driver 15 miles away on the Juneau Icefield and trace his movements to a nearby village with a population of less than 50. Arriving in town, they are greeted by the bodies of villagers who were killed in an impossible, horrific way.

Thousands of miles away, under a remote archaeological find in Pakistan, the Nine --- a team of superbeings placed on Earth a million years ago by intergalactic colonizers that seeded our planet to create human life --- are lifted from their long slumber. The kind of threat they’ve been waiting for has finally come.

The Nine find unexpected allies culled from the ancient history of their home world in the form of a teenage boy and godlike entity. This all leads to a confrontation on a volcanic island that will determine the fate of civilization, even as the Nine uncover the shattering truth behind their own tragic paths and learn of a much greater battle to come.

Will they be enough to stem the apocalyptic menace threatening all of mankind?

Audiobook available, read by Scott Aiello

Getting Away with Murder by Shari Lapena

August 2026

Ahhhh the pleasure of holding a Shari Lapena book in my hands and knowing I am headed for what I call “a one-sit read.” 

In GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER, we meet Jill and Ted, who are living in a stunning brownstone that they have meticulously finished. They are able to stay on top of the maintenance around the place as Ted earns a substantial salary working in finance. But then the day comes when he makes a big investment, and it does not deliver. It actually tanks --- and with it goes their security as they try to keep up with their day-to-day costs, as well as appearances. 

City of Widows by Nadia Hashimi

August 2026

When the United States left Afghanistan for the last time in August 2021, the photos of the Afghan people who were racing to leave with our soldiers were embedded in my memory. What was that moment like? What was going to happen to the women of that country as we departed after two decades? It's one of the images that continues to haunt me.

Women had flourished while the US military was there. They had gone to school, gotten jobs and contributed to their families outside of their homes. For nearly 20 years, they had tasted freedom. But then their worlds changed, seemingly overnight. Taliban rule was back as the order of the land, and once again pickup trucks with machine gun-toting soldiers on board were in the streets. 

This countdown to the departure of the Americans is the time period that Nadia Hashimi writes about in her latest novel, CITY OF WIDOWS. We see what is happening day by day in August 2021 and then are brought back in time to what transpired in the last two decades in dated chapters that are woven throughout the book.

Bookreporter.com's Summer Reading 2026 Wrap-up

THANK YOU to all who subscribed to this Summer Reading newsletter and entered our contests! We appreciate your enthusiasm and participation.

This Bookreporter.com SPECIAL Summer Reading Wrap-up newsletter brings you a look at ALL of the titles that were included in our Summer Reading feature. We shared 23 books with you this summer, and we thank our publisher sponsors who made this possible.

August 14, 2026

Last Sunday, my book club came to the house with their husbands and children for a pool party. It's one of those things that we tried to pull together the last two years, but either the date or the weather did not work for everyone. This time it was a perfect weather day, and we had 17 kids playing in the pool for five hours with a brief break to come out to eat. The moms and I hung out in the water, and the conversation continually turned to books --- what we are reading and what we are planning to read.

Fall Reading 2026

Fall is known as the biggest season of the year for books. The titles that release during this latter part of the year often become holiday gifts, and many are blockbusters. We spotlighted 12 of these books in our Fall Reading Contests and Feature. While our series of 24-hour giveaways have ended, we encourage you to take a look at our featured titles, which we know people will be talking about this fall and beyond.

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