Release Week: Ellen Datlow's Tails of Wonder and Imagination, Scott Sigler's Nocturnal, Faith Hunter's Cat 'O Nine Tales, Dean Koontz's Innocence, How to Train Your Dragon, and more

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Release Week: Ellen Datlow's Tails of Wonder and Imagination, Scott Sigler's Nocturnal, Faith Hunter's Cat 'O Nine Tales, Dean Koontz's Innocence, How to Train Your Dragon, and more

Posted on 2013-12-11 at 21:56 by Sam

DECEMBER 4-10, 2013: We’re well into the quietest weeks of the year in terms of the publishing schedule, but still a few stellar audiobook picks for you this week from anthologies to collections to children’s books and a classic short novel as well as the latest from Dean Koontz and Scott Sigler. In ‘audiobook news’ my eyebrows went up to finally see Nicola Griffith’s Hild on pre-order listings, though under narrator Pearl Hewitt instead of the previously-announced Anne Flosnick. It appears I have been invoking the wrong narrator to “read like the wind” for weeks now! Hewitt will be new to me, but I’ll follow Griffith’s foray into literary historical fiction under whomever’s voice. Well, perhaps not Gilbert Gottfried’s. Anyway. Speaking of “read like the wind”, Pat Rothfuss’ Worldbuilders charity has catapulted past its $50,000 stretch goal, a Paul and Storm performance of “Write Like the (Name of the) Wind”, a re-casting of their George R.R. Martin song in honor of the wait for Mr. Rothfuss’ third Kingkillers novel. It’s fun. So enjoy that, and enjoy this week’s audio picks. And go check out Worldbuilders!

PICKS OF THE WEEK:

As I mentioned in the lead last week, this week would bring (and has brought) a huge, 25.5 hour anthology: Tails of Wonder and Imagination edited by Ellen Datlow, with stories by Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin, Joyce Carol Oates, Susanna Clarke, Lawrence Block, Tanith Lee, Lewis Carroll, Charles de Lint, Jeffrey Ford, Kelly Link, Michael Bishop, Lucius Shepard, Elizabeth Hand, John Kessel, Graham Joyce, John Crowley, Catherynne M. Valente, Carol Emshwiller, Susanna Clarke, Theodora Goss, and yet more, narrated by Teresa DeBerry, Jeremy Arthur, and Cynthia Barrett for Audible Frontiers, first published by Night Shade Books in 2010. “What is it about the cat that captivates the creative imagination? No other creature has inspired so many authors to take pen to page. Mystery, horror, science fiction, and fantasy stories have all been written about cats. From legendary editor Ellen Datlow comes Tails of Wonder and Imagination, showcasing 40 cat tales by some of today’s most popular authors. With uncollected stories by Stephen King, Carol Emshwiller, Tanith Lee, Peter S. Beagle, Elizabeth Hand, Dennis Danvers, and Theodora Goss and a previously unpublished story by Susanna Clarke, plus feline-centric fiction by Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link, George R. R. Martin, Lucius Shepard, Joyce Carol Oates, Graham Joyce, Catherynne M. Valente, Michael Marshall Smith, and many others. Tails of Wonder and Imagination features more than 200,000 words of stories in which cats are heroes and stories in which they’re villains; tales of domestic cats, tigers, lions, mythical part-cat beings, people transformed into cats, cats transformed into people. And yes, even a few cute cats.”

Tails of Wonder and Imagination | [Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin, Joyce Carol Oates, Susanna Clarke, Lawrence Block, Tanith Lee] Nocturnal: A Novel | [Scott Sigler]

Nocturnal: A Novel by Scott Sigler, narrated by Phil Gigante is one of the more ambitious self-published audiobooks yet. Sigler, no stranger whatsoever to self-publishing, has tapped one of the industry’s best — Gigante has read thrillers by Blake Crouch, Jack Kilborn, and Daniel Silva, and fantasies by Terry Brooks, Drew Karpyshyn, Kevin J. Anderson, and (a very enjoyable listen) Saladin Ahmed, and is the award-winning voice of Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat series — to narrate for his own Empty Set Entertainment. Sigler originally podcast the novel in 2007, and it was picked up by Crown (Random House) for a print edition last year. “Homicide detective Bryan Clauser is losing his mind. How else to explain the dreams he keeps having - dreams that mirror, with impossible accuracy, the gruesome serial murders taking place all over San Francisco? How else to explain the feelings these dreams provoke in him - not disgust, not horror, but excitement?As Bryan and his longtime partner, Lawrence ‘Pookie’ Chang, investigate the murders, they learn that things are even stranger than they at first seem.”

Cat o’ Nine Tales: The Jane Yellowrock Stories by Faith Hunter, Narrated by Khristine Hvam, collect Hunter’s short fiction in her Jane Yellowrock series. “For the first time – in one Audible-exclusive collection – it’s 13 stories of Jane Yellowrock, the shape-shifting skinwalker and vampire hunter for hire whose business card reads, “Have Stakes – Will Travel”. Jane carries inside her the soul of her Beast, the mountain lion’s soul which merged with hers when she accidently performed black magic as a child. Now, she and her Beast stalk the dark streets of New Orleans, bringing rogue vampires true death. In Cat o’ Nine Tales, you’ll discover how Jane turned into a big cat for the first time; how she and Molly became friends; how Rick LaFleur got his tattoos. You’ll go along on some of Jane’s early vamp hunts. You’ll even hear two short tales through Bruiser’s eyes.” The release is out the same day as a non-fiction guide, The Jane Yellowrock World Companion, and the individual short stories are available standalone as well.

Cat o' Nine Tales: The Jane Yellowrock Stories | [Faith Hunter] Innocence: A Novel | [Dean Koontz]

Innocence: A Novel by Dean Koontz, Narrated By MacLeod Andrews (Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim, Brandon Sanderson’s Steelheart, Steven Gould’s Jumper, John Green and David Levithan’s Will Grayson, Will Grayson, E.C. Myers’ Fair Coin) for Brilliance Audio is out concurrent with the print/ebook release from Bantam. The infinity-times bestselling Koontz is back with a new standalone novel, perched in between and around more than a few genres. “He lives in solitude beneath the city, an exile from society, which will destroy him if he is ever seen. She dwells in seclusion, a fugitive from enemies who will do her harm if she is ever found. But the bond between them runs deeper than the tragedies that have scarred their lives. Something more than chance—and nothing less than destiny—has brought them together in a world whose hour of reckoning is fast approaching.”

ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:

In the Suicide Mountains | [John Gardner] The Collector of Lost Things | [Jeremy Page] How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell

In the Suicide Mountains (1977) By John Gardner, Narrated By Gary Dikeos for Audible Inc. — “An intricately woven fable filled with magical creatures—and astonishing surprises. In this wonderful fantasy, John Gardner weaves tales within tales to bring a magical world to vivid life. When three travelers on their way to the Suicide Mountains meet an enigmatic man, the Abbot of the Ancient Monastery, they begin a series of wild adventures in which they must confront mystical creatures—and come to terms with the roles fate has determined for each of them. Superbly imagined and brimming with philosophical insight, In the Suicide Mountains is a tribute to Gardner’s passion for medieval storytelling, and an unforgettable novel in its own right.”

Fiction: The Collector of Lost Things by Jeremy Page, read by Michael Healy for Blackstone Audio (Dec 7) — “An arctic adventure story fueled by obsession, passion, and gothic influence, The Collector of Lost Things is a gripping literary suspense novel. The worlds of ocean and ice were meeting in a frontier of rage, as if the earth had torn in two along this line. This was a place, if there ever was a place, where you could disappear… The year is 1845, and young researcher Eliot Saxby is paid to go on an expedition to the Arctic in the hope of finding the remains of the by-now-extinct Great Auk, a large flightless bird of mythical status. Eliot joins a hunting ship, but the crew and the passengers are not what they seem. Caught in the web of relationships on board, Eliot struggles to understand the motivations of the sociopathic Captain Sykes; the silent first mate, French; the flamboyant, laudanum-addicted Bletchley; and most importantly of all, Bletchley’s beautiful but strange “cousin” Clara. As the ship moves further and further into the wilds of the Arctic Sea, Eliot clings to what he believes in, desperate to save Clara but irrevocably drawn back into a past that haunts him - and a present that confronts him with myriad dangers.”

Kids: HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON by Cressida Cowell, read by David Tennant (Dec 10) — the beloved children’s series comes to audio in 8 helpings from book one and on to How to Be a Pirate and all the way to How to Break a Dragon’s Heart; some of which were previously available in the UK but they’re all new to me as audiobooks; I look forward to convincing begging my local library to order a set for me my kids to listen to.

ALSO ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:

SEEN BUT NOT HEARD:

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  • Collection: Strange New Words: Tales of Heroism, Hi-jinks, and Horror by Ari Marmell (Dec 8) -- "Windows into the fantastic, from crypts to cobras, swords to submarines, rubies to railroads, heaven to hell and places stranger still. Heroes, horrors, and hijinks--both original to this collection and reprinted from a variety of sources--from the mind of Ari Marmell, author of The Conqueror’s Shadow, The Goblin Corps, Darksiders: the Abomination Vault, the Widdershins Adventures series, and more."
  • Wild Fell by Michael Rowe (ChiZine, Dec 10, 2013) — Rowe’s second novel after the well-received debut Enter, Night. Publishers Weekly reviews it positively: “For Jameson Browning, Wild Fell, a turn-of-the-century mansion on an island in Devil’s Lake, combines easy access to the institute where his father is dying from Alzheimer’s with glorious isolation from a world that has too often given him bullying, broken relationships and sudden loss. Only after taking possession of the property does Browning learn of Wild Fell’s dark reputation, a sinister history reaching back across a century to the days when a brutal, perverse millionaire preyed on his own daughter and dark magic that has tied Browning to a vengeful, possessive specter longer than he can suspect. Trapped alone, unable to trust the evidence of his senses or even his memory, Browning must somehow come to grips with his spectral host or become the latest victim. A modern take on Gothic ghost stories, Rowe’s (Enter, Night) second novel replaces the isolated heroines of such tales with an equally isolated, socially estranged man and adds such unsavory details as modern audiences might find diverting. From the young boy whose gender identity appears fluid to the adult who finds every secure foundation eroded away from under him, the novel is artfully constructed, a tale as deliberate and inexorable as a glacier.”
  • Collection: Things Withered by Susie Moloney (ChiZine, Dec 10, 2013) -- "The first story collection from this award-winning author. A middle-aged realtor tries to get ahead any way she can. A bad girl pays for cheating with a married man. A wife with a dark past lives in fear of being exposed. The bad acts of a little old lady come home to roost. A young man with no direction finds power behind the wheel of a haunted truck. From behind the pretty drapes of the average suburban home, madness peers out. Nine stories of suburban darkness prove that life can turn on you, or you can turn on it."
  • Year’s Best SF 18  edited by David G. Hartwell (December 10, 2013) -- "Once again, the finest SF short stories of the year have been collected in a single volume. With Year’s Best SF 18, acclaimed, award-winning editor and anthologist David G. Hartwell demonstrates the amazing depth and power of contemporary speculative fiction, showcasing astonishing stories from some of science fiction's most respected names as well as exciting new writers to watch. In this anthology, prepare to travel light years from the ordinary into a tomorrow at once breathtaking, frightening, and possible with some of the greatest tales of wonder published in 2012."
  • Spectrum: A Novel by Jason K. Melby (Boxfire Press, Dec 10, 2013) -- "Jason Randwulf comes to Towers City to find his future, but instead finds his life taking a few steps back. The only job he can get is at a local coffee shop which pays nothing and then he learns his former boyfriend is currently involved with someone new. Lovely. But when Jason answers an ad for a mysterious experiment, he s suddenly imbued with amazing and spectacular powers. So logically, he decides to become a superhero and tries to take on his arch nemesis: Sur Reel, the fallen God of Chaos with decidedly mixed results. Spectrum. A one-of-a-kind superhero story."
  • Seven Sorcerers (Books of the Shaper #3) by John R. Fultz (Orbit, Dec 10, 2013)
  • The fifth and latest Fiction River volume, Hex In The City (Fiction River, Dec 10) -- "Urban fantasy offers a diverse playground for some extremely powerful stories. Professional writer and editor Kerrie L. Hughes pulled some fantastic tales out of fourteen top writers for this fifth installment of Fiction River. Set in urban lands from modern Portland, to a future Detroit, to a wild Washington, D.C., and ending the tour in London, these top writers take the idea of “Hex” and stretch and twist it into stories with a magickal grip on the imagination." Per KKR, the volume "will be out in audio soon."
  • The Doctor and the Dinosaurs (A Weird West Tale) by Resnick, Mike (Pyr, Dec 10, 2013)
  • Non-Fiction: The Jane Yellowrock World Companion by Faith Hunter with Carol Malcolm (Dec 10)
COMING SOON:

Nicola Griffith Hild Collected Stories by Lewis Shiner

  • Hild: A Novel by Nicola Griffith, read by Pearl Hewitt for Macmillan Audio (December 17, 2013) — published in print/ebook Nov 12 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux — a discussion with the author at the LA Times; and LibraryJournal says: “Since Griffith has won the Tiptree, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards, the Premio Italia, and the Lambda Literary Award six times, you’re well advised to grab this fictionalized portrait of a girl name Hild who grew up in seventh-century Britain and became St. Hilda’s of Whitby. Griffith gives us a determined and uncannily perceptive Hild who seems capable of predicting the future (or at least of human behavior), a trait that puts her in the life-and-death position of being made the king’s seer. The writing itself is uncannily perceptive, with none of the flowery excess of some historical fiction writing, though the detailed narrative runs close to 600 pages. I thought of Hillary Mantel’s Wolf Hall even before I noted the comparison in the promotion.” The author’s site contains links to download a glossary, maps, and other reference material.
  • Collected Stories by Lewis Shiner, read by Stefan Rudnicki, John Rubinstein, Janis Ian, Scott Brick, Kimberly Farr, Arthur Morey, Roxanne Hernandez Coyne, Kristoffer Tabori, Gabrielle de Cuir, and Karen Joy Fowler (Blackstone Audio, December 15, 2013) — the “definitive collection” of Shiner’s short fiction in the form of 41 stories; already available on Audible for some reason but I'll be featuring it next week on its official release date
  • One Hundred Years of Solitude By Gabriel García Márquez, Narrated By Jimmy Smits for Blackstone Audio — Scheduled Release Date: 12-15-13
  • THE GODMAKERS by Frank Herbert, read by To Be Announced for Blackstone Audio (Dec 15)
  • Suspense: THE GHOST WRITER by John Harwood, read by Simon Vance for Blackstone Audio (Dec 15)
  • Guardian of the Trust, Guardian of the Promise, Guardian of the Freedom, Guardian of the Vision, and Guardian of the Balance By Irene Radford, Narrated By Rebecca Rogers (Dec 17)
  • The Suicide Exhibition: The Never War by Justin Richards (Del Rey, Dec 24, 2013) — “A groundbreaking alternate history World War 2 thriller. The threat is not new. The aliens have been here before — if indeed they are aliens. Obsessed with the Occult, Hitler and other senior Nazis believed they were destined to inherit the Earth. To this end, they are determined to recover ‘their’ ancient artifacts — the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, the Spear of Destiny. When Dunkirk veteran and Foreign Office trouble-shooter Major Guy Pentecross stumbles across a seemingly unbelievable conspiracy, he, together with pilot and American spy Sarah Diamond and SOE operative Leo Davenport, enter the shadow world of Section Z. All three have major roles to play as they uncover the Nazis’ insidious plot to use the alien Vril’s technology to win the war… at any cost.”
  • The Spider: Elemental Assassin, Book 10 By Jennifer Estep, Narrated By Lauren Fortgang — Scheduled Release Date: 12-24-13
  • The Cormorant by Chuck Wendig (Angry Robot, Dec 31, 2013)
  • The Grendel Affair: A SPI Files Novel by Lisa Shearin (Dec 31, 2013)
  • The Iron Wolves by Andy Remic (Angry Robot and Angry Robot on Brilliance Audio, Dec 31, 2013)
  • THE VASTALIMI GAMBIT by Steve Perry, read by To Be Announced for Blackstone Audio (Dec 31)
  • A Study in Ashes: Book Three in The Baskerville Affair by Holloway, Emma Jane (Dec 31, 2013)
  • Starter House: A Novel By Sonja Condit, Narrated By Cassandra Campbell for HarperAudio (William Morrow) — Scheduled Release Date: 12-31-13
  • Teen: Blood Oranges: A Siobhan Quinn Novel By Kathleen Tierney, Narrated By Amber Benson for Audible Inc. — Scheduled Release Date: 12-31-13 — Caitlin R. Kiernan’s pseudonym for her new YA series; the book was published in print/ebook earlier in 2013
  • Collection: Our Blood in Its Blind Circuit by J. David Osborne (Broken River, December 2013) — “Twelve weird crime tales, a couple of which you’ve never read before!”
JANUARY 2014:
  • SOUL CATCHER by Frank Herbert, read by To Be Announced for Blackstone Audio (Jan 1, 2014)
  • The Queen of Dreams by Peter Hamilton (Doubleday UK, 2 Jan 2014) — first children’s book by the epic sf author Peter F. Hamilton: “Taggie and Jemima are summer holidaying on their dad’s farm. They know just what to expect – a tumbledown cottage, sunshine and strawberry-picking. But then Jemima sees a white squirrel wearing glasses . . . And things become even more extraordinary when their dad is captured and whisked away to a faerie world. Magical adventures await, as the two sisters discover powers they never knew they had and a series of worlds to explore. But can Taggie and Jemima rescue their dad and defeat the evil King of Night?”
  • The Swords of Good Men by Snorri Kristjansson (Jo Fletcher Books, January 7, 2014) — a “Viking fantasy novel” by a new Icelandic author
  • The Girl with All the Gifts by M.J. Carey (Orbit, Jan 7, 2014) — “Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her ‘our little genius’. Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite, but they don’t laugh.” — link to cover
  • Rex Regis by L. E. Modesitt (Tor, Jan 7, 2014)
  • Fury of the Demon by Diana Rowland (Jan 7, 2014)
  • Dreams of the Golden Age by Vaughn, Carrie (Jan 7, 2014) — sequel to After the Golden Age
  • Work Done for Hire  by Joe Haldeman (Ace Hardcover, January 7, 2014) — novel about an ex-sniper turned sf screenwriter turned reluctant hitman; I’ve hear Haldeman read from this novel in draft and am very much looking forward to its release
  • Love in the Time of Metal and Flesh by Jay Lake (Prime Books, January 7, 2014) — “Markus Selvage has been bent by life, ground up and spit out again. In San Francisco’s darkest sexual underground, he is a perpetual innocent, looking within bodies – his own and others’ – for the lost secrets of satisfaction. But extreme body modification is only the beginning of where he will go before he’s finished…”
  • Rex Regis (Imager Portfolio)  by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. (Jan 7, 2014)
  • 1636: Seas of Fortune  by Iver Cooper (January 7, 2014)
  • Black Arts: A Jane Yellowrock Novel  by Faith Hunter (Jan 7, 2014)
  • Darkest Fear (Birthright) by Cate Tiernan (Jan 7, 2014)
  • Once In a Blue Moon by Green, Simon R. (Jan 7, 2014)
  • The Descent (The Taker #3) by Alma Katsu (Jan 7, 2014)
  • Graphic novel: Cemetery Girl, Book One: The Pretenders (The Cemetery Girl Trilogy) by Harris, Charlaine and Golden, Christopher (Jan 7, 2014)
  • Anthology: Dark Duets by Golden, Christopher (Jan 7, 2014)
  • The Emperor’s Blades (Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne) by Brian Staveley (Jan 14, 2014) — excerpts going up on Tor.com
  • Watchers in the Night (Guardians of the Night) by Jenna Black (Jan 14, 2014)
  • The Man Who Made Models: The Collected Short Fiction  by R.A. Lafferty (Centipede Press, January 14, 2014)
  • Dawn of Swords (The Breaking World)  by David Dalglish (Jan 14, 2014)
  • Hollow City (Miss Peregrine, #2)  by Ransom Riggs (Quirk Books, Jan 14, 2014)
  • He Drank, and Saw the Spider: An Eddie LaCrosse Novel by Bledsoe, Alex (Jan 14, 2014)
  • Dirty Magic (Prospero’s War) by Jaye Wells (Jan 21, 2014)
  • Pandemic by Scott Sigler (Crown, Jan 21, 2014)
  • The Secret of Magic by Johnson, Deborah (Putnam Adult, Jan 21, 2014) — “Regina Robichard works for Thurgood Marshall, who receives an unusual letter asking the NAACP to investigate the murder of a returning black war hero. It is signed by M. P. Calhoun, the most reclusive author in the country. As a child, Regina was captivated by Calhoun’s The Secret of Magic, a novel in which white and black children played together in a magical forest. Once down in Mississippi, Regina finds that nothing in the South is as it seems. She must navigate the muddy waters of racism, relationships, and her own tragic past. The Secret of Magic brilliantly explores the power of stories and those who tell them.”
  • The Vanishing by Wendy Webb (Hyperion, Jan 21, 2014) —”Recently widowed and rendered penniless by her Ponzi-scheming husband, Julia Bishop is eager to start anew. So when a stranger appears on her doorstep with a job offer, she finds herself accepting the mysterious yet unique position: caretaker to his mother, Amaris Sinclair, the famous and rather eccentric horror novelist whom Julia has always admired . . . and who the world believes is dead.”
  • Non-Fiction: What Makes This Book So Great by Walton, Jo (Jan 21, 2014)
  •  Red Rising by Brown, Pierce (Jan 28, 2014) — “Brown’s debut novel . . . is reminiscent of both Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games and William Goldman’s The Lord of the Flies but has a dark and twisted power of its own that will captivate readers and leave them wanting more.”— Library Journal
  • Hang Wire by Adam Christopher (Angry Robot, Jan 28) — “When Ted Hall’s birthday dinner in San Francisco’s famous Chinatown ends with an explosion, the fire department blames a gas leak, but when Ted finds strange, personalised messages from the restaurant’s fortune cookies scattered around his apartment, his suspicions are aroused, particularly as his somnambulant travels appear to coincide with murders by the notorious Hang Wire Killer.”
  • The Book of the Crowman by Joseph D’ Lacey (Jan 28, 2014)
  • A Darkling Sea by James Cambias (Tor, Jan 28, 2014)
  • Shadow Ops: Breach Zone by Myke Cole (Jan 28, 2014)
  • Arcanum by Simon Morden (Orbit, Jan 28) — “A historical fantasy novel of medieval Europe in which the magic that has run the world for centuries is disappearing– and now the gifts of the gods must be replaced with the ingenuity of humanity.”
  • The Echo by James Smythe (Jan 28, 2014) — sequel to The Explorer
  • The Unbound (The Archived, #2)  by Victoria Schwab (Jan 28, 2014)
  • Maze by J.M. McDermott (Apex, January 2014)
  • Leaving the Sea: Stories by Ben Marcus (Knopf, January 2014)
  • Into the Wilderness: Blood of the Lamb Book Two by Mandy Hager (Pyr Teen, January 2014)
  • The Emperor’s Blades (The Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, #1) by Brian Stavely (Tor, January 2014) — “follows siblings Valyn, Kaden, and Adare, who are in different parts of the world when they learn about the assassination of their father, the Emperor. All of them are in danger of being the next targets, and all of them are caught in the maelstrom of conspiracy, intrigue, treachery, and magic that sweeps through Staveley’s auspicious debut novel.”
  • The Kingmakers (Vampire Empire #3) by Clay and Susan Griffith, read by James Marsters for Buzzy Multimedia (January 2014) — published in print/ebook by Pyr in 2012
  • Black Gum Godless Heathen by J David Osborne (Broken River Books, January 2014) — sequel to Low Down Death Right Easy
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer Southern Reach trilogy APRIL/MAY/JUNE 2014:

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  • City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett (Crown/Broadway and Recorded Books, April 1, 2014) — “a second-world story of spies, subterfuge, and statesmanship set in a nation of dead gods.”
  • The Revolutions by Felix Gilman (Tor, Apr 1, 2014) — “Following his spectacularly reviewed The Half-Made World duology, Felix Gilman pens a sweeping stand-alone tale of Victorian science fiction, space exploration, and planetary romance in The Revolutions.”
  • Reign of Ash (Book Two in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga) by Gail Z. Martin (Orbit, April 1, 2014) — follow-on to Ice Forged
  • The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (April 1, 2014)
  • Cauldron of Ghosts (Crown of Slaves) by David Weber (April 1, 2014)
  • Baltic Gambit: A Novel of the Vampire Earth by E.E. Knight (April 1, 2014)
  • Covenant: The Books of Raziel by Benulis, Sabrina (Apr 1, 2014)
  • Peacemaker: Foreigner #15 by Cherryh, C. J. (Apr 1, 2014)
  • Poetry Collection: Reel to Reel (Phoenix Poets) by Alan Shapiro (University of Chicago Press, Apr 7, 2014) — “Reel to Reel, Alan Shapiro’s twelfth collection of poetry, moves outward from the intimate spaces of family and romantic life to embrace not only the human realm of politics and culture but also the natural world, and even the outer spaces of the cosmos itself. In language richly nuanced yet accessible, these poems inhabit and explore fundamental questions of existence, such as time, mortality, consciousness, and matter. How did we get here? Why is there something rather than nothing? How do we live fully and lovingly as conscious creatures in an unconscious universe with no ultimate purpose or destination beyond returning to the abyss that spawned us? Shapiro brings his humor, imaginative intensity, characteristic syntactical energy, and generous heart to bear on these ultimate mysteries. In ways few poets have done, he writes from a premodern, primal sense of wonder about our postmodern world.”
  • Steles of the Sky (The Eternal Sky) by Bear, Elizabeth (Apr 8, 2014)
  • Shipstar  by Larry Niven and Gregory Benford (Tor, April 8, 2014)
  • Dreams of Gods & Monsters (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #3)  by Laini Taylor (April 8, 2014)
  • The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by North, Claire (Redhook, Apr 8, 2014)
  • Transhuman  by Ben Bova (April 15, 2014)
  • Hollow World by Michael J. Sullivan (Tachyon and Recorded Books, April 15, 2014)
  • House of Ivy & Sorrow  by Natalie Whipple (Harper Teen, April 15, 2014)
  • Kids: The Forbidden Library by Django Wexler (Apr 15, 2014)
  • The Serpent of Venice: A Novel by Moore, Christopher (Apr 22, 2014)
  • The City Stained Red by Sam Sykes (Gollanz UK, 17 Apr 2014) — from the author of Tome of the Undergates
  • Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor (Hodder & Stoughton, April 2014) — “The Nigerian megacity of Lagos is invaded by aliens, and it nearly consumes itself because of it.”
  • The Moon King by Neil Williamson (Newcon, April 2014) — Debut novel: “The story of The Moon King grew out of its setting, the sea-locked city of Glassholm, which is a thinly veneered version of Glasgow, Scotland where I live. Glasgow is a city of mood swings, brilliant with sun and warm sandstone one minute and dour with overcast and rain soaked tarmac the next. Summer days are long and filled with light. The winter months pass mostly in darkness. Living here, your spirit is tied to the city’s mood. As soon as I hooked that almost bipolar sense to the idea of natural cycles, the story blossomed. In Glassholm, the moon never sets and everything, from entropy to the moods of the populace, is affected by its phasing from Full to Dark and back to Full again. I wanted to know what would life be like there, what quirks nature might throw into the mix. And what would happen if it was discovered that the cyclic euphorias and depressions were not natural after all.”
  • Black Cloud by Juliet Escoria (April 2014)
  • Immolation (Children, #1) by Ben Peek (Tor UK, Spring 2014) is “set fifteen thousand years after the War of the Gods. The bodies of the gods now lie across the world, slowly dying as men and women awake with strange powers that are derived from their bodies. Ayae, a young cartographer’s apprentice, is attacked and discovers she cannot be harmed by fire. Her new power makes her a target for an army that is marching on her home. With the help of the immortal Zaifyr, she is taught the awful history of ‘cursed’ men and women, coming to grips with her new powers and the enemies they make. The saboteur Bueralan infiltrates the army that is approaching her home to learn its terrible secret. Split between the three points of view, Immolation‘s narrative reaches its conclusion during an epic siege, where Ayae, Zaifyr and Bueralan are forced not just into conflict with those invading, but with those inside the city who wish to do them harm.”
  • Unwrapped Sky by Rjurik Davidson (Tor, April 15, 2014) — “Caeli-Amur: a city torn by contradiction. A city of languorous philosopher-assassins and magnificent creatures from ancient myth: minotaurs and sirens. Three Houses rule over an oppressed citizenry stirring into revolt. The ruins of Caeli-Amur’s sister city lie submerged beneath the sea nearby, while the remains of strange advanced technology lie hidden in the tunnels beneath the city itself.”
  • The Furies: A Thriller  by Mark Alpert (April 22, 2014)
  • Thornlost (Glass Thorns) by Rawn, Melanie (Apr 29, 2014)
  • A Certain Exposure by Jolene Tan (Epigram Books, April 2014)
  • Authority: A Novel (The Southern Reach Trilogy) by Jeff VanderMeer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, May 6, 2014) — “The bone-chilling, hair-raising second installment of the Southern Reach Trilogy. For thirty years, a secret agency called the Southern Reach has monitored expeditions into Area X—a remote and lush terrain mysteriously sequestered from civilization. After the twelfth expedition, the Southern Reach is in disarray, and John Rodriguez (aka “Control”) is the team’s newly appointed head. From a series of interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and more than two hundred hours of profoundly troubling video footage, the secrets of Area X begin to reveal themselves—and what they expose pushes Control to confront disturbing truths about both himself and the agency he’s promised to serve.”
  • The Sea Without a Shore by David Drake (May 6, 2014) — Lt. Leary series
  • The Falconer (The Falconer, #1)  by Elizabeth May (May 6, 2014) — US release for fantasy novel published in 2013 in the UK
  • The Silk Map: A Gaunt and Bone Novel by Willrich, Chris (Pyr, May 6, 2014)
  • Graphic novel: All You Need Is Kill: The Graphic Novel by Nick Mamatas, Lee Ferguson, Fajar Buana, and Zack Turner, based on the novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka (VIZ Media/Haikasoru, May 6, 2014)
  • After the End (After the End, #1)  by Amy Plum (May 6, 2014)
  • The Oversight by Fletcher, Charlie (Orbit, May 6, 2014)
  • Mirror Sight: Book Five of Green Rider by Britain, Kristen (May 6, 2014)
  • King of Ashes: Book One of The War of Five Crowns by Raymond E. Feist (May 6, 2014)
  • Queen of the Dark Things: A Novel by C. Robert Cargill (Harper Voyager, May 13, 2014) — follow-on to Dreams and Shadows
  • Dead but Not Forgotten By Charlaine Harris (editor), Toni L. P. Kelner (editor) with stories by MaryJanice Davidson, Seanan McGuire, and more (Audible Frontiers, May 13, 2014) — “Charlaine Harris’ smash-hit Sookie Stackhouse series may have reached its conclusion, but the world of Bon Temps, Louisiana, lives on in this all-new collection of 15 stories.”
  • Renegade (MILA 2.0, #2)  by Debra Drizza (May 13, 2014)
  • The Severed Streets by Cornell, Paul (May 20, 2014)
  • A Dance of Shadows (Shadowdance) by David Dalglish (May 20, 2014)
  • Cyador’s Heirs (Saga of Recluce) by L. E. Modesitt (May 20, 2014)
  • Defenders by McIntosh, Will (May 27, 2014)
  • Artemis Awakening by Jane Lindskold (Tor, May 27, 2014)
  • Thief’s Magic (Millennium’s Rule) by Trudi Canavan (May 27, 2014)
  • City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6)  by Cassandra Clare (May 27, 2014)
  • The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne (Random House/Crown, May 2014) — “traces the harrowing twin journeys of two women forced to flee their homes in different times in the near future. The first, Meena, is a Brahmin-caste student whose odyssey takes her from the coastal city of Mumbai toward Djibouti across a futuristic but treacherous bridge that spans the Arabian Sea. The second, Mariama, escapes from slavery as a small child in Mauritania, joining a caravan heading across Saharan Africa toward Ethiopia.” A big-name blurb is in from none less than Kim Stanley Robinson: “The Girl in the Road is a brilliant novel–vivid, intense, and fearless with a kind of savage joy. These journeys–Meena’s across the Arabian Sea and Mariama’s across Africa–are utterly unforgettable.”
  • My Real Children by Jo Walton (Tor, May 2014) — “story about one woman and the two lives that she might lead”
  • Veil of the Deserters (Bloodsounder’s Arc #2) by Jeff Salyards (Night Shade Books, June 3, 2014)
  • Ruin and Rising (The Grisha, #3)  by Leigh Bardugo (Jun 3, 2014)
  • Mr. Mercedes: A Novel by King, Stephen (Scribner, Jun 3, 2014)
  • The Merchant Emperor (The Symphony of Ages) by Elizabeth Haydon (Jun 3, 2014)
  • Cibola Burn (The Expanse) by Corey, James S. A. (Jun 5, 2014)
  • Shattered: The Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne (Jun 17, 2014)
  • The Long Childhood: A Novel (Long Earth) by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter (Jun 17, 2014)
  • Prince of Fools (The Red Queen’s War, #1)  by Mark Lawrence (Ace, June 2014)
  • Anthology: The End is Nigh: The Apocalypse Triptych #1 edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey (June 2014) — via io9, “Contributors include Nancy Kress, Paolo Bacigalupi, Daniel Wilson, Elizabeth Bear, and many other incredible authors (full disclosure: io9 editor Charlie Jane Anders and myself (Annalee Newitz) are also contributing stories).”
JULY 2014 and LATER:
  • All Those Vanished Engines by Paul Park (Tor, Jul 1, 2014)
  • The Rhesus Chart (A Laundry Files Novel) by Charles Stross (Jul 1, 2014)
  • Tower Lord (A Raven’s Shadow Novel) by Anthony Ryan (Jul 1, 2014)
  • The Shadow Throne: Book Two of the Shadow Campaigns by Django Wexler (Jul 1, 2014)
  • Shattering the Ley by Palmatier, Joshua (DAW Hardcover, Jul 1, 2014)
  • Unwept: Book One of The Nightbirds by Tracy Hickman and Laura Hickman (Jul 1, 2014)
  • Skin Game (The Dresden Files #15) by Jim Butcher (Roc, July 3, 2014)
  • Resistance by Samit Basu (Titan, Jul 8, 2014) — follow-on to Turbulance
  • A Plunder of Souls (The Thieftaker Chronicles) by D. B. Jackson (Jul 8, 2014)
  • The Return of the Discontinued Man (A Burton & Swinburne Adventure) by Mark Hodder (Jul 8, 2014)
  • The Path to Power (The Tarnished Crown Series) by Miller, Karen (Jul 8, 2014)
  • Collection: Her Husband’s Hands and Other Stories by Adam-Troy Castro (Prime Books, July 8, 2014)
  • Full Fathom Five by Max Gladstone (Tor, Jul 15, 2014)
  • The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy, #3)  by Deborah Harkness (July 15, 2014)
  • Magic Breaks (Kate Daniels) by Ilona Andrews (Jul 29, 2014)
  • Half a King  by Joe Abercrombie (Harper Voyager, July 2014) — “A classic coming-of-age tale, set in a brilliantly imagined alternative historical world reminiscent of the Dark Ages with Viking overtones, the book tells the story of Yarvi, youngest son of a warlike king. Born with a crippled hand, he can never live up to his father’s expectations of what a real man should be and his destiny is not the throne but the Ministry, not the sword and shield but the book and the soft word spoken.”
  • The Islands of Chaldea by Diana Wynne Jones and Ursula Jones (Greenwillow, Summer 2014) — “Fans of the late writer Diana Wynne Jones – who died in March 2011 – are in for an unexpected treat. In the summer of 2014, Greenwillow will publish a new title from the acclaimed science fiction and fantasy author. Titled The Islands of Chaldea, the book is a standalone novel unconnected to any of the author’s earlier works. It is also the result of an unusual, asynchronous collaboration between the writer and her younger sister, Ursula Jones.”
  • The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman (Viking Adult, August 5, 2014) — book three after The Magicians and The Magician King – “The stunning conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Magicians trilogy. Quentin Coldwater has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical land of his childhood dreams. With nothing left to lose he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic. But he can’t hide from his past, and it’s not long before it comes looking for him. Along with Plum, a brilliant young undergraduate with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demimonde of gray magic and desperate characters. But all roads lead back to Fillory, and his new life takes him to old haunts, like Antarctica, and to buried secrets and old friends he thought were lost forever. He uncovers the key to a sorcery masterwork, a spell that could create magical utopia, a new Fillory—but casting it will set in motion a chain of events that will bring Earth and Fillory crashing together. To save them he will have to risk sacrificing everything. The Magician’s Land is an intricate thriller, a fantastical epic, and an epic of love and redemption that brings the Magicians trilogy to a magnificent conclusion, confirming it as one of the great achievements in modern fantasy. It’s the story of a boy becoming a man, an apprentice becoming a master, and a broken land finally becoming whole.”
  • The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord (Del Rey, Aug 5, 2014)
  • The House of the Four Winds (Dragon Prophecy) by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory (Aug 5, 2014)
  • The Chaplain’s War by Brad Torgerson (Baen, 2014)
  • Colossus by Stephen Messer (Random House Children’s Books, 2014)
  • The Broken Eye (Lightbringer #3) by Brent Weeks (Orbit, 2014)
  • The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, translated by Ken Liu (Tor Books, 2014) — the first of an announced trilogy of translated editions of this 400,000-copy-selling Chinese sf series
  • Lock In by John Scalzi (Tor, Aug 26, 2014)
  • Frostborn (Thrones & Bones #1) by Lou Anders (Random House Children’s Books, August 2014) — longtime Pyr editor Anders’ debut novel, a young reader book which “introduces Karn, who would rather be playing the board game Thrones and Bones, and Thianna, half-frost giant, half-human, who team up when they are chased by wyverns, a dead Viking sea captain, and a 1200-year-old dragon.”
  • Acceptance: A Novel (The Southern Reach Trilogy) by Jeff VanderMeer (Sep 1, 2014)
  • Anthology: Phantasm Japan: Fantasies Light and Dark, From and About Japan edited by Nick Mamatas (Haikasoru, Sep 16, 2014) — another original trade paperback anthology edited by Mamatas for VIZ Media’s Haikasoru sf/f prose imprint after 2012′s well-received The Future is Japanese
  • Clash of Eagles by Alan Smale (Del Rey, 2014) — “His novella of a Roman invasion of ancient America, “A Clash of Eagles” in the Panverse Two anthology (edited by Dario Ciriello), won the 2010 Sidewise Award for Alternate History, and he has recently sold a trilogy of novels set in the same universe. The first book, CLASH OF EAGLES, will appear from Del Rey in 2014.”
  • Deadly Curiosities by Gail Z. Martin (Solaris, Summer 2014) — “It’s official! I’ll be writing a new urban fantasy novel for Solaris Books called “Deadly Curiosities” (from my short story universe of the same name) that will come out in summer, 2014!”
  • The Scorched Earth by Drew Karpyshyn (Summer 2014) — sequel to 2013 novel Children of Fire
  • Echopraxia by Peter Watts (August 16, 2014) — “We are going to the Sun, rs and Ks.  Whereas the last time out we froze in the infinite Lovecraftian darkness of the Oort, now we are diving into the very heart of the solar system— and man, there’s gonna be a hot time in the ol’ town tonight.”
  • The Winter Long (October Daye, #8) by Seanan McGuire (September 2014)
  • Mortal Beauty (Immortal Game, #1)  by Ann Aguirre (September 2014)
  • Chimpanzee by Darin Bradley (Resurrection House, Fall 2014) — “a delightfully weird existential near-fi conspiracy theory romance”
  • Heraclix and Pomp by Forrest Aguirre (Resurrection House, Fall 2014) — “an alternative history fantasy set in the Eastern Europe. It features a golem, a faery, and a mad scientist (well, more of 17th century alchemist/demonologist, but it’s the same trope)”
  • Rooms by Lauren Oliver (Fall 2014)
  • Collection: The Nickronomicon by Nick Mamatas (Inssmouth Free Press, Fall/Winter 2014) — collects all of Mamatas’ Lovecraft-inspired fiction into a single volume, including a new, never-before-published novella, titled “On the Occasion of My Retirement.”
  • Anthology: The End is Now: The Apocalypse Triptych #2 edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey (December 2014) — via io9
UNDATED or 2015:
  • When Women Were Warriors by Catherine M. Wilson, read by Janis Ian for Dog Ear Audio — in late October, Dog Ear Audio posted a Kickstarter update with a sample of Janis Ian’s narration of When Women Were Warriors and it sounds so very, very good
  • Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh, read by the author for Simon & Schuster Audio — out in print/ebook in late October
  • All the Worlds Against Us (Jon and Lobo) by Mark L. Van Name (Baen) — Audible Frontiers has produced the previous books in the series, under fantastic narrations by Tom Stechschulte
  • Tsarina  by J. Nelle Patrick (2014)
  • The Thousand and One: Book II of The Crescent Moon Kingdoms by Saladin Ahmed (2014?)
  • Sleeping Late on Judgement Day (Bobby Dollar #3) by Tad Williams (DAW, 2014)
  • Ebon (Pegasus, #2)  by Robin McKinley (2014?)
  • The Doors of Stone (Kingkiller Chronicle #3) by Patrick Rothfuss (DAW, 2014?)
  • Shadows of Self (Mistborn, #5)  by Brandon Sanderson (Tor, 2014?)
  • Edge of Eternity (The Century Trilogy #3)  by Ken Follett (2014?)
  • The Winds of Winter (A Song of Ice and Fire, #6) by George R.R. Martin (2015?)
  • The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi (Knopf, 2015) — “Knopf has acquired a new novel by Paolo Bacigalupi, the science fiction writer whose 2009 book “The Windup Girl” sold 200,000 copies and was considered one of the top novels of the year. The new book, “The Water Knife,” is set in a lawless, water-starved American Southwest in the not-too-distant future.”
  • Because You’ll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas (Bloomsbury USA, 2015) — first novel from 2010 Clarion Workshop graduate
  • The Philosopher’s Zombie by Robert J. Sawyer (April 2015)
  • Anthology: The End has Come: The Apocalypse Triptych #3 edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey (June 2015) — via io9
  • John Claude Bemis is set to launch a new Steampunk/alchemist series for young readers, to be published by Disney/Hyperion starting in 2015
  • The Skull Throne (Demon Cycle, #4)  by Peter V. Brett (2015?)
  • The Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker (St. Martin’s Press, 2015) — “Originally planned as a collection of short stories, the project changed to focus on Harry D’Amour going up against Pinhead. The novel has been in works for more than a decade and we’ll be able to read it in 2015, courtesy of St. Martin’s Press: ‘Clive is delighted to announce that St Martin’s Press has acquired world English rights to publish The Scarlet Gospels, his upcoming novel featuring Pinhead and Harry D’Amour.  St Martin’s anticipates a winter 2015 publication date.’”
  • The City of Mirrors (The Passage, #3)  by Justin Cronin
Posted in Release Week | Tagged dean koontz, ellen datlow, faith hunter, phil gigante, scott sigler