Release Week: Nicola Griffith's Hild, Lewis Shiner's Collected Stories, and Simon Vance narrates John Harwood's The Ghost Writer and Clive Barker's collection of First Tales

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Release Week: Nicola Griffith's Hild, Lewis Shiner's Collected Stories, and Simon Vance narrates John Harwood's The Ghost Writer and Clive Barker's collection of First Tales

Posted on 2013-12-18 at 20:40 by Sam

DECEMBER 11-17, 2013: Finally! Amidst one of the quietest weeks yet on the year, Nicola Griffith’s Hild is in audio at last, along with a multi-voiced production of Lewis Shiner’s magnificent Collected Stories and enough chilling tales to send you even closer to the fire this winter, with Simon Vance reading both John Harwood’s The Ghost Writer and Clive Barker’s First Tales, and (in the also out listings) a pair of Spokenworld/Ladbroke productions have excellent narrators reading classic tales from Ambrose Bierce, Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens, Henry James, H.P. Lovecraft, Daniel Defoe, Mary Shelley, and W W Jacobs, AND! a new unabridged production of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. Meanwhile, if next week’s as quiet as it looks to be, I’ll have the time to finally start putting out some end-of-the-year articles and get ready to kick off the “Arrrrrrrdies”. (Note, again: there may be fewer Rs.) Enjoy!

PICKS OF THE WEEK:

Hild: A Novel by Nicola Griffith, narrated by Pearl Hewitt for Macmillan Audio is finally here, just over a month after the print/ebook release from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Originally slated to be read by Anne Flosnick, the audiobook had to be recast and it’s luckily landed on its feet with Hewitt, an experienced narrator (Jaleigh Johnson’s Spider and Stone, Catherine Gayle’s Lord Rotheby’s Influence, Sally MacKenzie’s The Naked King) though one whose narrations have tended — with the obvious exception of Johnson’s Forgotten Realms novel —  towards Regency and romance rather than to the Northumbrian seventh century. Curious, I stayed up past midnight Monday night to jump aboard, and am well, well pleased with Hewitt’s narration, though far from finished as the audiobook runs well into a 24th hour. It’s a book I’ve been eagerly waiting all year, and recently the (admittedly brief, in the scheme of things) extra anticipation has been a bit hard to bear as reviews and praise have continued to pour forth. 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 blog contains links to download a glossary, maps, and other reference material quite useful to those of us without the print edition on our laps to flip through.

Hild: A Novel | [Nicola Griffith] Collected Stories | [Lewis Shiner]

Collected Stories by Lewis Shiner is the “definitive collection” of Shiner’s short fiction in the form of 41 stories, published in an exquisite hardcover edition by Subterranean Press in 2009 and now produced by Skyboat Media for Blackstone Audio, read by Stefan Rudnicki, John Rubinstein, Janis Ian, Scott Brick, Kimberly Farr, Arthur Morey, Roxanne Hernandez Coyne, Rex Linn, David Birney, Kristoffer Tabori, Gabrielle de Cuir, and Karen Joy Fowler reading her own introduction. It’s another long audiobook at 20+ hours, but it’s one to sample in and out of and return to for your favorites over the coming years. Ah, “The Lizard Men of Los Angeles”. Ah, “Perfido”. Ah, “White City” and “Till Human Voices Wake Us”.

The Ghost Writer by John Harwood, read by Simon Vance for Blackstone Audio (Dec 15) — Winner of the 2004 International Horror Guild Award for Best First Novel, voiced by the superb Simon Vance. “In this tantalizing tale of Victorian ghost stories and family secrets, timid, solitary librarian Gerard Freeman lives for just two things: his elusive pen pal Alice and a story he found hidden in his mother’s drawer years ago. Written by his great-grandmother Viola, it hints at his mother’s role in a sinister crime. As he discovers more of Viola’s chilling tales, he realizes that they might hold the key to finding Alice and unveiling his family’s mystery—or will they bring about his untimely death, as they seem to foretell? Harwood’s astonishing, assured debut shows us just how dangerous family skeletons—and stories—can be.” PW’s review: “Sly nods to spooky literary spinsters—Henry James’s Miss Jessel and Dickens’s Miss Havisham—set the tone for this confident debut, a gothic suspense novel with a metatextual spin. … the novel links textual investigation and sublimated passion, building to a satisfying, unexpected ending.”

The Ghost Writer | [John Harwood] Clive Barker's First Tales | [Clive Barker]

And speaking of Vance, and chilling tales to curl up through the winter nights by: Clive Barker’s First Tales by Clive Barker, narrated by Vance for Crossroad Press; a 2-story, 3-hour audiobook collection. “The book begins with ‘The Wood on the Hill’, a short story about a bourgeois woman who is soon to learn a terrifying lesson concerning her complete disregard for anyone other than herself. The second tale, ‘The Candle in the Cloud’, is a novella of dark fantasy that follows three children who discover a magical candle that transports them to a world where a plague-cloud is destroying everything in its wake. These two tales, the first ever written by Clive, are offered here for the very first time. Their production has been lovingly supervised by Clive himself to ensure that these are not mere books, but works of art to be cherished. First Tales is sure to delight everyone from longtime fans to new listeners. In his own words: ‘These two stories represent the two essential structures of fantastique literature. “The Wood on the Hill” is about an incursion of unearthly elements into an approximation of our world. “The Candle in the Cloud” is about a journey taken by people from our world into another reality. Yin and Yang, if you like. Forces pulling in opposing directions but to achieve the same end: Revelation.‘”

 ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:

Metaphase | [Vonda McIntyre] Baba Yaga's Daughter and Other Stories of the Old Races | [C. E. Murphy] The Name of the Rose | [Umberto Eco]

SEEN BUT NOT HEARD:

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  • Winter (Hyddenworld Quartet 4) by William Horwood (Macmillan UK, 5 Dec 2013) -- "Fantasy novel, fourth and final book in the sequence following Spring (2010), Awakening (2011), and Harvest (2012), about the Hydden, little people living on the borders of the human world. In this book, storms presage the End of Days." (via Locus Online)
  • Clarkesworld: Year Five edited by Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace (Wyrm Publishing, December 2013) -- "Since 2006, Clarkesworld Magazine has been entertaining science fiction and fantasy fans with their brand of unique science fiction and fantasy stories. Collected here are all of the original stories this Hugo Award-winning magazine published during their fifth year. Included in this volume are twenty-four stories by visionary writers of short fiction, including Ken Liu, Nnedi Okorafor, Robert Reed, N.K. Jemisin, Yoon Ha Lee, E. Lily Yu, and more!" Includes Gwendolyn Clare and many more as well and, of course, most of (all?) of these stories are actually "hearable" via the fantastic Clarkesworld podcast.
COMING SOON:

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014:

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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)
  • One Hundred Years of Solitude By Gabriel García Márquez, Narrated By Jimmy Smits for Blackstone Audio — Scheduled Release Date: April 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)
  • Morningside Fall (Legends of the Duskwalker, Book 2) by Jay Posey (Angry Robot, Apr 29, 2014) -- Second after 2013 debut novel Three: "Stark and powerful, THREE is a stunning debut. Reinventing the post-apocalyptic western as a journey across interior badlands as dangerous as the cyborg-haunted terrain his hero must cross, Posey has crafted a story that is impossible to put down." -- Richard E. Dansky, author of Snowbird Gothic
  • 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)
  • How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky by Lydia Netzer, read by Joshilynn Jackson (St. Martin's Press / Macmillan Audio, July 1) -- Netzer's follow-on to her brilliant 2012 novel Shine Shine Shine, reunited with the same fine narrator
  • Skin Game (The Dresden Files #15) by Jim Butcher (Roc, July 3, 2014)
  • Resistance by Samit Basu (Titan, Jul 8, 2014) — follow-on to Turbulence
  • 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 Torgersen (Baen, 2014) -- debut novel
  • 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)
  • Kids: The Eighth Continent by Matt London (Razorbill, September 2014) -- via PW Book Deals: "Debut novelist Matt London sold his middle-grade series, the 8th Continent, to Gillian Levinson at Razorbill. Agent Sara Crowe at Harvey Klinger handled the three-book, world-rights deal for the author. Razorbill said the humorous series was pitched as “Despicable Me meets Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego?”; it follows a brother and sister trying to turn the Great Pacific Garbage Patch into “a utopic eighth continent.”"
  • 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: Shattered Shields edited by Jennifer Brozek and Bryan Thomas Schmidt (Baen, Nov 4) -- a military fantasy anthology with headliners Glen Cook (Black Company), Larry Correia, John Marco, Elizabeth Moon (new Paksenarrion), David Farland (new Runelords), Catherine Asaro, Sarah A. Hoyt, Robin Wayne Bailey.
  • 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
  • The Uninvited by Cat Winters (William Morrow) -- via PW Book Deals: "Lucia Macro at HarperCollins’s William Morrow imprint acquired world English rights to Cat Winters’s novel, The Uninvited. The book, which Morrow compares to The Night Circus and The Thirteenth Tale, is a paranormal work set during the influenza pandemic of 1918. Winters, who was represented by Barbara Poelle at the Irene Goodman Literary Agency, was a finalist for the YALSA’s 2014 Morris Award, for her novel In the Shadow of Blackbirds."
  • How to Invent a Language by David Peterson (Penguin) -- via PW Book Deals: "For Penguin Press, Elda Rotor took world rights to David Peterson’s How to Invent a Language. Peterson has created languages for shows like HBO’s Game of Thrones and Syfy’s Defiance, and the book will be a guide for anyone looking to craft a new tongue. Agent Joanna Volpe at New Leaf Literary & Media represented Peterson."
Posted in Release Week | Tagged clive barker, hild, janis ian, john harwood, lewis shiner, nicola griffith, simon vance, stefan rudnicki, the ghost writer