Release Week: Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation, James Marsters reads The Kingmakers, Allen Steele's V-S Day, Christopher Golden's Dark Duets, METAtropolis stories, Scott Sigler's Pandemic, J.C. Hutchins' "The 33", and Natania Barron's Pilgrims of the Sky

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Release Week: Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation, James Marsters reads The Kingmakers, Allen Steele's V-S Day, Christopher Golden's Dark Duets, METAtropolis stories, Scott Sigler's Pandemic, J.C. Hutchins' "The 33", and Natania Barron's Pilgrims of the Sky

Posted on 2014-02-07 at 19:6 by Sam

JANUARY 29-FEBRUARY 4, 2014: You are in for quite a treat this week, audiobook listeners. From the surreal and claustrophobic Annihilation to the rapiers-afly adventure of The Kingmakers, to alternate history and on to an intriguing anthology of horror and dark fantasy. Meanwhile, the entire roster of METAtropolis stories have been released individually, and podcasting pioneer J.C. Hutchins released the first installment of a new serial project, "The 33". Speaking of podcasting pioneers, Scott Sigler's latest novel, Pandemic, gets a pro narrator treatment in the form of Phil Gigante, and Natania Barron is live reading and discussing her novel Pilgrim of the Sky a chapter at a time via Google Hangouts. There's a long list of "also out" titles of interest as well, including B.J. Novak's fiction collection One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories narrated by several of Novak's The Office co-stars, C.S. Friedman's Dreamwalkers, Julianna Baggott's Burn, Clive Barker read by Simon Vance, Steven Erikson read by Michael Page, Frank Herbert read by Scott Brick, Daniel Price's Flight of the Silvers, Greg Egan's Incandescence, Marissa Meyer's Cress, Colin Meloy's Wildwood Imperium, Megan Miranda's Vengeance, Bridgett Ladd's The Lotus Effect, Sheila Turnage's The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing, and the latest in Audible's very welcome productions of the works of Octavia Butler, Adulthood Rites. Still, it's Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation which has been my most-anticipated audiobook of 2014 since, oh, early 2012, and which is finally here, so let's jump right in:

PICKS OF THE WEEK:

I was (and absolutely remain) a huge fan of Jeff VanderMeer's 2009 novel Finch, a "fungal noir" set in his rich secondary world fantasy, Ambergris, which had served as a setting for his previous books. For his new series, The Southern Reach, VanderMeer sets his sights into the simultaneously more familiar -- for all intents and purposes, our contemporary world -- and yet even more strange for its twisted reflections of that familiarity, and delivers an intense and transformative journey into a surreal landscape. Though not explicitly set in the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge from which so much of the setting of the novel is drawn, the rich, varied ecosystems of the Florida Panhandle's Gulf Coast come to eerie life in the "Area X" wilderness of VanderMeer's Annihilation, out this week from Blackstone Audio concurrent with the print/ebook release from FSG Originals. It is the author's first novel since 2009, marking also the return of narrator Carolyn McCormick after concluding Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games series with Mockingjay in 2010 and narrating James Patterson's latest Women's Murder Club novel in 2011.

When I started reading about this book, I spent far too many hours trying to come up with my dream narrator for it. (Far, far too many.) Somehow I never considered McCormick, but from the first line she is fantastic. Her laconic, detached mainline narration perfectly suited to the biologist's clinical, scientific mind, and it is the biologist's narrative voice, through the structure of the novel as her definitive account left in a journal, which, detail by detail, flashback by flashback, brings depth both to the mysteries of "Area X" and to her character. McCormick does not employ too much in the way of vocal gymnastics to differentiate the  few characters; just enough to characterize them effectively and succinctly as, one presumes, the biologist herself might do. The principal exception to this is her work on the voice of the psychologist, the designated leader of the expedition, which is given a decidedly (almost British-schooled?) formal turn, a flavor which makes McCormick's outstandingly dynamic work with her later in the novel stand out all the more strikingly. On the story: from the first pages, the narrative -- of an all-female 12th expedition to a mysterious "Area X" after 11 previous and mostly catastrophic expeditions -- is driven by a compulsion, a both scientific and inescapably personal curiosity to answer the question of: what lies at the tower's base? This tower, which is not even supposed to be here, which does not appear on any map or in any record of "Area X"? This curiosity grows further into fear-yet-we-must-see territory as the first foray into the tower reveals strange words written, glowing, breathing, alive? on the walls of the tower, heading down. We find the mysteries of Area X and "The Southern Reach" growing deeper and broader both down into and in the surrounding, increasingly surreal landscape beyond the tower, setting up and leading naturally into further explorations in the successive books, but the biologist's journal stands alone as a completed arc, a completed story of inquiry, discovery, and transformation. It is a fantastic book and audiobook, highly recommended. But don't just take it from me. Dave's already reviewed the audiobook as well, saying: "It’s as if The Company from Alien sent The Dharma Initiative into the Mountains of Madness." Next, take a peek at some of the international covers:

Agave (Hungary) cover for Annihilation. Annihilation-Fourth-Estate-UK aniquilacion-ok-1

And now get a load of what some pretty amazing people are saying about the book: “Original and beautiful, maddening and magnificent.” —Warren Ellis. "This swift surreal suspense novel reads as if Verne or Wellsian adventurers exploring a mysterious island had warped through into a Kafkaesque nightmare world. 　The reader will want to stay trapped with the Biologist to find the answers to Area X’s mysteries." —Kim Stanley Robinson. "The great thing about Annihilation is the strange, elusive, and paranoid world that it creates. . .  I can’t wait for the next one." —Brian Evenson. "A tense and chilling psychological thriller about an unraveling expedition and the strangeness within us. A little Kubrick, a lot Lovecraft, the novel builds with an unbearable tension and a claustrophobic dread that linger long afterward. I loved it."—Lauren Beukes. "In much of Jeff VanderMeer’s work, a kind of radiance lies beating beneath the surface of the words. Here in Annihilation, it shines through with warm blazing incandescence. This is one of a grand writer’s finest and most dazzling books." —Peter Straub. More? How about some reviews from Angela Slatter, My Bookish Ways, Pornokitsch, Jason Sheehan for NPR, Robin Sloan ("a foil-wrapped booster pack for weird fiction"), and a 5-star review from SFX which calls the novel "Franz Kafka's Roadside Picnic". The trilogy is set for an aggressive release cycle, with book two, Authority, coming in May, and Acceptance concluding the series in September. It's been optioned by Scott Rudin for Paramount Pictures. And it's even available on the cheap, whether in print (you stone-age heathens! for $13 in bookstores and $8.50 at Amazon, though I do have to admit the physical edition is really quite well done...) or ebook. On that last, there's even a $3.99 Whispersync for Voice upgrade from the $8.15 Kindle edition to the Audible edition. So, yeah. I think you can see where I stand on this one. Six hours very well spent.

Another audiobook I've been awaiting almost as long also arrived this week, The Kingmakers, concluding Clay and Susan Griffith's Vampire Empire trilogy. The series is a fantastically and unabashedly fun mix of swashbuckling Steampunk airship adventure, alternate history worldbuilding, deadly, deadly, decidedly non-sparkly vampires, and "geomancy", a mystical art which may be humanity's best weapon in the ongoing war to reclaim Europe, with a diverse, memorable cast of well-rendered characters. Originally published between November 2010 and September 2012 by Pyr, the Buzzy Multimedia audiobooks have been coming out a couple years behind and each has been worth the wait.

The Greyfriar (Vampire Empire, #1) The Rift Walker (Vampire Empire, #2) The Kingmakers (Vampire Empire, #3)

James Marsters ("Spike" on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the voice of Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files) was a perfect casting to narrate the series, performing wide-ranging accents with aplomb, and shining on multiple performances from the Japanese samurai-priest Mamaru to British and French vampires to young "Equatorian" boys and girls to the cowboy-esque officers of the United States, to, of course, our heroes The Greyfriar and Princess (now Empress) Adele. I was very happy to have a release-day review of Book 2 (The Rift Walker) last year and to review book one the year before. In particular, I applauded some character decisions in book 2, as the authors demonstrated a light hand in dealing with well-developed characters -- given a choice where on the one hand it is obvious what would be more convenient for the plot and on the other hand what would be more true to the character, the Griffiths choose character every time. Here, that continues, as does the nearly geometric expansion of Adele's geomantic powers. We enter the story at the front of a grueling trench war, vampires attacking amidst new explosive "flak", human technology ever attempting to compensate for the sheer strength and speed of the enemy. Here, Marster's narration is more percussive, emphasizing the cadence of war. Later, he brings such emotion in an anguished cry that you feel it. He shouts, he barks, he pleads, he hurts, he groans. It's one of the more emotive performances I can recall. Meanwhile, the book brings the promised climax of the series, a Zulu assassin, the Mamaru backstory I'd been longing for, confrontations, dangerous gambles and gambits, betrayals, double-betrayals, triple-betrayals, airships, fencing, fighting, chases, escapes, true love, miracles... Still, a few points left me wanting a bit more. A villain had been built up to be so dangerous, so deadly, and yet is dispatched all too easily by a weakened Greyfriar. Senator Clark's character turns even more unredeemable and then turns a bit against character in a puzzling (to me) fashion. But what else can you expect after three books with characters you've grown to love or hate or grudgingly only half-despise? You form your own ideas of a character, but you haven't seen everything. Sometimes your Qui-Gon Jinn is killed almost pointlessly and all-too-easily by Darth Maul, only to see Darth Maul cut in half, mouth agape, after scene after scene of badass displays of ruthlessness and action. Part Zorro, part Underworld, it's been a fantastically series and I'm glad to see it completed and produced so well.

V-S Day: A Novel of Alternate History by Allen Steele sees the author of the Coyote science fiction novels turn to alternate history, but not at all away from space. Narrated by Ray Chase for Audible, the premise starts in familiar territory, a slight tweak to the timeline in WW2 Germany. But then the action shifts spaceward. "Three-time Hugo Award-winning author Allen Steele now imagines an alternate history rooted in an actual historical possibility: what if the race to space had occurred in the early days of WWII? It's 1941, and Wernher von Braun is ordered by his Fuehrer to abandon the V2 rocket and turn German resources in a daring new direction: construction of a manned orbital spacecraft capable of attacking the U.S. Work on the rocket - called Silbervogel - begins at Peenemunde. Though it is top secret, British intelligence discovers the plan, and brings word to Franklin Roosevelt."

V-S Day: A Novel of Alternate History | [Allen Steele] Dark Duets: All-New Tales of Horror and Dark Fantasy | [Christopher Golden]

I have to admit, I remain a sucker for high-production value anthologies. It gives me a chance to taste not only the fiction of a wide pool of authors, but sample the narrations of new narrators along with my favorites. This week brings an intriguing one first published in print just last month, Dark Duets: All-New Tales of Horror and Dark Fantasy edited by Christopher Golden, read by John Lee, Anne Flosnick, Hillary Huber, and Robertson Dean for Tantor Audio. Not only are most of those narrators among my favorites (Lee, Flosnick, and Dean) but Golden has put his authors into co-writing pairs, creating unique blends of authorial voices: "A captivating anthology of horror, thriller, and dark fantasy tales by seventeen pairs of celebrated writers, including New York Times bestselling authors." The pairings? Charlaine Harris with Rachel Caine, Holly Black with Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan, Carrie Ryan with Sarah MacLean, David Liss with Robert Jackson Bennett (OH DAVE! DAVE?! NEW FICTION FROM ROBERT JACKSON BENNETT, DAVE!), Kevin J. Anderson with Sherrilyn Kenyon, Joe Lansdale with Kasey Lansdale, Tom Piccirilli with T. M. Wright, Jonathan Maberry with Gregory Frost, and more, including Stuart MacBride and David Liss. We've had quite a few "event" anthologies in the past several months -- George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois' Dangerous Women, Shawn Speakman's Unfettered, and Janis Ian's Stars -- and here's one more.

Speaking of event anthologies, the METAtropolis anthologies have all been absolutely fantastic -- if anything, the most recent Green Space is the most cohesive yet. This week, every story from each of the three anthologies is released stand-alone. So you can follow Tobias S. Buckell's storyline, or Jay Lake's, or pick and choose. I don't quite understand why you would -- it's far more convenient to just pick up the three anthologies than to get a pile of handfuls a-la-carte this way -- but hey, you can. So if all you want is Wil Wheaton or Jonathan Frakes, or Michael Hogan or Kate Mulgrew, you can get just what you want. But don't blame me if you find yourself with a more cluttered Audible library after coming back again and again for more of these fantastic, near-future shared world stories. (Just be careful and don't accidentally use a credit on a $2 title, OK? OK.)

The Bull Dancers: A METAtropolis Story | [Jay Lake] Pandemic: A Novel | [Scott Sigler]

After narrating the first two books in the series, author Scott Sigler turned to the fantastic Phil Gigante for the trilogy's conclusion, Pandemic: A Novel. "Scott Sigler's Infected shocked listeners with a visceral, up-close account of physical metamorphosis and one man's desperate fight for sanity and survival, as "Scary" Perry Dawsey suffered the impact of an alien pathogen's early attempts at mass extinction. In the sequel Contagious, Sigler pulled back the camera and let the listener experience the frantic national response to this growing cataclysm. And now in Pandemic, the entire human race balances on the razor's edge of annihilation, beset by an enemy that turns our own bodies against us, that changes normal people into psychopaths or transforms them into nightmares."

Calling it "TV for your e-reader", podcasting pioneer J.C. Hutchins is at it again with a new multiformat digital serial project, The 33, which launched with its first episode on January 31. "The 33 is J.C. Hutchins' latest fiction project, released exclusively as monthly ebooks and digital audiobooks. The 33's adventures are told in multi-part and one-shot short stories." In the case of the audio edition, the "TV for your X" phrasing certainly comes to mind as we are dropped directly into the first scene, of 3 couples at a party, getting tipsy and ready to play an "adult" game. A box is retrieved. Then things turn as explosive as Scalzi's initial hook for his serial project, The Human Division, before *blam* we get the music and intro credits and are pulled into a new POV. And here, the effects are turned up as Hutchins brings a series of "tumult of voices in my head" lines to audio life with a digital chorus effect. There's a portal, there's a compulsion. There's "The 33". I'll definitely be interested in following this 12-issue first season, at the very least the 4-part opening arc "Pramantha" (the titles within titles echoe the subtitling of comic book storylines such as The Massive, which started with a 3-part "Landfall" and "Black Pacific" arcs, or Caitlin R. Kiernan's Alabaster arcs, like "Wolves", etc.) but I do have some production nits -- but keep in mind that Hutchins is a pro here, this is a rich, polished recording with plenty of headroom. But something slightly amiss is going on with the recording, as either Hutchins turns his mouth slightly away from the microphone for a phrase or word here or there, or something quirky happened in post-processing as the volume has a fade bump into a slight muffle here and there. But overall very, very well done. With a runtime of 70 minutes, it's a meaty first bite for a near-future, "reluctant heroes save the world" storyline.

TheWorldNeeds.png photo-full

And, speaking of podcasters and new projects, Natania Barron is live reading and discussing her novel Pilgrim of the Sky a chapter at a time via Google Hangouts. "I'm broadcasting my novel, Pilgrim of the Sky, throughout the month of February -- Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9pm. Come on and listen if you love fantasy, steampunk, and or cross-dimensional travel and Romantic poetry." If you missed the first three chapters, don't fret. You can watch them starting here: Pilgrim of the Sky by Natania Barron - Chapter One: The Last Box. So what is Pilgrim of the Sky about? "... a lush, dreamy fable - both vintage gothic, and modern mystery ... lovingly laced with magic and darkness from start to finish." -- Cherie Priest, author of Boneshaker. "Barron's book is a sexy trek through alternate worlds, with a fascinating and detailed mythology. This one is a steampunk tale that doesn't play by the rules." -- Mur Lafferty, award-winning author and podcaster of Heaven and Hell. "A brilliant, eloquent adventure through time, space, and the human heart." -- Jonathan Wood, author of No Hero.

ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:

Dreamwalker: Book One of The Dreamwalker Chronicles | [C.S. Friedman] The Flight of the Silvers The Lotus Effect (Rise of the Ardent #1)

SEEN BUT NOT HEARD:

‘By Blood We Live’ Author Glen Duncan on Blood, Sex and Death Three Princes Ramona Wheeler Strange Bodies Marcel Theroux

  • The Stars Came Back by Rolf Nelson (January 2014) -- "part space-western, the story of folks just trying stay alive, seeking work to earn money for repairs to get to the next job, with no shortage of action and adventure along the way. It is part military sci-fi, with a company of mercenaries, spaceship combat, mortar and rifle combat, spear-and-shield battle, and PTSD. And it is part philosophical investigation, pondering the lessons of Achilles, if a computer can have a soul, what freedom means, and how one stops a bar fight with earplugs. Written in a format similar to a screenplay, the book includes various graphics, including the blueprints of the ship."
  • By Blood We Live (The Last Werewolf, #3) by Glen Duncan (Feb 4, 2014) -- Duncan's conclusion to The Last Werewolf, a series I'm very intrigued by after reading the author's interview with Matt Staggs for Suvudu
  • Red Delicious: A Siobhan Quinn Novel by Caitlin R. Kiernan (Feb 4, 2014) -- "Siobhan Quinn is back and working a new case in the dark and satirical sequel to Blood Oranges."
  • Three Princes by Wheeler, Ramona (Tor, Feb 4, 2014) -- I'm drawn in by the premise, the fantastic cover art, and the excerpt at Tor.com. "Lord Scott Oken, a prince of Albion, and Professor-Prince Mikel Mabruke live in a world where the sun never set on the Egyptian Empire. In the year 1877 of Our Lord Julius Caesar, Pharaoh Djoser-George governs a sprawling realm that spans Europe, Africa, and much of Asia. When the European terrorist Otto von Bismarck touches off an international conspiracy, Scott and Mik are charged with exposing the plot against the Empire."
  • Broken Homes (A Rivers of London Novel) by Ben Aaronovitch (DAW, Feb 4) -- US publication of the latest novel in Aaronovitch's fantastic Peter Grant urban fantasy series set in London, first published last year in the UK
  • Strange Bodies: A Novel by Marcel Theroux (FSG, Feb 4, 2014) — US release for a book examining identity published last year in the UK, the excerpt at Tor.com is quite intriguing as well
  • Definitely Maybe (Neversink) by Arkady Strugatsky, Strugatsky Boris and Antonina W. Bouis (Melville House, Feb 4, 2014) — a new “unexpurgated” edition of this classic work of Russian sf, called “Surely one of the best and most provocative novels I have ever read, in or out of sci-fi” by Theodore Sturgeon
  • Seoul Survivors by Naomi Foyle (Jo Fletcher Books, Jan 30, 2014) -- first US release, it was published last year in the UK
  • Stolen Crown: A Novel of Mithgar by McKiernan, Dennis L. (Roc, Feb 4, 2014) -- "For more than a hundred years, a bitter dispute over how the High King had been selected simmered in the dark halls of the royal family whose line had not been chosen. They held fast to their anger and bitterness through generations. Finally one of their sons, Arkov of Garia, seized the throne through treachery and by force of arms, claiming it as rightfully his. But in his haste to see the king and queen slain, Arkov failed to confirm the death of the young prince, Reyer, who was spirited away to safety."
  • Carousel Sun by Sharon Lee (Baen, Feb 4) -- sequel to 2010 novel Carousel Tides, "about a woman who returns to a small town in Maine and becomes involved in a faerie war." (via Locus Online)
  • Fallout by James K. Decker (Roc, Feb 4) -- sequel to 2013 novel The Burn Zone
  • Only the Good Die Young by Chris Marie Green (Roc, Feb 4) -- "Fantasy novel, first in a series, about a deceased woman, now a ghost, who becomes a private detective." (via Locus Online)
  • RedDevil 4 by Eric C. Leuthardt (Tor, Feb 4) -- "A spine-tingling techno-thriller based on cutting edge research from surgeon and inventor Eric C. Leuthardt. Renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Hagan Maerici is on the verge of a breakthrough in artificial intelligence that could change the way we think about human consciousness. Obsessed with his job and struggling to save his marriage, Dr. Maerici is forced to put his life’s work on the line when a rash of brutal murders strikes St. Louis."
  • Collection: The Corpse Exhibition: And Other Stories of Iraq by Hassan Blasim, translated by Jonathan Wright (Penguin Books, Feb 4) -- "The first major literary work about the Iraq War from an Iraqi perspective, The Corpse Exhibition shows us the war as we have never seen it before. Here is a world not only of soldiers and assassins, hostages and car bombers, refugees and terrorists, but also of madmen and prophets, angels and djinni, sorcerers and spirits. Blending shocking realism with flights of fantasy, Hassan Blasim offers us a pageant of horrors, as haunting as the photos of Abu Ghraib and as difficult to look away from, but shot through with a gallows humor that yields an unflinching comedy of the macabre. Gripping and hallucinatory, this is a new kind of storytelling forged in the crucible of war."
  • Teen: Black Dog by Rachel Neumeier (Angry Robot/Strange Chemistry, Feb 4) -- "Young adult fantasy novel about a Mexican girl whose magical abilities are unable to save her village, and here parents, from the black dogs." (via Locus Online)
  • Teen: The Seers by Julianna Scott (Angry Robot/Strange Chemistry, Feb 4) -- "Young adult fantasy novel, sequel to The Holders (2013), about a brother and sister who learn their heritage lies with the legendary race of Holders." (via Locus Online)
  • Thriller: The Contractors (A Jon Cantrell Thriller) by Harry Hunsicker (Feb 4, 2014)
  • Prince of Shadows: A Novel of Romeo and Juliet by Caine, Rachel (Feb 4, 2014) — audio coming March 5 from Tantor
  • Fiction: The Sun and Other Stars: A Novel by Brigid Pasulka (Simon & Schuster, Feb 4, 2014) — Coming to audio from Dreamscape, but I'm not sure of the publication date: “In the seaside town of San Benedetto, soccer (or calcio) is more than just a sport: it’s an obsession. Twenty-two-year-old Etto, however, couldn’t care less about soccer. His beloved twin brother Luca, a rising soccer star, died tragically in a motorcycle accident, and their Californian mother, unable to cope with her grief, drowned herself on the anniversary of Luca’s death. This has left Etto alone to tend the butcher shop—where his father barely seems to take in his presence and entrusts him with only the most basic tasks. But then Yuri Fil, a Ukrainian soccer star who Etto’s father idolizes, takes refuge from the paparazzi in a nearby villa, and Etto accidentally falls into Yuri’s orbit—and that of Yuri’s beautiful and tough sister, Zhuki. Under their influence, he begins to learn a few life lessons: that the game of soccer might not be a total waste of time, that he might not in fact be a total loser—and that San Benedetto, his father, love, and life itself might have more to offer him than he would have ever believed possible.”
  • Fiction: Marshlands by Matthew Olshan (FSG, Feb 4) -- "After years alone in a cell, an aging prisoner is released without explanation, expelled into a great city now utterly unfamiliar to him. Broken by years of brutality at the hands of the prison guards, he scrounges for scraps, sleeping wild, until a museum curator rescues him from an assault. The museum has just opened its most controversial exhibit: a perfect replica of the marshes, an expansive wilderness still wracked by conflict. There the man had spent years as a doctor among the hated and feared marshmen, who have been colonized but never conquered."

COMING SOON:

Stories of Your Life and Others 17607897

  • Black Gum Godless Heathen by J David Osborne (Broken River Books, January/February 2014) — sequel to Low Down Death Right Easy
  • Anthology: Handsome Devil: Stories of Sin and Seduction edited by Steve Berman with stories by Richard Bowes, Pat Cadigan, Theodora Goss, Elizabeth Hand, Tanith Lee, and Nick Mamatas (Prime Books, Feb 5) -- "For millennia, male infernal figures have been portrayed as both dazzling tempters and dark seducers. The alluring fantasy of Handsome Devil highlights Lucifer's role as the beautiful trickster who steals hearts (as well as souls), and features stories - both new and old - of tantalizing tempters, sexy incubi, demon lovers, and devils who beguile and betray."
  • Imago by Octavia E. Butler, Narrated By Barrett Aldrich (Feb 5)
  • Short: Peace in Amber: The World of Kurt Vonnegut By Hugh Howey, Narrated By Hugh Howey and Amber Lyda for Brilliance Audio (Feb 5) -- "Inspired by Kurt Vonnegut’s masterpieceSlaughterhouse Five, Howey uses this short story to weave his own personal Dresden experience with Wildhack’s private hell. In Peace in Amber, he examines the struggle to determine what to control, when to surrender, and how to discern those things we cannot change."
  • Anthology: Great Werewolf Classics By Saki, Guy de Maupassant, Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, Frederick Marryat, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Leitch Ritchie, Narrated By Cathy Dobson (Feb 6)
  • Astra by Naomi Foyle (Jo Fletcher Books, February 6, 2014) — “Like every child in Is-Land, all Astra Ordott wants is to have her Security Shot, do her National Service and defend her Gaian homeland from Non-Lander ‘infiltrators’. But when one of her Shelter mothers, the formidable Dr Hokma Blesser, tells her the shot will limit her chances of becoming a scientist and offers her an alternative, Astra agrees to her plan. When the orphaned Lil arrives to share Astra’s home, Astra is torn between jealousy and fascination. Lil’s father taught her some alarming ideas about Is-Land and the world, but when she pushes Astra too far, the heartache that results goes far beyond the loss of a friend.” (via The BiblioSanctum)
  • Archetype by M.D. Waters (Dutton Adult, Feb 6) -- "Emma wakes in a hospital, with no memory of what came before. Her husband, Declan, a powerful, seductive man, provides her with new memories, but her dreams contradict his stories, showing her a past life she can’t believe possible: memories of war, of a camp where girls are trained to be wives, of love for another man. Something inside her tells her not to speak of this, but she does not know why. She only knows she is at war with herself."
  • Fiction: Pioneer Girl: A Novel by Bich Minh Nguyen (Viking Adult and Dreamscape Media, Feb 6, 2014) — “From an award-winning author, a novel about a Vietnamese American family’s ties to The Little House on the Prairie.”
  • Carnifex: Carrera, Book 2 By Tom Kratman, Narrated By James Fouhey for Audible Frontiers (Feb 6)
  • Melt Down: A Breakers Novel, Outcome: Breakers, and Knifepoint: Breakers, Book 3 By Edward W. Robertson, Narrated By Ray Chase (Feb 7)
  • Collection: Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang, read by Todd McLaren and Abby Craden for Tantor Audio (Feb 10) -- "This new edition of Ted Chiang's masterful first collection, Stories of Your Life and Others, includes his first eight published stories. Combining the precision and scientific curiosity of Kim Stanley Robinson with Lorrie Moore's cool, clear love of language and narrative intricacy, this award-winning collection offers listeners the dual delights of the very, very strange and the heartbreakingly familiar."
  • The Runestone Incident (The Incident) by Neve Maslakovic, narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal (Feb 11, 2014)
  • The Waking Engine by David Edison (Feb 11, 2014)
  • White Space (Dark Passages, #1) by Ilsa J. Bick (Feb 11, 2014)
  • The Martian: A Novel by Weir, Andy (Random House, Feb 11, 2014) — picked up by Random House after self-publishing success; 2013 audiobook by Podium Publishing
  • The Dreams of a Dying God: The Godlanders War, Book 1 and The Wrath of a Shipless Pirate: The Godlanders War, Book 2 By Aaron Pogue, Narrated By Luke Daniels for Brilliance Audio (Feb 11)
  • Alien Hunter: Flynn Carroll, Book 1 By Whitley Strieber, Narrated By Christian Rummel (Feb 11)
  • The Man Who Made Models: The Collected Short Fiction by R.A. Lafferty (Centipede Press, Feb 11, 2014)
  • The List Unseen: The Chronicles of Lumineia, Book 4 By Ben Hale, Narrated By Derek Perkins (Feb 11)
  • Pillar to the Sky By William R. Forstchen, Narrated by Grover Gardner (Feb 11)
  • The Tinker King by Trent, Tiffany (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, Feb 11, 2014) -- 'Science and magic mean danger in this sequel to The Unnaturalists, which School Library Journal called “an entertaining mix of steampunk and fantasy.”'
  • Matter: Culture, Book 8 By Iain M. Banks, Narrated By Toby Longworth (Feb 11) -- an unabridged edition previously only available (at least in the US) as a 5.5 hour abridgement
  • Teen: Conquest: Book 1, The Chronicles of the Invaders (The Chronicles of the Invaders Trilogy) by John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard (Feb 11, 2014) — “Earth is no longer ours. . . . It is ruled by the Illyri, a beautiful, civilized, yet ruthless alien species. But humankind has not given up the fight, and Paul Kerr is one of a new generation of young Resistance leaders waging war on the invaders.”
  • Fiction: Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement (Hogarth, Feb 11, 2014) — “Ladydi Garcia Martínez is fierce, funny and smart. She was born into a world where being a girl is a dangerous thing. In the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico, women must fend for themselves, as their men have left to seek opportunities elsewhere. Here in the shadow of the drug war, bodies turn up on the outskirts of the village to be taken back to the earth by scorpions and snakes.”
  • Fiction: Don't Start Me Talkin' by Tom Williams (Curbside Splendor Publishing, Feb 11, 2014) -- brought to my attention via Patrick Wensink, a "a comedic road novel about Brother Ben, the only remaining True Delta Bluesman, playing his final North American tour. Set in contemporary society, Brother Ben's protege Peter narrates an episodic "last ride" across the great forty-eight, laying bare America's complicated relationship with African American identity, music, and culture." Matt Bell, author of In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods, says: "A master storyteller, Tom Williams enters the living history of Delta Blues and emerges with his own thrilling tall tale, alive with American music, American legend, American heart."
  • Fiction: Thirty Girls by Minot, Susan (Feb 11, 2014)
  • Fiction: Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote, narrated by Michael C. Hall -- Length:2 hrs and 52 mins -- Scheduled Release Date: 02-11-14
  • The Copper Promise by Jen Williams (February 13, 2014) — (via The BiblioSanctum)
  • The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris (Feb 13, 2014) -- a retelling of Norse mythology from the point of view of Loki
  • Like a Mighty Army (Safehold) by David Weber (Feb 18, 2014) — coming to audio read by Oliver Wyman
  • With Silent Screams (The Hellequin Chronicles) by Steve McHugh (Feb 18, 2014)
  • The Book of Heaven: A Novel by Storace, Patricia (Pantheon, Feb 18, 2014)
  • Influx by Suarez, Daniel (Dutton Adult, Feb 20, 2014)
  • Moth and Spark by Anne Leonard (February 20, 2014)
  • Blood Kin by Steve Rasnic Tem (Solaris, Feb 25) -- "Steve Rasnic Tem's new novel "Blood Kin" is set in the southern Appalachians of the U.S., alternating between the 1930s and the present day. It's a dark Southern Gothic vision of ghosts, witchcraft, secret powers, snake-handling, Kudzu, Melungeons, and the Great Depression."
  • Meridian 144 By Meg Files, Narrated By Carly Robins — Scheduled Release Date: 02-25-14
  • Alabaster: Pale Horse by Caitlin Kiernan and Daniel Chabon (Feb 25, 2014)
  • The Judge of Ages (Count to a Trillion) by John C. Wright (Feb 25, 2014)
  • The Undead Pool by Kim Harrison (Feb 25, 2014)
  • To Do or Die: Jump Universe, Book 4 By Mike Shepherd, Narrated By Michael McConnahie (Feb 25)
  • Honor’s Knight — Book 2 in the Paradox series — By Rachel Bach, Read By Emily Durante for Tantor (February 25, 2014) — “Rachel Bach presents the rollicking sequel to the science fiction novel Fortune’s Pawn.”
  • Tin Star by Cecil Castellucci (Roaring Brook, Feb 25, 2014) — “On their way to start a new life, Tula and her family travel on the Prairie Rose, a colony ship headed to a planet in the outer reaches of the galaxy. All is going well until the ship makes a stop at a remote space station, the Yertina Feray, and the colonist’s leader, Brother Blue, beats Tula within an inch of her life. An alien, Heckleck, saves her and teaches her the ways of life on the space station.”
  • Blades of the Old Empire: Book I of the Majat Code by Kashina, Anna (Angry Robot, Feb 25, 2014)
  • A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain by Adrianne Harun (Penguin, Feb 25, 2014) — “In isolated British Columbia, girls, mostly native, are vanishing from the sides of a notorious highway. Leo Kreutzer and his four friends are barely touched by these disappearances—until a series of mysterious and troublesome outsiders come to town. Then it seems as if the devil himself has appeared among them.”
  • The Troop by Cutter, Nick (Feb 25, 2014)
  • The Happier Dead by Ivo Stourton (Feb 25, 2014)
  • Fiction: The Fall of Saints: A Novel by Wanjiku wa Ngugi (Feb 25, 2014) — “In this stunning debut novel, a Kenyan expat living the American dream with her husband and adopted son soon finds it marred by child trafficking, scandal, and a problematic past.”
  • Fiction: The Wives of Los Alamos: A Novel by TaraShea Nesbit, narrated by Tavia Gilbert -- Length:4 hrs and 59 mins -- Scheduled Release Date: 02-25-14
  • Non-Fiction: Pagan Britain by Ronald Hutton (Yale University Press, Feb 25) -- "What do we really know about Stonehenge and druids? Is the Uffington White Horse actually a cat? This study questions all claims about prehistoric rituals and religion." (hat tip to Dan Campbell)
  • The Last Weekend by Nick Mamatas (PS Publishing, February 2014) -- "You might think that there's nothing fresh or original in the current crop of zombie fiction, and you'd be right -- unless you read The Last Weekend. Nick Mamatas crafts a clever blend of multiple genres that is equal parts heartfelt, fearful, and funny. The Last Weekend is a headshot to a tiresome trope. I loved it!" (Brian Keene)
  • The Shibboleth (The Twelve-Fingered Boy Trilogy) by John Hornor Jacobs (Carolrhoda Books, Mar 1, 2014) -- From the author of Southern Gods, the second book in The Twelve-Fingered Boy trilogy: "At the end of the first book of The Twelve-Fingered Boy Trilogy, Jack and Shreve are incarcerado—physically locked up. Shreve's back in the custody of the state of Arkansas, and Jack's somewhere in the clutches of Mr. Quincrux—both problems Shreve aims to rectify."
  • The Godmakers by Frank Herbert, read by To Be Announced for Blackstone Audio Mar 1)
  • Skinwalkers by Wendy W. Wager (Paizo, March 1) — this Pathfinder Tales novel from one of the “Inkpunks” will be available from Paizo on March 1, 2014
  • Kids: Half Bad (The Half Bad Trilogy) by Green, Sally (Mar 3, 2014) — via Kate Atkinson (the author of Life after Life) a new middle grade series about witches in modern-day England
  • Night Broken (A Mercy Thompson Novel) by Patricia Briggs (Mar 4, 2014)
  • Ghost Train to New Orleans (The Shambling Guides) by Mur Lafferty (Orbit, Mar 4, 2014) — sequel to The Shambling Guide to New York City
  • The Tropic of Serpents: A Memoir by Lady Trent (A Natural History of Dragons) by Marie Brennan (Mar 4, 2014)
  • Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (Tor, March 4, 2014) — book 2 in The Stormlight Archive after The Way of Kings
  • Hope Rearmed by S.M. Stirling and David Drake (March 4, 2014)
  • Half-Off Ragnarok: An Incryptid Novel by Seanan McGuire (Mar 4, 2014)
  • Black Moon: A Novel by Calhoun, Kenneth (Hogarth, Mar 4, 2014) — a story of mass insomnia from an acclaimed short fiction writer
  • Murder of Crows: A Novel of the Others by Bishop, Anne (Mar 4, 2014)
  • Honor Among Thieves: Star Wars (Empire and Rebellion) by Corey, James S.A. (Mar 4, 2014)
  • The Weirdness: A Novel by Jeremy P. Bushnell (Melville House, Mar 4, 2014) — “At thirty, Billy Ridgeway still hasn’t gotten around to becoming a writer; he thinks too much to get anything done, really, except making sandwiches at a Greek deli with his buddy Anil. But the Devil shows up with fancy coffee one morning, promising to make Billy’s dream of being published come true: as long as Billy steals The Neko of Infinite Equilibrium, a cat-shaped statue with magical powers, from the most powerful warlock in the Eastern United States.”
  • Notes from the Internet Apocalypse by Wayne Gladstone (Thomas Dunne and Blackstone Audio, Mar 4, 2014) — “When the Internet suddenly stops working, society reels from the loss of flowing data and streaming entertainment. Addicts wander the streets talking to themselves in 140 characters or forcing cats to perform tricks for their amusement, while the truly desperate pin their requests for casual encounters on public bulletin boards. The economy tumbles and the government passes the draconian NET Recovery Act.” and: “An oddly heartfelt journey through the wasteland of a techno-collapse. Gladstone takes an admittedly far-fetched and off-putting story idea and breathes startling life into it. He gambles here, but he wins. Give it a read.” —Patton Oswalt
  • The Barrow by Mark Smylie (Pyr, March 4, 2014) — “In this debut novel, Mark Smylie gives the world he created in his “Artesia” comic books, a new life. We start with a band of dangerously endearing rogues, a magical map, and a dangerous search for a wizard’s sword. My sense of adventure is at the ready. Bring on the emotional manipulation and unabashed violence. I’m ready for an epic quest!” (via Omnivoracious)
  • Indexing by Seanan McGuire, read by Mary Robinette Kowal (March 4, 2014) — published in prose last year (May 21, 2013)
  • Teen: Death Sworn by Leah Cypess (Greenwillow, Mar 4, 2014) — YA fantasy
  • Kids: Knightley and Son By Rohan Gavin, Narrated By Greg Wagland for Audible for Bloomsbury (Mar 4) — “Sherlock Holmes meets Dirk Gently with a touch of Doctor Who – this brand-new comedy thriller delivers big laughs and big adventures with real heart.”
  • The Memory of Sky (A Novel of the Great Ship) by Robert Reed (Prime Books, March 5) -- "Diamond is an odd little boy, a seemingly fragile child - who proves to be anything but. An epic story begins when he steps into the world his parents have so carefully kept him from, a world where gigantic trees each house thousands of humans and another human species, the papio, rule its far edges. Does Diamond hold the promise to remake one species and, perhaps, change all of the Creation?"
  • Prince of Shadows by Rachel Caine (Tantor Audio, March 5) -- published in print/ebook early February, Caine's retelling of Romeo and Juliet: "In the Houses of Montague and Capulet, there is only one goal: power. The boys are born to fight and die for honor and—if they survive—marry for influence and money, not love. The girls are assets, to be spent wisely. Their wishes are of no import. Their fates are written on the day they are born."
  • Boy, Snow, Bird: A Novel by Oyeyemi, Helen (Riverhead, March 6, 2014) — “From the prizewinning author of Mr. Fox, the Snow White fairy tale brilliantly recast as a story of family secrets, race, beauty, and vanity. In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts, looking, she believes, for beauty—the opposite of the life she’s left behind in New York. She marries a local widower and becomes stepmother to his winsome daughter, Snow Whitman. A wicked stepmother is a creature Boy never imagined she’d become, but elements of the familiar tale of aesthetic obsession begin to play themselves out when the birth of Boy’s daughter, Bird, who is dark-skinned, exposes the Whitmans as light-skinned African Americans passing for white. Among them, Boy, Snow, and Bird confront the tyranny of the mirror to ask how much power surfaces really hold. Dazzlingly inventive and powerfully moving, Boy, Snow, Bird is an astonishing and enchanting novel. With breathtaking feats of imagination, Helen Oyeyemi confirms her place as one of the most original and dynamic literary voices of our time.”
  • Blood and Iron (The Book of the Black Earth) by Jon Sprunk (Pyr, March 11, 2014)
  • The Fell Sword (The Traitor Son Cycle, #2) by Miles Cameron (Orbit, March 11) — sequel to The Red King
  • The Detainee by Peter Liney (Jo Fletcher Books, March 2014) — “Admittedly, I’ve developed a bad attitude toward dystopian stories lately. So it’s quite meaningful that one of the books I’m most looking forward to this year will find me begging for “punishment satellites” to protect me on a shanty-laden island where mainland residents ship their garbage. And since a massive economic collapse, “garbage” includes the weakest members of society — like “Big Guy” Clancy, former muscle for a crime boss.” (via Omnivoracious)
  • Resistance by Jenna Black (Mar 11, 2014)
  • Working God’s Mischief (Instrumentalities of the Night) by Glen Cook (Mar 11, 2014)
  • Mentats of Dune by Brian Herbert (March 11, 2014)
  • Ruins (Partials, #3) by Dan Wells (March 11, 2014)
  • Teen: Daughter of Chaos by Jen McConnel (Month9Books, March 11, 2014) — a new paranormal YA novel from the author of the Bloomsbury Spark-published The Secret of Isobel Key — description via IPG: “There comes a time in every witch’s life when she must choose her path. Darlena’s friends have already chosen, so why is it so hard for her to make up her mind? Now, Darlena is out of time. Under pressure from Hecate, the Queen of all witches, Darlena makes a rash decision to choose Red magic, a path no witch in her right mind would dare take. As a Red witch, she will be responsible for chaos and mayhem, drawing her deep into darkness. Will the power of Red magic prove too much for Darlena, or will she learn to control it before it’s too late?”
  • Fiction: The Weight of Blood: A Novel by Laura Mchugh (Spiegel & Grau, Mar 11, 2014) — “For fans of Gillian Flynn, Scott Smith, and Daniel Woodrell comes a gripping, suspenseful novel about two mysterious disappearances a generation apart in the town of Henbane, deep in the Ozark Mountains.”
  • Deadroads by Robin Riopelle (Night Shade Books, Mar 17, 2014)
  • Anthology: The Time Traveler’s Almanac by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer (Tor, Mar 18, 2014)
  • The Pilgrims (The Pendulum Trilogy) by Will Elliott (Tor, Mar 18, 2014)
  • The Lascar’s Dagger: The Forsaken Lands by Glenda Larke (Mar 18, 2014)
  • Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett (Random House Audio, Mar 18, 2014) — US release for the latest and 40th Discworld novel, in which “the Disc’s first train come steaming into town.”
  • Fiction: Not for Nothing by Stephen Graham Jones (Dzanc, Mar 18, 2014) -- a second person novel about a down on his luck man starting over in his small hometown
  • The Midnight Witch by Brackston, Paula (Mar 25, 2014)
  • Raising Steam (Discworld) by Terry Pratchett (Mar 25, 2014)
  • Lockstep by Karl Schroeder (Mar 25, 2014)
  • The Burning Dark by Adam Christopher (Mar 25, 2014)
  • Dawn’s Early Light: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel by Ballantine, Pip and Morris, Tee (Mar 25, 2014)
  • Truth and Fear (The Wolfhound Century) by Peter Higgins (Mar 25, 2014)
  • Written in My Own Heart’s Blood: A Novel (Outlander) by Gabaldon, Diana (Mar 25, 2014)
  • Sunstone (Heartwood) by Robertson, Freya (Angry Robot, Mar 25, 2014)
  • The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton (Mar 25, 2014)
  • Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn't Fly by Stephen Graham Jones and Paul Tremblay (ChiZine, Mar 25, 2014)
  • Fiction: Every Day Is for the Thief: Fiction by Cole, Teju (Mar 25, 2014)
  • Fiction: Frog Music: A Novel by Donoghue, Emma (Mar 27, 2014) — “Emma Donoghue’s explosive new novel, based on an unsolved murder in 1876 San Francisco.”
  • Minding the Stars: The Early Jack Vance, Volume 4 edited by Terry Dowling and Jonathan Strahan (Subterranean Press, March 31)
  • Code Zero (Joe Ledger, #6) by Jonathan Maberry (March 2014)
  • Anthology: KAIJU RISING (Kickstarter, March 2014)
  • Dirtbags by Eryk Pruitt (Immortal Ink Publishing, March/April 2014) — “The blame for a county-wide murder spree lies at the feet of three people broken by a dying mill town: Calvin, a killer; London, a cook; and Rhonda, the woman who loves them both. Neither they, nor the reader, see the storm brewing until it’s too late in this Southern Gothic noir (or Southern neo-noir) that adds a transgressive, chicken-fried twist to a story ripped straight from the pages of a true crime novel.”

APRIL/MAY/JUNE 2014:

the-girl-in-the-road-monica-byrne 

  • 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)
  • Salvage by Alexandra Duncan (Greenwillow, Apr 1, 2014) — “a thrilling, surprising, and thought-provoking debut novel that will appeal to fans of Across the Universe, by Beth Revis, and The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood. This is literary science fiction with a feminist twist, and it explores themes of choice, agency, rebellion, and family. Ava, a teenage girl living aboard the male-dominated, conservative deep space merchant ship Parastrata, faces betrayal, banishment, and death. Taking her fate into her own hands, she flees to the Gyre, a floating continent of garbage and scrap in the Pacific Ocean. This is a sweeping and harrowing novel about a girl who can’t read or write or even withstand the forces of gravity. What choices will she make? How will she build a future on an earth ravaged by climate change? Named by the American Booksellers Association as a Spring 2014 Indies Introduce Pick.”
  • 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)
  • The Word Exchange: A Novel by Graedon, Alena (Doubleday and Blackstone Audio, Apr 10, 2014) — “In the not-so-distant future, the forecasted “death of print” has become a near reality. Bookstores, libraries, newspapers, and magazines are essentially things of the past, as we spend our time glued to handheld devices called Memes that not only keep us in constant communication but have become so intuitive as to hail us cabs before we leave our offices, order takeout at the first growl of our stomachs, change traffic lights and interface with home appliances–even create and sell language itself in a marketplace called the Word Exchange.”
  • 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)
  • Teen: The Here and Now by Ann Brashares (Delacorte, Apr 8, 2014) — from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series comes “An unforgettable epic romantic thriller about a girl from the future who might be able to save the world . . . if she lets go of the one thing she’s found to hold on to.”
  • 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 Jupiter War (The Owner) by Neal Asher (Night Shade Books, Apr 21, 2014) -- US release, published in 2013 by Tor UK
  • The Serpent of Venice: A Novel by Moore, Christopher (Apr 22, 2014)
  • Murder by Sarah Pinborough (April 24, 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.”
  • Valour and Vanity by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor, Apr 17, 2014) — in Kowal’s latest “Jane and Vincent” (a.k.a. “Shades of Milk and Honey” series) Regency fantasy she sets her sights on the heist novel. Color me VERY intrigued.
  • The Furies: A Thriller by Mark Alpert (April 22, 2014)
  • The Forever Watch by David Ramirez (Thomas Dunne, April 22, 2014) -- "All that is left of humanity is on a thousand-year journey to a new planet aboard one ship, The Noah, which is also carrying a dangerous serial killer..." The novel is to be published in early May in the UK by Hoddard (with a fantastic cover)
  • Teen: The Inventor’s Secret by Andrea Cremer (Philomel, Apr 22, 2014) — “In this world, sixteen-year-old Charlotte and her fellow refugees have scraped out an existence on the edge of Britain’s industrial empire. Though they live by the skin of their teeth, they have their health (at least when they can find enough food and avoid the Imperial Labor Gatherers) and each other. When a new exile with no memory of his escape or even his own name seeks shelter in their camp he brings new dangers with him and secrets about the terrible future that awaits all those who have struggled has to live free of the bonds of the empire’s Machineworks. The Inventor’s Secret is the first book of a YA steampunk series set in an alternate nineteenth-century North America where the Revolutionary War never took place and the British Empire has expanded into a global juggernaut propelled by marvelous and horrible machinery. Perfect for fans of Libba Bray’s The Diviners, Cassandra Clare’s Clockwork Angel, Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan and Phillip Reeve’s Mortal Engines."
  • Stay God, Sweet Angel by Nik Korpon (Perfect Edge, Apr 25, 2014) -- "Damon lives a content life, playing video games and dealing drugs from his second-hand store while his girlfriend, Mary, drops constant hints about marriage. If only he could tell her his name isn't really Damon. If only he could tell her who he really is. But after he witnesses a friend's murder, a scarlet woman glides into his life, offering the solution to all of his problems. His carefully constructed existence soon shatters like crystal teardrops and he must determine which ghosts won't stay buried - and which ones are trying to kill him - if he wants to learn why Mary has disappeared."
  • Thornlost (Glass Thorns) by Rawn, Melanie (Apr 29, 2014)
  • Peacemaker by Marianne De Pierres (Angry Robot, 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
  • Grunt Life: A Task Force Ombra Novel by Weston Ochse (Apr 29, 2014
  • A Certain Exposure by Jolene Tan (Epigram Books, April 2014)
  • Non-Fiction: New Skills for Frazzled Parents by Dr. Daniel Amen, read by Stefan Rudnicki for Blackstone Audio (April 2014) -- From narrator Rudnicki: "This is a book every parent needs to read or listen to. A few kids could listen in. It's not difficult to understand, but it is life-changing. This book, and a few others coming up, are a Skyboat Media co-publication with Blackstone Audio. Look for this one on Downpour.com and elsewhere in April."
  • Afterparty by Daryl Gregory (TOR, April 2014) — “Before the first chapter even begins, there’s religion, drugs, and suicide — all presented in a crisp, engaging writing style that itself threatens to be addictive. Set in the near-future in a world in which smart drug recipes are opensourced, one church uses dependency on their sacriment, a mind-altering narcotic called “Numinous,” to keep followers in line. One of the drug’s creators tries to undo the damage. I’m so hooked!” (via Omnivoracious)
  • 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 Causal Angel by Hannu Rajaniemi (Tor, May 6, 2014) — Follow-on to The Quantum Thief and The Fractal Prince: “With his infectious love of storytelling in all its forms, his rich characterization and his unrivaled grasp of thrillingly bizarre cutting-edge science, Hannu Rajaniemi swiftly set a new benchmark for SF in the 21st century. Now, with his third novel, he completes the tale of the many lives, and minds, of gentleman rogue Jean de Flambeur.”
  • The Sea Without a Shore by David Drake (May 6, 2014) — Lt. Leary series
  • The Crimson Campaign (The Powder Mage Trilogy, Book 2) by Brian McClellan (Orbit, May 6, 2014)
  • Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris (May 6) — “The first novel in this supernaturally nuanced trilogy has me curious to see what Charlaine Harris is immersing herself in now that Sookie has ridden off into the sunset. Not much information on Charlaine’s website, just that it’s set in a ‘mysterious Texas town.’” (via Paul Goat Allen’s “The Most Anticipated Sci-fi and Fantasy Releases of 2014″ for Barnes & Noble)
  • The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Steadfast by Jack Campbell (May 6)
  • 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) — “Once there were hundreds of members of the Oversight, the brave souls who guard the borders between the mundane and the magic. Now there are only five. When a vagabond brings a screaming girl to the Oversight’s London headquarters, she could answer their hopes for new recruit, or she could be the instrument of their downfall.”
  • 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)
  • The Bees: A Novel by Laline Paull (Ecco, May 6, 2014) — “The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Hunger Games in this brilliantly imagined debut set in an anciet culture where only the queen may breed and deformity means death.”
  • Fiction: Wonderland by D’Erasmo, Stacey (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, May 6, 2014) — “This breakout novel from a brilliant stylist—dropping us into the life a female rock star—centers on that moment when we decide whether to go all-in or give up our dreams.”
  • 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)
  • Fiction: The Last Illusion: A Novel by Porochista Khakpour (Bloomsbury USA, May 13, 2014)
  • Sworn in Steel: A Tale of the Kin by Douglas Hulick (May 6, 2014)
  • Jade Sky by Patrick Freivald (JournalStone, May 16) — via K.H. Vaughan on a SF Signal Mind Meld of “books we can’t wait to read in 2014″ — “Matt Rowley hasn’t been human for years. A commando for the International Council on Augmented Phenomena, he hunts down superhuman monsters the military can’t handle. But his abilities come with a price: bloodthirsty whispers that urge him to acts of terrible violence. An encounter with a giant, angelic being with wings of smoke and shadow casts him into a world of inhuman brutality, demonic possession, and madness, where he must choose between his family and his soul.”
  • The Three: A Novel by Sarah Lotz (Little, Brown and Company, May 20, 2014) — “Four simultaneous plane crashes. Three child survivors. A religious fanatic who insists the three are harbingers of the apocalypse. What if he’s right?” — Lotz is South African novelist I first heard about either from Lauren Beukes (and later forgot) and most recently from Nnedi Okorafor’s fine essay African Science Fiction is Still Alien
  • The Severed Streets by Cornell, Paul (May 20, 2014)
  • The Man with the Compound Eyes: A Novel by Ming-Yi, Wu (May 20, 2014) — published last year in a more limited release by Harvill Secker, a Taiwanese eco-dystopia: “We haven’t read anything like this novel. Ever. South America gave us magical realism – what is Taiwan giving us? A new way of telling our new reality, beautiful, entertaining, frightening, preposterous, true. Completely unsentimental but never brutal, Wu Ming-Yi treats human vulnerability and the world’s vulnerability with fearless tenderness” — Ursula Le Guin
  • A Dance of Shadows (Shadowdance) by David Dalglish (May 20, 2014)
  • Cyador’s Heirs (Saga of Recluce) by L. E. Modesitt (May 20, 2014)
  • She, Sniper by Hunter, Stephen (May 20, 2014) — a thriller which gets on my list by dint of being narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal
  • 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”
  • The River of Souls by Robert McCammon (Subterranean Press, May 31, 2014) -- via Nathan Ballingrud, the latest installment in the Matthew Corbett series of historical thrillers: "The year is 1703. The place: the Carolina settlement of Charles Town. . Matthew Corbett, professional “problem solver,” has accepted a lucrative, if unusual, commission: escorting a beautiful woman to a fancy dress ball. What should be a pleasant assignment takes a darker turn when Matthew becomes involved in a murder investigation. A sixteen-year-old girl has been stabbed to death on the grounds of a local plantation. The suspected killer is a slave who has escaped, with two family members, into the dubious protection of a nearby swamp. Troubled by certain discrepancies and determined to see some sort of justice done, Matthew joins the hunt for the runaway slaves. He embarks on a treacherous journey up the Solstice River, also known as the River of Souls.  He discovers that something born of the swamp has joined the hunt… and is stalking the hunters with more than murder in mind. What follows is a shattering ordeal encompassing snakes, alligators, exiled savages, mythical beasts, and ordinary human treachery. The journey up the River of Souls will test the limits of Matthew’s endurance, and lead him through a nightmarish passage to a confrontation with his past, and a moment that will alter his life forever. Gripping, unsettling, and richly atmospheric, The River of Souls is a masterful historical adventure featuring the continuing exploits of a young hero the USA Character Approved Blog has called 'the Early American James Bond.'"
  • Sword of the North (The Grim Company, Book 2) by Luke Scull (Roc Hardcover, June 1) — “In The Grim Company, Luke Scull introduced a formidable and forbidding band of anti-heroes battling against ruthless Magelords and monstrous terrors. The adventure continues as the company—now broken—face new dangers on personal quests….”
  • 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)
  • On Her Watch (Don’t Tell) by Rie Warren (Jun 3, 2014) — “The year is 2070 and all hell has broken lose. The rebellion has started and the government is trying desperately to regain control of the territories formerly known as the United States.”
  • Non-Fiction: Wild Connection: What Animal Courtship and Mating Tells Us about Human Relationships by Jennifer L. Verdolin (Prometheus Books, Jun 3) -- "A specialist in animal behavior compares the courtship rituals and mating behaviors of animals to their human equivalents, revealing the many and often surprising ways we are both similar to and different from other species."
  • Cibola Burn (The Expanse) by Corey, James S. A. (Jun 5, 2014)
  • Blood Will Follow by Snorri Kristjansson (Jo Fletcher Books, Jun 5) -- follow-on to Swords of Good Men
  • California Bones by Greg van Eekhout (Tor, Jun 10, 2014)
  • The Leopard by K.V. Johansen (Pyr, June 10, 2014) — “Part one of a two-book epic fantasy, set in a world as richly drawn as J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth, but with Mideastern and Eastern flavors.” (via The BiblioSanctum)
  • Memory of Water: A Novel by Emmi Itäranta (Harper Voyager, Jun 10, 2014) — “An amazing, award-winning speculative fiction debut novel by a major new talent, in the vein of Ursula K. Le Guin. Global warming has changed the world’s geography and its politics. Wars are waged over water, and China rules Europe, including the Scandinavian Union, which is occupied by the power state of New Qian. In this far north place, seventeen-year-old Noria Kaitio is learning to become a tea master like her father, a position that holds great responsibility and great secrets. Tea masters alone know the location of hidden water sources, including the natural spring that Noria’s father tends, which once provided water for her whole village.”
  • The Girl with All the Gifts by M.J. Carey (Orbit, June 10, 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
  • Head Full of Mountains by Brent Hayward (ChiZine, Jun 15, 2014) — “When Crospinal’s ailing father dies, he is left utterly alone in the pen, surrounded by encroaching darkness. The machines that tended to him as a child have long ago vanished, and the apparitions that kept Crospinal company are now silenced. Struggling with his congenital issues, outfitted in a threadbare uniform, he has little choice but to leave what was once his home, soon discovering that nothing in the outside world is how he had been told it would be. In his quest for meaning and understanding, and the contact of another, Crospinal learns truths about himself, about his father, and about the last bastion of humanity, trapped with him at the end of time.”
  • Shattered: The Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne (Jun 17, 2014)
  • Teen: Dark Metropolis by Jaclyn Dolamore (Disney Hyperion, Jun 17, 2014)
  • The Long Mars: A Novel (Long Earth) by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter (Jun 17, 2014) -- had been called "The Long Childhood" but new title looks confirmed
  • The Quick: A Novel by Lauren Owen (Random House, Jun 17, 2014) — “An astonishing debut, a novel of epic scope and suspense that conjures up all the magic and menace of Victorian London”
  • The Blasted Lands (Seven Forges, Book 2) by James A. Moore (Osprey, June 24, 2014) -- "The Empire of Fellein is in mourning. The Emperor is dead, and the armies of the empire have grown soft. Merros Dulver, their newly-appointed – and somewhat reluctant – commander, has been tasked with preparing them to fight the most savage enemy the world has yet seen. Meanwhile, a perpetual storm ravages the Blasted Lands, and a new threat is about to arise – the Broken are coming, and with them only Death."
  • 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:

the-magicians-land-cover

  • 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)
  • Armada by Ernest Cline (July 3) — “Cline wowed the world with Ready Player One in 2011, a brilliant debut that was pure geek gold: a glorious fusion of near future science fiction, epic fantasy quest, and unlikely love story, that above all else is an homage to the 1980s. Millions of readers worldwide have been anxiously awaiting his second novel, which evidently chronicles the adventures of a video game geek named Zack, who is conscripted into a top-secret government program and must save the world from an alien invasion.” (via Paul Goat Allen’s “The Most Anticipated Sci-fi and Fantasy Releases of 2014″ for Barnes & Noble)
  • Half a King by Joe Abercrombie (Del Rey, July 8, 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.”
  • 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)
  • California: A Novel by Edan Lepucki (Little, Brown and Company, Jul 8, 2014) — “The world Cal and Frida have always known is gone, and they’ve left the crumbling city of Los Angeles far behind them. They now live in a shack in the wilderness, working side-by-side to make their days tolerable despite the isolation and hardships they face. Consumed by fear of the future and mourning for a past they can’t reclaim, they seek comfort and solace in one other. But the tentative existence they’ve built for themselves is thrown into doubt when Frida finds out she’s pregnant.”
  • Collection: Her Husband’s Hands and Other Stories by Adam-Troy Castro (Prime Books, July 8, 2014)
  • Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Sweterlitsch, Thomas (Jul 10, 2014) — “A decade has passed since the city of Pittsburgh was reduced to ash. While the rest of the world has moved on, losing itself in the noise of a media-glutted future, survivor John Dominic Blaxton remains obsessed with the past. Grieving for his wife and unborn child who perished in the blast, Dominic relives his lost life by immersing in the Archive—a fully interactive digital reconstruction of Pittsburgh, accessible to anyone who wants to visit the places they remember and the people they loved. Dominic investigates deaths recorded in the Archive to help close cases long since grown cold, but when he discovers glitches in the code surrounding a crime scene—the body of a beautiful woman abandoned in a muddy park that he’s convinced someone tried to delete from the Archive—his cycle of grief is shattered.”
  • Full Fathom Five by Max Gladstone (Tor, Jul 15, 2014)
  • The High Druid’s Blade: The Defenders of Shannara by Terry Brooks, narrated by Simon Vance (Del Rey, July 15) -- postponed from its original March release date; the second book, The Darkling Child, will publish in August 2015
  • The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy, #3) by Deborah Harkness (July 15, 2014)
  • The Outsorcerer’s Apprentice by Holt, Tom (Jul 15, 2014)
  • Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch (Gollancz, 17 Jul 2014) -- the fifth book in the Peter Grant series, with a sixth on the way next year, and contracted for books 7 and 8
  • The Seventh Miss Hatfield by Anna Caltabiano (Gollancz, July 21) -- debut novel from 17-year-old author Caltabiano which "follows Rebecca, a young American unhappy with her life.  When her mysterious neighbour Miss Hatfield invites her in, Rebecca isn’t entirely sure why she says yes. A short while later, Rebecca becomes immersed in her neighbour’s peculiar world – not only does she discover that Miss Hatfield is immortal, but that she has century-spanning plans, which will soon involve Rebecca."
  • Magic Breaks (Kate Daniels) by Ilona Andrews (Jul 29, 2014)
  • Teen: The Young World by Weitz, Chris (Jul 29, 2014)
  • 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.”
  • World of Trouble: The Last Policeman, Book 3 by Ben H. Winters (Quirk Books, July 2014) — the third and concluding book in Winters’ Edgar Award winning and Philip K. Dick Award nominated Last Policeman trilogy
  • 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 Fifth Season (The Broken Earth) by Jemisin, N. K. (Orbit, Aug 5, 2014) — “This is the way the world ends. Again.”
  • Revenant by Kat Richardson (August 5) — “The ninth installment of Richardson’s Greywalker saga, featuring private investigator Harper Blaine, should be a blockbuster of a novel. I absolutely loved this series, which blends hardboiled mystery with supernatural fiction and is comparable to the work of classic writers including Raymond Chandler and Algernon Blackwood. With the conclusion of this series looming, I’m curious to see where Richardson takes her iconic protagonist.” (via Paul Goat Allen’s “The Most Anticipated Sci-fi and Fantasy Releases of 2014″ for Barnes & Noble)
  • The Widow’s House (The Dagger and the Coin) by Abraham, Daniel (Aug 5, 2014)
  • The House of the Four Winds (Dragon Prophecy) by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory (Aug 5, 2014)
  • The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy: A Novel by Jacopo della Quercia (St. Martin’s Griffin, Aug 5, 2014)
  • Dark Lightning by John Varley (Ace, Aug 5) -- "On a voyage to New Earth, the starship Rolling Thunder is powered by an energy no one understands, except for its eccentric inventor Jubal Broussard. Like many of the ship’s inhabitants, Jubal rests in a state of suspended animation for years at a time, asleep yet never aging."
  • Fish Tails: A Novel by Sheri S. Tepper (Harper Voyager, Aug 5, 2014)
  • Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage: A novel by Haruki Murakami and translated by Philip Gabriel (Knopf, Aug 12, 2014) — Published in Japan last year: “Tsukuru Tazaki’s life was irreparably changed when his relationships with his high school best friends became severed during Tsukuru’s college days. Now at 35, Tsukuru’s girlfriend Sara suggested to Tsukuru to go and talk to these high school friends in person to mend the relationships, and to discover the real reason behind the friends’ decision to reject Tsukuru. Tsukuru visited his friends in Nagoya and Finland one by one, and uncovers the real reason as to why their relations were broken off.”
  • Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente (Tor, Aug 12, 2014)
  • Fool’s Assassin by Robin Hobb (Aug 12, 2014)
  • The Broken Eye (Lightbringer #3) by Brent Weeks (Orbit, August 26, 2014)
  • Lock In by John Scalzi (Tor, Aug 26, 2014)
  • The Getaway God (Sandman Slim) by Richard Kadrey (Aug 26, 2014)
  • The Chaplain’s War by Brad Torgersen (Baen, 2014) — debut novel
  • 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
  • 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)
  • City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett (Crown/Broadway and Recorded Books, September 9, 2014) — “a second-world story of spies, subterfuge, and statesmanship set in a nation of dead gods.” — latest IndieBound and Amazon listings
  • 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.”
  • All That Outer Space Allows (The Apollo Quartet, Book 4) by Ian Sales (Whippleshield, August 2014) -- "I plan to have copies available for Loncon 3 in August, but we’ll see how the research and writing goes. I suspect it may be the hardest of the four to write – and Then Will The Great Ocean Wash Deep Above was no picnic… Meanwhile, I have a bunch of other projects on the go."
  • Anthology: Burnt Tongues edited by Chuck Palahniuk, Richard Thomas, and Dennis Widmyer (Medallion Press, August 2014) -- "This collection of transgressive short stories will be out in August. Cover art by Jay Shaw. With an introduction by Chuck Palaniuk. Stories by Neil Krolicki, Chris Lewis Carter, Gayle Towell, Tony Liebhard, Michael De Vito, Jr., Tyler Jones, Phil Jourdan, Richard Lemmer, Amanda Gowin, Matt Egan, Fred Venturini, Brandon Tietz, Adam Skorupskas, Bryan Howie, Brien Piechos, Jason M. Fylan, Terence James Eeles, Keith Buie, Gus Moreno, and Daniel W. Broallt."
  • Consumed: A Novel by David Cronenberg (Sep 2, 2014) — debut novel from the acclaimed filmmaker: “the story of two journalists whose entanglement in a French philosopher’s death becomes a surreal journey into global conspiracy.”
  • The Mirror Empire (Worldbreaker Saga, Book 1) by Kameron Hurley (Angry Robot, September 2014) -- "On the eve of a recurring catastrophic event known to extinguish nations and reshape continents, a troubled orphan evades death and slavery to uncover her own bloody past… while a world goes to war with itself."
  • 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.””
  • Hawk by Steven Brust (Tor, Oct 7, 2014)
  • Broken Soul by Faith Hunter (Oct 7, 2014) -- presumably the next Jane Yellowrock book
  • Those Above by Daniel Polansky (Hodder & Stoughton, Oct 9, 2014) -- "You've seen him do crime - low fantasy by way of HBO's The Wire. You knew it as Low Town, the crime-ridden city where only death is certain. But you've never seen him do epic fantasy. Until now. From the acclaimed author of THE STRAIGHT RAZOR CURE comes this spectacular new series - epic fantasy, as only Daniel Polansky can imagine it."
  • Graphic Novel: In Real Life by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang (First Second, Oct 14, 2014) -- from the announcement: "a graphic novel about gaming and gold farming for young adults based on Doctorow's award-winning story Anda's Game, adapted by Jen Wang, creator of the amazing graphic novel Koko Be Good."
  • Kids: Centaur Rising by Jane Yolen (Henry Holt, Oct 21, 2014)
  • A Vision of Fire by Gillian Anderson and Jeff Rovin (Simon451, October 2014) — “first in the EarthEnd trilogy” by the X-Files actress and her co-author Rovin
  • The Undying by Ethan Reid (Simon451, October 2014) — a dystopia
  • 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:

  • Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh, read by the author for Simon & Schuster Audio — out in print/ebook in late October 2013
  • Anthology: Carbide Tipped Pens edited by Ben Bova and Eric Choi (Tor, 2014) -- a an original hard sf anthology with stories from Gregory Benford, Nancy Fulda, Aliette de Bodard, Liu Cixin (translated by Ken Liu), Daniel H. Wilson, and more
  • 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) -- I've thoroughly enjoyed the first two Bobby Dollar books (The Dirty Streets of Heaven and Happy Hour in Hell) and am looking forward to finally finding out what the hell is going on among the big powers.
  • 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.”
  • Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie — sequel and book two in the planned trilogy which started with Ancillary Justice
  • Teen: The Burning Depths by James P. Smythe (Hodder, February 2015) -- "Centuries ago, the Australia left a dying Earth in search of an inhabitable planet its colonists could call home. But no such planet was ever discovered. Law and order gave way to rioting and chaos as gangs began battling for control of the ship and its dwindling resources, and the Australia was left to drift, directionless, through the emptiness of space. Seventeen-year-old Chan, fiercely independent and self-sufficient, keeps her head down and lives quietly, careful not to draw attention to herself amidst the violence and disorder. Until the day she makes an extraordinary discovery – a way to return the Australia to Earth. But doing so would bring her to the attention of the fanatics and the murderers who control life aboard the ship, putting her and everyone she loves in terrible danger. And a safe return to Earth is by no means certain."
Posted in Release Week, Uncategorized | Tagged allen steele, annihilation, carolyn mccormick, christopher golden, clay and susan griffith, dark duets, james marsters, jc hutchins, jeff vandermeer, metatropolis, the 33, the kingmakers, the southern reach, v-s day, vampire empire