Release Week: Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni, Neil Gaiman's The Silver Dream, Sarah Prineas' Summerkin, and David Niall Wilson's Nevermore

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Release Week: Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni, Neil Gaiman's The Silver Dream, Sarah Prineas' Summerkin, and David Niall Wilson's Nevermore

Posted on 2013-04-24 at 15:56 by Sam

APRIL 17-23, 2013: Though it’s not a tremendously crowded release week, there are great picks in adult, teen, and kids audiobooks, ranging from the latest in a long line of strong debut fantasy novels in 2013 (Helene Wecker’s The Golem and the Jinni) to a sequel to Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves’ InterWorld, and more. (In “meta coverage” notes, this week seems to belong to Harper Audio, whereas last week I noted strong weeks for Hachette Audio and Audible Frontiers.) Without further preamble:

PICKS OF THE WEEK:

The Golem and the Jinni: A Novel By Helene Wecker, Narrated By George Guidall for Harper Audio, concurrent with print/ebook release from Harper. “Harper is really getting behind this debut in the vein of The Night Circus and The Discovery of Witches. The novel combines historical fiction with a magical fable about two supernatural creatures in turn-of-the-20th-century New York City.” (via PW). Here: “Helene Wecker’s dazzling debut novel tells the story of two supernatural creatures who appear mysteriously in 1899 New York. Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a strange man who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic. When her master dies at sea on the voyage from Poland, she is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York Harbor. Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire, born in the ancient Syrian Desert. Trapped in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard centuries ago, he is released accidentally by a tinsmith in a Lower Manhattan shop.”

The Golem and the Jinni: A Novel | [Helene Wecker] The Silver Dream: An InterWorld Novel, Book 2 | [Neil Gaiman]

In the young adult category: The Silver Dream: An InterWorld Novel, Book 2 By Neil Gaiman, Michael Reaves, and Mallory Reaves, Narrated By Christopher Evan Welch for Harper Audio, concurrent with the print/ebook release from HarperTeen, with Welch returning as narrator after 2007’s book 1, InterWorld. Here: “New York Times best-selling authors Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves deliver a thrilling sequel to the science fiction novel InterWorld, full of riveting interdimensional battles and alternate realities. After mastering the ability to walk between dimensions, Joey Harker and his fellow InterWorld freedom fighters are now on a mission to maintain peace between the rival powers of magic and science who seek to control all worlds. When a stranger named Acacia somehow follows Joey back to InterWorld’s base, things get complicated. No one knows who she is or where she’s from - or how she knows so much about InterWorld. Dangerous times lie ahead for Joey and the mission. There’s a traitor hidden among them, and if Joey has any hope of saving InterWorld, the multiverse, and the mission, he’s going to have to rely on his wits - and, just possibly, on the mysterious Acacia Jones. With a story conceived by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves and written by Michael and Mallory Reaves, this mind-bending follow-up to the exciting science fiction novel InterWorld is a compelling fantasy adventure through time and space, in which the future depends on a young man who is more powerful than he realizes.”

In the young reader category: Summerkin: Winterling, Book 2 By Sarah Prineas, Narrated By Erin Moon for Harper Audio, continuing Prineas’ Winterling series after last year’s Winterling. Here: “In the Summerlands, time moves slowly, roots grow deeply, and change is not welcomed. But change is needed. After defeating the wicked Mor and freeing her kin from deadly oaths made to this false ruler, Fer is now the rightful Lady of the land. Yet her people don’t know what to make of their new Lady’s strange ways, and neither do the High Ones, the rulers of the magical realm, for Fer is an outsider - half human. To prove herself worthy of the Summerlands crown, Fer is summoned to compete in an epic contest where her strengths and skills will be tested and her loyalties challenged. Can she trust Rook, the puck she calls friend? Can she trust herself? If Fer fails, she will lose her land and the Way will be closed to her forever.”

Summerkin: Winterling, Book 2 | [Sarah Prineas] Nevermore: A Novel of Love, Loss, & Edgar Allan Poe | [David Niall Wilson]

Lastly, a book published a bit earlier this year but one I’ve been looking forward to in audio: Nevermore: A Novel of Love, Loss, & Edgar Allan Poe By David Niall Wilson, Narrated By Gigi Shane for Crossroad Press. On the shorter end (a bit over 6 hours) it’s also a change of pace from my usual more sf/fantasy picks, with Wilson an award-winning horror author. “On the banks of Lake Drummond, on the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp, there is a tree in the shape of a woman.One dark, moonlit night, two artists met at the Lake Drummond Hotel, built directly on the borderline of North Carolina and Virginia. One was a young woman with the ability to see spirits trapped in trees and stone, anchored to the earth beyond their years. Her gift was to draw them, and then to set them free. The other was a dark man, haunted by dreams and visions that brought him stories of sadness and pain, trapped in a life between the powers he sensed all around him and a mundane existence attended by failure. They were Eleanore MacReady, Lenore, to her friends, and a young poet named Edgar Allan Poe, who traveled with a crow that was his secret, and almost constant companion, a bird named Grimm for the talented brothers of fairy-tale fame.Their meeting drew them together in vision, and legend, and pitted their strange powers and quick minds against the depths of the Dismal Swamp itself, ancient legends, and time. Once, upon a shoreline dreary, there was a tree. This is her story.”

ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:

Halo: Silentium: The Forerunner Saga, Book 3 | [Greg Bear] The Book of Deacon: Book of Deacon Series, Book 1 | [Joseph Lallo] Sojourn: Legend of Drizzt: Dark Elf Trilogy, Book 3 | [R. A. Salvatore]

HARPER AUDIO: The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope By Rhonda Riley, Narrated By Stina Nielsen; (Teen) Arclight By Josin L. McQuein; (Kids) House of Secrets By Chris Columbus, Narrated By Daniel Vincent Gordh

MACMILLAN AUDIO: Halo: Silentium: The Forerunner Saga, Book 3 By Greg Bear

HACHETTE AUDIO: Hot Blooded By Amanda Carlson, Narrated By Therese Plummer; (Memoir) Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls By David Sedaris

PENGUIN AUDIO: Obsidian Mirror By Catherine Fisher, Narrated By Katherine Skinner

TANTOR AUDIO: The Book of Deacon: Book of Deacon Series, Book 1 By Joseph Lallo, Narrated By Karyn O’Bryant

RECORDED BOOKS: Dark Triumph: His Fair Assassin Trilogy, Book 2 By Robin LaFevers

SHADOW MOUNTAIN: Cragbridge Hall, Book 1: The Inventor’s Secret By Chad Morris, Narrated By Kirby Heyborne

BRILLIANCE AUDIO: The God Patent By Ransom Stephens, Narrated By Luke Daniels; and Through the Door: The Thin Veil, Book 1 By Jodi McIsaac

AUDIBLE FRONTIERS: Sojourn: Legend of Drizzt: Dark Elf Trilogy, Book 3 By R. A. Salvatore; The Wanderers: Veiled Isles, Book 3 By Paula Brandon; and additional installments of Robert Asprin’s Myth Adventures series

INDIE: Molly Fyde and the Land of Light: Molly Fyde, Book 2 By Hugh Howey, Narrated By Jennifer O’Donnell; Walking Shadow By Clifford Royal Johns, Narrated By Christopher John Fetherolf

SEEN BUT NOT HEARD:

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  • The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Seven edited by Jonathan Strahan (Night Shade Books, April 18)
  • Unnatural Creatures: Short Stories Selected by Neil Gaiman by Neil Gaiman (Harper Collins, Apr 23, 2013)
  • Grail of the Summer Stars (Aetherial Tales, Volume 3) by Freda Warrington (Tor, April 23)
  • Anthology: The Other Half of the Sky edited by Athena Andreadis and Kay Holt (Candlemark & Gleam, April 23)
  • Bull Spec #8+9 edited by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn (Bull Spec, April 23)
  • Non-Fiction Anthology: Speculative Fiction 2012: The best online reviews, essays and commentary (Jurassic London, April 23) -- "How do you write female characters with agency? What did J.R.R. Tolkien learn from Attila the Hun? What is it like to be a dragon? Is science fiction stuck in a rut? The Internet has the answers. Speculative Fiction 2012 collects over fifty articles from some of the top bloggers and authors in science fiction and fantasy, including over two dozen reviews. Contributors include Joe Abercrombie, Daniel Abraham, Niall Alexander, Kate Elliott, N. K. Jemisin, Aidan Moher, Abigail Nussbaum, Christopher Priest, Adam Roberts, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Sam Sykes and Lavie Tidhar."
  • Fiction River #1: An Original Anthology Magazine edited by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Fiction River, April 23)
COMING SOON:

Apollo's Outcasts | [Allen Steele] NOS4A2: A Novel | [Joe Hill]

MAY:

The Kings and Queens of Roam: A Novel The Shambling Guide to New York City

JUNE and LATER:

The Shining Girls North American Lake Monsters: Stories

  • The Shining Girls by (Mulholland Books, 6/04/2013) — “A time-traveling serial killer is impossible to trace–until one of his victims survives. In Depression-era Chicago, Harper Curtis finds a key to a house that opens on to other times. But it comes at a cost. He has to kill the shining girls: bright young women, burning with potential.” No audio news.
  • Abaddon’s Gate (The Expanse) by James S.A. Corey (Orbit, Jun 4, 2013)
  • In Thunder Forged: Iron Kingdoms Chronicles (The Fall of Llael Book One) by Ari Marmell (Jun 4, 2013)
  • Gameboard of the Gods (Age of X) by Richelle Mead (Penguin Audio, Jun 4, 2013)
  • Fiction: The Blood of Heaven by Kent Wascom (Grove Atlantic, Jun 4, 2013) — “an epic novel about the American frontier in the early days of the nineteenth century”
  • Siege and Storm (Grisha Trilogy (Shadow and Bone)) by Leigh Bardugo (Henry Holt, Jun 4, 2013)
  • The Firebird By Susanna Kearsley, Narrated By Lucy Rayner for Brilliance Audio -- Scheduled Release Date: 06-04-13
  • After the End: Recent Apocalypses by Paolo Bacigalupi, Cory Doctorow, Margo Lanagan and Nnedi Okorafor (Jun 5, 2013)
  • Love Minus Eighty by Will McIntosh (Orbit, June 11) -- "In the future, love is complicated and death is not necessarily the end. Love Minus Eighty follows several interconnected people in a disquieting vision of romantic life in the century to come."
  • THE WINDS OF ALTAIR by Ben Bova, read by Stefan Rudnicki for Blackstone Audio (Available 15 June 13)
  • ATTICA by Garry Kilworth, read by Simon Vance for Blackstone Audio (Available 15 June 13)
  • The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel by Neil Gaiman (William Morrow and Harper Audio, Jun 18, 2013)
  • Requiem by Ken Scholes (Tor, Jun 18) -- "the latest in The Psalms of Isaak series"
  • Before the Fall by Francis Knight (Orbit, Jun 18) — book two in a trilogy to be published in its entirety in 2013, starting with (already out) Fade to Black
  • The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter (Harper, Jun 18, 2013) — sequel to The Long Earth
  • Wisp of a Thing by Alex Bledsoe (Tor, Jun 18) — coming to audio read by Stefan Rudnicki, this is book 2 after 2011′s The Hum and the Shiver
  • The Shuddering by Ania Ahlborn (47North and Brilliance Audio, Jun 18, 2013)
  • The Quarry by Iain M. Banks (Little, Brown and Co., June 20, 2013)
  • The Adjacent by Christopher Priest (Orion UK, Jun 20, 2013) — no US release news
  • Divinity and the Python by Bonnie Randall (Panverse, June 21)
  • Cold Steel (The Spiritwalker Trilogy) by Kate Elliott (Orbit, Jun 25, 2013)
  • The World of the End by Ofir Touché Gafla (Tor, Jun 25) -- "As an epilogist, Ben Mendelssohn appreciates an unexpected ending. But when that denouement is the untimely demise of his beloved wife, Ben is incapable of coping. Marian was more than his life partner; she was the fiber that held together all that he is. And Ben is willing to do anything, even enter the unknown beyond, if it means a chance to be with her again. One bullet to the brain later, Ben is in the Other World, where he discovers a vast and curiously secular existence utterly unlike anything he could have imagined: a realm of sprawling cities where the deceased of every age live an eternal second life, and where forests of family trees are tended by mysterious humans who never lived in the previous world. But Ben cannot find Marian. Desperate for a reunion, he enlists an unconventional afterlife investigator to track her down, little knowing that his search is entangled in events that continue to unfold in the world of the living. It is a search that confronts Ben with one heart-rending shock after another; with the best and worst of human nature; with the resilience and fragility of love; and with truths that will haunt him through eternity."
  • Anthology: Aliens: Recent Encounters by Alex Macfarlane (Prime, Jun 25, 2013)
  • THE INTEGRAL TREES by Larry Niven, read by Tom Weiner for Blackstone Audio (Available 1 July 13)
  • Channel Zilch by Doug Sharp (Panverse, July 2013) — “Mick Oolfson trashed his astronaut career by stunt-flying a shuttle during re-entry. He’s miserable as a groundling, so when testosterone-surfing geek goddess Heloise Chin offers him an astronaut gig on Channel Zilch, a pirate orbiting reality show, Mick jumps at the chance to return to space, though it means denting his Boy Scout scruples by stealing space shuttle Enterprise from the Smithsonian. CHANNEL ZILCH is a near-future hard science fiction caper with heart and purpose, the first book of The Geek Rapture Project. Book 2, HEL’S BET, will be published by Panverse later in 2013.”
  • Thieves’ Quarry by D.B. Jackson (Tor, July 2) — sequel to Thieftaker
  • Neptune’s Brood by Charles Stross (Ace, Jul 2, 2013) — “The year is AD 7000. The human species is extinct—for the fourth time—due to its fragile nature. Krina Alizond-114 is metahuman, descended from the robots that once served humanity. She’s on a journey to the water-world of Shin-Tethys to find her sister Ana. But her trip is interrupted when pirates capture her ship. Their leader, the enigmatic Count Rudi, suspects that there’s more to Krina’s search than meets the eye.”
  • A Discourse in Steel by Paul S. Kemp (Angry Robot: 2 Jul 2013)
  • Woken Gods by Gwenda Bond (Jul 2, 2013)
  • The Thousand Names: Book One of The Shadow Campaigns by Django Wexler (Roc Hardcover, Jul 2, 2013) — “Enter an epic fantasy world that echoes with the thunder of muskets and the clang of steel—but where the real battle is against a subtle and sinister magic.”
  • Anthology: Wastelands II: More Stories of the Apocalypse by John Joseph Adams (Night Shade Books, Jul 2, 2013)
  • The Curiosity: A Novel by Stephen Kiernan (William Morrow, Jul 9, 2013)
  • North American Lake Monsters: Stories by Nathan Ballingrud (Small Beer Press, July 16)
  • Beacons edited by Gregory Norminton (Oneworld Publications, Jul 16, 2013) — “Beacons throws down the gauntlet, challenging best-selling and award-winning authors to imagine where we, and out planet, might be headed and, in imagining, help us transform the way we look at our world and change things for the better. From Joanne Harris’ powerful vision of a near future where ‘outside’ has become a thing of history to Nick Hayes’ beautifully illustrated tale of the bond between man and nature, Beacons sees the coming together of dystopian satire, speculative and historical fiction, metaphorical flights of fancy, quiet tragedy, and farcical comedy in stories that are as various as our possible futures. Provocative, encouraging, and deeply moving, Beacons represents the best of short story writing — and collectively illuminates the immediacy of the ecological problems at hand. All author royalties will go to the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition, one of the largest groups of people dedicated to action on climate change and limiting its impact on the world’s poorest people.”
  • Anthology: Carniepunk (Pocket Books, July 30)
  • Three (Duskwalker Cycle #1) by Jay Posey (Angry Robot, July 31, 2013) — cover reveal and excerpt up at io9
  • Anthology: Impossible Monsters edited by Kasey Lansdale (Subterranean Press, July 2013) — “The Lansdale name is legendary in the horror field. Now acclaimed musician and actress Kasey Lansdale follows in her father’s footsteps, making her editing debut with this anthology of monstrously innovative stories. The twelve creatures that stalk the pages of Impossible Monsters spring from the twisted imaginations of a dozen of today’s most noted authors.” This anthology includes Neil Gaiman’s “Click-Clack the Rattlebag” among other tales.
  • Hollow World by Michael J. Sullivan (Kickstarter, July 2013) — “Ellis Rogers is an ordinary guy who has always done the right things and played by the rules. But like many, his life didn’t turn out as he had planned. Facing a terminal disease, he’s willing to gamble that a cure could exist in the future, and although it is insanely dangerous to try, he really has nothing to lose. There are many books that explore what life might be like many years from now, and they cover the spectrum from the idealized world of the original Star Trek, with its progressive stance on equality and civil rights, to Huxley’s dystopian Brave New World. For years I’ve been fascinated by the observation that perception can make people see the same thing in very different ways. So I created a future, which if I’ve done my job properly, will be seen by some as a utopia and by others as exactly the opposite.”
  • Darwen Arkwright and the School of Shadows (Darwen Arkwright #3) by AJ Hartley (Razorbill, August 1)
  • The Crown Tower (The Riyria Chronicles #1) by Michael J. Sullivan (Orbit, August 3)
  • The Emergence of the Digital Humanities by Steven E. Jones (Routledge, Aug 3, 2013)
  • Wrath-bearing Tree (A Tournament of Shadows Book Two) by James Enge (Pyr, Aug 6, 2013)
  • Emperor of Thorns (The Broken Empire) by Mark Lawrence (Ace, Aug 6, 2013)
  • Kindred and Wings (A Shifted World Novel) by Philippa Ballantine (Pyr, Aug 6, 2013)
  • The Third Kingdom by Terry Goodkind (Tor, Aug 6) — direct sequel to The Omen Machine
  • Blood of Tyrants by Naomi Novik (Del Rey, Aug 13, 2013)
  • Collection: Celestial Inventories by Steve Rasnic Tem (ChiZine, Aug 15)
  • Fiction: Lookaway, Lookaway: A Novel By Wilton Barnhardt, Narrated By Scott Shepherd for Macmillan Audio (concurrent with print/ebook release from St. Martin's) -- Scheduled Release Date: 08-20-13
  • The Time of Contempt (The Witcher) by Andrzej Sapkowski (Orbit, Aug 27, 2013)
  • Billy Moon: A transcendent Novel Reimagining the Life of Christopher Robin Milne by Douglas Lain (Tor, Aug 27, 2013)
  • The Swords of Good Men by Snorri Kristjansson (Jo Fletcher Books, August 2013) — a “Viking fantasy novel” by a new Icelandic author
  • Super Stories of Heroes and Villains edited by Claude Lalumiere (Tachyon, August 2013) — Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola, Jonathan Lethem, Cory Doctorow, Kelly Link’s “Origin Story”, Carol Emshwiller, Gene Wolfe, GRRM, …
  • The Daylight War: The Demon Cycle, Book 3 by Peter V. Brett (GraphicAudio, August 2013)
SEPTEMBER and LATER:
  • Shaman: A novel of the Ice Age by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit, 3 Sep 2013) — UK release date, US date not confirmed for this historical fiction “novel set in the ice age, about the people who made the paintings in the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave in southern France, about 32,000 years ago”
  • Constellations: A Play by Nick Payne (Faber and Faber Plays, Sep 3, 2013) — already available in Kindle and in the UK — via an interesting review on Tor.com
  • Monsters of the Earth (Books of the Elements #3) by David Drake (Tor, September 2013)
  • Anthology: Once Upon a Time: New Fairy Tales edited by Paula Guran (Prime Books, September 11)
  • Fiddlehead by Cherie Priest (Tor, Autumn 2013)
  • American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett (Recorded Books, Sep 13) -- published earlier this year in print/ebook, and perhaps to show up in digital audio a bit earlier (Sep 1)
  • The Rose and the Thorn by Michael J. Sullivan (Orbit, Sep 17) — Riyria Chronicles #2
  • The Falconer by Elizabeth May (Gollanz UK, Sep 19) -- I don't see a US release until 2014 for this much-balyhooed debut fantasy
  • Doctor Sleep by Stephen King (Scribner and Simon & Schuster Audio, September 24) — King returns to The Shining
  • Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, Sep 24, 2013)
  • The Incrementalists by Steven Brust and Skyler White (Tor, Sep 24)
  • Dead Run, The by Adam Mansbach (HarperCollins, Sep 24, 2013)
  • Hero by Alethea Kontis (Harcourt Children’s Books, October 1)
  • Pandemic by Scott Sigler (Crown, Oct 1, 2013)
  • Ghosts Know by Ramsey Campbell (Tor, Oct 1)
  • The Republic of Thieves (Gentleman Bastard, #3) by Scott Lynch (Spectra, October 8)
  • A Dance of Cloaks by David Dalglish (Orbit, Oct 8) — originally self-published, now being re-published by Orbit
  • Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff VanderMeer and Jeremy Zerfoss (Abrams Image, Oct 15, 2013) — an audiobook for this doesn’t make sense and so there isn’t one and won’t be one, but definitely a project I’m looking forward to
  • Copperhead by Tina Connolly (Tor, October 15, 2013) — follow-on to Ironskin – cover revealed
  • Fiendish Schemes by K. W. Jeter (Tor, October 15) — “The long-awaited stand-alone sequel to the seminal novel Infernal Devices by one of the founding fathers of steampunk”
  • Two Serpents Rise by Max Gladstone (Tor Books, October 29) — book one is in audio from Blackstone
  • The n-Body Problem by Tony Burgess (ChiZine, October 2013) -- "Tony Burgess returns to the realm of the zombie"
  • The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar (Hodder UK, October 2013) — just announced — “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy meets Watchmen in Tidhar’s The Violent Century, the thoughtful and intensely atmospheric novel about the mystery, and the love story, that determined the course of history itself. The Violent Century is the sweeping drama of a time we know too well; a century of fear and war and hatred and death.  In a world where everyday heroes may become übermenschen, men and women with extraordinary powers, what does it mean to be a hero? To be a human? Would the last hundred years have been that much better if Superman were real? Would they even have been all that different?”
  • Collection: Kabu Kabu by Nnedi Okorafor (Prime, October 2013)
  • Parasite by Mira Grant (Orbit, November 1) — I know nothing about his other than the quite interesting cover…
  • Twenty-First Century Science Fiction by David G. Hartwell and Patrick Nielsen Hayden (Tor, Nov 5, 2013)
  • Fortune’s Pawn by Rachel Bach (Orbit, Nov 5)
  • Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (Tor, November 12) — book 2 in The Stormlight Archive after The Way of Kings
  • Apparition by Trish J. MacGregor (Tor, Nov 12)
  • Watcher of the Dark by Joseph Nassise (Tor, November 19)
  • Bloodstone by Gillian Philip (Tor, Nov 19)
  • Arcanum by Simon Morden (Orbit, Nov 19) — “A historical fantasy novel of medieval Europe in which the magic that has run the world for centuries is disappearing– and now the gifts of the gods must be replaced with the ingenuity of humanity.”
  • The Land Across by Gene Wolfe (Tor, Nov 26)
  • Last to Rise by Francis Knight (Orbit, Nov 26) — concluding volume in a new trilogy which started with Knight’s debut Fade to Black in early 2013
  • Collection: Bleeding Shadows by Joe R. Lansdale (Subterranean, November 2013)
  • Anthology: Dangerous Women edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois (Tor, Dec 3) — table of contents includes Joe Abercrombie, Lev Grossman, and Pat Cadigan, among others
  • Maze by J.M. McDermott (Apex, January 2014)
  • Leaving the Sea: Stories by Ben Marcus (Knopf, January 2014)
  • The Crimson Campaign (The Powder Mage Trilogy, Book 2) by Brian McClellan (Orbit, February 2014)
  • The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman (Viking, Early 2014) — book three after The Magicians and The Magician King
  • Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2014) — the first of three “Southern Reach” novels being published in 2014 — “For thirty years, Area X has remained mysterious, remote, and concealed by the government as an environmental disaster zone even though it is to all appearances pristine wilderness. For thirty years, too, the secret agency known as the Southern Reach has monitored Area X and sent in expeditions to try to discover the truth. Some expeditions have suffered terrible consequences. Others have reported nothing out of the ordinary. Now, as Area X seems to be changing and perhaps expanding, the next expedition will attempt to succeed where all others have failed. What is happening in Area X? What is the true nature of the invisible border that surrounds it?”
  • City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett (Crown/Broadway and Recorded Books, April 1, 2014) — “a second-world story of spies, subterfuge, and statesmanship set in a nation of dead gods.”
  • 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.”
  • 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."
Posted in Release Week