Release Week: Mur Lafferty's The Shambling Guide to New York City, Chuck Wendig's The Blue Blazes, Emma Newman's Any Other Name, and Hugh Howey's Shift

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Release Week: Mur Lafferty's The Shambling Guide to New York City, Chuck Wendig's The Blue Blazes, Emma Newman's Any Other Name, and Hugh Howey's Shift

Posted on 2013-05-29 at 18:33 by Sam

MAY 22-28, 2013: It’s a mammoth release week to (more or less) close May, ahead of a gigantic release day Wednesday (today) which I’ll cover both in a post of its own and of course in a bit lesser detail in the next release week roundup. It’s also a particularly big release week for self-published (a.k.a. “indie”) titles again, and while Angry Robot on Brilliance Audio snags two of my picks of the week, my top pick is probably no surprise to anyone at this point. In the “seen but not heard” listings it’s also quite a bit list, led for me by Richard Dansky’s Vaporware, which chronicles an A-list video game that does not want to be canceled.

PICKS OF THE WEEK:

Well, I’ve been covering it all month, following the free weekly podcast with a Listen-a-Long series, and it’s finally out in full, as I covered on yesterday’s release day news roundup: The Shambling Guide to New York City by Mur Lafferty, read by Lafferty for Hachette Audio, concurrent with the print and ebook release from Orbit Books. This starts a new series The Shambling Guides, with book 2 heading to New Orleans. Here: “A travel writer takes a job with a shady publishing company in New York, only to find that she must write a guide to the city - for the undead! Because of the disaster that was her last job, Zoe is searching for a fresh start as a travel book editor in the tourist-centric New York City. After stumbling across a seemingly perfect position though, Zoe is blocked at every turn because of the one thing she can’t take off her resume --- human. Not to be put off by anything — especially not her blood drinking boss or death goddess coworker — Zoe delves deep into the monster world. But her job turns deadly when the careful balance between human and monsters starts to crumble — with Zoe right in the middle.” A digital audio title, available at Downpour or Audible or iTunes, and likely other places as well.

The Shambling Guide to New York City | [Mur Lafferty] The Blue Blazes | [Chuck Wendig]

The Blue Blazes by Chuck Wendig, narrated by Patrick Lawlor for Angry Robot on Brilliance Audio. “Meet Mookie Pearl. Criminal underworld? He runs in it. Supernatural underworld? He hunts in it.Nothing stops Mookie when he’s on the job. But when his daughter takes up arms and opposes him, something’s gotta give…”

Also out from Angry Robot on Brilliance Audio this week is Any Other Name: The Split Worlds Series, Book 2 by Emma Newman, narrated by the author. Newman is an experienced narrator, not just on her own work (earlier this year’s Between Two Thorns, which starts The Split Worlds series) but also on several Iambik Audio titles. Here: “It’s Downton Abbey with magic, in Bath’s secret mirror city. Cathy has been forced into an arranged marriage with William Iris - a situation that comes with far more strings than even she could have anticipated, especially when she learns of his family’s intentions for them both.Meanwhile, Max and the gargoyle investigate the Agency - a mysterious organization that appears to play by its own twisted rules, none of them favourable to Society. And in Mundanus, Sam has discovered something very peculiar about his wife’s employer - something that could herald disaster for everyone on both sides of the Split Worlds.”

Any Other Name: The Split Worlds Series, Book 2 | [Emma Newman] Shift Omnibus Edition: Shift 1-3, Silo Saga | [Hugh Howey]

Shift Omnibus Edition: Shift 1-3, Silo Saga by Hugh Howey, narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds. Howey is a breakthrough self-publisher in the ebook world and then later into audio via ACX with the Minnie Goode-narrated Wool. That self-published edition is no longer available (Audible produced a second audiobook version itself earlier this year with a different narrator), and for Shift, Random House UK has its own version. Here is, at least according to the Audible listings, Howey's return to self-publishing in audio with the follow-on prequel to Wool, narrated by the superb Tim Gerard Reynolds (Michael Sullivan's Riyria Revelations series). The third volume of the Silo Saga, Dust, is due out in August.

ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:

After Earth | [Peter David] Frayed | [Tom Piccirilli] The Assassination of Orange: A Foreworld SideQuest | [Joseph Brassey]

BLACKSTONE AUDIO: (Historical Fiction) The Wolves of the North: A Warrior of Rome Novel, Book 5 By Harry Sidebottom, Narrated By Stefan Rudnicki

RANDOM HOUSE AUDIO: After Earth By Peter David

TANTOR AUDIO: Antiagon Fire: Imager Portfolio, Book 7 By L. E. Modesitt, Jr., narrated By William Dufris; Forever: The World of Nightwalkers, Book 2 By Jacquelyn Frank, narrated By Xe Sands; and (Teen) Eternal Eden: Eden Trilogy, Book 1 By Nicole Williams, Narrated By Tara Sands

RECORDED BOOKS: Ripper By David L. Golemon, narrated By Richard Poe; and (Teen) Oblivion: The Gatekeepers, Book 5 By Anthony Horowitz, Narrated By Simon Prebble

LISTENING LIBRARY: (Teen) Impostor: A Variants Novel, Book 1 By Susanne Winnacker, narrated By Emily Rankin

IAMBIK: Every House Is Haunted By Ian Rogers, narrated By David Lewis Richardson; and In the Service of Samurai by Gloria Oliver, narrated By Availle Availle

CROSSROAD PRESS: Frayed by Tom Piccirilli, read by Sean Wybrant (“As a note — the narrator provided his services free of charge, defraying any profit to Tom to help in his recovery.“)

OASIS AUDIO: (Teen) Crescent: A Helium-3 Novel, Book 2 By Homer Hickam, narrated By Adam Verner

SHADOW MOUNTAIN: (Teen) Fablehaven, Book 1, Fablehaven, Book 2: Rise of the Evening Star, and Fablehaven, Book 3: The Grip of the Shadow Plague By Brandon Mull, and Beyond Foo: Geth and the Return of the Lithens, Book 1 By Obert Sky, all narrated by E. B. Stevens

BRILLIANCE AUDIO: The Assassination of Orange: A Foreworld SideQuest by Joseph Brassey, narrated by Michael Page; Damocles by S. G. Redling, narrated by Angela Dawe; Deeply Odd: Odd Thomas, Book 6 by Dean Koontz; and (Teen) Sky on Fire By Emmy Laybourne, narrated by Todd Haberkorn

AUDIBLE INC.: (Fiction Collection) I Want to Show You More By Jamie Quatro, narrated By Reay Kaplan

AUDIBLE FRONTIERS: Dead Tide By Stephen A. North, narrated By Brad Lawrence; and The Becoming: Revelations: The Becoming Trilogy, Book 3 By Jessica Meigs, narrated by Christian Rummel

INDIE:

The Big Bleep: The Mystery of A Different Universe | [Lawrence R. Spencer] Mage Blood | [Janet Morris]

Tim2: Timothy By Mark Tufo, Narrated By Sean Runnette; The Big Bleep: The Mystery of A Different Universe By Lawrence R. Spencer, Narrated By John Bell; Mage Blood By Janet Morris, Narrated By Alex Hyde-White; Everville: The First Pillar By Roy Huff, Narrated By Jason Lovett; Carrots: Shelby Nichols Adventures, Book 1 By Colleen Helme, Narrated By Wendy Tremont King; (Short) The Tower By Kristine Kathryn Rusch; (Short) G-Men By Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Narrated By Alex Hyde-White; and The Mourning Woods: The Tome of Bill, Part 3 By Rick Gualtieri, Narrated By Christopher John Fetherolf

SEEN BUT NOT HEARD:

Vaporware

  • Cahill's Homecoming by Patrick Hester (May 3) -- first in a new sf novella series
  • Desper Hollow by Elizabeth Massie (Apex Books, May 2013) — “It begins when hardheaded mountain matriarch Granny Mustard decides she wants to live forever. Then she dies. Her slow-witted but equally hardheaded granddaughter Jenkie decides to pick up the ball and run with it, taking Granny’s unperfected immortality moonshine recipe, a socially-inept friend named Bink, and dreams of fame and fortune to an abandoned, isolated trailer up in Desper Hollow.”
  • The Fall of Arthur by J.R.R. Tolkien (Harcourt, May 23) -- "Unfinished narrative poem about King Arthur, the latest of numerous posthumous works edited and published by the author’s son, Christopher Tolkien." Elizabeth Hand reviewed the book in the Los Angeles Times: “What survives of the poem’s actual text takes up only 57 pages of this newly published volume. It focuses on the bloody aftermath of Queen Guinevere’s affair with Lancelot, greatest of Arthur’s knights, and is surprisingly powerful in its terse depiction of the affair’s devastating consequences. The style will be familiar to anyone who’s ever been captivated by the narrative verse that embellishes ‘The Lord of the Rings.’…” (all via Locus Online)
  • The People’s Will (Danilov Quintet 4) by Jasper Kent (Transworld Digital, May 23, 2013) — “Turkmenistan 1881: Beneath the citadel of Geok Tepe sits a prisoner. He hasn’t moved from his chair for two years, hasn’t felt the sun on his face in more than fifty, but he is thankful for that. The city is besieged by Russian troops and soon falls. But one Russian officer has his own reason to be here. Colonel Otrepyev marches into the underground gaol, but for the prisoner it does not mean freedom, simply a new gaoler; an old friend, now an enemy. They return to Russia to meet an older enemy still.”
  • Vaporware by Richard Dansky (JournalStone, May 24) — “Video game projects get shut down all the time, but when the one Ryan Colter and his team have poured their hearts into gets cut, something different happens: the game refuses to go away. Now Blue Lightning is alive, and it wants something from Ryan – something only he can give it.”
  • Something Wicked Anthology of Speculative Fiction, Volume Two by Joe Vaz and Vianne Venter (May 25, 2013)
  • King’s Gambit by Mark Nelson (Hadley-Rille, May 25) -- sequel to 2012 fantasy novel The Poets of Pevana
  • Death by Silver by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold (Lethe Press, May 25)
  • Anthology: The Big Bad: An Anthology of Evil edited by John G. Hartness and Emily Lavin Leverett (Dark Oak Press, May 27) -- an anthology "centered around the theme of the villain as the hero of his own story"
  • Anthology: Fearsome Journeys: The New Solaris Book of Fantasy edited by Jonathan Strahan (Solaris, May 28) — includes new stories from Saladin Ahmed, Kate Elliot, Elizabeth Bear, Scott Lynch, Ellen Kushner, Jeffrey Ford, KJ Parker, and more
  • Ghost Spin by Chris Moriarty (Tor, May 28) -- the third and final book in Chris Moriarty's Spin Trilogy
  • Life on the Preservation by Jack Skillingstead (Solaris, May 28)
  • The Eighth Court by Mike Shevdon (Angry Robot: 28 May)
  • After the End: Recent Apocalypses by Paolo Bacigalupi, Cory Doctorow, Margo Lanagan and Nnedi Okorafor (May 28, 2013)
  • Fiery Edge of Steel by Jill Archer (Ace, May 28) -- second in a "post-Armaggedon" urban fantasy series following 2012's Dark Light of Day
  • Tempest Reborn by Nicole Peeler (Orbit, May 28) -- coming to audio July 15 from Tantor
  • Kids: Handbook for Dragon Slayers by Merrie Haskell (HarperCollins, May 28, 2013) -- "Tilda has never given much thought to dragons, attending instead to her endless duties and wishing herself free of a princess's responsibilities. When a greedy cousin steals Tilda's lands, the young princess goes on the run with two would-be dragon slayers. Before long she is facing down the Wild Hunt, befriending magical horses, and battling flame-spouting dragons. On the adventure of a lifetime, and caught between dreams of freedom and the people who need her, Tilda learns more about dragons—and herself—than she ever imagined."
  • Kids: Troubletwisters: The Mystery by Garth Nix and Sean Williams (Scholastic, May 28) -- book 3 in a series, coming to audio June 1 from Brilliance Audio, which has published the two previous books
COMING SOON:

The Choir Boats: Longing for Yount, Book 1 | [Daniel A. Rabuzzi] Bullettime | [Nick Mamatas]

JUNE and LATER:

The Shining Girls North American Lake Monsters: Stories

  • THE WALL (1962) by Marlen Haushofer, read by Kathe Mazur (Blackstone Audio, June 1) — “I can allow myself to write the truth; all the people for whom I have lied throughout my life are dead…” writes the heroine of Marlen Haushofer’s The Wall, a quite ordinary, unnamed middle-aged woman who awakens to find she is the last living human being.
  • Exiles at the Well of Souls By Jack L. Chalker — Scheduled Release Date: 06-01-13
  • Heart of Iron: London Steampunk, Book 2 By Bec McMaster, narrated By Alison Larkin for Tantor Audio — Scheduled Release Date: 06-03-13
  • The Rings of Haven: Frontiers Saga, Book 2 By Ryk Brown, Narrated By Jeffrey Kafer for Tantor Audio — Scheduled Release Date: 06-03-13
  • The Shining Girls by (Mulholland Books and Hachette Audio, 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.”
  • The Beautiful Land by Alan Averill (Ace, Jun 4, 2013) — “An exciting debut novel, in the tradition of The Passage. The Beautiful Land is part science fiction, part horror–and, at its core, a love story, between a brilliant young computer genius and the fragile women he has loved since high school. Now, he must bend time and space to save her life, as the world around them descends into apocalyptic madness.”
  • 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)
  • Joyland By Stephen King, Narrated By Michael Kelly — Scheduled Release Date: 06-04-13
  • The Firebird By Susanna Kearsley, Narrated By Lucy Rayner for Brilliance Audio — Scheduled Release Date: 06-04-13
  • Heart of Obsidian: Psy-Changeling, Book 12 By Nalini Singh, Narrated By Angela Dawe — Scheduled Release Date: 06-04-13
  • Kids: Curse of the Ancients: Infinity Ring, Book 4 By Matt de la Pena, Narrated By Dion Graham for Scholastic Audio — Scheduled Release Date: 06-04-13
  • Fiction: what purpose did i serve in your life by Marie Calloway (Tyrant Books, June 4) -- "Marie Calloway's fiction debut, what purpose did i serve in your life, is both a portrait of American youth and a gamble, a chance taken, in answer to the following: for a young woman, is there such a thing as the soul, a life more than the organs, or is she forever recalled to her body? Marie does not answer this question but instead acts it out through a series of intertwined stories. The result is a fusillade of brutally self-aware and insightful pieces that take on the meaning of sex, art, and, most of all, survival in the age of Internet-based sex work and love that can flame and turn to ash in the space of a tweet." -- no audio news
  • 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 Skystone: Camulod Chronicles, Book 1 By Jack Whyte, Narrated By Kevin Pariseau for Audible Inc. — Scheduled Release Date: 06-11-13
  • Shattered Pillars (The Eternal Sky, Book 2) by Elizabeth Bear (Recorded Books, 14 June 2013) — Out in ebook and hardcover earlier this year from Tor: “A winner of multiple Hugo Awards and a Locus Award, Elizabeth Bear crafts mesmerizing tales of science fiction and fantasy. The second novel in her Eternal Sky trilogy, Shattered Pillars continues the epic saga of politics, war, and magic that began with Range of Ghosts. Temur the exiled heir and Sarmarkar the Tsarepheth wizard must gather all their strength to fight the dark forces determined to conquer every great empire along the Celedon Road.”
  • 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)
  • CLOAK & SILENCE by Sherrilyn Kenyon (Blackstone Audio, June 17)
  • The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel by Neil Gaiman (William Morrow and Harper Audio, Jun 18, 2013)
  • Lexicon by Max Barry, read by Heather Corrigan and Zach Appelman for Dreamscape Media (concurrent with hardcover/ebook release from Penguin, June 18) — “An up-all-night thriller for freaks and geeks who want to see their wizards all grown up in the real world and armed to the teeth in a bloody story.” – Kirkus Reviews; as well as blurbs from both Lev (“About as close you can get to the perfect cerebral thriller: searingly smart, ridiculously funny, and fast as hell. Lexicon reads like Elmore Leonard high out of his mind on Snow Crash.”) and Austin Grossman (“I don’t know how you could craft a better weekend read than this novel of international intrigue and weaponized Chomskian linguistics. It’s the perfect mix of philosophical play and shotgun-inflected chase scenes. Like someone let Grant Morrison loose on the Bourne identity franchise.”)
  • Sea Change by S.M. Wheeler (Tor, Jun 18) — “Wheeler’s stunning debut is a sophisticated fantasy whose lush descriptions, lurical dialogue, and engaging structure are reminiscent of the very best fairy tales… This profoundly beautifuly evolution of fairy tale elements will have readers eagerly awaiting Wheeler’s next book.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
  • 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 Blackstone 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)
  • Blade Reforged (A Fallen Blade Novel) by Kelly McCullough (Ace, Jun 25, 2013)
  • The Goliath Stone by Larry Niven and Matthew Joseph Harrington (Tor Books, Jun 25) — “Twenty-five years ago, the Briareus mission took nanomachinery out to divert an Earth-crossing asteroid and bring it back to be mined, only to drop out of contact as soon as it reached its target. The project was shut down and the technology was forcibly suppressed. Now, a much, much larger asteroid is on a collision course with Earth—and the Briareus nanites may be responsible.”
  • Hunted: The Iron Druid Chronicles, Book 6 by Kevin Hearne, narrated by Luke Daniels for Brilliance Audio — Scheduled Release Date: 06/25/13
  • A Discourse in Steel by Paul S. Kemp (Angry Robot: 25 June 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)
  • 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.”
  • 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.”
  • Playing Tyler by T L Costa (Strange Chemistry, Jul 2, 2013)
  • Anthology: Wastelands II: More Stories of the Apocalypse by John Joseph Adams (Night Shade Books, Jul 2, 2013)
  • Anthology: The Lowest Heaven (Jurassic London, July 3) — “17 original science fiction stories inspired by our closest celestial neighbours and published in partnership with the Royal Observatory Greenwich. Features new work from Alastair Reynolds, Sophia McDougall, Kameron Hurley, S. L. Grey, E. J. Swift, Maria Dahvana Headley, James Smythe, Matt Jones and many others.” (limited hardcover release in mid-June)
  • The Curiosity: A Novel by Stephen Kiernan (William Morrow, Jul 9, 2013)
  • Fiction: This Is How You Fall by Keith Dixon (Thomas and Mercer, Jul 9, 2013) — coming to audio read by Nick Podehl for Brilliance Audio
  • 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.”
  • Witch Wraith: The Dark Legacy of Shannara, Book 3 By Terry Brooks — Scheduled Release Date: 07-16-13
  • This Is How You Die: Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable Machine of Death by Matthew Bennardo, David Malki ! and Ryan North (Grand Central, Jul 16, 2013)
  • Anthology: Carniepunk (Pocket Books, July 30)
  • The Dark Man: An Illustrated Poem by Stephen King and Glenn Chadbourne (Cemetery Dance, Jul 30, 2013)
  • Anthology: The Mammoth Book of Angels and Demons edited by Paula Guran (Running Press, July 30) — UK edition was published May 16
  • 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.”
  • Engn by Simon Kewin (December House, July 2013) -- "Finn's childhood in the valley is idyllic, but across the plains lies a threat. Engn is an ever-growing steam-powered fortress, that needs a never ending supply of workers. Generation after generation have been taken away, escorted into its depths by the mysterious and terrifying Ironclads, never to return. The Masters of Engn first take Finn's sister, then his best friend, Connor. He thinks he, at least, is safe - until the day the ironclads come to haul him away too."
  • 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)
  • The Companions: The Sundering, Book I by R. A. Salvatore (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)
  • The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara (Doubleday, Dreamscape Media, August 13) — “In 1950, a young doctor, Norton Perina, signs on with the anthropologist Paul Tallent for an expedition to the remote island of Ivu’ivu in search of a rumored lost tribe. They succeed, finding not only that tribe but also a group of forest dwellers they dub “The Dreamers,” who turn out to be fantastically long-lived but progressively more senile. Perina suspects the source of their longevity is a hard-to-find turtle; unable to resist the possibility of eternal life, he kills one and smuggles some meat back to the States. He proves his thesis, earning worldwide fame, but he soon discovers that its miraculous property comes at a terrible price. As things quickly spiral out of his control, his own demons take hold, with devastating consequences.”
  • Collection: Celestial Inventories by Steve Rasnic Tem (ChiZine, Aug 15)
  • Dust (Silo Saga) by Hugh Howey (Aug 17, 2013) -- "WOOL introduced the silo and its inhabitants. SHIFT told the story of their making. DUST will chronicle their undoing. Welcome to the underground."
  • 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
  • RED HORSE by Alex Adams (Blackstone Audio, 20 August) — sequel to White Horse
  • 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:
  • Anthology: Glitter and Mayhem edited by John Klima, Lynne M. Thomas, and Michael Damian Thomas (Apex Books, Sep 1) — “Welcome to Glitter & Mayhem, the most glamorous party in the multiverse. Step behind the velvet rope of these fabulous Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror tales of roller rinks, nightclubs, glam aliens, party monsters, drugs, sex, glitter, and debauchery.”
  • 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)
  • Channel Zilch by Doug Sharp (Panverse, September 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.”
  • The Thicket by Joe R. Lansdale (Mulholland Books, September 10) — ‘In the throes of being civilized, East Texas is still a wild, feral place. Oil wells spurt liquid money from the ground. But as Jack’s about to find out, blood and redemption rule supreme. In The Thicket, award-winning novelist Joe R. Lansdale lets loose like never before, in a rip-roaring adventure equal parts True Gritand Stand by Me–the perfect introduction to an acclaimed writer whose work has been called “as funny and frightening as anything that could have been dreamed up by the Brothers Grimm–or Mark Twain” (New York Times Book Review).’
  • 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)
  • Love is the Law by Nick Mamatas (Dark Horse, September 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”
  • The Abominable: A Novel by Dan Simmons (Little, Brown and Company, Oct 22, 2013)
  • 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)
  • Starhawk by Jack McDevitt (Ace Hardcover, Nov 5)
  • 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
  • Hild: A Novel by Nicola Griffith (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Nov 12, 2013) — “Since Griffith has won the Tiptree, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards, the Premio Italia, and the Lambda Literary Award six times, you’re well advised to grab this fictionalized portrait of a girl name Hild who grew up in seventh-century Britain and became St. Hilda’s of Whitby. Griffith gives us a determined and uncannily perceptive Hild who seems capable of predicting the future (or at least of human behavior), a trait that puts her in the life-and-death position of being made the king’s seer. The writing itself is uncannily perceptive, with none of the flowery excess of some historical fiction writing, though the detailed narrative runs close to 600 pages. I thought of Hillary Mantel’s Wolf Hall even before I noted the comparison in the promotion.” — LibraryJournal
  • 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
  • The Irreal Reader: Fiction & Essays from The Cafe Irreal edited by G.S. Evans and Alice Whittenburg (Guide Dog, November 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 Emperor’s Blades (The Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, #1) by Brian Stavely (Tor, January 2014) — “follows siblings Valyn, Kaden, and Adare, who are in different parts of the world when they learn about the assassination of their father, the Emperor. All of them are in danger of being the next targets, and all of them are caught in the maelstrom of conspiracy, intrigue, treachery, and magic that sweeps through Staveley’s auspicious debut novel.”
  • The 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.”
  • The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne (Random House/Crown, 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.”
  • Blood and Iron by Jon Sprunk (Pyr, 2014)
Posted in Release Week | Tagged chuck wendig, emma newman, hugh howey, mur lafferty