Release Week: METAtropolis: Green Space, Tina Connolly's Copperhead, K.W. Jeter's Fiendish Schemes, and Lemony Snicket's "When Did You See Her Last?"

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Release Week: METAtropolis: Green Space, Tina Connolly's Copperhead, K.W. Jeter's Fiendish Schemes, and Lemony Snicket's "When Did You See Her Last?"

Posted on 2013-10-16 at 17:44 by Sam

OCTOBER 9-15, 2013: Audible’s audio-original METAtropolis series returns, along with new sequels from Tina Connolly, K.W. Jeter, and (primarily for younger listeners but hey, it’s) Lemony Snicket, along with (in the “also out” this week listings), Anne Rice’s The Wolves of Midwinter, the four books of R.A. Salvatore’s Legacy of the Drow series, along with the conclusion of Stephen R. Donaldson’s Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and Emma Newman’s The Split World. And! Some fantastic recently-announced titles added to the “coming soon” listings, including Tim Powers’ Hide Me Among the Graves (read by Fiona Hardingham for Blackstone Audio) and the first two books of J.M. McDermott’s Dogsland Trilogy (Never Knew Another and When We Were Executioners). I’m over-the-top excited about both of these. And! Confirmation that Blackstone Audio will have a concurrent audio release for Jeff VanderMeer’s forthcoming Annihilation (FSG, February 4, 2014) though the narrator is still TBD. All in all, a good week for audiobook news. But a bit of a rough one for the fantastic Escape Artists family of sf/f/h short fiction podcasts, including Escape Pod, PseudoPod, and PodCastle. As Nick Mamatas writes, they’re in need of financial support to keep going. If you enjoy these podcasts as much as I do, check them out and consider chipping in. And, as always: enjoy!

PICKS OF THE WEEK:

After 2008’s METAtropolis (narrated by the cast of Battlestar Galactica along with Stefan Rudnicki and Scott Brick) and 2010’s METAtropolis: Cascadia (narrated by the casts of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager) it has been high time for a return to the audio-original, award-winning shared world series. Yesterday, Audible Frontiers did just that by releasing METAtropolis: Green Space. For narrators, this time it’s a primarily all-star narrator affair, with Dion Graham (The Circle, Death by Black Holes: And Other Cosmic Quandaries, Miles: The Autobiography, Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed), Robin Miles (voice of Nalo Hopkinson and Karen Lord in audio, among others), Mark Boyett (Murakami’s 1Q84), Scott Brick (Justin Cronin’s The Passage, Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief), Allyson Johnson (David Weber’s Honor Harrington series), Sanjiv Jhaveri (masterful on G. Willow Wilson’s Alif the Unseen), Jennifer Van Dyck (Elizabeth Moon, Jack McDevitt, Kristine Kathryn Rusch), and Jonathan Davis (Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl). Story wise: “As METAtropolis: Green Space moves into the 22nd Century, human social evolution is heading in new directions after the Green Crash and the subsequent Green Renaissance. Nearly everyone who cares to participate in the wired world has become part of the “Internet of things”, a virtual environment mapped across all aspects of the natural experience. At the same time, the serious back-to-the-land types have embraced a full-on paleo lifestyle, including genetically engineering themselves and their offspring. At the same time, a back-to-space movement is seeking the moon, a green Mars, and even the stars, with the eventual goal of leaving a pristine and undisturbed Earth behind. METAtropolis: Green Space is the creation of Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominee Jay Lake; Hugo Award winning writers Seanan McGuire, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Elizabeth Bear; New York Times best-selling author Tobias S. Buckell; Aurora Award winner Karl Schroeder; and critically-acclaimed author Ken Scholes.”

METAtropolis: Green Space | [Jay Lake, Elizabeth Bear, Karl Schroeder, Seanan McGuire, Tobias S. Buckell, Mary Robinette Kowal, Ken Scholes] Copperhead: Ironskin, Book 2 | [Tina Connolly]

Tina Connolly’s 2012 debut novel Ironskin was nominated for the Nebula Award, and was produced as a fantastic audiobook read by Roslyn Landor for Audible Frontiers. This week, Connolly revisits her “Jane Austen after the Great Fairy War” setting with Copperhead: Ironskin, Book 2, once again narrated by Landor, , concurrent with the Tor Books print/ebook release. “Helen Huntingdon is beautiful - so beautiful she has to wear an iron mask. Six months ago her sister Jane uncovered a fey plot to take over the city. Too late for Helen, who opted for fey beauty in her face - and now has to cover her face with iron so she won’t be taken over, her personality erased by the bodiless fey. Not that Helen would mind that some days. Stuck in a marriage with the wealthy and controlling Alistair, she lives at the edges of her life, secretly helping Jane remove the dangerous fey beauty from the wealthy society women who paid for it. But when the chancy procedure turns deadly, Jane goes missing - and is implicated in a murder.”

Fiendish Schemes by K. W. Jeter (Tor / Brilliance Audio) is “The long-awaited stand-alone sequel to the seminal novel Infernal Devices by one of the founding fathers of steampunk.” Two years ago, Angry Robot re-released Infernal Devices along with an Angry Robot on Brilliance Audio edition performed by Michael Page, and here the decades-later sequel is read by Justine Eyre. “In 1986 K. W. Jeter coined the term “steampunk,” applying it to his first Victorian-era science fiction alternate-history adventure. At last he has returned with Fiendish Schemes, a tale of George Dower, son of the inventor of Infernal Devices, who has been in new self-imposed exile…accumulating debts. The world Dower left when he went into hiding was significantly simpler than the new, steam-powered Victorian London, a mad whirl of civilization filled with gadgets and gears in the least expected places. After accepting congratulations for his late father’s grandest invention—a walking, steam-powered lighthouse—Dower is enticed by the prospect of financial gain into a web of intrigue with ominously mysterious players who have nefarious plans of which he can only guess.”

Fiendish Schemes | [K. W. Jeter] 'When Did You See Her Last?': All the Wrong Questions | [Lemony Snicket]

“When Did You See Her Last?” by Lemony Snicket, read by Liam Aiken for Hachette Audio, continues the A Sequence of Unfortunate Events author Snicket’s ongoing All the Wrong Questions series for young readers which began with last year’s ‘Who Could That Be at This Hour?‘. Here: “I should have asked the question “How could someone who was missing be in two places at once?” Instead, I asked the wrong question - four wrong questions, more or less. This is the account of the second. In the fading town of Stain’d-by-the-Sea, young apprentice Lemony Snicket has a new case to solve when he and his chaperone are hired to find a missing girl. Is the girl a runaway? Or was she kidnapped? Was she seen last at the grocery store? Or could she have stopped at the diner? Is it really any of your business? These are all the wrong questions.”

ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:

All Is Fair: The Split Worlds Series, Book 3 | [Emma Newman] Female Science Fiction Writer: Collected Stories 2001-2012 | [Amy Sterling Casil]

SEEN BUT NOT HEARD:

Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction The The Wasteland Saga: Three Novels: Old Man and the Wasteland, The Savage Boy, The Road is a River

COMING SOON:

Zendegi | [Greg Egan] Lost Cantos of the Ouroboros Caves by Maggie Schein

NOVEMBER:

Never Knew Another: Dogsland, Book 1 | [J. M. McDermott] Shadow Saga 2: Shadow's Lure

DECEMBER: NEXT YEAR:

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer Southern Reach trilogy the-girl-in-the-road-monica-byrne

  • SOUL CATCHER by Frank Herbert, read by To Be Announced for Blackstone Audio (Jan 1, 2014)
  • The Queen of Dreams by Peter Hamilton (Doubleday UK, 2 Jan 2014) — first children’s book by the epic sf author Peter F. Hamilton: “Taggie and Jemima are summer holidaying on their dad’s farm. They know just what to expect – a tumbledown cottage, sunshine and strawberry-picking. But then Jemima sees a white squirrel wearing glasses . . . And things become even more extraordinary when their dad is captured and whisked away to a faerie world. Magical adventures await, as the two sisters discover powers they never knew they had and a series of worlds to explore. But can Taggie and Jemima rescue their dad and defeat the evil King of Night?”
  • The Land Across by Gene Wolfe (Tor, Nov 26) — audiobook coming January 4, 2014 from Brilliance Audio
  • The Swords of Good Men by Snorri Kristjansson (Jo Fletcher Books, January 7, 2014) — a “Viking fantasy novel” by a new Icelandic author
  • The Girl with All the Gifts by M.J. Carey (Orbit, Jan 7, 2014) — “Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her ‘our little genius’. Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite, but they don’t laugh.” — link to cover
  • Rex Regis by L. E. Modesitt (Tor, Jan 7, 2014)
  • Fury of the Demon by Diana Rowland (Jan 7, 2014)
  • Dreams of the Golden Age by Vaughn, Carrie (Jan 7, 2014) -- sequel to After the Golden Age
  • Work Done for Hire  by Joe Haldeman (Ace Hardcover, January 7, 2014) — novel about an ex-sniper turned sf screenwriter turned reluctant hitman; I’ve hear Haldeman read from this novel in draft and am very much looking forward to its release
  • Love in the Time of Metal and Flesh by Jay Lake (Prime Books, January 7, 2014) — “Markus Selvage has been bent by life, ground up and spit out again. In San Francisco’s darkest sexual underground, he is a perpetual innocent, looking within bodies – his own and others’ – for the lost secrets of satisfaction. But extreme body modification is only the beginning of where he will go before he’s finished…”
  • Rex Regis (Imager Portfolio)  by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. (Jan 7, 2014)
  • 1636: Seas of Fortune  by Iver Cooper (January 7, 2014)
  • Black Arts: A Jane Yellowrock Novel  by Faith Hunter (Jan 7, 2014)
  • Darkest Fear (Birthright) by Cate Tiernan (Jan 7, 2014)
  • Once In a Blue Moon by Green, Simon R. (Jan 7, 2014)
  • Graphic novel: Cemetery Girl, Book One: The Pretenders (The Cemetery Girl Trilogy) by Harris, Charlaine and Golden, Christopher (Jan 7, 2014)
  • Anthology: Dark Duets by Golden, Christopher (Jan 7, 2014)
  • The Emperor's Blades (Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne) by Brian Staveley (Jan 14, 2014)
  • Watchers in the Night (Guardians of the Night) by Jenna Black (Jan 14, 2014)
  • The Man Who Made Models: The Collected Short Fiction  by R.A. Lafferty (Centipede Press, January 14, 2014)
  • Dawn of Swords (The Breaking World)  by David Dalglish (Jan 14, 2014)
  • Dirty Magic (Prospero’s War) by Jaye Wells (Jan 21, 2014)
  • Pandemic by Scott Sigler (Crown, Jan 21, 2014)
  • Non-Fiction: What Makes This Book So Great by Walton, Jo (Jan 21, 2014)
  •  Red Rising by Brown, Pierce (Jan 28, 2014) -- “Brown’s debut novel . . . is reminiscent of both Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games and William Goldman’s The Lord of the Flies but has a dark and twisted power of its own that will captivate readers and leave them wanting more.”— Library Journal
  • The Book of the Crowman by Joseph D’ Lacey (Jan 28, 2014)
  • A Darkling Sea by James Cambias (Tor, Jan 28, 2014)
  • The Echo by James Smythe (Jan 28, 2014) -- sequel to The Explorer
  • 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.”
  • Annihilation (Southern Reach, Volume 1) by Jeff VanderMeer (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, Feb 4, 2014) — the first of a trilogy of “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?”
  • Like a Mighty Army (Safehold) by David Weber (Feb 4, 2014)
  • The Crimson Campaign (The Powder Mage Trilogy, Book 2) by Brian McClellan (Orbit, February 2014)
  • Like a Mighty Army (Safehold)  by David Weber (Feb 4, 2014)
  • V-S Day: A Novel of Alternate History  by Allen Steele (Feb 4, 2014) — narrated by Ray Chase
  • Empire of Men by David Weber and John Ringo (Feb 4, 2014)
  • The Waking Engine by David Edison (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 Judge of Ages (Count to a Trillion) by John C. Wright (Feb 25, 2014)
  • The Undead Pool by Kim Harrison (Feb 25, 2014)
  • Dreamwalker by C.S. Friedman (February 2014)
  • 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)
  • Murder of Crows: A Novel of the Others by Bishop, Anne (Mar 4, 2014)
  • Blood and Iron (The Book of the Black Earth) by Jon Sprunk (Pyr, March 11, 2014)
  • Resistance by Jenna Black (Mar 11, 2014)
  • Working God’s Mischief (Instrumentalities of the Night)  by Glen Cook (Mar 11, 2014)
  • The High Druid's Blade: The Defenders of Shannara by Brooks, Terry (Mar 11, 2014)
  • Mentats of Dune  by Brian Herbert (March 11, 2014)
  • Anthology: The Time Traveler’s Almanac by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer (Tor, Mar 18, 2014)
  • Lockstep  by Karl Schroeder (Mar 25, 2014)
  • The Burning Dark by Adam Christopher (Mar 25, 2014)
  • Written in My Own Heart's Blood: A Novel (Outlander) by Gabaldon, Diana (Mar 25, 2014)
  • Anthology: KAIJU RISING (Kickstarter, March 2014)
  • 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.”
  • 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)
  • Shipstar  by Larry Niven and Gregory Benford (Tor, April 8, 2014)
  • Transhuman  by Ben Bova (April 15, 2014)
  • The Serpent of Venice: A Novel by Moore, Christopher (Apr 22, 2014)
  • The City Stained Red by Sam Sykes (Gollanz UK, 17 Apr 2014) — from the author of Tome of the Undergates
  • Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor (Hodder & Stoughton, April 2014) — “The Nigerian megacity of Lagos is invaded by aliens, and it nearly consumes itself because of it.”
  • The Moon King by Neil Williamson (Newcon, April 2014) — Debut novel: “The story of The Moon King grew out of its setting, the sea-locked city of Glassholm, which is a thinly veneered version of Glasgow, Scotland where I live. Glasgow is a city of mood swings, brilliant with sun and warm sandstone one minute and dour with overcast and rain soaked tarmac the next. Summer days are long and filled with light. The winter months pass mostly in darkness. Living here, your spirit is tied to the city’s mood. As soon as I hooked that almost bipolar sense to the idea of natural cycles, the story blossomed. In Glassholm, the moon never sets and everything, from entropy to the moods of the populace, is affected by its phasing from Full to Dark and back to Full again. I wanted to know what would life be like there, what quirks nature might throw into the mix. And what would happen if it was discovered that the cyclic euphorias and depressions were not natural after all.”
  • Immolation (Children, #1) by Ben Peek (Tor UK, Spring 2014) is “set fifteen thousand years after the War of the Gods. The bodies of the gods now lie across the world, slowly dying as men and women awake with strange powers that are derived from their bodies. Ayae, a young cartographer’s apprentice, is attacked and discovers she cannot be harmed by fire. Her new power makes her a target for an army that is marching on her home. With the help of the immortal Zaifyr, she is taught the awful history of ‘cursed’ men and women, coming to grips with her new powers and the enemies they make. The saboteur Bueralan infiltrates the army that is approaching her home to learn its terrible secret. Split between the three points of view, Immolation‘s narrative reaches its conclusion during an epic siege, where Ayae, Zaifyr and Bueralan are forced not just into conflict with those invading, but with those inside the city who wish to do them harm.”
  • Unwrapped Sky by Rjurik Davidson (Tor, April 15, 2014) — “Caeli-Amur: a city torn by contradiction. A city of languorous philosopher-assassins and magnificent creatures from ancient myth: minotaurs and sirens. Three Houses rule over an oppressed citizenry stirring into revolt. The ruins of Caeli-Amur’s sister city lie submerged beneath the sea nearby, while the remains of strange advanced technology lie hidden in the tunnels beneath the city itself.”
  • The Furies: A Thriller  by Mark Alpert (April 22, 2014)
  • Authority: A Novel (The Southern Reach Trilogy) by Jeff VanderMeer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, May 6, 2014)
  • The Sea Without a Shore by David Drake (May 6, 2014) — Lt. Leary series
  • 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)
  • Queen of the Dark Things: A Novel by Cargill, C. Robert (Harper Voyager, May 13, 2014) -- follow-on to Dreams and Shadows
  • A Dance of Shadows (Shadowdance) by David Dalglish (May 20, 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.”
  • My Real Children by Jo Walton (Tor, May 2014) — “story about one woman and the two lives that she might lead”
  • Veil of the Deserters (Bloodsounder’s Arc #2) by Jeff Salyards (Night Shade Books, June 3, 2014)
  • The Islands of Chaldea by Diana Wynne Jones and Ursula Jones (Greenwillow, Summer 2014) — “Fans of the late writer Diana Wynne Jones – who died in March 2011 – are in for an unexpected treat. In the summer of 2014, Greenwillow will publish a new title from the acclaimed science fiction and fantasy author. Titled The Islands of Chaldea, the book is a standalone novel unconnected to any of the author’s earlier works. It is also the result of an unusual, asynchronous collaboration between the writer and her younger sister, Ursula Jones.”
  • The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman (Viking, August 2014) — book three after The Magicians and The Magician King
  • The Chaplain’s War by Brad Torgerson (Baen, 2014)
  • Colossus by Stephen Messer (Random House Children’s Books, 2014)
  • The Broken Eye (Lightbringer #3) by Brent Weeks (Orbit, 2014)
  • The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, translated by Ken Liu (Tor Books, 2014) — the first of an announced trilogy of translated editions of this 400,000-copy-selling Chinese sf series
  • 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.”
  • 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 (2014) — “We are going to the Sun, rs and Ks.  Whereas the last time out we froze in the infinite Lovecraftian darkness of the Oort, now we are diving into the very heart of the solar system— and man, there’s gonna be a hot time in the ol’ town tonight.”
  • The Thousand and One: Book II of The Crescent Moon Kingdoms by Saladin Ahmed (2014)
  • 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
UNDATED:
  • When Women Were Warriors by Catherine M. Wilson, read by Janis Ian for Dog Ear Audio
  • A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar, coming from Audible
  • Fair Coin and Quantum Coin by E.C. Myers, coming from Audible
  • 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
Posted in Release Week | Tagged jay lake, justine eyre, kw jeter, lemony snicket, metatropolis, rosalyn landor, tina connolly