Release Week: The Republic of Thieves, Lost Cantos of the Ouroboros Caves, Cemetery Plot, and The Book(s) of Cthulhu

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Release Week: The Republic of Thieves, Lost Cantos of the Ouroboros Caves, Cemetery Plot, and The Book(s) of Cthulhu

Posted on 2013-10-23 at 19:41 by Sam

OCTOBER 16-22, 2013: Roughly a half hundred new audiobooks in the roundup this week, headlined by the briefly-delayed audiobook for the long-awaited third book in Scott Lynch’s acclaimed The Gentlemen Bastards series, The Republic of Thieves. The remainder of my picks this week probe the corners of the audiobook world a bit, finding another fantastic production from Skyboat Media, an ACX-published tale of overcrowded cemeteries, and a pair of Lovecraftian anthologies. In the “also out” listings, Audible has produced multiple collections from both Manly Wade Wellman and Clark Ashton Smith, Dan Simmons returns to a tale of terror with The Abominable, and Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy concludes with Allegiant. And there’s a big mid-week release coming up, Lavie Tidhar’s The Violent Century from Hodder & Stoughton, and a fantastic release week coming ahead with Christopher Buehlman’s The Necromancer’s House, Max Gladstone’s Two Serpents Rise, Greg Egan’s Zendegi, Richard Kadrey’s Dead Set, Mira Grant’s Parasite, and more. And it’s nearly Halloween, which means it’s about time for All Hallow’s Listen… On that note, I note that Downpour.com’s audiobook of the week is Ray Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree, read by Bronson Pinchot. And speaking of Downpour, some big audiobook news this week as Blackstone, which was not too long ago bought by UK-based AudioGO, has turned around and bought AudioGO’s US business instead, “effectively ending the nine-month merger”. Meanwhile, there are some real gems in the “seen but not heard” listings this week, but I’ve done enough dithering already, so on to the…

PICKS OF THE WEEK:

By a good measure my top pick this week is The Republic of Thieves (Gentleman Bastard, #3) by Scott Lynch, read by Michael Page for Tantor Audio. The award-winning first audiobook in this series is one of the all-time best in epic fantasy; Del Rey published this highly anticipated third installment in print/ebook on Oct 8. But I do have to ask Tantor what they were thinking with this cover… It’s rivaling the worst published audiobook covers I’ve ever seen. Anyway, here: “After their adventures on the high seas, Locke and Jean are brought back to earth with a thump. Jean is mourning the loss of his lover, and Locke must live with the fallout of crossing the all-powerful magical assassins the Bonds Magi. It is a fall-out that will pit both men against Locke’s own long-lost love. Sabetha is Locke’s childhood sweetheart, the love of Locke’s life, and now it is time for them to meet again. Employed on different sides of a vicious dispute between factions of the Bonds, Sabetha has just one goal-to destroy Locke forever. The Gentleman Bastard sequence has become a literary sensation in fantasy circles, and now, with the third book, Scott Lynch is set to seal that success.”

The Republic of Thieves: Gentleman Bastard Series, Book 3 | [Scott Lynch] Lost Cantos of the Ouroboros Caves by Maggie Schein

Much more bite-sized at 5 hours than the nearly 24 hours of The Republic of Thieves is Lost Cantos of the Ouroboros Caves by Maggie Schein, read by Janis Ian, directed by Stefan Rudnicki for Skyboat Media, with Schein’s fellow South Carolina author Pat Controy reading his own introduction. Skyboat continues to produce exquisite work whether for its own release or for other studios, and Lost Cantos is no exception. Published in print by small (but spirited!) press Hunt Press in January of this year, any story championed by Rudnicki and co. is worth lending an ear towards: “A collection of fables in the literary tradition of Italo Calvino, Lost Cantos of the Ouroboros Caves brings together medicine men, monks, immortals, witches, seekers, souls in various stages of their cycles in and out of lived-life, and the occasional talking animal, all searching for the meaning of it all and each other. Each fable is a meditation on love, death, growth, pain, identity, self, spirit, and the natural world, as seen from the perspectives of the primal, the celestial, or the spiritual. Fragile yet beautifully strong, Lost Cantos of the Ouroboros Caves is for anyone seeking stories for a larger life.” Author Schein posted a four-part behind-the-scenes audiobook blog series, starting with her experience watching Janis Ian read her words to producer Stefan Rudnicki.

Let me first get out of the way the fact that the author is a friend, and so despite our both coming from journalism backgrounds (his much more distinguished than mine to be sure!) I can’t claim a particularly high level of impartiality. But, having finished the audiobook last night, I’m going to go ahead and include Cemetery Plot By Alex Granados, Narrated By Henry Tenenbaum in this week’s picks. I’ve been looking forward to this “via ACX” production of his first novel for quite a while, and while it may sound like a backhanded compliment… it was surprising good. I’ve had mixed results with the self-published-via-ACX titles, and this one was very well narrated and produced, with intro music, a wind effect to separate the short scenes, and again the music to transition between the (also short) chapters. On some audiobooks this could be a bit much, but for this book it “works”. Why? This book is, first and foremost, two books smashed together: a near-future “The Day After Tomorrow” of over-crowded and sprawling cemeteries told in the third person, and a few-decades-later zombie apocalypse told from the first person perspective of “Nathan”, a “living dead medium” who can just make out, sometimes, what the zombies are trying to say, and uses this talent to extract money and supplies from those desperate to commune with their almost-departed loved ones. But it’s got more: adepts of Alastair Crowley, science gone wrong, and even one more twist tossed in and the whole thing set on “pulp”. Narrator Tenenbaum’s voices are well-characterized, and in his production he’s really done something fantastic to create the voices of the zombies — thanks to this audiobook, I now know what a zombie’s “Arrhghhfhghf” sounds like. It is a bit pricey for the length, but as we get ourselves hunkered down for the chillier nights as All Hallow’s Eve approaches, it’s worth checking out.

Cemetery Plot | [Alex Granados] The Book of Cthulhu II: More Tales Inspired by H. P. Lovecraft | [Ross Lockhart (editor)]

Lastly, two Ross Lockhart-edited anthologies originally published by Night Shade Books, The Book of Cthulhu: Tales Inspired by H. P. Lovecraft and The Book of Cthulhu II: More Tales Inspired by H. P. Lovecraft, narrated By Fleet Cooper and Teresa DeBerry for Audible. (For some reason the first anthology is in “pderror” mode, but hopefully it’ll be back soon.) Here: “Last year, Night Shade Books unleashed The Book of Cthulhu onto an unsuspecting world. Critically acclaimed as ‘the ultimate Cthulhu anthology’ and a ‘must read’ for fans of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos, The Book of Cthulhu went where no collection of mythos tales had gone before: to the very edge of madness and beyond. For nearly a century, H. P. Lovecraft’s tales of malevolent Great Old Ones existing beyond the dimensions of this world, beyond the borders of sanity, have captured and held the imaginations of writers and aficionados of the dark, the macabre, the fantastic, and the horrible. Now, because you demanded more, anthologist Ross E. Lockhart has risked all to dive back into the Cthulhu canon, combing through mind-shattering manuscripts and moldering tomes to bring you The Book of Cthulhu 2, with even more tales of tentacles, terror, and madness.”

ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:

The Third Cry to Legba and Other Invocations: Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman, Volume 1, The Devil Is Not Mocked and Other Warnings: Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman, Volume 2, Fearful Rock and other Precarious Locales: Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman, Volume 3, and Sin’s Doorway and Other Ominous Entrances: Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman, Volume 4 By Manly Wade Wellman, Narrated By Brian Troxell and Kristin Kalbli for Audible Frontiers — it doesn’t get much more complete than this, 4 volumes of Manly Wade Wellman’s stories ranging across his career

The Third Cry to Legba and Other Invocations: Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman, Volume 1 | [Manly Wade Wellman] The End of the Story: Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith, Book 1 | [Clark Ashton Smith]

The End of the Story: Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith, Book 1, The Door to Saturn: Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith, Book 2, A Vintage from Atlantis: Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith, Book 3, The Maze of the Enchanter: Volume Four of the Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith, and The Last Hieroglyph: Volume Five of the Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith by Clark Ashton Smith, read by full casts for Audible Frontiers, as well as a collection of his Captain Volmar stories with a never-before-published novella, Red World of Polaris: The Adventures of Captain Volmar, Narrated By William Neenan

The Abominable: A Novel by Dan Simmons, read by Kevin T. Collins for Hachette Audio, concurrent with the print/ebook from Little, Brown and Company, is Simmons’ latest tale of terror which may — or may not — have supernatural elements at work. “A thrilling tale of high-altitude death and survival set on the snowy summits of Mount Everest. It’s 1924 and the race to summit the world’s highest mountain has been brought to a terrified pause by the shocking disappearance of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine high on the shoulder of Mt. Everest. By the following year, three climbers—a British poet and veteran of the Great War, a young French Chamonix guide, and an idealistic young American—find a way to take their shot at the top. They arrange funding from the grieving Lady Bromley, whose son also disappeared on Mt. Everest in 1924. Young Bromley must be dead, but his mother refuses to believe it and pays the trio to bring him home.”

The Abominable by Dan Simmons Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Teen: Allegiant: Divergent Trilogy, Book 3 by Veronica Roth, narrated by Emma Galvin and Aaron Stanford for Harper Audio concludes Roth’s #1 bestselling YA dystopian series: “The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered—fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the limits she’s known, Tris is ready. Perhaps beyond the fence, she and Tobias will find a simple new life together, free from complicated lies, tangled loyalties, and painful memories.”

ALSO ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:

SEEN BUT NOT HEARD:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51OjQP-IfaL.jpg BFC-OFC-600 The bone Flower Throne book cover

  • Anthology: All-American Horror of the 21st Century: The First Decade: 2000-2010 edited by Mort Castle (Wicker Park Press) -- stories by Andy Duncan, Dan Chaon, Nick Mamatas, Weston Ochse, Sarah Langan, F. Paul Wilson, and many others
  • The Bone Flower Throne by T.L. Morganfield (Panverse, October) — “the first book in a feminist retelling of the myths and legends surrounding the Toltec priest-king Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl”
  • Beauty by Sarah Pinborough (Gollanz UK, Oct 17) -- "Retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story, with illustrations by Les Edwards." (via Locus Online)
  • The Path of Anger (The Book and the Sword #1) by Antoine Rouaud (Orion/Gollanz UK, Oct 17) -- "Fantasy novel, the author’s first novel and first of a series, about a veteran of the fallen empire whose friends are being murdered in the style of an Imperial assassin." (via Locus Online)
  • Doyle After Death: A Novel by John Shirley (HarperCollins/Witness Impulse, Oct 22, 2013)
  • Esrever Doom by Piers Anthony (Tor, Oct 22) -- "Humorous fantasy novel, 37th in the popular, pun-filled “Xanth” series, following Luck of the Draw (2012)." (via Locus Online)
  • The n-Body Problem by Tony Burgess (ChiZine, October 22, 2013) — “Tony Burgess returns to the realm of the zombie”
  • Anthology: Rags & Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt (Little, Brown and Co, Oct 22, 2013) -- Tim Pratt has a Big Idea piece on Scalzi's Whatever blog, and Lois Tilton reviewed it for Locus Online, especially recommending the stories by Neil Gaiman, Tim Pratt, and Gene Wolfe
  • McSweeney's Issue 44 (McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Oct 22) -- "With a stunning set of stories from some of the finest writers toiling away today—including breathtaking new work from Rebecca Curtis, Stuart Dybek, and Jim Shepard, and the Southeast Asian prison novella the world has been waiting for, from Mr. Wells Tower—and an all-hands-on-deck appraisal of one of the most keen-eyed cultural commentators of our time, with contributions from Rachel Cohen, Errol Morris, Geoff Dyer, David Hockney, Jonathan Lethem, Ricky Jay, and many, many more, McSweeney’s 44 offers one of our best assemblages yet." -- I'm most interested in Joe Meno's "Animals" as Meno is a story magician of the highest order
  • The Black Fire Concerto by Mike Allen (Haunted Stars Publishing, August 2013) -- Allen is a quite accomplished speculative wordwright in both poetry and short fiction, along with being a well-respected editor (the Clockwork Phoenix anthology series and Mythic Delirium magazine). His first novel was published earlier this year, but apparently I neglected to mention it; the official launch party was held yesterday so hey, I'll take this second chance to do so. Tanith Lee, this year’s recipient of the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, calls the book “a prize for the multitude of fans who relish strong Grand Guignol with their sword and sorcery.” You can find out 5 things you didn't know about the novel via SF Signal and, particularly relevant to audiobook listeners, you can hear an excerpt of the novel as well, read quite well by C.S.E. Cooney; the same recording appears in the Tales to Terrify podcast
COMING SOON:

The Violent Century | [Lavie Tidhar] Zendegi | [Greg Egan] Two Serpents Rise: The Craft Sequence, Book 2 | [Max Gladstone]

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?” Of the book, Kim Stanley Robinson says: "This swift surreal suspense novel reads as if Verne or Wellsian adventurers exploring a mysterious island had warped through into a Kafkaesque nightmare world. The reader will want to stay trapped with the biologist to find the answers to Area X's mysteries."
  • 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 bone-chilling, hair-raising second installment of the Southern Reach Trilogy. For thirty years, a secret agency called the Southern Reach has monitored expeditions into Area X—a remote and lush terrain mysteriously sequestered from civilization. After the twelfth expedition, the Southern Reach is in disarray, and John Rodriguez (aka “Control”) is the team’s newly appointed head. From a series of interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and more than two hundred hours of profoundly troubling video footage, the secrets of Area X begin to reveal themselves—and what they expose pushes Control to confront disturbing truths about both himself and the agency he’s promised to serve."
  • The Sea Without a Shore by David Drake (May 6, 2014) — Lt. Leary series
  • 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.” A big-name blurb is in from none less than Kim Stanley Robinson: "The Girl in the Road is a brilliant novel--vivid, intense, and fearless with a kind of savage joy. These journeys--Meena's across the Arabian Sea and Mariama's across Africa--are utterly unforgettable."
  • My Real Children by Jo Walton (Tor, May 2014) — “story about one woman and the two lives that she might lead”
  • Veil of the Deserters (Bloodsounder’s Arc #2) by Jeff Salyards (Night Shade Books, June 3, 2014)
  • 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
  • Non-Fiction: Reports from Nuremburg by Harold Burson, an original production by Skyboat Media, performed by by Stefan Rudnicki, Scott Brick, John Rubinstein, Robert Forster, Richard McGonagle, Jim Meskimen, Kristoffer Tabori, Arthur Morey, and Christian Rummel -- due out in November from Audible
  • 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 acx, alex granadaos, cemetery plot, michael page, ross lockhart, scott lynch, skyboat media, stefan rudnicki, the book of cthulhu