Release Week: The Word Exchange, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, Strange Bodies, The End is Nigh, Steles of the Sky, The Dragon Business, Black Moon, NOD, The Vanishing, No Lasting Burial, King Maker, and David Gerrold's When HARLIE Was One

Release Week: The Word Exchange, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, Strange Bodies, The End is Nigh, Steles of the Sky, The Dragon Business, Black Moon, NOD, The Vanishing, No Lasting Burial, King Maker, and David Gerrold's When HARLIE Was One

Posted on 2014-04-15 at 18:38 by Sam

APRIL 2-8, 2014: Well, the April 1 avalanche was followed up with an April 8 landslide, with a long, long! list of titles to check out, which took me a good long while to finally make sense of. (Seeing as this is coming a full week late, and the “next” release week is already here!) Just… so many good books that even after cutting beyond the comfort point, I had more than a dozen “picks”. Which does nobody any good, now, does it? So I cut further, and it hurts a bit, but the audiobooks that remain really are all worth checking out in detail — and so are a few of those which just slid into the “also out this week” listings, including Benford and Niven’s Shipstar, Laini Taylor’s Dreams of Gods & Monsters, Ann Brashares’ The Here and Now, Howard Andrew Jones’ The Bones of the Old Ones, Paul Antony Jones’ Revelations, Colin Harvey’s Winter Song, Barry Malzberg’s Overlay read by Stefan Rudnicki, and Charles Beumont’s Night Ride, and Other Journeys read by Rudnicki, J. Paul Boehmer, and Harlan Ellison. Newly added to the long-range listings is John Scalzi’s Unlocked and Steven Erikson’s Willful Child (November), and while the big book news this week includes JM McDermott’s We Leave Together being available for pre-order (June) and the announcement of a new Elizabeth Bear trilogy, the big audiobook news is the casting of narrator Fabio Tassone for Frostborn (Thrones and Bones) by Lou Anders (August). That one is going to be a blast. Enjoy! (One last note up here: while Christopher Priest’s The Adjacent was published last year in the UK and a US audiobook edition was already available, this week’s new US Kindle edition is Whispersync for Voice enabled to the tune of $7.69 plus $3.47.)

PICKS OF THE WEEK:

First up, a pair of literary-minded sf novels, starting with the multiply-starred-reviewed The Word Exchange: A Novel by Alena Graedon (Doubleday and Blackstone Audio, Apr 8, 2014) read by Tavia Gilbert and Paul Michael Garcia. “In the not-so-distant future, the forecasted “death of print” has become a near reality. Bookstores, libraries, newspapers, and magazines are essentially things of the past, as we spend our time glued to handheld devices called Memes that not only keep us in constant communication but have become so intuitive as to hail us cabs before we leave our offices, order takeout at the first growl of our stomachs, change traffic lights and interface with home appliances–even create and sell language itself in a marketplace called the Word Exchange.”

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North (Redhook and Hachette Audio, Apr 8, 2014) read by Peter Kenny. “Harry August is on his deathbed. Again. No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes. Until now. As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside. “I nearly missed you, Doctor August,” she says. “I need to send a message.” This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow.”

First published in the UK last year, Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux recently had its first US release from FSG, and here comes to Tantor Audio read by Gildart Jackson and Veida Dhmlow. “Whatever this is, it started when Nicholas Slopen came back from the dead. In a locked ward of a notorious psychiatric hospital sits a man who insists that he is Dr. Nicholas Slopen, failed husband and impoverished Samuel Johnson scholar. Slopen has been dead for months, yet nothing can make this man change his story. What begins as a tale of apparent forgery involving unknown letters by the great Dr. Johnson grows to encompass a conspiracy between a Silicon Valley mogul and his Russian allies to exploit the darkest secret of Soviet technology: the Malevin Procedure. With echoes of Jorge Luis Borges and Philip K. Dick, Marcel Theroux’s Strange Bodies takes the listener on a dizzying speculative journey that poses questions about identity, authenticity, and what it means to be truly human.”

Out from Hugh Howey’s Broad Reach Publishing is the first of a planned 3-book anthology series examining the before, during, and after of apocalypse. First up, examining the “before”, is The End is Nigh: The Apocalypse Triptych, edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey. The anthology includes all-new, never-before-published works by Hugh Howey, Paolo Bacigalupi, Jamie Ford, Seanan McGuire, Tananarive Due, Jonathan Maberry, Scott Sigler, Robin Wasserman, Nancy Kress, Charlie Jane Anders, Ken Liu, and many others, and is narrated by just as full a cast including Mur Lafferty, Rajan Khanna, Kate Baker, Lex Wilson, Ralph Walters, Jack Kincaid, Norm Sherman, James Keller, and Anaea Lay.

OK, OK. We’ve seen speculative fiction and surreal sf, but what if you’re on the mood for fantasy? Two fantastic picks this week, starting off with Steles of the Sky by Elizabeth Bear (Tor and Recorded Books, Apr 8, 2014) read by Celeste Ciulla. I started hearing fantastic things about this concluding installment in Bear’s “Mongolian-flavored” The Eternal Sky fantasy trilogy late last year, and now — along with the announcement of a new follow-on trilogy — it’s finally here. “Re Temur, legitimate heir to his grandfather’s Khaganate, has finally raised his banner and declared himself at war with his usurping uncle. With his companions—the Wizard Samarkar, the Cho-tse Hrahima, and the silent monk Brother Hsiung—he must make his way to Dragon Lake to gather in his army of followers. But Temur’s enemies are not idle; the leader of the Nameless Assassins, who has shattered the peace of the Steppe, has struck at Temur’s uncle already. To the south, in the Rasan empire, plague rages. To the east, the great city of Asmaracanda has burned, and the Uthman Caliph is deposed. All the world seems to be on fire, and who knows if even the beloved son of the Eternal Sky can save it?”

On the lighter side of the epic fantasy spectrum lies Kevin J. Anderson’s The Dragon Business read by James Langton for Brilliance Audio. An e-serial which started late last year in ebook from 47North, now in full print and audio editions, this is the story behind the myth behind the legend behind the… “King Cullin may be known as “the Dragon Slayer”, but he fears his son’s legacy will be as “King Maurice Who Speaks with Proper Grammar”. The boy keeps his nose buried in parchments, starry-eyed at the idea of noble knights and eager to hand royal gold to any con man hawking a unicorn horn. Tonight, though, Cullin will educate the prince in the truth behind minstrels’ silly songs of glory….”

Another pairing, this time two books about insomnia epidemics. (Something in the air? Karen Russel’s Sleep Donation came out just a couple of weeks ago as well.) First up, Black Moon by Kenneth Calhoun was published in print/ebook in early March and comes just about a month later to audio, narrated by Neil Shah for Dreamscape Audio. “Insomnia has claimed everyone Biggs knows. Even his beloved wife, Carolyn, succumbed before disappearing into the quickly collapsing world. Yet Biggs can still sleep, and dream, so he sets out to find her. He ventures out into a world ransacked by mass confusion and desperation, where he meets others struggling against the tide of sleeplessness. Chase and Jordan are devising a scheme to live off their drug-store lootings; Lila is a high school student wandering the streets in an owl mask; Felicia abandons the sanctuary of a sleep research center to try to protect her family and perhaps reunite with Chase, an ex-boyfriend. However, Biggs persists in his quest for Carolyn, finding a resolve and inner strength that he never knew he had.”

Out in 2013 and shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Vancouver-set NOD By Adrian Barnes, Narrated By Tim Beckman for Audible Studios. “Dawn breaks over Vancouver and no-one has slept the night before, or almost no one. A few people, perhaps one in ten thousand can still sleep, and they’ve all shared the same strange, golden dream. A handful of children still sleep as well, but what they’re dreaming remains a mystery. After six days of absolute sleep deprivation, psychosis will set in. After four weeks, the body will die. In the interim, panic ensues and a bizarre new world arises in which those previously on the fringes of society take the lead. One couple experience a lifetime in a week as he continues to sleep, she begins to disintegrate before him, and the new world swallows the old one whole…NOD.”

If near-future dystopias of mass sleep deprivation aren’t quite enough for you, here’s another pairing, this time horror in two dramatically different modes and varieties. The Vanishing by Wendy Webb came out from Hyperion in late January, and I was excited to hear first that it was coming to audio and second that it would be under narrator Xe Sands. Sands doesn’t go for a Minnesota accent, which works here — it would I think have undermined the overall more gothic atmosphere, and in any case wouldn’t be the book’s first person narration accent. “Recently widowed and rendered penniless by her Ponzi-scheming husband, Julia Bishop is eager to start anew. So when a stranger appears on her doorstep with a job offer, she finds herself accepting the mysterious yet unique position: caretaker to his mother, Amaris Sinclair, the famous and rather eccentric horror novelist whom Julia has always admired…and who the world believes is dead. When she arrives at the Sinclairs’ enormous estate on Lake Superior, Julia begins to suspect that there may be sinister undercurrents to her “too-good-to-be-true” position. As Julia delves into the reasons of why Amaris chose to abandon her successful writing career and withdraw from the public eye, her search leads to unsettling connections to her own family tree, making her wonder why she really was invited to Havenwood in the first place, and what monstrous secrets are still held prisoner within its walls.”

Stant Litore’s retelling of Biblical stories as episodes in the age-old battle of humanity against the rise of the undead, The Zombie Bible series, is fantastically good. The mashup more than “just works” at about every level, whether it’s Old Testament prophets battling zombies from within a Babylonian-besieged Jerusalem or Rome during the rise of Christianity, Litore has found a compelling voice and style and approach. Originally published late last year through early this year as a Kindle Serial, Litore’s retelling of The Gospel of Luke, No Lasting Burial, tells of a certain Yeshua and the Sea of Galilee. “What if Jesus of Nazareth had faced both the hungry living and the hungry dead? A man wanders out of the desert one day and finds a village in ruins after a night of the walking dead. The survivors have thrown the snarling corpses into the Sea of Galilee, only to starve as the ghoul-haunted sea stops producing fish. Yeshua has heard their hunger. He hears the suffering of the living and the dead, like moaning in his ears. Desperate to respond, he calls back the fish. Just one thing: The dead are called up, too.” A word on the narration here: the previous (shorter) installments were all narrated quite ably by Benjamin L. Darcie, here Brilliance Audio has cast Mikael Naramore.

Almost done! Two more picks here comb a little closer to the “long tail” of releases, but each is worth checking out. Indianapolis horror and dark fantasy author (and Dark Faith anthology series editor) Maurice Broaddus has published some fantastic stories and books over the years, from Steampunk “Pimp My Airship” to his latest novel, I Can Transform You, a short science fiction novel in Apex Book Company’s “Apex Voices” series. In between there somewhere, Angry Robot Books published Broaddus’ “Knights of Breton Court” urban fantasy series, which is now finally coming to audio starting with King Maker: Knights of Breton Court, Book 1, narrated by Neal Sutherland for Audible. (The other two books in the trilogy are due out April 22.) These books are a much different take on urban fantasy, putting the “urban” back into it if you will, as well as one of the more unique re-castings of Arthurian legend as you’ll find. “From the drug gangs of downtown Indianapolis, the one true King will arise. The King Arthur myth gets dramatically replayed through the destiny of street hustler King, as he tries to unite the crack dealers, gangbangers, and the very real monsters lurking amongst them, to do the right thing. This is an edgy, fantastical debut, genuinely unlike anything you’ve ever read before.”

Lastly, When HARLIE Was One By David Gerrold, Narrated By David Gerrold (Audible Studios, April 4). When listening to an audiobook read by the author, it can be very hit (Neil Gaiman, John Crowley, Ruth Ozeki, Neil Peart) or miss. Here, I was startled enough by the quality of the narration to wonder if there was a mistake in the listing. But, no, after checking some other recordings of his talks, it is Gerrold’s voice, captured at his best. There are some (minor) pacing beats I would quibble with, but overall Audible has something pretty special going on here, complete with sighs and asides as the author revisits his Nebula and Hugo nominated 1972 novel with obvious pleasure. The text is from the 1988 expanded edition: “HARLIE is the first self-aware intelligence engine. But instead of answers, he has questions—too many questions, and most of his questions have no answers at all. What does it mean to be human?”

ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:

• Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show: Big Book of SF Novelettes edited by Orson Scott Card and Edward R. Schubert, narrated by Orson Scott Card, Stefan Rudnicki, Gabrielle de Cuir, Roxanne Hernandez, Arthur Morey, Emily Janice Card, and J. Paul Boehmer for Skyboat Media (April 2)
• Night Ride, and Other Journeys By Charles Beaumont, Narrated By J. Paul Boehmer, Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison (April 2)
• Overlay By Barry N. Malzberg, Narrated By Stefan Rudnicki (April 2)
• A Thirst for Vengeance: The Ashes Saga, Volume 1 By Edward M. Knight, Narrated By David Williams for Edwards Publishing (Apr 3)
• Operation Breakout: Merkiaari Wars, Volume 4 By Mark E. Cooper, Narrated By Mikael Naramore (Apr 3)
• The Elixir of Immortality By Gabi Gleichmann, Narrated By Corey Snow for Audible (Apr 3)
• Tides of Darkness: Avaryan Resplendent, Book 3 By Judith Tarr, Narrated By Jonathan Davis (Apr 4)
• Wolf's Head: The Forest Lord By Steven A. McKay, Narrated By Nick Ellsworth (Apr 4) -- a retelling of "Robin Hood"
• Kids: Benjamin Dragon - Awakening: The Chronicles of Benjamin Dragon, Book 1 By C. G. Cooper, Narrated By Nathan William Heller (Apr 4)
• Kids: Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier: The Secret Files, read by Tom Taylorson (Apr 4) -- the junior novelization of the new Captain America film, just under 2 hours in runtime
• West of Hell Omnibus Edition By Jason Brant, Narrated By Robert Martinez-- Series: West of Hell, Book 1-3 (Apr 7)
• Sea of Shadows: Age of Legends by Armstrong, Kelley (Apr 8, 2014) -- narrated by Jennifer Ikeda, beginning a new series
• Cauldron of Ghosts (Crown of Slaves) by David Weber and Eric Flint (April 8, 2014) -- Narrated by: Peter Larkin
• Shipstar by Larry Niven and Gregory Benford (Tor, April 8, 2014)  -- narrated by Zach Villa for Audible, a follow-on to 2012's The Bowl of Heaven
• Dreams of Gods & Monsters (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #3) by Laini Taylor (April 8, 2014) -- read by Khristine Hvam
• Operation Shield: A Cassandra Kresnov Novel by Shepherd, Joel (Apr 8, 2014) -- Narrated By Dina Pearlman
• Zom-B Mission By Darren Shan Narrated By Emma Galvin (Apr 8)
• Balance Point: Orphan’s Legacy, Book 3 By Robert Buettner Narrated By Macleod Andrews (Baen and Audible Frontiers, Apr 8) -- reviewed positively by Paul Di Filippo for Locus Online, "Buettner carries forward nobly a kind of core SF tale pioneered by writers such as Anderson, Gordon Dickson, Christopher Anvil, James Schmitz, and C. J. Cherryh, offering entertainment aplenty with thoughtful meditations on how humanity can get along with itself—or not!"
• Winter Song By Colin Harvey, Narrated By Jon Caruth (April 8)
• Balance: The Divine Book One, Volume 1 By M.R. Forbes, Narrated By Jeff Hays for Quirky Algorithms (Apr 8) -- "My name is Landon Hamilton. Once upon a time I was a twenty-three year old security guard, trying to regain my life after spending a year in prison for stealing people's credit card numbers. Now, I'm dead. Okay, I was supposed to be dead. I got killed after all; but a funny thing happened after I had turned the mortal coil... I met Dante Alighieri - yeah, that Dante. He told me I was special, a diuscrucis. That's what they call a perfect balance of human, demon, and angel. Apparently, I'm the only one of my kind."
• Teen: The Here and Now by Ann Brashares (Delacorte, Apr 8, 2014) — from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series comes “An unforgettable epic romantic thriller about a girl from the future who might be able to save the world . . . if she lets go of the one thing she’s found to hold on to.” -- read by Emily Rankin for Listening Library
• Teen: Noggin By John Corey Whaley, Narrated By Kirby Heyborne (Apr 8)
• Teen: The Klaatu Terminus: Klaatu Diskos Trilogy, Book 3 By Pete Hautman, Narrated By Peter Berkrot for Candlewick on Brilliance Audio (Apr 8)
• Revelations: Exctinction Point, Book 3 By Paul Antony Jones, Narrated By Emily Beresford for Brilliance Audio (Apr 8)
• Jaunten: Advent Mage Cycle, Book 1 By Honor Raconteur, Narrated By Mark McClain Wilson for Raconteur House (Apr 8)
• The Bones of the Old Ones: Dabir & Asim, Book 2 By Howard Andrew Jones, Narrated By Peter Ganim (Apr 8)
• Collection: Incendiary Girls: Stories By Kodi Scheer, read by the author for Brilliance Audio (Apr 8)
• Kids: Horizon: Above World, Book 3 By Jenn Reese, Narrated By Kate Rudd for Candlewick on Brilliance Audio (Apr 8)

• The latest haul of crime fiction from Broken River Books went out April 2, including: Repo Shark by Cody Goodfellow, The Fix by Steve Lowe, and Long Lost Dog of It by Michael Kazepis
• Kids: Blue Sea Burning (The Chronicles of Egg) by Geoff Rodkey (Putnam Juvenile, April 3) -- via Scalzi's Big Idea, blurbed by Rick Riordan as "Lemony Snicket meets Pirates of the Caribbean, with a sprinkling of Tom Sawyer for good measure."
• Valour’s Trial: A Confederation Novel by Tanya Huff (Titan, April 4) — “Unexpectedly pulled from battle, Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr of the Confederation Marines finds herself in an underground POW camp, where her fellow marine prisoners have lost all will to escape. Now, Torin must fight her way not only out of the prison, but also past the growing compulsion to lie down and give up-not realizing that her escape could alter the entire course of the war.” — continues with June’s The Truth of Valor
• Dirtbags by Eryk Pruitt (Immortal Ink Publishing, April 5, 2014) — “The blame for a county-wide murder spree lies at the feet of three people broken by a dying mill town: Calvin, a killer; London, a cook; and Rhonda, the woman who loves them both. Neither they, nor the reader, see the storm brewing until it’s too late in this Southern Gothic noir (or Southern neo-noir) that adds a transgressive, chicken-fried twist to a story ripped straight from the pages of a true crime novel.”
• Non-Fiction: Rhapsody: Notes on Strange Fictions by Hal Duncan (Lethe Press, April 5) — “turns a critical eye to the genre of SF—considering not just the turf wars and definitional spats, but also the deeper functions and facilities of the “strange fiction” mode in literature” (Brit Mandelo for Tor.com)
• Poetry Collection: Reel to Reel (Phoenix Poets) by Alan Shapiro (University of Chicago Press, Apr 7, 2014) — “Reel to Reel, Alan Shapiro’s twelfth collection of poetry, moves outward from the intimate spaces of family and romantic life to embrace not only the human realm of politics and culture but also the natural world, and even the outer spaces of the cosmos itself. In language richly nuanced yet accessible, these poems inhabit and explore fundamental questions of existence, such as time, mortality, consciousness, and matter. How did we get here? Why is there something rather than nothing? How do we live fully and lovingly as conscious creatures in an unconscious universe with no ultimate purpose or destination beyond returning to the abyss that spawned us? Shapiro brings his humor, imaginative intensity, characteristic syntactical energy, and generous heart to bear on these ultimate mysteries. In ways few poets have done, he writes from a premodern, primal sense of wonder about our postmodern world.”
• Collection: A Promise Of Stars by David Gerrold (April 7) -- "From Hugo and Nebula award winning author, David Gerrold! Seven marvelous tales (and one whimsical vignette) taking you into the wondrous future of travel beyond the sky. Start in your own back yard and journey to the moon, to the asteroid belt, to the far planets, and even to the Oort Cloud."
• Fiction collection: Can't and Won't: Stories by Lydia Davis (FSG, Apr 8, 2014)
• Anthology: Daniel H. Wilson & John Joseph Adams, eds. : Robot Uprisings (Vintage, April 8) -- "Anthology of 17 stories about robot revolutions. Five of the stories are reprints; the others are original to this book. Authors include Charles Yu, Cory Doctorow, Ernest Cline, Alastair Reynolds, Ian McDonald, and Nnedi Okorafor." (via Locus Online)
• Kids: Boys of Blur by Wilson, N.D. (Apr 8, 2014) -- "When Charlie moves to the small town of Taper, Florida, he discovers a different world. Pinned between the everglades and the swampy banks of Lake Okeechobee, the small town produces sugar cane . . . and the fastest runners in the country. Kids chase muck rabbits in the fields while the cane is being burned and harvested. Dodging flames and blades and breathing smoke, they run down the rabbits for three dollars a skin. And when they can do that, running a football is easy. But there are things in the swamp, roaming the cane at night, that cannot be explained, and they seem connected to sprawling mounds older than the swamps. Together with his step-second cousin "Cotton" Mack, the fastest boy on the muck, Charlie hunts secrets in the glades and on the muck flats where the cane grows secrets as old as the soft earth, secrets that haunted, tripped, and trapped the original native tribes, ensnared conquistadors, and buried runaway slaves. Secrets only the muck knows. "
• TURNING POINT and THE ART OF THE WIND RISES, both by Miyazaki and both localized/edited by Nick Mamatas, are out today from Viz Media. The Los Angeles Times has the scoop as well an an excerpt from the “Turning Point” memoir — Miyazaki’s proposal for his landmark feature “Princess Mononoke”

• A Certain Exposure by Jolene Tan (Epigram Books, April 9, 2014)
• Attack the Geek By Michael Underwood, Narrated By Mary Robinette Kowal-- Series: Ree Reyes, Book 2.5 -- Release Date: 04-09-14
• Short: Direct Descent By Frank Herbert, Narrated By Scott Brick (April 9)
• Lagoon By Nnedi Okorafor Narrated By Ben Onwukwe (known for his role in the tv show London's Burning) and Adjoa Andoh (known for her role in the tv shows Dr. Who and EastEnders) for Hodder & Stoughton – Scheduled Release Date: 04-10-14 — from the author of Who Fears Death a novel of “The Nigerian megacity of Lagos is invaded by aliens, and it nearly consumes itself because of it.” — listed as influences are: “Wizard of the Crow, Under the Dome (the novel), Nollywood movies, and District 9″ – ”Three strangers, each isolated by his or her own problems: Adaora, the marine biologist. Anthony, the rapper famous throughout Africa. Agu, the troubled soldier. Wandering Bar Beach in Lagos, Nigeria’s legendary mega-city, they’re more alone than they’ve ever been before. But when something like a meteorite plunges into the ocean and a tidal wave overcomes them, these three people will find themselves bound together in ways they could never imagine. Together with Ayodele, a visitor from beyond the stars, they must race through Lagos and against time itself in order to save the city, the world…and themselves.” -- an extract of this audiobook is available as well
• The Unquiet House by Alison Littlewood (Jo Fletcher Books, April 10) — “Mire House is dreary, dark, cold and infested with midges. But when Emma Dean inherits it from a distant relation, she immediately feels a sense of belonging.”
• The Warrior Who Carried Life By Geoff Ryman, Narrated By Patrice O'Neal (April 10)
• Toxic Heart: Mystic City, Book 2 By Theo Lawrence, Narrated By Celeste Ciulla for Recorded Books (April 10)
• The Ebb Tide: A Langdon St. Ives Novella By James P. Blaylock, Narrated By Richard Dad (April 10)
• Tendeleo’s Story: Chaga, Book 3 By Ian McDonald, Narrated By Melanie McHugh (April 10)
• Collection: The Sky That Wraps: Collected Short Fiction By Jay Lake, Narrated By Katherine Kellgren, Jonathan Davis, Stephen Bel Davies (April 11) -- along with each story's individual release
• The Hall of the Mountain King By Judith Tarr, Narrated By Jonathan Davis (April 11)
• Kirinya: Chaga, Book 2 By Ian McDonald, Narrated By Melanie McHugh (April 11)
• Natural History By Justina Robson, Narrated By Penny Scott-Andrews (April 11)
• Silver Screen By Justina Robson, Narrated By Anna Parker-Naples (April 11)
• Darker than the Storm: Blackbird, Book 5 By Freda Warrington, Narrated By Alex Wyndham (April 11)
• Grail of the Summer Stars: Aetherial Tales, Book 3 By Freda Warrington, Narrated By Matthew Lloyd Davies (April 11)
• Fate's Hand By Darren Pearce, Neal Levin, Narrated By Ty Hunt for Dark Quest LLC (April 11)
• Shadowkings: Shadowkings, Book 1 By Michael Cobley, Narrated By Philip Rose (April 11)
• Slight and Shadow: Fate's Forsaken, Book 2 By Shae Ford, Narrated By Derek Perkins for Podium Publishing (April 11)
• Hollow World by Michael J. Sullivan (Tachyon and Recorded Books, April 15, 2014) — read by Jonathan Davis!
• Liberation: The Frontiers Saga, Book 10 By Ryk Brown, Narrated By Jeffrey Kafer (April 15)
• House of Ivy & Sorrow by Natalie Whipple (Harper Teen, April 15, 2014)
• Anthology: Lovecraft's Monsters edited by Ellen Datlow (Tachyon, April 15) -- "Prepare to meet the wicked progeny of the master of modern horror. In Lovecraft's Monsters, H. P. Lovecraft's most famous creations—Cthulhu, Shoggoths, Deep Ones, Elder Things, Yog-Sothoth, and more, appear in all their terrifying glory. Each story is a gripping new take on a classic Lovecraftian creature, and each is accompanied by a spectacular original illustration that captures the monsters' unique visage. Contributors include such literary luminaries as Neil Gaiman, Joe R. Lansdale, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Karl Edward Wagner, Elizabeth Bear, and Nick Mamatas. The monsters are lovingly rendered in spectacular original art by World Fantasy Award–winning artist John Coulthart (The Steampunk Bible)."
• Fiction: All the Birds, Singing: A Novel by Wyld, Evie (Pantheon, Apr 15, 2014) — highly regarded 2013 (UK) novel about “an outsider haunted by an inescapable past: a story of loneliness and survival, guilt and loss, and the power of forgiveness.” — read by Cat Gould for Blackstone Audio
• Teen: Earth Star by Edwards, Janet (Pyr, Apr 15, 2014) -- US release for this follow-on to Earth Girl
• Teen: The Forever Song (Blood of Eden) by Julie Kagawa (Apr 15, 2014)
• Kids: The Forbidden Library by Django Wexler (Apr 15, 2014)
• 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.”
• Transhuman by Ben Bova, read by Stefan Rudnicki for Blackstone Audio (April 15, 2014) — “Luke Abramson, a brilliant cellular biologist who is battling lung cancer, has one joy in life: his ten-year-old granddaughter, Angela. When Angela is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and given less than six months to live, Luke wants to try a new enzyme, Mortality Factor 4 (MORF4), that he believes will kill Angela’s tumor. However, the hospital bureaucracy won’t let him do it because MORF4 has not yet been approved by the FDA. Knowing Angela will die before he can get the treatment approved, Luke abducts her from the hospital with plans to take her to a private research laboratory in Oregon.”
• Pack of Strays: Fangborn, Book 2 By Dana Cameron, Narrated By Kate Rudd (April 15)
• Touched by an Alien: Alien Novels Series, Book 1 By Gini Koch, Narrated By Romy Nordlinger for Tantor Audio (April 16)
• Son of the Morning by Mark Alder (Apr 17, 2014)
• The City Stained Red by Sam Sykes (Gollanz UK, 17 Apr 2014) — from the author of Tome of the Undergates – US release is October 7 from Orbit
• Teen: The Army of the Lost by Lily Herne (Much-in-Little, 17 April) — book 3 in Herne’s “Deadlands” post-apocalyptic series: “It’s been eleven years since South Africa was ravaged by the walking dead. Johannesburg’s impoverished survivors are ruled over by a minority of rich self-serving bureaucrats. As the remaining Mall Rats confront the dark heart of the twisted political system – in another part of town, Tommy dreams of joining the Army of the Left, a radical organisation intent on fighting for freedom.”
• The Affair of the Chalk Cliffs: A Langdon St. Ives Novella By James P. Blaylock, Narrated By Richard Dadd (April 17)
• The Deaths of Tao: Tao, Book 2 By Wesley Chu, Narrated By Michael Naramore (April 18)
• Empire Dreams By Ian McDonald, Narrated By William Gaminara (April 18)
• 13 Phantasms By James P. Blaylock, Narrated By James Gillies (Aril 18)
• The Jupiter War (The Owner) by Neal Asher (Night Shade Books, Apr 21, 2014) — US release, published in 2013 by Tor UK – Narrated By John Mawson and Steve West (May 6)
• The Serpent of Venice: A Novel by Moore, Christopher (Apr 22, 2014)
• The Moon King by Neil Williamson (Newcon, April 22, 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.”
• Heaven’s Queen (Paradox) by Bach, Rachel (Apr 22, 2014)
• The Furies: A Thriller by Mark Alpert (April 22, 2014)
• The Forever Watch by David Ramirez (Thomas Dunne, April 22, 2014) — “All that is left of humanity is on a thousand-year journey to a new planet aboard one ship, The Noah, which is also carrying a dangerous serial killer…” The novel is to be published in early May in the UK by Hoddard (with a fantastic cover)
• Afterparty by Daryl Gregory (TOR, April 22, 2014) — “Before the first chapter even begins, there’s religion, drugs, and suicide — all presented in a crisp, engaging writing style that itself threatens to be addictive. Set in the near-future in a world in which smart drug recipes are opensourced, one church uses dependency on their sacriment, a mind-altering narcotic called “Numinous,” to keep followers in line. One of the drug’s creators tries to undo the damage. I’m so hooked!” (via Omnivoracious)
• Teen: The Inventor’s Secret by Andrea Cremer (Philomel, Apr 22, 2014) — “In this world, sixteen-year-old Charlotte and her fellow refugees have scraped out an existence on the edge of Britain’s industrial empire. Though they live by the skin of their teeth, they have their health (at least when they can find enough food and avoid the Imperial Labor Gatherers) and each other. When a new exile with no memory of his escape or even his own name seeks shelter in their camp he brings new dangers with him and secrets about the terrible future that awaits all those who have struggled has to live free of the bonds of the empire’s Machineworks. The Inventor’s Secret is the first book of a YA steampunk series set in an alternate nineteenth-century North America where the Revolutionary War never took place and the British Empire has expanded into a global juggernaut propelled by marvelous and horrible machinery. Perfect for fans of Libba Bray’s The Diviners, Cassandra Clare’s Clockwork Angel, Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan and Phillip Reeve’s Mortal Engines.”
• Mappa Mundi By Justina Robson, Narrated By Ruth Urquhart (April 22)
• Kids: The Islands of Chaldea by Diana Wynne Jones and Ursula Jones (Greenwillow, April 22, 2014) — “Fans of the late writer Diana Wynne Jones – who died in March 2011 – are in for an unexpected treat. In 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.”
• Murder by Sarah Pinborough (April 24, 2014)
• Stay God, Sweet Angel by Nik Korpon (Perfect Edge, Apr 25, 2014) — “Damon lives a content life, playing video games and dealing drugs from his second-hand store while his girlfriend, Mary, drops constant hints about marriage. If only he could tell her his name isn’t really Damon. If only he could tell her who he really is. But after he witnesses a friend’s murder, a scarlet woman glides into his life, offering the solution to all of his problems. His carefully constructed existence soon shatters like crystal teardrops and he must determine which ghosts won’t stay buried – and which ones are trying to kill him – if he wants to learn why Mary has disappeared.”
• Valour and Vanity by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor, Apr 29, 2014) — in Kowal’s latest “Jane and Vincent” (a.k.a. “Shades of Milk and Honey” series) Regency fantasy she sets her sights on the heist novel. Color me VERY intrigued.
• Thornlost (Glass Thorns) by Rawn, Melanie (Apr 29, 2014)
• Peacemaker by Marianne De Pierres (Angry Robot, Apr 29, 2014)
• Morningside Fall (Legends of the Duskwalker, Book 2) by Jay Posey (Angry Robot, Apr 29, 2014) — Second after 2013 debut novel Three: “Stark and powerful, THREE is a stunning debut. Reinventing the post-apocalyptic western as a journey across interior badlands as dangerous as the cyborg-haunted terrain his hero must cross, Posey has crafted a story that is impossible to put down.” — Richard E. Dansky, author of Snowbird Gothic
• Grunt Life: A Task Force Ombra Novel by Weston Ochse (Apr 29, 2014)
• Fiction: Ruby: A Novel by Bond, Cynthia (Apr 29, 2014)
• The Last Horror Novel in the History of the World by Brian Allen Carr (Lazy Fascist, April 2014) — from the author of Motherfucking Sharks
• Black Gum Godless Heathen by J David Osborne (Broken River Books, April 2014) — sequel to Low Down Death Right Easy
• Collection: Black Cloud by Juliet Escoria (Civil Coping Mechanisms, April 2014)

• Home by Matthew Costello, read by Meredith Mitchell for Blackstone Audio (May 1) -- available a bit early (April 9) at Audible, the story of a family's journey home through a post-apocalyptic nightmare of "cannibals and betrayal"
• 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.” — coming to audio read by Bronson Pinchot for Blackstone Audio
• The Causal Angel by Hannu Rajaniemi (Tor, May 6, 2014) — Follow-on to The Quantum Thief and The Fractal Prince: “With his infectious love of storytelling in all its forms, his rich characterization and his unrivaled grasp of thrillingly bizarre cutting-edge science, Hannu Rajaniemi swiftly set a new benchmark for SF in the 21st century. Now, with his third novel, he completes the tale of the many lives, and minds, of gentleman rogue Jean de Flambeur.”
• The Sea Without a Shore by David Drake (May 6, 2014) — Lt. Leary series
• The Enceladus Crisis by Michael J. Martinez (Night Shade Books, May 6) — book two of the Daedalus series
• The Crimson Campaign (The Powder Mage Trilogy, Book 2) by Brian McClellan (Orbit, May 6, 2014) – Narrated By Christian Rodska for Hachette Audio
• The Tower Broken: Tower and Knife Trilogy, Book 3 By Mazarkis Williams Narrated By Paul Boehmer (May 6)
• The Thousand Orcs: Legend of Drizzt: Hunter’s Blade Trilogy, Book 1 By R. A. Salvatore, Narrated By Victor Bevine (May 6)
• Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris (May 6) — “The first novel in this supernaturally nuanced trilogy has me curious to see what Charlaine Harris is immersing herself in now that Sookie has ridden off into the sunset. Not much information on Charlaine’s website, just that it’s set in a ‘mysterious Texas town.’” (via Paul Goat Allen’s “The Most Anticipated Sci-fi and Fantasy Releases of 2014″ for Barnes & Noble)
• The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Steadfast by Jack Campbell (May 6)
• The Falconer (The Falconer, #1) by Elizabeth May (May 6, 2014) — US release for fantasy novel published in 2013 in the UK
• The Snow Queen: A Novel By Michael Cunningham, Narrated By Claire Danes (May 6)
• The Silk Map: A Gaunt and Bone Novel by Willrich, Chris (Pyr, May 6, 2014)
• Graphic novel: All You Need Is Kill: The Graphic Novel by Nick Mamatas, Lee Ferguson, Fajar Buana, and Zack Turner, based on the novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka (VIZ Media/Haikasoru, May 6, 2014)
• After the End (After the End, #1) by Amy Plum (May 6, 2014)
• The Oversight by Fletcher, Charlie (Orbit, May 6, 2014) — “Once there were hundreds of members of the Oversight, the brave souls who guard the borders between the mundane and the magic. Now there are only five. When a vagabond brings a screaming girl to the Oversight’s London headquarters, she could answer their hopes for new recruit, or she could be the instrument of their downfall.”
• Mirror Sight: Book Five of Green Rider by Britain, Kristen (May 6, 2014)
• King of Ashes: Book One of The War of Five Crowns by Raymond E. Feist (May 6, 2014)
• The Bees: A Novel by Laline Paull (Ecco, May 6, 2014) — “The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Hunger Games in this brilliantly imagined debut set in an anciet culture where only the queen may breed and deformity means death.”
• Sworn in Steel: A Tale of the Kin by Douglas Hulick (May 6, 2014)
• Fiction: The Painter: A novel by Heller, Peter (May 6, 2014) — from the author of The Dog Stars, coming to audio read by Mark Deakins
• Fiction: All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel by Doerr, Anthony (May 6, 2014) — In WW2, a blind Parisian daughter of a museum worker and a reluctant German codebreaker meet in Saint-Malo
• Fiction: Wonderland by D’Erasmo, Stacey (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, May 6, 2014) — “This breakout novel from a brilliant stylist—dropping us into the life a female rock star—centers on that moment when we decide whether to go all-in or give up our dreams.”
• Deadly Shores: Destroyermen by Taylor Anderson (Roc, May 6)
• Non-Fiction: Strange Beautiful Music: a Musical Memoir by Joe Satriani and Jake Brown (Tantor Audio, May 6) — concurrent with the hardcover release, which includes behind the scenes photographs and an intrudction by Brian May
• The Battle for WondLa By Tony DiTerlizzi (May 6)
• Teen: Waterfire Saga, Book One: Deep Blue (A Deep Blue Novel) by Jennifer Donnelly (May 6, 2014)
• Magic City: Recent Spells edited by Paula Gauran (Prime, May 7)
• Unlocked by John Scalzi (Tor, May 7) -- a prequel novella to Scalzi's forthcoming Lock In (Tor, Aug 26) written as an "oral history"
• Anthology: Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History edited by Rose Fox and Daniel Jose Older (Crossed Genres, May 9) -- a Kickstarter-funded anthology under two fantastic editors -- "These gripping stories have been passed down through the generations, hidden between the lines of journal entries and love letters. Now 27 of today’s finest authors – including Tananarive Due, Sofia Samatar, Ken Liu, Victor LaValle, Nnedi Okorafor, and Sabrina Vourvoulias – reveal the people whose lives have been pushed to the margins of history."
• Queen of the Dark Things: A Novel by C. Robert Cargill (Harper Voyager, May 13, 2014) — follow-on to Dreams and Shadows
• Dead but Not Forgotten By Charlaine Harris (editor), Toni L. P. Kelner (editor) with stories by MaryJanice Davidson, Seanan McGuire, and more (Audible Frontiers, May 13, 2014) — “Charlaine Harris’ smash-hit Sookie Stackhouse series may have reached its conclusion, but the world of Bon Temps, Louisiana, lives on in this all-new collection of 15 stories.”
• Renegade (MILA 2.0, #2) by Debra Drizza (May 13, 2014)
• Teen: Rebel: 2 (Reboot) by Amy Tintera (May 13, 2014)
• Fiction: The Last Illusion: A Novel by Porochista Khakpour (Bloomsbury USA, May 13, 2014)
• Fiction: To Rise Again at a Decent Hour: A Novel by Ferris, Joshua (May 13, 2014)
• Motherless Child by Glen Hirshberg (Tor, May 13) — first post-limited release (Earthling, 2012/2013)– “Bram Stoker Award–nominee Glen Hirshberg, author of the International Horror Guild Award–winning American Morons, exposes the fallacy of the Twilight-style romantic vampire while capturing the heart of every reader.”
• Anthology: Dead Man's Hand by John Joseph Adams (May 13, 2014) -- "A fearsomely impressive lineup of contributors surmounts an occasional over-reliance on Old West tropes in this vigorously imagined blend of cheroot-smoking cowboys, aliens, demons, werewolves, androids, and even dinosaurs." (Publishers Weekly)
• Non-Fiction: Along Those Lines: The Boundaries that Create Our World by Peter Cashwell (Paul Dry Books, May 13, 2014) — “After years of crossing borders to see new birds and new landscapes, Peter Cashwell’s exploration of lines between states, between time zones, and between species led him to consider the lines that divide genders, seasons, musical genres, and just about every other aspect of human life. His conclusion: most had something in common—they were largely imaginary.”
• Jade Sky by Patrick Freivald (JournalStone, May 16) — via K.H. Vaughan on a SF Signal Mind Meld of “books we can’t wait to read in 2014″ — “Matt Rowley hasn’t been human for years. A commando for the International Council on Augmented Phenomena, he hunts down superhuman monsters the military can’t handle. But his abilities come with a price: bloodthirsty whispers that urge him to acts of terrible violence. An encounter with a giant, angelic being with wings of smoke and shadow casts him into a world of inhuman brutality, demonic possession, and madness, where he must choose between his family and his soul.”
• The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne (Random House/Crown, May 20, 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.” — Kirkus Reviews says: “Byrne’s debut novel may be the most inventive tale to come along in years.“ -- Crown has posted the first chapter online
• My Real Children by Jo Walton (Tor, May 20, 2014) — “story about one woman and the two lives that she might lead”
• The Boost By Stephen Baker Narrated By David Doersch (May 20)
• Haxan by Kenneth Mark Hoover (ChiZine, May 20) — “Thermopylae. Masada. Agincourt. And now, Haxan, New Mexico Territory, circa 1874. Through a sea of time and dust, in places that might never be, or can’t become until something is set right, there are people destined to travel. Forever. Marshal John T. Marwood is one of these men. Taken from a place he called home, he is sent to fight an eternal war. It never ends, because the storm itself, this unending conflict, makes the world we know a reality. Along with all the other worlds waiting to be born. Or were born, but died like a guttering candle in eternal night . . . Haxan is the first in a series of novels. “Lonesome Dove meets The Punisher . . . real, gritty, violent, and blatantly uncompromising.””
• The Three: A Novel by Sarah Lotz (Little, Brown and Company, May 20, 2014) — “Four simultaneous plane crashes. Three child survivors. A religious fanatic who insists the three are harbingers of the apocalypse. What if he’s right?” — Lotz is South African novelist I first heard about either from Lauren Beukes (and later forgot) and most recently from Nnedi Okorafor’s fine essay African Science Fiction is Still Alien
• The Severed Streets by Cornell, Paul (May 20, 2014)
• The Man with the Compound Eyes: A Novel by Ming-Yi, Wu (May 20, 2014) — published last year in a more limited release by Harvill Secker, a Taiwanese eco-dystopia: “We haven’t read anything like this novel. Ever. South America gave us magical realism – what is Taiwan giving us? A new way of telling our new reality, beautiful, entertaining, frightening, preposterous, true. Completely unsentimental but never brutal, Wu Ming-Yi treats human vulnerability and the world’s vulnerability with fearless tenderness” — Ursula Le Guin
• A Dance of Shadows (Shadowdance) by David Dalglish (May 20, 2014)
• Cyador’s Heirs (Saga of Recluce) by L. E. Modesitt (May 20, 2014)
• She, Sniper by Hunter, Stephen (May 20, 2014) — a thriller which gets on my list by dint of being narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal
• Dangerous Creatures By Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Narrated By Khristine Hvam -- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins -- Scheduled Release Date: 05-20-14
• Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: A Novel By A. J. Hartley and David Hewson, Narrated By Richard Armitage for Audible Inc. – Scheduled Release Date: 05-20-14. “It is a tale of ghosts, of madness, of revenge – of old alliances giving way to new intrigues. Denmark is changing, shaking off its medieval past. War with Norway is on the horizon. And Hamlet – son of the old king, nephew of the new – becomes increasingly entangled in a web of deception – and murder. Beautifully performed by actor Richard Armitage (“Thorin Oakenshield” in the Hobbit films), Hamlet, Prince of Denmark takes Shakespeare’s original into unexpected realms, reinventing a story we thought we knew.”
• Tigerman by Nick Harkaway (William Heinemann, 22 May 2014) — US release set for July 29 — “Lester Ferris, sergeant of the British Army, is a good man in need of a rest. He’s spent a lot of his life being shot at, and Afghanistan was the last stop on his road to exhaustion. He has no family, he’s nearly forty and burned out and about to be retired. The island of Mancreu is the ideal place for Lester to serve out his time. It’s a former British colony in legal limbo, soon to be destroyed because of its very special version of toxic pollution – a down-at-heel, mildly larcenous backwater. Of course, that also makes Mancreu perfect for shady business, hence the Black Fleet of illicit ships lurking in the bay: listening stations, offshore hospitals, money laundering operations, drug factories and deniable torture centres. None of which should be a problem, because Lester’s brief is to sit tight and turn a blind eye.”
• Defenders by McIntosh, Will (May 27, 2014)
• Artemis Awakening by Jane Lindskold (Tor, May 27, 2014)
• Skin Game (The Dresden Files #15) by Jim Butcher (Roc, May 27, 2014) -- read by James Marsters
• Thief’s Magic (Millennium’s Rule) by Trudi Canavan (May 27, 2014)
• City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6) by Cassandra Clare (May 27, 2014)
• Dark Matter: Star Carrier: Book Five by Ian Douglas (Harper Voyager, May 27)
• Fiction: The Vacationers: A Novel by Emma Straub (Riverhead, May 29) — “An irresistible, deftly observed novel about the secrets, joys, and jealousies that rise to the surface over the course of an American family’s two-week stay in Mallorca.”
• The River of Souls by Robert McCammon (Subterranean Press, May 31, 2014) — via Nathan Ballingrud, the latest installment in the Matthew Corbett series of historical thrillers: “The year is 1703. The place: the Carolina settlement of Charles Town. . Matthew Corbett, professional “problem solver,” has accepted a lucrative, if unusual, commission: escorting a beautiful woman to a fancy dress ball. What should be a pleasant assignment takes a darker turn when Matthew becomes involved in a murder investigation. A sixteen-year-old girl has been stabbed to death on the grounds of a local plantation. The suspected killer is a slave who has escaped, with two family members, into the dubious protection of a nearby swamp. Troubled by certain discrepancies and determined to see some sort of justice done, Matthew joins the hunt for the runaway slaves. He embarks on a treacherous journey up the Solstice River, also known as the River of Souls.  He discovers that something born of the swamp has joined the hunt… and is stalking the hunters with more than murder in mind. What follows is a shattering ordeal encompassing snakes, alligators, exiled savages, mythical beasts, and ordinary human treachery. The journey up the River of Souls will test the limits of Matthew’s endurance, and lead him through a nightmarish passage to a confrontation with his past, and a moment that will alter his life forever. Gripping, unsettling, and richly atmospheric, The River of Souls is a masterful historical adventure featuring the continuing exploits of a young hero the USA Character Approved Blog has called ‘the Early American James Bond.’”

• Sword of the North (The Grim Company, Book 2) by Luke Scull (Roc Hardcover, June 1) — “In The Grim Company, Luke Scull introduced a formidable and forbidding band of anti-heroes battling against ruthless Magelords and monstrous terrors. The adventure continues as the company—now broken—face new dangers on personal quests….”
• Veil of the Deserters (Bloodsounder’s Arc #2) by Jeff Salyards (Night Shade Books, June 3, 2014)
• Ruin and Rising (The Grisha, #3) by Leigh Bardugo (Jun 3, 2014)
• Mr. Mercedes: A Novel by King, Stephen (Scribner, Jun 3, 2014)
• The Merchant Emperor (The Symphony of Ages) by Elizabeth Haydon (Jun 3, 2014)
• On Her Watch (Don’t Tell) by Rie Warren (Jun 3, 2014) — “The year is 2070 and all hell has broken lose. The rebellion has started and the government is trying desperately to regain control of the territories formerly known as the United States.”
• Non-Fiction: Wild Connection: What Animal Courtship and Mating Tells Us about Human Relationships by Jennifer L. Verdolin (Prometheus Books, Jun 3) — “A specialist in animal behavior compares the courtship rituals and mating behaviors of animals to their human equivalents, revealing the many and often surprising ways we are both similar to and different from other species.”
• Cibola Burn (The Expanse) by Corey, James S. A. (Jun 5, 2014)
• Blood Will Follow by Snorri Kristjansson (Jo Fletcher Books, Jun 5) — follow-on to Swords of Good Men
• The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord (Jo Fletcher Books, June 5, 2014) — a follow-on to 2013′s The Best of All Possible Worlds: “For years, Rafi Delarua saw his family suffer under his father’s unethical use of psionic power. Now the government has Rafi under close watch, but, hating their crude attempts to analyse his brain, he escapes to the planet Punartam, where his abilities are the norm, not the exception. Punartam is also the centre for his favourite sport, wallrunning – and thanks to his best friend, he has found a way to train with the elite. But Rafi soon realises he’s playing quite a different game, for the galaxy is changing; unrest is spreading and the Zhinuvian cartels are plotting, making the stars a far more dangerous place to aim. There may yet be one solution – involving interstellar travel, galactic power and the love of a beautiful game.” — to be released January 2015 in the US
• The Truth of Valour: A Confederation Novel by Tanya Huff (Titan, June 6)
• California Bones by Greg van Eekhout (Tor, Jun 10, 2014)
• The Leopard by K.V. Johansen (Pyr, June 10, 2014) — “Part one of a two-book epic fantasy, set in a world as richly drawn as J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth, but with Mideastern and Eastern flavors.” (via The BiblioSanctum)
• Memory of Water: A Novel by Emmi Itäranta (Harper Voyager, Jun 10, 2014) — “An amazing, award-winning speculative fiction debut novel by a major new talent, in the vein of Ursula K. Le Guin. Global warming has changed the world’s geography and its politics. Wars are waged over water, and China rules Europe, including the Scandinavian Union, which is occupied by the power state of New Qian. In this far north place, seventeen-year-old Noria Kaitio is learning to become a tea master like her father, a position that holds great responsibility and great secrets. Tea masters alone know the location of hidden water sources, including the natural spring that Noria’s father tends, which once provided water for her whole village.”
• The Girl with All the Gifts by M.J. Carey (Orbit, June 10, 2014) — “Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her ‘our little genius’. Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite, but they don’t laugh.” — link to cover
• Written in My Own Heart’s Blood: A Novel (Outlander) by Gabaldon, Diana (June 10, 2014)
• Earth Awakens: The First Formic War, Book 3 By Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston, Narrated By Stefan Rudnicki for Macmillan Audio (June 10)
• We Leave Together (Dogsland #3) by J.M. McDermott (Word Horde, June 15, 2014) — the eagerly-awaited conclusion to McDermott’s dark fantasy Dogsland trilogy (Never Knew Another and When We Were Executioners)
• Head Full of Mountains by Brent Hayward (ChiZine, Jun 15, 2014) — “When Crospinal’s ailing father dies, he is left utterly alone in the pen, surrounded by encroaching darkness. The machines that tended to him as a child have long ago vanished, and the apparitions that kept Crospinal company are now silenced. Struggling with his congenital issues, outfitted in a threadbare uniform, he has little choice but to leave what was once his home, soon discovering that nothing in the outside world is how he had been told it would be. In his quest for meaning and understanding, and the contact of another, Crospinal learns truths about himself, about his father, and about the last bastion of humanity, trapped with him at the end of time.”
• Shattered: The Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne (Jun 17, 2014)
• Teen: Dark Metropolis by Jaclyn Dolamore (Disney Hyperion, Jun 17, 2014)
• The Long Mars: A Novel (Long Earth) by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter (Jun 17, 2014) — had been called “The Long Childhood” but new title looks confirmed
• The Quick: A Novel by Lauren Owen (Random House, Jun 17, 2014) — “An astonishing debut, a novel of epic scope and suspense that conjures up all the magic and menace of Victorian London”
• A Better World (The Brilliance Saga) by Sakey, Marcus (Jun 17, 2014)
• Chasers of the Wind by Alexey Pehov (Tor, June 17)
• Child of a Hidden Sea by A.M. Dellamonica (Tor, June 24) — “One minute, twenty-four-year-old Sophie Hansa is in a San Francisco alley trying to save the life of the aunt she has never known. The next, she finds herself flung into the warm and salty waters of an unfamiliar world. Glowing moths fall to the waves around her, and the sleek bodies of unseen fish glide against her submerged ankles. The world is Stormwrack, a series of island nations with a variety of cultures and economies—and a language different from any Sophie has heard.”
• Baptism of Fire (The Witcher) by Andrzej Sapkowski (Orbit, June 24)
• Vicky Peterwald: Target by Mike Shepherd (Ace, June 24)
• Deadly Curiosities by Gail Z. Martin (Solaris, June 24, 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 Blasted Lands (Seven Forges, Book 2) by James A. Moore (Osprey, June 24, 2014) — “The Empire of Fellein is in mourning. The Emperor is dead, and the armies of the empire have grown soft. Merros Dulver, their newly-appointed – and somewhat reluctant – commander, has been tasked with preparing them to fight the most savage enemy the world has yet seen. Meanwhile, a perpetual storm ravages the Blasted Lands, and a new threat is about to arise – the Broken are coming, and with them only Death.”
• The Silkworm by J.K. Rowling, writing as Robert Galbraith (June 24) — “The Cuckoo’s Calling is finally getting a sequel! According to the publisher, Robert Galbraith (the pseudonym used by J.K. Rowling) will be releasing the next novel in the Cormoran Strike mystery series on June 24th. The description released by the publisher gives a summary of the newest mystery.”
• Thorn Jack: A Night and Nothing Novel (Night and Nothing Novels) by Harbour, Katherine (Jun 24, 2014) — read by Kate Rudd for Brilliance Audio
• In the End (In the After) by Demitria Lunetta (Jun 24, 2014)
• Prince of Fools (The Red Queen’s War, #1) by Mark Lawrence (Ace, June 2014)
• Anthology: Searchers After Horror edited by S.T. Joshi (Fedogan and Bremer, June 2014) — “21 “New Tales of the Weird and Fantastic” selected by noted authority S.T. Joshi, nearly all to be published here for the very first time … Fine weird stories by Caitlin Kiernan, Donald Tyson, Ramsey Campbell, W.H. Pugmire, …”

• All Those Vanished Engines by Paul Park (Tor, Jul 1, 2014)
• The Rhesus Chart (A Laundry Files Novel) by Charles Stross (Jul 1, 2014)
• Tower Lord (A Raven’s Shadow Novel) by Anthony Ryan (Jul 1, 2014)
• The Shadow Throne: Book Two of the Shadow Campaigns by Django Wexler (Jul 1, 2014)
• Shattering the Ley by Palmatier, Joshua (DAW Hardcover, Jul 1, 2014)
• Unwept: Book One of The Nightbirds by Tracy Hickman and Laura Hickman (Jul 1, 2014)
• Hurricane Fever by Tobias S. Buckell (Tor, July 1) — “Prudence “Roo” Jones never thought he’d have a family to look after—until suddenly he found himself taking care of his orphaned teenage nephew. Roo, a former Caribbean Intelligence operative, spends his downtime on his catamaran dodging the punishing hurricanes that are the new norm in the Caribbean. Roo enjoys the simple calm of his new life—until an unexpected package from a murdered fellow spy shows up. Suddenly Roo is thrown into the center of the biggest storm of all.”
• How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky by Lydia Netzer, read by Joshilynn Jackson (St. Martin’s Press / Macmillan Audio, July 1) — Netzer’s follow-on to her brilliant 2012 novel Shine Shine Shine, reunited with the same fine narrator
• Traitor’s Blade by Sebastien de Castell (Jo Fletcher Books, July 1) — “In the first of a new fantasy series by Sebastien de Castell, a disgraced swordsman struggles to redeem himself by protecting a young girl caught in the web of a royal conspiracy. Falcio is the first Cantor of the Greatcoats. Trained in the fighting arts and the laws of Tristia, the Greatcoats are travelling Magisters upholding King’s Law. They are heroes. Or at least they were, until they stood aside while the Dukes took the kingdom, and impaled their king’s head on a spike” — UK release was March 6th
• The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones (Mulholland Books, July 1) — “A family is hunted by a centuries-old monster: a man with a relentless obsession who can take on any identity. The String Diaries opens with Hannah frantically driving through the night–her daughter asleep in the back, her husband bleeding out in the seat beside her. In the trunk of the car rests a cache of diaries dating back 200 years, tied and retied with strings through generations. The diaries carry the rules for survival that have been handed down from mother to daughter since the 19th century. But how can Hannah escape an enemy with the ability to look and sound like the people she loves?”
• Armada by Ernest Cline (July 3) — “Cline wowed the world with Ready Player One in 2011, a brilliant debut that was pure geek gold: a glorious fusion of near future science fiction, epic fantasy quest, and unlikely love story, that above all else is an homage to the 1980s. Millions of readers worldwide have been anxiously awaiting his second novel, which evidently chronicles the adventures of a video game geek named Zack, who is conscripted into a top-secret government program and must save the world from an alien invasion.” (via Paul Goat Allen’s “The Most Anticipated Sci-fi and Fantasy Releases of 2014″ for Barnes & Noble)
• Half a King by Joe Abercrombie (Del Rey, July 8, 2014) — “A classic coming-of-age tale, set in a brilliantly imagined alternative historical world reminiscent of the Dark Ages with Viking overtones, the book tells the story of Yarvi, youngest son of a warlike king. Born with a crippled hand, he can never live up to his father’s expectations of what a real man should be and his destiny is not the throne but the Ministry, not the sword and shield but the book and the soft word spoken.”
• The Door in the Mountain—Caitlin Sweet (July 8, ChiZine)
• Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn’t Fly by Stephen Graham Jones and Paul Tremblay (ChiZine, July 8, 2014)
• Resistance by Samit Basu (Titan, Jul 8, 2014) — follow-on to Turbulence
• A Plunder of Souls (The Thieftaker Chronicles) by D. B. Jackson (Jul 8, 2014)
• The Return of the Discontinued Man (A Burton & Swinburne Adventure) by Mark Hodder (Jul 8, 2014)
• The Path to Power (The Tarnished Crown Series) by Miller, Karen (Jul 8, 2014)
• California: A Novel by Edan Lepucki (Little, Brown and Company, Jul 8, 2014) — “The world Cal and Frida have always known is gone, and they’ve left the crumbling city of Los Angeles far behind them. They now live in a shack in the wilderness, working side-by-side to make their days tolerable despite the isolation and hardships they face. Consumed by fear of the future and mourning for a past they can’t reclaim, they seek comfort and solace in one other. But the tentative existence they’ve built for themselves is thrown into doubt when Frida finds out she’s pregnant.”
• Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen (Thomas Dunne Books, July 8) – ”Every child knows how the story ends. The wicked pirate captain is flung overboard, caught in the jaws of the monster crocodile who drags him down to a watery grave. But it was not yet my time to die. It’s my fate to be trapped here forever, in a nightmare of childhood fancy, with that infernal, eternal boy.”
• Pathfinder Tales: Skinwalkers by Wendy W. Wager (Paizo, July 8) — a Pathfinder Tales novel from one of the “Inkpunks” — “As a young woman, Jendara left the cold northern isles of the Ironbound Archipelago to find her fortune. Now, many years later, she’s forsaken her buccaneer ways and returned home in search of a simpler life, where she can raise her young son, Kran, in peace. When a strange clan of shapeshifting raiders pillages her home, however, there’s no choice for Jendara but to take up her axes once again to help the islanders defend all that they hold dear.”
• Uncaged (The Singular Menace, 1) by John Sandford and Michele Cook (Jul 8, 2014)
• Land of Love and Drowning: A Novel by Tiphanie Yanique (Riverhead, July 10) — “In the early 1900s, the Virgin Islands are transferred from Danish to American rule, and an important ship sinks into the Caribbean Sea. Orphaned by the shipwreck are two sisters and their half brother, now faced with an uncertain identity and future. Each of them is unusually beautiful, and each is in possession of a particular magic that will either sink or save them.”
• Robogenesis: A Novel by Daniel H. Wilson (Doubleday and Random House Audio, July 10) — “The stunningly creative, epic sequel to Wilson’s blockbuster thriller and New York Timesbestseller Robopocalypse. ‘The machine is still out there. Still alive.’”
• Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Sweterlitsch, Thomas (Jul 10, 2014) — “A decade has passed since the city of Pittsburgh was reduced to ash. While the rest of the world has moved on, losing itself in the noise of a media-glutted future, survivor John Dominic Blaxton remains obsessed with the past. Grieving for his wife and unborn child who perished in the blast, Dominic relives his lost life by immersing in the Archive—a fully interactive digital reconstruction of Pittsburgh, accessible to anyone who wants to visit the places they remember and the people they loved. Dominic investigates deaths recorded in the Archive to help close cases long since grown cold, but when he discovers glitches in the code surrounding a crime scene—the body of a beautiful woman abandoned in a muddy park that he’s convinced someone tried to delete from the Archive—his cycle of grief is shattered.”
• World of Trouble: The Last Policeman, Book 3 by Ben H. Winters (Quirk Books, July 15, 2014) — the third and concluding book in Winters’ Edgar Award winning and Philip K. Dick Award nominated Last Policeman trilogy
• Full Fathom Five by Max Gladstone (Tor, Jul 15, 2014)
• The High Druid’s Blade: The Defenders of Shannara by Terry Brooks, narrated by Simon Vance (Del Rey, July 15) – postponed from its original March release date; the second book, The Darkling Child, will publish in August 2015
• The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy, #3) by Deborah Harkness (July 15, 2014)
• The Outsorcerer’s Apprentice by Holt, Tom (Jul 15, 2014)
• The Scorched Earth by Drew Karpyshyn (Del Rey, July 15, 2014) — sequel to 2013 novel Children of Fire
• Graphic Novel: The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew (Jul 15, 2014)
• Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch (Gollancz, 17 Jul 2014) — the fifth book in the Peter Grant series, with a sixth on the way next year, and contracted for books 7 and 8
• The Seventh Miss Hatfield by Anna Caltabiano (Gollancz, July 21) — debut novel from 17-year-old author Caltabiano which ”follows Rebecca, a young American unhappy with her life.  When her mysterious neighbour Miss Hatfield invites her in, Rebecca isn’t entirely sure why she says yes. A short while later, Rebecca becomes immersed in her neighbour’s peculiar world – not only does she discover that Miss Hatfield is immortal, but that she has century-spanning plans, which will soon involve Rebecca.”
• Extraction by Stephanie Diaz (Jul 22, 2014)
• Kids: The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher by Dana Alison Levy (Jul 22, 2014)
• Magic Breaks (Kate Daniels) by Ilona Andrews (Jul 29, 2014)
• Teen: The Young World by Weitz, Chris (Jul 29, 2014)
• Hardship (Theirs Not to Reason Why) by Jean Johnson (Ace, July 29)
• Cast in Flame by Michelle Sagara (Harlequin MIRA, July 29)
• Bound (Alex Caine, Book 1) by Alan Baxter (HarperVoyager Australia, July 2014) — first in a trilogy of “modern grim dark fantasy thrillers”

• The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman (Viking Adult, August 5, 2014) — book three after The Magicians and The Magician King – “The stunning conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Magicians trilogy. Quentin Coldwater has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical land of his childhood dreams. With nothing left to lose he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic. But he can’t hide from his past, and it’s not long before it comes looking for him. Along with Plum, a brilliant young undergraduate with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demimonde of gray magic and desperate characters. But all roads lead back to Fillory, and his new life takes him to old haunts, like Antarctica, and to buried secrets and old friends he thought were lost forever. He uncovers the key to a sorcery masterwork, a spell that could create magical utopia, a new Fillory—but casting it will set in motion a chain of events that will bring Earth and Fillory crashing together. To save them he will have to risk sacrificing everything. The Magician’s Land is an intricate thriller, a fantastical epic, and an epic of love and redemption that brings the Magicians trilogy to a magnificent conclusion, confirming it as one of the great achievements in modern fantasy. It’s the story of a boy becoming a man, an apprentice becoming a master, and a broken land finally becoming whole.”
• The Ghost in the Electric Blue Suit by Joyce, Graham (Aug 5, 2014)
• Broken Souls by Stephen Blackmoore (DAW, Aug 5)
• Assail: A Novel of the Malazan Empire by Ian C. Esslemont (Aug 5, 2014)
• Whiskey Tango Foxtrot by David Shafer (Mulholland Books, August 5) — “William Gibson meets Chuck Palahniuk in an ambitious novel of international techno conspiracy and dark comedy. The Committee, an international cabal of techno-industrialists and media barons, is on the verge of privatizing all information. Dear Diary, an idealistic online Underground, stands in the way of that takeover, using radical politics, classic spycraft, and technology that makes Big Data look like dial-up. Into this pitched and secret battle tumbles an unlikely trio: Leila Majnoun, a disenchanted non-profiteer; Leo Crane, a bipolar trustafarian; and Mark Devreaux, a wracked and fraudulent self-betterment guru.”
• Revenant by Kat Richardson (August 5) — “The ninth installment of Richardson’s Greywalker saga, featuring private investigator Harper Blaine, should be a blockbuster of a novel. I absolutely loved this series, which blends hardboiled mystery with supernatural fiction and is comparable to the work of classic writers including Raymond Chandler and Algernon Blackwood. With the conclusion of this series looming, I’m curious to see where Richardson takes her iconic protagonist.” (via Paul Goat Allen’s “The Most Anticipated Sci-fi and Fantasy Releases of 2014″ for Barnes & Noble)
• The Widow’s House (The Dagger and the Coin) by Abraham, Daniel (Aug 5, 2014)
• The House of the Four Winds (Dragon Prophecy) by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory (Aug 5, 2014)
• The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy: A Novel by Jacopo della Quercia (St. Martin’s Griffin, Aug 5, 2014)
• Dark Lightning by John Varley (Ace, Aug 5) — “On a voyage to New Earth, the starship Rolling Thunder is powered by an energy no one understands, except for its eccentric inventor Jubal Broussard. Like many of the ship’s inhabitants, Jubal rests in a state of suspended animation for years at a time, asleep yet never aging.”
• Fish Tails: A Novel by Sheri S. Tepper (Harper Voyager, Aug 5, 2014)
• Lair of Dreams: A Diviners Novel by Bray, Libba (Aug 5, 2014)
• Kids: Frostborn (Thrones & Bones #1) by Lou Anders (Random House Children’s Books, August 5, 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.” -- narrated by Fabio Tassone for Listening Library -- a prologue plus two chapter sampler are online
• Teen: Opposition (A Lux Novel) by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Aug 5, 2014)
• Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage: A novel by Haruki Murakami and translated by Philip Gabriel (Knopf, Aug 12, 2014) — Published in Japan last year: “Tsukuru Tazaki’s life was irreparably changed when his relationships with his high school best friends became severed during Tsukuru’s college days. Now at 35, Tsukuru’s girlfriend Sara suggested to Tsukuru to go and talk to these high school friends in person to mend the relationships, and to discover the real reason behind the friends’ decision to reject Tsukuru. Tsukuru visited his friends in Nagoya and Finland one by one, and uncovers the real reason as to why their relations were broken off.”
• Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente (Tor, Aug 12, 2014)
• The Ultra Thin Man by Patrick Swenson (Tor, Aug 12) — “In the twenty-second century, a future in which mortaline wire controls the weather on the settled planets and entire refugee camps drowse in drug-induced slumber, no one—alive or dead, human or alien—is quite what they seem. When terrorists manage to crash Coral, the moon, into its home planet of Ribon, forcing evacuation, it’s up to Dave Crowell and Alan Brindos, contract detectives for the Network Intelligence Organization, to solve a case of interplanetary consequences. Crowell’ and Brindos’s investigation plunges them neck-deep into a conspiracy much more dangerous than anything they could have imagined.”
• Fool’s Assassin by Robin Hobb (Aug 12, 2014)
• Your Face in Mine: A Novel by Jess Row (Riverhead, Aug 14) — “An award-winning writer delivers a poignant and provocative novel of identity, race and the search for belonging in the age of globalization.”
• We Will All Go Down Together by Gemma Files (Aug 15) — “A mosaic novel whose characters are gifted and semi-monstrous people linked by shared blood and a violent common history, a Five-Family Coven whose 500-year-long vendetta with each other is finally coming to a head. It’s Alice Munro meets Clive Barker, with a cast that includes body-stealing witches, time-travelling changelings, monster-killing nuns and evil angels.”
• Echopraxia by Peter Watts (August 16, 2014) — “We are going to the Sun, rs and Ks. Whereas the last time out we froze in the infinite Lovecraftian darkness of the Oort, now we are diving into the very heart of the solar system— and man, there’s gonna be a hot time in the ol’ town tonight.”
• The Godless by Ben Peek (Thomas Dunne, August 19, 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.”
• Year’s Best Weird Fiction Volume 1 edited by Laird Barron (ChiZine, Aug 19, 2014) — inaugural edition of a new, rotating-editor year’s best anthology for Weird fiction, with authors (among others) including Jeff VanderMeer, Jeffrey Ford, Sofia Samatar, Joseph S. Pulver Sr, John Langan, Richard Gavin, and W. H. Pugmir.
• The Broken Eye (Lightbringer #3) by Brent Weeks (Orbit, August 26, 2014)
• Lock In by John Scalzi (Tor, Aug 26, 2014) -- "Fifteen years from now, a new virus sweeps the globe. 95% of those afflicted experience nothing worse than fever and headaches. Four percent suffer acute meningitis, creating the largest medical crisis in history. And one percent find themselves “locked in”—fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. One per cent doesn't seem like a lot. But in the United States, that's 1.7 million people “locked in”...including the President's wife and daughter."
• The Getaway God (Sandman Slim) by Richard Kadrey (Aug 26, 2014)
• Voices from Beyond (A Ghost Finders Novel) by Simon R. Green (Ace, August 26) — “In a quiet London suburb, four university students participating in an experiment inside a reputed haunted house hold a séance that goes terribly wrong. What—or who—ever they summoned has taken their minds away, leaving them empty shells. Enter the Ghost Finders, ready to confront an enraged poltergeist for the students’ very souls.”
• Greenglass House by Milford, Kate and Zollars, Jaime (Aug 26, 2014)
• Teen: The Rule of Thoughts (Mortality Doctrine, Book Two) (The Mortality Doctrine) by James Dashner (Aug 26, 2014)
• Kids: Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor: 1 by Jon Scieszka and Brian Biggs (Aug 26, 2014
• Kids: Gabriel Finley and the Raven's Riddle by George Hagen and Scott Bakal (Aug 26, 2014)
• The Fire Prince (The Cursed Kingdoms Trilogy) by Emily Gee (Solaris, Aug 27) — “The long awaited and much anticipated sequel to 2011′s The Sentinel Mage. The Fire Prince continues the saga of Prince Harkeld, Innis the shapeshifter and the imperiled Seven Kingdoms.”
• All That Outer Space Allows (The Apollo Quartet, Book 4) by Ian Sales (Whippleshield, August 2014) — “I plan to have copies available for Loncon 3 in August, but we’ll see how the research and writing goes. I suspect it may be the hardest of the four to write – and Then Will The Great Ocean Wash Deep Above was no picnic… Meanwhile, I have a bunch of other projects on the go.”
• Anthology: Burnt Tongues edited by Chuck Palahniuk, Richard Thomas, and Dennis Widmyer (Medallion Press, August 2014) — “This collection of transgressive short stories will be out in August. Cover art by Jay Shaw. With an introduction by Chuck Palaniuk. Stories by Neil Krolicki, Chris Lewis Carter, Gayle Towell, Tony Liebhard, Michael De Vito, Jr., Tyler Jones, Phil Jourdan, Richard Lemmer, Amanda Gowin, Matt Egan, Fred Venturini, Brandon Tietz, Adam Skorupskas, Bryan Howie, Brien Piechos, Jason M. Fylan, Terence James Eeles, Keith Buie, Gus Moreno, and Daniel W. Broallt.”

• Acceptance: A Novel (The Southern Reach Trilogy) by Jeff VanderMeer (Sep 1, 2014)
• City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett (Crown/Broadway and Recorded Books, September 9, 2014) — “a second-world story of spies, subterfuge, and statesmanship set in a nation of dead gods.” — latest IndieBound and Amazon listings
• Consumed: A Novel by David Cronenberg (Sep 2, 2014) — debut novel from the acclaimed filmmaker: “the story of two journalists whose entanglement in a French philosopher’s death becomes a surreal journey into global conspiracy.”
• Sleeping Late On Judgement Day: A Bobby Dollar Novel by Tad Williams (DAW Hardcover, September 2) — “Where does an angel go when he’s been to Hell and back? Renegade angel Bobby Dollar does not have an easy afterlife. After surviving the myriad gruesome dangers Hell oh-so-kindly offered him, Bobby has returned empty-handed – his demon girlfriend Casmira, the Countess of Cold Hands, is still in the clutches of Eligor, Grand Duke of Hell. Some hell of a rescue. Forced to admit his failure, Bobby ends up back at his job as an angel advocate. That is, until Walter, an old angel friend whom Bobby never thought he’d see again, shows up at the local bar. The last time he saw Walter was in Hell, when Walter had tried to warn him about one of Bobby’s angel superiors. But now Walter can’t remember anything, and Bobby doesn’t know whom to trust.” I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the first two Bobby Dollar books (The Dirty Streets of Heaven and Happy Hour in Hell) and am looking forward to finally finding out what the hell is going on among the big powers.
• The Midnight Queen by Sylvia Izzo Hunter (Ace Trade, September 2) — “Gray’s deep talent for magick has won him a place at Merlin College. But when he accompanies four fellow students on a mysterious midnight errand that ends in disaster and death, he is sent away in disgrace—and without a trace of his power. He must spend the summer under the watchful eye of his domineering professor, Appius Callender, working in the gardens of Callender’s country estate and hoping to recover his abilities. And it is there, toiling away on a summer afternoon, that he meets the professor’s daughter.”
• Spells at the Crossroads by Barbara Ashford (DAW, September 2)
• The Golden Princess: A Novel of the Change (Change Series) by S.M. Stirling (Roc Hardcover, September 2) — “A new generation faces its own challenges in the world the Change has made. Princess Orlaith, heir to Rudi Mackenzie, Artos the First, High King of Montival, now wields the Sword of the Lady—and faces a new enemy. Fortunately, she also has a new ally in Reiko, Empress of Japan, who has been pursued to America by a conquering army from Asia.”
• Maplecroft: The Borden Dispatches by Cherie Priest (Roc Trade, Sep 2) — “Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks; and when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one…. The people of Fall River, Massachusetts, fear me. Perhaps rightfully so. I remain a suspect in the brutal deaths of my father and his second wife despite the verdict of innocence at my trial. With our inheritance, my sister, Emma, and I have taken up residence in Maplecroft, a mansion near the sea and far from gossip and scrutiny. But it is not far enough from the affliction that possessed my parents. Their characters, their very souls, were consumed from within by something that left malevolent entities in their place. It originates from the ocean’s depths, plaguing the populace with tides of nightmares and madness.”
• Twelve Kings in Sharakhai (The Song of the Shattered Sands) by Bradley Beaulieu (Sep 2, 2014)
• The Savior (General (Drake)) by Tony Daniel and David Drake (Baen, Sep 2) — “Sequel to The Heretic, Book 10 in the nationally best-selling General series.”
• Outrider: A Novel by Steven John (Night Shade, Sep 2) — “The only people that can stop the high-tech terrorists who are stealing power are on horseback.”
• Age of Iron (Iron Age) by Angus Watson (Orbit, Sep 2)
• Teen: The Caller (Shadowfell) by Juliet Mariller (Knopf Books for Young Readers, Sep 9) — “In the final book in this gripping, romantic fantasy trilogy perfect for fans of Robin McKinley, Kristin Cashore, and Shannon Hale, Neryn’s band of rebels reach their climactic confrontation with the king. The stunning conclusion to the story that began with Shadowfell and Raven Flight is full of romance, intrigue, magic, and adventure.”
• Yesterday’s Kin by Nancy Kress (Tachyon, Sep 9) — “Aliens have landed in New York. A deadly cloud of spores has already infected and killed the inhabitants of two worlds. Now that plague is heading for Earth, and threatens humans and aliens alike. Can either species be trusted to find the cure?”
• Exo (Jumper) by Steven Gould (Tor, Sep 9)
• Hieroglyph: Stories and Blueprints for a Better Future by Neal Stephenson (William Morrow, September 9) — I assume this is in reference to Stephenson’s “Hieroglyph” challenge/project, to inspire tech and science research with grand sf stories
• Anthology: Rogues edited by Gardner Dozois and George R.R. Martin (Bantam Spectra, September 9, 2014) — “There’s something for everyone in ROGUES — SF, mystery, historical fiction, epic fantasy, sword and sorcery, comedy, tragedy, crime stories, mainstream, as well as rogues, cads, scalawags, con men, thieves, and scoundrels of all descriptions.” With stories from: Gaiman, Rothfuss, Willis, Nix, Abraham, Cornell, Cherie Priest, Lynch, Vaughn, Swanwick, Lansdale, Hughes, Gillian Flynn!, and Joe Abercrombie
• Ancestral Machines: A Humanity’s Fire novel by Michael Cobley (Sep 16, 2014)
• Anthology: Phantasm Japan: Fantasies Light and Dark, From and About Japan edited by Nick Mamatas (Haikasoru, Sep 16, 2014) — another original trade paperback anthology edited by Mamatas for VIZ Media’s Haikasoru sf/f prose imprint after 2012′s well-received The Future is Japanese
• Gideon Smith and the Brass Dragon by David Barnett (Tor, Sep 16)
• The Infinite Sea: The Second Book of the 5th Wave by Rick Yancey (Sep 16, 2014)
• The Bodies We Wear by Jeyn Roberts (Knopf Books for Young Readers, Sep 23) — “People say when you take Heam, your body momentarily dies and you catch a glimpse of heaven. Faye was only eleven when dealers forced Heam on her and her best friend, Christian. But Faye didn’t glimpse heaven—she saw hell. And Christian died. ”
• The Seventh Sigil by Margaret Weis and Robert Krammes (Tor, Sep 23)
• The Wonder of All Things by Mott, Jason (Harlequin MIRA, Sep 30, 2014) — the author of The Returned returns with a new novel about the cost and power of living with miracles: “On an ordinary day, at an air show like that in any small town across the country, a plane crashes into a crowd of spectators, killing and injuring dozens. But when the dust clears, a thirteen-year-old girl named Ava is found huddled beneath a pocket of rubble with her best friend, Wash. He is injured and bleeding, and when Ava places her hands over him, his wounds miraculously disappear.”
• Wolf in White Van: A Novel by John Darnielle (FSG, Sep 30, 2014) — “Welcome to Trace Italian, a game of strategy and survival! You may now make your first move. Isolated by a disfiguring injury since the age of seventeen, Sean Phillips crafts imaginary worlds for strangers to play in. From his small apartment in southern California, he orchestrates fantastic adventures where possibilities, both dark and bright, open in the boundaries between the real and the imagined. As the creator of “Trace Italian”—a text-based, role-playing game played through the mail—Sean guides players from around the world through his intricately imagined terrain, which they navigate and explore, turn by turn, seeking sanctuary in a ravaged, savage future America.”
• 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.”
• The Mirror Empire (Worldbreaker Saga, Book 1) by Kameron Hurley (Angry Robot, September 2014) — “On the eve of a recurring catastrophic event known to extinguish nations and reshape continents, a troubled orphan evades death and slavery to uncover her own bloody past… while a world goes to war with itself.”
• The Winter Long (October Daye, #8) by Seanan McGuire (September 2014)
• Mortal Beauty (Immortal Game, #1) by Ann Aguirre (September 2014)
• Kids: The Eighth Continent by Matt London (Razorbill, September 2014) — via PW Book Deals: “Debut novelist Matt London sold his middle-grade series, the 8th Continent, to Gillian Levinson at Razorbill. Agent Sara Crowe at Harvey Klinger handled the three-book, world-rights deal for the author. Razorbill said the humorous series was pitched as “Despicable Me meets Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego?”; it follows a brother and sister trying to turn the Great Pacific Garbage Patch into “a utopic eighth continent.””

• Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie (Orbit, October 7) — sequel and book two in the planned trilogy which started with Ancillary Justice
• Falling Sky by Rajan Khanna (Pyr, Oct 7) — “Ben Gold lives in dangerous times. Two generations ago, a virulent disease turned the population of most of North America into little more than beasts called Ferals. Some of those who survived took to the air, scratching out a living on airships and dirigibles soaring over the dangerous ground. Ben has his own airship, a family heirloom, and has signed up to help a group of scientists looking for a cure. But that’s not as easy as it sounds, especially with a power-hungry air city looking to raid any nearby settlements. To make matters worse, his airship, the only home he’s ever known, is stolen. Ben must try to survive on the ground while trying to get his ship back. This brings him to Gastown, a city in the air recently conquered by belligerent and expansionist pirates. When events turn deadly, Ben must decide what really matters–whether to risk it all on a desperate chance for a better future or to truly remain on his own.”
• Nightmare Carnival edited by Ellen Datlow (Dark Horse Books, Oct 7, 2014) — new anthology includes (among others) Nick Mamatas, Nathan Ballingrud, Jeffrey Ford, Genevieve Valentine, Stephen Graham Jones, Robert Shearman, and Laird Barron
• The Shotgun Arcana by R.S. Belcher (Tor, Oct 7)
• The Chaplain’s War by Brad Torgersen (Baen, October 7, 2014) — debut novel -- "A chaplain serving in Earth's space fleet is trapped behind enemy lines where he struggles for both personal survival and humanity's future. The mantis cyborgs: insectlike, cruel, and determined to wipe humanity from the face of the galaxy. The Fleet is humanity’s last chance: a multi-world, multi-national task force assembled to hold the line against the aliens’ overwhelming technology and firepower. Enter Harrison Barlow, who like so many young men of wars past, simply wants to serve his people and partake of the grand adventure of military life. Only, Harrison is not a hot pilot, nor a crack shot with a rifle. What good is a Chaplain’s Assistant in the interstellar battles which will decide the fate of all?"
• The Sword of Michael (Depossessionist) by Marcus Wynne (Baen, Oct 7, 2014)
• Spark: A Novel by John Twelve Hawks (Doubleday, Oct 7)
• Broken Soul by Faith Hunter (Oct 7, 2014) — presumably the next Jane Yellowrock book
• Poison Fruit: Agent of Hel by Jacqueline Carey (Roc Hardcover, Oct 7)
• Silverblind (Ironskin) by Tina Connolly (Tor, October 7) — the third book in Connolly’s Ironskin series
• The Dark Defiles by Richard Morgan (Del Rey, Oct 7) — “The final part of Richard Morgan’s fast-moving and brutal fantasy brings Ringil to his final reckoning and sees the world tipping into another war with the dragon folk. And, most terrifying of all, the prophecy of a dark lord come to rule may be coming true very close to home …”
• Hawk (Vlad) by Steven Brust (Tor, October 7)
• Closer to Home: Book One of Herald Spy by Mercedes Lackey (October 7)
• The Young Elites by Marie Lu (Oct 7, 2014)
• Anthology: Fearsome Magics by K.J. Parker, Scott Lynch, Christopher Priest and Jonathan Strahan (Oct 7, 2014)
• Those Above by Daniel Polansky (Hodder & Stoughton, Oct 9, 2014) — “You’ve seen him do crime – low fantasy by way of HBO’s The Wire. You knew it as Low Town, the crime-ridden city where only death is certain. But you’ve never seen him do epic fantasy. Until now. From the acclaimed author of THE STRAIGHT RAZOR CURE comes this spectacular new series – epic fantasy, as only Daniel Polansky can imagine it.”
• The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, translated by Ken Liu (Tor Books, October 14, 2014) — the first of an announced trilogy of translated editions of this 400,000-copy-selling Chinese sf series
• Collection: The Wilds by Julia Elliott (Tin House, Oct 14, 2014) — “At an obscure South Carolina nursing home, a lost world reemerges as a disabled elderly woman undergoes newfangled brain-restoration procedures and begins to explore her environment with the assistance of strap-on robot legs. At a deluxe medical spa on a nameless Caribbean island, a middle-aged woman hopes to revitalize her fading youth with grotesque rejuvenating therapies that combine cutting-edge medical technologies with holistic approaches and the pseudo-religious dogma of Zen-infused self-help. And in a rinky-dink mill town, an adolescent girl is unexpectedly inspired by the ravings and miraculous levitation of her fundamentalist friend’s weird grandmother. These are only a few of the scenarios readers encounter in Julia Elliott’s debut collection, The Wilds. In these genre-bending stories, teetering between the ridiculous and the sublime, Elliott’s language-driven fiction uses outlandish tropes to capture poignant moments in her humble characters’ lives. Without abandoning the tenets of classic storytelling, Elliott revels in lush lyricism, dark humor, and experimental play.”
• Fire in the Blood by Erin M. Evans (Wizards of the Coast, Oct 14) — “SCRIBE-award-winning author, Erin M. Evans, continues the riveting tale of her Sundering character, Farideh, as she becomes embroiled in a Forgotten Realms-flavored game of thrones.”
• Teen: The Doubt Factory by Paolo Bacigalupi (Little Brown Books for Young Readers and Listening Library, Oct 14) — “In this page-turning contemporary thriller, National Book Award Finalist and New York Times bestselling author Paolo Bacigalupi explores the timely issue of how public information is distorted for monetary gain, and how those who exploit it must be stopped.”
• Teen: Girl on a Wire by Gwenda Bond (Skyscape, Oct 14) — “A ballerina, twirling on a wire high above the crowd. Horses, prancing like salsa dancers. Trapeze artists, flying like somersaulting falcons. And magic crackling through the air. Welcome to the Cirque American!”
• Teen: Girl at the Bottom of the Sea by Michelle Tea (McSweeney’s McMullen’s, October 14) — “the follow-up to Michelle Tea’s beloved Mermaid in Chelsea Creek, “a refreshing breath of air in the world of YA, equal parts eerie, heartbreaking, and fantastical.””
• The Free by Brian Ruckley (Orbit, Oct 14)
• Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch (Balzer + Bray, Oct 14, 2014)
• Graphic Novel: In Real Life by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang (First Second, Oct 14, 2014) — from the announcement: “a graphic novel about gaming and gold farming for young adults based on Doctorow’s award-winning story Anda’s Game, adapted by Jen Wang, creator of the amazing graphic novel Koko Be Good.”
• The Death House by Sarah Pinborough (Gollancz, Oct 16, 2014) — “The Death House is a home where, in a world where people are safe against illness, children and teenagers who are susceptible to terminal conditions are sent to die. Their fates are certain. Their lives are in their hands. The question is: what will they choose to do with them?”
• The Mime Order: The Bone Season (The Remnant Chronicles) by Samantha Shannon (Oct 21, 2014) — sequel to The Bone Season – “Paige Mahoney has escaped the brutal penal colony of Sheol I, but her problems have only just begun: many of the fugitives are still missing and she is the most wanted person in London.”
• Kids: Centaur Rising by Jane Yolen (Henry Holt, Oct 21, 2014) — “One night during the Perseid meteor shower, Arianne thinks she sees a shooting star land in the fields surrounding her family’s horse farm. About a year later, one of their horses gives birth to a baby centaur. The family has enough attention already as Arianne’s six-year-old brother was born with birth defects caused by an experimental drug—the last thing they need is more scrutiny. But their clients soon start growing suspicious. Just how long is it possible to keep a secret? And what will happen if the world finds out?”
• War Dogs by Greg Bear (Orbit, October 21) — “AN EPIC INTERSTELLAR TALE OF WAR FROM A MASTER OF SCIENCE FICTION. The Gurus came in peace, bearing gifts. They were a highly advanced, interstellar species who brought amazingly useful and sophisticated technology to the human race. There was, of course, a catch. The Gurus warned of a far more malevolent life form, beings who have hounded the Gurus from sun to sun, planet to planet, across the cosmos. Pundits have taken to calling them the Antagonists-or Antags-and they have already established a beachhead on Mars. For all they’ve done for us, the Gurus would now like our help.”
• The Abyss Beyond Dreams: Chronicle of the Fallers by Peter F. Hamilton (Del Rey, Oct 21)
• Ink Mage (Ink Mage series) by Gischler, Victor (Oct 22, 2013)
• A Vision of Fire by Gillian Anderson and Jeff Rovin (Simon451, October 2014) — “first in the EarthEnd trilogy” by the X-Files actress and her co-author Rovin
• The Peripheral by William Gibson (Putnam Adult, October 28) — “William Gibson returns with his first novel since 2010’s New York Times–bestselling Zero History. Where Flynne and her brother, Burton, live, jobs outside the drug business are rare. Fortunately, Burton has his veteran’s benefits, for neural damage he suffered from implants during his time in the USMC’s elite Haptic Recon force. Then one night Burton has to go out, but there’s a job he’s supposed to do—a job Flynne didn’t know he had. Beta-testing part of a new game, he tells her. The job seems to be simple: work a perimeter around the image of a tower building. Little buglike things turn up. He’s supposed to get in their way, edge them back. That’s all there is to it. He’s offering Flynne a good price to take over for him. What she sees, though, isn’t what Burton told her to expect. It might be a game, but it might also be murder.”
• Falling from Horses by Molly Gloss (Oct 28)
• The Wolf in Winter: A Charlie Parker Thriller by John Connolly (Oct 28, 2014)
• Teen: Stone Cold Touch (The Dark Elements) by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Oct 28, 2014)
• The Undying by Ethan Reid (Simon451, October 2014) — a dystopia
• Chimpanzee by Darin Bradley (Resurrection House, Fall 2014) — “a delightfully weird existential near-fi conspiracy theory romance”
• Heraclix and Pomp by Forrest Aguirre (Resurrection House, Fall 2014) — “an alternative history fantasy set in the Eastern Europe. It features a golem, a faery, and a mad scientist (well, more of 17th century alchemist/demonologist, but it’s the same trope)”
• Rooms by Lauren Oliver (Fall 2014)
• Collection: The Nickronomicon by Nick Mamatas (Inssmouth Free Press, Fall/Winter 2014) — collects all of Mamatas’ Lovecraft-inspired fiction into a single volume, including a new, never-before-published novella, titled “On the Occasion of My Retirement.”

• The Slow Regard of Silent Things: A KingKiller Chronicle Novella by Patrick Rothfuss (DAW, November 4, 2014) -- "set at The University, where the brightest minds work to unravel the mysteries of enlightened sciences, such as artificing and alchemy. Auri, a former student (and a secondary but influential character from Rothfuss’s earlier novels) now lives alone beneath the sprawling campus in a maze of ancient and abandoned passageways. There in The Underthing, she feels her powers and learns to see the truths that science—and her former classmates—have overlooked."
• Willful Child by Steven Erikson (Tor, Nov 4, 2014) -- "From the New York Times Bestselling author Steven Erikson comes a new SF novel of devil-may-care, near calamitous and downright chaotic adventures through the infinite vastness of interstellar space. These are the voyages of the starship A.S.F. Willful Child. Its ongoing mission: to seek out strange new worlds on which to plant the Terran flag, to subjugate and if necessary obliterate new life-forms, to boldly blow the... And so we join the not-terribly-bright but exceedingly cock-sure Captain Hadrian Sawback and his motley crew on board the Starship Willful Child for a series of devil-may-care, near-calamitous and downright chaotic adventures through ‘the infinite vastness of interstellar space.’"
• Genesis Code: A Thriller of the Near Future by Jamie Metzl (Arcade Publishing, Nov 4) — “Blue Magic, the latest designer drug linked to a rash of overdoses, might explain the needle mark on the arm of a young woman found dead in her apartment in Kansas City. But when Star reporter Rich Azadian digs deeper, the clues tie her to a much bigger story: MaryLee Stock was a special protégée of evangelical megastar and powerbroker Cobalt Becker, who is poised to deliver his followers and the presidency to a firebrand rightwing senator in the next election. What makes the story hot is she may have been pregnant by Becker. More disturbing, the embryo may have been—illegally—genetically enhanced to produce a superbaby. But in America in 2023—bankrupt, violently divided by the culture wars, and beholden to archrival China—the rules of the game are complicated, and when the Department of National Competitiveness shuts down Azadian’s investigation and he learns that Chinese agents were also interested in the dead woman, he can only do what he does best: go rogue, assemble a team of brilliant misfits like himself, and investigate.”
• Jala’s Mask by Mike and Rachel Grinti (Pyr, Nov 4)
• Dreamer’s Pool: A Blackthorn & Grim Novel by Juliet Mariller (Nov 4)
• Anthology: Shattered Shields edited by Jennifer Brozek and Bryan Thomas Schmidt (Baen, Nov 4) — a military fantasy anthology with headliners Glen Cook (Black Company), Larry Correia, John Marco, Elizabeth Moon (new Paksenarrion), David Farland (new Runelords), Catherine Asaro, Sarah A. Hoyt, Robin Wayne Bailey.
• Chaos Unleashed by Drew Karpyshyn (Del Rey, Nov 11)
• The Whispering Swarm: Book One of The Sanctuary of the White Friars by Michael Moorcock (Tor, Nov 25)
• The Thorn of Emberlain (Gentleman Bastard #4) by Scott Lynch (November 2014)
• Anthology: Carbide Tipped Pens edited by Ben Bova and Eric Choi (Tor, December 2, 2014) — a an original hard sf anthology with stories from Gregory Benford, Nancy Fulda, Aliette de Bodard, Liu Cixin (translated by Ken Liu), Daniel H. Wilson, and more
• The Lady (Marakand) by K.V. Johansen (Pyr, Dec 9)
• The Jupiter Pirates #2: Curse of the Iris by Jason Fry (Dec 16, 2014)
• Anthology: The End is Now: The Apocalypse Triptych #2 edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey (December 2014) — via io9

• The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord (Del Rey, Jan 6, 2015) — a follow-on to 2013′s The Best of All Possible Worlds: “For years, Rafi Delarua saw his family suffer under his father’s unethical use of psionic power. Now the government has Rafi under close watch, but, hating their crude attempts to analyse his brain, he escapes to the planet Punartam, where his abilities are the norm, not the exception. Punartam is also the centre for his favourite sport, wallrunning – and thanks to his best friend, he has found a way to train with the elite. But Rafi soon realises he’s playing quite a different game, for the galaxy is changing; unrest is spreading and the Zhinuvian cartels are plotting, making the stars a far more dangerous place to aim. There may yet be one solution – involving interstellar travel, galactic power and the love of a beautiful game.” — released June 5, 2014 in the UK
• Spell-Blind (Casebooks of Justis Fearsson) by David B. Coe (Baen, Jan 6, 2015)
• Golden Son: Book II of the Red Rising Trilogy by Pierce Brown (Jan 13, 2015)
• The Thousand and One: Book II of The Crescent Moon Kingdoms by Saladin Ahmed (February 2015)
• The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth) by Jemisin, N. K. (Orbit, 2015) — “This is the way the world ends. Again.”
• Collection: Irredeemable by Jason Sizemore (Seventh Star Press) — “Featuring twenty one tales of dark SF and horror, many of which have flavors of Appalachia, Irredeemable brings together a number of Jason’s previously published stories and features two brand new ones. The book will be released in all eBook formats and trade paperback during the second week of April. The collection will also feature a cover from Polish artist Tomasz Trafial.”
• All the Worlds Against Us (Jon and Lobo) by Mark L. Van Name (Baen) — Audible Frontiers has produced the previous books in the series, under fantastic narrations by Tom Stechschulte
• Tsarina by J. Nelle Patrick (2014)
• Love in the Time of Mechanical Replication by Judd Trichter (St. Martins? Thomas Dunne? 2014?)
• Ebon (Pegasus, #2) by Robin McKinley (2014?)
• The Doors of Stone (Kingkiller Chronicle #3) by Patrick Rothfuss (DAW, 2014?)
• Shadows of Self (Mistborn, #5) by Brandon Sanderson (Tor, 2014?)
• Edge of Eternity (The Century Trilogy #3) by Ken Follett (2014?)
• The Winds of Winter (A Song of Ice and Fire, #6) by George R.R. Martin (2015?)
• The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi (Knopf, 2015) — “Knopf has acquired a new novel by Paolo Bacigalupi, the science fiction writer whose 2009 book “The Windup Girl” sold 200,000 copies and was considered one of the top novels of the year. The new book, “The Water Knife,” is set in a lawless, water-starved American Southwest in the not-too-distant future.”
• Because You’ll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas (Bloomsbury USA, 2015) — first novel from 2010 Clarion Workshop graduate
• Anthology: Wastelands 2: More Stories of the Apocalypse edited by John Joseph Adams (Titan Books, February 2015) – “Edited by acclaimed anthologist John Joseph Adams, WASTELANDS 2: MORE STORIES OF THE APOCALYPSE is the star-studded follow-up to the 2008 bestselling anthology Wastelands.”
• The Philosopher’s Zombie by Robert J. Sawyer (April 2015)
• Anthology: The End has Come: The Apocalypse Triptych #3 edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey (June 2015) — via io9
• John Claude Bemis is set to launch a new Steampunk/alchemist series for young readers, to be published by Disney/Hyperion starting in 2015
• The Skull Throne (Demon Cycle, #4) by Peter V. Brett (2015?)
• The Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker (St. Martin’s Press, 2015) — “Originally planned as a collection of short stories, the project changed to focus on Harry D’Amour going up against Pinhead. The novel has been in works for more than a decade and we’ll be able to read it in 2015, courtesy of St. Martin’s Press: ‘Clive is delighted to announce that St Martin’s Press has acquired world English rights to publish The Scarlet Gospels, his upcoming novel featuring Pinhead and Harry D’Amour. St Martin’s anticipates a winter 2015 publication date.’”
• The City of Mirrors (The Passage, #3) by Justin Cronin
• The Uninvited by Cat Winters (William Morrow) — via PW Book Deals: “Lucia Macro at HarperCollins’s William Morrow imprint acquired world English rights to Cat Winters’s novel, The Uninvited. The book, which Morrow compares to The Night Circus and The Thirteenth Tale, is a paranormal work set during the influenza pandemic of 1918. Winters, who was represented by Barbara Poelle at the Irene Goodman Literary Agency, was a finalist for the YALSA’s 2014 Morris Award, for her novel In the Shadow of Blackbirds.”
• How to Invent a Language by David Peterson (Penguin) — via PW Book Deals: “For Penguin Press, Elda Rotor took world rights to David Peterson’s How to Invent a Language. Peterson has created languages for shows like HBO’s Game of Thrones and Syfy’s Defiance, and the book will be a guide for anyone looking to craft a new tongue. Agent Joanna Volpe at New Leaf Literary & Media represented Peterson.”
• Teen: The Burning Depths by James P. Smythe (Hodder, February 2015) — “Centuries ago, the Australia left a dying Earth in search of an inhabitable planet its colonists could call home. But no such planet was ever discovered. Law and order gave way to rioting and chaos as gangs began battling for control of the ship and its dwindling resources, and the Australia was left to drift, directionless, through the emptiness of space. Seventeen-year-old Chan, fiercely independent and self-sufficient, keeps her head down and lives quietly, careful not to draw attention to herself amidst the violence and disorder. Until the day she makes an extraordinary discovery – a way to return the Australia to Earth. But doing so would bring her to the attention of the fanatics and the murderers who control life aboard the ship, putting her and everyone she loves in terrible danger. And a safe return to Earth is by no means certain.”
• Shower of Stones by Zachary Jernigan (Night Shade Books, Spring 2015) — “Conclusion to the visceral, inventive narrative begun in No Return, ‘the most daring debut novel of 2013,’ Shower of Stones pits men against gods, swords against world-destroying magic, offering readers another glimpse into the fascinatingly harsh world of Jeroun.”
• The Unnoticeables by Robert Brockway (Tor, July 2015) — “Tor said the books are “hilarious urban fantasy novels” set in a world that pulls from New York’s punk scene in the 1970s as well as the modern-day Los Angeles entertainment industry.” (via PW)
• Truthwitch by Susan Dennard (Tor, Fall 2015) — “The series is set in a world where three empires rule and every member of the population is born with a magical skill set, known as a “witchery.” Tor elaborated: “Now, as the Twenty Year Truce in a centuries-long war is about to end, the balance of power will fall on the shoulders of two young women, who must accept their fate, and themselves, to survive.”” (via PW)
• The War Against Assholes by Sam Munson (Simon & Schuster / Saga Press, 2015?) — “set in a Manhattan “shrouded in mystery” and follows a 17-year-old Catholic high school student who begins to acquire supernatural powers after being introduced to a book called The Calendar of Sleights by a strange classmate. The protagonist is then pulled into a long-running war among rival factions of magicians.” (via PW)
• Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear (Gollanzc, late 2016) — first in a two-book space opera which “imagines the invention of The White Drive: an easy, nonrelativistic means of travel across unimaginable distances. The gripping story follows salvage operators, Haimey Dz and her partner Connla Kurucz, as they pilot their tiny ship into the scars left by unsuccessful White Transitions, searching for the relics of lost human – and alien – vessels.”

Posted in Release Week | Tagged adrian barnes, alena graedon, black moon, celeste ciulla, claire north, david gerrold, elizabeth bear, hugh howey, james langton, john joseph adams, kenneth calhoun, kevin j anderson, marcel theroux, maurice broaddus, neil shah, nod, peter kenny, stant litore, steles of the sky, strange bodies, the apocalypse triptych, the dragon business, the end is nigh, the eternal sky, the first fifteen lives of harry august, the vanishing, the word exchange, the zombie bible, wendy webb, when harlie was one, xe sands