Release Week: The Doubt Factory, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future, The Lottery and Other Stories, and As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride

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Release Week: The Doubt Factory, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future, The Lottery and Other Stories, and As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride

Posted on 2014-10-17 at 17:27 by Sam

OCTOBER 8-14, 2014:  October continues to be a month of bountiful harvests in terms of audiobooks, as my first pass for picks came up with 16 titles to strongly consider. So! After the four picks, do check out the “also out this week” (and perhaps even the “also also out this week”) listings. The “seen but not heard” titles include Julia Elliott’s The Wilds, Blake Butler’s 300,000,000, Beth Bernobich’s The Time Roads, and Kerry Howley’s Thrown, so there’s certainly plenty to read if your ears get tired. Enjoy!

PICKS OF THE WEEK:

The Doubt Factory by Paolo Bacigalupi Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future by A. S. King

My first two picks are both from Printz Award authors and Little Brown Books for Young Readers. The order is arbitrary — i.e. I kept flip-flopping — and they actually are doing some tour events together anyway, so let’s go alphabetical and start with The Doubt Factory by Paolo Bacigalupi, author of Nebula and Hugo Award-winning The Windup Girl and National Book Award finalist Ship Breaker. Read by Emma Galvin for Listening Library: “In this page-turning contemporary thriller, Bacigalupi explores the timely issue of how public information is distorted for monetary gain, and how those who exploit it must be stopped. Everything Alix knows about her life is a lie. At least that’s what a mysterious young man who’s stalking her keeps saying. But then she begins investigating the disturbing claims he makes against her father. Could her dad really be at the helm of a firm that distorts the truth and covers up wrongdoing by hugely profitable corporations that have allowed innocent victims to die? Is it possible that her father is the bad guy, and that the undeniably alluring criminal who calls himself Moses—and his radical band of teen activists—is right? Alix has to make a choice, and time is running out, but can she truly risk everything and blow the whistle on the man who loves her and raised her?” It’s a Doctorow-esque (Homeland, Little Brother) look from a more Bacigalupian perspective. Get: [Downpour | Audible]

Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future by A.S. King, narrated by Christine Lakin: “In this masterpiece about freedom, feminism, and destiny, Printz Honor author A. S. King tells the epic story of a girl coping with devastating loss at long last—a girl who has no idea that the future needs her, and that the present needs her even more. Graduating from high school is a time of limitless possibilities—but not for Glory, who has no plan for what’s next. Her mother committed suicide when Glory was only four years old, and she’s never stopped wondering if she will eventually go the same way … until a transformative night when she begins to experience an astonishing new power to see a person’s infinite past and future. From ancient ancestors to many generations forward, Glory is bombarded with visions—and what she sees ahead of her is terrifying: A tyrannical new leader raises an army. Women’s rights disappear. A violent second civil war breaks out. And young girls vanish daily, sold off or interned in camps. Glory makes it her mission to record everything she sees, hoping her notes will somehow make a difference. She may not see a future for herself, but she’ll do anything to make sure this one doesn’t come to pass.” Get: [Downpour | Audible]

The Lottery, and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride | [Cary Elwes, Joe Layden, Rob Reiner (foreword)]

What’s not to like about this? Skyboat Media has put together some fantastic full cast narrations of anthologies and collections over the years, and now sets its sights on The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson. Directed by Cassandra de Cuir, read by Cassandra Campbell, Gabrielle de Cuir, Kathe Mazur, and Stefan Rudnicki: “‘The Lottery,’ one of the most terrifying stories of the twentieth century, created a sensation when it was first published in the New Yorker. ‘Powerful and haunting,’ and ‘nights of unrest’ were typical reader responses. This collection, the only one to appear during Jackson’s lifetime, unites ‘The Lottery’ with twenty-four equally unusual stories. Together they demonstrate her remarkable range—from the hilarious to the truly horrible—and power as a storyteller.” Per Skyboat Media, Campbell was directly selected by the Shirley Jackson estate to read “The Lottery”, and her performance gets my stamp of approval as well. Get: [Downpour]

As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes with Joe Layden, and foreword by Rob Reiner (Oct 14, 2014) — more information available via an interview with Elwes, and the audiobook is read by the cast of the film including Cary Elwes, Christopher Guest, Carol Kane, Norman Lear, Rob Reiner, Chris Sarandon,Andy Scheinman, Wallace Shawn, Robin Wright, and Billy Crystal. “From actor Cary Elwes, who played the iconic role of Westley in The Princess Bride, comes a first-person account and behind-the-scenes look at the making of the cult classic film filled with never-before-told stories, exclusive photographs, and interviews with costars Robin Wright, Wallace Shawn, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, and Mandy Patinkin, as well as author and screenwriter William Goldman, producer Norman Lear, and director Rob Reiner; in addition to never-before-seen photos and interviews with his fellow cast mates, there are plenty of set secrets, backstage stories, and answers to lingering questions about off-screen romances that have plagued fans for years.” Get: [Downpour | Audible | Kindle]

ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:

Chimpanzee | [Darin Bradley] Heraclix and Pomp: A Novel of the Fabricated and the Fey | [Forrest Aguirre]

First up, two books published by Mark Teppo’s Resurrection House. August saw the publication of Darin Bradley’s Chimpanzee, to fantastic reviews from NPR and Locus. Now, Chimpanzee is out in a sound-effects and soundtrack-produced audiobook, read by the author for Resurrection House’s own audiobook imprint. “Unemployment has ravaged the U.S. economy. People struggle everywhere, exhausted by the collapse that destroyed their lives. Benjamin Cade is an expert in cognition, and before the flatlined economy caught up to him, he earned his living as a university instructor. Now, without income, he joins the millions defaulting on their loans - in his case, the money he borrowed to finance his degrees. But there are consequences. Using advances in cognitive science and chemical therapy, Ben’s debtors can reclaim their property - his education.”

Heraclix and Pomp: A Novel of the Fabricated and the Fey by Forrest Aguirre is out in audio from Audible concurrent with the print/ebook release, first pitched in early marketing as “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)“. Aguirre’s first full-length novel, it gets a full teaser text treatment as well: “Before being sewn-together, Heraclix was dead—merely a pile of mismatched pieces, collected from the corpses of many troubled men. And Pomp was immortal—at least, so she thought. That was before her impossible near-murder at the hands of the necromancer, Heraclix’s creator. But when playing God, even the smallest error is a gargantuan weakness. When the necromancer makes his, Heraclix and Pomp begin their epic flight.” Narrated By Brandon Massey, whom I last heard on Nick Mamatas’ Bullettime, also for Audible.

The Free | [Brian Ruckley] War Dogs | [Greg Bear]

Next up, two from Orbit and Hachette Audio, starting with The Free by Brian Ruckley (Orbit, Oct 14) — Narrated By Bernard Setaro Clark (Hal Duncan’s Vellum) for Hachette Audio — Ruckley’s return to epic fantasy after 2011 urban fantasy/gothic horror The Edinburgh Dead. Here: “They are the most feared mercenary company the kingdom has ever known. Led by Yulan, their charismatic captain, the Free have spent years selling their martial and magical skills to the highest bidder - winning countless victories that shook the foundations of the world. Now they finally plan to lay down their swords.Yet when Yulan is offered a final contract, he cannot refuse - for the mission offers him the chance to erase the memories of the Free’s darkest hour, which have haunted him for years.” More: Ruckley writes about the importance of a well-crafted magic system.

War Dogs by Greg Bear (Orbit, October 14) — “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.” — Narrated By Jay Snyder for Hachette.

 

Next up, two from Dreamscape Media, which are out in the world (physical editions orderable in stock, and available through the OverDrive digital audiobook system for libraries) but not (yet) on digital retail sites like Downpour or Audible. First: 10:04: A Novel by Ben Lerner (Dreamscape Media, Oct 13) — published in print/ebook by Faber & Faber on Sep 2 — “In the last year, the narrator of 10:04 has enjoyed unlikely literary success, has been diagnosed with a potentially fatal medical condition, and has been asked by his best friend to help her conceive a child. In a New York of increasingly frequent superstorms and social unrest, he must reckon with his own mortality and the prospect of fatherhood in a city that might soon be underwater.” — appears that the audio was finally available Oct 13, per library listings [Overdrive].

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: One afternoon, not long after Kelly Thorndike has moved back to his hometown of Baltimore, an African American man he doesn’t recognize calls out to him. To Kelly’s shock, the man identifies himself as Martin, who was one of Kelly’s closest friends in high school - and, before his disappearance nearly twenty years before, skinny, white, and Jewish. Martin then tells an astonishing story: he’s had a plastic surgeon perform ‘racial reassignment surgery.” [OverDrive]

The Boy Who Drew Monsters | [Keith Donohue] Eclipse: A Song Called Youth, Book 1 | [John Shirley]

The Boy Who Drew Monsters By Keith Donohue, Narrated By Bronson Pinchot for Blackstone Audio (Oct 13) — out Oct 7 in print/ebook from Picador, a “hypnotic literary horror novel about a young boy trapped inside his own world, whose drawings blur the lines between fantasy and reality” read by the always-fantastic Pinchot.

A Song Called Youth by John Shirley, read by Chris Sorensen for Audible, bringing Shirley’s classic “Cyberpunk’s patient zero” (William Gibson) trilogy to audio. Comprising Eclipse, Eclipse Penumbra, and Eclipse Corona. “2039: The Russians didn’t use the big nukes. The ongoing Third World War has left parts of Europe in ruins. Into the chaos steps the Second Alliance, a multinational eager to impose its own kind of New World Order. In the United States - in FirStep, the vast space colony and on the artificial island Freezone - the SA shoulders its way to power, spinning a dark web of media manipulation, propaganda, and infiltration.”

ALSO ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:

Pearlhanger (Lovejoy) | Jonathan Gash Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen | Garth Nix The Weird Company: The Secret History of H. P. Lovecraft’s Twentieth Century | Peter Rawlik

SEEN BUT NOT HEARD:

The Wilds Three Hundred Million: A Novel

  • Red Tide by Larry Niven, Brad R. Torgersen and Matthew J. Harrington (Phoenix Pick, Oct 10, 2014) -- "Loosely based on Larry Niven s 1973 novella "Flash Crowd," Red Tide continues to examine the social consequences of the impact of having instantaneous teleportation, where humans can instantly travel long distances in milliseconds."
  • Dead New World by Ryan Hill (Curiosity Quills Press, Oct 13, 2014) -- "Zombies aren’t mindless anymore. Before the world fell into chaos, zombies existed only in the imagination. Now, there’re more dead walking the earth than living. Zombies move about freely, while humans are forced behind concrete barricades to stay alive. A man known only as the Reverend has become a threat to the rebuilding United States. The leader of a powerful cult, the Reverend somehow controls the zombies, bending them to his will. He believes zombies are God’s latest creation, making humanity obsolete, and he wants to give every man, woman, and child the chance to become one. With the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, his army composed of both humans and zombies, he may well get his wish."
  • 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.” — Jeff VanderMeer calls the collection “A potent mix of the real and the unreal.”
  • Collection: Prophecies, Libels & Dreams by Ysabeau S. Wilce (Small Beer Press, Oct 14, 2014) -- print edition coming in November: "These inter-connected stories are set in an opulent quasi-historical world of magick and high manners called the Republic of Califa. The Republic is a strangely familiar place—a baroque approximation of Gold Rush era-California with an overlay of Aztec ceremony—yet the characters who populate it are true originals: rockstar magicians, murderous gloves, bouncing boy terrors, blue tinted butlers, sentient squids, and a three year old Little Tiny Doom and her vengeful pink plush pig."
  • 300,000,000 by Blake Butler (Harper, Oct 14) — “Blake Butler deploys words like chemicals that merge into phrases, coalescing in alternate existences, with familiar worlds distorted. In Butler’s third novel, There is No Year, a family survives a disease but is still subject to a scourge of infestations and other horrors and mysteries, including a house with secret passageways and the existence of a duplicate “copy family.” Butler began his latest novel, 300,000,000, as a retaliation against the hype surrounding Roberto Bolaño’s 2666. The result? A portrait of American violence, told through the minds of a Manson-like cult figure and the policeman responsible for figuring him out, while tracking a trail of violence and descent into psychosis.” (via The Millions)
  • The Time Roads by Beth Bernobich (Oct 14, 2014) -- "From Beth Bernobich, the critically acclaimed author of the River of Souls trilogy, comes The Time Roads, a fantastical 19th century alternate historical steampunk romp."
  • The Big Tree by Rick Hautala, Christopher Golden, Thomas F. Monteleone and Glenn Chadbourne (Oct 14, 2014)
  • 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.”
  • Anthology: The Cutting Room: Dark Reflections of the Silver Screen edited by Ellen Datlow (Tachyon, Oct 14)
  • Anthology: A Mountain Walked edited by S.T. Joshi (Centipede Press, October 14, 2014) — “an oversize anthology with almost 700 pages. S.T. Joshi has selected the best of the reprinted Cthulhu Mythos stories and combined them with over a dozen new works written just for this anthology. This book has over 25 stories, including new stories by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., Donald Tyson, Cody Goodfellow, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Jonathan Thomas, Laird Barron, Michael Shea, Patrick McGrath, Mark Samuels, Gemma Files, and others. The book also has new artwork by David Ho, John Kenn Mortensen, Drazen Kozjan, Denis Tiani, and Thomas Ott.”
  • 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.”
  • Non-Fiction: Thrown by Kerry Howley (Sarabande, Oct 14, 2014) — “A philosophical examination of the maligned subculture of mixed martial arts “cage” fighting.” [Kirkus] -- also feature of a full-length TIME review by Lev Grossman, calling it "the most bizarre and fascinating book I've read this year"
  • Memoir: Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina by Michaela DePrince with Elaine DePrince (Random House, Oct 14) -- along with a children's reader version Ballerina Dreams: From Orphan to Dancer (Step Into Reading, Step 4)
COMING SOON:

 A Man Lies Dreaming

  • Red Tide by Larry Niven, Brad Torgersen, and Matthew J. Harrington (Phoenix Pick, Oct 15)
  • 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 Bloodbound By Erin Lindsey, Narrated By Jill Tanner for Recorded Books (Oct 16)
  • Zombie Fallout 8: An Old Beginning By Mark Tufo, Narrated By Sean Runnette (Oct 17)
  • The Beam: Season 1 By Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant, Narrated By Johnny Heller, Tara Sands,Ralph Lister, Ray Chase, R.C. Bray, Jeffrey Kafer, Chris Patton, Eric Martin (Oct 17)
  • 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.”
  • Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn’t Fly by Stephen Graham Jones and Paul Tremblay (ChiZine, Oct 21, 2014) — US release, out in Canada in May — “Mary’s life is going fine. Except for being a freshman in high school. And having anxiety attacks. And her dad having no job. So, introduce one boy who can fly, kidnap the little brother she’s supposed to be babysitting, and drop a military quarantine on her town and that should make her anxiety completely disappear, right? Wrong!”
  • The Door in the Mountain by Caitlin Sweet (Oct 21, ChiTeen) — US release, out in Canada in May — “The Greece of The Door in the Mountain (Book 1 of a two-part series) is a place where children are marked by gods and goddesses; a place where a manipulative, bitter princess named Ariadne devises a mountain prison for her hated half-brother, where a boy named Icarus tries, and fails, to fly, and a slave girl changes the paths of all their lives forever.”
  • YA: Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle #3) by Maggie Stiefvater (Oct 21)
  • Bathing the Lion by Jonathan Carroll (St. Martin’s Press, Oct 21, 2014) — “In Jonathan Carroll’s surreal masterpiece, Bathing the Lion, five people who live in the same New England town go to sleep one night and all share the same hyper-realistic dream. Some of these people know each other; some don’t."
  • Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury, Narrated By Tim Robbins for Audible (Oct 21)
  • Collection: Knife Fight and Other Struggles by David Nickle (ChiZine, Oct 21, 2014)
  • Fish Tails: A Novel by Sheri S. Tepper (Harper Voyager, Oct 21, 2014)
  • 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?”
  • The Abyss Beyond Dreams: Chronicle of the Fallers by Peter F. Hamilton (Del Rey, Oct 21)
  • The Seventh Sigil by Margaret Weis and Robert Krammes (Tor, Sep 23, and Dreamscape Media, Oct 21)
  • Ink Mage (Ink Mage series) by Gischler, Victor (Oct 22, 2013)
  • A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar (Hodder & Stoughton, 23 Oct 2014) — “Deep in the heart of history’s most infamous concentration camp, a man lies dreaming. His name is Shomer, and before the war he was a pulp fiction author. Now, to escape the brutal reality of life in Auschwitz, Shomer spends his nights imagining another world – a world where a disgraced former dictator now known only as Wolf ekes out a miserable existence as a low-rent PI in London’s grimiest streets. An extraordinary story of revenge and redemption, A Man Lies Dreaming is the unforgettable testament to the power of imagination.”
  • 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.” — audio coming concurrently from Penguin Audio, read by Lorelei King
  • The Slow Regard of Silent Things: A KingKiller Chronicle Novella by Patrick Rothfuss (DAW Hardcover and Penguin Audio, October 28, 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.” — yes indeed, read by the author!
  • Frontera by Lewis Shiner, read by Stefan Rudnicki for Skyboat Media (Oct 28) — Shiner’s Philip K. Dick and Nebula Award finalist debut sf novel, first published in 1984: “After the world’s governments collapsed, the corporations took control. Houston’s Pulsystems has sent an expedition to the lost Martian colony of Frontera to search for survivors, but Reese, aging hero of the US space program, knows better. The colonists are not only alive; they have discovered a secret so devastating that the new rulers of Earth will stop at nothing to own it. But none of them have reckoned with Kane, tortured veteran of the corporate wars, whose hallucinatory voices are urging him to complete an ancient cycle of heroism and alter the destiny of the human race.” Quoth George R. R. Martin: “Hard-edged and colorful and relentless, and altogether a compelling read.”
  • We Will All Go Down Together by Gemma Files (ChiZine, Oct 28) — “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.”
  • The City Stained Red (Bring Down Heaven) by Sam Sykes (Orbit, Oct 28, 2014) — begins a new series from the author of Tome of the Undergates
  • Fiction: Falling from Horses by Molly Gloss (Oct 28)
  • The Wolf in Winter: A Charlie Parker Thriller by John Connolly (Oct 28, 2014)
  • The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber (Hogarth and Random House Audio, Oct 28) — “Faber’s latest novel – which David Mitchell called his “second masterpiece” after The Crimson Petal and the White – touches on interstellar space travel, cataclysmic events, romantic love, and religious faith. Such broad territory seems befitting for an author claimed simultaneously by the nations of Scotland, Australia, and the Netherlands.” (via The Millions)
  • The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man: Book 1 of the Repo Man Series By W. Bruce Cameron, Narrated By George K. Wilson (Oct 28)
  • Talon: The Talon Saga, Book 1 By Julie Kagawa (Oct 28)
  • Sky Pirates: Book Three in The Chronicles of Light and Shadow by Liesel Schwarz (Oct 28, 2014)
  • The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones By George R. R. Martin, Elio Garcia, Linda Antonsson (Random House Audio, Oct 28)
  • Black Dog: Hellhound Chronicles by Caitlin Kittredge (Oct 28, 2014)
  • Teen: Stone Cold Touch (The Dark Elements) by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Oct 28, 2014)
  • The Blood Vivicanti Part 3: Theo By Becket, Narrated By Simone Tetrault for Audible (Oct 31)
  • The Last Projector by David James Keaton (Broken River Books, October 31, 2014) — “In this hysterical fever dream of a novel, meet an unhinged paramedic turned porn director uprooted from an ever-shifting ’80s fantasy. Discover a crime that circles back through time to a far-reaching cover-up in the back of an ambulance. Reveal a manic tattoo obsession and how it conspires to ruin the integrity of a story and corrupt identity itself. Unravel the mystery surrounding three generations of women and the one secret they share. And follow two amateur terrorists, whose unlikely love story rushes headlong toward a drive-in apocalypse.”
  • Collection: The Nickronomicon by Nick Mamatas (Inssmouth Free Press, October 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.”
  • Elysium by Jennifer Marie Brissett (Aqueduct Press, October 2014) — “A computer program etched into the atmosphere has a story to tell. It’s the story of two people … of a city lost to chaos … of survival and love … but the data has been corrupted.”
  • The Ninth Wind by Moses Siregar III (October 2014) — Follow-on to The Black God’s War in Siregar’s epic fantasy “Splendor and Ruin” trilogy: “I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on an early copy of The Ninth Wind by Moses Siregar, a terrific Indy writer who I think is going to blow up big when this comes out. A top tier epic fantasy from him, and hopefully it will be out soon.” –Jonathan Wood, author of NO HERO
NOVEMBER and DECEMBER 2014:
  • Collection: Bitter Waters by Chaz Brenchley (Lethe Press, November 2014) — with an introduction by Geoff Ryman, and more recently a starred review from Publishers Weekly
  • Mermaids in Paradise by Lydia Millet (WW Norton, Nov 3) — “After the high hilarity of her satirical early work, Lydia Millet reached new emotional depths in her last three novels. This new novel, concerning the discovery of mermaids and the ensuing scramble to cash in, looks to achieve a new kind of synthesis.” (via The Millions)
  • Lowball: A Wild Cards Novel edited by George R.R. Martin (Tor, Nov 4) — the 22nd Wild Cards book! with: “The Big Bleed” by Michael Cassutt; “Those About to Die” by David Anthony Durham; “Galahad in Blue” by Melinda M. Snodgrass; “Ties That Bind” by Mary Anne Mohanraj; “Cry Wolf” by David D. Levine; “Road Kill” by Walter Jon Williams; “Once More, for Old Time’s Sake” by Carrie Vaughn; “No Parking…” by Ian Tregillis
  • 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.’”
  • The Future Falls: Book Three of the Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff (Nov 4, 2014)
  • ADDED: The Heart Does Not Grow Back by Fred Venturini (Picador, Nov. 4th) -- "Dale Sampson is used to being a nonperson at his small-town Midwestern high school, picking up the scraps of his charismatic lothario of a best friend, Mack. He comforts himself with the certainty that his stellar academic record and brains will bring him the adulation that has evaded him in high school. But when an unthinkable catastrophe tears away the one girl he ever had a chance with, his life takes a bizarre turn as he discovers an inexplicable power: He can regenerate his organs and limbs." (via My Bookish Ways)
  • 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)
  • ADDED: Tainted Blood by ML Brennan (Roc-Nov. 4th)
  • ADDED: The Walled City by Ryan Graudin (Little, Brown-Nov 4th)
  • The Sword of Michael (Depossessionist) by Marcus Wynne (Baen, Nov 4, 2014)
  • Dreamer’s Pool: A Blackthorn & Grim Novel by Juliet Mariller (Nov 4)
  • The Glass Magician (The Paper Magician Series) by Charlie N. Holmberg(47North, Nov 4, 2014)
  • 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.
  • Kids: The Map to Everywhere by Carrie Ryan and John Parke Davis (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Nov 4) — “To Master Thief Fin, an orphan from the murky pirate world of the Khaznot Quay, the Map is the key to finding his mother. To suburban schoolgirl Marrill, it’s her only way home after getting stranded on the Pirate Stream, the magical waterway that connects every world in creation. With the help of a bumbling wizard and his crew, they must scour the many worlds of the Pirate Stream to gather the pieces of the Map to Everywhere–but they aren’t the only ones looking. A sinister figure is hot on their tail, and if they can’t beat his ghostly ship to find the Map, it could mean the destruction of everything they hold dear!”
  • Fiction: McGlue (The Fence Modern Prize in Prose) by Ottessa Moshfegh (Nov 4, 2014) — “Salem, Massachusetts, 1851: McGlue is in the hold, still too drunk to be sure of name or situation or orientation—he may have killed a man. That man may have been his best friend. Intolerable memory accompanies sobriety. A-sail on the high seas of literary tradition, Ottessa Moshfegh gives us a nasty heartless blackguard on a knife-sharp voyage through the fogs of recollection.”
  • Teen: The Silence of Six by E.C. Myers (Adaptive Books, Nov 5, 2014) — in a guest post for YA Books Central he writes: “Ever since I read Alvin’s Secret Code by Clifford Hicks when I was a kid, I have been fascinated with ciphers. This one is pretty easy to crack, but I got to play with some more challenging puzzles in THE SILENCE OF SIX. Designing a book cover is a little like cryptography: You try several different approaches and when you hit on the right one, it just fits. That’s how it was with this cover! As soon as I saw what the brilliant creative team at Adaptive Books had come up with, I knew it was the perfect image to convey the intrigue, technology, and darkness at the core of the story — without giving away too much.” The post includes an excerpt as well as this synopsis: “Haunted by the unforgettable image of his best friend’s death, Max’s entire world is upended as he suddenly finds himself the target of a corporate-government witch-hunt. Fearing for his life and fighting for his own innocence, Max is on the run with no one to trust and too many unanswered questions.”
  • Linkershim: Sovereign of the Seven Isles, Book 6 By David A. Wells, Narrated By Derek Perkins for Podium Publishing (Nov 7)
  • No Worse Enemy: The Empire’s Corps, Book 2 By Christopher G. Nuttall, Narrated ByJeffrey Kafer for Podium Publishing (Nov 7)
  • The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, translated by Ken Liu (Tor Books, November 11, 2014) — the first of an announced trilogy of translated editions of this 400,000-copy-selling Chinese sf series; a Tor.com article in early May provides yet more information
  • Revival: A Novel by Stephen King (Scribner, Nov 11, 2014) — “A dark and electrifying novel about addiction, fanaticism, and what might exist on the other side of life.”
  • A Dance of Ghosts (Shadowdance) by David Dalglish (Orbit, Nov 11, 2014)
  • Chaos Unleashed by Drew Karpyshyn (Del Rey, Nov 11)
  • ADDED: Wakening the Crow by Stephen Gregory (Solaris- Nov. 11th)
  • The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck (New Directions, Nov 11) — “One of the most significant German-language novelists of her generation, Erpenbeck follows up the celebrated novel Visitation with a heady conceit located somewhere between Cloud Atlas and Groundhog Day. The End of Days follows a single character, born early in the 20th Century, to five different deaths: the first as an infant, the second as a teenager, and so on. In each case, her life illuminates the broader history of Europe, which remains ever in the background, dying its own deaths.” (via The Millions)
  • Related non-fiction: The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help by Amanda Palmer (Grand Central, Nov 11) — an audiobook is coming as well, read by the author — “Rock star, crowdfunding pioneer, and TED speaker Amanda Palmer knows all about asking. Performing as a living statue in a wedding dress, she wordlessly asked thousands of passersby for their dollars. When she became a singer, songwriter, and musician, she was not afraid to ask her audience to support her as she surfed the crowd (and slept on their couches while touring). And when she left her record label to strike out on her own, she asked her fans to support her in making an album, leading to the world’s most successful music Kickstarter.”
  • Teen: Revolution (Replica) by Jenna Black (Tor Teen, Nov 11, 2014)
  • Black Gum Godless Heathen by J David Osborne (Broken River Books, November 15, 2014) — sequel to Low Down Death Right Easy
  • ADDED: Anthology: STRAEON edited by M. David Blake (Rampant Loon, Nov 16) — a new original short fiction anthology series
  • Asura Girl by Otaro Maijo and Stephen Snyder (Haikasoru, Nov 18, 2014)
  • ADDED: The Dire Earth: A Novella by Jason M Hough (Random House-Nov. 18th)
  • Symbiont (Parasitology) by Mira Grant (Orbit, Nov 25, 2014)
  • Night Shift by Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews, Lisa Shearin, and Milla Vane (Berkley, Nov 25)
  • ADDED: Endsinger by Jay Kristoff (St. Martin’s Press -Nov 25th)
  • The Last Changeling by Jane Yolen (Viking Children’s, Nov 28)
  • When the Bough Breaks: The Empire’s Corps, Book 3 By Christopher G. Nuttall, Narrated By Jeffrey Kafer for Podium Publishing (Nov 28)
  • ADDED: Anthology: Letters to Lovecraft edited by Jesse Bullington (Stone Skin Press, Dec 1) -- stories in direct response to quotes selected from Lovecraft’s essay “Supernatural Horror in Literature.”
  • City of Eternal Night (Crescent City) by Kristen Painter (Orbit, Dec 2, 2014)
  • Vacant: A Mindspace Investigations Novel by Alex Hughes (Roc, Dec 2, 2014)
  • The Beating of His Wings by Paul Hoffman (Dec 2, 2014) — US release for the final installment of Hoffman’s The Left Hand of God trilogy
  • The Dragons of Dorcastle By Jack Campbell, Narrated By MacLeod Andrews (Dec 2)
  • Rise of the Spider Goddess: An Annotated Novel by Jim C. Hines (Dec 2, 2014) — “In 2006, DAW Books published Jim C. Hines’ debut novel Goblin Quest. But before Jig the goblin, before fairy tale princesses and magic librarians and spunky fire-spiders, there was Nakor the Purple, an elf who wanted nothing more than to stand around watching lovingly overdescribed sunrises with his pet owl Flame, who might actually be a falcon, depending on which chapter you’re reading. This is Nakor’s story, written in 1995 and never before shared with the world. (For reasons that will soon be painfully clear.) Together with an angsty vampire, a pair of pixies, and a feisty young thief, Nakor must find a way to stop an Ancient Evil before she destroys the world. (Though, considering the rel-atively shallow worldbuilding, it’s not like there’s much to destroy…) With more than 5000 words of bonus annotation and smart-ass commentary, this is a book that proves every author had to start somewhere, and most of the time, that place wasn’t very pretty.”
  • 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
  • Skylight by José Saramago (HMH, Dec 2) — “This is Saramago’s so-called “lost work,” which was written in the 1950s, but rediscovered after the Nobel laureate’s death in 2010. The novel features the interconnected stories of the residents of an apartment building in Lisbon in the 1940s.” (via The Millions)
  • The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami and translated by Ted Goossen(Knopf and Random House Audio, Dec 2, 2014) — an illustrated short novel of “A lonely boy, a mysterious girl, and a tormented sheep man plot their escape from the nightmarish library of internationally acclaimed, best-selling Haruki Murakami’s wild imagination.”
  • ADDED: Anthology: Dangerous Games edited by Jonathan Oliver (Solaris, Dec 4) -- "In a world of chances, one decision can bring down the house, one roll of the dice could bring untold wealth, or the end of everything. In this anthology of all new short stories the players gather, their stories often dark, and always compelling."
  • The Whispering Swarm: Book One of The Sanctuary of the White Friars by Michael Moorcock (Tor, Dec 9)
  • The Lady (Marakand) by K.V. Johansen (Pyr, Dec 9)
  • ADDED: Beautiful Curse by Jen McConnel (Swoon Romance, Dec 9, 2014) — “a contemporary retelling of the myth of Psyche and Cupid.”
  • ADDED: Finders, Inc. by Michael Jasper (UnWrecked Press, Dec 9) — book one in a new supernatural mystery series set in Boone, NC
  • Mystery: Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz (Dec 9, 201014)
  • The Jupiter Pirates #2: Curse of the Iris by Jason Fry (Dec 16, 2014)
  • The Cendrillon Cycle by Stephanie Ricker (Dec 21, 2014) — “I’m extremely pleased to announce that if you enjoy the world of A Cinder’s Tale, you’ll have the chance to explore that universe further in The Cendrillon Cycle, a series of novellas recounting the past and future adventures of Elsa, Karl, Bruno, and the rest of the cinder crew.”
  • Jazz Age Cthulhu by Jennifer Brozek, A.D. Cahill, and Darin Grey (Innsmouth Free Press, 2014)
  • All That Outer Space Allows (The Apollo Quartet, Book 4) by Ian Sales (Whippleshield, December 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.”
  • Our Love Will Go the Way of the Salmon by Cameron Pierce (Broken River Books, December 2014)
UNDATED or 2015:

The Galaxy Game Take An Exclusive Peek At The Most Anticipated Scifi Imprint In Years

  • 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.”
  • Firefight (The Reckoners) by Brandon Sanderson (Tor, Jan 6, 2015) — follow-on to best-selling Steelheart
  • Spell-Blind (Casebooks of Justis Fearsson) by David B. Coe (Baen, Jan 6, 2015)
  • Strands of Sorrow (Black Tide Rising) by John Ringo (Jan 6, 2015)
  • Kids: Dragonbreath #10: Knight-napped! by Ursula Vernon (Jan 6, 2015)
  • The Providence of Fire (Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne) by Brian Staveley (Tor, Jan 13, 2015) — “Brian Staveley’s Providence of Fire, the second novel in the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, a gripping new epic fantasy series in the tradition of Brandon Sanderson and George R. R. Martin. The conspiracy to destroy the ruling family of the Annurian Empire is far from over.”
  • Get in Trouble: Stories by Kelly Link (Random House, Jan 13, 2015)
  • The Dagger’s Path by Glenda Larke (Orbit, Jan 13, 2015) — sequel to The Lascar’s Dagger
  • Golden Son: Book II of the Red Rising Trilogy by Pierce Brown (Jan 13, 2015)
  • Fiction: Binary Star by Sarah Gerard (Two Dollar Radio, Jan 13) — “Sara Gerard’s star is rising. The NYC-based bookseller slash art-mag-employee slash writer drew attention last fall with “Things I Told My Mother,” an essayistic inquiry into women’s representation in society, spawned by a topless walk the author took through Times Square. This kind of intensity and boldness guide all of Gerard’s work — whether concerning other writers, or her own bout with anorexia, addiction, and a stint jumping freight trains, and now in her first novel Binary Star. Binary Star interweaves astronomical research with a story about an unnamed anorexic who burns through her intensely dysfunctional life like a star burns fuel, never to be replenished.” (via The Millions)
  • Glow by Ned Beauman (Knopf, Jan 20) — “Beauman’s previous novels, The Boxer Beetle and The Teleportation Accident — the one a fanciful look at eugenics and fascism, the other a genre-bending wonder about an avant-garde set designer in 1930s Berlin — each displayed a learned, diabolical imagination at work. His latest appears just as unhinged. Enrolled in a “continuous amateur neurochemistry seminar” and suffering from a sleep disorder, its hero experiments with the designer drug, “glow,” which opens up a gateway into a Pynchonian universe: a disappeared friend, pirate radio stations, and a nefarious Burmese mining company.” (via The Millions)
  • The Dragon Conspiracy (SPI Files) by Lisa Shearin (Ace, Jan 27, 2015)
  • Teen: Fairest by Melissa Meyer (Macmillan, Jan 27) — a prequel to Cinderin her The Lunar Chronicles series
  • Teen: A Cold Legacy by Megan Shepherd (Balzer+Bray/HarperCollins, January 27, 2015) – the final book in the Madman’s Daughter series
  • Dark Intelligence: Transformation: Book One by Neal Asher (29 Jan 2015)
  • Related non-fiction: The Cambridge Companion to American Science Fiction (Cambridge Companions to Literature) by Gerry Canavan and Eric Link (Jan 31, 2015)
  • Anthology: Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer (PM Press, Feb 1, 2015)
  • Collection: Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman (Feb 3)
  • City of Savages by Lee Kelly (Simon & Schuster/SAGA, Feb 3, 2015)
  • Cities & Thrones by Carrie Patel (Feb 5, 2015) — follow-up to The Buried Life
  • The Thousand and One: Book II of The Crescent Moon Kingdoms by Saladin Ahmed (February 2015)
  • The Autumn Republic by Brian McClellan (Orbit, Feb 10, 2015)
  • Dendera by Yuya Sato and translated by Edwin Hawkes (Haikasoru, Feb 10, 2015)
  • Find Me by Laura van den Berg (FSG, Feb 17) — “Laura van den Berg’s fictions often unfurl just beyond the real, with their madcap mix of zany and dreamlike set-ups. Case in point, van den Berg’s recent story collection, The Isle of Youth, was peopled by yacht thieves, a mother-daughter magician team, and newlyweds who survive a plane crash. Her first novel, Find Me, continues this surreal, at times catastrophic streak, as it follows Joy, a grocery clerk, cough-syrup addict who’s immune to an ongoing plague of memory illness. Joy’s resulting hospital stay and cross-country journey plotline sounds like a surreal mash-up of Stephen King’s The Stand and Grace Krilanovich’s The Orange Eats Creeps.”
  • Related Non-Fiction: They Live (Cultographies) by D. Harlan Wilson (Wallflower press, Feb 17, 2015) — “Born out of the cultural flamboyance and anxiety of the 1980s,They Live (1988) is a hallmark of John Carpenter’s singular canon, combining the aesthetics of multiple genres and leveling an attack against the politics of Reaganism and the Cold War. The decision to cast the professional wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper as his protagonist gave Carpenter the additional means to comment on the hypermasculine attitudes and codes indicative of the era. This study traces the development of They Live from its comic book roots to its legacy as a cult masterpiece while evaluating the film in light of the paranoid/postmodern theory that matured in the decidedly ‘Big 80s.’”
  • Star Trek: The Original Series: Savage Trade by Tony Daniel (Feb 24, 2015)
  • Those Above by Daniel Polansky (Hodder & Stoughton, Feb 26, 2015) — “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.”
  • Anthology: Old Venus by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois (Mar 3, 2015)
  • Edge of Dark (The Glittering Edge) by Brenda Cooper (Pyr, Mar 3, 2015) — “What if a society banished its worst nightmare to the far edge of the solar system, destined to sip only dregs of light and struggle for the barest living.  And yet, that life thrived?  It grew and learned and became far more than you ever expected, and it wanted to return to the sun.  What if it didn’t share your moral compass in any way? The Glittering duology describes the clash of forces when an advanced society that has filled a solar system with flesh and blood life meets the near-AI’s that it banished long ago.  This is a story of love for the wild and natural life on a colony planet, complex adventure set in powerful space stations, and the desire to live completely whether you are made of flesh and bone or silicon and carbon fiber.  In Edge of Dark, meet ranger Charlie Windar and his adopted wild predator, and explore their home on a planet that has been raped and restored more than once.  Meet Nona Hall, child of power and privilege from the greatest station in the system, the Diamond Deep.  Meet Nona’s best friend, a young woman named Chrystal who awakens in a robotic body….”
  • Into the Maelstrom (Citizen) by David Drake and John Lambshead (Mar 3, 2015)
  • Persona by Genevieve Valentine (Simon & Schuster/SAGA, 3/10/15) — “When Suyana, Face of the United Amazonia Rainforest Confederation, secretly meets Ethan of the United States for a date that can solidify a relationship for the struggling UARC, the last thing she expects is an assassination attempt. Daniel, a teen runaway-turned-paparazzi out for his big break, witnesses the first shot hit Suyana, and before he can think about it, he jumps into the fray, telling himself it’s not altruism, it’s the scoop. Just like that, Suyana and Daniel are now in the game of Faces. And if they lose, they’ll die.”
  • Clash of Eagles by Alan Smale (Del Rey, Mar 17, 2015) — “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.”
  •  The Darkside War by Zachary Brown (Simon & Schuster/SAGA, 3/17/15) — “People used to wonder if we were alone in the universe. Well, we’re not. Not by a long shot. Aliens come in all shapes and sizes, and even the good guys are likely to haunt your nightmares. And oh, you’ll have nightmares, even after you leave the service. If you leave the service.”
  • Stiletto (The Checquy Files 2) by Daniel O’Malley (Head of Zeus, 1 Apr 2015) — UK release for the sequel to The Rook
  • The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu (Simon & Schuster/SAGA, 4/7/15) — “Wily, charming Kuni Garu, a bandit, and stern, fearless Mata Zyndu, the son of a deposed duke, seem like polar opposites. Yet, in the uprising against the emperor, the two quickly become the best of friends after a series of adventures fighting against vast conscripted armies, silk-draped airships, soaring battle kites, conspiring goddesses, underwater boats, magical books, as a streetfighter-cum-general who takes her place as the greatest tactitian of the age. Once the emperor has been overthrown, however, they each find themselves the leader of separate factions—two sides with very different ideas about how the world should be run and the meaning of justice.”
  • Disciple of the Wind: A Novel of the Fated Blades by Steve Bein (Roc, Apr 7, 2015) —  concluding book in a trilogy (Daughter of the Sword and Year of the Demon)
  • ADDED: Superposition by David Walton (Pyr, Apr 7)
  • Seveneves by Neal Stephenson (William Morrow, Apr 14, 2015) — I know nothing yet about this book, other than that I will be reading and/or listening to it on April 14, and that Upcoming4Me has posted a synopsis
  • Clash of Iron by Angus Watson (Orbit, Apr 14, 2015) — “Battle-hardened warriors and bloodthirsty druids clash in the second volume of this action-packed historical fantasy trilogy that will appeal to fans of Joe Abercrombie and HBO’s Game of Thrones.”
  • Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon (Dial, Apr 21, 2015) — “From the creator of Dragonbreath comes a tale of witches, minions, and one fantastic castle, just right for fans of Roald Dahl and Tom Angleberger. When Molly shows up on Castle Hangnail’s doorstep to fill the vacancy for a wicked witch, the castle’s minions are understandably dubious. After all, she is twelve years old, barely five feet tall, and quite polite.”
  • A Long Time Until Now (BAEN) by Michael Z Williamson (May 5, 2015)
  • Teen: Girl at the Bottom of the Sea by Michelle Tea (McSweeney’s McMullen’s, May 5, 2015) — “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.””
  • ADDED: Eternity's Wheel (InterWorld Trilogy) by Neil Gaiman, Michael Reaves and Mallory Reaves (May 19, 2015)
  • Odin: The Viking Allfather (Myths and Legends) by Steven Long and Maria Moreno(Osprey, May 26, 2015)
  • Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit, May 2015) — “A new work that takes us on an interstellar journey in search of a new home planet from New York Times bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson.”
  • Dance of Chaos by David Dalglish (Orbit, May 2015)
  • ADDED: Anthology: Aickman's Heirs edited by Simon Strantzas (Undertown Books, Spring 2015) -- "an anthology of strange, weird tales by modern masters of weird fiction, in the milieu of Robert Aickman, the master of strange and ambiguous stories."
  • The Shadow Revolution (Crown & Key) by Clay Griffith and Susan Griffith (Jun 2, 2015) — “In the 1820s, a powerful but inexperienced magician is trapped in a struggle between ancient necromancers and elementals. To save innocents from the growing darkness, he gathers a group of alchemists, arcane engineers, and monster hunters to fight with him. Think of it as Charlotte Bronte’s Avengers.”
  • Because You’ll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas (Jun 2, 2015) — first novel from 2010 Clarion Workshop graduate
  • Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey (Orbit, June 2015) — “The fifth novel in James S.A. Corey’s New York Times bestselling Expanse series–now being produced for television by the SyFy Channel!”
  • The Thorn of Emberlain (Gentleman Bastard #4) by Scott Lynch (2015)
  • Anthology: Exigencies edited by Richard Thomas (Dark House Press, 2015) — a 22-story original neo-noir fiction anthology
  • The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth) by Jemisin, N. K. (Orbit, August 4, 2015) — “This is the way the world ends. Again.”
  • The Cage by Megan Shepherd (Balzer+Bray, Supper 2015) — first in a new “YA sci-fi trilogy about six teenagers trapped in an elaborate “human zoo” by an otherworldly race known as the Kindred.”
  • The Witchwood Crown by Tad Williams (DAW, 2015) — Williams returns to the world of his Memory, Sorrow and Thorn epic fantasy trilogy
  • 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? 2015?)
  • Ebon (Pegasus, #2) by Robin McKinley (2015?)
  • The Doors of Stone (Kingkiller Chronicle #3) by Patrick Rothfuss (DAW, 2015?)
  • Shadows of Self (Mistborn, #5) by Brandon Sanderson (Tor, 2015?)
  • 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.”
  • Anthology: Wastelands 2: More Stories of the Apocalypse edited by John Joseph Adams (Titan Books, February 2015) – “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
  • Uprooted by Naomi Novik (Del Rey, June 2015) — “Naomi Novik, author of theTemeraire novels, is taking us to a new world with Uprooted! The story is a dark fairy tale, where a grim wizard defends villagers from the horrors of an enchanted Wood. In return? He demands ten years of service from a young girl of his choosing. Now the choosing is approaching, and a young woman named Agnieszka fears that her best friend, the lovely Kasia, will be taken. But what if the wizard makes a different choice?” (via Tor.com)
  • 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.”
  • Pocket Apocalypse: InCryptid, Book Four by Seanan McGuire (Mar 3, 2015)
  • Company Town by Madeline Ashby (Angry Robot, Mar 3, 2015)
  • Ancestral Machines: A Humanity’s Fire novel by Michael Cobley (Orbit, Mar 10, 2015)
  • The Mechanical (The Alchemy Wars) by Ian Tregillis (Orbit, March 10, 2015)
  • ADDED: The Last Days of Video: A Novel by Jeremy Hawkins (Soft Skull Press, Mar 17, 2015) -- "The video stores are dying. But most of you don’t care. You’ve got your Netflix and your Redbox and your DVR, so why deal with VHS tapes or scratched DVDs? Why deal with the grumpy guy at the worn-down independent video store?"
  • In the Time of Dragon Moon by Janet Lee Carey (Penguin/Kathy Dawson, Mar 24, 2015)
  • Anthology: The Doll Collection edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor, March 2015) — all-original dark tales including: “Heroes and Villains” by Stephen Gallagher; “The Doll-Master” by Joyce Carol Oates; “Gaze” by Gemma Files; “In Case of Zebras” by Pat Cadigan; “Miss Sibyl-Cassandra” by Lucy Sussex; “Skin and Bone” by Tim Lebbon; “There Is No Place for Sorrow in the Kingdom of the Cold” by Seanan McGuire; “Goodness and Kindness” by Carrie Vaughn; “Daniel’s Theory of Dolls” by Stephen Graham Jones; “After and Back Before” by Miranda Siemienowicz; “Doctor Faustus” by Mary Robinette Kowal; “Doll Court” by Richard Bowes; “Visit Lovely Cornwall on the Western Railway Line” by Genevieve Valentine; “Ambitious Boys Like You” by Richard Kadrey; “The Permanent Collection” by Veronica Schanoes; “Homemade Monsters” by John Langan; “Word Doll” by Jeffrey Ford
  • 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.”
  • King of Ashes: Book One of The War of Five Crowns by Raymond E. Feist (April 7, 2015)
  • Dark Heir: A Jane Yellowrock Novel by Faith Hunter (Apr 7, 2015)
  • Lair of Dreams: A Diviners Novel by Bray, Libba (Apr 14, 2015)
  • Of Noble Family by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor, Apr 28, 2015) — coming simultaneously in audio from Audible, read by the author; RT has the scoop on thecover reveal
  • The Waterborne Blade by Susan Murray (Angry Robot, May 5, 2015)
  • The Familiar: One Rainy Day in May by Mark Z. Danielewski (Pantheon, May 19, 2015)
  • Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente (Tor, June 1, 2015) — synopsis and cover available at SFSignal
  • The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu (Jul 7, 2015) — cover reveal on Tor.com for this second book in “The 3-Body Problem” translated by Ken Liu
  • Alive by Scott Sigler (Del Rey, Jul 14, 2015) — “For fans of The Hunger Games, Divergent, and Red Rising comes a gripping sci-fi adventure in which a group of teenagers wake up in a mysterious corridor with no knowledge of who they are or how they got trapped. Their only hope lies with an indomitable young woman who must lead them not only to answers but to survival.”
  • Armada by Ernest Cline (Crown, July 28, 2015) — “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)
  • 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)
  • Anthology: Neverland’s Shadow edited by Shawn Speakman and Roger Bellini (Grim Oak Press, 2015) — from the editor/publisher of Unfettered comes an original short fiction anthology focusing on the antagonist, with contributors including Ken Liu, Ann Aguire, R. Scott Bakker, Mark Lawrence, Tanith Lee, Scott Lynch, and Michael J. Sullivan (among others)
  • The Lost Level by Brian Keene (Apex Books, 2015)
  • The Spider’s War by Daniel Abraham (Orbit, August 2015) — “The epic conclusion to The Dagger and The Coin series, perfect for fans of George R.R. Martin.”
  • Fake Fruit Factory by Patrick Wensink (Curbside Splendor, Fall 2015) — “Thrilled to announce that we’ll publish best-selling author Patrick Wensink’s next novel FAKE FRUIT FACTORY in Fall 2015. Part screwball comedy, part sociological autopsy of small town America, and part love story FAKE FRUIT FACTORY is like Karen Russell by way of E.L. Doctorow.”
  • Illuminae by Annie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (Knopf, Fall 2015) — “Told through a dossier of hacked documents – including emails, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, graphics, and more – for what’s billed as a found footage-style mashup of Battlestar Galactica and Ten Things I Hate About You, Illuminae is the story of of a young hacker and her fighter pilot ex-boyfriend who must uncover the truth about the deadly plague ravaging their fleet, the AI that should be protecting them, and the powers that be who may or may not be lying about everything.”
  • Anthology: The Year’s Best Military and Adventure Science Fiction edited by David Afsharirad (Baen, 2015) — first installment in a new anthology series
  • YA: Seriously Wicked by Tina Connolly (Tor Teen, 2015) — “a YA about a girl who’s being raised by a seriously wicked witch. It contains: 1 sweet boy-band boy, 1 dragon who lives in an RV garage, 1 demon who occasionally imitates Elvis, 1 hidden phoenix that’s going to explode on Halloween, 1 witch who just wants to run the whole city, sheesh, is that too much to ask? and 1 girl named Cam trying to fix it all”
  • The End of All Things (The Human Division, Book 2) by John Scalzi (Tor, 2015)
  • Normal: A Novel by Warren Ellis (FSG Originals, Nov 3, 2015) — “A smart, tight, provocative techno-thriller straight out of the very near future—by an iconic visionary writer. Some people call it “abyss gaze.” Gaze into the abyss all day and the abyss will gaze into you.”
  • 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)
  • Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan (HarperCollins, 2015?) — “A modern retelling of A Tale of Two Cities. With magic!”
  • The Dregs by Leigh Bardugo (Henry Holt, 2015?) — “The project, described as a blend of Ocean’s 11 and Game of Thrones, is set in Kerch, a small island nation in the “Grishaverse” (meaning the same universe as her Shadow and Bone books) with tremendous economic power, the hub of all international trade and a country rich in art and culture … but also home to one of the most dangerous criminal underworlds. A crew of dangerous felonious misfits face impossible odds when they are pulled together to break into one of the most guarded places in the world.”
  • Underground Airline by Ben H. Winters (Mulholland, Spring 2016) — “an ‘epic contemporary detective story,’ according to the publisher, set in alternate world in which the Civil War never happened and slavery still exists in the American South. The novel follows an undercover agent trying to capture an escaped slave. Winters, who has written titles for adults and children, won both the Edgar and the Philip K. Dick Award for books in the Last Policeman series.” (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.”
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