Release Week: Gibson, Faber, Rothfuss, Martin, Rice, Shiner, and! Mieville

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Release Week: Gibson, Faber, Rothfuss, Martin, Rice, Shiner, and! Mieville

Posted on 2014-11-03 at 11:28 by Sam

OCTOBER 22-28, 2014: What was already an absolutely packed release week for concurrent new releases (Gibson, Faber, Rothfuss, Martin, Rice) and already with one back-list gem (Lewis Shiner’s Frontera) includes the magnificent surprise of China Mieville’s The Scar and Iron Council finally coming to US audio. It’s been over a year and a half since I last fully turned my attention to the digital regional divide and these are two right from the top of the overseas wishlist, though in the meantime, several more have gone onto the list, from Lavie Tidhar’s just-released (in the UK only) A Man Lies Dreaming to The Islands of Chaldea by the late Diana Wynne Jones. The digital divide giveth, and the digital divide taketh away. It happens. Also out this week: A new Doctor Who short story by Holly Black, W. Bruce Cameron’s The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man, Sheckley’s The Game of X read by Oliver Wyman, Weis and Krammes’ The Seventh Sigil, Jason Stoddard’s Winning Mars, and an I’m-not-sure-is-it-imaginative-or-just-weird full cast Cold War-set adaptation of The Island of Doctor Moreau. There’s also plenty of fiction (David Nicholls’s Us, Nick Hornby’s About a Boy, Molly Gloss’s Falling from Horses), thrillers (John Connolly’s The Wolf in Winter, Clive and Dirk Cussler’s Havana Storm), and non-fiction (Peter Ackroyd’s Charlie Chaplain, read by Ralph Lister, and Herbie Hancock reading his own Herbie Hancock) to tempt your earbuds. In “seen but not heard” listenings do check out Lavie Tidhar’s A Man Lies Dreaming among others, including The City Stained Red by Sam Sykes and We Will All Go Down Together by Gemma Files. Enjoy!

PICKS OF THE WEEK:

The Peripheral | [William Gibson] The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber

The Peripheral by William Gibson (Putnam Adult, October 28) is Gibon’s first novel since 2010’s New York Times–bestselling Zero History, and while I loved the “Big End” books (particularly Pattern Recognition and even more particularly Spook Country) I am also thrilled that he’s turned his gaze to the near and medium future sf. We are in Neuromancer territory again, with 30 more years of confidence and wisdom — and a bit of snark — since that groundbreaking, visionary debut novel which crystallized the cyberpunk genre and envisioned cyberspace to the point of self-fulfilling prophecy. Gibson here takes a fresh, clear look at both our near future — of a metastasized Wal-Mart esque megacorp, of living to pay healthcare bills, of the unevenly distributed now-future of millionaires and billionaires and trailer parks where crippled military veterans toil to make ends meet between bouts of PTSD. We have not one but two futures here. The first, that crystal-clear near future, the second, a just-incomprehensible enough to bear some likely resemblance to the target medium future of high-rises, AI, and the titular “peripherals” —  humanoid androids which can be controlled remotely by the user’s thoughts. Through short, taut, interleaving chapters of these two futures we’re introduced to the worlds each inhabit, and when not too far in the worlds begin to connect across the time (and “jackpot” event) which separates them through a mysterious technology — which neatly sidesteps the time travel paradox question through in-story means which I don’t want to spoil here — an even deeper spiral of overlapping experiences emerges.

Here’s what it says on the tin: “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.”

The audio arrives concurrently from Penguin Audio, read by Lorelei King, whom I don’t have much experience with but is well-regarded as the narrator for Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson, Darynda Jones’ Charley Davidson, and Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series. She handles Flynne quite well, and though so much of the further future takes place in London, in the male POV of British PR lackey Netherton (with conversations with his wealthy Russian friend Lev) she is fantastic on these as well.

The novel is not full of immediately groundbreaking new ideas. We have seen haptic controlled drones, we have seen remote presence androids like these “peripherals”, we have seen AI, we have seen time travel communication. In all it’s the characters and the synthesis of these ideas, and the deadpan delivery of the vision that’s both so immediately real — can we really refute the Mega-Walmart-ized near future, the healthcare debt, the forgotten military veterans? — and strange, at once, that makes it one of the novels of the year, perhaps one of those once-a-decade glimpses at our “now” through the backdraft plot from the futures that Gibson sets before us. More: An interview at Tor.com. Get: [Downpour | Audible]

The Book of Strange New Things: A Novel by Michel Faber (Hogarth, 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). Read by Josh Cohen for Random House Audio: “It begins with Peter, a devoted man of faith, as he is called to the mission of a lifetime, one that takes him galaxies away from his wife, Bea. Peter becomes immersed in the mysteries of an astonishing new environment, overseen by an enigmatic corporation known only as USIC. His work introduces him to a seemingly friendly native population struggling with a dangerous illness and hungry for Peter’s teachings - his Bible is their “book of strange new things”. But Peter is rattled when Bea’s letters from home become increasingly desperate: typhoons and earthquakes are devastating whole countries, and governments are crumbling. Bea’s faith, once the guiding light of their lives, begins to falter.”  More: A review by M. John Harrison in The Guardian; a NY Times article in which Faber states this will be his last novel. Get: [Downpour | Audible]

The Slow Regard of Silent Things: Kingkiller Chronicle, Book 2.5 | [Patrick Rothfuss] The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones | [George R. R. Martin, Elio Garcia, Linda Antonsson]

The Slow Regard of Silent Things: A KingKiller Chronicle Novella by Patrick Rothfuss (DAW Hardcover and Penguin Audio, October 28, 2014) is “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.” And yes indeed, it’s read by the author. I’ve heard him read in person and he’s an energetic, bombastic, bright narrator. (I can’t recall hearing more passion than when he regaled a StellarCon audience with a brief scene from memory from Cyrano de Bergerac.) Since then, he’s grown ever more comfortable in front of the microphone, whether at conventions, readings, or his YouTube videos, and this maturation and confidence shows in this well-produced recording. As far as the story goes, Rothfuss has warned readers that they should know what they are getting — this is not the Kvothe show — but I think he underestimates just how much his fans want to know and read and hear everything that’s going on under every nook and cranny. Or, perhaps, how desperate they are for a fix, any fix, until book three is due? Get: [Downpour | Audible]

The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, Elio Garcia, and Linda Antonsson, narrated by Roy Dotrice, Nicholas Guy Smith for Random House Audio is what it says on the tin: “If the past is prologue, then George R. R. Martin’s masterwork - the most inventive and entertaining fantasy saga of our time - warrants one hell of an introduction. At long last, it has arrived with The World of Ice & Fire. This volume is a comprehensive history of the Seven Kingdoms, providing vividly constructed accounts of the epic battles, bitter rivalries, and daring rebellions that lead to the events of A Song of Ice and Fire and HBO’s Game of Thrones. In a collaboration that’s been years in the making, Martin has teamed with Elio M. García, Jr., and Linda Antonsson, the founders of the renowned fan site Westeros.org - perhaps the only people who know this world almost as well as its visionary creator.” There’s full family trees — though not, of course, a Jon Snow parentage reveal — and in-depth explorations of the history and culture of Westeros. It’s all original content, though perhaps not as much narrative as we’d like. Still, we get Dotrice saying “Westeros” and for that I can only be happily content. I’m happy to feast here while we settle in further for the wait for Winds of Winter. Get: [Downpour | Audible]

Prince Lestat: The Vampire Chronicles | [Anne Rice] Frontera by Lewis Shiner

Prince Lestat: The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice, narrated by Simon Vance for Random House Audio (Oct 28) is billed as “A stunning departure, a surprising and compelling return… From Anne Rice, perennial best-seller, single-handed reinventor of the vampire cosmology – a new, exhilarating novel, a deepening of her vampire mythology, and a chillingly hypnotic mystery-thriller.” The Vampire Chronicles, book 11, the novel “opens with the vampire world in crisis… vampires have been proliferating out of control; burnings have commenced all over the world, huge massacres similar to those carried out by Akasha in The Queen of the Damned… Old vampires, roused from slumber in the earth are doing the bidding of a Voice commanding that they indiscriminately burn vampire-mavericks in cities from Paris and Mumbai to Hong Kong, Kyoto, and San Francisco.” I could listen to Vance read pretty much anything, but his continuing penchant for exquisitely frightening vampires is a delight. Get: [Downpour | Audible]

Frontera by Lewis Shiner, read by Gabrielle de Cuir and Stefan Rudnicki for Skyboat Media (Oct 28) is 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.” I can’t wait to dig in further.

The Scar: New Crobuzon, Book 2 | [China Mieville] Iron Council: New Crobuzon, Book 3 | [China Mieville]

The Scar: New Crobuzon, Book 2 [Downpour] and Iron Council: New Crobuzon, Book 3 By China Mieville, Narrated By Gildart Jackson for Random House Audio finally bring the further world of Bas-Lag to US audio. Intriguingly to me, Random House has not simply brought over the Damian Lynch narrations from the UK editions, instead tapping Jackson for new production. Jackson has narrated Mieville (in his Looking for Jake: Stories collection) as well as having turned in fantastic performances for Marcel Theroux (Strange Bodies), Karen Miller (The Falcon Throne), Benedict Jacka (the Alex Verus series), and Oliver Bowen (his Assassin’s Creed tie-in novels), and if we can’t have John Lee (whose Perdido Street Station is one of my favorite audio performances of all time) then Jackson, who truly does some marvelous characterization on these books from what I’ve gotten to so far, is far from a mere consolation.

ALSO OUT THIS WEEK:

Falling from Horses | [Molly Gloss] Winning Mars

SEEN BUT NOT HEARD:

A Man Lies Dreaming We Will All Go Down Together The City Stained Red (Bring Down Heaven, #1)

  • 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.” -- available at Audible UK but sadly not (yet!?) in the US store -- fantastically reviewed at Tor.com as "a sort of Holocaust noir or pulp that is at once as riveting as it is disturbing."
  • 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 -- kicked off by a fantastic prologue, Sykes begins a new epic fantasy series: "Lenk and his battle-scarred companions have come to Cier'Djaal in search of Miron Evanhands, a wealthy priest who contracted them to eradicate demons --- and then vanished before paying for the job."
  • Black Dog by Caitlin Kittredge (Harper Voyager, Oct 28) -- "Urban fantasy novel, first in a new series, about a servant for the reaper who sends errant souls to hell." (via Locus Online)
  • Altar of Influence: The Orsarian War (The Dying Lands Chronicle Book 0) by Jacob Cooper (Oct 28, 2014) — an audio intro is available read by Michael Kramer, who narrates Cooper’s first The Dying Lands Chronicle novel Circle of Reign
  • Hansel and Gretel Standard Edition (A Toon Graphic) by Neil Gaiman and Lorenzo Mattotti (Oct 28, 2014)
  • Shadowboxer by Tricia Sullivan (Ravenstone, Oct 28) -- out a few weeks earlier in ebook: "Thai martial arts, international crime, celebrity and mythical creatures combine."
  • Anthology: Field of Fantasies: Baseball Stories of the Strange and Supernatural edited by Rick Wilber (Oct 28, 2014) — includes stories by John Kessel, Karen Joy Fowler, Stephen King, and more
  • Collection: Knife Fight and Other Struggles by David Nickle (ChiZine, Oct 28, 2014)
  • Teen: The Tree of Water (The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme) by Elizabeth Haydon (Tor/Starscape, Oct 28, 2014) -- "Young adult fantasy novel, fourth in a series following The Floating Island (2006), The Thief Queen’s Daughter(2007), and The Dragon’s Lair (2009), about an explorer seeking out the world’s magic." (via Locus Online)
COMING SOON:

The Mirror Empire: Worldbreaker Saga | [Kameron Hurley] City of Golden Shadow: Otherland, Book 1 | [Tad Williams]

NOVEMBER 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
  • Collection: Young Woman in a Garden: Stories by Delia Sherman (Small Beer Press, Nov 1) -- "Lightly flecked with fantasy and anchored in vividly detailed settings, the 14 stories in Sherman’s first collection are distinguished by determined women who challenge gender roles in order to make their way in the world. Wry humor leavens the serious themes." (via PW's best books of 2014)
  • Short: Doctor Who: Shadow of Death -- The Destiny of the Doctor Series, book 2 -- by Simon Guerrier, A Big Finish production, Directed by John Ainsworth, Read by Frazer Hines and Evie Dawnay (0.9 hours)
  • 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) — coming to audio read by Cassandra Campbell for Dreamscape Media concurrent with print release
  • Tommy Black and the Staff of Light by Jake Kerr (Currents and Tangents, Nov 3, 2014) — debut novel from Nebula Award nominated author (“The Old Equations” in Lightspeed) — “For fourteen-year-old Tommy Black, nothing is worse than being raised by an overprotective grandfather in the city that never sleeps. That is until his grandfather is captured by magical creatures and Tommy has to save him with his family’s magical staff. That wouldn’t be so bad, but the only magic he can do with the staff is weak–making light. What the heck can you do with light? Tommy finds out as he fights golems, shadow creatures, and djinn in a journey that features a magical river, an enchanted train, and an illusionary fortress. But the worst part of all? Tommy has to save his grandfather with the help of Naomi, a girl whose talent with magic is only rivaled by her ability to hurl insults.” — Ken Liu says: “Jake Kerr has told an exciting coming-of-age tale that asks serious ethical questions about the costs of magic. This is a world that will stay with the reader long after the last page.”
  • 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.’” — excerpt available at Tor.com -- narrated by MacLeod Andrews for Brilliance Audio
  • The Future Falls: Book Three of the Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff (Nov 4, 2014)
  • ADDED: Geek Theater: 15 Plays by Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers edited by Jen Gunnels and Erin Underwood (Underwords Press, Nov 4) -- “In case you didn’t know, there is such a thing as SF theater. It has been around for a long time, and there is quite a lot of it. In recent years there has been a strong growth and diversification, a lot of new plays, original, not adaptations of stories–though there are a lot of those too. This is a book full of the new stuff, original plays that, all together point to a renaissance of SF theater. Pay attention, and it will blow you away!” – David Hartwell, Hugo Award-winning editor
  • An English Ghost Story By Kim Newman, Narrated By Emma Fenney (Nov 4)
  • 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)
  • Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory, read by Peter Berkrot for Tantor (Nov 4) — I’ve had Gregory’s 2008 debut, World Fantasy Award nominated novel in my daily “where’s the audiobook” search for quite a while, and I’m very excited to find that it’s coming from narrator Berkrot, whom I’ve enjoyed on Ben H. Winters’ The Last Policeman series. Here: “It is a world like our own in every respect . . . save one. In the 1950s, random acts of possession begin to occur. Ordinary men, women, and children are the targets of entities that seem to spring from the depths of the collective unconscious, pop-cultural avatars some call demons. There’s the Truth, implacable avenger of falsehood. The Captain, brave and self-sacrificing soldier. The Little Angel, whose kiss brings death, whether desired or not. And a string of others, ranging from the bizarre to the benign to the horrific.”
  • Proxima by Stephen Baxter, read by Kyle McCarley for Tantor (Nov 4) — “The very far future: The galaxy is a drifting wreck of black holes, neutron stars, and chill white dwarfs. The age of star formation is long past. Yet there is life here, feeding off the energies of the stellar remnants, and there is mind, a tremendous galaxy-spanning intelligence each of whose thoughts lasts a hundred thousand years. And this mind cradles memories of a long-gone age when a more compact universe was full of light.”
  • The Dark Lord’s Handbook by Paul Dale, narrated by Gildart Jackson for Tantor (Nov 4) — “To become a Dark Lord is no easy thing. Morden, the latest contender, had better be a quick study.”
  • 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)
  • Tainted Blood by ML Brennan (Roc-Nov. 4th)
  • 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)
  • Tarkin: Star Wars By James Luceno, Narrated By Euan Morton (Nov 4)
  • ADDED: Halo: Broken Circle: Halo, Book 13 By John Shirley, Narrated By Scott Brick (Nov 4)
  • ADDED: The Fatal Tree: Bright Empires, Book 5 By Stephen Lawhead, Narrated By Simon Bubb (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.
  • 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 and recently an excerpt has been posted
  • 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)
  • The Fear Institute by Jonathan L. Howard (Skyboat Audio, Nov 11) — the 3rd book in Howard’s Johannes Cabal series
  • The Door in the Mountain by Caitlin Sweet (Nov 11, 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.” — out for some time in ebook and in other regions in print
  • Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn’t Fly by Stephen Graham Jones and Paul Tremblay (ChiZine, Nov 11, 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!”
  • Wakening the Crow by Stephen Gregory (Solaris- Nov. 11th)
  • Betrayal in Winter by Daniel Abraham, read by Neil Shah for Tantor (Nov 11) — book two of The Long Price Quartet, published a decade ago and now coming to audio
  • 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)
  • ADDED: Mogadishu of the Dead: Arisen, Book Two By Michael Stephen Fuchs, Glynn James, Narrated By R.C. Bray (Nov 11)
  • 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
  • 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)
  • The Dire Earth: A Novella by Jason M Hough (Random House-Nov. 18th)
  • Dire Straights (Bo Blackman, Book 1) by Helen Harper, read by Saskia Maarleveld for Tantor (Nov 18) — “Bo Blackman is a rookie private investigator working for the London based firm of Dire Straits. She doesn’t often get triber-based assignments, which is just as well. Vampires and daemons don’t interest her as much as humans do. However, when she has to serve a summons on a dodgy daemon called Devlin O’Shea and she ends up saving his life instead of being framed for his murder, her life takes a shocking turn for the worse.”
  • V Wars: Blood and Fire edited by Jonathan Maberry (Blackstone Audio, Nov 18) — a follow-on to the original V Wars anthology!
  • Prisoner 489 by Joe R. Lansdale (Dark Regions, Nov 18) — a new novella — “On an island with a prison for the most evil and powerful criminals in the world, a new prisoner is strapped to the electric chair for execution. After multiple surges of electricity and nearly knocking out power to the entire island, the prisoner is finally dead. The staff buries him in the prison graveyard with a simple marker baring three numbers: 489.”
  • Symbiont (Parasitology) by Mira Grant (Orbit and Hachette Audio, Nov 25, 2014) — “The SymboGen designed tapeworms were created to relieve humanity of disease and sickness. But the implants in the majority of the world’s population began attacking their hosts turning them into a ravenous horde.” — read by Christine Lakin
  • Night Shift by Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews, Lisa Shearin, and Milla Vane (Berkley andTantor Audio, Nov 25) — read by Angela Dawe — “In Night Shift, four masters of urban fantasy and paranormal romance plunge listeners into the dangerous, captivating world unearthed beyond the dark.”
  • Black Widow By Jennifer Estep, Narrated By Lauren Fortgang (Nov 25)
  • 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)
DECEMBER 2014:
  • 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.”
  • ADDED: Anthology: The Mammoth Book of SF Stories by Women edited by Alex Dally MacFarlane (Running, Dec 1) -- via PW's best books of 2014: "Written in the form of letters, travelogues, encyclopedia entries, and galactic gazetteers as well as conventional narratives, and embracing approaches that include folktales (Nalo Hopkinson’s “Tan-Tan and Dry Bone”), Lovecraftian horror (Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette’s “Boojum”), steampunk (Tori Truslow’s “Tomorrow Is Saint Valentine’s Day”), and hard SF (Nisi Shawl’s “Good Boy”), the 33 stories that MacFarlane (Aliens: Recent Encounters) has gathered for this volume dazzle with the virtuosity of their contributors’ talents."
  • 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.”
  • An Autumn War by Daniel Abraham, read by Neil Shah for Tantor Audio (Dec 2) — book 3 of The Long Price Quartet, first published a decade ago
  • 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)
  • Short: 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.” -- Narrated By Kirby Heyborne for Random House Audio
  • 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)
  • ADDED: Our Lady of the Islands by Shannon Page and Jay Lake (Per Aspera, Dec 9) -- via PW's best books of 2014: "A fantasy set in the archipelago world of Alizar, Our Lady of the Islandsfeatures the reluctant adventures of Domina Sian Katte — a middle-aged business woman who is wrenched away from her comfortable, quiet life when she is unwillingly chosen by the Priest of the Butchered God and endowed with an unwanted power. Book One of The Butchered God."
  • The Lady (Marakand) by K.V. Johansen (Pyr, Dec 9)
  • Beautiful Curse by Jen McConnel (Swoon Romance, Dec 9, 2014) — “a contemporary retelling of the myth of Psyche and Cupid.”
  • Finders, Inc. by Michael Jasper (UnWrecked Press, Dec 9) — book one in a new supernatural mystery series set in Boone, NC
  • Severance by Chris Bucholz (Apex Books, Dec 9) — a dark SF novel from Cracked.com columnist Bucholz — “After 240 years traveling toward Tau Prius and a new planet to colonize, the inhabitants of the generation ship Argos are bored and aimless. They join groups such as the Markers and the Breeders, have costumed orgies, and test the limits of drugs, alcohol, and pain just to pass the time. To Laura Stein, they’re morons and, other than a small handful of friends, she’d rather spend time with her meat plant than with any of her fellow passengers. But when one of her subordinates is murdered while out on a job, Laura takes it as her responsibility to find out what happened. She expects to find a personal grudge or a drug deal gone wrong, but instead stumbles upon a conspiracy that could tear the ship in two.”
  • Mystery: Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz (Dec 9, 2014)
  • The Jupiter Pirates #2: Curse of the Iris by Jason Fry (Dec 16, 2014)
  • Dragonsbane: Fate’s Forsaken, Book 3 By Shae Ford, Narrated By Derek Perkins for Podium (Dec 19)
  • Three Parts Dead: Arisen, Book Three By Michael Stephen Fuchs, Glynn James, Narrated By R.C. Bray (Dec 19)
  • 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.”
  • The Price of Spring by Daniel Abraham, read by Neil Shah for Tantor (Dec 23) — fourth book of Abraham’s Long Price Quartet series, first published 2009
  • 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)
  • Maker of Moons by Robert W. Chambers, read by Stefan Rudnicki (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 Mime Order: The Bone Season (The Remnant Chronicles) by Samantha Shannon (Jan 25, 2015) — 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.”
  • 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)
  • The Death House by Sarah Pinborough (Gollancz, Feb 26, 2015) — “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?”
  • 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)
  • 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.””
  • 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)
  • Fiction: Minnow by James McTeer (Hub City, May 2015) — winner of the South Carolina First Novel Prize — “Minnow is a gorgeous fever-dream of a novel,” said competition judge Ben Fountain. “McTeer’s story of a young boy’s quest achieves a narrative drive and depth that are rare in any novel, much less a debut effort. Minnow picked me up by the scruff of the neck and carried me along as powerfully as a novel by Pat Conroy or Toni Morrison. Yeah, McTeer is that good. I look forward to many more novels by this excellent young writer.”
  • 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.”
  • ADDED: Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant (Subterranean Press, March 2015) -- "When the Imagine Network commissioned a documentary on mermaids, to be filmed from the cruise ship Atargatis, they expected what they had always received before: an assortment of eyewitness reports that proved nothing, some footage that proved even less, and the kind of ratings that only came from peddling imaginary creatures to the masses."
  • ADDED: A Crown for Cold Silver by Alex Marshall (Orbit, April 14) -- “It was all going so nicely, right up until the massacre.”
  • ADDED: War of Shadows by Gail Z. Martin (Orbit, April 21, 2015) -- book 3 in the Ascendant Kingdoms saga which began with Ice Forged
  • 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)
  • 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
  • Last First Snow (Craft Sequence) by Max Gladstone (Tor, Jul 14, 2015) — Gladstonewrites about writing this novel (in the universe which includes Three Parts Dead) at Tor.com
  • Kids: Nightborn (Thrones and Bones, Book 2) by Lou Anders (Crown Books for Young Readers, Jul 14, 2014) — follow-on to Frostborn, a fantastic Viking-infused middle grade fantasy of board games, dragons, frost giants, and more
  • 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)
  • ADDED: World of Water by James Lovegrove (Solaris, August 25, 2015) -- follow-on to World of Fire -- "Dev Harmer has landed in a new body on a new planet. He has gills and fins and a chronic malfunction in his genes. With only 72 hours to bring the settlers and natives of a colonised world to peace before his temporary body expires, murder and corruption are the least of his worries."
  • 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.”
Posted in Release Week | Tagged anne rice, china mieville, frontera, george rr martin, gildart jackson, josh cohen, lewis shiner, lorelei king, michel faber, patrick rothfuss, prince lestat, roy dotrice, simon vance, stefan rudnicki, the book of strange new things, the peripheral, the slow regard of silent things, the world of ice and fire, william-gibson