Black Gate

Reading between the lines of Michael David Ares’ bio, it sounds like he’s a successful ghostwriter who is finally striking out with a novel of his own. Dayfall has a distinct Blade Runner vibe, and in fact Tor is strongly playing up that angle. The preliminary cover design (right) has a cover blurb from KW Jeter, while the final copy I currently hold in my hot little hands uses the same blurb, but prominently credits Jeter as the author of Blade Runner: Replicant Night. On the back cover is the following quote from Amy Lignor, author of Tallent & Lowery:

A novel that brings Blade Runner to mind. Dayfall is strong, intense and beyond memorable.

The comparison to Blade Runner seems apt enough, I suppose, although Dayfall has its own unique premise. Here’s the description.

FEAR THE DAY

In the near future, patches of the northern hemisphere have been shrouded in years of darkness from a nuclear winter, and the water level has risen in the North Atlantic. The island of Manhattan has lost its outer edges to flooding and is now ringed by a large seawall.

The darkness and isolation have allowed crime and sin to thrive in the never-ending shadows of the once great city, and when the sun finally begins to reappear, everything gets worse. A serial killer cuts a bloody swath across the city during the initial periods of daylight, and a violent panic sweeps through crowds on the streets. The Manhattan police, riddled with corruption and apathy, are at a loss.

That’s when the Mayor recruits Jon Phillips, a small-town Pennsylvania cop who had just single-handedly stopped a high-profile serial killer in his own area, and flies him into the insanity of this new New York City. The young detective is partnered with a shady older cop and begins to investigate the crimes amidst the vagaries of a twenty-four hour nightlife he has never experienced before. Soon realizing that he was chosen for reasons other than what he was told, Jon is left with no one to trust and forced to go on the run in the dark streets, and below them in the maze of the underground. Against all odds he still hopes that he can save his own life, the woman of his dreams, and maybe even the whole city before the arrival of the mysterious and dreaded event that has come to be known as…. DAYFALL.

Dayfall will be published by Tor Books on March 13, 2018. It is 286 pages, priced at $25.99 in hardcover and $13.99 for the digital version. The cover is by Paul Youll. Read the complete first chapter here.

The first book I ever read by Steven Brust was Jhereg, the opening volume in the long-running (15-book!) and best-selling Vlad Taltos series that has come to define his career. In 2013 he collaborated with Skyler White to launch a contemporary fantasy series, The Incrementalists, but before that his last standalone novel was Agyar in 1993.

So I was surprised and pleased to receive a review copy of Good Guys this week, which the accompanying press materials describe as a “snarky, irreverent tale of secret magic in the modern world, the first solo standalone novel in two decades from Steven Brust.” Here’s the description.

Donovan was shot by a cop. For jaywalking, supposedly. Actually, for arguing with a cop while black. Four of the nine shots were lethal ― or would have been, if their target had been anybody else. The Foundation picked him up, brought him back, and trained him further. “Lethal” turns out to be a relative term when magic is involved.

When Marci was fifteen, she levitated a paperweight and threw it at a guy she didn’t like. The Foundation scooped her up for training too.

“Hippie chick” Susan got well into her Foundation training before they told her about the magic, but she’s as powerful as Donovan and Marci now.

They can teleport themselves thousands of miles, conjure shields that will stop bullets, and read information from the remnants of spells cast by others days before.

They all work for the secretive Foundation… for minimum wage.

Which is okay, because the Foundation are the good guys. Aren’t they?

Good Guys will be published by Tor Books on March 6, 2018. It is 316 pages, priced at $25.99 in hardcover and $12.99 for the digital edition. Read the first two chapters here, and our recent coverage of Steven Brust here.

See all our recent coverage of the best in upcoming fantasy here.