Black Gate

Gareth Powell is best known around these parts as the author of Moving Forward, a thoughtful manifesto on escaping the legacy of science fiction’s pulp roots. It generated quite a bit of discussion when it appeared at SF Signal back in 2013.

In the wider world he’s better known as the author of Ack-Ack Macaque (2012), a trilogy of SF adventure tales featuring a cigar-chomping monkey, nuclear-powered Zeppelins, and German ninjas, as well as the novel The Recollection (2011) and numerous short stories that have appeared in places like Space Opera, Solaris Rising, and Interzone. His newest novel is one of the most intriguing titles of 2018, the tale of a sentient warship stripped of her weapons and assigned to rescue operations at the end of the war. Caught up in a mysterious struggle that threatens to engulf the entire galaxy, the sentient warship Trouble Dog discovers she has to remember how to fight again, and fast. BG author Jonathan L. Howard (the Kyth the Taker series) says it “Mashes together solid space opera with big concepts, real people, and a freewheeling rock’n’roll vibe.”

Embers of War will be published by Titan Books on February 20, 2018. It is 409 pages, priced at $14.95 in trade paperback and $8.99 for the digital edition. It is the first novel in a new space opera trilogy.

I don’t know about you lot, but I like my dystopian horror filled with cosmic weirdness, strange fungi, and terrifying tales told around post-apocalyptic campfires.

Okay, that’s fairly specific. I blame the pre-release copy for Aliya Whiteley’s novella The Beauty, which has admittedly sparked my imagination. The Beauty was originally published in the UK in 2014 by Unsung Stories, where it was promptly nominated for the Shirley Jackson and Saboteur awards, and chosen by Adam Nevill as one of his favorite horror tales. He calls it “A story of cosmic fecundity and fungal weirdness that I couldn’t put down.” Kirkus Reviews labeled it “gut-wrenching… renders a world that exists somewhere between post-apocalyptic and fable-esque… unforgettably grotesque.” It arrives in trade paperback next week from Titan Books.

Somewhere away from the cities and towns, in the Valley of the Rocks, a society of men and boys gather around the fire each night to listen to their history recounted by Nate, the storyteller. Requested most often by the group is the tale of the death of all women.

They are the last generation.

One evening, Nate brings back new secrets from the woods; peculiar mushrooms are growing from the ground where the women’s bodies lie buried. These are the first signs of a strange and insidious presence unlike anything ever known before…

Discover the Beauty.

The Beauty will be published by Titan Books on January 16, 2018. It is 288 pages, priced at $12.95 in trade paperback and $7.99 for the digital version.

See all our coverage of the best in upcoming fantasy, SF and horror here.

Les Johnson is the co-author (with Travis S. Taylor) of Back to the Moon (2010), and (with Ben Bova) of Rescue Mode (2014). He also co-edited Going Interstellar (2012) with Jack McDevitt.

His first standalone novel is Mission to Methone, the tale of a vast and ancient galactic war, a derelict spaceship hiding in our solar system, and an artificial intelligence that has been concealing the existence of mankind. It appears humanity is not alone in the universe. Far across the galaxy, a war is raging between advanced alien races, and it’s about to be brought to our doorstep.

The year is 2065 and an accidental encounter in space leads to the discovery that we are not alone in the universe — and that our continued existence as a species may be in jeopardy.

Chris Holt, working in his office at the Space Resources Corporation, discovers that one of the asteroids he is surveying for mining is actually not an asteroid at all but a derelict spaceship. The word gets out and soon the world’s powers are competing to explore and claim for themselves the secrets that it holds.

What they don’t know is that across the galaxy, a war has been underway for millennia. A war between alien civilizations that have very different ideas about what should be done about emerging spacefaring civilizations like our own. The artificial intelligence resident in the derelict Holt discovered has been in our solar system since before the dawn of human civilization, watching, waiting and keeping quiet lest the interstellar war return and wipe out the sentient race that now resides there — humanity.

And that war might soon be again coming to our front door. The truth can only be discovered on Methone, a tiny, egg-shaped moon of the planet Saturn. Who will get there first? And will it be in time?

Mission to Methone will be published by Baen Books on February 6, 2018. It is 304 pages, priced at $16 in trade paperback. The cover is by Bob Eggleton. Read the first ten chapters at the Baen website.

The Starlit Wood, the first book from Dominik Parisien and‎ Navah Wolfe, was one of the most acclaimed anthologies of 2016. It was nominated for the World Fantasy Award and the British Fantasy Award, and won the Shirley Jackson Award. And Amal El-Mohtar’s “Seasons of Glass and Iron” swept the short fiction awards, winning the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards.

Their second anthology, scheduled to arrive in two weeks from Saga Press, is Robots vs. Fairies, and it includes another steller list of contributors, including Seanan McGuire, Jonathan Maberry, Kat Howard, Mary Robinette Kowal, Jeffrey Ford, Madeline Ashby, Lavie Tidhar, John Scalzi, Catherynne M. Valente, and many others. Publishers Weekly says:

Distinguished authors take sides in battles between robots and fairies by crafting serious (and seriously weird) reflections on whether magical or mechanical might would prove the stronger… Ken Liu creatively takes on big cities, rats, and unforeseen consequences in “Quality Time.”… Sarah Gailey’s “Bread and Milk and Salt” is a horrific rumination on the true natures of robots, fairies, and humans. Editors Parisien and Wolfe (The Starlit Wood) have cannily chosen a variety of stories that offer individual, distinctive insights into both living machines and magical creatures, along with glimpses of how humans might react to their face-off.

Reviews have already started to appear. Howling Libraries says Tim Pratt’s “Murmured Under the Moon” is a tale of “a human librarian who takes care of a fairy library, and is forced to go on a rescue mission when the fairy princess is taken hostage by a wicked man… fun, and unique, and magical, and fantastical, and sweet.” And Jim C. Hine’s Peter Pan-inspired “Second to the Left, and Straight On” is “twisted and haunting and beautiful and absolutely heartbreaking… It’s about a private investigator who is seeking out little girls that have been abducted by Tinker Bell.”

Read more at the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog, including the catalog copy and more details on the intricate cover, here.

Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

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Read More Read More

J.D. Horn is the bestselling author of the Witching Savannah series (The Line, The Source, etc.) His newest is the tale of a young witch’s quest to uncover her family’s terrifying history. It arrives next month from 47 North, Amazon’s publishing imprint, which has jumped into genre fiction in a big way but has yet to make a significant splash. It does tend to take chances with new and emerging authors, however, which I heartily approve.

The King of Bones and Ashes is the first volume of a new series, Witches of New Orleans. Publishers Weekly says “Sparkling magic and creepy villains bolster the narrative… The terrifying conclusion will have readers looking forward to the next installment.”

The King of Bones and Ashes will be published by 47North on January 23, 2018. It is 354 pages, priced at $24.95 in hardcover, $14.95 in trade paperback, and $4.99 for the digital edition. No sample chapters online that I can find, but I’ll keep looking.