Black Gate

Ah, Halloween. That gorgeous, short-lived season when publishers cram a year’s worth of spooky fiction into a single month.

If you pay attention for the next few weeks, you’ll see a delicious flood of horror for all ages in your local bookstore. New novels and collections by Stephen King, Laird Barron, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Robert Aickman, and many others.

There’s plenty for younger readers, too (after all, they tend to embrace the Halloween spirit even more than us old folks). One of the more intriguing releases for younger readers to cross my desk recently was Dr. Fell and the Playground of Doom, by David Neilsen. It’s a Middle Grade horror story written by someone who does one-man performances based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft… who can resist that??

When the mysterious Dr. Fell moves into the abandoned house that had once been the neighborhood kids’ hangout, he immediately builds a playground to win them over. But as the ever-changing play space becomes bigger and more elaborate, the children and their parents fall deeper under the doctor’s spell.

Only Jerry, Nancy, and Gail are immune to the lure of his extravagant wonderland. And they alone notice that when the injuries begin to pile up on the jungle gym, somehow Dr. Fell is able to heal each one with miraculous speed. Now the three children must find a way to uncover the doctor’s secret power without being captivated by his trickery.

“Recommended for school libraries that need to breathe life into their traditional mystery collections.” —School Library Journal

Dr. Fell and the Playground of Doom was published by Crown Books for Young Readers on August 9, 2016. It is 240 pages, priced at $16.99 in hardcover and $10.99 for the digital version.

Over at Kirkus Reviews, the tireless John DeNardo itemizes the 13 “must-read science fiction and fantasy books being released in October.” And John reads even more than I do, so he should know. Here he is on Faller by Will McIntosh, which will be released by Tor Books on October 25.

The people of the world find themselves on floating islands of rock, with no memory of who they are, how they got there, or what happened. A man calling himself Faller discovers in his pocket a photo of himself with a woman… thus prompting him to find the woman he can no longer remember… This science fiction thriller starts with a mystery that will make you not want to put the book down.

And Impersonations by Walter Jon Williams (Tor.com, October 4).

After the fall of an evil empire that subjugated both humans and aliens, a hero emerged from the civil war that followed. But Caroline Sula offended her superiors by winning a battle without their permission, and now she is posted to old Earth to keep her quiet. But the powers that be aren’t content; someone is manufacturing evidence that would lead to her false imprisonment… This is a sweeping space opera with an emphasis on adventure.

And Yesternight by Cat Winters (William Morrow, October 4).

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Reading reviews frequently helps heighten my anticipation for a book. That’s certainly the case with Jonathan Strahan’s acclaimed new anthology Drowned Worlds, a collection of SF tales which looks at the future of Earth after the full effects of climate change.

The book includes all-new fiction from Ken Liu, Kim Stanley Robinson, Christopher Rowe, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Charlie Jane Anders, Jeffrey Ford, Rachel Swirsky, Lavie Tidhar, Catherynne M. Valente, and many others. It’s been getting some terrific reviews, from places like Tor.com, Locus Online, and other fine institutions. Here’s a few samples, starting with author James Lovegrove in the Financial Times.

Taking its cue — as well as its title — from JG Ballard’s 1962 debut novel The Drowned World, the book offers 15 memorable, distinctive visions of Earth after climate change has exerted its grip. Sea levels have risen, and deserts have spread. People live aboard rafts, amid ruins, on other planets. The Anthropocene era has done its apocalyptic worst. There is nevertheless, a thin silvery thread of hope — humankind, through its adaptability and ingenuity, endures.

And here a snippet from Gary K. Wolfe’s lengthy review at Locus Online.

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Michael Swanwick’s previous collection with Tachyon Publications was The Dog Said Bow-Wow (2007). In Not So Much Said the Cat he takes a feline turn, collecting 17 stories published between 2008 and 2014, including Hugo nominee “From Babel’s Fall’n Glory We Fled…”. Here’s a snippet from the starred review from Kirkus.

There’s a man who, having suffered a crushing loss, finds solace after accidental contact with a time traveler; a group of time travelers hunkered down at the end of the Cretaceous period — where, oddly, nobody’s interested in the dinosaurs; and a scientist who finds a partner worthy of her genius. We also get a fascinating glimpse (which feels like a novel fragment) of a far future populated by humans and centipedelike aliens, narrated by the intelligent space suit of a woman who’s dead as the story begins; and another future where human lives resemble those in fairy tales while advanced, hidden AIs battle for supremacy. Elsewhere, in a literary-games vein, the characters in a fairy tale discuss whether they prefer to remain in books, and immortal, or enter history; there’s a famous Gene Wolfe story stripped down, turned inside out, and rebuilt to perfection; and, in a marvelous conceit, the writer Alexander Pushkin appears as he may have been — in an alternative universe. To round out the collection, we meet a dutiful young woman who, entering hell to challenge the devil to return her father, discovers that things are not as she assumed; Darger and Surplus, those good-hearted rogues with a propensity to shoot themselves in the foot, make an appearance, as does “The House of Dreams,” an entry from Swanwick’s splendid Mongolian Wizard e-book series. Tales that, through their extraordinary clarity of thought and expression, showcase precisely why this multiaward-winning author is held in such high regard.

Swanwick’s other collections from Tacyhon include Tales of Old Earth (2000) and Gravity’s Angels (2001). Our previous coverage of Michael Swanwick includes articles on The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, Chasing the Phoenix, and his short story “The Night of the Salamander.”

Not So Much Said the Cat was published by Tachyon Publications on July 18, 2016. It is 290 pages, priced at $15.95 in trade paperback and $7.99 for the digital version.

Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker, the opening novel in her 6-volume steampunk pulp Clockwork Century series, was nominated for both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, and won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Her other novels include Fathom, Maplecroft, and the Eden Moore trilogy. Her latest is a contemporary haunted house tale, released in hardcover by Tor last month.

Music City Salvage is a family operation, owned and operated by Chuck Dutton: master stripper of doomed historic properties, and expert seller of all things old and crusty. But business is lean and times are tight, so he’s thrilled when the aged and esteemed Augusta Withrow appears in his office, bearing an offer he really ought to refuse. She has a massive family estate to unload — lock, stock, and barrel. For a check and a handshake, it’s all his.

It’s a big check. It’s a firm handshake. And it’s enough of a gold mine that he assigns his daughter Dahlia to personally oversee the project.

Dahlia preps a couple of trucks, takes a small crew, and they caravan down to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the ancient Withrow house is waiting — and so is a barn, a carriage house, and a small, overgrown cemetery that Augusta Withrow left out of the paperwork. Augusta Withrow left out a lot of things. The property is in unusually great shape for a condemned building. It’s empty, but it isn’t abandoned. Something in the Withrow mansion is angry and lost. This is its last chance to raise hell before the house is gone forever, and there’s still plenty of room in the strange little family plot…

Cherie Priest’s The Family Plot is a haunted house story for the ages — atmospheric, scary, and strange, with a modern gothic sensibility that’s every bit as fresh as it is frightening.

The Family Plot was published by Tor Books on September 20, 2016. It is 365 pages, priced at $25.99 in hardcover and $12.99 for the digital edition. The cover was designed by FORT.

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Matthew B.J. Delaney’s first novel, Jinn, won the International Horror Guild Award. His latest is a near future science fiction thriller in which cures to terrible diseases are brokered on the Stock Exchange, and humanity has become dependent on a new race of synthetic slaves… slaves who are on the verge of revolt.

Read an except from Black Rain here, and see author Matthew B.J. Delaney describe the book in just 15 seconds on YouTube.

Black Rain was published by 47North on September 1, 2016. It is 373 pages, priced at $14.95 in trade paperback and $4.99 for the digital edition.