Black Gate

As 2015 went by, I found myself more and more impressed with Michael Kelly and his team at Undertow Publications. They do the kind of work that no one else is doing, exemplary books like Year’s Best Weird Fantasy, Volumes One and Two, the impressive tribute anthology Aickman’s Heirs, and their acclaimed annual journal of the fantastic, Shadows & Tall Trees.

So I was pleased to see that they also publish short story collections — including the debut collection of supernatural and ghost stories from V. H. Leslie, Skein and Bone. Leslie’s stories have appeared in Black Static, Interzone, Shadows & Tall Trees, Weird Fiction Review and other places, and she was nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award in 2014, for her novelette “The Quiet Room.” She’s an up-and-coming weird fiction writer whom I’ve heard a lot about, and I’m glad to have a chance to sample some of her latest work, all in one convenient package.

Skein and Bone was published by Undertow Publications on July 17, 2015. It is 290 pages, priced at $18.99 in trade paperback. There is a digital edition available through Smashwords. The gorgeous wraparound cover is by Vince Haig. See all the details at the Undertow website.

Vaughn Entwistle is the author of two volumes in The Paranormal Casebooks of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: The Revenant of Thraxton Hall and The Dead Assassin, atmospheric mysteries featuring the detecting duo of Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde.

The Angel of Highgate is a prequel to those books, but to reveal exactly how would be telling. It was published in trade paperback this month by Titan.

People die… but love endures immortal.

Lord Geoffrey Thraxton is notorious in Victorian society — a Byronesque rakehell with a reputation as the “wickedest man in London.” But on a fog-shrouded morning in Highgate Cemetery, Thraxton encounters a spectral wraith that stirs his morbid fascination with death and the supernatural. After surviving a pistol duel, Thraxton boasts his contempt for death and insults the attending physician. It is a mistake he will regret, for Silas Garrette is a deranged sociopath and chloroform-addict whose mind was broken on the battlefields of Crimea. When Thraxton falls in love with a mysterious woman who haunts Highgate Cemetery by night, he unwittingly provides the murderous doctor with the perfect means to punish a man with no fear of death.

The Angel of Highgate was published by Titan Books on December 1, 2015. It is 377 pages, priced at $12.95 in trade paperback and $7.99 for the digital edition. The cover was designed by Julia Lloyd.

See all our recent New Treasures here.

I’ve been looking forward to Lawrence M. Schoen’s Barsk since I first glimpsed the cover over the summer. It will be released this week, and the pre-release buzz has been impressive. Nancy Hightower at The Washington Post ranked it as one of the Best SF and Fantasy titles of December, saying:

Barsk is set 62,000 years into a human-less future, where anthropomorphic animals rule the galaxy. There is no record of human existence, and while the different species get along relatively well, the Fant, an elephant-like hybrid, are completely shunned and exiled to live on a rainy planet called Barsk. While labeled less intelligent and “dirty,” the Fant nonetheless are the only species to produce a drug that allows clairvoyants known as Speakers to commune with the dead. When the planet is threatened with invasion and annihilation by the galaxy Senate, Jorl, a Fant Speaker, must race to save it by communing with ancient beings who hold even darker truths. Suspenseful and emotionally engaging, Barsk brings readers into a fascinating speculative world.

Lawrence has been nominated for the Nebula Award three times, and the Hugo Award once. The early reviews for Barsk have been glowing, with Karl Schroeder calling it “A compulsive page-turner and immensely enjoyable,” and James L. Cambias proclaiming it “Captivating… [a] heartwarming story in a unique and fantastic world… as rich and mysterious as Dune.” We first covered the book last month.

Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard will be published by Tor Books on December 29, 2015. It is 384 pages, priced at $25.99 in hardcover and $12.99 for the digital edition. The marvelous cover is by Victo Ngai.

Ben Elton has written fourteen international bestsellers, including Dead Famous and Two Brothers. His latest novel is a time-travel mystery which Sir Kenneth Branagh calls “An exceptional thriller. Darkly comic, richly humane, and seriously entertaining. The final twist is spine chilling.” It was released in hardcover on Tuesday.

It’s the first of June 1914 and Hugh Stanton, ex-soldier and celebrated adventurer is quite literally the loneliest man on earth. No one he has ever known or loved has been born yet. Perhaps now they never will be.

Stanton knows that a great and terrible war is coming. A collective suicidal madness that will destroy European civilization and bring misery to millions in the century to come. He knows this because, for him, that century is already history.

Somehow he must change that history. He must prevent the war. A war that will begin with a single bullet. But can a single bullet truly corrupt an entire century? And, if so, could another single bullet save it?

Time and Time Again was published by Thomas Dunne Books on December 22, 2015. It is 387 pages, priced at $26.99 in hardcover and $12.99 in digital format. The cover was designed by Mulcahey & Claire Ward/TW. Click on the images above for bigger versions.

Now here’s something interesting that may have slipped past most BG readers… a gothic fantasy set in 13th-century Bohemia that has been getting some excellent reviews. Publishers Weekly calls it “A deliciously creepy debut… [with] an intricate world full of terrifying details,” and Kirkus Reviews sums it up as “Part history, part horror, part love story… does a good job of interweaving history with mythology and the supernatural… Brings the Dark Ages to strange and bewitching life.”

Set against the historical reign of the Golden and Iron King, Bohemian Gospel is the tale of a bold girl with unusual gifts who finds herself at odds with supernatural forces in a world rich with superstition. Well worth a look.

Thirteenth-century Bohemia is a dangerous place for a girl, especially one as odd as Mouse, born with unnatural senses and an uncanny intellect. Some call her a witch. Others call her an angel. Even Mouse doesn’t know who — or what — she is. But she means to find out.

When young King Ottakar shows up at the Abbey wounded by a traitor’s arrow, Mouse breaks church law to save him and then agrees to accompany him back to Prague as his personal healer. Caught in the undertow of court politics at the castle, Ottakar and Mouse find themselves drawn to each other as they work to uncover the threat against him and to unravel the mystery of her past. But when Mouse’s unusual gifts give rise to a violence and strength that surprise everyone — especially herself — she is forced to ask herself: Will she be prepared for the future that awaits her?

Bohemian Gospel was published by Pegasus on November 15, 2015. It is 367 pages, priced at $25.95 in hardcover and $22.73 for the digital edition. The cover was deigned by Faceout Studio.