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Category: New Treasures

Future Treasures: A Play of Shadows by Julie E. Czerneda

Future Treasures: A Play of Shadows by Julie E. Czerneda

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A Play of Shadows Julie Czerneda-smallCanadian writer Julie E. Czerneda has published over a dozen acclaimed science fiction novels and has rapidly built an enviable fan base.

She first dipped her toe into fantasy with Scott Taylor’s groundbreaking anthology Tales of the Emerald Serpent (announced right here back in March 2012), and its sequel, A Knight in the Silk Purse. She took the plunge with her first full-length fantasy novel, A Turn of Light, earlier this year.

The upcoming sequel, A Play of Shadows, returns to the pastoral valley of Marrowdell, home to a pioneer settlement of refugees, enigmatic house toads, and Jenn Nalynn, the turn-born who has always dreamed of exploring beyond the valley’s borders… and who finds that increasingly impossible.

What would you risk for family?

In the second installment of Night’s Edge, Bannan Larmensu, the truthseer who won Jenn Nalynn’s heart, learns his brother-in-law was sent as a peace envoy to Channen, capitol of the mysterious domain of Mellynne, and has disappeared. When Bannan’s young nephews arrive in Marrowdell, he fears the worst, that his sister, the fiery Lila, has gone in search of her husband, leaving her sons in his care.

The law forbids Bannan from leaving Marrowdell and travelling to Mellynne to help his sister. In this world. As a turn-born, Jenn Nalynn has the power to cross into the magical realm of the Verge, and take Bannan with her. Once there, they could find a way into Mellynne.

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Discover the Best Short Fiction of the Year with Paula Guran’s The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2014

Discover the Best Short Fiction of the Year with Paula Guran’s The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2014

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The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2014-smallOver the last decade or so, I’ve watched the emergence of a new generation of leading anthology editors. Folks like Jonathan Strahan, John Joseph Adams, Rich Horton, Ian Whates, and Jonathan Oliver. These are the editors who are successfully defining the best in the genre, and whose books I order immediately.

And now, I’m very pleased to add Paula Guran to that short list. I sampled the fourth volume of her Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror back in February, and was very impressed. The fifth volume arrived this summer, with an absolutely stellar line up of authors, and I nabbed it the first chance I could.

Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror is the companion volume to The Year’s Best Science Ficiton and Fantasy, edited by Rich Horton and also published by Prime. We covered the 2014 edition of Rich’s series back in July. Together, these two volumes give you a comprehensive catalog of the best genre short fiction of the year.

This year, the book contains fiction from Dale Bailey, Nathan Ballingrud, Laird Barron, Elizabeth Bear, Neil Gaiman, Glen Hirshberg, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Tanith Lee, Joe R. Lansdale, Ken Liu, Brandon Sanderson, Steve Rasnic Tem, Lisa Tuttle, Carrie Vaughn, and over a dozen others.

It draws from the finest magazines in the field, including Clarkesworld, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lightspeed, Subterranean Online, Interzone, Apex Magazine, Asimov’s SF, Strange Horizons, and Tor.com, and top-notch anthologies like Fearsome Journeys, Shadows of the New Sun: Stories in Honor of Gene Wolfe, Clockwork Phoenix 4, Dangerous Women, Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells, and many others.

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Fantasy Scroll Magazine 3 Now Available

Fantasy Scroll Magazine 3 Now Available

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Fantasy Scroll Magazine 3-smallThe third issue of the new Fantasy Scroll Magazine is now available, and I’m very happy to see it.

Fantasy Scroll is edited by Iulian Ionescu, Frederick Doot, and Alexandra Zamorski. It’s a quality publication and issues appear online every three months. The contents include all kinds of fantastic literature — science fiction, fantasy, horror, and paranormal short-fiction — and run the gamut from short stories to flash fiction to micro-fiction.

This issue looks very solid, with original fiction from Piers Anthony, Alex Shvartsman, and many others. The cover art is by Suebsin Pulsiri.

Here’s the complete fiction Table of Contents:

“Descant” by Piers Anthony
“The Peacemaker” by Rachel A. Brune
“My Favorite Photos of Anne” by Aaron Polson
“Verisimilitude” by Alan Murdock
“Orc Legal” by James Beamon
“Kindle My Heart” by Rebecca Birch
“Burn in Me” by Carrie Martin

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New Treasures: Jani and the Greater Game by Eric Brown

New Treasures: Jani and the Greater Game by Eric Brown

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Jani and the Greater Game-smallThis Eric Brown fellow is one of the most prolific of the new generation of SF and fantasy authors. He’s published a dozen novels in just the last five years, almost all of them with Solaris Books, including the Bengal Station trilogy, The Kings of Eternity (2011), Weird Space: The Devil’s Nebula (2012), Serene Invasion (2013), and Weird Space: Satan’s Reach (2013).

His latest is the opening book in a new steampunk action adventure series set in India in 1910, where the British rule with an iron fist thanks to a strange technology fueled by a mysterious power source… and their enemies covertly maneuver to discover its secrets in a political dance known as the Greater Game.

Eighteen-year-old Janisha Chatterjee, the Cambridge-educated daughter of an Indian government minister, is coming home to visit her father on his death-bed, when her airship is attacked and wrecked. Amid the debris, a stranger — monstrous but kind — saves her life and entrusts her with a mysterious device, which pitches her head-first into the “Greater Game,” the ongoing stand-off between British, Chinese and Russian powers in the Indian subcontinent.

Dodging British officers, Russian spies, and the dangerous priest Durga Das, Jani must bring the device to the foothills of the Himalayas; to the home of Annapurnite, the secret power source on which British domination was built. There she will learn the truth about Annapurnite — a truth that will change the world forever…

Jani and the Greater Game was published on July 29, 2014 by Solaris Books. It is 384 pages, priced at $7.99 in paperback and $6.99 for the digital edition. The cover art is by Dominic Harman.

Twelve Tomorrows: MIT Technology Review SF Annual 2014 now on Sale

Twelve Tomorrows: MIT Technology Review SF Annual 2014 now on Sale

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Twelve Tomorrows MIT Technology Review SF Annual 2014-smallMIT Technology Review has published two highly regarded SF anthologies over the past few years: TRSF (2011) and Twelve Tomorrows (2013). Both included 12 short stories inspired by recent developments reported in the pages of MIT Technology Review and featured an impressive list of contributors, including Neal Stephenson, David Brin, Brian Aldiss, Nancy Kress, Cory Docotorow, Joe Haldeman, and many others.

The 2014 edition has arrived and it looks just as impressive. Edited by Bruce Sterling and featuring original short stories by William Gibson, Pat Cadigan, Cory Doctorow, Warren Ellis, Bruce Sterling, Joel Garreau, Paul Graham Raven, Lauren Beukes, and Christopher Brown, this latest volume envisions the future of the Internet, biotechnology, computing, and much more.

It also includes a gallery of work by the great artist John Schoenherr and an interview with fantasy legend Gene Wolfe. See the complete details at the website.

The volume is currently available at better bookstores around the country. It’s also available for Kindle and the iPad, or in a three-volume bundle with TRSF and Twelve Tomorrows (2013) for just $29.95.

Twelve Tomorrows 2014 was edited by Bruce Sterling and published by MIT Technology Review on August 25, 2014. It is 234 pages in magazine format, priced at $12.95 for the print edition and $9.99 for the digital version.

The cover, by John Schoenherr, was also the cover of the original Ace paperback edition of Frank Herbert’s Dune from 1967 (click the image at left for a high-res version).

New Treasures: Shifting Shadows by Patricia Briggs

New Treasures: Shifting Shadows by Patricia Briggs

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Shifting Shadows by Patricia Briggs-smallI’ve recently been interested in sampling some of the better urban fantasy on the market. Patricia Briggs would certainly be one of the best places to start — she’s produced several #1 New York Times bestsellers featuring her shapeshifting heroine Mercy Thompson, and Locus magazine says “In the increasingly crowded field of kick-ass supernatural heroines, Mercy stands out as one of the best.” But frankly, I just don’t have time to read many more novels.

The new book Shifting Shadows may be just what I’ve been looking for. It’s a collection of short stories featuring Mercy, which originally appeared in anthologies like On the Prowl, Naked City, and Home Improvement: Undead Edition. It also includes four brand new standalone Mercy stories, which would serve as an ideal entry point for busy readers like me.

Shapeshifter Mercy Thompson has friends in high places — and in low, dark, scary ones. And in this must-have collection of stories, you’ll meet new faces and catch up with old acquaintances — in all their forms…

In a time of fresh starts, Mercy is asked to use an old talent — ghost hunting — in the all-new story “Hollow.” You’ll learn what happens when an ancient werewolf on his last legs befriends a vulnerable adolescent (“Roses in Winter”) and how Mercy’s friend Samuel Cornick became a werewolf (“Silver”). The werewolf Ben finds “Redemption,” and Moira, a blind witch, assists on a search in “Seeing Eye.”

From Butte, Montana, the copper-mining town that vampire Thomas Hao calls home (“Fairy Gifts”), to Chicago, where the vampire Elyna buys and renovates the apartment she lived in while human (“Gray”), you’ll travel the roads that originated with Mercy Thompson and the fertile imagination of Patricia Briggs. Roads that will lead you to places you’ve never been before…

Shifting Shadows was published by Ace Books on September 2. It is 450 pages, priced at $26.95 in hardcover and $10.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Daniel Dos Santos.

Future Treasures: Touch of Evil by C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp

Future Treasures: Touch of Evil by C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp

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Touch of Evil-smallI don’t read much urban fantasy, and I think that’s a serious oversight. I love dark fantasy, and I love adventure fantasy, and both of those are found in abundance in the best urban fantasy on the market. I just need to be selective.

Maybe I can look to the market for help. Later this month, Tor will offer a handsome trade paperback reprint of the first volume of the popular Thrall Series by C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp, Touch of Evil (originally released in paperback in 2006), and it looks like the kind of dark and creepy urban fantasy I would enjoy. Worth checking out, I think.

When the Thrall Queen Wants You… Run!

In the ER after a minor traffic accident, Kate Reilly s attacked by Monica Micah, the Queen of Denver, Colorado’s Thrall population, The Thrall — vampire parasites — have been preying on humans for thousands of years, using us as both hosts and food. Kate killed a Thrall Queen and became Not Prey, so by the Thrall’s own rules, Monica should be giving Kate a wide berth.

Instead, Monica wants Kate dead. Eventually. First, she wants to force her to become the things she hates most in the world: a new Thrall Queen. Worse, though Monica broke the rules,, Kate can’t: of she hides or flees. she’ll lost Not Prey status.

Not that Kate thinks seriously about running away. Too many people rely on her in one way or another: the tenants in the apartment building she owns; her brothers, her ex-boyfriend and his seriously unpleasant wife; a missing sixteen-year-old girl Kate has promised to find before the Thrall do, and Tom, the handsome werewolf who just moved in downstairs.

No. Kate’s not going anywhere. Kate Reilly is Not Prey. She’s going to fight.

Touch of Evil was originally published in paperback in 2006, and reprinted in 2009. It was followed by two sequels: Touch of Madness (2007) and Touch of Darkness (2008). Touch of Evil will be published in trade paperback on October 14. It is 352 pages, priced at $14.99 in trade paperback and $7.99 for the digital edition.

Goth Chick News New Horror: The Boy Who Drew Monsters

Goth Chick News New Horror: The Boy Who Drew Monsters

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The Boy Who Drew Monsters-smallWhat seems like a million years ago, while digging through stacks of used books at my local library sale, I discovered a tattered copy of Zenna Henderson’s collection of creepy tales, The Anything Box (1977). Within those pages, I found what is today one of my top 10 favorite short stories of all time, “Hush.”

It is the classic literary scare relying on the terror of lurking things that cannot be seen, rather than the in-your-face-violence of things that can. “Hush” tells the story of an ill little boy whose fevered brain gives life to the horrors in his imagination, which in turn, stalk his unwitting babysitter… naturally.

Eerie little kids with large, soulful eyes staring at you from someplace they shouldn’t be – frankly there is almost nothing more frightening, if you ask me.

Flash forward to October, 2014 and a new offering from the New York Times bestselling author of The Stolen Child, Keith Donohue — where once again we have a creepy little kid trapped in his own world, and whose solitary imagination blurs the lines between fantasy and reality.

Ever since he nearly drowned in the ocean three years earlier, ten-year-old Jack Peter (“Kip”) Keenan has been deathly afraid to venture outdoors. When Kip takes up drawing, his parents, Holly and Tim, hope this new creative outlet will help Jip to combat his introversion, agoraphobia and occasionally violent tendencies.

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New Treasures: The Brothers Cabal by Jonathan L. Howard

New Treasures: The Brothers Cabal by Jonathan L. Howard

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The Brothers Cabal-smalllI’ve been following Jonathan L. Howard’s career since we published his light-hearted sword & sorcery tale “The Beautiful Corridor,” about a young thief named Kyth hired to penetrate a deadly tomb, in Black Gate 13 — and its sequel, “The Shuttered Temple,” in BG 15.

His first novel was the highly regarded Johannes Cabal the Necromancer (2009), followed by Johannes Cabal the Detective (2010) and last year’s Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute. In the latest installment, he teams up with his brother, an affable vampire, to take on an occult conspiracy with a monstrous army.

Horst Cabal has risen from the dead. Again. Horst, the most affable vampire one is ever likely to meet, is resurrected by an occult conspiracy that wants him as a general in a monstrous army. Their plan: to create a country of horrors, a supernatural homeland. As Horst sees the lengths to which they are prepared to go and the evil they cultivate, he realizes that he cannot fight them alone. What he really needs on his side is a sarcastic, amoral, heavily armed necromancer.

As luck would have it, this exactly describes his brother.

Join the brothers Cabal as they fearlessly lie quietly in bed, fight dreadful monsters from beyond reality, make soup, feel slightly sorry for zombies, banter lightly with secret societies that wish to destroy them, and — in passing — set out to save the world.*

*The author wishes to point out that there are no zebras this time, so don’t get your hopes up on that count. There is, however, a werebadger, if that’s something that’s been missing from your life.

Jonathan’s most recent novels are Katya’s World, and Katya’s War, the first books of The Russalka Chronicles. Read Jonathan’s article on writing the Johannes Cabel series and his interview with John Joseph Adams. Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute was published by Thomas Dunne Books on September 30. It is 338 pages, priced at $25.99 in hardcover and $11.99 in digital format.

Tor.com Salutes Solaris Books

Tor.com Salutes Solaris Books

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Solaris Rising 3-smallA while back, I praised Solaris Books for their impressive line of top-notch original anthologies, including Ian Whates’s Solaris Rising, and Jonathan Strahan’s Reach for Infinity. And just a few hours ago (see below), I reported on their upcoming fantasy volume, Fearsome Magics.

Looks like I wasn’t the only one to notice. Last week at Tor.com, Niall Alexander called out the publisher for their splendid recent record on original anthologies:

In recent years, no one publisher has done as much for the short form of speculative fiction in Britain as Solaris. Since the summer, they’ve released Reach for Infinity… the latest volume of Jonathan Strahan’s continuing chronicle of the future history of humanity — reviewed right here by yours truly— alongside the eighth edition of The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year and the third in the superb Solaris Rising series.

And there’s much more to come in the coming months. Fearsome Magics, the follow-up to The New Solaris Book of Fantasy, is out in early October — on the same day, indeed, as Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets from Solaris’ sister imprint Abaddon, which proposes to showcase the great detective through a decidedly unlikely lens.

Just this week, readers of When Gravity Falls were treated to an early look at another of the plentiful collections Solaris has on the cards. Dangerous Games is due in December, and it looks to meet, or even exceed, the high standards set by Jonathan Oliver’s previous projects.

Solaris 3 was edited by Ian Whates and released on August 26, 2014. I bought a copy last week and it looks like the same great bargain as the other volumes — a thick 448 pages for just $7.99 in paperback — with stories from  Aliette de Bodard, Ken Liu, Julie E. Czerneda, Tony Ballantyne, Sean Williams, Ian Watson, Adam Roberts, George Zebrowski, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Rachel Swirsky, and many others. The cover is by Pye Parr (click the image at right for a high res version of the front and back cover.)

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