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Category: New Treasures

A Band of Black Hearted Bastards in a Comic Romp: Articles of Faith by David Wragg

A Band of Black Hearted Bastards in a Comic Romp: Articles of Faith by David Wragg

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The Black Hawks and The Righteous (HarperVoyager, October 2019 and September 2021).
Covers by Richard Anderson (left) and uncredited

I bought David Wragg’s debut fantasy The Black Hawks when it first appeared in 2019. It sounded right up my alley — the tale of a dysfunctional band of mercenaries drafted into a desperate conflict to protect a stranded prince.

I was delighted to see a second — and apparently, final — volume appear at the end of last year. The Righteous concludes the tales of the seasoned (and entertaining) mercenary band, and opens with them imprisoned and sentenced for execution for their part in the rebellion, alongside their employer, the knight Vedren Chel. A daring escape sends them on the run, and headlong into a brand new adventure.

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New Treasures: Seven Deaths of an Empire by G R Matthews

New Treasures: Seven Deaths of an Empire by G R Matthews

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Seven Deaths of an Empire (Solaris, June 2021). Cover artist uncredited

I’m late to the party with this one. Solaris published G R Matthews’s mainstream debut Seven Deaths of an Empire in June of last year, and it received plenty of good notice. Library Journal called it “reminiscent of Game of Thrones,” SFX Magazine labeled it “Refreshingly original,” and Grimdark Magazine proclaimed it “fantasy at its finest.” Why do I always miss the good ones?

At this point I figure I’d wait for the paperback, and that’s finally arriving at the end of this month. About time — I’m impatient to learn what all the fuss is about.

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Forty Years of Horror: After Dark: The Best Horror Fiction of Tony Richards

Forty Years of Horror: After Dark: The Best Horror Fiction of Tony Richards

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After Dark: The Best Horror Fiction of Tony Richards (Weird House Press, November 17, 2021). Cover by K.L. Turner

Tony Richards is a British horror writer, author of eight collections of short stories and several novels of dark fiction. Although for some reason he may be unfairly less celebrated than some of his countrymen, he’s certainly one of the very best producing horror fiction today.

Praise to small American imprint Weird House Press for assembling twenty-five tales and a novella covering forty years of Richards’ career in After Dark: The Best Horror Fiction of Tony Richards, released in paperback and digital formats this past November.

Although I’m familiar with some of Richards’ previous (and excellent) collections, regretfully I had missed a few, and this one offered me the chance to savor some of his stories for the very first time.

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New Treasures: Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson

New Treasures: Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson

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Far from the Light of Heaven (Orbit, October 26, 2021). Cover design by Lauren Panepinto

Tade Thompson is a fast-rising star. Rosewater, the opening novel in his Wormwood trilogy, was “a groundbreaking future noir” (B&N Sci-fi & Fantasy blog) that won the 2019 Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. The Rosewater Insurrection was nominated for the BSFA and Locus Awards, and closing novel The Rosewater Redemption was nominated for both the Locus and Philip K. Dick Award.

That’s a lot of attention so early in his career– and a whole lot of eyes on his newest project. Writers have been known to curl up under the bed for a lot less. But his follow up Far from the Light of Earth, the story of a series of mysterious deaths on an interstellar colony ship, has already been called “probably the best science fiction novel of the year… like the Tardis, larger inside than out, with a range of ideas, characters, and fascinating future settings” (The Guardian). Kirkus Reviews sums it up as “a thriller/horror-aboard-a-spaceship in the vein of Greg Bear’s Hull Zero Three [and] the classic film Alien… Gripping and bloody as a beating heart.” And Tor.com says it “marries shades of gothic horror with a sleuthing mystery and hard sci-fi.”

Sounds like a must-read in my book. Looks like Thompson’s ascent to the pinnacle of SF stardom continues on schedule.

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New Treasures: The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Six edited by Neil Clarke

New Treasures: The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Six edited by Neil Clarke

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The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Six (Night Shade, January 25, 2022). Cover by Pascal Blanché

It’s here at last! The sixth volume of Neil Clarke’s Best Science Fiction of the Year, long-delayed by supply chain disruptions, pandemic publishing panic, and maybe Pacific pirates — I honestly have no idea. But it’s here. And packed full of stories from the long-ago era of 2020, when the pandemic was fresh and new, everyone was ordering their first masks, and looking forward to returning to work in two weeks. Ah, the good old days.

I’m glad to finally have this book in my hot little hands, anyway. Even if it did take so long to arrive that I ended up accidently ordering a second copy from the Science Fiction Book Club six months after I ordered the first one. If anyone out there is in the market for a copy, we should talk.

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One From the Bucket List: The Year’s Top Robot and AI Stories: Second Annual Collection edited by Allan Kaster

One From the Bucket List: The Year’s Top Robot and AI Stories: Second Annual Collection edited by Allan Kaster

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The Year’s Top Robot and AI Stories: Second Annual Collection (Infinivox, November 21, 2021). Cover by Maurizio Manzieri

I’ve been reading and writing about Year’s Best volumes for decades, and I’ve covered a lot of them, including anthologies by Terry Carr, Don Wollheim, Harry Harrison and Brian Aldiss, Gardner Dozois, Jonathan Strahan, Rich Horton, Neil Clarke, and many others.

So I hope you can appreciate what a pleasure it was to receive a copy of Allan Kaster’s The Year’s Top Robot and AI Stories: Second Annual Collection in the mail in December, a book that fulfilled a long-held dream. It’s the first Year’s Best to include a story of mine: “The Ambient Intelligence,” originally published in the October 2020 issue of John Joseph Adams’ Lightspeed magazine.

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Close to the Borders of Fairyland: Dark Breakers by C.S.E. Cooney

Close to the Borders of Fairyland: Dark Breakers by C.S.E. Cooney

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Dark Breakers by CSE Cooney (Mythic Delirium, February 15, 2022). Cover by Brett Massé

It’s been a delight watching the meteoric career of C.S.E. Cooney, Black Gate‘s first Website Editor. Her short fiction has been reprinted in Jonathan Strahan’s The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year and Rich Horton’s Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy (five times); her novella “The Bone Swans of Amandale” was nominated for a Nebula Award in 2015, and in 2016 she won a World Fantasy Award for her collection Bone Swans.

Somewhere in there she also found the time to release three albums (Alecto! Alecto!, The Headless Bride, and Corbeau Blanc, Corbeau Noir), and a poetry collection, How to Flirt in Faerieland and Other Wild Rhymes, containing her 2011 Rhysling Award-winning “The Sea King’s Second Bride.” More recently she published a Tor.com novella (Desdemona and the Deep, 2019), and in April of this year Solaris releases her long-awaited first novel, Saint Death’s Daughter.

Last week Mythic Delirium Books published her newest book Dark Breakers, a collection of five linked stories — including three never before published — all set in the same world as Desdemona and the Deep. ZZ Claybourne calls it “an art deco mural under the guidance of Galadriel, Zora Neale Hurston and the Brothers Grimm,” and Publishers Weekly proclaims it “Extravagant and gorgeous.”

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New Treasures: Shadow in the Empire of Light by Jane Routley

New Treasures: Shadow in the Empire of Light by Jane Routley

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Shadow in the Empire of Light (Solaris, January 2021). Cover by Head Design

I’ve got a soft spot for Jane Routley. In the early days of my career — when I had nothing more than a 386 desktop, a dial up connection, and dreams of a vast blogging empire — I chased publishers relentlessly, sending countless review notices and badgering them with requests for review copies. Andy Heidel at AvonNova was the first publicist to take me seriously. Or maybe just the first to ship out a box of books to shut me up, I’ll never know sure.

Whatever the truth, tearing open that very first box of new releases in my living room in July, 1996, felt like Christmas. And the fist one I took out of the box, and the very first book to get a review assignment at my fledgling website SF Site, was Mage Heart by Jane Routley. I’ve followed her career with great interest ever since, and I was delighted to snap up a copy of her newest, Shadow in the Empire of Light, when it was released by Solaris last year.

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If Jack Reacher Came to Westeros: The Chronicles of Stratus by Mark De Jager

If Jack Reacher Came to Westeros: The Chronicles of Stratus by Mark De Jager

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Infernal and Firesky (Solaris, 2020/21). Covers by Head Design

I’m not one to complain how things were better in the Good Old Days of fantasy in the 70s and 80s. (I know, I know — I had trouble keeping a straight face even as I typed that.) But at least mass market paperbacks were plentiful in those days, and you could escape from your neighborhood bookstore with a couple slender paperbacks, a chance to try out some exciting new authors, and change from a ten dollar bill.

There’s still plenty of exiting new authors to enjoy today, and fantasy is certainly richer and more diverse than those long-ago glory days (especially if you’re looking for something that wasn’t written by a straight white male). But mass market has gone the way of the Dodo. Nowadays the shelves are crowded with expensive trade paperbacks, and a pair of new authors will set you back 35 bucks or more.

Which is one of the reasons I’m so grateful for Solaris, who’ve held the price of the trade paper volumes to just $11.99 for much of their introductory line — including South African writer Mark De Jager, whose debut fantasy Infernal was described as “If Jack Reacher came to Westeros” by Sebastien de Castell.

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Saving Pets (and One Human) in a Zombie Apocalypse: The Hollow Kingdom Series by Kira Jane Buxton

Saving Pets (and One Human) in a Zombie Apocalypse: The Hollow Kingdom Series by Kira Jane Buxton

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Hollow Kingdom and Feral Creatures (Grand Central Publishing,
August 2019 and August 2021). Covers by Jarrod Taylor

Kira Jane Buxton’s debut novel Hollow Kingdom was the sleeper fantasy hit of 2019. The tale of a zombie apocalypse seen through the eyes of a caustic (and foul-mouthed) crow was a finalist for the 2020 Thurber Prize for American Humor, and chosen as a Best Book of the Year by Book Riot, NPR, and Good Housekeeping (And that’s not something you see every day. I challenge you to find another zombie novel with a Good Housekeeping endorsement.)

Jeff Somers at the B&N Blog turned me onto Hidden Kingdom in his list of the Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of August 2019, calling it “a darkly hilarious twist” on the zombie formula. The sequel, Feral Creatures, finally arrived last summer, and sees the return of our favorite apocalyptic corvid and his faithful friends as they try to keep the last human alive in a rapidly worsening apocalypse.

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