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Category: New Treasures

io9 on 20 Amazing New SF and Fantasy Books in May

io9 on 20 Amazing New SF and Fantasy Books in May

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Wicked Wonders Ellen Klages-small Thick as Thieves Megan Whalen Turner-small River of Teeth-small

Over at io9, Cheryl Eddy takes a look at 20 of the most intriguing titles arriving this month, including a whole bunch of novels, collections and anthologies we haven’t gotten around to yet. Her list features titles from Robin Hobb, Haruki Murakami, Timothy Zahn, M.R. Carey, Foz Meadows, Martha Wells, Robert Jackson Bennett, Marie Brennan, Kit Reed, and others.

The list includes the latest collection from Black Gate author Ellen Klages, Wicked Wonders.

The author of The Green Glass Sea presents her second short-story collection of “lyrical stories with vintage flair” (topics include: life on Mars, gambling with fairies), with an introduction by Karen Joy Fowler.

Wicked Wonders was published by Tachyon Publications on May 9. It is 240 pages, priced at $15.95 in trade paperback and $9.99 for the digital edition.

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New Treasures: Mars One by Jonathan Maberry

New Treasures: Mars One by Jonathan Maberry

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Mars One Jonathan Maberry-smallWait a minute — didn’t I just write about a new Jonathan Maberry novel last month? As a matter of fact I did — his new Joe Ledger novel, Dogs of War. And here he is again with Mars One, a brand new SF novel about a teen and his family colonizing Mars. You can say one thing about Maberry… the guy clearly doesn’t waste his time resting.

Go on the adventure of a lifetime with a teen and his family after they are selected to colonize Mars in this thrilling new novel from multiple Bram Stoker Award–winning author Jonathan Maberry.

Tristan has known that he and his family were going to be on the first mission to colonize Mars since he was twelve years old, and he has been training ever since. However, knowing that he would be leaving for Mars with no plan to return didn’t stop him from falling in love with Izzy.

But now, at sixteen, it’s time to leave Earth, and he’s forced to face what he must leave behind in exchange for an uncertain future. When the news hits that another ship is already headed to colonize Mars, and the NeoLuddite terrorist group begins threatening the Mars One project, the mission’s purpose is called into question. Is this all worth it?

Our previous coverage of Jonathan Maberry includes:

Deadlands: Ghostwalkers
Dogs of War
Aliens: Bug Hunt edited by Jonathan Maberry
The Top Ten Books I Read in 2016 by Brandon Crilly

Mars One was published by Simon & Schuster on April 4th. It is 435 pages, priced at $17.99 in trade paperback and $10.99 for the digital edition. The cover was designed by Laurent Linn.
See all of our coverage of the best in new fantasy here.

A Tale of Two Covers: Neal Asher’s Infinity Engine

A Tale of Two Covers: Neal Asher’s Infinity Engine

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Neal Asher Infinity Engine-small Neal Asher Infinity Engine UK-small

Last year we talked about War Factory, the second novel in Neal Asher’s Transformation series. So I kept my eye out for the third volume, Infinity Engine, which arrived in hardcover in March.

Infinity Engine was simultaneously published in the US by Night Shade (above left; cover by Adam Burn) and in the UK by Tor (above right, cover by Steve Stone). Over at Worlds in Ink, KJ Mulder expresses his enthusiasm for the US version.

I’m a huge fan of Neal Asher’s work and the covers for his novels are always something special. The covers for Infinity Engine, the conclusion to the Transformation trilogy, [are] no exception. This time round the folks at Night Shade Books have pulled out all the stops for the US edition that simply blows their UK counterpart out of the water. The artwork by Adam Burn is absolutely stunning. I think he might have just dethroned Jon Sullivan as my favourite cover artist.

With all due respect to my South African colleague Mulder, I think he’s way off base here. The Adam Burn’s cover, with its cataclysmic energy and vibrant yellows, is certainly eye-catching. But if these two books were side by side in Barnes & Noble, it would be Steve Stone’s cover, depicting a starship plunging at full speed into the churning, cold blue maelstrom of deep space, that I would reach for.

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2017 Locus Awards Finalists Announced

2017 Locus Awards Finalists Announced

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Babylon’s Ashes James S.A. Corey-small Fellside-by-M-R-Carey-small Vigil Angela Slatter-small

The Locus Awards, voted on by readers in an open online poll, have been presented every year since 1971. (A quarter century before there was such a thing as an online poll. Back in the day, we used to send ballots through the mail. Ask your parents what that means.) The final ballot lists ten finalists in each category, including Science Fiction Novel, Fantasy Novel, Horror Novel, Young Adult Book, First Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Anthology, Collection, Magazine, Publisher, Editor, Artist, Non-Fiction, and Art Book. The winners will be announced at the Locus Awards Weekend on June 23-25, 2017.

Even if you didn’t vote in the awards, the list of Finalists makes a terrific Recommended Reading list. Jonathan Strahan posted the following on his Facebook feed this morning, and I agree completely.

Here’s a thought, fellow SF readers. Locus has just announced its long list for the Locus Awards. Forget that it’s an awards list for a moment, though. It’s a reading list.

So why not look down the list below for Best First Novel. and try something new? Pick a book from the list below. Buy a copy, borrow a copy, go to the library and grab a copy. Track one down, and try something new…. I can recommend the Lee, Shawl and Slatter books very highly. Some of the others look really interesting.

You can find the complete list of finalists at Locus Online, and last year’s winners here.

New Treasures: The Black Witch by Laurie Forest

New Treasures: The Black Witch by Laurie Forest

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The Black Witch-small The Black Witch-back-small

Is there anything as delightful as a debut fantasy novel that comes out of nowhere and gets rave reviews? (Never mind, it’s a rhetorical question). The latest example to cross my desk is The Black Witch by Laurie Forest, a 600-page fat fantasy that Kirkus calls “A massive page-turner that leaves readers longing for more,” and that Publishers Weekly praises with “Exquisite character work, an elaborate mythology, and a spectacularly rendered universe make this a noteworthy debut.” It arrived in hardcover and digital formats on May 1st.

A new Black Witch will rise… her powers vast beyond imagining.

Elloren Gardner is the granddaughter of the last prophesied Black Witch, Carnissa Gardner, who drove back the enemy forces and saved the Gardnerian people during the Realm War. But while she is the absolute spitting image of her famous grandmother, Elloren is utterly devoid of power in a society that prizes magical ability above all else.

When she is granted the opportunity to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming an apothecary, Elloren joins her brothers at the prestigious Verpax University to embrace a destiny of her own, free from the shadow of her grandmother’s legacy. But she soon realizes that the university, which admits all manner of people — including the fire-wielding, winged Icarals, the sworn enemies of all Gardnerians — is a treacherous place for the granddaughter of the Black Witch.

As evil looms on the horizon and the pressure to live up to her heritage builds, everything Elloren thought she knew will be challenged and torn away. Her best hope of survival may be among the most unlikely band of misfits… if only she can find the courage to trust those she’s been taught to hate and fear.

The Black Witch was published by Harlequin Teen on May 1, 2017. It is 601 pages, priced at $19.99 in hardcover and $9.99 for the digital edition. The cover was designed by Mary Luna. Read an excerpt at Entertainment Weekly.

Black Gate Interviews Egyptian Science Fiction Author Mohammad Rabie

Black Gate Interviews Egyptian Science Fiction Author Mohammad Rabie

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51JYgQ68kPL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_One pleasant stop on my recent trip to Cairo was the American University’s bookshop near Tahrir Square. It’s a treasure trove of books on Egyptology and Egyptian fiction in translation. Among the titles I picked up was the dystopian novel Otared by Mohammad Rabie.

This novel, originally published in Arabic in 2014 and published in English in 2016 by Hoopoe, the fiction imprint of the American University of Cairo, is a grim dystopian tale of Cairo in 2025.

After several botched revolutions in which the people repeatedly fail to effect real social and political change, Egypt is invaded by a foreign power. The army crumples, most of the police collude with the occupiers, and the general public doesn’t seem to care. A small rebel group decides to take back their nation, and one of its agents is former police officer turned sniper, Otared. The rebels basically become terrorists, deciding the only way to get the people to rise up is to make life under the occupation intolerable, which means killing as many innocent civilians as possible.

The world Rabie paints reminds me very much of the insane landscape in Paul Auster’s In the Country of Last Things, with its violence, its cruelty, and its bizarre customs (in Otared almost everyone wears a mask) that begin to make sense once you learn more about the world. Throw in a nightmarish disease that affects only children, plus a national death wish, and you have a grim but compelling read. No science fiction novel has gut punched me this hard for a long, long time.

Mohammad Rabie is an emerging force in Egyptian letters. Born in 1978, he graduated from the Faculty of Engineering in 2002. His first novel, Amber Planet, was released in 2010 and won first prize in the Emerging Writers category of the Sawiris Cultural Award Competition in 2011. His second novel, Year of the Dragon, came out in 2012. Otared was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2016 (popularly referred to as the Arabic Booker). Curious to learn more, I sat down with Rabie (OK, I shot him an email) to speak with him about his writing.

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Adventure in a Ruined Future Paris: The Dominion of the Fallen Novels by Aliette de Bodard

Adventure in a Ruined Future Paris: The Dominion of the Fallen Novels by Aliette de Bodard

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The-House-of-Shattered-Wings-medium The House-of-Binding-Thorns-small

I met Aliette de Bodard at the Nebula Awards Weekend here in Chicago in 2015, and I was totally charmed. She is smart, self-deprecating, and very funny (and a very sharp dresser, as I recall). That was a few months before the debut of her major fantasy novel The House of Shattered Wings, which won the 2015 British Science Fiction Award, and which Tim Powers called “A Gothic masterpiece of supernatural intrigues, loves and betrayals in a ruined and decadent future Paris… this novel will haunt you long after you’ve put it down.” On her website, Aliette describes the books as:

A series of dark Gothic fantasies set in a turn-of-the-century Paris devastated by a magical war – featuring magicians, witches, alchemists, Fallen angels, and the odd Vietnamese ex-Immortal…

The second novel, The House of Binding Thorns, arrived in trade paperback from Ace last month, and it’s already winning wide acclaim. F&SF called it “dizzying and beautiful,” and the B&N Sci-Fi Blog called it “A truly grand story, brimming with action, heart, representation, and magic.”

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New Treasures: Deadmen Walking by Sherrilyn Kenyon

New Treasures: Deadmen Walking by Sherrilyn Kenyon

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Deadmen Walking-smallThis looks like fun… a novel of curses, demons, pirates, and a sentient ship on the Spanish Main from the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Dark-Hunter novels. Of course, it had me at pirates and curses, but the rest of it sounds pretty good too. It arrives in hardcover from Tor tomorrow, and is the opening volume of a promised series.

Hell hath no fury as a demon caged…

To catch evil, takes evil.

Enter Devyl Bane — an ancient warlord who has absolutely no love of humanity. Yet to return to the human realm as one of the most notorious pirates in the Spanish Main for the sake of vengeance, he makes a bitter bargain with Thorn — an immortal Hellchaser charged with battling the worst monsters the ancient gods ever released into our world. Monsters and demons Bane himself once commanded against Thorn and the humans.

For eons, those demons have been locked behind enchanted gates… which are starting to buckle. Now, Bane, with a vicious crew of Deadmen at his command, is humanity’s last hope to restore the gates and return the damned to their eternal prisons.

But things are never so simple. And one of his biggest vexations, aside from keeping his crew from killing each other before they have a chance to save humanity, is the very ship he sails upon. For Mara, the Sea Witch isn’t just a vessel, she’s also a woman born of an ancient race Bane helped to destroy. And sister to the possessed creature who is one of the worst of those trying to break through to claim his soul, and retake the world.

Mara’s innate hatred of him makes the very fires of hell look like a sauna — not that he blames her. Centuries of war and betrayal divide them. But if Mara can’t find the humanity inside the Devyl and the Devyl can’t teach Mara to embrace her darker side for the good of their crew and the world, the two of them will go down in flames and take us all with them.

Deadmen Walking will be published by Tor Books on May 9, 2017. It is 384 pages, priced at $27.99 in hardcover and $14.99 for the digital version. The cover is by Stephen Youll.

A Tale of Magical Apocalypse: The Ley Trilogy by Joshua Palmatier

A Tale of Magical Apocalypse: The Ley Trilogy by Joshua Palmatier

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Shattering the Ley-small Threading the Needle-small Reaping the Aurora-small

Joshua Palmatier’s Ley Trilogy is one of the more original fantasy series out there. Set in Erenthrall, a vast city of light and magic fueled by a ley line network, the series follows a sprawling cast of rebels, traders, assassins, guardsmen, and magic wielders through a series of shattering events that bring apocalyptic change to their world, including quakes, magical distortions, and creatures beyond nightmare. The first novel is available in paperback from DAW, and the second in hardcover; the final volume arrives this August.

Shattering the Ley (484 pages, $25.95 in hardcover/$9.99 paperback/$7.99 digital, July 1, 2014)
Threading the Needle (453 pages, $27 in hardcover/$13.99 digital, July 5, 2016)
Reaping the Aurora (464 pages, $26 in hardcover, August 1, 2017)

All three covers are by Stephan Martiniere. Here’s the description for the opening volume.

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Vintage Treasures: Where Time Winds Blow by Robert Holdstock

Vintage Treasures: Where Time Winds Blow by Robert Holdstock

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Where Time Winds Blow Holdstock-small Where Time Winds Blow Holdstock-back-small

Several bloggers at Black Gate have piqued my interest in Robert Holdstock recently. In his November review of his pseudonymous sword & sorcery novel Berserker: Shadow of the Wolf, Fletcher Vredenburgh wrote:

Holdstock’s vision of the Viking age is merciless and dread-filled. The Norse are vicious, murderous bandits, continuously killing and raping their way across Ireland. The Norse themselves live in fear of the gods, no wonder in the face of murderous Berserkers. Haunts and monsters lurk in every shadow, sneaking from behind one tree to another. Men live under curses and the constant fear of sudden violent death. Most often death is unfair and ignoble.

And in his March review of Mythago Wood and Lavondyss, Derek Kunsken wrote:

There are a few novels I will return two over and over… one truly haunting work is Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Wood and Lavondyss. The novels won the World Fantasy Award in 1985 and the BSFA Award in 1988 respectively… reading Holdstock is to viscerally experience layers of deep, Jungian time. The wood is haunted not by ghosts of the past per se; it is haunted by the ancient memories of ghosts that each person carries within them, all the legends, remembered in story and forgotten.

The running theme through both reviews is that Holdstock is a master of setting, and that seems borne out by my most recent discovery, the Timescape paperback Where Time Winds Blow. It’s a standalone SF novel set on a strange SF planet where reality is fluid, and subject to mysterious winds that scream across the surface. That definitely sounds like my kind of book. Where Time Winds Blow was published by Timescape / Pocket Books in May 1982. It is 262 pages, priced at $2.95. The cover is by Carl Lundgren. I bought the copy above online this week for $2.79.