[[[Hamer of Angels]]] by G.T. Almasi. (a novel of the Shadowstorm), Del Rey, $9.99, 336pp, pb, 9780440423560. Alternate history.
In G.T. Almasi’s thrilling alternate reality, the United States, the USSR, and the Republic of China share a fragile balance of power with Greater Germany, which emerged from World War II in control of Europe and half of the Middle East. To avoid nuclear Armageddon, the four superpowers use elite spies known as Levels, who are modified with mechanical and chemical enhancements.
Nineteen-year-old Alix Nico, code-named Scarlet, is a Level with killer Mods and an attitude to match. Her latest mission: go to Greater Germany to sow the seeds of anarchy and prevent Germany’s defection to Russia and China. But when things take an unexpected turn, she and her new partner Darwin must go even deeper into enemy territory. As Scarlet grapples with a troubling attraction to Darwin, explosive information comes to light about the German cloning program and one of its prisoners—a legendary American level who just happens to be her father.
[[[The Fall of Atlantis]]] by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Baen, $15.00, 452pp, tp, 9781476736297. Fantasy.
Powers of light and darkness vie for supremacy in a world of ancient splendor
A wounded Atlantean prince… a deadly battle between Dark and Light… and the sisters Deoris and Domaris, whose lives are changed utterly by the magic involving them. These are the elements of The Fall of Atlantis, Marion Zimmer Bradley’s epic fantasy about that ancient and legendary realm.
On one side stand the Priests of the White Robe, guardians of powerful natural forces which could threaten the world if misused. Ranged against them are the Black Robes, sorcerers who secretly practice their dark arts in the layrinthine caves beneath the very Temple of Light. Caught between are Domaris and Deoris, daughters of the Arch-priest Talkannon, trapped in a web of deadly sorcery—the same forbidden sorcery that could bring about:
The Fall of Atlantis
[[[A Darkling Sea]]] by James L. Cambias. Tor, $25.99, 352pp, hc, 9780765336279. Science fiction.
Tor Books is proud to publish A Darkling Sea by James L. Cambias. This adrenaline-pumping SF thriller follows the clash of three alien species at the bottom of a lightless ocean.
On the planet Ilmatar, under a roof of ice a kilometer thick, a group of deep-sea diving scientists investigate the blind alien race that lives below. The human explorers have made an uneasy truce with the Sholen, their first extraterrestrial contact: so long as they don’t disturb the native Ilmataran populace, they’re free to conduct their missions in peace. But when Henri Kerlerec, media personality and reckless adventurer, ends up sliced open by curious Ilmatarans, tensions between human and Sholen erupt, leading to a diplomatic disaster that threatens to escalate to war. Against the backdrop of deep-sea guerilla conflict, a new age of human exploration begins as alien cultures collide. Both sides seek the aid of the newly enlightened Ilmatarans. But what this struggle means for the natives—and the future of human exploration—is anything but certain.
Cambias does an impeccable job of realizing this extreme environment and all of the implications and complications it forces upon not only humans attempting to explore, but on imagined indigenous life. The Ilmatarans are a curious alien species unlike the vast majority of humanoid-creations littered throughout science fiction. Appearing vaguely like massive six-foot long lobsters, these intelligent and social creatures function in a world without light. While the humans at first believe them to be only barely capable of fashioning simple tools, the reader quickly realizes they exist within a complex society complete with its own class, governing, and judicial systems. The reader will delight in learning how such creatures have developed their civilization in an environment so different from our own.
This book is an exciting and loving return to the classic sci-fi trope of space exploration and alien encounters. Fans of Star Trek will delight in the respect given to the scientific method and attention to detail when imagining the potential consequences and realities of extra-terrestrial contact. With genuine characters (both human and otherwise) and action not overwrought by exaggeration, this is a clean, hard SF standalone novel that is sure to impress and entertain.
[[[Earth Awakens: The First Formic War ,Volume Three of the Formic Wars]]] by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston. Tor, $25.99, 400pp, hc, 9780765329066. Science fiction. On-sale date: June 2014.
Nearly 100 years before the events of Orson Scott Card’s bestselling novel Ender’s Game, humans were just beginning to step off earth and out into the Solar System. A thin web of ships in both asteroid belts; a few stations; a corporate settlement on Luna. No one had seen any sign of other space-faring races; everyone expected that First Contact, if it came, would happen in the future, in the empty reaches between the stars. Then a young navigator on a distant mining ship saw something moving too fast, heading directly for our sun.
When the alien ship screamed through the solar system, it disrupted communications between the far-flun human mining ships and supply stations, and between them and Earth. So Earth and Luna were unaware that they had been invaded until the ship pulled into Earth orbit, and began landing terraforming crews in China. Politics and pride slowed the response on Earth, and on Luna, corporate power struggles seemed more urgent than distant deaths. But there are a few men and women who see that if Earth doesn’t wake up and pull together, the planet could be lost.
[[[Peacemaker]]] by C.J. Cherryh. (a Foreigner novel), DAW, $25.95, 375pp, hc, 9780756408831. Fantasy.
Civil war on the world of the atevi is finally over. And Cajeiri, son and heir to Tabini-aiji, atevi leader of the dominant Western Association, is about to celebrate his fortunate ninth birthdya. Bren Cameron, brilliant human diplomat allied with Tabini, has managed to arrange a visit for Cajeiri’s three special associates from the starship Phoenix—ordinary human children who developed a bond with Cajeiri during his two years in space.
After a year of political upheaval, this is a happy event: the heir is safe, the aiji is back in power, and a massive celebration is planned in the capital. the whole world is watching.
The human children, now on land for the first time in their lives, are entranced. There is weather, and trees, and alien creatures with minds of their own, and their important host is quite pleased. This is what Cajeiri has dreamed of.
But Bren Cameron has received evidence that security has been severely compromised from the aiji’s high office on downward. The powerful Assassins’ Guild—which provides the judicial system, law enforcement, and personal protection in atevi society—is in the hands of a man who would like to turn the entire world back two centuries. This man is hostile to humans and hostile to the current human-friendly and technology-friendly administration. He resides in the heart of the Assassins’ Guild Headquarters—the most closely guarded fortress in the atevi world.
Bren now knows the details of a decades-old plot that’s been threaded through Guild actions since before his arrival on the continent. The enemy’s best chance is to strike now, at the public celebration that is much too important and far too advanced to cancel.
Bren and his associates have no choice. If they don’t make the first move, the other side will. And the lives of the heir, his innocent human guests, and the entire ruling family are at stake.
[[[Protector]]] by C.J. Cherryh. (A Foreigner novel), DAW, $7.99, 372pp, pb, 9780756408534. Fantasy.
It’s coming up on Cajeiri’s birthday. The boy has been promised he can have the young human children he knew from his voyage sent down from the space station for a two week stay.
But there’s a far darker business going on in the background—a major split compromising the Assassins’ Guild, which furnishes security and law enforcement to the whole continent. Tabini’s consort’s own father has been barred from court, and may be involved in a new conspiracy against him.
For safety reasons, Tabini wants Bren and Ilisidi to take charge of Cajeiri, and protect him and his young guests. They themselves are very likely targets of whatever’s going on, no question of it. So is Cajeiri. But having the targets separated and contained is an advantage.
It’s Bren’s responsibility to entertain the guests, keep the security problem secret… and let a lonely eight-year-old prince reestablish his controversial relationship with the only other children he’s ever met… inside the best security they can manage.
[[[Strange Country]]] by Deborah Coates. Tor, $26.99, 336pp, hc, 9780765329028. Fantasy. On-sale date: 27 May 2014.
Strange Country by Deborah Coates is the final book in a haunting supernatural murder mystery trilogy set in the vast rural backroads and byways of the American Midwest, a setting and way of life that is rarely explored in contemporary and urban fantasy.
After facing Death himself and banishing a reaper bent on the destruction of Sheriff’s deputy Boyd Davies, Hallie had hoped things would finally settle down; that she and Boyd would find more time to spend together, that ghosts would stay in cemeteries where they belong.
But hopes are so easily dashed.
On a wintry night in mid-December, someone shoots and kills a woman with a high-powered rifle. Not long after, another of West Prairie City’s citizens is killed in exactly the same way, drawing the attention of federal investigators. But the connection between the victims is not easy to uncover.…
Meanwhile, Hallie Michaels finds a note pinned to her front porch. “What do you fear most?” it asks, accompanied by a set of map coordinates. Over the next few days she receives an anonymous phone call, an unsigned letter left for her at the local ag supply, and finally a note stuck to her kitchen table with a carving knife, all asking the same question and with the same set of coordinates. The mysteries are piling up, and time is short… Will Hallie be able to get to the bottom of this, before the body count rises again?
[[[Liberty: 1784]]] by Robert Conroy. Baen, $25.00, 357pp, hc, 9781476736273. Alternate history.
The second war for American independence
In 1781, George Washington’s attempt to trap the British forces under Cornwallis at Yorktown ends catastrophically when the French fleet is destroyed in the Battle of the Capes. The revolution collapses, and the British begin a bloody reign of terror.
A group of rebels flees westward and sets up a colony near what is now Chicago. They call it Liberty. The British, looking to finish what they started, send a very large force under Burgoyne to destroy them. Burgoyne is desperate for redemption and the Americans are equally desperate to survive.
Had the Battle of the Capes gone differently, a changed, darker, New World would have been forced into existence. But even under those dire circumstances, Liberty—and liberty—may still find a way.
[[[Working God’s Mischief]]] by Glen Cook. (Book Four of The Instrumentalities of the Night), Tor, $27.99, 432pp, hc, 9780765334206. Fantasy.
Glen Cook, the author of the influential and acclaimed Black Company series, has made a welcome return to the fantasy world with Working God’s Mischief, the fourth installment in The Instrumentalities of the Night, a series that began with The Tyranny of the Night, Lord of the Silent Kingdom< and Surrender to the Will of the Night.
The series follows the tradition of the best of the Black Company books, bringing a level of gritty realism to military fantasy unlike any other. Working God’s Mischief is a powerful new novel set in a Holy Land, where the troubles of a young warrior continue to deepen, where rulers have fallen, and where The Night has lost Kharoulke the Windwalker, an emperor amongst the most primal and terrible gods. The Night goes on, in dread. The world goes on, in dread. The ice builds and slides southward.
But there is something new under the sun. The oldest and fiercest of the Instrumentalities has been destroyed—by a mortal. There is no new Windwalker, nor will there ever be. The world, battered by savage change, limps toward its destiny.
[[[Star Wars: Honor Among Thieves]]] by James S.A. Corey. Ballantine/LucasBooks, $25.00, 264pp, hc, 9780345546852. Science fiction/tie-in.
James S.A. Corey, author of the Nebula and Hugo Award-nominated Leviathan Wakes, makes a thrilling Star Wars debut in Star Wars: Honor Among Thieves, a brand-new, action-packed adventure featuring Han Solo, Princess Leia Organa, and Luke Skywalker.
The action begins after the destruction of the Death Star in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. When a rebel spy needs extraction from under the nose of the Empire, who better to send than master smuggler, Han Solo? After all, for a guy who broke into an Imperial cell block and helped destroy the Death Star, the assignment sounds simple enough.
But rescuing a friendly spy is just the start of a wild adventure. When Han locates the brash rebel agent, Scarlet Hark, she’s determined to stay behind enemy lines. A pirate plans to sell a cache of stolen secrets that the Empire would destroy entire worlds to protect. Scarlet wants to track down the thief and steal the bounty herself, and Han has no choice but to go along if he’s to keep everyone involved from getting themselves killed. From teeming city streets to a lethal jungle to a trap-filled alien temple, Han, Chewbacca, Leia, and their daring new comrade confront one ambush, double cross, and firestorm after another as they try to keep crucial intelligence out of Imperial hands.
But even with the support of Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing squadron, the Alliance heroes may be hopelessly outgunned in their final battle for the highest of stakes: the power to liberate the galaxy from tyranny or ensure the Empire’s reign of darkness forever.
[[[The Severed Streets]]] by Paul Cornell. Tor, $26.99, 416pp, hc, 9780765330284. Fantasy. On-sale date: 20 May 2014.
The suspenseful follow-up to Paul Cornell’s London Falling, The Severed Streets finds Detective Inspector Quill desperate to find a case to justify his team’s existence within London’s Metropolitan Police, with budget cuts and a police strike on the horizon. Quill thinks he’s struck gold when a cabinet minister is murdered by an assailant who wasn’t seen getting in or out of his limo. A second murder, that of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, presents a crime scene with a message… identical to that left by the original Jack the Ripper.
The new Ripper seems to have changed the MO of the old completely: he’s only killing rich white men. The inquiry into just what this supernatural menace is takes Quill and his team into the corridors of power at Whitehall, to meeting with MI5, or ‘the funny people’ as the Met call them, and into the London occult underworld. They go undercover to a pub with a regular evening that caters to that clientele, and to an auction of objects of power at the Tate Modern.
Meanwhile, the Ripper keeps on killing and finally the pattern of those killings gives Quill’s team clues towards who’s really doing this.…
[[[The Troop]]] by Nick Cutter. Gallery, $26.00, 358pp, hc, 9781476717715. Horror.
A novel of terror that’s Lord of the Flies meets The Ruins, The Troop
Once every year, Scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for a weekend camping trip—a tradition as comforting and reliable as a good ghost story around a roaring bonfire.
There’s Kent, one of the most popular boys at school; Ephraim and Max, also well-liked and easygoing; then there’s Newt the nerd and Shelley the odd duck. For the most part, they all get along and are happy to be there—which makes Scoutmaster Tim’s job a little easier. But for some reason, he can’t shake the feeling that something strange is in the air this year. Something waiting in the darkness. Something wicked…
It comes to them in the night. An unexpected intruder, stumbling upon their campsite like a wild animal. He is shockingly thin, disturbingly pale, and voraciously hungry—a man in unspeakable torment who exposes Tim and the boys to something far more frightening than any ghost story. Within his body is a bioengineered nightmare, a horror that spreads faster than fear. One by one, the boys will do things no person could ever imagine.
And so it begins. An agonizing weekend in the wilderness. A harrowing struggle for survival. No possible escape from the elements, the infected… or one another.
The Troop is a tightly written, edge-of-your-seat thriller, taking the reader into the heart of darkness, where fear feeds on sanity… and terror hungers for more.
[[[Lovecraft’s Monsters]]] edited by Ellen Datlow. Tachyon, $16.95, 384pp, tp, 9781616961213. Horror anthology. On-sale date: 15 April 2014.
A gorgeously illustrated bestiary of H.P. Lovecraft’s most frightening creations
Prepare to meet the wicked progeny of the master of modern horror. In Lovecraft’s Monsters, H.P. Lovecraft’s most famous creations appear in all their terrifying glory. Each tale is a gripping new take on a classic Lovecraftian creature, and each is accompanied by an original illustration that captures the monster’s unique visage. From the tentacled Cthulhu who lurks beneath the sea to the Deep Ones who come to shore to breed with mortal men, these fiends are the nightmarish fuel for generations of horror writers.
Legions of Lovecraft fans continue to visit his bizarre landscapes and encounter his unrelenting monsters. Now join them in their journey… if you dare.
[Contributors: Stefan Dziemianowicz, Ellen Datlow, Neil Gaiman, Laird Barron, Nadia Bulkin, Brian Hodge, Kim Newman, William Browning Spencer, Elizabeth Bear, Fred Chappell, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Thomas Ligotti, Gemma Files, Howard Waldrop & Steven Utley, Steve Rasnic Tem, Karl Edward Wagner, Joe R. Lansdale, Nick Mamatas, and John Langan.]
[[[Child of a Hidden Sea]]] by A.M. Dellamonica. Tor, $25.99, 336pp, hc, 9780765334497. Fantasy. On-sale date: 24 June 2014.
One minute, twenty-four-year-old Sophie Hansa is in a San Francisco alley trying to save the life of the aunt she has never known. The next, she finds herself flung into the warm and salty waters of an unfamiliar world. Glowing moths fall to the waves around her, and the sleek bodies of unseen fish glide against her submerged ankles.
In Child of a Hidden Sea, Sophie discovers the magical world of Stormwrack, a series of island nations with a variety of cultures and economies—and a language different from any she has heard.
Sophie doesn’t know it yet, but she has just stepped into the middle of a political firestorm, and a conspiracy that could destroy a world she has just discovered… her world, where everyone seems to know who she is, and where she is forbidden to stay.
But Sophie is stubborn, and smart, and refuses to be cast adrift by people who don’t know her and yet wish her gone. With the help of a sister she has never known, and a ship captain who would rather she had never arrived, she must navigate the shoals of the highly charged politics of Stormwrack, and win the right to decide for herself whether she stays in this wondrous world… or is doomed to exile.
[[[The Waking Engine]]] by David Edison. Tor, $25.99, 400pp, hc, 9780765334862. Fantasy.
Tor Books is pleased to announce this stunning and richly imaginative debut by a major new talent—The Waking Engine—by David Edison.
The City Unspoken, beautiful, mysterious, and evocative, is full of the stuff that dreams and nightmares are made of as travelers weary of the many lives they’ve lived and seek the gateway to a final and True Death.
Those who die merely awake as themselves on one of a million worlds, where they are fated to live until they die again, and wake up somewhere new. All are born only once, but die many times… until they come at last to the City Unspoken, where the gateway to True Death can be found.
Wayfarers and pilgrims are drawn to the City, which is home to murderous aristocrats, disguised gods and goddesses, a sadistic faerie princess, immortal prostitutes and queens, a captive angel,, gangs of feral Death Boys and Charnel Girls… and one very confused New Yorker.
Late of Manhattan, Cooper finds himself in a city that is not what it once was. The gateway to True Death is failing, so that the City is becoming overrun by the Dying, who clot its byzantine streets and alleys… and a spreading madness threatens to engulf the entire metaverse.
[[[Fire With Fire]]] by Charles E. Gannon. Baen, $7.99, 625pp, pb, 9781476736327. Science fiction.
The only way to fight…
2105, September: Intelligence analyst Caine Riordan uncovers a conspiracy on Earth’s Moon—a history-making clandestine project—and ends up involuntarily cryocelled for his troubles. Twelve years later, Riordan awakens to a changed world. Humanity has achieved faster-than-light travel and is pioneering nearby star systems. And now Riordan is compelled to become an inadvertent agent of conspiracy himself. Riordan’s mission: travel to a newly settled world and investigate whether a primitive local species was once sentient—enough so to have built a lost civilization.
However, arriving on site in the Delta Pavonis system, Caine discovers that the job he’s been given is anything but secret or safe. With assassins and saboteurs dogging his every step, it’s clear that someone doesn’t want his mission to succeed. Riordan must now convince the powers-that-be that the only way for humanity to survive as a free species is to face the perils directly—and to fight fire with fire.
[[[The Undead Pool]]] by Kim Harrison. Harper Voyager, $27.99, 423pp, hc, 9780061957932. Fantasy.
The Undead Pool, the next-to-last novel in New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison’s “The Hollows” urban fantasy series, shines the spotlight on the urban fantasy genre’s most demonically popular heroine, the bewitching Rachel Morgan.
Rachel is quite known for unleashing hell on Earth; or at least, wreaking havoc on the Ever After. But something is seriously amiss in The Hollows and Cincinnati, and Rachel swears it has nothing to do with her own demonically enhanced magic. But, it does seem to stem from her ley line. So, what is causing this strange magic? Spells are backfiring or going horribly wrong, the undead are revolting, and the Human-Inderland truce is crumbling. On top of all of this, all the master vampires seem to be dead asleep, and a “Free Vampire” insurrection is on the rise, led by a living vampire who bears an uncanny resemblance to Rachel’s deceased lover.
Goddess only knows what to do in a situation like this! Actually, even she’s stumped, since it seems that figments of the eves’ primary deity’s power are escaping and are being used for nefarious purposes. So, it’s up to Rachel to harness wild elven magic before the city—and the country—break into full-out supernatural war. But this magic comes at a high price, and no one knows better than Rachel that no good deed ever goes unpunished.
The Undead Pool has all the hallmarks of a legendary urban fantasy, with action, suspense, a strong thread of mystery, and plenty of magic. And romance. Rachel finally meets her match, and embraces a very perilous chance at love. We hope you will go absolutely crazy for this book… because we’re approaching lucky number 13, the final book in the series, and Kim Harrison has never been more at the top of her game.
[[[Motherless Child]]] by Glen Hirschberg. Tor, $24.99, 272pp, hc, 9780765337450. Horror. On-sale date: 13 May 2014.
This May, Tor Books is proud to publish Motherless Child by award-winning author Glen Hirschberg. Readers are invited to experience this compelling, heartbreaking thriller.
It’s the thrill of a lifetime when Sophie and Natalie, single mothers living in a trailer park in North Carolina, meet their idol, the mysterious musician known only as “the Whistler.” Morning finds them covered with dried blood, their clothing shredded and their memories hazy. Things soon become horrifyingly clear: the Whistler is a vampire and Natalie and Sophie are his latest victims. The young women leave their babies with Natalie’s mother and hit the road, determined not to give in to their unnatural desires.
Hunger and desire make a powerful couple. So do the Whistler and his Mother, who are searching for Sophie and Natalie with the help of Twitter and the musician’s many fans. The violent, emotionally moving showdown between two who should be victims and two who should be monsters will leave readers gasping in fear and delight.
Originally published by a small press that sold out a limited run before its publication date, Motherless Child is an extraordinary Southern horror novel that Tor Books is proud to bring to a wider audience.
[[[Marked]]] by Alex Hughes. Roc, $7.99, 340pp, pb, 9780451466938. Science fiction.
Foresee no evil.
Freelancing for the Atlanta PD isn’t exactly a secure career; my job’s been on the line almost as much as my life. But it’s a paycheck, and it keeps me from falling back into the drug habit. Plus, things are looking up with my sometimes partner, Cherabino, even if she is still simmering over the telepathic Link I created by acident.
When my ex, Kara, shows up begging for my help, I find myself heading to the last place I never expected to set foot in again—Guild headquarters—to investigate the death of her uncle. Joining that group was a bad idea the first time. Going back when I’m unwanted is downright dangerous.
Luckily, the Guild needs me more than they’re willing to admit. Kara’s uncle was acting strange before he died—crazy strange. In fact, his madness seems to be slowly spreading through the Guild. And when an army of powerful telepaths loses their marbles, suddenly it’s a game of life or death.…
[[[The King Arthur Trilogy, Book 3: The Bloody Cup]]] by M.K. Hume. Atria, $16.00, 496pp, tp, 9781476715223. Fantasy.
Celtic Britain is on the brink of collapse, and the kingdom’s bloodiest days are upon it. For many years, the people of Briton have enjoyed peace and prosperity under the reign of King Arthur. He has ruled with dignity, honor, and humility.
Arthur is now weakening with age, however, and the seeds of discontent are being sown.
Seeking to cleanse the land of Christian belief, dissenters need a symbol with which to legitimize their pagan claim and gather malcontents together into a cohesive weapon. They seize upon the ancient cup of Bishop Lucius of Glastonbury as a way of fragmenting Arthur’s hard-earned kingdom.
Soon it emerges that the ultimate threat to Arthur’s rule lies far closer to home; he is betrayed by his own kin. Celt will slay Celt and the river will run with blood. Will all be lost, or can King Arthur conquer the mounting forces before it’s too late?
[[[Memory of Water]]] by Emmi Itaranta. Harper Voyager, $14.99, 272pp, tp, 9780062326157. Science fiction. On-sale date: June 2014.
Emmi Itaranta’s debut novel, The Memory of Water, won the Teos Publishing science fiction writing competition in the author’s native Finland. Set in a future Europe taken over by China, it tells the story of a young woman learning to be a tea master in a dry world where the tea masters possess secret knowledge of hidden water reserves.
Breathtaking in scope, written in lyrical prose, the novel was simultaneously written in Finnish and English by Emmi Itaranta, while she was working towards her MA in Creative Writing from the University of Kent, UK. Memory of Water features a young heroine struggling with a difficult legacy, coming to terms with the dangerous reality that too much knowledge brings power… and vulnerability.
Global warming has changed the world’s geography and its politics. Wars are waged over water, and China rules Europe, including the Scandinavian Union, which is occupied by the power state of New Qian. In this far north place, seventeen-year-old Noria Kaitio is learning to become a tea master like her father, a position that holds great responsibility and great secrets. Tea masters alone know the location of hidden water sources, including the natural spring that Noria’s father tends, which once provided water for her whole village. But secrets do not stay hidden forever, and after her father’s death the army starts watching their town—and Noria. And as water becomes even scarcer, Noria must choose between safety and striking out, between knowledge and kinship. Imaginative and engaging, lyrical and poignant, Memory of Water is an indelible novel that portrays a future that is all too possible.
[[[Necessity’s Child]]] by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. Baen, $7.99, 436pp, pb, 9781476736310. Science fiction.
Dreams are the soul’s necessity
The kompani sees none as enemy, and few as friend. It exists in many places, living quietly in the shadows, thriving off the bounty that others have no wit to secure, nor skill to defend. Their private history is unwritten; their recall rooted in dance and dream.
Clan Korval is wealthy in enemies; fortunate in friends. They protect themselves with vigor, and have taught even their youngest children the arts of war. They arrive on the planet Surebleak, where the kompani has lived secret and aloof, borne, it seems, by the very winds of change.
Change is often a boon to the kompani, for in change lies opportunity. But the arrival of Clan Korval, upon the planet Surebleak, with its friends, its enemies, and, most of all, its plans may bring catastrophe, changing the world’s culture, and the kompani forever.
In this time of change, the lives of three people intersect—Kezzi, apprentice to the kompani’s grandmother; Syl Vor, Clan Korval’s youngest warrior; and Rys, a man without a world, or a past.
[[[The Detainee]]] by Peter Liney. Jo Fletcher/Quercus, $26.99, 352pp, hc, 9781623651084. Science fiction.
In his debut novel, The Detainee, Liney has created a disturbingly plausible dystopian world in which the state has gone bust and ccan no longer support its weakest members.
The Island means the end of all hope for those whom society has deemed expendable. This isn’t a punishment island only for criminals; the elderly, sick and the poor have also been deemed no longer fit for society and are the scapegoats for the collapse of life as we know it. There’s no point in trying to escape, for the satellites—the invisible eyes of the law—mete out instant judgment from the sky. And that’s just the beginning, for there are things worse than the satellites on the Island.
When the fog comes down and the drums signaling the hunt start to beat, the inhabitants of the Island tremble: for the punishment satellites—which also keep the tyrannical Wastelords at bay—are blind in the darkness, and the islanders become prey to the demons hiding in the shadows.
The Island is sure death—until “Big Guy” Clancy finds a blind woman living in a secret underground warren and discovers a reason to live. In an almost Clint Eastwood-esque fashion, Clancy proves that old age doesn’t mean a loss of vitality—quite the contrary. Although Clancy, the unlikely hero, is no longer a young man, his age and experience give him the tools for survival in one of the harshest of worlds.
Liney plays on our fears of what could happen if the world suffers another great global collapse like the one we have already been living through—a collapse so catastrophic that there is no telling who will be expendable…
[[[Bird Box]]] by Josh Malerman. Ecco, $25.99, 272pp, hc, 9780062259653. Fiction. On-sale date: May 2014.
This summer Ecco is thrilled to be publishing Josh Malerman’s debut novel, Bird Box. Written with the narrative tension of The Road and the exquisite terror of classic Stephen King, Bird Box is a propulsive, edge-of-your-seat thriller, set in an apocalyptic near-future world. This spine-tingling story opens with a woman and her two small children making their way down a river in a rowboat, blindfolded. What or who they are running from, where they are running to, and why they can’t open their eyes, frame and propel this breathtaking debut. “This completely compelling novel contains a thousand subtle touches but no mere flourishes—it is so well, so efficiently, so directly written I read it with real admiration,” said Peter Straub. “Josh Malerman does the job like a fast-talking, wised-up angel.”
Something is out there… something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from. When the world began to unravel, Malorie joined a motley group of strangers who banded together against the unseen terror in an effort to create order from the chaos. But when supplies ran low, they were forced to venture outside—and confront the ultimate question: in a world gone mad, who can really be trusted?
Five years later, a handful of scattered survivors remain, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. But the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat—blindfolded—with nothing to rely on but her instincts and the children’s trained ears. With the threat of someone, or something, following the, one wrong move could lead to a grisly death.
[[[Empress of the Sun]]] by Ian McDonald. (Book Three of the Everness Series), Pyr, $17.99, 288pp, hc, 9781616148652.
The airshop Everness makes a Heisenberg Jump to an alternate Earth unlike any her crew has ever seen. Everett, Sen, and the crew find themselves above a plain that goes on forever in every direction without any horizon. There they find an Alderson Disc, an astronomical megastructure of incredibly strong material reaching form the orbit of Mercury to the orbit of Jupiter.
Then they meet the Jiju, the dominant species on a plane where the dinosaurs didn’t die out. They evolved, diversified, and have a twenty-five million year technology head-start on humanity. War between their kingdoms is inevitable, total and terrible.
Everness has jumped right into the midst of a faction fight between rival nations, the Fabreen and Dityu empires. The airship is attacked, but then defended by the forces of the Fabreen, who offers the Everness crew protection. But what is the true motive behind Empress Aswiu’s aid? What is her price? The crew of the Everness is divided in a very alien world, a world fast approaching the point of apocalypse.
[[[The Quick]]] by Lauren Owen. Random House, $27.00, 530pp, hc, 9780812993271. Fiction. On-sale date: 17 June 2014.
London, 1892: James Norbury, a shy would-be poet newly down from Oxford, finds lodging with a charming young aristocrat. Through this new friendship, he is introduced to the drawing-room of high society and finds love in an unexpected quarter. Then, suddenly, he vanishes without a trace. Unnerved, his sister, Charlotte, sets out from their crumbling country estate determined to find him. In the sinister, labyrinthine city that greets her, she uncovers a secret world at the margins populated by unforgettable characters: a female rope walker turned vigilante, a street urchin with a deadly secret, and the chilling “Doctor Knife.” But the answer to her brother’s disappearance ultimately lies within the doors of one of the country’s preeminent and mysterious institutions: The Aegolius Club, whose members include the most ambitious, and most dangerous, men in England.
In her first novel, Lauren Owen has created a fantastical world that is both beguiling and terrifying. The Quick will establish her as one of fiction’s most dazzling talents.
[[[ACID]]] by Emma Pass. Delacorte, $17.99, 384pp, hc, 9780385743877.
Welcome to the world of Emma Pass’s ACID, an acronym for the Agency for Crime Investigation and Defense. Like George Orwell did in 1984, Emma Pass takes readers into a sinister future where authorities blame young people for society’s ills.
The year is 2113. In Jenna Strong’s world, ACID—the most brutal controlling police force in history—rule supreme. The agency monitors everyone’s movements, controls food consumption and where people work and live, and even forces them into early marriages with predetermined partners.
No throwaway comment or whispered dissent goes unnoticed, or unpunished. And it was ACID agents who locked Jenna away for life, for a horrendous crime she struggles to remember. But Jenna’s violent prison time has taught her how to survive by any means necessary. When a mysterious rebel group breaks her out, Jena must use her strength, speed, and skill to stay one step ahead of ACID and try to uncover the truth about what really happened on that terrible night two years ago. They have taken her life, her freedom, and her true memories away from her. How can she reclaim anything when she doesn’t know who to trust?
[[[Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century, Volume 2: 1948-1988: The Man Who Learned Better]]] by William H. Patterson. Tor, $34.99, 624pp, hc, 9780765319616. Non-fiction. On-sale date: 3 June 2014.
Robert A. Heinlein is the culmination of the only comprehensive account of one of the most important authors to contribute and influence the genre of Science Fiction.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) is generally considered the greatest American Science Fiction writer of the twentieth century. His most famous and widely influential works include the Future History series (stories and novels collected in The Past Through Tomorrow and continued in later novels), Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress—all published in the years covered by this volume. He was a friend of admirals, bestselling writers, and artists; became committed to defending the United States during the Cold War; and was on the advisory committee that helped Ronald Reagan create the Star Wars Strategic Defense Initiative in the 1980s.
Heinlein was also devoted to space flight and humanity’s future in space, and he was a commanding presence to all around him in his lifetime. Given his desire for privacy in the later decades of his life, the revelations in this biography make for riveting reading.
[[[The Given]]] by Vicki Pettersson. Harper Voyager, $14.99, 368pp, tp, 9780062066206. Supernatural noir mystery. On-sale date: May 2014.
New York Times bestselling author Vicki Pettersson continues her breakout new supernatural noir mystery series as a fallen angel and a reporter team up to stop a drug cartel.
New York Times bestselling author Vicki Pettersson follows up The Taken and The Lost, the first two books in a new supernatural noir mystery series as a fallen angel and a reporter team up.
After learning his wife survived the attack that killed him fifty years earlier, angel/PI Griffin Shaw is determined to find Evelyn Shaw, no matter the cost. Yet his obsession comes at a price. Grif has had to give up his burgeoning love for reporter Katherine “Kit” Craig, the woman who made life worth living again, and dedicate himself to finding one he no longer knows.
Yet when Grifis attacked again, it becomes clear that there are forces in both the mortal and heavenly realm who’d rather see him dead than unearth the well-buried secrets of his past. If he’s to survive his second go-round on the Surface, Grif will have to convince Kit to reunite with him professionally, and help uncover decades of police corruption, risking both their lives… and testing the limits to what one angel is really willing to give for love.
[[[Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea]]] by Adam Roberts, illustrated by Mahendra Singh. Gollancz, £16.99, 306pp, hc, 9780575134423. Science fiction.
A unique literary response to Jules Verne’s seminal tale
A wonderful collaboration between multi award-winning author, Adam Roberts, and talented illustrator Mahendra Singh, Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea revisits Jules Verne’s classic science-fiction novel.
It is 1958 and France’s first nuclear submarine, Plongeur, leaves port for the first of its sea trials. On board, gathered together for the first time, one of the navy’s most experienced captains and a tiny skeleton crew of sailors, engineers and scientists.
The Plongeur makes her first dive and goes down, and down and down… Out of control, the submarine plummets to a depth where the pressure will crush her hull, killing everyone on board.
The pressure builds, the hull protests, the crew prepare for death, the boat reaches the bottom of the sea and finds… nothing.
They have gone miles down. Hundreds of miles, thousands… On board the crew succumbs to madness, betrayal, religious mania and murder. Has the Plongeur left the limits of our world and gone elsewhere?
Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea contains 33 full page pen and ink illustrations from acclaimed artist Mahendra Singh, who previously illustrated an edition of The Hunting Snark.
[[[Words of Radiance]]] by Brandon Sanderson. (Book Two of The Stormlight Archive), Tor, $28.99, 1088pp, hc, 9780765326362. Fantasy.
Tor Books is excited to announce the publication of Brandon Sanderson’s Words of Radiance, book two and follow-up to The Way of Kings in “The Stormlight Archive” series.
Having met the challenge of a posthumous collaboration with the great Robert Jordan to complete his classic, bestselling fantasy series The Wheel of Time with three #1 New York Times bestsellers in a row, Brandon Sanderson is at last free to return to the decade-spanning task of creating his own multi-volume epic, one that he hopes will make a comparable mark on the field. That epic is The Stormlight Archive and it began in 2010 with Tor’s longest, most elaborately embellished novel ever, The Way of Kings.
In that first volume, we were introduced to the remarkable world of Roshar, a world both alien and magical, where gigantic hurricane-like storms scour the surface every few days and life has adapted accordingly. Roshar is shared by humans and the enigmatic, humanoid Parshendi, with whom they are at war. Among those caught up in the conflict are Brightlord Dalinar Khloin, who leads the human armies; his sister Jasnah, a renowned scholar; her student Shallan, a brilliant but troubled young woman; and Kaladin, a military slave who, by the book’s end, had become the first magically endowed Knight Radiant in centuries.
In Words of Radiance their intertwined stories will continue and, as Sanderson fans have come to expect, develop in unexpected, wonderfully surprising directions. The war with the Parshendi will move into a new, dangerous phase, as Dalinar leads the human armies deep into the heart of the Shattered Plains in a bold attempt to finally end it. Shallan will come along, hoping to find the legendary, perhaps mythical, city of Urithiru, which Jasnah believes holds a secret vital to mankind’s survival on Roshar. the Parshendi take a dangerous step to strengthen themselves for the human challenge, risking the return of the fearsome Voidbringers of old. To deal with it all, Kaladin must learn how to fulfill his new role as leader of the restored Knights Radiant, while mastering the powers of a Windrunner.
With this second book, the Stormlight Archive grows even more richly immersive and compelling, Sanderson’s fans, old and new, are likely to lift it at least as high on the bestseller lists as its predecessor.
[[[Fairs’ Point]]] by Melissa Scott. Lethe, $18.00, 244pp, tp, 9781590211885. Fantasy.
During Dog Moon, the chief entertainment in the great city of Astreiant, for nobles and commons alike, is the basket-terrier races at New Fair. This year, with spectacularly bad timing, the massive and suspicious bankruptcy of a young nobleman has convulsed the city, leading to suicides, widespread loss of employment, and inconvenient new laws around the universal practice of betting on the races. As well, a rash of mysterious burglaries seems to suggest a magistical conspiracy.
Pointsman Nicolas Rathe is naturally in the midst of all these disturbances—as is his lover, foreign former mercenary Philip Eslingen. When Eslingen receives a basket-terrier puppy in the redistributions of the bankrupt’s household goods, he makes the best of it by having the pup trained for the races, an action that draws him and Rathe deeper into the coils of a mystery somehow involving New Fair’s dog races, bookies and bettors, the bankruptcy and its causes and fallout, burglaries, and a new uncanny form of murder.
Fourth in the Astreiant series, Fairs’ Point once again demonstrates Melissa Scott’s mastery of fantasy world building, detective-story plotting, and the provision of sheer delight.
[[[Rebellion]]] by Ken Shufeldt. Tor, $7.99, 464pp, pb, 9780765370716. Fiction. On-sale date: June 2014.
Bailouts and ambitious plans for recovery have failed to rescue the United States’ crumbling economy. As the country stands on the brink of total economic collapse, the president takes a desperate gamble and strikes a bargain with China to write off America’s debt. It seems a brilliant move—until the Supreme Court is destroyed by a cruise missile in a shocking attack, and Manhattan is invaded. China has come to claim what’s theirs.
With American captives executed daily in national broadcasts by the attackers, the government in disarray, and U.S. military forces scattered into local militias, all seems lost.
But deep in the heart of Texas, the American spirit lives on. John David Drury, a young, untried, but highly qualified “four-star general” of a scrappy militia, along with Molly Spitz, a highly ranked graduate of the Air Force Academy, prepares to lead a strike against New York City.
As in 1776, American’s fate once again hinges on rebellion.
[[[The Barrow]]] by Mark Smylie. Pyr, $18.00, 605pp, tp, 9781616148911.
To find the Sword, unearth the Barrow.
To unearth the Barrow, follow the Map.
When a small crew of scoundrels, would-be heroes, deviants, and ruffians, discover a map that they believe will lead them to a fabled sword buried in the barrow of a long-dead wizard, they think they’ve struck it rich. But their hopes are dashed when the map turns out to be cursed and then is destroyed in a magical ritual. The loss of the map leaves them dreaming of what might have been, until they rediscover the map in a most unusual and unexpected place.
Stjepan Black-Heart, suspected murderer and renegade royal cartographer; Erim, a young woman masquerading as a man; Gilgwyr, brothel owner extraordinaire; Leigh, an exiled magus under an ignominious cloud; Goewyn Red-Hand, mercenary and troublemaker; Arduin Orwain, scion of a noble family brought low by scandal; and Arduin’s sister Annwyn, the beautiful cause of that scandal: together they form a cross section of the Middle Kingdoms of the Known World, united by accident and dark design, on a quest that will either get them all in the history books… or get them all killed.
[[[Blood and Iron]]] by Jon Sprunk. (The Book of the Black Earth, Part One), Pyr, $18.00, 424pp, tp, 9781616148935. Fantasy.
It starts with a shipwreck following a magical storm at sea. Horace, a soldier from the west, had joined the Great Crusade against the heathens of Akeshia after the deaths of his wife and son from plague. When he washes ashore, he finds himself at the mercy of the very people he was sent to kill, who speak a language and have a culture and customs he doesn’t even begin to understand.
Not long after, Horace is pressed into service as a house slave. But this doesn’t last. The Akeshians discover that Horace was a latent sorcerer, and he is catapulted from the chains of a slave to the halls of power in the queen’s court. Together with Jirom, an ex-mercenary and gladiator, and Alyra, a spy in the court, he will seek a path to free himself and the empire’s caste of slaves from a system where every man and woman must pay the price of blood or iron. Before the end, Horace will have paid dearly in both.
[[[Hope Rearmed]]] by S.M. Stirling and David Drake. (The General series), Baen, $14.00, 535pp, tp, 9781476736303. Science fiction.
After the collapse of the galactic Web, civilization crumbled and chaos reigned on thousands of planets. Only on planet Bellevue was there a difference. There, a Fleet Battle Computer named Center had survived from the old civilization. When it found raj Whitehall, the man who could execute its plan for reviving human civilization, he and Center started Bellevue back on the road leading to the stars.
Now, Raj Whitehall has come close to reuniting the entire planet of Bellevue. Because of his victories and because of the way he won them, Raj is loved by the people and his army would follow him to Hell. Even those closest to him, his band of sworn companions and his wickedly subtle but utterly loyal wife, hold him in awe.
And that’s the problem. For though Raj battles only in the name of his emperor and has proven his loyalty again and again, still the Emperor Clerett, half-mad with jealousy and fear, is about to give Raj no choice but to revolt or face death and the loss of all he has gained for Bellevue.
The third and fourth novels in the popular General series—The Anvil and The Steel—together in one volume.
[[[What Makes This Book So Great]]] by Jo Walton. Tor, $26.99, 448pp, 9780765331939. Nonfiction.
Jo Walton is one of the most critically acclaimed and honored science fiction and fantasy authors today—however, her skillful books far surpass the genre, and she is writing beautiful and meaningful work that any lover of literature will embrace. From the thought-provoking alternate history of her Small Change series (a set of mysteries that take place in a very different World War II England, including Farthing, Ha’penny, and Half a Crown) to her World Fantasy Award-winning Tooth and Claw, to her semi-autobiographical Among Others, winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards, Walton’s clear knowledge and love of books have shone through all of her work.
As any reader of those award-winning and critically acclaimed novels might guess, Walton is both an inveterate reader of SF and fantasy, and a chronic re-reader of books. In 2008, then-new science-fiction mega-site Tor.com asked Walton to blog regularly about her re-reading—about all kinds of older fantasy and SF, ranging from acknowledged classics, to guilty pleasures, to forgotten oddities and gems. These posts have consistently been among the most popular features of Tor.com. Now Tor has gathered together a selection of the best of them, ranging from short essays to long reassessments of some of the field’s most ambitious series in What Makes This Book So Great. It is the perfect resource for those looking to explore the rich history of science fiction and fantasy books, or those who are well-versed in the genre and would like to re-experience the joys of their favorites.
Among Walton’s many subjects are the Zones of Thought novels of Vernor Vinge; the question of what genre readers mean by “mainstream”; the underappreciated SF adventures of C.J. Cherryh; the field’s many approaches to time travel; the masterful science fiction of Samuel R. Delany; Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children; the Hainish novels of Ursula K. Le Guin; and a Robert A. Heinlein novel you have most certainly never read.
Over 130 essays in all, What Makes This Book So Great is an immensely readable, engaging collection of provocative, opinionated thoughts about past and present-day fantasy and science fiction, from one of our best writers. Walton’s book will be an essential tool for librarians, educators, and anyone else who values a good read.
[[[Like a Mighty Army]]] by David Weber. Tor, $27.99, 672pp, hc, 9780765321565. Science fiction.
The newest book in the bestselling Safehold series
For centuries, the world of Safehold, last redoubt of the human race, lay under the unchallenged rule of the Church of God Awaiting. The Church permitted nothing new—no new inventions, no new understandings of the world.
What no one knew was that the Church was an elaborate fraud—a high-tech system established by a rebel faction of Safehold’s founders, meant to keep humanity hidden from the powerful alien race that had destroyed old Earth.
Then awoke Merlyn Athrawes, cybernetic avatar of a warrior a thousand years dead, felled in the war in which Earth was lost. Monk, warrior, counselor to princes and kings, Merlyn has one purpose: to restart the history of the too-long-hidden human race.
And now the fight is thoroughly under way. the island empire of Charis has declared its independence from the Church, and with Merlyn’s help has vaulted forward into a new age of steam-powered efficiency. Fending off the wounded Church, Charis has drawn more and more of the countries of Safehold to the cause of independence and self-determination. But at a heavy cost in bloodshed, famine, and loss—a cost felt by nobody more keenly than Merlyn Athrawes.
The wounded Church is regrouping. Its armies and resources are vast. In populous Siddamark, racked by civil war between pro-Church and pro-Charis factions, the Army of God almost managed to defeat Charis. But Charis and her allies survived to fight another day. The battle for humanity’s future isn’t over, and won’t be over soon.…
[[[Shadow of Freedom]]] by David Weber. Baen, $15.00, 439pp, tp, 9781476736280. Science fiction.
An invitation to a party (bring your own warships)
Admiral Michelle Henke, Queen Elizabeth of Manticore’s first cousin and Honor Harrington’s best friend, has just handed the “invincible” Solarian League Navy a humiliating defeat in defense of the Star Empire of Manticore. But the League is the most powerful star nation in the history of humanity. Its navy is going to be back—and this time with thousands of superdreadnoughts. She knows that… but she comes from a family that believes some things are far more important than playing it ssafe. Mike Henke will find a way to win. And anyone who gets in her way will regret it.
[[[Silver]]] by Chris Wooding. Scholastic, $17.99, 320pp, hc, 9780545603298. YA horror. On-sale date: 25 March 2014.
Something is infecting the halls at Mortingham Boarding Academy…
Award winning author Chris Wooding takes readers into the deadly halls of Mortingham Boarding Academy in his newest novel, Silver. Everyone has a secret and in a few short hours none of them will matter. Without warning a horrifying infection will spread across the school grounds. Students with little in common—except that they are now barricaded in a classroom—are fighting for their lives. Some will live. Some will die. And then it will get even worse.