New & Notable
Paolo Bacigalupi, Navola (Knopf 7/24) Bacigalupi returns with his first new novel in seven years, this time an epic fantasy inspired by Renaissance Florence, first in a duology about a young man from a powerful family attempting to navigate cutthroat politics and affairs of the heart. “It’s undeniably new territory for Bacigalupi, and it’s a pleasure to report that his most impressive narrative strengths have ported over intact.” [Gary K. Wolfe]
Aliette de Bodard, Navigational Entanglements (Tordotcom 7/24) This new space opera novella has the flavor of xiānxiá fantasies and follows four people from different clans of navigators dispatched to deal with a tangler: a dangerous creature that dwells in the “Hollows,” the void beyond the stars, and preys on the minds of faster-than-light travelers. “I loved it. Give me more, please.” [Liz Bourke]
Sarah Beth Durst, The Spellshop (Bramble 7/24) Book-lovers will find it easy to slip into this cozy fantasy romance novel and get comfortable. After a librarian saves precious magical tomes from fire and revolution, she returns with her treasures to her distant childhood home, and carefully introduces the locals to forbidden magic.
Lev Grossman, The Bright Sword (Del Rey 7/24) Grossman’s take on the Matter of Britain isn’t the usual fare about the rise of Camelot, but is instead set just after Arthur falls and concerns a young knight who arrives to help rebuild the kingdom alongside other knights who didn’t make it into the legends. Grossman “takes this most malleable of narratives and revels in its many contradictions and anachronisms while also celebrating the importance of change.” [Ian Mond]
Anton Hur, Toward Eternity (HarperVia 7/24) Hur is a respected translator, and proves equally adroit with original work in this near-future SF novel about consciousness, AI, immortality, and poetry. The book sprawls across time to explore the consequences of a nanotech cancer cure that replaces diseased cells with healthy ones, leading to a kind of immortality. It’s “intensely human even when its characters have moved beyond that category.” [Jake Casella Brookins]
Yume Kitasei, The Stardust Grail (Flatiron 6/24) This space opera adventure follows an art thief who once specialized in returning artifacts stolen from alien civilizations, until a job gone wrong forced her into hiding. She comes out of retirement a decade later for one last job: tracking down a missing object that could save an entire alien species from extinction… but she’s not the only one looking for it.
Jenn Lyons, The Sky on Fire (Tor 7/24) This fantasy adventure follows a group of complex characters through an epic world ruled by dragons as they attempt to pull off a heist with revolutionary stakes. “This novel marries epic and caper with such skill that I want to pick it apart with focused attention just to admire how well it’s put together… a brilliant novel, vividly chacterised, tense, and full of surprises.” [Liz Bourke]
Tim Pratt, The Knife and the Serpent (Angry Robot 6/24) Space opera mingles with the multiverse and kinky romance in this first volume of the Nigh-Space series: grad student Glenn discovers his girlfriend Vivy is secretly an agent for a group of interdimensional freedom fighters, and soon they’re both embroiled in a violent coup on a world of high technology and cutthroat politics. “I’m not sure anyone is writing novels quite like Tim Pratt. There’s a positively retro sense of glee (and a willingness to throw in the kitchen sink, too)…. It’s really quite delightful.” [Liz Bourke]
O.O. Sangoyomi, Masquerade (Forge 7/24) This compelling historical fantasy novel, set in an alternate 15th-century West Africa, is partly inspired by the myth of Persephone and Hades, and follows a young Yoruba woman who begins as a social pariah, is abducted by a foreign warrior to be his bride, and eventually gains her own power.
Robert J. Sawyer, The Downloaded (Shadowpaw Press 5/24) Sawyer’s latest is a postapocalyptic SF novel with a killer premise: two groups of uploaded minds, criminals and astronauts respectively, are downloaded into reality on Earth centuries after they lived, with a mission to save the planet from destruction.
Peng Shepherd, All This & More (Morrow 7/24) This literary novel with speculative elements concerns Marsh, a 45-year-old woman disillusioned with her life’s lackluster path and disappointing prospects, until she’s selected to appear on a popular show that uses quantum technology to let contestants change the past and rewrite the present.
Chuck Tingle, Bury Your Gays (Nightfire 7/24) The enigmatic and beloved Hugo Award finalist’s latest horror novel is a gory romp about Hollywood, horror clichés, and AI. When a gay writer refuses pressure from above to kill off the gay characters on his popular show, he starts to encounter terrifying monsters – which have somehow escaped from the horror movies of his earlier career.
From the September 2024 issue of Locus.
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