* Abercrombie, Joe : Half a King
(Ballantine Del Rey 978-0-8041-7832-7, $26, 275pp, hardcover, July 2014)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 15 Jul 2014
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-0-8041-7833-4
• UK edition: Harper Voyager 978-0007550203 (Thu 3 Jul 2014)
• Shattered Sea #1


Fantasy novel, first book in a trilogy, about a second son who becomes king following the deaths of his father and brother.
• Random House’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: “Abercrombie’s stellar prose style and clever plot twists will be sure to please both adult and teen readers.”
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews it in the July issue of Locus Magazine: “In a way, there is nothing much new in Half a King for anyone familiar with the long tradition of redress adventures, but that’s not really the point. Abercrombie is not out so much to revise the tradition, or to wallow in his world-building, as to celebrate a particular kind of storytelling…”

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* Berman, Steve, ed. : Wilde Stories 2014
(Lethe Press 978-1-59021-500-5, $15, 235pp, trade paperback, July 2014)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 1 Jul 2014
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-59021-501-2

Anthology of 14 stories first published in 2013, subtitled “The Year’s Best Gay Speculative Fiction”.
• Authors include Sam J. Miller, John Chu, Matthew Cheney, and Sean Eads.
• Lethe’s site has this description

(Sat 21 Jun 2014)
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+ de Castell, Sebastien : Traitor’s Blade
(Quercus/Jo Fletcher 978-1623658090, $26.99, 384pp, hardcover, July 2014)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 15 Jul 2014
• The Greatcoats #1

First US edition (UK: Quercus/Jo Fletcher, March 2014)

Fantasy novel, the author’s first novel and first of a series, about a troupe of travelling Magisters now reviled for having failed to prevent the overthrow of their king.
• Quercus’ site has this description of the UK edition, published in March.
• Tor.com has an excerpt and a review by Niall Alexander: “With a tip of his hat at Alexandre Dumas, Sebastien de Castell make a fine first impression in this entertaining debut. Excepting the regrettable digression at its centre—and even then it’s easy reading—Traitor’s Blade is a bunch of fun from one cover to the other. Recommended especially to readers who’ve had it up to here with unhappy heroes.”

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* Dozois, Gardner, ed. : The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-first Annual Collection
(St. Martin’s Griffin 978-1250046215, $22.99, 752pp, hardcover, July 2014)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 15 Jul 2014
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781466865297

Anthology of 32 stories first published in 2013, with a long “Summation: 2013”, and several pages of ‘honorable mentions’ at the end.
• Authors include Ian R. MacLeod, Lavi Tidhar, Geoff Ryman, Paul J. McAuley, Greg Egan, Nancy Kress, Michael Swanwick, Ian McDonald, and James Patrick Kelly.
• Macmillan’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews, including the table of contents.
• A hardcover edition (978-1250046208, $40) is also available.
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews the book in the July issue of Locus Magazine, putting it in a cultural context: “Some of the commentary I’ve heard about this year’s unusual Hugo and Nebula Awards ballots – at least some of the more restrained commentary – raises the question of what a novice or intermittent reader of SF might make of these various nominees, or of the state of the field in general … It’s partly for the sake of those readers that I repeat my annoying mantra that this is what year’s best anthologies are for.”

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* Gladstone, Max : Full Fathom Five
(Tor 978-0-7653-3574-6, $25.99, 384pp, hardcover, July 2014)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 15 Jul 2014
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781466826151
• Craft Sequence #3

Fantasy novel, third in a series following Three Parts Dead (2012) and Two Serpents Rise (2013), about a magical Craftswoman in the city of Alt Coulumb.
• Macmillan’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• Publishers Weekly gives this, as it did the first two books, a starred review: “Gladstone continues to trump his already considerable accomplishments in this tightly paced fantasy legal thriller.”

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* Harkness, Deborah : The Book of Life
(Penguin/Viking 978-0670025596, $28.95, 576pp, hardcover, July 2014)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 15 Jul 2014
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780698163478
• Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9781611762662
• UK edition: Headline 978-0755384778 (Tue 15 Jul 2014)
• All Souls Trilogy #3


Literary fantasy novel, third in a trilogy following A Discovery of Witches (2011) and Shadow of Night (2012), about Oxford scholar Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont.
• Penguin’s site has this description.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “The storytelling is lively and energetic, and Diana remains an appealing heroine even as her life becomes ever more extraordinary. A delightful wrap-up to the trilogy.”

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* Holt, Tom : The Outsorcerer’s Apprentice
(Orbit 9780316368797, $14, 400pp, trade paperback, July 2014)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 15 Jul 2014
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780316368780
• Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9781478979876
• UK edition: 978-0356502540 (Tue 15 Jul 2014)

Humorous fantasy novel about a wizard who makes a living providing human resources to goblins, dragonslayers, and other creatures across parallel worlds.
• Orbit’s site has this description.
• Hachette’s site has the same description with a link to a preview function.

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+ Kearney, Paul : The Way to Babylon
(Solaris 978-1781081891, $7.99, 528pp, mass market paperback, July 2014)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 27 May 2014
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: B00KKRBWXC
• UK edition: 978-1781081884 (Thu 5 Jun 2014)

First US edition (UK: Gollancz, August 1992)

Fantasy novel, first published in the UK in 1992 (this is the first US edition), about a fantasy writer who survives a mountain climbing accident that kills his wife and partner, and who is sought out by characters from his fantasy world Minginish to help him recover.
• Solaris’ site has this description.
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews.

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* Rajaniemi, Hannu : The Causal Angel
(Tor 978-0-7653-2951-6, $25.99, 290pp, hardcover, July 2014, jacket art Kekai Kotaki)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 15 Jul 2014
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-4299-5610-9
• UK edition: Orion/Gollancz 9780575088962 (Thu 17 Jul 2014)
• Quantum Thief #3


Hard science fiction novel, third in a series following The Quantum Thief (2010) and The Fractal Prince (2012), about Jean le Flambeur, a post-human thief in the Heterarchy, the culture of the far future solar system.
• Macmillan’s site this description.
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function includes a preview.
• Tor.com has this review by Niall Alexander: “The Causal Angel has clarity where it counts: in terms of narrative and character—the very fundamentals of fiction. That said, this isn’t easy reading. Moments that are markedly more abstract come thick and fast; readers are practically guaranteed to be flustered with frustrating frequency… but also, belatedly, amazed.”

(Wed 2 Jul 2014)
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* Turtledove, Harry : Last Orders
(Ballantine Del Rey 978-0-345-52471-3, $28, 416pp, hardcover, July 2014)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 15 Jul 2014
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-0-345-52473-7
• The War That Came Early #6

Alternate history novel, sixth in a series following Hitler’s War (2009), West and East (2010), The Big Switch (2011), Coup d’Etat (2012), and Two Fronts (2013), about an alternate World War II that followed when Neville Chamberlain stood up to Hitler rather than appeased him with the Munich Accord.
• Random House’s site has this description with a preview function.

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* Winters, Ben : World of Trouble
(Quirk Books 978-1594746857, $14.95, 320pp, trade paperback, July 2014)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 15 Jul 2014
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978594746864
• The Last Policeman #3

Pre-apocalyptic novel, third of a trilogy following The Last Policeman (2012) and Countdown City (2013), about a police detective’s work six months before an asteroid is due to hit Earth.
• The publisher’s site has this description.
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews.

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