* Armstrong, Kelley : Thirteen
(Dutton 978-0525952831, $26.95, 464pp, hardcover, July 2012)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 24 Jul 2012
• Women of the Otherworld #13

Supernatural fantasy novel, thirteenth and final volume in the “Women of the Otherworld” series following Bitten, Stolen, Dime Store Magic, Industrial Magic, Haunted, Broken, No Humans Involved, Personal Demon, Living with the Dead, Frostbitten Waking the Witch and Spell Bound.
• The publisher’s site has this description.
• The author’s website has this page about the book.

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)

* Freer, Dave : Cuttlefish
(Prometheus/Pyr 978-1616146252, $16.95, 300pp, trade paperback, July 2012, cover illustration Paul Young)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 24 Jul 2012

Young adult alternate history novel, set in a 1976 in which the British Empire spans the globe, about a girl and her mother forced to flee London aboard a coal-powered submarine.
• Pyr’s site has this description.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “While Freer offers action aplenty, a fascinating setting, and memorable characters, his story runs on a slow burn, not unlike the submarine at its center. Still, he has created a fun world to explore, and he doesn’t shy away from deeper themes, such as the casual racism that plagues the mixed-race Tim, courtesy of his shipmates.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)

* Frei, Max : The Stranger’s Magic
(Overlook Press 978-1-59020-479-5, $27.95, 320pp, hardcover, July 2012)
• Nominal Publication Date: Thu 19 Jul 2012
• The Labyrinths of Echo #3

Fantasy novel, third book in “The Labyrinths of Echo” following The Stranger (1996 Russia, 2009 US) and The Stranger’s Woes (2003 Russia, 2001 US), about a man whose dreams give him access to an otherworldly city of magicians.
• Wikipedia reveals that Max Frei is a pseudonym for Svetlana Martynchik, with eight books in the series.
• The publisher’s site has the book description.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “Readers will be entranced by the complex world, though they may frequently need to go back and reread earlier sections to make sense of later ones, and will enjoy Sir Max’s unusual methods of investigation.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)

* Yu, Charles : Sorry Please Thank You
(Pantheon 978-0-307-90717-2, $24.95, 222pp, hardcover, July 2012)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 24 Jul 2012

Collection of 13 stories by the author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe.
• Stories include “Standard Loneliness Package”, first published in Lightspeed.
• Pantheon’s site (at knopfdoubleday.com) has this description, and links to a descriptoin at randomhouse.com, which includes an excerpt.
• Amason also has a preview via its “Look Inside” function, plus quotes from numerous reviews.
• The Publishers Weekly review is mixed: “At their best, the tales amusingly send up American consumer culture, but Yu’s fondness for self-reference and literary games leads to some dead ends. While Yu’s imaginative allegories are mostly too obvious to be genuinely thought provoking, they’re nonetheless an impressive sendup of contemporary life.”

(Mon 2 Jul 2012)
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)

* Zafón, Carlos Ruiz : The Prisoner of Heaven
(Harper 978-0-06-220628-2, $25.99, 320pp, hardcover, July 2012)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 10 Jul 2012
• Cemetery of Forgotten Books #3

Literary thriller, follow-up to the The Shadow of the Wind (2004) and The Angel’s Game (2009), this time set in 1957 Barcelona about a stranger pursuing a rare book.
• Harper’s site has this description with a preview function.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “Zafón’s storytelling is deft and well-paced, and his vivid prose brings the cultural riches and political strife of Franco-era Spain to life. Though the book will undoubtedly please readers familiar with his other novels, as the introduction explains, the book is a “self-contained tale” capable of standing alone–something it does with aplomb.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)