* Jones, Stephen Graham : Mongrels
(HarperCollins/Morrow 978-0-06-241269-0, $24.99, 320pp, hardcover, May 2016)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 10 May 2016
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780062412713
• Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9780062471277

Horror novel about a boy coming to terms with his itinerant uncle and aunt as they travel across the South.
• HarperCollins’ site has this description with a preview.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “While the episodic structure sometimes causes the novel to feel as aimless as its characters, it’s still an often moving portrait of a family struggling to survive in a world that “wants us to be monsters.” “
• John Langan reviews the book in the May issue of Locus Magazine: “The novel’s surprises continue to the very end, when it opens outward in unexpected and startling ways. One of the books of the year, Mongrels doesn’t linger in the mind: it races through it, eyes bright with the moon, breath hot in its mouth, paws thudding over the forest floor.”

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* Kay, Guy Gavriel : Children of Earth and Sky
(Penguin/NAL 978-0-451-47296-0, $27, 427pp, hardcover, May 2016)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 10 May 2016
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780698183278

Historical fantasy novel set in a world inspired by Renaissance Europe.
• Penguin’s site has this description with a preview.
• Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: “…Kay has enough schemes for a 10-book series. He wields plots and all-too-human characters brilliantly, in a world where nothing is as valuable as information. This big, powerful fantasy offers an intricately detailed setting, marvelously believable characters, and an international stew of cultural and religious conflict writ larger than large.”
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews it in the May issue of Locus Magazine: “Kay builds a convincingly human answer to the paradox that has long made the Renaissance so hypnotic, so alien, and familiar with its juxtaposition of crude brutality and magnificent beauty, of high manners and low betrayals, of emerging technology and stark primitivism.”

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* Kearney, Paul : The Wolf in the Attic
(Solaris 978-1781083628, $14.99, 320pp, trade paperback, May 2016)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 10 May 2016
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: B01EBDMXCO
• UK edition: Solaris 978-1781083611 (Thu 5 May 2016)


Fantasy novel about a young Greek refugee who encounters C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien in 1920s Oxford.
• Simon & Schuster’s site has this description.

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* Lebbon, Tim : A Whisper of Southern Lights
(Tor.com 978-0765390233, $11.99, 112pp, trade paperback, May 2016)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 10 May 2016
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780765384508
• Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9781427273925
• Assassins #2

Short fantasy novel, second in a series following collection Pieces of Hate (March 2016), about a man cursed with a life long enough to hunt down the demon who killed his family.
• Macmillan’s site has this description.

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* Palmer, Ada : Too Like the Lightning
(Tor 978-0765378002, $26.99, 432pp, hardcover, May 2016)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 10 May 2016
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781466858749
• Terra Ignota #1

SF novel, first in a series and the author’s first novel, about a 25th century convict who works as a spiritual counselor in a society that has outlawed public practice of religion.
• Macmillan’s site has this description.
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews.
• The next book, Seven Surrenders, is due in December.
• Jason Heller posted this review on an NPR site this morning: “It’s a thrilling feat of speculative worldbuilding, on par with those of masters like Gene Wolfe and Neal Stephenson.” The review concludes, “Lightning is in awe of the fundamental questions of human civilization, chief among them: Can society be engineered? And if it can, should it? Palmer doesn’t answer those questions, but she frames, ponders, and dramatizes them as only the greatest science fiction writers can.”

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* Palmer, Christopher : Castaway Tales: From Robinson Crusoe to Life of Pi
(Wesleyan University Press 978-0-8195-7657-6, $26.95, 272pp, trade paperback, May 2016)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 10 May 2016
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-0-8195-7622-4

Nonfiction study of stories about castaways, in the publisher’s “Early Classics of Science Fiction” series, including works by J.G. Ballard, Iain Banks, and Terry Pratchett.
• Wesleyan’s site has this description.
• There’s also a hardcover edition for $80.

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+ Saulter, Stephanie : Regeneration
(Quercus/Jo Fletcher US 978-1681445175, $22.99, 336pp, hardcover, May 2016)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 May 2016
• (R)evolution #3

First US edition (UK: Jo Fletcher, August 2015)

SF novel, third in a series following Gemsigns (2013) and Binary (2014), about the conflict between ‘Gems’, genetically-engineered humans created to overcome a plague, and the ‘Norms’ who would enslave or exterminate them.
• Quercus’ site has this description.

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* Seay, Martin : The Mirror Thief
(Melville House 978-1-61219-514-8, $27.95, 592pp, hardcover, May 2016)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 10 May 2016

Historical supernatural thriller, the author’s first novel, about the invention of mirrors in 16th century Venice with parallel stories in 1958 Venice Beach, California, and present day Venice casino in Las Vegas.
• The publisher’s site has this description, which compares it to David Mitchell and Umberto Eco.
• Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: “In sum, this is a splendid masterpiece, to be loved like a long-lost friend, an epic with near-universal appeal.”

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* Smaill, Anna : The Chimes
(Quercus/Jo Fletcher US 978-1681445342, $26.99, 304pp, hardcover, May 2016)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 May 2016

SF novel, the author’s first novel, about a young orphan arriving in London in an era following a brutal civil war.
• Quercus’ US site has this description.
• The first edition was published in the UK by Sceptre in 2015, and was longlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize.
• Niall Alexander reviewed it last year at Tor.com: “To call The Chimes striking is I dare say to underplay what might be the most distinctive debut of the decade.”

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* Stiefvater, Maggie : The Raven King
(Scholastic 978-0-545-42498-1, $18.99, 448pp, hardcover, April 2016)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 26 Apr 2016
• The Raven Cycle #4

Young adult fantasy novel, fourth in a series following The Raven Boys (2012), The Dream Thieves (2013), and Blue Lily, Lily Blue (2014).
• Scholastic’s site has this description.
• Publishers Weekly gives this, as it did all three previous books, a starred review: “The playful, imaginative force of Stiefvater’s writing works its magic once again, and most readers will finish this saga not with regret or disappointment but with hope.”

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* Teppo, Mark : The Potemkin Mosaic
(Resurrection House/Rota Books 978-1630230166, $23, 470pp, trade paperback, April 2016)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 10 May 2016

SF novel about a black market dream doctor who suspects his own memories are being edited.
• The publisher’s site has this description with an excerpt.

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* Tidhar, Lavie : Central Station
(Tachyon Publications 978-1-61696-214-2, $15.95, 240pp, trade paperback, May 2016)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 10 May 2016

Mosaic SF novel, comprised of previously published stories, about a spaceport in a future Tel Aviv.
• Tachyon’s site has this description.
• Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: “Tidhar magnificently blends literary and speculative elements in this streetwise mosaic novel set under the towering titular spaceport.”
• Gary K. Wolfe’s review from the April issue of Locus Magazine is posted here; “Somehow, Central Station combines a cultural sensibility too long invisible in SF with a sensibility which is nothing but classic SF, and the result is a rather elegant suite of tales.”

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