This week’s new books include a new novel by John Crowley, Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr, Rich Horton’s latest volume of The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, an illustrated novel by Gregory Manchess, and other titles by Darin Bradley, Melissa Caruso, Cassandra Rose Clarke, Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory, Silva Moreno-Garcia, Kim Newman, and Melissa F. Olson.

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* Bradley, Darin : Light Both Foreign and Domestic
(Resurrection House/Underland Press 978-1630230524, $15.98, 276pp, trade paperback, October 2017)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 10 Oct 2017

Collection of 16 stories, several original to this book.
• Underland’s site has this description.

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

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* Caruso, Melissa : The Tethered Mage
(Orbit 978-0-316-46687-5, $15.99, 480pp, trade paperback, October 2017)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 24 Oct 2017
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780316466868
• Swords and Fire #1

Fantasy novel, first in a series, set in an empire where magic is scarce and controlled by the army.
• Orbit’s site has this sample.
• Hachette’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• The Publishers Weekly review calls it a “politically aware fantasy lightly infused with Renaissance Italian flavors.”

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• (Directory Entry)

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* Clarke, Cassandra Rose : Magic of Wind and Mist
(Simon & Schuster/Saga Press 978-1481461702, $17.99, 560pp, trade paperback, October 2017)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 24 Oct 2017
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781481461719

Omnibus of two novels, reprinting The Wizard’s Promise (Angry Robot, 2014) and The Nobleman’s Revenge (original), third and fourth in a series following The Assassin’s Curse (2012) and The Pirate’s Wish (2013), about a young woman who fled an arranged marriage and became a pirate.
• Simon & Schuster’s site has this description. A hardcover edition (9781481476423) is also available.

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• (Directory Entry)

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* Crowley, John : Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr
(Simon & Schuster/Saga Press 978-1-481495-59-2, $28.99, 464pp, hardcover, October 2017)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 24 Oct 2017
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781481495615

Fantasy novel about a two thousand year old Crow named Dar Oakley and his live among humans and periodic returns to the land of the dead.
• Simon & Schuster’s site has this description with a Google preview.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “It’s never clear whether the human lead merely imagines all of Dar Oakley’s reminiscences, but this ambiguity sustains, rather than lessens, the reader’s engagement with Dar Oakley’s stories.”
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews it in the October issue of Locus Magazine: “Covering thousands of years of human history, Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr may seem at times more like a chronicle than a tale, but the tales within it, from Dar Oakley’s own love stories, to his acerbically distanced view of human development, to the nearly self-contained tales of figures like Fox Cap, the Brother, Anna Kuhn, and the narrator himself, recapitulate its central themes of death, survival, and the value of story in ways that are as haunting and provocative as anything Crowley – or almost anyone else in the last several years – has written. It may be some sort of masterpiece.”

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• (Directory Entry)

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* Horton, Rich, ed. : The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy: 2017 Edition
(Prime Books 978-1607014911, $19.95, 576pp, trade paperback, October 2017)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 17 Oct 2017

Anthology of 30 stories first published in 2016.
• Authors include Sam J. Miller, Ian R. MacLeod, Adam Roberts, Gregory Feeley, Paul McAuley, Charlie Jane Anders, and Lavie Tidhar.
• Prime’s site has this description with the table of contents.
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews.
• The book became available this month, despite the publication date on Prime’s site of June 21, and the date on Amazon of January 2018.

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

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* Lackey, Mercedes, & James Mallory : Blade of Empire
(Tor 978-0-7653-2439-9, $27.99, 496pp, hardcover, October 2017)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 24 Oct 2017
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781429944045
• The Dragon Prophecy #2

Fantasy novel, second in a series following Crown of Vengeance (2012) set in the world of the authors’ Obsidian and Enduring Flame trilogies, about the Elven Queen Vielissiar Faricarnon.
• Macmillan’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “Lackey and Mallory provide tangled politics, large-scale battles, factional intrigue, and writing competent enough to make up for the cardboard characters and complete lack of original ideas. The book may not be, strictly speaking, good, but it’s certainly a lot of fun.”

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

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* Manchess, Gregory : Above the Timberline
(Simon & Schuster/Saga Press 978-1-4814-5923-5, $29.99, 240pp, hardcover, October 2017)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 24 Oct 2017
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781481459259

Illustrated SF novel, set in a future in which the Pole Shift has covered the entire Earth in snow, about the son of a polar explorer searching for his father. The illustrations are by the author.
• Simon & Schuster’s site has this description.
• The long Publishers Weekly review by Carrie Cuinn concludes, “I imagine that if these beautiful paintings were presented as a gallery show, viewers could wander in awe through the collection, and the text would matter little. As an illustrated novel, it’s less impressive, with a story that, sadly, is nowhere near what Manchess’s sublime artwork deserves.”
• Paul Di Filippo will have a review for Locus Online later this month.

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• (Directory Entry)

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* Moreno-Garcia, Silvia : The Beautiful Ones
(St. Martin’s/Dunne 978-1-250-09906-8, $26.99, 336pp, hardcover, October 2017)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 24 Oct 2017
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781250099075
• Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9781427291042

Fantasy novel set in a world of etiquette and polite masks.
• Macmillan’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “Readers who enjoyed Mary Robinette Kowal’s Glamourist Histories magical Regency series will be particularly enthralled by the genuine emotions evoked in the course of the unsustainable love triangle.”

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• (Directory Entry)

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* Newman, Kim : Anno Dracula 1899: One Thousand Monsters
(Titan 978-1781165638, $14.95, 400pp, trade paperback, October 2017)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 24 Oct 2017
• Anno Dracula #5

Alternate history vampire novel, fifth in the series following Anno Dracula (1992), The Bloody Red Baron (1995), Dracula Cha Cha Cha (1998), and Johnny Alucard (2013).
• Titan Books’ site has this description.
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews.

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

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* Olson, Melissa F. : Switchback
(Tor.com 978-0-7653-9828-4, 240pp, trade paperback, October 2017)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 24 Oct 2017
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-0-7653-9827-7
• Nightshades #2

Short fantasy novel, second in a series following Nightshades (2016), about an agent for the Chicago office of the Bureau of Paranormal Investigations, tasked with investigating vampires.
• Macmillan’s site has this description.
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews.

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

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