New Books : 17 April 2018
Jonathan Strahan’s The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 12, John Scalzi’s Head On, Sam J. Miller’s Blackfish City, Jack McDevitt’s The Long Sunset, and titles by Bryan Camp, Cass Morris, Emma Newman, Jeremy C. Shipp, and AdriAnne Strickland & Michael Miller.
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* Camp, Bryan : The City of Lost Fortunes
(John Joseph Adams 978-1-328-81079-3, $24, 384pp, hardcover, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 17 Apr 2018
• Crescent City #1
Fantasy novel, the author’s first novel and first in a series, about a street magician in post-Katrina New Orleans.
• Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• The Publishers Weekly review comments, “Camp’s fantasy reads like jazz, with multiple chaotic-seeming threads of deities, mortals, and destiny playing in harmony. This game of souls and fate is full of snarky dialogue, taut suspense, and characters whose glitter hides sharp fangs.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* McDevitt, Jack : The Long Sunset
(Saga Press 978-1-4814-9793-0, $27.99, 464pp, hardcover, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 17 Apr 2018
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781481497961
• The Academy #8
SF novel, eighth book about former starship pilot Priscilla “Hutch” Hutchinson, following The Engines of God (1994), Deepsix (2001), Chindi (2002), Omega (2003), Odyssey (2006), Cauldron (2007), and Starhawk (2013).
• Simon & Schuster’s site has this description with a Google preview.
• Russell Letson reviewed it in the March issue of Locus Magazine: “This is a very familiar and perhaps old-fashioned kind of SF, a mixture of space travelogue, alien encounter, problem-solving, and politicalsocial commentary.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Miller, Sam J. : Blackfish City
(Ecco 978-0-06-268482-0, $22.99, 336pp, hardcover, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 17 Apr 2018
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780062684844
• Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9780062798312
SF novel about a floating city constructed in the Arctic Circle following climate wars.
• HarperCollins’ site has this description with a sample.
• Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: ” an ambitious, imaginative, and big-hearted dystopian ensemble story that’s by turns elegiac and angry.”
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews it in the April issue of Locus Magazine: “Blackfish City is expansive, ambitious, violent, rich in invention, and populated by a range of colorful figures whose characteristics sometimes seem drawn from sources as diverse as The Godfather, classic urban noir, a few familiar SF tropes, Samurai movies, and even superhero comics…”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Morris, Cass : From Unseen Fire
(DAW 978-0-7564-1224-1, $26, 400pp, hardcover, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 17 Apr 2018
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780756412265
• Aven Cycle #1
Historical fantasy novel, the author’s first novel and first in a series, set in an alternate Rome.
• Penguin Random House’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• The Publishers Weekly review comments, “If there’s an overlap in fandoms for I, Claudius and Game of Thrones, Morris’s painfully old-fashioned debut is aiming there.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Newman, Emma : Before Mars
(Ace 978-0399587320, $16, 352pp, trade paperback, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 17 Apr 2018
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780399587337
• Planetfall #3
SF novel, third in a series following Planetfall (2015) and After Atlas (2016), about a geologist on Mars who suspects a corporate conspiracy.
• Penguin Random House’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• Publishers Weekly gave the first two books starred reviews; of the second PW said “Gripping and sorrowful, this imaginative story is a satisfying return to Newman’s future of greed and hope.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Scalzi, John : Head On
(Tor 978-0-7653-8891-9, $25.99, 336pp, hardcover, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 17 Apr 2018
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780765388926
• Lock In #2
SF novel, a standalone follow-up to Lock In (2015), about a violent sport, played virtually, in which the goal is to carry your opponent’s head through the goalposts.
• Macmillan’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: “Scalzi expands his complex future with master strokes, balancing buddy-cop wryness with thought-provoking social and political commentary. This taut mystery, filled with memorable characters in a well-constructed world, will keep readers on the edges of their seats.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Shipp, Jeremy C. : The Atrocities
(Tor.com 978-1-250-16439-1, $10.99, 112pp, trade paperback, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 17 Apr 2018
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-250-16438-4
Fantasy novella about a young ghost’s education.
• Macmillan’s site has this description.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “Told in Danna’s haunting voice, this beautifully executed tale, as twisted as the hedge maze she braves to reach Stockton House, will surely linger with readers.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Strahan, Jonathan, ed. : The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 12
(Solaris 978-1781085738, $19.99, 620pp, trade paperback, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 17 Apr 2018
Anthology of 29 science fiction and fantasy stories first published in 2017.
• Authors include Linda Nagata, Yoon Ha Lee, Greg Egan, Rich Larson, Samuel R. Delany, and Charlie Jane Anders.
• Solaris’ site has this post about the book.
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews, including the table of contents.
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews the book in the April issue of Locus Magazine: “Of the making of short fiction there is no end, and apparently no end of places to publish it, either, so as always it’s good to have a trusted and indefatigable gleaner on our side.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Strickland, AdriAnne, & Michael Miller : Shadow Call
(Delacorte Press 978-0-399-55257-1, $18.99, 419pp, hardcover, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 17 Apr 2018
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780399552588
• Shadow Run #2
Young adult SF novel, second in a series following Shadow Run (2017), about a young starship captain harboring an exiled prince.
• Penguin Random House’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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These listings are based on publisher schedules and availability on Amazon (rather than on confirmation of physical publication via purchase, review copies, or sightings in bookstores). Titles are listed only once they are published (with rare exception). We do not list galleys or advance reading copies.
Page counts are based on publisher or Amazon listings, and typically only approximate the bibliographic page counts of finished books.
* = first edition
+ = first US edition
Date with publisher info is official publication month.
‘Nominal Publication Date’ is the day of publication, typically as indicated by Amazon.com.
