New Books : 3 April 2018
Michael Benson’s Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece, Neil Clarke’s The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume Three, Samuel R. Delany’s collection The Atheist in the Attic, Richard Powers’ The Overstory, and titles by R.S. Belcher, Kendare Blake, D.J. Butler, Leo Carew, David Drake, Sarah Beth Durst, Kevin Hearne, Margaret Killjoy, Mark Lawrence, Jeff Noon, Chris Roberson, and Alex Stewart.
* Belcher, R. S. : The Night Dahlia
(Tor 978-0-7653-9012-7, $18.99, 368pp, trade paperback, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Apr 2018
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780765390141
• Nightwise #2
Urban fantasy novel, second in a series following Nightwise (2015), set in the modern occult underworld.
• Macmillan’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “This dark, imaginative tale will appeal to fans of gritty, no-holds-barred urban fantasy and horror.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Benson, Michael : Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece
(Simon & Schuster 978-1-5011-6393-7, $30, 512pp, hardcover, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Apr 2018
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781501163951
Nonfiction history of the making of the 1968 films 2001: A Space Odyssey, released in the week of the film’s 50th anniversary.
• Simon & Schuster’s site has this description.
• The Publishers Weekly review comments that, compared to Kubrick, “Clarke emerges far more vividly, with Benson, who befriended Clarke near the end of his life, offering a uniquely privileged glimpse of the author’s personality—’an earnest manner leavened by his quick wit’—and day-to-day life as a British expat in Sri Lanka.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Blake, Kendare : Queens of Fennbirn
(HarperTeen 978-0062748287, $9.99, 240pp, trade paperback, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Apr 2018
Collection of two novellas, “The Young Queens” and “The Oracle Queen,” published earlier as e-books, and are prequels to the author’s Three Dark Crowns series.
• HarperCollins’ site has this description.
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews.
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Butler, D. J. : Witchy Winter
(Baen 978-1-4814-8314-8, $25, 592pp, hardcover, April 2018, cover art Daniel Dos Santos)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Apr 2018
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-62579-633-2
• Witchy Eye #2
Alternate history fantasy novel, sequel to Witchy Eye. (2017), about the 15-year-old daughter of an Appalachian war hero in a world where magic works and the emperor controls dragons, shapeshifters, and the undead.
• Baen’s site has this description with links to several chapters.
• The Publishers Weekly review comments, “Butler spins many scattered threads that often seem disparate, yet slowly and cunningly converge on Sarah and the approaching battles.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Carew, Leo : The Wolf
(Orbit 978-0-316-52137-6, $15.99, 512pp, trade paperback, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Apr 2018
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780316521369s
• Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9781549113529
• Under the Northern Sky #1
Epic fantasy novel, first in a series, about war between two savage races.
• Hachette’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: “The book is twisty in its political maneuverings, gritty in its battle descriptions, and rich with a sense of heroism and glory that fans of Saxon-derived poetic tradition will appreciate.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Clarke, Neil, ed. : The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume Three
(Night Shade Books 978-1-59780-936-8, $17.99, 624pp, trade paperback, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Apr 2018
Anthology of 27 stories first published in 2017.
• Authors include Greg Egan, Gregory Benford, Alastair Reynolds, Suzanne Palmer, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Sarah Pinsker, and Nancy Kress.
• Night Shade’s site has this description with the table of contents.
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Delany, Samuel R. : The Atheist in the Attic
(PM Press 978-1-62963-440-1, $14, 111pp, trade paperback, March 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Sun 1 Apr 2018
Short collection of fiction and nonfiction in PM Press’s “Outspoken Authors” series edited by Terry Bisson.
• The book includes the title novella, first published 2016, an essay from 1998, a new interview, and a bibliography.
• PM Press’ site has this description with a Google preview.
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Drake, David : Though Hell Should Bar the Way
(Baen 978-1-4814-8313-1, $25, 416pp, hardcover, April 2018, cover art Stephen Hickman)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Apr 2018
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-62579-632-5
Military SF novel, 12th in the “RCN” series following With the Lightnings, Lt. Leary, Commanding, The Far Side of the Stars, The Way to Glory, Some Golden Harbor, and When the Tide Rises, In the Stormy Red Sky (2009), What Distant Deeps (2010), The Road of Danger (2013), The Sea Without a Shore (2014), and Death’s Bright Day (2016).
• Baen’s site has this description with links to several chapters.
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Durst, Sarah Beth : The Stone Girl’s Story
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Clarion 978-1-328-72945-3, $16.99, 336pp, hardcover, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Apr 2018
Middle-grade fantasy novel about a girl made of living stone.
• The publisher’s site has this description and order page.
• Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: “Featuring a richly diverse cast, vividly imagined worldbuilding, and passionate storytelling, Durst’s middle grade fantasy is a feast for the senses.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Hearne, Kevin : Scourged
(Del Rey 978-0345548542, $27, 288pp, hardcover, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Apr 2018
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780345548559
• Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9780804147941
• Iron Druid Chronicles #9
Urban fantasy novel, eighth book of a series following Hounded, Hexed, Hammered (all 2011), Tricked (May 2012), Trapped (Dec. 2012), Hunted (2013), Shattered (2014), and Staked (2016), about a 2000-year-old Druid living in Arizona.
• Penguin Random House’s site has this description with a preview function.
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Killjoy, Margaret : The Barrow Will Send What It May
(Tor.com 978-0-7653-9738-6, $11.99, 160pp, ekb, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Apr 2018
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-0-7653-9737-9
• Danielle Cain #2
Punk fantasy novella, second in a series following The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion (2017), about utopian anarchists battling demons.
• Macmillan’s site has this description.
• The Publishers Weekly review comments, “Writing with superb energy, Killjoy captures both the human drama and the supernatural suspense in the breakdown of the known world.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Lawrence, Mark : Grey Sister
(Ace 978-1-101-98888-6, $27, 432pp, hardcover, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Apr 2018
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781101988893
• Book of the Ancestor #2
Fantasy novel, second book in a series following Red Sister (2017), about a secretive order of holy warriors.
• Penguin Random House’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• The Publishers Weekly review comments, “In offering sometimes small insights into his characters’ inner lives, Lawrence elevates the second volume of his Ancestor epic fantasy series above similar books featuring a young woman who is separated from her family and taught to make the best use of her supernatural skills.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Noon, Jeff : The Body Library
(Angry Robot 978-0857666734, $12.99, 384pp, trade paperback, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Apr 2018
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780857666741
• UK edition: 9780857666734 (Thu 5 Apr 2018)
• Nyquist Mysteries #2
SF novel, second in a series following A Man of Shadows (2017), about a private eye on a world divided into Dayzone and Nocturna.
• Angry Robot’s site has this description.
• Publishers Weekly called the first book “a kaleidoscopic noir novel of dizzying dream logic.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Powers, Richard : The Overstory
(Norton 978-0-393-63552-2, $27.95, 512pp, hardcover, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Apr 2018
Literary SF novel, about several characters and their interactions with trees that communicate with each other, told in concentric rings of interlocking fables.
• Norton’s site has this description with blurbs and quotes from reviews, e.g. from The Times (London): “The time is ripe for a big novel that tells us as much about trees as Moby Dick does about whales….The Overstory is that novel and it is very nearly a masterpiece….On almost every page of The Overstory you will find sentences that combine precision and vision.”
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews.
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Roberson, Chris : Firewalkers
(Night Shade Books 978-1-59780-912-2, $14.99, trade paperback, April 2018)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Apr 2018
• Recondito #2
Urban fantasy novel, second in a series following Firewalk (2016), about an FBI investigation that uncovers a series of killings going back 100 years in the California coastal city of Recondito.
• Night Shade’s site has this description.
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Stewart, Alex : A Fistful of Elven Gold
(Baen 978-1-4814-8315-5, $16, 320pp, trade paperback, April 2018, cover art Dominic Harman)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Apr 2018
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-62579-634-9
Fantasy novel about a bounty-hunting gnome turned private investigator.
• Baen’s site has this description with links to several chapters.
• The Publishers Weekly review comments, “Stewart develops his intricate plot with stimulating efficiency while building the tapestry of his setting.”
• 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.
