New Books : 2 April 2019
15 new SF/F books released this week!
New titles this week are by K.C. Archer, Stephen R. Donaldson, Ian C. Esslemont, Eric Flint, Dana Fredsti, Nell Freudenberger, Liz Harmer, Logan J. Hunder, Michael M. Levy & Farah Mendlesohn, Josh Malerman, Linda Nagata, Suzanne Palmer, Kalayna Price, Wm. Mark Simmons, and Caitlin Starling.
* Archer, K. C. : The Astral Traveler’s Daughter
(Simon & Schuster 978-1-5011-5936-7, $16, 336pp, trade paperback, April 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 2 Apr 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781501159381
• Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9781508285069
• A School for Psychics #2
Young adult fantasy novel, second in a series following School for Psychics (2018), about a student at a secret academy near San Francisco who is tracking the movements of the subversive Patriot Corps.
•Simon & Schuster’s site has this description with an excerpt.
•The Publishers Weekly review comments, “Archer plays fair, laying out clues so that a savvy reader will realize the identity of the cabal’s hidden mastermind probably before the heroes do.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Donaldson, Stephen R. : The War Within
(Berkley 978-0399586163, $28, 576pp, hardcover, April 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 2 Apr 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780399586170
• Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9780525499183
• The Great God’s War #2
Fantasy novel, second in a trilogy following Seventh Decimate (2017), about a prince’s quest for a sorcerous library.
•Penguin Random House’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Esslemont, Ian C. : Kellanved’s Reach
(Tor 978-0-7653-7948-1, $29.99, 352pp, hardcover, April 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 2 Apr 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781466868601
• Path to Ascendancy #3
Fantasy novel, third book in a prequel trilogy to the author’s Malazan Empire series, following Dancer’s Lament (2016) and Deadhouse Landing (2017).
•Macmillan’s site has this description. There’s a simultaneous trade paperback edition (9780765379498).
•Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews.
•Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: “The extensive cast of characters and the wide scope will prevent newcomers from being able to join the story in progress, but fans of the series will appreciate these same facets. Esslemont’s weird magics, intense combat, and varied characters continue to put his work at the peak of epic fantasy.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Flint, Eric : 1637: The Polish Maelstrom
(Baen 978-1-4814-8389-6, $25, 512pp, hardcover, April 2019, cover art Tom Kidd)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 2 Apr 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-62579-707-0
• Ring of Fire #26
Alternate history novel in the “Ring of Fire” series that began with Flint’s 1632 (2000), concerning 17th century European history as affected by West Virginians from the 20th century.
•Baen’s site has this description with a link to a page of samples.
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Fredsti, Dana : Blood Ink
(Titan 978-1785652622, $14.95, 368pp, trade paperback, April 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 2 Apr 2019
• Lilith #2
Fantasy novel, second in a series following The Spawn of Lilith (2017), about a stuntwoman’s encounters with supernatural forces.
•Titan’s site has this description.
•Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews.
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Freudenberger, Nell : Lost and Wanted
(Knopf 978-0-385-35268-0, $26.95, 336pp, hardcover, April 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 2 Apr 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780385352697
• Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9781984840097
Literary SF novel about a rationalist physics professor at MIT whose assumptions are challenged when she gets a phone call from a friend who’s just died.
•Penguin Random House’s site has this description with an excerpt (and a category tag of “women’s fiction”).
•Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: “Like her narrator, Freudenberger resists the impulse to use science solely as metaphor; indeed, readers will learn a great deal about the LIGO project and its Nobel Prize–winning work with cosmic gravitational waves. The integration of ideas from physics sparks in the reader new ways of thinking about the nature of time and existence as well as, on a less cosmic scale, about human relationships.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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+ Harmer, Liz : The Amateurs
(Vintage Canada 978-0-345-81125-7, $15.5, 336pp, trade paperback, April 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 2 Apr 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780345811264
Near-future SF novel about a device that transports users through time and space to find their hearts’ desires, with the effect that many cannot return and the global population plummets.
•Penguin Random House Canada’s site has this description with a preview function. The Canadian 1st edition was published in April 2018.
•Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: “With a gently Gibsonian critique of consumer culture and a fiercely loving core, this wry novel ably satisfies both the literary reader’s desire for precise, beautiful prose and the genre reader’s eagerness for richly imagined futures. This is a sparkling, cohesive, and sharply insightful novel and a remarkable debut.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Hunder, Logan J. : Astro-Nuts
(Night Shade Books 978-1-59780-922-1, $14.99, 384pp, trade paperback, April 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 2 Apr 2019
SF space opera spoof about a transport vessel returning to Earth from Mars.
•Night Shade’s site has this description.
•Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews.
•The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “Over-the-top action and surprisingly biting political satire helpfully distract from the disastrous lack of solid plot; the entire novel is about the laughs, which are plentiful. Space opera fans looking for something light and fluffy will find this suits perfectly.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Levy, Michael M., & Farah Mendlesohn, eds. : Aliens in Popular Culture: A Guide to Visitors from Outer Space
(ABC-CLIO/Greenwood Press 978-1-4408-3832-3, $94, 335pp, hardcover, April 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Sun 31 Mar 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-4408-3833-0
Academic nonfiction anthology of essays by numerous contributors consisting of several introductory essays and then some 100 or so alphabetical entries for authors and TV/films.
•The publisher’s site has this description with a preview function that includes the table of contents.
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Malerman, Josh : Inspection
(Del Rey 978-1524796990, $27, 400pp, hardcover, April 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 19 Mar 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781524797003
• Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9780525530930
Horror novel in which boy geniuses are trained at one school, girl geniuses at another, neither knowing of the existence of the other.
•Penguin Random House’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Nagata, Linda : Edges
(Mythic Island 978-1-937197-26-1, $18, 404pp, trade paperback, April 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 2 Apr 2019
• Inverted Frontier #1
SF novel, first in a new series linked to four earlier books in The Nanotech Succession ending with Vast (1998), about an isolated planet of survivors sending an expedition to discover what has destroyed the planets at the core of human civilization.
•The author/publisher’s site has a description and link to an excerpt.
•The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “This in-depth tour of a far-future cosmos will appeal to setting-oriented hard SF readers, but leave action-lovers unsatisfied.”
•Russell Letson reviews it in the April issue of Locus Magazine: “There is, of course, plenty going on in the largescale science-fictional side of the book: huge vistas of space and time, deep and mysterious histories, gods and monsters (and one god-monster), giant starships, alien threats, and a decent dose of space-battle. And this is only Act One.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Palmer, Suzanne : Finder
(DAW 978-0-7564-1510-5, $26, 400pp, hardcover, April 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 2 Apr 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780756415112
SF novel, the author’s first novel, about interstellar repo man and professional finder Fergus Ferguson on a job to recover a spacecraft.
•Penguin Random House’s site has this description with an excerpt.
•The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “Palmer makes short-distance space travel feel as comfortable as riding a bicycle, and concludes this entertaining caper with a clever resolution and a hint of intrigue. Fans of space adventure will find this a fine example of the form.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Price, Kalayna : Grave Destiny
(Ace 978-0-451-41659-9, $7.99, 384pp, mass market paperback, April 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 2 Apr 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781101595114
• Alex Craft #6
Urban fantasy novel, sixth in a series following Grave Witch (2010), Grave Dance (2011), Grave Memory (2012), Grave Visions (2016), and Grave Ransom (2017), about Alex Craft, a police consultant who can communicate with the dead.
•Penguin Random House’s site has this description with a preview function.
•The Publishers Weekly review opens, “With style and a lovingly detailed exploration of the land of Faerie, the thoughtful, satisfying sixth Alex Craft urban fantasy transports readers to a world where magic rules and shadows come to life.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Simmons, Wm. Mark : A Witch in Time
(Baen 978-1-4814-8390-2, $25, 320pp, hardcover, April 2019, cover art Alan Pollack)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 2 Apr 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-62579-708-7
• Halflife Chronicles #5
Humorous fantasy novel, fifth in the series about Christopher Cséjthe, following One Foot in the Grave (1996), Dead on My Feet (2003), Habeas Corpses (2005) and Dead Easy (2007).
•Baen’s site has this description with a link to a page of samples.
•The Publishers Weekly review begins, “Simmons concludes his HalfLife Chronicles (after Dead Easy, which many readers assumed was the series ending) with a snappy, snarky, and surprisingly emotional grand finale that blends characters from weird fiction, gothic tales, and mythology into one fun, if crowded, universe.”
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
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* Starling, Caitlin : The Luminous Dead
(Harper Voyager 978-0-06-284690-7, $16.99, 432pp, trade paperback, April 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 2 Apr 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780062846914
• Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9780062898333
SF/horror novel, the author’s first novel, about a psychological battle between two women as one of them descends into a cave system on an alien planet.
•HarperCollins’ site has this description with a sample.
•Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: “This claustrophobic, horror-leaning tour de force is highly recommended for fans of Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation and Andy Weir’s The Martian.”
• 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.
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