New Books : 3 December 2019

New titles this week are by Tomi Adeyemi, Rachel Atwood, Richard Baker, Larry Correia, John Crowley, Julie E. Czerneda, Christopher Fowler, Mercedes Lackey, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, Brian McClellan, K.J. Parker, Charles Soule, Jeff VanderMeer, Michael A. Ventrella & Randee Dawn, K.B. Wagers, Angus Watson, and Michael Z. Williamson.

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* Adeyemi, Tomi : Children of Virtue and Vengeance
(Henry Holt 978-1250170996, $19.99, 416pp, hardcover, December 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Dec 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781250171009
• Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9781250309914
• Legacy of Orisha #2

Young adult fantasy novel, second in a series following Children of Blood and Bone (2018), set in a West African-inspired magical world.
• Macmillan’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• Publishers Weekly gave the first book a starred review: “Complex characters, colossal stakes, and a kaleidoscopic narrative captivate, and the book’s punishing pace catapults readers to a jaw-dropping conclusion that poses as many questions as it answers.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

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* Atwood, Rachel : Walk the Wild with Me
(DAW 978-0-75641484-9, $16, 320pp, trade paperback, December 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Dec 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780756414856

Historical fantasy novel, the author’s first novel, about an English boy who gains access to the realm of Faery.
• Penguin Random House’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “Infusing the story of the Sherwood outlaws with magic is a well-established trope, but shifting the focus from Robin to Little John is a welcome innovation, and Nick’s fresh eyes breathe life into the legend. Atwood’s lively tale is sure to appeal to lovers of mythology and folklore.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

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* Baker, Richard : Scornful Stars
(Tor 978-0765390790, $21.99, 464pp, trade paperback, December 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Dec 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780765390806
• Breaker of Empires #3

Military SF novel, third in a series following Valiant Dust (2017) and Restless Lightning (2018), about a destroyer captain dealing with pirates and political intrigue.
• Macmillan’s site has this description with an excerpt.

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

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* Correia, Larry : Target Rich Environment, Volume 2
(Baen 978-1-9821-2422-9, $25, 352pp, hardcover, December 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Dec 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-62579-746-9

Collection of 13 previously-published stories, a couple published only online or as audiobooks.
• Baen’s site has this description with a link to a page of samples.

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

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* Crowley, John : Reading Backwards: Essays and Reviews, 2005-2018
(Subterranean Press 978-1-59606-946-6, $40, 464pp, hardcover, November 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Sat 30 Nov 2019

Collection of nonfiction essays and reviews.
• Subterranean’s site has this description with the table of contents.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “This book makes a fine companion volume to Crowley’s previous essay collection, In Other Words (2007), and it will likely send its readers to investigate more of the books and subjects it covers.”
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews it in the December issue of Locus Magazine: “So whether or not Crowley thinks he’s well read, the list of what he’s read isn’t quite like anyone else’s, and one of the fascinations of a collection like this is how it serves as a kind of self-excavated archeology of his imagination, and the light it sheds on Crowley’s own work.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

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* Czerneda, Julie E. : A Dragon for William
(DAW 978-0756415594, $2.99, 157pp, ebook, December 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Dec 2019
• Night’s Edge #3

Ebook-only novella set in the world of two-part series A Turn of Light (2013) and A Play of Shadow (2014), about a truthseeing boy who writes fanciful tales of dragons.
• Penguin Random House’s site has this description.

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

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+ Fowler, Christopher : Bryant & May: The Lonely Hour
(Bantam 978-0-525-48582-7, $28, 448pp, hardcover, December 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Dec 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780525485858
• Peculiar Crimes Unit #17

Supernatural crime novel, seventeenth in a series about detectives Bryant and May that began with Full Dark House (2004) and most recently included Wild Chamber (2017) and Hall of Mirrors (2018).
• Penguin Random House’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: “This whydunit is the epitome of an intelligent page-turner.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

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* Lackey, Mercedes : The Case of the Spellbound Child
(DAW 978-0756412111, $27, 320pp, hardcover, December 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Dec 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780756412135
• Elemental Masters #14

Fantasy novel, fourteenth book in the Elemental Masters series, following Fire Rose, Gates of Sleep, Serpent’s Shadow, Phoenix and Ashes, The Wizard of London, Reserved for the Cat, Unnatural Issue (2011), Elemental Magic (2012), Steadfast (2013), Blood Red (2014), From a High Tower (2015), A Study in Sable (2016), A Scandal in Battersea, and The Bartered Brides (2018), about Sherlock Holmes in an alternate 20th-century England.
• Penguin Random House’s site has this description with an excerpt.

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

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* Lee, Sharon, & Steve Miller : Accepting the Lance
(Baen 978-1-9821-2421-2, $25, 448pp, hardcover, December 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Dec 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-62579-745-2
• Liaden #22

SF novel in the authors’ long-running Liaden Universe series, a sequel to the previous novel Neogenesis (2018).
• Baen’s site has a description with a link to a page of samples.

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

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* McClellan, Brian : Blood of Empire
(Orbit 978 -0-316-40731-1, $29, 672pp, hardcover, December 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Dec 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780316407298
• Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9781478929369
• Gods of Blood and Powder #3

Fantasy novel, third in a trilogy following Sin of Empire (2017) and Wrath of Empire (2018), set in the capital city of a young nation where insurrection threatens.
• Hachette’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review but for some reason the text of the review is no longer online.

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

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* Parker, K. J. : My Beautiful Life
(Subterranean Press 978-1-59606-930-5, $40, 112pp, hardcover, November 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Sat 30 Nov 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-59606-931-2

Fantasy novella in which an old man looks back on his life of poverty, in which his older brother is sold to protect the family.
• Subterranean’s site has this description with an excerpt. (The Amazon page offers only the ebook edition.)
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “The narrator’s wry exploration of fate and free will is witty, sardonic, and intelligent. Parker’s fans will be delighted by the alternating pathos and pitch-black comedy.”
• Gary K. Wolfe reviewed it in the November issue of Locus Magazine: “Part Horatio Alger story as conceived by Machiavelli, part political and social parable – replete with Parker’s customary skill at describing in impressive detail how to run an empire at ground level – My Beautiful Life is as darkly funny and cheerfully appalling as we’ve come to expect from Parker.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

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* Soule, Charles : Anyone
(Harper Perennial 978-0-06-289063-4, $21.99, 432pp, hardcover, December 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Dec 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780062890658
• Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9780062931436

SF novel about how a new technology to transfer consciousness from one body to another transforms the world.
• HarperCollins’ site has this description with a sample.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “Soule’s uncomfortable vision of the future will please readers of cutting-edge speculative fiction.”
• Ian Mond reviews it in the December issue of Locus Magazine: “Anyone’s abrupt, almost unfinished climax raises several fascinating philosophical possibilities. It also suggests there’s more story to tell and, while I don’t generally advocate for sequels, I’m desperate to know what happens next.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

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* VanderMeer, Jeff : Dead Astronauts
(Farrar, Straus, Giroux/MCD 978-0-374-27680-5, $27, 336pp, hardcover, December 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Dec 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780374720704

SF novel set in the world of the author’s 2017 novel Borne, about a war for the fate of the world against an all-powerful organization.
• Macmillan’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• Ian Mond reviews it in the December issue of Locus Magazine: “Those expecting a novel with a similar feel and structure to Borne and The Strange Bird may initially find Dead Astronauts confounding. If they persevere – and I highly recommend they do – they will become immersed in a world that has the bones of those previous books but is so much more. Dead Astronauts is a story of hatred and revenge, of redemption and love, of environmental disaster and rebirth. It is unabashedly experimental, threaded with a lyricism and poetry – especially when it comes to describing the natural world – that is achingly beautiful, and, most pleasing of all is a work of fiction that harks back to the New Wave, igniting a beacon for other genre writers to follow.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

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* Ventrella, Michael A., & Randee Dawn, eds. : Across the Universe: Tales of Alternative Beatles
(Fantastic Books 978-1-5154-2395-9, $25.99, 280pp, hardcover, December 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Dec 2019

Anthology of 25 stories, some original and some reprint, about the Beatles.
• Authors include Pat Cadigan, Allen M. Steele, Spider Robinson, David Gerrold, and Gregory Benford.
• The publisher’s site has this description with the table of contents.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “Beatles aficionados and fantasy fans will enjoy this affectionate, speculative homage.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

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* Wagers, K. B. : Down Among the Dead
(Orbit 978-0-316-41125-7, $16.99, 448pp, trade paperback, December 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Dec 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780316411264
• The Farian War #2

SF novel, second in a space opera trilogy following There Before the Chaos (2018), about galactic gunrunner and former runaway princess Hail Bristol.
• Hachette’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “This excellent, electric space opera will delight Wagers’s fans and appeal to lovers of political speculative fiction.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

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* Watson, Angus : Where Gods Fear to Go
(Orbit 978-0-316-31745-0, $16.99, 544pp, trade paperback, December 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Dec 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780316317429
• Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9781549195037
• West of West #3

Epic fantasy novel, third in a trilogy following You Die When You Die (2017) and The Land You Never Leave (2018), about a group of refugees crossing a continent to fulfill destiny.
• Hachette’s site has this description with an excerpt.

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

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* Williamson, Michael Z., ed. : Freehold: Resistance
(Baen 978-1-9821-2423-6, $16, 512pp, trade paperback, December 2019)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 3 Dec 2019
• Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-62579-747-6
• Freehold #9

Mostly-original anthology of 18 stories set in the editor’s “Freehold” universe of novels.
• Authors include Larry Correia, Rob Reed, Tom Kratman, Tony Daniel, and Zachary Hill.
• Baen’s site has this description with a link to a page of samples.

• 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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