New & Notable Books, February 2020
Ilona Andrews, Small Magics (Subterranean 12/19) Limited edition collection of five previously published stories from the husband-and-wife writing team behind the bestselling Kate Daniels series, also includes full-color interior illustrations and, for the first time in print, the entire collected “Curran’s Point of View” pieces.
Deborah Teramis Christian, Splintegrate (Tor 12/19) The long-awaited return to the Sa’adani Empire is finally here in a standalone sequel to 1996’s Mainline (as Deborah Christian). Kes, a weaponized dominatrix clone, is trapped between Imperial government forces and a major crime cartel in a high-stakes game of sex, power, and cybernetics.
Harlan Ellison, Ellison Under Glass (Charnel House 12/19) In a set of distinctively packaged limited editions, this collection gathers 29 stories Ellison wrote in bookstore windows and other public places. All the stories were eventually revised and published, but this is a rare chance to see them all in their in-window “draft” versions, before Ellison polished them, and b&w photos of Ellison in performance add to the experience.
Elizabeth Hand, Curious Toys (Mulholland 10/19) This alternate-historical-crime novel revolves around 14-year-old Pin, real-life outsider artist Henry Darger, and their hunt for a murderer who haunts Chicago’s Riverview Park. Hand combines impeccable historical research with a wholly invented serial killer to create a twisty, spiraling murder mystery.
Matthew Hughes, What the Wind Brings (Pulp Literature 8/19) Weaving magic and history into an epic slipstream opus, Matthew Hughes tells the tale of three shipwreck survivors – a slave, a prisoner, and a shaman – and the indigenous peoples of Ecuador fighting the powers of colonial Spain for independence.
Linda Nagata, Silver (Mythic Island 11/19) Nagata’s continued Inverted Frontier series offers “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” [Russell Letson, on volume one, Edges]. This is far-future, high-tech space opera to take on the legacy of Iain M. Banks.
Malka Older, …and Other Disasters (Mason Jar 11/19) Hugo Award finalist Malka Older’s fresh, new collection takes us on a journey through a landscape riddled with disasters both natural and man-made, told in short fiction, poetry, and pieces that blur the two.
Tochi Onyebuchi, Riot Baby (Tor.com Publishing 1/20) Two super-powered siblings growing up in New York take on racism and police brutality in this incendiary adult fiction debut from Nommo winner Onyebuchi, who cites Black Lives Matter and his time working for Columbia’s Mass Incarceration clinic, the Civil Rights Bureau, and the Legal Aid Society as inspirations.
Jerry Pournelle, The Best of Jerry Pournelle (Baen 11/19) 22 pieces of fiction and non-fiction collected by Pournelle’s long-time assistant, John F. Carr, with 16 works by Pournelle, some with collaborators, and non-fiction by Steven Barnes, David Gerrold, Larry Niven, and others. Two of the Pournelle stories are originals, including “The Last Shot”, which was slated to appear in Harlan Ellison’s The Last Dangerous Visions.
Charles Soule, Anyone (Harper Perennial 12/19) People become addicted to “Flash” – the ability to leap consciousnesses across bodies – in this SF thriller novel from acclaimed comics writer Charles Soule, complete with a seedy underworld, a darknet, and all the character complications that entails.
Jeff VanderMeer, Dead Astronauts (MCD 12/19) Part Borne sequel, part New Weird tone poem, Dead Astronauts thrusts the reader back into the hallucinogenic landscape of an ecologically destroyed City, in which time-traveling, mutant experiments have escaped the Company and battle for control of the future or, possibly, all of reality. Not for the faint of heart.
From the February 2020 issue of Locus.
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