New Books : 7 July 2020

A Book of Dragons, a History of Fantasy Illustration, and two very different princesses on this week’s list of new books!


* Asaro, Catherine : The Vanished Seas
(Baen 978-1-9821-2471-7, $16, 352pp, trade paperback, July 2020)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 7 Jul 2020
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-62579-775-9
Major Bhaajan #3

SF novel in the author’s long-running Skolian Saga, and third in a series about Major Bhaajan following Undercity (2014) and The Bronze Skies (2017).
• Baen’s site has this description, with a link to a page of samples.
Publishers Weekly gave the previous book a starred review: “Not just for fans of Asaro’s Skolian Saga, this exciting novel stands alone for anyone who enjoys science fiction adventure.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

– – –

* Butler, D. J. : In the Palace of Shadow and Joy
(Baen 978-1-9821-2470-0, $16, 288pp, trade paperback, July 2020)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 7 Jul 2020
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-62579-774-2

Far future SF adventure about the last person alive who carries his people’s history and mythology in his head.
• Baen’s site has this description with a link to a page with samples.

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

– – –

* Elliott, Kate : Unconquerable Sun
(Tor 978-1-250-19724-5, $27.99, 528pp, hardcover, July 2020)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 7 Jul 2020
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781250197252
Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9781250755261
The Sun Chronicles #1

Space opera novel, first in a series inspired by Alexander the Great, about the coming of age of Princess Sun.
• Macmillan’s site has this description with an excerpt.
Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: “Rich with history, tongue-in-cheek humor, cultural references, and vibrant characters, this highly entertaining series launch will have readers clamoring for more.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

– – –

* Ford, Jackson : Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air
(Orbit 978-0-316-51922-9, $16.99, 544pp, trade paperback, July 2020)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 7 Jul 2020
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780316519182
Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9781549102004
The Frost Files #2

Fantasy novel, second in a series following The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with Her Mind (2019), about a telekinetic young woman carrying out secret missions for the government.
• Hachette’s site has this description with an excerpt. The site notes that “Jackson Ford is a pseudonym for a critically acclaimed science fiction author.”
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “Readers who enjoyed Teagan’s first brush with disaster will be thrilled to see her pushed beyond her limits in this winning sequel.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

– – –

* Gannon, Charles E. : At the End of the World
(Baen 978-1-9821-2469-4, $25, 272pp, hardcover, July 2020)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 7 Jul 2020
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-62579-773-5
Black Tide Rising #8

SF/horror novel, eighth book in a series following books by John Ringo, some with coauthors: Under a Graveyard Sky (2013), To Sail a Darkling Sea (2014), Islands of Rage and Hope (2014), Strands of Sorrow (2015), the anthology Black Tide Rising (2017), The Valley of Shadows (2018), and River of Night (2019), about a zombie apocalypse brought about by an airborne plague.
• Baen’s site has this description with a link to a page with several samples.

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

– – –

* Henning, Sarah : The Princess Will Save You
(Tor Teen 978-1250237422, $17.99, 352pp, hardcover, July 2020)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 7 Jul 2020
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781250237415

Young adult fantasy novel, inspired by The Princess Bride, about a princess who must rescue her true love.
• Macmillan’s site has this description with an excerpt.

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

– – –

* Kowalski, Jesse, ed. : Enchanted: A History of Fantasy Illustration
(Abbeville 978-0789213709, $45, 256pp, hardcover, July 2020)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 7 Jul 2020

History of fantasy illustration, intended to coincide with an exhibit at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge MA, now postponed to 2021.
• The exhibit page has a long list of participating artists, and several sample images.

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

– – –

* Kuhn, Sarah : Haunted Heroine
(DAW 978-0756416492, $15.99, 400pp, trade paperback, July 2020)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 7 Jul 2020
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780756416508
Heroine Complex #4

Fantasy novel, fourth in a series following Heroine Complex (2016), Heroine’s Worship (2017), and Heroine’s Journey (2018), about Asian American superheroines in a San Francisco beset by demons.
• Penguin Random House’s site has this description with a preview function.

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

– – –

+ Strahan, Jonathan, ed. : The Book of Dragons
(Harper Voyager 978-0-06-287716-1, $35, 576pp, hardcover, July 2020)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 7 Jul 2020
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780062877178
Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9780063012691

Anthology of 29 original stories and poems, with illustrations by Rovina Cai.
• Authors include Jane Yolen, Ken Liu, Jo Walton, K.J. Parker, Peter S. Beagle, Garth Nix, and Michael Swanwick.
• The UK edition from HarperVoyager was published June 20th.
• HarperCollins’ site has this description with an audio excerpt.
Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: “There is not a single false note among these 29 stories and poems of dragons collected by Strahan. Strahan’s passion for the mythological creatures is infectious and evident in his selections, which draw from many different myths and cultures…”
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews it in detail in the July issue of Locus Magazine: “Capably following in the brilliant tradition of Gardner Dozois’s Book of Magic or Book of Swords, The Book of Dragons seems almost certain to be the most significant fantasy anthology of 2020.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

– – –

* Taylor, Travis S., et al : Battle Luna
(Baen 978-1-9821-2468-7, $25, 288pp, hardcover, July 2020)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 7 Jul 2020
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-62579-772-8

Anthology of seven original stories about the fight for Lunar independence.
• The other four authors credited on the cover are Timothy Zahn, Michael Z. Williamson, Kacey Ezell, and Josh Hayes.
• Baen’s site has this description with a link to a page of samples.

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

– – –

* Tintera, Amy : All These Monsters
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 978-0-358-01240-5, $17.99, 464pp, hardcover, July 2020)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 7 Jul 2020
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: B07SZBFM35
Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 978-0358343097

Young adult SF novel, first in a series, about a teenage girl who escapes her abusive father by joining an international monster-fighting squad.
• The publisher’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “Peppered with explosive fight scenes, this action-packed novel moves at a swift pace, featuring robust, emotionally resonant characters.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

– – –

* Tremblay, Paul : Survivor Song
(Morrow 978-0-06-267916-1, $27.99, 320pp, hardcover, July 2020)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 7 Jul 2020
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780062679185
Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9780063015890

Horror novel about a rabies-like virus, that turns its victims into homicidal maniacs, quickly spreading throughout Massachusetts.
• HarperCollins’ site has this description with an audio excerpt.
Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: “The vividly drawn characters of Ramola and Natalie give the story an uncommon emotional intensity. This is genuinely hard to put down.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

– – –

* VanderMeer, Jeff : A Peculiar Peril
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux 978-0-374-30886-5, $19.99, 656pp, hardcover, July 2020)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 7 Jul 2020
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780374308896
Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9781250211835
The Misadventures of Jonathan Lambshead #1

Young adult fantasy novel, first in a duology, about a boy and two of his friends who discover his deceased grandfather’s house is a portal to an alt-Earth dominated by Aleister Crowley.
• Macmillan’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “First in a duology, adult author VanderMeer’s sprawling YA debut offers a riotous, slyly sophisticated take on the hero’s journey. Boldly drawn characters, sublimely ridiculous worldbuilding, and a witty, prismatic narrative further distinguish the unique tale.”
• Ian Mond reviews it in the July issue of Locus Magazine: “A Peculiar Peril does a terrific job broadening the scope of the Lambshead-Universe; and while it may lack the literary pyrotechnics of VanderMeer’s recent adult fiction, the novel pleasingly features his trademark sense of the weird, his fascination with bizarre environments and alien perspectives, and, of course, talking animals.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

– – –

* Walton, Jo : Or What You Will
(Tor 978-1-250-30899-3, $26.99, 320pp, hardcover, July 2020)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 7 Jul 2020
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781250309013

Fantasy novel about a successful fantasy writer and a character who has played parts in many of her books.
• Macmillan’s site has this description with an excerpt.
Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: Walton “brilliantly braids somber realism, fanciful metafiction, and Shakespearean-influenced fantasy into a moving paean to the power of storytelling.”
• Gary K. Wolfe reviewed it in the June issue of Locus Magazine: “…these asides are only one of the ways in which Or What You Will is a critical fiction, carrying on its own negotiations between differing ideas of history, biography, and imagination; between Thalia’s dream of an eternal Renaissance and the reality of progress and change. If a Renaissance never changes, she reminds us, it isn’t really a Renaissance at all.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

– – –

* Yoss : Red Dust
(Restless Books 978-1-63206-246-8, $16.99, 208pp, trade paperback, July 2020)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 7 Jul 2020
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: B0845V2KQ5

SF novel in the publisher’s Cuban Science Fiction series, translated by David Frye, about a robot detective in search of extraterrestrial criminals.
• The publisher’s site has this description with quotes from reviews.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “though the mile a minute plot briefly stalls for some late-night philosophizing between the heroes, it regains its footing and barrels into a cinematic shoot-out of a finale, complete with bullets, blasters, and samurai swords. This is good fun.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound

– – –


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.


Locus Magazine, Science Fiction FantasyWhile you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like to keep the site paywall free, but WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT to continue quality coverage of the science fiction and fantasy field.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *