New Books: 12 October 2021
Anipare, Sifton Tracey: Yume 
(Rare Machines 978-1-4597-4737-1, $19.99, 536pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, October 12, 2021)
Contemporary fantasy novel about a Canadian woman teaching English in a small city in Japan, who gets caught up in supernatural chaos.
Baker, A. Deborah: Along the Saltwise Sea
(Tordotcom 978-1-250-76828-5, $19.99, 208pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, October 12, 2021)
Written by Seanan McGuire. Middle-grade fantasy novel, the second book in the Up-and-Under series begun in Over the Woodward Wall—the book-within-a-book from McGuire’s Middlegame. Avery and Zib must work on a pirate queen’s ship, sailing for lands unknown.
Baker, Kylie Lee: The Keeper of Night 
(Harlequin/Inkyard Press 978-1-335-40566-1, $18.99, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, October 12, 2021)
Historical fantasy novel, the first in the eponymous duology. Ren Scarborough is Half British Reaper, half Japanese Shinigami. She is forced to flee London and goes seeking acceptance in Japan.
Brissett, Jennifer Marie: Destroyer of Light 
(Tor 978-1-250-26865-5, $25.99, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, October 12, 2021)
Alien conquerors resettle humanity on a planet with limited inhabitable zones. Three interwoven stories explore the violence and conflict of their situation.
Bruce, Scott G., ed.: The Penguin Book of Dragons 
(Penguin Random House/Penguin Classics 9780143135043, $18, 384pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, October 12, 2021)
Mix of non-fiction, folk tales, and ancient legends, from around the world to modern times, including literary examples like excerpts from Edmund Spenser’s The Fairie Queen, John Milton’s Paradise Lost, and clippings from early American newspapers. First time in English for 20% of selections. All entries include context and commentary from the editor, who is a professor of medieval history.
Candon, Emma Mieko: Star Wars Visions: Ronin 
(Penguin Random House/Del Rey 9780593358665, $28.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, October 12, 2021)
A mysterious former Sith wanders the galaxy in this original novel inspired by the world of The Duel from the Star Wars Visions animated anthology.
Carson, Rae: Any Sign of Life 
(HarperCollins/Greenwillow 978-0-06-269193-4, $17.99, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, October 12, 2021)
Young-adult post-apocalyptic SF novel. Paige Miller wakes in the hospital and discovers everyone else in town, perhaps everyone in the world, is dead.
Caruso, Melissa: The Quicksilver Court 
(Orbit US 978-0-316-45435-3, $16.99, 544pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, October 12, 2021)
Fantasy novel, the second in the Rooks and Ruin trilogy, set in the same world as the Swords and Fire trilogy. The Door in the black tower has opened, and demons walk the world. Ryx will have to sacrifice much to stop a new artifact that can wipe out all life.
Kim, Un-Su: The Cabinet 
(Angry Robot US 978-0-857669179, $14.99, 400pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, October 12, 2021)
SF novel made up of interwoven stories, about a cabinet filled with files on the “symptomers,” humans whose strange abilities and bizarre experiences might mark the emergence of a new species, and the harried office worker who manages it. Translated by Sean Lin Halbert from the Korean.
Künsken, Derek: The Quantum War 
(Rebellion/Solaris US 978-1781089248, $14.99, 400pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, October 12, 2021)
Far-future SF novel, third in the Quantum Evolution series. War continues as the Union pilots encounter strange new AI enhanced adversaries.
Maguire, Gregory: The Brides of Maracoor 
(HarperCollins/Morrow 978-0-06-309396-6, $28.99, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, October 12, 2021)
Literary fantasy Oz novel, the first in a new series spun off from The Wicked Years series, featuring Elphaba’s green-skinned granddaughter Rain, who washes up with amnesia in Maracoor, where there must always be exactly seven exiled brides—and her arrival upsets everything.
Malerman, Josh: Pearl 
(Penguin Random House/Del Rey 978-0-593237830, $27, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, October 12, 2021)
Horror novel. A small town in Michigan has a telepathic pig that can control human minds, and drive them mad with hallucinations.
Roth, Veronica, Adams, John Joseph, eds.: The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2021 
(HarperCollins/Mariner 978-0-358-46996-4, $16.99, 432pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, October 12, 2021)
Best of the year anthology, the seventh in the series, with 20 stories from 2020. Introduction by Roth; foreword by series editor John Joseph Adams, who also provides his own list of notable stories.
Rowling, J.K.: The Christmas Pig 
(Scholastic 9781338790238, $24.99, 288pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, October 12, 2021)
Fantasy middle-grade novel about a boy who loses his favorite toy, and its replacement—the Christmas Pig—has a daring plan to find it, requiring a magical journey. Illustrated by Jim Field.
Verble, Margaret: When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky 
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 978-0-358-55483-7, $27, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, October 12, 2021)
Fantasy/horror novel involving Two-Feathers, a Cherokee horse-diver and her friends at a zoo in 1926 Nashville, as they try to understand what is causing the zoo to be haunted.
