New Books: 18 January 2022

Atwood, Rachel: Outcasts of the Wildwood

(DAW 978-0-7564-1757-4, $17.00, 304pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, January 18, 2022)

Historical fantasy novel, book two in the Walk the Wild With Me series. Robin Goodfellow is cursed. Half of each day he must spend as a hideous gnome with a bit of magic and near immortality. The other half of the day he can live as Robin Hood, archer of legend.

 

Bartlett, Jordan H.: Contest of Queens

(CamCat Books 978-0-7445-0498-5, $24.99, 688pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, January 18, 2022)

Fantasy novel. Inventor’s apprentice Jacs participates in the Contest of Queens to prove that a queendom is strongest when united.

 

Breakwell, James: The Chosen Twelve

(Rebellion/Solaris US 9781786185174, $14.99, 384pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, January 18, 2022)

SF thriller novel. The last colony ship with the last humans (after robots killed all the rest) has to train all the humans for colonization on a planet filled with monsters, and the robots are all programmed to kill each other.

 

Chambers, Robert W.: A Little Yellow Book of Carcosa and Kings

(Borderlands Press no ISBN, $30.00, formats: hardcover, January 15, 2022)

Collection of the four stories in Chambers’s King in Yellow cycle. Edited by Lisa Morton. This is a signed (by the editor), limited edition of 500, the 2nd volume in Borderlands’ Little Book Series IV.

 

Clark, Zack Loran: The Lock-Eater

(Penguin Random House/Dial 978-1-9848-1688-7, $17.99, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, January 18, 2022)

Middle-grade fantasy novel about an orphan girl with the ability to unlock anything.

 

Clarke, Cassandra Rose: The Beholden

(Erewhon 978-1-64566-025-5, $18.95, 544pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, January 16, 2022)

Fantasy novel. Destitute sisters make a deal with a river goddess, but when she comes to collect they end up on a dangerous quest through the rainforest.

 

Courtois, Grégoire: The Agents

(Coach House Books 978-1-55245-432-9, $17.95, 224pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, January 18, 2022)

Satiric SF novel about agents who don’t know what they’re agents of, in a building where they live and work, watching data and battling each other on empty floors — and defenestration seem to be the only way out. Translated by Rhonda Mullins from the French Les Agents (Le Quartanier 2019).

 

DeMeester, Kristi: Such a Pretty Smile

(St. Martin’s 978-1-250-27421-2, $27.99, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, January 18, 2022)

Feminist horror novel following two stories involving mental illness and gender-based violence, one about a girl named Lila in present-day suburban Atlanta, the other following Lila’s mother in pre-Katrina New Orleans.

 

Elliott, Kate: Servant Mage

(Tordotcom 978-1-250-76905-3, $19.99, 176pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, January 18, 2022)

Fantasy novella. Lowly fire mage Fellion is freed from indentured servitude my rebels who need her help.

 

Ford, R.S.: Engines of Empire

(Orbit US 978-0-316-62956-0, $17.99, 624pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, January 18, 2022)

Epic fantasy novel, the first in the Engines of Empire trilogy about revolution in a world of clashing Guilds and magic-fueled machines. The heirs to the powerful Hawkspur family tackle trouble in different areas.

 

Garfinkle, Gwynne: Can’t Find My Way Home

(Aqueduct Press 978-1-61976-212-1, $20.00, 342pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, January 14, 2022)

Horror novel/ghost story set in the 1970s. A former Vietnam War protester, who backed out of a bombing that killed a friend, tries to build a new life after the war and starts seeing her dead friend’s ghost. Part of the Conversation Pieces series.

 

Lam, Laura, May, Elizabeth: Seven Mercies

(DAW 978-0-7564-1582-2, $26.00, 432pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, January 18, 2022)

Space opera SF novel, the second in a duology about female resistance fighters opposing the Tholosian Empire.

 

Nagamatsu, Sequoia: How High We Go in the Dark

(HarperCollins/Morrow 978-0-06-307264-0, $27.99, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, January 18, 2022)

SF novel-in-stories of climate change, and an ancient virus released from Antarctic ice. Earlier versions of 11 chapters appeared as separate stories in various publications.