New Books: 19 April 2022
Bowman, Akemi Dawn: The Genesis Wars 
(Simon & Schuster 978-1-5344-5654-9, $19.99, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 18, 2022)
Young-adult SF novel, second in the Infinity Courts series, taking place 10 months after the events of the previous book.
Cervantes, J.C.: Flirting with Fate 
(Penguin Random House/Razorbill 978-0-593-40445-4, $18.99, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 19, 2022)
Young-adult fantasy romance novel. Ava’s recently deceased Nana is stuck as a ghost unless Ava can get her blessing back from a boy with whom she had a fender bender just before Nana died.
Clare, Jessica: Go Hex Yourself 
(Penguin Random House/Jove 78-0593337561, $16.00, 384pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, April 19, 2022)
Humorous paranormal romance novel. A help wanted ad turns out to be a job working for a real witch, not a game company.
Crowley, John: Flint and Mirror 
(Tor 978-1-250-81752-5, $26.99, 256pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 19, 2022)
Historical fantasy novel, expanded from the eponymous novelette (2018). During Elizabethan conflicts between the Irish and English invaders, one lord gets an obsidian mirror from the queen, commanding his obedience, but the ancient peoples of Ireland arise from the underworld and make him their champion.
Griffith, Nicola: Spear 
(Tordotcom 978-1-250-81932-1, $19.99, 192pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 19, 2022)
Queer Arthurian fantasy novel.
Spear is told from the point of view of a young girl who, disguised as male, grows up to become a version of Parsifal or Perceval – here called Peredur, which can be translated as “spear”. By setting her tale in sixth-century Wales, Griffith uses largely Welsh equivalents of familiar Arthurian figures; Sir Kay becomes Cei, Guinevere Gwynhwifar, Merlin Myrddyn, Arthur himself Artos, etc. (though Nimuë remains Nimuë, as Peredur’s main love interest). Camelot becomes the actual Welsh region of Caer Leon. Griffith also tosses in bits of Irish mythology, such as the Tuath Dé, which provides the four treasures – a stone, a sword, a cup, and a spear – that play a central role in Peredur’s adventures.
Herman, Christine Lynn: The Drowning Summer 
(Little, Brown 978-0759557536, $18.99, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, April 19, 2022)
Young-adult contemporary fantasy novel. Rising sea levels lead to more powerful ghosts, and a summoning that goes wrong reveals the truth about a murder six years ago.
Kotler, Steven: The Devil’s Dictionary 
(St. Martin’s 978-1-250-20209-3, $27.99, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 19, 2022)
Near-future climate technothriller/cyberpunk novel, sequel to Last Tango in Cyberspace. Lion Zorn, who can sense emotions, bond with animals, and sense coming culture trends, investigates strange creatures turning up in a huge wildlife refuge.
Mandel, Emily St. John: Sea of Tranquility 
(Penguin Random House/Knopf 978-0593321447, $25.00, 272pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 5, 2022)
SF novel ranging from 1912 British Columbia to the moon in 2401, with a time traveler.
And now comes Sea of Tranquility, a short novel that, amongst other things, is a sequel to The Glass Hotel, a meta-fictional commentary on Station Eleven, and a work that embraces the core tropes of genre fiction, imagining a far future of moon colonies, a climate affected Earth and time travel.
Monáe, Janelle: The Memory Librarian and Other Stories of Dirty Computer 
(Harper Voyager US 978-0-06-307087-5, $28.99, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 19, 2022)
Afrofuturistic science fantasy collection of five stories based on Monáe’s album Dirty Computer and related short film; each story is a collaboration with a different author, including Alaya Dawn Johnson, Danny Lore, and Sheree Renée Thomas.
Each story in the anthology covers different characters and moments in time in this alternate version of our world. We are introduced to the world of Dirty Computer through Johnson’s “The Memory Librarian”. Seshet is the titular character, a woman who enforces the authoritarian goals of the New Dawn by harvesting and erasing memories. Compliance, or being “clean,” is god here. Those who cannot or will not conform are deemed non-compliant, or “dirty computers,” and removed from the population. Some have escaped the city while others have found ways large and small to resist. Despite her powerful position, Seshet is Black and queer, so she must work twice as hard to prove her loyalty. When she develops feelings for a trans woman with a dirty computer past, Seshet’s whole identity is thrown into chaos.
Roanhorse, Rebecca: Fevered Star 
(Simon & Schuster/Saga Press 978-1534437739, $27.99, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 19, 2022)
Epic fantasy novel, second in the Between Earth and Sky series inspired by the Anasazi.
Rock, Peter: Passersthrough 
(Soho Press 9781641293433, $26.00, 240pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 19, 2022)
Horror/ghost story. Woman and her father reconnect after two decades of estrangement and try to understand a past trauma; meanwhile, the father stumbles on a murder house/possession/body horror and bone-filled Sad Clown Lake which is never in the same place twice.
Rollins, James: Kingdom of Bones 
(HarperCollins/Morrow 978-0-06-289298-0, $20.49, 464pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 19, 2022)
Secret-history SF thriller, #22 in the Sigma Force series. A mysterious force in an African village is making humans dumber and nature smarter and more predatory.
Romasco-Moore, Maria: I Am the Ghost in Your House 
(Penguin Random House/Delacorte 978-0593177211, $18.99, pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 19, 2022)
Young-adult fantasy novel about an invisible girl struggling to see herself in a world obsessed with appearances.
Savaryn, Lorelei: The Edge of In Between 
(Penguin Random House/Viking 978-0-593-20209-8, $17.99, 304pp, formats: hardcover, audio, April 19, 2022)
Middle-grade fantasy novel, a more magical take on The Secret Garden. Lottie has to go live with an eccentric uncle she didn’t know existed, who lives on the border between the living and the dead.
Wolford, Kate, ed.: Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers 
(World Weaver Press 978-1-734054569, $15.95, 216pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, April 19, 2022)
Original anthology of 12 stories about fairy godmothers in varied forms.
Xuetao, Shuang: Rouge Street 
(Macmillan/Holt/Metropolitan 978-1-250-83587-1, $26.99, 240pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 19, 2022)
Collection of three novellas of Northeast China, mixing noir, realism, and mysticism. Translated by Jeremy Tiang from the Chinese. Author’s English-language debut.
