New Books: 5 April 2022
Aguirre, Ann: Boss Witch 
(Sourcebooks Casablanca 978-1-72824-019-0, $15.99, 368pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, April 5, 2022)
Feminist fantasy romantic comedy novel, the second in the Fix-It Witches series. A perfectly logical witch and a dedicated witch hunter shouldn’t have feelings for each other, but can’t resist.
Anders, Charlie Jane: Dreams Bigger than Heartbreak 
(Tor Teen 978-1-250-31739-1, $18.99, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 5, 2022)
Young-adult SF novel, second in the Unstoppable series begun in Victories Greater Than Death. Rachael and Elza find the dreams they left Earth for aren’t coming out right.
If Anders’s first volume, Victories Greater than Death, leaned a bit heavily on classic SF-style geek valorization, with brilliant misfit kids from all over the world joining a starship crew of the Royal Fleet, Dreams Bigger than Heartbreak develops them into more compelling and conflicted characters who have learned to confront loss and rejection as well as to pull off hairbreadth escapes and brilliant last-minute improvisations.
—Gary Wolfe, Locus, February 2022
Anderson, Lily: Scout’s Honor 
(Macmillan/Holt 978-1-250-24673-8, $18.99, 416pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 5, 2022)
Young-adult fantasy novel. The Ladybird Scouts look like a prim social organization, but are actually trained to hunt intergalactic parasites.
Barenbaum, Rachel: Atomic Anna 
(Grand Central 978-1-5387-3486-5, $28.00, 448pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 5, 2022)
SF time-travel novel. A nuclear scientist in 1986 Chernobyl the day of the meltdown gets transported to 1992 Armenia to meet her dying daughter, then further into the future to save a granddaughter.
Bond, Gwenda: The Date from Hell 
(St. Martin’s Griffin 978-1-250-77176-6, $16.99, 336pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, April 5, 2022)
Humorous fantasy romance novel, the second in a series about a woman who teams up with the devil’s son to prevent the apocalypse.
Dalglish, David: The Bladed Faith 
(Orbit US 978-0-759-55708-6, $17.99, 512pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, April 5, 2022)
Fantasy novel, first in the Vagrant Gods trilogy. The exiled prince of a defeated kingdom steps into the role of a legendary assassin to inspire a revolution.
Davenport, N.E.: The Blood Trials 
(Harper Voyager US 978-0-06-305848-4, $27.99, 464pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 5, 2022)
Military science fantasy novel, the first in the Blood Gift duology. A young woman fights racism and hides her blood gift powers as she goes through the Praetorian Trials to get revenge on her grandfather’s killer.
Davis, Hank, Ruocchio, Christopher, eds.: Time Troopers 
(Baen 978-1-9821-2603-2, $8.99, 575pp, format: ebook, April 5, 2022)
Anthology of time travel military SF short stories, including stories from Robert Silverberg, Poul Anderson, Fritz Leiber, John C. Wright, H. Beam Piper and more.
Egan, Jennifer: The Candy House 
(Simon & Schuster/Scribner 978-1476716763, $28.00, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 5, 2022)
Mainstream/postmodern novel with SF elements, followup to A Visit from the Goon Squad. Bix creates Own Your Unconscious, a technology that lets users access the memories of others if they share their own.
Ford, John M.: Aspects 
(Tor 978-1-250-26903-4, $26.99, pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 5, 2022)
Fantasy novel, Ford’s final, unfinished at the time of his death. Introduction by Neil Gaiman.
Gaiman, Neil, Doran, Colleen: Chivalry 
(Dark Horse Books 978-1506719115, $19.99, 72pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, April 5, 2022)
Graphic novel adaptation of Gaiman’s short story, illustrated by Doran. An elderly British widow buys what turns out to be the Holy Grail from a second-hand shop.
Ganguly, Gigi: One Arm Shorter Than the Other 
(Atthis Arts 978-1-945009-77-8, $15.95, 158pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, April 5, 2022)
Fantasy novella in two parts. Broken items brought to Dadaji’s repair shop in Delhi end up transformed.
Hoffman, Cara: Ruin 
(PM Press 978-1-62963-929-1, $15.00, 136pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, April 5, 2022)
Collection of ten interconnected short stories, examining an American state in free-fall.
Hudson, Andrew Dana: Our Shared Storm 
(Fordham University Press 978-0823299546, $19.95, 224pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, April 5, 2022)
Climate-based SF novel showing five possible futures for attendees at a 2054 Buenos Aires climate conference, from a dystopian hypercapitalist world to an effort at a communal utopia. Technical details scattered throughout and an academic introduction and afterword help explain the modeling on which the futures were based.
Locke, Katherine: This Rebel Heart 
(Penguin Random House/Knopf 978-0-593-38124-3, $18.99, 448pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 5, 2022)
Historical fantasy/magical realism YA novel set in 1956 Budapest, about an angel, a magic river, a golem, and a revolution, and Csilla, a Jewish Holocaust survivor in Hungary during a time of revolution.
McCammon, Robert: I Travel by Night and Last Train from Perdition 
(Open Road 978-1-5040-7427-8, $8.99, 237pp, formats: ebook, April 5, 2022)
Collection/omnibus of two novellas: I Travel by Night (2015) and Last Train from Perdition (2016).
Oyebanji, Adam: Braking Day 
(DAW 978-0-7564-1822-9, $27.00, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 5, 2022)
SF novel about a generation ship reaching its destination.
Pelot, Mayi: Memories of Tomorrow 
(Aqueduct Press 978-1-61976-226-8, $16.00, 160pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, March 30, 2022)
Collection by the Basque author, one of the first to write genre fiction in her language. Translated by Arrate Hidalgo. Volume six in Aqueduct’s Heirloom Book series.
Power, Rory: In a Garden Burning Gold 
(Penguin Random House/Del Rey 978-0-593-35497-1, $27.00, 432pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 5, 2022)
Fantasy horror novel inspired by Greek myth, about twins with incredible magic and near-immortality, who will do anything to keep their family in power.
Ringo, John, Sherrer, Lydia: Into the Real 
(Baen 978-1-9821-2600-1, $25.00, 448pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, April 5, 2022)
SF novel, the first in the TransDimensional Hunter series. Lynn Raven beta tests an augmented reality game and has to deal with the real world when problems crop up.
Ryan, Lindy, Miller, Toni, eds.: Under Her Skin 
(Vesuvian/Black Spot Books 9781645480440, $14.95, 162pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, April 5, 2022)
Original poetry anthology with 88 poems, the first volume in the Women in Horror series. This volume centers on body horror. Poets include Jennifer Crow, Tiffany Morris, Lee Murray, Annie Neugebauer, Morgan Sylvia, and Stephanie M. Wytovich. Foreword by Linda D. Addison; introduction by Toni Miller. Illustrated by Marge Simon.
Sanderson, Brandon, Patterson, Janci: Skyward Flight: The Collection 
(Penguin Random House/Delacorte 978-0-593-56785-2, $22.99, 640pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, April 5, 2022)
Young-adult collection of three novellas previously published as ebooks: Sunreach, ReDawn, and Evershore. Skyward Flight travels to the planet Detritus—humanity’s final refuge from the hostile Galactic Superiority government.
Shambrook, Lisa: The Seren Stone 
(BHC Press 978-1-64397-251-0, $23.99, 278pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, April 5, 2022)
SF adventure/romance novel, first in the Andromeda Chronicles series. Loren accidentally invokes the magical powers of her mother’s necklace, sending her and her siblings into the distant future.
Spencer, Wen: Harbinger 
(Baen 978-1-9821-2601-8, $25.00, 448pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, April 5, 2022)
Fantasy novel, fifth in the Elfhome series (not counting the Project Elfhome collection). Tinker discovers she has siblings, some yet unborn.
Taylor, Emily J.: Hotel Magnifique 
(Penguin Random House/Razorbill 9780593404515, $18.99, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 5, 2022)
Young-adult fantasy novel. Jani gets a job in a legendary hotel full of enchantments with the ability to travel, but also full of dangerous secrets.
