New Books: 17 May 2022
Abdullah, Chelsea: The Stardust Thief 
(Orbit US 978-0-316-36876-6, $28.00, 480pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, May 17, 2022)
Fantasy novel inspired by One Thousand and One Nights/Middle-Eastern folklore.
Afifi, Nadia: The Emergent 
(Flame Tree Press US 978-1787586666, $14.95, 320pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, May 17, 2022)
SF thriller/horror novel about clones and immortality, sequel to The Sentient.
Bustamante, Ashley: Vivid 
(Third Day Books/Enclave Escape 9781621842309, $22.99, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, May 17, 2022)
Young-adult fantasy novel about color-based magic. First book in the Color Theory series.
Choi, Eric: Just Like Being There 
(Springer 978-3-030-91604-6, $34.99, 313pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, May 8, 2022)
Collection of 15 hard SF stories, one new, each accompanied by an afterword on the underlying science. Part of the Science and Fiction series.
Doyle, Catherine, Webber, Katherine: Twin Crowns 
(HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray 978-0-06-311613-9, $17.99, 480pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, May 17, 2022)
Young-adult romantic fantasy novel. Twin princesses are separated at birth, one raised to be the heir, one raised to usurp the crown.
Edwards, K.D.: The Hourglass Throne 
(Start/Pyr 9781645060550, $19.00, 379pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, May 17, 2022)
Urban fantasy novel, the third book in the first trilogy in the nine-book Tarot Sequence featuring Rune Saint John. Rune, still adjusting to taking his father’s throne, must investigate the appearance of a magical barrier around the rejuvenation center.
Favro, Terri: The Sisters Sputnik 
(ECW Press 978-1-77041-608-6, $19.95, 416pp, formats: paperback, ebook, May 17, 2022)
SF novel about three time-traveling storytellers who wander through a multiverse of 2,052 alternate worlds, a largely standalone sequel to Sputnik’s Children.
Gear, Kathleen O’Neal: The Ice Ghost 
(DAW 978-0-7564-1586-0, $27.00, 288pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, May 17, 2022)
SF novel of an ice age, caused by the ancient Jemen war, in which ancient human species including Denisovans, Homo erectus, and Neanderthals struggle to survive, and seek a legendary Jemen leader, possibly still in stasis after a thousand years.
Heltzel, Anne: Just Like Mother 
(Tor Nightfire 978-1-250-78751-4, $26.99, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, May 17, 2022)
Modern gothic/horror novel about two women who escaped a cult, but one is rich working in the fertility industry, and the other feels disconnected.
Hurley, Kameron: Future Artifacts 
(Apex Book Company 978-1-955765-00-8, $16.99, 290pp, formats: ebook, May 17, 2022)
Collection of 18 short stories. Includes an introduction by the author.
Hutchings, Ren: Under Fortunate Stars 
(Rebellion/Solaris US 978-1-786185921, $24.99, 480pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, May 10, 2022)
Space opera. A smuggler fleeing a war breaks down near a strange rift, but is rescued by a research vessel from 152 years in the future.
Under Fortunate Stars is a deeply human book. In the face of so much that is strange and, in actuality, alien, Hutchings keeps the dangers quite grounded in believable, empathetic experience. With the trappings of a good space opera, and a sweeping setting that encompasses galaxies and more than a century, the focus remains on the people living there. Their successes – and failures – depend on how they find strength in one another.
Kay, Guy Gavriel: All the Seas of the World 
(Penguin Random House/Berkley 978-0-593-44104-6, $28.00, 528pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, May 17, 2022)
Fantasy novel set in the world of A Brightness Long Ago. Two assassins undertake a mission that will change the world’s balance of power.
As usual, Kay deploys an impressive variety of such narrative voices, and the occasional shift into first-person has something of the effect of hearing a skilled soloist in a symphony (for some reason, I think of oboes or bassoons, but maybe that’s just me). As his isolated and exiled figures strive to find identities, communities, families (both of the main characters seek out their brothers in especially moving moments), they gradually earn the trust not only of each other, but of the reader.
Langmead, Oliver K.: Glitterati 
(Titan Books US 978-1789097962, $15.95, 288pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, May 17, 2022)
Dystopian fantasy novel of fashion, family, and feckless billionaires.
Moore, Christopher: Razzmatazz 
(HarperCollins/Morrow 978-0-06-243412-8, $28.99, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, May 17, 2022)
Humorous fantasy novel set in the magical criminal underworld of 1947 San Francisco,
Strahan, Jonathan, ed.: Someone in Time: Tales of Time-Crossed Romance 
(Rebellion/Solaris US 978-1786185099, $18.99, 420pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, May 10, 2022)
Original anthology of 16 stories about time travel and romance. Authors include Zen Cho, Jeffrey Ford, Ellen Klages, Seanan McGuire, Sam J. Miller and Carrie Vaughn.
Thompson, Tade: The Legacy of Molly Southbourne 
(Tordotcom 978-1-250-82470-7, $14.99, 152pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, May 17, 2022)
Horror novella, third and final in the trilogy begun in The Murders of Molly Southbourne, about a woman whose spilled blood created deadly copies of herself.
