New Books: 12 July 2022
Beauman, Ned: Venomous Lumpsucker 
(Soho Press 9781641294126, $27.95, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, July 12, 2022)
Near-future SF novel about two people trying to preserve the most intelligent fish on the planet, a small, ugly bottom-feeder.
Burgis, Stephanie: Touchstones 
(Five Fathoms Press 979-8450717692, $14.99, 372pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, July 11, 2022)
Collection of 16 fantasy stories, two new. Stories include fairy-tale reframings, Victorian romance, and contemporary ghosts.
Burian, Natalka: The Night Shift 
(HarperCollins/Park Row Books 978-0-7783-3304-3, $26.99, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, July 12, 2022)
Contemporary thriller/fantasy novel. Jean, working two jobs, learns about secret “shortcuts” that can transport her through space and time — but only in one direction.
Cast, P.C.: Into the Mist 
(The Quick Brown Fox/Crooked Lane 978-1-64385-918-7, $24.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, July 12, 2022)
An attack on the US releases bombs with a green mist that kills men and gives many women superhuman abilities.
Chambers, Becky: A Prayer for the Crown-Shy 
(Tordotcom 978-1-250-23623-4, $21.99, 160pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, July 12, 2022)
SF novella, the second in the Monk & Robot series, set in a future centuries after robots gained self-awareness and left their jobs for the wilderness.
Chang, K-Ming: Gods of Want 
(Penguin Random House/One World 978-0-593-24158-5, $27.00, 224pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, July 12, 2022)
Collection of stories within stories about the lives and myths of Asian American women.
Drotos, Mark E.: The Haunting of Crimshaw Manor 
(BHC Press 978164397245-9, $27.00, 266pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, July 12, 2022)
Horror novel. A professor of paranormal studies and a group of students investigate a haunted manor.
Ella, Sara: The Wonderland Trials 
(Enclave Escape 978-1-62184-214-9, $22.99, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, July 12, 2022)
Young-adult fantasy novel retelling the story of Alice in Wonderland, first in the Curious Realities series.
Gear, W. Micheal, Gear, Kathleen O’Neal: Lightning Shell 
(Tor/Forge 978-1-250-76720-2, $27.99, 480pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, July 12, 2022)
Pre-historical novel with supernatural elements, part of the North America’s Forgotten Past series, final volume in the 27 book People of Cahokia sub-series about the city of Cahokia in North America.
Goodman, Carol: The Disinvited Guest 
(HarperCollins/Morrow 978-0-06-324899-1, $28.99, 336pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, audio, July 12, 2022)
Near-future gothic thriller/horror novel set years after the 2020 pandemic, and before a new, worse plague, a family flees to an island once a quarantine site for immigrants, where things start festive and gradually get spooky.
Harmon, Clay: Flames of Mira 
(Rebellion/Solaris US 978-1-786185419, $27.99, 448pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, July 5, 2022)
Fantasy novel, the first in the in the Rift Walker series set in the harsh world of Mira, where three teens are determined to avenge their paranoid and brutal father’s death.
Heuler, Karen: The Splendid City 
(Angry Robot US 978-0-85766-985-8, $15.99, 400pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, June 12, 2022)
Fantasy novel. White witch Eleanor, learning about her magic, is under house arrest with a letch of a former co-worker — currently in the form of a talking cat — while she tries to help locate a missing witch.
James, Holly: Nothing But the Truth 
(Penguin Random House/Dutton 978-0593186503, $16.99, 304pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, July 12, 2022)
Fantasy novel. Hollywood publicist Lucy Green wishes for a perfect birthday, but the wish is granted in an unexpected way: she can’t lie at all, even to herself.
Khalid, Zain: Brother Alive 
(Grove Atlantic/Grove 978-0802159762, $26.00, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, July 12, 2022)
Literary novel with supernatural and SF elements about three boys (one with an imaginary double) adopted by a Staten Island imam, who eventually visit a futuristic city in Saudi Arabia.
Kilcoyne, Elizabeth: Wake the Bones 
(St. Martin’s/Wednesday Books 978-1-250-79082-8, $18.99, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, July 12, 2022)
Young-adult dark fantasy novel. The farm where Laurel Early grew up has awakened, and now she has to face a family curse before everything is destroyed.
Kingfisher, T.: What Moves the Dead 
(Tor Nightfire 978-1-250-83075-3, $19.99, 176pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, July 12, 2022)
Horror novella, a more modern take on Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”.
Krow, Leyna: Fire Season 
(Penguin Random House/Viking 9780593299609, $27.00, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, July 12, 2022)
Feminist Western novel set in Washington Territory in 1889, where a fire changes lives for a banker, a conman, and a woman who can see the future.
Larson, Rich: Ymir 
(Orbit US 978-0316416580, $17.99, 416pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, July 12, 2022)
SF novel, a far-future retelling of “Beowulf”. Yorick reluctantly returns to his homeworld when a vicious alien machine threatens his employer’s mines.
Mann, George: The Albion Initiative 
(Tor 978-1-250-85236-6, $31.99, 256pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, July 12, 2022)
Steampunk fantasy mystery novel, sixth in the Newbury & Hobbes series. Special agents discover a plot of empire-changing proportions.
Meyer, Joanna Ruth: Wind Daughter 
(Page Street 978-1-64567-436-8, $17.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, July 12, 2022)
Young-adult fantasy novel, a companion to Echo North. Satu learns her father was once the North Wind, and traded away his power to marry her mother — but now Satu must race the Winter Lord to reclaim that power.
Mihalik, Jessie: Eclipse the Moon 
(Harper Voyager US 978-0-06-305106-5, $17.99, 448pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, July 12, 2022)
SF novel, sequel to Hunt the Stars. Bounty Hunter Kee takes three weeks leave on Bastion space station, only to have trouble follow at a fashion show meant to showcase collaboration between humans and Valovians.
Moss, Mia V.: Mai Tais for the Lost 
(Underland Press 978-1-63023-065-4, $13.99, 106pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, July 12, 2022)
SF noir novella about Marrow Nightingale, a PI in an undersea city, whose playboy brother turns up dead in her closet.
Musgrave, David: Lambda 
(Europa Editions 978-1-60945-764-8, $17.99, 372pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, July 12, 2022)
SF novel about mild-mannered aliens trying to integrate into human society, where advanced technology raises difficult moral dilemmas.
Quinn, Tory, Vibbert, Marie: MegaDeath 
(Level 4 Press 978-1-64630-066-2, $18.95, 312pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, July 12, 2022)
Cyberpunk SF novel. In 2112, wars have become a spectator sport, and a bereaved mother competes in a virtual reality gladiatorial game.
Skovron, Jon: The Wizard of Eventide 
(Orbit US 978-0-316-45468-1, $17.99, 448pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, July 12, 2022)
Epic fantasy novel, the third and final book in the Goddess War series, inspired by Russian legends.
Stufflebeam, Bonnie Jo: Where You Linger & Other Stories 
(Vernacular 978-1-952283-22-2, $18.99, 284pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, July 11, 2022)
Collection of speculative, liminal short stories, with some degree of interconnection.
Temblador, Alex: Half Outlaw 
(Blackstone Publishing 978-1-7999-3210-9, $27.99, 334pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, July 12, 2022)
Magical realism novel about a biracial former foster kid on a cross-country motorcycle road trip, encountering family she never knew.
Van Loan, Ryan: The Memory in the Blood 
(Tor 978-1-250-22264-0, $28.99, 464pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, July 12, 2022)
Fantasy novel, third and final book in the Fall of the Gods series.
Villalobos, Juan Pablo: Invasion of the Spirit People 
(And Other Stories 978-1-913505-36-3, $17.95, 224pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, July 12, 2022)
Absurdist, fable-like literary novel. Gaston, just trying to get by as a new wave of immigration washes over his unnamed country, has a scientist son who believes human life may be the product of an alien attempt at colonization. Translated from the Spanish La invasion del pueblo del espiritu (Anagrama Barcelona 2020) by Rosalind Harvey.
White, Alex: August Kitko and the Mechas from Space 
(Orbit US 978-0-316-43057-9, $17.99, 464pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, July 12, 2022)
SF space opera novel, the first in the Starmetal Symphony series. Jazz pianist Gus Kitko expects to be killed with the rest of humanity when the robot Vanguards arrive from space, but they turn out to be traitors trying to save humanity and want his help.
Wiles, Will: The Last Blade Priest 
(Angry Robot US 978-0-857669827, $15.99, 400pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, July 12, 2022)
Fantasy novel about a Master Builder forced to work for and spy on the League that just conquered his homeland.
The success of an epic-fantasy novel rests heavily on world-building. Those who do it poorly tend to overwhelm the reader with dense historical detail, a blizzard of weird names and places and a detailed schematic of the world’s magic system. W.P. Wiles does not make this mistake. Drawing on his day job – where he’s a freelance journalist who writes about modern design and architecture – Wiles elegantly constructs his secondary world.
Williams, Tad: Into the Narrowdark 
(DAW 978-0-7564-1064-3, $30.00, 608pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, July 12, 2022)
Fantasy novel, the third in the Last King of Osten Ard series, sequel to the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy. The High Throne of Erkynland totters as the queen is thought to be dead in a rebellion, while the heir has been captured.
Wise, A.C.: Hooked 
(Titan Books US 978-1789096835, $15.95, 336pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, July 12, 2022)
Fantasy novel, based on characters from J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan series, a sequel to Wendy Darling set eight years later, about what happened to Captain Hook after he escapes the dark thrall of Neverland.
