New Books: 14 February 2023
brown, adrienne maree: Maroons
(AK Press 978-1-84935-480-6, $17.00, 216pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, February 14, 2023)
SF novel, sequel to Grievers, set in a plague-ravaged Detroit. Ebook also available. AK Press, 370 Ryan Avenue #100, Chico CA 95973; <www.akpress.org>.
Chokshi, Roshani: The Last Tale of the Flower Bride
(HarperCollins/Morrow 978-0063206502, $30.00, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, February 14, 2023)
Gothic novel about a marriage threatened dark secrets, a lost friend, and the danger of believing in fairy tales. A man married to a mysterious woman breaks his promise not to pry into her past when they visit her childhood home. Ebook also available. Simultaneous with the UK (Hodder & Stoughton) edition.
Clayton, Dhonielle: The Beauty Trials
(Disney/Hyperion 978-1-3868046923, $18.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, February 14, 2023)
Young-adult fantasy novel, third in the Belles series. Edel Beauregard enters the Beauty Trials―a deadly competition to find the next Queen of Orléans
Curtis, Grace: Frontier
(Rebellion/Solaris US 978-1-78618-704-8, $24.99, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, February 14, 2023)
Far-future debut queer space Western.
Goss, Theodora: The Collected Enchantments
(Mythic Delirium Books 978-1-956522-02-0, $39.99, 436pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, February 14, 2023)
Collection of 49 poems (14 new) and 24 stories (two new) reimagining fairy tales. Illustrated by Paula Arwen Owen. A print-on-demand edition. A hardcover edition (-7326440-7-6, $45.95) was announced but not seen; ebook also available.
Hess, Al: World Running Down
(Angry Robot UK 978-1-91520-223-9, $15.99, 312pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, February 14, 2023)
SF novel about a transgender salvager in the future wastelands of Utah, dreaming of earning enough money to become a citizen of utopian Salt Lake City, and a SLC AI named Osric, forced into a body against his will, and sent into the waste to recover an escort service’s stolen androids — but the ladies have become self-aware and don’t want to go back.
Johnson, Joshua Phillip: The Endless Song
(Astra House/DAW 978-0-7564-1705-5, $27.00, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, February 14, 2023)
Ecological fantasy novel, second in the Tales of the Forever Sea duology begun in The Forever Sea. Simultaneous with the UK (Titan) edition.
Lostetter, Marina: The Cage of Dark Hours
(Tor 978-1-250-75747-0, $28.99, 464pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, February 14, 2023)
Dark fantasy novel, the second in the Five Penalties trilogy.
Marr, Melissa: The Hidden Dragon
(Penguin Random House/Nancy Paulsen 9780525518556, $17.99, 176pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, February 14, 2023)
Middle-grade fantasy novel set in the same world as The Hidden Knife. Otter finds a stowaway boy on her father’s ship, and the two set out to help the kingdom. Ebook also available.
McDonald, Ian: Hopeland
(Tor 978-0-765-37555-1, $28.99, 512pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, February 14, 2023)
SF time-travel novel about the Hopeland family, trying to outlast and remake their universe. Simultaneous with the UK (Gollancz) edition.
Hopeland is a story about how family, whether bound by blood or 19th-century views on Utopia, shapes the people we become – even if we reject that family. But what ultimately emerges is a heart-rending love story brought into focus by the devastating effects of the Anthropocene and the geopolitical response to climate refugees.
-Ian Mond
Øyehaug, Gunnhild: Evil Flowers
(Macmillan/Farrar, Straus, Giroux 978-0-374-60474-5, $25.00, 128pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, February 14, 2023)
Collection of 25 surreal stories. Translated by Kari Dickson from the Norwegian Vonde blomar (Kolon 2020). Ebook also available.
Poitras, Marie-Hélène: Sing, Nightingale
(Coach House Books 978-1552454480, $17.95, 176pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, February 14, 2023)
Gothic horror novel involving an enchanted wood around a crumbling estate with a greedy owner who brings home a woman who promises to bring the place back to prosperity — but she plans to make the hunters the hunted. Translated by Rhonda Mullins from the French. Ebook also available.
Smith, Lyssa Mia: Revelle
(HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray 978-0063239265, $19.99, 464pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, February 14, 2023)
Dark romantic young-adult fantasy novel about the Revelle family, a magical theatrical troupe on an island off Prohibition-era New York City. Things go wrong when their 18-year-old star is sent to seduce the scion of time-traveling politicians. Ebook also available.
Swan, Richard: The Tyranny of Faith
(Orbit US 978-0-316-36168-2, $29.00, 560pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, February 14, 2023)
Fantasy mystery novel, the second in the Empire of the Wolf trilogy. Sir Konrad Vonvalt, Emperor’s Justice, returns to find the capital city filled with unrest, and the Emperor’s grandson has been kidnapped. Ebook also available. Simultaneous with the Orbit UK edition.
Yolen, Jane: The Scarlet Circus
(Tachyon Publications 978-1-61696-386-6, $17.95, 256pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, February 14, 2023)
Collection of dark stories, with notes and poems for each. Ebook also available. Tachyon Publications, 1459 18th St. #139, San Francisco CA 94107; <www.tachyonpublications.com>.
Lindow, Sandra J.: Nnedi Okorafor: Magic, Myth, Morality and the Future
(McFarland 978-1-4766-8332-4, $39.95, 248pp, formats: trade paperback, February 15, 2023)
Non-fiction, critical. Volume 82 in the Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy series. Ebook also available. McFarland & Company, Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640; 800-253-2187; <www.mcfarlandbooks.com>.
Wooding, Chris: The Shadow Casket
(Orion UK/Gollancz 9781473214897, $28.99, 832pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, February 16, 2023)
Fantasy novel, second in the epic fantasy Darkwater Legacy series.
