New Books: 21 March 2023

Ballingrud, Nathan: The Strange (Simon & Schuster/Saga Press 9781534449954, $27.99, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 3/21/2023)
An intriguing alternate timeline SF novel. 1931, New Galveston, Mars: Fourteen-year-old Anabelle Crisp sets off through the wastelands of the Strange to find Silas Mundt’s gang who have stolen her mother’s voice, destroyed her father, and left her solely with a need for vengeance.

 

Chong, Jinwoo: Flux (Melville House 9781685890346, $28.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 3/21/2023)
An original and stylish debut novel about a young man whose reality unravels when he suspects his mysterious employers have inadvertently discovered time travel—and are using it to cover up a string of violent crimes.

 

Corrie, Chad: The Shadow Regent (Dark Horse Books 9781506734033, $19.99, 320pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 3/21/2023)
Fantasy novel, continuing in the aftermath of events of The Wizard King Trilogy, this standalone story delves deeper into the Tralodren cosmos and the gods who call it home, revealing the formation of a new era for both god and mortal alike. Scheming abounds around the fall of one god and the addition of three new ones to the pantheon.

 

Flores, Francesca: The Witch and the Vampire (St. Martin’s/Wednesday Books 9781250220516, $17.99, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 3/21/2023)
Young-adult fantasy novel, a queer retelling of the story of Rapunzel. Ava and Kaye, former best friends, work together on a trip into the danger filled woods, even though Ava’s now a vampire, and Kaye’s a vampire killer.

 

Hamilton, Laurell K.: Smolder (Penguin Random House/Berkley 9781984804495, $28.00, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 3/21/2023)
Paranormal romance/horror novel, Vampire hunter Anita Blake is no stranger to killing monsters. It’s part of her job as a Preternatural US Marshal. But even her experience isn’t enough to stop something that is bent on destroying everything—and everyone—she loves.

 

Herrera, Yuri: Ten Planets (Graywolf Press 9781644452233, $15.00, 112pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 3/21/2023)
The characters that populate Yuri Herrera’s surprising new story collection inhabit imagined futures that reveal the strangeness and instability of the present. Drawing on science fiction, noir, and the philosophical parables of Jorge Luis Borges’s Fictions and Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomics, these short stories are an inspired extension of this significant writer’s work.

 

Lacey, Catherine: Biography of X (Macmillan/Farrar, Straus, Giroux 9780374606176, $28.00, 416pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, audio, 3/21/2023)
Alternate history novel, a fictional biography of an art star with cult status in a US where the South seceded in 1945, with reunion in 1996, and research for a posthumous biography uncovers unexpected secrets.

 

Langbein, Julia: American Mermaid (Penguin Random House/Doubleday 9780385549677, $28.00, 336pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, audio, 3/21/2023)
This fantasy novel is a brilliantly funny debut novel that follows a writer lured to Los Angeles to adapt her feminist mermaid novel into a big budget action film, who believes her heroine has come to life to take revenge for Hollywood’s violations.

 

Madson, Devin: We Dream of Gods (Orbit 9780316536455, $18.99, 624pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 3/21/2023)
Fantasy novel, the fourth and final book in the Reborn Empire quartet. In this
“complex tale of war, politics, and lust for power” (The Guardian), the fate of the world is decided when heroes and gods march into battle one last time in the searing conclusion of this bold and bloody epic fantasy series.

 

Menard, Rachel: Clash of Fate and Fury (North Star Editions/Flux 978-1635830828, $14.99, 416pp, formats: trade paperback, 3/21/2023)
Young-adult fantasy novel inspired by Greek myth, the second in a series about young people racing to complete ten nearly impossible labors to get their wishes granted by the Olympian Empresses.

 

Monroe, Ben: The Seething (Brigids Gate 9.7819575374e+12, 16.99, 375pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 3/23/2023)
Horror novel. A family hopes for a fresh start in their new home, but teen Kimmie’s special senses attract something evil from beneath Oro Lake. Illustrated by Elizabeth Leggett.

 

 

Murray, Sabina: Muckross Abbey and Other Stories(Grove Atlantic/Black Cat 9780802157485, 18, 256pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 3/21/2023)
Original collection of a wry and spooky set of ghost stories, replete with original illustrations.

 

Nelson, Brian: The Great Unmaking (Blackstone Publishing 9781538507841, $17.99, 350pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, audio, 3/21/2023)
Near future technothriller science fiction novel set in 2027, the third and final book in the Course of Empire trilogy. Scientist Eric Hill worries the US government will misuse his intelligent nano site technology with the help of the new, seemingly omniscient AI system.

 

Nix, Garth: The Sinister Booksellers of Bath (HarperCollins/Tegen Books 9780063236332, $19.99, 368pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, audio, 3/21/2023)
Return to the enchanting world of The Left-Handed Booksellers of London in this sequel by Garth Nix, bestselling master of teen fantasy, where once again a team of booksellers must fight to keep dangerous magic under cover before the stuff of legends destroys our world.

 

Saunders, Ashley & Leslie Saunders: Intruders (Amazon/47North 9781542032988, $16.99, 267pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 3/21/2023)
Near future dystopian science fiction novel, the second in the series Exiles duology about separated twins fighting the use of nanotech borne fear to control populations In the Los Angeles area.

 

Shawl, Nisi: New Suns 2: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color (Rebellion/Solaris UK 97817866188588, $16.99, 352pp, formats: trade paperback, 3/23/2023)
Anthology of contemporary stories by emerging and seasoned writers of many races. There’s nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns, proclaimed Octavia E. Butler. New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color showcases emerging, and seasoned writers of many races telling stories filled with shocking delights, powerful visions of the familiar made.

 

Utomi, Moses Ose: The Lies of the Ajungo (Tordotcom 9781250849069, $19.99, 96pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 3/21/2023)
In this young adult fantasy novella/fable. Desert tribes trade body parts to
the fierce Ajungo for water, until several people decide to stop the Ajungo, and uncover a deadly secret.

 

Woodling, D.B.: The Immortal Detective (CamCat Books 9780744308013, $26.99, 336pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, audio, 3/21/2023)
Fantasy mystery novel, second in the eponymous series begun in The Immortal Twin.