New Books: 7 March 2023

Afifi, Nadia: The Transcendent  (Flame Tree Press UK 978-1-78758-673-4, $26.95, 352pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, 3/7/2023)

Quasi-SF thriller/horror novel, third in the Cosmic trilogy begun in The Sentient. After a fateful confrontation with her former ally, Tony Barlow, Amira Valdez is on the run, pregnant with her own clone and desperate. The fundamentalist Trinity Compound has grown in strength and numbers, and with the help of the powerful mind-controlling drug Tiresia, is ready to march on the city of Westport. All of Amira’s hopes lie with finding Nova, the first human clone, and solving the greatest riddle in human history – how to preserve human consciousness after death. Only Amira and Nova, together, can stand in the face of a world on the brink of disaster.

 

Atwood, Margaret: Old Babes in the Wood (Penguin Random House UK/Chatto & Windus 978-1784744854, $30.00, 251pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 3/7/2023)

A dazzling collection of short stories from the internationally acclaimed, award-winning author of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments, stories that look deeply into the heart of family relationships, marriage, loss and memory, and what it means to spend a life together.

 

Bishop, Anne: The Queen’s Price (Ace 978-0-593-33736-3, $25.00, 544pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 3/7/2023)

Fantasy novel, the 11th book in the Black Jewels series. Enter the realms of the Black Jewels in this sweeping story in the New York Times bestselling fantasy saga of three young women who must navigate life within the powerful SaDiablo family—and come to terms with Witch, the Queen who is still the heart and will of that family.

 

Bond, Gwenda: Mr. & Mrs. Witch (St. Martin’s Griffin 978-1-250-84595-5, $17.99, 352pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 3/7/2023)

Humorous fantasy romance novel. The next novel from bestselling author and past Locus reviewer Gwenda Bond, a couple discovers at the altar the surprising secret identities they’ve kept from each other.

 

Boyer, Clyde: Girl Out of Time (Girl Friday 978-1-954854-22-2, $12.95, 368pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 3/7/2023)

Young-adult SF novel. Science-minded Anna Armstrong starts hearing bizarre noises and seeing lights in the sky, and meets a time-traveler from the future who needs help closing wormholes popping up around town, and tracking down a mysterious shadow creature.

 

Carter, Aimée: Royal Blood (Penguin Random House/Delacorte 978-0-593-48589-7, $18.99, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 3/7/2023)

Young-adult alternate world mystery novel. Royalty, murder and scandal combine in this thrilling new series about an American girl who becomes the British Monarchy’s greatest nightmare.

 

Clark, C.L.: The Faithless (Orbit UK 978-0-356-51624-0, $18.99, 512pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 3/7/2023)

North-African-inspired military fantasy novel, second in the Magic of the Lost series. Soldier Touraine and princess Luca must return to Balladaire to reclaim Luca’s throne and to face the consequences of dismantling an empire.

 

Cornell, Paul: The Witches of World War II (TKO Presents 9781952203183, $19.99, 160pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 3/7/2023)

Fantasy novel of WWII about a group of British magicians, including Aleister Crowley and Gerald Gardner, on a mission to capture Rudolf Hess.

 

Dalton, Julie Carrick: The Last Beekeeper (Tor/Forge 978-1-250-26921-8, $26.99, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 3/7/2023)

Near-future SF novel set a decade after The Great Collapse of the pollinators. Sasha returns to her childhood home hoping to find the research done by her infamous father, the Last Beekeeper, but finds squatters — and supposedly extinct bees — there.

 

Eagar, Lindsay: The Family Fortuna (Candlewick Press 978-0-7636-9235-3, $19.99, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 3/7/2023)

Young-adult dark fantasy novel. Lindsay Eagar’s dazzling YA debut welcomes you backstage at the Family Fortuna circus, where wonders lie in wait.

 

Estep, Jennifer: Conquer the Kingdom (Harper Voyager US 978-0-06-302346-8, $17.99, 432pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 3/7/2023)

Fantasy novel, third and final in the Gargoyle Queen trilogy set in the world of the Crown of Shards series. Magic reigns, plots abound, and a new love might not conquer all, in this must-read finale to the epic Gargoyle Queen trilogy by international bestselling author Jennifer Estep.

 

Fedor, Emma: At Sea (Simon & Schuster/Gallery 978-1-9821-7154-4, $27.99, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 3/7/2023)

SF novel. A woman has a child with a fishlike man, an Army Special Forces member with gill-like enhancements, but she has to question everything after he disappears with their baby. A first novel.

 

Gannon, Charles E.: Into the Vortex (Baen 978-1-9821-9247-1, $25.00, 592pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 3/7/2023)

Fantasy novel, the second in the Vortex of Worlds trilogy.

 

Gladstone, Max: Dead Country(Tordotcom 978-0765395917, $17.99, 256pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 3/7/2023)

First book in the Craft Wars Series, a tight sequence of novels that will bring the sprawling saga of the Craft to its end, and the perfect entry point to this incomparable world. Tara returns to her rural hometown for her father’s funeral and finds attacks by undead Raiders have increased.

 

 

Graham, Jo: The Blackened Mirror (Candlemark & Gleam 978-1-952456-14-5, $22.45, 302pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 3/6/2023)

Historical fantasy novel of the Borgias, through the eyes of 16-year-old Guilia Farnese, a virgin with demonic visions wedded into the Orsini family in 15th-century Rome.

 

Hampson, Robert E.: The Moon and the Desert (Baen 978-1-9821-9249-5, $18.00, 400pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 3/7/2023)

Near-future SF novel set on Moonbase in 2039. A medical officer is badly injured, requiring a rebuild with experimental prosthetics.

 

Holland, Jacqueline: The God of Endings (Macmillan/Flatiron 9781250856760, $24.89, 480pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio3/7/2023)

Historical dark fantasy novel. The vampire Collette’s quiet life is upended in 1984 by a stalker from her past, a gifted child, and a mysterious increase in her hunger. A first novel.

 

King, Owen: The Curator (Simon & Schuster/Scribner 978-1-9821-9680-6, $25.99, 480pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 3/7/2023)

Dickensian historical fantasy novel, expanded from the eponymous story, set in a world where cats are revered as religious figures, thieves are noble, scholars are revolutionaries, and conjurors are wonderful criminals. Simultaneous with the UK (Hodder & Stoughton) edition.

 

Macallister, G.R.: Arca (Simon & Schuster/Saga Press 978-1-982167-92-9, $29.99, 544pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 3/7/2023)

Fantasy novel, the second in the Five Queendoms series. Simultaneous with the UK (Titan) edition. The author also writes as Greer Macallister.

 

McGuire, Seanan: Backpacking Through Bedlam (Astra House/DAW 978-0-7564-1857-1, $16.99, 352pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 3/7/2023)

Fantasy novel, 12th in the InCryptid series, following Thomas and Alice Price back home, trying to catch up on all they’ve missed, while trouble brews in NYC. This includes a bonus novella.

 

Ndlovu, Yvette Lisa: Drinking from Graveyard Wells (University Press of Kentucky 978-0813196978, $21.95, 160pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 3/7/2023)

A collection of poignantly reflective stories that center the voices of African women charting their own Black history through the ages. Ndlovu’s stories play with genre, from softly surreal to deeply fantastical. Each narrative is wrapped in the literary eloquence and tradition of southern African mythology.

 

Older, Malka: The Mimicking of Known Successes (Tordotcom 978-1-250-88050-7, $19.99, 176pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 3/7/2023)

SF gaslamp mystery novella set on Jupiter, where Earth’s survivors dream of making Earth habitable again, but an apparent suicide has major implications for both Jupiter’s society and Earth.

 

Queen, Khadijah & K. Ibura: Infinite Constellations: An Anthology of Identity, Culture, and Speculative Conjunctions (University of Alabama Press/FC2 978-1573661980, $24.95, 286pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 3/7/2023)

Anthology showcasing the voices and visions of 30 writers, both new and established, from the global majority: Native American/First Nation writers, South Asian writers, East Asian writers, Black American writers, Latinx writers, and Caribbean and Middle Eastern writers. Stories familiar and strange, rooted in the mystery of human relationships, the deep honoring of memory, and the connection to place and the centering of culture.

 

Roberts, Tansy Rayner: Gorgons Deserve Nice Things (Brain Jar Press 978-1-922479-38-9, $12.99, 86pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 3/7/2023)

Chapbook collection of seven stories about women from Greek mythology, one in the form of six recipes. Two stories were first published as Patreon exclusives.

 

Whitten, Hannah: The Foxglove King (Orbit US 978-0-316-43499-7, $23.99, 480pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 3/7/2023)

Dark fantasy novel, the first in series The Nightshade Crown. Lore’s secret power to raise the dead is discovered, and she’s ordered to find out who is behind random death, including whole towns.

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