New Books: 9 May 2023
Allan, Nina: Conquest (Quercus UK/riverrun 9781529420777, £17.47, 284pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 5/11/2023)
Science fiction mystery novel. Rachel’s boyfriend Frank sees patterns everywhere and gets obsessed with an alien war just before he disappears; a 1950s science fiction story may have clues.
Blackgoose, Moniquill: To Shape a Dragon’s Breath (Penguin Random House/Del Rey 9780593498286, $18.00, 519pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 5/9/2023)
Fantasy novel. The remote island of Masquapaug has not seen a dragon in many generations—until fifteen-year-old Anequs finds a dragon’s egg and bonds with its hatchling. Her people are delighted, to them, Anequs is revered as Nampeshiweisit—a person in a unique relationship with a dragon.
Blair, Melissa: A Shadow Crown (Sterling/Union Square & Co. 9781454947899, $17.99, 480pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 5/9/2023)
Fantasy novel. To the kingdom, Keera is the king’s Blade, his most feared and trusted spy and assassin. In the shadows, she works with Prince Killian and his Shadow—the dark, brooding Fae, Riven, who sets her blood on fire. Together, they plot to kill a tyrant king.
Brideau, Lisa: Adrift (Sourcebooks Landmark 9781728265681, $16.99, 352pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 5/9/2023)
This is a thriller/horror novel about climate change and a woman with amnesia who learns someone desperately tried to erase her former life. in order to hide a secret.
Cogman, Genevieve: Scarlet (Ace 9780593638286, $17.00, 368pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 5/9/2023)
This fantasy novel is set in 1793 and the French Revolution is in full swing. Vampires—usually rich and aristocratic—have slaked the guillotine’s thirst in large numbers. The mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel, a disguised British noble, and his League are heroically rescuing dozens of aristocrats from execution, both human and vampire. And soon they will have an ace up their sleeve: Eleanor Dalton.
de Castell, Sebastien: The Malevolent Seven (Quercus UK/Jo Fletcher 9781529422771, $28.00, 384pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, audio, 5/16/2023)
Young-adult military dark fantasy novel about wizard Cade Ombra, who joins a suicide mission against the seven deadliest mages on the continent.
DiChario, Nicholas A.: Giovanni’s Tree: New Italian Folktales (Bordighera 9781599541969, $18.00, 186pp, formats: trade paperback, 5/9/2023)
Collection. In this important contribution to Italian-American stories, DiChario honors the traditional folktale form, while taking the genre in new and exciting directions. DiChario’s fiction has been nominated for the World Fantasy and Hugo Awards, among others, and his stories have appeared in many magazines and anthologies, including The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century.
Harris, Joanne: Broken Light (Pegasus Crime 9781639364718, $26.99, 432pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 5/9/2023)
Fantasy horror novel. A woman going through menopause begins to recover past memories, and powers she’s hidden her whole life. A bold and ambitious thriller exploring how women can feel invisible as they grow older—and what happens when they decide to take back control.
Kagawa, Julie: The Iron Vow (Harlequin/Inkyard Press 9781335453662, $19.99, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 5/9/2023)
Young-adult fantasy novel. After leaping through the portal to Evenfall, Meghan and her companions find themselves in a terrifying new world where Nightmares roam and glamour is nearly nonexistent. As their magic wanes and the creatures of Evenfall rise against them, the race to find the Nightmare King grows ever more desperate.
Lawrence, Mark: The Book that Wouldn’t Burn (Ace 9780593437919, $29.00, 576pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 5/9/2023)
Fantasy novel. The boy has lived his whole life trapped within a book-choked chamber older than empires and larger than cities. The girl has spent hers in a tiny settlement out on the Dust, where nightmares stalk and no one goes. The world has never even noticed them.
Liljestrand, Yens: Even If Everything Ends (Simon & Schuster/Scout Press 9781668005019, $29.99, 448pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 5/9/2023)
Apocalyptic near-future science fiction novel. In it, even when the climate crisis escalates beyond our worst nightmares and people become refugees, the world keeps turning and life carries on as usual: teenaged love stories, marital collapses, identity crises, and revolts against hopeless parents continue to play out.
McGill, C.E.: Our Hideous Progeny (Harper 9780063256798, $27.95, 400pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, audio, 5/9/2023)
Gothic historical horror novel set in 1853, revisioning Frankenstein with a queer twist. A couple determined to make their academic reputations set out to create life as Mary’s her long-lost Great-Uncle Victor did.
Polansky, Daniel: March’s End (Angry Robot UK 9781915202451, $18.99, 392pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 5/9/2023)
March’s End is a multi-generational portal fantasy of strange magics, epic warfare, and deadly intrigue, in which the personality conflicts and toxic struggles of the Harrow family are reflected in the fantasy world they’ve sworn to protect.
St. Jude, Jen: If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come (Bloomsbury USA 9781547611362, $19.99, 416pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 5/10/2023)
Young-adult apocalyptic science fiction novel. In it Avery Byrne has secrets. She’s queer; she’s in love with her best friend, Cass; and she’s suffering from undiagnosed clinical depression. But on the morning Avery plans to jump into the river near her college campus, the world discovers there are only nine days left to live: an asteroid is headed for Earth, and no one can stop it.
Verso, Francesco: The Roamers (Flame Tree Press UK 9781787588332, $16.95, 263pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 5/9/2023)
Near-future science fiction solarpunk novel. Nanites change a group of people into Pulldogs, who don’t need to eat and develop a semi-nomadic culture with 3D computers and cloud computing.
Wilde, Jen: This Is the Way the World Ends (St. Martin’s/Wednesday Books , $20.00, 269pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 5/9/2023)
Young-adult science fiction novel. At a prestigious school’s annual decadent fundraiser masquerade, an autistic scholarship student witnesses a murder at a secret meeting, and their escape is stymied by a lockdown due to global catastrophe.
Wood, Aubrey: Bang Bang Bodhisattva (Rebellion/Solaris UK 9781786187017, $26.99, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 5/9/2023)
Science fiction novel. It’s 2032 and the worst cyberpunk future. Kiera is gigging her ass off to keep the lights on, but her polycule’s social score is so dismal they’re about to lose their crib. That’s why she’s out here chasing cheaters with Angel Herrera, a luddite P.I. who thinks this is The Big Sleep. Then the latest job cuts too deep—hired to locate Herrera’s ex-best friend (who’s also Kiera’s pro bono attorney), they find him murdered instead.
