New Books: 27 June 2023
Arm, Aaron H.: The Artifice of Eternity (John Hunt/Cosmic Egg Books 9781803412023, $23.95, 416pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 7/1/2023)
Science fiction novel. War. Corruption. Overpopulation. Climate change. When Earth reaches a tipping point, the world’s wealthiest man decides to reboot civilization on another habitable planet. Deemed “Project Exodus,” the voyage includes 4,000 like-minded colonists, a political manifesto, and all the resources they can fit on their ship.
Barker, RJ: Gods of the Wyrdwood (Orbit US 9780316401586, $18.99, 640pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 6/27/2023)
Fantasy novel, the first in The Forsaken trilogy. A forester has to choose between the forest and the fire god he once served, a choice that will change the world.
Candon, Emma Mieko: The Archive Undying (Tordotcom 9781250821546, $28.99, 496pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 6/27/2023)
Science fiction novel, first in the Downworld Sequence, of giant robots, war machines, and AI gods run amok.
Chupeco, Rin: Are You Afraid of the Dark? The Tale of the Gravemother (Abrams/Amulet 9781419763496, 15.99, 256pp, formats: hardcover, 6/27/2023)
Middle-grade horror novel, inspired by the Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark? Everyone in Southridge knows about the legend of the Gravemother. They know how to leave offerings by the abandoned house she was supposedly murdered in to pacify her. They know better than to trespass on her property. But not everyone believes in the tale.
Graham, Heather: Whispers at Dusk (Harlequin/Mira 9780778333845, $30.00, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 6/27/2023)
Supernatural thriller/romance novel. Four bodies have been discovered along Europe’s riverbanks, placed with care—and completely drained of blood. Pinpricks on their throats indicate a slender murder weapon, but DNA found in the wounds suggests something far more sinister. Tasked with investigating, the FBI recruits Agents Della Hamilton and Mason Carter to Blackbird, an international offshoot of the Krewe of Hunters. If you want to catch a vampire killer, you need agents who can speak with the dead.
Juliano, Jimmy: Dead Eleven (Penguin Random House/Dutton 9780593471920, $22.95, 448pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 6/27/2023)
Supernatural thriller/horror novel. On a creepy island where everyone has a strange obsession with the year 1994, a newcomer arrives, hoping to learn the truth about her son’s death—but finds herself pulled deeper and deeper into the bizarrely insular community and their complicated rules… with strange rules, where every everyone has a strange obsession with 1994. A first novel.
Linsmeier, Amanda: Starlings (Penguin Random House/Delacorte 9780593572337, $18.99, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 6/27/2023)
YA feminist dark fantasy novel. In the wake of her father’s death, a teen girl discovers a side of her family she didn’t know existed, and is pulled into a dark—and ancient—bargain she is next in line to fulfill.
Meade, Lily: The Shadow Sister (Sourcebooks Fire 9781728264479, $18.99, 336pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, audio, 6/27/2023)
Young-adult fantasy thriller novel. Sutton going missing is the worst thing to happen to Casey, to their family. She’s trying to help find her sister, but Casey is furious. She knows Sutton is manipulative, meanwhile everyone paints a picture of her perfection. People don’t look for missing Black girls—or half-Black girls—without believing there is an angel to be saved. Sutton returns changed, with amnesia.
Tolmie, Sarah: Sacraments for the Unfit (Aqueduct Press 9781619762404, $16.00, 146pp, formats: trade paperback, 7/1/2023)
Original collection of ten weird, pandemic-inspired stories and vignettes looking at ways people might choose to spend their days in various sorts of isolation and mystery.
Wagers, K.B.: The Ghosts of Trappist (Harper Voyager US 9780063115163, $32.50, 560pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 6/27/2023)
Military science fiction novel, the third in the NeoG series about the Near-Earth Orbital Guard. The crew of Zuma’s Ghost prep for the Boarding Games, but mysterous voices, missing ships, and rogue AI programs complicate things.
Willis, Connie: The Road to Roswell (Penguin Random House/Del Rey 9780593499856, $28.00, 416pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 6/27/2023)
Romantic comedy science fiction novel by a grandmaster author. A disbeliever headed to her best friend’s UFO-themed wedding in Roswell gets abducted by an alien and falls for a fellow abductee, a con man who sells anti-abduction insurance.
Wolfe, Gene: The Dead Man and Other Horror Stories (Subterranean Press 9781645241201, $50.00, 400pp, formats: hardcover, 6/30/2023)
Collection of 28 darker stories from Wolfe, a challenging writer known for his dense prose, who received many awards for his works. This is a chronological retrospective including six tales never previously collected.
