New Books: 18 July 2023
Abraham, Daniel: Blade of Dream (Orbit US 9780316421898, $29.00, 464pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio)
Fantasy novel. Kithamar is a center of trade and wealth, an ancient city with a long, bloody history where countless thousands live and their stories endure. This is Garreth’s story. Garreth Left is heir to one of Kithamar’s most prominent merchant families. The path of his life was paved long before he was born. Learn the family trade, marry to secure wealthy in-laws, and inherit the business when the time is right. But to Garreth, a life chosen for him is no life at all.
Ahmed, Jamila: Every Rising Sun (Macmillan/Holt 9781250887078, $28.99, 432pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio)
Historical novel of 12th-century Persia, a retelling of the story of Shaherazade from A Thousand and One Nights, but here she not only tells stories but also persuades her husband to join Saladin’s battle against the Crusaders in hopes of making him get over his first wife’s betrayal.
Cowie, Jayne: One of the Boys (Penguin Random House/Berkley 9780593336809, $17.00, 352pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio)
Dystopian science fiction novel about the consequences of your answer. Antonia and Bea are sisters, and doting mothers to their sons. But that is where their similarities end. Antonia had her son tested to make sure he didn’t possess the “violent” M gene. Bea refuses to let her son take the test. She believes his life should not be determined by a positive or negative result. These women will go to any length to protect their sons. But one of them is hiding a monster. And there will be fatal consequences for everyone…
Friedman, C.S.: Nightborn: Coldfire Rising (Astra House/DAW 9780756410926, $28.00, 288pp, formats: hardcover, ebook)
Science fantasy novel. A ship full of colonists arrive on a seemingly hospitable planet, only to discover that it harbors a terrifying secret. Soon the settlers find themselves caught up in a desperate battle for survival against the fae, a natural force with the power to prey upon the human mind itself, bringing a person’s greatest fears and darkest nightmares to life.
Gong, Chloe: Immortal Longings (Simon & Schuster/Saga Press 9781668000229, $28.99, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio)
Epic fantasy novel inspired by Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Every year, thousands in the kingdom of Talin will flock to its capital twin cities, San-Er, where the palace hosts a set of games. For those confident enough in their ability to jump between bodies, competitors across San-Er fight to the death to win unimaginable riches.
Hansen, Essa: Ethera Grave (Orbit US 9780316430739, $18.99, 560pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook)
Science fiction space opera novel, Caiden has finally been reunited with his sister Leta after ten years on the run with his unique starship and managed to convince his longtime enemy—Threi—to join his side. But the multiverse isn’t safe yet. Threi’s sister is still the most powerful being in existence. And she still wants to collapse their beautiful, diverse, constellation of multiverses down to one. Now, Caiden and his makeshift family carry the fate of all the worlds in their hands.
Hashem, Sara: The Jasad Heir (Orbit US 9780316477864, $18.99, 528pp, formats: trade paperback. ebook, audio)
Fantasy novel inspired by Egypt. A fugitive queen strikes a bargain with her greatest enemy and becomes embroiled in a complex game that could resurrect her scorched kingdom or leave it in ashes forever In this unmissable Egyptian-inspired epic fantasy debut.
Kitasei, Yume: The Deep Sky (Macmillan/Flatiron 9781250875334, $29.99, 416pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio)
Science fiction novel. A generation ship, the last hope of humanity looking for a new planet, is knocked off course by a bomb, and the only surviving witness struggles to find the culprit and clear herself.
Linwood, Jade: Charming (Rebellion/Solaris UK 9781786188465, $16.99, 336pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook)
Fantasy novel. Prince Jean-Marc Charming Arundel, known to friends and enemies alike as “Prince Charming,” is handsome, well mannered, brave, a peerless swordsman, a cunning tactician—and a liar, a con man and a fraud. For years he has been traveling from one kingdom to the next, rescuing endangered princesses and maidens, securing their troths and his place in their fathers’ palaces, then looting their treasuries and having it away before dawn. Until a chance meeting of three of his victims—raven-haired Marie Blanche de Neige, the sorceress Doctor Emilia Rapunzel and the long-slumbering Bella Lucia dei’ Sogni—suggests a course of revenge…
Martin, George R.R.: Wild Cards: Pairing Up (Harper Voyager UK 9780593357866, $28.00, 448pp, formats: hardcover, ebook)
Original shared world anthology of stories about love in the Wild Cards universe. Authors include Gwenda Bond, Bradley Denton, Christopher Rowe, and Melinda M. Snodgrass. A jewel thief seduces a popular actor just so she can track down a long-lost treasure; a teenager trapped in the body of a giant snail attempts to win his love à la Cyrano de Bergerac; a man discovers his purpose in life after meeting a beautiful butterfly woman; a young hero who has been awarded the hideous name of Hero McHeroface finds some solace in the arms of an astrologer hiding her own unique powers.
McGuire, Seanan: Be Sure (Tordotcom 9781250198921, $29.99, 528pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback)
Collection/omnibus of the first three books in Seanan McGuire’s multi-Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Wayward Children series. Join the students of Eleanor West, and jump through doors into worlds both dangerous and extraordinary in Every Heart a Doorway, Down Among the Sticks and Bones, and Beneath the Sugar Sky.
McKinney, L.L.: Escaping Mr. Rochester (HarperCollins 9781368046367, $19.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook)
Young-adult novel, a queer reimagining of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, with Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason saving each other from Mr. Rochester’s horrifying machinations.
Moreno-Garcia, Silvia: Silver Nitrate (Penguin Random House/Del Rey 9780593355367, $28.00, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook)
Horror novel mixing Mexican horror movies and Nazi occultism, about a cursed, legendary lost film that awakens a woman’s hidden powers.
Murphy, Sara Flannery: The Wonder State (Macmillan/Farrar, Straus, Giroux/MCD 9780374601775, $29.00, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook)
Supernatural thriller. Five friends arrive back in Eternal Springs, the small town they all fled after high-school graduation. Each of them is drawn home by a cryptic, scrawled two-word letter: You promised. It has been fifteen years since that life-changing summer, and they’re anxious to find out why Brandi called them back, especially when they vowed never to return.
Saxey, E.: Unquiet (Titan Books UK 9781803364469, $16.95, 320pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook)
Gothic horror novel with a seemingly unreliable narrator. Judith’s life in 1893 London is upended by her father’s death and the impossible reappearance of her sister’s missing fiancé.
Tingle, Chuck: Camp Damascus (Tor/Nightfire 9781250874627, $25.99, 256pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio)
Horror novel about teens in a gay conversion camp with far-from-holy secrets. Welcome to Neverton, Montana: home to a God-fearing community with a heart of gold. Nestled high up in the mountains is Camp Damascus, the self-proclaimed “most effective” gay conversion camp in the country. Here, a life free from sin awaits. But the secret behind that success is anything but holy. And they’ll scare you straight to hell.
Tooley, Adrienne: The Third Daughter (Hodder & Stoughton UK 9781399713955, $18.99, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio)
Young-adult fantasy novel. A sweeping YA fantasy about legacy, betrayal, sisterhood, and politicizing emotion in the quest for power—all balanced by a slow-burn LGBTQ romance.
Valentino, Serena: Fire and Fate (Disney/Hyperion , $17.99, 208pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio)
Young-adult fantasy tie-in novel. The myth has been told for centuries: Brothers Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades waged a years-long war against their father Cronus and his tyrannical Titans. Upon their mighty victory, Zeus split the world into three. For himself, he claimed the Sky and what fell below it. To his brother Poseidon, he assigned dominion over the Sea. And his oldest brother, Hades, would rule the Underworld. While Hades tries to make the best of a lonely situation, eternity proves a long time to be forced live in a role—a domain—he never wanted. And the part of the story no one tells is that when your family treats you like a villain, it is far too easy to become one.
Whitehead, Colson: Crook Manifesto (Penguin Random House/Doubleday 9780385545150, $29.00, 336pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, audio)
Associational historical novel, a sequel to Harlem Shuffle set in 1970s New York City, where ex-fence Ray Carney tries to stay on the straight and narrow as he deals with counter-cultural upheaval and urban blight.
Yero, Lauren: Under This Forgetful Sky (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum 9781665913799, $19.99, 416pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio)
Young-adult near-future science fiction novel. Sixteen-year-old Rumi Sabzwari has spent his entire life behind the armored walls of St. Iago, which protect citizens of the Union of Upper Cities from the outside world’s environmental devastation. But when rebels infect his father with a fatal virus, Rumi escapes St. Iago, desperate to find a cure. In the ruined city of Paraíso, Rumi meets fifteen-year-old Paz, who agrees to guide him on his journey. As they travel together, Rumi finds himself drawn to Paz—and behind her tough exterior, she begins to feel the same way. But Paz knows more about Rumi’s father’s illness than she’s saying and has her own agenda. With the powerful forces at play in their cities putting them at odds, can the two learn to trust in each other—enough to imagine a different world?
