New Books: 15 August 2023
Alsberg, Sasha: Fracturing Fate
(Harlequin/Inkyard Press 9781335453754, $19.99, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 08/15/2023)
Young-adult fantasy novel. While battling the demigod Llaw, Klara is catapulted five hundred years into the past, alone and distraught that she and her fated love Callum killed the demigod at the cost of Callum’s life.
Klara is the last Pillar of Time, an anchor point in the timeline of the world. Treacherous enemies both magical and human chase her in 1500s Scotland, and she has no idea what, and whom, she left behind on the battlefield in 2022. In a battle across history and the present, life and death, Klara must fight to choose her own fate and avenge the life of her love.
Beukes, Lauren: Bridge
(Penguin Random House UK/Michael Joseph 9780718182823, $29, 432pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 08/08/2023)
SF novel of a woman’s search for her mother across alternate realities. Bridge discovers that her late mother’s “grand delusion,” a neurological device called the dreamworm, actually works, opening doors to other worlds — and people will do anything to get it.
Campbell, Ramsey: The Lonely Lands
(Flame Tree Press UK 9781787588639, $16.95, 256pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, 08/15/2023)
Horror novel. Joe Hunter has begun to adjust to the loss of his wife when he hears her calling from beyond, “Where am I?” His urge to help leads him into her afterlife, which is made up of their memories. Even the best of those is no refuge from the restless dead, and Joe can only lure them away from her. Soon they begin to invade his everyday life, and every journey he makes to find her leaves him less able to return. When her refuges turn nightmarish he may have to make the ultimate sacrifice to keep her safe.
Cañas, Isabel: The Vampires of El Norte
(Penguin Random House/Berkley 9780593436721, $28, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 08/15/2023)
Supernatural western novel, set in 1840s Mexico, near the US border. Nine years ago Nena was attacked by vampires. Believing that she died in the attack, her boyfriend Néstor has been on the run from his grief ever since, drinking and moving from ranch to ranch working as a vaquero.
When the United States invades Mexico in 1846, the two are reunited on the road to war: Nena as a curandera, a healer striving to prove her worth to her father so that he does not marry her off to a stranger, and Néstor as a member of the auxiliary cavalry of ranchers and vaqueros. But the shock of their reunion—and Nena’s rage at Néstor for seemingly abandoning her long ago—is quickly overshadowed by the appearance of a nightmare made flesh. They must work through their past and face the future together, or neither will survive to see the dawn.
Carrick, M.A.: Labyrinth’s Heart
(Orbit US 9780316539739, $19.99, 688pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 08/15/2023)
Fantasy novel, the third in the Rook & Rose trilogy. This is a pen name for Marie Brennan & Alyc Helms. Ren’s plan was to pose as the long-lost daughter of the noble house Traementis. She would secure a fortune for herself and her sister and then vanish. She ought to have known that in the city of dreams, nothing is ever so simple. Now, she is Ren, con-artist and thief. Also Renata, the celebrated Traementis heir. She is Arenza, the mysterious pattern-reader and political rebel. And she is the Black Rose, a vigilante who fights alongside the legendary Rook.
Corpora, Michelle Jabès: Holly Horror
(Penguin Random House/Penguin Workshop 9780593386217, $18.99, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 08/15/2023)
Young-adult horror novel. After her parents’ divorce, Evie Archer hopes that moving to Ravenglass, Massachusetts, is the fresh start that her family needs. But her new home—known by locals as the Horror House—was once home to Holly Hobbie, who mysteriously vanished in her bedroom one night. Traces of Holly linger in the Horror House and slowly begin to take over Evie’s life. A strange shadow follows her everywhere she goes, and Evie starts to lose sight of what’s real and what isn’t the more she learns about The Lost Girl.
Forbes, Lani: Face the Night
(Blackstone Publishing 9798212030915, $20.99, 335pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 08/15/2023)
Young-adult fantasy novel. Catriona Macgregor’s charmed life has been stripped away. Despite being one of the “Blessed” she’s now the adopted daughter of an outlaw, and wanted by the authorities. The Blessed are supposed to use their gifts to carry out missions for the Patron Saints, but she can only imagine that Saint Prudentia made a terrible mistake in choosing her. Still, her gift has never deserted her. Whenever danger threatens, Cat receives a vision—just in time to save her life. And when she meets a renegade priest, Father Ignatius, he helps her understand how her ability may be part of a much bigger picture. A picture that involves facing up to the monstrous Baron Caldwell—the one who ordered her parents killed—and his son, Adrian, who betrayed them all.
Googins, Nick Fuller: The Great Transition
(Simon & Schuster/Atria 9781668010754, $27.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 08/15/2023)
Near-future SF novel set after the climate crisis. Thirty years ago, Emi’s father came to New York with a team of volunteers to save the city from rising waters and torrential storms, while her mother was fighting massive wildfires that ravaged the western United States. They became part of a movement that changed the world—The Great Transition—forging a new society and finding each other in process. Now, following the public assassination of a dozen climate criminals, Emi’s mother has disappeared as a possible suspect. A determined Emi and her father set out to find her — but they aren’t the only ones searching. A first novel.
Guran, Paula, ed.: The Year’s Best Fantasy: Volume 2
(Start/Pyr 9781645060499, $21.95, 406pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 08/15/2023)
Year’s Best anthology with 28 short fantasy stories from 2022. The roster of authors includes the like of Lavie Tidhar, Theodora Goss, Anya Ow, Curtis C. Chen, Sofia Samatar, and Sam J. Miller.
Hawkins, Karen: The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove
(Simon & Schuster/Gallery 9781982195939, $28.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 08/15/2023)
Fantasy/magical realism novel, third in the Dove Pond series. Driven by a haunting dream, acclaimed magical baker Ella Dove is coming home to Dove Pond for an extended visit. Ella believes the dream is a sign it’s time she confront and reconcile with her mentor, who falsely accused Ella of stealing her coveted family recipe book, known as the Book of Cakes. Ella must also come to terms with her old boyfriend, who can’t resist trying to convince her to stay and give their relationship, and their town, another chance.
Hoffman, Alice: The Invisible Hour
(Simon & Schuster/Atria 9781982175375, $27.99, 272pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 08/15/2023)
Fantasy time-travel novel. Mia Jacob lives in the Community, an oppressive cult in western Massachusetts where contact with the outside world is forbidden, and books are considered evil. As a girl, on the day she was planning to die, she found a copy of Nathaniel Hawthorn’s The Scarlet Letter which seemed to describe her family’s life, and gave her hope. Now, as a young women, while visiting Hawthorne’s grave she is transported back to 1837 Salem to meet Hawthorne himself.
James, Alice: Grave Suspicions
(Rebellion/Solaris US 9781786188434, $16.99, 298pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 08/15/2023)
Humorous dark fantasy mystery novel, third in the Lavington Windsor Mysteries series. Toni Windsor is trying the English country life as an estate agent, complicated by her raising zombies and dating a vampire, when she is called on to investigate who clubbed a Cornish cheese millionaire to death while he was alone in a locked room.
Kennedy, James: Bride of the Tornado
(Quirk Books 9781683693277, $17.99, 352pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 08/15/2023)
Horror novel. In a small Midwestern town, a girl in high school learns about the upcoming Tornado Day — a once-in-a-generation event where a plague of sentient tornadoes comes to destroy the town. The only thing that stands between them and annihilation is a teen boy known as the tornado killer. Drawn to this enigmatic boy, the girl senses an unnatural connection. But the adults are hiding a secret about the origins of the tornadoes, and the true nature of the tornado killer.
Kingfisher, T.: Thornhedge
(Tor 9781250244093, $19.99, 128pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 08/15/2023)
Fairytale fantasy novella, a twist on the story of Sleeping Beauty. Toad-shaped Toadling was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. As an adult, the fae ask Toadling to return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, to break a curse keeping a sleeping princess trapped, but Toadling will do anything to uphold that curse.
Malerman, Josh: Spin a Black Yarn
(Penguin Random House/Del Rey 9780593237861, $17.99, 400pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 08/15/2023)
Collection of five horror novellas mixing psychological and speculative elements, all set in or around the city of Samhattan. The author’s “Afterword and Acknowledgements” discusses the title and its long evolution.
A sister insists to her little brother that “Half the House Is Haunted” by a strange presence. But is it the house that’s haunted—or their childhoods?
In “Argyle,” a dying man confesses to homicides he never committed, and he reveals long-kept secrets far more sinister than murder.
A tourist takes the ultimate trip to outer space in “The Jupiter Drop,” but the real journey is into his own dark past.
In “Doug and Judy Buy the House Washer™,” a trendy married couple buys the latest home gadget only to find themselves trapped by their possessions, their history . . . and each other.
And in “Egorov,” a wealthy old cretin murders a young man, not knowing the victim was a triplet. The two surviving brothers stage a savage faux-haunting—playing the ghost of their slain brother—with the aim of driving the old murderer mad.
Modesitt, L.E., Jr.: Contrarian
(Tor 9781250847010, $32.99, 624pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 08/15/2023)
Gaslamp political fantasy novel, third in the Grand Illusion series. Recently elected to the Council of Sixty-Six, Steffan Dekkard is the first Councilor who is an Isolate, a man invulnerable to the emotional manipulations and emotional surveillance of empaths―but not the recent bombing of the Council Office Building by insurrectionists. Protests against unemployment and poor harvests have become armed riots as the people sink deeper into poverty. They look to a government struggling to emerge from corruption and conspiracy. But it appears that someone high up in the government and corporations has supplied arms and explosives to insurrectionists.
Monette, Sarah: A Theory of Haunting
(Rebellion/Solaris UK 9781837861101, $15.99, 146pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 08/15/2023)
Gothic novella. The new owner of Thirdhop Scarp—a house notorious for strange and violent occurrences—has founded an esoteric order that meets in his new home. Kyle Murchison Booth works as an archivist at the Parrington Museum, where the museum director demands that Booth find a way to discredit the new owner’s occult teachings and end his influence. Reluctantly, Mr. Booth joins the weekend séance.
Salvatore, R.A.: Lolth’s Warrior
(Harper Voyager US 9780063029873, $32, 432pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 08/15/2023)
Gaming tie-in novel, the third and final in The Way of the Drow trilogy, part of The Legend of Drizzt series in the Forgotten Realms world. The drow city of Menzoberranzan has fallen into discontent, sowed by the growing legend of the one who escaped: Drizzt Do’Urden. Now many of the drow—including the city’s most powerful house, led by the Matron Mother—are questioning the influence of the Spider Queen and the very history of the city’s founding. As social tensions rise and the demands for answers boom, a fight erupts between the adherents of Lolth’s chaotic evil and those drow who demand better.
Schlossberg, Josh: Charwood
(Madness Heart Press/Aggadah Try It 9781955745277, $14.95, 328pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 08/21/2023)
Ecological Jewish folk horror novel. After joining the Tenders, a band of backwoods activists claiming to solve climate change by burning trees for energy, Orna Tannenbaum falls in with Rowan, their odd yet charming leader. But when she uncovers what the Tenders are really up to in the forest, she must apply the ancient wisdom of her culture to battle dark forces threatening to gain a foothold in our world.
Schrader, Ken: Crimson Whisper
(eSpec/NeoParadoxa 9781949691870, $13.95, 108pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 08/21/2023)
Historical fantasy novella, the 16th in eSpec’s Systema Paradoxa series of novellas about cryptids. Illustrated by Jason Whitley. In an ongoing effort to thwart the villainous Order of the Sanguine Hand, Agents Lydia Wainwright and Keilah Holliday of Her Majesty’s Bureau of Preternatural Affairs journey to the remote Congo to investigate a potential threat of unknown origin, identified only as Crimson Whisper. Embarking upon the airship, the Grand Enterprise, they are soon beset by strange encounters, including a most unexpected attack resulting in more questions… and three corpses.
