New Books: 17 October 2023
Baker, A. Deborah: Under the Smokestrewn Sky
(Tordotcom 9781250848475, $21.99, 208pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/17/2023)
Fantasy novel, the fourth book in the Up-and-Under series begun in Over the Woodward Wall, the book-within-a-book from Middlegame by Seanan McGuire. Since stumbling from their world into the Up and Under, Avery and Zib have walked the improbable road across forests, seas and skies, finding friends in the unlikeliest of places and enemies great in number, as they make their way toward the Impossible City in the hope of finding their way home.
Buckell, Tobias S.: A Stranger in the Citadel
(Tachyon Publications 9781616963989, $17.95, 256pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 10/17/2023)
Post-apocalyptic SF novel with a fantasy feel, set in a world where reading and writing are forbidden. When the young musketress Lilith saves an outcast librarian from immediate execution, her curiosity draws her closer to him. She lets slip her family’s most dangerous secret, sparking a deadly rebellion which begins to reveal some of the truth of her world.
Carl, Annie, ed.: Soul Jar
(Forest Avenue Press 9781942436577, $17.99, 400pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 10/17/2023)
Original anthology of 31 stories (four reprints) by disabled authors including Adam Fout, Paul Jessup, Nisi Shawl, and Dawn Vogel. Foreword by Nicola Griffith, who also provides a reprint story.
Cherryh, C.J. & Fancher, Jane S.: Defiance
(Astra House/DAW 9780756415907, $28, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 10/17/2023)
SF novel, the 22nd in the Foreigner series. Bren Cameron is tasked with getting Ilisidi, the aiji-dowager, back to the capital alive, on an urgent basis. But the Shadow Guild will spend anything and everything to take Ilisidi and Bren out.
Davis-Goff, Sarah: Silent City
(Macmillan/Flatiron 9781250262622, $27.99, 256pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 10/17/2023)
Plague has overrun Ireland, where a bite from the skrake means death or infection. Phoenix City is a safe refuge, where Orpen runs “the banshees” — a fierce all-woman group of fighters, who follow the dictates of the city’s oppressive rulers. When two women are publicly executed, Orpen knows she must make a choice between guaranteed survival within a cruel society or treacherous freedom beyond the walls.
Epstein, Allison: Let the Dead Bury the Dead
(Penguin Random House/Doubleday 9780385549097, $28, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/17/2023)
Historical fantasy novel set in 1812 Saint Petersburg, with elements of Russian fairy tales. Sasha, returning after the war with Napoleon to his lover, Grand Duke Felix, finds a mysterious woman in the snow who might not be human — but definitely has dangerous revolutionary leanings.
Gillig, Rachel: Two Twisted Crowns
(Orbit US 9780316312714, $18.99, 480pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 10/17/2023)
Gothic fantasy novel, the second book in the Shepherd King series. Gripped by a tyrant king and in the thrall of dark magic, the kingdom is in peril. Elspeth and Ravyn have gathered most of the twelve Providence Cards, but the last—and most important—one remains to be found: the Twin Alders. If they’re going to find the card before Solstice and set free the kingdom, they will need to journey through the dangerous mist-cloaked forest. The only one who can lead them through is the monster that shares Elspeth’s head: the Nightmare. And he doesn’t want to share any longer.
Guran, Paula, ed.: The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror: Volume Four
(Start/Pyr 9781645060673, $21, 400pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 10/17/2023)
Year’s Best anthology with stories from 2022, the fourth volume in the series from Pyr (after ten from Prime). Authors include Gemma Files, Alix E. Harrow, Stephen Graham Jones, Cassandra Khaw, Eden Royce, Fran Wilde, A.C. Wise, and more.
Jacobs, Bethany: These Burning Stars
(Orbit US 9780316463324, $19.99, 464pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 10/17/2023)
Space opera SF novel set in a star empire. Occasional thief Jen Ironway uncovers proof that a powerful family was involved in planet-wide genocide. Two brutal clerics are sent to hunt her down, while a ghost known only as Six tracks all three of them. A first novel.
Kuang, R.F. & Adams, John Joseph, eds.: The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023
(HarperCollins/Mariner 9780063315747, $18.99, 320pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 10/17/2023)
Best of the year anthology with stories from 2022 by authors including Nathan Ballingrud, Isabel Cañas, Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Isabel J. Kim, Sofia Samatar, and Chris Willrich. Authors provide notes on their stories with their biographies. Introduction by Kuang; foreword by series editor John Joseph Adams, who also provides a list of additional notable stories.
Mammay, Michael: Generation Ship
(Harper Voyager US 9780063252981, $19.99, 608pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 10/17/2023)
SF novel. In 2108, Colony Ship Voyager departed Earth for a distant planet. 250 years and 27 light years later, an arrival is imminent. But all is not well. The probes sent ahead to gather data aren’t responding, and a group of crewmembers begins a rebellion against the draconian rules put in place when the ship launched. The governor decides a full-scale colonization effort is the only way to pull the Voyager’s citizens together. But the harsh alien planet that awaits them might have its own ideas about being colonized.
Mehrotra, Rati: Flower and Thorn
(St. Martin’s/Wednesday Books 9781250823700, $21, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 10/17/2023)
Young-adult fantasy novel inspired by medieval India. Seventeen-year-old Irinya uses her knowledge of magical flowers to help her caravan survive in the harsh desert. When her handsome hunting partner and childhood friend finds a priceless silver spider lily ― said to be able to tear down kingdoms and defeat entire armies ― Irinya knows this is their chance for a better life. But Irinya is tricked by an attractive impostor, and must undertake a dangerous journey to recover the priceless flower and fix what she’s done.
Shvartsman, Alex: Kakistocracy
(Arc Manor/Caezik SF & Fantasy 9781647100827, $17.99, 240pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 10/17/2023)
Urban fantasy novel, the second in the Conradverse Chronicles series begun in The Middling Affliction about wisecracking PI/monster hunter Conrad Brent, who hides the fact he has only “middling” powers while he protects the people of Brooklyn NY from monsters and magic.
Slatter, Angela: The Wrong Girl & Other Warnings
(Brain Jar Press 9781922479617, $14.99, 186pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 10/17/2023)
Collection of 12 stories, showing us that ‘innocent’ should never be mistaken for ‘safe’, with tales of witches, Victorian-era detectives, bad parents, unrepentant killers, and ancient wisdom.
Smith, Sherwood: Antiphony
(self-published 9781636321721, $19.99, 668pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, 10/17/2023)
Military fantasy novel, the final book in the Sartorias-deles serie begun with Inda. Liere has attained the home she always longed for, though there are compromises: her children are scattered through the world, and she scarcely has time to adjust to her new life before she must use her dyr to prevent war. While elsewhere in the world, Chwahirsland is, at long last, reshaping itself to take place on the world stage, and not everyone is happy to see that.
Waters, Erica: All That Consumes Us
(HarperTeen 9780063115965, $19.99, 416pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/17/2023)
Young-adult gothic dark academia novel. Tara gets a chance to join Magni Viri, an elite academic society at her college, but once she’s settled into their gorgeous Victorian dormitory, strange things start to happen. She’s finally writing, but her stories are dark and twisted. Her dreams feel as if they could bury her alive. And an unseen presence seems to stalk her through the halls. The secret waiting at the heart of Magni Viri might destroy Tara before she can escape.
Young, Adrienne: The Unmaking of June Farrow
(Penguin Random House/Delacorte 9780593598672, $28, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/17/2023)
Fantasy thriller novel. It’s been a year since June Farrow started seeing and hearing things that weren’t there. Faint wind chimes, a voice calling her name, and a mysterious door appearing out of nowhere — signs of what June always knew was coming. For generations the woman of her family have been cursed to go mad. But when June discovers a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother’s decades-old disappearance, she realizes the door she assumed was a hallucination might be the answer she’s searching for. The next time it appears, June touches it and walks past the threshold, leading to a journey that will change both the past and the future, uncover the lingering mysteries of her small town, and entangle her heart in an epic star-crossed love.
