New Books: 24 October 2023
Bacon, Eugen & Hook, Andrew: Secondhand Daylight
(John Hunt/Cosmic Egg Books 9781803413549, $17.95, 224pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 10/27/2023)
SF time-travel novel, a reverse story in two timelines, following a future scientist traveling backwards in time, trying to help an ordinary man jumping uncontrollably forward in time.
Ballard, J.G. & Blacklock, Mark: Selected Nonfiction, 1963-2007
(MIT Press 9780262048323, $32.95, 424pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 10/24/2023)
Collection of the most significant nonfiction from Ballard’s career. Contains reviews, editorials, manifestos, and essays, including topics such as 9/11, British politics from New Labour onward, and what he termed “the rise of soft fascism,” plus commentaries on his own works. Edited by Mark Blacklock. Foreword by Tom McCarthy.
Datlow, Ellen, ed.: Christmas and Other Horrors: An Anthology of Solstice Horror
(Titan Books 9781803363264, $27.99, 448pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 10/24/2023)
Original anthology of short horror stories of solstice traditions around the globe. Authors include Terry Dowling, Tananarive Due, Stephen Graham Jones, Nick Mamatas, Garth Nix, and Kaaron Warren.
Ekpeki, Oghenechovwe Donald & Omenga, Joshua Uchenna: Between Dystopias: The Road to Afropantheology
(Arc Manor/Caezik SF & Fantasy 9781647100841, $17.99, 243pp, formats: trade paperback, 10/24/2023)
Collection of 14 stories (eight new) and three essays (two reprints) looking at various forms of African mysticism, religions, and dystopias. Most stories were written separately by the authors, who collaborate on the introduction and two stories.
Garber, Stephanie: A Curse for True Love
(Macmillan/Flatiron 9781250851208, $20.99, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/24/2023)
Young-adult fantasy novel, third in the Once Upon a Broken Heart series, set in the world of the Caravel series. Evangeline Fox seems to have found her happy ending. She’s married to a handsome prince and lives in a legendary castle. But Evangeline doesn’t know what she has lost to pay the devastating price for this fairytale, and her husband is determined to make sure she never finds out.
Greene, R.W.W.: Earth Retrograde
(Angry Robot 9781915202482, $18.99, 368pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 10/24/2023)
SF novel. Second book of the First Planets series. The United Nations is working to get everyone off Earth by the deadline – set by the planet’s true owners, the aliens known as the First. Meanwhile, the USA and the USSR have set their sights on Mars, claiming half a planet each.
Brooklyn Lamontagne doesn’t remember saving the world eight years ago. Nowadays, he’s just about covering his bills with his aging spaceship, the Victory. Then a pal asks for a ride to Mars, and Brooklyn lands in a solar system’s worth of espionage, backroom alliances, ancient treasures and secret plots while encountering a navigation system that just wants to be loved.
Johnson, Kij: The Privilege of the Happy Ending: Small, Medium, and Large Stories
(Small Beer Press 9781618732163, $34, 304pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, 10/24/2023)
Collection of speculative fiction from the last decade. The stories explore gender, animals, and the nature of stories, and range in form from classically told tales to deeply experimental works. The collection includes the World Fantasy Award-winning “The Privilege of the Happy Ending” and “The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe,” as well as two never-before published works.
Kelly, Greta: The Queen of Days
(Harper Voyager US 9780063240964, $30.00, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/24/2023)
Fantasy adventure novel. Balthazar and his flawed-but-lovable family of thieves think that stealing a statue during the annual celebration of the god Karanis is just a good bit of fun. But Bal doesn’t realize that the ceremony isn’t just empty tradition; it’s true magic, ripping open a portal for the god himself. Now the statue has been broken and part has gone missing. Bal must find the missing half of the statue to have any hope of earning his money, keeping his crew alive, and perhaps saving all of humanity.
Kingrea, J. Todd: With a Blighted Touch
(BHC Press 9781643973616, $28.00, 254pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/24/2023)
Horror novel. Christopher “Kit” McNeil returns to his small hometown of Black Rock, Tennessee, a blighted place suffering recent disappearances and deaths — including half of his high school graduating class. Kit and a local friend begin to wonder if it’s connected to what they witnessed in the woods when they were kids and if a creepy local family is involved.
McDonald, Ed: Traitor of Redwinter
(Tor 9781250811745, $29.99, 448pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/24/2023)
Fantasy thriller novel, the second in a the Redwinter Chronicles series. The power of the Sixth Gate grows stronger within Raine each day ― to control it, she needs lessons no one alive can teach her. There’s only one chance to turn the tide of power surging within her ― to learn the secrets that were once purged from the world. A strange book with ever-changing pages might have what she needs, though she can’t remember when or where she found it.
McGuire, Seanan: The Innocent Sleep
(Astra House/DAW 9780756416805, $28.00, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 10/24/2023)
Fantasy novel, 18th in the October Daye series, retelling events from Sleep No More but from the perspective of Tybalt, King of Cats. October has to break Titania’s new version of reality, but doesn’t know whom to trust.
Ojeda, Mónica & Booker, Sarah: Nefando
(Coffee House Press 9781566896894, $17.95, 184pp, formats: trade paperback, 10/24/2023)
Horror novel. Six young artists sharing an apartment in Barcelona are all connected in different ways to Nefando, a controversial cult video game whose purpose remains a mystery. In the parallel reality of the game, players found relief from the pain of past trauma and present shame, but also a frighteningly elastic sense of self and ethics. Is Nefando a game for horror enthusiasts, a challenge to players’ morals, or a poetic exercise? What happens in a virtual world that admits every taboo? Translated from the Spanish by Sarah Booker, who provides a note on the author and the text.
Ward, Jesmyn: Let Us Descend
(Simon & Schuster/Scribner 9781982104498, $28.00, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/24/2023)
Historical novel with fantastic elements. Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, journeys from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and on to a Louisiana sugar plantation. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother. Throughout, she opens herself to a world beyond this world, one teeming with spirits: of earth and water, of myth and history; spirits who nurture and give, and those who manipulate and take.
Yu, E. Lily: Jewel Box
(Erewhon 9781645660484, $26.95, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/24/2023)
Debut collection of 22 short stories, bittersweet and boundary-breaking, poignant and profound.
