New & Notable Books, February 2024
Josiah Bancroft, An Empyreal Retinue (Subterranean 10/23) Collection of eight stories, four new, all expanding upon the author’s popular Books of Babel series, plus an author’s note, with lavish illustrations throughout by Tom Kidd.
Mike Carey, The Ghost in Bone (Subterranean 10/23) This dark urban fantasy novella heralds the return of Carey’s series character, the exorcist Felix Castor, who answers a help wanted ad… and falls into a trap. It’s a good entry point for new readers, while providing some nice through-lines for longtime readers.
Cory Doctorow, The Lost Cause (Tor 11/23) The Locus columnist and technology expert tackles climate change in this near-future SF novel, about global efforts to mitigate the crisis – despite the resistance from those who still think it’s a hoax. ‘‘While near-future SF might be the one of the harder subgenres to compose, the results are more impactful and meaningful than many a big-canvas space opera.’’ [Paul Di Filippo].
Erika Johansen, The Kingdom of Sweets (Dutton 11/23) This dark fantasy novel is inspired by Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet The Nutcracker, and follows two sisters whose lives change forever one Christmas when a present from their godfather Drosselmey opens a portal to a deceptively beautiful world.
Naomi Kritzer, Liberty’s Daughter (Fairwood 11/23) The Hugo Award winner gives us a thrilling near-future SF novel stitched together from her popular Seastead Stories series in F&SF, following amateur detective Beck Garrison as she investigates secrets on a Libertarian separatist archipelago made of old cruise ships and drilling platforms.
Valya Dudycz Lupescu, Olha Brylova & Iryna Pasko, eds., Embroidered Worlds: Fantastic Fiction from Ukraine & the Diaspora (Atthis Arts 12/23) This original anthology of 30 stories (with eight reprints from previous English-language publication) gathers impressive work by writers living in Ukraine, or of Ukrainian heritage, including Elizabeth Bear, R.B. Lemberg, Yuri Vynnychuk, and Oleksiy Zhupansky. Published with support from the Translate Ukraine Translation Program.
Foz Meadows, All the Hidden Paths (Tor 12/23) The Tithenai Chronicles series, started with A Strange and Stubborn Endurance, continues in this romantic fantasy adventure as newlyweds Velasin and Caethari deal with political and personal complications of their queer marriage – including factions that want them split up, or dead.
Nnedi Okorafor, Like Thunder (DAW 11/23) Okorafor returns to the harrowing world of Andre Norton Award finalist The Shadow Speaker to complete the Desert Magician’s duology, set in an Africanfuturist postholocaust West Africa in 2077, and mingling future technology and elemental magic.
James Tiptree Jr., The Voice That Murmurs in the Darkness (Subterranean 9/23) This retrospective collection of 13 stories (and one essay) spans the legendary writer’s career, highlighting lesser-known work from 1968 to 1987; most of the stories included here were among the author’s favorites, drawn from a list she made of ‘‘the cream of Tiptree.’’ ‘‘A well-curated selection of stories that hold up remarkably well, and that remind us what all that excitement way back in the 1980s was really about.’’ [Gary K. Wolfe]
Cadwell Turnbull, We Are the Crisis (Blackstone Publishing 11/23) This contemporary fantasy novel, second in the Convergence Saga after No Gods, No Monsters, is set four years after the ‘‘fracture’’ of the first book, when supernatural creatures including werewolves and vampires became known to the general population, leading to bitter sectarian strife, and greater revelations about the existence of magic. ‘‘A remarkable, relentlessly provocative, and often beautifully written series.’’ [Gary K. Wolf]
From the February 2024 issue of Locus.
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