New Books: 19 March 2024

Medlock, Noah: A Botanical Daughter (Titan Books UK 9781803365909, $16.99, 384pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 03/19/2024)

Horror novel. A tale of two Victorian gentlemen hiding their relationship away in a botanical garden who embark on a Frankenstein-style experiment with unexpected consequences.

 

Fulton, Victoria & McLaren, Faith: Cursed Cruise (Underlined 9780593649381, $11.99, 288pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 03/19/2024)

Young-adult supernatural mystery novel about four teen ghost hunters, one able to communicate with ghosts, on a cruise. When Chrissy, Chase, Kiki, and Emma board the ship, they have a funny feeling they’ve been sucked into a ghostly time warp—a theory that takes a frightening turn when Chrissy goes missing on the first night. Unbeknownst to the rest of the group, Chrissy has been sucked into another time by a passenger who wants the Ghost Gang to know her untimely death was not an accident and the perpetrator is still alive—and on board this ship. Ebook also available.

 

Goodhand, James: The Day Tripper (Mira 9780778369646, $28.99, 373pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 03/19/2024)

SF novel. Twenty-something Alex goes to sleep in 1995, then starts to wake up in a different year every morning, after a brutal encounter with a ghost from his past sees him beaten, battered and almost drowning in the Thames.

 

Pelayo, Cynthia: Forgotten Sisters (Thomas & Mercer 9781662513916, $16.99, 303pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 03/19/2024)

Gothic/psychological thriller. Sisters Anna and Jennie live in a historic bungalow on the Chicago River. They’re tethered to a disquieting past, and with nowhere else to go, nothing can part them from their family home. Not the creaks and disembodied voices that rattle the old walls. Not the inexplicable drownings in the area, or the increasing number of bodies that float by Anna’s window.

 

Moschella, Melanie K.: Iron-Bound Flames (self-published 9798989198603, $25.99, 278pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, 03/19/2024)

Fantasy novel, the first in the Raek Riders series. Kitchen maid Meera volunteers to feed a dangerous creature imprisoned at the palace. She unexpectedly develops a friendship with the feathered fire-breathing beast, and tries to persuade the king to help it — risking charges of treason. Ebook also available.

 

Jingfang, Hao: Jumpnauts (Saga Press 9781534422117, $18.99, 368pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, audio, 03/19/2024)

SF first contact novel, the first in a series. An archaeologist believes aliens have visited Earth every 600 years, and a new visit is imminent. Translated from the Chinese by Ken Liu. Ebook also available. Simultaneous with the UK (Head of Zeus) edition.

 

Le, Vanessa: The Last Bloodcarver (Roaring Brook 9781250881526, $19.99, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 03/19/2024)

Young-adult fantasy novel.  Nhika is a bloodcarver. A ruthless being who can alter human biology with just a touch. In the industrial city of Theumas, Nhika is seen not as a healer, but a monster that kills for pleasure. And in the city’s criminal underbelly, the rarest of monsters are traded for gold. When Nhika is finally caught by the infamous Butchers, she’s forced to heal the last witness to a high-profile murder.

 

Pulley, Natasha: The Mars House (Bloomsbury USA 9781639732333, $29.99, 432pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 03/19/2024)

Queer SF novel. Environmental catastrophe forces male ballet dancer January to become a refugee on Mars, where his Earth strength makes him a danger to others and a second-class citizen, but a xenophobic politician trying to change their own image offers marriage and a better status.

 

Obreht, Téa: The Morningside (Random House 9781984855503, $29, 304pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, EBOOK, audio, 03/19/2024)

Near-future magical realism novel. Silvia and her mother, expelled from their ancestral home, move into The Morningside, a crumbling luxury tower in half-underwater Island City. Ebook also available.

 

Kuivalainen, Amy: Of Starlight and Midnight (BHC Press 9781643973821, $28, 226pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, 03/19/2024)

Fantasy novel involving Norse myth, part of the Firebird Fairie Tales series. Light-elf brothers Aramis and Seren hunt down their lost books on the supernatural black market with a reluctant librarian’s help. A print-on-demand edition; trade paperback (978-1643973838, $16.95) was announced but not seen; ebook also available. This is an international edition with US, Canadian, and UK prices.

 

Lethem, Jonathan: The Collapsing Frontier (PM Press 9781629634883, $16, 176pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, hardcover, 12/30/1899)

An interview with Lethem conducted by Terry Bisson and a bibliography. Ebook also available. PM Press, PO Box 23912, Oakland CA 94623.

 

 

Fuston, Margie: The Revenant Games (McElderry 9781665934411, $19.99, 416pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 03/19/2024)

Young-adult dark fantasy/horror novel. Blood is survival for seventeen-year-old Bly, who lives in the poverty-stricken human villages caught between enemy vampire and witch kingdoms. Most of the time, vampires and witches live in uneasy truce, buying human blood for their food and spells. But for two weeks a year, the ceasefire dissolves, and they hold the Revenant Games.

 

Price, Daniel: The War of the Givens (Blue Rider Press 9780735217911, $26, 784pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 03/19/2024)

SF novel, the third and final book in the Silvers/Temporis trilogy about six people saved from the apocalypse, given temporal abilities, and on the run from enemies, trying to find the one man who can help them.

 

Mandelo, Lee: The Woods All Black (Tordotcom 9781250790316, $19.99, 160pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 03/21/2024)

Historical horror novel with trans elements, about a frontier nurse in 1920s Appalachia, where hate festers among the church-going locals and the hills and woods have minds of their own. Ebook also available.

 

Sagas, L.M.: Cascade Failure (Tor 9781250871251, $17.99, 405pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 03/19/2024)

SF novel, the first in the Ambit’s Run series. The crew of the AI ship Ambit respond to a distress call from an abandoned planet with a mass grave and secrets. There are only three real powers in the Spiral: the corporate power of the Trust versus the Union’s labor’s leverage. Between them the Guild tries to keep everyone’s hands above the table. A first novel. Ebook also available.

 

Feinstein, Rita: Meet Me in the Fourth Dimension (Page Street 9781645678580, $18.99, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 03/19/2024)

Young-adult novel in verse with possible apocalyptic elements. NASA says rogue planet Malachite is due to pass Earth safely, but Crosby has been getting other information (from a fortune teller and online Malachite truthers) and believes only those who transcend to the fourth dimension will survive. Ebook also available.

 

Curtis, Grace: Floating Hotel (DAW 9780756419301, $28, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 03/19/2024)

SF novel about the Grand Abeona Hotel, which travels across the milky way, offering luxury and mysteries, along with misfits, rebels, and found family. Simultaneous with the UK (Hodderscape) edition. Ebook also available.

 

Dodd, Sherri L.: Murder Under Redwood Moon (Black Rose Writing 9781685133887, $21.95, 290pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 03/21/2024)

Fantasy horror novel. Arista Kelly’s peaceful life in a mountain commune turns dark when she starts having a recurring vision of an ominous tattoo, the ghost in her cottage starts acting up, and then a body turns up. Ebook also available.

 

Holland, Lucy: Song of the Huntress (Tor UK 9781529077407, $19.99, 416pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 03/21/2024)

Fantasy novel of the Wild Hunt. Britain, 60AD. Hoping to save her lover, land and her people from the Romans, Herla makes a desperate pact with the king of the Otherworld. But years pass unheeded in his realm, and she escapes to find everyone she loved long dead. Cursed to wield his blade, she becomes Lord of the Hunt. And for centuries, she rides, reaping wanderers’ souls. Until the night she meets a woman on a bloody battlefield – a Saxon queen with ice-blue eyes. Simultaneous with the Redhook US edition.