New Books, 5 March 2024
Baptiste, Bethany: The Poisons We Drink
(Sourcebooks Fire 9781728251950, $18.99, 480pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)
Young-adult fantasy novel. Teen witcher Venus Stoneheart makes illegal potions to support her family, but a corrupt coven forces her to make potions to enslave politicians.
Black, Holly: The Prisoner’s Throne
(Little, Brown 9780316592710, $20.99, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)
Young-adult fantasy novel, second in the Stolen Heir duology in the Elfhame world. Prince Oak is paying for his betrayal. Imprisoned in the icy north and bound to the will of a monstrous new queen, he must rely on charm and calculation to survive.
Brett, Peter V.: The Hidden Queen
(Penguin Random House/Del Rey 9781984817112, $30, 608pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)
Fantasy novel, second in the Nightfall Saga series begun in The Desert Prince. Humanity thought the war with demonkind was over. Now, after less than a generation to rebuild, the demon corelings have returned with a vengeance. The Spear of Ala—the fortress that stands at the gates of the demon’s hive—is the last bastion against the horde, and reports say it may already have fallen.
Chee, Traci: Kindling
(HarperCollins 9780063269354, $19.99, 432pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 02/27/2024)
Young-adult fantasy novel. In a world where the use of kindling (magic wielding teen soldiers) has been outlawed, seven such soldiers seeking new roles defend a village under threat.
CJ, Piper: The Dawn and Its Light
(Sourcebooks/Bloom Books 9781728270791, $18.99, 576pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)
Fantasy novel, fourth and final in the series The Night and Its Moon. If Nox and Amaris are ever to have the life together they’ve always hoped for, they will have to use all the power and strength within them to protect their continent.
Croft, Jennifer: The Extinction of Irena Rey
(Bloomsbury USA 9781639731701, $28.99, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 03/05/2024)
Psychological thriller novel of climate catastrophe, obsession, and translation. A famous author disappears, and the eight translators come to work on her new masterpiece at her Polish house uncover secrets about her they’re not ready to face. A first novel by a prize-winning translator.
de la Cruz, Melissa: The Encanto’s Daughter
(Penguin Random House/Putnam 9780593533086, $19.99, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)
Young-adult fantasy romance inspired by Filipino mythology, the first in a duology. MJ hides her existence as the half-encanto heir to the throne of the Sirena Court — until her estranged father’s sudden death.
DiCamillo, Kate: Ferris
(Candlewick Press 9781536231052, $18.99, 240pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)
Middle-grade humorous fantasy novel. Ferris Wilkey is having a chaotic summer, including an ailing grandmother, a little sister determined to be an outlaw, a demanding ghost with impractical plans, and an invasion of raccoons.
Evans, Jaq: What Grows in the Dark
(Harlequin/Mira 9780778369684, $18.99, 304pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)
Horror novel. Brigit, a phony spirtualist, returns to her hometown to help investigate an incident eerily like her own sister’s death, and starts seeing and hearing strange things. A first novel.
Ham, Yeji Y.: The Invisible Hotel
(Zando 9781638931379, $28, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 03/05/2024)
Surreal horror novel. Yewon dreams of a hotel with infinite rooms and a terror she is desperate to escape — just like the real-world South Korean life she’s living with its mundane horrors of old age, illness and a war that never really ended. A first novel.
Harrison, Kim: Three Kinds of Lucky
(Ace 9780593437476, $28, 464pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)
Urban fantasy novel. First in the Shadow Age series. Petra Grady’s predictable life as a sweeper of magical waste is about to be upended when she’s forced to work on a research project.
Hodge, Rosamund: What Monstrous Gods
(HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray 9780062869135, $19.99, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)
Standalone young-adult fantasy novel, loosely inspired by the classic Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. Centuries ago, the heretic sorcerer Ruven raised a deadly briar around Runakhia’s palace, casting the royal family into an enchanted sleep—and silencing the kingdom’s gods. Born with a miraculous gift, Lia’s destiny is to kill Ruven and wake the royals. But when she succeeds, she finds her duty is not yet complete, for now she must marry into the royal family and forge a pact with a god—or die.
Holohan, Kevin: So You Wanna Run a Country
(Akashic Books 9781636141602, $27.95, 320pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 03/05/2024)
Satirical SF novel. After almost a century of being shut off from the rest of the world in self-imposed isolation, the neo-medieval statelet of Inner Azhuur suddenly volunteers to host the next season of the global streaming sensation So You Wanna Run a Country?
Hunter, Faith: Rift in the Soul
(Ace 9780593335796, $9.99, 400pp, formats: paperback, ebook, 03/05/2024)
Contemporary fantasy novel, sixth in the Soulwood series. Nell Ingram draws her powers from deep in the earth, and uses them to help Psy-LED, the Psychometric Law Enforcement Division, which solves paranormal crimes. When a local vampire calls to report a dead body on her compound the dead body is just the beginning of a mystery that involves supernaturals of all kinds.
Jakubowski, Maxim, ed.: Reports From the Deep End: Stories Inspired by J.G. Ballard
(Titan Books UK 9781803363172, $17.99, 368pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, 03/05/2024)
Original anthology of 31 SF stories. Authors include Pat Cadigan, Ramsey Campbell, Paul Di Filippo, Christopher Fowler, Samantha Lee Howe, Nick Mamatas, Michael Moorcock, Jeff Noon, Christine Poulson, Will Self, Lavie Tidhar.…
Kiste, Gwendolyn: The Haunting of Velkwood
(Simon & Schuster/Saga Press 9781982172374, $26.99, 256pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)
Gothic dark fantasy/horror novel about three childhood friends who survived the night when everyone else in their hometown turned into ghosts.
Mabry, Samantha: Clever Creatures of the Night
(Workman/Algonquin Young Readers 9781616208974, $18.99, 240pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)
Young-adult Gothic mystery/horror novel with touches of magic realism. Case investigates the disappearance of her best friend, starting with her remote rural home and housemates who strike her her as almost cultlike and maybe murderous.
Malzberg, Barry N.: Collecting Myself: The Uncollected Stories of Barry N. Malzberg
(Stark House 9798886010817, $15.95, 186pp, formats: trade paperback, 03/08/2024)
Collection of 35 stories from 1970-2022, none previously collected; arranged in chronological order (except for the very last story). Edited by Robert Friedman and Gregory Shepard. Includes a bibliography of Malzberg’s books, solo and collaborative.
McDermott, Siobhan: Paper Dragons: The Fight for the Hidden Realm
(Penguin Random House/Delacorte 97805930706114, $18.99, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)
Young-adult fantasy novel. The first book in the Paper Dragons series. An outsider in her village above the cloud sea, 12-year-old orphan Yeung Zhi Ging’s only hope of escape is to win the single invitation to train as a Silhouette: an apprentice to the immortals.
McGuire, Seanan: Aftermarket Afterlife
(Astra House/DAW 9780756418618, $17, 368pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)
Fantasy novel, 13th in the InCryptid series. Mary Dunlavy, the Price family’s babysitting ghost, gets involved when the Covenant of St. George keeps attacking the family, determined to make sure she doesn’t run out of people to care for. This includes bonus new novella “Dreaming of You in Freefall”.
Olivas, Daniel A.: Chicano Frankenstein
(Forest Avenue Press 9781942436591, $18, 222pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)
Near-future horror novel with elements of satire and romance, a retelling of Shelley’s Frankenstein. An unnamed paralegal, brought back to life through a controversial process, maneuvers through a near-future world that both needs and resents him.
Oyeyemi, Helen: Parasol Against the Axe
(Penguin Random House/Riverhead 9780593192368, $28, 272pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)
Magical realism novel, about competitive friendship, the elastic boundaries of storytelling, and the meddling influence of a city called Prague.
Peikoff, Kira: Baby X
a
(The Quick Brown Fox/Crooked Lane 9781639106332, $30.99, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 03/05/2024)
Near-future SF thriller. The ability to create embryos using DNA from sources such as saliva, blood, or mucus leads to theft of DNA samplings, and one music superstar hires a gorgeous bio-security guard to keep his genetic material safe, but a pregnant woman turns up claiming he’s the father.
Ringo, John & Poole, Gary, eds.: United We Stand
(Baen 9781982193263, $28, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 03/05/2024)
Original anthology of short stories of zombie apocalypse, the fourth anthology in the Black Tide Rising series originated by Ringo. Authors include John Birmingham, Jody Lynn Nye, Jamie Ibson, Sarah A. Hoyt, Brian Trent, Dave Freer, Griffin Barber, Lydia Sherrer, Mel Todd, Christopher L. Smith, and Mike Massa.
Sain, Ginny Myers: One Last Breath
(Penguin Random House/Razorbill 9780593625453, $19.99, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)
Young-adult supernatural thriller/horror novel. Tru gets involved with an investigation into the murders of two girls two decades earlier.
St. James, Simone: Murder Road
(Penguin Random House/Berkley 9780593200384, $29, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)
Supernatural thriller novel about a road where the local Lost Girl urban legend turns out to be real.
Utomi, Moses Ose: The Truth of the Aleke
(Tordotcom 9781250849052, $24.99, 112pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 03/05/2024)
Young-adult fantasy novella in the Forever Desert series. After a massacre, Junior Peacekeeper Osi is assigned to destroy the Cult of Tutu, and find out the truth about its leader, the Aleke.
Ward, Clara: Be the Sea
(Atthis Arts 9781961654044, $24.95, 484pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 03/05/2024)
Near-future SF novel. A marine scientist joins a nature photographer and their cousin on a voyage to Hawai’I, telling each other stories and dealing with old relationships, strange dreams, bioengineered microbes, and a plot to silence scientists.
Yuszczuk, Marina: Thirst
(Penguin Random House/Dutton 9780593472064, $28, 256pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)
Queer gothic vampire novel. A vampire from Europe arrive in Buenos Aires in the 19th century and hides among the people until the present day, when she connects with a woman dealing with her dying mother.
Zahn, Timothy: The Icarus Job
(Baen 9781982193256, $28, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)
Space opera SF novel, third in the series begun in The Icarus Hunt. Hoping to take possession of a new alien star-hopping portal, Roarke and Selene are tasked with transporting an assassin, who is herself being targeted.
