New Books, 23 April 2024

Carpenter, Daniel: Hunting by the River
(Black Shuck Books UK 9781913038885, $15.99, 172pp, formats: trade paperback, 04/25/2024)

Collection of urban weird stories set in England. A first collection.

Cathrall, Sylvie: A Letter to the Luminous Deep
(Orbit US 9780316565530, $18.99, 400pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 04/23/2024)

Fantasy novel of magical academia in an underwater world. Two people piece together the letter, sketches and field notes left behind to solve the mystery of why each of their siblings disappeared together. A first novel.

Chatsworth, Elizabeth: The Brass Queen II: Grand Tour
(CamCat Books 9780744306293, $29.99, 432pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 04/23/2024)

Victorian steampunk fantasy novel, second in the Brass Queen series. Eccentric aristocrat and secret arms dealer, Miss Constance Haltwhistle, has been blackmailed into stealing alien artifacts from the crown heads of Europe.

Cho, Elaine U.: Ocean’s Godori
(Zando/Hillman Grad Books 9781638930594, $28, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 04/23/2024)

SF novel. Ocean Yoon, a disgraced space pilot descended from a long line of Korean female divers, has trouble fitting in as a Korean, and ends up trying to help a friend framed for murdering his wealthy family. A first novel.

Ford, Daniel M.: Necrobane
(Tor 9781250815682, $28.99, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 04/23/2024)

Fantasy action-adventure novel, second in the Warden series. Lone Pine’s new Warden, Aelis de Lenti, has accidentally released an army of the undead, and needs to find a source of great Necromantic power to stop them.

Gerber, Daryl Wood: A Twinkle of Trouble
(Kensington 9781496744937, $17.95, 304pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 04/23/2024)

Fantasy mystery novel, the fifth in the Fairy Garden series featuring Courtney Kelly, who has a real fairy in her fairy garden store. A murder casts a pall over the upcoming Summer Blooms Festival, and a couple of Courtney’s friends are on the suspect list. Then a second victim is discovered.

Kerin, Liz: First Light
(Tor/Nightfire 9781250835703, $27.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 04/23/2024)

Horror novel, sequel to Night’s Edge, a different take on vampires. Mia continues to hunt the man who gave her mother a thirst for blood, but new revelations force her to change her thinking.

Lin, Judy I.: Song of the Six Realms
(Macmillan/Feiwel and Friends 978-1250871619, $20.99, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 04/23/2024)

Young-adult fantasy novel involving Chinese mythology. Orphan Xue is a talented young musician indentured to a lifetime of servitude, until an enigmatic young nobleman offers to set her free if she will serve as a musician in residence at his manor for a year.

Matharu, Taran: Dragon Rider
(Harper Voyager US 9780063227576, $29, 576pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 04/23/2024)

Fantasy novel, first in the eponymous series. A hostage-turned-servant in an imperial court flees during a coup and acquires a dragon egg, sparking a bond that will change the world.

Mikuta, Zoe Hana: Off with Their Heads
(Disney/Hyperion 9781368099066, $19.99, 416pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 04/23/2024)

Young adult novel, a “Sapphic Korean-inspired” revisioning of Alice in Wonderland. Two young witches are sentenced to the dark forest for a crime they didn’t commit, where they break one another’s hearts when they each choose to sacrifice the other for a chance at freedom.

Mills, Samantha: The Wings Upon Her Back
(Tachyon Publications 9781616964146, $18.95, 336pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 04/23/2024)

Science-fantasy novel. Zenya, part of a sect of mechanically winged warriors and disillusioned at her role as an enforcer in an increasingly fascist state, did one act of mercy and lost her place, and now struggles to survive and understand her sect, leader, and gods. A first novel.

Norman, John: Treasure of Gor
(Open Road 9781504089494, $29.99, 716pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 04/23/2024)

Fantasy novel, book 38 in the Gorean Saga. A brilliant young scientist in the American Southwest discovers a mysterious file with dangerous secrets, and ends up abducted and enslaved on Gor.

Panatier, Chris: The Redemption of Morgan Bright
(Angry Robot UK 9781915202895, $18.99, 416pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 04/23/2024)

SF/horror novel. A woman checks herself into an insane asylum to solve the mystery of her sister’s murder, only to lose her memory and maybe her mind.

Preston, Douglas: Extinction
(Tor/Forge 9780765317704, $29.99, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 04/23/2024)

Near-future SF thriller/horror novel about a kidnapping and murder at a luxury resort featuring resurrected Pleistocene megafauna such as woolly mammoths, giant ground sloths, and Irish Elk — but also seemingly hosting an ancient, malevolent presence bent on extinction.

Singh, Nalini: Archangel’s Lineage
(Penguin Random House/Berkley 9780593550014, $9.99, 400pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audio, 04/23/2024)

Paranormal romance novel, the 16th in the Guild Hunter series. The earth beneath the Refuge begins to tremble, endangering not only angelkind’s precious and fragile young, but the very place that has held their most innocent safe for eons.

Sparks, Lily: The Merciless King of Moore High
(North Star Editions/Flux 9781635830965, $16.99, 368pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 04/20/2024)

Young-adult horror novel. Students have been barricaded inside Jefferson High for nine months since the adults in town all turned into monsters, but food is scarce, and then Kay accidentally gets rescued by ruthless cheerleaders from a rival school, where students are all forced to help kill the “dragons.”