New Books, 14 May 2024
Beagle, Peter S.: I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons
(Simon & Schuster/Saga Press 9781668025277, $26.99, 288pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 05/14/2024)
Fantasy novel. Gaius Aurelius Constantine Heliogabalus Thrax (who would much rather people call him Robert) has recently inherited his deceased dad’s job as a dragon catcher/exterminator, a career he detests with all his heart, in part because he likes dragons. Illustrated by Justin & Annie Gerard.
Bedi, Aman J.: Kavithri
(Orion UK/Gollancz 9781399609852, $12.99, 438pp, formats: ebook, audio, 05/16/2024)
South Asian fantasy novel. Kavithri is a Taemu, one of the dregs of Raayan society, determined to rise above her station by succeeding at the mage academy.
Bisson, Terry: Tomorrowing
(Duke University Press 9781478030683, $15.95, 168pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, 05/14/2024)
Collection of short alternate-history pieces originally published as “This Month in History” in Locus.
Blackwood, Lauren: The Dangerous Ones
(St. Martin’s/Wednesday Books 9781250891075, $21, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 05/14/2024)
Young-adult historical vampire novel. Jerusalem, a Saint bent on revenge, teams up with handsome, arrogant Alexei, an Ancient Vampire, though her family was enslaved and killed by vampires.
Corrie, Chad: As the Sparrow Flies
(Dark Horse Books 9781506740157, $19.99, 288pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 05/14/2024)
Young-adult dystopian fantasy novel, first in the Sojourners’ Saga series. Sarah and Elliott follow groups with opposing visions for their dying world, both groups converging on an ancient city bent on its own destruction.
Dabney, Robyn: The Ascenditure
(Regal House/Fitzroy Books 9781646034758, $19.95, 324pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 05/14/2024)
YA Fantasy novel. Klarke’s skills at mountain climbing cause a civil uprising that forces the king to reconsider the laws that make women unable to join the elite Ascenditures, but once she joins her fellow climbers someone starts murdering them one by one.
Dass, Sarah: It Waits in the Forest
(Disney/Rick Riordan Presents 9781368098335, $18.99, 336pp, formats: hardcover, 05/14/2024)
YA fantasy/thriller novel inspired by Caribbean folklore. Selina and her ex-boyfriend investigate a string of strange murders which point toward some evil lurking in the forest.
Gambino, Fred: Dark Shepherd
(NewCon Press UK 9781914953781, $17.95, 304pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 05/14/2024)
SF space opera novel. Breel is abruptly fired from her dead-end job at the Beach, dismantling junked spaceships – a job she only took to help support her ailing father. She’s convinced things can’t get any worse, until people start shooting at her. A first novel.
Ghan, Ben Berman: The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits
(Wolsak & Wynn/Buckrider Books 9781989496886, $21, 300pp, formats: trade paperback, 05/14/2024)
Literary SF novel. After a winged alien sows seeds of a strange forest on the moon, humanity colonizes it, leading to a war with alien beings within a spacefaring whale. A first novel.
Gratton, Tessa & Ireland, Justina: Blood & Fury
(Penguin Random House/Putnam 9780593353356, $19.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 05/14/2024)
Young-adult fantasy novel, final in the Chaos & Flame saga. Darling Seabreak, after transforming into a Phoenix, struggles to make sense of her destiny as a legendary creature.
Henry, Christina: The House That Horror Built
(Penguin Random House/Berkley 9780593638217, $18, 336pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 05/14/2024)
Horror novel. A single mother working in the memorabilia-filled gothic mansion of a reclusive horror director stumbles on terrifying secrets.
Lee, Hana: Road to Ruin
(Simon & Schuster/Saga Press 9781668035610, $18.99, 368pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 05/14/2024)
Fantasy novel, first in the Magebike Courier series. A royal courier routinely faces monsters, storms, and roving marauders as she rides her magic motorcycle betweem domed cities, but her most difficult mission involves a princess trying to escape her family and a prince determined to help. A first novel.
Martins, Elizabeth Anne: Dry Lands
(Flame Tree Press UK 9781787589056, $16.95, 272pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 05/14/2024)
Postapocalyptic SF novel set on an earth transformed by the “Shift.” As seas rise, a widowed woman left alone with her three-year-old son is forced to discover new strenth as she struggles to keep him alive on their dangerous flight from New Jersey to a remote part of Tennessee.
Mulford, A.K.: The Amethyst Kingdom
(Harper Voyager US 9780063291782, $18.99, 352pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, audio, 05/14/2024)
Fantasy romance novel, fifth and final in the Five Crowns of Okrith series. A young fae warrior is hellbent on winning the Eastern Court crown, but when her fated lover—and hated nemesis—enters the trials she struggles to balance the competition and the chance at love.
Nye, Jody Lynn & Kress, Nancy & Stirling, S.M. & Robinson, Lance, ed.: L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 40
(Galaxy 9781619867741, $22.95, 448pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 05/07/2024)
Original anthology of 12 stories by contest winners, illustrated by artist contest winners. This is the 40th anniversary of the contest. This also has a stories by L. Ron Hubbard, Nancy Kress, and S.M. Stirling, essays on writing by Gregory Benford and Dean Wesley Smith and on art direction by Bob Eggleton. A 16-page gallery has color versions of the story illustrations.
O’Keefe, Megan E.: The Bound Worlds
(Orbit US 9780316291576, $19.99, 496pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 05/15/2024)
Space opera SF novel, the third in The Devoured Worlds series. Naira and Tarquin have found a new home on Seventh Cradle. But the peace they’ve built is short-lived as mysterious assailants ambush the settlement and Naira is haunted by visions of a monstrous future.
Plozza, Shivaun: The Worst Perfect Moment
(Holiday House 9780823456345, $19.99, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 05/14/2024)
Young-adult fantasy novel. Tegan is 16, dead, and stuck in a heaven that looks like the New Jersey motel where she spent the worst weekend of her life — unless an angel can get her to re-examine events.
Robert, Katee: Blood on the Tide
(Penguin Random House/Berkley Romance 9780593639108, $19, 336pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 05/14/2024)
Fantasy romance novel, second in the Crimson Sails series. Lizzie, a bloodline vampire, wants the family heirlooms that were stolen from her, but she needs help and a rescued selkie might be the perfect solution.
Roth, Veronica: When Among Crows
(Tor 9781250855480, $19.99, 176pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 05/14/2024)
Fantasy novella, set in a Chicago where monsters feed on human emotions, knights split their souls to make their weapons, and a young woman’s visions of the horrors committed by the Holy Order will kill her unless she can find a cure, so she grabs at the chance when a knight asks her to help find the legendary witch Baba Jaga.
Shibusawa, Tatsuhiko: Takaoka’s Travels
(Stone Bridge Press/Monkey 9798988688709, $18.95, 188pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, 05/14/2024)
Fantasy Japanese novel based on Asian myth and legend, following the fantastic journey of prince-turned-monk Takaoka from Guangzhou to Hindustan in the 9th century. Translated by David Boyd. Boyd also provides an afterword.
Shields, Sydney J.: The Honey Witch
(Orbit US/Redhook 9780316568869, $18.99, 368pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 05/14/2024)
Regency-inspired sapphic fantasy romance novel set in 1831 England. Marigold, destined to be a Honey Witch of Innisfree, is warned she’ll loose her magic if she falls in love, and then falls for grumpy skeptic Lottie Burke. A first novel.
Singh, Amal: The Garden of Delights
(Flame Tree Press UK 9781787589087, $16.95, 384pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 05/14/2024)
Fantasy novel. In the city of Sirvassa, where petals are currency and flowers are magic, the Caretaker tends to the Garden of Delights. He imparts temporary magical abilities to the citizens of Sirvassa, while battling a curse of eternal old age.
Smith, Luanne G.: The Wolf’s Eye
(Amazon/47North 9781662510175, $16.99, 271pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 05/14/2024)
Fantasy novel, second in The Order of the Seven Stars series about four magical irregulars during WWI, fresh off the front lines as they try to find a cure for Josef’s werewolf-style curse before their high-ups execute him.
Solvinic, Nicola: The Hunter’s Daughter
(Penguin Random House/Berkley 9780593639726, $28, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 05/14/2024)
Thriller/supernatural horror novel. A police officer, secretly the daughter of a serial killer, tries to figure out who’s committing copycat killings. A first novel.
Tobias, Emily Jon: Monarch
(Black Lawrence Press 9781625570857, $22.95, 180pp, formats: trade paperback, 05/17/2024)
Collection of 11 stories about change and “the impossible grind of modern American life” foreword by Chris Abani. The author’s first collection.
Villarreal, Vanessa Angélica: Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders
(Penguin Random House/Tiny Reparations 9780593187142, $29, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 05/14/2024)
Non-fiction collection of essays, a mix of autobiography and critical cultural exploration of race, class, and gender, filtered through her girlhood as a Mexican American lover of grunge and ’80s fantasy movies.
