New Books, 15 October 2024
Baxter, Stephen: Fortress Sol
(Orion UK/Gollancz 9781399614610, $14.99, 480pp, formats: ebook, audio, 10/17/2024)
SF novel. Rab’s mother, in order to save him from a life in the hellish mines of Mercury, cut off his hand when he was a baby. Decades later, Rab works on the Mask, the structure that hides the Solar System from aliens, when a spaceship from a long-forgotten colony approaches, threatening that security.
Blake, Olivie: Januaries
(Tordotcom 9781250330680, $28.99, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/17/2024)
Collection of 14 stories, some original; about half were originally published in Blake’s self-published fairytale collections. Illustrated by Paula Toriacio.
Cassidy, Nat: Rest Stop
(Shortwave 9781959565369, $12.99, 160pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 10/15/2024)
Horror novella. A young musician finds himself locked inside a gas station bathroom in the middle of the night by an unseen assailant, caught between the horrors on the other side of the door and the horrors rapidly skittering down the walls inside.
Chen, Curtis C.: True Blue Kangaroo
(self-published 9798227592705, $19.99, 356pp, formats: trade paperback, 10/15/2024)
SF novel, third in the Kangaroo series. Secret agent Kangaroo, with his pocket superpower and bleeding-edge biotech implants, infiltrates a secret prison in the poisonous clouds on Venus, to rescue another spy and extract a high value asset that claims to have been wrongly imprisoned.
Cherryh, C.J. & Fancher, Jane S.: Alliance Unbound
(Astra House/DAW 9780756415969, $30, 416pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 10/15/2024)
SF novel, the second in the Hinder Stars series in Cherryh’s Alliance-Union universe. After being excluded from the map of FTL jump points by Cyteen, Sol intends to take back control of its star-stations and stop Cyteen’s unbridled expansion, however it can. To do that, they are willing to starve Alpha and concentrate their efforts on a huge FTLer capable of carrying military force.
Dixon, Ruby: Bull Moon Rising
(Ace 9780593817025, $30, 432pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/15/2024)
Fantasy romance novel, the first in the Royal Artifactual Guild series. After her father gambles all the family’s magical artifacts away, Aspeth Honori decides to join the Royal Artifactual Guild to retrieve some more. But to join she has to marry someone who will let her become an apprentice, and the only option is a surly minotaur who will want nothing to do with her if he discovers her true identity.
Doocy, Maiga: Sorcery & Small Magics
(Orbit US 9780316576758, $19.99, 400pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 10/15/2024)
Fantasy novel, the first book in the Wildersongs trilogy. Rival sorcerers accidentally bound together by a forbidden curse reluctantly work together to break it, only to be drawn together by a different power. A first novel.
Ellor, Z.R.: No Better Than Beasts
(Macmillan/Roaring Brook 9781250866998, $20.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/15/2024)
Fantasy novel, a dark retelling of “The Nutcracker”. With their eldest brother a servant of the tyrannical Rat King, a brother and sister with magical powers wind up on opposite sides of the war between the Rat King and the Nutcracker Prince.
Garcia, R.S.A.: The Nightward
(Harper Voyager US 9780063345751, $19.99, 432pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 10/15/2024)
Fantasy novel of Caribbean mythology, first in the Waters of Lethe duology. Though she’d rather be playing games, 10 year old Princess Viella becomes the Hand of Gaiea — a wielder of magic — then right after the ceremony her mother is assassinated, and Viella becomes queen too.
Gaskell, Stephen: Shadow of the Endless
(Titan Books UK 9781835410448, $17.99, 384pp, formats: paperback, ebook, 10/15/2024)
SF novel. Pilgrim Sewa Eze, a young woman among persecuted worshipers of the Endless — an ancient galaxy-spanning race of god-like power that disappeared long ago — wants to become a caver and locate resources, relics of the Endless, and Dust. But she discovers a strange device in the ice of the comet her people shelter on, and it becomes clear that there’s a traitor in their ranks.
Gilliland, Raquel Vasquez: Lightning in Her Hands
(Penguin Random House/Berkley Romance 9780593548592, $19, 352pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 10/15/2024)
Romantic fantasy novel, second in the Wild Magic series. Teal Flores needs to learn to control her gift of influencing the weather, and needs a date to her ex’s wedding. The solution to the second is Carter Velasquez, who also needs someone to pose as his wife in order to get his inheritance. Everything is going fine, until Teal starts having real feelings, which are reflected in actual lightning strikes.
Haddon, Mark: Dogs and Monsters
(Penguin Random House/Doubleday 9780385550864, $28, 288pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/15/2024)
Collection of eight stories about human foibles, mixing myth and SF.
Hati, S.: And the Sky Bled
(Bindery Books/Fantasy & Frens 9781959411680, $18.95, 384pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 10/15/2024)
Fantasy novel. In the occupied city of Tejomaya, calor — a magical fossil fuel — is found only in the blood rains that fall from the sky. While a six-month drought has brought Tejomaya to a desperate standstill, rumors of a secret stash of magic propel a thief, a slumlord, and an heiress to seek a hidden cache of magic that could save the city. A first novel.
Jacka, Benedict: An Instruction in Shadow
(Ace 9780593549865, $19, 336pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 10/15/2024)
Contemporary fantasy novel, sequel to An Inheritance of Magic. Stephen Oakwood has emerged victorious against the schemes of his aristocratic family and now has a chance to track down his father. But the only ones who can help him are a mysterious new group called the Winged, and their leader wants something in return.
Jacobs, Bethany: On Vicious Worlds
(Orbit US 9780316463522, $19.99, 480pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 10/15/2024)
Space opera SF novel, book 2 in the Kingdom Trilogy. The Jeveni have found a fragile sense of peace on the ice planet of Capamame, far from the Kindom’s domineering control. But a saboteur is spreading mayhem and murder through the colony, and a revolution may be coming.
Kirchmeier, K.D.: The Shadow Road
(Bloomsbury USA 9781547615445, $19.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 10/15/2024)
Young-adult post apocalyptic fantasy novel. The blitz comes, an invasion of dragon-like monsters that attack with lightning powers that kill people, ruin cities and towns, and destroy electrical transmission. Timid dreamer Thomas and daredevil Cassie take an epic journey across the ravaged land to try to find a way to defeat the blitz and save humanity.
Koja, Kathe: Catherine the Ghost
(Clash Books 9781960988294, $16.95, 142pp, formats: trade paperback, 10/15/2024)
Horror novel, an homage to Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Though they never saw each other alive, Cathy Earnshaw and Catherine Linton, mother and daughter, confront loss, captivity, and the dark edge of eternity itself, to claim their full existence and share their power. Told from the POV of Catherine Earnshaw’s ghost. Includes illustrations.
Lampley, Alexix: Pride and Prejudice in Space
(Sterling/Union Square & Co. 9781454954118, $30, 504pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 10/15/2024)
SF novel mixing space travel and future technology with Regency era romance. Elizabeth Bennet lives on a small moon in the Londinium lunar system with her parents and four sisters. While she dreams of piloting a starship rather than settling down with an eligible man, her world turns upside down when the handsome Mr. Bingley docks the Netherfield StarCruiser on the neighboring estate.
Lansdale, Joe R.: In the Mad Mountains: Stories Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft
(Tachyon Publications 9781616964245, $16.95, 256pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 10/15/2024)
Collection of eight irreverent Lovecraftian tributes. Includes an introduction by Lansdale.
Larison, John: The Ancients
(Penguin Random House/Viking 9780593831168, $30, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/15/2024)
SF novel. A boy and his older sisters find themselves suddenly alone in their fishing village after raiders kidnap all the residents to sell into slavery. They set off down the coast to find their mother, as she plots her escape. Meanwhile, in the city where the human cargo is to be taken, a young scholar has to pick between trying to salvage his father’s business in a dying city, or flee to a new utopia.
Lee, Sher: Legend of the White Snake
(HarperCollins/Quill Tree 9780063327191, $19.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/15/2024)
Young-adult queer romantic fantasy novel inspired by Chinese folk tales. A snake spirit turns into a boy and hides his true identity after falling for a prince determined to kill such a snake to make a cure for his dying mother.
Leede, CJ: American Rapture
(Tor/Nightfire 9781250857927, $27.99, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/15/2024)
Horror novel about shame, repression, and an apocalyptic pandemic that makes the infected “feral with lust,” and a fundamentalist Catholic girl trying to find her family.
McWalter, Keith: Lifers
(SparkPoint Studio/SparkPress 9781684632763, $17.99, 328pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 10/15/2024)
SF novel. In 2050, Zinn creates an artificial genome that wildly increases the human lifespan, leading to a longevity plague. The elderly stop dying, but old-age support systems and Social Security soon overload, while cemeteries go out of business. As a CIA biowarfare specialist tries to find a way to reverse the plague before it’s too late, some devise other solutions, including programmed death wishes and suicide pills.
Morris, Susan J.: Strange Beasts
(Bindery Books/The Inky Phoenix 9781959411642, $18.95, 384pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 10/15/2024)
Fantasy mystery novel/pastiche mixing the worlds of Sherlock Holmes and Dracula, and an exploration of feminine power. Samantha Harker, daughter of Dracula’s killer has a channel into the minds of monsters, and as a researcher for the Royal Society for the Study of Abnormal Phenomena, gets assigned with Dr. Helena Moriarty to stop a beast on a killing rampage.
Piper, Hailey: All the Hearts You Eat
(Titan Books 9781803367644, $18.99, 448pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audio, 10/15/2024)
Gothic horror novel. Ivory finds the body of Cabrina Brite on the beach, along with a mysterious poem. Then she starts seeing Cabrina’s ghost, as do her closest friends. Together they begin to unravel the truth behind Cabrina’s death.
Reilly, K.J.: Sixteen Minutes
(Penguin Random House/Nancy Paulsen 9780593620052, $19.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/15/2024)
Young-adult SF time travel novel. A new girl turns up in Nell and Cole’s senior year, claiming to be from the future, and saying that Cole must jump back to the future with her, leaving Nell behind.
Ryan, Lindy: Cold Snap
(Titan Books 9781835410080, $19.99, 128pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 10/15/2024)
Horror novella. After her husband accidentally dies while hanging Christmas lights, Christine Sinclair takes her son and cat out to a remote cabin to wait out the holidays, but then a shadowy horned figure emerges from the surrounding woods, calling with her dead husband’s voice.
Slayton, David: Rogue Community College
(Blackstone Publishing 9798200966776, $16.99, 328pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/15/2024)
Fantasy novel, first in the Liberty House series about a magic school, set in the world of the Adam Binder series. Isaac Frost, an assassin with unique magical powers, is sent to infiltrate a strange magical school for wayward practitioners and destroy it, but he is charmed by the school and some of the students.
Stephenson, Neal: Polostan
(HarperCollins/Morrow 9780062334497, $32, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/15/2024)
Historical novel, the first volume in the Bomb Light series. In the first part of the 20th century, Dawn Rae Bjornberg is born in the American West to a clan of American cowboy anarchists, her Russian father raises her in Leningrad in post-revolution Russia and renames her Aurora, she gets into gunrunning and revolution in the USA, and finally returns to Russia where she is trained to be a spy.
Synclaire, Kay: House of Frank
(Bindery Books/Ezeekat 9781959411666, $17.95, 352pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 10/15/2024)
Cozy fantasy novel. A powerless witch grieving her sister’s death gets a job working for a mythical beast named Frank at the Ash Gardens, where witches’ ashes are buried. A first novel.
Tirreno, Lisa: Prince of Fortune
(Simon & Schuster/Atheneum 9781665957786, $19.99, 416pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/15/2024)
Young-adult queer romantic fantasy novel set in a world inspired by Regency England. Prince Edmund, called Prince of Fortune because of his weather-control magic, is supposed to marry for diplomatic reasons, but falls for a commoner, a male teen seer. A first novel.
Wang, Tiffany: Inferno’s Heir
(Bindery Books 9781959411772, $15.95, 400pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 10/15/2024)
Young-adult fantasy novel. Fire-wielding princess Teia Carthan will do anything to survive, including infiltrating a rebel army in order to betray them to her cruel half-brother, the soon to be king. But after meeting the rebels she begins to have second thoughts. Maybe she should help them. Or maybe she should claim the throne for herself. A first novel.
