New Books, 26 November 2024
Chapman, Greg: Black Days and Bloody Nights
(IFWG Publishing International 9781922856869, $12.99, 206pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 12/02/2024)
Collection of short horror stories and novellas.
Datlow, Ellen, ed.: The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Sixteen
(Start/Night Shade 9781949102734, $19.99, 384pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 11/26/2024)
Year’s best anthology of 19 stories, with a summation of the year 2022 in horror by Datlow and a list of honorable mentions. Authors include Neil Gaiman, Mira Grant, Stephen Graham Jones, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates and Tananarive Due.
Evans, Richard Paul: Michael Vey: The Colony
(Simon Pulse 9781665919586, $19.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 11/26/2024)
Young-adult SF novel, tenth and final in the series about a teen with electric powers. After saving Tara and Jack—and losing a few of their own—in a dramatic battle in the Peruvian jungle against the Elgen offshoot the Chasqui, the Electroclan has returned to the US to regroup. But their downtime is brief, as Abi — who was abducted from outside her college dorm — is still missing.
Finelli, Jen: Neodymium Apocalypse: Part 1
(WordFire Press 9781680576818, $30.99, 408pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 11/26/2024)
SF novel, fourth in the Neodymium Chronicles series. Lem has accidentally helped a powerful military leader in his plans to destroy Lem’s world, and now she must find an ancient bioship and assemble an inter-species team to stop the apocalypse.
Lackey, Mercedes, ed.: Feuds
(Astra House/DAW 9780756419523, $21, 432pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 11/26/2024)
Original anthology of 22 stories in the Valdemar universe, 18th in the series. Lackey provides one story, other authors include Brenda Cooper, Rosemary Edghill, Ron Collins, Diana L. Paxson, Jennifer Brozek & Marie Bilodeau, and Brigid Collins.
Laurie, Victoria: A Trinket for the Taking
(Kensington Cozies 9781496742490, $27, 288pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 11/26/2024)
Fantasy mystery novel, the first in a series. Dovey Van Dalen was formerly a belle in 1840s Copenhagen and is now charged with recovering magic property from mortals. Dovey seeks a trinket that may be killing members of a wealthy family, each dying in the way they fear most, but an FBI agent has taken control of the investigation.
Rhine, A.D.: Daughters of Bronze
(Penguin Random House/Dutton 9780593474808, $20, 512pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 11/26/2024)
Fantasy novel, second in a duology about the fall of Troy. Andromache must bring together a divided city in time to make a final stand. Rhea must decide where her loyalties lie and how much she is willing to lose. Helen must cast off her shroud of grief and use her healing gifts to save Troy’s greatest hope. Cassandra has seen Troy’s fate and this time, she will have her say.
Sanders, Angela M.: The Witch Is Back
(Kensington Cozies 9781496740953, $8.99, 304pp, formats: paperback, ebook, 11/26/2024)
Fantasy mystery novel, the sixth in the Witch Way Librarian series. Small-town librarian/witch Josie Way is surprised by an unexpected visit from her oddly pensive mother. Josie hopes to distract her with a visit to the Aerie, the clifftop manor where the recently passed Reverend Clarence Duffy lived. Inside, however, Josie hears hissed warnings from boxes of the preacher’s old books—and once home, from the library’s detective novels. When Wilfred residents start to receive threatening letters the next day, Josie is determined to uncover the missives’ author. And then the dead body of one of the reverend’s sons is discovered at the bottom of the cliff.
Schow, David J.: Suite 13
(Subterranean Press 9781645241621, $45, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 11/30/2024)
Collection of short horror stories, some set in other authors’ worlds, along with some nonfiction. Includes four never before published stories.
Sparks, Richard: New Rock, New Realm
(Arc Manor/Caezik SF & Fantasy 9781647101213, $22.99, 550pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 11/26/2024)
Fantasy novel, the second in the New Rock trilogy. Battlemage Daxx and his crew are off on their next adventure. A mysterious ghost ship arrives, carrying a cryptic message for them. Setting sail full of good intentions, they are soon embroiled in the eternal struggle between the forces of good and the forces of evil.
Spector, Elijah Kinch: Kalyna the Cutthroat
(Kensington/Erewhon 9781645660903, $29, 480pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 11/26/2024)
Fantasy novel, a standalone sequel to Kalyna the Sorcerer. Kalyna is hired to extract a scholar of curses and magical history from his research expedition in a country suddenly at war, but it becomes clear that he may never be able to go home, and he and Kalyna find asylum in a utopian community with no love for refugees — and suspicions about Kalyna in particular.
Tuli, Nisha J.: Tale of the Heart Queen
(Grand Central/Forever 9781538767696, $18.99, 672pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 11/26/2024)
Romantic fantasy novel, the fourth in the Artefacts of Ouranos series. After Lor makes the biggest mistake of her life, she finds herself on the run from the Aurora King and decides it’s time to end this, once and for all. But when a new enemy emerges to claim her freedom, the entire fate of Ouranos comes to rest on her shoulders.
