New Books, 10 December 2024
Anderson, Kevin J.: Fantasy Stories, Volume 2
(WordFire Press 9781680577129, $17.99, 316pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, 12/10/2024)
Collection of 18 fantasy stories, one new; four are collaborations. Each story has an introduction by Anderson. Ten stories were previously collected as part of Selected Stories: Fantasy (2018). This is part of the seven-volume Kevin J. Anderson Short Fiction Library series funded through Kickstarter.
Boey, Eliane: Club Contango
(Dark Matter INK, $17.99, 320pp, format: ebook, 12/10/2024)
SF novel. The owner of an illegal micro-casino must deal with the murder of a former business partner and the fine print of an old AI contract as she races to recover her life from other versions of herself.
Ekpeki, Oghenechovwe Donald & Eziaghighalaby, Chinaza, eds.: The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction (2023)
(Arc Manor/Caezik SF & Fantasy 9781647101459, $19.99, 318pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 12/10/2024)
Year’s best anthology of short stories and poems from 2023, by African and African diaspora authors including Nolo Hopkinson, P. Djèlí Clark, Tobias S. Buckell, T.L. Huchu, Tananarive Due, Xan van Rooyen, Gabrielle Emem Harry, Chisom Umeh, Makena Onjerika, and Wole Talabi.
Fischer, J.J.: Memoria
(Enclave 9798886051667, $26.99, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 12/10/2024)
Fantasy novel, third in the Nightingale trilogy. Taken captive by a faceless enemy, Sephone Winter fights to reclaim her soul as her gift spirals out of control and the deadly poison coursing through her veins begins to exact its terrible vengeance. Meanwhile, Dorian and Cass are forced into an uneasy alliance in order to find the woman they both love, a woman who has all but vanished from the face of the earth, along with the Reliquary.
Gould, Courtney: What the Woods Took
(St. Martin’s/Wednesday Books 9781250340672, $20, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 12/10/2024)
Young-adult horror novel. Teenage Devin Green is abducted in the middle of the night to an experimental therapy camp in the middle of the Idaho woods. where they’re supposed to undertake a 50-day hike to learn to change their self-destructive ways, but there’s something strange about the woods, and then both of the group’s counselors go missing.
Guanzon, Thea: A Monsoon Rising
(Harper Voyager US 9780063277304, $32, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 12/10/2024)
Fantasy romance novel, the second in the Hurricane Wars trilogy inspired by a version of the Philippines without colonialism. After a lifetime of war, Alaric and Talasyn were thrust into an alliance between their homelands that was supposed to end the fighting; however, being married to their sworn foe feels far from peaceful. Now Talasyn must play the part of Alaric’s willing empress while her allies secretly plot to overthrow his reign.
Hinchberger, Dave: 2025 Stephen King Annual: Stephen King on Tour
(Overlook Connection Press 9781623307073, $49.95, 260pp, formats: hardcover, 12/10/2024)
Non-fiction, an annual volume on Stephen King, with articles, interviews, photos, illustrations by Glenn Chadbourne, and a Calendar of Facts and Trivia. This volume focused on various appearances by King, at bookstores, libraries, colleges, and more, from over 40 years.
Howell, Morgan: The Moon Won’t Talk
(Regal House 9781646035144, $18.95, 266pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 12/10/2024)
Fantasy novel. George Parker, a teen expecting a boring summer in quietly magical Eden, South Carolina in 1966, gets a surprise when a handsome outsider with secrets moves in next door, on a mission to recover the soul of his dead lover.
Kander, Beth: I Made It Out of Clay
(Harlequin/Mira 9780778368120, $30, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 12/10/2024)
Darkly humorous fantasy novel. Eve, single, turning forty, stressed at work and anxious about a recent series of increasingly creepy incidents is on the verge of panic with her younger sister’s wedding rapidly approaching. She can’t bear to attend the event alone. That’s when she recalls a strange story her Yiddish grandmother once told her, about a protector forged of desperation, and Eve manages to create a handsome golem. But what seems to be a lighthearted rom-com fantasy swiftly mudslides into something much darker.
McKenna, Juliet E.: Polestars 10: Different Times and Other Places
(NewCon Press UK 9781914953934, $16.49, 261pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, 12/11/2024)
Collection of 17 fantasy and SF stories, reprints and new, including stories set in the Green Man milieu as well as the world of The Tales of Einarinn.
Reich, James: Skinship
(Raw Dog Screaming/Anti-Oedipus 9798986547961, $18.95, 192pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 12/15/2024)
Far-future SF novel. The last starship to leave Earth hopes to restart on a new planet with the last humans and a genetic archive, but conflict breaks out onboard. Meanwhile back on Earth, one last man struggles to survive.
Sarath, Patrice: Polestars 9: Into the Dark
(NewCon Press UK 9781914953910, $16.49, 254pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 12/10/2024)
Collection of 17 fantasy and SF stories, reprints and new, some set in the same milieu as the Tales of Port Saint Frey novels. Includes a forward By Martin Owton. Debut collection.
Vincent, Emily, ed.: Summoned to the Séance: Spirit Tales from Beyond the Veil
(British Library 9780712355919, $3.79, 224pp, formats: ebook, 12/12/2024)
Anthology of 14 stories about séances, including authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, H. G. Wells, Florence Marryat and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Number 54 in the British Library Tales of the Weird series.
