New Books, 3 December 2024
Adamson, Glenn: A Century of Tomorrows: How Imagining the Future Shapes the Present
(Bloomsbury USA 9781639730230, $32.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 12/03/2024)
Non-fiction, a look at the cultural history of futurology, and how trying to foresee the future influences the culture of its time. From scientists and futurologists such as Buckminster Fuller to authors including Octavia Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin, Shulamith Firestone and Sun Ra.
Amplitude: The Art of Endless Legend
(Titan Books UK 9781803369853, $50, 224pp, formats: hardcover, 12/03/2024)
Gaming tie-in art book looking at the planet Auriga in the Endless Space universe. Over 200 pages of art plus anecdotes from the writers and artists. Includes previously unpublished artwork for the Kapaku and the Mykara.
Anonymous, ed.: Destiny Grimoire Anthology, Vol. VII: Penumbra
(Bungie 9781957721149, $24.99, 144pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 12/03/2024)
Tie-in anthology of tales from multiple sources, set in the world of the Destiny game universe. Includes download code printed on card for an exclusive Destiny 2 Emblem.
Armfield, Julia: Private Rites
(Macmillan/Flatiron 9781250344311, $27.99, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 12/03/2024)
Speculative retelling of King Lear in a world of near-constant rain. Sisters Isla, Irene, and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their father, an architect as cruel as he was revered, dies. His death offers an opportunity for the sisters to come together in a new way. In the grand glass house they grew up in, their father’s most famous creation, the sisters sort through the secrets and memories he left behind, until their fragile bond is shattered by a revelation in his will.
Barker, Pat: The Voyage Home
(Penguin Random House/Doubleday 9780385549110, $29, 288pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 12/03/2024)
Literary historical fantasy novel, third in the Women of Troy series begun in The Silence of the Girls. Ritsa and Cassandra make the perilous journey home to Mycenae, Cassandra now with the gift of prophecy — that no one will ever believe. But back home the ongoing ire between Queen Clytemnestra and Agamemnon could prove fatal for everyone.
Barron, Natania: Queen of Fury
(Rebellion/Solaris UK 9781837860630, $16.99, 352pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 12/03/2024)
Arthurian fantasy novel second in the Queens of Fate series begun in Queen of None. Hwyfar, eldest daughter of King Leodegraunce and famed libertine of Carelon, has returned to Avillion to find her father ruined by madness and a usurper poised to take the throne. Reluctantly she takes the mantle of Queen Regent to protect her kingdom, but she’ll need an army — which King Arthur pledges to send her, providing she marries one of his knights and surrenders the crown.
Baxter, Ella: Woo Woo
(Catapult 9781646222551, $27, 272pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 12/03/2024)
Literary novel with possible fantasy elements. Artist/photographer Sabine, starts to lose her grip before a big exhibition, and gets mentored by the ghost of feminist performance artist Carolee Schneemann.
Cook, Robin: Bellevue
(Penguin Random House/Putnam 9780593718834, $30, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 12/05/2024)
Medical thriller/horror novel. A new surgical resident at Manhattan’s iconic Bellevue faces pressure to succeed, but to his advantage he’s always had a secret sixth sense, a sensitivity to the nonphysical. Then one patient after another assigned to his care begins to die from mysterious causes, and things rapidly spiral out of control.
Davis, Hank, ed.: Depth Charge
(Baen 9781982193829, $18, 288pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 12/03/2024)
Anthology of SF stories of undersea realms on Earth and other worlds. Authors include James Blish, Arthur C. Clarke, Jacob Holo, and Robert Silverberg.
Evans, Davinia: Rebel Blade
(Orbit US 9780316398435, $19.99, 464pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 12/03/2024)
Fantasy novel, third in the Burnished City trilogy. Siyon Velo has given magic back to the Mundane. But with it, monsters of myth have awoken to cause chaos in Bezim and of course everyone’s blaming him. Hunted high and low, Siyon struggles against the rising tide of mystery, magic and mayhem threatening the city that’s turned its back on him.
Ferguson, Lana: Under Loch and Key
(Penguin Random House/Berkley Romance 9780593816851, $19, 416pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 12/03/2024)
Paranormal romance novel. After her father’s death, Keyanna “Key” MacKay travels to Scotland following up on a bedtime story about a monster that saved her father’s life, and looking for her estranged grandmother. But repeating her father’s mistakes she winds up having to be rescued by a an angry — and gorgeous — Scotsman with his own secrets.
Groner, Cary: The Way
(Penguin Random House/Spiegel & Grau 9781954118423, $29.99, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 12/03/2024)
Near-future postapocalyptic SF novel. A messenger from Colorado heading for the West Coast carries a potential cure for the virus that has destroyed civilization, helped by a clever raven, an opinionated cat, and a tough teenage girl.
Iversen, Chelsea: The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt
(Sourcebooks Landmark 9781728275819, $16.99, 320pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 12/03/2024)
Victorian fantasy novel. After her father disappeared months ago, Harriet Hunt is content to stay isolated in her magical garden. When she is suspected of causing her father’s disappearance, she marries a seemingly charming man to protect herself, but it becomes clear that her new husband is not what he seems, and the men in her life have been creating a dark plot around her.
Koe, Amanda Lee: Sister Snake
(HarperCollins/Ecco 9780063355064, $28, 272pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 12/03/2024)
Literary fantasy novel based on the Chinese “Legend of the White Snake”. Two estranged sisters reconcile and move in together in Singapore, but one’s wild behavior threatens to expose them as thousand-year-old snakes from Tang dynasty China.
Korn, Gabrielle: The Shutouts
(St. Martin’s 9781250323484, $29, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 12/03/2024)
Queer dystopian novel set in the world of Yours for the Taking. In 2041 deadly storms and uncontrollable wildfires are pummeling the country while political tensions are rising, but Kelly’s on the road anyway; she desperately needs to get back to her daughter, who she left seven years ago for a cause that she’s no longer sure she believes in.
Kornberg, Julia: Berlin Atomized
(Astra House 9781662602856, $25, 240pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 12/03/2024)
SF novel ranging from the early 2000s to 2034. Environmental disasters split up a group of siblings, from Buenos Aires to Paris, Jerusalem, Berlin, and Tokyo. Translated by Jack Rockwell & Julia Kornberg from the Spanish Berlin Atomizado (Club Hem Argentina 2021).
Kratman, Tom & Watson, Justin, et al.: 1919: Romanov Rising
(Baen 9781982193812, $28, 448pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 12/03/2024)
Alternate history SF novel. In 1818 Tsarina Tatiana has been rescued from death in a little out of the way town and now is striking out for a better position to fight the Bolsheviks, fund the war, rescue her Grand Duchess Aunt, and get the possible successors to safety.
Maberry, Jonathan: Mystic
(WordFire Press 9781680576986, $23.99, 268pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, 12/03/2024)
Collection of the Monk Addison case files about a former soldier and sometime bounty hunter, who mostly goes after killers, and remains haunted by the ghosts who hire him seeking justice.
Noon, Jeff & Beard, Steve: Ludluda
(Angry Robot UK 9781915998316, $18.99, 400pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 12/03/2024)
Fantasy novel, second in the Chronicles of Ludwich duology. Ludwich — a strange modern city whose power is sourced from the ghost of a dragon — may no longer be at war with its great political rival overseas, but veteran sailor Cady Meade, survivor of many battles, suspects that the hard-won peace is about to break. She promises to deliver a preternatural ten-year old girl to a coming-of-age festival in the heart of Ludwich. But she has been warned by the prophets that dangers lie ahead.
Pineda, Nadine: When the Mapou Sings
(Candlewick Press 9781536235661, $19.99, 432pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 12/03/2024)
Young-adult magical realism novel set in 1930s Haiti. Sixteen-year-old Lucille hopes to one day open a school alongside her best friend where girls just like them can learn what it means to be Haitian: to learn from the mountains and the forests around them, to carve, to sew, to draw, and to sing the songs of the Mapou, the sacred trees that dot the island nation. But when her friend vanishes without a trace, a dream from the Mapou tells Lucille to go to her village’s section chief, which puts her life and her family’s at risk.
Revis, Beth: How to Steal a Galaxy
(Astra House/DAW 9780756419486, $23, 192pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 12/03/2024)
SF novella. The rebel group that previously hired Ada asks her to undertake an undercover mission to a charity gala where Rian will be in attendance. Rian, meanwhile, has volunteered his services for the gala believing that the rare items up for auction will attract Ada’s eye.
Rohmer, Sax: She Who Sleeps / Moon of Madness
(Stark House 9798886011227, $17.95, 290pp, formats: trade paperback, 12/06/2024)
Omnibus of two novels: fantasy She Who Sleeps (1928) about a revived Egyptian princess, and spy novel Moon of Madness (1920). Introduction by Curtis Evans. A Sax Rohmer bibliography is included.
Rothman, M.A. & Butler, D.J.: Ice Trials
(Baen 9781982193805, $28, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 12/03/2024)
SF time-travel/LitRPG novel, second in the Time Trials series. After Marty Coen and his team pass through a mysterious portal while crossing North Africa, they wind up on an isolated island nation where a prophecy speaks of them as harbingers of death or salvation, and Marty will have to choose between saving his team or saving the ancient nation.
Sanderson, Brandon: Wind and Truth
(Tor 9781250319180, $39.99, 1344pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 12/06/2024)
Fantasy novel, the fifth book in The Stormlight Archive series. Dalinar Kholin challenged the evil god Odium to a contest of champions with the future of Roshar on the line. The Knights Radiant have only ten days to prepare―and the sudden ascension of the crafty and ruthless Taravangian to take Odium’s place has thrown everything into disarray.
Shaw, M.: All Your Friends Are Here
(Tenebrous Press 9781959790198, $19.99, 194pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 12/05/2024)
Collection of 13 eerie/new weird horror stories, including a novelette written especially for this collection.
Tchaikovsky, Adrian: Days of Shattered Faith
(Bloomsbury UK/Head of Zeus/Ad Astra 9781035901524, $28.82, 544pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 12/05/2024)
Fantasy novel, third in the Tyrant Philosophers series. Loret arrives to aide Gil as a second in an illegal duel that Gil must fight at midnight, as a succession crisis looms and many other troubles stir.
White, Alex: Ardent Violet and the Infinite Eye
(Orbit US 9780316430609, $19.99, 464pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 12/03/2024)
SF space opera novel, the second in the Starmetal Symphony series. Ultra-glam enby pop star Ardent Violet thought they could catch a break and enjoy some time with their new boyfriend August Kitko after defeating the giant mechas hellbent on humanity’s destruction. However, Ardent didn’t count on their mecha allies summoning a host of extraterrestrials to defend Earth.
Zahn, Timothy: The Icarus Needle
(Baen 9781982193799, $28, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 12/03/2024)
Space opera SF novel, fifth in the Icarus Saga series. Gregory Roarke and Selene seek out alien portals to bring them under the control of the Icarus Group, but the group’s leadership has changed and Roarke and Selene wind up on a distant world with a broken city, a dozen portals, and a group of aliens called the Ammei who dream of using the portals to bring back their own glory days.
