New Books, 2 July 2024

Asaro, Catherine: The Down Deep (Baen 9781982193508, $28, 240pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/02/2024)

SF novel, first in the Dust Knights series set in the Skolian Empire. In a city divided between the rich and the poor, a member of the Royal class wants to help the Undercity, and recruits Major Bhaajan and her Dust Knights for a mission of good will. But the problems of the Undercity run deeper ...Read More

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Issue 762 Table of Contents, July 2024

The July 2024 issue of Locus has interviews with Cory Doctorow and Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ. News covers the 2024 Locus Awards winners and Locus Poll writeup, as well as the 2023 Nebula Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, and Seiun Awards, the transformation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s home into a writers residency site, the auction of the first Hugo trophy, the RWA bankruptcy, and much more. StokerCon 2024 is covered with a ...Read More

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New Books, 25 June 2024

Ackley-McPhail, Danielle, ed.: The Chaos Clock: Tales of Cosmic Aether (eSpec/NeoParadoxa 9781956463354, $17.95, 328pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 07/01/2024)

Anthology of short stories involving time, mixing the cosmic weird of H.P. Lovecraft and the steam-age technology of H.G. Wells. Authors include James Chambers, Carol Gyzander, Will McDermott, Jody Lynn Nye.

 

Adeyemi, Tomi: Children of Anguish and Anarchy (Macmillan/Holt 9781250171016, $24.99, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 06/25/2024)

Young-adult fantasy novel ...Read More

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New Books, 16 June 2024

Breakwell, James: The Gods of Spenser Island (Rebellion/Solaris UK 9781786189967, $15.99, 384pp, formats: trade paperback, 06/18/2024)

SF thriller novel, second in the series The Chosen Twelve. A colony world with the last 12 humans, all of them children, struggle to create a new civilization on the alien island that is now their forever home—a place full of monsters and the deadly robots brought with them on the colony ship.

  ...Read More

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New Books, 11 June 2024

Bowles, David & McCall, Guadalupe García: Hearts of Fire and Snow (Bloomsbury USA 9781547610044, $19.99, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 06/11/2024)

Young-adult fantasy romance about two people linked by a magic conch: a woman in modern day Mexico fleeing gang violence and a man in 1521 Tenochtitlan under siege by Spanish invaders. The authors provide a long note on working together and their inspirations.

 

Cashore, Kristin: There Is a Door ...Read More

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New Books, 4 June 2024

Cerilli, Matteo: Lockjaw (Penguin Random House Canada/Tundra 9781774882306, $17.99, 328pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 06/04/2024)

Young-adult horror novel of two queer teens in a community that doesn’t accept them. When one is killed by a monster the other has to prove it’s real to clear herself and save the town.

 

Cobell, K.A.: Looking for Smoke (HarperCollins/Heartdrum 9780063318670, $19.99, 416pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 06/04/2024)

Young-adult thriller novel set on ...Read More

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Issue 761 Table of Contents, June 2024

The June 2024 issue of Locus has interviews with M.R. Carey and Travis Baldree and a spotlight on artist Raya Golden. The issue lists US and UK forthcoming books titles through March 2025. News includes the Aurealis Awards winners, Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist, LA Times Book Prize winners, British Book Awards winners, and much more. The 40th Anniversary Writers & Illustrators of the Future and LuxCon 2024 are covered ...Read More

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New Books, 28 May 2024

Barnet, Frankie: Mood Swings (Astra House 9781662602597, $26, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 05/31/2024)

Humorous, near-future SF novel. An Instragram poet starts an affair with the California billionaire who destroyed all the animals on Earth after they started attacking humans, but now promises a time machine that will make everything “normal” again. A first novel.

For a novel that doesn’t feature a single paradox, time loop, or change to history, ...Read More

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New Books, 21 May 2024

Bell, Crystal J.: The Lamplighter (North Star Editions/Flux 9781635830989, $14.99, 304pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 05/21/2024)

Young-adult historical horror novel. Temperance takes over as lamplighter in the 19th-century whaling village of Warbler after her father’s death, and has to prove she can do the job after a girl disappears and her investigation shows there may be a monster at large. A first novel.

 

Boldizar, Alexander: The Man Who Saw ...Read More

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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.: ...Read More

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New Books, 30 April 2024

Adler, Sarah: Happy Medium (Penguin Random House/Berkley 9780593547816, $18, 416pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 04/30/2024)

Paranormal romance novel. A con woman posing as a spirit medium is hired to investigate odd phenomena on a skeptical farmer’s goat farm, and finds a very real ghost.

 

Al-Essa, Bothayna & (Translator), Sawad Hussain: The Book Censor’s Library (Restless Books 9781632063342, $17.99, 272pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 04/30/2024)

Satirical dystopian SF novel ...Read More

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New Books, 7 May 2024

Akers, Tim: The Eccentrics (Baen 9781982193393, $18, 304pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 05/07/2024)

Dark fantasy/sword & sorcery novel, the third in the Knight Watch series. Led by the eighth incarnation of Nikola Tesla, the Society of Eccentric Geniuses protects the Mundane world from the horrors of the Gestalt, a timeline of the future that never was.

 

Almada, Selva: Not a River (Graywolf Press 9781644452851, $16, 104pp, formats: trade paperback, ...Read More

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Issue 760 Table of Contents, May 2024

The May 2024 issue of Locus has interviews with Malka Older and Victor Manibo. News includes the 2024 Hugo Awards Ballot, Bethany Jacobs’s Philip K. Dick Award win, the Small Press Distribution shutdown, the Chesley Awards winners, and more. Photo reports cover the 2024 International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Norwescon 46, and the Williamson Lectureship. Daria Piskozub reports on SF in Ukraine: On Fantasy Tropes and Romanticizing ...Read More

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New Books, 23 April 2024

Carpenter, Daniel: Hunting by the River (Black Shuck Books UK 9781913038885, $15.99, 172pp, formats: trade paperback, 04/25/2024)

Collection of urban weird stories set in England. A first collection.

 

Cathrall, Sylvie: A Letter to the Luminous Deep (Orbit US 9780316565530, $18.99, 400pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 04/23/2024)

Fantasy novel of magical academia in an underwater world. Two people piece together the letter, sketches and field notes left behind to ...Read More

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New Books, 16 April 2024

Castro, V.: Immortal Pleasures (Penguin Random House/Del Rey 9780593499726, $17.99, 304pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 04/16/2024)

Dark fantasy novel about Malinalli, once the infamous Malinche who aided Cortés in his destruction of the Aztec empire, now an immortal vampire avenging conquered peoples by regaining their plundered artifacts, but also looking for love and intrigued by a horror novelist who finds her strange condition fascinating.

 

Chang, Molly X.: To ...Read More

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Issue 759 Table of Contents, April 2024

The April 2023 issue of Locus magazine has interviews with Nalo Hopkinson and Ken MacLeod and a spotlight on artist Sara Felix. News includes the 2023 Nebula Awards ballot, the Stoker Awards final ballot, Chandrasekera’s Crawford win, Doherty’s Heinlein Award win, Patrick Nielsen Hayden’s shift to editor-at-large, the BSFA Awards finalists, and much more. Obituaries remember Brian Stableford, Jaime Lee Moyer, Dick Jenssen, and Sue Arroyo, with additional appreciations for ...Read More

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New Books, 5 March 2024

Baptiste, Bethany: The Poisons We Drink (Sourcebooks Fire 9781728251950, $18.99, 480pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)

Young-adult fantasy novel. Teen witcher Venus Stoneheart makes illegal potions to support her family, but a corrupt coven forces her to make potions to enslave politicians.

 

Black, Holly: The Prisoner’s Throne (Little, Brown 9780316592710, $20.99, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 03/05/2024)

Young-adult fantasy novel, second in the Stolen Heir duology in the ...Read More

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Issue 758 Table of Contents, March 2024

The March 2024 issue of Locus has interviews with Shelley Parker-Chan and Moses Ose Utomi and spotlights on artists Manzi Jackson and Richard A. Kirk. The issue lists US and UK forthcoming books titles through December 2024. News and features include remembrances of Christopher Priest (1943-2024), a report on Hugo Awards tampering, the Stoker Award preliminary ballot, international reports on SF in Brazil and Indian science fiction magazines, and much ...Read More

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New Books, 27 February 2024

Bakis, Kirsten: King Nyx (Norton/Liveright 9781324093534, $28.99, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 02/27/2024)

Feminist gothic novel with possible fantasy elements, about Charles Fort’s wife in 1918, who investigates the disappearance of three girls, but can’t tell if she’s seen ghosts or her mind is unraveling.

 

Bishop, Anne: The Lady in Glass and Other Stories (Ace 9780593639054, $28, 480pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 02/27/2024)

Collection of short stories. All of ...Read More

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New Books, 20 February 2024

Albert, Melissa: The Bad Ones (Macmillan/Flatiron 9781250894892, $19.99, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 02/20/2024)

Young-adult contemporary thriller/dark fantasy novel. Nora looks into the disappearance of four people who vanished in a single night, one her estranged best friend, in a town with a sinister magical history.

 

Armentrout, Jennifer L. & Salvador, Rayvn: Visions of Flesh and Blood (Evil Eye Concepts/Blue Box Press 9781957568324, $31.99, 578pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, ...Read More

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New Books, 13 February 2024

Arden, Katherine: The Warm Hands of Ghosts (Penguin Random House/Del Rey 9780593128251, $28.99, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 02/13/2024)

Historical fantasy novel. During WWI, Laura Iven, a retired field nurse hears word that her brother has been killed in combat, but something doesn’t make sense. She returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital, where she hears whispers about haunted trenches and a strange hotelier whose wine gives ...Read More

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New Books 6 February 2024

Bennett, Robert Jackson: The Tainted Cup (Penguin Random House/Del Rey 9781984820709, $28, 432pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 02/06/2024)

Fantasy mystery novel, first in the Shadow of the Leviathan series. A high Imperial officer dies when a tree erupts from his body, and the brilliant detective Ana Dolabra investigates with the help of her new magically altered assistant Dinios Kol.

 

Callender, Kacen: Infinity Alchemist (Tor Teen 9781250890252, $19.99, 400pp, formats: ...Read More

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Issue 757 Table of Contents, February 2024

The February 2024 issue of Locus is the annual Year in Review overview with essays, the Locus 2023 Recommended Reading List, and magazine and book summaries tracking the progress of the industry. The issue also features an interview with Martha Wells. News includes the complete 2023 Hugo voting, Tor.com rebranding as Reactor, the empanelment of the World Fantasy Awards judges, the Philip K. Dick Award nominees, Chesley Awards finalists, and ...Read More

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New Books: 30 January 2024

Chen, Mike: A Quantum Love Story (Harlequin/Mira 9780778369509, $18.99, 384pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 01/30/2024)

SF time-loop romance novel. Neuroscientist Mariana Pineda, working at a top secret particle accelerator, starts looping in time, the same four days over and over, with a man who also remembers the loop — for a while.

 

Gibson, Lena: Switching Tracks: Out of the Trash (Black Rose Writing 9781685133641, $24.95, 359pp, formats: trade ...Read More

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New Books: 23 January 2024

Bristow, Su: The Fair Folk (Europa Editions 9798889660125, $18, 400pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 01/23/2024)

Faustian fairytale fantasy novel. In 1959 eight-year-old Felicity accepts a gift from the fairy queen. As an adult she is constantly visited by the queen’s companions, wreaking havoc with her friendships and love life. Felicity finally begins to explore the true nature of the Fair Folk with the help of a folklorist professor, to try ...Read More

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New Books: 16 January 2023

Avery, Amy: The Longest Autumn (Macmillan/Flatiron 9781250896490, $28.99, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 01/16/2024)

Fantasy mystery romance novel. Seasons stop turning when the mortal Time and the god of Autumn are trapped in the mortal world, and the two are torn between the need to fix things and their forbidden attraction to each other. A first novel.

 

Bertino, Marie-Helene: Beautyland (Macmillan/Farrar, Straus, Giroux 9780374109288, $28, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, ...Read More

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New Books: 9 January 2023

Ascher, Aurora: Sanctuary of the Shadow (Entangled/Red Tower 9781649374110, $29.99, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 01/09/2024)

Fantasy romance novel about a woman hiding in a circus where she disguises her gift of prophecy as part of her act until an alluring monster turns up.

 

Berwah, Tanvi: Somewhere in the Deep (Sourcebooks Fire 9781728247656, $18.99, 359pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 01/09/2024)

Young-adult fantasy novel inspired by South Asia, The ...Read More

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New Books: 2 January 2024

Avery, Annaliese The Immortal Games (Scholastic 9781338754520, $12.99, 336pp trade paperback, ebook, audio 01/02/2024)

Young-adult fantasy romance novel. 16-year-old Ara is seeking revenge on the Gods for allowing her sister to die in the games. She’s determined to be selected as a token, but when she is, she realizes that it isn’t just her life at stake, but also her heart.

 

Butler, D.J.: Among the Gray Lords (Baen 9781982193133, ...Read More

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New Books: 26 December 2023

Lackey, Mercedes: Valdemar (Astra House/DAW 9780756417390, $29, 464pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 12/26/2023)

Fantasy novel. third in the Founding of Valdemar series. The refugees’ city of Haven thrives, but their Tayledras allies are withdrawing, and magicians move in to take advantage.

 

Motayne, Maya: Lucero (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray 9780062842794, $18.99, 464pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 12/26/2023)

Young-adult fantasy novel, the third in a trilogy begun in Nocturna. In the aftermath of ...Read More

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New Books 19 December 2023

Carthage, Jo: Nuclear Sunrise (NineStar Press 9781648907005, $6.49, 361pp, formats: ebook, 12/19/2023)

Historical SF gay romance novel set in 1951 about a US Air Force Captain from Roswell, New Mexico in charge of security at a top-secret atomic energy research facility in Idaho, against his will falling for a rebellious nuclear physicist.

 

Hoffmann, Ada: Resurrections (Apex Book Company 9781955765121, $6.99, 345pp, formats: ebook, audio, 12/19/2023)

Collection of short stories ...Read More

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Issue 755-6 Table of Contents, Dec 2023/Jan 2024

The December 2023/January 2024 issue of Locus magazine is a special double issue and has interviews with Robert J. Sawyer, Andrea Stewart, and Ai Jiang, and a spotlight on artist Winona Nelson. Chengdu Worldcon and the World Fantasy Convention are both covered with extensive reports and photos. The issue lists US and UK forthcoming books titles through September 2024. News includes the Ignyte and Sidewise Awards winners, Mueller’s Endeavour win, ...Read More

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New Books 12 December 2023

Cadigan, Pat: Ultraman (Titan Books UK 9781803362458, $16.95, 288pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 12/12/2023)

Tie-in novel based on a movie based on the series. Pursuing a fugitive space monster, a Being of Light enters Earth’s atmosphere. Accidentally colliding with a patrolling jet, piloted by Science Patrol Agent Shin Hayata, the Being merges with the pilot to save his life and vows to defend the Earth. Now whenever the planet is ...Read More

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