Weekly Bestsellers, 11 March 2024
A fantasy novel by Danielle L. Jensen, A Fate Inked in Blood (Del Rey), debuts at #3 on both the USA Today and Publishers Weekly lists.
A fantasy novel by Danielle L. Jensen, A Fate Inked in Blood (Del Rey), debuts at #3 on both the USA Today and Publishers Weekly lists.
Tomorrow’s Children, Daniel Polansky (Angry Robot 978-1915202857, trade paperback, 384pp, $18.99) February 2024
Postapocalypse tales don’t get any grimmer or funnier, more slambang or more nuanced, more hopeful or more despairing, than Daniel Polansky’s Tomorrow’s Children. If that catalog of virtues sounds oxymoronic, please restrain your doubts. Polansky’s accomplished novel is large and contains multitudes, and foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of a small mind.
This is my ...Read More
Read moreSeveral titles and sets of Frank Herbert’s series that begins with Dune (Ace), including a three-book boxed set and a six-book boxed set, are selling on the Amazon sites today. Two of them rank as high as #3.
Equimedian, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro (Hex 979-8988082712, hardcover, 326pp, $31.99) February 2024
I would venture to guess that most SF fans know Alvaro Zinos-Amaro as one of our best critics and interviewers. Case in point is his recent volume, Being Michael Swanwick, which I reviewed on this platform just a short time ago. But like Green Arrow or Hawkeye, the man has more than one arrow in his quiver. (I ...Read More
Read moreBeggar’s Sky, Wil McCarthy (Baen 978-1982193188, hardcover, 320pp, $28.00) February 2024
Wil McCarthy has had an atypical career that is almost neatly bifurcated. He came out of the gate strong with a duology, Aggressor Six, from 1994-1996. With the dawn of a new century, he delivered an even better, more mature and inventive series, Queendom of Sol (2000-2005). But then, for whatever reason, he fell more or less ...Read More
Read more» Vox, Constance Grady, 27 Feb 2024: Why half the people you know are obsessed with this book series, subtitled “With A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas has established herself as the reigning queen of romantasy.”
» The New Yorker, Rivka Galchen, 27 Feb 2024: Thinking About A.I. with Stanisław Lem, subtitled “The science-fiction writer didn’t live to see ChatGPT, but he foresaw so much ...Read More
Read moreKelly Link’s The Book of Love (Random House) debuts on two lists this week, ranking as high as #2 at the L.A. Times. And T. Kingfisher’s What Feasts at Night (Tor Nightfire) debuts on three lists, ranking as high as #9 at Publishers Weekly.
Sarah J. Maas’s House of Flame and Shadow slips out of first place on the four print lists compiled here, but remains in the top 10 on all of them, and ahead of the two Rebecca Yarros novels.
Exordia, Seth Dickinson (Tordotcom 978-1250233011, hardcover, 544pp, $29.99) January 2024
Seth Dickinson’s Baru Cormorant trilogy, known collectively as The Masquerade, was a splashy debut, earning him many accolades and fans. So when his next book, “a gonzo space opera and alien techno-thriller” titled Exordia, was announced in 2018, excitement grew. Six years later, after some public wistful wondering as to when the book would actually appear, Exordia finally ...Read More
Read moreThe Best Horror of the Year: Volume Fifteen, edited by Ellen Datlow (Night Shade 978-1949102727, trade paperback, 432pp, $19.99) January 2024
“Curation” is an overworked word these days, when, on the internet, everything from a collection of Pez dispensers to an Instagram stream of dinner photos is deemed to be “curated.” And yet there’s really no better term to be applied to an assemblage of art put together by ...Read More
Read more» NY Times: Amal El-Mohtar reviews Kelly Link’s The Book of Love
» Washington Post: Ron Charles reviews Kelly Link’s The Book of Love
» Esquire: Adam Morgan interviews Kelly Link
» Business Insider: Inside the rise of Sarah J. Maas, the best-selling author who’s taking the “romantasy” genre to the next level
» NY Times: Gabino Iglesias reviews Emily Ruth Verona, Jenny Kiefer, Christopher Golden, and Tlotlo Tsamaase ...Read More
Read moreAs anticipated, Sarah J. Maas’s House of Flame and Shadow (Bloomsbury), third in the Crescent City series, debuts strongly — ranking at #1 — on all four print lists compiled here.
The Glass Box, J. Michael Straczynski (Blackstone 979-8212007795, hardcover, 350pp, $25.99) January 2024
We are lucky that Mr. Straczynski—hereafter, the familiar JMS—has taken some time off from his comics and television work to gift us with a fine new novel. Considering also his heavy duties administering the estate of Harlan Ellison—I for one eagerly await the reprinting of Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions, and the birth of ...Read More
Read morePublished last Tuesday, Sarah J. Maas’s House of Flame and Shadow (Bloomsbury), third in the Crescent City series, still ranks on the Amazon lists this morning; expect it on the print lists next week.
Heather Fawcett’s Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands (Del Rey), second in her Emily Wilde series, debuts strongly on all four print lists compiled here.
Meanwhile, Sarah J. Maas’s House of Flame and Shadow, third in her Crescent City series, which has ranked on this page for nearly four months with Amazon pre-publication orders, is due for actual publication tomorrow.
Two new novels debut this week: Olivie Blake’s The Atlas Complex (Tor), conclusion of her Atlas trilogy; and Aurora Ascher’s Sanctuary of the Shadow (Entangled: Red Tower), first book in her Elemental Emergence series.
The Guardian: Lisa Tuttle reviews Aliya Whiteley, Alice McIlroy, Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, Emma Hinds, and Maud Woolf
Scott Edelman dines with Nina Kiriki Hoffman and Pat Murphy
Washington Post, 13 Jan 2024: A 1993 dystopian novel imagined the world in 2024. It’s eerily accurate. — George Bass on Octavia Butler’s ‘Parable of the Sower’ ...Read More
Read moreRebecca Ross’s Ruthless Vows (Wednesday Books) is #1 on the YA lists of both New York Times and Publishers Weekly this week.
Short, Michael Blumlein (Subterranean Press 978-1645241522, hardcover, 424pp, $45.00) December 2023
Long, Michael Blumlein (Subterranean Press 978-1645241539, hardcover, 360pp, $45.00) December 2023
For many years, I saw Michael Blumlein regularly at Readercon. We had pleasant chats, for he was congenial, simpatico, funny, and smart. Then one year I asked him if he were returning to the West Coast immediately after the con. “No, we’re going to Rhode Island ...Read More
Read moreRebecca Ross’s Ruthless Vows (Wednesday Books), second in her Letters of Enchantment series following Divine Rivals, debuts strongly on three lists.
HIM, Geoff Ryman (Angry Robot 978-1915202673, trade paperback, 366pp, $18.99) December 2023
The subgenre of SF that deals with religion is a copious, healthy, and growing one, albeit not as large as some branches of fantastika. From del Rey’s “For I Am a Jealous People!” to Blish’s A Case of Conscience; from Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land to Russell’s The Sparrow; from Bishop’s “The Gospel According ...Read More
Read moreCollected Ogoense and Other Stories, Rebecca Ore (Aqueduct Press 978-1619762480, trade paperback, 222pp, $20.95) November 2023
Aqueduct Press reaches its twentieth anniversary in 2024. Helmed for all these years by the talented and dedicated L. Timmel Duchamp, the firm has—under the rubric of “Bringing challenging feminist science fiction to the demanding reader”—offered a wide range of stellar fiction and nonfiction that any of the Big Five would have been ...Read More
Read moreRebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing remains #1 on the New York Times Fiction Hardcover list.
Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing remains #1 on the New York Times Fiction Hardcover list.
A new fantasy novel by Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent & the Wings of Night (Bramble), first in a series, debuts on three lists.
Rebecca Yarros’ two novels continue to dominate print lists: Fourth Wing is #1 again at NY Times this week, while Iron Flame remains #1 on the USA Today and Publishers Weekly lists.
» The Guardian, Adam Roberts: Five of the best science fiction and fantasy books of 2023 are by Allan, Ryman, Tesh, MacInnes, and Tidhar
» NY Times, Amal El-Mohtar: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2023 are by Chandrasekera, Törzs, Carey, Hardinge, Fawcett, Lee, Harkaway, Link, Wells, and Taub
» NY Times, Gabino Iglesias: The Best Horror Books of 2023 are by Moreno-Garcia, LaValle, Ampuero, Khaw, ...Read More
Read moreThree of Sarah J. Maas’ backlist titles, Heir of Fire, Queen of Shadows, and Empire of Storms, all reissued by Bloomsbury this past February both in hardcover and paperback (per Amazon), show up on Publishers Weekly‘s trade paperback list this week, ranking at 20, 21, and 24 respectively; neither these editions nor any earlier ones of these titles have ranked on any of the bestsellers lists compiled
» Washington Post, 14 Nov, Charlie Jane Anders: The 10 best science fiction and fantasy novels of 2023 by Kitasei, Moreno-Garcia, Awad, Link, Huang, Googins, Talabi, Kaner, Parker-Chan, and Blackgoose
» NY Times, 22 Nov 2023: Essay by Kelly Barnhill since experiencing a traumatic brain injury in 2021
» Washington Post, Sophie Nguyen, 24 Nov 2023: Christopher Paolini wrote ‘Eragon’ as a teen. Now 40, he’s still ...Read More
Read moreTwo debuts this week. Patrick Rothfuss’ The Narrow Road Between Desires (DAW) debuts on four lists, ranking as high as #6 on the New York Times list. And Martha Wells’ System Collapse (Tordotcom), seventh in her Murderbot Diaries series, ranks on three lists.
Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird, edited by Jonathan Maberry (Blackstone 979-8200687992, hardcover, 200pp, $27.99) October 2023
I have yet to read any individual issue of the revived Weird Tales magazine, piloted by editor Jonathan Maberry. But I already know that this new periodical incarnation must be a class act, fully worthy of bearing forward into the future the celebrated name and lineage. My appraisal comes from enjoying this ...Read More
Read moreRebecca Yarros’s Iron Flame (Entangled: Red Tower Books), second in her series The Empyrean following Fourth Wing, debuts at #1 on all four print lists compiled here, after several months of ranking on the Amazon lists with pre-publication orders.
And Travis Baldree’s Bookshops & Bonedust (Tor), set in the world of his earlier novel Legends & Lattes, debuts on the same four print lists, ranking #1 on (the