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Cambias, James L.: The Miranda Conspiracy (Baen 978-1668072400, $18.00, 320pp, formats: paperback, ebook, 02/04/2025)
SF novel set in the far-future Solar System, third in The Billion Worlds series. Our hero Zee goes to the moon of Miranda to meet his girlfriend Adya’s upper-class parents. But while they visit, her parents are targeted ...Read More
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Here’s a highlight from our 2024 Recommended Reading List: The Man Who Saw Seconds by Alexander Boldizar, out from CLASH Books.
From the Locus review by Alexandra Pierce, available in the April 2024 issue (excerpted):
The Man Who Saw Seconds is an action thriller that uses an age-old trope – when a man is wronged, his family threatened, how will he respond? – that is genuinely thrilling: the pacing is ...Read More
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Rebecca Yarros’s Onyx Storm soars to the top of the four print lists compiled here, selling, according to the Publishers Weekly page, over a million units in its first week. Note that three of these four lists rank the “standard edition” separately from the “deluxe limited edition”; this Locus Online page has always compiled only the top ranking version of any particular title in a particular format.
Also of
Here’s a highlight from our 2024 Recommended Reading List: Rest in Peaches by Alex Brown, out from Page Street Publishing.
“Thoughtful social commentary about race and the justice system is baked into this entertainingly absurd, page-turning slasher […]. Delightfully heart-pounding, suspenseful, and campy horror.” ―Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Quinn Marcelo wouldn’t necessarily win the award for Most Popular Person at her school, but unbeknownst to her peers, Quinn entertains them ...Read More
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Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Visit our bookshop.org page to purchase this week’s new books and support your local bookstore. And us!
Addison, Katherine: The Orb of Cairado (Subterranean Press 978-1645242130, $45.00, 120pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 01/31/2025)
Original fantasy novella, set in the award-winning world of The Goblin Emperor. Ulcetha is a disgraced scholar, framed and kicked out the University, and he makes a living crafting elven forgeries. But when his friend dies ...Read More
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Grady Hendrix’s Witchcraft for Wayward Girls (Berkley) debuts strongly on print lists, ranking as high as #1 at Publishers Weekly and #2 at New York Times.
Jesse Ball, The Repeat Room (Catapult 9/24) This absurd dystopian (and possibly truly Kafkaesque) SF novel details a jury system where a single juror is chosen to relive the defendant’s experience; in this case, a menial worker experiences an illicit psychosexual relationship with a tragic end. “It’s in the novel’s absurdity that we are asked to view justice and the worth of a single human life in a new light.” ...Read More
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Visit our bookshop.org page to purchase this week’s new books and support your local bookstore. And us!
Burke, Ava: Haunting and Homicide (The Quick Brown Fox/Crooked Lane 978-1639109289, $29.99, 272pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 01/21/2025)
Fantasy mystery novel, first in the Ghost Tour Mystery series. Tallulah “Lou” Thatcher can see ghosts, which helps her host viral ghost tours in New Orleans. When her rival tour guide is murdered by ...Read More
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No fewer than nine titles published on January 7, 2025 debut on one or more lists this week, most prominently (on three lists each) Mai Corland’s Four Ruined Realms (Entangled: Red Tower Books) and Fonda Lee & Shannon Lee’s Breath of the Dragon (Wednesday Books). The other seven are by Lily Braun-Arnold, Seanan McGuire, Sue Lynn Tan, Kristin Cast, J.T. Geissinger, Danielle L. Jensen, and Martha Wells.
Visit our bookshop.org page to purchase this week’s new books and support your local bookstore. And us!
Shea, Brian & Byrnes, Raquel: Aurora Fragment (Severn River 9781648756221, $18.99, 312pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 01/14/2025)
Science fiction murder mystery novel. Detective Morgan Reed is drawn to an isolated Alaskan town, haunted by the intrusive memories of a killer. He teams up with the local detective to find a missing intern, ...Read More
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With publication due a week from tomorrow, Rebecca Yarros’s Onyx Storm remains at or near the top of the three Amazon lists today.
Feehan, Christine: Dark Hope (Penguin Random House/Berkley 9780593819609, $29, 432pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 01/07/2025)
Paranormal romance novel, the 38th in the Carpathians series. Silke Vriese Reinders knows a war is coming. The demon slayer has seen it over and over again in the cards — and the battle won’t just be ...Read More
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Xiran Jay Zhao’s Heavenly Tyrant (Tundra), sequel to Iron Window (2021), debuts on two lists, ranking #1 on the New York Times Young Adult Hardcover list, and #10 on the combined USA Today list.
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Already ranking on Amazon bestseller lists for 40 weeks now, and with publication due on January 21st, Rebecca Yarros’s Onyx Storm creeps upwards on the three Amazon lists this week, ranking #1 on Amazon.com this morning.
Aliette de Bodard, In the Shadow of the Ship (Subterranean 9/24) This far-future SF mystery novella is the latest installment in the author’s popular and ambitious Xuya universe. Khuyĕn, now a magistrate, returns to the sentient ship Nightjar and the family she hasn’t seen since fleeing as a teen to attend her grandmother’s funeral… but a disappearance forces her to face the past. “A sharp-edged and glittering science-fictional gem.” ...Read More
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Lackey, Mercedes: Miss Amelia’s List (Astra House/DAW 9780756419097, $28, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 12/24/2024)
Fantasy novel, 17th in the Elemental Master series. In 1815 Miss Amelia Stonehold, goes to the Devon town of Axminster, looking to buy and staff a property, and possibly find a husband. But the Honorable Captain Harold Roughtower has his eyes fixed on her fortune and his plans for her wealth include the hidden Roman temple ...Read More
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Brandon Sanderson’s Wind and Truth drops a notch or two on the four print lists compiled here, but remains solidly in the top 10 on all of them.
If you have a science fiction nerd for a parent, then you know it is impossible to shop for them over the holidays. They have read every SF title from the ‘Best of’ lists and have a personal pulp collection from decades past. Here are six recent science fiction titles reviewed by our experts that we think your dad hasn’t read yet (unless he has a Locus subscription), in ...Read More
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Anderson, Brad C.: Ashme’s Song (Shadowpaw Press 9781998273164, $19.99, 402pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 12/17/2024)
SF novel. Ashme, a genetically enhanced New Mesopotamian has the ability to control computer systems at will, destined to help her oppressed people. But she is stuck caring for her neurologically frail twin brother.
Heitz, M. Turville: Black River (Crossroad Press/Mystique Press 9781637891346, $14.99, 350pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 12/17/2024)
Fantasy novel. Kyle Nelson, ...Read More
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Brandon Sanderson’s Wind and Truth (Tor), fifth volume in his Stormlight Archive, debuts strongly on print lists, ranking #1 on three of them and #2 on the fourth.
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 ...Read More
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The Locus Selected Books by Author list has been updated on our Forthcoming Books page, with information from the December 2024 issue covering upcoming titles from genre houses slated through September 2025. Find out about your favorite authors’ upcoming books!
For the complete list of books by publisher, subscribe to our print magazine or purchase the December issue in print or digital editions, available December 1, 2024.
While you are ...Read More
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Gregory Maguire’s Wicked returns to fiction hardcover bestseller lists in a Collector’s Edition with green sprayed edges (William Morrow), ranking as high as #10 on the NY Times list. Two other books return to lists in similar special editions: R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War Collector’s Edition and Harley Laroux’s Her Soul to Take: Deluxe Special Edition (Kensington).
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
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 ...Read More
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Again this week two fantasy novels debut on three lists each: Carissa Broadbent’s The Songbird & the Heart of Stone (Bramble), ranking as high as #3 on two lists; and Melissa Landers’s The Half King (Entangled: Red Tower Books), ranking as high as #12 on two lists.
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. ...Read More
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Two fantasy novels debut this week: Mary E. Pearson’s The Courting of Bristol Keats (Flatiron), and Katee Robert’s Court of the Vampire Queen (Sourcebooks Casablanca), both ranking on three print lists.
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