New & Notable

Michael Bishop, Other Arms Reach Out to Me: Georgia Stories (Fairwood Press/Kudzu Planet Productions Jun 2017)

One of our most lyrical and literary authors has collected his stories set in Georgia, or about Georgians, with work reminiscent of Flannery O’Connor. This has an author’s note; an introduction by professor Hugh Ruppersburg, ‘‘Beyond Regionalism’’; and 15 stories, including Nebula Award finalist ‘‘Rattlesnakes and Men’’ and two originals.

Eric Brown, Binary System

Callie Bates, The Waking Land (Del Rey Jul 2017)

This fantasy first novel by a promising new talent begins a new trilogy, following teenage Lady Elanna, who flees her home after being accused of murdering the king, dis­covers her own wild nature magic, and joins a rebellion.

Curtis C. Chen, Kangaroo Too (St. Martin’s/Dunne Jun 2017)

This sequel to funny SF novel Waypoint Kangaroo continues the tale of the title

Kelley Armstrong, Lost Souls (Subterranean Press Mar 2017)

Armstrong returns to the world of her popular Cainsville series for this novella of lawyer Gabriel Walsh, investigating a report of what sounds like a typical tale of a “disappearing hitchhiker,” hoping to dig up enough to intrigue and smooth things over with his investigator Olivia Taylor-Jones – only the story isn’t exactly the old urban legend he expected. A spirited tale

Alex Bledsoe, Gather Her Round (Tor Mar 2017)

The latest novel in the Tufa series continues to reveal largely unexplored corners of American fantasy, with the fae Tufa living alongside people in remote areas of the Appalachians. When Tufa woman Kera Rog­ers is found dead and half devoured, followed soon by the death of her secret lover, the other Tufa have to unravel the mystery and stop a monstrous force

Gwenda Bond, Girl in the Shadows (Amazon/Skyscape Jul 2016)

In the second volume in the Cirque American series, after Girl on a Wire, aspiring magician Moira Mitchell defies her father, a stage illusionist who disapproves of her career dreams, by using a purloined invitation to trick her way into joining the Cirque American. Ten­sions rise as her skills are tested, and Moira discovers there may be more to her

Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale (Ballantine Del Rey Jan 2017)

This thoroughly enchanting debut fantasy draws on Russian folklore and history. Vasilia lives with her father in the Russian wilder­ness, but when her new stepmother forbids the family to honor household spirits, things begin to go disastrously wrong, and it’s up to Vasilia to save the family using gifts long kept secret. ‘‘A particularly enchanting version of an

Lauren Beukes, Slipping: Stories, Essays & Other Writing (Tachyon Publications Nov 2016)

Beukes’s first collection presents a lively mix of 19 stories, a set of Twitter mash-up stories, a poem, and five non-fiction pieces. ‘‘Beukes writes with passion and a hot immediacy, employing demotic prose that often attains a gritty poetry…. the book can only enhance her reputation in the field.’’ [Paul di Filippo]

Michael Chabon, Moonglow (Harper Nov 2016)

John Joseph Adams & Douglas Cohen, eds., What the #@&% Is That?: The Saga Anthology of the Monstrous and the Macabre (Simon & Schuster/Saga Press Nov 2016)

This ‘‘anthology of the monstrous and the macabre’’ inspired by a funny meme – see Cohen’s introduction for the origin story – celebrates fear of the unknown in various forms (sometimes, but not exclusively, Lovecraftian), with 20 original stories by authors including Laird

Peter S. Beagle, Summerlong (Tachyon Publications Sep 2016)

Beagle’s first fantasy novel in over 15 years does not disappoint, a tale of a couple in the Pacific Northwest who find their lives changed by the arrival of a beautiful young waitress. ‘‘It’s a lovely, graceful, quiet meditation on matters of aging, families, art, love, relationships, and (since this is Beagle) Greek mythology.’’ [Gary K. Wolfe]

Keith Donohue, The Motion of

Matthew M. Bartlett, Creeping Waves (Muzzleland Press Apr 2016)

Stories, clippings, and radio broadcasts are woven together into horror novel of the cursed town of Leeds, Massachusetts, a sequel to Gateways to Abomination. ‘‘A striking book that cements Bartlett’s reputation as a writer of vision and talent… Creeping Waves belongs on the bookshelf of every reader interested in the current state of horror fiction.’’ [John Langan]

Beth Cato, Breath

R. Scott Bakker, The Great Ordeal (Overlook Press Jul 2016)

The third and penultimate volume of the Aspect-Em­peror series (set in the same epic fantasy world as the earlier, acclaimed Prince of Nothing saga) continues the grim and gritty tale of clashing armies, personal tragedy, and impending apocalypse against an intricate and vast backdrop that stands as a true triumph of worldbuilding.

Steve Berman, ed., Wilde Stories 2016 (Lethe Aug

Becky Chambers, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Harper Voyager Jul 2016)

Chambers’s character-driven first novel focuses on a woman joining the diverse crew of an aging spaceship that has been offered a dangerous job making hyperspace tunnels between worlds. Originally self-published to consid­erable acclaim – nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the British Fantasy Awards’ Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer, and even The Kitschies.

Stephen Baxter & Alastair Reynolds, The Medusa Chronicles (Simon & Schuster/Saga Press Jun 2016)

SF novel, an epic space opera, sequel to Arthur C. Clarke’s Nebula Award-winning novella ‘‘A Meeting with Medusa’’, this continues the adventures of astronaut Howard Falcon, the first explorer of Jupiter, over almost 800 years of his long life, thanks to his cyborg body – following the con­tinued human exploration of space, contact with sentient races,

Joan Aiken, The People in the Castle: Selected Strange Stories (Small Beer Press Apr 2016)

This retrospective collection gathers 20 stories by the late author of mesmerizingly strange fiction, with pieces published from the 1950s to the ’90s. It includes an introduction by Kelly Link about her relationship to Aiken’s work, and another by the author’s daughter, Lizza Aiken, on ‘‘The Power of Storytelling’’.

Madeline Ashby, Company Town (Tor May

Daniel Abraham, The Spider’s War (Orbit Mar 2016)

The fifth and final book in the Dagger and the Coin series finds war spilling out across the world as nations fall to the mad priesthood, while in Carse a small group works to bring peace to the world with the help of traitors, the last dragon, and a revolutionary financial scheme. ‘‘The resolution of the series is quite satisfying… when I

Mishell Baker, Borderline (Simon & Schuster/Saga Press Mar 2016)

In this quirky urban fantasy novel, disabled film­maker Millie Roper takes a job with the Arcadia Project to help control creatures of myth and fairy tale from an alternate world who have managed to cross over into Hollywood. An entertaining first novel, the first book in The Arcadia Project series.

Darin Bradley, Aaron Leis & Misti Morrison, eds., FWA 1: A

Mark Alder, Son of the Morning (Pegasus Feb 2016)

This ambitious, epic historical fantasy novel of light and dark angels meddling in human affairs during the Hundred Years War finally receives a US edition after appearing in the UK in 2014. ‘‘Alder turns standard notions of fantasy and history, human and supernatural motivations, Nature and a structured Cosmos, on their heads, writing beautifully and at a pace undaunted by the