The Qwillery

Happy Tuesday!

There are no debut novels this week. From formerly featured DAC Authors:

The Queen of Swords (Golgotha 3) by R.S. Belcher is out in Trade Paperback;

The Rebel (San Angeles 3) by Gerald Brandt is out in Mass Market Paperback;

The Mortal Word (Invisible Library 5) by Genevieve Cogman;

#HeroFail (Superheroes Anonymous 4) by Lexie Dunne;

Infernal Machines by John Hornor Jacobs;

Song of the Soul (Muse Chronicles 7) by Lisa Kessler;

A Curse Awakened (Weird Girls 0.5) by Cecy Robson is reissued;

The Eternity War: Exodus (The Eternity War 2) by Jamie Sawyer;

and

Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom (Retropolis 1) by Bradley W. Schenck is out in Trade Paperback.

Debut novels are highlighted in blue. Novels, etc. by formerly featured DAC Authors are highlighted in green.

November 26, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Last Unicorn The Lost Journey	Peter S. Beagle	F/FairyT/FolkT/LM
Song of the Soul (e)	Lisa Kessler	PNR - Muse Chronicles 7

November 27, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Victory: Part 1	Dan Abnett	SF - Gaunt's Ghosts
The Warmaster (h2tp)	Dan Abnett	SF - Gaunt's Ghosts
Rowankind	Jacey Bedford	HistF - Rowankind 3
The Queen of Swords (h2tp)	R. S. Belcher	HistF/DH/SP - Golgotha 3
The Speed of Sound (h2tp)	Eric Bernt	TechTh - Speed of Sound Thrillers 1
Mechanical Animals: Tales at the Crux of Creatures and Tech	Selena Chambers (Ed) Jason Heller (Ed)	SP - Anthology
The Rebel (h2mm)	Gerald Brandt	SF/CyP/AP/PA - San Angeles 3
The Mortal Word	Genevieve Cogman	SF/TT/HistF/P - The Invisible Library Novel 5
Space Pioneers	Hank Davis (Ed) Christopher Ruocchio (Ed)	SF - Anthology
Doctor Who: The Good Doctor	Juno Dawson	SF - Doctor Who
Bright Light	Ian Douglas	SF - Star Carrier 8
#HeroFail (e)	Lexie Dunne	SH/CF - Superheroes Anonymous 4
Iron Angels (h2mm)	Eric Flint Alistair Kimble	UF
The Last Jedi: Expanded Edition (h2mm)	Jason Fry	SF/SO/MTI
Abandoned	W. Michael Gear	SF/HSF/TT/SO - Donovan 2
Before the Storm (h2mm)	Christie Golden	F/MTI - World of Warcraft
Shroud of Eternity: Sister of Darkness (h2mm)	Terry Goodkind	F - The Nicci Chronicles 2
The Beast Arises: Volume 2	Guy Haley David Guymer David Annandale Gav Thorpe	Warhammer 40,000 2
The Spectral City (e)	Leanna Renee Hieber	HistF - A Spectral City Novel 1
Aladdin: A New Translation	Paulo Lemos Horta (Ed) Yasmine Seale (Tr)	FairyT/FolkT/LM
Star Trek Prometheus - In the Heart of Chaos	Christian Humberg Bernd Perplies	MTI/SF/SE
Infernal Machines	John Hornor Jacobs	F - Incorruptibles 3
How Long 'til Black Future Month?: Stories	N. K. Jemisin	F/SF/AfricanAm/UF/AC/SE - Collection
Origin	J.A. Konrath	Sus/Th
A Pillar of Fire by Night	Tom Kratman	SF
Tiger's Claim	Celia Kyle	PNR - Shifter Rogues 2
Choices	Mercedes Lackey (Ed)	F - Valdemar
The Razor	J. Barton Mitchell	SF/Th
Star Trek: The Art of John Eaves	Joe Nazzaro	Art/SF/F/PerfArts
Hazards of Time Travel	Joyce Carol Oates	Dys
City of Endless Night (tp2mm)	Douglas Preston Lincoln Child	Sus/Cr/PP/Occ/Sup/H/Pol - Agent Pendergast 17
The Eternity War: Exodus	Jamie Sawyer	SF/AC/HSF/AC - The Eternity War 2
Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom (h2tp)	Bradley W. Schenck	SF/Hu - Retropolis 1
Daughters of the Storms (h2tp)	Kim Wilkins	F - Daughters of the Storm 1

November 28, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
A Curse Awakened (e)(ri)	Cecy Robson	PNR - Weird Girls Series .5
The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir: A Tor.com Original (e)	Karin Tidbeck	SF

November 30, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Dinosaur Tourist	Caitlin R. Kiernan	F - Collection
The Cambridge History of Science Fiction	Gerry Canavan (Ed) Eric Link (Ed)	LC/HC/SF

D - Debut
e - eBook
Ed - Editor
h2mm - Hardcover to Mass Market Paperback
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
Il - Illustrator
ri - reissue or reprint
tp2mm - Trade Paperback to Mass Market Paperback
Tr - Translator



AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
Cr - Crime
CW - Contemporary Woman
CyP - Cyberpunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost(s)
GN - Graphic Novel
H - Horror
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
Hu - Humor
LC - Literary Criticism
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PCM - Parnormal Cozy Mystery
PerfArts - Performing Arts
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Pol - Political
PolTh - Political Thriller
PopCul - Popular Culture
Sc - Science
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SocHist - Social History
SocSc - Social Science
SP - Steampunk
SS - Short Stories
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy
W - Western

Note: Not all genres and formats are found in the books, etc. listed above.

Happy Monday!

There are 2 debuts this week:

Dayfall by Michael David Ares

and

The Feed by Nick Clark Windo.




From formerly featured DAC Authors:

Imposter Syndrome (The Arcadia Project 3) by Mishell Baker;

The Devil's Bible (The Bohemian Trilogy 3) by Dana Chamblee Carpenter is out in Trade Paperback;

Waking Gods (The Themis Files 2) by Sylvain Neuvel is out in Trade Paperback;

Patently Absurd: The Files of the Retropolis Registry of Patents by Bradley W. Schenck;

A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic 3) by V.E. Schwab is out in Trade Paperback

and

The Dragon's Legacy (Dragon's Legacy 1) by Deborah A. Wolf is out in Trade Paperback.

March 13, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Dayfall (D)	Michael David Ares	SF/AP/PA/SupTh
Impostor Syndrome	Mishell Baker	UF - The Arcadia Project 3
Arm of the Sphinx	Josiah Bancroft	F - The Books of Babel 2
The Hollow Tree	James Brodgen	SupTh/H
The Devil's Bible (h2tp)	Dana Chamblee Carpenter	Th - The Bohemian Trilogy 2
Dark Screams: Volume Ten (e)	Brian James Freemen (Ed) Richard Chizmar (Ed)	H - Dark Screams 10
Black Feathers: Dark Avian Tales: An Anthology (h2tp)	Ellen Datlow (Ed)	H - Anthology
The As The World Dies Trilogy (e)	Rhiannon Frater	H - As the World Dies
American Gods Volume 1: Shadows	Neil Gaiman P. Craig Russell Scott Hampton	GN/MTI/F - American Gods 1
The Last Watchman of Old Cairo	Michael David Lukas	Hist/LF/MR
The Flaw in the Stone	Cynthea Masson	F - The Alchemists' Council 2
Iron Will	James Maxwell	SF - The Shifting Tides 4
Dracula: Rise Of The Beast	David Thomas Moore (Ed)	H - Anthology
Waking Gods (h2tp)	Sylvain Neuvel	SF/TechTh -The Themis Files 2
The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror	Mallory Ortberg	FairyT/FolkT/LM/F - Collection
Chasing Shadows: Visions of Our Coming Transparent World (h2tp)	Stephen W. Potts (Ed)	PoliSci/SF - Anthology
Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach	Kelly Robson	SF/TT/AP/PA
Patently Absurd: The Files of the Retropolis Registry of Patents	Bradley W Schenck	SF - Retropolis
A Conjuring of Light (h2tp)	V. E. Schwab	HistF/Gaslamp - Shades of Magic 3
Dearest Ivie (e)	J.R. Ward	PNR - Black Dagger World Novella
The Succession Duology: The Risen Empire, The Killing of Worlds (e)	Scott Westerfeld	SF/SO - Succession
Lacking Character	Curtis White	HU/Ab/LF
Zodiac (h2tp)	Sam Wilson	Th/Dys
The Feed (D)	Nick Clark Windo	SF/AP/PA
The Dragon's Legacy (h2tp)	Deborah A. Wolf	F - Dragon's Legacy 1

March 14, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Wolf Lord (e)	Ann Aguirre	SFR - Ars Numina 3

March 16, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women's Speculative Fiction	Sami Schalk	LC/SocSci/SF/F
Tarnished Knight (e)	Shiloh Walker	PNR - Grimm's Circle 4

D - Debut
e - eBook
Ed - Editor
h2mm - Hardcover to Mass Market Paperback
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
ri - reissue or reprint
tp2mm - Trade Paperback to Mass Market Paperback
Tr - Translator



Ab - Absurdist
AC - Alien Contact
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
Cr - Crime
CyP - Cyberpunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost(s)
GN - Graphic Novel
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
HU - Humor
LC Literary Criticism
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
M - Mystery
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PM - Paranormal Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
PoliSci - Political Science
Psy - Psychological
Rel - Religious
RF - Romantic Fantasy
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SO - Space Opera
SocSci - Social Science
SoGothic - Southern Gothic
SP - Steampunk
Sup - Supernatural
SupM - Supernatural Mystery
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy

Note: Not all genres and formats are found in the books, etc. listed above.

The Qwillery:  Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?

Bradley W. Schenck:  Well, “when” is pretty easy. I was about seven. “Why”, though, that one I have to reconstruct. Because I wasn’t keeping notes or anything.

My best guess is that I really liked stories, and so it seemed like making stories was just one of those things that people did. So I did it, too. I had a tendency at that age to just jump right in.



TQ:  Are you a plotter, a pantser or a hybrid?

BWS:  I call what I do “limited pants”.

I just like saying that. It’s such an evocative phrase, right? In what sense are these pants limited? Where do you draw the line, once pants limitations are on the table? Who has the right to limit pants, if pants can be constrained?

But it’s also accurate. When I start out I have a rough idea of where I’m headed, and I’ve decided on a few of the important stops I have to make along the way. I know the shape of the thing. But then I arrive at my destination through improvisation, and the best things in the stories are the ones I didn’t see coming.

The things I could never have planned, I mean, because they grow naturally out of the things that I discovered along the way. And the endings? They could change. The map I start with is there purely for reference.

That’s probably a crazy approach for a book like Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom. This is an ensemble piece with a lot of characters who are all blundering toward the same goal, with no idea that there are other people blundering in parallel with them. Each character or group has its own rhythm, its own pace, as it moves toward their eventual meeting. So keeping them all in sync without an outline was an adventure in itself.

The ending of Switchboard is not exactly the ending I had in mind when I started it. The result is the same, but we arrive at that result in a way that turned out to be inevitable only when I got there.



TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?
BWS:  The most difficult thing about writing is starting to write. The second most difficult thing is finishing what you wrote. The stuff in between, that’s a piece of cake.



TQ:  What has influenced / influences your writing?

BWS:  That’s such a subjective question, isn’t it? I mean, for me a big influence might be Morrie Ryskind’s screenplay for My Man Godfrey. But if I say that you’d just scratch your head and say “Really? With robots?”

My characters have grown out of the streamlined futurism of the 1930’s. So I kept looking back (especially for dialogue) to the Warner Brothers films from that decade; to John Steinbeck, and Damon Runyon, and Ring Lardner; and, for their humor, to Morrie Ryskind, and George S. Kaufman, and S. J. Perelman.

But I’ve been influenced by everything I’ve ever read, and those influences sprout out in ways we’re not even aware of. So your observations are just as reliable as mine.



TQ:  Describe Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom in 140 characters or less.

BWS:  A light-hearted adventure set in one of our used futures: because nobody else was using it at the moment, and robots and rockets are neat.



TQ:  Tell us something about Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom that is not found in the book description.

BWS:  This book examines both the difficulty of being a robot and the horror of being a babysitter. Also, there’s a thing that’s more like a squid than anything else. And really tiny elephants.



TQ:  You've been drawing Retropolis pictures since the late 1990s. What inspired you to write a novel based on/in Retropolis?

BWS:  It came about gradually. Back in 2010 I started serializing illustrated stories at Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual (home of the Pulp-O-Mizer!). Those stories ran around 30,000 or 40,000 words.

Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom was going to be the next serial at Thrilling Tales until I realized how much bigger it was. At that point I admitted that I was working on a novel, and I decided to treat it like one.

So I guess my inspiration for writing a novel was the discovery that I was working on a novel. Weird, isn’t it?



TQ:  What sort of research, if any, did you do for Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom?

BWS:  I had to find out what area on the Moon had lots of underground lava tubes that people could turn into habitats. And I had to calculate how many years you can get out of 15,000 hours. Is that research? You decide.

Also, I researched the pen names used by Henry Kuttner and Catherine Moore.

But most of the research for the book was working out ways to talk about things that are completely preposterous, while waving my hands in such a hypnotic manner that you - possibly - don’t mind.



TQ:  Please tell us about the cover for Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom?

BWS:  The thing about book covers is that they have to tell you what the book is like. It’s nice when that means you get to show a scene from the book; but it’s not essential that you do that. You’re not illustrating a chapter, on the cover. You’re wrapping up, in a single image, the experience of being in the book.

So in my original cover concept I did show a scene from the book, and it was one that I thought summed up that experience. But the publisher wanted something different, and I was really happy to learn that they wanted me to do a new one. I mean, who gets to do their own cover?

What they wanted was two of the characters and a view of the city of Retropolis. That’s more or less what you see on the front of the book. Well... more, I guess. Because although they asked for Dash and Rusty, it’s just as much Nola’s story as it is Dash’s. So I put her there, too.

But on the back I added a bunch of other characters, posed or fleeing, in something a little like Josh Kirby’s covers for the Discworld series. Because it’s that chaotic mass of people, acting independently and without an overall plan, that I think sums up what being in the book is really like. None of these people understands the scope of what’s happening to them: but you can see it.

Some of these are characters from the book, and some of them are stand-ins for whole groups of people - like the mad scientists of the Experimental Research District.

And then, behind and around them, you have that 1930’s City of Tomorrow: Retropolis.



TQ:  In Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

BWS:  I never really wondered who was easiest. I’d guess that would be either Dash Kent or Abner Perkins: Dash, because understanding what he was about was the thing that got me started me on the book; Abner, because of all these characters his oblivious tunnel-mindedness is probably the most like me.

The hardest characters to write were either Howard Pitt or Lillian Krajnik. That’s because they verge on monologue, and it’s always hard to let a character carry on like that in a way that seems natural - especially when what they’re going on about is important.

Actually most of Lillian’s scenes were a lot of fun to write. She just has this one scene....



TQ:  Why have you chosen to include or not chosen to include social issues in Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom?

BWS:  Well... this is a light, humorous book. I don’t flatter myself that I can instruct you about anything.

That said, it does seem these days that no matter what you write there will always be someone, somewhere, who finds something deeply disturbing about it. And who will point out how what you’ve written is a sign of everything that’s wrong with the world.

But, honestly, the closest I come to a social message here is “Slavery is bad.” And if there’s anybody out there who’d condemn me for that message... well, that’s a person I’d like to offend.

I’m not exactly going out on a limb, there.

At one point I do draw a distinction between idealism and fanaticism, while in practice it’s often hard to do that: one person’s idealism is another person’s pogrom. And if drawing that distinction is hard, it’s also pretty important - especially when it’s a kind of idealism with which we agree.



TQ:  Which question about Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

BWS: 

Question: “Is there a limit to how many copies I can buy?”

Answer: “No, go on, knock yourself out.”

Hey, I’m not proud.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom.

BWS: 

“The squid-thing had been designed to live in a place that did not exist, and it wanted very much to get there.”

“You need first to understand that a robot’s entire sense of self worth is tied to its job performance. A welding robot welds, and is uncomfortable in the face of bad welding. A service robot cleans and repairs: broken, dirty things offend it on a deep and profound level. A giant robot smashes things, and unsmashed things, to a giant robot, look incomplete and disturbing.”



TQ:  What's next?

BWS:  While Switchboard was in my editor’s hands I wrote a series of shorter, web-serialized stories about the Retropolis Registry of Patents. That’s the agency that oversees patent applications from the universally mad scientists in the city’s Experimental Research District.

While they never mention this outside the office, the officers and investigators at the Registry also keep tabs on what’s going on in the District. They’re the only people who get a preview of the bizarre experiments and inventions that might just wipe out the city, if nobody stops them. So of course they also have to prevent those things from happening.

That’s their job. But they’re people, whether human or mechanical...so what really interests them? Office politics.

I’m finishing that series with a final story, and I’ll collect them in an illustrated book called Patently Absurd.



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

BWS:  It’s a pleasure to be Qwilled!

Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom
A Novel of Retropolis
Tor Books, June 13, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 384 pages

ROCKETS. ROBOTS. DEATH RAYS. MAD SCIENCE. THE FUTURE THAT NEVER WAS IS BACK.

If Fritz Lang’s Metropolis somehow mated with Futurama, their mutant offspring might well be Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom. Inspired by the future imagined in the 1939 World Fair, this hilarious, beautifully illustrated adventure by writer and artist Bradley W. Schenck is utterly unlike anything else in science fiction: a gonzo, totally bonkers, gut-busting look at the World of Tomorrow, populated with dashing, bubble-helmeted heroes, faithful robot sidekicks, mad scientists, plucky rocket engineers, sassy switchboard operators, space pirates, and much, much more—enhanced throughout by two dozen astonishing illustrations.

After a surprise efficiency review, the switchboard operators of Retropolis are replaced by a mysterious system beyond their comprehension. Dash Kent, freelance adventurer and apartment manager, is hired to get to the bottom of it, and discovers that the replacement switchboard is only one element of a plan concocted by an insane civil engineer: a plan so vast that it reaches from Retropolis to the Moon. And no one—not the Space Patrol, nor the Fraternal League of Robotic Persons, nor the mad scientists of Experimental Research District, nor even the priests of the Temple of the Spider God, will know what hit them.

About Bradley

BRADLEY W. SCHENCK is the owner and operator of the web site RETROPOLIS, which showcases his unique retro-futurist artwork. He has been a digital artist, art director, and video game developer. Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom is his debut novel. Learn more at webomator.com, twitter.com/Thrilling_Tales and facebook.com/bradley.w.schenck

Each month you will be able to vote for your favorite cover from that month's debut novels. At the end of the year the 12 monthly winners will be pitted against each other to choose the 2017 Debut Novel Cover of the Year. Please note that a debut novel cover is eligible in the month in which the novel is published in the US. Cover artist/illustrator/designer information is provided when we have it.

I'm using PollCode for this vote. After you the check the circle next to your favorite, click "Vote" to record your vote. If you'd like to see the real-time results click "View". This will take you to the PollCode site where you may see the results. If you want to come back to The Qwillery click "Back" and you will return to this page. Voting will end sometime on June 30, 2017.

Vote for your favorite June 2017 Debut Cover!

Aberrant

Amatka

Blackout

The Essex Serpent

In the Valley of the Sun

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore

Necessary Monsters

The Prey of the Gods

The Rebellion's Last Traitor

Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom

Soleri

Soul of the World

The Space Between the Stars

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter

The Waking Land

Wellside

 

pollcode.com free polls

Callie Bates

The Waking Land
Del Rey, June 27, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 400 pages
  Epic Fantasy, Action & Adventure

In the lush and magical tradition of Naomi Novik’s award-winning Uprooted comes this riveting debut from brilliant young writer Callie Bates—whose boundless imagination places her among the finest authors of fantasy fiction, including Sarah J. Maas and Sabaa Tahir.

Lady Elanna is fiercely devoted to the king who raised her like a daughter. But when he dies under mysterious circumstances, Elanna is accused of his murder—and must flee for her life.

Returning to the homeland of magical legends she has forsaken, Elanna is forced to reckon with her despised, estranged father, branded a traitor long ago. Feeling a strange, deep connection to the natural world, she also must face the truth about the forces she has always denied or disdained as superstition—powers that suddenly stir within her.

But an all-too-human threat is drawing near, determined to exact vengeance. Now Elanna has no choice but to lead a rebellion against the kingdom to which she once gave her allegiance. Trapped between divided loyalties, she must summon the courage to confront a destiny that could tear her apart.

Anne Corlett

The Space Between the Stars
Berkley, June 13, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 368 pages
  Literary Fiction, Dystopian, Science Fiction, Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic

When the world ends, where will you go?

In a breathtakingly vivid and emotionally gripping debut novel, one woman must confront the emptiness in the universe—and in her own heart—when a devastating virus reduces most of humanity to dust and memories.

All Jamie Allenby ever wanted was space. Even though she wasn’t forced to emigrate from Earth, she willingly left the overpopulated, claustrophobic planet. And when a long relationship devolved into silence and suffocating sadness, she found work on a frontier world on the edges of civilization. Then the virus hit…

Now Jamie finds herself dreadfully alone, with all that’s left of the dead. Until a garbled message from Earth gives her hope that someone from her past might still be alive.

Soon Jamie finds other survivors, and their ragtag group will travel through the vast reaches of space, drawn to the promise of a new beginning on Earth. But their dream will pit them against those desperately clinging to the old ways. And Jamie’s own journey home will help her close the distance between who she has become and who she is meant to be…

Andy Davidson

In the Valley of the Sun
Skyhorse Publishing, June 6, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 384 pages
  Horror, Westerns, Occult & Supernatural

Deftly written and utterly addictive, this Western literary horror debut will find a home with fans of authors like Joe Hill, Cormac McCarthy, and Anne Rice.

One night in 1980, a man becomes a monster.

Haunted by his past, Travis Stillwell spends his nights searching out women in West Texas honky-tonks. What he does with them doesn’t make him proud, just quiets the demons for a little while. But after Travis crosses paths one night with a mysterious pale-skinned girl, he wakes weak and bloodied in his cabover camper the next morning—with no sign of a girl, no memory of the night before.

Annabelle Gaskin spies the camper parked behind her motel and offers the cowboy a few odd jobs to pay his board. Travis takes her up on the offer, if only to buy time, to lay low and heal. By day, he mends the old motel, insinuating himself into the lives of Annabelle and her ten-year-old son. By night, in the cave of his camper, he fights an unspeakable hunger. Before long, Annabelle and her boy come to realize that this strange cowboy is not what he seems.

Half a state away, a grizzled Texas Ranger is hunting Travis for his past misdeeds, but what he finds will lead him to a revelation far more monstrous. A man of the law, he’ll have to decide how far into the darkness he’ll go for the sake of justice.

When these lives converge on a dusty autumn night, an old evil will find new life—and new blood.

Nicky Drayden

The Prey of Gods
Harper Voyager, June 13, 2017
Trade Paperback and eBook, 400 pages
  Contemporary Fantasy

From a new voice in the tradition of Lauren Beukes, Ian McDonald, and Nnedi Okorafor comes The Prey of Gods, a fantastic, boundary-challenging tale, set in a South African locale both familiar and yet utterly new, which braids elements of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and dark humor.

In South Africa, the future looks promising. Personal robots are making life easier for the working class. The government is harnessing renewable energy to provide infrastructure for the poor. And in the bustling coastal town of Port Elizabeth, the economy is booming thanks to the genetic engineering industry which has found a welcome home there. Yes—the days to come are looking very good for South Africans. That is, if they can survive the present challenges:

A new hallucinogenic drug sweeping the country . . .

An emerging AI uprising . . .

And an ancient demigoddess hellbent on regaining her former status by preying on the blood and sweat (but mostly blood) of every human she encounters.

It’s up to a young Zulu girl powerful enough to destroy her entire township, a queer teen plagued with the ability to control minds, a pop diva with serious daddy issues, and a politician with even more serious mommy issues to band together to ensure there’s a future left to worry about.

Fun and fantastic, Nicky Drayden takes her brilliance as a short story writer and weaves together an elaborate tale that will capture your heart . . . even as one particular demigoddess threatens to rip it out.

Marc Elsberg

Blackout
Sourcebooks Landmark, June 6, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 320 pages
  Technological Thriller

This is no accident.
This is no act of God.
This is Blackout.

A terrifyingly plausible million-copy selling debut disaster thriller.

When the lights go out one night, no one panics. Not yet. The lights always come back on soon, don't they? Surely it's a glitch, a storm, a malfunction. But something seems strange about this night. Across Europe, controllers watch in disbelief as electrical grids collapse. There is no power, anywhere.

A former hacker and activist, Piero investigates a possible cause of the disaster. The authorities don't believe him, and he soon becomes a prime suspect himself. With the United States now also at risk, Piero goes on the run with Lauren Shannon, a young American CNN reporter based in Paris, desperate to uncover who is behind the attacks. After all, the power doesn't just keep the lights on―it keeps us alive.

Theodora Goss

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter
Saga Press, June 20, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 416 pages
  Fantasy

Based on some of literature’s horror and science fiction classics, this is the story of a remarkable group of women who come together to solve the mystery of a series of gruesome murders—and the bigger mystery of their own origins.

Mary Jekyll, alone and penniless following her parents’ death, is curious about the secrets of her father’s mysterious past. One clue in particular hints that Edward Hyde, her father’s former friend and a murderer, may be nearby, and there is a reward for information leading to his capture…a reward that would solve all of her immediate financial woes.

But her hunt leads her to Hyde’s daughter, Diana, a feral child left to be raised by nuns. With the assistance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Mary continues her search for the elusive Hyde, and soon befriends more women, all of whom have been created through terrifying experimentation: Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherin Moreau, and Justine Frankenstein.

Michael Johnston

Soleri
Tor Books, June 13, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 368 pages
  Epic Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
  (Solo Debut)

Michael Johnston brings you the first in a new epic fantasy series inspired by ancient Egyptian history and King Lear.

The ruling family of the Soleri Empire has been in power longer than even the calendars that stretch back 2,826 years. Those records tell a history of conquest and domination by a people descended from gods, older than anything in the known world. No living person has seen them for centuries, yet their grip on their four subjugate kingdoms remains tighter than ever.

On the day of the annual eclipse, the Harkan king, Arko-Hark Wadi, sets off on a hunt and shirks his duty rather than bow to the emperor. Ren, his son and heir, is a prisoner in the capital, while his daughters struggle against their own chains. Merit, the eldest, has found a way to stand against imperial law and marry the man she desires, but needs her sister’s help, and Kepi has her own ideas.

Meanwhile, Sarra Amunet, Mother Priestess of the sun god’s cult, holds the keys to the end of an empire and a past betrayal that could shatter her family.

Detailed and historical, vast in scope and intricate in conception, Soleri bristles with primal magic and unexpected violence. It is a world of ancient and elaborate rites, of unseen power and kingdoms ravaged by war, where victory comes with a price, and every truth conceals a deeper secret.

Richard A. Kirk

Necessary Monsters
Arche Press, June 6, 2017
Trade Paperback and eBook, 282 pages
  Historical Fantasy

Lumsden Moss is an escaped thief and an unrepentant bibliophile with a long-suffering desire to foist some karmic retribution on those who have wronged him. But when the opportunity to steal a rare book from the man who sentenced him to prison puts him on the wrong side of the wrong people, Moss finds himself on the run. And it's not just the book he stole that these people want, it's also the secrets of a long-forgotten location on Nightjar Island, a place cursed and abandoned since the Purge.

When Moss falls in with Imogen, a nimble-fingered thief who has taken a traveling bookcase filled with many secrets, he starts to realize how much of his unsavory past is indelibly tied to a frightening witch-child and her nightmarish pet monster.

In a fantastic world, still recovering from a war where magic and technology were fused together, Moss and Imogen must decipher the mystery of their mutual pasts in order to illuminate the dark heart that still lurks on Nightjar Island.

Nik Korpon

The Rebellion's Last Traitor
Angry Robot, June 6, 2017
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 352 pages
  Fiction, Science Fiction, Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic
  (Debut SFF)

In a dystopian world ravaged by war and environmental collapse, one man fights history to discover the truth about his wife and child.

After decades of war, the brutal Tathadann Party restored order toshattered Eitan City by outlawing the past and rewriting history. Memory is a commodity – bought and sold, and experienced like a drug. Henraek works as a Tathadann memory thief, draining citizens’ memories.

Everything changes when Henraek harvests a memory of his own wife’s death, in the hidden rebellion that once tore apart their city. Now he will do whatever it takes to learn the truth – even ifit means burning Eitan City to the ground.

File Under: Science Fiction [ Memory Thieves | Collaborators | Brothers In War | City on Fire ]

David Mealing

Soul of the World
The Ascension Cycle 1
Orbit, June 27, 2017
Trade Paperback and eBook, 656 pages
  Epic Fantasy

Three heroes must rise in a world on the brink of destruction in the first book of this epic fantasy trilogy that RT Book Reviews called "an impressive fantasy debut with... a unique magic system sure to capture a fantasy readers attention"!


It is a time of revolution. In the cities, food shortages stir citizens to riots against the crown. In the wilds, new magic threatens the dominance of the tribes. and on the battlefields, even the most brilliant commanders struggle in the shadow of total war. Three lines of magic must be mastered in order to usher in a new age, and three heroes must emerge.

Sarine is an artist on the streets of New Sarresant whose secret familiar helps her uncover bloodlust and madness where she expected only revolutionary fervor.

Arak'Jur wields the power of beasts to keep his people safe, but his strength cannot protect them from war amongst themselves.

Erris is a brilliant cavalry officer trying to defend New Sarresant from an enemy general armed with magic she barely understands.

Each must learn the secrets of their power in time to guide their people through ruin. But a greater evil may be trying to stop them.

Start reading this gripping, vibrant, and imaginative addition to the epic fantasy canon for readers of Brandon Sanderson, Brian McClellan, and Miles Cameron.

Sarah Perry

The Essex Serpent
Custom House, June 6, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 432 poages
  Historical (US Debut)

Costa Book Award Finalist and the Waterstones (UK) Book of the Year 2016

"I loved this book. At once numinous, intimate and wise, The Essex Serpent is a marvelous novel about the workings of life, love and belief, about science and religion, secrets, mysteries, and the complicated and unexpected shifts of the human heart—and it contains some of the most beautiful evocations of place and landscape I’ve ever read. It is so good its pages seem lit from within. As soon as I’d finished it I started reading it again."—Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk

An exquisitely talented young British author makes her American debut with this rapturously acclaimed historical novel, set in late nineteenth-century England, about an intellectually minded young widow, a pious vicar, and a rumored mythical serpent that explores questions about science and religion, skepticism, and faith, independence and love.

When Cora Seaborne’s brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was not a happy one. Wed at nineteen, this woman of exceptional intelligence and curiosity was ill-suited for the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space in the wake of the funeral, Cora leaves London for a visit to coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive eleven-year old son, Francis, and the boy’s nanny, Martha, her fiercely protective friend.

While admiring the sites, Cora learns of an intriguing rumor that has arisen further up the estuary, of a fearsome creature said to roam the marshes claiming human lives. After nearly 300 years, the mythical Essex Serpent is said to have returned, taking the life of a young man on New Year’s Eve. A keen amateur naturalist with no patience for religion or superstition, Cora is immediately enthralled, and certain that what the local people think is a magical sea beast may be a previously undiscovered species. Eager to investigate, she is introduced to local vicar William Ransome. Will, too, is suspicious of the rumors. But unlike Cora, this man of faith is convinced the rumors are caused by moral panic, a flight from true belief.

These seeming opposites who agree on nothing soon find themselves inexorably drawn together and torn apart—an intense relationship that will change both of their lives in ways entirely unexpected.

Hailed by Sarah Waters as "a work of great intelligence and charm, by a hugely talented author," The Essex Serpent is "irresistible . . . you can feel the influences of Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, and Hilary Mantel channeled by Perry in some sort of Victorian séance. This is the best new novel I’ve read in years" (Daily Telegraph, London).

Marek Šindelka 

Aberrant
Nathan Fields, Translator
Twisted Spoon Press, June 15, 2017
Trade Paperback and eBook, 220 pages
  Supernatural Thriller, Horror, Crime
  (US Debut)

The remarkable debut novel from Marek Šindelka, already the recipient of his country's major literary awards for poetry (Jiří Orten Prize) and prose (Magnesia Litera), Aberrant is a multifaceted work that mixes and mashes together a variety of genres and styles to create a heady concoction of crime story, horror story (inspired by the Japanese tradition of kaidan), ecological revenge fantasy, and Siberian shamanism. Nothing is what it seems. What appears to be human is actually a shell occupied by an alien spirit, or demon, and what appears to be an unassuming plant is an aggressive parasite that harbors a poisonous substance within, or manifests itself as an assassin, a phantom with no real substance who pursues his victims across Europe and through a post-apocalyptic Prague ravaged by floods. The blind see, and the seeing are blind. Plants behave like animals, and animals are symbionts with plants. Through these devices, Šindelka weaves a tale of three childhood friends, the errant paths their lives take, and the world of rare plant smuggling — and the consequences of taking the wrong plant — to show the rickety foundation of illusions on which our relationship to the environment, and to one another, rests. It is a world of aberrations, anomalies, and mistakes.

Bradley W. Schenck

Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom
A Novel of Retropolis
Tor Books, June 13, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 384 pages
  Science Fiction, Humorous

ROCKETS. ROBOTS. DEATH RAYS. MAD SCIENCE. THE FUTURE THAT NEVER WAS IS BACK.

If Fritz Lang’s Metropolis somehow mated with Futurama, their mutant offspring might well be Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom. Inspired by the future imagined in the 1939 World Fair, this hilarious, beautifully illustrated adventure by writer and artist Bradley W. Schenck is utterly unlike anything else in science fiction: a gonzo, totally bonkers, gut-busting look at the World of Tomorrow, populated with dashing, bubble-helmeted heroes, faithful robot sidekicks, mad scientists, plucky rocket engineers, sassy switchboard operators, space pirates, and much, much more—enhanced throughout by two dozen astonishing illustrations.

After a surprise efficiency review, the switchboard operators of Retropolis are replaced by a mysterious system beyond their comprehension. Dash Kent, freelance adventurer and apartment manager, is hired to get to the bottom of it, and discovers that the replacement switchboard is only one element of a plan concocted by an insane civil engineer: a plan so vast that it reaches from Retropolis to the Moon. And no one—not the Space Patrol, nor the Fraternal League of Robotic Persons, nor the mad scientists of Experimental Research District, nor even the priests of the Temple of the Spider God, will know what hit them.

Robin Shortt

Wellside
Candlemark & Gleam, June 1, 2017
Trade Paperback and eBook, 400 pages
  Genre Bender

Ben is stuck in a backwater town, his parents have broken up, and he's facing jail time for some very poor choices.

Essa is stuck in a backwater world, trapped by a vengeful ex-lover and cut off from the Well, the infinite pit lined with doors to countless realities.

Then Essa finds a way back, and drags Ben along with her. They learn an ancient threat to the Well is rising. On the run, their only allies a clockwork spider and a girl made of iron, they'll have to work together to save all the worlds.

Matthew Sullivan

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
Scribner, June 13, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 336 pages
  Psychological

Goodreads Debut Author of the Month and an Indie Next Pick!

“Sullivan’s debut is a page-turner featuring a heroine bookseller who solves a cold case with clues from books—what is not to love?” —Nina George, author of The Little French Bistro, and the New York Times bestselling The Little Paris Bookshop

When a bookshop patron commits suicide, his favorite store clerk must unravel the puzzle he left behind in this fiendishly clever debut novel from an award-winning short story writer.

Lydia Smith lives her life hiding in plain sight. A clerk at the Bright Ideas bookstore, she keeps a meticulously crafted existence among her beloved books, eccentric colleagues, and the BookFrogs—the lost and lonely regulars who spend every day marauding the store’s overwhelmed shelves.

But when Joey Molina, a young, beguiling BookFrog, kills himself in the bookstore’s upper room, Lydia’s life comes unglued. Always Joey’s favorite bookseller, Lydia has been bequeathed his meager worldly possessions. Trinkets and books; the detritus of a lonely, uncared for man. But when Lydia flips through his books she finds them defaced in ways both disturbing and inexplicable. They reveal the psyche of a young man on the verge of an emotional reckoning. And they seem to contain a hidden message. What did Joey know? And what does it have to do with Lydia?

As Lydia untangles the mystery of Joey’s suicide, she unearths a long buried memory from her own violent childhood. Details from that one bloody night begin to circle back. Her distant father returns to the fold, along with an obsessive local cop, and the Hammerman, a murderer who came into Lydia’s life long ago and, as she soon discovers, never completely left. Bedazzling, addictive, and wildly clever, Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore is a heart-pounding mystery that perfectly captures the intellect and eccentricity of the bookstore milieu and will keep you guessing until the very last page.​

Karin Tidbeck

Amatka
Vintage, June 27, 2017
Trade Paperback and eBook, 224 pages
  Literary Fiction, Science Fiction, Visionary & Metaphysical

A surreal debut novel set in a world shaped by language in the tradition of Margaret Atwood and Ursula K. Le Guin.

Vanja, an information assistant, is sent from her home city of Essre to the austere, wintry colony of Amatka with an assignment to collect intelligence for the government. Immediately she feels that something strange is going on: people act oddly in Amatka, and citizens are monitored for signs of subversion.

Intending to stay just a short while, Vanja falls in love with her housemate, Nina, and prolongs her visit. But when she stumbles on evidence of a growing threat to the colony, and a cover-up by its administration, she embarks on an investigation that puts her at tremendous risk.

In Karin Tidbeck’s world, everyone is suspect, no one is safe, and nothing—not even language, nor the very fabric of reality—can be taken for granted. Amatka is a beguiling and wholly original novel about freedom, love, and artistic creation by a captivating new voice.