The Qwillery

Eyal Kless (2019)

The Puzzler's War
The Tarakan Chronicles 2
Harper Voyager, February 4, 2020
Trade Paperback and eBook, 560 pages

The intriguing futuristic dystopian story begun with The Lost Puzzler continues in this expansive speculative science fiction adventure.

There is nothing out of the ordinary in waking up . . . unless you’re dead.

Sent on a dangerous mission with little hope of succeeding, the man known as “Twinkle Eyes” has beaten the odds and found the key that could save civilization: Rafik, a teenage boy with the power to unlock the invaluable Tarakan technology that can restart their world. But the world might not be ready for what is unleashed, and now Twinkle Eyes must find a needle in a haystack in order to save himself . . . and perhaps the world.

This time, though, he will not go it alone. And while his companions—from the fiery Vincha to the laconic Galinak—have their own motivations, each will be vital in solving the last grand puzzle. One that could bring prosperity and progress to the world or destroy humanity’s last hope for ascension.

Now, a lone assassin from another era, two old friends, a dead man, a ruthless rogue mercenary, and a vicious warlord are all hunting for the ultimate prize. But what will happen when the final secret is unlocked, and technology long since buried once again finds its way into the hands of mankind?

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Book 1

Drew Williams (2018)

The Firmament of Flame
The Universe After 3
Tor Books, February 4, 2020
Hardcover, Trade Paperback, and eBook, 368 pages

For fans of Firefly and James S. A. Corey's Expanse novels, The Firmament of Flame is the third installment in Drew Williams' Universe After series.

For nearly a century, the Justified have been searching for gifted children to help prevent the return of the pulse. Until recently, they thought they were the only ones.

Jane Kamali and her telekinetic protégé Esa, now seventeen, barely managed to claim victory against a Cyn—a being of pure energy—hell bent on hunting down the gifted. Now they face an army.

The Cyn and their followers will stop at nothing to find Esa and the others. No one knows what they want, but Jane, Esa, and their allies in the Justified are determined to find out.

Even if they have to go to the ends of the known universe to do it.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Book 1

Book 2

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All 2018 DAC Update 2019 DAC Update Drew Williams Eyal Kless Sarah Gailey

The View From Monday - May 6, 2019

Published: May 06, 2019 | 06:00

Happy 1st Monday in May!

There is 1 debut this week:

Westside by W.M. Akers.

Clicking on a novel's cover will take you to its Amazon page.

From formerly featured DAC Authors

Treason of Hawks (Shadow 4) by Lila Bowen is out in Trade Paperback;

What Should Be Wild by Julia Fine is out in Trade Paperback;

and

A Chain Across the Sky (The Universe After 2) by Drew Williams.

Clicking on a novel's cover will take you to its Amazon page.

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

May 6, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
In Darkness, Delight: Masters of Midnight (e)	Andrew Lennon (Ed) Evans Light (Ed)	H - Anthology

May 7, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Westside (D)	W.M. Akers	HistF
River of Bones (h2mm)	Taylor Anderson	AH/SF - Destroyermen 13
Magic Triumphs (h2mm)	Ilona Andrews	UF/PNR - Kate Daniels 10
The Warship	Neal Asher	SF - Rise of the Jain 2
Orbus (tp2mm)	Neal Asher	SF - Spatterjay 3
Census (h2tp)	Jesse Ball	LF
By Fire Above (h2tp)	Robyn Bennis	SP/F - Signal Airship 2
Treason of Hawks (h2tp)	Lila Bowen	HistF/CoA - Shadow 4
Storm Cursed	Patricia Briggs	UF/CF/PNR - Mercy Thompson 11
Exhalation: Stories	Ted Chiang	SS/LF/SF
Noir Fatale	Larry Correia (Ed) Kacey Ezell (Ed)	F/SF - Anthology
Miss Subways (h2tp)	David Duchovny	LF/MR/FairyT/FolkT/LM
The Pilo Traveling Show (e)(ri)	Will Elliott	H
When Darkness Loves Us (ri)	Elizabeth Engstrom	SS/H - Paperbacks from Hell
What Should Be Wild (h2tp)	Julia Fine	LF
By Demons Possessed	P.C. Hodgell	HistF - Kencyrath 6
Tangle's Game	Stewart Hotston	SF
Electric Forest (ri)	Tanith Lee	SF/GenEng/CyP
Severance (h2tp)	Ling Ma	LF/SF/AP/PA/Asian American
Snakeskins	Tim Major	SF/TechTh
A Devil Comes to Town	Paolo Maurensig Anne Milano (Tr)	LF/Psy/Occ/Sup/Satire/BH
Octavia Gone	Jack McDevitt	SF/HSF - Alex Benedict 8
Middlegame	Seanan McGuire	CF/SF
Oath of Gold (ri)	Elizabeth Moon	HistF - Paksenarrion 3
Spinning Silver (h2tp)	Naomi Novik	F/FairyT/FolkT/LM
Million Mile Road Trip	Rudy Rucker	SF
The Big Aha	Rudy Rucker	SF/GenEng
Hell Divers V: Captives	Nicholas Sansbury Smith	SF/AP/PA - Hell Divers 5
Theater of Spies	S. M. Stirling	AH/SF/Esp - Novel of an Alternate World War 2
Light from Other Stars	Erika Swyler	LF/FL/SF/SE/CoA
The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (h2tp)	Stuart Turton	HistTh/LF/Occ/Sup
The Gordian Protocol	David Weber Jacob Holo	SF/TT
Dawn of the Hunters	Ryan Wieser	SF/SO - Hunters of Infinity 3
A Chain Across the Dawn	Drew Williams	SF/SO/HU - The Universe After 2
Empire of Grass	Tad Williams	F/DF - Last King of Osten Ard 2

May 8, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
One Nation Under Gods	Jerome Stueart	HistF/UF

May 9, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Western Passage: Exodus	G. DiCarlo	DF
Doomsday Furnace (e)	Brent Michael Kelley	SF - Collection

May 10, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
King of Hell	Christopher Golden	UF - Shadow Saga 7

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

AB - Absurdist
AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternative History
AP - Apocalyptic
BH - Black Humor
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
Cr - Crime
CW - Contemporary Women
CyP - CyberPunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost(s)
H - Horror
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HistTh - Historical Thriller
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
HU - Humorous
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PNR - Paranormal Romance
PopCul - Popular Culture
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SFTh - Science Fiction Thriller
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SocSci - 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
VM - Visionary & Metaphysical

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

All Drew Williams Julia Fine Lila Bowen The View From Monday W.M. Akers book lists new releases

Cover Revealed - Upcoming Works by DAC Authors

Published: November 14, 2018 | 06:05

Here are some of the upcoming works by formerly featured DAC Authors. The year in parentheses is the year the author was featured in the DAC.

Rati Mehrotra (2018)

Mahimata
Asiana 2
Harper Voyager, March 5, 2019
Trade Paperback and eBook, 480 pages

Cover Revealed - Upcoming Works by DAC Authors

A young female assassin must confront the man who slaughtered her family, risk her heart, and come to terms with her identity as a warrior and as a woman in this thrilling fantasy from the author of Markswoman.

Kyra has returned to the caves of Kali, but her homecoming is bittersweet. She no longer knows what her place is. Her beloved teacher is dead and her best friend Nineth is missing. And gone, too, is Rustan, the Marksman who helped her train for the duel with Tamsyn--and became far more than a teacher and friend.

Shaken by his feelings for Kyra and the truth about his parentage, Rustan has set off on a quest for answers. His odyssey leads him to the descendants of an ancient sect tied to the alien Ones--and the realization that the answers he seeks come with a price.

Yet fate has plans to bring Kyra and Rustan together again. Kai Tau, the man who slaughtered Kyra’s family, wages war on the Orders of Asiana. Hungering for justice, Kyra readies herself for battle, aided by her new companions: the wyr-wolves, who are so much more than what they seem. And determined to keep the woman he loves safe, Rustan joins the fight to ride by her side.

But will this final confrontation ultimately cost them their love . . . and their lives?

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Book 1

Hayley Stone (2016)

Make Me No Grave: A Weird West Novel
Aethon Books, LLC, November 20, 2018
Trade Paperback and Kindle eBook, 338 pages

Marshal Apostle Richardson faces off against bloodthirsty outlaws, flesh witches, ruthless vigilantes, and more in this gritty, magical re-imagining of the Old West.

Almena Guillory, better known as the Grizzly Queen of the West, has done plenty to warrant the noose, but US Marshal Apostle Richardson enforces the law, he doesn't decide it. When a posse tries to lynch Almena ahead of her trial, Apostle refuses their form of expedited justice - and receives a bullet for his trouble. Almena spares him through the use of dangerous flesh magic but escapes soon after saving him.

Weeks later, Apostle fears the outlaw queen has returned to her old ways when she's spotted terrorizing Kansas with a new gang in tow. When cornered, however, Almena makes a convincing case for her innocence and proposes a plan to take the real bandits down. Working with a known killer opens Apostle up to all sorts of trouble, not the least being his own growing attraction toward the roguish woman. Turning Almena away from vengeance may be out of the question, but if he doesn't try, she'll wind up right where the law wants her: at the end of a rope.

And if Apostle isn't careful, he'll end up joining her.

If you like Red Dead Redemption and Lila Bowen's Wake of Vultures, you'll love this gun-blazing weird western.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Drew Williams (2018)

The Stars Now Unclaimed
The Universe After 1
Tor Books, April 2, 2019
Trade Paperback, 464 pages
Hardcover and eBook, August 21, 2018

Drew Williams's The Stars Now Unclaimed, the first volume of The Universe After series, is a fun, adventure-filled space opera set in a far-future galaxy.

"The only thing more fun than a bonkers space battle is a whole book packed with bonkers space battles. Come for the exploding spaceships, stay for the intriguing universe."—Becky Chambers, author of A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

Jane Kamali is an agent for the Justified. Her mission: to recruit children with miraculous gifts in the hope that they might prevent the Pulse from once again sending countless worlds back to the dark ages.

Hot on her trail is the Pax--a collection of fascist zealots who believe they are the rightful rulers of the galaxy and who remain untouched by the Pulse.

Now Jane, a handful of comrades from her past, and a telekinetic girl called Esa must fight their way through a galaxy full of dangerous conflicts, remnants of ancient technology, and other hidden dangers.

And that's just the beginning . . .

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

A Chain Across the Dawn
The Universe After 2
Tor Books, May 7, 2019
Hardcover and eBook, 320 pages

Drew Williams continues the Universe After series with A Chain Across the Dawn, an epic space opera chase across the galaxy with witty banter, fantastical planets, and a seemingly unbeatable foe.

"The only thing more fun than a bonkers space battle is a whole book packed with bonkers space battles. Come for the exploding spaceships, stay for the intriguing universe."—Becky Chambers, on The Stars Now Unclaimed

It’s been three years since Esa left her backwater planet to join the ranks of the Justified. Together, she and fellow agent Jane Kamali have been traveling across the known universe, searching for children who share Esa’s supernatural gifts.

On a visit to a particularly remote planet, they learn that they’re not the only ones searching for gifted children. They find themselves on the tail of a mysterious being with impossible powers who will stop at nothing to get his hands on the very children that Esa and Jane are trying to save.

With their latest recruit in tow—a young Wulf boy named Sho—Esa and Jane must track their strange foe across the galaxy in search of answers. But the more they learn, the clearer it becomes—their enemy may be harder to defeat than they ever could have imagined.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

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All 2016 DAC Update 2018 DAC Update Drew Williams Hayley Stone Rati Mehrotra

Interview with Drew Williams, author of The Stars Now Unclaimed

Published: August 21, 2018 | 06:30

Please welcome Drew Williams to The Qwillery as part of the 2018 Debut Author Challenge Interviews. The Stars Now Unclaimed is published on August 21st by Tor Books.

Please join all of us at The Qwillery in wishing Drew a very Happy Publication Day!

Interview with Drew Williams, author of The Stars Now Unclaimed

TQ: Welcome to The Qwillery. What is the first fiction piece you remember writing?

Drew: Hmmm. The key to that question really is 'remember', isn't it? I've been writing fiction since well before I could clearly tell you what I was writing: I remember making up stories as a little kid - usually with my cousins or my brother, sometimes alone - and thinking we'd written the next great American novel (usually involving cyborgs or zombies, and topping out at all of five pages). I finished my first full-length novel at twelve or so, so we'll go ahead and count that as the first real 'piece', I suppose. (Don't get me wrong, it was terrible: a mishmash of stolen ideas and, just, horrid writing, but you didn't ask 'what was the first good piece of fiction you remember!').

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

Drew: Oh, absolutely a pantser, no question. (Though I have to admit, that phrasing makes me feel like a British boarding school villain : 'watch out for Geordie Wilkins; he's a pantser, he is!’) I sometimes get scattered lines of dialog, impressions of an upcoming character, or brief images of scenes yet to come - and I'll dutifully jot them down, and sometimes use them, and sometimes forget them entirely once I've gone haring off in another direction - but ninety-seven percent of my writing is done in chronological order, start to finish, with nothing but the preceding sentence to go off of. My absolute favorite thing about writing (and make no mistake - my first audience is always myself; I write for me, I just happen to be lucky enough to get paid to do so!) is to be surprised by something - a line of dialog I wouldn’t have thought a character would have said, a realization that comes to me at the same time it comes to the characters, even just a grace note in a description - and that’s much harder to achieve if I already know what’s going to happen!

TQ: What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Drew: Endings. Definitely endings. Part of that’s building off of the last question - once I’m past the climax and into the denouement, I pretty much know how things need to wrap up, and that’s just… not as interesting for me to write - but I also mean it much more literally, as in I find it insanely difficult to find the last sentence, or even scene: that place where a story should end, to look back and yet forward into everything all at once. (Honestly, I think part of the reason I write books in series is so that I can put off that final moment, where it’s all done, for as long as possible!)

TQ: What has influenced / influences your writing?

Drew: Outside of treacly-but-necessary responses like ‘my friends and family’ - in terms of style, it’s hard to get past Stephen King, honestly. The man can sketch a character in just a few lines, and yet you know them inside out; he can also nail a character’s interior voice in a way that very few can match.

TQ: You are a bookseller. What is it like for you to see your own novel on bookstore shelves?

Drew: Insanely surreal - I say that, and I’ve (redacted by Drew’s assistant, because he’s an idiot who probably shouldn’t be allowed to do any more interviews)! I mentioned Stephen King above - we’re a small bookstore, which means we’ve only got one section for speculative fiction, with sci-fi and horror and fantasy all mixed in together, which means MY book is in the same section as Stephen King! My book! Same section! I honestly still don’t quite believe it!

TQ: Describe The Stars Now Unclaimed using only 5 words.

Drew: ‘Grief Can Be Used Bravely’. If you want something a little more descriptive and less thematic: ‘Space Opera, Quips, More Quips’.

TQ: Tell us something about The Stars Now Unclaimed that is not found in the book description.

Drew: The entire last two acts are climax! Seriously, it’s all one big, chaotic, sound-barrier-breaking rush, because I have no impulse control, and nobody told me not to!

TQ: What inspired you to write The Stars Now Unclaimed? What appeals to you about writing Science Fiction and in particular a Space Opera?

Drew: Those questions are linked, actually (well done!). Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy is fun for me partially because I’m not beholden to history or social mores or little things like ‘physics’ or ‘reality’ if I don’t want to be. I can sort of pick and choose what I want to carry over, and what I want to leave behind. Plus, my writing process - on the creative side, in terms of ‘where do I begin, what is this story’, rather than the procedural ‘the actual writing’ side - usually starts with world-building: ‘how is this world different from our own?’ Which, of course, inherently means I’m not going to be writing contemporary fiction.

So with that question in mind: I started Stars because I wanted to write a sort of post-apocalyptic space opera, to mash up those two genres, mainly to give myself as broad a canvas as possible - it meant I could have dogfights in space in one scene, and desperate one-on-one scrabbles in blasted-out cityscapes the next. So I asked the question ‘how could that sort of universe come about’, came up with a very specific type of apocalypse, which led me back to the creation of the nuclear bomb (where my thoughts always tend when the apocalypse comes up) and the idea that men did this thing: men set it loose. Whether they meant to or not. And then I had myself a narrative.

TQ: What sort of research did you do for The Stars Now Unclaimed?

Drew: Very little! That’s part of the fun of writing science fiction! You look up very specific things online when you need it - physics or biology or astronomy - and the rest of it, you can just make up, because it’s your universe, and you don’t have to be beholden to the same rules as this one!

TQ: Please tell us about the cover for The Stars Now Unclaimed.

Drew: I was privileged enough to work very closely with my editor, Devi Pillai, and Tor’s in-house art director, Peter Lutjen, who did the cover (or at least, they were kind enough to at least entertain my constant stream of suggestions: ‘wouldn’t it be cool if…’). We wanted to get across that very bifurcated idea of this universe, that it was this divided place where you could have spaceships and high technology one moment, and then abandoned, pre-industrial societies on the very next page, and I think Peter nailed it! (Devi was the one who was insistent on the big, floating type, though. Which is fair: the big, floating type is awesome!)

TQ: In The Stars Now Unclaimed who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Drew: Jane (the protagonist), just because we’re in her mind, seeing things from her view - if I hadn’t been able to find her voice, and quickly, there wouldn’t have been a novel. She snapped into place pretty much from the first page, thankfully; was just there, waiting for me, tapping her foot impatiently like I was overdue (and Jane’s not someone you want pissed at you - even a little!). The hardest was probably the Preacher, just because - again, coming at that character from Jane’s perspective, she’s the hardest for Jane to read, which made her harder for me to pin down, and also because, as an advanced machine intelligence, her way of thinking needed to feel a little alien to the reader.

TQ: Does The Stars Now Unclaimed touch on any social issues?

Drew: I would say ‘themes’ rather than specific issues: since I was writing sci-fi, I allowed myself to be a little utopian (even in a sometimes post-apocalyptic setting) with the notion that certain ugly current social impulses like racism, misogyny, and homophobia were mostly-forgotten relics of the distant past. Thematically, though, I was say the thrust of not just Stars but the entire Universe After series is the idea that we cannot pass our own sins on to our children - which is exactly how we need to wipe out those ugly impulses I just mentioned. So long as each generation is just a little better than the next, we will get there eventually.

TQ: Which question about The Stars Now Unclaimed do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Drew: Honestly, this is only like my third interview, so I haven’t had time to get used to the idea that there are questions I’ve already heard too much! I’d say my thinking is more ‘I’m horrified someone’s going to ask me a question I absolutely cannot answer’ - sort of like this one! Hooray, milestone!

TQ: Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from The Stars Now Unclaimed.

Drew:

‘It hovered above the burning town, almost drawn even against the bulk of the orbital gun, as if it were a mirror image of the flaming settlement below—broken towers and shattered structures on both craft and township, fires flickering in the interior of buildings and bulkheads both, the dreadnaught still shedding metal like a snake molting its skin.’ (I just like the description here, and I’m usually not wild about my own descriptive writing.)

“Well I don’t know, but it’s the thought that counts! They’re art students, you know how hard it is to find a virgin in an art school?” (That one just makes me crack up; apologies to my friends - and your various readers - who are art students... but I bet very few of them are virgins.)

“But you could have been.” (I realize that one means literally nothing without context, but you did ask me for my favorite lines, and that one absolutely slays me, every time I re-read Stars on an editing pass - it’s a knife to the heart, another one of those lines that surprised me, came out of nowhere.)

TQ: What's next?

Drew: The rest of the series, of course! I don’t think I’m allowed to give out pertinent information yet, not even titles (though I’ve got them in my back pocket!), so I’ll just say this: exploring the relationship between Jane and Esa - in ways that I think, or at least I hope, will surprise the reader - is definitely the focus of the next novel.

TQ: Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

The Stars Now Unclaimed
The Universe After 1
Tor Books, August 21, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 448 pages

Drew Williams's The Stars Now Unclaimed is a fun, adventure-filled space opera set in a far-future galaxy.

Jane Kamali is an agent for the Justified. Her mission: to recruit children with miraculous gifts in the hope that they might prevent the Pulse from once again sending countless worlds back to the dark ages.

Hot on her trail is the Pax--a collection of fascist zealots who believe they are the rightful rulers of the galaxy and who remain untouched by the Pulse.

Now Jane, a handful of comrades from her past, and a telekinetic girl called Esa must fight their way through a galaxy full of dangerous conflicts, remnants of ancient technology, and other hidden dangers.

And that's just the beginning . . .

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

About Drew

Photo by Daniel Barnacastle

Drew Williams has been a bookseller in Birmingham, Alabama since he was sixteen years old, when he got the job because he came in looking for work on a day when someone else had just quit. Outside of arguing with his coworkers about whether Moby Dick is brilliant (nope) or terrible (that one), his favorite part of the job is discovering new authors and sharing them with his customers.Drew is the author of The Universe After series, including The Stars Now Unclaimed.

Twitter @DrewWilliamsIRL

All 2018 DAC 2018 DAC Interview 2018 Debut Author Challenge Drew Williams The Stars Now Unclaimed The Universe After Tor Books

The View From Monday - August 20, 2018

Published: August 20, 2018 | 06:00

Happy Monday!

There are 2 debuts this week:

Vox by Christina Dalcher;

and

The Stars Now Unclaimed (The Universe After 1) by Drew Williams.

Clicking on a novel's cover will take you to its Amazon page.

From formerly featured DAC Authors:

Of the Mortal Realm (Mancer Trilogy 3) by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes;

Shadowblack (Spellslinger Series 2) by Sebastien de Castell;

and

Blood of the Gods (The Ascension Cycle 2) by David Mealing.

Clicking on a novel's cover will take you to its Amazon page.

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

August 21, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Titanicus	Dan Abnett	SF - Adeptus Titanicus
The Winter Vow	Tim Akers	F - Hallowed War 3
So Say We All: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Battlestar Galactica	Mark A. Altman Edward Gross	PerfArts/TV/SF
Of the Mortal Realm (e)	Amelia Atwater-Rhodes	DF/F - Mancer Trilogy 3
Foundryside	Robert Jackson Bennett	F/UF - The Founders Trilogy 1
Shadowblack	Sebastien de Castell	F/HU - Spellslinger Series 2
The Black God's Drums	P. Djèlí Clark	HistF/SF/SP
The Phantom Tree	Nicola Cornick	Hist/Gothic/R
Vox (D)	Christina Dalcher	CW/Dys/PolTh
Heartbreaker	Claudia Dey	LF/SF
Ararat (h2tp)	Christopher Golden	SupTh/H
The Fated Sky	Mary Robinette Kowal	SF/AH/HSF - Lady Astronaut 2
Tarma and Kethry	Mercedes Lackey	F/FR - Vows and Honor Omnibus
Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation (h2tp)	Ken Liu (Ed)	SF - Anthology
Windhaven	George R. R. Martin Lisa Tuttle Elsa Charretier (Illus)	F/GN
Star Trek: Lost Scenes	Curt McAloney David Tilotta	PerfArts/TV/SF
Ravencry	Ed McDonald	DF/F - Raven's Mark 2
Servants of the Machine God	Graham McNeill Gave Thorpe David Guymer David Annandale Andy Clark	SF - Adeptus Mechanicus Anthology
Blood of the Gods	David Mealing	F/HistF - The Ascension Cycle 2
Japanese Folktales: Classic Stories from Japan's Enchanted Past	Yei Theodora Ozaki	FairyT/FolkT/LM/CulH
From Distant Stars	Sam Peters	SF - From Darkest Skies
The Collected Adventures of Bannon & Clare	Lilith Saintcrow	SP/FR/CF/P/UF - Bannon & Clare
Coldfall Wood	Steven Savile	CF/DF
Rattus New Yorkus (e)	Hunter Shea	H - Hunter Shea: One Size Eats All 2
2020	Kenneth Steven	Dys
The Stars Now Unclaimed (D)	Drew Williams	SF/SO/HU - The Universe After 1
Terra Incognita: Three Novellas	Connie Willis	SF/Satire - Collection
The Realmgate Wars: Volume 1	Chris Wraight Guy Haley Nick Kyme Josh Reynolds C.L. Werner Darius Hinks	F - The Realmgate Wars Omnibus

August 23, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
By the Pricking of Her Thumb (e)	Adam Roberts	SF

August 25, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Report to Megalopolis: The Post-modern Prometheus	Tod Davies	F/Dys/FairyT/FolkT/LM/DF - The History of Arcadia 4

D - Debut
e - eBook
Ed - Editor
h2mm - Hardcover to Mass Market Paperback
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
Illus - 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
Cr - Crime
CulH - Cultural Heritage
CW - Contemporary Woman
CyP - Cyberpunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GN - Graphic Novel
Gothic - Gothic
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
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
MU - Mash Up
Noir - Noir
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PerfArts - Performing Arts
PI - Private Investigator
PNR - Paranormal Romance
PP - Police Procedural
PolTh - Political Thriller
Psy - Psychological
R - Romance
Sagas - Sagas
SF - Science Fiction
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SP - Steampunk
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
TTR - Time Travel Romance
TV - Television
UF - Urban Fantasy
VisM - Visionary and Metaphysical

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

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All Amelia Atwater-Rhodes Christina Dalcher David Mealing Drew Williams Sebastien de Castell The View From Monday

2018 Debut Author Challenge Cover Wars - August Debuts

Published: August 15, 2018 | 06:30

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 2018 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 September 7, 2018, unless the vote is extended. If the vote is extended the ending date will be posted.

Cover Art by Argh! Nottingham

Jacket photo of woman by Karan Kapoor/Getty Images;
Jacket typography by Doctor Letters;
Jacket design by Steve Meditz

All 2018 DAC 2018 DAC Cover Wars Christina Dalcher Drew Williams Joshua Mattson Lauren C. Teffeau Ling Ma

2018 Debut Author Challenge - August Debuts

Published: August 01, 2018 | 07:39

There are 5 debut novels for August.

Please note that we use the publisher's publication date in the United States, not copyright dates or non-US publication dates.

The August debut authors and their novels are listed in alphabetical order by author (not book title or publication date). Take a good look at the covers. Voting for your favorite August cover for the 2018 Debut Author Challenge Cover Wars will take place starting on August 15, 2018.

If you are participating as a reader in the Challenge, please let us know in the comments what you are thinking of reading or email us at "DAC . TheQwillery @ gmail . com" (remove the spaces and quotation marks). Please note that we list all debuts for the month (of which we are aware), but not all of these authors will be 2018 Debut Author Challenge featured authors. However, any of these novels may be read by Challenge readers to meet the goal for August 2018. The list is correct as of the day posted.

Christina Dalcher

Vox
Berkley, August 21, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 336 pages

One of Entertainment Weekly’s and SheReads’ books to read after The Handmaid’s Tale
One of Good Morning America’s “Best Books to Bring to the Beach This Summer”

Set in a United States in which half the population has been silenced, Vox is the harrowing, unforgettable story of what one woman will do to protect herself and her daughter.

On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed more than one hundred words per day, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial. This can’t happen here. Not in America. Not to her.

This is just the beginning…

Soon women are not permitted to hold jobs. Girls are not taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words each day, but now women have only one hundred to make themselves heard.

…not the end.

For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Ling Ma

Severance
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, August 14, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 304 pages

Maybe it’s the end of the world, but not for Candace Chen, a millennial, first-generation American and office drone meandering her way into adulthood in Ling Ma’s offbeat, wryly funny, apocalyptic satire, Severance.

Candace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine. With the recent passing of her Chinese immigrant parents, she’s had her fill of uncertainty. She’s content just to carry on: She goes to work, troubleshoots the teen-targeted Gemstone Bible, watches movies in a Greenpoint basement with her boyfriend.

So Candace barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions sweeps New York. Then Shen Fever spreads. Families flee. Companies cease operations. The subways screech to a halt. Her bosses enlist her as part of a dwindling skeleton crew with a big end-date payoff. Soon entirely alone, still unfevered, she photographs the eerie, abandoned city as the anonymous blogger NY Ghost.

Candace won’t be able to make it on her own forever, though. Enter a group of survivors, led by the power-hungry IT tech Bob. They’re traveling to a place called the Facility, where, Bob promises, they will have everything they need to start society anew. But Candace is carrying a secret she knows Bob will exploit. Should she escape from her rescuers?

A send-up and takedown of the rituals, routines, and missed opportunities of contemporary life, Ling Ma’s Severance is a moving family story, a quirky coming-of-adulthood tale, and a hilarious, deadpan satire. Most important, it’s a heartfelt tribute to the connections that drive us to do more than survive.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Joshua Mattson

A Short Film About Disappointment
Penguin Press, August 7, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 288 pages

An ingenious novel about art and revenge, insisting on your dreams and hitting on your doctor, told in the form of 80 movie reviews

In near-future America, film critic Noah Body uploads his reviews to a content aggregator. His job is routine: watch, seethe, pan. He dreams of making his own film, free from the hackery of commercial cinema. Faced with writing about lousy movies for a website that no one reads, Noah smuggles into his work episodes from his trainwreck of a life.

We learn that his apartment in Miniature Aleppo has been stripped of furniture after his wife ran off with his best friend—who Noah believes has possessed his body. He’s in the middle of an escalating grudge match against a vending machine tycoon with a penchant for violence. And he’s infatuated with a doctor who has diagnosed him with a “disease of thought.” Sapped by days performing the labor of entertainment, forced to voice opinions on cinema to earn his water rations, Noah is determined to create his own masterpiece, directed by and starring himself.

Written by a debut novelist with a rotten wit and a singular imagination, A Short Film About Disappointment is a story about holding on to a scrap of hope in a joyously crummy world of nanny states and New Koreas.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Lauren C. Teffeau

Implanted
Angry Robot, August 7, 2018
Trade Paperback and eBook, 400 pages

The data stored in her blood can save a city on the brink… or destroy it, in this gripping cyberpunk thriller

When college student Emery Driscoll is blackmailed into being a courier for a clandestine organisation, she’s cut off from the neural implant community which binds the domed city of New Worth together. Her new masters exploit her rare condition which allows her to carry encoded data in her blood, and train her to transport secrets throughout the troubled city. New Worth is on the brink of Emergence – freedom from the dome – but not everyone wants to leave. Then a data drop goes bad, and Emery is caught between factions: those who want her blood, and those who just want her dead.

File Under: Science Fiction [ Under the Dome | Blood Courier | Disconnected | Bright Future ]

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

iBooks : Kobo

Drew Williams

The Stars Now Unclaimed
The Universe After 1
Tor Books, August 21, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 448 pages

Think big guns, smugglers, epic space battles, and a telekinetic girl with all the gifts.

Jane Kamali is an agent for the Justified. Her mission: to recruit children with miraculous gifts in the hope that they might prevent the pulse from once again sending countless worlds back to the dark ages.

Hot on her trail is the Pax—a collection of fascist zealots who believe they are the rightful rulers of the galaxy and who remain untouched by the pulse.

Now Jane, a handful of comrades from her past, and a telekinetic girl called Esa must fight their way through a galaxy full of dangerous conflicts, remnants of ancient technology, and other hidden dangers.

And that's just the beginning . . .

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound