The Qwillery

Another Monday!

There are 3 debuts this week:

Things You Would Know If You Grew Up Around Here by Nancy Wayson Dinan;

Boys of Alabama by Genevieve Hudson;

and

Latitudes of Longing by Shubhangi Swarup.





From formerly featured DAC Authors:

Beyond the Dragon's Gate (A Tor.com Original) by Yoon Ha Lee;

Chaos Reigning (Consortium Rebellion 3) by Jessie Mihalik;

Rule (Unraveled Kingdom 3) By Rowenna Miller;

and

Wanderers by Chuck Wendig is out in Trade Paperback.

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

May 19, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory: Stories (h2tp)	Raphael Bob-Waksberg	SS/LF/SF
Gather the Fortunes (h2tp)	Bryan Camp	CF - A Crescent City Novel
Maker's Curse	Trudi Canavan	F - Millennium's Rule 4
The Andromeda Evolution (h2mm)	Michael Crichton Daniel H. Wilson	SF
Things You Would Know if You Grew Up Around Here	Nancy Wayson Dinan	LF/MR/STR
Seeing Darkness	Heather Graham	Sus/SupTh/GH/PNR - Krewe of Hunters 30
Boys of Alabama (D)	Genevieve Hudson	Gay/CoA/MR
The Last Watchman of Old Cairo (h2tp)	Michael David Lukas	Hist/LF/MR
Selkie Summer	Ken MacLeod	CF
Chaos Reigning	Jessie Mihalik	SF/SO - Consortium Rebellion 3
Rule	Rowenna Miller	F/RF - Unraveled Kingdom 3
Debt of Honor	Christopher G. Nuttall	SF/SO - Embers of War 1
Latitudes of Longing (D)	Shubhangi Swarup	LF/MR/FairyT/FolkT/LM
Impurity	Larry Tremblay Sheila Fischman (Tr)	LF/CF/PsyTh
Wanderers (h2tp)	Chuck Wendig	Sus/SF/AP/PA

May 20, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Beyond the Dragon's Gate: A Tor.com Original (e)	Yoon Ha Lee	SF

May 21, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The City Among the Stars	Francis Carsac Judith Sullivan (Tr) M. Schiff (Tr)	SF/SO/SE - Fiction Without Frontiers
Tomb of Gods	Brian Moreland	HistF/SupTh - Fiction Without Frontiers
Until Summer Comes Around	Glenn Rolfe	SupTh/Occ/Sup - Fiction Without Frontiers

May 22, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Sea Change	Nancy Kress	SF/GenEng/Esp/Dys/AP/PA

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



AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
BlHu - Black Humor
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CH - Cultural Heritage
CM - Crime and Mystery
CoA - Coming of Age
CW - Contemporary Women
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
Esp - Espionage
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost(s)
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
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
PerfArts - Performing Arts
Phil - Philosophy
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Pol - Political
PopCul - Popular Culture
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
RF - Romantic Fantasy
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SS - Short Stories
STR - Small Town and Rural
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
TTR - Time Travel Romance
VisM - Visionary and Metaphysical
WS - Women Sleuths

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

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

May 1, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
A Girl From Nowhere	James Maxwell	SF/SE - Firewall Trilogy 1
The Best of Both Worlds	S. P. Miskowski	H

May 5, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Westside Saints	W.M. Akers	HistF - A Gilda Carr Tiny Mystery 2
Soul Chasers: The Decomposition Comedy	Rachel Armstrong	F/HU
The Human	Neal Asher	SF/SO - Rise of the Jain 3
Penric's Travels	Lois McMaster Bujold	F
Rotherweird (h2tp)	Andrew Caldecott	HistF/P/CF - Rotherweird 1
Call It Magic	Janet Chapman	PNR - Spellbound Falls Romance 7
House of Secrets	Darcy Coates	H/F/Occ/Sup - House of Shadows
House of Shadows	Darcy Coates	H/Occ/Sup/Gothic - House of Shadows
The Folcroft Ghosts	Darcy Coates	H/GH/Occ/Sup/Gothic/SupTh
Shadow Flight	Christine Feehan	PNR - Shadow Riders 5
The Shaman of Karres	Eric Flint Dave Freer	SF - Witches of Karres 4
Magic for Liars (h2tp)	Sarah Gailey	CF/Sus
An Easy Death (h2tp)	Charlaine Harris	DF - Gunnie Rose 1
The Down Days (D)	Ilze Hugo	SF/AP/PA/CF/WS
A Brightness Long Ago (h2tp)	Guy Gavriel Kay	Hist/LF
Lake of Darkness	Scott Kenemore	SF
Vanishing Hour: A Novel of a Man, a Girl, and the End of the World	Lisa King	SF/AP/PA/LF/Dys
The Eleventh Gate	Nancy Kress	SF/SO
Steel Crow Saga (h2tp)	Paul Krueger	F
Goldilocks	Laura Lam	SF/SE/Dys/AP/PA
The Kingdom of Liars (e)	Nick Martell	F - The Legacy of the Mercenary King 1
Strange Hotel	Eimear McBride	LF/CW/VisM
Driving the Deep	Suzanne Palmer	SF/SO/AC - The Finder Chronicles 2
Orange World and Other Stories (h2tp)	Karen Russell	LF/SS/VisM
Lock Every Door (h2tp)	Riley Sager	Sus/PsyTh/H
Little Eyes	Samanta Schweblin Megan McDowell (Tr)	Psy/LF/VisM
Light from Other Stars (h2tp)	Erika Swyler	CoA/FL/LF/SF/SE
A Fire Upon The Deep (ri)	Vernor Vinge	SF/HSF/SE/AC - Zones of Thought 1
Network Effect	Martha Wells	SF/HSF - Murderbot Diaries 5

May 6, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Berlin Is Never Berlin: A Tor.com Original (e)	Marko Kloos	SH/SF - Wild Cards
Dark Angels Rising	Ian Whates	SO/SF - Dark Angels 3

May 7, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Command Performance: the Amazing Conroy Omnibus Edition	Lawrence M. Schoen	Satire/SF

May 12, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Stealing Thunder (D)	Alina Boyden	F
Bone Harvest (e)	James Brogden	H/SupTh/Occ/Sup
Endland	Tim Etchells	LF/Dys/SS/BlHu
In/Half (h2tp)	Jasmin B. Frelih	SF
Unreconciled	W. Michael Gear	SF/HSF/SO - Donovan  4
Queen of the Unwanted	Jenna Glass	F - The Women's War 2
Armageddon House	Michael Griffin	Dys/H
The Porpoise (h2tp)	Mark Haddon	LF/Hist/MR -  Contemporaries
Ten Thousand Doors of January (h2tp)	Alix E. Harrow	MR/CoA/HistF/RF
Vaults Of Obsidian	Darius Hinks	SF/SE - Warhammer 40,000
T.I.M.E Stories: The Heiden File (e)	Christophe Lambert	SF/TT/MTI
Even the Dogs	Jon McGregor	MR/GH/STR/LF
My Mother's House (D)	Francesca Momplaisir	MR/CH/LF
Shakespeare For Squirrels	Christopher Moore	F/HU
Aleph Extraction (e)	Dan Moren	SF/SO/HSF
The Anthill	Julianne Pachico	LF/H
Firewalkers	Adrian Tchaikovsky	SF
Catherine House (D)	Elisabeth Thomas	LF
Sky of Water	Stacey L. Tucker	F/RF/CW/MR/VisM - Equal Night Trilogy 3
Gastronogeek: 42 Recipes from Your Favorite Imaginary Worlds	Thibaud Villanova Maxime Léonard	Cooking/MTI/SF/F/H
Empire of Grass (h2tp)	Tad Williams	F/DF - Last King of Osten Ard  2

May 13, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Benjamin 2073: A Tor.com Original (e)	Rjurik Davidson	SF
Strange Life of Ivan Osokin (ri)	P. D. Ouspensky	VisM/Occ/Sup/Phil

May 14, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Time of Changes (ri)	Robert Silverberg	SF

May 15, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Gender and Environment in Science Fiction (h2tp)	Christy Tidwell (Ed) Bridgette Barclay (Ed)	PopCul/SF/HC - Ecocritical Theory and Practice
The Cold Last Swim	Junior Burke	Noir/AH
Planet Auschwitz: Holocaust Representation in Science Fiction and Horror Film and Television	Brian E. Crim	Holocaust/LC/PerfArts/SF/F/H/Sup
In Our Own Worlds #2: Four LGBTQ+ Tor.com Novellas (e)	JY Neon Yang Kai Ashante Wilson Margaret Killjoy Ellen Klages	F

May 19, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Other Covenants: Alternate Histories of the Jewish People	Andrea D. Lobel (Ed) Mark Shainblum (Ed)	AH/Anthology
Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory: Stories	Raphael Bob-Waksberg	SS/LF/SF
Gather the Fortunes (h2tp)	Bryan Camp	CF - A Crescent City Novel
Maker's Curse	Trudi Canavan	F - Millennium's Rule 4
The Andromeda Evolution (h2mm)	Michael Crichton Daniel H. Wilson	SF
Things You Would Know if You Grew Up Around Here	Nancy Wayson Dinan	LF/MR/STR
Seeing Darkness	Heather Graham	Sus/SupTh/GH/PNR - Krewe of Hunters 30
The Humours of Grub Street	Kate Heartfield	HistF/DF
Boys of Alabama (D)	Genevieve Hudson	Gay/CoA/MR
The Last Watchman of Old Cairo (h2tp)	Michael David Lukas	Hist/LF/MR
Selkie Summer (e)	Ken MacLeod	CF
Chaos Reigning	Jessie Mihalik	SF/SO - Consortium Rebellion 3
Rule	Rowenna Miller	F/RF - Unraveled Kingdom 3
Debt of Honor	Christopher G. Nuttall	SF/SO - Embers of War 1
From Divergent Suns	Sam Peters	SF/CM - From Darkest Skies3
Where the Ocean Meets the Sky	Barbara Stevenson	SS/F
Latitudes of Longing (D)	Shubhangi Swarup	LF/MR/FairyT/FolkT/LM
Impurity	Larry Tremblay Sheila Fischman (Tr)	LF/CF/PsyTh
Wanderers (h2tp)	Chuck Wendig	Sus/SF/AP/PA

May 20, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Beyond the Dragon's Gate: A Tor.com Original (e)	Yoon Ha Lee	SF

May 21, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The City Among the Stars	Francis Carsac Judith Sullivan (Tr) M. Schiff (Tr)	SF/SO/SE - Fiction Without Frontiers
Tomb of Gods	Brian Moreland	HistF/SupTh - Fiction Without Frontiers
Until Summer Comes Around	Glenn Rolfe	SupTh/Occ/Sup - Fiction Without Frontiers

May 22, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Sea Change	Nancy Kress	SF/GenEng/Esp/Dys/AP/PA

May 26, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Weight of the Heart	Susana Aikin	Sagas/CW/MR
Doctor Who: Scratchman (h2tp)	Tom Baker	SF
The Order	Mark Barber	F
Witchy Kingdom (h2mm)	D. J. Butler	HistF
The Bone Mother (ri)	David Demchuk	DF
To Clear Away the Shadows (h2mm)	David Drake	SF/SO - RCN 13
Out of Body	Jeffrey Ford	DF/H
Marque of Caine (tp2mm)	Charles E. Gannon	SF - Caine Riordan 5
Lion El'Jonson: Lord of the First	David Guymer	SF/SO - Horus Heresy: Primarchs
The Notch	Tom Holland	H
Feeling Less Wrong	Kolin Jordan	MR/SS
The Winter Sea (ri)	Susanna Kearsley	TTR/Hist/MR
The Fiery Crown	Jeffe Kennedy	FR - Forgotten Empires 2
Ballistic	Marko Kloos	SF/SO - Palladium Wars 2
Unraveling (h2tp)	Karen Lord	F/FairyT/FolkT/LM
Sunshield	Emily B. Martin	F
Elves	Graham McNeill	F - Warhammer Chronicles
Predator: Stalking Shadows	James A. Moore	MTI/SF/AC
Quichotte (h2tp)	Salman Rushdie	LF/Sagas/MR
Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution	P. W. Singer August Cole	TechTh
Night of the Billionaire Wolf	Terry Spear	PNR - Billionaire Wolf 3
Wolf Under Fire	Paige Tyler	PNR - STAT 1
Age of Empyre	Michael J. Sullivan	F - Legends of the First Empire 6
War (h2mm)	Michelle West	F/FR - House War 8

May 27, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Tourist: A Tor.com Original (e)	Alex Sherman	SF/SE

May 28, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Hell's Bells (Ke)	Lisa Quigley	Occ/H - Rewind or Die 8
The Kelping (Ke)	Jan Stinchcomb	DF/H - Rewind or Die 9

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



AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
BlHu - Black Humor
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CH - Cultural Heritage
CM - Crime and Mystery
CoA - Coming of Age
CW - Contemporary Women
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
Esp - Espionage
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost(s)
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
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
PerfArts - Performing Arts
Phil - Philosophy
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Pol - Political
PopCul - Popular Culture
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
RF - Romantic Fantasy
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SS - Short Stories
STR - Small Town and Rural
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
TTR - Time Travel Romance
VisM - Visionary and Metaphysical

Emily B. Martin (2016)

Sunshield
Harper Voyager, May 26, 2020
Trade Paperback and eBook, 432 pages

A lawless wilderness. A polished court. Individual fates, each on a quest to expose a system of corruption.

The desolate canyons of Alcoro—and the people desperate enough to hide there—couldn’t be more different from the opulent glass palace and lush forests of Moquoia. But the harsh desert and gleaming court are linked through their past, present, and future: a history of abductions in the desert to power Moquoia’s quarries and factories, and a bleak, inhumane future built on the sweat and sacrifice of these bond laborers.

But events unfolding in the present could change everything. In the desert, outlaw Lark—known to most as the Sunshield Bandit—has built a name for herself attacking slavers’ wagons and freeing the captives inside. But while she shakes the foundation of Moquoia’s stratified society, she also has to fight to protect her rescuees—and herself—from the unforgiving world around them.

In the Moquoian court, young ambassador Veran hopes to finally make his mark by dismantling the unjust labor system, if he can navigate the strict hierarchy and inexplicable hostility of the prince.

And caught in the middle of it all, Tamsin is trapped within four walls, the epicenter of a secret political coup to overthrow the Moquoian monarchy and perpetuate the age-old system of injustice.

Separated by seas of trees and sand, the outlaw, the diplomat, and the prisoner are more connected than anyone realizes. Their personal fates might just tip the balance of power in the Eastern World—if that very power doesn’t destroy them first.

Jessie Mihalik (2019)

Chaos Reigning
The Consortium Rebellion 3
Harper Voyager, May 19, 2020
Trade Paperback and eBook, 416 pages

Interplanetary intrigue and romance combine in this electrifying finale to the Consortium Rebellion series.

As the youngest member of her High House, Catarina von Hasenberg is used to being underestimated, but her youth and flighty, bubbly personality mask a clever mind and stubborn determination. Her enemies, blind to her true strength, do not suspect that Cat is a spy—which makes her the perfect candidate to go undercover at a rival House’s summer retreat to gather intelligence on their recent treachery.

Cat’s overprotective older sister reluctantly agrees, but on one condition: Cat cannot go alone. Alexander Sterling, a quiet, gorgeous bodyguard, will accompany her, posing as her lover. After Cat tries, and fails, to ditch Alex, she grudgingly agrees, confident in her ability to manage him. After all, she’s never found a person she can’t manipulate.

But Alex proves more difficult—and more desirable—than Cat anticipated. When she’s attacked and nearly killed, she and Alex are forced to work together to figure out how deep the treason goes. With rumors of widespread assaults on Serenity raging, communications down, and the rest of her family trapped off-planet, Catarina must persuade Alex to return to Earth to expose the truth and finish this deadly battle once and for all.

But Cat can’t explain why she’s the perfect person to infiltrate hostile territory without revealing secrets she’d rather keep buried. . . .

Rowenna Miller (2018)

Rule
The Unraveled Kingdom 3
Orbit, May 19, 2020
Trade Paperback and eBook, 432 pages

In this epic conclusion to the Unraveled Kingdom trilogy that began with Torn and Fray, magical seamstress Sophie Balstrade joins forces with her revolutionary leader brother in a deadly bid to change history.

The civil war that charm caster Sophie and the crown prince, Theodor, have tried so desperately to avert has come to Galitha. While Theodor joins Sophie’s brother and his Reformist comrades in battle hoping to turn the tide against the Royalist army, Sophie leverages the only weapon she has: charm and curse casting. Weaving her magic into uniforms and supplies, she soon discovers that the challenges of a full-scale war are far greater than she could have imagined.

The fractured leadership of the Reformist army must coalesce and the people of Galitha need to unite against enormous odds — all while Sophie creates more than a little magical luck in order to have a chance of victory.

Rowenna Miller’s enchanting fantasy series, the Unraveled Kingdom, is perfect for fans of The Queen of the Tearling and Red Queen.

The Unraveled Kingdom
Torn
Fray
Rule

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

Jessie:  Thank you so much for having me! My brain is so bad at keeping track of firsts. I remember writing (and illustrating!) those little books in elementary school where the teacher would help the students bind them into hardback books. I have no idea what I wrote about, but I bet my mom still has it in a box somewhere!

I’ve always written stories, but the first thing I really remember being of any great length was the fanfiction I wrote in college. It’s still out there, but I’m not giving anyone any clues as to where or what because it was me as a baby writer, learning how plot and story and character all worked together while playing in someone else’s world.



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

Jessie:  I’m a pantser who desperately wishes I was a plotter. I’m becoming more of a hybrid because deadlines mean I have to know where I’m going rather than wandering lost through the plot woods for months, but outlining is still my nemesis.



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

Jessie:  Speed. I write very, very slowly. One thousand to fifteen hundred words is a good writing day for me. And I know you’re supposed to stay in your own lane, but when I see other authors cranking out three to five times that in a single day, it’s difficult not to feel like I’m doing it wrong. Still, I’ve made peace with my speed, mostly, and plodding along does eventually get me to the end. So, for all of you slow writers out there—I see you. Keep at it!



TQ:  What has influenced / influences your writing?

Jessie:  Like many (most? all?) writers, I’m influenced by the books I’ve read before. Some of my favorite authors like Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs, and Ann Aguirre write kick-ass women. They inspired me to try my hand at writing my own heroine. And I’ve definitely been inspired by the huge number of romances I’ve read. I wanted that strong, building relationship for my main characters.



TQ:  Describe Polaris Rising using only 5 words.

Jessie:  Badass space princess adventure romance.



TQ:  Tell us something about Polaris Rising that is not found in the book description.

Jessie:  Ada doesn’t care much for her father, but she has an incredibly strong bond to her siblings. Her sisters helped her escape and stay ahead of her father’s security team and she would move mountains for them.



TQ:  What inspired you to write Polaris Rising? What appeals to you about writing Science Fiction?

Jessie:  I had the opening scene of what would become Polaris Rising knocking around in my head for weeks while I was working on another project. Without knowing that, a friend suggested I try my hand at science fiction because she knew I am a huge geek and that my current project was going nowhere. It was serendipity, but it took me a few additional weeks of banging my head against the other project to recognize it.

I love writing science fiction and while the genre covers a huge spectrum, for me SF has always been about space and the distant future. I get to write about spaceships and different planets and all the fancy technology I wish we had today. And because I also write romance, I get to ground all of that cool stuff in a slowly building relationship.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for Polaris Rising?

Jessie:  I did so much research and so little of it really appears in the book. I researched theoretical FTL drives, star naming schemes, distances between galaxies, and all of the reasons FTL drives break physics, relativity, and causality. Then I decided that I was going to write a space opera, not a hard science fiction book, and I would be intentionally a little hand-wavy about the technology because the details were bogging down the story. There is a nod to one of the theoretical FTL solutions in the book, though, but no spoilers.



TQ:  Please tell us about the cover for Polaris Rising.

Jessie:  I love the cover! It was designed by Lex Maudlin and illustrated by Tony Mauro. It doesn’t depict a specific scene, but more of the feel of the novel. Ada knows her way around planets, spaceships, and blasters, and I think the cover perfectly conveys that.



TQ:  In Polaris Rising who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Jessie:  Ada was the easiest character for me to write because she drove the story. She’s smart and competent, but asks for help when she needs it. She was such a fun character to write. Richard Rockhurst was the hardest to write because he is the villain in Polaris Rising, but he’s the hero in his own mind. He thinks he’s totally in the right, but we only see him from Ada’s perspective, so it was a delicate balance.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from Polaris Rising.

Jessie:  Here are two of my favorite little snippets:

There are moments in your life when you absolutely know what you should do and then you absolutely choose to do something else entirely.

This was one of those moments.

--

Loch’s nose ghosted along my chin and down my neck. I stood stock-still as his breath heated my collarbone.

“You’re afraid, but you don’t let the fear rule you,” Loch rumbled against my skin. My belly did a little flip that had nothing to do with fear.

“You manipulate those around you to suit your will, but you risked being left behind to save a bunch of mercs and soldiers intent on capturing you. You’re a puzzle, Ada von Hasenberg.”

“If you’re done with the intimidation routine,” I said calmly while I trembled internally, “I’d like to get some sleep.”



TQ:  What's next?

Jessie:  The next book in the series, Aurora Blazing, arrives this October, with the third book following next year. I’ll be at the Tucson Book Festival in the beginning of March, so come see me if you’re nearby!



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Jessie:  Thank you again for having me!

Polaris Rising
The Consortium Rebellion 1
Harper Voyager, February 5, 2019
Trade Paperback and eBook, 448 pages

“Polaris Rising is space opera at its best, intense and addictive, a story of honor, courage, betrayal, and love. Jessie Mihalik is  an author to watch.”--Ilona Andrews, #1 New York Times bestselling author

A space princess on the run and a notorious outlaw soldier become unlikely allies in this imaginative, sexy space opera adventure—the first in an exciting science fiction trilogy.

In the far distant future, the universe is officially ruled by the Royal Consortium, but the High Councillors, the heads of the three High Houses, wield the true power. As the fifth of six children, Ada von Hasenberg has no authority; her only value to her High House is as a pawn in a political marriage. When her father arranges for her to wed a noble from House Rockhurst, a man she neither wants nor loves, Ada seizes control of her own destiny. The spirited princess flees before the betrothal ceremony and disappears among the stars.

Ada eluded her father’s forces for two years, but now her luck has run out. To ensure she cannot escape again, the fiery princess is thrown into a prison cell with Marcus Loch. Known as the Devil of Fornax Zero, Loch is rumored to have killed his entire chain of command during the Fornax Rebellion, and the Consortium wants his head.

When the ship returning them to Earth is attacked by a battle cruiser from rival House Rockhurst, Ada realizes that if her jilted fiancé captures her, she’ll become a political prisoner and a liability to her House. Her only hope is to strike a deal with the dangerous fugitive: a fortune if he helps her escape.

But when you make a deal with an irresistibly attractive Devil, you may lose more than you bargained for . . .

About Jessie

Photo 2018 by Dustin Mihalik

Jessie Mihalik has a degree in computer science and a love of all things geeky. A software engineer by trade, Jessie now writes full time from her home in Texas. When she’s not writing, she can be found playing co-op video games with her husband, trying out new board games, or reading books pulled from her overflowing bookshelves. Polaris Rising is her debut novel.









Website  ~ Twitter @jessiemihalik  ~  Facebook

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 2019 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 March 7, 2019, unless the vote is extended. If the vote is extended the ending date will be updated.

Vote for your favorite February 2019 Debut Cover!

10,000 Bones

The Beast's Heart

Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones

The Familiars

Polaris Rising

The Psychology of Time Travel

The Ruin of Kings

Same Same

 

pollcode.com free polls

Happy Monday! February is top heavy with debuts; that is, most of the month's debuts are out tomorrow. Since February always seems like the longest month of the year to me I'm glad to have so many debuts to read.


There are 5 debuts this week:

Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones by Micah Dean Hicks;

The Ruin of Kings (A Chorus of Dragons 1) by Jenn Lyons;

Same Same by Peter Mendelsund;

Polaris Rising (Consortium Rebellion 1) by Jessie Mihalik;

and

10,000 Bones by Joe Ollinger.




From formerly featured DAC Authors:

Strife's Bane (The Shattered Kingdoms 3) by Evie Manieri;

and

Thirty-Seven by Peter Stenson is out in Trade Paperback.

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

February 5, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Gaunt's Ghosts: The Anarch	Dan Abnett	SF - Gaunt's Ghost 15
Sea Monsters	Chloe Aridjis	LF/CoA/MR
Line War (ri)	Neal Asher	SF/AP/PA - Agent Cormac 5
Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds: The first official Stranger Things novel	Gwenda Bond	SupTh/SF/H
Sealskin (ri)	Su Bristow	MR/FairyT/FolkT/LM/F
Titanborn	Rhett C. Bruno	SF - Children of Titan 1
Competence (h2tp)	Gail Carriger	F/HistF/FR/P - Custard Protocol 3
House of Assassins	Larry Correia	F - Saga of the Forgotten Warrior 2
Witch Hunter & Kindling the Darkness	Shannon Curtis Jane Kindred	PNR
More Deadly than the Male: Masterpieces from the Queens of Horror	Graeme Davis (Ed)	H - Anthology
Three Eves: The Marked Series (Eve of Darkness, Eve of Destruction, Eve of Chaos)	Sylvia Day	UF/P/PNR - Marked
Outpost (h2mm)	W. Michael Gear	HSF/SF/SO - Donovan 1
Wild Life (ri)	Molly Gloss	CF
Snow White Learns Witchcraft: Stories and Poems	Theodora Goss	F
Dark Alpha's Awakening	Donna Grant	PNR - Reaper 7
Ursula K. Le Guin: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations	Ursula K. Le Guin David Streitfeld (Ed)	Bio/SF/VisM - The Last Interview Series
Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones (D)	Micah Dean Hicks	CF
The Ingenious	Darius Hinks	F/UF
Black Leopard, Red Wolf	Marlon James	HistF/HistAA/F - The Dark Star Trilogy 1
Pale Blue: A Thriller	Mike Jenne	TechTh - Blue Gemini 3
Endgames	L. E. Modesitt Jr.	F - Imager Portfolio 12
Detonation Event	John Andrew Karr	SF/SO/PA - Mars War 1
A People's Future of the United States: Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers	Victor LaValle (Ed) John Joseph Adams (Ed)	SF/AP/PA/LF - Anthology
The Ruin of Kings (D)	Jenn Lyons	F - A Chorus of Dragons 1
Blood of Iax	Robbie MacNiven	SF- Warhammer 40,000
Unbury Carol (h2tp)	Josh Malerman	H
Strife's Bane	Evie Manieri	F - The Shattered Kingdoms 3
Stray Moon (ri)	Kelly Meding	UF/P/PNR -  Strays Novel 2
Same Same (D)	Peter Mendelsund	SF/Dys/Satire
Polaris Rising (D)	Jessie Mihalik	SF/SO - Consortium Rebellion 1
Ciaphas Cain: Choose Your Enemies	Sandy Mitchell	SF - Ciaphas Cain 10
Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You	Scotto Moore	H/SupTh/AC
Man-Kzin Wars XV	Larry Niven (Cr)	SF - Man-Kzin Wars Anthology
Binti: The Complete Trilogy	Nnedi Okorafor	SF - Binti
10,000 Bones (D)	Joe Ollinger	SF/HSF/Cr/Dys
Fog Season	Patrice Sarath	HistF/M - Tales of Port Saint Frey 2
The Beast of Nightfall Lodge	S. A. Sidor	Occ/Sup/HistF - The Institute for Singular Antiquities 2
Thirty-Seven (h2tp)	Peter Stenson	H/Noir/LF
The Gone World (h2tp)	Tom Sweterlitsch	SF/AP/PA/PP
The Black Wolf & Enticing the Dragon: An Anthology	Linda Thomas-Sundstrom Jane Godman	PNR
War of Honor (Limited Leatherbound Collector's Edition)	David Weber	SF/SO - Honor Harrington 1
Sisters of the Fire	Kim Wilkins	F - Daughters of the Storm 2
The Lords of Silence	Chris Wraight	SF - Warhammer 40,000

February 6, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Articulated Restraint: A Tor.com Original (e)	Mary Robinette Kowal	SF

February 7, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Earthlight (ri)	Sir Arthur C. Clarke	SF - Golden Age Masterworks
The Best of R. A. Lafferty	R. A. Lafferty	SF - Collection

Cr - Creator
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



AC - Alien Contact
AP - Apocalyptic
Bio - Biographical
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
Cr - Crime
CW - Contemporary Women
CyP - Cyberpunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GH - Ghost(s)
H - Horror
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
Hu - Humor
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
M - Mystery
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
NF - Near Future
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PCM - Parnormal Cozy Mystery
PI - Private Investigators
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Pol - Political
PP - Police Procedural
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
RF - Romantic Fantasy
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SO - Space Opera
SP - Steampunk
SS - Short Stories
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
VisM - Visionary and Metaphysical

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

Stacey Halls

The Familiars
MIRA, February 19, 2019
Hardcover and eBook, 352 pages

To save her unborn child, she will trust a stranger.

To protect her secret, she must risk her life.

1612 Pendle Hill, England

Young Fleetwood Shuttleworth is with child again. As the mistress of Gawthorpe Hall, she is anxious to provide her husband with an heir. But none of her previous pregnancies have come to term. Then she discovers a hidden letter from her physician that warns her husband that she will not survive another pregnancy.

Distraught over the frightening revelation, Fleetwood wanders the woods of Pendle Hill, where she comes across a young local woman named Alice Gray who is gathering herbs. A midwife, Alice promises Fleetwood she can help her deliver a healthy baby. But soon Alice is drawn into the frenzied accusations of witchcraft sweeping the countryside. Even the woodland creatures, the “familiars,” are suspected of practicing the dark arts. Can Fleetwood trust that Alice is really who she says she is?

As the two women’s lives become intertwined, Fleetwood must risk everything to prove Alice’s innocence in order to save her own unborn child. The hunt for witches reaches fever pitch. Time is running out. The trials are about to begin. Both their lives are at stake. Only they know the truth. Only they can save each other.

Set against the Pendle Witch Trials of 1612, this rich and compelling novel draws its characters from historical figures as it explores the lives and rights of seventeenth-century women, ultimately raising the question: Is witch-hunting really just women-hunting?

Micah Dean Hicks

Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones
John Joseph Adams/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, February 5, 2019
Hardcover and eBook, 304 pages

Swine Hill was full of the dead. Their ghosts were thickest near the abandoned downtown, where so many of the town’s hopes had died generation by generation. They lingered in the places that mattered to them, and people avoided those streets, locked those doors, stopped going into those rooms…They could hurt you. Worse, they could change you.

Jane is haunted. Since she was a child, she has carried a ghost girl that feeds on the secrets and fears of everyone around her, whispering to Jane what they are thinking and feeling, even when she doesn’t want to know. Henry, Jane’s brother, is ridden by a genius ghost that forces him to build strange and dangerous machines. Their mother is possessed by a lonely spirit that burns anyone she touches. In Swine Hill, a place of defeat and depletion, there are more dead than living.

When new arrivals begin scoring precious jobs at the last factory in town, both the living and the dead are furious. This insult on the end of a long economic decline sparks a conflagration. Buffeted by rage on all sides, Jane must find a way to save her haunted family and escape the town before it kills them

Jenn Lyons

The Ruin of Kings
A Chorus of Dragons 1
Tor Books, February 5, 2019
Hardcover and eBook, 560 pages

"Everything epic fantasy should be: rich, cruel, gorgeous, brilliant, enthralling and deeply, deeply satisfying. I loved it."—Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians

When destiny calls, there's no fighting back.

Kihrin grew up in the slums of Quur, a thief and a minstrel's son raised on tales of long-lost princes and magnificent quests. When he is claimed against his will as the missing son of a treasonous prince, Kihrin finds himself at the mercy of his new family's ruthless power plays and political ambitions.

Practically a prisoner, Kihrin discovers that being a long-lost prince is nothing like what the storybooks promised. The storybooks have lied about a lot of other things, too: dragons, demons, gods, prophecies, and how the hero always wins.

Then again, maybe he isn't the hero after all. For Kihrin is not destined to save the world.

He's destined to destroy it.

Jenn Lyons begins the Chorus of Dragons series with The Ruin of Kings, an epic fantasy novel about a man who discovers his fate is tied to the future of an empire.

Kate Mascarenhas

The Psychology of Time Travel
Crooked Lane Books, February 12, 2019
Hardcover and eBook, 336 pages

In 1967, four female scientists worked together to build the world’s first time machine. But just as they are about to debut their creation, one of them suffers a breakdown, putting the whole project—and future of time travel—in jeopardy. To protect their invention, one member is exiled from the team—erasing her contributions from history.

Fifty years later, time travel is a big business. Twenty-something Ruby Rebello knows her beloved grandmother, Granny Bee, was one of the pioneers, though no one will tell her more. But when Bee receives a mysterious newspaper clipping from the future reporting the murder of an unidentified woman, Ruby becomes obsessed: could it be Bee? Who would want her dead? And most importantly of all: can her murder be stopped?

Traversing the decades and told from alternating perspectives, The Psychology of Time Travel introduces a fabulous new voice in fiction and a new must-read for fans of speculative fiction and women’s fiction alike.

Peter Mendelsund

Same Same
Vintage, February 5, 2019
Trade Paperback and eBook 496 pages

In the shifting sands of the desert, near an unnamed metropolis, there is an institute where various fellows come to undertake projects of great significance. But when our sort-of hero, Percy Frobisher, arrives, surrounded by the simulated environment of the glass-enclosed dome of the Institute, his mind goes completely blank. When he spills something on his uniform—a major faux pas—he learns about a mysterious shop where you can take something, utter the command “same same,” and receive a replica even better than the original. Imagining a world in which simulacra have as much value as the real—so much so that any distinction between the two vanishes, and even language seeks to reproduce meaning through ever more degraded copies of itself—Peter Mendelsund has crafted a deeply unsettling novel about what it means to exist and to create . . . and a future that may not be far off.

Jessie Mihalik

Polaris Rising
The Consortium Rebellion 1
Harper Voyager, February 5, 2019
Trade Paperback and eBook, 448 pages

“Polaris Rising is space opera at its best, intense and addictive, a story of honor, courage, betrayal, and love. Jessie Mihalik is  an author to watch.”--Ilona Andrews, #1 New York Times bestselling author

A space princess on the run and a notorious outlaw soldier become unlikely allies in this imaginative, sexy space opera adventure—the first in an exciting science fiction trilogy.

In the far distant future, the universe is officially ruled by the Royal Consortium, but the High Councillors, the heads of the three High Houses, wield the true power. As the fifth of six children, Ada von Hasenberg has no authority; her only value to her High House is as a pawn in a political marriage. When her father arranges for her to wed a noble from House Rockhurst, a man she neither wants nor loves, Ada seizes control of her own destiny. The spirited princess flees before the betrothal ceremony and disappears among the stars.

Ada eluded her father’s forces for two years, but now her luck has run out. To ensure she cannot escape again, the fiery princess is thrown into a prison cell with Marcus Loch. Known as the Devil of Fornax Zero, Loch is rumored to have killed his entire chain of command during the Fornax Rebellion, and the Consortium wants his head.

When the ship returning them to Earth is attacked by a battle cruiser from rival House Rockhurst, Ada realizes that if her jilted fiancé captures her, she’ll become a political prisoner and a liability to her House. Her only hope is to strike a deal with the dangerous fugitive: a fortune if he helps her escape.

But when you make a deal with an irresistibly attractive Devil, you may lose more than you bargained for . . .

Joe Ollinger

10,000 Bones
Diversion Books, February 5, 2019
Trade Paperback and eBook,

Fast-paced and thought-provoking, Joe Ollinger has written a debut science fiction novel that reads like a thriller and will be loved by fans of Paolo Bacigalupi and Richard Morgan.

On the planet Brink, calcium is cash. The element’s scarcity led the world’s government to declare it the official currency. In the decades since, the governments of other colonized worlds have suppressed shipments of calcium in order to maintain favorable exchange rates, while Brink’s Commerce Board has struggled to negotiate importation quotas to keep the population alive and growing.

Taryn Dare is a Collections Agent, a specialized detective tasked with finding black market calcium and recovering it, so that the Commerce Board can recycle it and distribute it as currency. Taryn is fueled by one goal: to save up enough currency units for a one-way ticket to a better world. But when a job recovering a human corpse uncovers a deadly conspiracy in the system, Taryn is drawn into an investigation that may threaten her life, and the very fabric of her society.

Leife Shallcross

The Beast's Heart
Ace, February 12, 2019
Trade Paperback and eBook, 416 pages

A luxuriously magical retelling of Beauty and the Beast set in seventeenth-century France–and told from the point of view of the Beast himself.

I am neither monster nor man—yet I am both.

I am the Beast.

He is a broken, wild thing, his heart’s nature exposed by his beastly form. Long ago cursed with a wretched existence, the Beast prowls the dusty hallways of his ruined château with only magical, unseen servants to keep him company—until a weary traveler disturbs his isolation.

Bewitched by the man’s dreams of his beautiful daughter, the Beast devises a plan to lure her to the château. There, Isabeau courageously exchanges her father’s life for her own and agrees to remain with the Beast for a year. But even as their time together weaves its own spell, the Beast finds winning Isabeau’s love is only the first impossible step in breaking free from the curse . . .