The Qwillery

Happy last Monday in August!


This week from formerly featured DAC Authors:

Bloody Rose (The Band 2) by Nicholas Eames;

Exile's Throne (Empress Game Trilogy 3) by Rhonda Mason;

and

War Cry by Brian McClellan.

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

August 28, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Magic Triumphs	Ilona Andrews	UF - Kate Daniels 10
Echoes in the Walls	V.C. Andrews	Sagas - House of Secrets 2
Valiant Dust (h2mm)	Richard Baker	SF - Breaker of Empires 1
Straight Outta Tombstone (tp2mm)	David Boop (Ed)	F - Anthology
Hawk: A New Novel Vlad Taltos (tp2mm)	Steven Brust	F - Vlad 14
Eve of Destruction	Sylvia Day writing as S. J. Day	UF/P/PNR - Marked Series 2
Missing Signal	Seb Doubinsky	SF/Dys/LF
Bloody Rose	Nicholas Eames	F - The Band 2
Dark Legacy (h2mm)	Christine Feehan	PNR - Carpathian 31
The Alexander Inheritance (h2mm)	Eric Flint Gorg Huff Paula Goodlett	TT/AH
Ahab's Return: or, The Last Voyage	Jeffrey Ford	M/Hist/Fabulist
The Salt Line (h2tp)	Holly Goddard Jones	LF/SF/AP/PA
Hollywood Dead	Richard Kadrey	UF - Sandman Slim 10
Stygian	Sherrilyn Kenyon	FR/P/UF - Dark-Hunter 22
The Flash: Climate Changeling	Richard Knaak	MTI/SF - Flash 2
Blade of Empire (h2mm)	Mercedes Lackey James Mallory	F - The Dragon Prophecy Trilogy 2
Nightflyers: The Illustrated Edition (h2tp)	George R. R. Martin	SF/AC/H
Exile's Throne	Rhonda Mason	CF/SF/SO - Empress Game Trilogy 3
War Cry	Brian McClellan	F
The Brightest Fell (h2mm)	Seanan McGuire	UF/CF/P - October Daye 11
The True History Of The Strange Brigade	David Thomas Moore (Ed)	MTI
Anno Dracula - Johnny Alucard (ri)	Kim Newman	H/HistF/P
Behind the Door	Mary SanGiovanni	H
Highway of Eternity (ri)	Clifford D. Simak	SF
Enchanted Pilgrimage (ri)	Clifford D. Simak	SF
A Choice of Gods (ri)	Clifford D. Simak	SF
Garro (tp2mm)	James Swallow	SF - The Horus Heresy 42
Irontown Blues	John Varley	SF/Cr/SO - Eight Worlds 4
Mirror Gate	Jeff Wheeler	HistF - The Harbinger Series 2

August 29, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The People's Republic of Everything	Nick Mamatas	H/F - Collection

August 30, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Wanderer's Tale (ri)	David Bilsborough	F
A Taste of Home (ri)	C Derick Miller	H - Home 1
The Fall of Gondolin	J.R.R. Tolkien	F

August 31, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Washingtonians	Bentley Little Richard Chizmar Johnathan Schaech Mick Garras	H
A Voice in the Night	Jack McDevitt	SF - Collection
Methods Devour Themselves: A Conversation	Benjanun Sriduangkaew J. Moufawad-Paul	HC

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
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
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.

Nicholas Eames (2017)

Bloody Rose
The Band 2
Orbit, July 10, 2018
Trade Paperback and eBook, 544 pages

Tam Hashford is tired of working at her local pub, slinging drinks for world-famous mercenaries and listening to the bards sing of adventure and glory in the world beyond her sleepy hometown.

When the biggest mercenary band of all rolls into town, led by the infamous Bloody Rose, Tam jumps at the chance to sign on as their bard. It's adventure she wants - and adventure she gets as the crew embark on a quest that will end in one of two ways: glory or death.

It's time to take a walk on the wyld side.

For more from Nicholas Eames, check out Kings of the Wyld.

Brian McClellan (2013)

Wrath of Empire
Gods of Blood and Powder 2
Orbit, March 6, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 592 pages

The country is in turmoil. With the capital city occupied, half a million refugees are on the march, looking for safety on the frontier, accompanied by Lady Flint's soldiers. But escaping war is never easy, and soon the battle may find them, whether they are prepared or not.

Back in the capital, Michel Bravis smuggles even more refugees out of the city. But internal forces are working against him. With enemies on all sides, Michel may be forced to find help with the very occupiers he's trying to undermine.

Meanwhile, Ben Styke is building his own army. He and his mad lancers are gathering every able body they can find and searching for an ancient artifact that may have the power to turn the tides of war in their favor. But what they find may not be what they're looking for.

Continue the pistol-packing fantasy series by the author whose debut novel Brandon Sanderson called "just plain awesome!"

Steve Toutonghi (2016)

Side Life
Soho Press, May 8, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 320 pages

Vin, a down-on-his-luck young tech entrepreneur forced out of the software company he started, takes a job house-sitting an ultra-modern Seattle mansion whose owner has gone missing. There he discovers a secret basement lab with an array of computers and three large, smooth caskets. Inside one he finds a woman in a state of suspended animation. There is also a dog-eared notebook filled with circuit diagrams, beautiful and intricate drawings of body parts, and pages of code.

When Vin decides to climb into one of the caskets to see what happens, his reality begins to unravel, and he finds himself on a terrifying journey that asks fundamental questions about reality, free will, and the meaning of a human life.

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

Nicholas:  Thanks for having me! I started writing back in high-school, but didn't really take it seriously until after college, when I started reading books that affected me emotionally and thought, "This is what I'd like to do with my life."



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

Nicholas:  Major pantser! At the beginning of KINGS OF THE WYLD the characters clearly state their intention to go from point A to point B, so I did my very best to throw as many kinks in their path as possible. What happens from one chapter to the next will hopefully surprise a reader as much as it did me.



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

Nicholas:  I know that most writers tend to bang out a first draft without worrying how it reads or if it's necessarily cohesive, and I think being able to do that would be tremendously productive. At present, however, I tend to get really nit-picky (see: obsessive) about what I've already written. Being able to blow through a first draft BEFORE revising extensively is a skill I would dearly love to develop. Now if you'll excuse me while I revise this paragraph...



TQ:  What has influenced / influences your writing?

Nicholas:  Regarding the craft itself, Guy Gavriel Kay is the author who made the biggest impact on me, though I think reading books by Joe Abercrombie and Scott Lynch made me believe there was a way to get humour AND heart to play nice in a fantasy book. Very recently, Delilah S. Dawson's 'Wake of Vultures' gave me a lesson in committing to a character's voice.

For this series specifically, the setting of each book is (loosely) based on an era of music. For KINGS it was 70's rock, and those looking with a keen eye will find quite a few cunningly (and not-so-cunningly) hidden references within.



TQ:   Describe Kings of the Wyld in 140 characters or less.

Nicholas:  It's the often humorous and sometimes poignant story of a once-celebrated band of monster-hunting mercenaries who must reunite after decades apart to rescue the daughter of their leader, Gabriel.



TQ:  Tell us something about Kings of the Wyld that is not found in the book description.

Nicholas:  The names of my agent, my editor, and the author who had a hand in KINGS getting published are all somewhere, in some form, on the map.



TQ:  What inspired you to write Kings of the Wyld? What appeals to you about writing Fantasy?

Nicholas:  I started writing KOTW almost immediately after reading 'Ready Player One', by Ernest Cline. That book, more than any other, is directly responsible for my own. The pacing is incredible, with one chapter practically bleeding into the next, and the whole time I was reading it I was intensely aware of how much fun I was having.

As for why I'm drawn to fantasy, the most obvious reason is this: there is nothing that happens in a fiction book that cannot happen in a fantasy (or science fiction) book, but the opposite cannot be said. Fiction, for the most part, is confined by what is real, what is possible, whereas fantasy (and again, sci-fi) is not. Provided the author creates characters you can empathize with and a setting you believe in, the story itself is utterly without boundaries. That's my opinion, anyway. Mileage may vary.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for Kings of the Wyld?

Nicholas:  The best kind! As I mentioned, the setting is allegorical of the golden age of classic rock, so although I read some books and watched some documentaries on bands of that era, I mostly drank lots of whiskey and listened to an endless succession of mind-blowing rock albums. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, Black Sabbath...To be honest, I had very limited knowledge of these bands before I wrote this book. Now, however, I'm here to tell you: OLD PEOPLE ARE RIGHT! That music is far superior to anything we've come up with since. Don't get me wrong: I love The Weeknd like anyone else with two ears and a heartbeat, but you can't top a high-as-a-kite Jimmy Paige guitar solo.



TQ:  Please tell us about the Kings of the Wyld's cover.

Nicholas:  First of all, I'm in love with it--and I am very picky about fantasy book covers. The lettering and design was done by Lisa Marie Pompilio at Orbit, and I really like that she embraces the book's 70's rock inspiration when it came to the title font. The artwork was done by Richard Anderson, who is my favourite cover artist of all time. I used to buy any and every book he did the cover art for (I bought two the day before I found out I was getting a book deal, even!) so it's pretty surreal to have his artwork on mine.



TQ:  In Kings of the Wyld who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Nicholas:  I think the main character, Clay, was the easiest, because we share the same sense of humour. The hardest was Lastleaf, my antagonist, because I didn't want to make him evil for the sake of being evil (I know--every author says that. Don't worry: book two's antagonist is totally, totally evil). Also, he's not at all the focal-point of the story, so I had to make the most of his interactions with the band.



TQ:  Which question about Kings of the Wyld do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Nicholas:

ME: If there was ever a movie made of Kings of the Wyld, what classic rock song would play during the opening credits. How about the end credits?

ALSO ME: Great question, Nick! The opening song would be The Who's 'Baba O'Riley'. And for the end credits: 'Shelter From the Storm' by Bob Dylan.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from Kings of the Wyld.

Nicholas:  Ooooh! *steeples finger maniacally*

"There was nothing to mark the grave, no headstone upon which [her] single mourner might lay a wreath, or set a candle. There were only the words be kind carved into the birch's brittle skin, as if whoever did so had been crying, or a child, or both."



TQ:  What's next?

Nicholas:  The Band: Book Two! (title to be haggled over endlessly by my editor and I until I inevitably capitulate and name it whatever she wants me to name it because that's just how it goes!)



TQ:   Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Nicholas:  Thank YOU so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Kings of the Wyld
The Band 1
Orbit, February 21, 2017
Trade Paperback and eBook, 544 pages

GLORY NEVER GETS OLD.

Clay Cooper and his band were once the best of the best, the most feared and renowned crew of mercenaries this side of the Heartwyld.

Their glory days long past, the mercs have grown apart and grown old, fat, drunk, or a combination of the three. Then an ex-bandmate turns up at Clay's door with a plea for help--the kind of mission that only the very brave or the very stupid would sign up for.

It's time to get the band back together.

About Nicholas

Nicholas Eames was born to parents of infinite patience and unstinting support in Wingham, Ontario. Though he attended college for theatre arts, he gave up acting to pursue the infinitely more attainable profession of 'epic fantasy novelist.' Kings of the Wyld is his first novel. Nicholas loves black coffee, neat whiskey, the month of October, and video games. He currently lives in Ontario, Canada, and is very probably writing at this very moment.







Website  ~  Twitter @Nicholas_Eames

Happy Monday and Happy President's Day to those in the US.

There are 5 debuts this week:

The Book of Mirrors by E. O. Chirovici;

Kings of the Wyld (The Band 1) by Nicholas Eames;

The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan;

The Mercy of the Tide by Keith Rosson;

and

Cold Counsel by Chris Sharp.



And from formerly featured DAC Authors:

The Devourers by Indra Das is out in Trade Paperback;

Enemy (Seven Eyes 3) by Betsy Dornbusch;

The Vagrant and the City (Vagrant Short Story) by Peter Newman;

The Fallen (The Darkest Hand Trilogy 2) by Tarn Richardson;

A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic 3) by V. E. Schwab;

and

Empire's End: Aftermath (Star Wars: The Aftermath Trilogy 3) by Chuck Wendig.

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

February 20, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Humans, Bow Down (e)	James Patterson Emily Raymond	Th

February 21, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Book of Mirrors (D)	E. O. Chirovici	LF
Cassius	Ben Counter	SF - Space Marine Legends 2
The Devourers (h2tp)	Indra Das	DF/LF/HistF
Driving Rain	Sierra Dean	UF - Rain Chaser
Enemy	Betsy Dornbusch	F - Seven Eyes 3
Kings of the Wyld (D)	Nicholas Eames	F - The Band
The Book of Etta	Meg Elison	SF/AP/PA - The Road to Nowhere 2
Dark Promises (h2mm)	Christine Feehan	PNR - Carpathian 29
Firestorm: Volume 2: A Dragon Romance (e)	Donna Grant	PNR - Dark Kings
The Keeper of Lost Things (D)	Ruth Hogan	Fiction
Lady of Silver (e)	Shona Husk	PNR - Blood & Silver 1
Steal the Lightning	Tim Lees	UF - Field Ops 3
Through The Gate in the Sea	Howard Andrew Jones	F - Pathfinder Tales 37
The Great Wall - The Official Movie Novelization	Mark Morris	F/P
The Bird's Child	Sandra Leigh Price	Fiction
The Fallen (e)	Tarn Richardson	DF - The Darkest Hand Trilogy 2
The Mercy of the Tide (D)	Keith Rosson	AH/MR/LF
A Conjuring of Light	V. E. Schwab	HistF - Shades of Magic 3
Cold Counsel (D)	Chris Sharp	F
Interior Darkness: Selected Stories (h2tp)	Peter Straub	H - Collection
Dark Blood (e)	James M. Thompson	DF - Elijah Pike Vampire Chronicles 2
Empire's End: Aftermath	Chuck Wendig	SF/SO - Star Wars: The Aftermath Trilogy 3
Wardens of the Everqueen	C L Werner	F - The Realmgate Wars 5

February 22, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Losing Heart Among the Tall: A Tor.com Original (e)	A. M. Dellamonica	F

February 23, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Fierce Gods (e)	Col Buchanan	F - Heart of the World 4
The Fortunate Fall (ri)	Raphael Carter	SF
Carnivalesque (e)	Neil Jordan	LF/F
Science Fiction Criticism: An Anthology of Essential Writings	Rob Latham	HC/SF
The Vagrant and the City (e)	Peter Newman	F - Vagrant Short Story
Players of the Game (e)	Graeme K. Talboys	F - Shadow in the Storm 3

February 24, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Stone Cold Bastards	Jake Bible	UF

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



AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
CW - Contemporary Women
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GB - Genre Bender
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghosts
GN - Graphic Novel
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HU - Humor
LC - Literary Criticism
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legends and Mythology
M - Mystery
Meta - Metaphysical
MR - Magical Realism
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PCM - Paranormal Cozy Mystery
PM - Paranormal Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Pol - Political
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
R - Romance
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SH - Superheroes
SO - Steampunk
Sup - Supernatural
SupM - Supernatural Mystery
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy
UFR - Urban Fantasy Romance
Vis - Visionary


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

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 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 February 24, 2017 (unless extended).

Vote for your favorite February 2017 Debut Cover!

All Our Wrong Todays

Amberlough

The Book of Mirrors

Cold Counsel

Dr Potter's Medicine Show

Game of Shadows

Gilded Cage

The Keeper of Lost Things

Kings of the Wyld

Lincoln in the Bardo

The Mercy of the Tide

Nightwalker

The Twenty Days of Turin

Zodiac

 

pollcode.com free polls

E. O. Chirovici

The Book of Mirrors
Atria/Emily Bestler Books, February 21, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 288 pages
Literary Fiction

An elegant, page-turning thriller in the vein of Night Film and Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, this tautly crafted novel is about stories: the ones we tell, the ones we keep hidden, and the ones that we’ll do anything to ensure they stay buried.

When literary agent Peter Katz receives a partial book submission entitled The Book of Mirrors, he is intrigued by its promise and original voice. The author, Richard Flynn, has written a memoir about his time as an English student at Princeton in the late 1980s, documenting his relationship with the protégée of the famous Professor Joseph Wieder. One night just before Christmas 1987, Wieder was brutally murdered in his home. The case was never solved. Now, twenty-five years later, Katz suspects that Richard Flynn is either using his book to confess to the murder, or to finally reveal who committed the violent crime.

But the manuscript ends abruptly—and its author is dying in the hospital with the missing pages nowhere to be found. Hell-bent on getting to the bottom of the story, Katz hires investigative journalist John Keller to research the murder and reconstruct the events for a true crime version of the memoir. Keller tracks down several of the mysterious key players, including retired police detective Roy Freeman, one of the original investigators assigned to the murder case, but he has just been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Inspired by John Keller’s investigation, he decides to try and solve the case once and for all, before he starts losing control of his mind. A trip to the Potosi Correctional Centre in Missouri, several interviews, and some ingenious police work finally lead him to a truth that has been buried for over two decades...or has it?

Stylishly plotted, elegantly written, and packed with thrilling suspense until the final page, The Book of Mirrors is a book within a book like you’ve never read before.

Giorgio De Maria

The Twenty Days of Turin
Ramon Glazov (Translator)
Liveright, February 7, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 224 pages
Literary Fiction
(English Debut)

Written during the height of the 1970s Italian domestic terror, a cult novel, with distinct echoes of Lovecraft and Borges, makes its English-language debut.

In the spare wing of a church-run sanatorium, some zealous youths create "the Library," a space where lonely citizens can read one another’s personal diaries and connect with like-minded souls in "dialogues across the ether." But when their scribblings devolve into the ugliest confessions of the macabre, the Library’s users learn too late that a malicious force has consumed their privacy and their sanity. As the city of Turin suffers a twenty-day "phenomenon of collective psychosis" culminating in nightly massacres that hundreds of witnesses cannot explain, the Library is shut down and erased from history. That is, until a lonely salaryman decides to investigate these mysterious events, which the citizenry of Turin fear to mention. Inevitably drawn into the city’s occult netherworld, he unearths the stuff of modern nightmares: what’s shared can never be unshared.

An allegory inspired by the grisly neo-fascist campaigns of its day, The Twenty Days of Turin has enjoyed a fervent cult following in Italy for forty years. Now, in a fretful new age of "lone-wolf" terrorism fueled by social media, we can find uncanny resonances in Giorgio De Maria’s vision of mass fear: a mute, palpitating dread that seeps into every moment of daily existence. With its stunning anticipation of the Internet—and the apocalyptic repercussions of oversharing—this bleak, prescient story is more disturbingly pertinent than ever.

Brilliantly translated into English for the first time by Ramon Glazov, The Twenty Days of Turin establishes De Maria’s place among the literary ranks of Italo Calvino and beside classic horror masters such as Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft. Hauntingly imaginative, with visceral prose that chills to the marrow, the novel is an eerily clairvoyant magnum opus, long overdue but ever timely.

Lara Elena Donnelly

Amberlough
Tor Books, February 7, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 400 pages
Historical Fantasy

From author Lara Elena Donnelly, a debut spy thriller as a gay double-agent schemes to protect his smuggler lover during the rise of a fascist government coup

Trust no one with anything – especially in Amberlough City.

Covert agent Cyril DePaul thinks he’s good at keeping secrets, especially from Aristide Makricosta. They suit each other: Aristide turns a blind eye to Cyril’s clandestine affairs, and Cyril keeps his lover’s moonlighting job as a smuggler under wraps.

Cyril participates on a mission that leads to disastrous results, leaving smoke from various political fires smoldering throughout the city. Shielding Aristide from the expected fallout isn’t easy, though, for he refuses to let anything – not the crooked city police or the mounting rage from radical conservatives – dictate his life.

Enter streetwise Cordelia Lehane, a top dancer at the Bumble Bee Cabaret and Aristide’s runner, who could be the key to Cyril’s plans—if she can be trusted. As the twinkling lights of nightclub marquees yield to the rising flames of a fascist revolution, these three will struggle to survive using whatever means — and people — necessary. Including each other.

Combining the espionage thrills of le Carré with the allure of an alternate vintage era, Amberlough will thoroughly seduce and enthrall you.

"James Bond by way of Oscar Wilde." —Holly Black

"Sparkling with slang, full of riotous characters, and dripping with intrigue, Amberlough is a dazzling romp through a tumultuous, ravishing world." —Robert Jackson Bennett, winner of the Shirley Jackson Award and the Edgar Award

"An astonishing first novel!" —World Fantasy Award-winning author Ellen Kushner

Nicholas Eames

Kings of the Wyld
The Band 1
Orbit, February 21, 2017
Trade Paperback and eBook, 544 pages
Epic Fantasy

GLORY NEVER GETS OLD.

Clay Cooper and his band were once the best of the best, the most feared and renowned crew of mercenaries this side of the Heartwyld.

Their glory days long past, the mercs have grown apart and grown old, fat, drunk, or a combination of the three. Then an ex-bandmate turns up at Clay's door with a plea for help--the kind of mission that only the very brave or the very stupid would sign up for.

It's time to get the band back together.

Eric Scott Fischl

Dr. Potter's Medicine Show
Angry Robot, February 7, 2017
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 352 pages
Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Science Fiction, Steampunk

Dr. Alexander Potter, disgraced Civil War surgeon, now huckster and seller of snake-oil, travels the wet roads of the Pacific Northwest with a disheartened company of strongmen, illusionists, fortunetellers, and musical whores. Under the quiet command of the mysterious, merciless, and murderous Lyman Rhoades, they entertain the masses while hawking the Chock-a-saw Sagwa Tonic, a vital elixir touted to cure all ills both physical and spiritual… although, for a few unfortunate customers, the Sagwa offers something much, much worse.

For drunken dentist Josiah McDaniel, the Sagwa has taken everything from him; in the hired company of two accidental outlaws, the bickering brothers Solomon Parker and Agamemnon Rideout, he looks to revenge himself on the Elixir’s creator: Dr. Morrison Hedwith, businessman, body-thief, and secret alchemist, a man who is running out of time.

File Under: Fantasy [ The Secret Tradition | Chemical Imbalance | Hustlers Hustled | The Carnival is Over ]

Sebastian Fitzek

The Nightwalker
Jaime Lee Searle (Translator)
Pegasus Books, February 7, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 416 pages
Psychological Thriller
(American Debut)

A psychological thrill-ride of a novel that finds an insomniac wondering if his nighttime excursions have turned into something beyond his imagination.

As a young man, Leon Nader suffered from insomnia. As a sleepwalker, he even turned to violence during his nocturnal excursions and had psychiatric treatment for his condition. Eventually, he was convinced he had been cured—but one day, years later, Leon's wife disappears from their apartment under mysterious circumstances. Could it be that his illness has broken out again? In order to find out how he behaves in his sleep, Leon fits a movement activated camera to his forehead—and when he looks at the video the next morning he makes a discovery that bursts the borders of his imagination. His nocturnal personality goes through a door that is totally unknown to him and descends into the darkness . . .

Sebastian Fitzek has been published in twenty-nine languages including Dutch, Italian, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Gree, Russian, Turkish, Polish, Bulgarian, Danish, and Japanese. He is a number one bestselling author in Germany, where he lives. This is his American debut.

Ruth Hogan

The Keeper of Lost Things
William Morrow, February 21, 2017
Hardcover and eBook 288 pages
Literary Fiction

A charming, clever, and quietly moving debut novel of of endless possibilities and joyful discoveries that explores the promises we make and break, losing and finding ourselves, the objects that hold magic and meaning for our lives, and the surprising connections that bind us.

Lime green plastic flower-shaped hair bobbles—Found, on the playing field, Derrywood Park, 2nd September.

Bone china cup and saucer—

Found, on a bench in Riveria Public Gardens, 31st October.

Anthony Peardew is the keeper of lost things. Forty years ago, he carelessly lost a keepsake from his beloved fiancée, Therese. That very same day, she died unexpectedly. Brokenhearted, Anthony sought consolation in rescuing lost objects—the things others have dropped, misplaced, or accidently left behind—and writing stories about them. Now, in the twilight of his life, Anthony worries that he has not fully discharged his duty to reconcile all the lost things with their owners. As the end nears, he bequeaths his secret life's mission to his unsuspecting assistant, Laura, leaving her his house and and all its lost treasures, including an irritable ghost.

Recovering from a bad divorce, Laura, in some ways, is one of Anthony's lost things. But when the lonely woman moves into his mansion, her life begins to change. She finds a new friend in the neighbor's quirky daughter, Sunshine, and a welcome distraction in Freddy, the rugged gardener. As the dark cloud engulfing her lifts, Laura, accompanied by her new companions, sets out to realize Anthony's last wish: reuniting his cherished lost objects with their owners.

Long ago, Eunice found a trinket on the London pavement and kept it through the years. Now, with her own end drawing near, she has lost something precious—a tragic twist of fate that forces her to break a promise she once made.

As the Keeper of Lost Objects, Laura holds the key to Anthony and Eunice's redemption. But can she unlock the past and make the connections that will lay their spirits to rest?

Full of character, wit, and wisdom, The Keeper of Lost Things is heartwarming tale that will enchant fans of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Garden Spells, Mrs Queen Takes the Train, and The Silver Linings Playbook.

Vic James

Gilded Cage
Dark Gifts 1
Del Rey, February 14, 2017
Hardcover and eBook 368 pages
Fantasy, Dystopian, Science Fiction

A darkly fantastical debut set in a modern England where magically gifted aristocrats rule, and commoners are doomed to serve—for readers of Victoria Aveyard and Susanna Clarke

NOT ALL ARE FREE.
NOT ALL ARE EQUAL.
NOT ALL WILL BE SAVED.

Our world belongs to the Equals—aristocrats with magical gifts—and all commoners must serve them for ten years.

But behind the gates of England’s grandest estate lies a power that could break the world.

A girl thirsts for love and knowledge.

Abi is a servant to England’s most powerful family, but her spirit is free. So when she falls for one of their noble-born sons, Abi faces a terrible choice. Uncovering the family’s secrets might win her liberty—but will her heart pay the price?

A boy dreams of revolution.

Abi’s brother, Luke, is enslaved in a brutal factory town. Far from his family and cruelly oppressed, he makes friends whose ideals could cost him everything. Now Luke has discovered there may be a power even greater than magic: revolution.

And an aristocrat will remake the world with his dark gifts.

He is a shadow in the glittering world of the Equals, with mysterious powers no one else understands. But will he liberate—or destroy?

Erika Lewis

Game of Shadows
Tor Books, February 28, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 400 pages
Epic Fantasy

A young man plagued by the ability to see ghosts races to save the mythological land of Tara from a terrible fate in Erika Lewis's stunning debut, Game of Shadows.

Thousands of years ago in Ireland, an ancient race fought a world-changing battle—and lost. Their land overrun, the Celtic gods and goddesses fled, while the mythical races and magical druids sailed to an uncharted continent, cloaked so mankind could never find it. This new homeland was named Tara.

In modern day Los Angeles, Ethan Makkai struggles with an overprotective mother who never lets him out of her sight, and a terrifying secret: he can see ghosts. Desperate for a taste of freedom, he leaves his apartment by himself for the first time—only to find his life changed forever. After being attacked by dive-bombing birds, he races home to find the place trashed and his mother gone.

With the help of a captain from Tara who has been secretly watching the Makkais for a long time, Ethan sets out to save his mother; a journey that leads him to the hidden lands, and straight into the arms of a vicious sorcerer who will stop at nothing until he controls Tara.With new-found allies including Christian, the cousin he never knew he had, and Lily, the sword-slinging healer who’d rather fight than mend bones, Ethan travels an arduous road—dodging imprisonment, battling beasts he thought only existed in nightmares, and accepting help from the beings he’s always sought to avoid: ghosts. This L.A. teen must garner strength from his gift and embrace his destiny if he’s going to save his mother, the fearless girl he’s fallen for, and all the people of Tara.

Elan Mastai

All Our Wrong Todays
Dutton, February 7, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 384 pages
Science Fiction, Time Travel, Literary Fiction, Family Life

“A thrilling tale of time travel and alternate timelines with a refreshingly optimistic view of humanity’s future.”—Andy Weir, New York Times bestselling author of The Martian 

“Elan Mastai has conjured up a witty and freewheeling time-traveling romance that packs an emotional wallop. ALL OUR WRONG TODAYS is a page-turning delight.”—Maria Semple, author of Today Will Be Different and Where’d You Go, Bernadette

You know the future that people in the 1950s imagined we’d have? Well, it happened. In Tom Barren’s 2016, humanity thrives in a techno-utopian paradise of flying cars, moving sidewalks, and moon bases, where avocados never go bad and punk rock never existed…because it wasn’t necessary.

Except Tom just can’t seem to find his place in this dazzling, idealistic world, and that’s before his life gets turned upside down. Utterly blindsided by an accident of fate, Tom makes a rash decision that drastically changes not only his own life but the very fabric of the universe itself. In a time-travel mishap, Tom finds himself stranded in our 2016, what we think of as the real world. For Tom, our normal reality seems like a dystopian wasteland.

But when he discovers wonderfully unexpected versions of his family, his career, and—maybe, just maybe—his soul mate, Tom has a decision to make. Does he fix the flow of history, bringing his utopian universe back into existence, or does he try to forge a new life in our messy, unpredictable reality? Tom’s search for the answer takes him across countries, continents, and timelines in a quest to figure out, finally, who he really is and what his future—our future—is supposed to be.

All Our Wrong Todays is about the versions of ourselves that we shed and grow into over time. It is a story of friendship and family, of unexpected journeys and alternate paths, and of love in its multitude of forms. Filled with humor and heart, and saturated with insight and intelligence and a mind-bending talent for invention, this novel signals the arrival of a major talent.

Keith Rosson

The Mercy of the Tide
Meerkat Press, February 21, 2017
Trade Paperback and eBook, 294 pages
Alternate History, Speculative Fiction, Thriller

Riptide, Oregon, 1983. A sleepy coastal town, where crime usually consists of underage drinking down at a Wolf Point bonfire. But then strange things start happening—a human skeleton is unearthed in a local park and mutilated animals begin appearing, seemingly sacrificed, on the town’s beaches. The Mercy of the Tide follows four people drawn irrevocably together by a recent tragedy as they do their best to reclaim their lives—leading them all to a discovery that will change them and their town forever. At the heart of the story are Sam Finster, a senior in high school mourning the death of his mother, and his sister Trina, a nine-year-old deaf girl who denies her grief by dreaming of a nuclear apocalypse as Cold War tensions rise. Meanwhile, Sheriff Dave Dobbs and officer Nick Hayslip must try to put their own sorrows aside to figure out who, or what, is wreaking havoc on their once-idyllic town.

Keith Rosson paints outside the typical genre lines with his brilliant debut novel. It is a gorgeously written book that merges the sly wonder of magical realism and alternate history with the depth and characterization of literary fiction.

George Saunders

Lincoln in the Bardo
Random House, February 14, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 368 pages
Literary Fiction, Historical, Ghost

The long-awaited first novel from the author of Tenth of December: a moving and original father-son story featuring none other than Abraham Lincoln, as well as an unforgettable cast of supporting characters, living and dead, historical and invented

February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,” the president says at the time. “God has called him home.” Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns, alone, to the crypt several times to hold his boy’s body.

From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state—called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo—a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie’s soul.

Lincoln in the Bardo is an astonishing feat of imagination and a bold step forward from one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Formally daring, generous in spirit, deeply concerned with matters of the heart, it is a testament to fiction’s ability to speak honestly and powerfully to the things that really matter to us. Saunders has invented a thrilling new form that deploys a kaleidoscopic, theatrical panorama of voices to ask a timeless, profound question: How do we live and love when we know that everything we love must end?

Chris Sharp

Cold Counsel
Tor.com, February 21, 2017
Trade Paperback and eBook, 272 pages
Epic Fantasy

In Chris Sharp's new epic fantasy Cold Counsel, Slud of the Blood Claw Clan, Bringer of Troubles, was born at the heart of the worst storm the mountain had ever seen. Slud’s father, chief of the clan, was changed by his son’s presence. For the first time since the age of the giants, he rallied the remaining trolls under one banner and marched to war taking back the mountain from the goblin clans.

However, the long-lived elves remembered the brutal wars of the last age, and did not welcome the return of these lesser-giants to martial power. Twenty thousand elves marched on the mountain intent on genocide. They eradicated the entire troll species—save two.

Aunt Agnes, an old witch from the Iron Wood, carried Slud away before the elves could find them. Their existence remained hidden for decades, and in that time, Agnes molded Slud to become her instrument of revenge.

For cold is the counsel of women.

Sam Wilson

Zodiac
Pegasus Books, February 7, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 452 pages
Thriller, Science Fiction

In a volatile society ruled and divided by its citizens' zodiac signs, a serial killer is on the loose: is it a misguided revolution or something more sinister?

A starting new thriller with one of the most original concepts in years, where the line between a life of luxury and an existence of poverty can be determined by the stroke of midnight.

In San Celeste, a series of uniquely brutal murders targets victims from totally different walks of life. In a society divided according to Zodiac signs, those differences are cast at birth and binding for life. All eyes are on detective Jerome Burton and astrological profiler Lindi Childs—divided in their beliefs over whether the answer is written in the stars, but united in their conviction that there is an ingenious serial killer executing a grand plan.

Together, they will unravel a dark tale of betrayal, lost love, broken promises and a devastating truth with the power to tear their world apart . .

Sam Wilson has written, developed, and directed a number of television programs and documentaries. Zodiac is his début novel. He lives in South Africa.