The Qwillery

It is another Monday.

There are 3 debuts this week:

Stealing Thunder by Alina Boyden;

My Mother's House by Francesca Momplaisir;

and

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas.




From formerly feature DAC Authors:

Benjamin 2073: A Tor.com Original by Rjurik Davidson;

and

Aleph Extraction (Intergalactic Cold War 2) by Dan Moren is out in digital format; the Trade Paperback was published on April 3, 2020.

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

May 12, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Stealing Thunder (D)	Alina Boyden	F
Endland	Tim Etchells	LF/Dys/SS/BlHu
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
The 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 (ri)	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 - Intergalactic Cold War 2
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
A Time of Changes (ri)	Robert Silverberg	SF - Masterworks

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

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.

Rjurik Davidson (2014)

Benjamin 2073
A Tor.com Original
Tor Book, May 13, 2020
eBook, 32 pages

A Tor.com Original, Benjamin 2073 is a near future sci-fi story from award-winning author Rjurik Davidson

In the year 2073, humanity is making progress toward restoring the environment and fixing the mistakes of the past.

Ellie has spent the last ten years going even further by working to resurrect the thylacine, extinct since 1936. But with no results and increasingly impatient bureaucrats threatening to pull their funding, the thylacine’s future—and Ellie’s—is in danger of reaching the point of no return.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

David Demchuck (2017)

The Bone Mother
Proving Ground Press, May 26, 2020
Trade Paperback and eBook, 220 pages
(reissue edition)

WINNER OF THE 2018 SUNBURST AWARD

NOMINATED FOR THE SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD, AMAZON FIRST NOVEL AWARD, AND SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE

For two hundred years, the Grazyn porcelain factory built its reputation on its magnificent thimbles. It is said that even the Czarina Anastasia Romanova had received one in her trousseau. The workers come from the three neighboring villages on the border of Romania and Ukraine. Nourished, dressed and educated, they are the envy of all at a time when a famine programmed by Stalin sweeps the countryside and cannibalism rages from city to town to farm. But what is the secret of this factory and why does the Grazyn family protect its employees so scrupulously?

The Bone Mother revives the great figures of Slavic mythology on the eve of the Second World War, from rusalka and Baba Yaga--The Bone Mother herself--to the golem. The existence of mortals is intimately linked to that of witches and vampires, in a universe where strigois rub shoulders with mermaids, ghosts and seers...and all are in peril from the Nichni Politsiyi, the Night Police, which wish to eradicate them.

'A master of bowel-loosening terror' The Globe and Mail

'Demchuk gracefully pieces together a dark and shining mosaic of a story with unforgettable imagery and elegant, evocative prose.' Publishers Weekly (starred review)

'This is a book that bends genres, using the monsters of imagination as a back door to understanding the monsters of the real.' Nino Ricci

Award-winning author David Demchuk was born and raised in Winnipeg and now lives in Toronto. He has been writing for print, stage, digital and other media for nearly 40 years. The Bone Mother is his first novel.

Yoon Ha Lee (2016)

Beyond the Dragons Gate
A Tor.com Original
Tor Books, May 20, 2020
eBook, 32 pages

Former Academician Anna Kim’s research into AI cost her everything. Now, years later, the military has need of her expertise in order to prevent the destruction of their AI-powered fleet.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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

TQ:  Welcome back to The Qwillery. Your new novel, The Stars Askew (Caeli-Amur 2), was published on July 12th. Has your writing process changed (or not) from when you wrote Unwrapped Sky (Caeli-Amur 1) to The Stars Askew? What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Rjurik:  A writing process is one of the most important things for a writer to get worked out. It took me years to get on top of it. Recently I’ve been writing with another local Melbourne writer Morgan Grant Buchanan. Morgan is a co-writer with Claudia Christian and they’ve got a book out at the moment called Wolf’s Empire – worth checking out. Morgan and I usually meet at 7am and write for an hour. No talking allowed! Then we have a ten-minute break and begin again. We try to do 7-8 hours a day. There’s is no doubt that without the discipline and the presence of another we’d spend out time at home writing snatches in between checking the fridge, “What is there to eat, I wonder? I though I saw a muffin in here.”



TQ:  What do you wish that you knew about book publishing when Unwrapped Sky came out that you know now?

Rjurik:  There’s nothing quite so instructive as having a book published and reviewed. I understand now that there are really two sorts of readers (and fans of anything really). There are the aficionados, who know and understand the history, who appreciate the in-jokes and references, who like the new. Then there are the mass audience, who don’t think about such things but “just like X or Y.” Writers who aim to do something new will likely appeal to the first category of readers but not the second. If you attempt to write for the second, you risk boring the first (for good reason!) To appeal to both is fairly difficult.



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

Rjurik:  There’s a gay relationship between two of the characters. I won’t say which ones.



TQ:  Which character in the Caeli-Amur series (so far) has surprised you the most? Who has been the hardest character to write and why?

Rjurik:  The character of Maximilian, the thaumaturgist, has surprised me. At the beginning of The Stars Askew, he awakes with the god Aya lodged in his head. His loss of self-confidence, his crisis of faith – these surprised me. He started out thinking he was “the one”, destined to lead the people to liberation. But he realises that his was just ego. So where to from there? What place is there for him in the world?

For me, the easiest characters are the one’s who are significantly different in attitude to me. That means Armand in this one, who escapes Caeli-Amur and heads for the city of Varenis, there to raise an army and return and crush the rebellion.



TQ:  Why Minotaurs?

Rjurik:  Everyone loves Minotaurs! Everyone! Their immensity, their inky eyes, their explosive emotions – they’re the most attractive creatures in the books.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for The Stars Askew? What method do you use to keep the 'facts' straight about Caeil-Amur?

Rjurik:  A lot of the novel occurs outside Caeli-Amur in the wilderness. So there were lots of things like “how far can a horse travel in one day?” I’ve a massive document breaking down Caeli-Amur, it’s geography, its locations, its people. It’s still a bit of a mess, but it’s all there. One day I’ll have to reorganise it so it makes more sense.



TQ:  Why have you chosen to include or not chosen to include social issues in The Stars Askew?

Rjurik:  Stephen King once said something like: if you’re going to spend a year writing a book it really should be about something. In my case, I wanted to write about a revolution in a fantasy world. Revolutions are about different ways of seeing the world, about clashing hopes and dreams. They’re also about different classes in society: elites and the poor. It’s quite different from most fantasies, which are about the clashes of “kings” i.e. between societies rather than within them.



TQ:  Which question about The Stars Askew or Caeli-Amur do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Rjurik:  Who should read The Stars Askew? Why should they make it a priority?

The Stars Askew is for people who want to think about the world. Are you interested in things like the “Arab Spring” or dramatic historical moments like the Paris Commune? Do you like to think about gender and politics? Do you like to consider what’s morally acceptable to do? Is it a case, as Malcolm X once said, of “By Any Means Necessary?” and what means actually get you to that goal? And it’s all wrapped up in a dramatic story featuring prison camps, murder machines a bit like the guillotine called “the bolt”, lost towers in the wilderness, Alien Gods, strange diseases and assassins, Minotaurs and Gorgons. What more could you want?



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

Rjurik:  Here’s a little passage from a prison camp that features in the middle of the novel:


TQ:  What's next?

Rjurik:  I’ve a collection called Dark Tides coming out with the wonderful Twelfth Planet Press next year. It will showcase my science fiction, my surrealist stories, some of my more experimental stories, and even some essays.



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Rjurik:  Thanks for having me again!

The Stars Askew
Caeli-Amur 2
Tor Books, July 12, 2016
Hardcover and eBook,  416 pages

The Stars Askew is the highly anticipated sequel to the New Weird adventure begun by talented young author Rjurik Davidson. With the seditionists in power, Caeli-Amur has begun a new age. Or has it? The escaped House officials no longer send food, and the city is starving.

When the moderate leader Aceline is murdered, the trail leads Kata to a mysterious book that explains how to control the fabled Prism of Alerion. But when the last person to possess the book is found dead, it becomes clear that a conspiracy is afoot. At its center is former House Officiate Armand, who has hidden the Prism. Armand is vying for control of the Directorate, the highest political position in the city, until Armand is betrayed and sent to a prison camp to mine deadly bloodstone.

Meanwhile, Maximilian is sharing his mind with another being: the joker-god Aya. Aya leads Max to the realm of the Elo-Talern to seek a power source to remove Aya from Max's brain. But when Max and Aya return, they find the vigilants destroying the last remnants of House power.

It seems the seditionists' hopes for a new age of peace and prosperity in Caeli-Amur have come to naught, and every attempt to improve the situation makes it worse. The question now is not just whether Kata, Max, and Armand can do anything to stop the bloody battle in the city, but if they can escape with their lives.

Nighttime in Caeli-Amur
A Tor.Com Original
Tor Books, January 15, 2014
eBook, 32 pages

Caeli-Amur is a city-state where magic and technology are interchangeable; where minotaurs and sirens are real; where philosopher-assassins and seditionists are not the most dangerous elements in a city alive with threat. During the day, the ordinary citizens do what they must to get along. But at night, the spirit of the ancient city comes alive, to haunt the old places.

“Nighttime in Caeli-Amur” is not about minotaurs or sirens, but about a family whose lives in this place are fated in the ways of families everywhere . . . only not quite the same.

Unwrapped Sky
Caeli-Amur 1
Tor Science Fiction, March 3, 2015
Mass Market Paperback, 528 pages
Hardcover and eBook, April 15, 2014

A hundred years ago, the Minotaurs saved Caeli-Amur from conquest. Now, three very different people may hold the keys to the city's survival.

Once, it is said, gods used magic to create reality, with powers that defied explanation. But the magic—or science, if one believes those who try to master the dangers of thaumaturgy—now seems more like a dream. Industrial workers for House Technis, farmers for House Arbor, and fisher folk of House Marin eke out a living and hope for a better future. But the philosopher-assassin Kata plots a betrayal that will cost the lives of godlike Minotaurs; the ambitious bureaucrat Boris Autec rises through the ranks as his private life turns to ashes; and the idealistic seditionist Maximilian hatches a mad plot to unlock the vaunted secrets of the Great Library of Caeli-Enas, drowned in the fabled city at the bottom of the sea, its strangeness visible from the skies above.

In a novel of startling originality and riveting suspense, these three people, reflecting all the hopes and dreams of the ancient city, risk everything for a future that they can create only by throwing off the shackles of tradition and superstition, as their destinies collide at ground zero of a conflagration that will transform the world . . . or destroy it.

Unwrapped Sky is a stunningly original debut by Rjurik Davidson, a young master of the New Weird.

About Rjurik

Photo by Leena Kärkkäinen

Rjurik Davidson, a young Australian author who won the Aurealis Award for Best Newcomer some years ago, has been writing about the city of Caeli-Amur for nearly a decade. His debut novel, Unwrapped Sky is set in this city-state where magic and technology are interchangeable; where minotaurs and sirens are real; where philosopher-assassins and seditionists are not the most dangerous elements in a city alive with threat. During the day, the ordinary citizens do what they must to get along. But at night, the spirit of the ancient city comes alive, to haunt the old places . . .

Website  ~  Twitter @RjurikDavidson

Happy Monday!

There are 3 debuts out this week -

The Devourers by Indra Das

Arabella of Mars (The Adventures of Arabella Ashby 1) by David D. Levine

and

The Last One by Alexandra Oliva.



From formerly featured DAC Authors:

New:

Time Siege (Time Salvager 2) by Wesley Chu;

The Stars Askew (Caeli-Amur 2) by Rjurik Davidson;

Outlaw (On the Bones of Gods 2) by K. Eason;

The Returned (An American Faerie Tale 3) by Bishop O'Connell is out in digital format;

Life Debt: Aftermath (Star Wars: The Aftermath Trilogy 2) by Chuck Wendig.



Format Change:

Twelve Kings in Sharakhai (Song of Shattered Sands 1) by Bradley Beaulieu is out in Trade Paperback;

Sorcerer to the Crown (A Sorcerer Royal Novel 1) by Zen Cho is out in Trade Paperback;

Shadow of the Void (Sundered World Trilogy 2) by Nathan Garrison is out in Mass Market Paperback;

and

A Brush of Darkness (Abby Sinclair 1) by Allison Pang is reissued in Trade Paperback.







July 12, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Razing of Prospero	Dan Abnett Aaron Dembski-Bowden Guy Haley Graham McNeill Chris Wraight	SF - Horus Heresy Omnibus
Deceptions (h2tp)	Kelley Armstrong	CF/M/Occ/Sup - Cainsville 1
The Great Ordeal	R. Scott Bakker	F - The Aspect-Emperor Trilogy 3
Twelve Kings in Sharakhai (h2tp)	Bradley Beaulieu	F - Song of Shattered Sands 1
The Time Train	Eric M. Bosarge	SF/TT
The Hauntings of Hood Canal	Jack Cady	SupTh
Sorcerer to the Crown (h2tp)	Zen Cho	HistF/RR - A Sorcerer Royal Novel 1
Time Siege	Wesley Chu	SF/TT - Time Salvager 2
The Devourers (D)	Indra Das	DF/HistF
The Stars Askew	Rjurik Davidson	F - Caeli-Amur 2
The Real Peter Pan: J. M. Barrie and the Boy Who Inspired Him	Piers Dudgeon	Biography
Outlaw	K. Eason	F - On the Bones of Gods 2
"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman (e)(ri)	Harlan Ellison	SF
A Boy and His Dog (e)(ri)	Harlan Ellison	SF
Path of Honor (e)(ri)	Diana Pharaoh Francis	F - Path Trilogy 2
Path of Blood (e)(ri)	Diana Pharaoh Francis	F - Path Trilogy 3
Path of Fate (e)(ri)	Diana Pharaoh Francis	F - Path Trilogy 1
Shadow of the Void	Nathan Garrison	F - Sundered World Trilogy 2
The Iron Assassin (h2tp)	Ed Greenwood	SP
The Ghoul King	Guy Haley	F - The Dreaming Cities 2
Red Queen	Christina Henry	DF/HistF - Chronicles of Alice 2
Buried and Shadowed	Alexandra Ivy Carrie Ann Ryan	PNR - Branded Packs 2
Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell	Paul Kane	H
The Captive Condition	Kevin P. Keating	LF/Cr/H
The Devouring God	James Kendley	F/P - Tohru Takuda 2
Deserts of Fire: Speculative Fiction and the Modern War	Douglas Lain (Ed)	SF - Anthology
Arabella of Mars (D)	David D. Levine	AH - The Adventures of Arabella Ashby 1
It Happened One Doomsday	Laurence MacNaughton	UF
1995	D.A. MacQuin	Sup/Occ/UF - 1995 Book 1
The Drifter	Stephen A. North	SF
The Returned (e)	Bishop O'Connell	UF - An American Faerie Tale 3
The Last One (D)	Alexandra Oliva	LF/Sus/SF/AP/PA
Spirit Animals	E. E. Richardson	UF - Ritual Crime Unit 3
The Hundred Names of Darkness	Nilanjana Roy	LF/F - The Wildings 2
Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights (h2tp)	Salman Rushdie	MR
Drowned Worlds	Jonathan Strahan (Ed)	SF - Anthology
Lawless and the Flowers of Sin	William Sutton	HistTh - Lawless 2
A Symphony of Echoes	Jodi Taylor	SF/TT - Chronicles of St. Mary's 2
The Big Book of Science Fiction	Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (Eds)	SF - Anthology
Necessity	Jo Walton	F - Thessaly 3
Life Debt: Aftermath	Chuck Wendig	SF/SO - Star Wars: The Aftermath Trilogy 2

July 13, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Once More Into The Abyss: A Tor.Com Original (e)	Dennis Danvers	SF - Stan 3

July 16, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
A Brush of Darkness (ri)	Allison Pang	UF - Abby Sinclair 1
The Clockwork Wolf (ri)	Lynn Viehl	SP- Disenchanted & Co. 2

D - Debut
e - eBook
Ed - editor
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
ri - reissue or reprint



AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
CM - Cozy Mystery
Cr - Crime
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
GB - Genre Bender
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost
GN - Graphic Novel
GO - Gothic
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HistTh - Historical Thriller
HU - Humor
LF - Literary Fiction
M - Mystery
MR - Magical Realism
Noir - Noir
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PM - Paranormal Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Pol - Political
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
R - Romance
RR - Regency Romance
SF - Science Fiction
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SP - Steampunk
SpecFic - Speculative Fiction
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy
Z - Zombies

Note: Not all of these genres are represented in the book above.

Rachel Cantor (2014)

Good on Paper
Melville House, January 26, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 320 pages

Beth Cato (2014)

Wings of Sorrow and BoneA Clockwork Dagger Novella
Harper Voyager Impulse, November 10, 2015
eBook, 149 pages

From the author of The Clockwork Dagger comes an exciting novella set in the same world…

After being rescued by Octavia Leander from the slums of Caskentia, Rivka Stout is adjusting to her new life in Tamarania. But it’s hard for a blossoming machinist like herself to fit in with proper society, and she’d much rather be tinkering with her tools than at a hoity-toity party any day.

When Rivka stumbles into a laboratory run by the powerful Balthazar Cody, she also discovers a sinister plot involving chimera gremlins and the violent Arena game Warriors. The innocent creatures will end up hurt, or worse, if Rivka doesn’t find a way to stop Mr. Cody. And to do that means she will have to rely on some unexpected new friends.

Breath of Earth
Harper Voyager, August 23, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 362 pages

After the Earth’s power is suddenly left unprotected, a young geomancer must rely on her unique magical powers to survive in in this fresh fantasy standalone from the author of acclaimed The Clockwork Dagger.

In an alternate 1906, the United States and Japan have forged a powerful confederation—the Unified Pacific—in an attempt to dominate the world. Their first target is a vulnerable China. In San Francisco, headstrong Ingrid Carmichael is assisting a group of powerful geomancer Wardens who have no idea of the depth of her power—or that she is the only woman to possess such skills.

When assassins kill the Wardens, Ingrid and her mentor are protected by her incredible magic. But the pair is far from safe. Without its full force of guardian geomancers, the city is on the brink of a cataclysmic earthquake that will expose Earth’s powers to masterminds determined to control the energy for their own dark ends. The danger escalates when Chinese refugees, preparing to fight the encroaching American and Japanese, fracture the uneasy alliance between the Pacific allies, transforming the city into a veritable powder keg. And the slightest tremor will set it off. . . .

Forced on the run, Ingrid makes some shocking discoveries about herself. Her powerful magic has grown even more fearsome . . . and she may be the fulcrum on which the balance of world power rests.

[description from the author's website]

Sebastien de Castell (2014)

Traitor's Blade
Greatcoats 1
Jo Fletcher Books, June 2, 2015
Trade Paperback, 300 pages
Hardcover and eBook, July 15, 2014

With swashbuckling action that recall Dumas' Three Musketeers Sebastien de Castell has created a dynamic new fantasy series. In Traitor's Blade a disgraced swordsman struggles to redeem himself by protecting a young girl caught in the web of a royal conspiracy.

The King is dead, the Greatcoats have been disbanded, and Falcio Val Mond and his fellow magistrates Kest and Brasti have been reduced to working as bodyguards for a nobleman who refuses to pay them. Things could be worse, of course. Their employer could be lying dead on the floor while they are forced to watch the killer plant evidence framing them for the murder. Oh wait, that's exactly what's happening.

Now a royal conspiracy is about to unfold in the most corrupt city in the world. A carefully orchestrated series of murders that began with the overthrow of an idealistic young king will end with the death of an orphaned girl and the ruin of everything that Falcio, Kest, and Brasti have fought for. But if the trio want to foil the conspiracy, save the girl, and reunite the Greatcoats, they'll have to do it with nothing but the tattered coats on their backs and the swords in their hands, because these days every noble is a tyrant, every knight is a thug, and the only thing you can really trust is a traitor's blade.

Rjurik Davidson (2014)

The Stars Askew
Caeli-Amur 2
Tor Books, July 12, 2016
Hardcover and eBook,  416 pages

The Stars Askew is the highly anticipated sequel to the New Weird adventure begun by talented young author Rjurik Davidson. With the seditionists in power, Caeli-Amur has begun a new age. Or has it? The escaped House officials no longer send food, and the city is starving.

When the moderate leader Aceline is murdered, the trail leads Kata to a mysterious book that explains how to control the fabled Prism of Alerion. But when the last person to possess the book is found dead, it becomes clear that a conspiracy is afoot. At its center is former House Officiate Armand, who has hidden the Prism. Armand is vying for control of the Directorate, the highest political position in the city, until Armand is betrayed and sent to a prison camp to mine deadly bloodstone.

Meanwhile, Maximilian is sharing his mind with another being: the joker-god Aya. Aya leads Max to the realm of the Elo-Talern to seek a power source to remove Aya from Max's brain. But when Max and Aya return, they find the vigilants destroying the last remnants of House power.

It seems the seditionists' hopes for a new age of peace and prosperity in Caeli-Amur have come to naught, and every attempt to improve the situation makes it worse. The question now is not just whether Kata, Max, and Armand can do anything to stop the bloody battle in the city, but if they can escape with their lives.

Tom Doyle (2014)

The Left-Hand Way
American Craft 2
Tor Books, August 11, 2015
Hardcover and eBook, 336 pages

Poe's Red Death returns, more powerful than ever. Can anyone stop him before he summons an apocalyptic nightmare even worse than himself?

In The Left-Hand Way, the second book of Tom Doyle's contemporary fantasy series, the American craftsmen are scattered like bait overseas. What starts as an ordinary liaison mission to London for Major Michael Endicott becomes a desperate chase across Europe, where Endicott is both hunted and hunter. Reluctantly joining him is his minder from MI13, Commander Grace Marlow, one of Her Majesty's most lethal magician soldiers, whose family has centuries of justified hostility to the Endicotts.

Meanwhile, in Istanbul and Tokyo, Endicott's comrades, Scherie Rezvani and Dale Morton, are caught in their own battles for survival against hired assassins and a ghost-powered doomsday machine. And in Kiev, Roderick Morton, the spider at the center of a global web, plots their destruction and his ultimate apotheosis. After centuries of imprisonment, nothing less than godlike power will satisfy Roderick, whatever the dreadful cost.

See Part 1 here

See Part 1.5 here

See Part 2 here

See Part 3 here

See Part 4 here

See Part 5 here

See Part 6 here

See Part 7 here

See Part 8 here

See Part 9 here

See Part 10 here

See Part 11 here

See Part 12 here

James L. Cambias

A Darkling Sea
Tor Books, February 3, 2015
Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Previously published in Hardcover and eBook, January 2014

On the planet Ilmatar, under a roof of ice a kilometer thick, a team of deep-sea diving scientists investigates the blind alien race that lives below. The Terran explorers have made an uneasy truce with the Sholen, their first extraterrestrial contact: so long as they don’t disturb the Ilmataran habitat, they’re free to conduct their missions in peace.

But when Henri Kerlerec, media personality and reckless adventurer, ends up sliced open by curious Ilmatarans, tensions between Terran and Sholen erupt, leading to a diplomatic disaster that threatens to escalate to war.

Against the backdrop of deep-sea guerrilla conflict, a new age of human exploration begins as alien cultures collide. Both sides seek the aid of the newly enlightened Ilmatarans. But what this struggle means for the natives—and the future of human exploration—is anything but certain, in A Darkling Sea by James Cambias.

Beth Cato

The Clockwork Crown
Clockwork Dagger 2
Harper Voyager, June 9, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 352 pages

Rich in atmosphere, imagination, and fun, the action-packed, magic-filled sequel to The Clockwork Dagger is an enchanting steampunk fantasy, evocative of the works of Trudi Canavan and Gail Carriger.

Narrowly surviving assassination and capture, Octavia Leander, a powerful magical healer, is on the run with handsome Alonzo Garrett, the Clockwork Dagger who forfeited his career with the Queen’s secret society of spies and killers—and possibly his life—to save her. Now, they are on a dangerous quest to find safety and answers: Why is Octavia so powerful? Why does she seem to be undergoing a transformation unlike any witnessed for hundreds of years?

The truth may rest with the source of her mysterious healing power—the Lady’s Tree. But the tree lies somewhere in a rough, inhospitable territory known as the Waste. Eons ago, this land was made barren and uninhabitable by an evil spell, until a few hardy souls dared to return over the last century. For years, the Waste has waged a bloody battle against the royal court to win its independence—and they need Octavia’s powers to succeed.

Joined by unlikely allies, including a menagerie of gremlin companions, she must evade killers and Clockwork Daggers on a dangerous journey through a world on the brink of deadly civil war.

Rjurik Davidson

Unwrapped Sky
Caeli-Amur 1
Tor Science Fiction, March 3, 2015
Mass Market Paperback, 528 pages
Previously published in Hardcover and eBook, April 2014

A hundred years ago, the Minotaurs saved Caeli-Amur from conquest. Now, three very different people may hold the keys to the city's survival.

Once, it is said, gods used magic to create reality, with powers that defied explanation. But the magic—or science, if one believes those who try to master the dangers of thaumaturgy—now seems more like a dream. Industrial workers for House Technis, farmers for House Arbor, and fisher folk of House Marin eke out a living and hope for a better future. But the philosopher-assassin Kata plots a betrayal that will cost the lives of godlike Minotaurs; the ambitious bureaucrat Boris Autec rises through the ranks as his private life turns to ashes; and the idealistic seditionist Maximilian hatches a mad plot to unlock the vaunted secrets of the Great Library of Caeli-Enas, drowned in the fabled city at the bottom of the sea, its strangeness visible from the skies above.

In a novel of startling originality and riveting suspense, these three people, reflecting all the hopes and dreams of the ancient city, risk everything for a future that they can create only by throwing off the shackles of tradition and superstition, as their destinies collide at ground zero of a conflagration that will transform the world . . . or destroy it.

Unwrapped Sky is a stunningly original debut by Rjurik Davidson, a young master of the New Weird.
[Hardcover description]

Rene Denfeld

The Enchanted
Harper Perennial, February 24, 2015
Trade Paperback, 272 pages
Previously published in Hardcover and eBook, March 2014

John Dixon

Devil's Pocket
Gallery Books, August 4, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 320 pages

The follow-up to the critically acclaimed Phoenix Island, which reads like “Lord of the Flies meets Wolverine and Cool Hand Luke” (F. Paul Wilson, creator of Repairman Jack) and inspired the CBS TV show Intelligence.

With a chip in his head and hundreds more throughout his body, sixteen-year-old Carl Freeman was turned from an orphan with impulse control issues into a super-soldier. Forced into the mercenary Phoenix Force group, he begins to fear he’ll never escape. Sent to a volcanic island to fight for them, he’ll compete in a combat tournament that awards teens with survival for merciless brutality. But just when all looks lost, he spies a friendly face…and possibly a way out.

Unwrapped Sky

Unwrapped Sky
Tor Books, April 15, 2014
Hardcover and eBook, 432 pages

A hundred years ago, the Minotaurs saved Caeli-Amur from conquest. Now, three very different people may hold the keys to the city's survival.

Once, it is said, gods used magic to create reality, with powers that defied explanation. But the magic—or science, if one believes those who try to master the dangers of thaumaturgy—now seems more like a dream. Industrial workers for House Technis, farmers for House Arbor, and fisher folk of House Marin eke out a living and hope for a better future. But the philosopher-assassin Kata plots a betrayal that will cost the lives of godlike Minotaurs; the ambitious bureaucrat Boris Autec rises through the ranks as his private life turns to ashes; and the idealistic seditionist Maximilian hatches a mad plot to unlock the vaunted secrets of the Great Library of Caeli-Enas, drowned in the fabled city at the bottom of the sea, its strangeness visible from the skies above.

In a novel of startling originality and riveting suspense, these three people, reflecting all the hopes and dreams of the ancient city, risk everything for a future that they can create only by throwing off the shackles of tradition and superstition, as their destinies collide at ground zero of a conflagration that will transform the world . . . or destroy it.

Unwrapped Sky is a stunningly original debut by Rjurik Davidson, a young master of the New Weird.

Nighttime in Caeli-Amur
A Tor.Com Original
Tor Books, January 15, 2014
eBook, 32 pages

Caeli-Amur is a city-state where magic and technology are interchangeable; where minotaurs and sirens are real; where philosopher-assassins and seditionists are not the most dangerous elements in a city alive with threat. During the day, the ordinary citizens do what they must to get along. But at night, the spirit of the ancient city comes alive, to haunt the old places.

“Nighttime in Caeli-Amur” is not about minotaurs or sirens, but about a family whose lives in this place are fated in the ways of families everywhere . . . only not quite the same.

About Rjurik

Photo by Leena Kärkkäinen

Rjurik Davidson has been an Associate Editor of Overland magazine, as well as a writer of short stories, essays, screenplays and reviews. His fiction has been published in Postscripts, Years Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy, Volumes One, Two and Four, Australian Dark Fantasy and Horror 2006, SciFiction, Aurealis, Borderlands and elsewhere. PS Publishing published a collection of short stories, The Library of Forgotten Books, in 2010. He has been short-listed and won a number of awards.

Website  ~  Blog  ~  Twitter @RjurikDavidson