The Qwillery

Happy Monday!

There are six debuts this week:

The Space Between the Stars by Anne Corlett;

The Prey of Gods by Nicky Draydon;

Soleri by Michael Johnston;

Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom: A Novel of Retropolis by Bradley W. Schenck;

Aberrant by Marek Šindelka, Nathan Fields (Translator);

and

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan;




From formerly featured DAC Authors:

Raven Stratagem (Machineries of Empire 2) by Yoon Ha Lee;

The Dragon Round by Stephen S. Power is out in Trade Paperback;

The Devil's Evidence by Simon Kurt Unsworth is out in Trade Paperback;

and

Virology by Ren Warom.

June 12, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Soul of Fire (e)(ri)	Laura Anne Gilman	FR - Portals 2

June 13, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Devil's Due	Taylor Anderson	SF/AH - Destroyermen 12
The Sacred Era (e)	Aramaki Yoshio Baryon Tensor Posadas (Tr)	SF/AP/PA
The Killing Lessons (ri)	Saul Black	PsyTh
Fata Morgana	Steven R. Boyett Ken Mitchroney	Hist/SF/TT
The Black Elfstone	Terry Brooks	F - The Fall of Shannara 1
The Mither Mages Trilogy (e)	Orson Scott Card	CF - Mither Mages
Wilders	Brenda Cooper	SF/AP/PA - Project Earth 1
The Space Between the Stars (D)	Anne Corlett	LF/Dys/SF/AP/PA
The Tourist (h2tp)	Robert Dickinson	LF/TT
The Prey of Gods (D)	Nicky Drayden	CF
A God in the Shed	J-F. Dubeau	Occ/Sup/H/P
A Green and Ancient Light (h2tp)	Frederic S. Durbin	HistF
The John Matherson Series: One Second After, One Year After, The Final Day (e)	William R. Forstchen	Th/SF/PA - John Matherson
The Halloween Children (e)	Brian James Freeman Norman Prentiss	GH/DF
Beyond the Sea	David L. Golemon	SF - Event Group Thrillers 12
Soleri (D - Solo)	Michael Johnston	F/HistF
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (tp)(ri)	Stephen King	DF/MTI - The Dark Tower 1
The Changeling	Victor LaValle	LF/CF
Raven Stratagem	Yoon Ha Lee	SF - Machineries of Empire 2
Hell's Detective: A Mystery	Michael Logan	SupTh
Wild Cards VII: Dead Man's Hand	George R. R. Martin Jon Jos. Miller	SF/SH - Wild Cards 7
Down Among the Sticks and Bones	Seanan McGuire	CF/DF/FairyT/FolkT/LM - Wayward Children 2
The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror (h2tp)	Joyce Carol Oates	Th/Psy - Collecttion
Supreme Villainy: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Most (In)Famous Supervillain Memoir	King Oblivion Matt D. Wilson (Ed)	SH/Parody/HU
The Dragon Round (h2tp)	Stephen S. Power	F
Cormorant Run	Lilith Saintcrow	SF/PA - Bannon & Clare 4
Brandon Sanderson's Fantasy Firsts (The Way of Kings, Mistborn: The Final Empire, Rithmatist, Alcatraz vs. The Evil Librarians) (e)	Brandon Sanderson	F
Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom (D)	Bradley W. Schenck	SF/HU - A Novel of Retropolis 1
Zero-G: Book 1 (h2tp)	William Shatner Jeff Rovin	SF - The Samuel Lord Series 1
Just Add Water (e)	Hunter Shea	H - Mail Order Massacres 1
The Darkest Promise	Gena Showalter	PNR - Lords of the Underworld 13
Silver Silence	Nalini Singh	PNR - Psy-Changeling Trinity 1
The Witch Who Came in from the Cold	Lindsay Smith Max Gladstone Cassandra Rose Clarke Ian Tregillis Michael Swanwick	HistF
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.	Neal Stephenson Nicole Galland	SF/TT/Th
Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore (D)	Matthew Sullivan	Psy
The Devil's Evidence (h2tp)	Simon Kurt Unsworth	Cr/H
Virology	Ren Warom	SF/CyP
The Hollow Crown	Jeff Wheeler	HistF - The Kingfountain 4
Judge Anderson: Year One	Alec Worley	SF
The Forgotten Girl: A Thriller	Rio Youers	SupTh

June 14, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Bourbon, Sugar, Grace: A Tor.com Priginal	Jessica Reisman	SF

June 15, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Timekeeper: A Steampunk Time-Travel Adventure	Heather Albano	SP/TT - Keeping Time 2
The Impossible Has Happened: The Life and Work of Gene Roddenberry, Creator of Star Trek (h2tp)	Lance Parkin	HC
The Eternal Kingdom (e)	Ben Peek	F - Children Trilogy 3
Aberrant (D)	Marek Šindelka Nathan Fields (Tr)	GB

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


AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
CB - Coloring Book
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
CoT - Conspiracy Theories
Cr - Crime
CyP - Cyberpunk
CW - Contemporary Women
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GB - Genre Bender
GH - Ghost(s)
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
Gothic - Gothic
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HistM - Historical Mystery
HistTh - Historical Thriller
HU - Humor
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legends and Mythology
M - Mystery
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PM - Paranormal Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
PRS - Paranormal Romantic Suspense
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
RSus - Romantic Suspense
SF - Science Fiction
SH - Superhero(es)
SocSci - Social Science
SP - Steampunk
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy
VisMeta - Visionary and Metaphysical
W - Western
WW - Weird Western

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

M.C. Plank (2013)

Judgment at Verdant Court
World of Prime 3
Pyr, December 6, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 343 pages

The continuing adventures of Christopher Sinclair, mechanical engineer turned priest of war.

Our hero faces evil on two fronts: a friend turned murderer by the power of magic, and an entire nation of murderous wolf-men. One he has to save from the vengeful clutches of the Druids, and the other from the mercenary greed of the king. But the true enemy is despair: the shame of a man who has done terrible things, and the madness of a man who is doing terrible violence. Can Christopher pick a path through broken and bloody bodies that still leaves room for goodness?

Daniel Polansky (2011)

A City Dreaming
Regan Arts., October 4, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 304 pages

A powerful magician returns to New York City and reluctantly finds himself in the middle of a war between the city’s two most powerful witches.

“It would help if you did not think of it as magic. M certainly had long ceased to do so.”

M is an ageless drifter with a sharp tongue, few scruples, and the ability to bend reality to his will, ever so slightly. He’s come back to New York City after a long absence, and though he’d much rather spend his days drinking artisanal beer in his favorite local bar, his old friends—and his enemies—have other plans for him. One night M might find himself squaring off against the pirates who cruise the Gowanus Canal; another night sees him at a fashionable uptown charity auction where the waitstaff are all zombies. A subway ride through the inner circles of hell? In M’s world, that’s practically a pleasant diversion.

Before too long, M realizes he’s landed in the middle of a power struggle between Celise, the elegant White Queen of Manhattan, and Abilene, Brooklyn’s hip, free-spirited Red Queen, a rivalry that threatens to make New York go the way of Atlantis. To stop it, M will have to call in every favor, waste every charm, and blow every spell he’s ever acquired—he might even have to get out of bed before noon.

Enter a world of Wall Street wolves, slumming scenesters, desperate artists, drug-induced divinities, pocket steampunk universes, and demonic coffee shops. M’s New York, the infinite nexus of the universe, really is a city that never sleeps—but is always dreaming.

meat+drink
A Tor.com Original
Tor Book, October 26, 2016
eBook, 32 pages

Baltimore isn't safe. Not even for the predatory meat that stalks its nights. Searching for victims who won't be missed, meat doesn't feel regret or pain—only thirst. But the meat remembers something more... doesn't it? is there more to eternal life than finding another drink?

Tom Pollock (2012)

The City's Son
The Skyscraper Throne 1
Jo Fletcher Books, April 5, 2016
     Trade Paperback, 376 pages
Jo Fletcher Books, November 5, 2013
     eBook, 465 pages

Tom Pollock's debut novel and the first volume of the Skyscraper Throne series, The City's Son is an imaginative tale of adventure set in a city that is quite literally alive.

Beneath the streets of London lies a city of monsters and miracles, where wild train spirits stampede over the tracks and glass-skinned dancers with glowing veins light the streets.

Following a devastating betrayal, Beth Bradley, a sixteen-year-old graffiti artist, is suspended from school. Running from a home that she shares with her father who has never recovered after Beth's mother's death, Beth stumbles into the hidden city and meets Filius Viae, London's asphalt-hued crown prince. And her timing couldn't have been more perfect. An ancient enemy is stirring under St. Paul's Cathedral, determined to stoke the flames of a centuries-old war, and Beth and Fin find themselves drawn into the depths of the mysterious urban wonderland, hoping to prevent the destruction of the city they both know and love.

The Glass Republic
The Skyscraper Throne 2
Jo Fletcher Books, October 4, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 448 pages

Pen Khan is burdened by a life of secrets, the biggest of which is written across her face. Following a devastatingly close encounter with a living coil of barbed wire called the Wire Mistress that almost killed her and her best friend Beth, Pen's face is strangely disfigured by dozens of crisscrossing scars, making her an outcast among her peers. The only person who understands her-and the trauma she's experienced-is her mirror sister, Parva, a twin confined to the world of London-Under-Glass.

Following Parva's abduction, Pen strikes a terrible bargain with the unforgiving Chemical Synod in exchange for the means to track her down, and she ventures into the unknown. In London-Under-Glass, appearance is everything, and Pen's peculiar scars make her a valuable ally. But some in the reflected city are doing everything they can to prevent Pen from learning the truth about the disappearance of a girl who shares her face.

Our Lady of the Streets
The Skyscraper Throne 3
Jo Fletcher Book, April 4, 2017
Trade Paperback and eBook, 464 pages

Ever since Beth Bradley found her way into a hidden London, the presence of its ruthless goddess, Mater Viae, has lurked in the background. Now Mater Viae has returned with deadly consequences.

Streets are wrecked by convulsions as muscles of wire and pipe go into spasm, bunching the city into a crippled new geography; pavements flare to thousand-degree fevers, incinerating pedestrians; and towers fall, their foundations decayed.

As the city sickens, so does Beth--her essence now part of this secret London. But when it is revealed that Mater Viae's plans for dominion stretch far beyond the borders of the city, Beth must make a choice: flee, or sacrifice her city in order to save it.

Stephen S. Power (2016)

The Dragon Round
Simon & Schuster, June 13, 2017
Trade Paperback, 336 pages
Hardcover and eBook, July 19, 2016

The Count of Monte Cristo with a dragon: a dark literary fantasy in which “Power paints his scenes with vivid and meticulous detail, and takes his tale of revenge in unexpected and refreshing directions” (Marie Brennan, author of the Natural History of Dragons series).

Jeryon has been the captain of the Comber for more than a decade. He knows the rules. He likes the rules. But not everyone on his ship agrees. After a monstrous dragon attacks the galley, the surviving crewmembers decide to take the ship for themselves and give Jeryon and his self-righteous apothecary “the captain’s chance”: a small boat with no rudder, no sails, and nothing but the clothes on his back to survive on the open sea.

Fighting for their lives against the elements, Jeryon and his companion land on an island that isn’t as deserted as they originally thought. They find a baby dragon that, if trained, could be their way home. But as Jeryon and the dragon grow closer, the captain begins to realize that even if he makes it off the island, his old life won’t be waiting for him. In order get justice, he’ll have to take it for himself.

From a Pushcart Prize–nominated poet and short story writer, The Dragon Round combines a rich world, desperate characters, and tightly coiled prose into a complex and compelling tale of revenge, perfect for fans of George R.R. Martin, Gene Wolfe, and Scott Lynch.

Cat Rambo (2015)

Altered America: Steampunk Stories
Plunkett Press, June 12, 2016
eBook, 143 pages

Steampunk fans will rejoice in the appearance of Altered America: Steampunk Stories, collecting Nebula and World Fantasy Award-nominated author Cat Rambo’s steampunk fantasies, including “Clockwork Fairies,” “Snakes on a A Train,” and “Her Windowed Eyes, Her Chambered Heart,” into a single book. Rambo’s wry humor, precise and evocative descriptions, and ability to create a world with a few deft touches are showcased in these ten tales.

Rambo has a gift for immersing her reader into a vivid universe full of adventure, sensuality, wit, and poignant observation. -Jody Lynn Nye

“Cat Rambo is endlessly innovative, ingenious, and just plain entertaining. Read her stories.” -Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of The Dark Between the Stars.

Highly recommended for anyone who enjoyed “The Wild, Wild West” and other steampunk stories. -Galaxy’s Edge Magazine

"A sparkling collection from one of the brightest talents in the field.” -Ursula Vernon

"Each one of Cat Rambo's steampunk stories stands solidly on its own, but as a collection, these stories click together like cogs to depict a complicated, curious alternate Earth filled with magic, technology, and mayhem.” -Beth Cato, author of The Clockwork Dagger

Includes “Clockwork Fairies,” “Rare Pears and Greengages,” “Laurel Finch, Laurel Finch, Where Do You Wander?”, Darrell Award nominated “Memphis BBQ,” “Rappacini’s Crow,” “Her Windowed Eyes, Her Chambered Heart,” “Snakes On a Train,” “Web of Blood and Iron,” “Ticktock Girl” and “Seven Clockwork Angels."

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery.

SSP:  Thanks for having me.



TQ:  When and why did you start writing?

SSP:  I started writing in third grade when Mrs. Barclay rewarded my unexpectedly good behavior with a turn at the typewriter in the back of the classroom. During recess I wrote the first chapter of a novel. It was 100 words long. The gist was this: A flying saucer appeared over a city, there was blinding flash, and the city was gone! Mrs. Barclay was so impressed that she had me read it to the class. They were impressed too and wanted to know what happened next. Unfortunately, I never did write chapter two. I still wonder what happened to the city.

Impressing your friends is a powerful inducement, and not disappointing them is an even more powerful one, so I let the writing bug latch on.



TQ:  What inspired you to write The Dragon Round?

SSP:  I used to be an editor at Wiley, and one day another editor, Eric Nelson, was telling me about a book his son was reading. He said, "Why would someone write a book for kids without a dragon?" And I said, "Why would someone write a book for anyone without a dragon? Wait...." I went back to my office and during lunch outlined a series of six books that each covered a key moment in human-dragon relations, the way World War Z covers the key moments in the zombie war. I showed Eric the outline, and he said, "What's in book two for readers of book one?" Which suggested I'd actually outlined a series of series.

After Wiley sold our publishing line and laid us off, Eric agented The Dragon Round before returning to editorial, so he didn't just inspire the novel. He enabled my entire career.



TQ:  Did you plot it or pants it, or are you a hybrid?

SSP:  A hybrid. I learned my lesson about pantsing novels in third grade. In fact, if I hadn't figured out a hybrid system for writing a novel around the time I conceived of The Dragon Round, I probably wouldn't have written it.



TQ:  What's your system?

SSP:  Basically, I write three outlines, each progressively longer than the last, then write the first draft. This way, at every stage, I only have to write two or three words for each one I've already written, which isn't that hard; plus I know where I'm going, but can still change directions as necessary. Most importantly, this system allows me plenty of room for invention. For instance, the poth wasn't in The Dragon Round until the third outline, and although I put her in to solve a little problem she was able to become a lead character.

I do pants short stories, through, because the initial investment isn't as large. I write the first act, and if I can see the structure of the rest I keep going. If I can't, I put the act in my backburner folder so I don't obsess over a lost cause.



TQ:  Pleaese describe The Dragon Round in 140 characters or less, like a tweet.

SSP:  "The Count of Monte Cristo" with a dragon. #DragonRound #LiberezDantes

That's actually a really good way of figuring out your elevator pitch: describing it one tweet.



TQ:  Besides The Count of Monte Cristo, what else influenced it?

SSP:  There's a fair amount of The Wire and Breaking Bad in "The Dragon Round," a lot of Jaws, pieces of Richard Zacks' Captain Kidd and Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers, a scene pulled from Hamlet, one pulled from Robinson Crusoe, several Star Wars references, and some of Jack Vance's oversubtlety, but none of his hyperurbaneness.



TQ:  Stylistically, though, the novel's very different from, say, Vance or most epic fantasy.

SSP:  Yes, consciously so. I couldn't compete with a George Martin or a Brandon Sanderson when it comes to world-building, plus I tend to ramble on, so I shoot for something more spare. I live by Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules for Writing. My only disagreement with him involves the word "said." I think a different word, such as "shouted" or "whispered," could be used instead of "said" in order to indicate volume if doing so in another way would be less elegant.



TQ:  How did being a poet affect your style?

SSP:  That's where the spareness comes from. How little can I write about something and still have it make sense? How much can I cut and still make an impact? How much can I pack into a single image or line of dialogue?



TQ:  Is that the most challenging thing for you about writing?

SSP:  For me, that's the fun of writing--or rewriting, actually. I won't be spare at first. I'll let myself run a little wild, then cut back later.

My biggest challenge as a writer is prioritizing. I love writing short stories, and I'm constitutionally incapable of turning away from a prompt, but I have to focus on The Dragon Tower, the sequel to The Dragon Round. So as a reward for finishing each chapter, and to give myself some distance from the novel, I get to write a story or spend some time outlining the first book in a new series, "The Dragons of America."



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

SSP:  For me, it's a novel about faith in a world without gods.



TQ:  What appeals to you about writing Fantasy?

SSP:  The same thing that appealed to me about the movie The Illusionist: I want my stories and poems to have a little bit of history, a little bit of mystery, and a little bit of magic.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for The Dragon Round?

SSP:  When I was in junior high I read Piers Anthony's Macroscope and afterwards made a list of all the subjects I would have to master in order to write a novel of my own: astronomy, history, biology, anthropology, archaeology...basically the departments at a major university. I never managed that, but thanks to Wikipedia, YouTube and Google I might as well have. I don't think I could have written The Dragon Round without them either. I spent hours, for instance, learning about bamboo and crabs, but my favorite bit of research was on how to sex a dragon.



TQ:  How do you--

SSP:  Carefully.



TQ:  Nice. Who was the easiest character to write and why? Who was the hardest?

SSP:  Solet was the easiest. He's a scoundrel. I never knew what he'd do or say.

Jeryon was the hardest because I saw the story through his eyes. About halfway through, probably because I had to look at him through the poth's eyes, I realized I'd never seen him from the outside. I knew how he thought and felt, and I knew what he wanted, but not why he was the way he was. It was a lot of fun discovering his back story and bringing that in.



TQ:  Why have you chosen to include or not chosen to include social issues in The Dragon Round?

SSP:  I didn't want to write another fantasy in which someone saves the world for feudalism. So I set it in an analog of our own world, which is why Hanosh is a corporate oligarchy, specifically the world as Milton Friedman would have it, in which profits must come before people.

The funny thing is, by laying me off, then providing a very generous severance package, Wiley provided both the impetus and the means to write the book.



TQ:  Which question about The Dragon Round do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

SSP:  I really want them to ask about the stuff that I only hint at, the stuff that makes me feel sooooo clever, but readers will have to figure out those things on their own. Or wait for later books. Or wait for me to figure them out myself.

In the meantime, here are two questions:

Q. Why do your paragraphs have fewer than 150 words?

A. When Vonnegut was in marketing at GE, he learned that the American attention span was 45 seconds long, so he made sure his paragraphs could be read in less time. I'm doing the same thing. It takes about 45 seconds to read 150 words.

Nowadays, the American attention span is only 6 seconds. A cynic would say, That's the length of tweet. An optimist would say, That's the length of a Shakespearean couplet.

One thing I couldn't do in this book was limit the length of my chapters. About halfway through, I did a little study of bestselling fiction, looking at books by Patterson, King, Evanovich, Dan Brown and others, and found that, when taken together, their average chapter had 1770 words. I may try to incorporate that stricture into future books.

Q. Where did the poth's name come from?

A. The song "Everlyn" by Somebody Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin. The band tweeted me that they were all for this when I tweeted the hivemind to ask whether her name should be that or Asper (who became the White Widow).

BTW, In looking for that video, I discovered there's now a band called Everlyn, and they are pretty great too. Check out Away We Go.



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

SSP:  It makes no sense out of context, but the one I say most to myself when no one is around is the poth's, "It's kitties!"

I also like how characters interpret the phrase "the wave rises, the wave falls" in their own ways.



TQ:  What's next?

SSP:  I'm about to start the first draft of The Dragon Tower, which I want to have done by July 1. I'd like to get through the second and third outlines of the first "Dragons of America" novel, so I can start drafting that while revising The Dragon Tower. And I'll write some stories in there, maybe expand my story "The Revivalist" into a novella, and finally draft another novella I've already outlined called "The Dragon Knight's Daughter."

So much for prioritizing.

The Dragon Round
Simon & Schuster, July 19, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 336 pages

A swashbuckling adventure with a dark side for fans of George R.R. Martin and Naomi Novik—when a ship captain is stranded on a deserted island by his mutinous crew, he finds a baby dragon that just might be the key to his salvation…and his revenge.

He only wanted justice. Instead he got revenge.

Jeryon has been the captain of the Comber for over a decade. He knows the rules. He likes the rules. But not everyone on his ship agrees. After a monstrous dragon attacks the galley, the surviving crewmembers decide to take the ship for themselves and give Jeryon and his self-righteous apothecary “the captain’s chance”: a small boat with no rudder, no sails, and nothing but the clothes on his back to survive on the open sea.

Fighting for their lives against the elements, Jeryon and his companion land on an island that isn’t as deserted as they originally thought. They find a baby dragon that, if trained, could be their way home. But as Jeryon and the dragon grow closer, the captain begins to realize that even if he makes it off the island, his old life won't be waiting for him and in order get justice, he’ll have to take it for himself.

From a Pushcart Prize–nominated poet and speculative short story writer, The Dragon Round combines a rich world, desperate characters, and gorgeous, literary fiction into a timeless tale of revenge. 

About Stephen

Stephen S. Power's short fiction has appeared at AE, Daily Science Fiction, Lightspeed, Nature, and many other venues. A Pushcart Prize nominee, he’s also published more than seventy poems in journals such as Clarion, The Lyric, The Iron Horse Literary Review, Measure and Raintown Review.  And as a veteran book editor he's worked on numerous bestsellers. The Dragon Round is his first novel. He tweets at @StephenSPower, his site is StephenSPower.com, and he lives in Maplewood, New Jersey.

Happy Monday!

There are 3 Debuts this week:

The Race by Nina Allan;

The Dragon Round by Stephen S. Power;

and

The Monster's Daughter by Michelle Pretorious.




From formerly featured DAC Authors:

Nightshades: A Paranormal Thriller by Melissa F. Olson;

and

Sacrifices (Arcane Underworld 3) by Jamie Schultz.






Debut novels are highlighted in blue. Novels by formerly featured Debut Author Challenge Authors are highlighted in green.



July 18, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Unwanted (e)	Jennifer Estep	UF - Elemental Assassin Novella
Not So Much, Said the Cat (e)	Michael Swanwick	SF - Collection

July 19, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Race (D)	Nina Allan	SF
The Hunt for Vulkan	David Annandale	SF - The Beast Arises 7
Ghost Run	J. L. Bourne	H/Z/Th/AP - Day by Day Armageddon 4
Imprudence	Gail Carriger	SP - The Custard Protocol 2
Warrior King	Evan Currie	SF/SO - Odyssey One 5
The Sunlight Pilgrims	Jenni Fagan	CoA/Psy/Dys
The Dragon Lords: Fool's Gold	Jon Hollins	F - The Dragon Lords 1
Nightshades: A Paranormal Thriller	Melissa F. Olson	PTh/UF
The Dragon Round (D)	Stephen S. Power	F
The Monster's Daughter (D)	Michelle Pretorius	HistTh/Pol/M
The Secret Language of Stones	M. J. Rose	Hist - The Daughters of La Lune 2
Sacrifices (e)	Jamie Schultz	UF - Arcane Underworld 3
The Plagues of Orath	Cavan Scott Steve Lyons Graeme Lyon	SF - Space Marine Battles
Orbs II: Stranded	Nicholas Sansbury Smith	SF/Th/AC - Orbs 2
Hell Divers	Nicholas Sansbury Smith	SF/AP/PA - Hell Divers 1
Fallout: The Hot War	Harry Turtledove	AH/SF - The Hot War 2

July 20, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
By Bizarre Hands (ri)	Joe R. Lansdale	H - Dover Horror Classics
Something Happened Here, But We're Not Quite Sure What It Was: A Tor.Com Original (e)	Paul McAuley	SF

July 22, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Whistling Past the Graveyard	Jonathan Maberry	H - Collection

D - Debut
e - eBook
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.

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 2016 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 July 30, 2016.

Vote for your favorite July 2016 Debut Cover!

Arabella of Mars

Bite

The Copper Promise

The Devourers

The Dragon Round

The Hatching

The Interminables

The Last One

Machinations

Midsummer Night's Mischief

The Monster's Daughter

Night of the Animals

The Race

The Summer That Melted Everything

The Wolf Road

 

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Nina Allan

The Race
Titan Books, July 19, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 400 pages

A child is kidnapped with consequences that extend across worlds… A writer reaches into the past to discover the truth about a possible murder… Far away a young woman prepares for her mysterious future…

In a future scarred by fracking and ecological collapse, Jenna Hoolman’s world is dominated by illegal smartdog racing: greyhounds genetically modified with human DNA. When her young niece goes missing that world implodes... Christy’s life is dominated by fear of her brother, a man she knows capable of monstrous acts and suspects of hiding even darker ones. Desperate to learn the truth she contacts Alex, who has his own demons to fight… And Maree, a young woman undertaking a journey that will change her world forever.

Ezekiel Boone

The Hatching
The Hatching Series 1
Atria/Emily Bestler Book, July 5, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 352 pages

“An apocalyptic extravaganza of doom and heroism…addictive.” —Publishers Weekly

“It’s been too long since someone reminded us that spiders are not just to be feared, but also may well spell doom for mankind. Fortunately, Ezekiel Boone has upped the ante on arachnophobia. This is a fresh take on classic horror, thoroughly enjoyable and guaranteed to leave your skin crawling.” —Michael Koryta, New York Times bestselling author of Those Who Wish Me Dead

An astonishingly inventive and terrifying debut novel about the emergence of an ancient species, dormant for over a thousand years, and now on the march.

Deep in the jungle of Peru, where so much remains unknown, a black, skittering mass devours an American tourist whole. Thousands of miles away, an FBI agent investigates a fatal plane crash in Minneapolis and makes a gruesome discovery. Unusual seismic patterns register in a Kanpur, India earthquake lab, confounding the scientists there. During the same week, the Chinese government “accidentally” drops a nuclear bomb in an isolated region of its own country. As these incidents begin to sweep the globe, a mysterious package from South America arrives at a Washington, D.C. laboratory. Something wants out.

The world is on the brink of an apocalyptic disaster. An ancient species, long dormant, is now very much awake.

Bill Broun

Night of the Animals
Ecco, July 5, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 560 pages

An imaginative debut that brilliantly recasts the tale of Noah’s Ark as a story of fate and family set in the near future in London

Over the course of a single night in 2052, a homeless man named Cuthbert Handley sets out on an astonishing quest: to release the animals of the London Zoo. When he was a young boy, Cuthbert’s grandmother told him he inherited a magical ability to communicate with the animal world—a gift she called the Wonderments. Ever since his older brother’s death in childhood, Cuthbert has heard voices. These maddening whispers must be the Wonderments, he believes, and recently they have promised to reunite him with his lost brother and bring about the coming of a Lord of Animals . . . if he fulfills this curious request.

Cuthbert flickers in and out of awareness throughout his desperate pursuit. But his grand plan is not the only thing that threatens to disturb the collective unease of the city. Around him is greater turmoil, as the rest of the world anxiously anticipates the rise of a suicide cult set on destroying the world’s animals along with themselves. Meanwhile, Cuthbert doggedly roams the zoo, cutting open the enclosures, while pressing the animals for information about his brother.

Just as this unlikely yet loveable hero begins to release the animals, the cult’s members flood the city’s streets. Has Cuthbert succeeded in harnessing the power of the Wonderments, or has he only added to the chaos—and sealed these innocent animals’ fates? Night of the Animals is an enchanting and inventive tale that explores the boundaries of reality, the ghosts of love and trauma, and the power of redemption.

Indra Das

The Devourers
Del Rey, July 12, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 360 pages

For readers of Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, China Miéville, and David Mitchell comes a striking debut novel by a storyteller of keen insight and captivating imagination.

On a cool evening in Kolkata, India, beneath a full moon, as the whirling rhythms of traveling musicians fill the night, college professor Alok encounters a mysterious stranger with a bizarre confession and an extraordinary story. Tantalized by the man’s unfinished tale, Alok will do anything to hear its completion. So Alok agrees, at the stranger’s behest, to transcribe a collection of battered notebooks, weathered parchments, and once-living skins.

From these documents spills the chronicle of a race of people at once more than human yet kin to beasts, ruled by instincts and desires blood-deep and ages-old. The tale features a rough wanderer in seventeenth-century Mughal India who finds himself irrevocably drawn to a defiant woman—and destined to be torn asunder by two clashing worlds. With every passing chapter of beauty and brutality, Alok’s interest in the stranger grows and evolves into something darker and more urgent.

Shifting dreamlike between present and past with intoxicating language, visceral action, compelling characters, and stark emotion, The Devourers offers a reading experience quite unlike any other novel.

Jennifer David Hesse

Midsummer Night's Mischief
A Wiccan Wheel Mystery 1
Kensington, July 26, 2016
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 352 pages

As the Summer Solstice approaches in idyllic Edindale, Illinois, attorney Keli Milanni isn't feeling the magic. She's about to land in a cauldron of hot water at work. Good thing she has her private practice to fall back on--as a Wiccan. She'll just have to summon her inner Goddess and set the world to rights. . .

Midsummer Eve is meant for gratitude and celebration, but Keli is not in her typically upbeat mood. The family of a recently deceased client is blaming her for the loss of a Shakespearean heirloom worth millions, and Keli's career may be on the line. With both a Renaissance Faire and a literary convention in town, Edindale is rife with suspicious characters, and the intrepid attorney decides to tap into her unique skills to crack the case. . .

But Keli weaves a tangled web when her investigation brings her up-close and personal with her suspects--including sexy Wes Callahan, her client's grandson. The tattooed bartender could be the man she's been looking for in more ways than one. As the sun sets on the mystical holiday, Keli will need just a touch of the divine to ferret out the real villain and return Edindale, and her heart, to a state of perfect harmony. . ..

David D. Levine

Arabella of Mars
The Adventures of Arabella Ashby 1
Tor Books, July 12, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 352 pages

Since Newton witnessed a bubble rising from his bathtub, mankind has sought the stars. When William III of England commissioned Capt. William Kidd to command the first expedition to Mars in the late 1600s, he proved that space travel was both possible and profitable.

Now, one century later, a plantation in a flourishing British colony on Mars is home to Arabella Ashby, a young woman who is perfectly content growing up in the untamed frontier. But days spent working on complex automata with her father or stalking her brother Michael with her Martian nanny is not the proper behavior of an English lady. That is something her mother plans to remedy with a move to an exotic world Arabella has never seen: London, England.

However, when events transpire that threaten her home on Mars, Arabella decides that sometimes doing the right thing is far more important than behaving as expected. She disguises herself as a boy and joins the crew of the Diana, a ship serving the Mars Trading Company, where she meets a mysterious captain who is intrigued by her knack with clockwork creations. Now Arabella just has to weather the naval war currently raging between Britain and France, learn how to sail, and deal with a mutinous crew…if she hopes to save her family remaining on Mars.

Arabella of Mars, the debut novel by Hugo-winning author David D. Levine offers adventure, romance, political intrigue, and Napoleon in space!

Beth Lewis

The Wolf Road
Crown, July 5, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 368 pages

ELKA BARELY REMEMBERS a time before she knew Trapper. She was just seven years old, wandering lost and hungry in the wilderness, when the solitary hunter took her in. In the years since then, he’s taught her how to survive in this desolate land where civilization has been destroyed and men are at the mercy of the elements and each other.

But the man Elka thought she knew has been harboring a terrible secret. He’s a killer. A monster. And now that Elka knows the truth, she may be his next victim.

Armed with nothing but her knife and the hard lessons Trapper’s drilled into her, Elka flees into the frozen north in search of her real parents. But judging by the trail of blood dogging her footsteps, she hasn’t left Trapper behind—and he won’t be letting his little girl go without a fight. If she’s going to survive, Elka will have to turn and confront not just him, but the truth about the dark road she’s been set on.

The Wolf Road is an intimate cat-and-mouse tale of revenge and redemption, played out against a vast, unforgiving landscape—told by an indomitable young heroine fighting to escape her past and rejoin humanity.

Tiffany McDaniel

The Summer That Melted Everything
St. Martin's Press, July 26, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 320 pages

Fielding Bliss has never forgotten the summer of 1984: the year a heat wave scorched Breathed, Ohio. The year he became friends with the devil.

Sal seems to appear out of nowhere - a bruised and tattered thirteen-year-old boy claiming to be the devil himself answering an invitation. Fielding Bliss, the son of a local prosecutor, brings him home where he's welcomed into the Bliss family, assuming he's a runaway from a nearby farm town.

When word spreads that the devil has come to Breathed, not everyone is happy to welcome this self-proclaimed fallen angel. Murmurs follow him and tensions rise, along with the temperatures as an unbearable heat wave rolls into town right along with him. As strange accidents start to occur, riled by the feverish heat, some in the town start to believe that Sal is exactly who he claims to be. While the Bliss family wrestles with their own personal demons, a fanatic drives the town to the brink of a catastrophe that will change this sleepy Ohio backwater forever.

K.S. Merbeth

Bite
Orbit, July 26, 2016
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 416 pages

Kid is trying to survive in a world gone mad.

Hungry, thirsty and alone in a desert wasteland, she's picked up on the side of the road by Wolf, Dolly, Tank and Pretty Boy - outlaws with big reputations and even bigger guns.

But as they journey across the wild together, Kid learns that her newfound crew may not be the heroes she was hoping for. And in a world that's lost its humanity, everyone has a bit of monster within them...

Alexandra Oliva

The Last One
Ballantine Books, July 12, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 304 pages

Survival is the name of the game as the line blurs between reality TV and reality itself in Alexandra Oliva’s fast-paced novel of suspense.

She wanted an adventure. She never imagined it would go this far.

It begins with a reality TV show. Twelve contestants are sent into the woods to face challenges that will test the limits of their endurance. While they are out there, something terrible happens—but how widespread is the destruction, and has it occurred naturally or is it man-made? Cut off from society, the contestants know nothing of it. When one of them—a young woman the show’s producers call Zoo—stumbles across the devastation, she can imagine only that it is part of the game.

Alone and disoriented, Zoo is heavy with doubt regarding the life—and husband—she left behind, but she refuses to quit. Staggering countless miles across unfamiliar territory, Zoo must summon all her survival skills—and learn new ones as she goes.

But as her emotional and physical reserves dwindle, she grasps that the real world might have been altered in terrifying ways—and her ability to parse the charade will be either her triumph or her undoing.

Sophisticated and provocative, The Last One is a novel that forces us to confront the role that media plays in our perception of what is real: how readily we cast our judgments, how easily we are manipulated.

Paige Orwin

The Interminables
Angry Robot, July 5, 2016
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 416 pages

It’s 2020, and a magical cataclysm has shattered reality as we know it. Now a wizard’s cabal is running the East Coast of the US, keeping a semblance of peace.

Their most powerful agents, Edmund and Istvan — the former a nearly immortal 1940s-era mystery man, the latter, well, a ghost — have been assigned to hunt down an arms smuggling ring that could blow up Massachusetts.

Turns out the mission’s more complicated than it seemed. They discover a shadow war that’s been waged since the world ended, and, even worse, they find out that their own friendship has always been more complicated than they thought. To get out of this alive, they’ll need to get over their feelings, their memories, and the threat of a monstrous foe who’s getting ready to commit mass murder…

File Under: Fantasy [ After the Cataclysm / Thief and Surgeon / Your Best Nightmare / Haunting the Ghost ]

Stephen S. Power

The Dragon Round
Simon 451 / Simon & Schuster, July 19, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 336 pages

A swashbuckling adventure with a dark side for fans of George R.R. Martin and Naomi Novik—when a ship captain is stranded on a deserted island by his mutinous crew, he finds a baby dragon that just might be the key to his salvation…and his revenge.

He only wanted justice. Instead he got revenge.

Jeryon has been the captain of the Comber for over a decade. He knows the rules. He likes the rules. But not everyone on his ship agrees. After a monstrous dragon attacks the galley, the surviving crewmembers decide to take the ship for themselves and give Jeryon and his self-righteous apothecary “the captain’s chance”: a small boat with no rudder, no sails, and nothing but the clothes on his back to survive on the open sea.

Fighting for their lives against the elements, Jeryon and his companion land on an island that isn’t as deserted as they originally thought. They find a baby dragon that, if trained, could be their way home. But as Jeryon and the dragon grow closer, the captain begins to realize that even if he makes it off the island, his old life won't be waiting for him and in order get justice, he’ll have to take it for himself.

From a Pushcart Prize–nominated poet and speculative short story writer, The Dragon Round combines a rich world, desperate characters, and gorgeous, literary fiction into a timeless tale of revenge. 

Michelle Pretorius

The Monster's Daughter
Melville House, July 19, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 464 pages

Somewhere on the South African veld, 1901: At the height of the Boer War, a doctor at a British concentration camp conducts a series of grim experiments on Boer prisoners. His work ends in chaos, but two children survive: a boy named Benjamin and a girl named Tessa . . .

One hundred years later, a disgraced young police constable is reassigned to the sleepy South African town of Unie, where she makes a terrifying discovery: the body of a young woman, burned beyond recognition.

The crime soon leads her into her country’s violent past—a past that includes her father, a high-ranking police official under the apartheid regime, and the children left behind in that long-ago concentration camp.

Michelle Pretorius’s epic debut weaves present and past together into a hugely suspenseful, masterfully plotted thriller. With an explosive conclusion, The Monster’s Daughter marks the emergence of a thrilling new writer.

Hayley Stone

Machinations
Machinations 1
Hydra, July 26, 2016
eBook, 374 pages

Perfect for fans of Robopocalypse, this action-packed science-fiction debut introduces a chilling future and an unforgettable heroine with a powerful role to play in the battle for humanity’s survival.

The machines have risen, but not out of malice. They were simply following a command: to stop the endless wars that have plagued the world throughout history. Their solution was perfectly logical. To end the fighting, they decided to end the human race.

A potent symbol of the resistance, Rhona Long has served on the front lines of the conflict since the first Machinations began—until she is killed during a rescue mission gone wrong. Now Rhona awakens to find herself transported to a new body, complete with her DNA, her personality, even her memories. She is a clone . . . of herself.

Trapped in the shadow of the life she once knew, the reincarnated Rhona must find her place among old friends and newfound enemies—and quickly. For the machines are inching closer to exterminating humans for good. And only Rhona, whoever she is now, can save them.

Jen Williams

The Copper Promise
Copper Cat 1
Angry Robot, July 5, 2016
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 448 pages

There are some tall stories about the caverns beneath the Citadel – about magic and mages and monsters and gods.

Wydrin of Crosshaven has heard them all, but she’s spent long enough trawling caverns and taverns with her companion Sir Sebastian to learn that there’s no money to be made in chasing rumours.
But then a crippled nobleman with a dead man’s name offers them a job: exploring the Citadel’s darkest depths. It sounds like just another quest with gold and adventure … if they’re lucky, they might even have a tale of their own to tell once it’s over.

These reckless adventurers will soon learn that sometimes there is truth in rumour. Sometimes a story can save your life.

File Under: Fantasy

Stephen S. Power

The Dragon Round
Simon 451 / Simon & Schuster, July 19, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 336 pages

A swashbuckling adventure with a dark side for fans of George R.R. Martin and Naomi Novik—when a ship captain is stranded on a deserted island by his mutinous crew, he finds a baby dragon that just might be the key to his salvation…and his revenge.

He only wanted justice. Instead he got revenge.

Jeryon has been the captain of the Comber for over a decade. He knows the rules. He likes the rules. But not everyone on his ship agrees. After a monstrous dragon attacks the galley, the surviving crewmembers decide to take the ship for themselves and give Jeryon and his self-righteous apothecary “the captain’s chance”: a small boat with no rudder, no sails, and nothing but the clothes on his back to survive on the open sea.

Fighting for their lives against the elements, Jeryon and his companion land on an island that isn’t as deserted as they originally thought. They find a baby dragon that, if trained, could be their way home. But as Jeryon and the dragon grow closer, the captain begins to realize that even if he makes it off the island, his old life won't be waiting for him and in order get justice, he’ll have to take it for himself.

From a Pushcart Prize–nominated poet and speculative short story writer, The Dragon Round combines a rich world, desperate characters, and gorgeous, literary fiction into a timeless tale of revenge.