The Qwillery

It is Monday again!

There is one debut this week -

You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce




From formerly featured DAC Authors:

According to Kovac (Robot Dreams 1) by Andrew Bannister;

Alchemy of Glass by Barbara Barnett;

Gears of War: Bloodlines by Jason Hough;

The Girl and the Stars (The Book of the Ice1) by Mark Lawrence;

We Are Mayhem (Black Star Renegades 2) by Michael Moreci is out in Trade Paperback;

The Ranger of Marzanna (The Goddess War 1) by Jon Skovron;

The Beasts of Lake Oph (Robot Dreams 4) by Tom Toner;

Deep Learning (Robot Dreams 2) by Ren Warom;

and

An Explorer's Cartography of Already Settled Lands: A Tor.com Original by Fran Wilde.

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

April 21, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
According to Kovac	Andrew Bannister	SF - Robot Dreams 1
Alchemy of Glass	Barbara Barnett	HistF
Shorefall	Robert Jackson Bennett	F/UF - The Founders Trilogy 2
You Let Me In (D)	Camilla Bruce	Th/PsyTh/Gothic
The Faking of the President: Nineteen Stories of White House Noir	Peter Carlaftes (Ed)	Spec - Anthology
Ship of Fates	Caitlin Chung	HistF
The Binding (h2tp)	Bridget Collins	LF
Master Class	Christina Dalcher	Dys/Sys/CW
Race the Sands	Sarah Beth Durst	F
The Moon Always Rising	Alice C. Early	LF/CW/FL/CRo/MR/CH
Little Digs	Lisa L. Hannett	F
Looking Glass	Christina Henry	DF/FairyT/FolkT/LM - The Chronicles of Alice 3
Gears of War: Bloodlines	Jason M. Hough	SF/MTI
Velocities: Stories	Kathe Koja	SS
The Cerulean Queen	Sarah Kozloff	F - The Nine Realms 4
The Girl and the Stars	Mark Lawrence	F/DF - The Book of the Ice1
Daughter of the Forest (ri)	Juliet Marillier	HistF/FolkT/FairyT/LM - Sevenwaters 1
Life for Sale	Yukio Mishima	Psy/AB - Vintage International
We Are Mayhem (h2tp)	Michael Moreci	SF/SO - Black Star Renegades 2
Lanny (h2tp)	Max Porter	LF/MR/Typography
Aurora Rising (e)	Alastair Reynolds	SF/Cr/M/GenEng/HSF/SO - The Perfect Dreyfus Emergencies 1
Absolution Gap (e)	Alastair Reynolds	SF/HSF/SE/SO  - Revelation Space 4
Pushing Ice (e)	Alastair Reynolds	SF/HSF/SE/SO
Galactic North (e)	Alastair Reynolds	SF/HSF/SE/SO - Revelation Space
Redemption Ark (e)	Alastair Reynolds	SF/HSF/SE/SO - Revelation Space 3
Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days (e)	Alastair Reynolds	SF/HSF/SE/SO - Revelation Space
Chasm City (e)	Alastair Reynolds	SF/HSF/SE/SO - Revelation Space 2
House of Suns (e)	Alastair Reynolds	SF/HSF/SE/SO
Revelation Space (e)	Alastair Reynolds	SF/HSF/SE/SO - Revelation Space 1
Century Rain (e)	Alastair Reynolds	SF/HSF/SE/SO
The Ranger of Marzanna	Jon Skovron	F/RF - Goddess War 1
Creatures of Charm and Hunger	Molly Tanzer	HistF - Diabolist's Library 3
Blindsight (ri)	Peter Watts	SF/HSF/AC - Firefall 1
Repo Virtual	Corey J. White	SF/CyP

April 22, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Night Sun: A Tor.com Original (e)	Zin E. Rocklyn	H
Deep Learning	Ren Warom	SF - Robot Dreams 2
An Explorer's Cartography of Already Settled Lands: A Tor.com Original (e)	Fran Wilde	F

April 23, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Wise Friend	Ramsey Campbell	SupTh/H/Sus - Fiction Without Frontiers
End Game	Hailey Edwards	UF/RF/P - The Foundling 5
Boy in the Box (ri)	Marc E. Fitch	Sus/SupTh - Fiction Without Frontiers
The Heron Kings (ri)	Eric Lewis	F - Fiction Without Frontiers
Paper Hearts	Justina Robson	SF - Robot Dreams 3

April 24, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Beasts of Lake Oph	Tom Toner	SF - Robot Dreams 4

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



AB - Absurdist
AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
BlHu - Black Humour
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CH - Cultural Heritage
Cr - Crime
CW - Contemporary Women
CyP - Cyperpunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
Esp - Espionage
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
HU - Humorous
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
M - Mystery
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PI - Private Investigator(s)
PM - Paranormal Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Pol - Political
PP - Police Procedural
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
RF - Romantic Fantasy
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SP - Steampunk
Spec - Speculative
STR - Small Town and Rural
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy
VisM - Visionary and Metaphysical

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

Happy First Monday in August.

There are 2 debuts this week:

A Short Film About Disappointment by Joshua Mattson

and

Implanted by Lauren C. Teffeau.

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


From formerly featured DAC Authors

King of Assassins (The Wounded Kingdom 3) by RJ Barker;

The Tao Novels by Wesley Chu are out in eBook Bundle;

The Point by John Dixon;

Temper by Nicky Drayden;

Tarnished City (Dark Gifts 2) by Vic James is out in Trade Paperback;

Friendly Fire (The Fifth Ward 2) by Dale Lucas;

Null States (The Centenal Cycle 2) by Malka Older is out in Trade Paperback;

The Recoletta Novels by Carrie Patel are out in eBook Bundle;

Legends of the Duskwalker by Jay Posey are out in eBook Bundle;

The Tower of Living and Dying (Empire of Dust 2) by Anna Smith Spark;

Herokiller by Paul Tassi;

and

The Tropic of Eternity (The Amaranthine Cycle 3) by Tom Toner.

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

August 6, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Iron Bones (e)	Yasmine Galenorn	PNR - Wild Hunt 3
City of Kings	Rob J Hayes	F

August 7, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Garrison Girl	Rachel Aaron	Dys/SF - Attack on Titan
Bad Man	David Auerbach	H/PsyTh/Sus
King of Assassins	RJ Barker	F - The Wounded Kingdom 3
The Divine Cities Trilogy: City of Stairs, City of Blades, and City of Miracles, with an excerpt from Foundryside (e)	Robert Jackson Bennett	F - The Divine Cities
The Third Hotel	Laura van den Berg	LF/Psy
The Tao Novels - Limited Edition (e)	Wesley Chu	SF/AP/PA
Knightsblade	Andy Clark	SF- Imperial Knights 2
The Outposter (ri)	Gordon R. Dickson	SF
The Point	John Dixon	SF/Th
Temper	Nicky Drayden	CF
Gift of Griffins	V. M. Escalada	F - Faraman Prophecy 2
Halls of Law (h2mm)	V. M. Escalada	F - Faraman Prophecy 1
Worlds 2	Eric Flint	SF - Collection
Seven Stones to Stand or Fall: A Collection of Outlander Fiction (h2tp)	Diana Gabaldon	Hist/HistF - Collection
The Burden of Loyalty	Laurie Goulding (Ed)	SF - The Horus Heresy 48
Dark Alpha's Hunger (e)	Donna Grant	PNR - Reapers 6
Serpentine	Laurell K. Hamilton	P/UF/H -Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 26
The Triumph of the Dwarves	Markus Heitz	F - The Dwarves
A Girl of White Winter	Barb Hendee	HistF/DF - Dark Glass 3
The Talented Ribkins (h2tp)	Ladee Hubbard	CF/FL
Tarnished City (h2tp)	Vic James	CF/Dys - Dark Gifts 2
Bellewether	Susanna Kearsley	MR/P/Hist/TTR/PNR
In a Time of Treason	David Keck	F - The Tales of Durand 2
Avalanche: The Secret World Chronicles	Mercedes Lackey Cody Martin Dennis Lee Veronica Giguere	SF - Secret World Chronicle 5
Solarpunk: Ecological and Fantastical Stories in a Sustainable World	Gerson Lodi-Ribeiro (Ed) Fabio Fernandes (Tr)	SF/HSF - Anthology
Friendly Fire	Dale Lucas	F - The Fifth Ward 2
In Truth and Claw	Ari Marmell	UF/DF/F - Mick Oberon Job 4
Wild Cards VIII: One-Eyed Jacks	George R. R. Martin (Ed)	SF/SH - Wild Cards 8
A Short Film About Disappointment (D)	Joshua Mattson	LF/Dys/Satire
Come Back to the Swamp	Laura Morrison	SupTh
Null States (h2tp)	Malka Older	SF/CyP/TechTh/PolTh - The Centenal Cycle 2
The Recoletta Novels - Limited Edition (e)	Carrie Patel	F
Legends of the Duskwalker - Limited Edition (e)	Jay Posey	SF/AP/PA/HSF
Alternate Routes	Tim Powers	CF
Lukas the Trickster	Josh Reynolds	SF - Lukas the Trickster 1
Haven	Adam Roberts	SF/AP/PA - The Aftermath 2
Before She Sleeps	Bina Shah	Dys
The Tower of Living and Dying	Anna Smith Spark	F - Empires of Dust 2
Herokiller	Paul Tassi	SF/Dys/Th
Implanted (D)	Lauren C. Teffeau	SF/CyP/AP/PA
The Tropic of Eternity	Tom Toner	SF/SO/AC - The Amaranthine Spectrum 3
The Seas of Distant Stars	Francesca G. Varela	SF
War for Armageddon: The Omnibus	Various	SF
The Double Star and Other Occult Fantasies	Jane de La Vaudère Brian Stableford (Tr)	H - Collection
An Informal History of the Hugos: A Personal Look Back at the Hugo Awards, 1953-2000	Jo Walton	LC/SF/F
Privateer	Margaret Weis Robert Krammes	F - The Dragon Corsairs 2
Rogue Protocol	Martha Wells	SF - The Murderbot Diaries 3
The Cityborn (h2mm)	Edward Willett	F/DF
Nebula Awards Showcase 2018	Jane Yolen (Ed)	SF/F - Anthology

August 9, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Frankenstein and Its Classics: The Modern Prometheus from Antiquity to Science Fiction	Jesse Weiner (Ed) Benjamin Eldon Stevens (Ed) Brett M. Rogers (Ed)	HC - Bloomsbury Studies in Classical Reception

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



AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
Cr - Crime
CulH - Cultural Heritage
CW - Contemporary Woman
CyP - Cyberpunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
Gothic - Gothic
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
HU - Humor
LC - Literary Criticism
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
MU - Mash Up
Noir - Noir
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PerfArts - Performing Arts
PI - Private Investigator
PNR - Paranormal Romance
PP - Police Procedural
PolTh - Political Thriller
Psy - Psychological
R - Romance
Sagas - Sagas
SF - Science Fiction
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SP - Steampunk
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
TTR - Time Travel Romance
TV - Television
UF - Urban Fantasy
VisM - Visionary and Metaphysical

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

Katherine Arden (2017)

The Winter of the Witch
Winternight Trilogy 3
Del Rey, August 14, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 336 Pages

In the stunning conclusion to the bestselling Winternight Trilogy, following The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower, Vasya returns to save Russia and the spirit realm, battling enemies both mortal and magic.

Book 1

Book 2

Annalee Newitz (2017)

Autonomous
Tor Books, September 18, 2018
Trade Paperback, 304 pages
Hardcover and eBook, September 19, 2017

"Autonomous is to biotech and AI what Neuromancer was to the Internet."—Neal Stephenson

"Something genuinely and thrillingly new in the naturalistic, subjective, paradoxically humanistic but non-anthropomorphic depiction of bot-POV—and all in the service of vivid, solid storytelling."—William Gibson

When anything can be owned, how can we be free

Earth, 2144. Jack is an anti-patent scientist turned drug pirate, traversing the world in a submarine as a pharmaceutical Robin Hood, fabricating cheap scrips for poor people who can’t otherwise afford them. But her latest drug hack has left a trail of lethal overdoses as people become addicted to their work, doing repetitive tasks until they become unsafe or insane.

Hot on her trail, an unlikely pair: Eliasz, a brooding military agent, and his robotic partner, Paladin. As they race to stop information about the sinister origins of Jack’s drug from getting out, they begin to form an uncommonly close bond that neither of them fully understand.

And underlying it all is one fundamental question: Is freedom possible in a culture where everything, even people, can be owned?

Tom Toner (2015)

The Tropic of Eternity
Volume Three  of the Amaranthine Spectrum
Night Shade Books, July 24, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 432 pages

The sequel to the critically acclaimed and ambitious literary space opera debut The Promise of the Child.

It is the 147th century.

The mighty era of Homo Sapiens is at an end.

In the Westerly Provinces of the Old World, the hunt is on for the young queen Arabis, and the vile creature that holds her captive.

In the brutal hominid Investiture, revolution has come. The warlord Cunctus, having seized the Vulgar worlds, invites every Prism to pick a side.

In the Firmament, once the kingdom of the Immortal Amaranthine, all ships converge on the foundry of Gliese. The grandest battle in the history of mammalian kind has begun.

Perception, ancient machine spirit, must take back its mortal remains in a contest for the Firmament itself.

Ghaldezuel, now the Grand Marshal of Cunctus’s new empire, must travel to the deepest lagoon in the Investiture, a place where monsters dwell.

Captain Maril, lost among the Hedron Stars, finds himself caught between colossal powers the likes of which he’d never dreamt.

But for Aaron the Long-Life, he who has waited so very, very long for his revenge, things are only getting started . . .

Book 1

Book 2

Happy Monday!

There is one debut this week:

The Court of Broken Knives (Empires of Dust 1) by Anna Smith Spark.



From formerly featured DAC Authors:

Of the Divine (Mancer Trilogy 2) by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes;

Call of Fire (Blood of Earth 2) by Beth Cato;

The Next by Stephanie Gangi is out in Trade Paperback;

The Peculiar Miracles of Antoinette Martin by Stephanie Knipper is out in Trade Paperback;

Time Capsule (Bookburners Season 3 #5) by Mur Lafferty;

The Shades of Magic Series by V.E. Schwab is out in an eBook Bundle;

and

The Weight of the World (Amaranthine Spectrum 2) by Tom Toner is out in Trade Paperback.

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


August 14, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Pack of Lies (e)(ri)	Laura Anne Gilman	CF - Paranormal Scene Investigations 2

August 15, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Rituals	Kelley Armstrong	F/SupTh - Cainsville 5
Of the Divine (e)	Amelia Atwater-Rhodes	F - Mancer Trilogy 2
The Nonexistent Knight	Italo Calvino	LF
Empire: The Series (e)	Orson Scott Card	SF - Empire
Call of Fire	Beth Cato	HistF - Blood of Earth 2
Orphan Black Classified Clone Reports	Delphine Cormier Keith R. A. DeCandido	TV/SF
The Rat Catchers' Olympics	Colin Cotterill	M/Hist/MR - A Dr. Siri Paiboun Mystery 12
Voyager (Starz Tie-in Edition)	Diana Gabaldon	Hist/F/MTI/TTR - Outlander 3
The Next (h2tp)	Stephanie Gangi	CW
The Stone Sky	N. K. Jemisin	F - The Broken Earth 3
The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion	Margaret Killjoy	CF/DF/H - Danielle Cain 1
The Gryphon Mage	Richard A. Knaak	F - Legends of the Dragonrealm: Turning War 2
The Peculiar Miracles of Antoinette Martin (h2tp)	Stephanie Knipper	CW/FL/MR/R
Moonbath	Yanick Lahens Emily Gogolak (Tr)	LF/CW/MR/Hist
The Dinosaur Princess	Victor Milán	F - The Dinosaur Lords 3
The Last One (h2tp)	Alexandra Oliva	Th/Sus/SF/PA/AP/LF
Humans, Bow Down (h2tp)	James Patterson	Th
The Pendergast Files (e)(ri)	Douglas Preston Lincoln Child	SupTh - Relic1 and 2
The Psalms of Isaak Series (e)(ri)	Ken Scholes	SF - Psalms of Isaak
The Shades of Magic Series (e)	V. E. Schwab	HistF - Shades of Magic 1, 2 and 3
Zombie-in-Chief: Eater of the Free World: A Novel Take on a Brain-Dead Election	Kenemore Scott	Satire
Hyperion (ri)	Dan Simmons	SF/SO -  Hyperion Cantos 1
The Court of Broken Knives (D)	Anna Smith Spark	F - Empires of Dust 1
The Weight of the World (h2tp)	Tom Toner	SF/SO - Amaranthine Spectrum 2
The House of Daniel: A Novel of Wild Magic, the Great Depression, and Semipro Ball (h2tp)	Harry Turtledove	HistF/AH/Sports

August 16, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Time Capsule (e)	Mur Lafferty	F/Th - Bookburners Season 3 #5

August 18, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Body in the Woods	Sarah Lotz	SupTh - Novellas

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



AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
CB - Coloring Book
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
CW - Contemporary Women
CyP - CyberPunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost(s)
GN - Graphic Novel
H - Horror
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HistR - Historical Romance
HistTh - Historical Thriller
HU - Humor
LC - Literary Criticism
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legends and Mythology
M - Mystery
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PI - Private Investigator
PM - Paranormal Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Pol - Political
PP - Police Procedural
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
R - Romance
Satire - Satire
SF - Science Fiction
SO - Space Opera
SP - Steampunk
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
TTR - Time Travel Romance
UF - Urban Fantasy
VM - Visionary and Metaphysical
W - Western

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

Tom Toner (2015)

The Promise of the Child
Volume One of the Amaranthine Spectrum
Night Shade Books, October 11, 2016
Trade Paperback, 484 pages
Hardcover and eBook, September 22, 2015

It is the 147th century.

In the radically advanced post-human worlds of the Amaranthine Firmament, there is a contender to the Immortal throne: Aaron the Long-Life, the Pretender, a man who is not quite a man.

In the barbarous hominid kingdoms of the Prism Investiture, where life is short, cheap, and dangerous, an invention is born that will become the Firmament’s most closely kept secret.

Lycaste, a lovesick recluse outcast for an unspeakable crime, must journey through the Provinces, braving the grotesques of an ancient, decadent world to find his salvation.

Sotiris, grieving the loss of his sister and awaiting the madness of old age, must relive his twelve thousand years of life to stop the man determined to become Emperor.

Ghaldezuel, knight of the stars, must plunder the rarest treasure in the Firmament—the object the Pretender will stop at nothing to obtain.

From medieval Prague to a lonely Mediterranean cove, and eventually far into the strange vastness of distant worlds, The Promise of the Child is a debut novel of gripping action and astounding ambition unfolding over hundreds of thousands of years, marking the arrival of a brilliant new talent in science fiction.

The Weight of the World
Volume Two of the Amaranthine Spectrum
Night Shade Books, January 3, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 432 pages

The sequel to the critically acclaimed and ambitious literary space opera debut, The Promise of the Child.

It is the 147th century; the turning of the Amaranthine new year.

In the provinces of the Old World, the giant Elatine’s war of liberation has come to an impasse, leaving the wicked monarchy of the First in possession of the throne.

In the Vaulted Lands of the Firmament, acolytes have risen up to execute their immortal masters. The opportunistic races of the Prism, intoxicated with greed, have arrived inside every Solar Satrapy to scavenge what’s left.

In the wild Investiture, on a forgotten water moon, a crew of shipwrecked Privateers come face to face with their greatest terror, and with it the most valuable treasure in all the galaxy.

Jatropha, legendary Immortal, must escort his precious charge through the exotic Westerly Provinces, knowing all the world would steal her if they could.

Sotiris, his mind fading fast, must set out to find his dear, drowned sister in a land previously unglimpsed by anyone but the dead.

Lycaste, now far from home, must journey in strange company to the edge of a tempestuous sea, to the lair of someone so dangerous that even the legendary Amaranthine fear his name.

Steve Toutonghi (2016)

Join
Soho Press, March 21, 2017
Trade Paperback, 336 pages
Hardcover and eBook, April 19, 2016

What if you could live multiple lives simultaneously, have constant, perfect companionship, and never die? That’s the promise of Join, a revolutionary technology that allows small groups of minds to unite, forming a single consciousness that experiences the world through multiple bodies. But as two best friends discover, the light of that miracle may be blinding the world to its horrors.

Chance and Leap are jolted out of their professional routines by a terrifying stranger—a remorseless killer who freely manipulates the networks that regulate life in the post-Join world. Their quest for answers—and survival—brings them from the networks and spire communities they’ve known to the scarred heart of an environmentally ravaged North American continent and an underground community of the “ferals” left behind by the rush of technology.

In the storytelling tradition of classic speculative fiction from writers like David Mitchell and Michael Chabon, Join offers a pulse-pounding story that poses the largest possible questions: How long can human life be sustained on our planet in the face of environmental catastrophe? What does it mean to be human, and what happens when humanity takes the next step in its evolution? If the individual mind becomes obsolete, what have we lost and gained, and what is still worth fighting for?

Roberta Trahan (2012)

Aftershock
Idyllwynd Publications, March 31, 2016
eBook, 25 pages

Deidre Morneau can't remember the last time she didn't have a headache. Chronic migraines have crippled her life and destroyed her dreams, and years of failed therapies have brought her to the brink of despair. But then, the effects of a last-ditch experimental treatment begin to take hold, and Deidre's symptoms get even worse.

Beyond desperate, Deidre agrees to see the research scientist at Extragen Labs who developed the medication she has been taking. But when she arrives at the cold, creepy clinic, Deidre has second thoughts. Just as she decides to opt out, the biggest migraine of her life overwhelms her and Deidre passes out on the waiting room floor.

Deidre suddenly awakens to a bizarre and terrifying new reality. Somehow, she has become the subject of a secret research project, and her body is undergoing a radical change. She is also isolated, restrained, and at the mercy of madmen. Whatever is happening, whatever Deidre is becoming, she isn't waiting around to find out.

James R. Tuck (2012)

The Two Torcs
Robin Hood: Demon Bane 2
  by Debbie Viguie, James R. Tuck
Titan Books, August 2, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 368 pages

Evil is everywhere. Through terror and dark sorcery, Prince John wields the power of the throne. Lord and peasant alike meet violent ends as the Sheriff’s arcane beasts spread fear and death.

A small group of rebels oppose John, striking from Sherwood Forest...the one place his creatures cannot pursue them. Though their numbers grow, so do the forces of darkness. Unless Robin and Marian fulfill the ancient prophecy of the Two Torcs, the forest will be overrun, and England will fall.

Sovereign's War
Robin Hood: Demon Bane 3
  by Debbie Viguie, James R. Tuck
Titan Books, August 1, 2017
Trade Paperback and eBook, 368 pages

THE THIRD BOOK IN THE ROBIN HOOD: BLACK ARROW SERIES! A dramatically different telling of the Robin Hood legend, with dark magic, fantasy, and horror woven into the story.

Mama Tried
  Edited by James R. Tuck
Crime Fiction Inspired By Outlaw Country Music
Down & Out Books, August 15, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 285 pages

Outlaws.

It’s what makes the best of country music and crime fiction. Sometimes it’s hardened criminals: murders, thieves, and convicts, sometimes it’s just a poor fool driven to the edge by hard times, hard drinking, or a hard lover.

In this collection you will find stories from the best voices in crime fiction inspired by the best voices in outlaw country music. Stories with:

•An off-books mercenary trying to save a trucker’s delivery from a beautiful thief
•An ex-con dealing with small town prejudice...and armed robbery
•Outlaw newlyweds running from a Tri-county druglord
•A young girl seeking solace in the company of dogs bred to fight that she never found in family
•A wife discovering the other woman is not what she thought
•A writer finding out what prison is really like

Stories by J.L. Abramo, Trey R. Barker, Eric Beetner, Levi Black, Michael Bunker, Delilah Dawson, Les Edgerton, Christa Faust, Tommy Hancock, Grant Jerkins, Ken Lizzi, Riley Miller, James A. Moore, Bobby Nash, Mel Odom, Eryk Pruitt, Jay Requard, Charles R. Rutledge and Ryan Sayles.

Marc Turner (2015)

Red Tide
The Chronicles of the Exile 3
Tor Books, September 20, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 544 pages

Red Tide, the third volume in Marc Turner's The Chronicles of the Exile, following When the Heavens Fall and Dragon Hunters

The Augerans are coming. And their ships are sailing in on a red tide.

The Rubyholt Isles are a shattered nation of pirate-infested islands and treacherous waterways shielding the seaboards of Erin Elal and the Sabian League, a region even dragons fear to trespass.

The Augerans beseech the Warlord of the Isles, seeking passage for their invasion fleet through Rubyholt territory. But they are sailing into troubled waters. Their enemies have sent agents to sabotage the negotiations, and to destroy the Augeran fleet by any means necessary.

The emperor of Erin Elal seeks to forge an alliance with the Storm Lords, hoping to repulse the Augerans with a united front. But the battle lines for the struggle are not as clearly drawn as it first appears, for the Emira of the Storm Isles mistrusts the Erin Elalese as much as she does their common enemy. And the Augerans might just be planning a little sabotage of their own.

But nothing in the realm of mortals escapes the notice of their meddling gods; every step they take is shadowed, and every choice they make ensnared in a web so subtle and vast, its true shape may be fathomed only when it is far, far too late.

A new epic adventure in the fantastic world of When the Heavens Fall and Dragon Hunters!

Happy Monday!

There are three debuts out this week:

The Apothecary's Curse by Barbara Barnett;

FantasticLand by Mike Bockoven;

and

The Comet Seekers by Helen Sedgwick.




From formerly featured DAC Authors:

Chaosmage (Age of Darkness 3) by Stephen Aryan;

The Girl with Ghost Eyes by M. H. Boroson is out in Mass Market Paperback;

Made to Kill (L.A. Trilogy 1) by Adam Christopher is out in Trade Paperback;

Conspiracy of Ravens (Shadow 2) by Lila Bowen (Delilah S. Dawson);

The Witch House of Persimmon Point by Suzanne Palmieri;

Counterpart (Machinations 2) by Hayley Stone;

The Promise of the Child (Amaranthine Spectrum 1) by Tom Toner is out in Trade Paperback:

and

Genrenauts: The Complete Season One Collection by Michael R. Underwood.







October 9, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Eternal Frankenstein	Ross E. Lockhart (Ed)	H - Anthology

October 11, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Sons of Titan (h2tp)	David Annandale	SF - Grey Knights
Chaosmage	Stephen Aryan	F - Age of Darkness 3
Hag-Seed	Margaret Atwood	LF - Hogarth Shakespeare Series
The Apothecary's Curse (D)	Barbara Barnett	UF/HistF
The Abandoned Heart	Laura Benedict	Gothic - Bliss House 3
FantasticLand (D)	Mike Bockoven	H
The Girl with Ghost Eyes (h2mm)	M. H. Boroson	F/P
Conspiracy of Ravens	Lila Bowen	HistF - The Shadow 2
Totem	Darin Bradley	Dys - Dystopian Cluster 3
The Scent of Salt & Sand	Kristin Cast P.C. Cast	PNR - An Escaped Novella
Made to Kill (h2tp)	Adam Christopher	SF - L.A. Trilogy 1
The Librarians and The Lost Lamp	Greg Cox	CF - The Librarians 1
The Uncrowned King	Rowena Cory Daniells	F - King Rolen's Kin 2
Irish Ghost Stories	David Stuart Davies	GH - Macmillan Collector's Library
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife	Meg Elison	SF/AP/PA - The Road to Nowhere 1
Silver on the Road (h2tp)	Laura Anne Gilman	HistF - The Devil's West 1
Crimson Death	Laurell K. Hamilton	F/P/H - Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 25
Unhonored	Tracy Hickman Laura Hickman	HistF - The Nightbirds 2
Scratch	Steve Himmer	SupTh
Cat's Cradle (e)(ri)	William W. Johnstone	H
Watchers In The Woods (e)(ri)	William W. Johnstone	H
Hammers on Bone	Cassandra Khaw	F/P
In the Shadow of Edgar Allan Poe: Classic Tales of Horror, 1816-1914 (h2tp)	Leslie S. Klinger (Ed)	H - Anthology
The Graveyard Apartment	Mariko Koike	H
City of Weird: 30 Otherworldly Portland Tales	Gigi Little (Ed)	SF/F/UF/H - Anthology
Tuskers III: The Omnivore Wars	Duncan McGeary	H - Tuskers 3
Treachery's Tools	L. E. Modesitt, Jr.	F - The Imager Portfolio 10
Inspector of the Dead (h2tp)	David Morrell	Gothic - Thomas and Emily De Quincey 2
The Wraiths of War	Mark Morris	DF/UF - Obsidian Heart Trilogy 3
The Witch House of Persimmon Point	Suzanne Palmieri	CW/Gothic
The Comet Seekers (D)	Helen Sedgwick	LF
Counterpart (e)	Hayley Stone	SF/GenEng - Machinations 2
Legacy of Caliban: The Omnibus	Gav Thorpe	SF - Legacy of Caliban
The Promise of the Child (h2tp)	Tom Toner	SF/SO - Amaranthine Spectrum 1
Genrenauts: The Complete Season One Collection (e)	Michael R. Underwood	SF/F
Blood on the Tracks	William Vitka	SF/AP/PA - Hellcat 2
The Delphi Effect	Rysa Walker	SF - The Delphi Trilogy 1

October 12, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Blue is a Darkness Weakened by Light: A Tor.com Original (e)	Sarah McCarry	F

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



AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CW - Contemporary Women
CyberP - CyberPunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F _ Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
Fict - Fiction
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghosts
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
Hu - Humor
LC - Literary Criticism
LF - Literary Fiction
M - Mystery
Meta - Metaphysical
MR - Magical Realism
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
ParaTh - Paranormal Thriller
PCM - Paranormal Cozy Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Psy - Psychological
R - Romance
SF - Science Fiction
SO - Space Opera
SP - Steampunk
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
TV - Television
UF - Urban Fantasy


Note: Not all of these genres and formats are represented in the books above.

Ferrett Steinmetz (2015)

The Flux
'Mancer 2
Angry Robot, October 6, 2015
     (North America Print and eBook)
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 400 pages
Angry Robot, October 1, 2015 (UK Print)
Cover art: Steven Meyer-Rassow

Love something enough, and your obsession will punch holes through the laws of physics. That devotion creates unique magics: videogamemancers. Origamimancers. Culinomancers.

But when ‘mancers battle, cities tremble…

ALIYAH TSABO-DAWSON: The world’s most dangerous eight-year-old girl. Burned by a terrorist’s magic, gifted strange powers beyond measure. She’s furious that she has to hide her abilities from her friends, her teachers, even her mother – and her temper tantrums can kill.

PAUL TSABO: Bureaucromancer. Magical drug-dealer. Desperate father. He’s gone toe-to-toe with the government’s conscription squads of brain-burned Unimancers, and he’ll lie to anyone to keep Aliyah out of their hands – whether Aliyah likes it or not.

THE KING OF NEW YORK: The mysterious power player hell-bent on capturing the two of them. A man packing a private army of illegal ‘mancers.

Paul’s family is the key to keep the King’s crumbling empire afloat. But offering them paradise is the catalyst that inflames Aliyah’s deadly rebellious streak…

File Under: Urban Fantasy

Paul Tassi (2015)

The Exiled Earthborn
The Earthborn Trilogy Book 2
Talos Press, November 17, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 420 pages

In this thrilling second book of the Earthborn trilogy, Lucas and Asha have survived the decimation of Earth at the hands of the invading Xalans and seek safe haven with their enemy’s true foes, the Sorans. They find a lush planet inhabited by a civilization far more advanced than their own, waging a seemingly endless war against a constantly evolving enemy.

The Sorans call the pair of them the “Earthborn” and they’re welcomed as heroes, almost as gods. To an audience of billions, they swear an oath to avenge their fallen planet by aiding the Sorans in their war against Xala. But soon Lucas and Asha find Sora just as dangerous as apocalyptic Earth when they’re targeted by the Fourth Order, a rebel collective who decries them as false prophets and harbingers of further bloodshed.

Their friend and turncoat Xalan scientist Alpha believes he’s located someone who can help them turn the tide of the war for good, stranded on a conquered colony planet. But landing on the new world, Lucas and Asha find themselves hunted by a violent, mysterious beast, known only as the Desecrator, let loose by the Xalans.

Escaping Earth was only the beginning. As Lucas and Asha quickly learn, the universe has worlds and creatures far more dangerous than anything their home planet could have offered, and their continued survival hinges on gaining new allies they never could have imagined.

Patrick S. Tomlinson (2015)

Trident's Forge
Children of a Dead Earth Book Two
Angry Robot, April 5, 2016
Mass Market Paperback and eBook
Cover Art: Larry Rostant, Artist Partners

They’ve made it this far. If only that increased humanity’s chances on this new planet…

Against all odds, the Ark and her thirty-thousand survivors have reached Tau Ceti G to begin the long, arduous task of rebuilding human civilization. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Tau Ceti G’s natives, the G’tel, are coming to grips with the sudden appearance of what many believe are their long-lost Gods.

But first contact between humans and g’tel goes catastrophically wrong, visiting death on both sides. Rumors swirl that the massacre was no accident. The Ark’s greatest hero, Bryan Benson, takes on the mystery.

Partnered with native ‘truth-digger’ Kexx, against both of their better judgment, Benson is thrust into the heart of an alien culture with no idea how to tell who wants to worship him from who wants him dead.

Together, Benson and Kexx will have to find enough common ground and trust to uncover a plot that threatens to plunge both of their peoples into an apocalyptic war that neither side can afford to fight.

File Under: Science Fiction

Tom Toner (2015)

The Promise of the Child
Volume One of the Amaranthine Spectrum
Night Shade Books, July 5, 2016, Ship Date: June 14, 2016
Trade Paperback, 464 pages
Hardcover and eBook, September 22, 2015

It is the 147th century.

In the radically advanced post-human worlds of the Amaranthine Firmament, there is a contender to the Immortal throne: Aaron the Long-Life, the Pretender, a man who is not quite a man.

In the barbarous hominid kingdoms of the Prism Investiture, where life is short, cheap, and dangerous, an invention is born that will become the Firmament’s most closely kept secret.

Lycaste, a lovesick recluse outcast for an unspeakable crime, must journey through the Provinces, braving the grotesques of an ancient, decadent world to find his salvation.

Sotiris, grieving the loss of his sister and awaiting the madness of old age, must relive his twelve thousand years of life to stop the man determined to become Emperor.

Ghaldezuel, knight of the stars, must plunder the rarest treasure in the Firmament—the object the Pretender will stop at nothing to obtain.

From medieval Prague to a lonely Mediterranean cove, and eventually far into the strange vastness of distant worlds, The Promise of the Child is a debut novel of gripping action and astounding ambition unfolding over hundreds of thousands of years, marking the arrival of a brilliant new talent in science fiction.

Marc Turner (2015)

When the Heavens Fall
The Chronicles of the Exile, Book One
Tor Fantasy, February 2, 2016
Mass Market Paperback, 736 pages
Hardcover and eBook, May 19, 2015

Marc Turner's When the Heavens Fall is an emerging new voice in epic fantasy, now in mass market

If you pick a fight with Shroud, Lord of the Dead, you had better ensure your victory, else death will mark only the beginning of your suffering.

A book giving its wielder power over the dead has been stolen from a fellowship of mages that has kept the powerful relic dormant for centuries. The thief, a crafty, power-hungry necromancer, intends to use the Book of Lost Souls to resurrect an ancient race and challenge Shroud for dominion of the underworld. Shroud counters by sending his most formidable servants to seize the artifact at all cost.

However, the god is not the only one interested in the Book, and a host of other forces converge, drawn by the powerful magic that has been unleashed. Among them is a reluctant Guardian who is commissioned by the Emperor to find the stolen Book, a troubled prince who battles enemies both personal and political, and a young girl of great power, whose past uniquely prepares her for an encounter with Shroud. The greatest threat to each of their quests lies not in the horror of an undead army but in the risk of betrayal from those closest to them. Each of their decisions comes at a personal cost and will not only affect them, but also determine the fate of their entire empire.

Red Tide (The Chronicles of the Exile, Book Three) is slated for publication in September 2016. (Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound)

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

Tom:  Thanks! I suppose I only began writing in earnest about four and a half years ago, when I sat down with some ideas and just never stopped working. The whole thing was a bit of an accident - I'd genuinely never imagined becoming a writer, and was pretty surprised by the time I'd banked a few thousand words and the feel of the novel was developing. Before then all I'd really wanted to be was a painter, having studied art at university and painted the odd commission here and there. Now, I couldn't imagine doing anything else.



TQ:  Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Tom:  At first I pantsed it all the way, not having the slightest clue what I was doing, which with hindsight possibly made the whole thing richer and stranger for being so accidental. Now that I'm deep into the sequel and thinking carefully about a great many fine details in multiple future books, I can see the benefits of plotting. I still look at sections of The Promise of the Child that arrived organically and wonder where on earth they came from, so I suppose something could be said for winging it once in a while. I work in notebooks, sketching out ideas and scenes until they're as fully formed as possible, so there are stacks of the things on my desk, all colour-coded. The plans for books 4, 5 and 6 in the series (and beyond) are in there too, and I take a break to work on future stuff whenever I'm tired of what's in front of me.



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

Tom:  Self-doubt and over analysis. I'm also fighting a losing battle with man boobs sitting here writing all day.



TQ:  Who are some of your literary influences? Favorite authors?

Tom:  At the moment (while writing) all I'm reading are travel books (Paul Theroux, Colin Thubron, Bill Bryson and Patrick Leigh Fermor) and non-fiction like Jared Diamond. I have absolutely no idea if that's the right thing to do - like I said I'm seriously new to this and winging it - but it's a nice escape from fiction. My absolute favourite author, someone not remotely linked to SF, is Colm Tóibín; his 2004 book The Master is the most perfect novel I've ever read. I try to read it once a year in the hope that some of its beauty might one day rub off. As for SF, I'm a huge fan of the late and great Iain Banks, David Mitchell, Arthur C Clarke, Brian Aldiss and Stephen King (particularly his Dark Tower novels), though I'm not really very well-read in the genre.



TQ:  Describe The Promise of the Child in 140 characters or less.

Tom:  The 147th century. The world is elderly, a lair of monsters. In the heavens hominid trolls squabble as a shy young man runs for his life.



TQ:  Why did you choose "Amaranthine Spectrum" as the series title? Does it have anything to do with the meaning of the Greek amarantos ("unfading") the word that Amaranth is derived from?

Tom:  Precisely. It hopefully means something on each level, in a kind of fractal way. The first three novels will hint at a colossal story buried just beneath the surface, material I've been working on parallel to the Spectrum that will become the fourth book in the series. The Amaranthine themselves are unfading (an imperfect title that demonstrates more their own arrogance than anything else), and this is ostensibly the story of their time, told most often through the hapless life of poor, shy Lycaste. The novels to me are also all about colour, with a distinguishing palette for each one.



TQ:  Tell us something about The Promise of the Child that is not found in the book description.

Tom:  It's a novel with hideous giant protagonists, talking birdlife, men that live for tens of thousands of years in hollowed planets, singing sea monsters, silk currency, a villain with a surprising twist, foods and metals that grow on trees and vast foldable paper cities.



TQ:  What inspired you to write The Promise of the Child? What appealed to you about writing Space Opera?

Tom:  The Promise of the Child wasn't planned as Space Opera - the first couple of drafts never left Lycaste's cove. I hadn't even thought of it as SF until a spaceship made an appearance, at which point I sat back and had to rethink the thing, realising I couldn't deny the SF geek inside me any longer. I'd been reticent at first when friends asked if I was enjoying myself, feeling a little self-conscious at indulging in such absurd science fiction all day while other people did grown-up things. But that's Space Opera though - that's the appeal. It's like turning up to direct a film and being told you've been given a trillion dollar budget and all the studios, prosthetics, animators, model makers and IMAX cameras the world can hold. How much you choose to use is up to you, but the extremes are limitless, and it was the extremes that I wanted to try to capture. It's the greatest and most intoxicating freedom, an embarrassingly enjoyable way to spend your day.

In terms of inspiration, it all arrived from a single thought. I was standing in the sea in Greece (wondering, as you do, whether there might be any sharks around that might fancy a leg or two if I went too deep) when I turned around and just looked at the beach. The place was the setting for Odysseus's kingdom in the Odyssey (an island called Ithaka that features in a few scenes of the novel) and everything had that hot, bleached look of antiquity, a place of wizened olive trees that stretch right up to the shore and brilliant blue water. I was wondering about the future of the place as I thought about its past, and trying to imagine what would be there, on that beach, thousands of years hence ended up as the beginning of a novel.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for The Promise of the Child?

Tom:  Quite a bit, despite the fantastical subject matter. Everything from the order of the closest stars to the distances between European cities is accurate, as far as I know, a nice solid background to all the craziness.



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

Tom:  Those that are most like me, I suppose, are the easiest to write: Corphuso and Eranthis are both fairly undiluted variants of my personality - a tiny bit worrying, come to think of it, since neither's human male.

Lycaste - despite the fact that I know his character so well - is more complex than a lot of the supporting cast, so not as easy to write as I'd have expected while still having the capacity to surprise me. The hardest character to write was the most opaque, in this case the antagonist, Aaron the Long-Life. Certainly, in The Promise of the Child, his true personality is veiled, filtered through so many layers that we only see glimpses of him, really.



TQ:  Which question about The Promise of the Child do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Tom:

Q: Who would play the major leads in a movie adaptation of your book?

A: It's always fun to imagine stuff like this, even though I'm not under any illusion that it would ever happen. All the central characters that aren't Amaranthine would need to be distorted in some way, either through digital effects or outright motion capture (i.e the Prism). The Melius (Lycaste, Impatiens, Melilotis etc) could simply be performances augmented in post production, rather like the effects from Where the Wild Things Are. Even though I don't imagine their faces in great detail, Ed Harris and Marion Cotillard would make superb Amaranthines Maneker and Voss, respectively. Also, while this is certainly not the way I visualise him, I'd pick Benedict Cumberbatch for Aaron the Long-Life over almost anyone else I can think of, with Christoph Waltz making a marvellous Venerable Sabran.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery lines from The Promise of the Child.

Tom:  'Corphuso had only found out later - after hearing their unsettling slurping sounds through the night - that they used their own saliva to bathe, licking themselves clean with long pink tongues.'



TQ:  What's next?

Tom:  The first draft of the sequel to the Promise of the Child - which I'll exclusively reveal here will be called Celestial Meridian - should be finished in a month or two, so I'm having a great time working on that at the moment.



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Tom:  Thank you!

The Promise of the Child
Volume One of the Amaranthine Spectrum
Night Shade Books, September 22, 2015
Hardcover and eBook, 460 pages

It is the 147th century.

In the radically advanced post-human worlds of the Amaranthine Firmament, there is a contender to the Immortal throne: Aaron the Long-Life, the Pretender, a man who is not quite a man.

In the barbarous hominid kingdoms of the Prism Investiture, where life is short, cheap, and dangerous, an invention is born that will become the Firmament’s most closely kept secret.

Lycaste, a lovesick reclusive outcast for an unspeakable crime, must journey through the Provinces, braving the grotesques of an ancient, decadent world to find his salvation.

Sotiris, grieving the loss of his sister and awaiting the madness of old age, must relive his twelve thousand years of life to stop the man determined to become Emperor.

Ghaldezuel, knight of the stars, must plunder the rarest treasure in the Firmament—the object the Pretender will stop at nothing to obtain.

From medieval Prague to a lonely Mediterranean cove, and eventually far into the strange vastness of distant worlds, The Promise of the Child is a debut novel of gripping action and astounding ambition unfolding over hundreds of thousands of years, marking the arrival of a brilliant new talent in science fiction.

About Tom

Tom Toner was born in the English countryside to two parents employed by the BBC (his mother was a set designer for Doctor Who). He studied fine art and painting in Loughborough before moving to Australia to write. He collects giant fossilized shark teeth and recently returned to London, where he lives with his girlfriend.





Twitter @Tom__Toner

Design: Nico Taylor - Illustration: Steve Stone

Cover Artist: Ben Gardiner

Cover Artist: Sam Weber

Cover Artist: Stephan Martiniere

Cover Artist: Jessica Smith

Cover Artist: Patrick Knowles

Cover Artist: Stephan Martiniere

Book design by Meighan Cavanaugh

Stephen Aryan

Battlemage
Age of Darkness 1
Orbit, September 22, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 512 pages

When you fight magic with magic, nothing is certain...

Balfruss is a battlemage, one of the last of a vanishing breed, sworn to fight and die for a country that fears and despises his kind.

Vargus is a soldier, and while mages shoot lightning from the walls of the city, he's down in the front lines getting blood on his blade.

Talandra is a princess and her father's spymaster, but the war may force her to take up a greater responsibility, and make the greatest sacrifice of all.

Known for their unpredictable, dangerous power, society has left battlemages untrained and shunned. But when a force unlike anything ever imagined attacks them, the few remaining are called upon to go to war -- to save those who fear them most, and herald in a new age of peace, built on the corpses of their enemies.

Edward Ashton

Three Days in April
Harper Voyager Impulse, September 15, 2015
eBook, 384 pages

Anders Jensen is having a bad month. His roommate is a data thief, his girlfriend picks fights in bars, and his best friend is a cyborg…and a lousy tipper. When everything is spiraling out of control, though, maybe those are exactly the kind of friends you need.

In a world divided between the genetically engineered elite and the unmodified masses, Anders is an anomaly: engineered, but still broke and living next to a crack house. All he wants is to land a tenure-track faculty position, and maybe meet someone who's not technically a criminal—but when a nightmare plague rips through Hagerstown, Anders finds himself dodging kinetic energy weapons and government assassins as Baltimore slips into chaos. His friends aren't as helpless as they seem, though, and his girlfriend's street-magician brother-in-law might be a pretentious hipster—or might hold the secret to saving them all.

Frenetic and audacious, Three Days in April is a speculative thriller that raises an important question: once humanity goes down the rabbit hole, can it ever find its way back?

Adrian Barnes

Nod
Titan Books, September 1, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 272 pages

Dawn breaks over Vancouver and no-one in the world has slept the night before, or almost no-one. A few people, perhaps one in ten thousand can still sleep, and they've all shared the same golden dream. A handful of children still sleep as well, but what they're dreaming remains a mystery. After six days of absolute sleep deprivation, psychosis will set in. After four weeks, the body will die. In the interim, panic ensues and a bizarre new world arises in which those previously on the fringes of society take the lead. One couple experience a lifetime in a week as he continues to sleep, she begins to disintegrate before him, and the new world swallows the old one whole...

Zen Cho

Sorcerer to the Crown
Sorcerer Royal 1
Ace, September 1, 2015
Hardcover and eBook, 384 pages

In this sparkling debut, magic and mayhem clash with the British elite…

The Royal Society of Unnatural Philosophers, one of the most respected organizations throughout all of England, has long been tasked with maintaining magic within His Majesty’s lands. But lately, the once proper institute has fallen into disgrace, naming an altogether unsuitable gentleman—a freed slave who doesn’t even have a familiar—as their Sorcerer Royal, and allowing England’s once profuse stores of magic to slowly bleed dry. At least they haven’t stooped so low as to allow women to practice what is obviously a man’s profession…

At his wit’s end, Zacharias Wythe, Sorcerer Royal of the Unnatural Philosophers and eminently proficient magician, ventures to the border of Fairyland to discover why England’s magical stocks are drying up. But when his adventure brings him in contact with a most unusual comrade, a woman with immense power and an unfathomable gift, he sets on a path which will alter the nature of sorcery in all of Britain—and the world at large…

Gerrard Cowan

The Machinery
The Machinery Trilogy 1
Harper Voyager UK, September 10, 2015
eBook, 400 pages

For ten millennia, the leaders of the Overland have been Selected by the Machinery, an omnipotent machine gifted to their world in darker days.

The city has thrived in arts, science and war, crushing all enemies and expanding to encompass the entire Plateau.

But the Overland is not at ease, for the Machinery came with the Prophecy: it will break in the 10,000th year, Selecting just one leader who will bring Ruin to the world. And with the death of Strategist Kane, a Selection is set to occur…

For Apprentice Watcher Katrina Paprissi, the date has special significance. Life hasn’t been the same since she witnessed the kidnapping of her brother Alexander, the only person on the Plateau who knew the meaning of the Prophecy.

When the opportunity arises to find her brother, Katrina must travel into the depths of the Underland, the home of the Machinery, to confront the Operator himself and discover just what makes the world work…

Seth Dickinson

The Traitor Baru Cormorant
Tor Books, September 15, 2015
Hardcover and eBook, 400 pages

In Seth Dickinson's highly-anticipated debut The Traitor Baru Cormorant, a young woman from a conquered people tries to transform an empire in this richly imagined geopolitical fantasy.

Baru Cormorant believes any price is worth paying to liberate her people-even her soul.

When the Empire of Masks conquers her island home, overwrites her culture, criminalizes her customs, and murders one of her fathers, Baru vows to swallow her hate, join the Empire's civil service, and claw her way high enough to set her people free.

Sent as an Imperial agent to distant Aurdwynn, another conquered country, Baru discovers it's on the brink of rebellion. Drawn by the intriguing duchess Tain Hu into a circle of seditious dukes, Baru may be able to use her position to help. As she pursues a precarious balance between the rebels and a shadowy cabal within the Empire, she orchestrates a do-or-die gambit with freedom as the prize.

But the cost of winning the long game of saving her people may be far greater than Baru imagines.

Ellen Herrick

The Sparrow Sisters
William Morrow Paperbacks, September 1, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 384 pages

With echoes of the alchemy of Practical Magic, the lushness of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, and the darkly joyful wickedness of the Witches of Eastwick, Ellen Herrick’s debut novel spins an enchanting love story about a place where magic whispers just beneath the surface and almost anything is possible, if you aren’t afraid to listen.

The Sparrow Sisters are as tightly woven into the seaside New England town of Granite Point as the wild sweet peas that climb the stone walls along the harbor. Sorrel, Nettie and Patience are as colorful as the beach plums on the dunes and as mysterious as the fog that rolls into town at dusk.

Patience is the town healer and when a new doctor settles into Granite Point he brings with him a mystery so compelling that Patience is drawn to love him, even as she struggles to mend him. But when Patience Sparrow’s herbs and tinctures are believed to be implicated in a local tragedy, Granite Point is consumed by a long-buried fear—and its three hundred year old history resurfaces as a modern day witch-hunt threatens. The plants and flowers, fruit trees and high hedges begin to wither and die, and the entire town begins to fail; fishermen return to the harbor empty-handed, and blight descends on the old elms that line the lanes.

It seems as if Patience and her town are lost until the women of Granite Point band together to save the Sparrow. As they gather, drawing strength from each other, will they be able to turn the tide and return life to Granite Point?

The Sparrow Sisters is a beautiful, haunting, and thoroughly mesmerizing novel that will capture your imagination.

C.A. Higgins

Lightless
Del Rey, September 29, 2015
Hardcover and eBook, 304 Pages

With deeply moving human drama, nail-biting suspense—and bold speculation informed by a degree in physics—C. A. Higgins spins a riveting science fiction debut guaranteed to catapult readers beyond their expectations.

Serving aboard the Ananke, an experimental military spacecraft launched by the ruthless organization that rules Earth and its solar system, computer scientist Althea has established an intense emotional bond—not with any of her crewmates, but with the ship’s electronic systems, which speak more deeply to her analytical mind than human feelings do. But when a pair of fugitive terrorists gain access to the Ananke, Althea must draw upon her heart and soul for the strength to defend her beloved ship.

While one of the saboteurs remains at large somewhere on board, his captured partner—the enigmatic Ivan—may prove to be more dangerous. The perversely fascinating criminal whose silver tongue is his most effective weapon has long evaded the authorities’ most relentless surveillance—and kept the truth about his methods and motives well hidden.

As the ship’s systems begin to malfunction and the claustrophobic atmosphere is increasingly poisoned by distrust and suspicion, it falls to Althea to penetrate the prisoner’s layers of intrigue and deception before all is lost. But when the true nature of Ivan’s mission is exposed, it will change Althea forever—if it doesn’t kill her first.

Mitchell Hogan

A Crucible of Souls
Sorcery Ascendant Sequence 1
Harper Voyager, September 22, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 512 pages

An imaginative new talent makes his debut with the acclaimed first installment in the epic Sorcery Ascendant Sequence, a mesmerizing tale of high fantasy that combines magic, malevolence, and mystery.

When young Caldan’s parents are brutally slain, the boy is raised by monks who initiate him into the arcane mysteries of sorcery.

Growing up plagued by questions about his past, Caldan vows to discover who his parents were, and why they were violently killed. The search will take him beyond the walls of the monastery, into the unfamiliar and dangerous chaos of city life. With nothing to his name but a pair of mysterious heirlooms and a handful of coins, he must prove his talent to become apprenticed to a guild of sorcerers.

But the world outside the monastery is a darker place than he ever imagined, and his treasured sorcery has disturbing depths he does not fully understand. As a shadowed evil manipulates the unwary and forbidden powers are unleashed, Caldan is plunged into an age-old conflict that will bring the world to the edge of destruction.

Soon, he must choose a side, and face the true cost of uncovering his past.

Ilana C. Myer

Last Song Before Night
Tor Books, September 29, 2015
Hardcover and eBook, 416 pages

A high fantasy following a young woman's defiance of her culture as she undertakes a dangerous quest to restore her world's lost magic in Ilana C. Myer's Last Song Before Night.

Her name was Kimbralin Amaristoth: sister to a cruel brother, daughter of a hateful family. But that name she has forsworn, and now she is simply Lin, a musician and lyricist of uncommon ability in a land where women are forbidden to answer such callings-a fugitive who must conceal her identity or risk imprisonment and even death.

On the eve of a great festival, Lin learns that an ancient scourge has returned to the land of Eivar, a pandemic both deadly and unnatural. Its resurgence brings with it the memory of an apocalypse that transformed half a continent. Long ago, magic was everywhere, rising from artistic expression-from song, from verse, from stories. But in Eivar, where poets once wove enchantments from their words and harps, the power was lost. Forbidden experiments in blood divination unleashed the plague that is remembered as the Red Death, killing thousands before it was stopped, and Eivar's connection to the Otherworld from which all enchantment flowed, broken.

The Red Death's return can mean only one thing: someone is spilling innocent blood in order to master dark magic. Now poets who thought only to gain fame for their songs face a challenge much greater: galvanized by Valanir Ocune, greatest Seer of the age, Lin and several others set out to reclaim their legacy and reopen the way to the Otherworld-a quest that will test their deepest desires, imperil their lives, and decide the future.

Adam Rakunas

Windswept
Windswept 1
Angry Robot Books, September 1, 2015
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 400 pages

Padma Mehta has to save her city, her planet, and Occupied Space from a devastating crop-killing plague — all before Happy Hour.

Labor organizer Padma Mehta is on the edge of space and the edge of burnout. All she wants is to buy out a little rum distillery and retire, but she’s supposed to recruit 500 people to the Union before she can. She’s only thirty-three short. So when a small-time con artist tells her about forty people ready to tumble down the space elevator to break free from her old bosses, she checks it out — against her better judgment. It turns out, of course, it was all lies.

As Padma should know by now, there are no easy shortcuts on her planet. And suddenly retirement seems farther away than ever: she’s just stumbled into a secret corporate mission to stop a plant disease that could wipe out all the industrial sugarcane in Occupied Space. If she ever wants to have another drink of her favorite rum, she’s going to have to fight her way through the city’s warehouses, sewage plants, and up the elevator itself to stop this new plague.

File Under: Science Fiction [ Plagues, Plots & Planets • One-Eyed Wonder • Bad Tips, Good Tipples • This Little Bar I Know ]

Paul Tassi

The Last Exodus
The Earthborn Trilogy 1
Talos Press, September 8, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 348 pages

The Earth lies in ruins in the aftermath of an extraterrestrial invasion, the land devastated by a desperate war with no winners between mankind and a race of vicious, intelligent creatures. The seas are drying up while the atmosphere corrodes and slowly cooks any life remaining on the now desolate rock. Food is scarce, trust even more so, and the only people left alive all have done horrific things to stay that way.

Among the few survivors is Lucas, an ordinary man hardened by the last few years after the world’s end. He’s fought off bandits, murderers, and stranded creatures on his long trek across the country in search of his family, the one thing that drives him to outlive his dying planet. What he finds instead is hope, something thought to be lost in the world. There’s a ship buried in a crater wall. One of theirs. One that works. To fly it, Lucas must join forces with a traitorous alien scientist and a captured, merciless raider named Asha. But unless they find common ground, all will die, stranded on a ruined Earth.

Combining gritty post-apocalyptic survival and epic space opera, The Last Exodus is the beginning of a new action-packed science fiction adventure where the future of the human race depends on its survivors leaving the past behind.

Tom Toner 

The Promise of the Child
Volume One of the Amaranthine Spectrum
Night Shade Books, September 22, 2015
Hardcover and eBook, 460 pages

It is the 147th century.

In the radically advanced post-human worlds of the Amaranthine Firmament, there is a contender to the Immortal throne: Aaron the Long-Life, the Pretender, a man who is not quite a man.

In the barbarous hominid kingdoms of the Prism Investiture, where life is short, cheap, and dangerous, an invention is born that will become the Firmament’s most closely kept secret.

Lycaste, a lovesick reclusive outcast for an unspeakable crime, must journey through the Provinces, braving the grotesques of an ancient, decadent world to find his salvation.

Sotiris, grieving the loss of his sister and awaiting the madness of old age, must relive his twelve thousand years of life to stop the man determined to become Emperor.

Ghaldezuel, knight of the stars, must plunder the rarest treasure in the Firmament—the object the Pretender will stop at nothing to obtain.

From medieval Prague to a lonely Mediterranean cove, and eventually far into the strange vastness of distant worlds, The Promise of the Child is a debut novel of gripping action and astounding ambition unfolding over hundreds of thousands of years, marking the arrival of a brilliant new talent in science fiction.

Claire Vaye Watkins

Gold Fame Citrus
Riverhead Books, September 29, 2015
Hardcover and eBook, 352 pages

The much-anticipated first novel from a Story Prize-winning “5 Under 35” fiction writer.

In 2012, Claire Vaye Watkins’s story collection, Battleborn, swept nearly every award for short fiction. Now this young writer, widely heralded as a once-in-a-generation talent, returns with a first novel that harnesses the sweeping vision and deep heart that made her debut so arresting to a love story set in a devastatingly imagined near future:

Unrelenting drought has transfigured Southern California into a surreal, phantasmagoric landscape. With the Central Valley barren, underground aquifer drained, and Sierra snowpack entirely depleted, most “Mojavs,” prevented by both armed vigilantes and an indifferent bureaucracy from freely crossing borders to lusher regions, have allowed themselves to be evacuated to internment camps. In Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon, two young Mojavs—Luz, once a poster child for the Bureau of Conservation and its enemies, and Ray, a veteran of the “forever war” turned surfer—squat in a starlet’s abandoned mansion. Holdouts, they subsist on rationed cola and whatever they can loot, scavenge, and improvise.

The couple’s fragile love somehow blooms in this arid place, and for the moment, it seems enough. But when they cross paths with a mysterious child, the thirst for a better future begins. They head east, a route strewn with danger: sinkholes and patrolling authorities, bandits and the brutal, omnipresent sun. Ghosting after them are rumors of a visionary dowser—a diviner for water—and his followers, who whispers say have formed a colony at the edge of a mysterious sea of dunes.

Immensely moving, profoundly disquieting, and mind-blowingly original, Watkins’s novel explores the myths we believe about others and tell about ourselves, the double-edged power of our most cherished relationships, and the shape of hope in a precarious future that may be our own.

Fran Wilde

Updraft
Tor Books, September 1, 2015
Hardcover and eBook, 368 pages

Welcome to a world of wind and bone, songs and silence, betrayal and courage.

Kirit Densira cannot wait to pass her wingtest and begin flying as a trader by her mother's side, being in service to her beloved home tower and exploring the skies beyond. When Kirit inadvertently breaks Tower Law, the city's secretive governing body, the Singers, demand that she become one of them instead. In an attempt to save her family from greater censure, Kirit must give up her dreams to throw herself into the dangerous training at the Spire, the tallest, most forbidding tower, deep at the heart of the City.

As she grows in knowledge and power, she starts to uncover the depths of Spire secrets. Kirit begins to doubt her world and its unassailable Laws, setting in motion a chain of events that will lead to a haunting choice, and may well change the city forever-if it isn't destroyed outright.

Kai Ashante Wilson

The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps
Tor.com, September 1, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 224 pages

Critically acclaimed author Kai Ashante Wilson makes his commercial debut with this striking, wondrous tale of gods and mortals, magic and steel, and life and death that will reshape how you look at sword and sorcery.

Since leaving his homeland, the earthbound demigod Demane has been labeled a sorcerer. With his ancestors' artifacts in hand, the Sorcerer follows the Captain, a beautiful man with song for a voice and hair that drinks the sunlight.
The two of them are the descendants of the gods who abandoned the Earth for Heaven, and they will need all the gifts those divine ancestors left to them to keep their caravan brothers alive.
The one safe road between the northern oasis and southern kingdom is stalked by a necromantic terror. Demane may have to master his wild powers and trade humanity for godhood if he is to keep his brothers and his beloved captain alive.

Hester Young

The Gates of Evangeline
Charlie Cates 1
G.P. Putnam's Sons, September 1, 2015
Hardcover and eBook, 416 pages

From a unique new talent comes a fast-paced debut, introducing a heroine whose dark visions bring to light secrets that will heal or destroy those around her . . .

When New York journalist and recently bereaved mother Charlotte “Charlie” Cates begins to experience vivid dreams about children she’s sure that she’s lost her mind. Yet these are not the nightmares of a grieving parent, she soon realizes. They are messages and warnings that will help Charlie and the children she sees, if only she can make sense of them.

After a little boy in a boat appears in Charlie’s dreams asking for her help, Charlie finds herself entangled in a thirty-year-old missing-child case that has never ceased to haunt Louisiana’s prestigious Deveau family. Armed with an invitation to Evangeline, the family’s sprawling estate, Charlie heads south, where new friendships and an unlikely romance bring healing. But as she uncovers long-buried secrets of love, money, betrayal, and murder, the facts begin to implicate those she most wants to trust—and her visions reveal an evil closer than she could’ve imagined.A Southern Gothic mystery debut that combines literary suspense and romance with a mystical twist, THE GATES OF EVANGELINE is a story that readers of Gillian Flynn, Kate Atkinson, and Alice Sebold won’t be able to put down.