The Qwillery

Happy Monday! There are 4 debuts this week: She Wouldn't Change a Thing by Sarah Adlakha; The Manningtree Witches by A. K. Blakemore; They Met in a Tavern by Elijah Menchaca; and The Shimmering State by Meredith Westgate. From formerly featured DAC Authors: Spirits Abroad: Stories by Zen Cho; Paper & Blood (Ink & Sigil 2) by Keven Hearne; The Maleficent Seven by Cameron Johnston; and Citadel (Palladium Wars 3) by Marko Kloos.

Debut novels are highlighted in blue. Novels, etc. by formerly featured DAC Authors are highlighted in green. August 8, 2021

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Seasons Between Us: Tales of Identities and Memories	Susan Forest (Ed) Lucas K. Law (Ed)	SpecFic - Laksa Anthology Series: Speculative Fiction

August 10, 2021

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
She Wouldn't Change a Thing (D)	Sarah Adlakha	W/SF/TT
World Engines: Destroyer	Stephen Baxter	SF/HSF/SO
Afterland (h2tp)	Lauren Beukes	Sus/Dys
The Manningtree Witches (D)	A. K. Blakemore	Occ/Sup/Medieval/Feminist
Spirits Abroad: Stories	Zen Cho	F/SF/LF/GH - Collection
Quiet Village	Eden Darry	H
Daughter from the Dark (h2tp)	Marina & Sergey Dyachenko	DF
Axiom's End (h2tp)	Lindsay Ellis	SF/SC/Th - Noumena 1
The King of Infinite Space	Lyndsay Faye	LF/MR
Paper & Blood	Kevin Hearne	CF/P - Ink & Sigil 2
The Rookery	Deborah Hewitt	CF/P - The Nightjar Duology 2
The Other Me	Sarah Zachrich Jeng	Sus/W/SF/TT
Trouble the Saints (h2tp)	Alaya Dawn Johnson	HistF/LF
The Loop (h2tp)	Jeremy Robert Johnson	SupTh
The Maleficent Seven	Cameron Johnston	F/DF
Citadel	Marko Kloos	SF/SO - Palladium Wars 3
Madame Cruller's Couch and Other Dark and Bizarre Tales	Elizabeth Massie	Occ - Collection
War of the Maps	Paul McAuley	SF
They Met in a Tavern (D)	Elijah Menchaca	F
The Ankh-Morpork Archives: Volume One	Terry Pratchett	F
Jenny Villiers	J. B. Priestley	GH
From the Caves	Thea Prieto	Dys/CoA/SF/AP/PA
Plan for the Worst	Jodi Taylor	SF/TT/HistF/Hist/SF - Chronicles of St. Mary's 11
The Echoed Realm	A. J. Vrana	DF
The Shimmering State (D)	Meredith Westgate	LF
Sword & Citadel: The Second Half of The Book of the New Sun	Gene Wolfe	Science Fantasy - The Book of the New Sun 2

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



AB - Absurdist
AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternative History
AP - Apocalyptic
BHU - Black Humor
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CM - Crime & Mystery
CoA - Coming of Age
CrM - Crime and Mystery
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)
GothicR - Gothic Romance
GW&CC - Global Warming and Climate Change
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HistM - Historical Mystery
HistR - Historical Romance
HistTh - Historical Thriller
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
HU - Humorous
LC - Literary Criticism
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
M - Mystery
Med - Medical
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
MU - Mash-Up
NF - Near Future
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PCM - Paranormal Cozy Mystery
PF - Paranormal Fantasy
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Pol - Political
PolTh - Political Thriller
PopCul - Popular Culture
PP - Police Porcedural
Psy - Psychological
R - Romance
RF - Romantic Fantasy
ScF - Science Fantasy
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SFTh - Science Fiction Thriller
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SP - Steampunk
SpecFic - Speculative Fiction
SS - Short Stories
STR - Small Town and Rural
Sup - Supernatural
SupM - Supernatural Mystery
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
TTR - Time Travel Romance
UF - Urban Fantasy
VM - Visionary and Metaphysical
WS - Women Sleuths

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

Charlie Jane Anders (2016) Never Say You Can't Survive
Tordotcom, August 17, 2021
Hardcover and eBook, 240 pages

From Charlie Jane Anders, the award-winning author of novels such as All the Birds in the Sky and The City in the Middle of the Night, this is one of the most practical guides to storytelling that you will ever read.

The world is on fire.
So tell your story.

Things are scary right now. We’re all being swept along by a tidal wave of history, and it’s easy to feel helpless. But we’re not helpless: we have minds, and imaginations, and the ability to visualize other worlds and valiant struggles. And writing can be an act of resistance that reminds us that other futures and other ways of living are possible.

Full of memoir, personal anecdote, and insight about how to flourish during the present emergency, Never Say You Can’t Survive is the perfect manual for creativity in unprecedented times.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Bookshop : Books-A-Million : IndieBound : Powell's
Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

Cameron Johnston (2018) The Maleficent Seven
Angry Robot, August 10, 2021
Trade Paperback and eBook, 400 pages

When you are all out of heroes, all that’s left are the villains…

Black Herran was a dread demonologist, and the most ruthless general in all Essoran. She assembled the six most fearsome warriors to captain her armies: a necromancer, a vampire lord, a demigod, an orcish warleader, a pirate queen, and a twisted alchemist. Together they brought the whole continent to its knees… Until the day she abandoned her army, on the eve of total victory.

40 years later, she must bring her former captains back together for one final stand, in the small town of Tarnbrooke – the last bastion against a fanatical new enemy tearing through the land, intent on finishing the job Black Herran started years before.

Seven bloodthirsty monsters. One town. Their last hope.

File Under: Fantasy [ Heroes or Horrors? | Flames and Faith | Blood and Guts | Hell Demons ]

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Bookshop : Books-A-Million : IndieBound : Powell's
Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

Marko Kloos (2014) Citadel
Palladium Wars 3
47North, August 10, 2021
Hardcover, Trade Paperback, and eBook, 332 pages

An interplanetary battle is renewed in an epic novel of a warring solar system by the author of Ballistic.

The war should have been over. But it’s not for a group of nationalists grabbing for control.

It’s been two weeks since a missile with a nuclear warhead tore through the planetary defenses in the most blistering large-scale attack ever committed in the history of the Gaia system. Commander Dunstan Park of the Rhodian navy has been handpicked to command an experimental cruiser that could dictate the course of the escalating conflict. All he has to do is keep the ship from falling into the wrong hands.

On Gretia, the powder keg is beyond control. A terrorist attack against civilians draws Idina Chaudhary into a costly battle. It also forces a cautious Aden Jansen back into the fray. Now dedicated to a just cause, he’s still keeping his past hidden. The risk of exposing his former alliance could twist not only his fate but also that of his sister, Solveig, heir to the family empire.

With no time to waste, Dunstan hits the ground running. But as insurgents threaten the unstable peace, what’s ahead for both sides could change the destiny of the Gaia system forever.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Bookshop : Books-A-Million : IndieBound : Powell's

Book One

Book Two

Happy Monday!

There are two debuts this week:

The Outside by Ada Hoffmann;

and

The Hungry Ghost by Dalena Storm.




From formerly featured DAC Authors:

Deep Roots (Innsmouth Legacy 2) by Ruthanna Emrys is out in Trade Paperback;

God of Broken Things (The Age of Tyranny 2) by Cameron Johnston;

Velocity Weapon (Protectorate1) by Megan E. O'Keefe;

Black Harvest (World of Prime 5) by M.C. Planck;

Strange Company & Others by Peter Rawlik;

and

The Sol Majestic by Ferrett Steinmetz.

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

June 11, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Pass of Fire	Taylor Anderson	SF/AH - Destroyermen 14
Bunny	Mona Awad	LF/FairyT/FolkT/LM/BH
God's Demon (ri)	Wayne Barlowe	DF/F
Above the Ether	Eric Barnes	Dys
Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory: Stories	Raphael Bob-Waksberg	LF/SF - Short Stories
The Hive	Orson Scott Card Aaron Johnston	SF/SO - Second Formic War 2
Reentry	Peter Cawdron	SF/SE
The Faded Sun Trilogy Omnibus (ri)	C. J. Cherryh	SF/HSF/AC - Alliance-Union Universe
The Collected Short Fiction of C.J. Cherryh (ri)	C. J. Cherryh	SF/HSF/SO
Recursion	Blake Crouch	TechTh/Sus/SF
Deep Roots (h2tp)	Ruthanna Emrys	DF/HistF - Innsmouth Legacy 2
Song for the Unraveling of the World	Brian Evenson	SS/LF/H/SF - Collection
Alphabet Squadron	Alexander Freed	SF/SO - Star Wars
The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book	Neil Gaiman	PerfArts
Green Valley	Louis Greenberg	TechTh/H/SF
Titandeath	Guy Haley	SF/SE - Horus Heresy 53
The Outside (D)	Ada Hoffmann	SF/SO/HSF/SE
God of Broken Things	Cameron Johnston	F/DF - The Age of Tyranny 2
The Grand Dark	Richard Kadrey	DF
The Last Supper Before Ragnarok	Cassandra Khaw	F
Warhammer Chronicles: Gotrek & Felix: The Third Omnibus	William King Nathan Long	F - Warhammer Chronicles
The History of Soul 2065	Barbara Krasnoff	F/SS - Collection
Old Earth (ri)	Nick Kyme	SF - Horus Heresy 47
Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune	Roselle Lim	CW/MR
Air Logic	Laurie J. Marks	F - Elemental Logic 4
Angron: Slave of Nuceria	Ian St. Martin	SF/SO - Horus Heresy: Primarchs 11
Velocity Weapon	Megan E. O'Keefe	SF/SO/SE/GenEng - Protectorate 1
Shield of the Emperor	Steve Parker	SF/SE
Black Harvest	M.C. Planck	F - World of Prime 5
The Golden Key (ri)	Melanie Rawn Jennifer Roberson Kate Elliott	F/DF
A Sword Named Truth	Sherwood Smith	F/DF/HistF - Rise of the Alliance 1
The Sol Majestic	Ferrett Steinmetz	SF/SO
The Hungry Ghost (D)	Dalena Storm	GH/Occ/Sup
The Fall	Tracy Townsend	F - Thieves of Fate 2
Three Laws Lethal	David Walton	HSF/Th
Broken Veil	Jeff Wheeler	F/HistF - Harbinger 5
The History of Living Forever	Jake Wolff	LF

June 14, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Book of Disappearance	Ibtisam Azem Timberlake Sinan Anton (Tr)	MR/LF

June 15, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Strange Company and Others	Peter Rawlik	H - Collection

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
tp2mm - Trade Paperback to Mass Market Paperback
Tr - Translator



AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternative History
AP - Apocalyptic
BH - Black Humor
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
Cr - Crime
CW - Contemporary Women
CyP - CyberPunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost(s)
H - Horror
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
HU - Humorous
LC - Literary Criticism
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
M - Mystery
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PCM - Paranormal Cozy Mystery
PerfArts - Performing Arts
PM - Paranormal Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
PolTh - Political Thriller
PopCul - Popular Culture
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SO - Space Opera
SocSci - Social Science
SS - Short Stories
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
UF - Urban Fantasy

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

Each month you will be able to vote for your favorite cover from that month's debut novels. At the end of the year the 12 monthly winners will be pitted against each other to choose the 2018 Debut Novel Cover of the Year. Please note that a debut novel cover is eligible in the month in which the novel is published in the US. Cover artist/illustrator/designer information is provided when we have it.

I'm using PollCode for this vote. After you the check the circle next to your favorite, click "Vote" to record your vote. If you'd like to see the real-time results click "View". This will take you to the PollCode site where you may see the results. If you want to come back to The Qwillery click "Back" and you will return to this page. Voting will end sometime on June 30, 2018, unless the vote is extended. If the vote is extended the ending date will be posted.

Vote for your favorite June 2018 Debut Cover!

The Anomaly

The Book of M

Confessions of the Fox

The Darkest Time of Night

A Demon in Silver

Free Chocolate

The Grey Bastards

The Hawkman

The Last Sun

A People's History of the Vampire Uprising

The Robots of Gotham

Trail of Lightning

The Traitor God

Treeborne

Witchmark

 

pollcode.com free polls

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

Cameron:  I have vague recollections of writing Transformers fan-fiction as kid back in the 80s. I suspect Grimlock was the hero of the piece. How can you not love a T-Rex transformer?? Oh, wait, I've seen a film called Age of Extinction...never mind.



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

Cameron:  A pantser! I find if I try and write detailed plot outlines that it kills the joy of writing for me and the characters rebel. Instead I only have a bare scaffold of beginning, end, and a few important points that I want to hit along the journey.



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

Cameron:  Making the time to do it all. When you have books, TV/films, RPGs to play, swords to practice with, and a lovely wife to spend time with, it can be so easy to put writing off to another day. As for the writing itself, sometimes a plot is supposed to head to Y, but the character you have developed goes "Nope!" and wants to go to Z instead. It can be tricky to resolve those issues.



TQ:  What has influenced / influences your writing?

Cameron:  Too many media influences to list them all really. Old films like Night of the Demon and Quatermass and The Pit, pulp fantasy stories like Conan and Elric, the cosmic horror of HP Lovecraft, and comics like 2000AD and Hellblazer. I'm also heavily influenced by history, archaeology and mythology, with a great love of castles and other ancient sites.



TQ:  Describe The Traitor God in 140 characters or less.

Cameron:  I will go with two comparisons to see if I can get the flavour of the novel across:
-Hellblazer’s John Constantine meets swords & sorcery in a tale of revenge and Lovecraftian horror.
-Malazan meets grimdark urban fantasy.



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

Cameron:  It's not all relentlessly grim and dark. There is hope, bad jokes and black humour, and also decent people trying to do the right thing in horrendous situations.



TQ:  What inspired you to write The Traitor God? What appeals to you about writing grimdark?

Cameron:  I used to strictly write 3rd person limited point of view, and as an experiment I tried 1st person PoV in a film-noir styled swords and sorcery short story - and it sucked me into this unexpectedly dark and dangerous world and demanded expanding into a whole novel. As for writing grimdark, it allows me to explore what characters do when everything has gone to hell - how do they keep going in the face of death and devastation? And how do they survive without becoming monsters themselves?



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for The Traitor God?

Cameron:  Entirely too much research, 98% of which never made it into the book. Medieval sewage, tanning practices, ancient farming, magic tricks and mentalism, alchemy and ancient medicine...



TQ:  Please tell us about the cover for The Traitor God.

Cameron:  The cover art is all thanks to the amazing Jan Weßbecher. It depicts Edrin Walker crossing a bridge to the poorest area of the city, the Docklands, and in the background you can see the palaces of the Old Town on its high rock, where the magi and nobility live. In the background, and to scale, is a titanic black metal statue...yes, definitely a statue...



TQ:  In The Traitor God who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Cameron:  Charra was the easiest. She is a mother and a businesswoman out to do some good in the world. She has a very strict sense of right and wrong: she is right and others are wrong, and she has the knives and people to back it up. The hardest character to write was Walker himself - he is conflicted and broken and being pulled in so many directions. He walks a tightrope between magician and monster. The magic urges him to do one thing, his selfishness another, and his humanity that resists it is dwindling...



TQ:  Why have you chosen to include or not chosen to include social issues in The Traitor God?

Cameron:  Walker was a gutter rat in Docklands before his magical Gift was discovered and he was plucked from poverty to become an initiate with the Arcanum that rules the city. With that, he straddles the lines between the rich and powerful and the destitute and desperate he still self-identifies with. It would be impossible not to delve into that social divide in some way.



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

Cameron:

Q: Did you purposely set out to create a high-magic setting?

A: Definitely! Things like A Song of Ice and Fire with its vague, looming magical threat and hints of magic was something that I wanted to get away from. I wanted it more like old pulp fantasy worlds of Conan and Elric. Big magic, dark gods and demons, magical weapons and horrific monsters.



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

Cameron:  The first is also the cover tagline, but I will expand upon that:
"This town was already doomed and I wasn’t going down with it. Heroism could get a man killed."

Another that I like:
"A daemon glitters in the moonlight, crystalline, many-eyed, scuttling towards him down the alley like a spider made of knives, its limbs all straight lines and jagged cutting edges."



TQ:  If you could build one structure from The Traitor God in LEGOs, which one would it be and why?

Cameron:  Oh dear. You have happened upon a hobby of mine. How can I possibly only build one thing out of LEGO? At a push I would go for a cityscape scene, with giant brick monsters fighting.



TQ:  What's next?

Cameron:  A second novel in the series, The God of Broken Things, is coming next June, so watch this space.



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Cameron:  Thank you for having me. It has been a pleasure.

The Traitor God
Angry Robot, June 5, 2018
Trade Paperback and eBook, 432 pages

A city threatened by unimaginable horrors must trust their most hated outcast, or lose everything, in this crushing epic fantasy debut.

After ten years on the run, dodging daemons and debt, reviled magician Edrin Walker returns home to avenge the brutal murder of his friend. Lynas had uncovered a terrible secret, something that threatened to devour the entire city. He tried to warn the Arcanum, the sorcerers who rule the city. He failed.

Lynas was skinned alive and Walker felt every cut. Now nothing will stop him from finding the murderer. Magi, mortals, daemons, and even the gods – Walker will burn them all if he has to.

After all, it wouldn’t be the first time he’s killed a god…

File Under: Fantasy [ Look Who’s Back | Blood Sorcery | Tyrants & Titans | Mind Mates ]

About Cameron

Cameron Johnston lives in Glasgow, Scotland, with his wife and an extremely fluffy cat. He is a swordsman, a gamer, an enthusiast of archaeology, history and mythology, a builder of LEGO, and owns far too many books to fit on his shelves. He loves exploring ancient sites and camping out under the stars by a roaring fire.










Website  ~  Twitter @CamJohnston

Happy 1st Monday in June!

There are 6 debuts this week:

Treeborne by Caleb Johnson;

The Traitor God by Cameron Johnston;

The Hawkman: A Fairy Tale of the Great War by Jane Rosenberg LaForge;

Free Chocolate (The Chocoverse 1) by Amber Royer;

The Book of M by Pend Shepherd;

and

A People's History of the Vampire Uprising by Raymond A. Villareal.





From formerly featured DAC Authors:

Adrift by Rob Boffard;

The Visitors by Catherine Burns is out in Trade Paperback;

Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded by Jason Heller;

An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard is out in Trade Paperback;

Chaos Queen - Blood Requiem (Chaos Queen 3) by Christopher Husberg;

Refugees (Born to the Blade Season 1, Episode 8) by Malka Older;

Outbreak (Nightshades 3) by Melissa F. Olson;

After On: A Novel of Silicon Valley by Rob Reid is out in Trade Paperback;

and

The Legion of Flame (The Draconis Memoria 2) by Anthony Ryan is out in Trade Paperback.

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

June 4, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
In Darkness Transformed (e)	Alexis Morgan	PNR - Paladin Strike Team 1

June 5, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Year's Best Military and Adventure SF, Volume 4	David Afsharirad (Ed)	SF - Year's Best Military & Adventure Science 4
Devil's Due (h2mm)	Taylor Anderson	SF/AH - Destroyermen 12
The Wisdom of Madness	C.J. Archer	HistF - Ministry Of Curiosities 10
Adrift	Rob Boffard	SF
Brothers in Arms (ri)	Lois McMaster Bujold	SF/SO - Vorkosigan Saga 9
The Visitors (h2tp)	Catherine Burns	PsyTh
Brief Cases	Jim Butcher	UF - Dresden Files Collection
Grantville Gazette VIII	Eric Flint (Ed) Walt Boyes (Ed)	SF/TT - The Ring of Fire 8
Denver Moon: The Minds of Mars	Warren Hammond Joshua Viola	SF/CyP - Denver Moon
Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded	Jason Heller	SocSci/PopCul/LC/SF/F
An Unkindness of Magicians (h2tp)	Kat Howard	DF
A Peace Divided (h2tp)	Tanya Huff	SF/AC - Peacekeeper 2
Chaos Queen - Blood Requiem	Christopher Husberg	F/DF - Chaos Queen 3
Treeborne (D)	Caleb Johnson	LF/FL
The Traitor God (D)	Cameron Johnston	F/DF/UF
The Mist (ri)	Stephen King	Th
Carrie (ri)	Stephen King	H
The Hills Have Spies	Mercedes Lackey	F/FR - Valdemar: Family Spies 1
The Hawkman: A Fairy Tale of the Great War (D)	Jane Rosenberg LaForge	FairyT/FolkT/LM/MR/LF
A Panicked Premonition (h2mm)	Victoria Laurie	PM/Occ/Sup - Psychic Eye Mystery 15
Companions on the Road (ri)	Tanith Lee	F
Sparrow Hill Road (ri)	Seanan McGuire	P/UF/CF - Ghost Roads 1
Outbreak	Melissa F. Olson	P/UF - Nightshades 3
Expiration Date	Tim Powers	CF
After On: A Novel of Silicon Valley (h2tp)	Rob Reid	Satire/TechTh/SF/HU
2312 (h2mm)	Kim Stanley Robinson	SF/SO/Dys
Aurora (ri)	Kim Stanley Robinson	SF/SO/HSF
Plum Rains	Andromeda Romano-Lax	SF/AP/PA/Hist/Med
Free Chocolate (D)	Amber Royer	SF/SO - The Chocoverse 1
The Golden House (h2tp)	Salman Rushdie	LF/Satire/Political
The Legion of Flame (h2tp)	Anthony Ryan	F/DF - The Draconis Memoria 2
Koko Uncaged	Kieran Shea	SF
The Book of M (D)	Peng Shepherd	LF/NF
The Sea Peoples (h2mm)	S. M. Stirling	SF/AP/PA/AH/F - A Novel of the Change 14
The Delirium Brief (h2tp)	Charles Stross	CF/DF - Laundry Files 8
The Shimmer	Carsten Stroud	Th/SupTh/PsyTh
Star Trek: Discovery: Fear Itself	James Swallow	SF - Star Trek: Discovery 3
Her Beautiful Monster (h2tp)	Adi Tantimedh	M - Ravi PI 2
Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers (e)	Sarena Ulibarri (Ed)	SF/HSF/Tech - Anthology
A People's History of the Vampire Uprising (D)	Raymond A. Villareal	CulH/H/Pol/SupTh
Finding the Texas Wolf	Karen Whiddon	PNR
The Maw	Taylor Zajonc	Sus/SF

June 6, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Meat And Salt And Sparks: A Tor.com Original (e)	Rich Larson	SF/M
Refugees (e)	Malka Older	F - Born to the Blade Season 1, Episode 8

June 7, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Ghost Stories (ri)	M. R. James	GH - The Penguin English Library
At the Mountains of Madness (ri)	H. P. Lovecraft	SF - The Penguin English Library
The Last Children of Tokyo	Yoko Tawada	Dys/LF

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
CoA - Coming of Age
Cr - Crime
CulH - Cultural Heritage
CW - Contemporary Woman
CyP - Cyberpunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
Fict - Fiction
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost(s)
Gothic - Gothic
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
HU - Humor
LC - Literary Criticism
LegalTh - Legal Thriller
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
M - Mystery
Med - Medical
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
MU - Mash Up
NF - Near Future
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PI - Private Investigator
PM - Paranormal Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Pol - Political
PopCul - Popular Culture
Psy Th - Psychological Thriller
Rel - Religious
SF - Science Fiction
SH - Superheroes
SocSci - Social Science
SO - Space Opera
SP - Steampunk
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
Tech - Technological
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
TTR - Time Travel Romance
UF - Urban Fantasy
VisM - Visionary and Metaphysical
W - Western

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

K. D. Edwards

The Last Sun
Pyr, Jun 12, 2018
Trade Paperback and eBook, 384 pages

In this debut novel and series starter, the last member of a murdered House searches for a missing nobleman, and uncovers clues about his own tortured past.

Rune Saint John, last child of the fallen Sun Court, is hired to search for Lady Judgment's missing son, Addam, on New Atlantis, the island city where the Atlanteans moved after ordinary humans destroyed their original home.

With his companion and bodyguard, Brand, he questions Addam's relatives and business contacts through the highest ranks of the nobles of New Atlantis. But as they investigate, they uncover more than a missing man: a legendary creature connected to the secret of the massacre of Rune's Court. In looking for Addam, can Rune find the truth behind his family's death and the torments of his past?

Jeremy Finley

The Darkest Time of Night
St. Martin's Press, June 26, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 336 pages

Investigative journalist for WSMV-TV in Nashville, Jeremy Finley's debut thriller explores what happens to people’s lives when our world intersects with the unexplainable.

"The lights took him."

When the seven-year-old grandson of U.S. Senator vanishes in the woods behind his home, the only witness is his older brother who whispers, “The lights took him,” and then never speaks again.

As the FBI and National Guard launch a massive search, the boys' grandmother Lynn Roseworth fears only she knows the truth. But coming forward would ruin her family and her husband’s political career.

In the late 1960s, before she became the quiet wife of a politician, Lynn was a secretary in the astronomy department at the University of Illinois. It was there where she began taking mysterious messages for one of the professors; messages from people desperate to find their missing loved ones who vanished into beams of light.

Determined to find her beloved grandson and expose the truth, she must return to the work she once abandoned to unravel the existence of a place long forgotten by the world. It is there, buried deep beneath the bitter snow and the absent memories of its inhabitants, where her grandson may finally be found.

But there are forces that wish to silence her. And Lynn will find how far they will go to stop her, and how the truth about her own forgotten childhood could reveal the greatest mystery of all time.

The Darkest Time of Night is a fast-paced debut full of suspense and government cover-ups, perfect for thriller and supernatural fans alike.

June 2018 SIBA Okra Selection

R.S. Ford

A Demon in Silver
War of the Archons 1
Titan Books, June 12, 2018
Trade Paperback and eBook, 400 pages

In a world where magic has disappeared, rival nations vie for power in a continent devastated by war.

When a young farm girl, Livia, demonstrates magical powers for the first time in a century there are many across the land that will kill to obtain her power. The Duke of Gothelm’s tallymen, the blood-soaked Qeltine Brotherhood, and cynical mercenary Josten Cade: all are searching for Livia and the power she wields.

But Livia finds that guardians can come from the most unlikely places… and that the old gods are returning to a world they abandoned.

Jonathan French

The Grey Bastards
The Lost Lands 1
Crown, June 19, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 432 pages

Live in the saddle.
Die on the hog.

Call them outcasts, call them savages—they’ve been called worse, by their own mothers—but Jackal is proud to be a Grey Bastard.

He and his fellow half-orcs patrol the barren wastes of the Lot Lands, spilling their own damned blood to keep civilized folk safe. A rabble of hard-talking, hog-riding, whore-mongering brawlers they may be, but the Bastards are Jackal’s sworn brothers, fighting at his side in a land where there’s no room for softness.

And once Jackal’s in charge—as soon as he can unseat the Bastards’ tyrannical, seemingly unkillable founder—there’s a few things they’ll do different. Better.

Or at least, that’s the plan. Until the fallout from a deadly showdown makes Jackal start investigating the Lot Lands for himself. Soon, he’s wondering if his feelings have blinded him to ugly truths about this world, and the Bastards’ place in it.

In a quest for answers that takes him from decaying dungeons to the frontlines of an ancient feud, Jackal finds himself battling invading orcs, rampaging centaurs, and grubby human conspiracies alike—along with a host of dark magics so terrifying they’d give even the heartiest Bastard pause.

Finally, Jackal must ride to confront a threat that’s lain in wait for generations, even as he wonders whether the Bastards can—or should–survive.

Delivered with a generous wink to Sons of Anarchy, featuring sneaky-smart worldbuilding and gobs of fearsomely foul-mouthed charm, The Grey Bastards is a grimy, pulpy, masterpiece—and a raunchy, swaggering, cunningly clever adventure that’s like nothing you’ve read before.

Caleb Johnson

Treeborne
Picador, June 5, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 320 pages

"I can’t remember the last time I read a book I wish so much I’d written. Treeborne is beautiful, and mythic in ways I would never have been able to imagine...I can’t say enough about this book."—Daniel Wallace, national bestselling author of Extraordinary Adventures and Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions

One of Southern Living's Best New Books Coming Out Summer 2018

Janie Treeborne lives on an orchard at the edge of Elberta, Alabama, and in time, she has become its keeper. A place where conquistadors once walked, and where the peaches they left behind now grow, Elberta has seen fierce battles, violent storms, and frantic change—and when the town is once again threatened from without, Janie realizes it won’t withstand much more. So she tells the story of its people: of Hugh, her granddaddy, determined to preserve Elberta’s legacy at any cost; of his wife, Maybelle, the postmaster, whose sudden death throws the town into chaos; of her lover, Lee Malone, a black orchardist harvesting from a land where he is less than welcome; of the time when Janie kidnapped her own Hollywood-obsessed aunt and tore the wrong people apart.

As the world closes in on Elberta, Caleb Johnson’s debut novel lifts the veil and offers one last glimpse. Treeborne is a celebration and a reminder: of how the past gets mixed up in thoughts of the future; of how home is a story as much as a place.

Cameron Johnston

The Traitor God
Angry Robot, June 5, 2018
Trade Paperback and eBook, 432 pages

A city threatened by unimaginable horrors must trust their most hated outcast, or lose everything, in this crushing epic fantasy debut.

After ten years on the run, dodging daemons and debt, reviled magician Edrin Walker returns home to avenge the brutal murder of his friend. Lynas had uncovered a terrible secret, something that threatened to devour the entire city. He tried to warn the Arcanum, the sorcerers who rule the city. He failed.

Lynas was skinned alive and Walker felt every cut. Now nothing will stop him from finding the murderer. Magi, mortals, daemons, and even the gods – Walker will burn them all if he has to.

After all, it wouldn’t be the first time he’s killed a god…

File Under: Fantasy [ Look Who’s Back | Blood Sorcery | Tyrants & Titans | Mind Mates ]

Jane Rosenberg LaForge

The Hawkman: A Fairy Tale of the Great War
Amberjack Publishing, June 5, 2018
Trade Paperback and eBook 320 pages

A great war, a great love, and the mythology that unites them; The Hawkman: A Fairy Tale of the Great War is a lyrical adaptation of a beloved classic.

Set against the shattering events of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, at the tale’s heart are an American schoolteacher—dynamic and imaginative—and an Irish musician, homeless and hated—who have survived bloodshed, poverty, and sickness to be thrown together in an English village. Together they quietly hide from the world in a small cottage.

Too soon, reality shatters their serenity, and they must face the parochial community. Unbeknownst to all, a legend is in the making—one that will speak of courage and resilience amidst the forces that brought the couple together even as outside forces threaten to tear them apart.

Todd McAulty

The Robots of Gotham
John Joseph Adams/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, June 19, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 688 pages

Canadian businessman Barry Simcoe arrives in occupied Chicago days before his hotel is attacked by a rogue war machine. In the aftermath, he meets a dedicated Russian medic with the occupying army, and 19 Black Winter, a badly damaged robot. Together they stumble on a machine conspiracy to unleash a horrific plague—and learn that the fabled American resistance is not as extinct as everyone believes. Simcoe races against time to prevent the extermination of all life on the continent . . . and uncover a secret that America’s machine conquerors are desperate to keep hidden.

C. L. Polk

Witchmark
Tor.com, June 19, 2018
Trade Paperback and eBook, 320 pages

C. L. Polk arrives on the scene with Witchmark, a stunning, addictive fantasy that combines intrigue, magic, betrayal, and romance.

One of Publishers Weekly's Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2018!

In an original world reminiscent of Edwardian England in the shadow of a World War, cabals of noble families use their unique magical gifts to control the fates of nations, while one young man seeks only to live a life of his own.

Magic marked Miles Singer for suffering the day he was born, doomed either to be enslaved to his family's interest or to be committed to a witches' asylum. He went to war to escape his destiny and came home a different man, but he couldn’t leave his past behind. The war between Aeland and Laneer leaves men changed, strangers to their friends and family, but even after faking his own death and reinventing himself as a doctor at a cash-strapped veterans' hospital, Miles can’t hide what he truly is.

When a fatally poisoned patient exposes Miles’ healing gift and his witchmark, he must put his anonymity and freedom at risk to investigate his patient’s murder. To find the truth he’ll need to rely on the family he despises, and on the kindness of the most gorgeous man he’s ever seen.

Rebecca Roanhorse

Trail of Lightning
Sixth World 1
Saga Press, June 26, 2018
Trade Paperback and eBook, 304 pages

“An excitingly novel tale.” —Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse series and Midnight Crossroads series

“Fun, terrifying, hilarious, and brilliant.” —Daniel José Older, New York Times bestselling author of Shadowshaper and Star Wars: Last Shot

“[C]rafts a powerful and fiercely personal journey through a compelling postapocalyptic landscape.” —Kate Elliott, New York Times bestselling author of Court of Fives and Black Wolves

While most of the world has drowned beneath the sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse, Dinétah (formerly the Navajo reservation) has been reborn. The gods and heroes of legend walk the land, but so do monsters.

Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last best hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much more terrifying than anything she could imagine.

Maggie reluctantly enlists the aid of Kai Arviso, an unconventional medicine man, and together they travel the rez, unraveling clues from ancient legends, trading favors with tricksters, and battling dark witchcraft in a patchwork world of deteriorating technology.

As Maggie discovers the truth behind the killings, she will have to confront her past if she wants to survive.

Welcome to the Sixth World.

Jordy Rosenberg

Confessions of the Fox
One World, June 26, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 352 pages

A love story set in the eighteenth-century London of notorious thieves and queer subcultures, this genre-bending debut tells a profound story of gender, desire, and liberation.

Jack Sheppard and Edgeworth Bess were the most notorious thieves, jailbreakers, and lovers of eighteenth-century London. Yet no one knows the true story; their confessions have never been found.

Until now. Reeling from heartbreak, a scholar named Dr. Voth discovers a long-lost manuscript—a gender-defying exposé of Jack and Bess’s adventures. Dated 1724, the book depicts a London underworld where scamps and rogues clash with the city’s newly established police force, queer subcultures thrive, and ominous threats of the Plague abound. Jack—a transgender carpenter’s apprentice—has fled his master’s house to become a legendary prison-break artist, and Bess has escaped the draining of the fenlands to become a revolutionary.

Is Confessions of the Fox an authentic autobiography or a hoax? Dr. Voth obsessively annotates the manuscript, desperate to find the answer. As he is drawn deeper into Jack and Bess’s tale of underworld resistance and gender transformation, it becomes clear that their fates are intertwined—and only a miracle will save them all.

Confessions of the Fox is, at once, a work of speculative historical fiction, a soaring love story, a puzzling mystery, an electrifying tale of adventure and suspense, and an unabashed celebration of sex and sexuality. Writing with the narrative mastery of Sarah Waters and the playful imagination of Nabokov, Jordy Rosenberg is an audacious storyteller of extraordinary talent.

Amber Royer

Free Chocolate
Angry Robot, June 5, 2018
Trade Paperback and eBook, 448 pages

In the far future, chocolate is Earth’s sole unique product – and it’s one that everyone else in the galaxy would kill to get their hands, paws, and tentacles on

Latina culinary arts student, Bo Benitez, becomes a fugitive when she’s caught stealing a cacao pod from the heavily-defended plantations that keep chocolate, Earth’s sole valuable export, safe from a hungry galaxy. Forces arraying against her including her alien boyfriend and a reptilian cop. But when she escapes onto an unmarked starship things go from bad to worse: it belongs to the race famed throughout the galaxy for eating stowaways. Surrounded by dangerous yet hunky aliens, Bo starts to uncover clues that the threat to Earth may be bigger than she first thought.

File Under: Science Fiction [ Heiress Apparent | Sticky Fingers | Pod People | The Milky Way ]

Michael Rutger

The Anomaly
Grand Central Publishing, June 19, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 352 pages

Not all secrets are meant to be found.

If Indiana Jones lived in the X-Files era, he might bear at least a passing resemblance to Nolan Moore — a rogue archaeologist hosting a documentary series derisively dismissed by the “real” experts, but beloved of conspiracy theorists.

Nolan sets out to retrace the steps of an explorer from 1909 who claimed to have discovered a mysterious cavern high up in the ancient rock of the Grand Canyon. And, for once, he may have actually found what he seeks. Then the trip takes a nasty turn, and the cave begins turning against them in mysterious ways.

Nolan’s story becomes one of survival against seemingly impossible odds. The only way out is to answer a series of intriguing questions: What is this strange cave? How has it remained hidden for so long? And what secret does it conceal that made its last visitors attempt to seal it forever?

Peng Shepherd

The Book of M
William Morrow, June 5, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 496 pages

"Eerie, dark, and compelling, [The Book of M] will not disappoint lovers of The Passage (2010) and Station Eleven (2014)." --Booklist

WHAT WOULD YOU GIVE UP TO REMEMBER?

Set in a dangerous near future world, The Book of M tells the captivating story of a group of ordinary people caught in an extraordinary catastrophe who risk everything to save the ones they love. It is a sweeping debut that illuminates the power that memories have not only on the heart, but on the world itself.

One afternoon at an outdoor market in India, a man’s shadow disappears—an occurrence science cannot explain. He is only the first. The phenomenon spreads like a plague, and while those afflicted gain a strange new power, it comes at a horrible price: the loss of all their memories.

Ory and his wife Max have escaped the Forgetting so far by hiding in an abandoned hotel deep in the woods. Their new life feels almost normal, until one day Max’s shadow disappears too.

Knowing that the more she forgets, the more dangerous she will become to Ory, Max runs away. But Ory refuses to give up the time they have left together. Desperate to find Max before her memory disappears completely, he follows her trail across a perilous, unrecognizable world, braving the threat of roaming bandits, the call to a new war being waged on the ruins of the capital, and the rise of a sinister cult that worships the shadowless.

As they journey, each searches for answers: for Ory, about love, about survival, about hope; and for Max, about a new force growing in the south that may hold the cure.

Like The Passage and Station Eleven, this haunting, thought-provoking, and beautiful novel explores fundamental questions of memory, connection, and what it means to be human in a world turned upside down.

Raymond A. Villareal

A People's History of the Vampire Uprising
Mulholland Books, June 5, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 432 pages

In this ambitious and wildly original debut–part social-political satire, part international mystery–a new virus turns people into something a bit more than human, upending society as we know it.

This panoramic fictional oral history begins with one small mystery: the body of a young woman found in an Arizona border town, presumed to be an illegal immigrant, disappears from the town morgue. To the young CDC investigator called in to consult with the local police, it’s an impossibility that threatens her understanding of medicine.

Then, more bodies, dead from an inexplicable disease that solidified their blood, are brought to the morgue, only to also vanish. Soon, the U.S. government–and eventually biomedical researchers, disgruntled lawmakers, and even an insurgent faction of the Catholic Church–must come to terms with what they’re too late to stop: an epidemic of vampirism that will sweep first the United States, and then the world.

With heightened strength and beauty and a stead diet of fresh blood, these changed people, or “Gloamings,” rapidly rise to prominence in all aspects of modern society. Soon people are beginning to be “re-created,” willingly accepting the risk of death if their bodies can’t handle the transformation. As new communities of Gloamings arise, society is divided, and popular Gloaming sites come under threat from a secret terrorist organization. But when a charismatic and wealthy businessman, recently turned, runs for political office–well, all hell breaks loose.

Told from the perspective of key players, including a cynical FBI agent, an audacious campaign manager, and a war veteran turned nurse turned secret operative, A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising is an exhilarating, genre-bending debut that is as addictive as the power it describes.

K. D. Edwards

The Last Sun
The Tarot Sequence 1
Pyr, June 12, 2018
Trade Paperback and eBook, 384 pages

In this debut novel and series starter, the last member of a murdered House searches for a missing nobleman, and uncovers clues about his own tortured past.

Rune Saint John, last child of the fallen Sun Court, is hired to search for Lady Judgment's missing son, Addam, on New Atlantis, the island city where the Atlanteans moved after ordinary humans destroyed their original home.

With his companion and bodyguard, Brand, he questions Addam's relatives and business contacts through the highest ranks of the nobles of New Atlantis. But as they investigate, they uncover more than a missing man: a legendary creature connected to the secret of the massacre of Rune's Court. In looking for Addam, can Rune find the truth behind his family's death and the torments of his past?

Jonathan French

The Grey Bastards
The Lot Lands 1
Crown, June 19, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 432 pages

Live in the saddle.
Die on the hog.

Call them outcasts, call them savages—they’ve been called worse, by their own mothers—but Jackal is proud to be a Grey Bastard.

He and his fellow half-orcs patrol the barren wastes of the Lot Lands, spilling their own damned blood to keep civilized folk safe. A rabble of hard-talking, hog-riding, whore-mongering brawlers they may be, but the Bastards are Jackal’s sworn brothers, fighting at his side in a land where there’s no room for softness.

And once Jackal’s in charge—as soon as he can unseat the Bastards’ tyrannical, seemingly unkillable founder—there’s a few things they’ll do different. Better.

Or at least, that’s the plan. Until the fallout from a deadly showdown makes Jackal start investigating the Lot Lands for himself. Soon, he’s wondering if his feelings have blinded him to ugly truths about this world, and the Bastards’ place in it.

In a quest for answers that takes him from decaying dungeons to the frontlines of an ancient feud, Jackal finds himself battling invading orcs, rampaging centaurs, and grubby human conspiracies alike—along with a host of dark magics so terrifying they’d give even the heartiest Bastard pause.

Finally, Jackal must ride to confront a threat that’s lain in wait for generations, even as he wonders whether the Bastards can—or should–survive.

Delivered with a generous wink to Sons of Anarchy, featuring sneaky-smart worldbuilding and gobs of fearsomely foul-mouthed charm, The Grey Bastards is a grimy, pulpy, masterpiece—and a raunchy, swaggering, cunningly clever adventure that’s like nothing you’ve read before.

Cameron Johnston

The Traitor God
Angry Robot, June 5, 2018
Trade Paperback and eBook, 400 pages

A city threatened by unimaginable horrors must trust their most hated outcast, or lose everything, in this crushing epic fantasy debut.

After ten years on the run, dodging daemons and debt, reviled magician Edrin Walker returns home to avenge the brutal murder of his friend. Lynas had uncovered a terrible secret, something that threatened to devour the entire city. He tried to warn the Arcanum, the sorcerers who rule the city. He failed. Lynas was skinned alive and Walker felt every cut. Now nothing will stop him from finding the murderer. Magi, mortals, daemons, and even the gods – Walker will burn them all if he has to. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time he’s killed a god…

File Under: Fantasy [ Look Who’s Back | Blood Sorcery | Tyrants & Titans | Mind Mates ]

R. F. Kuang

The Poppy War
Harper Voyager, May 1, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 544 pages

A brilliantly imaginative talent makes her exciting debut with this epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody history of China’s twentieth century and filled with treachery and magic, in the tradition of Ken Liu’s Grace of Kings and N.K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy.

When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising.

But surprises aren’t always good.

Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power—an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive—and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.

For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away . .
.
Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. But as she finds out more about the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity . . . and that it may already be too late.

Harriet Alida Lye

The Honey Farm
Liveright, May 29, 2018
Hardcover snd eBook, 336 pages

Lily King meets Patricia Highsmith in this slyly seductive debut set on an eerily beautiful farm teeming with secrets.

The drought has discontented the bees. Soil dries into sand; honeycomb stiffens into wax. But Cynthia knows how to breathe life back into her farm: offer it as an artists’ colony with free room, board, and “life experience” in exchange for backbreaking labor. Silvia, a wide-eyed graduate and would-be poet, and Ibrahim, a painter distracted by constant inspiration, are drawn to Cynthia’s offer, and soon, to each other.

But something lies beneath the surface. The Edenic farm is plagued by events that strike Silvia as ominous: taps run red, scalps itch with lice, frogs swarm the pond. One by one, the other residents leave. As summer tenses into autumn, Cynthia’s shadowed past is revealed and Silvia becomes increasingly paralyzed by doubt. Building to a shocking conclusion, The Honey Farm announces the arrival of a bold new voice and offers a thrilling portrait of creation and possession in the natural world.

Todd McAulty

The Robots of Gotham
John Joseph Adams/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, June 19, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 688 pages

A thrilling adventure in a world one step away from total subjugation by machines

After long years of war, the United States has sued for peace, yielding to a brutal coalition of nations ruled by fascist machines. One quarter of the country is under foreign occupation. Manhattan has been annexed by a weird robot monarchy, and in Tennessee, a permanent peace is being delicately negotiated between the battered remnants of the U.S. government and an envoy of implacable machines.

Canadian businessman Barry Simcoe arrives in occupied Chicago days before his hotel is attacked by a rogue war machine. In the aftermath, he meets a dedicated Russian medic with the occupying army, and 19 Black Winter, a badly damaged robot. Together they stumble on a machine conspiracy to unleash a horrific plague—and learn that the fabled American resistance is not as extinct as everyone believes. Simcoe races against time to prevent the extermination of all life on the continent . . . and uncover a secret that America’s machine conquerors are desperate to keep hidden.

C. L. Polk

Witchmark
Tor.com, June 19, 2018
Trade Paperback and eBook, 320 pages

C. L. Polk arrives on the scene with Witchmark, a stunning, addictive fantasy that combines intrigue, magic, betrayal, and romance.

One of Publishers Weekly's Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2018!

In an original world reminiscent of Edwardian England in the shadow of a World War, cabals of noble families use their unique magical gifts to control the fates of nations, while one young man seeks only to live a life of his own.

Magic marked Miles Singer for suffering the day he was born, doomed either to be enslaved to his family's interest or to be committed to a witches' asylum. He went to war to escape his destiny and came home a different man, but he couldn’t leave his past behind. The war between Aeland and Laneer leaves men changed, strangers to their friends and family, but even after faking his own death and reinventing himself as a doctor at a cash-strapped veterans' hospital, Miles can’t hide what he truly is.

When a fatally poisoned patient exposes Miles’ healing gift and his witchmark, he must put his anonymity and freedom at risk to investigate his patient’s murder. To find the truth he’ll need to rely on the family he despises, and on the kindness of the most gorgeous man he’s ever seen.

Rebecca Roanhorse

Trail of Lightning
The Sixth World 1
Saga Press, June 26, 2018
Hardcover, Trade Paperback, and eBook, 304 pages

While most of the world has drowned beneath the sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse, Dinétah (formerly the Navajo reservation) has been reborn. The gods and heroes of legend walk the land, but so do monsters.

Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last—and best—hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much larger and more terrifying than anything she could imagine.

Maggie reluctantly enlists the aid of Kai Arviso, an unconventional medicine man, and together they travel to the rez to unravel clues from ancient legends, trade favors with tricksters, and battle dark witchcraft in a patchwork world of deteriorating technology.

As Maggie discovers the truth behind the disappearances, she will have to confront her past—if she wants to survive.

Welcome to the Sixth World.

Amber Royer

Free Chocolate
Angry Robot, June 5, 2018
Trade Paperback and eBook

In the far future, chocolate is Earth’s only unique commodity one that everyone else in the galaxy is willing to kill to get their hands, paws and tentacles on

Latina culinary arts student, Bo Benitez, becomes a fugitive when she’s caught stealing a cacao pod from one of the heavily-defended plantations that keep chocolate, Earth’s sole valuable export, safe from a hungry galaxy.

Forces array against her including her alien boyfriend and a reptilian cop. But when she escapes onto an unmarked starship things go from bad to worse: it belongs to the race famed throughout the galaxy for eating stowaways! Surrounded by dangerous yet hunky aliens, Bo starts to uncover clues that the threat to Earth may be bigger than she first thought.

File Under: Science Fiction [ Sticky Fingers | Chef Celebrity | Pod People | The Milky Way ]

Peng Shepherd

The Book of M
William Morrow, June 5, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 496 pages

Set in a dangerous near future world, The Book of M tells the captivating story of a group of ordinary people caught in an extraordinary catastrophe who risk everything to save the ones they love. It is a sweeping debut that illuminates the power that memories have not only on the heart, but on the world itself.

One afternoon at an outdoor market in India, a man’s shadow disappears—an occurrence science cannot explain. He is only the first. The phenomenon spreads like a plague, and while those afflicted gain a strange new power, it comes at a horrible price: the loss of all their memories.

Ory and his wife Max have escaped the Forgetting so far by hiding in an abandoned hotel deep in the woods. Their new life feels almost normal, until one day Max’s shadow disappears too.

Knowing that the more she forgets, the more dangerous she will become to Ory, Max runs away. But Ory refuses to give up the time they have left together. Desperate to find Max before her memory disappears completely, he follows her trail across a perilous, unrecognizable world, braving the threat of roaming bandits, the call to a new war being waged on the ruins of the capital, and the rise of a sinister cult that worships the shadowless.

As they journey, each searches for answers: for Ory, about love, about survival, about hope; and for Max, about a new force growing in the south that may hold the cure.
Like The Passage and Station Eleven, this haunting, thought-provoking, and beautiful novel explores fundamental questions of memory, connection, and what it means to be human in a world turned upside down.