The Qwillery

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 2020 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 July 31, 2020, unless the vote is extended. If the vote is extended the ending date will be updated.

Vote for your favorite July 2020 Debut Cover!

AXIOM'S END

THE BRIGHT LANDS

CROSSINGS

EMPIRE OF WILD

GRAY MATTERS

RED NOISE

SCARLET ODYSSEY

THE SIN IN THE STEEL

THE YEAR OF THE WITCHING

 

pollcode.com free polls

It is the first Monday in July 2020.

There is one debut this week:

The Bright Lands by John Fram.




From formerly featured DAC Authors:

Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton is out in Trade Paperback;

The Name of All Things (Chorus of Dragons 2) by Jenn Lyons is out in Trade Paperback;

and

Every Sky a Grave (The Ascendance 1) by Jay Posey.

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

July 7, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Aftermath of an Industrial Accident: Stories	Mike Allen	H/DF
The Vanished Seas	Catherine Asaro	SF/SO - Major Bhaajan 3
In the Palace of Shadow and Joy	D. J. Butler	SF/SO
Hollow Kingdom (h2tp)	Kira Jane Buxton	LF/F/HU/SF/AP/PA
Whispers in the Mist	Darcy Coates	H/Occ/Sup/AP/PA/SupTh/Dys - Black Winter 3
The Librarians Trilogy (e)	Greg Cox	F/MTI
Kill Orbit (e)	Joel Dane	SF - Cry Pilot 3
Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders (e)	Aliette de Bodard	DF/H - Dominion of the Fallen Story
Little Brother & Homeland	Cory Doctorow	SF/CyP
Unconquerable Sun	Kate Elliott	SF/SO - The Sun Chronicles 1
Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air	Jackson Ford	SF/CyP/GenEng/HU - Frost Files 2
The Bright Lands (D)	John Fram	SupTh
At the End of the World	Charles E. Gannon	SF/AP/PA - Black Tide Rising 8
A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor	Hank Green	CoA/SF/CF
Titandeath	Guy Haley	SF/SO - Horus Heresy 53
Genetics and the Literary Imagination	Clare Hanson	SF/HC - Oxford Textual Perspectives
The Big Book of Mars: From Ancient Egypt to The Martian, A Deep-Space Dive into Our Obsession with the Red Planet	Marc Hartzman	PopCul/Astronomy/Science History
Children of Dune (ri)	Frank Herbert	SF - Dune 3
Heretics of Dune (ri)	Frank Herbert	SF - Dune 5
Chapterhouse: Dune (ri)	Frank Herbert	SF - Dune 6
God Emperor of Dune (ri)	Frank Herbert	SF - Dune 4
Dune Messiah (ri)	Frank Herbert	SF - Dune 2
Mephiston: City of Light	Darius Hinks	SF/SE - Warhammer 40,000
Haunted Heroine	Sarah Kuhn	UF/RF/CF - Heroine Complex 4
The Name of All Things (h2tp)	Jenn Lyons	F - Chorus of Dragons 2
Branwell: A Novel of the Brontë Brother	Douglas A. Martin	LF/AH
Where the Veil Is Thin	Cerece Rennie Murphy (Ed) Alana Joli Abbott (Ed)	F - Anthology
Binti: The Complete Trilogy (h2tp)	Nnedi Okorafor	SF/SO/AC
The Need (h2tp)	Helen Phillips	LF/SpecFic
Every Sky a Grave	Jay Posey	SF/SO - The Ascendance 1
Cinderbiter: Celtic Poems	Martin Shaw Tony Hoagland	Poetry
Things From the Flood	Simon Stålenhag	SF/AP/PA
The Book of Dragons: An Anthology	Jonathan Strahan (Ed)	F
Battle Luna	Travis S. Taylor Timothy Zahn Michael Z. Williamson Kacey Ezell Josh Hayes	SF/HSF
Growing Things and Other Stories (h2tp)	Paul Tremblay	Occ/Sup
A Peculiar Peril	Jeff VanderMeer	YA/F/AH - Misadventures of Jonathan Lambshead 1
The Beast of Blackmoor (e)	Milla Vane	F/P/PNR
Or What You Will	Jo Walton	CF
Arms of the Ocean (e)	Jamie Webster M. Dalto	F
Red Dust	Yoss David Frye (Tr)	SF - Cuban Science Fiction

July 8, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Necessary Arthur: A Tor.com Original (e)	Garth Nix	ScF

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



AB - Absurdist
AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternative History
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
Cr - Crime
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)
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HistTh - Historical Thriller
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
HU - Humorous
LC - Literary Criticism
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
LMF - Legends, Myths, Fables
M - Mystery
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PCM - Paranormal Cozy Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
PolTh - Political Thriller
PopCul - Popular Culture
Psy - Psychological
RF - Romantic Fantasy
ScF - Science Fantasy
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SP - Steampunk
SpecFic - Speculative Fiction
STR - Small Town and Rural
Sup - Supernatural
SupM - Supernatural Mystery
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
UF - Urban Fantasy
VM - Visionary and Metaphysical

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

Cherie Dimaline

Empire of Wild
William Morrow, July 28, 2020
Hardcover and eBook, 320 pages

“Deftly written, gripping and informative. Empire of Wild is a rip-roaring read!”—Margaret Atwood, From Instagram

“Empire of Wild is doing everything I love in a contemporary novel and more. It is tough, funny, beautiful, honest and propulsive—all the while telling a story that needs to be told by a person who needs to be telling it.”—Tommy Orange, author of There There

A bold and brilliant new indigenous voice in contemporary literature makes her American debut with this kinetic, imaginative, and sensuous fable inspired by the traditional Canadian Métis legend of the Rogarou—a werewolf-like creature that haunts the roads and woods of native people’s communities.

Joan has been searching for her missing husband, Victor, for nearly a year—ever since that terrible night they’d had their first serious argument hours before he mysteriously vanished. Her Métis family has lived in their tightly knit rural community for generations, but no one keeps the old ways . . . until they have to. That moment has arrived for Joan.

One morning, grieving and severely hungover, Joan hears a shocking sound coming from inside a revival tent in a gritty Walmart parking lot. It is the unmistakable voice of Victor. Drawn inside, she sees him. He has the same face, the same eyes, the same hands, though his hair is much shorter and he's wearing a suit. But he doesn't seem to recognize Joan at all. He insists his name is Eugene Wolff, and that he is a reverend whose mission is to spread the word of Jesus and grow His flock. Yet Joan suspects there is something dark and terrifying within this charismatic preacher who professes to be a man of God . . . something old and very dangerous.

Joan turns to Ajean, an elderly foul-mouthed card shark who is one of the few among her community steeped in the traditions of her people and knowledgeable about their ancient enemies. With the help of the old Métis and her peculiar Johnny-Cash-loving, twelve-year-old nephew Zeus, Joan must find a way to uncover the truth and remind Reverend Wolff who he really is . . . if he really is. Her life, and those of everyone she loves, depends upon it.

Lindsay Ellis

Axiom's End
St. Martin's Press, July 21, 2020
Hardcover and eBook, 384 pages

The alternate history first contact adventure Axiom's End is an extraordinary debut from Hugo finalist and video essayist Lindsay Ellis.

Truth is a human right.

It’s fall 2007. A well-timed leak has revealed that the US government might have engaged in first contact. Cora Sabino is doing everything she can to avoid the whole mess, since the force driving the controversy is her whistleblower father. Even though Cora hasn’t spoken to him in years, his celebrity has caught the attention of the press, the Internet, the paparazzi, and the government—and with him in hiding, that attention is on her. She neither knows nor cares whether her father’s leaks are a hoax, and wants nothing to do with him—until she learns just how deeply entrenched her family is in the cover-up, and that an extraterrestrial presence has been on Earth for decades.

Realizing the extent to which both she and the public have been lied to, she sets out to gather as much information as she can, and finds that the best way for her to uncover the truth is not as a whistleblower, but as an intermediary. The alien presence has been completely uncommunicative until she convinces one of them that she can act as their interpreter, becoming the first and only human vessel of communication. Their otherworldly connection will change everything she thought she knew about being human—and could unleash a force more sinister than she ever imagined.

John Fram

The Bright Lands
Hanover Square Press, July7, 2020
Hardcover and eBook, 480 pages

A Library Journal Best Winter/Spring Debut 2020

“Marks the debut of an already accomplished novelist.” —John Banville
The town of Bentley holds two things dear: its football, and its secrets. But when star quarterback Dylan Whitley goes missing, an unremitting fear grips this remote corner of Texas.

Joel Whitley was shamed out of conservative Bentley ten years ago, and while he’s finally made a life for himself as a gay man in New York, his younger brother’s disappearance soon brings him back to a place he thought he’d escaped for good. Meanwhile, Sheriff’s Deputy Starsha Clark stayed in Bentley; Joel’s return brings back painful memories—not to mention questions—about her own missing brother. And in the high school hallways, Dylan’s friends begin to suspect that their classmates know far more than they’re telling the police. Together, these unlikely allies will stir up secrets their town has long tried to ignore, drawing the attention of dangerous men who will stop at nothing to see that their crimes stay buried.

But no one is quite prepared to face the darkness that’s begun to haunt their nightmares, whispering about a place long thought to be nothing but an urban legend: an empty night, a flicker of light on the horizon—The Bright Lands.

Shocking, twisty and relentlessly suspenseful, John Fram’s debut is a heart-pounding story about old secrets, modern anxieties and the price young men pay for glory.

John Gastil

Gray Matters
Cosmic Egg Books, July 31, 2020
Trade Paperback and eBook, 370 pages

Can the digital networks that record our footprints hold us steady when dementia threatens to push us off the path?

This question has real stakes for data analyst Charlie Sanders. His best hope for a father succumbing to Alzheimer’s comes from assistive technology that Charlie helps design for a scrappy startup. Despite early successes, Charlie has growing doubts about the motives of each of his colleagues - the eccentric CEO in Seattle, the call center guru in India, and the Trump-loving Aussie transplant who keeps the books. His worries grow when the company takes on a clandestine client who occupies the Oval Office. Will Charlie keep his father and his country on track, or turn a whole generation into glitches?

Alexis Henderson

The Year of the Witching
Ace, July 21, 2020
Hardcover and eBook, 368 pages

A young woman living in a rigid, puritanical society discovers dark powers within herself in this stunning, feminist fantasy debut.

In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet’s word is law, Immanuelle Moore’s very existence is blasphemy. Her mother’s union with an outsider of a different race cast her once-proud family into disgrace, so Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol, and lead a life of submission, devotion, and absolute conformity, like all the other women in the settlement.

But a mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood surrounding Bethel, where the first prophet once chased and killed four powerful witches. Their spirits are still lurking there, and they bestow a gift on Immanuelle: the journal of her dead mother, who Immanuelle is shocked to learn once sought sanctuary in the wood.

Fascinated by the secrets in the diary, Immanuelle finds herself struggling to understand how her mother could have consorted with the witches. But when she begins to learn grim truths about the Church and its history, she realizes the true threat to Bethel is its own darkness. And she starts to understand that if Bethel is to change, it must begin with her.

Alex Landragin

Crossings
St. Martin's Press July 28, 2020
Hardcover and eBook, 384 pages

"A sparkling debut. Landragin’s seductive literary romp shines as a celebration of the act of storytelling." —Publishers Weekly

"Romance, mystery, history, and magical invention dance across centuries in an impressive debut novel." —Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

"Deft writing seduces the reader in a complex tale of pursuit, denial, and retribution moving from past to future. Highly recommended." —Library Journal (Starred Review)

Alex Landragin's Crossings is an unforgettable and explosive genre-bending debut—a novel in three parts, designed to be read in two different directions, spanning a hundred and fifty years and seven lifetimes.

On the brink of the Nazi occupation of Paris, a German-Jewish bookbinder stumbles across a manuscript called Crossings. It has three narratives, each as unlikely as the next. And the narratives can be read one of two ways: either straight through or according to an alternate chapter sequence.

The first story in Crossings is a never-before-seen ghost story by the poet Charles Baudelaire, penned for an illiterate girl. Next is a noir romance about an exiled man, modeled on Walter Benjamin, whose recurring nightmares are cured when he falls in love with a storyteller who draws him into a dangerous intrigue of rare manuscripts, police corruption, and literary societies. Finally, there are the fantastical memoirs of a woman-turned-monarch whose singular life has spanned seven generations.

With each new chapter, the stunning connections between these seemingly disparate people grow clearer and more extraordinary. Crossings is an unforgettable adventure full of love, longing and empathy.

John P. Murphy

Red Noise
Angry Robot, July 7, 2020
Trade Paperback and eBook, 448 pages

Caught up in a space station turf war between gangs and corrupt law, a lone asteroid miner decides to take them all down.

When an asteroid miner comes to Station 35 looking to sell her cargo and get back to the solitude she craves, she gets swept up in a three-way standoff with gangs and crooked cops. Faced with either taking sides or cleaning out the Augean Stables, she breaks out the grenades…

C.T. Rwizi

Scarlet Odyssey
Scarlet Odyssey 1
47North, July 1, 2020
Trade Paperback and Kindle eBook, 559 pages

Magic is women’s work; war is men’s. But in the coming battle, none of that will matter.

Men do not become mystics. They become warriors. But eighteen-year-old Salo has never been good at conforming to his tribe’s expectations. For as long as he can remember, he has loved books and magic in a culture where such things are considered unmanly. Despite it being sacrilege, Salo has worked on a magical device in secret that will awaken his latent magical powers. And when his village is attacked by a cruel enchantress, Salo knows that it is time to take action.

Salo’s queen is surprisingly accepting of his desire to be a mystic, but she will not allow him to stay in the tribe. Instead, she sends Salo on a quest. The quest will take him thousands of miles north to the Jungle City, the political heart of the continent. There he must gather information on a growing threat to his tribe.

On the way to the city, he is joined by three fellow outcasts: a shunned female warrior, a mysterious nomad, and a deadly assassin. But they’re being hunted by the same enchantress who attacked Salo’s village. She may hold the key to Salo’s awakening—and his redemption.

Ryan Van Loan

The Sin in the Steel
The Fall of the Gods 1
Tor Books, July 21, 2020
Hardcover and eBook, 432 pages

Ryan Van Loan's The Sin in the Steel is a sparkling debut fantasy set in a diverse world, featuring dead gods, a pirate queen, shapeshifting mages, and a Sherlockian teenager determined to upend her society.

Heroes for hire. If you can pay.

Buc:
Brilliant street-rat
Her mind leaps from clues to conclusions in the blink of an eye.

Eld:
Ex-soldier
Buc’s partner-in-crime.

No. Not in crime—in crime-solving.

They’ve been hired for their biggest job yet—one that will set them up for a life of ease.

If they survive.

Buc and Eld are the first private detectives in a world where pirates roam the seas, mages speak to each other across oceans, mechanical devices change the tide of battle, and earthly wealth is concentrated in the hands of a powerful few.

It’s been weeks since ships last returned to the magnificent city of Servenza with bounty from the Shattered Coast. Disaster threatens not just the city’s trading companies but the empire itself. When Buc and Eld are hired to investigate, Buc swiftly discovers that the trade routes have become the domain of a sharp-eyed pirate queen who sinks all who defy her.

Now all Buc and Eld have to do is sink the Widowmaker's ship….

Unfortunately for Buc, the gods have other plans.

Unfortunately for the gods, so does Buc.