The Qwillery

Each month you will be able to vote for your favorite cover from that month's debut novels. At the beginning of 2022 the 12 monthly winners will be pitted against each other to choose the 2021 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 10, 2021, unless the vote is extended. If the vote is extended the ending date will be updated.

Vote for your favorite May 2021 Debut Cover!

Anna

Ariadne

Firebreak

Last One at the Party

The Lights of Prague

Madam

A Master of Djinn

Reset

 

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Happy 1st Monday in May! There are 2 debuts this week: Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace (Adult Debut); and Ariadne by Jennifer Saint. From formerly featured DAC Authors: Bottle Demon (Eric Carter 6) by Stephen Blackmoore; Immunity Index by Sue Burke; The Godel Operation by James L. Cambias; Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon; The Dragon of Jin-Sayeng (Chronicles of the Wolf Queen 3) by K. S. Villoso; and Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

 

 

 

Debut novels are highlighted in blue. Novels, etc. by formerly featured DAC Authors are highlighted in green. May 4, 2021

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Illustrated Edition	Douglas Adams	SF/HU - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 1
Cursed Luck	Kelley Armstrong	RF - Cursed Luck 1
The Vanished Seas (tp2mm)	Catherine Asaro	SF/SO - Major Bhaajan 3
Providence (h2tp)	Max Barry	SF/Th/Dys
Bottle Demon	Stephen Blackmoore	UF/DF/CF - Eric Carter 6
Penric's Travels (h2tp)	Lois McMaster Bujold	F
Immunity Index	Sue Burke	SF/AP/PA/HSF/GenEng
Master Artificer	Justin Travis Call	F - Silent Gods 2
The Godel Operation	James L. Cambias	SF
May Day	Emma Coleman	H
The Ghost and the Haunted Portrait	Cleo Coyle	PCM - Haunted Bookshop Mystery 7
Second Place	Rachel Cusk	LF/HistF
1637: The Peacock Throne	Eric Flint Griffin Barber	SF/TT - Ring of Fire 31
Unreconciled (h2mm)	W. Michael Gear	SF/HSF/SO - Donovan 4
The Shadow of the Gods	John Gwynne	F - The Bloodsworn Trilogy 1
My Name Is Monster	Katie Hale	LF/Dys/Feminist
Orfeia	Joanne M. Harris	FairyT/FolkT/LM/F/FR
The Shadow in the Glass	JJA Harwood	HistF/DF/Gaslamp/FairyT/FolkT/LM/Hist
In Ghostly Japan: Japanese Legends of Ghosts, Yokai, Yurei and Other Oddities	Lafcadio Hearn	FairyT/FolkT/LM
Walk Among Us: Compiled Edition	Cassandra Khaw Genevieve Gornichec Caitlin Starling	H - Vampire: The Masquerade
Firebreak (D - Adult)	Nicole Kornher-Stace	SF/AP/PA
Elsa Bloodstone: Bequest	Cath Lauria	MTI - Marvel Heroines
Make Shift: Dispatches from the Post-Pandemic Future	Gideon Lichfield (Ed)	SF/AP/PA/Anthology - Twelve Tomorrows
Firefly - The Ghost Machine (h2tp)	James Lovegrove	MTI/SF
Blue Ticket	Sophie Mackintosh	Dys/FL/Women
The Reincarnationist Papers (ri)	D. Eric Maikranz	MTI/Fiction
Utopia Avenue (h2tp)	David Mitchell	LF/SF/Dys
Shadowed Steel	Chloe Neill	P/PNR - An Heirs of Chicagoland Novel 3
A Deadly Education	Naomi Novik	F/CF/CoA - Scholomance 1
Driving the Deep (h2mm)	Suzanne Palmer	SF/SO/AC - The Finder Chronicles 2
Mamelukes (h2mm)	Jerry Pournelle David Weber Phillip Pournelle	SF
Ariadne (D)	Jennifer Saint	LF/FairyT/FolkT/LM/Women
Sorrowland	Rivers Solomon	African American & Black/Gothic/SF/LGBTQ+
By Force Alone (h2tp)	Lavie Tidhar	F/Arthurian
The Dragon of Jin-Sayeng	K. S. Villoso	F - Chronicles of the Wolf Queen 3
Project Hail Mary	Andy Weir	SF/HSF/Sus
Freehold: Defiance	Michael Z. Williamson (Ed)	SF - Anthology

May 5, 2021

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Lost World: A Professor Challenger Adventure	Sir Arthur Conan	SF - Wordfire Classics

May 6, 2021

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Monsters in the Garden: An Anthology of Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy	Elizabeth Knox (Ed) David Larsen (Ed)	SF/F - Anthology

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
BHU - Black Humor
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CM - Crime & Mystery
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)
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.

P. Djèlí Clark A Master of Djinn
Dead Djinn Universe 1
Tor.com, May 11, 2021
Hardcover and eBook, 400 pages

Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark returns to his popular alternate Cairo universe for his fantasy novel debut, A Master of Djinn

Cairo, 1912: Though Fatma el-Sha’arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, she’s certainly not a rookie, especially after preventing the destruction of the universe last summer.

So when someone murders a secret brotherhood dedicated to one of the most famous men in history, al-Jahiz, Agent Fatma is called onto the case. Al-Jahiz transformed the world forty years ago when he opened up the veil between the magical and mundane realms, before vanishing into the unknown. This murderer claims to be al-Jahiz, returned to condemn the modern age for its social oppressions. His dangerous magical abilities instigate unrest in the streets of Cairo that threaten to spill over onto the global stage.

Alongside her Ministry colleagues and a familiar person from her past, Agent Fatma must unravel the mystery behind this imposter to restore peace to the city—or face the possibility he could be exactly who he seems…

A Master of Djinn is poised to launch P. Djèlí Clark’s SFF career to new heights as the highly-anticipated debut readers are clamoring for.

Novellas by P. Djèlí Clark
The Black God's Drums
The Haunting of Tram Car 015
Ring Shout

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

Bethany CliftThe Last One at the Party
Mobius, May 11, 2021
Hardcover and eBook, 368 pages

THE END OF EVERYTHING WAS HER BEGINNING

It's December 2023, and the world as we know it has ended.

The human race has been wiped out by a virus called 6DM ('Six Days Maximum' - the longest you've got before your body destroys itself).

But somehow, in London, one woman is still alive. A woman who has spent her whole life compromising what she wants, hiding how she feels and desperately trying to fit in. A woman who is entirely unprepared to face a future on her own.

Now, with only an abandoned golden retriever for company, she must travel through burning cities, avoiding rotting corpses and ravenous rats on a final journey to discover if she really is the last surviving person on earth.

And with no one else to live for, who will she become now that she's completely alone?

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : IndieBound
Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

Sarina Dahlan  Reset
Blackstone Publishing, May 25, 2021
Hardcover and eBook, 340 pages

Can you love someone you don't remember?

After the Last War destroyed most of the world, survivors form a new society in four self-sustaining cities in the Mojave Desert. In the utopia of the Four Cities, inspired by the lyrics of "Imagine" and Buddhist philosophy, everything is carefully planned and controlled: the seasons, the weather-and the residents. To prevent mankind from destroying each other again, its citizens undergo a memory wipe every four years in a process called tabula rasa, a blank slate, to remove learned prejudices. With each new cycle, they begin again with new names, jobs, homes, and lives. No memories. No attachments. No wars.

Aris, a scientist who shuns love, embraces tabula rasa and the excitement of unknown futures. Walling herself off from emotional attachments, she only sees relationships as pointless and avoids deep connections. But she is haunted by a recurring dream that becomes more frequent and vivid as time passes. After meeting Benja, a handsome free-spirited writer who believes his dreams of a past lover are memories, her world is turned upside down. Obsessed with finding the Dreamers, a secret organization thought to have a way to recover memories, Benja draws her down a dangerous path toward the past. When Metis, the leader of the Dreamers, appears in Aris's life, everything she believes falls to pieces. With little time left before the next tabula rasa, they begin a bittersweet romance, navigating love in a world where names, lives, and moments are systematically destroyed.

Thought-provoking and emotionally resonant, Reset will make you consider the haunting reality of love and loss, and the indelible marks they leave behind.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Bookshop : Books-A-Million : IndieBound
Google Play : Kobo

Nicole JarvisThe Lights of Prague
Titan Books, May 25, 2021
Trade Paperback and eBook, 416 pages

In the quiet streets of Prague all manner of mysterious creatures lurk in the shadows. Unbeknownst to its citizens, their only hope against the tide of predators are the dauntless lamplighters – secret elite of monster hunters whose light staves off the darkness each night. Domek Myska leads a life teeming with fraught encounters with the worst kind of evil: pijavice, bloodthirsty and soulless vampiric creatures. Despite this, Domek finds solace in his moments spent in the company of his friend, the clever and beautiful Lady Ora Fischerová - a widow with secrets of her own.

When Domek finds himself stalked by the spirit of the White Lady - a ghost who haunts the baroque halls of Prague castle – he stumbles across the sentient essence of a will-o’-the-wisp captured in a mysterious container. Now, as its bearer, Domek wields its power, but the wisp, known for leading travellers to their deaths, will not be so easily controlled.

After discovering a conspiracy amongst the pijavice that could see them unleash terror on the daylight world, Domek finds himself in a race against those who aim to twist alchemical science for their own dangerous gain.

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

Nicole Kornher-StaceFirebreak
Gallery / Saga Press, May 4, 2021
Hardcover and eBook, 416 pages
(Adult debut)

One young woman faces down an all-powerful corporation in this all-too-near future science fiction debut that reads like a refreshing take on Ready Player One, with a heavy dose of Black Mirror.

Ready Player One meets Cyberpunk 2077 in this eerily familiar future.

“Twenty minutes to power curfew, and my kill counter’s stalled at eight hundred eighty-seven while I’ve been standing here like an idiot. My health bar is flashing ominously, but I’m down to four heal patches, and I have to be smart.”

New Liberty City, 2134.

Two corporations have replaced the US, splitting the country’s remaining forty-five states (five have been submerged under the ocean) between them: Stellaxis Innovations and Greenleaf. There are nine supercities within the continental US, and New Liberty City is the only amalgamated city split between the two megacorps, and thus at a perpetual state of civil war as the feeds broadcast the atrocities committed by each side.

Here, Mallory streams Stellaxis’s wargame SecOps on BestLife, spending more time jacked in than in the world just to eke out a hardscrabble living from tips. When a chance encounter with one of the game’s rare super-soldiers leads to a side job for Mal—looking to link an actual missing girl to one of the SecOps characters. Mal’s sudden burst in online fame rivals her deepening fear of what she is uncovering about BestLife’s developer, and puts her in the kind of danger she’s only experienced through her avatar.

Author Kornher-Stace’s adult science fiction debut—Firebreak— is loaded with ambitious challenges and a city to save.

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

Jennifer SaintAriadne
Flatiron Books, May 4, 2021
Hardover and eBook, 320 pages

A mesmerizing debut novel for fans of Madeline Miller's Circe.

Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up greeting the dawn from her beautiful dancing floor and listening to her nursemaid’s stories of gods and heroes. But beneath her golden palace echo the ever-present hoofbeats of her brother, the Minotaur, a monster who demands blood sacrifice.

When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives to vanquish the beast, Ariadne sees in his green eyes not a threat but an escape. Defying the gods, betraying her family and country, and risking everything for love, Ariadne helps Theseus kill the Minotaur. But will Ariadne’s decision ensure her happy ending? And what of Phaedra, the beloved younger sister she leaves behind?

Hypnotic, propulsive, and utterly transporting, Jennifer Saint's Ariadne forges a new epic, one that puts the forgotten women of Greek mythology back at the heart of the story, as they strive for a better world.

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

Sammy H.K. SmithAnna
Solaris, May 25, 2021
Hardcover and eBook, 300 pages

A chilling feminist novel set in a near-future dystopia, Anna explores the conflicts between selfhood and expectations, safety and control, and the sacrifices we make for the sake of protection.

Beaten. Branded. Defiant.

Anna is a possession. She is owned by the man named Will, shielded from the world of struggles by his care. He loves her, protects her, and then breaks her. Anna is obedient, dutiful, and compliant. Anna does not know her place in the world.

When she falls pregnant, Anna leaves her name behind, and finds the strength to run. But the past – and Will – catch up with her in an idyllic town with a dark secret, and this time, it’s not just Anna who is at risk.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Bookshop : Books-A-Million : IndieBound
Google Play : Kobo

Phoebe WynneMadam
St Martin's Press, May 18, 2021
Hardcover and eBook, 352 pages

"Rebecca meets The Secret History: gloriously dark, gloriously Gothic." ––Sara Collins, bestselling author of The Confessions of Fannie Langton

Discover the secrets of Caldonbrae Hall in this riveting, modern gothic debut set at a secretive all girls’ boarding school perched on a craggy Scottish peninsula.

They want our silence… They want our obedience… Let them see our fire burn

For 150 years, high above rocky Scottish cliffs, Caldonbrae Hall has sat untouched, a beacon of excellence in an old ancestral castle. A boarding school for girls, it promises that the young women lucky enough to be admitted will emerge “resilient and ready to serve society.”

Into its illustrious midst steps Rose Christie: a 26-year-old Classics teacher, Caldonbrae’s new head of the department, and the first hire for the school in over a decade. At first, Rose is overwhelmed to be invited into this institution, whose prestige is unrivaled. But she quickly discovers that behind the school’s elitist veneer lies an impenetrable, starkly traditional culture that she struggles to reconcile with her modernist beliefs--not to mention her commitment to educating “girls for the future.”

It also doesn’t take long for Rose to suspect that there’s more to the secret circumstances surrounding the abrupt departure of her predecessor--a woman whose ghost lingers everywhere--than anyone is willing to let on. In her search for this mysterious former teacher, Rose instead uncovers the darkness that beats at the heart of Caldonbrae, forcing her to confront the true extent of the school’s nefarious purpose, and her own role in perpetuating it.

A darkly feminist tale pitched against a haunting backdrop, and populated by an electrifying cast of heroines, Madam will keep readers engrossed until the breathtaking conclusion.

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