One of the best things about every new year is the slew of debut authors whose books are going to be hitting shelves in the coming months.
Gollancz, of course, is one of the SFF publishers every fan of the genres watches and, in addition to Nick Martell’s debut (which I’ve mentioned before on CR), Stormblood by Jeremy Szal is high on my list of 2020 most anticipated of the year. The first in a new sci-fi series, The Common, here’s the synopsis:
Vakov Fukasawa used to be a Reaper: a bio-enhanced soldier fighting for the Harmony, against a brutal invading empire. He’s still fighting now, on a different battlefield: taking on stormtech. To make him a perfect soldier, Harmony injected him with the DNA of an extinct alien race, altering his body chemistry and leaving him permanently addicted to adrenaline and aggression. But although they meant to create soldiers, at the same time Harmony created a new drug market that has millions hopelessly addicted to their own body chemistry.
Vakov may have walked away from Harmony, but they still know where to find him, and his former Reaper colleagues are being murdered by someone, or something — and Vakov is appalled to learn his estranged brother is involved. Suddenly it’s an investigation he can’t turn down… but the closer he comes to the truth, the more addicted to stormtech he becomes.
And it’s possible the war isn’t over, after all…
Really looking forward to this. Stormblood is due to be published by Gollancz in the UK, on June 4th, 2020 (not sure about a separate North American publisher, but I’ll keep checking).
Civilian Reader 