Author: Civilian Reader

Upcoming: ALICE ISN’T DEAD by Joseph Fink (Harper Perennial)

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FinkJ-AliceIsntDeadUSI must be one of the few fans of SFFH who hasn’t fallen down the Nightvale rabbit hole. I just haven’t had the time to check out the podcast properly (although I know many people who love it, and have enjoyed the snippets I’ve caught). Anyway, I spotted a listing for this novel on Edelweiss and it caught my attention. Joseph Fink‘s Alice Isn’t Dead is due to be published by Harper Perennial on October 30th, 2018. Here’s the synopsis:

“This is not a story. It’s a road trip.”

Keisha Lewis lived a quiet life with her wife, Alice, until the day that Alice disappeared. After months of searching, presuming she was dead, Keisha held a funeral, mourned, and gradually tried to get on with her life. But that was before Keisha started to see her wife, again and again, in the background of news reports from all over America. Alice isn’t dead, and she is showing up at every major tragedy and accident in the country.

Following a line of clues, Keisha takes a job with a trucking company, Bay and Creek Transportation, and begins searching for Alice. She eventually stumbles on an otherworldly conflict being waged in the quiet corners of our nation’s highway system — uncovering a conspiracy that goes way beyond one missing woman.

Why did Alice disappear? What does she have to do with this secret war between inhuman killers? Why did the chicken cross the road? These questions, and many more will be answered in Alice Isn’t Dead.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Quick Review: The first four BOSCH novels by Michael Connelly (Orion/Grand Central)

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A new convert gushes (though not in excess)…

LAPD detective Harry Bosch is a loner and a nighthawk. One Sunday he gets a call-out on his pager. A body has been found in a drainage tunnel off Mulholland Drive, Hollywood. At first sight, it looks like a routine drugs overdose case, but the one new puncture wound amid the scars of old tracks leaves Bosch unconvinced.

To make matters worse, Harry Bosch recognises the victim. Billy Meadows was a fellow ‘tunnel rat’ in Vietnam, running against the VC and the fear they all used to call the Black Echo. Bosch believes he let down Billy Meadows once before, so now he is determined to bring the killer to justice.

Above is the synopsis for the first Harry Bosch novel, first published in 19??. I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to get around to reading Connelly’s bestselling series — I love the crime genre, novels set in Los Angeles, and pretty much everyone I know raves about the books. Last year, I read and enjoyed Crime Beat, the author’s book about writing and a collection of Connelly’s crime reporting, and also Mulholland Drive (a collection of three short stories). Not so long ago, I also read Connelly’s first novel starring his newest protagonist, Renée Ballard (The Late Show). After then binge-watching the superb Bosch television series, I decided it was well past time to read the author’s most famous series. And I am so very happy that I’ve started down this road. Continue reading →

Interview K.R. RICHARDSON

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Let’s start with an introduction: Who is K.R. Richardson?

A cynical, slightly obnoxious ex-journalist with a taste for good bourbon or rye, big lazy dogs, noir mysteries, quirky science fiction, and ridiculous mechanical objects. And cheese.

Your new novel, Blood Orbit, will be published by Pyr in May. It looks really interesting: How would you introduce it to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

Gritty cop/crime noir, wearing science fiction clothes in the tradition of Blade Runner and Altered Carbon. It’s the first in the Gattis File series — the publisher and I are discussing Gattis File Book 2 right now. Continue reading →

Upcoming: FINDING BABA YAGA by Jane Yolen (Tor.com)

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YolenJ-FindingBabaYagaAnother author whose work I’ve not yet tried. My attention was grabbed by the title — for some reason, Baba Yaga has always been a name I’ve been familiar with (although I can’t remember where I heard it first). Finding Baba Yaga, Jane Yolen‘s new novella, is due to be published by Tor.com at the end of October (so, a little far away). It sounds rather interesting:

A young woman discovers the power to speak up and take control of her fate — a theme that has never been more timely than it is now…

You think you know this story.

You do not.

A harsh, controlling father. A quiescent mother. A house that feels like anything but a home. Natasha gathers the strength to leave, and comes upon a little house in the wood: A house that walks about on chicken feet and is inhabited by a fairy tale witch. In finding Baba Yaga, Natasha finds her voice, her power, herself…

According to the publisher’s page for the book, Yolen is considered by some to be the “the Hans Christian Andersen of America”. Intriguing. Finding Baba Yaga is published by Tor.com in North America and the UK, on October 30th.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Upcoming: THE BLACK GOD’S DRUMS by P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com)

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ClarkPD-BlackGodsDrumsThe cover for P. Djèlí Clark‘s The Black God’s Drums started doing the rounds online a little while ago. (I’ve also seen that reviewers are starting to receive ARCs, so reviews should start appearing soon, too.) Due to be published by Tor.com in August 2018. I haven’t read any of Clark’s previous work, but I have high hopes for this, given how interesting it sounds:

In an alternate New Orleans caught in the tangle of the American Civil War, the wall-scaling girl named Creeper yearns to escape the streets for the air – in particular, by earning a spot on-board the airship Midnight Robber. Creeper plans to earn Captain Ann-Marie’s trust with information she discovers about a Haitian scientist and a mysterious weapon he calls The Black God’s Drums.

But Creeper also has a secret herself: Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, speaks inside her head, and may have her own ulterior motivations.

Soon, Creeper, Oya, and the crew of the Midnight Robber are pulled into a perilous mission aimed to stop the Black God’s Drums from being unleashed and wiping out the entirety of New Orleans.

The novella “brings an alternate New Orleans of orisha, airships, and adventure to life”, and has been described by Scott Westerfeld as “A sinewy mosaic of Haitian sky pirates, wily street urchins, and orisha magic. Beguiling and bombastic!” That’s a pretty great endorsement. Looking forward to giving it a try. The Black God’s Drums will be published on August 21st, by Tor.com in North America and in the UK.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Upcoming: New BINTI hardcovers! (Tor.com)

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Earlier this week, Tor.com announced that they were going to be re-releasing Nnedi Okorafor’s Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Binti novel(la)s in hardcover: Binti, Home and The Night Masquerade. The three new covers are above, and the books will arrive in stores on July 24th. Here’s the synopsis for the first book:

Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.

Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti’s stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.

If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself — but first she has to make it there, alive.

The first book will also have a new introduction, written by N.K. Jemisin. The series is currently available in paperback and eBook, in North America and the UK.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Upcoming Movie: ROBIN HOOD (Lionsgate)

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I think the AV Club had it right, when they said that the “trailer for Jamie Foxx’s Robin Hood movie seems a lot like a Green Arrow movie”. To me, it seems to be very much in the same vein as Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur (but hopefully not as wooden/boring/bad). The trailer certainly makes it look quite madly fun — but, as many of us have discovered, trailers can be very misleading.

Robin Hood is due to be released in November by Lionsgate. The movie has a pretty great cast, including Taron Egerton, Jamie Foxx, Ben Mendelsohn, Eve Hewson, Tim Minchin, and Jamie Dornan. The movie was directed by Otto Bathurst, and written by Ben Chandler and David James Kelly. Here’s the trailer:

New Books (April-May)

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Featuring: Rob Boffard, Pat Cunnane, Delilah S. Dawson, Francesco Dimitri, Ronan Farrow, R.S. Ford, Daniel Godfrey, Jonathan Lethem, Brian McClellan, Derek B. Miller, Daniel José Older, Kathleen O’Neal Gear, Sarah Pinborough, Chistopher Ruocchio, John Sandford, Nick Setchfield, Jake Tapper, Daniel Torday, Alex White, Tyler Whitesides, You-Jeong Jeong

Continue reading →

Upcoming: LOST EMPRESS by Sergio De La Pava (Pantheon/MacLehose Press)

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Sergio de la Pava‘s prize-winning A Naked Singularity is one of those novels I purchased quite some time ago, but keep forgetting I have on my Kindle. I recently found out about his upcoming book, Lost Empress, which sounds really interesting. If potentially weird. Described as “a shockingly hilarious novel that tackles, with equal aplomb, both America’s most popular sport and its criminal justice system”, it sounds pretty ambitious. If the author pulls it off, it could also be amazing. Here’s the synopsis:

From Paterson, New Jersey, to Rikers Island to the streets of New York City, Sergio de la Pava’s Lost Empress introduces readers to a cast of characters unlike any other in modern fiction: dreamers and exiles, immigrants and night-shift workers, a lonely pastor and others on the fringes of society — each with their own impact on the fragile universe they navigate.

Nina Gill, daughter of the aging owner of the Dallas Cowboys, was instrumental in building her father’s dynasty. So it’s a shock when her brother inherits the franchise and she is left with the Paterson Pork, New Jersey’s failing Indoor Football League team. Nina vows to take on the NFL and make the Paterson Pork pigskin kings of America. All she needs to do is recruit the coach, the players, and the fans.

Meanwhile, Nuno DeAngeles — a brilliant and lethal criminal mastermind — has been imprisoned on Rikers Island for a sensational offense. Nuno fights for his liberty — while simultaneously planning an even more audacious crime.

In Lost Empress, de la Pava weaves a narrative that encompasses Salvador Dalí, Joni Mitchell, psychiatric help, emergency medicine, religion, theoretical physics, and everything in between. With grace, humor, and razor-sharp prose, all these threads combine, counting down to an epic and extraordinary conclusion.

Lost Empress is due to be published in North America by Pantheon and in the UK by MacLehose Press, on May 8th, 2018. (The UK cover, top right, is much better than the US cover…)

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads

Upcoming: OUR TOWNS by James & Deborah Fallows (Pantheon)

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Fallows-OurTownsUSI have long been a fan of James Fallows‘s journalism — I first read his work in The Atlantic, back in 2007 when he was still living in China (some of his articles from that time have been collected in the excellent Postcards From Tomorrow Square, which I’m reading at the moment). This year, Pantheon will publish Fallows’s latest book, co-written with his wife, Deborah Fallows, Our Towns. Here’s the synopsis:

A vivid, surprising portrait of the civic and economic reinvention taking place in America, town by town and generally out of view of the national media. A realistically positive and provocative view of the country between its coasts.

For the last five years, James and Deborah Fallows have been traveling across America in a single-engine prop airplane. Visiting dozens of towns, they have met hundreds of civic leaders, workers, immigrants, educators, environmentalists, artists, public servants, librarians, business people, city planners, students, and entrepreneurs to take the pulse and understand the prospects of places that usually draw notice only after a disaster or during a political campaign.

The America they saw is acutely conscious of its problems — from economic dislocation to the opioid scourge — but itis also crafting solutions, with a practical-minded determination at dramatic odds with the bitter paralysis of national politics. At times of dysfunction on a national level, reform possibilities have often arisen from the local level. The Fallowses describe America in the middle of one of these creative waves. Their view of the country is as complex and contradictory as America itself, but it also reflects the energy, the generosity and compassion, the dreams, and the determination of many who are in the midst of making things better. Our Towns is the story of their journey — and an account of a country busy remaking itself.

I received an ARC of this book recently, and I’m really looking forward to reading it. (I’ll probably start it either after finishing Postcards…, or after my next non-fiction read.)

Follow the Authors: Goodreads — James/Deborah; Twitter — James/Deborah