Author: Civilian Reader

Upcoming: THE ASSET by Mike Lawson (Atlantic Crime)

Civilian Reader Upcoming , , , , ,

In February, Atlantic Crime will publish The Asset, the 19th novel in Mike Lawson‘s Joe DeMarco series. I’ve been a fan of the series ever since stumbling across the first book, The Inside Ring, at Waterstones in Durham back in 2006 (I think). After that, and while still in the UK, finding additional DeMarco novels was something of a challenge — not all of them were published in a timely fashion. But, luckily, I spent a lot of time over the next couple of decades in New York and then in Canada, and have been able to keep up-to-date easily. Lawson is one of my favourite authors, and each new book of his is a must-read. Here’s the synopsis for The Asset:

Backchannel intel points Joe DeMarco in the direction of a possible double agent in the latest pulse-pounding thriller from Edgar and Barry Award finalist Mike Lawson starring his beloved Washington DC troubleshooter.

In the middle of the night, on a winding road in a suburb outside of Washington D.C., a homeless veteran is killed in a hit-and-run — a tragedy that barely catches the attention of the media and police.

Days later, John Mahoney, the former Speaker of the House, is confronted by Diane Lake, an ex-CIA agent turned political researcher with a knack for digging up unsavory intelligence on some of D.C.’s biggest players. Diane is there with a gift for Mahoney: the news that Lydia Chang, the wife of one of his biggest rivals, might be working undercover as a Chinese agent.

Knowing it’s too early to get the FBI involved, Mahoney does the only thing left to do. He calls in Joe DeMarco.

DeMarco might not have the title of political researcher, but he’s no stranger to digging up dirt either. As DeMarco starts his investigation, he soon learns there’s a lot more going on than Mahoney suspected, and instead of answers, all he finds are more questions. Who’s the mysterious man Lydia Chang has been meeting in the park? Does Diane Lake have an ulterior motive? And why does everything point back to a random hit-and-run?

If you’re a fan of US political thrillers, then I’d highly recommend Lawson’s novels. The Asset is due to be published by Atlantic Crime on February 3rd, 2026.

Also on CR: Reviews of Dead on Arrival, House Secrets, House Justice, House Divided, House Blood, House Reckoning, House Rivals, and House Arrest

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads

Upcoming: OUTLAW PLANET by M. R. Carey (Orbit)

Civilian Reader Upcoming , , , ,

In November, Orbit Books are due to publish Outlaw Planet, a new stand-alone science fiction novel by M. R. Carey! I’ve been a fan of the author’s work since The Girl With All the Gifts, and am very much looking forward to reading this — although, it has reminded me that I have fallen a little behind, and must get around to reading the author’s Pandominion duology. Here’s the synopsis for the new novel:

Sometimes the fate of entire worlds can be decided by a woman with nothing to lose, and the smartest gun in the multiverse in her hand…

This is the story of Bess — or Dog-Bitch Bess as she came to be known. It’s the story of the gun she carried, whose name was Wakeful Slim. It’s the story of the dead man who carried that gun before her and left a piece of himself inside it. And it’s the tale of how she turned from teacher, to renegade, and ultimately to hero.

This is also the tale of the last violent engagements in an inter-dimensional war — one of the most brutal the multiverse had ever seen.

This is how Bess learned the truth about her world. Came to it the hard way, through pain and loss and the reckless spilling of blood, and carried it with her like a brand on her soul. And once she knew it – knew for sure how badly she’d been used – she had no option but to do something about it.

M. R. Carey’s Outlaw Planet is due to be published by Orbit Books in North America and in the UK, on November 18th.

Also on CR: Guest Post on “Writing Strong Women”; Review of The Girl With All the Gifts

Follow the Author: Goodreads, BlueSky

Excerpt: LADDER TO HEAVEN by Katie Welch (Wolsak & Wynn)

Civilian Reader Excerpt , , , ,

Today, we have an excerpt from Ladder to Heaven by Katie Welch: a “speculative story of addiction and resilience, as well as alienation from a bewildering, rapidly-changing world that simultaneously highlights the non-centrality of humans on our planet”. Due out in October, via Wolsak & Wynn, here’s the synopsis:

You don’t seem close to death. Why are you here? 
A breeze brushed my skin, and I shivered. “It’s a long story.” 
Story! Tell the story! The sea lions levered bulky bodies to front flippers and rocked from side to side.

In 2045 an earthquake ravages the Pacific Coast of North America and the world shifts. Suddenly people and animals can understand each other, while the chaos of climate change combines with the destruction of the earthquake in terrifying ways. Inland, where she should be safe, Del Samara finds her life spiralling out of control. Struggling with addiction and with her ranch in ashes around her, Del decides her family would be better off without her. Leaving her daughters behind, she retreats to her father’s fishing cabin with her dog, Manx. When she emerges three years later, she finds the world since the earthquake has become a very different place and she begins a dangerous journey to Vancouver Island to find her family and, perhaps, find peace.

Continue reading →

Upcoming: TRUST NO ONE by James Rollins (William Morrow)

Civilian Reader Upcoming , , , ,

Early next year, William Morrow will publish Trust No One, a new stand-alone thriller by James Rollins — author of the internationally-bestselling Sigma Force series, among others. As a long-time fan of the author’s work (since the second Sigma novel: 2005’s Map of Bones), I’m always looking forward to a new book from him — even though I have, unfortunately, fallen a bit behind!

In this latest thriller, which follows a group of university students on a treacherous race across Europe after they are falsely accused of murder. Here’s the full synopsis:

Knowledge can be magic — until it falls into the wrong hands.

The ritualistic murder of a British professor at the University of Exeter points to a startling cast of suspects: his own students. All are enrolled in a postgraduate program covering the history of witchcraft, folklore, and spiritualism.

All evidence points to Sharyn Karr — an American student. Prior to the professor’s death, he had thrust a centuries-old book upon her. It appears to be the handwritten and encrypted diary of an eighteenth-century mystic and occultist, the Comte de Saint-Germain. The professor begged her to keep the text safe, ending with a warning.

Trust no one.

Such a responsibility forces her into cooperation with Duncan Maxwell, a fellow postgrad and the sixteenth in line to the British Crown. Already, Duncan has proven himself a savant with encryptions. Unfortunately, the pair clash at every level, but they both need one another. Especially when they discover the book’s opening words:  Herein lies the secret to my immortality. Come find me, if you dare.

As dark forces close upon the pair, she and her friends are forced to flee, pursued by law enforcement and hunted by a powerful cabal. In an explosive chase across Europe — from the Tower of London to Parisian chateaus to a fortress in the Italian Alps — Sharyn must learn the true secret hidden in Saint-Germain’s text. It will send her and the others across history and deep into the heart of one of the world’s greatest mysteries, a secret buried at the roots of Western Civilization, a discovery that could topple empires and change humanity forever.

For what lies at the end of Saint-Germain’s diary is as shocking as its opening words.

James Rollins’s Trust No One is due to be published by William Morrow in North America and in the UK, on February 24th, 2026.

Also on CR: Reviews of The Judas Strain, The Last Oracle, The Doomsday Key, The Devil Colony, and The 6th Extinction

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram

Re-Posted Review: IMPERIAL TWILIGHT by Stephen R. Platt (Knopf/Atlantic)

Civilian Reader Review , , , , , , , ,

Earlier today, I received a ping-back to this review.* I hadn’t thought about the book for a while (I read it in 2019), but it’s superb, and I do still recommend it very highly. The review is, I think, also quite well-written. So, I thought I’d re-share/-post it.

* Unfortunately, it was “used” by an LLM to provide a user with an “analysis” of the book — just read it yourself!

Quick Review: IMPERIAL TWILIGHT by Stephen R. Platt (Knopf/Atlantic Books)

Upcoming: NO MAN’S LAND by Richard K. Morgan (Del Rey / Gollancz)

Civilian Reader Upcoming , , , , , ,

Next year, readers will finally be able to read No Man’s Land, a new novel from Richard (K.) Morgan — the author of, among others, Altered Carbon. I’ve been a fan of the author’s work ever since Altered Carbon appeared on the shelf in my local bookstore in 2002 (probably the Waterstones in Durham or Cambridge).

Thus far, I’ve very much enjoyed his science fiction novels (the Takeshi Kovacs series and stand-alones) more than his fantasy work (A Land Fit for Heroes series). This new novel looks like it’ll offer something a little different; and, despite the fact that it features the fae (which I’ve found uninteresting in pretty every iteration I’ve read), I find myself very intrigued by the premise and setting:

The Great War was supposed to be the war to end all wars — and maybe it would have been, had an even greater, otherworldly foe not risen to extinguish the conflict. Overnight, as guns blazed in France and Flanders, village after village in the quiet British countryside was swallowed by the Forest. And within the Forest lurk the Huldu — an ancient fae race, monstrous in their inhumanity, who have decided that mankind’s ascendency over the world can endure no longer.

Enter Duncan Silver. Scarred by the war, fueled by a rage deeper than the trenches in which he once fought, Duncan is determined to show the Huldu that the world is not theirs for the taking. Armed with a deadly iron knife and a cut-down trench gun filled with iron shot, Duncan will stop at nothing to return the children the Huldu have stolen to the arms of their families. No matter how many Huldu he may have to slaughter along the way.

But when he is hired by a mother to return her four-year-old daughter, Miriam — taken by the Huldu six months past and replaced with a changeling — all hell breaks loose. Miriam is a pawn in a much bigger game for dominance than Duncan ever expected, and several long-buried secrets from his past are about to be violently resurrected.

Richard K. Morgan’s No Man’s Land is due to be published by Del Rey in North America and Gollancz in the UK, on March 24th.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, BlueSky

Excerpt: LETTERS FROM AN IMAGINARY COUNTRY by Theodora Goss (Tachyon)

Civilian Reader Excerpt , , , , ,

On November 11th, Tachyon Publications are due to publish a new collection of short fiction by Theodora Goss: Letters From an Imaginary Country. To mark the occasion, and give readers a taste of what’s in the book, CR has been provided an excerpt to share with our readers. Here’s the book’s synopsis:

Roam through the captivating stories of World Fantasy, Locus, and Mythopoeic Award winner Theodora Goss (the Athena Club trilogy). This themed collection of imaginary places, with three new stories, recalls Susanna Clarke’s alternate Europe and the surreal metafictions of Jorge Luis Borges. Deeply influenced by the author’s Hungarian childhood during the regime of the Soviet Union, each of these stories engages with storytelling and identity, including her own.

The infamous girl monsters of nineteenth-century fiction gather in London and form their own club. In the imaginary country of Thüle. Characters from folklore band together to fight a dictator. An intrepid girl reporter finds the hidden land of Oz—and joins its invasion of our world. The author writes the autobiography of her alternative life and a science fiction love letter to Budapest. The White Witch conquers England with snow and silence.

Continue reading →

Upcoming: THE AGE OF EXTRACTION by Tim Wu (Knopf)

Civilian Reader Upcoming , , , , , , ,

The other day, I finished Cory Doctorow’s highly recommended Enshittification, in which Tim Wu’s work is mentioned — and, consequently, I was reminded to check to see if he had a new book coming out. In November, Knopf are due to publish The Age of Extraction, which looks highly relevant to my interests and maybe a good companion book to Doctorow’s; certainly it looks like a book that will be of interest to anyone who observes today’s tech/online ecosystem with wariness, suspicion, frustration, and maybe contempt. Here’s the synopsis for The Age of Extraction:

Tim Wu explores how today’s dominant platforms manipulate attention, extract wealth, and deepen inequality — urging us to recognize their influence and reclaim control to create a balanced economy that works for all.

Our world is dominated by a handful of tech platforms. They provide great conveniences and entertainment, but also stand as some of the most effective instruments of wealth extraction ever invented, seizing immense amounts of money, data, and attention from all of us. An economy driven by digital platforms and AI influence offers the potential to enrich us, and also threatens to marginalize entire industries, widen the wealth gap, and foster a two-class nation. As technology evolves and our markets adapt, can society cultivate a better life for everyone? Is it possible to balance economic growth and egalitarianism, or are we too far gone?

Tim Wu — the preeminent scholar and former White House official who coined the phrase “net neutrality” — explores the rise of platform power and details the risks and rewards of working within such systems. The Age of Extraction tells the story of an Internet that promised widespread wealth and democracy in the 1990s and 2000s, only to create new economic classes and aid the spread of autocracy instead.  Wu frames our current moment with lessons from recent history — from generative AI and predictive social data to the antimonopoly and crypto movements — and envisions a future where technological advances can serve the greatest possible good. Concise and hopeful, The Age of Extraction offers consequential proposals for taking back control in order to achieve a better economic balance and prosperity for all.

I was first introduced to Wu’s work via his 2016 book, The Attention Merchants, which I would also recommend.

Tim Wu’s The Age of Extraction is due to be published by Knopf in North America (November 4th) and Bodley Head in the UK (November 13th).

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, BlueSky

Upcoming: GODFALL by Van Jensen (Grand Central / Bantam)

Civilian Reader Upcoming , , , ,

In January 2026, readers will be able to read Godfall, the latest novel (and first in a series) by Van Jensen. Actually, readers will be able to read it in a new edition. After a buzzy Hollywood bidding-war (won by Ron Howard), the novel is getting re-published. In a weird coincidence, I stumbled across both of the new editions on the same day. Both of the covers are certainly eye-catching, and they led me to the book’s synopsis, which ultimately made me put this on my To-Read shelf. (The option news also helped pique my interest.) Jensen also wrote some of the DC New 52 series that I read, back when they all kicked off (The Flash and Green Lantern Corps).

Really looking forward to it. Here’s what it’s about:

When a massive asteroid hurtles toward Earth, humanity braces for annihilation — but the end doesn’t come. In fact, it isn’t an asteroid but a three-mile-tall alien that drops down, seemingly dead, outside Little Springs, Nebraska. Dubbed “the giant,” its arrival transforms the red-state farm town into a top-secret government research site and major metropolitan area, flooded with soldiers, scientists, bureaucrats, spies, criminals, conspiracy theorists — and a murderer.

As the sheriff of Little Springs, David Blunt thought he’d be keeping the peace among the same people he’d known all his life, not breaking up chanting crowds of conspiracy theorists in tiger masks or struggling to control a town hall meeting about the construction of a mosque. As a series of brutal, bizarre murders strikes close to home, Blunt throws himself into the hunt for a killer who seems connected to the Giant. With bodies piling up and tensions in Little Springs mounting, he realizes that in order to find the answers he needs, he must first reconcile his old worldview with the town he now lives in — before it’s too late.

Van Jensen’s Godfall is due to be published by Grand Central Publishing in North America (January 13th, 2026) and Bantam in the UK (January 8th).

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky