Upcoming

Upcoming: DRACHENFELS and GENEVIEVE UNDEAD by Kim Newman (Black Library)

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newmank-g1-drachenfelsLater this year, Black Library is due to re-issue (for the second time) two classic novels set in the Warhammer world (pre-Age of Sigmar): Drachenfels and Genevieve Undead by Kim Newman. Originally published under the pseudonym Jack Yeovil, I read and thoroughly enjoyed both of these novels back in the 1990s. The new covers are fantastic, and I just wanted to share them on CR. If you’re a fan of the setting, as well as a bit of horror, then these should appeal.

DRACHENFELS (April 18th)

Detlef Sierck, the self-proclaimed greatest playwright in the world, has declared that his next production will be a recreation of the end of the Great Enchanter, Constant Drachenfels – to be staged at the very site of his death, the fortress of Drachenfels itself. But the castle’s dark walls still hide a terrible and deadly secret which may make the first night of Detlef’s masterpiece the last of his life.

newmank-g2-genevieveundeadGENEVIEVE UNDEAD (May 16th)

After her return from Drachenfels, Genevieve Dieudonne, the vampire femme fatale, embarks on an odyssey of self-discovery in which she must face monsters and magicians, intrigue and evil. Her journey takes her from the depths of an old theater to an accursed mansion under a deadly gothic spell, and finally to the hunt of a savage unicorn mare through haunted forests.

The final two books in the Genevieve series — Beasts in Velvet and Silver Nails — are also due to be re-issued later this year, in July. If you missed them before, then I would highly recommend you pop them on your to-buy list.

I was very lucky to meet Mr. Newman at WFC in Brighton, and he was kind enough to sign a battered copy of Drachenfels. I’m really looking forward to re-reading this excellent horror-fantasy series.

Kim Newman is also the author of (among others) the Anno Dracula and Drearcliff Grange series, both published by Titan Books.

Also on CR: Excerpt from One Thousand Monsters

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Upcoming: GIDEON THE NINTH by Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com)

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muirt-nh1-gideontheninthusTamsyn Muir‘s Gideon the Ninth is getting a lot of pre-publication attention. The lucky few who have received ARCs have gushed about how awesome and fun it is. The fantastic cover was unveiled recently, and really I just wanted an excuse to share it on CR. If that striking artwork isn’t enough to whet your appetite, here’s the synopsis for the novel that is “the most fun you’ll ever have with a skeleton”:

The Emperor needs necromancers.

The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit.

Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as skillfully animated as necromantic skeletons. The result is a heart-pounding epic science fantasy.

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won’t set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will be become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon’s sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.

Of course, some things are better left dead.

I’m really looking forward to giving this a try. Gideon the Ninth is due to be published by Tor.com on September 10th, 2019, in North America and in the UK.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Upcoming: RULE OF CAPTURE by Christopher Brown (Voyager)

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BrownC-RuleToCaptureIn 2017, Voyager published Christopher Brown‘s thought-provoking debut novel, Tropic of Kansas. I rather enjoyed that novel, and have been keeping my eyes open for news of the author’s next book. In August 2019, Voyager are due to publish Rule to Capture. It is described as “Better Call Saul meets Nineteen Eighty-Four“, which is certainly intriguing. It is also the first in a new series of legal thrillers set in the same dystopian world as Tropic of Kansas. Here’s the synopsis:

Defeated in a devastating war with China, America is on the brink of a bloody civil war. Seizing power after a controversial election, the ruling regime has begun cracking down on dissidents fighting the nation’s slide toward dictatorship. For Donny Kimoe, chaos is good for business. He’s a lawyer who makes his living defending enemies of the state.

His newest client, young filmmaker Xelina Rocafuerte, witnessed the murder of an opposition leader and is now accused of terrorism. To save her from the only sentence worse than death, Donny has to extract justice from a system that has abandoned the rule of law. That means breaking the rules — and risking the same fate as his clients.

When Donny bungles Xelina’s initial hearing, he has only days to save the young woman from being transferred to a detention camp from which no one returns. His only chance of winning is to find the truth — a search that begins with the opposition leader’s death and leads to a dark conspiracy reaching the highest echelons of power.

Now, Donny isn’t just fighting for his client’s life — he’s battling for his own. But as the trial in the top secret court begins, Xelina’s friends set into motion a revolutionary response that could destroy the case. And when another case unexpectedly collides with Xelina’s, Donny uncovers even more devastating secrets, knowledge that will force him to choose between saving one client… or the future of the entire country.

Rule to Capture is due to be published by Voyager in North America and in the UK, in August 2019.

Also on CR: Review of Tropic of Kansas

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Upcoming: GODS OF JADE AND SHADOW by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)

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MorenoGarciaS-GodsOfJadeAndShadowI haven’t read as much of Silvia Moreno-Garcia‘s work as I would like (so many books, so little time!). However, what I have read has been universally excellent. Next year, Del Rey are due to publish the author’s next novel, Gods of Jade and Shadow. Here’s the synopsis, which has certainly whet my appetite:

The Mayan God of Death sends a young woman on a harrowing, life-changing journey in this dark fairy tale inspired by Mexican folklore.

Here we shall begin to tell a story: a tale of a throne lost, of monsters and magic. A tale of gods and of the shadow realm. But this, our story, it begins in our world, in the land of mortals.

It begins with a woman. For this story, it is her story. It begins with her.

The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty, small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own.

Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather’s room. She opens it — and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan God of Death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea’s demise, but success could make her dreams come true.

In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey, from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City — and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.

Mixing the excitement of the Roaring Twenties with Prehispanic mythology, Gods of Jade and Shadow is a vivid, wildly imaginative historical fantasy.

Gods of Jade and Shadow is due to be published in North America on August 6th, 2019 (at the time of writing, there was no information that I could find about a UK release/publisher). That’s quite a while to wait, but there are plenty of the author’s other novels available now to tide you over. For example: Certain Dark Things, The Beautiful Ones, Signal to Noise and Prime Meridian (to name but four).

Also on CR: Excerpt from Signal to Noise

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Upcoming: CYPHER by Rich Larson (Orbit)

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LarsonR-VW2-CypherI’ve only read some of Rich Larson‘s short fiction, but so far it has all been superb. Last year, Orbit published his debut full-length novel, and first in the Violet Wars series, the critically-acclaimed Annex, which is rapidly climbing my TBR mountain (which I fell behind on during 2018). Luckily, I have some time before the sequel is published: Cypher is due to published in December 2019 by Orbit in North America and in the UK.

The stunning cover was unveiled relatively recently. I’m really looking forward to it. Here’s the skinny:

The gripping sequel to Rich Larson’s beautiful and gut-wrenching debut Annex about two outsiders surviving, fighting back, and finding family at the end of the world.

The invasion is over, but not all the aliens are gone. As the outside world learns what happened to the city, Violet and Bo struggle to keep their ally Gloom hidden from prying eyes.

Those in power believe he is the key to unlocking the invaders’ technology, and will stop at nothing to capture him.

All the while, the invasion’s survivors are being drawn to a mysterious anomaly that might be their destruction — or their salvation from an even greater threat.

Also on CR: Interview with Rich Larson (2018)

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Upcoming: THE HOUND OF JUSTICE by Claire O’Dell (Voyager)

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ODellC-JWC2-HoundOfJusticeClaire O’Dell‘s sci-fi take on Holmes and Watson return in the follow-up to the critically-acclaimed A Study in Honor. I’ve heard really good things about the series, but have yet to read the first novel (so many new series, so little time…). The Hound of Justice is due to be released in July 2019, though, so I have plenty of time to get caught up. Here’s the synopsis:

Dr. Janet Watson and former covert agent Sarah Holmes continue their dangerous investigation into the new American Civil War with the help of fresh allies, advanced technology, and brilliant deduction in this superb reimagining of Sherlock Holmes.

It’s been two months since Dr. Janet Watson accepted an offer from Georgetown University Hospital. The training for her new high-tech arm is taking longer than expected, however, leaving her in limbo. Meanwhile, her brilliant friend and compatriot, Sara Holmes, has been placed on leave — punishment for going rogue during their previous adventure. Neither is taking their situation very well.

Then an extremist faction called the Brotherhood of Redemption, based in the New Confederacy, launches an assassination attempt on the president. The attempt fails but causes mass destruction — fifty dead and hundreds more injured, and Holmes takes on the task of investigating the Brotherhood.

Holmes is making progress when she abruptly disappears. Watson receives a mysterious message from Holmes’s cousin Micha and learns that her friend has quit the service and is operating in the shadows, investigating clues that link the Brotherhood to Adler Industries.

She needs a surgeon, Micha tells Watson. She needs you.

Reunited once more, Dr. Watson, Holmes, and Micha embark on a mission through the deep South to clear Holmes’s name, thwart the Brotherhood’s next move, and most important, bring their nemesis to justice for the atrocities she’s committed in the New Civil War.

The Hound of Justice is due to be published by Harper Voyager in North America and in the UK, in July 2019.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Upcoming: IMPOSSIBLE TIMES series by Mark Lawrence (47 North)

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LawrenceM-ImpossibleTimesSeries

Mark Lawrence is best-known for his excellent, best-selling grimdark fantasy novels, including the Broken Empire and Red Queen’s War trilogies, and, most recently, the Book of the Ancestor series. Next year, 47 North are due to publish Lawrence’s first series outside of the fantasy genre (to my knowledge, anyway): the Impossible Times. Described as “Ready Player One meets Stranger Things“, it sounds like a lot of fun. Here’s the synopsis for the first book in the series, One Word Kill:

In January 1986, fifteen-year-old boy-genius Nick Hayes discovers he’s dying. And it isn’t even the strangest thing to happen to him that week.

Nick and his Dungeons & Dragons-playing friends are used to living in their imaginations. But when a new girl, Mia, joins the group and reality becomes weirder than the fantasy world they visit in their weekly games, none of them are prepared for what comes next. A strange — yet curiously familiar — man is following Nick, with abilities that just shouldn’t exist. And this man bears a cryptic message: Mia’s in grave danger, though she doesn’t know it yet. She needs Nick’s help — now.

He finds himself in a race against time to unravel an impossible mystery and save the girl. And all that stands in his way is a probably terminal disease, a knife-wielding maniac and the laws of physics.

Challenge accepted.

One Word Kill and Limited Wish are due to be published by 47 North in May and June 2019, respectively.

Also on CR: Interview with Mark Lawrence (2011); Reviews of Prince of Thorns, King of Thorns and Prince of Fools

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Upcoming: A SHADOW INTELLIGENCE by Oliver Harris (Little, Brown)

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HarrisO-EK1-ShadowIntelligenceUKHCOliver Harris is the critically-acclaimed author of the Nick Belsey series of London crime novels. His next novel is A Shadow Intelligence, the first in a new espionage thriller series starring Elliot Kane. I’m really looking forward to reading this one. Here’s the synopsis:

The intelligence service puts two years and over £100k into the training of new field officers. You’re shown how to steal cars, strip weapons, hack bank accounts. There are courses on the use of blackmail and improvised explosives, two workshops solely dedicated to navigating by the stars. But nothing about what I had heard one old spy call whiplash. No one tells you how to go home.

There is a dark side to MI6 that needs men like Elliot Kane — mercurial, inquisitive, free floating. He’s spent fifteen years managing events overseas that never make the papers, deniable and deeply effective. Kane is a ghost in his own life, picking up and dropping personalities as each new cover story comes into play. But when a woman he loves, Joanna Lake, vanishes without a trace in Kazakhstan, he is forced centre stage.

Drawn ever deeper into a realm of deception, Kane moves from merely infiltrating events to steering them. He’s used to a new mode of hybrid psychological warfare — but snowbound Kazakhstan presents unique challenges. Poised between China, Russia and the West, dictatorship and democracy, state intelligence and an increasingly powerful world of private agencies, it’s impossible to work out who is manipulating who. And Kane’s not the only one trying to figure out where Joanna Lake has gone or what she learned before disappearing.

Unable to trust anyone, hunted by his own colleagues, and with the life of someone he loves at stake, Kane needs to work out who is driving events, and why…

A Shadow Intelligence is due to be published in the UK by Little, Brown, in May 2019.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Upcoming: FINDER by Suzanne Palmer (DAW)

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PalmerS-1-FinderUSDescribed as an “action-packed sci-fi caper” starring an “interstellar repo man and professional finder”, this debut space opera looks like a lot of fun! Suzanne Palmer‘s Finder (maybe the first in a series?) is due to be published by DAW Books in North America, on April 2nd, 2019. At the time of writing, I couldn’t find any information about a UK edition. Here’s the synopsis:

Fergus Ferguson has been called a lot of names: thief, con artist, repo man. He prefers the term finder.

His latest job should be simple. Find the spacecraft Venetia’s Sword and steal it back from Arum Gilger, ex-nobleman turned power-hungry trade boss. He’ll slip in, decode the ship’s compromised AI security, and get out of town, Sword in hand.

Fergus locates both Gilger and the ship in the farthest corner of human-inhabited space, a gas-giant-harvesting colony called Cernee. But Fergus’ arrival at the colony is anything but simple. A cable car explosion launches Cernee into civil war, and Fergus must ally with Gilger’s enemies to navigate a field of space mines and a small army of hostile mercenaries. What was supposed to be a routine job evolves into negotiating a power struggle between factions. Even worse, Fergus has become increasingly — and inconveniently — invested in the lives of the locals.

It doesn’t help that a dangerous alien species thought mythical prove unsettlingly real, and their ominous triangle ships keep following Fergus around.

Foolhardy. Eccentric. Reckless. Whatever he’s called, Fergus will need all the help he can get to take back the Sword and maybe save Cernee from destruction in the process.

Looking forward to this one!

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Upcoming: THE WICKED AND THE DAMNED by David Annandale, Phil Kelly and Josh Reynolds (Black Library)

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AnnandaleKellyReynolds-WickedAndTheDamnedNext year, Black Library are going to kick off their range of horror fiction, and I for one can’t wait! It looks like the series is going to include re-issues of Kim Newman’s Genevieve novels, as well as some brand new works. First up is The Wicked and the Damned by David Annandale, Phil Kelly and Josh Reynolds. A portmanteau novel, here’s the synopsis:

Drawn together by mysterious circumstances, three strangers meet in the mists of a desolate cemetery world. As they relate their stories, the threads of fate are drawn around them, and destiny awaits…

On a misty cemetery world, three strangers are drawn together through mysterious circumstances. Each of them has a tale to tell of a narrow escape from death. Amid the toll of funerary bells and the creep and click of mortuary-servitors, the truth is confessed. But whose story can be trusted? Whose recollection is warped, even unto themselves? For these are strange stories of the uncanny, the irrational and the spine-chillingly frightening, where horrors abound and the dark depths of the human psyche is unearthed.

The Wicked and the Damned will be available to pre-order from Black Library on March 23rd, 2019, and will arrive in stores on April 4th.

Follow the Author (Annandale): Website, Goodreads, Twitter
Follow the Author (Kelly): Website, Goodreads
Follow the Author (Reynolds): Website, Goodreads, Twitter