Upcoming: LUNA – NEW MOON by Ian McDonald (Tor)

February 9, 2015February 10, 2015 Civilian Reader Upcoming Gollancz, Ian McDonald, Luna, Most Anticipated 2015, New Moon, Sci-Fi, Tor Books

I haven’t read as much of Ian McDonald‘s work as I think I should have. After spotting the cover reveal for this on Twitter, though, I think I’ll be making sure to read at least one of his novels this year. Luna: New Moon is the first in a duology from multi-award-winning British author. I’ve spoken to someone who’s read it, and they say it’s amazing. Here’s the synopsis:

The scions of a falling house must navigate a world of corporate warfare to maintain their family’s status in the Moon’s vicious political atmosphere

The Moon wants to kill you. Whether it’s being unable to pay your per diem for your allotted food, water, and air, or you just get caught up in a fight between the Moon’s ruling corporations, the Five Dragons. You must fight for every inch you want to gain in the Moon’s near feudal society. And that is just what Adriana Corta did.

As the leader of the Moon’s newest “dragon,” Adriana has wrested control of the Moon’s Helium3 industry from the Mackenzie Metal corporation and fought to earn her family’s new status. Now, at the twilight of her life, Adriana finds her corporation, Corta Helio, surrounded by the many enemies she made during her meteoric rise. If the Corta family is to survive, Adriana’s five children must defend their mother’s empire from her many enemies… and each other.

Luna: New Moon is published in the US by Tor Books, and in the UK by Gollancz.

UPDATE (2/10): This morning, Gollancz unveiled their cover for Luna. It’s a wonderfully sharp image (I hope it comes through in the image below). I also really like that the letters in “Luna” have their own moons:

Upcoming: THE DINOSAUR LORDS by Victor Milán (Tor)

February 9, 2015February 10, 2015 Civilian Reader Upcoming Dinosaur Lords, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Tor Books, Victor Milán

Almost everything about this book cries out “wish fulfilment”: Action! Adventure! Dinosaurs! Knights riding them! Victor Milán‘s The Dinosaur Lords is published in North America by Tor Books in July 2015.

Not sure if there are more books planned in the series, but I’m rather looking forward to reading The Dinosaur Lords. Here’s the synopsis:

A world made by the Eight Creators on which to play out their games of passion and power, Paradise is a sprawling, diverse, often brutal place. Men and women live on Paradise as do dogs, cats, ferrets, goats, and horses. But dinosaurs predominate: wildlife, monsters, beasts of burden–and of war. Colossal plant-eaters like Brachiosaurus; terrifying meat-eaters like Allosaurus, and the most feared of all, Tyrannosaurus rex. Giant lizards swim warm seas. Birds (some with teeth) share the sky with flying reptiles that range in size from bat-sized insectivores to majestic and deadly Dragons.

Thus we are plunged into Victor Milán’s splendidly weird world of The Dinosaur Lords, a place that for all purposes mirrors 14th century Europe with its dynastic rivalries, religious wars, and byzantine politics…except the weapons of choice are dinosaurs. Where vast armies of dinosaur-mounted knights engage in battle. During the course of one of these epic battles, the enigmatic mercenary Dinosaur Lord Karyl Bogomirsky is defeated through betrayal and left for dead. He wakes, naked, wounded, partially amnesiac–and hunted. And embarks upon a journey that will shake his world.

Upcoming: KNIGHT’S SHADOW by Sebastien de Castell (Jo Fletcher Books)

February 3, 2015February 3, 2015 Civilian Reader Upcoming Fantasy, Greatcoats, Jo Fletcher Books, Knight's Shadow, Most Anticipated 2015, Sebastien de Castell

If you’ve been reading CR for the past year, you’ll probably have caught the fact that I really enjoyed Sebastien de Castell‘s debut fantasy, Traitor’s Blades. I was rather excited, therefore, to start seeing mentions and details of the sequel, Knight’s Shadow. Now (or, at least, as far as I’ve seen), de Castell’s UK publisher Jo Fletcher Books has unveiled the cover (right). Here’s the synopsis:

Tristia is a nation overcome by intrigue and corruption. The idealistic young King Paelis is dead and the Greatcoats – legendary travelling magistrates who brought justice to the Kingdom – have been branded as traitors. But just before his head was impaled on a spike, the King swore each of his hundred and forty-four Greatcoats to a different mission.

Falcio Val Mond, First Cantor, with the help of fellow Greatcoats Kest and Brasti, has completed his King’s final task: he has found his Charoites – well, one at least, and she was not quite what they expected. Now they must protect the girl from the many who would see her dead, and place her on the throne of a lawless kingdom. That would be simple enough, if it weren’t for the Daishini, an equally legendary band of assassins, getting in their way, not to forget the Dukes who are determined to hold on to their fractured Kingdoms, or the fact that the heir to the throne is only thirteen years old. Oh, and the poison that is slowly killing Falcio.

That’s not even mentioning the Greatcoat’s Lament…

Knight’s Shadow is due to be published in the UK on March 5th 2015. I can’t wait to read it!

Also on CR: Interview with Sebastien de Castell; Guest Post on “Where Writers Get Their Groove”

Cover: KILLING PRETTY by Richard Kadrey (Voyager)

January 21, 2015 Civilian Reader Covers, Upcoming Harper Collins, Horror, Killing Pretty, Richard Kadrey, Sandman Slim, Urban Fantasy, Voyager

I’m a big fan of Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim series, and I just stumbled across the cover for the seventh novel, Killing Pretty. Due to be published in July 2015 by Voyager Books in the UK and US, I was unable to find a synopsis… Nevertheless, here’s the cover, which continues the very cool, vintage-pulp movie poster feel:

Also on CR: Reviews of Sandman Slim, Kill the Dead, Aloha From Hell, Devil in the Dollhouse, Devil Said Bang, Kill City Blues, The Getaway God, Killing Pretty

Upcoming: New John Sandford Fiction

January 19, 2015 Civilian Reader Covers, Upcoming Crime, Gathering Prey, John Sandford, Knopf, Michele Cook, Outrage, Prey Series, Putnam, Singular Menace Series, Suspense, Thriller

Longtime readers of CR will know I’m a huge fan of John Sandford‘s various series – be it the Lucas Davenport/Prey series, the Virgil Flowers spin-off series, or the Kidd & LuEllen series, I’ve loved them all. So, I’m happy to share the information for two upcoming 2015 releases from the author, including the 25th Prey novel:

GATHERING PREY

They call them Travelers. They move from city to city, panhandling, committing no crimes—they just like to stay on the move. And now somebody is killing them.

Lucas Davenport’s adopted daughter, Letty, is home from college when she gets a phone call from a woman Traveler she’d befriended in San Francisco. The woman thinks somebody’s killing her friends, she’s afraid she knows who it is, and now her male companion has gone missing. She’s hiding out in North Dakota, and she doesn’t know what to do.

Letty tells Lucas she’s going to get her, and, though he suspects Letty’s getting played, he volunteers to go with her. When he hears the woman’s story, though, he begins to think there’s something in it. Little does he know. In the days to come, he will embark upon an odyssey through a subculture unlike any he has ever seen, a trip that will not only put the two of them in danger—but just may change the course of his life.

Gathering Prey is due to be published in the US by Putnam, on April 28th 2015.

OUTRAGE, w. Michele Cook

Shay Remby and her gang of renegades have struck a blow to the Singular Corporation. When they rescued Shay’s brother, Odin, from a secret Singular lab, they also liberated a girl. Singular has been experimenting on her, trying to implant a U.S. senator’s memories into her brain—with partial success. Fenfang is now a girl who literally knows too much.

Can the knowledge brought by ex-captives Odin and Fenfang help Shay and her friends expose the crimes of this corrupt corporation? Singular has already killed one of Shay’s band to protect their secrets. How many more will die before the truth is exposed?

The second novel in Sandford and Cook’s The Singular Menace YA series, it follows Uncaged (which I still need to read). It’s due to be published in North America by Knopf for Young Readers, on July 14th 2015.

Upcoming: COLD IRON by Stina Leicht (Saga)

January 12, 2015 Civilian Reader Upcoming Cold Iron, Fantasy, Flintlock Fantasy, Most Anticipated 2015, Saga Press, Simon and Schuster, Stina Leicht

Cold Iron is the next novel by Stina Leicht, author of the Fey and the Fallen duology. This is a brand new flintlock fantasy, to be published by Saga Press, and I must say it looks rather interesting:

Fraternal twins Nels and Suvi move beyond their royal heritage and into military and magical dominion in this flintlock epic fantasy debut from a two-time Campbell Award finalist.

Prince Nels is the scholarly runt of the ancient Kainen royal family of Eledore, disregarded as flawed by the king and many others. Only Suvi, his fraternal twin sister, supports him. When Nels is ambushed by an Acrasian scouting party, he does the forbidden for a member of the ruling family: He picks up a fallen sword and defends himself.

Disowned and dismissed to the military, Nels establishes himself as a leader as Eledore begins to shatter under the attack of the Acrasians, who the Kainen had previously dismissed as barbarians. But Nels knows differently, and with the aid of Suvi, who has allied with pirates, he mounts a military offensive with sword, canon, and what little magic is left in the world.

Cold Iron is due to be published in June 2015. I’m rather looking forward to it.

Also on CR: Interview with Stina Leicht (2012)

New WOLFHOUND CENTURY Covers…

January 12, 2015 Civilian Reader Covers, Upcoming Alternative History, Fantasy, Gollancz, Peter Higgins, Radiant State, Russia, Truth and Fear, Wolfhound Century

With the third installment fast approaching, Gollancz unveiled today a new cover style for Peter Higgins‘s excellent Wolfhound Century series. And it’s a pretty striking style, to say the least:

Book 1 – Wolfhound Century

Book 2 – Truth and Fear

Book 3 – Radiant State

The new editions are due to be published in April 2015. I may have to buy the first two again, so they look all nice on my shelves… I have shared the cover and details for Radiant State already, but I thought it would be nice to have them all together in one place. You can read my review of Wolfhound Century, here. In case you’ve missed the series, here’s the synopsis for the first in the series:

A thousand miles east of Mirgorod, the great capital city of the Vlast, deep in the ancient forest, lies the most recent fallen angel, its vast stone form half-buried and fused into the rock by the violence of impact. As its dark energy leeches into the crash site, so a circle of death expands around it, slowly – inexorably – killing everything it touches. Alone in the wilderness, it reaches out with its mind.

The endless forest and its antique folk lore are no concern to Inspector Vissarion Lom, summoned to the capital in order to catch a terrorist – and ordered to report directly to the head of the secret police. A totalitarian state, worn down by an endless war, must be seen to crush home-grown terrorism with an iron fist. But Lom discovers Mirgorod to be more corrupted than he imagined: a murky world of secret police and revolutionaries, cabaret clubs and doomed artists. Lom has been chosen because he is an outsider, not involved in the struggle for power within the party. And because of the sliver of angel stone implanted in his head at the children’s home.

Lom’s investigation reveals a conspiracy that extends to the top echelons of the party. When he exposes who – or rather what – is the controlling intelligence behind this, it is time for the detective to change sides. Pursued by rogue police agents and their man-crushing mudjhik, Lom must protect Kantor’s step-daughter Maroussia, who has discovered what is hidden beneath police headquarters: a secret so ancient that only the forest remembers. As they try to escape the capital and flee down river, elemental forces are gathering. The earth itself is on the move.

Upcoming: THE THORN OF DENTONHILL by Marshall Ryan Maresca (DAW)

January 10, 2015January 31, 2021 Civilian Reader Upcoming DAW Books, Fantasy, Maradaine, Marshall Ryan Maresca, Penguin US, Thorn of Dentonhill, Urban Fantasy

Marshall Ryan Maresca‘s The Thorn of Dentonhill is the first novel in the Maradaine fantasy series. Due to be published on February 3rd, 2015, by DAW Books, it sounds pretty interesting:

Veranix Calbert leads a double life. By day, he’s a struggling magic student at the University of Maradaine. At night, he spoils the drug trade of Willem Fenmere, crime boss of Dentonhill and murderer of Veranix’s father. He’s determined to shut Fenmere down.

With that goal in mind, Veranix disrupts the delivery of two magical artifacts meant for Fenmere’s clients, the mages of the Blue Hand Circle. Using these power-filled objects in his fight, he quickly becomes a real thorn in Fenmere’s side.

So much so that soon not only Fenmere, but powerful mages, assassins, and street gangs all want a piece of “The Thorn.” And with professors and prefects on the verge of discovering his secrets, Veranix’s double life might just fall apart. Unless, of course, Fenmere puts an end to it first.

I hope to have more about this author and novel in the near future. Watch this space…

Upcoming: New UK Editions of Emily St. John Mandel’s Back-Catalogue

January 9, 2015January 9, 2015 Civilian Reader Upcoming Emily St John Mandel, Fiction, Last Night in Montreal, Lola Quartet, Most Anticipated 2015, Picador, Reissues, Singer's Gun

Following in the wake of the considerable, absolutely-deserved international success of Station Eleven [review], Picador Books are re-issuing and re-packaging Emily St. John Mandel‘s previous three novels — The Singer’s Gun, Last Night in Montreal, and The Lola Quartet. All three will be published on January 15th, 2015. As someone who enjoyed Station Eleven immensely, I’m looking forward to trying these. They look quite different to her latest novel…

LAST NIGHT IN MONTREAL (2009)

Lilia has been leaving people behind her entire life. Haunted by her inability to remember her early childhood, and by a mysterious shadow that seems to dog her wherever she goes, Lilia moves restlessly from city to city, abandoning lovers and friends along the way. But then she meets Eli, and he’s not ready to let her go, not without a fight.

THE SINGER’S GUN (2009)

After shaking off an increasingly dangerous venture with his cousin, Anton Waker has spent years constructing an honest life for himself. But then a routine security check brings his past crashing back towards him. His marriage and career in ruins, Anton finds himself in Italy with one last job from his cousin. But there is someone on his tail and they are getting closer…

THE LOLA QUARTET (2012)

The Lola Quartet: Jack, Daniel, Sasha and Gavin, four talented musicians at the end of their high school careers. On the dream-like night of their last concert, Gavin’s girlfriend Anna disappears. Ten years later Gavin sees a photograph of a little girl who looks uncannily like him and who shares Anna’s surname, and suddenly he finds himself catapulted back to a secretive past he didn’t realise he’d left behind.

But that photo has set off a cascade of dangerous consequences and, as one by one the members of the Lola Quartet are reunited, a terrifying story emerges: of innocent mistakes, of secrecy and of a life lived on the run.

Trailer: ANT-MAN — “Is it too late to change the name…?”

January 7, 2015January 7, 2015 Civilian Reader Upcoming, Video Ant-Man, Marvel, Michael Douglas, Most Anticipated 2015, Paul Rudd

Here’s the trailer for Marvel’s upcoming Ant-Man movie:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xInh3VhAWs8]

Like Paul Rudd’s character at the very end, I’ve always been a bit on the fence about the name… Nevertheless, this looks pretty interesting. I wonder if/how they are going to tie this in with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — given Michael Douglas’s age, could we see his character appear in the new Agent Carter TV series? That could be cool…

Ant-Man opens in theatres in July 2015. I’m rather looking forward to it.