Upcoming: RED WATERS RISING by Laura Anne Gilman (Saga Press)

November 25, 2017 Civilian Reader Upcoming Devil's West, Fantasy, Laura Anne Gilman, Red Waters Rising, Saga Press, Wild West

GilmanLA-DW3-RedWatersRisingUS Next year, Saga Press is due to publish the final novel in Laura Anne Gilman’s Devil’s West trilogy, Red Waters Rising. This is a trilogy that has been on my radar for some time, and I really should get around to reading it soon.

In the last novel of The Devil’s West trilogy, Isobel, the Devil’s Left Hand, and Gabriel ride through the magical land of the Territory to root out evil by the way of mad magicians, ghosts, and twisted animal spirits.

As Isobel and Gabriel travel to the southern edge of the Territory, they arrive in the free city of Red Stick. Tensions are running high as the homesteading population grows, crowding the native lands, and suspicions rise across the river from an American fort.

But there is a sickness running through Red Stick and Isobel begins to find her authority challenged. She’ll be abandoned, betrayed, and forced to stand her ground as the Devil’s left hand in this thrilling conclusion to The Devil’s West Trilogy.

The first two novels of the trilogy are available now: Silver on the Road and The Cold Eye. (Books 1 and 2 are also available in the UK.)

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Also on CR: Interview with Laura Anne Gilman (2013)

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Upcoming: THE TESTAMENT OF LOKI by Joanne M. Harris (Gollancz)

November 25, 2017November 25, 2017 Civilian Reader Upcoming Gollancz, Joanne M Harris, Most Anticipated 2018, Mythology, Norse, Runemarks, Testament of Loki

In May 2018, Gollancz is due to publish Joanne M. Harris‘s next novel: The Testament of Loki. To the right you can see the stunning cover, which is what first caught my eye. There aren’t many details available about the novel, save the jacket and release date, but here’s the sparse synopsis from the publisher’s website:

The second adult epic fantasy novel from multi-million-copy bestselling author Joanne Harris.

Using her life-long passion for the Norse myths, Joanne Harris has created a vibrant and powerful fantasy novel.

See? Very sparse… According to Goodreads, it is the second prequel in Harris’s Runemarks series, following The Gospel of Loki, and set before Runemarks. The author’s website has a dedicated page for the novel, with a few more details (including a mini-Q&A):

THE GOSPEL OF LOKI ended at Ragnarok, the End of the Worlds, with Asgard fallen, the gods defeated and most of them either dead, or consigned to eternal torment in Netherworld. However, Loki manages to escape into another World through Dream, and finds himself, to his surprise, incarnate in a human host – a 17-year-old girl called Jumps, and living in our own World. But, as he starts to come to terms with the challenges of being in a human host, Loki realizes that there may be a way to escape the chains of mortality and return to the World of the gods.

I’m really looking forward to reading it.

Also on CR: Review of The Gospel of Loki

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Upcoming: A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE VAMPIRE UPRISING by Raymond A. Villareal (Mulholland)

November 22, 2017November 22, 2017 Civilian Reader Upcoming 21 Laps, A People's History of the Vampire Uprising, Dan Cohen, Horror, Most Anticipated 2018, Mulholland Books, Oral History, Raymond A Villareal, Shawn Levy, Thriller, Urban Fantasy, Vampires

Stumbled across this on Hachette’s website the other day, and thought it sounded really interesting. A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising will be published by Mulholland Books in North America and in the UK, in June 2018. It looks like something rather unusual for Mulholland, venturing as it does into the horror/urban fantasy sandbox. Here’s the synopsis:

A virus that turns people into something somehow more than human quickly sweeps the world, upending society as we know it.

This panoramic thriller begins with one small mystery. The body of a young woman found in an Arizona border town, presumed to be an illegal immigrant, walks out of the town morgue. To the young CDC investigator called in to consult the local police, it’s a bizarre medical mystery.

More bodies, dead of a mysterious disease that solidifies their blood, are brought to the morgue, and disappear. In a futile game of catch-up, the CDC, the FBI, and the US government must come to terms with what they’re too late to stop: an epidemic of vampirism that will sweep first the United States, and then the world.

Impossibly strong, smart, poised, beautiful, and commanding, these vampires reject the term as derogatory, preferring the euphemistic “gloamings.” They quickly rise to prominence in all aspects of modern society: sports, entertainment, and business. Soon people are begging to be ‘re-created,’ willing to accept the risk of death if their bodies can’t handle the transformation. The stakes change yet again when a charismatic and wealthy businessman, recently turned, decides to do what none of his kind has done before: run for political office.

This sweeping yet deeply intimate fictional oral history — told from the perspectives of several players on all sides of the titular vampire uprising — is a genre-bending, shocking, immersive and subversive debut that is as addictive as the power it describes.

The novel has already been optioned by Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen of 21 Laps, the production company Arrival and Stranger Things.

Follow the Author: Goodreads

Incredibles 2 Teaser Trailer!

November 18, 2017 Civilian Reader Upcoming, Video Disney, Incredibles, Incredibles 2, Most Anticipated 2018, Pixar

I don’t think this needs an introduction to explain why this is exciting. Check it out:

Interview with CATHERINE CERVENY

November 15, 2017November 15, 2017 Civilian Reader Interview Catherine Cerveny, Chaos of Luck, Felicia Sevigny Series, Game of Luck, Orbit Books, Romance, Rule of Luck, Sci-Fi

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Catherine Cerveny?

I am a total nerd fan-girl on the inside, but seem like a straight-laced conservative on the outside. I have degrees in English and History, and a Master of Library and Information Science — a professional shusher — but currently work in logistics and transportation, where I use math and science every day. I didn’t see that one coming. I love to read and have a “To Be Read” mountain of books large enough to ski down and potentially hurt myself if I fell at the bottom. I love traveling and try to go on at least one amazing trip a year, if possible. I am also married to someone who generally tolerates and indulges my quirkiness fairly well. Continue reading →

Interview with GERALD BRANDT

November 13, 2017October 23, 2017 Civilian Reader Interview Courier, DAW Books, Gerald Brandt, Operative, Rebel, San Angeles, Sci-Fi

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Gerald Brandt?

You sure don’t start with the easy questions, do you? Chances are you’d get different answer if you asked this on a Tuesday than if you asked on a Friday. I guess I’m a dad first and foremost. I’m quite surprised at how much my kids, not necessarily define me, but make me who I am. After that I’m an author, and last on the list I’m a computer guy. Hey, it’s a living. I rock climb, I ride motorcycles, and I walk the dog every morning.

Your new novel, The Rebel, is due to be published by DAW in November. It’s the third novel in your San Angeles series, and looks rather cool. How would you introduce the series to a potential reader, and what can fans of the first two novels expect from this latest installment?

Everyone likes to say their book is “X meets Y”, like “Bladerunner meets Snow Crash.” I tend not to do that. I describe the San Angeles series as eighty percent thriller and twenty percent science fiction, with a pace that will leave you breathless (I hope). It’s got assassins that will stop at nothing to get the job done, corporations that are as huge as they are corrupt, massive sections of land taken over by cities that reach up to seven levels high. And, in the midst of it all, a motorcycle courier that has seen too much to be left alone. Continue reading →

New Books (October)

November 11, 2017August 23, 2018 Civilian Reader New Books Adam O'Riordan, Andy Weir, Asa Avdic, Bill Willingham, C.L. Polk, Christine Schutt, Christopher J Yates, Colin Sinclair, David Annandale, David Baldacci, EJ Swift, Gareth L. Powell, Gregg Hurwitz, James Alan Gardner, Jane Robins, Jeffrey Cranor, John Sandford, Jon Skovron, Joseph Fink, Julian Benson, K.B. Wagers, K.J. Parker, Karen Ellis, Kevin Hearne, Liz Ziemska, Mike Lawson, Myke Cole, Paul M Sammon, Paul McCauley, Seanan McGuire, Spencer Ellsworth, Tim Major, Tom Doyle

Featuring: David Annandale, Asa Avdic, Myke Cole, Jeffrey Cranor, Tom Doyle, Karen Ellis, Spencer Ellsworth, Joseph Fink, James Alan Gardner, Kevin Hearne, Mike Lawson, Paul McAuley, Seanan McGuire, Adam O’Riordan, K.J. Parker (x3), C.L. Polk, Gareth L. Powell, Jane Robins, Paul M. Sammon, John Sandford, Christine Schutt, Jon Skovron, E.J. Swift, K.B. Wagers, Bill Willingham, Christopher J. Yates, Liz Ziemska

Continue reading →

Interview with CHRIS BROOKMYRE

November 10, 2017November 8, 2017 Civilian Reader Interview Chris Brookmyre, Most Anticipated 2017, Orbit, Places in the Darkness, Sci-Fi

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Chris Brookmyre?

I am a writer from Glasgow, Scotland, author of twenty-one novels, eighteen of them crime thrillers. My novel Black Widow won the 2016 McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year and in 2017 was named Theakstons Old Peculier British Crime Novel of the Year. As well as writing books, I collaborated with videogame developers RedBedlam to adapt my 2013 novel Bedlam into a first-person shooter that was released in 2015 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

Your latest novel, Places in the Darkness, has recently been published by Orbit. It looks really interesting: How would you introduce it to a potential reader?

It is a thriller in the tradition of the great Shane Black movies like Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, about two mismatched investigators forced to work together, but with two major differences. One is that the buddy cop duo are both women, and the second is that the whole thing takes place aboard the Ciudad de Cielo (City in the Sky), a space station where 300,000 people live and work developing what would be the Earth’s first interstellar craft. It is a place where ambitious scientists and engineers go to work on cutting edge technology, but also where many people go to escape the things that went wrong in their lives back on Earth. The city’s private police force boasts that there has never been a murder aboard (though they do have a liberal interpretation of what constitutes an accidental death), but that changes when a dismembered body is found floating in zero-gravity. Continue reading →

Interview with JAMES ALAN GARDNER

November 9, 2017October 31, 2017 Civilian Reader Interview Action, Adventure, All those Explosions Were Someone Else’s Fault, Fantasy, James Alan Gardner, Most Anticipated 2017, Sci-Fi, Superheroes, They Promised the Gun Wasn't Loaded, Tor Books

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is James Alan Gardner?

I’m a Canadian writer and editor who’s written nine novels and numerous short stories. I’ve won the Asimov’s Readers Choice award (twice) and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, as well as being a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula. I have two degrees in Math, half a degree in Geology, and a second-degree black sash in kung fu.

Your new novel, the fantastically-titled All those Explosions Were Someone Else’s Fault, will be published by Tor Books. It looks rather fun: How would you introduce it to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

It’s Book 1 of a series that takes place in modern times on an alternate version of Earth. In this world, vampires, were-beasts and demons came out of the closet in 1982; they offered to make anyone a Darkling like themselves in exchange for 10 million dollars. Within a few decades, most of the world’s rich and powerful had become Darklings.

Then superheroes showed up. They’re everyday people, members of the 99% who serve as a counterbalance to the supernatural power of the affluent 1%. The action of the book follows four university students who gain superpowers in a laboratory accident and find themselves entangled in Darkling shenanigans. Continue reading →

Interview with DAVID DALGLISH

November 8, 2017 Civilian Reader Interview Breaking World, David Dalglish, Fantasy, Half-Orcs, Orbit, Paladins, Seraphim Trilogy, Shadowborn, Shadowdance, Soulkeeper

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is David Dalglish?

I’m a somewhat nerdy guy who grew up playing way too many video games, writing custom D&D campaigns, and re-reading Salvatore’s Dark Elf Trilogy an unhealthy number of times. Now I’m a dad of three, still just as nerdy, and still playing way too many games.

Orbit Books has recently published the final book in your Seraphim trilogy, Shadowborn. How would you introduce the series to a potential new reader, and what can fans of the first two books expect from the finale?

The apocalypse happened, and hundreds of years later, the tiny remnant of humanity lives on floating islands above an endless ocean, while above, the sky burns nightly with fire. Using prisms possessing magical powers, the elite of these islands fly about in fanciful gold and silver wings throwing fireballs and blasts of lightning at one another, until the prisms run out and they close in for mid-air sword fights. Continue reading →