Excerpt (2): NEW ADVENTURES IN SPACE OPERA, edited by Jonathan Strahan (Tachyon Publications)

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NewAdventuresInSpaceOperaUSHCOn August 13th, Tachyon Publications are due to publish New Adventures in Space Opera, the latest fantastic new collection of science fiction edited by Jonathan Strahan. To celebrate the upcoming release, the publisher has provided CR with two excerpts! The first excerpt went up on last week, and the second — from Charlie Jane Anders‘s “A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime” — is below.

First, here’s the anthology’s synopsis:

Award-winning science fiction editor Jonathan Strahan (The Best Science Fiction of the Year series) presents this quintessential guide to the New Space Opera, showcasing short stories from fifteen of acclaimed speculative fiction authors, including Charlie Jane Anders, Alastair Reynolds, Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, Ann Leckie, Sam J. Miller, and more.

In “Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance,” a cloud-based contractor finds a human war criminal clinging to the hull of the ship. The clones of “All the Colours You Thought Were Kings,” about to attend their coming-of-age ceremony, are also plotting treason. During “A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime,” two outlaws go on the run after stealing a device from a space cult.

Take a faster-than-light trip to the future. Discover where memes rise and fall in moments. Here are the new, adventurous, and extremely efficient–takes on interstellar battles, sentient spaceships, and galactic intrigue. The future is sooner than you think, and there’s only so much time to visit.

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New Books (June-July 2024)

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NewBooks-202407

Featuring: Mike Brooks, Joseph Finder, John French, Richard Grant, James Lee Hernandez & Brian Lazarte, Luis Jaramillo, Joseph Kanon, Alma Katsu, Hayley Krischer, David List, Hannah McGregor, Robert Rath, Neal Stephenson, Andrea Warner, Thomas J. Whalen

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Excerpt (1): NEW ADVENTURES IN SPACE OPERA, edited by Jonathan Strahan (Tachyon Publications)

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NewAdventuresInSpaceOperaUSHCNext month, Tachyon Publications are due to publish New Adventures in Space Opera — a fantastic new collection of science fiction, edited by Jonathan Strahan and featuring a great many talented authors. To celebrate the pending release (it’s out on August 13th), the publisher has provided CR with two excerpts! The first excerpt, below, is from Tobias S. Buckell‘s “Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance”. The second excerpt will go up next week.

Here’s the anthology’s synopsis:

Award-winning science fiction editor Jonathan Strahan (The Best Science Fiction of the Year series) presents this quintessential guide to the New Space Opera, showcasing short stories from fifteen of acclaimed speculative fiction authors, including Charlie Jane Anders, Alastair Reynolds, Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, Ann Leckie, Sam J. Miller, and more.

In “Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance,” a cloud-based contractor finds a human war criminal clinging to the hull of the ship. The clones of “All the Colours You Thought Were Kings,” about to attend their coming-of-age ceremony, are also plotting treason. During “A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime,” two outlaws go on the run after stealing a device from a space cult.

Take a faster-than-light trip to the future. Discover where memes rise and fall in moments. Here are the new, adventurous, and extremely efficient–takes on interstellar battles, sentient spaceships, and galactic intrigue. The future is sooner than you think, and there’s only so much time to visit.

Continue reading →

Quick Review: WHERE THE FOREST MEETS THE RIVER by Shannon Bowring (Europa Editions)

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BowringS-D2-WhereTheForestMeetsTheRiverUSPBA very welcome return to Dalton…

It’s been five years since Bridget Theroux’s death shocked the small town of Dalton, Maine, leaving behind husband Nate and daughter Sophie, now a vibrant young child. Nate doesn’t always know how to answer her questions, but he is intent on raising her with joy — and shielding her from her grandmother, Annette, who remains dangerously locked away in her grief.  

After his first year away at college, Greg Fortin is back in town for the summer to work at the family store. It’s expected he’ll take over the hardware business eventually, but finding the words to tell them no — and the truth about who he is — has become his own Everest. Rose’s abusive ex, Tommy finally disappeared a few years ago, though sometimes his presence in the eyes of her oldest son unnerves her. She and Nate are finding themselves drawn together by their children’s playdates, and into a delicate balance between friendship and the possibility of more. 

And Trudy and Bev, always so sure of their love for each other, find themselves rocked when Trudy’s husband Richard suffers a heart attack, bringing into focus all the guilt she has felt about their empty marriage for years.  

Shannon Bowring demonstrates once again that she understands exactly where the heart of a story lies. Where the Forest Meets the River is a poignant return to the small town of Dalton, whose inhabitants continue to startle and humble both themselves — and us.

This is the second novel by Shannon Bowring set in 1990s Dalton, Maine. I loved the author’s debut, The Road to Dalton, and have been eagerly anticipating the author’s follow-up. The publisher was kind enough to send me an ARC, and I dove right in. I’m happy to report that Where the Forest Meets the River is another excellent novel from an author whose books have very quickly become a must-read for me. Continue reading →

Quick Review: WHERE ARE YOU, ECHO BLUE? by Hayley Krischer (Dutton)

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KrischerH-WhereAreYouEchoBlueUSHCA novel about celebrity, fandom, and the price of ambition following a journalist’s obsessive search for a missing Hollywood starlet

When Echo Blue, the most famous child star of the nineties, disappears ahead of a highly publicized television appearance on the eve of the millennium, the salacious theories instantly start swirling. Mostly, people assume Echo has gotten herself in trouble after a reckless New Year’s Eve. But Goldie Klein, an ambitious young journalist who also happens to be Echo’s biggest fan, knows there must be more to the story. Why, on the eve of her big comeback, would Echo just go missing without a trace?

After a year of covering dreary local stories for Manhattan Eye, Goldie is sure this will be her big break. Who better to find Echo Blue, and tell her story the right way, than her? And so, Goldie heads to L.A. to begin a wild search that takes her deep into Echo’s complicated life in which parental strife, friend break ups, rehab stints, and bad romances abound. But the further into Echo’s world Goldie gets, the more she questions her own complicity in the young star’s demise… yet she cannot tear herself away from this story, which has now consumed her entirely. Meanwhile, we also hear Echo’s side of things from the beginning, showing a young woman who was chewed up and spit out by Hollywood as so many are, and who may have had to pay the ultimate price.

This is the first novel by Hayley Krisher that I’ve read. Where Are You, Echo Blue? interrogates celebrity culture, fandom, and the treacherous nature of child stardom. While I liked a lot of this novel, there were certain portions that didn’t quite work for me. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading it. Continue reading →

Excerpt: YOKE OF STARS by R. B. Lemberg (Tachyon)

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LembergRB-B3-YokeOfStarsA couple of weeks ago, Tachyon Publications published Yoke of Stars by R. B. Lemberg, the third book in the author’s Birdverse series. To mark the occasion, the publisher has provided us with an excerpt to share with CR readers. Here’s the synopsis:

In this newest novella from the queer, mystical Birdverse, an apprentice assassin and an inquisitive linguist share their tales in order to make a fateful decision…

In the School of Assassins, Stone Orphan waits for a first assignment. After their first kill, they will graduate and attain the coveted cloth of bone. But instead of a commission, Stone Orphan gets an inquisitive linguist, Ulín. Ulín has heard the Orphan Star’s song of despair, mirroring her own, and drawing her to the School of Assassins. But Ulín is far more interested in learning Stone Orphan’s language than deciding whom she wishes to kill.

Unable to contain their curiosity, Stone Orphan offers to exchange stories with Ulín to help her decide the fate of three men. By turns, Stone Orphan and Ulín narrate tales of love, suffering, exile, and self-determination, and two hurt souls find hope in each other through the radical act of listening.

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Excerpt: STORM WARNING by David Bell (Berkley)

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BellD-StormWarningUSHCNext week, Berkley is due to publish the latest novel from thriller author David Bell: Storm Warning. To mark the occasion, we have an excerpt to share. Here’s the synopsis:

A man living on a Florida barrier island must protect his family from both an approaching hurricane and a relentless killer.

Jake Powell is racing to get off the island as a powerful hurricane approaches. When he finds his best friend Dallas, the building manager, dead from a blow to the skull, Jake realizes there’s more than the storm to fear. There’s a murderer on the island, maybe even still inside the nearly abandoned building.

Dallas had repeatedly run afoul of the wealthy owners of the building by complaining about code violations and the precarious state of the condos. But he’d also once told Jake that every resident had a secret they’d come to Florida to escape. Had one of them killed to conceal their sins? As a dozen people shelter together in hopes of surviving the deadly hurricane, a second murder makes it all too clear: one of them is a dangerous killer.

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Quick Review: I HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL by Natalie Sue (Borough Press)

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SueN-IHopeThisFindsYouWellUKHCWould you want to know what your colleagues say behind your back?

Jolene certainly doesn’t.

She’s riddled with anxiety, depressed, and hates her coworkers. The less she knows about them, the better.

So when a catastrophic IT f*ck up grants her access to all of their emails and private messages, she’s initially horrified. The last thing she wants is to be privy to their sad discussions about dying desk plants and marital troubles.

That’s until, with job cuts looming, she realises the power this new-found knowledge gives her.

But as she digs deeper and deeper into the private lives of her colleagues, Jolene uncovers a lot more than she bargained for… And the walls she’d so carefully built start crumbling down.

Natalie Sue’s debut novel, I Hope This Finds You Well enjoyed a lot of pre-publication buzz. It took me a little while to get around to reading it, but I’m happy to report that I really enjoyed this. Continue reading →

Quick Review: THE EDGE by David Baldacci (Grand Central)

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BaldacciD-TD2-EdgeUSHCTravis Devine returns, in a strange mystery in small-town Maine

The 6:20 Man is back, dropped by his handlers into a small coastal town in Maine to solve the murder of a CIA agent who knew America’s dirtiest secrets — can Travis Devine uncover the truth before his time runs out?

When CIA operative Jenny Silkwell is murdered in rural Maine, government officials have immediate concerns over national security. Her laptop and phone were full of state secrets that, in the wrong hands, endanger the lives of countless operatives. In need of someone who can solve the murder quickly and retrieve the missing information, the U.S. government knows just the chameleon they can call on.

Ex-Army Ranger Travis Devine spent his time in the military preparing to take on any scenario, followed by his short-lived business career chasing shadows in the deepest halls of power, so his analytical mind makes him particularly well-suited for complex, high-stakes tasks. Taking down the world’s largest financial conspiracy proved his value, and in comparison, this case looks straightforward. Except small towns hold secrets and Devine finds himself an outsider again.

Devine must ingratiate himself with locals who have trusted each other their whole lives, and who distrust outsiders just as much. Dak, Jenny’s brother, who’s working to revitalize the town. Earl, the retired lobsterman who found Jenny’s body. And Alex, Jenny’s sister with a dark past of her own. As Devine gets to know the residents of Putnam, Maine, answers seem to appear and then transform into more questions. There’s a long history of secrets and those who will stop at nothing to keep them from being exposed. Leaving Devine with no idea who he can trust… and who wants him dead.

The second novel in Baldacci’s 6:20 Man/Travis Devine series takes the action from New York to a small town in Maine; a town of secrets that stretch back a decade. This novel is a marked improvement on The 6:20 Man, and I think this character could stick around for a while. Continue reading →