A bigger selection than in more-recent New Books posts — just an unusually good few weeks for new books and ARCs.
Featuring: Dan Abnett, Lauren Beukes, Lowell Cauffiel, David Guymer, Rupert Holmes, Scott C. Johnson, Nick Kyme, Mike Lawson, Rebecca Makkai, Dwyer Murphy, Elissa R. Sloan, A. R. Torre, Calder Walton, Brent Weeks, Iris Yamashita
Featuring: Lauren Beukes, M.R. Carey, Michael Connelly, Lee Goldberg, Rachel Howzell Hall, Amanda Harlowe, Jennifer Hofmann, Claire Holroyde, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Melissa Korn, Joe R. Lansdale, Owen Laukkanen, Michael Laurence, Jennifer Levitz, Cassidy Lucas, Chuck Palahniuk, Daniel Polansky, Natasha Pulley, Elizabeth Shackelford, Curtis Sittenfeld, Lavie Tidhar, Robert Webb, Django Wexler
A mother and son traverse America, on the run and trying to get home
Most of the men are dead. Three years after the pandemic known as The Manfall, governments still hold and life continues — but a world run by women isn’t always a better place.
Twelve-year-old Miles is one of the last boys alive, and his mother, Cole, will protect him at all costs. On the run after a horrific act of violence-and pursued by Cole’s own ruthless sister, Billie — all Cole wants is to raise her kid somewhere he won’t be preyed on as a reproductive resource or a sex object or a stand-in son. Someplace like home.
To get there, Cole and Miles must journey across a changed America in disguise as mother and daughter. From a military base in Seattle to a luxury bunker, from an anarchist commune in Salt Lake City to a roaming cult that’s all too ready to see Miles as the answer to their prayers, the two race to stay ahead at every step… even as Billie and her sinister crew draw closer.
I’ve been looking forward to Lauren Beukes’s Afterland since it was first announced a couple of years ago. A long-time fan of the author’s work, I had pretty high expectations for the novel. I’m glad to report that I was not disappointed. An interesting novel, with protagonists you’ll root for and plenty of interesting social and cultural observations. Continue reading
I’m a big fan of Lauren Beukes‘s novels, so I was very excited to learn about her upcoming book, Motherland. Due to be published by Mulholland Books in April 2019 (so far away!), it sounds really interesting:
This is America, but not like you know it. Years after the decimation of the male population by a super-virus, the country has refashioned itself with new laws, new customs, and new methods of shame and punishment. Now, hiding a living and healthy male is one of the gravest offenses, rivaled only by the murder of a man. Cole is a mother on the run, guilty of both crimes, and desperate to find a safe life for her adolescent boy Miles.
As the two drift throughout the transformed states of the West, they hide Miles’ identity while evading a mysterious, powerful man bent on justice. From a commune in the Rockies to a high security laboratory in the redwoods of northern California, the two tensely negotiate an existence on the fringes of a new America.
Cole’s goal for her son and herself is escape, a family in South Africa, a slim chance at a better life. Mother and child see their chance, at last, in the wanderings and secret goals of a cult — if only Cole can keep Miles’ true self hidden, and as long as they can stay one step ahead of an ex-boyfriend from hell.
If you can’t wait that long, I’d highly recommend The Shining Girls, Broken Monsters and the graphic novel Survivors’ Club.
Also on CR: Reviews of The Shining Girls and Broken Monsters
Featuring: Margaret Atwood, Lauren Beukes, Rob Boffard, Jessie Burton, Nickolas Butler, Janie Chang, D. Nolan Clark, John Connolly, Jason Diamond, David Eggers, Clint Emerson, Joseph Finder, Amy S. Foster, Neil Gaiman, William Gibson, Max Gladstone, Lev Grossman, Joe Haldeman, Chris Holm, Humfrey Hunter, Joe Ide, Michael Koryta, Bracken MacLeod, Melina Marchetta, Seanan McGuire, Andy McNab, Liz Moore, Nicola Moriarty, Megan O’Keefe, Frank Owen, Tom Rosenstiel, Meg Rosoff, Roy Scranton, Gaie Sebold, Matthew Smith, Bruce Sterling, Peter Swanson, Adi Tantimedh, Mick Wall
Above artwork: Black Road #2 (crop), by Garry Brown (Image Comics) Continue reading
Featuring: Mitch Albom, Gillian Anderson, Kelly Armstrong, Lauren Beukes, Adam Brookes, Christopher Buehlman, Blake Butler, W. Bruce Cameron, Michael Carroll, Al Ewing, Tana French, Peter F. Hamilton, Michael Harvey, Lee Henderson, Steffen Jacobsen, Rajan Khanna, James Luceno, Todd Moss, Claire North, Pierre Pevel, John Sandford, Graeme Simsion, Matthew Smith, Peter Watts, Alec Worley Continue reading
A superb, surreal crime novel
Detective Gabriella Versado has seen a lot of bodies. But this one is unique even by Detroit’s standards: half boy, half deer, somehow fused together. As stranger and more disturbing bodies are discovered, how can the city hold on to a reality that is already tearing at its seams?
If you’re Detective Versado’s geeky teenage daughter, Layla, you commence a dangerous flirtation with a potential predator online. If you’re desperate freelance journalist Jonno, you do whatever it takes to get the exclusive on a horrific story. If you’re Thomas Keen, known on the street as TK, you’ll do what you can to keep your homeless family safe — and find the monster who is possessed by the dream of violently remaking the world.
Broken Monsters is in many ways a novel of decline: of society, the city, sanity… But not, thankfully, of the author’s talent. Beukes is on top-form here once again, delivering a superb, surreal follow-up to The Shining Girls. It’s really very good. Continue reading
A superb, unusual thriller.
The girl who wouldn’t die, hunting a killer who shouldn’t exist…
A terrifying and original serial-killer thriller from award-winning author, Lauren Beukes.
1930’s America: Lee Curtis Harper is a delusional, violent drifter who stumbles on a house that opens onto other times.
Driven by visions, he begins a killing spree over the next 60 years, using an undetectable MO and leaving anachronistic clues on his victims’ bodies.
But when one of his intended ‘shining girls’, Kirby Mazrachi, survives a brutal stabbing, she becomes determined to unravel the mystery behind her would-be killer. While the authorities are trying to discredit her, Kirby is getting closer to the truth, as Harper returns again and again…
This has been one of the most anticipated novels of 2013. There are ads in many publications, and plenty of posters in the London Underground. I’m very happy to report, then, that it absolutely deserves the hype it has enjoyed. The Shining Girls is a superb novel, and one of the most interesting thrillers I’ve read in a long while. Easily one of the best reads of the year so far. Continue reading
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