Must Read 2016

Upcoming: THE SUDDEN APPEARANCE OF HOPE by Claire North (Orbit)

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A couple of days ago, Orbit unveiled the cover (above) for Claire North‘s highly anticipated next novel, The Sudden Appearance of Hope. Given how much I’ve loved all of Claire North’s books, this is very easily in my top five most anticipated novels of 2016. Maybe even the most anticipated of the year.

You might have met Hope Arden before. In fact, you might have met her a hundred times.

But there’s no way that you’ll remember who she is. Because Hope’s unique problem… is that she’s the girl the world forgets.

It all started when she was sixteen years old. A slow declining, a kind of isolation, one piece at a time. Her father forgetting to drive her to school. Her mother setting the table for three, not four. A teacher forgeting to chase her missing homework. A friend looking straight through her and seeing a stranger.

No matter what Hope does – the words she says, the people she hurts, the crimes she commits – you will never remember who she is. That makes her life tricky. But it also makes her dangerous.

The Sudden Appearance of Hope is due to be published in all English-language territories in May by Orbit in UK, Redhook in US (there may be a slightly different cover for the North American market, but I’m not sure — I’ll share if there is).

Also on CR: Reviews of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, Touch, The Gameshouse Trilogy

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Review: GIRLS ON FIRE by Robin Wasserman (Harper/Little Brown)

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WassermanR-GirlsOnFireUSA powerful, twisty tale of passion, obsession and growing up…

On Halloween, 1991, a popular high school basketball star ventures into the woods near Battle Creek, Pennsylvania, and disappears. Three days later, he’s found with a bullet in his head and a gun in his hand — a discovery that sends tremors through this conservative community, already unnerved by growing rumors of Satanic worship in the region.

In the wake of this incident, bright but lonely Hannah Dexter is befriended by Lacey Champlain, a dark-eyed, Cobain-worshiping bad influence in lip gloss and Doc Martens. The charismatic, seductive Lacey forges a fast, intimate bond with the impressionable Dex, making her over in her own image and unleashing a fierce defiance that neither girl expected. But as Lacey gradually lures Dex away from her safe life into a feverish spiral of obsession, rebellion, and ever greater risk, an unwelcome figure appears on the horizon — and Lacey’s secret history collides with Dex’s worst nightmare.

This is Robin Wasserman’s first novel for adults, and it’s a powerful one. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I’m very glad I gave it a try. This is a powerful, gripping novel about a friendship between two polar-opposite girls with secrets and insecurities. It’s atmospheric, realistic and extremely satisfying.
Continue reading →

Review: IF I FORGET YOU by Thomas Christopher Greene (Thomas Dunne)

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GreeneTC-IfIForgetYouUSA beautifully written, engaging novel

Twenty-one years after they were driven apart by circumstances beyond their control, two former lovers have a chance encounter on a Manhattan street. What follows is a tense, suspenseful exploration of the many facets of enduring love.

Told from altering points of view through time, If I Forget You tells the story of Henry Gold, a poet whose rise from poverty embodies the American dream, and Margot Fuller, the daughter of a prominent, wealthy family, and their unlikely, star-crossed love affair, complete with the secrets they carry when they find each other for the second time.

Thomas Christopher Greene‘s previous novel, The Headmaster’s Wife, was a sleeper hit when it came out. I picked it up shortly after, but haven’t had the chance to read it, yet. I spotted If I Forget You on NetGalley, though, and started reading it as soon as I got a review copy. I had high expectations, and they were mostly met. Greene’s prose is exceptionally good, often lyrical. Continue reading →

Quick Review: THE DEVIL YOU KNOW by K.J. Parker (Tor.com)

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ParkerKJ-DevilYouKnowA superb, must-read novella

The greatest philosopher of all time is offering to sell his soul to the Devil. All he wants is twenty more years to complete his life’s work. After that, he really doesn’t care.

But the assistant demon assigned to the case has his suspicions, because the philosopher is Saloninus – the greatest philosopher, yes, but also the greatest liar, trickster and cheat the world has yet known; the sort of man even the Father of Lies can’t trust.

He’s almost certainly up to something; but what?

I’ve had a very mixed relationship with Parker’s fiction. I’ve loved some of it, and I’ve found some to be painfully slow. The Devil You Know is… well, pretty much perfect. Parker’s writing is superb, the story excellently paced, and the characters fully fleshed out and realistic, despite the slim length of the novella. Read The Devil You Know, and it’s clear why Parker is so respected and beloved. This is a fantastic, must-read novella. Continue reading →

Cover: WOLF MOON by Ian McDonald (Tor)

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Spotted this on Edelweiss, and thought I’d share it here. Wolf Moon is the second novel in Ian McDonald‘s Luna series, and sequel to New Moon. I still haven’t had a chance to read the first novel, yet (I do have it), but it is very high on my priority list. Here’s the synopsis for Wolf Moon, which is due to be published in the US by Tor Books in September 2016:

A Dragon is dead.

Corta Helio, one of the five family corporations that rule the Moon, has fallen. Its riches are divided up among its many enemies, its survivors scattered. Eighteen months have passed.

The remaining Helio children, Lucasinho and Luna, are under the protection of the powerful Asamoahs, while Robson, still reeling from witnessing his parent’s violent deaths, is now a ward — virtually a hostage — of Mackenzie Metals. And the last appointed heir, Lucas, has vanished of the surface of the moon.

Only Lady Sun, dowager of Taiyang, suspects that Lucas Corta is not dead, and more to the point — that he is still a major player in the game. After all, Lucas always was the Schemer, and even in death, he would go to any lengths to take back everything and build a new Corta Helio, more powerful than before. But Corta Helio needs allies, and to find them, the fleeing son undertakes an audacious, impossible journey — to Earth.

In an unstable lunar environment, the shifting loyalties and political machinations of each family reach the zenith of their most fertile plots as outright war erupts.

New Moon is also published by Tor Books in North America, and is published in the UK by Gollancz — who will also be publishing Wolf Moon, although I’m not sure when.

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Review: 13 MINUTES by Sarah Pinborough (Gollancz)

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PinboroughS-13MinutesUKAn excellent new thriller from one of Britain’s best authors

Natasha was dead for 13 minutes. And it changed her world completely…

I was dead for 13 minutes.

I don’t remember how I ended up in the icy water but I do know this — it wasn’t an accident and I wasn’t suicidal.

They say you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but when you’re a teenage girl, it’s hard to tell them apart. My friends love me, I’m sure of it. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t try to kill me. Does it?

13 MINUTES by Sarah Pinborough is a gripping psychological thriller about people, fears, manuiplation and the power of the truth. A stunning read, it questions our relationships — and what we really know about the people closest to us…

Sarah Pinborough’s latest thriller is both an excellent thriller and an insightful examination of what it means to be a teenager in the social media age. It blends these two facets together perfectly, creating one of the first must-read novels of the year. Continue reading →

Covers: The Gorgeous UK Jackets of David Mitchell

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Sceptre has published David Mitchell’s novels in the UK with some truly gorgeous covers (above) — it’s a little hard to tell which of these are recent re-jackets, but I’m pretty sure a number of them are new.

I have still not read anything by Mitchell. I really don’t know why, to be honest. Alyssa’s mother waxes lyrical about his novels on a weekly basis, and I have to say she has excellent taste (I also bought Slade House for her for Xmas). I’ve heard such great things from so very many people about The Bone Clocks, but apparently reading Slade House will point out that they are all (at least in some small way) connected.

Despite writing the other week that I wasn’t going to set any reading goals in 2016, maybe I should propose one: read David Mitchell.

Here are links to the books: Ghostwritten, number9dream, Cloud Atlas, Black Swan Green, The Thousand Lives of Jacob de Zoet and The Bone Clocks.

Upcoming: DOWN STATION by Simon Morden (Gollancz)

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How cool is that cover? Simon Morden‘s Down Station is due to be published in the UK by Gollancz on February 16th, 2016. It’s sounds pretty interesting (and a tad weird, but in a good way):

A small group of commuters and tube workers witness a fiery apocalypse overtaking London. They make their escape through a service tunnel. Reaching a door they step through… and find themselves on a wild shore backed by cliffs and rolling grassland. The way back is blocked. Making their way inland they meet a man dressed in a wolf’s cloak and with wolves by his side. He speaks English and has heard of a place called London — other people have arrived here down the ages — all escaping from a London that is burning. None of them have returned. Except one — who travels between the two worlds at will. The group begin a quest to find this one survivor; the one who holds the key to their return and to the safety of London.

And as they travel this world, meeting mythical and legendary creatures,split between North and South by a mighty river and bordered by The White City and The Crystal Palace they realise they are in a world defined by all the London’s there have ever been.

Reminiscent of Michael Moorcock and Julian May this is a grand and sweeping science fantasy built on the ideas, the legends, the memories of every London there has ever been.