Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon was the first ‘proper’ sci-fi novel I read and loved. Its mix of science fiction, action and detective story was perfect for me, and I became a faithful (if uneven) follower of Morgan’s work. I bought and read the second Takeshi Kovacs novel, Broken Angels, as soon as it came out. Morgan’s grimdark fantasy series, A Land Fit for Heroes unfortunately didn’t work for me as well as his sci-fi, and I kind of wandered away from his work for a while. This past year, however, Netflix’s adaptation of Altered Carbon has re-ignited my interest in his work, so I was very happy to learn that Gollancz (UK) and Del Rey (North America) are due to release Thin Air in October. The author’s first sci-fi novel in eight years, here’s the brief synopsis:
An atmospheric tale of corruption and abduction set on Mars.
An ex-corporate enforcer, Hakan Veil, is forced to bodyguard Madison Madekwe, part of a colonial audit team investigating a disappeared lottery winner on Mars. But when Madekwe is abducted, and Hakan nearly killed, the investigation takes him farther and deeper than he had ever expected. And soon Hakan discovers the heavy price he may have to pay to learn the truth.
Gollancz is also due to re-release Morgan’s fourth novel, Thirteen, with a new cover and title (it was original called Black Man) in September, in the UK. Here’s the synopsis:
One hundred years from now, and against all the odds, Earth has found a new stability; the political order has reached some sort of balance, and the new colony on Mars is growing. But the fraught years of the 21st century have left an uneasy legacy…
Genetically engineered alpha males, designed to fight the century’s wars have no wars to fight and are surplus to requirements. And a man bred and designed to fight is a dangerous man to have around in peacetime. Many of them have left for Mars but now one has come back and killed everyone else on the shuttle he returned in.
Only one man, a genengineered ex-soldier himself, can hunt him down and so begins a frenetic man-hunt and a battle survival. And a search for the truth about what was really done with the world’s last soldiers.
BLACK MAN is an unstoppable SF thriller but it is also a novel about predjudice, about the ramifications of playing with our genetic blue-print. It is about our capacity for violence but more worrying, our capacity for deceit and corruption.
There is a growing number of authors writing more humorous and lighter science fiction and fantasy, suggesting we are going through one of the cyclical tonal shifts within the genres (I think it’s fair to say that many were feeling wearied by the grimdark influence on the SFF genres). Patrick S. Tomlinson‘s next novel, Gate Crashers sounds like it will be a lot of fun. Published on June 26th by 
Edgar Cantero‘s latest novel, Meddling Kids has been widely praised. As a result, interest in his next work is understandably high. We do not have long to wait: This Body’s Not Big Enough for Both of Us is due to be published by 
Rich Larson is a prolific author of short SFFH fiction. Today, I read my first of his, Our King and His Court which was first published by 
Today, we have an excerpt from Nancy Kress‘s latest novel, If Tomorrow Comes. Selected as a March SFF must-read by io9, Kirkus and the Verge, it is the sequel to the critically-acclaimed Tomorrow’s Kin. If Tomorrow Comes is published by 
Today, we have an excerpt from Michael David Ares‘s new novel, Dayfall. Published by 
Gareth L. Powell‘s latest novel, Embers of War has been receiving some very good pre-publication buzz. Today, we have an excerpt from the novel. Published by Titan Books today in the 
Civilian Reader 