New Books, 9 July 2024
Aryan, Stephen: The Blood-Dimmed Tide
(Angry Robot 9781915202864, $18.99, 400pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 07/09/2024)
Historical fantasy novel, the second in the Nightingale and the Falcon trilogy inspired by the Mongol Empire’s invasion of Persia. Kaivon, the last Persian General, is celebrating as Hulagu Khan’s dream of conquering the whole world lies in tatters. But the fight is not yet done, as Persia is still occupied by Mongol invaders.
Askaripour, Mateo: This Great Hemisphere
(Penguin Random House/Dutton 9780593472347, $29, 432pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/09/2024)
SF novel set 500 years in the future. A young invisible woman gets a job with the Northwestern Hemisphere’s premier inventor, an eccentric and enigmatic non-invisible man — but the discovery that her older brother is the main suspect in an assassination upends the careful life she’s built.
Bacigalupi, Paolo: Navola
(Penguin Random House/Knopf 9780593535059, $30, 576pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/09/2024)
Historical fantasy novel inspired by Renaissance Florence, Italy, about a young man from a powerful family whose fate is tied to an eldritch dragon relic and his adopted sister.
Carpenter, Shawn : The Price of Redemption
(Simon & Schuster/Saga Press 9781668033739, $18.99, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/09/2024)
Fantasy novel, the first in the Tides of Magic series. Despite her powerful magic, Marquese Enid d’Tancreville must flee by ship to escape the Theocratic Revolution. She’s rescued from recapture by a young sea captain, who is in need of a sea mage. This is a first novel.
Doyle, Darrin: Let Gravity Seize the Dead
(Regal House 9781646034468, $17.95, 141pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 07/09/2024)
Horror novella of 1907 and 2007. A family moves into an old cabin in the woods, but the two teen daughters discover a violent presence from the past they call The Whistler.
Durst, Sarah Beth: The Spellshop
(Tor/Bramble 9781250333971, $26.99, 380pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/09/2024)
Cozy fantasy romance novel. Kiela, a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, saves precious spellbooks from a fire and revolution, flees to her remote childhood home, and tries to assist the town by secretly helping them with forbidden magic.
Felton, Debbie, ed.: Titans & Giants Myths & Tales
(Flame Tree Collections 9781804178003, $30, 432pp, formats: hardcover, 07/09/2024)
Anthology of short stories featuring giants and titans in myth, legend, folklore, and modern short fiction, from all over the world. Part of the Epic Tales series.
Jackson, Vaughn A. & Pearre, Stephanie, eds.: Beyond the Bounds of Infinity
(Raw Dog Screaming 9781947879706, $18.95, 190pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, 07/10/2024)
Anthology of 20 diverse cosmic horror stories “by authors from historically underrepresented groups to reclaim a genre that wasn’t always welcoming.” Authors include Timaeus Bloom, Amanda Headlee, Pedro Iniguez, Mary SanGiovanni, L. Marie Wood. Foreword by Jackson.
Lee, Miye: The Dallergut Dream Department Store
(Harlequin/Hanover Square 9781335081179, $21.99, 288pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 07/09/2024)
Korean magical realism novel. Penny is a new hire at Dallergut, a department store that sells dreams, located in a mysterious town hidden in our collective subconscious. Translated by Sandy Joosun Lee. A first novel.
Long, H.M.: Black Tide Son
(Titan Books 9781803362625, $17.99, 448pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 07/09/2024)
Fantasy novel, second in the Winter Sea series. A prisonbreak to save Benedict leaves him, Sam, and Mary trapped in a desperate race for survival in enemy territory.
Low, P.H.: These Deathless Shores
(Orbit 9780316569200, $19.99, 464pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 07/09/2024)
Fantasy novel, a genderbent origin story told by Peter Pan’s Captain Hook, about Jordan, a former Lost Boy who as a 22-year-old woman in withdrawal from the magic Dust returns to Neverland to confront Peter. A first novel.
Low offers a more brutal, Lord-of-the-Flies-esque vision of Neverland in the Island that approaches its own kind of sentience, a world where Lost Boys never grow up because if they don’t leave of their own accord, Peter kills them; where the ‘‘pirates’’ are a combination of Lost Boy survivors and adult castaways washed ashore; and where Peter, always laughing, is as cruel as a cat among its prey and encourages cruelty in his followers; and where the fairy ‘‘Dust’’ that lets the boys fly and heal wounds is both addictive and rendered out of human bone.
Lynn, Hannah: The Daughters of Olympus
(Sourcebooks Landmark 9781728284293, $17.99, 448pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 07/09/2024)
Fantasy novel retelling of the story of Persephone/Core. Hades kidnaps Core and renames her Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. In the land without sun, she realizes she may have a chance to gain back what she thought she’d lost forever. But Demeter will destroy anything ― even the humans she holds so dear ― to bring her daughter back.
Lyons, Jenn: The Sky on Fire
(Tor 9781250342003, $29.99, 448pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/09/2024)
Fantasy heist adventure novel set in a world ruled by dragons. Anahrod is rescued from an attempted capture by a local warlord, but her rescuers want to take her away to the dragon-ruled sky cities, where they need her help to steal from a dragon’s hoard.
Nayak, Hemant: A Magic Fierce and Bright
(Simon & Schuster 9781665921817, $19.99, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/09/2024)
Young-adult science fantasy novel set in South India. Technomancer Adya just wants to be left alone to find her missing sister and earn money to take care of her family, but her rare ability to wake electric machines makes her a coveted political pawn.
Sellman, Tamara Kaye: Cul de Sac Stories
(Aqueduct Press, $5.95, 136pp, formats: ebook, 07/15/2024)
Collection of “quirky exurban tales.” Volume 92 in Aqueduct’s Conversation Pieces series.
Shepherd, Peng: All This and More
(HarperCollins/Morrow 9780063278974, $30, 512pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/09/2024)
Quasi-SF literary novel that lets readers choose different routes for the lives of the main characters. At 45, discontented play-it-safe Marsh gets on a popular show that uses quantum technology to let contestants revise their pasts and change their present lives.
Thanki, Asha: A Thousand Times Before
(Penguin Random House/Viking 9780593654644, $29, 368pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 07/09/2024)
Queer literary speculative novel. Family saga about women who have a tapestry that lets them relive the memories of the women before them. A first novel.
Tingle, Chuck: Bury Your Gays
(Tor/Nightfire 9781250874658, $26.99, 297pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/09/2024)
Horror novel about the entertainment industry and AI. Misha Byrne is a gay screenwriter trying to make the sort of shows he wanted to see as a boy, but after he refuses to kill off his lesbian lead characters, he starts having terrifying encounters with monsters from his own movies.
van den Berg, Laura: State of Paradise
(Macmillan/Farrar, Straus, Giroux 9780374612207, $27, 224pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 07/09/2024)
Thriller novel of a woman who returns to her Florida hometown where things have gotten weird: her mother’s cult, her sister’s constant immersion in virtual reality, missing citizens, ominous cats, and more.
Wilson, F. Paul: The Upwelling
(Crossroad Press/Macabre Ink 9781637890318, $14.99, 394pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 07/09/2024)
Horror novel, book one of a series: The Hidden. Pam Sirman learns there were things she didn’t know about her late husband when his body won’t burn in cremation, and then an apocalyptic Upwelling swallows Atlantic City and its inhabitants.
