The
Two Lost Mountains by
Matthew Reilly
Release Date: Early June
This month we are getting the paperback version of Matthew Reilly’s
latest book, but since it’s not exactly new and I’m sure that fans have already
been paying attention to the release date, I’ll take the opportunity to use
this space for a few other bits of Matthew
Reilly-related news. The final book in the series, One Impossible Labyrinth,
has been announced for October this year, so we will finally get what I expect
to be a stunning last reveal and ending. Furthermore, in support of that,
Macmillan have been re-releasing some of the earlier books in hardcover. We
currently have Seven
Ancient Wonders in a hardcover edition, and that’s going for
the paperback price $19.99, while stocks last. I am not sure if they are
intending to do the rest of the series in $20 hardcovers to match the final one
due in October, but I certainly hope so, and it’s a great opportunity for fans
to get a beautiful matching hardcover set at what is basically a bargain price.
The
Heap by Sean Adams
Release Date: Early June
The Heap
used to be a massive five hundred story high-rise housing complex before the
collapse. Not a market collapse, but a physical one that left a mountain of
rubble and many dead or homeless. Orville is one of those living in the shadow
of The Heap and ekes out a miserable life removing debris and bodies from it.
But most of all he’s trying to get to his brother Bernard, who was a famous DJ,
well known throughout the complex and who was in The Heap when it collapsed. He
knows Bernard is still alive because from somewhere underneath all that rubble
he’s still broadcasting, and Orville calls in to talk to him on his radio show.
Others listen too, and the show becomes a phenomenon. Advertisers approach
Orville, but when he rebuffs them they push back in ways that are as bizarre
and they are unexpected. This is a funny and very clever satire of the modern
world, touching everything from consumerism to communication, urban life and
the search for what’s really important.
The
April Dead by Alan Parks
Release Date: Mid June
This is the fourth in an ongoing series of crime thrillers set in 1970s
Glasgow. This time, Detective Harry McCoy is dealing with bombs, gangs and
wayward American sailors. This is a wonderfully gritty series and definitely
one for crime fans who enjoy a proper police procedural with a detective who
has no recourse to mobile phones, DNA, satellites or any modern technology
beyond the judicious use of a phone book during interrogations – all with
plausible deniability of course. A new release, but definitely old school.
Terrific fun.
Version
Zero by David Yoon
Release Date: Early June
Near future science fiction thriller where Max, an employee of a global social
media company stumbles across something sinister about the operation (I’m not
sure what could be more sinister than social media companies advertised activities,
but there you go). After being fired for asking questions he shouldn’t, Max
teams up with some friends to form Version Zero. Their goal? To break the
internet and replace with something better and kinder. Satire, social and
technological commentary and thriller all in one? I don’t mind if I do.
The
Shadow in the Glass by
Joanna Harwood
Release Date: Early June
Victorian era re-imagining of Cinderella,
where the protagonist ‘Ella’ has a lecherous stepfather rather than an evil
stepmother. Overworked servant status is the lot of Cinderellas everywhere and
this is no exception, but Ella takes some small comfort from sneaking into the
library and taking refuge in books. Late one night a fairy godmother appears
and offers her seven wishes, though each comes with a price. At this point I
should mention that this isn’t a sweet retelling and it’s not for kids. This
version has people doing the terrible things we know they do, particularly to
servants and the powerless. Joanna
Harwood has put the Grimm
back into the tale and gives Ellla, the Fairy Godmother and the wishes an
almost Faustian feel. One for fans of Gothic fiction, but there are abuse
elements that some could find confronting. I’d say that despite the folklore
connection, this is more for dark fiction fans.
Marion
Lane and the Midnight Murder by T A Millberg
Release Date: Mid May
This is the first in an unusual new crime series set in a post WW2 London that
is mostly familiar, but with one rather striking addition. Beneath the streets
of the city, within its labyrinthine tunnels and long abandoned underground
rooms is Miss Brickett’s detective agency. Using the space not only as their
residence, office and for training their many operatives, the agency also takes
advantage of their unique access to the city to help solve their cases. Marion
Lane is one of these operatives, but she’s about to break all the rules to
solve a murder that her mentor has been falsely arrested for. Miss Brickett’s
isn’t the only secret hiding under London’s streets, and to save her mentor’s
life Marion is going to have to risk her own. This is a bit steampunk, a bit
period crime and with a touch of urban fantasy. One for fans of Natasha Pully and Genevieve Cogman.
Untouched
by Human Hands by Robert Sheckley
Release Date: Early June
I have made quite a lot fuss about the Gollanz SF Masterworks range over the
last few years, mostly because I think it’s a great idea and a chance for folks
to read some classic science fiction. Recently Penguin books decided to do
their own specialty science fiction imprint with some of the classics they have
the rights to being reissued with very cool minimalist covers. The latest
release in that imprint is Robert
Sheckley’s Untouched by Human Hands. This is a 1954 short story
collection believed by many to represent his best work. If you are a fan of the
golden age of science fiction and the origins of so many of the science fiction
tropes and ideas we take for granted, Robert
Sheckley is a very good place to start, and this collection is
a very good place to start with Sheckley.
Thread Needle by Cari Thomas
Release Date: Early June
This is the first in a new series that mixes a few familiar genre elements. It’s set in a modern day London where magic is real, but considered dangerous. Those with the potential for magic, like Anna, will have that power locked away when she is in their teens by a Binder. This is best for everyone, as Anna would agree. After all, it was magic that killed her parents and left her in the care of her aunt. The Anna meets Effie and Attis, two young people who are not afraid of their magic and are part of a whole secret group who embrace it, she begins to wonder if her whole society may be based on lie. Magic, adventure, secrets, first love and finding your voice are all themes here, and while the book has not been tagged as young adult, it’s a good fit for that market. I’ve also got some copies of the review edition to give away the first folks who, having read this bit, come and claim them.
The
Deep by Alma Katsu
Release Date: Mid June
This is an atmospheric thriller set against perhaps the most famous shipping
disaster in history, the sinking of the Titanic. Doomed from the outset, the
Titanic is plagued from its launch by mysterious deaths and disappearances. One
of those convinced that something very peculiar is going on is maid Anne
Hebbley. Years later, having survived the sinking Anne is now a nurse aboard
the Britannic, the Titanic’s sister ship. Then she begins to notice the same
mysterious events that led up to the Titanic’s demise are happening again.
Creepy thriller of dark pacts, revenge and the things that live in the deep.
New
Horizons – The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction
Release Date: Early June
Originally scheduled for last year, this collection was one of those that fell
foul of the global pandemic, but I am very glad to see that it has made its way
to publication and hopefully by the end of the month will be on our shelves.
This is a collection 28 stories by authors from the South Asian subcontinent
and features a mixture of contemporary science fiction and translations of
classical pieces for a more modern audience. It’s an interesting collection,
quite varied in style and subject but certainly worth checking out if you are
looking for something a little bit different in your science fiction reading.
Rabbits by Terry
Miles
Release Date: Early June
This bizarre and surreal thriller based on the podcast of the same name by Public Radio Alliance.
In dark conspiracy places where the secrets sometimes come out to play some say
there is a game, a deadly, ancient game, where the stakes are life or death and
the prizes wealth, fame or even immortality. They call it Rabbits, those few
who know about it. Supposedly ancient, it’s been played ten times before with
an eleventh iteration soon to begin. K is has been obsessed with Rabbits since
he first heard about it, but never found confirmation or any way in till
approached by a reclusive billionaire who is rumoured to have once been a
player. Suddenly K has his wish and as the body count grows he’ll realise that
the most outrageous claims about Rabbits barely scratched the surface. Because
it’s not only his life at stake, but the entire world as well. It’s a bit X-Files & Black Mirror, but
with some Jeff
VanderMeer and Mark
Danielewski. One for the weirdies.
Artifact
Space by Miles Cameron
Release Date: Late June
Regulars may recognise Miles
Cameron because of his popular Traitor Son and MastersandMages fantasy series
or even for the very cool historical fiction he writes as Christian Cameron.
This new one is something different, a standalone science fiction novel. Marca
Nbaro has always wanted to escape her life and get into space. Work, study,
sacrifice and a little deception get her aboard one of the Greatships., the
lifeblood of human space. With crews the size of city populations and vast
cargo capacity the Greatships move everything between human worlds and also
conduct trade with aliens. Having achieved it Marca discovers that her ambition
may end up costing her more than she thought she because someone or something
is targeting Greatships. Something new and different from a store favourite.
Blacktongue
Thief by Christopher Beuhlman
Release Date: Early June
First in a new fantasy series that pretty much had me from the first page.
Kinch is an elf and a thief, though the status of his folk has fallen a great
deal since ancient times and he’s in debt to the Takers Guild. That’s why he’s
going to tag along with a stoic warrior woman as she travels across a land
still reeling from the recent goblin wars, to the edge of human territory and a
city recently invaded by giants. Along the way they’ll pick up a sorceress, a
blind cat (it’s complicated) and Kinch will learn that just about everything he
knows about the world is wrong. A must for fans of Scott Lynch and Peter McLean, but
with lots more magic, krakens, enchanted tattoos and giant man-sized killer
crows. The only negative is that I don’t have a date for book two.
The
Ninth Metal by Benjamin Percy
Release Date: Early June
This is the first in a new series that mixes science fiction, thriller and
super-hero elements. It begins with a comet that narrowly misses the Earth,
much to everyone’s relief. In the following months, as the planet passes
through the debris left in the comet’s wake, a devastating meteor shower
strikes the American midwest. What it leaves behind is a metal previously
unknown, that has incredible properties that soon make it the most sought after
and valuable thing in the world. The uses of the metal in industry alone make
it worth killing for, but in a secret government base there are experiments
that go way beyond free energy and into the realm of flesh. Fun execution of an
interesting premise, I look forward to seeing how it develops.
Super-State by Brian
Aldiss
Release Date: Early June
This satire and critique of the modern world was written in 2002 and is set in
a few generations in the future, in a ‘Europe’ that is a massive state spanning
much of the world. There are a swathe of environmental disasters due to climate
change, but there are also androids to do the manual labour, so it’s not all
bad. There’s just been a successful mission to land people on one of Jupiter’s
moons, so that’s progress isn’t it? Told from a variety of perspectives, this
is a journey through the future that Aldiss
uses to make some observations on the present that intervening decades have
only made more apt.
Feathertide by Beth
Cartwright
Release Date: Early June
This is one for fans of Erin
Morgenstern and Naomi
Novik. Born in a brothel and covered in feathers, Marea was
raised in seclusion. On her eighteenth birthday she sets out to find the father
she never knew who according to her mother, ‘arrived on a mist and worshipped
the sky’. The path leads to the City of Murmurs, populated by mermaids and
magic. There she’ll find truth and lies, loss and hope and perhaps even
herself. Charming standalone fantasy / folklore fusion.
The
Colours of Death by Patricia Marques
Release Date: Late June
A crime novel set in modern day Lisbon, but with the extra element of ‘The
Gifted’, a small percentage of the population who are telepathic. The Gifted
are treated with suspicion and prejudice, and Inspector Isabel Ries has good
reason to think things might get even worse. Her current case is one where a
high profile man seems to have committed suicide, but witnesses seem to think
he was under some duress or coercion. It looks like a Gifted killer is stalking
the city and in catching him Isabel will not only be risking her life, but her
most guarded secret as well. Isabel is one of the gifted too. Fun thriller with
a twist.
This
Fragile Earth by Susannah Wise
Release Date: Mid June
There’s a bit of a morbid fascination in post collapse fiction that lends
itself to a ‘what would you do moment’. This one, set in a London of the not
too distant future begins with the electricity going out, followed by the water
and gas. London resident Signy decides the best thing to do is to get her
family to the small village she grew up in. With the survival of her family
paramount, she’s given little thought to what could have caused everything to
fail or what could be waiting for her outside the city. It’s an oversight that
will leave her running for her life. This is a post-collapse novel with a few
twists which will be fun for fans of the genre.