Adjustment Day by Chuck Palahniuk
Release Date: Mid July
Chuck‘s thing is to be transgressive, so as usual this one has wildly mixed reviews. The best way to describe this is as Tyler Durden’s Project Mayhem from Fight Club relaunched as a cultural and political movement with the aim of pushing the ideas driving contemporary American society to their most extreme and absurd and then making them real. Satire, commentary or an attempt to troll every opinion and viewpoint? Who knows, welcome the disunited states.
The Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada
Release Date: Late June
This odd, short book takes the real crisis of Japan’s aging population and flips it to create a near future where the quasi-immortal elderly desperately search for a cure to the syndrome that causes a malaise and frailty in those few children who are born. A story about hope for the future told in an unexpected way.
The Annotated Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Release Date: Mid July
It turns out that Raymond Chandler‘s 1939 hard-boiled crime classic The Big Sleep is even cooler than you think. This edition is accompanied by annotations that not only locates the story in the context of the time, but also offers some insight for modern readers into how it came to be representative of an entire genre of crime writing and is still popular nearly eighty years later.
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Release Date: Mid July
This is a stand-alone fantasy novel like her last book Uprooted, and is also folklore themed. This time it’s a re-imagining of Rumplestiltskin blended with Jewish custom and set in the Russia of the Tsars. This book unravels the themes of the original and reweaves them into something new and wonderful. If you liked Uprooted, you’ll love this one too.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guangzhong
Release Date: Late July
Written in the 14th century and arguably the most famous historical fiction series in China, this is a story of nobles, battles and politics that mixes legend and history, spans a hundred years and usually comes in four hefty volumes. This is an abridged and newly translated edition that brings it down to a single 600-ish page book. It’s a great way the get the feel and the gist of the work and to find out if you’re up for the whole thing.
Provenance by Ann Leckie
Release Date: Mid July
The paperback release of last years’ title. A return to the big-universe science fiction setting of the Ancillary series, with wholly new characters and set in a region of human space that is controlled by a human society completely different to the Radch Empire. It’s a stand-alone book, and while there are a few comments that allude to the events of the Ancillary trilogy, you could read this without having read them (though you should, they’re awesome!).
Harry Potter – 20th Anniversary Edition
Release Date: Late June
The second of the 20th Anniversary editions is here, and like The Philosophers Stone, is being offered in house design editions. While the first one was black, these are in house colours but otherwise match. I think it’s safe to say they’re going to be alternating to create a house-themed line of books on your shelf. These images are from the hardcover editions.
Clockwork City by Paul Crilley
Release Date: Mid July
In this sequel to Poison City, South African cop/magician Gideon Tau is back to hunting for the man who killed his daughter. This time his search will take him to London and whole new group of people and not-people for him to start fights with. Zombie boss, check. Demonic, alcoholic dog-familiar, check. War with the Fae, probably. A very good, extremely dark urban fantasy series with the bleakest of gallows humour. Definitely read Poison City first though.
The Anomaly by Michael Rutger
Release Date: Late June
New suspense thriller where the crew of a web-based series called The Anomaly Files are investigating stories of an ancient secret cave in the Grand Canyon. The answer to is there a mysterious…. is generally no, but this time it seems to be very real and very deadly. A Michael Crichton style thriller with a modern X-Files kind of feel.
Amazons by John Man
Release Date: Early July
This is a non-fiction book that examines the possible historical origins for the Amazons of classical mythology, not what we usually carry but fascinating for folklore fans.