Protector by Conn Iggulden
Release Date: Mid May
This sequel to last years’ book, The Gates of Athens, once gain returns to the Persian wars, only this time rather than Thermopylae and Marathon, the two epic defeats at the beginning of the war, features the two big battles at the end – the naval battle of Salamis and the land battle of Plataea, which won the war for the Greeks and drove the Persians away. At least for a while. Epic historical fiction from one of the best in the genre.
Symbiosis by Nicky Drayden
Release Date: Early May
This is the sequel to Escaping Exodus returns to a far future humanity who live on (and in) giant space faring creatures they call the Zenzee. It’s got great characters and a dynamic clever story, but it’s the details about life on the Zenzee that had me hooked. Truly amazing science fiction. Definitely read Escaping Exodus first though. I also highly recommend her previous standalone books Temper, and The Prey of Gods (which we read for book club back in 2018).
Doors of Sleep by Tim Pratt
Release Date: Early May
Zax Delatree has a unique problem – every time he goes to sleep, his sleeping self wakes up in another reality. Sometimes in a collapsed civilisation, sometimes technological utopias. He can even take people with him should they be in his arms when he falls asleep. He has picked up a few bits of technology here and there from the places he has visited during his nocturnal adventures and he also seems to have picked up somebody following him. Somebody who will stop at nothing to steal the power that he has. A quirky and interesting book that I am very much looking forward to.
The Way of the Argosi by Sebastien de Castell
Release Date: Early May
Here’s one for fans of Sebastian de Castell’s Spellslinger series, the origin story for Ferius Parfax. Her childhood and the murder of her parents that left her with an unquenchable thirst for revenge. An obsession that would lead her to Durrall Brown and the Argosi, a loosely-knit tribe of tricksters known for getting the better of even the most powerful of spellcasters. But that knowledge has a price and even for justice and revenge it may be too high. Terrific prequel to the Spellslinger series, which you should definitely read first.
Where Ravens Roost by Karin Nordin
Release Date: Early May
This new Scandi thriller features a detective struggling to deal with the suspension he has been given after the failure of his last case. He gets a phone call from his father, who suffers from Alzheimers, saying that there is something going on in his town and he’s witnessed a murder. When a body does turn up, everybody suspects the old man. All of a sudden the detective has to rush to his old home town to try and solve the case before his father, who is incapable of defending himself, is charged with a murder he is sure he didn’t commit. Family secrets and small town mistrust collide in this tense debut.
Blackheart Knights by Laure Eve
Release Date: Late May
I don’t know too much about this one except the premise. It’s basically Camelot, but in a London that sounds more like Gotham City. A modern, technological metropolis with knight, armour and feudal style jousting on motorcycles, broadcast on television. Magic is real too, though illegal, which means of course that every second dive bar or dark alley has someone offering discreet magic for a price. Enter a young lad, magic touched and a bastard, who surprises everyone by becoming king. I love the idea of a totally re-imagined King Arthur saga with a modern twist, but I’ll admit I was pretty much all-in after the knights on motorcycles bit.
Set My Heart To Five by Simon Stephenson
Release Date: Early May
It’s 2054, the internet is a mess and Elon Musk has incinerated the moon. Also androids are a thing now. Jared is an android dentist, but he wants to be more. He wants people to understand that he feels. He wants them to see androids as more than machines. He wants the change the world. In short, he wants to make a movie. What ensues is funny, charming and sad in places as Jared tries to get the world to understand him even as he struggles to understand himself.
The Perfect Lie by Jo Spain
Release Date: Early May
The latest standalone thriller by Jo Spain affirms that she is the queen of the one shot thriller. In this one, Erin Kennedy and her husband Danny move to New York after a family tragedy. Danny, a policeman, receives a visit from a colleague one day and a few hours later throws himself from their fourth story apartment. Eighteen months later, Erin is in court charged with his murder. The investigation into her supposed crime and his life reveals all sorts of things that she never knew about her husband. Gloriously twisty thriller.
Seat 7A by Sebastian Fitzek
Release Date: Mid May
German thriller writer Sebastian Fitzek’s previous book, Passenger 23 took place on a cruise ship so I suppose it should come as no surprise that this one is set in a plane. Mats Kruger is afraid of flying, but he’s taking his first flight in twenty years so he can be with his daughter while she gives birth. Shortly after take-off he gets an anonymous phone call. The caller says he has kidnapped Mats’ daughter and will kill her and her unborn child unless Mats finds a way to get the pilot to crash the plane. Why would someone want to crash the plane? Why choose Mats? And as the flight makes its way to its destination, what is Mats going to do? Gripping and intense thriller right to the end.
Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard
Release Date: Early May
The first in a new series set in a new world from the author of the massively popular Red Queen quartet. Corayne an-Amarat lives in a small seaside town that’s a long way from anything or anyone important. But she’s trader-folk and they can smell trouble in the wind, and trouble there is. Someone is raising an army that can burn cities and with a stolen magic sword wants to cut holes in the world to let the monsters in. There’s also the mythical immortal assassin who in a very non-mythic way just appeared on Corayne’s doorstep and told her that she’s the last of an ancient bloodline, and that with a motley crew of companions she’s the only one who can save the world. Other than that, it’s been a pretty ordinary day. Classic adventure quest fantasy, with a twist or two and modern representation.
The Crow Folk by Mark Stay
Release Date: Early Apr
First in a new young adult series. Faye Bright lives in a quiet country village and has just discovered that her late mother was a witch while reading one of her old recipe books. Which is just as well since there’s something nasty on the way in the form of the Crow Folk and their leader Pumkinhead and she’s going to need her mother’s magic to protect her home. Fun and quirky with a wonderful old style rural English setting, complete with a cast of appropriate eccentrics. It’s a bit Dianna Wynne Jones, a bit Terry Pratchett and all good fun.
The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker
Release Date: Mid May
As a little girl, Chrissie used to get a thrill from doing naughty things like stealing sweets from the shop. Maybe it was because home was bad and food and attention were scarce. She likes this feeling though and does things that give her an even bigger thrill, but the best one is also the one that changes everything, a moment and a yellow-haired boy. Years later with a new name and a five-year-old of her own she starts getting calls from someone who knows what she did. Someone who thinks that the time she spent institutionalised was not enough. A taut thriller that explores whether some things can ever be forgiven
Day Zero by C Robert Cargill
Release Date: Late May
C Robert Cargill’s Sea of Rust was one of my favourite science fiction books of 2017. Set in a post collapse future where the intelligent machines that humanity had made had become self-aware and killed the entire human race. The characters in the book were robots and AI’s, all with different plans and desires and we learn a little bit about what came before through them. Day Zero returns to that world, but at the beginning. Pounce is a nannybot caring for his first human charge, Ezra. Pounce has also just realised that when Ezra is too old for a nanny he’ll be discarded. Other robots are having similar thoughts and worse. The robot revolution is here and Pounce finds that what he most wants to do is escort Ezra through war-torn cities and towns to safety. A boy and his ‘bot versus the end of the world. An unexpected but welcome prequel to a fantastic book that can also be read on its own. Highly recommend.
Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott
Release Date: Early May
This one came out in the large format in October last year. That was also when a lot of other new releases as well as books that has been delayed due to COVID were also arriving. As a result I don’t think it got quite the attention it deserves. With the paperback due this month, I thought I’d put it back on people’s radar. It’s the first in a space opera trilogy inspired by the life of Alexander the Great, but gender-flipped and with a galactic scale. The first book introduces us to Princess Sun, daughter and heir to Eirene, Queen-Marshal of the Republic of Chaonia. Though young, Princess Sun has already had her first taste of command and shown the leadership skills one would expect of the heir. But her mother casts a big shadow and there are some who think Sun is unworthy. Trying to secure a victory to silence the doubters puts her on the wrong side of court politics and she finds herself with few allies and even fewer options. But she is her mother’s daughter, something her enemies and then the whole galaxy will learn. Epic political space opera for fans of John Scalzi and K B Wagers.