The Last House on Needles Street by Catriona Ward
Release Date: Early May
Catriona Ward is one of my favourite of the new crop of horror writers, and with this new novel, she affirms that she really is capable of creating truly disturbing and clever narratives. In this one, we meet Ted, an elderly man whose thoughts and perceptions certainly cannot be trusted. He lives in a ramshackle shed at the end of a street, his life only perked up by visits from his equally peculiar daughter and the loving care of his cat – who also gets to be a narrator by the way. The disappearance of a girl years ago left Ted a prime suspect, and although nothing was ever proven there are still some who think he was responsible. As the story unfolds and the sister of the missing girl does her own investigations, we hear from Ted, his daughter Lauren, and the cat and find out just what is going on at the last house on Needless Street, and it’s something you couldn’t possibly have guessed. Riveting new horror.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Release Date: Early May
Andy Weir’s The Martian was a blockbuster best seller. His second book, Artemis, didn’t quite find the same response with readers so I would understand if people were a little cautious when looking at this one. However, let me assure you that Project Hail Mary is exactly what we expect from Andy Weir. It has all the wonderful science, characterisation, humour and inventiveness of The Martian, but turned up to 11. We’re off earth, light years from home and facing a threat that could destroy the entirety of the human race. The only thing between us and oblivion is Ryland Grace – school teacher, scientist and the only surviving crew member on a ship thrown into deep space, desperately searching for a way to save the sun from dying. It’s a lot to take in but Andy Weir does it masterfully and there are a few twists in this that even big fans of The Martian won’t see coming. This is an absolute corker.
Monkey King: Journey to the West by Wu Ch’eng-en
Release Date: Mid May
In the 1980s, a television series based on Wu Ch’eng-en’s Journey to the West, better known as Monkey, was a phenomenon on Australian television. I, like millions of other kids, kicked the head off a broom and spun it around in mimicry of Monkey, the titular character. However, what about the story that this is all based on? Well, this month you get to relive the glory of your childhood and also find out about the story at the very core of the Monkey TV series, and it’s more complex than we remember. It’s one of allegory, of exploration and bureaucracy, of China at the time, of magic, mysticism and spirituality. It is also one of the great folk tales of the region and regularly compared to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. I am very much looking forward to getting to grips with Monkey, Tripitaka, Pigsy and Sandy and perhaps finding out if they ever found their way to Gandhara and brought the sutras back.
The Girl and the Mountain by Mark Lawrence
Release Date: Early May
This is the second book in the Book of the Ice series, which is set in the same world as the Book of the Ancestor trilogy, that being Red Sister, Grey Sister and Holy Sister. We return to the ice tribes who have been ruled for generations by the priests of Black Rock mountain, however that is soon perhaps to change. A young girl named Yaz has done the unthinkable and escaped from the Pit of the Missing. In the first book, she descended deep into the earth and made her way through, losing friends and learning things about herself. In this book, she will have to climb the mountain to challenge the priests’ inner sanctum. This is a terrific fantasy series. You absolutely have to have read the first book, and for people who did, the tiny spoiler that I am prepared to give you is that in this book we learn where in the timeline of the Book of the Ancestor this story occurs. Lawrence’s books are consistently good and this is no exception.
The Trouble with Peace by Joe Abercrombie
Release Date: Mid May
I am sure I talked about this at length when the trade paperback came out last year. Nevertheless, a new Joe Abercrombie book, even if it is just a change in format, is always worth talking about. This is the second in his new Age of Madness series, set in the same world as his First Law trilogy, and punches things up a notch. In fact, the first kick in the guts moment in terms of the narrative, hits at about page 20 and it just doesn’t let up. Savine dan Glokta, Rikke and Prince Orso all push their personal agendas beyond what you would expect as safe, with all sorts of disastrous and unexpected results. This really is one of the most exciting and intense fantasy series on the market at the moment. If you are a dark fantasy reader or you just like stuff that is powerful and relentless, you will absolutely want to get on board with this. If you are a fan who has read book one, you need book two. Trust me. Wisdom of Crowds, book three in the series, is due in September.
The Gulp by Alan Baxter
Release Date: Early May
Officially the isolated Australian harbour town is called Gulpepper, though the locals just call it The Gulp. It doesn’t get a lot of visitors, which is good because it’s not like other towns. Things happen there, strange and sometimes terrible things. The locals are used to it, sometimes even part of it. It’s a town where strangers disappear or worse. This collection features five different encounters with The Gulp, from the truck driver who thinks the stories he’s heard are lies till he gets there to teenage siblings whose attempt to conceal the death of their mother goes horribly awry. A fisherman makes the strangest catch of his life, a drug courier finds a unique way to escape the consequences of a lost shipment and some backpackers accept an offer to party with a band who take the motto live hard and die young very seriously. Great homegrown horror which is part of our local and small press initiative. Furthermore all our copies are signed by the author.
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
Release Date: Mid May
This is the sequel to the Hugo Award-winning book A Memory Called Empire and returns to the universe of the Teixcalaanli empire and the stationers reuniting Mahit Dzmare, station ambassador and Three Seagrass from the Teixcalaanli empire. In the aftermath of the previous book, information that ships were being mysteriously destroyed at the edge of the galaxy was traded by the stationers to the Teixcalaanli in return for peace, Now, we get to find out exactly what that is all about. What are these aliens and what is their purpose and plan? A Teixcalaanli fleet is dispatched to find out, and after a disastrous first encounter seek help from the Information Ministry to decipher the alien transmissions. Three Seagrass and Mahit are that help, but the aliens are far more incomprehensible and dangerous than anyone imagined. If alien invasion weren’t enough, Mahit has her own problems with her doubled Imago that never really synched properly and a growing discrepancy between her thoughts and the two other voices in her head. This is a terrific sequel with all the complexity and intrigue of the first book, but it also takes the universe in a whole new direction. An absolute must for fans of A Memory Called Empire.
Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Release Date: Mid May
This is the first in a new series set in a fantasy world inspired by pre-colonial west Africa. Danso is a scholar, well respected and on the cusp of achieving success and acclaim within the city of Bassa. However he is also obsessed with forbidden knowledge. Most particularly about life outside the city and the various magics that have been outlawed. The ruling families stifle all inquiry, and immigrants are sworn to secrecy about their homelands and native customs. When Danso encounters a warrior who possesses these hidden magics, he starts his own personal journey that reveals the dark truth behind the city of Bassa, its origins and its true purpose. The first in an epic fantasy series that I am sure will be very popular. There’s been controversy due to the fact that there are certain characters that are referred to as yellow skins which some readers have misinterpreted as being in reference to Asians, when in fact in African tradition, those who suffer from albinism are often described as ‘yellow’, which is the context the book is using since everyone in the book is African. Since the author has had to go to some considerable trouble to clear this up I thought I’d include it here. Confusion aside, this looks to be a really interesting new fantasy series.
The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird
Release Date: Early May
This has a somewhat unfortunate story behind it in that the author was working on the final draft of this just as the first stirrings of COVID began to hit the world. What was always intended to be a pandemic thriller novel turned out to be oddly relevant to the real world. In this case however, the plague affects only men, killing 90%. The body of the book follows a series of characters as they each deal with the results of this new pandemic in different ways. We also see the various national and international processes that governments engage in at first to deny the plague and then to deal with it by developing vaccines and treatment. It is interesting to compare what happens in the book to what really happened in terms of how COVD spread over the world and the emotional journeys of the characters to the stories we’ve heard from all over the world. Medically, it is a bit more science fiction than science but nevertheless quite a fun read if you like pandemic /disaster fiction even though it might be too close to home for some people.