Friday, November 1, 2019

New Books Spotlight

Welcome to another edition of the New Books Spotlight, where each month or so we curate a selection of 6 new and forthcoming books we find notable, interesting, and intriguing. It gives us the opportunity to shine a brief spotlight on some stuff we're itching to get our hands on.

What are you looking forward to? Anything you want to argue with us about? Is there something we should consider spotlighting in the future? Let us know in the comments!



Cornell, Paul. The Lights Go Out in Lychford [Tor.com Publishing]
Publisher's Description
Be careful what you wish for... 

Paul Cornell's The Lights Go Out in Lychford continues the award-nominated Witches of Lychford series, described by Seanan McGuire as "Beautifully written, perfectly cruel and ultimately kind." 

The borders of Lychford are crumbling. Other realities threaten to seep into the otherwise quiet village, and the resident wise woman is struggling to remain wise. The local magic shop owner and the local priest are having troubles of their own.

And a mysterious stranger is on hand to offer a solution to everyone's problems. No cost, no strings (she says).

But as everyone knows, free wishes from strangers rarely come without a price . . . 
Why We Want It: The first three novellas in Paul Cornell's Lychford were delightful and I'm thrilled to see a fourth.



Morgenstern, Erin. The Starless Sea [Random House]
Publisher's Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world—a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea. 

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues—a bee, a key, and a sword—that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth.
What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians—it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose—in both the mysterious book and in his own life. 
Why We Want It: The Night Circus was a fantastic debut and we were eager for another book from Erin Morgenstern. We didn't expect having to wait eight years, but we don't have to wait any longer. If The Starless Sea is even half as good as The Night Circus, we're in for a treat.



Roanhorse, Rebecca. Star Wars: Resistance Reborn [Del Rey]
Publisher's Description
In this pivotal prequel to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the heroes of the Resistance—Poe Dameron, General Leia Organa, Rey, and Finn—must fight back from the edge of oblivion.

The Resistance is in ruins. In the wake of their harrowing escape from Crait, what was once an army has been reduced to a handful of wounded heroes. Finn, Poe, Rey, Rose, Chewbacca, Leia Organa—their names are famous among the oppressed worlds they fight to liberate. But names can only get you so far, and Leia’s last desperate call for aid has gone unanswered.

From the jungles of Ryloth to the shipyards of Corellia, the shadow of the First Order looms large, and those with the bravery to face the darkness are scattered and isolated. If hope is to survive, the Resistance must journey throughout the galaxy, seeking out more leaders—including those who, in days gone by, helped a nascent rebellion topple an empire. Battles will be fought, alliances will be forged, and the Resistance will be reborn.
Why We Want It: Did you know that Rebecca Roanhorse was writing a Star Wars novel? I sure didn't! I've been behind on reading Star Wars novels ever since the Expanded Universe was scrapped and I just haven't managed to come back. Rebecca Roanhorse will get me back.



Roberson, Jennifer. Life and Limb [DAW]
Publisher's Description
A biker and a cowboy must stop the apocalypse in the first book of the Blood and Bone modern western fantasy series. 

His voice was rich, a much loved baritone, as he handed his seven-year-old grandson a gun. 

“It’s time we had a talk, you and I. You won’t remember it, but you need to know it, and one day, when it’s time, I’ll call it up in you. You’ll know who you are, and what you’re intended to do. You’ll be a soldier, boy. Sealed to it. Life and limb, blood and bone. Not a soldier like others are, for it’s not the kind of war most people fight on earth. But because we’re not ‘most people,’ you and I, it will be far more important. The fate of the world will hinge upon it.” 

Now no longer that wide-eyed child, Gabe is fresh out of prison, a leather-clad biker answering Grandaddy’s peremptory summons to, of all places, a cowboy bar in Northern Arizona. He is about to find out just how different he is from “most people”—and to meet the stranger with whom he will be sealed: life and limb, blood and bone, conscripted to fight an unholy war unlike any other.

For the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.

When he does.

And Gabe, thrown into the unlikely company of a country-music-loving rodeo cowboy from West Texas, an ancient Celtic goddess of war, an African Orisha who sings volcanoes awake, a Chinese goddess of mercy, Nephilim, and Grigori, finds himself fighting a battle he was bred for, but wants no part of.
Why We Want It: I loved Roberson's Cheysuli novels, not to mention her collaboration with Kate Elliott and Melanie Rawn (The Golden Key), but after I bounced off of the first Karavans novels I've been looking for a new entry point back into Roberson. I think Life and Limb just might be it.


Solomon, Rivers. The Deep [Saga]
Publisher's Description
The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society—and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future in this brilliantly imaginative novella inspired by the Hugo Award–nominated song “The Deep” from Daveed Diggs’s rap group clipping 

Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.

Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.

Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.

Inspired by a song produced by the rap group Clipping for the This American Life episode “We Are In The Future,” The Deep is vividly original and uniquely affecting. 
Why We Want It: This is a major, important novella. After An Unkindness of Ghosts, whatever Rivers Solomon decided to write next was something to take notice of. Their adaptation of Clipping's Hugo Award finalist song has been at the top of our list as soon as it was announced and it lives up to the hype.


Watts, Peter. Peter Watts Is an Angry Sentient Tumor [Tachyon]
Publisher's Description
Which of the following is true?
  • Peter Watts is banned from the U.S. 
  • Watts almost died from flesh-eating bacteria. 
  • A schizophrenic man living in Watts’s backyard almost set the house on fire. 
  • Watts was raised by Baptists who really sucked at giving presents. 
  • Peter Watts said to read this book. Or else.
In these unpredictable essays and revenge fantasies, Peter Watts — Hugo Award-winning author, former marine biologist, and angry sentient tumor — is the savage dystopian optimist whom you can’t look away from. Even when you probably should. 
Why We Want It: The title. It's really just the title.



POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 3x Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan.