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!

Beukes, Lauren. Afterland [Mulholland Books]
Publisher's Description

Children of Men meets The Handmaid’s Tale in this “bowstring-taut, visceral, and incredibly timely” thriller about how far a mother will go to protect her son from a hostile world transformed by the absence of men (Cory Doctorow).

Most of the men are dead. Three years after the pandemic known as The Manfall, governments still hold and life continues — but a world run by women isn’t always a better place. 

Twelve-year-old Miles is one of the last boys alive, and his mother, Cole, will protect him at all costs. On the run after a horrific act of violence-and pursued by Cole’s own ruthless sister, Billie — all Cole wants is to raise her kid somewhere he won’t be preyed on as a reproductive resource or a sex object or a stand-in son. Someplace like home.

To get there, Cole and Miles must journey across a changed America in disguise as mother and daughter. From a military base in Seattle to a luxury bunker, from an anarchist commune in Salt Lake City to a roaming cult that’s all too ready to see Miles as the answer to their prayers, the two race to stay ahead at every step . . . even as Billie and her sinister crew draw closer.

A sharply feminist, high-stakes thriller from award-winning author Lauren Beukes, Afterland brilliantly blends psychological suspense, American noir, and science fiction into an adventure all its own — and perfect for our times.  

Why We Want It: I've been looking forward to Afterland since sometime in 2016 when Beukes mentioned it in her 6 Books Interview and it was still called Motherland. Beukes is a fantastically good writer and I love the concept. This is one of so many can't miss books for 2020.

Elliott, Kate. Unconquerable Sun [Tor]
Publisher's Description

GENDER-SPUN ALEXANDER THE GREAT ON AN INTERSTELLAR SCALE 

Princess Sun has finally come of age.

Growing up in the shadow of her mother, Eirene, has been no easy task. The legendary queen-marshal did what everyone thought impossible: expel the invaders and build Chaonia into a magnificent republic, one to be respected—and feared.

But the cutthroat ambassador corps and conniving noble houses have never ceased to scheme—and they have plans that need Sun to be removed as heir, or better yet, dead.

To survive, the princess must rely on her wits and companions: her biggest rival, her secret lover, and a dangerous prisoner of war.

Take the brilliance and cunning courage of Princess Leia—add in a dazzling futuristic setting where pop culture and propaganda are one and the same—and hold on tight:

This is the space opera you’ve been waiting for.  

Why We Want It: I'm behind on reading Kate Elliott and like many I had been hoping for a sequel to Black Wolves (my review), but since the vagaries of publishing (and sales) tells me that it isn't to be, I am absolutely thrilled to get Unconquerable Sun. Kate Elliot's return to science fiction and space opera? Yes, please.

Kowal, Mary Robinette. The Relentless Moon [Tor]
Publisher's Description

Mary Robinette Kowal continues her Hugo and Nebula award-winning Lady Astronaut series, following The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky, with The Relentless Moon. 

The Earth is coming to the boiling point as the climate disaster of the Meteor strike becomes more and more clear, but the political situation is already overheated. Riots and sabotage plague the space program. The IAC’s goal of getting as many people as possible off Earth before it becomes uninhabitable is being threatened.

Elma York is on her way to Mars, but the Moon colony is still being established. Her friend and fellow Lady Astronaut Nicole Wargin is thrilled to be one of those pioneer settlers, using her considerable flight and political skills to keep the program on track. But she is less happy that her husband, the Governor of Kansas, is considering a run for President.  

Why We Want It: I adored both The Calculating Stars (my review) and The Fated Sky (my review) and I welcome a return to the Lady Astronaut universe. I would say that this is a slight cheat because I've already read (and reviewed) The Relentless Moon, but we never promised that we wouldn't read some of the books we're excited about before we had a chance to recommend them. Mary Robinette Kowal is writing some of the best science fiction today with her Lady Astronaut series.

Kuhn, Sarah. Haunted Heroine [DAW]
Publisher's Description

The fourth book in the smart, snarky, and action-packed Heroine series follows Evie Tanaka, Aveda Jupiter, and Bea Tanaka as they combat a new supernatural threat. 

Everything in Evie Tanaka’s life is finally perfect. As a badass superheroine, she defends San Francisco from demon invasion on the regular. Her relationships with superhero partner Aveda Jupiter, little sister Bea, and hot, half-demon husband Nate have never been stronger. Maybe it’s possible for a grad school dropout turned put-upon personal assistant turned superhero to have it all?

Just when she thinks life can’t get any better, Evie learns she’s pregnant. Everyone around her is overjoyed…but Evie has major doubts about whether she’s cut out for motherhood. Before she can dwell on her dilemma, a local women’s college reports a string of mysterious “hauntings,” and Evie and Aveda are called in to investigate, going undercover as grad students during the creepiest time of the year: Halloween.

As she confronts terrifying ghosts and lives out a bizarre version of the grad school life she left behind, Evie can’t help but wonder about the road not taken: what would her life be like if she’d stayed here instead of pursuing superheroing with Aveda? And can an overwhelmed pregnant superhero truly have it all?

She’s about to find out.  

Why We Want It: I've only read the first of Kuhn's Heroine Complex novels, aptly titled Heroine Complex. but it was excellent and I've meant to read the second and third books. Now that we're on the verge of the fourth book it is well past time to push on and read them all.

Strahan, Jonathan. The Book of Dragons [Harper Voyager]
Publisher's Description

Here there be dragons . . . 

From China to Europe, Africa to North America, dragons have long captured our imagination in myth and legend. Whether they are rampaging beasts awaiting a brave hero to slay or benevolent sages who have much to teach humanity, dragons are intrinsically connected to stories of creation, adventure, and struggle beloved for generations.

Bringing together nearly thirty stories and poems from some of the greatest science fiction and fantasy writers working today— Garth Nix, Scott Lynch, R.F. Kuang, Ann Leckie & Rachel Swirsky, Daniel Abraham, Peter S. Beagle, Beth Cato, Zen Cho, C. S. E Cooney, Aliette de Bodard, Amal El-Mohtar, Kate Elliott, Theodora Goss, Ellen Klages, Ken Liu, Seanan Maguire, Patricia A McKillip, K. J. Parker, Kelly Robson, Michael Swanwick, Jo Walton, Elle Katharine White, Jane Yolen, Kelly Barnhill, Brooke Bolander, Sarah Gailey, and J. Y. Yang—and illustrated by award-nominated artist Rovina Cai with black-and-white line drawings specific to each entry throughout, this extraordinary collection vividly breathes fire and life into one of our most captivating and feared magical creatures as never before and is sure to become a treasured keepsake for fans of fantasy, science fiction, and fairy tales.  

Why We Want It: Jonathan Strahan is one of the best and most significant anthologists working today and when his name is on an anthology, I pay attention. While he has edited fantasy anthologies, most of his work has been with science fiction. This is a major anthology with notable writers. Can't miss this.

Wallace, Matt. Savage Legion [Saga]
Publisher's Description

They call them Savages. Brutal. Efficient. Expendable.

The empire relies on them. The greatest weapon they ever developed. Culled from the streets of their cities, they take the ones no one will miss and throw them, by the thousands, at the empire’s enemies. If they live, they fight again. If they die, well, there are always more.

Evie is not a Savage. She’s a warrior with a mission: to find the man she once loved, to find the man who holds the key to exposing the secret of the Savage Legion and ending the mass conscription of the empire’s poor and wretched.

But to find him, she must become one of them, to be marked in her blood, to fight in their wars, and to find her purpose. Evie will die a Savage if she has to, but not before showing the world who she really is, and what the Savage Legion can really do.  

Why We Want It: After loving the seven volume Sin du Jour series, I was in for whatever Matt Wallace had for us next. What's next is one of the most notable releases of the year. Wallace is such a smart and razor sharp writer that I can't wait to see how he tackles epic fantasy.


POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 4x Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan. He / Him.

Microreview [book] The Book of Dragons Edited by Jonathan Strahan

The Book of Dragons by Jonathan Strahan fuses together his strong and abiding editorial eye with the talents of numerous luminaries in fantasy, complimented by Rovina Cai’s stunning art.

Dragons. It had to be Dragons. After numerous anthologies, especially Science Fictional oriented ones such as his Infinity Project series, and his Best of the Year anthologies, in The Book of Dragons, Strahan turns his focus to a fantasy heavy focused anthology with the classic of all fantasy creatures, the Dragon.

The lineup of the anthology is a highlight of some of the best authors in SFF today, with the anthology featuring both poetry and stories.

“What Heroism Tells Us” (poem) Jane Yolen
“Matriculation” Elle Katherine White
"Hikaya Sri Bujang, or The Tale of the Naga Sage” Zen Cho
“Yuli” David Abraham
“A Whisper of Blue” Ken Liu
“Nidhog” (poem) Jo Walton
“Where the River Turns to Concrete” Brooke Bolander
“Habitat” KJ Parker
“Pox” Ellen Klages
“The Nine Curves River” R F Kuang
“Lucky’s Dragon” Kelly Barnhill
“I make myself a Dragon” (poem) Beth Cato
“The Exile” J Y Yang
“Except on Saturdays” Peter S Beagle
“La Vitesse” Kelly Robson
“A Final Knight to her Love and Foe” Amal El-Mohtar
“The Long Walk” Kate Elliott
“Cut me another quill, Mister Fitz” Garth Nix
“Hoard” Seanan McGuire
“The Worm of Lirr” (poem)  C.S.E. Cooney
“The Last Hunt” Aliette de Bodard
“We Continue” Ann Leckie and Rachel Swirsky
“Small Bird’s Plea” Todd McCaffrey
“The Dragons” (poem) Theodora Goss
“Dragon Slayer” Michael Swanwick
“Camouflage” Patricia McKillip
“We don’t talk about the dragon” Sarah Gailey
“Maybe Just Go Up there and talk to it” Scott Lynch
“A Nice Cuppa” (poem) Jane Yolen

The bracketing of the anthology, bringing us in and taking us out with a poem, really shows the commitment of the anthologist to making the poetry the equal to the fiction in the anthology. There has been a rising tendency toward this in some quarters of the SFF world, and this anthology lays claim to being part of that trend. My own experience with SFFnal poetry is limited. That said I enjoyed the poetry on offer here.

As far as the stories, go, as always with an anthology  even with the top tier authors of the day in it, some stories worked wonderfully for me, some were all right, and some stories did not work for me at all. I was delighted by the wide range of themes, and use of Dragons in the anthology, in a surprising to me number of contexts. There are fewer traditional uses of dragons than I was expecting, and I think that is a strength and a testament to the authors and the anthologist rather than a drawback. It is worth noting though for readers who are hoping for a more straightforward approach to the topic from the anthologized authors.

Out of the set of stories, I had a few favorites that I think represent the best of what the anthology has to offer.

Michael Swanwick’s “Dragon Slayer” is a lovely twisty story, and wonderfully evocative piece that also has a delightful time travel element embedded in it. Aliette de Bodard’s “The Last Hunt” takes place in the same verse as her “In the Vanishers’ Palace”, once again featuring the Dragon Vu Con, but set long before the events of that prior story, giving us a glimpse into the past of her devastated post apocalyptic world. Kate Elliott’s “The Long Walk” hits upon some familiar themes and topics I’ve come to expect and hope for in her fiction--the role of women in society, how that role might be shaped, changed, and subverted by characters who are unwilling to accept an unjust state of affairs. Her main character Asvi shines out like a beacon and takes her place among her many other outstanding characters. Scott Lynch’s “Maybe Just Go Up There and Talk to it” felt really resonant in an age of limited supplies to fight the global pandemic, as towns, cities, states and the country fight a rearguard and often diminishing action against the return or just plain eruption of Dragons into the modern world. Kelly Robson’s “La Vitesse” features the appearance of Dragons in the Canadian Rockies, and the most metal schoolbus chase I’ve ever read in fiction. Patricia McKillip brings her poetic and evocative pen to life in a magical educational setting in her story "Camouflage".

Other stories take Dragons in all sorts of directions, ranging from Dragons with colony collapse syndrome to Dragons on extraterrestrial worlds.

I do encourage you to pick up this volume, because, as I keep harping on, the wide range of stories really goes give a lot entry points and stories to love for a wide variety of readers.


And I have to say that the pencil style artwork by Rovina Cai is wonderful. Not only is the cover art arresting to look at, but there are plenty of line drawings within the volume itself that bring visual appeal to the reader. That said, this artwork is something that is lost in electronic versions of the book, which is a real shame.

Art by Rovina Cai. Poem by Amal El-Mohtar

So, Mr. Strahan,now that you’ve conquered Dragons how about an anthology of other Fantastical Beasts. Griffins, Medusae, Rukhs, and more need your editorial eye, too!

---
The Math

Baseline Assessment: 7/10.

Bonuses: +1 for an excellent set of authors, both on the poetry and fictional fronts
+1 for a strong use of art in the anthology that makes this much more appealing in physical rather than electronic form.

Penalties: -1 As always with an anthology, the wide rangeness of the anthology means that some stories are going to work much less well for a reader than others.

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10 well worth your time and attention


Reference: Strahan, Jonathan The Book of Dragons [Harper Voyager, 2020]


POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

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!

Jemisin, N.K. The City We Became [Orbit]
Publisher's Description

Five New Yorkers must come together to defend their city from an ancient evil in this stunning new novel by Hugo Award-winner and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin.

Every great city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She’s got six.

But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs in the halls of power, threatening to destroy the city and her six newborn avatars unless they can come together and stop it once and for all. 

Why We Want It: Coming off of the absolutely brilliant Broken Earth trilogy, the level of expectation for The City We Became could not be higher unless this was the secret fourth Broken Earth novel. It’s not. This is something completely different. The City We Became is an expansion of the idea first introduced in Jemisin’s Hugo Award finalist short story “The City Born Great”, which itself was an excellent story. In a year filled with significant novels, The City We Became is a must read.

Kozloff, Sarah. A Broken Queen [Tor]
Publisher's Description

Time can heal all wounds, but not all wounds are visible.

Barely surviving her ordeal in Oromondo and scarred by its Fire Spirit, Cerulia is taken to a recovery house in Wyeland to heal from the trauma. In a ward with others who are all bound to serve each other, she discovers that not all scars are visible, and dying can be done with grace and acceptance.

While she would like to stay in this place of healing, will she ever be able to the peace she has found to re-take the throne? 

Why We Want It: I've only recently finished the first book of the series, A Queen in Hiding, and the Nine Realms is shaping up to be a bit of a throwback fantasy series. It's good, and I'm interested to see how the series progresses. A Broken Queen is the third novel of the series.

Kress, Nancy. Sea Change [Tachyon]
Publisher's Description

New from the Nebula Award winning author of Beggars in Spain: A riveting climate-change technothriller of espionage, conspiracy, and stakes so high they could lead to the destruction of humanity itself. In this environmental page-turner, activist lawyer Renata Black—covert member of the Org—must go deep underground to unravel the truth behind the ecological disaster that has paralyzed the food industry and destroyed her family. 

Why We Want It: Prolific over a long and accomplished career, I know that a Nancy Kress novella (or novel, or short story) is going to look at science and technology in the future and imagine it into a frighteningly plausible way that I hadn't considered - and that it will be one heck of

Strahan, Jonathan. Made to Order [Solaris]
Publisher's Description

100 years after Karel Capek coined the word, “robots” are an everyday idea, and the inspiration for countless stories in books, film, TV and games.

They are often among the least privileged, most unfairly used of us, and the more robots are like humans, the more interesting they become. This collection of stories is where robots stand in for us, where both we and they are disadvantaged, and where hope and optimism shines through.

INCLUDING STORIES BY: BROOKE BOLANDER · JOHN CHU · DARYL GREGORY · PETER F. HAMILTON · SAAD Z. HOSSAIN · RICH LARSON · KEN LIU · IAN R. MACLEOD · ANNALEE NEWITZ · TOCHI ONYEBUCHI · SUZANNE PALMER · SARAH PINSKER · VINA JIE-MIN PRASAD · ALASTAIR REYNOLDS · SOFIA SAMATAR · PETER WATTS 

Why We Want It: Frankly, it's an anthology from Jonathan Strahan and that makes it an anthology I want to read. Strahan is one of our preeminent anthologists and that's a powerhouse lineup of writers.

Szpara, K.M. Docile [Tor.com Publishing]
Publisher's Description

K. M. Szpara's Docile is a science fiction parable about love and sex, wealth and debt, abuse and power, a challenging tour de force that at turns seduces and startles. 

There is no consent under capitalism. 

To be a Docile is to be kept, body and soul, for the uses of the owner of your contract. To be a Docile is to forget, to disappear, to hide inside your body from the horrors of your service. To be a Docile is to sell yourself to pay your parents' debts and buy your children's future.

Elisha Wilder’s family has been ruined by debt, handed down to them from previous generations. His mother never recovered from the Dociline she took during her term as a Docile, so when Elisha decides to try and erase the family’s debt himself, he swears he will never take the drug that took his mother from him.

Too bad his contract has been purchased by Alexander Bishop III, whose ultra-rich family is the brains (and money) behind Dociline and the entire Office of Debt Resolution. When Elisha refuses Dociline, Alex refuses to believe that his family’s crowning achievement could have any negative side effects—and is determined to turn Elisha into the perfect Docile without it.

Content warning: Docile contains forthright depictions and discussions of rape and sexual abuse. 

Why We Want It: In parts of the online SFF community I participate in, Docile is one of the buzzier novels of the Spring. I'm not convinced it is a novel for me, but it is very much a novel to pay attention to.

Wagers, K.B. A Pale Light in the Black [Harper Voyager]
Publisher's Description

The Expanse meets the Battle Room in Ender's Game as K. B. Wagers brings us the rollicking first entry in a unique science fiction series that introduces the Near-Earth Orbital Guard—NeoG—a military force patrolling and protecting space inspired by the real-life mission of the U.S. Coast Guard. 

For the past year, their close loss in the annual Boarding Games has haunted Interceptor Team: Zuma’s Ghost. With this year’s competition looming, they’re looking forward to some payback—until an unexpected personnel change leaves them reeling. Their best swordsman has been transferred, and a new lieutenant has been assigned in his place.

Maxine Carmichael is trying to carve a place in the world on her own—away from the pressure and influence of her powerful family. The last thing she wants is to cause trouble at her command on Jupiter Station. With her new team in turmoil, Max must overcome her self-doubt and win their trust if she’s going to succeed. Failing is not an option—and would only prove her parents right.

But Max and the team must learn to work together quickly. A routine mission to retrieve a missing ship has suddenly turned dangerous, and now their lives are on the line. Someone is targeting members of Zuma’s Ghost, a mysterious opponent willing to kill to safeguard a secret that could shake society to its core . . . a secret that could lead to their deaths and kill thousands more unless Max and her new team stop them.

Rescue those in danger, find the bad guys, win the Games. It’s all in a day’s work at the NeoG. 

Why We Want It: In four short years Wagers has quickly become one of my favorite writers. The five novels published so far in their Indranan and Farian War series are absolute delights (when they are not gut wrenchingly painful) and I am so very excited for this first novel in a new and unrelated series.


Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 3x Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan. He / Him.

Microreview [book]: Infinity's End, by Jonathan Strahan (editor)

Infinity's End is a fitting and excellent way to close the book on a solid anthology series.

I asked the writers creating new stories for this book to try to open up the solar system, to look again at its vastness, its incredible scale, and at how humanity in different ways might fit successfully and happily into its nooks and crannies. - Jonathan Strahan, "Introduction"

One thing that helps to center my reading of one of Jonathan Strahan's Infinity anthologies is what he has to say in the introduction. I take the stories as they come and as they are, but that introduction discussing the central idea of the anthology and the intended perspective Strahan was looking to achieve is vital to how I view the overall success of the anthology.

As with previous volumes in Strahan's Infinity Project, Infinity's End is a fine anthology of science fictional short stories with a couple of standouts, one or two that just don't work for me for whatever reason, and the rest are just good stories that collectively build a solid anthology that may not be fully spectacular but still consistently enjoyable.

Before getting into the stuff that I liked, I'd like to quickly hit on the two stories that didn't work for me. Or, quite possibly, I didn't work for the stories. Lavie Tidhar is a renowned writer, critically acclaimed. I've come to realize that for not any particular flaw in the fiction or the writing of Lavie Tidhar, that I'm just not the right reader for Tidhar's work. I just so consistently bounce off of Tidhar's work that there's nothing really that "Talking to Ghosts at the Edge of the World" can do for me as a reader. It's an interesting thing, though, to come to the realization that I'm just not the audience rather than it's the story.

Likewise, "A Portrait of Salai" was not to my taste. Hannu Rajaneimi definitely stretches the idea of getting into the nooks and crannies of the universe - it's an odd story that talks about "earth like planets" and dyson spheres, but almost seems to be taking place on a super small scale (or, alternately, on a super large scale that dwarfs imagination. Honestly, I can't tell). There's a symphony built from throwing comets at a planet. "A Portrait of Salai" most effectively hits the scope of what Strahan is looking for while simultaneously not being one of the strongest stories in the anthology. Unlike with Lavie Tidhar, I'm not familiar with the work of Hannu Rajaneimi -  I'm aware of it and recognize the acclaim his novels have received, but I haven't read him before.

Much more positively, one of my favorite stories in Infinity's End is Seanan McGuire's "Swear Not by the Moon". It's the dual story of the rise of a woman named Wendy May, a woman so wealthy that she bought a moon with the goal of terraforming it into something habitable and a tourist attraction, along with the story of a family visiting Titan. The success of the story isn't so much the pushing forward of the "present" as it is the somewhat more didactic Wendy May sections. It's just so fascinating and scratched an itch that I didn't realize I had.

Other stories feature such oddities of a velociraptor investigating a murder (Justina Robson's "Foxy and Tiggs" and trust me, this is a futuristic story), one set so far in the future the solar system is being used for tourism and humans are so long lived they are functionally immortal - this one is the sort of story I used to love and now comes across as more travelogue than story ("Death's Door, by Alastair Reynolds). There's a Quiet War story from Paul McAuley. Generally, I appreciated and enjoyed most of the stories in this anthology.

From Kristine Kathryn Rusch I'd like more stories of Colette, a super smart kid solving problems before the authorities. I'm always happy to read anything from Stephen Baxter and "Last Small Step" does not disappoint.

"Intervention" from Kelly Robson is all heart. It features a woman who self exiled herself from her Lunar base home because of the Lunar prejudices against children and especially creche born and those who want to care for them. Jules dedicated her life to raising children, being a creche mother. Generation after generation. "Intervention" is a deeply moving, powerful, and personal story. As meaningful as the work Jules has done for decades has been, the resentment and borderline hatred she feels for Luna still seeps through at the barest mention of the moon. It's great and I highly recommend it.

My absolute favorite story from Infinity's End is Linda Nagata's "Longing for Earth". It is simply a beautiful story of Hitoshi, one of the oldest humans in the universe, taking his one thousandth journey, a trek on another artificial world. "Longing for Earth" is not a travelogue, per se, but it is a gentle and peaceful story of one man's hopes and dreams and the peace of travel and exploration. It's a beautiful story and is one of my favorite stories in this anthology. I appreciated the internal conflict between family who has chosen to upload themselves to a Virtual Layer with those family members who have stayed behind in "The Temporal Layer", which is what we might consider "the real world" - except that both existences are equally real, they're just different. "Longing for Earth" is a true standout and the highlight of an already strong anthology.

I'm sad that Infinity's End is the purported final volume in Jonathan Strahan's Infinity Project of anthologies. The theme has always been loose, no matter what Strahan has stated in the introduction (and I'm not sure he'd truly disagree with me here). He's just looking for science fiction which stretches the bounds of humanity living in the wider universe. The success is that Strahan has a great idea for good stories and each of the Infinity Project anthologies hits the mark for top notch stories. While I hope that Strahan will revisit the Infinity brand again several years from now (and if so, the anthology should maybe be titled Infinity's Rebirth), Infinity's End is a fitting and excellent way to close the book on a solid anthology series. Reading each volume and reading Infinity's End has been a delight.


The Math

Baseline Assessment: 7/10

Bonuses: +1 for the soaring heights of Linda Nagata's "Longing for Earth"

Penalties: -1 for the weirdness of "Kindred" (Peter Watts). You really need to know your Philip K. Dick to appreciate this one.

Nerd Coefficient: 7/10, "a mostly enjoyable experience" See more about our scoring system here.


POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 2017 & 2018 Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan.

New Books Spotlight

Welcome to another edition of the New Books Spotlight, where each month or so we curate a selection of 6 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!

Emrys, Ruthanna. Deep Roots [Tor.com Publishing]
Publisher's Description

Ruthanna Emrys’ Innsmouth Legacy, which began with Winter Tide and continues with Deep Roots, confronts H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos head-on, boldly upturning his fear of the unknown with a heart-warming story of found family, acceptance, and perseverance in the face of human cruelty and the cosmic apathy of the universe. Emrys brings together a family of outsiders, bridging the gaps between the many people marginalized by the homogenizing pressure of 1940s America.

Aphra Marsh, descendant of the People of the Water, has survived Deep One internment camps and made a grudging peace with the government that destroyed her home and exterminated her people on land. Deep Rootscontinues Aphra’s journey to rebuild her life and family on land, as she tracks down long-lost relatives. She must repopulate Innsmouth or risk seeing it torn down by greedy developers, but as she searches she discovers that people have been going missing. She will have to unravel the mystery, or risk seeing her way of life slip away.

Why We Want It: I've never given a rip about the Cthulhu Mythos or Lovecraft, and I still don't. More than anything else, knowing a story is Lovecraftian is a major turn off. And yet. And yet when I read Winter Tide last year I didn't want the book to end. I didn't care anything about what may have inspired the novel. I cared about Aphra and the story Emrys was telling. I didn't know if there would be a second book, but if there was, I knew I wanted it.

Hurley, Kameron. Apocalypse Nyx [Tachyon]
Publisher's Description

Ex-government assassin turned bounty-hunter Nyx is good at solving other people’s problems. Her favorite problem-solving solution is punching people in the face. Then maybe chopping off some heads. Hey—it’s a living.

Nyx’s disreputable reputation has been well earned. After all, she’s trying to navigate an apocalyptic world full of giant bugs, contaminated deserts, scheming magicians, and a centuries-long war that’s consuming her future. Managing her ragtag squad of misfits has required a lot of morally-gray choices. Every new job is another day alive. Every new mission is another step toward changing a hellish future—but only if she can survive.

Apocalypse Nyx is the must-have collection of Kameron Hurley’s five newest Nyx adventures.

Why We Want It: It's been six years since Kameron Hurley last gave us a full length Nyx novel with Rapture. With Apocalypse Nyx, we get to see what Nyxnissa has been up to with this story collection detailing Nyx's further adventures. We're in for one hell of a ride.

Kowal, Mary Robinette. The Calculating Stars [Tor]
Publisher's Description

Mary Robinette Kowal's science fiction debut, The Calculating Stars, explores the premise behind her award-winning "Lady Astronaut of Mars."

On a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to earth and obliterated much of the east coast of the United States, including Washington D.C. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated effort to colonize space, and requires a much larger share of humanity to take part in the process.

Elma York’s experience as a WASP pilot and mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition’s attempts to put man on the moon, as a calculator. But with so many skilled and experienced women pilots and scientists involved with the program, it doesn’t take long before Elma begins to wonder why they can’t go into space, too.

Elma’s drive to become the first Lady Astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions of society may not stand a chance against her.

Why We Want It: "The Lady Astronaut of Mars" won a Hugo Award for Best Novelette and knowing that The Calculating Stars is the first of two prequel novels expanding on that story and that alternate history. I absolutely adored "The Lady Astronaut of Mars" and tend to thoroughly enjoy Kowal's work. How can I not be excited for this?

Novik, Naomi. Spinning Silver [Del Rey]
Publisher's Description

A fresh and imaginative retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale from the bestselling author of Uprooted, which was hailed as “a very enjoyable fantasy with the air of a modern classic” by The New York Times Book Review.

With the Nebula Award–winning Uprooted, Naomi Novik opened a brilliant new chapter in an already acclaimed career, delving into the magic of fairy tales to craft a love story that was both timeless and utterly of the now. Spinning Silverdraws readers deeper into this glittering realm of fantasy, where the boundary between wonder and terror is thinner than a breath, and safety can be stolen as quickly as a kiss.

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father’s inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty—until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold.

When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk—grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh—Miryem’s fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered. Set an impossible challenge by the nameless king, Miryem unwittingly spins a web that draws in a peasant girl, Wanda, and the unhappy daughter of a local lord who plots to wed his child to the dashing young tsar.

But Tsar Mirnatius is not what he seems. And the secret he hides threatens to consume the lands of humans and Staryk alike. Torn between deadly choices, Miryem and her two unlikely allies embark on a desperate quest that will take them to the limits of sacrifice, power, and love.

Channeling the vibrant heart of myth and fairy tale, Spinning Silver weaves a multilayered, magical tapestry that readers will want to return to again and again.

Why We Want It: I wrote that Uprooted (my review) was a standalone fairy tale which felt both fresh and familiar. I was, in fact, left wanting more. Spinning Silver is not a sequel to Uprooted and the only sense that it is a follow up is that it is also a standalone fairy tale. That's exactly what I want. After the roaring success of Uprooted, my expectations for Spinning Silver are extremely high. Novik has the skill to meet and perhaps even exceed those expectations.

Strahan, Jonathan. Infinity’s End [Solaris]
Publisher's Description

The highly-anticipated final volume of the critically-acclaimed science fiction anthology series

Life in space is hard, lonely and the only person you can rely on is yourself. Whether you’re living deep in the gravity well of humanity’s watery home, mucking out air vents in a city floating high in the clouds of Jupiter, or re-checking the filtration system on some isolated space station, life is hard and demanding, and life is small.

The stories of Infinity’s End are set in those empty spaces, in futures where planets have been disassembled and reused for parts, or terraformed and settled; where civilisations have risen and fallen; where far future people make their lives anywhere from colonies hanging in the clouds of Neptune or Venus to the repurposed cores of distant asteroids; on worldlets and asteroids, inside Saturn’s rings or distant spheres and wheels, on-board ships trucking from home to home, and port to port. They're set in a future that's lived in. And they make it clear that even if we never leave the Solar System, there's life enough and room enough to live out all of science fiction's dreams.


Infinity’s End is the future. The stories you’ll find here are the stories of your life.

Why We Want It: I've been a fan of Jonathan Strahan's Infinity Project since its inception. Many science fiction anthologies offer visions of the future. It's somewhat inherent in the genre, but Strahan has offered up somewhat more focused looks at possible futures around a loose theme of Engineering or Building or War. With Infinity's End, Strahan brings the Infinity Project to a close and I know I'm going to miss my annual volume of Infinity. Unless, of course, there is a secret anthology titled Infinity's Rebirth. If there is, I'll be there for that, too!

Yang, JY. The Descent of Monsters [Tor.com Publishing]
Publisher's Description

JY Yang continues to redefine the limits of silkpunk fantasy with their Tensorate novellas, which the New York Times lauded as "joyously wild." In this third volume, an investigation into atrocities committed at a classified research facility threaten to expose secrets that the Protectorate will do anything to keep hidden

You are reading this because I am dead.

Something terrible happened at the Rewar Teng Institute of Experimental Methods. When the Tensorate’s investigators arrived, they found a sea of blood and bones as far as the eye could see. One of the institute’s experiments got loose, and its rage left no survivors. The investigators returned to the capital with few clues and two prisoners: the terrorist leader Sanao Akeha and a companion known only as Rider.

Investigator Chuwan faces a puzzle. What really happened at the institute? What drew the Machinists there? What are her superiors trying to cover up? And why does she feel as if her strange dreams are forcing her down a narrowing path she cannot escape?

Why We Want It: At this point, a Tensorate novella is essential reading. The Black Tides of Heaven (my review) is one of the finest novellas I've read. It was a sublime experience. The Red Threads of Fortune was never going to quite hit that height, but it was likewise exceptional. The Descent of Monsters is the third novella from JY Yang and I can't wait.



POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 2017 & 2018 Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan. 

Microreview [book]: Infinity Wars, by Jonathan Strahan (editor)

The future of warfare is here!

Cover Art by Adam Tredowski

The various anthologies of Jonathan Strahan's Infinity Project present different ways of looking at the future, whether it is humanity's striving for the stars or the engineering required to build incredible structures almost beyond our current understanding. With Infinity Wars, Jonathan Strahan asks fifteen writers to take a look at the future of warfare. What sort of war would humanity engage in? What would it look like?

The answers presented in Infinity Wars are as varied as the writers. Each story show vastly different facets of what future war might look like. This is perhaps most starkly shown in the opening story, "Evening of the Span of Their Days", by Carrie Vaughn. Where so many stories are focused on interstellar war and its direct consequences, Vaughn takes a look at the shipyards which service the ships and how a burgeoning war impacts the lives and the jobs of the dock workers. We want to know more of the conflict raging behind the scenes and the changes it will bring to the dock, but in the end the real story is the understaffed and under-equipped women and men who will do the work keeping the ships in the fight.

Another story that shows off the range of how war might be fought in the future is one of my favorite stories from the anthology, "Oracle", by Dominica Phettaplace. It begins with "the two biggest applications for predictive software are killing people and selling things". Rita's AI made her incredibly successful at selling thing, but she couldn't say no when the Department of Defense came calling, asking her to use her software to choose countries to invade that would result in wars popular enough with the American public to boost the approval numbers of the narcissistic sitting President. The story comes across as a little more narrated than lived in, but with the cynicism of when presidents order airstrikes (to distract from personal crisis) and how successful war bolsters popularity, it's a prescient story.

There are, of course, a number of boots on the ground stories in Infinity Wars. "The Moon Is Not a Battlefield" is a less successful story of the grunt level soldier fighting proxy wars on the moon, whereas David D. Levine's "Command and Control" does a better job at telling a straight up action story of a war between India and China with some interesting future technology.

One story I found interesting, if wholly unsatisfying, is An Owomoyela's "The Last Broadcasts". This is a story of a a classified project to put out false news broadcasts from Caribou, a distant human colony under attack from an alien invasion most of the rest of humanity spread across the galaxy has no idea about. The colony is about to go dark because it will be completely overrun, but Daja's (the protagonist) job is to come up with a more palatable reason for Caribou's lack of future communication so as to prevent a galactic panic. The most interesting aspects of "The Last Broadcasts" are everything surrounding the story and the way Daja interacts with the world and struggles to keep herself focused and on task. The least interesting aspect of the story is the actual story - how Daja takes the job and immediately puts herself in conflict with her job and her superiors and her sense of morality towards Caribou.

I also appreciated "Conversations with an Armory", by Garth Nix. The concept here that I loved is that of all major military warships AND armories having artificial intelligence. The story opens with beleaguered troops trying to convince an armory to let them in so they can throw together one last ditch fight back at the alien enemy and the AI not recognizing theor authority. It's darkly comic, at moments almost worthy of the best of Joseph Heller.

Though there were some disappointments in Infinity Wars (the aforementioned "The Last Broadcasts"and "The Moon is Not a Battlefield", as well as "Faceless Soldiers, Patchwork Ship"), Strahan delivers an overall solid and eminently readable anthology with some truly standout stories. Besides "Oracle", readers should consider picking up Infinity Wars just to read "Dear Sarah" and "ZeroS".

"Dear Sarah" is the story of Mary Jo, a young woman from a family suffering from increasing poverty caused by her father's job loss due to alien technology replacing human labor. It's a deeply relevant story to America today and notes the reality of America's poorest making up a significant portion of enlistments because the military is viewed as a way up and a way out. Except now, the military is fighting American rebels who are against the nation's alliance with the aliens (the rich benefit, the poor continue to lose out) and each battle is a battle against our nation's poorest. Nancy Kress has written a knockout and as happens so often with Kress, I'd love to read more of these stories.

"ZeroS", from Peter Watts, is the class of this anthology. The super short explanation about basically making zombie super soldiers (of sorts) with a human mind running backup in the new body. Watts has intensely strong storytelling and action sequences. I understand that's it's a bit of a prequel story to Watts' novel Echopraxia. Hell, don't worry about any of that, just go read the story. Then go read the anthology.



The Math
Baseline Assessment: 7/10

Bonuses: +1 because the highs of Infinity Wars are really damn high.

Penalties: -1 for the middling and forgettable stories, one of which I honestly forgot that I read one day after reading it.

Nerd Coefficient: 7/10 "a mostly enjoyable experience". See more about our scoring system here.


Reference: Strahan, Jonathan. Infinity Wars [Solaris, 2017] 



POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 2017 Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Writer / Editor of the mostly defunct Adventures in Reading since 2004. Minnesotan.

6 Books with Jonathan Strahan

Photo Credit: Cat Sparks

Jonathan Strahan is a World Fantasy Award award-winning editor, anthologist, and podcaster. He has edited more than 70 books, is reviews editor for Locus, a consulting editor for Tor.com, and co-host and producer of the Hugo-nominated Coode Street Podcast.

Today he shares his 6 books with us...

1. What book are you currently reading? 

I’m currently reading the latest Tom Holt novel, The Management Style of the Supreme Beings, which is a lot of fun. It’s a satire on religion, and reminds me a lot of Jeremy Leven’s Satan, His Psychotherapy and Cure by the Unfortunate Dr. Kassler, J.S.P.S., which is a weird book I read years ago, and a bit of James Morrow’s Only Begotten Daughter, which I adore.

2. What upcoming book you are really excited about? 

William Gibson’s Agency. I am always floored by Gibson’s work and I don’t think we’ve ever needed his worldview more than we do right now.

3. Is there a book you're currently itching to re-read? 

Hmm. I don’t get to re-read much at all. You know how life is when you’re up to your neck in reading new stuff. There’s no time. But I’d love to re-read some Terry Pratchett. Possibly Guards, Guards! or Night Watch. Terrifyingly smart, funny, and also kind. Pratchett’s best books are always worth revisiting.

4. How about a book you've changed your mind about over time--either positively or negatively? 

Hmm. Asimov’s Foundation. I loved it when I was young. Was sure it was going to be terrible to revisit when I was in my 20s, and found that it was actually surprisingly fresh and readable when I went back to it.




 

5. What's one book, which you read as a child or young adult, that has had a lasting influence on your editing? 

One book? There are a couple, but probably the single most influential book on my editing was Michael Bishop’s superb 1984 anthology Light Years and Dark, which changed my reading, opened me up to new approaches and perspectives and introduced me to a whole pile of writers who have since become favourites. It’s the benchmark in the back of my mind every time I start work on a new book.

6. And speaking of that, what's *your* latest book, and why is it awesome? 

Infinity Wars. It’s the latest in the Infinity series and, as the title suggests, this time it’s looking at war and conflict. It’s awesome because fifteen smart, talented people have produced incredible stories that give new perspectives on war and living through and beyond it. The stories are whipsmart and great stuff. Whether you loved Starship Troopers, The Forever War, or Miles Vorkosigan and Honor Harrington, there’s something for everyone.



POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 2017 Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Writer / Editor of the mostly defunct Adventures in Reading since 2004. Minnesotan.  

New Books Spotlight

Welcome to another edition of the New Books Spotlight, where each month or so we curate a selection of 6 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!

Gailey, Sarah. Taste of Marrow [Tor.com Publishing, 2017]

Publisher's Description:

Campbell finalist Sarah Gailey's hippo mayhem continues in Taste of Marrow, the sequel to rollicking adventure River of Teeth.

A few months ago, Winslow Houndstooth put together the damnedest crew of outlaws, assassins, cons, and saboteurs on either side of the Harriet for a history-changing caper. Together they conspired to blow the dam that choked the Mississippi and funnel the hordes of feral hippos contained within downriver, to finally give America back its greatest waterway.

Songs are sung of their exploits, many with a haunting refrain: "And not a soul escaped alive."

In the aftermath of the Harriet catastrophe, that crew has scattered to the winds. Some hunt the missing lovers they refuse to believe have died. Others band together to protect a precious infant and a peaceful future. All of them struggle with who they've become after a long life of theft, murder, deception, and general disinterest in the strictures of the law. 

Why We Want It: The follow up to Gailey's excellent River of Teeth. We loved it.  We want more of it. At this point we've moved beyond the awesomeness of just having hippos in America and we need the story to be excellent. Gailey delivered the goods in River of Teeth and I have no doubt she'll deliver the goods again in Taste of Marrow.

Howard, Kat. An Unkindness of Magicians [Saga Press, 2017]

Publisher's Description

There is a dark secret that is hiding at the heart of New York City and diminishing the city’s magicians’ power in this fantasy thriller by acclaimed author Kat Howard.

In New York City, magic controls everything. But the power of magic is fading. No one knows what is happening, except for Sydney—a new, rare magician with incredible power that has been unmatched in decades, and she may be the only person who is able to stop the darkness that is weakening the magic. But Sydney doesn’t want to help the system, she wants to destroy it.

Sydney comes from the House of Shadows, which controls the magic with the help of sacrifices from magicians.

Why We Want It: Howard's debut, Roses and Rot, just missed out on being in my top 9 novels of 2016. It was a stunning debut, assured and confident and - not to put too fine a point on it, magical. I'm excited to see what Howard has in store for us next.

Leckie, Ann. Provenance [Orbit, 2017]

Publisher's Description:

Following her record-breaking debut trilogy, Ann Leckie, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke and Locus Awards, returns with an enthralling new novel of power, theft, privilege and birthright. 

A power-driven young woman has just one chance to secure the status she craves and regain priceless lost artifacts prized by her people. She must free their thief from a prison planet from which no one has ever returned.

Ingray and her charge will return to her home world to find their planet in political turmoil, at the heart of an escalating interstellar conflict. Together, they must make a new plan to salvage Ingray's future, her family, and her world, before they are lost to her for good. 

Why We Want It: Ancillary Justice (my review) won the Hugo, Nebula, Clarke, and Locus awards. Ancillary Sword and Mercy were finalists for each of those awards (and both winning the Locus Award for Science Fiction). The good news is the novels more than lived up to the hype and that Leckie has more than earned the accolades she has earned for her fiction. A new novel from Ann Leckie is a cause for celebration, and - I believe this is set in her Imperial Radch milieu, though not specifically tied to the previous three novels.

Newitz, Annalee. Autonomous [Tor, 2017]

Publisher's Description

The highly anticipated science fiction debut from the founder of io9! 

Earth, 2144. Jack is an anti-patent scientist turned drug pirate, traversing the world in a submarine as a pharmaceutical Robin Hood, fabricating cheap scrips for poor people who can’t otherwise afford them. But her latest drug hack has left a trail of lethal overdoses as people become addicted to their work, doing repetitive tasks until they become unsafe or insane.

Hot on her trail, an unlikely pair: Eliasz, a brooding military agent, and his robotic partner, Paladin. As they race to stop information about the sinister origins of Jack’s drug from getting out, they begin to form an uncommonly close bond that neither of them fully understand.

And underlying it all is one fundamental question: Is freedom possible in a culture where everything, even people, can be owned? 

Why We Want It: Since Newitz does not yet have a track record as a science fiction novelist, I fall back to the answer I could give to each work on this list: It looks awesome and I think I'd like to read it. There's been a certain amount of hype building for Autonomous and my hope is that the book will live up to it.

Older, Malka. Null States [Tor.com Publishing, 2017]
Publisher's Description:

Null States continues Campbell Award finalist Malka Older's Centenal Cycle, the trilogy beginning with Infomocracy 

The future of democracy is about to implode.

After the last controversial global election, the global infomocracy that has ensured thirty years of world peace is fraying at the edges. As the new Supermajority government struggles to establish its legitimacy, agents of Information across the globe strive to keep the peace and maintain the flows of data that feed the new world order.

In the newly-incorporated DarFur, a governor dies in a fiery explosion. In Geneva, a superpower hatches plans to bring microdemocracy to its knees. In Central Asia, a sprawling war among archaic states threatens to explode into a global crisis. And across the world, a shadowy plot is growing, threatening to strangle Information with the reins of power.

Why We Want It: Infomocracy was on my list of the top books of 2016. Null States is the sequel. I loved Older's concept of micro-democracy and Information, and I immediately wanted to start on Null States after finishing Informocracy. I'll have the chance this September.

Strahan, Jonathan (editor). Infinity Wars [Solaris, 2017]
Publisher's Description

CONFLICT IS ETERNAL

We have always fought. War is the furnace that forges new technologies and pushes humanity ever onward. We are the children of a battle that began with fists and sticks, and ended on the brink of atomic Armageddon. Beyond here lies another war, infinite in scope and scale.

But who will fight the wars of tomorrow? Join Elizabeth Bear, Indrapramit Das, Aliette de Bodard, Garth Nix, An Owomoyela, Peter Watts, and many, many more in an exploration of the furthest extremes of military science fiction… 

Why We Want It: With his Infinity Project, Jonathan Strahan has been putting out solid anthology after solid anthology. Infinity Wars is the sixth and presumably penultimate entry in the Infinity Project (so presumed because next year's title is Infinity's End) and after Meeting Infinity and Bridging Infinity, I can't wait to see what stories Strahan has gathered together for Infinity Wars.


POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 2017 Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Writer / Editor of the mostly defunct Adventures in Reading since 2004. Minnesotan. 

Nanoreviews: Blood of Tyrants, The Collapsing Empire, Bridging Infnity

Novik, Naomi. Blood of Tyrants [Del Rey, 2014]

I don't much enjoy stories of amnesia, and telling a story of amnesia in the eighth volume of a nine book series is a risky storytelling choice. I'd love to say that it works here, but, at least for me, it doesn't. We spent a not insignificant amount of Blood of Tyrants, the penultimate Temeraire novel, with Will Laurence having very little memory of the events of the previous seven novels. He doesn't remember Temeraire or anything that has occurred since he became a Captain in the Aerial Corps. It's frustrating and stagnates the narrative. Temeraire has lost its steam.
Score: 5/10

Scalzi, John. The Collapsing Empire [Tor, 2017]

As often happens when reading a new John Scalzi novel, I didn't want to put this down. Filled with wit, warmth, humor, fantastic characters, and Scalzi's trademark snappy dialogue, The Collapsing Empire is a treat and a delight to read. Though I don't normally note language, there is significantly more cursing than Scalzi's readers are accustomed to. It was noticeable, initially distracting where it might not have been with another author, but ultimately it just flowed into the vernacular of the novel. I loved the setting of the Interdependency and am excited to see what the collapse of the Flow means to that universe. The Collapsing Empire is a fantastic first novel in a new series from John Scalzi.
Score: 9/10

Strahan, Jonathan (editor). Bridging Infinity [Solaris, 2016]

With Bridging Infinity, Jonathan Strahan delivers another solid anthology with another vision of possible futures. This time he wonders if "we still believe problems are solvable" and if we do, he asks his cohort of writers to consider what that might look like across the years, decades, centuries, and millennia. While most of the anthology is between good to very good (with a couple of disappointments), the two standouts are the closing two stories: "Induction", by Thoraiya Dyer and "Seven Birthdays", by Ken Liu.
Score: 7/10


POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Writer / Editor at Adventures in Reading since 2004. Nerds of a Feather contributor since 2015, editor since 2016. Minnesotan. 

New Books Spotlight

Welcome to another edition of the New Books Spotlight, where each month or so we curate a selection of 6 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!

Cover Artist Unknown

Duchamp, L. Timmel. The Waterdancer's World [Aqueduct, 2016]
Publisher's Blurb

Humans have been struggling to live on Frogmore for almost five centuries, adapting themselves to punishing gravity and the deadly mistflowers that dominate its ecology. Financier Inez Gauthier, patron of the arts and daughter of the general commanding the planet's occupation forces, dreams of eliminating the mistflowers that make exploitation of the planet's natural wealth so difficult and impede her father's efforts to crush the native insurgency. Fascinated by the new art-form of waterdancing created by Solstice Balalzalar celebrating the planet's indigenous lifeforms, Inez assumes that her patronage will be enough to sustain Solstice's art even as she ruthlessly pursues windfall profits at the expense of all that has made waterdancing possible.

Why We Want It: We're big fans of Duchamp's powerful Marq'ssan Cycle and we've been eagerly waiting these past eight years for her next novel. Now it's here.

Cover Art by Sam Weber

Liu, Ken. The Wall of Storms [Saga, 2016]
Publisher's Blurb

In the much-anticipated sequel to the “magnificent fantasy epic” (NPR) Grace of Kings, Emperor Kuni Garu is faced with the invasion of an invincible army in his kingdom and must quickly find a way to defeat the intruders.

Kuni Garu, now known as Emperor Ragin, runs the archipelago kingdom of Dara, but struggles to maintain progress while serving the demands of the people and his vision. Then an unexpected invading force from the Lyucu empire in the far distant west comes to the shores of Dara—and chaos results.

But Emperor Kuni cannot go and lead his kingdom against the threat himself with his recently healed empire fraying at the seams, so he sends the only people he trusts to be Dara’s savvy and cunning hopes against the invincible invaders: his children, now grown and ready to make their mark on history.

Why We Want It: Liu's impressive debut, Grace of Kings, was a landmark epic fantasy. We look forward to seeing how Liu can expand and build on that first novel.

Cover Art by Jamie Stafford-Hill

McIntosh, Will. Faller [Tor, 2016]
Publisher's Blurb

Faller is a new gripping standalone, science fiction thriller by Hugo Award-winning author Will McIntosh.

Day One: No one can remember anything—who they are, family and friends, or even how to read. Reality has fragmented and Earth consists of an islands of rock floating in an endless sky. Food, water, electricity—gone, except for what people can find, and they can't find much.

Faller's pockets contain tantalizing clues: a photo of himself and a woman he can't remember, a toy solider with a parachute, and a mysterious map drawn in blood. With only these materials as a guide, he makes a leap of faith from the edge of the world to find the woman and set things right.

He encounters other floating islands, impossible replicas of himself and others, and learns that one man hates him enough to take revenge for actions Faller can't even remember.

Why We Want It: If Will McIntosh writes a novel, we'll read it. He primarily writes standalone novels, and perhaps this is why he is not quite as well known as he should be, but his speculative fiction is top notch.

Cover Design by Kerri Resnick

Moreno-Garcia, Silvia. Certain Dark Things [Thomas Dunne Books, 2016]
Publisher's Blurb

Welcome to Mexico City… An Oasis In A Sea Of Vampires… 

Domingo, a lonely garbage-collecting street kid, is busy eeking out a living when a jaded vampire on the run swoops into his life.

Atl, the descendant of Aztec blood drinkers, must feast on the young to survive and Domingo looks especially tasty. Smart, beautiful, and dangerous, Atl needs to escape to South America, far from the rival narco-vampire clan pursuing her. Domingo is smitten.

Her plan doesn’t include developing any real attachment to Domingo. Hell, the only living creature she loves is her trusty Doberman. Little by little, Atl finds herself warming up to the scrappy young man and his effervescent charm.

And then there’s Ana, a cop who suddenly finds herself following a trail of corpses and winds up smack in the middle of vampire gang rivalries.

Vampires, humans, cops, and gangsters collide in the dark streets of Mexico City. Do Atl and Domingo even stand a chance of making it out alive?

Why We Want It: Signal to Noise, the debut novel from Silvia Moreno-Garcia was an excellent urban fantasy set within the music and magic of Mexico City. Tonally, Certain Dark Things appears to be nothing like Signal to Noise, but we'll follow Moreno-Garcia anywhere.

Cover Design by Fort

Penny, Laurie. Everything Belongs to the Future [Tor.com Publishing, 2016]
Publisher's Blurb

Time is a weapon wielded by the rich, who have excess of it, against the rest, who must trade every breath of it against the promise of another day's food and shelter. What kind of world have we made, where human beings can live centuries if only they can afford the fix? What kind of creatures have we become? The same as we always were, but keener.

In the ancient heart of Oxford University, the ultra-rich celebrate their vastly extended lifespans. But a few surprises are in store for them. From Nina and Alex, Margo and Fidget, scruffy anarchists sharing living space with an ever-shifting cast of crusty punks and lost kids. And also from the scientist who invented the longevity treatment in the first place.

Everything Belongs to the Future is a bloody-minded tale of time, betrayal, desperation, and hope that could only have been told by the inimitable Laurie Penny. 

Why We Want It: A world where time is very nearly money and the rich can extend their lives at the expense of the poor? This sounds both topical and absolutely fascinating. Yes, please!

Cover Art by Adam Tredowski

Strahan, Jonathan (ed). Bridging Infinity [Solaris, 2016]
Publisher's Blurb

The latest volume in the Hugo award-winning Infinity Project series, showcasing all-original hard science fiction stories from the leading voices in genre fiction.

Sense of wonder is the lifeblood of science fiction. When we encounter something on a truly staggering scale - metal spheres wrapped around stars, planets rebuilt and repurposed, landscapes transformed, starships bigger than worlds - we react viscerally. Fear, reverence, admiration - how else are we to react to something so grand?

Bridging Infinity puts humanity at the heart of these vast undertakings - as builder, as engineer, as adventurer - reimagining and rebuilding the world, the solar system, and even the entire universe.

This continuation of the award-winning Infinity Project anothology series features bold new stories from Stephen Baxter, Elizabeth Bear, Gregory Benford, Zachary Brown, Pat Cadigan, Kameron Hurley, Scott Lynch, Vonda N. McIntyre, Hannu Rajaniemi, Allan Steele, and many more. 

Why We Want It: Even though not every story will be a hit, Jonathan Strahan's Infinity Project has been one of our must read short fiction series since he began the project in 2010. Now in it's fifth iteration, Bridging Infinity continues to inspire with broad imaginings of how humanity could shape the future.




POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Writer / Editor at Adventures in Reading since 2004, Nerds of a Feather contributor since 2015, editor since 2016. Minnesotan.