Future Treasures – Page 57

Future Treasures: The Lyre Thief by Jennifer Fallon

Monday, February 29, 2016 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

Jennifer Fallon’s popular Hythrun Chronicles began with The Demon Child trilogy (Medalon, Treason Keep, and Harshini); the Wolfblade trilogy (Wolfblade, Warrior, Warlord) followed soon after. All six were published in hardcover by Tor in the US.

After a decade, Fallon returns to the world of the Hythrun Chronicles with The Lyre Thief, the first novel in a new trilogy. It’s a tale of powerful magics, byzantine politics, sweeping adventure and romance, and it arrives in hardcover from Tor next month.

Her Serene Highness, Rakaia, Princess of Fardohnya, is off to Hythria, where her eldest sister is now the High Princess, to find herself a husband, and escape the inevitable bloodbath in the harem when her brother takes the throne.

Rakaia is not interested in marrying anyone, least of all some brute of a Hythrun Warlord she’s never met, but she has a plan to save herself from that, too. If she can just convince her baseborn sister, Charisee, to play along, she might actually get away with it.

But there is trouble brewing across the continent. High Prince of Hythria, Damin Wolfblade, must head north to save the peace negotiated a decade ago between the Harshini, Hythria, Fardohnya, Medalon and Karien. He must leave behind an even more dangerous conflict brewing between his wife and his powerful mother, Princess Marla.

…And in far off Medalon, someone has stolen the music.

Their quest for the tiny stolen lyre containing the essence of the God of Music will eventually touch all their lives, threaten everything they hold dear and prove to be far more personal than any of them can imagine.

The Lyre Thief will be published by Tor Books on March 8, 2016. It is 445 pages, priced at $27.99 in hardcover and $14.99 for the digital edition. Read “First Kill,” a short story set in the world of the Hythrun Chronicles, for free at Tor.com.

Future Treasures: Borderline by Mishell Baker

Saturday, February 27, 2016 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Mishell Baker is the Communications Director for the Clarion Foundation. Most of what I know about her comes from her bio at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, which states “She lives with her husband and daughter in Los Angeles, where she is currently at work on a novel set in the early history of the world featured in ‘Throwing Stones.'” Borderline, which arrives in trade paperback from Saga Press next week, could be that novel. Probably is. If it sounds intriguing, it couldn’t hurt to check out “Throwing Stones,” which appeared in BCS 47.

Borderline follows the misadventures of a cynical, disabled film director with borderline personality disorder who is recruited into a secret organization that oversees relations between Hollywood and Fairyland. It’s the opening volume in a new urban fantasy series, and is Mishell Baker’s debut novel.

A year ago, Millie lost her legs and her filmmaking career in a failed suicide attempt. Just when she’s sure the credits have rolled on her life story, she gets a second chance with the Arcadia Project: a secret organization that polices the traffic to and from a parallel reality filled with creatures straight out of myth and fairy tales.

For her first assignment, Millie is tasked with tracking down a missing movie star who also happens to be a nobleman of the Seelie Court. To find him, she’ll have to smooth-talk Hollywood power players and uncover the surreal and sometimes terrifying truth behind the glamour of Tinseltown. But stronger forces than just her inner demons are sabotaging her progress, and if she fails to unravel the conspiracy behind the noble’s disappearance, not only will she be out on the streets, but the shattering of a centuries-old peace could spark an all-out war between worlds.

No pressure.

Borderline will be published by Saga Press on March 1, 2016. It is 390 pages, priced at $15.99 in trade paperback and $7.99 for the digital edition.

Future Treasures: The Brotherhood of the Wheel by R. S. Belcher

Wednesday, February 24, 2016 John ONeill Comments 7 comments

R. S. Belcher’s previous novels include two acclaimed weird westerns set in the town of Golgotha, The Six-Gun Tarot and The Shotgun Arcana, and an urban fantasy that explores a gritty occult underworld, Nightwise.

His latest is the opening volume in a new urban fantasy about a mysterious society of truckers known only as The Brotherhood of The Wheel. It’s available in hardcover from Tor Books next week.

In 1119 A.D., a group of nine crusaders became known as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon–a militant monastic order charged with protecting pilgrims and caravans traveling on the roads to and from the Holy Land. In time, the Knights Templar would grow in power and, ultimately, be laid low. But a small offshoot of the Templars endure and have returned to the order’s original mission: to defend the roads of the world and guard those who travel on them.

Theirs is a secret line of knights: truckers, bikers, taxi hacks, state troopers, bus drivers, RV gypsies — any of the folks who live and work on the asphalt arteries of America. They call themselves the Brotherhood of the Wheel.

Jimmy Aussapile is one such knight. He’s driving a big rig down South when a promise to a ghostly hitchhiker sets him on a quest to find out the terrible truth behind a string of children gone missing all across the country. The road leads him to Lovina Hewitt, a skeptical Louisiana State Police investigator working the same case and, eventually, to a forgotten town that’s not on any map — and to the secret behind the eerie Black-Eyed Kids said to prowl the highways.

The Brotherhood of the Wheel will be published by Tor Books on March 1, 2016. It is 384 pages, priced at $27.99 in hardcover and $14.99 for the digital edition. See all of our coverage of the best upcoming fantasy here.

Future Treasures: The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

Monday, February 22, 2016 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

Ken Liu has been one of the breakout fantasy stars this decade. His first novel, The Grace of Kings, was nominated for a Nebula Award last week, and Amal El-Mohtar called it “a magnificent fantasy epic.” As a translator he’s brought some of the most important Chinese-language SF to America, including last year’s Hugo winner, The Three Body Problem, by Cixin Liu.

But much of Ken Liu’s reputation was built on a stellar series of short stories published in places like Clarkesworld, F&SF, Asimov’s, Analog, Strange Horizons, and Lightspeed. He’s received virtually every award our field has to offer for his short fiction, including the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards — and he was the first person ever to win all three awards for a single story, “The Paper Menagerie,” originally published in the March-April 2011 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (read the complete story at io9).

Next month Saga Press will publish Ken’s first short story collection, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, collecting all of his award-winning and nominated fiction, including “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary” (Finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards), “Mono No Aware” (Hugo Award winner), “The Waves” (Nebula Award finalist), “The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species” (Nebula and Sturgeon award finalists), “All the Flavors” (Nebula award finalist), “The Litigation Master and the Monkey King” (Nebula Award finalist), and the title story, “The Paper Menagerie.”

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories also includes a brand-new story exclusive to this volume, “An Advanced Reader’s Picture Book of Comparative Cognition.”

Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

…

Future Treasures: Guile by Constance Cooper

Sunday, February 21, 2016 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

Art for "The Wily Thing" by Michael Vilardi (BG 12) — Art for “The Wily Thing” by Michael Vilardi *(BG 12)*

I frequently get excited by upcoming fantasy novels. But I rarely get as excited as I am by Guile, the debut fantasy novel from Constance Cooper, to be released next month by Clarion Books. Here’s Constance, from her blog:

Guile started with a short story called “The Wily Thing” which was published in Black Gate magazine in 2008. It was well received…

It was indeed. Here’s Lois Tilton at The Internet Review of Science Fiction:

Yonie and her cat LaRue make a meager living as Seers in one of the cheaper districts of Wicked Ford. Actually LaRue is the Seer, having been nearly drowned as a kitten. It is prolonged contact with the waters that make an object or a person guileful. Now a fisherman has brought Yonie an object, a ship’s gong taken from a wrecked vessel, that has some very dangerous wiles, but the fisherman has disappeared before she can warn him about it — and be paid.

An absolute delight. The setting is fascinating and original, every detail crafted in prose with real charm… RECOMMENDED.

“The Wily Thing” originally appeared in Black Gate 12, and it’s one of my favorite stories from that era of the magazine. The novel tells a brand new tale of Yonie and her magically gifted cat LaRue, set in the treacherous waters of Wicked Ford.

…

Future Treasures: Good Girls by Glen Hirshberg

Friday, February 19, 2016 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

Motherless Child, the opening novel is what was to become the Motherless Child trilogy, was met with a flood of praise when it first appeared in 2014. The Los Angles Review of Books labeled it “One of the best books of the year,” and Elizabeth Hand called it “A subversive, thrilling novel that subverts everything we’ve come to expect from tales that traffic in the undead.” And The Washington Post said, “The final standoff will leave readers breathless.” Now the creepy vampire saga continues in the sequel, Good Girls, on sale next week from Tor Books.

Reeling from the violent death of her daughter and a confrontation with the Whistler — the monster who wrecked her life — Jess has fled the South for a tiny college town in New Hampshire. There she huddles in a fire-blackened house with her crippled lover, her infant grandson, and the creature that was once her daughter’s best friend and may or may not be a threat.

Rebecca, a college student orphaned in childhood, cares for Jess’s grandson, and finds in Jess’s house the promise of a family she has never known, but also a terrifying secret.

Meanwhile, unhinged and unmoored, the Whistler watches from the rooftops and awaits his moment.

And deep in the Mississippi Delta, the evil that spawned him stirs…

Good Girls will be published by Tor Books on February 23, 2016. It is 349 pages, priced at $26.99 in hardcover and $7.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Alejandro Colucci.

See all our coverage in the best in upcoming fantasy here.

Prime Announces Table of Contents for The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Novellas 2016, edited by Paula Guran

Thursday, February 18, 2016 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

My favorite book last year was The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Novellas 2015, edited by Paula Guran. Packed full of the best and most ambitious short SF and fantasy of the year, it was also a terrific bargain, collecting novellas by Patrick Rothfuss, Nancy Kress, Genevieve Valentine, K. J. Parker, James S. A. Corey, and others — including several that had been previously published only in expensive limited edition formats.

Prime and Paula Guran have announced the line-up for this year’s volume, and it looks even better, with widely acclaimed tales by Usman Malik, C.S.E. Cooney, Aliette de Bodard, Nnedi Okorafor, K. J. Parker, and many others — including two standalone Tor.com releases, Binti and The Last Witness, that would cost you more than the price of this book alone. Here’s the complete list:

“The Citadel of Weeping Pearls” by Aliette de Bodard (Asimov’s SF, Oct/Nov 2015)
“The Bone Swans of Amandale” by C.S.E. Cooney (Bone Swans, Mythic Delirium Books)
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)
The Last Witness by K. J. Parker (Tor.com)
“Johnny Rev” by Rachel Pollack (F&SF, July/Aug 2015)
“Inhuman Garbage,” Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Asimov’s, March 2015)
“Gypsy,” Carter Scholz (F&SF, Nov/Dec 2015)
“The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn,” Usman Malik (Tor.com)
“What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear” by Bao Shu, translated by Ken Liu (F&SF, Mar/Apr 2015)

The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Novellas 2016 will be published by Prime Books on August 2, 2016. It is 528 pages, priced at $19.95 in trade paperback and $6.99 for the digital version. The cover is by Julie Dillon.

…

Future Treasures: The Ever-Expanding Universe Trilogy by Martin Leicht and Isla Neal

Wednesday, February 17, 2016 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

There isn’t a lot of zany comedy in science fiction and fantasy… and with the loss of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, it sometimes seems there’s a distinct lack of comedy, period. Maybe that’s why I was so intrigued by the Ever-Expanding Universe trilogy from the writing team of Martin Leicht and Isla Neal, which follows the misadventures of pregnant teen Elvie Nara, who discovers her baby is a pawn in the convoluted schemes of the alien Almiri as they attempt to repopulate their species. Comedy is a rare thing in SF, and comedy about motherhood (especially one that opens with the main character shipped off to a School for Expecting Teen Mothers) is doubly so.

Publishers Weekly praised the opening volume, Mothership, for its “fast-paced action, laugh-out-loud moments, and memorable characters… a whole lot of fun.” It was published last month by Saga Press, and the next two volumes follow in short order in February and March.

Mothership (336 pages, January 26, 2016)
A Stranger Thing (304 pages, February 23, 2016)
The World Forgot (288 pages, March 29, 2016)

All three books are mass market paperbacks, priced at $7.99 in paperback and $6.99 for the digital versions. Get more details and read an excerpt at the Saga Press website.

Future Treasures: Black City Saint by Richard A. Knaak

Monday, February 15, 2016 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

Blending genres seems to be all the rage these days… but nobody does it like Richard A. Knaak. His latest is a historical urban fantasy gangster horror novel, which combines action, mystery and even romance — quite a trick. Brian Staveley, author of The Emperor’s Blades, says “Black City Saint is jam-packed with awesome – cursed Roman emperors, incorporeal dragons, paranormal detectives, a shapeshifter from the Feirie realm trapped inside a dog’s body, and one very tormented unsaintly Christian saint — all set in prohibition-era Chicago… a brilliant mash-up of Ghostbusters, The Da Vinci Code, and the ancient story of St. George and the Dragon.”

For more than sixteen hundred years, Nick Medea has followed and guarded the Gate that keeps the mortal realm and that of Feirie separate, seeking in vain absolution for the fatal errors he made when he slew the dragon. All that while, he has tried and failed to keep the woman he loves from dying over and over.

Yet in the fifty years since the Night the Dragon Breathed over the city of Chicago, the Gate has not only remained fixed, but open to the trespasses of the Wyld, the darkest of the Feiriefolk. Not only does that mean an evil resurrected from Nick’s own past, but the reincarnation of his lost Cleolinda, a reincarnation destined once more to die.

Nick must turn inward to that which he distrusts the most: the Dragon, the beast he slew when he was still only Saint George. He must turn to the monster residing in him, now a part of him… but ever seeking escape.

The gang war brewing between Prohibition bootleggers may be the least of his concerns. If Nick cannot prevent an old evil from opening the way between realms… then not only might Chicago face a fate worse than the Great Fire, but so will the rest of the mortal realm.

Black City Saint will be published by Pyr Books on March 1, 2016. It is 383 pages, priced at $18 in trade paperback and $11.99 for the digital edition. The cover was designed by Jacqueline Nasso Cooke.

Future Treasures: Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

Saturday, February 13, 2016 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

I’ve followed Matt Ruff’s career since his 1988 debut novel Fool on the Hill, a modern fairy tale set in the campus of Cornell University. His more recent novels include Set This House in Order, the tale of a man with hundreds of personalities who’s asked to assist a co-worker also afflicted with multiple personality disorder, and The Mirage, an alternative history of 9/11.

His latest novel blends historical fiction, pulp noir, and Lovecraftian horror as it follows a black man on his journey across America. A journey in which he faces police harassment, discrimination… and the attentions of something far darker.

Chicago, 1954. When his father Montrose goes missing, 22-year-old Army veteran Atticus Turner embarks on a road trip to New England to find him, accompanied by his Uncle George—publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide — and his childhood friend Letitia. On their journey to the manor of Mr. Braithwhite — heir to the estate that owned one of Atticus’s ancestors — they encounter both mundane terrors of white America and malevolent spirits that seem straight out of the weird tales George devours.

At the manor, Atticus discovers his father in chains, held prisoner by a secret cabal named the Order of the Ancient Dawn — led by Samuel Braithwhite and his son Caleb — which has gathered to orchestrate a ritual that shockingly centers on Atticus. And his one hope of salvation may be the seed of his — and the whole Turner clan’s — destruction.

A chimerical blend of magic, power, hope, and freedom that stretches across time, touching diverse members of two black families, Lovecraft Country is a devastating kaleidoscopic portrait of racism — the terrifying specter that continues to haunt us today.

Lovecraft Country will be published by Harper on February 16, 2016. It is 384 pages, priced at $26.99 in hardcover and $11.99 in digital format.

Black Gate

Adventures in Fantasy Literature

Browsed by
Category: Future Treasures