Successful fantasy novels evolve towards a series. That’s like the fourth law of Thermodynamics. An expression of the natural order of the universe. Readers demand it; publishers are more than happy to accommodate, and authors…. well, what author can refuse her public?
Kristen Britain’s debut novel Green Rider was very successful. It was only the second hardcover fantasy debut DAW ever published (the first was Tad Williams’s Tailchaser’s Song), and the extra effort paid off. I received a review copy while I was the editor at SF Site in 1998, and when I gave it to my niece Sabrina to get her opinion, her mother called to complain that she spent all her time in her room reading, and wouldn’t come down for dinner. I wasn’t at all surprised to see it become a New York Times bestseller, and kick off one of the first major fantasy series of the 21st Century.
Yoon Ha Lee’s debut novel Ninefox Gambit was one of the most acclaimed SF novels of 2016, nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula awards, and its sequel, Raven Stratagem, is one of the most highly anticipated books of 2017. It arrives in paperback from Solaris next month,
Captain Kel Cheris is possessed by a long-dead traitor general. Together they must face the rivalries of the hexarchate and a potentially devastating invasion.
When the hexarchate’s gifted young captain Kel Cheris summoned the ghost of the long-dead General Shuos Jedao to help her put down a rebellion, she didn’t reckon on his breaking free of centuries of imprisonment – and possessing her.
Even worse, the enemy Hafn are invading, and Jedao takes over General Kel Khiruev’s fleet, which was tasked with stopping them. Only one of Khiruev’s subordinates, Lieutenant Colonel Kel Brezan, seems to be able to resist the influence of the brilliant but psychotic Jedao.
Jedao claims to be interested in defending the hexarchate, but can Khiruev or Brezan trust him? For that matter, will the hexarchate’s masters wipe out the entire fleet to destroy the rogue general?
Both novels are set in the world of the hexarchate, also the setting for over half a dozen of Lee’s short stories, most of which can be read online. Raven Stratagem will be published by Solaris on June 13, 2017. It is 400 pages, priced at $9.99 in paperback and $6.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Chris Moore. Read an excerpt at Tor.com, and see all out coverage of the best upcoming SF & Fantasy here.
A Nostalgic Space Opera: The Psi-Tech Novels by Jacey Bedford
God bless DAW for being willing to experiment. They published Jacey Bedford’s debut space opera novel Empire of Dust in paperback in 2014, and it has done well enough to spawn two additional volumes: Crossways (2015) and the upcoming Nimbus. [Bedford has also launched the Rowankindfantasy series that currently stands at two novels: Winterwood (2016) and Silverwolf (2017).] I hope all their experiments work out so well for them.
Empire of Dust seems tailor-made to appeal to old-school SF fans. Liz Bourke at Tor.com called it Nostalgic Space Opera, saying:
When I consider how to describe it, the first word that comes to mind is “old-fashioned”: there is little to say this space opera novel could not have been published two decades ago, or even three… Bedford is not writing innovative space opera, but rather the space opera of nostalgia. There is, here, something that reminds me vaguely of James H. Schmitz: not just the psionics but a certain briskness of writing style and the appeal of the protagonists, and the way in which Bedford’s vision of the societies of a human future feels at least two steps behind where we are today. This is a vision of a very Western future, and one where it’s unremarkable for a married woman to bear her husband’s name; where the ecological ethics of colonising “empty” planets don’t rate a paragraph, and religious separatists can set out to found a colony on the tools of 19th century settlers: oxen and wagons, historic crafts and manly men whose wives will follow them on the next boat.
Rachel Vincent is the author of the bestselling Shiftersseries, an urban fantasy series about a female werecat, and the Unbound trilogy, about a paranormal tracker. Her YA Soul Screamer series, featuring a high school girl who discovers she’s a banshee, has grown to an impressive 8 novels.
Her new adult fantasy series about carnival magic debuted with Menagerie in October 2015. The second volume, Spectacle, arrives in trade paperback on May 30. Here’s the description for the first volume.
When Delilah Marlow visits a famous traveling carnival, Metzger’s Menagerie, she is an ordinary woman in a not-quite-ordinary world. But under the macabre circus big-top, she discovers a fierce, sharp-clawed creature lurking just beneath her human veneer. Captured and put on exhibition, Delilah is stripped of her worldly possessions, including her own name, as she’s forced to “perform” in town after town.
But there is breathtaking beauty behind the seamy and grotesque reality of the carnival. Gallagher, her handler, is as kind as he is cryptic and strong. The other “attractions” — mermaids, minotaurs, griffins and kelpies — are strange, yes, but they share a bond forged by the brutal realities of captivity. And as Delilah struggles for her freedom, and for her fellow menagerie, she’ll discover a strength and a purpose she never knew existed.
Last year we talked aboutWar Factory, the second novel in Neal Asher’s Transformationseries. So I kept my eye out for the third volume, Infinity Engine, which arrived in hardcover in March.
Infinity Engine was simultaneously published in the US by Night Shade (above left; cover by Adam Burn) and in the UK by Tor (above right, cover by Steve Stone). Over at Worlds in Ink, KJ Mulder expresses his enthusiasm for the US version.
I’m a huge fan of Neal Asher’s work and the covers for his novels are always something special. The covers for Infinity Engine, the conclusion to the Transformationtrilogy, [are] no exception. This time round the folks at Night Shade Books have pulled out all the stops for the US edition that simply blows their UK counterpart out of the water. The artwork by Adam Burn is absolutely stunning. I think he might have just dethroned Jon Sullivan as my favourite cover artist.
With all due respect to my South African colleague Mulder, I think he’s way off base here. The Adam Burn’s cover, with its cataclysmic energy and vibrant yellows, is certainly eye-catching. But if these two books were side by side in Barnes & Noble, it would be Steve Stone’s cover, depicting a starship plunging at full speed into the churning, cold blue maelstrom of deep space, that I would reach for.
Shared worlds are chiefly a fantasy phenomenon — Thieves’ World, Liavek, Merovingen Nights, Heroes in Hell, Wild Cards — but not exclusively. In 2012, bestselling author Eric Brown created Weird Space, a shared world for Abaddon Books. Here’s an excerpt from the original press release.
This thrilling space-opera series will begin with the release of The Devil’s Nebula. Brown will introduce readers to the human smugglers, veterans and ne’erdowells who are part of the Expansion – and their uneasy neighbors, the Vetch Empire. When an evil race threatens not only the Expansion, but the Vetch too — an evil from another dimension which infests humans and Vetch alike and bends individuals to do their hideous bidding, only cooperation between them means the difference between a chance of survival and no chance at all.
Four novels have been written so far:
The Devil’s Nebula by Eric Brown (350 pages, May 29, 2012) Satan’s Reach by Eric Brown (281 pages, July 30, 2013) The Baba Yaga by Eric Brown and Una McCormack (332 pages, July 1, 2015) The Star of the Sea by Una McCormack (297 pages, October 25, 2016)
All four were published by Abaddon, priced at $7.99 in paperback, and $5.99 for the digital editions. The covers are by Adam Tredowski.
I met Aliette de Bodard at the Nebula Awards Weekend here in Chicago in 2015, and I was totally charmed. She is smart, self-deprecating, and very funny (and a very sharp dresser, as I recall). That was a few months before the debut of her major fantasy novel The House of Shattered Wings, which won the 2015 British Science Fiction Award, and which Tim Powers called “A Gothic masterpiece of supernatural intrigues, loves and betrayals in a ruined and decadent future Paris… this novel will haunt you long after you’ve put it down.” On her website, Aliette describes the books as:
A series of dark Gothic fantasies set in a turn-of-the-century Paris devastated by a magical war – featuring magicians, witches, alchemists, Fallen angels, and the odd Vietnamese ex-Immortal…
The second novel, The House of Binding Thorns, arrived in trade paperback from Ace last month, and it’s already winning wide acclaim. F&SF called it “dizzying and beautiful,” and the B&N Sci-Fi Blogcalled it “A truly grand story, brimming with action, heart, representation, and magic.”
Joshua Palmatier’s Ley Trilogy is one of the more original fantasy series out there. Set in Erenthrall, a vast city of light and magic fueled by a ley line network, the series follows a sprawling cast of rebels, traders, assassins, guardsmen, and magic wielders through a series of shattering events that bring apocalyptic change to their world, including quakes, magical distortions, and creatures beyond nightmare. The first novel is available in paperback from DAW, and the second in hardcover; the final volume arrives this August.
Shattering the Ley (484 pages, $25.95 in hardcover/$9.99 paperback/$7.99 digital, July 1, 2014) Threading the Needle (453 pages, $27 in hardcover/$13.99 digital, July 5, 2016) Reaping the Aurora (464 pages, $26 in hardcover, August 1, 2017)
All three covers are by Stephan Martiniere. Here’s the description for the opening volume.
Isabelle Steiger is something of a mystery, to me at least. She came out of nowhere… no previous novels, no short stories that I can find, zip. Not even a website.
Is Steiger a pseudonym, maybe? Who knows. All I know is that she’s produced the opening novel of a brand new fantasy series that’s getting a lot of attention — no small achievement. The Empire’s Ghost arrives in hardcover in ten days.
The empire of Elesthene once spanned a continent, but its rise heralded the death of magic. It tore itself apart from within, leaving behind a patchwork of kingdoms struggling to rebuild.
But when a new dictator, the ambitious and enigmatic Imperator Elgar, seizes power in the old capital and seeks to recreate the lost empire anew, the other kingdoms have little hope of stopping him. Prince Kelken of Reglay finds himself at odds with his father at his country’s darkest hour; the marquise of Esthrades is unmatched in politics and strategy, but she sits at a staggering military disadvantage. And Issamira, the most powerful of the free countries, has shut itself off from the conflict, thrown into confusion by the disappearance of its crown prince and the ensuing struggle for succession.
Everything seems aligned in Elgar’s favor, but when he presses a band of insignificant but skilled alley-dwellers into his service for a mission of greatest secrecy, they find an unexpected opportunity to alter the balance of power in the war. Through their actions and those of the remaining royals, they may uncover not just a way to defeat Elgar, but also a deeper truth about their world’s lost history.
The Empire’s Ghost will be published by Thomas Dunne Books on May 16, 2017. It is 419 pages, priced at $25.99 in hardcover and $12.99 for the digital edition. The cover was designed by Young Jin Lim,
Worldbuilding a “Star Punk” Future #2: Post-Certainty Society in Elizabeth Moon’s Vatta’s Peace
Go on a Traveller RPG forum and ask for book recommendations, and somebody will suggest Elizabeth Moon’s Vatta’s War series — a series that has just spawned a rather good sequel, Vatta’s Peace.
The Vattabooks are, of course, a really good read. They’re gritty and realistic — it helps that Moon’s ex-military. They’re also fast-paced and well-written, they have vivid characters you enjoy hanging out with, and a strong female protagonist (or two). The same can be said of her other big SF series, affectionately known among my friends as “Scary Horse Aunts In Space” (*) but it’s the Vattabooks that come up because they feel a lot like Traveller, meaning they fit my definition of Star Punk:
Set in [a] spacefaring civilization… where… technology has somehow failed to eliminate the human element, where you still need a human to pull the trigger or pilot the scout ship, and where nanotechnology, 3D-printing and vertical farms have neither eliminated trade, nor ushered in a crime-free post scarcity society. They all involve individuals or companions — adventurers, traders, investigators, contractors — pursuing goals of only local significance. (*)
Except for not being an ensemble piece, the series really could be a superior Travellercampaign! It even kicks off with Ky operating as a free trader having left Naval Academy due to a scandal — did somebody fail her survival roll during character generation? It expands to encompass family corporations, commercial espionage, romance, family drama, conspiracy, politics, atrocity, piracy and ultimately set-piece space battles.
However, it rarely loses sight of the business of space travel. Our intrepid hero must deal with crew, repairs, finance, quirky local custom, in addition to the issues around using a civilian ship in armed conflict against pirates and other enemies… this is like a story from the 1970s, but with a tighter plot, modern diversity and values, and much better writing.
The setting — the worldbuilding — is also very Traveller-like in that the technology is limited in such a manner as to create a near-future-but in spaaace feel. Moon achieves this mostly by deploying the third of the options identified in the my last article: she turns the technology against itself.
