International fiction, including several exciting books in translation, and collections of short fiction are the highlights of this fall’s list. Longtime fans of science fiction and fantasy will also be delighted to see new books from cherished authors Connie Willis and Peter S. Beagle, and a collection of novellas by the legendary Ursula K. Le Guin.
Top 10
Behind the Throne
K.B. Wagers. Orbit, Aug. 2
Taut suspense and dark, rapid-fire humor mark this excellent debut, in which an interplanetary adventurer is forced to take her place as the heir to an imperial throne.
Certain Dark Things
Silvia Moreno-Garcia. St. Martin’s/Dunne, Oct. 25
This novel, set in Mexico City, combines elements of Latin-American mythology with a literary voice to turn vampire fiction on its head.
Crossroads of Canopy
Thoraiya Dyer. Tor, Jan. 31
The highly anticipated fantasy debut from the Aurealis- and Ditmar-award-winning author is set in a giant mythical rainforest controlled by living gods.
Crosstalk
Connie Willis. Del Rey, Oct. 4
SFWA Grand Master Willis’s first novel since 2010’s Blackout/All Clear is a rollicking send-up of obsessive cellphone usage in too-near-future America.
The Found and the Lost: The Collected Novellas of Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin. S&S/Saga, Oct. 18
All the novellas by SFWA Grand Master Le Guin are collected for the first time—and introduced by the legendary author—in one volume.
The Graveyard Apartment
Mariko Koike, trans. by Deborah Boliver Boehm. St. Martin’s/Dunne, Oct. 11
A young couple believe they have found the perfect home to grow into, only to realize that the apartment’s idyllic setting harbors the specter of evil.
Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation
Edited and trans. by Ken Liu. Tor, Nov. 1
The Hugo-winning author and translator brings 13 Chinese science fiction short stories to English-reading audiences, along with several essays by Chinese scholars and authors.
Isra-Isle
Nava Semel, trans. by Jessica Cohen. Mandel Vilar, Oct. 25
In 1825 Mordecai Noah, a diplomat, bought Grand Island, near Niagara Falls, as a refuge for Jews. In 2001, his descendant goes to find it—and disappears without a trace.
Summerlong
Peter S. Beagle. Tachyon, Sept. 13
Beagle (The Last Unicorn) returns with this long-anticipated new novel, a beautifully bittersweet tale of passion, enchantment, and the nature of fate.
Swift to Chase
Laird Barron. JournalStone, Oct. 7
The celebrated horror author’s fourth collection of macabre stories continues his inquiry into the darkness of the human heart.
SF, Fantasy & Horror Listings
Ace
Ninth City Burning by J. Patrick Black (Sept. 6, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-1-101-99144-2). In this epic science fiction debut, Earth has battled an alien force for over 500 years, but the course of the war is about to change.
Amazon/47North
Bury the Living by Jodi McIsaac (Sept. 6, trade paper, $10.99, ISBN 978-1-5039-3551-8). During Northern Ireland’s infamous Troubles, teen Nora joined the IRA to fight for her country’s freedom. A decade later, a mystical artifact transports her back to the height of Ireland’s brutal civil war, giving her the chance to alter the fortunes of Ireland and maybe even save the ones she loves.
Angry Robot
An Accident of Stars: Book I of the Manifold Worlds by Foz Meadows (Aug. 2, mass market, $7.99, ISBN 978-0-85766-585-0). Saffron Coulter becomes an accidental worldwalker. In her travels, she befriends sorcerers, queens, and rebels, and changes the fate of nations. But eventually she has to go home, where life will never be the same.
Kojiki by Keith Yatsuhashi (Aug. 2, mass market, $7.99, ISBN 978-0-85766-615-4). A young woman travels to Japan to fulfill her father’s dying wish and stumbles into a mythic struggle between divine forces.
The Rise of Io by Wesley Chu (Oct. 4, trade paper, $14.99, ISBN 978-0-85766-582-9). Ella Patel—thief, con artist, and smuggler—is on the border of a demilitarized zone run by the body-swapping alien invaders when she observes a woman’s violent death. As she dies, the alien inhabiting her body moves to Ella’s and demands her help completing an urgent mission.
Atria/Bestler
Blood Riders: A Novel by Gary Oldman and Douglas Urbanski (Nov. 22, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-5011-0568-5). Magnus Blackwell rises from his coffin to join the 1880s community of Echo Basin. By day he is a gentleman, a seemingly civic-minded and active member of the community. By night he is a hunter, an adventurer, and a vampire.
Baen
Shadow of Victory by David Weber (Nov. 1, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-4767-8182-2). The Mesan Alignment has a plan to remake the galaxy and genetically improve the human race—and to get its way, it uses sneak attacks and false-flag operations to begin an interstellar war between two major galactic powers.
Bedazzled Ink
Haunting Muses, edited by Doreen Perrine (Oct. 1, trade paper, $12.95, ISBN 978-1-943837-52-6). In this collection of lesbian stories, ghosts (both literal and metaphorical) aren’t necessarily evil, and hauntings may or may not be bad.
Berkley
Crimson Death: An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Novel by Laurell K. Hamilton (Oct. 11, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-101-98773-5). In her 25th adventure, vampire hunter and zombie raiser Anita Blake learns how far she’ll go to save someone she loves.
Bold Strokes
Believing in Blue by Maggie Morton (Sept. 13, trade paper, $18.95, ISBN 978-1-62639-691-3). Growing up gay in a small town has been hard, but it can’t compare to the next challenge facing Wren and her new sky-blue wings: saving two entire worlds.
Candlemark & Gleam
Drakon by A.M. Tuomala (Nov. 29, trade paper, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-936460-69-4). The year is 1880. Ever since the Ottoman Empire bought the allegiance of the dragons, the Tarasov family has stood guard against them on the disputed borderlands. But the bloodthirsty dragons they’ve feared and fought all their lives aren’t what they seem.
Chizine
The Rib from Which I Remake the World by Ed Kurtz (Sept. 13, trade paper, $16.99, ISBN 978-1-7714-8390-2). What begins with a gruesome and impossible murder soon spirals into hallucinatory waking nightmares for hotel house detective Jojo in WWII Arkansas. Black magic and a terrifying Luciferian carnival boil up to a surreal finale.
City Owl
Truthsight by Miriam Greystone (Nov. 1, trade paper, $14.99, ISBN 978-1-944728-04-5). Amy, a doctor, spends her nights running a secret clinic for supernatural creatures. When she is forced to use her magic to save the lives of a centaur infant and its mother, she vows never to regret her decision, no matter what the consequences.
DAW
The Heart of What Was Lost: A Novel of Osten Ard by Tad Williams (Jan. 3, hardcover, $22, ISBN 978-0-7564-1248-7) is a short sequel to the epic and bestselling Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy. It tells how newly crowned King Simon and Queen Miriamele drove the Norns, the most human-antagonistic fae, back into their mountain stronghold.
Del Rey
The Bear and the Nightingale: A Novel by Katherine Arden (Jan. 10, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-1-101-88593-2). A young woman’s family is threatened by forces both real and fantastical in this debut novel inspired by Russian fairy tales.
Crosstalk by Connie Willis (Oct. 4, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-345-54067-6). In a novel that’s part romantic comedy and part social satire, SFWA Grand Master Willis examines the consequences of having too much connectivity, and what happens in a world where, suddenly, nothing is private.
The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville (Aug. 9, hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-0-345-54399-8). In 1941, a surrealist bomb exploded in Nazi-occupied Paris, unleashing thousands of manifs—physical manifestations of images taken from surrealist paintings. Some were merely whimsical; others were terrifying and dangerous. Now it’s 1950 and New Paris, as it’s called, is the epicenter of the continuing war.
Edge
Terminal City by Trevor Melanson (Sept. 15, trade paper, $14.95, ISBN 978-1-7705-3083-6). Mason Cross never wanted to be anything like his father, a famous professor who was also a necromancer. But death changes people. Now Mason is following in his dead dad’s footsteps, down a dark, solitary path between two competing lives.
Hadley Rille
A Villa Far from Home by Sheila Finch (Aug. 19, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-0-997118-83-4). A 16-year-old Roman girl and her illegitimate child are exiled by the Emperor Nero to Britannia. A middle-aged Celtic king of an insignificant tribe is trying to find middle ground between Celtic tradition and Roman rule, making enemies on both sides. And the shadow of martyred Queen Boudicca lies like a curse on the land.
Harper Voyager
Breath of Earth: A Novel by Beth Cato (Aug. 23, trade paper, $14.99, ISBN 978-0-06-242206-4). Steampunk author Cato (The Clockwork Dagger) turns to the U.S. in this well-researched and vivid fantasy set in an alternate 1906 San Francisco that’s protected from earthquakes by geomancers. 35,000-copy announced first printing.
The Queen of Blood: Book 1 of the Queens of Renthia by Sarah Beth Durst (Sept. 20, hardcover, $19.99, ISBN 978-0-06-241334-5). Only the queen stands between malevolent spirits and the end of humankind. With her position so precarious, young women are trained as her heirs. Two of them, an idealistic young student and a banished warrior, become allies in a battle to save their realm. 50,000-copy announced first printing.
Inkshares
The Seventh Age: Dawn by Rick Heinz (Nov. 1, trade paper, $15.99, ISBN 978-1-941758-89-2). Mike’s death-defying stunts have brought him closer than ever to lifting the veil of reality, always just out of reach. However, his ventures to the edge of death have not gone unnoticed, and a mysterious organization seeks to recruit him to their own cause: preparing the city for impending Ragnarok.
Journalstone
Swift to Chase by Laird Barron (Oct. 7, trade paper, $18.95, ISBN 978-1-945373-05-3). Celebrated horror author Barron’s fourth collection of macabre stories continues his inquiry into the darkness of the human heart.
Mandel Vilar
Isra-Isle: A Novel by Nava Semel, trans. from the Hebrew by Jessica Cohen (Oct. 25, trade paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-1-942134-19-0). In 1825 Mordecai Noah, a diplomat, bought Grand Island, near Niagara Falls, as a refuge for Jews. In 2001, Liam Emanuel learns about and inherits the island. He leaves Israel with a burning desire to reclaim this historic promised land in America—and vanishes with no trace.
Medallion
The Book of Ralph by Christopher Steinsvold (Aug. 9, trade paper, $14.99, ISBN 978-1-942546-34-4). Ralph, an eccentric extraterrestrial who’s been hiding on the moon, needs one hapless man’s help to personally deliver a dark warning to the White House. Ralph has a big heart, a fondness for Andy Warhol’s art, and a dangerous plan to save the world.
Nerdist
Welcome to Deadland by Zachary Tyler Linville (Aug. 9, hardcover, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-941758-85-4). The few people left after a zombie apocalypse are thrust together to fight for their lives. Asher is Wendy’s only friend; as he clings to her, she hides a dark secret. Rico is a 17-year-old rebel who has to grow up fast to protect a six-year-old boy. These ragged survivors become humankind’s only hope.
Orbit
Behind the Throne by K.B. Wagers (Aug. 2, trade paper, $14.99, ISBN 978-0-316-30860-1) is an action-packed science fiction adventure trilogy launch. When notorious space adventurer Hail Bristol is dragged back to her home planet to take her rightful place as the heir to the throne, she finds that trading her ship for a palace is her most dangerous move yet. 50,000-copy announced first printing.
The Blood Mirror by Brent Weeks (Oct. 25, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-316-25133-4) continues the Lightbringer epic fantasy series. Former emperor Gavin Guile, stripped of both magical and political power, is now imprisoned in his own magical dungeon. But the world faces a calamity greater than the Seven Satrapies has ever seen, and only he can save it. 150,000-copy announced first printing.
Feedback by Mira Grant (Oct. 4, hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-0-316-37934-2) is a full-length Newsflesh novel that overlaps the events of Feed. It covers the presidential campaign from the perspective of scrappy underdog reporters relentlessly pursuing the truth while competing against superstar bloggers, surrounded by zombies, and facing more insidious forces working in the shadows. 75,000-copy announced first printing.
PM
Fire. by Elizabeth Hand (Jan. 1, trade paper, $13, ISBN 978-1-62963-234-6). The title story, written especially for this collection, is a harrowing, postapocalyptic adventure in a world threatened by global conflagration. “The Woman Men Couldn’t See” is an expansion of Hand’s acclaimed critical assessment of author Alice B. Sheldon, aka James Tiptree Jr. Also included are two more stories, an essay, and a candid interview.
Pyr
Congress of Secrets by Stephanie Burgis (Nov. 1, trade paper, $17, ISBN 978-1-63388-199-0) is a fantasy version of the historical 1814 Congress of Vienna, in which alchemy is a tool for political intrigue.
Restless
The Winterlings by Cristina Sánchez-Andrade, trans. by Samuel Rutter (Nov. 8, trade paper, $16.99, ISBN 978-1-63206-109-6), is a reckoning with violent history, the occult, and death, set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War’s fallout and Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Roc
After Atlas: A Planetfall Novel by Emma Newman (Nov. 8, trade paper, $15, ISBN 978-0-425-28240-3). Govcorp detective Carlos Moreno was only a baby when the Atlas expedition left Earth to seek truth among the stars. It took his mother away; made his father lose hope; and led Alejandro Casales, leader of the religious cult known as the Circle, to his door.
Rosarium
The Voices of Martyrs by Maurice Broaddus (Nov., trade paper, $17.95, ISBN 978-0-9967692-5-9), the first collection from the acclaimed fantasy author, draws on voices from the past, present, and future—the voices that shape stories, the stories that shape lives.
S&S/Saga
Bookburners by Max Gladstone (Nov. 15, hardcover, $32.99, ISBN 978-1-4814-8557-9) is an urban fantasy about a secret team of agents that hunts down dangerous books containing deadly magic—previously released serially online by Serial Box, now available in print for the first time.
The Found and the Lost: The Collected Novellas of Ursula K. Le Guin by Ursula K. Le Guin (Oct. 18, hardcover, $29.99, ISBN 978-1-4814-5139-0). All the novellas by SFWA Grand Master Le Guin are collected for the first time—and introduced by the legendary author—in one volume.
The Mountain of Kept Memory by Rachel Neumeier (Nov. 8, hardcover, $25.99, ISBN 978-1-4814-4894-9). In this elaborate epic fantasy, a prince and a princess must work together to save their kingdom from outside invaders and dangers within.
The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley (Jan. 10, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-1-4814-4793-5). Set within a system of decaying world-ships traveling through deep space, this science fiction epic follows a pair of sisters who must take control of their war-torn legion of worlds—and may have to destroy everything they know in order to survive.
The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu (Oct. 4, hardcover, $29.99, ISBN 978-1-4814-2430-1). In the highly anticipated sequel to The Grace of Kings, Emperor Kuni Garu is faced with the invasion of an invincible army and must quickly find a way to defeat the intruders.
S&S/Gallery
The Devil Crept In by Ania Ahlborn (Dec. 6, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-1-4767-8375-8). In this intimate horror novel, a smalltown boy investigates the mysterious disappearance of his cousin and uncovers a terrifying secret kept hidden for years.
The Ferryman Institute: A Novel by Colin Gigl (Sept. 27, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-1-5011-2532-4). In this fantastical debut, a ferryman for the dead finds his existence unraveling after making either the best decision or the biggest mistake of his immortal life.
Skyhorse/Night Shade
MJ-12: Inception: A Majestic-12 Thriller by Michael J Martinez (Sept. 6, hardcover, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-5978-0877-4). A team of superhuman covert operatives emerges from the ashes of WWII in this Cold War–era paranormal espionage thriller. 20,000-copy announced first printing.
Skyhorse/Talos
Viscera by Gabriel Squailia (Oct. 4, trade paper, $15.99, ISBN 978-1-940456-68-3). A woman with strange abilities travels across a bizarre war-torn land in an inventive and gruesomely comic fantasy tale.
Small Beer
The Chemical Wedding by Christian Rosencreutz: A Romance in Eight Days by Johann Valentin Andreae, in a new version by John Crowley, illus. by Theo Fadel (Nov. 15, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-1-6187-3108-1). A new edition celebrating the 400th anniversary of one of the most outlandish stories in Western literature, with eight new woodcut illustrations. 5,000-copy announced first printing.
St. Martin’s
Curioddity by Paul Jenkins (Aug. 30, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-1-250-02615-6). Will Morgan is a low-budget insurance detective for whom imagination is a thing of the distant past. When a job opportunity enters the frame in the form of the mysterious Mr. Dinsdale—curator of the ever so slightly less-than-impressive Curioddity Museum—Will reluctantly accepts the task of finding a missing box of levity (the opposite of gravity).
St. Martin’s/Dunne
Certain Dark Things: A Novel by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Oct. 25, hardcover, $25.99, ISBN 978-1-250-09908-2) combines elements of Latin American mythology with a literary voice to turn vampire fiction on its head.
The Graveyard Apartment: A Novel by Mariko Koike, trans. by Deborah Boliver Boehm (Oct. 11, hardcover, $25.99, ISBN 978-1-250-06054-9). Originally published in Japan in 1986, Koike’s novel is the suspenseful tale of a young family that believes it has found the perfect home to grow into, only to realize that the apartment’s idyllic setting harbors the specter of evil. The longer they stay, the more trapped they become.
Tachyon
Pirate Utopia by Bruce Sterling, illus. by John Coulthart (Nov. 15, trade paper, $14.95, ISBN 978-1-61696-236-4). Who are these bold rebels pillaging their European neighbors in the name of revolution? The Futurists, who are utopian pirate warriors of the diminutive Regency of Carnaro, scourge of the Adriatic Sea. Fresh off of a worldwide demonstration of their might, can the Futurists engage the aid of sinister American traitors and establish world domination?
Summerlong by Peter S. Beagle (Sept. 13, trade paper, $15.95, ISBN 978-1-61696-244-9). Beagle (The Last Unicorn) returns with this long-anticipated novel, a beautifully bittersweet tale of passion, enchantment, and the nature of fate.
Tor
Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection by Brandon Sanderson (Nov. 8, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-7653-9116-2). A new Stormlight Archive novella will be the crown jewel of this first collection of short fiction by bestseller Sanderson, containing eight stories tied to his various series of novels.
Crossroads of Canopy: Book 1 in the Titan’s Forest Trilogy by Thoraiya Dyer (Jan. 31, hardcover, $25.99, ISBN 978-0-7653-8592-5) is the highly anticipated fantasy debut from Aurealis- and Ditmar-award-winning author Dyer, set in a giant mythical rainforest controlled by living gods.
Death’s End by Cixin Liu (Sept. 20, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-7653-7710-4) concludes the Three-Body trilogy by China’s most popular science fiction author. With human science advancing daily and the alien Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations will soon be able to co-exist peacefully as equals. But peace has also made humans complacent.
Everfair: A Novel by Nisi Shawl (Sept. 6, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-7653-3805-1) is a neo-Victorian alternate history that explores the question of what might have come of Belgium’s disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology just a little earlier.
The Family Plot by Cherie Priest (Sept. 20, hardcover, $25.99, ISBN 978-0-7653-7824-8). Augusta Withrow offers Chuck Dutton salvage rights to her entire property. This could be a gold mine, so he assigns his daughter to personally oversee the project. But something at the Withrow mansion is angry and lost, and this is its last chance to raise hell before the house is gone.
Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation by Ken Liu (Nov. 1, hardcover, $24.99, ISBN 978-0-7653-8419-5). Hugo-winning author and translator Liu brings 13 Chinese science fiction short stories to English-reading audiences. Some have won awards and garnered critical acclaim; some are simply Liu’s personal favorites. The volume also includes several essays from Chinese scholars and authors.
Spellbreaker by Blake Charlton (Aug. 23, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-7653-1729-2). Leandra Weal is one of three Wardens, charged with quelling neodemons who arise from malevolent thoughts and the magic energies of the world. A spell induces a vision that warns her she must either kill someone she loves or die herself—very soon—in order to prevent widespread destruction.
Urbane
Infinite Rooms by David John Griffin (Nov. 1, trade paper, $14.95, ISBN 978-1-910692-60-8). While Donald Clement narrates to a remembered psychiatrist, his inner reality becomes infused with surreal fantasy. As Donald falls deeper into the mental realm, the shocking truths he has been hiding—even from himself—are exposed.
Viking
The Hike: A Novel by Drew Magary (Aug. 2, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-0-399-56385-0). In this literary odyssey, Magary combines fascinating dream imagery, assorted video game tropes, and a story structure that’s deliberately predictable (with nods to many other tales of wandering through strange lands before returning home) but still surprising.
