Fiction: SF, Fantasy & Horror
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ACE
Arena by Holly Jennings (Apr. 5,
hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-101-98876-3).
Kali Ling is chosen to be the first female
captain in the RAGE tournaments—
the Virtual Gaming League’s elite com-
petition—but when one of her teammates
overdoses, she discovers the VGL hides
darks secrets. 35,000-copy announced
first printing.
Night Shift by Charlaine Harris
(May 3, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-425-
26322-8). In the third novel in Harris’s
New York Times bestselling Midnight,
Texas, series, resident vampire Lemuel
discovers why witches and werewolves,
killers and psychics, have been drawn
to the remote town. 150,000-copy
announced first printing.
AMAZON/47NORTH
New Charity Blues by Camille Griep
(Apr. 12, trade paper, $14.95, ISBN 978-
1-5039-5120-4). In the City, people
scrabble for scraps in the wasteland.
The city of New Charity enjoys the bounty
of its hydroelectric dam and refuses City
denizens so much as a drop of precious
water. In this intense and emotional
reimagining of the Trojan War epic,
two women clash when loyalty, identity,
community, and family are all put to
the ultimate test.
The Phoenix Descent by Chuck
Grossart (Mar. 15, trade paper, $14.95,
ISBN 978-1-5039-4575-3). The first Mars
mission gets lost in time and returns to a
dead Earth in an alternate year 2025, where
daylight harbors the stuff of nightmares.
ANGRY ROBOT
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United States of Japan by Peter
Tieryas (Mar. 1, trade paper, $14.99,
ISBN 978-0-85766-533-1). The Axis
won WWII and now, in the late 1980s,
the Japanese Empire rules over the
western United States, its power assured
by technological superiority. When a
video game emerges that posits a world
where the allies won, a game censor and
an imperial government agent discover
truths about the empire that make them
question their loyalty.
BAEN
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen
by Lois McMaster Bujold (Feb. 2, hard-
cover, $27, ISBN 978-1-4767-8122-8)
builds on the author’s immensely successful
Vorkosigan series with this sparkling
science fiction social comedy, as the far-
reaching effects of galactic technology
change all the old rules.
The Seer by Sonia Lyris (Mar. 1, trade
paper, $15, ISBN 978-1-4767-
8126-6). In Lyris’s debut, a poor
young woman rises to the heights
of a crumbling empire, where
she must speak hard truth to
power in order to save a world
from chaos.
BROADWAY
Ex-Isle by Peter Clines (Feb.
2, trade paper, $15, ISBN 978-0-553-
41831-6) is the fifth adventure in the
genre-busting Ex-Heroes series. In the
days after civilization fell to the zombie
hordes, a small team of heroes built a
stronghold against the undead and brought
the last humans they could gather within
its walls. Now every day is a desperate
battle against overwhelming odds.
CARCANET
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Spindles: Short Stories from the
Science of Sleep, edited by Penelope
Lewis and Ra Page (Feb. 1, trade paper,
$15.99, ISBN 978-1-905583-69-0).
The science of sleep is changing, and this
anthology incorporates new theories and
discoveries into fiction, while staying in
touch with the age-old mythology that
still surrounds and informs our understanding of sleep.
CHICAGO REVIEW
The Doomed City by Arkady and
Boris Strugatsky, trans. from the Russian
by Andrew Bromfield (July 1, trade paper,
$18.99, ISBN 978-1-6137-4993-7), is
the first English translation of one of the
Strugatsky brothers’ most famous novels,
published during perestroika in the late
1980s. It’s set in an experimental city
whose sun gets switched on in the morning
and switched off at night, populated
by people who were plucked randomly
from the 20th century and left to
govern themselves.
DAW
The Courier by Gerald Brandt (Mar. 1,
hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-0-7564-
1139-8). In the near future, California
has been turned into a seven-level corpo-
ration-ruled city that stretches
from San Francisco to the
Mexican border. After a courier
witnesses the murder of one
of her clients, she’s stuck
with a mysterious package
that everyone seems to want.
50,000-copy announced first
printing.
DEL REY
Morning Star by Pierce Brown (Feb. 9,
hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-345-53984-7)
concludes the Red Rising trilogy, in which
the human underclass on Mars rebels
against the ruling elites.
League of Dragons by Naomi Novik
(May 10, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-
345-52292-4) concludes Novik’s renowned
historical fantasy series with a final
showdown, in which English naval officer
Capt. William Laurence and his fearless
dragon, Temeraire, face off against
Napoleon and his forces.
The Devourers by Indra Das (July 12,
hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-101-96751-5).
The Last Werewolf meets Interview with the
Vampire in this hauntingly dark, literary
fantasy debut about a young historian and
a persuasive and beguiling stranger coming
together in modern-day Kolkata, India,
to transcribe an ancient journal.
ECW
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Freenet by Steve Stanton (Apr. 12,
trade paper, $14.95, ISBN 978-1-77041-
229-3). This nuanced story about artificial intelligence and digital immortality
