PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ AUGUST 28, 2017 110
in Willis’s holiday-entertainment preferences, so “Miracle” features the original
Miracle on 34th Street (which she prefers to
It’s a Wonderful Life) as well as the Spirit of
Christmas Present (one of many references
to her beloved Dickens). “All Seated on the
Ground” imagines a first contact with
aliens in which carols are the keys to communication. The Holy Family appear via
time travel or dimensional warping to be
initially unwelcome again in “Inn,” and
modern-day magi travel from the East in
“Epiphany.” There’s unexplained snowfall
in “Just like the Ones We Used to Know”
and a Christmas murder that riffs on Conan
Doyle, Christie, and Poe in “Cat’s Paw.”
There are androids and Rockettes,
Christmas decorations, newsletters, and
much more folderol with happy endings all
around. This is a perfect stocking stuffer
for Christmas-celebrating fans of Willis’s
humorous SF. (Oct.)
The Heel
Brendan Connell. Snuggly, $14 trade paper
(170p) ISBN 978-1-943813-49-0
Weird-fiction author Connell ( The
Metanatural Adventures of Dr. Black) stumbles with this unsatisfying novel set in
1970s New Mexico. Mitch Mazzola is
eking out a living, selling purportedly
priceless Native American artifacts to
unsuspecting tourists. One lonely evening,
he comes across a young man named Calvin,
who says that he is Mitch’s son, the product
of one of Mitch’s many sexual adventures.
Both men decide to claim that Mitch is
holding Calvin for ransom for $50,000;
Calvin plans to use the money to travel
the world. Mitch is decidedly antiheroic,
lacking any sympathetic or redeeming
qualities. His epic fantasy–style retellings
of mundane events (“With purse full of
coin, I, Mulvizeg, decided that it was time
to enjoy the delights of the city”) are distracting rather than humorous, and the
depictions of sex fall flat. Connell’s preoccupation with adolescent fantasies spoils
an otherwise intriguing story. (Oct.)
Machine Learning:
New and Collected Stories
Hugh Howey. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $28
(352p) ISBN 978-1-328-76753-0
Bestseller Howey (the Silo trilogy)
assembles 21 thoughtful science fiction
and fantasy stories (two previously
spell summoning Richard’s brother, Sage
Rolf de Mandeville, who was also poi-
soned on his arrival home. The plentiful
suspects include Richard; widowed Lady
Matilda, the count’s cynical daughter;
stern steward Bertrand du Bois; ambi-
tious Father Randolph, who views sages as
devilish; taciturn wine bottler Wacian;
Richard’s marshal, Sir Hugh Fiennes; and
jester Scur, who—perhaps involuntarily—
speaks in riddles. Enjoyable characters, a
detailed setting, and atmospheric adventure intertwine in this multilevel mystery.
Durwin is a congenial and persistent
investigator, and readers will look forward
to his future adventures. Agent: Richard
Curtis, Richard Curtis Associates. (Oct.)
A Lot Like Christmas
Connie Willis. Del Rey, $17 trade paper
(544p) ISBN 978-0-399-18234-1
SFWA Grand Master Willis (Crosstalk)
offers up a hearty helping of Christmas
cheer with sprinklings of mystery and
magic in this reprint collection, drawn
from over 30 years of work. She begins by
describing her love for all things Christmas
and her thoughts on what constitutes a
proper Christmas story. The stories all have
a similar tone of romantic comedy mixed
with speculative fiction. Many also weave
will have no trouble believing that Koschei
the Deathless really is chained up in
NITWi T’s basement. Bromfield’s masterly
translation manages to preserve layered
language such as the joke in the Institute’s
acronym, and Yevgeniy Migunov’s illus-
trations are witty, friendly, and allusive.
This melding of bureaucracy and the
numinous is highly enjoyable and impos-
sible to compare to any other work. (Oct.)
Ironfoot:
The Enchanter General, Book 1
Dave Duncan. Skyhorse, $15.99 trade paper
(344p) ISBN 978-1-59780-917-7
Prolific fantasist Duncan (the Ivor of
Glenbroch series) opens the Enchanter
General series with an intricate historical
and magical mystery. Diligent Saxon
Durwin is humble under the oppression
of the ruling Normans in 1164 England.
He’s known as Ironfoot because he wears a
boot with a raised platform after a horse-riding accident in childhood crushed his
leg. Norman sorcerer Sage Guy Delany
took him in and trained him in the magical arts. Now 20, Durwin is called to
investigate the poisoning of Sage
Archibald de la Mare, the lecherous sorcerer of hard-nosed Count Richard of
Barton. Archibald’s death triggered a
★ Strange Is the Night
S.P. Miskowski. JournalStone, $16.95 trade paper (252p) ISBN 978-1-945373-74-9
These 13 eerie stories (of which 10 are reprints) by rising star Miskowski (I Wish I Was like You) will thrill fans of clever horror. In “Ms. X Regrets Everything,” a middle-aged woman at her parole
hearing remembers a life wasted, drowned in blood,
despair, and depravity. “Strange Is the Night” imagines
the well-deserved fate of a cynical, caddish theater critic
who attends a very strange stage production. The melancholy “The Second Floor” is about a successful playwright who revisits the Seattle home she shared with
three others 18 years before, recalling the heartbreak
and hope that resided there. “Animal House” and “Fur”
explore animalistic tendencies. The heartrending, Kafkaesque “Stag in Flight”
mines the unhappy, insular world of a mentally ill man and his ultimate release
from it. Every story showcases Miskowski’s versatility and gift with prose and
taps into a dark, writhing undercurrent of palpable unease beneath the mundanity
of everyday life. Uncanny and quietly menacing, these stories will transport
readers, inviting them with crooked finger to confront, and even embrace, the
shadowed corners of their own psyches. (Oct.)
