Here’s a rundown of the books we think you should look out for in coming in the week. See any that you are really looking forward to? Find any you had not heard of yet? Know of books we missed?
We know we don’t have everything and would love to hear what you feel we may have overlooked.
FANTASY URBAN FANTASY SCIENCE FICTION HORROR
FANTASY
The Devil You Know by K. J. Parker
Published by Tor.com on March 1st 2016
Pages: 126
Our reviews of this author: The Last Witness, The Devil You Know 
The greatest philosopher of all time is offering to sell his soul to the Devil. All he wants is twenty more years to complete his life’s work. After that, he really doesn’t care.
But the assistant demon assigned to the case has his suspicions, because the philosopher is Saloninus–the greatest philosopher, yes, but also the greatest liar, trickster and cheat the world has yet known; the sort of man even the Father of Lies can’t trust.
He’s almost certainly up to something; but what?
The Last Days of Magic by Mark Tompkins
Published by Viking on March 1st 2016
Pages: 400
Our reviews of this author: The Last Days of Magic: A Novel
An epic novel of magic and mysticism, Celts and faeries, mad kings and druids, and the goddess struggling to reign over magic’s last outpost on the Earth
What became of magic in the world? Who needed to do away with it, and for what reasons? Drawing on myth, legend, fairy tales, and Biblical mysteries, The Last Days of Magic brilliantly imagines answers to these questions, sweeping us back to a world where humans and magical beings co-exist as they had for centuries.
Aisling, a goddess in human form, was born to rule both domains and—with her twin, Anya—unite the Celts with the powerful faeries of the Middle Kingdom. But within medieval Ireland interests are divided, and far from its shores greater forces are mustering. Both England and Rome have a stake in driving magic from the Emerald Isle. Jordan, the Vatican commander tasked with vanquishing the remnants of otherworldly creatures from a disenchanted Europe, has built a career on such plots. But increasingly he finds himself torn between duty and his desire to understand the magic that has been forbidden.
As kings prepare, exorcists gather, and divisions widen between the warring clans of Ireland, Aisling and Jordan must come to terms with powers given and withheld, while a world that can still foster magic hangs in the balance. Loyalties are tested, betrayals sown, and the coming war will have repercussions that ripple centuries later, in today’s world—and in particular for a young graduate student named Sara Hill.
The Last Days of Magic introduces us to unforgettable characters who grapple with quests for power, human frailty, and the longing for knowledge that has been made taboo. Mark Tompkins has crafted a remarkable tale—a feat of world-building that poses astonishing and resonant answers to epic questions.
Who Wants to be The Prince of Darkness? by Michael Boatman
Published by Angry Robot on March 1st 2016
Pages: 400
Lucifer is enjoying his retirement in an obscure corner of Limbo when he learns of a plot by Gabriel, the current ruler of Hell, to use humanity’s greatest weapon against it – Television!
Cue the hottest reality game-show ever conceived: Who Wants To Be The Prince Of Darkness? Gabriel orchestrates an “Infernal takeover” of Earth by stealing unwitting mortal souls and sending them to a mostly empty Hell, hoping to reinvigorate the Infernal Realm.
Now Lucifer must find a living champion to seize control of Hell and free millions of stolen mortal souls before the theft becomes permanent. But who would ever want to be Hell’s champion?
File Under: Fantasy [ Down Among The Dead Men | Fifteen Minutes For Eternity | Damned If You Do | The Morningstar ]
URBAN FANTASY
The Reburialists by J.C. Nelson
Published by Ace on March 1st 2016
Pages: 416
The author of Wish Bound and the Grimm Agency novels returns with an all-new urban fantasy novel! Burying the dead is easy. Keeping them down is difficult. At the Bureau of Special Investigations, agents encounter all sorts of paranormal evils. So for Agent Brynner Carson, driving a stake through a rampaging three-week-old corpse is par for the course. Except this cadaver is different. It’s talking—and it has a message about his father, Heinrich. The reanimated stiff delivers an ultimatum written in bloody hieroglyphics, and BSI Senior Analyst Grace Roberts is called in to translate. It seems that Heinrich Carson stole the heart of Ra-Ame, the long-dead god of the Re-Animus. She wants it back. The only problem is Heinrich took the secret of its location to his grave. With the arrival of Ra-Ame looming and her undead army wreaking havoc, Brynner and Grace must race to find the key to stopping her. It’s a race they can’t afford to lose, but then again, it’s just another day on the job . . .
Black City Saint by Richard A. Knaak
Published by Pyr on March 1st 2016
Pages: 390
Our reviews of this author: Black City Saint
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.
Borderline by Mishell Baker
Published by Saga Press on March 1st 2016
Pages: 400
Our reviews of this author: Borderline, Phantom Pains, Impostor Syndrome (The Arcadia Project, #3)
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.
The Brotherhood of the Wheel by R.S. Belcher
Published by Tor on March 1st 2016
Pages: 384
Our reviews of this author: Nightwise, The Brotherhood of the Wheel
A unique new urban fantasy by the author of The Six-Gun Tarot, exploring the haunted byways and truck stops of the U.S. Interstate Highway SystemIn 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.
SCIENCE FICTION
Quantum Night by Robert J. Sawyer
Published by Ace on March 1st 2016
Pages: 368
With such compelling and provocative novels as Red Planet Blues, FlashForward and The WWW Trilogy, Robert J. Sawyer has proven himself to be “a writer of boundless confidence and bold scientific extrapolation” (New York Times). Now, the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author explores the thin line between good and evil that every human being is capable of crossing…
Experimental psychologist Jim Marchuk has developed a flawless technique for identifying the previously undetected psychopaths lurking everywhere in society. But while being cross-examined about his breakthrough in court, Jim is shocked to discover that he has lost his memories of six months of his life from twenty years previously—a dark time during which he himself committed heinous acts.
Jim is reunited with Kayla Huron, his forgotten girlfriend from his lost period and now a quantum physicist who has made a stunning discovery about the nature of human consciousness. As a rising tide of violence and hate sweeps across the globe, the psychologist and the physicist combine forces in a race against time to see if they can do the impossible—change human nature—before the entire world descends into darkness.
The Courier: A San Angeles Novel by Gerald Brandt
Published by DAW on March 1st 2016
Pages: 304
A far-future science fiction debut set in San Francisco—action adventure with a cyberpunk tone.
Kris Ballard is a motorcycle courier. A nobody. Level 2 trash in a multi-level city that stretches from San Francisco to the Mexican border, where corporations make all the rules. A runaway since the age of 14, Kris struggled to set up her life, barely scraping by, working hard to make it without anyone’s help. Witnessing the murder of one of her clients changes everything. Now she’s stuck with a mysterious package that everyone seems to want.
Now the corporations want Kris gone, and are willing to go to almost any length to make it happen. Hunted, scared, and alone, she retreats to the only place she knows she can hide: the Level 1 streets. Running from people that seem to know her every move, she is rescued by Miller—a member of an underground resistance group—only to be pulled deeper into a world she doesn’t understand. They work together to stay ahead of the corporate killers, until Miller falls into their hands. Kris realizes being alone isn’t the answer, and she’s willing to do anything to get him back.
Arkwright by Allen Steele
Published by Tor Books on March 1st 2016
Pages: 336
Our reviews of this author: Arkwright, Avengers of the Moon
Written by a highly regarded expert on space travel and exploration, Allen Steele's Arkwright features the precision of hard science fiction with a compelling cast of characters. In the vein of classic authors such as Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke, Nathan Arkwright is a seminal author of the twentieth century. At the end of his life he becomes reclusive and cantankerous, refusing to appear before or interact with his legion of fans. Little did anyone know, Nathan was putting into motion his true, timeless legacy.
Convinced that humanity cannot survive on Earth, his Arkwright Foundation dedicates itself to creating a colony on an Earth-like planet several light years distant. Fueled by Nathan's legacy, generations of Arkwrights are drawn together, and pulled apart, by the enormity of the task and weight of their name.
This is classic, epic science fiction and engaging character-driven storytelling, which will appeal to devotees of the genre as well as fans of current major motion pictures such as Gravity and Interstellar.
United States of Japan by Peter Tieryas Published by Angry Robot on March 1st 2016
Our reviews of this author: United States of Japan
Decades ago, Japan won the Second World War. Americans worship their infallible Emperor, and nobody believes that Japan’s conduct in the war was anything but exemplary. Nobody, that is, except the George Washingtons – a shadowy group of rebels fighting for freedom. Their latest subversive tactic is to distribute an illegal video game that asks players to imagine what the world might be like if the United States had won the war instead. Captain Beniko Ishimura's job is to censor video games, and he's working with Agent Akiko Tsukino of the secret police to get to the bottom of this disturbing new development. But Ishimura's hiding something... He's slowly been discovering that the case of the George Washingtons is more complicated than it seems, and the subversive videogame's origins are even more controversial and dangerous than either of them originally suspected.
Part detective story, part brutal alternate history, United States of Japan is a stunning successor to Philip K Dick’s The Man in the High Castle.
File under: Science Fiction [ Gamechanger | Area #11 | Robot Wars | Strike Back the Empire ]
From the Trade Paperback edition.
The Destructives by Matthew De Abaitua
Published by Angry Robot on March 1st 2016
Pages: 416
Theodore Drown is a destructive. A recovering addict to weirdcore, he's keeping his head down lecturing at the university of the moon. Twenty years after the appearance of the first artificial intelligence, and humanity is stuck. The AIs or, as they preferred to be called, emergences have left Earth and reside beyond the orbit of Mercury in a Stapledon Sphere known as the university of the sun. The emergences were our future but they chose exile. All except one.
Dr Easy remains, researching a single human life from beginning to end. Theodore's life. One day, Theodore is approached by freelance executive Patricia to investigate an archive of data retrieved from just before the appearance of the first emergence. The secret living in that archive will take him on an adventure through a stunted future of asylum malls, corporate bloodrooms and a secret off-world colony where Theodore must choose between creating a new future for humanity or staying true to his nature, and destroying it.
HORROR
Submerged by Thomas F. Monteleone
on March 1st 2016
Pages: 358
"A horror thriller in the tradition of Ken Follett and H.P. Lovecraft. "
The submarine U-5001 was a Nazi secret weapon that could have changed the course of World War II. Kapitaenleutnant Erich Heinz Bruckner commanded the U-boat on its only mission a voyage that transported him and his crew to a place of wonder and horror.
Dexter McCauley is a present-day ex-Navy diver who finds the only evidence of the U-5001 s existence, which drives him to discover its original, terrifying mission.
"Submerged" follows both men in a narrative that spans generations, echoing the tales of Lovecraft at their most strange. As the paths of these men s lives converge, a third element surfaces to influence their decisions decisions that will shape the future of civilization in ways never imagined."
FANTASY URBAN FANTASY SCIENCE FICTION HORROR
| The Reburialists | Nelson, J. C. | 3/1/2016 | Ace |
| Quantum Night | Sawyer, Robert J. | 3/1/2016 | Ace |
| The Courier | Brandt, Gerald | 3/1/2016 | DAW |
| Black City Saint | Richard A. Knaak | 3/1/2016 | Pyr |
| Borderline | Mishell Baker | 3/1/2016 | Saga |
| Brotherhood of the Wheel | R.S. Belcher | 3/1/2016 | Tor |
| The Devil You Know | K. J. Parker | 3/1/2016 | Tor.com |
| Submerged | Thomas F. Monteleone | 3/1/2016 | Samhain |
| The Last Days of Magic | Mark Tompkins | 3/1/2016 | Viking |
| Arkwright | Allen Steele | 3/1/2016 | Tor |
| United States of Japan | Peter Tieryas | 3/1/2016 | Angry Robot |
| Who Wants to be the Prince of Darkness | Michael Boatman | 3/1/2016 | Angry Robot |
| The Destructives | Matthew De Abaitua | 3/1/2016 | Angry Robot |
You can also find me blogging about books at Tenacious Reader
- Review: A Veil of Spears by Bradley P. Beaulieu - April 30, 2018
- Review: Unbury Carol by Josh Malerman - April 18, 2018
- Review: The Defiant Heir by Melissa Caruso - April 11, 2018
One Comment
So many intriguing titles to add to my list… “Borderline” does possess an interesting premise, and I would “Brotherhood of the Wheel” on the name of RS Belcher alone, since I loved “Six-Gun Tarot”. “Arkwright” explores a favorite theme of mine and I would read “Submerged” because… how can you resist the comparison with Lovecraft AND Follett? 🙂