Release Week: 13 February 2024
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Release Week: 13 February 2024
Posted on 2024-02-13 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
Whew. Huge week this week. Here we go...
PICKS:
The Book of Love: A Novel By: Kelly Link, read by January LaVoy for Random House -- "In the long-awaited first novel from short story virtuoso and Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link, three teenagers become pawns in a supernatural power struggle."
The Warm Hands of Ghosts: A Novel By: Katherine Arden, read by Michael Crouch, January LaVoy, and Katherine Arden for Random House -- "During the Great War, a combat nurse searches for her brother, believed dead in the trenches despite eerie signs that suggest otherwise, in this hauntingly beautiful historical novel with a speculative twist, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale."
The Book of Doors: A Novel By: Gareth Brown, read by Miranda Raison for Harper -- "Cassie Andrews works in a New York City bookshop, shelving books, making coffee for customers, and living an unassuming, ordinary life. Until the day one of her favorite customers—a lonely yet charming old man—dies right in front of her. Cassie is devastated. She always loved his stories, and now she has nothing to remember him by. Nothing but the last book he was reading. But this is no ordinary book… It is the Book of Doors. Inscribed with enigmatic words and mysterious drawings, it promises Cassie that any door is every door. You just need to know how to open them."
Convergence Problems By: Wole Talabi, read by Ben Arogundade for Recorded Books -- "From the Hugo, Nebula, Locus and Nommo award nominated author of Shigidi and The Brass Head Of Obalufon comes a stunning new collection of stories that investigate the rapidly changing role of technology and belief in our lives as we search for meaning, for knowledge, for justice; constantly converging on our future selves."
The Blueprint: A Novel By: Rae Giana Rashad, read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt for Harper -- "In the vein of Octavia E. Butler and Margaret Atwood, a harrowing novel set in an alternate United States—a world of injustice and bondage in which a young Black woman becomes the concubine of a powerful white government official and must face the dangerous consequences."
The Fox Wife: A Novel By: Yangsze Choo, read by the author for Macmillan -- "Manchuria, 1908. In the last years of the dying Qing Empire, a courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men. Bao, a detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach—until, perhaps, now."
Plastic: A Novel By: Scott Guild, read by Jorjeana Marie, Will Damron for Random House -- "For fans of Interior Chinatown and American War, a surreal, hilarious, and sneakily profound debut novel that casts our current climate of gun violence and environmental destruction in a surprising new mold."
Medea: A Novel By: Eilish Quin, read by Gail Shalan for Simon and Schuster -- "Discover the full story of the sorceress Medea, one of the most reviled and maligned women of Greek antiquity, in this propulsive and evocative debut in the tradition of Circe, Elektra, and Stone Blind."
No Season but the Summer By: Matilda Leyser, read by the author for Bolinda -- "Persephone spends six months of the year under the ground with her husband, king of the dead, and six months on earth with her mother, goddess of the harvest. It has been this way for 9000 years, since the deal was struck. But when she resurfaces this spring, something is different. Rains lash the land, crops grow out of season or not at all, there are people trying to build a road through the woods, and her mother does not seem able to stop them. The natural world is changing rapidly and even the gods have lost control."
The Frame-Up By: Gwenda Bond, read by Shannon McManus for Random House -- "A magically gifted con artist must gather her estranged mother’s old crew for a once-in-a-lifetime heist."
Gogmagog: The Chronicles of Ludwich, Book 1 By: Jeff Noon and Steve Beard, read by Matthew Lloyd Davies for Dreamscape -- "Gogmagog tells the story of an epic journey through the sixty-mile long ghost of a dragon. We travel by boat, a rickety steam launch captained by Cady Meade, a veteran taxi pilot on the river Nysis."
No One Will Come Back for Us: And Other Stories By: Premee Mohamed, read by Soneela Nankani for Tantor -- "Here there be gods and monsters—forged from flesh and stone and vengeance—emerging from the icy abyss of deep space, ascending from dark oceans, and prowling strange cities to enter worlds of chaos and wonder, where scientific rigor and human endeavor is tested to the limits. These are cosmic realms and watery domains where old offerings no longer appease the ancient Gods or the new and hungry idols. Deities and beasts. Life and death. Love and hate. Science and magic. And smiling monsters in human skin."
BACKLIST WATCH:
- Point Counter Point By: Aldous Huxley (1928), read by Stefan Rudnicki for Blackstone -- "This complex novel darts around points of view to portray the convoluted nature of perception versus reality, and it boasts a large cast of characters that come together, almost as an orchestra, performing separate melodies that come together in one great symphony. Not only do these characters serve such a musical purpose in the plot, they also represent real life writers who were popular at the time, such as D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, John Middleton Murry, and even Huxley himself (in the form of Phillip Quarles, the “novelist” within the novel)."
MORE FICTION:
A Wild and Heavenly Place By: Robin Oliveira, read by Angus King, Katy Townsend, Tavia Gilbert for Penguin -- "Hailey MacIntyre seems conjured from the depths of Samuel Fiddes’s loneliness. Caring for his young sister in the tenements of Glasgow, Scotland, Samuel has known only hunger, while Hailey has never known want. Yet, when Samuel saves Hailey’s brother from a runaway carriage, their connection is undeniable. Through secret meetings and stolen moments, their improbable love grows. But then the City of Glasgow Bank fails, and Hailey’s bankrupt father impulsively moves their family across the globe to Seattle, a city rumored to have coal in its hills and easy money for anyone willing to work for it."
The Fortune Seller: A Novel By: Rachel Kapelke-Dale, read by Stephanie Cannon for Macmillan -- "Middle-class Rosie Macalister has worked for years to fit in with her wealthy friends on the Yale equestrian team. But when she comes back from her junior year abroad with newfound confidence, she finds that the group has been infiltrated by a mysterious intruder: Annelise Tattinger. A talented tarot reader and a brilliant rider, the enigmatic Annelise is unlike anyone Rosie has ever met. But when one of their friends notices money disappearing from her bank account, Annelise's place in the circle is thrown into question. As the girls turn against each other, the group’s unspoken tensions and assumptions lead to devastating consequences. It's only after graduation, when Rosie begins a job at a Manhattan hedge fund, that she uncovers Annelise's true identity—and how her place in their elite Yale set was no accident. Is it too late for Rosie to put right what went wrong, or does everyone's luck run out at some point?"
Wild and Distant Seas: A Novel By: Tara Karr Roberts, read by Natasha Soudek for Recorded Books -- "Evangeline Hussey has made a home for herself on Nantucket, though she knows she is still an outsider to the island's small close-knit community, one that by 1849 has started to feel the decline of a once-thriving whaling industry. Her husband, Hosea, and the life they built together, was once all she needed—but now Hosea is gone, lost at sea. Evangeline is only able to hold on to his inn, and her place on the island, by employing a curious gift to glimpse and re-form the recent memories of those who would cast her out. One night, an idealistic sailor appears on her doorstep asking her to call him Ishmael. He seeks only a warm bed and a bowl of chowder, and yet suddenly, unsettlingly, her careful illusion begins to fracture. He soon sails away with Ahab to hunt an infamous white whale, and Evangeline is left to forge a new life from the pieces that remain."
This Disaster Loves You By: Richard Roper, read by Christian Coulson for Penguin -- "Brian’s wife, Lily, disappeared from his life without a trace six years, eleven months, one week, and two days ago, but Brian never lost hope. Since her disappearance their once beloved English pub—and Brian’s livelihood—has been crumbling piece by piece. As the anniversary of her absence approaches, Brian desperately needs a sign. One doom-scroll on his business’s reviews later, he finds it: an active TripAdvisor account for PinkMoonLily1972 that he knows in his heart is his Lily. Interspliced with Brian’s journey to find Lily is the story of their love—how it started, and the twists and turns that brought them to this moment. As Brian jumps from one destination to the next to find Lily, and the truth behind their story comes into focus, Brian comes back to life with the help of Tess, a sarcastic, kind, and surprising traveling companion. But in order to move forward he’ll need to decide—stay in the past or take a chance on something unexpected."
Swanna in Love By: Jennifer Belle, read by Sophie Amoss for Recorded Books -- "It’s the summer of 1982 and fourteen-year-old Swanna Swain is the only one left at camp. The place is a ghost town by the time her mother Val finally shows up six hours late—stoned and radiant—in a Ford pickup driven by Borislav, her new young Russian lover. Assuming she is headed home to her air-conditioned Upper West Side apartment, Swanna and her lovable younger brother Madding are instead dragged to Vermont—to an artist colony where kids are not welcome and they are forced to sleep in the back of the truck, while Val is cozy inside the house with the Russian. Then Swanna meets Dennis, a handsome married father of two, at a bowling alley, and, knowing a thing or two about seduction from Judy Blume, her best friend at camp, and her own parents’ many affairs, she sets out to convince Dennis to help her. But love seldom obeys rules, and even a tough, smart city girl like Swanna might not be able to handle falling in love."
MORE SCI-FI, FANTASY, and HORROR:
The Kamogawa Food Detectives: A Kamogawa Food Detectives Novel, Book 1 By: Hisashi Kashiwai, translated by Jesse Kirkwood, read by Hanako Footman for Penguin -- "Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant. Run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the Kamogawa Diner serves up deliciously extravagant meals. But that's not the main reason customers stop by: The father-daughter duo are 'food detectives'. Through ingenious investigations, they are able to recreate dishes from a person’s treasured memories—dishes that may well hold the keys to their forgotten past and future happiness. The restaurant of lost recipes provides a link to vanished moments, creating a present full of possibility."
A Flame in the North By: Lilith Saintcrow, read by Saskia Maarleveld for Orbit -- "The Black Land is a myth: Centuries have passed since that Great Enemy was slain. Yet old fears linger, and on the longest night of the year, people in the South still light ritual bonfires to banish the dark. In her village, this duty falls to Solveig, a girl favored by the gods with powerful fire magic. But when her brother kills a Northern lord’s son during the ritual, it is Sol who faces punishment, by being weregild—part hostage, part guest—in the North for a year and a day. As she journeys to her captivity, Sol starts to realize that the Black Land is no myth. The forests teem with foul beasts. Her travel companions are not what they seem, and their plans for her magic are shrouded in secrecy."
An Education in Malice By: S. T. Gibson, read by Stephanie Cannon for Redhook -- "Deep in the forgotten hills of Massachusetts stands Saint Perpetua’s College. Isolated and ancient, it is not a place for timid girls. Here, secrets are currency, ambition is lifeblood, and strange ceremonies welcome students into the fold. On her first day of class, Laura Sheridan is thrust into an intense academic rivalry with the beautiful and enigmatic Carmilla. Together, they are drawn into the confidence of their demanding poetry professor, De Lafontaine, who holds her own dark obsession with Carmilla. But as their rivalry blossoms into something far more delicious, Laura must confront her own strange hungers. Tangled in a sinister game of politics, bloodthirsty professors and magic, Laura and Carmilla must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice in their ruthless pursuit of knowledge."
A Darker Shade of Noir: New Stories of Body Horror by Women Writers edited by Joyce Carol Oates, read by Bianca Amato, Lynette R. Freeman, Eva Kaminsky, Nancy Wu for Recorded Books -- "Joyce Carol Oates assembles an outstanding cast of authors—including Margaret Atwood, Tananarive Due, and Megan Abbott—to explore, subvert, and reinvent one of the most vital subgenres of horror."
SERIES WATCH:
What Feasts at Night: Sworn Soldier, Book 2 By: T. Kingfisher, read by Avi Roque for Macmillan -- "After their terrifying ordeal at the Usher manor, Alex Easton feels as if they just survived another war. All they crave is rest, routine, and sunshine, but instead, as a favor to Angus and Miss Potter, they find themself heading to their family hunting lodge, deep in the cold, damp forests of their home country, Gallacia."
The Icarus Twin: Icarus, Book 2 By: Timothy Zahn, read by Marc Thompson for Random House -- "For years Gregory Roarke and his Kadolian partner Selene worked as crocketts, combing through the atmospheres of uninhabited worlds for places that might be colonized or hold valuable resources. Now, they quietly work for the Icarus Group, a top-secret government organization hunting for portals created by a long-vanished alien race, portals that can teleport a person hundreds or thousands of light-years in the blink of an eye. Roarke and Selene are searching one such possibility when they find that someone appears to be stalking them. They evade their pursuers and return to find that a man named Easton Dent has been searching the Spiral’s databases for the names Gregory Roarke and Icarus."
The Dregs of Empire: Sun Eater, Book 5.5 By: Christopher Ruocchio, read by Samuel Roukin for Recorded Books -- "For thousands of years, the icy planet of Belusha has served the galactic Sollan Empire as its most notorious prison planet. It is here the very worst men in the Empire are locked away: murderers, traitors, deserters—each condemned to toil on the oil rigs and scrapyards of the planet in bitter cold, preyed upon both by the men of the Martian Guard set to watch over them, and by the Outborn reavers whose fathers escaped the work camps to scratch a living from the icy wilderness. It is a hard world. A desperate world. And it is here that Lorian Aristedes finds himself: alone; friendless; betrayed even by his own failing mutant flesh. It is here that Lorian Aristedes has been sentenced to work himself to death for the crime of abetting his master’s escape from imperial justice."
From the Forest: Saga of Recluce, Book 23 By: L. E. Modesitt Jr., read by Kirby Heyborne for Tantor -- "In a new story arc, From the Forest follows the early life of a man known by many names depending on who you ask—hero, tyrant, emperor."
OMNIBUS WATCH:
- Fractured Fables: Containing A Spindle Splintered and A Mirror Mended By: Alix E. Harrow, read by Amy Landon for Macmillan -- "Follow professional fairy-tale fixer Zinnia Gray as she helps women get the endings they deserve. First, Sleeping Beauty in A Spindle Splintered, fractured and reimagined. And then, Snow White's Evil Queen in A Mirror Mended."
INDIE WATCH:
Angolin By: C. E. Taylor, read by Kerr Lordygan for CamCat Books -- "The Hidden Realm of Angolin has existed in peaceful isolation for centuries, but that’s about to change. The enemy across the Abyss has discovered them and is intent on conquest. Lieutenant Dharmen Tate has a great love for his homeland and a greater understanding of its position in the world. When he discovers a plot by fellow officers to join the enemy and overthrow Angolin, he and his colleagues spring into action to defend the Hidden Realm from its foes."
Like Rum-Drunk Angels By: Tyler Enfield for BTC Audiobooks -- "An offbeat, slightly magical, entirely original retelling of Aladdin as an American western. Francis Blackstone is a teenage gunslinger with a heart of gold. He’s fallen for the governor’s daughter and resolves to win her favour. And what better way than to rob a Manhattan Company bank?"
Two-Gun Witch By: Bishop M. O'Connell, read by Tonia Ransom for Falstaff Books -- "Talen is a Stalker, a bounty hunter hired by the Marshal Service to hunt down humans stained by dark magic. She's also a two-gun witch, one of the few elven women who can wield two magical revolvers, spell irons, at once. For three years she's lived for the next bounty, and a whisper of vengeance for the destruction of her people. That changes when she takes the warrant on Margaret Jameson, a new kind of stained, one immune to the usual tools of collection. Upon finding her quarry, Talen realizes Margaret isn't stained at all, but someone worked very hard to make her appear so."
Starship for Rent By: M.R. Forbes, read by Paul Heitsch for Quirky Algorithms -- "When Noah sees an advertisement offering him a chance to rent a starship, he’s convinced it has to be a trick. Already having the worst day of his life, he’s willing to do anything for a distraction, including following a random stranger’s directions to the middle of nowhere to see a ship he doubts exists. Except there is no trick. The starship is real. And Noah’s life will never be the same. All he has to do is sign the agreement and hand over the cash. Joined by his wisecracking friend and a woman he met online, he’s about to discover that the universe is more dangerous, bizarre, and amazing than he ever imagined."
The Enigma of Treason: A Steampunk Raj Novel By: J. Seeger, read by Ella Whitehead for Mission Point Press -- "It’s 1915. The Great War has descended into horrific trench warfare with the great nations fighting over inches of European ground. In the Middle East, the war is between the British Empire and the Ottoman Empire, allied to Germany. Caught in the middle of this Middle East war are two families of spies—the Bankrofts, who support British operations in Mesopotamia, and the O’Connell family, on the side of the German and Ottoman operations. Both families trained in the mystic arts, mesmerism and intelligence tradecraft in British India, but one chose patriotism and the other, treason."
The House of Whispers: Living Nightmares, Book 1 By: C. Hebert, read by Katrina Medina and William Madison for C. Hebert -- "A notorious murderer haunting the streets of Bedeville stumbles upon a mysterious woman, becoming obsessed as he spends his nights endlessly toying with her and turning her world into a living nightmare. This dark and twisted retelling of Jack the Ripper mixed with Jekyll and Hyde takes place in a fantasy world filled with magic, mischief, and murder."
MOST MISSING:
Among the Living by Tim Lebbon (Titan Books) -- "A terrifying horror novel set in a melting Arctic landscape. Something deadly has lain dormant for thousands of years, but now the permafrost is giving up its secrets."
The Briar Book of the Dead by A.G. Slatter (Titan Books) -- "Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations. The Briar family of witches run the town of Silverton, caring for its inhabitants with their skills and magic. In the usual scheme of things, they would be burnt for their sorcery, but the church has given them dispensation in return for their protection of the borders of the Darklands, where the much-feared Leech Lords hold sway."
The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles: The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti, Book 2 by Malka Older (Tordotcom) -- "Mossa has returned to Valdegeld on a missing person’s case, for which she’ll once again need Pleiti’s insight. Seventeen students and staff members have disappeared from Valdegeld University—yet no one has noticed. The answers to this case may lie on the moon of Io—Mossa’s home—and the history of Jupiter’s original settlements during humanity's exodus from Earth."
First Watch of Night: The Icarus Code, Book 2 by Rysa Walker (Starry Night Books) -- "Who is Eberin Das? Decoding an ancient message that survived the destruction of Mars could be the key to avoiding the same fate for Earth in this action-packed sequel to The Cold Light of Stars."