The View From Monday - June 29, 2020

It is the last Monday in June!


There is one debut this week:

Scarlet Odyssey (Scarlet Odyssey 1) by C. T. Rwizi.

Clicking on a novel's cover will take you to its Amazon page.

From formerly featured DAC Authors:

Galaxy's Edge: Black Spire by Delilah S. Dawson it out in Mass Market Paperback;

The Princess Beard (Tales of Pell 3) by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne is out in Trade Paperback;

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia;

and

Howling Dark (Sun Eater 2) by Christopher Ruocchio is out in Mass Market Paperback.

Clicking on a novel's cover will take you to its Amazon page.

Debut novels are highlighted in blue. Novels, etc. by formerly featured DAC Authors are highlighted in green.

June 29, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Cries to Kill the Corpse Flower	Ronald J. Murray	H

June 30, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Ignorance is Strength (Ke)	John Joseph Adams (Ed) Christie Yant (Ed) Hugh Howey (Ed)	SF - The Dystopia Triptych 1
Burn the Ashes (Ke)	John Joseph Adams (Ed) Christie Yant (Ed) Hugh Howey (Ed)	SF - The Dystopia Triptych 2
Or Else the Light (Ke)	John Joseph Adams (Ed) Christie Yant (Ed) Hugh Howey (Ed)	SF - The Dystopia Triptych 3
The Last Curtain Call	Juliet Blackwell	PCM - A Haunted Home Renovation Mystery 8
The Orphans of Raspay	Lois McMaster Bujold	F
Kushiel's Dart (ri)	Jacqueline Carey	RF/F - Kushiel's Legacy 1
The Empire of Gold	S. A Chakraborty	HistF - Daevabad Trilogy 3
Winds of Marque (tp2mm)	Bennett R. Coles	SF - Blackwood & Virtue
Witch Hunt	Cate Conte	PCM - Witch Hunt 1
Noir Fatale (h2mm)	Larry Correia (Ed) Kacey Ezell (Ed)	F - Anthology
Galaxy's Edge: Black Spire (h2mm)	Delilah S. Dawson	SF/SO/MTI - Star Wars
Alien Secrets	Ian Douglas	SF/HSF - Solar Warden 1
The Lightest Object in the Universe (h2tp)	Kimi Eisele	Dys/SF/AP/PA/Disaster
1637: The Polish Maelstrom (h2mm)	Eric Flint	SF/TT - Ring of Fire 26
A Sprinkling of Murder	Daryl Wood Gerber	PCM - A Fairy Garden Mystery 1
Into Darkness	Terry Goodkind	F - Children of D'Hara 5
The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl (h2tp)	Theodora Goss	F - The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club 3
Flame	Donna Grant	PNR/FR/UF - Dark Kings 17
Salvation Lost (h2mm)	Peter F. Hamilton	SF/SO/SE - Salvation Sequence 2
The Princess Beard (h2tp)	Kevin Hearne Delilah S. Dawson	F/HU/FairyT/FolkT/LM - Tales of Pell 3
The Snakes (h2tp)	Sadie Jones	LF
Wheel of Time Premium Boxed Set V: Book Thirteen: Towers of Midnight, Book Fourteen: A Memory of Light, Prequel: New Spring	Robert Jordan Brandon Sanderson	F - Wheel of Time
A Memory of Light (ri)	Robert Jordan Brandon Sanderson	F - Wheel of Time 14
Towers of Midnight (ri)	Robert Jordan Brandon Sanderson	F - Wheel of Time 13
Terra Nova: The Wars of Liberation (tp2mm)	Tom Kratman (Ed)	SF - Anthology
The Sum of All Shadows (h2mm)	Eric Van Lustbader	SupTh - The Testament 4
Blue Ticket	Sophie Mackintosh	Dys/FL/CW
Mexican Gothic	Silvia Moreno-Garcia	HistF/Gothic/Horror
The Warning (tp2mm)	James Patterson Robinson Wells	Sus/TechTh
The Properties of Rooftop Air	Tim Powers	F
The Best of Jules de Grandin: 20 Classic Occult Detective Stories	Seabury Quinn	SF - Collection
Howling Dark (h2mm)	Christopher Ruocchio	SF/SO/HSF/AC - Sun Eater 2
Best of British Fantasy 2019	Jared Shurin (Ed)	F - Anthology
A Sword Named Truth (h2mm)	Sherwood Smith	F/DF/HistF - Rise of the Alliance 1
Prisoner of Night	J.R. Ward	PNR - The Black Dagger Brotherhood World
Dark Black	Sam Weller	H/Gothic
Interlibrary Loan	Gene Wolfe	SF/GenEng/Noir - Borrowed  Man 2

July 1, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Ones Who Look: A Tor.com Original (e)	Katharine Duckett	SF
Memory and Utopian Agency in Utopian/Dystopian Literature: Memory of the Future	Carter F. Hanson	LC
Scarlet Odyssey (D)	C. T. Rwizi	F/CoA/FairyT/FolkT/LM - Scarlet Odyssey 1

July 2, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The House on Widows Hill	Simon R. Green	SupM - An Ishmael Jones Mystery 9

D - Debut
e - eBook
Ed - Editor
h2mm - Hardcover to Mass Market Paperback
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
Ke - Kindle eBook
ri - reissue or reprint
tp2mm - Trade Paperback to Mass Market Paperback
Tr - Translator



AC - Alien Contact
AF - Afrofuturism
AH - Alternative History
AP - Apocalyptic
BlHu - Black Humor
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
CW - Contemporary Women
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost(s)
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
HU - Humorous
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
LMF - Legends, Myths, Fables
M - Mystery
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PCM - Paranormal Cozy Mystery
PF - Paranormal Fantasy
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Pol - Political
PopCul - Popular Culture
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
RF - Romantic Fantasy
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SpecFic - Speculative Fiction
SS - Short Stories
Sup - Supernatural
SupM - Supernatural Mystery
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
TT - Time Travel

Note: Not all genres and formats are found in the books, etc. listed above.

2020 Locus Awards Winners

The 2020 Locus Awards Winners have been announced. Winners were announced June 27, 2020 at the virtual Locus Awards Weekend.  Winners in green.

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

• The City in the Middle of the Night, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan)
• The Testaments, Margaret Atwood (Nan A. Talese; Chatto & Windus)
• Ancestral Night, Elizabeth Bear (Saga; Gollancz)
• Empress of Forever, Max Gladstone (Tor)
• The Light Brigade, Kameron Hurley (Saga; Angry Robot UK)
• Luna: Moon Rising, Ian McDonald (Tor; Gollancz)
• The Future of Another Timeline, Annalee Newitz (Tor; Orbit UK)
• Fleet of Knives, Gareth L. Powell (Titan US & UK)
• The Rosewater Insurrection/The Rosewater Redemption, Tade Thompson (Orbit US and UK)
• Wanderers, Chuck Wendig (Del Rey; Solaris)

FANTASY NOVEL

• Ninth House, Leigh Bardugo (Flatiron; Gollancz)
• A Brightness Long Ago, Guy Gavriel Kay (Berkley; Viking Canada; Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Raven Tower, Ann Leckie (Orbit US and UK)
• Jade War, Fonda Lee (Orbit US and UK)
• Middlegame, Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
• Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher)
• The Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday; Harvill Secker)
• Storm of Locusts, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)
• The Iron Dragon’s Mother, Michael Swanwick (Tor)
• Dead Astronauts, Jeff VanderMeer (MCD; Fourth Estate)

HORROR NOVEL

• Imaginary Friend, Stephen Chbosky (Grand Central; Orion)
• Prisoner of Midnight, Barbara Hambly (Severn House)
• Curious Toys, Elizabeth Hand (Mulholland)
• Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James (Riverhead; Hamish Hamilton)
• The Grand Dark, Richard Kadrey (Harper Voyager US and UK)
• The Institute, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Twisted Ones, T. Kingfisher (Saga)
• Anno Dracula 1999: Daikaiju, Kim Newman (Titan US and UK)
• The Pursuit of William Abbey, Claire North (Orbit US and UK)
• The Toll, Cherie Priest (Tor)

YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

• King of Scars, Leigh Bardugo (Imprint; Orion)
• The Wicked King, Holly Black (Little, Brown; Hot Key)
• Pet, Akwaeke Emezi (Make Me a World; Faber & Faber)
• Catfishing on CatNet, Naomi Kritzer (TorTeen)
• Dragon Pearl, Yoon Ha Lee (Disney Hyperion)
• Destroy All Monsters, Sam J. Miller (Harper Teen)
• Angel Mage, Garth Nix (Katherine Tegen; Allen & Unwin; Gollancz)
• War Girls, Tochi Onyebuchi (Razorbill)
• The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth, Philip Pullman (Knopf; Penguin UK & David Fickling)
• Shadow Captain, Alastair Reynolds (Orbit US; Gollancz)

FIRST NOVEL

• The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates (One World)
• Magic for Liars, Sarah Gailey (Tor)
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK)
• A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine (Tor)
• Infinite Detail, Tim Maughan (MCD x FSG Originals)
• Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing)
• Finder, Suzanne Palmer (DAW)
• A Song for a New Day, Sarah Pinsker (Berkley)
• Waste Tide, Chen Qiufan (Tor; Head of Zeus)
• The Luminous Dead, Caitlin Starling (Harper Voyager)

NOVELLA

• “A Time to Reap“, Elizabeth Bear (Uncanny 12/19)
• To Be Taught, If Fortunate, Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager; Hodder & Stoughton)
• “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom”, Ted Chiang (Exhalation)
• The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)
• Desdemona and the Deep, C.S.E. Cooney (Tor.com Publishing)
• This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (Saga)
• The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday, Saad Z. Hossain (Tor.com Publishing)
• Permafrost, Alastair Reynolds (Tor.com Publishing)
• The Deep, Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes (Saga)
• The Ascent to Godhood, JY Neon Yang (Tor.com Publishing)

NOVELETTE

• “Erase, Erase, Erase”, Elizabeth Bear (F&SF 9-10/19)
• “For He Can Creep“, Siobhan Carroll (Tor.com 7/10/19)
• “Omphalos”, Ted Chiang (Exhalation)
• “A Country Called Winter”, Theodora Goss (Snow White Learns Witchcraft)
• “Late Returns”, Joe Hill (Full Throttle)
• “Emergency Skin”, N.K. Jemisin (Forward)
• “The Justified”, Ann Leckie (The Mythic Dream)
• “Phantoms of the Midway”, Seanan McGuire (The Mythic Dream)
• “Binti: Sacred Fire”, Nnedi Okorafor (Binti: The Complete Trilogy)
• “The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye“, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 7-8/19)

SHORT STORY

• “The Bookstore at the End of America”, Charlie Jane Anders (A People’s Future of the United States)
• “Lest We Forget", Elizabeth Bear (Uncanny 5-6/19)
• “The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex”, Tobias S. Buckell (New Suns)
• “It’s 2059, and the Rich Kids Are Still Winning“, Ted Chiang (New York Times 5/27/19)
• “Fisher-Bird”, T. Kingfisher (The Mythic Dream)
• “I (28M) created a deepfake girlfriend and now my parents think we’re getting married“, Fonda Lee (MIT Technology Review 12/27/19)
• “The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear“, Kelly Link (Tin House ’19)
• “Thoughts and Prayers“, Ken Liu (Future Tense 1/26/19)
• “A Brief Lesson in Native American Astronomy”, Rebecca Roanhorse (The Mythic Dream)
• “A Catalog of Storms“, Fran Wilde (Uncanny 1-2/19)

ANTHOLOGY

• Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Saga)
• The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin’s Griffin)
• A People’s Future of the United States, Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams, eds. (One World)
• Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation, Ken Liu, ed. (Tor)
• The Mythic Dream, Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe, eds. (Saga)
• New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color, Nisi Shawl, ed. (Solaris US and UK)
• The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year, Volume Thirteen, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris US and UK)
• Mission Critical, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris US and UK)
• The Best of Uncanny, Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, eds. (Subterranean)
• The Big Book of Classic Fantasy, Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer, eds. (Vintage)

COLLECTION

• Exhalation, Ted Chiang (Knopf; Picador)
• Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight, Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean)
• The Best of Greg Egan, Greg Egan (Subterranean)
• Snow White Learns Witchcraft, Theodora Goss (Mythic Delirium)
• Full Throttle, Joe Hill (Morrow; Gollancz)
• Meet Me in the Future, Kameron Hurley (Tachyon)
• The Very Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Tachyon)
• The Best of R.A. Lafferty, R.A. Lafferty (Gollancz)
• Hexarchate Stories, Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris US and UK)
• Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea, Sarah Pinsker (Small Beer)

MAGAZINE

• Analog
• Asimov’s
• Beneath Ceaseless Skies
• Clarkesworld
• F&SF
• File 770
• Lightspeed
• Strange Horizons
• Tor.com
• Uncanny

PUBLISHER

• Angry Robot
• DAW
• Gollancz
• Harper Voyager
• Orbit
• Saga
• Small Beer
• Subterranean
• Tachyon
• Tor

EDITOR

• John Joseph Adams
• Neil Clarke
• Ellen Datlow
• Gardner Dozois
• C.C. Finlay
• Jonathan Strahan
• Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas
• Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
• Sheila Williams
• Navah Wolfe

ARTIST

• Kinuko Y. Craft
• Galen Dara
• Julie Dillon
• Bob Eggleton
• Donato Giancola
• Kathleen Jennings
• John Picacio
• Shaun Tan
• Charles Vess
• Michael Whelan

NON-FICTION

• Lost Transmissions: The Secret History of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Desirina Boskovich, ed. (Abrams Image)
• The Time Machine Hypothesis: Extreme Science Meets Science Fiction, Damien Broderick (Springer)
• Reading Backwards: Essays and Reviews, 2005-2018, John Crowley (Subterranean)
• Joanna Russ, Gwyneth Jones (University of Illinois Press)
• Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction, Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson (Quirk)
• Kim Stanley Robinson, Robert Markley (University of Illinois Press)
• The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein, Farah Mendlesohn (Unbound)
• Broken Places & Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity in the Unexpected, Nnedi Okorafor (Simon & Schuster/TED)
• The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick, Mallory O’Meara (Hanover Square)
• HG Wells: A Literary Life, Adam Roberts (Palgrave)

ILLUSTRATED OR ART BOOK

• The Illustrated World of Tolkien, David Day (Thunder Bay; Pyramid)
• Julie Dillon, Daydreamer’s Journey (Julie Dillon)
• Ed Emshwiller, Dream Dance: The Art of Ed Emshwiller, Jesse Pires, ed. (Anthology Editions)
• Spectrum 26: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, John Fleskes, ed. (Flesk)
• Donato Giancola, Middle-earth: Journeys in Myth and Legend (Dark Horse)
• Raya Golden, Starport, George R.R. Martin (Bantam)
• Fantasy World-Building: A Guide to Developing Mythic Worlds and Legendary Creatures, Mark A. Nelson (Dover)
• Tran Nguyen, Ambedo: Tran Nguyen (Flesk)
• Yuko Shimizu, The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, Oscar Wilde (Beehive)
• Bill Sienkiewicz, The Island of Doctor Moreau, H.G. Wells (Beehive)

SPECIAL AWARD 2020: INCLUSIVITY AND REPRESENTATION EDUCATION

• Writing the Other, Nisi Shawl, Cynthia Ward, & K. Tempest Bradford

Dive into Summer Fun With New Updates to Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Get ready to make a splash in your own island paradise. A series of free updates* to the Animal Crossing: New Horizons game for the Nintendo Switch system will deliver new features, including the ability to swim and dive for sea creatures. You’ll also get to interact with fresh faces and discover a variety of new items, including mermaid-themed furniture. These free updates are among some of the new experiences coming to your island life over the course of the summer and beyond.

Available starting on July 3, the new update will add the following features and characters to the game:

• Swimming and Diving – Grab a wet suit and get aquatically acquainted with your island marine life when swimming and diving arrive to Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Swim in the inviting waters off the coast of your island and dive to discover and scoop up sea creatures that inhabit your island’s ecosystem. Keep your eyes peeled for any prospective additions to the museum, and make sure to listen for fun facts from Blathers when you donate your new discoveries.
• Pascal Brings Rewarding Recipes – While swimming, you might meet someone new! The friendly visitor Pascal seems to love scallops, and if you discover one while diving, he may ask you if he can have it. As a thank you, he’ll share some of his mermaid-themed DIY recipes.
• Gulliver? – After downloading the free update, a familiar face will occasionally wash up on shore, but sporting slightly different, pirate-like clothing. Offer him a helping hand and he’ll send a special reward to show his gratitude. 

But that’s not all! Another summer update is planned to be released in early August, so stay tuned for further details to come.

To learn more about Animal Crossing: New Horizons, visit https://www.animal-crossing.com/new-horizons/. To stay up to date with the latest news about Animal Crossing: New Horizons, be sure to follow @animalcrossing on Twitter.

*Players will need to connect to the internet and download the latest update data to access certain in-game events as they become available.

[click to embiggen]

Nintendo Download, June 25, 2020: A Spoonful of Playful Pokémon Puzzles

This week’s Nintendo Download includes the following featured content:

• Nintendo eShop on Nintendo Switch
  
  • Pokémon Café Mix – Complete touch-based puzzles to serve dishes and drinks to adorable Pokémon customers! Link together Pokémon icons to clear puzzles as you work to build up your very own café. Meet the goals for each puzzle before you run out of turns – link a certain number of icons, get a high score or even destroy sugar cubes to serve up Pokémon-themed menu items. In addition to recruiting more Pokémon staff members and growing your collection of menu items, the café itself will expand as you play. It’s time to become a café owner, solve puzzles and bring joy to Pokémon patrons!
  • Mr. DRILLER DrillLand – The popular action-puzzle game Mr. DRILLER DrillLand makes its Western debut on the Nintendo Switch system. You’re invited to a secret amusement park, known as DrillLand, 500 meters underground. Explore and conquer the five attractions with simple-yet-exciting gameplay that players of all ages can enjoy. Dig your way to victory!
  • The Almost Gone – Experience the intricate dioramas and connections of your life and the ripples we all make in this award-winning narrative puzzle game. Piece together a compelling story by revealing objects and memories, and decipher these clues to reveal more of the story and its secrets. From your own home to eerily deserted streets, from beautiful apartment blocks to abandoned hospitals, you must search forensically for clues and the path forward. Each new revelation takes you one step closer to understanding the truth.
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III – This immersive RPG with a twisting story and engaging, turn-based battles continues the epic saga of the Trails of Cold Steel series. Rean Schwarzer uncovers a dark plot that threatens his homeland. To face their enemies, he must prepare a new generation of heroes as an instructor at a new branch campus and guide them toward victory. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III will be available on June 30.

DLC:

• Min Min From ARMS Joins the Fight in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – From her humble beginnings as a ramen-loving employee at the Mintendo Noodle House, Min Min has grown into a champion fighter. On June 29, she enters the battle as the newest playable character in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate game. Min Min’s extraordinary reach and versatile tools enable her to unleash a new range of fighting strategies in the game. The purchase of Min Min’s Challenger Pack* for $5.99 also includes the Spring Stadium stage and 18 newly added music tracks from the ARMS game. Fighters Pass Vol. 2*, which includes Min Min and five more Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fighters currently under development, is also available for purchase for $29.99.

Covers Revealed - Upcoming Works By DAC Authors

Here are some of the upcoming July 2020 works by formerly featured Debut Author Challenge (DAC) Authors! The year in parentheses is the year the author was featured in the DAC.

Ian Doescher (2013)

William Shakespeare's The Merry Rise of Skywalker
Star Wars Part the Ninth
Quirk Books, July 28, 2020
Hardcover and eBook, 176 pages

Complete your collection of the William Shakespeare’s Star Wars® series and experience the blockbuster finale to the Star Wars® saga in a brand-new way, here reimagined as though it had been penned by the Bard of Avon.

As our story opens, a sea of troubles threatens the valiant Resistance, who are pursued by the sound and fury of the vile First Order. Can Rey, Poe, Finn, Rose, BB-8, Chewbacca, and their allies overcome such toil and trouble? Shall Kylo Ren be proven fortune’s fool or master of his fate? What will become of the House of Skywalker? And is all well that ends well?

Authentic meter, stage directions, reimagined movie scenes and dialogue, and hidden Easter eggs will entertain and impress fans of Star Wars® and Shakespeare alike. Every scene and character from the film appears in the book, along with twenty woodcut-style illustrations that depict an Elizabethan version of the Star Wars® galaxy.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

Michael R. Underwood (2012)

Annihilation Aria
The Space Operas 1
Parvus Press, July 21, 2020
Trade Paperback and eBook, 400 pages

Max is cheery xeno-archeologist from Earth, stranded and trying to find a way home. Lahra is a stern warrior of a nearly extinct race searching for her people’s heir. Wheel is the couple’s cybernetic pilot running from her past and toward an unknown future.

On Wheel’s ship, the Kettle, the trio traverses the galaxy, dodging Imperial patrols and searching ancient ruins for anything they can sell. The crew of the Kettle are deeply in debt to their home base’s most powerful gangster, and she wants her money back.  

So when a dangerous, but promising job comes their way, Max, Lahra, and Wheel have little choice but to take it. However, the crew of the Kettle gets more than they bargained for when they find themselves in possession of a powerful artifact, one that puts them in the crosshairs of the Vsenk, the galaxy’s ruthless and oppressive imperial overlords. 

Max, Lahra, and Wheel are pulled into a web of galactic subterfuge, ancient alien weaponry, a secret resistance force, lost civilizations, and giant space turtles.  The Vsenk will stop at nothing to recover what the crew of the Kettle has found and Max’s brains, Lahra’s muscle, and Wheel’s skills may be all that stands between entire planets and annihilation.  

Can they evade space fascists, kick-start a rebellion, and save the galaxy all while they each try to find their own way home?

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

iBooks : Kobo

Alex White (2016)

The Worst of All Possible Worlds
The Salvagers 3
Orbit, July 28, 2020
Trade Paperback and eBook, 432 pages

The rag-tag crew of the Capricious is hunting down rogue AI, ancient colony ships, and the biggest treasure the universe has ever seen in the final book of this pulse-pounding space adventure series for fans of Firefly and The Expanse.

The crew of the Capricious seems to leave a trail of devastation wherever they go. But with powerful enemies in pursuit and family and friends under attack planetside, there’s no time to worry about all that. Ensnared by the legend of Origin, humanity’s birthplace, and a long-dead form of magic, the Capricious takes off on a journey to find the first colony ship…and magic that could bring down gods.

Read the incredible space-fantasy series that V. E. Schwab calls “A total blast!”

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

The Wounded Ones by G.D. Penman - Excerpt and Giveaway

Please welcome G.D. Penman to The Qwillery as part of the blog tour for The Wounded Ones. Please check out the giveaway below too!

Sully stubbed out her cigar like the ashtray was her mother’s face. The last coils of smoke twisted in the air to join the geometric patterns that drifted in a blue cloud around her. There were three assassins this time, and three weren’t nearly enough. Sully set her glass down on the bar and let the mouthful of gin clear her sinuses. After an hour of quietly sipping liquor in the stuffy walnut paneled comfort of the train’s bar, Sully’s patience had run thin. The young men in three-piece suits might have blended in perfectly back in jolly old England, but here in the Americas, their blandness made them stick out.
       Sully swiveled on her stool to take in the lay of the room. “Are we doing this or not? Because I’ve got a thirsty vampire waiting for me back in my cabin and that sounds like a lot more fun than this bullshit.”
       The men had been studiously avoiding eye contact with Sully and with each other for the whole trip, but now they all looked up, as if they needed to confirm that their cover was blown before acting. Amateurs. Sully set off the concussion spell that she had been tracing in gin on the bar-top for the last ten minutes, spellfire racing over the liquor. The whole carriage rocked on its rails, and bottles and glasses flew through the air, a maelstrom of chaos that Sully’s contingency shield turned into a whirling dervish of shattered glass around her. All three assassins were moving now, leaping up from their tables and casting their own spells, but they were two moves behind her.
       Her next spell seared the broken glass around her, sending molten droplets across the red carpet on their way to scorch half of one assassin’s face off. The other men switched to casting shields and that delay gave her enough time to cast a more complex incantation. The next lance looked like white fire, and while the blond killer managed to get a shield up, the white flames used that dense structured magic as fuel, expanding out to consume him, leaving nothing behind but a heap of ash.
       The last one got an attack off before Sully could give him her undivided attention. A ray of moonlight was launched from his fingertip, refracting through the spinning glass to pepper the whole room with patches of frost.
       Sully let out a bark of laughter. “You’re trying to take me alive? They really didn’t give you fair warning when you took this job.”
       A new spell exploded in a corona around him, a nova of silvery blades that shredded what was left of the upholstery as they flew at Sully. Apparently, this one wanted to live more than he wanted big cash prizes. Sully dove into a booth as the blades and glass collided in a deafening, stinging explosion all around her. He didn’t let up. A roiling wave of green fire swept through the cabin, stripping the walls to bare metal, annihilating the furnishings and reducing the cowering bartender to a stripped skeleton. Sully did her best to ignore the strange absence of heat as the fire rolled over her shields and concentrated on the task at hand.
       She rose to her feet on the bare metal of the hollowed-out cabin. The assassin wasn’t smiling despite his change in fortune. Maybe he was a professional after all. She launched another white lance at him and he didn’t bother with a shield. His duelist instincts took over and he cast a traveling spell to jerk him out of the missile’s path. It didn’t work. The white fire hit him square in the chest. He vanished in a flash of light as his own magic consumed him from the inside out.
       Sully staggered to her feet and let her protective spells drop. She took a deep breath of the fresh air that was pouring in through the new ventilation that her would-be killers had provided to the cabin. If portals and traveling spells hadn’t been blocked by the Magi of Manhattan, then why would she have been on a train to begin with? The British really needed to hire smarter help. The last few assassination attempts had been almost insultingly lackluster.

The Wounded Ones 
The Witch of Empire 2
Meerkat Press, June 23, 2020
Trade Paperback and eBook, 232 pages

Demons and serial killers are Iona "Sully" Sullivan's bread and butter, but nothing could have prepared her to face off against the full weight of the British Empire at the height of its power. With the War for American Independence in full swing, she finds even her prodigious talents pushed beyond their limits when citizens of the American Colonies begin vanishing amidst rumors of crop circles, hydra sightings and worse. Through a wild and lethal adventure that will see her clashing with the Empire around the world and beyond, the only constants in Sully's life are an undead girlfriend, a giant demon crow that has taken a shine to her, regular assassination attempts by enemies on all sides, and the cold certainty that nothing and nobody is going to make it out of the war in one piece.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Meerkat Press : iBooks : Kobo

About the Author

Website ~ Twitter @GDPenman

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2020 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award Finalists

The 2020 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award Finalists for best short science fiction have been announced.

2020 Sturgeon Award Finalists

• "The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex," Tobias S. Buckell. New Suns, ed Nisi Shawl, Solaris Books, March 2019.
• "Omphalos," Ted Chiang. Exhalation, Knopf, May 2019.
• This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Saga Press, July 2019.
• "Give the Family My Love," A.T. Greenblatt. Clarkesworld, February 2019.
• "The Dead, in Their Uncontrollable Power," Karen Osborne. Uncanny Magazine, March 2019.
• "The Painter of Trees," Suzanne Palmer. Clarkesworld, June 2019.
• "Waterlines," Suzanne Palmer. Asimov's, June 2019.
• "Sisters of the Vast Black," Lina Rather. Tor.com Publishing, October 2019.
• "The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir," Karin Tidbek. Tor.com Publishing, January 2019.
• "New Atlantis," Lavie Tidhar. Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 2019.
• "The Archronology of Love," Caroline M. Yoachim. Lightspeed Magazine, April 2019.

The Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award recognizes the best science fiction short story of each year. It was established in 1987 by James Gunn, Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at KU, and the heirs of Theodore Sturgeon, including his partner Jayne Engelhart Tannehill and Sturgeon's children, as an appropriate memorial to one of the great short-story writers in a field distinguished by its short fiction.

Winners will be presented at the Gunn Center Conference and Awards after university policy allows large gatherings of attendees.   --   http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/news.htm

Interview with Devin Madson, author of We Ride the Storm

Please welcome Devin Madson to The Qwillery as part of the 2020 Debut Author Challenge Interviews. We Ride the Storm is published on June 23, 2020 by Orbit.

Please join all of us at The Qwillery in wishing Devin a Happy Publication Day!

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery. What is the first fiction piece you remember writing?

Devin:  I wrote a story called The Little Sad Christmas Tree. I was six so I don’t recall writing it very clearly but my parents kept it and I still have it somewhere. It’s about a little pine tree that cries when its mother gets cut down and taken away and all the other trees laugh at him. He gets cut down too and taken to a shop to be sold but no one wants him, so he cries some more. He gets magically reunited with his mother at the end though. I don’t think I was trying to say anything particular with that, more I had only one page left.



TQ:  Are you a plotter, a pantser or a hybrid?

Devin:  A bit of both. I almost completely pants most first books in a series because I’m too impatient to sit down and plan. And the only time I did, I ended up with a completely different book. With different themes, plot and a bunch of extra point of view characters. But when I get to later books in a series, I plan more and more to make sure I’m pulling all the threads together and will be able to finish the story in the right number of books. Really, I just go with whatever works best for a particular book, but the most I’ve ever planned is a couple of guiding paragraphs per chapter and some thoughts on arcs. That’s HARDCORE planning in Devinland.



TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Devin:  Action scenes! And for some reason I keep writing a lot of them. Because they have to be tense, they require very tight pacing and timing, balance and cadence, and can’t just be hammered out in a couple of minutes. At least not by me. The only thing more challenging, that you absolutely can’t lose your readers in by a misstep of word choice or pacing, is a sex scene, but I don’t write anywhere near as many of those. Structural edits also suck, because they are weeks of painstakingly ripping apart and rebuilding a manuscript and it is the most draining part of the job for me, mentally and emotionally.



TQ:  What has influenced / influences your writing?

Devin:  The things I have noticed as being influences (rather than the bazillion tiny things we passively observe and absorb in life) are generally not fantasy based, which I find interesting. Despite not writing romances, I have been heavily influenced by Georgette Heyer over the years. She was a master at character creation and evolution as well as subtle character-based and situational humour. I’ve also been influenced by all too many video games and history programs/podcasts. And Terry Pratchett.



TQ:  Describe We Ride the Storm using only 5 words.

Devin:  Shit keeps hitting the fan.



TQ:  Tell us something about We Ride the Storm that is not found in the book description.

Devin:  There is no black and white morality in this book. It’s all messy, right and wrong impossible to discern half the time, as people are forced to make decisions without knowing for sure what the outcome will be. Often they are making the best of two bad choices, which will have flow on effects into the decisions forced upon others. One thing I really wanted to achieve with this book is the idea that people and situations often aren’t neat and simple and clear cut. People are complicated. They are changeable. Contradictory. Emotional. I wanted to represent this in my fiction. Rather than creating ideals of people, I wanted to show them in all their messy glory as they struggle with their own paths and feelings and motivations (as well as one can in fiction, which is never allowed to be quite as messy and random as real life).



TQ:  What inspired you to write We Ride the Storm? What appeals to you about writing Fantasy?

Devin:  The biggest thing that appeals to me about writing fantasy (except for having to do less research because you can make things up) is that you can put people into situations that are impossible in our world and shake it up to see what would happen. The human psyche is an amazing thing, as are the connections and relationships we make with others. And they’re all so much more interesting and boundless in fantasy. As for We Ride the Storm, it’s the continuation of a generational story I started in my novella, In Shadows We Fall, and then on through The Vengeance Trilogy (also being re-released by Orbit, but you don’t have to read them first, they can be read in any order) so there wasn’t as much unique inspiration for this story. When I first started writing in this world, the story I wanted to tell informed much of the world building, but now the world and its history informs the stories I want to tell.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for We Ride the Storm?

Devin:  Because I don’t plan ahead most of the time, I tend to research on the fly when I need something (or I’m lazy and write and leave it for Future Devin like a jerk). These can be little things like how long it takes blood to congeal or sometimes bigger things about horses and castles.



TQ:  Please tell us about the cover for We Ride the Storm.

Devin:  Because We Ride the Storm was previously self-published, Orbit wanted to differentiate the new cover, so although it depicts horsemen riding into battle like the original, they commissioned black and white scratchboard art from Nico Delort. I loved the original too (by John Anthony Di Giovanni), as both are very striking in their different ways. The colour of the new one really gets across the mood and feel of the book though, I think they really nailed it.



TQ:  In We Ride the Storm who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Devin:  Cassandra is always the easiest character to write because I’m putting my dialled up to 11 snarky thought process and sense of humour on the page, filtered through her life experience and goals. Miko is the hardest, because she has a very complicated mix of ambition yet a desire to do what is right and good, of wanting to prove herself yet learn from those around her. She walks a fine balance in everything, even with having to be an accommodating leader and yet be fiercely determined, while at the same time she’s young and inexperienced in a lot of things.



TQ:  Does We Ride the Storm touch on any social issues?

Devin:  While it doesn’t specifically focus on any particular social issues, due to the journeys of certain characters the book touches on the struggles of women in a patriarchal society and some of the damage it does to the society as a whole, as well as the difficulties of a whole culture struggling to maintain itself while the world becomes more urbanized and technologically advanced around them. They are left having to ask ‘What makes us who we are?’ and trying to find an answer.



TQ:  Which question about We Ride the Storm do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Devin:  Let’s go with my favourite thing about it. I don’t do favourite characters in books (not in other peoples nor my own), I have favourite relationships. It can be a friendship, a parent/child relationship, a found family or a romantic relationship, it doesn’t matter, my favourite stuff is always the between people stuff. In this book it’s the relationship between Rah, one of the POV characters, and Gideon, leader of the Levanti exiles. They’re from the same herd so they have known each other all their lives, and while you only see some of it and get a little of their history in this first book, everything about the intensity and complications of it speaks to my soul on a deep level.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from We Ride the Storm.

Devin:  While I’m very proud of both my original opening line and the new one, the bits I like the most are the humorous character moments like this:

“What’s this?” She eyed the food like it was a dead animal.
“What does it look like?” I said, fingers hunting an elusive coin. “It’s flatbread. But that bit didn’t cook right through so it’s all yours.”


And that they let me get away with this:

“Now let’s keep moving before the sight of this damn place makes me piss myself.”
“As you wish, Your Whoreness.” He had taken a few steps but turned to look back over his shoulder. “Or should it be Your Assassinness? Whoresassin!”



TQ:  What's next?

Devin:  I’m just putting the finishing touches on book 3 of The Reborn Empire series, after which I’ll be moving on to putting a cap on the series that has been quite the journey for me. I’m also hoping to find time to write a novella that’s been pecking away at my thoughts, the first thing I’ve written in more than a decade that isn’t set in this world of mine. And I’m very slowly working toward getting my audio drama, The 59 Bodies of Saki Laroth, produced and released.



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Devin:  Thank you for having me!

We Ride the Storm
The Reborn Empire 1
Orbit, June 23, 2020
Trade Paperback and eBook, 528 pages

In the midst of a burgeoning war, a warrior, an assassin, and a princess chase their own ambitions no matter the cost in Devin Madson’s propulsive epic fantasy.

War built the Kisian Empire. War will tear it down.

Seventeen years after rebels stormed the streets, factions divide Kisia. Only the firm hand of the god-emperor holds the empire together. But when a shocking betrayal destroys a tense alliance with neighboring Chiltae, all that has been won comes crashing down.

In Kisia, Princess Miko Ts’ai is a prisoner in her own castle. She dreams of claiming her empire, but the path to power could rip it, and her family, asunder.

In Chiltae, assassin Cassandra Marius is plagued by the voices of the dead. Desperate, she accepts a contract that promises to reward her with a cure if she helps an empire fall.

And on the border between nations, Captain Rah e’Torin and his warriors are exiles forced to fight in a foreign war or die.

As an empire dies, three warriors will rise. They will have to ride the storm or drown in its blood.


The Reborn Empire
We Ride the Storm

For more from Devin Madson, check out:
The Vengeance Trilogy
The Blood of Whisperers
The Gods of Vice
The Grave at Storm's End

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

About Devin

Devin Madson is an Aurealis Award-winning fantasy author from Australia. After some sucky teenage years, she gave up reality and is now a dual-wielding rogue who works through every tiny side-quest and always ends up too over-powered for the final boss. Anything but zen, Devin subsists on tea and chocolate and so much fried zucchini she ought to have turned into one by now. Her fantasy novels come in all shades of grey and are populated with characters of questionable morals and a liking for witty banter.




Website  ~  Twitter @DevinMadson

Horror Series STILLWATER Coming In September

GIDEON FALLS MEETS THE WALKING DEAD IN CHIP ZDARSKY AND RAMÓN K. PÉREZ’S CHILLING NEW SKYBOUND HORROR SERIES, STILLWATER

PORTLAND, Ore. 06/19/2020 — The New York Times bestselling, Eisner Award winning writer Chip Zdarsky (The White Trees, Daredevil, Sex Criminals) and Eisner, Harvey, and Shuster Award-winning artist Ramón K Pérez (Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand, Jane) dive into a world of horror and intrigue in an all-new, ongoing series from Image/Skybound Entertainment this September—Stillwater.

In the town of Stillwater, nobody dies. That’s not just a promise. It’s a threat.

“I’m thrilled people are finally going to see Stillwater! This idea’s been percolating in my for years now, and it’s been fun working with Ramon to build this tiny, strange world! I’ve always wanted to write a horror comic so I can show the world that I’m not JUST creepy, I can also write creepy!” said Zdarsky. “I love getting to explore immortality on a small stage, the idea that you can live forever but just within such a constrained space. It’s been a treat getting to write characters struggling with that terrifying deal.”

Pérez added: “It’s been a joy to step away from the superhero genre and delve into the horror, thriller, and a dash of mystery genre with Chip on Stillwater! I hope readers are as unsettled as I was drawing the book…"

Stillwater #1 (Diamond Code JUL200017) will be available at comic book shops on Wednesday, September 16.

Stillwater #1 will also be available for purchase across many digital platforms, including Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, comiXology, and Google Play.

The View From Monday - June 22, 2020

It is the penultimate Monday in June.

There are 3 debuts this week:

Block Seventeen by Kimiko Guthrie;

We Ride the Storm (Reborn Empire 1) by Devin Madson;

and

The Kingdom of Liars (The Legacy of the Mercenary King 1) by Nick Martell.

Clicking on a novel's cover will take you to its Amazon page.

From formerly featured DAC Authors:

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho;

Blood of Empire (Gods of Blood and Powder 3) by Brian McClellan is out in Trade Paperback;

and

A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians (Shadow Histories 1) by H.G. Parry.

Clicking on a novel's cover will take you to its Amazon page.

Debut novels are highlighted in blue. Novels, etc. by formerly featured DAC Authors are highlighted in green.

June 23, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Angel of the Crows	Katherine Addison	HistF/AH
Pure Invention: How Japan's Pop Culture Conquered the World	Matt Alt	Japanese History/PopCul
Bennytown	Matt Carter	SupTh
The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water	Zen Cho	F
Shadow Fall	Alexander Freed	SF/SO/MTI - Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron 2
Block Seventeen (D)	Kimiko Guthrie	LF/SpecFic
All Together Stranger	Lara Hayes	PF - Redamancy 2
We Ride the Storm (D)	Devin Madson	F/DF - Reborn Empire 1
The Kingdom of Liars (D)	Nick Martell	F - The Legacy of the Mercenary King 1
Blood of Empire (h2tp)	Brian McClellan	F/HistF - Gods of Blood and Powder 3
Tokyo Ueno Station	Yu Miri	FL/GH/CL
Death in Her Hands	Ottessa Moshfegh	LF/Psy/Occ/Sup
Obliteration	James S. Murray Darren Wearmouth	SupTh - Awakened 3
A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians	H. G. Parry	HistF/Occ/Sup/ FairyT/FolkT/LM - Shadow Histories 1
The Wounded Ones	G.D. Penman	UF/F - Witch of Empire 2
Barnabas Collins	Marilyn Ross	Occ/Gothic - Dark Shadows the Complete Paperback Library Reprint Volume 6
Strangers at Collins House	Marilyn Ross	Occ/Gothic - Dark Shadows the Complete Paperback Library Reprint Volume 3
The Curse of Collinwood	Marilyn Ross	Occ/Gothic - Dark Shadows the Complete Paperback Library Reprint Volume 5
The Mystery of Collinwood	Marilyn Ross	Occ/Gothic - Dark Shadows the Complete Paperback Library Reprint Volume 4
Boundless: A Drizzt Novel (h2tp)	R. A. Salvatore	F - Generations 2
The Fall of Deadworld Omnibus	Matt Smith	SH
Becoming Superman: My Journey From Poverty to Hollywood (h2tp)	J. Michael Straczynski	Biography
The Buried World	Jeff Wheeler	F - Grave Kingdom 2

June 24, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Night Soil Salvagers: A Tor.com Original (e)	Gregory Norman Bossert	F

June 25, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again (e)	M. John Harrison	SF

D - Debut
e - eBook
Ed - Editor
h2mm - Hardcover to Mass Market Paperback
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
Ke - Kindle eBook
ri - reissue or reprint
tp2mm - Trade Paperback to Mass Market Paperback
Tr - Translator



AC - Alien Contact
AF - Afrofuturism
AH - Alternative History
AP - Apocalyptic
BlHu - Black Humor
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
CW - Contemporary Women
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost(s)
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
HU - Humorous
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
LMF - Legends, Myths, Fables
M - Mystery
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PCM - Paranormal Cozy Mystery
PF - Paranormal Fantasy
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Pol - Political
PopCul - Popular Culture
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
RF - Romantic Fantasy
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SpecFic - Speculative Fiction
SS - Short Stories
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
TT - Time Travel

Note: Not all genres and formats are found in the books, etc. listed above.