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Fantasy and Science Fiction October 2020
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| Piranesi by Susanna ClarkeThe only people in the world: "Piranesi," the narrator, and his mysterious mentor, known as "the Other," dwell in the House, a surreal labyrinthine building full of impossible things.
Why you might like it: This long-awaited novel by the author of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell offers a puzzle box of a plot and metafictional magical realism wrapped up in lyrical prose.
Reviewers say: "A tenebrous study in solitude" (The Guardian). |
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| Ink & Sigil by Kevin HearneStarring: Aloysius "Al" MacBharrais, a Glaswegian sigil agent whose job is to enforce treaties between humans and supernatural beings.
What happens: After losing his most recent apprentice (they never last long), Al discovers that the man was involved in some shady business with the Fae.
Series alert: Ink & Sigil is a stand-alone novel set in the world of the author's Iron Druid Chronicles (which begins with Hounded). |
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| The Four Profound Weaves: A Birdverse Book by R.B. LembergIntroducing: Uiziya e Lali, a weaver of the nomadic Surun' people, who searches for her exiled aunt Benesret so that she may complete her training in the Four Profound Weaves, and the outcast nameless man who accompanies her in hopes of receiving a name from Benesret.
Read it for: A pair of elderly transgender leads on a quest for mystical knowledge, immersive world-building, and lush, lyrical prose.
Can you start here? Although Nebula award-nominated author R.B. Lemberg has published numerous short stories set in the Birdverse, this stand-alone novel provides newcomers with sufficient context. |
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| The Memory of Souls by Jenn LyonsWhat it is: The 3rd installment of the Chorus of Dragons series, after The Ruin of Kings and The Name of All Things.
What's at stake: The wards that confine Vol Karoth, king of demons, are weakening and that's bad news.
Read it for: Inventive world-building, an intricately plotted story that unfolds from multiple perspectives, and a genderfluid trio of leads whose will-they-won't-they relationship evolves throughout the series. |
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| Hench by Natalie Zina WalschotsIn a world...where supervillains rely on a thriving gig economy to supply them with cheap, expendable minions, freelance "hench" Anna Tromedlov survives an encounter with a superhero and decides to use her data analysis skills to reveal who the real bad guys are.
Reviewers say: "A fiendishly clever novel that fizzes with moxie and malice" (Kirkus Reviews).
For fans of: Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible, V.E. Schwab's Vicious, or the Amazon series The Boys. |
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| The Girl in Red by Christina HenryWhat it is: A post-apocalyptic retelling of Little Red Riding Hood that's more Walking Dead than Brothers Grimm.
Starring: Red, an axe-wielding biracial woman with a prosthetic leg who's determined to avoid the government's quarantine camps and seek sanctuary at her grandmother's off-the-grid house.
Is it for you? Parallel "Before" and "After" storylines explore the viral pandemic that destroyed Red's world as well as her present-day attempts to survive the wilderness and its "wolves." |
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| The Very Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan by Caitlín R. KiernanWhat's inside: 20 previously published horror and dark fantasy stories written by two-time Bram Stoker Award winner Caitlín R. Kiernan.
Is it for you? Fans of weird fiction will find much to savor in this lyrical Lovecraftian collection.
Don't miss: "Houses Under the Sea," featuring a sinister cult that will be familiar to readers of Kiernan's The Drowning Girl; the squirm-inducing body modification tale "A Season of Broken Dolls." |
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| Lovecraft Country: A Novel by Matt RuffChicago, 1954: Black army veteran Atticus Turner sets out on a road trip across the segregated United States to find his missing father, encountering both racism and eldritch horrors along the way.
Media buzz: Lovecraft Country is now a critically acclaimed HBO series.
For fans of: Dark fantasy that employs Lovecraftian themes to examine racism, such as Victor LaValle's The Ballad of Black Tom, Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic, or N.K. Jemisin's The City We Became. |
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| Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeerWhat happens: A biologist, a psychologist, a surveyor, and an anthropologist set out on a scientific expedition to Area X, a quarantined zone that defies all attempts to map its terrain. Eleven previous missions have failed; is the 12th time the charm?
Read it for: The palpable sense of menace that permeates the dreamlike narrative; embedded homages to works of classic Science Fiction (such as the Strugatsky Brothers' Roadside Picnic).
Series alert: This Nebula and Shirley Jackson Award winner kicks of the Southern Reach trilogy, followed by Authority and Acceptance. |
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Contact your library for more great books!
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