|
Fantasy and Science Fiction October 2020
|
|
|
|
|
The last life of Prince Alastor
by Alexandra Bracken
What it's about: Forced to agree to eternal servitude in exchange for safe passage through the demon realm, Prosper Redding arrives in Prince Alastor's home only to find it occupied by malevolent fiends and a mysterious force that would consume the entire realm.
Series alert: Prosper Redding Series; book 2
Reviewers say: "This follow-up to The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding (2017) throws this boy-demon odd couple into an even more precarious position, and madcap, mystical high-jinks ensue. With its balance of magic, humor, and heart, this sequel is a surefire crowd-pleaser." -- Booklist, December 15, 2018"
|
|
| Piranesi by Susanna ClarkeThe only people in the world: "Piranesi," the narrator, and his mysterious mentor, known as "the Other," who 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). |
|
| 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). |
|
| 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. |
|
| 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. |
|
|
The Burning Dark
by Adam Christopher
What it's about: Relegated to a Fleetspace station after saving an Earth of the distant future, Captain Abraham Idaho Cleveland navigates hostile workers and persistent malfunctions before receiving a mysterious warning from thousands of light-years away.
Series alert: Book 1 of the Spider wars series.
Reviewers say: "This dark and chilling novel from the versatile Christopher (Seven Wonders; Hang Wire) builds tension expertly. Claustrophobic in mood but with the scope of great space opera, this is sf you will want to read with the light on." -- Library Journal, March 15, 2014
|
|
| 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." |
|
| 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. |
|
| 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 SF (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. |
|
| The Beauty by Aliya WhiteleyWelcome to: The Valley of the Rocks, where a group of men who survived the yellow fungus epidemic that killed all women encounter strange mushroom creatures that resemble their lost loved ones.
Don't miss: the stand-alone bonus short story "Peace, Pipe," which whimsically explores interspecies language barriers.
Book buzz: The Beauty was nominated for both the Shirley Jackson Award and the Saboteur Award. |
|
Contact your library for more great books!
|
|
|
|
|
|