New Books, 16 July 2024 – Locus Online

Alering, Alisa: Smothermoss
(Tin House 9781959030584, $17.95, 264pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 07/16/2024)

Dark fantasy/rural gothic/fairytale novel. Two sisters in 1980s rural Appalachia are drawn into the hunt for the murderer of two female hikers on a nearby trail, as darkness seems to take over their home and community.

Allen, Mike: Slow Burn
(Mythic Delirium Books 9781956522037, $18.95, 296pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 07/16/2024)

Collection of short body horror fiction, third in the Unseaming series. Contains 14 horror stories and 13 macabre poems. Illustrated by Paula Arwen Owen.

Benton-Walker, Terry J., ed.: The White Guy Dies First
(Tor Teen 9781250861269, $20.99, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/16/2024)

Young-adult anthology of 13 horror stories in which the white guy dies first. Authors include Adiba Jaigirdar, Alexis Henderson, Chloe Gong, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, H. E. Edgmon, Kalynn Bayron, Karen Strong, Kendare Blake, Lamar Giles, Mark Oshiro, Naseem Jamnia, Tiffany D. Jackson, and Terry J. Benton-Walker.

Brandes, Nadine: The Nightmare Virus
(Enclave Escape 9798886051308, $24.99, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/16/2024)

Young-adult dystopian SF novel. Dream technology goes wrong and the Nightmare Virus traps people in a universal dreamscape. Cain Cross may hold the key to a cure, but when he gets infected he has only 22 days until he’s trapped forever, and every time he falls asleep he must fight in the Nightmare Arena.

Flynn, Michael: In the Belly of the Whale
(Arc Manor/Caezik SF & Fantasy 9781647101015, $19.99, 400pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 07/16/2024)

SF novel. Inside an enormous generation ship Earth’s brightest minds have forged a strict regime to ensure survival of the human race. The unintentionally-oppressive rules form uniquely distinct societies as the years pass, until differences in ideology, class, and cultural identity stir up a rebellion among the beleaguered crew.

Grossman, Lev: The Bright Sword
(Penguin Random House/Viking 9780735224049, $35, 688pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/16/2024)

Arthurian fantasy novel. A gifted young knight named Collum arrives at Camelot only to find that the king died two weeks ago at the Battle of Camlann, leaving no heir, and only a handful of the oddballs of the Round Table survive. Together this ragtag fellowship will set out to rebuild Camelot in a world that has lost its balance.

Haber, Elad: The World Outside
(Underland Press 9781630230807, $17.99, 206pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 07/16/2024)

Collection of 21 stories, three new, from over 20 years of writing. The author’s first collection.

Harkness, Deborah: The Black Bird Oracle
(Penguin Random House/Ballantine 9780593724774, $32, 464pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/16/2024)

Paranormal romance novel, the sixth novel in the All Souls series. Diana and Matthew receive a formal demand from the Congregation: They must test the magic of their seven-year-old twins, Pip and Rebecca. Concerned with their safety and desperate to avoid the same fate that led her parents to spellbind her, Diana decides to forge a different path for her family’s future.

Jones, Stephen Graham: I Was a Teenage Slasher
(Simon & Schuster/Saga Press 9781668022245, $29.99, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/16/2024)

Supernatural thriller/horror novel set in 1989 Lamesa, Texas, a small town in west Texas driven by oil and cotton. Seventeen year old Tolly Driver is cursed to kill for revenge, and writes his own autobiography.

Kang, Minsoo: The Melancholy of Untold History
(HarperCollins/Morrow 9780063337503, $28, 240pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/16/2024)

Fantasy novel inspired by East Asian mythology. Featuring a history professor and his protégé, four mountain gods, and a gifted storyteller, four interweaving stories span 3,000 years, mixing the East Asian mythos with a post modern approach. A first novel.

Kemp, Leon: Trespass Against Us
(HarperTeen 9780063324855, $19.99, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/16/2024)

Young-adult haunted house horror novel. Two years after four friends lost one of their group in an abandoned religious reform school, a famous TV ghost hunter is determined to find out what happened to the missing boy, dragging one of the original four back into the horror.

Kloos, Marko: Descent
(Amazon/47North 9781542036153, $16.99, 303pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 07/16/2024)

Space opera/military SF novel, the fourth in the Palladium Wars series. POW Aden Jansen is recruited by the Alliance to return to Gretia as an undercover Blackguard operative and destroy an insurgency. The mission comes with a full pardon and a chance to reclaim his identity, if he can succeed ― and survive.

Koontz, Dean: The Forest of Lost Souls
(Amazon/Thomas & Mercer 9781662500510, $28.99, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/16/2024)

Thriller/horror novel. Vida was raised in the forest by her great uncle and has an almost preternatural affinity for nature, especially wolves. After her boyfriend is killed in mysterious circumstances, a group of powerful men come after Vida, wanting to make her disappear too.

La Rosa, Erin: The Backtrack
(Harlequin/Canary Street 9781335009456, $18.99, 304pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 07/16/2024)

Time travel romance novel. An old CD of favorite songs gives a woman a chance to visit an different alternate life for the duration of each song.

Lariviere, Sarah: Riot Act
(Penguin Random House/Knopf 9780593479957, $19.99, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/16/2024)

Young-adult alternate history SF novel, the first in the Riot Act duology. In an alternate 1991, the authoritarian US government censors which books can be read, what music can be listened to, and which plays can be performed. When her best friend is killed by the authorities and her theater teacher disappears without a trace, Gigi decides to organize a forbidden production of Henry VI.

Lemberg, R.B.: Yoke of Stars
(Tachyon Publications 9781616964184, $15.95, 192pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 07/16/2024)

Fantasy novella in the Birdverse universe. An apprentice assassin and an inquisitive linguist trade interwoven tales in order to decide the fate of three men.

McMyne, Mary: A Rose by Any Other Name
(Orbit US/Redhook 9780316393515, $19.99, 384pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 07/16/2024)

Queer fantasy novel as told by the mysterious Dark Lady of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Rose Rushe and her best friend Cecely work in London, selling charms and astrological advice, when she runs into Shakespeare and his noble friend Henry.

Morris, Mark: That Which Stands Outside
(Flame Tree Press 9781787589339, $16.95, 368pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, 07/16/2024)

Horror novel inspired by Nordic folklore. In London, Todd Kingston rescues Yrsa Helgerson from muggers, and their friendship turns to romance. Years later, Todd accompanies Yrsa back to her isolated Nordic island home, where the locals believe Yrsa is a mythic Jötnar, and devastating events show they may be right.

Papathanasiou, Shameez Patel: The First King
(Flame Tree Press 9781787589216, $16.95, 416pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, 07/16/2024)

Portal fantasy novel, the third in the Selene trilogy. Lucas returns to the Selene realm only to find its been set alight. The king has declared war and is searching for them, especially his prized Healer who has escaped with his traitorous son. But Cassia and Lochlan are still trapped in Vineas and Lucas has no way of getting to them.

Pechaček, Jared: The West Passage
(Tordotcom 9781250884831, $28.99, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/16/2024)

Fantasy novel, a first novel Illustrated by the author. Apprentice Pell steals a book from a dead woman, triggering a sudden, endless winter, while the dead woman’s unofficial successor tries to warn of a monster’s return.

Scott, Donna, ed.: Best of British Science Fiction 2023
(NewCon Press UK 9781914953811, $17.99, 304pp, formats: trade paperback, 07/16/2024)

Year’s best anthology with 20 stories from 2023. Authors include Alastair Reynolds, Stephen Baxter, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Lavie Tidhar, Jaine Fein, Ian Watson, Chris Beckett, Fiona Moore, Ana Sun, Tim Major, and Rhiannon Grist.

Shaffer, Meg: The Lost Story
(Penguin Random House/Ballantine 9780593598870, $29, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/16/2024)

Fantasy novel inspired by C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. A missing persons investigator gets a case that involves the fantasy world he and a friend disappeared to as children, and they set out to save that land by restoring its lost princess of Shanandoah — his unwitting client.

Simms, David: Pierce the Veil
(Crossroad Press/Macabre Ink 9781637890516, $14.99, 333pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 07/16/2024)

Thriller/horror novel. Derek Boone dies in an accident and is revived, but lingers in a coma for months. When he awakens, he experiences strange flashbacks that make him the target of a near-death cult and religious organizations.

Srivatsa, Prashanth: The Spice Gate
(Harper Voyager US 9780063266834, $30, 464pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/16/2024)

Indian-inspired fantasy novel. Magic Gates connect eight widely separated kingdoms. Only those born with a special mark can pass through, and so are doomed to a life of servitude carrying addictive spices for the rich. One Spice Carrier’s hopes for freedom become entangled in schemes of gods, assassins, rulers, and slaves. A first novel.

Vee, Julia & Bebelle, Ken: Blood Jade
(Tor 9781250837929, $28.99, 448pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/16/2024)

Modern Asian fantasy novel, the second in the Phoenix Hoard trilogy begun in Ebony Gate. Emiko Soong, newly minted Sentinel of San Francisco is called to investigate a murder. The killer’s scent signature bears a haunting similarity to her mother’s talent, and the trail leads back to Tokyo where dark family secrets come to light.

Yu, Jennifer: Grief in the Fourth Dimension
(Abrams/Amulet 9781419767272, $19.99, 334pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/16/2024)

Young-adult fantasy novel about two dead teens finding themselves roommates in the afterlife, watching their loved ones’ lives on Earth, influencing events through radio signals, psychic mediums, and other means.