Holly Messinger’s CURIOUS WEATHER, Book 2 in the Jacob Tracy series, to Steve Feldberg at Audible, by Katie Shea Boutillier on behalf of Amy Boggs.
Jane Haddam’s ACT OF DARKNESS and QUOTH THE RAVEN, to Michael Olah at Dreamscape, by Katie Shea Boutillier.
Ronald Malfi’s THE NIGHT PARADE, to Haila Williams at Blackstone, by Katie Shea Boutillier, on behalf of Cameron McClure.
Molly Tanzer’s QUICKSILVER, sequel to VERMILION, named one of the best SFF books of 2015 by io9 and NPR, in which psychopomp Lou Merriwether returns to San Francisco’s Chinatown where someone or something is slowly draining the population’s souls, and the only person who can help is already dead, to Ross Lockhart at Word Horde, by Cameron McClure.
In this sequel to Randy Henderson’s acclaimed debut novel, Finn Fancy Necromancy, Finn Gramaraye is settling back into the real world after his twenty-five-year-long imprisonment in the otherworld of the Fey. He’s fallen in love with a woman from his past, though he worries she may love a version of him that no longer exists. He’s proved his innocence of the original crime of Dark Necromancy, and he’s finding a place in the family business–operating a mortuary for the Arcane, managing the magical energies left behind when an Arcane being dies to prevent it from harming the mundane world.
But Finn wants more. Or different. Or something. He’s figured out how to use the Kinfinder device created by his half-mad father to find people’s True Love, and he’d like to convert that into an Arcane Dating Service. It’s a great idea. Everyone wants True Love! Unfortunately, trouble always seems to find Finn, and when he agrees to help his friend, the Bigfoot named Sal, they walk right into a Feyblood rebellion against the Arcane Ruling Council, a rebellion being fomented by unknown forces and fueled by the drug created by Finn’s own grandfather.
Shelf Awareness: Robert Jackson Bennett’s sequel to 2014’s City of Stairs is thrilling, deeply thoughtful about the nature of war, and just odd enough, while still offering analogues to our own world to remain familiar.
Discover: This excellently plotted sequel to City of Stairs mixes science and the divine and meditations on the nature of war, and has a satisfying, exciting conclusion.
Tor.com: On the back of a fantastic central character, City of Blades does everything a really good sequel should. If anything, it’s a better book than its predecessor, but without it, it wouldn’t be. It isn’t merely moreof what came before; it takes what was as a basis and builds on it brilliantly, adding additional layers to City of Stairs such that it too is enriched.
Congratulations to the DMLA clients who made the 2015 Locus Recommended Reading List!
Novels – Science Fiction
* The Book of Phoenix, Nnedi Okorafor (DAW; Hodder & Stoughton)
Novels – Fantasy
* Karen Memory, Elizabeth Bear (Tor)
First Novels
* The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Seth Dickinson (Tor)
* Vermilion, Molly Tanzer (Word Horde)
Collections
* Ghost Summer: Stories, Tananarive Due (Prime)
* Falling in Love with Hominids, Nalo Hopkinson (Tachyon)
Novellas
* Binti, Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)
Novelettes
* “The Heart’s Filthy Lesson”, Elizabeth Bear (Old Venus)
* “And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead”, Brooke Bolander (Lightspeed 2/15)
* “Jamaica Ginger”, Nalo Hopkinson & Nisi Shawl (Stories for Chip)
Short Stories
* “Please Undo This Hurt”, Seth Dickinson (Tor.com 9/16/15)
* “The Graphology of Hemorrhage”, Yoon Ha Lee (Operation Arcana)
* “Variations on an Apple”, Yoon Ha Lee (Tor.com 10/14/15)
Czech rights to Robert Jackson Bennett’s CITY OF BLADES, Book 2 of The Divine Cities series, to Host, by Nada Cipranic at Prava I Prevodi, in association with Katie Shea Boutillier on behalf of Cameron McClure.
French rights to Jo Walton’s MY REAL CHILDREN and TOOTH AND CLAW, to Denoël, by David Camus at Anna Jarota Agency, in association with Katie Shea Boutillier.
Hungarian rights for Anne Bishop’s first four books in the Others series: WRITTEN IN RED, MURDER OF CROWS, VISION IN SILVER, and MARKED IN FLESH to Twister Media by Milena Kaplarevic at Prava I Prevodi in association with Jennifer Jackson and Michael Curry.
Hungarian rights for Seth Dickinson’s THE TRAITOR BARU CORMORANT to Gabo Kiado by Milena Kaplarevic at Prava I Prevodi in association with Jennifer Jackson and Michael Curry.
Romanian rights for Seth Dickinson’s THE TRAITOR BARU CORMORANT to Grupul Editorial Art SRL by Milena Kaplarevic at Prava I Prevodi in association with Jennifer Jackson and Michael Curry.
Estonian rights to Robert Sheckley’s eight titles in the Arnold and Gregor series, to Fantaasia, by Alexander Korzhenevski Agency in association with Katie Shea Boutillier.
Japanese rights to Mur Lafferty’s THE SHAMBLING GUIDE TO NEW YORK CITY, to Tokyo Sogensha, by Kohei Hattori at The English Agency, in association with Katie Shea Boutillier on behalf of Jennifer Udden.
The city of Voortyashtan was once the domain of the goddess of death, war, and destruction, but now it’s little more than a ruin. General Turyin Mulaghesh is called out of retirement and sent to this hellish place to try to find a Saypuri secret agent who’s gone missing in the middle of a mission, but the city of war offers countless threats: not only have the ghosts of her own past battles followed her here, but she soon finds herself wondering what happened to all the souls that were trapped in the afterlife when the Divinities vanished. Do the dead sleep soundly in the land of death? Or do they have plans of their own?
OF NOBLE FAMILY
by Mary Robinette Kowal
THE TRAITOR BARU CORMORANT
by Seth Dickinson
VERMILION
by Molly Tanzer
Library Journal: Building beautifully upon the richly detailed world introduced in the first book of the series, Bennett serves a stew of fantasy and adventure with a healthy dose of humor and a ladle full of violence. Switching protagonists from sneaky Shara to the blunt soldier Turyin gives the sequel a fresh feel, and readers will be eager to read more books set in this fascinating universe.