In the Murderbot Diaries, Wells’ enormous talent for voice and atmosphere has full reign in a space opera setting—and her deft facility with characterisation makes Murderbot an incredibly appealing character. Self-conscious, awkward, and self contradictory: we can all recognise ourselves in Murderbot’s struggles with acting like a person.
Publishers Weekly: This entertaining collection assembles 11 reprints and one brand new novella, all set in the world of Butcher’s popular Chicago based wizard PI, Harry Dresden (last seen in 2014’s Skin Game).
In a trio of lighthearted Bigfoot-centric stories, Harry helps out an erudite Sasquatch named River Shoulders on behalf of his half-human son, Irwin. In “Bombshells,” Harry’s apprentice, the quick-thinking Molly Carpenter, goes up against a powerful foe (while wearing a little black dress, no less), and in “Even Hand,” Harry’s sworn enemy, dapper crime boss John Marcone, takes drastic steps to protect an innocent child. The Wild West–set crowd-pleaser “A Fistful of Warlocks” features White Council Warden Anastasia Luccio, who teams up with Wyatt Earp to put a stop to some very dark deeds. The standout is the tender original novella, “Zoo Day,” in which Harry takes his 10-year-old daughter, Maggie, to the zoo. First they encounter a young warlock in need of Harry’s help, and then Maggie is attacked by a group of haunts.
Audio rights to New York Times best-selling author Kim Harrison’s PERfunctory afFECTION, to Kim Budnick at Tantor Media, for publication in Spring 2019, at auction, via Jennifer Jackson.
Hungarian rights to Yoon Ha Lee’s Hugo- and Nebula-nominated NINEFOX GAMBIT and its first sequel RAVEN STRATAGEM, to Metropolis Media, by Milena Kaplarević at Prava i prevodi in association with Jennifer Jackson and Michael Curry.
Hungarian rights to NYT bestselling author Emily Brightwell’s MRS. JEFFRIES PLAYS THE COOK, to Lettero, by Milena Kaplarevic at Prava I Prevodi, in association with Katie Shea Boutillier.
Spanish rights to World Fantasy, Hugo and Nebula award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor’s AKATA WITCH, to Nocturna, in a three-book deal, by Amaiur Fernandez at International Editors’ in association with Katie Shea Boutillier.
Ukrainian rights to World Fantasy, Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor’s WHO FEARS DEATH, to Family Leisure Club, by Igor Korzhenevski at Alexander Korzhenevski Agency on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier.
Estonian rights to New York Times best-selling author Jim Butcher’s GRAVE PERIL and SUMMER KNIGHT, the third and fourth books in the Dresden Files series, to KIRJASTUS FANTAASIA OU via Milena Kaplaveric at Prava I Prevodi in association with Jennifer Jackson.
Publishers Weekly: Kowal’s outstanding prequel to her Hugo-winning novelette “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” shows the alternate history that created a mid-20th-century Mars colony.
In 1952, mathematician and pilot Elma York is on vacation with her rocket scientist husband, Nathaniel, when a meteor strikes Chesapeake Bay, obliterating most of the East Coast. Elma quickly realizes that this is an extinction event, and that the only option for humanity’s survival is off-world colonization. In a compelling parallel to our own history, Elma, who is Jewish, fights to have women of all races and backgrounds included in the burgeoning space program, squaring off against patriarchal attitudes, her own anxiety, and an adversary from her past service as a war pilot.
Kowal explores a wide range of issues-including religion, grief, survivor’s guilt, mental health, racism, misogyny, and globalism-without sermonising or subsuming the characters and plot. Elma’s struggles with her own prejudices and relationships, including her relationship with herself, provide a captivating human center to the apocalyptic background.
Artificial Condition is the follow-up to Martha Wells’s hugely popular science fiction action and adventure All Systems Red
It has a dark past—one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot”. But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.
Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.
What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks…
Locus: This new collection in the Dresden Files series offers 12 entertaining stories, some real gems. Three of my favorites, previously collected as Working for Bigfoot, are relatively light stories about Harry and a sasquatch who needs help for his half-human son. Several take the viewpoint of characters other than Harry Dresden, with a couple of standouts featuring Harry’s apprentice Molly, who gets all dressed up to rescue Harry’s brother Thomas from svartalves and Fomor in “Bombshells” and then gets sent off to Alaska in her role as Winter Lady of the Fae for the more harrowing “Cold Case” with Lovecraftian overtones. “Day One” finds medical examiner Waldo Butters on his first mission as a Knight of the Cross, battling necromancers in ways that involve his love of gaming and polka.
The collection wraps up with the one original tale, the charming novella “Zoo Day”, about Harry trying to be a dad, with a day at the zoo with his daughter Maggie and his magical dog Mouse, with everyone doing their best to make it a good outing until magical threats interfere. First Harry narrates, as he goes off to deal with a teen warlock, then Maggie takes over in an encounter with “creeps” only kids can see, and then Mouse tells about a battle of his own – and only Mouse is really aware of what the others are doing, too, providing a charmingly different viewpoint that sums it all up nicely.
Butcher adds some insight into his process with amusing and revealing notes on the stories and characters.
Still So Strange is Amanda Downum’s first collection of short fiction and poetry. These stories are full of devil’s bargains, love songs to monsters, and the people—human and otherwise—who inhabit liminal spaces. The collection includes stories originally released in Strange Horizons, Realms of Fantasy, and Weird Tales, as well as previously unpublished work.
DMLA congratulates Martha Wells! All Systems Red, Book 1 of the Murderbot Diaries, won a Nebula Award for the Novella category!
On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid ― a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.
But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.
The Amish Spinster Club series begins!
With his orphaned nephew depending on him, Amish carpenter Eli Troyer moves to Harmony Creek Hollow to start over. And when schoolteacher Miriam Hartz offers to teach Eli, who is hard of hearing, how to read lips, he can’t refuse. Spending time with Miriam forges a bond between them. Can two wounded hearts overcome their pasts to make a family together?
Tor.com: