A group of co-opted hackers discovers a secret government experiment gone terribly wrong.
Prolific sci-fi novelist and games enthusiast Wendig (Under the Empyrean Sky, 2013, etc.) whips up a Matrix-y bit of old-school cyberpunk updated to meet the frightening technology of the modern age. This is an ambitious, bleeding-edge piece of speculative fiction that combines hacker lore, wet-wired horror, and contemporary paranoia in a propulsive adventure that’s bound to keep readers on their toes.
An action-packed yet cerebral thriller that lives in that murky nexus between today and the future.
Locus: It’s surprising that Cherie Priest hasn’t made the jump into full-on young-adult fiction before. Many of her previous books, like Boneshaker, Dreadnought and the rest of the Clockwork Century, could easily be marketed to a younger audience. I Am Princess X, however, is the first one that is explicitly aimed at the 12 and over set.
Locus: Of Noble Family, book five of Mary Robinette Kowal’s “The Glamourist Histories”, concludes the sequence with emphatic proof that her world-building and her characters can’t be constrained by the standard tropes of alternate-historic magical fantasies or variations on Regency Romance. There’s a sharp irony in the epigraph, from Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park: “Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can, impatient to restore everybody not greatly in fault themselves to tolerable comfort, and to have done with all the rest.”
io9: At the end of the day, Vermilion is a roller-coaster of a ride: it’s exciting, suspenseful and a downright blast to read, but it maintains a serious side that underscores the complicated history of the American West.
Tor.com: Dreams of Shreds and Tatters is a baroque, creepy, gorgeous, atmospheric book. I keep wanting to find more adjectives, for there’s a layered, textured depth to the prose here, rich and velvety and dark. … I loved Downum’s other work, but I didn’t expect to enjoy Dreams of Shreds and Tatters half as much as I did. Unexpectedly, I adored it. It’s darkly gorgeous, tense, and gripping, with compelling characters and a subtle, unnervingly psychological element to its fantasy-horror turn. And, delightfully, not without a sense of humour. I recommend it highly. Please tell me there’ll be another novel like this.
Booklist: Griep’s debut is a fresh, original take on a group of fairy-tale familiars. Though Ceci (Cinderella), Bianca (Snow White), Rory (Sleeping Beauty), and Zell (Rapunzel) seem to have it all as princesses of Grimmland, their perfect team is broken up and their storybook happily-ever-afters are rocked to the core when Zell, in a troubling fit of independence, departs Grimmland to manage a unicorn preserve. Forced to question their own stories, the other three pen a series of letter to Zell, revealing a poignant restlessness and dissatisfaction with their own seemingly predetermined fates. As the princesses flit between Grimmland and contemporary Los Angeles, each grapples with timeless questions of love, desire, freedom, and ambition. This fractured fairy tale will appeal to Gregory Maguire devotees as well as fans of television shows like Once Upon A Time and Grimm.
Booklist: McCammon’s latest novel is a thrilling sf adventure. Two powerful, mysterious alien races are at war; Earth is caught in the middle, collateral damage. The planet is devastated, its people made nearly extinct. Those who have survived the catastrophic destruction caused by the alien war are succumbing to fallout from the battle, which is turning them into half-human creatures preying on those who are still human. Mankind seems doomed, but there is one small hope: a young boy who possesses powers that could save humanity. The problem is, the warring alien races might just prefer that humanity go extinct. Can this boy, who barely understands his own abilities, save the race? This is a very ambitious novel, an epic-scaled story of perseverance and survival in the face of monstrous odds. McCammon brings his usual storytelling gifts to the table: his ability to create characters who feel real, no matter how unreal the situations they find themselves in; dialogue that rings true; and a story that captures our imaginations from the very first page.