This is usually where you see a full list of July SFF book releases on the blog, but due to time limitations I've just not been able to get them together this month. Fear not as I have had a look through what's due out and have selected a handful of sci-fi releases that I think are worth checking out. Have a read on to see my picks!
The third novel in the Shoal space opera series featuring Dakota Merrick continuing from Stealing Light and Nova War
The nova war has begun to spread as the Emissaries wage a fierce and reckless campaign, encroaching on the area of space occupied by humanity and forcing the Shoal into a desperate retreat. While Dakota goes in search of the entity responsible for creating the Maker caches, Corso, left in charge of a fleet of human-piloted Magi ships, finds his authority crumbling in the face of assassination attempts and politically-motivated sabotage.
If any hope exists at all, it lies in an abandoned asteroid a thousand light-years beyond the Consortium's borders, and with Ty Whitecloud, the only man alive with the skill to decipher the messages left behind by an ancient race of star travellers. Unfortunately Whitecloud is locked in a prison cell aboard a dying coreship adrift in space, awaiting execution for war crimes against Corso's own people. But if humanity has any hope of survival, Corso is going to have to find some way to keep him alive - and that's only if Dakota doesn't kill him first ...
This is the concluding volume of Gary Gibson's Shoal Sequence, the first book was Stealing Light and the second (which is also out this month in paperback) is Nova War. I very eager to see how this trilogy concludes as it has great promise after the events in Nova War. I'll be getting around to this one as soon is it arrives and can thoroughly recommend the trilogy as a great space opera story.
The book is SF, but the first three-quarters take place in an almost fantasy setting. It is not a sequel to PRINCIPLES OF ANGELS, but it is set in the same universe and share the same villains, the Sidhe.
When a naked, amnesiac stranger is found outside a remote highland village, he is taken in by Kerin, a widow whose unconventional ways are tolerated because her son Damaru is 'skytouched' - he appears simple, but he is able to affect matter. All skytouched are tested by the Beloved Daughter, the living goddess who rules the world from the City of Light. If he's found worthy, Damaru will become a Consort of the skymothers, the Gods of this world.
Kerin and the stranger, nicknamed Sais, accompany Damaru to the City, in the company of a priest who's helping Sais to get back his missing past - but as Sais recovers his memory, he realises that the world does not work the way he assumed - and everyone believes - it does. Worse still, the hierarchy which has kept society stable for thousands of years is rotten to the core. Then Kerin and Sais uncover the true nature of the world, and the unimaginable fate of the Consorts - a fate Kerin will do anything to stop her son sharing.
Kerin's skytouched son is destined for greatness - until she discovers her world is rotten to the core, and so is the destiny facing her son.
Consorts of Heaven is a story from the same setting as Jaine Fenn's first book, Principles of Angels. I've not read the first book yet (although it's on the ever increasing reading stack) and ideally would like to before getting around to this one. This is also the mass-market release and has a lovely new cover to go with it. Interestingly, it also appears that Gollancz have decided to go with JN Fenn rather than Jaine - perhaps trying to get the book to appeal to those that usually ignore women who write sci-fi. Personally I have no qualms about this at all and if the story is good it doesn't matter what gender the author is.
In the CHAGA novels Ian McDonald brought an Africa in the grip of a bizarre alien invasion to life, in RIVER OF GODS he painted a rich portrait of India in 2047, in BRASYL he looked at different Brazils, past present and future. Ian McDonald has found renown at the cutting edge of a movement to take SF away from its British and American white roots and out into the rich cultures of the world.
THE DERVISH HOUSE continues that journey and centres on Istanbul in 2025. Turkey is part of Europe but sited on the edge, it is an Islamic country that looks to the West. THE DERVISH HOUSE is the story of the families that live in and around its titular house, it is at once a rich mosaic of Islamic life in the new century and a telling novel of future possibilities.
The new SF epic from Ian McDonald does for Turkey what BRASYL did for Brazil.
I've got this at home and will be trying to get around to it in the near future, especially seeing the praise starting already. It's got its UK release from Gollancz, while Pyr in the US are doing the honours on that side of the pond. It certainly sounds interesting, but reading will be the only way to say for sure!
Darian Frey is down on his luck. He can barely keep his squabbling crew fed and his rickety aircraft in the sky. Even the simplest robberies seem to go wrong. It's getting so a man can't make a dishonest living any more.
Enter Captain Grist. He's heard about a crashed aircraft laden with the treasures of a lost civilisation, and he needs Frey's help to get it. There's only one problem. The craft is lying in the trackless heart of a remote island, populated by giant beasts and subhuman monsters.
Dangerous, yes. Suicidal, perhaps. Still, Frey's never let common sense get in the way of a fortune before. But there's something other than treasure on board that aircraft. Something that a lot of important people would kill for. And it's going to take all of Frey's considerable skill at lying, cheating and stealing if he wants to get his hands on it . . .
Strap yourself in for another tale of adventure and debauchery, pilots and pirates, golems and daemons, double-crosses and double-double-crosses. The crew of the Ketty Jay are back!
RETRIBUTION FALLS was fun, fast-paced, action-packed, brilliant stuff - and THE BLACK LUNG CAPTAIN is even better.
Ahh, the second Ketty Jay novel. I loved Retribution Falls and will be making this a priority once I get my reading back in order - I really can't wait to see how the story evolves. There have been a couple fo reviews out already and they have some issues with it, but to be honest I'll judge it when I read it, thank you very much.
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