Jump to content

The books coming out in 2019


AncalagonTheBlack

Recommended Posts

My copy will be showing up any day, maybe even today.  Some friends have it already, and are reading it with awe, and taking a lot of time to do it (full disclosure: author gave it to them personally, as thank you for spending so much time with him and the process of imagining the series and the writing of the book).  They say the language is both lush and dense, with story lines that entwine and twist like the roots of certain trees in rain forests.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Triskele said:

Now I just want to know what an edgelord is and take on that persona on the board, permanently.  

 
Edgelord:
 

Someone, especially posting on the internet, who uses shocking and nihilistic speech and opinions that they themselves may or may not actually believe to gain attention and come across as a more dangerous and unique person. Most Edgelords are teenagers trying to seem overly cool and/or over-casually apathetic.

A poster on an Internet forum, (particularly 4chan) who expresses opinions which are either strongly nihilistic, ("life has no meaning," or Tyler Durden's special snowflake speech from the film Fight Club being probably the two main examples) or contain references to Hitler, Nazism, fascism, or other taboo topics which are deliberately intended to shock or offend readers.

The term "edgelord," is a noun, which came from the previous adjective, "edgy," which described the above behaviour.
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This "African Game of Thrones" sounded interesting until I read the description on Amazon.

Quote

Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: "He has a nose," people say. Engaged to track down a mysterious boy who disappeared three years earlier, Tracker breaks his own rule of always working alone when he finds himself part of a group that comes together to search for the boy. The band is a hodgepodge, full of unusual characters with secrets of their own, including a shape-shifting man-animal known as Leopard. ...

Did I miss something because that sounds nothing like "several families warring against each other in order to be the next king and/or queen"?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

I think the African GoT thing is just publisher marketing.

Yeah, everything is the "x version of GOT" if you are a lazy marketing person. I'm sure Ann leckie's new fantasy will probably be "the gender neutral GOT" or some such nonsense as well. Thing is it will sell so I'm sure the authors can live with lazy labels.

Although i think black panther was also the "African game of thrones" first.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Teng Ai Hui said:

This "African Game of Thrones" sounded interesting until I read the description on Amazon.

Did I miss something because that sounds nothing like "several families warring against each other in order to be the next king and/or queen"?

Ya, the elevator pitch.  Also few journalists, publicists and editors know a goddamned thing about Africa and African history -- or even how big the continent is, and it's very many different kingdoms and cultures, prior to the Europeans begining to write about, which isn't until the 15th century, or after the 15th century either.

This is African-derived fantasy, not a euro-medievalish-derived fantasy.

Not that rival families are unknown in African history, of course. There have been films produced in Africa by Africans I've watched that focus on that, with plenty of witcheries and other supernatural elements, though all indigenously African, so they operate quite differently than in euro-centric derived fantasies.

Marlon's approach here is out of narrative, story-telling traditions common throughout the Caribbean's African derived cultures.  But this also means when it comes to grim-dark, there's nothing euro-derived fantasy has on this, either back in Africa or from the colonial-imperial-slave trade-slavery actual history.  Also there's a whole other river of colonial-imperial-slave trade-slavery actual history in Africa's east coast, Sahelian and central Africa coming out of first, going back to the Egyptians, old kingdoms out of what were known as Sheba's and others, and then Rome -- and finally, of course, the Ottoman Empire (of which Egypt was a part) humongous slave trade (and which included many of what we now call central and east Europeans, peoples all around the Black Sea).  Which is how Africa (and Islam) gets to India and even further in southeast Asia.  That's a lot of entwined, twisted roots of grim dark right there, that affected untold millions for millennia, that Europe doesn't share.

This is all a part of the Dark Star trilogy milieu.  (And ya, I also am one of those with whom  Marlon had conversations about these matters.)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Based on how dark his last book was what you just described should fit his fantasy well.

I also suspect from the blurb it's more than possible for factions and the world at large to be more intricate than the scout/rescue synopsis suggests.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To be fair, on the 'African GoT' thing, that's marketing talk for sure but it came from Marlon James himself, since when he started writing it he openly said he started wondering why there wasn't more African epic fantasy in the spotlight and he was going to write his own African GoT. The label has been attached to the project since then.

That James is far too good, and independent, to do a writer to Brooks/Eddings style ripoff and just transpose the tropes into an African setting is to his credit.

In other words:

 

14 hours ago, Teng Ai Hui said:

This "African Game of Thrones" sounded interesting until I read the description on Amazon.

Did I miss something because that sounds nothing like "several families warring against each other in order to be the next king and/or queen"?



You should still be interested purely on the basis that Marlon James is really really fucking good (well, at least on the basis of Brief History, I've not got round to his other books yet).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It seems that the African GoT label was more indirect than I originally assumed.  That statement is more about similarities in worldbuilding (broad, fully detailed, containing many various cultures) and genre (epic fantasy) rather than similarities in plot.  Right?

Regardless, I still want to read Black Leopard, Red Wolf.  I just didn't like thinking that the GoT comparison was being used as a cheap marketing plot, and that's not what Marlon James was trying to do, it seems.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

40 minutes ago, Teng Ai Hui said:

It seems that the African GoT label was more indirect than I originally assumed.  That statement is more about similarities in worldbuilding (broad, fully detailed, containing many various cultures) and genre (epic fantasy) rather than similarities in plot.  Right?

Regardless, I still want to read Black Leopard, Red Wolf.  I just didn't like thinking that the GoT comparison was being used as a cheap marketing plot, and that's not what Marlon James was trying to do, it seems.

Don't worry I'm sure marketing, however indirect (because bookstores want to sell the book as much as the publisher), wanted you to think all the things you think of when GOT pops into your head

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, IlyaP said:

So: "still unfinished twenty years after it began"? :D 

Don't jinx it.This is a trilogy after all! Although maybe it will go full GOT and grow in length to 5 then 7 books and cease all progress once a tv show is airing. Marlon James is not your bitch! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

Cover Launch and blurb for THE PURSUIT OF WILLIAM ABBEY by Claire North

Quote

 

Coming this autumn, THE PURSUIT OF WILLIAM ABBEY is a hauntingly powerful novel about how the choices we make can stay with us forever.
Read on to find out more:

South Africa, 1884. A young and naive English doctor by the name of William Abbey witnesses the lynching of a local boy by white colonists. He’s guilt-struck, but too cowardly to stand up against this horrific act. And as the child dies, his mother curses William.

William begins to understand when what the curse means when the shadow of the dead boy starts following him across the world. It never stops, never rests. It can cross oceans and mountains. And if it catches him, the person he loves most in the world will die . . .

Moving, thought-provoking and utterly gripping, Claire North’s stunning new novel proves again that she is one of the most original and innovative voices in modern fiction.

 


 

Cover Reveal and blurb: To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

Quote

 

We are thrilled to reveal the beautiful cover of Becky Chamber’s incredible new standalone novella To Be Taught, If Fortunate, coming in August 2019.

In the future, instead of terraforming planets to sustain human life, explorers of galaxy transform themselves.

At the turn of the twenty-second century, scientists make a breakthrough in human spaceflight. Through a revolutionary method known as somaforming, astronauts can survive in hostile environments off Earth using synthetic biological supplementations. They can produce antifreeze in sub-zero temperatures, absorb radiation and convert it for food, and conveniently adjust to the pull of different gravitational forces. With the fragility of the body no longer a limiting factor, human beings are at last able to explore neighbouring exoplanets long suspected to harbour life.

Ariadne is one such explorer. On a mission to ecologically survey four habitable worlds fifteen light-years from Earth, she and her fellow crewmates sleep while in transit, and wake each time with different features. But as they shift through both form and time, life back on Earth has also changed. Faced with the possibility of returning to a planet that has forgotten those who have left, Ariadne begins to chronicle the wonders and dangers of her journey, in the hope that someone back home might still be listening.

 

 

Adrian Tchaikovsky Returns with Made Things, a Clever Fantasy About Making New Friends—Literally

Quote

 

Made Things, arriving in November from Tor.com Publishing, is the story of a clever thief with some very unusual friends…

    She was good at making friends.

    Coppelia is a street thief, a trickster, a low-level con artist. But she has something other thieves don’t… tiny puppet-like friends: some made of wood, some of metal. They don’t entirely trust her, and she doesn’t entirely understand them, but their partnership mostly works.

    After a surprising discovery shakes their world to the core, Coppelia and her friends must reexamine everything they thought they knew about their world, while attempting to save their city from a seemingly impossible new threat.

 


 

Serial Box is Bringing Orphan Black Back With Tatiana Maslany

Quote

 

Serial Box is going to run a new “season” of Orphan Black, complete with an audiobook version narrated by Tatiana Maslany. Orphan Black: The Next Chapter is going to be set eight years after the show’s end, but will feature the same characters that fans know and love.

The author lineup for this one is stellar! The season will feature Malka Older (Ninth Step Station, The Centenal Cycle series), with Madeline Ashby, Mishell Baker, Heli Kennedy, E.C. Myers, and Lindsay Smith as series writers. According to Serial Box, “The story will take fans in some unexpected directions, and there are a lot of treats along the way that harken back to previous seasons.”

We have no word on a release date yet, but Serial Box says it should show up at some point later in the summer, so get ready!

 


 

NOTTINGHAM by Nathan Makaryk - August 2019

Quote

 

Both a gripping historical epic and fascinating deconstruction of the Robin Hood legend, Nathan Makaryk's Nottingham mixes history and myth into a complex study of power--one that twists and turns far beyond the traditional tale of Sherwood Forest's iconic thief.

The most pleasurable reading experience I've had since first discovering George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.’ - Bryan Cogman, Co-Executive Producer/Writer, Game of Thrones

No king. No rules.

England, 1191. King Richard is half a world away, fighting for God and his own ambition. Back home, his country languishes, bankrupt and on the verge of anarchy. People with power are running unchecked. People without are growing angry. And in Nottingham, one of the largest shires in England, the sheriff seems intent on doing nothing about it.

As the leaves turn gold in the Sherwood Forest, the lives of six people--Arable, a servant girl with a secret, Robin and William, soldiers running from their pasts, Marion, a noblewoman working for change, Guy of Gisbourne, Nottingham's beleaguered guard captain, and Elena Gamwell, a brash, ambitious thief--become intertwined.

And a strange story begins to spread . . .

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Advance praise for We Are the Dead (The Last War #1) by Mike Shackle:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Are-Dead-Last-War-Trilogy/dp/1473225213/

"Likely the next Game of Thrones, and the best book I've read in several years. Erikson, Martin and Rothfuss are going to have to shove over and make room at the bar. A gem. Not one likeable character in the swamp but I still became totally emotionally engaged. I can't think how to tone down my enthusiasm" (Glen Cook)

"Like Tarantino crossed with David Gemmell... Absolutely splendid. Shackle has come up with something really special here, and I enjoyed it enormously" (Peter McClean)

"Hooked from page one, We Are the Dead rattles along with the pace of a runaway bullet train. Original, engaging, flawed but very-human characters draw us into a world rent by war, a world of brutal occupation, tarnished honour and devastating magics. This is a powerful debut and Shackle is an author to watch" (Gavin Smith, author of The Bastard Legion)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tim Powers' next novel Forced Perspectives will be published by Baen in March 2020:

https://www.amazon.com/Forced-Perspectives-Tim-Powers/dp/1982124407/

 

Baen will release an omnibus of the first three Penric novellas (Lois McMaster Bujold) in January 2020:

https://www.amazon.com/Penrics-Progress-Lois-McMaster-Bujold/dp/1982124296/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/24/2019 at 9:43 AM, Jussi said:

Advance praise for We Are the Dead (The Last War #1) by Mike Shackle:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Are-Dead-Last-War-Trilogy/dp/1473225213/

 

 

Only one game of thrones comparison? With comparisons to Martin and rothfuss should we wait for the trilogy to end or does the Erikson comparison cancel out. 

One to watch if those reviews are to be believed though 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
On 7/12/2019 at 7:16 PM, williamjm said:

Lois McMaster Bujold has another Penric and Desdemona story, The Orphans of Raspay, coming out later this month. I've really enjoyed the series so far so I'm looking forward to this.

Yay!!!!!!!  I just bought prisoner of limnos so that is perfect timing.  I've read these all recently and I will be moving on to the novels very soon. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...