Risingshadow: September 2018 Edition

Risingshadow has the honour of publishing a guest post by Carina Bissett. About Carina Bissett: Carina Bissett is a writer, poet, and educator working primarily in the fields of speculative fiction and interstitial art. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Stonecoast (University of Southern Maine) and has studied with such popular writers and poets as Elizabeth Hand, Nancy Holder, David Anthony Durham, Theodora Goss, Ted Deppe, Cara Hoffman, and Cate Marvin. Her short fiction and poetry ... [read more]

The winners of the 2018 Hugo Awards are: Best Novel: The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit) Best Novella: All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing) Best Novelette: "The Secret Life of Bots" by Suzanne Palmer (Clarkesworld, September 2017) Best Short Story: "Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™" by Rebecca Roanhorse (Apex, August 2017) [read more]

Francesco Dimitri's The Book of Hidden Things was published by Titan Books in July 2018. Information about Francesco Dimitri: Francesco Dimitri is an Italian author and speaker living in London. He is on the Faculty of the School of Life. He is considered one of the foremost fantasy writers in Italy, and his works have been widely appreciated by non-genre readers too. A film has been made from his first novel, La Ragazza dei miei Sogni. The Book of Hidden Things is his debut novel in ... [read more]

Michael W. Garza's Drums in the Abyss was published by NeverHaven Press in July 2018. Information about Michael W. Garza: Michael W. Garza often finds himself wondering where his inspiration will come from next and in what form his imagination will bring it to life. The outcomes regularly surprise him and it's always his ambition to amaze those curious enough to follow him and take in those results. He encourages readers to peek at his latest work as well as the material he's published in ... [read more]

Risingshadow has had the honour of interviewing Brenda Cooper about her latest science fiction novel, Keepers. About Brenda Cooper: Brenda Cooper is the author of Wilders, Book One of the Project Earth series; Edge of Dark and Spear of Light, Books One and Two of The Glittering Edge series; The Creative Fire and The Diamond Deep, Books One and Two of Ruby’s Song; and the The Silver Ship series. Her most recent short-story collection is Cracking the Sky. She is also the author ... [read more]

Galen Surlak-Ramsey's The Gorgon Bride was published by Tiny Fox Press in July 2018. Information about Galen Surlak-Ramsey: When Galen’s not obsessing over his latest text, he’s likely throwing himself out of an airplane, teaching others how to throw themselves out of an airplane, playing something online, taking pictures of the heavens with his telescope, or wrangling his four children somewhere in Southwest Florida. He also manages to pay the bills as a chaplain for a local ... [read more]

(The Murderbot Diaries #3)

A novella. The third thrilling book in the increasingly popular Murderbot Diaries, which began with All Systems Red SciFi’s favorite crabby A.I. is again on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris Corporation is floundering, and more importantly, authorities are beginning to ask more questions about where Dr. Mensah's SecUnit is. And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good. Martha Wells' Rogue Protocol is the third in the Murderbot Diaries series, ... [read more]

Science FictionNovellaArtificial Intelligence

Translated by Joel Martinsen. A new standalone military SF adventure from the bestselling and award-winning author of The Three-Body Problem. When Chen’s parents are incinerated before his eyes by a blast of ball lightning, he devotes his life to cracking the secret of mysterious natural phenomenon. His search takes him to stormy mountaintops, an experimental military weapons lab, and an old Soviet science station. The more he learns, the more he comes to realize that ball lightning is just ... [read more]

Science FictionTranslation

(Tales of Middle-Earth)

Edited by Christopher Tolkien. Illustrated by Alan Lee. In the Tale of The Fall of Gondolin are two of the greatest powers in the world. There is Morgoth of the uttermost evil, unseen in this story but ruling over a vast military power from his fortress of Angband. Deeply opposed to Morgoth is Ulmo, second in might only to Manwë, chief of the Valar: he is called the Lord of Waters, of all seas, lakes, and rivers under the sky. But he works in secret in Middle-earth to support the Noldor, the ... [read more]

FantasyEpic FantasyHigh FantasyMiddle-earth

(The Wandering Inn #1)

“No killing Goblins.” So reads the sign outside of The Wandering Inn, a small building run by a young woman named Erin Solstice. She serves pasta with sausage, blue fruit juice, and dead acid flies on request. And she comes from another world. Ours. It’s a bad day when Erin finds herself transported to a fantastical world and nearly gets eaten by a Dragon. She doesn’t belong in a place where monster attacks are a fact of life, and where Humans are one species among many. But she must ... [read more]

Fantasy

(Ranger's Apprentice: The Royal Ranger #2)

#1 New York Times bestselling author John Flanagan returns to the world of Ranger's Apprentice, beginning a new story arc starring fan favorites, Will and Maddie (Ranger's Apprentice: The Royal Ranger). Picking up where Ranger's Apprentice: The Royal Ranger left off, this next installment continues the story arc featuring young apprentice, Maddie, and the student-turned-master, Will Treaty. The time has come for the next generation to assume the mantle and become protectors of the kingdom ... [read more]

FantasyYoung Adult

A novella. Rising SFF star P. Djèlí Clark brings an alternate New Orleans of orisha, airships, and adventure to life in his immersive debut novella The Black God's Drums In an alternate New Orleans caught in the tangle of the American Civil War, the wall-scaling girl named Creeper yearns to escape the streets for the air – in particular, by earning a spot on-board the airship Midnight Robber. Creeper plans to earn Captain Ann-Marie’s trust with information she discovers about a Haitian ... [read more]

FantasyAlternate HistoryNovellaSteampunk

(Noumenon #2)

Travel to the remotest reaches of deep space in this wondrous follow-up to the acclaimed Noumenon — a tale of exploration, adventure, science, and humanity with the sweep and intelligence of the works of Arthur C. Clarke, Neal Stephenson, and Octavia Butler Generations ago, Convoy Seven and I.C.C. left Earth on a mission that would take them far beyond the solar system. Launched by the Planet United Consortium, a global group formed to pursue cooperative Earth-wide interests in deep space, ... [read more]

Science FictionSpace Opera

(Stars Uncharted #1)

A ragtag band of explorers are looking to make the biggest score in the galaxy in the brand-new science fiction adventure novel from the national bestselling author of Linesman. Three people who are not who they claim to be: Nika Rik Terri, body modder extraordinaire, has devoted her life to redesigning people's bodies right down to the molecular level. Give her a living body and a genemod machine, and she will turn out a work of art. Josune Arriola is crew on the famous explorer ship the ... [read more]

Science FictionSpace Opera

(Lady Astronaut #2)

Continuing the grand sweep of alternate history laid out in The Calculating Stars, The Fated Sky looks forward to 1961, when mankind is well-established on the moon and looking forward to its next step: journeying to, and eventually colonizing, Mars. Of course the noted Lady Astronaut Elma York would like to go, but could the International Aerospace Coalition ever stand the thought of putting a woman on such a potentially dangerous mission? Could Elma knowingly take the place of other ... [read more]

Science FictionAlternate History

(Sooty Feathers #1)

There’s a supernatural war brewing......for control of the Second City of the British Empire Glasgow 1893. Wilton Hunt, a student, and Tam Foley, a laudanum-addicted pharmacist, are pursuing extra-curricular careers as body snatchers, or ‘resurrection men’, under cover of darkness. They exhume a girl’s corpse, only for it to disappear while their backs are turned. Confused and in need of the money the body would have earnt them, they investigate the corpse’s disappearance. They ... [read more]

FantasyHorrorUrban FantasyDark FantasyHistorical Fantasy

(Empire of Salt #2)

From the daring and critically-acclaimed master of historical fiction Conn Iggulden, SHIANG is the second book in the Empire of Salt, an epic fantasy series of spellbinding imagination... IF THESE STONES COULD SPEAK, THEY WOULD CALL FOR WAR. In Shiang, the young king rules without dissent. Mazer swordsmen stand watch on every corner, looking for the first sign of rebellion. This city is a place of quiet and slow dignity, like a man eating rice with a razor pressed against his throat. Yet ... [read more]

FantasyEpic FantasyHigh Fantasy

(King's Dark Tidings #4)

The future of the Ashaiian haven, the newly founded Kingdom of Cael, is anything but secured. Rezkin must seek recognition from the King of Gendishen if his people are to maintain possession of their island home and the enchanted secret it contains. In an unexpected twist, events overtake Rezkin, and he is thrust into a frustrating adventure to seek a worthless prize. He finds that his carefully constructed reputation as an indomitable foe has consequences as others seek to use his strengths for ... [read more]

FantasyEpic FantasyHigh Fantasy

Once, a witch made a pact with a devil. The legend says they loved each other, but can the story be trusted at all? Find out in this lush, atmospheric fantasy novel that entwines love, lies, and sacrifice. Long ago, a village made a bargain with the devil: to ensure their prosperity, when the Slaughter Moon rises, the village must sacrifice a young man into the depths of the Devil’s Forest. Only this year, the Slaughter Moon has risen early. Bound by duty, secrets, and the love they ... [read more]

FantasyYoung Adult

(Villains #2)

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR From the author of A Darker Shade of Magic comes Vengeful, the highly-anticipated sequel to V. E. Schwab's debut adult novel Vicious, a masterful tale of ambition, jealousy, and superpowers. A super-powered battle of genius, cruelty, and the lengths one will go for vengeance―V. E. Schwab returns with the end to the Villains duology. Magneto and Professor X. Superman and Lex Luthor. Victor Vale and Eli Ever. Sydney Clarke once had Serena―beloved ... [read more]

Science Fiction

(The Salvation Sequence #1)

Know your enemy – or be defeated AD 2204An alien shipwreck is discovered on a planet at the very limits of human expansion – so Security Director Feriton Kayne selects a team to investigate. The ship’s sinister cargo not only raises bewildering questions, but could also foreshadow humanity’s extinction. It will be up to the team to bring back answers, and the consequences of this voyage will change everything. Back on Earth, we can now make deserts bloom and extend lifespans ... [read more]

Science FictionSpace Opera

(The Axiom #2)

The crew of the White Raven returns to save the galaxy, in this brilliant space opera sequel to The Wrong Stars Ancient aliens, the Axiom, will kill us all – when they wake up. In deep space, a swarm of nanoparticles threatens the colonies, transforming everything it meets into computronium – including the colonists. The crew of the White Raven investigate, and discover an Axiom facility filled with aliens hibernating while their minds roam a vast virtual reality. Sebastien wakes up, ... [read more]

Science FictionHard Science Fiction

(Dread Empire's Fall #4)

Blending fast-paced military science fiction and space opera, the first volume in a dynamic new trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Praxis,set in the universe of his popular and critically acclaimed Dread Empire’s Fall series — a tale of blood, courage, adventure and battle in which the fate of an empire rests in the hands of a cadre of desperate exiles It’s been seven years since the end of the Naxid War. Sidelined for their unorthodox tactics by a rigid, ... [read more]

Science FictionSpace Opera

(The Darkwater Legacy #1)

A land under occupation. A legendary sword. A young man’s journey to find his destiny. Aren has lived by the rules all his life. He’s never questioned it; that’s just the way things are. But then his father is executed for treason, and he and his best friend Cade are thrown into a prison mine, doomed to work until they drop. Unless they can somehow break free... But what lies beyond the prison walls is more terrifying still. Rescued by a man who hates him yet is oath-bound to protect ... [read more]

FantasyEpic FantasyHigh Fantasy

(The Wizards of Once #2)

From the bestselling author of How to Train Your Dragon comes an exciting high-adventure series - set in an ancient, magical time, full of Wizards, Warriors, Giants and Sprites. This was once the story of a young boy Wizard and a young girl Warrior who had been taught since birth to hate each other like poison. But now, the boy Wizard and girl Warrior have been brought together in the Badwoods and they have witnessed the shocking consequences of the Stone That Takes Away Magic. They will ... [read more]

FantasyYoung Adult

(The Breeds #32)

Fans of #1 New York Times bestselling author Lora Leigh's scorching Breed series first met Cassie as a little girl in Elizabeth's Wolf. Now Cassie has finally come into her own as a young woman, and she's about to discover the one she is destined for - but it is unclear whether her fate is to be mated for life, or marked for death... The Breeds are humans altered before conception with the DNA of the predators of the earth. But although they all carry the genetic material of beasts within ... [read more]

FantasyRomance