While Lana Popovic’s Wicked Like A Wildfire (hardcover, digital) may be found in the “young adult” section of your local bookstore, in talking to her about this new novel, the first of a two-part fantasy series, she explains that you might want to focus more on the latter word more than the former. And she would know; when not writing YA fantasy novels, she works as a book agent for a number of “young adult” authors.
When promoting a novel, publishers sometimes describe them in ways that don’t align with how the author sees their story.
But while writer Margaret Killjoy fully embraces how Tor called her new novella The Lamb Will Slaughter The Lion (paperback, digital) a “punk fantasy,” she explains that it’s not “punk” as in the aesthetic but “punk” as in the value.
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who’ve broken the bag from a vacuum cleaner and gotten dirt everywhere, and those who live in fear of doing just that. But while a certain someone in Matt Goldman’s new crime novel Gone To Dust (hardcover, digital) is in the former group, they probably don’t feel so bad about it, since it may help them get away with murder.
Writer Camille Bordas first caught my attention when I read her impressive short story “Most Die Young” in the January 2, 2017 issue of The New Yorker.
But in talking to her about her new novel, How To Behave In A Crowd (hardcover, paperback, digital), I learned that, ironically, short stories aren’t her forte.
In some zombie stories, the living try to use the undead as a workforce. Though usually just as protection, as an early warning system, or as an army. But in his new novel The Death And Life Of Schneider Wrack (paperback, digital), writer Nate Crowley envisions a world in which criminals are turned into zombies and forced to work manual labor jobs. Though in talking to Crowley about his novel, what struck me is that his tale isn’t told from the perspective of the living, but of the dead.
One of my favorite novels from 2016 was Mike Brooks’ sci-fi novel Dark Run. With the sequel, Dark Sky (paperback, digital), now out in the U.S., and a third installment, Dark Deeds (paperback, digital), slated for release on October 10th, I spoke to him about what inspired this second chapter and how it connects to the other books in his Keiko series.
When George Lucas was writing the first Star Wars movie, he based the character of Chewbacca on his dog, who would sit in the passenger seat of Lucas’ car whenever they’d drive somewhere. But Jorge isn’t the first to incorporate man’s best friend into a sci-fi tale. Enter Wendy N Wagner, whose new novel, An Oath Of Dogs (paperback, digital) takes inspiration from a couple of our furry friends…including one, oddly, that isn’t hers.
While fantasy, as a genre, has clearly been influenced by Dungeons & Dragons, it’s not often that fantasy writers say their style was impacted by role-playing games. But in talking to David Mealing about Soul Of The World (paperback, digital), the first book in his series The Ascension Cycle, he explained that, “Pen & paper RPGs taught me just about everything I know when it comes to storytelling.”
Given that she spends her days editing other people’s words as an assistant editor for Riverhead Books, you might think the last thing Danya Kukafka would want to do is write a novel of her own. But Kukafka doesn’t follow your…rules. Which is why she’s written Girl In Snow (hardcover, digital), a novel that author Paula Hawkins (The Girl On The Train) calls, “…a perfectly-paced and tautly-plotted thriller.”