July 1, 2022
Richard Sharpe returns to the mayhem of the early 19th-century Peninsular War in Cornwell's Sharpe's Command (75,000-copy first printing). Following the LJ-starred Big Girl, Small Town, Gallen's Factory Girls features a young woman in Northern Ireland working a grinding summer job made harder by a sleazy boss. In The World We Make, three-time Hugo Award--winning Jemisin returns to New York City, whose six protective avatars must work with the world's other great cities to waylay a populist mayoral candidate threatening the city's very soul (225,000-copy first printing). Following Kapelke-Dale's well-received debut, The Ballerinas, The Ingenue features a former piano prodigy Saskia Kreis, shocked to learn that her recently deceased mother left the family estate to a man with whom Saskia shares a painful past (200,000-copy first printing). In The Book of Everlasting Things, a debut from Delhi-based oral historian Malhotra, two lovers--perfumer's apprentice Samir, who is Hindu, and calligrapher's apprentice Firdaus, who is Muslim--are violently torn apart during India's Partition in 1947. From Silver Linings Playbook author Quick, We Are the Light limns the relationship between a sorrowing widower and an ostracized teenager. The multi-award-winning Rebecca Roanhorse returns with Tread of Angels, set in a late 1800s Colorado mining town where cardsharp Celeste defends a sister accused of murdering a Virtue, one of the town's ruling class. Having successfully entered the adult arena with A River Enchanted, YA author Ross wraps up her duology with A Fire Endless, set on a magical island whose uneasy balance of human and faerie is threatened by the power-hungry spirit of the North Wind (50,000-copy first printing). In debuter Swanson's Things We Found When the Water Went Down, a 16-year-old struggles to find her mother, a crusading environmentalist blamed for a miner's death who vanished in a blizzard. Of Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee heritage, Wurth debuts with White Horse, featuring young, Indigenous Kari James, who inadvertently summons both her mother's ghost and a dangerous, blood-eyed creature when she discovers an old bracelet belonging to her mother (100,000-copy first printing). The pseudonymous Zeldis (Not Our Kind) brings together Beatrice, The Dressmaker of Prospect Heights, Brooklyn; her assistant, orphaned teenager Alice; and their newlywed neighbor Catherine, amid shifting relationships and secrets bubbling up from the past (50,000-copy first printing).
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August 15, 2022
Skillfully blending a noir atmosphere with western tropes and biblical mythology, bestseller Roanhorse (Fevered Star) crafts an immersive historical fantasy centered on ambition, privilege, and marginalization. In the Colorado town of Goetia, in an alternate old west with an almost steampunk vibe, miners extract the all-purpose element of divinity from the long-dead corpse of the angel Abaddon. The Elect, descendants of angels, exploit and look down upon the Fallen, descendants of demons, while the Virtue Orders enforce holy justice. The flawed and fascinating heroine, half-Fallen, half-Elect Celeste Semyaza, ekes out a living as a card dealer in a local gambling den, where her sister, Mariel, headlines as a singer. When Mariel is arrested on suspicion of murdering a Virtue, Celeste will do everything in her power to prove her sister innocent—even accept the help of her former lover, the demon Abraxas. While investigating, Celeste stumbles across the town’s dark secret, and must reconsider her own priorities and future plans, as well as her relationships with those she cares for. The mystery plot is solidly entertaining and suits the atmosphere, but it remains fairly basic—even predictable—to the end. Instead, the worldbuilding is the real star here; readers will hope for a chance to explore it further in future outings. Agent: Sara Megibow, KT Literary.
November 1, 2022
Roanhorse's latest (after Fevered Star, 2022) imagines a Wild West world where everyone is a descendant of those who fought in the war between God's heavenly forces and Lucifer's fallen ones. Respectively known as the Elect and the Fallen, the former rule with a sense of inherited superiority while the latter bear horns, odd eyes, and occasionally stranger marks of their heritage. Celeste, card dealer and mixed-race daughter who resembles her Elect father, must navigate this dangerously segregated world to save the person she loves most. Her Fallen sister, Mariel, is accused of murder, and Celeste will stop at nothing, including making deals with her seductive ex-lover and demon lord Abraxas, to free her. The Old West aesthetic, the steampunk flair of the divinity-powered devices, and the many references to Christian theology and angelology grounding the fantastical elements create a fascinating world. Fans of urban fantasy and its resourceful but conflicted heroines will find the mining town of Goetia, its colorful denizens, and Celeste's investigations a refreshing combination.
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September 1, 2022
Roanhorse (Fevered Star) sets her latest fantasy in an 1883 Colorado mining town populated by angels and demons, referred to as "Virtues" and "Fallen." The names are misleading as the Virtues are far from virtuous while the Fallen have become an underclass who are overworked, underpaid, and subject to prejudice at every turn. When a Virtue is found dead and dismembered in a Fallen woman's bed, "Virtuous" officialdom presumes her guilt, but her sister Celeste is determined to prove her innocence no matter how many roadblocks stand in her way. In the end, she exposes the truth about the Virtues that no one wants to believe, and the truth about her sister that she refused to see. It's the determination of Celeste that carries this story. The reader isn't surprised that her world is corrupt, but her dogged determination to corrupt herself to save her sister drive the story forward and keep the reader turning pages. VERDICT Fans of "Weird West" tales and angel-demon conflicts will find Celeste's world fascinating in Roanhorse's stand-alone novella.--Marlene Harris
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Starred review from September 15, 2022
When her younger sister is arrested for murder, Celeste Semyaza must scramble to prove her innocence. In the world of Roanhorse's new novel, society is divided between the Elect and the Fallen. The Fallen are descendants of the demons who followed Lucifer and rebelled against God. As a result, they are largely discriminated against and looked down upon as sinful and evil by the privileged Elect. In the mining town of Goetia, however, the Fallen and the Elect live together in order to mine a precious substance called divinity, which the Fallen are better equipped to handle than the Elect. Celeste, a card dealer, and her sister, Mariel, a singer, are half Fallen, half Elect. When Mariel is accused of murdering a Virtue, the most respected of all the Elect humans, Celeste is determined to find evidence of her innocence and set her free. Roanhorse, an expert worldbuilder, sets up her fantasy-Western universe and her take on angels and demons as fantasy tropes with impressive efficiency. And when her world is so quickly and easily understood by the reader, Roanhorse has plenty of space to engage with noir storytelling and the trope of the "tragic mulatto," as she mentions in her acknowledgements. Too much description of her excellent plot would risk spoiling an inventive and propulsive narrative, but readers accustomed to Roanhorse's richly detailed characters and beautifully executed action sequences will not be disappointed. A superb dark fantasy.
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