The New Books Roundup, April 4: Waking Gods, a Red Sister, and a Gauntlet
The month of April is getting off to a strong start when it comes to new books in science fiction and fantasy, including the next novel from Sylvain Neuvel.
Welcome to the New Books Roundup … and to the month of April. After March may have ended more quietly than expected, the first two weeks of April are pretty hefty when it comes to science fiction and fantasy. But we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves to say the first two weeks. It’s only April 4. Appropriately enough, we have four titles for you to check out this week.
Amazon’s official descriptions provide the information, but the humor comes straight from us.
Waking Gods
Sylvain Neuvel returns with the second book of the Themis Files, picking up 10 years after the events of Sleeping Giants. Unsurprisingly, Themis is not the only alien robot out there in the universe, and the second robot is far more powerful than she. It’s up to the characters from the first novel and a few new ones as well, to try and figure out what the owners of this new robot want, exactly. (Presumably, it’s nothing too good.) Check it out on Goodreads as well. Del Rey; hardcover, 336 pages; list price: $28.00.
Gauntlet
Our second book this week is also a sequel, this time to Holly Jennings’ Arena. Kali Ling has a new wrinkle to her supremacy in the Virtual Gaming League: VR pods. She’ll need to play in one to win a huge new tournament, one that’s tougher than anything she’s ever faced before. What else can you expect from a sequel? Escalation is practically the name of the game, and this time, we didn’t even intend to make that pun, but it works really well. You’ll just have to forgive us. Here it is on Goodreads. Ace; paperback, 448 pages; list price: $15.00.
Red Sister
This week isn’t all about sequels. Mark Lawrence is kicking off another series, this one dubbed the Book of the Ancestor. Our protagonist is Nona, a little girl who happens to have some very special blood. When she arrives at the Convent of Sweet Mercy, she starts some, shall we say, very special lessons. Well, we all know that the color red is pretty good for hiding liquids that have a tendency to spurt from wounds. Goodreads, as always, has the goods. Ace; hardcover, 480 pages; list price: $27.00.
Brimstone
See, it’s half sequels and half original novels. Balance in all things, right? Cherie Priest’s Brimstone takes us back to the aftermath of World War I and introduces us to Alice and Tomás. He’s lost his wife, and he’s come back from the war with some emotional baggage of his own tied to fire. She has some supernatural gifts of her own, ones she’s trying to use to help him. They may end up burning each other, though. Goodreads adds more to the story. Ace; paperback, 336 pages; list price: $16.00.
Next: Review: Immortal Unchained, Lynsay Sands
That wraps up this week in new books. Let us know in the comments below what you’re reading!