The New Books Roundup, April 25: Cory Doctorow and Impossible Things
The last new books roundup for April 2017 has a bit of romance, but also two new science fiction stories to take a look at.
By this time next week, we’ll be in May. Can you believe that? Yours truly really can’t, but, alas, I don’t control the flow of time. However, I do get to control what appears on the new books roundup this week, and I suppose I will just have to settle for that.
The information used to provide descriptions of each of the following books comes from their Goodreads pages, which are where you’ll go if you click any of the titles below.
Six Impossible Things
Who doesn’t love a good Alice in Wonderland reference? No word yet on whether either the heroine or hero actually accomplish the endeavor before breakfast. Elizabeth Boyle’s Rhymes with Love series has now thrown in some spies for good measure — but, happily enough, Roselie Stratton’s the spy, not the noble Lord Rimswell. Unfortunately, his being noble means he has some ideas about how he should treat women, particularly Roselie, and also marry them if he kisses them, which he’s done with her. We’re sure you can take it from here, plot-wise. Avon; mass market paperback, 384 pages; list price on Amazon: $7.99.
Walkaway
Goodreads calls this a book about “the wrenching changes of the next hundred years…and the very human people who will live their consequences,” which seems like a reasonably standard science fiction descriptor until you remember that it’s talking about the next hundred years instead of some hundred years way in the future. Anyway, the story is of two people who decide to effectively go off the grid and join a new society, one that learns how to become immortal (but since this is science fiction and not fantasy, the language used is “cheat death”). It seems important to note as Goodreads does that this is actually Cory Doctorow’s first book specifically for adults in eight years. Tor Books; hardcover, 384 pages; list price on Amazon: $26.99.
The Ship
Speaking of references, it seems like the basic plot of Antonia Honeywell’s first novel heads back to the plot of Noah’s Ark (something confirmed on Amazon’s page but not Goodreads’), but it is actually science fiction. After the collapse of society as we know it, things have finally gotten so bad that Lalla’s father has finally gone onto the ship he designed to get away from it all. There’s just one problem. It only holds 500 people. Well, technically, there are two problems: the world of the ship is, as you may suspect, not everything it seems, either. Orbit; hardcover, 336 pages; list price on Amazon: $26.00.
Next: 20 Worst Superhero Costumes
Will any of these books help you close out April, or do you have your eyes set on something else instead?