The Lost War by Justin Lee Anderson
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This sensational epic fantasy follows an emissary for the king as he gathers a group of strangers and embarks on a dangerous quest across a war-torn land.​

Dragonfall by Laura Lam
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Long-banished dragons, revered as gods, return to the mortal realm in the first in this magical new epic fantasy trilogy from a bestselling author

Atalanta by Jennifer Saint
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From the beloved, bestselling author of Elektra and Ariadne, a reimagining of the myth of Atalanta, a fierce huntress raised by bears and the only woman in the world’s most famous band of heroes, the Argonauts

Scarlet by Genevieve Cogman
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Scarlet is the first book in a wildly engaging new series from Genevieve Cogman, which reinvents the beloved tale of the Scarlet Pimpernel.

The Enchanted Hacienda by J.C. Cervantes
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With unforeseen twists, romance, and a heavy sprinkle of magic, The Enchanted Hacienda  is a captivating coming-of-age debut exploring identity, unconditional family love, and uncovering the magic within us all.

The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson
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In the second installment of Juno Dawson’s “irresistible” fantasy trilogy (Lana Harper), a group of childhood friends and witches must choose between what is right and what is easy if they have any hope of keeping their coven–and their world–from tearing apart forever.

The Will of the Many by James Islington
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At the elite Catenan Academy, a young fugitive uncovers layered mysteries and world-changing secrets in this new fantasy series by internationally bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.

Loki by Melvin Burgess
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This is a retelling that is contemporary in tone, at once amusing and relatable. It is a heartfelt plea to overthrow the old gods of power and authority and instigate a new era ruled by love and intelligence.

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
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Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Yarros.

Savage Beasts by Rani Selvarajah
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Savage Beasts is a propulsive retelling of the Greek myth of Medea, reimagined as Meena the daughter of the powerful Nawab of Bengal, during the rise of the East India Company.

A Crown of Ivy and Glass by Claire Legrand
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New York Times bestselling author of Furyborn, Claire Legrand, makes her stunning adult debut with A Crown of Ivy and Glass, a lush, sweeping, steamy fantasy romance series starter that’s perfect for fans of Bridgerton and A Court of Thorns and Roses.

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
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The explosive, hotly-anticipated debut novel from the New York Times-bestselling author of Friday Black, about two top women gladiators fighting for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America’s own.

What releases are you looking forward to? Tell us in the comments below!

The post May 2023 Fantasy & Sci-Fi Book Releases appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Hi, Genevieve! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

I’m a Classifications Specialist (working with clinical codes which are used in hospitals to record diagnoses and procedures), I live in the north of England, and I love speculative fiction and classic detective fiction. My hobbies include fairly basic patchwork, quilting and knitting (my family are fed up by now of getting scarves and quilts as presents). My studies were in mathematics rather than creative writing (BSc in Mathematics with Statistics, MSc in Statistics with Medical Applications) but I’ve been an enthusiastic writer of fanfiction and freelance work for roleplaying games (including GURPS, In Nomine and Exalted). I enjoy musicals and operas, and the Japanese theatrical troupe Takarazuka. My main fiction writing so far has been the Invisible Library series (8 books published so far), though that’s on pause for the moment while I work on this new trilogy.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I discovered that I loved stories when I was 5 or 6 years old and first reading. I was one of those children who didn’t want to go out to play, because I had my head in a book. I didn’t actually start writing till I was in my early twenties, and writing diaries for roleplaying game sessions, or fanfiction, or fan poetry, and so on, but I was daydreaming well before that.

Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!

I remember reading the Lord of the Rings at 7. (I read plenty of other books, too, but that’s the one I remember first and best. My parents read me the Hobbit before that as a bedtime story.)

There was no book that “made me want to become an author”, I’m afraid. I didn’t want to become an author as a thing in itself. I just enjoyed creating stories.

I can’t stop thinking about the Locked Tomb books by Tamsyn Muir (Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, Nona the Ninth…) I want to find out how it finishes.

Your latest novel, Scarlet, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Scarlet Pimpernel. Vampires. Revolution. Embroidery.

What can readers expect?

A fair amount of action, a tinge of humour, a little bit of romance, and a splattering of history (with vampires – though honestly, the French Revolution and the Georgian period had so many interesting things going on anyhow that one hardly needs vampires and magic).

Where did the inspiration for Scarlet come from?

I was considering new ideas, and ended up writing down a big list of inspirations, thoughts and topics which interested me, to see if anything particularly clicked. Then I drew a mental line between the Scarlet Pimpernel stories, and the idea of vampires as part of society, and I got the feeling that there was a story there which was worth exploring. The idea of a lower-class female protagonist would allow me to look at the Scarlet Pimpernel setting from a more “outsider” perspective than most of the original stories: to be fair to Orczy, quite a few of her stories are from a female perspective, but most of her heroines are aristocratic, pure-hearted, or both, and Eleanor is definitely not pure-hearted.

Can you tell us about your research process?

I researched both the factual side and the fictional side.

The fictional side was easier: there are a number of the Orczy books available on Project Gutenberg, and other fictional media (such as the movie with Leslie Howard, the tv series with Richard E Grant, the musical by Wildhorn and the GURPS roleplaying game sourcebook) are all available without too much difficulty.

For the factual side, I hit the bookshops and the libraries for information on the French Revolution and on the Georgian period in general. I also asked for relevant reference books for my birthday that year – killing two birds with one stone! There’s also the internet, where a lot of people are willing to share information such as how women wore stays (and why they weren’t like Victorian corsets), what the ‘cut direct’ was, and so on.

But ultimately, the final part of any research process is deciding which parts to keep and use and which parts to discard or ignore. The fact that the setting was already fictional (well, it included vampires) meant that I didn’t have to feel too guilty about breaks from historical reality at various points. And as the story progresses, in books 2 and 3, it’s going to grow even more detached from historical fact, due to events that take place along the way.

Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

I had a lot of fun writing Chauvelin (one of the main villains of the piece) threatening the heroine. He’s a delight to write. So unpleasant, with such style.

What’s next for you?

The second and third books in this trilogy. I’m not sure after that – possibly a return to the Invisible Library world, possibly something else.

Lastly, are there any 2023 releases our readers should look out for?

I’m personally looking forward to The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw, Season of Skulls by Charles Stross, anything new from Barbara Hambly, and Alecto the Ninth from Tamsyn Muir (though I can only hope that’s coming out in 2023). But there are so many good new books out there – it’s a delight to have so much choice.

The post Q&A: Genevieve Cogman, Author of ‘Scarlet’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

You think you know Alice in Wonderland? Think again. The stories within these pages will take you on journey through all the different facets of Lewis Carroll’s famous creation, from the historical, the horrific, the contemporary to the spiritual. Get ready to fall down the rabbit hole – or step through the looking glass, whichever you prefer – and prepare to see Wonderland, and indeed Alice, as you’ve likely not seen them before.

Originally published in 1865, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (known first as Alice’s Adventures Under Ground) and his follow-up, Through the Looking-Glass, and what Alice Found There (published 1871), has been inspiring people for over 150 years. The first literary spin-offs began appearing as early as 1895 and have carried on to this day with titles such as Christina Henry’s The Chronicles of Alice. And of course the works inspired by it aren’t confined just to literature. Film adaptations started with the silent films of the early 1900s and have grown to include Disney’s beloved 1951 animated adaptation, Jan Svankmajer’s surrealist masterpiece, Alice (1988), and, most recently, Tim Burton’s interpretations. Alice-inspired media has even moved beyond film and literature, with American McGee’s brilliantly dark and twisted video games, Alice and its sequel Madness Returns, and many other references across the spectrum of pop-culture.

Now Titan Books have released Wonderland, an anthology of 18 never before seen stories inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, brought together by award-winning writer and editors Paul Kane and Marie O’Regan, from some of the best names in fantasy and horror.

We begin with Robert Shearman’s ‘Wonders Never Cease’, a story about change, beginning with the idea that “If Alice wouldn’t change, then something else would have to change in her place” before linking Alice’s journey to the journey we all share. ‘There Were No Birds to Fly’ by M.R. Carey portrays a sci-fi/horror tinged look at two of Wonderland’s more famous residents. ‘The White Queen’s Pawn’ by Genevieve Cogman adds elements of the spy genre before revealing a supernatural sting in the tail. Cavan Scott’s occasionally gory ‘Dream Girl’ sees Wonderland and its residents slowly disappearing. The Dream Girl is apparently to blame, but is everything as it seems?

In Juliet Marillier’s tale, ‘Good Dog, Alice!’, Dorothea’s Great Uncle Bartholomew doesn’t want her to name her new dog Alice as, according to him, all those named Alice are prone to “all manner of wild escapades.” But, for Dorothea, Alice the dog’s curiosity may turn out to be a good thing. Jonathan Green’s ‘The Hunting of the Jabberwock’ sees a knight arrive to hunt the titular beast, only to uncover a nefarious scheme. In George Mann’s ‘About Time’, Lucy found Wonderland as a child and it became her haven. Now she’s a teenager however, she feels it’s time to put childish things behind her but soon finds that this is not as easy as it seems. In ‘Smoke ‘em if You Got ‘em’, Angela Slatter transports Alice to the Wild West.

Rio Youers’ ‘Vanished Summer Glory’ is a poignant tale that looks at grief and its effect on the imagination. Catriona Ward’s ‘Black Kitty’ is a wonderfully peculiar, and surprisingly emotional, “tail” of a pair of twin sisters, a magic mirror and a certain cat. Laura Mauro’s ‘Night Parade’ takes influence from Japanese folklore. L.L. McKinney has already released a contemporary Alice retelling in the form of her debut novel A Blade So Black, and her story, ‘What Makes a Monster’, is set within this same world, bringing an even darker twist to mythology surrounding Jack the Ripper. In ‘The White Queen’s Dictum’ by James Lovegrove, two strangers meet in a motorway service station, one of whom is an investigator of the paranormal, only the paranormal may turn out to be closer than he thinks.

‘Temp Work’ by Lilith Saintcrow adds flavours of science-fiction – particularly cyberpunk – and corporate intrigue. ‘Eat Me, Drink Me’ by Alison Littlewood is an unnervingly woozy tale of a young woman about to be married, who thinks how much easier it would be to be her pet rabbit. ‘How I Comes to be the Treacle Queen’ by Cat Rambo has prose as poetically viscous as the treacle being mined. And ‘Six Impossible Things’ by Mark Chadbourn looks at the creation of imaginary worlds and the effects this can have on those who inspire them. The collection is bookended by Jane Yolen’s two poems, ‘Alice in Armour’ and ‘Revolution in Wonder’, acting as an opening and closing curtain.

As with any short-story collection, particularly those where the stories are all written by different authors, there is a wide variety of genres and styles, and not all of them will have the same impact (though of course your mileage may vary as to which ones). But these are all written by solid names within the genre and the quality is consistently high. An interesting addition to the canon of Alice inspired literature as well as an appealing short story collection in its own right.

Wonderland is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.

Will you be picking up Wonderland? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

From the greatest names in fantasy and horror comes an anthology of stories inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Join Alice as she is thrown into the whirlwind of Wonderland, in an anthology that bends the traditional notions of Lewis Carroll’s classic novel. Contributors include the bestselling M.R. Carey, Genevieve Cogman, Catriona Ward, Rio Youers and L.L. McKinney.

Within these pages you’ll find myriad approaches to Alice, from horror to historical. There’s even a Wild West tale from Angela Slatter, poetry, and a story by Laura Mauro which presents us with a Japanese folklore-inspired Wonderland.

Alison Littlewood, Cavan Scott and Catriona Ward make the more outlandish elements their own, while James Lovegrove instead draws on the supernatural. Cat Rambo takes us to a part of Wonderland we haven’t seen before and Lilith Saintcrow gives the legend a science-fiction spin. The nightmarish reaches of the imagination are the breeding ground for M.R. Carey’s visions, while Robert Shearman, George Mann, Rio Youers and Mark Chadbourn’s tales have a deep-seated emotional core which will shock, surprise and tug on the heart-strings.

So, it’s time now to go down the rabbit hole, or through the looking-glass or… But no, wait. By picking up this book and starting to read it you’re already there, can’t you see?

The post Review: Wonderland, An Anthology appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Read on to discover our picks and tell us in the comments below if you will be checking any of these out!

Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri
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A nobleman’s daughter with magic in her blood. An empire built on the dreams of enslaved gods. Empire of Sand is Tasha Suri’s captivating, Mughal India-inspired debut fantasy perfect for readers of City of Brass and The Wrath & the Dawn.

Toxic by Lydia Kang
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Cyclo, the first and largest biological ship of its kind, is dying. A small crew of mercenaries have handed over the rights to their life to document the death of the ship, but the abandoned ship is anything but abandoned—one girl has been left behind. Hana has known nothing but the isolation of a single room and the secret that has kept her there for seventeen years. When she meets Fennec, the boy assigned to watch her, she realizes that there is a world she has yet to experience but she is doomed to never meet.

Breach by W.L. Goodwater
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When Soviet magicians conjured an arcane Wall to blockade occupied Berlin, the world was outraged but let it stand for the sake of peace. Now after 10 years of fighting with spies instead of spells, the CIA has discovered the wall is failing. Operatives from East and West converge on the most dangerous city in the world to stop or take advantage of the crisis. Karen, a young magician with the American Office of Magical Research and Deployment, is sent to investigate the breach in the Wall and see if it can be reversed. Instead she will discover that the truth is elusive in this divided city, and that even magic itself has its own agenda.

How To Fracture A Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen
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Fantasy legend Jane Yolen presents a wide-ranging offering of fractured fairy tales. Yolen fractures the classics to reveal their crystalline secrets, holding them to the light and presenting them entirely transformed; where a spinner of straw into gold becomes a money-changer and the big bad wolf retires to a nursing home. Rediscover the tales you once knew, rewritten and refined for the world we now live in―or a much better version of it.

The Blue Salt Road by Joanne Harris
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So begins a stunning tale of love, loss and revenge, against a powerful backdrop of adventure on the high seas, and drama on the land. The Blue Salt Road balances passion and loss, love and violence and draws on nature and folklore to weave a stunning modern mythology around a nameless, wild young man.

Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates
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An ingenious, dystopian novel of one young woman’s resistance against the constraints of an oppressive society. Arresting and visionary, Hazards of Time Travel  is both a novel of harrowing discovery and an exquisitely wrought love story that may be Joyce Carol Oates’s most unexpected novel so far.

Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao
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This fairy tale retelling lives in a mystical world inspired by the Far East, where the Dragon Lord and the Serpent God battle for control of the earthly realm; it is here that the flawed heroine of Forest of a Thousand Lanterns finally meets her match. An epic fantasy finale to the Rise of the Empress novels.

The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman
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The fifth title in Genevieve Cogman’s witty and wonderful Invisible Library series, The Mortal Word is a rollicking literary adventure. Peace talks are always tricky, especially when a key diplomat gets stabbed. This rudely interrupts a top-secret summit between the warring dragons and Fae. As a neutral party, Librarian-spy Irene is summoned to investigate. She must head to a version of 1890s Paris, with her assistant Kai and her detective friend Vale, where these talks are fracturing. Here, she must get to the bottom of the attack – before either the peace negotiations or the city go up in flames.

City of Broken Magic by Mirah Bolender
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Five hundred years ago, magi created a weapon they couldn’t control. An infestation that ate magic—and anything else it came into contact with. Enemies and allies were equally filling. Only an elite team of non-magical humans, known as sweepers, can defuse and dispose of infestations before they spread. Most die before they finish training. Laura, a new team member, has stayed alive longer than most. Now, she’s the last—and only—sweeper standing between the city and a massive infestation.

Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch
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Join Peter Grant, detective and apprentice wizard, for a brand new case . . . Martin Chorley, aka the Faceless Man, wanted for multiple counts of murder, fraud, and crimes against humanity, has been unmasked and is on the run. Peter Grant, Detective Constable and apprentice wizard, now plays a key role in an unprecedented joint operation to bring Chorley to justice. But even as the unwieldy might of the Metropolitan Police bears down on its foe, Peter uncovers clues that Chorley, far from being finished, is executing the final stages of a long term plan. A plan that has its roots in London’s two thousand bloody years of history, and could literally bring the city to its knees.

Navigating The Stars by Maria V. Snyder
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Terra Cotta Warriors have been discovered on other planets in the Milky Way Galaxy. And Lyra Daniels’ parents are the archaeological Experts (yes with a capital E) on the Warriors and have dragged her to the various planets to study them despite the time dilation causing havoc with her social life. When one of the many Warrior planets goes silent, and looters attack her research base, Lyra becomes involved in discovering why the Warriors were placed on these planets. And, more importantly, by who.

Outrun The Wind by Elizabeth Tammi
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The Huntresses of Artemis must obey two rules: never disobey the goddess, and never fall in love. After being rescued from a harrowing life as an Oracle of Delphi, Kahina is glad to be a part of the Hunt; living among a group of female warriors gives her a chance to reclaim her strength, even while her prophetic powers linger. But when a routine mission goes awry, Kahina breaks the first rule in order to save the legendary huntress Atalanta.

The post November Book Releases: Fantasy + Sci-Fi appeared first on The Nerd Daily.