Continuing on from my
most anticipated science fiction and fantasy releases of 2018 here are 15 more anticipated releases covering the second half of the year. Did I miss any?
JULY
Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio
ISBN: 9780756413002
It was not his war.
The galaxy remembers him as a hero: the man who burned every last alien Cielcin from the sky. They remember him as a monster: the devil who destroyed a sun, casually annihilating four billion human lives--even the Emperor himself--against Imperial orders.
But Hadrian was not a hero. He was not a monster. He was not even a soldier.
On the wrong planet, at the right time, for the best reasons, Hadrian Marlowe starts down a path that can only end in fire. He flees his father and a future as a torturer only to be left stranded on a strange, backwater world.
Forced to fight as a gladiator and navigate the intrigues of a foreign planetary court, Hadrian must fight a war he did not start, for an Empire he does not love, against an enemy he will never understand.
Infinity's End edited by Jonathan Strahan
ISBN: 9781781085752
The highly-anticipated final volume of the critically-acclaimed science fiction anthology series
Life in space is hard, lonely and the only person you can rely on is yourself. Whether you’re living deep in the gravity well of humanity’s watery home, mucking out air vents in a city floating high in the clouds of Jupiter, or re-checking the filtration system on some isolated space station, life is hard and demanding, and life is small.
The stories of Infinity’s End are set in those empty spaces, in futures where planets have been disassembled and reused for parts, or terraformed and settled; where civilisations have risen and fallen; where far future people make their lives anywhere from colonies hanging in the clouds of Neptune or Venus to the repurposed cores of distant asteroids; on worldlets and asteroids, inside Saturn’s rings or distant spheres and wheels, on-board ships trucking from home to home, and port to port. They're set in a future that's lived in. And they make it clear that even if we never leave the Solar System, there's life enough and room enough to live out all of science fiction's dreams.
Death of a Clone by Alex Thomson
ISBN: 9781781086346
The Overseers may call it Hell, but for Leila and the other clones, the mining base on asteroid Mizushima-00109 is the only home they’ve ever known. But then Leila’s sister Lily is murdered, and the Overseers seem less interested in solving the crime than in making their mining quota and returning to Earth.
Leila decides to find the murderer, just like the heroes of her old detective novels would. But Hell is a place of terrible secrets, and a love of cozy mysteries may not be enough to keep Leila from ending up like her sister.
AUGUST
Bloody Rose (The Band #2) by Nicholas Eames
ISBN: 9780356509044
Tam Hashford is tired of working at her local pub, slinging drinks for world-famous mercenaries and listening to the bards sing of adventure and glory in the world beyond her sleepy hometown.
When the biggest mercenary band of all rolls into town, led by the infamous Bloody Rose, Tam jumps at the chance to sign on as their bard. It's adventure she wants-and adventure she gets as the crew embark on a quest that will end in one of two ways: glory or death.
SEPTEMBER
Worlds Seen in Passing: Ten Years of Tor.com Short Fiction
Edited by Irene Gallo
ISBN: 9781250171238
An anthology of award-winning, eye-opening, genre-defining science fiction, fantasy, and horror from Tor.com's first ten years
Since it began in 2008 Tor.com has explored countless new worlds of fiction, delving into possible and impossible futures, alternate and intriguing pasts, and realms of fantasy previously unexplored. Its hundreds of remarkable stories span from science fiction to fantasy to horror, and everything in between. Now Tor.com is making some of those worlds available for the first time in print.
This volume collects some of the best short stories Tor.com has to offer, with Hugo and Nebula Award-winning short stories and novelettes chosen from all ten years of the program.
Including stories by: Charlie Jane Anders, N. K. Jemisin, Leigh Bardugo, Jeff VanderMeer, Yoon Ha Lee, Carrie Vaughn, Ken Liu, Kai Ashante Wilson, Kameron Hurley, Seth Dickinson, Rachel Swirsky, Laurie Penny, Alyssa Wong, Kij Johnson, David D. Levine, Genevieve Valentine, Max Gladstone, and many others.
Salvation by Peter F Hamilton
ISBN: 9781447281313
Know your enemy - or be defeated
AD 2204
An alien shipwreck is discovered on a planet at the very limits of human expansion - so Security Director Feriton Kayne selects a team to investigate. The ship's sinister cargo not only raises bewildering questions, but could also foreshadow humanity's extinction. It will be up to the team to bring back answers, and the consequences of this voyage will change everything.
Back on Earth, we can now make deserts bloom and extend lifespans indefinitely, so humanity seems invulnerable. We therefore welcomed the Olyix to Earth when they contacted us. They needed fuel for their pilgrimage across the galaxy - and in exchange they helped us advance our technology. But were the Olyix a blessing or a curse?
THE FAR FUTURE
Many lightyears from Earth, Dellian and his clan of genetically engineered soldiers are raised with one goal. They must confront and destroy their ancient adversary. The enemy caused mankind to flee across the galaxy and they hunt us still. If they aren't stopped, we will be wiped out - and we're running out of time.
The Accidental War by Walter Jon Williams
ISBN: 9780062467027
It's been seven years since the end of the Naxid War. Sidelined for their unorthodox tactics by a rigid, tradition-bound military establishment, Captain Gareth Martinez and Captain the Lady Sula are stewing in exile, frustrated and impatient to exercise the effective and lethal skills they were born to use in fighting the enemy.
Yet after the ramshackle empire left by the Shaa conquerors is shaken by a series of hammer blows that threaten the foundations of the commonwealth, the result is a war that no one planned, no one expected, and no one knows how to end.
Now, Martinez, Sula, and their confederate Nikki Severin must escape the clutches of their enemies, rally the disorganized elements of the fleet, and somehow restore the fragile peace-or face annihilation at the hands of a vastly superior force
OCTOBER
The Quantum Magician by Derek Kunsken
ISBN: 9781781085707
AN ENGINEERED HUMAN GIFTED WITH IMPOSSIBLE INSIGHT
Balisarius is a quantum man, an engineered human gifted with impossible insight. But his gift is also a curse-a constant, overwhelming flood of sensation. He flees his creators to try and live a normal life. But when a client offers him untold wealth to move a squadron of warships across an enemy wormhole Belisarius must embrace his true nature to pull off the job, along with a whole crew of extraordinary men and women.
If he succeeds, he could trigger an interstellar war...or the next step in human evolution.
Zero Sum Game by S. L. Huang
ISBN: 9781250180254
Cas Russell is good at math. Scary good. The vector calculus blazing through her head lets her smash through armed men twice her size and dodge every bullet in a gunfight. She can take any job for the right price and shoot anyone who gets in her way.
As far as she knows, she’s the only person around with a superpower...but then Cas discovers someone with a power even more dangerous than her own. Someone who can reach directly into people’s minds and twist their brains into Moebius strips. Someone intent on becoming the world’s puppet master.
Cas should run, like she usually does, but for once she's involved. There’s only one problem: She doesn’t know which of her thoughts are her own anymore.
The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi
ISBN: 9780765388971
The second, thrilling novel in the bestselling Interdependency series, from Hugo Award-winning author John Scalzi.
The Interdependency, humanity’s interstellar empire, is on the verge of collapse. The Flow, the extra-dimensional conduit that makes travel between the stars possible, is disappearing, leaving entire star systems stranded. When it goes, human civilization may go with it—unless desperate measures can be taken.
Emperox Grayland II, the leader of the Interdependency, is ready to take those measures to help ensure the survival of billions. But nothing is ever that easy. Arrayed before her are those who believe the collapse of the Flow is a myth—or at the very least, an opportunity that can allow them to ascend to power.
While Grayland prepares for disaster, others are preparing for a civil war, a war that will take place in the halls of power, the markets of business, and the altars of worship as much as it will take place between spaceships and battlefields. The Emperox and her allies are smart and resourceful, but so are her enemies. Nothing about this power struggle will be simple or easy... and all of humanity will be caught in its widening gyre.
The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
ISBN: 9780765380746
A breathtaking geopolitical thriller as fraught as Game of Thrones: one woman's scheme to destroy an empire from within
Even more sweeping and heart-wrenching than its 2015 prequel, The Monster Baru Cormorant is the epic follow-up to the critically acclaimed The Traitor Baru Cormorant, which made it onto no fewer than 17 Best-of-the-Year lists.
Baru Cormormant's world was shattered by the Empire of Masks. To exact her revenge, she has clawed her way up razor-edged rungs of betrayal, sacrifice, and compromise, becoming the very thing she seeks to destroy.
Unable to trust anyone and pursued across the ocean by enemies determined to punish her for her treachery, Baru now seeks the key the starting a war that will either rip apart the Masquerade once and for all, or the world itself...and with it, all that remains of her soul.
Rejoice by Steven Erikson
ISBN: 9781473223813
An alien AI has been sent to the solar system as representative of three advanced species. Its mission is to save the Earth's ecosystem - and the biggest threat to that is humanity. But we are also part of the system, so the AI must make a choice. Should it save mankind or wipe it out? Are we worth it?
The AI is all-powerful, and might as well be a god. So it sets up some conditions. Violence is now impossible. Large-scale destruction of natural resources is impossible. Food and water will be provided for those who really, truly need them. You can't even bully someone on the internet any more. The old way of doing things is gone. But a certain thin-skinned US president, among others, is still wedded to late-stage capitalism. Can we adapt? Can we prove ourselves worthy? And are we prepared to give up free will for a world without violence?
And above it all, on a hidden spaceship, one woman watches. A science fiction writer, she was abducted from the middle of the street in broad daylight. She is the only person the AI will talk to. And she must make a decision.
Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson
ISBN: 9780316262378
IT IS THIRTY YEARS FROM NOW, AND WE HAVE COLONIZED THE MOON.
American Fred Fredericks is making his first trip, his purpose to install a communications system for China's Lunar Science Foundation. But hours after his arrival he witnesses a murder and is forced into hiding.
It is also the first visit for celebrity travel reporter Ta Shu. He has contacts and influence, but he too will find that the moon can be a perilous place for any traveler.
Finally, there is Chan Qi. She is the daughter of the Minister of Finance, and without doubt a person of interest to those in power. She is on the moon for reasons of her own, but when she attempts to return to China, in secret, the events that unfold will change everything - on the moon, and on Earth.
Creatures: The Legacy of Frankenstein
Edited by David Thomas Moore
ISBN: 9781781086117
A new anthology bringing together five great new and established writers to explore the world of Mary Shelley’s all-time classic, Frankenstein
“My spirit will sleep in peace; or if it thinks, it will not surely think thus. Farewell.”
Victor Frankenstein was the first to unlock the key to life, but he would not be the last. Through two centuries of scientific enquiry and relentless advancement, five more minds found the secret, and five more creatures were made. Five more stories ended in tragedy.
From the 1840s to the modern day, from the race to publish the first anatomy to the desperate search for weapons to win the Second World War, telling the stories of the creatures that never were.
DECEMBER
Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse #8) by James S.A. Corey
ISBN: 9780316332873
Thirteen hundred gates have opened to solar systems around the galaxy. But as humanity builds its interstellar empire in the alien ruins, the mysteries and threats grow deeper.
In the dead systems where gates lead to stranger things than alien planets, Elvi Okoye begins a desperate search to discover the nature of a genocide that happened before the first human beings existed, and to find weapons to fight a war against forces at the edge of the imaginable. But the price of that knowledge may be higher than she can pay.
At the heart of the empire, Teresa Duarte prepares to take on the burden of her father's godlike ambition. The sociopathic scientist Paolo Cortázar and the Mephistophelian prisoner James Holden are only two of the dangers in a palace thick with intrigue, but Teresa has a mind of her own and secrets even her father the emperor doesn't guess.
And throughout the wide human empire, the scattered crew of the Rocinante fights a brave rear-guard action against Duarte's authoritarian regime. Memory of the old order falls away, and a future under Laconia's eternal rule -- and with it, a battle that humanity can only lose - seems more and more certain. Because against the terrors that lie between worlds, courage and ambition will not be enough...
