I am huge reader of sci-fi and fantasy books, and as such, I love it when authors, and just as importantly publishing houses, decide to go all out to do something a little, or a lot, different with the genre.
It’s why I love Angry Robot Books who, quite apart from their kickass fun social media presence, which dares to have some fun with traditional ways of promotional books in the digital space, have commissioned a host of great books by imaginatively inventive authors who get that you can have some fun with well-worn tropes and also come up with a few cool ones of your own.
At this point, I need to be clear that this post is in no way sponsored by Angry Robot Books; I just love what they do and I’m happy to talk about it a lot, when I’m not reviewing as many of their books as time allows me to read.
Not only do I love what I’ve ready already such as Swashbucklers by Dan Hanks, The Coward by Stephen Aryan and The Phlebotomist by Chris Panatier, but I’m excited about what’s coming up too which includes these three wonderful books that I cannot wait to get my hands on!
The Circus Infinite by Khan Wong
SNAPSHOT
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet meets Cirque du Soleil in this found-family, queer space fantasy.Hunted by those who want to study his gravity powers, Jes makes his way to the best place for a mixed-species fugitive to blend in: the pleasure moon where everyone just wants to be lost in the party. It doesn’t take long for him to catch the attention of the crime boss who owns the resort-casino where he lands a circus job, and when the boss gets wind of the bounty on Jes’ head, he makes an offer: do anything and everything asked of him or face vivisection.
With no other options, Jes fulfills the requests: espionage, torture, demolition. But when the boss sets the circus up to take the fall for his about-to-get-busted narcotics operation, Jes and his friends decide to bring the mobster down. And if Jes can also avoid going back to being the prize subject of a scientist who can’t wait to dissect him? Even better. (synopsis courtesy official Angry Robot Books media release)
The Circus Infinite releases 8 March 2022.
SNAPSHOT
A genius is abducted by an alien bounty-hunter for the location of a powerful inter-dimensional object. Trouble is, he can’t remember a thing.Ben isn’t exactly a genius, but he has an immense breadth of knowledge. Whether it’s natural science (specifically the intricacies of bug sex), or vintage timepieces, he can spout facts and information with the best of experts. He just can’t explain why he knows any of it. Another thing he knows is the location of the Chime. What it is or why it’s important, he can’t say.
But this knowledge is about to get him in a whole heap of trouble, as a trash-talking, flesh construct bounty hunter is on his tail and looking to sell him to the highest bidder. And being able to describe the mating habits of Brazilian bark lice won’t be enough to get him out of it. (synopsis courtesy official Angry Robot Books media release)
Read my pre-release review of Stringers which releases 12 April, 2022.
Mercury Rising by R.W.W. Greene
SNAPSHOT
Alternative history with aliens, an immortal misanthrope and SF tropes aplenty.Even in a technologically-advanced, Kennedy-Didn’t-Die alternate-history, Brooklyn Lamontagne is going nowhere fast. The year is 1975, thirty years after Robert Oppenheimer invented the Oppenheimer Nuclear Engine, twenty-five years after the first human walked on the moon, and eighteen years after Jet Carson and the Eagle Seven sacrificed their lives to stop the alien invaders.
Brooklyn just wants to keep his mother’s rent paid, earn a little scratch of his own, steer clear of the cops, and maybe get laid sometime in the near future. Simple pleasures, right? But a killer with a baseball bat and a mysterious box of 8-track tapes is about to make his life real complicated … (synopsis courtesy official Angry Robot Books media release)
Mercury Rising releases 10 May, 2022.