New Releases: 6/25

New Releases

Happy New Releases Day! Here’s what went on sale today.

The Iron Dragon’s Mother by Michael Swanwick

Caitlin of House Sans Merci is the young half-human pilot of a sentient mechanical dragon. Returning from her first soul-stealing raid, she discovers an unwanted hitchhiker.

When Caitlin is framed for the murder of her brother, to save herself she must disappear into Industrialized Faerie, looking for the one person who can clear her.

Unfortunately, the stakes are higher than she knows. Her deeds will change her world forever.

Star Path by W. Michael Gear & Kathleen O’Neal Gear

How do you say no to a god?

Cahokia recovers from a year of chaos following a near civil war and the god incarnate, Morning Star, has declared that his human sister Night Shadow Star and her slave Fire Cat must make a dangerous journey to far off Cofitachequi. For an old threat has arisen on the other side of the great eastern mountains – their brother, Walking Smoke, a madman who is convinced that he is the true deity destined to rule Cahokia.

Night Shadow Star is also ruled by the Underworld Lord, Piasa, but this power dangles a chance of happiness in front of Night Shadow Star and Fire Cat – if they succeed with his agenda, they might become nameless, clanless, and worthless. And thus free.

But the treacherous Tenasee River that they must travel holds its own perils.

And at the end of the journey, Walking Smoke prepares to spring his trap.

NEW IN PAPERBACK

Ball Lightning by Cixin Liu

When Chen’s parents are incinerated before his eyes by a blast of ball lightning, he devotes his life to cracking the secret of this mysterious natural phenomenon. His search takes him to stormy mountaintops, an experimental military weapons lab, and an old Soviet science station.

The more he learns, the more he comes to realize that ball lightning is just the tip of an entirely new frontier. While Chen’s quest for answers gives purpose to his lonely life, it also pits him against soldiers and scientists with motives of their own: a beautiful army major with an obsession with dangerous weaponry, and a physicist who has no place for ethical considerations in his single-minded pursuit of knowledge.

State Tectonics by Malka Older

The future of democracy must evolve or die.

The last time Information held an election, a global network outage, two counts of sabotage by major world governments, and a devastating earthquake almost shook micro-democracy apart. Five years later, it’s time to vote again, and the system that has ensured global peace for 25 years is more vulnerable than ever.

Unknown enemies are attacking Information’s network infrastructure. Spies, former superpowers, and revolutionaries sharpen their knives in the shadows. And Information’s best agents question whether the data monopoly they’ve served all their lives is worth saving, or whether it’s time to burn the world down and start anew.