The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey (Trade Paper, April 2015)
Hungries are fungus-infected people who have lost their mental faculties and hunger for human flesh. But a few hungries retain their intelligence and only hunger when the scent of humans wafts too closely. Ten-year-old Melanie is one of these hungries. She has a genius-level IQ and is being studied at Camp Echo, a military base set up by the surviving humans. When head scientist Caroline Caldwell decides to dissect Melanie, the base is attacked by hungries and roaming humans, forcing the two of them, along with a teacher and two military personnel, to band together and make their way back to civilization.
Editor Anne Clarke says, "Melanie's story treads that impossible line between terrifying and heart-warming, literary and commercial. After the amazing success of the hardcover, the trade paperback is going to be a HUGE bestseller--and is the perfect choice for indies, since you could confidently handsell it to all your customers, knowing that when they've read it they will be grateful to you for recommending such a gem."
Better known for his comic book work, Mike Carey dons a pseudonym for this new take on the zombie epidemic, taking the best of The Walking Dead and The Last of Us, and putting his own spin on it for a zombie apocalypse where the zombie can be a hero.
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson (Hardcover, July 2015)
A multi-generational starship travels out of the solar system for the first time in humanity's history. Its destination is a planet in the Tau Ceti system, 12 light-years away, that they have dubbed Aurora, after the Roman goddess of the dawn. Will this be a new dawn for humanity or the dusk that will encompass us all?
Editor Tim Holman says, "Are you looking up at the stars? Kim Stanley Robinson is an incredible individual, a visionary and a truly wonderful writer. Aurora is about our future, but it is what this novel tells us about the present that really matters. A must-read for fans of SF, and a fantastic voyage of discovery for anyone unfamiliar with the genre."
One of science fiction's most powerful voices, Kim Stanley Robinson has won multiple Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards and has published more than 20 books, including the award-winning Mars trilogy and the New York Times bestseller 2312.
A Crown for Cold Silver by Alex Marshall (Hardcover, April 2015)
General Cobalt Zosia has stopped fighting. Her mercenary army has conquered all it can and defeated every enemy that was foolish enough to stand her way. Now that there is nothing left to win, Cobalt Zosia is content to let the General pass into legend. But 20 years later, her peaceful retirement is destroyed when her village is the target of unprovoked slaughter. Zosia must once again become the legend to seek vengeance against her village's aggressors. Along the way, she finds old enemies, once-loyal allies and a new army marching under a familiar banner.
Editor Anne Clarke says, "A Crown for Cold Silver is an exceptional fantasy debut that, like Game of Thrones, stands above the crowd due to its ambitious scope, the complexity of the narrative, and the sheer high quality and exuberance of the writing."
Alex Marshall is the pseudonym of an acclaimed author who has previously published several novels in different genres. This epic fantasy featuring an unforgettable warrior is his debut in the genre.
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (Trade Paper, August 2015)
The Mighty Sanze, the empire that has stood for a thousand years, is collapsing. A madman wreaks vengeance on its greatest city, and a great rift opens across the heartland of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that will darken the sky for years, if not centuries. But Essun does not care about any of that. Her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. The end of the world can wait; Essun must have her daughter back.
Editor Devi Pillai says, "N. K. Jemisin is an acclaimed Brooklyn-based novelist with a devoted fanbase that grows with every book. She always pushes at the edge of fantasy, writing amazing concepts and making them feel everyday and believable. In this new novel, she creates a post-apocalyptic world where desolation and danger are around every corner, and at its heart is the story of a mother's search for her daughter."
This is the first novel in the new Broken Earth trilogy. Previous novels and short stories by Jemisin have been nominated for multiple Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy awards.
Backlist Spotlight:
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (published October 2013)
The only novel in history to have won all three of the top science fiction awards in one year--the 2014 Hugo, Nebula and Arthur C. Clarke awards--Ancillary Justice follows Breq through her past and present as she searches for the being that caused the death of a friend and the destruction of her ship. Breq will travel from the outskirts of civilized space to the center of the Imperial Radch; not even the destruction of an empire will stand in her way.
Ann Leckie's electrifying debut novel injects new blood into the popular space opera genre, proving Star Wars is not the end-all-and-be-all. The first of a trilogy, it also was nominated for and/or won a slew of other awards, including the Locus Award for Best First Novel, the James Tiptree Jr. Honor List, the Philip K. Dick Award and the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel.
