Future Fiction #135 – Cover Reveals & Newly Discovered SFF Books

Welcome to Future Fiction, my reimagining of the Waiting on Wednesday meme! There are so many amazing new books coming out, that I can no longer pick just one. My goal with Future Fiction is to share at least three new books each week, a combination of recent cover reveals and books that I’ve recently added to my TBR pile. I’m still going to be linking up with Wishful Endings/Can’t Wait Wednesday, and I also want to give a shout out to Jill at Breaking the Spine for starting the original Waiting on Wednesday meme. I hope you’ll find some new books to add to your TBR piles, and as always, I look forward to hearing what YOU’RE looking forward to:-D

Three new covers spotted, take a look:

The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon three hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal–an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She’s traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive’s bestselling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandell. Releases in April 2022 from Knopf. I’ve read and loved both of Emily’s previous books, and I’m so happy she has a new book coming out next year! This sounds super ambitious, especially for a book that’s less than 300 pages long. But I trust her. I’m sure it will be brilliant:-D

The critically acclaimed author of Polaris Rising takes readers on an exciting journey with the start of her brand-new series about a female bounty hunter and the man who is her sworn enemy.

Octavia Zarola would do anything to keep her tiny, close-knit bounty hunting crew together—even if it means accepting a job from Torran Fletcher, a ruthless former general and her sworn enemy. When Torran offers her enough credits to not only keep her crew afloat but also hire someone to fix her ship, Tavi knows that she can’t refuse—no matter how much she’d like to.

With so much money on the line, Torran and his crew insist on joining the hunt. Tavi reluctantly agrees because while the handsome, stoic leader pushes all of her buttons—for both anger and desire—she’s endured worse, and the massive bonus payment he’s promised for a completed job is reason enough to shut up and deal.

But when they uncover a deeper plot that threatens the delicate peace between humans and Valoffs, Tavi suspects that Torran has been using her as the impetus for a new war. With the fate of her crew balanced on a knife’s edge, Tavi must decide where her loyalties lie—with the quiet Valoff who’s been lying to her, or with the human leaders who left her squad to die on the battlefield. And this time, she’s put her heart on the line.

Hunt the Stars (Starlight’s Shadow #1) by Jessie Mihalik. Releases in February 2022 from Harper Voyager. I was so happy to see the cover on Jessie Mihalik’s new series! I had the best time with her Consortium Rebellion series, and I can hardly wait to jump into this one:-)

Sara A. Mueller’s Bone Orchard is a fascinating whodunit set in a lush, gothic world of secrets and magic–where a dying emperor charges his favorite concubine with solving his own murder, and preventing the culprit, which undoubtedly is one of his three terrible sons, from taking control of an empire.

Charm is a witch, and she is alone. The last of a line of conquered necromantic workers, now confined within the yard of regrown bone trees at Orchard House, and the secrets of their marrow.

Charm is a prisoner, and a survivor. Charm tends the trees and their clattering fruit for the sake of her children, painstakingly grown and regrown with its fruit: Shame, Justice, Desire, Pride, and Pain.

Charm is a whore, and a madam. The wealthy and powerful of Borenguard come to her house to buy time with the girls who aren’t real.

Except on Tuesdays, which is when the Emperor himself lays claim to his mistress, Charm herself.

But now–Charm is also the only person who can keep an empire together, as the Emperor summons her to his deathbed, and charges her with choosing which of his awful, faithless sons will carry on the empire—by discovering which one is responsible for his own murder.

If she does this last thing, she will finally have what has been denied her since the fall of Inshil — her freedom. But she will also be betraying the ghosts past and present that live on within her heart.

Charm must choose. Her dead Emperor’s will or the whispers of her own ghosts. Justice for the empire or her own revenge.

The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller. Releases in March 2022 from Tor Books. I’m assuming this is the final title, since the cover was just revealed, but it’s listed as just Bone Orchard on Goodreads and Amazon, so it’s a little confusing. In any case, look, another cover with a skeleton hand! It seems to be the trend lately, and I really love it. This cover is so pretty (and creepy). I’m not sure I’m sold on the story, it sounds very odd, but I’m definitely keeping this on my list for now.

What do you think of this week’s Future Fiction picks? Let me know in the comments!

Posted July 28, 2021 by Tammy in Future Fiction / 43 Comments

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43 responses to “Future Fiction #135 – Cover Reveals & Newly Discovered SFF Books”

  2. JonBob

    My girlfriend has been trying to get me to read Station Eleven for ages and I gotta say, this upcoming Mandel book sounds intriguing and might actually get me to pick up Station Eleven before this comes out. I’ve not actually read it, but it sounds like it’s got some Cloud Atlas vibes.

    I was interested in the premise of The Bone Orchard from that four line intro in bold, but then it started to sound a bit weird, but in a confusing way. Maybe I’ll wait til you’ve read and reviewed this one before making my mind up. What other covers have had a skeletal hand on recently? I noticed a while ago snakes seemed to be a thing for a bit, but the trend has moved on.

    Reply
    • Tammy

      I’d have to go through my Goodreads list but offhand Summer Sons and That Dark Infinity both have similar skeleton hand covers. And do read Station Eleven! Especially if you love beautiful writing.

      Reply
      • JonBob

        I’m a bit iffy on anything described as having beautiful writing or poetic prose tbh. I find it tends to get in the way of telling a story. I’ll not make any prejudgements though, everyone else seems to love it, though I do have form with not enjoying some very well-received books *cough* Poppy War *cough* Foundryside *cough*

        Reply
  3. verushka

    You’re so right, I am not entirely sold on the blurb for The bone orchard either, but gosh if I saw this cover in a bookstore, I would pick it up so fast!

    Reply
  4. todd

    Though I’m not very drawn to the cover I am curious about Sea of Tranquility. I haven’t read anything by her yet. The cover for The Bone Orchard does look very familiar, like one (or two) you featured not that long ago. But I agree, it is interesting.

    Reply
  8. Stephanie @ Bookfever

    Sea of Tranquility sounds absolutely amazing but like you said super ambitious. So I hope it turns out to be as good as it seems to be.

    Hunt the Stars also sounds like my kinda read. I need some more scifi books in my life!

    I love me some gothic-esque books so Bone Orchard or The Bone Orchard (whatever it’s called) sounds good to me!
    Stephanie @ Bookfever recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: Books I’d Want With Me While Stranded On a Deserted IslandMy Profile

    Reply
    • Tammy

      Emily St. John Mandel is a talented writer, so I have no doubts that her book is good:-)

      Reply
  11. Cindy Davis

    I’m not a fan of science fiction, although I recently read one and loved it. Sea of Tranquility does look interesting and just the title makes you want a sea of tranquility. I hope you enjoy these when you get to read them.
    Cindy Davis recently posted…Can’t Wait WednesdayMy Profile

    Reply
  18. sjhigbee

    I love the sound of Hunt the Stars and The Bone Orchard – the latter’s blurb has vague echoes of Katherine Addison’s fabulous The Witness for the Dead, which immediately had me yearning for The Goblin Emperor world all over again! Thank you for featuring this books – I’ll keep my eyes peeled for them…:)

    Reply
  20. Nicci

    I have had Station Eleven hardback on my bookshelf forever and unread. I wasn’t ready to do a complete dive into speculative fiction. I’m now. I can’t read these books fast enough. All three books sound interesting (including creepy Bone Orchard. LOL.) and have been added to my TBR list. Thank you for pointing out good SFF books.

    Reply
  21. Lynn

    I love that cover for Bone Orchard – BUT – Sea of Tranquility, I had no idea Emily StJohn Mandell had another due out already – woohoo.
    Lynn 😀

    Reply

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