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 intriguing new titles, take a look:
An unnerving, sinister, and brilliant dystopian novel about the choices we make at the end of the world, posing the question: Who can you trust when there’s almost no one left?
Years after complete antibiotic resistance has brought about global devastation, Kit ekes out an existence on a remote island alongside the taciturn Crevan, who has more recently fled the mainland. With once-curable diseases running riot, desperate measures are in place there: Those not yet infected are given experimental vaccines, and those for whom it’s already too late are culled. But Kit and Crevan are safe, protected on their island by a collapsing castle that holds a greenhouse and a well-stocked bunker within its ruins.
When a woman washes ashore—near drowned but clinging to life—the question of her fate threatens the fragile balance of Kit and Crevan’s isolated world. While Crevan wants to keep her alive, Kit isn’t so sure. And there’s more to wrestle with: Kit and Crevan each have secrets—secrets they have been keeping both from each other and from themselves. As the crisis brought about by the drowned woman’s appearance consumes them, the fictions of their shared existence crumble, and the truth begins to emerge.
Whether Violent or Natural is a startlingly original and thrilling novel for readers of Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven. In the tenseness of its plotting, the gradual unfolding of truth, and in the strange and gripping intensity of its narrator’s voice, Whether Violent or Natural is an intelligent, unputdownable novel that welcomes a huge new talent to the genre.
Whether Violent or Natural by Natasha C. Calder. Releases in June 2023 from The Overlook Press. The cover caught my eye before I had a chance to read the story blurb, but I’m intrigued. I love a good dystopian!
They met while London burned. A encounter during a riot brought Amon Brightbourne together with Raissa Hopeland on a mad rooftop hunt for a family heirloom: a Tesla Coil. But there is no such thing as chance where Amon is concerned: he’s been exiled from his family home because he’s both cursed and blessed with the Grace — he lives a charmed life, but at the expense of those closest to him. The Grace made him fall in love with Raissa, and with her family, the extraordinary Hopelands — a family like stars in the sky, scattered but connected in constellations of affection, parenthood, love and responsibility.
But a terrible misunderstanding tears them apart, and sends Amon on a journey through the ever-extending Hopeland family, touching lives and shaping the course of the unfolding 20th century. Raissa’s life is also changed by that moment, from free spirit to major player in the unfolding story of the 21st century in an Iceland transformed by the Artic thaw.
Over twenty years their lives and loves orbit around each other, through climate change, new religions, economic and technological revolution, resource wars and mass migration as Raissa tries to unite her family. there is — and always will be — Hope in her name. They love each other but they can never be with each other — until Amon must choose between family and his fear of what the Grace will do to the woman he has always loved.
Hopeland is a sprawling, picaresque, magical, marvelous novel — love story, family saga, tech thriller, science fiction — that takes you to the heart of the woes and promises of this most astonishing of centuries.
Hopeland by Ian McDonald. Releases in February 2023 from Tor Books. Wow this sounds epic! I haven’t read Ian McDonald in a long time—I missed his Luna trilogy—but I’ve loved everything of his I’ve read. I can’t wait!
Effects Vary features 22 stories of dark fiction and literary horror that explore the shadow side of love, loss, and family. From an aging TV star’s murderous plan to rekindle her glory days, to a father who returns from war forever changed, from human lab rats who die again and again, to a farmer who obeys the dreadful commands of the sky, these stories, four of them award winners, blur the thin line between reality and the darkest reaches of the imagination.
Effects Vary by Michael Harris Cohen. Releases in October 2022 from Cemetery Gates Media. The author just pitched his book to me recently and I’m very excited to read this. Check out the cool cover!
I might have to look into Effects Vary. Thanks for sharing!
It sounds good, right?
The cover for Whether Violent or Natural has such warm colours that kinda made me stare at it for a while It also sounds promising, so I’ll keep an eye on it!
Silvia recently posted…Seoulbox Signature Unboxing
I love the cover too! Definitely intriguing:-)
The cover to Effects Vary is quite compelling. Makes me want to read it, too!
Priscilla Bettis recently posted…R.I.P. Dalton
It makes me wonder about the stories inside…
While I liked the blurb for Hopeland, I found the name objectively stupid lol
Ha ha I hadn’t really thought about the name…
Oooo Whether Violent or Natural sounds dark! I totally love the cover for Effects Vary – fab design!
It does sound dark!
Whether Violent or Natural sounds like something for me! Really interesting synopsis, and I love the cover. I’d probably check out the McDonald book too. Great choices!
Thanks Lisa! I can’t wait to check both out.
The premise of Whether Violent or Natural is really intriguing. I also love the cover and title!
Hopeland also sounds really interesting and epic, like you said! Gonna have to add it to my TBR!
You’re right, the cover of Effects Vary is really cool I hadn’t expected it until I scrolled down and I’m loving the sound of the description also!
Stephanie @ Bookfever recently posted…Monthly Wrap-Up: August 2022
I agree, the title Whether Violent of Natural is so unusual, I’m wondering if it’s a quote from something?
Looks like a lot of us are intrigued by Whether Violent Or Natural!
Laura Thomas recently posted…Wrapped Around My Heart by Heather Alexander ~ Excerpt and Giveaway
I know! The cover is so different it really grabs your attention:-)
Wow these sound awesome! I think I’m genuinely excited about all of them–and I’m glad at least one is coming out soon!
It is a great looking bunch:-)
Well Effects Vary’s cover is rather chilling!
Yes! Definitely makes you go ewwwww…
Violent sounds good (and antibiotic resistance is a terrifying idea!). And what a cool, unique cover on that last one. Sounds wild.
Greg recently posted…The Swell
I know, the cover of Effect Vary is crazy!
What a cover for Effects Vary!
Isn’t it great? Super creepy and unusual.
All three of these sound really good! I’m especially intrigued by the Ian McDonald.
Me too, it seems really different for him.
Ooooh, Hopeland and Whether Violent or Natural are calling my name. Thanks for sharing them!
My pleasure, Lisa!
Effects Vary has such an intriguing cover. I’ve never seen anything like it! Thanks for sharing, Tammy. 😀
Lashaan Balasingam recently posted…My Monthly Wrap-Up | August 2022
I agree! It’s very unusual and extremely unsettling…
Effects Vary sounds so intriguing! It is not my cup of tea, I don’t have a good relationship with horror at all, but it sounds intriguing all the same. And Hopeland sounds promising too. Thanks for sharing!
I’m sure curious about Hopeland, but I want to read some reviews first before I decide to read it:-)
I’m definitely curious about the first book. I’ve steered away from dystopia for a while now but this one might be the one to bring me back on board.
Lynn 😀
Strangely, I’m still interested in reading dystopians. Not sure what that says about me, lol.
I’m SO excited for another Ian McDonald book!
WELL Tammy, now I need ALL of these books! Luckily the first one was already on my TBR but. Gotta add the other two because they sound absolutely right up my alley! The cover of Effects May Vary really is cool, too! Thanks for sharing these, even though my TBR is crying
Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight recently posted…Conageddon 3: May We Meet Again