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
I have three different genres to share today: thriller, fantasy and horror. Take a look:
Stephen King’s Holly marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Readers have witnessed Holly’s gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr. Mercedes to Bill Hodges’s partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. In King’s new novel, Holly is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries.
When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down.
Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harboring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless.
Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King.
Holly by Stephen King. Releases in September 2023 from Scribner. A new Stephen King book! Now granted, I have not read Mr. Mercedes yet, so I may have to read that series before I tackle this. But I think this sounds really good!
Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle’s Ebony Gate is a female John Wick story with dragon magic set in contemporary San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Emiko Soong belongs to one of the eight premier magical families of the world. But Emiko never needed any magic. Because she is the Blade of the Soong Clan. Or was. Until she’s drenched in blood in the middle of a market in China, surrounded by bodies and the scent of blood and human waste as a lethal perfume.
The Butcher of Beijing now lives a quiet life in San Francisco, importing antiques. But when a shinigami, a god of death itself, calls in a family blood debt, Emiko must recover the Ebony Gate that holds back the hungry ghosts of the Yomi underworld. Or forfeit her soul as the anchor.
What’s a retired assassin to do but save the City By The Bay from an army of the dead?
Ebony Gate (Phoenix Hoard #1) by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle. Releases in July 2023 from Tor Books. This sounds amazing! I love the San Francisco setting and the urban fantasy vibe. Also dragon magic!
In 17th-century London, unnatural babies are being born: some with eyes made for the dark, others with webbed fingers and toes better suited to the sea.
Sarah Davis is intimately familiar with such strangeness—she herself was born marked by uncanniness. Having hidden her nature all her life and fled to London under suspicious circumstances, Sarah starts over as a midwife’s apprentice, hoping to carve out for herself an independent life. As a member of the illegal Worshipful Company of Midwives, Sarah learns to reach across the thinning boundary between her world and another, drawing on its power to heal and protect the women she serves.
When the wealthy Lady Wren hires her to see her through her pregnancy, Sarah quickly becomes a favorite of her husband, the famous architect Lord Christopher Wren, whose interest in the uncanny borders on obsession. Sarah soon finds herself caught in a web of magic and intrigue created by those who would use the magic of the Other World to gain power for themselves, and whose pursuits threaten to unmake the earth itself.
A Season of Monstrous Conceptions by Lina Rather. Releases in October 2023 from Tordotcom. This might be the furthest out release date I’ve shared this year, but I think it will be worth the wait. I loved Lina Rather’s Our Lady of the Endless Stars series, and I cannot wait for this cosmic horror story!
Even though King’s novels tend to go all over the spectrum for me, I’m always eager to try the newest one, and being a fan of Holly’s character, this will be one I will not want to miss!
Thanks for sharing 🙂
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Hopefully this will be a good one!
Ooh I think all of these are new to me (not 100% if the second is on my tbr but if so this is definitely my first time seeing the blurb in full). I still need to read Mr Mercedes as well (I’ve actually only read two of Kings books so far) so hopefully we can both get to it this year.
I hope we both get to read Mr. Mercedes. I feel bad that it’s been on my TBR for so long.
I’ve yet to read Mr Mercedes, Finders Keepers or The Outsider but my favorite story in If It Bleeds was the Holly Gibney title story, so I’d be up for reading more. And Ebony Gate does sound interesting, and nice cover, too.
Wow, Holly seems to be in so many of his stories! Now I need to catch up:-)
I’ve only read one book by Stephen King and I didn’t exactly love it so I have been reluctant to pick up another book by him but maybe I should…
Ebony Great sounds like a great read. I also love the setting of San Francisco and the urban fantasy (my favorite kind of fantasy) vibe!
A Season of Monstrous Conceptions also sounds very intriguing. And I love reading books set in the 17th century. Very intriguing!
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I’m especially excited about A Season of Monstrous Conceptions. Like you said, the time period seems like it will be a great fit for the story:-)
I need to read the second and third Mr. Mercedes books asap!
I need to start the series!
These all sound good but I’m most excited about Holly. My husband actually saw the cover first and made a point of telling me about it – and he’s a non-reader. Stormi and I are buddy reading the Mr. Mercedes trilogy this summer as they are some of the few King books I’ve never read. I do love Holly from Outsider as well as the Mr. Mercedes TV series. Excited for her to have her own book!
The cover of Holly was everywhere so I’m not surprised your husband spotted it!
Well, of course I need the new Stephen King!! That’s pretty much a given at this point. 🙂 I love the sound of the book set in SF’s Chinatown! That’s going to be a must for me too (although it looks like it’s the start of a series, and that makes me hesitate just a bit). The 3rd book sounds weird but awesome too. Three for my TBR this week!
I know what you mean about starting a new series, lol.
I actually read the first two books in Mr. Mercedes and just have one to go, now 2. This should be a good one.
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Oh cool. I would love to start the series.
Oooh these look great! I love Stephen King. Haven’t heard of Holly yet, so I’ll have to add this to my TBR.
My WoW post.
Me either, everyone raves about Holly’s character so I’m intrigued:-)
I’m not surprised that King is going to continue telling stories with Holly! She’s loved by a lot of readers. 😀 Thanks for sharing!
So I’ve heard. I must experience Holly for myself:-)
I’m intrigued by both A Season of Monstrous Conceptions and Ebony Gate. Like you, I like a San Francisco setting and, it’s a definitely yes to dragon magic. I hope you enjoy all three of these when you read them!
I have high hopes for all of these:-)
A female John Wick story with dragon magic? Yes, please!
Right? It sounds incredible.
I’m all in for Ebony Gate – it sounds so good. Dragons & magic & a badass female? I’m in.
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Me too, I can’t wait:-)
Ebony Gate sounds great!
Yes! Such a cool combo of elements.
I don’t think I finished the whole Mr. Mercedes trilogy, but I did read The Outsiders (which if I remember correctly spoiled the Mr. Mercedes trilogy so that’s probably why!)
I have so much SK catching up to do, I haven’t read The Outsiders either!
Loving the sound of The Ebony Gate and A Season of Monstrous Conceptions! I really need to read more Stephen King, too.
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Me too, I’m so behind.
I love the cover for Holly, and another story featuring that character should be really good. Can’t decide from the description whether or not there’s going to be something supernatural going on, but I hope so 😀
I hope so too. King often adds supernatural elements, and I love when he does.
A Season Of Monstrous Conceptions sounds intriguing, but if I have to choose one book here, it would be Ebony Gate. It sounds pretty cool but I have to admit I am a shallow person and it had me at the John Wick comparison!!
LOL I hope it lives up to that description!
Ooh, a novel about Holly! I don’t know much about her, just I just met her in The Outsider and would love to see more of her!
I really need to meet her since everyone seems to love her:-)
Well dragon magic and San Francisco sounds very good to me!
Me too:-)
SUPER excited for A Season of Monstrous Conceptions too! And Holly does sound interesting, though I have not read the other book either. I like the cover, too. And Ebony Gate sounds interesting too, though I can be a little wary of dragons tbh. Great choices!
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