Future Fiction #278 – 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

Two more books with Appalachian settings (!) and a new romantasy series opener, take a look:

In this atmospheric Appalachian gothic, the Haddesley siblings of West Virginia must unearth long-buried secrets to carve out a future when the supernatural bargain entwining their fate with their ancestral land is suddenly ruptured

Since time immemorial, the Haddesley family has tended the cranberry bog. In exchange, the bog sustains them. The staunch seasons of their lives are governed by a strict covenant that is renewed each generation with the ritual sacrifice of their patriarch, and in return, the bog produces a “bog-wife.” Brought to life from vegetation, this woman is meant to carry on the family line. But when the bog fails—or refuses—to honor the bargain, the Haddesleys, a group of discordant siblings still grieving the mother who mysteriously disappeared years earlier, face an unknown future.

Middle child Wenna, summoned back to the dilapidated family manor just as her marriage is collapsing, believes the Haddesleys must abandon their patrimony. Her siblings are not so easily persuaded. Eldest daughter Eda, de facto head of the household, seeks to salvage the compact by desecrating it. Younger son Percy retreats into the wilderness in a dangerous bid to summon his own bog-wife. And as youngest daughter Nora takes desperate measures to keep her warring siblings together, fledgling patriarch Charlie uncovers a disturbing secret that casts doubt over everything the family has ever believed about itself.

Brimming with aching loss and the universal struggle between honoring family commitments and the drive to strike out on one’s own, The Bog Wife is a haunting invocation of the arcane power of the habits and habitats that bound us.

The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister. Releases in October 2024 from Titan Books. I saw someone raving about this book on Instagram, and I knew I had to add it to my TBR. I love the Appalachian gothic subgenre and I can’t wait to read it.

The debut novel from Erin K Wagner is a chilling nonlinear sci-fi that examines androids as a labor force in conflict with both human farmers and homegrown militias in near-future Appalachia

Deep in the hills of Appalachia, anti-android sentiment is building. Charismatic demagogue Eli Whitaker has used anger toward new labor policies that replace factory workers with androids to build a militia–and now he is recruiting child soldiers.

Part of a governmental task force, Adrian and Trey are determined to put a stop to Whitaker’s efforts. Their mission is complicated by their own shared childhood experiences with Whitaker. After an automated soldier shoots a child during a raid to protect Trey, both grapple with the role of androids and their use in combat.

Interrelated with the hunt for Whitaker, farmers Shay and Ernst struggle after they discover their GMO crop seeds have failed and caused a deadly illness in Shay. To help manage, they hire android employees: Sarah as hospice, and AG-15 to work the now-toxic fields. The couple’s relationship to the androids evolve as both humans get progressively more sick.

Timely and chilling, Wagner’s nonlinear debut shares intimate narratives of loss, trauma, and survival as the emergence of artificial life intersects with state violence and political extremism in rural Appalachia.

Mechanize My Hands to War by Erin K. Wagner. Releases in November 2024 from DAW Books. This sounds really different and very cool! And wow, another book that takes place in Appalachia…I sense a theme!

From NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Mary E. Pearson comes a thrilling romantic fantasy full of dangerous fae, dark secrets, and addictive romance

After losing both their parents, Bristol Keats and her sisters struggle to stay afloat in their small, quiet town of Bowskeep. When Bristol begins to receive letters from an “aunt” she’s never heard of who promises she can help, she reluctantly agrees to meet—and discovers that everything she thought she knew about her family is a lie. Even her father might still be alive, not killed but kidnapped by terrifying creatures to a whole other realm—the one he is from.

Desperate to save her father and find the truth, Bristol journeys to a land of gods and fae and monsters. Pulled into a dangerous world of magic and intrigue, she makes a deadly bargain with the fae king, Tyghan. But what she doesn’t know is that he’s the one who drove her parents to live a life on the run. And he is just as determined as she is to find her father—dead or alive.

The Courting of Bristol Keats (The Courting of Bristol Keats #1) by Mary E. Pearson. Releases in November 2024 from Flatiron Books. Fae and romance are usually a really fun combo, so I’m very curious to read this:-)

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

Posted May 8, 2024 by Tammy in Future Fiction / 25 Comments

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25 responses to “Future Fiction #278 – Cover Reveals & Newly Discovered SFF Books”

  1. Charlotte

    Ooh the cover for Bog Wife really caught my eye, which I’m happy about as I may well have overlooked the title. Bristol Keats was already on my TBR but its my first time seeing the cover. I love books promising the fae too.

    Reply
  3. sjhigbee

    I LOVE the sound of The Courting of Bristol Keats:)). Thank you for sharing, Tammy – I’ll keep an eye open for it.

    Reply
  8. Barbara S Briggs

    Boy, who knew so many books set in the Appalachian area. I have to read The Bog Wife because WV? I don’t see lots of books set in my state, Also, glad to see book snake hasn’t completely been dethroned.

    Reply
    • Tammy

      I feel like Appalachia is trending right now! Ha ha I’ve been seeing so many book snakes lately;-)

      Reply

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