Most Anticipated 2021 Books : PART I Jan2020
Hello all!
Happy New Year once again to all you lovely readers and writers out there. 2020 is something that taught us a lot of indelible lessons of life [instead of branding it as a total washout!] and so this year, let's hope we bring those learnings to life!
So let us start the year with a peekaboo at some of my most anticipated titles of 2021, shall we. And while there is no scientific process of discovery behind it, since that number might run over a significant threshold, we are trying to keep this for only the first quarter of the year. PART I is where we focus on Jan books. Sounds okay?
So let's get to it. Slay that TBR this year, my friends.
January
1. Doors of Sleep by Tim Pratt.
What would you do if you woke up and found yourself in a parallel universe under an alien sky? This is the question Zax Delatree must answer every time he closes his eyes.
Every time Zax Delatree falls asleep, he travels to a new reality. He has no control over his destination and never knows what he will see when he opens his eyes. Sometimes he wakes up in technological utopias, and other times in the bombed-out ruins of collapsed civilizations. All he has to live by are his wits and the small aides he has picked up along the way - technological advantages from techno-utopias, sedatives to escape dangerous worlds, and stimulants to extend his stay in pleasant ones.
Thankfully, Zax isn't always alone. He can take people with him, if they're unconscious in his arms when he falls asleep. But someone unwelcome is on his tail, and they are after something that Zax cannot spare - the blood running through his veins, the power to travel through worlds...
Upping my game on my SF reads this year - starting off with this ominous and intriguing tale about parallel worlds and dream-walking.
To be published by Angry Robot, Jan 12th 2021
2. We Lie with Death by Devin Madson
Into Kisia's conquered north, a Levanti empire is born.
Loyal to the new emperor, Dishiva e'Jaroven must tread the line between building a new life and clinging to the old. Only Gideon can lead them, but when he allies himself with a man returned from the dead it will challenge all she thinks she knows and everything she wants to believe.
Now empress of nothing, Miko is more determined than ever to fight for her people, yet with her hunt for allies increasingly desperate, she may learn too late that power lies not in names but in people.
Rah refused to bow to the Levanti emperor, but now abandoned by the Second Swords he must choose whether to fight for his people, or his soul. Will honor be his salvation, or lead to his destruction?
Sold to the Witchdoctor, Cassandra's only chance of freedom is in his hands, but when her fate becomes inextricably linked to Empress Hana, her true nature could condemn them both.
There is no calm after the storm.
I really need get back on the saddle for some of the most amazing books that published last year, including Devin's debut ( technically not!) from Orbit books.
To be Published by Orbit, Jan 12th 2021.
3. The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson
The first book in a new environmental epic fantasy series set in a world where ships kept afloat by magical hearthfires sail an endless grass sea.
On the never-ending, miles-high expanse of prairie grasses known as the Forever Sea, Kindred Greyreach, hearthfire keeper and sailor aboard harvesting vessel The Errant, is just beginning to fit in with the crew of her new ship when she receives devastating news. Her grandmother--The Marchess, legendary captain and hearthfire keeper--has stepped from her vessel and disappeared into the sea.
But the note she leaves Kindred suggests this was not an act of suicide. Something waits in the depths, and the Marchess has set out to find it.
To follow in her grandmother's footsteps, Kindred must embroil herself in conflicts bigger than she could imagine: a water war simmering below the surface of two cultures; the politics of a mythic pirate city floating beyond the edges of safe seas; battles against beasts of the deep, driven to the brink of madness; and the elusive promise of a world below the waves.
Kindred finds that she will sacrifice almost everything--ship, crew, and a life sailing in the sun--to discover the truth of the darkness that waits below the Forever Sea.
Was really hooked by the prologue - and will soon be reading this one up. Sounds like one helluva story with the focus on earth, our environment and did I say, Pirates?
To be published by Titan Books, Jan 19th 2021.
4. Hall of Smoke by H M Long
Hessa is an Eangi: a warrior priestess of the Goddess of War, with the power to turn an enemy's bones to dust with a scream. Banished for disobeying her goddess's command to murder a traveller, she prays for forgiveness alone on a mountainside.
While she is gone, raiders raze her village and obliterate the Eangi priesthood. Grieving and alone, Hessa - the last Eangi - must find the traveller, atone for her weakness and secure her place with her loved ones in the High Halls. As clans from the north and legionaries from the south tear through her homeland, slaughtering everyone in their path, Hessa strives to win back her goddess' favour.
Beset by zealot soldiers, deceitful gods, and newly-awakened demons at every turn, Hessa burns her path towards redemption and revenge. But her journey reveals a harrowing truth: the gods are dying and the High Halls of the afterlife are fading. Soon Hessa's trust in her goddess weakens with every unheeded prayer.
Thrust into a battle between the gods of the Old World and the New, Hessa realizes there is far more on the line than securing a life beyond her own death. Bigger, older powers slumber beneath the surface of her world. And they're about to wake up.
The HYPE is real. This viking-inspired epic fantasy with Gods meddling in human affairs, is one helluva of ride and am thoroughly enjoying this story. Will soon be wrapping this one up.
To be Published by Titan Books, Jan 19th 2021.
5. Mask of Mirrors by M A Carrick
Renata Viraudax is a con artist who has come to the sparkling city of Nadezra -- the city of dreams -- with one goal: to trick her way into a noble house and secure her fortune and her sister's future.
But as she's drawn into the elite world of House Traementis, she realizes her masquerade is just one of many surrounding her. And as corrupt magic begins to weave its way through Nadezra, the poisonous feuds of its aristocrats and the shadowy dangers of its impoverished underbelly become tangled -- with Ren at their heart.
Darkly magical and intricately imagined, The Mask of Mirrorsis the unmissable start to the Rook & Rose trilogy, a rich and dazzling fantasy adventure in which a con artist, a vigilante, and a crime lord must unite to save their city.
Another brilliant debut from the Orbit stable, this one's got the right vibes. City of dreams, victorian nobles and an intended heist-game. And a female con-artist? Whoa.
To be Published by Jan 21st, Orbit Books.
So while there are quite a few excellent sequels lined up in 2021 [ The Girl and the Mountain by Mark Lawrence out in April, She who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker Chan, A new series by John Gwynne - The Shadow of the Gods, the excellent Deli Clark's latest steampunk Egypt series A Master of Djinn etc, to name the tip of that iceberg] these are coming post-Mar 2021 and so I didn't want to cheat and put them out here. But hey, if you want another peak on an excellent list compiled on GR, here you go. Don't come crying back to me about your TBR :D
Happy Reading, Gentle Friends. Look forward to Part-II and Part-III [ Feb, March 2021]
Comments
Mask of Mirrors I struggled with. I'll have that reviewed on Friday.