New Scifi & Fantasy Releases: Week of May 15

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While putting this list together I was really excited to see that Stephen Deas's newest Memory of Flames book will be coming out this week since I have really been enjoying this trilogy and can't wait to see how it concludes.

Also high on my to-read list is China 's newest novel, Embassytown, which sounds a bit different from his other books but is defiantly intriguing.

Fans of Melissa Marr may enjoy her upcoming book, Graveminder, a dark fantasy for adults. Though I'll be staying away from that one which looks too eerie for my taste.

I have actually been pretty engrossed for the past couple of weeks in Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series, and those should keep me busy for a little while longer.

Hope you have a great reading week!



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Dancing With Bears
Michael Swanwick
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Release Date: May 17

Dancing With Bears follows the adventures of notorious con-men Darger and Surplus: They've lied and cheated their way onto the caravan that is delivering a priceless gift from the Caliph of Baghdad to the Duke of Muscovy. The only thing harder than the journey to Muscovy is their arrival in Muscovy. An audience with the Duke seems impossible to obtain, and Darger and Surplus quickly become entangled in a morass of deceit and revolution. The only thing more dangerous than the convoluted political web surrounding Darger and Surplus is the gift itself, the Pearls of Byzantium, and Zoesophia, the governess sworn to protect their virtue.



The Dark City (The Book of the Crow #1)
Catherine Fisher
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publisher: Dial
Release Date: May 17

Welcome to Anara, a world mysteriously crumbling to devastation, where nothing is what it seems: Ancient relics emit technologically advanced powers, members of the old Order are hunted by the governing Watch yet revered by the people, and the great energy that connects all seems to also be destroying all. The only hope for the world lies in Galen, a man of the old Order and a Keeper of relics, and his sixteen-year-old apprentice, Raffi. They know of a secret relic with great power that has been hidden for centuries. As they search for it, they will be tested beyond their limits. For there are monstersÑsome human, some notÑthat also want the relic's power and will stop at nothing to get it.


Embassytown
China Miéville
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: May 17

Embassytown: a city of contradictions on the outskirts of the universe. Avice is an immerser, a traveller on the immer, the sea of space and time below the everyday, now returned to her birth planet. Here on Arieka, humans are not the only intelligent life, and Avice has a rare bond with the natives, the enigmatic Hosts - who cannot lie. Only a tiny cadre of unique human Ambassadors can speak Language, and connect the two communities. But an unimaginable new arrival has come to Embassytown. And when this Ambassador speaks, everything changes. Catastrophe looms. Avice knows the only hope is for her to speak directly to the alien Hosts. And that is impossible.



Graveminder
Melissa Marr
Genre: Urban Fantasy/ Horror
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: May 17


The New York Times bestselling author of the Wicked Lovely series delivers her first novel for adults, a story about the living, the dead, and a curse that binds them.

Rebekkah Barrow never forgot the tender attention her grandmother, Maylene, bestowed upon the dead of Claysville, the town where Bek spent her adolescence. There wasn't a funeral that Maylene didn't attend, and at each Rebekkah watched as Maylene performed the same unusual ritual: three sips from a small silver flask followed by the words "Sleep well, and stay where I put you."

Now Maylene is dead and Bek must go back to the place--and the man--she left a decade ago. But what she soon discovers is that Maylene was murdered and that there was good reason for her odd traditions. It turns out that in placid Claysville, the worlds of the living and the dead are dangerously connected. Beneath the town lies a shadowy, lawless land ruled by the enigmatic Charles, aka Mr. D--a place from which the dead will return if their graves are not properly minded. Only the Graveminder, a Barrow woman, and the current Undertaker, Byron, can set things to right once the dead begin to walk.


Mercy
Rebecca Lim
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher:Hyperion Book CH
Release Date: May 17

A fallen angel haunted by her past. Yearning for her immortal beloved. Forever searching for answers. Who will show her Mercy?

Mercy has lost herself. She can’t count how many times she’s “woken up” in a new body, and assumed a new life, only to move on again and again. During the day she survives in the human world on instinct and at night her dreams are haunte...moreA fallen angel haunted by her past. Yearning for her immortal beloved. Forever searching for answers. Who will show her Mercy?

Mercy has lost herself. She can’t count how many times she’s “woken up” in a new body, and assumed a new life, only to move on again and again. During the day she survives in the human world on instinct and at night her dreams are haunted by him. Mercy’s heart would know him anywhere. But her memory refuses to cooperate.

But this time is different. When Mercy wakes up she meets Ryan, an eighteen year old reeling from the loss of his twin sister who was kidnapped two years ago. Everyone else has given up hope, but Ryan believes his sister is still alive. Using a power she doesn’t fully comprehend, Mercy realizes that Ryan is right. His sister is alive and together they can find her. For the first time since she can remember, Mercy has a purpose; she can help. So she doesn’t understand why the man in her dreams cautions her not to interfere. But as Ryan and Mercy come closer to solving the dark mystery of his sister’s disappearance, danger looms just one step behind.

Will Mercy be able to harness her true self and extraordinary power in time?


Mirror Sword and Shadow Prince
Noriko Ogiwara
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: May 17

Oguna is an orphan with a secret even he doesn’t know—he’s a prince and heir to a terrible power. His best friend Toko is a member of the Tachibana clan and a potential high priestess able to tame that power...or destroy it.


The Order of the Scales (The Memory of Flames, Bk 3)
Stephen Deas
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Gollancz
Release Date: May 19

As the various factions fight for control of the Adamatine Palace mankinds nemesis approaches. The realms dragons are awakening from their alchemical sedation and returning to their native fury. They can remember why they were created and they now know what mankind has done to them. And their revenge will be brutal. As hundreds of dragons threaten a fiery apocalypse only the Adamantine Guard stand between humanity and extinction. Can Prince Jehal fight off the people who want him dead and unite their armies in one final battle for survival? Noted for its blistering pace, awesome dragons and devious polticking Stephen Deas's landmark fantasy trilogy moves to a terrifying epic conclusion in The Order of the Scales



Pax Britannia: Anno Frankenstein (Pax Britannia #10)
Jonathan Green
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Solaris
Release Date: May 17

In 1998 Magna Britannia remains the undisputed superpower of the world whereas, since the Second Great European War, Hitler's Nazi party has been reduced to the status of an underground terrorist movement. But fifty-five years ago... The Nazis are at the height of their power. Much of Europe has fallen beneath their inexorable march, but with the automaton armies of Magna Britannia poised to invade and bring about a swift end to the war, Germany finds its resources stretched to the limit. What Hitler's legions need now is a miracle. And a miracle may be what they are about to receive; a gift from the future, something that should not exist in the year 1943, for one man has stolen fire from heaven. But another has followed him back from the future to ensure that history follows its pre-determined course. Ulysses Quicksilver finds himself in Anno Frankenstein where the bodies of the fallen are reconstructed and resurrected that they might fight again. Behind enemy lines, Ulysses Quicksilver must infiltrate the most heavily-defended fortress on the planet, and there face an age-old enemy one last time. Should he fail, history will be re-written and Ulysses Quicksilver will cease to exist, having never even been born at all.