6 Jan 2017

Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays (1): 2016 Release Round Up! #SFFFridays

To kick off Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays in 2017, I'm doing a round up of the 2016 releases I think you all should read. Clicking on the cover will take you to the Goodreads page so you can learn more about the book. I am highlighting books that I think you should pick up and read right now. I am excited to kick off this feature and show off some awesome Science Fiction and Fantasy books and some bloggers who also love them as well. I have lined up some great author interviews and guest posts as well as themed months for the year. There is also a giveaway at the bottom of the post so you can win some Adult SFF books!

Breakdown for the month...

January's Theme: YA to Adult Crossover
January 6: 2016 Release Roundup
January 13: Review of OUTLANDER by Diana Gabaldon from Shannon @ Shannon Reads
January 20: YA to Adult SFF Recommendations
January 27Review of THE ALCHEMISTS OF LOOM by Elise Kova

January 2016 Releases

ALL THE BIRDS IN THE SKY

Author: Charlie Jane Anders
Series: N/A
Publisher: Tor
Publication Date: January 26, 2016

Summary:
From the editor-in-chief of io9.com, a stunning novel about the end of the world--and the beginning of our future

Childhood friends Patricia Delfine and Laurence Armstead didn't expect to see each other again, after parting ways under mysterious circumstances during high school. After all, the development of magical powers and the invention of a two-second time machine could hardly fail to alarm one's peers and families.

But now they're both adults, living in the hipster mecca San Francisco, and the planet is falling apart around them. Laurence is an engineering genius who's working with a group that aims to avert catastrophic breakdown through technological intervention into the changing global climate. Patricia is a graduate of Eltisley Maze, the hidden academy for the world's magically gifted, and works with a small band of other magicians to secretly repair the world's ever-growing ailments. Little do they realize that something bigger than either of them, something begun years ago in their youth, is determined to bring them together--to either save the world, or plunge it into a new dark ages.


A deeply magical, darkly funny examination of life, love, and the apocalypse.
Purchase:


Other January 2016 releases include...



February 2016 Releases

THE IMMORTALS

Author: Jordanna Max Brodsky
Series: Olympus Bound #1
Publisher: Orbit
Publication Date: February 16, 2016

Summary:

MANHATTAN HAS MANY SECRETS.

SOME ARE OLDER THAN THE CITY ITSELF.

Manhattan.
The city sleeps. Selene DiSilva walks her dog along the banks of the Hudson. She is alone-just the way she likes it. She doesn't believe in friends, and she doesn't speak to her family. Most of them are simply too dangerous.

Murders.
In the predawn calm, Selene finds the body of a young woman washed ashore, gruesomely mutilated and wreathed in laurel. Her ancient rage returns. And so does the memory of a promise she made long ago. To protect the innocent-and to punish those who stand in her way.

Gods.
With the NYPD out of its depth, Selene vows to hunt the killer on her own. But when classics professor Theo Schultz decodes the ancient myth behind the crime, the solitary Huntress finds herself working with a man who's her opposite in every way. Together, they face a long-forgotten cult that lies behind a string of murders, and they'll need help from the one source Selene distrusts most of all: the city's other Immortals.

Much like Lev Grossman's The Magicians spoke to a generation of adults who grew up with Harry Potter, THE IMMORTALS will enchant anyone who loved American Gods or Percy Jackson.
Purchase:

Other February 2016 releases include...



March 2016 Releases

BORDERLINE

Author: Mishell Baker
Series: The Arcadia Project #1
Publisher: Saga Press
Publication Date: March 1, 2016

Summary:
A year ago, Millie lost her legs and her filmmaking career in a failed suicide attempt. Just when she's sure the credits have rolled on her life story, she gets a second chance with the Arcadia Project: a secret organization that polices the traffic to and from a parallel reality filled with creatures straight out of myth and fairy tales.

For her first assignment, Millie is tasked with tracking down a missing movie star who also happens to be a nobleman of the Seelie Court. To find him, she'll have to smooth-talk Hollywood power players and uncover the surreal and sometimes terrifying truth behind the glamour of Tinseltown. But stronger forces than just her inner demons are sabotaging her progress, and if she fails to unravel the conspiracy behind the noble's disappearance, not only will she be out on the streets, but the shattering of a centuries-old peace could spark an all-out war between worlds.


No pressure. 
Purchase:

Other March 2016 releases include...



April 2016 Releases

SLEEPING GIANTS

Author: Sylvain Neuvel
Series: Themis Files #1
Publisher: Del Rey
Publication Date: April 26, 2016

Summary:
A page-turning debut in the tradition of Michael Crichton, World War Z, and The Martian, Sleeping Giants is a thriller fueled by an earthshaking mystery—and a fight to control a gargantuan power.

A girl named Rose is riding her new bike near her home in Deadwood, South Dakota, when she falls through the earth. She wakes up at the bottom of a square hole, its walls glowing with intricate carvings. But the firemen who come to save her peer down upon something even stranger: a little girl in the palm of a giant metal hand.

Seventeen years later, the mystery of the bizarre artifact remains unsolved—its origins, architects, and purpose unknown. Its carbon dating defies belief; military reports are redacted; theories are floated, then rejected.

But some can never stop searching for answers.


Rose Franklin is now a highly trained physicist leading a top secret team to crack the hand’s code. And along with her colleagues, she is being interviewed by a nameless interrogator whose power and purview are as enigmatic as the provenance of the relic. What’s clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unraveling history’s most perplexing discovery—and figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result prove to be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?
Purchase:

Other April 2016 releases include...



May 2016 Releases

CENTRAL STATION

Author: Lavie Tidhar
Series: N/A
Publisher: Tachyon Publications
Publication Date: May 10, 2016

Summary:
A worldwide diaspora has left a quarter of a million people at the foot of a space station. Cultures collide in real life and virtual reality. The city is literally a weed, its growth left unchecked. Life is cheap, and data is cheaper.

When Boris Chong returns to Tel Aviv from Mars, much has changed. Boris’s ex-lover is raising a strangely familiar child who can tap into the datastream of a mind with the touch of a finger. His cousin is infatuated with a robotnik—a damaged cyborg soldier who might as well be begging for parts. His father is terminally-ill with a multigenerational mind-plague. And a hunted data-vampire has followed Boris to where she is forbidden to return.

Rising above them is Central Station, the interplanetary hub between all things: the constantly shifting Tel Aviv; a powerful virtual arena, and the space colonies where humanity has gone to escape the ravages of poverty and war. Everything is connected by the Others, powerful alien entities who, through the Conversation—a shifting, flowing stream of consciousness—are just the beginning of irrevocable change.


At Central Station, humans and machines continue to adapt, thrive...and even evolve.
Purchase:

Other May 2016 releases include...

June 2016 Releases

NINEFOX GAMBIT

Author: Yoon Ha Lee
Series: The Machineries of Empire #1
Publisher: Solaris Books
Publication Date: June 14, 2016

Summary:
The first installment of the trilogy, Ninefox Gambit, centers on disgraced captain Kel Cheris, who must recapture the formidable Fortress of Scattered Needles in order to redeem herself in front of the Hexarchate.

To win an impossible war Captain Kel Cheris must awaken an ancient weapon and a despised traitor general.

Captain Kel Cheris of the hexarchate is disgraced for using unconventional methods in a battle against heretics. Kel Command gives her the opportunity to redeem herself by retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles, a star fortress that has recently been captured by heretics. Cheris’s career isn’t the only thing at stake. If the fortress falls, the hexarchate itself might be next.

Cheris’s best hope is to ally with the undead tactician Shuos Jedao. The good news is that Jedao has never lost a battle, and he may be the only one who can figure out how to successfully besiege the fortress.


The bad news is that Jedao went mad in his first life and massacred two armies, one of them his own. As the siege wears on, Cheris must decide how far she can trust Jedao–because she might be his next victim.
Purchase:

Other June 2016 releases include...



July 2016 Releases

THE RACE

Author: Nina Allan
Series: N/A
Publisher: Titan Books
Publication Date: July 19, 2016

Summary:
A child is kidnapped... A female journalist reaches into the past to find answers to a possible murder... Far away a young girl prepares for her mysterious future... 


In the tradition of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, The Race captivates the reader, weaving together story threads and realities to us on a gripping and spellbinding journey...


Purchase:

Other July 2016 releases include...


August 2016 Releases

THE GATE OF SORROWS

Author: Miyuki Miyabe
Series: N/A
Publisher: Viz LLC
Publication Date: August 30th 2016

Summary:
A series of murders shocks Tokyo’s Shinjuku ward, but Shigenori, a retired police detective, is instead obsessed with a gargoyle that seems to move. College freshman Kotaro launches a web-based investigation of the killer, and comes to find that answers may lie within an abandoned building in the center of Japan’s busiest neighborhood, and beyond the Gate of Sorrows. In this New Adult sequel to Miyabe’s The Book of Heroes, you will meet monsters from other worlds and ordinary horrors that surpass even supernatural threats.
Purchase:

Other August 2016 releases include...


September 2016 Releases

THE QUEEN OF BLOOD

Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Series: The Queens of Renthia #1
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Publication Date: September 20, 2016

Summary:
An idealistic young student and a banished warrior become allies in a battle to save their realm in this first book of a mesmerizing epic fantasy series, filled with political intrigue, violent magic, malevolent spirits, and thrilling adventure

Everything has a spirit: the willow tree with leaves that kiss the pond, the stream that feeds the river, the wind that exhales fresh snow . . .

But the spirits that reside within this land want to rid it of all humans. One woman stands between these malevolent spirits and the end of humankind: the queen. She alone has the magical power to prevent the spirits from destroying every man, woman, and child. But queens are still just human, and no matter how strong or good, the threat of danger always looms. 


With the position so precarious, young women are chosen to train as heirs. Daleina, a seemingly quiet academy student, is under no illusions as to her claim to the throne, but simply wants to right the wrongs that have befallen the land. Ven, a disgraced champion, has spent his exile secretly fighting against the growing number of spirit attacks. Joining forces, these daring partners embark on a treacherous quest to find the source of the spirits’ restlessness—a journey that will test their courage and trust, and force them to stand against both enemies and friends to save their land . . . before it’s bathed in blood.
Purchase:

Other September 2016 releases include...


October 2016 Releases

SAVANT

Author: Nik Abnett
Series: N/A
Publisher: Solaris
Publication Date: October 4, 2016

Summary:
His mind can save the world, if she can save him from the human race...

The Shield is Earth's only defence. Rendering the planet invisible from space, it keeps humanity safe from alien invasion. The Actives maintain the shield - no one is sure how - but without them, the Shield cannot function.

When an Active called Tobe finds himself caught in a probability loop, the Shield is compromised. Soon, Tobe's malady spreads among the Active. Earth becomes vulnerable.

Tobe’s assistant, Metoo, is only interested in his wellbeing. Earth security’s paramount concern is the preservation of the Shield. As Metoo strives to prevent Tobe’s masters from undermining his fragile equilibrium, the global danger escalates.


The Shield must be maintained at all costs... 
Purchase:

Other October 2016 releases include...



November 2016 Releases

THE SHADOW OF WHAT WAS LOST

Author: James Islington
Series: The Licanius Trilogy #1
Publisher: Orbit
Publication Date: November 8, 2016

Summary:
"Will appeal not only to The Wheel of Time readers, but to anybody looking for a coming-of-age fantasy tale with likeable characters and strong worldbuilding." - Fantasy Faction 

It has been twenty years since the god-like Augurs were overthrown and killed. Now, those who once served them - the Gifted - are spared only because they have accepted the rebellion's Four Tenets, vastly limiting their own powers.

As a young Gifted, Davian suffers the consequences of a war lost before he was even born. He and his friends are despised beyond their school walls for the magical power they wield: a power that Davian, despite his best efforts, cannot seem to control. Worse, with his final test approaching and the consequences of failure severe, time to overcome his struggles is fast running out.


But when Davian discovers he wields the forbidden power of the Augurs, he unwittingly sets in motion a chain of events that will change his life - and shake the entire world.
Purchase:

Other November 2016 releases include...


December 2016 Releases

TAKE BACK THE SKY

Author: Greg Bear
Series: War Dogs #3
Publisher: Orbit
Publication Date: December 20, 2016

Summary:
The conclusion to an epic interstellar trilogy of war from a master of science fiction.

Marooned beneath the icy, waxy crust of Saturn's moon, Titan, Skyrine Michael Venn and his comrades face double danger from Earth and from the Antagonists, both intent on wiping out their growing awareness of what the helpful alien Gurus are really doing in our solar system.


Haunted by their glassy dead and by the ancient archives of our Bug ancestors, the former combatants must now team up with their enemies, forget their indoctrination and their training, and journey far beyond Pluto to the fabled Planet X, the Antagonists' home world, a Sun-Planet in the comet-generating Kuiper belt. It's here that Master Sergeant Venn will finally understand his destiny and the destiny of every intelligent being in the solar system-including the enigmatic Gurus.
Purchase:

Other December 2016 releases include...




What Adult SFF books did you read last year? Which are you going to pick up now?


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