Small Press Fantasy Titles On Our Radar: March 2016 Edition

For the past three months, Fantasy-Faction has been running a very popular ‘on our radar’ post. In this post we show readers which books they should be looking forward to for the coming month. Due to demand through Twitter, Facebook and Reddit we’ve decided to run a Small Press version of this post.

If there is a Small Press that you feel is missing from this list, please leave a message in the comments section and we will drop them an e-mail and try to get them involved. For now, here are the awesome Small Press guys who got involved telling you what you should be looking out for in March 2016:

BOOK SMUGGLERS

Broken (Extrahuman Union #1)
Susan Jane Bigelow
22/03/2016

In a post-war, future world, where first contact has been made with intelligent life and humans are colonizing the stars, the nations of Earth have been united under a central government. Extrahumans, those possessing supernatural abilities such as flight and strength, are required by this government to belong to the Union, where they can be trained, monitored, and weaponized.  

Michael Forward is cursed with the ability to see the future – every possible future – when he gazes into another person’s eyes. All he has ever wanted is to escape the grim destiny he sees when he looks in the mirror, but when he is tasked with a mission that will define the course of human history, Michael finds he cannot refuse. Now, he needs the help of a homeless ex-superhero to save a baby who may become the key to humanity’s freedom.

Broken figured she was done with heroics when she lost the ability to fly and escaped the confinement of the Extrahuman Union. But then the world started to fall apart around her, and a desperate teenage prophet with a baby entered her life, offering her the possibility of redemption and a chance to fly once more.

In a time of spreading darkness, when paranoia and oppression reign, can these unlikely allies preserve a small ray of hope for a better, brighter future?

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This title is available via the Book Smugglers website.

GRIMBOLD BOOKS/KRISTELL INK BOOKS

Serpent of the Shangrove
CN Lesley
25/03/2016

Given one chance to find the fate of a crèche mate, Copper grasps the challenge to save her and to prove himself worthy to the other Drakkens, who look down on him as a half-breed, despite his full array of magic abilities. The other world is not as he expected and the races living there don’t seem to have honor. Then he finds the Serpent, a creature of pure evil. Who will live? Who will die? One of them will not walk away

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The book will be available via the Grimbold Books website!

NEWCON PRESS

Azanian Bridges
Nick Wood
25/03/2015

“I read Bridges with much pleasure… Chilling and fascinating.” – Ursula K. Le Guin

In a modern day South Africa where Apartheid still holds sway, Sibusiso Mchunu, a young amaZulu man, finds himself the unwitting focus of momentous events when he falls foul of the system and comes into possession of a secret that may just offer hope to his entire people. Pursued by the ANC on one side and Special Branch agents on the other, Sibusiso has little choice but to run. 

Azanian Bridges is a truly ground-breaking book from South African-born author Nick Wood. This, his debut novel, is a socially acute fast-paced thriller that propels the reader into a world of intrigue and threat, leading to possibilities that examine the conscience of a nation. 

“A very good novel indeed; the emotional intelligence is as high as its political insightfulness – the whole is compelling and moving.” – Adam Roberts

“A deeply-felt examination of Apartheid and its lingering effects through the lens of speculative fiction… challenging and thought-provoking.” – Lavie Tidhar

“This is a gut-puncher of a novel; original, brilliantly written, and a page-turner of note.” – Sarah Lotz 

“Vivid, pacy, quietly furious, beautifully observed, with an ending that liberates and lacerates in equal measure.” – Stephanie Saulter 

“Politically acute and powerful… in many ways a ‘text book’ story because it’s so well done.” – Ian Watson

The 1000 Year Reich
Ian Watson
25/03/2016

Ian Watson, author of the very first novels in the Warhammer 40K universe, makes a long-anticipated return to military SF with “In Golden Armour”, one of three original stories in this fabulous new collection from the man who wrote the screen story to AI: Artificial Intelligence for Stanley Kubrick (later filmed by Steven Spielberg). 

The 1000 Year Reich boasts eighteen stories that showcase the multiple award-winning author at his best. Brimming with ingenuity and invention, the content varies from fast-paced action to thought-provoking conjecture, from wicked humour to chilling possibility, from the sublime to the outrageous.

“The brilliant Ian Watson remains the most stimulating and the least comfortable science fiction writer working today. Reading his short fiction reminds us why he is one of the genre’s unassailable greats.” 

– Adam Roberts 

Splinters of Truth
Storm Constantine
25/03/2016

“Storm Constantine is a myth-making Gothic queen, whose lush tales are compulsive reading. Her stories are poetic, involving, delightful and depraved. I wouldn’t swap her for a dozen Anne Rices.” – Neil Gaiman

Storm Constantine is one of our finest writers of genre fiction. This new collection, Splinters of Truth, features fifteen stories, four of them original to this volume, that transport the reader to richly imagined realms one moment and shine a light on our own world’s darkest corners the next. A writer of rare passion, Storm delivers here some of her most accomplished work to date.

“Storm Constantine… is a daring romantic sensualist, as well as a fine storyteller.” – Poppy Z Brite

“Storm Constantine is a literary fantasist of outstanding power and originality. Her work is rich, idiosyncratic and completely engaging. Her themes have much in common with Philip K Dick – the nature of identify, the nature of reality, the creative power of the human imagination – while her sensibility reminds me of Angela Carter at her most inventive.” – Michael Moorcock

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The paperback and eBook editions of all three titles will be widely available in all the usual stores, including Amazon. The signed limited edition hardbacks will only be available from the NewCon Press website and a few selected outlets.

SMALL BEER PRESS

The Winged Histories
Sofia Samatar
15/03/16

Four women—a soldier, a scholar, a poet, and a socialite—are caught up on opposing sides of a violent rebellion. As war erupts and their loyalties and agendas and ideologies come into conflict, the four fear their lives may pass unrecorded. Using the sword and the pen, the body and the voice, they struggle not just to survive, but to make history.

Here is the much-anticipated companion novel to Sofia Samatar’s World Fantasy Award-winning debut, A Stranger in Olondria. The Winged Histories is the saga of an empire—and a family: their friendships, their enduring love, their arcane and deadly secrets. Samatar asks who makes history, who endures it, and how the turbulence of historical change sweeps over every aspect of a life and over everyone, no matter whether or not they choose to seek it out. Read the first chapter on Tor.com.

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Available at all bookstores and Small Beer Press website.

SUBTERRANEAN PRESS

This Year’s Class Picture
Dan Simmons
31/03/2016

Ms. Geiss is the most dedicated fourth-grade teacher imaginable. She goes to extraordinary lengths to make sure her students are presented with every opportunity—showing them slides from her summer vacations during Geography, reading to them from the classics of children’s literature after lunch, and providing them with the kinds of learning rewards that they will truly respond to—bite-sized nuggets of human flesh. Because Ms. Geiss’ students are pint-sized zombies, and the main tool of her peculiar version of the teaching trade is her trusty .30-06 rifle.

Ms. Geiss is firm but fair, and keeps a disciplined classroom. She has far more trouble from the adults shambling through what’s left of town than she does from her students, though a well-bulldozed killing field and the gasoline-filled moat surrounding the school usually keeps the worst of the undead marauders at bay. But even the hardest working educators let their guard down sometimes, and after the Tribulations, just one mistake can mean school’s out forever.

Bestselling, acclaimed author Dan Simmons’ story “This Year’s Class Picture” is a zombie tale that could be described as best in class, honored by the Stoker, Sturgeon, and World Fantasy Awards.

Downfall of the Gods
K.J. Parker
31/03/2016

If you visit the Temple and ask nicely for forgiveness, you might get it—assuming you aren’t Lord Archias and you haven’t killed the Goddess’s favorite musician, Lysippus. But even goddesses are expected to follow certain rules, and as much as she wants to punish Lord Archias it seems her troublesome, all-powerful father forbids it. So the Goddess will just have to get around that by forgiving Lord Archias if he can manage some simple—or, rather, seemingly impossible—tasks. A Goddess has to do what a goddess has to do.

And in World Fantasy Award winner K.J. Parker’s sharply inventive new novella Downfall of the Gods that means everything from soothing supernatural egos to accompanying the argumentative Lord Archias on an epic quest to save his soul…and get her own way. As the Goddess and her mortal charge make their way across the world to the Land of the Dead, a host of divine surprises await them. Could what they find at the end be the downfall of the gods themselves? Only time will tell. This is a story Parker fans won’t want to miss.

DJSturbia
David J. Schow
31/03/2016

DJSturbia is home to monsters.

All kinds of monsters, from skyscraper-sized Godzilla (twice!) to the microscopic space germ known as the Andromeda Strain.

Monsters human and inhuman, from fictional psycho killers to the real-life terrorists of 9/11.

Lovecraftian horrors. Extraterrestrial insects. Giant serpents. Gargoyles and ghosts. Gunfighters and assassins. The battlefield monstrosities known as Warbirds, the alien invaders called Black Widowers, and — oh, yes — a little critter named Bob.

Classic monsters lurk here, too: That Creature from That Lagoon. That Thing from Another World. Monsters living, monsters dead … and in-between.

David J. Schow’s newest collection features his usual lucky thirteen short stories — shoot ‘em ups, horror noir, and surprises aplenty — plus, for the first time, a poison-candy sampler of thirteen additional essays covering everything from The Crow to live snake-handling.

A World Fantasy Award winner for short fiction, DJS has come to escort you into the dark suburbs of his imagination — DJSturbia.

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All three titles are available on the Subterranean Press website.

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