The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature where I talk about books I got over the last week–old or new, bought or received for review consideration (usually unsolicited). Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included.

This is a day late due to internet issues, but last week brought several books, including one by one of my favorite authors!

Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb

Assassin’s Fate (Fitz and the Fool Trilogy #3) by Robin Hobb

Assassin’s Fate is scheduled for release on May 9 (hardcover, ebook, audiobook).

This is one of my most anticipated books of this year, probably even THE most anticipated 2017 release. Robin Hobb is one of my favorite authors, and I loved her other trilogies about these characters/this world and the previous books in this trilogy (especially the second, which was immensely satisfying!):

  1. Fool’s Assassin (My Review)
  2. Fool’s Quest (My Review)

Warning: The book description below does include spoilers for previous books in the series.

 

The stunning conclusion to Robin Hobb’s Fitz and the Fool trilogy, which began with Fool’s Assassin and Fool’s Quest

More than twenty years ago, the first epic fantasy novel featuring FitzChivalry Farseer and his mysterious, often maddening friend the Fool struck like a bolt of brilliant lightning. Now New York Times bestselling author Robin Hobb brings to a momentous close the third trilogy featuring these beloved characters in a novel of unsurpassed artistry that is sure to endure as one of the great masterworks of the genre.

Fitz’s young daughter, Bee, has been kidnapped by the Servants, a secret society whose members not only dream of possible futures but use their prophecies to add to their wealth and influence. Bee plays a crucial part in these dreams—but just what part remains uncertain.

As Bee is dragged by her sadistic captors across half the world, Fitz and the Fool, believing her dead, embark on a mission of revenge that will take them to the distant island where the Servants reside—a place the Fool once called home and later called prison. It was a hell the Fool escaped, maimed and blinded, swearing never to return.

For all his injuries, however, the Fool is not as helpless as he seems. He is a dreamer too, able to shape the future. And though Fitz is no longer the peerless assassin of his youth, he remains a man to be reckoned with—deadly with blades and poison, and adept in Farseer magic. And their goal is simple: to make sure not a single Servant survives their scourge.

Radiate by C. A. Higgins

Radiate (Lightless Trilogy #3) by C. A. Higgins

This science fiction novel will be released on May 23 (hardcover, ebook, audiobook).

The publisher’s website has excerpts from the first two books in this trilogy (the “Look Inside” links below the covers):

  1. Lightless
  2. Supernova
 

In the follow-up to Lightless and Supernova, C. A. Higgins again fuses science fiction, suspense, and drama to tell the story of a most unlikely heroine: Ananke, once a military spacecraft, now a sentient artificial intelligence. Ananke may have the powers of a god, but she is consumed by a very human longing: to know her creators.

Ananke may have the powers of a god, but she is consumed by a very human longing: to know her creators. Now Ananke is on a quest to find companionship, understanding, and even love. She is accompanied by Althea, the engineer who created her, and whom she sees as her mother. And she is in search of her “father,” Matthew, the programmer whose code gave her the spark of life.

But Matthew is on a strange quest of his own, traveling the galaxy alongside Ivan, with whom he shares a deeply painful history. Ananke and her parents are racing toward an inevitable collision, with consequences as violent as the birth of the solar system itself—and as devastating as the discovery of love.

Seven Surrenders by Ada Palmer

Seven Surrenders (Terra Ignota #2) by Ada Palmer

The second Terra Ignota novel will be released on March 7 (hardcover, ebook). Tor.com has excerpts from Seven Surrenders and the previous book, Too Like the Lightning.

 

In a future of near-instantaneous global travel, of abundant provision for the needs of all, a future in which no one living can remember an actual war…a long era of stability threatens to come to an abrupt end.

For known only to a few, the leaders of the great Hives, nations without fixed location, have long conspired to keep the world stable, at the cost of just a little blood. A few secret murders, mathematically planned. So that no faction can ever dominate, and the balance holds. And yet the balance is beginning to give way.

Mycroft Canner, convict, sentenced to wander the globe in service to all, knows more about this conspiracy the than he can ever admit. Carlyle Foster, counselor, sensayer, has secrets as well, and they burden Carlyle beyond description. And both Mycroft and Carlyle are privy to the greatest secret of all: Bridger, the child who can bring inanimate objects to life.

Shot through with astonishing invention, Ada Palmer’s Seven Surrenders is the next movement in one of the great SF epics of our time.

Eagle and Empire by Alan Smale

Eagle and Empire (Clash of Eagles #3) by Alan Smale

This conclusion to the Clash of Eagles trilogy will be released on May 16 (hardcover, ebook).

The publisher’s website has excerpts from the two previous books (links are below the covers):

  1. Clash of Eagles
  2. Eagle in Exile
 

The award-winning author of Clash of Eagles and Eagle in Exile concludes his masterly alternate-history saga of the Roman invasion of North America in this stunning novel.

Roman Praetor Gaius Marcellinus came to North America as a conqueror, but after meeting with defeat at the hands of the city-state of Cahokia, he has had to forge a new destiny in this strange land. In the decade since his arrival, he has managed to broker an unstable peace between the invading Romans and a loose affiliation of Native American tribes known as the League.

But invaders from the west will shatter that peace and plunge the continent into war: The Mongol Horde has arrived and they are taking no prisoners.

As the Mongol cavalry advances across the Great Plains leaving destruction in its path, Marcellinus and his Cahokian friends must summon allies both great and small in preparation for a final showdown. Alliances will shift, foes will rise, and friends will fall as Alan Smale brings us ever closer to the dramatic final battle for the future of the North American continent.

The Gifted by Matthew Dickerson

The Gifted (The Daegmon War #1) by Matthew Dickerson

The Gifted and the second book in The Daegmon War trilogy, The Betrayed, are both available now (The Gifted in paperback and The Betrayed in paperback and ebook).

 

The Daegmon War is a three– volume fantasy novel beginning with The Gifted, continuing with The Betrayed, and ending with The Mountain. The centuries– old war against the Daegmon Lord has been dormant for generations and knowledge of the Gifts (powers of healing, of supernatural knowledge, and of strength over demonic foes) has faded into dim folklore.

When one of the Daegmons suddenly returns to wage war against the All– Maker and his people, only one small band, led by a young Westwash woman named Elynna and an Andani hunter–guide, rises up against the terrible foe. But they are few, and only a handful of them number among the Gifted. When their own king and his armies turn against the them, all seems lost for the company. Only Thimeon’s faith in the All– Maker and in the Holy Mountain sustains the faithfulfew.

Additional Book(s):