The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature where I discuss books I got over the last week–old or new, bought or received in the mail 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.

There was only one new book arrival last week, but it’s one I’m particularly excited to read since it appeared on my anticipated 2018 speculative fiction releases list.

In case you missed it last week, I reviewed the fourth book in Genevieve Cogman’s Invisible Library series, The Lost Plot. Like the previous books in this series, I found it delightful. (If you’re new to the series, this review shouldn’t include spoilers from previous books other than mentioning a character’s true identity revealed partway through the first book, probably around the first third to half of the book. The end of the review also has links to reviews of the previous books in the series if you would prefer not to know this and start with a review of the first book.)

Without further ado, here’s the latest addition to the piles of books…

If Tomorrow Comes by Nancy Kress

If Tomorrow Comes (Yesterday’s Kin #2) by Nancy Kress

If Tomorrow Comes, the middle book in a science fiction trilogy based on Nancy Kress’ Nebula Award–winning novella Yesterday’s Kin, will be released on March 6 (hardcover, ebook, audiobook).

I loved Yesterday’s Kin (my review), and though I didn’t think the full length novel was quite as strong as the original novella, I also enjoyed Tomorrow’s Kin immensely (my review).

Tor.com has excerpts from both Yesterday’s Kin novels:

  1. Tomorrow’s Kin (does contain spoilers if you have not read Yesterday’s Kin, which is approximately the first third of the novel)
  2. If Tomorrow Comes
 

Nancy Kress returns with If Tomorrow Comes, the sequel of Tomorrow’s Kin, part of an all-new hard science fiction trilogy based on a Nebula Award-winning novella

Ten years after the Aliens left Earth, humanity succeeds in building a ship, Friendship, to follow them home to Kindred. Aboard are a crew of scientists, diplomats, and a squad of Rangers to protect them. But when the Friendship arrives, they find nothing they expected. No interplanetary culture, no industrial base―and no cure for the spore disease.

A timeslip in the apparently instantaneous travel between worlds has occurred and far more than ten years have passed.

Once again scientists find themselves in a race against time to save humanity and their kind from a deadly virus while a clock of a different sort runs down on a military solution no less deadly to all. Amid devastation and plague come stories of heroism and sacrifice and of genetic destiny and free choice, with its implicit promise of conscious change.