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 (often these are unsolicited books from publishers). 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.

It’s been a couple of weeks since one of these features because I was trying to wrap up a book review last Sunday. There was just one book purchase that came in that week, and it’s the first book included below (and it’s one I couldn’t resist buying since I’ve been excited about it ever since I first heard about it!).

In case you missed it last week, the aforementioned review was posted the next day:

  • If Tomorrow Comes (Yesterday’s Kin Trilogy #2) by Nancy Kress — I didn’t find this as engrossing as the first novel in the series and felt there were too many major characters accompanied by too little satisfying character development/arcs, but I did find the planetary setting interesting and enjoyed that this is science fiction in which science is a hero that makes progress possible.

And now, recent book arrivals!

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

Peng Shepherd’s debut novel, which appeared on my anticipated books of 2018 list, is available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.

The publisher’s website has a sample from The Book of M—and if you missed it on this site in April, Peng Shepherd wrote an essay about the time-traveling book that made her love SFF and introduced her to the magic of books (literally!).

 

Set in a dangerous near-future world, The Book of M tells the captivating story of a group of ordinary people caught in an extraordinary catastrophe who risk everything to save the ones they love. It is a sweeping debut that illuminates the power that memories have not only on the heart, but on the world itself.

One afternoon at an outdoor market in India, a man’s shadow disappears – an occurrence science cannot explain. He is only the first. The phenomenon spreads like a plague, and while those afflicted gain a strange new power, it comes at a horrible price: the loss of all their memories.

Ory and his wife, Max, have escaped the Forgetting so far by hiding in an abandoned hotel deep in the woods. Their new life feels almost normal, until one day, Max’s shadow disappears, too.

Knowing that the more she forgets, the more dangerous she will become to Ory, Max runs away. But Ory refuses to give up the time they have left together. Desperate to find Max before her memory disappears completely, he follows her trail across a perilous, unrecognizable world, braving the threat of roaming bandits, the call to a new war being waged on the ruins of the capital, and the rise of a sinister cult that worships the shadowless.

As they journey, each searches for answers: for Ory, about love, about survival, about hope; and for Max, about a new force growing in the south that may hold the cure.

Like The Passage and Station Eleven, this haunting, thought-provoking, and beautiful novel explores fundamental questions of memory, connection, and what it means to be human in a world turned upside down.

Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

Record of a Spaceborn Few (Wayfarers #3) by Becky Chambers

Becky Chambers’ third Wayfarer novel will be available on July 24 (hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, audiobook).

The publisher’s website has a sample from Record of a Spaceborn Few, as well as the previously published Wayfarer books:

  1. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Arthur C. Clarke Award nominee)
  2. A Closed and Common Orbit (Arthur C. Clarke Award nominee and Hugo Award nominee)
 

Return to the sprawling universe of the Galactic Commons, as humans, artificial intelligence, aliens, and some beings yet undiscovered explore what it means to be a community in this exciting third adventure in the acclaimed and multi-award-nominated science fiction Wayfarers series, brimming with heartwarming characters and dazzling space adventure.

Hundreds of years ago, the last humans on Earth boarded the Exodus Fleet in search of a new home among the stars. After centuries spent wandering empty space, their descendants were eventually accepted by the well-established species that govern the Milky Way.

But that was long ago. Today, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, the birthplace of many, yet a place few outsiders have ever visited. While the Exodans take great pride in their original community and traditions, their culture has been influenced by others beyond their bulkheads. As many Exodans leave for alien cities or terrestrial colonies, those who remain are left to ponder their own lives and futures: What is the purpose of a ship that has reached its destination? Why remain in space when there are habitable worlds available to live? What is the price of sustaining their carefully balanced way of life—and is it worth saving at all?

A young apprentice, a lifelong spacer with young children, a planet-raised traveler, an alien academic, a caretaker for the dead, and an Archivist whose mission is to ensure no one’s story is forgotten, wrestle with these profound universal questions. The answers may seem small on the galactic scale, but to these individuals, it could mean everything.

Dragon's Code: Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern by Gigi McCaffrey

Dragon’s Code (Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern) by Gigi McCaffrey

Dragon’s Code is an upcoming new book written by Anne McCaffrey’s daughter, Gigi McCaffrey, that is set in the world of Dragonriders of Pern. It will be released on October 2 (hardcover, ebook).

 

A new hero emerges in a divided world as one of sci-fi’s most beloved series—Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern—relaunches with this original adventure from Anne’s daughter, Gigi McCaffrey.

In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the Dragonriders of Pern series, Gigi does her mother proud, adding to the family tradition of spinning unputdownable tales that recount the adventures of the brave inhabitants of a distant planet who battle the pitiless adversary known as Thread.

The last time Thread attacked Pern, the world was unprepared for the fight—until the Oldtimers appeared. These courageous dragonriders arrived from the past, traveling four hundred years to help their descendants survive. But the collision of past and present took its toll. While most of the displaced rescuers adapted to their new reality, others could not abide the jarring change and found themselves in soul-crushing exile, where unhappiness and resentment seethed.

Piemur, a journeyman harper, also feels displaced, cast adrift by the loss of his spectacular boyhood voice and uncertain of his future. But when the Masterharper of Pern sees promise in the young man and sends him undercover among the exiled Oldtimers, Piemur senses the looming catastrophe that threatens the balance of power between the Weyrs and Holds of Pern.

When the unthinkable happens, Piemur must rise to the challenge to avert disaster and restore honor to the dragons and dragonriders of Pern. Because now, in a world already beset by Thread, another, more insidious danger looms: For the first time in living memory, dragons may be on the verge of fighting dragons.

Additional Book(s):