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.

There’s a lot of catching up to do this week since I’ve been away and super busy. I left for a trip to Montreal one weekend, came back the following weekend, and then had an unusually filled week that led to spending much of that weekend working. This post includes all the books that have come in the mail since then, plus one I purchased during my trip, but first here’s what you may have missed since the last one of these features:

And now, all the books!

Jade City by Fonda Lee

Jade City (Green Bone Saga #1) by Fonda Lee

Though Fonda Lee has authored a couple of young adult science fiction novels, including Andre Norton Award finalist and Oregon Spirit Book Award winner Zeroboxer, this upcoming fantasy book is her first adult novel. Orbit Books has an excerpt from Jade City, which will be released on November 7 (hardcover, ebook).

 

FAMILY IS DUTY. MAGIC IS POWER. HONOR IS EVERYTHING.

Jade is the lifeblood of the island of Kekon. It has been mined, traded, stolen, and killed for — and for centuries, honorable Green Bone warriors like the Kaul family have used it to enhance their magical abilities and defend the island from foreign invasion.

Now, the war is over and a new generation of Kauls vies for control of Kekon’s bustling capital city. They care about nothing but protecting their own, cornering the jade market, and defending the districts under their protection. Ancient tradition has little place in this rapidly changing nation.

When a powerful new drug emerges that lets anyone—even foreigners—wield jade, the simmering tension between the Kauls and the rival Ayt family erupts into open violence. The outcome of this clan war will determine the fate of all Green Bones—from their grandest patriarch to the lowliest motorcycle runner on the streets—and of Kekon itself.

Jade City begins an epic tale of family, honor, and those who live and die by the ancient laws of jade and blood.

Iraq + 100 edited by Hassan Blasim

Iraq + 100: The First Anthology of Science Fiction to Have Emerged from Iraq edited by Hassan Blasim

This anthology contains ten stories revolving around the theme of imagining what Iraq may look like in the year 2103, all written by Iraqi authors. Iraq + 100 was published in the UK last year, and it will also be available in the US on September 12 (trade paperback, ebook).

Tor.com has an excerpt from Iraq + 100, the introduction written by the editor, award-winning author Hassan Blasim (whose story “The Gardens of Babylon” is included in the anthology), and translated by Jonathan Wright.

 

Iraq + 100 poses a question to contemporary Iraqi writers: what might your home city look like in the year 2103 – exactly 100 years after the disastrous American and British-led invasion of Iraq? How might that war reach across a century of repair and rebirth, and affect the state of the country – its politics, its religion, its language, its culture – and how might Iraq have finally escaped its chaos, and found its own peace, a hundred years down the line? As well as being an exercise in escaping the politics of the present, this anthology is also an opportunity for a hotbed of contemporary Arabic writers to offer its own spin on science fiction and fantasy.

The Bloodprint by Ausma Zehanat Khan

The Bloodprint (The Khorasan Archives #1) by Ausma Zehanat Khan

The Bloodprint, the first book in a quartet, is mystery writer and former Muslim Girl magazine editor-in-chief Ausma Zehanat Khan’s fantasy literature debut. It will be released on October 3 (trade paperback, ebook, audiobook).

 

The author of the acclaimed mystery The Unquiet Dead delivers her first fantasy novel—the opening installment in a thrilling quartet—a tale of religion, oppression, and political intrigue that radiates with heroism, wonder, and hope.

A dark power called the Talisman, born of ignorance and persecution, has risen in the land. Led by a man known only as the One-Eyed Preacher, it is a cruel and terrifying movement bent on world domination—a superstitious patriarchy that suppresses knowledge and subjugates women. And it is growing.

But there are those who fight the Talisman’s spread, including the Companions of Hira, a diverse group of influential women whose power derives from the Claim—the magic inherent in the words of a sacred scripture. Foremost among them is Arian and her fellow warrior, Sinnia, skilled fighters who are knowledgeable in the Claim. This daring pair have long stalked Talisman slave-chains, searching for clues and weapons to help them battle their enemy’s oppressive ways. Now they may have discovered a miraculous symbol of hope that can destroy the One-Eyed Preacher and his fervid followers: the Bloodprint, a dangerous text the Talisman has tried to erase from the world.

Finding the Bloodprint promises to be their most perilous undertaking yet, an arduous journey that will lead them deep into Talisman territory. Though they will be helped by allies—a loyal boy they freed from slavery and a man that used to be both Arian’s confidant and sword master—Arian and Sinnia know that this mission may well be their last.

Call of Fire by Beth Cato

Call of Fire (Blood of Earth #2) by Beth Cato

The sequel to Locus, RT Reviewers’ Choice, and Nebula Award–nominated author Beth Cato’s Breath of Earth was just released on August 15 (trade paperback, ebook). Harper Collins has a sample from Call of Fire, plus an excerpt from Breath of Earth.

 

A resourceful young heroine must protect the world from her enemies—and her own power—in this thrilling sequel to the acclaimed Breath of Earth, an imaginative blend of alternative history, fantasy, science, magic, and adventure.

When an earthquake devastates San Francisco in an alternate 1906, the influx of geomantic energy nearly consumes Ingrid Carmichael. Bruised but alive, the young geomancer flees the city with her friends, Cy, Lee, and Fenris. She is desperate to escape Ambassador Blum, the cunning and dangerous bureaucrat who wants to use Ingrid’s formidable powers to help the Unified Pacific—the confederation of the United States and Japan—achieve world domination. To stop them, Ingrid must learn more about the god-like magic she inherited from her estranged father—the man who set off the quake that obliterated San Francisco.

When Lee and Fenris are kidnapped in Portland, Ingrid and Cy are forced to ally themselves with another ambassador from the Unified Pacific: the powerful and mysterious Theodore Roosevelt. But even TR’s influence may not be enough to save them when they reach Seattle, where the magnificent peak of Mount Rainier looms. Discovering more about herself and her abilities, Ingrid is all too aware that she may prove to be the fuse to light the long-dormant volcano . . . and a war that will sweep the world.

Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore

Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore

Up Jumps the Devil author Michael Poore’s second novel was just released last week (hardcover, ebook, audiobook). Penguin Random House has an excerpt from Reincarnation Blues.

 

A wildly imaginative novel about a man who is reincarnated over ten thousand lifetimes to be with his one true love: Death herself.

First we live. Then we die. And then . . . we get another try?

Ten thousand tries, to be exact. Ten thousand lives to “get it right.” Answer all the Big Questions. Achieve Wisdom. And Become One with Everything.

Milo has had 9,995 chances so far and has just five more lives to earn a place in the cosmic soul. If he doesn’t make the cut, oblivion awaits. But all Milo really wants is to fall forever into the arms of Death. Or Suzie, as he calls her.

More than just Milo’s lover throughout his countless layovers in the Afterlife, Suzie is literally his reason for living—as he dives into one new existence after another, praying for the day he’ll never have to leave her side again.

But Reincarnation Blues is more than a great love story: Every journey from cradle to grave offers Milo more pieces of the great cosmic puzzle—if only he can piece them together in time to finally understand what it means to be part of something bigger than infinity. As darkly enchanting as the works of Neil Gaiman and as wisely hilarious as Kurt Vonnegut’s, Michael Poore’s Reincarnation Blues is the story of everything that makes life profound, beautiful, absurd, and heartbreaking.

Because it’s more than Milo and Suzie’s story. It’s your story, too.

A Lot Like Christmas: Stories by Connie Willis

A Lot Like Christmas: Stories by Connie Willis

Nebula and Hugo Award–winning author Connie Willis’ upcoming short story collection is an updated edition of Miracle and Other Christmas Stories featuring five brand new stories (plus seven more!), an introduction by the author, an afterword, and the author’s favorite Christmas movies, stories, TV episodes, and poems. A Lot Like Christmas will be released on October 10 (trade paperback, ebook).

 

This new, expanded edition of Miracle and Other Christmas Stories features twelve brilliantly reimagined holiday tales, five of which are collected here for the first time.

Christmas comes but once a year, yet the stories in this dazzling collection are fun to read anytime. They put a speculative spin on the holiday, giving fans of acclaimed author Connie Willis a welcome gift and a dozen reasons to be of good cheer.

Brimming with Willis’s trademark insights and imagination, these heartwarming tales are full of humor, absurdity, human foibles, tragedy, joy, and hope. They both embrace and send up many of the best Christmas traditions, including the holiday newsletter, Secret Santas, office parties, holiday pageants, and Christmas dinners (both elaborate and spare). There are Rockettes, the best and worst Christmas movies, modern-day Magi, Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet to Come—and the triumph of generosity over greed. Like all the timeless classics we return to year after year, these stories affirm our faith in love, magic, and the wonder of the season.

The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay

The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay

This was my one book purchase made while in Montreal. I visited a few bookstores while there and especially had fun browsing the huge fantasy and science fiction sections at Indigo. They had so much that it was hard for me to refrain from buying a lot so I decided to just buy an edition of a book I couldn’t find in the US. The Canadian edition of The Lions of Al-Rassan seemed fitting, especially since the book I purchased last time I was in Montreal was The Fionavar Tapestry omnibus.

 

Hauntingly evocative of medieval Spain, The Lions of Al-Rassan, a bestselling classic of Canadian literature, is the exhilarating story of love, divided loyalties, and what happens to men and women when passionate beliefs conspire to remake—or destroy—a world.

Home to three very different cultures, Al-Rassan is a land of seductive beauty and violent history where peace among the people is a precarious thing. Despite their differences, three extraordinary individuals of different faiths are drawn together by a series of unforeseen events. Jehane bet Ishak is a brilliant physician who by saving the life of prominent merchant puts her life in peril. Rodrigo Belmonte is a powerful, charismatic military leader who finds himself exiled by his own king. Ammar ibn Khairan is a renowned poet, courtier, and deadly whose life is changed by a brutal massacre orchestrated by his king. These three find their lives interwoven as fate leads Al-Rassan to the brink of war.

Additional Books: