March New Releases I’m intrigued about

Here’s my list of March anticipated releases! As I mentioned in my post last month, my selection isn’t trying to be comprehensive.  I haven’t even mentioned all the books I’m intrigued about and I’m sure I missed a number of great ones. However, I love gushing about shiny new books and I thought it would be a great opportunity to do so.  It’s not a TBR by any means though I really want to read those!

SCIENCE FICTION

Ancestral Night, by Elizabeth Bear (March 5, Saga Press)

Halmey Dz and her partner Connla Kurucz are salvage operators, living just on the inside of the law…usually. Theirs is the perilous and marginal existence—with barely enough chance of striking it fantastically big—just once—to keep them coming back for more. They pilot their tiny ship into the scars left by unsuccessful White Transitions, searching for the relics of lost human and alien vessels. But when they make a shocking discovery about an alien species that has been long thought dead, it may be the thing that could tip the perilous peace mankind has found into full-out war.

I really like Bear short fiction but I’ve never read one of her longer work and this one looks right up my alley. I like stories set in space and learning about a “shocking discovery about an alien species” sounds good to me!

String City, by Graham Edwards (March 5, Solaris)

It’s a tough job being a gumshoe in an interdimensional city full of gods, living concepts and weirder things. Good thing I’m a stringwalker, able to jump between realities.

It started when I was hired to investigate an explosion at a casino. A simple heist, I thought, but it turned into a race to stop the apocalypse. So I rolled the dice, and now I’m up against the ancient Greek Titans, an interdimensional spider god and a mysterious creature known as the Fool. I’m going to need more than just luck to solve this one.

If I fail, all things—in all realities—could be destroyed.

Just another day in String City. 

I have an ARC of this book so I’ll do my best to read it in March. I love stories playing with the parallel universes trope. My favorite book of last year, Unholy Land, played with this idea masterfully and I’m always on the lookout for similar stories and ideas. It also helps that this title is published by Solaris, they are one of my favorite speculative fiction imprint and I’m almost never disappointed by their titles. I’m highly anticipated this one.

The Rosewater Insurrection, by Tade Thompson (March 12, Orbit)

All is quiet in the city of Rosewater as it expands on the back of the gargantuan alien Wormwood. Those who know the truth of the invasion keep the secret.

The government agent Aminat, the lover of the retired sensitive Kaaro, is at the forefront of the cold, silent conflict. She must capture a woman who is the key to the survival of the human race. But Aminat is stymied by the machinations of the Mayor of Rosewater and the emergence of an old enemy of Wormwood…

So this is without a doubt the book I’m looking forward to the most this month. I read and loved Rosewater back when it was first published by Apex Publications. It was a fantastic little gem and I cannot wait to learn more about this world!

Permafrost, by Alastair Reynolds (March 19, Tor.com)

2080: at a remote site on the edge of the Arctic Circle, a group of scientists, engineers and physicians gather to gamble humanity’s future on one last-ditch experiment. Their goal: to make a tiny alteration to the past, averting a global catastrophe while at the same time leaving recorded history intact. To make the experiment work, they just need one last recruit: an ageing schoolteacher whose late mother was the foremost expert on the mathematics of paradox.

2028: a young woman goes into surgery for routine brain surgery. In the days following her operation, she begins to hear another voice in her head… an unwanted presence which seems to have a will, and a purpose, all of its own – one that will disrupt her life entirely. The only choice left to her is a simple one.

Does she resist … or become a collaborator?

Alastair Reynolds is an author I’m very curious about. I’ve read one of his short stories a few years ago and I loved it (I think it was called A Murmuration). I have always been intrigued by his works but they tend to be on the longer side so I never picked them up and I am not interested by his YA series. I thought Permafrost would be a great way to try one of his longer work since it’s still shorter than most of his novels.. I have pre-ordered this one.

A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine (March 26, Tor Books)

Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn’t an accident–or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court.

Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan’s unceasing expansion–all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret–one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life–or rescue it from annihilation.

Probably my second most anticipated releases of March, I’ve seen this one everywhere so I’m very intrigued about it. I don’t want to set my expectations too high but I can’t completely ignore the hype it has been getting recently!

FANTASY

The Bird King, by G. Willow Wilson (March 12, Grove/Atlantic)

Set in 1491 during the reign of the last sultanate in the Iberian peninsula, The Bird King is the story of Fatima, the only remaining Circassian concubine to the sultan, and her dearest friend Hassan, the palace mapmaker. 

Hassan has a secret–he can draw maps of places he’s never seen and bend the shape of reality. When representatives of the newly formed Spanish monarchy arrive to negotiate the sultan’s surrender, Fatima befriends one of the women, not realizing that she will see Hassan’s gift as sorcery and a threat to Christian Spanish rule. With their freedoms at stake, what will Fatima risk to save Hassan and escape the palace walls?

As Fatima and Hassan traverse Spain with the help of a clever jinn to find safety, The Bird King asks us to consider what love is and the price of freedom at a time when the West and the Muslim world were not yet separate.

I’ve seen this title for the first time on the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog a couple of days ago and I was immediately intrigued by the premise. It also helps that the cover is absolutely gorgeous. After a bit of research, I learnt that G. Willow Wilson also wrote Alif the Unseen, a book that was critically acclaimed book which won the World Fantasy Award in 2013. I have requested it on Netgalley so if I get approved, I’ll definitely read this one asap!

Miranda in Milan, by Katharine Duckett (March 26, Tor.com)

After the tempest, after the reunion, after her father drowned his books, Miranda was meant to enter a brave new world. Naples awaited her, and Ferdinand, and a throne. Instead she finds herself in Milan, in her father’s castle, surrounded by hostile servants who treat her like a ghost. Whispers cling to her like spiderwebs, whispers that carry her dead mother’s name. And though he promised to give away his power, Milan is once again contorting around Prospero’s dark arts. With only Dorothea, her sole companion and confidant to aid her, Miranda must cut through the mystery and find the truth about her father, her mother, and herself.

Since I’m French, I never had to read any Shakespeare in school, we only studied French playwrights such as Molière, Racine and Corneille. English isn’t my first language so I always thought I would never be able to read his plays. However, a few years ago, I tried to read The Tempest and, even if a lot of things went over my head, I really enjoyed the play. Since then, I have read Miranda & Caliban, Jacqueline Carey’s take on this play as well as Coral Bones by Foz Meadows, a novella following what happens after the end of The Tempest. I liked them both so I cannot wait to read Miranda in Milan! I have pre-ordered this one as well.

MELTING POT

New Suns: Original Speculative fiction by People of Color, edited by Nisi Shawl (March 12, Solaris)

New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color showcases emerging and seasoned writers of many races telling stories filled with shocking delights, powerful visions of the familiar made strange. Between this book’s covers burn tales of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and their indefinable overlappings. These are authors aware of our many possible pasts and futures, authors freed of stereotypes and clichés, ready to dazzle you with their daring genius.

The title of this anthology is pretty self-explanatory and I’ve been wanting to read this collection since I first heard about it. I have an ARC that I am currently reading so a review of it will be coming later this month. This anthology has stories from Rebecca Roanhorse, Tobias S. Buckell, Silvia Moreno Garcia and many others. The cover is absolutely gorgeous as well!

Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea: Stories, by Sarah Pinsker (March 19, Small Beer Press)

The baker’s dozen stories gathered here (including a new, previously unpublished story) turn readers into travelers to the past, the future, and explorers of the weirder points of the present. The journey is the thing as Pinsker weaves music, memory, technology, history, mystery, love, loss, and even multiple selves on generation ships and cruise ships, on highways and high seas, in murder houses and treehouses. They feature runaways, fiddle-playing astronauts, and retired time travelers; they are weird, wired, hopeful, haunting, and deeply human. They are often described as beautiful but Pinsker also knows that the heart wants what the heart wants and that is not always right, or easy.

I have read a couple of Pinsker’s stories and, as far as I can remember, I enjoyed them all so I’m looking forward to this collection. I don’t know when I’ll pick it up however because I have a lot of unread anthologies and magazines but I’m definitely intrigued by it.

What do you think about my selection? It was hard to narrow down, a lot of amazing titles are coming out every month! If you feel like I missed books that you are highly anticipating, feel free to give those titles some love in the comments. 😀