And now it’s time to get excited for the SFF Book Releases This Week! Sit back, get comfortable, crack open a beer and… oh, you don’t drink? Well, you can have soda instead. Or just drink water. Water is good for you.
If you are an indie or small press author and would like your book included in this list, email us at adventuresinscifipublishing [at] gmail [dot] com. If you love free books, reviews, and podcasts, sign up to our AISFP Wormhole newsletter.
And, remember, you can’t drink books but they’re still refreshing.
Ancestral Machines (a Humanity’s Fire novel)
by Michael Cobley
No world is safe.
The Warcage: two hundred worlds harnessed to an articial sun in a feat of unprecedented stellar engineering. Built to travel through space as a monument to peace between alien species, now its voracious rulers have turned it into a nightmarish wasteland, capturing new planets for slaves and resources, then discarding the old.
Now, when a verdant agri-world is pulled out of its orbit, the captain of a smuggler ship must journey into the Warcage to rescue his crew.
And Again
by Jessica Chiarella
Would you live your life differently if you were given a second chance? Hannah, David, Connie, and Linda—four terminally ill patients—have been selected for the SUBlife pilot program, which will grant them brand-new, genetically perfect bodies that are exact copies of their former selves—without a single imperfection. Blemishes, scars, freckles, and wrinkles have all disappeared, their fingerprints are different, their vision is impeccable, and most importantly, their illnesses have been cured.
But the fresh start they’ve been given is anything but perfect. Without their old bodies, their new physical identities have been lost. Hannah, an artistic prodigy, has to relearn how to hold a brush; David, a Congressman, grapples with his old habits; Connie, an actress whose stunning looks are restored after a protracted illness, tries to navigate an industry obsessed with physical beauty; and Linda, who spent eight years paralyzed after a car accident, now struggles to reconnect with a family that seems to have built a new life without her. As each tries to re-enter their previous lives and relationships they are faced with the question: how much of your identity rests not just in your mind, but in your heart, your body?
Destroyer
by Brett Battles
With the whole of human history altered, Denny Younger may be the last rewinder in existence—and the last person on earth with a chaser unit capable of time travel. While caring for his ailing sister, Denny must discover a way to recharge his device before he’s left with no defense against a past that wants him dead.
Before long, Denny notices a mysterious stranger following him—keeping tabs on Denny, his family, and his friends. Is Denny just paranoid? Or maybe he isn’t alone in this new reality after all…
When his chaser is stolen and his girlfriend is kidnapped, Denny risks everything to get both of them back. Launched into a high-stakes chase that spans continents and millennia, Denny’s responsibility to save our future isn’t over yet. It will take all of his cunning to stop a threat capable of steering the fate of the human race into disaster.
The Drowning Eyes
by Emily Foster
When the Dragon Ships began to tear through the trade lanes and ravage coastal towns, the hopes of the arichipelago turned to the Windspeakers on Tash. The solemn weather-shapers with their eyes of stone can steal the breeze from raiders’ sails and save the islands from their wrath. But the Windspeakers’ magic has been stolen, and only their young apprentice Shina can bring their power back and save her people.
Tazir has seen more than her share of storms and pirates in her many years as captain, and she’s not much interested in getting involved in the affairs of Windspeakers and Dragon Ships. Shina’s caught her eye, but that might not be enough to convince the grizzled sailor to risk her ship, her crew, and her neck.
I Am Slaughter (Warhammer 40,000)
by Dan Abnett
As the greatest Ork Waaagh! ever seen threatens to engulf the galaxy, the Imperial Fists make their last stand
It is the thirty-second millennium and the Imperium is at peace. The Traitor Legions of Chaos are but a distant memory and the many alien races that have long plagued mankind are held in check by the Space Marines. When a mission to exterminate one such xenos breed on the world of Ardamantua draws in more of their forces, the Imperial Fists abandon the walls of Terra for the first time in more than a thousand years. And when another, greater, foe strikes, even the heroic sons of Rogal Dorn may be powerless against it. The Beast Arises… and it is mighty.
Knocking on Heaven’s Door
by Sharman Apt Russell
On a hotter and more volatile earth in the twenty-third century, humans like Clare and Jon live in utopia, hunting and gathering in small tribal bands, engaged in daily art and ritual, reunited with old friends like the shaggy mammoth and giant ground sloth. Even better, they still have solar- powered laptops and can communicate with each other around the world. The understanding of physics has also advanced. When scientists first cloned extinct species from the Pleistocene, they discovered that many of them were telepathic—that consciousness travels in waves. For most people, animism has become the preferred religion, a panpsychism compatible with the laws of a fractal holographic universe. As Clare tells one of her students, the return to an older, Paleolithic lifestyle is “one of humanity’s greatest achievements.”
It’s too bad that utopia had to come at such a cost: a genetically engineered super-virus that wiped out most of earth’s human population. Humanity was shaken by that event, and humanity vowed to change. Now, on the 150th anniversary of that catastrophe, a small group of men and women—as well as a smarter-than-average dire wolf and saber-toothed cat—are suddenly faced with decisions in which the stakes are higher than ever before. Will earth repeat the cycle of unbridled hubris? Or is humanity’s destiny even stranger than that?
Reach for the Sky (book 3 of Mason Braithwaite Paranormal Mystery Series)
by Christopher Church
A bougie addict and his wife hire Mason to hunt for buried loot, but he’s not even sure it exists. His psychic insights lead him to an old building with a lot to hide, as well as trying to outwit a Freemason, and getting tangled up with a woman who claims to be rooting out corruption in local government—but why does she need a psychic to do that? Working undercover for her at city hall, he runs up against some vicious civil servants who will stop at nothing to protect the status quo.
Skinner Luce
by Patricia Ward
Every year when the deep cold of winter sets in, unbeknownst to humanity, dangerous visitors arrive from another world. Disguised as humans, the Nafikh move among us in secret, hungry for tastes of this existence. Their fickle, often-violent needs must be accommodated at all times, and the price of keeping them satisfied is paid most heavily by servs.
Created by the Nafikh to attend their every whim, servs are physically indistinguishable from humans but for the Source, the painful, white-hot energy that both animates and enslaves them. Destined to live in pain, unable to escape their bondage, servs dwell in a bleak underworld where life is brutal and short.
Lucy is a serv who arrived as a baby and by chance was adopted by humans. She’s an outcast among outcasts, struggling to find a place where she truly belongs. For years she has been walking a tightrope, balancing between the horrors of her serv existence and the ordinary life she desperately longs to maintain; her human family unaware of her darkest secrets.
But when the body of a serv child turns up and Lucy is implicated in the gruesome death, the worlds she’s tried so hard to keep separate collide. Hounded by the police, turned upon by the servs who once held her dear, she must protect her family and the life she’s made for herself.
Wolf Code: A Sheltering Wilderness
by Chandler Brett
A dream. A challenge. A choice. What would you do to make a difference? Donovan Williams has a problem, and her name is Tsula Watie. From their first meeting, she challenges him to make a difference with his life. As Don gets to know Tsula, her Cherokee culture, and her passion for wolves, he joins her in a thrilling series of wilderness adventures. A matching struggle arises in a distant forest as a female wolf convinces her mate to assume leadership of their pack in a time of crisis. Will the pair be able to bear this new responsibility, outmaneuver their rivals, and unite the other wolves? And how will they guard against an increasingly deadly threat that has invaded their territory? Even as Don grows closer to Tsula, he holds something back; he refuses to tell her he is working to revolutionize the video game industry with a reinterpretation of virtual reality—because his vision directly conflicts with Tsula’s activism. As he juggles a double life, Don realizes he must make a choice: does he pursue his dream job or embrace the life Tsula opens to him? When pressures mount for the wolves, and hunters become prey, the new alpha male and female must guide their pack to consider the unthinkable—will they abandon their hunting ground? Will they undertake an arduous journey to find a new home, or will they stay and fight? Everything hinges on Don’s decision, for the path he chooses ultimately will make a vast difference, not only for him and Tsula, but also for the wolf pack.
Byron Dunn is an AISFP Contributor, a friend to werewolves, and still sleeps with the lights on. He’s not afraid of the dark, he just can’t be bothered to turn them off once he’s comfortable.
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