I was thinking of not doing any more book listings but... I can't resist. I love coming across new and upcoming books to read - despite the ever-growing to-be-read pile - and there are quite a few cool new releases coming out. So I hope you find something intriguing to read, as well.
See links on top tab for other great book lists.
APOCALYPSE
Eden, Tim Lebbon - Earth's rising oceans contain enormous islands of refuse, the Amazon rainforest is all-but destroyed, and countless species edge towards extinction. Humanity's last hope to save the planet lies with The Virgin Zones, thirteen vast areas of land off-limits to people and given back to nature. A clandestine team of adventure racers are prepared for what confronts them. Nature has returned to Eden in an elemental, primeval way. And here, nature is no longer humanity's friend. (From the author of the Netflix movie based on the book, The Silence.)
Infection: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Novel (Sympatico Syndrome Book 1), M.P. McDonald - Wth all the virus news, this seems a timely read... or too timely? 500+ reviews.
No one realizes there's a deadly illness spreading like wildfire until it's too late. With few symptoms, victims literally drop dead after a brief surge of energy. Within days, the virus tears through the population of the United States and the world. Can Cole convince his brother that the danger is real and that there's enough space for his family as well? And, can they all reach the island before the lights go out for them ... forever?
Malorie: A Bird Box Novel, Josh Malerman - I enjoyed the movie and didn't realize there was a series. In book 2, Marlorie confronts the dangers of her world head on, where she and her children are blindfolded against the outside. Book 1, Bird Box: A Novel, inspired the movie Bird Box with Sandra Bullock.
Our War, Craig DiLouie - The impeached President refuses to leave office and the land is wracked by civil war . A 10-year-old orphan looks how to survive in a militia camp in Indiana.
Soon: The Beginning of the End (Underground Zealot Book 1), Jerry Jenkins - 2004 Christy Fiction Award Winner. Paul Stepola, an agent working for the National Peacekeeping Organization (NPO), has been assigned to enforce compliance with the world government's prohibition on religion. As Paul begins to unravel the truth about what he has found, events taking place around the world are starting to make sense. Something big is coming—something that can't be stopped. And it is coming soon.
Picked this up at the library book sale. I was hooked on the Left Behind series. I don't read most religious fiction as the stories are often weak, but this sounded interesting, so I thought I'd give it a try.
Wastelands: The New Apocalypse - Thirty-four stories answer the question, what would life be like after the end of the world as we know it? Whether the end comes via nuclear war, pandemic, climate change, or cosmological disaster, these stories explore the extraordinary trials and tribulations of those who survive.
Featuring new stories from Veronica Roth, Hugh Howey, Jonathan Maberry, Seanan McGuire, Tananarive Due, Richard Kadrey, Scott Sigler, Elizabeth Bear, Tobias S. Buckell, Meg Elison, Greg van Eekhout, Wendy N. Wagner, Jeremiah Tolbert, and Violet Allen--plus, recent reprints by: Carmen Maria Machado, Carrie Vaughn, Ken Liu, Paolo Bacigalupi, Kami Garcia, Charlie Jane Anders, Catherynne M. Valente, Jack Skillingstead, Sofia Samatar, Maureen F. McHugh, Nisi Shawl, Adam-Troy Castro, Dale Bailey, Susan Jane Bigelow, Corinne Duyvis, Shaenon K. Garrity, Nicole Kornher-Stace, Darcie Little Badger, Timothy Mudie, and Emma Osborne.
MYSTERY
Haunting Dreams, Paula Mitchell PI Book 4, Jan Christensen - Rhode Island PI Paula Mitchell's job is to find out what could be worse than the clam chowder when not one but two chefs get shot.
Revenge is Sweet, Kaye George, (Pre-order, releases March 10) - Tally Holt opens a new candy store with a vintage twist in a picturesque Texas town, but there's no sugar-coating a nasty case of murder.
MYSTERY - PARANORMAL
Lilith - Hollywood Monsters, Dana Fredsti - (Pre-order, releases April 21) Lee Striga is an actress, movie stuntwoman, and demon hunter in Hollywood, where supernatural creatures get all the best jobs People are vanishing without a trace, and clues lead to a legendary mansion famous for its horrible deaths--the location for Lee's next film job.
Nocturnal, Scott Sigler - Homicide detective Bryan Clauser is losing his mind. How else to explain the dreams he keeps having—dreams that mirror, with impossible accuracy, the gruesome serial murders taking place all over San Francisco? How else to explain the feelings these dreams provoke in him—not disgust, not horror, but excitement?
Meanwhile, a shadowy vigilante, seemingly armed with superhuman powers, is out there killing the killers. And Bryan and Pookie’s superiors—from the mayor on down—seem strangely eager to keep the detectives from discovering the truth. And as Bryan learns the truth about his own intimate connections to the killings, he discovers that those who matter most to him are in mortal danger…and that he may be the only man gifted—or cursed—with the power to do battle with the nocturnals.
HORROR
If It Bleeds, Stephen King - (Pre-order, releases May 5) Four new novellas taking you to dark places. The link doesn't have story descriptions, but the reviews hint at rats and the like... Always enjoyed King's novellas and short stories, so this will be welcome reading.
Ink, Jonathan Maberry - (Pre-order, Releases Nov 17) Stand-alone includes elements and characters from the Pine Deep trilogy and appearances of characters from GLIMPSE. More details coming.
Lake of Darkness: A Novel, Scott Kenemore - (Pre-Order, Releases May 5) - An alternate history detective thriller, cosmic horror, and historical fiction where a Chicago Police Officer during WWI is called upon by legendary mayor "Big" Bill Thompson to investigate a serial decapitationist. Mysteriious murders and hints of something "other" take readers to the darkest places in Chicago’s dark history.
Weird Western
Straight Outta Dodge - assorted authors - This looks fun! Murderous ghosts and other creatures in the old weird west from Joe R. Lansdale, Mercedes Lackey, Jonathan Maberry, James A. Moore, Harry Turtledove, James Van Pelt, Ava Morgan, Sam Stone, Eytan Kollin, Julie Frost, Kim May, Irene Radford, David Boop, and Tex Thompson!
ZOMBIE
100 Word Bigger Zombie Bites - (Releasing soon. Link coming.) The Reanimated Writers Group offers a second group of 100 word zombie "drabbles" by various authors. Includes my two new stories by C. A. Verstraete. (I'll have links on my website and here when they're available.)
Lizzie Borden, Zombie Hunter, C.A. Verstraete - What if Lizzie Borden had a reason to kill her father and stepmother? What if they'd become... zombies? Based on the real-life trial and events, includes trial excerpts.
Find out what happens after the trial in Lizzie Borden, Zombie Hunter 2: The Axe Will Fall.
The Living Dead, George A. Romero, Daniel A. Kraus (Pre-order, releases June 9) - Kraus, co-author, with Guillermo del Toro, of the New York Times bestseller The Shape of Water, takes Romero's unfinished fiction story of a new tale of the zombie plague.
A pair of medical examiners find themselves battling a dead man who won’t stay dead. In a Midwestern trailer park, a Black teenage girl and a Muslim immigrant battle newly-risen friends and family. On a US aircraft carrier, living sailors hide from dead ones while a fanatic makes a new religion out of death. At a cable news station, a surviving anchor keeps broadcasting while his undead colleagues try to devour him. In DC, an autistic federal employee charts the outbreak, preserving data for a future that may never come. Everywhere, people are targeted by both the living and the dead. We think we know how this story ends. We. Are. Wrong.
