★ 07/25/2016
Hollins's seat-of-the-pants fantasy comedy snowballs wildly into a glorious disaster of fire, magic, multiple threats to people's intestines, and fun—for the reader, if not the characters. Will Fallows's only ambition is to hold on to the farm he inherited from his parents, an unlikely goal considering the high taxes demanded by Mattrax the dragon. Mattrax's soldiers kick Will out and he ends up in the company of mercenary Lette; her partner, the eight-foot-tall barbarian lizard man Balur; the dragon-specializing scholar Quirk, who is trying to leave behind her magic heritage; and Will's former farmhand, the delusional Firkin. Among them they hatch a plan to get rich and take revenge by robbing dragon gold. Their mishap-ridden accidental successes, advertised by Firkin's ranting about a dragon-killing "prophet," spark religious fervor and a war with the surviving dragons. Will and his motley companions might have a slim chance of living another day through if they throw themselves into the fray headfirst—and don't kill one another. Their constant stumbles and suffering will be a dragon's hoard for any fan of comic fantasy. Agent: Howard Morhaim, Howard Morhaim Literary. (July)
For nearly two decades, Jim Killen has served as the science fiction and fantasy book buyer for Barnes & Noble. Every month on the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog and Tor.com, Jim shares his curated list of the month’s can’t-miss new SFF releases.
What new SFF are you reading now?
While we gear up for San Diego Comic-Con, we’re planning what to bring with us to read on the flight. Any one of this week’s new releases in SFF would make those six hours fly by.
Last week, we revealed the 42 sci-fi and fantasy books we can’t wait to read in 2016. Now, we’re giving the editors and publishers their say. We reached out to over a dozen SF/F imprints and asked them what books they can’t wait to show you in the new year. Get ready to update your wish list […]