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When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

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Dear publishers and sci-fi authors: This is just epic sadness. Only eight new SF books hit the shelves in March, and it can’t just be because we sent the steampunks, alt history and weird west over to the “Genre Benders” listings (coming up tomorrow). Where, oh where, has the science fiction gone? On a positive note, C.J. Cherryh and David Weber bring new entries into their long-running (respective) Foreigner and Honor Harrington series’, and John Joseph Adams takes on armored warfare in an interesting new anthology.

Fiction Affliction details releases in science fiction, fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and “genre-benders.” Keep track of them all here.

WEEK ONE

Intruder (Foreigner, Book 13), by C.J. Cherryh (March 6, DAW)

In the wake of civil war, Bren Cameron, the brilliant human diplomat of the alien atevi civilization, has left the capital and sought refuge at his country estate, Najida. But now he is trapped inside Najida—which has been surrounded by enemies—with the powerful grandmother of his ally, Tabiniaiji, atevi leader of the Western Association.

Jane Carver of Waar, by Nathan Long (March 6, Night Shade)

Jane Carver is nobody’s idea of a space princess. A hard-ridin’, hard-lovin’ biker chick and ex-Airborne Ranger, Jane is as surprised as anyone else when, on the run from the law, she ducks into the wrong cave at the wrong time—and wakes up naked on an exotic alien planet light-years away from everything she’s known. Waar is a savage world of four-armed tiger-men, sky-pirates, slaves, gladiators, and purple-skinned warriors in thrall to a bloodthirsty code of honor and chivalry. Caught up in a disgraced nobleman’s quest to win back the hand of a sexy alien princess, Jane encounters wonders unlike anything back home. Then again, Waar has never seen anyone like Jane.

A Rising Thunder (Honor Harrington, Book 13), by David Weber (March 6, Baen)

After a brutal attack on the Manticoran home system, Honor Harrington and the Star Kingdom she serves battle back against a new, technologically powerful, and utterly nefarious enemy. And as if that weren’t task enough, Honor must also face down a centuries-old nemesis in the crumbling, but still mighty, Solarian League.

 

WEEK TWO

The Games, by Ted Kosmatka (March 13, Del Rey)

This debut from Nebula Award and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award finalist Ted Kosmatka is a tale of science cut loose from ethics, set in an amoral future where genetically engineered monstrosities fight each other to the death in an Olympic event. Silas Williams is the geneticist in charge of preparing the U.S. entry into the Olympic Gladiator competition, an internationally sanctioned bloodsport with only one rule: no human DNA is permitted in the design of the entrants. Silas lives and breathes genetics; his designs have led the United States to the gold in every previous event. But the other countries are catching up. Now, desperate for an edge, Silas’s boss engages an experimental supercomputer to design the genetic code for a gladiator that cannot be beaten. The result is a highly specialized killing machine. Not even Silas, with all his genius and experience, can understand the horror he had a hand in making.

Starters, by Lissa Price (March 13, Delacorte)

Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters and fighting off renegades. Callie’s only hope is Prime Destinations, a place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man. He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for money, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie’s head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator’s grandson. It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party. First in a new series. Young Adult.

 

WEEK THREE

No releases.

 

WEEK FOUR

Armored, edited by John Joseph Adams (March 27, Baen)

From Starship Troopers and Iron Man to Halo and Mechwarrior, readers and gamers have long been fascinated by the idea of going to battle in suits of personal, powered combat armor or giant mechs. This anthology explores the range of what can be done with the trope, from the near-future powered exoskelton technologies we might be seeing just a few years from now, to the combat armors of Starship Troopers and Halo, to the giant bipedal mechs of Mechwarrior. Includes work by Ian Douglas, Jack Campbell, David Klecha and Tobias S. Buckell, Dan Abnett, Jack McDevitt, Simon R. Green, Michael A. Stackpole, Tanya Huff, Ethan Skarstedt and Brandon Sanderson, Carrie Vaughn, Lauren Beukes, Robert Buettner, and others.

Body, Inc., by Alan Dean Foster (March 27, Del Rey)

In a world wounded by centuries of environmental damage, two unlikely souls join forces: Dr. Ingrid Seastrom has stumbled into a mystery involving quantum-entangled nanoscale implants—a mystery that just may kill her. Whispr is a thief and murderer whose radical body modifications have left him so thin he is all but two-dimensional. Whispr has found a silver data-storage thread, a technology that will make him wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. He is also going mad with longing for Dr. Seastrom. Their quest to learn the secrets of the implant and the thread—which may well be the same secret—has led them to the South African Economic Combine, otherwise known as SAEC. Or, less respectfully, SICK. SICK, it seems, has the answers. Unfortunately, SICK has also got Napun Molé, a cold-blooded assassin whose genetic enhancements make him the equivalent of a small army.

Omega Point (Richards & Klein, Book 2), by Guy Haley (March 27, Angry Robot)

The powerful artificial intelligence designated k52 has a plan to take over the world. If it were to create an artificial reality based on our own universe it could theoretically gain enough data to be able to alter reality itself, turning k52 into the ultimate arbiter of mankind’s fate. It’s down to Richards and Klein to stop k52—even though the alternative could be worse.


 

Author Suzanne Johnson is a book geek with a fondness for a good dystopia. Her new urban fantasy series, scheduled to begin with the release of Royal Street on April 10 by Tor Books, is set in New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina. Find Suzanne on Twitter.

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Suzanne Johnson

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Urban fantasy author with a new series, set in immediate post-Katrina New Orleans, starting with ROYAL STREET on April 10, 2012, from Tor Books. Urban fantasy author with a new series, set in immediate post-Katrina New Orleans, starting with ROYAL STREET on April 10, 2012, from Tor Books.
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