Top 5 Wednesday is a GoodReads group where people discuss a different bookish topic each week.
Is there ever a time when a book lover isn’t thinking about wanting a new book? Since last month we talked about books we plan to read before the year ends, this week let’s talk about books we are looking forward to releasing before the year ends next year!
But my TBR piles are already overflowing! I don’t need any new- Wait… is that
1, The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal
Tesla Crane, a brilliant inventor and an heiress, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between the Moon and Mars. She’s traveling incognito and is reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and the festering chowderheads who run security have the audacity to arrest her spouse. Armed with banter, martinis and her small service dog, Tesla is determined to solve the crime so that the newlyweds can get back to canoodling—and keep the real killer from striking again.
2, The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Martian Contingency is back with Elma and Nathaniel on Mars and picks up not long after the end of The Fated Sky as they work with the new colonists to build a home on the planet. With that, you can expect to see frontier town issues on Mars, including prospecting for water, improvised engineering, and when things go wrong… which of course they will because it’s a novel, they only have eight days to try to solve it before the launch window to abort and return to Earth closes.
3, Scarlet by Genevive Cogman
A thrilling reinvention of the tale of The Scarlet Pimpernel with the addition of magic and even more mayhem.
In Revolutionary France, the aristocrats are vampires – and they face the guillotine. However, the Scarlet Pimpernel, a disguised British noble, is determined to rescue them. These predators are being offered sanctuary by their aristocratic British kin, but at great cost to London’s ordinary people. Then an English maid discovers the only power that could stop them. Assuming she survives.
4, The Witch King by Martha Wells
Kai-Enna is the Witch King, though he hasn’t always been, and he hasn’t even always been Kai-Enna!
After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well.
But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence?
Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions.
He’s not going to like the answers.
5, The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao
High above a jungle-planet float the last refuges of humanity—plant-made civilizations held together by tradition, technology, and arcane science. In these living cities, architects are revered above anyone else. If not for their ability to psychically manipulate the architecture, the cities would plunge into the devastating earthrage storms below.
Charismatic, powerful, mystical, Iravan is one such architect. In his city, his word is nearly law. His abilities are his identity, but to Ahilya, his wife, they are a way for survival to be reliant on the privileged few. Like most others, she cannot manipulate the plants. And she desperately seeks change.
Their marriage is already thorny—then Iravan is accused of pushing his abilities to forbidden limits. He needs Ahilya to help clear his name; she needs him to tip the balance of rule in their society. As their paths become increasingly intertwined, deadly truths emerge, challenging everything each of them believes. And as the earthrages become longer, and their floating city begins to plummet, Iravan and Ahilya’s discoveries might destroy their marriage, their culture, and their entire civilization.
Mervi's Book reviews 