August 2024 books

What’s new and good to read this month? Dan Coombes has a look at what’s on offer from publishers in August and chooses The Mercy of Gods by James S.A Corey, Rare Singles by Benjamin Myers and The Drownings by Hazel Barkworth.

Rare Singles – Benjamin Myers

I was blatantly drawn to this because of its musical themes and punning title (given that I pretty much live in a record shop and puns are well known for being the most elevated and highbrow form of humour ever devised.) Handily it’s also great fun, bittersweet, quirky, funny, sad, heart warming…all that good stuff and more. Also worth tracking down his first book (rude title, can’t possibly say, you’ll have to google it) which is kind of the evil twin of this one. In between the two he’s written a stack of award laden historical fiction so he’s definitely a fine writer, too.

Dinah has always lived in Scarborough. Trapped with her feckless husband and useless son, her one release comes at her town’s Northern Soul nights, where she gets to put on her best and lose herself in the classics. Dinah has an especial hero: Bucky Bronco, who recorded a string of soul gems in the late Sixties and then vanished off the face of the earth.

When she manages to contact Bucky she can’t believe her luck. Over in Chicago, Bucky Bronco is down on his luck – and has been since the loss of his beloved wife Maybelle. The best he can hope for is to make ends meet, and try and stay high. But then an unexpected invitation arrives, from someone he’s never met, to come to somewhere he’s never heard of. With nothing to lose – and in need of the cash – Bucky boards a plane. And so Bucky finds himself in rainy Scarborough, where everyone seems to know who is – preparing to play for an audience for the first time in nearly half a century. Over the course of the week, he finds himself striking up new and unexpected friendships; and facing his past, and its losses, for the very first time.

Images: Rare Singles front cover, Author Benjamin Myers

The Mercy of Gods – James S.A. Corey

This book is going to be one of the biggest events in science fiction this year, figuratively and literally. If you need something chunky to, for example, stop a rogue elephant from running off and causing trouble, tying this to a leg should do the trick. But aside from its obvious elephant-delaying utility, it’s also the first volume of the new galaxy-spanning space opera series from the author (or authors, today I learned it’s two writers together) of the award-winning, long-running, tv show adapted, incredibly good Expanse series, which was itself a landmark of modern sf. There are only so many words that mean really, really big or references to giant mammals that I can get away with here, but this is going to be an absolutely gigantic, epic, titanic, massive, somewhat large, deeply satisfying multi-volume epic that will keep people absorbed for a long time to come, and they’re not hanging about either, volume two is out in two months…

The Carryx – part empire, part hive – has waged wars of conquest for centuries, destroying or enslaving species across the galaxy in its conflict with an ancient and deathless enemy. When they descend on the isolated world of Anjiin, the human population is abased, slaughtered and put in chains.The best and brightest are abducted, taken to the Carryx world-palace to join prisoners from a thousand other species. Dafyd Alkhor, assistant to a prestigious scientist, is captured along with his team. Even he doesn’t suspect that his peculiar insight and skills will be the key to seeing past their captors ‘ terrifying agenda. Swept up in a conflict beyond his control and vaster than his imagination, Dafyd is poised to become humanity’s champion – and its betrayer. This is where his story begins.

Images: The Mercy of Gods front cover, Authors  Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck collaborate to form James S.A Corey

The Drownings – Hazel Barkworth

A sinister and occasionally harrowing piece of gothic feminist horror, this book burns slowly and looks deeply into the everyday trials and tribulations of women on an isolated university campus, including Serena – mesmerised by a witch trial obsessed tutor, who begins to see connections between her present and the dark past of Leysham, and to wonder if something powerful and supernatural might be awakening within her. Hazel Barkworth’s writing is every bit as mesmerising, and makes this a darkly subdued yet compelling read.

 These waters became wild centuries before this university was dreamed of – Leysham has always been a dangerous place for women. Serena arrives on campus reeling from the injury that destroyed her champion swimming career. She is lost until she meets Jane, an enigmatic tutor obsessed with the historic witch trials that took place in Leysham’s freezing waters. When several young women are assaulted, the university’s shadowy legacy becomes inescapable. Those in power turn a blind eye, but Jane urges Serena and her friends to rise up. As their anger builds into an inferno of female rage, Serena takes matters into her own hands. Leysham has reawakened something within her, a dark, impossible power. In the waters, she can see what must be done – and the sacrifice it will demand.

From the author of Heatstroke, an intoxicatingly atmospheric new novel about competition, obsession and influence – for readers of The Things We Do to Our Friends, Weyward and Promising Young Woman.

Images: The Drownings front cover, Author Hazel Barkworth