The Neon God has been unleashed, and humanity is at risk of extinction in Gayler’s thrilling followup to Download Incomplete. When phones and computer screens start emitting a series of flashing lights, roughly 90% of the population falls prey to the hypnotizing sequence. The code may be manmade, but the Alternative Intelligence (AI) known as the Neon God has taken over, using mind control to incite mass suicides. Only a small percentage of humans are left unaffected, including a 22-year-old barback, an 11-year-old autistic empath, a computer software engineer, and a few other brave survivors who are left with the harrowing task of saving humankind.

With a large and diverse cast, Gayler creates bold and memorable characters readers will empathize with. Each character comes to life within the pressure-cooker situation which gives readers plenty of opportunities to connect with their favorite. Perhaps the most notable is 11-year-old Mason, whose autism is presented as the underlying catalyst for his empathic abilities. His childlike traits and innocent approach to the end of humankind works well in juxtaposition to the violence and chaos of the setting. Gaylor’s creativity applied to each persona ensures compelling character arcs.

Gayler quickly captivates readers with a gripping premise teeming with moral and ethical conflicts. On the surface, a vast array of characters fight for basic survival in a world gone mad. Characteristics of the unaffected showcase both ends of the moral spectrum: vile actions that target the vulnerable versus empathy and sacrifice for the innocents. Digging deeper into the absorbing narrative allows readers to explore ideas regarding faith, compassion, and survival. AI’s unsettling potential serves as a stark warning, and Gayler excels at placing humanity’s reliance on technology under a microscope and dissects the topic through a vivid and imaginative futuristic reality. SF fans will enjoy the moral debate presented in this engaging thriller.

Takeaway: Gripping story of AI gone awry and the heroes tasked with saving humanity.

Comparable Titles: Daniel H. Wilson’s Robopocalypse, Daniel Suarez’s Daemon.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about The Neon God

Business exec Lembi offers an insider’s look at what makes a successful leader in this polished debut. He differentiates “know-it-all” leaders from “learn-it-all” leaders, drawing on his years of experience as CEO for corporate training company Learnit to reveal the secrets behind professional success. “You’ll never be a great leader if you’re arrogant or naive enough to think you have it all figured out,” he writes, contending that “great leaders aren’t born… they’re constantly creating and re-creating themselves.” That spirit of curiosity permeates his writing, offering readers a host of hands-on techniques and suggestions for transforming into lifelong learners.

Lembi’s passion is contagious, and his sensitivity to the more challenging roadblocks on the path to professional success will energize readers. He delves into imposter syndrome and the poison of fear, insisting that “the key is to find the strength to conquer your fear, not pretend that it isn’t real,” and he recommends hard work, in-depth preparation, and a constant thirst for knowledge as the antidote. Lembi starts each chapter with reminiscences about his personal experiences as a lifelong learner, many of them centered on his father (“[he] taught me the motivational power of having a big, even outrageous, vision”), and encourages leaders to take calculated risks—“learn-it-all leaders can never really fail because they always learn something, no matter the outcome” he posits.

Though his professional acumen is evident throughout, Lembi balances his know-how with humility and a tangible grasp of how great leaders need great teams to truly succeed. Failure is just part of the learning process, he argues, and curiosity, combined with a willingness to draw from others’ expertise, is the recipe for success. Lembi contends that the true spirit of great leadership boils down to a powerful vision and a sense of integrity—in his own words, “people believe what you do, not what you say.”

Takeaway: Practical guidance on becoming an exceptional leader.

Comparable Titles: Daniel H. Pink’s Drive, Gabriella Rosen Kellerman and Martin Seligman’s Tomorrowmind.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about The Learn-It-All Leader: Mindset, Traits and Tools

Zartman (Win at Aging) looks to nature’s most formidable predator as an inspiration—not just because it’s her namesake, but because of the Chondrichthyes’ instinctive wisdom and powerful focus on goals. This concise guide adapts her no-nonsense approach to life, teaching readers how to activate their “inner shark” by using the same methods that have allowed sharks to survive and thrive for over 400 million years. She looks to the formidable predator as an inspiration, not just because it’s her namesake, but because of the instinctive wisdom and powerful focus that sharks possess, organizing each chapter around a strong trait that a shark uses to take charge of its life—and helping readers determine how to modify their own behaviors to do the same.

Zartman’s approach is holistic, with simple steps to achieving lifelong goals and dreams, and her experiences as a coach shines throughout. Each shark trait includes Zartman’s first-hand experiences, alongside funny anecdotes, clear messaging, cutesy illustrations, short exercises for the reader, and famous quotes related to each category. In “Sharks Are Flexible,” Zartman mirrors a shark’s lack of expectations to the need for humans to be present in the moment, rather than allowing past or future events to hold sway over their current decisions, and she encourages readers to tune into their senses more often to better “deal with a changing world”—using the super senses of a shark as a comparison.

Readers looking to improve concentration or achieve goals more easily will find straightforward advice in Zartman’s writing, along with quick motivation, ways to cope with stress and life’s challenges, and easy-follow-advice on adoptng new habits into a daily routine. “Nothing happens in a state of inertia,” she writes, asserting that “most of us know what to do to get what we want.” Zartman argues against playing it safe, urging readers to dive right in and welcome their “inner shark waiting to emerge.”

Takeaway: How to survive, thrive, focus, and set goals like a shark.

Comparable Titles: Deborah Johnson’s Stop Circling, John Belvedere’s The Core of Success.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: B+
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-

Click here for more about Shark Sense

“Through understanding, you’ll begin to learn about who you are and who you can become” San Filippo promises in this heartfelt debut focused on exploring childhood trauma and learning effective ways to overcome it as an adult. Drawing from her own childhood experiences, San Filippo examines generational violence, addiction, and more, in compassionate language that will resonate with readers who’ve experienced trauma—a term she acknowledges can be challenging to define. In teasing out trauma’s root causes, and delineating how it shapes adulthood, San Filippo offers readers hope with simple, actionable steps and an affirmation that “deep inside of you, you already have everything you need to change your life for the better.”

Readers already familiar with trauma and its long-term impacts may find the material introductory, but for those just starting their healing journey, San Filippo shares valuable tools. She includes quizzes to help readers determine their potential trauma risks and protective factors, sets out guidelines for creating a personal mission statement to achieve peaceful living, and urges readers to “stay in the present moment” by recognizing unhealthy thoughts and emotions that stem from past experiences. Once self-awareness increases, San Filippo writes, recovery is just a few steps away, and her suggestions for intentional journaling, managing triggers, and learning to function without expectations of others will speed that process.

The book’s strength comes from San Filippo’s sensitivity and gentle reminders that “you can accept who you are now” regardless of past experiences. Readers will find that idea comforting, as is San Filippo’s assertion that living in the moment is the key—she recommends against excessively focusing on the future or ruminating on the past, cautioning readers instead to “accept what is and look for steps you can take to make the problem better right now.” This is an illuminating, inviting introduction to understanding trauma.

Takeaway: A strong first step in understanding how to heal from trauma.

Comparable Titles: Mark Wolynn’s It Didn’t Start With You, Michele Rosenthal’s Heal Your PTSD.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Find the Peace within You

This rich fantasy debut centers on a musical prodigy apprenticed into a Bardic Order, centuries after the last time anyone so gifted has plucked a harp, blown a flute, or composed a tune. Eleven-year-old Kaelin will only play his self-made flute in the woods, away from people, for fear of the harm he believes his music can wreak upon others. Just as he’s about to be apprenticed to a woodcarver, Kaelin is jolted to hear a song of his own composition played by Bergid, a traveling Master Bard of Kestrel, who agrees to train Kaelin for one month to determine if Kaelin truly has what it takes to be a bard.

Bergid, though, is quickly dazzled by Kaelin’s gifts, which seem connected to something ancient and lost, especially the lad’s ability to capture the musical essence of animals and objects—even seeming to journey, briefly, into a feather that inspires a composition. Complicating matters, of course, is Bardic politics, and the mystery of Kaelin’s refusal to play for anyone other than Bergid. Bergid makes some unorthodox choices in his tutelage, decisions that might provoke the ire of the Bardic Council, though Himeda’s interests are less in suspense than in connections: she writes warm, loving scenes of master and apprentice discussing music, discovering Kaelin’s talents, and traveling the novel’s Celtic island world, which is revealed to readers as it is to the novel’s young hero, who is touchingly awed by the sea.

Himeda writes lush, engaging scenes of travel and music-making, in exacting and evocative prose, but the novel picks up its pace once Kaelin is being tested by Bard Masters and also showcasing another trait—connected to music, of course—that Bergid has cultivated in him: compassion. Readers shouldn’t expect a plot-driven page turner, though the novel’s third “movement” contains more drama than its first two, but overall this is a humane fantasy blissout of training and deepening relationships, with musicology as magic.

Takeaway: Music is magic in this charming, richly written apprenticeship fantasy.

Comparable Titles: Mercedes Lackey’s Bardic Voice series, Guy Gavriel Kay’s Tigana.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

Click here for more about Master of Music

The urge to save a life no matter what powers the bloody and searching third entry in Johnson’s inventive, irreverent Perfect Prophet series. That drive—and a missing young girl abducted by adherents to a vicious cult— clarifies the action in a story whose plotting and metaphysics have, by this volume, gotten thornily tangled. The focus remains on brothers Alec and Lucas, boys born into a mad prophecy and the worship of Satan. Alec started the tale as a Satanic death-metal rock star, became an evangelical faith healer of legendary power, and as Perfect Sacrifices kicks off is living inside the dying body of a billionaire cult leader—but is almost immediately crucified and (apparently) killed at last. (His son lives on, though.) Lucas, meanwhile, lurched from Team Satan—he served as a high priest—to Team God to a life of pained exile.

Now, though, as the cult he once led gathers its power to fulfill that still-unresolved prophecy, Lucas realizes he can’t hide out from responsibility, especially when a teen believer in Alec is taken by the cult and forced to watch her mother’s murder. That’s just scratching the surface of the complexities and surprises of this series, which takes matters of faith, morality, family, and trauma seriously, while still steeping readers in cult and supernatural horror that Johnson, even three books in, pens with fresh, unsettling relish. Highlights include ravens, a wicked knife, a blood ritual, and Lucas’s continual feeling of being “back on his knees, head bowed before the God who hated him.”

The plotting is more dense than in previous entries, with many characters and mysteries to track—new readers should not expect to pick up the gist, and even returning fans should probably look back at the previous book, Prophet Reborn, for context, clarity, and richer connections. What works best is the heart that has always set this series apart, the sense of fraternal bonds and the weight of destiny, but also the possibility, even amid cult murders, of redemption.

Takeaway: Bold climactic volume of a belief-themed horror series that takes faith and evil seriously.

Comparable Titles: Lynn Hightower, Greg F. Gifune’s Children of Chaos.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Perfect Sacrifices

Meyers debuts with a riveting memoir chronicling her life story from an early childhood diagnosis of polio through her unyielding determination to attend and graduate from college and build for herself a successful career as an engineering executive at Apple. Sharing details about her family history and legacy, key friendships, and the experience of becoming a wife and a mother, Meyer shares her story with vivid transparency and raw honesty that is endearing and inspiring. Meyers's parents received the terrifying telegram that their 11-month-old daughter had polio, which Meyers describes with precision, from diagnosis to treatment to life-long impact: “My right leg is around two inches shorter than the left and doesn’t have much muscle development,” she writes. “It looks more like a stick than a leg."

Though her disability has led to setbacks and obstacles, including unfair treatment from peers and adults, Meyers persevered, as the title playfully suggests. She continually sets goals for herself and maps out the best course to achieve them. Despite her early goal to be accepted and graduate from college, difficulties in her native home of China, where most colleges have unyielding physical education requirements, prompted Meyers to eventually apply to schools in the United States, where she was accepted at Ohio University with a full scholarship and completed her PhD. From her first position as a software scientist in Silicon Valley to an executive role at Apple, Meyers’s determination fueled her ambitions, and her hard work led to successful achievements. "I heard from people what I couldn’t do, I limped forward and did all those things anyway, and I am not done yet," Meyers notes.

From competing in a 100-mile bike ride to challenging herself in karate classes, Meyers reflects on the ways her weaknesses became her strengths, delivering an inspirational narrative of a young woman constantly pushing herself, pursuing her dreams, and always believing in herself no matter what others had to say. The result is inspiring.

Takeaway: An inspirational memoir that highlights living with a disability and persevering.

Comparable Titles: Rebekah Taussig’s Sitting Pretty, Alice Wong’s Disability Visibility.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Limp Forward

Multi-platinum songwriter, recording artist, and producer Frasca brings readers into the life of a young creative with Not My Fault, her electric and rousing literary debut. Through the voice of Hy, an aspiring young painter and graffiti artist, Frasca invites readers into a drama of the creative process, following a small, impassioned idea—Hy’s “Not My Fault” tags and pieces, a raw artistic declaration of self—bloom into a major project and exhibition, all powered by urgent concerns over social injustice. Each day Hy uses the Not My Fault project to discuss just how easy it is to be criticized for personal choices and inevitabilities, by bullying peers and indifferent adults. Hy explores death, parenthood, lust, sexual orientation, friendship, and self-worth with art and journal entries, while at last making vital connections with others.

The narration, like Hy, is proudly unorthodox, tinged with poetry, sometimes a bit passive, and at others somewhat jumpy. But it’s powerful, especially as Hy’s journaling turns to planning increasingly elaborate artistic efforts. Hy draws on encounters with family, bullies, and friends to find exciting new forms for the words “Not My Fault.” Each piece reflects very personal relationships with each character, like the one written across the bandshell near Mr. Fadikar’s convenience store, where Hy writes the words in Hindi. Alongside exploration into injustices, Hy also deals with more personal concerns, asking “What am I” over “Who am I” as a relationship with a bully takes an unexpected turn, all as a new friend inspires new feelings of self-worth. Readers will watch Hy’s project –and self-esteem–grow across bedroom walls, library tables, and public spaces.

“I’ve got an I’m worth something forcefield around me now,” Hy declares. “Until I don’t.” Throughout, in frank and wise lines like that, Frasca powerfully evokes the breakthroughs and setbacks of creating a self and finding a voice and community, and also the process of artists, which is likely to inspire young readers in their own creative pursuits.

Takeaway: Urgent, touching YA novel about finding one’s voice through art.

Comparable Titles: Jennifer Mathieu’s Moxie, Rachhpal Sahota’s Chasing Dignity.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Not My Fault

Gandbhir’s memoir chronicles the life of four generations of the Rege family, beginning with the matriarch Ba, in the mid-nineteenth century, in the rainforest village of Kochare in India’s Konkan region, and ending with her great grandchildren as the 20th century draws to an end. What shines through all these years and history is the indomitable spirit of the women and their wonderful adaptability. Life in rural Konkan in the times covered here was tough, especially for barely literate women, who worked non-stop, cooking, cleaning, and taking care of children and the elderly. But as the situation improves with the coming of basic amenities and education, not everyone celebrated all the new ways. “To the aunts, indoor toilets were anathema,” Gandbhir writes. She quotes them: “‘Our home is like a temple. We have gods in the house. We are soiling a temple.’”

A foreword, family chart, and photographs help in anchoring the reader to the narrative. The simple linear chronicle is narrated for the most part in a detached, anthropological voice with its own charm (“Some babies were happy to be massaged. Others screamed bloody murder”), even when describing dramatic events like living in a jungle to avoid the plague epidemic, the death of a woman from “in-law harassment,” or the horrors of a difficult childbirth, where the midwife asks the family “mother or baby?” and proceeds to save the life of one according to the answer.

Except when writing of her own father and of Kaki Aie, her widowed aunt, who took care of the author and her sister after their mother’s death, the author sticks to this matter-of-fact tone. The author’s sister Kunda is more forthcoming in her reminiscence about Kaki Aie where she opines that maybe the two sisters were a form of protection for the young widow, as Kaki Aie would shake her awake at night if someone knocked at their bedroom door sending the unwelcome visitor scurrying away. Death during childbirth or in the marital home was a fact of life, a truth driven home by this concise family history and act of love.

Takeaway: Study of four generations of a family from the Konkan region of India.

Comparable Titles: Jung Chang’s Wild Swans, Firoozeh Dumas’s Funny in Farsi.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Tales Across Time: My family's life in India, 1846 to 1990

This superb third entry in Atrium’s Tribal Wars series showcases the author’s great strengths. As always, Atrium builds worlds and cultures with anthropological rigor—in this case, the Earth-colonized planet of Dolvia, where local tribes clash and are increasingly bold in challenging the power of the Consortium and the Company—and tour-guides readers through those creations with such exacting prose and immersive detail that the textures of life and conflict come to feel real. Atrium populates these new realms with compelling, all-too-human characters, especially women and outsiders, trying to do the right thing despite the tangled mess of politics and power. The result is heartening, humane, often exhilarating, even as Atrium’s cast faces grief, revolution, vicious violence, censorious media bosses, and above all else the challenge of respectful connection.

The sprawling plot of Home Rule, like the other Tribal Wars novels, is too densely populated with invented proper nouns to offer a simple thumbnail summary, but as Dolvia reels from the death of a tribal leader—and the money-minded rule of a Consortium-backed stooge in the planet’s largest city—the themes binding the story’s disparate perspective characters are clear and urgent. Here’s a novel of colonialism where the protagonists strive not to oppress, where one protagonist’s heroism isn’t acts of violence but of the sharing of knowledge: Jessup must train a tribal woman from the desert in the art of scuba diving.

Other story threads involve ongoing war between tribes, the self-immolation of women protesters, much ado about weddings and pregnancies, and a photojournalist’s efforts to report the truth about what the planet’s tribes are facing. His idea for an ad to help his startup captures the fears and practical needs of any good foreign correspondent as well as the first Tribal Wars novel captured that of field medics: “Help wanted: Dolviets who write in three dialects and don’t judge me.” Atrium’s worlds compel both in their alien detail—and what they reveal about our own. The glossary helps, but the storytelling’s inviting, despite its complexity.

Takeaway: First-rate SF novel of revolution, oppression, and the urgent textures of life.

Comparable Titles: Doris Lessing’s Canopus in Argos: Archives series, Joanna Russ.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Home Rule (The Tribal Wars Book 3)

This heart-wrenching novel-as-memoir, drawn from the experiences of author Daniel’s daughter, explores the experience of a young girl with borderline personality disorder. Through fictionalized diary entries, online posts, and emails, this firsthand personal account is told in vivid detail as Lina, growing up in Tokyo, contends with and descends into the muddled, often pitiless thoughts consuming her mind. Sharing her life story from early childhood into her 20s, and exploring family dynamics, self-esteem issues, mood swings—“When my best friend kept talking, I punched her”—and her feeling that “the whole world was out to get me,” this memoir is insightful and educational in explaining the inner workings of a mind controlled by mental illness, building to a welcome burst of hope and recovery in the final pages.

Spending most of her adolescence in Singapore, Lina is an angry, depressed young girl whose "false memories" cause her to nurture an irrational hatred of her family and most authoritative figures in her life. Though she is highly intelligent, Lina sabotages her education to spite her parents and is constantly rebelling against their concerns and advice for her life path. A talented writer and singer, Lina fluctuates between dreams of being a tattoo artist and being a famous actress or musician. In her states of delusion, Lina believes the only cause for her lack of success is the overbearing rules of her father, who is often away on business. In truth, Lina and her older sister, who also is sinking into depression, have little structure and guidance in their lives aside from him.

At times wrenching in its candidness—there are references to suicidal thoughts and rape— Lina's story is touching, heartbreaking, and moving, a stark exploration of mental illness, undiagnosed and unchecked. Readers will become immersed in Lina's reflections and come to understand what it is like for an individual and a family facing Borderline Personality Disorder.

Takeaway: Unflinching novel of growing up with borderline personality disorder.

Comparable Titles: Hilary Smith’s Welcome to the Jungle, Bassey Ikpi’s I'm Telling the Truth but I'm Lying.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Emo Reality

Tiess’s second collection of timely, urgent “ecopoetry” and essays, following last year’s debut The Humbling, could serve as an expansive syllabus for a course on the Earth amid its ecological and climate crisis and why its preservation matters. The instructor, though, is not necessarily the poet. That role belongs to “Gaia,” Mother Earth, and all her creations: the Susquehanna River, the Colorado Rockies, Sequoia trees, hummingbirds, meerkats, bears, butterflies, and all the other natural wonders in Tiess’s poems that impart the wisdom Tiess has learned by paying the Earth attention. As Tiess writes in his introduction, “Earth, as a university, remains forever open, extending its lessons to anyone who would attend.”

Yet its lessons offer “organic truths'' that are difficult to accept; “with knowledge comes the weight of worlds,” Tiess writes in “From Carefree to Caring”, and he doesn’t mince words in “Earth Education” when the speaker calls on humanity—“alumni of oblivion”—to “examine your calamities.” Though stark and often brutal in their confrontation of humanity’s role in environmental disaster, Tiess’s poems and essays are rooted in hope that by shifting humans’ collective attention from themselves to their environment, they can “resurrect what’s dying to be borne again,” and create a balanced, symbiotic world.

The principal challenge of ecopoetry, which seeks to “maintain a consciousness of Earth while engaging environmental considerations more directly,” is to make nature’s complex system of responses to human activity accessible and digestible for all types of readers, and Tiess’s May We Learn From the Earth ambitiously meets that challenge and goes further. With his back matter of related digital, literary, and scientific resources, readers inspired to continue their education under the tutelage of Earth and her advocates have an entry point to “rethink [their] relationships and practices with nature,” and perhaps “in some small or substantial way” “save the world.”

Takeaway: Ecopoetry and prose urging humanity to shift attention from the self and toward the Earth.

Comparable Titles: Ann Fisher-Wirth and Laura-Gray Street’s The Ecopoetry Anthology, Juliana Spahr’s “Gentle Now, Don’t Add to Heartache.”

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about May We Learn from the Earth

Baltay’s debut offers a comprehensive history, instructional guide, and recipe book for all things pressure cookers, along with an engaging memoir about her own lifelong “affair” with the equipment, dating back to the second world war, when she and her mother stretched to stretch scarce wartime portions. Penned in a tongue-in-cheek, very gently suggestive style, A Steamy Affair reads like a warm hug to those readers who might feel scared at the prospect of attempting to cook with the wide variety of pressure cookers (and instant pots) available today. Baltay sets out to demystify this sometimes polarizing but never quite out-of-style piece of cooking equipment that previous generations have relied upon, but which has sometimes gotten a bad rap from contemporary cooks.

Baltay describes her mother seeing an ad for a pressure cooker in Woman's Day in 1943 but wanting three more years to acquire one, once metal appliances went back into production. Once they had it, there was no going back, and Virginia began cooking with pressure cookers in earnest, beginning a lifelong obsession and passion. This is evident throughout this informative, entertaining book, which covers the history of the pressure cooker, the science behind it, how to identify which one is best for you, and how it can alleviate the problem of food waste. Step-by-step illustrated diagrams detail each piece of the pressure cooker and how to use it safely, while QR codes link to videos covering recipe techniques and the process of cooling a cooker down.

The bulk of this book is recipes, and they run the gamut from hearty and classic American favorites like soups and stews, roasts, and apple sauces to international offerings like vichyssoise, each explained in an encouraging style with a photo and, often, a personal story. The personal touches and stories offer a real connection to the author and her delight in the subject. Baltay’s knowledge is thorough, her style is winning, and her enthusiasm is contagious.

Takeaway: Inviting guide to pressure cookers, with 100+ recipes and a personal touch.

Comparable Titles: Bren Herrera ‘s Modern pressure Cooking, Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough’s The Great Big Pressure Cooker Book.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about A Steamy Affair... with a Pressure Cooker

Set in the year 2045, Doyle’s ambitious novel vividly depicts a world where synthetic human hibernation has been invented to save the world from its destruction. Revealing its story through blog posts, academic journals, and dream diaries and letters, Hibernaculum gradually lifts the veil, revealing a mysterious dome where people voluntarily sign up for three months or more of sleep for the love of Mother Earth—rehabilitation, rest, or a means to a temporary end. Blogger Seth Macy believes he could contribute to reducing the world's carbon footprint by going under a deep sleep. Megan Selz, unlike other curious journalists, gets the opportunity to access the Hibernaculum itself and plumb its mysteries. Yumi Almeida wakes up from her hibernation and starts to document her experience through dream diaries her doctor asks her to do.

Doyle achieves a rich, multifaceted portrayal of the Hibernaculum through intricate illustrations of its architecture and descriptions from the eyes of Megan and the Ferryman. In the beginning, where Seth laid his insights about synthetic hibernation and its possible positive effects on a dying world, the plot thickens once the enigma of its possible effects on humans is hinted at in Yumi's dream diaries. Doyle guides readers through the complexities of the story and its implications by providing outsider and insider viewpoints, as well as in teasing the inherent tension of what's in store for the Sleepers once they wake up. This approach is provocative, occasionally satirical, and will appeal to fans of thoughtful, literary-minded science fiction, though it demands attentive reading.

Although Doyle's writing is spare on character development and emotional grip, he touches upon the diversity of motivations people surrender to and the wonders and possibilities biomedical facilities could do. The story ends more eerie than it started, giving the whole a decidedly cinematic feel as it plumbs pressing questions about life and its value in the Anthropocene. Doyle has hit on something rare: an original approach to climate fiction.

Takeaway: Inventive, provocative novel probing what humanity owes the Earth.

Comparable Titles: Mur Lafferty’s Six Wakes, OMar El Akkad’s What Strange Paradise.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: B
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Hibernaculum

Sanamon debuts with a captivating and imaginative fantasy novel that seamlessly blends the realms of dream and reality. Mining the vein of fanciful classics like the work of L. Frank Baum and Lewis Carroll, the story follows Theodora Brondsted on her 14th birthday, as she learns about her mother, Galatéa, and the generations of women in her family who have all fulfilled their destinies to discover and share secrets with a magical lion on the island of Tzia, hidden from the modern world by either a spell or a curse. Sanamon skillfully intertwines Theo's story with that of Galatéa, her mother, and the adventurous tale of her own fourteenth birthday—which involves wonders like PumPum, a bespectacled talking cat, and the teasing possibility that the world shifts and surprises us just when we look away.

Galatéa, a witch and one of four quadruplets, embarks on a journey to find the legendary lion, pitting her against her jealous sister, Agatha, and an ensemble of malevolent witches (known as “The Vicious”) determined to stop her. While Theo's narrative occasionally feels sidelined in favor of Galatéa's, the dual perspectives converge spectacularly, keeping readers invested in the plot. The story falters slightly during Galatéa's extensive quest, which moves rather slowly. However, the rich world-building, immersive storytelling, and imaginative illustrations more than make up for this minor flaw, and readers will likely forgive the occasional drag in the plot because of the captivating nature of the story.

At its heart, Tzia: The Book of Galatéa is a story of family, destiny, and magic. Its unique storytelling format and host of engaging and surprising characters will appeal to readers who enjoy fantasy novels with a lot of spirited invention, a love of language and mischief, and a touch of family drama. The intricate, dream-like plot offers a captivating reading experience that will leave readers eager for Theo's next adventure.

Takeaway: This riveting fantasy is perfect for fans of fairy tales and mystical adventures.

Comparable Titles: Catherynne M. Valente’s The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, Sylvia Mercedes’s Of Wolves and Wardens.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

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Klebba’s (I Am: A Day in the Life of a Tyrannosaurus Rex) short anthology of five science-fiction stories set in an anthropomorphic world where the good persevere to do the right thing is a welcome change from the stories of conflict and war that often pervade the genre. The world of Aontech is populated by a native crystalline life form called crystalikes, as well as intelligent reptiles, birds, bats, sea folk, and orcs who have settled there. Everyone more or less gets along. The first story, “Try a Little Kindness,” finds crocodile bodyguard Morrigan Clatch escorting magic using bard and peace negotiator Declan Derry, a scarlet kingsnake. After Morrigan violently dispatches cockroach, woodpecker, and hammerhead shark bandits, Declan encourages her to use her emotional support talents instead of punches to reduce conflict in the future.

The anthropomorphic cast, reminiscent of a Sing movie, gives the gentle tone and optimistic outlook of the stories an Aesop’s Fables flavor as they fix society’s ills. The Scaled Guild implores: “Our world is constantly changing…why can we not see our own flaws and become better?” The accompanying stories follow a beetle private investigator searching for a missing teenage bat who was taking pictures of corrupt cops; a gay orc couple who decide not to move away when bigotry enters their jewelry store; and an orange bat gun-for-hire who’s encouraged by her crystalike roommate to leave the business.

The final story celebrates compassionate parenting as a mako shark archeologist guides his adopted seagull daughter through the Natural History Museum, providing a brief but tantalizing origin story of Aontech, whose mysteries can still power future stories. This book provides a welcome message of goodwill, morality, and people risking their lives to do the right thing and seeking justice. Readers of all ages will enjoy these stories of intelligent animals who can teach us about the better angels of our nature.

Takeaway: Anthropomorphic animals in a fantasy world offer gentle lessons in morality and justice.

Comparable Titles: Jo Walton’s Tooth and Claw, Jasper Fforde’s The Constant Rabbit.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A

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