Welcome to my Aconyte Books roundup for May, where I’m going to take a look at the two new books being published this month – a pair of Marvel: Heroines novels featuring fantastic characters drawn from the pages of Marvel comic books. I’ll also take a quick look both back at what was published in April and ahead to what’s due in June, before picking out a book from the ever-growing Aconyte back catalogue to talk about a bit more. As usual I’ll include the publisher’s synopsis for the two new novels, and this month I can link out to reviews and author interviews for both books!
May’s releases
As usual, let’s start with this month’s two new novels. In case this is your introduction to Aconyte, it’s worth pointing out that they use a two-step publication schedule, with the global ebook and US paperback released first, followed by the UK paperback a little bit later. Here are the publication dates for both of this month’s books:
- 4th May 2021: global ebook and US paperback
- 22nd July 2021: UK paperback
Next, here’s the publisher’s synopsis for each book, along with links out to my reviews and author interviews for each one.
Marvel: Heroines – Elsa Bloodstone: Bequest by Cath Lauria
Elsa Bloodstone just can’t catch a break. She’s barely finished shutting down a hive of ratmen when a special ops squad turns up guns blazing – and they’re shooting at her! It’s nothing a good grenade can’t sort out though. When Elsa returns home, she discovers an unexpected guest claiming to be her long-lost sister, seeking her own stolen Bloodstone shard. The Bloodstone is the secret to Elsa’s superhuman powers, and a shard in villainous hands is seriously bad news. Cue globetrotting adventures full of monster-smashing. But danger stays one step ahead of them as Elsa realizes her sister isn’t quite what she seems, and an old enemy with a secret about her family’s past could overturn everything Elsa’s ever believed.
I suspect there are lots of people like me who know about Marvel from watching the movies rather than reading the comics, and for us there’s something great about being introduced to a character who isn’t in the films, and who we haven’t previously come across…but who is instantly fun to be around. Elsa Bloodstone is one such character. I mean, what’s not to like about a fast-talking, fast-shooting monster hunter who travels the world slaying beasties (and trying not to throttle her own, newfound half-sisters)? I had a total blast reading this one, and I would love to read more about Elsa!
Check out my interview with Cath Lauria about Elsa Bloodstone: Bequest
Check out my review of Elsa Bloodstone: Bequest
Marvel: Heroines – Rogue: Untouched by Alisa Kwitney
Young Rogue’s life is a mess: she’s on her own, working a terrible diner job and hiding from everyone. The powers she has started to develop are terrifying: when your first kiss almost kills the guy, it’s hard to trust anyone – even yourself. Then two people arrive in town who could change her life, and she finally gets a choice: try her luck with the big-haired billionaire who claims to be scouting for gifted interns, or trust the rakish Cajun gambler with the eerie red eyes. But these two aren’t the only ones interested in a mutant just coming into her powers. Rogue will have to master her abilities and decide her own fate – before someone else does.
Unlike Elsa, Rogue must surely be one of the most famous, and popular, Marvel characters around, but this offers a smart update of her origin story and moves it into the present day (more or less) to keep things fresh and exciting. I really enjoyed reading this one too, with its strong character work and focus on the people rather than their mutant powers. It felt to me like an ideal crossover between adult and YA fiction, which I think is perfect for this sort of book, and I can see it being really popular.
Check out my interview with Alisa Kwitney about Rogue: Untouched
Check out my review of Rogue: Untouched
It’s worth mentioning here too that there’s also a recent Aconyte novel due out in UK paperback out this month – specifically on the 27th May.
Marvel: Xavier’s Institute – First Team by Robbie MacNiven
Recent releases
Last month saw a pair of new Aconyte releases, both of which are now out as global ebooks and US paperbacks, with the UK paperbacks due in June (24th). You can find links below to my author interviews for each book, to give you a bit more information about them.
KeyForge – The Qubit Zirconium by M Darusha Wehm
Arkham Horror – Litany of Dreams by Ari Marmell
Coming soon
Next, let’s take a quick look at what’s coming next month. June looks like being an interesting month, with a new Assassin’s Creed novel (translated from its original Chinese by Nikki Kopelman) and the fourth Legend of the Five Rings novel – the second from Josh Reynolds.
- Assassin’s Creed – The Ming Storm by Yan Leisheng – Assassins and Templars battling it out in the Ming Dynasty? Sounds great! I don’t know anything about Assassin’s Creed, but I’m definitely up for finding out more about it.
- Legend of the Five Rings – Death’s Kiss by Josh Reynolds – I absolutely loved Poison River, Josh’s first L5R novel, and I’ve been waiting patiently (not even slightly) for a sequel, so I’m really excited to read this!
There’s loads more titles still to come from Aconyte, including a whole tranche of new books just announced for release in September to December. Have a look at this blog post on the Aconyte website for the full details, but it looks like there are new Descent and Arkham Horror novels coming soon alongside LOADS of new Marvel books, with a few surprises yet to come. In the last few days some of the new covers have been revealed too, so let’s take a quick look at those:
So that’s Outlaw: Relentless by Tristan Palmgren (featuring a character from Domino: Strays), The Gates of Thelgrim by Robbie MacNiven, and Triptych by Jaleigh Johnson. Lot’s of interesting stuff to look forward to, and I think we can take this as a clear sign that the Aconyte release train is showing no signs of slowing down!
Back catalogue
Aconyte’s catalogue of novels and short story anthologies is growing rapidly, and it’s easy to always focus on the latest release rather than looking at the whole set. With that in mind, I’m going to start adding in a new section to these articles, where each month I’ll take a quick look back at one of the earlier Aconyte releases. This month I’m going to kick things off with a cracker of a novel from one of my favourite authors…
Arkham Horror – Wrath of N’Kai by Josh Reynolds
This was, I think, the first Aconyte novel I read – and it started things off brilliantly! In my review called this “an entertainingly dark tale of a gentlewoman thief getting more than she bargained for”, and while it was my first introduction to Arkham Horror I found the setting and the tone instantly engaging. If, like me, you’re not familiar with this setting, here’s an excerpt from my interview with author Josh Reynolds in which I asked Josh to quickly explain what to expect from Arkham Horror as an IP:
“The books – and the game they’re based on – are set in witch-haunted Arkham, which originated in the works of HP Lovecraft and was further expanded on by many other authors. It’s a Prohibition-era New England town with a dark history and black secrets, where the streets are haunted by sinister cults and worse.
As ancient gods stir, the town becomes the epicenter of their nightmarish schemes and unlikely heroes must rise to confront the evil that threatens Arkham and the world.”
So with that in mind, what is the book about? Well, here’s the rest of the first paragraph from my review, in which I attempt to give an overview:
“Countess Alessandra Zorzi has been commissioned to travel to Arkham, where a recently-discovered ancient American mummy is to be displayed, and steal it. What sounds like a relatively simple job, however, is complicated by the presence of an investigator from the insurance company underwriting the exhibition, and the dawning realisation that there’s more going on than meets the eye in both Arkham’s criminal underworld and its wealthy upper class.”
It’s tremendous fun, developing from a heist story into more of an occult detective mystery as Alessandra’s attempted theft of the mummy is quickly foiled by other parties – including what Josh refers to as “a society of necrophagic connoisseurs”. If a “noir-ish town full of speakeasies, gangsters, underground tunnels and lurking monsters”, and a protagonist who “can fight, if pressed, but [would] much rather snoop and scheme and sneak” sounds good, then I would definitely recommend checking this out. Pulp 1920s America, lashings of the supernatural, great characters, snappy dialogue…it’s just perfect Josh Reynolds territory!
It’s also worth mentioning that while this is an Arkham Horror novel, I would say it’s more of a pulp, occult adventure than an actual horror story. In what I think is a clever move, Aconyte have split their Arkham Horror offerings into two lines: one, including Wrath of N’Kai and Rosemary Jones’ Mask of Silver, which focuses more on the pulp adventure side of things and another, currently including The Last Ritual by SA Sidor and Ari Marmell’s Litany of Dreams, which goes deeper into actual horror territory.
So there you have it – Wrath of N’Kai, an excellent Arkham Horror novel! If you’d like to know more, check out one or both of these links:
My interview with Josh Reynolds talking about Wrath of N’Kai.
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As usual, I hope this has been useful, and has maybe inspired you to give one of these cool new books a try. Whether you’re a fan of IP fiction already (Warhammer, Star Wars, Star Trek, whatever) or you just fancy some entertaining SFF or horror fun, I would really recommend you take a look at what Aconyte are doing!
I’d love to know what you think about this article, and whether there’s anything you would like to see more or less of in future. Likewise, whether you’ve read any Aconyte novels recently and want to chat about them! Let me know in the comments below, or find me on Twitter and say hi…
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