The 2014 Hattie Awards!!! Or the Best Book of 2014 (That I've Read)

2014 was a busy year for me with lots of challenges at work and plenty of travel. Even though this blog was dormant nearly all of the year it was probably still one of my highest word count years when counting all of the reread posts done for Tor.com on The Way of Kings, a project I was proud to be part of and glad to have behind me. As many others out there know: Writing on a schedule is hard work, especially when you have other work to do.

I still managed to read quite a bit this year even though my overall numbers are still down. I miss reading 100+ books a year, but appreciate all the added time I spent with friends and family this year. Looking over my reading log I've read 81 stories though many this year are novellas and graphic novels. I've not counted most short stories unless I bought them for my Nook and there were only 2 or 3 like that, but the novella and novelette length really hit me hard this year with a dozen or so of those. There was just one anthology read being the all-star Dangerous Women. Here's how the numbers breakdown:

Graphic Novels: 12 (though I read many more and only list those I thought worth remembering)

Short Fiction (novellas, novelettes, short stories, etc.): 24ish (Not counting Dangerous Women)

Novels: 45


Now on to the Hattie Awards!

Best Fantasy

 Winner - City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett

Runner-up - Smiler's Fair by Rebecca Levine

Honorable Hat Tips -The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley, The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman, and Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

Bennett's latest stole the show as far as I am concerned though Smiler's Fair took me by surprise. Sanderson's WoR was what I hope it would be, but only time will tell if it will all payoff. My money's on yes. The Mirror Empire leveled up Hurley's game though there was some shakiness in the first quarter. I think Hurley's best is still to come in this series since some beautiful ground work has be laid.

Best Science Fiction

Winner - The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

Runner-up: The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Translated by Ken Liu)

Honorable Hat Tips - Lock In by John Scalzi, Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi, and Red Rising by Pierce Brown, On A Red Station Drifting by Aliette de Bodard

Some will be surprised Andy Weir's The Martian isn't on this list somewhere. That's because I read it in 2013 with it winning in one category.  But North's story has stuck with me a long time and never wavered from being my favorite in this area though it is probably better labeled Science Fantasy it merits a top spot. The Three-Body Problem left me cold for the first half of the story to the point I almost put it down, but I'm glad I stuck with it as it is one of the most unique First Contact stories I've ever encountered. Lock-In is probably Scalzi's best novel since Android's Dream and I friggin loved AD. Koyanagi's Ascension hit me right in the Firefly spot while bringing a unique cast that I was just as quick to fall for. Red Rising is the real please-me-deal in the same way Ender's Game was only more brutal. de Bodard's novella lives up to the accolades to date and I look forward to delving into more into this universe.

Best Weird/Horror

Winner - The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey aka Mike Carey

Runner-up - Datura by Leena Krohn

Honorable Hat Tips - Truth and Fear by Peter Higgins, The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami, Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, and The End of the Sentence by Maria Dahvana Headley and Kat Howard

Datura is the stuff that eerie nightmares are made of. I know because it kept giving them to me. Truth and Fear feels very middle-bookish, but the writing has a stark beauty and strangeness that captivated me. I'm still trying to wrap my head about Murakami's odd little novella. The design by Chip Kidd was worth the price of admission all on it own. The End of the Sentence gave us a dark a slightly creepy American fairy tale well worth checking out.

Best Finish to a Series

Winner - The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman

Runner-up - Shadow Ops: Breach Zone by Myke Cole

Grossman left me amazed throughout his Magician's series and he was able to close it out quite poignantly. It will be a series well worth re-reading. Cole's finish to the first Shadow Ops arc executed all the goals I had for the series with big screen action on a small page.

Best Urban Fantasy

Winner -  California Bones by Greg van Eekhout

Runner-up - New Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko 

Honorable Hat Tips - Skin Game by Jim Butcher, and Falling Sky by Rajan Khanna

van Eekhout is back in UF after a 5 year absence with a new series that re-imagines California as if ruled by powerful magicians who eat other magicians. Not nearly as dark as it sounds since van Eekhout plays to the lighter side of things more times than not and plays up the thief angle quite well. Who knew Lukyanenko wasn't done with the Night Watch series? At first I thought this was going to stretch a series too fair as the fourth book really did close most threads off well, but the author managed to dig up a story that is as good as the rest.

Best Other

Winner - Tigerman by Nick Harkaway

I wasn't sure where to put Harkaway's latest, but I knew it needed to be mentioned. The story involves a a superhero of sorts, an island scheduled for demolition, and a bevy of most likely disreputable men. Though it meanders as Harkaway works tend to do that's the joy of the story. And that twist at the end! OMG, Harkaway is truly l33t.

Best Overall Book of the Year - You guys have got to read this!

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett

Considering Bennett nabbed this spot in 2012 for The Troupe this shouldn't come as too much of a shock. Now who do I have to talk to about the sequel City of Blades getting in my hands ASAP? Don't make me send Sigrud... The Girl With All the Gifts and The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August have also stuck with me. These three books are also the ones I keep giving or recommending to friends depending on how their tastes bend.

Best Books Published before 2014 (That I read this year)

This year a third of the novels I read were not necessarily published this year. It is hard to rank them so here are a few of my favorites: Foundation by Isaac Asimov (re-read and deservedly in print for more than sixty years), American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett (Bennett has to be the love child of Bradbury. Has to be!), Late Eclipses by Seanan McGuire (Toby just stole my heart from Dresden), The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu (Action/Adventure with Aliens FTW), and The Blue Blazes by Chuck Wendig (Badass/drugs are bad/also blue apparently).

So what were some of your favorites this year?

Cover Unveiled for Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells Edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling

Art by Allen Williams

The all-original anthology Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells by the super editing duo of Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling is coming early next year. The theme is Gaslamp Fantasy, which falls along the lines of Steampunk only with more of a focus on magic instead of tech. The line-up looks quite impressive as does the cover. Love the white-glow-y hair.

“The Fairy Enterprise” by Jeffrey Ford

“From the Catalogue of the Pavilion of the Uncanny and Marvelous, Scheduled for Premiere at the Great Exhibition (Before the Fire)” by Genevieve Valentine

“The Memory Book” by Maureen McHugh

“Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells” by Delia Sherman

“La Reine D’Enfer” by Kathe Koja

“Briar Rose” by Elizabeth Wein

“The Governess” by Elizabeth Bear

“Smithfield” by James P. Blaylock

“The Unwanted Women of Surrey” by Kaaron Warren

“Charged” by Leanna Renee Hieber

“Mr. Splitfoot” by Dale Bailey

“Phosphorus” by Veronica Schanoes

“We Without Us Were Shadows” by Catherynne M. Valente

“The Vital Importance of the Superficial” by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer

“The Jewel in the Toad Queen’s Crown” by Jane Yolen

“A Few Twigs He Left Behind” by Gregory Maguire

“Their Monstrous Minds” by Tanith Lee

“Estella Saves the Village” by Theodora Goss

Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells will be released in March from Tor simultaneously in both hardcover and trade paperback. Another noteworthy anthology coming this October from Datlow and Windling is After comprised of all-original dystopian/apocalyptic stories.



Also here is the art unadulterated.

Cover Unveiled for Armada by Ernest Cline

With Ready Player One released just two years ago Ernest Cline created the nearly perfect nostalgia trip to gamer culture of the 70s and 80s. His next work Armada seems to fit in a similar mode though in the real instead of the virtual. Judging from the blurb I'd say this will give heavy nods to things like Flight of the Navigator and The Last Starfighter. Here's the official blurb:

Zack Lightman is daydreaming through another dull math class when the high-tech dropship lands in his school's courtyard-and when the men in the dark suits and sunglasses leap out of the ship and start calling his name, he's sure he's still dreaming.

But the dream is all too real; the people of Earth need him. As Zack soon discovers, the videogame he's been playing obsessively for years isn't just a game; it's part of a massive, top-secret government training program, designed to teach gamers the skills they'll need to defend Earth from a possible alien invasion. And now…that invasion is coming.

As he and his companions prepare to enter their ships and do battle, Zack learns that the father he thought was dead is actually a key player in this secret war. And together with his father, he'll uncover the truth about the alien threat, race to prevent a genocide, and discover a mysterious third player in the interplanetary chess game he's been thrown into.

The cover goes for a early Galaga/Space Invaders vibe which should hit the right market, but this may not be final. Armada will be released in July, 2014 from Crown. I'll be there with book tokens ready to plock down.

The Hattie Awards 2013!!! Or the best books of 2013 (That I've read)

They are finally here! What you've all been waiting for. The Hatties Awards have returned! At first I was behind. Then I was set on not putting this together until after the New Year as I don't care for best of the year lists coming out when there is still time left in the year. Then I got busy with other projects, but it is done. So with further preamble let's get to it.

Top Fantasy Novel of the Year

Winner - NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

Runner-Up - The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

Honorable Mentions - The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, The Age of Ice by J. M. Sidorova, and The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch

Seeing Hill at the top is not too much of a surprise, at least to me. Some would say this is more of a Horror novel, but there are large fantastical elements that I think more than qualify it to stay in Fantasy. Wecker's is a book that caught me by surprise, but soon after starting it I knew I found something special. And Wecker and Sidorova definitely reminded me that I really like Historical related novels. Sidorova goes much further than I would have guessed with her ice cold protagonist showcasing parts of the world not seen nearly enough in Fiction. Lynch is the sole "traditional" Fantasy book on this list which surprised me though the debut category had plenty in that vein.

Top Science Fiction Novel of the Year

Winner - Love Minus Eighty by Will McIntosh

Runner-Up - Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Honorable Mentions - Dark Eden by Chris Beckett,  The Martian by Andy Weir, and Jack Glass by Adam Roberts

From the moment I finished McIntosh's latest effort I knew it would be hard to top in the Sci-Fi area at least. He brings the emotional side to Sci-Fi better than few authors and this is his best book yet. Leckie did some very interesting things with her debut that ten years from now people will be referencing as big influences in their own work. Once you get over the ick factor of Dark Eden you'll find it to be one of the most original worlds ever encountered in Sci-Fi.

Top Hybrid Novel of the Year - Forging New Ways

Winner - The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar

Runner-up - Wolfhound Century by Peter Higgins

Honorable Mentions - No Return by Zachary Jernigan and Something More Than Night by Ian Tregillis

This has probably been my favorite category for the last couple of years simply because of how original the works strike me. Tidhar has written the book that will hopefully catapult him into everyone's damn good category and earn him the awards he deserves. Higgin's debut is staggeringly good. Jernigan made Science-Fantasy feel very cool again and Tregillis gave us an angel/noir story that is lovingly twisted.

Top Mind Fuck

Apocalypse Now Now by Charlie Human

It is impossible to read Human's debut and not be awed by the strangeness. If you ever thought Indian, Asian, or Irish mythology is weird than South African mythology mixed with Urban Fantasy will blow your mind hole.

Top Popcorn - Ohhh, that was fun!

Winner-The Martian by Andy Weir

Weir's book was exactly what I hoped it would be. It is as if Scalzi did something a bit more contemporary along with trying to keep as close to hard science as possible. MacGyver stuck on Mars, indeed.

Top Debut Novel

Winner -The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

Runner-Up (Tie) - Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan and Wolfhound Century by Peter Higgins

Honorable Mentions - Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, The Grim Company by Luke Scull, The Scroll of Years by Chris Willrich, Apocalypse Now Now by Charlie Human, and Daughter of the Sword by Steve Bein 

Wecker's novel has just stuck into my head even many months after reading it and it is probably the book I gave the most personal recommendations to this year. McClellan has almost instantly created the perfect Epic Fantasy series. Higgins novel brings the weird in wonderful ways and I can't wait to read the second half of this duology.

Series That Keep Turning Out the Hat-tricks

 Winner - Necessary Evil by Ian Tregilis   

Runner-Up - Shadow Ops: Fortress Frontier by Myke Cole

Honorable Mentions - The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch, The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett and Two Serpents Rise by Max Gladstone

I had to give it up for Tregillis this year. He continued to up his writing game with each book in the series and this being the cap to a trilogy he brought everything together perfectly. Cole upped his game a lot with the second volume to his trilogy fixing many misgivings I had with the first volume though the third volume is even better. Lynch's story is clearly not over, but his story-in-a-story was masterfully done and he recaptured much of what was so special about The Lies of Locke Lamora. Brett's world continues to enthrall me while Gladstone continues to unveil his very strange yet orderly world to us.

Best Overall Book of the Year - You guys have got to read this!

Winner - N0S4A2 by Joe Hill

Runner-Up -The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

Honorable Mentions -The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar, The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, and Love Minus Eighty by Will McIntosh

This was a tough year to chose as so many of my favorite authors had new books out, but Hill manages to hit all the right buttons with me again as he did with Horns. Wecker's book is a beautiful look at early 20th century Manhattan and the only debut to make this list. Tidhar surprised me in all the best ways while Gaiman and McIntosh gave me exactly what I was hoping for from them: heartfelt, endearing stories with relateable characters.

Best Book I Read This Year Not Published This Year

Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin

Helprin's book has been on my bucket list for sometime now and I'm glad I got to it, but it is one I probably would have bounced off of 5+ years ago though it fit me perfectly now. Pure beauty in written form. No movie production could do it justice and I shutter to think how they would condense the story done. This goes on the to-reread shelf.

Best Graphic Novel

Winner - Saga Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan

Runner-up - Locke & Key: Alpha and Omega by Joe Hill

Honorable Mention - The Manhattan Projects Volume 2 and 3 by Jonathan Hickman

Saga is shockingly good. Star Wars good. It showcases a huge new universe yet centers on a love story for the ages. Hill's Locke & Key remains one of the best written graphic novels in the last ten years. Hickman is a wild and his alternative history of the Manhattan Project brings the best bad science, aliens, and strangeness possible.


In Closing...



2013 was a weird reading year for me where I didn't step outside my comfort zone much, but I had resigned myself to that as this was personally a very busy year even outside of The Way of Kings reread going on which all added up to the slowest reading year since before I started this blog. In all I read fewer than 70 books where my usual number is at least 100. That's still a good sampling, but hardly as exhaustive as I like to be. Hopefully, 2014 will be better and I'll get to share more with you all.

The Hobbit as if edited by Peter Jackson

The Hobbit as if edited by Peter Jackson

INTERVIEW | Bradley P. Beaulieu on His New Series

Already Bradley P. Beaulieu has released the first two books of The Lays of of Anuskaya series in the last two years. The third and final book The Flames of Shadam Khoreh is expected later this year along with his first Kickstarter collection Lest Her Passage Be Forgotten. The collection will also feature at least new 2 stories related to Lays. Now he is branching off into a new world and he just became much busier.

MH: You just signed for a new trilogy with DAW. It seems like the series name is Song of the Shattered Sands. What is the new series about and do you have a working title for the first book?


BRADLEY: That's right! The working title of the first book is Twelve Kings in Sharakhai. It's a story set in a powerful desert city that controls the flow of trade and spice through otherwise impassable terrain.


The story is about Çeda, a woman who fights in the pits to scrape a living from the cruel but beautiful city she calls home. As the story opens, she discovers that the book her mother left her before she died holds the clues to the unraveling the mystery of her mother’s death, which was tangled up in the story of the Twelve Kings of Sharakhai, men who have ruled the desert with an iron fist for nearly two hundred years. As Çeda begins to unlock the secrets hidden within the poems in the book—as well as what her mother was trying to do before she died—the Kings learn of her, and they will stop at nothing to keep those secrets buried in the desert where they belong. And so the chase is on. Çeda must unlock the hidden riddles of her mother’s book before the Kings find her. She had better hope she does, for she is the last hope for the people of the desert.

Beaulieu's Kickstarter Collection

MH: What was the germ of the idea that started it? Is it related to any of your short work?



BRADLEY: I wrote a story called "From the Spices of Sanandira", which was published by Scott Andrews in his literary adventure fantasy zine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies. You can still read the story there for free. Because it was (ahem) a longish short story, it was split over Issue 70 and Issue 71.



Spices had the same feel as I was shooting for with the new series, but I needed to widen the scope a bit and deepen some of what was there. I truly hate treading the same ground, so I used that story only as inspiration, groundwork for the new series. (Anyone who reads it, though, will see a return of the desert sailing ships, which I liked too much to get rid of.)



I also wanted to pay homage to stories that affected me when I was younger, so while there aren't direct influences, the astute reader will see touches of A Thousand and One Nights, Thieves' World, and perhaps even a touch of Elric of Melniboné in this epic tale.

MH: When might we see the first book?



BRADLEY: We'll see. The schedule is still up in the air. The first book is about a third written, and I plan to turn that in late this year. I don't know when the first book might get slotted but I'm hoping for late 2014 or early 2015.



MH: Now DAW seems like the perfect publisher for you. You write BIG books and DAW is known for their larger books and also supporting their authors long term.



BRADLEY: I completely agree. There are publishers I would have been proud to be a part of, but I do feel like my style is particularly suited to DAW Books. Part of that comes from reading so many stories published by DAW when I was younger. I paid no attention at all to publishers back then, but my future editor, Betsy Wollheim, was bringing along wonderful talents like Tad Williams and Celia Friedman, who would shape the way I read and now, how I write.



MH: What did you do to celebrate?



BRADLEY: Ha! Again, we'll see. I had a nice lunch with my wife the day I heard, but I like to do these things right. I'm a bit of a foodie, so I'm probably going to hit a favorite food place in Milwaukee or Chicago one of these weekends. I'm a huge Rick Bayless fan, so Topolobampo might be in order. Sanford's and the Hinterland Gastropub in Milwaukee are also abnormally good restaurants. So probably one of those three.

*/****\*

Follow Beaulieu on twitter or at his blog for the latest news.

NEWS | Info on the Ray Bradbury Tribute Anthology

I mentioned news of a Ray Bradbury tribute anthology a couple months ago called Live Forever!, which has since been re-tilted to Shadow Show. The title is a reference to Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show, which is the circus from Something Wicked Comes This Way. The cover seen above looks to be the final and judging by the style I'd bet money on it being done by Tom Gauld who also recently did the covers for the Gaiman and Sarrantonio anthology Stories as well as Matthew Hughes' The Damn Busters. Here is the blurb:

Ray Bradbury is a storyteller without peer, a poet of the possible, and, indisputably, one of America’s most beloved authors. In a much-celebrated literary career that has spanned seven decades, he has produced an astonishing body of work. In Shadow Show, editors Sam Weller and Mort Castle have collected short stories from 27 of the most celebrated authors today to honor Ray Bradbury and his contribution to the literary canon.

The revealed list of contributors includes: Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Dave Eggers, Harlan Ellison, Alice Hoffman, Dean Koontz, Audrey Niffenegger, David Morrell, Lee Martin, Ramsey Campbell, Robert McCammon, Dan Chaon, Joe Meno, Kelly Link, Jay Bonansinga, Sam Weller, Thomas F. Monteleone, John McNally, Mort Castle, John Maclay, Gary Braunbeck, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Charles Yu, Julia Keller, Bayo Ojikutu, and Jacquelyn Mitchard. The big names that weren't on the previous list I had include Charles Yu and Kelly Link. So you could definitely say I want Shadow Show come its July 17th release date.

Cover Unveiled for The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

After five years of waiting more concrete information on  Paolo Bacigalupi's first adult book since The Windup Girl has been revealed. The title The Water Knife has been floating around for at least the last 2 years as he worked on his younger audience books such as Ship Breaker, The Drowned Cities, and Zombie Baseball Beatdown. Now we have the cover and a description to boot.

The eagerly anticipated follow-up novel by the best-selling, National Book Award-nominated author of The Windup Girl: a scorching thriller born out of today’s front-page headlines that preys on our worst fears about potential catastrophic failures awaiting us in our resource starved future. Think Roman Polanski’s Chinatown as written by Michael Crichton. WATER IS POWER.


In the very near future, the American Southwest is battling for water. Phoenix is covered in dust, desolate, and on the verge of total breakdown. Severe drought has demolished Texas. Nevada, as always, is trying to cash in.


Into the fray, steps Angel Velasquez, a water knife working for Las Vegas water mogul Catherine Case. Case is in the Arcology business, opulent real estate in which lush, luxury living environments are raised out of dry earth. Zipping around in his tricked out Tesla, Angel “cuts” water for Case. Hijacking pumping stations or unearthing long forgotten water rights, he is a detective and mercenary rolled into one. When an informant shows up dead in Phoenix, Angel is sent to find out what has happened. It turns out that a major power play is taking place, and the race is on to find a long-forgotten deed between the state of Arizona and a Native American tribe that grants Phoenix the rights to enough water to rebuild itself but to crush Las Vegas in the process. Angel is not the only one hunting down the old agreement. A shady West Coast conglomerate is watching closely, as is Lucy Monroe, a journalist and Phoenix native, desperate to save her city. Angel and Lucy are natural enemies, but the two realize the only way they may stay alive is by joining forces. The missing piece to the puzzle is Maria, a fifteen-year-old Texas migrant, blessed with street smarts, but burdened by getting herself into something over her head. Pretty soon the body count begins to rise, alliances come in to question, and it looks like either Phoenix or Las Vegas is going down in flames.

The Water Knife is currently scheduled for an August, 2015 release from Knopf. For those who can't wait for more Bacigalupi, his latest YA book The Doubt Factory will be out this October.

Covers Unveiled for NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

Coming early in 2013 is Joe Hill's long awaited (by me at least) third full length novel after Horns, which is one of my favorite Horror novels of the last decade. In the US Hill's latest is being called Nos4a2 though in the UK they appear to be going with Nos4r2. Hill explains why in a tweet:

Joe Hill ‏@joe_hill:

The new novel is NOS4A2 in the US but for reasons of UK pronunciation is NOS4R2 on the other side of the pond.

US Harper/William Morrow Cover

UK Gollancz Cover

Both seem to do the job though the US has the clean "big book" look publishers go after when they don't want to turn anyone off while the UK goes for a nice atmospheric Horror cover. No official description is available, but Hill did discuss the book earlier this year at WorldCon in this video.





The estimated release date for the US edition of Nos4a2 is the end of April though that could change. No word on when the UK release will be, but something close seems likely. Add this is my list of CANNOT wait for titles in 2013.

Cover Unveiled for Robert Jackson Bennett's CITY OF STAIRS

Robert Jackson Bennett has steadily been putting out fantastic fiction the past few years. His work has traditionally been first world albeit with his own odd slant on the fringes of society. With City if Stairs Bennett turns his skills to a second world creation. The cover above is for the US edition and with it Bennett has joined the hooded society, which just seems to want every author in their clutches. Here is the blurb:



An atmospheric and intrigue-filled novel of dead gods, buried histories, and a mysterious, protean city—from one of America’s most acclaimed young SF writers.


The city of Bulikov once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world, enslaving and brutalizing millions—until its divine protectors were killed. Now Bulikov has become just another colonial outpost of the world’s new geopolitical power, but the surreal landscape of the city itself—first shaped, now shattered, by the thousands of miracles its guardians once worked upon it—stands as a constant, haunting reminder of its former supremacy.


Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani. Officially, the unassuming young woman is just another junior diplomat sent by Bulikov’s oppressors. Unofficially, she is one of her country’s most accomplished spies, dispatched to catch a murderer. But as Shara pursues the killer, she starts to suspect that the beings who ruled this terrible place may not be as dead as they seem—and that Bulikov’s cruel reign may not yet be over.



City of Stairs will be out this September. There is also a sequel titled City of Blades that will follow in 2015, most likely, which will also be Bennett's first attempt at a sequel of any sort.