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To help you see more clearly in the upcoming releases of this year 2025, what could be better than giving the microphone to the publishers?!
Take out your wallet, close your savings accounts, here's something to break the bank (and overflow your reading pile)!
Gilles Dumay :
Au As I write these lines, the program Albin Michel Imaginaire is known until May 2025.
And it's a program rather marked by magic (four titles out of five, anyway)even if the year opens in January with a science fiction novel awarded by the Arthur C. Clarke Award.
For once, put yourself in the shoes of the courageous ecocide investor: he wants to build a luxury hotel on the beach in Bora Bora. No luck, this beach is the only natural habitat of the blue crab of Bora Bora. So all the ecologists on the planet are screaming together, filing appeals, because this admirable crab will disappear, replaced by obese tourists who stink of non-biodegradable solar oil. A blue crab? Seriously, what's the point? You can, in a pinch, cook it in the ashes to eat it and even then, taste-wise, it's not lobster. Far from it!
What is our valiant entrepreneur (who believes that there are only two infinite things on Earth: the stupidity of environmentalists and growth) can do? Simply connect to an extinction exchange and buy an extinction credit to compensate for the tragic disappearance of the blue decapod crustacean. It will cost him a few tens of thousands of dollars, because the price of animal extinction has fallen significantly recently.
Well, Bora Bora crab is an example. exotic “, because in the novel of Ned Beauman it is the venomous lumpfish which has disappeared or is in danger of disappearing. A small fish from the Baltic Sea that could be the smartest fish on the planet. Finally, above all, he is very ugly and his bites are particularly painful. So, once again, why save a creature that is useless?
Poisson Poison is a novel that could have been written Terry Gilliam in its period Brazil. A funny SF novel, a little gonzo, which talks about the climate wall towards which we are heading at 130 km/h, synthetic food, speculation on the next mass extinction, etc.
Most of the time, manuscripts no longer arrive by post, but in file form (this clarified: do not send anything by post, thank you!).
So about a year ago I received a Snow Saber in my mailbox with a very professional presentation, accompanied by a very clear file. As it takes place in a fantasy feudal Japan, I immediately put it back (or almost) at the top of the reading pile, with a deep feeling of guilt, but honestly it was a change from dark elves and rough artificial intelligence. Then very quickly, after reading a few pages, I understand that I must publish it… That the opposite would be unthinkable.
The Snow Saber takes place in a fantasized feudal Japan where the notion of samurai is non-existent, where all sexualities are admitted, coexist without friction other than erotic. In this fantasy world, there are sacred swords, such as Snow Saber, Wind Saber, etc. They have immense powers granted by the kami and they extend the lifespan of those who wear them. Master Shiro carries the Snow Saber and has roamed the world for centuries. Isao, 19 years old, and his only disciple and, as far as we know, Master Shiro never had any others.
As the Emperor wants to seize the Snow Saber, because he wants to possess all the Sacred Sabers to establish his power and perpetuate it, Master Shiro and Isao are forced to hide, then flee, when their hiding place is discovered.
The Snow Saber comes out at the end of January, it's a great adventure novel, with magic, monsters from Japanese folklore, epic duels, betrayals, love, etc.
The author has a truly “ singular ».
After seeing and loving Memories of Murdershe decided to settle in South Korea and study cinema there. She has lived in Seoul for ten years now.
She works there as a screenwriter and director.
(I wonder what would have happened if his favorite movie had been Texas Chainsaw Massacre or the Scarface of From Palma. Florida or Texas?)
For March, here is the last part of the Divine cities of Robert Jackson Bennettalways translated by Laurent Philibert-Caillat.
Difficult to talk about it without disclose…because the volume begins with the murder of one of the three main protagonists of the series. So, if you don't know the series of Divine cities and want to discover it, go straight to the April title…
This will save you from reading only at the beginning of The City of MiraclesShara Komyad, former prime minister of Saypur, was assassinated and Sigrud (Beowulf)his former secretary, will come out of hiding to pursue the assassins…
Sigrud being Sigrud, it will bleed, disperse like a puzzle… to say the least.
For April, here is The Lovers of Ragnarök of Jean-Laurent Del Socorro !
Jean-Laurent continues his triptych on European mythologies. After the Round Table, he tackles Viking mythology and Ragnarök.
The novel is both tight (300 pages environ) and very ample, with apocalyptic battles (it’s worth saying so)betrayals (Loki is around)an impossible quest in some of the realms of Yggdrasyl, revelations, etc.
As there “ lovers » in the title, we won't give anything away by saying that this story is also about love. And mourning.
We generally follow (I simplify) four characters: Thor (who had a vision of her death and walks straight towards her) ; Iarnsaxa, his lover, a giantess who refuses the prophecy of Ragnarök and will do everything to save the god she loves; Jórunn, a blind skald, who goes to Valhalle to say goodbye to her lover Hervor, who fell during the Battle of Clontarf.
Finally for May, it will be La Dissonance de Shaun Hamilltranslated from English (UNITED STATES) par Benoit Domis.
Five years later A Cosmology of Monsters that a certain Stephen King loved it, Shaun Hamill is back with a novel that splits the genre waters between horror and fantasy.
It's the story of a group of kids who discovered a disturbing form of magic in tragic circumstances. And it is the story of the adults they have become, forced to confront the errors and wonders of their past. With its structure “ twenty years ago/twenty years later “, we can think of That of Stephen Kingbut the atmosphere is undoubtedly closer to that ofImajica of Clive Barker or from the first season (the best) from the series Stranger Things. There is also Something is killing the children in this story full of magic, monsters and darkness.
Shaun Hamill probably knew that La Dissonance would necessarily be compared with That. For me, there is clearly a dialogue between the two works. King wanted to judge the Reagan years, Hamill takes stock of the 90s. Its social relevance is astonishing.
I will leave the final words to the author of The House with Chicken Feet : GennaRose Nethercott ; she talks about it much better than me:
« Dissonance has all the punch of those “teenagers on bikes” adventures that we love so much, except that instead of bikes, the kids in question ride waves of terror conjured by ancestral horrors. Shaun Hamill will make you nostalgically remember your first kiss and, a few pages later, confront you with a demon in a tight catsuit who vomits his own entrails. And the crazy thing is that it works! »
→ Find all the upcoming programs for 2025!
