Also out

The big release this month is the script of HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD (31 July, Little Brown) – but that’s being kept under wraps. Bah. Then there’s AND I DARKEN (out now, Penguin), basically a gender-swapped version of the early life of Vlad the Impaler. Author Kiersten White has clearly done her historical research, and spun the results into an entertaining YA story – but the genderswapping is the only fantastic element. Jen Williams’s Copper Cat trilogy concludes in THE SILVER TIDE (out now, Headline). Book one’s old-fashioned dungeoneering made a nice change from grimdark; expect more “undemanding fun”. Peter F Hamilton does YA fantasy again in THE HUNTING OF THE PRINCES (28 July, Macmillan), a follow-up to The Queen Of Dreams, which saw kids rescue their dad from the land of Faerie. Light-hearted Ghostbusters tie-in GHOSTS FROM OUR PAST (out now, Penguin) mixes backstory for the film’s paranormal experts with a history of ghosts and fun stuff. Gardner Dozois’s annual anthology THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST NEW SF 29 (out now, Robinson) includes 33 stories, while the 15 tales of DROWNED WORLDS (out now, Solaris) are set in futures reshaped by climate change. Finally Jeff and Ann Vandermeer’s THE BIG BOOK OF SCIENCE FICTION (out now, Vintage) has a whopping 99 stories, many in English for the first time.