A new YA SciFi trilogy by the New York Times bestselling author of Dragon Pearl.
MOONSTORM
Lancers Series, Book 1
by Yoon Ha Lee
Delacorte, June 2024
(via The Gernert Company)
Yoon Ha Lee is a Korean-American who was born in Texas, went to high school in South Korea, and received a B.A. in mathematics from Cornell University. Yoon’s previous books include the Hugo Award nominated Machineries of Empire series and the New York Times bestseller Dragon Pearl.
THE PHOENIX PENCIL COMPANY combines the cross-generational relationships and epistolary form of Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being with the magical alternate history and probing questions of R.F. Kuang’s Babel. Told in dual timelines, its overarching question is: who owns a story?
THE PHOENIX PENCIL COMPANY
by Allison King
HarperCollins, Summer 2025
(via The Gernert Company)
Yun is a ninety-year-old woman recounting her time growing up in the Phoenix Pencil Company in 1940s Shanghai. While Japan invades China, Yun’s cousin moves in with them, and the two develop a competitive yet loving relationship. When the government discovers their family can magically Reforge a pencil’s words, bringing its words back to life, the cousins are separated and forced into a life of betraying stories in order to survive.
Monica is Yun’s granddaughter, a modern-day college student in America, set on using her software engineering skills to help reunite Yun with her long lost cousin. Through her attempts, she meets Louise, an aspiring digital archivist, ruthlessly determined to record the stories of those who survived World War II. As Monica learns more of Yun’s story, she must confront the same questions her grandmother once did—of what kinds of stories should be preserved, and when data should be left private—all while navigating her growing feelings towards Louise.
THE PHOENIX PENCIL COMPANY is part historical fantasy, part romance, all complex family dynamics, with a smattering of data privacy thrown in. It is loosely inspired by Allison’s own grandparents and the pencil company they once ran in Shanghai.
Allison King is a software engineer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and has dedicated time to sharing local community stories and working in data privacy. A story of hers is to be featured on LeVar Burton’s podcast this fall, and other pieces have appeared in Fantasy Magazine, Diabolical Plots, and Paula Guran’s Year’s Best Fantasy, among others. She is also a 2023 Reese’s Book Club LitUp fellow.
MELTDOWN charts the incredible inside story of a once venerable Swiss bank that produced a conveyor belt of financial scandals and whose collapse reveals the amorality at the heart of the global banking system.
MELTDOWN
The Collapse of Credit Suisse
by Duncan Mavin
Pan Macmillan, September 2024
(via Northbank Talent Management)
It’s an international tale that takes us from Mozambique to Australia, from Hong Kong to New York, and of course, inside the hushed, marble corridors of Zurich’s banking elite.
Mavin is uniquely sourced to tell the story of Credit Suisse’s scandal-ridden demise, with dozens of inside-the-room contacts that can spill exclusive details about the bank onto the page. The bank’s collapse has been the biggest shock to the financial system since the financial crisis, sparking a media frenzy. But only Duncan has access to key sources within the bank’s executive suite and inner circle that will bring this critical, rollicking story to life.
Duncan Mavin is a seasoned international financial journalist and author of the critically acclaimed The Pyramid of Lies: Lex Greensill and the Multi-Billion Dollar Scandal. Since 2009, he has been a reporter, editor and now columnist for Dow Jones publications including the Wall Street Journal, based in Hong Kong, London and New York. His writing has also appeared in Barron’s, Financial News and on Bloomberg News. He lives with his wife and three sons in the UK.
In this provocative, timely and well researched book, nuclear chemist Tim Gregory argues our species’ very survival hinges on whether we choose to unleash the potential of the atom and embrace a nuclear future.
GOING NUCLEAR
How the Atom Will Save the World
by Tim Gregory
The Bodley Head (Penguin), 2025
(via Northbank Talent Management)
GOING NUCLEAR will be an exploration of the immense power in the centre of the atom, the areas of our world that it touches, and the potential it has to solve the biggest problems our species faces. The book retraces our relationship with nuclear through the Nuclear Revolution of the early 20th century and look towards the Nuclear Renaissance that could — and should — ensue over the coming decades. Gregory argues convincingly that there is no net zero without nuclear power.
By interweaving science, policy and environmentalism, Going Nuclear will explore the potential of the atom not only for nuclear power but also clean energy production, nuclear medicine, nuclear forensics, interplanetary exploration and atomic farming.
Tim Gregory is a a nuclear chemist for the National Nuclear Laboratory in the heart of the British nuclear industry. His academic background is in geology, planetary science, and isotope cosmochemistry, and he holds a PhD in the latter. He is also a speaker, presenter and is the author of Meteorite: How Stones from Outer Space Made our World.
The first novel in an eerie, darkly creative, and romantic new gothic fantasy duology from Maxym M. Martineau, for readers of Sarah J. Maas and Rachel Gillig.
HOUSE OF BLIGHT
The Threadmender Chronicles, Book 1
by Maxym M. Martineau
Harper Voyager, April 2025
(via The Whalen Agency)
Edira Brillwyn is a threadmender. She holds a rare, lifesaving power that can cure disease and heal injuries in the blink of an eye. But magic always comes with a cost, and saving anyone sacrifices a sliver of her own life. She’s always kept her abilities hidden…until the powerful Fernglove family discovers her secret.
The Ferngloves are charming and beautiful, possess powerful magic, and don’t take no for an answer—especially Orin, the head of these ruling elites. When Edira’s brothers unexpectedly contract blight—an incurable virus killing people throughout the town, and an illness too strong for her to heal them both—Orin offers to help. Together at his estate they’ll research a cure while Orin slows their sickness and Edira hones her magic. His kindness and honesty surprises Edira, as does her undeniable attraction to him.
But the other Ferngloves are suspicious of her power and may be more dangerous than the ever-present disease. The longer Edira stays within the confines of the Manor, the more the family’s pristine exterior begins to crack—until Edira discovers a terrifying secret and must choose who she can save and at what cost…
« [E]nthralling…With court intrigue, a dash of romance, and betrayal galore, this promises good things to come. » — Publishers Weekly
« Wrenching, thrilling, and wildly imaginative…The kind of story that you just can’t put down. » —Thea Guanzon, New York Times and international bestselling author
« [A] gorgeous fae gothic… I’m excited to see what [Martineau] does next. » —Illona Andrews, #1 New York Times bestselling author
Maxym M. Martineau is an associate creative director by day and a fantasy author by night. When she’s not getting heated over broken hearts, she enjoys playing video games, binge-watching television shows, competing in just about any sport, and of course, reading.