Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released!
Whiteout by R.S. Burnett
Publication: February 25th, 2025
Crooked Lane Books
Hardcover. 352 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org
From Goodreads:
"A researcher stranded in Antarctica receives a radio message that a nuclear war has broken out in this claustrophobic survival thriller, perfect for fans of The Martian, The Last Murder at the End of the World and Breathless.
It’s been four months since glaciologist Rachael Beckett left her husband and daughter to join an urgent research trip to a remote field station deep in the Antarctic. But after losing all communication with her crew at base camp, she’s trapped and alone – and running out of supplies. The only information she has about what’s gone so catastrophically wrong is an emergency radio broadcast playing on a a nuclear war has broken out, and Rachael might be the last survivor on Earth.
Abandoned and starving, all she has left is a fierce determination to stay alive in the extreme cold and perpetual darkness of the polar winter. The research she’s gathered about catastrophic climate damage means she holds the fate of the continent and the world in her grasp…if there’s even a world left to save.
Struggling with loneliness and grief over the unknown fate of her family back home, Rachael knows both her life and her sanity balance on a knife edge. As she battles to stay alive in unimaginable conditions, she soon discovers she’s not completely alone in the dark and cold–but she might wish she was…"
A survival story set in Antarctica–need I say more? Of course I'm going to read this! But in all honesty, I read so much nonfiction about survival in cold climates that I'm really intrigued by this entire premise and have high hopes for it.
The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton
Publication: February 25th, 2025
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover. 288 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org
From Goodreads:
"Dalton Greaves is a hero. He’s one of humankind’s first representatives to Unity, a pan-species confederation working to bring all sentient life into a single benevolent brotherhood.
That’s what they told him, anyway. The only actual members of Unity that he’s ever met are Boreau, a giant snail who seems more interested in plunder than spreading love and harmony, and Boreau’s human sidekick, Neera, who Dalton strongly suspects roped him into this gig so that she wouldn’t become the next one of Boreau’s crew to get eaten by locals while prospecting.
Funny thing, though—turns out there actually is a benevolent confederation out there, working for the good of all life. They call themselves the Assembly, and they really don’t like Unity. More to the point, they really, really don’t like Unity’s new human minions.
When an encounter between Boreau’s scout ship and an Assembly cruiser over a newly discovered world ends badly for both parties, Dalton finds himself marooned, caught between a stickman, one of the Assembly’s nightmarish shock troops, the planet’s natives, who aren’t winning any congeniality prizes themselves, and Neera, who might actually be the most dangerous of the three. To survive, he’ll need to navigate palace intrigue, alien morality, and a proposal that he literally cannot refuse, all while making sure Neera doesn’t come to the conclusion that he’s worth more to her dead than alive.
Part first contact story, part dark comedy, and part bizarre love triangle, The Fourth Consort asks an important how far would you go to survive? And more importantly, how many drinks would you need to go there?"
Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey
Publication: February 4th, 2025
Random House
Hardcover. 320 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org
From Goodreads:
"Birdie’s keeping it together, of course she is. So she's a little hungover sometimes on her shifts, and she has to bring her daughter Emaleen to work while she waits tables at an Alaskan roadside lodge, but it's a tough town to be a single mother, and Emaleen never goes hungry.
Arthur Neilsen is a soft-spoken recluse, with scars across his face, who brings Emaleen back to safety when she gets lost in the woods one day. He speaks with a strange cadence, appears in town only at the change of seasons, and is avoided by most people. But to Birdie he represents everything she’s ever longed for. He lives in a cabin in the mountains on the far side of the Wolverine River and tells Birdie about the caribou, marmots and wild sheep that share his untamed world. She falls in love with him and the land he knows so well. Against the warnings of those who care about her, Birdie moves to his isolated cabin.
She and her daughter are alone with Arthur in a vast wilderness, hundreds of miles from roads, telephones, electricity, or outside contact, but Birdie believes she has come prepared. She can start a fire and cook on a wood stove. She has her rifle and fishing rod. But soon Birdie realizes she is not prepared for what lies ahead."
The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton
Publication: February 25th, 2025
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover. 288 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org
From Goodreads:
"Dalton Greaves is a hero. He’s one of humankind’s first representatives to Unity, a pan-species confederation working to bring all sentient life into a single benevolent brotherhood.
That’s what they told him, anyway. The only actual members of Unity that he’s ever met are Boreau, a giant snail who seems more interested in plunder than spreading love and harmony, and Boreau’s human sidekick, Neera, who Dalton strongly suspects roped him into this gig so that she wouldn’t become the next one of Boreau’s crew to get eaten by locals while prospecting.
Funny thing, though—turns out there actually is a benevolent confederation out there, working for the good of all life. They call themselves the Assembly, and they really don’t like Unity. More to the point, they really, really don’t like Unity’s new human minions.
When an encounter between Boreau’s scout ship and an Assembly cruiser over a newly discovered world ends badly for both parties, Dalton finds himself marooned, caught between a stickman, one of the Assembly’s nightmarish shock troops, the planet’s natives, who aren’t winning any congeniality prizes themselves, and Neera, who might actually be the most dangerous of the three. To survive, he’ll need to navigate palace intrigue, alien morality, and a proposal that he literally cannot refuse, all while making sure Neera doesn’t come to the conclusion that he’s worth more to her dead than alive.
Part first contact story, part dark comedy, and part bizarre love triangle, The Fourth Consort asks an important how far would you go to survive? And more importantly, how many drinks would you need to go there?"
I've been wanting to add more sci-fi to my reading and this one sounds so interesting! I read Ashton's Mal Goes to War and found it to have a really interesting premise and I've been meaning to read more from him, so this seems like a great option to do so.
Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey
Publication: February 4th, 2025
Random House
Hardcover. 320 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org
From Goodreads:
"Birdie’s keeping it together, of course she is. So she's a little hungover sometimes on her shifts, and she has to bring her daughter Emaleen to work while she waits tables at an Alaskan roadside lodge, but it's a tough town to be a single mother, and Emaleen never goes hungry.
Arthur Neilsen is a soft-spoken recluse, with scars across his face, who brings Emaleen back to safety when she gets lost in the woods one day. He speaks with a strange cadence, appears in town only at the change of seasons, and is avoided by most people. But to Birdie he represents everything she’s ever longed for. He lives in a cabin in the mountains on the far side of the Wolverine River and tells Birdie about the caribou, marmots and wild sheep that share his untamed world. She falls in love with him and the land he knows so well. Against the warnings of those who care about her, Birdie moves to his isolated cabin.
She and her daughter are alone with Arthur in a vast wilderness, hundreds of miles from roads, telephones, electricity, or outside contact, but Birdie believes she has come prepared. She can start a fire and cook on a wood stove. She has her rifle and fishing rod. But soon Birdie realizes she is not prepared for what lies ahead."
Eowyn Ivey's prose is always so gorgeous that I'll pretty much read anything from her no matter what the premise is, so I'm looking forward to checking this one out.
