Well look at that. Another new year.

What’s in store at Five Rivers Publishing this year? Oh my, such a lot. We’re building on the successes of previous years with a line-up of new releases we think are going to fascinate you.

February 1

First up is a remarkable and prodigious work of experimental archaeology in Michelle Enzinas’ Big Buttes Book: Annotated Dyets Dry Dinner (1599), by Henry Buttes, with Elizabethan Recipes. This is a fascinating tome.

In 1599, Henry Buttes wrote a slightly comical cookbook for the Bacon family to raise funds for the construction of a church.

For the first time in modern history you may review Buttes’ eight course feast based on the Elizabethan humours, edited for the modern kitchen. Original recipes, commentary on the medieval humours of each main ingredient, stories to amuse a Tudor noble, and explanations of Buttes’ dry witticisms (plus a comprehensive glossary) make this book both the resource and discussion piece of your explorations into Tudor cuisine.

For those who like to experiment with cooking and want to have some historical fun playing in the kitchen or at the campfire, this book is for you.

April 1

A new, beautifully woven tale, Diamonds in Black Sand, from Ann Marston, author of the much-beloved Rune Blades of Celi, releases April 1. Bound by a family obligation to his uncle. The call of the Wildesea. Dreams of being an Outsider like his father before him. These are the things that drive young Iain of Celyddon. And now he finds the magic that governs the Out-ships runs through his veins, a magic made outlaw by the new king. And sometimes life’s direction shifts. Sometimes despite all best intentions a young lad finds himself outlaw, on the run, and caught in the clash between obligation, duty and a higher calling.

The second in Leslie Gadallah’s Empire of Kaz series, Cat’s Gambit, releases April 1. Orian has been overrun by the Kaz, who are bent on exterminating the Oriani. A few Oriani have escaped and struggle to eke out an existence on alien worlds. Ayyah thinks she has found a way to get them back home where they can thrive. She recruits a couple of human pirates and a few Lleveci warriors to aid her in the task, but no one involved knew how much her scheme would cost.

We’re also releasing a debut novel from Toronto author, Michael Skeet, A Poisoned Prayer. 

En garde! Paris, in the 1680s. Dashing swordsmen compete for the favours of licentious women, and magic—God’s Blessing—is strong enough that prayers really are answered.

Into the City of Light comes Lise de Trouvaille, a young noblewoman of modest means and no apparent Blessing, searching for an advantageous marriage. But the first eligible man she meets—during a werewolf attack, no less—is exactly the wrong person. Rafael, duc de Bellevasse, is at once too good for her and too bad (he is both the scion of one of the great families of France and a scoundrel presumed to be in league with the Devil, paying huge sums for death-magic spells).

Knowing they are wrong for each other, Lise and Rafael find themselves drawn into plots and conspiracies combining a peasant uprising with the glittering aristocracy surrounding the imperial court. Each has a reason for wanting to solve a series of murders. And each has more than one reason for wanting to avoid the attentions of Nicolas de La Reynie, lieutenant-general of the Paris police and a man who knows, more than most, that something is going badly wrong in Paris.

May 1

A revised edition of From Mountains of Ice, by Lorina Stephens, releases in May. Midwest Book Review said:

From Mountains of ice is an entertaining and original fantasy…highly recommended.

August 1

Another truly original YA SF releases in August, this time a debut from Ontario author, Tim Armstrong. Avians. 

Orphans. Runaways. Thieves. The Avians don’t ask questions about a girl’s past. Or her age. They need glider pilots, and the smaller the better.

Raisa is fourteen. Born to a line of powerful silk merchants, her rebellion against an arranged marriage is doomed. The Avians are her only alternative. Mel is the young servant blamed for Raisa’s disappearance. She meets an Avian recruiter and seizes the chance to spite her employer. When Mel and Raisa are sworn in with two other girls to form Blackbird squad, their simmering conflict undermines the whole team.

The flying is difficult, the discipline is fierce, and the older pilots don’t even bother to learn their names. The Blackbirds are starting to look like the weakest squad in years. Then a deadly accident reveals the truth: only the best survive.

October 1

Joe Mahoney makes his debut with a romping YA SF, A Time and a Place. 

Barnabus J. Wildebear’s life steps off a cliff when his nephew, Ridley, is recruited by an enigmatic alien to help fight a war half-way across the galaxy. As Ridley’s only living relative, nothing means more to Wildebear than keeping Ridley safe. Unfortunately, rescuing Ridley means travelling through a dangerous portal capable of transporting Wildebear not only to other worlds and times, but into the very minds of alien beings. Just about anywhere, it seems, except where Wildebear actually wants to go.

Trying to save Ridley, Wildebear is forced to evade alien armies, survive telepathic assaults, and inhabit the minds of monsters, aliens and even a seagull, all while navigating the titanic clash between two ancient powers. Is there even such a thing as choice? Is all this trouble worth it for an ungrateful teenager who doesn’t even want to be saved?

Yet Wildebear cannot fail. To do so would mean failing not only his nephew and humanity, but himself.

Prime Ministers of Canada Series

Throughout the year we’ll also be releasing several books in our Prime Ministers of Canada series, building upon this great resource and fascinating history.

Hope you will join us this year in the grand adventure that is Five Rivers Publishing.