Book Review: Netherworld by Lisa Morton
Posted on January 19, 2014 Leave a Comment
Book Review: The Grim Company by Luke Scull
Posted on January 18, 2014 1 Comment
The Grim Company by Luke Scull
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Book 1 of The Grim Company
Publisher: Roc
Date of Publication: September 3, 2013
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Okay, I can be pretty out of it sometimes. I picked up Luke Scull’s The Grim Company on account of all the positive buzz surrounding the book, and ended up loving it. But the thing is, I didn’t read many reviews or any information about it ahead of time, so it wasn’t until weeks after I finished the book that I finally found out about all the comparisons made to Joe Abercrombie, an author whose work I adore as well.
In retrospect, I suppose there were a lot of parallels, but at the time I can honestly say I didn’t get that vibe at all, other than the fact both authors write grimdark fantasy about gruff and tough barbarian warriors who love to swear a lot (not a distinction held by any one specific author in the industry, really). In the end I’m glad I went into this book blind, because I found that Luke Scull’s writing shone through with his own style, not to mention the heavy focus on magic and other unique ideas found in his book made me consider it entirely on its own merits.
When it comes to a gritty fantasy adventure, we’re definitely starting out on the right track with a story that spans far and wide in terms of locale and history, featuring settings from palace halls to the northern remote highlands. Five hundred years ago, the Magelords killed the gods and now their tyrant Salazar rules the empire of Dorminia. Meanwhile, his greatest adversary the White Lady plots his demise from across the Broken Sea and seeks to free the people. Far away from both, demonic forces plague the remote mountains in the north.
Book Review: Seoul Survivors by Naomi Foyle
Posted on January 17, 2014 1 Comment
Seoul Survivors by Naomi Foyle (Jo Fletcher)
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Stand Alone
Publication Date: February 6, 2014 (Paperback)
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
It’s only January, but already I have a feeling that this is going to be one of the more “out there” books I’ll read this year. As usual, Jo Fletcher Books continues to push the envelope and explore beyond the boundaries of traditional adult speculative fiction with novels like Seoul Survivor.
COVER LOVER: Behind the Scenes with The Barrow
Posted on January 16, 2014 Leave a Comment
Cover Lover is a feature originally created by our friend and fellow book blogger, Jaedia at Once Upon A Time. Usually, we chat about covers that strike our fancy, of which The Barrow‘s cover most definitely is one, but Eisner award nominated Author and Artist Mark Smylie, Pyr®‘s award-winning Editorial and Art Director Lou Anders and the incredible scifi/fantasy cover Illustrator Gene Mollica have graciously helped me take this feature one giant step further by offering us some insight on the cover design process.
Some covers are more symbolic. Some covers focus on a particular aspect of or event within the story. Some, like this one, seem to directly reflect the book’s description of an epic, swash-buckling adventure. What factors go into selecting a particular image? How closely should the image reflect the actual story or particular elements of the story?
Lou Anders: The most important job for a book cover is that it connects the right book with the right reader. I’ve likened book covers in the past to the patterns and colors of different flowering plants, signalling to the appropriate insects “This is the flower you want; stay away from that one over there. Try this!” Book covers have about thirty seconds or less to catch the casual bookstore browser’s eye, and if they can’t do that, then it doesn’t matter how attractive they are. In fact, before the book ever reaches the shelf, its first (and arguably most important) audience is the book buyer who determines how many copies to buy for his/her store. At Barnes & Noble, that’s one individual, who buys for all of science fiction and fantasy nationally. I think it is wonderful when a book cover depicts its contents accurately and in line with its author’s intent, and we always strive for this, but an accurate representation of the contents is not as important as an accurate presentation of the type of experience the book promises. The most important consideration is that the book cover accurately indicates the promise of the book. That’s it right there. The book cover is a promise, and we need to keep that promise. In this particularly case, a lot of directions were tried and discarded, because, although they were wonderful pieces of art in their own right, they promised a different experience from the one Mark’s story provided.
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| Behind the scenes |
Gene Mollica: To be honest, the decision as to what kind of image is best for a certain book usually happens before it gets to me, the artist – it’s made by the editors, art directors, and publishers based on what they think is most powerful about the book, the market they’re going after, and hopefully some input from the author. Then, they call me with a description, and I concept and create the image – the model, the clothes, the pose, the setting, and the mood. There are all kinds of covers in science fiction/fantasy – I tend to like the ones that are more photographic or photo-real appearing, and dramatically lit. For The Barrow, I had the opportunity to work very closely with both the editor and the author, which doesn’t always happen – Mark actually lives nearby so he came to my office and I showed him my ideas, some models, and the costume design before we did the shoot. I really wanted to bring the gritty tone and the characters to life and I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out.
Mark Smylie: There’s obviously a huge range in terms of sf/fantasy covers, though I think the range in fantasy tends to be a bit more narrow. If it works, The Barrow is a novel about some pretty grim and gritty characters doing some very dangerous and dirty work; I won’t go so far as to call it grimdark, I wasn’t even aware of that term until recently, but if it winds up with that label I don’t think I’d object too hard. It’s kind of like an archetypal Dungeons & Dragons adventure as run through the filter of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels: a predominantly street-level view of the world, loaded with (casual) violence and tension and hopefully some unexpected twists. There are all sorts of other themes and layers that run through the book – well, there are if I was successful as a writer, that is – such as the fate of women in a medieval-style patriarchal culture, the question of who you trust and why, how you decide what you’re loyal to, how history and lineage are bound up in a present reality. I think when Lou and I were initially discussing cover ideas we had discussed a fairly wide range of cover concepts, with some of them hitting more on some of those additional themes and elements rather than focusing on the main vibe of the book. But in the end Lou thought it would be best to really emphasize that gritty quest-narrative that drives the book, and I think the result is spot-on.
How much editorial input is there prior to and during the design process? Does an editor see the design before it is complete? Does the editor have input on what it should look like?
Lou Anders: In this case, I am both Editorial Director and Art Director of Pyr, so yes. This editor commissions the artist, communicates the art brief, views the roughs and art directs the entire process. I also oversea the work of our three very talented in-house designers (Jacqueline Nasso Cooke, Nicole Sommer-Lecht, and Grace M. Conti-Zilsberger).
Gene, what information do you get to work with in order to create a cover? Do you read the story itself, or are you just provided an overview?
Gene Mollica: I was really fortunate with this project because I got a lot more than just the usual brief overview; I had the pleasure of working with two very visual people who like to be hands on. Lou knew very well what he needed and what visual directions to take. Mark is a fabulous artist and provided very clear illustrations and descriptions of each of the characters.
Together we made a great team, as we continued to nail down and refine the concept. We reviewed models / talent for the photography; once we picked the talent, we then discussed wardrobe carefully so that I could start designing the costumes (all of the wardrobes for the characters were custom made by my fabulous costumer).
It got really fun when we realized that both Mark and I lived just minutes from each other – that called for a face to face throw down of who has the best weapons in their arsenal. Mark won, incredibly convenient that he’s also a collector of fine rare medieval weapons. So like two big kids we got into the costumes, weapons, baldric, belts, knives and swords – work life doesn’t get better than this.
So this assignment was a hell of lot of fun, rarely do you get this much direct insight from an editor and the author. Together, hopefully we achieved a great cover.
Mark Smylie: I might take issue with Gene saying I won the arsenal contest. Gene’s got a great collection of weapons and props, certainly far more pieces than I do, and I even had a bit of a geek moment when I spotted the sword he used for the cover of Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold (which I believe wound up being used as Erim’s sword on the cover, though you don’t really get a look at the hilt; there are other pictures from the studio shoot where you can see that it’s the same sword).
As an artist yourself, Mark, did you consider doing the cover? Why or why not? How much input did you have on the process? How do you feel about the end result?
Mark Smylie: Lou actually asked me early on if I wanted to do the cover; I think he assumed the answer would be yes. But I declined. My art style uses a mix of watercolor, colored pencil, and ink line, and I think it works well in comics or in roleplaying game illustrations but maybe less so in the realm of sf/fantasy book covers, which tend to be either painterly, photorealistic, or very design-oriented.
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| Mark Smylie’s Artesia |
Since I come out of comics and graphic novels as a writer/creator/illustrator, I wanted there to be a clear message to the reader: this is a fantasy novel. It’s not a graphic novel in disguise, or somehow translated into a prose work (well, okay, technically it was a screenplay first; but it was never intended to be a comic). So I thought it was important to have someone do the cover who could give it that feeling of “hey, look, it’s an actual fantasy novel.” Lou and I kicked some ideas around – I think the only stipulation I asked was that it couldn’t be someone that I already knew – and at one point he suggested Gene. I had seen a number of Gene’s covers (such as the cover he did for Best Served Cold, and for Brian McClennan’s Promise of Blood and the Powder Mage series) and really loved the idea of a sharp, photorealistic style to it. I was able to provide some details and sketches and sample photos as a kind of look-book for the characters and their equipment, and then as Gene mentioned since it turned out we lived not too far from each other I was able to pop over to his studio and take a look at some of the available weapons and costume choices. With the comic I’ve always tried to inject realism into the armor and weaponry and costuming, and Gene and his costumer have a great sense of how to mix fantasy and historical elements in the look of the character’s clothes. It was fun to be asked to be involved in the process and I really loved Gene’s end result (so much so that I asked Gene to do individual character portraits that I am using on the book’s website, at www.swordandbarrow.com).
Book Review: Ex-Purgatory by Peter Clines
Posted on January 15, 2014 2 Comments
Ex-Purgatory by Peter Clines (Broadway Books)
Genre: Science Fiction Fantasy
Series: Book 4 of Ex-Heroes
Publication Date: January 14, 2014
Author Information: Website
Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
It’s an age of trilogies we live in, so you can’t really blame me when at first I thought Ex-Communication was going to be the end of the Ex-Heroes series. Thank goodness it was not. I was so happy when I finished reading that and found out about Ex-Purgatory, because I don’t think I’m ready to say good bye to this superheroes vs. zombies fest quite yet.
Ex-Purgatory was…strange, though. Despite (or perhaps because of) the fact I’ve been following this series since the beginning, I was thrown for a loop as soon as I started the first page. St. George is now just George Bailey, working as a janitor on a university campus. No super strength, no invulnerability, no flying. No fire-breathing, no nothing! Seriously, I was like, is this like a prequel or something? A flashback? What’s going on?
Well, there’s a reason why the book description is so vague. The story’s sort of a surprise, though a reader who remembers some of the events and characters from the previous books would probably figure it out quite quickly. I’ll just put it this way: you know how when you sit down to watch a Star Trek: The Next Generation marathon and like a Holodeck episode comes on you just immediately know it’s going to be weird? It’s sort of like that.
Fans of movies like Inception or shows like Lost will probably really enjoy this one. And that’s what puzzles me — I normally go nuts over stuff like that and thrive on high levels of weirdness especially when it comes to books like this; I wouldn’t have such a love for this series in the first place if I didn’t. Still, I wasn’t as on board with the story as I’d hoped. Something just felt missing here, and I think it has to do with superpowers and the zombies taking a backseat while the main conflict shifted internally to focus on the heroes trying to figure out what was going on instead.
I still really enjoyed the book; it has a lot of the things I really like about this series, including the action and clever dynamics between all the characters. I’ve always loved how Peter Clines writes about his ensemble casts, the way he gives each person a unique identity and attitude for speaking. It does make for some very entertaining scenes. Take complete polar opposite personalities like Karen Quilt AKA Stealth and Barry Burke AKA Zzzap, for example, throw them into a conversation together and watch the fur fly and dialogue flow. The satirical take on superhero archetypes still also makes me chuckle.
As for the main plot, methinks how it’ll be received will depend on the invidual reader. I think it’s slightly darker in tone than the last three books, and Clines was definitely out to try something a little different with the whole idea behind this story. Others will probably love it, even if I personally wasn’t completely sold (though, I still think I should have been. And I still feel somewhat like a wet blanket that that wasn’t the case). I just love these heroes and their powers so much, and to read about how all of them have forgotten who they are for so much of the book just feels…too odd!
Don’t get me wrong, this was nevertheless very good. Yes, it’s different but whether it’s a welcome or unwelcome change, you’ll just have to read it and be the judge of it yourself!
Waiting on Wednesday 01/15/14
Posted on January 15, 2014 Leave a Comment
“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that lets us feature upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!
Welcome to the Lockstep Empire, where civilization is kept alive by careful hibernation. Here cold sleeps can last decades and waking moments mere weeks. Its citizens survive for millenia, traveling asleep on long voyages between worlds. Not only is Lockstep the new center of the galaxy, but Toby is shocked to learn that the Empire is still ruled by its founding family: his own. Toby’s brother Peter has become a terrible tyrant.
Suspicious of the return of his long-lost brother, whose rightful inheritance also controls the lockstep hibernation cycles, Peter sees Toby as a threat to his regime. Now, with the help of a lockstep girl named Corva, Toby must survive the forces of this new Empire, outwit his siblings, and save human civilization.”
Book Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Posted on January 14, 2014 2 Comments
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Series: Book 1 of Red Rising
Publisher: Del Rey
Date of Publication: January 28, 2014
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Whoa, where do I start? My head is still reeling with all the things I have to say about Red Rising. Now let’s just hope I can consolidate them all into a coherent review without having it devolve into unrestrained, mindless gushing. In any case, I expect this book will be wildly popular — though only time will tell, of course. Nonetheless, 2014 appears to be off to a great start with debuts like this one from Pierce Brown.
Meet Darrow, a miner on Mars. His people, the Reds, occupy the lowest rungs of society. And like all Reds, Darrow is resigned to a life of hard labor, of digging under the planet’s surface for the rest of his days. He thought it was for a noble cause, that his hard work will provide future generations a safe place to call home. Except, as it turns out, it was all a lie. Mars had been habitable for generations, and the decadent Golds have been maintaining this charade all along to uphold their hierarchical system of castes and slaves.
Let me just get it out of the way now and say that comparisons to The Hunger Games will be inevitable. You have a dystopian society featuring a main protagonist who rises from the poorest, most downtrodden and oppressed section of it, hoping to destroy the system from within. But before that can happen, he has to go through a transformation to help him fit in with his enemies. You have a competition in which the hero must come out on top at all costs. The war games involved are observed by many, in this case the Proctors of the Institute as well as thousands of Aureates and important Golds who follow the results eagerly, hoping to find their future apprentices amongst the competitors.
But now that that’s taken care of, I can also tell you all the ways it was different. First and foremost, the world of Red Rising is hands down in a league of its own. The descriptions of the society and its people and its cultures all overwhelmed me. I credit much of this to Pierce Brown’s writing, which is just gorgeous. How does he do it? How does he paint the picture of a life as a Red with so much suffering, hardship, and horrors and yet still manages to fill it with so much beauty? The first chapters were simply astounding, introducing you to Darrow, who comes across as much older than his sixteen years thanks to the experiences he’s had as Helldiver, the most dangerous position on a drilling team. His people value song and dance, because even in the darkness there is a kind of hope in expression through music. It’s all so lovely, just absolutely surprising and heart-breaking.
Oops, I’m treading dangerously into gushing-territory now, aren’t I? Thing is, so much of my thoughts for what I read is tied up in emotion, and no question about it, this one gave me all the feels. There’s a keen bite to the story, which will rub your emotions raw if you’re not expecting it. Even knowing beforehand that some terrible event is going to set Darrow off on his mission for justice, I was not prepared for the number Red Rising did on my poor, battered emotions. I’m not typically one to give in to tears while reading, but when I saw that we weren’t even fifty pages in yet and I felt like bawling my eyes out, I knew at that very moment I was holding a truly remarkable book in my hands.
It only gets better. That darkness and poignancy lasts for the whole book, even when the focus shifts to the games at the Institute. Saying that all hell breaks loose at this point would be a gross understatement — but in a good way. Oh, in the best way. I expect this is where most people will draw parallels to The Hunger Games, but interestingly enough, my own mind went straight to Age of Empires. No doubt it’s the gamer side of me coming through, for I could not read about the characters gathering resources, dividing their forces up for different tasks, commanding armies and conquering other Houses’ bases and their Fog of War maps without reminiscing about some of my favorite real-time strategy games with fondness.
Seeing as how the game at the Institute makes up the bulk of this novel, this book would have been anywhere near as addicting or intense for me if not for the descriptions of the tactics and strategies involved. And yet, it is still a very human story; Pierce Brown takes the reader straight down to the trenches where we experience everything from terror and triumph as the competitors fight tooth and nail to try and conquer each other. One could hardly miss the symbolism behind it, a decadent pantheon watching on with amusement as the puny mortals below go at each other like depraved animals.
Ultimately, comparisons will probably abound no matter what. But none of them will change the fact that Red Rising is a very special book, filled with beautiful and terrible things in equal measure. It definitely has what it takes to shine on its own, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Designing A Kitsune – A Guest Post by M.L. Brennan + IRON NIGHT GIVEAWAY
Posted on January 13, 2014 2 Comments
Join us at this first stop as we kick off the Blog Tour for Iron Night by M.L. Brennan! We here at the BiblioSanctum are thrilled to have M.L. with us today, sharing with us her inspirations and insights. Forget werewolves, gimme KITSUNE! Iron Night is the newly released sequel to the brilliant Generation V and if you enjoy Urban Fantasy, then you’ll definitely want to check out these books!
Also be sure to stick around at the end of this post for our giveaway information on how to win your very own copy of Iron Night!
by M.L. Brennan
One of the earliest decisions I made when I started writing my urban fantasy Generation V was that I was going to be working with vampires. With that one decision, I waded into perhaps the most excessively written and re-written monster in urban fantasy (rivaled only by werewolves, with elves a very distant third), so my next decision was that I needed to balance my vampires out with a monster that was a lot less typical. I also really wanted to work with something that wasn’t out of the Western tradition, and after a little bit of exploration, that led me to the Japanese myth of the kitsune.
Kitsune are a fox shapeshifter that has a strong presence in the fables of Japan, China, and Korea (with some distinct differences between cultures – I went with a Japanese version, which is why you won’t see my kitsune character, Suzume, hankering after human livers, which she would’ve had she been based off of the Korean kitsune!). My introduction to them came when I read Neil Gaiman’s beautiful graphic novel The Dream Hunters (a standalone in his Sandman series), which is a very lovely and tragic story about a fox who falls in love with a monk. This is actually a good example of how long a particular idea can percolate in the back of a writer’s mind – I read The Dream Hunters when I was a freshman in college, and it was ten years later when I made the decision to use kitsune.
The kitsune offered a lot for me – they haven’t been explored too much in urban fantasy, and I also liked that unlike werewolves (which as a creature we’ve almost communally agreed on as a fairly male-dominated and chauvinistic creature) there was a really natural opportunity to set the kitsune up as a largely female-oriented society.
And that was as far as my initial thinking went. Because that was as much as I knew about the kitsune, and it was all filtered through a secondary source. I wanted to get a better handle on the myth, so I wanted to get as close to primary sources as I could get. This wasn’t perfect – after all, I had very foolishly taken Latin classes rather than learning Japanese, so that held me back from the research ideal of reading stories and fables in the original language. (I drew a big line at learning the language to do research – sorry!) I read two books of translated folk tales – The Moon Maiden and Other Japanese Fairy Tales by Grace James and Kwaidan: Ghost Stories and Strange Tales of Old Japan by Lafcadio Hearn. There are a few really interesting stories of kitsune in these, and it was how I learned how very malleable the presentation of kitsune was. In some stories the kitsune were acting maliciously toward humans, but in others they were simple pranksters who could be scolded into proper behavior. Sometimes they even acted benevolently toward those who had done them favors – and in a few really lovely stories there were tragic romances between human men and fox women. There was a complexity that I thought was really fascinating, because the agency seemed to be on the part of the fox – they were the deciding factor of their behavior, not the humans who interacted with them. Reading the fairy tales was also important because folk stories are usually representative of the culture that they come out of – read the fables of a culture and you will see what traits are valued by the society, and what behavior is being held up as an example. The kitsune in my books is a third-generation Japanese-American, but her cultural heritage is from Japan – these were the stories that she would’ve been told as a child.
In addition to the fables, I also read Fox by Martin Wallen, which talked both about foxes as a species and foxes as a cultural icon in various societies. The final book (and the best) was a graduate thesis that I was able to get my hands on through a university library loan system called The Fox’s Craft in Japanese Religion and Folklore by Michael Bathgate. This was great not only because there were stories in it that I hadn’t seen in the fairy tale books, but it also analyzed what the kitsune meant culturally in Japan, which involved an analysis of women’s positions in society during the height of the stories.
All of that was crucial background… at which point I got to take all of that information and translate it into how I wanted kitsune to work in my books. For one thing, I wanted to have kitsune in Providence, Rhode Island, and I wanted them to have a strong sense of identity – these weren’t going to be New England housewives who changed into foxes on the sly (I think that’s the plotline to the kitsune version of Bewitched, actually!). I’d built the vampires as almost the feudal overlords of the East Coast, but I wanted the kitsune to be a powerful and individualistic group (if you’re a history buff, kind of like the Marcher Lords were in feudal England). So the kitsune who appear in my books are one family unit, and are all descended from the original immigrant from a post-World War II Japan: Atsuko, the White Fox. I ended up writing quite a few powerful (in every sense of the word) female characters and elder matriarchs in Generation V, but Atsuko was one of my favorites. She was a geisha who, following the death of her entire family in the first atomic bomb attack, came to a new land, made strong alliances, and rebuild a family. She’s only in one scene in the first book, but I always feel like she has a long shadow. My kitsune Suzume might not be afraid of much, but she’s always very aware of her grandmother, who is one of a very select few people who she knows she can’t handle or manipulate.
I actually got a little bit of flack from a few reviewers about making the kitsune family geisha – some people said that it was exploitative because it made them sex workers. Geisha society is actually a really interesting piece of history and culture, and extremely complex. Was there a bit of sex for money? Sure. But there was also a strong artistic presence – geisha were dancers, musicians, singers, and poets, and during their height in the 1800s many of them were purely entertainers. There was also a social aspect to the geisha – they would be hired to come to parties, but not to provide sex. Instead they provided conversation and hostess duties. The geisha houses themselves were what actually made my decision to have Atsuko be a former geisha – these were matriarchal societies. The women ran the businesses, handled the money, trained daughters or nieces to follow in their paths, and were economically independent. For my foxes to be able to preserve their own society and customs, but not have the fear that a group always in hiding would have bred into them, they needed a place in society that was in the general social net yet at the same time distinct and private. Out and about, they look like women, but in their homes they would always be kitsune – foxes first, then women. That wouldn’t have been possible if they’d been balancing duped husbands and nosy village neighbors (everything, ironically, that made poor Samantha’s life so tough in Bewitched – wow, I did not expect that reference to come full circle like it did!).
Of course, in America my kitsune family runs an escort business, but they’ve moved into the management roles. There is nothing even close to the geisha in American society, and Atsuko would’ve been building a new life for herself in 1950s America – not exactly a time conducive to a woman building not only her own self-sustaining business, but passing it forward to daughters and granddaughters who would not be bothering with husbands.
All of this is part of the framework that went behind Suzume. In Generation V her role was much more up in the air – I had longterm plans for her, but as a big plot point I wanted the reader to believe that at any minute she was capable of ditching my main character. That changes in the sequel, Iron Night. The friendship between Fort and Suzume is much stronger now, and as a result Suze is clearly strapped in for wherever things take them. Those cultural elements were really important when I was writing Iron Night, since as I was writing I never got a sense that she was just tagging along – my understanding of Suzume was that there was a big part of her that is convinced that without her looking out for him, Fort is likely to trade his car for magic beans or possibly even walk off the side of a cliff. In this friendship, she’s the stronger, tougher one – and Fort knows and respects that. Iron Night was also a chance for me to start showcasing more of the kitsune – the dynamics of this complicated and sprawling family as well as their stories and beliefs. I won’t give too much away, but there is a moment in the book where Suzume tells Fort a story that her own mother used to tell her as a child, and it was something that I was so incredibly excited to write since I’d literally had that scene in my mind since some of the early planning stages of the series itself.
Right now I’m working on the third book in the series, Tainted Blood, and I’m getting to explore the kitsune even further there. A few threads that are hinted at as early as Generation V are just getting fleshed out, and I’m really excited about where all of it is going!
2014: Most Anticipated Science Fiction & Fantasy Books Written By Women
Posted on January 12, 2014 1 Comment
*Our Most Anticipated Science Fiction & Fantasy Books Written by Women 2016 Edition!
*Our Most Anticipated Science Fiction & Fantasy Books Written by Women 2015 Edition!
Inspired by this twitter conversation, we’ve decided to put together a “Top Most Anticipated Books Written by Women” list. Needless to say, there are a TON of books by women we’re looking forward to in 2014 and here are some of the ones we’re just dying to get our hands on! Let’s expand our scope and explore the genre to see what amazing books are out there.
The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan (March 4, 2014)
Goodreads Description: The thrilling adventure of Lady Trent continues in Marie Brennan’s The Tropic of Serpents . . .
Attentive readers of Lady Trent’s earlier memoir, A Natural History of Dragons, are already familiar with how a bookish and determined young woman named Isabella first set out on the historic course that would one day lead her to becoming the world’s premier dragon naturalist. Now, in this remarkably candid second volume, Lady Trent looks back at the next stage of her illustrious (and occasionally scandalous) career.
Three years after her fateful journeys through the forbidding mountains of Vystrana, Mrs. Camherst defies family and convention to embark on an expedition to the war-torn continent of Eriga, home of such exotic draconian species as the grass-dwelling snakes of the savannah, arboreal tree snakes, and, most elusive of all, the legendary swamp-wyrms of the tropics.
Honor’s Knight by Rachel Bach (February 25, 2014)
Goodreads Description: The rollicking sequel to Fortune’s Pawn — an action packed science fiction novel.
Devi Morris has a lot of problems. And not the fun, easy-to-shoot kind either.
After a mysterious attack left her short several memories and one partner, she’s determined to keep her head down, do her job, and get on with her life. But even though Devi’s not actually looking for it — trouble keeps finding her. She sees things no one else can, the black stain on her hands is growing, and she is entangled with the cook she’s supposed to hate.
But when a deadly crisis exposes far more of the truth than she bargained for, Devi discovers there’s worse fates than being shot, and sometimes the only people you can trust are the ones who want you dead.
Murder by Sarah Pinborough (April 24, 2014)
Goodreads Description: Dr. Thomas Bond, Police Surgeon, is still recovering from the event of the previous year when Jack the Ripper haunted the streets of London – and a more malign enemy hid in his shadow. Bond and the others who worked on the gruesome case are still stalked by its legacies, both psychological and tangible.
But now the bodies of children are being pulled from the Thames… and Bond is about to become inextricably linked with an uncanny, undying enemy.
Iron Night by M.L. Brennan (January 7, 2014)
Underachieving film theory graduate and vampire Fortitude Scott may be waiting tables at a snooty restaurant run by a tyrannical chef who hates him, but the other parts of his life finally seem to be stabilizing. He’s learning how to rule the Scott family territory, hanging out more with his shapeshifting friend Suzume Hollis, and has actually found a decent roommate for once.
Until he finds his roommate’s dead body.
The Scott family cover-up machine swings into gear, but Fort is the only person trying to figure out who (or what) actually killed his friend. His hunt for a murderer leads to a creature that scares even his sociopathic family, and puts them all in deadly peril.
Keeping secrets, killing monsters, and still having to make it to work on time? Sometimes being a vampire really sucks
Three Princes by Ramona Wheeler (February 4, 2014)
Goodreads Description: Lord Scott Oken, a prince of Albion, and Professor-Prince Mikel Mabruke live in a world where the sun never set on the Egyptian Empire. In the year 1877 of Our Lord Julius Caesar, Pharaoh Djoser-George governs a sprawling realm that spans Europe, Africa, and much of Asia. When the European terrorist Otto von Bismarck touches off an international conspiracy, Scott and Mik are charged with exposing the plot against the Empire.
Their adventure takes them from the sands of Memphis to a lush New World, home of the Incan Tawantinsuyu, a rival empire across the glittering Atlantic Ocean. Encompassing Quetzal airships, operas, blood sacrifice and high diplomacy, Three Princes is a richly imagined, cinematic vision of a modern Egyptian Empire.
Moth and Spark by Anne Leonard (February 20, 2014)
Goodreads Description: A prince with a quest. A commoner with mysterious powers. And dragons that demand to be freed—at any cost.
Prince Corin has been chosen to free the dragons from their bondage to the Empire, but dragons aren’t big on directions. They have given him some of their power, but none of their knowledge. No one, not the dragons nor their riders, is even sure what keeps the dragons in the Empire’s control.
Tam, sensible daughter of a well-respected doctor, had no idea before she arrived in the capital that she is a Seer, gifted with visions. When the two run into each other (quite literally) in the library, sparks fly and Corin impulsively asks Tam to dinner. But it’s not all happily ever after. Never mind that the prince isn’t allowed to marry a commoner: war is coming to Caithen.
Torn between Corin’s quest to free the dragons and his duty to his country, the lovers must both figure out how to master their powers in order to save Caithen. With a little help from a village of secret wizards and a rogue dragonrider, they just might pull it off.
Night Broken by Patricia Briggs (March 11, 2014)
Goodreads Description: An unexpected phone call heralds a new challenge for Mercy. Her mate Adam’s ex-wife is in trouble, on the run from her new boyfriend. Adam isn’t the kind of man to turn away a person in need—and Mercy knows it. But with Christy holed up in Adam’s house, Mercy can’t shake the feeling that something about the situation isn’t right.
Soon, her suspicions are confirmed when she learns that Christy has the farthest thing from good intentions. She wants Adam back and she’s willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen, including turning Adam’s pack against Mercy.
Mercy isn’t about to step down without a fight, but there’s a more dangerous threat circling. Christy’s ex is more than a bad man—in fact, he may not be human at all. As the bodies start piling up, Mercy must put her personal troubles aside to face a creature with the power to tear her whole world apart.
The Lascar’s Dagger by Glenda Larke (March 18, 2014)
Goodreads Description: Faith will not save him.
Saker appears to be a simple priest, but in truth he’s a spy for the head of his faith. Wounded in the line of duty by a Lascar sailor’s blade, the weapon seems to follow him home. Unable to discard it, nor the sense of responsibility it brings, Saker can only follow its lead.
The dagger puts Saker on a journey to distant shores, on a path that will reveal terrible secrets about the empire, about the people he serves, and destroy the life he knows. The Lascar’s dagger demands a price, and that price will be paid in blood.
Blades of the Old Empire by Anna Kashina (February 25, 2014)
Kara is a mercenary – a Diamond warrior, the best of the best, part of the Majat Guild. When her tenure to Prince Kythar comes to an end, he wishes to retain her services, but bust accompany her back to her Guild to negotiate her continued protection.
When they arrive they discover that the prince’s sworn enemy, the Kaddim, have already paid the Guild to engage her services – to capture and hand over the prince (who she has grown very fond of).
A warrior brought up to respect both duty and honour, what happens when her sworn duty proves dishonourable?
The Three by Sarah Lotz (May 20, 2014)
Goodreads Description: Four simultaneous plane crashes. Three child survivors. A religious fanatic who insists the three are harbingers of the apocalypse. What if he’s right?
The world is stunned when four commuter planes crash within hours of each other on different continents. Facing global panic, officials are under pressure to find the causes. With terrorist attacks and environmental factors ruled out, there doesn’t appear to be a correlation between the crashes, except that in three of the four air disasters a child survivor is found in the wreckage.
Dubbed ‘The Three’ by the international press, the children all exhibit disturbing behavioural problems, presumably caused by the horror they lived through and the unrelenting press attention. This attention becomes more than just intrusive when a rapture cult led by a charismatic evangelical minister insists that the survivors are three of the four harbingers of the apocalypse. The Three are forced to go into hiding, but as the children’s behaviour becomes increasingly disturbing, even their guardians begin to question their miraculous survival…
The Leopard by K.V. Johansen (June 10, 2014)
Goodreads Description: Part one of a two-book epic fantasy, set in a world as richly drawn as J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth, but with Mideastern and Eastern flavors.
In the days of the first kings in the North, there were seven devils…
Ahjvar, the assassin known as the Leopard, wants only to die, to end the curse that binds him to a life of horror. Although he has no reason to trust the goddess Catairanach or her messenger Deyandara, fugitive heir to a murdered tribal queen, desperation leads him to accept her bargain: if he kills the mad prophet known as the Voice of Marakand, Catairanach will free him of his curse. Accompanying him on his mission is the one person he has let close to him in a lifetime of death, a runaway slave named Ghu. Ahj knows Ghu is far from the half-wit others think him, but in Marakand, the great city where the caravan roads of east and west meet, both will need to face the deepest secrets of their souls, if either is to survive the undying enemies who hunt them and find a way through the darkness that damns the Leopard.
To Marakand, too, come a Northron wanderer and her demon verrbjarn lover, carrying the obsidian sword Lakkariss, a weapon forged by the Old Great Gods to bring their justice to the seven devils who escaped the cold hells so long before.
Red Delicious by Kathleen Tierney/Caitlín R. Kiernan (February 4, 2014)
Siobhan Quinn is back and working a new case in the dark and satirical sequel to Blood Oranges.
Half-vampire, half-werewolf Siobhan Quinn survived her initiation into the world of demons and monsters. But staying alive as she becomes entangled in underworld politics might prove to be more difficult. When the daughter of a prominent necromancer vanishes, it’s up to Quinn to find the girl. But her search will land her directly in the middle of a struggle between competing forces searching for an ancient artifact of almost unimaginable power…
The Copper Promise by Jen Williams (February 13, 2014)
Goodreads Description: There are some far-fetched rumours about the caverns beneath the Citadel…
Some say the mages left their most dangerous secrets hidden there; others, that great riches are hidden there; even that gods have been imprisoned in its darkest depths.
For Lord Frith, the caverns hold the key to his vengeance. Against all the odds, he has survived torture and lived to see his home and his family taken from him … and now someone is going to pay. For Wydrin of Crosshaven and her faithful companion, Sir Sebastian Caverson, a quest to the Citadel looks like just another job. There’s the promise of gold and adventure. Who knows, they might even have a decent tale or two once they’re done.
But sometimes there is truth in rumour.
Soon this reckless trio will be the last line of defence against a hungry, restless terror that wants to tear the world apart. And they’re not even getting paid.
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (April 1, 2014)
The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an “accident,” he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir.
Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment.
Surrounded by sycophants eager to curry favor with the naïve new emperor, and overwhelmed by the burdens of his new life, he can trust nobody. Amid the swirl of plots to depose him, offers of arranged marriages, and the specter of the unknown conspirators who lurk in the shadows, he must quickly adjust to life as the Goblin Emperor. All the while, he is alone, and trying to find even a single friend… and hoping for the possibility of romance, yet also vigilant against the unseen enemies that threaten him, lest he lose his throne – or his life.
The Path to Power by Karen Miller (July 8, 2014)
Goodreads Description: In the distant past, the Kingdom of Harcia was torn apart by royal brothers who could not accept a lesser inheritance. Now, the consequences of their actions are coming to light.
Balfre, son of Aimery, Duke of Harcia, is his father’s heir. But he has dreams of a crown, not a coronet. He dreams himself the king of a Harcia re-united, but his brother Grefin, their father’s favorite, stands in his way.
Harald, debauched Duke of neighboring Clemen, is feared and despised by his nobles. He thinks he can trust his bastard-born cousin Ederic … but Ederic fears for the duchy and will do what he must to save it.
And caught between dangers is Harald’s infant son, Liam. Stolen by his nurse, vanished into the lawless Marches, he is the spark that will grow to set the world on fire.
Reign of Ash by Gail Z Martin (April 1, 2014)
Blaine McFadden survived six years in the brutal Velant prison colony, exiled for murder. When war devastates his homeland of Donderath, it also destroys the intentional magic on which Donderath and its fellow kingdoms rely. Blaine and a small group of fellow exiles return to a lawless wasteland where unrestrained magic storms appear and disappear unpredictably and monsters roam the ruins.
Yet rumors persist that the seeds of a new magic rests with a dangerous, ancient ritual and a handful of survivors who have disappeared. McFadden resolves to find these survivors and work the ritual, despite the danger, to restore the magic and end the chaos. He rallies a small and desperate army for a last stand, knowing that if they fail, the civilization of the Ascendant Kingdoms dies with them.
Dreamwalker by C.S. Friedman (February 4, 2014)
Goodreads Description: All her life Jessica Drake has dreamed of other worlds, some of them similar to her own, others disturbingly alien. She never shares the details with anyone, save her younger brother Tommy, a compulsive gamer who incorporates some aspects of Jessica’s dreams into his games. But now someone is asking about those dreams…and about her. A strange woman has been watching her house. A visitor to her school attempts to take possession of her dream-inspired artwork.
Why?
As she begins to search for answers it becomes clear that whoever is watching her does not want her to learn the truth. One night her house catches on fire, and when the smoke clears she discovers that her brother has been kidnapped. She must figure out what is going on, and quickly, if she and her family are to be safe.
Astra by Naomi Foyle (February 6, 2014)
Description from Jo Fletcher Books: Like every child in Is-Land, all Astra Ordott wants is to have her Security Shot, do her National Service and defend her Gaian homeland from Non-Lander ‘infiltrators’. But when one of her Shelter mothers, the formidable Dr Hokma Blesser, tells her the shot will limit her chances of becoming a scientist and offers her an alternative, Astra agrees to her plan.
When the orphaned Lil arrives to share Astra’s home, Astra is torn between jealousy and fascination. Lil’s father taught her some alarming ideas about Is-Land and the world, but when she pushes Astra too far, the heartache that results goes far beyond the loss of a friend.
If she is to survive, Astra must learn to deal with devastating truths about Is-Land, Non-Land and the secret web of adult relationships that surrounds her.
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (August 2014)
Amazon description: This is the way the world ends. Again.
Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.
Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She’ll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.
The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord (August 2014)
Goodreads description: For years, Rafi Delarua saw his family suffer under his father’s unethical use of psionic power. Now the government has Rafi under close watch, but, hating their crude attempts to analyse his brain, he escapes to the planet Punartam, where his abilities are the norm, not the exception. Punartam is also the centre for his favourite sport, wallrunning – and thanks to his best friend, he has found a way to train with the elite. But Rafi soon realises he’s playing quite a different game, for the galaxy is changing; unrest is spreading and the Zhinuvian cartels are plotting, making the stars a far more dangerous place to aim. There may yet be one solution – involving interstellar travel, galactic power and the love of a beautiful game.
Sunstone by Freya Robertson (April 2014)
Description from Angry Robot Books: The Incendi elementals that dwell beneath the mountains have found a way to tap into the Arbor’s roots, which stretch not only across the land but also through time, and King Pyra is determined to crush the ancient tree.
Twenty-two years after the defeat of the Darkwater Lords, Chonrad’s widow Procella and their three children are drawn back to Heartwood to investigate the rumour of strange fires springing up across the land. Across three separate timelines, the heroes must battle to join together their ancient sunstones, to overcome the Incendi threat, and to protect the Arbor and make earth victorious once more.
Book Review: Warrior of the West by M.K. Hume
Posted on January 12, 2014 Leave a Comment
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