Newsletter :: August 2016
- A review of John Brhel and J. Sullivan's Marvelry's Curiosity Shop
John Brhel and J. Sullivan's Marvelry's Curiosity Shop was published by Cemetery Gates Media in July 2016.Information about the publisher:
Cemetery Gates Media is a horror-fantasy fiction publisher from Binghamton, N.Y., founded by long-time friends John Brhel and J. Sullivan.
facebook.com/cemeterygatesmedia
Information about the authors:
John Brhel is a horror writer from upstate New York. His work has appeared in "The Vault of Ghastly Tales." He is the co-author of "Tales From Valleyview Cemetery"." He blogs at http://cemeterygatesmedia.tumblr.com. His Twitter handle is @JohnBrhel.
Joseph Sullivan is a writer of horror tales (Tales from Valleyview Cemetery), occult fantasy (Marvelry's Curiosity Shop), explorer of urban legend (upcoming Route 12: The Legend Trip) hiker, songwriter, and co-founder of Cemetery Gates Media. His long-term writing goal is to combine his love of poetry, the American novel, and Upstate New York into one cohesive work of fiction.
Information about Marvelry's Curiosity Shop:
Retired stage magician Dr. Marvelry prefers to stock his antique store with strange and occult items. He has always enjoyed meeting odd people and hearing their stories, the legends attached to mysterious objects. A phonograph that seemingly replays a tragedy. Fertility dolls that are more than decoration. A bedeviled mannequin. These are just some of the relics this eccentric shopkeeper has collected over the years.
No two customers will have the same experience in his curiosity shop - some walk away satisfied, others are never heard from again. But one thing is certain - when you purchase an item at this store, you often get more than what you paid for.
Follow Marvelry and his hexed objects through twelve tales of suspense, magic, terror, and transformation. Meet his new assistant, fellow illusionists, and some irregular characters along the way. Whatever macabre artifact of the human psyche you're seeking - you'll find something special in Marvelry's Curiosity Shop.
A REVIEW OF JOHN BRHEL AND J. SULLIVAN'S MARVELRY'S CURIOSITY SHOP
- A review of Michael Swanwick's Not So Much, Said the Cat
Michael Swanwick's short story collection Not So Much, Said the Cat will be published by Tachyon Publications in August 2016.Information about Michael Swanwick:
Michael Swanwick is one of the most acclaimed science-fiction and fantasy short-story writers of his generation, having received an unprecedented five consecutive Hugo Awards. He is also the winner of the Theodore Sturgeon and World Fantasy awards. Swanwick’s novels include The Iron Dragon's Daughter, a New York Times Notable Book, and the Nebula Award-winning Stations of the Tide. His short fiction has appeared in many venues, including OMNI, Penthouse, Amazing, Asimov's Science Fiction, New Dimensions, and Full Spectrum, and his work has been translated into more than ten languages. Swanwick is currently at work on a third novel set in Industrialized Faerie. He lives in Pennsylvania.
Click here to visit his official website.
Information about Not So Much, Said the Cat:
The master of literary science fiction reinvents it this dazzling new collection. Michael Swanwick takes us on a whirlwind journey across the globe and across time and space, where magic and science exist in possibilities that are not of this world. Swanwick's tales are intimate in their telling, galactic in their scope, and delightfully sesquipedalian in their verbiage.
Travel from Norway to Russia and America to Gehenna. Discover a calculus problem that rocks the ages and robots who both nurture and kill. Meet a magical horse who protects the innocent, a semi-repentant troll, a savvy teenager who takes on the Devil, and time travelers from the Mesozoic who party till the end of time.
Join the caravan through Michael Swanwick's worlds and into the playground of his mind.
A REVIEW OF MICHAEL SWANWICK'S NOT SO MUCH, SAID THE CAT
- A review of J.R. Hamantaschen's Faithfully and Lovingly
J.R. Hamantaschen's Faithfully and Lovingly was published by West Pigeon Press in July 2016.Information about J.R. Hamantaschen:
J.R. is a part time fiction writer. His work has appeared in several dozen magazines and anthologies. Generally disdainful of publicizing himself or his work, he has published intermittently, never maintained a personal website, and changed his surname frequently over the years. His debut short story collection, You Shall Never Know Security, was published in 2011. His second short story collection, With a Voice that is Often Still Confused But is Becoming Ever Louder and Clearer, was published in 2015.
Information about Faithfully and Lovingly:
Brian and Katie, a young couple living in Washington, D.C., find themselves in a monstrous situation and facing an unexpected and horrifying moral dilemma. A story of anger, fidelity, morality and violence. From the author of the celebrated collections “You Shall Never Know Security” and “A Voice that is Often Still Confused but is Becoming Ever Louder and Clearer” and the co-host of the popular podcast “The Horror of Nachos and Hamantaschen.”
A REVIEW OF J.R. HAMANTASCHEN'S FAITHFULLY AND LOVINGLY
- GUEST POST: Do Better - A Promise Paen Short by W. C. Bauers
Risingshadow has the honour of publishing a Promise Paen Short by W. C. Bauers.About the author:
W. C. Bauers works in sales and publishing during the day and writes military science fiction and space opera at night. His first novel, UNBREAKABLE, was an Amazon and B&N "SF/F Best Book of the Month" pick for January 2015. His second, INDOMITABLE, releases July 2016.
Bauers's interests include Taekwondo, military history, all varieties of Munchkin, and drinking hot caf. He lives in the Rocky Mountains with his wife, three boys, and the best rescue in the world.
About Indomitable:Promise Paen, commander of Victor Company's mechanized armored infantry, is back for another adventure protecting the Republic of Aligned Worlds.
Lieutenant Paen barely survived her last encounter with the Lusitanian Empire. She's returned home to heal. But the nightmares won't stop. And she's got a newly reconstituted unit of green marines to whip into shape before they deploy. If the enemies of the RAW don't kill them first, she just might do the job herself.
Light-years away, on the edge of the Verge, a massive vein of rare ore is discovered on the mining planet of Sheol, which ignites an arms race and a proxy war between the Republic and the Lusitanians. Paen and Victor Company are ordered to Sheol, to help hold the planet at all costs.
On the eve of their deployment, a friendly fire incident occurs, putting Paen's career in jeopardy and stripping her of her command. When the Lusitanians send mercenaries to raid Sheol and destabilize its mining operations, matters reach crisis levels. Disgraced and angry, Promise is offered one shot to get back into her mechsuit. But she'll have to jump across the galaxy and possibly storm the gates of hell itself.
Links:
GUEST POST: Do Better - A Promise Paen Short by W. C. Bauers
- A review of Michael Cisco's The Wretch of the Sun
Michael Cisco's The Wretch of the Sun was published by Hippocampus Press in June 2016.
Information about Michael Cisco:
Michael Cisco is an American writer, teacher, and translator. He is best known for his first novel, The Divinity Student, winner of the International Horror Guild Award for Best First Novel of 1999. His novel, The Great Lover, was nominated for the 2011 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel of the Year, and declared the Best Weird Novel of 2011 by the Weird Fiction Review. He has described his work as "de-genred" fiction. (from Wikipedia)Click here to visit his official website.
Information about The Wretch of the Sun:
A haunted house is a house with its own story. A ghost is someone about whom stories are told, who is unable to tell his or her own story. Death can be understood as the inability to tell one’s own story; whether that death is literal is another question. Ghosts exist in imagination, which is real. A story, to be a told story, needs a listener or reader. Ghosts, as I have been saying, appear to need someone to whom to appear. So we discover the story of the suicides, and we solve the riddle alongside the narrating busy body of the story, and bury the bones together in one grave; the disturbances cease. But a house once haunted will always be haunted; it isn’t the disturbance but the story that haunts it.
The haunted house draws attention to the secret it keeps like a master who teases his pupils with unanswerable riddles. Or like secret police, who can’t be entirely effective if they are entirely secret. These aren’t questions that contain their own answers, like math problems. I do not have the answer any more than you do, because the answer isn’t in the question, the answer is to leave behind the idea that a question is a door that an answer pulls finally shut. Once we’ve dutifully recited to the last syllable every thing we know, we are chastened or even taken aback by the paltry incommensurability of what we’ve just said with the haunted wealth that extends within and without us in all directions. At that moment, the suggestive ambivalence of a story will have to seem truer than the abbreviation of a hollow answer.
A REVIEW OF MICHAEL CISCO'S THE WRETCH OF THE SUN
- A review of Redfern Jon Barrett's Forget Yourself
Redfern Jon Barrett's Forget Yourself was re-released by Lethe Press in January 2016.Information about Redfern Jon Barrett:
Born in the north of England in the summer of 1984, Redfern Jon Barrett is a writer and polyamory rights campaigner. Armed with a doctorate in literature from Swansea University/Prifysgol Abertawe, they are author to novels The Giddy Death of the Gays & the Strange Demise of Straights (finalist for the 2016 Bisexual Book Awards) and Forget Yourself, as well as having contributed to publications including Guernica Daily, PinkNews, Van Winkle’s, and Strange Horizons on topics ranging from 18th century nonmonogamy to 23rd century science fiction. Redfern has worked with both Guernica and PEN America as a reader, and currently divides his time between Britain and Berlin, where he lives with his two partners.
Click here to visit his official website.
Information about Forget Yourself:
"It is important that you know: I love you.
Of course I have no idea who you are.
But I have no real idea who I am either, so it seems fair to me."Blondee lives in a world without memories: just four walls, fifty huts and a hundred forgotten people. She came in with the food rations. Mind and body naked, like everyone. Now she lives in a triangular hut at the edge of everything. They say she was a thief - she has long fingers - and she certainly has a reputation for taking multiple lovers. But haunted by the ghost of a fat man and dreaming of a stone woman, Blondee knows she can reshape the world - she just needs to get the world to listen...
A REVIEW OF REDFERN JON BARRETT'S FORGET YOURSELF
- A review of Jean Lorrain's The Soul-Drinker and Other Decadent Fantasies
Jean Lorrain's The Soul-Drinker and Other Decadent Fantasies (translated by Brian Stableford) will be published by Snuggly Books in July 2016.Information about Jean Lorrain and Brian Stableford:
Jean Lorrain (1855-1906) was the pseudonym of Paul Alexandre Martin Duval. He was one of the leading figures of the Decadent Movement and the author of numerous novels, volumes of poetry and short stories. At one point he was probably the highest paid journalist in France. Though mostly remembered today for his famous duel with Marcel Proust, he might be seen as the true chronicler of the fin-de-siècle. His short story collection Nightmares of an Ether-Drinker was previously published by Snuggly Books.
Brian Stableford has been publishing fiction and non-fiction for fifty years. His fiction includes a series of “tales of the biotech revolution” and a series of metaphysical fantasies featuring Edgar Poe’s Auguste Dupin. He is presently researching a history of French roman scientifique from 1700-1939 for Black Coat Press, translating much of the relevant material into English for the first time, and also translates material from the Decadent and Symbolist Movements.
Information about The Soul-Drinker and Other Decadent Fantasies:
No other writer of the fin-de-siècle period undertook a more elaborate exploration of perversities and abnormalities than Jean Lorrain, and no one else went as far afield in the search for discoveries of that curious kind than he did. Perhaps, given the variety of human behavior, it was not possible for him actually to invent perversities that no one actually practiced, or were even tempted to practice, but what is certain is that no one ever examined the anatomy of eroticism, including its wilder extremes, with a greater analytical fervor.
In this, the second collection of short stories by Jean Lorrain to be made available in English, exquisitely translated by Brian Stableford, psychological studies of amorous perversity are presented together with mock-folktales, giving further evidence of the amazing inventiveness and imagination of one of the key figures of the Decadent Movement.
A REVIEW OF JEAN LORRAIN'S THE SOUL-DRINKER AND OTHER DECADENT FANTASIES
- An interview with N. S. Dolkart
Risingshadow has had the honour of interviewing N. S. Dolkart, who is the author of Silent Hall.
N. S. DolkartClick here to visit author official website.By day, N.S Dolkart works in a nursing home, and is somewhat of an expert in dementia. In his spare time he is a fan of singing base and Israeli Folk Dancing.
N. S. has also written a murder mystery party game of which he is currently soliciting beta-testers and a children’s book which is illustrated by his wife.
Silent Hall
Godserfs #1
by N. S. DolkartFive bedraggled refugees and a sinister wizard awaken a dragon and defy the gods.
After their homeland is struck with a deadly plague, five refugees cross the continent searching for answers. Instead they find Psander, a wizard whose fortress is invisible to the gods, and who is willing to sacrifice anything – and anyone – to keep the knowledge of the wizards safe.
With Psander as their patron, the refugees cross the mountains, brave the territory of their sworn enemies, confront a hostile ocean and even traverse the world of the fairies in search of magic powerful enough to save themselves – and Psander’s library – from the wrath of the gods.
Amazon: Check AvailabilityAN INTERVIEW WITH N. S. DOLKART
- Seven Sinful Blogs: Envy (Guest post by William Sutton)
Risingshadow has the honour of publishing a guest post by William Sutton. This guest post is part of the Seven Sins Blog Tour.
William Sutton comes from Dunblane, Scotland. He has written for The Times and the Fortean Times, acted in the longest play in the world, and played cricket for Brazil. His first novel is a Victorian mystery of a gleaming metropolis mired in corruption.
He writes for international magazines about language, music and futurology. His plays have been produced on radio and in London fringe theatres. He has performed at events from the Edinburgh Festival to High Down Prison, often with a ukulele. He teaches Latin and plays accordion with chansonnier Philip Jeays.
Click here to visit his official website.
Seven Sinful Blogs: Envy (Guest post by William Sutton)
- A review of Christopher Husberg's Duskfall
Christopher Husberg's Duskfall was published by Titan Books in June 2016.Information about Christopher Husberg:
Christopher Husberg was born in Alaska and studied at Brigham Young University, where he went on to teach creative writing. His short story collection Look Me in the Stars received an honourable mention in the 2013 Utah Original Writing Competition. He lives with his wife in Lehi, Utah.
Click here to visit his official website.
Information about Duskfall:
Stuck with arrows and close to death, a man is pulled from the icy waters of the Gulf of Nahl. As he is nursed back to health by a local fisherman, two things become very clear: he has no idea who he is, and he can kill a man with terrifying ease.
The fisherman is a tiellan, a race which has long been oppressed and grown wary of humans. His daughter, Winter, is a seemingly quiet young woman, but behind her placid mask she has her demons. She is addicted to frostfire - a substance that both threatens to destroy her and simultaneously gives her phenomenal power.
A young priestess, Cinzia, hears the troubling news of an uprising in her native city of Navone. Absconding from the cloistered life that she has kept for the last seven years, she knows she must make the long journey home. The flames of rebellion threatening her church and all that she believes in are bad enough, but far worse is the knowledge that the heretic who sparked the fire is her own sister.
These three characters may have set out on different paths, but fate will bring them together on one thrilling and perilous adventure.
A REVIEW OF CHRISTOPHER HUSBERG'S DUSKFALL
- A review of Dave Weaver's The Unseen
Dave Weaver's The Unseen was published by Elsewhen Press as a digital edition in May 2016. The printed edition will be published in August 2016.Information about Dave Weaver:
Dave Weaver, a graphic designer, was born in darkest Surrey. He took quite a long time to begin writing. About a decade ago he joined the local Verulam Writers' Circle and has since had a number of short stories published in various anthologies and webzines. Much of his writing hovers on the shifting borders between fantasy and reality. He holds a particular fascination for the uncertain times of Britain's Dark Ages, no doubt inspired by the ruins of the Roman town of Verulamium near where he lives with his family and a cat called Trillian. This is much in evidence in his first novel Jacey's Kingdom.
Though born and raised in the distinctly un-exotic heartlands of Surrey, ‘the land of the rising sun’ has held a fascination for Dave since he first visited it with his Japanese wife. A fascination for the beautiful colours of its landscapes and the subtlety of its culture, for its contradictions and certainties, intelligence and passion, spirit and diversity. Yet beneath all these things lies another Japan; one of ghosts and shadows, unspoken secrets, demons from the past and uncertain visions of the future. It's what makes this intriguing country ultimately unknowable, unique, Nippon... and inspired his second novel Japanese Daisy Chain.
Author links:
Information about The Unseen:
Ex-advertising man John Mason is driving to the small town of Hambleford to view a cottage that is for sale, when he is caught in a sudden hailstorm. It brings back memories of the crash a year before in which he lost his wife Judith; a crash caused by a woman in white standing in the middle of the road – a woman who was nowhere to be found after the accident. As the hailstorm lashes his car he has a vision of her, with empty eyes and a silent screaming mouth. John had been having regular dreams about her ever since the crash, but lately they have been replaced by dreams of an idyllic cottage on a hillside like the one in which Judith had wanted them to live.
John is special – he sees things that others can't. Since childhood he's had strange experiences but has tried to shut them out; now he thinks Judith is trying to contact him, that she's been sending his mind images of the house where her spirit will join him again, and that Pine Cottage in Hambleford is literally the cottage of his dreams.
But things aren't all as they appear and John quickly becomes convinced that a spirit other than Judith is trying to manipulate him.
The Unseen is a darkly erotic tale of guilt and obsession. Both hallucinatory and horrifying, its finale will shock you.
A REVIEW OF DAVE WEAVER'S THE UNSEEN
- GUEST POST: 9 Homages I've Hidden Away in The Ties that Bind by Rob J. Hayes
Risingshadow has the honour of publishing a guest post by Rob J. Hayes.Having served in a hundred different offices as a keyboard monkey Rob J. Hayes finally decided to follow his lifelong passion of daydreaming. After writing a small horde's worth of short stories, he released his debut trilogy The Ties that Bind in 2013 as an indie publication and followed it up with the standalone release, The Northern Sunrise, in 2014.
Having signed a deal with Ragnarok to re-release The Ties that Bind trilogy, Rob is happy to announce his follow-up series, Best Laid Plans (set in the same world), will also be released by Ragnarok starting in 2016.
When not writing Rob is usually found either card gaming, computer gaming, board gaming, dice gaming, airsoft gaming, or pretending to be a Viking.
Rob's short story collection, The Bound Folio, was published in June 2016.
Links
GUEST POST: 9 Homages I've Hidden Away in The Ties that Bind by Rob J. Hayes
- The Great Ordeal
(The Aspect-Emperor #3) by R. Scott Bakker
July 12, 2016 | fantasy > high fantasyThe much-anticipated third installment of R. Scott Bakker’s acclaimed series, The Aspect-Emperor
Praised by fans and critics worldwide, R. Scott Bakker has become one of the most celebrated voices in fantasy literature. With The Great Ordeal, Bakker presents the long-anticipated third volume of The Aspect-Emperor, a series that stands with the finest in the genre for its grandiose scope, rich detail, and thrilling story.
As Fanim war-drums beat just outside the city, the Empress Anasurimbor Esmenet searches frantically throughout the palace for her missing son Kelmomas. Meanwhile and many miles away, Esmenet’s husband’s Great Ordeal continues its epic march further north. But in light of dwindling supplies, the Aspect-Emperor’s decision to allow his men to consume the flesh of fallen Sranc could have consequences even He couldn’t have foreseen. And, deep in Ishuäl, the wizard Achamian grapples with his fear that his unspeakably long journey might be ending in emptiness, no closer to the truth than when he set out.
The Aspect-Emperor series follows Bakker’s Prince of Nothing saga, returning to the same world twenty years later. The Great Ordeal follows The Judging Eye and The White-Luck Warrior, and delivers the first half of the conclusion to this epic story. Returning to Bakker’s richly imagined universe of myth, violence, and sorcery, The Aspect-Emperor continues to set the bar for the fantasy genre, reaching new heights of intricacy and meaning.
- Dark Matter
by Blake Crouch
July, 2016 | science fiction, thrillerA brilliantly plotted, relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller from the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy
“Are you happy with your life?”
Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.
Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.
Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”
In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.
Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined — one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.
Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human — a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we’ll go to claim the lives we dream of. - The Waking Fire
(The Draconis Memoria #1) by Anthony Ryan
July 6, 2016 | fantasy > high fantasyThe New York Times bestselling Raven’s Shadow Trilogy was a perfect read for “fans of broadscale epic fantasy along the lines of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series and George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire novels.”* Now, Anthony Ryan begins a new saga, The Draconis Memoria…
Throughout the vast lands controlled by the Ironship Syndicate, nothing is more prized than the blood of drakes. Harvested from the veins of captive or hunted Reds, Green, Blues and Blacks, it can be distilled into elixirs that give fearsome powers to the rare men and women who have the ability harness them — known as the blood-blessed.
But not many know the truth: that the lines of drakes are weakening. If they fail, war with the neighboring Corvantine Empire will follow swiftly. The Syndicate’s last hope resides in whispers of the existence of another breed of drake, far more powerful than the rest, and the few who have been chosen by fate to seek it.
Claydon Torcreek is a petty thief and an unregistered blood-blessed, who finds himself pressed into service by the protectorate and sent to wild, uncharted territories in search of a creature he believes is little more than legend. Lizanne Lethridge is a formidable spy and assassin, facing gravest danger on an espionage mission deep into the heart of enemy territory. And Corrick Hilemore is the second lieutenant of an ironship, whose pursuit of ruthless brigands leads him to a far greater threat at the edge of the world.
As lives and empires clash and intertwine, as the unknown and the known collide, all three must fight to turn the tide of a coming war, or drown in its wake.
*Library Journal
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
(Harry Potter #8) by J. K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, John Tiffany
July 31, 2016 | fantasy, young adultBased on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne, a new play by Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage. The play will receive its world premiere in London's West End on 30th July 2016.
It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn't much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and father of three school-age children.
While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.
- Poor Unfortunate Soul: A Tale of the Sea Witch
(Villains #3) by Serena Valentino
July, 2016 | fantasy, young adultThe tale of the sea king's daughter Ariel is a beloved one of losing - and then finding - one's own voice.
The story has been told many times and in many ways. But always the mergirl wants more than her world can offer, and her father demands that she live within the confines of his domain. Her rebelliousness costs the little mermaid her voice and nearly her soul. But the power of good prevails, and Ariel emerges proud and unchanged.
And yet this is only half the story. So what of Ariel's nemesis, Ursula, the sea witch? What led to her becoming so twisted, scorned, and filled with hatred? Many tales have tried to explain her motives. Here is one account of what might have shaped the sea witch into a detestable and poor unfortunate soul.
New Releases
- Dog Man
(Dog Man #1) by Dav Pilkey
August 30, 2016 | comics > graphic novels, childrens > graphic novels, middle grade > graphic novelsFrom worldwide bestselling author and artist Dav Pilkey comes Dog Man, the canine cop who's part dog, part man, and All Hero!
Get ready for Action, Suspense, Romance... and Laffs!
George and Harold have created a new breed of justice. When Greg the police dog and his cop companion are injured on the job, a life-saving surgery changes the course of history, and Dog Man is born. With the head of a dog and the body of a human, this heroic hound digs into deception, claws after crooks, rolls over robbers, and scampers after squirrels. Will he be able to resist the call of the wild to answer the call of duty?
Dav Pilkey's wildly popular 'Dog Man' Series appeals to readers of all ages and explores universally positive themes, including empathy, kindness, persistence, and the importance of being true to one's self. This new series may use conventional spelling, but it is still full of all the same humor and fun of George and Harold's previous graphic novels!
- Nevernight
(The Nevernight Chronicles #1) by Jay Kristoff
August 8, 2016 | fantasy > high fantasyA thrilling new series from acclaimed fantasy author Jay Kristoff: an assassin must decide on the price of revenge.
In a world where the suns almost never set, a woman gains entry to a school of infamous assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers that destroyed her family.
Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father's failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she wanders a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and its thugs. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the hearth of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined.
Now, Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic - the Red Church. Deadly trials await her within the Church's halls: blades and poisons, treachery and death. If she survives to initiation, she'll be inducted among the chosen of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and be one step closer to the only thing she desires.
Revenge. - Behind the Throne
(The Indranan War #1) by K. B. Wagers
August 1, 2016 | science fiction > space operaAn action-packed, Star Wars-style science fiction adventure trilogy from debut author K. B. Wagers.
Meet Hail: Captain. Gunrunner. Fugitive.
Quick, sarcastic, and lethal, Hailimi Bristol doesn't suffer fools gladly. She has made a name for herself in the galaxy for everything except what she was born to do: rule the Indranan Empire. That is, until two Trackers drag her back to her home planet to take her rightful place as the only remaining heir.
But trading her ship for a palace has more dangers than Hail could have anticipated. Caught in a web of plots and assassination attempts, Hail can't do the one thing she did twenty years ago: run away. She'll have to figure out who murdered her sisters if she wants to survive.
A gun smuggler inherits the throne in this Star Wars-style science fiction adventure from debut author K. B. Wagers. Full of action-packed space opera exploits and courtly conspiracy - not to mention an all-out galactic war - Behind the Throne will please fans of James S. A Corey, Becky Chambers and Lois McMaster Bujold, or anyone who wonders what would happen if a rogue like Han Solo were handed the keys to an empire...
- The Obelisk Gate
(The Broken Earth #2) by N. K. Jemisin
August 15, 2016 | fantasyHugo Award 2017, Nebula Award Nominee 2016.
THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS... FOR THE LAST TIME.
The season of endings grows darker as civilization fades into the long cold night. Alabaster Tenring — madman, world-crusher, savior — has returned with a mission: to train his successor, and thus seal the fate of the Stillness forever.
It continues with a lost daughter, found by the enemy.
It continues with the obelisks, and an ancient mystery converging on answers at last.
The Stillness is the wall which stands against the flow of tradition, the spark of hope long buried under the thickening ashfall. And it will not be broken.
- The Bronze Key
(Magisterium #3) by Cassandra Clare, Holly Black
August 29, 2016 | fantasy, young adultMagic can save you
Magic can kill youIt should be a time of celebration. The Enemy of Death is dead; a severed head proof of his downfall. The magical world has no reason to believe otherwise, and Callum, Tamara and Aaron are celebrated as heroes.
But at a party held in their honour, things go horribly, brutally wrong. A fellow student is callously murdered, and it seems Call’s worst fears are confirmed: there is a spy in the Magisterium.
No one is safe.
Now, using the powerful magic they’ve been taught, the trio must risk their lives to track down the killer. But magic is dangerous – in the wrong hands it could bring terrible destruction. And reveal the deadliest secret of all...