Even before I started this one, I had a feeling something big was coming. For three books now, Anne Bishop has been ramping up the tensions between the Others and the Humans First and Last (HFL) movement, a radical anti-terra indigene group that has been playing with fire since the beginning of this series. All that pent-up rage and energy had to be going somewhere, and that somewhere turned out to be in the pages of Marked in Flesh. For centuries, a delicate balance has existed between humans and the creatures that inhabited the land before we got here. The Others, who see humans as prey, have only allowed this truce to continue because they benefit from the relationship as well, enjoying the useful trade goods that humans produce from the natural resources that are under terra indigene control. However, the HFL has made it clear that they are tired of this compromise, issuing a warning to all that a reckoning is at hand. Caught in the middle of this conflict is Lakeside Courtyard and its leader Simon Wolfgard, the wolf shifter. The arrival of a cassandra sangue named Meg Corbyn has done much to alleviate the bad blood between…

The Last Day of Jack Sparks is the story of a successful pop culture journalist, who made his fame writing books that focus on his experience as he explores a given topic. Books like Jack Sparks on Drugs, where he throws himself into the world of drugs and experiments to his heart’s delight, all in the name of research for his book. Not surprisingly, his books can be controversial, they are type of thing people will read to find out why everyone else is talking about them. For his latest book idea, he decides to delve into the world of the supernatural. There is definitely some humor in places as Jack Sparks clearly does not believe in the supernatural, but for the benefit of his book, he has to give things a try. The interesting thing about this book, is you know going in that Jack Sparks is dead (it’s right there in the title!), and he died in some mysterious way while writing this book on the supernatural. It definitely casts a little darker edge to things as Jack is very honest in that he finds the idea of there being truth in the supernatural as being rather ridiculous. As opposed…

Roaring Twenties Chicago.  Prohibition gangsters like Al Capone rule the streets.  Dirty politicians walk the halls of power.  Flappers fill the dance halls.  Model- Ts roar along city avenues.  Radios blare out Jazz music.   Tommie guns bark out street justice.  And the gate between the mortal realm and Feirie lies hidden by it all, guarded by its sixteen hundred year old guardian. This gatekeeper named Nick Medea is a strange, complicated man.  On one hand, he lives a simple, solitary life as an exorcist of sorts.  Only those with real problems with supernatural creatures able to contact him; his fee to rid these individuals of their specters zero.  But his real job is far more serious, more important, more dangerous than hunting ghosts, as he stands alone between the world of Feirie and mankind; his eternal duty to keep the gate closed, because if the magical gateway ever opens it will destroy the modern world, crashing civilization back to the Dark Ages. But Nick isn’t completely alone.  There are a group of near constant companions who aid him along the way. Most of these are outcast Feiries, trapped on the mortal plane.  Fetch is the one who spends the most time…

I was so looking forward to this book and it absolutely lived up to my expectations. You may now call me ‘She that reads until late at night’ or ‘Devourer of Books’ or perhaps ‘Goddess of book love’ (you’ll understand if you’ve read this!) Gushing will commence but firstly a little about the book. The book starts with a murder victim found by a lone woman walking her dog. However, not only is this no ordinary killing but this is no ordinary ‘lone woman’. Manhattan is about to become the scene for a number of grisly murders. Unfortunately the police have few clues but Selene DiSilva recognises only too well the signs of a ritual sacrifice and doesn’t intend to let this brutal killing go unsolved. Once known as the Protector of the Innocent she’s about to team up with a classics professor and the two will embark on a desperate scramble around Manhattan in a bid to pick up clues before the body count rises. I don’t think too much more introduction is really necessary to be honest, it’s an interesting plot that involves quite a lot of ancient history being thrown into the mix and it moves forward…

We start the book with Deadman’s Hand.  This is the first in the Assassin’s series and opens as a stranger rides into the town of Deadwood on a pale horse. His name is Gabriel and he seeks revenge. Doug is the local storekeeper who witnesses Gabriel’s arrival and who will narrate this tale.  It seems from this point onward that Doug, in spite of himself, is going to be pulled into the strange world of Gabriel and the man that he seeks.  At the same time, on the other side of town another stranger has appeared and following some sort of altercation is now spending time in the mortuary!  Strange coincidence?  Or has Gabriel been beaten to his quarry? This is only a short story but nonetheless is an intriguing tale with a small but interesting cast of characters.  I don’t want to elaborate too much on the plot because it would be easy to spoil the story for others.  What I can say is that Gabriel is no ordinary man.  Cursed hundreds of years ago he seeks the man called Temple who killed his family.  Temple, likewise is no ordinary man, he is in fact a demon, incredibly difficult to…

I’ll admit, as cool as its cover looked, Peter Tieryas’ United States of Japan did not initially grab my interest. Mind you, it’s not that I’m averse to the prospect of a 150-foot-tall Mecha wreaking havoc in my science fiction, but at the time I just wasn’t sure if I was in the mood for that sort of bombast and action. Thing is though, it turned out I was completely wrong, both on the nature of this book and on my early skepticism that the story might not be for me – because, as you’ll see, it absolutely was. There’s a depth to USJ that I did not expect, and it was this mix of profundity and thrilling suspense that made the book such a great read and audio listen. Described as a spiritual successor to The Man in the High Castle, even if you have not read the Philip K. Dick classic, one can immediately surmise a certain set of expectations from United States of Japan. Yes, it is an alternate history novel, and it takes place approximately four decades after World War II in a world where Japan won the conflict and conquered America. History has been rewritten…

The Lyre Thief by Jennifer Fallon is packed full of all my fantasy favorites. Assassins, thieves, undesirable arranged marriages, scandalous secrets, switched identities, bandits, magic. Oh, and dragons. It checks lots of boxes, and honestly, it does it all quite well. I quickly became engrossed with the characters. The story is told through numerous POVs, but all are done well and all provide clearer insight to the overall picture. Quickly you can identify a pair of sisters as being central to the story. Rakaia is a princess of Fardohnya, which on the surface sounds like a pretty good life. Until you learn the real details. She is one of scores of daughters of the King who has a harem, so lots of wives, lots of children. In addition to his wives, the harem also includes court’esa. These are men and women who are experts in the art of sexual pleasure. Somehow of out of all the children born to the King from his legitimate wives, only one of them is a son. The rest? Daughters that he can use for political or economic advantage as they are traded off as wives to secure some advantage for the king. Pretty much, they are just a commodity he…

Once they were a band of mercenaries who shook the pillars of the world through cunning, alchemical brews, and cold steel. Whoever met their price won. Now, their glory days behind them, scattered to the wind, and their genius leader in hiding, they are being hunted down and eliminated one by one. A lifetime of enemies has its own price. Now that description made Snakewood one of my most anticipated reads of 2016.  I mean, how could a grimdark fan not love the idea of a story about past their prime mercenaries dealing with unknown enemies who are trying to slaughter them for past wrongs.  At least, I couldn’t help myself, so I was overjoyed when I received an advanced reading copy of this one. And, as promised, this story opens with the surviving members of “Kailen’s Twenty” (a legendary band of mercenaries) discovering they are being hunted down one by one.  Why they are being killed is both a mystery to them and to the reader, but one which the author attempts to slowly reveal by adding “historical” chapters regarding the group’s past endeavors  — as relayed by different people. Through this interchange between past and present, the survivors of Kailen’s…

As much as I wanted to love The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, I have to be honest in that I only thought it was okay. I mean, I can see how these stories established a reputation for Ken Liu, and there’s no doubt that some of them are indeed award worthy, but I didn’t connect with nearly as many as I would have liked. Before you start getting disappointed, however, let me say that I blame the format, not necessarily the content. I’ve always been drawn to doorstopper fantasy novels like The Grace of Kings, where we have six or seven hundred pages to immerse ourselves in the world, so it’s not a surprise that many of these stories fell flat or felt a little shallow. Having said all that, I’d be remiss if I didn’t heap some praise on those stories that did work for me. “State Change” hooked me from the start, with a young woman’s strange obsession with freezers, glaciers, and ice cubes. Rina lives in a world where our souls physically manifest as small items that we must keep close at all times, which is easy enough if your soul is a rock or a…

It wasn’t until I had finished reading The Ballad of Black Tom that I found out it was based on an H.P. Lovecraft short story called The Horror at Red Hook and that several of the characters have the same names. This would have been more interesting to me had I actually read Lovecraft’s story first, but I did enjoy going back afterwards and looking up the details (thank God for Wikipedia!). What’s much more interesting about LaValle’s take on it is that he’s turned Lovecraft’s famous xenophobia on its head and written a story about one man’s experiences with racism in 1920s New York City. I mean, think about it: an African-American author, writing a story that deals with racism, based on a story by a famous racist. It sounds crazy, but LaValle pulls it off, although I have to say I was more interested in the mechanics of what he was trying to do, rather than the story itself, which to me lacked cohesion. The Lovecraft elements are subtle, and unless you’re familiar with the story it’s based upon, you may not notice them at all until the end. What did scream “Lovecraft” to me, however, was the unsettling feeling that runs…