Here’s a rundown of the books we think you should look out for in coming in the week. See any that you are really looking forward to? Find any you had not heard of yet? Know of books we missed? We know we don’t have everything and would love to hear what you feel we may have overlooked.   FANTASY          URBAN FANTASY           SCIENCE FICTION   FANTASY         URBAN FANTASY     SCIENCE FICTION     FANTASY          URBAN FANTASY           SCIENCE FICTION   Vicarious Stokes, Paula 8/16/2016 Tor Teen The Obelisk Gate N.K. Jemisin 8/16/2016 Orbit Invasive Chuck Wendig 8/16/2016 Harper Voyager The Sight Chloe Neill 8/16/2016 NAL Ghost Talkers Mary Robinette Kowal 8/16/2016 Tor The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe Kij Johnson 8/16/2016 Tor.com

Here’s a rundown of the books we think you should look out for in coming in the week. See any that you are really looking forward to? Find any you had not heard of yet? Know of books we missed? We know we don’t have everything and would love to hear what you feel we may have overlooked.   FANTASY          URBAN FANTASY           SCIENCE FICTION           HORROR   FANTASY                   URBAN FANTASY         SCIENCE FICTION             HORROR         FANTASY          URBAN FANTASY           SCIENCE FICTION           HORROR   A Conclave of Shadows Alyc Helms 7/5/2016 Angry Robot Beyond the Woods : Fairy Tales Retold Paula Guran 7/5/2016 Night Shade Books Deserts of Fire : Speculative Fiction and the Modern War Douglas Lain 7/5/2016 Night Shade Books Flameout Keri Arthur 7/5/2016 Signet Heroine Complex Sarah Kuhn 7/5/2016 DAW Paper and Fire Rachel Caine 7/5/2016 NAL Sacrifices Jamie Schultz 7/5/2016 Roc The Copper Promise Jen Williams 7/5/2016 Angry Robot The Dinosaur Knights Milán, Victor…

Last year, I was taken quite off guard when Ink and Bone (which was not on my radar until I received a copy form the publisher) blew me away and earned a 5 star review. This was a book that I had zero preconceived notions or expectations of. I had not read Rachel Caine previously and had no idea what her world or characters would be like. In other words, everything was brand new for me in Ink and Bone. I had hoped that Paper and Fire could carry that momentum but unfortunately found that it faltered for me a bit more than its predecessor. I have to warn you, this review was difficult to write in that I felt I had more complaints mainly because I have a 3.5 star review for a book following a 5 star review. So, please keep in mind that the book is still good. I just explain many reasons that prevented this from being another 5 star book for me. I do feel that some of my loss of excitement came from already being familiar with the world. Yes, the Library is evil. They hoard and control all of the books and information. I…

  What could be more exciting than heading into a three day weekend? How about giving away one of our favorite books! Today we are very excited to offer a giveaway of Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine. If you’re not familiar with the book, it took the #2 spot on our Best of 2015 list! (and the #1 spot requires reading about 14 books first, and this one is a first in series! A great place to start) Pretty much, we loved this book and thanks to the great people at NAL, we have a copy of the paperback to share! If you’d like to hear more about it, feel free to check out our review or see the details below!     ABOUT THE BOOK

Children of Earth and Sky is Kay’s latest novel, set in war torn lands. The cast is comprised of a variety of characters, characters that are unlikely companions, crossing paths only by chance. As with Kay’s other books, this is set in a fictional land/world, but quite closely matches our own. There are a good number of characters in this, but I think it works well as it helps give perspectives and information from a variety of sources. This always helps paint a broader picture. That said, some readers may find it breaks the flow of the story a bit as the story is often jumping from one story to another. Personally, this is not an aspect that bothers me but I do know some readers prefer a more constant source for the story. As one might expect, this world can brutal, and there are great hardships that help steer our characters onto their current courses. Danica is a determined young woman, set of on vengeance for the loss of her family. She is fiercely independent and not afraid of calculated risks. Honestly, she does not seem to fear much in this world. Perhaps that comes from losing so much….

Here’s a rundown of the books we think you should look out for in coming in the week. See any that you are really looking forward to? Find any you had not heard of yet? Know of books we missed? We know we don’t have everything and would love to hear what you feel we may have overlooked.   FANTASY          URBAN FANTASY           SCIENCE FICTION   FANTASY       URBAN FANTASY   SCIENCE FICTION   FANTASY          URBAN FANTASY           SCIENCE FICTION     Children of Earth and Sky Kay, Guy Gavriel 5/10/2016 NAL The Voodoo Killings Kristi Charish 5/10/2016 Vintage Canada Central Station Lavie Tadhir 5/10/2016 Tachyon Whisper of Southern Lights Lebbon, Tim 5/10/2016 Tor.com Too Like the Lightning Palmer, Ada 5/10/2016 Tor Books The Wolf in the Attic Paul Kearney 5/10/2016 Solaris

  One of the perks I’ve found with working with several bloggers is that we can cover more books than we have time to read on our own. So, when it came time to make our Best of 2015 list, I decided to ask each of the contributors to submit a ranked list of their favorite books (yep, I’m mean like that. Choosing favorites can be hard, ranking is even harder). I then used a scaled points system to calculate an over all list. So, the end result features a variety of books that either several of us agreed belong in the top 10, or books that perhaps just one reviewer read, but placed in their high on their ranked choices of the year. With so many great choices we had to expand our collaborative list past just 10 books to 25. Since our blog started late in the year, many of these books do not currently have reviews here. But we do plan on adding them, so keep your eye out. So here it is, Speculative Herald’s list of our absolute favorite books from 2015! And because I like to get straight to the good stuff, I am listing them in order starting with…

Ink and Bone is an addictive, intense read that shares a love for books with the reader.  In the world of Ink and Bone, knowledge can sometimes be viewed as a virus, if left to spread, it can cause corruption. So, what do you do with something infectious? You try to contain and control it. That is what The Great Library does. All physical books are possessed and controlled by the Great Library (does that sound “great” to you??). Owning books is illegal. Like, very illegal. There are automatons that will seek out and destroy not just people caught in possession of a book, but any poor bystanders that may inadvertently get between the automaton and their target. The Library does allow people to read and learn. It just must be from selected/approved works that are downloadable onto what they call blanks. They don’t use the word download, there’s some magic involved here, but ultimately, it is the same concept of downloading. It’s censoring to an extreme. I loved this book, I loved how the importance of books is stressed, I loved how you could see the longing for both physical books and the ability to access what ever they might…