Kirkus: In this installment of Butcher’s Dresden Files series, the staff-wielding wizard is honor-bound to return a favor to a crime boss for saving his life. With the city still struggling to return to some semblance of normalcy after the cataclysmic events of the Battle of Chicago, Harry Dresden is recovering in his ancient Chicago castle (which might have been Merlin’s fortress) when an old adversary shows up at his door: Gentleman John Marcone, Baron of Chicago. Since Marcone saved […]
Kirkus: The rich worldbuilding is arguably the novel’s biggest strength, but the well-developed dynamics between the main characters, particularly Mel and Ismene’s complex relationship, are also compelling. The narrative has an impressive pace fueled by intertwining and action-packed plotlines that maintain the pedal-to-the-metal momentum.
Shelf Awareness: Two teenagers are stuck in a time loop, reliving the last few minutes before a plane crash, in Rachel Reiss’s clever and arresting YA locked-door mystery, Seconds to Spare. Characterization is sometimes thin–for example, little information is shared about Evelyn’s relationship with her still-living mother or her plans as a recent high school graduate–but kinetic pacing and unexpected plot twists make Seconds to Spare a gripping narrative. The time loop element, reminiscent of movies like Groundhog Day and YA […]
The 2025 Nebula Award finalists have been announced and we’re so excited to see our DMLA authors honored! Nebula Award for Best Novelette “Uncertain Sons”, by Thomas Ha (Uncertain Sons) Nebula Award for Best Short Story “In My Country”, by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld 4/25) Outstanding Dramatic Presentation Murderbot, Season 1 (based on the book series by Martha Wells)
Booklist: The newest Murderbot novel (after System Collapse, 2023) has our titular (not really an anti) hero aided by Three, the newest rogue SecUnit, on a stealth mission in a planetary ring habitat to retrieve members of Mensah’s family, who’ve been kidnapped by the Barish Estranza Corporation in retaliation for her role on the plague planet. Along the way, an unexpected ally complicates the mission, and somehow the corporate mercs seem to know they’re coming. The plot starts off in […]
Publishers Weekly: Reality television goes galactic in Branham’s thrilling sapphic sci-fi debut. After poverty-stricken trash collector Artemis Ialan has an unfortunate public run-in with the prince and princess of the Expan empire, she’s invited to appear on Love Galaxy, a reality dating show that matches royals and others high in the empirical hierarchy with important people from other systems in the empire, like a diplomatic—and deeply propagandistic—version of The Bachelor. The prince, Nix, has taken a liking to Artemis, and […]
Congratulations to DMLA author, Thomas Ha, as Uncertain Sons and Other Stories made the British Science Fiction Association 2025 BSFA Awards shortlist! Best Collection Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by Thomas Ha (Undertow Publications)
Publishers Weekly: McCarty’s elegant and melancholy fantasy debut follows Poppy Hill, who in 1880, at the age of five, was abducted by faeries and taken to their world, called Otherside, where she grew up and became a cook for the Wild King. She was then returned to the human world in the modern day as a woman in her late 20s. Poppy now works as a consultant for the Montana branch of law firm Carter Lane, which negotiates contracts between […]
School Library Journal: The nail-biting action starts with the very first sentence of this superb thriller. Evelyn has been trapped in a 28-minute time loop 194 times on an airplane that’s about to crash. Each time the plane starts to nosedive, she sees a flash of white light and wakes up in her original seat, reliving the same terrifying sequence. She has memorized every passenger’s name and seat number, and has had conversations with all them, except one: Rion, the […]
Kirkus: James Marsters’ weary delivery perfectly captures Harry Dresden’s fractured psyche as he navigates a year of mandatory mourning and political maneuvering in Chicago. Marsters doesn’t just read; he inhabits Harry’s exhaustion, using deliberate pacing and a somber tonal palette that underscores the protagonist’s post-traumatic stress. Marsters’ gift for distinct vocal characterizations remains sharp, effortlessly pivoting from the ethereal, detached elegance of the Sidhe to the grounded warmth of Harry’s remaining allies. By leaning into the book’s quieter, more introspective […]