RT Book Reviews: Leah Beiler and her twin brother left their Amish community 10 years ago. She is now returning with her orphaned niece Mandy in tow. Many in the community, including her own family, never understood their departure. Former love Ezra Stoltzfus is cautiously optimistic about Leah’s return. However, he longs to know the truth. Will Leah’s dad accept her and Mandy back into his life? Is it too late for Leah and Ezra? And how will a little dog save the day? […]
Congratulations to Seth Dickinson (The Traitor Baru Cormorant), Elizabeth Bear (Karen Memory), and Adam Christopher (Made to Kill) on their mentions in Tor.com’s Reviewers’ Choice 2015 list!
Library Journal: Building beautifully upon the richly detailed world introduced in the first book of the series, Bennett serves a stew of fantasy and adventure with a healthy dose of humor and a ladle full of violence. Switching protagonists from sneaky Shara to the blunt soldier Turyin gives the sequel a fresh feel, and readers will be eager to read more books set in this fascinating universe.
Locus: Most of the reviews of Cherie Priest’s new-ish Maplecroft and its just-released quasi-sequel Chapelwood focus on what her world borrows from H.P. Lovecraft. Those reviews are totally right. There are a lot of tentacles and creeping dread in these two titles. They are loving tributes to Cthulhu and all that dread lord has wrought. But that’s only the surface, which becomes especially clear in the newer of the two books. […] Add to that smart subtext a young, female protagonist who is more […]
Jay Lake’s final collection of stories, Last Plane to Heaven, won 2015’s Endeavor Award for a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book written by a Pacific Northwest author or authors and published in the previous year. The award represents a collaboration between writers and fans of Science Fiction and Fantasy to encourage the growth of literature in the field and recognize works of excellence. It is named for H.M. Bark Endeavour, the ship of Northwest explorer Capt. James Cook.
Booklist: Messinger successfully sets Catholic theology and the occult against an authentic Old West backdrop to create a richly detailed, suspenseful debut. Jacob “Trace” Tracy nearly died in the Civil War, but with his recovery came the ability to see and talk to the dead, a most unwelcome curse as far as he is concerned. The cowboy life suits him, since the dead are more bountiful in large cities, and he and his capable partner, Boz, make a living doing ranch […]
Booklist: Nijkamp’s debut adds to the growing list of novels about school shootings. As Opportunity, Alabama, high-schoolers are welcomed in for a new school year, an armed male student locks the student body inside the auditorium, and then the carnage begins. The subsequent 54 minutes unfold with breathless pacing in the alternating voices of characters who know the shooter: Claire, the track star and former girlfriend of the shooter, who’s outside when the shooting begins. Tomás, a troublemaker who rises to […]
Shelf Awareness: Discover: Adam Christopher’s novel mixes science fiction and noir mystery, as the world’s only robot assassin searches for a missing person in 1960s Los Angeles. Christopher notes that he was inspired to write this novel when considering what it might be like to read an unknown science-fiction epic from Raymond Chandler, and that inspiration shows. Made to Kill evolves over the course of the story from science fiction to a noir-style mystery and back again, never missing a beat […]
Publishers Weekly: Bennett’s astonishingly good sequel to 2014’s City of Stairs makes a riveting and often heartbreaking case against war. […] Bennett continues his theme of the influence of imperialism on what appears to be a very similar world to ours (albeit one in which gods helped shape the geopolitics), seamlessly melding spycraft and mythology. Turyin, a physically and emotionally wounded warrior who both loathes battle and excels at it, serves as a fascinating character to shoulder the book’s heavy burden of […]
School Library Journal: It’s the start of the spring semester at Opportunity High School in Opportunity, AL, and the school day is progressing as normal—until one revenge-minded student brings violence to this sleepy, close-knit community. This novel takes place over the course of 54 tense minutes, as four main characters (all of whom also conveniently have siblings affected by the shooting) narrate their harrowing experiences and consider their relationships with the shooter. Nijkamp populates Opportunity High School with a diverse representation […]