Donald Maass Literary Agency

Locus: I didn’t know that I needed another book about Karen Memery, the main character in Elizabeth Bear’s take on steampunk (Restoration-era Northwestern U.S. flavor) that launched in 2015 with Karen Memory and was followed up by Stone Mad in 2018. Those rain-soaked, gear-full days feel like a hazy moment when we all wondered if we should be investing in goggles and corsets for a much more whimsical future. Here we are, ten years on. Is there still a place for a story about a former teenage sex worker with moxie and smarts who uses both to right wrongs and solve crimes?

Oh yes there is a place. Bear shows us. Angel Maker picks up where Memery’s story left off in Stone Mad, with Karen and Priya out of the business and carving out a life in the countryside. But Bear herself isn’t stuck in their past. The seven years between books two and three has deepened her voice as a writer and added resonance to the relationships between the characters and within themselves.

The movie business has come to Rapid City, and Karen finds herself the stunt double for a trick-shootin’ gal who Bear sets up as an Annie Oakley analogue in this world. Priya finds work with the crew, too, and both see the extra income as an opportunity to get ahead. Then a double murder occurs, Priya is accused, and Karen is forced to clear her beloved’s name.

Bear gives you all you’d expect from a steampunk Western on a movie set. There is a mechanical cowboy. There’s a horse no one can tame. There are divas and gold mines and Mad Scientists. Characters like Madame Damnable are still around, but have moved into new phases of their lives, too. A well-known Illinois lawyer shows up – but in a surprising kind of way that makes total sense in this world.

But Angel Maker is really a book about relationships, both romantic and non. It’s about how we interact with each other as humans, told in Karen’s poetically blunt voice:

‘‘You got to be who you got to be, and you got to not be who you ain’t, and somehow you got to bend that around the person your lover needs you to be and that person, too – at least acceptably well – and you got to make room for your lover to be who they is while still not giving up your own self, and it ain’t half a wonder we don’t all live in caves and meet once a year to trade hides and salt and onions.’’

Bear salts these nuggets of wisdom throughout Angel Maker’s brisk plot and is clearly having great fun doing so. It’s contagious, that joy, and I’m glad Bear revisited this particular world of hers seven years on.

Booklist: It has been three weeks since the devastating magical attack on Chicago (Battle Ground, 2020), leaving the city in complete disarray and wizard Harry Dresden’s life in shambles. He is mourning the loss of a loved one, has been banished from the White Council of Wizards—although he is not as upset about that—and has been forced by the ruthless Queen Mab into an engagement to the provocative leader of the White Vampires. Harry is grieving and exhausted but nevertheless providing food and shelter for neighbors left homeless by the battle. He is not sure how, or even if, he will recover. What he needs is time, but Mab has given him the impossible task of resolving a conflict with the sovereign of another magical nation, the same king who wants Harry’s brother dead. And an overzealous new White Council warden is out for Harry’s literal head. His friends and, oddly, his new fiancée are trying to help, offering support, a new apprentice, and a Valkyrie bodyguard, but the heartbreak and anguish may still be too much. Series fans will be intrigued by the new characters and changes in Harry’s life as Butcher deftly explores the impacts of loss and grief.

Publishers Weekly: In this sprawling series opener, Bishop (the Black Jewels series) crafts an entertaining and sometimes brutal tale of magic, mystery, and mischief. Shortly after Junior Detective Beth Fahey is assigned to the Penwych police’s 13th precinct special investigations team, she’s tapped for an unusual case involving a magical gun. The inquiry sends her across the Fate River to the Isle of Wyrd to search for answers with the Arcana, the Isle’s enigmatic, fae-like inhabitants who believe that bargains are sacrosanct, intentions have power, and nothing comes free. Swiftly entangled in the doings of the mythical and mysterious, Beth discovers her presence among the Arcana is no accident, and her destiny rests in the hands of their Sorcerer King, Lucas Frost. Meanwhile, a series of intertwined disappearances and deaths create tension between the Arcana and their human visitors, building to a crisis point. Over multiple perspectives, Bishop dwells on themes of escaping abuse, finding freedom, and determining one’s destiny. There’s a fairy tale morality at play: those who embrace cruelty or ignore warnings tend to experience horrible fates, while those seeking peace or safety are offered opportunities for healing and sanctuary. Subtle in its magic if not its messaging, this is a thought-provoking work.

Booklist: Beth is new to the police force, a rookie member of the team that investigates unusual happenings, the things that connect with the Arcana living on the Isle of Wyrd. Her first assignment is to cross the river and look into the origins of a ghost gun in Destiny Park. She gets some answers but is left with even more questions—and the challenges of navigating the rules of the Arcana while doing her job as a detective in the human world. Breaking those rules can have dire consequences, some of which are difficult for the human world to understand. Meanwhile, some humans’ thirst for power or revenge drives them to stir up tensions between uneasy neighbors. As the police investigate strange disappearances—and even stranger reappearances—Beth’s mysterious past starts to catch up with her. Fortunately, the arcane side of the river can also be a place of sanctuary. Bishop’s (The Lady in Glass, 2024) series starter is a satisfying tale of consequences and bargains, both for good and ill, with a central character who works through difficult changes and ultimately lands on her feet.