Barnes & Noble SFF Blog: With precise prose and an engaging plot that is lyrical even as it is paced like a thriller, The Five Daughters of the Moon is rich, rewarding tale.
Aug 142017
Aug 112017
Kirkus: Hoping to build on the dazzling triumph of her Eternal Sky fantasy trilogy (Steles of the Sky, etc.), Bear embarks on a new trilogy set in the same universe. The opening scene, in which a caravan heaves itself across the icy peaks of the Steles of the Sky, takes the narrative, literally and figuratively, out of familiar territory and into the Lotus Kingdoms, the contentious, broken shards of the once-mighty Alchemical Empire.
A panoramic drama that grabs and grips from Page 1 …captivatingly different …vivid, absorbing, and thrilling…stands head and shoulders above nearly everything else.
Aug 102017
Booklist: Imagine waking in an alley with no recollection of how you got there—or even who you are. That is how Zerfall’s day starts. Left to die by assassins, she awakens wounded and unable to remember how she got to where she is, let alone where her precious sword has gone.
Fletcher’s latest grim-dark novel will leave readers wanting the story to continue.
Aug 092017
Publishers Weekly: The enchanting eighth installment of Hodgell’s Chronicles of the Kencyrath (after Sea of Time) continues to follow Jame, who is both sister and heir of Torisen, the Highlord of the Kencyr, and the avatar of the destructive side of the Kencyr’s Three-Faced God. Jame is given command of the fort of Tagmeth as a way to prove herself in lieu of her third year of military school, but her family’s political enemies live between Tagmeth and the Highlord’s forces, making her journey there treacherous-and the ancient evil that the Kencyr’s god has destined them to fight is drawing near from the other direction. The Kencyr live in one of the most deeply realized worlds in fantasy, a rich and complicated space that includes many cultures and riveting, three-dimensional characters.
Aug 082017
B&N SFF Blog: Without a doubt, Godblind is a savage read; there is bloodshed in nearly every chapter. Stephens doesn’t shy away from graphic gore, whether in scenes of battle or ritualistic slaughter. And yet, it never feels gratuitous. This is a grimdark fantasy that truly lives up to the name.
Aug 042017
New York Times: Long ago, as one character explains early in Nicky Drayden’s THE PREY OF GODS, the human race was fathered by a god who gave unique powers to each of his children. Though human beings have lost these abilities over the generations since, they remain present in mitochondrial DNA, latent except in a few rare individuals. And except in those humans whose latent DNA has been awakened — which a new street drug called godsend just happens to be able to do.
This is the mytho-scientific premise underlying a madcap, rapid-fire tale of South Africa in the year 2064, where a handful of individuals are suddenly plagued by godhood. One, Nomvula, is a lonely little township girl born with power. Several others acquire their abilities from godsend, to varying degrees of trauma or delight…As a genetically engineered virus spreads and threatens to awaken the latent godhood of billions, these few special individuals come together to decide, ultimately, what manner of gods will rule the future. Oh — and also, the technological apocalypse looms as personal robots all over the world quietly become self-aware.
Aug 012017
B&N SFF Blog: With lush prose and an immersive sense of place, this brief, evocative work – the first half of a duology that continues with The Sisters of the Crescent Empress in November – will bring an icy chill to the summer months.
Aug 012017
Publishers Weekly: Nine perspectives interweave in a novel composed of divergent, unsettling stories from authors that include Brandy Colbert, Justina Ireland, Alaya Dawn Johnson, and Stephanie Kuehn. A group of delinquent teens is sent to Zeppelin Bend, an outdoor education program that dumps them in the wilderness to teach lessons about hard work and connection. There, they take turns recounting maybe-true stories in an effort to win a promised $100 from Hutchinson’s character, who guides readers through their haphazard three-day trip. The kids are considered “human garbage,” as Hutchinson’s character puts it, but their choices and situations are born of sharp, complicated moments and realities. Though the voices are distinct, it’s the overall experience of disparate people finding common understanding that lingers.
Jul 272017
Publishers Weekly: Fletcher’s third novel set in his Manifest Delusions universe (after Beyond Redemption), a world where anything a person truly believes will become reality, is a tour de force of dark fantasy shot through with wonder and black humor….Fletcher’s twisty and continuously surprising plot piles spectacle upon spectacle in an amazingly ambitious structure, while his consistently three-dimensional characters lend depth and heart to the narrative.
Jul 262017
Tor.com: Spinning between the perspectives of multiple main characters, the seemingly divergent storylines of The Prey of Gods soon begin to intersect in unexpected and often delightful ways.
For all its wild subplots and deeper messages, the novel never collapses into (unintentional) camp or heavy-handedness, but underneath the propulsive action is a fleshed-out cast of living, breathing characters whose journeys are as vivid as their costumes.
The skill with which Drayden pulls off her fully realized world, bananas plot, and multivocal narrative is so impressive it’s hard to believe this is a debut novel. And on top of her nearly supernatural ability to juggle something like thirty-seven balls at once, she’s also an inventive and delightful stylist with an eye for the novel metaphor and snappy turn of phrase.