New York Times Book Review: It’s the classic teenage movie “Heathers,” with a love triangle and Anika as Veronica Sawyer, the darkly comic insider with an outsider’s perspective and a tortured outcast love interest who raises questions of social hierarchy.
SFX Magazine: Tonally The Incorruptibles delivers a hearty scoop of Abercrombie-style grimdarkness, although layered with more magic and religion. The prose is extraordinary rich. But that never detracts from what is, ultimately, a ripping yarn. Whether you file it under Western or fantasy, The Incorruptibles is a rare thing: a clever story and an action-packed one.
Philadelphia Inquirer: McGoran’s style is at once hard-boiled and enjoyably breezy. His character descriptions tend to the generic (“The door to one of the cabins opened and two women in their early twenties came out, one large and solid, the other small and wiry with a long braid”). But he keeps the plot and the action humming along in a way that makes Deadout an excellent beach book.
Romantic Times: Harrison is back and ready to rumble with this next exhilarating book in her Elder Races series. This time the story revolves around Xavier del Torro, right-hand vampyre to the powerful Nightkind King and Tess Graham, a human, whose past is coming back to haunt her in a big way. When you crack open a Harrison tale, you know you are in for an amazing ride filled with rich characterization, clever world-building, and exciting adventure!
Library Journal: The personalities of Shara and her hulking assistant Sigurd leap off the page, as do supporting characters such as Shara’s former lover Vohannes Votrov and the gruff local Saypuri governor Mulaghesh. The world Bennett (The Troupe; American Elsewhere) has constructed is a complex political landscape of a subjugated people holding onto the memories of their glory days and protective gods and the conquerors reaping revenge for their own previous subjugation. An excellent spy story wrapped in a vivid imaginary world.
Literary Review: “Nnedi Okorafor’s Lagoon …disrupts the standard alien arrival cliches in numerous ways. …Okorafor brings science fiction back to its Utopian ideals. …Writing a novel in which optimism is not naivety is a challenge, and it is accomplished here with panache. …Patriotic and ambiguous, all-embracing and proudly independent, with a sense that any single viewpoint might be as fictional as aliens turning up: Lagoon offers a clever swerve from science fiction’s usual tracks.”
Tor.com: Be prepared to bid a bittersweet goodbye to Beth and her best friend, then… but not before they’ve had one last adventure together. An adventure as incredible as it is desperate; as tragical as it is magical. … The City’s Son, for its part, marked a strong start, and the emergence of an improbably promising new voice in the genre. The Glass Republic—an ingenious inversion of the expectations set by said—proved Tom Pollock was no one-hit wonder. With Our Lady of the Streets, he goes three for three. I couldn’t have asked for a more satisfying finale. And sorry as I am to say farewell to Beth and Pen, I’m even more excited to see what this awesome author sets his sights on next.
Publishers Weekly: Harrison’s enjoyable seventh Elder Races paranormal (after Kinked) takes a trip to the Vampyre demesne in San Francisco. The Vampyres are hosting their annual audition and auction for new human attendants. Running away from a dangerous Djinn, Tess Graham reluctantly offers her skills for auction and attracts the attention of Xavier del Torro, who serves the Nightkind King. Despite her fear of Xavier, she agrees to train as his attendant, understanding that she must eventually offer her blood without hesitation. The epitome of a Spanish nobleman, Xavier hides his interest in Tess behind politeness and professionalism, but he can’t help but be impressed by her determination to conquer her fear of his kind and succeed as an attendant. When she leverages his political connections to save herself, she also captures his heart. The world contains a great many different beings and types of magic, but even casual readers will be able to follow along and enjoy this fun and affecting episode.
Library Journal: Perhaps inevitably this collection has a sense of yearning to it: a desire for escape, a wish for broken things to be fixed, a longing for more time. Here both literal and metaphoric narratives deal with Lake’s struggles with terminal cancer, but readers will enjoy plenty of adventure and pure flights of fancy as well. Continue reading »
Publishers Weekly: Gasconade local McBride (whose previous book was the cult favorite Frank Sinatra in a Blender) gives Breaking Bad fans more down and dirty meth action. Set in Missouri’s Gasconade County, once labeled the methamphetamine capital of the world, this smoldering tale pits cop against dope dealer/desperate redneck against even more desperate redneck. In this rural area, “White-trash pharmacies run from beaten-down mobile homes at the end of dead-end roads would always trade pills for dope.” Deputy Sheriff Dale Everett Banks finds $52,000 in the trailer of meth dealer Jerry Dean Skaggs, and decides to keep it. Jerry Dean needs that money to keep his secret partners happy. The plot spreads out to include more and more county residents, even Butch Pogue in his hilltop compound where he practices a weird religion and keeps his latest “wife” locked in the cellar. You know you’re talking authentic hillbilly when the main characters each weigh 300 pounds.