Daily Mail: One of the most compelling things about the fantasy genre is the sense it gives of other realities existing a mere hair’s breadth from our own – its practitioners constructing not only plots but entire worlds in which for them to unfold.
Foreign Devils is an especially adept example of this. It is also what one can only describe as an historical thriller set in the future, the premise being that the Ruman (yes, Ruman) Empire has neither declined nor fallen but harnessed a literally demonic form of weaponry known as Hellfire.
We accompany Livia and Secundus Cornelius, scions of one of Rume’s oldest and most powerful families, on a diplomatic mission to Kithai (a brilliantly wrought cultural landscape that perhaps bears the same relation to China as Rume does to Ancient Rome).
But who are the remote Autumn Lords who hold sway over Kithai? And are they as benevolent as they’re made out to be? You’ll have to read this brutal, beautiful tale to find out.
NPR: Made to Kill finds the common ground between [the hardboiled detective story and science fiction], and Christopher owns every inch of it . . . Made to Kill is the first installment of a planned trilogy, but it has all the potential of an open-ended series; knowing there are only two more Raymond Electromatic mysteries to come is the book’s only disappointment.
Chuck Wendig will be writing
Booklist: After barely surviving the events in Koko Takes a Holiday (2014), Koko Martstellar, the world’s most badass mercenary, and her boyfriend, Jedidiah Flynn, are back home trying to live peacefully as the proprietors of the most decadent and violent resort on twenty-sixth-century Earth. Koko wants to leave the killing behind, but there is still a determined bounty hunter out to capture her. So begins Koko’s next cyberpunk adventure, one that is even more dangerous and with bigger stakes than those in her previous outing. Told in an urgent present-tense voice, with alternating viewpoints, this novel is fast paced, action packed, violent, and just plain fun. And since this is a sequel, readers are treated to even more world building and character development, both of which are just as interesting and satisfying as the action-driven plot. Although Koko’s tale is told in words only, it has a graphic-novel storytelling sensibility that will appeal to fans of series like Hellboy or Saga. As the ending implies, we can expect more from Koko in the future, so make sure this crowd-pleasing, well-executed series is on library shelves now.