Anna Kashina, Blades of the Old Empire. Angry Robot Books, 2014.
WHAT IS THIS I DON’T EVEN. Review forthcoming (I hope) at Tor.com.
She looked down to her living dress. There was a short pause. Then the spiders streamed down her body and out of the tent.
— Liz Bourke (@hawkwing_lb) February 11, 2014
She wondered if the two royals were ever going to make up. If this was what diplomacy was all about, she wanted no more part in it.
— Liz Bourke (@hawkwing_lb) February 10, 2014
-the last few days, but to imagine life in this dreary castle without him was unthinkable. The new Diamond, Han, seemed just as competent-
— Liz Bourke (@hawkwing_lb) February 11, 2014
@hawkwing_lb And then her novelty whittled dolphins sold to /everyone/. People came from miles around to visit her Etsy shop.
— Fade Manley (@fadeaccompli) February 10, 2014
Yeah. So that happened.
Deborah Coates, Strange Country. Tor, 2014.
Review copy from Tor. I hope I’ll get to talk about this in my column. It’s an interesting entry in Coates’ rural-contemporary fantasy-with-ghosts. I don’t like it as much as the excellent Wide Open or its immediate predecessor Deep Down, but it’s still a very solid book.
Seanan McGuire, Half-Off Ragnarok. DAW, 2014.
Review copy from DAW. I also want to talk about this in the column. It’s a great deal of fun, although not quite as entertaining, for me, as the Verity Price installments: it’s also interesting to see McGuire’s narrative pattern at work.
Peter Higgins, Truth and Fear. Orbit, 2014.
Review copy from Orbit. Review forthcoming from Ideomancer.com. Higgins has an excellent turn of with prose, and Truth and Fear pulls off its climax with rather more verve and, well, climax than its immediate predecessor, but it is more the second part of a novel-in-three-parts than a book that stands well on its own, and we have yet to see proof that Higgins can bring a narrative to an ultimately satisfactory conclusion.
Carrie Vaughn, After the Golden Age. Tor, 2011.
Copy courtesy of Tor.com. I want to talk about this, and its sequel, in the column too. It is a very interesting take on superhero stories, and one of the few superhero stories I’ve read that’s appealed to me on any bar the most superficial levels. It is doing interesting things with family and privilege, I think, although I’d like to think about it more.
Carrie Vaughn, Dreams of the Golden Age. Tor, 2014.
Copy courtesy of Tor.com. Sequel of sorts (the next generation) to the aforementioned After the Golden Age, and a little bit more straightforwardly a superhero story – and thus less appealing to me. Feels somewhat as though it might appeal to a YA agegroup, but on the other hand maybe not. Interesting and entertaining, on the whole.
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea 