Review copies: Carey, LeGuin, Wolfe, Sanderson, Deas, Cargill, Hunt

Eight Gollancz paperbacks.

Eight Gollancz paperbacks.

Courtesy of Gollancz, Ursula K. LeGuin’s THE WORD FOR WORLD IS FOREST; Linda Carey, Louise Carey, and M.R. Carey, THE HOUSE OF WAR AND WITNESS; Gene Wolfe, THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN Vol. 1: SHADOW AND CLAW; Stephen Hunt, IN DARK SERVICE; Stephen Deas, THE SPLINTERED GODS; C. Robert Cargill, QUEEN OF THE DARK THINGS; and Brandon Sanderson, WORDS OF RADIANCE, parts one and two.

The Deas is the third book in a series. The Cargill is the second, and the Sanderson is… technically the second book, or the third and fourth volumes, I think. I don’t know why they sent me so many blokey fantasies – and not even the first books in series!

Books in brief: Lo, Palmatier, McGuire, Buckell, Carey Carey and Carey

Malinda Lo, Inheritance. Little, Brown & Co, 2013.

An excellent YA novel which I discussed very recently at Tor.com.

Joshua Palmatier, Shattering the Ley. DAW, 2014. ARC courtesy of the publisher.

A not particularly engrossing novel, a review of which I have submitted to Tor.com.

Seanan McGuire, The Winter Long. DAW, 2014. ARC courtesy of the publisher.

The next installment in McGuire’s ongoing Toby Daye series, in which Toby learns Awful Truths about her family history and has confrontations with villains old and new. Fun, but not as gripping as I was expecting.

Tobias Buckell, Hurricane Fever. Tor, 2014. E-ARC via Netgalley.

Buckell writes a tight, fast-paced near-future thriller. Hurricane Fever is tighter than Arctic Rising (although I liked Rising‘s protag more), and very hard to put down. The climax sneaks into James Bond territory – which is fun. I really enjoyed it, and I hope Buckell writes more in this vein.

Mike Carey, Linda Carey, and Louise Carey, The House of War and Witness. Gollancz, 2014. Copy courtesy of the publisher.

Read for review for Strange Horizons.

Mike Carey, Linda Carey, and Louise Carey, The City of Silk and Steel. Gollancz, 2013.

The House of War and Witness was the kind of good that finally overcame my reluctance to read this book, which had languished on my shelves for a year while I debated with myself over whether or not I had the patience to read a novel that could have been as problematic as some of the promo for this one made it sound.

Well, folks: The City of Silk and Steel is not at all the book I feared it would be. It is, instead, a brilliant story, a story about stories, about justice and hope, friendship and love between women. It is graceful and accomplished and in many ways one of the kinder novels I’ve read in the SFF genre. It’s a marvelous book, and I can now recommend it highly.