The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature in which I highlight books I got over the last week that sound interesting—old or new, bought or received in the mail for review consideration. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included, along with series information and the publisher’s book description.
Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org, and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
Over the last week, I couldn’t resist getting the latest book by one of my favorite authors and a Humble Bundle with a lot of books by a great author!
A Covenant of Ice (The Crowns of Ishia #3) by Karin Lowachee
The final novella in this trilogy set in a secondary fantasy world with dragons was just released toward the end of July (paperback, ebook, audiobook).
I’m a huge fan of Karin Lowachee’s science fiction novels set in the Warchild universe, and I’ve also been enjoying her new series of novellas, so of course I had to get the last book! The Mountain Crown, the first book in this trilogy, was one of my favorite books of 2024: one that felt like going on a journey with the characters, and one that obviously had a lot of thought and care put into it.
For more on the series from the author herself, you can read Karin Lowachee’s essay from this year’s Women in SF&F Month, “Character and Worldbuilding in The Crowns of Ishia.” She shared about the web of ideas related to character, culture, dragons, and magic that went into this fantasy trilogy, including some inspirations like the philosophy of wu wei and North American frontier literature.
The exciting conclusion to the gunslinging dragonrider trilogy!
After years of separation, Havinger Lilley has finally reunited with his lover, Janan. He now hopes to heal from the experience that changed his life forever: being bonded to the soul of a king dragon and to the man Raka who died to save it. But this bond is consuming him, making his thoughts and feelings not his own.
Compelled by this to return to the frozen north that was once Raka’s home, Lilley and his companions Janan and Meka make the arduous journey toward a confrontation with the power-hungry Kattakans that could result in another devastating war.
In this final chapter of The Crowns of Ishia series, the survival of the Ba’Suon people, their dragons, and the land itself rests on the decisions of Lilley, Janan and Meka.
The Murderbot & More Humble Book Bundle by Martha Wells
This Humble Bundle collection supporting World Central Kitchen contains ebook editions of all seven novellas and novels in the Murderbot Diaries series, plus two related short stories:
- All Systems Red
- Artificial Condition
- Rogue Protocol
- Exit Strategy
- Network Effect
- Fugitive Telemetry
- System Collapse
- “Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy“
- “Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory“
It also includes five (technically, seven) additional ebooks by Martha Wells:
- Witch King
- The Emilie Adventures (duology containing two novels)
- The Book of Ile-Rien (The Element of Fire and The Death of the Necromancer)
- City of Bones
- Wheel of the Infinite
The last three on the above list are updated and revised editions of earlier works. Witch King is Martha Wells’s most recently published new novel, and she discussed it in her essay “Deconstructing Epics” for Women in SF&F Month 2024, writing that she thought she was “writing a story set in the aftermath of a multi-volume epic fantasy” and then realized “the past and the present storylines were intertwined and equally important, to tell a story about found family and betrayal and fighting to preserve the world you fought so hard for.”
I’ve been thinking about getting back to The Murderbot Diaries series after enjoying the first season of the TV series, and this was the perfect opportunity to do that. All of these can be obtained for at least $18 and part of the profits go toward an organization dedicated to addressing food insecurity.
The description for All Systems Red, the first book in the Murderbot Diaries, is below.
Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award for Best Novella
Winner of the Alex Award
A New York Times and USA Today Bestseller
Now an Apple Original series from Academy Award nominees Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz and starring Emmy Award winner Alexander Skarsgård.
A murderous android discovers itself in All Systems Red, a tense science fiction adventure by Martha Wells that interrogates the roots of consciousness through Artificial Intelligence.
“As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.”
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.
But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.
On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.
But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.
