Carol Berg’s latest fantasy novel, Dust and Light, is set in the same world as her Mythopoeic Award-winning Lighthouse Duet (Flesh and Spirit and Breath and Bone). It will be followed by the second half of the Sanctuary Duet, Ash and Silver, later this year. Lucian is an exceptionally rare pureblood. While most of these sorcerers have a single magical specialty, the gods granted Lucian gifts with both art and history. Those with dual bents normally have little ability with […]

Radiant, Karina Sumner-Smith’s debut novel, is set in the same world as her Nebula-nominated short story “An End To All Things.” It’s also the first book in the Towers Trilogy, which will be completed in 2015. Defiant is scheduled for release in May and Towers Fall will follow later in the year. Xhea has never been like everyone else—she has no magic, the power tied to life itself. Survival is tough for those without much magic and even harder for […]

How does one introduce an author as legendary as Diana Wynne Jones? She’s written beloved fantasy classics and received numerous awards for her work, including the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement. For the last several years I’ve been picking up much of her back catalog as my husband and I both find her stories endearingly charming. On December 16, Diana Wynne Jones’ Deep Secret will be back in print as a paperback—and I’m giving away a copy of the […]

Steles of the Sky is the conclusion to Elizabeth Bear’s Eternal Sky trilogy, following Range of Ghosts and Shattered Pillars. Though this story has been completed, there will be a second trilogy of books set in this world with the first book scheduled for release in 2017, The Lotus Kingdoms. For this mini-review, I am not going to write about the plot. Instead, here is the book description with my thoughts on the book below. Elizabeth Bear concludes her award-winning […]

(Note: Hi! I’m John. Not Kristen. Sorry. I used to contribute to this site a while ago, but then grad school happened. And then grad school happened again. Now they’ve run out of degrees to give me, so I’m back to having some time to write here! It probably won’t be very often, but I’ll pop in from time to time.) The Golem and the Jinni is a melting pot-era urban fantasy released in 2013 and Helene Wecker’s debut novel, […]

The Young Elites is the first book in a new series by Marie Lu, New York Times bestselling author of the Legend trilogy (Legend, Prodigy, Champion). A few years ago, a plague swept through the world and forever changed it. Every adult who became ill died, but there were children who survived this illness. Some of the survivors bore marks afterward and became known as malfettos, and a few of these displayed unusual powers. There are rumors of dangerous Elites […]