Reviews by Vanessa
The Tangled Bridge
Madeline LeBlanc comes from a long line of magic–they call it pigeon–where they can see the briar and the river devils who live there. All of us have our own devils who whisper in our ears, trying to get us to do wicked things. For the most part the devils are an unorganized lot, except that Madeline’s great-grandmother Choloe and half-brother Zenon want to use the briar’s power to change humanity itself. And the only people standing in their way are Madeline and the six-year-old boy Bo Racer who was born a being of light.
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Blood’s Pride
A generation ago the Norlanders invaded the Shadar, beating down the city and its people with bloodthirsty efficiency, making the Shadari their slaves in order to mine a rare ore used for powerful weapons.
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The Crossing
Many years ago monstrous sun flares changed everything, and humanity was thrust back into the Dark Ages. For the natives of an island in the South Pacific and passengers on a beached cruise ship, they are the last known survivors of the subsequent apocalypse.
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Energized
You think $4.00 gas is bad? Try five times that. Try rationing. That’s what life could be like starting in about two years with Edward M. Lerner’s Crudustrophe in ENERGIZED (Amazon).
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Mage’s Blood
So Steve sends me this huge book, almost 700 pages long, that looks like yet another epic fantasy wannabe. Steve has sent me lemons before, so I started MAGE’S BLOOD (Amazon) a little jaded. I’ve read a lot of epic fantasy, and I was concerned this one would end up a lemon.
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River Road
It’s been a few years since Hurricane Katrina, and all the paranormal goings-on in ROYAL STREET (EBR Review). DJ has been settling into her role as the New Orleans sentinel, a wizard who keeps the preternatural denizens from running amok. At her side is Alex Warin, previously an enforcer for the Council of Elders, and now co-sentinel and best friend–even if she’s not above admiring his good looks and muscular physique.
The boundaries with the Beyond and the human world were cracked by Hurricane Katrina, but things seemed to have settled back to normal–well, the new normal, anyway. At least until the historically undead Jean Lafitte asks DJ for her help intervening in a dispute between two tribes of Cajun merfolk. Merfolk along the Mississippi River have been falling ill and each tribe blames the other for poisoning the water. It won’t be long before humans become affected.
DJ and Alex go to investigate and come across a dead body in the marsh…who turns out to be a wizard.Read the rest of this review »
Power Under Pressure
In THE FALLING MACHINE (EBR Review) we were introduced to Sarah Stanton and her father’s team of heroes called the Paragons. In the sequel HEARTS OF SMOKE AND STEAM (EBR Review) Sarah’s life changes as she learns the difficult truth of what it really means to become a Hero. In Andrew P. Mayer’s exciting conclusion, POWER UNDER PRESSURE (Amazon), Sarah must become the hero, or else watch the people and the city she loves fall to the machinations of the villainous Lord Eschaton.
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Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25
Michael Vey is not your average teenager. Ever since he was a kid, he could produce an electric shock. Kind of like a walking Taser. Only with hormones and acne.
His mom is paranoid about what would happen if people found out about his abilities. She gave up a good job at a California law firm to move them both to Idaho in order to keep him safe from anyone who might notice. But in high school Michael is noticed for other reasons: he’s kinda scrawny, his best friend is the brainiac nerd at school, and he has Tourettes (the kind with tics when he’s nervous, not the swearing kind). So of course the poor kid is bullied.
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Three Parts Dead
Magic lawyers. No, not lawyers who go to court over magic, but lawyers who have magic and use it to make contracts. Gods who are real. Gargoyles. Vampires. Necromancy. A murder mystery. Trying to explain everything this novel has and is just makes my head spin.
So… maybe I should start at the beginning.
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The Iron Wyrm Affair
Emma Bannon is a sorceress in the employ of the Queen herself, tasked with protecting Archibald Clare, an unregistered and failed mentath. Why? Because other mentaths all over Londinium are dying unexplainable and grisly deaths and there’s more to it than a serial killer.
Set in an alternative Victorian England, THE IRON WYRM AFFAIR (Amazon) blends magic and steampunk with enthusiasm. Known for her Urban Fantasy series, Lilith Saintcrow tries something different with a steam-sorcery-mystery tale that threatens Britannia herself.
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