Reviews :: Book Genre :: Fantasy :: Page 26

THE SLOW REGARD OF SILENT THINGS (Amazon) is not exactly a title that reaches out and grabs you. No? I mean, when was the last time you actually saw the word “slow” in the title of a book? Okay, there was SLOW APOCALYPSE (EBR Review) — not my favorite. Or there was also SLOW BULLETS (EBR Review) — not half bad. Or “silent” for that matter? Hmm. THE SILENT LAND (EBR Review). Maybe this is turning out to not be the best analogy…) Let alone both in the same title? Hah! I don’t know of any others.
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After the gripping events of book 2, BLOODSTONE (EBR Review), it’s now fifteen years later and Seth is the dun captain–a responsibility he never expected, knowing his brother Conal would inherit. Now Conal is gone, but Seth has his son Rory, whose ability to manipulate the Viel–the barrier between the Sithe world and the human world–makes him the prophesied Bloodstone, and the very person Queen Kate NicNiven wants for her own purposes.

Unfortunately teenagers will chafe under restrictions, even knowing it’s best for their well being. When Rory sneaks into the mortal world and discovers Hannah, half-Sithe, half-mortal, he brings her back to the dun.
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Sophie is determined to find her birth parents. But when she finds her mother, there isn’t the grand reunion she was hoping for. Not ready to give up yet, Sophie happens across her aunt being attacked in a San Francisco alleyway and rushes to intervene.

The next second she finds herself in the middle of an ocean surrounded by glowing moths, along with her aunt, who has been stabbed, with only Sophie to save her.

Sophie does save her aunt, but unknowingly sets off a chain of events that disrupt the lives of the people who surround her.
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The secret of gunpowder is that anyone—a man, a woman, a child, a cripple—can kill with it.

I think the above quote perfectly sets the tone for Adrian Tchaikovsky’s stand-alone, gunpowder fantasy novel, GUNS OF THE DAWN (Amazon). I’ve been a big fan of Tchaikovsky’s for a while now, with his Shadows of the Apt series being one of my favorite Fantasy series out there.
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DJ’s life is full of the good and the bad. For example: bad–last month she was bitten by a loup-garou; good–she was kept from changing by elf magic; bad–that meant a blood bond with the most annoying elf in existence; good–she was able to keep her friend Jake from getting in trouble. Bad–at the opening of PIRATE’S ALLEY (Amazon) she’s still injured and homeless as a result of the events in ELYSIAN FIELDS (EBR Review). Good–she’s living at her best friend Eugenie’s place, Alex is still her boyfriend, and she’s been able to avoid Rand for the most part.

But DJ knows that any of that can change in a heartbeat. Like when she discovers that Eugenie is pregnant with Rand’s child. But it turns out that’s not all she has to worry about.
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In THE UNREMEMERED: Author’s Definitive Edition (EBR Review), Peter Orullian delivered a classical fantasy novel that hearkened to the stories of Tolkien, Brooks, and more. Heroic adventures, dramatic conflicts, and nuanced storytelling continue to be the hallmarks of Orullian’s writing. And he delivers all the joys of fantasy you could want.

But, Orullian has found an untapped reservoir of talent in TRIAL OF INTENTIONS (Amazon). Where THE UNREMEMBERED shines, TRIAL OF INTENTIONS transcends. Where THE UNREMEMBERED lagged or suffered, TRIAL OF INTENTIONS has displayed deftness that is far beyond its status as the second book in a series. Orullian is not just an author, but an artist. One of the rare writers, like Hemingway, Steinbeck, Lewis, and others, whose use of words, imagery, and literary techniques lifts him above his compatriots and peers into a category inhabited by the truly great.
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Here we are, at the end of our journey in The Glamourist Histories by Mary Robinette Kowal, with book five, OF NOBLE FAMILY (Amazon). Jane has come a long way from SHADES OF MILK AND HONEY (EBR Review). Her and Vincent have been married three years and overcome many trials together, surviving with their relationship intact. But now we discover that Vincent’s abusive father is dead, along with the eldest brother, and the inheritance falls to brother number two. Richard is unable to travel to Antigua to put to rights the family property there, and enlists Vincent to take care of loose ends. Jane, of course, insists on traveling with her husband for what promises to be a long round-trip, but a quick last family obligation to fulfill.

Unfortunately nothing goes as planned. What they find when they arrive in Antigua is a mismanaged estate and the children and mistress of Vincent’s late father–but that isn’t even the biggest shocker of all.
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Nels can’t remember a time when he didn’t want to be a knight. Unfortunately, despite his aptitude for combat and a desire to help others, Nels’ mother won’t let him apply to become a squire. So far he’s listened to his mother. But this year she’ll be gone during the festival and decides to sneak out of the house while she’s gone.

By the end of the night he wishes he’d listened to his mother. Everything goes wrong. He gets in a fight with a real knight. Offends the princess. And is found by the very man who wants to see him dead.

Princess Tyra is in love with Knight Arek. Sure he’s a little pompous, but the idea of governing the kingdom scares her, and she’d rather hand it over to a capable husband. She just needs to convince her father that Arek is the best choice. Things were going well until Arek gets in a fight with peasant boy at the festival. When the boy wins he demands his prize–a kiss from the princess–and she refuses, she’d been expecting to kiss Arek as the winner. But later that same boy comes to haunt her–as a ghost.
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Luci Jenifer Inacio das Neves–Lucifer, for short–isn’t the kind of teenage girl you’d find at any given high school. Beyond the mundane such as her unusual name, living on her own in a dump of an apartment, thieving for a living, and avoiding the authorizes, there’s the fact that she knows about magic while the rest of the human population lives unawares. She makes it clear from the beginning that she doesn’t have magic, but she can use magical items. That’s where the thief part comes in: she steals these magical items from bad people.

It turns out that even though she’s not technically an adult yet, she has insider knowledge of a world few know about. So when a policeman’s daughter, Gina, is kidnapped by a witch in a mirror, only Lucifer knows how to navigate the strange and mystical in order to bring the girl home.
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Writers of the Future is quite easily one of, if not the, most prestigious contests in the world for speculative short fiction. The contest runs each quarter of the year, with the top three stories in the bunch being awarded with publication in the anthology, a place-dependent cash prize, royalties on the anthology they are published in (I believe), and a free week-long writing retreat with all of the new authors published in the anthology being taught by a large cadre of impressive, published authors. It’s no small thing, this “little” contest. If you’re a new writer, you should absolutely be starting off by sending your short stories there. Start at the top, I always say. Don’t short-change yourself by starting anywhere else. If you’re not a new writer though, and you find yourself picking this anthology up, you can be sure to find lots of interesting Science Fiction to satiate your palette.
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