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You know him for his Science Fiction like THE DERVISH HOUSE (EBR Review) and others, but now Ian McDonald invades YA territory with PLANESRUNNER (Amazon) and a world where the Earth exists in almost limitless parallel universes.

Our PoV character is teenage Everett Singh, soccer goalie, science smarty-pants, and son of the brilliant Tejendra Singh, who created the infundibulum–a sort of map to the parallel universes, or “planes”. Before now only the ten Earths that have been able to create gateways can visit each other, but with Tejendra’s invention any earth can be jumped to. But agents from the E2 plane will do anything to get the infundibulum, even kidnap Tejendra from under Everett’s very nose. Little do they know that it’s Everett who his dad left it to for safekeeping, and he’ll do anything to rescue his dad.
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I had massive reservations about trying to review this one. Yes, I reviewed the first volume, and so it only makes sense that I should review the second… and yet… How does one go about reviewing a short-story anthology that includes the first authorial offering of one’s near-perfect boss? Or even how does one have the audacity to review such an anthology that is so closely connected to the review site itself? I mean it. How do you even start to tackle something like that? To tell you the truth, I have absolutely no idea. So, I’m just going to tell you what I thought about it–straight up–and hope that it comes across well.
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I realize this review is fairly (really) late. I simply wasn’t sure what I should say about Jim Butcher’s latest. Overall I love this series, but there have been some moments that have driven me absolutely crazy (like the whole novel, TURN COAT). The newest Dresden Files novel, GHOST STORY (Amazon), is not the absolute best in the series, but is isn’t the worst either. In the end, it’s fairly solid.

What GHOST STORY amounts to is “It’s a Wonderful Life, Dresden Edition”… kinda.
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In case you can’t tell from the title, THE UNINCORPORATED WOMAN (Amazon) is the third in the Unincorporated series by the Kollin brothers Dani and Eytan. It follows THE UNINCORPORATED WAR which was a sequel to THE UNINCORPORATED MAN. I believe subsequent volumes will be titled The Unincorporated Gas Station and The Unincorporated (fill in here).
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In THE FALLING MACHINE (EBR Review) you were left with a cliffhanger: during the battle with Lord Eschaton, Tom is dismantled and Sarah leaves home after a fight with her father.

The continuation, HEARTS OF SMOKE AND STEAM (Amazon) begins over a month later. Even though Tom was destroyed, Sarah was able to recover his heart in the chaos. Unfortunately it’s broken, and she needs to find someone to repair the heart, but doesn’t trust the majority of the people in New York who are able to do it. Her search leads her to Emilio Armando, an Italian immigrant and inventor—whose past, if Sarah knew it, would make her think twice about trusting him with Tom’s secret.
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Yeah, yeah, don’t roll your eyes at me. The title CHICKS KICK BUTT (Amazon) sounds totally cliché and dumb and silly. But it’s totally fun and entertaining. CHICKS is a short story compilation of several popular female Urban Fantasy authors—some you’ve heard of and some you haven’t—and other than a couple of mediocre entries, is a solid group of stories. So let’s get to it, shall we?
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I’m not sure if I’ve ever read anything quite like GATEWAYS (Amazon). On the outside it looks like any regular old collection of short stories and novellas. Sometimes those collections have a central premise or theme, and this one certainly does. But it’s the premise and how it’s put together that really got to me. The premise is “Isn’t Frederick Pohl awesome? Let’s have a book to celebrate him.”
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Sarah Stanton is the only child of business magnate Alexander Stanton. She’s a woman ahead of her time—her time being New York’s 1880s, the Gilded Age of industry and technology, but otherwise behind on women’s suffrage.

However, Sarah doesn’t let her father or society’s strictures slow her down. Sure she has to wear a bustle and corset, and her father wants to marry her off by the end of the season, but that doesn’t stop her from trying to find Sir Dennis Darby’s killer.
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Celia is in vampire limbo. She hasn’t joined the ranks of the undead, but she’s no longer human. She’s got fangs, a taste for blood, and superhuman strength; but at the same time she’s awake during the day and can withstand sunlight, holy water, and other vampire repellents.

You see, a security job for a foreign prince who wanted to enjoy the night life on a visit to L.A. turned deadly. During the chaos Celia was attacked by an old vampire—and it’s only the oldest vampires who can create new ones—but the process was interrupted. Instead of dying or being turned, Celia became what’s known in vampire circles as an abomination.

But that’s not the worst thing. Her sire plans to finish the job, and she must find and kill him before he does.
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TRIO OF SORCERY (Amazon) contains three novellas by seasoned author Mercedes Lackey. She’s known for strong heroines in her YA and Urban Fantasy novels, and the three main characters in TRIO are no exception. Each of the book’s mysteries are shorter stories based on characters from Lackey’s existing series—if you haven’t read any of them, then this would be a good introduction; if you have, at the very least these are an entertaining addition. Lackey’s writing overall is straightforward, with excellent pacing, and storylines with a few twists.
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