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I was flipping through the TV channels recently and saw that “Fried Green Tomatoes” was playing. I’d never seen the show before (travesty, I know, I plan to rectify that soon) so I stayed and watched for a while. I was coming in about midway through the show and there was a scene where two young women were sitting in an otherwise empty restaurant talking about some of the problems in their lives. In a very few minutes, I felt like I knew these two women and where they had come from. What and who they were, at their core. It was brilliant and seemingly effortless. It was in the same incredibly simple and beautifully elegant way that the story in this novel began with two young women talking to one another in a bar about the pieces of their lives, and I knew at once that I was going to enjoy this book.
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As Larry Correia’s biggest fan I’ve been looking forward to his fantasy debut for a while now. If I remember properly he’s been teasing fans, talking about it on his blog for a couple years now at least. Judging by how incredibly large scale Larry’s urban fantasy and alternate history novels have been I’ve been eager to see what he could do with straight up fantasy. I can happily say that SON OF THE BLACK SWORD (Amazon) will not disappoint the Monster Hunter Nation and it will also likely earn Larry a lot of new fans from the fantasy genre.

Here’s the plot synopsis: After the War of the Gods, the demons were cast out and fell to the world. Mankind was nearly eradicated by the seemingly unstoppable beasts, until the gods sent the great hero, Ramrowan, to save them. He united the tribes, gave them magic, and drove the demons into the sea. Yet as centuries passed, Gods and demons became myth and legend, and the people no longer believed. The Age of Law began.

Ashok Vadal has been chosen by a powerful ancient weapon to be its bearer. He is a Protector, the elite militant order of roving law enforcers. No one is more merciless in rooting out those who secretly practice the old ways. Everything is black or white, good or evil, until he discovers his entire life is a fraud. Ashok isn’t who he thinks he is, and when he finds himself on the wrong side of the law, the consequences lead to rebellion, war—and destruction.
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Camellia is a high school sophomore who lives with her adopted mother, who happens to be a witch. But witches are only ever wicked, as evidenced by the spell Cam saw the witch perform when Cam was five years old. She still doesn’t like to talk about it.

Growing up with a witch stinks, since their M.O. for child rearing includes really terrible punishments. Like turning fingers into noodles. Or turning the child into a pile of rotten tomatoes for the afternoon. And forcing them to gather weird ingredients such as goats blood, pigs ears, and… eggplant?

But now the witch is planning to take over the town using Phoenix fire, and needs Cam’s help to manage the demon she summoned in order to do it. Cam wants to undermine the witch’s plans AND pass her Algebra test at the same time, but she’s not sure that’s possible.
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Lucy can hear ghosts. Lockwood can see them. George is tactical support. Together they are Lockwood and Co, ghost hunters extraordinaire. Well, competent if not extraordinaire. Okay, maybe they’re just barely getting by.

You see, only children can see or hear ghosts, so when ghost hunters get too old to hunt them, they lead the teams. However, Lockwood and Co don’t employ adults. They’re three kids who live in the house Lockwood inherited from his parents. DERPAC (Department of Psychical Research and Control–run by adults of course) monitors all companies that deal with Visitors–aka ghosts–and believe that children gallivanting around without adult supervision are suspect, even if they are licensed.

DERPAC’s agent Barnes feels justified in questioning Lockwood when their most recent job results in destruction of a client’s property, which is a strict no-no. Now they’re in danger of losing the house, the business, and any means of gainful employment. What’s a ghost hunter to do?
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I’m not sure what I expected going into this novella. I mean…look at the cover. It’s weird, kinda creepy, and automatically makes me want to read the story. Subterranean Press was kind enough to send over a copy of the exceptionally strange novella by Jonathan Carroll, TEACHING THE DOG TO READ. It didn’t disappoint.
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K.J. Parker has been one of my favorite authors for quite some time now. Her books, in my opinion, are brilliant fun and have oodles of engaging characters put into absolutely awful predicaments. Even though she overwhelmingly shies away from all things “magical,” there’s plenty within the “fantasy palette” developed by each book that I feel completely satiated at the end of each reading. She makes me laugh, and as I’ve repeatedly found, making a reader laugh can cover a multitude of sins (if there are any). If you’re up on your game in regards to her publications, you might also have noticed that Ms. Parker is NOT A MS. Completely took me by surprise as, when speaking of authors from across the pond, I’ve tended to like the works of more female authors than their more masculine counterparts (with a few exceptions). Never thought I’d see the day honestly. But still, Tom Holt writes the books the same way whether he uses that pseudonym or not. So I’m still happy.
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Not only did this series get a major upgrade with the last book (hardcover, anybody?), but we also heard that SyFy had picked it up for a 10-episode series (which begins to air this December), and they also started writing for series two of the SyFy series last month. That’s June. Six months before the series even premieres! Just freaking cool. Still, I’m already itching for book six, Babylon’s Ashes. Although, we’ll get a new novella (The Vital Abyss, Oct 1st) in just a few months, and then the tv series in December, so the time between now and then should just fly.
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From Dark Regions Press, we have a great novella from one of my favorite authors, Joe Lansdale. PRISONER 489 (Amazon) is short, sweet, and a terrific read. While I simply adore Lansdale’s Westerns, I’m an even bigger fan of his writing.
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When it comes to author Dan Wells, people seem to point to his Dystopian YA Partials series. Those are good novels, no doubt about it. But the novels that won me over were those in his John Cleaver series. It’s no secret how much I love Horror, and Wells’ first novel, I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER (EBR Review), hit all the right notes for me. After three novels in that series, I wondered if I would ever again read a new John Cleaver story. I feared the worst…

…until Wells said he was writing a new John Cleaver trilogy.
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With THE DEVIL’S ONLY FRIEND (Amazon) releasing tomorrow, I figured I’d draw your attention to a must-have novella from Horror author, Dan Wells. Set in his John Cleaver series, and during the events of THE DEVIL’S ONLY FRIEND, we have the novella NEXT OF KIN (Amazon).

From the moment I first began reading the John Cleaver novels, I was arrested by my curiosity for the series’ villains, the Withered (or Gifted, as they call themselves). These god-like beings are known and identifiable by what they lack, and that simple idea became such a compelling one that I often (all the time) wondered how THEY were seeing this story unfold.

NEXT OF KIN does exactly that. It puts readers in the head of one of the Withered.
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