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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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HOLY CRAP!

What a year for Science Fiction it’s been. I mean we’ve had LEVIATHAN WAKES by James S A Corey that was excellent. China Miéville’s EMBASSYTOWN was weird, wonderful and brilliant. Robert Charles Wilson finished up his Spin trilogy in fine form with VORTEX. And now along comes Vernor Vinge to show us all again how this is really done with CHILDREN OF THE SKY (Amazon).
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Until recently I thought Felix Gilman was associated with the Warhammer 40K books, which I really didn’t think would be for me. So, I never picked up any of his books. Honestly I don’t know what ever put that idea into my head, but a couple of weeks ago an impulse sent me out to check my sources and I found out that Mr. Gilman wasn’t associated with the 40K books at all. Although, one of the main characters of the Warhammer 40K books was named… can you guess? Yup. Felix. I am so ashamed.
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One of my favorite books last year was ROT & RUIN (EBR Review) by Jonathan Maberry. It was a great take on the after-effects of the zombie apocalypse from the eyes of a teenager. It was also a great example of YA well-done–a fast paced story with fun dialogue and a setting that mixed horror and humor well.
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Terry Pratchett. The man’s a living legend, and his Discworld series is one of the few works out there that proves humorous fantasy has a place in this world. At this point, reviewing his books is about as useful as giving a thumbs up to a work by John Grisham, right? So why bother with a review of his latest book, SNUFF (Amazon)?

Plenty of reasons.
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There are times when, as a reviewer, you pick up a book, get about twenty pages into it, and then say, “There’s no way I’m going to finish reading this.” This happened to my illustrious boss, Steve, when he started reading this book. So, he stopped reading it, and then pawned it off on me. [grumble, grumble] You still have to love the guy, though.
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I’ve come to a point in my reading life where I start planning the books I’m going to read well in advance. A new Dresden Files novel in the Spring. New Erikson & Esslemont novels in the Fall/Winter. A new Joe Ledger novel around February/March. Since starting this whole review gig, I’ve added George Mann to my list. For whatever reason, he work always entertains me.
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Celia West had it good growing up. At least that’s what everyone thinks. She’s the daughter of the wealthiest man in Commerce City, and heir to the West fortune. Dad and mom are also superheros. Everyone asks what it was like growing up with Captain Olympus for a dad and Spark for a mother. Celia avoids the question, but if she answered it straight up she’d say, “Not as awesome as you would think.”

But Celia has since graduated from college, moved out of the luxury penthouse she grew up in and into her own place, and works as a forensic accountant at one of the city’s biggest accounting firms. She only wants to be normal. And pretty much avoid her estranged father.
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You know, sometimes I’m a whiner. I admit it. If there’s something in a book bothers me, I mention it. Something I think could be better in a story? It bubbles out. I’m just trying to stay honest, really. There’s a certain set of pieces that I think help make a story good. I also believe that you faithful readers share my opinion of at least part of that set. So when writing these responses, I always do my best to show you the playing field, lay out my set of rules, and then stay consistent from one review to the next. And then someone like Jesse Bullington comes along and shows me that, yes, sometimes, you can even break the big rules and still come out on the other side smelling like roses.
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With all the trouble Kitty has gotten into since she was turned into a werewolf, it’s hard to imagine that it could get any worse. But there’s a reason why book #9 is named KITTY’S BIG TROUBLE (Amazon)–by the end you’ll understand.

But, instead, let’s go back to the beginning. In the last book, KITTY GOES TO WAR (EBR Review), she learned about the U.S. government’s use of werewolves in combat, and she asked herself: how long have they been doing it, and who else in U.S. history could have been hiding their own supernatural origins?
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