Black Gate

Is there anything as delightful as a debut fantasy novel that comes out of nowhere and gets rave reviews? (Never mind, it’s a rhetorical question). The latest example to cross my desk is The Black Witch by Laurie Forest, a 600-page fat fantasy that Kirkus calls “A massive page-turner that leaves readers longing for more,” and that Publishers Weekly praises with “Exquisite character work, an elaborate mythology, and a spectacularly rendered universe make this a noteworthy debut.” It arrived in hardcover and digital formats on May 1st.

A new Black Witch will rise… her powers vast beyond imagining.

Elloren Gardner is the granddaughter of the last prophesied Black Witch, Carnissa Gardner, who drove back the enemy forces and saved the Gardnerian people during the Realm War. But while she is the absolute spitting image of her famous grandmother, Elloren is utterly devoid of power in a society that prizes magical ability above all else.

When she is granted the opportunity to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming an apothecary, Elloren joins her brothers at the prestigious Verpax University to embrace a destiny of her own, free from the shadow of her grandmother’s legacy. But she soon realizes that the university, which admits all manner of people — including the fire-wielding, winged Icarals, the sworn enemies of all Gardnerians — is a treacherous place for the granddaughter of the Black Witch.

As evil looms on the horizon and the pressure to live up to her heritage builds, everything Elloren thought she knew will be challenged and torn away. Her best hope of survival may be among the most unlikely band of misfits… if only she can find the courage to trust those she’s been taught to hate and fear.

The Black Witch was published by Harlequin Teen on May 1, 2017. It is 601 pages, priced at $19.99 in hardcover and $9.99 for the digital edition. The cover was designed by Mary Luna. Read an excerpt at Entertainment Weekly.

This looks like fun… a novel of curses, demons, pirates, and a sentient ship on the Spanish Main from the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Dark-Hunter novels. Of course, it had me at pirates and curses, but the rest of it sounds pretty good too. It arrives in hardcover from Tor tomorrow, and is the opening volume of a promised series.

Hell hath no fury as a demon caged…

To catch evil, takes evil.

Enter Devyl Bane — an ancient warlord who has absolutely no love of humanity. Yet to return to the human realm as one of the most notorious pirates in the Spanish Main for the sake of vengeance, he makes a bitter bargain with Thorn — an immortal Hellchaser charged with battling the worst monsters the ancient gods ever released into our world. Monsters and demons Bane himself once commanded against Thorn and the humans.

For eons, those demons have been locked behind enchanted gates… which are starting to buckle. Now, Bane, with a vicious crew of Deadmen at his command, is humanity’s last hope to restore the gates and return the damned to their eternal prisons.

But things are never so simple. And one of his biggest vexations, aside from keeping his crew from killing each other before they have a chance to save humanity, is the very ship he sails upon. For Mara, the Sea Witch isn’t just a vessel, she’s also a woman born of an ancient race Bane helped to destroy. And sister to the possessed creature who is one of the worst of those trying to break through to claim his soul, and retake the world.

Mara’s innate hatred of him makes the very fires of hell look like a sauna — not that he blames her. Centuries of war and betrayal divide them. But if Mara can’t find the humanity inside the Devyl and the Devyl can’t teach Mara to embrace her darker side for the good of their crew and the world, the two of them will go down in flames and take us all with them.

Deadmen Walking will be published by Tor Books on May 9, 2017. It is 384 pages, priced at $27.99 in hardcover and $14.99 for the digital version. The cover is by Stephen Youll.

Stick around long enough in this genre, and you start to see fresh ideas repeat. Like fairy-tale retellings, for example. Do we really need another version of Cinderella?

Well, if it’s as fresh and funky as Betsy Cornwell’s New York Times bestseller Mechanica then, yeah. Maybe we do. In this version, Nicolette is a young inventor mocked by her cruel step-sisters, who finds a secret workshop on her sixteenth birthday. And when she learns of the upcoming technological exposition… well, you know there’s only one way that can play out. And I want to be onboard to see it happen. Kirkus says “A spunky mechanic stars as a steampunk Cinderella who doesn’t need rescuing… A smart, refreshing alternative to stale genre tropes,” and Amazon.com listed it among the Best Young Adult Books of 2015,

Mechanica was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books on August 2, 2016. It is 320 pages, priced at $8.99 in paperback and for the digital edition. The cover is by Manuel Sumberac; click the images above for bigger versions. Read an excerpt here, and learn more about the book here.

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