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Category: Series Fantasy

Angels, Demons, Necromancers and a Badass Heroine: The Hellhound Chronicles by Caitlin Kittredge

Angels, Demons, Necromancers and a Badass Heroine: The Hellhound Chronicles by Caitlin Kittredge

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Just two weeks ago we were talking about the death of the paranormal romance. When it was 60% of what was on the shelves, I frankly didn’t have much time for it. But now that it’s virtually vanished, I admit I’m curious… at least about some of the quirky stuff that appeared at the edges of the genre.

What’s guiding my interest? Sometimes it’s the author, sometimes it’s recommendations from reviewers I trust. Sometimes it’s just the cool covers. And sometimes, like with Caitlin Kittredge’s Hellhound Chronicles, it’s the fact that brand new copies of the opening volume are available for just $1.45 at Amazon.com (and Bookoutlet is selling the second one for just $4.79.)

The Hellhound Chronicles is more urban fantasy than paranormal romance (although the two are frequently indistinguishable.) It follows the adventures of the “hellhound” Ava, an indentured servant of an angel of death who tracks down errant souls and sends them to hell. When Ava meets up with a necromancer who tells her there’s a way out of her servitude, it leads to unforeseen consequences… and a series of misadventures involving the demon Lilith, the Walking Man, and zombie vampires. Melissa de la Cruz calls it “A riveting, fun and dangerous ride with angels, demons, necromancers and a badass heroine,” and Kirkus Reviews says it’s “A fast-paced read perfect for lovers of dark fantasy.” Here’s the back covers.

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Tournaments, Isolated Outposts, and Strange Magic: The Wall of Night Trilogy by Helen Lowe

Tournaments, Isolated Outposts, and Strange Magic: The Wall of Night Trilogy by Helen Lowe

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There are times when I want a quick read. And there are times when I want something edgy and new. And then there are times when I just want to sink back into my chair with a comforting 2,000-page fantasy trilogy, featuring squabbling royal houses, dark forces, river cities, tournaments, honor guards, wind-swept bastions, strange magic, wild lands, isolated outposts, black treachery — and a towering mountain wall that’s the last defense against the ravening hordes.

Helen Lowe’s The Wall of Night trilogy fits the bill nicely. The opening novel, The Heir of Night, won the Gemmell Morningstar Award for Best Fantasy Newcomer, and The Gathering Of The Lost was nominated for the Gemmell Legend Award for the Best Novel. The series wrapped up last year with Daughter of Blood. Here’s the complete publishing deets.

The Heir of Night (466 pages, $7.99 paperback/$2.99 digital, September 28, 2010) — cover by Gregory Bridges
The Gathering of the Lost (672 pages pages, $7.99 paperback/$3.99 digital, March 27, 2012)
Daughter of Blood (768 pages, $7.99 paperback/$4.99 digital, January 26, 2016) — cover by Don Sipley

All three are paperback originals from Harper Voyager; all three are still in print. Here’s the back covers.

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New Treasures: Wilders by Brenda Cooper

New Treasures: Wilders by Brenda Cooper

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Brenda Cooper got her start collaborating with Larry Niven. They co-wrote eight short stories between 2001 – 2007, and one novel, Building Harlequin’s Moon, in 2005. She branched out and began writing short fiction of her own in 2003; her first solo novel was The Silver Ship and the Sea, which won the 2008 Endeavour Award, and kicked off The Silver Ship trilogy. She followed up with the Ruby’s Song duology (The Creative Fire, The Diamond Deep) and The Glittering Edge (Edge of Dark, Spear of Light).

Her latest is the start of a brand new series, Project Earth, set in a near-future Earth where “rewilding crews” work to remove all traces of civilization from vast tracks of terrain, returning the planet to its natural state. Gray Scott calls it “A fantastic voyage into a beautifully intricate solarpunk future,” and Karl Schroeder says it’s “A vision of future America that’s by turns exhilarating and terrifying… one of the best near-future adventures in years.” It’s available now in paperback.

Wilders was published by Pyr on June 13, 2017. It is 367 pages, priced at $18 in trade paperback and $9.99 for the digital version. The cover is by Stephan Martiniere. Click the covers above for bigger versions.

Nobles, Pirates and Supernatural Creatures in 15th Century Venice: The Assassini Trilogy by Jon Courtenay Grimwood

Nobles, Pirates and Supernatural Creatures in 15th Century Venice: The Assassini Trilogy by Jon Courtenay Grimwood

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This week I received a review copy of Moskva, the upcoming thriller by Jack Grimwood, aka Jon Courtenay Grimwood, author of the SF novels Stamping Butterflies (2004), 9Tail Fox (2005), and the British Science Fiction Award winner End of the World Blues (2006). It’s good to see one of the most talented writers in our genre branching out… but I must admit that mostly what the book did was spark an interest in some of Grimwood’s early genre books. I ended up digging up his Assassini trilogy, which Library Journal called “A tale of politics, love, and the supernatural… 15th Century Venice springs to life, along with a varied cast of nobles, pirates, and supernatural creatures.” It was published in paperback by Orbit earlier this decade:

The Fallen Blade (417 pages, $14.99 trade paperback/$9.99 digital, January 27, 2011) — cover by Larry Rostant
The Outcast Blade (432 pages, $14.99 trade paperback/$9.99 digital, March 26, 2012) — cover by Emma Graves
The Exiled Blade (338 pages, $15.99 trade paperback/$9.99 digital, April 2, 2013) — cover by Emma Graves

It’s fascinating to contrast Larry Rostant’s photo-based cover for The Fallen Blade with his stylistically similar (and yet markedly different) cover for Jay Posey’s Sungrazer, which we posted here just two days ago. Rostant’s cover work is almost entirely photo-based; he has some striking examples — including some gorgeous dance photos — at his website.

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Unbound Worlds on 7 Great Occult Detectives

Unbound Worlds on 7 Great Occult Detectives

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Matt Staggs seems to be most productive blogger over at Unbound Worlds, the house blog of Penguin Random House. He’s certainly produced most of my favorite stuff over there recently, including 4 Epic Fantasy Novels Written Before The Lord of the Rings, Have a Look at D&D Creator Gary Gygax’s FBI File, and 3 Great Novels to Read After You’ve Seen Wonder Woman.

But the piece I find myself returning to multiple times in the past two weeks is his June 5th article “7 of Urban Fantasy’s Great Occult Detectives,” in which he showcases some of the recent heroes and heroines who’ve followed in the footsteps of famous ghost hunters like Carnacki The Ghost Finder, Jules de Grandin, Aylmer Vance, John Thunstone, Titus Crow, and many others. Staggs proves this proud sub-genre is far from dead, and his proof includes series from Jim Butcher, Daniel José Older, Seanan McGuire, Laurel K. Hamilton, and others. Here’s a few of my favorites from his list.

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A Fast-Paced Blend of Space Opera and Military SF: The Outriders Series by Jay Posey

A Fast-Paced Blend of Space Opera and Military SF: The Outriders Series by Jay Posey

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Jay Posey is an interesting guy. His work is known to millions around the world — millions of gamers, anyway. He was the Senior Narrative Designer at Red Storm Entertainment, creator of the million-selling Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six franchises. He branched into novels in 2013 with Three, the opening volume in what eventually became the Legends of the Duskwalker trilogy, a futuristic weird western set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland peopled by augmented humans, cyborgs, and the deadly Weir. It became the bestselling series at Angry Robot, and helped put the imprint on the map.

His newest effort is the Outriders series, featuring a crack team of nearly immortal super-soldiers in clone bodies. Bull Spec magazine called it “Military science fiction with a twisty plot and a complex political landscape… A great read for lovers of science fiction adventure!”, and SFF World labeled it “A high-paced blend of near-future space opera and military sf… good fun.” The first volume was published as a paperback original last year by Angry Robot; the highly anticipated sequel arrives next month.

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Future Treasures: Dark Sky and Dark Deeds by Mike Brooks

Future Treasures: Dark Sky and Dark Deeds by Mike Brooks

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Mike Brooks’s space opera Dark Run, published last year by Saga Press, was one of the most acclaimed SF debuts of 2016. The Keiko and its crew of smugglers, soldiers of fortune, and adventurers travelling Earth’s colony planets successfully took on a job that could pay off a lot of their debts, in a corrupt galaxy where life is cheap and criminals are the best people in it. In the sequel Dark Sky, arriving in hardcover and trade paperback next month, Captain Ichabod Drift and his crew sign on for a new smuggling job that soon goes south when they’re separated and caught up in a dangerous civil war.

When Ichabod Drift and the Keiko crew sign on for a new smuggling job to a mining planet, they don’t realize what they are up against. The miners, badly treated for years by the corporation, are staging a rebellion. Split into two groups, one with the authorities and one with the rebels, Drift and his crew support their respective sides in the conflict. But when they are cut off from each other due to a communication blackout, both halves of the crew don’t realize that they have begun fighting themselves…

Dark Sky (322 pages, $26.99 hardcover/$16.99 trade/$7.99 digital) will be published by Saga Press on July 11, 2017. It will be followed this fall with the third volume, Dark Deeds, in which a ship-wide vacation leads to the second-in-command being taken hostage by a criminal mastermind.

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The World is Not the Way it Was: Downside Ghosts by Stacia Kane

The World is Not the Way it Was: Downside Ghosts by Stacia Kane

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A decade ago, the shelves of my local bookstores were groaning under the weight of countless paranormal romances. Urban fantasies featuring baddass women and the dangerous men they desired (including vampires, werewolves, sorcerers, aliens, zombies, buff mannequins, and all manner of sexy and not-so-sexy undead) thoroughly dominated the genre.

Today, the paranormal romance is dead. Not even undead — totally dead. That particular vein of fantasy has been thoroughly played out, and we are not likely to see it return in our lifetime. I can’t say I’m sorry to see it go; paranormal romance was never my favorite subgenre, and while it was at its peak it so thoroughly dominated the market that it seemed to choke out everything else.

Still, hidden in every genre and subgenre, there is always good, innovative work. Amongst the derivative pseudo-erotica about well-groomed vampire lords and werewolf bikers was a handful of real gems, produced by writers using the trappings of paranormal romance to craft truly fun urban serials, and those who had tweaked the formula to come up with something uniquely their own. Now that the roaring tide has finally receded on paranormal romance it’s time to do a little beachcombing, picking out treasures in the sand. My first pick is the Downside Ghosts series by Stacia Kane, set in a dark and ominous world where the dead have risen, the living are threatened every day, and the Church of Real Truth seized power when governments around the world collapsed.

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Steampunk, Voodoo, and the Walking Dead: Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard

Steampunk, Voodoo, and the Walking Dead: Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard

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For readers with dark tastes and a deep-seated love for romance, I recommend Something Strange and Deadly, the first in a trilogy by Susan Dennard, author of Truthwitch.

Why, you might ask? Well, Dennard has a supreme understanding of how to enhance gothic themes with an addictive steampunk flourish, and captivate her readers with antagonists you come to enjoy more than the protagonists. (Okay, that’s a stretch. But she outdid herself with her villain). Do you know how to spend a blissful Saturday evening curled up under your favorite blanket drinking tea, while freezing rain crashes against your window in the coal black darkness of the night? Then you, my friend, know the right way to appreciate this diamond in the rough.

Eleanor Fitt, a ferociously intelligent sixteen year-old from a disgraced aristocratic family in Philadelphia, longs for the return of her older brother, Elijah. When she becomes entangled in a swarm of the walking dead at the famed exhibition, a harbinger of her brother’s possible doom delivers a telegram with a cryptic message that gives her a clue to his whereabouts.

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Future Treasures: Kangaroo Too by Curtis C. Chen

Future Treasures: Kangaroo Too by Curtis C. Chen

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Curtis C. Chen’s debut novel Waypoint Kangaroo was a Locus Award finalist for Best First Novel. Not your typical SF adventure, it featured a secret agent sent on a forced vacation after screwing up once too often. James Patrick Kelly called it “A high tech thriller set on a passenger liner headed for Mars, featuring a wisecracking secret agent with a super power that will blow your mind,” and Charlie Jane Anders said “This Kangaroo could just be your new favorite wisecracking interplanetary adventurer.” The sequel, a brand new tale of outer space adventure, arrives in hardcover next week.

On the way home from his latest mission, secret agent Kangaroo’s spacecraft is wrecked by a rogue mining robot. The agency tracks the bot back to the Moon, where a retired asteroid miner — code named “Clementine” — might have information about who’s behind the sabotage.

Clementine will only deal with Jessica Chu, Kangaroo’s personal physician and a former military doctor once deployed in the asteroid belt. Kangaroo accompanies Jessica as a courier, smuggling Clementine’s payment of solid gold in the pocket universe that only he can use.

What should be a simple infiltration is hindered by the nearly one million tourists celebrating the anniversary of the first Moon landing. And before Kangaroo and Jessica can make contact, Lunar authorities arrest Jessica for the murder of a local worker.

Jessica won’t explain why she met the victim in secret or erased security footage that could exonerate her. To make things worse, a sudden terror attack puts the whole Moon under lockdown. Now Kangaroo alone has to get Clementine to talk, clear Jessica’s name, and stop a crooked scheme which threatens to ruin approximately one million vacations.

But old secrets are buried on the Moon, and digging up the past will make Kangaroo’s future very complicated…

Kangaroo Too will be published by St. Martin’s Press/Thomas Dunne Books on June 20, 2017. It is 308 pages, priced at $27.99 in hardcover and $14.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by David Curtis.