Here’s a rundown of the books we think you should look out for in coming in the week. See any that you are really looking forward to? Find any you had not heard of yet? Know of books we missed? We know we don’t have everything and would love to hear what you feel we may have overlooked.   FANTASY              SCIENCE FICTION     FANTASY                                       SCIENCE FICTION                 FANTASY             SCIENCE FICTION  

Today, we are very excited to share an excerpt from Gold Throne in Shadow, M. C. Planck’s latest book in the World of Prime Series. Plus, thanks to the generous people at Pyr, we are also hosting a giveaway for both books in the World of Prime series (Sword of the Bright Lady and Gold Throne in Shadow) by M. C. Planck, be sure to enter to win a copy of both books below the excerpt. Chapter 1 from Gold Throne in Shadow by M. C. Planck   M.C. Planck is the author of Sword of the Bright Lady (World of Prime: Book 1) and The Kassa Gambit. After a nearly-transient childhood, he hitchhiked across the country and ran out of money in Arizona. So he stayed there for thirty years, raising dogs, getting a degree in philosophy, and founding a scientific instrument company. Having read virtually everything by the old Masters of SF&F, he decided he was ready to write. A decade later, with a little help from the Critters online critique group, he was actually ready. He was relieved to find that writing novels is easier than writing software, as a single punctuation error won’t cause your audience to explode…

The Last Witness by K. J. Parker is dark and deceitful, yet addictive novella. These two aspects are spun together for a truly fascinating story and one hell of a protagonist that you might not like, but you can’t help but want to know more about. It’s a book that doesn’t shy away from the darker side of humanity, it actually relishes in it. I’ve only read one other book by Parker, but I feel this story was every bit as intriguing as The Folding Knife and has reinforced my need to read more by the author. The narrator has the unique ability to enter someone’s mind and remove their memories.  This can be to relieve a person of unbearable memories, or perhaps to clear a witness of potentially damaging knowledge. The catch here though, is that these memories then become his own. Since it is usually not happy, loving memories that people have removed, he is left with countless disturbing, graphic memories that can be haunting. And while the narrator never forgets a detail, he can sometimes lose track of which memories are his own versus which are memories he has taken from others. This provides an interesting perspective for the…

  The Bloodforged carries The Bloodhound series further into conflict and gives the reader another fun and exciting adventure as this series continues to be a captivating and fun page turner that flies by. There are challenges that are physical, political and strategic. There are moments of romance and heartbreak. The whole book almost seems to be an emotional rollercoaster as the characters are desperate and driven to extremes to try and survive and stop this war. This book does have a decidedly darker tone to it than the first. It also does not have quite as strong of a romance aspect. I mean, don’t get me wrong, there is still some romance and a couple of heated moments between characters, but it takes more of a side seat in this compared with the strong love triangle that was in the first book. This allows the book to get more into the war, it also makes room for a few new characters. While I really enjoyed the romance in the first book, I will admit I also enjoyed it not being as prominent in this book.  The story in The Bloodforged challenges many characters to step out of their comfort zones and to step up their…

Here’s a rundown of the books we think you should look out for in coming in the week. See any that you are really looking forward to? Find any you had not heard of yet? Know of books we missed? We know we don’t have everything and would love to hear what you feel we may have overlooked.   FANTASY          URBAN FANTASY           SCIENCE FICTION     FANTASY                                            URBAN FANTASY               SCIENCE FICTION                         FANTASY          URBAN FANTASY           SCIENCE FICTION

The Heart Goes Last is a dark and yet humorous vision of a dystopian future where the world has lost social order. Life is hard, money and resources are incredibly scarce and people fear for their safety as there is no longer police or social justice to keep people in line. Charmaine and Stan, a young married couple, are lucky, for while they have lost their home and have little to their name, they have managed to hold on to their car, a safe haven from the streets. As they put it, their car is “the barrier between them and gang rape**“. Pretty much, this world is frightening and shows no mercy. To be fair, there are areas further west where things have not become quite so desperate. But without the means to pay for gas for such a journey or any other way to get across the country, this haven is just mere fancy, a nice hypothetical “what if we could get out there”. In reality, it is nothing in the realm of possibilities, as the west may as well be located on the moon for all the good it does them. But, a ray of hope opens near…

Welcome to The Speculative Herald’s inaugural post! As a very quick introduction, The Speculative Herald is a new collaborative blog made of up established bloggers. You can see who we are over on the About Us page. We have come together to create a common site to really highlight the newest and upcoming books in speculative fiction. This will be a great week with reviews for the latest/upcoming releases from Jim Butcher, Margaret Atwood, Brandon Sanderson, Kameron Hurley and more. And we figured what better way to introduce ourselves than to let you know what books we are really looking forward to for the rest of the year. So here it is, each of our picks for upcoming 2015 releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on! What books are you excited for? What did we miss? (as much as we wanted to, we couldn’t list everything!) BOB’S PICKS                   This Gulf of Time and Stars by Julie E. Czerneda As much as I’m looking forward to a 3rd title in her Night’s Edge fantasy series, it’s nice to see Julie returning to the world that made her a household name. The King’s…

What is this? A dragon is waking. But don’t be scared. While this dragon is fierce in its own way, it is likely not in the manner you are accustomed. Also, it does not hoard it’s treasure, so when it wakes it’s bounty will be shared with all. Everyone knows all dragons like shiny things, but this one does not go for gold or silver or gems. This dragon obsesses over procuring and learning about the newest, shiniest books in speculative fiction. Fantasy books in particular. Come late September, The Speculative Herald dragon will wake and share everything it knows with news and reviews about these books.   Don’t want to miss out?   Follow us on Twitter: @SpecHerald   Follow us with Bloglovin   [do_widget_area]