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 Binary Storm Christopher Hinz 11/1/2016 Angry Robot Christmas Magic Hartwell, David G. 11/1/2016 Tor Books Congress of Secrets Burgis, Stephanie 11/1/2016 Pyr Den of Wolves Marillier, Juliet 11/1/2016 Roc Dominion Peter McLean 11/1/2016 Angry Robot Illicit Clamp, Cathy 11/1/2016 Tor Books Invisible Planets Liu, Ken 11/1/2016 Tor Books Seriously Shifted Connolly, Tina 11/1/2016 Tor Teen Shadowed Souls Butcher, Jim 11/1/2016 Roc The Burning Isle Panzo, Will 11/1/2016 Ace The Burning Light Beaulieu, Bradley P. 11/1/2016 Tor.com The Lost Child of Lychford Cornell, Paul 11/1/2016 Tor.com The Operative Brandt, Gerald 11/1/2016 DAW Unquiet…

In my review of Ken Liu’s debut, I said it possessed all the epic grandeur, intelligence, and dignity of a Guy Gavriel Kay novel. Now, having read the follow-up, I am starting to wonder if anybody has ever seen the two of them in the same room together. Okay, so I’m kidding – or, at least, half-kidding – but The Wall of Storms is precisely the kind of sweeping, character-driven epic of cultural mythology that so very few authors could attempt, much less manage so successfully. The first half of the novel (and we’re talking several hundred pages) is largely dedicated to developing a new character who had no role to play in The Grace of Kings. Zomi is a smart, philosophical young woman who thinks and acts in a manner that is disturbingly progressive for an already strained empire. Where her connection to the tale comes in is through Luan Zya, the man who advised the Emperor to betray his best friend for the greater good, and who then walked away from it all. Through alternating chapters we see the progress of the imperial examinations in which Zomi is to take part, and the learnings and journeys she shared with Luan to get there. It makes for an…

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           HORROR   FANTASY           URBAN FANTASY     SCIENCE FICTION       HORROR         FANTASY          URBAN FANTASY           SCIENCE FICTION           HORROR     All Your Wishes Adams, Cat 10/4/2016 Tor Books Break the Chains O’Keefe, Megan E. 10/4/2016 Angry Robot Closer to the Chest Lackey, Mercedes 10/4/2016 DAW Feedback Grant, Mira 10/4/2016 Orbit Impersonations Williams, Walter Jon 10/4/2016 Tor.com Into the Guns Dietz, William C. 10/4/2016 Ace Level Grind Bellet, Annie 10/4/2016 Saga Press Stranded MacLeod, Bracken 10/4/2016 Tor Books The Rise of Io Chu, Wesley 10/4/2016 Angry Robot The Wall of Storms Liu, Ken 10/4/2016 Saga Press The White Spell Kurland, Lynn 10/4/2016 Berkley

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           HORROR   FANTASY               URBAN FANTASY   SCIENCE FICTION           HORROR           FANTASY          URBAN FANTASY           SCIENCE FICTION           HORROR   The Family Plot Priest, Cherie 9/20/2016 Tor Books Magic Binds Andrews, Ilona 9/20/2016 Ace Red Tide Turner, Marc 9/20/2016 Tor Books Deadlands: Thunder Moon Rising Mariotte, Jeffrey 9/20/2016 Tor Books Death’s End Liu, Cixin 9/20/2016 Tor Books Vassa in the Night Porter, Sarah 9/20/2016 Tor Teen Metaltown Simmons, Kristen 9/20/2016 Tor Teen The Warren Evenson, Brian 9/20/2016 Tor.com The Queen of Blood Sarah Beth Durst 9/20/2016 Harper Voyager The Gradual Christopher Priest 9/20/2016 Titan Books Dead Souls J. Lincoln…

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           HORROR   FANTASY             URBAN FANTASY     SCIENCE FICTION         HORROR     FANTASY          URBAN FANTASY           SCIENCE FICTION           HORROR   Arabella of Mars Levine, David D. 7/12/2016 Tor Books Drowned Worlds Jonathan Strahan 7/12/2016 Solaris Invaders Jacob Weisman 7/12/2016 Tachyon It Happened One Doomsday Laurence MacNaughton 7/12/2016 Pyr Necessity Jo Walton 7/12/2016 Tor Red Queen Christina Henry 7/12/2016 Ace Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell Paul Kane 7/12/2016 Solaris The Devourers Indra Das 7/12/2016 Del Rey The Ghoul King Guy Haley 7/12/2016 Tor.com The Stars Askew Rjurik Davidson 7/12/2016 Tor Time Siege Chu, Wesley 7/12/2016 Tor Books  

As much as I wanted to love The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, I have to be honest in that I only thought it was okay. I mean, I can see how these stories established a reputation for Ken Liu, and there’s no doubt that some of them are indeed award worthy, but I didn’t connect with nearly as many as I would have liked. Before you start getting disappointed, however, let me say that I blame the format, not necessarily the content. I’ve always been drawn to doorstopper fantasy novels like The Grace of Kings, where we have six or seven hundred pages to immerse ourselves in the world, so it’s not a surprise that many of these stories fell flat or felt a little shallow. Having said all that, I’d be remiss if I didn’t heap some praise on those stories that did work for me. “State Change” hooked me from the start, with a young woman’s strange obsession with freezers, glaciers, and ice cubes. Rina lives in a world where our souls physically manifest as small items that we must keep close at all times, which is easy enough if your soul is a rock or a…

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 Spider’s War Abraham, Daniel 3/8/2016 Orbit Fire Touched Briggs, Patricia 3/8/2016 Ace Marked In Flesh Bishop, Anne 3/8/2016 Roc Lyre Thief Jennifer Fallon 3/8/2016 Tor The Cold Between Elizabeth Bonesteel 3/8/2016 Harper Voyager The Paper Menagerie Ken Liu 3/8/2016 Saga Forest of Memory Mary Robinette Kowal 3/8/2016 Tor.com Those Below Daniel Polansky 3/10/2016 Hodder & Stoughton

The Grace of Kings really is a work of epic proportions.  A story of rebellion and war, victory and defeat, friend and foe and ultimately an incredibly poignant and sometimes sad look at friendships.  The story is dripping with issues of trust, deceit and betrayal whilst also telling some incredibly moving stories of love and loyalty. I’ve only read one of Liu’s short stories before The Grace of Kings and on the strength of that was keen to read this and, yes, it is a book that takes time to read but its also a book that is definitely worth the time. The main thrust of the story revolves around an uprising of the common people, driven to despair by despot rulers and seeking fairer rule.  At least on the face of it that’s what I would say this is about.  Of course, war very often has little to do with the common people and that is certainly the case here – even though very many of them will lose their lives fighting most of them could just as easily be on one side as the other, and, as the book itself acknowledges, perhaps the people with the differences should get together…

  One of the perks I’ve found with working with several bloggers is that we can cover more books than we have time to read on our own. So, when it came time to make our Best of 2015 list, I decided to ask each of the contributors to submit a ranked list of their favorite books (yep, I’m mean like that. Choosing favorites can be hard, ranking is even harder). I then used a scaled points system to calculate an over all list. So, the end result features a variety of books that either several of us agreed belong in the top 10, or books that perhaps just one reviewer read, but placed in their high on their ranked choices of the year. With so many great choices we had to expand our collaborative list past just 10 books to 25. Since our blog started late in the year, many of these books do not currently have reviews here. But we do plan on adding them, so keep your eye out. So here it is, Speculative Herald’s list of our absolute favorite books from 2015! And because I like to get straight to the good stuff, I am listing them in order starting with…