I have to say from the outset that I had fun reading The Sisters Mederos.  This is a fantasy of manners with two sisters, raised with privilege, whose family loses everything, and who, using their wits and determination seek to reinstate their family’s good name and fortune. There’s not too much to go into in relation to the plot.  The Mederos family was one of the most influential and wealthy merchant houses in Port Saint Frey until the fleet was sunk and it was discovered their was no insurance.  Their fall from grace was as spectacular as it was speedy and clearly somebody orchestrated the whole affair.  The sisters are determined to find out who is to blame although at the same time they need to take action to keep their family afloat. As the story sets off we meet the Mederos family as they’re in the process of being accused.  The family home is taken from them, the girl’s uncle is imprisoned and the two girls are sent to boarding school.  When we next meet up with them the sisters have been returned home to their family after an absence of six years.  Times have changed, none of their…

Damnation is the third instalment in the Burned Man series and picks up about six months after the conclusion of events in Dominion where the main protagonist found himself employed by a Goddess with vengeance on her mind.  For the record this being the third in series the review below will undoubtedly contain spoilers so please bear this in mind before reading further. I will start out by saying that Damnation is not my favourite of the series so far, but, that being said I am invested in the story and will definitely continue.  For me, this book had two main issues that prevented me from loving it – firstly, it did nothing to endear me further to the main character, Drake, and secondly, it felt very much like a ‘filler’ or set up book for the next in series. As mentioned, we start 6 months after Dominion where we learn of Don’s rapid decline since he departed London to try and track his former girlfriend Debbie. Unfortunately the search goes very poorly and nobody is inclined to help Don.  Why would they after all?  Debbie is a very talented alchemist who doesn’t want to be found by her cheating former boyfriend s0 there’s no reason for…

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           HORROR   FANTASY                       SCIENCE FICTION       HORROR       FANTASY           SCIENCE FICTION           HORROR    

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   Etched in Bone Bishop, Anne 3/7/2017 Gather Her Round Bledsoe, Alex 3/7/2017 Silence Fallen Briggs, Patricia 3/7/2017 The Bone Witch Chupeco, Rin 3/7/2017 Archangel Fortune, Margaret 3/7/2017 Smells Like Finn Spirit Henderson, Randy 3/7/2017 The Holver Alley Crew Maresca, Marshall Ryan 3/7/2017 Sins of Empire McClellan, Brian 3/7/2017 Magic for Nothing McGuire, Seanan 3/7/2017 Seven Surrenders Palmer, Ada 3/7/2017 The Lovecraft Squad Probert, John Llewellyn 3/7/2017 The Song Rising Shannon, Samantha 3/7/2017 Lotus Blue Sparks, Cat 3/7/2017…

Today we are excited to welcome Eric Scott Fischl to The Speculative Herald. His book Dr Potter’s Medicine Show, released February 7, 2017. Be sure to check out the details below, it’s a post-cival war featuring quite an interesting cast of characters! Tents, Saws, and Ether: Civil War Medicine by Eric Scott Fischl   The eponymous protagonist of my novel DR POTTER’S MEDICINE SHOW, Dr Alexander Potter, is a former Civil War surgeon.  A haunted man, he’s the self-professed “fastest man with a bone-saw in the Hospital Corps”.  As a history aficionado, I went into the book thinking I had a fairly reasonable understanding of what medicine and surgery was like during the war; namely, I had visions of filth-caked surgeons hacking limbs off with saws, while the unfortunate patient was held down by burly men, a Minié ball jammed into his mouth to bite on.  When I started researching the book, though, I learned that that image, while having some veracity, was only partly true.  I’m a fiction writer, and not a historian, and there were a few items that were not quite as historically accurate that I chose to keep in the book for purposes of story.  The real…

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   With Blood Upon the Sand Beaulieu, Brad 2/7/2017 Magic of Blood and Sea Clark, Cassandra Rose 2/7/2017 Amberlough Donnelly, Lara Elena 2/7/2017 Dr. Potter’s Medicine Show Fischl, Eric Scott 2/7/2017 Norse Mythology Gaiman, Neil 2/7/2017 The Turn Harrison, Kim 2/7/2017 The Stars are Legion Hurley, Kameron 2/7/2017 All Our Wrong Todays Mastai, Elan 2/7/2017 A Perfect Machine Savory, Brett 2/7/2017 The People’s Police Spinrad, Norman 2/7/2017

Today we are excited to welcome Christopher Hinz to The Speculative Herald!      His latest book, Binary Storm is published by Angry Robot and is out now. A streetwise computer wiz, his politically savvy girlfriend and a tormented supersoldier form an uneasy alliance to stop assassins existing simultaneously in two bodies from threatening the world with apocalypse. The standalone novel serves as a prequel to the more distant future of “Liege-Killer” and the Paratwa Saga.   DOING THE DARK POP APOCALYPTIC GENRE HOP By Christopher Hinz   About the Author Christopher Hinz is the author of five science fiction books. Liege-Killer won the Compton Crook Award for best first novel and was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer. He has written screenplays and a graphic novel, scripted comics for DC and Marvel, and has worked as a newspaper reporter and technical administrator of a small TV station. You can find Christopher online at his website: christopherhinz.com.     About the Book

Dominion is the second in the Burned Man series by Peter Blake.  The story picks up not long after Drake (the first in series) left off and the action is fairly intense from the get go. I thought Dominion was a solid instalment in the series, the characters have been fleshed out and added to and the dark side of London is explored further.  Be warned, if you haven’t read the first in series there may be spoilers contained below. Dominion, probably in the style of other UF stories, is a self contained instalment – it can probably be read as a stand alone although I would always suggest starting from the first so that you pick up more background to the characters. At the start of the story our main protagonist, Don Drake, former hitman (or diabolist), has been roped into checking out a potential problem below the streets of London – in fact below the Tube.  Basically, deep beneath the underground tunnels of London live the elementals, gnomes.  It seems that their home is slowly being destroyed by something they know only as the ‘Rotman’.  Everything is decaying, including those who lay eyes on this monster and the…

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…

The Lives of Tao and the subsequent books in Chu’s fantastic series were some of my favorite books from the past few years, so you can image how excited I was to find out he was starting another series set in the same world. The Rise of Io takes place some years after the Tao books (and I say “some years” because I’m not exactly sure how many) and contains many of the elements we’re familiar with, if you’ve read that series. But this time the setting is Surat, India, and the main character is a tiny but fierce and plucky girl named Ella Patel. Like Roen before her, Ella is thrust into the life of the quasing against her will when she unwittingly becomes host to a Prophus named Io. But Ella and Roen couldn’t be more different. Ella might be one of my favorite fictional characters ever, I simply loved everything about her. But perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself. If you haven’t read the first series, here’s a little background about this world. The quasing are an ancient alien race who crash-landed on Earth millions of years ago, and since then have evolved and managed to survive…