This book is marketed as “an epic fantasy, in miniature” and I agree with that statement – to a certain extent. A great deal of time and effort goes in to the magic and world-building, and it pays off, but to my disappointment, outside of the magic gems, there was not much else. Jewel Lin is daughter to the King of the Jewel Valley. Lin’s Lapidary is Sima, and her father is the King’s Lapidary. Lapidaries have the power to talk to gems and they serve the Jewels. In order to become a Lapidary, you must first have the ability to hear gems talking, and then, you must take your vows; two of which are: a lapidary obeys their Jewel, and a lapidary must protect their Jewel. Those are two of the vows that Sima’s father broke, who went gem-mad, and turned over the Valley Kingdom to the Mountain Kingdom, destroying most of the Jewel’s gems and murdering all of the Jewels – except for Lin. It is just Lin and Sima alive now in the Court, and the general of the Mountain army is coming through the gates to try to claim her new kingdom and gems. Two of 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           HORROR FANTASY                   URBAN FANTASY     SCIENCE FICTION                 HORROR         FANTASY          URBAN FANTASY           SCIENCE FICTION           HORROR   The Chimes Anna Smaill 5/3/2016 Quercus To Kill a Kettle Witch : A Novel of the Mist-Torn Witches Barb Hendee 5/3/2016 Roc The Lost Stars: Shattered Spear Campbell, Jack 5/3/2016 Ace Night Shift Charlaine Harris 5/3/2016 Ace Star Wars: Bloodline Claudia Grey 5/3/2016 Del Rey Warrior Witch Danielle L. Jensen 5/3/2016 Angry Robot Admiral Danker, Sean 5/3/2016 Roc The Jewel and Her Lapidary Fran Wilde 5/3/2016 Tor.com The Map of Bones Francesca Haig 5/3/2016 Gallery…

What an odd and magical story this was! I’ve only read one other Seanan McGuire story, but from what I understand, she seems to be one of those authors who reinvents herself with each story she writes. Every Heart a Doorway can be read on several levels, and only writers with great skill are able to pull that off successfully, in my opinion. McGuire does so brilliantly, giving us a magical yet menacing tale of a group of teens who have been sent to a special school in order to deal with a very unusual loss, a tale that quickly becomes a murder mystery. But dig deeper and this story is about growing up and leaving childhood behind. For such a short novella, McGuire gives her readers everything they could want: a fascinating premise for a story, a tantalizing mystery, and even hard-hitting emotional content. The story revolves around Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, a school where children and teens who have found a secret doorway to another world and then been cast out of that world can come to be rehabilitated. Each student has spent time—often years—in one of many worlds, and all of them are trying to…

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 Grim Tidings Caitlin Kittredge 4/19/2016 Harper Voyager The Fall of the Dagger Glenda Larke 4/19/2016 Orbit The Emperor’s Railroad Guy Haley 4/19/2016 Tor.com Nettle King Katherine Harbour 4/19/2016 Harper Voyager Almost Infamous Matt Carter 4/19/2016 Talos The Everything Box Richard Kadrey 4/19/2016 Harper Voyager The House of Daniel Turtledove, Harry 4/19/2016 Tor Books

Zombies, machines relics, prehistoric beasts, angels and heaven, and knights. These things may not seem like they would belong together, but for this story they do. Guy Haley has taken these seemingly unrelated items, and put them together to create a truly fantastic world and history. Abney and his mother are leaving their home of New Karsville to join their cousin in Winfort. After the war, the angels set a plague of the unliving loose in Virginia, and that destroyed their home. On their way off, they are picked up by a mail-carrier to escort them – to help protect them on the road – but he soon suffers an accident which brings his death. Abney and his mother, now alone on the road, with a broken carriage, seem to be doomed to wait for either zombies or other humans to end their life. Lucky for them, their first wanderer is a knight from a Dreaming City. It is a steep price to pay for his services – half of Mrs. Collin’s bridal price she’d saved – but it is a price they must pay if they wish to survive the unliving, the road, and the other half of the Emperor’s Punishment:…

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                   FANTASY          URBAN FANTASY           SCIENCE FICTION           HORROR   URBAN FANTASY       FANTASY          URBAN FANTASY           SCIENCE FICTION           HORROR SCIENCE FICTION                   FANTASY          URBAN FANTASY           SCIENCE FICTION           HORROR   HORROR                 FANTASY          URBAN FANTASY           SCIENCE FICTION           HORROR     Visitor Cherryh, C. J. 4/5/2016 DAW The Demonists Sniegoski, Thomas…

We start the book with Deadman’s Hand.  This is the first in the Assassin’s series and opens as a stranger rides into the town of Deadwood on a pale horse. His name is Gabriel and he seeks revenge. Doug is the local storekeeper who witnesses Gabriel’s arrival and who will narrate this tale.  It seems from this point onward that Doug, in spite of himself, is going to be pulled into the strange world of Gabriel and the man that he seeks.  At the same time, on the other side of town another stranger has appeared and following some sort of altercation is now spending time in the mortuary!  Strange coincidence?  Or has Gabriel been beaten to his quarry? This is only a short story but nonetheless is an intriguing tale with a small but interesting cast of characters.  I don’t want to elaborate too much on the plot because it would be easy to spoil the story for others.  What I can say is that Gabriel is no ordinary man.  Cursed hundreds of years ago he seeks the man called Temple who killed his family.  Temple, likewise is no ordinary man, he is in fact a demon, incredibly difficult to…

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       The Last Mortal Bond Brian Staveley 3/15/2016 Tor Snakewood Selby, Adrian 3/15/2016 Orbit Pieces of Hate Tim Lebbon 3/15/2016 Tor.com

It wasn’t until I had finished reading The Ballad of Black Tom that I found out it was based on an H.P. Lovecraft short story called The Horror at Red Hook and that several of the characters have the same names. This would have been more interesting to me had I actually read Lovecraft’s story first, but I did enjoy going back afterwards and looking up the details (thank God for Wikipedia!). What’s much more interesting about LaValle’s take on it is that he’s turned Lovecraft’s famous xenophobia on its head and written a story about one man’s experiences with racism in 1920s New York City. I mean, think about it: an African-American author, writing a story that deals with racism, based on a story by a famous racist. It sounds crazy, but LaValle pulls it off, although I have to say I was more interested in the mechanics of what he was trying to do, rather than the story itself, which to me lacked cohesion. The Lovecraft elements are subtle, and unless you’re familiar with the story it’s based upon, you may not notice them at all until the end. What did scream “Lovecraft” to me, however, was the unsettling feeling that runs…

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