Books Received, May 2012

A thankfully small number of books this month (I'm SO behind on my reading, and not reading at all on my vacation didn't help - though it did help with my fantasy fatigue, which is good).  The synopsis quotes are from the Indigo website.

First up is Fantasy Short Stories, Issue 1, edited by Mark Lord.  I've already reviewed it here.  I found the collection quite good, aside from the middle story, which was surprisingly bad.  The collection consists of 5 fantasy stories, and is intended as the first of many issues bringing 'traditional' fantasy short stories back into popular awareness.

Suited, by Jo Anderton.  I really enjoyed the first book in this series and am very interested in seeing where the author takes things.  Both mystery and romance were hinted...  The plot synopsis: "Tanyana has chosen to help the Keeper, to stand against the Puppet Men, but has she bitten off more than she can chew?"

I requested God's War by Kameron Hurley from NetGalley after reading several positive reviews for it.

Some days, Nyx was a Bel Dame - an honored, respected, and deadly government-funded assassin - other days, she was a butcher and a hunter; a woman with nothing to lose. Now the butcher has a bounty to bring in. Nyx and her rag-tag group of mercenaries is about to take up a contract that will shake the foundations of two warring governments...

Last but not least is Suzanne Johnson's Royal Street.  I can't remember what site I read it on, but someone gave this a good review, that's got me itching to read urban fantasy again.

As the junior wizard sentinel for New Orleans, Drusilla Jaco's job involves a lot more potion-mixing and pixie-retrieval than sniffing out supernatural bad guys like rogue vampires and lethal were-creatures. DJ''s boss and mentor, Gerald St. Simon, is the wizard tasked with protecting the city from anyone or anything that might slip over from the preternatural beyond.

Then Hurricane Katrina hammers New Orleans' fragile levees, unleashing more than just dangerous flood waters.

While winds howled and Lake Pontchartrain surged, the borders between the modern city and the Otherworld crumbled. Now, the undead and the restless are roaming the Big Easy, and a serial killer with ties to voodoo is murdering the soldiers sent to help the city recover.

To make it worse, Gerry has gone missing, the wizards' Elders have assigned a grenade-toting assassin as DJ's new partner, and undead pirate Jean Lafitte wants to make her walk his plank. The search for Gerry and for the serial killer turns personal when DJ learns the hard way that loyalty requires sacrifice, allies come from the unlikeliest places, and duty mixed with love creates one bitter gumbo.