Books Received August 2012

Here's a list of the review books I received this month.  Most of the descriptions are from the Indigo website, Chara's Promise is from Amazon and the Amazing Stories description is from their website.


Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone

A god has died, and it's up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart.

Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without Him, the metropolis's steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot.

Tara's job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in. Her only help: Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead god, who's having an understandable crisis of faith.

When Tara and Abelard discover that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb's courts-and their quest for the truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and Alt Coulumb's slim hope of survival.

Set in a phenomenally built world in which justice is a collective force bestowed on a few, craftsmen fly on lightning bolts, and gargoyles can rule cities, Three Parts Dead introduces readers to an ethical landscape in which the line between right and wrong blurs.

Beyond by Graham McNamee:

Jane is not your typical teen. She and her best friend Lexi call themselves the Creep Sisters. Only Lexi knows why Jane is different from anyone else: Her own shadow seems to pull her into near-fatal accidents. Jane is determined to find out why these terrifying things happen, and to overcome her shadow enemy. Her sleuthing with Lexi connects her own horrors to the secret history of a serial killer.

Chara's Promise by J. F. Owen:

Earth’s climate is a mess, the United States has been torn apart by a second bloody civil war and the world economy is in the toilet. But it’s been that way for a while, so to Seth Kelly everything seems pretty normal.

Seth is a regular guy with regular problems who happens to make his living building starships. He didn’t have any plans to relocate, but hey, you gotta go where the jobs are. Who knew the next job was going to be twenty-seven light years away or that he’d have to deal with grown children who think Dad needs special guidance, a sapient computer, an egocentric captain, terrorist attacks, flying buffaloes and an incredibly beautiful woman along the way.

Oh well, one out of six isn’t bad.

Amazing Stories Magazine Volume 0, Number 1

The first issue of Amazing Stories since 2005!

The Relaunch Prelaunch issue(s) were put together to give everyone an idea of what would be coming down the pike when then world’s FIRST science fiction magazine is once again reborn!

Featuring fiction by Jack Clemons, articles by Robert Silverberg, Barry Malzberg & Patrick L. Price and an extensive interview series with thirteen of the Book View Cafe authors, this issue is destined to become a classic!

Shadowlands by Violette Malan:

The long-awaited sequel to Violette Malan's acclaimed debut novel, The Mirror Prince.

The war in the Land of the Faerie has finally ended. Prince Cassandra dispatches Stormwolf, formerly a Hound but cured by his prince's magic and restored to the Rider he once was, to the Shadowlands to call home the People who remain refugees there. But Stormwolf finds the Hounds of the Wild Hunt now prey upon the souls of the humans, draining them of the magic which is the very lifeblood of the People. With the help of Valory Martin, a mortal psychic, Stormwolf must find the magic needed to defeat the Hunt before it's too late.

Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr:

In a city of daimons, rigid class lines separate the powerful from the power-hungry. And at the heart of The City is the Carnival of Souls, where both murder and pleasure are offered up for sale. Once in a generation, the carnival hosts a deadly competition that allows every daimon a chance to join the ruling elite. Without the competition, Aya and Kaleb would both face bleak futures, if for different reasons. For each of them, fighting to the death is the only way to try to live.

All Mallory knows of The City is that her father, and every other witch there, fled it for a life in exile in the human world. Instead of a typical teenage life full of friends and maybe even a little romance, Mallory scans quiet streets for threats, hides herself away, and trains to be lethal. She knows it's only a matter of time until a daimon finds her and her father, so she readies herself for the inevitable. While Mallory possesses little knowledge of The City, every inhabitant of The City knows of her. There are plans for Mallory, and soon she, too, will be drawn into the decadence and danger that is the Carnival of Souls.