First off is Melissa McShane's Burning Bright, set at approximate Napoleonic level of technology and culture. Elinor can control fire. Rather than be stuck in a marriage where her spouse only cares about her breeding potential, Elinor volunteers to join the Royal Navy. Assigned to the Athena, she find camaraderie with other Extraordinary Talents ( Read more... )

Lois McMaster Bujold released a novella, a sequel of "Penric and the Demon", called "Penric and the Shaman". Penric is now past his training and has settled down into an interesting life with Desdemona (the demon). They are assigned to chase a Welce man accused of murder. The man is trying to find someone to help him while dealing with some magic ( Read more... )

I went on a spending spree both series of Mage (The Hero Discovered and The Hero Defined) by Matt Wagner as ebooks. Not so fun reading them on a phone, but I managed. Matt Wagner does a Arthur Pendragon reincarnated series, although we're not sure about that immediately. It was a lovely, atmospheric series when it was released. In parts, it's wordy ( Read more... )

Stephanie Burgis, of Kat, Incorrigible fame, has published an adult novel, Masks and Shadows. It's set in Hungary at the Eszterhaza palace which was built by Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy. The main character, Charlotte, is newly widowed, and has come to visit her sister, Sophie, who is the prince's mistress. Sophie is the heedless, fun-loving younger ( Read more... )

I got a bit behind there.

Martha Wells had a new book out, The Edge of Worlds, which is the start of a duology in her Raksura series. Indigo Cloud experiences some prophetic dreams that hint at disaster. It turns out that other courts have experienced the same thing. Moon and Jade decide that they need to investigate before the disaster strikes. ( Read more... )

Have not read a bunch since the last post. I checked a sample of the novelization of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny but the writing style did NOT prompt me to buy the book. I also sampled C.E. Murphy's Magic & Manners but it's SO close to Pride and Prejudice (even the names, I mean really?) that I was bored, bored I tell you. I've ( Read more... )

I sampled Becky Chambers' The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and then hurriedly bought and inhaled it. Set in a multi-species universe, it details the lives of a small crew who punch 'holes' that enable FTL travel between solar systems. Normally, they take on smaller jobs, but the captain is hinted at a possible well-paying job that would put ( Read more... )