Browsed by
Category: New Treasures

Betrayals, Assassins, and the Voices of the Dead: The Reborn Empire by Devin Madson

Betrayals, Assassins, and the Voices of the Dead: The Reborn Empire by Devin Madson

Comments 0 Comment

Cover art by Nico Delort

Orbit Books has impressed me with its editorial acumen over the past half-decade. Last year it acquired Devin Madson’s self published fantasy We Ride the Storm, the tale of a war-torn empire crumbling in the face of a growing number of enemies. Kirkus called it “The first in a bold new series… A slow-building tale of court intrigue that picks up lots of steam on its way to a shocking finish,” saying:

Miko is a princess of Kisia, an empire left in fragments following the recent coup that cost her father his life and saw her stepfather take the Crimson Throne. Rah hails from the loosely associated clans of Levanti — horse riders without kings who resist fighting others’ wars. Cassandra makes her living in sex and murder and moves through the world with another woman’s voice in her head. They do not know one another, but their lives will soon become hopelessly entangled… Although Madson takes her time putting the critical pieces into play, the betrayal that dooms the Kisian nobility to ruin sets off narrative fireworks, exposing the questionable motives of three nations’ leaders in a seemingly unending struggle for dominance.

The sequel, We Lie with Death, arrived in trade paperback earlier this month, and has been well received. Publishers Weekly says “The story moves at breakneck speed… this immersive, action-packed fantasy is sure to please.” Here’s the full details.

We Ride the Storm (Orbit Books, 474 pages, $15.99 in trade paperback/$4.99 digital, June 23, 2020) – cover by Nico Delort
We Lie with Death (Orbit Books, 576 pages, $17.99 in trade paperback/$9.99 digital, January 12, 2021) – cover by Nico Delort

The final volume in The Reborn Empire series, We Cry for Blood, will be released next year. See all our coverage of the best new series fantasy here.

Crimson Mists and Uncrowned Kings: Savage Scrolls, Volume One, edited by Jason Ray Carney

Crimson Mists and Uncrowned Kings: Savage Scrolls, Volume One, edited by Jason Ray Carney

Comments 9 comments

Savage Scrolls, Volume One (Pulp Hero Press, 2020). Cover uncredited.

Last summer there was an ugly incident involving the long-awaited publication of Flashing Swords #6 from Pulp Hero Press, the spiritual successor to Lin Carter’s legendary sword-and-sorcery series from the 70s. Editor Robert M. Price’s introduction, which read to me like an incoherent right-wing rant against feminism, proved toxic enough that four contributors pulled their stories immediately, and publisher Bob McLain made the decision to de-list and kill the book before it even went on sale.

That left plenty of good tales without a home, though Bob did promise that some would find a home in “a new anthology series – no politics, no drama, just sword-and-sorcery! – that I’d like to release later this year.” So I was especially intrigued to see the first volume of Savage Scrolls, a new Swords & Anthology series edited by the distinguished Jason Ray Carney, arrive from Pulp Hero in November. I ordered a copy last month, and I’m delighted to say it’s a thoroughly professional production.

And what a list on contributors! In addition to two tales salvaged from Flashing Swords (Adrian Cole’s Elak of Atlantis tale “The Tower in the Crimson Mist,” and Steve Dilks’s sword & sorcery “Tale of the Uncrowned Kings”), Savage Scrolls includes names that will be intimately familiar to Black Gate readers, including Howard Andrew Jones (with a new Hanuvar tale), James Enge (a new Morlock the Maker story), David C. Smith (a new Oron adventure) and D.M. Ritzlin (with a tale of Avok the Cytheran). In a Publisher’s Note at the back, Bob McLain teases readers with a promise that

The cover art will tell a story, spread over four volumes of Savage Scrolls. On the cover of this volume we have our characters on the cusp of battle: the barbarian, the cultist, and the sorceress. On the cover of the next volume we will have those same characters, with the barbarian, well, you’ll just have to wait and see.

A bold promise! Though why he’d draw such attention to the intriguing cover and then completely neglect to credit the artist, I have no idea. The artist isn’t credited anywhere, far as I can find. Maybe that’s part of the mystery.

Jason Ray Carney’s first blog post for Black Gate was Bran Mak Morn: Social Justice Warrior, and he’s promised us a behind-the-scenes peek at Savage Scrolls in the coming weeks.

New Treasures: Call of the Bone Ships, Book 2 of The Tide Child Trilogy by RJ Barker

New Treasures: Call of the Bone Ships, Book 2 of The Tide Child Trilogy by RJ Barker

Comments 0 Comment

The Bone Ships (Orbit, 2019) and Call of the Bone Ships (Orbit, 2020). Covers by Edward Bettison

RJ Barker’s The Bone Ships was published by Orbit in 2019, to strong reviews. Spectrum Culture called it “A thrilling bit of high seas fantasy… from a tremendously talented and imaginative mind,” BookPage said it’s “the perfect adventure for anyone who’s ever had dreams of the sea,” and it was nominated for the Robert Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel. But my favorite review was by C.H. at Amazon.com, who speaks my language — the language of movies and pop culture.

If you liked the premise of S.W.A.T., but wished that instead of a group of cops protecting a mob boss from profit-seeking ruffians on the way to prison it was a rag-tag group of outcasts on a ship made of sea creature bones protecting the last of said sea creatures from… well, profit-seeking ruffians…

I know, that was a long way to travel to compare a fine, character driven, modern-day Moby Dick to a popcorn action movie, but something about the focal point of the book being a suspenseful trek from point A to point B with chaos buzzing around it reminded me of cinematic prisoner transport, a la Kingpin in Netflix’s Daredevil, or Coleman Reese in The Dark Knight. But enough about that.

Bone Ships brings together a capable captain on a mission to prove her worth and a drunk who may have Peter Principled his way into (and out of) his captaincy. Their dynamic and relationship growth is a highlight of the book… There are bizarre new creatures, interesting world politics, an in-depth instruction manual on the mechanics and operation of a giant crossbow, and a ship energy tracking straight out of a video game. The action sequences are furiously paced, throwing you on the deck of the Bone Ships, whether your sea legs are ready for it or not… Highly recommend.

The second novel in the trilogy, The Call of the Bone Ships, was published by Orbit on November 24, 2020. It is 528 pages, priced at $16.99 in trade paperback and $9.99 in digital formats. The cover is by Edward Bettison. Read a sample chapter from Book 1 here.

See all our recent coverage of the best new fantasy and science fiction releases here.

New Treasures: The Eleventh Gate by Nancy Kress

New Treasures: The Eleventh Gate by Nancy Kress

Comments 0 Comment

Now here’s an attractive combo: a brand new space opera novel by multiple award-winner Nancy Kress, wrapped up in a gorgeous vision of deep space adventure by Bob Eggleton. You know this book would look damn handsome on your shelf.

I’m not sure how this one managed to slip past me when it was first released in May of last year. (I was probably hiding in my basement from the pandemic.) What’s it all about? Russell Letson at Locus Online fills us in:

The Eleventh Gate… combines elements of space opera with quasi-dystopian political conflict and intrigue among a collection of extrasolar colonies. A century and a half earlier, the discovery of a set of mysterious interstellar gates allowed waves of emigrants to escape an Earth ravaged by ecological collapse and global war: ten gates, eight surprisingly habitable worlds, and three very different sets of refugee-settlers.

Now the Eight Worlds are occupied by their descendants… these societies have gotten along mostly peacefully until the discovery of an eleventh gate sets off a land-rush rivalry that lurches into warfare.

Publisher’s Weekly reviewed the book warmly; here’s an excerpt.

Warring families and philosophies drive this complex science fiction thriller… Refugees from a dying Earth escape via a mysterious stargate leading to the Eight Worlds system. They divide these worlds between three political factions: the totalitarian Peregoy Corporation, the Landry Libertarian Alliance, and the planet Polyglot, a “patchwork of individual nations” and economies. Then a new stargate appears, sparking a race to claim it and whatever world waits on the other side. Ambitious Tara Landry, heir to the Landry Alliance, hatches a hare-brained scheme to prevent the reignited tensions between factions from breaking into war. But when Tara’s plan goes awry, war becomes inevitable… This swift, political story proves a rip-roaring diversion.

The Eleventh Gate was published by Baen Books on May 5, 2020. It is 352 pages, priced at $15.99 in trade paperback and $8.99 in digital formats. The cover is by Bob Eggleton. Read a generous excerpt at the Baen website.

See all our recent new Treasures here.

A Near-Perfect Blend of Detective Story and Military SF: The Planetside Trilogy by Michael Mammay

A Near-Perfect Blend of Detective Story and Military SF: The Planetside Trilogy by Michael Mammay

Comments 0 Comment

The Planetside Trilogy by Michael Mammy. Covers by Sébastien Hue

I discovered Michael Mammay’s debut novel Planetside, the opening novel in a new military SF trilogy, while browsing a list of the most interesting new sci-fi of July 2018 at io9. They summed it up as:

A semi-retired war hero takes on a mission at the behest of an old friend, searching for an important officer’s MIA son. But what seems like a simple search-and-rescue gig soon gets a lot more complicated when he arrives on the far side of the galaxy and discovers a strange, ravaged planet teeming with secrets.

When volume #2, Spaceside, arrived a year later, Jeff Somers at The Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog included it in his Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of August 2019, saying:

Last year, Michael Mammay’s Planetside delivered a near-perfect blend of detective story and military sci-fi. The sequel finds Colonel Carl Butler returning from his assignment in that book with a split reputation — part hero, part outcast. He’s once again forced into retirement, but this time he at least gets a cushy corporate job that capitalizes on his military reputation. When he’s asked by his bosses to investigate a devastating hack of a competitor’s computer systems — a hack no one will take responsibility for — Butler finds himself caught in a dangerous web that has him doubting his own mind even as he suspects he’s onto something much bigger than simple corporate espionage.

After all that you can understand why I kept my eye out for the third book. Colonyside arrived right on time on December 29, 2020, to warm reviews. In a starred review Library Journal said it’s “Highly recommended for readers who like their heroes cynical, their mystery twisted, and their sf thought-provoking.” That’s all the endorsement I need. All three books were published as paperback originals by Harper Voyager, with covers by Sebastien Hue. Here’s the complete details.

Planetside (370 pages, $7.99 paperback/$6.99 digital, July 31, 2018)
Spaceside (368 pages, $7.99 paperback/$5.99 digital, August 27, 2019)
Colonyside (384 pages, $7.99 paperback/$5.99 digital, December 29, 2020)

See all our coverage of the best SF and fantasy series old and new here.

New Treasures: Best New Horror 30, edited by Stephen Jones

New Treasures: Best New Horror 30, edited by Stephen Jones

Comments 4 comments

Best New Horror 30 (PS Publishing, November 2020). Cover by Warren Kremer

Gardner Dozois edited 35 volumes of The Year’s Best Science Fiction between 1984 and 2018, an extraordinary achievement that I didn’t expect to be equaled any time soon. But closing fast on his heels is Stephen Jones, who just released volume 30 of his Best New Horror series in November.

Publishing delays have accumulated for Best New Horror over the years; as result this volume collects tales from 2018. But that blemish aside, it’s a fine anthology with top notch horror from Ramsey Campbell, Michael Marshal Smith, Alison Littlewood, Graham Masterton, Damien Angelica Walters, two stories from Peter Bell, and lots more — all packaged under a delightfully retro cover by Warren Kremer. Black Gate blogger Mario Guslandi offers up an in-depth review at Ginger Nuts of Horror; here’s a sample.

First of all I’d like to mention the two stories by Peter Bell, a fantastic author of ghostly tales, whose body of work has appeared so far only in books from small, indie imprints… “The House” is an eerie piece of fiction about three gentlemen following the traces of an elusive, ambiguous ghost story writer, and “ The Virgin Mary Well” is a dark, atmospheric story where ancient, unholy secrets about a mysterious well are unearthed and brought back to the present…

“The Deep Sea Swell” by John Langan is a tense, thrilling story where the ghost of a past sea tragedy gets loose during a storm, while “ Holiday Reading” by Rosalie Parker is a delightful tale suspended between literature and reality. In the creepy “The Smiling Man, by Simon Kurt Unsworth, violating the grave of a disreputable character brings about serious disturbances in a quiet small village…

Mark Samuels provides “Posterity”, an Aickmanesque story (not a simple coincidence…) describing the uncanny experience of a literary researcher exploring the legacy of a deceased writer whose initials are R.A. In Thana Niveau’s truly outstanding “ Octoberland” nostalgia and childhood horrors blend to create an insightful, unforgettable mix.

Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

…

Read More Read More

Monsters, Magic, and Kung fu: The Daoshi Chronicles by M. H. Boroson

Monsters, Magic, and Kung fu: The Daoshi Chronicles by M. H. Boroson

Comments 2 comments

The Daoshi Chronicles, published in paperback by Talos Press. Covers by Jeff Chapman

I discovered M. H. Boroson’s delightful Daoshi Chronicles when Sarah Avery reviewed the opening novel The Girl With Ghost Eyes here at Black Gate five years ago, saying in part:

We’re connoisseurs of kickass combat scenes, eldritch lore, and victories won at terrible, unpredictable price. We want our heroes unabashedly heroic and morally complicated at the same time. Add a decade or more of research on the author’s part, distilled to the most concentrated and carefully placed drops, and a well-timed sense of humor, and you’ve got the recipe for the perfect Black Gate book…

Li-lin’s family has protected the world of the living from the spirit world for generations. Most Daoist priests and priestesses take it on faith that their rituals work — they can’t literally see the spirit world and the efficacy of their magic. Li-lin can, though. She has yin eyes, ghost eyes, a visionary ability that appalls her father and would disgust her trusting neighbors if they knew…

Devoted daughter, faithful widow, compassionate protector of Chinatown, Li-lin must conceal her rarest talent, lest she shame everyone she loves. Long practice at concealment, combined with the necessity of bending rules and stories if she’s to be effective in a world where even a warrior priestess is expected to show deference to men and elders no matter what, has prepared her almost too well for the mystery she must solve.

Someone wants her father dead. That someone wants it enough to lay trap after trap for her family. Bad magic is on its way, of the kind only the Maoshan can stop.

Li-Lin and her ghost eyes save Chinatown, don’t you doubt it.

The Girl With Ghost Eyes proved popular in broader circles as well. Publishers Weekly called it “A brilliant tale of monsters, magic, and kung fu in the San Francisco Chinatown of 1898,” and The A.V. Club proclaimed it a compelling page-turner, saying it “Introduces a thrilling world of kung fu, sorcery, and spirits… The pace never slows, offering a constant stream of strange characters, dire threats, and heroic actions.”

I had to wait for the paperback of the sequel, but Talos released The Girl With No Face in mass market in September and now I finally have a matching set.

…

Read More Read More

New Treasures: It Will Just Be Us by Jo Kaplan

New Treasures: It Will Just Be Us by Jo Kaplan

Comments 0 Comment

Jo Kaplan is a fast-rising writer who’s worth keeping an eye on. Under the name Joanna Parypinski she’s published stories in Black Static, Nightmare Magazine, and Vastarien, and in prestigious anthologies like Haunted Nights and Miscreations.

Her debut novel It Will Just Be Us appeared in September to wide praise. Publishers Weekly called it “A rich, dense supernatural thriller,” Manhattan Book Review hailed it as “A fantastic ghost story,” and Bram Stoker Award-winner John Palisano proclaimed it “A chilling, poetic, modern Gothic masterpiece.”

When nights are long and the wind blows chill through the snow drifts in my back yard, that’s when I long to burrow into blankets with a chilling book. This looks like it will do the trick nicely. Here’s the publisher’s description.

A terrifying new gothic horror novel about two sisters and a haunted house that never sleeps, perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

They say there’s a door in Wakefield that never opens… Sam Wakefield’s ancestral home, a decaying mansion built on the edge of a swamp, isn’t a place for children. Its labyrinthine halls, built by her mad ancestors, are filled with echoes of the past: ghosts and memories knotted together as one. In the presence of phantoms, it’s all Sam can do to disentangle past from present in her daily life. But when her pregnant sister Elizabeth moves in after a fight with her husband, something in the house shifts. Already navigating her tumultuous relationship with Elizabeth, Sam is even more unsettled by the appearance of a new ghost: a faceless boy who commits disturbing acts — threatening animals, terrorizing other children, and following Sam into the depths of the house wielding a knife. When it becomes clear the boy is connected to a locked, forgotten room, one which is never entered, Sam realizes this ghost is not like the others. This boy brings doom… As Elizabeth’s due date approaches, Sam must unravel the mysteries of Wakefield before her sister brings new life into a house marked by death. But as the faceless boy grows stronger, Sam will learn that some doors should stay closed — and some secrets are safer locked away forever.

It Will Just Be Us was published by Crooked Lane Books on September 8, 2020. It is 272 pages, priced at $26.99 in hardcover and just $1.99 in digital formats. Get all the details at Jo Kaplan’s website here.

See all our recent coverage of the best new SF and fantasy releases here.

The Heroes Gather at Last: The Maradaine Elite Trilogy by Marshall Ryan Maresca

The Heroes Gather at Last: The Maradaine Elite Trilogy by Marshall Ryan Maresca

Comments 0 Comment

The Maradaine Elite trilogy by Marshall Ryan Maresca (DAW Books). Covers by Paul Young

Marshall Ryan Maresca is one of the most ambitious fantasy authors to burst on he scene in the last decade. His masterwork is the Maradaine Saga: four parallel trilogies, each with a separate cast and very different tone, all set amid the bustling streets and crime-ridden districts of the exotic port city of Maradaine. It kicked off in 2015 with his debut novel The Thorn of Dentonhill, which introduced Veranix Calbert, diligent college student by day and crime-fighting vigilante by night in the crime-ridden districts of the Maradaine. The book was nominated for the Compton Crook award, and Library Journal said “Veranix is Batman, if Batman were a teenager and magically talented.”

The Barnes & Noble Sci-fi and Fantasy Blog called the shared setting:

One of the most richly detailed settings in fantasy… In one fast-paced, funny, highly readable novel after another, Maresca continues to build out every nook and alleyway of Maradaine.

Each trilogy has a different focus and cast. The Maradaine books follow Veranix Calbert, struggling magic university student by day and armed vigilante by night; the Maradaine Constabulary volumes are gritty fantasy mysteries focused on Inspectors Satrine Rainey and Minox Welling in the city constabulary; The Streets of Maradaine are caper novels featuring Asti and Verci Rynax, former thieves attempting to go straight but dragged back into their old lives; and finally Maradaine Elite blends fantasy and political intrigue as it follows Dayne Heldrin and Jerinne Fendall, hopeful members of the Tarian Order.

With People of the City, published in paperback by DAW in October, Maresca brings his fourth (and final?) Maradaine trilogy to a close. In a suitably climatic fashion, he closes out the cycle by bringing the heroes from all 12 novels together at last.

…

Read More Read More

New Treasures: The Big Book of Modern Fantasy edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

New Treasures: The Big Book of Modern Fantasy edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

Comments 5 comments

Cover art by Leonora Carrington

Here we are at the end of the year, that time when book bloggers create Best of the Year lists. I’m not sure I have the ambition to create a Top Ten list, but at the very least I have a favorite anthology for 2020: The Big Book of Modern Fantasy, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, the follow-up to the magnificent Big Book of Classic Fantasy. That volume included selections up the end of World War II; this one contains 91 stories published between 1946 and 2010.

And what a rich assortment of old favorites and new discoveries it is. Here’s an excerpt from Paul Di Filippo’s delightfully detailed review at Locus Online.

Over 800 pages of bliss-inducing non-mimetic goodness which attempts the impossible: to limn the full dimensions of the unreal in today’s literature… Rounding out the first decade is Borges’s “The Zahir”, with its cursed coin that preempts all other thoughts… Moving into the 1950s… we enjoy Gabriel García Márquez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.” Its portrait of an anomalous derelict who hovers between mortal and angel is touching. And we note that even when the editors select a famous name, they dip into the less-well-known stuff.

As the editors say in their intro, they like to break down barriers between “high” art and popular art, so seeing Fritz Leiber consorting with Márquez and Borges is a delight. His “Lean Times in Lankhmar” is a great choice since it shows us his famous companionable heroes, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, separate and at odds.

…

Read More Read More