Black Gate

The Expert System’s Brother and The Expert System’s Champion (Tor Books, 2018-21). Covers by Raphael Lacoste

British author Adrian Tchaikovsky has been steadily making a name for himself since he burst onto the scene with his 10-volume epic fantasy Shadows of the Apt. He’s followed that with several ambitious new series, including the Echoes of the Fall fantasy trilogy and the far-future hard science fiction Children of Time series. His latest is a sequence of tales in Tor.com’s prestigious novella line, opening with The Expert System’s Brother (2018). Liz Bourke gave it an enthusiastic review at Locus Online.

The title of The Expert System’s Brother makes one expect a cyberpunk world, but the landscape initially seems like that of fantasy. Gradually, the reader becomes aware that what seems like a fantasy setting is in fact science fictional one: a setting where the inhabitants have forgotten how they came to live the way they do.

Handry has always lived in a village called Aro. He has a sister, Melory, and a small community, but when he’s 13, he’s involved in an accident. The village’s Lawgiver (one of a handful of people, like its doctor, who has a ghost inside her skull that gives advice and commands) is casting out a troublemaker, a process that involves physically severing that person from the community by the use of a specially brewed substance. When the ac­cident happens, Handry gets some of that substance on him…

Handry now becomes a wanderer, drifting from village to village… At the town-village of Orovo, he learns some more about the world: a ghost-bearer (the bearer of an architect-ghost) has been gathering and feeding the Severed in order that they may do the difficult and dangerous work of helping the now-overcrowded village-town set up a new village… Handry falls in with another Severed called Sharskin… a man who discovered a place he calls the House of the Ancestors, and who believes that the Severed aren’t made lesser than the other people, but are in fact made more: restored to their original state, before the ancestors fell from grace and gave their descendants over to the rule of the ghosts…

The Expert System’s Brother has an engaging voice. Told in first person from Handry’s point of view, it showcases Tchaikovsky’s growing ver­satility as a writer of long-form science fiction, depicting an interesting world with compelling characters.

The second volume, The Expert System’s Champion, arrived last week. Here’s a look at the back covers for both books.

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Malamander and Gargantis by Thomas Taylor (Walker Books, 2019-21). Cover art by George Ermos

Sometimes it seems all my best book purchases are impulse buys. Last summer, while browsing the shelves at Barnes in Noble, I came across Malamander, the opening novel in a new middle-grade fantasy series by Thomas Taylor titled Legends of Eerie-on-sea. I was sold less than halfway though the book description on the back.

Nobody visits Eerie-on-Sea in the winter. Especially not when darkness falls and the wind howls around Maw Rocks and the wreck of the battleship Leviathan, where even now some swear they have seen the unctuous Malamander creep…

It’s winter in the town of Eerie-on-Sea, where the mist is thick and the salt spray is rattling the windows of the Grand Nautilus Hotel. Inside, young Herbert Lemon, Lost and Founder for the hotel, has an unexpected visitor. It seems that Violet Parma, a fearless girl around his age, lost her parents at the hotel when she was a baby, and she’s sure that the nervous Herbert is the only person who can help her find them. The trouble is, Violet is being pursued at that moment by a strange hook-handed man. And the town legend of the Malamander — a part-fish, part-human monster whose egg is said to make dreams come true — is rearing its scaly head. As various townspeople, some good-hearted, some nefarious, reveal themselves to be monster hunters on the sly, can Herbert and Violet elude them and discover what happened to Violet’s kin? This lighthearted, fantastical mystery, featuring black-and-white spot illustrations, kicks off a trilogy of fantasies set in the seaside town.

The sequel, Gargantis, was published in hardcover last year, and will be released in paperback in April. Here’s the complete details.

Malamander (290 pages, $7.99 paperback/$0.99 digital, May 2, 2019) — cover by George Ermos, illustrations by Tom Booth
Gargantis (352 pages, $7.99 paperback/$16.99 digital, April 6, 2021) — cover by George Ermos, illustrations by Tom Booth

The series in published by Walker Books in the US. See all our coverage New Releases here.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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