Black Gate

Not long after I got my Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, I joined a small start-up in Champaign, IL. I kept trying to explain to my friends and family what we did, without much luck. But after Microsoft licensed our first product and renamed it Internet Explorer 1.0, everyone understood what we did.

It was thrilling to be a manager in a fast-growing internet start-up in the early days of the dot-com boom, let me tell you. But one of the things I came to realize early on was that being an early tech pioneer was no help at all when it came to predicting where the next big thing was coming from. When Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com, for example, I confidently predicted it would never approach the success of Borders, since there was no way to browse for books, like you could in a real bookstore. Today, Borders is bankrupt, Amazon.com is one of the most successful companies in human history, and I spend hours every week browsing and shopping for books online, discovering more new titles than I ever could in a brick-and-mortar store.

That’s how I stumbled across A Most Improper Boxed Set, a delightful trilogy of Regency fantasy novels by Stephanie Burgis (Masks and Shadows), and decided to take a chance on it. Would I have made the same impulse purchase in a bookstore? Who can say? I’m just glad I did it.

For lovers of Harry Potter and Jane Austen, this boxed set of the Kat, Incorrigible Regency-era fantasy trilogy is a delightful blend of adventure, humor, mischief, romance, and quite a bit of improper magic.

Katherine Ann Stephenson has just discovered that she’s inherited her mother’s magical talents, and despite Stepmama’s stern objections, she’s determined to learn how to use them.

But nineteenth-century England is not the easiest place to practice scandalous magic. Kat’s reckless heroism will be tested to the utmost as she learns to control her new powers — all while battling dangerous highwaymen, dodging devious scoundrels, attempting to win her sisters their true loves, avoiding malicious gossip and disgraceful accusations, managing her sister Angeline’s heedless witchcraft and her brother Charles’s carelessness… and saving her family’s lives, the magical Order of the Guardians, and ultimately, England itself. And all this while trying to maintain the dignity of a proper lady!

This paperback boxed set — which includes Kat, Incorrigible; Renegade Magic; and Stolen Magic — contains enough mischief and magic to make Stepmama faint… and to satisfy the most voracious of readers.

A Most Improper Boxed Set was published by Atheneum Books on October 7, 2014. It contains three novels in trade paperback, with a combined page count of 1072 pages, and is priced at $21.99. The marvelously whimsical cover art is by Annette Marnat. See Emily Mah’s interview with Stephanie Burgis here.

I think Tor.com‘s new line of premium novellas is a terrific idea. I really enjoy keeping on top of the latest in fantasy and SF (or, at least, the illusion that I’m keeping on top of the latest in fantasy and SF), but I just don’t have enough time to read all the novels I need to do that.

But the Tor.com novellas have allowed me to sample many of the top writers in the field, as well as new and emerging talents, in a marvelously satisfying way. I’m talking about folks like Michael R. Underwood, K. J. Parker, Mary Robinette Kowal, Tim Lebbon, Seanan McGuire, Kai Ashante Wilson, Paul Cornell, Alter S. Reiss, Nnedi Okorafor, Angela Slatter, Daniel Polansky, and many others. The novellas are quick, inexpensive reads… and so far, the quality has been top-notch. It doesn’t hurt that they also look terrific, and are highly collectible, either.

This is where some of the most exciting work in the industry is being done, and the critical buzz reflects that. The fledgling line has already been showered with accolades, award nominations, and even a Nebula Award… and it’s not even a year old!

Tor.com shows no signs of slowing down, releasing 2-3 new titles per month through the spring and summer. The six books above were published over the last nine weeks, and they’re some of the most interesting of the lot. They include their first full-length novel, Malka Older ‘s Infomocracy, sequels to previous popular Tor.com novellas (Tim Lebbon’s A Whisper of Southern Lights and Andy Remic’s Return of Souls), two debuts (S. B. Divya’s Runtime, and Infomocracy), a standalone novella from a 2016 Nebula nominee (Fran Wilde’s The Jewel and Her Lapidary), and the start of an exciting new science fantasy series from a popular Warhammer 40K author (Guy Haley’s The Emperor’s Railroad.)

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I bought a copy of Paul Cornell’s London Falling, the first novel in what was to become his Shadow Police series, shortly after it was released in 2013. It followed Detective Inspector James Quill and his team after they came into contact with a strange artifact and accidentally develop the Sight, enabling them to take on the otherworldly creatures secretly prowling London’s streets. I missed The Severed Streets, the second in the series, completely, so I was very grateful to receive a review copy of the third book, Who Killed Sherlock Holmes?, released in trade paperback by PAN on May 19. This series looks like a lot of fun, and I’ve already started a search for the middle book to complete the set.

The ghost of Sherlock Holmes is dead, but who will solve his murder?

The Great Detective’s ghost has walked London’s streets for an age, given shape by people’s memories. Now someone’s put a ceremonial dagger through his chest. But what’s the motive? And who — or what — could kill a ghost?

When policing London’s supernatural underworld, eliminating the impossible is not an option. DI James Quill and his detectives have learnt this the hard way. Gifted with the Sight, they’ll pursue a criminal genius — who’ll lure them into a Sherlockian maze of clues and evidence. The team also have their own demons to fight. They’ve been to Hell and back (literally) but now the unit is falling apart…

Paul Cornell’s most recent publication here in the US was the acclaimed novella Witches of Lychford, published by Tor.com.

Who Killed Sherlock Holmes? was published by Pan Books on May 19, 2016. It is 358 pages, priced at £8.99 (around $12.76 in the US).

Mark Lawrence is the author of the bestselling Broken Empire trilogy (Prince of Thorns, King of Thorns, and Emperor of Thorns), the final volume of which won the 2014 David Gemmell Legend Award. The trilogy told the story of Jorg Ancrath’s devastating rise to power, and Mark returned to the same world for his second trilogy, The Red Queen’s War, which began with Prince of Fools (2014) and The Liar’s Key (2015). The final volume, The Wheel of Osheim, was published in hardcover last week. Here’s the description.

All the horrors of Hell stand between Snorri Ver Snagason and the rescue of his family, if indeed the dead can be rescued. For Jalan Kendeth, getting back out alive and with Loki’s key is all that matters. Loki’s creation can open any lock, any door, and it may also be the key to Jalan’s fortune back in the living world.

Jalan plans to return to the three w’s that have been the core of his idle and debauched life: wine, women, and wagering. Fate however has other plans, larger plans. The Wheel of Osheim is turning ever faster, and it will crack the world unless it’s stopped. When the end of all things looms, and there’s nowhere to run, even the worst coward must find new answers. Jalan and Snorri face many dangers, from the corpse hordes of the Dead King to the many mirrors of the Lady Blue, but in the end, fast or slow, the Wheel of Osheim always pulls you back. In the end it’s win or die.

We published the first chapter of Prince of Thorns, with a brand new introduction by Mark, here, and Howard Andrew Jones’s interview with him is here. Mark’s long article on writing and selling The Prince of Thorns (and the early rejection letters he got from Black Gate) is here.

The Wheel of Osheim was published by Ace on June 7, 2016. It is 432 pages, priced at $27 in hardcover and $13.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Jason Chan.