Black Gate

Usually when I’m looking for new reading material, I turn to one of my old favorites. Or I’ll try the latest novel by a BG contributor, or by an author I’ve met recently at a convention. It’s a rare thing these days when I crack open a book by someone I know absolutely nothing about. But sometimes I miss those days when the whole field was new and I approached every book with no expectations — nothing but a willingness to be entertained and transported. In those days, I was constantly delighted, surprised by almost every book I read.

And you know what? I think the two are connected.

Once upon a time, every author I tried was new and all I knew was wonder and magic. Now I read exclusively the same small circle of authors and very little surprises me anymore. So to recapture that wonder again, I try the simplest thing: I read new authors. Writers like Bailey Cunningham, whose first novel, Pile of Bones, first in the Parallel Parks series, was just released by Ace Books.

In one world, they’re ordinary university students. In another world, they are a company of heroes in a place of magic and myth called Anfractus…

The Cree called the area Oscana, “pile of bones,” a fertile hunting ground where game abounded. The white settlers changed that to Wascana. And centuries later, it became Wascana Park, a wooded retreat in the midst of the urban sprawl of Regina.

For a select few, who stay in the park until midnight, the land reverts into a magical kingdom, populated by heroes and monsters. They become warriors, bards, archers, gladiators. In the city called Anfractus, they live out a real-life role playing game.

All harmless fun — until they find themselves in the middle of an assassination plot which threatens to upset the balance of everything. Politics are changing, and old borders are about to disappear. The magic of Anfractus is bleeding into the real world — an incursion far more dangerous than the students suspect. Only they know what is happening — and only they can stop it…

Pile of Bones was published July 30th by Ace Books. It is 321 pages, priced at $7.99 for both the paperback and the digital version. The sequel is Path of Smoke.

Walking In the Midst of Fire is the sixth installment in the Remy Chandler series, which began with A Kiss Before the Apocalypse. These books are a mix of urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and noir detective fiction, following the exploits of an angel private investigator trying to lead a normal life. (Not gonna happen, Remy.)

Author Thomas E Sniegoski wrote the YA series The Fallen before switching to adult fiction with the Remy Chandler books. I first came across his name in the world of comics, however, when he wrote the prequel to Jeff Smith’s brilliant fantasy Bone, the mini-series Stupid, Stupid Rat Tails: The Adventures of Big Johnson Bone.

Remy Chandler, angel private investigator, is trying his damnedest to lead a normal life in a world on the verge of supernatural change. He’s found a new love — a woman his dog, Marlowe, approves of — and his best human friend is reluctantly coming to grips with how… unusual… Remy’s actions can be. And he’s finally reached a kind of peace between his true angelic nature and the human persona he created for himself so very long ago.

But that peace can’t last — Heaven and the Legions of the Fallen still stand on the brink of war. Then one of Heaven’s greatest generals is murdered, and it falls to Remy to discover who — or what — might be responsible for the death, which could trigger the final conflict… a conflict in which Earth will most certainly be the beachhead.

The deeper he digs, the further he goes into a dark world of demonic assassins, secret brothels, and things that are unsettling even to a being who has lived since time began. But it is not in his nature — angelic or human — to stop until he has found the killer, no matter the personal price…

Walking in the Midst of Fire was published August 6th, 2013 by Roc Books. It is 340 pages, priced at $15 for the trade paperback and $9.99 for the digital edition.