Book Review: Backpacking Through Bedlam (InCryptid Book 12) by Seanan McGuire

Backpacking Through Bedlam (InCryptid Book 12)
by Seanan McGuire
March 7, 2023
Publisher: DAW
ASIN: B0B6ZCG4P3 

ISBN: 9780756418571
Genre: urban fanasy
Seanan McGuire's New York Times-bestselling and Hugo Award-nominated urban fantasy InCryptid series continues with the twelfth book following the Price family, cryptozoologists who study and protect the creatures living in secret all around us.

Reunion, noun:
1. The state of being united again.

Reconciliation, noun:
1. An act of reconciling, as when former enemies agree to an amiable truce.
2. The process of making consistent or compatible.
3. See also “impossible.”

Alice Price-Healy gave up her life for fifty years to focus completely on the search for her missing husband. The danger of focus like that is that it leaves little room for thinking about what happens after…and now that she’s finally managed to find Thomas, she has no idea what she’s supposed to do next. The fact that he comes with a surrogate daughter who may or may not have some connection to Alice’s recently adopted grandson is just icing on the complicated cake.

So the three of them are heading for the most complicated place in the universe: they’re going home.

But things on Earth have changed while Alice, Thomas, and Sally have been away. The Covenant of St. George, antagonized by Verity’s declaration of war and Sarah’s temporary relocation of an entire college campus, is trying to retake North America from the cryptids and cryptozoologists who’ve been keeping the peace for the past hundred years. And they’re starting in New York.

Alice and company have barely been back for an hour before the Ocean Lady and the Queen of the Routewitches send them to New York. They find themselves embroiled in the politics of dragons, kidnappings, and of course, the most dangerous people of all: family.

Getting “back to normal” may be Alice's hardest task yet.

Amazon

Alice Healey-Price spent 50 years searching for her husband in the last book, Spelunking Through Hell, to get her happy ending. Now that she has found him, the daughter he adopted, and the people that he had been protecting, she has conflicting feelings about him and their life together. Plus the fact their own children have grown up and no longer need their parents. When they return to their dimension once their mission is accomplished, they find troubling things like the Covenant of St. George trying to retake America, starting with New York.

If you like cryptids, Price-worshipping mice, complicated family relationships, true love, snappy dialogue, worldbuilding, and action, this story will give you happy ending in another adventure of the Price family. Ms. McGuire keeps packing in stories that grow better and better with each book.

I gave Backpacking Through Bedlam (InCryptid Book 12) 5 sheep.

Reviewed by Pamela K. Kinney 

About the Author:
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Seanan McGuire is a California-based author with a strong penchant for travel and can regularly be found just about any place capable of supporting human life (as well as a few places that probably aren't). Seanan was the winner of the 2010 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer; Rosemary and Rue, was named one of the Top 20 Paranormal Fantasy Novels of the Past Decade; and her novel Feed, written under the name Mira Grant, was named as one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2010. She also won a Hugo for her podcast, and is the first person to be nominated for five Hugo Awards in a single year.

Excerpt: The Councillor by E. J. Beaton

The Councillor
by E. J. Beaton
March 2, 2021
Publisher: DAW
Genre: dark fantasy, swords and sorcery

448 pages
This Machiavellian fantasy follows a scholar's quest to choose the next ruler of her nation amidst lies, conspiracy, and assassination

When the death of Iron Queen Sarelin Brey fractures the realm of Elira, Lysande Prior, the palace scholar and the queen’s closest friend, is appointed Councillor. Publically, Lysande must choose the next monarch from amongst the city-rulers vying for the throne. Privately, she seeks to discover which ruler murdered the queen, suspecting the use of magic.

Resourceful, analytical, and quiet, Lysande appears to embody the motto she was raised with: everything in its place. Yet while she hides her drug addiction from her new associates, she cannot hide her growing interest in power. She becomes locked in a game of strategy with the city-rulers – especially the erudite prince Luca Fontaine, who seems to shift between ally and rival.

Further from home, an old enemy is stirring: the magic-wielding White Queen is on the move again, and her alliance with a traitor among the royal milieu poses a danger not just to the peace of the realm, but to the survival of everything that Lysande cares about.

In a world where the low-born keep their heads down, Lysande must learn to fight an enemy who wears many guises… even as she wages her own battle between ambition and restraint.

Editorial Reviews
Praise for The Councillor

“A sharp and insightful look at power and privilege in a m agical world, and what happens when people who’ve historically had neither find themselves in possession of both.”—Anna Stephens, author of the Godblind trilogy

“A gripping tale of intrigue and politics and power, set in a beautifully-drawn world of shifting alliances and morally grey characters. Intelligent, nuanced, and compelling.” —H. G. Parry, author of The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heap

“A tense intrigue of unknown loyalties, political machinations, and secret magic, The Councillor explores ambition, addiction, and the consequences of power. A powerful and intelligent debut from a writer to watch.” —Sam Hawke, author of City of Lies

“The Councillor is elegant, intricate, and utterly engaging! A beautifully written and intelligent debut novel.” —Rowenna Miller, author of the Unraveled Kingdom series

Amazon

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
One
The shape of a crown stood out in the emerald wax of the seal, and Lysande glanced at it once before looking away, staring at anything but that envelope. She raised her vial and drank. Gold tinged the room, spreading from the corners, glossing the piles of manuscripts and slipping across the bedsheets; she felt it transmute her insides, moving from her chest to her abdomen. The clink of glass dripped luster, and through it all, she struggled against a surging wish to let the effects spread and spread.

"Signore Prior!"

Calm settled upon her. The vial felt newly cool, as if it truly had been purified; as if it had never contained a spoonful of chimera scale, nor any ingredients that might mix and, if swiftly consumed, permeate the bloodstream. She did not need to think about the composition of the drug. She certainly did not need to think about the envelope.

"If you please, Signore Prior, the queen would see you."

The ball of emotion in her chest had begun to soften. How easy it would be to let it dissolve, under the same force that had gilded her vision. The old chant repeated in her mind: restrain, constrain, subdue.

When the messenger shouted through the door again, she pushed against her ease and forced her fingers to trade the vial for an empty basin. Slowly, she withdrew a small piece of hardened resin from her desk drawer and watched the surface of the stone glitter in the candlelight. After staring at it for a long time, she drew a swift breath and placed the night-quartz on her tongue. The reaction worked through her, and she bent over and retched; her hands gripped the edges of the basin until everything was expurgated. In the middle of the blue liquid, her own eyes shone, and she glimpsed something that was almost desperation.

Words drifted through the door. As Lysande threw on a pair of trousers, she anchored herself to the messenger's phrase: the queen would see you.

Gathering her keys, she put on her best doublet, a thick garment in the royal green, with only a smattering of ink-spots. She took the envelope with the emerald seal from her desk and paused, staring at it for a long time, turning it over in her fingers before slipping it into her pocket.

The physicians were leaving the royal suite as she arrived, carrying baskets of tools; only Surrick lingered in the corridor, wiping her hands on her robe. She nodded to Lysande, who nodded back slowly.

Lysande turned away from the chief physician and approached the suite. Her stomach swirled, but she kept her back straight and her hands from trembling.

Through the antechamber, trying not to look at the points of the swords in the brackets, she kept up a stiff gait. In the bedchamber, she threw up a hand to shield her eyes. Sunlight embossed the shelves on the wall. She watched an aureole form around a silver chalice, illuminating the words Sarelin Brey-Unifier, Warrior, Conqueror-the Hand that Held Back the White Tide and Saved Elira. Lysande shook her head and, after a moment, ran her finger over the edge of the envelope in her pocket.

"Sarelin?" Her voice resounded in the chamber.

She walked to the bed. The robe on the sheets drew her gaze, mottled with blood.

"Sarelin? Are you awake?"

"I hope so," a woman's voice said. "If this is the next life, it's lacking a bottle of red."

She felt the weight of Sarelin's presence, even before a figure emerged from behind the dressing-screen. Lysande was certain that the queen had not only chosen this position to show off the daggers at her left hip, nor the sword at her right, for at this angle, sunbeams struck the dent in her armor, turning it into a gleaming scar.

"Thank Cognita!" Lysande said.

"You can thank those damned physicians." Sarelin strode over and clapped her on the shoulder until her teeth knocked. "If they don't stop hectoring me, I'll tip the ghastly potion down their throats."

"Armor after an injury, though? Is that your wisest idea?"

"Surrick says I'm healed enough for it."

"And did you perhaps order Surrick to tell you that?" Lysande said.

"You want to watch that you're not too clever before breakfast. You can't enjoy a tart if you're full of a retort." As Sarelin clanked over to her table and poured herself a goblet of vivantica, Lysande noted the absence of a flush in her cheeks. The queen was not the wan figure she had been a few days ago when two women in armor carried her into the palace, shouting about a panther attack, but she still looked drawn, Lysande thought: too drawn by far.

She tested the words she had planned in her head.

"Ugh." Sarelin eyed the rose-pink liquid, swirling it in the cup. "Here, Trichard, Trichard!" A ball of golden fur leaped up from one of the chairs into Sarelin's hand. "You did a good job finding this little fellow."

"Call it an investment in the realm." Lysande tried to conjure a smile, hoping it would not crack.

"He lives up to his namesake." Sarelin tickled the tiny monkey. "Father could never shut his mouth, either."

The monkey chattered, as if on cue. It took a sip of the medicine and smacked its lips, and the two women laughed as one, Lysande's smile softening.

"Surrick's been bleating at me since I woke, telling me to use your little taster every time I drink. Claims your monkey can sniff out poison in seconds." Sarelin gave the animal another stroke. "Maybe she's got a point. With the whole realm thinking I'm about to collapse, there's some who'd like me to collapse faster."

Some moments arrived like a break in a song: pauses between beats that were not prearranged but opened up of their own accord, when the musicians drew breath. Lysande was looking at Sarelin, and then, in the space between words, she was aware of everything that she had agonized over since the hunt returned: all the possibilities, suspicions, and doubts, culminating in last night's reading. Sentences needled her mind.

She should at least say something. A hint about the panther. The animal was not the problem, but as for the associations that her research had thrown up . . . there was a certain name that you did not say, if you were wise, and Lysande was already bargaining with herself. When Sarelin was well enough to bark a greeting at the guards; when Sarelin was slamming the door of her suite and making the swords trembling in their brackets; when the queen's cheeks were flushed, then, she would bring up the possibility that the panther's attack had not been a coincidence.

Sarelin downed the goblet of vivantica in one go, shuddering, and reached underneath one of the platters. "I know it's late, but take this as the second half as your gift-day present."

"Sarelin, you cannot-"

"How dare you tell a queen what she cannot do?" Sarelin thrust a box under Lysande's nose, her face half-split with a smile.

Lysande opened the lid. The feather dazzled her eyes. Every barb was star-bright; the stem shone, painted gold and whittled to a point. She lifted the quill out of the box.

The first half of the present had been a gold dagger, presented a week ago, on the day that marked twenty-two years since she was found. She had never understood how the silverbloods expected her to celebrate that day, as if her childhood were a play with a magnificent ending. The problem with nobles was that they could not imagine a genre aside from heroic drama. What kind of story was it if your parents had abandoned you in a carpenter's shop during the war, a naked child in a room of blazing wood-tragicomedy? Or farce?

But the dagger. That was worth celebrating. Sarelin's present had carved straw enemies in the target range. Lysande turned her gaze to the quill now. Squinting, she made out her own face in the surface of the feather. The frown and the straggling mane of hair glimmered in reflection; she really should have combed her hair this morning, but at least the glinting, deathstruck lock was hidden beneath the other strands.

"You're spoiling me," she said.

"It's an exchange. You're going to copy out the news of my recovery."

"Ah. Of course I am."

"Anyway . . . there's no better scholar. Haven't I said it enough times? You're the girl who translated the Silver Songs, Lys. The girl with the quill."

Those were the same words Sarelin had spoken the day she had visited the schoolroom of the orphanage, the day that she had questioned each child about the history of Elira. I'll take the girl with the quill, she had said. Lysande swallowed. She placed the quill back in its hollow. In the pit of her stomach, unsaid things circled around and around and kicked, and every warning she had rehearsed in the last two days strained to get out.

"And you're taking care of the envelope for me," Sarelin said slowly, holding Lysande's gaze. "That deserves a reward."

It would not help, to run her hand over the envelope again. It would not aid her one jot to take it out and gaze at it-if overthinking could have made her feel confident, she would already be a worriless scholar. Lysande hugged Sarelin, her fingers interlacing behind the silver breastplate. There were too many chalices and plates on the wall, she thought; too many gleaming things from which her own countenance could gaze back.

She left the target range in the quiet before dusk. Once the door to her chamber was shut, she removed the jar from her drawer, unscrewed the lid, and dipped the spoon in, taking care not to let her hand tremble as she tipped a spoonful of shredded scale into the vial. Blue. Still the same stock, the same hue shining; maybe in a year or so, the smugglers would source their product from different chimera remains. Then she would be spooning out purple scale, or green. The properties of a long-dead beast were likely to transmogrify . . . with each different stock, new risks blossomed . . . ChariceÕs warnings repeated themselves to her, but she could smell the scale wafting up in dozens of different notes.

Spiced wine, grass after heavy rain, and the scent of old books when the covers had begun to wear; sometimes, like today, the chimera scale smelled of the things she enjoyed. At other times, she caught the scent of things she had tried to forget, like the rotten wood of the floorboards at the orphanage, and pipe-smoke: a thick tang from a particular herb which she had breathed all too recently.

Lysande held the vial over the fireplace until the heat nipped at her fingers. She poured the shredded scale into the goblet, tipped in a spoon of sugar from a jar on her desk, then added two spoons of water from another goblet.

The mixture began to fizz. It shivered and melted, leaving behind a liquid the color of lake water in the early morning, and Lysande drank until the goblet was half-empty. Her heartbeat began to hammer with the force of an angry blacksmith, but she ignored it; if she had pressed a hand to her forehead, she knew that she would have felt a fiery swathe of skin. Her stomach writhed. She told herself to push through the symptoms, one by one; to hold on to the thought of the reward. The calm spread through her next: it might not be pleasure that coursed through her veins, exactly, but she could see everything without frustration. The world around her, from the papers on her desk to the light streaming through the window and the wood of the bedposts-it all felt golden. The worries within her melted away and a purity imposed itself onto the room.

Had she really been thinking about the panther all afternoon? Had she truly been considering telling Sarelin what she had discovered, weighing it against the risk of the queen storming through the palace, forgoing medicine and rest? Had she really been imagining the way that rage dug trenches on Sarelin's brow-the way that Sarelin's voice smoked with fury when she swore revenge on one particular woman?

She tilted the goblet. Another drop of the concoction landed on her tongue. The hammer-blows of her heartbeat began to land faster and faster.

How familiar the practice of avoidance could be, and how sweet. There would be no need for night-quartz this time. She took the new quill from its box and traced a few shapes in the air, snaking the tip around.

Her hand flew over the pages of her notes, tracing tables of siege campaigns and checking officers' names sprinkled in brown ink. It was easy to forget about her distress when she was unearthing details, picking out the fine points from the stories and records that immersed her in another time. The tasks had changed, slowly. In her early years in the palace, she had compiled and translated as much of the realm's political history as she could, leafing through fat manuscripts in the queen's private library that had promised tales of assassinations, old stories of chimera attacks, and newer, mud-spattered accounts of rebellions. She had summarized trade deals, cross-referencing them with foreign alliances, noting whether they were achieved with arms or ink. Only when she had felt confident enough in her knowledge of history had she begun to search for patterns, analyzing the strategies that Elira's queens and kings had used against invaders, and classifying the tactics that city-rulers had employed to defend or expand their territory. It had taken many false starts with a quill before she had written the first words of her own treatise, the title pricked out boldly in rare violet ink: An Ideal Queen.

Today, she could not write for long. No matter what approach she tried to take, the prose came out in ungainly lumps. Sarelin's confident smile appeared in her mind, undercutting every sentence.

She opened her map-book, turning to the pages at the back. After surveying the diagrams of the White War for a moment, she touched the golden quill to the paper.

The final battle came out quickly; the Mud Field bloomed with legions and captains on her page, the Pyrrhan clash appearing on the White Army's left flank and the archers on the right. She covered the field with thin lines, marking the movements of the battalions.

There remained one thing to add, after the White Queen's advance: Sarelin's last charge. Her quill hovered above the page. Somehow, she could not touch it to the map.--This text refers to the hardcover edition.

About the Author
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E. J. Beaton is the author of the fantasy novel The Councillor. She has previously published a poetry collection, Unbroken Circle (Melbourne Poets Union), and has been shortlisted for the ACU Prize for Poetry and the Ada Cambridge Poetry Prize. She studied literature and writing at university, and her PhD thesis included analysis of Machiavellian politics in Shakespearean drama and fantasy literature. She lives in Melbourne, Australia.--This text refers to the audioCD edition.

Book Review: Calculated Risks (InCryptid Book 10) by Seanan McGuire

Calculated Risks (InCryptid Book 10)
by Seanan McGuire
February 23, 2021
Publisher: DAW
ASIN: 0756411815 ISBN: 9780756411817
Just when Sarah Zellaby, adopted Price cousin and telepathic ambush predator, thought that things couldn't get worse, she's had to go and prove herself wrong. After being kidnapped and manipulated by her birth family, she has undergone a transformation called an instar, reaching back to her Apocritic origins to metamorphize. While externally the same, she is internally much more powerful, and much more difficult to control.

Even by herself. After years of denial, the fact that she will always be a cuckoo has become impossible to deny.

Now stranded in another dimension with a handful of allies who seem to have no idea who she is--including her cousin Annie and her maybe-boyfriend Artie, both of whom have forgotten their relationship--and a bunch of cuckoos with good reason to want her dead, Sarah must figure out not only how to contend with her situation, but with the new realities of her future. What is she now? Who is she now? Is that person someone she can live with?

And when all is said and done, will she be able to get the people she loves, whether or not they've forgotten her, safely home?

Amazon

Sara becomes stranded in another dimension, with her cousins Annie and cuckoo Mark, the man she loves, Artie, along with some human students and cuckoo children. The adult cuckoos are stripped of who they are, leaving only the hunger like zombies. Sara may have not only survived an instar she was meant to be stripped of all, but it may also have upped her telepathic abilities. Now, she must figure out this new world, avoid unknown dangers along with the zombie adult cuckoos. And get everyone back to their dimension, and survive whatever dangers there may be here and any zombie adult cuckoos. 

Seanan McGuire has done it again with another great fantasy with a science fiction mix about the cryptologist Price family. Her characters and their world are like comfort food for me, enjoyable reading, and this novel isn’t any different. You don’t have to be a mind reader to see that!

I gave Calculated Risks (InCryptid Book 10) 4 ½ dimensional traveling sheep.

Reviewed by Pamela K. Kinney

About the Author:
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Seanan McGuire is a California-based author with a strong penchant for travel and can regularly be found just about any place capable of supporting human life (as well as a few places that probably aren't). Seanan was the winner of the 2010 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer; Rosemary and Rue, was named one of the Top 20 Paranormal Fantasy Novels of the Past Decade; and her novel Feed, written under the name Mira Grant, was named as one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2010. She also won a Hugo for her podcast, and is the first person to be nominated for five Hugo Awards in a single year.

The Moonlit World (Worldshapers #3) by Edward Willett

For fans of urban fantasy and readers of Seanan McGuire, Stephen R. Donaldson, and Roger Zelazny, the Worldshapers series follows Shawna Keys, a woman whose powers open the way to a labyrinth of new dimensions. In this thrilling third installment, Shawna searches for her companion while navigating a treacherous realm of warring vampires, werewolves, and humans.

The Moonlit World (Worldshapers #3)

by Edward Willett 

September 15, 2020

384 pages

Genre:  Fantasy Action & Adventure, Romantic Fantasy, Epic Fantasy

Publisher: DAW
The third book in the gripping portal fantasy series by an Aurora Award-winning author, in which one woman's powers open the way to a labyrinth of new dimensions. 
Fresh from their adventures in a world inspired by Jules Verne, Shawna Keys and Karl Yatsar find themselves in a world that mirrors much darker tales. Beneath a full moon that hangs motionless in the sky, they're forced to flee terrifying creatures that can only be vampires...only to run straight into a pack of werewolves.

As the lycanthropes and undead battle, Karl is spirited away to the castle of the vampire queen. Meanwhile, Shawna finds short-lived refuge in a fortified village, where she learns that something has gone horribly wrong with the world in which she finds herself. Once, werewolves, vampires, and humans lived there harmoniously. Now every group is set against every other, and entire villages are being mysteriously emptied of people.

Somehow, Karl and Shawna must reunite, discover the mysteries of the Shaping of this strange world, and escape it for the next, without being sucked dry, devoured, or—worst of all—turned into creatures of the night themselves.

Beneath the frozen, gibbous moon, allies, enemies, surprises, adventures, and unsettling revelations await. 

Praise for the Worldshaper series 

“This novel sets up a fascinating, fluctuating universe with plenty of room for growth for the main characters, and readers will eagerly join their journey.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“This series is for fans of any piece or part of geek culture. With the infinite possible worlds in the Labyrinth, every book should be a new, enjoyable adventure.” —Booklist

“It leaves the characters in places such that the next book promises to be very exciting from the get-go. Check it out if you like alternate world sci-fi/fantasy. It’s a fun, quick read.” —Game Vortex

"Willett intertwines modern humor and witty historic literary references throughout the novel. Shawna’s entertaining humor keeps her plight upbeat and purposefully moving along." —The Book Dragon 

About the Author
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Edward Willett is the award-winning author of more than sixty books of science fiction, fantasy, and nonfiction for readers of all ages. He won Canada's Aurora Award for Best Long-Form Work in English for Marseguro, and a Saskatchewan Book Award for his young-adult fantasy Spirit Singer. His podcast, The Worldshapers, featuring conversations with other science fiction and fantasy authors, also won an Aurora Award for Best Fan Related Work.

Mirage (Web Shifter's Library #2) by Julie E. Czerneda

Mirage (Web Shifter's Library #2)

by Julie E. Czerneda 

August 11, 2020

432 pages

Publisher: DAW (August 11, 2020)
Book 2 of 3 in the Web Shifter's Library Series

The second book in the Web Shifter's Library series returns to the adventures of Esen, a shapeshifting alien who must navigate the perils of a hostile universe.

Relationships get complicated when you don’t know who—or what—you really are. Esen must find a way to rescue a hapless group of chimeras, beings who are a new and unique blend of species she knows, when she can’t become one herself. When Evan Gooseberry tries to help, he is shattered to learn he himself isn’t entirely Human and begins to suspect his new friend Esen isn’t what she seems.

Complicating matters, a mysterious contagion has killed the crew of the ship that brought the chimeras—and Evan—to Botharis. Everyone’s been quarantined inside the All Species’ Library of Linguistics and Culture, including over a hundred disgruntled alien scholars.

The risks climb as Skalet and Lionel continue their quest to solve the disappearance of Paul’s mother’s ship, the Sidereal Pathfinder, only to find themselves caught in a tangle of loyalties as Skalet is betrayed by her own Kraal affiliates, who infiltrate the Library.

All of which would be quite enough for one Web-being’s day, but Paul Ragem hopes to rekindle the romance of his first love. A shame Esen hasn’t told him who’s hiding in their greenhouse.

"As always, there are plenty of oddball alien hijinks, misunderstandings, and intrigues, all illustrating how badly the library is needed while providing excellent entertainment."—Locus

"Search Image had one of my favorite settings so far (an all-inclusive alien library), and an abundance of interesting aliens. Czerneda’s worldbuilding and attention to biological detail is amazing, and something I always look forward to in her books." —The Obsessive Bookseller

About the Author:
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A love of reading turned into a love of writing for Julie E. Czerneda. A former biologist, then writer and editor of non-fiction, in 1997 DAW Books published Julie's first sf novel, "A Thousand Words for Stranger" and she hasn't stopped since. Her work has received international acclaim, multiple awards,and best-selling status. You'll find her work in anthologies as well, as she enjoys working with other writers. Julie is a popular speaker, whether on writing, science, or the use of science fiction to promote scientific literacy. Her recent adventures included being Guest of Honour for the national conventions of New Zealand and Australia, as well as Master of Ceremonies for Anticipation, the Montreal Worldcon.

Her first novel led to The Clan Chronicles, a nine-book (3 trilogy) series concluding in "To Guard Against the Dark." Fear not, fans of Sira, Morgan, and the gang. They're back in The Clan Chronicles: Tales from Plexis, an anthology from DAW containing original stories by other authors in Julie's world, as well as a framing novella of hers.

Julie's also released two new titles about her most popular character, Esen, beginning The Web Shifter's Library series. Next up, a standalone fantasy, "The Gossamer Mage."
For more on Julie's work and upcoming events, please visit www.czerneda.com

Oh, and when not writing or at conventions? Julie and her photographer husband grab their canoe and disappear into the glorious wilderness surrounding their central Ontario home.

Spotlight: Fire Season (Eric Carter #4) by Stephen Blackmoore + giveaway

DAW Books is proud to present FIRE SEASON (DAW Mass Market; April 16, 2019) the fourth installment in the paranormal noir Eric Carter series that follows a necromancer through a world of vengeful gods and goddesses, mysterious murders, and restless ghosts.

Why you should read the Eric Carter novels:
· They draw on Aztec mythology and deities (which have been explored less often in the fantasy genre than Greek or Norse legends!)
· Edgy dark humor
· High action
· A tough anti-hero with hidden depths

If you love the Harry Dresden novels, you will love this series.

Fire Season (Eric Carter #4) 

by Stephen Blackmoore
April 16, 2010

304 pages

Publisher: DAW
In FIRE SEASON, it’s one of the hottest summers the city has ever seen, and someone is murdering mages with fires. Necromancer Eric Carter is being framed for the killings and hunted by his own people. To Carter, everything points to the god Quetzalcoatl coming after him, after he defied the mad wind god in the Aztec land of the dead. But too many things aren't adding up, and Carter knows there's more going on. If he doesn't figure out what it is and put a stop to it fast, Quetzalcoatl won't just kill him, he'll burn the whole damn city down with him.

About the Author:
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Stephen Blackmoore is a writer of crime and horror whose work has appeared in the magazines Needle, Plots With Guns, Spinetingler, Thrilling Detective, Shots, and Demolition. He has also written essays on LA politics and crime for the website LAVoice.org and the LA Noir true crime blog. He lives in Los Angeles and can be found online at stephenblackmoore.com and Twitter @sblackmoore.

GIVEAWAY

print copy of Dead Things

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Excerpt: The Master of Dreams (The Dreamscape Trilogy Book 1) by Mike Resnick + giveaway

The Master of Dreams (The Dreamscape Trilogy Book 1)

by Mike Resnick
April 16, 2019
304 pages
Publisher: DAW
Opening a new fantasy trilogy from Hugo award winner Resnick, this novel offers an adventure through space and time as Eddie Raven tries to outrun the dark forces pursuing him.

Eddie Raven isn't quite sure what's happening to him--and he's in a race to find out before it kills him.

His adventures begin with a shooting in a very strange shop in Manhattan--but soon he finds himself the owner of a very familiar bar in Casablanca. By the time he adjusts to that reality, he's suddenly become one of several undersized people helping a young woman search for a wizard. And after confronting the wizard, he somehow finds himself in Camelot.

But as he rushes to solve the mystery of his many appearances, a larger threat looms. Because someone or something is stalking him through time and space with deadly intent....

amazon

Excerpt:
Suddenly a small man clad in a black robe with black ponytail, arching eyebrows, and exotic tattoos all over his arms and neck emerged from behind a curtain.

“Welcome,” he said to Lisa with an accent that neither she nor Raven could place. “And how may I be of service to you?”

“Your sign says that you read fortunes,” replied Lisa.

“So I do,” said the man. “And since our hands will be touching each other, it is only fair that we know each other’s names. I am Mako.”

“And I am—”

“Lisa,” he said with a smile. “I know.”

“What now?” asked Lisa, wondering how he knew her name— but that just made him all the more exotic and mysterious. “Do we sit at a table, or—?”

“Whatever makes you comfortable,” replied Mako. “I can do it right here if you like.”

“How much is this going to cost?” asked Raven.

“For someone as beautiful as Lisa, ten dollars.”

“You must read a lot of fortunes to pay for this place,” said Raven.

“Sometimes all it takes is the correct hand,” answered Mako as another customer entered the store.

Raven turned to look at the newcomer. He was a large bald man, much closer to seven feet than six, and it was clear that his burly physique came from muscles, not fat. He wore a light colored trench coat, and for all Raven knew he was naked beneath it, because except for sandals his legs were bare at least from the bottom of the coat to his knees, and his hands and wrists were the same. His eyes were the deepest black. Raven decided that he looked right at home in a shop that was selling the supernatural.

“Have we met?” asked Raven.

“Why should you think so?” asked the man.

Raven shrugged. “I don’t know. I just have a feeling that I’ve seen you before.”

The customer half smiled and half grimaced, and Raven turned his attention back to Lisa and Mako.

“You are twenty-three years old,” said Mako, staring at her open palm. “You were born in February. You like Sondheim musicals. You adore Agatha Christie’s mystery novels. You—” Suddenly he froze.

“What is it?” asked Lisa.

“You will die in seconds!” he whispered. He stared at her. “But why?” He turned to Raven. “It’s got to be you! Why did you come here? You know better!”

“What are you talking about?” demanded Raven. “Or it is that you’ll charge ten dollars to read her palm and ninety bucks to save her from a nonexistent—”

Before he could finish the sentence a gunman entered the shop and started blazing away. Lisa fell to the floor with two bullets buried in her chest. Mako followed an instant later with a bullet to his head.

The gunman frowned, turned, aimed at Raven, and pulled the trigger again, but the tall customer dove between them and took the bullet meant for Raven.

Raven could hear nearby sirens and people screaming. He spun around, looking for the shooter, but the man had fled into the gathering crowd. He stood where he was, numbly surveying the scene, then knelt down to see if any life remained in Lisa.

And as he did so, before he could determine if she was still breathing, he heard a voice that seemed to emanate from the empty air surrounding him. Run, Eddie Raven! You knew better than to come here! Nothing can save you if you don’t flee!

And, almost without thinking, Raven opened the door and ran.

About the Author:

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Mike Resnick has won awards in the USA, Spain, France, Japan, Croatia, Poland and China. He is, according to Locus, the all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short science fiction, and is 4th on the all-time list when novels are added. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio and can be found online at mikeresnick.com.

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Book Review: Night and Silence (October Daye #12) by Seanan McGuire

Night and Silence (October Daye)

by Seanan McGuire
September 4, 2018
Publisher: DAW
ASIN: B0782VCM7K ISBN: 978-0756414764
Things are not okay.

In the aftermath of Amandine's latest betrayal, October "Toby" Daye's fragile self-made family is on the verge of coming apart at the seams. Jazz can't sleep, Sylvester doesn't want to see her, and worst of all, Tybalt has withdrawn from her entirely, retreating into the Court of Cats as he tries to recover from his abduction. Toby is floundering, unable to help the people she loves most heal. She needs a distraction. She needs a quest.

What she doesn't need is the abduction of her estranged human daughter, Gillian. What she doesn't need is to be accused of kidnapping her own child by her ex-boyfriend and his new wife, who seems to be harboring secrets of her own. There's no question of whether she'll take the case. The only question is whether she's emotionally prepared to survive it.

Signs of Faerie's involvement are everywhere, and it's going to take all Toby's nerve and all her allies to get her through this web of old secrets, older hatreds, and new deceits. If she can't find Gillian before time runs out, her own child will pay the price. One question remains:

Who in Faerie remembered Gillian existed? And what do they stand to gain? No matter how this ends, Toby's life will never be the same.

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Toby should be thinking about getting married to Tybalt with him and Jazz back home and her quest to bring her older pureblood sister back to her mother, but instead, her life is tearing apart. Tybalt avoids her due to PSTD from being trapped in cat form. Jazz can’t sleep, and Toby’s ex and his human wife have appeared at her doorstep, demanding to know if she’d kidnapped her daughter, Gillian. Which she hasn’t. Agreeing to find her. Toby begins the search at the campus of Gillian’s college, where she was last seen. The clues stink of Faerie involvement and there are secrets too, one even connected to her in a way she never saw coming.

Once again, Seanan McGuire gives another great adventure for October Daye and for the readers.

I give Night and Silence (October Daye) 5 sheep.

Reviewed by Pamela K. Kinney

About the Author:
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Seanan McGuire is a California-based author with a strong penchant for travel and can regularly be found just about any place capable of supporting human life (as well as a few places that probably aren't). Seanan was the winner of the 2010 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer; Rosemary and Rue, was named one of the Top 20 Paranormal Fantasy Novels of the Past Decade; and her novel Feed, written under the name Mira Grant, was named as one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2010. She also won a Hugo for her podcast, and is the first person to be nominated for five Hugo Awards in a single year.

Interview: Cass Morris, author of FROM UNSEEN FIRE + giveaway

Alternate-history and historical fantasy is en vogue for TV and film, as well as books lately. Are there any historical or alternative-historical TV / films / books that influenced your writing?
Cass: Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Legacy series had a major influence on me. I loved the scope of the alternate world she imagined, flavored by the real history of dozens of nations and cultures, but interwoven with her own magical paradigm. I’ve always liked big worlds in the fiction I consume, and hers felt so fully-drawn and complete. That sense of the epic features in a lot of the stories that have influenced me over time -- Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, His Dark Materials, The Sandman, A Song of Ice and Fire -- if it has a massive map and a cast of thousands, I’m probably all for it.

As far as straight-up historical influence goes, HBO’s Rome was playing in the background during a lot of the drafting of From Unseen Fire. The creators of that show said in one of their behind-the-scenes featurettes that they were looking to re-create an authentic ancient Rome, even though they knew they weren’t being completely accurate, since they fudged timelines and merged characters together for storytelling purposes. I think they totally succeeded. Their Rome looked like a real city, so full of people, always busy, and so complex. Those images are definitely a lot of what I had in mind while crafting the city of Aven.

How did you go about researching the setting for FROM UNSEEN FIRE? Did you travel?
Cass: I looked at so. many. maps. Which was great! I love cartography. It’s shockingly difficult to find maps of Rome from the Republic era, though; almost everything is Imperial, because so much of the Forum was destroyed and rebuilt over time, so archaeology has a much easier time figuring out what it looked like in, say, 300 CE than 30 BCE. I also scoured the internet for every picture of reconstructions I could find -- the Getty Villa has some gorgeous images of a reconstructed Roman country house, interior and exterior, and there are a surprising number of Roman legion re-enactment groups. And yes, I did travel. I’d been to Rome once before, as a teenager, and in 2016 I was lucky enough to be able to go back. There’s nothing quite like walking the very hills and streets your characters would have!

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
Cass: I’ve been a natural storyteller and a lover of books for as long as I’ve known what words were, but I can remember, clearly, the first moment I knew that creating worlds was what I wanted to do with my life. It was January, 1997. I was eleven years old, sitting in a movie theatre with a sticky floor, having just seen Star Wars for the first time. I was in utter awe. And I thought, “This is it. This is what I want to do.” I don’t know that I even knew what I meant by that at the time, whether writing books or working on movies or some other way of building worlds. That moment, though, was absolutely when I realized that I wanted to spend my life shaping universes that other people could both lose and find themselves in. I’ve been working towards that ever since.

How did participating in NaNoWriMo affect the writing of FROM UNSEEN FIRE?
Cass: My method of Nanoing is highly chaotic. I write whatever scenes occur to me without much worry about how they fit together. As a result, during that initial drafting, I ended up with way more material than was useable. Aside from the things that ended up getting ditched entirely in rewrites or things that got moved from Book One to Books Two and Three, there were also stray plotlines taking place in Abydosia (Egypt) and Armorica (Gaul/France) that I really loved, but which ended up not fitting the main narrative. I was trying to cram too many plotlines into too few pages! So I’ve ended up editing a lot of that out of From Unseen Fire and perhaps from the entire Aven Cycle, but I’m very much hoping I’ll have use for it at some other time.

Who are your biggest writing influences?
Cass: I used to say that I wanted to be Neil Gaiman when I grew up, and that’s still rather true. His writings, and Terry Pratchett’s, have affected a lot of how I think about story and mythos. My ideas on crafting magic have roots in everything from Harry Potter to tabletop role-playing games. Years of studying Shakespeare has put a lot of rhetoric in my head, so that’s been a large influence as well. I’ve also read a lot of romance novels and a lot of historical fiction, and I think those bleed into my style, too.

From Unseen Fire (Aven Cycle) 

by Cass Morris

April 17, 2018
400 pages

Publisher: DAW

The Dictator is dead; long live the Republic. 

But whose Republic will it be? Senators, generals, and elemental mages vie for the power to shape the future of the city of Aven. Latona of the Vitelliae, a mage of Spirit and Fire, has suppressed her phenomenal talents for fear they would draw unwanted attention from unscrupulous men. Now that the Dictator who threatened her family is gone, she may have an opportunity to seize a greater destiny as a protector of the people -- if only she can find the courage to try.

Her siblings--a widow who conceals a canny political mind in the guise of a frivolous socialite, a young prophetess learning to navigate a treacherous world, and a military tribune leading a dangerous expedition in the province of Iberia--will be her allies as she builds a place for herself in this new world, against the objections of their father, her husband, and the strictures of Aventan society.

Latona's path intersects with that of Sempronius Tarren, an ambitious senator harboring a dangerous secret. Sacred law dictates that no mage may hold high office, but Sempronius, a Shadow mage who has kept his abilities a life-long secret, intends to do just that. As rebellion brews in the provinces, Sempronius must outwit the ruthless leader of the opposing Senate faction to claim the political and military power he needs to secure a glorious future for Aven and his own place in history.

As politics draw them together and romance blossoms between them, Latona and Sempronius will use wit, charm, and magic to shape Aven's fate. But when their foes resort to brutal violence and foul sorcery, will their efforts be enough to save the Republic they love?


About the Author:
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Cass Morris lives and works in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with the companionship of two royal felines, Princess and Ptolemy. She completed her Master of Letters at Mary Baldwin University in 2010, and she earned her undergraduate degree, a BA in English with a minor in history, from the College of William and Mary in 2007. She reads voraciously, wears corsets voluntarily, and will beat you at MarioKart. Find out more about Cass Morris online at cassmorriswrites.com.

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Book Review: A Spoonful of Magic by Irene Radford

A Spoonful of Magic

by Irene Radford

November 7, 2017
Publisher: DAW
ASN: B06W2J8BK2

ISBN: 978-0756412913
352 pages
Daphne "Daffy" Rose Wallace Deschants has an ideal suburban life—three wonderful and talented children; a coffee shop and bakery, owned and run with her best friend; a nearly perfect husband, Gabriel, or "G" to his friends and family. Life could hardly be better.

But G's perfection hides dangerous secrets. When Daffy uncovers evidence of his infidelity, her perfect life seems to be in ruins. On their wedding anniversary, Daffy prepares to confront him, only to be stopped in her tracks when he foils a mugging attempt using wizard-level magic.

Suddenly, Daphne is part of a world she never imagined--where her husband is not a traveling troubleshooter for a software company, but the sheriff of the International Guild of Wizards, and her brilliant children are also budding magicians. Even she herself is not just a great baker and barista—she's actually a kitchen witch. And her discovery of her powers is only just beginning.

But even the midst of her chaotic new life, another problem is brewing. G's ex-wife, a dangerous witch, has escaped from her magical prison. Revenge-bent and blind, she needs the eyes of her son to restore her sight—the son Daffy has raised as her own since he was a year old. Now Daphne must find a way to harness her new powers and protect her family—or risk losing everything she holds dear.

I was looking forward to reading this urban fantasy novel. I loved the children—each with their own personalities. The oldest, Jason, is loyal to the main character, Daffy (Daphne Rose Deschants), even though he learns was adopted. His real mother is a horrible witch who used a Zippo for a wand. She escapes the prison her ex-husband, G (Gabriel Deschants-but he does not like being called by his full name), also Daffy’s husband, had put her years ago. I was sort of a surprise when I found out who helped her escape.

Belle and Shara are Daffy’s daughters with G. I enjoyed Gayle, Daffy’s best friend, substitute mother, and partner in her coffee shop and bakery, Magical Brews. Ted Tyler is great as a widowed father of Tiffany, who dances in the same company as Jason. Other secondary characters are Raphe, G’s cousin and Coyote Blood Moon, who is G’s friend. There is Flora Chambers and her husband, Bret, and their son, Bret Junior.

Now to the main characters, Daffy and G. In this story, G cheats on Daffy and she finds out, challenging him about it at their wedding anniversary dinner. She then finds out another secret G has hidden from her from the first time they met, he is a powerful wizard and Sheriff for the International Guild of Wizards, hired to stop magic users who misuse their magic. He tells her if he uses too much magic, only sex can help him. Since he is in faraway countries, he uses other women for one night stands. That he can’t help it.

I didn’t like this, nor the fact, Daffy suspects he has used his magic to manipulate her since they first met so could have someone to watch his baby son and for sex, marrying her eventually after they'd live together for a while. What makes it worse for me, he has no remorse about what he's done, doesn’t change his ways, and continues to lie, cheat, and manipulate throughout the story. I thought maybe the cheating was a lie creatd by his ex-wife, but he actually picks up a woman in another country for a one night stand, so no, he is not a good man.

Daffy does tell him she wants a separation, even files for divorce. She must learn to help her children as their magic powers began to show, even letting her ex back into her life, so he can help them. She even starts to see someone else. There is more concerning her toward the end, but I won’t spoil that for readers.

Anyway, I am not too enamored with the two main characters. It is bits like that make it hard for me continue with A Spoonful of Magic, though the storyline has great promise. And yes, I did finish it.

I give A Spoonful of Magic 3 sheep.

Pamela K. Kinney

About the Author:

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Irene Radford has been writing stories ever since she figured out what a pencil was for. A member of an endangered species--a native Oregonian who lives in Oregon--she and her husband make their home in Welches, Oregon where deer, bears, coyotes, hawks, owls, and woodpeckers feed regularly on their back deck.