Siavahda's Blog, page 38

I Can’t Wait For…Render to Silver by Catherine Labadie

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. 

This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is Render to Silver by Catharine Labadie!

Render to Silver by Catherine Labadie
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MCs, polyamory
Published on: 17th November 2023
Goodreads

The Founts of Silver are holy women blessed by the favor of their God...or they are cursed vessels meant to be shattered. Given no other choice, Fount Marzanna clawed her way up their ranks until she was able to begin planning her escape with one of her fellow Founts from Aebbenary, the prosperous island ruled by Silver's decadent church.

Instead, the accidental working of a Miracle sets her apart and attracts the notice of the High Priest. He intends to use her to spark a revival in the city, and eventually the world, which has begun to turn away from a religion that rewards greed and ambition as piety. He's not forthcoming with how, and while tensions in the city rise, while two rival houses contemplate war, Marzanna realizes the role she resents with all her heart won't let her walk away without untold sacrifice.

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This is a slightly unusual Can’t-Wait-For, because Render to Silver was actually released way back in March – March 1st, in fact, my birthday! But at the time, there was no digital edition, and as I’ve explained before, part of the VERY UNCOOL side-effects of my fibromyalgia (not that there are any cool side-effects, tbh) is that I can’t hold paper books for any length of time any more.

And I was terribly disappointed, because?! HAVE YOU READ THAT BLURB?! Religious politics, miracles, and Labadie has talked about how this is not just queer, but also features polyamory! In fact, there’s a neat little cover graphic she made for the original release–

Basically, ALL THE YES PLEASE???

And proving that Render to Silver isn’t all just great tropes that don’t live up to its promises…you can use the read-sample function on its page on the Big River site to see that Labadie’s prose is lush and gorgeous. Three pages in and I’m swooning at all the delicious description!

So discovering, just an hour ago, that there’s an ebook edition coming after all? And so soon? MY DAY IS MADE! I can’t wait to finally get to dive in to this book I’ve been pining for since Spring!

The post I Can’t Wait For…Render to Silver by Catherine Labadie appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #158

Must-Have Monday is a feature highlighting which of the coming week’s new releases I’m excited for. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all books being published that week; only those I’m interested in out of those I’m aware of! The focus is diverse SFF, but other genres sneak in occasionally too.

ELEVEN books this week!

(Books are listed in order of pub date, then Adult SFF, Adult Other, YA SFF, YA Other, MG SFF.)

Adventures in Bodily Autonomy: Exploring Reproductive Rights in Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror by Raven Belasco
Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Sci Fi
Published on: 16th October 2023
Goodreads

The fourteen tales in Adventures in Bodily Autonomy flow across alternate universes and through space and time to consider the issues of reproductive justice through a fresh perspectives. There is an adventure here for everyone.

An astronaut on her way to Mars discovers she’s pregnant — can she keep her baby? Bee-like entities try to force a human to be their queen. In1930s Philly, a vampire offers a novel form of birth control. From a ghost, lessons learned too late. Women who cannot find a comfortable fit in their mythic realities. Future worlds where reproductive choices are different, but individual choice and external battles for that choice are just as real.

Adventures in Bodily Autonomy will be released on October 16th, 2023, a date important in the history of women’s healthcare rights. On October 16, 1916, in Brooklyn, New York, Margaret Sanger opened the country’s first birth control clinic. Just nine days later police shut down the clinic, and Sanger served 30 days in prison.

For over 50 years, NARAL Pro-Choice America has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels — including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and postpartum care, and paid family leave—for every body.

Authors will include Kathleen Alcalá ~ Elizabeth Bear ~ Raven Belasco ~ Tara Campbell ~ Anya De Niro ~ Jaymee Goh ~ Cynthia Gralla ~ K Ibura ~ Ellen Klages Annalee Newitz ~ Nisi Shawl ~ Sonya Taaffe ~ Cecilia Tan ~ Helena María Viramontes

One hundred percent of the royalties of Adventures in Bodily Autonomy are being donated to NARAL Pro-Choice America to help them continue their vital fight for women’s bodily autonomy and basic human rights.

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This is such a cool concept to see in SFF??? I’m really intrigued to see what all the authors have done with the premise; I hope they really push it, properly take us to some weird and thought-provoking places!

Antiphony by Sherwood Smith
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Queernorm world, queer secondary characters
Published on: 17th October 2023
Goodreads

The last book in the Sartorias-deles series is here!

The long series that began with Inda, continued through the Rise of the Alliance, Crown Duel, and The Norsunder War, comes at last to a resonant, deeply satisfying conclusion in Antiphony.

Liere has attained the home she always longed for, though there are compromises: her children are scattered through the world, and she scarcely has time to adjust to her new life before she must use her dyr to prevent war. While elsewhere in the world, Chwahirsland is, at long last, reshaping itself to take place on the world stage. Not everyone is happy to see that.

A hidden identity revealed, with repercussions resounding across three continents-a wanderer visits the most sophisticated court in the world, and everything stops-anomalies turn up. Meaning what?

Or more importantly, when?

The postwar saga reaches a milestone as individual lives as well as countries find new melodies and harmonies. While, unaware, the small grace notes hint at great change...

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IT’S…THE END??? OF THE SARTORIAS-DELES SERIES??? FOR REAL???

I think I have to sit down.

The first book – according to internal chronology – was published in 2006, but Smith wrote some of the ‘later’ books as a teenager. This series (world? Universe?) has been her whole life! I’m just. Wow.

And now it’s going to be over!!! I’m having FEELS!

Blood from the Air by Gemma Files, Jesse Peper, Jon Padgett
Genres: Fantasy, Horror
Published on: 17th October 2023
Goodreads

Angels and insects, holes in the known world's fabric and what comes out of them, the love of death and the death of love. In award-winning horror author Gemma Files's seventh collection of short fiction, the numinous and the awful tango together through a collapsing series of not-so-alternate realities, and everyone they touch emerges changed, whether or not they may have wanted to be. This is fantasy of the darkest sort, horror-cured, marinating in its own transformative juices. So enter a fractured universe of creepy delights, one where the oldest tropes are turned inside out and wrung for their oddest components, as forgotten gods and monsters cavort beneath a storm of BLOOD FROM THE AIR.

Formerly a film critic, journalist, screenwriter and teacher, Gemma Files has been an award-winning horror author since 1999. She has published five collections of short work, three collections of speculative poetry, a Weird Western trilogy, a story-cycle and a stand-alone novel ( Experimental Film , which won the 2015 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel and the 2016 Sunburst Award for Best Adult Novel). Her collection In That Endlessness, Our End won both the Bram Stoker Award and the This Is Horror Award in that category for 2021.

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Gemma Files is an amazing author of amazing horror (although my fave work of hers is definitely her queer Weird Wild West trilogy Hexslinger), and it’s always a TREAT to get a new collection from her! Your best bet for getting your hands on this is probably directly from the publisher, who are offering it in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats!

Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind by Molly McGhee
Genres: Speculative Fiction
Published on: 17th October 2023
Goodreads

"Molly McGhee reminds me of absolutely no one. Here’s an original mind brimming over with invention and comic ferocity . . . [a] mad, hilarious writer.” —Ben Marcus, author of The Flame Alphabet

For readers of Patricia Lockwood and Ling Ma, a debut novel for the modern working stiff

Jonathan Abernathy is a loser . . . he’s behind on his debts, he has no prospects, no friends, no ambitions. But when a government loan forgiveness program offers him a literal dream job, he thinks he’s found his big break. If he can appear to be competent at his new job, entering the minds of middle-class workers while they sleep and removing the unsavory detritus of their waking lives from their unconscious, he might have a chance at a new life. As Abernathy finds his footing in this new role, reality and morality begin to warp around him. Soon, the lines between life and work, love and hate, right and wrong, even sleep and consciousness, begin to blur.

Written with all the dramatic irony of Charlie Kaufman as written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind touches on a theme most people know all too well—the relentlessly crushing weight of debt. A workplace novel, at once tender, startling, and deeply funny, Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind is a stunning, critical work of surrealist fiction.

With a keen sense of her readers, a wry wit, and an undeniable dexterity with language, Molly McGhee’s debut novel is a piercing critique of late-stage capitalism and a reckoning with its true cost.

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WELL. I can definitely see how morality could get blurred in this kind of set-up! Dare I even ask what qualifies as ‘unsavory detritus’??? I think I’m going to find out, because I just can’t resist all the questions raised by this premise!

A Stranger in the Citadel by Tobias S. Buckell
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 17th October 2023
Goodreads

From the powerful storyteller Tobias Buckell (Crystal Rain, The Tangled Lands), a complex novel of humanity’s passion for the written word. At the revolutionary crossroads of magic, betrayal, and long-forgotten truths, a naïve, compassionate royal and a determined, hunted librarian discover a dangerous world of mortal and ancient menaces.

The life of the youngest musketress of Ninetha has been one of hard training. But Lilith’s days have also contained many pleasures, the royal privileges of her family’s guardianship of the Cornucopia, a mystical source of limitless bounty. Lilith has never seen a book, and she never expects to encounter one within the safety of the citadel.

When Ishmael, an outcast librarian, shows up outside the Afriq Gate, Lilith saves him from immediate execution by her father’s second-in-command, the zealot Kira. As Lilith’s curiosity draws her to Ishmael, she lets slip her family’s most dangerous secret, sparking a deadly rebellion and an unexpected journey full of stunning revelations.

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It feels uncomfortably timely to see a book about banning books, but that doesn’t make me any less intrigued. (Although I am TiredTM of seeing characters named Lilith who have nothing to do with the figure of folklore.)

You can read an excerpt over at the Civilian Reader!

Let the Dead Bury the Dead by Allison Epstein
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Historical Fantasy
Representation: M/M
Published on: 17th October 2023
Goodreads

An urgent, immersive alternate history set in an imperial Russia on the brink of disaster, following a surprising cast of characters seeking a better future as Saint Petersburg struggles in the wake of Napoleon's failed invasion.

Saint Petersburg, 1812. Russian forces have defeated Napoleon at great cost, and the tsar's empire is once again at peace. Sasha, a captain in the imperial army, returns home to Grand Duke Felix, the disgraced second son of the tsar and his irrepressibly charming lover, but their reunion is quickly interrupted by the arrival of Sofia, a mysteriously persuasive figure whose disruptive presence Sasha suspects to be something more than human. Felix, insisting that Sasha's old-fashioned superstitions are misplaced, takes Sofia into his confidence--a connection that quickly becomes both personal and political. On her incendiary advice, Felix confronts his father about the brutal conditions of the common people in the aftermath of the war, to disastrous results, separating him from Sasha and setting him on a collision course with a vocal group of dissidents: the Koalitsiya.

Meanwhile, the Koalitsiya plan to gridlock Saint Petersburg with a citywide strike in hopes of awakening the upper classes to the grim circumstances of the laboring people. Marya, a resourceful sometimes-thief and trusted lieutenant of the Koalitsiya, also falls under Sofia's spell and, allied with Felix and her fellow revolutionaries, she finds herself in the middle of a battle she could never have predicted. As Sofia's influence grows and rising tensions threaten the tsar's peace, Sasha, Felix, and Marya are forced to choose between the ideals they hold close and the people they love.

Allison Epstein combines cleverly constructed plot with unforgettable characters in this exuberant historical page-turner, intercut with fractured retellings of traditional Eastern European folk stories that are equal parts deadly dark and slyly illuminating. Vividly written and emotionally intense, Let the Dead Bury the Dead reminds us that the concerns of the past aren't quite as far behind us as we like to believe.

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Epstein’s prose is gorgeous, and having read the beginning of this, I can confirm she brings Russia to life so well you’d best be prepared for frostbite!

Soul Food Stories: An Otherworldly Feast for the Living, the Dead, and Those Who Have Yet to Decide by Ann McMan, Anna Burke, Virginia Black, Jenn Alexander, Cathy Pegau, Jacob Budenz, Salem West, Christel Cogneau
Genres: Fantasy, Horror
Published on: 17th October 2023
Goodreads

Salem West and Christel Cogneau have assembled a powerhouse lineup of Bywater Books and Amble Press authors to explore, subvert, and reinvigorate the bountiful feast of All Hallows phantasmagoria in this stunning collection.

To the living, “soul food” has a specific meaning, history, and flavor. But what does “soul food” mean to the demon, ghost, fiend, witch, spirit, or vampire? How does their ingenuity and wit rise and fall in the taking, baking, erasing, embracing, and defacing of sustenance? West and Cogneau have challenged their authors to explore these and other questions in surprising and fascinating ways. Sometimes sweet and other times terrifying, sometimes warm or otherwise demented, these stories set the table for an otherworldly feast of delight and intrigue. Let the banquet begin . . .

Soul Food Stories is packed with literary confections by award-winning authors, Anna Burke, Jenn Alexander, Jacob Budenz, Virginia Black, Cathy Pegau, and Ann McMan . Featured stories

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Listen, we already know I love foodie stories – you take that and add the supernatural, and you’re presenting me with a feast I am going to DIVE on. Seriously, so in love with this premise and can’t wait to see what all the authors have done with it!!!

All These Sunken Souls: A Black Horror Anthology by Circe Moskowitz
Genres: Horror
Representation: Black MCs
Published on: 17th October 2023
Goodreads

Welcome to the Dark.

We are all familiar with tropes of the horror genre: slasher and victims, demon and the possessed. Bloody screams, haunted visions, and the peddler of wares we aren’t sure we can trust. In this young adult horror anthology, fans of Jordan Peele, Lovecraft Country, and Horror Noire will get a little bit of everything they love—and a lot of what they fear—through a twisted blend of horror lenses, from the thoughtful to the terrifying.

From haunted, hungry Victorian mansions, temporal monster–infested asylums, and ravaging zombie apocalypses, to southern gothic hoodoo practitioners and cursed patriarchs in search of Black Excellence, All These Sunken Souls features the chilling creations of acclaimed bestsellers and hot new talents, with stories from Kalynn Bayron, Donyae Coles, Ryan Douglass, Sami Ellis, Brent Lambert, Ashia Monet, Circe Moskowitz, Joel Rochester, Liselle Sambury, and Joelle Wellington.

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From one horror(-ish?) anthology to another; this one is YA, and edited by the masterful Circe Moskowitz, which means it’s pretty much guaranteed to be excellent. And that COVER! I am heart-eyes.

Flower and Thorn by Rati Mehrotra
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Desi cast + setting
Published on: 17th October 2023
Goodreads

One girl. One boy. A promise broken. A magic stolen.

Irinya has wanted to be a flower hunter ever since her mother disappeared into the mysterious mist of the Rann salt flats one night. Now seventeen, Irinya uses her knowledge of magical flowers to help her caravan survive in the harsh desert. When her handsome hunting partner and childhood friend finds a priceless silver spider lily--said to be able to tear down kingdoms and defeat an entire army--Irinya knows this is their chance for a better life.

Until Irinya is tricked by an attractive imposter.

Irinya's fight to recover the priceless flower and to fix what she's done takes her on a dangerous journey, one she's not sure she'll survive. She has no choice but to endure it if she hopes to return home and mend the broken heart of the boy she's left behind.

A young flower hunter gets embroiled in the succession politics of the Sultanate when she must retrieve the rarest and most powerful magical flower after giving it to the wrong hands, in Rati Mehrotra's Flower and Thorn.

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I feel about plant+flower books as I do foodie ones, aka, GIMME. I couldn’t care less about the romance, but I want to know ALL ABOUT flower hunting, particularly hunting for magical flowers!

A Bright Heart by Kate Chenli
Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy
Representation: Chinese (coded?) cast and setting
Published on: 17th October 2023
Goodreads

What if you could avenge your own murder? A brilliant young woman gets a second chance at life in this debut YA tale of vengeance, court intrigue, and romance, inspired by classic Chinese tropes. 

Mingshin outsmarted three princes to help the man she loved become king. But she doesn’t see Ren’s betrayal coming, not until she’s lying in a pool of her own blood on the palace steps. 

As she’s dying, Mingshin makes a desperate plea to the gods to turn back time and give her a chance to make things right. 

Mingshin wakes up two years earlier, her prayer granted, and swears two things: Ren will never become king, and she will never fall in love again. 

But the timeline in this life has changed: a dignitary gifted with dark magic is threatening her kingdom’s peace, and Ren’s thirst for power runs deeper than Mingshin could have imagined.  

She finds herself allying with Jieh, another contender for the throne. Mingshin knows better than anyone not to give her heart to a prince. But in the viper’s nest of the royal court, she and Jieh prove a phenomenal team. Can Mingshin avert the catastrophe of her past by once again learning to trust…and maybe even love?  

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I’m always ready for a story about a girl out for scorched-earth revenge! Which theme seems very opposed to the beautiful rainbow-y cover, but honestly that just makes me more interested.

Under the Smokestrewn Sky (The Up-and-Under, #4) by A. Deborah Baker
Genres: Fantasy, Portal Fantasy
Published on: 17th October 2023
Goodreads

The end of the improbable road.

Since stumbling from their world into the Up-and-Under, Avery and Zib have walked the improbable road across forests, seas, and skies, finding friends in the unlikeliest of places and enemies great in number, as they make their way toward the Impossible City in the hope of finding their way home.

But the final part of their journey is filled with danger and demise. Not everyone will make it through unscathed. Not everyone will make it through alive.

The final part of the enchanting Up and Under quartet reminds us of the value of friendship and the price one sometimes pays for straying from the path. No one’s safety can be guaranteed under the smokestrewn sky.

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It’s the finale of the Up-and-Under!!! I’m not ready – is anybody???

Will you be reading any of these? Let me know!

The post Must-Have Monday #158 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

I Can’t Wait For…The Dream You Ordered is Sold Out by Mi-Ye Lee

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. 

This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is The Dream You Ordered Is Sold Out by Mi-Ye Lee!

The Dream You Ordered is Sold Out (DallerGut Dream Department Store, #1) by Mi-ye Lee, Sandy Joosun Lee
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Korean cast
Published on: 9th November 2023
Goodreads

|| THE NO.1 KOREAN BESTSELLER WITH OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD||

In a mysterious town that lies hidden in our collective subconscious, there's a quaint little store where all kinds of dreams are sold . . .

Day and night, visitors both human and animal from all over the world shuffle in sleepily in their pyjamas, lining up to purchase their latest adventure. Each floor in the department store sells a special kind of dream, including nostalgic dreams about your childhood, trips you've taken, and delicious food you've eaten, as well as nightmares and more mysterious dreams.

In Dallergut Dream Department Store we meet Penny an enthusiastic new-hire; Dallergut, the flamboyant owner of the department store; Agnap Coco, producer of special dreams; Vigo Myers, an employee in the mystery department as well as the cast of curious, funny and strange clientele that regularly visit the store. When one of the most coveted and expensive dreams gets stolen during Penny's first week, we follow along with her as she tries to uncover the workings of this wonderfully whimsical world.

A captivating story that will leave a lingering magical feeling in readers' minds, this is the first book in a best-selling duology for anyone exhausted from the reality of their daily life.

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The Dream You Ordered is Sold Out is the first book of the DallerGut Dream Department Store duology, originally written in Korean (where it was a HUGE bestseller) and now getting an English edition! For which I am extremely grateful, because it sounds ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL and my Korean is, to put it politely, non-existent.

MORE BOOKS IN TRANSLATION, PLEASE AND THANK YOU!

To be honest, I’m a little confused as to what the title of this actually is – quite a lot of places are listing it as DallerGut Dream Department Store, or sometimes DallerGut Department Store: The Dream You Ordered Is Sold Out. ??? Since the second book is being listed as Dallergut Dream Department Store: In Search of Loyal Customers, I’m really thinking that Dallergut Dream Department Store is the series name. But it wouldn’t surprise me to be mistaken.

Even worse, I’ve seen the author’s name listed as Mi-Yi and Miye, which, uh. It seems terribly rude to have any confusion over the author name of a book. Or is it Korean convention that any name with a dash in it can have that dash removed…? I do not know. I’m going with the spelling from the sale-of-rights announcement in The Bookseller until anyone tells me differently.

ANYWAY.

I think this isn’t out in the USA until next year, but the UK is getting it next month – and I definitely plan on jumping through the necessary hoops to get my hands on it then! I am head-over-heels in love with the idea of a department store that sells dreams – especially one that sells dreams not just to humans, but animals as well! And from one early review, it seems like Lee has come up with in-world reasoning behind things like deja-vu and dreams where we’re visited by those who’ve passed away. That’s the kind of small-detail worldbuilding that I love!

Apparently there isn’t a whole lot of plot, but I don’t think I’d want any, with this premise. I am so very happy to dive in to a book that’s ‘just’ sweetness and whimsy and magic and vibes. That sounds PERFECT. Yes please!

Also, I think I need that cover framed for my wall. Just saying.

The post I Can’t Wait For…The Dream You Ordered is Sold Out by Mi-Ye Lee appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Sunday Soupçons #24

soupçon/ˈsuːpsɒn,ˈsuːpsɒ̃/ noun
1. a very small quantity of something; a slight trace, as of a particular taste or flavor

Sunday Soupçons is where I scribble mini-reviews for books I don’t have the brainspace/eloquence/smarts to write about in depth – or if I just don’t have anything interesting to say beyond I LIKED IT AND YOU SHOULD READ IT TOO!

I’ve had a very hard time trying to put my thoughts into words about these two – I think this is the best you’re going to get.

The Tiger and the Wolf (Echoes of the Fall, #1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Genres: Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy
Representation: Native American-coded MCs, Central American-coded MCs
PoV: Thid-person, past-tense, multiple povs
ISBN: 023077007X
Goodreads

In the bleak northern crown of the world, war is coming

Maniye's father is the Wolf clan's chieftain, but she's an outcast. Her mother was queen of the Tiger and these tribes have been enemies for generations. Maniye also hides a deadly secret. All can shift into their clan's animal form, but Maniye can take on tiger and wolf shapes. She refuses to disown half her soul, so escapes, rescuing a prisoner of the Wolf clan in the process. The killer Broken Axe is set on their trail, to drag them back for retribution.

Maniye's father plots to rule the north and controlling his daughter is crucial to his schemes. However, other tribes also prepare for strife. Strangers from the far south appear too, seeking allies in their own conflict. It's a season for omens as priests foresee danger, and a darkness falling across the land. Some say a great war is coming, overshadowing even Wolf ambitions. A time of testing and broken laws is near, but what spark will set the world ablaze?

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I feel like this book pretty perfectly encapsulates why only 13% of my reads are by male authors.

The thing is, I loved it. I thought The Tiger and the Wolf was bloody excellent, even if the first half is definitely weaker than the second. I loved the premise, I loved so much of the worldbuilding, I loved the setting (even though, my gods, I am So Done with freezing, snowy settings). I loved the cast, and the very complicated dynamics that tie them together.

But Jesus H Christ, the fucking Choices That Were Made.

Let’s start with the fact that Maniye, the main character – not the only pov character, but the person the entire book revolves around – is fourteen years old. This is not a YA novel; it is very much Adult, and I would really like to sit Tchaikovsky down and ask him why he decided his MC had to be 14. Why he added in an (attempted) forced-marriage to the story, of a grown-ass man to said 14yo. Why he had that 14yo endure epically horrible rape threats while a captive. Neither of those things were necessary to the plot; they were gratuitous as fuck, and would have been deeply unpleasant even if Maniye had been 16 or 18 or any other age, for that matter.

But with a 14yo protagonist, that goes past thoughtlessly, gratuitously gross into what the actual fuck did you just write.

Why are the hyena shapeshifters, who are matriarchal, called the Laughing Men? Shouldn’t that be Laughing Women, then? Why can’t women wolf-shifters be chiefs? Why are female hawk (or eagle? It was never super clear to me) shapeshifters forbidden from shifting (accessing a vital part of their soul, according to in-world lore) or even speaking? Why do so many peoples have men with multiple wives, and no examples of women with multiple husbands?

Why the fuck did you bake so much misogyny into your (otherwise incredible) worldbuilding? That was a choice. You chose, over and over, to include it, to create it, even – because this is Fantasy, where you invent, create, everything. You make the rules. And you decided that the rules would be sexist.

(Do not give me any crap about how male animals, in most species, are bigger than females. So??? We’re talking about shapeshifters, who spend most of their time human, whose human behaviour does not at all perfectly mimic the behaviour of their ‘mute’ animal brethren. Male animals being bigger doesn’t have to translate to male shapeshifters having all the rights and female ones having none. Especially because, again, this is FANTASY, where the storyteller can do literally whatever the fuck they want.)

It’s not that women don’t write books like this too. Internalised misogyny is a thing, as is thoughtlessly utilising what are commonly considered Default Fantasy Worldbuilding Things (which are so often sexist as hells). But in my experience, I’m at least less likely to get this much misogyny in SFF written by women and nonbinary folx.

Not guaranteed to find none. Alas. But less likely to have so much of it forced down my throat that I choke on it.

I’ve read 184 books so far this year. Only 24 of them, at a quick count, were written by men. Just 13% of my total reading. Books like The Wolf and the Tiger are why that percentage is unlikely to change any time soon.

The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox
Genres: Fantasy, Portal Fantasy
Representation: Major achillean pov character, major bi/pansexual character
PoV: Third-person, past-tense, multiple povs
ISBN: 9781776562626
Goodreads

Taryn Cornick believes that the past is behind her -- her sister’s death by violence, and her own ill-conceived revenge. She has chosen to live a life more professional than personal. She has written a book about the things that threaten libraries -- insects, damp, light, fire, carelessness and uncaring. The book is a success, but not all of the attention it brings her is good.

There are questions about a fire in the library at Princes Gate, her grandparents’ house, and about an ancient scroll box known as the Firestarter. A policeman, Jacob Berger, has questions about a cold case. There are threatening phone calls. And a shadowy young man named Shift appears, bringing his shadows with him. Taryn, Jacob, Shift — three people are driven towards a reckoning felt in more than one world.

The Absolute Book is an epic fantasy, intimate in tone. A book where hidden treasures are recovered; where wicked things people think they’ve shaken from their trails find their scent again. A book about beautiful societies founded on theft and treachery, and one in which dead sisters are a living force. It is a book of journeys and returns, set in London, Norfolk, and the Wye Valley; in Auckland, New Zealand; in the Island of Apples and Summer Road of the Sidhe; at Hell’s Gate; in the Tacit with its tombs; and in the hospitals and train stations of Purgatory.

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This was one of the strangest reading experiences of my life – not because The Absolute Book is written in an experimental or mindfuck way, like Hal Duncan’s Vellum, but because l went through so much whiplash as to whether or not I was enjoying myself.

I can happily say I loathed the beginning. The first chunk of the book reads like a particular flavour of pretentious lit-fic that bores me to fucking tears; it takes a while for the magical elements to show up. But then they do start to show up, bit by bit, and I tried very hard to be more invested.

But I was so. Very. Bored.

I’ve read and loved a bunch of Knox’ other books, so I wasn’t prepared for how, here, she describes every little piece of every little action. Instead of saying ‘she got up to wash her face’, it’s ‘She pushed the blanket back. She swung her legs onto the floor. She got up. She walked to the bathroom. She turned on the taps. She splashed cold water on her face. She turned the taps off again.’ And it drove me up the WALL.

In a story about chronic pain, it makes sense: when your spoons are limited, you spend one on each part of an action, not one for the entire action. Getting dressed isn’t one spoon; it’s one spoon to get up, one to get to the wardrobe, one to choose what to wear, one to get the item of clothing over your lead, and on a bad day, one for each button. So when you’re writing a character with chronic pain/fatigue/some kind of disability, writing this way makes sense; you’re conveying to the reader just how much effort goes into getting even the simplest thing done.

But this isn’t a story about chronic pain, or depression, or anything else where spoon theory applies. The effect was to slow down the writing and drag the reader through the most mundane, irrelevant stuff that just bogged everything down.

WHY?

And then there would be a passage, or even a whole chapter, that was breathtaking; beautiful, surprising, full of wonder. And I would be amazed and delighted and keep on turning the pages.

Only to be hit with the mundanity again.

On the balance? I would say it wasn’t worth it. The magical worldbuilding was disappointingly simple, and Knox does that MADDENING thing where the most interesting parts of the story happen before or after the events of the book. Not only does the search for the Quest Object fall into place so very easily and quickly at the end, we never get to see how it’s used. There’s all kind of inter-dimensional, inter-world politics going on that we don’t get to see; and the origins of the fae, when they’re revealed, are absolutely fascinating, but again – that was thousands of years before the start of The Absolute Book. We don’t get to see or explore them. The fae themselves are all sheep-like, for the most part, just sort of drifting through their world without doing anything, as individuals or as a society.

[View post to see spoiler]

I think there was the skeleton of a really epic story here, but Knox zoomed in on the wrong places and never turned the camera towards the massively interesting bits – maybe because those parts would have been harder to write? The choices she made feel lazy from a writing perspective, but I don’t know. As-is, The Absolute Book is not an absolute mess, but it’s still not one I’d recommend.

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Revealing Evocation by S.T. Gibson!

Wednesday is usually my Can’t-Wait-For feature day – so how perfect is it that this Wednesday is the cover reveal for one of 2024 books I seriously cannot wait for: Evocation by S.T. Gibson!

Evocation by S.T. Gibson
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MCs, past M/M, polyamory M/M/F
Published on: 28th May 2024
Goodreads

When a family curse threatens David’s life, he will turn to the only person he’s ever trusted, his ex-boyfriend, Rhys – which means he will have to open his heart to Moira, Rhys’s wife.

The day David Aristarkhov’s occultist father died, he bought himself an Audi, drank every drop of liquor in the house, and abandoned his life as a teen psychic prodigy. Now pushing thirty, David is a Boston attorney, moonlighting as a medium for a secret society.

But when the Devil comes to collect on a deal David’s ancestor made, he reluctantly reaches out to his ex-boyfriend Rhys for help. However, to get to Rhys, David will have to befriend Moira, Rhys’s wife. The trio gets a little too close for comfort as they combine their powers to unravel the century-old curse, and if they don’t break the curse by David’s thirtieth birthday, he won’t live long enough for everyone to figure out their feelings for each other.

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If the name S.T. Gibson sounds familiar, you might remember her lushly dark (and very queer!) Dracula retelling, Dowry of Blood, which I reviewed a while back – or you might be looking forward to her upcoming sapphic dark academia novel An Education in Malice!

EITHER WAY YOU SHOULD (ALSO) BE VERY, VERY EXCITED FOR EVOCATION!

Gibson’s been teasing snippets of and thoughts on this book to her subscribers (a group that includes yours truly, obviously) for years, and at this point I’m pretty much ready to go feral for David, Rhys, and Moira! It’s not just that I love bad boys in trouble with the Devil, or high-stake circumstances forcing exes to reconnect, or even the promise of polyamory in my fantasy – it’s that we’re getting all these things from this particular author. Who has made it more than clear that that she can not just pull it off, but write it as a book that’s sure to star on plenty of Best of 2024 lists come next December!

Plus, come on – even if you know nothing about Gibson, could you resist that cover??? Illustrated by the marvellous Eleonor Piteira? The colours! The candles! The pose, which (deliberately, I’m sure) echoes that of the Hanged Man in the tarot? Alice Coleman, the cover designer, clearly knows what she’s doing; this whole thing is just *chef’s kiss*

(And I’m not geeking the hells out about all the ways the Hanged Man symbolism might give clues about the story, of course not, WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT?)

You can find preorder links here, and you should DEFINITELY preorder this one – and then you can sit back and relax with the official playlist, which I for one will be playing on repeat ’till May!

The post Revealing Evocation by S.T. Gibson! appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #156

Must-Have Monday is a feature highlighting which of the coming week’s new releases I’m excited for. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all books being published that week; only those I’m interested in out of those I’m aware of! The focus is diverse SFF, but other genres sneak in occasionally too.

October goes HARD; we have FOURTEEN books to be excited for this week!

(Books are listed in order of pub date, then Adult SFF, Adult Other, YA SFF, YA Other, MG SFF.)

A Necessary Chaos by Brent Lambert
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Black queer MCs
Published on: 3rd October 2023
Goodreads

In a world of magical empires and the anarchists that would tear them down, A Necessary Chaos follows two mages, Althus and Vade, each assigned to spy on the other by opposing sides. But when they both catch feelings, what happens when they’re commanded to kill their target? They must each decide if they'll follow orders or find a way to make their romance thrive beyond the lies.

PRAISE

“A Necessary Chaos is a modern epic of enemies-pretending-to-be-lovers with horrifically awesome magic and immaculate vibes. This Is How You Lose The Time War meets Rage Against the Machine.”
—Kate Elliott, author of Unconquerable Sun and The Servant Mage

“A Necessary Chaos is the gay ‘spy versus spy’ story that I’ve been waiting for. Short and sharp, this is a powerful jab of a novella: it’ll leave you dazed and dizzy and a little bit in love.”
—C.L. Clark, author of The Unbroken and The Faithless

“Horny and heartbreaking, exhilarating and emotional, A Necessary Chaos is jam-packed with brilliant worldbuilding and stunning character work—heralding the arrival of a major new talent on the SF/F/H scene.”
—Sam J. Miller, author of Blackfish City and Boys, Beasts and Men

“Proudly anti-imperialist and unapologetically queer, A Necessary Chaos is a sensual action-packed fantasy that doesn’t shy away from feelings. Amor vincit omnia—even empires.”
—Francesca Tacchi, author of Let the Mountains Be My Grave

“I couldn’t put A Necessary Chaos down. There’s sexiness, romance, action and intrigue; every page brings more surprises. A very fun read.”
—Eboni Dunbar, author of Stone and Steel

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A Necessary Chaos has been pushed back and back and back, but I THINK we’re finally getting it this week!!! You can currently order a paperback from the publisher’s website, and hopefully it will show up in paper and digital formats in all the usual places soon!

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Published on: 3rd October 2023
Goodreads

A contemporary gothic fairy tale about a small town haunted by the history it can't quite seem to bury and the canny, clever young woman who finds herself drawn to the house that sits at the crossroads of it all.

Starling House is odd and ugly and fully of secrets, just like its heir. Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but it might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden, and it feels dangerously like something she's never had: a home.

But she isn't the only one interested in the house, or the horrors and wonders that lie beneath it. If Opal wants a home, she'll have to fight for it. She'll have to dig up her family's dark past and let herself dream of a brighter future. She'll have to go down, down into Underland, and claw her way back to the light.

Starling House is the sweeping, romantic new novel from New York Times bestseller and Hugo Award-winner Alix E. Harrow.

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The Ten Thousand Doors of January and The Once and Future Witches are two of my favourite books of all time, so of course I’m excited for Harrow’s newest novel! It sounds very different from her previous stuff, but I loved the sneak peek we got a little while ago, so I’m not worried. JUST GIVE IT TO ME ALREADY!

Pluralities by Avi Silver
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Science Fantasy, Speculative Fiction
Representation: Nonbinary MC, trans bestie, nonbinary spaceship
Published on: 3rd October 2023
Goodreads

"Wait—rewind. I was still a girl back then, before the universes converged."

Guided by premonitions and a fateful car ride, a burned-out retail worker stumbles into the grand exit from womanhood. Meanwhile, in a galaxy not so far away, an alien prince goes rogue with his sentient spaceship, seeking purpose in the great glimmering void. As the two of them come together in a fusion of mind and body, they must reckon with the identities that have been assigned to them.

Tender and daring, Pluralities, or is a slipstream-meets-space-adventure story honouring the long and turbulent journey into gender euphoria.

“Years into my own journey, this story was especially meaningful to me. I love that the narrative is filled with queer love, friendship, and euphoria. This novella doesn’t shy away from challenging questions about the intersection of feminism and trans identity, and it doesn’t offer glib answers, but faces those questions head-on. I found the read experience-broadening, and hope this book finds the audience it deserves.” — José Pablo Iriarte, Hugo and Nebula Finalist

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This is a very soft, sweet book – not exactly cosy, but very much like wrapping a big fluffy blanket around your brain. If you’re looking for plot or action, this probably isn’t for you, but if you want a warm bath of gender euphoria and sentient spaceships, then Pluralities is it!

My review!

The Dead Take the A Train (Carrion City, #1) by Cassandra Khaw, Richard Kadrey
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC
Published on: 3rd October 2023
Goodreads

Bestselling authors Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey have teamed up to deliver a dark new story with magic, monsters, and mayhem, perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman and Joe Hill.

Julie Crews is a coked-up, burnt-out thirty-something who packs a lot of magic into her small body. She’s been trying to establish herself in the NYC magic scene, and she’ll work the most gruesome gigs to claw her way to the top.

Julie is desperate for a quick career boost to break the dead-end grind, but her pleas draw the attention of an eldritch god who is hungry for revenge. Her power grab sets off a deadly chain of events that puts her closest friends – and the entire world – directly in the path of annihilation.

The first explosive adventure in the Carrion City Duology, The Dead Take the A Train fuses Khaw’s cosmic horror and Kadrey’s gritty fantasy into a full-throttle thrill ride straight into New York’s magical underbelly.

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Is this going to give me nightmares??? Probably. Will it be worth it??? Almost certainly. Khaw can do no wrong in my eyes; I’ve just got to remember to read this on an empty stomach.

You can read an excerpt from chapter one here!

Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neil Sharpson
Genres: Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC
Published on: 3rd October 2023
Goodreads

Knock Knock, Open Wide
weaves horror and Celtic myth into a terrifying, heartbreaking supernatural tale of fractured family bonds, the secrets we carry, and the veiled forces that guide Irish life.

Driving home late one night, Etain Larkin finds a corpse on a pitch-black country road deep in the Irish countryside. She takes the corpse to a remote farmhouse. So begins a night of unspeakable horror that will take her to the very brink of sanity.

She will never speak of it again.

Two decades later, Betty Fitzpatrick, newly arrived at college in Dublin, has already fallen in love with the drama society, and the beautiful but troubled Ashling Mallen. As their relationship blossoms, Ashling goes to great lengths to keep Betty away from her family, especially her alcoholic mother, Etain.

As their relationship blossoms, Betty learns her lover's terrifying family history, and Ashling's secret obsession. Ashling has become convinced that the horrors inflicted on her family are connected to a seemingly innocent children's TV show. Everyone in Ireland watched this show in their youth, but Ash soon discovers that no one remembers it quite the same way. And only Ashling seems to remember its star: a small black goat puppet who lives in a box and only comes out if you don’t behave. They say he’s never come out.

Almost never.

When the door between the known and unknown opens, it can never close again.

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The blurb tells me almost nothing…and I find myself maddeningly obsessed anyway. I don’t know whether it’s the cover or what, but SOMEthing about this book has me itching to pounce, and I tend to follow my instincts when it comes to books. If I end up regretting it, well, you’ll probably get to hear about it.

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu
Genres: Sci Fi
Representation: East Asian-coded cast & setting
Published on: 3rd October 2023
Goodreads

Shantiport was supposed to be a gateway to the stars. But the city is sinking, and its colonist rulers aren’t helping anyone but themselves.
Lina, a daughter of failed revolutionaries, has no desire to escape Shantiport. She loves her city and would do anything to save its people. This is, in fact, the plan for her life, made before she was even born.

Her brother, Bador, is a small monkey bot with a big attitude and bigger ambitions. He wants a chance to leave this dead-end planet and explore the universe on his own terms. But that would mean abandoning the family he loves―even if they do take him for granted.

When Shantiport's resident tech billionaire coerces Lina into retrieving a powerful artifact rumored to be able to reshape reality, forces from before their time begin coalescing around the siblings. And when you throw in a piece of sentient, off-world tech with the ability to grant three wishes into the mix… None of the city's powers will know what hit them.

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I’ve seen this described as Aladdin, but sci-fi, and that’s TRUE, but there’s also a lot more intrigue going on, on multiple levels. And even more fizzy, delightful FUN – I’m reading this now and adoring it, and every review I’ve seen has nothing but praise for every aspect of it. I suspect this’ll be on a lot of best-of-the-year lists!

Ogden: A Tale for the End of Time by Ben G. Price
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 3rd October 2023
Goodreads

A story full of elemental magic It tells a tale about how an emissary from the Spirit of Nature arrives in the early days of industrialization, in the form of a young troll, to judge humanity's fitness for survival, or to doom us to extinction. The evil intrigues of men bent on eradicating the last of the trolls are offset by profound epiphanies as Ogden grows and matures from a callow babe in the woods into a burly troll who communes with the spirits of Nature. Through many adventures he learns the similarities and differences between the black magic of men conjured through deceit and clever technology and the life-affirming magic of Nature expressed in ways mysterious and infinite. Ogden is a unique fantasy novel set in the 18th century, full of magical creatures, learning, and love.

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This is another one driving me a bit batty, because I could swear I read that it was originally published before I was born and this is a new edition…but maybe I dreamed that, because I can’t find anything about it now! Regardless, I like the sound of Ogden a lot, although I’m wary of the whole ‘Nature good, technology bad’ thing. Hopefully this’ll be a bit more nuanced than previous stories I’ve seen.

The Hurricane Wars (The Hurricane Wars #1) by Thea Guanzon
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 3rd October 2023
Goodreads

The heart is a battlefield.

All Talasyn has ever known is the Hurricane Wars. Growing up an orphan in a nation under siege by the ruthless Night Emperor, Talasyn has found her family among the soldiers who fight for freedom. But she is hiding a deadly secret: light magic courses through her veins, a blazing power believed to have been wiped out years ago that can cut through the Night Empire's shadows.

Prince Alaric, the emperor's only son and heir, has been forged into a weapon by his father. Tasked with obliterating any threats to the Night Empire's rule with the strength of his armies and mighty Shadow magic, Alaric has never been bested. That is until he sees Talasyn burning brightly on the battlefield with the magic that killed his grandfather, turned his father into a monster, and ignited the Hurricane Wars. In a clash of light and dark, their powers merge and create a force the likes of which has never been seen.

Talasyn and Alaric both know this war can only end with them. But a greater threat is coming, and the strange new magic they can create together could be the only way to overcome it. Thrust into an uneasily alliance, they will confront the secrets at the heart of the war and find, in each other, a searing passion--one that could save their world...or destroy it.

An exquisite fantasy brimming with unforgettable characters, sizzling enemies-to-lovers romance, and richly drawn worlds, The Hurricane Wars marks the breathtaking debut of an extraordinary new writer.

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There’s been a great deal of hype for this one (and two stunning covers) but the reviews are extremely mixed. Sources I trust have led me to believe this probably isn’t for me, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be for you!

(I will, however, bite anyone who sneers at it for having started out as fanfic. I don’t care whether it did or not; if it did, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, and if you disagree, feel free to take your opinions elsewhere.)

Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson
Genres: Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MCs
Published on: 3rd October 2023
Goodreads

A sweet sapphic romance takes a deadly dark turn in this sharp-as-a-knife novella from the New York Times bestselling author.

Rosemary meets Ash at the farmers’ market. Ash—precise, pretty, and practically perfect—sells bars of soap in delicate pastel colors, sprinkle-spackled cupcakes stacked on scalloped stands, beeswax candles, jelly jars of honey, and glossy green plants. Ro has never felt this way about another woman; with Ash, she wants to be her and have her in equal measure. But as her obsession with Ash consumes her, she may find she’s not the one doing the devouring…

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Very lush sapphic creepiness??? Yes PLEASE. Honestly, the excerpt was just the icing on the cake; I am so sold.

Menewood (The Hild Sequence, #2) by Nicola Griffith
Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bi/pansexual MC
Published on: 3rd October 2023
Goodreads

In the much anticipated sequel to Hild, Nicola Griffith's Menewoodtransports readers back to seventh-century Britain, a land of rival kings and religions poised for epochal change.

Hild is no longer the bright child who made a place in Edwin Overking's court with her seemingly supernatural insight. She is eighteen, honed and tested, the formidable Lady of Elmet, now building her personal stronghold in the valley of Menewood.

But Edwin needs his most trusted advisor. Old alliances are fraying. Younger rivals are snapping at his heels. War is brewing--bitter war, winter war. Not knowing who to trust he becomes volatile and unpredictable. Hild begins to understand the true extent of the chaos ahead, and now she must navigate the turbulence and fight to protect both the kingdom and her own people.

Hild will face the losses and devastation of total war, and then she must find a new strength, the implacable determination to forge a radically different path for herself and her people. In the valley, her last redoubt, her community slowly takes root. She trains herself and her unexpected allies in new ways of thinking as she prepares for one last wager: risking all on a single throw for a better future...

In the last decade,
Hild
has become a beloved classic of epic storytelling. Menewood picks up where that journey left off, and exceeds it in every way.

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The sequel to the breathtakingly beautiful Hild is here!!! Imo speculative history counts as speculative fiction, and honestly, this reads like lush fantasy full of intrigue of all kinds – but you definitely can’t jump in without reading the first book. But that’s okay, because the first book is, as I said, breathtakingly beautiful and you’ll have a wonderful time with it! And if you have read Hild already – BRACE YOURSELVES, THIS IS GOING TO BE EPIC!

The Scarlet Alchemist (The Scarlet Alchemist, #1) by Kylie Lee Baker
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Representation: Biracial Chinese MC, Chinese cast & setting
Published on: 3rd October 2023
Goodreads

Zilan dreams of becoming a royal alchemist, of providing for her family by making alchemical gold and gems for the wealthy to eat in order to stay young forever. But for now, she’s trapped in her impoverished village in southern China, practicing an illegal form of alchemy to keep food on the table—resurrecting the dead, for a price.

When Zilan finally has the chance to complete her imperial exams, she ventures to the capital to compete against the best alchemists in the country in tasks she’ll be lucky to survive, let alone pass. On top of that, her reputation for raising the dead has followed her to the capital, and the Crown Prince himself seeks out her help, suspecting a coming assassination attempt.

The more Zilan succeeds in her alchemy, the more she gets caught in the dangerous political games of the royal family. There are monsters lurking within the palace walls, and it’s only a matter of time before they—and secrets of Zilan’s past—catch up with her.

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I’ve heard nothing but adoration for Scarlet Alchemist from all corners – apparently it’s especially recommended for fans of books like Iron Widow, and not-nice heroines in general. Which: GIMME!

Curious Tides (Drowned Gods, #1) by Pascale Lacelle
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Published on: 3rd October 2023
Goodreads

Ninth House meets A Deadly Education in this gorgeous dark academia fantasy following a teen mage who must unravel the truth behind the secret society that may have been involved in her classmates’ deaths.

Emory might be a student at the prestigious Aldryn College for Lunar Magics, but her healing abilities have always been mediocre at best—until a treacherous night in the Dovermere sea caves leaves a group of her classmates dead and her as the only survivor. Now Emory is plagued by strange, impossible powers that no healer should possess.

Powers that would ruin her life if the wrong person were to discover them.

To gain control of these new abilities, Emory enlists the help of the school’s most reclusive student, Baz—a boy already well-versed in the deadly nature of darker magic, whose sister happened to be one of the drowned students and Emory’s best friend. Determined to find the truth behind the drownings and the cult-like secret society she’s convinced her classmates were involved in, Emory is faced with even more questions when the supposedly drowned students start washing ashore— alive —only for them each immediately to die horrible, magical deaths.

And Emory is not the only one seeking answers. When her new magic captures the society’s attention, she finds herself drawn into their world of privilege and power, all while wondering if the truth she’s searching for might lead her right back to Dovermere…to face the fate she was never meant to escape.

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I really enjoyed Lacelle’s writing style in the prequel novella, Uncharted Dreams (although it looks like I forgot to mark it read on Goodreads, damn it) so I’ll definitely be picking up Curious Tides. I don’t know how much I care about secret societies, but I’m a sucker for gorgeous prose!

Beholder by Ryan La Sala
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC
Published on: 3rd October 2023
Goodreads

From Ryan La Sala, author of the tantalizingly twisted The Honeys and riotously imaginative Reverie, comes a chilling new contemporary fable about art, aesthetic obsession, and the gaze that peers back at us from behind our reflections.

Athanasios “Athan” Bakirtzis hasn’t had an easy life. Orphaned by a fire at a young age, he’s had to rely on his charm, his under-the-table job as an art handler, and the generosity of family friends to care for his ailing Yiayia, his grandmother.

But Athan also has a secret: a hereditary power that allows him to rewind the reflection in any mirror, peering into its recent past. Superstitious Yiayia calls the family ability a curse, and has long warned him never to use it. For Athan, who’s survived this long by keeping to the realm of the real, this is a perfectly agreeable arrangement.

Until the night of the party. After being invited to a penthouse soiree for New York’s art elite, Athan breaks his grandmother’s rule during a trip to the bathroom, turning back his reflection for just a moment. Then he hears a slam against the bathroom door, followed by a scream. Athan peers outside, only to be pushed back in by a boy his age. The boy gravely tells him not to open the door, then closes Athan in.

Before Athan can process what’s happening, more screams follow, and the party descends into chaos. When he finally emerges, he discovers a massacre where the victims appear to have arranged themselves into a disturbingly elegant sculpture—and Athan's mysterious savior is nowhere to be found.

Something evil is compelling people to destructive acts, a presence that’s been hiding behind Athan’s reflection his whole life, watching and biding its time. Soon, he’s swept up in a supernatural conspiracy that spans New York, of occult high societies and deadly eldritch designs. If beauty really is in the eye of the beholder, what can it do to us once it’s inside?

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Being able to rewind mirrors is a magical ability I haven’t seen before, and honestly, all of this sounds great to me. Plus Reverie, La Sala’s debut, knocked my socks off, so I’m only too happy to pounce on another of his books!

An Inheritance of Magic by Benedict Jacka
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 5th October 2023
Goodreads

The super-rich control everything—including magic—in this thrilling and brilliant, contemporary fantasy from the author of the Alex Verus novels.

The wealthy seem to exist in a different, glittering world from the rest of us. Almost as if by... magic.

Stephen Oakwood is a young man on the edge of this hidden world. He has talent and potential, but turning that potential into magical power takes money, opportunity, and training. All Stephen has is a minimum wage job and a cat. 

But when a chance encounter with a member of House Ashford gets him noticed by the wrong people, Stephen is thrown in the deep end. For centuries, the vast corporations and aristocratic Houses of the magical world have grown impossibly rich and influential by hoarding their knowledge. To survive, Stephen will have to take his talent and build it up into something greater—for only then can he beat them at their own game.

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I believe this is releasing in the US next week, but it’s being published in the UK this Thursday! Classism + magic is one of my favourite combos, so yes, I am VERY interested in this one. It’ll be my first time reading Benedict Jacka!

Will you be reading any of these? Let me know!

The post Must-Have Monday #156 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

In Short: September

I thought I was handling things well, but writing this monthly wrap-up has made it clear that wow, no, I’m not doing okay. Almost nothing written, and (by my standards) almost nothing read. Sigh.

ARCs Received

Putting a unicorn on your cover guarantees that I’ll request it, and a BONE unicorn only has me more intrigued in Premee Mohamed’s The Butcher of the Forest. And after really enjoying Grace Curtis’ Frontier last month, Floating Hotel is probably the arc I was most gleeful to be approved of in September.

Read

…Yeah, I’m not okay. 10 books in a month??? Is this seriously all I read? Jaysus.

Most of these were amazing, though; Greenwode blew me away and ripped my heart out, which is very unfair; rereading the Tremontaine series was a delight; The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two was obviously excellent; and Cold Magic completely sucked me in, despite me having bounced off it two or three times before.

To the best of my knowledge, 40% of this month’s books had BIPOC authors. Mostly because several of the contributors to the Tremontaine series are BIPOC, although they’re not the majority. So I’m not sure this counts as a score, but I don’t know how else to count ’em.

Reviewed

This is just tragic. I have so many reviews I need to write, but only managed two? Blegh. And I wasn’t impressed with the ones I wrote, either.

DNF-ed

Last September was the first month I had no DNFs; this month there were four, which isn’t bad.

ARCs Outstanding

Soooooooo much to read. So much. I’m officially falling behind – I’ve missed the pub dates of several of these, and I don’t think I’m going to get Menewood and Jinn-Bot finished and reviewed for their release next week, either. I’m glad I have no more requests pending – I think it’d be best if I didn’t request any more arcs for a while!

Misc

I’ve started working on my Best of the Year list, and a second, Best Backlist Reads list too – because I want to spotlight the excellent books I read this year that weren’t released this year. You know?

This was also the month that my Top Ten Tuesday prompt went out – it was fun to see what other bloggers did with it!

Looking Forward

I was really happy to learn Like a Charm was getting a US release, because the UK edition never came out as an ebook, and as we know, I can’t physically hold paper books because Disabled. But the US edition will have an ebook release, so I can finally read it! I’m neck-deep in Menewood at the moment, and it’s so beautiful; and we’re getting new books from Hal Schrieve and Alix Harrow! Plus, Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey’s collab The Dead Take a Train, which will probably give me nightmares but which I’m looking forward to anyway.

And yes, yes, I am actually excited for the new Cassandra Clare book. Bite me.

May we all have an outstanding October!

The post In Short: September appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

September DNFs

Just four DNFs this month – MUCH better than in August!

Silver Helix by Xan van Rooyen
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Science Fantasy
Representation: Nonbinary MC
Goodreads

On the surface, the city of HelsInc appears to have recovered from the war waged between humans and Ethereals, but beneath the scars, the city seethes. The remains of magic festers, causing mutations in human DNA which could give humans Ethereal power—not that the HelsInc government would ever let that happen. The Legion resists, ripping out their neurochips and protesting the mandatory gene therapy for humans with cryptomine in their DNA.

At only 19 years old, Omyn Talvinen isn’t ready to play parent to her kid brother, but with her mom in prison on trumped up charges and her deadbeat dad AWOL, she’s left with little choice. Forced to risk her freedom to pay the rent, Omyn finds herself at the mercy of a pair of cyborg soldiers when they catch her red-handed stealing nanites from a cyberware Salon. But the synths’ powers don’t work on Omyn, and they discover they all share a common memory that they must get to the root of.

Wanted dead by the government, Omyn and the renegade soldiers turn to a rebel Legion group with dreams of resuscitating dead magic for help. With the clock-ticking for the synths, Zee-Five and Omyn are forced to confront the secrets of their past and a dark conspiracy that’ll shake the blood-soaked foundations of the city.

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I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Sometimes a book just isn’t for you, and I think that was the case here. The premise is amazing, but I found the writing really dry and the setting impossibly bleak – and 20% in, I still hadn’t learned much about the Ethereals, which were definitely the big draw for this one. It was clear to me that I was tapping out just as the story was properly getting started, but the problem was I had no interest in the characters or world by then, so I didn’t really care about what their story was going to be. Plus, I found the whole mystery around the shared memory really confusing – not in the ‘obviously this will be explained as the story goes on’ kind of way, but in the ‘I have no idea what they’re all going on about’ way.

Fans of dystopias should give this one a try, though – especially if you’d like to see magic in your cyberpunk dystopia for once.

Him by Geoff Ryman
Genres: Sci Fi
Representation: Nonbinary/trans MC
Published on: 5th December 2023
Goodreads

“Women, of course, can not be sons of God.”

In the village of Nazareth, virgin Maryam and the wife of Yosef barLevi gives birth to a miracle: a little girl. She is named Avigayil, after her grandmother. But as Avigayil grows, it’s clear she believes that she is destined to be someone greater than just the daughter of Maryam. From fighting with the village boys to challenging the priests in the temple, Avigayil is determined to find her way.

And then comes the day when Avigayil declares that not only is she a boy, but she is also the Son of God.

A gripping, thoughtful sci-fi novel, tackling family, the multiverse and the survival of love through immense change and crisis.

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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I don’t know whether this is any good or not, because the arc is full of formatting errors, which means trying to read it stresses me out, which means I’m not going to. I’ll pick up a finished copy on release day and give it a proper try then.

Didn’t love how we were dropped into the religious-political scene with no explanation of who/what everyone was, though.

Sounding Dark (The Calpurnian Wars, #1) by Jo Graham
Genres: Sci Fi
ISBN: B09LGP7TLH
Goodreads

Sounding Dark is a legend, a ghost ship missing two hundred years. Now it may be the only hope for the pirate republic of Eresh to stand against the mighty Calpurnian Navy. In the wake of a terrible defeat, Adelita Massacre, the Steel Captain, knows that their days are numbered without a miracle.

Bister is the only survivor of the defeat, a Tainted smuggler and fixer from the interdicted world of Inanna. Found alive, adrift in a spacesuit hours after its air supply should have run out, her survival is a literal miracle. Has the Lady of the Void herself chosen Bister to free her from imprisonment?

Now Adelita, Bister, Bister’s lover Griffin, and the mysterious Navigator must find Sounding Dark and her ancient weaponry if they hope to protect Eresh from the Calpurnian attack. But Sounding Dark will not give up her secrets easily….

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This is my second attempt at reading this, and I made it to 40% this time (way past my usual cut-off point of 20%!) But I can’t pretend I’m not incredibly bored. I picked this up again after seeing the series described thusly; ‘The series illuminates conflicts of human cultures flung among the stars that awaken potent mythic avatars of advanced technology that have become indistinguishable from magic.’ I mean, that sounds fabulous. But Sounding Dark just feels like a chore to get through, despite some interesting worldbuilding; it doesn’t help that there’s a beautiful passage near the beginning where the Lady of Void describes humans first leaving Earth – it’s my favourite part of the book, but the problem is, it really highlights the fact that the rest of the book is not written like that. And the rationale behind the main plot – a small team setting out to find a semi-mythical lost spaceship – is pretty weak; even the characters themselves comment on this, but it’s kind of handwaved away by ‘instinct’ and ‘faith in the will of the gods’. Which doesn’t really cut it for me.

I’ll probably force myself to try this again at some point – I really want to see those mythic avatars – but it probably won’t be any time soon.

Tea Leaves by Jacob Budenz
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Queer MCs
ISBN: 1612942768
Goodreads

Tea Leaves is an astonishing collection of fables for our time by a young writer of tremendous power and promise.Tea Leaves presents 16 speculative short stories that place queer characters in larger-than-life situations to emphasize the surreal experience of marginalization. A queer romance spans multiple incarnations, but only in doomed cities. A gay medieval scholar must testify for his life to the otherworldly octopus who traps him in a cafe bathroom. Ignoring their better judgment, a witch brings their mortal partner on a hunt for a dangerous sorcerer and must cope with the dire consequences.Each of the stories within Tea Leaves explores the urgency of modern queer life in encounters between the otherworldly and the queer other. In juxtaposing queer narratives with new, larger-than-life myths, Tea Leaves both exalts and lampoons the queer experience while examining the sometimes surreal obstacles of marginalization. 

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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I don’t know if these stories are bad, but they are very, very boring. Budenz uses the magical to talk about, or around, the mundane, and in the process takes the magic out of the magic. I think this collection might appeal more to readers who are looking for stories about Being Queer In Real Life, because the stories I read (not all of them, or I wouldn’t be including Tea Leaves in my DNF roundup) seem to be a lot more about that, about the reality of being queer in the real world, without the fetishization or the glossy shine often applied by wannabe-allies. The magic is kind of window dressing – it’s not the point. And I read fantasy for the magic, so this just doesn’t work for me.

Let’s hope for four or fewer DNFs next month!

The post September DNFs appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

I Can’t Wait For…A Necessary Chaos by Brent Lambert

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. 

This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is A Necessary Chaos by Brent Lambert!

A Necessary Chaos by Brent Lambert
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Black queer MCs, M/M
Published on: 3rd October 2023
Goodreads

Vade is an anarchist, a Phantom Dragon. Althus is a Touchstone―an Imperial agent.

Their love was never meant to survive.

In a world of magical empires and the anarchists that would tear them down, A Necessary Chaos is the story of Althus and Vade, assigned to spy on the other by opposing sides. But now that they've both caught feelings, where will their loyalties fall? They must each decide if they'll follow orders or find a way to make their romance thrive beyond the lies.

Part of the Neon Hemlock Novella Series.

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A Necessary Chaos has to be one of my most anticipated novellas EVER at this point – I think it was originally meant to be published last year, but there were various delays, and now it should be releasing next week!

Doesn’t it sound like a book worth waiting for, though?!

Magical empires – what kind? What’s this empire built on? Clearly not great things, or there (probably) wouldn’t be anarchists out to bring it down, and YES PLEASE, magical anarchists are the best anarchists! Especially ones who call themselves the Phantom Dragons – that is a most excellent name, bringing to mind monsters terrifying and unstoppable and vanishing like mist whenever law enforcement comes for them.

SIA APPROVES.

How on earth do these characters catch feelings in the midst of all this? Presumably Althus will come to see that the empire is bad…? Will Vade be Completely Correct About Everything, or is he going to learn/realise that there are parts of the empire worth not tearing down?

And of course, the most important question – how WILL they reconcile love and their ideals? Ideals this big? Can they reconcile them? Althus and Vade probably embody a lot of what each of them most hate about the other side… How can these two possibly balance it all – or will they run away from the whole fight and find their own happily ever after? Or betray each other, decide there’s more important things than romance?

I HAVE MANY QUESTIONS AND I AM VIBRATING WITH EXCITEMENT TO BE FINALLY GETTING ANSWERS SOON!

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!

The post I Can’t Wait For…A Necessary Chaos by Brent Lambert appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

10 Minor Characters Who Deserve Their Own Book

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Check out upcoming Top Ten themes on Jana’s blog!

This week’s prompt is secondary or minor characters that deserve their own book, and I was surprised by how hard these ten jumped out at me!

Bitter Medicine by Mia Tsai
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual Chinese MC, bisexual MC
Goodreads

In this xianxia-inspired contemporary fantasy, a Chinese immortal and a French elf navigate romance, family loyalty, and workplace demands. In her debut novel, Mia Tsai has created a paranormal adventure that is full of humor, passion, and depth.

As a descendant of the Chinese god of medicine, ignored middle child Elle was destined to be a doctor. Instead, she is underemployed as a mediocre magical calligrapher at the fairy temp agency, paranoid that her murderous younger brother will find her and their elder brother.
Using her full abilities will expose Elle’s location. Nevertheless, she challenges herself by covertly outfitting Luc, her client and crush, with high-powered glyphs.

Half-elf Luc, the agency’s top security expert, has his own secret: he’s responsible for a curse laid on two children from an old assignment. To heal them, he’ll need to perform his job duties with unrelenting excellence and earn time off from his tyrannical boss.

When Elle saves Luc’s life on a mission, he brings her a gift and a request for stronger magic to ensure success on the next job—except the next job is hunting down Elle’s younger brother.

As Luc and Elle collaborate, their chemistry blooms. Happiness, for once, is an option for them both. But Elle is loyal to her family, and Luc is bound by his true name. To win freedom from duty, they must make unexpected sacrifices.

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A MADDENINGLY minor character in Bitter Medicine is Lira, who co-runs a shop supplying magical glyphs with Elle, one of the two protagonists. It takes a while for the book to reveal what Lira’s magical nature is – we know she must have one, but whether she’s a faerie or the descendant of a god or what is unclear…until it’s mentioned practically in passing that she is ‘the daughter of the Black Doctor of the Pines … a ghost-spirit hybrid’.

A GHOST-SPIRIT HYBRID? WHAT?

The same passage mentions that she has ‘a close relationship with Norse gods and Lenni Lenape spirits’, and HI, I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS??? PLEASE AND THANK YOU??? I want her origin story so bad. How did she form those close relationships? What does that MEAN?? WHAT ON EARTH OR OFF IT IS A GHOST-SPIRIT HYBRID???

(Also, Wikipedia tells me that the Black Doctor of the Pines was a real person? How does that fit into the lore of this book’s world??? GAH!)

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Fairyland, #1) by Catherynne M. Valente
Goodreads

Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father went to war and her mother went to work. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind (taking the form of a gentleman in a green jacket), who invites her on an adventure, implying that her help is needed in Fairyland. The new Marquess is unpredictable and fickle, and also not much older than September. Only September can retrieve a talisman the Marquess wants from the enchanted woods, and if she doesn’t . . . then the Marquess will make life impossible for the inhabitants of Fairyland. September is already making new friends, including a book-loving Wyvern and a mysterious boy named Saturday.
 
With exquisite illustrations by acclaimed artist Ana Juan, Fairyland lives up to the sensation it created when the author first posted it online. For readers of all ages who love the charm of Alice in Wonderland and the soul of The Golden Compass, here is a reading experience unto itself: unforgettable, and so very beautiful.

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I would LOVE to get a whole novel about the Green Wind – or really, any of the Winds, and their wonderful animal companions (usually big cats, but the Blue Wind rides around on a giant puffin)! In Fairyland, the Winds are people, and they clearly play a big part in deciding which children to steal away to Fairyland – and which to send to our world as Changelings, for that matter. They always seem to be privy to many wonderful secrets and having fabulous adventures, and I’d love to know more about their lives off-page!

Witch King by Martha Wells
Goodreads

"I didn't know you were a... demon.""You idiot. I'm the demon."Kai's having a long day in Martha Wells' Witch King...
After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well.
But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence?
Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions.
He’s not going to like the answers.

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Tahren Stargard is a renegade/black sheep Immortal Marshall in Witch King – and although a big chunk of the book is devoted to finding her once she’s missing, that does mean we barely get to see her, and we really don’t get any of her backstory. How did she become Fallen? What led to that happening – or to her making that choice, since it’s implied it was her own decision? What is it like for her to be Fallen; how does that affect her self-image, and her relationship with her people, and how she interacts with the world? I would be very happy to get a book (or even a novella) all about her!

An Accident of Stars (Manifold Worlds, #1) by Foz Meadows
Goodreads

When Saffron Coulter stumbles through a hole in reality, she finds herself trapped in Kena, a magical realm on the brink of civil war.
There, her fate becomes intertwined with that of three very different women: Zech, the fast-thinking acolyte of a cunning, powerful exile; Viya, the spoiled, runaway consort of the empire-building ruler, Vex Leoden; and Gwen, an Earth-born worldwalker whose greatest regret is putting Leoden on the throne. But Leoden has allies, too, chief among them the Vex’Mara Kadeja, a dangerous ex-priestess who shares his dreams of conquest.
Pursued by Leoden and aided by the Shavaktiin, a secretive order of storytellers and mystics, the rebels flee to Veksh, a neighboring matriarchy ruled by the fearsome Council of Queens. Saffron is out of her world and out of her depth, but the further she travels, the more she finds herself bound to her friends with ties of blood and magic.
Can one girl – an accidental worldwalker – really be the key to saving Kena? Or will she just die trying?

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Gwen is one of the POV characters of the Manifold Worlds duology, but a relatively minor one – and by the time the first book opens, she’s already had a ton of adventures; moved from our world to Kena, played a fundamental role in a revolution/coup, and married two people (polyamory for the win!) and had a son with them. I love the Manifold Worlds books dearly, but I would adore a prequel book or series following Gwen’s earlier escapades!

Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane
Goodreads

Drawing on ancient texts and modern archeology to reveal the trans woman's story hidden underneath the well-known myths of The Iliad, Maya Deane's Wrath Goddess Sing weaves a compelling, pitilessly beautiful vision of Achilles' vanished world, perfect for fans of Song of Achilles and the Inheritance trilogy.
The gods wanted blood. She fought for love.
Achilles has fled her home and her vicious Myrmidon clan to live as a woman with the kallai, the transgender priestesses of Great Mother Aphrodite. When Odysseus comes to recruit the "prince" Achilles for a war against the Hittites, she prepares to die rather than fight as a man. However, her divine mother, Athena, intervenes, transforming her body into the woman's body she always longed for, and promises her everything: glory, power, fame, victory in war, and, most importantly, a child born of her own body. Reunited with her beloved cousin, Patroklos, and his brilliant wife, the sorceress Meryapi, Achilles sets out to war with a vengeance.
But the gods--a dysfunctional family of abusive immortals that have glutted on human sacrifices for centuries--have woven ancient schemes more blood-soaked and nightmarish than Achilles can imagine. At the center of it all is the cruel, immortal Helen, who sees Achilles as a worthy enemy after millennia of ennui and emptiness. In love with her newfound nemesis, Helen sets out to destroy everything and everyone Achilles cherishes, seeking a battle to the death.
An innovative spin on a familiar tale, this is the Trojan War unlike anything ever told, and an Achilles whose vulnerability is revealed by the people she chooses to fight...and chooses to trust.

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KIYA.

KIYA KIYA KIYA KIYA KIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

That is all.

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC
Goodreads

A rollicking feminist tale set in 1950s America where thousands of women have spontaneously transformed into dragons, exploding notions of a woman’s place in the world and expanding minds about accepting others for who they really are.

The first adult novel by the Newbery award-winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon.

Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal event: the Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales, and talons; left a trail of fiery destruction in their path; and took to the skies. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex’s beloved aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn’t know. It’s taboo to speak of.

Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of this astonishing event: a mother more protective than ever; an absentee father; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and watching her beloved cousin Bea become dangerously obsessed with the forbidden.

In this timely and timeless speculative novel, award-winning author Kelly Barnhill boldly explores rage, memory, and the tyranny of forced limitations. When Women Were Dragons exposes a world that wants to keep women small—their lives and their prospects—and examines what happens when they rise en masse and take up the space they deserve.

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Right at the end of When Women Were Dragons, we get a very quick overview of a specific character’s life. I’m not going to name her, because that would be a spoiler, but if you’ve read the book, you know who I mean. I would LOVE to have a whole book about her life, rather than seeing it summarised like that. SHE DESERVED THAT NOBEL PRIZE!

Theory (The Heretic's Guide to Homecoming #1) by Sienna Tristen
Genres: Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Black asexual MC
Goodreads

WINNER OF THE 2019 READERVIEWS AWARD FOR FANTASY!WINNER OF THE 2019 IPPY AWARD FOR FANTASY!

“Life is transformation. You change or you die.”

Ashamed of his past and overwhelmed by his future, Ronoah Genoveffa Elizzi-denna Pilanovani feels too small for his own name. After a graceless exit from his homeland in the Acharrioni desert, his anxiety has sabotaged every attempt at redemption. Asides from a fiery devotion to his godling, the one piece of home he brought with him, he has nothing.

That is, until he meets Reilin. Beguiling, bewildering Reilin, who whisks Ronoah up into a cross-continental pilgrimage to the most sacred place on the planet. The people they encounter on the way—children of the sea, a priestess and her band of storytellers, the lonely ghosts of monsters—are grim and whimsical in equal measure. Each has their part to play in rewriting Ronoah’s personal narrative.

One part fantasy travelogue, one part emotional underworld journey, The Heretic’s Guide to Homecoming is a sumptuous, slow-burning story about stories and the way they shape our lives.

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For the story Tristen was telling in this duology, I think keeping so much about Reilin secret and mysterious was the right call – but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t adore a book (or preferably a series!) about Reilin’s origins and adventures! It’s hard to say more without spoilers, but seriously, MORE REILIN PLEASE AND THANK YOU!

(Also, including him on this list is totally cheating, because no one with any sense would call Reilin a minor character, BUT HE DESERVES A BOOK OF HIS OWN I WILL NOT BE ENTERTAINING DISSENT ON THIS!)

Those Who Hunt the Night (James Asher #1) by Barbara Hambly
Genres: Historical Fantasy, Horror
Goodreads

At the turn of the twentieth century, a former spy is called into service to hunt down a vampire killer...

Once a spy for Queen Victoria, James Asher has fought for Britain on every continent, using his quick wits to protect the Empire at all costs. After years of grueling service, he marries and retires to a simple academic’s life at Oxford. But his peace is shattered one night with the arrival of a Spanish vampire named Don Simon. Don Simon can disappear into fog, move faster than the eye can see, and immobilize Asher—and his young bride—with a wave of his hand. Asher is at his mercy, and has no choice but to give his help.

Because someone is killing the vampires of London, and James Asher must find out who—before he becomes a victim himself.

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The James Asher books have some of the best vampires I’ve ever seen, and Ysidro, the main vampire that James and Lydia (the two human protagonists) interact with over the course of the series, would be fascinating even if he WASN’T a vampire. It’s probably cheating again to include him, because he’s more a major secondary character than a minor character – but whatever, I would love a book all about him from his own perspective!

(Especially since I CAN’T BELIEVE SHE ENDED THE SERIES THAT ABRUPTLY. NO I AM NOT OKAY.)

The Cloud Roads (Books of the Raksura, #1) by Martha Wells
Genres: Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC
Goodreads

Moon has spent his life hiding what he is — a shape-shifter able to transform himself into a winged creature of flight. An orphan with only vague memories of his own kind, Moon tries to fit in among the tribes of his river valley, with mixed success. Just as Moon is once again cast out by his adopted tribe, he discovers a shape-shifter like himself... someone who seems to know exactly what he is, who promises that Moon will be welcomed into his community. What this stranger doesn't tell Moon is that his presence will tip the balance of power... that his extraordinary lineage is crucial to the colony's survival... and that his people face extinction at the hands of the dreaded Fell! Now Moon must overcome a lifetime of conditioning in order to save himself... and his newfound kin.

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A relatively minor character in Wells’ Raskura books is Chime, who started life off as one kind of Raksura, and woke up one day as another. (This involved GETTING WINGS, which, while amazing, you can see how it would also be disconcerting.) Chime is clever and adorable, and I would love to get inside his head; particularly before the events of the series, when his strange transformation happened. What was that like? We only ever see his feelings about it through Moon; it would be so great to hear it in his own words! To say nothing of, as someone raised Raksura (as poor Moon was not) I’d love his insider’s-insight into the court and all the moving pieces in it.

Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir
Genres: Fantasy
Goodreads

When the witch built the forty-flight tower, she made very sure to do the whole thing properly. Each flight contains a dreadful monster, ranging from a diamond-scaled dragon to a pack of slavering goblins. Should a prince battle his way to the top, he will be rewarded with a golden sword—and the lovely Princess Floralinda.

But no prince has managed to conquer the first flight yet, let alone get to the fortieth.

In fact, the supply of fresh princes seems to have quite dried up.

And winter is closing in on Floralinda…

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As much as I came to appreciate Floralinda over the course of the novella – let’s be real; Cobweb was the real star of the show! Hopefully there will be more Cobweb in the sequel (I heard we were getting a sequel?) but I would be even happier with a spin-off putting Cobweb front-and-centre!

Have you read any of these? Which minor characters would YOU love to see in the spotlight?

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