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Books in the Mail
Check out these books we’ve received from Pyr in the last couple months. There’s a little something for everyone in this list: SF, Steam Punk, Alternate History and Fantasy. I’m looking forward to reading The Alchemist in the Shadows. I quite enjoyed the first book, despite a few minor problems, and I’m eager to see where Pevel takes the story.
The Alchemist in the Shadows
The Cardinal’s Blades: Book 2
Pierre Pevel
Welcome to Paris, in 1633, where dragons menace the realm. Cardinal Richelieu, the most powerful and most feared man in France, is on his guard. He knows France is under threat, and that a secret society known as the Black Claw is conspiring against him from the heart of the greatest courts in Europe. They will strike from the shadows, and when they do the blow will be both terrible and deadly.
To counter the threat, Richelieu has put his most trusted men into play: the Cardinal’s Blades, led by Captain la Fargue. Six men and a woman, all of exceptional abilities and all ready to risk their lives on his command. They have saved France before, and the Cardinal is relying on them to do it again.
So when la Fargue hears from a beautiful, infamous, deadly Italian spy claiming to have valuable information, he has to listen… and when La Donna demands Cardinal Richelieu’s protection before she will talk, la Fargue is even prepared to consider it. Because La Donna can name their enemy. It’s a man as elusive as he is manipulative, as subtle as Richelieu himself, an exceptionally dangerous adversary: the Alchemist in the shadows…
City of Ruins
Diving Series: Book 2
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Boss, a loner, loved to dive derelict spacecraft adrift in the blackness of space…
But one day, she found a ship that would change everything—an ancient Dignity Vessel—and aboard the ship, the mysterious and dangerous Stealth Tech. Now, years after discovering that first ship, Boss has put together a large company that finds Dignity Vessels and finds "loose" stealth technology.
Following a hunch, Boss and her team come to investigate the city of Vaycehn, where fourteen archeologists have died exploring the endless caves below the city. Mysterious "death holes" explode into the city itself for no apparent reason, and Boss believes stealth tech is involved. As Boss searches for the answer to the mystery of the death holes, she will uncover the answer to her Dignity Vessel quest as well—and one more thing, something so important that it will change her life—and the universe—forever.
The Falling Machine
The Society of Steam: Book 1
Andrew P. Mayer
In 1880 women aren’t allowed to vote, much less dress up in a costume and fight crime…
But twenty-year-old socialite Sarah Stanton still dreams of becoming a hero. Her opportunity arrives in tragedy when the leader of the Society of Paragons, New York’s greatest team of gentlemen adventurers, is murdered right before her eyes. To uncover the truth behind the assassination, Sarah joins forces with the amazing mechanical man known as The Automaton. Together they unmask a conspiracy at the heart of the Paragons that reveals the world of heroes and high-society is built on a crumbling foundation of greed and lies. When Sarah comes face to face with the megalomaniacal villain behind the murder, she must discover if she has the courage to sacrifice her life of privilege and save her clockwork friend.
The Falling Machine (The Society of Steam, Book One) takes place in a Victorian New York powered by the discovery of Fortified Steam, a substance that allows ordinary men to wield extraordinary abilities, and grant powers that can corrupt gentlemen of great moral strength. The secret behind this amazing substance is something that wicked brutes will gladly kill for and one that Sarah must try and protect, no matter what the cost.
Ghosts of War
Ghosts of Manhattan: Book 2
George Mann
NEW YORK CITY IS BEING PLAGUED BY A PACK OF FEROCIOUS BRASS RAPTORS…
…strange, skeletonlike creations with batlike wings that swoop out of the sky, attacking people and carrying them away into the night. The Ghost has been tracking these bizarre machines, and is close to finding their origin: a deranged military scientist who is slowly rebuilding himself as a machine.
However, this scientist is not working alone, and his scheme involves more than a handful of abductions. He is part of a plot to escalate the cold war with Britain into a full-blown conflict, and he is building a weapon—a weapon that will fracture dimensional space and allow the monstrous creatures that live on the other side to spill through. He and his coconspirators—a cabal of senators and businessmen who seek to benefit from the war—intend to harness these creatures and use them as a means to crush the British.
But the Ghost knows only too well how dangerous these creatures can be, and the threat they represent not just to Britain, but the world. The Ghost’s efforts to put an end to the conspiracy bring him into an uneasy alliance with a male British spy, who is loose in Manhattan protecting the interests of his country. He also has the unlikely assistance of Ginny, a drunken ex-lover and sharpshooter, who walks back into his life, having disappeared six years earlier in mysterious circumstances.
While suffering from increasingly lucid flashbacks to WWI, the Ghost is subjected to rooftop chases, a battle with a mechanized madman, and the constant threat of airborne predators, while the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Can he derail the conspiracy and prevent the war with the British from escalating beyond control?
Haven
A Trial of Blood and Steel: Book 4
Joel Shepherd
The great powers of the Saalshen Bacosh are falling. The feudal army of the Regent Balthaar Arosh marches victorious across Rhodaan and Enora, determined to restore the old human ways that were abolished by the serrin of Saalshen two centuries before. The army of Lenayin marches in their wake, in shame. The greater battle was won, yet Lenayin’s part in it was defeat, their king slain, their warriors sent running from the field.
Sashandra Lenayin marches with her people, yet she sees the carnage the Regent’s armies are inflicting upon her former allies, and like most Lenays, she feels dishonored. Sasha leads three quarters of the army of Lenayin to defect and fight for Saalshen, leaving her brothers Koenyg and Myklas with the Verenthane hardliners to fight for the Regent.
All forces now converge on the city of Jahnd, an Enoran word meaning "Haven." A city of humanity’s refugees in Saalshen, its serrin hosts have allowed it to build into a major power over the centuries, humankind’s only outpost in Saalshen. But the Saalshen Bacosh’s third province, the mountainous land of Ilduur, refuses to come to the aid of its neighbors and without it victory is impossible. Sasha must lead a delegation to the Ilduuri capital, to combat the xenophobic Ilduuri regime’s retreat into isolation, and convince the Ilduuri army to defy their own leaders and rise up in rebellion to fight a foreign war that most Ilduuris do not want.
To save Saalshen and all that she loves about Lenayin, Sasha must become a true Lenay warlord, feared and hated by her enemies, uncompromising and all conquering. But will her own people now inflict upon her one of her worst nightmares, by insisting that she, and not her brother Damon, should assume the Lenay throne and lead her people in the greatest battle that the land of Rhodia has ever seen?
Shadow’s Lure
Shadow Series: Book 2
John Sprunk
The unforgiving Northlands . . .
In Othir, he was at the top of the food chain-an assassin beyond compare, a dark shadow in the night. But Caim left that life behind when he helped an empress claim her throne. And now his past has come calling again.
Searching for the truth behind the murder and disappearance of his parents, Caim discovers a land in thrall to the Shadow. Haunted by temptations from the Other Side, he becomes mired in a war he does not want to fight.
But there are some things a son of the Shadow cannot ignore, and some fights from which he can’t run. In this battle, all of Caim’s strength and skill won’t be enough.
For none can resist the Shadow’s Lure.
Sword of Fire and Sea
The Chaos Knight: Book 1
Erin Hoffman
Three generations ago Captain Vidarian Rulorat’s great-grandfather gave up an imperial commission to commit social catastrophe by marrying a fire priestess. For love, he unwittingly doomed his family to generations of a rare genetic disease that follows families who cross elemental boundaries. Now Vidarian, the last surviving member of the Rulorat family, struggles to uphold his family legacy, and finds himself chained to a task as a result of the bride price his great-grandfather paid: the Breakwater Agreement, a seventy-year-old alliance between his family and the High Temple of Kara’zul, domain of the fire priestesses.
The priestess Endera has called upon Vidarian to fulfill his family’s obligation by transporting a young fire priestess named Ariadel to a water temple far to the south, through dangerous pirate-controlled territory. A journey perilous in the best of conditions is made more so by their pursuers: rogue telepathic magic-users called the Vkortha who will stop at nothing to recover Ariadel, who has witnessed their forbidden rites.
Together, Vidarian and Ariadel will navigate more than treacherous waters: Imperial intrigue, a world that has been slowly losing its magic for generations, secrets that the priestesshoods have kept for longer, the indifference of their elemental goddesses, gryphons—once thought mythical—now returning to the world, and their own labyrinthine family legacies. Vidarian finds himself at the intersection not only of the world’s most volatile elements, but of colliding universes, and the ancient and alien powers that lurk between them.
7 Comments
I think it very nice of Pyr to send these to you. Please make sure to let us know what you think of the books and which ones deserve our attention. For me, the most interesting ones are the ones with the females as the lead characters: City of Ruins (one of my favorite characters was Molly Millions from Neuromancer and this character seems like there may be some similarities) and The Falling Machine. If I were to pick one book it would be The Falling Machine because the main character must be exceptionally strong to be a steam-superhero. Sounds a little bit like like a young, female Bruce Wayne (socialite super hero in NYC). Perhaps I am going through withdrawals after finishing the Millennium Series (i.e. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) which featured an exceptionally strong, smart, young female character and that’s why I am attracted to those two titles.
Wintermute – have you ever tried manga? The young female lead is something the Japanese do to death. Miyazaki’s Nausicaa is top of the heap in SF. Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell (one and two) center around the major, the woman Motoko Kusanagi, and is top shelf as well. I’d also say if you missed Ghost, you’ve missed a very big chunk of what SF now is. Lots of western SF thinking can be traced back to Ghost. And Battle Angel and Battle Angel: Last Order centers around Alita. Kick ass distopian cyberpunk.
I would very much like to expose myself to foreign science fiction (with English translation, of course) and your suggestion is an excellent one. Thank you! I will look those titles up. In fact I already keep track of the blog posts at this Japanese English-language sci-fi publisher and I’m passing it along in case anyone else is too: http://www.haikasoru.com/
Wintermute…Yeah, I know that site. I’ve read four of their books. Harmony was a runner up for the Philip K. Dick award last year. Some good solid SF.
Glenn, I couldn’t figure it out from a cursory look at their book list but do you know if their books are hardcover or paperback?
Wintermute…it’s all soft cover, with only one or two exceptions. Only a few are on kindle. I never pay any attention to the published price since they all can be found cheaper elsewhere.
"The Falling Machine" grabs my attention also. Steampunk is an interesting sub-genre. There seems to be quite a lot authors can do with an alternative approach to history, staying within the boundaries of "steam-driven" mechanics. And to boot, airships are dirigibles! Isn’t that cool!
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