This week’s edition is called “I thought I knew what I wanted to read in June but now 2 interesting books showed up and I am conflicted!” About some books at least – The Uncertain Places by Lisa Goldstein and Naamah’s Blessing by Jacqueline Carey are a certainty for June (oh, and Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews since the signed copy I pre-ordered should be here soon and I cannot wait to read this book!). Maybe I won’t get a chance to be conflicted after all since there are no long weekends this month or anything…
This is an urban fantasy anthology about – well, the title sums it up. Rachel Caine, a USA Today and New York Times bestselling author, has a short story from her Weather Wardens universe in this collection in addition to being one of the editors. This book contains thirteen stories total, and eleven of the authors have written New York Times bestselling books.
After looking through it, I think this looks like a lot of fun. In the introduction, Rachel Caine discusses how excited she is to be part of this anthology because when she was a young girl herself, the girls in the stories never seemed to have adventures or save the day do anything fun. And I have to say I love the opening line to her own short story, “Shiny.” When flipping through, I also noticed “Mist” by Susan Krinard had Loki in it.
Chicks Kick Butt will be released this week on June 7. An excerpt containing Rachel Caine’s story “Shiny” is available on the publisher’s website.
Chicks are awesome–and never more so than when they are kicking some serious vampire/werewolf/demon/monster butt.
Chicks Kick Butt is an anthology that features one of the best things about the urban fantasy genre: strong, independent, and intelligent heroines who are quite capable of solving their own problems and slaying their own dragons (or demons, as the case may be).
Edited by Kerrie Hughes and Rachel Caine, Chicks Kick Butt features original stories from thirteen authors, eleven of whom are New York Times bestsellers:
This book appeals to me for two reasons: it’s dark fantasy (my favorite type) and it’s published by Immanion Press. Immanion Press is run by Storm Constantine and I love her Wraeththu books so I’ve been really interested in reading some of the books she publishes. However, they tend to be pretty expensive (at least in the US) so I’ve never bought a copy. I was thrilled to be contacted about reviewing this book by the author since it will give me that opportunity, plus it sounds right up my alley. Indigo Eyes was released last month.
The Empress Lylithe, with the aid of a succubus and incubus and the holy sickle of Kronos, is hunting seven of the fallen – angels who donned incarnate form and hid in the human world. The world where Saraquinn Morrigan chose to live, rejecting her dark past and faerie ancestry, in order to create a normal future for herself and her son Peter. The world where a fiery, outlandish, twentyish urbanite Adriana Malkov-Severina to her friends-living in downtown Ligeia, must see her dying father one last time. A world they are all forced to leave behind, each tale a thread, weaving wonderment and horror… Peter is beguiled across a faerie portal by a winged woman bearing a keen resemblance to his mother Saraquinn, who vanished six years prior, on the eve of his tenth birthday, without trace or explanation… Severina, in mourning, discovers a horizon beyond the pale, where love is to be found enslaved within a glass jar… Their lot: a dangerously playful Undine, outcast dwarves, Ash Mares, androgynous seers and a monstrous Ammit. Ultimately they must face Lylithe, and learn that the veil between worlds is as fragile as gossamer, as brittle as the divide between sex and gender, love and hate, flesh and blood…
