I thought I was going to end up bookless this week, but then on Friday I came home to find 5 of them waiting for me.
Since this week was the third time I got a copy of Cold Magic by Kate Elliott (this time in mass market paperback), I’m not going to list it below again. If you have been waiting for it in mass market paperback the wait is almost over, though. It will be available in stores in that format on July 26th, and the cover is a little bit different from the trade paperback. It’s the cover on the right since that’s what I’m reading now.
A quick update on reviews: The books I need to review at the moment are Naamah’s Blessing by Jacqueline Carey (now my favorite book in the Naamah trilogy), Embassytown by China Mieville, and The Uncertain Places by Lisa Goldstein.
Now for the books.
This is the fourth book in the Parasol Protectorate series following Soulless (review), Changeless (review), and Blameless (review). I liked the first book, and I really liked the next two books so I’m looking forward to reading this one as well. They are just such FUN books, a humorous story set in a paranormally enhanced alternate Victorian London. The main character, Alexia Tarabotti, is a rare person who has no soul and cancels out the effects of the supernatural (who have an excess of soul). I love her as a character since she’s so strong-minded and fearless.
Heartless just came out as a mass market paperback and ebook, and the final book in the series, Timeless, will be released in March of next year.
Since it does contain big spoilers for the first three books, I’m not including the blurb here, but if you do want to read it it’s on Gail Carriger’s website.
The fourth book in the Jane True series will be released on July 26th (mass market paperback, ebook). The first three books in the series are Tempest Rising (review), Tracking the Tempest, and Tempest’s Legacy. I read the first book around the time it first came out and was entertained by it overall even though it had a lot more focus on a sexual (not even really romantic) relationship than I normally like. But it did have a lot of different mythological creatures involved (and I am a sucker for having all kinds of different myths) and I liked the main character, a half selkie woman living in my home state of Maine. Oh, and I envied the fact that she didn’t get cold and wished I could do that during the Maine winters.
Nothing says “home” like being attacked by humans with very large guns, as Jane and Anyan discover when they arrive in Rockabill. These are professionals, brought into kill, and they bring Anyan down before either Jane or the barghest can react. Seeing Anyan fall awakens a terrible power within Jane, and she nearly destroys herself taking out their attackers.
Jane wakes, weeks later, to discover that she’s not the only thing that’s been stirring. Something underneath Rockabill is coming to life: something ancient, something powerful, and something that just might destroy the world.
Jane and her friends must act, striking out on a quest that only Jane can finish. For whatever lurks beneath the Old Sow must be stopped…and Jane’s just the halfling for the job.
The final book in the Stormlords trilogy (or Watergivers trilogy, depending on which country you are in) will be released on July 26th (mass market paperback, ebook). The first two books are The Last Stormlord (review) and Stormlord Rising. This series is set in a desert setting in which everything revolved around water and the main magic-users were those who could manipulate water and bring it to the people. This part of it was interesting, but I was never able to care about any of the characters and didn’t find the first book all that much fun to read myself (although it did seem to be one of those books that was setting up more to come so I wouldn’t be surprised if the next two were better, but I’m not planning to read them and find out with the huge towering book pile).
SHALE is finally free from his greatest enemy. But now, he is responsible for bringing life-giving rain to all the people of the Quartern. He must stretch his powers to the limit or his people will die-if they don’t meet a nomad’s blade first. And while Shale’s own highlords and waterpriests plot against him, his Reduner brother plots his revenge.
TERELLE is Shale’s secret weapon, covertly boosting his powers with her own mystical abilities. But she is compelled by the strange magic of her people and will one day have to leave Shale’s side. No one knows what waits for her across the desert, but her people gave the Quartern its first Stormlord and they may save Shale and his people once again-or lead them to their doom.
This is the final volume of the epic Stormlord series.
The third book in the Terra Incognita series will be released on July 20th (trade paperback, ebook). The first two books in the series are The Edge of the World and The Map of All Things. I haven’t read any of these books so unlike the first three I don’t have anything else to add about them.
Brave explorers and mortal enemies across the world clash at a mysterious lost continent. After long voyages, encountering hurricanes and sea monsters, Criston Vora and Saan race to Terravitae, the legendary promised land. Saan’s quest is to find the Key to Creation, a weapon that may defeat Uraba’s enemies, and Criston wants vengeance against the monstrous Leviathan that ruined his life long ago.
Back home, two opposing continents and religions clash for the remnants of a sacred city, unleashing their hatred in a war that could end both civilizations. Queen Anjine and Soldan-Shah Omra are driven by mutual hatred, heaping atrocity upon atrocity in an escalating conflict that only their gods can end.
Meanwhile, the secretive Saedrans. manipulating both sides, come ever closer to their ultimate goal: to complete the Map of All Things and bring about the return of God.
