The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature where I talk about books I got over the last week – old or new, bought or received for review consideration. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included.
The Inexplicables (A Clockwork Century Novel) by Cherie Priest
The Inexplicables will be released in trade paperback and ebook on November 13. An excerpt from the book is available online.
This is the fourth novel of the Clockwork Century, and there have been some shorter stories in this same setting. Each book in this steampunk series is supposed to stand alone, although it is also supposed to be helpful to read Boneshaker before any of the others. The novels following Boneshaker are Dreadnought and Ganymede. Clementine, a shorter book, was originally released as a hardcover limited edition and was difficult to find for awhile, but it was recently re-released in paperback. It is also now available as an ebook and an audiobook. “Tanglefoot,” one of the Clockwork Century short stories, can be read online.
If you haven’t yet read Boneshaker (which may be made into a movie!), you can read an excerpt from that as well.
I haven’t read any of the Clockwork Century books, but they sound rather interesting.
Rector “Wreck ‘em” Sherman was orphaned as a toddler in the Blight of 1863, but that was years ago. Wreck has grown up, and on his eighteenth birthday, he’ll be cast out out of the orphanage.
And Wreck’s problems aren’t merely about finding a home. He’s been quietly breaking the cardinal rule of any good drug dealer and dipping into his own supply of the sap he sells. He’s also pretty sure he’s being haunted by the ghost of a kid he used to know—Zeke Wilkes, who almost certainly died six months ago. Zeke would have every reason to pester Wreck, since Wreck got him inside the walled city of Seattle in the first place, and that was probably what killed him. Maybe it’s only a guilty conscience, but Wreck can’t take it anymore, so he sneaks over the wall.
The walled-off wasteland of Seattle is every bit as bad as he’d heard, chock-full of the hungry undead and utterly choked by the poisonous, inescapable yellow gas. And then there’s the monster. Rector’s pretty certain that whatever attacked him was not at all human—and not a rotter, either. Arms far too long. Posture all strange. Eyes all wild and faintly glowing gold and known to the locals as simply “The Inexplicables.”
In the process of tracking down these creatures, Rector comes across another incursion through the wall — just as bizarre but entirely attributable to human greed. It seems some outsiders have decided there’s gold to be found in the city and they’re willing to do whatever it takes to get a piece of the pie unless Rector and his posse have anything to do with it.
Trapped (The Iron Druid Chronicles #5) by Kevin Hearne
This urban fantasy will be released in mass market paperback, ebook, and audiobook on November 27. An excerpt from Trapped is available online.
The first four books in this series are:
- Hounded
- Hexed
- Hammered
- Tricked
There is also a related novella, Two Ravens and One Crow.
After twelve years of secret training, Atticus O’Sullivan is finally ready to bind his apprentice, Granuaile, to the earth and double the number of Druids in the world. But on the eve of the ritual, the world that thought he was dead abruptly discovers that he’s still alive, and they would much rather he return to the grave.
Having no other choice, Atticus, his trusted Irish wolfhound, Oberon, and Granuaile travel to the base of Mount Olympus, where the Roman god Bacchus is anxious to take his sworn revenge—but he’ll have to get in line behind an ancient vampire, a band of dark elves, and an old god of mischief, who all seem to have KILL THE DRUID at the top of their to-do lists.
