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.
This week brought 3 ARCs and 1 finished copy. I already mentioned the finished copy in another one of these posts, but if you want to read more about it, here’s the link:
- Limits of Power by Elizabeth Moon (Release Date: June 11)
All of this week’s books look rather interesting; of course, one of these would since it is an installment in one of my favorite series! As always, I included the blurb with these books, but I do want to note that the blurb for the first and last book in this post do contain spoilers for previous books in the series so you may not want to read them.
Chimes at Midnight (October Daye #7) by Seanan McGuire
October Daye is one of my three favorite urban fantasy series, and the series keeps getting better and better! The last book kept me on the edge of my seat, and I’m looking forward to finding out what happens to Toby next. Chimes at Midnight will be released in mass market paperback and ebook in September 2013.
The previous books in the October Daye series are as follows:
Warning: There is a spoiler for the previous book in the series in the following book description for Chimes at Midnight.
Things are starting to look up for October “Toby” Daye. She’s training her squire, doing her job, and has finally allowed herself to grow closer to the local King of Cats. It seems like her life may finally be settling down…at least until dead changelings start appearing in the alleys of San Francisco, killed by an overdose of goblin fruit.
Toby’s efforts to take the problem to the Queen of the Mists are met with harsh reprisals, leaving her under sentence of exile from her home and everyone she loves. Now Toby must find a way to reverse the Queens decree, get the goblin fruit off the streets–and, oh, yes, save her own life, since more than a few of her problems have once again followed her home. And then there’s the question of the Queen herself, who seems increasingly unlikely to have a valid claim to the throne….
To find the answers, October and her friends will have to travel from the legendary Library of Stars into the hidden depths of the Kingdom of the Mists–and they’ll have to do it fast, because time is running out. In faerie, some fates are worse than death.
October Daye is about to find out what they are.
Vicious by V. E. Schwab
Vicious is the first adult book by Victoria Schwab, author of the young adult speculative fiction books The Near Witch and The Archived. Vicious will be released in hardcover and ebook in September 2013.
A masterful, twisted tale of ambition, jealousy, betrayal, and superpowers, set in a near-future world.
Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.
Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will.
Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?
A Clockwork Heart (The Chronicles of Light and Shadow #2) by Liesel Schwarz
A Clockwork Heart will be released in hardcover and ebook in August 2013. The first book in this series, A Conspiracy of Alchemists, was just released earlier this year. Sky Pirates, the third book, is scheduled for release early next year.
Warning: There are spoilers for the first book in the series in the following plot description.
FOR BETTER OR CURSE. That might as well have been the wedding vow of Elle Chance and her new husband, the ex-Warlock Hugh Marsh in the second book of this edgy new series that transforms elements of urban fantasy, historical adventure, and paranormal romance into storytelling magic.
As Elle devotes herself to her duties as the Oracle—who alone has the power to keep the dark designs of Shadow at bay—Marsh finds himself missing the excitement of his former life as a Warlock. So when Commissioner Willoughby of the London Metropolitan police seeks his help in solving a magical mystery, Marsh is only too happy to oblige. But in doing so, Marsh loses his heart . . . literally.
In place of the flesh-and-blood organ is a clockwork device—a device that makes Marsh a kind of zombie. Nor is he the only one. A plague of clockwork zombies is afflicting London, sowing panic and whispers of revolution. Now Elle must join forces with her husband’s old friend, the Nightwalker Loisa Beladodia, to track down Marsh’s heart and restore it to his chest before time runs out.
