Hello everyone! I decided to start a new series here focusing my most anticipated releases of the year. All of these titles are considered must-haves for me and I think I've come up with a pretty awesome first batch! But don't worry, I have more to come in the next months. Be sure to let me know what you think and what your must-haves this year are in the comments!
I haven’t read much from McGuire (she has a popular urban fantasy series, October Daye ,that I really need to read) but I’ve kept my eyes on her projects and this one looks awesome. It sounds original, fun and there’s even a Field Guide to some of the cryptids of the series available on McGuire’s website. With illustrations! That’s dedication… and freakin’ amazing.
From the author's website:
Discount Armageddon introduces us to Verity Price, journeyman cryptozoologist, ballroom dancer, and former reality television star. She's on assignment in Manhattan, researching the local cryptid community while she pursues her dance career. It's a cushy assignment...at least until local cryptids start disappearing, and all signs start pointing to a man from the Covenant of St. George. But is Dominic De Luca really to blame? And if she casts her suspicions in the wrong place, is she going to survive the experience?
Blue Magic is the sequel to Indigo Springs (review), one of my favourite reads of 2011. To me, it’s a must read for those who like unconventional fantasy. Read it. I’ll wait.
Done? Good. Now you’re ready for Blue Magic.
From Goodreads::
This powerful sequel to the A.M. Dellamonica's Sunburst Award–winning contemporary fantasy Indigo Springs starts in the small town in Oregon where Astrid Lethewood discovered an underground river of blue liquid—Vitagua—that is pure magic. Everything it touches is changed. The secret is out—and the world will never be the same. Astrid’s best friend, Sahara, has been corrupted by the blue magic, and now leads a cult that seeks to rule the world. Astrid, on the other hand, tries to heal the world.
Conflicting ambitions, star-crossed lovers, and those who fear and hate magic combine in a terrible conflagration, pitting friend against friend, magic against magic, and the power of nations against a small band of zealots, with the fate of the world at stake.
Blue Magic is a powerful story of private lives changed by earthshaking events that will ensnare readers in its poignant tale of a world touched by magic and plagued by its consequences.
Out of all the authors on this list so far, I’ve read the most books by Bear. I’ve read a science fiction, a science fiction-fantasy, and an urban fantasy/alternate history. This is the first epic fantasy and I can’t wait to see what Bear does with the genre since she’s so good at introducing new ideas. Alyx Dellamonica also wrote a great review of it.
From Goodreads:
Temur, grandson of the Great Khan, is walking away from a battlefield where he was left for dead. All around lie the fallen armies of his cousin and his brother, who made war to rule the Khaganate. Temur is now the legitimate heir by blood to his grandfather’s throne, but he is not the strongest. Going into exile is the only way to survive his ruthless cousin.
Once-Princess Samarkar is climbing the thousand steps of the Citadel of the Wizards of Tsarepheth. She was heir to the Rasan Empire until her father got a son on a new wife. Then she was sent to be the wife of a Prince in Song, but that marriage ended in battle and blood. Now she has renounced her worldly power to seek the magical power of the wizards. These two will come together to stand against the hidden cult that has so carefully brought all the empires of the Celadon Highway to strife and civil war through guile and deceit and sorcerous power.
Jemisin is pretty much a must-read author for me, simply based on her Inheritance Trilogy (The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, The Broken Kingdoms, The Kingdom of Gods). This year she is releasing a duology, The Killing Moon being the first and The Shadowed Sun the second. Jemisin recently had a Q&A on her blog about the series. You can check that out here.
In the city-state of Gujaareh, peace is the only law. Along its ancient stone streets, where time is marked by the river’s floods, there is no crime or violence. Within the city’s colored shadows, priests of the dream-goddess harvest the wild power of the sleeping mind as magic, using it to heal, soothe… and kill.
But when corruption blooms at the heart of Gujaareh’s great temple, Ehiru — most famous of the city’s Gatherers — cannot defeat it alone. With the aid of his cold-eyed apprentice and a beautiful foreign spy, he must thwart a conspiracy whose roots lie in his own past. And to prevent the unleashing of deadly forbidden magic, he must somehow defeat a Gatherer’s most terrifying nemesis: the Reaper.
Well, now. I am going to enjoy this feature!
ReplyDeleteI just spent a good 20 minutes reading that Incryptid field guide. :) Love it.
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