Shelf Reflections

Today's new review is Kendare Blake's Anna Dressed in Blood .

Tonight's new review is Kelly Meding's Another Kind of Dead .

Today's new review is Harry Turtledove's Supervolcano: Eruption .

Today's new review is N. K. Jemisin's The Broken Kingdoms .

Tonight's new review is Tanya Huff's The Wild Ways .

Tonight's new review is Paula Brandon's The Traitor's Daughter .

Tonight's new review is Mercedes Lackey's Beauty and the Werewolf .

Last night's new review is Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye's Myth-Fortunes .

Tonight's new review is Lev AC Rosen's All Men of Genius .

Tonight's new review is Terry Pratchett's Snuff .

Today's new review is Ally Condie's Matched .

Today's new review is Mercedes Lackey's Changes .  And this, ladies and gentlemen, marks the 100th review to appear on the site this year!  Stay tuned for more!

Today you get two new reviews from Devon Monk's Allie Beckstrom series: Magic on the Hunt and Magic on the Line .

Today's new review is Lia Habel's Dearly, Departed .

Tonight's new reviews are Cherie Priest's Dreadnought and Ganymede .

Tonight's new review is Rachel Caine's Working Stiff .

Tonight's new review is Richelle Mead's Succubus Revealed .

Tonight's new review is M. J. Scott's Shadow Kin .

Tonight's new review is Alex Bledsoe's The Hum and the Shiver .

Today's new review is Lilith Saintcrow's Angel Town .  This book comes out on October 25.

Today's new review is Seanan McGuire's One Salt Sea .

Tonight's new review is Michael Thomas Ford's Jane Bites Back .

Tonight's new review is Barb Hendee's In Memories We Fear .  Please note that this book does not come out until Tuesday, October 4.

Tonight's new review is Kelly Meding's As Lie the Dead .

Tonight's new review is Kristen Painter's Blood Rights .

It's been a busy week, and I haven't had time to post links to the reviews that I've written.  So, here they are, spanning from 9/10 to 9/15. Mercy Burns by Keri Arthur Hammered by Kevin Hearne Downpour by Kat Richardson Awakenings by Edward Lazellari Drink Slay Love by Sarah Beth Durst The Magician King by Lev Grossman

  Tonight's new review is Barb Hendee's Memories of Envy .  If you haven't already checked out the Vampire Memories series, you should... it's good.

  Tonight's new review is Cherie Priest's Hellbent .

  Tonight's new review is Carrie Vaughn's Kitty's Greatest Hits .

Last night, the link to Diana Rowland's book was borked for some reason.  It's fixed now.

  Tonight's new review is David Bridger's Quarter Square .  Please note that this title is currently only available as an e-book.    And you get a bonus review!  Diana Rowland's My Life as a White Trash Zombie .

  Today's new review is Guy Adams's Restoration .

  Tonight's new review is Veronica Roth's Divergent .

  Tonight's new review is Nicole Peeler's Eye of the Tempest .

  Tonight's new review is Jim Butcher's Ghost Story . Also, the Owlcat Mountain Facebook page has hit a milestone--50 likes!

   Tonight's review is Ernest Cline's debut novel, Ready Player One .  Pick this one up, folks, it rocks!

  Tonight's new review is Harry Connolly's Circle of Enemies .

  Doing a bit of catch-up...  the new review for August 8 is Conspiracies by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill.

  Tonight's new review is Ann Aguirre's Enclave .

   Today's new review is Merrie Destefano's Feast: Harvest of Dreams .

  Tonight's new review is Charles Stross's Rule 34 .

  Tonight's new review is J. A. Pitts' Honeyed Words .

  Tonight's new review is Harry Connolly's Game of Cages .

Click image to purchase from Amazon Another new review for you fine folks!  This time it's M. K. Hobson's The Hidden Goddess .

Click image to purchase from Amazon Today's new review is the third book in the Corine Solomon series, Shady Lady . I've been working on getting some more archival reviews up as well, so watch this space to find out when they go up and what they are.

   Tonight's new review is Irene Radford's Thistle Down .

I have finished creating my new website, as well as the associated blog.  I encourage you to RSS my new site for all of the content that I'll be adding.   You can access the RSS feed here.

Click image to purchase from Amazon It’s not often that I read a book that makes me not only enjoy the story, but also makes me wish to meet the author.   When an author truly enjoys the process of taking readers through his or her story, it shows.   Hounded is just such a book, and Kevin Hearne is one of the most exciting new authors to come along. The last of the Druids, Atticus O’Sullivan, has carved out a life for himself and his wolfhound Oberon in the Arizona desert.   He runs an occult bookshop and keeps a low profile—the Celtic god Aenghus Og wants the magical sword that Atticus possesses.   And a warning from the Morrigan indicates that Aenghus is coming with murder on his mind. Atticus can’t defeat a god by himself, even with an enchanted weapon.   On his side are a vampire, a werewolf, and a woman possessed by a Hindu witch.   But there are wild cards in the mix as well.   The local coven of witches ...

Click image to purchase from Amazon Zombies are one of fiction’s hottest commodities lately, but the genre is changing to encompass more than just horror.   A few novels have cropped up that feature sympathetic zombies, or at least a story from a zombie’s point of view.   And now, the inevitable has happened: a zombie love story.   Warm Bodies follows a zombie as he struggles with his feelings for a young living woman. The zombie known as “R” has only vague memories of his previous life.   Most major details—his profession, his interests, even his own name—are lost to him.   When he consumes a living brain, however, he gets flashes of that person’s life and imbibes their life force.   Even so, R is more aware than many zombies in his enclave. One day, he and his hunting party attack a group of human scavengers, and as R eats the brain of a young man, he gets stronger memories than he’s ever experienced.   On to...

Click image to purchase from Amazon I remember when I first picked up H. Beam Piper’s novel Little Fuzzy , back when I was a teenager.  It’s not a long book, and it’s not a complicated book, but it’s a memorable tale of first contact and its repercussions.  I read all the other Fuzzy books that were written and always wished that there had been more.  Now, my wish is granted.  John Scalzi enters the world of the Fuzzies with his respectful –and amazing—reboot of the series, Fuzzy Nation . Jack Holloway is an independent contractor mining sunstones on Zara XXIII, content to live alone with just his dog.  The discovery of a huge sunstone vein seems on the verge of cementing his fortunes, but fate intervenes in the form of an adorable little invader in his home: a catlike biped with golden fur and a startling intelligence.  Jack thinks that this “fuzzy”, as he calls it, might be sentient.  But if they are, the company that holds the contract to explo...

Click image to purchase from Amazon I’ve been following Seanan McGuire since her first October Daye novel came out a few years back.   The series offers a comprehensive world of Faerie and a flawed but likeable heroine, so I always look forward to new stories.   Late Eclipses is a strong addition to the overarching plot and makes some major changes to the main character as well. Toby is still recovering from her confrontation with Blind Michael and getting used to having a roommate—May, her Fetch, the one who’s supposed to signal Toby’s demise.   But before long, events take a turn for the worse again, when Toby learns that Lily, the Lady of the Tea Gardens, is extremely ill.   Since Undines don’t get sick, this is cause for great concern. All evidence points to the involvement of Toby’s enemy, Oleander de Merelands, the woman who cursed her to her fourteen year exile in the form of a fish.   But there are other forces m...

Click image to purchase from Amazon Greek mythology provides a wealth of story material that can be readily adapted to a modern setting.   And while I do appreciate when authors draw from mythic traditions other than the Greeks, I can’t deny the appeal of a retelling of one of the classics.   (I still own a very ragged and well-loved copy of D’Aulaire’s Greek Myths .)   It’s a pretty good bet that I’ll like most any retelling, but The Goddess Test is one of those rare novels that I couldn’t put down. Kate’s mother is dying of cancer, and at her request, she and Kate move to Eden, where her mother grew up.   Although Kate would rather spend as much time as possible with her mother, she re-enters high school.   There she meets the loner James, and the dating couple Dylan and Ava.   Ava’s jealousy of Dylan’s attention to Kate leads her to play a cruel prank on Kate—but when it backfires and Ava is fatally injured, an eni...

Click image to purchase from Amazon Washington state is the new “in place” in fantasy fiction.   From Cherie Priest to Kat Richardson, many more novels are being set in the Pacific Northwest.   The Company Man is no exception, creating a fictional city near the ocean in Washington and populating it with both machines and machinations. Cyril Hayes occupies an odd position in McNaughton corporation—part of it, but operating in its more shadowy corners.   With a war brewing between company men and union workers, a horrible crime occurs.   A trolley arrives at its station with eleven dead bodies in it, and all of them are union men. Now Hayes must solve the murders and put an end to the growing unrest in the city.   Tensions rise, and it’s almost impossible to know who to trust.   But the problems run deeper than anybody suspects.   Something is stirring within the great city—something that is heard in whispers and...

Click image to purchase from Amazon One of the hottest properties in urban fantasy these days is Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files .   It’s inevitable that imitators will crop up, and indeed I’m pretty sure that Butcher’s influence has been a huge help in the flowering of the genre.   But that doesn’t mean that every novel measures up to the high standards that a lot of readers have come to expect.   Brooklyn Knight makes a valiant effort, but ultimately falls flat. Professor Piers Knight of the Brooklyn Museum is pleased to hear from an old friend on an archaeological dig in Syria, and especially pleased to hear of the great discovery coming to light.   Only one thing is needed to help with the work: the Dream Stone, long thought nothing more than a curiosity and relegated to museum storage.   Knight readily grants permission for his friend to view the stone. But Knight and his new assistant, the lovely Bridget Elkins, are qu...

Click image to purchase from Amazon One of the cornerstones of a good supernatural fantasy is a convincing mythology.   Since most of them include such creatures as vampires, werewolves and witches, it behooves the author to make sure that these critters have their backstories straight.   An overly complicated mythos can burden a tale.   Such is the case with Ascension , a rather muddled story that nonetheless contains a lot of potential. Kyana is half Vampyre and half Lychen (werewolf), and she’s the only one left of her kind.   She works for the Order of Ancients, hunting the Dark Breed who have escaped from Tartarus and are now terrorizing humanity.   Apparently, the pit was opened with a long-lost key, and only this key will shut the gates again.   Kyana is tasked with finding the key and returning it to the gods. Her partner on this mission is Ryker, a demigod descended from Ares, the Greek god of war.   Although there is no love lost between...

Click image to purchase from Amazon Robert J. Sawyer’s books are always fast reads for me.   I’ve been a fan of his work ever since I was a teenager and had the good fortune to pick up The Quintaglio Ascension .   His science fiction carries a lot of the human element that I think resonates so well with sci-fi that touches on societal concerns.   This is especially true in WWW: Wonder , the final novel in the Webmind trilogy. The entity known as Webmind has survived one dedicated attempt to shut him down, but the incident teaches him a lot about how humanity might try to wipe him from existence.   It also shows him how people will react to his presence, as his existence is no longer a secret.   His human friend, Caitlin, is enduring the life a reluctant celebrity because of her association with the enigmatic Webmind. Although all the Webmind wants is peace and harmony (for both altruistic and self-serving reasons), there are those who simply cannot believe ...

Click image to purchase from Amazon When I first saw the Angry Robot imprint of Random House start showing up in bookstores, I didn’t think much of it.   But once I started reading their titles, I found that they were a veritable treasure trove of the unusual and intriguing.   On the whole, their novels seem to be striking out into new territory and telling some unique stories.   One of those is Lavie Tidhar’s The Bookman , a story set in an alternate Victorian era that must be read to be believed. Orphan spends his days working in a bookshop and his nights with his girlfriend Lucy.   The kingdom, ruled by a family of giant sentient lizards, is seething with unrest and rumors that the Bookman has returned.   When Orphan and Lucy unintentionally get caught up in dire events, Orphan must go on a quest for the Bookman.   The journey will take him across the ocean and into the depths of London itself.   Well-known f...