Category: Reviews

Epic Fantasy on a Small Scale : The Lies of the Ajungo by Moses Ose Utomi

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Release Date: March 21, 2023
Publisher: Tordotcom
Genre: Fantasy

Description

They say there is no water in the City of Lies. They say there are no heroes in the City of Lies. They say there are no friends beyond the City of Lies. But would you believe what they say in the City of Lies?

In the City of Lies, they cut out your tongue when you turn thirteen, to appease the terrifying Ajungo Empire and make sure it continues sending water. Tutu will be thirteen in three days, but his parched mother won’t last that long. So Tutu goes to his oba and makes a deal: she provides water for his mother, and in exchange he will travel out into the desert and bring back water for the city. Thus begins Tutu’s quest for the salvation of his mother, his city, and himself.

The Lies of the Ajungo opens the curtains on a tremendous world, and begins the epic fable of the Forever Desert. With every word, Moses Ose Utomi weaves magic.

Continue reading “Epic Fantasy on a Small Scale : The Lies of the Ajungo by Moses Ose Utomi” →

Review of Blood Like Fate by Liselle Sambury

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Release Date: August 9, 2022
Series: Blood Like Magic #2
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Description

Voya Thomas may have passed her Calling to become a full-fledged witch, but the cost was higher than she’d ever imagined.Her grandmother is gone.

Her cousin hates her.

And her family doesn’t believe that she has what it takes to lead them.What’s more, Voya can’t let go of her feelings for Luc, sponsor son of the genius billionaire Justin Tremblay–the man that Luc believes Voya killed. Consequently, Luc wants nothing to do with her. Even her own ancestors seem to have lost faith in her. Every day Voya begs for their guidance, but her calls go unanswered.As Voya struggles to convince everyone–herself included–that she can be a good Matriarch, she has a vision of a terrifying, deadly future. A vision that would spell the end of the Toronto witches. With a newfound sense of purpose, Voya must do whatever it takes to bring her shattered community together and stop what’s coming for them before it’s too late.Even if it means taking down the boy she loves–who might be the mastermind behind the coming devastation.

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A Cozy Sci-Fi Mystery: The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older

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Release Date: March 7, 2023
Publisher: Tordotcom
Genre: Science Fiction

Description

On a remote, gas-wreathed outpost of a human colony on Jupiter, a man goes missing. The enigmatic Investigator Mossa follows his trail to Valdegeld, home to the colony’s erudite university–and Mossa’s former girlfriend, a scholar of Earth’s pre-collapse ecosystems.Pleiti has dedicated her research and her career to aiding the larger effort towards a possible return to Earth. When Mossa unexpectedly arrives and requests Pleiti’s assistance in her latest investigation, the two of them embark on a twisting path in which the future of life on Earth is at stake–and, perhaps, their futures, together.

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Review: Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse

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Release Date: November 15, 2022
Publisher: Saga Press
Genre: Historical Fantasy

Description

Celeste, a card sharp with a need for justice, takes on the role of advocatus diaboli, to defend her sister Mariel, accused of murdering a Virtue, a member of the ruling class of this mining town, in a new world of dark fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse.

The year is 1883 and the mining town of Goetia is booming as prospectors from near and far come to mine the powerful new element Divinity from the high mountains of Colorado with the help of the pariahs of society known as the Fallen. The Fallen are the descendants of demonkind living amongst the Virtues, the winners in an ancient war, with the descendants of both sides choosing to live alongside Abaddon’s mountain in this tale of the mythological West from the bestselling mastermind Rebecca Roanhorse.

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The Year in Review 2022 by Alex Brown

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Every year fans of young adult science fiction, fantasy, and horror – like myself – are blessed with well over 300 traditionally published titles, be­tween the Big Five, indies, and small presses. Even though covering YA SFF/H is a big chunk of my reviewing work, even I can’t keep up with numbers that high, much less the average reader. There are countless Best of and No­table lists wrapping up the 2022 titles, but I’d like to shine a spotlight on a few books that might have slipped under your radar.

Read the rest of my article at locusmag.com.

Alex Brown Reviews Direwood by Catherine Yu

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Release Date: September 20, 2022
Publisher: Page Street Kids
Genre: Horror, Young Adult

Description

In this velvet-clad 1990s gothic horror, Aja encounters a charming vampire who wants to lure her into the woods–just like her missing sister.

No one ever pays attention to sixteen-year-old Aja until her perfect older sister Fiona goes missing. In the days leading up to Fiona’s disappearance, Aja notices some extraordinary things: a strange fog rolling through their idyllic suburban town, a brief moment when the sky seems to rain blood, and a host of parasitic caterpillars burrowing their way through the trees. Aja’s father, the neighbors, and even her ex-friend Mary all play down this strange string of occurrences, claiming there must be some natural explanation. It seems everyone is willing to keep living in denial until other teens start to go missing too.Aja is horrified when she meets Padraic, the vampire responsible for all the strange occurrences. His hypnotic voice lures her to the window and tells her everything she’s longed to hear–she’s beautiful and special, and he wants nothing more than for Aja to come with him. Aja knows she shouldn’t trust him, but she’s barely able to resist his enthrallment. And following him into the woods may be the only way to find Fiona, so she agrees on one condition: He must let her leave alive if she is not wooed after one week. Though Aja plans to kill him before the week is out, Padraic has his own secrets as well.In the misty woods, Aja finds that Padraic has made his nest with another vampire in a dilapidated church infested by blood-sucking butterflies. Within its walls, the vampires are waited on and entertained by other children they’ve enthralled, but there is no sign of Fiona. Before her bargain is up, Aja must find a way to turn her classmates against their captors, find her sister, and save them all–or be forced to join the very monsters she wants to destroy.

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A Brisk YA Fantasy: Wildblood by Lauren Blackwood

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Release Date: February 7, 2023
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Genre: YA, Historical Fantasy

Description

Eighteen-year-old Victoria is a Wildblood. Since she was kidnapped at the age of six and manipulated by the Exotic Lands Touring Company, she’s worked as a tour guide ever since with a team of fellow Wildbloods who take turns using their magic to protect travelers in a Jamaican jungle teeming with ghostly monsters.

When the boss denies Victoria an earned promotion to team leader in favor of Dean, her backstabbing ex, she’s determined to prove herself. Her magic may be the most powerful on the team, but she’s not the image the boss wants to send their new client, Thorn, a renowned goldminer determined to reach an untouched gold supply deep in the jungle.Thorn is everything Victoria isn’t – confident, impossibly kind, and so handsome he leaves her speechless. And when he entrusts the mission to her, kindness turns to mutual respect, turns to affection, turns to love. But the jungle is treacherous, and between hypnotic river spirits, soul-devouring women that shed their skin like snakes, and her ex out for revenge, Victoria has to decide – is promotion at a corrupt company really what she wants?

A fierce, lush fantasy by New York Times bestselling author Lauren Blackwood, Wildblood tells the story of a girl who must find the strength to defeat the demons of the jungle as well as her own to find where she truly belongs.

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Review: “Rust in the Root” by Justina Ireland

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Release Date: February 7, 2023
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Genre: YA, Historical Fantasy

Description

Eighteen-year-old Victoria is a Wildblood. Since she was kidnapped at the age of six and manipulated by the Exotic Lands Touring Company, she’s worked as a tour guide ever since with a team of fellow Wildbloods who take turns using their magic to protect travelers in a Jamaican jungle teeming with ghostly monsters.

When the boss denies Victoria an earned promotion to team leader in favor of Dean, her backstabbing ex, she’s determined to prove herself. Her magic may be the most powerful on the team, but she’s not the image the boss wants to send their new client, Thorn, a renowned goldminer determined to reach an untouched gold supply deep in the jungle.Thorn is everything Victoria isn’t – confident, impossibly kind, and so handsome he leaves her speechless. And when he entrusts the mission to her, kindness turns to mutual respect, turns to affection, turns to love. But the jungle is treacherous, and between hypnotic river spirits, soul-devouring women that shed their skin like snakes, and her ex out for revenge, Victoria has to decide – is promotion at a corrupt company really what she wants?

A fierce, lush fantasy by New York Times bestselling author Lauren Blackwood, Wildblood tells the story of a girl who must find the strength to defeat the demons of the jungle as well as her own to find where she truly belongs.

Continue reading “Review: “Rust in the Root” by Justina Ireland” →

Review: Voodoonauts Presents: (Re)Living Mythology by Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, H.D. Hunter, & LP Kindred, eds.

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Release Date: November 22, 2022
Publisher: Android Press
Genre: Anthologies

Description

From the Voodoonauts Afrofuturist collective for Black science fiction and fantasy writers.

When a desperately mundane woman borrows clothing from her mother, a soucouyant goes searching for her skin. A Nigerian parent climbs mountains to heaven to steal a name and glorious destiny for their newborn. A master tailor gets her skills tested when a spectral customer enters her workshop and she can’t say no. A preacher casts dark magic from his pulpit when the Word ain’t enough to run his church. These tales and more populate Voodoonauts Present: (Re)Living Mythology.

Called from the imaginations of its inaugural fellows and a handful of solicited authors including Christopher Caldwell, TL Huchu, and Eden Royce, Voodoonauts curates a coterie of short fiction and poetry that paints across the breadth of magic and Blackness. Co-editors/founders Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, Hugh “HD” Hunter, and LP Kindred ask Black Writers to interrogate their mythologies, folklores, superstition, and wives’ tales to create the book within your hands.

Continue reading “Review: Voodoonauts Presents: (Re)Living Mythology by Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, H.D. Hunter, & LP Kindred, eds.” →

Review: “Rust in the Root” by Justina Ireland

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Release Date: September 20, 2022
Publisher: Balzer & Bray
Genre: YA, Historical Fantasy

Description

It is 1937, and Laura Ann Langston lives in an America divided–between those who work the mystical arts and those who do not. Ever since the Great Rust, a catastrophic event that blighted the arcane force called the Dynamism and threw America into disarray, the country has been rebuilding for a better future. And everyone knows the future is industry and technology–otherwise known as Mechomancy–not the traditional mystical arts.

Laura disagrees. A talented young queer mage from Pennsylvania, Laura hopped a portal to New York City on her seventeenth birthday with hopes of earning her mage’s license and becoming something more than a rootworker.

But four months later, she’s got little to show for it other than an empty pocket and broken dreams. With nowhere else to turn, Laura applies for a job with the Bureau of the Arcane’s Conservation Corps, a branch of the US government dedicated to repairing the Dynamism so that Mechomancy can thrive. There she meets the Skylark, a powerful mage with a mysterious past, who reluctantly takes Laura on as an apprentice.

As they’re sent off on their first mission together into the heart of the country’s oldest and most mysterious Blight, they discover the work of mages not encountered since the darkest period in America’s past, when Black mages were killed for their power–work that could threaten Laura’s and the Skylark’s lives, and everything they’ve worked for.

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