Fantasy
Waking the Witch (Women of the Otherworld) by Kelley Armstrong
Tired of doing the legwork for Paige and Lucas, Savannah Levine – powerful witch/sorcerer with half-demon blood – is glad to finally get the chance to go it alone. For the week. But what started as a babysitting gig soon progresses to a full blown case for the temporary head of Cortez-Winterbourne Investigations. Full review...
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: No. 1: Night of the Living Rerun; Coyote Moon; Portal Through Time by John Vornholt, Arthur Byron Cover and Alice Henderson
There is something really satisfying about a huge brick of a book: the prospect of settling down for hours and hours of reading pleasure is very tempting. And this book offers an even more tempting lure for Buffy fans, because it contains three whole stories, adding variety to the mix. It's absolutely ideal for a holiday read. Full review...
Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready
Meet Aura. She was one of the first people in the world to be born after The Shift, beyond which every newborn was opened to the world of the ghosts, hearing and seeing them whether they liked to or not. Her boyfriend, Logan, who she wants to make love to for the first time on the night of his seventeenth birthday, suddenly dies first instead - making him one of the many ghosts Aura might be able to help. But is something of greater help buried in a school project, touching on standing stone circles, the solstices, the mysteries of her own family's past - and a new young man in her life? Full review...
Death Most Definite by Trent Jamieson
As soon as I read the blurb on the front cover of the book, I gained a pretty good idea of the tone and style. 'Reaping - it's a grim job but someone's got to do it.' This book is a little bit quirky, a little bit out of the ordinary. I was keen to start reading. Full review...
Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
It goes without saying, but the greatest thing about fantasy fiction is that one can go anywhere with it, and do anything. So a young man can easily try and dig his girlfriend up and retrieve some poetry he romantically left with her - only to have a hairy evening as a result. There can be a psychic link between a young lad, called Onion and doomed to die in a terrorist attack, and his cousin while she works as slave in an odd community of wizards. Several worlds can be accessed through an elderly woman's handbag, for better or worse. Full review...
The Map Of All Things (Terra Incognita) by Kevin J Anderson
After years of religious war between the Aidenists and the Urecari, with multiple atrocities on both sides, the known world has been divided. For each loss there is a retaliation, an upscale of the damage until the war becomes a crusade. In the centre of all this is Ishalem, a city that bridges the divide. Captured by the Urecari, who are now building a wall to defend it, the Aidenists want it back, no matter what the cost. Full review...
Wicked: Resurrection by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie
The eagerly-awaited conclusion to Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguié's Wicked series is finally here. After over three years of wondering and waiting to find out how this enthralling supernatural series will end, readers can finally dive straight into the war between good and evil with Resurrection and discover the answers to the secrets that have been kept from them. Full review...
Black Lung Captain: Tales of the Ketty Jay by Chris Wooding
Things on board the Ketty Jay have never been as low. Darian Frey and his crew are even having trouble thieving from defenceless orphanages. So when the next token job-they-can't-refuse comes along, they fall under it's spell. An explorer has returned with tales of untold riches, courtesy of the most mysterious artefacts and treasures of an unknown civilization. The fact that the remains are those of an aircraft crashed in the most Arctic of rainforests, inhabited by the most evil beast-men monsters, is neither here nor there. The problems start with what they find there, which is worse than anyone could have expected - or indeed years ago, with a mysterious connection between the remains and the more unusual crewmember... Full review...
By Midnight by Mia James
April Dunne doesn't really consider herself to be a genius, and her family certainly aren't rich - so how did she get accepted by the ultra-prestigious Ravenwood school when her family moved from Scotland to Highgate? She can't work it out but has other problems to worry about, in any case, such as the two local murders and the way people at her school get angry when she tries to take their photograph. On the plus side, there's a seriously stunning boy she's drawn to straight away, Gabriel Swift, and she thinks he likes her, although his behaviour is weird at times. Full review...
First Lord's Fury (Codex Alera) by Jim Butcher
In First Lord's Fury, the concluding part in Jim Butcher's six-part Codex Alera series, the land of Alera is struggling under the weight of an invasion by the Vord. The First Lord of Alera has been killed in battle and with his son already dead and his grandson away fighting in Canea, there looks likely to be a power struggle within the Alerans themselves. Many Alerans have switched their allegiance to the Vord, sensing that victory over them is impossible and believing that may be the only way to escape death. This gives the Vord access to Aleran furies, a powerful force that is the Alerans main weapon. Full review...
The Lord of the Changing Winds (Griffin Mage) by Rachel Neumeier
When a delegation of diplomat, mage and soldiers enter the mountainous, rural areas to the east of the country to investigate - and remove the cause of - rumours of a host of griffins laying waste, the last thing they expect to meet is one of their own kin, a shy teenager at that, helping the beasts out and magically healing them. But then Kes, the young woman in question, never expected to be there herself. She would never have assumed she had any powers, but when a mysterious man enters her village to whisk her away and teach her to tend the battle-wounded fabulous creatures, she finds herself entering an unspeakably strange world. Full review...
The Folding Knife by K J Parker
Bassianus Arcadius Severus – call him Basso – is a man of many talents. All but guaranteed a life of ease as his birthright, he instead finds himself driven to excel, first as an executive trustee in his father’s bank, and then in the realm of politics. His rise to the zenith of public life is meteoric, fuelled by ambition, ruthlessness, and above all his ability to turn any defeat into a resounding victory. But with the Republic – and Basso’s own position and even life – under threat from enemies old and new, will his fall prove equally thunderous? Welcome to The Folding Knife, the latest fantasy epic from K.J. Parker. Full review...
Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Nick Gautier, scholarship kid teased for his poverty and his mother's job as a stripper, finds life hard enough even before three of his friends try to kill him when he stops them from mugging an elderly couple. But when the man who rescues him turns out to mix in seriously weird circles, things get really bizarre. If anything, really bizarre is a massive understatement. Nick goes on to meet demons, zombies, shape changers, and a host of other mysterious beings, many of whom he already knew in human form as his schoolmates. He ends up on the frontline of a battle against zombies who are running riot in his home of New Orleans. Full review...
The Iron Hunt (Hunter Kiss) by Marjorie M Liu
Maxine is the last in the line of the Wardens, who wear demons as tattoos in the day, making them invulnerable. At night, 'the boys' peel away and leave her open to attack – and there are an awful lot of people out to attack her. While she's spent her life, since inheriting the tattoos from her mother, tackling zombies (who are humans possessed by demons in this world, rather than 'traditional' zombies), she quickly finds there are far worse things out there in the prison dimension they call home. The death of an investigator trying to find her leads to strange alliances being formed, questions about her past being raised, and the end of the world approaching… unless she can stop it. Full review...
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
'Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.' That quote, on the Statue of Liberty, was probably not designed with the inclusion of vampires in mind. But by some means or another North America is rife with the things – hiding in plain sight, as the older ones can bear sunlight, with the help of darkened glasses. It might just come down to one eager young man to rid his new country of such things, on his way to something he’s a bit more known for. Full review...
Firespell: The Dark Elite by Chloe Neill
Lily Parker is sent to boarding school in Chicago when her parents get the opportunity to do some prestigious research work in Germany. She was expecting bitchy classmates, and she gets them – but she wasn’t prepared for her suitemate, Scout, who stays out late at night and reappears covered in bruises, a school full of secret hiding places, a principal who knows her parents and seems to have an entirely wrong idea about their work – or a mysterious group of supernatural teens called the Dark Elite. Full review...
The Poison Throne: Moorehawke Trilogy by Celine Kiernan
After years away from her childhood home at the court, Wynter Moorhawke – now an apprentice carpenter to her seriously ill father Lorcan – returns, desperate to see her childhood friends Prince Alberon and his half-brother Razi. But Alberon is in exile, and his father King Jonathon, far from being the kind ruler Wynter remembers, reigns with an iron fist. As Razi, Jonathon’s illegitimate son, is appointed the unwilling heir to the throne, Wynter must help him and his friend Christopher survive in increasingly dangerous times. Full review...
The Last Seal by Richard Denning
In 1380 the warlock Stephen Blake released the demon Dantalion from the Abyss, only for his nemesis Cornelius Silver to banish him straight away. Dantalion has nursed his wounds for nearly 300 years – and in 1666, descendants of the original pair clash as he aims to return to the world, and burn down London by starting the Great Fire. While the fire rages around London, and Dantalion’s followers try to break the seals which hold him in the Abyss, four unlikely heroes join forces to stop them from being destroyed – and to save the world. Full review...
Kraken by China Mieville
Meet Billy Harrow, curator of molluscs and other pickled creatures. Imagine if you will Billy's thoughts on entering the chamber that houses the highlight of his museum's tour - an immense squid, housed in a glass crate - only to find the entire thing - animal and tank - impossibly removed. Imagine, too, the more esoteric kind of policeman and -woman needed to arrive, to tell him that his exhibit was the keystone of a mysterious cult with the end of times on their mind, and that they might just like Billy to infiltrate it and see what was precisely what. Just consider - is Billy, the man who bottled the giant squid, a John the Baptist to this cult, or a Judas? Full review...
Changes: The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
It's always wonderful to see a series going from strength to strength and getting better as it goes along. However, when this happens, there inevitably comes a point where it gets so good, you can't help but think that the next one can't possibly be any better as it feels like the series has peaked. Changes, the twelfth in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series, is such a book. Full review...
Ghost: Blood and Fire by Phoebe Reeves Murray
Young Jennifer Rhys has been orphaned by the evil Dark Angels. They can possess people and bite off their hands, and there's something about living tattoos which you can take out of boxes and paste into your skin. After growing up in an adolescent psychiatric ward, she will grow up to go on and confront them and fulfil her destiny. Or something like that. Between the huge amount of poorly drawn characters, the leaden prose, and the disappointing pictures of computerized 3-D models, I got lost a few times and couldn't summon the interest to work out what was going on. Full review...
Lonely Werewolf Girl by Martin Millar
The plot is simple - the werewolf of the title is 17 year old Kalix, exiled from her family due to her involvement in the head of the clan’s death. Her elder brother has set a price on her head, and is pursuing her with all sources he can muster. It sounds horrific? It is indeed, and there are some truly gruesome scenes, as werewolves battle amongst themselves, or with the humans who come into their orbit. However, these scenes do serve a purpose (to remind us perhaps, that they are werewolves, and not humans?!), and by and large do not occupy too large a part in the narrative. Full review...
The Mage in Black (Sabina Kane) by Jaye Wells
After betraying the Dominae and siding with a Mage over the Vampires, Sabina Kane finds herself on the run. Leaving behind everything she knows, she travels with Mage, Adam, to meet the other half of her family – her twin sister, Maisie. Though the Mages welcome her with open arms, Sabina, used to the cold, displeasure of her Dominae Grandmother, can't quite accept their open affection, or their conviction that she has a destiny. Her only focus is on revenge, developing her Mage powers so she can defeat her Grandmother. Full review...
Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs
Mercy's life is just not getting any easier. The werewolf she lives with is looking like going rogue – not snapping out of wolf form, which might have dangerous repercussions – for himself and those around him. Someone within the pack she's joined with seems to be playing psychic warfare on her, and leading her astray with errant mental suggestions. Worse still, she's opened the door of her (ill-fated) trailer and found death threats on the step before, but not a fae assassin looking over things from the middle distance. Could any of this have anything to do with a mysterious fae book of fairy lore she's been asked to look after? Full review...
Fall of Thanes by Brian Ruckley
The Godless world is descending into a kind of insanity. All order is breaking down and members of both the True Bloods and the Black Road are fighting amongst themselves. There is rioting in the streets and the armies of both sides have taken to mindless slaughter rather than organised conquest. Under Aeglyss' command, the Black Road armies are strengthening and his power is increasing as his body weakens. His control of the Shadow Chancellor is a step towards ending the rule of the Thanes by murdering the greatest among them. Full review...
Pleasure of a Dark Prince by Kresley Cole
Sexy half dressed hunk on cover? Check. Enticing title? Check. Sometimes there's nothing nicer than curling up with a glass of wine (or two!), some cheese and crackers and lovely hunky man – even if he is the main character in a book! I've never read Kresley Cole before but I love fantasy, especially with a romantic element and so I was looking forward to trying a new author. Full review...
The Midnight Mayor: A Matthew Swift Novel by Kate Griffin
'A telephone rang.
I answered.
After that…
…it's complicated.'
Sorcerer Matthew Swift does not especially like danger. In fact, after the events that led to him destroying the Tower and his former teacher, Robert Bakker, he'd prefer it greatly if danger would leave him to mind his own business, thank you very much. Full review...
The Last Stormlord (Stormlord Trilogy) by Glenda Larke
The Last Stormlord is a unique story which explores a civilization on the brink of disaster. The world survives through the powers of a Stormmlord who brings water to the parched lands of the Quartern from the distant seas. As the story opens the last Stormlord is weak and dying. Choices are being made about who will receive water, who will not and the Quartern hovers on the brink of returning to a time of Random Rain: water that does not fall where or when it is needed. Without a new Stormlord the land will die. Full review...
The Hundred-Thousand Kingdoms (Inheritance Trilogy) by N K Jemisin
A month after her mother's death, outcast Yeine Darr is summoned by her grandfather, king of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, to come to the palace of Sky. There named one of his three heirs, along with her feuding cousins, she quickly realizes that without allies she will surely lose the contest for the throne. Thus begins an epic quest to find her mother's murderer, save her own life, and fulfil a destiny she never knew she had. Full review...
Divine by Choice (Goddess of Partholon) by P C Cast
A few months after the Formorian war, Shannon Parker is living the high life. Hailed as Goddess Incarnate, married to a man (well, centaur) who was born to love her, carrying her first child, the next daughter of Epona and royally spoiled with amazing jewels and clothes, life really can't get much better. Full review...
The Master of Misrule by Laura Powell
In the Arcanum, fortunes could be won and lost. The bizarre otherworld, just the slightest shift away from our own, had been home to a life-altering game of chance, power and intelligence, based on the tarot. Four teenaged Londoners had been witness to this, then players. But they'd found it wanting, and to level the playing field, had thrown out the rulebook. With that, however, the referee is no more, and the Lord of Misrule is in charge. Free, too, to smother all of Britain with his unique brand of scratch-card lottery. Soon all humanity might be out of luck. Full review...
Shadow Dragons (Imaginarium Geographica) by James A Owen
If you want to know where Tolkein, C S Lewis and their ilk got their ideas from, you might consider their jobs. No - not their work in Oxbridge universities. In this book, at least, John, Charles and Jack are guardians of a very important book, the Imaginarium Geographica, within which lives a lot of secret, vital information, and almost the soul of the land. They might not get a surname so we know immediately who is whom. They might be from a different world - there is certainly enough talk of those in these pages. But we'll see them meet a vanishing Cheshire cat, a certain Spanish knight we might have thought fictional, and more, en route to a quest of Arthurian proportions. Full review...
Divine by Mistake (Goddess of Partholon) by P C Cast
Shannon Parker, broke Oklahoma English teacher, likes a good bargain hunt at an auction. But she gets more than her money's worth when she buys a vase with her likeness painted on it. Somehow transported to the magical world of Partholon, Shannon finds herself in the shoes of Rhiannon, her mirror double. Along with Rhiannon's station as Goddess Incarnate, Shannon finds herself landed with her double's less than enviable reputation and a Centaur husband. Full review...
Mortlock by Jon Mayhew
Abyssinia, 1820. Three Englishment search for the Amarant, a mythical flower with the power over life and death, in a strange desert oasis. On finding the flower surrounded by decaying faces, they realize that it is cursed, and take a blood oath never to remove it.
London, 1854. 13 year old knife thrower Josie performs with her guardian the Great Cardamom, an especially gifted magician who we quickly learn is Chrimes, the coward of the original three Englishmen. Their relatively peaceful existence is shattered when three macabre Aunts (note the capital letter, never a good sign…) descend on them, and Cardamom instructs Josie, with his dying breath, to find the twin brother he'd never told her about and destroy the Amarant. Full review...
The Poison Throne (Moorehawke Trilogy) by Celine Kiernan
In The Poison Throne what had been a benevolent kingdom has become characterised by repression and torture (which the book graphically describes). The magical aspects of the kingdom, its talking cats and ghosts, have been suppressed, while Alberon, the heir to the throne, has vanished. Wynter, along with Alberon's half brother Razi and his friend Christopher are increasingly at risk as they attempt to deal with this situation. Full review...
Beyond the Wall of Time (Broken Man) by Russell Kirkpatrick
A couple of aspects have summed up Russell Kirkpatrick's Broken Man trilogy for me so far. There has been a fascinating story with some wonderful character building that has made it highly enjoyable. There have also been some of the most detailed maps I have ever seen in a fantasy series, offering more variation than I've seen in maps before and actually adding detail to some parts of the story, not merely acting as a guide. I was expecting more of the same from the final part, Beyond the Wall of Time and very much looking forward to it. Full review...
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Teenage boy meets mysterious new stranger in a small town. They fall in love, he finds out she's harbouring a dark secret, the pair of them try to find out if their relationship can work while she tries to keep him safe from her world. This kind of book appears to be released every few weeks since Twilight became so successful – but rarely in the past few years has it been done as well as it has in Beautiful Creatures. Full review...
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
Sometimes with authors you just don't know what you've been missing. Other times you do. Jasper Fforde has long been on my catch-up list. Snippets of Thursday Next and reviews and interviews were enough to convince me I had to get to know this work.
My chance finally came with the first in a completely new series: Shades of Grey. Full review...
Full Circle (Castings Trilogy) by Pamela Freeman
Pamela Freeman's Castings trilogy is written in an unusual way for a fantasy novel. It tells the story from the characters' points of view, in a style more common to the chick-lit novels of Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees. This interrupted the flow of the story quite noticeably in Blood Ties, the first of the trilogy, but didn't seem quite so much of a distraction in the second part, Deep Water. Unfortunately, this time around it works against the story. Full review...
Furnaces of Forge by Alan Skinner
In this sequel, it's almost as you were, except here the mysterious powers of the blue flame are not being used by some outlander arsonist, but have been usurped by two inept young scientists from the Myrmidots, to fuel their industry. We can predict this will prove a bad thing, but the breadth of the journey to capture the flame, and the efforts of all our returning characters to put things right might still be a surprise. Full review...