"Let's start with the end of the world, why don't we?" ~ from N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season
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| Lamp Black, Wolf Grey by Paula BrackstonContemporary Fantasy. Struggling with a stalled career, a failing marriage, and infertility, London-based artist Laura Matthews moves to Wales, hoping that a change of scene will change her life for the better. Laura's exploration of her new home and her encounters with a mysterious man who wanders the nearby woods alternates with the tale of the enchanter Merlin, his grey wolf, and the young woman who captures his heart. Like author Paula Brackston's previous novels, Lamp Black, Wolf Grey boasts a strong sense of place, lush description, and a heady blend of magic and romance. |
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| The Rise of the Automated Aristocrats: A Burton & Swinburne Adventure by Mark HodderSteampunk. Following separate sojourns to the future, explorer Richard Francis Burton and his companion, poet Algernon Swinburne, return 1861 London, burdened with knowledge of 23rd-century technological innovations that they can neither use nor reveal to anyone. Despite efforts to keep the information secret, it soon falls into the wrong hands. Now it's up to the duo to prevent their beloved England from becoming a totalitarian state. Atmospheric, intricately plotted, and witty, The Rise of the Automated Aristocrats concludes the Burton & Swinburne Adventures, which began with The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack. |
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Focus on: Secret Societies
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| Dime Store Magic by Kelley ArmstrongUrban Fantasy. When Paige Winterbourne inherits her mother's position as Coven leader, she also gains custody of 13-year-old orphan witch Savannah Levine. At 23, Paige doesn't feel up to the task of leading a Coven or raising a teenager, but she'll have to do both when a powerful Cabal of sorcerers decides it wants Savannah. Although witches and sorcerers don't get along, Paige is so desperate to protect her young ward that she'll even accept the aid of sorcerer-lawyer Lucas Cortez. While this is the 3rd installment of Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, it's the first to focus on Paige, whose adventures continue in Industrial Magic and Counterfeit Magic. Savannah, meanwhile, takes center stage in Waking the Witch, Spellbound, and Thirteen. |
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| The Innocent Mage by Karen MillerFantasy. The son of a fisherman, Asher yearns to rise above his humble beginnings and see the world beyond the village of his birth. To this end, he travels to the city of Dorana, where he befriends a prince of the realm, encounters a powerful cabal of mages, and -- thanks to some unexpected new acquaintances -- discovers a destiny far stranger and greater than any he could have imagined. The Innocent Mage is the 1st novel in the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker duology, followed by The Awakened Mage. There's also a prequel, A Blight of Mages. |
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| The Rook: A Novel by Daniel O'MalleyFantasy. It's bad enough when you black out and then regain consciousness in a London park, battered, bruised, and surrounded by corpses. It's even worse when you discover that you've woken up in the wrong body. Fortunately for the unnamed, amnesiac woman currently inhabiting the body of "Myfanwy Thomas," the previous occupant has left her a series of letters informing her that she's a "Rook," a high-level operative of a secret organization that battles supernatural forces, as well as providing instructions on how to survive her new life. This offbeat, genre-bending debut combines the pacing and suspense of a spy novel and the gritty, detailed world-building of urban fantasy. |
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| The Traveler: A Novel by John Twelve HawksFantasy. Like it or not, Gabriel and Michael Corrigan are destined to follow in their father's footsteps as members of a secret society known as the Travelers. And, like it or not, sword-wielding "Harlequin" Maya must protect the brothers from the Tabula, a rival group dedicated to world domination as well as the destruction of all Travelers. This fast-paced, suspenseful debut novel kicks off the Fourth Realm trilogy, which continues with The Dark River and The Golden City. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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