Jennifer Jackson – Literary Agent

Kalimpura by Jay Lake

In this introspective sequel to Green and Endurance, Lake continues the tale of Green, a former courtesan and assassin now attempting to settle down following the birth of her twins. Unfinished business and old enemies take Green and her allies back to the city of Kalimpura, where she must keep a low profile while trying to find two kidnapped girls. However, discretion is difficult with multiple gods taking interest in her doings and several factions out for her blood. There’s something both uplifting and melancholy in this fantasy adventure’s tone, which 16-year-old Green narrates with a world-weary old soul’s experience, emotional weight hanging from every page. Thoughtful fantasy readers will appreciate Green’s newfound perspective and the lush details derived from a mixture of Eastern cultures, as well as the sheer audacity of a killer bisexual nonwhite teen mom protagonist. The pace drags occasionally, but it’s worth it in the long run. –Publishers Weekly

Cold Days by Jim Butcher

In yet another engaging urban fantasy that leavens apocalyptic threats with smart-ass humor, Butcher just keeps upping the ante for wizard Harry Dresden, appearing in his 14th novel after 2011’s Ghost Story. Being killed has barely slowed down the Chicago PI, who now serves as the Winter Knight. In that role, Dresden operates as hit man for Mab, the queen of air and darkness, who is forbidden from killing mortals. Not only is his liege capricious and deadly, but Dresden soon finds himself up against new supernatural foes, not least the Redcap, who dyes his headgear with the blood of anyone unfortunate enough to cross his path. The greatest danger, however, may be from Dresden’s new assignment from Mab: to murder her daughter, Maeve. Plentiful backstory allows newcomers to have little trouble getting caught up in the action or connecting with the charismatic lead. –Publishers Weekly

Inexplicables by Cherie Priest

The latest installment of Priest’s steampunk series, Clockwork Century, returns to the alternate Civil War–era American landscape she introduced in Boneshaker (2009). Her eccentric protagonist this time is Rector Sherman, who, at 18, has just left the only home he’s ever known, an orphanage just outside a toxic, gas-infested, late-1800s Seattle. Hoping to eke out another few years of existence by selling and using sap, the area’s gas-derived drug of choice, Rector scales Seattle’s imposing walls and seeks out the ruined city’s criminal underworld. Aside from making a living, Rector is also hunting the remains of his old friend, Zeke Wilkes, hoping Zeke’s troublesome ghost will finally let him be. Yet not only is Zeke very much alive but the reunited pair must contend with a cross section of Seattle’s worst elements, including the zombie-like “inexplicables” and a band of sinister gold prospectors. Priest’s narrative has all the compelling ingredients that keep the steampunk subgenre going, including riveting characters; a vividly realized, atmospheric setting; and a well-told story of adventure. –Booklist

Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed

Doctor Adoulla Makhslood is certainly an unlikely epic fantasy hero. He’s fat, past his prime, and far less interested in magical adventure than in sipping cardamom tea and dreaming of his unrequited love for an over-the-hill whore turned brothelkeeper. But unheroic though he is, Makhslood is the last of the great ghul hunters—the only honorable magician left in a city full of frauds and charlatans. The tarnished honor of his beloved native city of Dhamsawaat rests in Dr. Makhslood’s hands. And when his mistress asks him to save her orphaned great-nephew, whose parents have just been devoured by bone ghuls, Makhslood is cast into the middle of a diabolical plot on which (naturally!) the fate of the civilized world depends.

Throne of the Crescent Moon appears to be the first book of a forthcoming trilogy—and I couldn’t be happier about that. I only wish that the next two volumes were going to be out in time for sumer vacation this year, because Saladin Ahmed has produced that rarest and finest of literary treasures: beach reading for the thinking fantasy fan. This book delights, amuses, romances, and entertains the reader …without ever insulting his or her intelligence. And on top of that, Ahmed has produced an epic fantasy that feels authentically Islamic, not just in its setting, historical references, and magical systems, but also in the wonderfully drawn character of Doctor Makhslood, a man who sees all the absurdity and charlatanry around him…and yet somehow manages to keep on keeping on with a self-deprecating heroism that reminds me uncannily of more than one Arab human rights activist I’ve known over the years.

Throne of the Crescent Moon is a delight in every imaginable way. The writing is surefooted and confident. The humor is spot-on page after page. The setting is so richly drawn that it practically smells like walking down the streets of Fez or Cairo. The magic draws convincingly on Iraqi and Egyptian folktales, as well as the Thousand and One Nights, Sufi lore, and much much more. And wrapped up in all the swordslinging and spellmongering are a few hard-won grains of wisdom about what it takes to be a hero in a world run by bullies and despots.

–Chris Moriarty, Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, September/October 2012

Baba Yaga’s Daughter and Other Tales of the Old Races by C.E. Murphy

Best friends and sometimes bitter rivals, master vampire Eliseo Daisani and dragonlord Janx encounter a young woman who claims to be the daughter of the witch Baba Yaga. When her daughter apparently dies, Baba Yaga swears eternal enmity against both Eliseo and Janx. In places and times as far-flung as New York in the 1920s (“Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight”), gangland Chicago (“Chicago Bang Bang”), and the Summer of Love (“The Age of Aquarius”), the lives of Daisani, Janx, Daisani’s enigmatic associate Vanessa Grey, Margrit Knight (known as the Negotiator), and the nameless woman once known as Baba Yaga’s daughter intersect, creating a legacy destined to endure through the ages. These ten tales set in the world of Murphy’s Negotiator novels (Heart of Stone; House of Cards; Hands of Flame) come together to tell a larger story of rivalry and love.

VERDICT These elegantly written stories should appeal to those who want more Negotiator tales as well as to fans of vampire fiction and Russian folklore. — Library Journal