Jennifer Jackson – Literary Agent

Hellbent (Cheshire Red Reports, Book 2) by Cherie Priest

When an urban fantasy features a “vampire superthief” and an “ex-navy SEAL and fabulous drag queen” among its lead characters, it can either be a delightful guilty pleasure or a disaster. In Priest’s second Raylene Pendle book (after Bloodshot), the author brings an enjoyable noirish humor to this booming genre. Our undead protagonist boldly breaks down the fourth wall to bring new readers up-to-date (although being reminded that she’s just a character in a book may take some readers out of the narrative). In her new outing, Raylene has been hired to retrieve a magical artificat also desired by a powerful witch who will stop at nothing to get it. At the same time, someone is trying to kill Ian, Raylene’s blind vampire friend.

VERDICT Raylene and her gang of misfits will draw in urban fantasy fans of all stripes as well as fans of Priest’s other fantasies. Some language, used to show character traits, is a bit strong and might turn off gentler readers. However, the humor and adventure more than compensate for this minor negative.­ –Stacey Rottiers, Library Journal

The Tempering of Men by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette

Every bit as absorbing as the first volume, The Tempering of Men is compelling and intensely readable. Told from multiple perspectives, the characters are well-drawn and distinct, especially Brokkolfr and Amma, his amusingly maternal wolf-sister. Monette and Bear each excel at creating unique worlds when writing solo fiction, so it’s no surprise that this joint effort combines their strengths into something extraordinary. –RT Book Review, 4 ½ Stars, Top Pick!

Ghost Story by Jim Butcher

Death won’t stop Harry Dresden. In Changes, book 12 of Butcher’s “Dresden Files” series, the title promised and Butcher produced. By the end, everything in Harry’s world had changed, including his status as a living wizard of the White Council. Readers had a tease in the short story “Aftermath,” from Side Jobs, showing that the denizens of Chicago’s magical side would not give up on Harry or his work. Harry, now a ghost, is given the chance to go back to solve his own murder, and what follows is an intense ride through the true aftermath of his death. Butcher’s attention to detail and description will bring new readers on board, while longtime fans will be surprised and elated to see what’s in store for them now.

Verdict: This stunning, exciting series entry with its heart-stopping action will shock and thrill Butcher fans.—Stacey Rottiers, Library Journal

Heart of Iron by Ekaterina Sedia

Sedia (The Alchemy of Stone) superbly blends novel of manners, alternate history, and le Carré–style espionage with a dash of superheroes and steampunk. In a Russia in which the Decembrist revolution succeeded and Constantine never abdicated, 18-year-old Sasha is unexpectedly enrolled at university thanks to a challenge her aunt Eugenia issues to Constantine. Her initial concerns about sexism fade to the background once she realizes that Chinese students are vanishing. After a visiting British student named Jack, who has strange powers, helps Sasha prevent a kidnapping, she learns of a plot that could lead Russia into war with China, England, or both. Sedia assembles a nice list of supporting characters–the forceful Eugenia, the Russian soldiers and Chinese fur traders Sasha befriends, sinister spymaster Florence Nightingale–and Sasha’s often frustrated but always practical narrative voice smoothly carries the novel to its satisfying conclusion. — Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti by Genevieve Valentine

Valentine’s novel has the stylized quality of books by Angela Carter like “The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman,” and it displays similar pyrotechnics. Run by a woman known as Boss, the traveling Circus Tresaulti ekes out its existence against a postapocalyptic backdrop of cities rebuilding after “the bombs and the radiation.” The setting is unimaginative, but the circus performers, most of them mechanically altered to enhance their acts, come to life in a series of skillful set pieces. Chief among these performers are the aerialists Alec, who has recently (and intentionally) fallen to his death, and Bird, who has replaced him. Together they give the novel its emotional force, as Valentine keeps returning to the reasons for Alec’s death: “For anyone who sees it, a moment like that is never in the past; it is always happening. . . . When Bird falls, Alec is falling.” In contrast to the complexity of that haunting echo, the plot is more basic, involving the threat from a dastardly “government man.” Yet in a highwire act of her own, Valentine still raises the novel above the ordinary through her ability to convey the richness of the circus performers’ emotional lives, coupled with impressive writing — as in a description of Alec’s surgically attached wings, every bone-and-brass feather “jigsawed and hammered and smoothed so thin that when it strikes another feather it rings out a clear note.” -Jeff Vandermeer, New York Times