#orbit publishing

Shtel rose. "That's impossible," she asserted. But doubt crept in behind her certainty.

So...... does this mean sie was originally a binary woman and this part wasn't edited properly? That's not how traditional publishing is supposed to work. They're supposed to be more than one person reading this to catch things like this.

Edit :)

Annleckie said:

The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten. Rating: 4.25 stars.

Read from January 24th to 27th.

Before I get into the review, a quick thank you to both NetGalley and the publishers over at Orbit for giving me access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I wanted to request this one as soon as I saw that cover. It is STUNNING. But then I looked at the synopsis and was immediately sold on the premise too. In a world where a brush with death can extend life, we follow poison runner Lore as her magic is discovered by the crown and she brought into a world of politicking, backstabbing, and spying. Lore soon learns that her underground drug running world has nothing on the Citadel and its court. The Foxglove King comes out on March 7th and is available for preorder now.

I kept the synopsis above a little vague because I want people to be as blown away by this one as I was. There is so much about this story that I adore. The first is the magic system built around 6 gods whose deaths left the world with their different magics--the deadliest of which is mortem, the power over death. Only those who have had a brush with death can manipulate mortem for their own uses. I also love how the author used scraps of scripture or notes or scientific papers at the beginning of the chapters to help build up the world without shoving it in the reader’s face. There’s also an element of this story that I LOVE seeing that I really don’t want to spoil for you because seeing the threads of it throughout the book made me so happy. It’s something that doesn’t get used in a lot of the SFF I read, but I know it’s used in other genres more liberally. So seeing this element really did something for me. I also enjoyed the characters. Though, I do think they remind me a little too much of other characters I’ve read before. I think there was just so much plot, world building, etc. to get through that they weren’t able to shine the way they should have. I hope they get a little more attention in the next book.

So, Orbit Publishing has contacted some of us in the Imperial Radch fandom to help reveal the cover for Ann Leckie’s new novel! We’ve each been given a piece and this is mine, which is part 1 of 4!

Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

I love this story. It is what every child holds deep in their imagination. What every inner child sat inside an adult screams for. Imagine doors, just random doors in the middle of nowhere, somewhere and even here. Doors that lead to other places, countries and people. Doors driven by the invisible magic in the world, but only visible to a few.

There’s a moment in the story when Harrow balances…

Strange Practice is Vivian Shaw’s debut novel. I was excited about the concept of the novel from the beginning, and then I found out she has an undergrad degree in Art History and an MFA in creative writing. Oh hello, academic twin, it’s lovely to meet you.

Dr. Greta Helsing is the latest in her family’s line of doctors who treat the supernatural. And yes, she is related to that van Helsing. (The family dropped the ‘van’ in the 1930s and started helping rather than hunting.)

I picked up Shaw’s book because the finale of Penny Dreadful (that, yes, I finished over a year ago) left a giant hole in my heart yet to be filled. Strange Practice is more a supernatural modern urban mystery than the blood and guts and violence of the TV show, but what drew me to both was the new, unique iteration of familiar, supernatural character types.

Dr. Helsing goes about her daily life—treating the undead, the ghouls, the mummies and vampires at a clinic—when she gets a house call for a vampire attacked by a murderous cult. She is thrown into the middle of the mystery as more supernatural assassination attempts throw her side of London into a state of terror.

I was delightfully surprised to come upon queer characters, as they weren’t advertised in the marketing of the book. (Surprise queer characters! Insert grabby hands.) In an AMA Reddit thread, Shaw commented that the diverse spectrum of identities will be further expanded in the coming books of the trilogy. (As if I didn’t already want to get my hands on the sequel.)

It took me a while to keep the main characters straight (hah), but that speaks more to my distracted reading habits than Shaw’s writing. The characters interact frequently, and I would have liked to have gotten to know them more on their own as well. The dry humor, the punchy, pithy lines of dialogue—“nothing more than a bit of engineering with ideas above its station”—had me cackling aloud in my apartment. As the novel progressed, the characters gained depth and color, adding to the tension and mystery of the story.

Shaw inserts lovely nerdy references—Lord of the Rings, Alice in Wonderland, Monty Python and many more I’m sure I missed—like little Easter eggs: some obvious, others subtle.

The ending had a slant-deus ex machina, which seemed slightly out of sorts with the organization of the rest of the novel. That said, I found myself embracing it and I hope that we will get to see more of it expanded in the forthcoming books.

There’s all sorts of magic in Strange Practice—the literal kind on the page, the subtle kind that brings the characters to life—and the writing itself as it weaves between the pages. If you are a fan of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, or have enjoyed Edward Gorey’s drawings, or love finding new yet familiar supernatural characters, Vivian Shaw’s magical debut is a must-read before classes start again.

Disclosure: The author received a copy of Strange Practice from Orbit Publishing in exchange for an honest review.