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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Top New Fantasy Books July 2020

The Book of Dragons: An Anthology by Jonathan Strahan

Type: Anthology Publisher: Harper Voyager Release date: July 7

Den of Geek says: I’m always looking for a good book about dragons, and this incredible list of authors promises adventurous and unique stories. Anne Leckie, Zen Cho, Seanan Maguire, J.Y. Yang, Patricia A McKillip, Brooke Bolander … it’s an astounding, literary-flavored list of people qualified to write cool creatures.

Publisher’s summary: Here there be dragons . . .

From China to Europe, Africa to North America, dragons have long captured our imagination in myth and legend. Whether they are rampaging beasts awaiting a brave hero to slay or benevolent sages who have much to teach humanity, dragons are intrinsically connected to stories of creation, adventure, and struggle beloved for generations.

Bringing together nearly thirty stories and poems from some of the greatest science fiction and fantasy writers working today— Garth Nix, Scott Lynch, R.F. Kuang, Ann Leckie & Rachel Swirsky, Daniel Abraham, Peter S. Beagle, Beth Cato, Zen Cho, C. S. E Cooney, Aliette de Bodard, Amal El-Mohtar, Kate Elliott, Theodora Goss, Ellen Klages, Ken Liu, Seanan Maguire, Patricia A McKillip, K. J. Parker, Kelly Robson, Michael Swanwick, Jo Walton, Elle Katharine White, Jane Yolen, Kelly Barnhill, Brooke Bolander, Sarah Gailey, and J. Y. Yang—and illustrated by award-nominated artist Rovina Cai with black-and-white line drawings specific to each entry throughout, this extraordinary collection vividly breathes fire and life into one of our most captivating and feared magical creatures as never before and is sure to become a treasured keepsake for fans of fantasy, science fiction, and fairy tales.

Buy The Book of Dragons by Jonathan Strahan on Amazon.

Or What You Will by Joe Walton

Type: Novel Publisher: Tor Books Release date: July 7

Den of Geek says: Jo Walton is a writer’s writer, highly praised but still generally skating under the radar. I found her 2014 My Real Children to not nearly live up to its very high concept, but she’s one of those authors with technical prowess who is at least worth checking out for context for women’s science fiction. The metafiction plot sounds fun.

Publisher’s summary: He has been too many things to count. He has been a dragon with a boy on his back. He has been a scholar, a warrior, a lover, and a thief. He has been dream and dreamer. He has been a god.

But “he” is in fact nothing more than a spark of idea, a character in the mind of Sylvia Harrison, 73, award-winning author of thirty novels over forty years. He has played a part in most of those novels, and in the recesses of her mind, Sylvia has conversed with him for years.

But Sylvia won’t live forever, any more than any human does. And he’s trapped inside her cave of bone, her hollow of skull. When she dies, so will he.

Now Sylvia is starting a new novel, a fantasy for adult readers, set in Thalia, the Florence-resembling imaginary city that was the setting for a successful YA trilogy she published decades before. Of course he’s got a part in it. But he also has a notion. He thinks he knows how he and Sylvia can step off the wheel of mortality altogether. All he has to do is convince her.

Buy Or What You Will by Jo Walton on Amazon.

The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal

Type: Graphic Novel Publisher: First Second Release date: July 14

Den of Geek says: The Adventure Zone is a wildly popular humorous fantasy podcast. It’s part of the big 2010s wave of Dungeons & Dragons coming back into the geek space. Especially for someone who might not want to listen to hundreds of episodes of a podcast, the illustrated version does a good job of smoothing out the story into a graphic novel format without removing the goofy chaos of the original podcast.

Publisher’s summary: START YOUR ENGINES, friends, Clint McElroy and sons Griffin, Justin, and Travis hit the road again with Taako, Magnus and Merle, the beloved agents of chaos from the #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novels illustrated by Carey Pietsch, The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins and The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited.

Our boys have gone full-time at the Bureau of Balance, and their next assignment is a real thorny one: apprehending The Raven, a master thief who’s tapped into the power of a Grand Relic to ransack the city of Goldcliff. Local life-saver Lieutenant Hurley pulls them out of the woods, only to throw them headlong into the world of battle wagon racing, Goldcliff’s favorite high-stakes low-legality sport and The Raven’s chosen battlefield. Will the boys and Hurley be able to reclaim the Relic and pull The Raven back from the brink, or will they get lost in the weeds?

Based on the beloved blockbuster podcast where three brothers and their dad play a tabletop RPG in real time, The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal has it all: blossoming new friendships, pining for outlaw lovers, and a rollicking race you can root for!

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Buy The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal on Amazon.

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shardclan · 8 years ago

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The sensation of the harpies was fading. Mote could sense one or two in the cliffs, but they were moving away. One thing had become clear: they were specifically targeting for wildclaws. It made sense, when one considered that that the roost was a major site and would surely be aware of the shadowy, hated wildclaw they only knew as the Smoke Gyre.

Mote could almost imagine the kind of joy they might experience if they knew they had hit one of the Smoke Gyre's family. Inversely, he could scarcely imagine the way Actias was going to take it out on them when he found out. In the mean time, Saber and Zurvan had gone up to meet them. Climbing the sparse cliffs and staying high and visible to keep the rest of the group undisturbed. The harpies would avoid actively chasing a group that had multiple guardians in it if they could, but only so long as they didn't realize Heaven was still alive.

Aether had completely exhausted her knowledge in tending to both Heaven and Galette. She was only a dentist, but she had done her best by them despite knowing little of suturing or internal injuries.

They had hoped Cinnabar would be able to assist with that, as she was familiar with field injuries on her hunts. But when they had managed to reunite with Cloudwhyte, Cinnabar was already dead. They had been ambushed while they were on the hunt. Cloudwhyte was wounded and recovering, and worse still Galette's sickness had made a come back with her body weakened by her wounds. She and Heaven lay close, with Heaven hidden under her arm where any scouting harpies wouldn't be able to see him.

"We can't keep going like this," she rasped."We are losing time, and taking more injuries that will only delay us longer."

"What can we do?" asked Telos. "We have no proper healer."

"We were doing fine with Heaven. Why isn’t he healing himself?"

"He will not take the life from me no matter how I offer," Camellia answered from his side. "He exhausted his energy and there is nothing to take here. He claims he needs too much."

"How much is too much?"

"All of it, probably."

"...Wake him. He will take mine."

Heaven inhaled sharply beneath her as he stirred. "No."

"Heaven, I'm an imperial. Even in this condition, the raw vitality I have left could fuel you for the rest of the journey. You don't have to die too."

"I won't take your life, Galette. I would rather give you mine."

"That's nice, but my life is less important right now. You're a healer, or the closest we have to one. You need to live."

"Not if this is what it takes."

A subtle noise rose in volume until it drowned out even Galette's frustrated sighing. Camellia hummed so hard her horns were visibly vibrating. She lowered her cowl and set her emblem aside. She took Heaven's wing wraps, wrapping them around her fist so the the gem were safely away from the loose ends.

With a ferocious hiss, she whipped Heaven right across his face. He cried out more in shock than in pain. She had never once hit him before. But now she let loose on him with a flurry that he couldn't even flinch from, taking several more hits before Alchemilla rushed in to get between them.

"Camellia, stop! He's dying!"

"Aye, and I'll finish him myself before I let him piss away his last breath right in Galette's face!" She pointed accusingly at him. "I have taught you all your life the place of your power. I have taught you about the circle and the cycle and all that life and death are, and here at this moment where you could finally accept it, you refuse! Blessed with the great gift of life, and a willing sacrifice, you SQUANDER it! What perfect world are you seeing boy? Because in this one, you are the only one with the power to heal your clanmates definitely and yet you choose death! Was my son such a coward?! Or do you care for them so little?!"

Heaven covered his face and cried bitterly, his chest heaving so hard that his wound began to re-open. "No, that’s not true! But how can I, mama? How can I accept this and not hate myself? How can I accept being told I am more worthy to go on?"

"You misunderstand, my child. You are not more worthy. You know that best of all of us. But you are more necessary."

Galette lifted a finger, and very gently brushed the young wildclaw. "If you were in my position, would you not offer your last to the one who could do the most good with it?"

Heaven looked up into her giant, gentle eyes. Of course he would. Without even thinking about it. But he stubbornly refused to answer aloud, as though that would make the truth different.

Galette laughed softly. "There, there. Look, your mother cries too. She knows the gift of life is so heavy, and you are a tender child. She was only angry with you because you were going to throw both our lives away. But you know you can't, don't you?"

His tears came faster, in heavy drops that ran down his snout. "I don't want to do this."

"I don't want to die," Galette admitted. "But that's going to happen either way, so I would rather give my life to you. I have terms, if it makes you feel any better."

"Anything."

"You have to do better from now on, Heaven. Take care of yourself with the precision and sense of purpose that Haematica and Tungsten do. You have others lives in your hands, so dedicate yourself to being in good condition. No more recklessly giving your own energy until you're near death yourself when you can't find something to take from. Be better."

Heaven looked at his mother. Her anger had passed and she was looking at him with sad, knowing eyes and tears on her face. She had done her best from the moment she first saw him reanimating butterflies to make him understand that the power had limits. That even if he poured his entire life force out, it would rarely make a dent in the overall flow of events. He had to take actions that were humbler, and which often didn't feel as good, because those were the ones that had the greater effect. But he had still occasionally breathed life into butterflies. Just to watch them live for a few moments before they died anew. It has been his way of trying to accept it, but he never quite managed.

You can't save it all, she used to tell him. It's not supposed to last forever.

"I hate this," he croaked.

Camellia stroked his forehead. "I know, my love."

"I'll be better, Galette. I promise. But I won't do it without Saber here. I'm not going to make him come back to find you dead."

"That's fine. Camellia, you'll make sure I don't...turn?"

"You have my word as a necromancer. I'll be back."

They waited. Several times, Telos seemed about to say something, but she never did. Eventually, Camellia returned with Saber. He came right to Galette's side, but he was quiet.

"She already told you?" asked Galette.

"Yes."

"Please don't hate him."

"I won't. He did his best for you. The harpies are at fault for it coming to this." He leaned against her, pressing himself into her cheek. "I should have taken us a different way..."

She smiled. "You look for ways to make this your responsibility in the same breath that you laid responsibility with the harpies. Everything can't be your job, dad."

"This shouldn't be your job. I'm your father, if a life should be expended, it should be mine."

"And yet you can't offer that. Because you're the strongest warrior here. Just like Heaven, you have to live and protect them. I'm a lower price to pay."

"You're my daughter!" he sobbed. "How can I think of you that way?"

"I know... I know. Take care of mom, okay?"

"I will. I love you. She loves you."

Galette swallowed back her tears and nudged him tenderly away. "Love you too. Heaven, I'm ready."

Camellia helped Heaven up, and the two pairs of parent and child exchanged complicated expressions. Heaven was still crying even as he pressed his nose to Galette's. He breathed in, and in, and in for an impossible stretch of time. And when he finally stopped, Galette breathed out in a single quiet sigh and collapsed into the dust.

The wound on Heaven's back closed. His pain was gone. He felt he was overflowing and invigorated, and the goodness of it only sharpened how awful it was. He looked at Saber. "I'm sorry... I'm s-so sorry..."

Saber gently and forgivingly touched a hand to Heaven's crest. He ushered the boy away so Camellia could tend to his daughter's body.

#The Exodus #Flight Rising #In which a soft son must accept his power and his limitations and grow up #C: Camellia #C: Heaven #C: Saber #C: Galbana

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