Books Received, December 30 — January 5
6 Jan, 2024
The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 9 by Natsu Hyuuga (October 2023)
Maomao has effectively become Jinshi’s personal physician, but she’s just a simple apothecary. If she’s going to give him proper medical treatment, she’ll need more than her meager surgical skills. When she turns to her father for help, he says he’ll only teach her if she can pass a test he sets for her. Even if she succeeds at his mysterious request, however, the truth behind the practice of surgery at court may be more than she cares to know. And only once she has the knowledge she needs will she be able to accompany Jinshi on what could be his most dangerous journey yet.
Interzone #294 edited by Gareth Jelley (January 2023)
INTERZONE #294 features writing by Daniel Bennett, Gautam Bhatia, Georgina Bruce, Kat Clay, R.T. Ester, Philip Fracassi, Alexander Glass, Louise Hughes, Kelly Jennings, David Langford, Nick Lowe, Laura Mauro, Val Nolan, Mike O’Driscoll, Marisca Pichette, J.F. Sebastian, Liviu Surugiu, and Aliya Whiteley; and art by Martin Hanford, Dante Luiz, Alex Maniezo, Dave Senecal, and Vinayak Varma.
Interzone #295 edited by Gareth Jelley (September 2023)
INTERZONE #295 features fiction by Seán Padraic Birnie, Rachael Cupp, Frank Dumas, Stephanie Lane Gage, Jendia Gammon, Ai Jiang, Jonathan Laidlow, Edward R. Morris, Nozaki Mado, Katie McIvor, H. Pueyo, Amal Singh, R.L. Summerling, Corey J. White, Aigner Loren Wilson; non-fiction by Gautam Bhatia, Alexander Glass, Kelly Jennings, Paul Kincaid, David Langford, Nick Lowe, Val Nolan, and Aliya Whiteley; and art by Carly A‑F, Martin Hanford, Emma Howitt, Dante Luiz, Juliana Pinho, Vinayak Varma, and Richard Wagner.
In the Shadow of the Fall by Tobi Ogundiran (July 2024)
A cosmic war reignites and the fate of the orisha lie in the hands of an untried acolyte in this first entry of a new epic fantasy novella duology by Tobi Ogundiran, for fans of N. K. Jemisin and Suyi Davies Okungbowa.
Ashâke is an acolyte in the temple of Ifa, yearning for the day she is made a priest and sent out into the world to serve the orisha. But of all the acolytes, she is the only one the orisha refuse to speak to. For years she has watched from the sidelines as peer after peer passes her by and ascends to full priesthood.
Desperate, Ashâke attempts to summon and trap an orisha — any orisha. Instead, she experiences a vision so terrible it draws the attention of a powerful enemy sect and thrusts Ashâke into the center of a centuries-old war that will shatter the very foundations of her world.
The Master of Samar by Melissa Scott (June 2023)
Rejected by his aristocratic family, Gil Irichels has been content to make his living as a traveling cursebreaker, working with his lover, the feral mage Envar Cassi, and their bodyguard, swordswoman Arak min’Aroi. After a series of deaths leave him the sole heir to the family’s house and fortune, Irichels’s main concern is to do whatever he must to settle the estate and return to his previous life. But these is something very wrong in seaborne Bejanth, starting with the deaths of his kin and spreading into the complex web of politics and magic that holds the city together. As he struggles to discover the truth behind his family’s losses, he realizes that there is more at stake than the fall of one house. Someone is unraveling the web of curses on which the city depends, and Irichels is the only person who can stop them — if it’s not already too late.
The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo (May 2024)
As Chih and the bride-to-be explore empty rooms and desolate courtyards, they are drawn into the mystery of what became of Lord Guo’s previous wives and the dark history of Do Cao itself. But as the wedding night draws to its close, Chih will learn at their peril that not all monsters are to be found in the shadows; some monsters hide in plain sight.
