Books Received, July 20 — 26
26 Jul, 2019
Some people are born boring. Some live boring. Some even die boring. Fred managed to do all three, and when he woke up as a vampire, he did so as a boring one. Timid, socially awkward, and plagued by self-esteem issues, Fred has never been the adventurous sort.
One fateful night – different from the night he died, which was more inconvenient than fateful – Fred reconnects with an old friend at his high school reunion. This rekindled relationship sets off a chain of events thrusting him right into the chaos that is the parahuman world, a world with chipper zombies, truck driver wereponies, maniacal necromancers, ancient dragons, and now one undead accountant trying his best to “survive.” Because even after it’s over, life can still be a downright bloody mess.
The political chess game between the shogunate and the empress has a new piece — a self-aware, autonomous entity named Eve.
A mighty shogunate ruling the land from Tempu Castle. An imperial line of strict female succession. Caught between these two immense powers, the sprawling city of Tempu is home to many wonders — not least a superhuman technological achievement in the form of a beautiful automaton known as Eve. When a secret that threatens to shake the imperial line intersects with the mystery of Eve’s creation, events are set in motion that soon race toward a shocking conclusion. A new, astonishingly inventive science fantasy masterpiece of historic proportions.
A rebellious young woman leads a family of smugglers who become unwittingly entangled in a galactic war in this first book of an action-packed space opera trilogy.
There’s only one thing Scorpia Kaiser wants in the whole galaxy: to finally own Fortuna, the ship she pilots and the only home she’s ever known. But when it becomes clear her predecessor — the family matriarch — has been secretly dealing with various planetary governments, Scorpia realizes that her own family may be the reason the system’s five planets are headed toward a devastating war.
Lies, manipulation, and profit are all she’s ever been taught, but as she ascends into her new position Scorpia finds she has the chance to change everything. Yet even as she takes on more responsibility for the family’s fate, fortune and influence, she is not at all sure she’s ready for it — nor that she has the support of her crew, particularly her brother and rival Corvus.
To stop the war, she’ll have to unite her family and unravel the chaos they’ve left in their wake.
The Protector is dead. For fifty years, the Protector ruled, reshaping her country in her image and driving her enemies to the corners of the map. For half a century the world turned around her as she built her armies, trained her Tensors, and grasped at the reins of fate itself. Now she is dead. Her followers will quiver, her enemies rejoice. But in one tavern, deep in rebel territory, her greatest enemy drowns her sorrows. Lady Han raised a movement that sought the Protector’s head, yet now she can only mourn her loss. She remembers how it all began, when the Protector was young, not yet crowned, and a desperate dancing girl dared to fall in love with her.