Three of these four are books two in series that debuted in 2010 and were all reviewed and recommended by me in the 2010 summations posts, while Home Fires seems to be another mind-bending winner after last year's Sorcerer's House, another one reviewed here and appearing in the recommendation post mentioned.
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While unrelated to The Sorcerer's House (FBC Rv) and set in a strange but also familiar future, this one starts very exciting with a conversation between the main hero and a "dead woman", resurrected - for a fee of course, paid monthly as long as Skip wants the resurrected woman to hang around - at his behest as a "gift" for his reunion with his soon-to-return fiancee after relativistic effects made decades pass for him and years for her... If this does not sound mind-bending enough, the blurb for Home Fires which is available right now, offers more goodies:
"In a future North America not quite crumbling but somewhat less than utopian, Skip and Chelle meet and marry in college. But Chelle has to do her term of military service against aliens many light-years away. Twenty-five years later, thanks to the time-dilation effect, she is a still-young but convalescent combat veteran. Skip is a wealthy businessman. And they are still in love. Unfortunately, when they take a Caribbean cruise to celebrate, they run into pirates, politics, aliens, and Murphy’s Law running wild.."
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Another current book and direct sequel to Servant of the Underworld (FBC Rv), I only had a chance to browse the first 5 pages of Harbinger of the Storm since I got it yesterday, but it seemed to still have the magical writing that made me enjoy a lot the author's debut last year. The same setting and first person narrative and picking up when the first one ends. Here is the blurb for more:
"THE AZTEC EMPIRE TEETERS ON THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION.
As the political infighting starts within the imperial court, Acatl, High Priest for the Dead, makes a macabre discovery in the palace: a high-ranking nobleman has been torn to pieces by an invocation - and it looks like the summoner belongs to the court itself..."
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City of Hope and Despair is coming in late March from Angry Robot and from the quick browse I did yesterday seems to be a direct sequel to the excellent City of Dreams and Nightmares (FBc Rv) though set somewhat later since the main hero seems to be now part of the establishment so to speak. Another ultra-promising novel to keep an eye on, while if not done so, go and try the first installment which was also the author's novelistic co-debut in 2010 alongside the superb The Noise Within (FBC Rv) - that's another one whose sequel, The Noise Revealed, will come soon from Solaris this time and which I will try to get and read it asap...
"A SECOND VISIT TO THAIBURLEY: THE CITY OF DREAMS, THE FABLED CITY OF A HUNDRED ROWS.
Dark forces are gathering in the shadowy depths, and the whole city is under threat. The former street-nick, Tom, embarks on a journey to discover the source of the great river Thair, said to be the ultimate power behind all of Thaiburley. Accompanying him are the assassin Dewar and the young Thaistess Mildra. It soon becomes evident that their journey has more significance than any of them realize, as past secrets catch up with them and unknown adversaries hunt them... to the death! "
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Camera Obscura which is coming from Angry Robot in late April is set in the same wonderfully realized alt-Victorian world with "Les Lezards", automatons and a mix of historical personalities and famous period characters from Jules Verne to Professor Moriarty belonging to the cast, where The Bookman (FBC Rv) made a splashing debut last year. This one seems not to be a direct sequel though since from my quick browse the characters seem to be different; on the other hand it starts very, very intriguingly too, while the blurb speaks for itself with the allusions to other famous period stuff...
"CAN'T FIND A RATIONAL EXPLANATION TO A MYSTERY? CALL IN THE QUIET COUNCIL. The mysterious and glamorous Lady De Winter is one of their most valuable agents. A despicable murder inside a locked and bolted room on the Rue Morgue in Paris is just the start. This whirlwind adventure will take Milady to the highest and lowest parts of that great city - and cause her to question the very nature of reality itself."
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