Review: Last Stop by Django Wexler

A fun and high-octane dieselpunk adventure set in a world where life is precariously clinging to high mountains... because the lowlands are dominated by giant insects

Zham Sa-Yool has a problem. Several problems, actually. He is a reprobate, a cad, a rake and an excellent pilot. He also really can’t pay his bar bills, which means when he goes to town on behalf of his sister, he often winds up in one bad situation or another. His latest visit to a bar winds up with a potential recruit for his sister’s mercenary company, and a whole lot of trouble. And, it seems, a lead to a job that will take the Last Stop and its air wing to the lowlands for a payday that could make their money problems go away... if the competition, and the giant insects, don’t get them first.

This is the world, and the story of Django Wexler’s Last Stop.

Zham’s world is not quite our own, or it is not recognizably our own, although it feels like a dieselpunk 1930s-era level of technology. Airplanes, tommy guns, sky pirates, two-fisted action and adventure, a lot of the trappings one might find in, say, an Indiana Jones movie, or the Phantom movie from the 1990s, or TV series such as Bring 'Em Back Alive and Tales of the Golden Monkey. The emphasis is on high-octane action and adventure, narrow escapes, daredevil escapes, twists and turns of the plot, and of course deadly enemies.

Wexler takes this well-worn chassis, freshens it up, and makes it his own with a couple of innovations. First off, the novel has a modern sensibility and representation as far as gender and queerness. The stock characters often found in this sort of fiction are here, somewhat, but even in the names such as Zham’s (and his physical description), Wexler reaches for more and broader models of characters. Also, the novel is unapologetic in having queer characters, and women who break, and are far more diverse than, the stereotypes they are often relegated to in works of this type. So we get a modern, diverse cast of characters for Wexler’s setup.

Next, the world. Human civilization has retreated to mountaintops and high places because of the bugs below “The layer”. What has happened to cause this is not clear (it is not clear whether an event happened to do this; reading between the lines, I get the sense that it did), but below a certain altitude, giant insects (defying laws of physics) dominate the landscape. These bugs are mindless and deadly. But they are also useful, since certain species of bug can be harvested for fuel to provide a magical lift for airplanes. Humans have to stay high and stay flying in order for civilization to continue, and occasionally delve down to get more bug blood. But no one can LIVE down there, surely.

Or can they? The Last Stop team (led by Quendra, Zham’s sister and apparently once a military hero), who are deep in debt and on their last legs, take a commission to transport a scientist to what appears to be a base below the layer, in a hidden valley. If such a place exists, a place the bugs can’t get to, it would be a boon and a treasure beyond price. What the crew of the Last Stop find, however, is a nest of intrigue and conflict, instead... and of course, as you might expect, bugs.

As interesting as the hints of culture and society that we get are, the real focus, again, is on fun action and adventure in a world constructed by Wexler to allow dogfighting, raucous action against hordes of insects, intrigue, adventure, twists and turns, and a dieselpunk aesthetic without much of the baggage that books set in the actual era on Earth would suffer. The substitution of the bugs for some of the usual tropes of the era (which often involve some rather unpleasant colonial and third-world settings, opponents and situations) also helps remove some of the sting out of such works. The bugs are, to all appearances and effects, a faceless and inhuman menace, but they are an environmental opponent. The real conflict is between factions of people seeking power and control, with the Last Stop crew caught in the middle of it.

Last Stop ends with the end of a mission, and with the crew in a place where they can have more adventures, continue to untangle the mystery, and deal with the fallout of what they found underneath the layer. I listened to this book in audio, and the production is top notch. What’s more, this sort of action adventure in an audiobook format harkens a bit back to old radio serials. It’s not written explicitly in that format and style, but it feels adjacent to it.

To be clear, look again at the cover. Airplanes and giant insects. This IS a novel where you get exactly what it says on the tin. If that cover interests you, then you want to read or listen to this book.

Besides the pulp adventures mentioned above, Last Stop puts me in mind of a number of works where traveling the skies is the only way to get around. The RPG Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies, for instance, relies on islands floating in the sky, where going too low can be absolutely deadly. Curtis Craddock’s Risen Kingdoms series, starting with An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors, focuses on a similar science fantasy, with more emphasis on the fantasy approach, with islands in an endless sky. Jeff Carlson’s Plague Year is a straight near-future SF novel where the surviving human population has to live on mountains because a deadly nanotech plague exists at elevations below ten thousand feet. And of course, the ultimate pulp RPG world of Crimson Skies. There is a lot that has been done in this space, but I do think that Last Stop shows how to go forward with this aesthetic and chassis of a world in a new, inclusive way that keeps up the fun, pulse-pounding adventure. In a world and time where a brief sojourn from reality is on the menu, a trip to the world of Last Stop, be it in ebook or audio, seems to me perfectly suited to that.

Highlights:

• Diverse and rich cast of characters
• Fun and fresh Dieselpunk adventure without the baggage
• You get exactly what the cover promises

Reference: Wexler, Django. Last Stop [Podium Publishing, 2024].

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

The Novella Files: Hard Reboot by Django Wexler

Subject: Wexler, Django. Hard Reboot [Tor.com Publishing, 2021]

Accolades: N/A

Genre: Science Fiction

Executive Summary: In a science fiction landscape, Kas is on a research trip to Old Earth. She quickly finds herself entangled with a con artist named Zhi, putting them in a situation where they must rely on each other. What follows are giant robot battles, intergalactic politics, smoldering passion, and a plot that gleefully never hits the brakes.

Assessment: Giant robots with flashy spectacle and excessive power works best when encompassed by a simple plot. That way, action can be on full display, the story can burst forward like it’s on a jetpack, without details blocking its path. Hard Reboot does exactly that. It’s the size of a novella, not because it’s a half-finished story that ends abruptly, but because it sets a clear path, having much to accomplish, and never meanders. Characterization is established along its high-octane journey. There are plot twists galore, but there’s not even of shimmer of halting introspection. Instead, it's processed while the protagonist’s engaged in action, whether it be interpersonal drama, intergalactic politics, or giant robots going boom.

The way intergalactic politics is handled deserves commendation, as I never felt adrift, unsure of what the world was like--and at the same time, I never felt inordinately info-dumped. Hard Reboot’s distribution of information is on a level that feels like another galaxy. .

The story doesn’t just make you care about the action and the world it inhabits—it’s a more widespread feeling. The engagement I had for the pyrotechnics and worldbuilding is matched by the central relationship. Both the turmoil and grace between Kas and Zhi is always believable, hard-hitting, and compelling. Robots are definitely put through the wringer in this story, but it might also wreak turmoil on your heart. If I have one complaint it's that as breezy and delightful as its story and world is, I wish it went a little deeper

Hard Reboot clears the way for it to zoom along. Like many action-packed stories with giant robots, its unimpeded path might be expected, but the amount of power its fueled with to get to its ending certainly surprised me. With strong-hearted characters, a gift to simplify but not reduce its grand world to its readers, and a pace that never stumbles, Hard Reboot exudes fun.

Score: 7/10

Microreview [book]: Ashes of the Sun by Django Wexler

The beginning of a stunning secondary world fantasy universe, in a decaying empire set in a post apocalypse world.

In a world built on the ruins of an apocalypse, a Republic tries to protect its citizenry from the plaguespawn, magical deviant creatures, and the dhakim, users of forbidden magic. All of the leftovers from that apocalyptic war are a danger to the people they are sworn to protect. But at what cost? The strictures and restrictions of the Republic also erode freedom, and the possibility of corruption and selfishness undermine what the Republic is all about. So when a supporter of the Republic, Maya, and her brother Gyre - who wants to take it down - collide, the literal fate of a world hangs in the balance of a conflict that divides siblings.

Maya and Gyre’s stories comprise the heart of Ashes of the Sun, the first in a new fantasy series by Django Wexler.

Django Wexler’s previous epic fantasy series, both YA and adult, have shown a capacity for intense and interesting worldbuilding. This is on display in the premise here: a world which has rebuilt itself after a titanic magical apocalypse where both sides, Chosen and Ghouls, have fallen; as well as in the magic systems, and the institutions and locales. The Twilight Order, inheritors and successors to the Chosen, forms one side of the conflict, and its use of magic (deiat) for purposes both good and sinister forms the core of worldbuilding. The Twilight Order, working against magical threats, is in a very real way the Republic embodied, and yet we see how they are institutions built on shifting sand. We see Maya’s story through the institution of the Twilight Order.  And then there is the fully imagined and realized city of Deepfire, home of Gyre, a city perched on a chasm, with tunnels of lost technological magic, and the brooding presence of the Order in a city on the border. Gyre lives a very different life than his sister, a life that gives and informs his perspective and that ultimately puts him at odds with her.

Both of these poles of worldbuilding, and all of the ancillary bits that spiral from them, make for a rich world that I ate up with a spoon. There are motifs and riffs, and I am sure I missed some of them (I strongly suspect some of them are anime-focused, given the high four-color magic and powers) but I did recognize the Star Wars touches for certain. The novel reminded me of works by authors like Joseph Brassey and Mike Underwood. I also appreciated the vaguely Roman Republic touches in the names of some institutions and world bits: Auxiliaries and Legionaires are definitely borrowed from Rome. The ranks of the Twilight order, Agathios, Centarchs and Kyriliarchs, are invented but fit in with the themed naming conventions. The author does a great job with language and invented words to help bring the world alive.

Within that world, of course, we have our protagonists. The novel introduces the siblings and then splits them sharply, putting them on opposite sides of the divide between supporters of the Republic and the Twilight Order, and people like Gyre, who have taken the lesson of Maya being torn away and the wreckage of his family, and seeing the flaws of the Republic. The reunions of the siblings are under duress and stress, and the author provides no easy resolutions upon their meeting again. And too, their sides of the conflict and their years-long inculcated beliefs and personalities do not flip  at their meeting again. And even more carefully, seeing from within and from without, it is clear that neither sibling and neither side has a monopoly on truth and are in the right. Both characters develop nicely with the relationships of the people around them as well as the institutions they support, or fight against.

The novel is queer friendly in giving Maya a same-sex attraction, and a potential relationship. Ashes of the Sun is really good in showing the awkwardness of youth in trying to navigate feelings and emotions in a high pressure situation and at the same time, this is a world where both same-sex and heterosexual relationships are equally accepted.  Gyre has a similar, but heterosexual relationship arc with Kitsarea Doomseeker, who has goals of her own in terms of opposing the Republic, and her own story. Kitsarea, in particular, is the most fully-formed of the excellent set of secondary characters that the author uses to populate and draw a skein of relationships around Maya and Gyre alike.

One nice piece of worldbuilding in character arcs of the novel is the idea of cognomen, epithets. While in the Twilight Order that is a formalized process  complete with historically important ones (and Maya seeking to get one is a strand in the novel), even Gyre, in the end is granted one. It’s a strand of an idea in Epic fantasy going back to Tolkien that has not gotten that much play, and I am pleased to see how it works in the context of the author’s character development and worldbuilding.

The action beats of the novel are top notch, and where it really comes together. As rich as Maya and Gyre’s stories are, and as textured and interesting the world that the author presents us, the novel really hits all on all of the cylinders in its set piece action sequences. These can be short sharp shocks, such as the inciting incident at the beginning of the novel that ultimately sets Maya and Gyre into opposing paths in life, or they can be longer set pieces like Maya taking on plaguespawn, or Gyre dealing with local constabulary in the context of a heist. With Mays’s use of deiat and Gyre’s use of alchemical creations, his skill and luck, there is a pleasing variety to the action sequences. We get to see the strengths, weaknesses and abilities of the characters and see when their efforts flow, and when they are ineffective to a situation. Thus, the action sequences lean into that worldbuilding and character development, letting them do double and triple duty. For readers who read for action sequences, this is a way to sneak in the vegetables of character development and worldbuilding; conversely those who really key in on character can get that in a matrix other than characters talking or acting with lower stakes.

Ashes of the Sun is a fully enriching and immersive start to a new series. Given the author’s strengths in worldbuilding and character developments across series, I think that this is the best start to a series that the author has come up with, yet, and I have hopes and confidence that the series will continue from strength to strength. More, please.

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 7/10.

Bonuses: +1 for a strong brother and sister pair of protagonists with well developed character arcs; +1 for intensely layered worldbuilding, from cities, to culture, to magic; +1 for excellently depicted action sequences

Penalties: -1 for a slightly unsatisfactory denouement 

Nerd Coefficient: 9/10 very high quality/standout in its category

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know?@princejvstin.

Reference: Wexler, Django, Ashes of the Sun [Orbit, 2020]

Summer Reading List 2020: Paul

While winter is for reading and trying to stay warm in the Great White North when the Ice Giants and the White Dragons roam the wastelands of Minnesota, summer is for getting out there and enjoying the all too brief warm weather. In this age of the Pandemic, however, the transitory nature of summer is even more poignant, since long trips for adventures are currently not in the cards. My journeys this year may well be almost exclusively  to places between the covers of books.

 So here, find a list of six of the books I am looking forward to getting to before Summer turns to Fall, and green shifts to hues of red, gold, and orange before a clattering change to brown.

On my 2019 list I read five out of the six books . And so on to 2020!


1. Prime Deceptions, Valerie Valdes.

Chilling Effect was a superb first novel of found family and space adventure, including Psychic cats, that had a deep and intense story that was belied by its fluffy cover. I am really interested in the newest adventure of Captain Eva Innocente and the found family crew of La Sirena Nigra.







2. Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders: A Dominion of the Fallen Story by Aliette de Bodard.

 Ever since the first Fallen novel, House of Shattered Wings, I have been #teamasmodeus, truly enjoying the antagonist that has stomped through all of the novels and stories De Bodard like a striding giant. In this latest tale, Thuan, Asmodeus’ Dragon husband, brings Asmodeus home for Lunar New Year. This is a family reunion I don’t want to miss.







3. Seven Devils, Laura Lam and Elizabeth May

Seven Devils is billed as a feminist space opera where seven resistance fighters are taking on the tyrannical  Tholoisian Empire. I am all aboard for a retelling of the classic formula of “Seven against Thebes”, except in Spaaace! Recasting classical history and mythology into Space seems to be a thing this year (c.f. Unconquerable Sun) so I am looking forward to seeing how Seven Devils tackles it.





4. Or What you Will, Jo Walton

Stories about self-aware characters who have knowledge of their own nature, and seeking to change it is a tricky metagenre to try and work on. But the author of works like Tooth and Claw, Among Others (a novel all about reading and the importance of reading and books) and the Just City trilogy is an author I trust to tell the story of a character idea seeking to transcend the mortality of his creator, and perhaps, her own as well.





5. Chaos Vector, Megan O’Keefe

I really enjoyed O’Keefe’s first  Soace Opera novel, Velocity Weapon, a twisty and complicated story grounded in the story of two siblings in a far future solar system, and an AI with a definite Agenda. Now with having released the AI and its ship, it looks like Sanda and Tomas are on the run, with a secret inside of Sanda’s head the reason why they are on the run. It sounds like more shenanigans, more twists, and more excellent space opera action beats.






6. Ashes of the Sun, Django Wexler

A story about building a new empire in the ruins of a fallen empire? Two siblings on opposite sides of a war? Mysterious magic and artifacts?  Crunchy Crunchy Worldbuilding? This start of a new series from Wexler sounds like it is pressing all of my favorite Epic Fantasy buttons. Wexler has just about gotten into my coveted autobuy list on the strength of his previous series. This new novel could catapult him into that status.






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POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

Microreview [book]: Ship of Smoke and Steel by Django Wexler

An inventive opening to a ghost ship trilogy, but the reliance on stock tropes and uneven tension are hard to ignore.

Django Wexler has been on my "authors to try" list for a long time, mainly for his five-part "Shadow Campaigns" series - the opening volume of which is sitting on my TBR shelf and judging me right now. I actually hadn't realised that he also writes YA until this book showed up on my radar, but it seemed like a great place to start with his work that's highly relevant to my interests - kickass heroine takes on a ghost ship in a fantasy world? Sign me up!

Ship of Smoke and Steel starts on pretty safe ground, introducing us to a mysteriously magical young protagonist making her way through the underworld on what to her is a routine mission. Isoka is an adept from the Well of Combat, one of nine magical sources of power which people can be born to tap into - being an adept means that she's more magically powerful than those who are merely "touched" or "talented" by the wells, which can also variously give powers of fireballs, force waves, perception skills and creepy mistrusted healing powers. In Isoka's case, her Melos powers mean she can make magical force blades appear out of her hands, and summon armour to protect her, and she's somehow managed to hide these magical talents in a society where only nobles and those pressed into Imperial service are supposed to have them. When we meet her, Isoka is completely resigned to the realities of her world and her own violent position in it. The only bright spark is her relationship with her younger sister, Tori, who Isoka has managed to secure a spot in a nice area of town while she works to keep her in luxury and away from the harshness of the life they were born into. All this means that when Isoka is caught by one of the most powerful people in the empire within the first couple of chapters Tori is the easiest bargaining chip to compel her to do what the authorities want: steal the Soliton, a mysterious ghost ship that makes a route around the known world and demands magical teen tribute wherever it goes. If she comes back with the ship, her sister won't be murdered. Good times.

All of this is an adequate if not inspirational set-up for Isoka to be particular type of hero: a hardened do-what-it-takes disaster, with just enough callousness for us to understand the lengths she'll go to for survival, while retaining enough sympathy to let us root for her as the external challenges mount up. It's a stock character, but it works for the grim narrative and the reason this type of powerful heroine keeps showing up is because it produces a satisfying story, even though we might wish that Isoka's external motivations had been slightly better explored before taking her out of that environment and throwing her into a new one. The other character the narrative really pushes is Meroe, a princess from Jyashtan, a southern land which Isoka has barely even heard of, who has been cast out by her father and is oddly reluctant to disclose her own powers. There's an unfolding romance between Isoka and Meroe which is quite sweet; although it does play out against a background of internalised homophobia from both Isoka and Meroe's cultures, none of the other characters express homophobic opinions about their attraction, and there are other queer characters and relationships too. The romance also adds a more immediate positive relationship to Isoka's quest than her rather distant connection to Tori, which is much needed given her predisposition to otherwise fight anyone who comes within magical-blade range.

The back of this book calls the story "cinematic", and that's a great description for how Isoka's time on the Soliton plays out. There's a lot of attention paid to building up terrifying monsters, like giant tentacled crabs called Blueshells or the Hammerhead, a mouth on legs - for Isoka and her band of allies to fight, and it makes for accomplished, well-realised battles with a satisfyingly strong-but-challenged heroine. However, the way they're built into the plot feels less like a movie and more like an RPG-style "episodic adventure, then return to camp" structure - a feeling I also had with Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings (at least in one of that book's enormous subplots). It's a structure I'm totally into when used by games: go fight a thing, then come back to the Normandy and see if your sidekicks have any new dialogue, then repeat until everything is dead and solved. With a book like this, however, I feel like this structure does weird things to the tension when Isoka and company aren't in a "designated threat scene". While the dwellers in the Stern, the main habitable area of the ship, are supposedly under constant threat from the various crabs and even toothier things that live just beyond their flimsy walls, there's an awful lot of hanging around and posturing and having sexy moments in their tenuously safe areas and not much indication that anybody is actually on guard except when they're out in the Depths. Isoka has a lot to do in camp too, finding her way from the very bottom of the heap to a trusted member of the Stern's leadership respected for her fighting talents, but the lack of attention on the mission originally given to her by the empire, which is supposed to keep the one thing she cares about safe, is also a bit offputting.

The mysteries of the Soliton itself are intriguing and far from resolved in this volume, although I was sadly disappointed by the lack of nautical content. The idea of an ostensibly magical but all-too-real ghost ship patrolling the known territories of the world is a fascinating image, but what the Soliton actually draws on is a significantly more modern affair, full of endless metal corridors and narrow suspended walkways (all filled with crabs) and controlled by a mysterious Captain. The Soliton is supposedly bigger than a city, contains cavernous depths which take days to escape from, and is full of a type of magical energy whose sudden introduction might come as a surprise unless you've read the cheat sheet at the front of the book and assumed that "Eddica, the Lost Well" is probably going to end up being plot relevant at some point. It would be spoilery to go into how the "well of spirits" fits in with Isoka's story, but despite the somewhat left-field introduction the ship's mysteries do pick up considerably once it starts playing a role, although this is very much the first book in the trilogy and there is plenty of ground left to cover in the second two volumes - not least Isoka catching up on the part where she actually has to steal the ship and bring it back to an empire she hates in order to save her sister.

Whether I'll actually be on board for those subsequent instalments is another matter. I liked Ship of Smoke and Steel, but ultimately the parts I enjoyed didn't obscure the feeling that I could see too much of how the trick was being done to really sit back and enjoy the show. There's creativity and interesting worldbuilding on display here, but the formulaic pacing of battle scenes switched me off despite how well done the scenes themselves are, and the curious detachment from Isoka's own quest and the mysteries of the Soliton for large parts of the book left the narrative with little time to actually invest me in seeing how these play out. Ship of Smoke and Steel is by no means off-putting, however, and for the right reader, the start of Isoka's grim quest to fight her way out of the forces against her will no doubt be a more compelling experience.

The Math

Baseline: 6/10

Bonuses: +1 Interesting take on the idea of a ghost ship

Penalties: -1 Too much stock in stock tropes and motivations; -1 the formula of "cinematic" tension doesn't build up as well as it could

Nerd Coefficient: 5/10 "problematic, but has redeeming qualities"

POSTED BY: Adri is a semi-aquatic migratory mammal most often found in the UK. She has many opinions about SFF books, and is also partial to gaming, baking, interacting with dogs, and Asian-style karaoke. Find her on Twitter at @adrijjy.

Reference: Wexler, Django. Ship of Smoke and Steel [Tor Teen, 2019].

New Books Spotlight

Welcome to another edition of the New Books Spotlight, where each month or so we curate a selection of 6 forthcoming books we find notable, interesting, and intriguing. It gives us the opportunity to shine a brief spotlight on some stuff we're itching to get our hands on.

What are you looking forward to? Anything you want to argue with us about? Is there something we should consider spotlighting in the future? Let us know in the comments!

Bacigalupi, Paolo, & Tobias S. Buckell. The Tangled Land [Saga Press]
Publisher's Description:

From award-winning and New York Times bestselling authors Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell comes a fantasy novel told in four parts about a land crippled by the use of magic, and a tyrant who is trying to rebuild an empire—unless the people find a way to resist.

Khaim, The Blue City, is the last remaining city in a crumbled empire that overly relied upon magic until it became toxic. It is run by a tyrant known as The Jolly Mayor and his devious right hand, the last archmage in the world. Together they try to collect all the magic for themselves so they can control the citizens of the city. But when their decadence reaches new heights and begins to destroy the environment, the people stage an uprising to stop them.

In four interrelated parts, The Tangled Lands is an evocative and epic story of resistance and heroic sacrifice in the twisted remains surrounding the last great city of Khaim. Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell have created a fantasy for our times about a decadent and rotting empire facing environmental collapse from within—and yet hope emerges from unlikely places with women warriors and alchemical solutions. 

Why We Want It: I've had copies of the linked novellas The Alchemist (Bacigalupi) and The Executioness (Buckell) on my shelf for a number of years without ever having cracked either cover for no good reason that I can understand. I've been a big fan of Buckell's work since discovering Crystal Rain ten years ago, so I'm always excited to see something with his name on the cover. The Tangled Land pulls together the two previously mentioned novellas with two additional ones to weave together a larger epic story. Now is the time to finally dive into this world.

Barnhill, Kelly. Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories [Algonquin]  
Publisher's Description:

A stunning new collection of short fictions for adult readers from the World Fantasy Award– and Newbery Medal–winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon.

From award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Kelly Barnhill comes a stunning first collection of acclaimed short fictions, teeming with uncanny characters whose stories unfold in worlds at once strikingly human and eerily original.

When Mrs. Sorensen’s husband dies, she rekindles a long-dormant love with an unsuitable mate in “Mrs. Sorensen and the Sasquatch.” In “Open the Door and the Light Pours Through,” a young man wrestles with grief and his sexuality in an exchange of letters with his faraway beloved. “Dreadful Young Ladies” demonstrates the strength and power—known and unknown—of the imagination. “The Insect and the Astronomer” upends expectations about good and bad, knowledge and ignorance, love and longing. The World Fantasy Award–winning novella The Unlicensed Magician introduces the secret, magical life of an invisible girl once left for dead.

By an author hailed as “a fantasist on the order of Neil Gaiman” (Minneapolis Star Tribune), the stories in Dreadful Young Ladies feature bold, reality-bending fantasy underscored by rich universal themes of love, death, jealousy, and hope.  

Why We Want It: We loved Kelly Barnhill's Newbery Medal winning novel The Girl Who Drank the Moon (my review) and pretty much everything else Barnhill has written. I nominated Barnhill's story "Mrs Sorensen and the Sasquatch" for the Hugo back in 2015, but alas, it did not make the final ballot. I've been enjoying her short fiction for years, so this collection will be a delight.  It also includes The Unlicensed Magician (my review), so if you haven't had the chance to discover Sparrow, The Junk Man, or Marla the Egg Woman yet, you're in for a treat.

Bujold, Lois McMaster. Penric's Fox [Subterranean Press]
Publisher's Description

With Penric's Fox, multiple-award-winner and bestselling author Lois McMaster Bujold returns to her World of the Five Gods, the setting of her acclaimed novels The Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls, and The Hallowed Hunt. Continuing the tale begun in the novellas “Penric’s Demon, “Penric and the Shaman,” and "Penric's Mission," Bujold’s newest installment of Penric and Desdemona’s tale is another must-read novella for her legion of fans.

Some eight months after the events of Penric and the Shaman, Learned Penric, sorcerer and scholar, travels to Easthome, the capital of the Weald. There he again meets his friends Shaman Inglis and Locator Oswyl. When the body of a sorceress is found in the woods, Oswyl draws him into another investigation; they must all work together to uncover a mystery mixing magic, murder and the strange realities of Temple demons. 

Why We Want It: At this point we don't have to say much more than "Lois McMaster Bujold" to get you to pick up a book, do we? Bujold's Penric novellas are bite sized delights and I'm quite looking forward to more.
 

Burke, Sue. Semiosis [Tor]  
Publisher's Description

Human survival hinges on an bizarre alliance in Semiosis, a character driven science fiction novel of first contact by debut author Sue Burke. 

Colonists from Earth wanted the perfect home, but they’ll have to survive on the one they found. They don’t realize another life form watches...and waits... Only mutual communication can forge an alliance with the planet's sentient species and prove that humans are more than tools. 

Why We Want It: I've long loved novels of colonies and discovery across generations.  Semiosis continues to pop up on our radar and as this is a generational novel of a human colony struggling to survive on another world, it's exactly the novel I'm looking for. Semiosis should be an impressive debut.

Stross, Charles. Dark State [Tor] 
Publisher's Description

Hugo Award-winning author Charlie Stross dives deep into the underbelly of paratime espionage, nuclear warfare, and state surveillance in this provocative techno-thriller set in The Merchant Princes multi-verse 

Dark State ups the ante on the already volatile situations laid out in the sleek techno-thriller Empire Games, the start to Stross' new story-line, and perfect entry point for new readers, in The Merchant Princes series.

In the near-future, the collision of two nuclear superpowers across timelines, one in the midst of a technological revolution and the other a hyper-police state, is imminent. In Commissioner Miriam Burgeson’s timeline, her top level agents run a high risk extraction of a major political player. Meanwhile, a sleeper cell activated in Rita's, the Commissioner's adopted daughter and newly-minted spy, timeline threatens to unravel everything.

With a penchant for intricate world-building and an uncanny ability to realize alternate history and technological speculation, Stross' writing will captivate any reader who's a fan hi-tech thrillers, inter-dimensional political intrigue, and espionage.  

Why We Want It: Empire Games (my review) was perhaps the strongest of Stross's parallel universe hopping Merchant Princes novels filled with political intrigue. I didn't love it without reservations, but I frequently find myself coming back and thinking about the details and how things fit together. I'm hoping for more of Dark State to be set in Miriam's timeline since Empire Games skimped on that a bit, but I've got this sitting on the nightstand next to my bed and I anticipating cracking this one open very soon.
 

Wexler, Django. The Infernal Battalion [Ace] 
Publisher's Description

Military might and arcane power clash in Django Wexler’s thrilling new Shadow Campaigns novel. 

The Beast, the ancient demon imprisoned beneath the fortress-city of Elysium for a thousand years, has been loosed on the world. It absorbs mind after mind, spreading like a plague through the north. The fell army it has raised threatens the heart of Vordan, and it is under the command of the Beast’s greatest prize: legendary general Janus bet Vhalnich.

As Queen Raesinia Orboan and soldiers Marcus D’Ivoire and Winter Ihernglass grapple with the aftermath of a hard-fought military campaign, they soon discover a betrayal they never could have foreseen. The news arrives like a thunderbolt: Janus has declared himself the rightful Emperor of Vordan. Chaos grips the city as officers and regiments are forced to declare for queen or emperor.

Raesinia must struggle to keep her country under control and risks becoming everything she fought against. Marcus must take the field against his old commander, a man who has seemed an unbeatable strategist. And as Winter recovers from her injuries and mourns her losses, she knows the demon she carries inside her might be the only thing standing between the Beast and the destruction of everything in its path…. 

Why We Want It: We here at Nerds of a Feather have long been fan of Django Wexler's Shadow Campaigns, especially The G, so you know we're looking forward to this fifth volume. 


POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 2017 Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Writer / Editor of the mostly defunct Adventures in Reading since 2004. Minnesotan.

New Books Spotlight

Welcome to another edition of the New Books Spotlight, where each month or so we curate a selection of 6 forthcoming books we find notable, interesting, and intriguing. It gives us the opportunity to shine a brief spotlight on some stuff we're itching to get our hands on.

What are you looking forward to? Anything you want to argue with us about? Is there something we should consider spotlighting in the future? Let us know in the comments!

Cover Art by Wes Youssi and Sammy Yuen, Design by Wes Youssi / M80 Design

Elliott, Kate. The Poisoned Blade [Little Brown, 2016]
Publisher's Blurb

In this thrilling sequel to World Fantasy Award finalist Kate Elliott's captivating young adult debut, a girl immersed in high-stakes competition holds the fate of a kingdom in her hands.

Now a Challenger, Jessamy is moving up the ranks of the Fives--the complex athletic contest favored by the lowliest Commoners and the loftiest Patrons alike. Pitted against far more formidable adversaries, success is Jes's only option, as her prize money is essential to keeping her hidden family alive. She leaps at the chance to tour the countryside and face more competitors, but then a fatal attack on her traveling party puts Jes at the center of the war that Lord Kalliarkos--the prince she still loves--is fighting against their country's enemies. With a sinister overlord watching her every move and Kal's life on the line, Jes must now become more than a Fives champion.... She must become a warrior.

Why We Want It: As is often the case with a second book in a series, we want it because the first book (Court of Fives) was fantastic. This is very much the case here. Anything new from Kate Elliott is a mini publishing event in its own right. Our own Charles reviewed Court of Fives earlier this year.

Cover Design by Wendy Chan

Jemisin, NK. The Obelisk Gate [Orbit, 2016]
Publisher's Blurb

Continuing the trilogy that began with the multi-award-nominated The Fifth Season

• Shortlisted for the Hugo, Nebula, Audie, and Locus Awards 
• The inaugural Wired.com book club book 

 This is the way the world ends, for the last time.

The season of endings grows darker, as civilization fades into the long cold night.

Essun -- once Damaya, once Syenite, now avenger -- has found shelter, but not her daughter. Instead there is Alabaster Tenring, destroyer of the world, with a request. But if Essun does what he asks, it would seal the fate of the Stillness forever.

Far away, her daughter Nassun is growing in power - and her choices will break the world.  

Why We Want It: Well, you've read my review of The Fifth Season, right? The Obelisk Gate is the follow up to my favorite novel published in 2015 and one which I appreciate more with each passing day. The Obelisk Gate is must read fantasy.

Cover Art by Michael Komarck

Martin, George R.R. (ed). Wild Cards: High Stakes [Tor, 2016]
Publisher's Blurb

Perfect for old fans and new readers alike, High Stakes (Wild Cards) delves deeper into the world of aces, jokers, and the hard-boiled men and women of the Fort Freak police precinct in a pulpy, page-turning novel of superheroics and Lovecraftian horror.

After the concluding events of Lowball, Officer Francis Black of Fort Freak, vigilante joker Marcus "The Infamous Black Tongue" Morgan, and ace thief Mollie "Tesseract" Steunenberg get stuck in Talas, Kyrgyzstan. There, the coldblooded Baba Yaga forces jokers into an illegal fighting ring, but her hidden agenda is much darker: her fighters' deaths serve to placate a vicious monster from another dimension. When the last line of defense against this world weakens, all hell breaks loose, literally....

The Committee in New York sends a team of aces to investigate. One by one, each falls victim to evil forces--including the dark impulses within themselves. Only the perseverance of the most unlikely of heroes has a chance of saving the world before utter chaos erupts on Earth.

Edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author George R. R. Martin, High Stakes features the writing talents of Melinda M. Snodgrass, John Jos. Miller, David Anthony Durham, Caroline Spector, Stephen Leigh, and Ian Tregillis.  

Why We Want It: Back in the days when Heroes was a thing on television, I remember one of the Wild Cards writers somewhat humorously remarking, "we did it first, and we did it better." Wild Cards would have made for one hell of a television show. As it stands, High Stakes is the twenty third volume of the long running series, but you certainly don't have to read all of them to appreciate just how good these books are or to understand what's going on. I certainly haven't (I've read perhaps half of the books so far). Recommend starting points are Book 18 (Inside Straight) and Book 20 (Fort Freak). Fort Freak is the first volume of this particular trilogy. I've been a fan of this series for a number of years now and always look forward to a new entry in the Wild Cards canon.

Cover Art by Tyler Jacobson

Tchaikovsky, Adrian. Spiderlight [Tor.com Publishing, 2016]
Publisher's Blurb

The Church of Armes of the Light has battled the forces of Darkness for as long as anyone can remember. The great prophecy has foretold that a band of misfits, led by a high priestess will defeat the Dark Lord Darvezian, armed with their wits, the blessing of the Light and an artifact stolen from the merciless Spider Queen.

Their journey will be long, hard and fraught with danger. Allies will become enemies; enemies will become allies. And the Dark Lord will be waiting, always waiting…

Spiderlight is an exhilarating fantasy quest from Adrian Tchaikovsky, the author of Guns at Dawn and the Shadows of the Apt series. 

Why We Want It: Novella length epic fantasy from an acclaimed author should be a pretty easy sell, right? Add in a giant spider and it may just be a story out of a terrible nightmare, and that's something we'd love to read. With the lights on. Because giant spiders.

Cover Design by Lauren Panepinto

Wagers, K.B. Behind the Throne [Orbit, 2016]
Publisher's Blurb

Hail Bristol has made a name for herself in the galaxy for everything except what she was born to do: rule the Indranan Empire.

When she is dragged back to her home planet to take her rightful place as the only remaining heir, she finds that trading her ship for a palace is her most dangerous move yet  

Why We Want It: Behind the Throne wasn't on my radar at all until some folks I'm friendly with on twitter started buzzing about it. Because I trust the source of the buzz, Behind the Throne has quickly shot up my reading list.

Cover Art by Paul Youll

Wexler, Django. The Guns of Empire [Roc, 2016]
Publisher's Blurb

As the “audacious and subversive”* Shadow Campaigns novels continue, the weather is growing warmer, but the frosty threat of Vordan’s enemies is only growing worse… 

As the roar of the guns subsides and the smoke of battle clears, the country of Vordan is offered a fragile peace… 

After their shattering defeats at the hands of brilliant General Janus bet Vhalnich, the opposing powers have called all sides to the negotiating table in hopes of securing an end to the war. Queen Raesinia of Vordan is anxious to see the return of peace, but Janus insists that any peace with the implacable Sworn Church of Elysium is doomed to fail. For their Priests of the Black, there can be no truce with heretics and demons they seek to destroy, and the war is to the death.

Soldiers Marcus d’Ivoire and Winter Ihernglass find themselves caught between their general and their queen. Now, each must decide which leader truly commands their loyalty—and what price they might pay for final victory.

And in the depths of Elysium, a malign force is rising—and defeating it might mean making sacrifices beyond anything they have ever imagined.  

Why We Want It: The G has been reading and loving Django Wexler's The Shadow Campaigns, giving high marks to the previous three volumes: The Thousand Names, The Shadow Throne, The Price of Valor. We expect he'll be all over this one.



POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Writer / Editor at Adventures in Reading since 2004. Nerds of a Feather contributor since 2015, editor since 2016. Minnesotan.

Microreview [book]: The Price of Valor by Django Wexler

The price of revolution.

I'm a big fan of Wexler's flintlock fantasy series, The Shadow Campaigns. The first volume, The Thousand Names, was a revelation--marked by great characters, memorable action scenes and incredible attention to detail with regards the tactics and daily lives of modern-era soldiers. The Shadow Throne, which shifted focus from the colony of far-flung colony of Kandahar to the Vordanai metropole, was both highly entertaining and thoughtful. Yet it seemed to lack the tightness and singularity of focus that made The Thousand Names stand out from the glut of new fantasy releases. I am happy to say that The Price of Valor represents not only a return to form, but a leveling up.

The Price of Valor is, in essence, a continuation of The Shadow Throne--to a far greater degree than The Shadow Throne is a continuation of The Thousand Names. Winter has been promoted to colonel and is in charge of the Girl's Own, a female brigade serving in the army of military genius Janus bet Vhalnich, which is currently facing the combined armies of Borel, Hamvelt and Mursk--all followers of the Sworn Church and enemies of the revolutionary Vordanai government. Marcus d'Ivoire, meanwhile, has been left in Vordan City to keep track of a deteriorating political situation, in which a cabal of Jacobins has re-formed Orlanko's terror state under new auspices. As in Revolutionary France, this Directorate and its paranoid-obsessive leader Maurisk now seek to "purify" the revolutionary state of its "internal enemies," which seem destined to include Queen Raesinia, Janus and his lieutenants, Winter and Marcus.

Making matters worse, the secretive Priests of the Black, who are religiopolitical extremists of the first order, have sent several operatives--each possessing a magic-generating demon--to recover the eponymous Thousand Names, a repository of magic-generating demons itself, including the demon-eating Infernivore that possessed Winter at the end of The Thousand Names. And they have brought Maurisk, who heads the militant Directorate that rules Vordan, into their cabal. If they succeed, there will be no force in the world that can stop them.

Here's the thing: while The Price of Valor is not perfect, it belongs to a very small category of books that I just can't put down. While this might not seem like a big deal to some of you, consider that I have trouble doing anything for more than an hour--even the most compulsive of activities, like playing video games. This is why I read fewer books than many of my fellow bloggers. But this one...every chapter urges you forward--"just a few more pages," you say! Then before you know it the clock reads 3am and even if you'd like to keep going, you do have to get up at 6.

I also greatly appreciated the political nuance on display as Wexler turns his attention from the injustices that lead to revolution to the question of how revolutions come off the rails. In this case,   Wexler lets the reader contemplate whether Vordan would have been better off with Orlanko in power and the Thousand Names safely in Kandahar than with Maurisk and the Thousand Names in play.

The gender politics were another high point for me. Vordan (and its neighboring societies) are strongly patriarchal, as one would expect from a world modeled after Europe of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. But even though various characters assume that this is the natural order of things, political events are challenging and even upending deeply-embedded norms--and especially in the military. I look forward to seeing where Wexler takes things from here.

Politics aside, the book is also just quality fantasy. There's ample magic and action, strong world building and two memorable, relatable protagonists in Winter and Marcus. And the Penitent Damned are great villains. My only issues relate to two of the secondary characters, namely, Janus (the mercurial genius) and Mad Jane (Winter's fiery, red-haired lover). Janus' ability to think several steps beyond anyone else, to the point where he must be able to predict outcomes of dumb luck, strains the imagination. Meanwhile, Jane is just whiney and annoying--a far cry from her (rather more satisfying) portrayal in The Shadow Throne. She's a drag on the story, frankly, and I hope Wexler finds a new way to utilize her going forward.

But these are relatively small quibbles. The Price of Valor is a clever, well-written and highly addictive novel, and easily the best in the series so far.


The Math

Baseline Assessment: 8/10.

Bonuses: +1 for smart, sophisticated politics; +1 for keeping me up at night.

Penalties: -1 for Janus and Jane issues.

Nerd Coefficient: 9/10. "Very high quality/standout in its category."


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POSTED BY: The G--purveyor of nerdliness, genre fanatic and Nerds of a
Feather founder/administrator, since 2012.

Reference: Wexler, Django. The Price of Valor [Roc, 2015].  

6 Books with Fantasy Author Django Wexler

Django Wexler is a computer scientist and author of the (excellent) flintlock fantasy series The Shadow Campaigns (see our reviews here and here), as well as the middle-grade Forbidden Library series. Today he shares his "6 books" with us…


1. What book are you currently reading?

Seveneves, which I’ve really enjoyed. I’ve been a Stephenson fan from way back, and this is one of his better books, with a thriller-y urge to keep reading to find out what happens.

2. What upcoming book you are really excited about?

This is a weird question for me, because I’m always so far behind on my reading! So what I’m excited about isn’t really upcoming for anyone else. I’d go with Nemesis Games by James S. A. Corey, which has been out for a few months now. That’s another series that I absolutely love, and it gets better with each volume. Judging from reviews I’ve heard, I won’t be disappointed.

3. Is there a book you're currently itching to re-read?
I don’t re-read as much as I used to, but I’ve been thinking about going over some of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series again. Possibly as audiobooks, since I hear the productions are top-notch.

4. How about a book you've changed your mind about over time--either positively or negatively?

Some of the books I read as a young adult didn’t hold up when I went back to look at them again. Dragonlance, for example, is a lot of fun but mostly pretty fluffy.

5. What's one book, which you read as a child or young adult, that has had a lasting influence on your writing?

Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics, which I read around my senior year of high school, were an eye-opener in terms of great storytelling, especially very multi-layered storytelling. He takes wonderful advantage of the medium’s ability to slip things into the background. It was one of the first pieces of great writing I read that I recognized as great while I was reading it.

6. And speaking of that, what's *your* latest book, and why is it awesome?

My latest is The Price of Valor, book three of The Shadow Campaigns! This is my military fantasy series, with a vaguely Napoleonic setting. So it’s got muskets and cavalry charges and just enough supernatural stuff to keep things interesting. If you’re new to the series, you should start with book one, The Thousand Names.





-Django Wexler


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POSTED BY: The G--purveyor of nerdliness, genre fanatic and Nerds of a
Feather founder/administrator, since 2012.