en-US Sun, 20 Apr 2025 22:08:06 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 219431986
It’s ghost-tide in the city and the dead walk the streets, haunting those who meant something to them in life. The theaters of Point of Dreams have a hit season on their hands and Adjunct Point Nicolas Rathe and former mercenary Philip Eslingen have a murder on theirs. Not to mention a heady mix of intrigue, politics and magic, where even the flowers are more than they seem. Added to all of that, the crimelord that Philip worked for has dismissed him from his service and he’s had to move in with Nico.

Can Nico and Philip stop the killer before they strike again? And will their relationship survive it if they do?]]> 312 Melissa Scott Kevin 4 4.43 2001
author: Melissa Scott
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/20
date added: 2025/04/20
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]]> 217558663
Eslingen is now a professional knife working for a prominent crimelord while Rathe is an Adjunct Point, sworn to uphold the city’s laws. By rights, they should be wary foes, but instead they find themselves sharing an investigation as well as a bed as their search takes them into the heart of Point of Knives and at its center, the Court of Thirty-two Knives, the hub of Astreiant’s underworld.

A single misstep could mean disaster, a single doubt could be the end of all their hopes.]]> 154 Melissa Scott Kevin 4 4.08 2012
author: Melissa Scott
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/19
date added: 2025/04/19
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]]> 213407788
Philip Eslingen has just been discharged from his mercenary company and as a Leaguer and a stranger, makes an ideal suspect. Fortunately for him, Pointsman Nicolas Rathe from the Point of Hopes station doesn’t agree, but he knows the only way to prove that is to find the missing children and the real culprits. Together they must follow a twisted trail of deceit and magic in a city on the brink of exploding into violence.

If they can’t learn to work together, the results could be catastrophic, even fatal. And if they can’t trust each other, the price could be higher than either of them realize.]]> 515 Melissa Scott Kevin 4 4.23 1995
author: Melissa Scott
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/19
date added: 2025/04/19
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]]> 62684211 War machines and AI gods run amok in The Archive Undying, national bestseller Emma Mieko Candon's bold entry into the world of mecha fiction.

WHEN AN AI DIES, ITS CITY DIES WITH IT
WHEN A CITY FALLS, IT LEAVES A CORPSE BEHIND
WHEN THAT CORPSE RUNS OFF, ONLY DEVOTION CAN BRING IT BACK

When the robotic god of Khuon Mo went mad, it destroyed everything it touched. It killed its priests, its city, and all its wondrous works. But in its final death throes, the god brought one thing back to life: its favorite child, Sunai. For the seventeen years since, Sunai has walked the land like a ghost, unable to die, unable to age, and unable to forget the horrors he's seen. He's run as far as he can from the wreckage of his faith, drowning himself in drink, drugs, and men. But when Sunai wakes up in the bed of the one man he never should have slept with, he finds himself on a path straight back into the world of gods and machines.

The Archive Undying is the first volume of Emma Mieko Candon's Downworld Sequence, a sci-fi series where AI deities and brutal police states clash, wielding giant robots steered by pilot-priests with corrupted bodies.

Come get in the robot.]]> 488 Emma Mieko Candon 125082155X Kevin 3 3.44 2023
author: Emma Mieko Candon
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/15
date added: 2025/04/15
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]]> 213681682 The brilliant detective Ana Dolabra may have finally met her match in the gripping sequel to The Tainted Cup--from the bestselling author of The Founders Trilogy.

In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, an impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—abducted from his quarters while the door and windows remained locked from the inside, in a building whose entrances and exits are all under constant guard.

To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial investigator, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol.

Before long, Ana’s discovered that they’re not investigating a disappearance, but a murder—and that the killing was just the first chess move by an adversary who seems to be able to pass through warded doors like a ghost, and who can predict every one of Ana’s moves as though they can see the future.

Worse still, the killer seems to be targeting the high-security compound known as the Shroud. Here, the Empire's greatest minds dissect fallen Titans to harness the volatile magic found in their blood. Should it fall, the destruction would be terrible indeed--and the Empire itself will grind to a halt, robbed of the magic that allows its wheels of power to turn. 

Din has seen Ana solve impossible cases before. But this time, with the stakes higher than ever and Ana seemingly a step behind their adversary at every turn, he fears that his superior has finally met an enemy she can’t defeat.]]> 432 Robert Jackson Bennett 059372383X Kevin 5 4.65 2025
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
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]]> 9498063
Two men, absolute enemies, must unite to conquer an evil greater than anything their world has ever known. One is a warrior priest ready to sacrifice anything and everything for the cause of humanity's progress; the other, a sorcerer who has survived for countless centuries by a total submission to evil. In their joint quest, both will be irrevocably changed.

When True Night Falls is the sequel to C. S. Friedman's acclaimed Black Sun Rising.]]> 627 C.S. Friedman 110146433X Kevin 3 4.23 1993
author: C.S. Friedman
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
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]]> 211492066
While his title may be gone, his duties are not. Celehar contends with a municipal cemetery with fifty years of secrets, the damage of a revethavar he’s terrified to remember, and a group of miners who are more than willing to trade Celehar’s life for a chance at what they feel they’re owed.

Celehar does not have to face these impossible tasks alone. Joining him are his mentee Velhiro Tomasaran, still finding her footing with the investigative nature of their job; Iäna Pel-Thenhior, his beloved opera director friend and avid supporter; and the valiant guard captain Hanu Olgarezh.

Amidst the backdrop of a murder and a brewing political uprising, Celehar must seek justice for those who cannot find it themselves under a tense political system. The repercussions of his quest are never as simple they seem, and Celehar’s own life and happiness hang in the balance.]]> 336 Katherine Addison 1250821010 Kevin 5 4.63 2025
author: Katherine Addison
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/13
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]]> 223200977 The Goblin Emperor,��The Orb of Cairado offers an unlikely hero in historian Ulcetha Zhorvena.

Five years ago, Ulcetha was studying at the University of Cairado, working his way toward becoming a scholar first-class in the Department of History. Then a prize artifact disappeared and Ulcetha, deftly framed, was kicked out. Now he works for a crooked importer, using his knowledge of elven history to write provenances for the fake artifacts Salathgarad sells.

When the airship Wisdom of Choharo explodes, killing the emperor and three of his four sons, it takes with it Ulcetha’s best friend, Mara Lilana. But Mara leaves behind a puzzle—the one thing Ulcetha can’t resist. And the puzzle leads Ulcetha back to the Department of History…and maybe the chance to clear his name.]]> 101 Katherine Addison 1645242145 Kevin 5 4.43 2025
author: Katherine Addison
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/05
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]]> 219822416 any lengths to ensure Lord Mdang looked his best when he became Viceroy.

A companion short story to The Hands of the Emperor.]]> 33 Victoria Goddard 1998133303 Kevin 4 4.54 2022
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
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]]> 223031072
Since there are still those few outstanding hoops to jump through before she can take up her place, she has ended up the guest of Jemis Greenwing’s family friends in Ragnor Bella.

Ragnor Bella is supposed to be the dullest town in Northwest Oriole. Hope was actually rather looking forward to a quiet Winterturn. But even with doing her best to sidestep the chaos that follows Jemis around, Hope can get into situations all on her own ...

A side story to the main Greenwing & Dart series, Balancing Stone takes place shortly after Plum Duff (and a few days before The Saint of the Bookstore). Please note it contains spoilers for some of the events in the main series!]]> 54 Victoria Goddard 1998133435 Kevin 4 4.41 2024
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/04
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]]> 9498062 Alternate cover can be found here

Over a millennium ago, Erna, a seismically active yet beautiful world was settled by colonists from far-distant Earth. But the seemingly habitable planet was fraught with perils no one could have foretold. The colonists found themselves caught in a desperate battle for survival against the fae, a terrifying natural force with the power to prey upon the human mind itself, drawing forth a person's worst nightmare images or most treasured dreams and indiscriminately giving them life.

Twelve centuries after fate first stranded the colonists on Erna, mankind has achieved an uneasy stalemate, and human sorcerers manipulate the fae for their own profit, little realizing that demonic forces which feed upon such efforts are rapidly gaining in strength.

Now, as the hordes of the dark fae multiply, four people—Priest, Adept, Apprentice, and Sorcerer—are about to be drawn inexorably together for a mission which will force them to confront an evil beyond their imagining, in a conflict which will put not only their own lives but the very fate of humankind in jeopardy.]]> 595 C.S. Friedman 1101464321 Kevin 3 4.05 1991
author: C.S. Friedman
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/04
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]]> 201086883 A witty, charming standalone novella starring Greta Helsing, doctor to the undead, who must get to the bottom of a mystery involving a newly turned child vampire.  A barrow-wight shows up on Greta and Varney’s doorstep one night with 11-year-old Lucy Ashton who’s been newly—and forcefully—bitten and turned. Who did this to her, and why? With the help of her vampiric friends, Greta is determined to find out.Dr. Greta Helsing NovelsStrange Practice  Dreadful Company Grave Importance]]> 164 Vivian Shaw 0316538175 Kevin 4 4.27 2024
author: Vivian Shaw
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
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]]> 43163434
Oasis Natrun: a private, exclusive, highly secret luxury health spa for mummies, high in the hills above Marseille, equipped with the very latest in therapeutic innovations both magical and medical. To Dr. Greta Helsing, London's de facto mummy specialist, it sounds like paradise. But when Greta is invited to spend four months there as the interim clinical director, it isn't long before she finds herself faced with a medical mystery that will take all her diagnostic skill to solve.

A peculiar complaint is spreading among her mummy patients, one she's never seen before. With help from her friends and colleagues -- including Dr. Faust (yes, that Dr. Faust), remedial psychopomps, a sleepy scribe-god, witches, demons, a British Museum curator, and the inimitable vampyre Sir Francis Varney -- Greta must put a stop to this mysterious illness before anybody else crumbles to irreparable dust...

...and before the fabric of reality itself can undergo any more structural damage.]]> 451 Vivian Shaw 0316434663 Kevin 4 4.31 2019
author: Vivian Shaw
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
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]]> 36591601
Unfortunately for Greta, Paris happens to be infested with a coven of vampires - and not the civilised kind. If she hopes to survive, Greta must navigate the maze of ancient catacombs beneath the streets, where there is more to find than simply dead men's bones.]]> 448 Vivian Shaw 0316434647 Kevin 4 4.30 2018
author: Vivian Shaw
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
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]]> 32841038
Dr. Greta Helsing has inherited the family's highly specialized, and highly peculiar, medical practice. She treats the undead for a host of ills - vocal strain in banshees, arthritis in barrow-wights, and entropy in mummies.

It's a quiet, supernatural-adjacent life, until a sect of murderous monks emerges, killing human and undead Londoners alike. As terror takes hold of the city, Greta must use her unusual skills to stop the cult if she hopes to save her practice, and her life.]]> 336 Vivian Shaw 0316434612 Kevin 4 3.99 2017
author: Vivian Shaw
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/26
date added: 2024/12/26
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]]> 204408918 High heat. Low stakes. Sharp steel.

The cozy, low stakes of Legends & Lattes meets the scorching bodyguard fantasy of Jennifer L. Armentrout's From Blood and Ash in this enemies-to-lovers romance where, yes, the swords do cross.

A LitHub most anticipated book of 2024

Mattinesh Jay, dutiful heir to his struggling family business, needs to hire an experienced swordsman to serve as best man for his arranged marriage. Sword-challenge at the ceremony could destroy all hope of restoring his family's wealth, something that Matti has been trying—and failing—to do for the past ten years.

What he can afford, unfortunately, is part-time con artist and full-time charming menace Luca Piere.

Luca, for his part, is trying to reinvent himself in a new city. All he wants to do is make some easy money and try to forget the crime he committed in his hometown. He didn't plan on being blackmailed into giving sword lessons to a chronically responsible—and inconveniently handsome—wool merchant like Matti.

However, neither Matti's business troubles nor Luca himself are quite what they seem. As the days count down to Matti's wedding, the two of them become entangled in the intrigue and sabotage that have brought Matti's house to the brink of ruin. And when Luca's secrets threaten to drive a blade through their growing alliance, both Matti and Luca will have to answer the how many lies are you prepared to strip away, when the truth could mean losing everything you want?

"There's nothing in fantasy or queer romance that Marske can't do."—Sarah Rees Brennan

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 384 Freya Marske 1250341639 Kevin 5 4.09 2024
author: Freya Marske
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/23
date added: 2024/12/23
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]]> 39030 464 Douglas Preston 0765354950 Kevin 4 4.03 1997
author: Douglas Preston
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/11/25
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]]> 207573359 From debut author Maiga Doocy comes the charming tale of an impulsive sorcerer and his curmudgeonly rival as they venture deep into a magical forest in search of a counterspell that can break the curse between them—only to discover that magic might not be the only thing pulling them together. 

Leovander Loveage is a master of small magics. He can summon butterflies with a song or turn someone’s hair pink by snapping his fingers. Though such minor charms don’t earn him much respect, anything more elaborate always blows up in his face, and so Leo vowed long ago never to use powerful magic again.

That is, until a mishap with a forbidden spell binds Leo to obey the commands of his longtime rival, Sebastian Grimm. Grimm is Leo’s complete opposite—respected, exceptionally talented, and absolutely insufferable. The only thing they can agree on is that revealing the curse between them would mean the end of their respective magical careers. They need a counterspell, and fast.

Chasing rumors of a powerful sorcerer with a knack for undoing curses, Leo and Grimm enter the Unquiet Wood, a forest infested with murderous monsters and dangerous outlaws alike. To break the curse, they will have to uncover the true depths of Leo’s magic, set aside their long-standing rivalry, and—much to their horror—work together.

Even as an odd spark of attraction flares between them.]]> 391 Maiga Doocy 031657676X Kevin 4 4.40 2024
author: Maiga Doocy
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/23
date added: 2024/11/23
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]]> 203924567 L. E. Modesitt, Jr. continues the Saga of Recluce, the long-running, best-selling epic fantasy series. Overcaptain, the sequel to From the Forest, continues to follow the early life of a man known by many names depending on who you ask—hero, tyrant, emperor.

Alyiakal, overcaptain in the Mirror Lancers of Cyador, has completed his tour of duty as officer-in-charge of a small, remote post. He just wants to finish and see his best friend consorted and assume his next post assignment. If only it were that easy.

He discovers corruption in the Merchanter Clans of Cyador, but investigating Mirror Lancer officers end up dead. Before he can go on leave, he has to replace one of these officers, close a post, dodge an attempt on his life, and an investigation from Magi-i.

At Lhaarat, Alyiakal is assigned as a deputy commander to a post that never had one, and the commander doesn't want one—and that's just the beginning of Alyiakal’s problems.]]> 528 L.E. Modesitt Jr. 1250902932 Kevin 5 4.49 2024
author: L.E. Modesitt Jr.
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/22
date added: 2024/11/22
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]]> 66604154 A Power Unbound is the final entry in Freya Marske’s beloved, award-winning Last Binding trilogy, the queer historical fantasy series that began with A Marvellous Light.

Jack Alston, Lord Hawthorn, would love a nice, safe, comfortable life. After the death of his twin sister, he thought he was done with magic for good. But with the threat of a dangerous ritual hanging over every magician in Britain, he’s drawn reluctantly back into that world.

Now Jack is living in a bizarre puzzle-box of a magical London townhouse, helping an unlikely group of friends track down the final piece of the Last Contract before their enemies can do the same. And to make matters worse, they need the help of writer and thief Alan Ross.

Cagey and argumentative, Alan is only in this for the money. The aristocratic Lord Hawthorn, with all his unearned power, is everything that Alan hates. And unfortunately, Alan happens to be everything that Jack wants in one gorgeous, infuriating package.

When a plot to seize unimaginable power comes to a head at Cheetham Hall—Jack’s ancestral family estate, a land so old and bound in oaths that it’s grown a personality as prickly as its owner—Jack, Alan and their allies will become entangled in a night of champagne, secrets, and bloody sacrifice . . . and the foundations of magic in Britain will be torn up by the roots before the end.]]> 368 Freya Marske 125078896X Kevin 4 4.37 2023
author: Freya Marske
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/17
date added: 2024/11/17
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]]> 41951611
A seemingly impossible quest, but Liliath is one of the greatest practitioners of angelic magic to have ever lived, summoning angels and forcing them to do her bidding.

Liliath knew that most of the inhabitants of Ystara died from the Ash Blood plague or were transformed into beastlings, and she herself led the survivors who fled into neighboring Sarance. Now she learns that angels shun the Ystaran’s descendants. If they are touched by angelic magic, their blood will turn to ash. They are known as Refusers, and can only live the most lowly lives.

But Liliath cares nothing for the descendants of her people, save how they can serve her. It is four young Sarancians who hold her interest: Simeon, a studious doctor-in-training; Henri, a dedicated fortune hunter; Agnez, an adventurous musketeer cadet; and Dorotea, an icon-maker and scholar of angelic magic. They are the key to her quest.

The four feel a strange kinship from the moment they meet, but do not know why, or suspect their importance. All become pawns in Liliath’s grand scheme to fulfill her destiny and be united with the love of her life. No matter the cost to everyone else. . .]]> 496 Garth Nix 0062683241 Kevin 4 3.63 2019
author: Garth Nix
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/11/30
date added: 2024/09/28
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]]> 34715201 Magic in the blood. Danger in the streets.

Lord Crane has never had a lover quite as elusive as Stephen Day. He knows Stephen’s job as justiciar requires secrecy, but the magician is doing his disappearing act more than seems reasonable—especially since Crane will soon return to his home in China. When a blackmailer threatens to expose their illicit relationship, there's only one thing stopping Crane from leaving the country he loathes: Stephen.

Stephen has problems of his own. As he investigates a plague of giant rats sweeping London, his sudden increase in power, boosted by his blood-and-sex bond with Crane, is rousing suspicion that he’s turned warlock. With all eyes on him, the threat of exposure grows. Stephen could lose his friends, his job and his liberty over his relationship with Crane. He’s not sure if he can take that risk much longer. Crane isn’t sure if he can ask him to.

The rats are closing in, and something has to give��

Book 2 of the Charm of Magpies series. Previously published by Samhain.]]> 211 K.J. Charles Kevin 4 4.09 2014
author: K.J. Charles
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2017/08/14
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves:
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]]> 18652437
The families who rule the People's Republic of Haven are in trouble. The treasury's empty, the Proles are restless, and civil war is imminent.

But the ruling class knows what they need to keep in a "short victorious war" to unite the people and fill the treasury once more. It's a card they've played often in the last half-century, always successfully, and all that stands in their way is the Star Kingdom of Manticore and its threadbare enemies in the past who have always backed down.

Only this time the Peeps face something different. This time they're up against Captain Honor Harrington and a Royal Manticoran Navy that's prepared to give them a war that's far from short—or victorious.]]> 429 David Weber 1618243187 Kevin 4 4.28 1994
author: David Weber
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at: 2013/06/30
date added: 2024/09/26
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]]> 21531463 This discounted ebundle Child of Blood, Child of Earth, Child of the Sky, Requiem for the Sun, Elegy for a Lost Star, The Assassin KingThe USA Today bestselling series by Elizabeth Haydon, The Symphony of Ages made numerous "Best of the Year" as well as national bestseller lists, and the Romantic Times called it "an epic saga worthy of Eddings, Goodkind, and Jordan."Rhapsody is a woman, a Singer of some talent, who is swept up into events of world-shattering import. On the run from an old romantic interest who won't take no for an answer, Rhapsody literally bumps into a couple of shady half-breeds who come to her rescue in the nick of time. Only the rescue turns into an abduction, and Rhapsody soon finds herself dragged along on an epic voyage, one that spans centuries and ranges across a wonder-filled fantasy world.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 3720 Elizabeth Haydon 1466854332 Kevin 3 4.33 2014
author: Elizabeth Haydon
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/09/21
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]]> 17307117
Captain Marcus d’Ivoire, commander of one of the Vordanai empire’s colonial garrisons, was resigned to serving out his days in a sleepy, remote outpost. But that was before a rebellion upended his life. And once the powder smoke settled, he was left in charge of a demoralized force clinging tenuously to a small fortress at the edge of the desert.

To flee from her past, Winter Ihernglass masqueraded as a man and enlisted as a ranker in the Vordanai Colonials, hoping only to avoid notice. But when chance sees her promoted to command, she must win the hearts of her men and lead them into battle against impossible odds.

The fates of both these soldiers and all the men they lead depend on the newly arrived Colonel Janus bet Vhalnich, who has been sent by the ailing king to restore order. His military genius seems to know no bounds, and under his command, Marcus and Winter can feel the tide turning. But their allegiance will be tested as they begin to suspect that the enigmatic Janus’s ambitions extend beyond the battlefield and into the realm of the supernatural—a realm with the power to ignite a meteoric rise, reshape the known world, and change the lives of everyone in its path.]]> 529 Django Wexler 1101609516 Kevin 3 4.13 2013
author: Django Wexler
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2013/09/01
date added: 2024/08/21
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]]> 9303978
Send a linguist with multiple-personality disorder and a biologist so spliced with machinery that he can't feel his own flesh. Send a pacifist warrior and a vampire recalled from the grave by the voodoo of paleogenetics. Send a man with half his mind gone since childhood. Send them to the edge of the solar system, praying you can trust such freaks and monsters with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find—but you'd give anything for that to be true, if you knew what was waiting for them. . . .]]> 388 Peter Watts Kevin 4 3.97 2006
author: Peter Watts
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2014/08/19
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves:
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]]> 34715150 A lord in danger. A magician in turmoil. A snowball in hell.

Exiled to China for twenty years, Lucien Vaudrey never planned to return to England. But with the mysterious deaths of his father and brother, it seems the new Lord Crane has inherited an earldom. He’s also inherited his family’s enemies. He needs magical assistance, fast. He doesn't expect it to turn up angry.

Magician Stephen Day has good reason to hate Crane’s family. Unfortunately, it’s his job to deal with supernatural threats. Besides, the earl is unlike any aristocrat he’s ever met, with the tattoos, the attitude... and the way Crane seems determined to get him into bed. That’s definitely unusual.

Soon Stephen is falling hard for the worst possible man, at the worst possible time. But Crane’s dangerous appeal isn't the only thing rendering Stephen powerless. Evil pervades the house, a web of plots is closing round Crane, and if Stephen can’t find a way through it—they’re both going to die.

Book 1 of the Charm of Magpies series. Previously published by Samhain.]]> 271 K.J. Charles 0995799024 Kevin 4 3.96 2013
author: K.J. Charles
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2017/08/11
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves:
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]]> 198246450
At the end of three long wars, Bellusdeo is the last of her kind, the sole surviving female Dragon in the City of Elantra. When she appears one evening on the doorstep of her former roommate, Corporal Kaylin Neya, her demeanor is dreadful—more so than what’s expected of the Dragons�� notoriously tempestuous temperament. Kaylin’s new roommate, Mrs. Erickson, is quick to see the reason for Bellusdeo’s despair—the eight ghosts of the Dragon’s dead sisters, chained to her and unseen. Pleading for release, revenge and, above all, peace.

Now Kaylin and Mrs. Erickson must embark on a perilous journey, from the hallowed halls of the Academia to the depths of forbidden magic, to confront the very essence of mortality itself. Can Kaylin help release the untapped power within Mrs. Erickson to save Bellusdeo’s sisters…or will unlocking the past plunge the realm into an unfathomable darkness forever?]]> 480 Michelle Sagara Kevin 4 4.59 2024
author: Michelle Sagara
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/12
date added: 2024/08/12
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]]> 59849819 Magic! Murder! Shipboard romance!

Maud Blyth has always longed for adventure. She expected plenty of it when she volunteered to serve as an old lady’s companion on an ocean liner, in order to help her beloved older brother unravel a magical conspiracy that began generations ago.

What she didn’t expect was for the old lady in question to turn up dead on the first day of the voyage. Now she has to deal with a dead body, a disrespectful parrot, and the lovely, dangerously outrageous Violet Debenham, who’s also returning home to England. Violet is everything that Maud has been trained to distrust yet can’t help but desire: a magician, an actress, and a magnet for scandal.

Surrounded by the open sea and a ship full of suspects, Maud and Violet must first drop the masks that they’ve both learned to wear before they can unmask a murderer and somehow get their hands on a magical object worth killing for—without ending up dead in the water themselves.]]> 400 Freya Marske Kevin 4 4.08 2022
author: Freya Marske
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/08
date added: 2024/08/08
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]]> 37837773
In this wide-ranging and original book, James C. Scott analyzes failed cases of large-scale authoritarian plans in a variety of fields. Centrally managed social plans misfire, Scott argues, when they impose schematic visions that do violence to complex interdependencies that are not—and cannot—be fully understood. Further, the success of designs for social organization depends upon the recognition that local, practical knowledge is as important as formal, epistemic knowledge. The author builds a persuasive case against "development theory" and imperialistic state planning that disregards the values, desires, and objections of its subjects. He identifies and discusses four conditions common to all planning administrative ordering of nature and society by the state; a "high-modernist ideology" that places confidence in the ability of science to improve every aspect of human life; a willingness to use authoritarian state power to effect large- scale interventions; and a prostrate civil society that cannot effectively resist such plans.]]> 462 James C. Scott 0300128789 Kevin 5 4.17 1998
author: James C. Scott
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2016/03/27
date added: 2024/07/26
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]]> 53217284
For fans of Georgette Heyer or Julia Quinn's Bridgerton, who'd like to welcome magic into their lives...

Young baronet Robin Blyth thought he was taking up a minor governmental post. However, he's actually been appointed parliamentary liaison to a secret magical society. If it weren’t for this administrative error, he’d never have discovered the incredible magic underlying his world.

Cursed by mysterious attackers and plagued by visions, Robin becomes determined to drag answers from his missing predecessor �� but he’ll need the help of Edwin Courcey, his hostile magical-society counterpart. Unwillingly thrown together, Robin and Edwin will discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles.]]> 377 Freya Marske 1250788897 Kevin 4 3.94 2021
author: Freya Marske
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/20
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]]> 52702097
There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.]]> 246 Susanna Clarke Kevin 4 4.24 2020
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/19
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]]> 215793538 I never travel alone proves true in ways Roz never imagined, his world becomes more frightening still—but also much wider than he’d ever dared to dream.]]> 123 Lois McMaster Bujold Kevin 5 4.58 2024
author: Lois McMaster Bujold
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/13
date added: 2024/07/13
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]]> 144743463
To protect her village, she must unearth a source of immense Necromantic power at the heart of Mahlgren. The journey will wind through waves of undead, untamed wilderness, and curses far older than anything Aelis has ever encountered. But as strong as Aelis is, this is one quest she cannot face alone.

Along with the brilliant mercenary she's fallen for, her half-orc friend, and a dwarven merchant, Aelis must race the clock to unravel mysteries, slay dread creatures, and stop what she has set in motion before the flames of a bloody war are re-ignited.]]> 312 Daniel M. Ford Kevin 3 4.39 2024
author: Daniel M. Ford
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/13
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]]> 133286929
Another Opening…Another Cataclysm?

Vlad Taltos is on the run. Again. This time from one of the most powerful forces in his world, the Left Hand, who are intent on ending his very lucrative career. Permanently.

He finds a hidey-hole in a theatre where the players are putting on a show that was banned centuries ago…and is trying to be shut down by the House that once literally killed to keep it from being played.

Vlad will take on a number of roles to save his own skin. And the skins of those he loves.

And along the way, he’s might find a part that was tailor-made for him.

One that he might not want…but was always his destiny.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 281 Steven Brust 1466889713 Kevin 5 4.54 2024
author: Steven Brust
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2024
rating: 5
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]]> 211315708
But there are those for whom the Wild is not only out there but a magic within their blood, and for them--or at least for Terec, once of Lund and now only of the wastelands--the Ice is a wall that might, perhaps, contain a door ...

Book 2 of Terec of Lund, to be read after Terec and the Wild.]]> 44 Victoria Goddard Kevin 4 4.00 2024
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/25
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]]> 133286922 Gods and lawyers battle for the soul of the world in the action-packed second volume of Max Gladstone's Craft Wars, an epic fantasy like no other.

A deadly force has been unleashed into the world. With apocalypse on the horizon, a girl and a god have joined in order to turn back the coming end. Young, brash, and desperate, they are willing to destroy anything and everything that stands between them and their goals. The structures of the Craft are theirs to overturn, with billions of lives in the balance. And it is all Tara Abernathy’s fault.

The battle for the world of the Craft is heating up. A dead god will rise. A mountain will fall. Ancient fire will be stolen. And while Tara races to stop Dawn’s plans, the end draws ever closer, skittering across the stars to swallow the world. The Craft Wars enter their second stage in Wicked Problems.]]> 480 Max Gladstone 0765395924 Kevin 5 4.39 2024
author: Max Gladstone
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2024
rating: 5
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]]> 616678 435 David Eddings 0345367693 Kevin 3 3.98 1989
author: David Eddings
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1989
rating: 3
read at: 2022/10/27
date added: 2024/04/15
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]]> 181895318 It is not the first time the house has experienced unsettling events. And it will not be the last.

Now the new owner of Thirdhop Scarp, one Marcus Oleander, is gathering an esoteric order at the house, including Miss Griselda Parrington, daughter of the museum's founder. The museum director demands that Mr Booth discredit Oleander’s occult teachings and end his influence over the credulous Miss Parrington. Reluctantly, Mr Booth joins the weekend séance.

In the beautiful but eerie surrounds of the house and gardens, Mr Booth is drawn into an investigation that spans years �� and reveals the house to be much, much more than it seems…]]> 144 Sarah Monette 1837861110 Kevin 3 4.17 2023
author: Sarah Monette
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/28
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]]> 134754338
Jullanar is a gently-raised young woman from deep inside the Empire of Astandalas, aware that there are worlds beyond its sway but hardly daring to dream she'd ever see outside of her own country, let alone beyond the empire's borders. And yet they both dream of friendship, of adventure, of what else there might be. And it's Jullanar whose exam results turn out to matter in a way no one could expect. The first book of The Red Company, because even the greatest of folk heroes have to start somewhere.]]> 385 Victoria Goddard 1988908906 Kevin 5 4.49 2023
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2023
rating: 5
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]]> 60720846
Terec reminds himself of this, often.

Nor is it illegal to go north.

He reminds himself of that, too.

Terec was born with a wild talent for fire, and can no longer suppress it. Soon he will not be able to hide it, and he fears it will burn out of control, no longer singeing his bed-linens but hurting those he loves.

If you head south from his family's lands, you go to Astandalas of the emperors, heart of the empire, rich with magic. You go seeking fame and fortune and adventure.

If, on the other hand, you head north, towards the edge of the Empire, the edge of the known world, the edge of the Wild ... well. You might find adventure, but you won't be looking for it.]]> 52 Victoria Goddard Kevin 4 3.93 2022
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/21
date added: 2024/03/25
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]]> 209697285 45 Victoria Goddard Kevin 4 4.21 2024
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 4
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]]> 61918023
(Surely he used to have hobbies besides running the government?)

All he has to do is wait patiently for his lord's return... until adventure quite literally hits him from behind, and what was once safely hypothetical becomes intensely real.

Cliopher has always followed the stars of his chosen course: the epic oral histories of his people, the poetry of the rebel poet Fitzroy Angursell, decades of devotion and service to his Radiancy... They were enough to change the world. But are they enough to guide Cliopher home?]]> 1330 Victoria Goddard 1988908388 Kevin 5 4.55 2022
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2022
rating: 5
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]]> 156460672
Hal has always known where he’s going, because he is the Imperial Duke of Fillering Pool, and the dukes have always gone to either Zabour or Tara. Since Zabour fell into the sea, it’ll have to be Tara.

Theoretically.

At some point he’ll have to write them.

Clary Sage is a novella loosely connected to the Grenwing & Dart series, taking place before those books commence.]]> 71 Victoria Goddard 1988908965 Kevin 4 4.49 2023
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2023
rating: 4
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]]> 75359325 Early in the new year, Sister Mirabelle of the Linder Church of the Lady is sent to Ragnor Bella to investigate rumours of a saint. Her job is to determine whether it's magic, trickery, or actual miracle. In the town's small bookstore, she encounters one Jemis Greenwing, who has a few mysteries to his name.

This story takes place after Plum Duff (Greenwing & Dart #6) and does contain references to certain major events from earlier books. However, if you don't mind a few spoilers it's a good introduction to the series!]]> 33 Victoria Goddard Kevin 3 4.47 2022
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2022
rating: 3
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]]> 59776217 Except, obviously, at Winterturn.

Winterturn in Ragnor Bella is a holiday for family, feasting, and a few religious festivities.

Jemis Greenwing and Mr. Dart are both quite ready for a quiet week or two after their adventures going to and coming home from Orio City. Jemis in particular is looking forward to the first Winterturn spent with his father since he was a child.

Then the fairy fox shows up.

Wild magic. Family secrets. Gifts from unknown admirers. Sainthood. And that's before the pageant.]]> 288 Victoria Goddard 1988908477 Kevin 5 4.39 2021
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2021
rating: 5
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]]> 55584334 Murder, like romance, is always a possibility.

The journey home from Orio City was supposed to be straightforward. Avoid being captured by brigands or agents of the criminal gangs; try not to cause any further spiritual or magical shocks; and make it over the mountains before winter closes in.

A sudden blizzard drives Jemis and his friends to seek refuge in an eccentric country gentleman's even more eccentric house. They only want to stay out the storm without revealing all their secrets: but the other guests have secrets of their own, and Mr. Dart's ability to hear the inanimate has some unforeseeable consequences ...

Blizzards. Unicorns. Ciphers. Noblesse oblige. A budding romance. And that's before the murder.

Book Five of Greenwing & Dart, fantasies of manners--and mischief.]]> 283 Victoria Goddard 1988908272 Kevin 5 4.39 2020
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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]]> 48839176
Orio City is where that's decided.




When his best friend Mr. Dart unexpectedly needs to make an urgent trip to Orio City, Jemis Greenwing's immediate response to ask when. He's willing to make up to his grandmother so she will lend them her falarode, he's willing to offer to run the errands of half the barony, and he's certainly willing to spend a week or so away from the gossips of Ragnor Bella.




It's such a pity that Jemis and Mr. Dart are more than halfway to Orio City before Jemis remembers that his vindictive ex-lover Lark is a rising star in the criminal courts of Orio City. It's an even greater pity when they realize just what her new position is in the legally instituted court there.




What with the dragon Jemis slayed a month ago, his consequent ascension to the position of Viscount St-Noire, and his father's very recent second return from the dead, to say nothing of that still-famous play from the summer, Three Years the Tragicomedy of the Traitor of Loe, it's really too much to hope for that Jemis will be able to spend even three days in the old capital incognito.




University students. Bear baiting. Unexpected relations. Wild magic. Literary criticism. Kittens. And always that whisper from the highwaymen of the Arguty Forest that someone's death is on the line ...




Book Four of Greenwing & Dart, fantasies of manners--and mischief.]]> 298 Victoria Goddard 1988908183 Kevin 5 4.36 2019
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2019
rating: 5
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]]> 38111779 Outlaws make their own.

Jemis Greenwing has slain a dragon, been acknowledged as the Viscount St-Noire, and not incidentally also been given a raise. After a chaotic first month back in Ragnor Bella, he’s finally feeling confident that he can make it to the Winterturn Assizes and the reading of his stepfather’s will without falling headlong into any more disaster.

Then he’s arrested on suspicion of murder.

By magic.

Of one of the greatest folk heroes of legend.

Trained to be a politically radical gentleman-of-leisure, Jemis thought he was doing fairly well as a bookstore clerk. That, of course, is before he ends up on the run in the Arguty Forest confronting highwaymen, illegal distillers, the odd relation, and the Wild Saint—not to mention the secrets a town truly committed to being infamously dull can hold.

Book Three of Greenwing & Dart, fantasies of manners—and mischief.]]> 403 Victoria Goddard 1988908124 Kevin 5 4.34 2018
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2018
rating: 5
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]]> 36271613 310 Victoria Goddard 1988908000 Kevin 5 4.37 2018
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2018
rating: 5
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]]> 28778001 Good manners never are.

Jemis Greenwing returned from university with a broken heart, a bad cold, and no prospects beyond a problematic inheritance and a job at the local bookstore.

Ragnor Bella is a placid little market town on the road to nowhere, where Jemis�� family affairs have always been the main source of gossip. Having missed his stepfather's funeral, he is determined to keep his head down.

Unfortunately for his reputation, though fortunately for several other people, he falls quickly under the temptation of resuming the friendship of Mr. Dart of Dartington, Squire-in-training and beloved local daredevil. Mr. Dart is delighted to have Jemis' company for what will be, he assures him, a very small adventure.

Jemis expected the cut direct. The secret societies, criminal gangs, and illegal cult to the old gods--to say nothing of the mermaid--come as a complete surprise.

Book One of Greenwing & Dart, fantasies of manners—and mischief.]]> 373 Victoria Goddard Kevin 4 3.96 2016
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/17
date added: 2024/03/17
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]]> 61127243
Pali Avramapul may not have gone under her own name since the dissolution of the Red Company, but she is no myth, and has certainly not faded. She fights folly and injustice as fiercely as ever—although, as a respected scholar of history at one of the Circle Schools of Alinor, she now tends to use her tongue and pen more than her sword.

She still keeps the sword sharp, of course. You never know when adventure will come calling.

She expects her sabbatical to be a decorous, respectable sort of adventure, the kind with which she can regale her colleagues in the Senior Common Room upon her return.

She’s not very upset when she finds one or two of her old friends and it turns out the adventure is much more likely to involve a plot to kidnap the Last Emperor of Astandalas.

There’s respectable, after all, and then there’s respectable.]]> 403 Victoria Goddard 1988908558 Kevin 5 4.33 2022
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2022
rating: 5
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]]> 56392665
He is possibly the last person you would expect to find breaking into the tomb of the first Emperor of Astandalas. He could, after all, have entered it legitimately.

But Artorin Damara has a great secret, which he has kept hidden since before he ascended to the throne, and part of it is that he knows perfectly well how to set about on an adventure.

Another part of it is that his true name is not actually the one that everyone knows him by...]]> 380 Victoria Goddard Kevin 5 4.39 2020
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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]]> 199662808
Until the Emperor woke up. At which point Conju wondered whether he might conceivably want to consider the other options. Even if cataloguing storerooms is a bit of a pain when you don't actually know what anything is. Sadly, neither perfumery nor fashion are particularly useful skills after a magical apocalypse. Unless you can finesse your way into attending said Emperor, that is...

The Game of Courts is a companion novella to The Hands of the Emperor. It is set concurrently to Petty Treasons.]]> 67 Victoria Goddard 1998133079 Kevin 4 4.33 2023
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/16
date added: 2024/03/16
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]]> 58919034
It has been three years since he woke from a magical coma caused by the catastrophic collapse of his empire, and he can barely acknowledge his own day-to-day existence, let alone what he needs from someone else.

Enter Cliopher sayo Mdang, unassuming Fifth Degree Secretary of the Imperial Bureaucratic Service, and to everyone's surprise the apocalypse ... ends.

This novella is set on Zunidh in the universe of the Nine Worlds. It is best read after The Hands of the Emperor.]]> 110 Victoria Goddard 1988908442 Kevin 5 4.27 2021
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/16
date added: 2024/03/16
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]]> 24152470 33 Victoria Goddard Kevin 5 4.13 2014
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2014
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/03/16
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]]> 43525897 A timely word can stop one.
A simple act of friendship can change the course of history.

Cliopher Mdang is the personal secretary of the Last Emperor of Astandalas, the Lord of Rising Stars, the Lord Magus of Zunidh, the Sun-on-Earth, the god.
He has spent more time with the Emperor of Astandalas than any other person.
He has never once touched his lord.
He has never called him by name.
He has never initiated a conversation.

One day Cliopher invites the Sun-on-Earth home to the proverbially remote Vangavaye-ve for a holiday.

The mere invitation could have seen Cliopher executed for blasphemy.
The acceptance upends the world.]]> 969 Victoria Goddard 1988908159 Kevin 5 4.43 2019
author: Victoria Goddard
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/16
date added: 2024/03/16
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]]> 618245
Scion of Cyador continues the story begun in Magi'i of Cyador . Exploring the rich depths of the history of Recluce, Magi'i of Cyador introduced Lorn, a talented boy born into a family of Magi'i. A diligent student mage who lacked blind devotion, Lorn was made a lancer officer and shipped off to the frontier--a career that comes with a 50% mortality rate.

Having survived his extended stint fighting both barbarian raiders and the giant beasts of the Accursed Forest, Lorn has proven himself to be a fine officer . . . perhaps too fine an officer. As his prowess has grown, so has his number of enemies and rivals. Too much success has made him a marked man. When he returns to his home, both he and his young family become targets while all of Cyad is in upheaval over deadly political infighting. But Lorn is now hardened, a deadly fighter himself, especially when the Empire is at stake.

Scion of Cyador is the completion of another grand story in the Recluce saga.

Scion of Cyador is the eleventh book in the saga of Recluce.]]> 720 L.E. Modesitt Jr. 0812589262 Kevin 5 4.18 2001
author: L.E. Modesitt Jr.
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/11
date added: 2024/02/12
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]]> 727699 Magi'i of Cyador marks the beginning of a new tale from deep within the rich depths of the history of Recluce. This is the story of Lorn, a talented boy born into a family of Magi'i. A diligent student of remarkable talent, Lorn lacks only the single most coveted attribute required of a Magus of Cyador: unquestionable loyalty. Lorn is too independent for his own good.

So Lorn is forced to become a lancer officer, and he's sent to the frontier to fight off the all-too-frequent barbarian raids--a career that comes with a 50% mortality rate. His enemies don't expect him to survive . . .]]> 544 L.E. Modesitt Jr. 0812579488 Kevin 5 4.12 2000
author: L.E. Modesitt Jr.
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/10
date added: 2024/02/11
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]]> 150249463
In Daretana’s greatest mansion, a high imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree erupted from his body. Even here at the Empire’s borders, where contagions abound and the blood of the leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death both terrifying and impossible.

Assigned to investigate is Ana Dolabra, a detective whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities. Rumor has it that she wears a blindfold at all times, and that she can solve impossible cases without even stepping outside the walls of her home.

At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol, magically altered in ways that make him the perfect aide to Ana’s brilliance. Din is at turns scandalized, perplexed, and utterly infuriated by his new superior—but as the case unfolds and he watches Ana’s mind leap from one startling deduction to the next, he must admit that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.

As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect.

By an “endlessly inventive�� (Vulture) author with a “wicked sense of humor�� (NPR), The Tainted Cup mixes the charms of detective fiction with brilliant world-building to deliver a fiendishly clever mystery that’s at once instantly recognizable and thrillingly new.]]> 410 Robert Jackson Bennett 1984820729 Kevin 5 4.40 2024
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2024
rating: 5
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]]> 126919058
Alayiakal, who will one day be known by many names —not all of them flattering—has to climb the ranks of Cyador’s Mirror Lancers, fighting against unforeseen weapons and ancient technology.

Alayiakal, however, has secrets of his own to his ties to the Great Forest and his magus abilities. He must silently pretend to be a conventional soldier favored by fate—until that very same fate forces him to choose.

Saga of Recluce

#1 The Magic of Recluce / #2 The Towers of the Sunset / #3 The Order War / #4 The Magic Engineer / #5 The Death of Chaos / #6 Fall of Angels / #7 The Chaos Balance / #8 The White Order / #9 Colors of Chaos / #10 Magi’i of Cyador / #11 Scion of Cyador / #12 Wellspring of Chaos / #13 Ordermaster / #14 Natural Order Mage / #15 Mage-Guard of Hamor / #16 Arms-Commander / #17 Cyador’s Heirs / #18 Heritage of Cyador / #19 The Mongrel Mage / #20 Outcasts of Order / #21 The Mage-Fire War / #22 Fairhaven Rising/#23 From the Forest


Story Recluce Tales

Other Series by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
The Grand Illusion
The Imager Portfolio
The Corean Chronicles
The Spellsong Cycle
The Ghost Books
The Ecolitan Matter


At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 452 L.E. Modesitt Jr. 125088683X Kevin 5 4.54 2024
author: L.E. Modesitt Jr.
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2024
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/02/03
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]]> 205048105 153 Lois McMaster Bujold Kevin 5 4.52 2024
author: Lois McMaster Bujold
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/31
date added: 2024/01/31
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]]> 76057677 Ignite your imagination with this immersive fantasy read!

"This magical thrill-ride is a treat." ��Publishers Weekly on Cast in Wisdom

The Academia, once an elite proving ground for the rulers of the world, has been frozen for centuries. Now its strange slumber has ended, and a new Chancellor, an orange-eyed dragon, has reopened its lecture halls and readied its dorms. In order to thrive once more, however, the Academia needs fresh blood—new students with a passion and talent for learning.

One such student, Robin, has the perfect recruit in his friend Raven, an orphan who lives in the dangerous Warrens. Robin grew up in the Warrens, and he wouldn't have made it if not for Raven. He knows she’ll be safe at the Academia, where her unusual gifts can be appreciated.

But when students start turning up dead, the campus threatens to collapse completely. Raven and Robin will not let that happen to their new home…if they can survive long enough to figure out who—or what—is trying to kill them.

]]> 530 Michelle Sagara 0369747062 Kevin 5 4.55 2023
author: Michelle Sagara
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/21
date added: 2024/01/21
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]]> 51193044
This novella follows about a year after the events of “The Prisoner of Limnos��.]]> 127 Lois McMaster Bujold Kevin 5 4.29 2019
author: Lois McMaster Bujold
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/16
date added: 2024/01/18
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]]> 36440420
Their own romance still unresolved, Nikys, Penric, and of course Desdemona must infiltrate the hostile country once more, finding along the way that family relationships can be as unexpectedly challenging as any rescue scheme]]> 138 Lois McMaster Bujold Kevin 5 4.33 2017
author: Lois McMaster Bujold
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/13
date added: 2024/01/18
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]]> 34348998
Fourth novella in the “Penric and Desdemona�� series.]]> 90 Lois McMaster Bujold Kevin 5 4.25 2017
author: Lois McMaster Bujold
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/28
date added: 2024/01/01
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]]> 32858701
Learned Penric, a sorcerer and divine of the Bastard's Order, travels across the sea to sunlit Cedonia on his first covert diplomatic mission, to attempt to secure the services of a disaffected Cedonian general for the Duke of Adria. However, nothing is as it seems. Penric is betrayed and thrown into a dungeon, and worse follows for the general and his kin.

Penric's narrow escapes and adventures—including his interest in a young widow—are told with Bujold's remarkable energy, wit, and humor. Once again, Bujold has created unforgettable characters and a wondrous, often dangerous world of intrigue and sorcery.]]> 139 Lois McMaster Bujold Kevin 4 4.34 2016
author: Lois McMaster Bujold
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/23
date added: 2024/01/01
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]]> 30744697 Penric’s Demon, Penric is a divine of the Bastard’s Order as well as a sorcerer and scholar, living in the palace where the Princess-Archdivine holds court. His scholarly work is interrupted when the Archdivine agrees to send Penric, in his role as sorcerer, to accompany a “Locator" of the Father’s Order, assigned to capture Inglis, a runaway shaman charged with the murder of his best friend. However, the situation they discover in the mountains is far more complex than expected. Penric’s roles as sorcerer, strategist, and counselor are all called upon before the end.]]> 117 Lois McMaster Bujold Kevin 4 4.40 2016
author: Lois McMaster Bujold
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/01
date added: 2024/01/01
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]]> 55681881 This novella falls between “Penric’s Fox�� and “Penric’s Mission�� in the internal chronology of the Penric & Desdemona tales.]]> 102 Lois McMaster Bujold Kevin 5 4.30 2020
author: Lois McMaster Bujold
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/27
date added: 2024/01/01
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]]> 92303
Cecily Cardew and Gwendolen Fairfax are both in love with the same mythical suitor. Jack Worthing has wooed Gwendolen as Ernest while Algernon has also posed as Ernest to win the heart of Jack's ward, Cecily. When all four arrive at Jack's country home on the same weekend the "rivals" to fight for Ernest's undivided attention and the "Ernests" to claim their beloveds pandemonium breaks loose. Only a senile nursemaid and an old, discarded hand-bag can save the day!

This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition includes a glossary and reader's notes to help the modern reader appreciate Wilde's wry wit and elaborate plot twists.]]> 89 Oscar Wilde 158049580X Kevin 5 4.17 1895
author: Oscar Wilde
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1895
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/23
date added: 2024/01/01
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]]> 35961934 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.]]> 112 Lois McMaster Bujold Kevin 5 4.41 2017
author: Lois McMaster Bujold
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/12
date added: 2024/01/01
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]]> 25791216
Set in the fantasy world of the author's acclaimed novels THE CURSE OF CHALION, PALADIN OF SOULS and THE HALLOWED HUNT, this novella has the depth of characterization and emotional complexity that distinguishes all Bujold's work.]]> 103 Lois McMaster Bujold Kevin 5 4.21 2015
author: Lois McMaster Bujold
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/17
date added: 2024/01/01
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]]> 61904 470 Lois McMaster Bujold 0380818612 Kevin 5 absolute-recomendations 4.17 2003
author: Lois McMaster Bujold
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/04
date added: 2024/01/01
shelves: absolute-recomendations
review:

]]> 202408844
Shane is a paladin with three problems. His god is dead, his client is much too attractive for his peace of mind, and a powerful organization is trying to have them both killed.

Add in a brilliant artificer with a device that may change the world, a glittering and dangerous court, and a demon-led cult, and Shane and Marguerite will be lucky to escape with their souls intact, never mind their hearts…]]> 517 T. Kingfisher Kevin 5 4.48 2023
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/10
date added: 2023/12/10
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]]> 75319056 Everyone's favorite lethal SecUnit is back in the next installment in Martha Wells's New York Times bestselling Murderbot Diaries series.

Am I making it worse? I think I'm making it worse.

Everyone's favorite lethal SecUnit is back.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.

But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast!

Yeah, this plan is... not going to work.]]> 248 Martha Wells 1250826985 Kevin 5 4.36 2023
author: Martha Wells
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/25
date added: 2023/11/25
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]]> 17725137 But this history is slightly different. The boy was given leave to return, in the casement of his god’s flesh, and the girl, leave to spend one night with him. The night was glorious.
The morning was terrible.
And after?

This is the story of after, for Cynthia of Maubreche. It's a novella, set in the Kingdom of Breodanir, and takes place after Hunter’s Death.]]> 84 Michelle West Kevin 4 4.33 2011
author: Michelle West
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/23
date added: 2023/10/29
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]]> 153215 670 Michelle West 0886777062 Kevin 5 4.07 1996
author: Michelle West
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/23
date added: 2023/10/29
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]]> 17795449 Alternate cover edition of ASIN B0076TGMIW

Once a year the Sacred Hunt must be called, in which the Hunter God's prey would be one of the Lords or his huntbrother. This was the Hunter's Oath, sworn to by each Lord and his huntbrother. It was the Oath taken by Gilliam of Elseth and the orphan boy Stephen--and the fulfillment of their Oath would prove the kind of destiny from which legends were made.]]> 432 Michelle West Kevin 5 4.11 1995
author: Michelle West
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/21
date added: 2023/10/29
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]]> 62073378 L. E. Modesitt, Jr., bestselling author of Saga of Recluce and the Imager Portfolio, continues his gaslamp political fantasy series which began with Isolate and Councilor. Welcome to the Grand IllusionIn Contrarian, protests against unemployment and poor harvests have become armed riots as the people sink deeper into poverty. They look to a government struggling to emerge from corruption and conspiracy.Recently elected to the Council of Sixty-Six, Steffan Dekkard is the first Councilor who is an Isolate, a man invulnerable to the emotional manipulations and emotional surveillance of empaths—but not the recent bombing of the Council Office Building by insurrectionists. His patron, the Premier of the Council, has been assassinated, leaving Dekkard with little first-hand political experience and few political allies.Not only must Dekkard handle political infighting, and continued assassination attempts, but it appears that someone high up in the government and corporations has supplied arms and explosives to insurrectionists.Insurrectionists who have succeeded in taking over a naval cruiser that no one can seem to find.The Grand IllusionIsolateCouncilorContrarianOther Series by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.The Imager PortfolioThe Corean ChroniclesThe Spellsong CycleThe Ghost BooksThe Ecolitan MatterAt the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 576 L.E. Modesitt Jr. 1250847028 Kevin 5 4.42 2023
author: L.E. Modesitt Jr.
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/18
date added: 2023/09/18
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]]> 62205547 From New York Times bestselling author T. Kingfisher, Thornhedge is the tale of a kind-hearted, toad-shaped heroine, a gentle knight, and a mission gone completely sideways.

There's a princess trapped in a tower. This isn't her story.

Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right?

But nothing with fairies is ever simple.

Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He's heard there's a curse here that needs breaking, but it's a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold…]]> 114 T. Kingfisher Kevin 5 4.21 2023
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/10
date added: 2023/09/10
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]]> 61264896 A Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Editors' Pick for Amazon

For fans who have always wanted their Twin Peaks to have some wizards, The Warden is a non-stop action adventure story from author Daniel M. Ford.

There was a plan.

She had the money, the connections, even the brains. It was become one of the only female necromancers, earn as many degrees as possible, get a post in one of the grand cities, then prove she’s capable of greatness. The funny thing about plans is that they are seldom under your control.

Now Aelis de Lenti, a daughter of a noble house and recent graduate of the esteemed Magisters�� Lyceum, finds herself in the far-removed village of Lone Pine. Mending fences, matching wits with goats, and serving people who want nothing to do with her. But, not all is well in Lone Pine, and as the villagers Aelis is reluctantly getting to know start to behave strangely, Aelis begins to suspect that there is far greater need for a Warden of her talents than she previously thought.

Old magics are restless, and an insignificant village on the farthest border of the kingdom might hold secrets far beyond what anyone expected. Aelis might be the only person standing between one of the greatest evils ever known and the rest of the world.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 384 Daniel M. Ford 1250815665 Kevin 5 4.08 2023
author: Daniel M. Ford
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/31
date added: 2023/08/31
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]]> 57680116 Exit Strategy.]]> 19 Martha Wells Kevin 5 4.24 2020
author: Martha Wells
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/04/28
date added: 2023/08/18
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]]> 195264190
While trying to watch episode 44 of The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, Murderbot is—again, what is it with humans?—distracted by something that is technically outside its purview. A miner is suddenly in danger following a pointless (to Murderbot’s way of thinking) argument, and the choice is to risk discovery and leap into action, which would require hitting the pause button during a very exciting part of SanctuaryMoon, or to follow orders and stay still.

This is a tougher choice than it seems. But then, when has Murderbot ever been faced with an easy choice?

A shorter version of this story originally appeared in Wired magazine.]]> 8 Martha Wells 1645241726 Kevin 5 4.32 2018
author: Martha Wells
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/09
date added: 2023/08/09
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]]> 59849682 Return to the enchanting world of The Left-Handed Booksellers of London in this sequel by Garth Nix, bestselling master of teen fantasy, where once again a team of booksellers must fight to keep dangerous magic under cover before the stuff of legends destroys our world. New York Times bestseller!

There is often trouble of a mythical sort in Bath. The booksellers who police the Old World keep a careful watch there, particularly on the entity that inhabits the ancient hot spring.

This time trouble comes from the discovery of a sorcerous map, leading left-handed bookseller Merlin into great danger, requiring a desperate rescue attempt from his sister, the right-handed bookseller Vivien, and art student Susan Arkshaw, who is still struggling to deal with her own recently discovered magical heritage.

The map takes the trio to a place separated from this world, maintained by deadly sorcery and guarded by monstrous living statues. But this is only the beginning. To unravel the secrets of a murderous Ancient Sovereign, the booksellers must investigate centuries of disappearances and deaths. If they do not stop her, she will soon kill again. And this time, her target is not an ordinary mortal.]]> 416 Garth Nix 0063236354 Kevin 4 4.18 2023
author: Garth Nix
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/31
date added: 2023/07/31
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]]> 136241569
Basit Deniau’s houses were haunted to begin with.

A house embedded with an artificial intelligence is a common thing: a house that is an artificial intelligence, infused in every load-bearing beam and fine marble tile with a thinking creature that is not human? That is something else altogether. But now Deniau’s been dead a year, and Rose House is locked up tight, as commanded by the architect’s will: all his possessions and files and sketches are confined in its archives, and their only keeper is Rose House itself. Rose House, and one other.

Dr. Selene Gisil, one of Deniau’s former protégé, is permitted to come into Rose House once a year. She alone may open Rose House’s vaults, look at drawings and art, talk with Rose House’s animating intelligence all she likes. Until this week, Dr. Gisil was the only person whom Rose House spoke to.

But even an animate intelligence that haunts a house has some failsafes common to all AIs. For instance: all AIs must report the presence of a dead body to the nearest law enforcement agency.

There is a dead person in Rose House. The house says so. It is not Basit Deniau, and it is not Dr. Gisil. It is someone else. Rose House, having completed its duty of care and informed Detective Maritza Smith of the China Lake police precinct that there is in fact a dead person inside it, dead of unnatural causes—has shut up.

No one can get inside Rose House, except Dr. Gisil. Dr. Gisil was not in North America when Rose House called the China Lake precinct. But someone did. And someone died there. And someone may be there still.]]> 110 Arkady Martine Kevin 4 3.93 2023
author: Arkady Martine
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/31
date added: 2023/07/31
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]]> 60820532
Vlad Taltos is in love. With a former assassin who may just be better than he is at the Game. Women like this don’t come along every day and no way is he passing up a sure bet.

So a wedding is being planned. Along with a shady deal gone wrong and a dead man who owes Vlad money. Setting up the first and trying to deal with the second is bad enough. And then bigger powers decide that Vlad is the perfect patsy to shake the power structure of the kingdom.

More's the pity that his soul is sent walkabout to do it.

How might Vlad get his soul back and have any shot at a happy ending? Well, there’s the tale…]]> 288 Steven Brust 1466889705 Kevin 4 4.36 2023
author: Steven Brust
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/31
date added: 2023/07/31
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]]> 62979034
Qven was created to be a Presger translator. The pride of their Clade, they always had a clear path before them: learn human ways, and eventually, make a match and serve as an intermediary between the dangerous alien Presger and the human worlds. The realization that they might want something else isn't "optimal behavior". I's the type of behavior that results in elimination.

But Qven rebels. And in doing so, their path collides with those of two others. Enae, a reluctant diplomat whose dead grandmaman has left hir an impossible task as an inheritance: hunting down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. And Reet, an adopted mechanic who is increasingly desperate to learn about his genetic roots--or anything that might explain why he operates so differently from those around him.

As a Conclave of the various species approaches--and the long-standing treaty between the humans and the Presger is on the line--the decisions of all three will have ripple effects across the stars.

Masterfully merging space adventure and mystery, and a poignant exploration about relationships and belonging, Translation State is a triumphant new standalone story set in Leckie's celebrated Imperial Radch universe.]]> 432 Ann Leckie 0316290246 Kevin 4 4.24 2023
author: Ann Leckie
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/31
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]]> 57861689 From the breakout SFF superstar author of Murderbot comes a remarkable story of power and friendship, of trust and betrayal, and of the families we choose.

"I didn't know you were a... demon."
"You idiot. I'm the demon."
Kai's having a long day in Martha Wells' WITCH KING....

After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well.

But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence?

Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions.

He’s not going to like the answers.

WITCH KING is Martha Wells’s first new fantasy in over a decade, drawing together her signature ability to create characters we adore and identify with, alongside breathtaking action and adventure, and the wit and charm we’ve come to expect from one of the leading writers of her generation.]]> 424 Martha Wells Kevin 4 4.00 2023
author: Martha Wells
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/09
date added: 2023/06/09
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]]> 60784301
As she makes her way home to bury him, she finds a girl, as powerful and vulnerable and lost as she once was. Saving her from the raiders that haunt the area, twisted by a remnant of the God Wars, Tara changes the course of the world.

Max Gladstone's world of the Craft is a fantasy setting like no other. When Craftspeople rose up to kill the gods, they built corporate Concerns from their corpses and ushered in a world of rapacious capital. Those who work the Craft wield laws like knives and weave chains from starlight and soulstuff. Dead Country is the first book in the Craft Wars Trilogy, a tight sequence of novels that will bring the sprawling saga of the Craft to its end, and the perfect entry point for this incomparable world.]]> 239 Max Gladstone 0765395916 Kevin 5 4.00 2023
author: Max Gladstone
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/25
date added: 2023/04/25
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]]> 59808133
Irene’s widow hires Evander Mills to uncover the truth behind her mysterious death. Andy, recently fired from the San Francisco police after being caught in a raid on a gay bar, is happy to accept―his calendar is wide open. And his secret is the kind of secret the Lamontaines understand.

Andy had never imagined a world like Lavender House. He's seduced by the safety and freedom found behind its gates, where a queer family lives honestly and openly. But that honesty doesn't extend to everything, and he quickly finds himself a pawn in a family game of old money, subterfuge, and jealousy―and Irene’s death is only the beginning.

When your existence is a crime, everything you do is criminal, and the gates of Lavender House can’t lock out the real world forever. Running a soap empire can be a dirty business.]]> 274 Lev A.C. Rosen 1250834228 Kevin 0 to-read 3.84 2022
author: Lev A.C. Rosen
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 39317617 Shuos Jedao is awake...
…and nothing is as he remembers. He’s a teenager, a cadet—a nobody—in the body of an old man; a general in command of an elite force. And he’s the most feared, and reviled, man in the galaxy.
Jedao carries orders from Hexarch Nirai Kujen to re‑conquer the fractured pieces of the hexarchate. But he has no memory of ever being a soldier, let alone a general, and the Kel soldiers under his command hate him for a massacre he can’t remember committing.
Kujen’s friendliness can’t hide the fact that he’s a tyrant. And what’s worse, Jedao and Kujen are being hunted—by an
enemy who knows more about Jedao than he does himself...

‘Breathtakingly original space opera.��
N. K. Jemisin, New York Times

‘I love Yoon’s work! Full of battles and political intrigue, in a beautifully built far-future that manages to be human and alien at the same time.��
Ann Leckie]]> 317 Yoon Ha Lee 178618110X Kevin 5 4.22 2018
author: Yoon Ha Lee
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/12
date added: 2023/04/12
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]]> 34604353
Shuos Jedao is unleashed. The long-dead general, preserved with exotic technologies as a weapon, has possessed the body of gifted young captain Kel Cheris.

Now, General Kel Khiruev’s fleet, racing to the Severed March to stop a fresh enemy incursion, has fallen under Jedao’s sway. Only Khiruev’s aide, Lieutenant Colonel Kel Brezan, is able to shake off the influence of the brilliant but psychotic Jedao.

The rogue general seems intent on defending the hexarchate, but can Khiruev—or Brezan—trust him? For that matter, can they trust Kel Command, or will their own rulers wipe out the whole swarm to destroy one man?]]> 290 Yoon Ha Lee Kevin 4 4.22 2017
author: Yoon Ha Lee
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/29
date added: 2023/03/29
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]]> 29503206
Cheris’s best hope is to ally with the undead tactician Shuos Jedao. The good news is that Jedao has never lost a battle, and he may be the only one who can figure out how to successfully besiege the fortress. The bad news is that Jedao went mad in his first life and massacred two armies, one of them his own.

As the siege wears on, Cheris must decide how far she can trust Jedao �� because she might be his next victim.]]> 265 Yoon Ha Lee Kevin 5 3.95 2016
author: Yoon Ha Lee
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/20
date added: 2023/03/21
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]]> 52504334 Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark returns to his popular alternate Cairo universe for his fantasy novel debut, A Master of Djinn

Cairo, 1912: Though Fatma el-Sha’arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, she’s certainly not a rookie, especially after preventing the destruction of the universe last summer.

So when someone murders a secret brotherhood dedicated to one of the most famous men in history, al-Jahiz, Agent Fatma is called onto the case. Al-Jahiz transformed the world 50 years ago when he opened up the veil between the magical and mundane realms, before vanishing into the unknown. This murderer claims to be al-Jahiz, returned to condemn the modern age for its social oppressions. His dangerous magical abilities instigate unrest in the streets of Cairo that threaten to spill over onto the global stage.

Alongside her Ministry colleagues and her clever girlfriend Siti, Agent Fatma must unravel the mystery behind this imposter to restore peace to the city -or face the possibility he could be exactly who he seems…]]> 438 P. Djèlí Clark 1250267676 Kevin 4 4.01 2021
author: P. Djèlí Clark
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/12
date added: 2023/01/12
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]]> 60100307
Conscripted into the military under dubious circumstances, Tennal is placed into the care of Lieutenant Surit Yeni, a duty-bound soldier, principled leader, and the son of a notorious traitor general. Whereas Tennal can read minds, Surit can influence them. Like all other neuromodified “architects,�� he can impose his will onto others, and he’s under orders to control Tennal by merging their minds.

Surit accepted a suspicious promotion-track request out of desperation, but he refuses to go through with his illegal orders to sync and control an unconsenting Tennal. So they lie: They fake a sync bond and plan Tennal's escape.

Their best chance arrives with a salvage-retrieval mission into chaotic space—to the very neuromodifcation lab that Surit's traitor mother destroyed twenty years ago. And among the rubble is a treasure both terrible and unimaginably powerful, one that upends a decades-old power struggle, and begins a war.

Tennal and Surit can no longer abandon their unit or their world. The only way to avoid life under full military control is to complete the very sync they've been faking.

Can two unwilling weapons of war bring about peace?]]> 480 Everina Maxwell 1250758882 Kevin 4 4.22 2022
author: Everina Maxwell
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/11
date added: 2022/12/11
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]]> 60243683 Dead men tell no tales

When Corporal Kaylin Neya is assigned front desk duty—a task hated by every Hawk—the only thing she can look forward to besides an endless stream of complaints is visits from a dotty old woman, because she always brings baked goods along with information passed on by her friends, who happen to be ghosts no one else can see. But then the old woman’s invisible friends have news about Severn his unusual weapon has caught their attention. Concerned, Kaylin accompanies the woman home because she has a few questions to ask these so-called ghosts.

Sadly, Kaylin can also see them. And she can see other spirits in the woman’s house as well—four children who’ve been trapped there for decades. When Kaylin looks into the deaths in the records at the Halls of Law, something doesn’t add up. Factor in a building that isn’t supposed to exist, and nothing makes sense. But Kaylin is a Hawk, and she’s determined to free the trapped ghosts of the children, even if she’s suddenly landed in the middle of the bad kind of Barrani history. Someone doesn’t want the past to be uncovered, and they’re perfectly willing to destroy Kaylin if it preserves the secrets of the dead��

“A satisfying combination of contemporary-feeling secondary world, city-based fantasy, and go-big-or-go-home epic.” ��Tor.com on the Chronicles of Elantra series

The Chronicles of Elantra

Book 1: Cast in Shadow
Book 2: Cast in Courtlight
Book 3: Cast in Secret
Book 4: Cast in Fury
Book 5: Cast in Silence
Book 6: Cast in Chaos
Book 7: Cast in Ruin
Book 8: Cast in Peril
Book 9: Cast in Moonlight
Book 10: Cast in Sorrow
Book 11: Cast in Flame
Book 12: Cast in Honor
Book 13: Cast in Flight
Book 14: Cast in Deception
Book 15: Cast in Oblivion
Book 16: Cast in Wisdom
Book 17: Cast in Conflict
Book 18: Cast in Eternity]]> 531 Michelle Sagara 0369720806 Kevin 5 4.51 2022
author: Michelle Sagara
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/04
date added: 2022/12/04
shelves:
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]]> 17378200
Nicholas Valiarde is a passionate, embittered nobleman with an enigmatic past. Consumed by thoughts of vengeance, he is consoled only by thoughts of the beautiful, dangerous Madeline. He is also the greatest thief in all of Ile-Rien. Under cover of darkness on the streets of the gaslit city, he assumes the guise of a master criminal, stealing jewels from wealthy nobles to finance his quest for vengeance: the murder of Count Montesq. Montesq orchestrated the wrongful execution of Nicholas's beloved godfather Edouard on false charges of necromancy, the art of divination through communion with spirits of the dead, a practice long outlawed in the kingdom of Ile-Rien.

But now Nicholas's murderous mission is being interrupted by a series of eerie, unexplainable, fatal events. Someone with tremendous magical powers is opposing him, and traces of a necromantic power that hasn't been used for centuries appear. And when a spiritualist unwittingly leads Nicholas to a decrepit old house, the truly monstrous nature of his peril finally emerges.]]> 544 Martha Wells Kevin 4 4.11 1998
author: Martha Wells
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/30
date added: 2022/11/30
shelves:
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]]> 291356
Finally the knight Sparhawk had come to possess Bhelliom, legendary jewel of magic that alone could save Queen Ehlana from the deadly poison that had felled her father. Sparhawk and Sephrenia, ageless instructor in Styric magics, made haste to free Ehlana from the crystalline cocoon that had preserved her life while they desperately sought a cure.

But Bhellion carried dangers of its own. Once the stone came into his hands, Sparhawk found himself stalked by a dark, lurking menace. Whether the foul Zemoch God Azash was behind this threat, or some other enemy, even Sephrenia could not say—only that the sapphire rose held powers too dangerous for any mortal to bear.

Restoring Queen Ehlana would be only the beginning of Sparhawk’s mission. With the aid of four stalwart knights, one from each Militant Order, he must thwart Ehlana’s prisoner, the Primate Annias, in his plot to assume the throne of the Church. For as Archprelate, Annias would serve his secret master, Azash, and deliver up to the dread God the one thing Azash thirsted for—Bhelliom itself!]]> 502 David Eddings 034537472X Kevin 3 4.02 1991
author: David Eddings
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at: 2022/11/02
date added: 2022/11/02
shelves:
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]]> 291354 372 David Eddings 0345373529 Kevin 3 4.01 1990
author: David Eddings
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1990
rating: 3
read at: 2022/11/02
date added: 2022/11/02
shelves:
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]]> 42036538
The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit.

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won't set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon's sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.

Of course, some things are better left dead.]]> 448 Tamsyn Muir 1250313198 Kevin 5 4.19 2019
author: Tamsyn Muir
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2022/10/03
date added: 2022/10/03
shelves:
review:

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