Information about the Book Title: Don’t Disturb the Dragon Author: Rhiannon Findlay Illustrator: Siân Roberts Release Date: 22nd June 2023 Genre: Picture Book Page Count: 32 Publisher: Puffin
Summary
Somewhere near, a huge beast lies, with giant claws and great big eyes . . . DO NOT DISTURB THE DRAGON!
Oh no – the Princess’s little brother has gone missing! Can YOU help her find him?
A brilliantly interactive rhyming read-aloud adventure before bedtime from the bestselling author of the Ten Minutes to Bed series.
Tiptoe over, under, round and through the book, just . . . don’t disturb the DRAGON!
Fans of Ten Minutes to Bed, Little Unicorn will love helping the Princess on her quest in this immersive, interactive adventure with a wind-down-to-bedtime ending!
Information about the Book Title: Rhinos Don’t Cry Author: Mark Grist Illustrator: Chris Jevons Release Date: 20th July2023 Genre: Picture Book Page Count: 32 Publisher: Bloomsbury
Blurb
Milo’s a rhino. He likes to do all sorts of rhino-y things . . . He likes writing and climbing and banister-sliding and mountain bike riding, he paints and he sings.
Milo just loves being a rhino – but there’s one small problem . . . rhinos don’t cry.
At least that’s what Spike-O Mcree, his movie-star hero, always says. But when Milo meets Spike-O face to face, he finds out that not only is crying OK, it’s also very brave!
This energetic and engaging rhyming story is the first in a series of books highlighting the importance of children expressing their feelings.
● Genre – Fiction > Dark Fantasy > Fairy Tales, Folklore & Mythology ● ISBN hardcover – 9781787588431 ● ISBN paperback – 9781787588424 ● ISBN ebook – 9781787588448 ● Pricing [USD] $26.95 (HC) / $16.95 (PB) / $4.99 (EB) ● Releases July 11 2023 ● Published by Flame Tree Press ● Distributed by Simon & Schuster
SYNOPSIS
A must-read dark fantasy debut for fans of “The Witcher”, woodland survival guides, the gruesome original Grimm Brothers stories, and dark folklore from around the world…
A journey into the wild woods with a character who just needs a break—and the terrible things that stare back at her.
When curious nomad Anna hears about Whisperwood, a town that’s not on any maps, that nobody goes to, and nobody comes from, she sees an opportunity to hide from her violent witch-hunting ex.
But not everything is peaceful in the isolated community. A vanishing town, a gruesome funeral rite, an emergency field surgery—these surprises and more test Anna’s resolve.
Prevented from leaving the frontier settlement by folk magic she doesn’t understand, Anna lends helping hands everywhere she can, but quickly finds that investigating the forest too closely could end up being the last thing she does.
P U B L I C AT I O N DATE: 6 th JULY 2023 PA PE RB AC K O R I G I N A L | £9.99 | ORE N DA BOOKS
The wealthy, powerful Snæberg clan has gathered for a family reunion at a futuristic hotel set amongst the dark lava flows of Iceland’s remote Snæfellsnes peninsula.
Petra Snæberg, a successful interior designer, is anxious about the event, and her troubled teenage daughter, Lea, whose social media presence has attracted the wrong kind of followers. Ageing carpenter Tryggvi is an outsider, only tolerated because he’s the boyfriend of Petra’s aunt, but he’s struggling to avoid alcohol because he knows what happens when he drinks … Humble hotel employee, Irma, is excited to meet this rich and famous family and observe them at close quarters … perhaps too close…
As the weather deteriorates and the alcohol flows, one of the guests disappears, and it becomes clear that there is a prowler lurking in the dark.
But is the real danger inside … within the family itself?
Format: 280 pages, Paperback Published: May 28, 2023 by Book Guild ISBN: 9781915603869 (ISBN10: 1915603862)
Blurb
London, September 1888. Jack the Ripper roams the streets. A scream rings out from beneath the stage of the Lyceum Theatre…
A young ‘actress’ has been attacked, suffering peculiar bite wounds to her neck; an event that announces a series of strange, vampiric happenings, and thrusts an unwitting Bram Stoker – acting manager of the Lyceum and aspiring author – into the limelight, and the action.
Increasingly perplexed by the unsettling behaviour of his ‘Guv’nor’, the brilliant but mercurial actor, Henry Irving, and Irving’s acclaimed leading lady, Ellen Terry, Stoker soon starts suspecting the worst. And then, another attack reveals a vicious Prussian baron, returned to London as a vampire seeking revenge…
Alive with Gothic intrigue, reversal and surprise, Mr Stoker will keep the reader enthralled and confounded until its final, shocking scene – indeed, until its very last word.
‘This is a fully realised Gothic world, a stimulating mix of homely familiarity and lurking menace which will engage readers of all ages.’ David Punter, author of The Literature of Terror
Format: Paperback Expected publication: June 1, 2023 by Puffin ISBN: 9780241450833 (ISBN10: 0241450837)
Lia is off on an adventure, and she’d like a pet to take with her. In another corner of the meadow is Lion – who is also looking for an adventure, and for a pet of his own . . . What will happen when they meet?
A story from a stunning new author-illustrator about a special friendship, the nature of play, conflict and compromise, and about how much richer life is when you work out how to share it.
Format: 368 pages, Paperback Published: January 1, 2023 by Orbit ISBN: 9780356520865 (ISBN10: 0356520862) Language: English
Blurb
The Terraformers is an equally heart-warming and thought-provoking vision of the future for fans of Becky Chambers, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Martha Wells.
Destry is a top network analyst with the Environmental Rescue Team, an ancient organization devoted to preventing ecosystem collapse. On the planet Sask-E, her mission is to terraform an Earthlike world, with the help of her taciturn moose, Whistle. But then she discovers a city that isn’t supposed to exist, hidden inside a massive volcano. Torn between loyalty to the ERT and the truth of the planet’s history, Destry makes a decision that echoes down the generations.
Centuries later, Destry’s protege, Misha, is building a planetwide transit system when his worldview is turned upside-down by Sulfur, a brilliant engineer from the volcano city. Together, they uncover a dark secret about the real estate company that’s buying up huge swaths of the planet―a secret that could destroy the lives of everyone who isn’t Homo sapiens. Working with a team of robots, naked mole rats, and a very angry cyborg cow, they quietly sow seeds of subversion. But when they’re threatened with violent diaspora, Misha and Sulfur’s very unusual child faces a stark choice: deploy a planet-altering weapon, or watch their people lose everything they’ve built on Sask-E.
My Review
This is two stories that follow on from each other, taking place several thousand years apart, containing some of the same characters. The characters are a variety of species and genders.
The character pairs of Destry and Moose, Sulfur and Misha, Moose and Scrubjay, are memorable and loving in their own way. They are biological or mechanical, hominins or other species, all with sentience. They interact with each other, form families and are torn between doing the right thing and being controlled by Verdance or Emerald. Scrubjay and Moose are particularly interesting. Scrubjay is a sentient flying train, Moose is a sentient cat. They fall in love with each other while taking on and taking down Emerald, the corporation that has taken control of Sask-E and who are trying to destroy Spider City.
The main theme of the story is that companies controlling life is a bad idea. That better ways of governing and building communities are possible, but there will always be forces intent on breaking those better ways for their own profit.
I enjoyed the descriptions of the environments of Sask-E and the social structures. They are clearly thought out and based on a lot of research.
Newitz is a clear and amusing writer. I have read (listened to) their non-fiction book, Four Lost Cities, and to be fair I also follow Annalee Newitz on Instagram. I listen to their Our Opinions Are Correct podcast. It’s a sci-fi and fantasy podcast Annalee Newitz does with Charlie Jane Anders.
Format: Hardcover Expected publication: June 1, 2023 by Puffin Classics ISBN: 9780241545423 (ISBN10: 0241545420) Language: English
Ten captivating stories of adventure and resilience celebrating LGBTQ+ characters, published as an illustrated collection of queer classics for the first time.
These are the fairy tales that history forgot – or concealed. Tales in which gender is fluid and where queer stories can have a happy ending.
Dellaria Wells – petty con artist, occasional thief, and partly educated fire witch – is behind on her rent. To make ends meet, Delly talks her way into a guard job in the city of Leiscourt, joining a team of unconventional women to protect an aristocrat from unseen assassins.
It looks like easy money and a chance to romance her confident companion Winn – but when did anything in Delly’s life go to plan? With the help of a necromancer, a shapeshifting schoolgirl and a reanimated mouse named Buttons, Delly and Winn find themselves facing an adversary who wields a twisted magic and has friends in the highest of places.
My Review
I think I got recommended this book as another example of a ‘cosy fantasy’ after I enjoyed Legends & Lattes. This book was originally published by Ace in 2021, and a new Penguin edition will be published in July. I might get the Penguin edition too, although the covers are the same. Ace books tend to be a bit rough and the printing quality can be not great, and this book isn’t an exception.
I’ve ordered the Penguin edition of Unnatural Magic, which is being published in July; it’s the other book in this series and was originally published by Ace in 2019. I’ll compare the quality of both and order the other editions if I think there’s any point.
Dellaria Wells is desperate for funds and can’t find her mum. In Leiscourt, her ability as a Firewitch marks her out among the poor and makes her an object of derision for the rich. Unfortunately, her ability to get in her own way and mess things up has led to any advantages her skills and natural talents might have given her being more a cause for trouble than a benefit.
She stumbles into a gig as a bodyguard for a wealthy woman about to get married. Here she meets some ‘properly trained’ magicians, all women. She is immediately attracted to a half-troll called Winn, who is an amazing shot and reasonable at illusions. Her dad also happens to know some very important people. Delly sets her cap at Winn, a prospect for possible expensive gifts, but finds she actually really likes Winn. The job looks easy, a bit of romance and enough money to pay the rent for a few months.
Except things get a bit dangerous when they’re attacked by the creations of necromancers and the bride is almost killed by one of the party. When another of the party is murdered by the necromancer and the guilty party goes on the run, the job changes – this time it’s about revenge and the pay is a lot better.
Delly, Winn and co head back to Leiscourt to find the murderer and bring down a crime ring providing drugs that are currently killing lots of people, including Delly’s mum.
Delly seems to be a rather uncomplicated person until we get into the meat of the story, when we discover her complicated relationship with her mother, who is addicted to drugs and alcohol, and was a neglectful parent. As a child she is neglected and as an adult she has to look after her mother. She is angry and sad when she discovers her in hospital or in bars. She hopes for her to be a better person and is distressed when her mother reverts back to her usual behaviour.
Delly also has a complicated relationship with Winn; Winn sees the best in her, which Delly can’t see in herself. She is convinced that Winn is being duped by her own sense of goodness. They do love each other but Delly can’t say it even after they save each others’ lives.
Mrs Totham is cool. I found her very sympathetic and increasingly funny as she goes from being a bird-obsessed elderly lady to a revenge-obsessed necromancer (sorry, body scientist) after her daughter is murdered.
The plot is entertaining and gets complicated as the crew start investigating a couple of crimes – a murder and a drugs gang. The excitement builds as they finally bring down their enemy and a house explodes.
The setting is something like a Victorian London with magic, and some customs that seem strange to the reader. It took me a bit to get used to things. I still don’t quite get some of the background like ‘householders’ and ‘Hexos’. What are these things? The society is fairly open to relationships that certainly would not have been acceptable in Victorian London.
It was a fun read and I’m looking forward to reading Unnatural Magic in July.
In this stunning conclusion to N. E. Davenport’s fast-paced, action-packed sci-fantasy duology, elite warrior Ikenna and her rogue cohort must outrun bounty hunters, their former comrades, and a megalomaniacal demi-god, all in the hopes of saving their friends and enemies from the racist and misogynistic oppression that threatens the continents from all sides.
After discovering the depth of betrayal, treachery, and violence perpetrated against her by Mareen’s Tribunal Council and exposing her illegal blood-gift to save her Praetorian squad, Ikenna becomes a fugitive with a colossal bounty on her head.
Yet, somehow, that’s the least of her worries.
Her grandfather’s longtime allies refuse to offer help, and the Blood Emperor’s Warlord is tracking her. She’s also struggling to control the enormous power she was granted by the Goddess of Blood Rites…and come to terms with the promises she made to get such power.
Amidst all of this, the Blood Emperor wages a full-scale invasion against Mareen and leaves a trail of decimated cities, war crimes, and untold death in his wake. As the horrors increase, Ikenna and her team realize they must assassinate the Blood Emperor and quickly end the war. But the price to do so is steep and has planet-shattering consequences.
The price to do nothing, though, is annihilation.
War has erupted. Alliances are fracturing. And Ikenna is torn between her loyalties, her desires for revenge, and the power threatening to consume her. With the world aflame, only one thing is certain: blood will be spilled.
My Review
I enjoyed this book. I stayed up all night reading it. This may not be the most coherent review due to lack of sleep. Seriously, I sat down at half eight last night to read a few chapters before bed and realised I read all night when it started getting light, and finished reading the book at 6:03 a.m., and was stunned for a few moments. I have the Illumicrate Exclusive Edition which has blue edges and a red cover. It matches/contrasts with my Illumicrate Exclusive Edition of The Blood Trials. I also reviewed that book as part of the blog tour and was excited to find out what happened next.
The book begins some short time after the end of The Blood Trials; Ikenna and her team have spent time among the northern Microstates trying to gain allies for their war against both the Blood Emperor and the Tribunal of Mareen, but aren’t having much luck. They turn to a criminal syndicate for the means to fight their war, but don’t get to spend long with their new ally because they get attacked by Praetorians from Rhysian War House and mercenaries.
Eventually, they end up in the hands of Ajani, the Apis of Accacia – the second in command of the Blood Emperor, Nkosi. Ikenna and Ajani do not get on well, but for the good of Iludu, they make an agreement to work together long enough to kill Nkosi and put Ajani on the throne of Accacia. Ikenna doesn’t trust Ajani and assumes he’s going to kill her when he gets a chance, and Ajani doesn’t do much to reassure anyone on her team.
After a traumatic encounter with Krashna, the ancient god of Mareen, and being saved by Kissa, the goddess of Kanai, Ikanna learns that she needs to commune with her goddess, Amaka, to gain more control of her powers, but she doesn’t listen and things start to go very wrong with their plans. Eventually, Ikenna listens and comes into her power and learns that she is more than just a blood-gifted warrior. Her ancestry is more complex than that.
This is sci-fantasy. The cultures are technologically advanced but also use magic, some of the countries are stratified societies and monarchies, and most have a difficult relationship with religion. I quite enjoy this mix of magic and technology.
Ikenna and Darius’s relationship develops and their conversations addressing their personal issues is one of the best parts of the book. The fights are really fun too. Ikenna is slowly developing as a person, she is still often childish but has moments of maturity which improve her as a character. The team are becoming a cohesive unit, and they survive repeated attempts on their lives, from both the Mareen Republic and the Accacian Empire, as they try to gather allies to reset the planet.
The latter chapters which cover the war with the Tribunal and Ikenna’s revenge on Selene Rhysian and her family, feels a bit rushed. I can see a further series where Ikenna and the Invictus squad fight the gods, and Selene and Enoch team up to give Ikenna problems.
This is really two books squished into one, and it would have been best to end it at page 291, and then have the events after the death of Nkosi and the rearrangement of the world in a third book. The war against the Tribunal and the battle at the Krashna’s Citadel should have been the a third book. I don’t think this is the author’s fault, but a publishing decision. I would love to see Nia Davenport get a chance to write the two novels this was meant to be.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 