Sunday, June 16, 2013

Books in the Mail (W/E 2013-06-15)

Two physical books arrived with a third arriving on kindle this week’s edition of Books in the Mail



Wisp of a Thing (The Tufa Novels #2) by Alex Bledsoe (Tor Hardcover 06/18/2013) – Second in a modern fantasy combining music, mountain ranges, and magic.



Alex Bledsoe’s The Hum and the Shiver was named one of the Best Fiction Books of 2011 by Kirkus Reviews. Now with Wisp of a Thing Bledsoe returns to the isolated ridges and hollows of the Smoky Mountains to spin an equally enchanting tale of music and magic older than the hills….

Touched by a very public tragedy, musician Rob Quillen comes to Cloud County, Tennessee, in search of a song that might ease his aching heart. All he knows of the mysterious and reclusive Tufa is what he has read on the internet: they are an enigmatic clan of swarthy, black-haired mountain people whose historical roots are lost in myth and controversy. Some people say that when the first white settlers came to the Appalachians centuries ago, they found the Tufa already there. Others hint that Tufa blood brings special gifts.

Rob finds both music and mystery in the mountains. Close-lipped locals guard their secrets, even as Rob gets caught up in a subtle power struggle he can’t begin to comprehend. A vacationing wife goes missing, raising suspicions of foul play, and a strange feral girl runs wild in the woods, howling in the night like a lost spirit.

Change is coming to Cloud County, and only the night wind knows what part Rob will play when the last leaf falls from the Widow’s Tree…and a timeless curse must be broken at last.

“This beautifully handled drama of Appalachian music and magic once again comes complete with fascinating characters, a persuasive setting and intriguing complications. Bledsoe’s on a roll.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) on Wisp of a Thing


Three
(Legends of the Duskwalker #1) by Jay Posey (Angry Robot Hardcover 07/30/2013) – A post-apoclyptic debut from the fine folks at Angry Robot. Eye catching cover on this one.



The world has collapsed, and there are no heroes any more.
But when a lone gunman reluctantly accepts the mantel of protector to a young boy and his dying mother against the forces that pursue them, a hero may yet arise.

File Under: Science Fiction [Three For All | Apocalyptic Wasteland | A Journey Home | Fear the Weir]




Requiem (The Psalms of Isaak [Volume 4 of 5]) by Ken Scholes (Tor Hardcover 06/18/2013) – The fourth installment of Scholes fantasy series hits shelves. I have the first installment on my kindle and have had this series on the back burner to read for a while since reading the short story, Of Metal Men and Scarlet Thread and Dancing with the Sunrise, which is (I think) a precursor to this series.

Ken Scholes’s debut novel, Lamentation, was an event in fantasy. Heralded as a “mesmerizing debut novel” by Publishers Weekly, and a “vividly imagined SF-fantasy hybrid set in a distant, postapocalyptic future” by Booklist, the series gained many fans. It was followed by Canticle and Antiphon. Now comes the fourth book in The Psalms of Isaak, Requiem.

Who is the Crimson Empress, and what does her conquest of the Named Lands really mean? Who holds the keys to the Moon Wizard’s Tower?

The plots within plots are expanding as the characters seek their way out of the maze of intrigue. The world is expanding as they discover lands beyond their previous carefully controlled knowledge. Hidden truths reveal even deeper truths, and nothing is as it seemed to be.



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