Today I talked to Jennifer Estep about her new book Capture the Crown (HarperCollins, 2021). Princess Gemma Ripley is famous for her glittering outfits, in which she flounces through countless parties and balls. There’s another side to her, though. Her duties as a royal also include putting on a disguise and spying, in order to discover any trouble in her father’s Kingdom of Andvari. There’s almost sure to be trouble at any time, given their neighbors, the ruthless rulers of the Kingdom of Morta, who hate the Andvarians. Gemma finds out firsthand just how ruthless the Mortans are, when heir-apparent Leonidas kidnaps her after an injury and brings her back to the Mortan palace. Luckily Leonidas has no idea who she is-or does he? Complicating matters is that he’s a hunk with a heart—and seems to be attracted to Gemma. In meantime, Gemma is ideally placed to find out why Leonidas’ fiendish half-brother, Milo, is secretly assembling vast stocks of tearstone—that is, if she can survive without losing her heart—or her life. You can follow Gabrielle on Twitter to get updates about new podcasts and more @GabrielleAuthor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/fantasy

New Books in Fantasy

Jennifer Estep, "Capture the Crown" (HarperCollins, 2021)

We have a collective memory of a primeval world embodied in myth. It is a world where spirits lived in the trees, water, and mountains, and nature was sacred. Was such a world ever possible, or was it doomed as soon as humans spread? What went wrong with our planet and whose fault is it? Are innovators, who look to science for answers, agents of positive change, or merely heedless apologists for human greed? These are some of the many questions that Bell’s new novel, Appleseed (Custom House, 2021) provokes. No doubt a few literature students will be inspired to write papers. Bell’s ambitious and original triptych of interlocking stories explores man’s relationship with the wilderness through three timelines, set in the past, the near future, and the far future, after a cataclysmic catastrophe. Snow Piercer has nothing on this chilly future world, bereft of any life. Such a novel is a challenge to reduce to a synopsis. In one time period, the late 1800s, a faun, Chapman, suppresses his identity out of love for his human brother, as well as fear of the Furies who chase him, carrying Orpheus’ howling head. Chapman might be, in some magical manner, responsible for Eurydice’s death, though the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice does not involve Chapman directly, but rather an unnamed shadowy shepherd, who in some accounts was a faun. Chapman’s fear of the women who pursue him leads him to renounce the wild. The second segment of the novel follows John Worth, a scientist who regrets his part in building the corporate empire that supplies a climate-change battered world with genetically modified foods, in return for absolute power. John, urged on by three wild women, former soldiers, returns to the company he helped found, to plot against the CEO, Eury, short for Eurydice. In the third part of the novel, something apparently has gone wrong, either with Eury’s plan to delay the disastrous effects of climate change through launching a swarm of nanobees into the stratosphere, or with John’s intention to subvert her. The world is a frozen wasteland, apparently populated only by a cyborg creature that seems modelled after the faun we first met planting apple seeds. The gorgeous writing and fraught symbolism will engage serious readers with a philosophical bent. You can follow Gabrielle on Twitter to get updates about new podcasts and more @GabrielleAuthor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/fantasy

Matt Bell, "Appleseed" (Custom House, 2021)

Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark goes full-length for the first time in his dazzling debut novel: A Master of Djinn (Tordotcom, 2021). 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 forty 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 a familiar person from her past, 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... Gabrielle Mathieu is the author of the YA fantasy, Girl of Fire, the first in the Berona’s Quest series, and the historical fantasy Falcon series. You can follow her on Twitter to get updates about new podcasts and more @GabrielleAuthor, or visit her website at gabriellemathieu.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/fantasy

P. Djèlí Clark, "A Master of Djinn" (Tordotcom, 2021)

Today I talked to Ava Reid about her new book The Wolf and the Woodsman (Harper Voyager, 2021) The wolf, in the title refers to a pagan woman, given to the dreaded Woodsmen to keep her village safe. She’s part of a tithe, sent to satisfy the King, who demands a quota of witches every year. The impoverished villages hidden in the woods are inhabited by women with magical powers, who worship the old Gods. The Woodsmen, a religious paramilitary order who serve the king, bring selected women to the capital, where their eventual fates are a mystery. Évike, the metaphorical wolf of the story, is an illiterate angry young woman, who has been taunted by the villagers. She’s also not a witch. She’s clad in a witch’s wolf pelt and sent with the Woodsmen so that the true witches can remain safe to guard the village. When misfortune besets the Woodsmen, and only the one-eyed Gáspár remains to guard her, she learns that neither she or he are who they appear to be. The trials of their journey reveal latent magic in her and lay bare his misery as the less-favored son of the king. Though Gáspár’s piety and rigidity infuriate Évike, she finds herself drawn to him physically and emotionally. As Évike journeys to the north, and then to her country’s capital, meeting her estranged father and the king himself, she learns that the world is a complex place, with more at stake than she ever realized. Gabrielle Mathieu is the author of the YA fantasy, Girl of Fire, the first in the Berona’s Quest series, and the historical fantasy Falcon series. You can follow her on Twitter to get updates about new podcasts and more @GabrielleAuthor, or visit her website at gabriellemathieu.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/fantasy

Ava Reid, "The Wolf and the Woodsman" (Harper Voyager, 2021)

Today I talked to Andrea Stewart about The Bone Shard Daughter: The Drowning Empire Book One (Hachette UK, 2020). In a world of floating islands, various narrators try to achieve or avoid their destiny, or just understand the mysteries of their existence. There’s Lin, the Emperor’s daughter, set against her foster brother by the manipulative Emperor himself, who fosters the rivalry between them by bestowing keys as mark of his favor. The keys open various rooms which hold the secret to his power. The Emperor’s most powerful tool is the bone shard magic that he uses to program constructs, assemblages of beasts that he builds which then execute his commands. When the Emperor begins to show Lin’s foster brother how to use the bone shards, Lin is determined to find out the secret as well and position herself to be the next Emperor. Then there’s Jovis, a talkative smuggler whose one aim in life is to find the woman he loves, who disappeared one day on a boat with blue sails. Jovis’s quest keeps getting sidelined though, as he becomes more and more involved with the resistance movement against the Emperor, led by the Shardless Few. The Emperor’s constructs are animated with small pieces of bone harvested from children, which he engraves with magical commands. Once the bone shard is activated, life drains from the donor. The Shardless Few have managed to evade the Emperor, and hope to break his rule over the Islands. Other characters include a woman who gathers mangoes all day and has only dim memories of being brought there by a boat with blue sails. Who is she and why is she on this remote island? Does she know anything about Jovis’s lost love? We also meet the governor’s daughter, whose lover embroils her in the struggle of the Shardless. Will the governor’s daughter turn against her own father? As the story progresses, the characters come together in surprising ways. New alliances are forged, and secrets revealed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/fantasy

Andrea Stewart, "The Bone Shard Daughter: The Drowning Empire Book One" (Hachette, 2020)

The horror of the battlefield is fresh for Princess Askia. She’s just been forced to flee her kingdom, the northern country of Seravesh, where her cousin now rules under the protection of the Emperor of Roven. All that remains of her army is a loyal general and her last remaining legion, the Black Wolves—not enough to protect her former kingdom from men who are willing to burn entire towns to the ground in order to subjugate the population. Askia has one hope left, and it will not depend on her skill with a sword. Her father, a healer, once helped the Emperor of Vishir, the only land capable of matching Roven in strength. If Askia can reach Vishir and convince Emperor Armaan that Roven’s ruler will eventually challenge the peace and prosperity he’s created, Vishir might be drawn into the war before it’s too late to save Askia’s homeland. But how to obtain the favor of Vishir’s Emperor, Armaan? Should she take advantage of his son’s infatuation with her? Should she try to earn the friendship of his principal wife, a stern woman who seems put off by Askia? Should she accept the help of the religious zealots who champion her cause, even though they tortured her years ago, on suspicion of being a witch like her father. In a court full of devious strangers, Askia will have to learn whom to trust, and whose help to ask for. But it is her own concealed dark magic which ultimately holds the key to her survival. Full of twists and turns, The Frozen Crown (Harper Voyager, 2020)--the first installment of the Greta Kelly’s Warrior Witch Duology--left me checking publication dates for the follow-up. If you like strong heroines, court intrigues, magic, and a touch of sensual sizzle, this novel is for you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/fantasy

Greta Kelly, "The Frozen Crown" (Harper Voyager, 2020)

Today I talked to Anne Marie Lutz about her book Taylenor (Hydra, 2019). Taylen is the designation for magical power in the world that Anne Marie Lutz has created: a power so desirable that a special position of Seeker has been created. Seekers wander throughout the country, hoping to identify children with the gift. Our Seeker, a kind-hearted female Priest, is dedicated her task, convincing the children to accompany her to the special hospital, where they will be cared for. Almost all children eventually succumb to an illness linked with their magical gift, called the Dark Twin, and Seeker Jaena wants to make sure they get the best care possible from Mage Herrein, who works closely with them. However, the world is not as it seems. Soon Jaena learns that there is no illness. The children fade from having to feed Mage Herrein’s power and youth. Determined to rescue the latest child from death, she enlists the help of her lover, Lord Metten, to journey to a neighboring country and plead for intercession. In meantime, Mage Herrein’s efforts to acquire all children with taylen become more frantic, as demons rise and invade his country. Further complicating matters is the rise of the mysterious Eastern Mage, who always appears soon after the demons. Jaena and Metten’s goal becomes more complicated as they have to contend with Metten’s spoiled friend, Lord Halpen de Morn, as well as being drawn into a three-way war. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/fantasy

Anne Marie Lutz, "Taylenor" (Hydra, 2019)

Seanan McGuire's Across the Green Grass Fields (Tor.com, 2021), a stand-alone novel in the Wayward Children series, a portal transports a horse-loving ten-year old, Regan, to Hooflands. Soon she becomes part of a centaur herd, learning how to herd unicorns, finding her place as an apprentice healer, and making a new best friend her own age, a centaur girl named Chicory. She finds herself at ease in her new role and other than missing her parents, would be content to continue in her life. But the population of Hooflands has expectations for her, expectations that even running away can’t evade. Humans have always saved Hooflands from bad things. And too soon, it will be Regan’s turn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/fantasy

Seanan McGuire, "Across the Green Grass Fields" (Tor.com, 2021)

This quirky, offbeat novel introduces us to two people, Zoe and Jamie, who both have amnesia and super-powers. While Jamie is a criminal who holds up banks, Zoe is a vigilante crime-stopper. After her first attempt to arrest him goes south, Zoe and Jamie meet again at a memory-loss group and develop an uneasy friendship. In many ways, they’re the odd couple. Jamie, more quiet and thoughtful than your average bank robber, has a hard time letting his guard down with Zoe, whose super-powers include hovering in the air and lifting cars. However, the impulse to find out what happened to them unites them, until Jamie finds out who is really pulling the strings. Original and personal, We Could Be Heroes (Mira Books, 2021) sidesteps the tired tropes that populate Hollywood films for something more nuanced. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike Chen, "We Could Be Heroes" (Mira Books, 2021)

Today I talked to Ilona Andrews about her book Emerald Blaze: A Hidden Legacy Novel (Avon Books, 2020). Catalina Baylor is the titular Prime of House Baylor, where she and her crew, including her dangerous cousin Leon, engage in detective work. She’s also secretly the Deputy to the Texas Warden, charged with keeping the potent serum that creates magical powers out of the hands of evildoers. She’s just picked up the pieces of her broken heart and set her mind to keeping her extended family safe, when a new challenge disrupts her life. Four of Houston’s most powerful houses have a business deal with a nasty old codger by the name of Lander Morton. The focus of it is the swampy Pit, which is full of magical hazmat. Once it’s cleaned up, there’s a fortune to be made in real estate development. When Lander Morton’s son is tortured and killed onsite of the Pit, Morton is convinced one of the other Houses is behind it. In addition to hiring Catalina to conduct the investigation, he also hires a suave Italian assassin to kill whoever Catalina identifies as the preparator. The problem—the assassin is Alessandro, Catalina’s ex, who walked out on her without warning and left her bereft. Now Alessandro claims he took the job with Morton in order to protect her. But can she believe him? An entertaining and fun read with romantic sizzle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ilona Andrews, "Emerald Blaze: A Hidden Legacy Novel" (Avon Books, 2020)

In order to reclaim her throne and save her people, an ousted queen must join forces with a young warrior in the second book of this"relentlessly gripping, brilliant" epic fantasy series from a breakout author (James Islington). Tau and his Queen, desperate to delay the impending attack on the capital by the indigenous people of Xidda, craft a dangerous plan. If Tau succeeds, the Queen will have the time she needs to assemble her forces and launch an all out assault on her own capital city, where her sister is being propped up as the 'true' Queen of the Omehi. If the city can be taken, if Tsiora can reclaim her throne, and if she can reunite her people then the Omehi have a chance to survive the onslaught. Listen in as I talked to Evan Winter, the author of The Fires of Vengeance (Orbit, 2020). Gabrielle Mathieu is the author of the YA fantasy, Girl of Fire, the first in the Berona’s Quest series, and the historical fantasy Falcon series. You can follow her on Twitter to get updates about new podcasts and more @GabrielleAuthor, or visit her website at gabriellemathieu.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Evan Winter, "The Fires of Vengeance" (Orbit Books, 2020)

A rich and complex world of sword-wielding fighters and seductive sorceresses, written in percussive, lyrical prose. The 19th Bladesman (Dark Blade, 2018) first introduces us to Kaell, the eponymous hero of the novel, when he runs away from the mountain castle where Lord Vraymorg tutors him in swordcraft. We learn the eight-year old Kaell is bonded to the battle god Khir and has been blessed with exceptional strength. In a pattern that’s often to be repeated, Kaell’s defiance of Vraymorg after a verbal tussle propels him into an unsanctioned adventure—and exposure to danger. For Kaell is a target of those who know of the prophecy of the 19th Bladesman. It is said that if he breaks, disaster will strike the lands. Vraymorg is soon informed of this prophecy as well, by a beautiful queen who then beds him, but though he appears stern with Kaell, he loves the boy like his own son. Vraymorg hopes to protects him—well, as much as a child sworn to serve a battle god can ever be protected. As the tale winds on, introducing us to Island priestesses, dead warriors called Nightriders and naturally, a deliciously sadistic usurper king who delights in torture, Kaell amasses more and more enemies, and some unlikely friends. In a testament to his endearing qualities, even the noble who tries to kill him eventually becomes an ally. But those who are loyal to Kaell will be tested when he faces the biggest challenge of them all—being taken captive by an ancient, seductive, and cunning God who is as deadly as he is beautiful. Gabrielle Mathieu is the author of the historical fantasy Falcon series (The Falcon Flies Alone, and the upcoming The Falcon Strikes.) She blogs about travel and her books at http://gabriellemathieu.com/. You can also follow her on Twitter @GabrielleAuthor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

S. J. Hartland, "The 19th Bladesman" (Dark Blade, 2018)

Today I talked to Menna Van Praag about her new book The Sisters Grimm (Harper Voyager, 2020)... In a set up reminiscent of the show Orphan Black, four feisty young women struggle to make their way in the world, unaware that they are related. Rather than having genetically identical material from a cloned person in common, these women all have the same father, a demon called Wilhelm Grimm. They differ from each other not only in their culture of origin, and their appearance, but in their element affiliation. Each sister is magically aligned with one of the four elements, though not all of them are aware of their powers. Like many a villain, the incestuous Wilhelm wants only the strongest to survive and become his lovers and fellow fighters, so he will test his daughters, before inviting them to join the dark side. Unbeknownst to them, assassins wearing the forms of appealing young men are drawing closer, to study their victims and assess their weaknesses, in preparation for combat on their eighteenth birthdays. The sisters met as children in a strange otherworld named Everwhere, but when they reached thirteen, they forgot their time there. Now they must remember, so they can find and support each other before it becomes too late. Some of the sisters have had childhoods marred by sexual abuse or the mental illness of a mother. Will they all choose the light, or will Wilhelm Grimm find himself a new favorite daughter who will turn against the others? Assuming any of them survive their assassins… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Menna Van Praag, "The Sisters Grimm" (Harper Voyager, 2020)

Premee Mohamed's Beneath the Rising (Solaris, 2020) is simultaneously a far-flung horror story and an exploration of an intimate relationship. At the heart of this novel, full of threatening monsters and ancient terrors, is the accommodation one makes with the exploitation of others, when it serves a higher goal. Scientist and child prodigy, Joanna (Johnnie) Chambers, embarks on a quest to save the world with her loyal best friend Nick. The story is told through Nick’s perspective—he is at totally devoted to Johnnie and yet, resentful of her. Nick yearns for Johnnie, not just romantically, but also because she is a symbol of privilege. He is angry that he, as an economically struggling Indo-Caribbean, is not granted the same respect that wealthy, white Johnnie gets. Her life of privilege, like her love, seem unattainable for someone like Nick. However, when all hell breaks loose after one of Johnnie’s experiments unleashes horror on this world, Nick finds himself on a long strange journey with Johnnie to save the world. That’s when he finds out that Johnnie, the golden child he’s always envied, has her burdens too. Gabrielle Mathieu is the author of the YA fantasy, Girl of Fire, the first in the Berona’s Quest series, and the historical fantasy Falcon series.  You can follow her on Twitter to get updates about new podcasts and more @GabrielleAuthor, or visit her website at gabriellemathieu.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Premee Mohamed, "Beneath The Rising" (Solaris, 2020)

Francesca and Toni are brought to the orphanage when their mother suffers a breakdown and dies, and their father gets involved with a new woman. Their story, set in Chicago of the 1940s, unfolds during the course of the novel. There’s another girl too though, whose voice intersperses herself into the everyday happenings. This is the ghost, Pearl, who would much rather observe other people’s stories then think about her own unhappy one. It takes the friendship and confrontational questions of another traumatized ghost, for her to come to terms with the painful memories of her strict mother and hateful brothers. In meantime, Frankie goes through her teen years and experiences her first love—and loss. Pearl, witnessing Fran’s emotions, is brought closer to her own lost life. The setting of the orphanage is well researched—more about that in the interview with Laura Ruby—and Pearl’s afterlife is original and poignant. The ghost girl reads the Hobbit over the shoulders of a library visitor, goes to a bar where she drinks not-bourbon served by a ghost barkeeper, and keeps revisiting a certain blue house, to watch a young woman and her lover inside. The themes of forbidden love, racism, and dispossession will draw in many young readers. Listen in as I speak with Laura about Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All (Balzer and Bray, 2019) Gabrielle Mathieu is the author of the YA fantasy, Girl of Fire, the first in the Berona’s Quest series, and the historical fantasy Falcon series.  You can follow her on Twitter to get updates about new podcasts and more @GabrielleAuthor, or visit her website at gabriellemathieu.com.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Laura Ruby, "Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All" (Balzer and Bray, 2019)

Interviews with fantasy and adventure authors about their new books.

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New Books in Fantasy

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