Month: May 2015


May
2015

Genre Blend New Releases – June 2015

categories: New Releases

Summer is here are the blending is easy.  There’s always a few mega-blockbusters on the rolls for June, and this month we get the new Stephen King horror-tinged thriller Finders Keepers, and the new Anita Blake novel  Dead Ice for those who never kicked that particular habit (sorry, sorry! But when I think of how much I enjoyed the first few books of this series…). I personally could not be more excited to read the new book in the Expanse series by James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games , although I can’t tell how blendy it is as I could not get my hands on a review copy! But it’s bound to combine adventure and SF, with perhaps a bit of intrigue. Of the things I’ve had the pleasure to get my greedy mitts on already, I can personally rave about Peter Cline’s The Fold:, a very cool SF concept with thrills and a mystery to boot; The Invasion of the Tearling, the excellent sequel to the Queen of the Tearling that takes some serious genre-blendinng turns here; and the genre-defying debut novel The Library at Mount Char.  Enjoy!

 

                             

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June 9

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June 23

June 30


May
2015

Rural Urban Fantasy

categories: Featured Blend

Urban fantasy is a hugely popular segment of the SF/F marketplace, but there have always been arguments about the name.  It seems like an effort to differentiate books set in OUR world with books set in a historically influenced imaginary world. Some have always insisted a more useful genre heading would be contemporary fantasy or first world fantasy (as opposed to epic fantasy aka second world fantasy).  I personally like the name urban fantasy, as it conjures up city streets and danger and familiar surroundings. There are dozens upon dozens of series where the moniker fits like a glove: Butcher’s Dresden Files or Chloe Neil’s Chicagoland Vampires set in Chicago, Harrison’s Hollows series set in Cincinnati, and Seanan McGuire’s San Francisco set October Daye books all have great urban settings.  I should really do a gazetteer post one of these days, actually. But what about books that have contemporary settings and real world landscapes but which are not urban?  There’s some really great ones out there. Small towns, rural hamlets, and middle-of-nowhere settings can have some pretty interesting drama, it seems. And the communities are often a lot more intimate and up-in-everybody’s-business, which can add an interesting element to the story. Here are just a few I love a lot: (more…)