Synopsis: Daedalus of Crete is many things: The greatest architect in the world. The constructor of the Labyrinth that imprisoned the Minotaur. And the grieving father of Icarus, who plunged into the sea as father and son flew from the grasp of the tyrannical King Minos. Now, Daedalus seeks to reunite with Icarus in the […]
About A.J. Calvin
Review: The Light of Kasaban by Thomas Howard Riley
Synopsis: In the brutal desert city of Kasaban, the old gods have had their statues crushed to powder by invading Priests, with magick forbidden to anyone but themselves. Merely being born as one of the magi makes even infants into fugitives, and the Priests and their spies are always watching, ready to toss their enemies […]
Review: Only a Grave Will Do (Malitu #3) by James Lloyd Dulin
Synopsis: On the march towards war, blood is both a promise and a gamble. Newly dubbed the Hero of Anilace, Kaylo is thrust into leading a rebellion against insurmountable odds. His people are dying, if not in labor camps, in occupied cities as everything that makes them Ennean is stripped away. In two generations, the […]
Review: No Safe Haven (Malitu #2) by James Lloyd Dulin
Synopsis: Anger will not be quenched by blood alone. The Missing, a rebel army that is little more than a rumor, may be Kaylo’s only path to exact his vengeance against the empire that claimed his home and killed his family. If it means a chance to balance the blood he owes, he will steal […]
Review: Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei
Synopsis: In Earth’s not too distant future, seas consume coastal cities, highways disintegrate underwater, and mutant fish lurk in pirate-controlled depths. Skipper, a skilled sailor and the youngest of three sisters, earns money skimming and reselling plastic from the ocean to care for her ailing grandmother. But then her eldest sister, Nora, goes missing. Nora […]
Review: Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb #1) by Tamsyn Muir
Synopsis: The Emperor needs necromancers. The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman. Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead nonsense. Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as skillfully animated as arcane revenants. The result is a […]
Little Beauty (an Eve Novella) by Mark Jonathan Runte
Synopsis: Cherbourg, Normandy – 1159 Shy Jehanne always lived at the mercy of her sisters’ spite and bitterness, preferring a life with the saints in her father’s library. Cherbourg was home and for her, it was the smaller pleasures of watching the ships in the harbor, searching for her father’s vessels. She might have continued […]
Review: The Source of Strife by Alex Arch
Synopsis: Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Only stolen. Mages feed on catalysts like Dinnie to enhance their spells, and since she’s the most formidable weapon alive, they will stop at nothing to control her. Even her parents, leaders of warring realms, wage a battle for her custody, imprisoning her to prevent the other […]
Review: Shield of the Mothership (The Hybrid Helix #7) by J.C.M. Berne
Synopsis: Sometimes the enemy of your enemy is still your enemy. Rohan swore he’d never work for the il’Drach again, never again be called Lance Primary, never again kill or risk the lives of his friends on behalf of the Empire. But when the safety of the sector is at risk, when inaction could lead […]
Review: Protocol of Valor (The Legacy of Boulom #0.5) by Timothy Wolff
Synopsis: Where reality fails, dreams are eternal. After saving the realm from the wrath of the gods, crystal sorceress Everleigh Bennet hopes to return home and relax with her family. Instead, she finds her lover, Felix, imprisoned by the God of Wisdom in a scheme that threatens to remove his free will forever. Everleigh must […]
Review: The Last Dai’akan (The Otai Cycle #1) by Jeremy D. Miller
Synopsis: An angry, blood-sucking god and a broke, desperate dungeon master. What could possibly go wrong? The mighty Aatma has fallen, and Empress Inalda has lost her main supplier and is forced to sponsor new dungeons to fuel her army’s expansion. Gabriel Shook intends to rise to the occasion, but he is broke and must […]
Review: Obsidian: Revelation (Obsidian #2) by Sienna Frost
Synopsis (from Obsidian: Awakening, book 1 in the series): Twenty years after the massacre of the Vilarhiti, the future of the peninsula falls into the hands of its seven victims of war: a slave male escort turned assassin, a vengeful warlord’s teenage daughter, her secretive oracle brother, the conqueror they must defeat, his captive bride […]