Knots

Chuck Boeheim

Monsieur Resche is an art thief. He has crossed a bridge into a quaint town that disappeared from Switzerland four centuries ago. All the magic that our world once had has ended up there. A precisely tied knot, an exactly folded paper, or a cunningly drawn figure can unlock wonders and horrors.

Resche has a mind that lets him excel at this new craft, but that brings him to the notice of powerful mages who play a great game of geomancy with tiles the size of countries. And when he looks for the bridge back to Geneva, it is nowhere to be found.

The Fractalist priest offers aid that may not be what it appears, the Jeweler has intricate schemes, the newspaper editor has taken an interest, the Astromancer had good advice before she was murdered, and Resche’s cat just makes wisecracks.

Knots is a compelling story filled with unexpected characters, plot twists, literal location twists, mystery, and redemption.

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Nettle and Bone

T. Kingfisher

The third princess from a small kingdom has been shut away in a convent, like a winter apple, in case she is ever needed. Her second sister has been married to a cruel king; if her sister doesn’t survive it, that could become Marra’s fate as well. She sets off to rescue her sister, along with her dog made of bones, a dust-wife, a possessed demon chicken, and a godmother. It’s a new fairy tale from the inventive mind of T Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon).

Kingfisher’s heroines are very sensible people, more likely to daydream about gardening than about handsome princes and glamorous courts. They’re generally rather plain, and no braver than they need to be. And yet they manage to be vaguely absurd. Who else would wire old bones together to make a dog when she needed one?

I was hooked from the first two lines of the book:

The trees were full of crows and the woods were full of madmen. The pit was full of bones and her hands were full of wires.

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The Sword of Happenstance

Steven BrustSkyler White

A grandmother and a grandfather tell a tale to the children. There was an enchanted sword, that much they agree on, but not how many edges it had or whether it was straight or curved. The king, they did agree, was false, usurping the throne by magic. And one of them was the heir and one was a witch, but which was which was muddled. So,they tell the children, they set off for the castle with the sword and a bat that was maybe a hat or maybe a cloud of midges.

This is a story about how the world is very much the way you see it, so don’t let people put their world view on you. If you believe in yourself, you can tell a story where you’re the hero.

Oh, and they were both right in their own way.

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Stratton

Edita A. Petrick

To an enemy with an impressive lifespan, one failed campaign is not an obstacle. It is a challenge.

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Blood and Loyalty

Luna Fox

“She is your daughter,” Yenderen agreed, “but not your possession. The path she is to take in life is hers and hers alone.”

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