Range of Ghosts
Elizabeth Bear
Tor, Mar 27 2012, $25.99
ISBN 9780765327543

The Khagan of Khagans is dead. His descendants went to war to replace the late Great Khagan as ruler of the Khaganate. Temur fought on the side of the losers as he followed his brother into combat in the fratricide civil war. He awakens in the bloody battlefield surrounded by corpses and knowing he is the rightful blood heir to his divided family’s kingdom, but with no power to achieve what is his. Needing to escape, Temur joins a horde of refugees running from the war zone. While fleeing he meets fellow refugee Edene, but blood ghosts abduct her; he vows to rescue her somehow.

Once-Princess Samarkar was heir to the Rasan Empire until her half-brother was born. Her father exiled her as an expendable pawn in marriage to the Prince of Song, but there relationship ended in deadly combat. The royal widow wants nothing further to do with the blood of man so she climbed the thousand steps of the Citadel of the Wizards of Tsarepheth to learn if she had magical skills. Now a wizard Samarkar and Hrahima the tiger-woman who rages at her people’s god join Temur in his quest to rescue Edene and kill those who mass murdered a city; as war seems everywhere with no regard to casualties along the Celadon Highway

This is a great opening act as readers feel they live in the war riddled kingdoms. The cast is strong especially the lead protagonists whose point of view enhance the bloody conditions in the Bear where the sky over each kingdom reflects the respective ruler’s gods and a magic practitioner pays a high cost to perform. However, the key is the diversity between the kingdoms interwoven inside an exhilarating fantasy that fans will appreciate.

Harriet Klausner

The Ritual
Adam Nevill
St. Martin’s Griffin, Feb 14 2012, $15.99
ISBN: 9780312641849

When they roomed in Birmingham while attending the university Luke, Phil, Dom and Hutch were the four musketeers as best buddies. After graduating they went their separate ways with three of the BFFs married as Luke is only one of them still single. The four agree to unite on a camping trip north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden to get away from their respective personal lives.

However, it didn’t take long to realize how out of shape Phil and Dom have become as the foursome trek on their three day hike though Luke and Hutch still smoke. The weather is cold and wet making the walk through the wilderness that much more difficult especially when they take a shortcut that fails to find the river, but instead the dead eerily hanging from a tree. The bickering and resentment become palatable as anger at each other and their miserable situation overtly explodes. They find shelter of sorts from the harsh environment in a cottage containing bizarre, frightening ancient-looking items. None of them yet comprehend the predator that stalks them may be just coming home.

Think of Deliverance and an adult coming of age Lord of the Flies in a stark setting to comprehend this exhilarating thriller. The storyline told by Luke captures the reader from opening line as Adam Nevill paints a harsh environment that sets the tone for what follows. The protagonists possess diverse personalities and different tsuris, but it is their reactions to the evil that hunts them which makes for a tense horror tale.

Harriet Klausner

Robbie Forester and the Outlaws of Sherwood Street
Peter Abrahams
Philomel, Jan 19 2012, $16.99
ISBN: 9780399255021

In Brooklyn seventh-grader Robyn “Robbie” Forester leaves the subway on her way to school when she sees the homeless woman, whom she has given change to, looking even sicker than before. The woman recognizes Robbie even as the cops and ambulance take her away. Robbie picks up a charm bracelet the homeless person dropped, but her effort to return it is too late.

On the Thatcher girls’ basketball team, Robbie sees a strange arc and shoots the winning shot by targeting the light. Later Robbie and her mom, who volunteer at the homeless shelter, learn that millionaire Sheldon Gunn is shutting the facility to obtain more rent from a different client. Gunn plans other closings while Robbie tells her teammate Ashanti and her former classmate Tut-Tut about the power of the bracelet. The three tweeners and Pendleton the dog become the Outlaws of Sherwood Street challenging Gunn.

The coach sets the tone when Ashanti receives an elbow to the head but the ref using a no blood no foul fails to call it with her comment that life is unfair so get over it. The whimsical storyline focuses on serious issues though targeted middle school children as Peter Abrahams scrutinizes income inequality due to legally rigged economic unfairness. Fast-paced, 99% of readers will enjoy Occupy Brooklyn by the modern day Robin Hood, Robbie Forester and the Outlaws of Sherwood Street

Harriet Klausner

Philomel, Jan 19 2012, $16.99
ISBN: 9780399255021

In Brooklyn seventh-grader Robyn “Robbie” Forester leaves the subway on her way to school when she sees the homeless woman, whom she has given change to, looking even sicker than before. The woman recognizes Robbie even as the cops and ambulance take her away. Robbie picks up a charm bracelet the homeless person dropped, but her effort to return it is too late.

On the Thatcher girls’ basketball team, Robbie sees a strange arc and shoots the winning shot by targeting the light. Later Robbie and her mom, who volunteer at the homeless shelter, learn that millionaire Sheldon Gunn is shutting the facility to obtain more rent from a different client. Gunn plans other closings while Robbie tells her teammate Ashanti and her former classmate Tut-Tut about the power of the bracelet. The three tweeners and Pendleton the dog become the Outlaws of Sherwood Street challenging Gunn.

The coach sets the tone when Ashanti receives an elbow to the head but the ref using a no blood no foul fails to call it with her comment that life is unfair so get over it. The whimsical storyline focuses on serious issues though targeted middle school children as Peter Abrahams scrutinizes income inequality due to legally rigged economic unfairness. Fast-paced, 99% of readers will enjoy Occupy Brooklyn by the modern day Robin Hood, Robbie Forester and the Outlaws of Sherwood Street

Harriet Klausner

The Ruined City
Paula Brandon
Spectra, Feb 28 2012, $15.00
ISBN 9780553583823

The abduction left pampered privileged Jianna Belandor, daughter of powerful Faerlonnish overlord the Magnifico Aureste Belandor, was shaken with what she learned about the Veiled Isles and her family as a prisoner of her Aunt Magnifico Onarto. She escapes with the help of rebel sympathizer Falaste Rione the physician while seeing her privileged lifestyle though the eyes of the lower classes (see The Traitor’s Daughter).

She returns home to deadly chaos. Her father is missing, The City Ruined by disease and the amphibian slaves in open revolt, while those who die return from the dead. Arcane practitioners read these and believe they are the signs of a revelation switch as an enigmatic magical spring the Source has begun the shift of alignments that is leading to a pandemic catastrophe for the Veiled Islands.

The second Jianna Belandor escapades are a wonderfully complex romantic quest fantasy with multiple subplots linked by the doomsday countdown. The cast is fully developed whether they are the heroic lead couple, the zombie horde or the amphibian rebels, etc. Fans will appreciate the Brandon mythos as The Ruined City is a fabulous frenzied forerunner of what looks like the cataclysmic end of the Veiled Islands unless a magical miracle emerges.

Harriet Klausner

Raven Cursed
Faith Hunter
Roc, Jan 3 2012, $7.99
ISBN: 9780451464330

Rogue vamp hunter and Cherokee skinwalker with Beast the mountain lion spirit inside her, Jane Yellowrock is considered the best security expert around. Her current assignment is to secure Asheville and the surrounding Appalachian Mountains for a big parley between the envoy and heir Katie of Blood Master of New Orleans Leo Pellissier and local fanghead chief Lincoln Shaddock. For six decades Shaddock has petitioned Pellissier to allow him to establish an independent vamp clan in the area; currently his group owes allegiance to the New Orleans chief fanghead.

Instead of Katie arriving, Pellissier sends his number two Mithran vamp, Gregoire, who he wants to mate with Jane. However, on the cable news is a report of a vicious bloodbath of a couple in Cocke County. Leo calls Jane to tell her to kill the rogue and make it go away. Jane heads to the Pigeon River site of the massacre to begin her inquiry. Beast tells her the smell is not vamp or Pigeon, but that of the mythical Grindylow. Jane realizes werewolves killed the couple with the Grindylow as the were-enforcers in pursuit.

The latest Yellowrock urban fantasy (see Mercy Blade, Blood Cross and Skinwalker) is a super thriller as the kick butt heroine investigates the murders with the eyes of humans, vamps and werewolves upon her. The Grindylow believe in taking care of their own kind with lethal punishment, but objects to outside intrusion. Fast-paced, Raven Cursed is an exhilarating paranormal whodunit with several thriller spins as the heroine muses that vamps and guns suck but though make for a crappy life are energizing.

Harriet Klausner

The Real Werewives of Vampire County
Alexandra Ivy, Angie Fox, Jess Haines and Tami Dane
Kensington, Oct 25 2011, $15.00
ISBN: 9780758261588

“Where Darkness Lives” by Alexandra Ivy. Sophia the werewolf is highly regarded by her species as a rare female who has given birth not just once, but incredibly to four purebreds. However, someone has a different opinion and wants her dead. Alpha bodyguard Luc is hired to keep Sophia safe even as their passion ignites.

“Murder On Mysteria Lane” by Angie Fox. Like many mortals, the supernatural in-crowd wants to live in Malibu especially in Eternal Life Estates where the hottest fad is for a vampire to marry a were. When someone murders a werewife, the Vampire Counsel tries to prevent a species war. They assign vampire detective Lucian Mead with help from werewolf Heather McPhee, their best detective, to investigate.

“Werewolves In Chic Clothing” by Tami Dane. Christine Price and Jonathan Stewart meet on line and fall in love. She moves to Maryland to be with her beloved. However, she finds her new home strange and she becomes concerned over that Jonathan’s late first wife; ruled a suicide but seems more like a homicide.

“What’s Yours Is Mine” by Jess Haines. In Still Waters, New Jersey, women of the affluent community welcome Tiffany Winters to join their most exclusive membership, the Diamondfangs pack. However, they may be rushing to judgment as none question that Tiffany fits too perfectly with them.

These are four well written entertaining romantic suspense urban fantasies with different somewhat keeping the plots fresh. Additionally Alexandra Ivy’s entry is part of her Guardians of Eternity series.

Harriet Klausner

The Revisionists
Thomas Mullen
Mulholland/Little, Brown, Sep 28 2011, $25.99
ISBN: 9780316176729

The government insures history does not repeat the mistakes of the past. Thus when agent Zed’s wife and daughter die in an accident, he is granted two months to grieve his loss. When his allowed mourning time ends, operatives arrive at his apartment to remove any hint they lived.

Zed understands the importance of prevention as his job is to insure the past happens but not repeated in the present. His current assignment is to go back in time to insure the early twenty-first century great Conflagration occurs by protecting the Events that led up to this calamity from the Revisionists time traveling historical agitator Hags who want to rewrite history. At a parking lot overlooking the Potomac he eliminates two Hags trying to prevent the abduction of a reporter. However, he soon finds himself butting heads with Leo the former CIA agent, Tasha the corporate lawyer grieving her loss, and Sari the Indonesian maid enslaved by a nasty Korean couple.

This thriller is a super tale in which the “perfect” future is protected at all costs to the past. Rather than trying to prevent the Event that shapes the future, Zed and the government protect the Events leading to the big one. Although there is stereotyping and hyperbole in the modern day, the spin on the world’s problems is fascinating as to the victors go the Revisionists history books in which the masses numbly accept as truth even when it is harmful to those individuals. Readers will appreciate the present and future converging in DC.

Harriet Klausner

The Restoration Game
Ken MacLeod
PYR, Sep 20 2011, $16.00
ISBN 9781616145255

Her CIA asset mom Amanda who wrote the definitive mythology on Krassnia asks her game designer daughter Lucy Stone to create a special interactive multiplayer game based on their heritage. Lucy who has not been back to Krassnia, the former Soviet Autonomous Region since they left when she was a small child, looks forward to going “home”.

Amanda’s objective is to enable the country’s revolutionaries to use the game clandestinely to communicate and cohesively organize. As she readjusts to the locality’s language, Lucy hears tales about a power source high in the mountains that the Soviets never could replicate, but has renewed interests from outside parties not concerned about collateral damage.

Starting with Newton’s Laws of Motion combined with Murphy’s Law, The Restoration Game is an insightful satirical espionage thriller. The story line contains an incredible amount of information on Krassnia such as how the Soviets converted a nation filled with literates into illiterates with a stroke of a pen and the Post-Soviet government turned a nation filled with literates into illiterates with a stroke of a keyboard. Although there is so much going on in terms of culture, mythology and the power source, the story line rarely accelerates. Readers who appreciate a deep cerebral thriller will enjoy a visit to Krassnia.

Harriet Klausner

The Rift Walker
Clay Griffith & Susan Griffith
PYR, Sep 9 2011, $16.00
ISBN 9781616145231

In 1870, vampires came out of the coffins to attack western civilizations in the northern temperate zone. Instead of leading a counterinsurgency, human leaders fled south while their former subjects became food for the conquerors. A century and a half later, the world remains divided between the vampire and human zones.

The two human superpowers seek an alliance between the American Republic, which recently took back St, Louis from the vampires, and the Equatorian Empire. To cement the alliance, Senator Clark and Princess Adele marry. The human plan is to turn back the clock to over a century ago when vampire clans were myths by cleansing the north from this insidious species. However, Adele is horrified with the genocide which includes her as the key because the geomancers believe she can tap into the earth’s power pulsing through ley lines, which used correctly would end the blight but also kill her beloved Greyfriar. Princess Adele flees her marriage, ending the compact between the two super human powers and turns to Greyfriar who saved her life when British Vampire Clan Lord Prince Cesare threatened her. Taking advantage of the human alliance collapse, Prince Cesare leads an assault on Equatoria while insulted Clark considers likewise.

The second Vampire Empire fantasy (see Greyfriar) is a terrific alternate history and future thriller in which Clay Griffith & Susan Griffith deftly merge politics and war with a touch of romance. Fast-paced from the moment an unhappy Adele flees with a strong cast (human and vampire); The Rift Walker is a fabulous tale as readers will believe vampire clans exist and control vast areas.

Harriet Klausner

Ready Player One
Ernest Cline
Crown, Aug 16 2011, $24.00
ISBN: 9780307887436

In 2044, the real world is an ugly place to live, but those who do not want to die like high school student Wade Watts escape a high rise Lego like stacked trailer park via going virtual inside of the most popular online game, OASIS (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation). The late James Halliday constructed the electronic puzzler filed with riddle and games that has been home to billions of “gunters” competing for years to find the three magical keys to open the gates and therefore win the ultimate prize: ownership of the extremely successful and affluent OASIS Company.

Inside OASIS Wade’s character is impoverished Parzival. When Parzival finds the copper key and opens the first gate, other gunters chase after him. Worse are the ““Sixers”” working for IOI corporation led by Sorrento; their job is to prevent anyone from succeeding. Their agents are searching for the egg are called Sixers. As Sorrento plans to charge a fee for participating in the game, his agents hunt Parzival and his allies on line and Wade in reality.

Nostalgia 1980s fans will enjoy this futuristic Tron, as many of the games and other pop icons from that era appear inside of OASIS. The story line is at its best when Parzival works the clues while others stalk him; it slows down somewhat with overkill description of the games employed inside of OASIS. Still fans will enjoy this entertaining tale as virtual reality is the only thing keeping social reality from total splintering.

Harriet Klausner