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When I was about 13, I read a book called The Explorer by Francis Parkinson Keyes. It does not appear to be available on Amazon or the librarything (or anywhere else I looked), so unfortunately I can’t link to it, but it was definitely an adult romance, and not at all a romance I would [...]

The Thirteenth House is the sequel to Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn.  Both books, along with the third, Dark Moon Defender, are fantasy-romances set in the mythical kingdom of Gillengaria, and are, unfortunately, fraught with the saccharine tendencies of romance novels of every other genre.  Sharon Shinn, although a fascinating world-builder, is prone to [...]

This was a great read til the last five minutes. Basically, what’s going on is that our narrator, Ariella, is realizing that her dad’s a vampire. Also, she’s realizing that SHE might be a vampire as well. Little things like her (human) mother’s disappearance, the fact that her dad won’t let her leave the house, [...]

Hey y’all. Karnythia at LJ is hosting the upcoming POC SF Carnival.
The topic is People of Color in Young Adult fiction. Submit, submit!
http://karnythia.livejournal.com/1017945.html

Barnes’ alternate history explores the evolution of slavery and racial formations in a world where the West never rose to prominence. The New World is in the process of being conquered by various African empires, and both women and enslaved whites are starting to buck up for independence. This is a very cool context — [...]

File this in books that make you go, “Hmmm.” Dean opens with Arry, a 14 year old Physici. She’s got this role within her community because centuries ago, wizards seeking peace decided to parcel out knowledge and knowledge roles. The Gnosi knows, and understands, facts, concrete ideas and methodologies. Only the Akoumi understands about death [...]

Barnes’ promising first effort introduces the reader to a wild reimagining of turn of the century London. It’s very “The world has moved on” a la Stephen King — technology is on the rise, magic/mystery in the form of our main guy Edward Moon, and the disappearance of the titular character, who exits stage left at the [...]

My goal when I began rereading the Anita Blake books was to finally write up a post centering on Obsidian Butterfly. I wanted to talk about how OB stood out as an awesome treatment of mixed race issues. Because it takes Anita out of her surprisingly monoracial St Louis context, and plunks her down in [...]

  At the heart of the Alina is the titular character, a Romanian teenager who does webcam porn in order to pay off her father’s debts. He’s been hospitalized, and Alina’s instituted The Policy, where she cuts costs whenever possible while working as much as possible in order to try and break even. The novel [...]

http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/valente_12_06.html
Cathrynne M. Valente’s short story, “Urchins, While Swimming” is available at the above link. She’s the author of the Orphan’s Tale series, and some other great short stories. Below is the first few paragraphs of her exploration of mother-love and the legend of the rusalka, a kind of Russian water-spirit.
On the third day [...]