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Science Fiction for November 2024

by Henry L Lazarus

Sometimes the best Fantasy and Science Fiction can be found near the end of the year.

Melissa Caruso has a unique Earth with the prime version sitting on alternate realities that grow more grotesque the deeper one falls. Kembral Thorne is a hound who rescues people who accidentally fall down the levels. She’s on maternity leave, but decides to go to a year-end party of colleagues , friends and enemies. Then most of the party are murdered and the time resets, one layer below prime. In The Last Hour Between Worlds (paper from Orbit). Somehow she has to discover what is going on, and save her friends, because each reset sends the party to deeper levels. Wow! I hope this finds itself on an award list. 

Sarah Hawley has an intense tale about Kenna Heron. She lives on the edge of a bog separating the Fae lands from human. The same day she finds a magical knife in the bog, she finds her best friend selected as one of four to travel to the Fae lands where it is told they will be treated like royalty. Kenna, not believing this, joins the group and watches monsters kill the others, only surviving herself because of her pluck, and the knife, which hides itself as a bracelet when she is discovered. She is assigned as a Servant of Earth (hard from Ace)  house to aid the daughter-heir in passing the six tests that will allow Lara to gain her magic and full immortality. To complicate things, there is the evil King Osric, who has ruled the fae for eight centuries. There’s also a hunky prince with a secret rebellion, and another trapped in obligation to ferret out the king's enemies. I couldn't put the book down and was happy to find that a sequel is coming. 

In 2880 the future life on Earth is happy . Contact with other worlds has brought intelligent bamboo trees, who keep their intelligence secret. Except for a few wild robots and crazy humans, the world is a safe place. By 2900, according to Sue Burke, there had been war with robots, and a Usurpation(hard from TOR) of parasitic fungi that threatens human and bamboo. I really liked the bamboo grove Levanter, who has a unique view of human affairs. I didn’t read the other books in this series, but this should find itself on some award lists.  

Jacob Holo has a fun melodrama set centuries after the technological gods that had provided utopian civilization to the many habitats of the Solar System were destroyed. Nathaniel Kade and multibodied Aiko Pratti are Freelancers of Neptune (hard from Baen) using their ship, the Neptune Belle for passengers and cargo across the system. They are hired by Joshua Cotton and catwoman Vessani S’Kaari to go to her home habitat which has a relic called the black egg. It may help locate something from the age of gods. Chasing them is the multibodied  Xormun with several powerful ships. He will torture and kill anyone who gets in his way to capturing the macguffin. Danger lurks at every turn and our heroes are frequently at death’s door. Lots of fun and more adventures are promised. 

Demi Winters starts a tale of Silla Nordvig,   peasant cook who's been traveling with her father taking odd jobs at various longhouses. Then sellswords kill her father and she learns he is not really her father, and  the Queen’s assassins want her. Her only hope is to travel The Road of Bones(hard from ‎ Delacorte Press). She  smuggles herself aboard the wagon of the Bloodaxe Crew and hopes the monster hunters accept her.  Very intense and impossible to put down. 

Julie Leong tells a light tale of Tao, The Teller of Small Fortunes(paper from ace). She keeps moving because the fortunes she tell come true. Unfortunately the kingdom of Eshtera wants all magi registered and she soon has a witch finder on her tail.  Two men, one a reformed thief and the other searching for his missing daughter join her.  Then a young baker looking for adventure and two cats join the fun.  After some adventures they are caught, but it all works out in the end. Fun

Grim Reapers in Maxie Dara’s present are ordinary people who work for Scythe and are given the ability to see human essences after they die, and drive them to a processing center. Kathy Valence, who is pregnant, needs A Grim Reaper's Guide to Catching a Killer(paper from Berkley) when one of her charges has been murdered by a fellow employee, It could be any of them.  With the help of her friends, her ex who finally finds out where she works and that she is carrying his baby. It’s convenient that the ex is a hacker. This is a good mystery and lots of fun. 

L. E. Modesitt, Jr. 's Recluce series spreads over thousands of years from the time humans first came to a planet where some people can manipulate order and chaos. He started this trilogy set in the early empire of Cyador where Alyiakal, an order mage whose was trained to hide his abilities, slowly rises in  the ranks of the Mirror Lancers after coming From the Forest (paper). He is now an Overcaptain (hard from Tor) assigned as deputy commander at  Lhaarat, where he has to prove himself to the Major in charge, as well as deal with raiders. I really enjoyed this addition to one of my favorite series despite not a lot happening. 

Hanuvar continues his attempt to rescue his people after a version of the third Punic war that sent the survivors into slavery. Howard Andrew Jones throws in monsters and sorcerers, a soldier magically filled with Hanuvar’s memories who stirs up a slave revolt. The most exciting part in Shadow of the Smoking Mountain(hard from Baen) has a Dervan army facing a sorceror trying to turn back time. Excellent series. 

Tasha Suri has the final book of her tale of a version of India in which Burning women can produce a magical flame. The blessed mothers created the flame to destroy the Yaksa, good like creatures from the void. The Jasmine Throne (paper and winner of the World Fantasy Award) introduced the sister of the emperor, Malini, who has refused to be burnt alive, and Priya who will brave the deathless waters three times to access the powers of water and life. Malini decides that she can only survive by becoming Empress and starts a civil war. She wins this war in The Oleander Sword (paper) but the Yaksa return, bringing rot and devastation with them. Special magic has to be found to restore The Lotus Empire(paper from Orbit) and that will require sacrifice from both Malini and Priya. Very exciting ending  with lots of treachery.
J. S. Dewes has finally completed her fun space opera series that started with the universe shrinking at The Last Watch (paper from 2021) Now our heroes of The Relentless Legion(hard from Tor) a dictator wanting to rule our galaxy, and a genetic disease with the potential of wiping out humanity. In this exciting conclusion there are multiple battles, a trip to an alternate universe, and near death experiences. Whew.
Jim Butcher returns to his fun world where people live on huge spires because the surface is too dangerous. Lieutenant Benedict Sorellin-Lancaster is sent to recover military information from a spire that has gone out of contact. He has three Warriorborn (hard from Podium Publishing) convicts that he had previously arrested as crew. As usual there are monsters, talking cats and soldiers from an evil spire. Fun for a Novella and a short addition to a fun series. 

Finally there are two new books from the series I look forward to.
Bob Johansson got rich and arranged to have his body frozen on death. Unfortunately he immediately gets killed crossing the street. A century later he got his mind uploaded to an explorer ship designed to build copies of itself as it goes from solar system to solar system. He leaves Earth at the beginning of a nuclear war. In the fourth book by Dennis Taylor, the Bob’s have discovered FTL travel and instantaneous connection so the many Bob’s are involved in politics and virtual games. However there’s a missing Bob and the hunt leads to a huge cylinder built by alien beaver-like people. This is a species that destroyed their own planet, and live a low tech life on the banks of Heaven's River (paper from Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency). So Bob 1 and friends have to infiltrate the habitat in artificial bodies and somehow locate the equipment that contains the missing Bob across a million miles of river. But something crazy is going on the the bobiverse where a group of Bobs want a prime directive(like Star Trek) enforced and will use violence to achieve their ends. Great series.
Terry Mancour has been writing about a world of magic that has been settled by numerous species. Minalan the Spellmonger has gone from a regular mage to the most powerful in the world. The main problem of the series is that in three thousand years the world will lose its magic releasing monsters. The current problem in the city of Farise, home of pirates,  The king wants Minalan to deal with the pirates. Unfortunately he had been part of an invasion of the city in his youth that didn’t go well and left him with horrible memories. So, instead of sending an Army, he goes undercover as a Practical Adept (ebook). Using his friends as spies he tries to understand the politics of a city falling into revolution. He also finds a daughter he never knew he had. I really like this series and am really looking forward to an actual ending a few books ahead. 

Glynn Stewart has a tenth anniversary printing of Starship's Mage (Faolan's Pen Publishing Inc)  which I couldn’t resist rereading. It's still lots of fun. 

Tor has been reprinting Martha Wells’s early excellent fantasies since she is now a hot writer. Wheel of the Infinite: Updated and Revised (hard)  is a good read. 

Baen has a second edition of David Weber’s The Honor of the Queen(hard) one of the tales of Honor Harrington, they have reprinted in paper Richard Fox’s fun tale of magical objects in the galaxy Light of the Veil and Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s early Liaden Universe tale, Plan B. 

DAW has an anthology of Valdemar tales of Feuds in paper. 

Tor has a revised edition of Martha Wells’s Wheel of the Infinite in hardcover. I’m glad they’re reprinting her excellent early novels

Henry Lazarus is a retired Dentist and the author of A Cycle of Gods and Unnaturally Female. Check out his unified field theory at henrylazarus.com/utf.html that suggests fusion generation requires less energy.

More reviews are at http://www.henrylazarus.com/sf.htm.