Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Stacking The Shelves (Reading Reality) and The Sunday Post (Caffeinated Reviewer) are both blog memes about sharing the books we’re adding to the shelves and sharing news of the week ahead. 

New Arrivals

A Many-Splintered Thing is the newest Tales of Valdemar collection from Mercedes Lackey, the 20th anthology of short stories set in the Valdemar high fantasy universe featuring tales by debut and established authors and a brand-new short story from Mercedes Lackey herself.

The Coffin Worms by Nick Cutter is an unforgettable collection of four all-new novellas, featuring a secretive community where something ancient lurks, a wife's new friendship that threatens to tear his family apart, an Arctic expedition uncovers the remnants of a lost civilization and primordial evil, and a real estate agent specializing in properties scarred by tragedy.

Water Mage & Familiar is the first part of the new edition of Eden Redd's Blue Mage series, the story of a young hapless mage who leaves his hectic and miserable life behind to continue his magical studies, but in order to do so, he must take on a familiar, a being whose purpose is to store magical energy, protect him from harm... and keep his dirty secrets. 

A Spell of Heart & Havoc by Kristen Vale​ is a queer romantasy about a half-dwarf thief with zero patience for wealthy snobs., the rich noble she’s assigned to as a fake bodyguard, and an art heist that must go on. . . despite any feelings that might be catching.  

Currently Reading

The one problem (and it's a good problem) with unplugging to get more reading done is that I tend to be a mood reader, so the more I read, the more books I shuffle in and out of my currently reading shelf. 

House of Crimson Hearts by Ruby Roe (a steamy sapphic vampire romance) took a back seat this week as an article about a special 4K restored edition of Space 1999 returning to theatres made me crave some 70s/80s sci-fi, and that turned out to be the original Battlestar Galactica novel by Glen A. Larson & Robert Thurston.

Similarly, among all the posts by people whining about the puppet episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, there was talk of Angel having done it first, so that thrust Seanan McGuire's Midnight Blue-Light Special into my hands. At the same time, I'm still very much in an epic fantasy mood, so The Splintered Sun by Tad Williams (the Osten Ard prequel) continues to be my predominant read.