I’m not very keen on this month’s crop of new fantasy releases based on the covers. There are times when just looking at the cover will make me want to read the book, but it’s not the case with these 5 tomes. Let’s look at Goodreads’ 5 new fantasy releases of December:
- Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia (Monster Hunter International #1)
Publication date: December 6th 2016
A stunning limited edition of the first novel in the internationally best-selling Monster Hunter series. Five days after Owen Zastava Pitt pushed his insufferable boss out of a fourteenth story window, he woke up in the hospital with a scarred face, an unbelievable memory, and a job offer. It turns out that monsters are real. All the things from myth, legend, and B-movies are out there, waiting in the shadows. Officially secret, some of them are evil, and some are just hungry. On the other side are the people who kill monsters for a living. Monster Hunter International is the premier eradication company in the business. And now Owen is their newest recruit. It’s actually a pretty sweet gig, except for one little problem. An ancient entity known as the Cursed One has returned to settle a centuries old vendetta. Should the Cursed One succeed, it means the end of the world, and MHI is the only thing standing in his way. With the clock ticking towards Armageddon, Owen finds himself trapped between legions of undead minions, belligerent federal agents, a cryptic ghost who has taken up residence inside his head, and the cursed family of the woman he loves. - The Magician by E. J. Stevens (Dark Arcana)
Publication date: December 13th 2016
When members of tarot’s Major Arcana begin manifesting in the mortal world, magic is in the air and change is in the cards. THE MAGICIAN, the first novel in the Dark Arcana series. - Unfettered II by ed. Shawn Speakman (Unfettered #2)
Publication date: December 6th 2016
Twenty-one original new tales comprise this amazing collection and, as the title suggests, the writers were again free to contribute whatever they wished. All proceeds from the anthology will either help eliminate medical debt for other authors or be donated to cancer research hubs around the world. The line-up: Terry Brooks, Bradley P. Beaulieu, Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, Sarah Beth Durst, David Farland, Charlaine Harris, Mark Lawrence, Erin Lindsey, Seanan McGuire, Aidan Moher, Naomi Novik, Peter Orullian, John A. Pitts, Anthony Ryan, Brandon Sanderson, Scott Sigler, Shawn Speakman, Michael J. Sullivan, Django Wexler, Janny Wurts, Todd Lockwood, Don Maitz. With the help of New York Times bestselling authors as well as talented newcomers, Speakman has taken the platform Unfettered to not only confront medical debt but to support the battle against one of our gravest illnesses. - Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis by Anne Rice (The Vampire Chronicles #12)
Publication date: December 1st 2016
At the novel’s center: the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt, hero, leader, inspirer, irresistible force, irrepressible spirit, battling (and ultimately reconciling with) a strange otherworldly form that has somehow taken possession of Lestat’s undead body and soul. Through this spirit, previously considered benign for thousands of vampire years and throughout the Vampire Chronicles, we come to be told the hypnotic tale of a great sea power of ancient times, and of how and why, and in what manner and with what far-reaching purpose, this force came to build and rule the great legendary empire of centuries ago that thrived in the Atlantic Ocean. As we learn of this lost kingdom of Atalantaya, the lost realms of Atlantis, we come to understand its secrets, and how and why the vampire Lestat, indeed all the vampires, must reckon so many millennia later with the terrifying force of this ageless, all-powerful Atalantaya spirit. - One Fell Sweep by Ilona Andrews (Innkeeper Chronicles #3)
Publication date: December 20th 2016
Dina DeMille may run the nicest Bed and Breakfast in Red Deer, Texas, but she caters to a very particular kind of guest… the kind that no one on Earth is supposed to know about. Guests like a former intergalactic tyrant with an impressive bounty on her head, the Lord Marshal of a powerful vampire clan, and a displaced-and-superhot werewolf; so don’t stand too close, or you may be collateral damage. But what passes for Dina’s normal life is about to be thrown into chaos. First, she must rescue her long-distant older sister, Maud, who’s been exiled with her family to a planet that functions as the most lawless penal colony since Botany Bay. Then she agrees to help a guest whose last chance at saving his civilisation could bring death and disaster to all Dina holds dear. Now Gertrude Hunt is under siege by a clan of assassins. To keep her guests safe and to find her missing parents, Dina will risk everything, even if she has to pay the ultimate price.
The first one is not a new release, it’s a new edition so I don’t agree with it being in this list. Besides that though, this do looks like an interesting series, so I’m going to check out the first book. I’m not even going to bother with number 2, that’s not a description and I have no idea what the book is about, sadly. I like the idea behind the third on the list, but I’m not a big fan of short stories, so I won’t be reading that one either. I do like vampires, but this sounds immensely complicated and I have no idea how Anne will combine vampires with Atlantis, it sounds a bit far-fetched to me. And besides, I can’t just start with number 13 in the series, I will have to go back to the beginning to see if what I’ve already read of this series. And then we get to the last book on the last, and this is one I’m really excited about! I have put the entire series on my to-read list and I’m going to see if I can’t find any e-book copies to start reading now that I have some extra free time because of the holidays.
Other new releases of December 2016 can be found by genre right here on Goodreads. Will you be reading any new releases this month?
Happy reading,
Loes M.