Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Five SFF titles that play with magic & its aftermath

Melissa Albert is the New York Times and indie bestselling author of the Hazel Wood series (The Hazel Wood, The Night Country, Tales from the Hinterland) and a former bookseller and YA lit blogger. Her work has been translated into more than twenty languages and included in the New York Times list of Notable Children’s Books.

Albert's new novel is Our Crooked Hearts.

At Tor.com Albert tagged five "books and series that, like Our Crooked Hearts, play with magic and its aftermath." One entry on the list:
The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

This phenomenal multiverse story kicks off after the death of its main character, Cara—in all but eight of the 372 known worlds. In the world where our story originates, Cara is a steel-spined urchin of the Ashtown wastes, identified for her gift of dying nearly everywhere but in the world where it counts: the one where the Eldridge Institute has perfected multiverse travel, sending agents across worlds to collect information. The catch being, agents can only survive the trip if their otherworld selves are dead. The book is instantly gripping and unfolds with operatic scope, but it’s only as you go on that you discover just how much of the story has already happened, just how much plot and trauma already live inside Cara’s skin, shading everything from her potentially fatal choices to her melancholy flirtations and flings with various versions of her unattainable handler.
Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue