Blogger and humor writer Evans writes brilliantly about traveling around the world to find herself in this candid memoir. Evans regularly felt like an outsider as a child. She was raised in Utah as a non-Mormon, with an American mother and a Persian immigrant father who separated when she was young. Depressed and jaded after the unexpected death of her younger brother, she moved to Florence, Italy, to attend art school and start anew. She ran into self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and difficult professors but also found inspiration and lifelong companions. When she began dating an Italian man with demanding parents, her newfound confidence and vulnerability were put to the test.

In a series of vignettes, Evans describes her many embarrassing moments and triumphs with vivid emotional detail. Readers will cringe when she’s the only student with nothing to present on her first day of art school, and they’ll cheer with admiration when she drunkenly asks out her future boyfriend while standing on a table at her favorite bar. Most notably, Evans shares lessons that are hard to learn growing up in dysfunctional families: People who love each other can fight without it being the end of the world, and there are some people worth trusting.

Evans is unapologetically sexual and feminist. She paints vaginas for her art program, uses alcohol as a coping mechanism, and remains defiantly herself while learning how to mature. Her European adventure is characteristic of many a middle-class American’s self-discovery journey, but she keeps the reader turning the pages thanks to her descriptive writing (the Tuscan feasts are mouthwatering) and willingness to chronicle her own mental illness. Though it takes place (mostly) in Italy, this memoir is less about travel and culture clash and more about establishing personal identity and believing in relationships. Sensual, entertaining, and raw, Evans’s work is is a testament to global, complicated, grown-up love.

Takeaway: Evans’s raunchy feminist memoir of romance and travel will appeal to anyone who feels both jaded and hopeful and longs for a change of scene.

Great for fans of Elizabeth Gilbert, Cheryl Strayed, Sally Rooney, Samantha Irby.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: -
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

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Picking up shortly after the events of Thompson’s Legend of Asahiel Triology, this epic fantasy, first in the Warder trilogy, is jam-packed with action and adventure. Enjoying his newfound reputation as a teenage warrior and dragon-slayer, Kylac Kronus decides to travel in search of new horizons. He takes on a job helping to protect a rescued princess as she’s transported back to her homeland by a company of elite guards. The group is being stalked by a groll, a fiercely cunning shape-shifting monster, and only Kylac can meet the challenge with his blades and wits. After the company suffers a shipwreck, the survivors must trek through the perilous Ukinhan Wilds. But even if Kylac succeeds in bringing Princess Denariel home, they’re still not out of danger.

Kylac and companions undergo a harrowing journey, pursued by a relentless foe through a deadly landscape. Though Thompson maintains a high level of tension by subjecting his characters to creatively lethal dangers, readers don’t get much opportunity to bond with the cast, lessening the impact of the high body count and numerous sacrifices. Even Princess Denariel fails to shine, acting more as a grumpy plot device than a heroine in her own right.

Kylac, surprisingly mature and skilled for a 16-year-old, tests his limits in the course of his adventures. This entry is clearly meant to stand on its own and set up the rest of the trilogy, but its relationship to earlier installments reduces its accessibility, leaving readers wanting to know more about Kylac’s backstory. Late-in-the-game twists also take this tale in unexpected directions, giving the last quarter of the book a different feel. This fast-paced fantasy is a blood-soaked, no-holds-barred battle for survival that keeps its characters and readers guessing.

Takeaway: Fans of intense action and heroes facing impossible odds and terrifying foes will readily join teen warrior Kylac’s caravan through a perilous fantasy world.

Great for fans of Nicholas Eames’s Kings of the Wyld, Brent Weeks’s Night Angel trilogy, Joe Abercrombie’s First Law series.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: -
Editing: A
Marketing copy: B+

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This socially conscious debut romance novel details the cross-cultural relationship between Ryan Richardson, an American doctor in India, and Geethanjali Vasudevan, an Indian hospital administrator from a traditional family. Geetha begins working in the Chennai hospital’s administrative department and meets Ryan after helping with the sudden illness of Ryan’s visiting Aunt Agatha. Geetha and Ryan are both divorced and romance-shy, but they keep being drawn together. Through shared personal philosophies and devotion to service, they find the courage and strength required for healing and renewal, despite significant challenges.

The sizable cast helps to round the story out, and some very difficult family members contrast with a few wonderfully supportive ones. As Geetha and Ryan’s relationship slowly develops, they assist aging relatives, volunteer at an orphanage, and struggle to save their financially endangered hospital. Geetha’s opposition to a second arranged marriage pushes against the power of her family elders, but she and Ryan also benefit from the affectionate meddling of their aunts, who encourage their relationship. The virtues of selfless giving and attention to health emerge as significant elements in the journey that leads them closer to each other.

Lots of dialogue and close-ups of facial expressions make the short chapters feel like episodes of a TV series, and sometimes come at the expense of setting the scene. Readers unfamiliar with India might benefit from descriptions of architecture and art or the marriage hall, and fans of romantic beach scenes will wish the ones in this novel were more detailed. However, the well-constructed story draws readers to empathize with the main characters and ponder the issues they face. This thoughtful romance holds considerable appeal for readers interested in social and familial concerns as well as love stories.

Takeaway: Fans of contemporary multicultural romances who prefer relatively chaste novels with a focus on familial and social concerns will enjoy this slow-burn love story.

Great for fans of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Arranged Marriage: Stories, Shilpi Somaya Gowda’s The Golden Son.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: -
Editing: B
Marketing copy: A

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In Etzil’s exciting suspense series launch, one man’s quest for vengeance leads him to take on a secret mission for the CIA. Jack Lamburt, founder of a government agency that gathers surveillance data on U.S. citizens, is still reeling after the death of his wife in a terrorist attack that he survived. He agrees to help his ex-girlfriend, CIA assassin Frankie Shelley, kill Berengaria Gonzalez, a Cuban terrorist suspected of plotting an attack on par with 9/11. Jack kills a man in Berengaria’s home, but he and Frankie fail to extract Berengaria, and their flight out of Cuba is shot down into the ocean. After their rescue near Key West, Jack learns the man he killed was Fidel Castro. Gradually convinced that Castro’s death was the real purpose of their mission, Jack and Frankie are pursued by Russian assassins, leading them to believe there is a mole intent on tying up loose ends. Their new goal becomes to kill the man who set them up.

Etzil’s fast-paced narrative will grab the reader from the very first page. Suspense pervades Jack and Frankie’s perilous experiences of surviving a plane crash in the ocean and dodging assassins. Etzil’s explanations of the technical aspects of flying are on target, with just enough description to engage readers without miring them in overly scientific details. Though Jack and Frankie’s frequent narrow escapes can feel implausible, Etzil’s capable plotting adds credibility to their dangerous encounters.

Etzil develops his characters with brief backstories but doesn’t delve deeply into their innermost thoughts. His character development works well, with quick short chapters leading to cliff-hanger conclusions. The suspenseful pacing promises thrilling future series installments. Espionage thriller fans will enjoy suspending their disbelief for Jack and Frankie’s headlong adventures.

Takeaway: This twisty and bloody thriller will appeal to fans of espionage mysteries starring cutthroat operatives who work on the dark side of the law.

Great for fans of Mike Maden’s Tom Clancy: Firing Point, Lee Jackson’s Target: New York.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: -
Editing: B
Marketing copy: A

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Chan’s first speculative fiction collection is an elegant meditation on the nature of the human mind, death, and memory. He distills immense existential questions down into eerie, weird tales, leaving those questions unanswered while provoking the reader’s interest in exploring them. He excels at mining the implications of each story’s foundational concept, questioning the purpose of existence or musing on the nature of the self.

“Dreams of Life and Death” follows a man who wanders through a dream world, aware that he’s dreaming and learning about facets of his own mortality. In “A Sky that Rains Numbers,” a dying woman dreams of trading her soul to hell so her nonverbal son can be made “normal”; in “The Woman Who Woke Up,” another dying woman grapples with her life and the implications of memory. “Inherent Emptiness” follows K.T., a hospital patient whose body grows scales and vomits up aspects of his self. “Clinging, Mourning, Magic” sees the deterioration of a relationship between a boy and his father as the father gradually loses his grip on reality.

Chan’s characters are ordinary; there is no one particularly heroic or wise. Bewildered (or erroneously certain they know what’s going on), they fight and flail against an onslaught of strange situations. Chan’s poetic turns of phrase (“What was so pitiful about being seventeen? But you are only seventeen. Those five little words were like five little cancers, five little tombstones”) underscore the meditative quality of his stories, which lack a certain definition. However, the reader simply does not get to know enough about Chan’s characters to gain a foothold through caring about them, costing the narrative some of its thrust. Even when philosophizing outweighs characterization, these works are a fine example of the more existential end of weird fiction.

Takeaway: Chan’s work is perfect for seasoned readers of weird fiction who like horror with a side of existential dread.

Great for fans of Michael Kelly, Sam Weller.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: B
Illustrations: -
Editing: B
Marketing copy: B

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Finkielman’s thriller combines the simmering rage of Irish nationalism with a tightly plotted set of murder mysteries. Psychiatrist Michael Gleeson quietly treats traumatized ex-members of the Irish Republican Army while trying not to draw attention to their pasts. When he meets Turlough O’Sullivan, a particularly disturbed and lethal ex-IRA assassin, he concocts a plan of historical revenge. Through O’Sullivan, Gleeson leaves a trail of bodies who are connected to English villains of Irish history. He’s opposed by a brilliant young detective named Maggie O’Malley, various ex-IRA operatives, and the ghosts of his family’s past.

Finkielman effectively reveals pertinent facts to the reader while leaving aspects of this information open-ended. The plot twists in this increasingly exciting thriller build intrigue until the true, demented brilliance of Gleeson’s plan is audaciously revealed. Simultaneously, Gleeson’s understanding of his own family history is rocked by long-buried revelations, right until the end. There are times when the introductions of new characters are confusing, but Finkielman is able to right the ship each time. The ultimate banality of Gleeson’s father’s criminal history slows down the narrative, even if it does add a necessary dimension to the character, but the ending and denouement offer sly shocks that will leave the reader feeling deeply satisfied.

Gleeson is depicted as a murkily sympathetic figure, if a deeply disturbed one. He’s a loyal friend and an excellent therapist. The book explores the history of England’s abuses against Ireland through his eyes while also delving into how the IRA traumatized and killed its own members. Maggie is the only purely sympathetic character, and she’s an obvious rebuke to Gleeson, if one that represents a generation gap. Finkielman gives this murder mystery a powerful, personal context that is well researched, riveting, and even sadly poetic.

Takeaway: Readers interested in richly researched political, personal, and historical details will be drawn to the tense, taut storytelling in this post-Troubles Irish thriller.

Great for fans of Eoin McNamee’s Resurrection Man, Eamon Collins’s Killing Rage, Wendy Erskine’s Sweet Home.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: B
Illustrations: -
Editing: B-
Marketing copy: B

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Humorous mishaps go hand in hand with an unflinching examination of life during WWII in Sercomb’s unputdownable historical novel. In 1936, orphaned Daniel moves in with his uncle Emile in the quiet village of Nulle, France. Being half-German causes unique challenges as Daniel adapts to life with his brusque uncle, but his situation improves after he befriends the local boys. The gift of a motorcycle that once belonged to Pablo Picasso sets Daniel off to pursue a career in racing amid the uncertainty of the German occupation. Needing money to pay the racing fees leads to a job in the circus, where Daniel accidentally joins the French Resistance.

Sercomb captures the reader’s imagination with the vivacious people of Nulle and their quirky daily routines. Emile’s efforts to purge Daniel of his “German-ness” are balanced by a stoic tenderness. Daniel’s escapades with his tormentor-turned-best-friend, Remy, are riotous. Village debates over the dangers of participating in a blood drive highlight the encroaching threat of war, although life retains some normality during the early years of German occupation—including Remy and Daniel’s pranks mocking the Germans.

The plot takes as many turns as a country road when Daniel leaves home to become a motorcycle racer. Pointed characterization, and crisp, uncluttered prose maintain good pacing with a a looming sense of the unexpected. Classic coming-of-age elements such as first love and acceptance into a community lead into a stark, touching examination of trench warfare from an unusual angle. Appealing characters, startling plot twists, and a liberal dose of comedy make for a historical novel that’s as fun as it is illuminating.

Takeaway: Fans of WWII historical fiction will be delighted by the unorthodox blend of humor and somber realities in this coming-of-age story.

Great for fans of Marcus Zusak’s The Book Thief, Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale, Julie Otsuka’s When the Emperor was Divine.

Production grades
Cover: C
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: -
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

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Crane’s warm, vivid memoir of an extraordinarily ordinary coming of age in the twentieth century ranges from the ball fields and basketball courts of small-town Illinois to West Point, just north of New York City, where the author, a cadet, pitched relief in a 1961 exhibition game against the Mantle-Maris-Berra Yankees. Crane, a working-class kid, learned to view sports as his ticket to success in the world, especially as he often found himself struggling to speak his feelings aloud—a trait not uncommon in the mid-century Midwest that the adult Crane here movingly describes. In amusing dialogue scenes, his Illinoisans speak in short, vague statements that continually demand follow-up questions and clarifications.

The path to adulthood charted here is frank, circuitous, and touched with regret, especially in scenes of strained romance, as Crane the author sometimes laments the feelings that Crane the young man let languish unspoken. Still, Crane’s rendering of those long-gone days is often high-spirited, charged with a young person’s sense of promise when seizing a place in the world. Readers will be treated to insights about baseball, basketball, and golf (“Golf is for men whose hands don’t get dirty when they work, a game that meshes with the rest of their life, an extension of who they are”), plus memories of hitchhiking, freight hopping, and touring Europe guided by a copy of The Sun Also Rises.

The most moving passages often come in the form of letters written by Crane, his parents, and his sometime girlfriend, Ann, who in 1961 declared, “I want to just swallow up the world, take all its punches and abuse, eat up its beauty.” What this memoir might lack in a strong narrative throughline, it more than makes up for in endless delightful vignettes as Crane struggles through the hard times and finds his own joy.

Takeaway: This richly realized memoir of sports as a path to success will hit a homer with readers interested in baseball and mid-20th-century coming-of-age stories.

Great for fans of Harvey Frommer’s Growing Up Baseball: An Oral History, David Lipsky’s Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: -
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

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Faith in religion, family, and oneself is tested in this mesmerizing novel by Harris (Ham: Slices of a Life). In 1962 Oklahoma, six-year-old Theodore Dalton loses his mother in the car accident that leaves his hands damaged. Six years later, Theo’s summer is spent playing with his now six-year-old sister, Lily; navigating life with their father, who is still scarred physically and emotionally from the accident; and being dragged to church by his devout Aunty Li. Frank, a Vietnam War veteran shunned by the town, befriends Theo and helps him realize and use the healing powers of his injured hands. After Theo’s “gift” is rejected by his church as sorcery, his healing hands are exploited by self-serving individuals, testing Theo’s faith in himself and his family. Adult Theo, now a therapist in California, narrates this story, using his sessions with a new patient as a vehicle for exploring and coming to terms with the trauma and revelations of that summer.

Each of Harris’s characters is naturally and fully developed, making for authentic, engrossing characters that enrich the story. Young Theo is incredibly sympathetic, a sweet and innocent boy who deserves none of his trials. Equally heartrending is the powerful story that unfolds in adult Theo’s therapy sessions with a 42-year-old woman coming to terms with her own shocking childhood. Her journey seamlessly interweaves with Theo’s examination of his Southern heritage and the life-changing events of his childhood.

Harris’s descriptions, such as those of the congregations at the Calvary Baptist Church and God’s Hand Ministry, are strikingly evocative. His vivid narrative effectively captures the essence of the 1960s in a rural town, with themes of social and political prejudices and mores around race, religion, and politics that are intensely pertinent today. This heartbreaking, heartwarming story will win over any fan of the literature of the American South.

Takeaway: Poignant and devastatingly evocative, this story about faith, frauds, fear, and finding peace will especially appeal to fans of heartbreaking and heartwarming 20th-century Americana.

Great for fans of Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, Lisa Genova’s Still Alice, Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: -
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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Morgan’s evocative memoir recounts a seven-year journey of rediscovery, beginning in 2006 when she survived a near-fatal illness in a Monegasque hospital. The former Los Angeles litigator and divorced mother of two small girls went to culinary school, taught, and worked as a private chef and blogger. She vowed to move to Paris, though her custody agreement required that she also maintain a home in Los Angeles, and created a home for herself and her girls by renovating a small Parisian apartment. The memoir delves into her travels throughout France, recounting how they inspired recipes, and her relationships—both romantic and platonic—with a series of often remarkable men.

Morgan sprinkles in italicized French words and phrases liberally and without translation, leaving readers to comprehend them from context (“Ahead of le goûter and fin de la semaine traffic, I arrive at the notaire’s office on Rue du Louvre at exactly 3:50 p.m. Je l’ai fait!”). Her black-and-white and color photos of people, places, and delicious foods, presented in two multi-page sections, are gorgeous even on their own, but readers might wish for them to be integrated into the text. However, these are small issues in a genuinely inspirational story of hard work, redefining one’s life, and adapting to changing circumstances.

Readers will savor the descriptions of gustatory delights, often comical and frustrating cultural differences, and language barriers. Morgan writes expressively but never in a flowery way, effectively conveying her purchase, design, and rehabilitation of a Parisian apartment. The book also revolves around motherhood often done long distance, and gives insight into a chef’s creative process while developing recipes in a tiny kitchen. Intimate writing, restaurant-quality recipes, and well-composed photographs result in a delightful memoir that will appeal to a wide range of readers.

Takeaway: This memoir of becoming a chef and moving to Paris is recommended for Francophiles, foodies, and women of all ages.

Great for fans of Eloisa James’s Paris in Love, Elizabeth Bard, David Lebovitz, Frances Mayes.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: B-
Illustrations: A
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: B

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Chinese American investor Pow updates his lively, information-packed guide, originally published in 2014 and now in its fifth edition, to discuss how current global issues, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, have affected sector rotation, a theory of stock market trading patterns. From the outset, Pow demonstrates complete confidence in his 21 strategies in sector rotation, which include market timing (don’t buy stock when the market is plunging, no matter what pundits say) and momentum investing (in his case, buying five stocks based on momentum metrics and selling them within a month). Throughout the book, he earnestly attempts to convince readers that his financial methods beat those of every other financial guru.

After asking readers to evaluate their own comfort and skill with investing, Pow helpfully provides a chart advising which chapters a beginner, intermediate, or expert investor should read and which they can skip. But though he makes a valiant attempt at keeping explanations simple, Pow often drifts into complicated topics and assumes the reader already has a working knowledge of them (“If it is vastly overbought (RSI(14) > 70) and the volume is low, it could mean that there are no buyers for the ETF”). The pages are confusingly peppered with random photographs as well as more useful charts.

Pow’s advice is worth considering, but there are a number of distracting errors peppered throughout the book. Preempting critique, Pow notes the difficulty of writing in a second language, suggesting that anyone who has a problem with his English should try writing in Chinese. He has a point, but readers already struggling to understand these investing concepts may find the writing style presents an additional barrier to adopting Pow's techniques. This work is best suited for readers with a strong grasp of advanced investing concepts who can most thoroughly comprehend and evaluate its claims.

Takeaway: This information-packed guide to sector rotation investing will give seasoned investors some intriguing new tips.

Great for fans of Timothy J. McIntosh’s The Sector Strategist, John J. Murphy’s Trading with Intermarket Analysis.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: C
Illustrations: C
Editing: C
Marketing copy: C

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This meaty debut, which launches the Third Chance Enterprises series, is a satisfying mix of action, romance, and anarchy. Molly McGill is a single mom who takes on temp jobs after her private business, McGill Investigators, fails. One morning, she has visitors: Quaid Rafferty, the charming and impeached former governor of Massachusetts; Durwood Oak Jones, a serious and resourceful former Marine from West Virginia, and Durwood’s elderly, obedient dog, Sue-Ann. They’ve founded a small freelance security service and beg Molly to join them in infiltrating and defeating the Blind Mice, a group of young hackers dedicated to “overthrowing the corporatocracy.” As important computer data on property lines vanishes, Bond creates a scary yet credible anarchist near future where looting and civilians carrying guns are all part of everyday life.

Many sections of the book drag on too long, padded by witty dialogue and confounding machinations. This flaw is redeemed by Molly, a likable character who uses her background in psychology to develop rapports with some of the more powerful Mice in the group. She gets particularly close to Piper Jackson, a 17-year-old African American computer whiz who facilitates the demands of the unhinged Mice leader, Josiah, in retribution for a white business owner setting up her brother to take the fall for the company’s misdeeds. By balancing Molly’s adventures with scenes of her life as a single mother, Bond makes her strength feel realistic and practical.

The crowded but compelling tale gets better when Quaid, Durwood, and Molly discover that the Blind Mice is conspiring with Fabienne Rivard, a power-hungry French heiress and CEO. The tough trio fight an uphill battle to return the world to normalcy. Bond uses classic spy thriller elements—including disguises, high-tech gear, and an underground lake full of piranhas—to produce a satisfying if overlong climax. Readers will be eager to see what will happen with Third Chance Enterprises’ next client.

Takeaway: This adventurous spy thriller with a touch of dystopia will satisfy readers who delight in memorable characters.

Great for fans of Ian Fleming’s James Bond series, Vince Flynn.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A+
Illustrations: -
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-

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Bratton’s brisk debut novella takes readers on a suspenseful journey involving a haunted mirror. Recent high school graduate Jamie, at home alone, is spooked at 3:33 p.m. when her front door motion sensor goes off but no one is there. She recalls that just before she crashed her car a few weeks before, she saw the face of Mary Montgomery, a missing 13-year-old girl, in her rearview mirror at 3:33 a.m. Jamie and her ex-boyfriend, Mark, visit Mary’s classmate Beth and discover she owns a mirror that Jamie’s parents sold years ago. Then, at 3:33, a spectral hand reaches from the mirror and grabs Beth. After talking with Sheriff King, who turns out to be an expert in the occult and links the mirror to another long-ago disappearance, Jamie and Mark deduce that Mary was drawn into another dimension through the mirror—and there might still be time to rescue her.

Bratton capably intertwines the mirror-as-portal concept with the Bloody Mary urban legend, grounding it in Beth’s use of "Bloody Mary" to taunt Mary after she gets her first period. Jamie’s eerie family history, including connections to the time 3:33, adds suspense to the tension-filled novel. Mark and Jamie’s sleuthing efforts go improbably smoothly, from the sheriff’s ready acceptance of the supernatural to clues and specters appearing as they’re needed; older teen readers may balk at the ease with which answers turn up. However, this lack of obstacles lets the story fly by.

The conclusion of the investigation is somewhat diminished by Jamie fainting at a crucial moment and only learning afterward what transpired, but an eerie final page will leave the reader with chills. A swift pace and genuinely spooky atmosphere are the high points of this suburban ghost story.

Takeaway: This eerie novella and its smart adolescent sleuths will appeal to younger teen fans of spooky stories.

Great for fans of R.L. Stine’s The Betrayal, S.A. Hunter’s Scary Mary.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: -
Editing: A
Marketing copy: B

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Alexander’s young adult portal fantasy has few surprises but a fair bit of charm. Thirteen-year-old Elijah Pendleton lives under the thumb of his “dominating, cruel, malicious” aunts, Mae and Faye. One day he sneaks away to follow a mysterious black cat to its owner Aura’s house. Aura reveals that Elijah is the prophesied savior of the mythic land of Salamander, where despotic enchanter Theodoric has imprisoned Elijah’s parents. Elijah slips through a portal with the cat, Cloe, who transforms into a talking panther and agrees to be his guide. They soon team up with siblings Jesse and Dustin Donovan, who provide rudimentary magical training, and Asthenia, an impulsive young enchanter, to infiltrate Theodoric’s castle and rescue Elijah’s parents.

Elijah’s story progresses nicely through discrete action sequences. Some descriptions are wordy and stilted (“as though he had just stepped into a lush Bob Ross painting littered with impeccable detail of briars, brambles and tall shrubs flanking the trail before him”), and there’s an unfortunate tendency to make good people pretty and bad ones “thoroughly repulsive.” The exposition primarily relies on Elijah listening to lectures from other characters. The final battle between Elijah and Theodoric rushes past and strains believability: despite Elijah’s very recent discovery of any magical abilities, he casts a level ten spell, a metric of magical difficulty that is never fully explained.

Despite these blips, the novel is entertaining and endearing. The blend of references to various mythologies (sasquatch, wingless dragons, giants called Nephilims) and nods to more recent works (a flying broom, a golden compass, faux-Latin spell names) makes a complicated world with lots of possibilities that are only hinted at. Unresolved questions, incomplete reunions, and a new quest nicely set up the sequel. Teens who enjoy seeing a prophesied hero stumbling into power and wandering across a fantasy map while making friends will be pleased by Alexander’s debut.

Takeaway: This is an enjoyable diversion for teen fans of traditional portal fantasies.

Great for fans of Rick Riordan, Suzanne Collins’s Gregor the Overlander series.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: B+
Illustrations: -
Editing: B-
Marketing copy: A

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Doubt, grief, and maturity now weigh upon the once-eager young science-magicians of Hunt’s Dynamicist Trilogy (which opened with Dynamicist and Herald), but the thoughtful fantasy series’ sprawling and ambitious final volume finds their creator telling their story with new confidence and clarity. As Robert Endicott and his cohort of dynamicists take up the ancient quest for a lost bridge and barrel toward a final showdown with Nimrheal, the demon that has turned the world against new ideas and technology, Hunt expands the scope of his saga to include a mature treatment of sex and loss. Several chapters chronicle gumshoe police work in a fantasy city so entertainingly that they could inspire their own novel.

This is the longest book of the series by far, but also as its most arresting and pleasurable. The characters seem more real now that they’re no longer schoolkids, and Hunt cuts nimbly among this epic’s many interwoven protagonists, quests, and mysteries. The climax is suitably epic, though the wrap-up afterwards ends abruptly. Hunt still relies on sound effects for excitement in his action scenes (expect a lot of “CRRRRRRAAAK”), but the conflicts here don’t need all that extra noise. They’re tense and exciting already.

The previous books plumbed complex ideas, with an emphasis on economics, agriculture, and the morality of the violence that fantasy films and games too often present as simple escapism. This volume adeptly balances Hunt’s deeper interests with the pacing of an exciting story, and disquisitions on abstruse topics no longer slow the storytelling. The passages that probe Endicott’s regrets over a fallen comrade, or that lay out the mathematical logic behind dynamicist techniques, rise compellingly from narrative and character. Rather than detract from the action, they illuminate it. This is a sterling end to a rich, concept-driven series.

Takeaway: This trilogy finale will thrill readers who want thoughtful, inventive fantasy powered by ideas.

Great for fans of Seth Dickinson, Daniel Abraham.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: -
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

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Using an intriguing blend of hard science and spiritual belief, Corson challenges common assumptions about the incompatibility of faith and science in this follow-up to Touched By God: A Search for Higher Truth (2004). After numerous metaphysical experiences beginning when he was a child, he became convinced that there is a world beyond this one, and he sets out to prove it, in part through empirical science. His goal is more experiential than intellectual: he wants to help readers achieve “the state of Paradise that you experienced at birth” that will provide “the inner strength you need to work through these turbulent times and still feel joyful.”

Corson lays a solid foundation of scientific and philosophic principles on his way to trying to demonstrate the divine. His stirring, if decidedly offbeat, case for a higher being is underpinned with quotes and theories from a star-studded lineup of prominent scientists such as Albert Einstein and philosophers such as Plato and René Descartes. Even Nobel laureate Max Planck, the father of quantum mechanics, puts faith in the theory that science and spirit coincide, Corson argues, quoting Planck's assertion that “We must assume behind [the origination of matter] the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind.” He argues that science and religion support each other in a demonstration of how dualities pervade the universe, and says that humans ourselves embody duality, being “composed of both natural biological energy and energy of a higher realm.”

In an engaging and straightforward tone, Corson unapologetically writes with the courage of his convictions, realizing not all readers will agree with him. His strong belief that death of the body marks a point when readers will begin to experience the ecstatic “never-endingness of eternal time” will provide comfort to those brought up with fire-and-brimstone beliefs, and his logical analogies will help readers visualize complex concepts. Corson’s quiet eloquence will stick with readers and encourage them to see the harmony in different ways of trying to understand the puzzles of the universe.

Takeaway: Anyone who has wrestled with seeing religion and science in conflict will find comfort in Corson’s holistic perspective.

Great for fans of C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity and The Business of Heaven, Todd Burpo’s Heaven Is for Real, James Van Praagh’s Talking to Heaven.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: B+
Illustrations: -
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: B+

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