Rich Horton's Web Site

The first volume of The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy features over a quarter million words of fiction by some of the genre's greatest authors, including Peter S. Beagle, Elizabeth Bear, Jay Lake, Ian McDonald, Sarah Monette, Garth Nix, Naomi Novik, Robert Reed, Patrick Rothfuss, and many more, as selected by Rich Horton, a well-known and well-received contributor to many of the field's most respected magazines.

Content

• Kij Johnson, "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss" (Asimov's, July)
• Elizabeth Bear, "Shoggoths in Bloom" (Asimov's, March)
• Daryl Gregory, "Glass" (MIT Technology Review, November/December)
• Christopher Golden, "The Hiss of Escaping Air" (PS Publishing
• Naomi Novik, "Araminta, or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake" (Fast Ships, Black Sails)
• Alice Sola Kim, "We Love Deena" (Strange Horizons, February 11)
• Ted Kosmatka, "The Art of Alchemy" (F&SF, June)
• Eugene Mirabelli, "Falling Angel" (F&SF, December)
• Margo Lanagan, "The Fifth Star in the Southern Cross" (Dreaming Again)
• Peter S. Beagle, "King Pelles the Sure" (Strange Roads)
• Robert Reed, "Character Flu" (F&SF, June)
• Delia Sherman, "Gift from a Spring" (Realms of Fantasy, April)
• Rivka Galchen, "The Region of Unlikeness" (The New Yorker, March 17)
• Jeffrey Ford, "Daltharee" (The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy)
• James Alan Gardner, "The Ray-Gun: A Love Story" (Asimov's, February)
• Ann Leckie, "The God of Au" (Helix #8, Spring)
• Will McIntosh, "The Fantasy Jumper" (Black Static, February)
• Meghan McCarron, "The Magician's House" (Strange Horizons, July 14-21)
• James L. Cambias, "Balancing Accounts" (F&SF, February)
• Charlie Anders, "Suicide Drive" (Helix #7, January)
• Holly Phillips, "The Small Door" (Fantasy, May)
• Peter Watts, "The Eyes of God" (The Solaris Book of New SF, Volume 2)
• Alex Jeffers, "Firooz and His Brother" (F&SF, May)
• Garth Nix, "Infestation" (The Starry Rift)
• Jay Lake, "A Water Matter" (Tor.com)
• Beth Bernobich, "The Golden Octopus" (Postscripts, Summer))
• Erik Amundsen, "Blue Vervain Murder Ballad #2: Jack of Diamonds" (Not One of Us, October)
• Patrick Rothfuss, "The Road to Levinshir" (Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy)
• Jeff VanderMeer, "Fixing Hanover" (Extraordinary Engines)
• Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette, "Boojum" (Fast Ships, Black Sails)
• Karen Heuler, "The Difficulties of Evolution" (Weird Tales, July/August)
• Paul Cornell, "Catherine Drewe" (Fast Forward 2)
• James Maxey, "Silent as Dust" (Intergalactic Medicine Show #7, January)
• Mary Robinette Kowal, "Evil Robot Monkey (The Solaris Book of New SF, Volume 2)
• Richard Bowes, "If Angels Fight" (F&SF, February)
• Liz Williams, "Spiderhorse" (Realms of Fantasy, August)
• Ian McDonald, "The Tear" (Galactic Empires)

State of Review:
"The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2009, has a lot to offer if you are looking for a new author or want to read a few quick but fascinating stories from some of the best in the business."

Also available as an e-book

No ax murderers hunting sexy teens. No brutal torture for torture's sake. Phantom goes beyond the scare! Paranoid gold prospectors, lonely curators, Satan-worshiping Long Island teens, metaphysics-obsessed television reporters, a couple with a devastating choice to make... the stories of Phantom ask: How does anyone live through this? Fourteen stories by some of today's most thoughtful writers of horror including Steve Rasnic Tem, Lavie Tidhar, F. Brett Cox, Stephen Graham Jones, Steve Berman, Nick Mamatas, Michael Cisco, and others.

Publishers Weekly:
Ghosts, disaffected wives, deserted towns, obsessive journalists and children who never existed haunt the pages of this stunning, elegant and frightful anthology of literary horror assembled by Stoker nominee Tremblay and World Fantasy Award–winning Wallace . There are no chainsaw massacres in these 14 exquisite tales, which range from Steve Berman's hilarious Kafkaesque "Kinder," about an infestation of German children, to Stephen Graham Jones's "The Ones Who Got Away," a riveting account of a kidnapping gone wrong. The most outstanding piece is Lavie Tidhar's "Set Down This," a devastating story of YouTube videos, the Iraq War and the unknown lives on both sides of the conflict.... [A] deliciously creepy book of horrors that prove all the more terrifying for their everyday nature.

Booklist:
[T]his slender volume of highbrow horror stories offers superlative craftsmanship without sacrificing the indispensable chills. The assembled authors...have in common twisted imaginations and respect for literary distinction. In Steve Eller’s “The End of Everything,” a killer is astounded and relieved to discover that the post-apocalyptic zombies roaming the streets aren’t the least interested in feasting on him. Two teen-aged kidnappers in Stephen Graham Jones’ “The Ones Who Got Away” get more than they bargained for when they realize their intended victim is the child of a machete-wielding judge.... [The creators] startle the reader with unusual premises and unsettling imagery. --Carl Hays

[Also available as an e-book]

About the Author

Free Fiction: "Northwest Passage" by Barbara Roden

Nominated for a World Fantasy Award

"Roden's Northwest Passages is an altogether masterly collection, proof that a writer with truly scary talent is at work in Ashcroft, British Columbia."--from Michael Dirda's "Introduction"

CONTENTS:

• Introduction by Michael Dirda
• The Appointed Time
• Endless Night
• The Palace
• Out and Back
• The Wide, Wide Sea
• The Brink of Eternity
• Tourist Trap
• Northwest Passage
• The Hiding Place

"First books are almost never this unsettling, this lively, this good. With NORTHWEST PASSAGES, Barbara Roden has placed herself among the ranks of the most telling, most effective, most readable living writers of the strange and fantastic tale. 'Endless Night' alone is worth the price of the book, but every story here is related with effortless-seeming skill and mastery. A wonderful and significant debut." --Peter Straub

"A voyage of fascinating discoveries...She is indeed a master storyteller." --World Fantasy Award Winner Zoran Zivkovic

"Barbara Roden invokes the ghosts of M. R. James and Algernon Blackwood in a collection that will put a touch of winter in your bones and have you glancing over your shoulder when lights are low. Northwest Passages demonstrates Roden's talent for distilling the ineffable, for transferring our universal fears of darkness and isolation to the page." --Laird Barron, Author of The Imago Sequence

"Barbara Roden, who has done so much to preserve the legacy of ghostly fiction, now adds to that legacy herself with Northwest Passages. But don't assume that the ten stories in this volume are arid pastiches of old-time writers. Beyond the elegance of diction, the crisply realized characters, the gradual but inexorable build-up of horrific atmosphere, there are enough moments of clutching terror in these tales to satisfy the most jaded sensibilities. This is Barbara Roden's first collection, but I for one fervently hope it will not be her last." --S.T. Joshi

"Barbara Roden's elegant tales share much with classical horror literature; a deceptively civilized sense of rhythm, pregnant and alluring spectral locations, and--best of all--a serious mean streak. These are subtle stories, but not always gentle, and definitely not safe." --Glen Hirshberg, Author of The Two Sams

"Sensitively and stylishly written, these tales convey that frisson of spectral terror that the aficionado always seeks but too seldom finds. They have all the strengths of their tradition, which Barbara Roden brings gracefully up to date." --Ramsey Campbell

Publishers Weekly: "Readers with a taste for deftly executed tales of subtle horror will welcome Roden's fine debut story collection. 'Out and Back' tells of an abandoned amusement park whose attractions are sinister snares set to entrap unwary thrill seekers. In 'The Palace', a skeleton crew working the night shift at a luxury hotel finds the premises haunted by the ghosts of a serial killer's victims. Both the title story and 'The Wide, Wide Sea' are set in Canadian wildernesses, where the alienated mingle freely with the ghostly. Roden is a co-publisher of the classic ghost story imprint Ash Tree Press, and her fiction resonates with echoes of Poe, Conan Doyle, Coleridge, Dickens and other masters of antiquarian horror. This yields powerful expressions of the supernatural in the book's two tales of 19th-century Antarctic exploration, 'Endless Night' and 'The Brink of Eternity', whose carefully crafted old-fashioned style lends atmosphere to depictions of a terra incognita rich with awe and terror."

"As a native of Canada's British Columbia province, Barbara Roden is familiar with wild, unspoiled places, and it shows...In reading these stories, it is clear to see that the soul of the Pacific Northwest and the Canadian prairies has seeped into her consciousness. That kind of terrain has become the inevitable setting for the human issues that concern her and the stories she is bound to tell. In Barbara Roden's fictions, the environment is a character itself. It draws in and nurtures her human characters and then overwhelms them or lures them into the comforts of emptiness and anonymity. This special sense of place, this exploration of the profound synergy between humans and their environment, and the persistent theme of humans enveloped by the wilderness, distinguishes her work...[P]eople who have disappeared never to be heard from again concern Roden mightily, and she expounds beautifully on this is passages that read like prose poems....Not all of Roden's settings are wilderness or country estates, but the same theme of finding a way of escape is very common in this collection. In 'The Hiding Place', a short, moody tale with a Shirley Jackson feel, a young girl seeks escape from the fallout of family tragedy. She finds it in a situation outwardly mundane, but full of suggestion. The settings for this story--suburban house and hospital--are more confined than Roden's more typical outdoors, but she still transforms the ordinary into the eerie. The 'bright little house with its three bedrooms, and finished basement, and neatly kept lawn' effectively suggests the surreality of suburban sameness, of neighborhoods with their clusters of Monopoly board houses. Other stories in Northwest Passages take place in haunted bookstores, hotels, and abandoned amusement parks. They are all engaging jaunts into strange worlds well worth visiting." --Sherry Austin for Dead Reckonings

"Ten very elegant ghost tales and gothic fictions make up Barbara Roden's first book. The stories gain considerable strength from being long enough to create believable characters and a strong sense of place. Some settings reflect the author's home in British Columbia. Others show her interest in polar exploration.'The Palace' is about the small crew on the overnight shift at a downtown Vancouver hotel. It's a bad part of town, once the hunting ground for a notorious serial killer. Night auditor Raymond is quiet and withdrawn. He spends an unnecessarily long time getting his nightly report from the register in the bar and seeming to talk to someone in the darkest corner of the room. 'The Brink of Eternity' is a man's lone quest for the hollow earth and an Arctic passageway. It's brilliantly told with passages from a history book I wouldn't know had been invented if the author's note didn't tell us. English tour buses and abandoned amusement parks are some of the other settings in this varied and very satisfying collection." --The Denver Post

"For the last of my dozen books [of the one's I've read this year], I'm picking a personal favorite, the first collection of eerie, unsettling stories by a wonderful Canadian writer. After all, what would Christmas be like without a few spooky tales? I'm not an unbiased judge of Barbara Roden's work, however, since I wrote the introduction to Northwest Passages. But if you enjoy uncanny tales, or the dark fantasies of Ray Bradbury, or brilliant pastiches of Victorian prose, or even the classic episodes of Rod Serling's "Twilight Zone," you will certainly devour these 10 stories. In one, the members of a 19th-century polar expedition discover that a member of their crew isn't quite what or who they think he is; in another, a modern young couple decide to explore an abandoned amusement park. This, I can tell you, is never a good idea." --Michael Dirda, Barnes & Noble Review [full review]

About the Author
A Locus Magazine Recommended Reading Book

Mattie, an intelligent automaton skilled in the use of alchemy, finds herself caught in the middle of a conflict between gargoyles, the Mechanics, and the Alchemists. With the old order quickly giving way to the new, Mattie discovers powerful and dangerous secrets — secrets that can completely alter the balance of power in the city of Ayona. However, this doesn't sit well with Loharri, the Mechanic who created Mattie and still has the key to her heart — literally.

"Sedia's evocative third novel, a steampunk fable about the price of industrial development, deliberately skewers familiar ideas, leaving readers to reach their own conclusions about the proper balance of tradition and progress and what it means to be alive."—(Starred Review) Publishers Weekly

“A gorgeous meditation on what it means to not be human. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this beautiful book, from its robot heroine to the Soul-Smoker and stone gargoyles that watch over the city.” —Justine Larbalestier, author of MAGIC OR MADNESS

“The Alchemy of Stone is beautiful and strong. Sedia presents images of wonder and strangeness to rival the Brothers Quay. She draws human emotion and relationship with profound authority. The Secret History of Moscow marked her as a talent to watch. This one’s better.” —Daniel Abraham, author of The Long Price Quartet

“Ekaterina Sedia has once more brought her stunningly lateral view of the fantastic, this time to THE ALCHEMY OF STONE: a steampunk fantasy of creatures, cities and affairs of the heart. Sedia’s fundamentally non-Western sensibility blends brilliantly with her exquisite prose, sense of character and place.”—Jay Lake, author of MAINSPRING and ESCAPEMENT

“Ekaterina Sedia goes from strength to strength, with THE ALCHEMY OF STONE a worthy follow-up to THE SECRET HISTORY OF MOSCOW. This is richly detailed, steampunkian adventure.”—Jeff VanderMeer, author of SHRIEK: AN AFTERWORD and World Fantasy Award winner

“Strange and smooth, sweet and clever, THE ALCHEMY OF STONE is a deeply engaging clockwork fable with real mechanical heart.” —Cherie Priest, author of NOT FLESH NOR FEATHERS and DREADFUL SKIN

“THE ALCHEMY OF STONE may be ostensibly rooted in genre fiction and indeed be quite appealing to the genre fiction audience . . . But such is the alchemy of literary invention that it’s quite clear [it] explores our world within the confines of a world created with language alone.” —Agony Column

“Sedia’s novel captures the surreal strangeness of a city whose power structure is about to be toppled, and her focus on Mattie’s relationship with her creator allows her to grapple with the tiny power struggles inherent in all human relationships.”—io9

“Blessed with exquisite prose, an extraordinary imagination, smarts and wonderful storytelling skills… [R]ead THE ALCHEMY OF STONE, a magnificent tale of change, betrayal and enchantment, and discover for yourself the magic of Ekaterina Sedia” —Fantasy Book Critic

“Even with all the allegories ignored, THE ALCHEMY OF STONE is an enjoyable read that never gets boring thanks to the constant drama and conflict. If you want something different in your fantasy or simply looking for a good read, [it] is highly recommended.” —Bibliophile Stalker

“Sedia’s novel has a steady pace and aims for the ‘slice of life’ feel of the fantasy books of Ursula LeGuin’s TEHANU or any of Patricia McKillip’s work. [T]he reader sees the world mostly through Mattie’s eyes, and feels her terrible loneliness. She’s a misfit toy in a strange world.” —FantasyBookSpot

[Also available as an e-book.]

Introduction by Gene Wolfe

Read a FREE sample story!

Edited by life-long Smith fan and weird fiction expert, Robert Weinberg, and with an introduction by acclaimed author Gene Wolfe, The Return of the Sorcerer: The Best of Clark Ashton Smith offers both readers and scholars a definitive collection of short fiction and short novels, by an overlooked master of fantasy, horror and science fiction. Clark Ashton Smith, along with Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft, was considered one of the three great authors who wrote for Weird Tales in the 1930s. This collection reprints eighteen of Smith's best stories for that magazine and other publications of the period.

Publishers Weekly:
(Starred Review) This exceptional collection of Smith's short fiction showcases the underrated pulp master's storytelling genius in eighteen stories, most originally published between 1931 and 1935. In the dark fantasy gem The Isle of the Torturers, a king loses his realm to plague and seeks sanctuary on an island inhabited by sadists. The sublimely lyrical The City of Singing Flame describes a portal to a realm of unparalleled beauty and terror. Equal parts science fiction thriller and gut-wrenching horror, The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis pits a team of Mars explorers against an unearthed nightmare. Though over seventy years old, these stories are still wonderfully weird and wildly entertaining, making this collection a timeless treasure to be cherished by fans of horror and the pulps.

Contents
* The Return of the Sorcerer
* The City of the Singing Flame
* The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis
* The Double Shadow
* The Monster of the Prophecy
* The Hunters from Beyond
* The Isle of the Torturers
* A Night in Malnéant
* The Chain of Aforgomon
* The Dark Eidolon
* The Seven Geases
* The Holiness of Azédarac
* The Beast of Averoigne
* The Empire of the Necromancers
* The Disinterment of Venus
* The Devotee of Evil
* The Enchantress of Sylaire

Also available as an e-book

Edited and selected by noted scholar Gregg Rickman, The Early Work of Philip K. Dick, Volume One: 1952-1953, and Volume Two: 1953-1954, encompasses a total of twenty-six stories from the early years of Philip K. Dick. With extensive story notes and introductions by Rickman, and packaged to belong on any shelf, The Early Work of Philip K. Dick promises an early peek into the many worlds created by one of the acclaimed masters of science fiction and fantasy.

Booklist:
More than 25 years after his death, Dick's legacy is very much alive and thriving, thanks to continuing interest from Hollywood in his more marketable ideas and a steady stream of reissued novels and collections. The latest pair of Dick anthologies, gathering his earliest short fiction, cover the prolific years 1952/54, when Dick s first taste of publication fed his appetite for writing full time. Although Dick later dismissed his early work as bad science fiction, there are many gems here, including stories touching on themes he would explore more meticulously in his classic novels. His first published tale, Beyond Lies the Wub, for example, demystifies space explorers during their encounter with edible aliens that invade their hosts when consumed. The first volume's title story features a recurring Dick protagonist, a mechanic who outwits a dystopian ruling class; the second showcases Dick's fascination with time-and-space anomalies. Together, the books constitute an indispensable treasure for Dick fans and anyone curious about the formative years of a true twentieth-century literary genius.

Edited and selected by noted scholar Gregg Rickman, The Early Work of Philip K. Dick, Volume One: 1952-1953, and Volume Two: 1953-1954, encompasses a total of twenty-six stories from the early years of Philip K. Dick. With extensive story notes and introductions by Rickman, and packaged to belong on any shelf, The Early Work of Philip K. Dick promises an early peek into the many worlds created by one of the acclaimed masters of science fiction and fantasy.

Publishers Weekly:
This volume collects 15 of the earliest short publications by Philip K. Dick (1928–1982), all from 1952–1953. Though the young author is clearly finding his footing in these stories, many of the elements he developed in later works are present in embryonic form. The nature of reality is held up to question in Adjustment Team, while self-repairing and replicating robots populate James P. Crow, The Gun and Jon's World. The weak must prevail against seemingly invincible opponents in Beyond Lies the Wub, Piper in the Woods and Souvenir, and the prospect of total destruction looms in The Variable Man. Rickman provides an informative introduction and detailed endnotes on each story, which alone would make this volume worth acquiring. This collection is a must-have for PKD fans.

Booklist:
More than 25 years after his death, Dick’s legacy is very much alive and thriving, thanks to continuing interest from Hollywood in his more marketable ideas and a steady stream of reissued novels and collections. The latest pair of Dick anthologies, gathering his earliest short fiction, cover the prolific years 1952–54, when Dick’s first taste of publication fed his appetite for writing full time. Although Dick later dismissed his early work as “bad science fiction,” there are many gems here, including stories touching on themes he would explore more meticulously in his classic novels. His first published tale, “Beyond Lies the Wub,” for example, demystifies space explorers during their encounter with edible aliens that invade their hosts when consumed. The first volume’s title story features a recurring Dick protagonist, a mechanic who outwits a dystopian ruling class; the second’s showcases Dick’s fascination with time-and-space anomalies. Together, the books constitute an indispensable treasure for Dick fans and anyone curious about the formative years of a true twentieth-century literary genius. --Carl Hays

Federations Web Site
Free Sample Fiction

Science fiction has a rich history of exploring the idea of vast intergalactic societies, and the challenges facing those living in or trying to manage such societies. The stories in Federations will continue that tradition, and herein you will find a mix of all-new, original fiction, alongside selected reprints from authors whose work exemplifies what interstellar SF is capable of, including Lois McMaster Bujold, Orson Scott Card, Anne McCaffrey, George R.R. Martin, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Alastair Reynolds, Robert J. Sawyer, Robert Silverberg and Harry Turtledove. Additional authors: Alan Dean Foster, Kevin J. Anderson, Doug Beason, John C. Wright, Allen Steele, James Alan Gardner, Catherynne M. Valente.

Starred Review: Accomplished editor Adams (The Living Dead) explores a host of galaxy-spanning empires in this breathtakingly rich anthology. Lois McMaster Bujold's elegant, elegiacal masterpiece Aftermaths brings grace and sorrow into the silence between stars. Clever and subtle, Alan Dean Foster's Pardon Our Conquest examines how diplomacy is perceived by the losing side. Even Harry Turtledove's Someone Is Stealing the Great Throne Rooms of the Galaxy far surpasses what one might expect from the pun-filled adventures of a space hamster named Rufus Q. Shupilluliumash. Newer writers also contribute standouts: Trent Hergenrader's Eskhara is poignant, masterful and terrifyingly relevant to modern life, Georgina Li's Like They Always Been Free is a harsh, bright vision of futuristic love and Catherynne M. Valente's Golubush, or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy smoothly transforms mundane copywriting into a linked series of flash fictions. Superior writing, fantastic storytelling and creative adherence to the theme will keep readers enthralled. -- Publishers Weekly

Contents

• Mazer in Prison | Orson Scott Card
• Carthago Delenda Est | Genevieve Valentine
• Life-Suspension | L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
• Terra-Exulta | S. L. Gilbow
• Aftermaths | Lois McMaster Bujold
• Someone is Stealing the Great Throne Rooms of the Galaxy | Harry Turtledove
• Prisons | Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason
• Different Day | K. Tempest Bradford
• Twilight of the Gods | John C. Wright
• Warship | George R. R. Martin and George Guthridge
• Swanwatch | Yoon Ha Lee
• Spirey and the Queen | Alastair Reynolds
• Pardon Our Conquest | Alan Dean Foster
• Symbiont | Robert Silverberg
• The Ship Who Returned | Anne McCaffrey
• My She | Mary Rosenblum
• The Shoulders of Giants | Robert J. Sawyer
• The Culture Archivist | Jeremiah Tolbert
• The Other Side of Jordan | Allen Steele
• Like They Always Been Free | Georgina Li
• Eskhara | Trent Hergenrader
• The One with the Interstellar Group Consciousnesses | James Alan Gardner
• Golubash, or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy | Catherynne M. Valente

[Also available as an e-book]

The elements and bedrock of Jabberwocky can be largely described as the "-ical approach": lyrical, whimsical, mythical, in all its forms, particularly short fiction, poetry, and illustrative. There are no boundaries, no restrictions, no genres. If you love the art of the written word, its structure, its flow, its language, I suspect you'll love Jabberwocky.

[This book will be published in May 2012]

Time is growing short—at least as mortals measure time. His kind broke the balance. Now he must repair it...or our world shatters.

Even gods have limits.

Albert Johannson’s forgotten more than he remembers about his past, but two things he's sure of: he’s lived a long, long time, and he doesn’t trust anyone, particularly gods. He’s not too fond of demons either, particularly the one that shows up in his kitchen looking for help with a supernatural investigation. Albert's a strangely gifted blacksmith, not a P.I., but crossing a demon can be deadly, so he reluctantly takes the job—which puts him in the path of a prickly arson detective named Melissa el Hajj who has trust issues of her own. Clashing at a crime scene, they uncover an ancient wrought-iron hexagram, a broken relic as old as Solomon. The thing may herald catastrophe unless Albert can mend it—but Albert has yet to grasp just what his special powers really mean . . .

“James A. Burton has created a world that is dark, authentic, and hauntingly familiar. Fantasy meets epic in Powers.”—Examiner.com

“Iron, Hades, battle, and godlings with amnesia. I loved this book! A sterling new voice in contemporary fantasy.”—Faith Hunter

“Take an unusual hero, throw him together with an unlikely ally, and send them on an unorthodox quest to a unique and fascinating world, and what do you get? Powers, a story of demons and gods, intrigue and magic that’s as original and readable as any book I’ve picked up in a long while."—David B. Coe

“Turning mythology—and the world itself—upside down and inside out.”—Rob Thurman

Praise for James A. Burton (writing as James Hetley):
"Fans of ‘realistic fantasy’ authors like Charles de Lint and George R.R. Martin will particularly enjoy sinking their teeth into [The Winter Oak’s] gritty and entertaining story.”—Publishers Weekly