Reviewing the Mail: Week of May 23

I suspect most of my readers for these "Reviewing the Mail" posts are Americans -- because the books I get in the mail are about 99 44/100% American-published, because of shipping costs and territorial rights and other boring things -- so you're probably out enjoying the holiday.

(If, like one of my my new colleagues at TR, you're not American and aren't sure what "Memorial Day" is all about, it's the general patriotic holiday vaguely focused on veterans and/or "the troops." More or less the US-specific version of Armistice Day, but with more focus on soldiers/sailors/aviators/marines who didn't necessarily buy the farm Over There.)

But I do this anyway, because I want to get the books off my desk and because I love consistency. So here's what I've got this week: three books in the tune of skiffy, as a counterpoint to all of the Souza marches being played elsewhere today.

Oathkeeper is the second novel in the epic fantasy trilogy named after the first novel, Grudgebearer, by J.F. Lewis. (I was surprised to look at the author bio and see that J.F. is clearly a guy named Jeremy; I guess he just isn't that fond of his first name.) (Also, I would love if the concluding book was named Nitpicker, but I'd bet money that it won't be.) It's got a redheaded elf girl in sensible armor and a friendly-ish dragon on the cover, which pegs its appeal pretty closely. And it's a Pyr trade paperback, available June 9.

I have not read The Banished of Muirwood-- nor have I read any of the author's previous six novels with "Muirwood" in the title -- but I can say it must be absolutely fabulous, because it's author is Jeff Wheeler, and everything done by a Wheeler must be assumed to be world-class. It's epic fantasy in the usual medievaloid secondary world, with a spunky young princess whose been Cinderella-ized and a social setup that seems even more hostile to women than usual. Amazon's 47North imprint will bring this one out in the usual paper and electronic formats in August.

And then there's Kevin J. Anderson's Blood of the Cosmos, the second book in the series that began with the currently Hugo-nominated Dark Between the Stars. It's meat-and-potatoes space opera, with somewhat less tech-porn than the average Baen book but plenty of intrigue and complication and physics that is not precisely accurate. This Tor hardcover is available on June 2nd.