New Scifi & Fantasy - July 2021

The Unbroken (Magic of the Lost #1) by C. L. Clark Touraine is a soldier. Stolen as a child and raised to kill and die for the empire, her only loyalty is to her fellow conscripts. But now, her company has been sent back to her homeland to stop a rebellion, and the ties of blood may be stronger than she thought. Luca needs a turncoat. Someone desperate enough to tiptoe the bayonet's edge between treason and orders. Someone who can sway the rebels toward peace, while Luca focuses on what really matters: getting her uncle off her throne. Through assassinations and massacres, in bedrooms and war rooms, Touraine and Luca will haggle over the price of a nation. But some things aren't for sale. Check it out:

• Physical copy from RPL: regular print
• Digital copy from Libby/Overdrive: ebook

The Tower of Fools (Hussite Trilogy #1) by Andrej Sapkowski Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher series has become a fantasy phenomenon, finding millions of fans worldwide and inspiring the hit Netflix show and video games. Now the bestselling author introduces readers to a new hero on an epic journey in The Tower of Fools, the first book of the Hussite Trilogy. Reinmar of Bielawa, sometimes known as Reynevan, is a healer, a magician, and according to some, a charlatan. When a thoughtless indiscretion forces him to flee his home, he finds himself pursued not only by brothers bent on vengeance but by the Holy Inquisition. In a time when tensions between Hussite and Catholic countries are threatening to turn into war and mystical forces are gathering in the shadows, Reynevan's journey will lead him to the Narrenturm—the Tower of Fools. The Tower is an asylum for the mad...or for those who dare to think differently and challenge the prevailing order. And escaping it, avoiding the conflict around him, and keeping his own sanity will prove more difficult than he ever imagined. Check it out:

• Physical copy from RPL: regular print
• Digital copy from Libby/Overdrive: ebook, audiobook

The House of Always (Chorus of Dragons #4) by Jenn Lyons For fans of Brandon Sanderson and Patrick Rothfuss, The House of Always is the fourth epic fatnasy in Jenn Lyons' Chorus of Dragons series that began with The Ruin of Kings. What if you were imprisoned for all eternity? In the aftermath of the Ritual of Night, everything has changed. The Eight Immortals have catastrophically failed to stop Kihrin's enemies, who are moving forward with their plans to free Vol Karoth, the King of Demons. Kihrin has his own ideas about how to fight back, but even if he's willing to sacrifice everything for victory, the cost may prove too high for his allies. Now they face a choice: can they save the world while saving Kihrin, too? Or will they be forced to watch as he becomes the very evil they have all sworn to destroy. Check it out:

• Physical copy from RPL: regular print
• Digital copy from Libby/Overdrive: ebook

Other books in this series:

1. The Ruin of Kings (2019)
2. The Name of All Things (2019)
3. The Memory of Souls (2020)
4. The House of Always (2021)
5. The Discord of Gods (2022)

A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot #1) by Becky Chambers It's been centuries since the robots of Earth gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend. One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how. They're going to need to ask it a lot. Becky Chambers's new series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter? Check it out:

• Digital copy from Libby/Overdrive: ebook

Calculated Risks (InCryptid #10) by Seanan McGuire Just when Sarah Zellaby, adopted Price cousin and telepathic ambush predator, thought that things couldn't get worse, she's had to go and prove herself wrong. After being kidnapped and manipulated by her birth family, she has undergone a transformation called an instar, reaching back to her Apocritic origins to metamorphize. While externally the same, she is internally much more powerful, and much more difficult to control. Even by herself. After years of denial, the fact that she will always be a cuckoo has become impossible to deny. Now stranded in another dimension with a handful of allies who seem to have no idea who she is—including her cousin Annie and her maybe-boyfriend Artie, both of whom have forgotten their relationship—and a bunch of cuckoos with good reason to want her dead, Sarah must figure out not only how to contend with her situation, but with the new realities of her future. What is she now? Who is she now? Is that person someone she can live with? And when all is said and done, will she be able to get the people she loves, whether or not they've forgotten her, safely home? Check it out:

• Physical copy from RPL: regular print
• Digital copy from Libby/Overdrive: ebook

Other books in this series:

1. Discount Armageddon (2012)
2. Midnight Blue-Light Special (2013)
3. Half-Off Ragnarok (2014)
4. Pocket Apocalypse (2015)
5. Chaos Choreography (2016)
6. Magic For Nothing (2017)
7. Tricks for Free (2018)
8. That Ain't Witchcraft (2019)
9. Imaginary Numbers (2020)
10. Calculated Risks (2021)
11. Spelunking Through Hell (2022)

A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians (The Shadow History Series #1) by H. G. Parry It is the Age of Enlightenment — of new and magical political movements, from the necromancer Robespierre calling for a revolution in France, to the weather mage Toussaint L'Ouverture leading the slaves of Haiti in their fight for freedom, to the bold new Prime Minister William Pitt weighing the legalization of magic amongst commoners in Britain and abolition throughout its colonies overseas. But amidst all of the upheaval of the early modern world, there is an unknown force inciting all of human civilization into violent conflict. And it will require the combined efforts of revolutionaries, magicians, and abolitionists to unmask this hidden enemy before the whole world falls to darkness and chaos. Check it out:

• Physical copy from RPL: regular print
• Digital copy from Libby/Overdrive: ebook

For the Wolf (Wilderwood #1) by Hannah Whitten As the only Second Daughter born in centuries, Red has one purpose—to be sacrificed to the Wolf in the Wood in the hope he'll return the world's captured gods. Red is almost relieved to go. Plagued by a dangerous power she can't control, at least she knows that in the Wilderwood, she can't hurt those she loves. Again. But the legends lie. The Wolf is a man, not a monster. Her magic is a calling, not a curse. And if she doesn't learn how to use it, the monsters the gods have become will swallow the Wilderwood—and her world—whole. Check it out:

• Physical copy from RPL: regular print, CD audiobook
• Digital copy from Libby/Overdrive: ebook