Showing posts with label Beasts of Tabat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beasts of Tabat. Show all posts

Saturday, April 25, 2015

A Double Dose of Magic

I've got a couple of new reads to pimp.

The first is Beasts of Tabat by Cat Rambo. She's the prolific author of short fiction with a bibliography that includes works in Weird Tales, Asimov, and Tor.com. And Rambo's been nominated for an Endeavor, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award.


Beasts is a clockwork tale rich with fantasy and magic. Soon after young Teo arrives in the city of Tabat, he's pulled into its complex politics and dangerous intrigue. It's a world of amazing chimera-like beasts vying for power in shifting alliances. To survive, he's drawn into the orbit of the gladiator Bella Kanto. Adding a twist to this already complex story is that the weather is determined by the victors in the gladiator arena, and forces are at work to undermine Bella. A beast revolt threatens an already tenuous peace, and Bella learns that she needs Teo as much as he needs her.

Get your copy Beasts of Tabat

Next is the thoroughly entertaining Signal to Noise by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia. She describes herself as Canadian by inclination, which should endear her to several here at Type-M. 


Signal may seem like it simply rides familiar coming-of-tropes--alienation, young romance, validation, teen angst--but Moreno-Garcia expertly weaves in magic, humor, and music with character and plot. She gives us the personal odyssey of Mercedes "Meche" Vega, a teenager seeking identity and closure with herself and her family. The references to period music and the vintage (by now anyway) mix-tape technology give this story a wonderfully tactile texture to what is an already compelling and poignant narrative.

Support the cause and order yours Signal to Noise