Book Reviews

Ken Liu's even more epic followup to last year's epic fantasy The Grace of Kings picks up several years after the first book, with a completely new and fascinating set of characters and conflicts.

You may be back in school, but your bookshelf doesn't have to reflect that — we've got three YA fantasy novels for fall starring three girls grappling with the impact of magic on their lives.

Steven Price's hefty new novel stars William Pinkerton, whose father founded the famous detective agency that bears his name, plus a colorful cast of Victorian ne'er-do-wells. And a severed head.

Fran Wilde built a glorious world of living bone towers and wing-gliding people in last year's Updraft. Her new Cloudbound has stunning skyscapes but lacks some of the first book's emotional heft.

Music critic Will Hermes reviews a new autobiography from Bruce Springsteen called Born To Run.

Chinese author Cixin Liu caps his Hugo Award-winning Remembrance of Earth's Past series with an intricately structured, immensely complex tale of a rocket scientist caught in a human-alien conflict.

Leigh Bardugo's followup to her steampunky heist tale Six of Crows follows teenage criminal mastermind Kaz and his ragged crew as they take revenge for a betrayal and deal with a dangerous drug.

Juan Gabriel Vásquez's new novel centers on a respected and feared political cartoonist whose past comes back to haunt him after he receives a threatening letter. It's a powerful, concentrated work.