WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 65Review_FICTION
space adventure. (BookLife)Beneath the Fallen City
(Omni Towers #1)
Jamie A. Waters. Jamie A. Waters, $12.99
trade paper (374p) ISBN 978-0-9996647-0-4
Waters builds this dystopian survival
novel around a reckless, talented heroine
who’s deeply loyal to those she loves. A
devastating nuclear war left huge swaths
of land uninhabitable. About 150 years
later, “ruin rats” like Kayla are hired by
the wealthy, who survived in self-contained
towers and boast psionic powers, to fetch
relics of the past from the ruins that litter
the landscape. Though she’s a talented
scavenger,
Kayla doesn’t
think she’s any-
thing special,
until a chance
encounter with
representatives
from the
OmniLab
towers reveals
that she’s the
lost child of a
powerful family. Her world is turned
upside down as she is dragged from the
life she knows into the politics and power
plays of the tower elite. The ensuing love
triangle with a snooty tower scion and a
rough-edged artifact trader feels a little
forced at times, but fans of postapocalyptic
tales will appreciate the details of the
unusual setting. This clever story will
draw plenty of fans. (BookLife)Romance/Erotica
★ Scandalous
Minerva Spencer. Zebra, $7.99 mass market
(378p) ISBN 978-1-4201-4720-9
Complex characters make this historical
romance a standout. The illustrious pri-
vateer captain Martín Bouchard has loved
many women, but none has enticed or
frustrated him more than the missionary
Sarah Fisher, whom he saves, along with
hundreds of others, from a slave ship. No
matter how infuriating he gets, Sarah
remains intrigued with the surly captain,
and she quickly becomes admired by his
crew for her strong and noble spirit. When
they discover that the captain of the slavehimself, Oliver
secretly visits
the crime scene
each night.
When he sees a
man dissolve
into a puddle of
orange goo and
begins to get
flashes of an
alternate
Shumard, he
wonders whether there’s more to the story
of Noah’s death. Soon he ventures into a
preternatural world called the Narrows
where horrors and answers—as well as
further mysteries—await him. Riddle’s
intricate worldbuilding and familiar but
strong narrative arc sustain fear throughout.
However, the author is too eager to answer
readers’ questions, stifling the suspense,
and backstory slows the momentum. The
well-written and highly individualized
characters carry the story through its
lapses. Fans of eerie tales will easily fall
into this one. (BookLife)Safe Passage
Rachel Ford. Rachel Ford, $4.99 e-book
(320p) ASIN B07NQL5XX9
Ford (the Time Travelling Taxman
books) launches an adventure series with
this fun and unexpectedly tenderhearted
novel featuring plucky space pirates in
love. Software engineer Kay Ellis is on the
run from the Conglomerate, a powerful
organized crime syndicate for whom she
designed Deltaseal, the ultimate digital
security system. Knowing it’s only a matter
of time before the Conglomerate assassi-
nates her to protect their investment, Kay
accepts a rescue from Magdalene Landon,
fiery captain of the pirate vessel The Black
Flag, in exchange for the very information
the Conglomerate wants to destroy: how
to crack Deltaseal and rob them of trillions
of dollars. As she and the mixed-species
crew of The Black Flag plan their big heist,
Kay first bonds with shipmate Frank and
then discovers, to her surprise, that she’s
falling for Magdalene, who closed herself
off after the death of a previous lover. After
Kay is almost killed during an attempted
kidnapping, Magdalene realizes she can
no longer deny her interest in Kay. There’s
no steamy content on the page, making
this a perfect all-ages story for fans ofreferences to her glossary and voluminous
cast of characters. Her lush descriptive
passages, echoes of Mideastern lore, and
alluring glimpses of idyllic love ring true,
and readers will linger on her central
message of defiance against destructive
book-burning purges and other violence
meant to preserve the status quo. With
strong writing and vigorous pacing, this
is a satisfying continuation of the series.
Agent: Danielle Burby, Nelson Literary. (Oct.)
Alchemy and Artifacts
(Tesseracts #22)
Edited by Lorina Stephens and Susan
MacGregor. Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy,
$15.95 trade paper (292p) ISBN 978-1-77053-
194-9
Arranged in roughly chronological
order, this varied collection of 23 alternate-
history yarns delves into creative what-ifs
all the way from the 13th century BCE to
1975 CE, with a somewhat lopsided focus
on WWII. Obviously fantastical elements
aside, the stories’ historical aspects appear
exquisitely researched, a quality under-
mined by the way that more than a few
feel unfinished. For instance, Kate
Heartfield’s “The Inland Beacon,” Tony Pi’s
“Caligula’s Eagle,” and Mary-Jean Harris’s
“The Guardian of Wisdom” all have the
feel of being cut short. Fortunately, others
are much more satisfying. Chris Patrick
Carolan’s delightful “Things Better Left
Buried” has dinosaurs causing trouble for
the local constabulary in 1880 Halifax.
Leslie Brown’s “Cleaning House in Ithaca”
uses Greek mythological figures Odysseus
and Athena to prove that there’s more to
family than blood ties. Michael Skeet’s
amusing “If There’s a Goal” is a classic case
of wishes gone wrong against a backdrop
of Canadian hockey. Though not a
standout, this is a solid addition to the
Tesseracts series of anthologies. (Sept.)
The Narrows
Travis M. Riddle. Travis M. Riddle, $2.99
e-book (256p) ISBN 978-1-72676-874-0
Fans of Twin Peaks and Stranger Things
will recognize many elements of Riddle’s
story, but he puts his own spin on classic
tropes in this chilling mix of horror and
fantasy. In a quiet suburb in present-day
Shumard, Tex., Oliver and his friends
lament the suicide of their friend Noah.
Desperate to understand why Noah killed