Amal El-Mohtar
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This weekend, the NPR Books Time Machine rewinds Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence. Critic Amal El-Mohtar was drawn in by great cover art and discovered a sharp, smart, unusual urban fantasy series.
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Naomi Novik's latest is a reworked "Beauty and the Beast," with a powerful female friendship at its heart. Reviewer Amal El-Mohtar calls it "moving, heartbreaking, and thoroughly satisfying."
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Finnish sci-fi author Hannu Rajaniemi's new collection spans everything from haunted spacesuits to the HMV logo. Reviewer Amal El-Mohtar says her only criticism is that not every story is perfect.
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What if you could rewrite reality? Andrea Phillips' debut novel follows an unambitious barista whose life is turned upside down when she discovers a website that lets her change lives with a click.
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First-time novelist Sabaa Tahir creates Capital Letter Fantasy in An Ember in the Ashes, with rebel Scholars battling an ancient, brutal Empire. Critic Amal El-Mohtar calls it "frequently riveting."
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Ken Liu's debut is an epic saga of gods, kings and rebels, set in an invented world with echoes of pan-Asian myth. Reviewer Amal El-Mohtar calls it "beautiful, nuanced, fierce, original and diverse."
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Genevieve Valentine's new novel is set in a world where diplomats are the equivalent of Hollywood stars, glamorous Faces manipulated by behind-the-scenes handlers and stalked by eager paparazzi.
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Rachel Hartman continues her tale of half-dragon musician and unwilling diplomat Seraphina in Shadow Scale. Reviewer Amal El-Mohtar says the new book doesn't just live up to the old, it outgrows it.
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Claire North's new novel imagines a world where "ghosts" can leave their own bodies at death and jump to whoever's close enough to touch. Scary, but "reader, I loved it," says reviewer Amal El-Mohtar.
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In Jo Walton's new novel, the goddess Athene assembles a history-spanning group of thinkers and sets them to creating Plato's famed Just City — but then she makes the mistake of inviting Socrates.