13 fantasy and science fiction books to read in July 2023
By Daniel Roman
EBONY GATE by Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle (The Phoenix Hoard #1) — July 11
Ebony Gate is the latest novel from writing duo Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle, and it kicks off their new urban fantasy series The Phoenix Hoard. This book was pitched as female John Wick with dragon magic, and if that’s not an irresistible description I don’t know what is. It follows Emiko Soong, a retired assassin who’s forced to come back to the game in order to appease a dark god. Let’s just hope no one has to kill her dog for her to start kicking ass.
Emiko Soong belongs to one of the eight premier magical families of the world. But Emiko never needed any magic. Because she is the Blade of the Soong Clan. Or was. Until she’s drenched in blood in the middle of a market in China, surrounded by bodies and the scent of blood and human waste as a lethal perfume.
The Butcher of Beijing now lives a quiet life in San Francisco, importing antiques. But when a shinigami, a god of death itself, calls in a family blood debt, Emiko must recover the Ebony Gate that holds back the hungry ghosts of the Yomi underworld. Or forfeit her soul as the anchor.
What’s a retired assassin to do but save the City by the Bay from an army of the dead?
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THE TRAITOR by Anthony Ryan (The Covenant of Steel #3) — July 11
July will also mark the end of the road for Anthony Ryan’s The Covenant of Steel with the release of the final volume in the trilogy, The Traitor. The first novel in the series, The Pariah, saw outlaw Alwyn Scribe go on a winding quest for revenge that led him to cross paths with Lady Evadine Courlain, a noblewoman whose visions of a coming apocalypse heralded dark days ahead. Based on the description for The Traitor, it sounds like the relationship between Alwyn and Evadine is going to be more complicated than ever in the story’s final chapter, with no guarantees of a happy ending for anyone.
It’s been a long journey for Alwyn Scribe. Born a bastard and raised an outlaw, he’s now a knight and the most trusted advisor to Lady Evadine Courlain. Together they’ve won countless battles and helped to bring order to a fractured kingdom. Yet Evadine is not the woman Alwyn once knew. As puritanical fury increasingly replaces her benevolent faith, Alwyn begins to question what her true motives really are. As the kingdom braces itself for one final battle, Alwyn’s conscience fights its own war with his heart. Now, more than ever, he must decide whose side he’s really on.