Music to My Sorrow (Bedlam's Bard)
by Mercedes Lackey
from Baen
Eric Banyon, also known as Bedlam's Bard, managed to rescue his young brother Magnus from what seemed to be a killer demon (in Mad Maudlin), but now he must rescue Magnus again, this time from their tyrannical parents. Eric does not look forward to the battle, but is confident he can gain custody. His financial sources are virtually unlimited, his friend Ria Llewellyn heads the most high-powered law firm in New York, and in a pinch he and his friends can use to magic powers, even flummoxing a DNA test, it comes to that.
What Eric does not know is that his parents are allied with the evangelist Billy Fairchild, who himself is a tool of the evil Unseleighe elves, who feed off human sorrow and suffering. Fairchild specializes in getting “bad” children to shape up, which is accomplished by letting a soulsucker—malevolent creature from the elf world—drain the victim of all talent, creativity, and will, leaving an obedient zombie husk behind. If Magnus and his friend Ace, who is also on the run from her twisted parents, fall into Fairchild's hands, they will join the Unseleighe's zombie ranks. And even Eric's bardic magic may not be enough to save them.
Mad Maudlin (Bedlam's Bard)
by Mercedes Lackey
from Baen
Eric Banyon, better known as Bedlam's Bard, has just discovered that he has a younger brother named Magnus whom his parents have kept secret from him. Just as Eric did years ago, 17-year-old Magnus has run away from home to escape his disfunctional family. Determined to find him, Eric finds himself caught in a desperate race against time. Young homeless children in New York have created a bizarre mythology about a demon called Bloody Mary who preys on young children-and somehow Bloody Mary has taken on an independent life and now stalks the streets of the city. Eric's friends, the Guardians seem powerless to stop her. Anyone who sees her is marked for death. And Magnus has seen her. . . .
Spirits White as Lightning
by Mercedes Lackey
from Baen
Beyond World's End (Bedlam's Bard)
by Mercedes Lackey
from Baen
Beyond World's End continues Eric Banyon's tale in the Bedlam's Bard series. Sieur Eric, Knight and Bard to the court of the Queen of Elfhame Misthold, moves back to the Big Apple to take care of unfinished business. Most notably, he wants to finish his interrupted education at Julliard and settle down to a normal life.
As Eric says goodbye to his friends Kory and Beth, he settles into a new apartment and a rigorous schedule at Julliard. However, a normal life doesn't seem to be in his immediate future as he quickly discovers his apartment has unique features, including a living gargoyle named Greystone and four Guardians who have sworn to protect New York from evil. But the evil the Guardians are facing this time is something they haven't seen before.
Unscrupulous researchers have created a drug that briefly unlocks magical powers in a small percentage of the humans it's given to. Unfortunately, it also has a 100 percent mortality rate. But something evil from Underhill has other plans and seeks to use the temporary human powers to threaten the World Above. As Eric gets drawn into the fray, his past catches up with him and good grades become the least of his problems.
Beyond World's End, which takes place in the same universe as Lackey's SERRAted Edge series, combines human evil and magical evil in a compelling way that brings the characters into today's world. Eric is all grown up now and he's a wonderful hero. However, Beyond World's End feels like it's missing the last few chapters. So much time is spent on back-story and the physical setup of the novel that many characters and their stories are introduced only to be dropped with no explanation or resolution. What could have been a great book ends up being ultimately disappointing coming from these two excellent authors. --Kathie Huddleston
This is your soul on drugs...
After the events chronicled in Bedlam's Bard, world-saving bard and magician Eric Banyon moves into his new New York apartment hoping to settle down to the quiet life. No such luck: his building is a safe-house for a group of occultist Guardians protecting the city from supernatural evil. And there's a new evil for them to quard against....
When unethical drug researchers discover that they can induce amazing mental powers using psychotropic drugs, they begin planning to raise a drug-enslaved army of mercenaries and grow very, very rich. But this gets the attention of Aerune mac Audelaine, lord of the dark Unseleighe Sidhe, who hopes to use the drugs to break through to the human world and feed on the suffering there. Both plans will bring terror to the world -- and both are threatened by the very existence of Eric Banyon.
With his possibly loyal companions -- a beautiful elven half-breed and a gargoyle -- Eric heads for a three-way battle of wizardry that will determine Gotham's fate -- and his own.
Leopard In Exile: Carolus Rex, Book II (Carolus Rex)
by Andre Norton
from Tor Fantasy
Jane Austen meets James Bond in The Leopard in Exile, the second book in the Carolus Rex alternate-history fantasy series. The authors blend political intrigue, espionage, Regency romance, and magic, both black and white, to create what Harry Turtledove calls "a captivating adventure."
If you haven't read The Shadow of Albion, an authors' foreword provides background: "The point of divergence here is the affair of the Duke of Monmouth." Historically, James, Duke of Monmouth and the eldest known illegitimate child of Charles II, led an unsuccessful uprising against his uncle, the Catholic James II, in 1685. He was beheaded and his followers and supporters executed. In Norton and Edgehill's universe, Charles II married Monmouth's mother secretly before becoming king and making a childless state marriage. Upon Charles's death, Monmouth was crowned Charles III, continuing a Protestant Stuart line on England's throne.
It is now 1807. The demon-worshipping Duc d'Charenton, who's known as Marquis de Sade in our world, is conjuring black magic. Though he serves Emperor Napoleon through French spymaster Talleyrand, de Sade plots to find the Holy Grail, exult Satan, and destroy the only remaining member of France's royal family, the dauphin Louis Capet. Louis escaped France aided by the Duke of Wessex, Rupert St. Ives Dyer, an agent for England's intelligence service. He got to Baltimore, New Albion (England's North American Colonies, since no American Revolution occurred) with his wife, Meriel, and then disappeared.
Meriel writes to Sarah, Duchess of Wessex, to beg for help. Sarah, originally from Baltimore in our universe, decides to go to Meriel's aid and see New Albion. Wessex, returning from an urgent mission, follows his wife. Unfortunately, de Sade has been named governor of French Louisianne (no Louisiana Purchase occurred here) and is on his way. All will meet in Nouvelle Orl eèans.
Readers who admired J. Gregory Keyes's Newton's Cannon, Lois McMaster Bujold's A Civil Campaign, and Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's Partners in Necessity will find this series very much their cup of tea. --Nona Vero
Sarah, now the Duchess of Wessex, journeys to North America with her new husband, the Duke--but this is no pleasure trip. The fate of the world--New and Old--rests on her saving her friend Meriel, rescuing Louis, rightful King of France, from the clutches of the Marquis de Sade, and finding the Holy Grail. But she and her beloved Duke are beset by perils that will test their strength and spirit to the utmost.
Met By Moonlight
by Rosemary Edghill
from Pinnacle
The Cloak of Night and Daggers (Twelve Treasures)
by Rosemary Edghill
from DAW
The Shadow of Albion (Carolus Rex, Bk 1)
by Andre Norton
from Tor Books
Baltimore, 1805
When young Sarah Cunningham's father dies, she is left alone in the world. At the behest of her aunt, she leaves behind her few friends and heads across the ocean to the hope of a new life in England with a distant relative.
Little does Sarah suspect that her journey will carry her much farther than a mere ocean's width. For as she crosses the Atlantic, powerful magics are being worked by Lady Sarah Roxbury. Lying on her deathbed, Roxbury casts a spell that will summon her counterpart form the universe-next-door...Sarah.
Waking, Sarah finds herself in a world not her own, a world where the Stuart kings still rule England, where Baltimore and the original thirteen United States are still British colonies, where Napoleon runs rampant on the European continent, a world where she is the Lady Roxbury.
Under the influence of a steady supply of drugs and insidious manipulation, Sarah comes to believe that she is Roxbury, and soon finds herself embroiled deep in the machinations of court intrigue and scandal. She also comes to despise her intended, the Duke of Wessex.
As the threat of a French invasion grows, the only hope for England is a peace treaty with Denmark. But when the Princess of Denmark goes missing and France's agent, the Marquis de Sade, is found in council with Denmark's king, it is up to Sarah and Wessex to put aside their differences.
Together they must find a way to rescue the princess from her captivity deep in the black heart of Imperial France before Napoleon can cross the channel and utterly destroy England.
In a tale as rousing, romantic, and full of intrigue as The Scarlet Pimpernel, Andre Norton and Rosemary Edghill have created an alternative history as real as our own and as fresh as today.
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