June and Athena first met at Yale and now are rival authors, though one has far outstripped the other in success and sales. When the brilliant, bestselling Athena chokes on a pancake and dies in front of June, June takes the opportunity to steal her friend's nearly-finished manuscript and pass it off as her own. June tells herself there are no victims here: it's not like her friend is going to use it. And if readers of the stolen manuscript wrongfully assume June is Chinese because of the story, she tells herself that's nobody's fault but theirs. As June gets in deeper and deeper with her lie, she grows increasingly crazed and desperate, going to jaw-dropping lengths to keep her deception secret. I could hardly wait to see exactly how this author would get her richly deserved comeuppance.

From the publisher: "A childless couple take in a mysterious boy in this ominous short story about parenthood, sacrifice, and our responsibility to the future from #1 New York Times bestselling author R. F. Kuang. Jess desperately wants to be a mother, so when she discovers a young boy lost in the woods near her home, her heart goes out to him. The boy, who Jess and her husband call 'Buddy,' can’t tell them his name or anything about his family, but he’s clearly been through a lot. When her husband cautions her not to get too involved, Jess brushes him off. She would do anything for this child—and soon, she’ll have to prove it."

From the publisher: "Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world. That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault. Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams…. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion. With nothing but the tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them, enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams necessary for their spells, and the burning desire to make all the academic trauma mean anything, they set off across Hell to save a man they don’t even like. But Hell is not like the storybooks say, Magick isn't always the answer, and there's something in Alice and Peter's past that could forge them into the perfect allies…or lead to their doom."

This epic fantasy is rooted in 20th Century Chinese history and mythology. It features Rin, an orphaned peasant girl, who, against all odds, earns a place in an elite military academy. At school, Rin discovers that she possesses incredible powers and studies the mythical art of shamanism. As the Nikara Empire teeters on the brink of war, Rin answers the call to save her people. Kuang has spoken about her choice to write fictional accounts of historical events like the Nanjing Massacre with unflinching detail, not to glorify war, but to show the realities of trauma. (Content warnings for sexual violence, atrocious warcrimes, self-harm).

When MMD Book Club hosted Peng Shepherd in August to discuss The Cartographers, Peng raved about this new fantasy release from the author of The Poppy War trilogy. It's a cool 545 pages in hardcover, and WOW does she put every one to good use. The publisher calls it “a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal response to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell”—if that sounds a little cerebral for you, don’t worry, it’s easy to get swept up in the story. I've found myself talking about it ALL THE TIME to all sorts of readers. Kuang's historical fantasy takes place primarily in 1830s Oxford, where the workers at the translation institute Babel literally fuel the British Empire by combining their language skills with precious silver bars. While I loved the academic setting and band of four fast friends, her engagement with the complexities of race, power, and privilege are what really ground the novel. There's also a lot of philosophizing about the art of translation and discussion of what the practice actually involves, which I found insightful and fascinating.