Mage-Captain Ivan Halloway managed to retire from the Royal Martian Navy without seeing combat. He's a coward, so better to be retired rather than serving in the coming civil war. Back home in the Xanth system he's uncertain what he wants to do with the rest of his life, so he agrees to help an old friend. He should have gotten more details before he agreed! Karl is deeply in debt following a divorce and mid-life crisis that saw his entire crew resign so he's going to enter the illegal Black Pulsar Race, an obstacle course around a binary pulsar system run by crime syndicates. One reason it's illegal is that twenty-five percent of ships don't survive to the end, but Karl is confident the Restoya can win. The prize money will allow him to pay off his debts and keep his ship. Ivan's not a fan of this plan, but he does want to help Karl until the mob threatens to kills both of them unless Ivan helps them take the Restoya during the race. He agrees on the condition they don't harm Karl and forgive his debts, but he still has a bad feeling about this.

James Crowley was your typical outlaw until his life was ended in a hail of gunfire; however, his well-earned trip to hell was unexpectedly interrupted by the White Throne. He now serves them as a Black Badge, also known as a Hand of God, hunting down demonic entities in the old American West. His task this time is to visit a small town known as Dead Acre, a place where outsiders are never welcome. He doesn't exactly know why he is sent to the ass end of nowhere, but upon arrival he quickly discovers that the local cobbler is missing and a number of graves outside the dilapidated church have been desecrated. Certainly a suspicious situation, which is only made worse by the less than warm welcome he receives at the only saloon in town. Of course Crowley is not easily intimidated, so he starts investigating following the clues and eventually discovers that a few of the locals are nto what they seem to be. A number of dark entities have indeed made Dead Acre their home, so Crowley is definitely the right man for the job.

Cade begins his narration by asking the reader to imagine a "wizard" and then informs us that if we're seeing an old man with a long beard and pointy hat that we're idiots who've read too many fairy tales. He then drops straight into a battle where he and his fellow mercenary "wonderists" are laying siege to a city. Cade himself is pretending to be a wonderist who's magic is tied to the plane of Fortune, but in reality bargains for spells with the Infernals. His closest friend is a "thunderer" who is known to laugh as his lightning shatters walls and crushes defenders. Wonderists take on physical and mental traits from their plane of attunement, so they're a truly motley crew. This particular battle is taking place because the city refuses to recognize the latest religious leader chosen by the Lords Celestine, or gods of the Celestial plane. Personally, Cade believes that the Lords Celestine have lost their minds and he plans to murder the asshole who employs them. Cade's murder mission is interrupted when his fellow wonderists decide to kill him because the Glorian Justiciars have arrived. His ties to the Infernal plane aren't as secret as he thought, so Cade's fellow wonderists plan to kill him in the hopes that it will distract the Justiciars long enough for the rest of them to escape. Remember, just when things look bad they can always get worse..

James Crowley is a former outlaw who didn't always make the best choices in life, but he has no regrets about the choice that ended it. Crowley was as rough as they come, but he did have his limits. That turned out not to be a good fit with the leader of his gang, who eventually ended him for standing up to prevent the rape of a captured woman. Perhaps it was that final act of redemption that caused the White Throne to interrupt his journey to hell and select him to serve as a Black Badge, but he doesn't really know that. In fact, he doesn't really know much. His handler, Shar, sends him to deal with the darker evils that roam the American West: nephalem, werewolves, shapeshifters, and yetis, just to name a few. That makes him part bounty hunter, and part supernatural sheriff, but he has no earthly authority, so he is constantly trying to figure out how to take care of his quarry without revealing to everyone else that he himself is undead.

After the events of the last book, it is a miracle that Hadrian Marlowe is still alive. Or is it? Since Hadrian is narrating the story of his life as an old man, it is a foregone conclusion that he won't die, so every situation comes down to how he survives the events that threaten his existence. Things were so dire in Kingdoms of Death that any way out alive for Hadrian would have to border on ludicrous, and it did. It made me wonder if Christopher Ruocchio had fundamentally undermined this series by giving Hadrian a reality-shifting ability that was just too powerful. At the time it seemed that Hadrian could use this ability to get out of any situation without consequence, but there are also a few hints that things are not exactly as they seem to be. Only time will tell which side of plausible this series winds up on, but either way it continues to get more dark and foreboding.

Although author Michael Moorcock announced that Elric was retiring after 30 years back in 1992, he decided to honor the 60 year anniversary of his most beloved character with one last adventure. Melniboneans can command dragons and tremendous sorcery because their ancestors, the immortal Phroon, were half dragon themselves. As part of his education Elric was sent on dream quests and in some he met his "Aunt", the sister of the first Emperor of Melnibone, who tutored him in sorcery, became his lover, and invited him to visit someday. After destroying his homeland and the tragic death of his cousin caused by Stormbringer, the sorcerer Elric of Melnibone started wandering through the lands known as the Younger Kingdoms. Along the way he was befriended by the jovial adventurer Moonglum who joins Elric on a perilous journey off the edge of the map and onto the flip side of their world (everyone knows the world is flat) to find the mysterious Phroon and his Aunt. Thanks to Moonglum's current girlfriend they have found a merchant ship brave enough to attempt the plunge off the edge of the world in search of exotic goods they can take back to the Younger Kingdoms. Surviving the plunge is only the first of many dangers Elric and Moonglum face as they journey through a strange continent and Elric gets entangled in his Aunt's schemes.

This isn't the first time that the Emperor has given Hadrian an impossible task, but it certainly seems more boring than the others. And the boredom is starting to get to him. There have been numerous attempts on Hadrian's life, and that is one of the reasons he has been relegated to an obscure planet where his talents are going to waste. As Hadrian, humanity's most effective effective weapon, sits on the sidelines for decades, the war between the Empire and the Cielcin rages on without him. There is however one thing that has changed - humanity is now clearly losing the war. The Great Prince Syriani Dorayaica has united the Cielcin clans and is driving the Empire back at every turn. Hadrian has high hopes when he learns that the Emperor is coming in person to give him a new mission, but he is quickly disappointed when he finds out what it is. Hadrian is commanded to travel to the Lothrian Commonwealth and convince them to join the war on the side of the Empire. An impossible task for sure, and a boring one. Or not?

A Midsummer Night's Dream is my least favorite work by Shakespeare and at this point book shelves are collapsing under the weight of books with Fey or Faerie characters, so this book was a nice surprise. Author Sydney Cobb apparently likes Midsummer enough to ponder the identity of the child that Oberon and Titania were fighting over and realized there had to be a lot more to the story than Shakespeare knew. Of course the first thing Robin Goodfellow tells us is that Shakespeare didn't get the story quite right in the first place. The second thing he tells us is that he was still young and impulsive back then before admitting that not much has changed. It took a few hundred years but Titania has finally figured out why Oberon wanted her handmaid's child and she complained to her older sister Mab, Queen of the Gray Court, as opposed to Oberon's Green Court, who is now threatening war for the sake of her sister's honor. Naturally, Oberon has turned to his favorite and most trusted courtier to keep the half-fey boy hidden. Matching wits with Mab is exactly as difficult as Robin expects but he's determined to save the young man he loves like a brother even if it costs his immortal life in this twisty faerie-tale.

After defying death at the hands of the Cielcin, Hadrian Marlowe is now known as the Halfmortal and has become a bit of a legend within the Sollan Empire. His prominence has also amassed him quite a few enemies who feel that he is a threat to the throne, and he must now worry that the Emperor himself could be one of them. To make matters worse, the Cielcin have also upped their game and they now have a new leader known as the Scourge of Earth. This new leader is a lot more strategic and that has turned the tide of the war in the favor of the Cielcin. Despite all of those threats to Hadrian, what really grabbed me about this book was related to the "ancient" alien race known as the Quiet. Although some of the new revelations will make your brain hurt at times, for me the Quiet have now gone from a slightly boring thread in the series to a very interesting one.

Alustin, called the Last Loyal Son of Helecote, is poised to get revenge on just about everyone when he detonates the Tongue Eater in Haveth City. He just has to get it there and keep everyone distracted while he does it. To that end he has assembled an army of Powers from Helicote's former allies. He has told them that The Last Echo of the Lord of Bells, the death curse promised by the Lich of Helicote as he died, will shatter Haveth City's defenses and that the Chitin Wand, stolen from Skyhold along with the Tongue Eater, will destroy the city if they can use it at the right spot. But Alustin has refused to tell them what the Last Echo is and failed to mention the Tongue Eater at all because these "allies" failed to come to Helicote's aid when the Dominion destroyed them. He too will die, but its worth it to get his revenge. There's just one minor problem. According to Kanderon as she "died", detonating the Tongue Eater won't just destroy Haveth City, it will destroy the entire continent. As the Haveth Dominion rallies their strongest Powers and Kanderon's allies race to stop Alustin everyone ends up in a dramatic three-way battle full of magic and chaos.