
Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard
Servant of the Underworld by Writers of the Future winner Aliette de Bodard is an interesting and, especially for a debut, well-executed cross-genre novel that successfully combines several disparate elements into an original story.
If ever a novel could be called cross-genre, Servant of the Underworld is it: the story is set in the 15th century Aztec empire (1. historical fiction) but magic and gods are real (2. fantasy). When a priestess is murdered, Acatl, the High Priest of the Dead, gets involved in finding the murderer (3. mystery), especially when it turns out that his brother is one of the prime suspects. Add to this some blood rituals and some other dark scenes that verge into horror territory (4!) and you've got a novel that bookstores could shelve in a few different places. When reading it, I frequently t... Read More