Tag: Dark fantasy

The Copper Assassin – Madolyn Rogers

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In the sixteenth year of its founding, the city-state of Wyverna teems with vitality, rife with crime, secrets, and sorcery. Like its namesake, the wyverns that hunt from the mountains above, Wyverna is a city of predators. Its pirates sail out to plunder the wealth of nations, while at home the capital seethes, an uneasy amalgam of the old ways of its anarchic peoples and the newly imposed rule of law.

The young noble Gorgo navigates these complexities with ease, until one night he learns of a plot to assassinate Wyverna’s legendary founder, the Warlord. The rebels have obtained a mighty relic: an ancient copper golem created to be the ultimate assassin. Invulnerable and relentless, the golem destroyed the civilization that birthed it. If it kills the Warlord, Gorgo realizes his city too will fall, ripped apart by civil war.

Armed with nothing but his wits and his courage, Gorgo sets out to find a way to save Wyverna. His mission will take him from the elegant casinos of downtown to the chaotic docks where smugglers prowl, from the hot sands of the arena to the cold midnight of magic-shadowed streets. But even he cannot foresee where his path will ultimately lead, and to what consequences. Continue reading “The Copper Assassin – Madolyn Rogers” →

Blood of Heirs – Alicia Wanstall-Burke

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Lidan Tolak is the fiercest of her father’s daughters; more than capable of one day leading her clan. But caught between her warring parents, Lidan’s world begins to unravel when another of her father’s wives falls pregnant. Before she has time to consider the threat of a brother, a bloody swathe is cut through the heart of the clan and Lidan must fight, not only to prove her worth, but simply to survive.

Ranoth Olseta wants nothing more than to be a worthy successor to his father’s throne. When his home is threatened by the aggressive Woaden Empire, Ran becomes his city’s saviour, but powers within him are revealed by the enemy and he is condemned to death. Confused and betrayed, Ran is forced to flee his homeland, vowing to reclaim what he has lost, even if it kills him.

Facing an unknown future, and battling forces both familiar and foreign, can Lidan and Ran overcome the odds threatening to drag them into inescapable darkness? Continue reading “Blood of Heirs – Alicia Wanstall-Burke” →

The Girl and the Stars – Mark Lawrence

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In the ice, east of the Black Rock, there is a hole into which broken children are thrown. Yaz’s people call it the Pit of the Missing and now it is drawing her in as she has always known it would.

To resist the cold, to endure the months of night when even the air itself begins to freeze, requires a special breed. Variation is dangerous, difference is fatal. And Yaz is not the same.

Yaz’s difference tears her from the only life she’s ever known, away from her family, from the boy she thought she would spend her days with, and has to carve out a new path for herself in a world whose existence she never suspected. A world full of difference and mystery and danger.

Yaz learns that Abeth is older and stranger than she had ever imagined. She learns that her weaknesses are another kind of strength and that the cruel arithmetic of survival that has always governed her people can be challenged. Continue reading “The Girl and the Stars – Mark Lawrence” →

The Shadow Saint – Gareth Hanrahan

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The Gutter Miracle changed the landscape of Guerdon forever. Six months after it was conjured into being, the labyrinthine New City has become a haven for criminals and refugees.

Rumors have spread of a devastating new weapon buried beneath the streets – a weapon with the power to destroy a god. As Guerdon strives to remain neutral, two of the most powerful factions in the godswar send agents into the city to find it.

As tensions escalate and armies gather at the borders, how long will Guerdon be able to keep its enemies at bay? Continue reading “The Shadow Saint – Gareth Hanrahan” →

Legacy of Ash – Matthew Ward

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A shadow has fallen over the Tressian Republic.

Ruling families – once protectors of justice and democracy – now plot against one another with sharp words and sharper knives. Blinded by ambition, they remain heedless of the threat posed by the invading armies of the Hadari Empire.

Yet as Tressia falls, heroes rise.

Viktor Akadra is the Republic’s champion. A warrior without equal, he hides a secret that would see him burned as a heretic.

Josiri Trelan is Viktor’s sworn enemy. A political prisoner, he dreams of reigniting his mother’s failed rebellion.

And yet Calenne, Josiri’s sister, seeks only to break free of their tarnished legacy; to escape the expectation and prejudice that haunts the Trelan name.

As war spreads across the Republic, these three must set aside their differences in order to save their homeland. However, decades of bad blood are not easily forgotten – victory will demand a darker price than any of them could have imagined. Continue reading “Legacy of Ash – Matthew Ward” →

Blood of an Exile – Brian Naslund

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Bershad stands apart from the world, the most legendary dragonslayer in history, both revered and reviled.

Once, he was Lord Silas Bershad, but after a disastrous failure on the battlefield he was stripped of his titles and sentenced to one violent, perilous hunt after another. Now he lives only to stalk dragons, slaughter them, collect their precious oil, and head back into the treacherous wilds once more. For years, death was his only chance to escape. But that is about to change.

The king who sentenced Bershad to his fate has just given him an unprecedented chance at redemption. Kill a foreign emperor and walk free forever.

The journey will take him across dragon-infested mountains, through a seedy criminal underworld, and into a forbidden city guarded by deadly technology.

But the links of fate bind us all. Continue reading “Blood of an Exile – Brian Naslund” →

Queens of the Wyrd – Timandra Whitecastle

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Half-giant Lovis and her Shieldmaiden warband were once among the fiercest warriors in Midgard. But those days are long past and now Lovis just wants to provide a safe home for herself and her daughter – that is, until her former shield-sister Solveig shows up on her doorstep with shattering news.

Solveig’s warrior daughter is trapped on the Plains of Vigrid in a siege gone ugly. Desperate to rescue her, Sol is trying to get the old warband back together again. But their glory days are a distant memory. The Shieldmaidens are Shieldmothers now, entangled in domestic obligations and ancient rivalries.

But family is everything, and Lovis was never more at home than at her shield-sisters’ side. Their road won’t be easy: old debts must be paid, wrongs must be righted, and the Nornir are always pulling on loose threads, leaving the Shieldmaidens facing the end of all Nine Realms. Ragnarok is coming, and if the Shieldmaidens can’t stop it, Lovis will lose everyone she loves… Continue reading “Queens of the Wyrd – Timandra Whitecastle” →

Ravencaller – David Dalglish

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Magical creatures are attacking the capital city, seeking to retake what was once theirs, and no one is safe. Ancient cultists have cursed the highest members of the Church, turning them into twisted abominations. The only hope for a cure lies with Adria Eveson. To learn the cure, she must befriend an imprisoned cultist, and guard her heart against his seductive promises and twisted logic.

The fate of all races, human and magical, rests in her hands, and in the choices she makes. Should she choose wrong, only one person stands in her way: her brother, the Soulkeeper Devin Eveson. Continue reading “Ravencaller – David Dalglish” →

Crooked Kingdom – Leigh Bardugo

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Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz’s cunning and test the team’s fragile loyalties. A war will be waged on the city’s dark and twisting streets―a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world. Continue reading “Crooked Kingdom – Leigh Bardugo” →

The New World – Mark Lawrence

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So, the other day on Twitter, Mark Lawrence asked if there were any bloggers interested in reading a new novella featuring Jal & Snorri, the two main characters from his Red Queen’s War trilogy.

My hand shot up like a kid who FINALLY knew an answer in class!

It’s wild to think that Mark Lawrence has four completed trilogies out in the world, but there it is. He’s one of my absolute favorite authors, and while Book of the Ancestor is currently my most favorite of his, The Red Queen’s War has a very special place in my heart. Lawrence’s humor comes through in all of his work, but The Red Queen’s War books are for sure his funniest. Of course they are also beautifully written, bloody & brutal, and insanely gut-punchy & emotional. But still fucking hilarious.

The New World is going to be included with the upcoming Grim Oak Press omnibus edition of The Red Queen’s War (I may or may not have shamed my sister into pre-ordering it for my birthday that just went by), but I couldn’t pass up the chance to reconnect with Jal & Snorri, one of the most memorable fantasy duos of ever!!

(Oh, if you haven’t read The Broken Empire and The Red Queen’s War trilogies…this might be a bit spoilery)

The New World finds Jal & Snorri reunited, and boarding a ship to set sail for the New World (which, if I’m understanding my Broken Empire geography, would be somewhere in North America). There’s a small crew aboard the ship, some familiar faces, some new. Jalan is now a cardinal, yet another job for which he seems rather ill-suited. But he’s happy, thrilled to be together with Snorri, and adventure is in the air.

Then they set sail and it’s one fucking nightmare after another.

Jalan is no great lover of the sea, but they have a very long voyage ahead of them. Like…long to the point where Jalan tries making stew out of old boot leather.

*ahem*

This is just a fun story, and it thrilled me to get to see Jal & Snorri together again! It has everything you’d want in a nautical fantasy tale…mutinies, funerals at sea, pirates, epic bad weather, puking, hardtack…The New World has got it all!

This is a quick story you could read in one sitting, but one of the most exciting things about it is the introduction by Lawrence. He mentions that while The New World stands on its own (it does), it was written as the begging of a new Jal & Snorri novel!

*dies*

Maybe that novel gets finished someday, and maybe it doesn’t. Either way, it was great to catch up with these two! I think Jalan Kendeth will forever be Lawrence’s funniest & most surprising character. And Snorri…oof…an over-sized Viking with a heart to match…they were the unlikeliest of duos, and the friendship that developed between them is one of my favorites in all the fantasy books I’ve read.

Thanks so much to Mark Lawrence for sending me a digital copy of The New World!!