Short Fiction Round-Up: Hillary Jordan, Brian McClellan, Tom Rachman & Frank Cavallo

July 22, 2013January 8, 2015 Civilian Reader Review Aftermirth, Bathtub Spy, Black Library, Brian McClellan, eBook, eNovella, Fantasy, Fiction, Frank Cavallo, Girl of Hrusch Avenue, Hillary Jordan, Into the Valley of Death, Kindle Single, Short Story, Tom Rachman, Warhammer

I’ve been reading a selection of short stories over the past couple of weeks, but I keep forgetting, or getting distracted from posting the reviews. So, to speed things up, I’ve compiled this selection of four reviews. Each is very different to the others, and offers something different. Not all of them were great, but each has something to offer the reader with a couple of hours to spare – either on a commute, or in between longer reads as palate cleansers. I had a lot more to say about one of them, but it is part of a much larger, decade-spanning series.

Reviewed: Frank Cavallo’s Into the Valley of Death, Hillary Jordan’s Aftermirth, Brian McClellan’s The Girl of Hrusch Avenue, and Tom Rachman’s The Bathtub Spy Continue reading →

Interview with BRIAN McCLELLAN

June 19, 2013September 29, 2025 Civilian Reader Interview Brian McClellan, Crimson Campaign, Epic, Fantasy, Gunpowder Fantasy, Orbit, Powder Mage, Promise of Blood

Brian McClellan’s debut fantasy, Promise of Blood, has caused quite a splash in the SFF community. It blends fast-paced story-telling with a new and interesting world, and a plethora of interesting and engaging characters. Brian has already featured on Civilian Reader a few of times already. He has written two guest posts – on his favourite novel, and also Protagonist Ages in Epic Fantasy – and I have reviewed the novel already, too. He was kind enough to take some time to answer my questions about his fiction, writing practices, and more… Continue reading →

Review: PROMISE OF BLOOD by Brian McClellan (Orbit)

April 15, 2013January 8, 2015 Civilian Reader Review Brian McClellan, Epic, Fantasy, Flintlock Fantasy, Orbit, Powder Mage, Promise of Blood

One of 2013’s most Hotly-Tipped Fantasy Debuts

“The Age of Kings is dead. And I have killed it.”

Field Marshal Tamas’s coup against his king sends corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brings bread to the starving. But it also provokes war in the Nine Nations, internal attacks by royalist fanatics and greedy scrambling for money and power by Tamas’s supposed allies: the Church, workers’ unions and mercenary forces.

Stretched to his limit, Tamas relies heavily on his few remaining powder mages, including the embittered Taniel, a brilliant marksman who also happens to be Tamas’s estranged son, and Adamat, a retired police inspector whose loyalty will be tested to its limit.

Now, amid the chaos, a whispered rumour is spreading. A rumour about omens of death and destruction. Just old peasant legends about the gods returning to walk the earth. No modern educated man believes that sort of thing…

But perhaps they should.

I’ve been looking forward to this novel for a good long while. When I was finally able to get my mitts on a copy, I tore into it, and blitzed through it far quicker than I normally do for a 500+ page novel. Bottom line, while there are a few niggles, Promise of Blood is a lot of fun, and the start of something potentially fantastic. Continue reading →

Upcoming: “The Crimson Campaign” by Brian McClellan (Orbit)

March 9, 2013September 29, 2025 Civilian Reader Uncategorized 2014, Brian McClellan, Crimson Campaign, Epic, Fantasy, February, Gene Mollica, Lauren Panepinto, Michael Frost, Orbit, Powder Mage, Upcoming

Despite the first book in Brian McClellan’s Powder Mage trilogy still a few weeks away (I’ll get a review up ASAP), Orbit have unveiled the artwork for its sequel, THE CRIMSON CAMPAIGN!

I really like this, too. McClellan’s debut series may end up having some of the nicest covers in a long while. Or, since Joe Abercrombie’s and Mark Lawrence’s… The Photo-Illustration is by Michael Frost and Gene Mollica, and the design is by the ever-excellent and super-talented Lauren Panepinto.

No synopsis for the novel is available just yet, but The Crimson Campaign will be published by Orbit in February 2014.

Also on CR: Guest Posts by Brian McClellan “My Favorite Novel” & “Protagonist Ages in Epic Fantasy”

Guest Post: “Protagonist Ages in Epic Fantasy” by Brian McClellan

March 5, 2013January 8, 2015 Civilian Reader Guest Post Brian McClellan, Epic, Fantasy, Guest Blog, Hero With a Thousand Faces, Hero's Journey, Joseph Campbell, Orbit, Powder Mage, Promise of Blood, Protagonist Ages in Epic Fantasy

Brian McClellan is the author of the upcoming PROMISE OF BLOOD, the first in the Powder Mage Trilogy (Orbit, April 2013). Here he discusses age conventions in Epic Fantasy…

“Protagonist Ages in Epic Fantasy”

The young farm boy is so common in fiction that it’s become a cliché. I grew up reading about farm boys, or some other young, naive laborer, in the works of David Eddings, Tad Williams, Robert Jordan, or William Goldman. My favorite movie as a kid – Star Wars – centered around a farm boy who, like those in the books I liked, yearned for adventure and then was booted out of his home in a twist of fate and became savior of the nation! Or country. Or world. Or galaxy.

You get the point.

So why the young farm boy? Continue reading →