Fantasy

Review: THE THORN OF DENTONHILL by Marshall Ryan Maresca (DAW Books)

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MarescaMR-1-ThornOfDentonhillUSAn interesting start to a new series

Veranix Calbert leads a double life. By day, he’s a struggling magic student at the University of Maradaine. At night, he spoils the drug trade of Willem Fenmere, crime boss of Dentonhill and murderer of Veranix’s father. He’s determined to shut Fenmere down.

With that goal in mind, Veranix disrupts the delivery of two magical artifacts meant for Fenmere’s clients, the mages of the Blue Hand Circle.  Using these power-filled objects in his fight, he quickly becomes a real thorn in Fenmere’s side.

So much so that soon not only Fenmere, but powerful mages, assassins, and street gangs all want a piece of “The Thorn.” And with professors and prefects on the verge of discovering his secrets, Veranix’s double life might just fall apart. Unless, of course, Fenmere puts an end to it first.

Maresca’s The Thorn of Dentonhill is the first novel set in the author’s Maradaine world. It is, for the most part, a well-conceived and well-written melange of popular fantasy sub-genres: there’s a university with a magic department, there is some vigilante derring-do and thievery. I had a couple of minor issues, but mostly this was an enjoyable, quite fun start. Continue reading →

Guest Post: “Watership Down, Or the Film that Made Me” by Jen Williams

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WilliamsJen-AuthorPicI was going to write about some of my non-book influences for this guest blog. There are a lot of them – the video game Dragon Age, which pretty much singlehandedly reinvigorated my love of high fantasy; the TV show Farscape, partly responsible I suspect for my obsession with snippy banter and weird creatures; and Labyrinth, of course – what fantasy fan of my age wasn’t influenced by Labyrinth? And then I remembered a conversation I had way back when The Copper Promise was a tiny wee novella. Someone asked me if I’d named Lord Frith after the god of rabbits in Watership Down. I laughed, because if anyone would object to being named after the god of rabbits it’s probably my grumpy Lord Frith, and then I stopped laughing, because I realised I had done exactly that. Not entirely consciously, but then Watership Down has been with me for a very long time, and I have over the years noted it cropping up in tiny ways in lots of things I did. For me, Watership Down was a film before it was the book – I love the book very much, but if you really wanted to mess with my head as a very small child, you needed to come in the form of a cartoon. Continue reading →

Upcoming: LORD OF ASHES by Richard Ford (Headline)

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Spotted the cover for Richard Ford‘s third Steelhaven novel, Lord of Ashes, on Twitter and thought I’d share it and the synopsis on here:

The third novel in Richard Ford’s magificent fantasy series has enough thrills, valour, guts and glory to satisy any die-fard fan of David Gemmell and Joe Abercrombie.

FIGHT TO THE DEATH…

The queen of Steelhaven has grown in strength. Taking up her dead father’s sword, she must defend the city from the dread warlord Amon Tugha and his blood-thirsty army now at the gates. A vicious, unrelenting four-day battle ensues, the most perilous yet.

…OR BOW TO THE ENEMY

No side is immune from danger as all hell breaks loose, with the threat of coups and the unleashing of the deadliest and darkest magick. Loyalty, strength and cunning will be put to test in the quest for victory. What fate awaits the free states?

Published in the UK by Headline in October 2015, Lord of Ashes follows Herald of the Storms and The Shattered Crown.

Book Trailer: TOUCH by Claire North (Redhook/Orbit)

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I am a huge fan of Claire North‘s novels – The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is probably one of my favourite novels, and Touch (out next week) is also brilliant. Published by Redhook/Orbit Books (US/UK), both of these novels are absolute must-reads for all. To celebrate the release of Touch, Orbit has commissioned a trailer:

Here’s the novel’s synopsis and cover:

NorthC-TouchKepler had never meant to die this way — viciously beaten to death by a stinking vagrant in a dark back alley. But when reaching out to the murderer for salvation in those last dying moments, a sudden switch takes place.

Now Kepler is looking out through the eyes of the killer himself, staring down at a broken and ruined body lying in the dirt of the alley.

Instead of dying, Kepler has gained the ability to roam from one body to another, to jump into another person’s skin and see through their eyes, live their life — be it for a few minutes, a few months or a lifetime.

Kepler means these host bodies no harm — and even comes to cherish them intimately like lovers. But when one host, Josephine Cebula, is brutally assassinated, Kepler embarks on a mission to seek the truth — and avenge Josephine’s death.

In related news, gleaned from Hachette US’s website, in November Orbit is publishing three new titles by North: The Serpent of Venice, The Master of the House and The Thief of Bangkok. (I’m guessing novellas, as there’s scant information available at this time.)

New Books (February #1)

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Featuring: Joe Abercrombie, Mark Alder, Michel Bussi, Michael Christie, John Clarkson, Toby Clements, Myke Cole, Rowena Cory Daniells, William Dietz, Cecilia Ekbäck, Christopher Fowler, John French, Steven Harper, Lee Kelly, Jean Hanff Korelitz, Ursula le Guin, Stephen Marche, Marshall Ryan Maresca, George R.R. Martin, Paul McAuley, Ben Mezrich, Michael Moorcock, Michael Alan Nelson, Peter Orullian, Den Patrick, Justina Robson, Andrzej Sapkowski, Joe Schreiber, Harry Turtledove, Nicolle Wallace Continue reading →

Interview with MARSHALL RYAN MARESCA

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MarescaMR-AuthorPicLet’s start with an introduction: Who is Marshall Ryan Maresca?

I’m a fantasy and sci-fi writer living in Austin, TX, as well as an occasional playwright. I grew up in upstate New York, outside of Syracuse, but fled from lake-effect winters to hotter climates when I finished college.

Your debut, The Thorn of Dentonhill, will be published by DAW Books in the US, in February. How would you introduce the novel to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

The Thorn of Dentonhill follows Veranix Calbert, a magic-student by day, vigilante-by-night who fights his own personal war against a drug trafficking gang.  It’s a fast-paced adventure, filled with action, magic and snappy dialogue. Is it part of a series?  Short answer: yes. More complicated answer: Thorn is the first in a series following Veranix, but my next book — A Murder of Mages — is in the same setting, but following different characters. So there will be two separate series that cohabit the same space. Continue reading →

Excerpt: GUNS OF THE DAWN by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor)

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TchaikovskyA-GunsOfTheDawnToday I have a short extract from Adrian Tchaikovsky‘s Guns of the Dawn, one of my top 5 Most Anticipated novels of 2015. Published this month by Tor UK, I can’t wait to read it. Tchaikovsky recently wrote a guest blog for CR about the genesis of the novel – “The Art of Gunsmithing – Writing Guns of the Dawn“. First up, here’s the synopsis:

Denland and Lascanne have been allies for generations, but now the Denlanders have assassinated their king, overthrown the monarchy and marched on their northern neighbour. At the border, the war rages; Lascanne’s brave redcoats against the revolutionaries of Denland.

Emily Marshwic has watched the war take her brother-in-law and now her young brother. Then comes the call for more soldiers, to a land already drained of husbands, fathers and sons. Every household must give up one woman to the army and Emily has no choice but to join the ranks of young women marching to the front.

In the midst of warfare, with just enough training to hold a musket, Emily comes face to face with the reality: the senseless slaughter; the weary cynicism of the Survivor’s Club; the swamp’s own natives hiding from the conflict.

As the war worsens, and Emily begins to have doubts about the justice of Lascanne’s cause, she finds herself in a position where her choices will make or destroy both her own future and that of her nation.

Now, on with the extract! Continue reading →

Upcoming: WHEN THE HEAVENS FALL by Marc Turner (Tor)

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TurnerM-1-WherTheHeavensFallsUSI don’t remember when I first spotted information about Marc Turner‘s When the Heavens Fall, but it’s stuck in my mind ever since. The first in a new epic swords ‘n’ sorcery fantasy series, I’m looking forward to giving it a try. It’s due to be published in the US by Tor Books in May 2015. Here’s the synopsis:

If you pick a fight with Shroud, Lord of the Dead, you had better ensure your victory, else death will mark only the beginning of your suffering.

A book giving its wielder power over the dead has been stolen from a fellowship of mages that has kept the powerful relic dormant for centuries. The thief, a crafty, power-hungry necromancer, intends to use the Book of Lost Souls to resurrect an ancient race and challenge Shroud for dominion of the underworld. Shroud counters by sending his most formidable servants to seize the artifact at all cost.

However, the god is not the only one interested in the Book, and a host of other forces converge, drawn by the powerful magic that has been unleashed. Among them is a reluctant Guardian who is commissioned by the Emperor to find the stolen Book, a troubled prince who battles enemies both personal and political, and a young girl of great power, whose past uniquely prepares her for an encounter with Shroud. The greatest threat to each of their quests lies not in the horror of an undead army but in the risk of betrayal from those closest to them. Each of their decisions comes at a personal cost and will not only affect them, but also determine the fate of their entire empire.

Upcoming: THE DINOSAUR LORDS by Victor Milán (Tor)

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MilanV-DinosaurLordsUSAlmost everything about this book cries out “wish fulfilment”: Action! Adventure! Dinosaurs! Knights riding them! Victor Milán‘s The Dinosaur Lords is published in North America by Tor Books in July 2015.

Not sure if there are more books planned in the series, but I’m rather looking forward to reading The Dinosaur Lords. Here’s the synopsis:

A world made by the Eight Creators on which to play out their games of passion and power, Paradise is a sprawling, diverse, often brutal place. Men and women live on Paradise as do dogs, cats, ferrets, goats, and horses. But dinosaurs predominate: wildlife, monsters, beasts of burden–and of war.  Colossal plant-eaters like Brachiosaurus; terrifying meat-eaters like Allosaurus, and the most feared of all, Tyrannosaurus rex. Giant lizards swim warm seas. Birds (some with teeth) share the sky with flying reptiles that range in size from bat-sized insectivores to majestic and deadly Dragons.

Thus we are plunged into Victor Milán’s splendidly weird world of The Dinosaur Lords, a place that for all purposes mirrors 14th century Europe with its dynastic rivalries, religious wars, and byzantine politics…except the weapons of choice are dinosaurs. Where vast armies of dinosaur-mounted knights engage in battle. During the course of one of these epic battles, the enigmatic mercenary Dinosaur Lord Karyl Bogomirsky is defeated through betrayal and left for dead.  He wakes, naked, wounded, partially amnesiac–and hunted. And embarks upon a journey that will shake his world.

Excerpt: THE BROKEN SWORD by Poul Anderson (Open Road)

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AndersonP-TheBrokenSwordPoul Anderson‘s The Broken Sword was published the same year as J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring (1954), and draws on some of the same Scandinavian mythology and history to create its fantasy world. The novel has been described as “a masterful tale of men, elves, and gods that is at once breathtakingly exciting and heartbreakingly tragic.” A winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, Anderson is considered by many to be one of the masters of “golden-age” speculative fiction. The Broken Sword was recently released in eBook by Open Road Media, as well as 16 of the author’s other novels.

Here’s the synopsis:

In his greed for land and power, Orm the Strong slays the family of a Saxon witch—and for his sins, the Northman must pay with his newborn son. Stolen by elves and replaced by a changeling, Skafloc is raised to manhood unaware of his true heritage and treasured for his ability to handle the iron that the elven dare not touch. Meanwhile, the being who supplanted him as Orm’s son grows up angry and embittered by the humanity he has been denied. A pawn in a witch’s vengeance, the creature Valgard will never know love, and consumed by rage, he will commit a murderous act of unspeakable vileness.

It is their destiny to finally meet on the field of battle—the man-elf and his dark twin, the monster—when the long-simmering war between elves and trolls finally erupts with a devastating fury. And only the mighty sword Tyrfing, broken by Thor and presented to Skafloc in infancy, can turn the tide in a terrible clashing of faerie folk that will ultimately determine the fate of the old gods.

Read on for a two-chapter excerpt. Continue reading →