Excerpt: VIGIL by Angela Slatter (Jo Fletcher Books)

July 11, 2016July 10, 2016 Civilian Reader Excerpt Angela Slatter, Fantasy, Jo Fletcher Books, Mystery, Quercus, Supernatural, Urban Fantasy, Verity Fassbinder Series, Vigil

Angela Slatter‘s Vigil is the first novel in the author’s Verity Fassbinder series, published by Jo Fletcher Books. To celebrate its recent release in the UK, the publisher has provided CR with the following excerpt, as part of an extensive blog tour (details of other stops at end). First, though, here’s the synopsis:

Verity Fassbinder has her feet in two worlds.

The daughter of one human and one Weyrd parent, she has very little power herself, but does claim unusual strength — and the ability to walk between us and the other — as a couple of her talents. As such a rarity, she is charged with keeping the peace between both races, and ensuring the Weyrd remain hidden from us.

But now Sirens are dying, illegal wine made from the tears of human children is for sale — and in the hands of those Weyrd who hold with the old ways — and someone has released an unknown and terrifyingly destructive force on the streets of Brisbane.

And Verity must investigate — or risk ancient forces carving our world apart.

Read on for the excerpt… Continue reading →

Guest Post: “Regeneration Transatlantic” by Stephanie Saulter

May 3, 2016May 1, 2016 Civilian Reader Guest Post ®Evolution, Binary, Gemsigns, Jo Fletcher Books, Quercus, Regeneration, Sci-Fi, Stephanie Saulter

Regeneration, the third and final book of the ®Evolution sequence, is about to drop in North America. Given that it’s been out in the UK for the past eight months, I’ve already done a lot of public meditating on what it’s ‘like’ to have completed the trilogy (short answer: I don’t really know what it’s like. To what can you compare it?). Now I’m thinking about the internationalist dimension. One of the things that I’ve found fascinating, and often surprising, over the past few years is the different ways in which the books have been received and understood in different countries and communities. Continue reading →

Post-Trip Book Plug: ROB BOFFARD and DAVID TOWSEY

March 14, 2016 Civilian Reader Random Book Plug, David Towsey, Hachette, Horror, Impact, Jo Fletcher Books, Must Read 2016, Orbit, Outer Earth Series, Quercus, Rob Boffard, Sci-Fi, Tracer, Walkin' Series, Your Brother's Blood, Your Resting Place, Your Servants and Your People, Zero-G, Zombies

Last week, Alyssa and I went on a short trip to Vancouver. It was excellent (read that in Wayne Campbell’s voice for proper effect), and I think we’re going to do our best to make it an annual thing. Anyway, that’s all beside the point. On Friday, we had the pleasure of meeting up with authors Rob Boffard and David Towsey, two author’s I’ve “known” via the Twitters for what feels like ages. There was talk of books, there was beer, there was clam juice, and there was much merriment.

I thought, therefore, I would just let everyone know (again) about their books, which I think everyone should try…

Rob Boffard’s TRACER, ZERO-G and IMPACT (Orbit)

BoffardR-TracerSeries

A huge space station orbits the Earth, holding the last of humanity. It’s broken, rusted, falling apart. We’ve wrecked our planet, and now we have to live with the consequences: a new home that’s dirty, overcrowded and inescapable.

What’s more, there’s a madman hiding on the station. He’s about to unleash chaos. And when he does, there’ll be nowhere left to run.

Tracer and Zero-G are out now — in both eBook and print in the UK, and eBook in the US (print arriving in June and July). Impact is due to be published in August.

Also on CR: Interview with Rob Boffard; Guest Post on “What to do if You’re Set Adrift in Space?”; Review of Tracer

Links: Author Website, Twitter, Goodreads

David Towsey’s YOUR BROTHER’S BLOOD, YOUR SERVANTS AND YOUR PEOPLE and YOUR RESTING PLACE (Jo Fletcher Books)

TowseyD-WalkinSeries

No one knows who will become a Walkin’ — one of the living dead — when they die, but everyone knows it’s a curse

The earth is a wasteland, with no technology, science, or medicine — but the dead don’t always die. Those who rise again are the Walkin’…

Thomas is thirty-two. He comes from the small town of Barkley. He has a wife there, Sarah, and a child, Mary; good solid names from the Good Book. And he is on his way home from the war, where he has been serving as a conscripted soldier.

Thomas is also dead — he is one of the Walkin’.

And Barkley does not suffer the wicked to live.

All three novels in the Walkin’ series are out now.

Also on CR: Interview with David Towsey; Excerpt from Your Brother’s Blood; Guest Post on “When Reading Habits Become Writing Habits”

Links: Author Website, Twitter, Goodreads

Guest Post: “The Undertaking” by Snorri Kristjansson

July 1, 2015June 30, 2015 Civilian Reader Guest Post Action, Blood Will Follow, Fantasy, History, Jo Fletcher Books, Path of Gods, Quercus, Snorri Kristjansson, Swords of Good Men, Valhalla Saga, Vikings

Have you ever done something you kind of didn‘t quite believe you would manage to do, even while you were doing it? Finished a marathon, wrestled a crocodile, asked someone out in sixth grade? These are the achievements that will come to define your life. We all have them – times when we’ve pushed ourselves to the limit of what we thought we could do, and pushed so hard that we popped out on the other side. Sometimes, of course, it ends in screaming and loss of limbs – but occasionally you actually succeed. Calibrating slightly for levels of adrenaline and fear of immediate death when attempting these feats, underneath is the same feeling of detached wonder and “Whoa. This is happening” – and it starts like this. Continue reading →

Guest Post: “Juggling YA and Adult Fantasy Writing” by David Hair

May 29, 2015May 28, 2015 Civilian Reader Guest Post Ascendant's Rite, David Hair, Fantasy, India, Jo Fletcher Books, Mage's Blood, Moontide Quartet, Mystical, Myth, Pyre, Quercus, Return of Ravana, Scarlet Tides, Unholy War, YA

I read a bit of everything (except romance), but fantasy has always been my big love. I blame that on my introduction to Tolkien at an impressionable (teen-)age. Since then, I’ve been through all of the usual suspects as I explored this amazing genre. I knew I wanted to write a genre novel, but it took a while to overcome a lack of confidence, and a lack of time.

What excited me most were epic fantasies: big juicy stories with apocalyptic plot-lines, huge casts and many complex threads, and a whole imagined world to explore. When I did find time to write however, my best idea happened to be better suited to a teenage/YA audience. Growing up in New Zealand, the son of a truck driver who thought nothing of driving his family for hours to visit friends and relatives, I saw a lot of the countryside. Being enamoured of mythology and history, as I stared out of the windows, I began to populate the landscape with historical places and mythic creatures. The result was The Bone Tiki, which won Best First Book at the New Zealand Children’s Book awards in 2009, and had some commercial success. That opened up the opportunity for me to write sequels, the sum of which (six books) collectively became known as The Aotearoa Series. I wrote most of those books while living in New Delhi, India. My wife works for Immigration New Zealand, and was posted to India for four years. Whilst there, I also wrote The Return of Ravana, a four book YA series set in India. Continue reading →

Guest Review: TRAITOR’S BLADE by Sebastien de Castell (Jo Fletcher Books)

May 25, 2015May 25, 2015 Civilian Reader Guest Post, Review Fantasy, Greatcoats, Jo Fletcher Books, Quercus, Sebastien de Castell, Swashbuckling, Traitor's Blade

Another perspective on the first Greatcoats novel

The King is dead, the Greatcoats have been disbanded, and Falcio Val Mond and his fellow magistrates Kest and Brasti have been reduced to working as bodyguards for a nobleman who refuses to pay them. Things could be worse, of course. Their employer could be lying dead on the floor while they are forced to watch the killer plant evidence framing them for the murder. Oh wait, that’s exactly what’s happening.

Now a royal conspiracy is about to unfold in the most corrupt city in the world. A carefully orchestrated series of murders that began with the overthrow of an idealistic young king will end with the death of an orphaned girl and the ruin of everything that Falcio, Kest, and Brasti have fought for. But if the trio want to foil the conspiracy, save the girl, and reunite the Greatcoats, they’ll have to do it with nothing but the tattered coats on their backs and the swords in their hands, because these days every noble is a tyrant, every knight is a thug, and the only thing you can really trust is a traitor’s blade.

Reviewed by Ryan Frye

I began reading Sebastien De Castell’s Traitor’s Blade late one night and the next thing I knew, it was even later, and I was already a fair chunk into the book. This is one of those books that grabbed my attention immediately and made it easy for me to submerse myself into this new fantasy world and all its trappings. De Castell does this with quick, action packed pacing and a first person narrative voice that makes the story easy to fall into. From page one, there’s great, witty dialog and a dragon’s horde of action. These two elements were the driving forces that kept me reading of Traitor’s Blade as I found some areas where I struggled with the novel. Continue reading →

New Books (April-May)

May 8, 2015August 23, 2018 Civilian Reader New Books Aleksandar Hemon, Bond Street Books, Catie Disabato, Charlaine Harris, Chris Holm, Dan Wells, Duff McKagan, Faber, FSG, GP Putnam's, Grand Central, Harper, Headline, Jason LaPier, Jeffery Deaver, Jenny T. Colgan, Joe Perry, John Sandford, Jonathan Freedland, K.J. Parker, Kate Atkinson, Macmillan, Melville House, Mulholland, Nelson DeMille, Orbit, Quercus, Richard Ford, Robert Charles Wilson, Sabaa Tahir, Sebastien de Castell, SL Grey, Stefan Spjut, Stephanie Saulter, Todd Moss, Tor Books, Voyager

Featuring: Kate Atkinson, Jenny T. Colgan, Sebastien de Castell, Jeffery Deaver, Nelson DeMille, Katie Disabato, Richard Ford, Jonathan Freedland, S.L. Grey, Charlaine Harris, Aleksandar Hemon, Chris Holm, Jason LePier, Duff McKagan, Todd Moss, K.J. Parker, Joe Perry, John Sandford, Stephanie Saulter, Stefan Spjut, Sabaa Tahir, Dan Wells, Robert Charles Wilson Continue reading →

Upcoming from Jo Fletcher Books/Quercus…

April 20, 2015 Civilian Reader Covers, Upcoming Binary, David Hair, Dystopia, Fantasy, In Constant Fear, Jo Fletcher Books, Last Gasp, Peter Liney, Pyre, Quercus, Quercus US, Regeneration, Sci-Fi, Stephanie Saulter, Trevor Hoyle

Here are just a handful of interesting titles coming out soon (and a couple not-so-soon) from Jo Fletcher Books/Quercus. We’re really living in a new golden age of fiction, if you ask me…

David Hair, PYRE (JFB UK, June 4th, 2015)

Mandore, Rajasthan, 769 AD: Ravindra-Raj, the evil sorcerer-king, devises a deadly secret ritual, where he and his seven queens will burn on his pyre, and he will rise again with the powers of Ravana, demon-king of the epic Ramayana. But things go wrong when one queen, the beautiful, spirited Darya, escapes with the help of Aram Dhoop, the court poet.

Jodhpur, Rajasthan, 2010: At the site of ancient Mandore, teenagers Vikram, Amanjit, Deepika and Rasita meet and realize that the deathless king and his ghostly brides are hunting them down. As vicious forces from the past come alive, they need to unlock truths that have been hidden for centuries, and fight an ancient battle… one more time.

A new novel by the author of the Moontide Quartet series – so far including Mage’s Blood, Scarlet Tides and Unholy War. The Moontide Quartet is also published in the US by Quercus.

Trevor Hoyle, THE LAST GASP (JFB UK, April 2016)

It began with the Tokyo Alert – men, women and children collapsing on the street, gasping through blackened lips for the world’s most vital resource: air.

Man-made pollution has poisoned the oceans and eaten through a crucial link in the planet’s life-support system. The seas that recycle the world’s air have reached saturation point and the supply is running out, fast.

Now a breakaway group of men and women from corrupt institutions in America and Russia must work together to find a solution before Environmental war destroys the Earth completely.

This edition of The Last Gasp is a rewritten version of the 1983 novel. (This means the novel is as old as I am… Which, strangely, makes me want to read it more.) It would be really interesting to do a comparison of the two versions.

Peter Liney, IN CONSTANT FEAR (JFB UK, August 6th, 2015)

Over a year has passed since Clancy and the gang managed to escape from the hell that was the City. Pursued by the ruthless leader of Infinity – the corporation behind the mass murders of thousands of ‘lower class’ citizens – they’ve been on the run ever since; constantly looking over their shoulders.

Despite this, they have forged a new life working the land on an abandoned smallholding on the other side of the mountains. Hidden there, they are as close to happy as they can be.

Until strange things start to happen in the valley: too many unlucky coincidences convince them that another power is rising against them, and there are many questions to be answered: what is the shadow maker? And who – or what – has begun to howl in the night?

This is the third novel in Liney’s dystopian series, following The Detainee and Into the Fire. Liney’s series is published in the US by Quercus US.

Also on CR: Interview with Peter Liney; Guest Post on “Seeds in the Desert”; Excerpt from The Detainee

Stephanie Saulter, BINARY (Quercus US, May 5th, 2015)

Zavcka Klist has reinvented herself: no longer the ruthless gemtech enforcer determined to keep the gems they created enslaved, she’s now all about transparency and sharing the fruits of Bel’Natur’s research to help gems and norms alike.

Neither Aryel Morningstar nor Dr. Eli Walker are convinced that Klist or Bel’Natur can have changed so dramatically, but the gems have problems that only a gemtech can solve. In exchange for their help, digital savant Herran agrees to work on Klist’s latest project: reviving the science that drove mankind to the brink of extinction.

Then confiscated genestock disappears from a secure government facility, and the more DI Varsi investigates, the closer she comes to the dark heart of Bel’Natur and what Zavcka Klist is really after-not to mention the secrets of Aryel Morningstar’s own past…

The second novel in the marvellous Revolution series coming out in the US! This is a great series, and a must-read for all. Quercus US also publishes the first novel, Gemsigns.

Stephanie Saulter, REGENERATION (JFB UK, August 6th, 2015)

The gillungs – waterbreathing, genetically modified humans – are thriving. They’ve colonised riverbanks and ports long since abandoned to the rising seas and the demand for their high-efficiency technologies is growing fast.

But as demand grows, so do fears about their impact on both norm businesses and the natural environment.

Then, a biohazard scare at Sinkat, their colony on the Thames, fuels the opposition and threatens to derail the gillungs’ progress. But was it an accident, or was it sabotage?

DCI Sharon Varsi has her suspicions, but her investigations are compromised by family ties. And now there is a new threat: Zavcka Klist is about to be released from prison – and she wants her company back.

The third novel in the Revolution series, out soon in the UK — Gemsigns and Binary also published in the UK by Jo Fletcher Books.

Also on CR: Review of Gemsigns; Guest Post on “Influences & Inspirations”; Excerpt from Gemsigns

Interview with JAMES BENMORE

April 2, 2015 Civilian Reader Interview Artful Dodger, Dickens, Dodger, Dodger of the Dials, Dodger of the Revolution, Heron, Historical, James Benmore, Oliver Twist, Quercus

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is James Benmore?

I’m the author of a trilogy of novels that further the adventures of Jack Dawkins from Oliver Twist – or the Artful Dodger as you and I might call him. The first of these books, Dodger, was released to a very warm reception last year and so it’s been a real pleasure to keep his story going for another two books.

Your next novel, Dodger of the Dials, is published in paperback this year by Heron. It’s your second novel about the Artful Dodger. How would you introduce the series to a new reader, and what can fans of the first expect?

So, Dodger picks up six years after the events of Oliver Twist. In that book, Jack was arrested for pickpocketing and was transported to an Australian penal colony. But now he’s back in London under mysterious circumstances with a task to locate a priceless jewel which is lost somewhere within the city. The story leads Jack back into some of the darker areas of his past and he finds out what has become of many of the other young orphans that once shared Fagin’s home with him. It’s a historical crime caper with one of literature’s most irreverent anti-heroes at its center.

Dodger of the Dials is set a year after that and now an even more emboldened Dawkins is establishing himself as one of London’s most ambitious criminals. He’s moved from pickpocketing and is now a burglar-on-demand, cracking great houses on behalf of dubious wealthy clients. He also runs a significantly large gang in the Seven Dials vicinity called ‘the Diallers’ but his success attracts unwanted attention from an even bigger career criminal called Weeping Billy Slade. We see the beginnings of what we now call organized crime but this prototype is a disaster for Jack. Before long he’s in a condemned cell awaiting his own execution like Fagin before him and with some desperate plans for escape. Continue reading →

New Greatcoats Competition from Jo Fletcher Books

March 5, 2015March 5, 2015 Civilian Reader Giveaway, Random Fantasy, Greatcoats, GreatcoatsDecide, Jo Fletcher Books, Knight's Shadow, Most Anticipated 2015, Quercus, Sebastien de Castell

Today marks the release of Knight’s Shadow, the highly-anticipated follow-up to Sebastien de Castell‘s debut, Traitor’s Blade. To celebrate, Jo Fletcher Books are running a competition on their website.

There is a test every magistrate must take before becoming a Greatcoat – it comes in the form of a puzzle from a very old book called Peritas Aequitum, which literally means Perils of Justice. It’s quite possible that this book was the original text used to train the very first Greatcoats in centuries past.

This puzzle asks the examinee to decide the outcome of a case for which Tristia’s complex laws provide several different — equally valid — legal outcomes. The Greatcoat confronted by this situation is thus forced to render a verdict even though any choice they make is guaranteed to make matters worse…

To be in with a chance to win a copy of the new novel, head on over to JFB’s website for full details on how to win. In the meantime, here’s the synopsis for the novel:

Tristia is a nation overcome by intrigue and corruption. The idealistic young King Paelis is dead and the Greatcoats – legendary travelling magistrates who brought justice to the Kingdom – have been branded as traitors. But just before his head was impaled on a spike, the King swore each of his hundred and forty-four Greatcoats to a different mission.

Falcio Val Mond, First Cantor, with the help of fellow Greatcoats Kest and Brasti, has completed his King’s final task: he has found his Charoites – well, one at least, and she was not quite what they expected. Now they must protect the girl from the many who would see her dead, and place her on the throne of a lawless kingdom. That would be simple enough, if it weren’t for the Daishini, an equally legendary band of assassins, getting in their way, not to forget the Dukes who are determined to hold on to their fractured Kingdoms, or the fact that the heir to the throne is only thirteen years old. Oh, and the poison that is slowly killing Falcio.

That’s not even mentioning the Greatcoat’s Lament…

I already have a copy of the novel, and I intend to start it ASAP – either next, or next-but-one.

Also on CR: Interview with Sebastien de Castell; Guest Post “Where Writers Get Their Groove”; Review of Traitor’s Blade