(hopefully a return to my regular feature to spotlight books coming out ... hopefully to return to its regular Saturday spot....writer crosses fingers...)
Assail by Ian C Esslemont
For people unfamiliar with the Malazan series of epic fantasy novels this may not be the right place to start but Ian's storytelling is often strong enough so unfamiliarity may not be too big an issue. Assail promises to explore some of the less seen but oft talked about places in the world and may reveal some of the more intriguing pieces of history and legends in their magnificent world. With the main series written by Steven Erikson being over this is a series that may be off people's radar and that is a shame given the wealth of myths that they created for their worlds. If you want to sample Assail here is a link to the tor.com site. Here is the synopsis...
Tens of thousands of years of ice is melting, and the land of Assail, long a byword for menace and inaccessibility, is at last yielding its secrets. Tales of gold discovered in the region’s north circulate in every waterfront dive and sailor’s tavern, and now countless adventurers and fortune-seekers have set sail in search of riches.
Into this turmoil ventures the mercenary company, the Crimson Guard. Not drawn by contract, but by the promise of answers: answers to mysteries that Shimmer, second in command, wonders should even be sought.
Arriving also, part of an uneasy alliance of Malazan fortune-hunters and Letherii soldiery, comes the bard Fisher kel Tath. And with him is a Tiste Andii who was found washed ashore and cannot remember his past life, yet who commands far more power than he really should. Also venturing north is said to be a mighty champion, a man who once fought for the Malazans, the bearer of a sword that slays gods: Whiteblade.
And lastly, far to the south, a woman guards the shore awaiting both her allies and her enemies. Silverfox, newly incarnated Summoner of the undying army of the T’lan Imass, will do anything to stop the renewal of an ages-old crusade that could lay waste to the entire continent and beyond.
The Widow's House by Daniel Abraham
Another fine epic fantasy that may have not gotten attention is the Coin and the Dagger series which began a couple years back with The Dragons Path. Daniel has a real love for the genre and has taken many of his favorite aspects from the genre and blended them with his far reaching imagination to produce this gem of a series. Like GRRM his characters are fully formed having dreams and goals far beyond achieving some quest or fulfilling some vague prophecy and best of all they do not play close to type. Villains in his stories don't commit evil for the sake of being the bad guy as readers you can see and understand their actions heinous though they may be. I've fallen behind on this series as time has gone by but knowing this unique world is out there to revisit is a good thing. The endorsement at the top from Martin goes beyond just a quote since he chose Daniel to write the comic adaptation for Game of Thrones. Here is a link to a sample chapter of this complex character driven fantasy...
Broken Souls by Stephen Blackmoore
When it comes to urban fantasy my tastes tend to run to crime noir edge of the pool and Stephen Blackmoore is possibly one of the more entertaining finds in that area outside of Chuck Wendig. Stephen has a particularly dark sense of humor and I've been looking forward to a follow up to last years novel Dead Things which introduced necromancer Eric Carter. Looking at the description of this along with the list of writers who blurbed this they would have had me with necromancer and Aztec death goddess alone. You can go here to read about it and click through to an excerpt...
Throne & Bones Frostborn by Lou Anders
Lou Anders first novel is something I've been waiting years for since having heard he was working on one. As an editor Lou can pretty much do no wrong in choosing novels or short fiction that is going to be just my kind of thing and this Norse/Viking myth inspired book I expect to be pretty much the same. I don't know I may be setting my sights pretty high but I expect great things from this YA adventure novel and hope to be recommending it wholeheartedly at the store that I work at. Here is a link to Lou's website with a synopsis.. And a further link to Random House's site where there is apparently an excerpt....
The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman
Ok, not that Mr. Grossman needs much signal boost for his series about Quentin Coldwater and the magical land of Fillory but I feel I have to add this along with e fantasy section here. I for one missed volumes one and two and chanced into reviewing volume three and given I am familiar with Portal fantasies I found this third in a series quite readable on its own. I will hit up a full review later this week but suffice to say it was a great mix of moral quandaries, capers, quests and apocalyptic battles as one might expect from a final volume in a series. Here is a link to synopsis and such.... I would ask you to pursue getting yours at a local Indy shop rather then one of the bigger venues...
Arrows of Time by Greg Egan
Like he Magicians Land Arrows of Time is the final book in a series; this though is a hard science fiction tale set in a universe where traveling at near the speed of light makes time go faster for the travelers rather then the people who remain behind. Its a bizarre reverse of our physics and is a compelling setting with its own set of problems and dynamics. Its a series that almost got lost when Nightshade Books near imploded and I'm glad to say it didn't get sucked into that abyss. If you want to read an excerpt go to tor.com here... And what follows is a bit of synopsis...
In an alien universe where space and time play by different rules, interstellar voyages last longer for the travellers than for those they left behind. After six generations in flight, the inhabitants of the mountain-sized spacecraft the Peerless have used their borrowed time to develop advanced technology that could save their home world from annihilation.
But not every traveller feels allegiance to a world they have never seen, and as tensions mount over the risks of turning the ship around and starting the long voyage home, a new complication arises: the prospect of constructing a messaging system that will give the Peerless news of its own future.
Greg Egan’s The Arrows of Time is the final volume of the Orthogonal trilogy.....
So I have a few more but those will have to wait till tomorrow....
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