Smorgasbord Fantasia

 Featuring our recurring meme to bring out some of the most anticipated releases in the SFF genre, today we are featuring Daniel Abraham's new epic fantasy series, called The Kithamar Trilogy with the first book in the series named Age of Ash. So Daniel Abraham is of course the famous 'half' of the writing duo that gave us the critically acclaimed The Expanse science-fiction series and before, has the fantastic Dagger and Coin series ( which, I have yet to finish, sigh guilty!) But I cannot wait to jump onto this new one ( Seems like a long wait though!)  Kithamar is a center  of  trade and wealth, an ancient city with a long, bloody history where countless thousands live and their stories unfold. This is Alys’s. Alys is simply a petty thief from the slums  of  Longhill, but when her brother is murdered, she sets out to discover who killed him and why. But the more she discovers about him, the more she learns about herself, and the truths she finds are more...

 If you have been obsessed with games, counter-culture, mysteries and in general, a good twisty read that fucks with your mind, then you will dig this one, Rabbits by Terry Miles . Based off on a long running podcasts about an allegedly secret game based on alternate reality, Rabbits is a thriller that is full of so many interesting forgotten culture/ game references that by the time you get to the bottom of the mystery, you are so mind-fucked that you don't even care.  Set in Seattle, the main protagonist is K, who is obsessed with games and mysteries all his life. He's the kind who frequents dark web forums, hangs out at old gaming arcades and loves dispensing tidbits about mysterious ARG's that the underworld gaming fanatics have only heard about and are drawn to. A self-professed expert on this game called Rabbits, that is one of the most secretive alternate reality games out there, K gets pulled deeper into this game, when a reclusive billionaire named Alan Shapiro see...

The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French, the series Lot Lands has been on my radar for a long time now - and I think with the stunning conclusion for the whole series coming through in September with the new book, The Free Bastards , I want jump onto that hog-saddle (wink! Raised on the Saddle, Born to be Free, is the by-line for the new book) - Eagerly waiting to get down and dirty with these half-orcs and the looming war ahead!  The long-awaited war has come in the conclusion to the Lot Lands trilogy. War has come to the Lot Lands—and Oats stands upon the frontline. The Hisparthan armies on the horizon are mighty, bolstered by divine champions, dread sorcerers, and gunpowder. It’s almost more than the half-orc rebellion can hope to repel. But Oats has won impossible fights before. He’s a thriceblood, after all, more orc than man. And he hasn’t forgotten how to kill. He’ll stack the bodies high for his chief and his brethren, if that’s the price of freeing the Lots from human tyra...

 The Priest of Bones by Peter McLean is a grim-dark low-fantasy opener to a series, that came out a few years back. Having read his first series, The Burned Man trilogy - which was excellent stuff - I had no qualms in jumping onto this bandwagon. And within minutes I was swept away by the grim fortunes of One Mr. Tomas Piety and his men, soldiers returning back from an ill-fated war to their home-town of Ellinburg, to an even more lopsided state of affairs with usurping foreigners, political machinations and poverty and diseases at large in his home-town.  The setting is that of the town of Ellinburg, a down and out town with its motley collection of barhouses, whorehouses and gambling circles. A place gone to rot, with the so-called 'nobles' interested only in their own parties fueled by substance-abuse. The corrupt Governor with his men of law, are only interested in who is paying them higher taxes. Divided and ruled by different gang-lands, the most prominent are of cour...

 Cameron Johnston's first series, for some reason, skimmed low on the radar of many readers/bloggers, which I think was a shame. Because I found his first book, The Traitor God, to be an absolute doozy of a debut . But I think, this one - The Maleficent Seven pitched as the Fantasy version of the Magnificent Seven, but featuring all villains, is going to be the definitive breakout novel for Johnston.  This was bloody relentless non-stop fun all the way, right from get go. Johnston gives us a heady mix of a line up of the most reprehensible villains (think Bloodthirsty Dracula rip-offs, Witches who control demons and death, Angry uncontrollable orcs, pirate queens and a pissed-off God of war along with a psychopath of an alchemist who relishes the most gory experiments ever!) going to head-to-head with a religious fanatic blessed by a mysterious Goddess' power of lightning. Yup, it is as bonkers as it sounds. And even more fun, when it actually comes to the execution on paper....