Smorgasbord Fantasia

 Stephen Aryan wrote one of my favorite books last year, The Coward - a splendid tale about an adventure quest across a frozen landscape, featuring a loveable company of 'cowards' with the themes of found family, valour packed in with a healthy dose of politicking, comedy and some well-written vicious action scenes and some crazy twisted monsters to boot. So color me pleasantly surprised, when a sequel to The Coward was announced. But boy, am I happy that I got to tag along with Kell and company for another harrowing quest, in the new book in this series called The Warrior.   So the events of The Warrior happen a few years post The Coward (Where notably, all the threads were tied up very well!) Kell, our favorite reluctant hero is now King and clearly displeased at this turn of events and his new responsibilities. And as usual. itching for an adventure. And hey presto! Look who's back! Our favorite ' Alfar ' (an almost human-like race, known for their strength, en...

 I am honoured to be part of the online book-tour for the upcoming epic fantasy novel The Last Blade Priest by W P Wiles , from the Angry Robot Books .  The book releases on July 12th and is available for pre-order .  The Last Blade Priest is a featured top ten TBR for this quarter for me and for good solid reason! Here's the blurb that should get you all hot and excited, for what I am hoping is an absolutely wonderful epic fantasy romp, with some stunning worldbuilding and brilliantly realised characters, caught up in a maelstrom completely out of their control.  Inar is Master Builder for the Kingdom of Mishig-Tenh. Life is hard after the Kingdom lost the war against the League of Free Cities. Doubly so since his father betrayed the King and paid the ultimate price. And now the King’s terrifying chancellor and torturer in chief has arrived and instructed Inar to go and work for the League. And to spy for him. And any builder knows you don’t put yourself between a...

  Obsidian is Sarah J Daley 's debut epic fantasy novel from Angry Robot overlords, that released last month. This was on my list of Debuts to watch out for, in 2022 ( A year incidentally filled with some incredibly exciting debuts coming out!) and it didn't disappoint.  Overall, Obsidian was an intense, action-packed traditional fantasy novel, packed to the gills with white-hot action sequences, featuring a very well crafted magical system and in-depth world building full of lores, myths. The narrative itself is paced pretty well, full of betrayals, found family, love, power and sacrifice all headlined by a gutsy heroine, an abomination witch who defies tradition and stands up to the tyrannical rule of the bloodwizards in this ancient land of power and swirling magic.  So the story is set in this land called Malavita, protected by "Veils" that keeps the encroaching blight from turning the land into waste-lands. This Blight of course is the result of ancient magic go...

 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....

 This week on our Waiting on Wednesday meme, where we focus on some of the most awaited titles releasing in the SFF Genre for this year, we are featuring Cameron Johnston's The Maleficent Seven, from Angry Robot Books. This book sounds like SO.MUCH.FUN! ( snagged an early ARC and will get down to this one in July!)  When you are all out of heroes, all that's left are the villains. Black Herran was a dread demonologist, and the most ruthless general in all Essoran. She assembled the six most fearsome warriors to captain her armies: a necromancer, a vampire lord, a demigod, an orcish warleader, a pirate queen, and a twisted alchemist. Together they brought the whole continent to its knees... Until the day she abandoned her army, on the eve of total victory. 40 years later, she must bring her former captains back together for one final stand, in the small town of Tarnbrooke - the last bastion against a fanatical new enemy tearing through the land, intent on finishing the job Blac...

 Hi Everybody!  Hope all your summer reading lists are in and you are chipping away at the Mount TBR - one book at a time. So, this week we are super excited to be taking part in the Online Tour for The Coward by Stephen Aryan  from Angry Robot Books , that is releasing on June 9th with a joint launch planned at the Forbidden Planet along with Edward Cox's Wood Bee Queen at 7pm BST.  The blurb for The Coward: Who will slay the evil in the Frozen North, saving all from death and destruction? Not Kell Kressia, he's done his part...   Kell Kressia is a legend, a celebrity, a hero. Aged just seventeen, he set out on an epic quest with a band of wizened fighters to slay the Ice Lich and save the world. He returned victorious, but alone. Ten years have passed and Kell lives a quiet life, while stories of his heroism are told in taverns all across the land. But now a new terror has arisen in the north – something has taken up residence in the Lich’s abandoned castle b...

The Moonsteel Crown was also on my most-anticipated releases in Feb 2021 , from the stables of Angry Robot books. Stephen Deas ' memories of flame series was an absolute fun romp - with dragons, backstabbing empires and all around ashes and ruins. In this series opener, Stephen employs all his strengths sprinkling in sprightly dark humor, crackling action and an intriguing plot full of mystery and twists to make The Moonsteel Crown a flat-out fun read.  The city of Varr comes across as a typical medieval city full of gangs that control and run different parts of a crowded market (Gangs are named Spicers, The Unrulys, the Weavers etc) and this is where our three protagonists, Seth Fings and Myla have eked out their living. Seth is smart but has been bullied all his life for being a scrawny coward. He always wanted to be a priest and trains hard as an acolyte within the Temple once he gets this coveted opportunity but he gets thrown out for reasons, he doesn't quite comprehend...

 This week we are featuring the upcoming new epic fantasy series opener from Stephen Deas , The Moonsteel Crown - from Angry Robot books. For now, while the description seems a bit sparse I will trust that Stephen Deas is a prolific writer and definitely one of the masters of the genre (Memory of Flames series) - and quite blindly take the plunge into this exciting new world he is building out.  The Emperor of Aria is dead, and three junior members of a street gang are unwittingly caught up in the ensuing struggle for the throne, in the first epic adventure in a new fantasy world from a master of the genre. The Emperor of Aria has been murdered, the Empire is in crisis, and Dead Men walk the streets... But Myla, Fings, and Seth couldn't care less. They're too busy just trying to survive in the Sulk-struck city of Varr, committing petty violence and pettier crimes to earn their keep in the Unrulys, a motley gang led by Blackhand.  When the Unrulys are commissioned to ste...

"Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that first originated at Breaking the Spine but has since linked up with “ Can’t Wait Wednesday ” at Wishful Endings now that the original creator is unable to host it anymore. Either way, this fun feature is a chance to showcase the upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!  Coming fresh off the opening salvo, in the Age of Tyranny series, I am eagerly awaiting the second book, God of Broken Things by Cameron Johnston . Edrin Walker is not a pleasant man to be around but he attracts trouble. And that leads to some kick-ass action and wild savage magic that can rend the flesh off bones and break a mind, or two.  Here's the synopsis: Tyrant magus Edrin Walker destroyed the monster sent by the Skallgrim, but not before it laid waste to Setharis, and infested their magical elite with mind-controlling parasites. Edrin’s own Gift to seize the minds of others was cracked by the strain of battle, and he bare...

I am surprised at the lower-than-expected levels of hype around this brilliant debut, that burst onto the scene last year - Traitor God by Cameron Johnston . Like how did this book, not make it into the Best-Of-2018 lists mushrooming around? Why didn't people read this absolute doozy of a grim-dark badassery with a bastardly wisecrack of a protagonist headlining the damaged act in a gorgeously realized, gutter-fest of a city that is seething with magic and roiling with horrors from the dark deep? Why didn't I read this earlier? Anyways - with the second act of Acts of Tyranny coming right up, it was best that I do amends for the damages sooner than later. In the first few chapters of Traitor God, it is quickly established that Edrin Walker - professional loaded-dice player, peoplemancer and an inveterate drunk, is essentially an escapist. Having escaped from his birth city of Setharis - plagued with debts and chased by daemons, Walker is not ( definitely not!)  a blas...

So James A Moore continues to smash all the rule-books of "how to write epic fantasy" with this lush, absolutely mad, terrifying conclusion to the series, Tides of War - with this third book, Gates of the Dead . If you been following me or the series, then you should know James' new series has been a raging favorite with me over the past two years, 2017 & 2018 - with first two books in the series being absolutely bonkers and so much fun to read. James gleefully takes an axe to the norms of writing by skewering conventional tropes - I mean, where else would you find the protagonist surging in and killing the followers of a set of blood-thirsty capricious gods' - for having kidnapped & sacrificed his family, right in the beginning of the first book of the series! This in itself, would be fodder enough for a good three book series. But no, James blows your conventional expectations away to kingdom come - and churns out this mad tale of vengeance that s...

Angry Robot books are usually a safe bet, them having almost perfected the art of perhaps spotting the next big talent and getting it right a lot of times. I enjoy their books because of two reasons, exciting new talent and also the breakthrough original storylines that push the boundaries of the genre and make you think. I can sense a pattern - and so with Time's Children as well, the latest from DB Jackson ( Who is popular for the Thieftaker series writing as David B Coe) ( Those covers are absolutely gorgeous, ain't they?) A time-travel concept melded with flintlock fantasy? Wohoo, reel me in. D B Jackson wastes no time in setting us up for a complex web of time-travel ( with of course the complexities that arise with parallel time-lines), political intrigue and conspiracies galore. Things can get hairy soon with the world going topsy-turvy on parallel time-lines but the focus of Jackson's tale never wavers from the central plot. Of conspiracies being thwarted...

Angry Robot books have yet to disappoint me. The same goes for Smoke Eaters by Sean Grigsby - a new twist on the urban fantasy genre, with a highly original take on the dragon mythos paired up with some pulsating action sequences, terrific humour all headlined by this grizzled veteran fire-fighter dude with balls of steel. This is high-class entertainment and a book that truly deserves all the accolades pouring in for being such a wicked good fun read. So 22nd century America is as you would imagine it. A dystopian piss-bowl with high levels of environmental degradation and a poor place to live in by any standards. America is now split up into different independent sovereign city-states. Technological advances are slick and aid life. The only problem is, dragons are no longer part of the fairy tale -They are real, ugly scaled, fire-breathing monster having clawed their way up from the core of the earth and are now having a whale of a time above-groun...

Peter McLean , I think is a rockstar in this genre. The darker seedier side of urban fantasy - with a protagonist like Don Drake and his snarky archdemon The Burned Man -  who are right up there, with say Miriam Black (Chuck Wendig) or the Sandman Slim series (Richard Kadrey). This series starts off in the best possible manner - introducing us to Drake and his pet archdemon in a gritty version of London – dark and violent like no man’s land. And Drake while not exactly a wall-flower, doesn’t really come across as a man you would consider making friends with soon. But for all his flaws, there is something redeemable about this crook who can summon demons from Hell to do his bidding as a ‘diabologist’ and has more to him than meets the eye, at first glance. I have to warn you that if you haven’t read book-one, Dominion is a sequel and middle-book in a series, following up closely on the events that transpired from the first book. But if you want a swimmingly good dark u...

I am a huge fan of mostly anything that comes out from Angry Robot - as I believe they've got it almost right when it comes to talent-spotting. Hunger Makes the Wolf by Alex Wells , was frankly a bit of an odd-ball of a choice for my reading. It's science fiction, mixed in with some goodly measure of low-magic. I don't generally read so much of science fiction in general. Maybe its an injustice that I'm labeling the book so because, really this book is so much more than that. A space-opera that is very accessible in that it's focused on the intense happenings in just one strange off-world planet and relentlessly drives the narrative forward through some delectable characterization and commendable world-building. Corporate politicking, a fantastical magic system and biker-gangs! How can I forget the uber-cool biker-gangs that forms the backbone of this sci-fi thriller and the kickass Hob Ravani, a female lead who along with her best friend Mag plots to bring down t...

James A Moore is one of the three, in the Three Guys with Beards Podcast. Christopher Golden and Jonathan Maberry being the other two. Now I've read ONE book of each of these three guys. If I were to rank them, I would say I loved Jonathan Maberry best, Tin Men by Christopher Golden next and the open act of the Seven Forges series is the one I liked the least. Sadly, I didn't get back to finish the Seven Forges. But then, I happened to come across the premise for The Last Sacrifice . Brogan McTyre , a warrior whose family gets sacrificed to appease the Gods, now decides to take the battle to entirely new level. He defies the Gods and challenges them. And this act has catastrophic consequences on the entire world, the angry Gods raining down hellfire and damnation on everybody. This sounded like one hell of a plot-line. Angry gods, their pets called Undying and some stubborn fool of a warrior, who doesn't know where to draw the line. But when I actually started re...

Angry Robot   has had a way of rewarding us readers with the new and the unexpected when it comes to genre fiction, fantasy or science fiction. Books that break current boundaries, set the stratospheric new heights and also define new sub-genres in that process, giving us fiction we didn't know we   needed .  Necrotech   is the prime shining example of good things to have come out of that process. Rebelliously, ridiculously good things that rank definitely up there among the best. Re-defining the scope and boundaries of cyberpunk science-fiction thrillers. I cannot believe this is a debut. I cannot believe   K C Alexander   hasn't written a book before. If this is   Chuck Wendig   writing under a false pen-name, I wouldn't be surprised. But heck no, he;s written a glowing endorsement for every foul word that has fountained from under that pen.  So if you loved Miriam Black series, then you will love   Rikko . The female pr...

Madeline Ashby is a name I am familiar with, but I've never had the chance to read her mind-boggling and 'compelling' science-fiction books series, Machine Dynasty [ io9 review terms it to be 'the most messed up book about Robot Consciousness'] So when I heard her latest, Company Town is going to be released in May, [The book released on May 17] I jumped in and put in a request. And now, I am a fan for life!  Seriously, Company Town is an engaging, intelligent and extremely accessible, science-fiction thriller set in the near-possible future, an oil-rig company-owned town called New Arcadia off the coast of Canada. Featuring one of the most enigmatic female leads I’ve read in recent times, The Company Town works at different levels as a novel. Starting off sedately in a possible science-fictional set-up, it almost turns the way of a homicide thriller chase as the body count goes up, mixed up with corporate intrigue but ultimately goes back to its cor...