Smorgasbord Fantasia

 Featuring some of the most highly anticipated SFF titles releasing this year - this week on Waiting on Wednesday, we feature Brian McClellan 's latest epic fantasy series, In the Shadow of Lightning . Brian's books have been a bit of a hit and miss with me and I frankly, haven't finished any series of his. I am hoping I can make amends by jumping on early on to this one. As always, it seems to be teeming with inventive magic system and crazy action. So yes, looking forward!  Demir Grappo is an outcast—he fled a life of wealth and power, abandoning his responsibilities as a general, a governor, and a son. Now he will live out his days as a grifter, rootless, and alone. But when his mother is brutally murdered, Demir must return from exile to claim his seat at the head of the family and uncover the truth that got her killed: the very power that keeps civilization turning, godglass, is running out. Now, Demir must find allies, old friends and rivals alike, confront the powe...

Brian McClellan is among my favourite epic fantasy authors having given us door-stopping tomes like the Powder Mage trilogy and his new one, Wrath of the Empire, second book in the series set in the same world that started off with Sins of the Empire coming out this year as well. When I got the ARC of his new novella, War Cry - I had no idea it was a novella. I expected it to be a full on, tour de force epic fantasy novel. A epic fantasy based on the World War was indeed pretty intriguing and then Brian had me reading this at one stretch, this whole Saturday wrapping it up early evening. It is that good, damn addictive. So War Cry introduces us to a world, in the state of a perpetual war, an area called Bava or Bavares high plain, possibly one of largest plateau in the world - through the eyes of this shape-shifter called Teado . He is a Changer ( and I will just let you experience what he really is, through the book without divulging much details!) and he holed up in a sm...

Brian McClellan’s debut, Promise of Blood , part # 1 of the Powder Mage trilogy is a delightful read and has all the promise to be the debut of the year. I picked up the book on amazon on sale period – after having eyed it for close to six months since it released. I had first read about Brian on Aidan’s blog – where I read about the mentor Brandon Sanderson’s influence on Brian’s writing and about his detailed magic systems. I was hooked. And now that I’ve read his first book, I am a fan! Promise of Blood is set in the world of Adro, the Kingdom of Adopest where Field Marshall Tamas has just successfully led the bloody revolution to overthrow the King and set the platform for a democracy. The age of Kings is dead…And I have killed it. Absolutely killer line to hook someone into a story. Brian chooses a wonderfully complex situation to begin and build his story. Right in the middle of a sweet chaos – an effective short fuse for conspiracies to swirl up dark and ...