Smorgasbord Fantasia

 Brian Staveley 's new trilogy - based on the Annurian Empire ( From his Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne ) released this week in the US and is slated to release in Aug 1st week in the UK. It was always going to be a tough act to measure up to - especially given how realistically the different threads of that first mind-blowing trilogy came to a satisfying end and then how Brian hits one out of the park, with a back story to Pyrre ( Skull-Sworn ) , one of the most enigmatic characters to surface in the Unhewn Thrones trilogy.  Brian Staveley is my go-to-author when it comes to delightfully grim-dark fantasy stories bursting with fresh ideas, intricate and effortlessly smooth world-building - headlined by foul-mouthed, fallible characters who are real, flawed and intense, fighting to stay alive, not just against backstabbing treacherous enemies but also hitherto unimagined hell-spawned monsters.  Not to forget the white-knuckle, crazy-ass action sequences and the thou...

I make no bones about announcing that Brian Staveley is my go-to-author when it comes to reading some seriously crunch-worthy fantasy books, that are original, thought-provokingly jarring ( and I mean like bone-deep!) and swathed in enough grim-dark to keep it dialed way beyond 'just interesting' for me. His first series, that started with The Emperor's Blades was suitably epic but didn't exactly set things on fire. But the amazing follow up in the next couple of books, really blew things over in a true-blue kettral-style explosion, concluding a fantasy series in one of the best possible manners. His writing is modern in it's sensibilities. With the first series books that feature an expansively rich world with a hefty twist to it's history, epic in it's sheer scale (Gods, men both mortal and immortal, empires clashing and the world balanced on a knife's edge), we knew there were more stories lurking in the depth of this beautiful world. And so...

Keeping in with the Wednesday themes of noting down some of the noteworthy releases coming up for the year, this week on this meme (run by Jill @ Breaking the Spine) I'm extremely kicked about this standalone book in the Universe of Emperor's Blades , the Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne - that really saw Brian Staveley catapult to the top-list of my favorite-fantasy-writers. The series, by the way, is finished and can be read as an excellent fantasy magnum-opus of the grim-dark and brutal variety that has it all - politics and war on an epic grand scope, sibling rivalry, ancient magic and secrets - executed in the most amazing manner that feels so heartrendingly and yet so good. (Read my reviews of Book-I , Book-II and Book-III ) So when I came to know that Brian is writing another novel in the same universe and this time, focusing on one of the minor characters story-arc ( Ahem - Pyrre, the Assassin!) I was so thrilled. And now, finally it's going to be out in a f...

The Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne concludes with this stunning third volume, The Last Mortal Bond , bringing to a cataclysmic explosive climax that ties up the individual threads of the three heirs to the Annurian Empire. And with this, I officially declare that Brian Staveley is my all time favorite epic fantasy writer. No seriously. I MEAN it. I haven't had so much fun reading the last part of a trilogy in a long while. I obviously didn't want the tale to end - and I kept dragging it. But the grim suspense, the bleak horror and the never-ending tales of intrigue and dark twists kept me up night after night. So I was in Malaysia, Borneo Island, holidaying for five days - and everyday I drag myself back to my room after an exhausting day of adventure ( Psst! Read snorkeling, diving, river cruises, waterfall treks!) I still managed to stay up and read the harrowing events unfolding - built like a double helix around each other, twisting and winding up the threads - a...

Waiting on Wednesday is a popular meme with a lot of fantasy book bloggers - and I thought I should jump on to this one - considering how MANY books I really look forward to :) So this Wednesday, the featured book that I'd kill to get my hands on is The Last Mortal Bond . Brian Staveley has definitely become one of my favorite epic fantasy author of recent times and the way he ended things in The Providence of Fire, aaarrrghhhhh !!! The ancient csestriim are back to finish their purge of humanity; armies march against the capital; leaches, solitary beings who draw power from the natural world to fuel their extraordinary abilities, maneuver on all sides to affect the outcome of the war; and capricious gods walk the earth in human guise with agendas of their own. But the three imperial siblings at the heart of it all—Valyn, Adare, and Kaden—come to understand that even if they survive the holocaust unleashed on their world, there may be no reconciling their conflicting ...

Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne series is shaping up to be one of the finest works in epic fantasy - with book two ( Read my review here ) having raised the expectations to beyond the Kent-kissing stars, I have seriously been smitten by Brian's writing.  Yeah. He knows how to stick a knife in your gut and then wrench it hard - imagine that pain. The wait for the third book is perhaps akin to that. Only a thousand times worse. But hey good news!! Tor revealed the fantastic cover for the third book, called The Last Mortal Bond. Along with a very insightful story behind-the-scenes of how this came about. You don't want to miss up reading this one .

Brian Staveley won my heart with his fantastic debut last year, The Emperor’s Blades . It helped that the massive marketing engines of large publishing houses worked overtime to ensure that the book got up front and close to us readers even before it released. But one thing was certain – even as I closed the last page of book-1 – that Brian was just getting started . The scope of book-one was more personal – the fates of three royal children after their father, the Emperor on the Unhewn Throne, is murdered and how the lines of fate circle around each – never entangling except towards the fag end when Valyn gets to team up with Kaden – and as book one ended, we knew the stakes were getting much higher. There were forces involved here that went far beyond the courts politics of Annur and the Dawn Palace. And perhaps Kaden, the one undergoing training at the hands of the Shin monks, would be key to understanding the perils of this harsh brutal world – where the storm-clouds were begin...

As usual am late to the party – The Emperor’s Blades released early this year and was touted to be among the best debuts in this genre for the year. A lot of marketing push by TOR ensured that this book was top of the recall across the Internet world. The sample chapters 1-7 helped.    But ultimately, pushing aside the marketing-hype, it is the solid writing and a near-familiar epic fantasy story wrapped in layers of intrigue and subtle magic given face by three (Ahem, two actually!) endearing protagonists with their intense personal character evolution arc is what keeps the book afloat. It’s top-notch fantasy writing – an empire at risk from the machinations of something ancient and vast and the political coup that results in the assassination of the emperor leaving the fate in the hands of his three children. David Anthony Durham anyone? But the similarities end right there. Brian Staveley’s world is sprawling, brutal and dark – and the first book...