Smorgasbord Fantasia

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 .

So Smiler's Fair was a revelation for me last year and I even nominated this book to be among my best reads for 2014. It has been a tour-de-force in terms of establishing itself as a first-volume fantasy where everything - be it the multitude of characters, the enticing brilliantly realized world set against the backdrop of a nomadic circus group, the frenetic action or the effortless plotting - everything was absolutely spot-on. Reading the first book in this quartet that explores the "reawakening" of Moon-God, Yron into this world is like being sucker-punched without any warning - It was that good. So when the good folks at Hodder & Stoughton announced that the Cover for Hunter's Kind ( Part-2 in the Hollow Gods Series ) is out, it was kind of a big deal for me. And knowing that I will get back in touch with Krish and the rest of the folks from Smiler's Fair soon...has got me 'CHUFFED' Shivering with the anticipation is an understatement! H...

So Orbit has come out with some fascinating cover-reveals for their Fall 2015 catalog..And a lot of titles are series continuations or conclusions. Here are some: A Crown for Cold Silver by Alex Marshall About the Book:   FIVE VILLAINS. ONE LEGENDARY GENERAL. A FINAL QUEST FOR VENGEANCE. Twenty years ago, feared general Cobalt Zosia led her five villainous captains and mercenary army into battle, wrestling monsters and toppling an empire. When there were no more titles to win and no more worlds to conquer, she retired and gave up her legend to history. Now the peace she carved for herself has been shattered by the unprovoked slaughter of her village. Seeking bloody vengeance, Zosia heads for battle once more, but to find justice she must confront grudge-bearing enemies, once-loyal allies, and an unknown army that marches under a familiar banner. A CROWN FOR COLD SILVER is an outstanding epic fantasy debut featuring an unforgettable warrior. What's in it f...

it's no secret that I have been a HUGE fan of Joe Abercrombie. Lord GrimDark of everything dark and gritty, I have been a worshiper of that pantheon since the times of the First Law trilogy . First he went on to skewer the usual fantasy tropes by writing his own version of a high-fantasy epic - complete with an all-powerful mage, a conflicted tortured barbarian as the hero and a crippled torturer probably being the most endearing enigmatic protagonist of that series. Pretty much spinning the tropes on their heads and then taking an axe to butcher them. Then came his version of the revenge saga . Tarantino amped up on speed. Full dark, no stars, no redemption, splattered with gore and black blood, the number of bodies falling hitting the stratosphere. Then was his version of the military fantasy . Again a bitter-sweet ironical saga that details the uselessness of war and that there are truly no heroes. written in his own inimitable style dripping with the black gallows humor t...

Deborah Harkness' All Souls Trilogy has become an international phenomenon - a filler for those looking for an entertaining "grown-up" fantasy that doesn't veer into the "dark and gritty"; what with her first book in the trilogy, A Discovery of Witches even being optioned for a Warner Bros movie, Here's the low down on the third book, Book of Life.    After traveling through time in Shadow of Night, the second book in Deborah Harkness’s enchant­ing series, historian and witch Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont return to the present to face new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home at Sept-Tours, they re­unite with the cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches—with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its miss­ing pages takes on even more urgency. In the tril­ogy’s final volume, Harkness deepens her themes of...

Orbit has always been one of my favorite fantasy publishing houses and the 2014 cover reveal of some of the most anticipated "to-read" titles in Science Fiction and Fantasy is a glorious spread of some of the most heart-achingly beautiful book-covers ever! Below are a few which I, personally thought were absolutely bewitchingly mind-blowing (Add to that, the fact that these are some of the series or stand-alones written by the new reigning masters of this genre!!) A Dance of Shadows by David Dalglish (Shadowcloaks # 4) Haern is the King's Watcher, born an assassin only to become the city of Veldaren's protector against the thief guilds. When Lord Victor Kane attacks the city, determined to stamp out all corruption, foreign gangs pour in amidst the chaos in an attempt to overthrow the current lords of the underworld. And when a mysterious killer known as the Widow begins mutilating thieves, paranoia engulfs the city. Haern knows someone is behind the t...