Waiting on Wednesday
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 few months and I cannot wait to get my hands on the same!
This one's called Skullsworn, comes out April 2017 and in Brian's own words,
"My newest book, Skullsworn, is about an assassin, Pyrre, who goes back to the city of her birth to pass the final test of her religious order: killing ten people in a month. She’s not all that worried about the killing—after all, she’s been training for fifteen years among some of the most deadly men and women in the world. The trouble is, the test stipulates that among the ten offerings, one must be a person that she loves. And Pyrre has never been in love. So it’s a romance novel—some kissing, some heartache, some sex—but with monsters, murder, and buckets and buckets of blood."
Pyrre Lakatur doesn’t like the word skullsworn. It fails to capture the faith and grace, the peace and beauty of her devotion to the God of Death. She is not, to her mind, an assassin, not a murderer--she is a priestess. At least, she will be a priestess if she manages to pass her final trial.
The problem isn’t the killing. Pyrre has been killing and training to kill, studying with some of the most deadly men and women in the world, since she was eight. The problem, strangely, is love. To pass her Trial, Pyrre has ten days to kill the ten people enumerated in an ancient song, including "the one you love / who will not come again."
Pyrre is not sure she’s ever been in love. If she were a member of a different religious order, a less devoted, disciplined order, she might cheat. The Priests of Ananshael, however, don’t look kindly on cheaters. If Pyrre fails to find someone to love, or fails to kill that someone, they will give her to the god.
Pyrre’s not afraid to die, but she hates to quit, hates to fail, and so, with a month before her trial begins, she returns to the city of her birth, the place where she long ago offered an abusive father to the god and abandoned a battered brother—in the hope of finding love...and ending it on the edge of her sword.
(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 few months and I cannot wait to get my hands on the same!
This one's called Skullsworn, comes out April 2017 and in Brian's own words,
"My newest book, Skullsworn, is about an assassin, Pyrre, who goes back to the city of her birth to pass the final test of her religious order: killing ten people in a month. She’s not all that worried about the killing—after all, she’s been training for fifteen years among some of the most deadly men and women in the world. The trouble is, the test stipulates that among the ten offerings, one must be a person that she loves. And Pyrre has never been in love. So it’s a romance novel—some kissing, some heartache, some sex—but with monsters, murder, and buckets and buckets of blood."
Pyrre Lakatur doesn’t like the word skullsworn. It fails to capture the faith and grace, the peace and beauty of her devotion to the God of Death. She is not, to her mind, an assassin, not a murderer--she is a priestess. At least, she will be a priestess if she manages to pass her final trial.
The problem isn’t the killing. Pyrre has been killing and training to kill, studying with some of the most deadly men and women in the world, since she was eight. The problem, strangely, is love. To pass her Trial, Pyrre has ten days to kill the ten people enumerated in an ancient song, including "the one you love / who will not come again."
Pyrre is not sure she’s ever been in love. If she were a member of a different religious order, a less devoted, disciplined order, she might cheat. The Priests of Ananshael, however, don’t look kindly on cheaters. If Pyrre fails to find someone to love, or fails to kill that someone, they will give her to the god.
Pyrre’s not afraid to die, but she hates to quit, hates to fail, and so, with a month before her trial begins, she returns to the city of her birth, the place where she long ago offered an abusive father to the god and abandoned a battered brother—in the hope of finding love...and ending it on the edge of her sword.
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