DISCLAIMER: I received an advanced reader copy of this book from the publisher in return for an honest and unbiased review. My thanks to Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for giving me this opportunity.
In a world where magic is a thing to be feared, Aidan Ingledark is one of those rare individuals known as the Blest, with the power to summon or dispel objects at will. On the run from the authorities he inadvertently finds himself getting wrapped up in a quest to locate and retrieve the mystical Goblets Immortal for the mage Meraude, who in return has promised to help Aidan locate the family he believes he himself dispelled years before. Joining him on his quest is Slaine, a cursed slave girl who seems to have a few secrets of her own.
DISCLAIMER: I was provided with an advanced reading copy of the UK edition of this book by the publisher in return for an honest and unbiased review. My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for giving me this opportunity.
Maggie Hoskie is a Diné (Navajo) hunter in a post-apocalyptic world, gifted with hereditary clan powers that give her an edge over the monsters she hunts. Brought out of self-imposed exile by a group of locals being terrorised by a new type of monster, she soon finds herself chasing after the witch who is apparently creating these monsters. Along the way she picks up the help of Kai, a young man with big medicine, and Ma’ii, the Coyote of Diné legend. But as Maggie soon begins to learn, nothing is truly what it seems in what’s left of the world after the destruction wrought by the Big Water.
It’s fair to say that Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of my favourite contemporary authors. I’ve only read a handful of his works to date but every one of them has been excellent in its own way and the more I read the more eager I become for his next book. Made Things is no exception.
It’s an absolutely delightful novella that follows the trials and tribulations of puppeteer Coppelia as she finds herself getting pulled into the machinations of the local thieves guild and their ongoing struggles against the Magelords of Loretz. Tagging along for the ride are two of Coppelia’s little friends, Tef and Arc, mysterious homunculi who are themselves fighting to find a place in a world that’s much larger than they could ever imagine.
There are some fantasy writers who don’t seem to get the recognition they deserve, and for my money Katharine Kerr is definitely one of them. Despite a writing career stretching back over thirty years few people outside her circle of fans have heard of her sprawling, fifteen book fantasy series (soon to be sixteen), and honestly, they really don’t know what they’re missing out on.
I’ve been seeing Benedict Patrick’s Yarnsworld books popping up on social media and review sites for a couple of years now, but despite having the first two sat on my to-read shelves for a long time I’ve never actually gotten around to reading any of them. Well, that’s all changed now, and if this short but thoroughly engrossing tale is anything to go by I shall certainly be adding the rest of the series to my priority list.
SPOILER WARNING – This review contains potential spoilers for the first two books in the trilogy, Godblind and Darksoul. If you haven’t already read those you may want to skip this review until you have.
This is the final volume in Anna Stephens’ Godblind trilogy, and boy, what a finale it is. Following on almost directly from the end of last year’s Darksoul, it opens with the army of Rilpor in hiding and the Mireces invaders firmly entrenched in the city of Rilporin, their chieftain Corvus having proclaimed himself the new king of Rilpor.
