All Rob Sardon wants, more than anything else in the world, is to be a hero. He wants the world to know his name, to revere his name and for songs to be sung of his exploits even after he is long gone. So when he is sent to live with his uncle in far off Khamas he begins a journey that will see him go from being a naive, thirteen year old boy to something more. Just maybe not the hero he imagines himself to be.
DISCLAIMER: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from the author in return for an honest and unbiased review. My thanks to Rob J. Hayes for giving me the chance to read and review this book.
At fifteen years old Eskara Helsene has suffered more pain and torture than most people experience in a full life. Taken from her home at the age of six and trained in the arts of Sourcery by the Orran Empire, she is one of the last Orran Sourcerers alive. The only problem is that she, along with her best friend and fellow Sourcerer Josef, are prisoners of the Terrelan Empire, captured at the end of a war the Orran’s lost and thrown into an inescapable prison known as The Pit. And without the Sources they need to fuel their magical abilities there appears to be no way for them to escape their predicament.
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.
