Fantasy Books

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

Mogsy’s Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Book 2 of Emily Wilde

Publisher: Del Rey (January 16, 2024)

Length: 342 pages

Author Information: Website

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries was one of my favorite books the year it came out, and my expectations were extremely high for Heather Fawcett to kill it again with the sequel. Happily, she succeeded with flying colors! While I still think the first book was just slightly better—after all, matching the enchanting novelty of a series opener is no easy feat—but Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands proved to be equally whimsical and adventurous.

The story picks up once more with our resident expert on faerie lore, the eponymous protagonist who has just completed the world’s first comprehensive encyclopaedia of faeries. This accomplishment has earned Emily Wilde much fame but also more than a few detractors at Cambridge where she works with her colleague and former academic rival, Wendell Bambleby. The truth is though, Wendell is more than just a brilliant scholar and the sometimes object of our main character’s affections. He’s also faerie royalty, albeit one who is on the run from his evil stepmother who had stolen his realm from him.

But while Emily may not have accepted Wendell’s proposal of marriage because she knows better than to involve herself in faerie matters, she has been dedicating herself to helping him regain his rightful place in his kingdom by finding another way in. Their quest takes them to an isolated village where she can start on a new project to map the faerie realms, as well as to avoid the assassins that Wendell’s stepmother has sent on their tail. Accompanying them is Emily’s niece Ariadne as well as the curmudgeonly head of the Dryadology Department who has insisted on tagging along. However, danger has a way of following the group wherever they go, and soon they will all face the consequences of meddling with the mysterious forces of the Fae.

This sequel jumps right in, assuming the reader is already familiar with the setting and its characters, thus allowing those that loved the first book to immediately and seamlessly reacquaint themselves with Emily’s world. Our wonderful protagonist has also effortlessly recaptured my heart with her quirky ways, reminding all of us that she is first and foremost a scholar, though of course it’s also nice to see that prolonged time spending with Wendell has thawed her attitude towards him considerably. The chemistry between them continues to be one of my favorite aspects of this series, seeing how their unique dynamic is evolving over time.

Which brings me to their romance! Admittedly, I was nervous to see how this element would be dealt with initially, as many a sequel have been ruined by overeager authors mishandling the delicate balance by pushing things too eagerly, too quickly. Fortunately, Fawcett handled it perfectly. The growing attachment forming between Emily and Wendell felt natural and authentic, avoiding the common pitfalls used solely to create drama. Quite honestly, while this gradual deepening of their emotional connection may be a more subtle approach, over time I feel its results would be more effective, rewarding, and impactful.

It is also interesting to note the shift in style from the first novel, as Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands moves away from the character’s more serious tone that she uses for her encyclopedia entries and instead adopts a more traditional, user-friendly narrative even though it still follows a journal format. The change allowed for more insight into Emily’s personality as well as an avenue to introduce a whole new side of the Faerie realms, meaning even more creatures, places, and magic for readers to discover. I simply can’t get enough of this gorgeous world-building.

In short, Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands retains all the wonder, charm, and heart of its predecessor, offering another cozy fantasy with loveable and memorable characters. Those who enjoyed the first book will find this continuation of the series a great read as well, and I can’t wait for more Emily and Wendell!

More on The BiblioSanctum:
Review of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Book 1)

Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every weekend which fills the role of several blog memes, like Stacking the Shelves where I talk about the new books I’ve added to my library or received for review, as well as It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where I summarize what I’ve finished reading in the last week and what I’m planning to read soon. Mostly it also serves as a recap post, so sometimes I’ll throw in stuff like reading challenge progress reports, book lists, and other random bookish thoughts or announcements.

Received for Review

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett (Del Rey): Early 2024 finished copies are coming in, and I received the gorgeous hardcover of the second book of the Emily Wilde series, which I recently finished. I hope to get a review up in the coming days.

The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler (Tordotcom): Very soon I’ll also be starting this novella about mammoths being brought by from extinction and the strange challenges about keeping a resurrected species alive. Releases in the first couple weeks of January are pretty light, but the arrival of this finished copy is a reminder that my TBR will be packed again before long.

 Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne (Bramble): Who can resist a title like that? This one sounds super cozy, and the new Tor SFF romance imprint Bramble is releasing it later this spring.

Unbound by Christy Healy (Blackstone Publishing): A Celtic inspired, gender-flipped retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Why a I always such a sucker for these things?

The Glass Box by J. Michael Straczynski (Blackstone Publishing): I remember reading JMS’s comics a lot as a kid, but he’s also been a filmmaker and television writer and done lots of other stuff. When I saw his name attached to his novel, a project that only came to my attention recently, I just had to check it out.

Reviews

This week was about rounding up some of my final reviews for 2023 reads. Even though I’ve got a couple more I still have to write, pretty soon the 2024 book reviews will begin in earnest.

• 4 of 5 stars to The Pale House Devil by Richard Kadrey
• 3.5 of 5 stars to Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig

Recent Reads

This week was a weird one. While everyone went back to school or work, it felt like my time off had just begun. I think I worked more during the Christmas break! And yet it seemed like there was always something going on, and I constantly fell behind on things I was supposed to do. Maybe it was the post-holiday blues because motivation was low too, so I was only able to finish one review book, The Heiress (but it was really good). On the bright side, I also got to read Gwendy’s Button Box which was a “just because” mood read, and I did make a resolution to do more of that this year.

Have you heard of or read any of the books featured this week? What caught your eye? Any new discoveries? I hope you found something interesting for a future read!

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

The Pale House Devil by Richard Kadrey

Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Genre: Horror

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Titan Books (October 10, 2023)

Length: 123 pages

Author Information: Website

I’m always a little leery of novellas, but Richard Kadrey has pulled off something rare, treating readers to a supernatural rollercoaster which combines dark fantasy with elements of mystery, action, and humor. It’s been a while since I read the author’s Sandman Slim series, but The Pale House Devil definitely evokes a throwback feel to that tone and style.

In this story, we follow protagonists Ford and Neuland, a paranormal mercenary duo with an unconventional skill set—the former is alive and the latter is undead, and Ford can only kill the undead while Neuland can only kill the living. Their differences aside though, they have a longstanding partnership that’s based on a rough, trusted camaraderie. After their latest job goes south in Manhattan, the two of them decide on a quick change of scenery, hastily departing for the sun, surf, and sandy beaches of California.

They have barely arrived, however, when they are approached by a young woman named Tilda Rosenbloom who comes to them with an intriguing proposition. Her great-grandfather, whom she refers to as Mr. Shepherd Mansfield, has heard of Ford and Neuland’s services and is willing to pay the pair of them big bucks to solve his problem. The old man claims that an evil entity has set up shop in his mansion and wants the two killers-for-hire to come up to his estate and dispatch the interloper, who he believes is the devil himself.

The Pale House Devil is the best kind of novella—one that is short but doesn’t feel short. There was just enough to make the world, the characters, the plot feel robust and coherent. Kadrey’s storytelling packs every page with interest and plenty of quirky moments with our memorable protagonists. Individually, both Ford and Neuland are given room to develop and grow on readers, making it a pleasure to tag along with them on their adventure. The story was also well-paced, even when the setting abruptly changes from New York to Los Angeles.

This was also accomplished without sacrificing the depth of the world-building. The Pale House Devil feels firmly rooted in horror, with just the slightest touch of cosmic horror, done in a way that is rich and immersive. However, the overall tone is also light-hearted enough to feel like a buddy comedy, complete with the easy ribbing and back-and-forth banter between our memorable protagonists, which even non-horror fans might find appealing. Best of all, when stepping back to look at the full picture, what shines through is a captivating and well-balanced narrative that is at once suspenseful, mysterious, and entertaining.

Since this was a short book, I’ll be keeping this review short as well. Ultimately, Kadrey leaves his readers engaged and satisfied while working within the confines of the novella format. I’ve found that few writers can manage such a feat, and I highly recommend this for readers looking for a quick romp into the realm of paranormal and horror.

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig

Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Genre: Horror

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Del Rey (September 26, 2023)

Length: 640 pages

Author Information: Website

I read Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig as part of my catch-up challenge for the month of December, and this chonker of a book proved to be a perfect one to settle in with during the holiday break. That said, I won’t deny the novel’s length ended up trying my patience at times, making me wish for a swifter resolution towards the end.

The story begins with an introduction to Dan Paxton, a man with ambition and a desire to revive the legacy of his family’s orchard. An apple farmer, he has come by the branches of an exotic and exceedingly rare variety of the fruit by mysterious means, grafting them onto his own trees in the hopes of creating a delicious and lucrative new breed. Taking his daughter’s suggestion and naming it the Ruby Slipper, the new apple takes off years later when Dan sells his first harvest at the farmer’s market, and soon the whole town of Harrow is clamoring for more of his product.

However, what no one knows is that the Ruby Slipper has a bloody past, and the apples have a powerful and sinister effect on those who eat them. At first, the results are euphoric. Those who consume a Ruby Slipper experience enhanced strength, feeling happier and healthier. But then comes the more insidious consequences, as the apples also awaken the worst impulses and darkest desires in a person. They are also addictive, so that you can’t stop with just one taste. Strangely though, Dan’s own teenage daughter Calla has not succumbed to the temptation of the apples, and that was even before she saw how they changed her father and her boyfriend for the worse. Dan is becoming meaner by the day, relishing the hold he has over the town as he alone controls the supply of Ruby Slippers.

Meanwhile, Emily is a newcomer to town, having just moved here to reconcile with her wife following trouble in their marriage. After taking a tumble into the river, she unwittingly discovers a dead body, thus making the acquaintance of John Compass, a Quaker and war veteran who identifies the dead man as his friend Walt. The two men had been apple hunters together, and with Emily’s help, John sets out on a quest to find out how the search for an elusive variety of apple had gotten Walt killed.

Black River Orchard is a fast-paced and suspenseful read, at least initially. The setup of the novel contains plenty of twists and turns, as Wendig builds upon the eerie and claustrophobic atmosphere by layering the plot with multiple points-of-view and interludes, also weaving in facts and history. The amount of research that must have gone into this book is astounding, as you will learn more about apples than you’ll ever want to know. As for the story elements, the book is full of vivid descriptions and imagery (and for readers like me who may have a sensitivity for anything to do with teeth—it can and WILL get uncomfortable at times, fair warning).

In terms of criticisms though, Wendig does have a habit of letting his left-leaning views color his writing and characterization. As a rule, I don’t give a crap what an author’s political beliefs are; I may agree or disagree but generally do not let it affect my experience with their work unless it leads to poor writing. Unfortunately, this is not the first time I’ve felt that Wendig includes diversity for the sake of diversity which negatively impacts authentic or meaningful characterization, and this very shallow view of the world is reflected in his stories.

It’s also true that Black River Orchard is quite a tome, sitting at nearly 650 pages. While the early momentum carried me through the first three quarters of the book, towards the end I did feel it start to wear out its welcome. It happens sometimes, when a story starts to lose its grip due to excessive length, and I think we missed the sweet spot in finding the balance between depth and brevity, thus my enjoyment took a bit of a hit.

Overall, I can’t say I’ve ever read a book like Black River Orchard, and I won’t lie, reading about evil apples was kind of fun. But ultimately, it’s probably not one of my favorites by Chuck Wendig. While the unique concept added an interesting twist, it seems the execution did not resonate as strongly with me as I would have liked, though I appreciated the author’s approach to unconventional ideas.

Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that first originated at Breaking the Spine but has since linked up with “Can’t Wait Wednesday” at Wishful Endings now that the original creator is unable to host it anymore. Either way, this fun feature is a chance to showcase the upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!

Mogsy’s Pick Small Town Horror by Ronald Malfi (June 4, 2024 by Titan Books)

“Five childhood friends are forced to confront their own dark past as well as the curse placed upon them in this horror masterpiece from the bestselling author of Come with Me.

Maybe this is a ghost story…

Andrew Larimer thought he left the past behind. But when he receives a late-night phone call from an old friend, he finds he has no choice but to return home, and to confront the memories—and the horror—of a night, years ago, that changed everything.

For Andrew and his friends, the past is not dead, and the curse that has befallen them now threatens to destroy all that they’ve become.

One dark secret…

One small-town horror…”

Happy 2024! As we dive into another year, it’s time to look ahead to the Science Fiction and Fantasy reads I’m most excited about. I love making lists and I also find it helps me plan my reading schedule by focusing my attention on my review books and highly anticipated releases, so every quarter I’ll be putting together a post of my must-reads. While I’m under no illusions that I’ll be able to read them all, hopefully I can get to most of them, and also put some new books on people’s radars. I’ve gotten started on a couple January reads already, but how about you? What are you most excited for in early 2024?

January

January 1 – Scorpio by Marko Kloos

January 2 – That Time I Got Drunk and Saved A Demon by Kimberly Lemming

January 9 – The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins

January 16 – The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler, Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett, Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham

January 23 – No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall, Faebound by Saara El-Arifi, Exordia by Seth Dickinson

January 30 – The House of Last Resort by Christoper Golden, City of Stardust by Georgia Summers, The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland

February

 

February 6 – Bride by Ali Hazelwood, Your Shadow Half Remains by Sunny Moraine, The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett, The Trial of Empire by Richard Swan

February 13 – The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden, The Frame-Up by Gwenda Bond, An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson

February 20 – Night for Day by Roselle Lim, Island Witch by Amanda Jayatissa, The Boy Who Cried Bear by Kelley Armstrong, The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert

February 27 – A Haunting in the Arctic by C.J. Cooke, Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan, A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen

March

March 5 – Murder Road by Simone St. James, Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice by Elle Cosimano, Three Kinds of Lucky by Kim Harrison, The Hidden Queen by Peter V. Brett

March 12 – Dark Dive by Andrew Mayne, Sunbringer by Hannah Kaner, Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff

March 19 – A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock, Song of the Huntress by Lucy Holland

March 26 – The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones, Diavola by Jennifer Thorne

Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every weekend which fills the role of several blog memes, like Stacking the Shelves where I talk about the new books I’ve added to my library or received for review, as well as It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where I summarize what I’ve finished reading in the last week and what I’m planning to read soon. Mostly it also serves as a recap post, so sometimes I’ll throw in stuff like reading challenge progress reports, book lists, and other random bookish thoughts or announcements.

Wishing everyone a fantastic New Year’s Eve as we bid farewell to 2023 and usher in the promise of a brand new year! Who knows what 2024 will bring, but may your celebrations be filled with joy, laughter, and cherished moments with loved ones. Happy New Year to all!

Received for Review

My thanks to the publishers and authors for the following review copies received, and be sure to click the links to their Goodreads pages for more details and full descriptions!

The Silverblood Promise by James Logan (Tor): I love the sound of this one. The premise is giving me strong Lies of Locke Lamora vibes, and as we’re likely not going to see a new Gentleman Bastard book for a long while, I could really use some more thieves and magic in my fantasy. Besides, I’m so shallow, I would have picked this up based on the epic cover alone.

Heroes by Alan Gratz (Scholastic Press): I put in a request for this one because my daughter is a huge fan of the author and has learned so much from his World War II novels. Still, he’s a pretty big name in MG fiction so I didn’t actually think I was going to get a copy, so imagine my surprise when an ARC showed up! My kid’s excited reaction made me feel like mom of the year. Once she reads this, I’ll probably make her guest review it.

Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan (Orbit): A siren story inspired by East Asian mythology and British folklore? I very much like the sound of this fantasy debut and was very excited to receive an ARC of this first book of the Drowned World series.

Reviews

 

• 4 of 5 stars to Winter’s Gifts by Ben Aaronovitch
• 3.5 of 5 stars to Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates

Recent Reads

On the bright side, I finally got to The Temple of Fortuna which was one of my goals before the end of the year, and the ending of the Wolf Den trilogy was everything I’d hoped it would be. The bad news is, I had wanted to get more of my early 2024 books started, but I only managed to finish Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands this week. My verdict is that it’s not as amazing as the first book but still quite good.

Have you heard of or read any of the books featured this week? What caught your eye? Any new discoveries? I hope you found something interesting for a future read!

It’s once again that time of the year where I look back at the last twelve months and do a round up my favorite reads and goals, and what a year 2023 has been! As I’m sure many readers can relate, it’s hard enough to narrow a whole year’s worth of reading (this year, that’s close to 150 books) down to a “Top 3”, or heck, even a “Top 10.” What I usually do is highlight each genre category and all the books that 1) were my favorites of the year, 2) I thought were most memorable, or 3) I think should be getting more love and attention. The one thing they have in common? I loved them all!

Fantasy

Science Fiction

Horror

Mystery/Suspense/Thriller

As you can see, 2023 was dominated by horror, and it wasn’t even close – most years I feel like publishers push all their big horror titles around the autumn months, but this year I was reading amazing horror books all year long. In contrast, science fiction releases felt a bit sparser, reflected in the fewer sci-fi titles I read in general.

Let me know in the comments if you’ve read any of these books!

Reading Challenges Update

Again, I have been neglectful of my Audiobook Challenge updates this year, but I have been keeping track! Looks like I only did a midyear update, so today you’ll get my full year report. At the begining of the year, instead of scaling back as I should have done, I stuck with my usual goal of Marathoner which was 50 books, but then in July I came to my senses and downgraded my soft goal to My Precious, which is 30. Let’s see if I made it…

The final tally came to 41, which means I made a good call with my decision. Until I step up my audio game, looks like next year My Precious will be the way to go, since I was already padding my numbers to include the books where I listened to the audio edition for at least a part, even if it’s just a few chapters I fit in here or there.

Overview: Books Read in 2023

And now for my favorite part of end-of-year roundup posts: the Goodreads stats and the pretty Year in Books collage!

Since we only have one day left in 2023, these are pretty much my final numbers, minus maybe one or two books I can squeak by past the finish line. I have no complaints, it’s been a pretty productive year!

Goodreads Ratings:

More on The BiblioSanctum:
Best of 2014 and The Year in Review
Best of 2015 and The Year in Review
Best of 2016 and The Year in Review
Best of 2017 and The Year in Review
Best of 2018 and The Year in Review
Best of 2019 and The Year in Review
Best of 2020 and The Year in Review
Best of 2021 and The Year in Review
Best of 2022 and The Year in Review

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates

Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars 

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press (July 11, 2023)

Length: 341 pages

Author Information: Website

Christa, a woman haunted by both her present and a traumatic past, heads into the snowy heart of the Rocky Mountains with her boyfriend Kiernan, hoping that their vacation will take their relationship to another level and help her heal. Unexpectedly though, a bad storm sweeps into the region, forcing the couple and the other travelers on their broken-down tour bus to take shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin. But in the chaos of the blinding blizzard, Christa is separated from Kiernan. Heartbroken, she must wait until conditions are safer before they can launch a search party.

However, the discovery of their decapitated tour guide puts an end to any hope of rescue. His severed head, strategically displayed for the horrified group to see, serves as a grim warning: No one is getting out alive. In this frozen isolation, the winter landscape transforms into a grisly stage for a sadistic hunter to pick them off one by one. All communication with the outside world has been cut off, and Christa knows Kiernan is dead. Now she and her fellow survivors find themselves trapped in deadly game of terror against an elusive killer.

Darcy Coates showcases her flair for urgency and tension, offering thrills and chills in Dead of Winter, a novel that grips readers with its delectable premise. I love a good snowbound horror—and the more atmospheric the better. This being my first book by the author, and I was also impressed with the setting and how the isolated Rockies were brought to life, becoming a character in its own right. Coates turned the wide expanse of the wilderness into a claustrophobic blend of eeriness and suspense, brava.

Then we have the protagonist. The book’s main pulse is set by Christa’s journey, her worldview colored by a dark past and a guilt she cannot shake. With Kiernan, she thought she could start a new chapter in her life but losing him sends her off into a deeper spiral. Even though this novel features a large cast, we never lose sight of Christa’s main role in the story, which is to pull the whole mystery together, as the end eventually reveals. But everyone else—Simone, a stern practical woman; husband and wife team Steve and Miri; Denny and his son Grayson, traveling together in shared grief; Blake, who recently lost his job; Hutch, a young DJ; and Alexis, who become a close friend to Christa as they try to who the killer is and why they are doing this—all of them are puzzle pieces that fit into a whole. At first, I was impatient to know why all these strangers should matter, but as it turns out, every one of them holds a clue.

Yet, within this twisty narrative, Dead of Winter ultimately succumbs to the pitfalls of predictability and familiar horror tropes. From the way I looked at it as a “final girl” type slasher horror, it was rather easy to guess who the killer was, even though Coates tried to hide her tracks well, and it shouldn’t have been that easy to predict. Without revealing spoilers though, there was just enough left unsaid for me to suspect who did it, though admittedly, the whys and the hows still surprised me.

All told, Dead of Winter emerges as a promising offering for fans of horror—especially if you like your horror bloody. It successfully delivers a suspenseful and brutal escapade, the tensions heightened by the atmosphere. For me, though, the overall experience was a slightly diminished, simply because I happened to guess a big part of the ending, but even though the book may not shatter conventions or introduce anything groundbreaking, it’s a good old fun thrill ride if that’s the kind of entertainment you enjoy.

Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that first originated at Breaking the Spine but has since linked up with “Can’t Wait Wednesday” at Wishful Endings now that the original creator is unable to host it anymore. Either way, this fun feature is a chance to showcase the upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!

Mogsy’s Pick The Book That Broke the World by Mark Lawrence (April 9, 2024 by Ace)

“Two people living in a world connected by a vast and mysterious library must fight for those they love in the second book in a new trilogy from the international bestselling author of The Book That Wouldn’t Burn.

The Library spans worlds and times. It touches and joins distant places. It is memory and future. And amid its vastness Evar Eventari both found, and lost, Livira Page.

Evar has been forced to flee the library, driven before an implacable foe. Livira, trapped in a ghost world, has to recover the book she wrote—one which is the only true threat to the library’s existence—if she’s to return to her life.

While Evar’s journey leads him outside into the vastness of a world he’s never seen, Livira’s path will taker her deep inside her own writing, where she must wrestle with her stories in order to reclaim the volume in which they were written.

The secret war that defines the library has chosen its champions and set them on the board. The time has come when they must fight for what they believe, or lose everything.”

 

Official Author Website
Buy Sun of Blood and Ruin

OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: Mariely Lares is a Mexican-American writer of fiction. Born in the only hospital of a small town in Southern California—which, fun fact, is also Cher’s birthplace—she grew up straddling two worlds, crossing the border almost every day. The daughter of Mexican immigrants, she holds a degree in Computer Science Engineering and lives in San Diego, where she can be found doing all the outdoorsy things, rescuing dogs, and writing her next book.

FORMAT/INFO: Sun of Blood and Ruin will be published on February 20th, 2024 by HarperVoyager in the US; it was published in the UK on September 28th, 2023. It is 384 pages and told in the first person from Leonora's POV. It will be available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook format.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: To many, Lady Leonora is a fixture at the Spanish court in the New World, a woman on her way to becoming wed to the heir of the Spanish throne. But Leonora is also Pantera, the mythical freedom fighter who seeks to overthrow Spanish oppression of the indigenous peoples. But it's not just the Spanish she needs to worry about, as signs and prophecies point towards an impending apocalypse, one that would wipe all humans from the region as ancient gods settle old scores.

Sun of Blood and Ruin is an interesting premise lost in an overstuffed and directionless plot. I've been ready to love this book since I first heard the words "gender-bent Zorro retelling." And at first, it looked like I was at minimum going to have a pleasant time. Leonora uses both her position at court and her secret identity as the freedom fighter Pantera to try and bring an end to Spanish oppression of the native peoples in the region. There's daring rooftop chases, a villainous general intent on capturing her, flirtatious encounters with a new captain (who seems to be pursuing his own secret agenda), and political infighting in the Spanish capital of the New World, all of which kept things interesting.

The problem is, the story never seems to know where it wants to focus and constantly bounces between events without ever giving them real depth and weight, especially towards the end of the book. Take the opening sequence, where Pantera is racing to rescue an ally. Aside from the man dispensing a grave warning about the end of the world, we're barely told anything about him and his son, and they essentially aren't referenced again until the final pages. They are a blip, an event that wraps up in a few pages without any real resonance. Who he was and why he was important to Leonora? I'm afraid I couldn't tell you.

With everything happening so quickly it just all feels too surface level. Besides the conflict between the Spanish and the indigenous resistance fighters, there's factional politics between the various tribes (none of which is explained very well). And then on top of that there's gods lurking in the background with their own secrets and agendas. The rushing leaps from plot point to plot point left everything muddied and left me disconnected from the plot as I wasn't allowed any time to sit with anything before we were on to the next plot element.

At the heart of it all is an aimless Lenora. I never understood her personal stakes. We meet her when she has already created Pantera, but I never really understood why. There is the obvious "oppression is bad," but I lacked a personal emotional drive, a sense of where her arc was going.  This is compounded by a cast of one note characters, who come and go without leaving any impression.

In short, this entire book should have been split in two so that both parts had a lot more time to develop characters and depth. I could have spent an entire book watching Leonora navigate balancing her court duties with her secret life as Pantera, flirting with Andres while trying to figure out his secrets. I would have been equally fascinated to spend a book watching her being catapulted into the middle of clan politics, trying to find her place and help keep a fragile alliance between the tribes together. But because all these elements are jammed into a breezy 350 pages, the result is a book that felt increasingly chaotic as it raced to some sort of climax.

CONCLUSION: Sun of Blood and Ruin unfortunately tries to accomplish too much in too little a time. It at once wants to be both a grand epic saga of gods and men and a dashing heroic adventure; as a result, it ends up being neither. I truly wanted to be able to recommend this one, but sadly, the pieces just don't fit together into a satisfying whole.

Book links: Amazon, Goodreads

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Morgan Stang lives in the humid part of Texas. He graduated from the University of Houston with a BBA. By day he works in accounting and by night he sleeps, and sometime in between he writes in a wide variety of fantasy genres, ranging from dark fantasy (The Bartram's Maw series) to gaslamp murder mystery (The Lamplight Murder Mysteries) to cozy fantasy (The Bookshop and the Barbarian). He is a fan of all things nerdy, and lives with an immortal ball python.

Publisher: Morgan Stang Length: 298 pages Formats: ebook, paperback

I’m thoroughly enjoying this series. It has everything I look for in fiction: relatable and memorable characters, twists that twist previous twists, and an exciting genre mashup. Which subgenre does it fit into? Well, it could fit into quite a few. Think of it as a comedic gaslamp fantasy-horror murder mystery set in a pseudo-Victorian world.

As a fan of Agatha Christie’s books, I appreciated how well Morgan Stang incorporated the best elements of her work and mixed them with the supernatural. “Murder on the Lamplight Express” pays homage to Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express” but with a fantastical twist. Like poltergeists, an axe-wielding puppet, a levitating head, and the looming threat of a good old-fashioned train crash. Oh, and did I mention decapitation?

Isabeau Agarval and her team are called to action, tasked with boarding a train to ensure everyone’s survival. The story opens with exciting action and never slows down. Instead of delving into the plot and major reveals, I’ll focus on things that make it a pleasure to read.

Firstly, the characters are all well-rounded, likable, and memorable. Isabeau is a Huntress and her path is a solitary and dark one, but is it really? Her team thinks otherwise and joins her on adventures. Constantly inebriated, Mr. Homes may be of little help, but Penny (living doll) and Evie have their own standout moments.

Secondly, the murder mysteries (yes, plural) in this tale offer no easy answers, and Stang excels at keeping readers guessing, guessing again, and still being wrong. I appreciated how every character had a motive to murder someone and how unclear it was who actually did it.

Stang’s writing is sharp and witty, balancing the horrific with moments of wry humor. A sort of humor that isn’t forced, and that lightens the narrative without softening the underlying existential message. I appreciate that.

“Murder on the Lamplight Express” is a fantastic sequel - it builds on the first book, and finds a perfect balance between humor and horror, fantasy and murder mystery elements. With its well-paced plot and intriguing characters, it’ll keep you guessing. A must-read for anyone who loves a gripping and original story. I eagerly await the next book in the series.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Morgan Stang lives in the humid part of Texas. He graduated from the University of Houston with a BBA. By day he works in accounting and by night he sleeps, and sometime in between he writes in a wide variety of fantasy genres, ranging from dark fantasy (The Bartram's Maw series) to gaslamp murder mystery (The Lamplight Murder Mysteries) to cozy fantasy (The Bookshop and the Barbarian). He is a fan of all things nerdy, and lives with an immortal ball python.
Murder at Spindle Manor links: Amazon, GoodreadsADAM
This is why I SPFBO.

Loved, loved this book. A mashup of Agatha Christie, Clue, and John Carpenter's "The Thing" in a single-location murder mystery that starts weird and ends up bananas. Strong, humorous dialogue, a compelling plot that grabs you from one of the best first lines I've read in quite some time, along with an engaging cast of suspects and victims made this an absolute joy to read.

ESMAY
Agatha Christie-style closed circle murder mystery meets steampunk fantasy meets gothic horror in the delightfully quirky Murder at Spindle Manor. Read at your own risk, this book is dangerously and unacceptably addictive.
Armed with her guns, gaslamp, and incredibly sharp wit, Huntress Isabeau has come to the last stop of her Hunt. She is dead-set on discovering which of the ten guests at Spindle Manor is secretly a shapeshifting monster, before it makes its way to the capital of Lamplight. But the insidious monster is not the only threat there, and before long the bodies start dropping. One night, two mysteries to solve; is she up to the task?
You see, when this story opened with the line: “Isabeau Agarwal stood before Spindle Manor at seven o’clock in the evening with every intention of killing someone.”, I knew I was going to be in for a good time. Right from the very first page, Stang just sets the tone and creates an all-consuming atmosphere that will keep you enchanted from start to finish.
I’ll admit that the first 15-20% of this story can feel a bit overwhelming with the quick introduction of this relatively large cast of named characters, but I think it really helps that they all have such incredibly big personalities. Izzie is a brilliant and refreshingly competent protagonist, and she is surrounded by a cast of wonderfully peculiar characters who all get their time to shine. Some of them are more loveable than others, but they all just have an unfairly endearing quality to them that makes it even more interesting to figure out who is secretly a murderer and/or monster in hiding.
And I know this plot might seem fairly straightforward, but as the title of chapter 20 indicates: “Everything Goes Completely Mad at Spindle Manor”. This story is extremely cleverly plotted, and there’s a truly infinite number of surprising twists and turns, gobsmacking world-building revelations, and hysterical character interactions that will have you cackling like a (slightly) crazy person.
In the end, the true mystery to me is how Stang was able to pack such a punch in so few pages. It’s almost impossible to come to terms with the fact that this entire story takes place over a single night, because there’s simply so much jam-packed into this delight of a little novel. Both the world and the characters remain largely shrouded in mystery and intrigue, yet at the same time they are so fully realised that it feels like I could walk into Spindle Manor right now and meet them all in the flesh.
I think the fact that I read this book in one day should tell you enough about how much I enjoyed it. And just when I thought the resolution was a bit anticlimactic, the author managed to throw in a final twist that pulled on my heartstrings and made the whole story come together in the most satisfying way possible.
With its haunting yet enchanting atmosphere, effortlessly funny characters, thrilling mysteries, and page-turning intrigue, Murder at Spindle Manor is a true genre-blendy gem of a book that perfectly straddles the line between being cosy and thrilling. I truly can’t recommend it highly enough!
CHELS


ŁUKASZ

I never suspected I needed a humorous gaslamp fantasy horror murder mystery in my life, but here we are. Murder at Spindle Manor was a delight. I devoured it in two sittings and immediately delved into the sequel upon finishing. What made it so immersive? I’ll try to answer this question.

Huntress Isabeau Agarwal lives to slay monsters. She serves Nobles (inhuman giants with dope powers) and in some ways is above the law. Her mission is simple - track down Doppelvyrm, a shape-shifting creature able to pose as a human, before it gets to the city of Lamplight. She ends up in a spooky haunted mansion, where someone is murdered, which makes her life more complicated. More work, two cases to solve.

Outside the mansion, there’s a tumultuous thunderstorm. Inside the mansion, all hell breaks loose. The story weaves together elements of comedy, horror, fantasy, and murder mystery, and it works on every level. Everyone gathered in the mansion has a motive for murder. Being trapped between a murderer and a skin-wearing monster isn’t exactly fun. Especially since Isabeau has until morning to unveil the true identity of the creature, or no one, including herself, will make it out alive. Why? That’s a spoiler.

I loved how well-crafted and well-timed comedic interludes were and how they balanced darker moments and broke the tension when needed. The sense of danger and suspense never goes away, and horror elements, while chilling, never fall into poor taste. The story kept me on the edge of my seat, but it also offered humorous relief and a hopeful tone amid its darker moments.

The narrative may seem pretty straightforward, but both mysteries (Who killed? Where’s the monster? Who's the monster?) turn surprisingly complex, and I doubt anyone will guess the truth early on. The characters are vibrant and multi-dimensional, each with their own secrets and motives. And if you crave excitement, you’ll get lots of it, complete with seances, specters, mesmers, and monsters.

The review is already long, but I need to say a few words about the characters. Isabeau Agarwal is a great protagonist. She’s focused and excellent with guns and logic. Turns out she’s also good at solving murders and dealing with ghosts. She gives the impression of someone stern and cold, but when you get to know her, you realize she’s good people. Her sidekick, Evie, is incredibly fun. And then, there’s Penny: a young woman who recently passed away and was revived through the fusion of mesmer and medium magic, now existing as a “living doll person.” She cannot speak as her mouth is perpetually sewn shut - if it were ever unsealed, her soul would leave her body, and she’d die for good this time. You’ll come to love her.

Murder at Spindle Manor will keep you guessing until the very last page. I loved the book and highly recommend it to others.

OFFICIAL SPFBO RATING:

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Morgan Stang lives in the humid part of Texas. He graduated from the University of Houston with a BBA. By day he works in accounting and by night he sleeps, and sometime in between he writes in a wide variety of fantasy genres, ranging from dark fantasy (The Bartram's Maw series) to gaslamp murder mystery (The Lamplight Murder Mysteries) to cozy fantasy (The Bookshop and the Barbarian). He is a fan of all things nerdy, and lives with an immortal ball python.
Murder at Spindle Manor links: Amazon, Goodreads


Thank you for agreeing to this interview. Before we start, tell us a little about yourself.
I was born and raised in the deep, dark, dank jungles of Texas, and there I learned the secret art of accounting. I've been writing stories for as long as I can remember, and just started self-publishing in early 2020. Other than writing, I enjoy all things nerdy, including video games, board games, Dungeons and Dragons, reading, Legos, etc.
I currently have eight books out. Murder at Spindle Manor was the sixth book I published. Because I'm terrible at creating a distinct author brand, I write wildly different flavors of fantasy books, including gaslamp murder mysteries, super violent dark fantasy, and comedic cozy fantasy.
Do you have a day job? If so, what is it?
I do! I work in accounting. It's very boring. Let's do everyone a favor and move on quickly.
Who are your favorite current writers and who are your greatest influencers?
My favorite current writers are probably Joe Abercrombie and Brandon Sanderson. Sanderson is just so incredibly readable, and Abercrombie is an amazing writer.
As for the greatest influencers? I've got a lot. The two mentioned above, certainly. George Martin is always the holy grail for attaining that wonderfully close third-person narrative. Jacqueline Carey for her amazing attentiveness with her characters and worlds, and having sexuality respectfully built into those worlds. Quentin Tarantino and the Coen brothers for their dialogue and larger-than-life stories about seemingly normal things. Terry Pratchett, even though I'm a tiny, fluttering LED light compared to his brilliant sun in the sky. Travis Baldree, for making cozy cool again. Tolkien, specifically the Hobbit, for making cozy cool back in the day. Isaac Asimov and Michael Crichton, because all my books are secretly sci-fi, and Asimov especially was amazing at big twists and reveals. Agatha Christie, for being the whodunnit master. Various authors from the Romanticism period, and those who carry the torch today like Susanna Clarke. Kentaro Miura, for his incredible ability to write dark things with that little bit of hope and optimism in the distance, and also for having a protagonist who carries around a big giant sword and chops monsters in half with one swing.
Can you lead us through your creative process? What works and doesn’t work for you? How long do you need to finish a book?
My pace so far has been about one book every six months, although I could see that slowing down. Basically I let ideas cook for a bit, some on the back-burner, and then I'll write an outline for the whole book, just a short outline, do small write-ups for the main characters, write down the main concepts and themes I want to focus on, then start writing it. I leave room in the outline to come up with new stuff, as you always come up with new stuff while writing. I try to write daily, about a thousand words a day, although I generally don't on weekends because my brain is in fun mode and wants to go do other stuff. Then when done, I do a revision, then send it off to beta readers, get their feedback, and do more revisions, and then I've got a book.
That all sounds rather standard I think, and pretty uninteresting. I suppose if there's a mental thing I do for coming up with what to write, it's that I first come up with the “big scenes”, and the overall big huge thing that makes the book worth writing. After that, I piece it all together, connecting all the juicy stuff to make it a coherent story.
It's also important to focus mostly on the actual current bit that you're writing, even if it's not one of those “big scenes”, and try to make whatever chapter or scene you're currently writing the very best part of the book, so that a potential reader could come along and say “that was my favorite part”. So any part of the book could be someone's favorite part. I think Sanderson said that once. He's said a lot of things.
What do you think characterizes your writing style?
Aside from my very first published book (which was overly long and had pacing issues), it would be quick, snappy writing in a relatively short package. Chapters that end in a way that makes you want to keep reading. Intrigue that makes you ask questions. Other than that, my genres can be super different, so my writing style changes a lot between books. My cozy fantasy reads nothing like my murder mysteries, which don't read like my dark fantasy books.
They can all be goofy though. I guess that's the underlying thing tying them together? I just can't stop from putting in a certain level of absurdity. (Even in my dark fantasy, which features a cocaine-addicted faerie who lives within the bosom of a noblewoman.)
Thematically, all of my stuff also seems to be about optimism versus pessimism, and generally having optimism win out.
What made you decide to self-publish Murder at Spindle Manor as opposed to traditional publishing?
Finding success in self-publishing can be just as difficult as finding success traditionally publishing. They're both incredibly difficult, and both require a lot of hard work and luck, and I went in knowing this. To do either, you really need to be okay with writing for yourself most of all, because there's a good chance that's who you're going to be writing for. I think Sanderson said that once.
So both paths can lead to failure. But the way I saw it, at least with self-publishing you have a consolation prize: your physical book, in your hands, on your shelf. Possibly with a sale or two. As opposed to traditional publishing, where failure results in a rejection letter and that's it.
So I suppose that's why I went straight to self-publishing. I just wanted to make books. Even if I never found an audience, I would still have those books in hand, and that's just cool to me.
What are your favorite and least favorite parts of self-publishing?
My favorite thing about it is the freedom. And the speed. You can write a book and publish it within a small amount of time. In traditional, the wheels turn very slowly. And I can also write weird stuff that I don't think traditional would probably be interested in publishing.
My least favorite thing about it is the freedom. You're telling me I have to come up with my own cover, my own blurb, my own marketing, my own website, my own mailing list, and so much more? Really, the business side of self-publishing is a job in itself, and I am terrible at it. To any aspiring self-published authors, do not look at me as an example. I just write a lot and hope for the best.
Why did you enter SPFBO?
For the free hor d'oeuvres. So you can see why my disappointment is immeasurable.
But really, why wouldn't you want to enter SPFBO if you're self-published? It's an awesome contest full of cool people. Some really amazing books came out of this contest. I've really enjoyed Sword of Kaigen and The Lost War.
I didn't even know about it until SPFBO7, which was the first time I entered. Someone on Reddit told me about it and said I should enter because my book is good, and so I did. This is the third year I've entered, so third time is a charm I guess.
What would you do if you won the SPFBO?
Probably have a panic attack first. Then eat some orange slices. After that, I'm not sure. I feel like I'd seek out a mentor who's won in the past honestly. I mean you'd have to capitalize on it, right? But whatever the case, whether winning or not, I'd be grateful. It's an honor just to be a finalist.
How would you describe the plot of Murder at Spindle Manor if you had to do so in just one or two sentences?
A monster hunter and her plucky sidekick hunt a monster who is posing as a human (The Thing style), and they end up in a spooky haunted mansion, where someone is murdered, and now just great, there's two mysteries. A gaslamp fantasy comedic horror murder mystery set in a pseudo-Victorian world.
What was your initial inspiration for Murder at Spindle Manor? How long have you been working on it? Has it evolved from its original idea?
I'm not sure how long I've been working on it, because ideas cook in the back of the mind while you're working on other projects. I've always wanted to do a spooky whodunnit murder mystery, because I greatly enjoy them in general. The “snowbound murder mystery” being the most entertaining to me, where a small group of people are stuck in a small place together. I also really like the Victorian era in general.
Inspiration came from Agatha Christie's works, the movie Clue, Penny Dreadful and those classic monsters included, The Hateful Eight, the monster-hunting of Witcher, and Dark Souls/Bloodborne games.
Aside from other works, a ton of inspiration came from the Spiritualism movement of the Victorian era. I've always felt like this was an overlooked little piece of history and underused in fiction. The book has a bit of steampunk in it, but I view it mainly as a gaslamp fantasy work, and to me that means Victorian era Spiritualism. Seances. Mediums. Ghosts. Fortune tellers. Mesmers. Romanticism, just before it died out and was replaced by reason and logic.
If you had to describe it in 3 adjectives, which would you choose?
Fun, intriguing, and spooky. Emphasis on fun, because that single word has basically been the cornerstone for my philosophy for approaching these books. Metaphorically, they're built like an old haunted roller coaster ride, complete with smoke machines and animatronics.
Is it part of the series or a standalone? If series, how many books have you planned for it?
A series. I don't have an exact number of books planned. It's going to be more than a short trilogy, but I also don't plan on just going on forever and ever. I want each entry to have some substantial stuff included in it, not just a throwaway one-shot story.
Who are the key players in this story? Could you introduce us to Murder at Spindle Manor’s protagonists/antagonists?
Isabeau Agarwal is the protagonist. She's a Huntress, whose job is to hunt monsters, Witcher-style. Turns out she's also good at solving murders and dealing with ghosts. A stern, serious exterior, all cinnamon bun on the inside.
Evelyn Turnstall is her plucky sidekick and coachman, and the fire to her ice. She's sunshine where Isabeau is all glorious brooding. They're an odd couple.
Penny: I'm including her because why not? She's a young woman who died recently, and was brought back to life via the fusion of mesmer and medium magic, and is now a “living doll person”, who can't really communicate in any meaningful way, and her mouth is perpetually sewn shut, and if it was ever unsewn then her soul would leave her body and she'd die for good this time. She's an MVP honestly.
For the antagonist, it's—wait a minute! You almost got me. You've got to read to find out whodunnit.
Does your book feature a magic/magic system? If yes, can you describe it?
It does, in a way! Fairly soft magic system, I would say. This goes back to my answer about Victorian-era Spiritualism. I basically ask, what if that was all real? And there you have it. Mediums exist, and they can talk to the dead. Fortune tellers exist and can actually tell your fortune. Mesmers exist and can manipulate the human body. Ghosts exist, and they have a bit of a system of their own.
Cover art is always an important factor in book sales. Can you tell us about the idea behind the cover of Murder at Spindle Manor and the artist?
The artist is Inkwolf Designs. I got this cover before I started working with artists on actual custom covers, meaning that yes, this was a premade cover. Which some may scoff at, but I think it's pretty good for a premade! People have said it looks good, at least. I think it's an example for others that a good cover doesn't have to break the bank, and you don't have to go all out. Inkwolf Designs and other artists have some great premades, and as long as it looks good and it matches what you're looking for, why not?
The idea I went out looking for was something simple and elegant, and something that would convey the idea of a setting around the 1800s or so. It also has a few elements featured in the book, including spiders and a ghost (no, that's not Isabeau on the cover).
Which question about the book do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!
This is a tough one. I feel like people have already asked me the big questions, like “What's up with the weird Nobles?” and “What's up with the random teleporting girl?” and “Will Isabeau and Evie ever hook up?” So I'll go with a fun question, just for funsies:
How would you cast your characters if this was filmed?
Good question! A few of these I had in mind while writing, and a few after the fact, and also many characters I wouldn't really know, I have nobody, they're just in my head. Also this is for both Spindle Manor and the sequel, Murder on the Lamplight Express.
Evie: Sophia Lillis
Penny: Jenna Ortega
Mr Homes: John Cleese
Esmeralda Valdez: Sofia Boutella
Teddy Field: Ewan Mcgregor
Mr Tin: Idris Elba
Benjamin Curtain: Michael Emerson
Mateo Torres: Guillermo del Toro
What’s your publishing Schedule for 2023/2024?
(I assume you mean 2023/2024 :P) Right now I'm in the middle of writing the third book in the Lamplight Murder Mysteries, and it's going good! It's going to have a fairly different vibe than the first two books, which share a similar snowbound whodunnit skeleton. The third book will be set in the actual city of Lamplight, and will have our Huntress traveling about all over the city instead of locked down in one location. To continue the metaphor from earlier, if the first two books are roller coaster rides, then this third book is the whole amusement park where you skip about from one spectacle to another.
Since my books generally release 6 months apart, and my last book was released on August of this year, then that means this new one should come out around February 2024. But now that I said that it'll probably be much longer!
After that I'm either going to start right up on the fourth book in the series, which would revert back to a smaller snowbound mystery (literally this time), or I'm going to finally write a standalone novel I've been meaning to write for a long time now, starring a certain mysterious teleporting woman. But that keeps getting pushed back. I'll get to it eventually.
Thank you for taking the time to answer all the questions. In closing, do you have any parting thoughts or comments you would like to share with our readers?
I suppose I'll leave with a secret about my books, but don't tell anyone, it's just between you and me: all of my books take place in the same universe, Sanderson-style. I suppose the Stangoverse.
I've never confirmed it in the open before, but there is evidence in the books that tie them together. I don't think anyone has noticed. It's just small easter eggs, not some big huge thing where you actually have to read everything to know what's going on.
Each different series takes place on a different planet with its own vibe. So this is why I earlier said that all my books are actually secretly sci-fi. There's a big huge universe in my head that explains everything.
So theoretically, in the future one character might possibly appear in an entirely different series!

 Book Review: A True Account: Hannah Masury’s Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates, Written by Herself by Katherine Howe

Official Author Website
Buy A True Account here - U.S. | U.K.

OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: Katherine Howe is a #1 New York Times bestselling and award-winning writer of historical fiction and nonfiction. Her best known books are The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, which debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list in 2009 and was named one of USA Today's top ten books of the year, and Conversion, which received the 2015 Massachusetts Book Award in young adult literature. In 2014 she edited The Penguin Book of Witches for Penguin Classics, a primary source reader on the history of witchcraft in England and North America. She co-authored the #1 bestselling Vanderbilt: the Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty with CNN's Anderson Cooper, which came out in September 2021. Their next collaboration, Astor: the Rise and Fall of an American Fortune will release September 19, 2023. And her next novel, A True Account: Hannah Masury's Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates, Written by Herself will be out November 21. 2023. She holds a BA in art history and philosophy from Columbia and an MA in American and New England studies from Boston University, A native Houstonian, she lives in New England with her family. She also puts hot sauce on everything.

FORMAT/INFO: A True Account was published in November 2023 by Magpie Books in the U.K. and by Henry Holt and Co. in the U.S. It is available in hardback, ebook, and audiobook formats.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: A True Account by Katherine Howe is a historical fiction book with intertwined narratives of a girl who finds herself pressed into the service of a pirate, as well as a professor in the twentieth century who attempts to piece together her story.

The former is Hannah Masury who finds herself on a ship, and does whatever she has to for her survival, and the latter is a professor whose student hands her a manuscript with a compelling story narrated by Hannah in hindsight.

First thing, I know nothing about boats. Throw any nautical terms as me, and I’m as lost as a sailor without a compass at stormy sea. If that’s the right analogy. Is it any surprise that I connected so much to the former timeline with Hannah since she was such a novice? I loved it much better than the other timeline, while that started out as an equally compelling one.

Hannah’s timeline dazzled me, as did her sheer will to survive through any means. While she is fearful, she faces difficult circumstances head on, and definitely a character to be invested in. She’s a young girl at the beginning of the story, but she shows extraordinary courage in such an unfamiliar territory, and it’s hard not to feel fear for her, as well as put yourself in her shoes. This timeline makes for a rollicking good read, and makes the nautical setting leap off the page enough that you can feel the humidity and the salty sea spray, and that and more makes this to be such an evocative story. I could read another two hundred pages detailing her adventures without any issues. The highlight for me was definitely the subtle touch to the deprecating tone used in her narration, which made some of the more gory, graphic and unforgiving acts performed in the pirate setting much easier to read.

While Marianne, the professor’s timeline shows her different struggle in her time, it stumbled a bit too much in it’s pacing, as did Hannah’s, but the past timeline faltered only at the very end. Marianne gets excited at the prospect of the treasure promised by the manuscript and ropes in her father and her student to go chase it down. This opened up a lot of threads, such as her void of an existence in a time that women were expected to live with the sanctity of marriage, and clearly she’s a woman of much privilege. There’s this sense of constant tension at the beginning with her and her father, which slowly smoothens out into something a lot more affectionate and tender, at an unjustified rate. The pace is uneven at best, and has a free fall towards being less and less controlled, and this bothered me more and more as I read her part of the story, and finish is very rushed and abrupt.
CONCLUSION: Despite stumbling in different aspects, I find this book worth the read for just Hannah’s perspective and the nautical setting, and I have to admit that most of that part is superbly done. Well worth a try.

He began  to  climb  the  inside  of  the  castle, the folly, the empty stone.
“Tom?”
He climbed.
“Don’t be so bloody dramatic!”
At the top he stood upright, jerkily, balancing against the air above the wall and the cliff.
“You’ll not frighten me!”
He spread his arms and lifted his head to the sky.
“Through the sharp hawthorn blow the winds,” he shouted. “Who gives anything to poor Tom? Tom’s a-cold! Bless thee from whirlwinds, starblasting, and taking!”
“Stop it! You’re all quote! Every bit! Any you call me second hand!”
“Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill. Halloo, halloo, loo, loo!”
“You can’t put two words of your own together! Always someone else’s feeling! Other people have to hell to find words for you! You’re fire-proof!”

Red Shift (1973) by Alan Garner, is a complex book that weaves together three distinct but related stories. The main story, set in 1970s England, is about Tom and Jan, teenagers struggling to maintain their love in the face of Tom’s disapproving parents, looming separation as Jan prepares to enter nursing school in London, and Tom’s unsettled mental state. Jan is constantly expressing her love for Tom, but he seems incapable of really accepting that.

The second story is about Macey is part of a band of deserters from the Roman IX Legion named Macey and a tribal priestess raped and held prisoner by his comrades following the slaughter of her entire village. He is given to berserker rages where he fights like ten men and experiences visions of the other two stories.

The final tale is of Thomas Rowley, an epileptic, and his wife, Margery, who live in the village of Bartholemy, the site of a historical massacre during the English Civil War. Together, they and the other villagers are preparing for the approach of hostile Irish Royalist soldiers — the very ones who will carry out the killings.

The story is largely told in dialogue, with Civil War-era characters speaking in Cheshire dialect. The seventies inhabitants speak in a denatured, less distinct Cheshire dialect. In what can only be a reference to the ongoing Vietnam War and My Lai Massacre at the time of Red Shift‘s writing, the Roman soldiers speak like American GIs. As they attempt to go “tribal” and mix melt into the local population, they begin using a sort of Cheshire dialect, too. They also use the modern names for all the towns and geographic features, stressing the connection between their time and the present.

All of the book is written in powerful, beautiful prose, whether it’s the often staccato dialogue or the nearly poetic descriptive passages. It is a book filled with violence and despair, yet there’s also a strong sense that there’s hope, or at least the possibility of hope, for salvation and healing.

Coming after his first four novels, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, The Moon of Gomrath, Elidor, and The Owl Service, Red Shift marks the point where Garner moved beyond more traditional fantasy elements, and dove deeper into an exploration of place, time, and psychology. The title refers to the shift of light as cosmological objects move due to the expansion of the universe. Tom is studying astronomy in school and brings it up when he describes his life as too blue and he needs to shift away from it. Red is a color that runs through the story; Macey is painted red with alder dye by the priestess and something is hidden in a petticoat dyed red with alder by Thomas and Margery.

Mow Cop folly

All three stories are bound at a physical level, being set around Mow Cop, a hill in Cheshire. For the British tribes of the Roman era, the hill is a holy place from where millstones are carved.

Logan shook the girl. “What’s this place? Why come here for rocks?”
She did not let go of Macey.
“What’s so special about Mow Cop?” Logan shouted.
“It’s the netherstone of the world,” she said. “The skymill turns on it to grind stars.”
“Why haven’t we been attacked?”
“The rock is sacred to the flour of heaven.”

The hill is hoped to be a sanctuary, though that only proves fully true for Thomas and Margery when they are sent there by an unexpected benefactor to wait out the duration of the Civil War in safety. While Macey survives, the murderous atrocities of his comrades abrogate Mow Cop’s protective status. For Tom and Jan, it is Tom’s own anger and willfulness that renders its protection worthless.

The men are bound together by the stars, too. Macey focuses on the Belt of Orion to help trigger his killing rage. Tom and Jan choose Orion as a way to be together when they are far apart.

Orion

“OK. We’ll have Delta Orionis: over there on the right. It’ll be with us all winter. We’ll be together at least once every twenty-four hours.”
“How?”
“What’s a good time? Ten o’clock? Every night at ten o’clock we’ll both try to look at that star, and be together because we know the other’s watching, and thinking, At the same moment we’ll be looking at the same thing.”
“If it isn’t cloudy,” said Jan. “I love you: you’re so impossible.”
“It’s impossible.”
“It’s not. It’s a marvellous idea. That star and us. Like now.”
“There’s never ‘now’,” said Tom. “Delta Orionis may not exist. It isn’t even where we think it is. It’s so far away, we’re looking at it as it was when the Romans were here.”
“That’s why I don’t like astronomy.”
“But shall we have that star?”
“Yes.”
“And ten o’clock.”

The other linkage between the three characters is a stone-age axe. Macey uses it to kill, though he comes to think he is defiling it and ends up burying it away. Thomas finds the same axe head centuries later where Macey buried it. He believes it to be a thunderstone, a common folk belief that stone-age tools were actually rocks hit by lighting and offered protection against lightning strikes. Finally, Tom and Jan find it in the ruins of Thomas and Margery’s house on Mow Cop.

Jan knelt on the fallen rubbish that blocked the heart. “It’s cemented in. I can’t move it. Be careful.”
“I’ll take away the other stones round it,” said Tom. The mortar perish, and he lifted the blocks away from the chimney breast. “It’s a cavity. Here she comes –”
“It’s beautiful!”
Tom brushed the dirt with his sleeve. He held a stone axe head. It filled his palm. He rubbed with wet grass, and the axe shone grey-green, polished, flawless. It tapered to a thin edge at one end, and the other was a hammer shape, pierced for hafting.
“It’s very beautiful,” said Tom.
“Let me hold.” Jan took it as if it were a delicate bird. “This is it,” she said. “This is it. My real and special thing. Can we keep it? From our house?”

Finally, there are clear psychic bonds between the three men. Macey and Thomas both see flashes of red, silver, and blue, the colors of the train that Tom waits for Jan to arrive on. They also both see the folly built on top of Mow Cop long after their deaths. Macey is introduced in the story right after Tom in a moment of rage, first presses his fists to his eyes and then against a window until it breaks.

“You were right, kid. I saw nothing.”
“I saw.”
“Saw what?”
“Blue. Silver. And red.”
“What’s with this blue and silver? You ever had it before?”
“When I was a kid. Pain. But then it was — Hell, there ain’t words.”
“Like you flipped?”
“But I didn’t go,” said Macey. “Blue and silver — makes me so chickenshit I can’t remember whatall next. It was changing. But when — that guy — killed him heareabouts — when I killed him — on the road — blue and silver — I freaked — but I could see him, what I did — but there was two hands — pressing at me — a long way off against my eyes — and then near — and then noplace — big as all there is. Sir, I don’t think I’m too good for this unit anymore.”

St Bertoline’s Church, Barthomley – site of the massacre in 1643

All three men are broken and their salvation and healing only seem possible at the hands of the woman who loves them. Garner has said that Red Shift was inspired by the legend of Tam Lin. Tam Lin was ensorcelled by the fairies, and only by the persistence of the woman who loves him is he freed. That is reflected in both stories set in the past. The priestess saves Macey from death when the other soldiers are made to suffer for the crime of raping her. Margery stands by Thomas as the Irish soldiers arrive and the massacre occurs and is later able to secret him away to safety on Mow Cop.

Jan is prepared to do whatever is needed to help Tom. Tom, though, is unable to hold on, driving her away as he succumbs to jealousy and an act of monumental self-destructiveness. For Jan, the axe has become a totem of their love, something she can hold on to when they’re apart. When he sells it to a museum, it devastates her and signals the collapse of their relationship.

At that point, it seems clear the axe has its own protective quality. Macey wants to rid himself of it at one point but the priestess insists he keep it and he is spared. Thomas wants to break it up and parcel out its anti-lightning benefits to other people. Instead, Margery convinces him not to, and they survive the massacre. Tom, not only seems to lose Jan, he also finally seems to lose his footing in the real world, even experiencing visions of the other timelines as he climbs Mow Cop for what might be one last time.

Famously, the book ends with a page of coded text. When the couple realized Tom’s mother was intercepting and reading Jan’s letters to him, they started communicating in code. Garner leaves it untranslated, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out. Until recently, I’ve always read the message as one of desperation and hopelessness. Something I read yesterday, though, made me realize it might still be that, but there’s also a slightly optimistic reading that also reinforces the link between the three stories.

 

In his foreword to the 2011 New York Review of Books edition of Red Shift, Garner explained in detail the various things that had spawned the novel. The first thing was a newspaper article about a young couple that had a fight in a pub that ended with him throwing a computer tape at her. He then left and later killed himself. Only afterwards did she play the tape and read his message which was an apology, but also read that “if she didn’t care enough to read the tape within the week he would know he had ruined everything and life would not be worth living.”

Later, he heard a legend that Mow Cop had been settled first by Spanish deserters from a Roman legion. Then there was the massacre of 1643. Soon, he began fixating on two things, though there was no obvious connection.

Finally, he spotted a piece of graffiti in a railway station:

Janet Heathcote + Alan Flask. It is true.

Under it, someone had come later and written beneath it, in silver lipstick:

not really now not any more

He describes the moment he read that as the moment “the sky fell in…and, with it, Red Shift.”

That sky-fell-in moment is sort of how I feel about Red Shift. Each story leaves me with deep impressions, largely of those twin things I mentioned in the beginning – despair, and hope. Each one hits like a hammer. I see the connections between each but I don’t know why they’re there. I’m left a little devastated but more than a little confounded.

In real life, Alan Garner is intimately entwined with Mow Cop and Cheshire, its history, its geography, and its legends. More than in the similarly set Weirdstone and its sequel Gomrath, Red Shift brings the region and its language to life in a way that feels like I’m reading actual history, not fiction. To what ends all this serves I can’t decide. This is the second time I’ve read this book in twenty-five years, and as much as I find myself affected by the three stories, I can’t quite figure out what Garner was attempting. Maybe it was nothing concrete, only the need to tell these stories, all rooted in a place dear to him, to examine the way it might bear on other characters. I’m just not sure, but I know I will return to Red Shift sooner rather than later.

Fletcher Vredenburgh writes a column each first Friday of the month at Black Gate, mostly about older books he hasn’t read before. He also posts at his own site, Stuff I Like when his muse hits him.

 

The Scary Book of Christmas Lore: 50 Terrifying Yuletide Tales from
Around the World by Tim Rayborn (Cider Mill Press, November 14, 2023)

Anyone who has ever read, or watched a screen-version of, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (1843) knows that the tradition of telling ghost stories during the holidays goes back to the early Victorian era. In the 19th century, the celebration of Christmas underwent a transformation, influenced in part by the works of writers such as Charles Dickens and Washington Irving. These authors, among others, painted romantic visions of the season as a time for festive gatherings, family reunions, and acts of kindness, playing a large role in the Christmas images we have today.

However, alongside the cheerful and heartwarming aspects of Christmas, the Victorians had a lingering fascination with the supernatural. This interest in ghost stories and the macabre was likely influenced by earlier traditions and folklore associated with the winter season, particularly the ancient pagan celebrations of the winter solstice, when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead were thin.

Table of Contents for The Scary Book of Christmas Lore

In the Victorian era, people would gather around the fireplace during the Christmas season to share ghost stories as a form of entertainment. This practice was likely fueled by the long, dark nights of winter, creating a spooky backdrop for tales of the eerie and supernatural. It became a social tradition, with families and friends taking pleasure in scaring the snot out of each other as part of their holiday festivities.

Being raised in a very traditional Swedish household, my family would celebrate the American version of Christmas on December 24th; opening the gifts delivered by a real life “Jultomten” (Santa Claus) in an elaborate red, fur-trimmed suit. December 25th began the “twelve days of Christmas” which involved social activities each day through January 5. Part of our December 24th tradition was to watch the 1938 black and white version of A Christmas Carol, starring Reginald Owen as Scrooge. If you’ve seen it you will understand when I say it sports a pretty high creep factor, likely contributing significantly to my goth leanings.

So, being a person who has a lifelong association with ghost stories at the holidays, I was very excited to learn of the recent release of The Scary Book of Christmas Lore: 50 Terrifying Yuletide Tales from Around the World by Tim Rayborn. My copy is enroute from Amazon, but here are some of the aforementioned “terrifying Yuletide tales.”

• Krampus (Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, and northern Italy), a demonic half-goat monster who drags chains and whips bad children with birch sticks, or stuffs them in his sack to take away
• The Kallikantzari (Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Turkey), goblins who come out during Advent to cause mischief
• Père Fouettard (France, Belgium, Switzerland), Saint Nicholas’ eternal cannibal manservant who deals with naughty children
• Hans Trapp (Alsace-Lorraine, France), who roams the countryside disguised as a scarecrow and goes door to door on Christmas looking for children to feast upon
• Gryla (Iceland), the giant ogre who emerges from her cave on Christmas to hunt children and cook them into stew
• Mari Lwyd (Wales), a creature with a horse’s skull and a long cloak that is followed by a group of chanting people
• Frau Perchta (Austria and Bavaria), who slits the bellies of bad children and stuffs them with straw

Now if that doesn’t put you in the holiday mood, I don’t know what will. I can’t wait to pull out my copy of The Scary Book of Christmas Lore on December 24 and begin indoctrinating the younger members of my family.

 
Official Author Website

Q] Welcome back to Fantasy Book Critic Michael. How are you doing since the release of A WAR TO END ALL, the end of your Manifest Delusions saga?
 
MRF: Welcome back? Yeah, I guess this place does look kinda familiar. Er…if anything went missing after my last visit, it wasn’t me. And if anything was broken, it was like that when I got here.
How am I doing? I don’t know.
There’s this weird thing that happens after you release a book where you wander around feeling empty for a while. But then this itch grows down in the deepest recesses of your obsidian soul and at some point, you end up sitting in front of a computer again.
There was this mad flurry around the release, then the emptiness, and now I’m writing again. Which is good. Writers are like sharks; if we stop moving forward, we can’t afford to buy groceries. Or something.
 
Q] What was the main inspiration for THE STORM BENEATH THE WORLD & the world within? Where do you think the idea came from and what compelled you to see it through to the end?
 
MRF: Oh man, where do the ideas come from? No idea!
Wait, that’s a lie. I kinda remember this one.
So, I am a bit of a cardio junky. My brain is, apparently, extremely efficient at creating endocannabinoids. Basically, if I do 40+ minutes of cardio I get high. It’s kind of awesome. Funny thing though, it’s super easy to eat and drink back the calories you burn in 40 minutes, so I’m nowhere near skinny. Just high. I’m fat and high and my basal heart rate is under 60BPM.
But that’s not all of it. I also get a high from writing. When a book is going well, when it’s tumbling out of my brain faster than I can two-finger type the words, that same awesome brain starts dumping those lovely endocannabinoids.
I am a word junkie.
Well, I started thinking about that. I wanted to use it as part of a magic system. I believe that all great magic systems include a cost. The characters in The Storm Beneath the World can develop incredible talents, but the more they use them, the more addicted they become to using them. Eventually, they starve to death, using their talent over and over, forever getting that little bit better, until they starve to death. Much like a word-junkie writer who isn’t selling enough books.
After that, I decided I wanted a story without any humans because I wanted to look at hive instead of tribe (for reasons). And thus, my insectile ashkaro were born. And then I thought it would be cool if I wrote a fantasy book that took place in the upper atmosphere of a mega gas giant world. So…
Yeah, it was probably a bad idea, but you go where the muse leads.
 
 Q] Let’s talk about the stunning cover for THE STORM BENEATH THE WORLD. How did you come across Andrew Maleski’s work? Can you tell how it all came together?
 
MRF: Back when I was looking for an artist for A War to End All, Zack Argyle (who invented socks, and also wrote the Threadlight trilogy) introduced me to Andrew. It was love at first sight. Mostly for me. I bombarded Andrew with increasingly insane demands (More blood! More insanity!) and he kept smashing it.
When it came to find and artist for The Storm Beneath the World, Andrew was my first call. He grudgingly agreed to do the art as long as I promised not to be crazy this time.
I promised.
I lied.
 
Q] What was your first reaction when you saw it? How does it hold up (in your opinion) to what the main story is about?
 
MRF: I love the cover. While it’s not a specific scene this time, it definitely captures the feel of the world.
 
 
Q] Let’s talk about THE STORM BENEATH THE WORLD, there are so very few fantasy books written about non-humanoid races/characters? This is a completely different type of story as compared to all your previous works. How was the writing experience for you? How difficult was it?
 
MRF: They’re not humans but they’re still people, if that makes any sense. I’m in love with themes, the story beneath the story. Whether or not anyone notices or cares, all my books have one. It makes me happy, and that’s all that matters.
I was thinking about humans and our monkey heritage. We pretend like we’ve moved past that, but we haven’t. At all. We’re chimps with slightly more advanced brains. That led me to thinking about what it would be like if hive insects evolved intelligence and then began discovering individuality.
Don’t tell anyone, but the book is actually a sneaky hive = tribe thing and what I’m really picking at is people. Shh!
 
Q] Can you tell us more about the world that The Children of Corruption saga is set in and some of the story’s major characters? What are the (many) curiosities of this world?
 
MRF: One of the root ideas for this (and why oh why can’t I just write a normal fantasy book?) was that I was going to write alien fantasy. I wanted to write a fantasy novel as if it had been written by aliens for aliens. And so, no humans. At all. Anywhere.

(Life on a Gas Giant by Astra-Planetshine)
I started with the world. What if this fantasy novel took place in the upper atmosphere of a mega gas giant world? After that I saw these colossal living islands—balloon creatures—that lived for millions and millions of years, forever floating there. I saw smaller creatures living on their backs, growing and evolving. Look up, and there’s no sun—the atmosphere is too dense—and all you see is a lighter spot that traverses the sky. Look down and there’s the boiling maelstrom of the lower atmosphere, the storm beneath your world.
Then, the magic system discussed above, a caste system based loosely on insect structures, sentient praying mantises, and war!
It’s that tired old trope.
 
Q] So for someone who (still) hasn't read any of your novels, what would be your pitch for THE STORM BENEATH THE WORLD?
 
MRF: Read my fucking books!
 
 
Q] So what can readers expect from THE STORM BENEATH THE WORLD and what should they be looking forward to according to you?
 
MRF: There will be things and stuff and events. There will be moments of selfless sacrifice and utter self-serving greed.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry.
Then you’ll go have a snack.
Fuck, I dunno.
 
Q] THE STORM BENEATH THE WORLD is book 1 of The Children of Corruption saga. How many books are you planning to write in this series? 
 
MRF: Two, though that might change.
The second book, The River of Days, is one third written. I want this to be a duology, but in the end the story will decide what it needs to be. I’m just there for the ride.
 
Q] In closing, do you have any parting thoughts or comments you’d like to share with our readers?
 
MRF: Existence is simultaneously far simpler than we think it is and yet so complex we will never understand all of it.
That’s what makes it awesome. —Mike Fletcher

 

Official Author Website
Buy Fearless

OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: Allen Stroud (Ph.D) is a university lecturer and Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror writer, best known for his work on the computer games Elite Dangerous (Frontier Developments) and Phoenix Point (Snapshot Games). He has chaired the British Fantasy Society's Fantasycon and is the current Chair of the British Science Fiction Association. His SF novels, Fearless, and Resilient are published by Flame Tree Press. He also composes science fiction music soundtracks, including for The Fractal Series.

FORMAT/INFO: Fearless was published on September 8th, 2020 by Flame Tree Press. It is 362 pages long and is told in first person from multiple POVs, including Captain Shann. It is available in paperback, hardback, and ebook.


OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: It should have been a simple rescue mission. In the far flung future of 2118, humanity has finally begun to spread out across the solar system, with colonies scattered from Earth's moon to the moons of Jupiter. Helping to make sure that everyone arrives at their destinations safely is Captain Shann and her ship the Khidr. The Khidr is one of a small fleet that patrols between all the colonies, keeping an eye out for any ships in distress. So when they receive an SOS from the Hercules, it's just a day like any other. Except when they arrive, they find the crew dead, and another ship waiting to attack them. Days away from any kind of help, the Khidir manages to flee to temporary safety, but Shann is all too aware that it's only a matter of time before their foe tracks them down and ends them once and for all.

Fearless is a tense race against time, a sci-fi adventure that keeps you constantly reminded about the dangers of space. Set about a hundred years in our future, the space technology of Fearless is better than ours but not to an unrecognizable degree. We may have colonies on Mars, but traveling at significant speed still requires dealing with g-forces, and transmissions take hours or days to arrive. Think of a technology point somewhere between our own and that of The Expanse, and you'll have a rough idea of what you're getting into.

That means that this is a story that pits Captain Shann and her crew not just against enemy combatants, but against the elements as well. A nick to your EVA suit could be just as deadly as a missile from an enemy ship. Every maneuver has to consider the consumption of resources, from fuel to oxygen to even potentially human lives. It's this tension that keeps the story moving, as Shann has to constantly juggle how to stay alive - a feat made even more difficult by growing realization that someone on her ship is a traitor.

Against the backdrop of all this are brief snippets of various news reports about growing tensions back on Earth. While the focus of this story is about the struggle between these two ships, factional divisions back home lead to explanations of why this attack happened in the first place. Glancing at the synopsis for the sequel, it's clear that the author plans to expand the story beyond this tiny crew as the trilogy continues.

The one area where I'd say the story is weakest is the overall characters. While the author occasionally dips into the backstory of a few of the characters, most aren't fleshed out much more beyond their name and rank. The exception is lead character Shann, who is the focus of a significant chunk of the POV chapters (with other characters rotating in). We do spend a little more time getting to know about her past, especially as she was born with no legs; it made life a continuous challenge on Earth, but she excels in the zero-g of space where walking is no longer a requirement. Shann is a calm and methodical leader, but also one increasingly burdened by the guilt over crew members who don't survive, leading to increasing doubt as the stakes get higher.

CONCLUSION: Fearless is exactly the kind of sci-fi story I'm a sucker for. Ever since APOLLO 13, I've been a fan of sci-fi stories that force people to be innovative to survive in space, and that's exactly the kind of story we have here. With only the implements on their ship, this crew of 25 (and shrinking) has to find a way to out-think and outmaneuver a bigger, faster, more powerful ship. It was the kind of story that easily sucked me into a "one more chapter" black hole, and I can easily say I'll be picking up the sequel in the near future.

New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine, Vol. I Issues #1 and #2. Cover art by Caterina Gerbasi (Fall 2023); and Gilead (Winter 2023)

October 2022, Michael Harrington hosted an interview with Oliver Brackenbury on Black Gate; Brackenbury is the editor and champion of New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine. That post coincided with the release of the teaser Issue #0 including short fiction & non-fiction (free in digital format, or priced at cost on Amazon Print-on-Demand, through the New Edge Website). In Feb. 2023 Black Gate announced the magazine’s Kickstarter which succeeded and spurred the creation of the illustrated Issues 1 & 2 that are being released now (Nov 2023).  This post shares the official press release of these issues and adds the Table of Contents for both.  New Edge is setting a strong foundation with these, with illustrations and heavy-hitting authors.

NEW EDGE SWORD & SORCERY ISSUES 1&2 IMPENDING RELEASE!

New Edge Sword & Sorcery will be releasing issues #1& #2 in mid-November for direct sale through their website. Until then, the new issues are available for pre-order through Backerkit. Those who pre-order issues #1 & #2 will be paying slightly less than final retail prices, all the more reason to run over to the NESS pre-order shop now!

Issue one features an original Elric tale by Michael Moorcock! He joins twenty-three other authors across both issues, such as Canadian horror master Gemma Files, Margaret Killjoy, S&S veteran David C. Smith, Hugo Award-winner Cora Buhlert, Milton Davis, and more. There’s also a tale by Jesús Montalvo, an author from the burgeoning S&S scene south of the US border, translated from its original Spanish by Gonzalo Baeza.

Twenty artists are spread across the two issues, including Morgan King, who directed Lucy Lawless in his 2021 rotoscope-animated Sword & Sorcery film The Spine of Night.

Each issue features seven or eight original stories and four works of non-fiction: one book review, one essay, one in-depth interview, and one historical literary profile of figures like Charles Saunders or Cele Goldsmith. All stories, essays, and profiles are to be paired with two original B&W illustrations.

“Made with love for the classics and an inclusive, boundary-pushing approach to storytelling”, these Sword & Sorcery tales take place in settings inspired by Asian, African, and Central American, as well as European, cultures; featuring prominent disability, neuro-divergent, and LGBTQ+ representation; all while delivering high-quality writing in a wide variety of styles. Sword & Sorcery can be many things and still be Sword & Sorcery.

New Edge Sword & Sorcery #1 & #2 are available in digital, perfect bound softcover, and sewn-stitched hardcover formats which lay flat for ease of reading. Interiors are printed on eighty firm, 100gsm cream paper pages sized at a spacious 8½x11 inches. The hardcovers are also enhanced with bookmark ribbons in colors taken from the gorgeously painted cover art.

Brackenbury has plans for publishing further issues, as well as expanding into book publishing with a line of themed anthologies & novella series. News of future crowdfunding campaigns and more can be found via the New Edge Sword & Sorcery newsletter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and Twitter accounts. To help cut post-crowdfund turnaround in half, the NESS editorial team are already editing stories for next year’s issues.

Example illustrations for New Edge Magazine Vol I, Issue #1 VOLUME I, NUMBER 1 – MMXXIII

Cover art by Caterina Gerbasi

FICTION

• CARNIVORA by Kirk A. Johnson, Illustrated by Daniel Vega
• COME LAY THE CRONE TO REST by Margaret Killjoy, Illustrated by Gary McCluskey 
• SISTER CHAOS – Bryn Hammond, Illustrated by Dan Rempel
• CHAK MUUCH – Jesús Montalvo, Translated from Spanish by Gonzalo Baeza, Illustrated by Carlos Castilho
• TEARS OF EB by Sarah A. Macklin, Illustrated by Trevor Ngwenya
• THE PILLARS OF SILENCE by Prashanth Srivatsa, Illustrated by Hardeep Aujla and Gary McCluskey 
• THE FOLK OF THE FOREST – Michael Moorcock, Illustrated by Sapro 

NONFICTION

• WHY (NEW EDGE) SWORD & SORCERY? by Brian Murphy, Illustrated by Sara Frazetta 
• CELE GOLDSMITH LALLI—MIDWIFE TO THE SECOND SWORD & SORCERY BOOM by Cora Buhlert, Illustrated by Chuah Shih Shin 
• FRESH BLOOD AND NEW THUNDER! BRINGING NEW READERS TO SWORD & SORCERY, WITH SOF MAGLIANO – Oliver Brackenbury
• REVIEW: WOMAN OF THE WOODS BY MILTON J. DAVIS – Robin Mar

 

VOLUME I, NUMBER 2 – MMXXIII

Cover art by Gilead

FICTION

• THE DEMON OF TASHI TZANG by Dariel Quiogue, Illustrated by Aldo Ojeda
• FANG by Jacquie Kawaja, Illustrated by Ursa Doom (Björn Magnusson)
• REVELSTOKE by Gemma Files, Illustrated by Saprophial
• A DEBT FORGOTTEN, A DEBT UNPAID by Jeremy Pak Nelson, Illustrated by Damiano Di Marco
• THE EYES OF THE DEMON by J.M. Clarke, Illustrated by Morgan King
• WATER, WHICH LAUGHS AT ALL THINGS by T.K. Rex & L. Ann Kinyon, Illustrated by Magda Kulbicka
• ATONEMENT FOR A RESURRECTED GOD by David C. Smith, Illustrated by Simon Underwood
• HOW MANY DEATHS TILL VENGEANCE? By June Orchid Parker, Illustrated by Matthew Spencer

NONFICTION

• NEURODIVERGENCE IN SWORD & SORCERY by Jonathan Olfert, Illustrated by Remco Van Straten
• SWORD & SOUL BROTHERS by Milton J. Davis, Illustrated by Chuah Shih Shin
• SWORD & SILK: AN INTERVIEW WITH DARIEL QUIOGUE by Oliver Brackenbury
• REVIEW: RETURN OF THE SORCERESS BY SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA by Kris Vyas-Myall

Example illustrations for New Edge Magazine Vol I, Issue #2

 

S.E. Lindberg is a Managing Editor at Black Gate, regularly reviewing books and interviewing authors on the topic of “Beauty & Art in Weird-Fantasy Fiction.” He is also the lead moderator of the Goodreads Sword & Sorcery Group and an intern for Tales from the Magician’s Skull magazine. As for crafting stories, he has contributed six entries across Perseid Press’s Heroes in Hell and Heroika series, has an entry in Weirdbook Annual #3: Zombies  He independently publishes novels under the banner Dyscrasia Fiction; short stories of Dyscrasia Fiction have appeared in Whetstone, Swords & Sorcery online magazine, Rogues In the House Podcast’s A Book of Blades Vol I and Vol II, DMR’s Terra Incognita, and the 9th issue of Tales From the Magician’s Skull.