July releases

Which books are coming out in July 2011? Is it the month during which the most anticipated, waited upon fantasy novel since... maybe the beginning of time... is coming out? Yes indeed, we asked for, longed for it, dreamed of it, but can it live up to hype of an undefinable proportion? We will know on July 12th... or a few days later judging by the sheer size of it! Let's dance!

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A Dance with Dragons
George R.R. Martin
July 12

The long-awaited fifth volume in the hugely popular and highly acclaimed epic fantasy A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE The last of the Targaryons, Daenerys Stormborn, the Unburnt, has brought the young dragons in her care to their terrifying maturity. Now the war-torn landscape of the Seven Kingdoms is threatened by destruction as vast as in the violent past. Tyrion Lannister, a dwarf with half a nose and a scar from eye to chin, has slain his father and escaped the Red Keep in King's Landing to wage war from the Free Cities beyond the narrow sea. The last war fought with dragons was a cataclysm powerful enough to shatter the Valyrian peninsula into a smoking, demon-haunted ruin half drowned by the sea. A DANCE WITH DRAGONS brings to life dark magic, complex political intrigue and horrific bloodshed as events at the Wall and beyond the sea threaten the ancient land of Westeros.

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The Goblin Corps

Ari Marmell
July 26

Morthûl, the dreaded Charnel King, has failed.

Centuries of plotting from the heart of the Iron Keep, deep within the dark lands of Kirol Syrreth—all for naught. Foiled at the last by the bumbling efforts of a laughable band of so-called heroes, brainless and over-muscled cretins without sense enough to recognize a hopeless cause when they take it on. Machinations developed over generations, schemes intended to deliver the world into the Dark Lord's hands, now devastated beyond salvation. But the so-called forces of Light have paid for their meddling with the life of Princess Amalia, only child of the royal family of Shauntille.

Now, as winter solidifies its icy grip on the passes of the Brimstone Mountains, disturbing news has reached the court of Morthûl. King Dororam, enraged by the murder of his only child—and accompanied by that same group of delusional upstart "heroes" —is assembling all the Allied Kingdoms, fielding an army unlike any seen before. The armies of Kirol Syrreth muster to meet the attack that is sure to come as soon as the snows have melted from the mountain paths, but their numbers are sorely depleted. Still, after uncounted centuries of survival, the Dark Lord isn't about to go down without a fight, particularly in battle against a mortal! No, the Charnel King still has a few tricks up his putrid and tattered sleeves, and the only thing that can defeat him now?may just be the inhuman soldiers on whom he's pinned his last hopes.

Welcome to the Goblin Corps. May the best man lose.

***

Den of Thieves
David Chandler
July 26

Born and raised in the squalid depths of the Free City of Ness, Malden became a thief by necessity. Now he must pay a fortune to join the criminal operation of Cutbill, lord of the underworld—and one does not refuse the master . . . and live.

The coronet of the Burgrave would fulfill Malden’s obligations, though it is guarded by hungry demons that would tear the soul from any interloper. But the desperate endeavor leads to a more terrible destiny, as Malden, an outlaw knight, and an ensorcelled lady must face the most terrifying evil in the land.

The e-reader experience

So that's it, I have read my first full length novel in the digital format and I loved the experience, to the detriment of my shelves that will probably grow heavy in a less frequent manner.

The book I chose was a big door-stopper, The Crippled God by Steven Erikson, standing at almost a thousand pages. Hence, more so than in the case of a mass market paperback novel, the difference in holding the book and traveling with it was more apparent.

The weight and size of the e-reader being as it is, I have to admit that the portability is incredible. Even though I didn't have a pocket edition, my reader being the Sony Touch PRS-650 with a 6 inches screen, it could easily fit in my coat pocket. Keeping the e-reader in hand for a long period of time is effortless, it stands conveniently on most of the training equipment I use at the gym, the page turning is swift and I don't have to hold it when I read in bed.

The fact that you can put so much novels on it at the same time is not really a plus for me since I don't read more than one novel at a time but it's always nice to have spares when you finish a book. I would probably change my idea on this characteristic after my next vacation.

The e-ink screen is soft (without back-lighting) and I never grew eyesore. It felt about the same as reading a real book and it's easy to clip a small light to the cover. The touch element of the reader is not a necessity but still it's enjoyable, mostly in the case of the on-screen keyboard.

Since I'm not a native English speaker, the integrated dictionnary was useful but then I didn't need it more than a couple of times. I liked to be able to take notes with the touch screen keyboard and highlight passages, that's really helpful for a reviewer.

The only kind of negative aspect I found was the number of lines on a page with a font size that I thought was comfortable. About a third of a real paperback page from The Crippled God was displayed. That's not much of a problem but somewhat, I would have preferred more lines. However, I would not trade the number of lines shown on screen for a larger size of e-reader. To benefit from all the aspects I mentioned earlier, I think that a 6 inches screen is the right size.

Taking everything into account, I think that the switch to e-books will be easier than I thought. There is simply too much positive elements in an e-reader to completely remain nostalgic or attached to the physical book sensation in my hands. Even though the availability of e-books is far from perfect (if you don't own a Kindle...), I can see myself reading more e-books than physical books in the next year or so.

I will finish with a little stat. Since November 2010, the percentage of Americans owning an e-reader grew from 6% to 12%. That's a bigger growth than the tablet where the rate grew from 5% to 8% during the same period. That rate could go up to 23% in 2012 (meaning 54 millions of e-readers in America alone...). Thanks Kindle!

So, have you begun to go digital?

Game of Thrones

The first season of Game of Thrones by HBO is over so it's time to take step back and summarize my feelings. To do so, I'll interview myself on the subject as a viewer.

So, Phil, was the series better than the novel?

Not quite but it was damned good. I really don't think it's actually possible when you're taking on a great novel. However, as was the case with LOTR, the production value for its medium was simply amazing. For me, GoT was as good for TV fantasy as was LOTR for movie fantasy. I'm glad HBO decided to invest money on the project and assemble a great team of artisans and actors. More so for the readers, seeing all our beloved characters come to life can be quite the charm.

I was not aware that the book could be cut into ten segments with some kind of cliffhanger being present at the end of most of them.

Right at the beginning, when watching the beautiful dynamic intro (I know it was a bit too modern or even mechanized in some parts) and the amazing theme song I could feel that passion was put into the project. I can't seem to be able to remove that theme from my head. Along with its integration into the general score, the whole music was of the highest quality.

Speaking of actors, what of the cast?

Saying that it was stellar would be too much a cliché. First I have to say that I was amazed at the number of characters that were pretty much spot on in term of interpretation of my imagination. That means that George description where taken into account, at least for most of them.

Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) will probably win an Emmy and it will be rightfully deserved. Jon Snow, Arya, Jaime, Littlefinger, Catelyn, Sansa, and most of the rest where nice discoveries or simply great casting choices, they delivered. And I should not forget Joffrey. What a little piece of shit, if only I could remove that spiteful grin form his face myselft!

On the other hand, even though I don't think his performance was subpar, I didn't really connect with Sean Bean as Eddard. Something was missing for me. The same could be said about Cersei. She didn't feel like the cold hard beauty I remember from the book. In her case and in the Targaryen offspring case (although Emilia Clarke was superb), the wigs could have an influence in my feeling. I think the blond wigs were not a success.

Seeing Jon Snow, Tyrion and Arya in 'real' made me remember how much I missed those characters. A Dance with Dragons cannot come soon enough to quench my thirst. I really hope with all my fantasy reader heart that it will live up to MY hype (which may be going too far for some...).

Who had the best storyline?

Tyrion, Jon and Daenerys. And in that, they succeeded in the same parts as the book. And taking into account that there's no real connection in the first book between the characters in the Seven Kingdoms and those in the Free Cities, I have to admit that I always felt connected to both of these separate 'worlds' events in the TV series as much as in the books.

What about nudity and gore?

They had to do it, it wouldn't have been Game of Thrones without some of it. It was not done with the intention of shocking the public, it's simply a part of ASoIaF.

And the sets?

Another aspect where I can only answer with a positive reaction. I remember being annoyed while watching The Borgias, when the same balcony or room was used over and over again. It's the case in GoT, even in the outdoor scenes. However, what was the most important aspect of it was the feeling the watcher would get of being immersed into Westeros and the free cities. Here again, kudos to the artisans, the job was well done. I could easily discern the differences between the houses livery and I was never asking myself where the protagonists were while looking at the scenery behind them. I was never distracted by some bad design choice.

Is it simply for fans of the book?

No but then, maybe yes to really get the whole perspective on what's happening in the Seven Kingdoms. Nevertheless, I could be stating that because of hindsight. Anyway, my girlfriend who watched the series with me enjoyed it as much as I, but I have to admit that I had some explaining to do (the names at first are not that easy to grasp). Was it really necessary or was I only trying to spice up her ASoIaF experience (as I wrote, the novel was still better than the series)? Saying that, you could ask me if I would still encourage non initiates to watch the series and you would be right. But even if you're not grasping absolutely everything that's going on 'crystal clearly', I think that the series was still directed and scripted well enough to be quite enjoyable and worth your time.

Was there annoying dissimilarities between the book and the series?

Ok, if you are among the fans who asked George why the horse on which Jon is sitting when leaving Winterfell is not of the right color, I think you may be asking for too much unnecessary perfection. However, I have read the book a couple of years ago, so I'm not sure I could be the one to spot dissimilarities. And even if I would, nothing big was changed so I wouldn't make a case of it. Were you really upset when you saw Arwen coming to help Frodo reach Rivendell instead of Glorfindel? I know Tom Bombadil was missed as... at least a cameo... but there was none of that type of oversight in Game of Thrones.

Did it succeed in making you emotional?

Yes it did. I won't spoil the story for those of you who haven't read the book or watched the series, but A Song of Ice and Fire is a harsh story and an unforgiving one. I was moved by several moments throughout the series even though I knew they were coming. This is probably the best achievement I could hope for.

Is winter coming?

Indeed it is, and until it comes, I shall wait patiently for the next season to begin.

Legend of Eli Monpress omnibus cover

The Legend of Eli Monpress is the upcoming omnibus from Orbit gathering the novels The Spirit Thief, The Spirit Rebellion and The Spirit Eater by Rachel Aaron. Even though I wasn't aware of this author, this post on Orbit website about the cover creation of the book by Sam Weber attracted my attention (under the direction of Lauren Panepinto).

Sam Weber is the artist behind the illustrations covering among others the Mistborn trilogy, The Shadow Rising ebook edition and Ender's Game for Tor. Great artist.

Although I'm now in awe looking at the face of Eli on the cover, it still is a nice work in my opinion. Anyone has gone through the series? With a cover quote saying : "Fans of Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora will be thrilled with Eli Monpress.", I ought to be at least a bit intrigued.

Gemmell Legend Awards winners

Back in April, the shortlist for the David Gemmell Legend Awards were unveiled. Yesterday, the winners were announced.

Here is the official press release.

As for the winners, here you go :

Legend Award (Best Fantasy Novel of 2010)

Brandon Sanderson for The Way of Kings

Morningstar Award (Best Fantasy Debut)

Darius Hinks for The Warrior Priest

Ravenheart Award (Best Fantasy Book-Jacket)

Olof Erla Einarsdottir for the cover of Power and Majesty

Don't forget that the winners are determined by those who voted on the DGLA website. My pick for the shortlist was indeed The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (not among are the nominees...), I'm glad he won, congrats Brandon! As for the Darius Hinks, although I would have cheered for Blake Charlton, I really thought that N.K. Jemisin would be the winner. Anyone has read The Warrior Priest? Maybe I should look into it, I never read Warhammer related novels...

And then, for the Ravenheart award... well I really don't understand (my pick was Cliff Nielsen for Jemisin's novel cover art). Anyway, Einarsdottir work is not within my taste... I mean anybody like it?

Sanderson's The Alloy of Law excerpt

Tor.com posted today an excerpt for The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson, the fourth book in the Mistborn series (although it's 300 years in the future after the events of the trilogy). The excerpt is the prologue and chapter one of the novel, which will be release in November 2011.

Here's the synopsis again (BEWARE : not spoiler free for those who haven't read Mistborn) :

Three hundred years after the events of the Mistborn trilogy, Scadrial is on the verge of modernity, with railroads to supplement the canals, electric lighting in the streets and the homes of the wealthy, and the first steel-framed skyscrapers racing for the clouds.

Kelsier, Vin, Elend, Sazed, Spook, and the rest are now part of history—or religion. Yet even as science and technology are reaching new heights, the old magics of Allomancy and Feruchemy continue to play a role in this reborn world. Out in the frontier lands known as the Roughs, they are crucial tools for the brave men and women attempting to establish order and justice.

One such is Waxillium Ladrian, a rare Twinborn who can Push on metals with his Allomancy and use Feruchemy to become lighter or heavier at will. After twenty years in the Roughs, Wax has been forced by family tragedy to return to the metropolis of Elendel. Now he must reluctantly put away his guns and assume the duties and dignity incumbent upon the head of a noble house. Or so he thinks, until he learns the hard way that the mansions and elegant tree-lined streets of the city can be even more dangerous than the dusty plains of the Roughs.

And a brief taste of the prologue and chapter one :

Wax crept along the ragged fence in a crouch, his boots scraping the dry ground. He held his Sterrion 36 up by his head, the long, silvery barrel dusted with red clay. The revolver was nothing fancy to look at, though the six-shot cylinder was machined with such care in the steel-alloy frame that there was no play in its movement. There was no gleam to the metal or exotic material on the grip. But it fit his hand like it was meant to be there.

The waist-high fence was flimsy, the wood grayed with time, held together with fraying lengths of rope. It smelled of age. Even the worms had given up on this wood long ago.

Wax peeked up over the knotted boards, scanning the empty town. Blue lines hovered in his vision, extending from his chest to point at nearby sources of metal, a result of his Allomancy. Burning steel did that; it let him see the location of sources of metal, then Push against them if he wanted. His weight against the weight of the item. If it was heavier, he was pushed back. If he was heavier, it was pushed forward.

In this case, however, he didn’t Push. He just watched the lines to see if any of the metal was moving. None of it was. Nails holding together buildings, spent shell casings lying scattered in the dust, or horseshoes piled at the silent smithy—all were as motionless as the old hand pump planted in the ground to his right.

New poll - Re-read

In my never-ending search for a scientifically non accurate answer to the question 'Who is the typical fantasy reader visiting the blog?' by doing various polls, I came up with a new simple topic.

I was taking a look at my overflowing shelves, observing the vast quantity of unread novels when I asked myself if I will ever read a book I have already read once in the past. I remember doing it when I was younger and the collection of fantasy and sci-fi novels I owned or were available at the local library were very limited. More so since I read only in french at that time and the translations of fantasy books available were concentrated around the names like Tolkien, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Isaac Asimov or Choose your own adventure books.

Since I read Tolkien for the first time in English (I had read it twice in french before), I don't remember having read the same book twice. I was tempted a couple of times but with so many new novels to discover (and an ever growing to-read pile), but that realization just popped to my mind, I'm not even sure it's going to happen again, and that for a long time. Moreover, I think that blogging made things even worse since I want to share my opinion with you on so much different authors and series...

If I had to choose one right now, I would probably go with Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson since I really have fond memories (no pun intended) of some events happening in that novel.

So, if I go back to my interrogation, even though I'm interested in knowing what novel you would like to read again (I would enjoy your comments on that too), I want to know if I'm alone in this situation.

Do you read the same novel more than once?

- Yes, quite often
- Yes, sometimes
- It happened
- No

The closing of the Malazan Book of the Fallen

What started with this :

Now these ashes have grown cold, we open the old book. These oil-stained pages recount the tales of the Fallen., a frayed empire, words without warmth. The hearth has ebbed, its gleam and life's sparks are but memories against dimming eyes - what cast my mind, what hue my thoughts as I open the Book of the Fallen and breathe deep the scent of history? Listen, then, to these words carried on that breath. These tales are the tales of us all, again yet again. We are history relived and that is all, without end that is all.

And more than 3 millions 300 thousands words latter ended with this :

And now the page before us blurs.
An age is done. The book must close.
We are abandoned to history.
Raise high one more time the tattered standard of the Fallen. See through the drifting smoke to the dark stains upon the fabric.
This is the blood of our lives, this is the payment of our deeds, all soon to be forgotten.
We were never what people could be.
We were only what we were.

Remember us

Was Steven aware of what all of this great endeavor would be when writing those first lines? Well they say that was is important is not the goal but the destination. Indeed, for me, that was quite an epic trek, something momentous and remarkable has ended.

Look for my review of The Crippled God soon.

Return on the last poll - Sequels

The results are in and they came as a bit of a surprise for me. The question was this :

Should your favorite author next book be a sequel or a new idea?

- Sequel : 44%
- New idea : 13%
- Don't care as long as he writes one : 41%

Many votes were lost when Blogger crashed for more than one day in May. That's not really an issue since the proportions were about the same. What came as a surprise for me was the low result for the new idea. I would have thought that readers were more incline toward new stuff from their favorite authors than a sequel.

However, another poll I conducted a couple of months ago, where I asked the readers whether they liked most the series or the stand-alone and the series won, should have given me some insight. Surely, among the most wanted novels still waiting to be printed, it's clear that books like George R.R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons or Scott Lynch's The Republic of Thieves are what people look forward the most and they fit both winning answers.

In definitive, almost half of... let's say... Brandon Sanderson fans would probably cheer for that new Mistborn novel while the other ones would only care if another of his books is being written.

I guess we all love to read about the people we grew accustom with. But then debut novels from new voices would be left in dark more often than not... and I'm pretty sure that's not the case. Well that's an interrogation for another time!

Shadow's Edge review

Shadow's Edge is the follow-up to Brent Weeks debut novel, The Way of Shadows. The second novel of the Night Angel trilogy was released in 2008 along with the two other books of the series. A new novella called The Prefect Shadow featuring Durzo was released this month (June 2011).

Kylar is trying to retire from the wetboy life. In order to do so, he will travel to the city of Caernarvon, away from the Cenarian Capital, now occupied by the tyrannical Godking Garoth Ursuul. Along with Elene and Uly, he will try to become a simple herbalist. Meanwhile, in Cenaria, Logan Gyre, the rightful king is wasting away in Hell's asshole. When news of his survival reach the ears of Momma K and Kylar's friend Jarl, their plan to rebel against the Godking change dramatically. The dire situation will reach Kylar's ear in a bloody way, making him drop his promises and act against the new nature he was trying to force on himself.

The review may contain some minor spoilers if you haven't read The Way of Shadows.

The coming of age story is done and the table is mostly set for a confrontation between Kylar and the Godking. However, Shadow's Edge doesn't feel like a conventional bridging novel from a trilogy where they bring the opposite sides slowly together for an ultimate challenge in the final book. The impression it left for me, was similar to a part of a longer series, as if it was the fourth novel in a series of ten books. Fear not, there's a clear ending, and a fittingly bitter one at that, and from about the middle of the book a story arc that didn't seem to be of much importance becomes a springboard for the next novel. So it's not a classic way of writing a trilogy but it's probably what Brent wanted.

So, Kylar became the night angel at the end of the first book. I would have thought that he would continue to hone his skills. But then, by trying to throw away the assassin lifestyle, he seems to remain a clumsy boy. The perfect killer? Not quite yet but still amazing nonetheless thanks to the ka'kari. The wetboy is now more apt in using his talent but he still has to thrust his pure instincts and luck. As the story unfolds, we get glimpses of interesting new skills like his personification of other human beings and learn more about his 'resurrections'. There's a whole bunch of nice elements surrounding the wetboys, vurdmeister and witches and since the whole magic system doesn't need explanations anymore, the author really gets to business. There's still some kick ass magically enhanced assassins fights and feats but they only wander about the tale from time to time. I would have taken more.

His counterpart however is not trying to find balance in his life. Garoth Ursuul is quite simply an evil bastard with two goals in life, conquer the world and become more powerful by finding the ka'kari. Violating women for him is a simple pastime, he will never hesitate to kill someone and enjoy almost every suffering imaginable... For my taste, that kind of character is to uni-dimensional in contrast with the other characters created by Weeks. Toward the end there's seems to be an opening toward a more complex explanation of his motivations but it falls flat... it's too thin. At least, the story is diverging from his path.

Two aspects of the second part of Weeks' story stands out when put alongside the first book. First, there's a whole reflection and exploration of a young man first relationship with a girl and it's an arduous one. The whole development of Elene and Kylar's love life is really dragging the book to a slow pace. I couldn't connect with their difficult liaison. As much as I praised Brent in his first novel for his skill in writing human characters with believable flaws, in this case, even though I understood that their situation wasn't easy for a new couple, I would have preferred less emphasis on it. It felt awkward... and sub-par when judging the writing skills of the author.

Secondly, and personally I would say hopefully, the world became way broader. Not simply with the locations visited throughout Midcryu and the addition of more background history but in the factions encountered by the main protagonists and their representatives. Cenaria the city isn't anymore the complete center of attention. The universe created by the author is much more vivid, the world seems to be full of wonders. That broadening in term of scope/world building only glimpsed in The Way of Shadows and the number of characters PoV used for the narrative also brings an evolution from the first novel. Things start to go epic and not simply for Kylar.

Among that new PoV gifted cast, I really enjoyed the whole Vi storyline. She made me remember the nice pieces of reading I found in the first book when Kylar was growing up. That's the kind of protagonist Weeks is expertly writing. At least with her, Kylar 'hunger' for women is more in the humorous spectrum, which is a nice bifurcation from the seriousness of his relationship with Elene. Logan also has his moments, another compelling storyline but again maybe stretched a bit too much. And as with the first novel, never bet that someone is really dead, they could come back to steal you your profit.

Taking everything into perspective, I would say in conclusion that it's still a worthy read with a great ending. I wasn't impressed in comparison with the previous book but I think that we're going somewhere really intriguing and captivating. However, on the road to get there, the author hit some bumps...

Technically, the Orbit cover, by Calvin Chu (design by Peter Cotton) is... a continuation. Not really bad but they did way better in the various international editions (and always with the infamous hooded figure). The mass market paperback edition of the novel is 636 pages. The map is still there and a must. As for the audiobook narration, it's done by Paul Boehmer. It's the first time I listen to his narration and I wasn't impressed. His tone tended to remain the same without regard to the situation... The length of the audio version of Shadow's Edge is 20 hours and 25 minutes.

Shadow's edge review score :

Characterization............. 7 /10
World building............... 8.5 / 10
Magic system................. 8.5 / 10
Story.............................. 7 / 10
Writing........................... 7 / 10

Overall (not an average) 7 / 10

Enjoy!

Brent Weeks page
The Way of Shadows review

June releases

Another newcomer with "raving" reviews this month in Elspeth Cooper with Songs of the Earth. However, I'd say that The Book of Transformations by Mark Charan Newton is in the 'must read soon' category. The two previous installment were really amazing.

By the way, The Kings of Morning, book 3 of the Macht series by Paul Kearney was pushed back to December 2011.

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The Book of Transformation
Mark Charan Newton
June 3

A new and corrupt Emperor seeks to rebuild the ancient structures of Villjamur to give the people of the city hope in the face of great upheaval and an oppressing ice age. But when a stranger called Shalev arrives, empowering a militant underground movement, crime and terror becomes rampant. The Inquisition is always one step behind, and military resources are spread thinly across the Empire. So Emperor Urtica calls upon cultists to help construct a group to eliminate those involved with the uprising, and calm the populace. But there's more to The Villjamur Knights than just phenomenal skills and abilities - each have a secret that, if exposed, could destroy everything they represent. Investigator Fulcrom of the Villjamur Inquisition is given the unenviable task of managing the Knights', but his own skills are tested when a mysterious priest, who has travelled from beyond the fringes of the Empire, seeks his help. The priest's existence threatens the church, and his quest promises to unweave the fabric of the world. And in a distant corner of the Empire, the enigmatic cultist Dartun Sur steps back into this world, having witnessed horrors beyond his imagination. Broken, altered, he and the remnants of his cultist order are heading back to Villjamur. And all eyes turn to the Sanctuary City, for Villjamur's ancient legends are about to be shattered ...

***

Songs of the Earth
Elspeth Cooper
June 16

Gair is under a death sentence. He can hear music - music with power - and in the Holy City that means only one thing: he's a witch, and he's going to be burnt at the stake. Even if he could escape, the Church Knights and their witchfinder would be hot on his heels while his burgeoning power threatesn to tear him apart from within. There is no hope ...none, but a secretive order, themselves persecuted almost to destruction. If Gair can escape, if he can master his own growing, dangerous abilities, if he can find the Guardians of the Veil, then maybe he will be safe. Or maybe he'll discover that his fight has only just begun.

***

Shadow's Lure
Jon Sprunk
June 21

In the wild frontiers of the North, life and death balance on a sword's edge.

Caim travels to this forbidding land in search of answers about his past, but the emergence of a new plot from the Shadow tosses him into a malestrom of death and deceit. Against a cunning foe that threatens not just his life, but his very soul, Caim must seek out the strength buried inside him. To free his homeland and himself, he must confront the Shadow's Lure . . .

New acquisitions

Hum... will my to-read pile be influenced by the newcomers to my shelves? I certainly think so, and I'm pretty sure that when I finish The Crippled God, I'll pick Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick. The reviews I read so far got my attention. It seems that 2011 will be a great year in Fantasy not simply for the big guns but for a substantial number of great debut (if I could also grab a copy of Mark Lawrence's The Prince of Thorns....).

Sadly, I think the Among Thieves cover from Tor looks way better than the ROC cover... By the way, for an excerpt of the novel, head over to Hulick's page.