Black Gate

It’s tough publishing a debut fantasy. You’re such a blank slate to genre readers that every little notice and review carries enormous weight, and can tilt the trajectory of your entire career.

Take the case of Kelly Braffet, who began her career with thrillers like Last Seen Leaving and Save Yourself, before turning to fantasy with The Unwilling, which arrives in hardcover from MIRA on Tuesday. It’s had enviable early notices; Ellen Datlow called it “Something wonderful. I love it,” and Erin Morgenstern (The Night Circus) said it’s “Extraordinary… Fantasy at its most sublime.” Something like that will usually guarantee a fantastic launch.

Unfortunately a handful of readers have expressed their displeasure with the ending, and their one-star reviews are currently the highest-ranked at Amazon. Kitten Kisser wrote “Oh my. The end. For that the book gets 1 star. I’m sorry I spent 10 days reading this #*!@#% book for that total crock,” and QueenKatieMae said “After 572 pages… I threw this book down and simply said, “No”.”

That’s an unlucky and painful turn of events for any writer, though it’s especially hard on someone trying a new genre. I remain quite intrigued by The Unwilling; the complaints haven’t done much to dampen my enthusiasm, and I doubt I’m alone. The major review sites haven’t been silent either; I found this starred review at Bookist this morning.

Judah is foster sister to Gavin, next in line to be Lord of the City. Judah, who was adopted as an infant by Gavin’s late mother, is hated by Gavin’s father, Lord Elban. He and others call her “foundling,” “witchbred,” and worse. It does not help that in a land of pale-skinned, lithe blondes, Judah is short and has dark, almost purple hair. Luckily, Gavin; his brother Theron; and Gavin’s betrothed, Elly, love her. She and Gavin share an even more special bond. Any hurt she experiences, Gavin does as well, and she experiences all of Gavin’s pain. No matter how Elban and his Seneschal try to break this bond, they fail. This mysterious magic that binds them is no accident… Suspenseful, magical, wonderfully written, and never predictable… an essential addition to all epic-fantasy collections.

The Unwilling will be published by HarperCollins/MIRA on February 11. It is 571 pages, priced at $27.99 in hardcover, $12.99 in digital, and $42 in audio formats. The cover was designed by Micaela Alcaino. See all of our recent New Treasures here.

Cover by Ignacio Bazan-Lazcano

Recently I’ve been listening to a host of audiobooks on Amazon’s Audible service. I’ve enjoyed Craig Davidson’s The Saturday Night Ghost Club, Martha Wells’ All Systems Red, Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim, and the first two volumes of S.K. Dunstall’s terrific Linesman trilogy. But the best one so far, an audio drama that kept me absolutely riveted for four days, was Dan Abnett’s Warhammer 40,000 novel The Magos, narrated by the great Toby Longworth. Half story collection, half novel, that damn thing absolutely transported me to into a future of superstition, terror, and dark sorcery.

Naturally, it also spurred my interest in the career of Dan Abnett. He’s written dozens of Warhammer 40,000 books, including 16 novels in the Gaunt’s Ghost military adventure series, the Eisenhorn and Ravenor Inquisitor trilogies, several novels in the bestselling Horus Heresy series, and others.

During that time he’s produced numerous short stories set in the war-torn galaxy of the 41st millenium. And now Black Library has issued Lord of the Dark Millennium: The Dan Abnett Collection, a massive 668-page hardcover containing all of his Warhammer 40K short fiction. It’s a gorgeous feast of a book, continuing 37 stories and a brand new introduction. Some of them, including “Regia Occulta,” “The Curiosity,” and “Thorn Wishes Talon,” are some of my favorite science fiction stories of the past two decades.

Lord of the Dark Millennium: The Dan Abnett Collection was published by Black Library on January 21, 2020. It is 668 pages, priced at $27 in hardcover and $16.99 in digital formats. The cover is by Ignacio Bazan-Lazcano. Get the complete details — and download free digital samples — at the Black Library website.

Cover by Blacksheep-UK

Chris Wooding is the author of the 4-volume steampunk adventure series Tales of the Ketty Jay, the Braided Path trilogy, The Fade, and a healthy number of young adult novels from Scholastic, including Malice and Poison. His latest, The Ember Blade, is the opening novel in The Darkwater Legacy, a new epic fantasy series. It’s been well received, but my favorite review was a grumpy article by Mark Yon at SFF World, who points out that the book treads a lot of familiar territory before taking an unexpected shift about halfway through:

Though undeniably well-written, the initial set up felt like typically Tolkien-esque fare. So much of it was similar to things I’ve read many, many times before… Like many other plots, there’s a quest, but this time for a legendary sword, the Ember Blade, not a ring, where the heroes and heroines of our story have to get the sword. As the story develops we meet others that seem familiar – rebel leader Garrick could be Aragorn, a fighter with a secret past, and there’s a degree of mystical flim-flam with Vika-Who-Walks-the Barrows, a druidess with connections to ‘the old ways’…. a female Gandalf, albeit with a loveable and faithful canine companion….

Once the reader is pretty much resigned into expecting the expected, about half-way through the book – remember, this is after about 400 pages – there’s an abrupt left-turn. Where Tolkien’s story moved from the bucolic rural environment of The Shire to etherial Lothlorien and then the extremes in the mountains of Mordor, here Aren, Cade and the rest of our heroes and heroines have escaped to the Ossian city of Morgenholme, where… we’re into an urban environment, with dark, dirty streets, poverty, disease and original inventions…

The last part of the book is a heist story, with the eclectic group attempting to get The Ember Blade from the hands of the Krodans and generate a revolution amongst the oppressed Ossians.

The Embler Blade was published by Gollancz on July 30, 2019. It is 824 pages, priced at $26.99 in hardcover, $15.99 in trade paperback, and just $2.99 in digital formats. The cover is by Blacksheep-UK. See all of our coverage of the best new Science Fiction and Fantasy here.

Cover by Francesca Corsini

There’s lots of shortcuts you can take while deciding where to spend your precious book dollars. If you’re lucky enough to have friends who read — and read the same things you do — you can trust their recommendations. You can trust reviewers. Or if you’ve been around long enough, you can come to trust editors. I’ve been around long enough now that I’ve learned to trust the editorial team at Angry Robot, who’ve taken a lot of chances on new and emerging writers. Those bets have paid off over the years, and Angry Robot has gradually developed a reputation for both a keen editorial eye and cutting edge taste.

They’ve published some very fine books in the last 12 months from Kameron Hurley, Christopher Hinz, Tim Pratt, Tyler Hayes, Anna Kashina , Cameron Johnston, and many others. So when they introduce an author I’ve never heard of, I pay attention. That was the case with The Heart of the Circle, the first English language release by Israeli author Keren Landsman, which just won the 2019 Geffen Award. Here’s Dr. Dann Lewis from his review at Grimdark Magazine.

Set in an alternate reality whereby magical users (sorcerers) exist, The Heart of the Circle follows the protagonist Reed, an empath, who becomes the next target of the religious extremist group, the Sons of Simeon after a brutal march for equal rights. This is further complicated by a burgeoning romance and the lackadaisical efforts of protection by the government… Landsman not only delicately reinforces the state in which her sorcerers live, but the merciless conditions in which they are treated. I was enthralled with this line and of course, this is indicative of Landsman’s writing throughout. Her skill with the world-building of this alternate reality is masterful…

Landsman’s novel is exceptionally paced and full of intriguing characters and concepts. I do appreciate that this is situated in a vastly different part of the world… Landsman expertly weaves social and political commentary.

The Heart of the Circle was published by Angry Robot on August 13, 2019. It is 391 pages, priced at $14.99 in trade paperback and $9.99 in digital formats. The cover is by Francesca Corsini. Read the complete first three chapters (36 pages) at Issuu, and see all our recent New Treasures here.