Showing posts with label
Fantasy Short Story Compendium.
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Showing posts with label
Fantasy Short Story Compendium.
Show all posts
Release Date: 16/11/17
Publisher: Orbit
SYNOPSIS:
World Fantasy Award-winning fantasy author K. J. Parker delivers his most ambitious work yet - the story of a war on a grand scale, told through the eyes of soldiers, politicians, victims and heroes.
A soldier with a gift for archery. A woman who kills without care. Two brothers, both unbeatable generals, now fighting for opposing armies. No one in the vast and once glorious United Empire remains untouched by the rift between East and West, and the war has been fought for as long as anyone can remember. Some still survive who know how it was started, but no one knows how it will end. Except, perhaps, the Two of Swords.
REVIEW:
KJ Parker is an author that delivers a hell of a lot for me as a fantasy reader. You get the dark gritty reality that has become on trend where all choices have consequences that start the ripple effect into this well rounded world.
Add to this characters that you love to spend time around. Principle players who has a realistic feel with their emotions alongside personality coming to the fore whilst vying against their foibles and for me this second volume is a real treat. Magic.
Release Date: 24/11/16
Publisher: Gollancz
SYNOPSIS:
Welcome to New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller Brandon Sanderson's first collection of short fiction.
These wonderful works, originally published individually, have been collected for the first time and convey the true expanse of the Cosmere. Telling the exciting tales of adventure Sanderson fans have come to expect, Arcanum Unbounded include the Hugo Award-winning novella 'The Emperor's Soul', an excerpt from the graphic novel 'White Sand', and the never-before-published Stormlight Archive novella 'Edgedancer'.
The collection will include nine works in all:
'Edgedancer' (Stormlight Archive)
'The Hope of Elantris' (Elantris)
'The Eleventh Metal' (Mistborn)
'The Emperor's Soul' (Elantris)
'Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania' (excerpt; Mistborn)
'White Sand' (excerpt; Taldain)
'Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell' (Threnody)
'Sixth of Dusk' (First of the Sun)
'Mistborn: Secret History' (Mistborn)
This superb collection also includes essays and illustrations which offer an insight into the numerous worlds in which the stories are set.
REVIEW:
When you hit the new year, after a heavy swath of reading over the holiday period you sometimes want something a little lighter or smaller to dip into whilst you get ready to expound the sheer volume of what the previous year had in store, sort of a book diet if you will. Its at times like this that short stories become a firm favourite for many readers and when an author that many love brings together a collection, its like a special buffet that allows you to pick and choose.
What this title brings together is a whole set of tales from his Cosmere series and its a book that I soon found myself lost within the pages, only to emerge once I'd finished each story. They're well written, help to delightfully expand the Cosmere and all round give the reader that special treat to help ease them back into work with magical outings to help take them away during travel time or work breaks. A magical offering and one that I'm pleased I saved for the new year.
Release Date: 26/04/16
Publisher: Gollancz
SYNOPSIS:
The Union army may be full of bastards, but there's only one who thinks he can save the day single-handed when the Gurkish come calling: the incomparable Colonel Sand dan Glokta.
Curnden Craw and his dozen are out to recover a mysterious item from beyond the Crinna. Only one small problem: no one seems to know what the item is.
Shevedieh, the self-styled best thief in Styria, lurches from disaster to catastrophe alongside her best friend and greatest enemy, Javre, Lioness of Hoskopp.
And after years of bloodshed, the idealistic chieftain Bethod is desperate to bring peace to the North. There's only one obstacle left - his own lunatic champion, the most feared man in the North: the Bloody-Nine . . .
Sharp Ends combines previously published, award-winning tales with exclusive new short stories. Violence explodes, treachery abounds, and the words are as deadly as the weapons in this rogue's gallery of side-shows, back-stories, and sharp endings from the world of the First Law.
REVIEW:
In fantasy, there are some authors that just automatically make it ot the top o fmy reading pile, and one such is Joe Abercrombie. I love his gritty writing style, the characters he brings together and of course the high octane action sequences that just leave you breathless demanding more.
The prose is always blade sharp and at the end of the day with this much kick assery between the pages you really are guaranteed a cracking bang for your buck. Now whilst this is a bit of a departure from his normal work, this title is ideal travel fodder or just the ideal material to take you away from the real world during your breaks. Each tale is carefully thought out, delivers what you expect from Joe and all round leaves you sated . Cracking.
