Fantasy 2006

File Updated: 05/02/2007

Tangled Web UK: New Fantasy Titles 2006

Joe Abercrombie The Blade Itself Published May 2006 by Gollancz at Ł18.99 ISBN: 0 575 07786 7
The First Law: Book One
Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught in one feud too many, he’s on the verge of becoming a dead barbarian - leaving nothing behind but bad songs, and dead friends.
Nobleman, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness. Captain Jezal dan Luthar has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the North they fight by altogether bloodier rules.
Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer, would like nothing better than to see Jezal come home in a box. But then Glokta hates everyone: cutting treason out of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendship. His latest trail of corpses may lead him right to the corrupt heart of government ... if he can stay alive long enough to follow it.
Murderous conspiracies rise to the surface, old scores are ready to be settled, and the line between hero and villain is sharp enough to draw blood. Unpredictable, compelling, wickedly funny, and packed with unforgettable characters, The Blade Itself is noir fantasy with a real cutting edge.
Thousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
Support Tangled Web - Buy Your Books Online

Jay Amory The Fledging of Az Gabrielson Published August 2006 by Gollancz at Ł12.99 ISBN: 0 575 07878 2
The Clouded World book One
Az Gabrielson, the wingless boy, is going where none of the Airborn have gone before…
Az is one of the Airborn. With a stretch and a beat of their eight foot wings his people travel effortlessly around and between their cities, perched high above the clouds. It's a life of ease and airy beauty. Only Az has no wings, so in his glorious world of freedom and flight, he is a painful -- and isolated - oddity.
And then one day he is picked out for a job. A job below the clouds. The system of massive automated elevators which send up everything the Airborn need to survive, are breaking down - and threatening to take the Airborn society with them. Someone has to go down to the Ground to find out what has happened and Az, with his wingless similarity to the prehistoric Groundlings, looks to be perfect for the task of hunting for answers beneath the clouds.
But on the Ground, in the vast shadows of the cities, Az finds more questions than answers: a benighted people who worship a dim notion of the Airborn and aspire to be like them. A people who fill elevators with tributes to their winged deities. A people who are beginning to think their way of life is part of a very un-natural order of things.
And a girl called Cassie Grubdollar, who's definitely no angel …

About The Author
The Fedging of Az Gabrielson is Jay Amory’s first full length novel. He is the author of several acclaimed adult novels written under another name. He is 40 years old and lives in Devon. Thousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
Support Tangled Web - Buy Your Books Online

Kevin J. Anderson Of Fire and Night Pbk published August 2006 by Simon & Schuster at Ł12.99 ISBN: 0 7432 7542 X

The Saga of Seven Suns Book Five
After many years of hardship and bravery, the human race faces its greatest challenge. The sweeping war between titanic races - a conflict that has obliterated planets, extinguished entire stars, exterminated whole races - is reaching its end game. Allies become betrayers, strangers become fast friends, and enemies clash in a struggle that will rock the galaxy.
For years, the alien Klikiss robots have pretended to be humanity’s friends, but their seeming `help’ has allowed them to plant an insidious Trojan Horse throughout the Earth Defence Forces, and the sudden rebellion of Earth’s own compies leaves millions dead and the Terran Hanseatic League defenceless. In a desperate attempt to save his own race, the Ildiran Mage-Imperator Jora’h is forced into a devil’s bargain with the evil hydrogues, which will require him to ambush and destroy what remains of the human race. But the gypsy Roamer clans and the green priests of the towering worldforest - scattered stepchildren of humanity - have found innovative ways to fight, as well as strange allies of incomprehensible power.
As the climactic battle is engaged, the Ildiran Solar Navy, the Earth Defence Forces, the Roamers, green priests, Klikiss robots, and hydrogue warglobes collide in a fury that will destroy many and change the landscape of the Spiral Arm forever.
'A space opera to rival the best the field has ever seen' SF Chronicle
‘A realm of wondrous possibilities ... A fascinating series’ Brian Herbert
`Sure-footed, suspenseful and tragic ... an exhilarating experience’ Locus
`Stands head and shoulders above most others in the genre’ The Alien Online
About The Author
Kevin J. Anderson has over 15 million books in print in 27 different languages worldwide. He is the author of the X-Files novels, Ground Zero (number 1 bestseller in The Times, and voted Best SF Novel of the Year by SFX magazine), Ruins and Antibodies, as well as the Jedi Academy trilogy of Star Wars novels – the three bestselling SF novels of 1994. He is also writing the international bestselling prequels to Frank Herbert’s monumental Dune series, with Frank’s son, Brian Herbert. He has won, or been nominated for, the Nebula Award, Bram Stoker Award, Reader’s Choice Award from the Science Fiction Book Club, and many others.
Kevin Anderson lives in Colorado. Thousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
Support Tangled Web - Buy Your Books Online

Sarah Ash Children of the Serpent Gate Pbk published June 2006 by Bantam at Ł7.99 ISBN: 0553814729

Book Three of The Tears of Artamon
Haunted by the demon that claims his soul, Gavri Nagarian must confront those who would destroy his world and all that he holds dear…
The triumphant conclusion to The Tears of Artamon
Gavril Nagarian is believed dead - perished in the heat of battle. But in truth the Lord Drakhaon of Azhkendir lives on. He is entrusted with a sacred mission: to rescue the aged Magus, who has been kidnapped and in whose possession are the five priceless rubies that make up the fabled Tears of Artamon. Ancient law decrees that whoever possesses the coveted stones has the power to impose his law over the five princedoms in the Empire of New Rossiya.
But the task exacts a terrible price. The Drakhaoul that destroyed his forebears has penetrated Gavril’s psyche and is gaining power over his soul. With these dark forces seeking immortality inside him, Gavril must feed on the blood of innocents - or die.
Toppled by the loss of the Tears of Artamon, Emperor Eugene of Tielen is tormented by his own daemon. Now he must defend his lands against King Enguerrand of Francia who claims ownership of the Tears. Yet both men share a common goal: to destroy Gavril Nagarian - and the Drakhaoul that lives within him - once and for all.
Ingenious and unforgettable, Children of the Serpent Gate delivers a thrilling conclusion to Sarah Ash’s epic journey of a man of honour in a world run amok - a man haunted by a dark legacy and who understands that to avert disaster, it will take an Emperor’s Tears …
Cover illustration by John Howe
‘Everything about The Tears of Artamon trilogy oozes quality… an emotional firecracker of a tale’ SFX
'Darkly delicious … takes elements from Eastern European folklore and combines them with vampirism, dragons and politics to create an unusual and rich new landscape… filled with surprises and exciting twists. It is a deeply textured read that I found utterly entrancing.’ SF Site
‘Action-packed... Sarah Ash puts her conflicted protagonists through the wringer, builds the tension to a satisfying climax, and neatly ties up all the loose ends’ StarburstThousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
Support Tangled Web - Buy Your Books Online

James Barclay Cry of the Newborn Pbk published October 2005 by Gollancz at Ł12.99 ISBN: 0 575 07620 8

The Ascendants of Estorea: Book One
The Estorean Conquord has stood for 850 years. Its Advocate, Herine Del Aglios, knows that she presides over the greatest civilisation in history. But she wants more. And in Estorean recently conquered territories dissent is brewing. Forced to fight old friends and neighbours in the cause of the evergrowing Conquord, they face brutal choices and savage demands for money and men to be fed into Estorea’s wars - demands made by Paul Jhered, head of the Gatherers and the iron hand of the Advocate. With Jhered by her side, Herine believes that nothing can go wrong. Until a disastrous and bloody reversal in the war threatens to overrun the Kingdom of Tsard, puts Estorea’s armies on the backfoot and has Tsardon troops flooding into the Conquord.
As the empire trembles, far from the war four unique children are discovering their powers. They are the first true Ascendants, in touch with the elements, able to shape the world. An empire descending into war is about to discover the wonder and terror of magic …
‘A most extraordinary and impressively ambitious novel. Wonderfully confident’ Steven Erikson, author of The Malazan Book of the Fallen
Reviews for James Barclay
'Truly excellent heroic fantasy' SF Site.com
‘The Sergio Leone of the genre’ SFX
‘Assured ... a great eye for action ... fine imagination and jolts of wit’ Time OutThousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
Support Tangled Web - Buy Your Books Online

Stephen Baxter Emperor Published July 2006 by Gollancz at Ł17.99 ISBN: 0575074329
Time's Tapestry Book One

‘Ah Child! Bound in time’s tapestry, and yet you were born free Come let me sing to you of what there is and what will be’

Brica lives on the cold northern edge of the Roman Empire. As she struggles through a painful labour she begins to scream out a series of words in Latin. A language she has never heard before, much less spoken.
Only later does it become clear that the women has spoken a prophecy. A prophecy that relates to the death of an Emperor. A prophecy that if enacted will change the fate of the Roman Empire. And all of the future beyond it to our present day. Is the weaver of time’s tapestry trying to change the lives of men?
The prophecy is scribbled down and handed down through the generations as the family is pulled apart and the Rome’s fortune waxes and wanes.
From a terrifying clash between the tribes and the legions to the teeming streets of Rome itself this is an extraordinary tale of our past when it was still a future that could be changed.
'Strong imagination and a capacity for awe abound in the works of Stephen Baxter' The Times Literary Supplement

About The Author
Stephen Baxter is the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of, amongst others, The Time Ships, Titan and Moonseed. He is published all over the world. Born in 1957 he was raised in Liverpool and has a degree in mathematics from Cambridge and a PhD from Southampton
Stephen Baxter applied to become an astronaut in 1991. He didn't make it, but achieved the next best thing by becoming a science fiction writer.
Baxter is the most ambitious, most acclaimed, and most accomplished of a new generation of scientifically trained authors who are expanding the vision of science fiction and taking it to a new golden age.
Time film rights have been sold. In April and May of 1999, an earlier work of Stephen's, Voyage, was serialised on BBC Radio 4. Stephen Baxter is married and lives in Buckinghamshire. Thousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
Support Tangled Web - Buy Your Books Online

Stephen Baxter Emperor Pbk published February 2006 by Gollancz at Ł7.99 ISBN: 0 575 07

Time's Tapestry Book One

‘Ah Child! Bound in time’s tapestry, and yet you were born free Come let me sing to you of what there is and what will be’

Brica lives on the cold northern edge of the Roman Empire. As she struggles through a painful labour she begins to scream out a series of words in Latin. A language she has never heard before, much less spoken.
Only later does it become clear that the women has spoken a prophecy. A prophecy that relates to the death of an Emperor. A prophecy that if enacted will change the fate of the Roman Empire. And all of the future beyond it to our present day. Is the weaver of time’s tapestry trying to change the lives of men?
The prophecy is scribbled down and handed down through the generations as the family is pulled apart and the Rome’s fortune waxes and wanes.
From a terrifying clash between the tribes and the legions to the teeming streets of Rome itself this is an extraordinary tale of our past when it was still a future that could be changed.
'Strong imagination and a capacity for awe abound in the works of Stephen Baxter' The Times Literary Supplement
About The Author
Stephen Baxter is the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of, amongst others, The Time Ships, Titan and Moonseed. He is published all over the world. Born in 1957 he was raised in Liverpool and has a degree in mathematics from Cambridge and a PhD from Southampton
Stephen Baxter applied to become an astronaut in 1991. He didn't make it, but achieved the next best thing by becoming a science fiction writer.
Baxter is the most ambitious, most acclaimed, and most accomplished of a new generation of scientifically trained authors who are expanding the vision of science fiction and taking it to a new golden age.
Time film rights have been sold. In April and May of 1999, an earlier work of Stephen's, Voyage, was serialised on BBC Radio 4. Stephen Baxter is married and lives in Buckinghamshire. Thousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
Support Tangled Web - Buy Your Books Online

Robert Carter Whitemantle Published May 2006 by Harpercollins at Ł17.99 ISBN: 0-00-716926 4
The Third Coming of Arthur
The fifteenth century as it should have been…

`Lord Maskull has shown me wonders. And he’s promised that just as soon as I’ve rid our world of you I shall have my desire. A new world is coming.’
`But it’s not coming. Because I am here to prevent it.’
‘You have it in a nutshell.’ Chlu’s eyes became murderous and hard. And that’s why you have to die.’
Will’s hands rose in a spell-maker’s gesture to keep Chlu at bay. Master Gwydion saw it all- a great spinning ray ... magic from the olden times that was once mighty but now is lost, except in the stones of the lorc - and in you and me. Can’t you feel it? The power that runs in the stones - it’s the same magic that was used to change us. It binds our destinies to the stones, and to one another.’

As civil war tears the Realm apart, the sorcerer Maskull’s plans to bring about a catastrophe that will rob the world of magic are coming to fruition. The wizard Gwydion knows that the only hope for the future lies with Willand, the young man he believes to be the reincarnation of King Arthur.
But Will is beset with doubts. He is being stalked by the Dark Child, the twin from whom he was separated at birth and who now serves Maskull. And as the magic gradually begins to fade from the world, the powers of Gwydion, his mentor and friend, seem to be fading too, leading Will to despair that the destruction of the war will ever be halted, or Maskull ever defeated.
Will’s task seems impossible, but he is not ready to give up yet. With the help of his strongminded minded wife, Willow, and friends as wise and generous as the loremasters Morann and Gort, Will journeys the Realm seeking his destiny. And soon it becomes clear that only by solving the riddle of his own identity can he save the world he loves so deeply.

About The Author
Robert Carter was born exactly five hundred years after the first battle of the Wars of the Roses. He was brought up in the Midlands and later on the shores of the Irish Sea where his forebears hail from. He was variously educated in Britain, Australia and the United States, then worked for some years in the Middle East and remote parts of Africa. He travelled widely in the East, before joining the BBC in London in 1982. His interests have included astronomy, pole-arm fighting, canals, collecting armour, steam engines, composing music and enjoying the English countryside, and he has always maintained a keen interest in history. Today he lives in a `village’ that only sounds rural - Shepherd’s Bush. Thousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
Support Tangled Web - Buy Your Books Online

Mark Chadbourn Jack of Ravens Published July 2006 by Gollancz at Ł18.99 ISBN: 0575076763
Kingdom of the Serpent: Book 1
100 BC
Into a Celtic tribe devastated by gods and monsters walks a man fated to become a mythic hero.
That’s news to archaeologist Jack Churchill, a flawed dreamer torn from the modern world and the woman he loves.
There is a way home across the years, but it involves a Faustian bargain with a mystical force that could destroy everything Jack holds dear.
And so begins his long tramp across human history, from Roman Britain and Elizabethan London, to the realm of Victoria and the Second World War, bringing him into conflict with the magical beings that have secretly shaped our civilisation.
But an evil of unimaginable proportions waits in his own time, and it will do anything to prevent Jack’s return - it will even alter history itself ...
This is Mark Chadbourn’s brilliant new sequence: an exciting, evocative, terrifying and awe-inspiring journey from the dawn of man …
'A sumptuous feast of fairy tale, magic, dark gothic horror and romance' The Times
‘A contemporary bard, a post-industrial taliesin whose visionary novels are crammed with remixed mythologies, oneiric set-pieces, potent symbols, unsettling imagery and an engaging fusion of genre elements. His work is distinguished by breakneck but brilliantly controlled plots, meticulous research, deft characterisation and a crisp, accessible prose style’ zone-sf.com
‘The answer to all those of us who’ve been moaning about by-the-numbers fantasy’ SFX

About The Author
Born in 1960, Mark Chadbourn was raised in the mining communities of South Derbyshire. After studying Economic History at Leeds University, he became a journalist, covering riots, murders and natural disasters in the provinces, before moving to London where his bylines appeared in most of the national newspapers. As an investigative journalist, he was shot at in the desert in California, set on fire with NATO troops in the Arctic and attacked by gangsters in Brighton. Following a brief spell working for an American magazine in Los Angeles, he became Music Editor and Senior Feature Writer at the now-defunct Today newspaper. He turned freelance in 1992 to write for a range of national newspapers and magazines, and to work as a journalist for BBC TV.
Away from journalism, Chadbourn has laboured as a fitter's mate at a power station, toilet cleaner and a Marmite production line worker, as well as running the independent record company Faith, and managing bands, including one top five chart act.
His writing career began in 1990 when his first published short story won the Best New Author award in Fear magazine. His first novel, Underground, was followed by Nocturne, which was nominated for Best Novel in the prestigious British Fantasy Society Awards, The Eternal and Scissorman, all published by Gollancz, and the non-fiction study of the paranormal, Testimony. Thousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
Support Tangled Web - Buy Your Books Online

Mark Chadbourn The Hounds of Avalon Pbk published June 2006 by Gollancz at Ł6.99 ISBN: 0 575 07772 7

The Dark Age
The Hounds of Avalon are coming ...
For these are the twilight days, when eternal winter falls and the gods destroy themselves in civil war; when an invasion force of ghastly power threatens to eradicate all life.
Humanity’s last chance lies with two friends, as different as night and day, but bound together by an awesome destiny - Hunter: a warrior, a rake, an assassin; Hal: a lowly records clerk in a Government office.
They must pierce a mystery surrounding the myths of King Arthur to find the dreaming hero who will ride out of the mists of legend to save the world. But time is running out.
For when the Hounds of Avalon appear, all hope is lost ...
'A sumptuous feast of fairytale, magic, dark gothic horror and romance' The Times
`Proof that even in the most barren genres, new shoots can burst through’ Edge
‘He conjures up the horror of this harsh new world brilliantly, and the sheer brutality of his writing is often jaw-dropping … Chadbourn’s work is the answer to the prayers of all those who’ve been moaning about by-the-numbers fantasy’ SFX
‘I can think of a handful of writers whose writing and creativity leave the reader gasping in astonishment and admiration at the power within their stories. Mark Chadbourn is one of those authors’ Masters of Terror
Praise for The Age of Misrule trilogy:
`Appealingly different’ Locus
`Very fine, intensely suspenseful’ SFC
`Thoroughly gripping’ SF Site
About The Author
Born in 1960, Mark Chadbourn was raised in the mining communities of South Derbyshire. After studying Economic History at Leeds University, he became a journalist, covering riots, murders and natural disasters in the provinces, before moving to London where his bylines appeared in most of the national newspapers. As an investigative journalist, he was shot at in the desert in California, set on fire with NATO troops in the Arctic and attacked by gangsters in Brighton. Following a brief spell working for an American magazine in Los Angeles, he became Music Editor and Senior Feature Writer at the now-defunct Today newspaper. He turned freelance in 1992 to write for a range of national newspapers and magazines, and to work as a journalist for BBC TV.
Away from journalism, Chadbourn has laboured as a fitter's mate at a power station, toilet cleaner and a Marmite production line worker, as well as running the independent record company Faith, and managing bands, including one top five chart act.
His writing career began in 1990 when his first published short story won the Best New Author award in Fear magazine. His first novel, Underground, was followed by Nocturne, which was nominated for Best Novel in the prestigious British Fantasy Society Awards, The Eternal and Scissorman, all published by Gollancz, and the non-fiction study of the paranormal, Testimony. Thousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
Support Tangled Web - Buy Your Books Online

Stephen Donaldson The Runes of the Earth Pbk published October 2005 by Gollancz at Ł7.99 ISBN: 0575076127

The First Book of The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

The triumphant return to the Sunday Times bestselling fantasy series, a modern classic that has changerd the face of epic fantasy.

Since their publication more than twenty years ago, the first six books in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant have sold more than 10 million copies and have been published around the world. Now, with The Runes of the Earth, Stephen Donaldson returns to the Land, and the story of Thomas Covenant. Struck down with a deadly disease, abandoned by his wife and son, Covenant was drawn into the Land, where the earth itself brings healing, and welcomed as the reincarnation of a legendary saviour. Though he could not - would not - accept this magical world was real, the Land itself was under threat, and only Covenant had the power to save it - and the sacrifice of his life was the Land’s redemption as well as his own.
Now comes the book every fantasy reader has been awaiting. Ten years on, Dr Linden Avery had thought she would never see the Land, or Covenant, her beloved, again. But Lord Foul has stolen her adopted son, and there is more at risk than the life of the boy she adores: Lord Foul is unmaking the very laws of nature and if he is not stopped, he could destroy everything. And though Linden believes Covenant dead, he keeps sending her messages: ‘Find me’, and ‘You’re the only one who can do this’, and ‘Remember that I’m dead’. The Land is in turmoil, and Lord Foul has plans for them all ...

'Something entirely out of the ordinary' The Times
'Comparable with Tolkien at his best' Washington Post
‘Covenant is Donaldson’s genius’ Village Voice
‘Remarkable scope and sophistication’ Los Angeles Times
‘The most original fantasy since Lord of the Rings’ Time Out
‘A remarkable achievement which will certainly find a place on the small list of true classics’ Washington Post Book World
About The Author
Stephen Donaldson spent thirteen years in India, where his father was a medical missionary and orthopaedic surgeon; the idea for Thomas Covenant grew out of his father’s work with lepers. The first trilogy, Lord Foul’s Bane, The Illearth War and The Power That Preserves, won Donaldson the British Fantasy and, John W. Campbell Awards. The second Covenant trilogy comprises The Wounded Land, The One Tree and White Gold Wielder; Donaldson is also the author of the Gap SF novels, the World Fantasy Awardwinning collection Reave the Just and Other Tales and a series of mystery novels. He lives with his family in New Mexico, where he is at work on the second novel of The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Thousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
Support Tangled Web - Buy Your Books Online

David Eddings The Younger Gods Published May 2006 by Harpercollins at Ł18.99 ISBN: 0-00-715767 3
With Leigh Eddings

’ Let me deal with the situation in Aracia’s Domain,’ Misty Lady continued. ‘It’s almost reached the point where she’d rather die than hand her Domain over to Enalla. We’ve got to get her under control, because she’s getting very close to total insanity. If she crosses that line, we’ll lose her … and if she’s a raving lunatic when she wakes up from her sleep-cycle, the entire Land of Dhrall will be at risk - and that risk will make the invasion of the creatures of the Wasteland look like some child’s game by comparison.’

As the time approaches for the Younger Gods to take their rightful places in the world...
The attacks of the dreadful insect queen known as the Vlagh have been repelled in three of the Elder Gods’ realms. Now, only the land ruled by the Goddess Aracia remains for the Vlagh to send her hordes to attack.
But while the Gods, their younger avatars and their human comrades have emerged victorious from all previous encounters, this time the Goddess herself may be their greatest foe - she craves worship and hates the idea of being replaced by a younger God when her time comes to an end ... and that time is approaching fast.
Volcanoes and floods, blue fire and fields of false gold, nothing has stopped the Vlagh from making new and improved creatures of the Wasteland that are too canny for the old tricks and pose an even bigger threat. With the Misty Lady controlling the Dreamers and Aracia out of control, the fate of the Land of Dhrall has never before been in such peril.
A magical, on-the-grandest-scale, action-packed, totally engaging and characterful fantasy novel from the bestselling authors David and Leigh Eddings.
`All the verve and pace we’ve come to expect’ The Dark Side
Praise for Eddings
'My ideal summer read' Irish Times
'Rich and inventive fantasy by the supreme masters’ Books Magazine
'Fantasy of the highest order… Pure pleasure’ SFX
‘Nobody writes modern fantasy like Eddings' Vector
‘The best-realised hero in modern fantasy' Daily Telegraph

About The Author
David and Leigh Eddings live in Nevada.
David Eddings was born in Washington State in 1931 and grew up near Seattle. He graduated from the University of Washington and went on to serve in the US Army. Subsequently he worked as a buyer for the Boeing Company and taught college level English. High Hunt, his first novel, was a contemporary adventure story, but he soon began a spectacular career as a fantasy writer with his bestselling series The Belgariad. He consolidated his immediate success with two further enormously popular series, The Malloreon and The Elenium. Thousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
Support Tangled Web - Buy Your Books Online