Fantasy 07

File Updated: 29/01/2008

Tangled Web UK: New Fantasy Titles 07

Joe Abercrombie Last Argument of Kings Published March 2008 by Gollancz at Ł18.99 ISBN: 0575077905
The First Law: Book Three
The End Is Coming
Logen Ninefingers might only have one more fight in him but it’s going to be a big one. Battle rages across the North, the King of the Northmen still stands firm, and there’s only one who can stop him. His oldest friend, and his oldest enemy: it’s time for the Bloody-Nine to come home.
With too many masters and too little time, Superior Glokta is fighting a different kind of war. A secret struggle in which no-one is safe, and no-one can be trusted. And as his days with a sword are far behind him, it’s fortunate that he’s deadly with his remaining weapons: blackmail, threats, and torture.
Jezal dan Luthar has decided that winning glory is too painful an undertaking, and turned his back on soldiering for a simple life with the woman he loves. But love can be painful too - and glory has a nasty habit of creeping up on a man when he least expects it.
The King of the Union lies on his deathbed, the peasants revolt, and the nobles scramble to steal his crown. No-one believes that the shadow of war is about to fall across the heart of the Union. The First of the Magi has a plan to save the world - he always does but this time there are risks. There is no risk more terrible, than to break the First Law…
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Joe Abercrombie Before they are Hanged Published March 2007 by Gollancz at Ł17.99 ISBN: 0575077875
The First Law: Book Two
How do you defend a city surrounded by enemies and riddled with traitors, when your allies can by no means be trusted, and your predecessor vanished without trace? It’s enough to make a torturer want to run - if he could even walk without a stick - and Inquisitor Glokta needs answers before the Gurkish army comes knocking at the gates.
Northmen have spilled over the border of Angland and are spreading fire and death across the frozen country. Crown Prince Ladisla is poised to drive them back and win undying glory. There is only one problem: he commands the worst-armed, worst-trained and worst-led army in the world.
And Bayaz, the First of the Magi, is leading a party of bold adventurers on a perilous mission through the ruins of the past. The most hated woman in the South, the most feared man in the North, and the most selfish boy in the Union make a strange alliance, but a deadly one. They might even stand a chance of saving mankind from the Eaters. If they didn’t hate each other quite so much.
Ancient secrets will be uncovered. Bloody battles will be won and lost. Bitter enemies will be forgiven - but not before they are hanged.
‘Dark, deeply ironic and full of character gems that will appeal to your cynical side, Before They Are Hanged is as brilliant as its predecessor’ John Berlyne, SFRevu
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Daniel Abraham The Long Price Pbk published October 2007 by Orbit at Ł12.99 ISBN: 1841496111

Book One: Shadow and Betrayal
In a remote mountain academy, the politically expendable younger sons of the Great Houses study for an extraordinary task. Most will fail, some will die, but the reward for the dedicated few is great: mastery of the andat, and the rank of Poet. Thanks to these men - part sorcerers, part scholars-the great city-states of the Khaiem enjoy wealth and power beyond measure, and the greatest of them all is Saraykeht: glittering jewel of the Summer Cities
There are those in the world, however, who envy such wealth. There are great riches to be had in the Summer and Winter Cities, and only the threat of the andat unleashed holds the enemies of the Khaiem in check. But there is more to conquest than siege engines and armies. Slowly, carefully, strategies are being set in place, plans that could lead to the fall of the Khaiem - or to horrors unimaginable.
Conflict is brewing in the world. Alliances will be broken and friends betrayed. The lowly will be raised up, the mighty will fall and innocents will be slaughtered. And two men, bound to each other by an act of kindness and an act of brutality, may be all that stands between the civilised world and war. War and something worse.
Victory will depend on bravery, good fortune and who is willing to pay the long price .
‘One of the most elegant and engaging fantasies I’ve read in years’ Jacqueline Corey
‘An architecturally-perfect fantasy world filled with a fascinating, highly distinctive set of characters’ Walter Jon Williams
'A poignant human tale of power, heartbreak and betrayal' George R R MartinThousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
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Jay Amory Pirates of the Relentless Desert Pbk published August 2007 by Gollancz at Ł12.99 ISBN: 0575080329

Behemoth
Up she came. The cloud cover parted around her nosecone, flowing back along her balloon in gauzy ribbons. Up she came, trailing skeins of vapour from her tailfins. Up, with her black-painted canvas shining dully in the sunlight.
`We didn’t find them,’ Az breathed. `They’ve found us.’

The Groundlings are under attack.
Approaching in darkness, in a huge airship. Airborn pirates are raiding refineries and pillaging Groundling factories taking by force the supplies which used to be offered as a tribute to the winged ‘gods’. And the Groundlings are getting ready to defend themselves …
Above the clouds, Mr Mordadson is dispatched to Redspire to put an end to the piracy ... taking the armed Airship Cerulean - with Az Gabrielson as Captain with him. But even on the ship there is unrest. Flight Lieutenant Wallimson hates Az with all his bitter, twisted and vindictive heart. and.plots to do whatever he can to undermine the wingless boy.
... and on the ground, unrest at Redspire is the last thing on Cassie’s mind. The family business has been destroyed by contact with the Airborn and they scrape a precarious living taking Airborn tourists on tours. But as trouble is stirred up between the Groundlings and Airborn - and Cackling Bertha is attacked - things go from had to worse for Cassie.
And then her father goes missing ...

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...
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James Barclay Shout For The Dead Published January 2007 by Gollancz at Ł18.99 ISBN: 0575076216
The Ascendants of Estorea Book 2
It has been a decade since Estorca’s war with Tsard and life remains difficult. The first Ascendants, Arducius, Gorian, Mirron and Ossaccr, who brought the awesome power of magic into the world, are no longer teenagers but still face uncertainty and persecution. The Conquord’s Advocate, Herine Del Aglios, is increasingly isolated by her support of the Ascendancy. Paul Jhered, Exchequer of the Gatherers, is her only true ally.
And while three Ascendants strive to gain acceptance in the face of continuing demands by the Order of The Omniscient for their deaths, Corian’s power has grown. His grip on reality weakening.
Meanwhile, on the borders of the Conquord, discontent still grows. The war with Tsard was costly, Tsardon ambitions still run ‘high and there are rumours. Rumours that should be dismissed as ridiculous. Stories of people once dead, walking the earth once more.
But then Mirron’s son is kidnapped from the very heart of the Conquord, and a merciful decision made ten years ago threatens to tear the Conquord apart.
A new terror is coming. The dead arc on the march.
‘The Sergio Leone of the genre’ SFX
‘Truly excellent heroic fantasy’ sfsite.com
‘Extraordinary, ambitious. Wonderfully confident’ Steven Erikson
'Truly excellent heroic fantasy' SFSite.com
'He created novels you want to read again and again' David Gemmell
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James Barclay Shout For The Dead Pbk published December 2007 by Gollancz at Ł7.99 ISBN: 0593055284

The Ascendants of Estorea Book 2
It has been a decade since Estorca’s war with Tsard and life remains difficult. The first Ascendants, Arducius, Gorian, Mirron and Ossaccr, who brought the awesome power of magic into the world, are no longer teenagers but still face uncertainty and persecution. The Conquord’s Advocate, Herine Del Aglios, is increasingly isolated by her support of the Ascendancy. Paul Jhered, Exchequer of the Gatherers, is her only true ally.
And while three Ascendants strive to gain acceptance in the face of continuing demands by the Order of The Omniscient for their deaths, Corian’s power has grown. His grip on reality weakening.
Meanwhile, on the borders of the Conquord, discontent still grows. The war with Tsard was costly, Tsardon ambitions still run ‘high and there are rumours. Rumours that should be dismissed as ridiculous. Stories of people once dead, walking the earth once more.
But then Mirron’s son is kidnapped from the very heart of the Conquord, and a merciful decision made ten years ago threatens to tear the Conquord apart.
A new terror is coming. The dead arc on the march.
‘The Sergio Leone of the genre’ SFX
‘Truly excellent heroic fantasy’ sfsite.com
‘Extraordinary, ambitious. Wonderfully confident’ Steven Erikson
'Truly excellent heroic fantasy' SFSite.com
'He created novels you want to read again and again' David GemmellThousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
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David Bilsborough The Wanderer's Tale Published August 2007 by Tor at Ł14.99 ISBN: 0230014488
Nobody likes rawgrs. Call them hellhounds or demons, whatever you like – they’re a bad lot, and no good can come from stirring them up. Even those that were supposedly destroyed five centuries ago.
But if the lordly Peladanes are offering good money to anyone prepared to enlist in a quest to kill a rawgr that’s already dead, then who is Bolldhe to complain? The shiftless wanderer has spent the last eighteen years travelling the world and selling clairvoyant lies to gullible idiots, so why start worrying about moral integrity now?
Just think: ancient fortresses, glittering mountains; vast, dark forests; lands of giants, lands of fire and ice; lands never before visited by men or any of the other races inhabiting Lindormyn… as far as Bolldhe is concerned, the challenge is welcome and the sun again shines in his life.
On top of that, there is the bizarre matter of the priestly auguries about who Bolldhe really is. It’s not every day you find yourself acclaimed as the chosen one, the Rawgr Slayer – the potential saviour of the entire world. Yes, things are looking up for Bolldhe.
So out they set from the northern town of Nordwas, a motley crew of seven companions embarking on a sacred venture. Ahead of them lie weeks of hazardous progress through an increasingly desolate landscape, while each day fate confronts them with an array of weird creatures, huldres, elementals and malevolent spirits, embroiling them in perils unimaginable.

About The Author
David Billsborough was born and brought up in Malvern, and spent his early working life there as factory worker, barman and van driver. Though he now lives in Indonesia, he still regularly returns to walk the Malvern Hills, the inspiration for much of his writing, and where possibly might live some of the colourful characters who feature so vividly in his story. Thousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
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Alan Campbell Scar Night Pbk published May 2007 by Tor at Ł7.99 ISBN: 033044476X

Volume One of the Deepgate Codex
For a hundred generations the city of Deepgate has hung suspended by chains over a seemingly bottomless abyss. In the darkness below is said to reside the dread god Ulcis with his army of ghosts. Outside the city extend the barren wastes of Deadsands, inhabited by enemy tribesmen, and safe access is guaranteed only by airship.
At the hub of the city rises the Temple, in one of whose many crumbling spires resides a youthful angel, dill, the last of his line. Descendant of heroic battle-archons, thought barely able to wield the great sword he has inherited, he lives a sheltered existence under the watchful eye of Presbyter Sypes, ruler of the temple. Yet dill has a destiny about to unfold – one that takes him down into the terrifying depths of the pit in a desperate quest to save the teeming city from total annihilation.
‘I haven’t read a fantasy this good in years – it is utterly marvellous’ Neal Asher
‘a dark, violent fantasy full of vivid images… a fast-paced action-packed book’ The Times
‘Star Night is indecently good’ Guardian
‘Well thought out and very dark… I’d certainly read the next one’ Daily Telegraph ‘A visually rich, satisfyingly dark tale of a city of chains, ancient bloodlust and unshakeable loyalty’ Trudi Canavan
’urban fantasy at its best.’ Hal DuncanThousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
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Mark Chadbourn Jack of Ravens Pbk published December 2007 by Gollancz at Ł7.99 ISBN: 0575079487

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...
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Cecilia Dart-Thornton Weatherwitch Published February 2007 by Tor at Ł17.99 ISBN: 1405047143
Crowthistle Chronicles Three

Above Asrathiel the atmosphere churned. Updraughts caught her hair in billowing strands. Her eyes, shining, reflected the streaming clouds, so that they seemed no longer eyes at all but long oval windows opening onto the toiling skies behind her head…

On the misty, pine-clad slopes of the western highlands five princes go hunting - but the mountains are perilous and they clash with unexpected foes. To the north, a burrower digs its way through a labyrinth of underground caverns; there is no knowing what it is, how it came there, or where it is going.
The great golden sword Fallowblade is displayed above the mantelshelf in the house of Lord Avalloc Stormbringer. A weapon almost legendary by reputation, it was used in days of yore to destroy the goblin hordes. Asrathiel Stormbringer, powerful weathermage, is learning swordplay so that one day she may wield the magnificent blade, doing justice to this family heirloom ...
... while in the south, a tyrant rages and deceives, and hatches inimical plots ...
Five princes, an enigmatic burrower, a weathermaster and a fabulous sword - these elements come together to weave the surprising story of Weatherwitch.

About The Author
All her life entranced by folklore and fantasy, Cecilia Dart-Thornton has been writing since her early childhood, though The Ill Made Mute was her first published novel. Her other interests include animal welfare, environmental conservatio and digital media. She lives in Australia. Thousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
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Stephen Donaldson Mordant's Need Pbk published January 2007 by Gollancz at Ł15.99 ISBN: 0575079045

The Mirror Of Her Dreams & A Man Rides Through

The land of Mordant: beset from without by armies and monsters and from within by plots, dissension and madness. Mordant is a land where mirrors are magical gateways to other worlds, places of beauty and terror. The Imagers are masters of mirrors; to them falls the task of finding a champion to save the land.

In Mordant’s hour of greatest need, two unlikely champions emerge: Geraden, whose inability to master the simplest skills of Imagery has made him a laughingstock, and Terisa Morgan, snatched from a Manhattan apartment by Geraden’s faulty magic. Together, Geraden and Terisa discover undreamed-of talents within themselves - but those talents also mark them for death.
When they find themselves unjustly branded as traitors, they are forced to flee for their lives. Now, all but defenceless in a war-torn countryside ravaged by the vilest horrors Imagery can spawn, Geraden and Terisa must put aside past failures and find the courage to embrace their powers.
Mordant’s Need: an omnibus edition of The Mirror of her Dreams and A Man Rides Through, a rich and finely textured novel by a master storyteller, a tale of love and lust, power and court politics, in a place where nothing is ever what it seems…
‘Reaffirms Stephen R. Donaldson’s position as the foremost practitioner of the epic fantasy form in the world today’ Science Fiction Chronicle
‘An impressive performance. Mr Donaldson’s style - shimmering and full of ambiguities and puns - resembles the curved mirrors of Mordant’ New York Times Book Review
‘A work of compelling power, with a large cast of vivid characters and a spare, witty prose style that is a revelation. A memorable tale from a major American fantasy writer’ ALA Booklist
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...
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Hal Duncan Ink Published February 2007 by Macmillan at Ł17.99 ISBN: 1405088532
The Book of All Hours: 2
It’s twenty years since the Evenfall swept across the Vellum… twenty years since Phreedom Messenger disappeared into the wilderness and Seamus Finnan got imprisoned in his own past. Twenty years of chaos have intervened but the Dukes, those remnants of the Covenant, still cling to power in their enclaves of order amid this bitmite-devastated wilderness.
Yet, across the folds of time and space, rogues and rebels are now rising up against the Empire. From a medieval fortress where wandering mummers stage a harlequin play… to Kentigern where another harlequin, Jack Flash, wreaks havoc on a fascist state that thought him dead. From a 1939 Paris where Jack Carter and Seamus Finnan, heroes of the International Brigades, seek to rewrite history… to a 1929 Berlin where a very different Jack seeks to save the world from a history he himself has helped make real.
Locked in this eternal battle of chaos and order, it seems everyone must play their part now, whether as rebel of tyrant, hero or villain. And it is Guy Reynard, king of thieves, thief of lives, who links them all. He is the man who stole the Book of All hours and then walked across eternity with it, the keeper of its secrets, the interpreter of its sacred script. But perhaps it’s time to throw away a script written on the skin of angels. After all…
When reality is written on skin, only blood will do as ink.
Praise for Vellum: Book of All Hours
‘Produces a creepy tingle in the spine… a novel of incredible ambition’ Glasgow Herald
‘Overwhelming in its complexity, sumptuous in its recitation, this is a tryly monumental work’ Good Book Guide
‘Stretches the imagination and challenges perspective… a relentless look at the world around and within us… an exciting and original work’ South China Morning Post
‘not only pure literary pleasure, Vellum is opinionated and resonates strongly with today’s world events… it’s a thrill ride for the imagination and never fails to challenge the reader’ Cape Times
‘A mind-blowing read that’s genuinely unlike anything you’ve ever read before… the imaginary worlds that he dreams up are stunning… Vellum has expanded fantasy’s limits like nothing published in years’ SFX
‘The opening gambit in the career of a mind-blowing colossal talent whose impact will be felt for decades’ Jeff VanderMeer

About The Author
Hal Duncan was born in 1971, grew up in small-town Ayrshire during the Eighties, and now lives in the West End of Glasgow. Working part time as a computer programmer, he is a member of the Glasgow SF Writer’s Circle, and his previous novel, Vellum was the first part of The Book of All Hours. Thousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
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