Summary: Factions rise — Zeal ignites — Bells toll Hanen and Rallia Clouw find themselves between power hungry factions and must choose which tools to take up to reach their goals. With the Rotha revealed to be a thinking, breathing being, Katiam Borreau must tread carefully and choose her allies wisely. Ousted from their western holdings, the Paladins of the Hammer retreat to the west to face new and old intrigue set against them. Made the unwitting messenger of dark gods, Seriah Yaledít seeks solace in the road, fleeing from blind panic gnawing at her mind. Dark tools forged, scale...
The Fall Is All There Is by C.M. Caplan
Summary All Petre Mercy wanted was a good old-fashioned dramatic exit from his life as a prince. But it's been five years since he fled home on a cyborg horse. Now the King—his Dad—is dead—and Petre has to decide which heir to pledge his thyroid-powered sword to. As the youngest in a set of quadruplets, he’s all too aware that the line of succession is murky. His siblings are on the precipice of power grabs, and each of them want him to pick their side. If Petre has any hope of preventing civil war, he'll have to avoid one sibling...
Character Deep Dive: Dane Marric of the Kallattian Saga
Next week I will review what was likely one of the most anticipated books of the year for me, Andrew D Meredith’s Gloves of Eons. While I am still deeply impressed with Andrew’s writing and the world he has created, there is something I think needs to be addressed. That is the absolute brilliance of one character—Dane Marric. If you’ve read the Kallattian Saga at all, you probably wonder if I’ve gone crazy. Hear me out. Dane is a fantastic character exactly because he is who he is. Terrible. He’s an awful human being, and I hate him. But I...
Short Story: Cast It Into The Fire by Jared Leys
“I’m sorry it came to this, Dr. Grady.” The head in the chair next to me didn’t respond. Its lifeless, deep-set eyes stared into oblivion from a countenance with a large nose and a furrowed white brow. Wrinkled skin clung to high cheekbones. Dr. Grady’s eighty-four years had been stressful, but he had smiled often. Blood seeped from the base of the severed neck and dribbled to the floor. It splattered on the hardwood boards and reflected light from the fireplace. Warm, flickering shadows played along the walls of the small den. Books and technical equipment rested on a desk...
The Castle of 1,000 Doors by Kenny Gould
Summary King Crow isn’t having a very good day. The Empire’s most famous athlete suddenly finds himself convicted of treason and sentenced to the Hunt, an annual event where the city’s most undesirable prisoners are sent into a dungeon filled with treasure, magic, and… bloodthirsty monsters. Crow didn’t commit the crime, so why is he in the dungeon? Who set him up? And why—for the love of god—is his only weapon a fast-talking, sapient, electromagnetically charged potato named Spud? Review The Castle of 1,000 Doors is a fun, action packed adventure that instantly sucked me into the story and I...
The Fear of Moncroix by Bryan Asher
Summary: All the Waywards have Fallen… After a mission against the Royal Vampiric Court goes wrong, all Waywards are slaughtered. All except one. Davion, the last surviving member, must consume potions to mask himself and hide amongst the people who killed his brethren. After a decade of living this double life, Davion resigned to his new purgatory. But all will not remain calm for him or the Court. An unknown swordsman arrives, and after killing several Royal Vampires, a rumor spreads that he’s searching for anyone still belonging to The Wayward order. Davion decides he must track down this mysterious...
Far Removed by CB Lansdell
Summary On the moon of Knyadrea, the sea yields intelligent life. For a species shaped by tides, change is the only constant. Little can be hidden in the glare of a spotlight. Charismatic and innovative, Oklas Sayve has risen to prominence in Apidecca, the moon's capital city. A politician and college director, he has the resources to effect the changes he envisions for the world. But the sovereigns he serves oppose him at every turn and his status cannot protect the low-strata students attending his college. After a young knyad is wrongly linked to insurgent activity, Oklas must find a...
Wistful Ascending by J.C.M. Berne
Summary The il’Drach Empire spans half a galaxy, built on the feet and fists of their Powered hybrid children. At eight Rohan of Earth learned that he was only half human. By sixteen he was an active superhero, using his inherited powers to fight crime, in mask and spandex. At twenty-two he left his home to fight for the his father's people, expanding the il’Drach Empire and protecting it from local and interdimensional threats. At thirty-two, exhausted by ten years of ruthless warfare, he retired to Wistful, a vast sentient independent space station, to try to live a normal life....
The Traitors We Are by Michael Roberti
Summary In a world where writing disappears when the author dies, Cael Oberlan watches the last gasping breaths of his best friend. As his friend's signature fades, he pulls a scrap of paper out of his pocket and a name disappears. Cael only wants vengeance for his friend; however, the nagging suspicion that his father, who started this war, hasn't given him the whole story about his role in this conflict threatens to unravel everything he ever thought he knew about himself and his people fighting for freedom. As the nephew of the King of Harfel, Emil Trestinsen should...
The Bleeding Stone by Joseph John Lee
Summary The island nation of Ferranda is the jewel of the Acrarian Kingdom, and its Founder, Aritz a Mata, is revered as a god amongst men. But twenty-five years ago, Aritz was merely a man, a colonizer, an Invader seeking glory and fame in the name of his King and Queen, and Ferranda was a nameless union of indigenous Tribes, reverent of the heightened powers and aptitudes granted to them by their Animal Deities, but sundered by the foreigners claiming their lands to the south. In the unconquered north, the Stone Tribe has for fifteen years offered a safe haven...