Format: 565 pages, Paperback Published: April 25, 2024 by HarperVoyager ISBN: 9780008517649 (ISBN10: 0008517649) Language: English
From the ashes of an empire, a hero will rise…
Jai has spent his life forced to serve the cruel empire that killed his family and now rules his people.
To grow ever more powerful, the emperor’s young son is betrothed to Princess Erica of the Dansk Kingdom. An unconquerable realm, where ancient beasts roam. The princess brings with her a priceless gift: dragons. Only Dansk Royalty can bond with these magical beasts to draw on their power and strength. Until now.
When the betrothal goes wrong, a bloody coup leads to chaos at court. Finally, Jai has a chance to escape. He flees with a fierce Dansk warrior, Frida, but not before stealing a dragon egg.
To vanquish the empire, he must do the impossible: bond with a dragon. Only then he can seize his destiny, and seek his revenge …
An epic new fantasy, where dragons fly and empires fall.
My Review
I really need to get better at writing these summaries. I have three different editions of this book. Two are special editions, one each from Goldsboro Books and The Broken Binding, and the third is an ARC I won in a competition the publisher held in February. I’ve had it since March. I wanted to finish it long before now, but blog tours kept getting in the way. In the last few days, I’ve had time to read about two thirds of this chonker of a novel. So, read on of you don’t mind an outline of the first four hundred pages and some background, before you get to my opinions.
Spoilers below! Scroll quickly down to the separator if you don’t want to see them. I don’t spoil the ending or any of the real details.
Genre – fantasy > mythology > magical realism ● ISBN paperback – 978-1-78758-908-7 ● ISBN ebook – 978-1-78758-910-0 ● Pricing [USD] $16.95 (PB) / $4.99 (EB) ● Pricing [GBP] £12.95 (PB) / £4.95 (EB) ● Releases 14 May 2024 ● Published by Flame Tree Press ● Distributed by Hachette UK
SYNOPSIS
A world where petals are currency and flowers are magic.
A man battling a curse of eternal old age. A girl who can be his boon. But it’s not all tulips and roses. There are also nettles and thorns. Where Delights persist, Sorrow must follow.
In the city of Sirvassa, where petals are currency and flowers are magic, the Caretaker tends to the Garden of Delights. He imparts temporary magical abilities to the citizens of Sirvassa, while battling a curse of eternal old age.
No Delight could uplift his curse, and so he must seek out a mythical figure. A god.
When a Delight allows a young girl the ability to change reality, the Caretaker believes he’s at the end of his search. But soon a magical rot takes root in his Garden, and the Caretaker must join forces with the girl and stop it from spreading.
My Review
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book and to Anne Cater for organising this blog tour.
The blurb doesn’t do this book justice. Also, the Caretaker doesn’t realise what Iyena could do, and who she was, until after she cures the rot and dies.
Okay, that’s a bit of a spoiler. Iyena dies and is reborn, and it’s magnificent!
We start with an epic battle between a Florral and a Champion, the semi-divine magicians of the Inishtis and Abhadis, two tribes of humans who have been fighting forever. The Inishtis use floral technology; the Abhadis use metal technology. In the centuries that follow the epic battle, two cities rise: Sirvassa, home to floral technology, a stronghold of the Inishtis, a city of flowers and petal rains, and the Garden of Delights, overseen by the Caretaker, one of the few remaining Florrals; and Alderra, industrial capital of the Three Realms, the Abhadis stronghold, a place of flying machines and railways, a place where the Champions still have a home, a city they protect.
The Caretaker, protector of the Garden of Delights, and Sirvassa in general. He gives Delights made from the flowers in his Garden to the people of Sirvassa, giving them a temporary taste of the magic Florrals used at will. He is worried about developments in the city, something is going on, especially after Ministry officers from Alderra arrive and the Mayor of Sirvassa becomes weak. The Caretaker is dealing with his own problems. His experiments in curing the curse have made things worse.
Meanwhile, a girl, 15, arrives in Sirvassa, with her father. Iyena is the daughter of an Abhadi father and and Inishti mother, and born in Alderra. Separated, Iyena has no idea where her mother is or why she left her with her father, but immediately feels at home in Sirvassa, her mother’s home city. Her father is a stern, distant man, who works for the Ministry of Miscellany in Alderra, has brought them to stay with Maani-Ba, her mother’s sister, ostensibly to see about trading agreements between Sivassa and Alderra.
Iyena goes to school, and is enchanted by everything, from learning from books rather than oral learning, to the beasts that pull the carriages, to the fluttering ribbons that cross the city above the roofs, to a boy named Trehan. Making friends and learning about this new society, her maternal inheritance, brings her joy. She learns about the Garden of Delights after Trehan shows off his current Delight. With some forgery, she gets permission to visit the Garden and receives a Delight.
After that it all gets a bit political; there are explosions, sudden changes to the school curriculum and teaching, a fancy dinner at the mayor’s bungalow, fights between the Caretaker and Champions, death and rebirth, freedom and battles to maintain the cultural diversity of the Three Realms.
I was enchanted by this novel. I was about two thirds through it when I got a sense of terrible dread, that Sirvassa would be destroyed by the Minister’s plots; I had to put the book down because I couldn’t face the thought. After a couple of days I went back to the book, because I had to know what happened next. I think I struggled because the sneaky colonialism of Sirvassa by the Alderrans reminded me too much of events in the real world. The wholesale changing of school curricula, the re-writing of history, trying to co-opt Sirvassan cultural traditions, and the ‘if we can’t have it, destroy it’ attitude, remind me of historical colonialism and current colonial states. We’re bearing witness to several such colonial events right now, with all the attendant propaganda, murder and re-writing of history. Anyone with empathy would feel dread at reading it in fiction, when we’re already bearing witness in the real world.
The novel has a much happier ending than the consequences of historical colonialism and the realistic consequences of current colonial efforts. Any Florrals around who can save the world?
The writing is quite lyrical, and compelling reading. The descriptions are beautiful and colourful.
The relationship between the Caretaker and Trulio is paternal, and the way it ends is devastating. The confusing relationship Iyena has with her parents, her distant but present father, and absent but close in memory mother, especially after she meets her aunts, prompt many of Iyena’s actions. She’s pushed from one to the other, by the actions of her father and his friends. I particularly found the relationship between Iyena and Maani-Ba touching. There’s a lot of love and care between them, and secrets. Maani-Ba stands by Iyena when she goes through her change of state, and is instrumental in the rebellion after Iyena becomes afraid of her own abilities. The character development of the main characters is gentle but present.
The touches of Indian culture and inspired mythology, the contrast between the industrial Alderra and the floral Sivassa, the hints of a greater world beyond, really bring the world building to life.
Highly recommended.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amal Singh is a writer of science fiction and fantasy from Mumbai, India. He has numerous short story publications to his credit, in venues such as Clarkesworld, F&SF, Apex, Fantasy, among others. His story What is Mercy?, published in Fantasy Magazine, was longlisted for the BSFA Award in 2021. While he has held jobs of IT Analyst, Database Administration, and SOP consultancy in the past, he is now fortunate enough to do something that involves full-time writing. By day, he juggles screenwriting, audio-writing, and Creative Production, working on web-shows and movies. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking and running. amalsingh.substack.com / X: @Jerun_ont
FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing independent Flame Tree Publishing dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thriller categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices. Learn more about Flame Tree Press at http://www.flametreepress.com and connect on social media @FlameTreePress
Format: 400 pages, Hardcover Expected publication: May 28, 2024 by Angry Robot Books ISBN: 9781915202680 (ISBN10: 191520268X) Language: English
Description
The Devil knows your name, David Aristarkhov.
As a teen, David Aristarkhov was a psychic prodigy, operating under the shadow of his oppressive occultist father. Now, years after his father’s death and rapidly approaching his thirtieth birthday, he is content with the high-powered life he’s curated as a Boston attorney, moonlighting as a powerful medium for his secret society.
But with power comes a price, and the Devil has come to collect on an ancestral deal. David’s days are numbered, and death looms at his door.
Reluctantly, he reaches out to the only person he’s ever trusted, his ex-boyfriend and secret Society rival Rhys, for help. However, the only way to get to Rhys is through his wife, Moira. Thrust into each other’s care, emotions once buried deep resurface, and the trio race to figure out their feelings for one another before the Devil steals David away for good…
The first book in a spellbinding and vibrant new series from The Sunday Times bestselling author of A Dowry of Blood.
My Review
I have a limited edition proof copy of this book, sent by the publisher in December last year. I started reading it in January, but then life and blog tours got in the way, so I managed one chapter before I had to put it down. Last night, I read it all. In about five hours. I think the cover of my edition is way cooler that the standard edition. And I got a mini chocolate bar with my book.
From reading the first chapter I didn’t know if I’d enjoy the book. David is not a likeable character at the start. However, as the story progresses and the reader meets Rhys and Moira, and then other people in their circle, we learn something of them all. David, particularly, makes major character changes over the course of the novel as he becomes sick and is forced to confront his dead father, and a demon. Rhys and Moira are both antagonistic to him at the start, which we learn is due to David misdiagnosing the cause of a haunting in their house and blaming Moira. This is apparently the plot of the novella that precedes this novel. I haven’t read the novella, but picked up some of the story from mentions in this novel.
Rhys has ambitions of becoming important, while Moira suppresses her ambitions under the rules her mother taught her, and David has the insouciance and confidence of old money. They clash, because they all need therapy. David is driven by the fear of failure, of perfectionism, beaten into him by his abusive father. He’s a sober alcoholic, who copes with his stress by obsessively working both as a medium and a lawyer, while maintaining a punishing food and exercise regimen (he’s clearly struggling with orthorexia). Rhys has a load of Catholic guilt about being bisexual, about being an occultist, about having ambition. Moira needs to learn to put herself first sometimes, and to accept her own power.
Moira is the first one to realise, with the help of her friend Kitty, also a powerful magic worker, and wife of one of David and Rhys’ friends at the Society, that there is more than one way to do relationships. Moira at times acts as the hinge that keeps the two men from killing each other, holding them together when they’re falling apart, fighting demons or dying. As the story develops, and they all confront their feelings and trauma, they realise they can form a family that works for them.
It feels a bit like Moira is the one who is doing a lot of the work, of parenting two men in their late twenties who clearly didn’t get the parenting they needed as children. It’s unfortunate that this dynamic is one often found in heterosexual relationships (a woman becoming wife and surrogate mother to a man), and I found criticism of S.T. Gibson in other reviews of this book for that dynamic, but it’s what relationships are often like, and in a book that has demons and magic, the reality is grounding. I enjoyed the character growth they all go through and the resolution is satisfying.
S.T. Gibson is a really talented writer who knows enough about a variety of occult, magic and religious traditions to write convincingly about the many traditions that make an appearance in this book. It was fun playing ‘spot the tradition or folklore reference’ as I read the book. I want more of these books, more adventures for David, Rhys and Moira. And Leda, David’s half sister – who is utterly cool. I reckon if Kitty, Moira and Leda decided to, they could take over the Society, although Lorena would still be more powerful.
Recommended for fans of urban fantasy. Not much sex, for those who aren’t into it, but lots of angst and romance.
Enter the circus at your own risk… and discover the greatest show on earth in this explosive
and darkly magical fantasy novel.
For humans, the circus is a place filled with wonder and amazement. For Harrow, it’s a place to hide
from those who slaughtered her entire clan. Disguising her abilities as part of her act has kept her
true identity safe for years.
Until he arrives.
A strange new attraction with no name, no memory of who – or even what – he is, let alone an explanation for his odd yet deadly powers. But beneath the layers of anger and isolation, one
glimpse into his inky eyes reveals a soul that calls out to the loneliness in her own. And so, she chooses him.
Harrow is drawn to the darkness, to her insatiable need to soothe the beast who threatens their very existence. But with every secret she unlocks from his past, another from hers is revealed – luring
enemies who will stop at nothing to get their final revenge on Harrow. And she’s afraid she’s given
them the perfect weapon against her because he’s not what he seems.
But maybe it’s time they finally learn neither is she…
Gogmagog tells the story of an epic journey through the sixty-mile long ghost of a dragon.
Travel is by boat, a rickety steam launch captained by veteran taxi pilot Cady Meade, on the river Nysis. In her heyday Cady carried people and goods from the thriving seaports of the estuary into Ludwich, the capital city. Now she’s drunk, holed up in a rundown seaside resort, telling her bawdy tales for shots of rum.
All that’s about to change, when two strangers seek her out, asking for transport, one of whom – a young girl – is very ill, and in great danger. The other, an artificial being of singular character, has secrets hidden inside his crystal skull. So begins the voyage of the Juniper.
The Nysis is unlike any other river. Mysteries unfold with each port of call. Not many can navigate these channels, not many know of its whirlpools and sandbanks, and of the ravenous creatures that lurk beneath the surface.
Cady used to have the necessary knowledge, and the powers of spectral navigation.
But her glory days are well behind her now. This might well be her final journey.
The epic environmental coming of age fantasy continues. An ideal series for YA and MG readers who love fantasy, the magic of nature and want a stellar female cast of characters.
After one of the bloodline Elementals is snatched, Hannah and her guardian – a magical silverback fox called Alpha – must journey into the unknown to save a future still under threat.
But is it a trap?
As old enemies emerge and darkness spreads across the worlds, Hannah discovers that her own mother has mysteriously gone missing. With Gaia, the Mother of all Nature, hellbent on seeking revenge against those that are trying to destroy her, Hannah realises she’s running out of time and that to save the future, might just mean the mother of all sacrifices.
Awoken in the middle of the night by an alarming phone call, Hannah and her mum, Caroline rush to the bedside of Eleanor, Hannah’s estranged Grandmother. One of them has been lying to Hannah and one has been keeping a magical, but dangerous secret.
With deadly forces aligning to destroy the Mother of All Nature’s bloodline, Hannah is rushed to the safety of the Hollow Tree. But will she make it in time. And can a mysterious silverback fox keep her alive long enough to save not just the world we know…
Format: 392 pages, Hardcover Published: December 15, 2023 by Harper Voyager ISBN: 9780008596965 Goldsboro Books Exclusive Edition
Two elven sisters become imprisoned in the hidden world of the fae where danger, and love, lies in wait. Faebound is the first book in an enchanting new trilogy from the internationally bestselling author of The Final Strife.
A thousand years ago, the world held three fae, elves, and humans. But now the fae and humans exist only in myth and legend, survived by the elves who are trapped in an endless war over the remaining lands.
Yeeran is a colonel in the elven army and has known nothing but a life of violence and hardship. Her sister, Lettle, is a diviner whose magic promises a different future for her and her sister, but the prophecies have yet come to pass.
When a fatal mistake leads to Yeeran’s exile from the Elven Lands, Lettle, fearful for her sister’s life, follows her into the uncharted territory beyond their borders. In the wilderness the sisters encounter the largest obeah they have ever seen. Part leopard, part stag, the obeah’s magic is harnessed to make weapons for the elven war. It is during this hunt that they are confronted with the a group of fae who take them captive. Imprisoned in a new land, they must navigate the politics of the fae court all while planning their escape.
Now Yeeran and Lettle are fighting a different kind of between their loyalty to their elven homeland and the intoxicating world of the fae, between what duty decrees is right, and what their hearts tell them they need.
My Review
Alright, one last review for the day and then I’m off to bed. I’ve just read about 300 hundred of the 395 pages this evening. I read the rest last month. I’ve been busy. Now I have to wait for the next one! And it promises to be so good!
I don’t normally like romantic fantasy, even though it seems to be a really popular genre at the moment. I prefer fantasy with a romantic sub-sub-sub plot. Fantasy that could stand without the romantic elements. There should be more that just lust and romantic love moving the plot forward. Nor should sex be substituted for actual character development.
But.
I like this one. The characters are fun, there’s battles, murder, prophesy, finding and losing family, betrayal, talking animals…all the fun stuff. The plot does rely a bit on the enemies to lovers trope, but that’s a romantasy staple and in the context it actually works. El-Arifi doesn’t use sex as a substitute for character development, although there is some in there. On the beach, of all places.
The main characters are Yeeran and Lettle, a colonel in the Waning army and a Seer. They are sisters in their late thirties and twenties, respectively. That makes a nice change. Main characters that aren’t children. They’ve had a hard life. Yeeran chose to join the army and fight in the Forever War, while Lettle was too young to leave, and had to stay with their father. After poisoning him as dementia took control, Lettle seeks solace in an old temple, and meets her mentor, a Seer, who takes her to their capital and trains her in divination. Yeeran rises to become the youngest general in the Waning army, while Lettle becomes a powerful diviner, although divination, the gift to elves from the moon god is increasingly ignored and disparaged.
Then Yeeran makes a battlefield mistake that costs hundreds of lives. Sent into exile, Yeeran seeks out a way to win back favour with her chieftain/lover. Lettle, and Yeeran’s Captain, Rayan, follow her into exile, through the neighbouring Crescent and meet up as Yeeran is hunting an obeah.
Then things turn nasty. Because the obeah is faebound to a fae prince, who will die when the obeah does, and a fae princess witnesses the death. There is a nasty fight and Yeeran is condemned to death. But first the three elves must be marched through the wasteland to the underground home/prison of the fae.
Just when it looks like everyone is going to die, Yeeran bonds with an obeah herself. This changes everything. The fae won’t kill an obeah, and killing Yeeran would kill an obeah. This gives Yeeran, Lettle and Rayan a few months respite to find a way to escape. Something is happening outside the fae lands, and inside there is dissension in the ranks. The arrival of three elves changes the balance and they will all learn something about themselves and the world.
I’ll admit, my favourite character is Pila, the obeah bonded to Yeeran. She’s a sarcastic bint and I love her. The elves and fae are okay, I suppose, but I want more obeah adventures! I’m joking, although Pila is my favourite, I like the way the characters are developing and the push-pull of duty and attraction. Lettle sees most things more clearly than her sister, but Yeeran is too bound up in her training to accept that Lettle might be right. The tension between the two sister, and the tension between Yeeran and Furi, drive the story forward. These tensions represent the tension between two elvish worldviews and the competing elvish and fae worldviews, that need to be reconciled for them the move forward.
Furi is furious most of the time, be as the reader gets to know her through Yeeran’s eyes, we discover that the anger is a cover for grief, pain and fear. She’s trapped in Mosima, trapped in her duty to people and family, her future is determined for her by a curse, and she has no way out. She turns this outward towards elves in general and Yeeran in particular. Yet, it’s the arrival of Yeeran, Lettle, and Rayan that will eventually free her.
Also, it’s very, very queer. As in the societies are queer normative. And I love to see it.
That’s the big reveal at the end. Which I’m not going to spoil. You all need to go out and get this book. The standard edition will be published in a week or so, and I think I have a copy on order with Waterstones. (Look, we all know I’m a completist, I can’t help myself. I just found out there’s a FairyLoot exclusive edition and I can’t get it! It’s very frustrating!)
Format: 352 pages, Hardcover Published: November 21, 2023 by Hodderscape ISBN: 9781399724685 (ISBN10: 1399724681) Language: English
Blurb
Marriage isn’t always sunshine and unicorns… sometimes it’s monsters and necromancy.
In a world of magic and adventure, Logan “the Bear” Theaker had hung up his axe and settled down with his sunshiny bard husband, Pie. But when Pie disappears, Logan is forced back into the world he thought he left behind.
The kingdom is in turmoil, and Logan must come out of retirement to save it. But first, he must save his beloved husband from whatever danger he’s in. With the help of an old adversary and a ghost from his past, Logan discovers that Pie has been blackmailed into stealing a powerful artifact capable of creating an undead army.
The fate of the kingdom hangs in the balance as Logan and his team set out to stop the brewing war and put an end to the king’s ban on magic. But in doing so, Logan must confront his own hero complex and come face to face with the one man who’s ever made him feel worthy of love.
Legends & Lattes meets Kings of the Wyld in this thrilling, queer, light fantasy. Follow Logan and Pie’s journey as they fight to save their love and the kingdom they call home.
My Review
I got myself a signed copy of this book from Goldsboro Books a couple of weeks ago and started reading it when it arrived two days ago. I’ve been busy with work and blog tours so I only got three chapters in, until this evening. Four and a half hours later I’ve finished reading the book.
We meet Pie and Logan at a village festival, a few months after they marry and settle down from their lives on the road as a bard and a hero. But things quickly go wrong when Pie disappears on a trip to the nearest city and Logan has to search for him. He calls on a necromancer he once arrested and that sets off a chain of events that eventually include grave robbing, nearly drowning, killing a king and unicorns, lots of unicorns.
This romp of a story is a D&D campaign! Seriously, it has the sorts of characters and structures you get in a really good game, with a really good DM. There’s an inciting event, a quest, a collection of characters who appear and join the expedition, monsters to defeat, an even bigger challenge to over come when it looks like you’ve got to the end, and a final big boss to destroy. It was a lot of fun to read.
It was also heart-breaking at times! Pie and Logan are absolutely wretchedly in love and their arguments are caused by love and their insecurities as they face their pasts and their feelings. I cried, a few times. I
I’m soppy, I know.
They’re so lovely though, and they develop over the course of the novel as they confront their fears and insecurities about being left behind, and express how overwhelming their love for each other is.
I found the countess hilariously funny, relentlessly positive and of all the secondary characters she’s my favourite. She has a sad history, uses her magic for seemingly trivial things like getting the gardening done, and is feared because she’s a necromancer. Yet, she comes through in the end, even though she sort of betrayed Logan before the story started. And she has a CHARTER!
I loved the descriptions of places and people in the book, they were very evocative and quite, quite amusing at times. The contrast between the ‘real’ world, the ‘pocket’ world of the unicorns, and death’s realm were very clear and stark. I loved the descriptions of the library in the capital. Also, totally agree with Logan on the suspended walkways. They are a baaaaaad idea.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 