100 ratings | 30 reviews | avg rating:4.64

Sam’s Year In Books

Sam’s 2022 Year in Books

Take a look at Sam’s Year in Books. The long, the short—it’s all here.

Go to Sam’s 2022 Year in Books

Sam Hawke’s Followers (390)

Sam’s Bookshelves

read (144)
currently-reading (4)
to-read (121)
dnf (0)

Sam’s Friends (125)

Petrik

1,871 books | 5,001 friends

Fee

6,881 books | 206 friends

Aiden

816 books | 49 friends

Sahitya

2,491 books | 829 friends

James Tivendale

1,803 books | 4,663 friends

THE BIBLIOPHILE (Rituranjan)

1,355 books | 313 friends

Cameron Johnston

365 books | 112 friends

Julia Sarene

2,486 books | 815 friends

More friends…

Sam Hawke

Goodreads Author

Born

in Canberra, Australia

Website

http://www.samhawkewrites.com

Twitter

samhawkewrites

Genre

Fantasy

Member Since

July 2015

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/samhawkewrites

edit data

I have wanted to write books ever since realising as a child that they didn’t just breed between themselves in libraries. Having contemplated careers as varied as engineer, tax accountant and zookeeper I eventually settled on the law. After marrying my jujitsu training partner and travelling to as many countries as possible on very little budget, I now live in Canberra, Australia, raising two small ninjas and two idiot dogs.

My debut novel, City of Lies, was released in 2018. It won the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel, the Ditmar Award for Best Novel, and the Norma K Hemming Award for excellence in exploring issues of gender, race, disability and class in SFF, and long listed by the British Science Fiction Awards.

The sequel, Hollow Emp ...more

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask Sam Hawke questions, please sign up.

Popular Answered Questions

Hello, Your depiction of Kalina's experience of chronic pain is one of the most authentic I've ever read. I don't often see characters with conditions like mine in fiction, let alone as an actual hero of the story. Thank you, it really means a lot. Did you have a specific condition in mind when you wrote Kalina?

Sam Hawke Hi Pancha - thanks for the question (and for the lovely review). I saw Kalina as having an immune system disorder of some kind, though I didn't have a…moreHi Pancha - thanks for the question (and for the lovely review). I saw Kalina as having an immune system disorder of some kind, though I didn't have a specific one in mind. I'm so, so glad that the depiction rang true for you. That means so much to me, thank you. I know people with invisible conditions don't get to be the heroes all that often in fantasy so it was really important to me to try to accurately reflect the challenges without it being the thing that defined the characters as people.
All the best
Sam (less)

flag

8 likes · like
Comment

Hi Sam! I am so excited for your book to come out! From what little Ive read you seem to be an absolutely wonderful writer and I was wondering if I could ask for some writing advice before you become incredibly famous and are flooded by messages like these. In creating a fantasy world, what do you personally do to give well-defined fantasy/sci-fi tropes the necessary twists to make your book feel new and compelling?

Sam Hawke Hi Keifer,

Thanks so much. Haha, I doubt I'll be flooded any time soon.

Oh, that's a tough one. I suppose when it comes to tropes the thing to remember …moreHi Keifer,

Thanks so much. Haha, I doubt I'll be flooded any time soon.

Oh, that's a tough one. I suppose when it comes to tropes the thing to remember is that most of the time they're not inherently bad (leaving aside harmful tropes that hurt people), but they can be boring. I think the key is identifying what the readers' expectations of a particular trope are going to be, and then asking 'what if' questions to unsettle those expectations. What if the prophecy was a lie? What if the wicked stepmother makes a better ruler than the indulgent king? What if what you thought was going to be the solution turned out to be the cause of the problem? That sort of thing. Knowing what's feeling stale right now and what might be a fresh take is critical here, and you only really get that by reading a lot in your genre.

But ultimately, sometimes there are just tropes that you love and you're happy to embrace. Then you just have to identify what it is that you enjoy about it and, using that core principle, try to give it your own voice.

I hope you enjoy the book!(less)

flag

7 likes · like
2 comments

See all 8 answers from Sam Hawke…

Combine Editions
Sam Hawke’s books

Average rating: 3.84 · 3,052 ratings · 738 reviews · 3 distinct works • Similar authors

	City of Lies (Poison Wars, #1) 3.78 avg rating — 2,501 ratings — published 2018 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hollow Empire (Poison Wars, #2) 4.11 avg rating — 537 ratings — published 2020 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fearless Women Sampler: Excerpts of Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels by Fearless Women by Tessa Gratton (Goodreads Author), Sherrilyn Kenyon (Goodreads Author), Robyn Bennis (Goodreads Author) 3.71 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 2018 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

26 posts
Sam Hawke's Blog

Dublin debrief

Worldcon was a blast, and by ‘blast’ I mean it was exactly like I was fired out of a cannon and sped past thousands of people to crash noisily on the other side. Five days of incredibly hectic panels, meetings, and of course socialising!

[image error]

The Dublin Convention Centre – our mad home for 5 days

I finally arrived after a somewhat nightmarish Journey of Doom(TM) consisting of something like

Series by Sam Hawke

Poison War (2 books)
by

Sam Hawke (Goodreads Author)

3.84 avg rating — 3,038 ratings

Sam is Currently Reading

Sam Hawke is currently reading

Salvage (Peridot Shift #2)

by R.J. Theodore (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Jun 15, 2019 03:15AM

Sam Hawke is currently reading

A Choir of Lies (The Tales of the Chants, #2)

by Alexandra Rowland (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Jun 11, 2019 08:49PM

Sam Hawke is currently reading

Walking The Tree

by Kaaron Warren (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Mar 29, 2019 02:48AM

rss
Sam’s Recent Updates

Sam Hawke rated a book it was amazing The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Feb 24, 2022 02:51AM · 3 likes · like

More of Sam's books…

Quotes by Sam Hawke (?)

“And what am I supposed to do without you?" he muttered, so softly I barely heard.”
― Sam Hawke, Hollow Empire

tags: adult-fiction, fantasy, hollow-empire, jovan-oromani, poison-wars, tain-caslavtash-iliri, tain-iliri

0 likes

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Fantasy Buddy Reads: October 2018 FBR Book Club Nominations!	21	43	Jul 25, 2018 07:07AM
Dragons & Jetpacks: Book of the Month Nominations - October 2018	48	130	Sep 17, 2018 11:20AM
Aussie Readers: October Challenge - Book Bobbing	179	254	Nov 03, 2018 11:36PM
The Seasonal Read...: Completed Tasks: PLEASE DO NOT DELETE ANY POST IN THIS THREAD	4153	359	Nov 30, 2018 09:27PM
Aussie Readers: Your end of year top 5 - 10 AUSSIE AUTHOR titles of 2018	41	61	Jan 01, 2019 01:38PM
Aussie Readers: Annual Aussie Authors Challenge 1/1/18 - 31/12/18	862	393	Jan 02, 2019 05:14AM
WACKY READING CHA...: Anita's Wacky Challenges	66	85	Jan 15, 2019 06:58AM