One more under-the-radar post before we move on
From @DefGrappler onTwitter:
1. Godsdoom by Nick Perumov. “What starts out as a “power behind the throne” story turns into a bananas fight for all of existence. So fun.”
From Goodreads:
His thousand years of exile were meant to teach Hedin, Sage of Darkness, the error of his ways. Instead, he had ten centuries to learn new and powerful magics, knowledge he intends to use to challenge not just the Mages of his Generation who sentenced him but the very gods themselves. From bestselling Russian fantasist Nick Perumov, voted best European SF writer in 2004, comes a sword-and-sorcery adventure in the classic mode of Robert E. Howard with an added dash of Beowulf.
From Katy K in the comments here:
Callie LeRoux is choking on dust. It seeps through the cracks in the hotel that Callie and her mother run in Kansas. It’s slowly filling her lungs. Callie’s begged her mother to leave their town, like their neighbors have already done, but her mother refuses. She’s waiting for Callie’s long-gone father to return.
Just as the biggest dust storm in history sweeps through the Midwest, Callie discovers her mother’s long-kept secret. Callie’s not just mixed race — she’s half fairy, too. Now, Callie’s fairy kin have found where she’s been hidden, and they’re coming for her. The only person Callie can trust may be Jack, the charming ex-bootlegger she helped break out of jail.
From the despair of the Dust Bowl to the hot jazz of Kansas City, from dance marathons to train yards, to the dangerous beauties of the fairy realm, Sarah Zettel creates a world rooted equally in American history and in magic, where two fairy clans war over a girl marked by prophecy.
3. Also Fool’s War by Zettel
Four centuries after humanity has colonized the galaxy, information freight companies are used as an alternative to electronic communication. On one of her frequent trips into deep space, Katmer Al-Shei, owner of one of the smaller information companies, is accused of smuggling artificial intelligence. When Al-Shei tries to clear her name, she uncovers conspiracy after conspiracy, all set against the backdrop of a looming war.
4. Elaine T adds Michael Scott Rohan’s Winter of the World series
About which Goodreads says merely: The first volume in The Winter of the World fantasy trilogy, this novel of a young boy’s rise to power is set in a world where an ice age threatens a brilliantly imagined world similar to our own.
That’s pretty lame, but with a recommendation from Elaine I will probably check it out.
5. Also Chase the Morning by Rohan.
During a nostalgic visit to the docksides of his youth, Steve, an unassuming import/export agent, steps into another universe, where buccaneers, demigods, and mythic heroes mingle.
6. Also Helen Lowe’s Heir of Night quartet, which Elaine suggests sticking with into the second book. The description is indeed promising:
An award-winning poet and acclaimed author of Young Adult fiction, Helen Lowe now brings us The Heir of Night—the first book in her four-volume Wall of Night series, a brilliant new epic fantasy saga of war, prophecy, betrayal, history, and destiny. A thrilling excursion into a richly imagined realm of strife and sacrifice, where the fate of a dangerously divided world rests in the hands of one young woman, The Heir of Night is a fantasy classic in the making, sure to stand alongside the much beloved works of J.R.R. Tolkien, Robin McKinley, and Guy Gavriel Kay.
… and one last one that I thought of:
7. The Sword of Winter by Marta Randall
By far my favorite of Randall’s, I read this at least half a dozen times.
In the cold and dangerous land of Cherek, emerging from an era of magic and confronted by technological advancements, Lord Gambin of Jentesi lies dying and chaos reigns. During his four decades in power, Gambin has wielded a tight and tyrranical hold over his province, and his four heirs jockey to inherit his vast power, the people of Cherek teeter on the brink of change and watch the passing of the sword in Jentesi. For if Gambin’s power passes intact to his heirs, Cherek could lose the promise of its bright future and tumble irrevocably into a dark and vicious past.
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