An Evening with Fantasy Authors
D.J. BUTLER, "WITCHY KINGDOM"
DRAGON AWARD NOMINATED SERIES. Both previous entries in the Witchy War series, Witchy Eye and Witchy Winter, were nominated for best alternate history novel at the Dragon Awards.
An encounter with her father’s goddess has not turned out to be the end for Sarah Elytharias Penn. Now, with the Imperial fist tightened around her city of Cahokia and the beastkind of the Heron King ravaging across the river, she must find a way to access the power of the Serpent Throne itself—a feat, she has learned, that her father never accomplished. To complicate her efforts, Cahokia’s Metropolitan, a beloved and charismatic priest who despises the goddess as a demon, returns from a long pilgrimage and attempts to finalize the Wisdom-eradicating reform that dogged Sarah’s father when he was king.
Meanwhile, Sarah’s brother Nathaniel and her brilliant but erratic servant Jacob Hop find their steps dogged by the Emperor’s Machiavel, Temple Franklin, as they hunt in New Amsterdam for the third Elytharias sibling. Isaiah Wilkes, having failed to awaken the Emperor by reminding him of his esoteric obligations, now travels north in disguise to seek other allies to stand against the destroying storm of the reign of Simon Sword. Chigozie Ukwu, the Shepherd of the Still Waters, finds his peaceful flock threatened and pressed into a dangerous mission in the service of Cahokia’s wild sister city Zomas, while his brother, the Vodun houngan Etienne Ukwu, pushes toward a final showdown with the mameluke assassins of the Chevalier of New Orleans.
Praise for Witchy Winter:
“Butler follows Witchy Eye with a satisfying second tale of a magic-filled early America. . . . Deep and old magic influences both places and characters, and the story is tightly focused on the determined Sarah . . . Fans of epic and alternate historical fantasy will savor this tale of witchery and intrigue.”—Publishers Weekly
CHRISTOPHER HUSBERG, "CHAOS QUEEN: FEAR THE STARS"
The fourth book in the epic Chaos Queen series. "Perfect for fans of Daniel Abraham and Brandon Sanderson." (Library Journal on Duskfall)
All parties converge on the capital city, Triah - Cinzia and the Odenites to establish their new religion and appeal against a charge of heresy; Knot and Astrid to find answers in the vampire girl's past; and Winter has come to conquer the city, at the head of a tiellan army. But Winter is still struggling with her addictions and anger; Knot's efforts to be reunited with her can only lead to disappointment. Cinzia cannot free herself from a terrible bargain. And as the battle lines are drawn, the true nature of the goddess Canta, and the Odenites' final purpose, will soon be revealed...
CHRISTOPHER RUOCCHIO, "EMPIRE OF SILENCE" (Book 1)
Hadrian Marlowe, a man revered as a hero and despised as a murderer, chronicles his tale in the galaxy-spanning debut of the Sun Eater series, merging the best of space opera and epic fantasy.
It was not his war.
The galaxy remembers him as a hero: the man who burned every last alien Cielcin from the sky. They remember him as a monster: the devil who destroyed a sun, casually annihilating four billion human lives—even the Emperor himself—against Imperial orders.
But Hadrian was not a hero. He was not a monster. He was not even a soldier.
On the wrong planet, at the right time, for the best reasons, Hadrian Marlowe starts down a path that can only end in fire. He flees his father and a future as a torturer only to be left stranded on a strange, backwater world.
Forced to fight as a gladiator and navigate the intrigues of a foreign planetary court, Hadrian must fight a war he did not start, for an Empire he does not love, against an enemy he will never understand.
LUKE TARZIAN, "VULTURES"
TRUTH FROM MADNESS - In Ariath, this is more than a simple adage. For Theailys An, they are words to live by, especially in the city of Helveden, where he and his demon brethren, the dissident, are looked upon with scorn. Viewed as cohorts of the dead progenitor of Ariathan suffering, they are outcasts.
Still, Theailys has a job to do: destroy the Heart of Mirkúr and end the war for good. Though Te Mirkvahíl is dead, its progeny leak endlessly from the Heart, sowing death with their passage. With The Keepers' Wrath, a power focus of his own design, Theailys believes there is hope to restore peace to Ariath once again.
But ending a war is easier said than done, especially for a man still haunted by past tragedies and occasionally possessed by a murderous presence keen to take his body for its own. As Theailys works to forge The Keepers' Wrath, amid a creeping shadow over Helveden, one thing becomes increasingly and horrifyingly clear:
These events have played out many times before.