Science Fiction & Fantasy

July 2010

The title-underlined links will take you directly to our catalogue.
Some featured items are linked via a book cover to enable you to read more reviews.

Connor's folly, Robert C. Auty. (2010)
"In the aftermath of the bloody siege, Connor, Grynn king, has left behind his friends (but not his enemies), in search of the White Palace, where he will perfect his 'trancing' abilities. On his travels, he encounters new peoples and new lands, from a former Askari slave to the brave and fearsome Norsemen, transplanted warriors from mythology who travel the oceans in their dragon boats. He is forced to divert from his plan to counter the growing threat of the blood horde. Kaitomi, the blood emperor, has dispatched his equally sinister sister, Maitoma, to the western continent to continue spreading their particular form of evil. With a vampire-like bite she converts all in her path to the legions of the undead. As Maitoma's forces grow in strength and ferocity, Connor is forced to call on all his skills to aid his new friends and allies. It is during one of the ensuing battles that Connor is tricked by Maitoma, and in a weakened state, commits his portentous Folly." (Amazon)

The king of the crags, Stephen Deas. (2010)
"Prince Jehal has murdered, poisoned and betrayed his way to the top. There is a new speaker for the realms; his opposition has been crushed; now he just has to enjoy the fruits of power. Out in the realms those loyal to the old regime are still plotting and there are rumours that the Red Riders, heralds of revolution and doom are on the ride. Still no-one has found the famous white dragon. The dragon that, if it lived, will have long since recovered from the effects of the alchemical liquid fed to the dragons of the realms to keep them docile, to block their memories of a time when they ruled and the world burned." (Amazon)

The hundred thousand kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin.(2010)
"Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky, a palace above the clouds where gods' and mortals' lives are intertwined. There, to her shock, Yeine is named one of the potential heirs to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is thrust into a vicious power struggle with a pair of cousins she never knew she had. She has to fight for her life, and as she does she draws ever closer to the secrets of her mother's death and her family's bloody history." (Amazon)

The dream of perpetual motion, Dexter Palmer. (2010)
"Imprisoned for life aboard a zeppelin that floats high above a fantastic metropolis, the greeting-card writer Harold Winslow pens his memoirs. His only companions are the disembodied voice of Miranda Taligent, the only woman he has ever loved, and the cryogenically frozen body of her father Prospero, the genius and industrial magnate who drove her insane." (Book cover)

Storm from the shadows, David Weber. (2010)
"Rear Admiral Michelle Henke was commanding one of the ships in a force led by Honor Harrington in an all-out space battle. But Michelle's ship was crippled, and had to be destroyed to prevent superior Manticoran technology from falling into Havenite hands, and she and her surviving crew were taken prisoner. Much to her surprise, she was repatriated to Manticore, carrying a request for a summit conference between the leaders of the two sides which might end the war. But a condition of her return was that she gave her parole not to fight against the forces of the Republic of Haven until she had been officially exchanged for a Havenite prisoner of war, so she was given a command far away from the war's battle lines. What she didn't realize was that she would find herself on a collision course, not with a hostile government, but with the interstellar syndicate of criminals known as Manpower." (Amazon)

The ambassador's mission, Trudi Canavan. (2010)
"Sonea, former street urchin, now a Black Magician of Kyralia, is horrified when her son, Lorkin, volunteers to assist Dannyl in his new role as Guild Ambassador to Sachaka, a land still ruled by cruel black magicians. When word comes that Lorkin has gone missing Sonea is desperate to find him, but if she leaves the city she will be exiled forever, and besides, her old friend Cery needs her help. Most of his family has been murdered, the latest in a long line of assassinations to plague the leading Thieves. There has always been rivalry, but lately it seems the Thieves have been waging a deadly underworld war, and now it appears they have been doing so with magical assistance." (Amazon)

Much fall of blood, Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, Dave Freer. (2010)
"Prince Manfred and his mentor and bodyguard, the deadly warrior Erik, returning from Jerusalem, they and members of the knights of the Holy Trinity are escorting an envoy of II Khan Mongol to the lands of the Golden Horde, between the Black Sea and the Carpathians, which happen to be eastern bastion against their old enemies, the demon Chernobog, and his possessed puppet, the Jangellion. Unfortunately, what began as a diplomatic mission leads to Manfred and his knights being caught up in an inter-clan civil war, rescuing a fugitive woman and her injured brother, and becoming involved in the problems of Prince Vlad, Duke of Valahia. Manfred and Erik are forced into an alliance of convenience between the Golden Horde and the ancient magical forces of Valahia, as directed by the troubled Vlad." (Amazon)

A thousand sons, Graham McNeill. (2010)
"After being censured at the Council of Nikea for his flagrant use of sorcery, Magnus the Red and his Thousand Sons Legion retreat to their home world of Prospero to continue their use of the arcane arts in secret. But when the ill-fated primarch foresees the treachery of Warmaster Horus and warns the Emperor with the very powers he was forbidden to use, the Master of Mankind dispatches fellow primarch Leman Russ to attack Prospero itself. But Magnus has seen more than the betrayal of Horus and the witnessed revelations will change the fate of his fallen Legion, and its primarch, forever." (Amazon)

The trade of queens, Charles Stross. (2010)
"After a nuclear explosion in Washington, D.C., kills the president, a dissident faction of the Clan from an alternate universe joins a faction of the U.S. government in a political takeover. There is no safe place for a pregnant Queen Miriam and her Clan except, perhaps, in the third alternate world, New Britain, which has just had a revolution and a nuclear incident of its own." (Book cover)

Destiny's star, Beth Vaughan. (2010)
"Bethral is a mercenary, wise in the ways of weaponry and warfare, but not so good when it comes to dealing with people. Ezren is a quick-witted storyteller, a weaver of mesmerising tales and more, for the rarest magic, wild magic runs through his body. But wild magic is rogue, uncontrollable and deadly, and if Ezren is to survive, he will have to rid himself of it, or learn to wield it. The unlikely couple find they have other, equally pressing concerns, for the portal that wrenched them from their home has dropped them in the middle of the Plains, leaving Bethral badly injured. Not only are the people of the Plains warriors, with their own code of honour and their own rules of pleasure and partnership; they are also in the middle of a civil war." (Amazon)

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