“The Broken Isles” by Mark Charan Newton (Tor)

The final book in The Legends of the Red Sun

The culmination of the Legends of the Red Sun series. This takes us back to Villiren where Commander Brynd Lathera prepares for the coming battle ahead with invaders from the other world.

Villjamur is gone, Rika and her sister Eir are all that remains of the Jorsalir line and Brynd is determined that Rika will lead her people in the creation of a new city and new culture.

But Villiren has never been a city to play by the rules and, despite the impending threat of destruction, criminal gangs work to undermine everything that Brynd has set out to do. The world is on the brink of destruction and anarchy...

Final books in series are always tricky. Will the author tie everything up with a lovely bow for readers? Will there be vague, open-ended solutions that will have fans guessing and debating what really happened? Will it be an awful mess? There are many decisions and pitfalls that can catch the unwary or incautious author. But with The Broken Isles, Newton has pretty much dodged them all. This is a great ending. The story is top notch, as we can expect. I think each book in the Legends of the Red Sun series has improved in every way, and The Broken Isles is no exception, with great writing, an exciting story, and engaging characters.

[Despite my best efforts, there are some spoilers in this review. If you haven’t read the first three books in Legends of the Red Sun, I obviously think you should go read them now, as the whole series is fantastic. However, if you want to keep reading this review, you should proceed with caution.]

Catching up with MARK CHARAN NEWTON

Mark Charan Newton’s Nights of Villjamur was one of the first books I received unsolicited from a publisher, and I really enjoyed it. The sequels, City of Ruin and The Book of Transformations just got better and better. Now, with the final book in the series – The Broken Isles – hitting shelves, I thought I’d send Mark a few questions to see what’s been going on since I first interviewed him, back in February 2011.

Legends of the Red Sun #1-3 2012 Edition Covers

“The Book of Transformations” by Mark Charan Newton (Tor)

The Legends of the Red Sun return to Villjamur

A new and corrupt Emperor seeks to rebuild the ancient structures of Villjamur to give the people of the city hope in the face of great upheaval and an oppressing ice age. But when a stranger called Shalev arrives, empowering a militant underground movement, crime and terror become rampant.

The Inquisition is always one step behind, and military resources are limited. So Emperor Urtica calls upon cultists to help construct a group to eliminate those involved with the uprising, and calm the populace. But there’s more to The Villjamur Knights than just phenomenal skills and abilities – each has a secret that, if exposed, could destroy everything they represent.

Investigator Fulcrom of the Villjamur Inquisition is given the unenviable task of managing the Knights, but his own skills are tested when a mysterious priest, who has travelled from beyond the fringes of the Empire, seeks his help. The priest’s existence threatens the church, and his quest promises to unweave the fabric of the world. And in a distant corner of the Empire, the enigmatic cultist Dartun Súr steps back into this world, having witnessed horrors beyond his imagination. Broken, altered, he and the remnants of his cultist order are heading back to Villjamur. And all eyes turn to the Sanctuary City, for Villjamur’s ancient legends are about to be shattered...

In the third novel of his Legends of the Red Sun series, Mark Newton takes the reader back to Villjamur, and gives us an atmospheric, thought-provoking fantasy to sink our teeth into. Superb continuation of the series, which shows Newton continues to grow and improve as an author.

“City of Ruin”, by Mark Charan Newton (Tor)

The Second book in the Legends of the Red Sun

Villiren: a city of sin that is being torn apart from the inside. Hybrid creatures shamble through shadows and barely human gangs fight turf wars for control of the streets.

Amidst this chaos, Commander Brynd Lathraea, commander of the Night Guard, must plan the defence of Villiren against a race that has broken through from some other realm and already slaughtered hundreds of thousands of the Empire’s people.

When a Night Guard soldier goes missing, Brynd requests help from the recently arrived Inqusitor Jeryd. He discovers this is not the only disappearance on the streets of Villiren. It seems that a serial killer of the most horrific kind is on the loose, taking hundreds of people from their own homes. A killer that cannot possibly be human.

The entire population of Villiren must unite to face an impossible surge of violent and unnatural enemies or the city will fall. But how can anyone save a city that is already a ruin?

I read Nights of Villjamur a good while back, at a time when I was only just getting into reading fantasy. It was a revelation, proving that my opinion on fantasy had been based on generalised misconceptions. The novel weirded me out, at times, and I couldn’t always relate to the characters, but I was nonetheless impressed with Newton’s imagination and prose.

City of Ruin, which I left for far too long on my shelf, is improved in almost every way and I was hooked very early on. This is a truly superb novel.

An Interview with Mark Charan Newton

In advance of my review of City of Ruin (coming tomorrow), Mark Charan Newton, author of the wonderfully weird Legends of the Red Sun fantasy series and all-round great fellow, took some time to answer a few questions about his novels, writing, influences, the speculative genre community, and his favourite whisky…

Upcoming: “Book of Transformations”, by Mark Charan Newton (Tor)

Mr Newton revealed on his website today the latest version of the artwork for the third novel in his Legends of the Red Sun series: The Book of Transformations. There was some… uh, disagreement over the quality of the previous two designs (which I’ve included below, as well).

I can say that the latest design is much better, and generally a very eye-catching piece of artwork. Here it is in its entirety (including blurbs from other author types), and it should en-biggen when you click on it:

And now a cropped version of what would be the front cover:

For those interested in seeing the, uh, less admired proposals, here they are:

As I’m sure most people would agree, these aren’t quite so good. We’re just not sure what the chick’s actually up to. Bit of an awkward pose, not sure who she is, or what she’s… doing there. The city in the background is still awesome, so I’m glad they made that more the focus of the (latest) proposed cover.

Finally, here’s the blurb for The Book of Transformations:

A new and corrupt Emperor seeks to rebuild the ancient structures of Villjamur to give the people of the city hope in the face of great upheaval and an oppressing ice age. But when a stranger called Shalev arrives, empowering a militant underground movement, crime and terror becomes rampant.

The Inquisition is always one step behind, and military resources are spread thinly across the Empire. So Emperor Urtica calls upon cultists to help construct a group to eliminate those involved with the uprising, and calm the populace – the Villjamur Knights. But there’s more to Knights than just phenomenal skills and abilities – each have a secret that, if exposed, could destroy everything they represent.

Investigator Fulcrom of the Villjamur Inquisition is given the unenviable task of managing the Knights, but his own skills are tested when a mysterious priest, who has travelled from beyond the fringes of the Empire, seeks his help. The priest’s existence threatens the church, and his quest promises to unravel the fabric of the world. And in a distant corner of the Empire, the enigmatic cultist Dartun Súr steps back into this world, having witnessed horrors beyond his imagination. Broken, altered, he and the remnants of his order are heading back to Villjamur.

And all eyes turn to the Sanctuary City, for Villjamur’s ancient legends are about to be shattered…

Now, if I could only make time to read City of Ruin, I’d be fully prepared for book three. I’ll read and review it soon. I promise.