A Quick Chat with AMANDA DOWNUM

In a time when vampires and the undead populate teen fantasy and paranormal romance, I was happy to discover Amanda Downum’s debut, The Drowning City, back in 2009. (Well, I say “discover”, but really Orbit were kind enough to send me a copy, so really it took no effort on my part.) Amanda’s novels feature the undead, but with a difference.

The Bone Palace, the second novel in her series, is one of the best books featuring tye undead that I’ve read in a good long while – alongside Jon Courtenay Grimwood, she’s certainly in the top five of new undead fiction authors. With the publication of the third book, Kingdoms of Dust, later this year, I thought it an excellent opportunity to contact Amanda for an interview. Luckily she was able to squeeze in some time to answer some questions about her books, writing and the undead.

“Atlas Infernal” by Rob Sanders (Black Library)

A new hero of the Inquisition?

Inquisitor Bronislaw Czevak is a hunted man. Escaping from the Black Library of the eldar, Czevak steals the Atlas Infernal – a living map of the Webway. With this fabled artefact and his supreme intellect, Czevak foils the predations of the Harlequins sent to apprehend him and thwarts his enemies within the Inquisition who want to kill him. Czevak’s deadliest foe, however, is Ahriman – arch-sorcerer of the Thousand Sons. He desires the knowledge within the Black Library, knowledge that can exalt him to godhood, and is willing to destroy the inquisitor to obtain it.

A desperate chase that will bend the fabric of reality ensues, where Czevak’s only hope of survival is to outwit the chosen of Tzeentch, Lord of Chaos and Architect of Fate. Failure is unconscionable, the very cost to the Imperium unimaginable.

I thoroughly enjoyed Sanders’s first novel, Redemption Corps, and ever since hearing about this novel I’ve been eager to read it. I’m a big fan of the Inquisition, and Sanders has done some interesting things with Czevak. However, I’m sad to say I struggled with this novel, and didn’t love it as I had expected to.

Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn Trilogy eBooks

Just a very quick news piece:

While perusing Amazon’s eBook recommendations, as I do quite frequently, I noticed that Tor Books have made the collected Mistborn Trilogy eBook available in the UK!

(Apparently, it’s been available since February, but I’ve not seen it up there before today.)

Priced at £12.82, I thought this was a pretty good deal for three pretty hefty novels I’ve been meaning to try out for quite a while, now. So I bought it. Hopefully I’ll get around to reading it soon. That, or I might save it for my month-long trip to LA and NYC. When I’m also supposed to be getting stuck into writing my own stuff and job-hunting. Hm. This is another example of so much to read and write, not enough hours in the day to do both. Nuts.

“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.

New Eli Monpress Artwork (Orbit)

In an interview last month with Civilian-Reader, Rachel Aaron mentioned that her series was going to be re-branded before the release of her fourth novel, The Spirit War. The new cover for The Legend of Eli Monpress, which collects Aaron’s first three novels – The Spirit Thief, The Spirit Rebellion, and The Spirit Eater – was unveiled yesterday:

Introducing ELSPETH COOPER

Hailing from the North of England, Elspeth Cooper is one of the latest crop of hotly-tipped debut fantasy authors of recent years. Songs of the Earth, the first in the Wild Hunt trilogy, is filled with intriguing magic and interesting characters, and is set in a rich fantasy world (one I believe has considerable potential for expansion way beyond this trilogy). The novel introduces us to Gair, an exiled and persecuted magical-wunderkind, as he attempts to find his place in a world that abhors everything he is.

As Songs of the Earth is newly released, I contacted Elspeth for an interview, and she was kind enough to reply and offer more information about the series, what’s to come, and (among other things) why the fantasy genre is like ice cream.

Coming up in July from Orbit

A great selection of books arrived this week, this time from Orbit Books (a publisher I feel I’ve been neglecting somewhat of late – through no conscious intent, I should stress). One of these is on my list of highly-anticipated novels of 2011, as it is the final book in a series I very quickly became hooked on.

“Hounded” by Kevin Hearne (Del Rey/Orbit)

The Iron Druid Chronicles Begin

Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, lives peacefully in Arizona, running an occult bookshop and shape-shifting in his spare time to hunt with his Irish wolfhound. His neighbours and customers think that this handsome, tattooed Irish dude is about twenty-one years old – when in actuality, he’s twenty-one centuries old. Not to mention: he draws his power from the earth, possesses a sharp wit, and wields an even sharper magical sword known as Fragarach, the Answerer.

Unfortunately, a very angry Celtic god wants that sword, and he’d hounded Atticus for centuries. Now the determined deity has tracked him down, and Atticus will need all his power – plus the help of a seductive goddess of death, his vampire and werewolf team of attorneys, a sexy bartender possessed of a Hindu witch, and some good old-fashioned luck of the Irish – to kick some Celtic arse and deliver himself from evil.

Kevin Hearne’s series has been receiving quite a bit of buzz on the internet, so I decided to order a copy of this first novel in the Iron Druid Chronicles. Just as it arrived, Orbit Books announced that it had bought the UK rights. So, does it live up to the hype? Well, yes, actually, it really does.

Gemmell Awards for Fantasy, 2010/11

Just a quick post to send congratulations to the winners of this year’s Gemmell Awards, which were announced on Friday night. I’ll keep things very basic and simple, so here they are…

A Quick Chat with CHRIS FARNSWORTH

Blood Oath, the debut novel from Christopher Farnsworth, is one of the surprise debuts of the year. I checked it out on a whim, and read it in a day and a half: the plot and prose were so quick, and the novel was populated by engaging characters and an entertaining story. Already available in the US for a little while, Blood Oath will be followed next month by The President’s Vampire, which I hope to also review as soon as possible.

In order to learn more about the books and the author, I sent an interview request to Christopher, and he was kind enough to answer my questions.