The Book Plank

Deadhouse Landing by Ian C. Esslemont, Path to Ascendancy #2 After the disappointments of Li Heng, Dancer and Kellanved wash up on a small insignificant island named Malaz. Immediately, of course, Kellanved plans to take it over. To do so they join forces with a small band of Napans who have fled a civil war on their own home island. The plan, however, soon goes awry as Kellanved develops a strange and dangerous fascination for a mysterious ancient structure found on the island. The chaos in the region extends to the metaphysical planes also as a young priest of D'rek starts to question the rot at the heart of the worship of the god of decay. And back in Li Heng, Dassem, now the proclaimed Sword of Hood, finds himself being blamed for a plague which leads him to a crisis of faith - and searching for answers. During all this, war with the neighbouring island of Nap threatens, recruited allies wonder at Kellanved’s sanity, and powerful entities take more of an inter...

The Journey into Malaz by Ian C. Esslemont The question of the journey of the Malazan Empire up to now is of course impossible to answer in any short form.  However, I suppose I could trace out a few ideas that Steve and I pursued, or hoped we’d managed to pursue.  Of course we both grew up on fantasy literature.  We love the genre; and as fans and budding writers and scholars of literature, we hoped to contribute to it, while, at the same time, providing something new – or at least different.  So, in sculpting our material (consciously and unconsciously), we decided to take from the extant fantasy genre the elements we enjoyed, while at the same time excising those elements we wished to leave behind (such as moral absolutes).  Then, we looked at other genres for models or other desirable elements, and we ended up importing aspects of war fiction, historical fiction, so-called ‘realism’, hard-boiled detective fiction, noir, ancient classical fiction...

Media Alert: The Fisher of Bones In The Fisher of Bones a tiny band of prophet-led outcasts, are guided by tablets and lured by the promise land. This time, however, the tablets are incomprehensible to most believers, and the original prophet dies with no promised land in sight. His heir, a resentful daughter (named Ducky, and then Fisher), cannot deny the sudden alteration of her vision and the cacophony of otherworldly voices that descend upon her as her father dies. Faith is for others; she has duty and marching orders. Their journey is almost at an end, but now, without the Prophet, Fisher must find a way to guide them to the place they will call Home. Through blood and through sand, against the will of her own flock, against the horrors that haunt the darkness, only she can bring her people Home. The Prophet is dead. Long live the Prophetess. This serial is written by Sarah Gailey. Hugo and Campbell award finalist Gailey is an internationally-published fiction and...