The Book Plank

Best Young Adult of 2015 Young Adult the genre that triggers young minds (and old). Writing Young Adult fiction is a league of itself. Though of course each story has it's roots in one or another genre, Epic or Urban Fantasy inspired. They set themselves apart when it comes down to telling the story and more importantly the focus on the protagonist, often these are young heroes or heroines who go through a remarkable transition. For me the combination mentioned above was most notable in the following books. Brandon Sanderson took over the Young Adult world by storm with his novel Steelheart . This year Firefight was released and wow. Storytelling at it's finest. The one sentence I always take into account now when reading the Steelheart series is. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Brandon Sanderson also cleverly questions what it is to be an Epic. Uprooted by Noami Novik really surprised me. It was my first book that I read from her, the synopsis of the s...

Author interview with Ari Marmell Author bio: Ari Marmell was born in New York, moved to Houston when he was a year old, moved to Austin when he was 27, but has spent most of his life living in other worlds through a combination of writing and roleplaying games. He has been writing more or less constantly for the last dozen years, though he has only been paid for it the past five. He is the author of multiple roleplaying game supplements including work on Dungeons & Dragons. Ari lives in Austin with his wife, George, and two cats. ---------------------------------------  Hi Ari welcome over at The Book Plank and for taking your time to answer these few questions for us! BP: First off could you give us a short introduction as to who Ari Marmell is? What are your hobbies, likes and dislikes? AM: Well, I’ve been a sci-fi/fantasy fan for as long as I can remember. I’m a die-hard gamer—not computer games; I have no problem with them, I’m just not terrib...

Hallow Point by Ari Marmell, Mick Oberon #2 The Spear of Lugh, one of the four Kingly Hallows of Ireland is in Chicago. And everyone,  everyone  wants it, for it is said that he who carries the spear into battle cannot be defeated. Among those who seek it are an agent of the infamous Wild Hunt; a mobster who knows far more about these things than he should; and of course both the Seelie and Unseelie Courts – the  last  people PI Mick Oberon would want getting hold of the spear... Last year Titan books unexpectedly published the first book, Hot Lead, Cold Iron  in Ari Marmell's latest series, Mick Oberon. Before this I read Ari Marmell's Widdershins adventures. A young adult sword and sorcery and thiefing series. Which compared to this Mick Oberon series is quite something different. If you read my review of Hot Lead, Cold Iron , you know I liked the book and when I was offered to read Hallow Point. How could I say no? Hallow Poi...

Covenant's End by Ari Marmell, Widdershins Adventures #4 The thief Widdershins and her own "personal god," Olgun, return to their home city of Davillon after almost a year away. While Shins expects only to face the difficulty of making up with her friends, what she actually finds is far, far worse. Her nemesis, Lisette, has returned, and she is not alone. Lisette has made a dark pact with supernatural powers that have granted her abilities far greater than anything Widdershins and Olgun can match. Together, Widdershins and Olgun will face enemies on both sides of the law, for Lisette's schemes have given her power in both Davillon's government and its underworld. For even a slim chance, Shins must call on both old friends--some of whom haven't yet forgiven her--and new allies. Even with their help, Widdershins may be required to make the hardest sacrifice of her life, if she is to rid Davillon--and herself--of Lisette once and for all. I was t...

Hot Lead, Cold Iron by Ari Marmell, Mick Oberon #1 Chicago, 1932. Mick Oberon may look like just another private detective, but beneath the fedora and the overcoat, he's got pointy ears and he's packing a wand. Oberon's used to solving supernatural crimes, but the latest one's extra weird. A mobster's daughter was kidnapped sixteen years ago, replaced with a changeling, and Mick's been hired to find the real child. The trail's gone cold, but what there is leads Sideways, to the world of the Fae, where the Seelie Court rules. And Mick's not really welcome in the Seelie Court any more. He'll have to wade through Fae politics and mob power struggles to find the kidnapper – and of course it's the last person he expected. I have been reading the young-adult series, Widdershins Adventure, of Ari Marmell over the last few months and have been enjoying them, though my first book of Ari Marmell that I got introduced to was In Thunder Forged ...

Lost Covenant by Ari Marmell, Widdershins Adventure #3 It’s been six months since Widdershins and her own “personal god” Olgun fled the city of Davillon. During their travels, Widdershins unwittingly discovers that a noble house is preparing to move against the last surviving bastion of the Delacroix family. Determined to help the distant relatives of her deceased adopted father, Alexandre Delacroix, she travels to a small town at the edge of the nation. There, she works at unraveling a plot involving this rival house and a local criminal organization, all while under intense suspicion from the very people she’s trying to rescue. Along the way she’ll have to deal with a traitor inside the Delacroix family, a mad alchemist, and an infatuated young nobleman who won’t take no for an answer. Earlier this year I started in Ari Marmell's YA series: Widdershins Adventure and from the first book, Thief's Covenant it has been a mad race (meaning this in the positive way!)...

False Covenant by Ari Marmell, Widddershins Adventure #2 A creature of the other world, an unnatural entity bent on chaos and carnage, has come to stalk the nighttime streets of the Galicien city of Davillon. There's never a good time for murder and panic, but for a community already in the midst of its own inner turmoil, this couldn't possibly have come at a worse one. Not for Davillon, and not for a young thief who calls herself Widdershins. It's been over half a year since the brutal murder of Archbishop William de Laurent during his pilgrimage to Davillon. And in all that time, Widdershins has truly tried her best. She's tried to take care of Genevieve's tavern and tried to make a semihonest living in a city slowly stagnating under the weight of an angry and disapproving Church. She's tried to keep out of trouble, away from the attentions of the Davillon Guard and above the secrets and schemes of the city's new bishop. But she's ...

Thief's Covenant by Ari Marmell, Widdershins Adventure #1 Once she was Adrienne Satti. An orphan of Davillon, she had somehow escaped destitution and climbed to the ranks of the city's aristocracy in a rags-to-riches story straight from an ancient fairy tale. Until one horrid night, when a conspiracy of forces-human and other-stole it all away in a flurry of blood and murder.  Today she is Widdershins, a thief making her way through Davillon's underbelly with a sharp blade, a sharper wit, and the mystical aid of Olgun, a foreign god with no other worshippers but Widdershins herself. It's not a great life, certainly nothing compared to the one she once had, but it's hers.  But now, in the midst of Davillon's political turmoil, an array of hands are once again rising up against her, prepared to tear down all that she's built. The City Guard wants her in prison. Members of her own Guild want her dead. And something horrid, something dark, som...

Iron Kingdoms Chronicles: In Thunder Forged by Ari Marmell, Fall of Llael #1 The Iron Kingdoms are at war: a war fought with machine guns and magic, knights of valor and earth-shaking titans of steam and steel. And now that war may hinge on nothing more than a sheaf of papers. An alchemical formula, stolen by an ally they thought they could trust, could cost the brave soldiers of Cygnar everything, unless they retrieve it before their enemy can. Their only hope: a cunning spy, a knight out of her element and a frighteningly small unit of the best that Cygnar has to offer. Arrayed against them is not only a single, devious enemy, but the combined intelligence apparatus – and possible the full military might – of the most brutal martial power Cygnar has ever known. Last year Pyr, one of the leading publishers in todays Science Fiction and Fantasy books and Privateer Press, an award winning tabletop wargame producer put their heads together and decided to novelize the...