The Book Plank

The Eternal Kingdom by Ben Peek, Children Trilogy #3 A nation in fragments On the shores of Yeflam, Ayae struggles to keep her people together. She acts as liaison between the camp leaders and the immortals who could save them. Zaifyr's immortal siblings have arrived - but they have their own unfathomable agendas and Ayae is caught in their power games.  An army on the march Heast has returned to his role as Captain of Refuge, a mercenary unit that answers the call of lost causes. With help from an unexpected source, Heast and his band of mercenaries could turn the tide of war - if they live long enough. A world in danger Bueralan Le is trapped in the company of the new god, Se'Saera. Though he fights to prevent her from unleashing her forces on the world, he is bound by blood to her darkest creation. The future of the world may depend on his choices. When Ben Peek first came out with The Godless  I was awestruck. It was an amazing experience to read. The details of the ch...

The Burning Page by Genevieve Cogman, The Invisible Library #3 Librarian spy Irene has professional standards to maintain. Standards that absolutely do not include making hasty, unplanned escapes through a burning besieged building. But when the gateway back to your headquarters dramatically malfunctions, one must improvise. And after fleeing a version of Revolutionary France astride a dragon (also known as her assistant, Kai), Irene soon discovers she's not the only one affected. Gates back to the Library are malfunctioning across a multitude of worlds, creating general havoc. She and Kai are tasked with a mission to St Petersburg's Winter Palace, to retrieve a book which will help restore order. However, such plans rarely survive first contact with the enemy - particularly when the enemy is the traitor Alberich. A nightmare figure bent on the Library's destruction, Alberich gives Irene a tainted 'join me or die' job offer. Meanwhile, Irene's old ...

The Tiger and the Wolf by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Echoes of the Fall #1 In the bleak northern crown of the world, war is coming Maniye’s father is the Wolf clan’s chieftain, but she’s an outcast. Her mother was queen of the Tiger and these tribes have been enemies for generations. Maniye also hides a deadly secret. All can shift into their clan’s animal form, but Maniye can take on tiger and wolf shapes. She can’t disown half her soul, so escapes – with the killer Broken Axe in pursuit. Maniye’s father plots to rule the north, and controlling his daughter is crucial to his schemes. However, other tribes also prepare for strife. It’s a season for omens as priests foresee danger, a time of testing and broken laws. Some say a great war is coming, overshadowing even Wolf ambitions. But what spark will set the world ablaze?   Adrian Tchaikovsky, the man behind one of the series that shook and shaped modern fantasy. The Shadows of the Apt series. This will haunt him forever in...

Guest Blog: We've all got it coming by Brian Staveley Sophocles and Aeschylus didn’t worry about spoilers. In part, of course, this was because classical Athenians had been too busy tinkering with their triremes to invent Twitter or Facebook, but even if young Themistocles had rushed into the agora immediately following a performance screaming, “Clytemnestra and Aegisthus killed Agamemnon!” his fellow citizens wouldn’t have much cared. They already knew who killed Agamemnon. The drive-by spoiler, a la Harry Potter, was impossible in antiquity. Likewise, if you were an Elizabethan showing up to the Globe to see Richard III , you could be pretty sure that the eponymous character wouldn’t end the play by leaping into his convertible, cranking Dire Straits on the radio, and driving off into the sunset. Richard was always going to die. The question, for those original audiences, was not whether but how .   Modern storytelling, particularly the m...

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho, Sorcerer Royal #1 In Regency London, Zacharias Wythe is England's first African Sorcerer Royal. And that's only the first of his problems. He must juggle the conflicting demands of a wayward Royal Society of Unnatural Philosophers, where a faction schemes to remove him from his position by fair means or foul. He must cope with the Fairy Court refusing to grant Britain the magical resources it needs. And now the British Government is avid to deploy this increasingly scare magic in its war with France. He must also contend with rumors that he murdered his predecessor and guardian, Sir Stephen Wythe. But this task would be easier if Sir Stephen's ghost would just stop following him around. And now he has to deal with something even more outrageous than any of these things: a female magical prodigy. Ambitious orphan Prunella Gentleman is desperate to escape the school where she has drudged all her life, and a visit by the Sorcerer Royal se...

Author interview with Chris A. Jackson Author bio:  Chris A. Jackson fell in love with the sea the first time he set eyes on those majestic waves. As a youth, he spent summers working on his father’s fishing boat in Oregon. Trained as a marine biologist, he was sidetracked by a career in biomedical research, but regained his heart and soul in 2009 when he and his wife Anne left the dock aboard a 45-foot sailboat to cruise the Caribbean and write fulltime. His acclaimed Scimitar Seas nautical fantasies won three consecutive Gold Medals in the ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Awards. His repertoire also includes six more fantasy novels, and several short stories published in anthologies. Shooting from the sea to the stars, Chris now has a triad of science fiction/humor novellas available. -------------------------------------------------------- Hi Chris, welcome over to The Book Plank and thanks for taking your time to answer these few questions for us.  A: ...

Interview with Lawrence M. Schoen About the author Lawrence M. Schoen  holds a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics. He’s also one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Klingon language, and the publisher of a speculative fiction small press, Paper Golem. He’s been a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award, the Hugo Award, and the Nebula Award. Lawrence lives near Philadelphia. You can find him online at LawrenceMSchoen.com and @KlingonGuy. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi Lawrence, welcome over to The Book Plank and for taking your time to answer these few questions for us. LS: Thank you, it’s a great pleasure to be here. But enough about me, let’s talk about me! BP: First off, can you tell us w ho Lawrence M. Schoen is? What are your likes, dislikes and other hobbies besides writing? LS: The simplest answer to that is that I’m an author. I’m also a research psychologist, a small ...

Made to Kill by Adam Christopher, The LA Trilogy #1 Raymond Electromatic is good at his job, as good as he ever was at being a true Private Investigator, the lone employee of the Electromatic Detective Agency--except for Ada, office gal and super-computer, the constant voice in Ray's inner ear. Ray might have taken up a new line of work, but money is money, after all, and he was programmed to make a profit. Besides, with his twenty-four-hour memory-tape limits, he sure can keep a secret. When a familiar-looking woman arrives at the agency wanting to hire Ray to find a missing movie star, he's inclined to tell her to take a hike. But she had the cold hard cash, a demand for total anonymity, and tendency to vanish on her own. Plunged into a glittering world of fame, fortune, and secrecy, Ray uncovers a sinister plot that goes much deeper than the silver screen--and this robot is at the wrong place, at the wrong time. I still remember my first book by Adam Christopher. Hang...