The Book Plank

Guest Blog: Bloodrushing by Ben Galley Earlier this year I read Bloodrush by Ben Galley and it wowed me. It was a very cool book with an absolutely amazing magic system. Now with the release of the second book Ben Galley has written a short piece on what the magic system is about. The best thing is that there is competition as well. You can find the details below, the most important thing is to let you creativity loose!  ------------------------- Bloodrushing: I’ve always been a sucker for magic. Alongside world-building, a good hearty magic system has always been my bag. It’s fortunate really, seeing as magic has practically been a prerequisite of fantasy since the dawn of the genre in the late 1850’s, widely recognised as Phantastes , by Scottish author George MacDonald. Over the years, we’ve been given some great examples of what magic can and can’t be. Authors have gone wild weaving new ideas. From the subtle to the downright explosive, magic can be fou...

Author interview with Ben Galley Author bio: B en Galley is a best-selling purveyor of tall tales and dark fantasy from the UK. He is the author behind the gritty and epic Emaneska Series, as well as the upcoming western fantasy series, the Scarlet Star Trilogy. Aside from writing and dreaming up lies to tell his readers, Ben works as a self-publishing consultant and Guardian Masterclass tutor, helping fellow authors from all over the world to publish and sell books. His guide Shelf Help will tell you all you need to know about DIY self-publishing. Ben can be found being loquacious and attempting to be witty on Twitter (@BenGalley), Facebook (/BenGalleyAuthor) or at his website www.bengalley.com . ------------------------------------- Hi Ben, Welcome over at The Book Plank and thank you for taking your time to answer these few questions for us. BP: First off could you give a short introduction as to who Ben Galley is? What are your likes and dislikes a...

Bloodrush by Ben Galley, The Scarlet Star Trilogy #1 Magick ain’t pretty, it ain’t stars and sparkles. Magick is dirty. It’s rough. Raw. It’s blood and guts and vomit. You hear me?” When Prime Lord Hark is found in a pool of his own blood on the steps of his halls, Tonmerion Hark finds his world not only turned upside down, but inside out. His father's last will and testament forces him west across the Iron Ocean, to the very brink of the Endless Land and all civilisation. They call it Wyoming. This is a story of murder and family. In the dusty frontier town of Fell Falls, there is no silverware, no servants, no plush velvet nor towering spires. Only dust, danger, and the railway. Tonmerion has only one friend to help him escape the torturous heat and unravel his father’s murder. A faerie named Rhin. A twelve-inch tall outcast of his own kind. This is a story of blood and magick. But there are darker things at work in Fell Falls, and not just the railwraiths or the sa...

The Six-Gun Tarot by R.S. Belcher, Golgotha #1 Nevada, 1869: Beyond the pitiless 40-Mile Desert lies Golgotha, a cattle town that hides more than its share of unnatural secrets. The sheriff bears the mark of the noose around his neck; some say he is a dead man whose time has not yet come. His half-human deputy is kin to coyotes. The mayor guards a hoard of mythical treasures. A banker’s wife belongs to a secret order of assassins. And a shady saloon owner, whose fingers are in everyone’s business, may know more about the town’s true origins than he’s letting on. A haven for the blessed and the damned, Golgotha has known many strange events, but nothing like the primordial darkness stirring in the abandoned silver mine overlooking the town. Bleeding midnight, an ancient evil is spilling into the world, and unless the sheriff and his posse can saddle up in time, Golgotha will have seen its last dawn…and so will all of Creation. The wild west has always been a theme that ...

The Gunslinger Born by Stephen King, Robin Furth, Peter David and Richard Isanove, The Dark Tower Graphic Novel #1 'The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.' With those words, millions of readers were introduced to Stephen King's Roland - an implacable gunslinger in search of the enigmatic Dark Tower. Now, in a comic book Roland's past is revealed! Some of you might know of my big passion when it comes to Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. It was my first venture into the realm of fantasy. Now you might say that why haven't you picked up the graphic novels sooner? Well they are actually quite expensive. With continuing to hear more and more positive news from these books I just had to get them. They are well worth it. Trust me . If you are familiar with the The Dark Tower series you know that it comprises of seven books, with book four Wizard and Glass being somewhat different . Telling not a story about the the quest ...

The Incorruptibles by John Hornor Jacobs, The Incorruptibles #1 In the contested and unexplored territories at the edge of the Empire, a boat is making its laborious way upstream. Riding along the banks are the mercenaries hired to protect it – from raiders, bandits and, most of all, the stretchers, elf-like natives who kill any intruders into their territory. The mercenaries know this is dangerous, deadly work. But it is what they do. In the boat the drunk governor of the territories and his sons and daughters make merry. They believe that their status makes them untouchable. They are wrong. And with them is a mysterious, beautiful young woman, who is the key to peace between warring nations and survival for the Empire. When a callow mercenary saves the life of the Governor on an ill-fated hunting party, the two groups are thrown together. For Fisk and Shoe – two tough, honourable mercenaries surrounded by corruption, who know they can always and only rely on each oth...