The Book Plank

Three generations ago Captain Vidarian Rulorat’s great-grandfather gave up an imperial commission to commit social catastrophe by marrying a fire priestess. For love, he unwittingly doomed his family to generations of a rare genetic disease that follows families who cross elemental boundaries. Now Vidarian, the last surviving member of the Rulorat family, struggles to uphold his family legacy, and finds himself chained to a task as a result of the bride price his great-grandfather paid: the Breakwater Agreement, a seventy-year-old alliance between his family and the High Temple of Kara’zul, domain of the fire priestesses.  The priestess Endera has called upon Vidarian to fulfil his family’s obligation by transporting a young fire priestess named Ariadel to a water temple far to the south, through dangerous pirate-controlled territory. A journey perilous in the best of conditions is made more so by their pursuers: rogue telepathic magic-users called the Vkortha who ...

Last year I started with the Review Round-Up posts in which I highlight several of the books that I read that month, they do not necessarily have to be the highest rated ones though. If the idea behind the book is great but that may have a flaw in the execution can still be one of my favourites, because in my opinion a fresh idea is just as valuable. The listing of them in the top 5 does not mean that the first one was the best I read this month all the books that I read in March were great, I did not encounter any books that I disliked in particular. I have been skipping the months of January and February with the Round-Ups, I will do my best to have them up and running starting March!  So what are my favorite picks for this month?  1. The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth LaBan (Random House Children) I have been a fervent fan of young-adult fiction for sometime now and I really like to see authors taking time in showing creativeness in approaching this genre in a diffe...

It’s August 19, 1884. The consumptive Doc Holliday is preparing to await his end in a sanatorium in Leadville, Colorado, when the medicine man Geronimo enlists him on a mission. The time the great chief has predicted has come, the one white man he’s willing to treat with has crossed the Mississippi and is heading to Tombstone – a young man named Theodore Roosevelt. The various tribes know that Geronimo is willing to end the spell that has kept the United States from expanding west of the Mississippi. In response, they have created a huge, monstrous, medicine man named War Bonnet, whose function is to kill Roosevelt and Geronimo and keep the United States east of the river forever. And War Bonnet has enlisted the master shootist John Wesley Hardin. So the battle lines are drawn: Roosevelt and Geronimo against the most powerful of the medicine men, a supernatural creature that seemingly nothing can harm; and Holliday against the man with more credited kills than any gunfig...

Behind the king’s life stands the menacing Protector, and beyond him lies the Protector’s Shadow…Centuries after the death of Uthar the Great, the throne of the Ontilian Empire lies vacant. The late emperor’s brother-in-law and murderer, Lord Urdhven, appoints himself Protector to his nephew, young King Lathmar VII and sets out to kill anyone who stands between himself and mastery of the empire, including (if he can manage it) the king himself and his ancient but still formidable ancestress, Ambrosia Viviana. When Ambrosia is accused of witchcraft and put to trial by combat, she is forced to play her trump card and call on her brother, Morlock Ambrosius – stateless person, master of all magical makers, deadly swordsman, and hopeless drunk. As ministers of the king, they carry on the battle, magical and mundane, against the Protector and his shadowy patron. But all their struggles will be wasted unless the young king finds the strength to rule in his own right and his own name. Some...

Having made my most favorite books post of 2012 it is now time to look a little bit forward to some of the books that I really look forward to reading in 2013. Having taken a look at the publishing schedules and having been in personal contact with several authors I made up the following list. Iron Kingdom Chronicles: In Thunder Forged and Big Iron (Pyr) Fade to Black by Francis Knight (Orbit) Coldest War by Ian Tregillis (Orbit) Dangerous Gifts by Gaie Sebold (Solaris) Blood and Feathers: Rebellion by Lou Morgan (Solaris) No cover yet! Red Moon by Benjamin Percy (Hodder) Lexicon by Max Barry (Hodder) The Other Woman by Graham Thomas (TheNeverPress) No cover yet! Ofcourse there are many more books coming out this year and though I would like to nominate more books.. there is just not enough time in a day, week, month and year to read every single book that is coming out this year, but I will try! Let's...