and even then, it’s a long, difficult and extremely dangerous job.?The Black Captain and his men are one such group of specialists.?They have no idea what they’re about to face . . .?
Geek Syndicate
the corpse of the King of Scorby and Gerd is killed, Marius is mistaken for the monarch by one of the dead soldiers and is transported down to the Kingdom of the Dead. Just like the living citizens, the dead need a King — after all, the King is God’s representative, and someone needs to remind God where they are. And so it comes to pass that Marius is banished to the surface with one message: if he wants to recover his life he must find the dead a King. Which he fully intends to do. Just as soon as he stops running away.
Forget George and the Dragon. Forget Sir Lancelot and tales of Knightly exploits. This is dirty, bloody work. This is violent, visceral action. This is a mercenary knight as you’ve never seen one before. A Red Country by Joe Abercrombie. Published: September 2012 Violent, bloody and fast paced; this is the new bestseller from Joe Abercrombie. The First Law Trilogy was Joe’s take on the great epic fantasy tales. Then, in BEST SERVED COLD he took on a fantasy version of a classic revenge story, and we have a superb tale of war waged in the frozen north still to come.?With this, his next novel, Joe Abercrombie is once again venturing in a new direction, and on a new adventure, with one of the most enduring, powerful and popular characters of the First Law Trilogy. It’s going to be their biggest challenge yet … Angry Robot Books The Corpse of the Rat King by Lee Battersby. Published: September 2012 Marius don Hellespont and his apprentice, Gerd, are professional looters of battlefields. When they stumble upon
28
oting in the streets, enraged by the newest outrage from Parliament: a Stamp Tax . Houses are destroyed, royal officials are burned in effigy. And on a deserted lane, a young girl is murdered. Ethan Kaille, a thieftaker of some notoriety, and a conjurer of some skill, is hired by the girl’s father to find her killer. Soon he is swept up in a storm of intrigue and magic, politics and treachery. The murder has drawn the notice of the lovely and deadly Sephira Pryce, a rival thieftaker in Boston; of powerful men in the royal government; of leaders of the American rebels, including Samuel Adams; and of a mysterious sorcerer who wields magic the likes of which Ethan has never encountered before. To learn the truth of what happened that fateful night, Ethan must recover a stolen gem and sound the depths of conjurings he barely understands, all while evading Sephira and her henchmen, holding the royals and rebels at bay, and defending himself and those he loves from the shadowy conjurer. No problem. Provided he doesn’t get himself killed in the process.
One Final Book
I can’t even attempt to cover all the UK publishers and I am not going to touch the US publishers because they are even bigger and more diverse than the UK ones and this digital mag can’t go on for forever! I am going to show you one US title I’m exceedingly excited about and I pray some good UK editor decides to pick this up. It sounds brilliant: Thieftaker by DB Jackson. Published July 2012 from Tor Books (USA) Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay, August 26, 1765 A warm evening in colonial North America’s leading city. Smoke drifts across the city, and with it the sound of voices raised in anger, of shattering glass and splintering wood. A mob is ri-
Liz De Jager