Spies, thief-takers, and guild politics fill this week’s fantasy new releases.
Cirsova Magazine of Thrilling Adventure and Daring Suspense: Summer Special #2
– edited by P. Alexander
Eleven tales of heroic adventure, including:
“Just Don’t Open the Door” by Mark Pellegrini
Sean lives next to a weird house with bricked-up windows and an overgrown yard… One day, he sees the strange man living next door leaving in a panicked hurry, offering one brusque warning!
“The Greenery Has Come Again” by Paul Lucas
James’s childhood home is no longer his own, and returning proves an uncanny experience as the mystery surrounding the giant tree his mother named Yggdrasil blooms like the greenwood itself!
“Mission 21” by Schuyler Hernstrom
Codename Joker: he’s the best at what he does-wet works ops against the reptilian aliens that eat human flesh! Can he keep his perfect record when a bystander gets caught in the crossfire?!
“The Last Day in Iram” by James Hutchings
You have had a vision that the city of Iram is doomed! The paranoid sultan is privy to the same portents, but refuses to allow any to leave the city-will you escape before the end comes?!
The Last Benediction in Steel (Serpent Knight Saga #2) – Kevin Wright
Stalked by ruthless blackguards and driven before a gale of ruin and slaughter, Sir Luther Slythe Krait reaches the soul-sick kingdom of Haeskenburg. Sir Luther knows Haeskenburg intimately. He wishes he didn’t.
On one side of Haeskenburg, a cult of madmen lay waste to the populace. On the other, a usurped king begs Sir Luther’s aid in reunifying his kingdom. But is the king all he seems to be? Are the madmen?
Between a rock and hard place, Sir Luther walks a razor’s edge. Balance or fall, there lies only one certainty:
He will bleed.
A Murder of Shadows (Shadows of Montshire #1) – John Conroe
As the old saying goes: The First is the Heir, the Second is the Spare, and of the Rest – Beware!
Savid DelaCrotia is the third born son of one of the Kingdom of Montshire’s oldest and most respected High families. Cast aside by his father at an early age, it’s up to him to make his own way and create his own honor. With just his horse, his weapons, the clothes on his back and in his pack, and the education that his family provided he’ll have to go it alone. Luckily, he already has a pretty good idea of what he’s good at – fighting, and woodcraft —not to mention finding hidden and lost items.
It’s also handy that he already knows exactly how to honor his Kingdom– by serving his best friend, who just happens to be the kingdom’s scary smart princess. But what does a princess who already has everything need? How about her own Shadow?
Ruthless (The Completionist Chronicles #5) – Dakota Krout
Enemies emerge everywhere. Stagnation starts seeming standard. Results require Ruthlessness.
Joe has been moving deeper into his study of ritual magic, and further away from his combat team. He’s learning more and more, but more often than not needs to choose between his research and squad leadership. Improving the town is a huge help to the guild, and they have been pushing to increase their power.
Their rapid increases have not gone unnoticed. The guild receives an ultimatum, delivered by assassins and signed with blood. If they continue to accrue power and fame, each and every person with a grievance against the guild will come to smash the town back to square one.
With tensions coming to a head, all Joe wants to do is leave it all behind and reach the next area. He flatly refuses the guild when they ask him to devise lethal options to use against the gathering army, but when the time comes… even Joe is unsure if he’ll step into the limelight and show everyone exactly how Ruthless he can be.
War Echoes (Fall of Radiance #3) – Blake Arthur Peel
The echoes of war are sounding. The kingdom is on the verge of breaking.
Owyn and Zara, having saved the rangers and the Conclave from certain destruction, return to the capital city by royal summons. The king has a plan to unite his fractured kingdom… and the young heroes of Forest Hill are going to help him.
However, when Owyn’s master, Elias, returns in a most unexpected way, he brings a troubling message—a secret that’s been held for more than twenty years.
Time is running out. Together, Owyn and Zara must convince the rebels to lay down their swords for the good of the realm. If they fail, the kingdom may very well tear itself apart… leaving them vulnerable to the ravages of the R’Laar.
White Serpent, Black Dragon (Eve of Redemption #2) – Joe Jackson
An underworld serial killer prowls the streets. The head of a criminal guild arrives demanding the help of the Order.
Things had been quiet since the incident on Tsalbrin, but Karian Vanador recognized the calm before the storm all too well. When one of the Order’s most prominent mortal enemies arrives on campus demanding help with an underworld threat, Kari knows there has to be a connection.
Harried by a deadly foe, Kari must call upon friends old and new to track down an assassin leaving a trail of bodies in her wake. Along the way she must figure out: are the killings just the act of a depraved demon, or an ingenious plot to shatter the barriers between Citaria and the underworld? And will the people she goes to help prove to be her allies or her enemies in the end?
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