Anticipating: A Fantasy Quintet

Casket of Souls (Nightrunner Series) – Lynn Flewelling (May)

Publisher’s Summary: “More than the dissolute noblemen they appear to be, Alec and Seregil are skillful spies, dedicated to serving queen and country. But when they stumble across evidence of a plot pitting Queen Phoria against Princess Klia, the two Nightrunners will find their loyalties torn as never before. Even at the best of times, the royal court at Rhíminee is a serpents’ nest of intrigue, but with the war against Plenimar going badly, treason simmers just below the surface.

And that’s not all that poses a threat: A mysterious plague is spreading through the crowded streets of the city, striking young and old alike. Now, as panic mounts and the body count rises, hidden secrets emerge. And as Seregil and Alec are about to learn, conspiracies and plagues have one thing in common: The cure can be as deadly as the disease.”

The fact that I’ve not yet caught up in this series would seem to deny the love I feel for it, but other, most insistent reading obligations have conspired against my reading time, and Seregil and Alec have paid the price. Don’t worry, boys! Some time in the future – the far-flung future, probably – we three will have a date. We’ll catch up. Until then, I will admire you from afar, because you – with your new covers – are looking gorgeous. If you hear an appreciative catcall, well, that’ll be me, passing your shelf.

The Outcast Blade – Jon Courtenay Grimwood (March)

Publisher’s Summary: “As the Byzantine and German emperors plot war against each other, Venice’s future rests in the hands of three unwilling individuals: The newly knighted Sir Tycho. He defeated the Mamluk navy but he cannot make the woman he loves love him back. Tortured by secrets, afraid of the daylight, he sees no reason to save a city he hates. The grieving Lady Giulietta. Virgin. Mother. Widow. All she wants is to retire from the poisonous world of the Venetian court to mourn her husband in peace. But her duty is to Venice: both emperors want her hand in marriage and an alliance with Europe’s richest city. She must choose, knowing that whichever suitor she rejects will become Venice’s bitterest enemy. Lastly, a naked, mud-strewn girl who crawls from a paupers’ grave on an island in the Venetian lagoon and begins by killing the men who buried her. Between them, they will set the course of history.”

Ah, Venice. How sublime. Even if you are plagued by naked, mud-strewn murdering girls. I know. I know. She likely has her reasons. And a lot of well-it’s-right-there water to hide the bodies in. But seriously: There’s not a thing I don’t love about that cover. And the setting is a draw. I’ve been wanting to read Grimwood’s first Assassini book, The Fallen Blade; desiring the sequel just might give me a kick in the proverbial to actually do so.

Thieftaker – D.B. Jackson (July)

Publisher’s Summary: “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 rioting 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.”

Chris McGrath – oh, Mighty Creator of Gorgeous Covers! – I do wonder how many books are sold purely because hapless readers could not resist your cover art. Because that man up there? I want to know him. The Boston setting, the mystery angle tangled up with magic, and, just, all of it leaves me positively salivating for this book’s release.

Vengeance Born – Kylie Griffin (February)

Publisher’s Summary: “Annika, half-blood daughter of the Na’Reish King, longs for more than her tormented life among her father’s people. Conceived in hatred and bred as a tool of retribution, she’s gifted with a special talent that can heal as well as destroy…

With the Na’Reish vastly outnumbering them, Kalan, a Light Blade warrior, knows the future of humankind depends on him alone. Incursions into human territory and raids for blood-slaves by the Na’Reish Horde have increased. As Chosen-leader, he faces the task of stopping the demons-and convincing the Council of aging Light Blade warriors that change is necessary for survival.

When Annika learns Kalan is a prisoner in her father’s dungeon, her dream of escape seems within reach. She agrees to free him in exchange for his protection once they reach human territory. Now, marked for death for helping him, Annika must learn to trust Kalan as they face not only the perilous journey to the border but enemies within the Council-and discover a shocking truth that could throw the human race into civil war…”

I see a lot of skipped words in my future. (Does anyone else do that? Come across a name or fantasy/magic term they can’t pronounce and either skip over it or bend it to something the tongue – or mind, as the case may be – can more easily wrap around? No? Just me? Alright then.) That aside, I haven’t read something quite like this in a while, and I want to dip my toe back in.

Ironskin – Tina Connolly (October)

Publisher’s Summary: “Jane Eliot wears an iron mask. It’s the only way to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its scattered victims remain — the ironskin.

When a carefully worded listing appears for a governess to assist with a “delicate situation” — a child born during the Great War — Jane is certain the child is fey-cursed, and that she can help.

Teaching the unruly Dorie suppress her curse is hard enough; she certainly didn’t expect to fall for the girl’s father, the enigmatic artist Edward Rochart. But her blossoming crush is stifled by her own scars, and by his parade of women. Ugly women, who enter his closed studio…and come out as beautiful as the fey.

Jane knows Rochart cannot love her, just as she knows that she must wear iron for the rest of her life. But what if neither of these things is true? Step by step Jane unlocks the secrets of her new life — and discovers just how far she will go to become whole again.”

This has a whiff of Jane Eyre about it, no? (Perhaps whiff is a bit too…subtle. Reeks may be more appropriate, all things considered.) Which is part of its appeal, and the reason why, as I was becoming acquainted with Endlessly Bookish and came across the book, I immediately noted down the title and author.