Happy Publication Day: 7th February 2019!
Happy publication day everyone! We have two marvellous paperbacks out today — they’ve matured, grown and are ripe for reading. One is the tense conclusion to a thrilling science fiction trilogy, the other is the continuation of an epic fantasy series. Have a read below and then crack on with the stories. It’s never too late to start a series and, with these two, you really can’t go wrong.
From Distant Stars, Sam Peters
The sequel to From Darkest Skies, a high concept science fiction thriller.
Inspector Keon has finally got over the death of his wife Alysha in a terrorist attack five years ago. The illegal AI copy of her – Liss – that he created to help him mourn has vanished, presumed destroyed. His life is back on track. But a deadly shooting in a police-guarded room in a high-security hospital threatens to ruin everything. Who got past the defences? Why did they kill the seemingly unimportant military officer who had been in a coma for weeks? And why did the scanners pick up the deceased man the next day on the other side of the planet, seemingly alive and well?
As Keon digs into the mysteries he begins to realise that the death was connected to a mysterious object, potentially alien, discovered buried in ice under the north pole. Someone has worked out what is hidden there, and what its discovery will mean for mankind. Someone who is willing to kill.
And another player has entered the game. Someone who seems to know more about Keon than is possible.
Someone who might be using Liss’s information against him.
Or who might be Alysha, back from the dead.
Praise for Sam Peters:
‘This is immersive SF, full of world-building detail, with a twisted love story at its heart’ Financial Times on From Darkest Skies
‘Crime noir in the style of Blade Runner’ The Book Bag on From Darkest Skies
‘A truly gripping novel with a mystery complex enough to keep me guessing to the end’ SF Crowsnest
A Veil of Spears, Bradley Beaulieu
Third in the epic new fantasy series of mystery, prophecy and death within the ancient walled city of the Twelve Kings . . .
The Night of Endless Swords nearly saw the destruction of Sharakhai, and since then the Kings have come down hard on the rebelloious Moonless Host. Hundreds have been murdered or given to the Confessor King for questioning. Hundreds more have fled. Including Çeda, who has discovered that Onur, the King of Sloth, has returned to the desert to raise an army and challenge the remaining kings.
The Moonless Host – who have taken to calling themselves the Thirteen Tribe – will be trapped between Onur’s growing influence and the considerable might of the kings who, with Sharakhai firmly back under their rule, are turning their attention to the desert once more.
Çeda knows that the asirim are the key. If she can lift their curse and free them from their bondage, then they can save Thirteenth Tribe from the the squabbling kings . . . and perhaps the kings themselves are no longer as unified as they once were. As they vie against each other for control of the city, could Çeda make an ally of one of them? And which one, when any of them could betray her as easily as they would their fellow kings.
Whatever the solution, the end is coming: as Çeda focuses on freeing the asirim and weaken the kings’ hold on Sharakhai, the kings’ forces, the scheming queen of Qaimir, Hamzakiir the ruthless blood mage, and the thirteenth tribe all prepare for a grand clash that may decide the fate of all who sail the desert.
Praise for Bradley Beaulieu
‘Twelve Kings in Sharakhai is the gateway to what promises to be an intricate and exotic tale . . . the journey promises to be breathtaking’ Robin Hobb, author of Assassin’s Apprentice
‘An exceedingly inventive story in a lushly realised dark setting’ Glen Cook, author of The Black Company
‘A lavish epic’ Pornokitsch
‘Twelve Kings is the best new fantasy I’ve read in years’ John Hornor Jacobs, author of The Incorruptibles