“A Dance of Blades” by David Dalglish (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

Official David Dalglish Website

Order “A Dance of Blades” HERE

Read An Excerpt HERE (PDF)

Read FBC’s Review of “A Dance of Cloaks”

Read FBC’s Interview with David Dalglish

AUTHOR INFORMATION: David Dalglish graduated from Missouri Southern State University with a degree in Mathematics. He is the author of the popular Half Orcs fantasy series which includes The Weight of Blood, The Cost of Betrayal, The Death of Promises, The Shadows of Grace and A Sliver of Redemption. He is currently writing the Shadowdance Trilogy and The Paladins series.

PLOT SUMMARY: “Veldaren aches for a purge, and I will be the one to deliver it. Cry out at me if you wish, but it will change nothing. The gold is spent, the orders are given. Let the blood flow.”

It's been five years since Haern faked his death to escape the tyranny of his father. He has become the Watcher, a vicious killer who knows no limits, and whose hatred of the thief guilds is unrivaled. But when the son of Alyssa Gemcroft, one of the three leaders of the powerful Trifect, is believed murdered, the slaughter begins anew. Mercenaries flood the streets, with one goal in mind: find and kill the Watcher.

Peace or destruction—every war must have its end...

CLASSIFICATION: Featuring a world where there are multiple factions at work, the Shadowdance Trilogy is a dark, gritty, character-driven fantasy series in the vein of George R.R. Martin, Brent Weeks and Peter V. Brett.

FORMAT/INFO: A Dance of Blades is 348 pages divided over thirty numbered chapters and an Epilogue. Narration is in the third person via several different point-of-views, both major and supporting characters, including the main protagonist Haern the Watcher, Alyssa Gemcroft, Veliana, Deathmask, Nathaniel Gemcroft, Arthur Hadfield, Oric, Ghost, etc. A Dance of Blades is self-contained, but is the second volume in the Shadowdance Trilogy after A Dance of Cloaks. The trilogy itself is set in the same world as The Half-Orcs, but before the events of that series with mild and major spoilers contained within.

April 2011 marked the independent publication of A Dance of Blades in both Trader Paperback and E-book format. Cover art is provided by Peter Ortiz.

ANALYSIS: It’s been five years since the events shown in “A Dance of Cloaks”. The city of Veldaren is slowly recovering from the catastrophic night in which the Guilds decided to remove the Trifect from the equation. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned for Thren Felhorn because of the valor and dedication of a select few. Since then, the Guilds have fractured even further and now fight amongst themselves in an attempt to regain their earlier powers. The Trifect also suffers, but fare slightly better than their rivals. Complicating matters is a new edition to the city: the Watcher.

The Watcher is Haern, the son of the most famous and devious guildlord. Using his former training, Haern’s  goal is to sow dissent among the Guilds. Meanwhile, Alyssa Gemcroft, one of the leaders of the Trifect, has successfully taken over the Gemcroft estate and now has a son, Nathaniel, from her dalliance in the previous book. Serving Alyssa as her protector is Zusa, the ex-forsaken of Karak and a confidante to Veliana. Veliana’s mission to save the Ash guild was successful, but she is now subservient to the new Guild master. Readers are also introduced to Deathmask, a character from The Half Orcs series, while Lord Arthur Hadfield and Mark Tullen try to obtain Alyssa Gemcroft’s hand in marriage.

The heart of the story unfolds when Haern comes across a devious plot to kill the child Nathaniel. Haern intervenes, but with chaotic results. Word spreads that the child is missing, presumably dead, so Alyssa decides to finish off the Guilds and kill the Watcher, who she believes are the guilty parties behind her son’s death. From here, A Dance of Blades follows Haern as he battles the Guilds, the Trifect, and perhaps his greatest enemy, Ghost...

Compared to A Dance of Cloaks, the prose in A Dance of Blades is remarkably more polished and a major highlight of the book. Pacing is similar to the first novel, meaning non-stop action that reminded me of R.A. Salvatore and David Gemmell, but Dalglish has definitely turned up the excitement level. The story is more linear and streamlined than its predecessor, but there are still lots of machinations and subplots going on, while a deeper exploration of the world of Dezrel is provided. The grimness, which was so prevalent in the first book, has been toned down a bit, although plenty of killing can still be found in A Dance of Blades. Personally, I was glad for this as the author managed to surprise me a couple of times by killing off a certain character, while saving another. Thematically, salvation is a major theme, with many of the book’s characters seeking redemption, with both successful & unsucessful results.

Characterization remains top-notch giving readers a wide variety of characters to follow, including Haern with his psychological scars, Veliana with her toughness and never-say-die attitude, and Alyssa who now understands her father better than ever. What I love most about the characters is how they are all so unique and interesting, which is important in a book that features so many different POVs. Meanwhile, quite a few characters from The Half-Orcs series make an appearance in A Dance of Blades.

Negatively, Haern’s abilities and vigilante actions reminded me of Batman, which made some things in the book easy to predict. Also, because the Shadowdance Trilogy is a prequel to The Half-Orcs series, and features many of the same characters, those who have already finished the books know who will survive and who won’t. For me, this is the single biggest flaw in reading any prequel series, which is why I have purposefully held off from reading The Half-Orcs novels.

CONCLUSION: Overall, A Dance of Blades is an excellent sequel, further establishing Haern’s story, while showcasing David Dalglish’s impressive growth as a writer. So now, after having fully enjoyed the first two books in the Shadowdance Trilogy, I can’t wait to see how Haern’s saga ends in the third and final book, A Dance of Shadows...

"A Place Called Armageddon" by C.C. Humphreys (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

Official C.C. Humphreys Website
Order "A Place Called Armageddon" HERE
Read FBC Review of "Vlad: the Last Confession"

INTRODUCTION: C.C. Humphreys came to my attention with “Vlad: The Last Confession”; despite my deep misgivings about it being another stupid rehashing of the myth of Dracula, the novel was actually very well researched and offered maybe the best English language portrait of the real-life Vlad the Impaler and his lifelong fight against the Turks without glossing over his darker impulses, but without any Dracula nonsense either.

So when not that long ago, I found out about Mr. Humphreys' new offering "A Place Called Armageddon" about the siege of Constantinople in 1453, the novel became the number one expected non-sff of mine in 2011 and I bought it the first moment I could and read it asap. Ultra high expectations and what can I say: the author not only delivered but surpassed them and I will explain why next.

Before continuing, I would add two things: despite being a very well researched and reasonably accurate historical novel, "A Place Called Armageddon" is also brimming with the fantastic - there are prophecies, mystic books, alchemists and fortune tellers and while it is a stretch to call the novel speculative fiction, it should greatly appeal to sff lovers for those elements and the superb world building the authors manages in the book's almost 500 pages.

There a lot of nice touches in the novel that tie-in with “Vlad: The Last Confession” including recounting of some earlier events there and a prophecy about one of the main characters here that we know how it will be fulfilled in the earlier book. Of course the structure of the two books is very different since "A Place Called Armageddon" is about a moment in historical time, so it essentially takes place over some weeks with a prologue a year before and an epilogue years later, while “Vlad: The Last Confession” takes place over decades, so there is no particular order in which to read the two novels.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: "To the Greeks who love it, it is Constantinople. To the Turks who covet it, the Red Apple. Safe behind its magnificent walls, the city was once the heart of the vast Byzantine empire."

When looking at a novel like "A Place Called Armageddon" that is about a pivotal moment in world history, moment that has been studied intensively across time and has been fictionalized in many novels of which in English, Dark Angel by Mika Waltari remains my big favorite, there are several aspects to consider.

Paramount remains reasonable historical accuracy, meaning being accurate about all main events of the siege and getting right the atmosphere of the time since I have never understood why someone writing historical fiction alters major events and says: "well you know, it's fiction"; why bother writing about event "x" rather than write a fantasy/alt-history in which you can modify what happened to your own heart's content?

And here "A Place Called Armageddon" delivers in spades with an impressive recreation of the major moments of the siege; as one of many such examples, the naval battle between the four big Genoese vessels trying to break the blockade and the couple hundred strong Ottoman fleet and the reactions of both the besiegers and Mehmed and his entourage, as the fight turned literally with the wind is done in such a manner that despite knowing very well how things ended, it still felt like reading it for the first time. And I could go on and on, from the firing of the huge siege gun, to the Galata crossing, to the various wall battles, everything is memorable and true to the numerous accounts we have of the siege.

The world building and the little details are pitch perfect: weapons, buildings, ships, armies, historical characters and their psychological makeup - the untried, moody and easily angered but brilliant young Sultan Mehmet whose determination to become Fatih aka "The Conqueror" and practical ideas keep the siege going despite the early reverses and the long history of failed sieges across almost 1000 years, the last major one being led by none other than his father, the late Sultan Murat a warrior of much higher repute than Mehmet at the time, Hamza Bey, the tanner's son from the middle of nowhere who became the Sultan's falconer and confidant and who knows that the siege will make or break Mehmet and his "new men" like himself so he does his utmost to "manage" the Sultan, intrigue with possible Byzantine turncoats and lead soldiers when it comes to crunch time, or the relatively new emperor Constantine who wears the same name as the founder of the city - a bad omen as the last (western) emperor of Rome was Romulus Augustulus after all - a notable soldier but untried as politician and leader of a state and whose continual defiance and determination in face of the steadily worsening odds is also unforgettable.

But "A Place Called Armageddon" is also a human story with four major fictional characters at its center. The twin Lascari brothers with vastly different personalities and destinies: Theon, the smart diplomat, confidant of Constantine and Gregoras, the formerly handsome and valiant soldier, exiled as a mutilated cut-nose traitor, now moonlighting as the Ragusan mercenary "Zoran" in the famous' Genoese condotierre Giovanni Giustiniani Longo's army and who wants nothing to do with his erstwhile native city.

And the women in their lives: Gregoras' former fiance and secret lover Sophia, now (un)happily married with Theon, mother of boy Thakos and girl Minerva who is turning to God for solace and hope amid despair and fortune teller Leilah, a former slave who tries to make her own way in a harsh man's world and whose prophecies inspire Mehmet among others, though of course there is a huge risk in fortune telling for the mighty.

In addition, there are two more important characters: Johannes Grant a Scotland alchemist who is badly wanted by the Sultan (dead) and by Longo and the Byzantines (alive) for his presumed knowledge of how to recreate the famous Greek Fire recipe and Achmed, a huge but gentle poor Anatolian peasant whose much loved daughter Abal's death at 5 mostly due to poverty, leads him to enroll in the "canon fodder" troops recruited for the siege and whose pov shows the siege from the rank and file Ottoman side.

Each of the characters is very distinctive and the interaction between them ranges from the expected to quite a few twists and turns. All these personal threads mix in various ways and produce a lot of emotional moments, sometimes in quite unexpected places. Despite the different and often opposite interests and goals, the author is very skilled at making us care for all his main characters, including the ones who would have been so easy to depict as "evil", like Theon Lascari or the Sultan Mehmet.

Of course by the same token, not everyone can succeed, so there is heartbreak galore, but there is joy too and the ending is just superb with an epilogue 7 years later, followed by one just three weeks after the end of the siege. This offers a chance at a great twist which actually surprised me though I have seen it before in a G.G. Kay novel.

Overall "A Place Called Armageddon" (A++) is a magnificent accomplishment, a novel that is both a recreation of a pivotal moment in history and a tale of interesting characters we get to care and root for.

“The Whitefire Crossing” by Courtney Schafer (Reviewed by Robert Thompson)

Official Courtney Schafer Website

Order “The Whitefire Crossing” HERE

Read An Excerpt HERE (PDF)

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Courtney Schafer attended college at Caltech where she obtained a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and also learned how to rock climb, backpack, ski and scuba dive. She then earned her Masters at the University of Colorado. Courtney now works in the aerospace industry and is married to an Australian scientist who shares her love for speculative fiction and mountain climbing. The Whitefire Crossing is her first novel.

PLOT SUMMARY: Dev is a smuggler with the perfect cover. He's in high demand as a guide for the caravans that carry legitimate goods from the city of Ninavel into the country of Alathia. The route through the Whitefire Mountains is treacherous, and Dev is one of the few climbers who knows how to cross them safely. With his skill and connections, it's easy enough to slip contraband charms from Ninavel—where any magic is fair game, no matter how dark—into Alathia, where most magic is outlawed.

But smuggling a few charms is one thing; smuggling a person through the warded Alathian border is near suicidal. Having made a promise to a dying friend, Dev is forced to take on a singularly dangerous cargo: Kiran. A young apprentice on the run from one of the most powerful mages in Ninavel, Kiran is desperate enough to pay a fortune to sneak into a country where discovery means certain execution—and he'll do whatever it takes to prevent Dev from finding out the terrible truth behind his getaway.

Yet the young mage is not the only one harboring a deadly secret. Caught up in a web of subterfuge and dark magic, Dev and Kiran must find a way to trust each other—or face not only their own destruction, but that of the entire city of Ninavel...

FORMAT/INFO: The Whitefire Crossing is 353 pages long divided over twenty-four numbered chapters. Narration alternates between Dev’s first-person POV and Kiran’s third-person POV. The Whitefire Crossing ends at a satisfying stopping point, but is clearly the first book in a series as numerous threads are left unresolved. The Tainted City, volume two of The Shattered Sigil, is scheduled for publication in 2012. August 2011 marks the Trade Paperback publication of The Whitefire Crossing via Night Shade Books. Cover art is provided by David Palumbo.

ANALYSIS: The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer is the tenth fantasy debut I’ve read in 2011. Four of these debuts are published by Night Shade Books including Teresa Frohock’s Miserere: An Autumn Tale, Of Blood & Honey by Stina Leicht, and Bradley P. Beaulieu’s The Winds of Khalakovo. Of these four, Of Blood & Honey and The Winds of Khalakovo are immediate standouts, while Miserere: An Autumn Tale showcased tremendous potential. The Whitefire Crossing however, is the best of them. In fact, when all is said and done, The Whitefire Crossing could be the fantasy debut of 2011.

So what’s so special about The Whitefire Crossing? In a word . . . everything. Characterization. World-building. Prose. Plot. Storytelling... The Whitefire Crossing succeeds in all of these areas, and does so with flying colors.

Take for example, Courtney Schafer’s characterization which is highlighted by Dev and Kiran, charming three-dimensional protagonists blessed with believable personalities, strengths and weaknesses. What makes Dev and Kiran so interesting is that neither one of them are prototypical ‘heroes’. Dev is a former Taint thief and current smuggler who takes on the job involving Kiran because he needs the money, while Kiran is secretly running away from his life as a blood mage apprentice. Both harbor convincing motivations for their actions—some are even honorable—and are willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish their goals, including sacrificing the lives of innocent people. At the same time, Dev and Kiran are also willing to sacrifice their own lives, not for fame or glory, but because they feel it’s the right thing to do. The supporting cast meanwhile, is quite strong and features Cara, an outrider and Dev’s friend; Pello, a dangerous shadow man—spy—whose allegiance remains in question throughout the book; and a couple of very powerful and very deadly villains in Ruslan Khaveirin and Simon Levanian.

Writing-wise, The Whitefire Crossing is very well-written. Courtney Schafer’s prose is polished and confident, and her writing style is highly accessible. Most impressive was the author’s ability to write compelling narratives in both first-person and third-person point-of-views:

“For several years now, I'd run packages across the mountains and over the Alathian border to the city of Kost for him. The Alathians were strict as hell on magic, piling on all kinds of laws and regulations to try and stop people from using it except in the tame little ways approved by their Council. Human nature being what it is, that makes for a thriving trade in certain specialty items. And since they'd outlawed all the darker, more powerful kinds of magic, it wasn't too hard to get around the poor bastard of an Alathian mage stuck with border inspection duty. Easy money as far as I was concerned, but smuggling a few illegal charms and wards was one thing. Smuggling a person was a whole different story.” —Dev

“Ever since he’d taken the hennanwort, Kiran felt trapped in a nightmare. A terrible smothering numbness engulfed his mind, his inner senses vanished as completely as a severed limb. Wavering colored haloes shimmered in disorienting array over his sight, and the distances between objects grew and shrank with no discernible pattern, as in some bizarre dreamscape. Every time he reached for power, he felt nothing but a sickening void, and his thoughts scattered and skipped like striderbugs in magelight.” —Kiran

World-building is not very detailed, providing only the barest amount of information necessary to understand concepts introduced in the book—the founding of Ninavel, Alathia’s restrictions against magic, Tainted children—but it is extensive. So not only has Courtney Schafer created a secondary world populated with different races, cultures and geography, but the world also has its own gods (Khalmet, Suliyya, Noshet), currency, slang (highsiders, streetsiders), food/drinks, illegal substances (taphtha, lionclaw), and flora/fauna (bristlebark pines, knotweed, fiddlenecks, sandcats, banehawks, snaprats), all of which is seamlessly integrated into the similes/metaphors used by the novel’s characters: “the mage’s face stayed as serenely calm as a Varkevian idol’s.” Certain concepts may take a while before they are properly explained, but that’s by design. Dev and Kiran come from two very different worlds, neither with much knowledge about the other, so the reader will learn things about blood magic, channelers/focus, ikilhia, Tainted children, the Change, the Well of the World and so on whenever information is shared between the two protagonists.

Magic includes different kinds of mages (blood, bone, sand, wind, earth, metal, crystal, song) and charms/wards used for just about everything imaginable including healing (bonemender, pains-ease, skinseal), sending messages, starting fires, dispelling vermin, adding a sniper feature to crossbows, tracking a person, discerning the truth, etc. Not very groundbreaking as far as magic systems go, but it’s interesting, well-developed, and is the primary source for pretty much all of the conflicts & challenges that Dev and Kiran have to face in the novel.

Rock climbing is an important element in The Whitefire Crossing. It helps define Dev as a character, brings a unique ingredient to the table that I’ve never read in a fantasy novel before, and establishes a sense of authenticity—obviously a result of the author’s own experiences—that is translated to the rest of the novel. Thematically, it’s quite interesting to see the vivid contrast between Ninavel and the cities of Alathia with all of their restrictions, while the author also explores issues of trust, sacrifice and different kinds of prejudice (highsiders/streetsiders, mages/nathahlen).

Storytelling in The Whitefire Crossing is superb. Right from the start, I was hooked by the book’s plot and remained fully engaged throughout thanks to excellent pacing and a story that is easy to follow, yet full of unexpected surprises and nonstop thrills. Basically, every time a question was answered, a problem solved or a crisis averted, new problems and revelations would arise, propelling Dev & Kiran into ever greater danger and adventure. Yet for all of the excitement offered by The Whitefire Crossing, it was the personal nature of the story that I admired most. Most epic fantasy these days features some sort of grand struggle between good and evil that threatens the entire land. The Whitefire Crossing is different. The stakes in Courtney Schafer’s novel are much more personal. Intimate. Dev repaying a debt to an old friend. Kiran running away because of what was stolen from him. The relationship that develops between the two. Even though a subplot emerges that threatens the city of Ninavel, The Whitefire Crossing remains personal, driven by Dev and Kiran’s thoughts, feelings and morals. Personally, I loved it. The story felt different from a lot of epic fantasy that I’ve read. Refreshing. The ending is a bit slow and anticlimactic, but it sets up a number of interesting developments for the sequel.

Negatively, there’s very little to complain about in The Whitefire Crossing. Dev’s narrative voice seemed familiar to me, bringing to mind numerous first-person POVs that I’ve read recently in urban fantasy and books featuring thieves, while the novel’s magic system, themes and world-building could have been fleshed out in greater detail. However, these issues are rather insignificant since they hardly impacted my enjoyment of the novel.

CONCLUSION: It’s not very often that I get to say this, but Courtney Schafer’s The Whitefire Crossing is the complete package. Fully developed characters. Across the board world-building. Intriguing magic. Accomplished writing. Engaging storytelling. Thrilling adventure... Add it all up and there's no doubt in my mind that The Whitefire Crossing is not only one of the best fantasy debuts of 2011, but it’s also one of the year’s best fantasy novels period...

GIVEAWAY: Win The Complete Relic Master Series by Catherine Fisher

Fantasy Book Critic is excited to host a giveaway of Catherine Fisher's complete Relic Master series. One lucky person will receive the complete series of books including The Dark City, The Lost Heiress, The Hidden Coronet and The Margrave.

Catherine Fisher is known for penning the New York Times bestselling duology, Incarceron and Sapphique.

About the Relic Series

Welcome to Anara, a world mysteriously crumbling to devastation, where nothing is what it seems: Ancient relics emit technologically advanced powers, members of the old Order are hunted by the governing Watch yet revered by the people, and the great energy that connects all seems to also be destroying all. The only hope for the world lies in Galen, a man of the old Order and a Keeper of relics, and his sixteen-year-old apprentice, Raffi. They know of a secret relic with great power that has been hidden for centuries. As they search for it, they will be tested beyond their limits. For there are monsters-some human, some not-that also want the relic's power and will stop at nothing to get it.

Rules for the Giveaway

1. Open to US Residents Only
2. Only One Entry Per Household (multiple entries will be deleted!)
3. To be entered include your name, email address, mailing address in an email to fbcgiveaway@gmail.com with the subject "Relic Master Series"
4. Giveaway will end July 31, 2011 at 11:59 AM PST.
5. Winner will be randomly selected and notified by email.
6. Personal information will only be used for this contest only and not for any other contest or other purposes.

Good Luck!

Three SF Novels to Watch for in the Fall and Winter: Stephenson, Priest and Wright (by Liviu Suciu)

Reamde by Neal Stephenson.
Why? Well, it's a (doorstop) novel by Neal Stephenson!

The Islanders by Christopher Priest
Why? Well it's Christopher Priest so expect the mind-boggling unexpected!



Count to a Trillion by John C. Wright
Why? Well, it's sense of wonder sf by JC Wright and his Golden Age series debut is still the most memorable sf debut of the 00's.