Welcome to the New Year!

Hi everyone,

I've had a bit of a holiday in terms of blogging, but not in terms of writing. I've been crazy busy with my "The Sylvalla Chronicles" series. It's an amazing amount of fun to be immersed in a world so deeply. I can't wait to publish Prophecy and Omens but in the meantime - I've created a book magnet - a free book, "The Secret Child," in the Sylvalla Chronicles World. For fans it provides a bit of backstory about the wizards and how they relate to Sylvalla and the whole epic fantasy adventure!

The Secret Child is completely free and is as available through Book Cave - all you have to do is sign up to my newsletter - which is awesome, because it's the best way to keep an eye open for specials, and also for the link to the new video trailer for "Quest" that the talented Clem Winfield is about to put out. I hope you enjoy.

For poetry fans, I've got some cute little short excerpts sprinkled through Prophecy and Omens, that I think will be fun to share over the next few Tuesdays amongst maybe some more substantial works by beloved or interesting poets :)

A.J.

PS  I think that the tuatara eye Clem Winfield animated looks really creepy - do you?

Shadowheart by Tad Williams with almost no spoilers

(If you wish to find out more about books one and two of this series, click this link)

I was almost up to FINALLY reading Shadowheart when George RR Martin's latest Game of Thrones came out and I had to put it on the back burner again.  It's times like this where you think maybe two epics in a row is probably going to be too much.  But no.  Shadowheart is an awesome conclusion to this series by one of the greatest fantasy epic writers of the day.  It was like coming home to warm slippers and hot cocoa after being shredded by wolves.  The story was fun, the plot ripped, the poet Tinwright was such a lot of fun.  If I had the tiniest, tiniest complaint - Please Tad, don't do the George thing and call girls manly or whatever because they're in armour.  Besides, armour is actually quite feminine with bulging chest-plates and the flairs at the hips...

Still, if you love epic fantasy, Tad Williams understands epic fantasy in a way so many writers don’t - and I'll go as far as to include George in that number (although here's no doubt the guy can write).  Far from being a let down, the final to this Shadow war series not only holds its own, but I found it the high point of the series.  Well worth reading.  Go and get a copy - it'll keep you quiet for quiet some time.  Enjoy!


mini-review by Alicia Ponder

A Dance with Dragons - Game of Thrones by George RR Martin

What can I say about this epic - that hasn't already been said?  It's brutal - it's magnificently epic in its scope - and its back on track.  The last couple of books, I admit I was wondering which way it would go - strung out plotlines and the usual epic dithering, or falling back to a tighter framework.

Neither apparently, although, according to George, the next book does see many of our far-flung heroes become a little less far-flung.  (At least those that are still alive)  For death and dishonour in the game of thrones, is merely part of the game.  And nobody is safe or exempt. 

The characters are compelling, although everyone has their favourites. For instance I hated Daenerys, in Game of Thrones, still do - fortunately now she has the redeeming feature of dragons.  And boy, that is one huge redeeming feature, so of course she is a favourite for many.  The Imp - Tyrion, is also many people's favourite - one moment he is insufferable, and the next awesome.  What a fantastic character.  Oozing with charm and - is insufferability a word? - well you get the idea anyway.  I'm not even going to mention my two favourites - because I'm pretty sure one of them is dead.  And if you haven't read the book you can't understand how angry that makes me.  I'm furious.  Spitting tacks, but to continue, because I don't want to give the game away none of the characters are the ciphers that you expect in less well written fantasy, from sellswords, to nobility they run the spectrum from evil to benign - but never weak.  Although the child king is, and surely, surely he can't hold the throne for long...  Even "ordinary" men and women who live in a this dangerous and unforgiving world are breathed upon with life, as the plot gallops along, running over, past and through anything and anyone that gets in its way.

If you love epic fantasy and you haven't yet read Game of Thrones, the only acceptable excuse is that you are too young.  (And even if you're ninety, that could be a good excuse - because some of the content is not extremely AO.  A couple of instances in "A Dance with Dragons" were real scrub-your-brain-out-afterwards stuff. --  You'll have some idea if you've been watching the HBO series, Game of Thrones.  But if you think the tv series is good with its catchphrase "Winter is Coming" - this is why its good - the writing - and its so much more than you could ever just watch.)

but no.  I'm not reading the next book.  Never. No.  not ever.  I'm too upset.  At least... not until it comes out...unless, perhaps I can get hold of a reading copy slightly earlier? 

Because winter is finally here.  And it's hit with a vengeance. 

Alicia Ponder 

For readers 18 or older

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

In completing Wheel of Time, Brandon Sanderson has shown that he has the right stuff when it comes to epic fantasy.  His worlds are as rich as his writing, his characters are troubled, his setting gritty and on a grand scale, but do be warned I found the first hundred or so pages of this book quite hard going - yes, there was action and yes the world showed signs of greatness, but it took along time for the events he set up to be resolved - still because of his previous works I trusted it would be worth the wait - and yes it was - by the end I just could not put the book down.  I had to know what was going to happen next.  It did not matter that it was four o'clock in the morning, my favourite characters were in peril - would they live or would they die? 

There is alot of warfare in this book,and a carefully constructed "magic" that seems to be based on rules that are only very slowly being revealed, but nothing safe and easy.  The creatures who inhabit the world are quite foreign, including massive chasmfiends that are hunted for sport, and the strange "spren" that seem to be everywhere, and whose place in the universe slowly becomes more apparent.  It's as dangerous and deadly as "Game of Thrones" and I so want to give away the end - because it does pull the whole book into perspective and make you ask the only question there is to ask: WHEN IS THE NEXT ONE COMING OUT!  Thank goodness Sanderson is such a fast writer, now all we need to do is get him a curmudgeony editor just to make sure that the pacing stays even. Or maybe, I should, like my friends say, learn patience.  the only problem is that takes too long.


Overall yes, this is a great book, and lovers of epic fantasy who are still waiting for George RR Martin's colossus to come out could do far worse than read it.  And believe it or not given the choice I would probably read the sequel to this first, just because I found the last George R R Martin book a tiny bit disappointing.  Maybe it didn't have enough Arya in it, or enough Imp (my favourite characters by far) - but I cannot imagine that the surgeon, and fighter Kaladin will ever be far from the action so long as he is alive.