MainCategory: FANTASY

Beyond Redemption (Manifest Delusions trilogy)

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The Steel Remains (A Land Fit for Heroes)

“Bold, brutal, and making no compromises—Morgan doesn’t so much twist the clichés of fantasy as take an axe to them.”—Joe Abercrombie A dark lord will rise. Such is the prophecy that dogs Ringil Eskiath—Gil, for short—a washed-up mercenary and onetime Read more

The Judging Eye: One (The Aspect-emperor, 1)

The Darkness That Comes Before, The Warrior Prophet, and The Thousandfold Thought --collectively the Prince of Nothing Saga-were R. Scott Bakker's magnificent debut into the upper echelon of epic fantasy. In those three books, Bakker created a world that was Read more

Beyond Redemption
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Published: 2015-06-16
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A darkly imaginative writer in the tradition of Joe Abercrombie, Peter V. Brett, and Neil Gaiman conjures a gritty mind-bending fantasy, set in a world where delusion becomes reality . . . and the fulfillment of humanity’s desires may well prove to be its undoing. When belief defines reality, those with the strongest convictions—the crazy, the obsessive, the delusional—have the power to shape the world.

And someone is just mad enough to believe he can create a god . . . Violent and dark, the world is filled with the Geisteskranken—men and women whose delusions manifest. Sustained by their own belief—and the beliefs of those around them—they can manipulate their surroundings.

For the High Priest Konig, that means creating order out of the chaos in his city-state, leading his believers to focus on one thing: helping a young man, Morgen, ascend to become a god. A god they can control. Trouble is, there are many who would see a god in their thrall, including the High Priest’s own doppelgangers, a Slaver no one can resist, and three slaves led by possibly the only sane man left.

As these forces converge on the boy, there’s one more obstacle: time is running out. Because as the delusions become more powerful, the also become harder to control. The fate of the Geisteskranken is to inevitably find oneself in the Afterdeath. The question, then, is: Who will rule there?

The Written (Emaneska Series Book 1)

The Written
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Published: 2010-07
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His name is Farden. They whisper that he's dangerous. Dangerous is only the half of it. Something has gone missing from the libraries of Arfell. Something very old, and something very powerful. Five scholars are now dead, a country is once again on the brink of war, and the magick council is running out of time and options. Entangled in a web of lies and politics and dragged halfway across icy Emaneska and back, Farden…

Bloodrush: A Weird West Adventure (The Scarlet Star Trilogy Book 1)

Bloodrush
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Published: 2014-12-16
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“Magick ain’t pretty, it ain’t stars and sparkles. Magick is dirty. It’s rough. Raw. It’s blood and guts and vomit. You hear me?” When Prime Lord Hark is found in a pool of his own blood on the steps of his halls, Tonmerion Hark finds his world not only turned upside down, but inside out.

His father’s last will and testament forces him west across the Iron Ocean, to the very brink of the Endless Land and all civilisation. They call it Wyoming. This is a story of murder and family. In the dusty frontier town of Fell Falls, there is no silverware, no servants, no plush velvet nor towering spires.

Only dust, danger, and the railway. Tonmerion has only one friend to help him escape the torturous heat and unravel his father’s murder. A faerie named Rhin. A twelve-inch tall outcast of his own kind. This is a story of blood and magick. But there are darker things at work in Fell Falls, and not just the railwraiths or the savages.

Secrets lurk in Tonmerion’s bloodline. Secrets that will redefine this young Hark. This is a story of the edge of the world.

Chasing Graves (The Chasing Graves Trilogy)

Chasing Graves
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Published: 2018-12-07
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Meet Caltro Basalt. He’s a master thief, a selfish bastard, and as of his first night in Araxes, stone cold dead.

They call it the City of Countless Souls, the colossal jewel of the Arctian Empire, and all it takes to be its ruler is to own more ghosts than any other. For in Araxes, the dead do not rest in peace in the afterlife, but live on as slaves for the rich.

While Caltro struggles to survive and tries to reclaim his freedom, those around him strive for the emperor’s throne in Araxes’ cutthroat game of power. The dead gods whisper from corpses. A soulstealer seeks to make a name for himself with the help of an ancient cult. A princess plots to purge the emperor from his armoured Sanctuary. And a resolute murderer drags a body across the desert, intent on reaching Araxes no matter the cost.

Only one thing is certain in Araxes: death is just the beginning.

From award-winning author Ben Galley comes Chasing Graves, a dark, epic fantasy trilogy inspired by Egyptian mythology and set in a vast city world. Packed with twists, dark humour and death magic, Chasing Graves is perfect if you like Mark Lawrence, R.F. Kuang, or David Estes.

“★★★★★ An excellent first book in a series that I will absolutely keep on reading. Exceptional writing, great characters.” – Nicholas Eames, author of Kings of the Wyld

“★★★★★ Chasing Graves by Ben Galley is brilliant, my favorite read of the year by a wide margin.” – David Estes, author of The Fatemarked Epic

“★★★★★ A unique and haunting twist on the afterlife. Absolutely brilliant!” – Michael R. Fletcher, author of Manifest Delusions & Obsidian Path Series

“★★★★★ The quintessential grimdark fantasy… The world building is fantastic and reminiscent of Michael Moorcock’s Elric series.” – Grimdark Magazine

Kings of the Wyld (The Band, 1)

Kings of the Wyld
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Published: 2017-02-21
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A retired group of legendary mercenaries get the band back together for one last impossible mission in this award-winning debut epic fantasy. “Fantastic, funny, ferocious.” – Sam Sykes Clay Cooper and his band were once the best of the best, the most feared and renowned crew of mercenaries this side of the Heartwyld.

Their glory days long past, the mercs have grown apart and grown old, fat, drunk, or a combination of the three. Then an ex-bandmate turns up at Clay’s door with a plea for help–the kind of mission that only the very brave or the very stupid would sign up for. It’s time to get the band back together.

WINNER OF THE DAVID GEMMELL MORNINGSTAR AWARD FOR BEST FANTASY DEBUT.WINNER OF THE REDDIT/FANTASY AWARD FOR BEST DEBUT FANTASY NOVEL. For more from Nicholas Eames, check out: Bloody Rose

Blackwing: The Raven’s Mark trilogy

Blackwing: The Raven’s Mark trilogy
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Published: 2017-10-03
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Blackwing is a gritty fantasy debut about a man’s desperate battle to survive his own dark destiny… Hope, reason, humanity: the Misery breaks them all. Under its cracked and wailing sky, the Misery is a vast and blighted expanse, the arcane remnant of a devastating war with the immortals known as the Deep Kings.

The war ended nearly a century ago, and the enemy is kept at bay only by the existence of the Engine, a terrible weapon that protects the Misery’s border. Across the corrupted no-man’s-land teeming with twisted magic and malevolent wraiths, the Deep Kings and their armies bide their time. Watching. Waiting. Bounty hunter Ryhalt Galharrow has breathed Misery dust for twenty bitter years. When he’s ordered to locate a masked noblewoman at a frontier outpost, he finds himself caught in the middle of an attack by the Deep Kings, one that signifies they may no longer fear the Engine. Only a formidable show of power from the very woman he is seeking, Lady Ezabeth Tanza, repels the assault.

Ezabeth is a shadow from Galharrow’s grim past, and together they stumble onto a web of conspiracy that threatens to end the fragile peace the Engine has provided. Galharrow is not ready for the truth about the blood he’s spilled or the gods he’s supposed to serve…

“A remarkably assured fantasy debut that mixes of the inventiveness of China Miéville with the fast paced heroics of David Gemmell.”—Anthony Ryan, New York Times bestselling author of The Legion of Flame Set on a postapocalyptic frontier,

Heroes Die: A Fantasy Novel (The Acts of Caine)

Heroes Die
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Published: 1999-05-29
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A man shouldn’t die with no understanding of why he’s been murdered Renowned throughout the land of Ankhana as the Blade of Tyshalle, Caine has killed his share of monarchs and commoners, villains and heroes.

He is relentless, unstoppable, simply the best there is at what he does. At home on Earth, Caine is Hari Michaelson, a superstar whose adventures in Ankhana command an audience of billions. Yet he is shackled by a rigid caste society, bound to ignore the grim fact that he kills men on a far-off world for the entertainment of his own planet—and bound to keep his rage in check

. But now Michaelson has crossed the line. His estranged wife, Pallas Rill, has mysteriously disappeared in the slums of Ankhana. To save her, he must confront the greatest challenge of his life: a lethal game of cat and mouse with the most treacherous rulers of two worlds . . .

The Warded Man: Book One of The Demon Cycle (The Demon Cycle Series 1)

The Painted Man
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For hundreds of years these creatures have terrorized the night, slowly culling the human population. It was not always this way. Men and women did not always cower behind protective magical wards and hope to see the dawn. Once, they battled the demons on equal terms, but those days, and skills, are gone. Arlen Bales lives with his parents on their isolated farmstead until a demon attack shatters their world. He learns a savage lesson…

 

The Demon Cycle

A Gathering of Ravens: A Novel (Grimnir Series, 1)

A Gathering of Ravens
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Published: 2017-06-20
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To the Danes, he is skraelingr ; to the English, he is orcn�as ; to the Irish, he is fomoraig . He is Corpse-maker and Life-quencher, the Bringer of Night, the Son of the Wolf and Brother of the Serpent. He is Grimnir, and he is the last of his kind-the last in a long line of monsters who have plagued humanity since the Elder Days.

Drawn from his lair by a thirst for vengeance against the Dane who slew his brother, Grimnir emerges into a world that’s changed. A new faith has arisen. The Old Ways are dying, and their followers retreating into the shadows; even still, Grimnir’s vengeance cannot be denied.

Taking a young Christian hostage to be his guide, Grimnir embarks on a journey that takes him from the hinterlands of Denmark, where the wisdom of the ancient dwarves has given way to madness, to the war-torn heart of southern England, where the spirits of the land make violence on one another. And thence to the green shores of Ireland and the Viking stronghold of Dubhlinn, where his enemy awaits.

But, unless Grimnir can set aside his hatreds, his dream of retribution will come to nothing. For Dubhlinn is set to be the site of a reckoning-the Old Ways versus the New-and Grimnir, the last of his kind left to plague mankind, must choose: stand with the Christian King of Ireland and see his vengeance done or stand against him and see it slip away?

Faithless: A Dark Fantasy Adventure

Faithless
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Published: 2017-06-30
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The temples of the Forgefather have fallen. The clerics and defenders that could once be found across the nine lands are no more. Priests huddle in the great temple, clinging to the echoes of their lost religion. But the Father has fallen silent. There are none who still hear his voice.

The mines of Aspiration lie far below the temple’s marble halls. Slaves toil in the blackness, striving to earn their way into the church and the light. Wynn has been sold into this fate, traded for a handful of silver. In the depths of the mines, where none dare carry flame, he must meet his tally or die.

But there are things that lurk in that darkness, and still darker things within the hearts of men. When the souls bound to the great forge are released in a failed ritual, one novice flees down into the darkness of the mines. The soulwraiths know only hunger, the risen know only hate. In the blackest depths Kharios must seek a light to combat the darkness which descends.