This fortnightly features talks about books I’ve either picked up or imminent in the next two weeks.

First up as I was rudely disrupted by lockdown a few out now and next week then I’ll be back again ina week to start properly!

The Stone Knife by Anna Stephens - Out Now £16.99 Hardback from Harper Voyager

A fantasy epic of freedom and empire, gods and monsters, love, loyalty, honour, and betrayal, from the acclaimed author of GODBLIND.

For generations, the forests of Ixachipan have echoed with the clash of weapons, as nation after nation has fallen to the Empire of Songs – and to the unending, magical music that binds its people together. Now, only two free tribes remain.

The Empire is not their only enemy. Monstrous, scaled predators lurk in rivers and streams, with a deadly music of their own.

As battle looms, fighters on both sides must decide how far they will go for their beliefs and for the ones they love – a veteran general seeks peace through war, a warrior and a shaman set out to understand their enemies, and an ambitious noble tries to bend ancient magic to her will.

This is one I hope to get to any soon. Anna Is already famous for their debut series The Red Gods Trilogy. This tale inspired by central american civilisations seems really interesting and heard nothing but good things about it.

Hollow Empire by Sam Hawke - Out Now £18.99 Hardback from Transworld

You never get used to poisoning a child . . . 

Two years after a devastating siege tore the country apart, Silasta has recovered. But to the frustration of poison-taster siblings Jovan and Kalina, sworn to protect the Chancellor, the city has grown complacent in its new-found peace and prosperity. 

And now, amid the celebrations of the largest carnival the continent has ever seen, it seems a mysterious enemy has returned.

The death of a former adversary sets Jovan on the trail of a cunning killer, while Kalina negotiates the treacherous politics of visiting dignitaries, knowing that this vengeful mastermind may lurk among the princes and dukes, noble ladies and priests. But their investigations uncover another conspiracy which now threatens not just Silasta and the Chancellor but also their own family. 

Assassins, witches and a dangerous criminal network are all closing in. And brother and sister must once more fight to save their city - and everyone they hold dear - from a patient, powerful enemy determined to tear it all down . . .

I LOVED City of Lies the first in this duology that mixed magic, sieges and political intrigue and a mystery to solve. I am very very keen to see how this story continues the tale.

The Year’s Best Science Fiction Vol 1 - The Saga Anthology of Science Fiction edited by Jonathan Strahan - Out Now £12.99 paperback from Saga Press

The definitive guide and a must-have collection of the best short science fiction and speculative fiction of 2019, showcasing brilliant talent and examining the cultural moment we live in, compiled by award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan.

With short works from some of the most lauded science fiction authors, as well as rising stars, this collection displays the top talent and the cutting-edge cultural moments that affect our lives, dreams, and stories. The list of authors is truly star-studded, including New York Times bestseller Ted Chiang (author of the short story that inspired the movie Arrival), N. K. Jemisin, Charlie Jane Anders, and many more incredible talents.

An assemblage of future classics, this anthology is a must-read for anyone who enjoys the vast and exciting world of science fiction.

I do love an anthology and this one is designed to find the best SF tales that came out in 2021. As you can see this has a fantastic selection from authors from a very well respected editor.

Hag - Forgotten Folktales Retold edited by Irenosen Okojie - Out Now £12.99 Hardcover from Virago

DARK, POTENT AND UNCANNY, HAG BURSTS WITH THE UNTOLD STORIES OF OUR ISLES, CAPTURED IN VOICES AS VARIED AS THEY ARE VIVID.

Here are sisters fighting for the love of the same woman, a pregnant archaeologist unearthing impossible bones and lost children following you home. A panther runs through the forests of England and pixies prey upon violent men.

From the islands of Scotland to the coast of Cornwall, the mountains of Galway to the depths of the Fens, these forgotten folktales howl, cackle and sing their way into the 21st century, wildly reimagined by some of the most exciting women writing in Britain and Ireland today.

Folk stories told in new forms. You know that is my kind of story and there are several authors here I’ve always wanted to read including Daisy Johnson and Kirsty Logan

Beowulf - A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headle - Out Now £11.04 paperback from Macmillan USA

Nearly twenty years after Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf--and fifty years after the translation that continues to torment high-school students around the world--there is a radical new verse translation of the epic poem by Maria Dahvana Headley, which brings to light elements that have never before been translated into English, recontextualizing the binary narrative of monsters and heroes into a tale in which the two categories often entwine, justice is rarely served, and dragons live among us.

A man seeks to prove himself as a hero. A monster seeks silence in his territory. A warrior seeks to avenge her murdered son. A dragon ends it all. The familiar elements of the epic poem are seen with a novelist's eye toward gender, genre, and history-- Beowulf has always been a tale of entitlement and encroachment, powerful men seeking to become more powerful, and one woman seeking justice for her child, but this version brings new context to an old story. While crafting her contemporary adaptation of Beowulf, Headley unearthed significant shifts lost over centuries of translation.

A few years ago I loved Dahvana Headle’s modern retelling of the same tale The Mere Wife with a decidedly feminist look at the tale. This time the poem itself has been translated and its been years since I read some long poetry.

The Route of Ice and Salt by Jose Luis Zarate - Out 19/1 £5.43 Kindle eBook from Innsmouth press

A reimagining of Dracula’s voyage to England, filled with Gothic imagery and queer desire.

It’s an ordinary assignment, nothing more. The cargo? Fifty boxes filled with Transylvanian soil. The route? From Varna to Whitby. The Demeter has made many trips like this. The captain has handled dozens of crews.

He dreams familiar dreams: to taste the salt on the skin of his men, to run his hands across their chests. He longs for the warmth of a lover he cannot have, fantasizes about flesh and frenzied embraces. All this he’s done before, it’s routine, a constant, like the tides.

Yet there’s something different, something wrong. There are odd nightmares, unsettling omens and fear. For there is something in the air, something in the night, someone stalking the ship.

The cult vampire novella by Mexican author José Luis Zárate is available for the first time in English. Translated by David Bowles and with an accompanying essay by noted horror author Poppy Z. Brite, it reveals an unknown corner of Latin American literature.

A tale that Silvia Moreno-Garcia praises takes my attention and a tale exploring a gay sailor wrapped up in Dracula’s trip to Whitby sounds compelling even before we know its a cult classic in Mexico translated for the first time into English.

Hall of Smoke by H M Long - Out 19/2 - £8.99 paperback from Titan Books

Hessa is an Eangi: a warrior priestess of the Goddess of War, with the power to turn an enemy s bones to dust with a scream. Banished for disobeying her goddess's command to murder a traveller, she prays for forgiveness alone on a mountainside.

While she is gone, raiders raze her village and obliterate the Eangi priesthood. Grieving and alone, Hessa the last Eangi must find the traveller and atone for her weakness and secure her place with her loved ones in the High Halls. As clans from the north and legionaries from the south tear through her homeland, slaughtering everyone in their path Hessa strives to win back her goddess' favour. 

Beset by zealot soldiers, deceitful gods, and newly-awakened demons at every turn, Hessa burns her path towards redemption and revenge. But her journey reveals a harrowing truth: the gods are dying and the High Halls of the afterlife are fading. Soon Hessa's trust in her goddess weakens with every unheeded prayer.

Thrust into a battle between the gods of the Old World and the New, Hessa realizes there is far more on the line than securing a life beyond her own death. Bigger, older powers slumber beneath the surface of her world. And they're about to wake up.

Yes More bone magic (a theme this week) and a Norse style tale of gods, magic and demons sounds my kind of fun.

The Seep by Chana Porter - Out 22/1 £11.99 hardback from Titan Books

Plus never-before-seen short story featuring an expanded ending to the novel...

Trina Goldberg-Oneka is a fifty-year-old trans woman whose life is irreversibly altered in the wake of a gentle—but nonetheless world-changing—invasion by an alien entity called The Seep. Through The Seep, everything is connected. Capitalism falls, hierarchies and barriers are broken down; if something can be imagined, it is possible.

Trina and her wife, Deeba, live blissfully under The Seep’s utopian influence—until Deeba begins to imagine what it might be like to be reborn as a baby, which will give her the chance at an even better life. Using Seeptech to make this dream a reality, Deeba moves on to a new existence, leaving Trina devastated.

Heartbroken and deep into an alcoholic binge, Trina follows a lost boy she encounters, embarking on an unexpected quest. In her attempt to save him from The Seep, she will confront not only one of its most avid devotees, but the terrifying void that Deeba has left behind. A strange new elegy of love and loss, The Seep explores grief, alienation, and the ache of moving on.

Started this and it’s alien, weird and strange which gives me a very different take on an alien invasion and some interesting digs on current society.

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse - Out 21/1 from Rebellion

A god will return
When the earth and sky converge
Under the black sun

In the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial even proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world.

Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around her as easily as it can warp a man's mind. Her ship carries one passenger. Described as harmless, the passenger, Serapio is a young man, blind, scarred, and cloaked in destiny. As Xiala well knows, when a man is described as harmless, he usually ends up being a villain.

Crafted with unforgettable characters, Rebecca Roanhorse has created a "brilliant world that shows the full panoply of human grace and depravity" (Ken Liu, award-winning author of The Grace of Kings). This epic adventure explores the decadence of power amidst the weight of history and the struggle of individuals swimming against the confines of society and their broken pasts in this "absolutely tremendous" (S.A. Chakraborty, nationally bestselling author of The City of Brass) and most original series debut of the decade.

Heard great things on this from the US last year and finally reaches the UK. An author very much on the rise and expect a review soon!

The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Jackson - Out 26/2 £8.99 paperback from Titan Books

On the never-ending, miles-high expanse of prairie grasses known as the Forever Sea, Kindred Greyreach, hearthfire keeper and sailor aboard harvesting vessel The Errant, is just beginning to fit in with the crew of her new ship when she receives devastating news. Her grandmother The Marchess, legendary captain and hearthfire keeper has stepped from her vessel and disappeared into the sea.

But the note she leaves Kindred suggests this was not an act of suicide. Something waits in the depths, and the Marchess has set out to find it.

To follow in her grandmother s footsteps, Kindred must embroil herself in conflicts bigger than she could imagine: a water war simmering below the surface of two cultures; the politics of a mythic pirate city floating beyond the edges of safe seas; battles against beasts of the deep, driven to the brink of madness; and the elusive promise of a world below the waves.

Kindred finds that she will sacrifice almost everything ship, crew, and a life sailing in the sun to discover the truth of the darkness that waits below the Forever Sea.

THE FOREVER SEA is a story about the beauty and threat of nature and the relationship between finite natural resources and infinite greed. It s about leaving behind everything that is familiar and plunging into the terrifying unknown..

Read this in advance and its bone of the most lyrical wondrous debuts in a while with the idea of a land where ships (including pirates) sail on a five mile deep sea of grass and plants inhabited by all sorts of strange creatures.. Keep an eye out for this one!