"A fast-paced adventure combined with an engrossing mystery, all set in a unique and original fantasy world. I can't wait to find out what happens next!" - Martha Wells, Hugo Award-winning author on For the Killing of Kings
In this sequel to For the Killing of Kings, Howard Andrew Jones returns to the ring-sworn champions of the Altenerai in Upon the Flight of the Queen to continue this thrilling, imaginative and immersive epic fantasy trilogy.
While the savage Naor clans prepare to march on the heart of the Allied Realms, Rylin infiltrates the highest of the enemy ranks to learn their secrets and free hundreds of doomed prisoners. His ailing mentor Varama leads the ever-dwindling Altenerai corps in a series of desperate strikes to cripple the Naor occupiers, hoping for a relief force that may not come in time to save what's left of the city and her charges.
Elenai, Kyrkenall, and the kobalin Ortok ride through the storm-wracked Shifting Lands to rekindle an alliance with the ko'aye, the only possible counter to the terrible Naor dragons. Even if they survive the hazardous trek deep through kobalin territory to find the winged lizards, though, the three are unlikely to get a warm reception, for the queen of the five realms refused to aid the ko'aye when their homelands were attacked, and the creatures have long memories.
While the Altenerai fight impossible odds to save the realms, their queen delves further and deeper into the magic of the mysterious hearthstones in a frantic attempt to unlock secrets that might just destroy them all.
Praised for his skills in drafting modern epic fantasy that engrosses and entertains, Howard Andrew Jones delivers a sequel that expands the amazing world, relationships, and adventure introduced in the first book of this series.
Read more: Upon the Flight of the Queen - Howard Andrew Jones
Review: Dragon Blood by Bruce Woods
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Reviews
Bruce Woods' Dragon Blood was published by Penmore Press in July 2019.
Information about Bruce Woods:
History with a Bite - Bruce Woods is a professional writer/editor with more than 30 years in magazine publishing, having worked as editor of Mother Earth News and Alaska Magazine, among others, and has published both nonfiction and poetry books. Prairie Schooner magazine featured his work in its “Writing from Alaska” issue. His Birdhouse Book, brought out by Sterling/Lark, is still in print and has sold more than 100,000 copies.
After leaving the editor’s position at Alaska Magazine in late 1998, Woods began a second career in External Affairs for the Alaska Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Eventually serving as the de facto writer/editor for the agency’s largest region, as well as providing information and an initial contact point for state, national, and international media on topics affecting Alaska’s often controversial wildlife and land management issues, Woods retired in the spring of 2013 in order to focus on fiction writing.
In addition to the Birdhouse Book referenced above, Woods has published three nonfiction volumes and several books of poetry with small presses. During his magazine editing career he also served as editor/contributor to numerous nonfiction volumes. Several of his essays have been anthologized, as well.
Woods currently lives in Anchorage, Alaska with his wife Mary and his two cats, Lucy Fur and Boswell. Gardening and bicycling (the latter usually upon a single-speed road bike named “Yellow Snow” that he built from an old track frame bought online) are chief among his many interests outside of reading and writing. He has two children, Ethan, who studied music composition at Bennington College and now resides in Asheville, N.C., and his daughter Alice, who recently graduated from Minneapolis College of Art and Design and currently lives in Minneapolis.
Click here to visit the author's Facebook page.
Guest short stories by the author:
A Personal Bestiary
The Wearing of the Green
Swan Song
Spirited Away
Paulette and the Elephant
Without Sparkles
The Nearest Thing to Flying
Information about Dragon Blood:
Paulette is sent on a mission to China with the words of her mentor ringing in her ears. “A hot wind is now fanning the flames of racism in China, Paulette." Said Lady Ellen Terry. "And, like dust in a drought, it has blown up an army. They call themselves 'the boxers’ society of righteous and harmonious fists,' or some variation thereof, and practice rituals that they claim bestow invulnerability and more. They are ill-armed and poorly trained but potentially numberless.
“Recently an auxiliary movement has sprung up. Reportedly consisting of young virgin women, from the ages of 12 to 18 and accounted uncommonly beautiful. They carry the name “Red Lanterns,” and claim the powers of flight, fire-starting, and miraculous healing. It is these I wish you to investigate for any sign of Kindred activity.
“More to the point, however, and though the Boxers alone present a threat through sheer force of numbers, the Dowager is perched upon a knife edge. Two camps of courtiers vie for her attention, moderates who would have her eliminate the Boxers for fear that, with the foreigners gone, they would turn upon her throne; and conservatives who urge her to throw in her hand with them to rid the Empire off all peoples and technologies from beyond its borders.”
She is to face great danger and the very real risk that despite her remarkable powers she will not survive. It will take skill and courage to avoid the multiple perils, and risk of exposure for what she really is, that await her in an increasingly turbulent China.
REVIEW: DRAGON BLOOD BY BRUCE WOODS
Read more: Review: Dragon Blood by Bruce Woods
Review: The Edge by Tim Lebbon
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Reviews
Tim Lebbon's The Edge was published by Titan Books in June 2019.
Information about Tim Lebbon:
Tim Lebbon is the New York Times bestselling author of Coldbrook, The Silence, the Relics trilogy and the movie novelizations of 30 Days of Night and The Cabin in the Woods. He has also written many successful movie novelizations and tie-ins for Alien and Firefly as well as critically acclaimed horror and dark fantasy novels. Tim has won three British Fantasy Awards, a Bram Stoker Award, a Shocker, a Tombstone and been a finalist for the International Horror Guild and World Fantasy Awards. The Silence is now a Netflix Original Movie, starring Stanley Tucci.
Click here to visit his official website.
Information about The Edge:
There exists a secret and highly illegal trade in mythological creatures and their artifacts. Certain individuals pay fortunes for a sliver of a satyr’s hoof, a gryphon’s claw, a basilisk’s scale, or an angel’s wing. Embroiled in the hidden world of the Relics, creatures known as the Kin, Angela Gough is now on the run in the United States.
Forty years ago the town of Longford was the site of a deadly disease outbreak that wiped out the entire population. The infection was contained, the town isolated, and the valley in which it sits flooded and turned into a reservoir. The truth - that the outbreak was intentional, and not every resident of Longford died - disappeared beneath the waves.
Now the town is revealed again. The Kin have an interest in the ruins, and soon the fairy Grace and the Nephilim leader Mallian are also drawn to them. The infection has risen from beneath silent waters, and this forgotten town becomes the focus of the looming battle between humankind and the Kin.
REVIEW: THE EDGE BY TIM LEBBON
Read more: Review: The Edge by Tim Lebbon
The Nearest Thing to Flying by Bruce Woods
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Others
Risingshadow has the honour of publishing a new guest short story by Bruce Woods, the author of Royal Blood and Dragon Blood.
(You can find the previous story here.)
About Royal Blood:
Historical and fictional characters come together and change the future of Africa forever. Renowned actress Lady Ellen Terry, detective Sherlock Holmes, financier Cecil Rhodes, hunter/naturalist Frederick Courtney Selous, King Lobengula, and a mysterious, undead adventuress named Paulette Monot become chess pieces in the Great Game, which takes the form of Africa's First Matabele War.
About Dragon Blood:
Paulette is sent on a mission to China with the words of her mentor ringing in her ears. “A hot wind is now fanning the flames of racism in China, Paulette." Said Lady Ellen Terry. "And, like dust in a drought, it has blown up an army. They call themselves 'the boxers’ society of righteous and harmonious fists,' or some variation thereof, and practice rituals that they claim bestow invulnerability and more. They are ill-armed and poorly trained but potentially numberless.
“Recently an auxiliary movement has sprung up. Reportedly consisting of young virgin women, from the ages of 12 to 18 and accounted uncommonly beautiful. They carry the name “Red Lanterns,” and claim the powers of flight, fire-starting, and miraculous healing. It is these I wish you to investigate for any sign of Kindred activity.
“More to the point, however, and though the Boxers alone present a threat through sheer force of numbers, the Dowager is perched upon a knife edge. Two camps of courtiers vie for her attention, moderates who would have her eliminate the Boxers for fear that, with the foreigners gone, they would turn upon her throne; and conservatives who urge her to throw in her hand with them to rid the Empire off all peoples and technologies from beyond its borders.”
She is to face great danger and the very real risk that despite her remarkable powers she will not survive. It will take skill and courage to avoid the multiple perils, and risk of exposure for what she really is, that await her in an increasingly turbulent China.
The Nearest Thing to Flying by Bruce Woods
Read more: The Nearest Thing to Flying by Bruce Woods
Review: Helena and Missoula by Grace Tydings
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Reviews
Grace Tydings' Helena was published in April 2019 and Missoula was published in July 2019. Both of them are independently published urban fantasy novels.
Information about Grace Tydings:
Grace Tydings lives in Maryland with her husband and pets. She loves the Urban Fantasy genre and is currently working on the next installment of the Black Paw Series (Release date 2020) and a new series which will be released by the end of the year.
Click here to visit her official website.
Information about Helena:
Sienna Harris is living on the beaches of North Carolina, avoiding the decision of what to do with her life. Trying to live in the human world when you aren’t quite human has its downside, and the urge to be near her own kind grows stronger by the day. Ten years after her mother’s mysterious death, Sienna returns to her hometown of Black Paw, Montana: a town full of secrets.
Black Paw Sheriff, Jack Ross, is monitoring a string of murdered human women in nearby Helena, Montana, becoming distracted when a distant memory returns to town. Nothing like the young girl he remembers standing over her mother’s grave, Sienna Harris is now a breathtaking woman who has consumed his thoughts. As murder lands on Black Paw’s doorstep, can Sienna and Jack find the missing link between past and present before it’s too late?
Information about Missoula:
Julia Cox thought she was in love with her boyfriend, Ron Silas, but discovers she is under a powerful spell. Beginning to build a resistance to the spell, Julia plots her escape from her lover turned captor. Having no family to turn to, she hopes to seek shelter in the place that can offer her the most safety: Black Paw, Montana.
Jesse Ross defended his country overseas with multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, he serves his hometown of Black Paw as the Deputy Sheriff. When a Wolfen woman leaves Black Paw to live with her Werewolf boyfriend in Missoula, the controversy spreads through the town like wildfire and Jesse needs Julia’s help to solve the mystery. Along the way, Julia struggles with letting go of her past captivity and embracing her new found freedom.
Can Jesse help Julia break her captor’s binding spell for good?
REVIEW: HELENA AND MISSOULA BY GRACE TYDINGS
Read more: Review: Helena and Missoula by Grace Tydings
Review: The Undead King of New York City by Caractacus Plume
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Reviews
Caractacus Plume's The Undead King of New York City was published by Silvatici Publishing in December 2018.
Information about Caractacus Plume:
Caractacus Plume is the official biographer of Lyons & Hound Paranormal Investigation Agency (est. 1895). Because of the highly sensitive nature of the Agency's work, some of the names in the upcoming manuscripts have been changed to protect the identities of certain individuals (the author's included).
Click here to visit the author's official website.
Information about The Undead King of New York City:
Beneath the thin veil of “normality”, The Unseen League wages a bitter war to protect the British Empire from the maleficent forces of the supernatural.
When a mysterious American visitor is brutally murdered, The League turns to their former agent, Mr Percival Percy - now a celebrated private paranormal investigator and self-styled guardian against the sinister legions of the night - to help solve the case.
As Mr Percy and his faithful assistant, the redoubtable Madame Wu, close in on the killers, it soon becomes abhorrently apparent that it is they who are the hunted and not the hunters.
REVIEW: THE UNDEAD KING OF NEW YORK CITY BY CARACTACUS PLUME
Read more: Review: The Undead King of New York City by Caractacus Plume