Genres: science fiction
The first novel in an exciting new series, Every Sky a Grave is a thrilling space epic following a powerful woman who can destroy planets with a single word and who is suddenly faced with an adversary that threatens the entire known universe.
Mankind has conquered the galaxy. Since decoding the language of the universe 8,000 years ago, they have reached the very edges of their known galaxy and built a near-utopia across thousands of worlds, united by a common language and a powerful organization known as the Ascendance. The peaceful stability of their society relies solely on this Language.
As the Ascendance prepares for the next stage of human evolution — making the leap from one galaxy to the next — they send Elyth, a female agent trained in the art of a math-encoded language that allows humans to travel to the edges of the galaxy, on a clandestine mission to suppress an uprising before it begins. While doing reconnaissance, she follows the trail of a unique speech pattern thought to be extinguished long ago and comes face-to-face with a man who should no longer exist — Varen Fedic, the First Speaker and one of the Ascendance’s most dangerous adversaries.
Varen’s understanding of the deep Language is thorough, so much so that Elyth soon learns that the disciples whom she mistook for followers are actually his captors. Forcing Varen to teach them his ways, they plan to use his powers against an unknown force that is stopping humanity from leaving the galaxy. And now Elyth and Varen face something truly alien — an unknown species for which the Language has no name.
Every Sky a Grave is the beginning of an expansive and ambitious space opera about the power of words and identity from the author of “thrilling, action-packed science fiction that grabs and doesn’t let go” (Jason M. Hough, New York Times bestselling author).
Read more: Every Sky a Grave - Jay Posey
An interview with K.D. Edwards
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Interviews
Risingshadow has had an opportunity to interview K.D. Edwards about his latest fantasy novel, The Hanged Man.
About the author:
K.D. Edwards is the author of The Tarot Sequence urban fantasy series. The Hanged Man (PYR; December 17, 2019) is the follow-up to Edwards debut The Last Sun.
Edwards lives and writes in North Carolina, but has spent time in Massachusetts, Maine, Colorado, New Hampshire, Montana, and Washington. (Common theme until NC: Snow. So, so much snow.)
Mercifully short careers in food service, interactive television, corporate banking, retail management, and bariatric furniture has led to a much less short career in Higher Education.
Click here to visit his official website.
About The Hanged Man:
The last member of a murdered House tries to protect his ward from forced marriage to a monster while uncovering clues to his own past.
The Tarot Sequence imagines a modern-day Atlantis off the coast of Massachusetts, governed by powerful Courts based on the traditional Tarot deck.
Rune Saint John, last child of the fallen Sun Throne, is backed into a fight of high court magic and political appetites in a desperate bid to protect his ward, Max, from a forced marital alliance with the Hanged Man.
Rune's resistance will take him to the island's dankest corners, including a red light district made of moored ghost ships; a surreal skyscraper farm; and the floor of the ruling Convocation, where a gathering of Arcana will change Rune's life forever.
AN INTERVIEW WITH K.D. EDWARDS
Read more: An interview with K.D. Edwards
An interview with Jon Sprunk
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Interviews
Risingshadow has had an opportunity to interview the fantasy author Jon Sprunk.
About the author:
Jon Sprunk is the author of Sun and Serpent (Dec. 17, PYR), book four of The Book of the Black Earth fantasy series. Although he has always been an avid reader of speculative fiction, it was during his college years that he developed a broader passion for literature and began his foray into fiction writing.
Sprunk also wrote the Shadow Saga (Shadow’s, Son, Shadow’s Lure, and Shadow’s Master). Shadow’s Son was a finalist for the Compton Crook Award and also a nominee for the David Gemmell Award in two categories.
Jon lives in central Pennsylvania with his wife and son. When not writing, he enjoys travel, collecting medieval and ancient weaponry, and pro football.
Connect with the author online:
Website: JonSprunk.com
Facebook: /JonSprunkAuthor
Twitter: @JonSprunk
Goodreads: /Jon_Sprunk
Patreon: /jonsprunk
About Sun and Serpent:
The war continues, and undead ravage the land. Jirom, Horace, and Emanon begin to hope they might free the empire. But can they manage to do so before the Dark King conquers the world?
Horace has come a long way from his days of slavery. Now he, Jirom, and their companions think they just might glimpse victory ahead, and the triumphant end to what began as a mere slave rebellion. But first Horace must recover from the loss of his beloved Alyra. And Jirom finds himself asking if even victory will be worth the cost - how can he be sure he and the other winners of this war will rule more justly than the Akeshians did?
Meanwhile, a mysterious mass murder-suicide in a temple in Thuum hints that they have more foes than they knew of. And as they advance upon the capital, they find strange obstacles barring their way. Obstacles that suggest the barriers between worlds are growing dangerously thin...
AN INTERVIEW WITH JON SPRUNK
Read more: An interview with Jon Sprunk
Guest post by Jason P. Hein
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Guest Post
Risingshadow has the honour of featuring a guest post by Jason P. Hein.
About the Author:
Jason P. Hein is a writer of Medieval Fantasy and Science-Fantasy, best known for his four book saga The Varsian Kingdom Series. He also writes poetry and short stories, mostly connected to The Varsian Kingdom. Jason began writing at 13 years of age and published his first book, Inspired Poetry, when he was 17. He has also been featured in the Mirrored Voices Poetry Anthologies, and his first two books in The Varsian Kingdom have hit #1 best sellers in the top 100 Free Teen & Young Adult Sword & Sorcery Fantasy eBooks.
Jason currently lives outside a rural community in Oklahoma on his family farm. While the solitude and nature nurture his creativity, he is continually adding to the Varsian Kingdom. His latest project, Music From Varsia, includes 8 musical tracks. Each track representing a unique culture from the Varsian Kingdom itself.
You can visit his official website at www.VarsianKingdom.com
GUEST POST BY JASON P. HEIN
Read more: Guest post by Jason P. Hein
Review: Good Intentions by Ira Nayman
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Reviews
Ira Nayman's Good Intentions was published by Elsewhen Press in a digital edition in April 2019 and in paperback in June 2019.
About Ira Nayman:
In his past lives, Ira Nayman was, among other things: a cave painter whose art was not appreciated in his lifetime; several nameless peasants who died before their 20th birthday during the Dark Ages; a toenail fungus specialist in the court of Louis XIV; and Alan Turing’s scullery maid.
In his current incarnation, Ira is the creator of Les Pages aux Folles, a Web site of political and social satire that was 11 years old in the first week of September, 2013 (that’s positively Paleolithic in Internet years!). Three collections of Alternate Reality News Service (ARNS) stories (Alternate Reality Ain’t What It Used To Be, What Were Once Miracles Are Now Children’s Toys and Luna for the Lunies!) which originally appeared on the Web site have been self-published in print. Two new volumes of ARNS stories – The Street Finds Its Own Uses for Market Lateralization and The Alternate Reality News Service’s Guide To Sex, Love and Robots were published in 2013. Ira has produced the pilot for a radio series based on stories from the first two ARNS books; “The Weight of Information, Episode One” can be heard on YouTube.
Ira has also written a series of stories that take place in a universe where matter at all levels of organization has become conscious. They feature Antonio Van der Whall, object psychologist. To date, four of these stories have been sold. “A Really Useful Engine” has been published in Even Birds Are Chained To The Sky and Other Tales: The Fine Line Short Story Collection and “Escalation is Academic” has appeared in the anthology UnCONventional. “If the Mountain Won’t Come to Mohammed” can be found in Here Be Monsters. “Thinking is the Worst Way to Travel” has been accepted into Explorers: Beyond the Horizon. Several other stories in the series are currently awaiting editorial decisions at various publications.
Ira’s Web Goddess tells him he should make more of the fact that he won the 2010 Jonathan Swift Satire Writing Contest. So, Ira won the 2010 Jonathan Swift Satire Writing Contest.
In another life (but still within this incarnation) Ira has a Masters degree in Media Studies from The New School for Social Research which was conducted entirely online. He also has a PhD in Communications from McGill University. Ira taught New Media part-time at Ryerson University for five years.
Whoever created the Karmic wheel has a lot to answer for...
Click here to visit his official website.
About Good Intentions:
Being the sixth novel in Ira Nayman’s Multiverse series (aka the Transdimensional Authority series). But also the First Pie in the Face of the Multiverse Refugees Trilogy (which will make sense when you read it!)
At the end of You Can’t Kill the Multiverse (But You Can Mess With its Head), Doctor Alhambra, the chief scientist of the Transdimensional Authority, set up an alarm to warn him if a universe is succumbing to the universe-killing machine that is at the heart of the story. But how would the Transdimensional Authority respond if that alarm went off?
In Good Intentions, the first book in the Multiverse Refugees Trilogy, but also the sixth Transdimensional Authority novel, we find out. In the process we not only meet the most unusual refugees in fiction (probably), learn what Noomi Rapier’s brother does (and with whom), revisit Dingle Dell, and finally discover what happened to chapter seventeen of The Multiverse is a Nice Place to Visit But I Wouldn’t Want to Live There.
REVIEW: GOOD INTENTIONS BY IRA NAYMAN
Read more: Review: Good Intentions by Ira Nayman
Review: Thorns of a Black Rose by David Craig
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Reviews
David Craig's Thorns of a Black Rose was published by Elsewhen Press in a digital edition in July 2019 and in paperback in October 2019.
About David Craig:
Aside from three months living on an oil tanker sailing back and forth between America and Africa, and two years living in a pub, David Craig grew up on the west coast of Scotland. He studied Software Engineering at university, but lost interest in the subject after (and admittedly prior to) graduation. He currently works as a resourcing administrator for a public service contact centre, and lives near Glasgow with his wife, daughter and two rabbits.
Being a published writer had been a life-long dream, and one that he was delighted to finally realise with his debut novel, Resurrection Men, the first in the Sooty Feathers series, published by Elsewhen Press in 2018. Before the next book in the Sooty Feathers series though, Elsewhen Press has published his latest fantasy epic Thorns of a Black Rose.
Click here to visit his official Twitter page.
About Thorns of a Black Rose:
Revenge and responsibility, confrontation and consequences.
A hot desert land of diverse peoples dealing with demons, mages, natural disasters ... and the Black Rose assassins.
Having endured two years of hardship and loss on a quest for vengeance, Shukara arrives in the city of Mask where her pouch is stolen by Tamira, a young street-smart thief. Hunting down the thief, Shukara discovers that Tamira has emptied the pouch, throwing away some of the rarer reagents that Shukara needs for her magick. Being unfamiliar with Mask and unsure of where to find replacements for her reagents, Shukara shows mercy to Tamira in exchange for her help in replacing what has been lost. Together they brave the intrigues of Mask, and soon discover that they have a mutual enemy in the Black Rose, an almost legendary band of merciless assassins. But this is just the start of their journeys...
REVIEW: THORNS OF A BLACK ROSE BY DAVID CRAIG
Read more: Review: Thorns of a Black Rose by David Craig