The world is dying.
The Sunset Lands are broken, torn apart by a war of ideology paid for with the lives of the peasants. Drought holds the east as famine ravages the farmlands. In the west, borders slam shut in the face of waves of refugees, dooming all of those trying to flee to slow starvation, or a future in forced labor camps. There is no salvation.
In the city of Lord’s Reach, Seraphina, a slave with unique talents, sets in motion a series of events that will change everything. In a fight for the soul of the nation, everyone is a player. But something ominous is calling people to Lord’s Reach and the very nature of magic itself is changing. Paths will converge, the battle for the Sunset Lands has shifted, and now humanity itself is at stake.
First, you must break before you can become.
Read more: Seraphina's Lament - Sarah Chorn
Review: The Synapse Sequence by Daniel Godfrey
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Reviews
Daniel Godfrey's The Synapse Sequence was published by Titan Books in June 2018.
Information about Daniel Godfrey:
Daniel Godfrey has had several short stories published, including in My Weekly and Writers’ Forum, and is a dedicated reader of SF and historical fiction. He studied geography at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and gained an MSc from Leeds in transport planning. He lives in Derbyshire.
Click here to visit his official website.
Information about The Synapse Sequence:
The new thrilling sci-fi novel from the author of New Pompeii and Empire of Time
In the near future, everyday life is dictated by algorithms, from who gets a bank loan or a job, to what supermarkets sell and which news stories you read. Even policing is run by AIs, who track patterns and predict where crimes are likely to occur.
Anna Glover joins a start-up company that hopes to revolutionise solving crimes by combining the memories of witnesses into a virtual reality simulator that can be explored by an investigator. Her first case is that of a fostered teenage boy put in a coma by a brutal assault, and she begins to explore his memories, the only witness to the crime. But when the boy’s sister disappears and Anna’s own actions are called into question, it becomes clear that there are other motives in play, and there are those who do not want her to succeed...
REVIEW: THE SYNAPSE SEQUENCE BY DANIEL GODFREY
Read more: Review: The Synapse Sequence by Daniel Godfrey
2018 World Fantasy Award Finalists
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Fandom
The finalists for the 2018 World Fantasy Awards have been announced.
Novel:
- The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty (Harper Voyager)
- Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymir by John Crowley (Saga Press)
- The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss (Saga Press)
- Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory (Bond Street Books CA/Knopf US/Riverrun UK)
- The Changeling by Victor LaValle (Spiegal & Grau)
- Jade City by Fonda Lee (Orbit)
Long fiction (10,000 to 40,000 words):
- The Teardrop Method by Simon Avery (TTA Press)
- In Calabria by Peter S. Beagle (Tachyon Publications)
- Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones (Tor.com)
- Passing Strange by Ellen Klages (Tor.com)
- The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang (Tor.com)
Anthology:
- The New Voices of Fantasy, edited by Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weisman (Tachyon Publications)
- Black Feathers: Dark Avian Tales, edited by Ellen Datlow (Pegasus Books)
- The Book of Swords, edited by Gardner Dozois (Bantam Books US/Harper Voyager UK)
- The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories, edited by Mahvesh Murad & Jared Shurin (Solaris)
- The Best of Subterranean edited by William Schafer (Subterranean Press)
Collection:
- Wicked Wonders by Ellen Klages (Tachyon Publications)
- Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (Graywolf Press)
- Down and Out in Purgatory: The Collected Stories of Tim Powers by Tim Powers (Baen Books)
- Tender by Sofia Samatar (Small Beer Press)
- The Emerald Circus by Jane Yolen (Tachyon Publications)
More information can be found here:
https://www.tor.com/2018/07/25/2018-world-fantasy-award-finalists/
https://www.sffworld.com/2018/07/news-2018-world-fantasy-award-nominations-announced/
Review: Paris Adrift by E.J. Swift
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Reviews
E.J. Swift's Paris Adrift was published by Solaris Books in February 2018.
Information about E.J. Swift:
E.J. Swift is the author of The Osiris Project, a speculative fiction trilogy published by Del Rey UK and Jabberwocky (US) that explores the geopolitical impacts of climate change. Book One, Osiris, is set in a future ocean metropolis, a failed utopia whose inhabitants believe they live on the last city on earth. The second book, Cataveiro, is set in South America, and expands the series to explore the world beyond Osiris. The series concludes with Tamaruq.
Her latest novel, Paris Adrift, a tale of bartenders, time travel and the City of Light, is published by Solaris.
Her short fiction has appeared in Interzone magazine and in anthologies from Salt Publishing, Jurassic London and NewCon Press. Her short story “Saga’s Children” (The Lowest Heaven, 2013, Jurassic) was shortlisted for a BSFA Award. You can read it online for free here. “The Spiders of Stockholm” (Irregularity, 2014, Jurassic) was longlisted for the 2015 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award.
Click here to visit her official website.
Information about Paris Adrift:
The Time Machine meets Midnight In Paris
Paris Was Supposed to Save Hallie. Now... Well, Let's Just Say Paris Has Other Ideas.
There's a strange woman called The Chronometrist who will not leave her alone. Garbled warnings from bizarre creatures keep her up at night. And there's a time portal in the keg room of the bar where she works.
Soon, Hallie is tumbling through the turbulent past and future Paris, making friends, changing the world - and falling in love.
But with every trip, Hallie loses a little of herself, and every infinitesimal change she makes ripples through time, until the future she's trying to save suddenly looks nothing like what she hoped for...
REVIEW: PARIS ADRIFT BY E.J. SWIFT
Read more: Review: Paris Adrift by E.J. Swift
An interview with Robert Jackson Bennett
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Interviews
Risingshadow has had the honour of interviewing Robert Jackson Bennett about his new novel, Foundryside, which is the first novel in The Founders Trilogy.
Robert Jackson Bennett is a two-time award winner of the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel, an Edgar Award winner for Best Paperback Original, and is also the 2010 recipient of the Sydney J Bounds Award for Best Newcomer, and a Philip K Dick Award Citation of Excellence. City of Stairs was shortlisted for the Locus Award and the World Fantasy Award. City of Blades was a finalist for the 2015 World Fantasy, Locus, and British Fantasy Awards. His seventh novel, City of Miracles, is in stores now.
Robert lives in Austin with his wife and large sons.
Click here to visit his official website.
Click here to read a review about Foundryside.
AN INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT JACKSON BENNETT
Read more: An interview with Robert Jackson Bennett
Review: The Archimage's Fourth Daughter by Lyndon Hardy
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Reviews
Lyndon Hardy's The Archimage's Fourth Daughter was published in December 2017.
Information about Lyndon Hardy:
Lyndon Hardy (1941- ) Author, prankster, grandfather.
He became interested in fantasy while wandering through the fringes of fandom when he was at Caltech. In addition to reading and writing, he has sporadic bursts of enthusiasm for collecting stamps and playing cards. As of yet, he has not figured out a plot line for a stamp collector who saves the world.
He published three fantasy novels for Ballantine/Del Rey in the 1980’s. They are now available again.
While at CalTech, in 1961 he organized and led what has been called the best college prank ever pulled - The Rose Bowl Card Stunt Caper.
He lives with his wife, Joan, in Torrance, California. Together they have two daughters and four living grandchildren.
Lyndon Hardy was born in Los Angeles, and except for a few years spent in Texas while growing up, has lived in California all his life. He received a BS in Physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1962 and a PhD in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1966. For 30 years he worked at TRW helping to build ground station software for satellites. After retiring from aerospace, he cofounded a software consulting firm, Alodar Systems, specializing in business processes, ERP solutions, and application integration. In 2016, he retired the company and began a new full time career of writing. Time will tell if he still has any gas left in the tank.
Click here to visit his official website.
Information about The Archimage's Fourth Daughter:
Alodar placed his hands on Briana’s shoulders, paused for a moment more, and then said softly, “The answer is no.”
“You can’t do that!” Briana yelled back. “Even the Archimage has limits to his power. You admitted as much yourself. You cannot order me around like some serf of an Arcadian lord.”
“I do not order you to stay because I am the Archimage,” Alodar said. “I do so because I am your father.”
Briana felt the anger well within her like a brush fire suddenly out of control. She clinched her teeth so as not to say more. The library page had a key to this council chamber, she thought fiercely. It might take more than a single kiss to get it, but that is what she would have to do.
Fourth book in the Magic by the Numbers series. A stand alone novel that does not require any of the preceding volumes need to read first.
REVIEW OF THE ARCHIMAGE'S FOURTH DAUGHTER BY LYNDON HARDY
Read more: Review: The Archimage's Fourth Daughter by Lyndon Hardy