An Extract from THE HAND OF THE SUN KING by J. T. Greathouse

THE HAND OF THE SUN KING J. T. Greathouse (jtgreathouse.com) Gollancz (gollancz.co.uk) £16.99 Buy a copy from your local independent bookshop Grandmother led me up the steps to the altar at the temple’s heart. She unbound her hair and let its thick reddish-brown curls, tinted grey at the temples, flow freely over her shoulders. Like […]

An Excerpt from ASHES OF THE SUN by Django Wexler

ASHES OF THE SUN Django Wexler (https://djangowexler.com/) Head of Zeus (https://headofzeus.com/home) £20.00 Prologue Gyre and Maya were playing ghouls and heroes. Gyre had to be the ghoul, of course. Maya would never tolerate being anything less than a hero. Summer was in full flower, and the sun was alone in a pale blue sky, with […]

INFLUENCES: What Inspired WIDOW’S WELCOME by D.K. Fields

WIDOW’S WELCOME D.K. Fields (dkfields.blogspot.com) Head of Zeus (headofzeus.com) £8.99 What inspired Widow’s Welcome? In short: “Mi dispiace, il mio italiano non va bene”. This became a mantra for us when travelling in Italy – “I’m sorry, my Italian is not good”. Whether Kath was trying to order peach ice cream but kept saying ‘fish’, […]

An Extract From THE BLACK HAWKS by David Wragg

THE BLACK HAWKS David Wragg (www.davewragg.com) HarperVoyager (harpervoyagerbooks.co.uk) £8.99 ‘Kitchen’s closed.’ A hard-faced woman in a smock barred the doorway. ‘Closed? Nonsense, my jewel,’ Heali replied. ‘How could the kitchen be closed in a festival week? We’re but days from the feast!’ The woman’s eyes narrowed. She had a jaw like quarried stone and […]

THE SPIDER DANCE by Nick Setchfield

THE SPIDER DANCE Nick Setchfield (www.nicksetchfield.com) Titan Books (titanbooks.com) £7.99 Christopher Winter, no longer working for British Intelligence, finds himself recruited by London’s gangland. But you’re never really “out” of the security services, as Winter discovers when he is summoned by his old boss. Tasked with getting Alessandra Moltini out of Budapest, Winter quickly realises […]

GUEST POST: SNUGGLE the Cat by Frank Hinks

THE TALES OF RAMION: The Dream Thief The Land of Lost Hair Frankie and the Dancing Furies Creatures of the Forest Frank Hinks (www.ramion-books.com) Perronet Press £12.99 each To mark the release of Frank Hinks’ quriky new childrens series, The Tales of Ramion, I’m very happy to welcome Frank to Reader Dad, and present a […]

THE BELLES by Dhonielle Clayton

THE BELLES Dhonielle Clayton (www.dhonielleclayton.com) Gollancz (www.gollancz.co.uk) £10.99 The people of Orléans are born with grey skin and red eyes, cursed – according to legend – by the God of Sky to eventual madness. In every generation a group of Belles are born, young women who have the power to change how people look and […]

CORPSELIGHT by Angela Slatter

CORPSELIGHT Angela Slatter (www.angelaslatter.com) Jo Fletcher Books (www.jofletcherbooks.com) £13.99 Heavily pregnant, Verity Fassbinder has been side-lined by boss Zvezdomir “Bela” Tepes, which is how she ends up watching a young normal woman whose house is inundated with foul-smelling mud on a monthly basis. When people, both Weyrd and Normal, start to drown on dry land, […]

GUEST POST: World Building in the RELICS Universe by Tim Lebbon

Name: TIM LEBBON Author of: COLDBROOK (2012) THE HUNT (2015) RELICS (2017) On the web: http://www.timlebbon.net On Twitter: @timlebbon I love world building. A few years ago I wrote a series of fantasy novels for Bantam in the USA, and also a couple for Orbit in the UK. Four of these––the Noreela novels––all […]

RELICS by Tim Lebbon

RELICS Tim Lebbon (www.timlebbon.net) Titan Books (titanbooks.com) £7.99 Angela Gough’s life is happy and normal until the day her boyfriend, Vince, leaves for work and doesn’t come back. Mysterious notes through the door, which may be in his handwriting tell her to stay away, not to look for him, but Angela isn’t about to let […]