Author Archives: Michael

February 2021 Releases From Aconyte Books

February is here, so it’s time for me to take a quick look at the cool new novels being published this month by Aconyte Books – this time around we’ve got two new books, set in the worlds of Legend of the Five Rings and Descent: Journeys in the Dark! After last month’s extended article, with its recap of all of Aconyte’s 2020 releases, I’m back to the usual format again, so I’ll give you the publisher’s synopsis for the two new novels for February, talk a little bit about each of them, and link out to my author interviews for both books and a review for one of them. I’ve now read 11 of Aconyte’s novels, and they just keep turning out fantastic books – if you haven’t yet taken the plunge, I really can’t recommend them enough!

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The Night Parade of 100 Demons – Marie Brennan

Aconyte Books’ growing range of Legends of the Five Rings novels continues to impress with Marie Brennan’s fantastic The Night Parade of 100 Demons, a “supernatural investigation adventure” featuring a pair of mismatched samurai and a horde of creepy spirits. Dragon shugenja Ryōtora travels to the remote village of Seibo Mura, where rampaging yōkai have been causing havoc and killing villagers. There he meets Phoenix scholar Sekken and begrudgingly, albeit politely, agrees to accept the other man’s help in discovering what’s causing the disturbances, and how to prevent any further chaos. Despite their apparent differences the two samurai forge an effective partnership, but both men must find ways to deal with the secrets they carry if they’re to succeed in saving Seibo Mura.

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A Guide to John French’s Ahriman Series

Regular readers of Track of Words will probably know how much of a fan I am of John French’s Warhammer 40,000 series of Ahriman stories. I remember reading Ahriman: Exile back in 2012 and just being blown away by the atmosphere, the storytelling and the depth of this intriguing character, and as the trilogy progressed it developed into one of my all-time favourite Black Library series. It might not be for everyone, but I just love the narrative complexity and the detail of these characters! There’s more to this series than just a trio of novels (and counting) though, and one of its strengths is the way the books are complemented by a host of additional short stories. The only problem is, it’s not necessarily easy to know where to start – so that’s where this article comes in!

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Cover Reveal: The Splinter King by Mike Brooks

Today I’m thrilled to reveal the amazing cover for Mike Brooks’ upcoming fantasy novel The Splinter King, book two in The God-King Chronicles, which is due to be published by Orbit on the 15th July 2021. It’s an unusual situation as the first book in the series – The Black Coast – isn’t out yet (it’s coming very soon, on the 18th February in the UK), but the way I see it this just means we’ve got TWO awesome new fantasy novels in this series to look forward to in 2021! Along with the cover itself, I spoke to Mike to get a few of his thoughts on the artwork and what we can expect from the series as a whole – so read on to find out more.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Marie Brennan Talks The Night Parade of 100 Demons

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview – today I’m chatting to Marie Brennan about her upcoming novel The Night Parade of 100 Demons, the third in Aconyte Books’ new series of Legend of the Five Rings novels. If you fancy a characterful, investigative mystery story full of supernatural creatures and elemental magic then this is definitely worth checking out, and I asked Marie for a few more details of what to expect and where she drew her influences from for this fantastic book. It’s due out as a global ebook and US paperback on the 2nd February, with the UK paperback coming a little bit later on the 15th April.

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Inscape – Louise Carey

Louise Carey’s debut novel Inscape is a smart, modern sci-fi thriller, a dystopian tale exploring a worryingly realistic future in which corporations dominate every aspect of life, and London is held on a knife-edge between two all-powerful tech behemoths. Tanta is a Corporate Ward of InTech, raised to be utterly loyal to the company which has given her everything, and trained to be the consummate agent. When her first full mission ends in blood and loss, she throws herself into hunting down the source of leaked corporate data alongside a partner whose chequered history and weary worldview couldn’t be more different to her own. Tanta is desperate to succeed and prove her value to InTech, but as her investigation proceeds she’s forced to confront some difficult truths about the company and her life up to this point.

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Widow’s Welcome – D.K. Fields

Book one in the fantasy/crime trilogy Tales of Fenest by D.K. Fields – pen name of Katherine Stansfield and David Towsey – Widow’s Welcome introduces a vibrant, unconventional world in which stories hold great power. In the Union of Realms, a “collective of six different peoples with their own customs and traditions”, political control is determined in an election every five years by carefully-chosen storytellers and the popularity of their stories. The city is always hectic during an election year, as people from across the Union descend on the central city of Fenest to hear each realm’s story. When a Wayward man is found dead in an alley with his lips sewn shut, however, Detective Cora Gorderheim starts to realise that there’s more going on than general unrest.

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RAPID FIRE: David Annandale Talks The Deacon of Wounds

Welcome to this instalment of my Rapid Fire series of author interviews – today I’m chatting to David Annandale about his new Warhammer Horror novel The Deacon of Wounds, his second book in Black Library’s growing range of Warhammer 40,000-set horror stories. If you’re keen to know more about this novel, and how a plague story came to be released in the midst of a global pandemic, read on to find out! The Deacon of Wounds will be be available to pre-order from Black Library on the 30th January, in both hardback and ebook formats (no word as yet on whether there will be an audiobook or not).

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A Few Thoughts On: Servants of the Imperium

Black Library’s Warhammer 40,000 anthology Servants of the Imperium features a trio of novellas, all of which were first published as part of the ‘Black Library Novella Series 1’ back in 2018 – Auric Gods by Nick Kyme, Danie Ware’s The Bloodied Rose, and Steel Daemon by Ian St. Martin. As with its Age of Sigmar counterpart Champions of the Mortal Realms, this anthology has had a slightly strange release history, but it’s worth checking out for anyone interested in Imperium-focused stories a little different to the usual Space Marines fare. I’ll take a quick look at each novella and link out to my individual reviews, but before that I’ll talk a bit about the anthology as a whole and its unusual publication history.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: David Guymer Talks The Shield of Daqan

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview – today I’m speaking to David Guymer about his new novel The Shield of Daqan, which is coming very soon from Aconyte Books as part of their range of Descent: Journeys in the Dark fiction. I asked David for the lowdown on the story, the characters, and his take on the Descent world. If you’re a fan of David’s Warhammer fiction and are keen to see him explore a slightly different, somewhat less grim and dark setting, this looks like being the perfect opportunity! It’s due out as a global ebook and US paperback on the 2nd February, with the UK paperback coming a little bit later on the 15th April.

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