Author Archives: Michael

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Mike Shackle Talks A Fool’s Hope

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview – today I’m talking to author Mike Shackle as part of the blog tour for his new novel A Fool’s Hope, which is published tomorrow by Gollancz! As the sequel to We Are The Dead – one of my favourite books of 2019 – I’ve been looking forward to this one for a long time, so I’m delighted to be part of the blog tour, and to have been able to chat to Mike about this awesome new book. Read on to find out more about A Fool’s Hope, The Last War trilogy as a whole, and even get a hint of what’s still to come – and then make sure you go out and grab a copy!

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December 2020 Releases From Aconyte Books

A new month means a new batch of cool new novels from Aconyte Books, so today I’m taking my usual look ahead to what’s coming in December, and back at what was published in November. Even after just a few months of releasing books, Aconyte are already one of my favourite publishers, and I’m really enjoying exploring the different IPs that they’re publishing stories in, all of which have (so far) been pretty new to me. I’d very much recommend you check out some of their new releases – read on to find out a bit more about the latest few! I’ve included links to reviews and author interviews where available.

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Monthly Roundup – November 2020

Welcome to November’s Monthly Roundup here on Track of Words, where I’m taking a quick look back over the last month in terms of what I’ve been posting on ToW, and what I’ve been reading. I’ve posted a review, interview or article every day this month, so hopefully there’s been plenty of interest – but I appreciate it might be tricky to keep track of everything! I’ve been making weekly ‘here’s what you might have missed’ posts over on my Ko-Fi page to help with that, but hopefully this article will be useful too. Of the 30 articles published in November (including this one) a few were covered in last month’s update, but otherwise the remaining 24 are all linked out to below.

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Poison River – Josh Reynolds

Josh Reynolds kicks off his ‘Daidoji Shin Mysteries’ series of Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) stories with Poison River, his second novel for Aconyte Books. Sent by his family to the City of the Rich Frog to oversee the Crane Clan’s trade activities, Daidoji Shin relieves his boredom by spending his days drinking and gambling, much to the dismay of his bodyguard Kasami. All that changes, however, when the Imperial governor sets him the task of uncovering the culprit behind a plot that risks upsetting the balance of power in the city. Invigorated by the investigation, Shin throws himself (and Kasami) into his work, in spite of the danger posed by rival clans, court politics and hired assassins.

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The Black Library Online Preview – Hopes and Predictions For 2021

There might not have been a Black Library Weekender this year (it’s 2020 after all – what do you expect?!), but on Saturday 5th December there’s going to be an online Black Library preview, replicating the ‘Coming Soon’ seminar that usually closes each Weekender. I thought it might be interesting to look ahead to the online preview and speculate a little on what’s going to be announced for 2021. It’s all guesswork at this point, but a bit of speculation is always fun, and I’ve thrown in some of my hopes for 2021 as well (i.e. things I’m not expecting to be announced, but that I’d love to see).

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QUICK REVIEW: Sacrifice – Danie Ware

Part of Danie Ware’s excellent series of Adepta Sororitas tales, short story Sacrifice sees Sister Augusta and her squad in dire straits when their shuttle is shot down over a toxic chem-planet. Cut off from Imperial forces in inhospitable terrain, the Sisters need to defend their position until they can be safely extracted, but they’re pinned down and vulnerable with an unarmoured Sister Hospitaller and an injured pilot in their midst. As enemies close in all around, Augusta and her Sisters look to their faith to not just protect them, but also guide them to survival.

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Win a Signed Book and Support Mind – For Better Mental Health (Now Closed)

NOTE: we raised £160 with this raffle, which I’m delighted with! Thank you so much to everyone who donated.

The Black Library Events Anthology 2019/20 is a great collection of Warhammer short stories, and I’m offering a copy signed by all six authors (plus most of the Black Library editors) as a prize to raise money for Mind, a wonderful charity offering mental health support to those who need it in England and Wales. I also have a second, unsigned copy for a second prize! To stand a chance of winning, all you need to do is donate £5 to Mind between the 26th November and the 10th December.

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The Infinite and the Divine – Robert Rath

For his debut Black Library novel, Robert Rath goes big with The Infinite and the Divine, a grand tale spanning thousands of years of bitter rivalry between two virtually immortal Necrons. Trazyn the Infinite (archaeovist and Overlord of Solemnace) and Orikan the Diviner (Master Astromancer of the Sautekh Dynasty) have been rivals since their days of flesh and blood, opposites in both outlook and temperament. After Orikan steals the Astrarium Mysterios from Trazyn’s galleries on Solemnace, their enmity escalates into a deadly feud as, over the course of millennia, each attempts to outdo the other in pursuit of the ancient artifact and the power (or in Trazyn’s case, the collectible history) they hope it can unlock.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: David Annandale Talks The Harrowing of Doom

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview where today I’m talking to David Annandale about his upcoming Aconyte novel, The Harrowing of Doom! There have been a few Marvel prose novels already released by Aconyte, but this is the first in the Marvel: Untold range – “new tales of Marvel’s Super Heroes and villains”. It’s due out in ebook and as a US paperback on the 1st December, with the UK paperback following on the 7th January 2021.

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QUICK REVIEW: Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law – Lavie Tidhar

The first in a new series of short stories from Lavie Tidhar, published by Tor.com, Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law is a delightful mix of gothic vampire story and Golden Age mystery. Accompanied by his slightly hesitant human assistant Jonathan, Judge Dee – a wise old vampire prone to long stares and thoughtful pauses – travels to the Castello d’oro to investigate a squabble between two vampire nobles. As the enforcer of vampiric law (the pax lamia) it’s within his power to be judge, jury and executioner, but first he needs to uncover the truth of what really happened.

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