Tag Archives: Matthew Ward

Exclusive Excerpt: The Darkness Before Them by Matthew Ward

Matthew Ward’s The Darkness Before Them comes out from Orbit on the 7th November, kicking off a brand new fantasy series – the Soulfire Saga. I’m really looking forward to this new series, and very happy to support the release of this new book. I’ve already chatted to Matthew for a teaser interview about it, and as part of the blog tour for the book’s release Matthew wrote a fascinating guest post exploring the concept of surprises in fiction (something The Darkness Before Them promises to contain plenty of), and why they’re so effective. That’s not all, however. As the SECOND instalment in my contribution to the blog tour, I’m delighted to present an exclusive excerpt from The Darkness Before Them, to give you a taste of what to expect.

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Surprise! (or I Bet You Did See that Coming) – Matthew Ward Guest Post

Hello and welcome to this Track of Words guest post, where today I’m joined by the fantastic Matthew Ward, author of The Darkness Before Them – book one in the Soulfire Saga, coming out from Orbit on the 7th November. With this, his fourth novel with Orbit (after the fantastic Legacy Trilogy), coming so soon, Matthew has very kindly contributed a fantastic post on the topic of surprises in fiction, something that as readers I think we’re always hoping for, and very happy to see. Whether you’re a reader interested in understanding why literary surprises work, or a writer keen for insight into how to make them work, there’s loads to enjoy here – so read on to find out more!

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Teaser Interview: Matthew Ward Introduces The Darkness Before Them

Hello and welcome to this Track of Words Teaser Interview with the excellent Matthew Ward, who’s here to talk a little about what to expect from his upcoming novel The Darkness Before Them. Book one in a brand new fantasy trilogy, if this is anything like his previous books it’s definitely going to be one to look out for! The release date – November 2023 – is still a little way off though, so rather than a full, regular interview, we’ve gone for something a little different. It’s not as in depth as usual – it is a teaser interview after all – but hopefully this will be enough to whet your appetite for the novel!

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Queen of Eventide – Matthew Ward

First released in 2015 but with a nice new cover and an audiobook edition published in 2022, Matthew Ward’s Queen of Eventide explores the history, folklore and mythology of Nottingham in a bleak and mist-shrouded tale of the fantastical bleeding over into the real world. Returning to Nottingham in search of a fresh start, Maddie Lincoln finds only painful memories and unsettling dreams. Those dreams come to terrifying life when she finds herself drawn into a strange world of fearsome hunters and mythical figures, as the hidden realm of Eventide begins to overlap with her own comfortable reality. Nothing has prepared Maddie for being caught up in a magical conflict spanning centuries, but the strange laws and terrible truths of Eventide reveal in her a strength she didn’t realise she possessed.

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A Few Thoughts On: Legacy of Steel by Matthew Ward

I’m delighted to have another review live on the British Fantasy Society website, this time for Legacy of Steel by Matthew Ward – the sequel to Legacy of Ash, and the second book in the epic (in every sense of the word) Legacy Trilogy. I’m not going to just reprint the review – here’s the link to the BFS website so you can read it in full – but I feel like this article should be more than just a paragraph and a link. As such, I thought I would use this space to talk a bit about the series (so far) as a whole, and my experience of reading Legacy of Steel, which was a little unusual for me.

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The End of an Era – Matthew Ward Guest Post

Hello and welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Matthew Ward’s new novel Legacy of Light, the third and final volume in the Legacy Trilogy, which is published today by Orbit. For this post, Matthew has written a fantastic guest blog in which he talks about the experience of finishing this epic fantasy trilogy, and offers up some interesting (and spoiler-free) facts about the brand new Legacy of Light. If you haven’t already, make sure you also check out all the other stops on this great blog tour for reviews, interviews and more guest blogs from Matthew – I’ll include details of where to find these at the end of this article – but for now I’m delighted to hand Track of Words over to Matthew…

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Legacies: The Power of the Past – Matthew Ward Guest Post

Hello and welcome to the first ever Track of Words guest post – The Power of the Past – in which the fantastic Matthew Ward discusses the importance of legacies in storytelling. With the second novel in Matthew’s Legacy Trilogy just released via Orbit, I’m delighted to present this guest post as part of the Legacy of Steel blog tour, alongside some fantastic bloggers and SFF websites. I’ll link out to all the other stops on the tour at the end of this article, and I would highly recommend you check out all the reviews, interviews and guest posts that make up the tour.

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Legacy of Ash – Matthew Ward

Matthew Ward’s The Legacy Trilogy opens with Legacy of Ash, a 240k word behemoth of a novel which sets out Ward’s stall for the series and emphasises the epic in epic fantasy. Fifteen years after a failed Southshire rebellion, the Republic of Tressia is still mired in internecine conflict, its ruling Council divided on how to deal with their troublesome southern subjects. When the looming threat of the neighbouring Hadari Empire becomes too much to ignore, it falls to the Council’s champion Viktor Akadra to rally the Southshires in defence of the Republic, while siblings Josiri and Calenne Trelan – whose mother led the failed rebellion – face difficult choices as they confront both the lasting implications of their mother’s actions, and Viktor’s role in her death.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Matthew Ward Talks Legacy of Steel

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, in which I’m talking to Matthew Ward about his new novel Legacy of Steel, the sequel to 2019’s Legacy of Ash (which I spoke to Matthew about in a previous interview). It’s due out from Orbit in both hardback and ebook in early November, so whether you’ve read and enjoyed Legacy of Ash and have been looking forward to book two, or are coming to the Legacy Trilogy for the first time, it’s a great opportunity now to find out more about this brilliant epic fantasy series.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Matthew Ward Talks Legacy of Ash

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, my ongoing series of quick interviews with authors talking about their new or upcoming books. These are short and sweet interviews, with the idea being that each author will answer (more or less) the same questions – by the end of each interview I hope you will have a good idea of what the new book (or audio drama) is about, what inspired it and why you might want to read or listen to it.

In this interview I spoke to Matthew Ward about his epic fantasy novel Legacy of Ash, which is out this week in paperback from Orbit. If you’re a fan of epic (in more than one sense of the word) fantasy novels, then this should be of interest – it’s getting great reviews, and sounds fantastic!

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