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New Release Roundup, 5 January 2019: Fantasy – castaliahouse.com

New Release Roundup, 5 January 2019: Fantasy

Saturday , 5, January 2019 2 Comments

This week’s roundup of the newest releases in fantasy feature a wayward Roman legion, a demon horde rampage through India, and the Sword of Truth.


The Darkest Revenge (The Elder Stones Saga #1) – D.K. Holmberg

Ages ago, powerful beings known only as the Elders left their mark on the world, gifting powerful stones to their followers. Through these stones, some have been gifted by birth with great abilities, while others search for them as a way to access that power. Scattered around the known lands, wars have been fought for them, and won by them.

On the outskirts of the city, living within an ancient stronghold, Haern longs for a life beyond what he knows—and away from the long shadow cast by his father. When an attack on the city renews a decades old battle, Haern volunteers to leave the city and find the one person who can lead their people to victory. His inexperience might kill him, but his instincts might be the reason they succeed.

For Daniel, a member of the ruling family, life in the palace is easy and his path is clear. Eventually, he will rise up to sit on the council and lead the people of the city. An injury to someone he cares for changes everything for him, and he must go to the one person he despises most for help. If he fails, he’ll learn what it means to lose everything he cares about.

Though born to power, Lucy longs for an understanding she can’t find in books. When a horrible attack leaves her forever changed, her quest for understanding leads her to those responsible—and a means of stopping them.

All paths lead toward the Elder Stones, for the one who controls the stones controls power.


Demon Days (The Valens Legacy #12) – Jan Stryvant

The war has finally begun and the duty of fighting it has fallen to Sean. Now if only he could convince the rest of the world that there really is a war on and it isn’t just another ‘art installation’ at Burning Man. Maybe then he could get some help. Fronting the costs of a war isn’t cheap, and while Sean may be making money hand over fist, he’s spending it twice as fast. If he doesn’t get help soon, the lack of money, food, and supplies will kill him faster than any demon.

Then there’s the demons themselves. What comes out of the gates at times seems almost as random as the gates themselves. Some of the groups are obviously coordinated and very well trained making Sean’s job of stopping them a hard one. As the gates are getting larger with time until the main one opens, Sean will find his resources and his people being stretched farther and thinner as the immortal demon lords bring their massive armies to bear.

Because humans are food to the demons and the larder is now very full, and they don’t intend to leave this time until they’ve eaten every last one.


Fortress of Radiance (The Karus Saga #2) – Marc Alan Edelheit

Surrounded by an army of Celts and facing certain destruction, the Ninth Imperial Legion, one of Rome’s most powerful military formations, has been unexpectedly transported to the world of Tannis. The legion, now under the command of Camp Prefect Karus, finds itself lost in a strange land. Cut off from everything they have known, they find temporary shelter in the abandoned city of Carthum.

They quickly learn an unholy army of orcs, goblins, trolls, and humans known as the Horde is on the march, sweeping across the face of Tannis like a dark tide, conquering one land at a time. No force upon this world has been able to withstand the armies of the enemy. Yet the Horde has never met the might of Rome, and Karus means to fight.

In the dungeons under the palace, Amarra, last of the faithful, is found. Together they are visited by Jupiter himself and given a series of dangerous tasks that sets them on the path of destiny. The first is to recover the dread sword Rarokan the Soul Breaker from the Fortress of Radiance. But the sword has a will of its own, and the enemy will stop at nothing to get the dangerous relic.


The Iron Trishula (The Iron Soul #8) – J.M. Briggs

A call from an ancient ally takes the mages to India. A Demon horde has found a way around the defense of the Iron Gates and is building an army to take over the Iron Realm. The Desai family, descendants of one of the past Iron Souls, welcome the mages with open arms, but how can Alex reconcile with an old family when she’s lost her modern one?

Lokpal was a warrior, trained from childhood to protect his home from the Demons who wander the land. Nothing prepared him for a god slipping into madness. When two strangers with magic arrive, he must navigate between his culture, his family, his beliefs, and the long-standing traditions upheld by the Grand Mages if they have any chance of stopping the Demons.


The Opal Throne (The Black Moon Chronicles #18) – François Froideval and Fabrice Angleraud

At the center of the empire was the Oracle… The Oracle announced the coming of the one who would change the world. This is his story. One day, when Heads-or-Tails was out roaming the forest, he comes across a nameless man. He christens him Wismerhill, and from that day forth, the pair are inseparable. They start out on the road of adventure, and sooner or later end up joining a gang of amiable war dogs, feared throughout the land. Wismerhill soon proves his worth, and begins to demonstrate some surprising powers. But just as everything is going well, the light comes, bringing darkness in its wake…

After transforming into a titan and vanquishing his enemies, Wismerhill has fallen, brought down by a power too great for him to control. This vast power has made an ephemeral God of him. Still, he is but a man, and he must return to mortality in order to continue his reign as emperor of the Opal Throne.


A Sellsword’s Will (Seven Virtues #5) – Jacob Peppers

Aaron and his companions return from Baresh with the truth of what the alliance faces, yet such knowledge is little comfort. Throughout the city, men and women whisper of demons, of monsters. But though they might disagree on the nature of Kevlane’s twisted creations, there is one thing they have in common. Fear.

For the creatures they face are not men–not any longer. They are death given form and function. They are, it seems in the darkest hours–and there are many such now–Telrear’s doom.

Crippled by indecision, the alliance leaders argue; they argue, they bicker, and they hesitate. A hesitation which, Aaron could tell them–if only they would listen–will kill them swifter than any blade or bow.

For shadows move in the night. Shadows which feel no pain or mercy, that have long since forgotten the meaning of compassion.

Meanwhile, confident of victory, Kevlane bends his dark desire to creating even more terrible horrors. Yet there is one thing he has not accounted for, one which the coming days and weeks will teach him–the strength of a sellsword’s will.


Siege of Stone (Sister of Darkness: The Nicci Chronicles #3) – Terry Goodkind

The Sorceress Nicci, the Wizard Nathan Rahl, and the young swordsman Bannon remain in the legendary city of Ildakar after a great internal revolt has freed the slaves and brought down the powerful wizards council. But as he fled the city, capricious Wizard Commander Maxim dissolved the petrification spell that had turned to stone the invading army of General Utros fifteen centuries earlier. Now, hundreds of thousands of half-stone soldiers from the ancient past have awakened, led by one of the greatest enemy commanders in history.

Nicci, Nathan, and Bannon have to help Ildakar survive this unbreakable siege, using all the magical defenses of the legendary city. Even as General Utros holds Ildakar hostage and also unleashes his incredible army on the unsuspecting Old World, an equally powerful threat arises out in the sea.

Nicci knows the battle won’t remain in the city; if she can’t stop this threat, two invincible armies can sweep across the Old World and destroy D’Hara itself.


Sorcerous Stabber Orphen: The Wayward Journey #3 – Yoshinobu Akita

Orphen is a Sorcerer drop-out from the prestigious Tower of Fangs. His journey to save Azalie, a girl he looked up to like a sister, has brought him to the bustling city of Totokanta. Here they are reunited for the first time in five years. But what is the truth behind her monstrous transformation?

Orphen’s journey takes a sour turn as a loan shark starts sending a deluge of hired assassins after him! But one of these assassins, Philietta the Fools’ Hound, notorious Sorcerer hunter, has her own plans for Orphen. Just what sort of mind-boggling mystery awaits our haphazard party in the remote village of Kinkhole…?


The Storm (Time of Heroes #2) – David Drake

The universe has shattered into chaos and monsters. Jon, the Leader, is dedicating his life to reuniting the scattered hamlets into a Commonwealth where all humans can live protected against the darkness and the things that live in that darkness.

But no man can reshape the universe by himself. Jon has Makers to build weapons and clerks to handle the business of government–but he also needs Champions to face the powers of chaos which will not listen to any argument but force.

Lord Pal of Beune is one of those Champions. He has fought monsters and evil on behalf of Mankind, and he will fight them again. But now Guntram, the man who transformed Pal from an ignorant rube into a bulwark of the Commonwealth, has disappeared. Pal must locate his friend and mentor–and then he must battle an entity which may be at the core of the splintered universe!

2 Comments
  • Terry says:

    Remarkably I did not find anything to read here—first time in awhile. While I love Drake, he just does not do fantasy well.

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