This week’s post will be short, I’m afraid. I’ve been sick all weekend and haven’t really felt up to doing much until just a couple of hours ago. The good news is that means I’ve gotten some reading done – I finished Midsummer Night by Freda Warrington (and loved it) and started The Folding Knife by K. J. Parker (which is awesome so far).
This week brought three review copies. My husband also gave me a copy of a book we already had and have both read already since he searched for signed copies on Alibris, but it turned out it wasn’t signed when he got it. It’s a pretty popular book that I imagine most of you know about and I’m hurrying to get this up since I should go to bed soon so I won’t post a description, but it is a hardcover copy of Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. He was all disappointed about not getting the right book so he just gave it to me after he got it (since he looked up the signed copies after that and couldn’t find any that were not too expensive).
This is the first book in the Children of the Desert series. It’s not a book I’ve heard a lot about, but after looking it up I saw it the reviews seemed to be very positive so I’m excited about reading it.
A thief chooses the wrong victim.
A desert lord abandons his lands.
A young woman accepts a stewardship.
They all find their destinies on the sands.
Idisio cuts the wrong purse and finds himself bound to serve a desert lord who just gave up his wealth, his lands, and his name to wander. His new master is the lone survivor of a massacred family and might be insane, but serving him is better than life on the streets.
Lady Alyea accepts the king’s mission to assume stewardship of the desert lord’s abandoned fortress. But the southern desert is a harsh world of violence, suspicion, and politically tangled family clans who worship the old gods. All her courtly manners are useless as she struggles to gain status in a deadly race for a prize she doesn’t fully understand.
Out on the sands, the harsh glare of the sun reveals more about the world–and themselves–than they ever wanted to know.
Guardians of the Desert by Leona Wisoker
This is the second book in the Children of the Desert series so I’ll have it around for after I finish Secrets of the Sands. This novel will be available in March 2011.
Lord Alyea of Peysimun grows into her strength
Deiq of Stass confronts his greatest weakness
Lord Eredion of Sessin tries to live with his compromises
Meanwhile, someone plots a brutal retaliation…
Not long ago, Alyea Peysimun was a shallow young noblewoman maneuvering for personal power. Her first attempt at politics proved far more dangerous than she dreamed possible, and nearly ended her life. Now she is a desert lord, one of the powerful, little-understood southern elite. But power changes everything–including who to call friend and
enemy.
Deiq of Stass has long hidden his dual heritage by passing himself off as a mysterious quasi-noble. He has a facility for lying and a strange sense of ethics; but he’ll honor his promise to guide Alyea into her new life. To uphold that commitment, he must navigate more obstacles than even he could imagine–not least those within himself.
Eredion Sessin is the only desert lord who stayed in Bright Bay during King Ninnic’s reign. He endured the worst of the insane king’s excesses and helped to remove Ninnic from the throne; his guilt over the people he couldn’t save is almost as deep as his self-loathing. He has come to hate all the ha’reye represent. And yet something deeper than loyalty binds him to Deiq, who he knows better than to trust.
As the truth of the ancient, mysterious ha’reye begins to emerge and those who oppose their ways marshal new strategies, the repercussions of Scratha’s desperate gambit threaten to destroy a precarious balance that has held since the Split. And this time, there’s no turning back.
The Shadow of the Sun by Barbara Friend Ish
This is a debut novel by an author with a lot of editing experience. It’s the first book in the Way of the Gods series and will be available in February 2011. The second book, War-Lord of the Gods, will be published in Spring 2012.
Fantasy involving gods tends to intrigue me so I’m pretty curious about this one, too.
A Man Cannot Deny the Gods
Ten years ago, Ellion violated a sacred rule of magic and brought tragedy on his family. Forced to abandon his throne, exiled from the holy Aballo Order of wizards, and severed from his patron goddess, he swore never to work magic again. He retreated into music and a bard’s footlose existence: living in other men’s kingdoms, singing of other men’s victories.
A Man Cannot Escape Destiny
But then the ard-righ, the king of kings, is murdered in an act of insurrection by a rogue wizard who follows the old gods. As the human nations teeter on the verge of chaos and civil war, Ellion tries to slip even farther away to the Tanaan realms, only to discover that they are threatened by the same enemy.
A Man Cannot Hide from the Shadow of the Sun
Now Ellion finds himself the protector of Letitia: a Tanaan princess, daughter of one of the greatest Tanaan heroines, and unwitting key to a great arcane mystery. Pursued by the rogue wizard’s minions, enticed by gods he was taught to forswear, challenged by his former mentor, and tempted by the most enchanting woman he has ever encountered, Ellion must battle his faith, his vows, and the darkness his soul yearns to tap as he races to unravel the secret of the rogue’s power: the Shadow of the Sun.
