Here’s the good bit: that’s in America, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Europe… Or as close as 0.99, give or take.
The fantasy section in particular is on the money for recent releases. And there are some fun box sets.
So once you’ve devoured Blood Dragons and Blood Shackles and are looking for your next read? Click here on 5th-6th November and choose from the fantasy chocolate box. Hmm…that could just be how I see it…
I love fantasy, which is different. Challenging. Unique.
Fantasy that thrills and draws me in. That doesn’t make me shrug my shoulders in the gesture of I’ve read it all before. Or I’ve forgotten it even as I’m reading it.
Blood Shackles is written as The Slave Journal of Light.
‘A5 textured Italian calf leather, framed by smooth burgundy; it’s so deep red I could suck the blood from it.’
Photo by Flickr User Joel Montes De Oca: Journal Entry
A journal is immediate, direct and gripping. It forces the reader into a relationship with the writer. And allows the author to play with the unreliable narrator, just as Light plays with the actual reader of the journal – his Mistress.
‘So, dear Reader (because I know you’re reading this, there’s no use pretending otherwise), did you reckon giving me this poncey journal – all softness and stink of leather – would make me spill my Soul? You already have my body, bought and paid
for. You think you have my mind. My thoughts, however..? They’re my own. Write in it every day, you’d ordered, with that little smile. What do you think this is: Bridget Jones’s Diary?’
Here are 3 fantasy books, which pull the same trick. Exciting. Explosive. And different.
I’m all about the different.
3 of the Most Unique Fantasy Books – Ever:
Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Actually written by the British author Adrian Czajkowski but he had his name changed. And the world he creates? Brilliant. Inventive. And just a little crazy… In his universe, different ‘kinden’ are divided by the insects they’ve been crossbred with. As well as whether they’re tech or magic. Yet there’s no magic good, tech bad. It’s a complex seething mix of war and emotions – in a ten book series.
Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti by Genevieve Valentine
A haunting and beautiful steampunk tale about a circus, war and magic. But the true magic? The narrative inventiveness. Shifts in point of view, style and even tenses. This may be a love or hate book. But it’s unique. And I love that.
Was there ever any doubt? 41 books of sheer explode your head with imaginative joy. Just think: here the world balances as a flat disc on the back of four elephants, which in turn stand on the back of a giant turtle. Almost nothing is safe from the satire: myth, fairy tales, even vampires…
What’s the most unique fantasy book you’ve ever read?
Light is a British vampire – not in doubt from the very first line of Blood Dragons: ‘You know those vampire myths? Holy water, entry by invitation only and sodding crucifixes? Bollocks to them.’
I wanted a fantasy novel with a British vampire front and centre. Neither the love interest. Nor the sidekick. But the antihero at its beating heart.
A Londoner born in the Victorian age, Light takes on the persona of a 1960s Rocker. He loves only two things: his Triton motorbike – ‘a sodding scarlet slash of beauty…and my bloody god’ and his Ace of Spades leather jacket. Unless you include Ruby: ‘my red-haired devil, Author, muse, liberator…my gorgeous nightmare.’ Or Kathy… And then there’s Grayse…
But being boldly British – a mix of Victorian and 1960s – Light has a way of speaking, which is all his own.
So here’s 20 Blinding English Slang Words and Phrases You Need to Know
I love FANTASY books. They’re imaginative. Unique. Challenging. There are nearly 60 subgenres – and each subgenre is different. Alternate history fantasy, dark fantasy, urban fantasy… I’ll write about genre soon. What do you think?
I LOVE modern British fantasy. I’ve picked five of the best. Who would you have chosen?
American Gods is genius. But Neverwhere was the TV series, which turned me on to urban fantasy in a big way. It’s now also a book. Richard is the everyman character, who falls through the cracks into London Below. A world literally beneath London. It’s magical, unpredictable and terrifying.
JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR. NORRELL by Susanna Clarke
A strange, challenging and original book. It reimagines the entire history of England. It’s set in the nineteenth century in a world where magic once existed and is now being brought back by two magicians. It questions ‘Englishness’ and the line between ‘reason’ and ‘unreason’. It won a bunch of awards.
Urban Fantasy – Burned by Benedict Jacka
FATED by Benedict Jacka
A dark mage with the ability to see into the future – that’s it. Alex Verus’ whole powers. Apart from his dry – very English – sense of humour. It’s marketed as being an English Dresden Files – and it is. What’s not to enjoy?
Here’s a mythologised London: its past and its legends. Peter Grant – a detective – learns about magic, whilst investigating a murder. He becomes an apprentice wizard. This is a police procedural within an urban fantasy.
THE INVISIBLE LIBRARY by Genevieve Cogman
There should be no division between women and men writing in the fantasy scene. But in the last few years there’s been a large number of powerful books written by women within fantasy in Britain. The Invisible Library won, however, because it celebrates London. It bursts with ideas. Irene – the librarian – has to retrieve (i.e. steal) precious books from across perilous parallel universes…with vampires and werewolves…luckily Irene has her wit and intelligence to survive.
What would you have chosen?
My British fantasy novel, Blood Dragons, is also set in London. But this time it’s a divided world: between the First and Blood Lifers. Where the predators are also the prey.
Rebel Vampires Volume 1: Blood Dragons is released on the 14th August.
There will be a virtual launch and release day blog tour.
I’ll post the calendar of events nearer the day, so you can follow, share and join in.
One rebel vampire’s dangerous hidden love could bring about the end of the world – unless he can play the role of hero.
Shade (Shade Series Book 1): A teenage girl and a teenage ghost. Both struggling with their own issues. And then there are the disappearances…
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