Jo Fletcher has recently bought a Viking trilogy by Icelandic writer Snorri Kristjansson from the Geraldine Cooke agency. The first of the series will be Swords of Good Men, published in summer 2013 by Jo Fletcher Books.

Snorri Kristjansson is currently teaching at a London primary school, but he has been at various times a journalist, web-designer, computer programmer, caretaker for ill people, cement-packer,longshoreman, musician, writer, actor and, most recently, a comedian. His Edinburgh Fringe show was the first to combine puffins, Icelandic revolutions and Jude Law – well, in recent history that is. Swords of Good Men is his debut novel.

Jo Fletcher says: "There's nothing like a good, rip-roaring Viking yarn to get the blood flowing, and when you add a recently converted warrior king determined to bring Christianity at the point of hissword and a powerful Northlands witch determined the Old Gods will triumph and, you know you're in for a good time. I'm really thrilled to welcome Snorri to JFB, as part of my commitment to publish the very best in fantasy, SF and horror."

The Swords of Good Men is a Viking fantasy novel and here's some more info about it. "Our first novel of that ilk, in fact, and it’s awesome. It’s got a mad king determined to bring the White Christ to the masses, a mysterious and beautiful woman drawing the souls of dead warriors to her cause, a gentle blacksmith with dangerous blood and a young hero, who has a lot to learn about the cruelty of the world. And they’re all converging on Steinvik, a place where your enemies do not necessarily reside outside the walls . . . It’s fast, vicious and reminiscent of Joe Abercrombie .  

James Rollins' new book is a prequel short story to his forthcoming series called The Blood Gospel – City Of Screams is the  short story to be released and is a collaborative effort between Jim and Rebecca Cantrell and gives a great look in to the Blood Gospel series world. Basic information about the series can be over in this previous FBC post.

I had previously posted about the series in regards to what it entails. This short story focuses on Sergeant Jordan Stone and his forensic team who have to go Afghanistan for a case. The blurb details can be found here and a Q&A with the authors is over here.  This short story will be released on October 30th and I’ll be reviewing as soon as I can get my hands on it.

Lastly there is some bad news for fans of the Ex-Heroes series by Peter Clines. Peter revealed yesterday that Ex-Communication will be delayed from its earlier release date of the holiday season this year to late spring/early summer 2013. This is a bit disappointing after the news about Red Country by Joe Abercrombie however I’m sure the Permuted Press folks have serious reasons for this delay. I loved Ex-Heroes and Ex-Patriots and so I hope that we do get to read it soon as I'm waiting to see whether the author ends this amazing series with it.

NOTE: Swords Of Good Men announcement provided by Lucy Ramsey. Snorri Kristjansson's picture courtesy of Smugan website and Gunnar Guðbjörnsson. Peter Clines' picture courtesy of Examiner.com and Daniel Pool.