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Read Fantasy Book Critic's Review of “The Lovers” 
Read Fantasy Book Critic's Review of “The Whisperers” 
Read Fantasy Book Critic's Review of “The Burning Soul” 
Read Fantasy Book Critic's Review of “The Wrath Of Angels” 
Read Fantasy Book Critic interview with John Connolly 
Why You Should Read John Connolly (A Fantasy Literature feature)

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: After the terrific and fatalistic events of The Wrath Of Angels, The Wolf In Winter was a highly anticipated title for me. This book leads on with certain pivotal events from The Wrath Of Angels however its main plot makes it a standalone read (for those who apprehensive to jump into a 10-plus books series). This book’s title though has more of a fantastical feel to it than any of the previous ones. One thing though there’ll be some spoilers for The Wrath Of Angels as I discuss certain plot points so don’t read ahead if you haven’t read the aforementioned title.

We begin with Parker, Louis, & Angel hot on the track of the Collector for his murder of Jackie Garner. The Collector or Kushiel as is his name, is not quite feeling up to his usual fatal self. He has always been the predator but never the prey and this new feeling isn't one he’s enjoying all that much. Parker is focused on ending the Collector’s murderous reign however the suicide of a friend of his pulls him back to Portland. Jude is a homeless man who’s been an ally of Parker for a long time. His suicide draws Parker away from his search and he’s rather stumped by it all.

Another odd thread to Jude’s suicide leads Parker to the small town of Prosperous that has its own customs, and quite a church as well. Jude’s daughter was last seen in Prosperous however the locals deny her presence and Jude was also deemed persona non-grata when he went there to find her. All of this pulls Parker’s empathetic strings and makes him head straight to Prosperous wherein he finds something crooked. Thus begins the story wherein we learn more about the historical sect of Family of Love, which was birthed in England and to escape persecution, came to the North American shores. They also brought something over that makes their church and town unique. Tied into all these happenings is the tale of a lone wolf who also comes into the woods around Prosperous and is the titular character of the book.

As with any John Connolly story, there’s never a simple straightforward tale. With this book, John explores a small historical sect of Christianity that had strange roots and even stranger customs. They also had a murderous rumor attached to their past that they couldn't quite shake off no matter how hard they tried. The story also features a stronger focus on Louis, Angel and a couple of other characters due to the story and that was simply fascinating to read. The story also continues a strong horror trend that has been so prevalent in the past couple of books. Within this story, the horror is nicely tied into a mythological bent and while a tad predictable nicely amped up the climax of the story.

One of the biggest twists of the story which occurs about halfway into the story really stumped me & the last chapter especially will have HUGE ramifications for the next saga in Charlie Parker’s life. The next book is titled A Song Of Shadows and believe me, once you are done with this volume. You won’t be able to wait to get your hands on it.  The Wolf In Winter is a very good thriller that will thrill John Connolly fans and makes sure that the series is still exciting. 

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Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of The Six-Gun Tarot
Read The Route To Golgotha by R. S. Belcher (guest post)

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: The Shotgun Arcana is the sequel to last year’s The Six-Gun Tarot. It was a book that Cindy and me both enjoyed and had big expectations from the author going forward. The Shotgun Arcana is the sequel to that fantastic debut and contrary to my worries; Rod Belcher has outdone himself with this solid sophomore effort. Also there'll be mild spoilers for The Six-Gun Tarot as I talk about the plot so be forewarned those who haven't read the previous volume.

The story begins set nearly a year after the troubled events that were shown in The Six-gun Tarot. The town residents have come back to a semblance of normalcy & managed to convince themselves that perhaps it was all a horrible nightmare. For certain residents like Jim who’s now a deputy sheriff along with Mutt and helping Jon Highfeather keeps everything under control. Maude had to sacrifice a lot (especially a big part of her legacy) to keep her daughter alive and save the world at the same time. Malachi Bick is back in Golgotha after his reappearance at the fag end of the events shown in The Six-gun tarot and is quite unpopular with the town folk due to his business tactics.

Harry Pratt the town mayor has settled down with his dual role as mayor and gay Mormon and also has a special weapon to keep him busy. Augustus Schultz is remarried but seeks to help his friend Clay Turlough (the resident mad scuientist). His second wife Gillian Proctor further does her best to help him avail his second chance at happiness. Then are quite a few new characters who are introduced and share familial and friendly ties to several POV characters. The big draw with with this story is the presence of a person familiar to Biqa/Malachi who has been given a similar task as him. This person though hasn't held up their share of the bargain and this has led to the spread of 32 teeth of Cain. These teeth seek out the very worst of human depravity and so there’s a whole host of killers coming towards Golgotha for something sinister.

There’s also a serial killer in the town who’s taken a clue from an infamous Whitechapel passerby who’s left a bloody stain on their past. This killer is striking havoc among the working girls of the town and seems to work in an invisible manner. Jon, Mutt and Jim will have to pool their brains as well take the help of all their friends to solve these murders and at the same time try to solve all their individual problems. There’s a bunch more stuff that’s combined with the main threads of this story that make this sequel such a fantastic read for me.

Beginning with the characterization, in review for The Six-gun Tarot, I had noted: “his prose and characterization upends this tale from simply a fantastic idea onto a fantastic story. The characters even though numerous hold their own and each of them alternatively convince the reader of their importance.” But with this sequel, Rod Belcher basically outdoes himself in the characters department. There are so many good ones: Augustus, Maude, Jon, Malachi, Jim, Clay, & a couple of the new ones introduced in this volume. Frankly at this point, I’ll be ecstatic if the author keeps writing further tales of Golgotha as there are several pointers in this story for future & past exploits.

There’s also quite a few historical references personas such as Abraham Lincoln, Edgar Allen Poe, etc and events/organizations like the Donner Party and the Pinkerton agency. The author judiciously mixes historical nuggets within his story to make it seem oh so plausible and entirely delectable. This sequel is basically the book that convinced me that Rod S. Belcher is an author to watch out for. His imagination, writing style and characters simply have elevated him into that select group of authors whose books I will heartily keep recommending to all and sundry.

The Shotgun Arcana is a fabulous sequel that builds on the terrific premise that was laid out in the Six Gun Tarot. It is a book that right now is in my top three books for 2014 and this series as a whole deserves to be adapted for TV. Think of it as Wild west meets League of Extraordinary Gentlemen crossed with a little bit of Lovecraft and mixed in with superb characterization. If you haven’t read The Shotgun Arcana & its predecessor yet, you ARE missing out on a classic series in the making.

When I decided I wanted to try my hand at writing a steampunk setting, I gave myself a few provisos. The first was that I’d avoid the rose-colored goggles point of view. Some SP settings instil the transition from rural to industrial age with a sense of wonder, and tend to gloss over the ugly side of industrialization, and the whole child exploitation/slavery unpleasantness that came along with our transition to urban life.

Second, I wanted to avoid Victorian England as a cultural touchstone. It’s been done, and done well (Colonial America too, tbh). I decided to build a steampunk world based on a culture nobody had really tackled yet – Shogunate Japan.

Basing your fantasy world on an existing culture is hardly a new concept – most modern fantasy has at least some grounding in cultures of the past (albeit with a decidedly euro-centric focus). But there are pro’s and con’s to writing a world based on an existing culture that isn’t actually yours.

Pro: Different Perspectives

Delving into a culture you haven’t been raised in will invariably be an eye-opening experience. You’ll be inundated with new concepts and imagery. Researching an unfamiliar culture might open up story avenues, conflicts, hooks and twists that you wouldn’t have considered if you were writing fantasy of the Tolkienite variety. At the very least, you’re filling your skullspace with interesting factoids that might come in handy during some future dinner engagement. For example, did you know that in ancient Greece, when a boy turned 13, an uncle or close family friend would take the lad up into the hills to teach him the time-honored art of fellatio?

Drop that one on your next dinner party. Guaranteed show-stopper!

Con: WTB Glossary PST

What we think of as traditional fantasy is often an alt-version of medieval England. Concepts like “knight” and “throne” are so ingrained in our cultural psyche, they need no explanation. You don’t need to take the time to explain to your reader what a “Lord” is. They already know how a “shortsword” works. They’re guaranteed to be repeatedly cursing the skies if you use terms like “Daimyo” or “wakizashi” and offer no explanation, even if you write the term in context. You’ll need to explain all these new words you’re bandying about, and some readers tire of that routine quickly. They just want to get to the fireworks factory.

Pro: Zigging Not Zagging

Because modern fantasy tends to have a heavy western European focus, when a piece of work that strays from that norm rears its head, it’ll stand out like the proverbial… well, you know…

“Different” equates to “intriguing” in the minds of many readers – this is simply human nature. Intriguing isn’t a bad thing for your novel’s concept to be. Just like your eyes are inexorably drawn to the six-foot transvestite in a red miniskirt amidst a sea of six-foot transvestites in grey ballgowns, an epic fantasy novel with nary a king or knight or dragon in sight will probably turn some heads. In theory, anyways.

Con: Performance Anxiety

They’re all looking at you now. This series better be good.

Pro: The Sand Pit

The liberating notion about drawing inspiration from an existing culture but still keeping your world entirely fantastical is that you can take elements of the touchstone you want, and leave the rest where you found it. You’re building your own sandpit after all, and you make the rules. If you want to utilize part of an ancient religion but not use the entire pantheon, you’re free to do so. If you want to utilize cultural or societal structures, religious hierarchy or elements of language, there’s no rule saying you can’t change it, or mix it with other concepts from halfway around the globe. Combining the real with the fantastical can lead you to create truly unique worlds, even if their foundation is one we’re all at least partially acquainted with.

Con: Unavoidable Collisions

Even if you call your world “Not’thureel’wurld” and make it plain that your story is not in any way historical, nor indeed, any form of commentary on the culture that inspired you, if your setting was inspired by an existing culture, particularly a culture you don’t come from, then you’re going to offend somebody. The differences between Tsarist Russia and your fantasy world based on Tsarist Russia can be explained very simply – you aren’t writing a story set in Tsarist Russia. But despite your setting being fantastical, you will be told in no uncertain terms that “you are doing it wrong”.

Most readers will understand you’re writing fantasy, and that your inspiration was exactly that, and only that. Some won’t, and some won’t care. Like death and taxes, this is unavoidable.

This is not to say that, by slapping a “this is make believe” tag on your work, you have license to do whatever you please. Stereotyping is always a pit best avoided. Simplifying any culture, fantastical or not, down to a handful of traits simply doesn’t do the complexity of life justice. The golden rule is that people are, first and foremost, people. They have hopes and dreams, desires and imaginations, and the amount of melanin in their skins or the shape of their eyes most likely has nothing to do with any of that.

There are certainly other pitfalls to watch out for, particularly if you’re writing the story of an outsider interacting with another’s culture (the Sensei, the Neo-Native, the Magic Colored Man to name a few). If your setting has no “outsider”, these tropes are easy to avoid.

Woe betide you if you drop a white protagonist into a non-white culture and have said protagonist start teaching the primitive natives what’s what, or worse, discovering the beauty of the primitive native culture and the evils of their own. Those antics might win you seven academy awards or give you the highest grossing film of all time, but…

… waitaminute…

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AUTHOR INFORMATION: Jay Kristoff was born and brought up in Perth. He grew up reading and collecting books and spent most of his free time playing Dungeons & Dragons. He graduated with an Arts degree and then spent ten years in the field of “creative advertising”. He currently lives in Melbourne with his wife and dog. His first trilogy, the award winning THE LOTUS WAR is set to be published in over a dozen countries. The third book in the series, ENDSINGER, is due for publication in November 2014. Jay’s new series, the SciFi thriller ILLUMINAE, which he co-authored with Amie Kaufman, is due for publication by Random House in 2015.

NOTE: Author picture courtesy of Christopher Tovo. The remaining stops of Jay's ENDSINGER blog tour can be found over here.

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Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of The Heresy Within by Rob J. Hayes

Last year Rob J. Hayes absolutely exploded on to readers with his excellent debut, grimdark trilogy. He’s now being re-published and it's our great pleasure to announce Ragnarok Publications and Fantasy Book Critic are giving away one signed copy of ”The Heresy Within” to One Lucky Winner!!!

To enter, please send an email to fbcgiveaway@gmail.com with your Name, Mailing Address, and the subject: Heresy. Giveaway has ENDED and was open to participants WORlDWIDE!. 

Thank you for entering and Good Luck!

GIVEAWAY RULES: 
 1) Open To Anyone WORLDWIDE
 2) Only One Entry Per Household (Multiple Entries Will Be Disqualified)
 3) Must Enter Valid Email Address, Mailing Address + Name
 4) No Purchase Necessary
 5) Giveaway HAS ENDED
 6) Winner Will Be Randomly Selected and Notified By Email
 7) Personal Information Will Only Be Used In Mailing Out the Books To The Winner

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AUTHOR INFORMATION: Rob J. Hayes was born and brought up in Basingstoke, UK. As a child he was fascinated with Lego, Star Wars and Transformers that fueled his imagination and he spent quite a bit of his growing up years playing around with such. He began writing at the age of fourteen however soon discovered the fallacies of his work. After four years at University studying Zoology and three years working for a string of high street banks as a desk jockey/keyboard monkey Rob lived on a desert island in Fiji for three months. It was there he re-discovered his love of writing and, more specifically, of writing fantasy.

OFFICIAL BLURB: Jezzet Vel'urn is a trained swordswoman. She has rightfully earned the title Blademaster, and she knows that for a woman like her there are generally just two ways out of most hostile situations; fight or fornicate. All too often for Jezzet's liking, it comes down to some gods-be-damned combination of the two.

In The Heresy Within Jezzet is chased into the Wild by a vengeful warlord until she finally makes it to the sovereign city-state of Chade. But instead of sanctuary, she finds only more opportunistic bastards waiting to turn her over to her enemies.

Also figuring majorly in the story is Thanquil Darkheart, a sorcerer hunter called an Arbiter, tasked with hunting down and purging heretics for the Inquisition. Thanquil is given a task by the God Emperor of Sarth from which he has no escape. Lastly there’s the brutal outlaw called Black Thorn, best known perhaps for the killing of several Arbiters and possibly being one of the biggest names in the Wild for his proclivities.

All three of their fates seem to be converging on the Free City of Chade and, before long, Jezzet, Thanquil, and the Black Thorn will have to confront each other as they find themselves facing The Heresy Within.