Another week begins.  I quickly slip into my business suit and head back into the office to save a few innocent people. But while I try to fool myself into being excited about the promise of a new year and the continuation of the regular grind, deep down, I’m not, so I’m going to escape dreary reality by reading some great books.

Here is what I’ll be reading!

Vallista by Steven Brust

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Vlad Taltos #15

Publisher: Tor Books (October 17, 2017)

Author Information: Website | Twitter

Length: 352 pages

Vlad Taltos is an Easterner an underprivileged human in an Empire of tall, powerful, long-lived Dragaerans. He made a career for himself in House Jhereg, the Dragaeran clan in charge of the Empire s organized crime. But the day came when the Jhereg wanted Vlad dead, and he s been on the run ever since. He has plenty of friends among the Dragaeran highborn, including an undead wizard and a god or two. But as long as the Jhereg have a price on his head, Vlad s life is messy.

Meanwhile, for years, Vlad s path has been repeatedly crossed by Devera, a small Dragaeran girl of indeterminate powers who turns up at the oddest moments in his life.

Now Devera has appeared again to lead Vlad into a mysterious, seemingly empty manor overlooking the Great Sea. Inside this structure are corridors that double back on themselves, rooms that look out over other worlds, and just maybe answers to some of Vlad s long-asked questions about his world and his place in it. If only Devera can be persuaded to stop disappearing in the middle of his conversations with her.

Purchase the book at Amazon

Gryphon’s Eye by Kevin Weston

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Casting Shadow’s #1

Publisher: Wave Train Books (October 22, 2017)

Author Information: Website

Length: 439 pages

Traejon Frost has spent the last five years of his life roaming the mist-shrouded forests and mountains of the kingdom of Fyngree in service to the famed sorcerer-king Owyn Suntold. His mission? To guard the king’s wild familiar, a falcon that is the wellspring of Owyn’s prodigious spellcasting abilities. It’s a lonely life, but what of it? At least out there, sleeping under the moon and stars, Traejon is not so haunted by the harrowing memories of his violent past.

In the Fyngrean capital of Kylden, meanwhile, young Jessalyn Suntold leads a life of luxury and ease. But despite her status as the only heir to her father’s throne, Jess feels forsaken. For she has spent her life pining for a visitor that has never arrived. A familiar of her own, one capable of unlocking her dormant magical abilities so that she might defend herself against Fyngree’s enemies. And now she can see the fear in her father’s eyes—a dread that the centuries-long rule of the Suntold line will come crashing down when he draws his last breath.

And so it goes, warrior and princess each grappling with their own private demons. Until a night of terror in which Jess learns of a sinister plot to drag King Owyn from his throne. But when she unites with Traejon in a desperate quest to unmask the conspirators, they discover that allies can turn into enemies in the blink of an eye. And that monsters come in human as well as fantastical form. Yet still they press onward, searching for the truth in an empire teetering on the brink of collapse. Until they stumble upon the most stunning revelation of all—that everything they know about the world of magic around them is a lie.

Purchase the book at Amazon