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.

Well, I’ve done a lot of reading the last couple of weeks, caught up on a backlog of books and even descended upon a huge electronic proverbial pile of graphic novels I’d been collecting for a while, but I’ve fallen behind on my reviews.  So this week I’m going to be focusing on finishing those overdue book reviews, diving into Deadhouse Landing, and attempting to find time to start a new arrival.  Wish me luck!

Deadhouse Landing by Ian C. Esslemont

Genre: Epic Fantasy

Series: Path to Ascendancy #2

Publisher: Tor Books (November 14, 2017)

Author Information: Website 

Length: 400 pages

After the disappointments of Li Heng, Dancer and Kellanved wash up on a small insignificant island named Malaz. Immediately, of course, Kellanved plans to take it over. To do so they join forces with a small band of Napans who have fled a civil war on their own home island. The plan, however, soon goes awry as Kellanved develops a strange and dangerous fascination for a mysterious ancient structure found on the island.

The chaos in the region extends to the metaphysical planes also as a young priest of D’rek starts to question the rot at the heart of the worship of the god of decay. And back in Li Heng, Dassem, now the proclaimed Sword of Hood, finds himself being blamed for a plague which leads him to a crisis of faith – and searching for answers.

During all this, war with the neighbouring island of Nap threatens, recruited allies wonder at Kellanved’s sanity, and powerful entities take more of an interest in the little mage from Dal Hon. Dancer faces a hard choice: should he give up on his partnership? Especially when the fellow’s obsession with shadows and ancient artefacts brings the both of them alarmingly close to death and destruction.

After all, who in his right mind would actually wish to enter an Elder mystery known to everyone as the ‘Deadhouse’?

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Moon Hunt by W. Michael Gear & Kathleen Gear

Genre: Historical Fiction

Series: North America’s Forgotten Past #24

Publisher: Forge Books (November 21, 2017)

Author Information: Website

Length: 416 pages

Whispering Dawn has come to Cahokia as the bride of the living god Morning Star. She brings with her dark secrets. Political intrigue. And deadly magic.

When Morning Star drinks her poisoned nectar, the Night Moth carries his souls off to the Underworld to be slowly sucked into oblivion.

Cahokia is shaken to the roots by Whispering Dawn’s betrayal, and as the empire teeters on the verge of civil war, the immortal god’s human sister Night Shadow Star realizes that only she–intimately tied to the Underworld–can make the journey into the dark realms to retrieve Morning Star’s captured souls. To do so, she and Fire Cat must descend into the Sacred Cave’s terrifying depths where, beset by soul-devouring monsters, it may come down to Fire Cat to save the man, city, and people he once despised.

Moon Hunt is the third epic tale in the Morning Star series by New York Times bestselling authors W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear. Against the intricate majesty that was America’s greatest pre-Columbian city, the Gears have once again woven the latest archaeological data into a painstakingly accurate reconstruction of Cahokia and provide a rare look into the mystical underpinnings of Native American culture.

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