5 BLADES is out and FREE

 5 Blades an anthology I contributed four! previously released tales is out and for free for the next couple days.

My tales may be familiar to my regular blog followers, -

Fangs of the Dragon: Blessed by a holy man, Porter Rockwell was promised that if he never cut his hair he would not be harmed by bullet nor blade . . .
But what if monsters strike with tooth and claw? This might be Port's last ride . . .
Or will he send them crawling back to the abyss? Either way it's gonna be a helluva fight!

The Serpents Root: A quest for a dangerous item to cure the sick may not be as simple a delivery as a thief expects. Love can be a killer.

The Dig: An archaeologist struggles with the semantics of who is the real grave robber with a rogue Italian captain in WW2 when they find something buried that should not be.

The King in the Wood: Music and mythology merge as a young woman buys a strange instrument in a curiosity shop and things will never be the same.

The other four blades are 

Jason King - fantasy author extraordinaire who recently released book 2 in his Age of the Infinite series.

Drew Briney - lawyer and all around nice guy, with a some great fantasy tales.

Jaime Buckley, acclaimed comic artist with some of his tale spinning.

and newcomer Lewis Strassburg with a great fantasy tale of revenge and giant worms.

Catch it while its hot and free here


P.S. should have had you wait a day Paul! I owe you!

City of Stairs

City of Stairs, by Robert Jackson Bennett

This was brilliant. A great mashup of epic fantasy, mystery and espionage like thrillers. I was captured by the thought of a once great empire, blessed by a cabal of divine Gods who bestowed strange miracles and blessing upon their chosen people until a put upon satellite people using mysterious means had their revenge and slew the gods.

That is all in the not-to-distant past of the novel and we are now dealing with a reconstruction and digging through the scraps of information left in the wake of such deicide. This is also all set in a fantasy world with technology similar to about the turn of the century and all that goes with it - bureaucracy. A murder sets the stage and into this steps Shara, an official from one of the ruling families of the victors and Sigrud her muscle - essentially a massive Viking. They are trying to piece together why a historian  was killed, it is also matters that he was once important to Shara and they each had a fascination with the mysterious past of this once blessed land.
Bennett evokes great charm and wit with these characters and once the action gets going Sigrud reminds me of everything I love about Brock Sampson from Venture Bros! This is a very good thing!
The twists and surprises keep coming and I highly recommend this!

Dark Tale of a Dark Man (and Woman)

Blue Eyes at Night, by J.P. Wilder

This is book two of the Crusader series which I reviewed some time ago here, apologies to J.P. I mentioned this was coming and I did buy it the day of release but my reviews have fallen sharply behind, something I will work at remedying from here on out.


Blue Eyes at Night is the second book following the adventures and redemption of minor lord and experienced Crusader Aaron. He is wracked with guilt at what he had to do and succeed in the previous chapter book that made him a hero presently. Without any recourse on moving forward with his life he heads back into the fray.

I see J.P.'s life experience here to a degree - I am only guessing, but I can see shades of veterans here whether it be modern or ancient. Granted this is fantasy but J.P. has a dark mood giving us insight into that terrible survivors guilt and washes it down with some fantastic action. I enjoy the mixing of almost history with a grimdark fantasy.

On his journey Aaron encounters ghosts from the past specifically Lady Edweene who he thought was dead - or is it her twin sister Lady Elayne? He also has to face the living demons before him. Recommended for everyone that likes gritty fantasy with a little something extra.

I'm also in the midst of J.P.'s next paranormal thriller Schade of Night and wow does he kick things up a notch when he goes from chapter books to novels!