Archives de catégorie : Fantasy

LEGENDS & LATTES: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL de Travis Baldree

After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time.

LEGENDS & LATTES: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL
by Travis Baldree
Ten Speed Graphic, September 2025

The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first-ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success―not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.

If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won’t be able to go it alone. After all, true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.

This full color graphic novel adaptation brings the high fantasy and low stakes of this beloved story to vibrant life as its never been seen before.

Travis Baldree is a full-time audiobook narrator who has lent his voice to hundreds of stories. Before that, he spent decades designing and building video games like Torchlight, Rebel Galaxy, and Fate. Apparently, he now also writes books. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his very patient family and their small, nervous dog.

THE SPIRIT COLLECTION OF THORNE HALL de J. Ann Thomas

Jamie Thoma’s writing is whimsical, lyrical, and charming as Elegy’s romance blooms in the darkest and most ominous of places. THE SPIRIT COLLECTION OF THORNE HALL is ideal for fans of Jennifer McMahon,Wendy Webb, and Alix E. Harrow.

THE SPIRIT COLLECTION OF THORNE HALL
by J. Ann Thomas
Alcove Press, February 2025

For more than a hundred years, the Thorne family has lived in splendor and isolation in their New England manor, devoting their lives to pacifying the fourteen spirits cursed to dwell there. Now, with her father on his deathbed, 25-year-old Elegy Thorne is about to inherit the Spirit Collection despite her terrifying inability to control them.

Timid but headstrong, Elegy lives, speaks, and dresses one hundred years out of step with the world around her. She must keep the house and everything inside as near as possible to America’s Gilded Age when the spirits were summoned, lest they erupt in violence. She is resigned to live this way forever until for the first time in her life she falls in love with a young man who is helping restore a damaged part of the mansion.

Jamie Thomas’ debut YA novel Asperfell (Uproar Books, 2020) earned the gold medal for Fantasy at the INDIES Awards and was named among Booklist’s top ten debut speculative fiction novels of the year, among other accolades. She’s a high school English teacher in Washington state and a classically trained opera singer.

BIRTH OF A DYNASTY de Chinaza Bado

BIRTH OF A DYNASTY is a fast-paced high fantasy about court intrigue, dangerous politics, power struggles, devastating violence, and surviving in a world dedicated to destroying you, perfect for readers who crave their next heart-shattering epic read.

BIRTH OF A DYNASTY
by Chinaza Bado
Voyager, Summer 2025
(via Nancy Yost Literary)

Pitched as Game of Thrones meets Children of Blood and Bone, BIRTH OF A DYNASTY is an edge-of-your-seat, drama-filled, and gut-wrenching, epic high fantasy is set in Alkebulan, a fictionalized Africa, where magic is feared and giants are real. It follows three high noble families as they fight to maintain their power in the midst of averting a devastating prophecy.

M’Kuru Mukundi, the sole surviving member of the high noble Mukundi family of Madada, barely escapes a brutal attack by Prince Effiom and the Red Sun Army of the Zenzele. After watching his parents, then his sister, her lover, and everyone else he ever knew slaughtered by Prince Effiom, ten-year old M’kuru makes a vow:

We shall not forgive. We shall not forget. We will have our vengeance.

M’kuru flees to a small village where he hides as farm boy Khalil Rausi, unaware that the real Khalil’s father is the bloodthirsty Commander of Prince Effiom’s army. When an imposter claiming to be M’kuru shows up in the village, the real M’kuru—now Khalil—must make impossible choices and do the unforgivable as he makes his way to the capital, where he will one day avenge the murder of his family and his people.

Meanwhile, in Winneba, young Zikora Nnamani, the only daughter of Lord Nnamani, wants nothing more than to be a fierce Seh Llinga warrior. But Zikora is the most beloved child of Winneba and, according to the prophecy, the only living threat left to to the Zenzele Dynasty. When the Queen’s messenger arrives to « invite » Zikora to the castle, her family is not in a position to refuse. However, before she leaves her home, Zikora’s father secretly begins the dangerous Rite of Blessing to protect her, with the risk that it may also bring the world one step closer to completion of the prophecy that Prince Effiom so fears.

Between scheming ladies at court, backstabbing princes on the prowl, and everyone in between having nothing to lose, M’kuru and Zikora must do what they can, no matter how terrible, to save their people and claim vengeance for their families. No choices are easy, and nothing is as it seems…

Chinaza Bado has previously written under the pen name, J.J. McAvoy, in a variety of genres, most recently Regency romance. Her titles have sold in the UK, Hungary, Brazil, Poland, and were bestsellers in Turkey, Israel, and France. Chinaza is second generation Nigerian, who spends her free time traveling throughout Africa collecting stories and visiting family in Nigeria.

MAGGIE THE UNDYING d’Ilona Andrews

MAGGIE THE UNDYING is the brand new work by Ilona Andrews, the #1 NYT bestselling author duo, who’ve created an incredible new world combining elements of heroic fantasy, romantasy, portal isekai, and D&D.

MAGGIE THE UNDYING
by Ilona Andrews
Tor, TBD
(via Nancy Yost Literary)

Our dauntless heroine wakes up cold, filthy and naked in Kair Toren, a city in the kingdom of Rellas, a world she knows intimately from the pages of a famously unfinished epic-historical-fantasy series she’s been reading, re-reading (and reading again!), while waiting (years!) for the final novel.

She has no idea how or why she’s landed in this gritty world filled with rival warlords, magic and mayhem, but she’s determined to survive until she can figure out how to get home. Her only tools? Her encyclopedic knowledge of the book’s plots, settings, and the characters’ actions, motivations, fates and ambitions: information she can sell to the dueling factions, while staying under the radar so as not to affect the very information she plans to barter.

She quickly discovers she has another, surprising ’skill’: she cannot be killed (though many will try!).

But her initial goals swiftly change as she becomes attached to the motley band she’s somehow gathered — which includes a disgraced lady’s maid, a deadly assassin, and a dangerous and experienced soldier, as well as various outrageous creatures — and instead she finds herself trying to save them and the Kingdom of Rellas from the cataclysmic war she knows is brewing.

“Ilona Andrews” is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing team. Ilona is a native-born Russian and Gordon is a former communications sergeant in the U.S. Army. Contrary to popular belief, Gordon was never an intelligence officer with a license to kill, and Ilona was never the mysterious Russian spy who seduced him. They met in college, in English Composition 101, where Ilona got a better grade. (Gordon is still sore about that.)

Gordon and Ilona currently reside in Texas with their two children and many dogs and cats.

They have co-authored several bestselling series, including the #1 NYT bestselling urban fantasy of Kate Daniels, rustic fantasy of the Edge, paranormal romance of Hidden Legacy, and Innkeeper Chronicles.

BLOOD AT THE ROOT de LaDarrion Williams

A teenager on the run from his past finds the family he never knew existed and the community he never knew he needed at an HCBU for the young, Black, and magical. Enroll in this fresh fantasy debut with the emotional power of Legendborn and the redefined ancestral magic of Lovecraft Country.

BLOOD AT THE ROOT (Book 1)
by LaDarrion Williams
Labyrinth Road/PRH, May 2024
(via Park & Fine Literary and Media)

At just seven years old, Malik’s life changed forever the night his mother mysteriously vanished, and he discovered he had uncontrollable powers. For ten years, he kept his abilities hidden, looking out for himself and his younger foster brother, Taye. However, a daring act to safeguard them both reveals an unexpected connection with his long-lost grandmother: a legendary conjurer with ties to a hidden magical university that Malik’s mother attended.

At Caiman University, Malik’s eyes are opened to a future he never could have envisioned for himself— one that includes the reappearance of his first love, Alexis. His search for answers about his heritage, his powers, and what really happened to his mother exposes the cracks in their magical community as it faces a reawakened evil dating back to the Haitian Revolution. Together with Alexis, Malik discovers a lot beneath the surface at Caiman: feuding covens and magical politics, forbidden knowledge and buried mysteries.

In a wholly unique saga of family, history and community, Malik must embrace his legacy to save what’s left of his old family as well as his new one. Exploring the roots and secrets that connect us in an unforgettable contemporary setting, this heart-pounding fantasy series opener is a rich tapestry of atmosphere, intrigue, and emotion.

« [An] exuberant contemporary fantasy series opener… Williams delivers a serpentine, high-intensity celebration of Black culture, history, and power. » – Publishers Weekly

« The extensive worldbuilding incorporates West African, Caribbean, and Black American history and cultures to explain a magical reality hidden from view and relevant to the Black diaspora and Malik’s family history… A well-thought-out magical world that provocatively centers Black experiences. » – Kirkus Reviews

A genre-shattering amalgamation of culture, heritage, and magic. Williams’s debut is bold, gripping and utterly refreshing. » – J. Elle, NYT bestselling author of Wings of Ebony and House of Marionne

LaDarrion Williams is a Los Angeles based-playwright, filmmaker, author, and screenwriter whose goal is to cultivate a new era of Black fantasy, providing space and agency for Black characters and stories in a new, fresh, and fantastical way. LaDarrion is currently a resident playwright/co-creator of The Black Creators Collective.