Books Monthly March 2024


New
Science fiction & Fantasy for 2024



Holly Black: The Prisoner's Throne

Published 5th March 2024

The highly anticipated conclusion to the Stolen Heir duology by no. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author Holly Black.

An imprisoned prince. A vengeful queen. And a battle that will determine the future of Elfhame.

Prince Oak is paying for his betrayal. Imprisoned in the icy north and bound to the will of a monstrous new queen, he must rely on charm and calculation to survive. With High King Cardan and High Queen Jude ready to use any means necessary to retrieve their stolen heir, should Oak attempt to regain the trust of the girl he's always loved, or remain loyal to Elfhame and hand over the means to end her reign - even if it means ending Wren too...

With war looming and treachery lurking in every corner, neither Oak's guile nor his wit will be enough to keep everyone he loves alive. He will have some terrible choices to make.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black comes the stunning blood-soaked conclusion to the Stolen Heir duology.



Lauren Roberts: Powerful

Published 11th April 2024

From the international bestselling author of Powerless, comes a sizzling and heart-racing new story set in the Kingdom of Ilya. Perfect for fans of The Hunger Games and Fourth Wing.

Adena and Paedyn have always been inseparable. Fate brought them together when they were young, but friendship ensured they’d always protect each other and the home they built in the slums of Loot. But now Paedyn – an Ordinary – has been selected for The Purging Trials, which means almost certain death.

Now alone in Loot, Adena must fend for herself. After attempting to steal, it’s a mysterious man from the market who comes to her rescue. Mak’s shadowy past and secretive power set him apart from the other low-level Elites of Loot. And as the pair team up to see their loved ones before the Trials begin, the quest tests their loyalty, their love, and their lives…

Follow Lauren Roberts on TikTok @Laurens1Library

RETURN TO ILYA WITH THIS UNMISSABLE COMPANION TO THE #1 INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING POWERLESS TRILOGY.


J R R Tolkien: The Silmarillion

Published February 2024

The forerunner to The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion tells the earlier history of Middle-earth, recounting the events of the First and Second Ages, and introducing some of the key characters, such as Galadriel, Elrond, Elendil and the Dark Lord, Sauron.

The Silmarillion is an account of the Elder Days, of the First Age of Tolkien’s world. It is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back, and in whose events some of them such as Elrond and Galadriel took part. The tales of The Silmarillion are set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-Earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor.

Included in the book are several shorter works. The Ainulindale is a myth of the Creation and in the Valaquenta the nature and powers of each of the gods is described. The Akallabeth recounts the downfall of the great island kingdom of Númenor at the end of the Second Age and Of the Rings of Power tells of the great events at the end of the Third Age, as narrated in The Lord of the Rings.

This pivotal work features the revised, corrected text and includes, by way of an introduction, a fascinating letter written by Tolkien in 1951 in which he gives a full explanation of how he conceived the early Ages of Middle-earth.


Robert J Crane: Scorched Earth

Published 18th February 2024

It's a law of physics that every action has its equal and opposite reaction. So when Sienna Nealon stirs up a geopolitical hornet's nest, her foes are going to react.

And react they do.

Now Sienna is forced to confront the fact she's in a war unlike any she's ever fought before. No criminal she's hunted or villain she's faced compares to what she's up against now: an enemy so immense, so huge, that even taking her best shot has left them nowhere close to defeat.

And their reaction may end in her defeat.


J R R Tolkien: The History of Middle Earth Volume II

Published 28th March 2024

Second in a series of hardback boxed sets celebrating the literary achievement of Christopher Tolkien, featuring double-sided dustjackets. Includes THE LAYS OF BELERIAND, THE SHAPING OF MIDDLE-EARTH and THE LOST ROAD, which contain the early myths and legends that led to the writings of THE SILMARILLION.

The Lays of Beleriand gives us a privileged insight into the creation of the mythology of Middle-earth through the alliterative verse tales of two of the most crucial stories in Tolkien’s world – those of Túrin and of Beren and Lúthien. Accompanying the poems are commentaries on the evolution of the history of the Elder Days, together with the notable criticism of The Lay of Leithian by C.S. Lewis, who read the poem in 1929.

InThe Shaping of Middle-earththe chronological and geographical structure of the legends of Middle-earth and Valinor is spread before us. We are introduced to the hitherto unknown Ambarkanta or ‘Shape of the World’, the only account ever given of the nature of the imagined Universe, accompanied by maps and diagrams of the world before and after the cataclysms of the War of the Gods and the Downfall of Númenor. Also included are the original ‘Silmarillion’ of 1926, and the Quenta Noldorinwa of 1930 – the only version of the myths and legends of the First Age that J.R.R. Tolkien completed to their end.

The Lost Road completes the examination of Tolkien’s writing completes the examination of Tolkien's writing before he began The Lord of the Rings, presenting later forms of the annals of Valinor and Beleriand, the legend of the downfall of Númenor, and the abandoned ‘time-travel’ story The Lost Road, linking the world of Númenor and Middle-earth with the legends of many other times and peoples.

Published together for the first time, these three books comprise a fascinating period of Christopher Tolkien’s forty-year career devoted to presenting his father J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings on Middle-earth, itself a unique accomplishment that celebrates the greatest invented world in all of fantasy literature.


A D Poranek: Where The Dark Stands Still

Published 29th February 2024

A sweeping gothic fairytale romance for fans of Belladonna by Adalyn Grace and Gallant by V.E. Schwab.

Raised in a small village near the spirit-wood, Liska Radost knows that Magic is monstrous, and its practitioners, monsters.

After Liska unleashes her own powers with devastating consequences, she is caught by the demon warden of the wood - the Leszy - who offers her a bargain: one year of servitude in exchange for a wish.

Whisked away to his crumbling manor, Liska makes an unsettling discovery: she is not the first person to strike this bargain and all of her predecessors have mysteriously vanished. If Liska wants to survive the year and return home, she must unravel her host's spool of secrets and face the ghosts of his past.

Those who enter the wood do not always return . . .



Victoria Aveyard: Fate Breaker

Published 27th February 2024

CHANGE YOUR FATE - OR KNEEL TO IT.
EVERYTHING HAS COME TO THIS.

A strange darkness is growing in the Ward. A man who would burn kingdoms to the ground is raising an army unlike any seen before, bent on uprooting the foundations of the world. And only Corayne - a pirate's daughter and the last of an ancient lineage - can stop him.

Alongside an unlikely group of reluctant allies, Corayne finds herself on a desperate journey to complete an impossible task, with untold magic singing in her blood and the fate of the world on her shoulders.
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Victoria Aveyard's book 'Realm Breaker' was a No. 7 Sunday Times bestseller w/c 03-05-2021.
Victoria Aveyard's book 'Blade Breaker' was a No. 4 Sunday Times bestseller w/c 27-06-2022.


J R R Tolkien: The Maps of Middle Earth


Published 11th April 2024

Available together for the first time in a single hardback volume, J.R.R. Tolkien’s maps of The Hobbit, Beleriand, Middle-earth and Númenor – re-illustrated by John Howe – are presented as full colour foldout posters and accompanied by a richly detailed text by Brian Sibley.

This new hardback edition of THE MAPS OF MIDDLE-EARTH presents J.R.R. Tolkien’s maps of Wilderland, Beleriand and Middle-earth, together with a unique map of the island-kingdom of Númenor, as featured in Amazon Prime’s THE RINGS OF POWER.

Each poster-sized foldout map has been re-imagined in full colour by John Howe, the world-renowned Tolkien artist who has worked on Peter Jackson’s Academy Award-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Rings of Power TV series as well as the forthcoming Warner Bros animated film, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.

The maps are accompanied by a fascinating and authoritative, fully illustrated 160-page text written by Brian Sibley, author of the Sunday Times bestselling THE FALL OF NÚMENOR and leading expert on THE LORD OF THE RINGS (he adapted the work for the acclaimed 1981 BBC radio dramatisation), which recounts the story behind each map and provides a richly detailed glossary of every name, place and event.

Designed to complement the growing range of hardback editions of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, this brand new edition is the perfect companion for every fan wishing to learn more about the world of Tolkien’s Middle-earth.




The small print: Books Monthly, now well into its 25th year on the web, is published on or slightly before the first day of each month by Paul Norman. You can contact me here. If you wish to submit something for publication in the magazine, let me remind you there is no payment as I don't make any money from this publication. If you want to send me something to review, contact me via email at paulenorman1@gmail.com and I'll let you know where to send it.