Friday Firsts: The Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan


Welcome to Friday Firsts – a new weekly meme created by Tenacious Reader. New Book: First paragraphs. First impressions. New favourite?


| Friday Firsts: May 26 |

The Waking Fire

Book One of The Draconis Memoria

by Anthony Ryan

Fantasy | 594 Pages | Published by Orbit in 2016


| First Paragraphs |

REPORT TO: BOARD OF DIRECTORS IRONSHIP TRADING SYNDICATE HOME OFFICE FEROS HOLDINGS

Report by: Lodima Bondersil – Acting Director, Carvenport Division, Arradsian Continental Holdings

Date: Settemer 29, 1578 (Day 166 of Company Year 135 by the Corporate Calendar)

Subject: Events surrounding the demise of Mr. Havelic Dunmorn, Director Carvenport Division, Arradsian Continental Holdings

Esteemed Sirs and Ladies,

By the time this report reaches your hands you will, no doubt, have received word via the Blue-trance of the demise of my immediate superior, Mr. Havelic Dunmorn, and an initial estimate of the associated deaths and considerable material destruction accompanying that tragic event. I have compiled this written account in the hope and expectation it will obviate any asinine and ill-informed rumours spread by competitors or Syndicate employees (see addendum for a list of recommended dismissals and contract terminations). It is my intention to provide a clear and unbiased account of events so as to better inform the deliberations of the Board and any subsequent directives they may see fit to issue.

The incident in question took place in and around the Harvesting and Dockside quarters of Carvenport on Settemer 26. The Board will recall Mr. Dunmorn’s Blue-trance communication on 12 Dimester which described the successful capture of a wild Black by the Chainmasters Independent Contractor Company, following a lengthy expedition to the south-western regions of the Arradsian Interior. I also refer the Board to the previous ten quarterly written reports from this Division concerning the increasing attrition rate amongst pen-bred stock, with Blacks proving the most short-lived of all breeds. I am sure the Board requires no reminder of the ever-decreasing potency of product harvested from inbred and youthful stock. Therefore, the capture of a live and healthy wild Black (the first such capture in more than a dozen years) was greeted with considerable excitement throughout the ranks of Syndicate employees, in that it offered the prospect of thickened blood lines and quality product for years to come. Unfortunately such expectations were soon revealed as premature.

Amazon | The Book Depository | Goodreads


| First Impressions |

I cannot even describe how much I already love this book… but first… first impressions! Opening with a report from Lodima Bondersil, The Waking Fire creates tension and excitement from the very start, throwing the reader into the chaos of an historic event before confronting them with the repercussions further down the line.

The prologue reveals an interesting and gripping opener, raising question after question following the apparent disaster revealed almost immediately. The writing style is formal, owing to the nature of the report, yet fluid enough to engage with the reader from the start; and the introduction of key events and figures gives the reader a number of clues that will ostensibly tie in with the rest of the novel. So far, so awesome! I just wish I had more time to read it!

What are you currently reading? What were your first impressions?

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Teaser Tuesdays: May 23


Welcome to Teaser Tuesdays – a weekly feature hosted by The Purple Booker.


| Teaser Tuesdays: May 23 |

The Waking Fire

Book One of The Draconis Memoria

by Anthony Ryan

Fantasy | 594 Pages | Published by Orbit in 2016


“The Pale-Eyed Preacher strikes again, she thought with a small grin, knowing full well such a myth would already be raging through every grimy alley and wine-shop. For all the poverty and violence she had witnessed here, she still retained a perverse fondness for the Blinds.”

~ p. 51 | The Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan


| Synopsis |

Claydon Torcreek is a Blood-blessed, able to channel the powers contained in the blood of wild drakes. While his brethren serve as elite spies and assassins, Clay prefers the life of a small-time criminal in the dangerous slums of Carvenport.

Yet war is coming, and it seems Clay is going to end up on the losing side – unless he can track down a legendary drake, whose powerful blood might just be enough to achieve victory. Clay has handled many things in his time (most of them illegal) but nothing as priceless as his nation’s future.

Amazon | The Book Depository | Goodreads


| Join In |

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Please leave a comment with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your ‘teasers’ in a comment here!

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Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten… Books On My Reading Wishlist


Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday – a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish


| Top Ten… Books On My Reading Wishlist |

Welcome back to Top Ten Tuesday! It’s been a while since I compiled a list of top tens but, one year on, it seemed like an update was in order! From the old, to the new, to the unpublished – here’s my reading wishlist for 2017:
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| 1. |

The Waking Fire

Book One of Draconis Memoria

by Anthony Ryanheart

Claydon Torcreek is a Blood-blessed, able to channel the powers contained in the blood of wild drakes. While his brethren serve as elite spies and assassins, Clay prefers the life of a small-time criminal in the dangerous slums of Carvenport.

Yet war is coming, and it seems Clay is going to end up on the losing side – unless he can track down a legendary drake, whose powerful blood might just be enough to achieve victory. Clay has handled many things in his time (most of them illegal) but nothing as priceless as his nation’s future.

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| 2 |

American Gods

by Neil Gaimanheart

After three years in prison, Shadow has served his time. But as the days and hours until his release tick away, he can feel a storm brewing.

Two days before his release date, his wife Laura dies in a mysterious car crash, in adulterous circumstances. Dazed, Shadow travels home, only to encounter the bizarre Mr Wednesday, who claims to be a refugee from a distant war, a former god and the king of America. Together they embark on a very strange journey across the States, along the way solving the murders which have occurred every winter in one small American town.

But the storm is about to break . . .

Disturbing, gripping and profoundly strange, Gaiman’s epic novel sees him on the road to the heart of America.heart

| 3 |

Red Sister

Book of the Ancestor – Book One

by Mark Lawrence

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At the Convent of Sweet Mercy young girls are raised to be killers. In a few the old bloods show, gifting talents rarely seen since the tribes beached their ships on Abeth. Sweet Mercy hones its novices’ skills to deadly effect: it takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist.

But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don’t truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls as a bloodstained child of eight, falsely accused of murder: guilty of worse.

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| 4. |

The Core

Book Five of The Demon Cycle

by Peter V. Brett
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For time out of mind, bloodthirsty demons have stalked the night, culling the human race to scattered remnants dependent on half-forgotten magics to protect them. Then two heroes arose—men as close as brothers, yet divided by bitter betrayal. Arlen Bales became known as the Painted Man, tattooed head to toe with powerful magic symbols that enable him to fight demons in hand-to-hand combat—and emerge victorious. Jardir, armed with magically warded weapons, called himself the Deliverer, a figure prophesied to unite humanity and lead them to triumph in Sharak Ka—the final war against demonkind.

But in their efforts to bring the war to the demons, Arlen and Jardir have set something in motion that may prove the end of everything they hold dear—a Swarm. Now the war is at hand and humanity cannot hope to win it unless Arlen and Jardir, with the help of Arlen’s wife, Renna, can bend a captured demon prince to their will and force the devious creature to lead them to the Core, where the Mother of Demons breeds an inexhaustible army.

Trusting their closest confidantes, Leesha, Inevera, Ragen and Elissa, to rally the fractious people of the Free Cities and lead them against the Swarm, Arlen, Renna, and Jardir set out on a desperate quest into the darkest depths of evil—from which none of them expects to return alive.
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| 5. |

Knight’s Shadow

Book Two of The Greatcoats

by Sebastien de Castell
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The Greatcoats have found the heir to the throne . . . but now they must keep her alive, against all the odds.

Falcio Val Mond has completed the final task given to him by the late King Paelis: he has found the King’s Charoites (well, one at least). But his task isn’t over, and now he, Kest and Brasti must protect the girl from those her want her dead.

That would be simple enough, if it weren’t for the renegade Knights and legendary Dashini assassins, getting in their way, not to mention the Dukes, who are desperate to hold on to their power at any cost, or Trin, the merciless daughter of the ruthless Duke of Rijou and the cruel Duchess of Hervor, who is determined to be Queen of Tristia. Of course, the fact that the heir to the throne is thirteen years old doesn’t help, nor the fact that every day brings Falcio closer to dying from the poison running through his veins.

And then there is the Greatcoats Lament . . .

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| 6. |

Dead Man’s Steel

Book Three of The Grim Company

by Luke Scull

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In the City of Towers, former rebel Sasha and her comrade Davarus Cole struggle to keep the peace between the warring mages who vie for dominion. But when the White Lady sends Davarus south to the Shattered Realms to seek allies among the fallen kingdoms, he finds that his hardest battle may be one fought within. The godly essence now residing within him offers power that could be used against the Fade—but with every death that feeds It, Cole risks losing a part of himself.

An association with a Fade officer grants the Halfmage Eremul a position of privilege among Dorminia’s new masters. He witnesses firsthand the fate that awaits humanity. But with his magic pitiful in the face of the Fade’s advanced technology, the Halfmage must rely on his wits alone to save whom he can…

And in the frozen north, the legendary warrior Brodar Kayne fights a desperate battle for his people. He is running out of time: an ancient evil sealed beneath the mountains is about to break free, an evil that is older than humanity, older than the Fade, older even than the gods—and it will not stop until the entire world is drowned in blood…
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| 7. |

The Crimson Campaign

Book Two of The Powder Mage Trilogy

by Brian McClellan
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Field Marshal Tamas’s invasion of Kez has ended in disaster. Stranded behind enemy lines and hounded by the enemy’s finest, Tamas must lead his remaining men on a reckless retreat through northern Kez to safety.

In Adro, Inspector Adamat wants only to rescue his wife. To do so, he must hunt down and confront the enigmatic Lord Vetus – but the truth he learns is far darker than he could have imagined.

The god Kremsimir wants the head of Tamas’s son, Taniel – the man who shot him in the eye. With Tamas and his powder mages presumed dead, only Taniel can lead the charge against the vengeful god and his invading army.


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| 8. |

Calamity

Book Three of The Reckoners

by Brandon Sanderson
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When Calamity lit up the sky, the Epics were born. David’s fate has been tied to their villainy ever since that historic night. Steelheart killed his father. Firefight stole his heart. And now Regalia has turned his closest ally into a dangerous enemy.

David knew Prof’s secret, and kept it even when the Reckoners’ leader struggled to control the effects of his Epic powers. But facing Obliteration in Babilar was too much. Prof has now embraced his Epic destiny. He’s disappeared into those murky shadows of menace Epics are infamous for the world over, and everyone knows there’s no turning back…

But everyone is wrong. Redemption is possible for Epics—Megan proved it. They’re not lost. Not completely. And David is just about crazy enough to face down the most powerful High Epic of all to get his friend back. Or die trying.
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| 9. |

The Blinding Knife

Lightbringer – Book Two

by Brent Weeks
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Gavin Guile is dying.

He’d thought he had five years left—now he has less than one. With fifty thousand refugees, a bastard son, and an ex-fiancée who may have learned his darkest secret, Gavin has problems on every side. All magic in the world is running wild and threatens to destroy the Seven Satrapies.

Worst of all, the old gods are being reborn, and their army of color wights is unstoppable. The only salvation may be the brother whose freedom and life Gavin stole sixteen years ago.

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| 10. |

Shadow’s Edge

Book Two of The Night Angel

by Brent Weeksheart

Kylar has rejected the assassin’s life. In the wake of the Godking’s violent coup, both his master and his closest friend are dead. His friend was Logan Gyre, heir to Cenaria’s throne, but few of the ruling class survive to mourn his loss. So Kylar is starting over: new city, new companions, and new profession.

But when he learns that Logan might be alive, trapped and in hiding, Kylar faces an impossible choice. He could give up the way of shadows forever, and find peace with his young family. Or Kylar could succumb to his flair for destruction, the years of training, to save his friend and his country – and lose all he holds precious.heart

Which books are on your reading wishlist? If you would like to join in with Top Ten Tuesday, head on over to The Broke and the Bookish and sign up!

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Cover Reveal: The Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan – US Edition


Cover Reveal


| The Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan |

After last month’s reveal of the UK edition of The Waking Fire, Anthony Ryan has just revealed the US cover for the first novel in his Draconis Memoria Series. Whilst entirely different to the UK’s offering, this cover from Ace sparks the imagination and hints at another facet of this intriguing premise. With Da Vinci-esque illustrations and a parchment map wreathed in flame, it might not have the sheer power and beauty of the UK cover, but it certainly has its own charms to recommend it. But no matter the cover, one thing seems certain – The Waking Fire looks set to be be one of my summer reading highlights.



The Waking Fire

Book One of the Draconis Memoria

by Anthony Ryan

Ace – 7th July 2016


| The Waking Fire – UK vs US |


| Synopsis |

The New York Times bestselling Raven’s Shadow Trilogy was a perfect read for “fans of broadscale epic fantasy along the lines of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series and George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire novels.”* Now, Anthony Ryan begins a new saga, The Draconis Memoria…

Throughout the vast lands controlled by the Ironship Syndicate, nothing is more prized than the blood of drakes. Harvested from the veins of captive or hunted Reds, Green, Blues and Blacks, it can be distilled into elixirs that give fearsome powers to the rare men and women who have the ability harness them—known as the blood-blessed.

But not many know the truth: that the lines of drakes are weakening. If they fail, war with the neighboring Corvantine Empire will follow swiftly. The Syndicate’s last hope resides in whispers of the existence of another breed of drake, far more powerful than the rest, and the few who have been chosen by fate to seek it.

Claydon Torcreek is a petty thief and an unregistered blood-blessed, who finds himself pressed into service by the protectorate and sent to wild, uncharted territories in search of a creature he believes is little more than legend. Lizanne Lethridge is a formidable spy and assassin, facing gravest danger on an espionage mission deep into the heart of enemy territory. And Corrick Hilemore is the second lieutenant of an ironship, whose pursuit of ruthless brigands leads him to a far greater threat at the edge of the world.

As lives and empires clash and intertwine, as the unknown and the known collide, all three must fight to turn the tide of a coming war, or drown in its wake.

What do you think of the cover for The Waking Fire? Which edition do you prefer?

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Cover Reveal: The Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan – UK Edition


Cover Reveal


| The Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan |

Anthony Ryan has just revealed the UK cover for his new novel, The Waking Fire. Blood Song was a phenomenal introduction to this talented author and I fully expect The Waking Fire to live up to expectations. With an absolutely gorgeous cover from Jaime Jones and an incredible premise, it looks like fantasy fans are in for a treat this summer.


thewakingfirefinal


The Waking Fire

Book One of the Draconis Memoria

by Anthony Ryan

Artwork by Jaime Jones

Orbit UK – 5th July 2016


| Synopsis |

The New York Times bestselling Raven’s Shadow Trilogy was a perfect read for “fans of broadscale epic fantasy along the lines of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series and George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire novels.”* Now, Anthony Ryan begins a new saga, The Draconis Memoria…

Throughout the vast lands controlled by the Ironship Syndicate, nothing is more prized than the blood of drakes. Harvested from the veins of captive or hunted Reds, Green, Blues and Blacks, it can be distilled into elixirs that give fearsome powers to the rare men and women who have the ability harness them—known as the blood-blessed.

But not many know the truth: that the lines of drakes are weakening. If they fail, war with the neighboring Corvantine Empire will follow swiftly. The Syndicate’s last hope resides in whispers of the existence of another breed of drake, far more powerful than the rest, and the few who have been chosen by fate to seek it.

Claydon Torcreek is a petty thief and an unregistered blood-blessed, who finds himself pressed into service by the protectorate and sent to wild, uncharted territories in search of a creature he believes is little more than legend. Lizanne Lethridge is a formidable spy and assassin, facing gravest danger on an espionage mission deep into the heart of enemy territory. And Corrick Hilemore is the second lieutenant of an ironship, whose pursuit of ruthless brigands leads him to a far greater threat at the edge of the world.

As lives and empires clash and intertwine, as the unknown and the known collide, all three must fight to turn the tide of a coming war, or drown in its wake.

What do you think of the cover for The Waking Fire? Does this sound like something you would read?

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