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 From the old, to the new, to the unpublished – here’s my reading wishlist for 2017:
| 1. |
The Waking Fire
Book One of Draconis Memoria
by Anthony Ryan
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.
| 2 |
American Gods
by Neil Gaiman
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.
| 3 |
Red Sister
Book of the Ancestor – Book One
by Mark Lawrence
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.
| 4. |
The Core
Book Five of The Demon Cycle
by Peter V. Brett
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.
| 5. |
Knight’s Shadow
Book Two of The Greatcoats
by Sebastien de Castell
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 . . .
| 6. |
Dead Man’s Steel
Book Three of The Grim Company
by Luke Scull
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…
| 7. |
The Crimson Campaign
Book Two of The Powder Mage Trilogy
by Brian McClellan
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.
| 8. |
Calamity
Book Three of The Reckoners
by Brandon Sanderson
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.
| 9. |
The Blinding Knife
Lightbringer – Book Two
by Brent Weeks
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.
| 10. |
Shadow’s Edge
Book Two of The Night Angel
by Brent Weeks
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.
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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