The Death of Sir Martin Malprelate by Adam Roberts is $2 in the US (
Kobo,
Amazon)
His latest novel. On the surface, not an SF novel like his usual work, but takes inspiration from fiction of the period.
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A gothic tale of murder and corruption set in 1840s Victorian London, taking inspiration from our most famous 19th century writers.
The 1840s.
Railway Baron Sir Martin Malprelate has been laying waste to the warren of Camden; buying up houses and clearing streets for his new railway line linking King’s Cross with the prosperous town of Middlemarch. He stands to make his fortune ever more vast and to earn the loathing of all who attempt to stand up to him. Little wonder, then, that he meets a violent end on a foggy street after walking out of a particularly bitter meeting with outraged residents facing eviction. But the cause of his death causes more wonder. How could he have possibly fallen beneath the wells of a speeding spectral train running on tracks not yet even built?
Sir Martin’s death is investigated by the police, but the company employ one of its senior engineers, Mr Bryde, to pursue his own investigation. Bryde uncovers a network of resentment and conspiracy, popular opposition to the expansion of the railways, agitating workers, scheming shareholders, corrupt politicians and a gallery of varied and grotesque characters, all of whom had some stake in the old man’s death.
Lacing it’s realism with both social commentary and the gothic imaginations of the time The Murder of Sir Martin Malprelate is a vivid recreation of a London stalked by poverty and haunted by visions of demons and ghosts; a world of slums, lavish wealth and opium dens. The narrative is coloured by exotic characters all too ready to believe in the supernatural but the plot is driven by rationality and the all too real motivations of greed and revenge.
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Twelve Kings in Sharakhai (Song of Shattered Sands #1) by Bradley P. Beaulieu is $2 in the US (
Kobo,
Amazon)
First in a completed series.
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A desert pit fighter plots to overthrow the immortal kings who terrorize her homeland in this first thrilling adventure in a blood- and sand-fueled epic fantasy series.
Sharakhai, the great city of the desert, center of commerce and culture, has been ruled from time immemorial by twelve kings—cruel, ruthless, powerful, and immortal. With their army of Silver Spears, their elite company of Blade Maidens and their holy defenders, the terrifying asirim, the Kings uphold their positions as undisputed, invincible lords of the desert. There is no hope of freedom for any under their rule.
Or so it seems, until Çeda, a brave young woman from the west end slums, defies the Kings’ laws by going outside on the holy night of Beht Zha’ir. What she learns that night sets her on a path that winds through both the terrible truths of the Kings’ mysterious history and the hidden riddles of her own heritage. Together, these secrets could finally break the iron grip of the Kings’ power . . . if the nigh-omnipotent Kings don’t find her first.
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