Compelling Tale Publishing
TOP 5 READS
What I'm Reading - Recent Reads
The holiday season provided time for reading and I found a number of books that were very enjoyable. I'm looking forward to more great finds in the new year, as authors deliver their new releases for 2023. David Hair finished his trilogy of the Tethered Citadel with predictably exciting results.
01
Sorcerer's Edge âš”
David Hair
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Amazon Review: After all they've suffered, rebel sorcerer Raythe Vyre and his fortune-seekers are still empty-handed, but they've found real treasure: peace.
Deep inside the Ice wastes, Raythe's people stumbled upon Rath Argentium, the legendary Aldar city, and the long-lost Tangato people. After fighting through betrayal, treachery and powerful magic, they forged a hard-won treaty with the Tangato and their extraordinary queen, Shiazar. Now they've put aside their dreams of wealth and revenge and embraced something better: a life outside the tyrannical Bolgravian Empire.
But the Bolgravian Empire never gives up.
The empire hasn't forgotten Raythe Vyre, and his enemies know where he is. Guided by Toran Zorne, the implacable imperial assassin, they are coming to claim Rath Argentium for themselves. Raythe and Shiazar know all too well that courage and cunning won't be enough this time: they are outnumbered, out-gunned and out of time.
Faced with total annihilation, it's up to Raythe to find an edge . . .
02
Mercy 🔎
David Baldacci
03
The King's Traitor âš”
Jeff Wheeler
04
An Unintended Voyage âš”
Marshall Ryan Maresca
05
The Bladed Faith âš”
David Dalglish
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Older recommendations
Nettle And Bone âš”
T. Kingfisher
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A Time Of Courage âš”
John Gwynne
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The Thief's Daughter âš”
Jeff Wheeler
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The Justice of Kings âš”
Richard Swan
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The House of Cats and Gulls âš”
Stephen Deas
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The Moonsteel Crown âš”
Stephen Deas
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Amazon Review: The Emperor of Aria has been murdered, the Empire is in crisis, and Dead Men walk the streets, but Myla, Fings, and Seth couldn't care less. They're too busy just trying to survive in the Sulk-struck city of Varr, committing petty violence and pettier crimes to earn their keep in the Unrulys, a motley gang led by Blackhand.When the Unrulys are commissioned to steal a mysterious item to order, by an equally mysterious patron, the trio are thrust right into the bitter heart of a struggle for the Crown, where every faction is after what they have.Forced to lie low in a city on lockdown, they will have to work together if they want to save their skins... and maybe just save the Empire as well.
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Sixteen Ways To Defend A Walled City âš”
K. J. Parker
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The Wolf Of Oren-Yaro âš”
K.S. Villoso
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How To Rule An Empire and
Get Away With It âš”
K. J. Parker
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A Practical Guide To Conquering
The World âš”
K. J. Parker
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The Unwilling âš”
Kelly Braffet
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The 6:20 Man
David Baldacci 🔎
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The Apollo Murders
Chris Hadfield 🔎
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Silver Queendom âš”
Dan Koboldt
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The Queen's Poisoner âš”
Jeff Wheeler
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The Splinter King âš”
Mike Brooks
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Publisher’s Weekly Review: Mike Brooks delivers an outstanding tale of honor, religion, politics, and crime in his second Chronicles of the God-King fantasy (after The Black Coast). In East Harbour, capital of the island realm of Kiburu ce Alaba, street kid Jeya continues to help the last surviving child of the Splinter King, who has taken the name Bulang, to hide from the assassins who killed Bulang’s family—but now someone is targeting Jeya’s friends and allies. In southernmost Narida, Daimon and his new raider wife, Saana, rule over the combined peoples of his Black Keep and her Brown Eagle Clan as a contingent of their rivals from Darkspur come to visit. Meanwhile, Daimon’s foster brother, Darel, travels with the Southern Marshal to the Naridan capital, Idramar, to face the judgment of God-King Natan III, even as Natan’s sister, Tila, faces her own justice for murdering Narida’s Lord Admiral. And in the background, rumors mount that the god Nari has been reborn. Brooks throws in pirates, treachery, witchcraft, combat, and dragons to create a whirlwind of drama and intrigue.
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A Time Of Blood âš”
John Gwynne
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World's Edge âš”
David Hair
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The Pariah âš”
Anthony Ryan
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The Stone Knife âš”
Anna Stephens
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A Time Of Dread
John Gwynne
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From the Amazon description:
A race of warrior angels, the Ben-Elim, once vanquished a mighty demon horde. Now they rule the Banished lands, but their peace is brutally enforced.
In the south, hotheaded Riv is desperate to join the Ben-Elim's peacekeeping force, until she unearths a deadly secret.
In the west, the giantess Sig investigates demon sightings and discovers signs of an uprising and black magic.
And in the snowbound north, Drem, a trapper, finds mutilated corpses in the forests. The work of a predator, or something far darker?
It's a time of shifting loyalties and world-changing dangers. Difficult choices need to be made. Because in the shadows, demons are gathering, waiting for their time to rise. . .
​Nolyn
Michael J. Sullivan
The New Climate War
Michael E. Mann
Find You First
Linwood Barclay
The Wisdom of Crowds
Joe Abercrombie
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The Black Coast
Mike Brooks
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From the Amazon description:
War Dragons. Fearsome Raiders. A Daemonic Warlord on the Rise.
When the citizens of Black Keep see ships on the horizon, terror takes them because they know who is coming: for generations, the keep has been raided by the fearsome clanspeople of Tjakorsha. Saddling their war dragons, Black Keep's warriors rush to defend their home only to discover that the clanspeople have not come to pillage at all. Driven from their own land by a daemonic despot who prophesises the end of the world, the raiders come in search of a new home . . .
Daylight
David Baldacci
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Sorcery of a Queen
Brian Naslund
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The Blacktongue Thief
Christopher Buehlman
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The Frozen Crown
Greta Kelly
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Blood of an Exile
Brian Naslund
Bershad stands apart from the world, the most legendary dragonslayer in history, both revered and reviled. Once, he was Lord Silas Bershad, but after a disastrous failure on the battlefield he was stripped of his titles and sentenced to one violent, perilous hunt after another. Now he lives only to stalk dragons, slaughter them, collect their precious oil, and head back into the treacherous wilds once more. For years, death was his only chance to escape. But that is about to change. The king who sentenced Bershad to his fate has just given him an unprecedented chance at redemption. Kill a foreign emperor and walk free forever. The journey will take him across dragon-infested mountains, through a seedy criminal underworld, and into a forbidden city guarded by deadly technology.
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The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry
C.M. Waggoner
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News of the World
Paulette Jiles
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The Professionals
Owen Laukkanen
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An Innocent Client
Scott Pratt
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Map's Edge
David Hair
Follow a renegade sorcerer off the edge of the map
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Unnatural Magic
C.M. Waggoner
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The Once and Future Witches
Alix E. Harrow
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Elevator Pitch
Linwood Barclay
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Life
Keith Richards
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Call Of The Bone Ships
RJ Barker
In this fantasy world, life upon the ocean is everything
and everyone revolves around it. Condemned to the Black Ships,
and duty until death, Lucky Meas nevertheless has the ambition
to make plans of her own.
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Burn
Patrick Ness
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The Boy From The Woods
Harlan Coben
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Warlord
Bernard Cornwell
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The Evening and the Morning
Ken Follet
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Fair Warning
Michael Connelly
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The Trouble With Peace
Joe Abercrombie
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The Red Stained Wings
Elizabeth Bear
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Marilia The Warlord
Morgan Cole
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The Bone Shard Daughter
Andrea Stewart
In The Kingdom of All Tomorrows
Stephen R. Lawhead
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The Unspoken Name
AK Larkwood
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Long Road To Mercy
David Baldacci
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The Guardians
John Grisham
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Torn
Rowenna Miller
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Bright Steel
Miles Cameron
Mother of Demons
David Hair
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An Anonymous Girl
Greer Hendricks
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The Ruin of Kings
Jenn Lyons
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Sword of Kings
Bernard Cornwell
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A Little Hatred
Joe Abercrombie
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Dark Forge
Miles Cameron
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Hearts of Ice
David Hair
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Cari Mora
Thomas Harris
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The Stone in the Skull
Elizabeth Bear