Black Gate

David B. Coe’s adventure fantasy “Night of Two Moons” was one of the most popular tales in Black Gate 4. Over the last two decades he’s had a stellar career in fantasy — his LonTobyn trilogy and five-book Winds of the Forelands established him as a leading voice in adventure fantasy; and under the name D.B. Jackson he also writes the Thieftaker Chronicles, a historical urban fantasy for Tor. Shadow’s Blade, the third volume in The Case Files of Justis Fearsson, a contemporary urban fantasy featuring a hardboiled, magic-using private detective, was released by Baen last week.

Justis Fearsson is a weremyste and a private detective. He wields potent magic, but every month, on the full moon, he loses his mind. His battles with insanity have already cost him his job as a cop; he can’t afford to let them interfere with his latest case.

Phoenix has become ground zero in a magical war, and an army of werecreatures, blood sorcerers, and necromancers has made Jay its number one target. When he is hired to track down a woman who has gone missing with her two young children, he has a hunch that the dark ones are to blame. But then he’s also brought in by the police to help with a murder investigation, and all the evidence implicates this same woman. Soon he is caught up in a deadly race to find not only the young family, but also an ancient weapon that could prove decisive in the looming conflict. Can he keep himself alive long enough to reach the woman and her kids before his enemies do? And can he claim the weapon before the people he loves, and the world he knows, are lost in a storm of flame, blood, and darkest sorcery?

We cover the second volume in the series, His Father’s Eyes, here. David is a sometime blogger for Black Gate; his most recent article series for us discussed last year’s Hugo Award controversy.

Shadow’s Blade was published by Baen on May 3, 2016. It is 320 pages, priced at $26 in hardcover, and $9.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Alan Pollock. Read a sample chapter at David’s website.

Martin Owton’s stories for Black Gate include the funny and suspenseful contemporary fantasy “A Touch of Crystal” (co-written with Gaie Sebold), in BG 9, and “The Mist Beyond the Circle,” in which a band of desperate men pursue the slave traders who stole their families, across cold barrows where a dread thing sleeps (BG 14).

So I was very inrigued to see his debut novel Exile arrive last month. Exile is described as a fast-moving tightly-plotted fantasy adventure story with a strong thread of romance, and it’s the first volume of The Nandor Tales. Here’s the full description.

Aron of Darien, raised in exile after his homeland is conquered by a treacherous warlord, makes his way in the world on the strength of his wits and skill with a sword. Both are sorely tested when he is impressed into the service of the Earl of Nandor to rescue his heir from captivity in the fortress of Sarazan. The rescue goes awry. Aron and his companions are betrayed and must flee for their lives. Pursued by steel and magic, they find new friends and old enemies on the road that leads, after many turns, to the city of the High King. There Aron must face his father’s murderer before risking everything in a fight to the death with the deadliest swordsman in the kingdom.

The cover boasts a terrific quote from no less an illustrious personage than BG author and occasional blogger Peadar Ó Guilín, author of The Inferior and the upcoming The Call:

A wonderful story of intrigue, romance and duels, brushed, here and there, by the fingers of a goddess.

Exile was published by Phantasia/Tickety Boo Press on April 15, 2016. It is 303 pages, priced at just $2.99 for the digital version. Black Gate says check it out.