Brian Staveley is an American fantasy writer. He has written an epic fantasy trilogy, The Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, the first volume of a sequel series, Ashes of the Unhewn Throne, a prequel novel, Skullsworn, and a selection of short fiction.
Staveley lives in Vermont, and is married. He taught literature, philosophy, history, and religion before beginning to write fiction. [1]
Staveley's debut trilogy, The Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne (2014–2016), follows the three children of an assassinated emperor – the monk Kaden, the special forces soldier Valyn and the politician Adare – as they attempt to unravel the conspiracy gripping their continent-spanning empire. The first volume won the Gemmell Morningstar Award for best debut novel and was nominated for the Locus Award and Goodreads Choice Awards. [2]
io9 characterized the first volume as "the year's breakout epic war fantasy" [3] and noted that the trilogy, in a "nice change of pace from most of the epic fantasy landscape", was characterized by a modern mindset, even if it tended to get "sidetracked down rabbit holes" with sub-plots. [4] At Tor.com , Niall Alexander lauded the first volume's skillful use of fantasy tropes but criticized its "manifest mistreatment of women". [5] He considered the final volume a substantial improvement "in the pace and the ultimate punch of its complex plot; and in the quality, on the lexical level, of the author’s already-polished prose". [6] In a starred review, Kirkus Reviews appreciated the third volume as "a deeply satisfying but bleak, dark work; its only illumination are flashes of high tragedy". [7]
The first of a projected series of standalone novels about secondary characters in the Chronicles, Staveley's 2017 novel Skullsworn is set several years prior to the events of the trilogy. It sees the apprentice assassin Pyrre returning to her home city where she is to kill seven people – including one whom she loves – in order to become a priestess of the god of death.
Reviewing Skullsworn at Tor.com, Laura M. Hughes described its setting, the swampy river delta city of Dombâng, as the novel's "show-stealer" antagonist, and appreciated Staveley's "more confident, assured" narrative voice. [8] Kirkus Reviews described it as "a pleasantly grim and emotionally complex divertissement", [9] and Publishers Weekly noted the "remarkably intimate" novel's "visceral action scenes and memorable characters". [10]
Set several years after the events of the first trilogy by the author, Ashes of the Unhewn Throne is a series expected to consist of three or more volumes, the first of which is titled The Empire's Ruin and was published in July 2021.
All cover art by Richard Anderson.
Jo Walton is a Welsh-Canadian fantasy and science fiction writer and poet. She is best known for the fantasy novel Among Others, which won the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 2012, and Tooth and Claw, a Victorian era novel with dragons which won the World Fantasy Award in 2004. Other works by Walton include the Small Change series, in which she blends alternate history with the cozy mystery genre, comprising Farthing, Ha'penny and Half a Crown. Her fantasy novel Lifelode won the 2010 Mythopoeic Award, and her alternate history My Real Children received the 2015 Tiptree Award.
Steven Erikson is the pseudonym of Steve Rune Lundin, a Canadian novelist, who was educated and trained as both an archaeologist and anthropologist.
Kate Elliott is the pen name of American fantasy and science fiction writer Alis A. Rasmussen.
Malazan Book of the Fallen is a series of epic fantasy novels written by the Canadian author Steven Erikson. The series, published by Bantam Books in the U.K. and Tor Books in the U.S., consists of ten volumes, beginning with Gardens of the Moon (1999) and concluding with The Crippled God (2011). Erikson's series is extremely complex with a wide scope, and presents the narratives of a large cast of characters spanning thousands of years across multiple continents.
Ian McDonald is a British science fiction novelist, living in Belfast. His themes include nanotechnology, postcyberpunk settings, and the impact of rapid social and technological change on non-Western societies.
The Farseer Trilogy is a series of fantasy novels by American author Robin Hobb. Often described as character-driven and introspective, and also as epic fantasy, the trilogy follows the early life of FitzChivalry Farseer, illegitimate son of a prince and melancholy hero. In a shift from the author's earlier work as Megan Lindholm, the Farseer novels were penned under a pseudonym, Robin Hobb, and met with critical and commercial success.
Martha Wells is an American writer of speculative fiction. She has published a number of fantasy novels, young adult novels, media tie-ins, short stories, and nonfiction essays on fantasy and science fiction subjects. Her novels have been translated into twelve languages. Wells has won four Hugo Awards, two Nebula Awards and three Locus Awards for her science fiction series The Murderbot Diaries. She is also known for her fantasy series Ile-Rien and The Books of the Raksura. Wells is praised for the complex, realistically detailed societies she creates; this is often credited to her academic background in anthropology.
Charlie Jane Anders is an American writer and commentator. She has written several novels, published magazines and websites, and hosted podcasts. In 2005, she received the Lambda Literary Award for work in the transgender category, and in 2009, the Emperor Norton Award. Her 2011 novelette Six Months, Three Days won the 2012 Hugo and was a finalist for the Nebula and Theodore Sturgeon Awards. Her 2016 novel All the Birds in the Sky was listed No. 5 on Time magazine's "Top 10 Novels" of 2016, won the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the 2017 Crawford Award, and the 2017 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel; it was also a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
Tony Daniel is an American science fiction writer and is an editor at Baen Books.
Joseph Edward Abercrombie is a British fantasy writer and film editor. He is the author of The First Law trilogy, as well as other fantasy books in the same setting and a trilogy of young adult novels. His novel Half a King won the 2015 Locus Award for best young adult book.
The Stormlight Archive is a series of epic fantasy novels written by American author Brandon Sanderson, planned to consist of ten novels. As of 2022, the series comprises four published novels and two novellas. The first novel, The Way of Kings, was published on August 31, 2010. The second novel, Words of Radiance, was published in 2014 and debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller List. A fifth novel is expected to be released in fall 2024, while writing for the latter half of the series will begin after Sanderson finishes writing the upcoming Era Three Mistborn trilogy.
The David Gemmell Awards for Fantasy, established in memory of David Gemmell, were awarded from 2009 to 2018. In 2009, only the Legend Award for best fantasy novel was awarded. Beginning in 2010 the Morningstar Award for Best Fantasy Newcomer and the Ravenheart Award for Best Fantasy Cover Art were added. The award was closed in 2019.
The Saga of Shadows is a trilogy of space opera novels written by Kevin J. Anderson. First announced in 2011, it is a sequel to Anderson's seven-book series, The Saga of Seven Suns (2002–2008). The first novel, The Dark Between the Stars, was released by Tor Books on June 3, 2014. The second book in the series, Blood of the Cosmos, was published on June 2, 2015. The third novel, called Eternity's Mind, was released on September 13, 2016.
Forge of Darkness is the first novel of The Kharkanas Trilogy by Canadian author Steven Erikson, set before the events of the Malazan Book of the Fallen.
The Goblin Emperor is a 2014 fantasy novel written by the American author Sarah Monette under the pseudonym Katherine Addison. The novel received the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and was nominated for the Nebula, Hugo and World Fantasy Awards. It was well-received by critics, who noted the strength of the protagonist's characterization and, unusual for fantasy, the work's warm and understated tone.
The Divine Cities is a trilogy of fantasy novels by the American writer Robert Jackson Bennett. It consists of the novels City of Stairs, City of Blades (2016) and City of Miracles (2017).
The Stone Sky is a 2017 science fantasy novel by American writer N. K. Jemisin. It was awarded the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel, and the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2018. Reviews of the book upon its release were highly positive. It is the third volume in the Broken Earth series, following The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate, both of which also won the Hugo Award.
Django Wexler is an American fantasy author. He has published the "flintlock fantasy" series The Shadow Campaigns (2013–2018), the young adult Forbidden Library fantasy series, and other works.
Richard Anderson is an American concept artist, illustrator, and painter. He won the Gold Spectrum Award in 2011, the Art Directors Guild Award for Excellence in Production Design for a Fantasy Film in 2015, and he was the final person to win the Gemmell Award for Best Fantasy Cover Art.
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