Willoughby and the Terribly Itchy Itch – Pam Halter Content Ratings: Heat: None. This is a children’s book. Profanity: None. Violence: None. Genre: Christian Children’s Fantasy Age recommendation: All ages. Willoughby, the dragon who numbers his scales, showed up one morning on my doorstep about a year ago as a […]
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Tournament of Ruses – Kate Stradling Flora Dalton wants nothing more than a quiet life in the countryside of Lenore, but her father’s promotion to the Parliament of Lords has uprooted her and planted her smack in the middle of a mess. Not only must she adjust to a new […]
Starlight’s Children – Darian Smith Children are being hunted in the streets and their parents’ hearts frozen into glass. Brannon and his team of “unusual crimes” investigators are still reeling from the aftermath of Risen in Kalanon, but now they must face a new monster on the loose. Tensions between […]
Keeper of Shadows – Bridgett Powers A light-bearer with limited vision. A prisoner with wings. Can two cursed souls defeat the forces of darkness? Noire hates the magic that cursed his family and trapped him in the form of a raven. But to break the spell, he’s willing to do […]
Kingdom of Ruses – Kate Stradling Viola Moreland’s life is a well-orchestrated lie. For generations her family has fabricated the existence of the Eternal Prince, a mysterious and powerful protector who watches over the small kingdom of Lenore. This practiced deception cracks, however, when a nameless stranger stumbles across the […]
Kalanon’s Rising – Darian Smith Solve the murder. Stop the war. Save the world. Sir Brannon Kesh spent years building a new life as a physician, leaving the name Bloodhawk and the war that spawned it behind. But when the King’s cousin is murdered, duty calls him back. The crime […]
The Place of Voices (TimeDrifter Series, Book 1) – Lauren Lynch “Uplifting and entertaining.” – C. Dorsett, Amazon reviewer “Deep meaningful work … Lauren Lynch is a gifted storyteller.” – Shai, Amazon reviewer “Lyric fantasy done well.” – David Bergsland, Christian reviewer, radiqx.com Deep in a remote jungle, amid long-forgotten […]
Welcome! I’m W.R. Gingell, and I’ll be your host today! With me are nine other authors (it’s okay, I didn’t kidnap them; they’re with me in spirit—no, wait, now it sounds like they’re dead). Let me start again. With me are nine other authors; together, we’re the collective behind the […]
Gregor the Overlander – Suzanne Collins In the irresistible first novel by the author of The Hunger Games, a boy embarks on a dangerous quest in order to fulfill his destiny — and find his father. New cover art coming July 1st! In the first novel of the New York […]
The Beautiful Ones – Silvia Moreno-Garcia “Truly one of the most beautiful books I’ve read in a long time. This sweeping tale of love lost and found is told with old-world elegance and grace with just the right touch of magic.” —M.J. Rose, New York Times bestselling author Antonina Beaulieu is in […]
This blog post originally appeared on Nicholas Kotar’s site and is reprinted with permission. Ask pretty much anyone what is the one pop-cultural event that they’re waiting for more than any other this year. What do you think they’ll answer? The new “American Gods” show? Marvel Hero-du-jour: Episode 4,302? The […]
Jaunten – Honor Raconteur Twenty of them finally poured out into the open street. They quickly split up, coming in at a full run that slowed about ten feet away from us. I watched with a cynical eye, as they spread out in a semi-circle, blocking our path. One of […]
The Dragon Slayer’s Son – Robinne Weiss Nathan is shocked to learn that his father is dead, and even more shocked to learn that he died in the line of duty as a dragon slayer. Everything he thought he knew about his father was a lie. But he has no […]
Dare – Tricia Mingerink Courage could cost him everything. Third Blade Leith Torren never questions his orders or his loyalty to King Respen until an arrow wound and a prairie blizzard drive him to the doorstep of the girls whose family he once destroyed. Their forbidden faith and ties to […]
Heirs of Grace – Tim Pratt Recent art school graduate Bekah thought she’d hit the jackpot: an unknown relative died, and she inherited a small fortune and a huge house in the mountains of North Carolina. Trey Howard, the lawyer who handled the estate, is a handsome man in his […]
The Facefaker’s Game – Chandler J. Birch For fans of Brandon Sanderson and Scott Lynch, a fantasy about a clever young beggar who bargains his way into an apprenticeship with a company of thieving magicians and uses his newfound skills in a vendetta against a ruthless crime lord. Ashes lives […]
Seeds of Discovery by Breeana Puttroff Quinn Robbins wasn’t the kind of girl who had adventures. She wasn’t even the kind of girl who got invited to parties at Bristlecone High School. And she definitely wasn’t the kind of girl who would follow a boy she knew nothing about over […]
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson – This gets a wholehearted five stars out of five! Reader thoughts: Wow just doesn’t cover it. After reading this book (and the Alcatraz series), I became a Brandon Sanderson fan. All of his books feature characters who are clever and always try their best to […]
I first came across the term Noblebright a few months ago, and was intrigued by it. I imagined it would apply to works of High Fantasy, akin to Tolkien, (whose writing I love) without the gritty realism characteristic of Grimdark fantasy. Having read the definition of the term on C. […]
The Fuller’s Apprentice by Angela Holder – I picked this up on a free promotion, but it’s well worth purchasing. This is a clean fantasy series, and this first book is a unique coming-of-age young adult story. It’s clean but doesn’t completely shy away from some uglier, darker parts of life. But […]
The words grimdark and noblebright arose as technical terms in the gaming world. There’s a certain amount of dispute about the exact definitions there, with a tendency to paint them in black and white terms (such as the slur that noblebright is all about rainbows and unicorns and flawless heroes). […]
The Lord of Dreams by C. J. Brightley When a fairy king grants a human wish, there’s more at stake than dreams. Claire Delaney has a good life, despite her adolescent angst. But she wants more. In a moment of frustration, she wishes to be “the hero.” What she actually […]
When I think about the term ‘Noblebright Fantasy’, I tend to imagine knight-in-shining-armour type characters. Think Brienne from Game of Thrones – who, for myself at least, was one of the dreariest POV characters in the books. I found her constant preaching about nobility boring and out of place with […]
When I wrote the first post about noblebright fantasy, I got a comment from author L. Jagi Lamplighter (isn’t that a wonderful name?!) about the superversive literary movement. I’ll post more about that later, but I thought I’d start with this lovely essay about why she writes fantasy (reprinted with […]
As I was recently wrapping up the fourth book in my historical fantasy series, I had the sudden, horrible feeling that I had just written grimdark. Not that I’m totally opposed to grimdark-some of my favorite fantasy authors probably fall into that category. But in general, I’ve made an effort […]
Everything written here is my own opinion. I hope you find some portion of it helpful; as for any portion you don’t find helpful — discard and disregard. My purpose here is not to dictate to the world what “noblebright fantasy” is, or how its heroes should behave; but rather, […]
Tension. It’s that thing that all stories need to have to propel the reader forward. Without it, you have dullness. Drabness. Blahhhhh. But what most people don’t realize until they think about it is that there are two kinds of story tension, and they’re not all that similar. In fact, […]