Posts about the summoner

Jun262011

And Then All Fell Down: This Year’s Hawthorne Moon Sneak Peek


An assassination costs Tris Drayke a key pillar of support for his shaky rule and a member of his family. Things in the Winter Kingdoms are getting worse, An invasion force led by a Dark Summoner had landed, and Tris must forge new alliances to save his people, throne, and the lives of his friends, wife, and child.

Gail Martin’s Fallen Kings Cycle concludes with more ancient spirits, magic, and intrigue with the Dread. Just reading the excerpt she released on twitter (@gailmartin) tells me she’s upping the stakes. Evil has the good guys on the ropes, and things seem at their bleakest before the conclusion.

If you’re new to the series, you can catch up in time, as the Dread won’t be released until February.

And when you’re ready for a teaser, click below to hear Gail read from the first chapter:


You can download this excerpt here.

Here’s a video of Gail describing her sneak peek event, the Hawthorne Moon, and how you can find excerpts, giveaways, and other goodies:

Visit Gail at her site, http://www.ascendantkingdoms.com to get started.

Jun172010

Trick, Treat, and Maybe Twitter

I’ve always had a little taste for the macabre or the spooky. While I went through my Goth phase post high school and fell deeply in love with Anne Rice’s vampire series, I left the supernatural behind for a good while. Probably it was college. Entering an English Lit program drove me to read “serious” books, and I had to slake my thirst on the ghost scene in Hamlet or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. While I didn’t really return to the supernatural until recently, my love for it was always there. I’ve especially always enjoyed a good intersection of epic fantasy and the paranormal.

In recent years I’ve been getting my fix through Gail Z. Martin’s Chronicles of the Necromancer. I’m excited to see where she takes the new arc. Gail has been kind enough to provide us with a sneak peek of her new book, The Sworn, coming in February next year:

As plague and famine scourge the winter kingdoms, a vast invasion force is mustering from beyond the northern seas. And at its heart, a dark spirit mage wields the blood magic of ancient, vanquished gods. Summoner-King Martris Drayke must attempt to meet this great threat, gathering an army from a country ravaged by civil war. Drayke must seek new allies from among the living – and the dead –- as an untested generation of rulers face their first battle. Then someone disturbs the legendary Dread as they rest in a millennia-long slumber beneath sacred barrows. Their warrior guardians, the Sworn, know the Dread could be pivotal as a force for great good or evil. But if it’s the latter, could even the Summoner-King’s sorcery prevail?

Gail Z. Martin is the author of The Summoner, The Blood King and Dark Haven in the Chronicles of the Necromancer series, published by Solaris Books. The Sworn marks her move to Orbit Books. The books have garnered praise from reviewers as well as strong sales and spots on several bestseller lists. Learn more at www.ChroniclesOfTheNecromancer.com

Gail might finally be the reason I get dragged onto Twitter, as she’s going to twitter the first chapter of The Sworn on June 21st (www.Twitter.com/GailZMartin). I’m hoping we’ll see more Tris’s power set, and see wider application of his summoning abilities.

One place Gail really shines is settings: she’s created a great religious division based on various aspects of a single goddess. With her exploring various kingdoms in the world of the Summoner, I’m anxious to see how the goddess takes to these vanquished gods infringing on her territory. Martin is upping the stakes, which can only be a good thing for a series. Hope you join us for the ride!