Paralyzed since birth, a young man named Innowen happens upon a sorceress along the road. She grants him the ability to walk, but there are two conditions—he can only walk between dusk and dawn and, to keep this ability to walk, he must perform a dance in the witch’s honor each night.

What at first seems harmless comes with a sinister price. Anyone who witnesses Innowen’s dance is soon compelled to act out his or her darkest, most horrific desires. Eased of his physical affliction only to be burdened with a moral one, Innowen sets out on a quest to find his nameless “benefactor” in order to lift the curse. What he finds instead are long-protected secrets that threaten to bring down the entire kingdom.

Filled with twists and turns, Shadowdance, this dark fantasy from author Robin Wayne Bailey (Frost trilogy) will remind readers that the most powerful magic hides in the dark of night.

Elizabeth A. Lynn stands as a ground-breaking author of fantasy and science fiction. Her stories weave richly-drawn characters and complex scenes of daily life into the intricate tapestry of speculative fiction. But, beyond her technical skill, Lynn has changed the landscape of fantasy writing as one of the first authors to incorporate themes of gender and gay relationships into her work. Importantly, these themes are not part of the fantastic storyline but simply part of the unremarkable, normal relationships around which the fantasy occurs.

The Woman Who Loved the Moon, a deeply felt collection of Lynn’s early short stories, serves as a wonderful introduction to her influential work. Soaring emotions, eloquent prose, and fully-realized worlds are truly a joy to become lost within. That explains why the namesake short story “The Woman Who Loved the Moon” won Lynn one of her two World Fantasy Awards.

With The Woman Who Loved the Moon, readers will delight in an author whose work George R.R. Martin has described as “the sort of fantasy we don’t see enough of: lyrical and literate, and a treat from the first page to the last.”

For other great books by Lynn, including her other World Fantasy Award winner, Watchtower, visit her author page.

Dave Duncan fans have been waiting and waiting for a decade for the fourth and final volume of his “Seventh Sword” quartet, and at last their hunger will be satisfied.  E-Reads is honored to bring The Death of Nnanji to the world for the first time anywhere.

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For fifteen years the truce has held. Swordsmen of the Tryst of Casr have kept the peace and extended the rule of law over half the World, but now sorcerers have started killing swordsmen again, and swordsmen traitors are aiding them.

Shonsu—who was Wallie Smith before he became a swordsman of the seventh rank and liege lord of the Tryst—must once more gird on the seventh sword of Chioxin, and this time he rides out to fight the war that he hoped would never come. As he leads his army forth, its two most junior members are Vixini, son of Shonsu, and Addis, son of Nnanji, who has an oath of vengeance to fulfill. Their failure or success will determine the fate of the World for the next thousand years.

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Those who read and enjoyed the original three volume of “The Seventh Sword” will remember a series of surprise endings, especially in the third volume, so those of you who are not familiar with them will understand why we’re a little cagey in relating the backstory – we don’t want to spoil it for you!  You will want to start with The Reluctant Swordsman, The Coming of Wisdom, and The Destiny of the Sword before taking up this breathtaking climactic work in the Seventh Sword quartet.

Click here for the complete collection of Dave Duncan’s E-Reads books

Pamela Sargent is everything but an underachiever.

It should be enough that she is one of fantasy and science fiction’s leading ladies. But she is so much more, and the Science Fiction Research Association has recognized her accomplishments as a scholar and editor by bestowing on her its Pilgrim Award for a lifetime of contributions to science fiction and fantasy scholarship.

Did we say she was a Nebula Award winner, a Locus Award winner, a Hugo finalist? Did we say that she is a distinguished editor of anthologies celebrating the contributions of women in the history of science fiction? Did we say the American Library Association selected her Earthseed one of the best books for young adults?

Did we say Earthseed and its sequels (Tor), about which blogger P. J. Hoover said “It’s like space and The Hunger Games all blended into one”,  have been optioned for film by Paramount?

Oh yes – did we say how proud E-Reads is to carry ten of her works, with more on the way?

In Dragon’s Winter, dragon-lord Karadur Atani – lately returned from a deadly battle – was finally able to take his true dragon form. But, can the peace he found in defeating his treacherous brother translate to peace within himself? In order to rule his kingdom, Karadur must find a balance between his desire to be a merciful leader and the destructive power of his dragon-changeling nature.

Perhaps love can provide the answer. As a lover, Maia–an herbalist from the Unamira clan of outlaws–can produce a dragon-changeling heir for Karadur. But, her half-brother Treion poses a threat to the kingdom. Can Karadur find compassion for the outlaw, or will his dragon aspect drive him toward the vengeful madness that overtook his father?

With Dragon’s Treasure, World Fantasy Award-winning author Elizabeth A. Lynn continues to build an imaginative medieval world filled with both magic on a grand scale and the very human complexity of daily life.

“Features full and pleasing measures of Lynn’s graceful prose and world-building talent.” — Booklist

Though agents and editors are expected to be enthusiastic about books they’re involved with, a steady diet of hyperbole can elicit tedium and skepticism. Of a particularly partisan agent an editor once sneered “He thinks every book he handles is Moby Dick.” For that reason, as regular readers of this column know, it has to be a truly prodigious book to make me depart from my natural caution.

Steven R. Boyett’s Mortality Bridge is a prodigious book.

Channeling Orpheus, Dante and Faust, Mortality Bridge is a stunning, brutal—and surprisingly funny—quest across a Hieronymous Bosch landscape of myth, music, and mayhem; and across an inner terrain of addiction, damnation, and redemption.

Cory Doctorow writes: “Mortality Bridge is a gutwrenching novel about loss and redemption, deserved guilt and betrayal, with an antihero whose quest is at once the stuff of cracking adventure stories and a tragic tale of facing up to one’s own cowardice and weakness…Niko’s race through Hell is one of the greatest supernatural adventure stories of recent memory, surpassing Niven and Pournelle’s classic Inferno (itself a very good novel on a similar premise, even if it does turn on the power of Hell to redeem one of history’s great monsters). It is not a mere allegory about sin and redeption, cowardice and nobility: it’s also a damned good story, which sets it apart from almost all existential allegories.”

Hugo award-winner John Scalzi writes: “Luminously tragic, darkly funny, and deeply moving, all in turns and sometimes all at once. Boyett is one of the very few writers who will make you eager to go into Hell, and not worry about whether you return.”

In a starred review Publishers Weekly declared: “Dark, grotesque, and eerie, Boyett’s behemoth reimagining of Orpheus’ descent into the Underworld blends Faust and Dante with Greek myth… Through unusual turns of phrase, violent and bloody imagery, heartrending introspection, and mythic tone, Boyett (Elegy Beach) explores themes of betrayal, redemption, and personal sacrifice in a tortured landscape of bedlam and pandemonium ”

Fantasy Literature reviewed Mortality Bridge in these terms:”Brilliant. An unforgettable tale of one man’s journey to Hell. The writing is filled with vivid sensory detail. I was pushed to my limits by this one. Immeasurably sad. Moments of transcendent joy and beauty and compassion. A very well-written book that made me feel intense emotion. I recommend it.”

And an Amazon reviewer wrote, awarding five stars, declared: “Mortality Bridge is the Steven R. Boyett book I’d been waiting for. I thought that book was coming last year when I heard a long-awaited sequel to Boyett’s wonderful fantasy novel, Ariel, was coming out. That sequel, Elegy Beach, was good but less intense than the original, like Boyett was trying to rekindle energy for a world that had enthralled him almost 30 years earlier. Like Nietzsche, I love only what a man has written with his blood, which Ariel was but Elegy Beach came a bit short of.

“But Mortality Bridge is the best Boyett so far. It has all the wonderful imagination in its plot as Ariel had, but it is far better written, simply beautiful prose. Boyett fuses two powerful myths, Faust and Orpheus, and sets them in modern times. Like Faust, the rock musician main character Niko has made a deal with the devil that costs him his beloved girlfriend’s life, and like Orpheus he descends into hell to retrieve her. The hell he describes is ghastly and spellbinding, and his journey through it has you turning pages faster than anything Stephen King ever wrote. The passage through hell, which constitutes most of the novel, is so vividly described, so mesmerizing, that I could visualize it as clearly as if it were a movie, and a great movie it would be.

“The best thing about the book, which raises it above even Ariel, is that it is the product of not only an intelligent but now a fully matured mind able to grasp the metaphysical implications of its profound subject matter. It takes on questions of immortality, the nature of the psyche, the forces that may or may not govern the universe and treats each with the astute wisdom it deserves. It seldom insists on any answers to these questions; rather, like all our best teachers, Boyett leads us to deeper questions. The finest book I’ve read in a long time.”

E-Reads is publisher of the e-book of Ariel, Boyett’s stunning debut novel.

Richard Curtis

Morgan Llywelyn’s Irish historical novels and Celtic fantasies have delighted fans for decades since publication of her first novel The Wind from Hastings and her bestselling The Lion of Ireland. And now she brings us The Isles of the Blest, a magical story of a war-weary king and the seductive allure of a peaceable kingdom whispered to him by a fey beauty.

The mighty Connla is weary from the tiresome and bloody battle fought in the name of his father, Conn, and his land, Erin. Willingly, he lets himself become intoxicated by the surreal beauty of a fairy-woman who offers to take him to a faraway, forbidden land where all his desires will be fulfilled. He welcomes the opportunity to be away from the gruesome war that has consumed his life for so long, but what price will the warrior pay to be in a land void of death, loss and pain? Does the pleasure of the company of the stunning stranger outweigh the price he must pay to remain in The Isles of the Blest?

In Ratha and Thistle-Chaser, the third volume of Clare Bell’s saga of great sentient prehistoric cats, a drought has forced the Named clan to seek temporary relief near the coast. Much to their surprise, they find a young, clever cat named Newt, whose own clouded history is intertwined with the Named and their leader, Ratha.

Rejected by the Un-Named, carrying emotional and physical scars from a childhood incident she can’t remember, Newt suffers from nightmares of a huge monster she calls the Dreambiter. Newt discovers some small solace with the gentle sea creatures of her ocean beach, but she soon finds herself clashing with Ratha over their protection. In many ways, these two large cats are alike. Perhaps in ways too painful to remember…

With Ratha and Thistle-Chaser, Bell explores complex ideas of family and adversity while providing the thrilling plots and captivating adventure her readers have come to love.

Love cats? You’ll really love these cats. See the other volumes here.

“Excellent craftsmanship, complex characters, a compelling plot, and fresh insights into family and society.”
—School Library Journal

Clan Ground is the second novel in Clare Bell’s chronicle of prehistoric cats, The Named.

With her mastery over fire – known as “the Red Tongue” – Ratha now leads the Named, a clan of sentient, prehistoric big cats with their own language, traditions, and law. But her control becomes threatened with the arrival of an outsider. An Un-Named stranger with orange eyes arrives, bringing political savvy and a desire to use “the Red Tongue” for his own purposes.

As the clan begins to worship the Red Tongue, they see their territory expand, but at what cost? The Red Tongue is an unthinking master of great force, able to destroy those who fail to rein in its power. Ratha may have the solution, but does she truly desire the responsibility of ruling her clan and the Red Tongue? Do the Named have a future without her?

Readers who fell in love with the noble cats and suspense of Ratha’s Creature will love this captivating tale that grabs you from the very first page.

“A page-turner—full of suspense and action—that will be enthusiastically welcomed by Ratha admirers.”
—Booklist

Love Ain’t Nothing But Sex Misspelled by Harlan Ellison

Perhaps America’s most destructive contribution to 20th century living has been that damaged product called plastic romance. It twists and savages us. After a lifetime of lies about what love is supposed to be, are you finally angry and depressed enough to be part of a “recall” on that shabby, mildewed merchandise?

If so, join the remarkable Harlan Ellison as he dissects the soul and body of love in Our Time. In 16 scalpel-sharp stories that range from the legalized whorehouses of Nevada to the steaming lynch towns of Georgia, from the abortion mills of Tijuana to the sound stages of Hollywood, the writer whom Oui magazine charmingly named “the perpetually angry young punk of the bizarre” rips the Saran-Wrap off love and hate and sin and twittering passion—to disclose the raw meat beneath. Here are sixteen poisoned arrows from fantasy’s most improbable Cupid in which he presents a world of hearts & flowers guaranteed to revise your thinking about where love is found and how it looks.