A quick look at Amazon tells me that this was actually first published back in 2008 but Orbit are giving this series a big push next year (all three books over six months) and a quick glance at my advance copy tells me that they could be onto something. Here's the blurb...
Young Wynter Moorehawke returns to court with her dying father - but she finds her old home shadowed in fear and riddled with dangerous secrets. King Jonathan has become a violent despot, terrorising those he once loved, and his son Alberon has fled into exile to plan a royal coup. Meanwhile, Alberon's half-brother Razi has been elevated to heir, and struggles to meet King Jonathan's increasingly untenable commands and keep his sanity. And at the heart of matters lies a war machine so lethal that no one dares speak of it. The kingdom would belong to the machine's master, yet the consequences of using it are too appalling to consider. But temptation has ever been the enemy of reason.
It may look like you've seen it all before but the first couple of pages have got me interested in reading more. We'll see where it goes from there...
Has anyone else read these books? If you have, what did you think? If you haven't, keep an eye out for the Orbit edition of 'The Poisoned Throne' in April next year...
5 comments:
They must be pretty desperate if they are re-releasing old material. And what of new writers? Sorry but I think this is a bum move. If it didn't work the first time it isn't going to work next, either. Have the guts to release new writers, please.
@novelist
Bitter? Your comment about it not working the first time is a bit off the mark, considering her first book was published not through one of the better known houses like Orbit, but rather through O'Brien Press, an Irish publishing house. Both books, including the one released earlier this year, appear to be out of print.
This is nothing new. The UK/US have picked up publishing rights to these novels and so they intend to publish them, even going so far as letting the word out so that readers know that she exists. Good for her, too, because I know if I was to be published, I'd want my name out there and my work actually available to a widespread audience.
Could be one for 2010. I found following The Poison Throne review.
@novelist
So you know the book. Can you tell us a bit more about it.
I've read the O'Brien press editions of the first two books in this trilogy. I really enjoyed the first one; it's not hugely original (and I wasn't thrilled with the idea of reading anything with a protagonist called "Wynter"), but it's beautifully paced and just worked really well for me. The second book seemed rather directionless and a lot less actually happened, but I was intrigued enough that I'm looking forward to the third.
Read an enjoyable excerpt of the first book enough to put it on the watch list of possible buys.
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