Synopsis for Ian Cameron Esslemont's STONEWIELDER

Here's the blurb:

Greymane believed he'd outrun his past. He now ran a school for swordsmanship in Falar and was looking forward to becoming fat and lazy. With him was Kyle, though the plains youth was not quite so contented with civilian life outside the mercenary company the Crimson Guard. Yet it is not so easy to disappear when you are an ex-Fist of the Malazan Empire, especially one denounced and under a death-sentence from that very Empire.

For there is a new Emperor on the throne of Malaz, and his thoughts turn to the lingering drain of blood and treasure that is the failed invasion of the Korel subcontinent. In the record vaults beneath Unta, the Imperial capital, lie the answers to that disaster. And out of this buried history surfaces the name Stonewielder.

In Korel, Lord Protector Hiam, commander of the Stormguard, faces the potential annihilation of all that he loves as with the blood of his few remaining men and a crumbling stone wall that has seen better days, he labours to stave off the sea-borne Stormriders who would destroy his lands.

Meanwhile, religious war has broken out all across these lands as the local cult of the Blessed Lady, who has stood firm for millennia against the assaults of the Stormriders, seeks to stamp out all rivals; a champion refuses to stand against the alien 'Riders' and takes up arms in rebellion; and a local magistrate innocently pursuing the mystery of a series of murders is brought to the very heart of a far larger and far more terrifying ancient crime that has stained the entire subcontinent.

Oh man, can't wait!!!

You can pre-order the limited edition from PS Publishing here.

6 commentaires:

Adam Whitehead said...

It's worth noting that the 'normal' edition from Bantam UK will follow a month later for a considerably cheaper price ;-) No idea when Tor will get to it in the USA though.

Unknown said...

I don't like the blurb. I can't wait for the book either, but the blurb reads like just any other fantasy novel.

A crumbling stone wall that has seen better days? Well duh! It's crumbling!

Gaarheid said...

New Emperor is a he ?

/confused

Adam Whitehead said...

The blurb assumes that everyone has read RETURN OF THE CRIMSON GUARD, which unfortunately results in spoilers given that RotCG has not been published in the USA yet.

Jebus said...

Yeah big spoiler there for ROTC, but then that's gonna happen with sequential novels - I accidentally learned of a characters death in another series from stupidly reading the blurb on the back of the second book before finishing the first, no one to blame but myself.

Croaker said...

"A crumbling stone wall on the very verge of crumbling." I'm sure that would sound more interesting :)
**Spoiler concerning Return of The Crimson Guard**
Any how, I am reading RoTCG right now, up to the point where Iron Bars makes his appearance. Wow, that was a great surprise! I have been wanting more of him ever since Midnight Tide. I stopped reading, went online, googled and found out he has a fight with the Seguleh!! How about that? That alone would have justified my purchase of the book.

I'm definitely enjoying RoTCG. It's better than Night of Knives and feels very much like another book in the Malazan Book of The Fallen series. Though, truth be told, Esslemont's writing is still not on par with Steven Erikson's. Still, it's only his second book.
I'll be one of the first to buy Stonewieleder when it comes out in Canada.