"There shall come over the whole Earth, an intense darkness lasting three days and three nights. He who opens his window or door out of curiosity, or leaves his home, will fall dead on the spot. The air will be infected by demons, appearing in all sorts of hideous forms. All of Hell will be let loose."

Miah Gray is an Army veteran living with PTSD in New Hampshire, and all he wants to do is get high and not be hassled by his Mom or her boyfriend. A good sandwich wouldn't hurt either.  Miah is not religious, and he has little interest in prophecies, but when the sun no longer shines in the daytime sky and his world is plunged into darkness, Miah finds himself willing to rethink his position.  Locked down with his family, Miah is going with the flow and doing what he can to protect everyone when a flash of light knocks everyone out. They all awaken to find that Miah now has a death rune etched into his forehead. Isn't that just great?

Even many of those who haven't played World of Warcraft are familiar with the name Sylvanas. Sylvanas Windrunner, The Banshee Queen, and leader of the undead Forsaken of the Horde. In this authorized book Sylvanas hopes that her life story will persuade the human king Anduin to join her and the mysterious Jailor in ending the circle of life and death. Her prominent role in WoW's ongoing storyline has often seemed quixotic if not outright insane but in her own words she reveals her reasons for acting as she did. Christie Golden strings together the bits and pieces of WoW lore with added details to give players the full story behind this legend. Sylvanas is just as mercurial, driven, and insane as you always thought, if not more so. Anduin is a surprisingly good listener but maintains that everything she tells him could as easily argue that she shouldn't help the Jailor. Love and logic are pitted against rage and grief as two old enemies fight a mental battle for the fate of Azeroth.

The Street Rats of Aramoor series has been slowly moving from one tribe of street kids to the next and this time around the focus is on Sandstorm.  Ayrion's life is a busy one now that he is one of the chiefs of Hurricane, but things are about to get a lot more complicated for him. First it is Noph, the chief of Sandstorm, who sets up a meeting with Ayrion and the other leaders of Hurricane to discuss some potential big changes for them all, and then it is the King himself who insists that Ayrion join the Elondrian Lancers to receive further training. There aren't enough days in the week for Ayrion to do all that is being asked of him, and with plenty of enemies waiting to pounce on those he holds dear if he gets distracted, you just know something is going to go wrong...

In Blood Song an Imperial scribe travels with the most reviled enemy of his people on his journey to meet his fate. To the Empire he is the enemy soldier called Hopekiller, but Vaelin Al Sorna is far from the hateful enemy the scribe expects. Although he finds some elements of Vaelin's life to fantastic to be believed, the scribe is still absorbed in the tale. At age ten Vaelin was given to the Sixth Order, the brutal warrior arm of the Church, by his father without any explanation. Under the harsh conditions of the Order the boys of his year are first rivals, then friends, and eventually Brothers in more than just name. Some of them have secrets, and by the time they are full Brothers leading missions against the Dark Vaelin begins to suspect that one of them may have gone over to the Dark themselves.

The locations of the Godstones are now known and the various battles to control them are underway; however, only the Dynize know how to use them and their leader has plans to do just that. The conflict now spans multiple continents and the main PoV characters are spread across the lands, each doing their part to destroy the stones before they can be used. Easier said than done. Michel is headed back to Landfall to do what he can, Mad Ben Styke is across the ocean planning to attack the stone within the Dynize capital with the Mad Lancers, and Lady Vlora Flint must find a way to stop the Dynize army, despite the fact that she is physically broken and no longer has her Powder Mage abilities. If they don't succeed then a new God will be born and the Dynize will dictate the fate of the world.

Jonas is an experienced assassin who was taught the trade by his parents, who are recently deceased having driven their RV off a cliff. Jonas knows that it likely wasn't an accident, but he is not able to come up with any leads as to who might have killed them. That fact puts revenge out of reach for the moment, so he continues his life pulling off elaborate kill jobs, each one more ostentatious than the one before. Jonas is a special kind of assassin, he kills with his mind by telekinetically creating a hole in the brain of his victims. But even with all his power and money, he is depressed and his personal Artificial Intelligence knows it. So the A.I. schemes to bring a young woman named Maddie into his life, and then things really start to spiral out of control.

Things really start to get complicated in book two of the series and we now know the stakes are much higher than originally thought. Yes there are countries at war with each other, but the real fight is taking place at a different level. There is a second conflict going on within the war between those who seek to control the Godstones and those who want to destroy them. What makes this complicated is those two factions don't perfectly align with the national war that is underway. The real conflict is pretty much the PoV characters against everyone else when it comes to the Godstones and the bigger war is just muddying up the landscape. Mad Ben Styke, General Vlora Flint, Taniel Two-Shot, and Michel all have interesting storylines, but their lives are on the line every step of the way. 

Ten years after the end of the first trilogy, we can finally return to Brian McClellan's intriguing world of powder mages, privileged, and blood sorcerers. The nation of Fatrasta is new on the scene, but the problems facing it are not. Despite the order being kept by the secret police, known as the Black Hats, dissent is everywhere. The oppressed Palo that live within the capital city of Landfall are treated as second class citizens, so they retaliate by stirring up a lot of trouble. This conflict is the centerpiece for our three new PoV characters. General Vlora Flint, leader of the Riflejack Mercenary Company, who is hired by the local government to capture the insurgent leader, Mama Palo, and bring her to justice. Mad Ben Styke, a former war hero and killing machine who is let out of prison by a mysterious person who tasks him with getting close to Lady Flint and awaiting further instruction. And finally, Michel Bravis, an under cover agent who has infiltrated the Black Hats and struggles a bit with remembering which side he is actually on.

Earth's two main governing factions have gone in different directions now that interstellar travel is a reality. One has decided to focus on Alpha Centauri and the other, The Republic, has decided to focus on New Eden. The main difference being that Alpha Centauri is uninhabited while New Eden is controlled by a sentient species known as the Zodarks. Of course, attempting to take New Eden from the Zodarks has blow back potential for all humans because the Zodarks are clearly technologically superior to us. If they ever discover where Earth is located then there is no way we could defend ourselves from the inevitable attack. The Republic's fleet is still rather small, but they are going all in on New Eden. Basically, they are gambling humanity's future against the ability to mine the precious resources that New Eden contains, which will quickly advance their military power if acquired.

​​​​​​​As the title suggests, this book is set in a timeframe when humanity first discovers faster than light travel and is finally able to expand out into the stars. At the time of this discovery, Earth is ruled by three governments that have an agreement to partner when it comes to space exploration. However, that agreement is coming to an end and it doesn't look like all parties are eager to renew. This is especially true for the Republic who feel they can gain an advantage among the stars by going their own way. The other governments have their sights set on Alpha Centauri, but the Republic has secretly discovered a habitable world in another system and they plan to grab it for themselves. This world is dubbed New Eden and its discovery contains an even bigger secret. The images obtained by the probe clearly show some sort of mineshaft, likely from long ago, and The Republic fully expects to discover ancient proof of sentient life upon their arrival. I think we all know where this is going....