This is my stop during the book blitz for Trials and Tribulations, these are two anthologies set in Faith Hunter’s Rogue Mage universe. This book blitz is organized by Lola's Blog Tours. The book blitz runs from 20 February till 5 March. You can view the tour schedule here.
Trials (Rogue Mage Anthology #1)By Faith Hunter, Diana Francis, Misty Massey, Lou J Berger, Ken Schrader, Spike Y Jones, Christina Stiles, Tamsin Silver and Melissa McArthur
Genre: Anthology/ Urban Fantasy
Age category: Adult
Release Date: November 28, 2016
Blurb:
21 Vignettes and Short Stories set in Faith Hunter’s World of Thorn St. Croix.
The Rogue Mage world began long ago, when the epic battle between the High Host and the Darkness was won and lost. TRIALS takes fans of Thorn St. Croix into the past, before the opening pages of BLOODRING. These stories, set in Faith Hunter's Rogue Mage world, are adventures with new characters and old, facing dangers unimaginable. And they must save the world all over again.
If you ever wondered what happened between seraphs, kylen, second-unforeseen, mages, seraph-touched, spawn, humans, dragons, and their creatures before the series, now is your chance to delve deeper and wider. TRIALS features new short stories from nine authors—including Faith Hunter—and vignettes from the Rogue Mage role playing game.
TRIALS will be followed soon by TRIBULATIONS, and then by the omnibus TRIUMPHANT.
TRIALS Authors: Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, Lou J Berger, Ken Schrader, Spike Y Jones, Diana Pharaoh Francis, Christina Stiles, Tamsin Silver, Melissa McArthur.
TRIBULATIONS Authors: Faith Hunter, Jean Rabe, Spike Y Jones, Christina Stiles, and Lucienne Diver.
You can find Trials on Goodreads
You can buy Trials here:
- Amazon
- Barnes & Noble
The Trials Authors:
Faith Hunter
Diana Francis
Misty Massey
Lou J Berger
Ken Schrader
Spike Y Jones
Christina Stiles
Tamsin Silver
Melissa McArthur
Tribulations (Rogue Mage Anthology #2)By Faith Hunter, Lucienne Diver, Spike Y Jones, Jean Rabe and Christina Stiles
Genre: Anthology/ Urban Fantasy
Age category: Adult
Release Date: December 30, 2016
Blurb:
17 Vignettes and Short Stories set in Faith Hunter’s World of Thorn St. Croix
The Rogue Mage story began with the post-apocalyptic novels BLOODRING, SERAPHS, and HOST, when epic battles between Thorn St. Croix and the forces of Darkness were fought. TRIBULATIONS (Rogue Mage Anthology Vol. II) takes place during and after the series timeline. These stories and vignettes, set in Faith Hunter's Rogue Mage world, are adventures with new characters and old, facing Darkness and an uncertain future.
The relationships between seraphs, kylen, second-unforeseen, mages, seraph-touched, spawn, humans grow deeper, and the battles with dragons and their creatures grow more dangerous. TRIBULATIONS features new short stories from five authors—including Faith Hunter—and vignettes from the Rogue Mage role playing game.
TRIALS and TRIBULATIONS will soon be followed by TRIUMPHANT—the paperback omnibus (both Anthology Volumes I and II in a bound format).
TRIBULATIONS Authors: Faith Hunter, Jean Rabe, Spike Y Jones, Christina Stiles, Lucienne Diver.
You can find Tribulations on Goodreads
You can buy Tribulations here:
- Amazon
- Barnes & Noble
The Tribulations Authors:
Faith Hunter
Lucienne Diver
Spike Y Jones
Jean Rabe
Christina Stiles
Excerpts:
A
Wing And A Prayer
by Faith Hunter
(early Spring 105 PA/2117 AD)
Evan
looked at the mage in disbelief. “You want us to go in a hellhole? With no
recon? No intel? Are you out of your mind?”
“Yes,
yes, yes. And no. I’m quite sane,” Marc said, answering each question in order,
fingering his gaudy amulet necklace. It was made of blackened steel links and
dangling steel and copper leaves so finely made they whispered and tinkled at
the slightest movement or breeze. And probably held the destructive power of an
armored battalion. Enough to destroy a dragon, if he could get close enough.
For which he needed the Army.
The
steel and copper leaves meant Marc was a Metal mage of some kind. And mages
made the back of his neck itch. His dad used to claim mages were responsible
for all the plagues. For all Evan knew, the old bastard was right.
“I’m
not leading my men underground – underground! – without intel, I don’t care
what you think is down there. You get me some info and we’ll talk.” Evan hooked
his thumbs into his belt and waited, knowing it wasn’t over.
“If
I get you the data,” Marc said, raising his head, his hair falling forward in a
slow wave, “then what? Then you’ll tell me if you have a nuke? Then you’ll give
me men and weapons and go with me to take the cavern?”
“Then
we’ll talk about it.”
“And
meanwhile the seraph and the mages that the dragon captured will suffer and
bleed and die. My wife is down there!”
“Not
my problem.” Mage women -- whores, every one of them. And seraphs could burn to
ash for all he cared.
“Even
if I can bring a kylen to work with us? A kylen who can control his sexual
urges in battle?”
Evan
raised his eyebrows, watching Marc’s face clenched in hope and fear. Evan
should have been irritated with the offer, but, instead, he considered. He’d
fought beside a kylen once, when he was kid. Next to seraphs themselves, kylen
were the best warriors on Earth, and having one on your side meant a better
chance of victory, without the risk of humans dying by the hundreds afterward
from the effect of the sword of judgment a seraph carried. Some kylen could
draw on the same energy sources that the seraphs could. “You bring me the kylen
and a map of the maze down there, and you got a deal.”
A
Start
by Spike Y Jones
(Spring 105 PA/2117 AD)
Step.
Step.
Pause.
Step.
Every
step he took was deliberate, his feet placed precisely on the ground so that he
didn't make excess noise, didn't leave an easy-to-follow trail, didn't leave
his scent on bushes and bracken or in the scattered snow along the way.
The
trap lines had been a mixed bag. Hardly anything caught in any of his snares,
but no blood stains on the ground to show that he'd caught something that had
then been eaten. There should be more game at this time of year. He'd seen it
before: Devil-spawn had eaten the area clean. But he'd caught some game, which
meant that the spawn weren't here now. He hoped.
But
two rabbits weren't going to feed the family. So John had dressed and packed
his kills, pulled up the snares, and gone looking for bigger prey.
Step.
Pause.
Check
the wind direction.
Step.
Scan
the ground.
His
movement wasn't slow. It was natural. Animals didn't race through the woods
unless they were trying to get away from something. But they also didn't
dawdle; if they moved slowly, it was because there was something nearby that
made them want to move slowly, like food to graze. John moved at the pace of an
animal that was neither afraid nor distracted, an animal that was looking for
something but hadn't found it yet.
He'd
heard someone say that a hunter had to become his prey, had to become the deer
or the rabbit. He told his grandfather that one day. "Crap! Whoever told
you that buys his game off the back of a pickup truck. Does the wolf become the
deer? Of course not. He becomes a wolf. I don't know why you listen to those
friends of yours."
Sometimes
John's grandfather had been wrong. John wasn't a deer, but he wasn't a wolf
either. What made man a great hunter? Knowing when to think like a deer, when
to think like a wolf. And when to think like neither of them.
Step.
If
a hunter didn't have the senses of a wolf, he found deer by thinking like a
deer. If there were deer in these woods, where would they want to be?
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