JV Jones to answer fan questions on Reddit tomorrow

Fantasy author J.V. Jones will be answering reader questions on Reddit, at the r/fantasy community, tomorrow. Jones is the author of The Book of Words trilogy, the standalone The Barbed Coil, and the excellent Sword of Shadows series. She recently completed the penultimate Sword of Shadows novel, Endlords, after a delay, and is about to start work on the final book in the series, A Sword Named Loss.

I expect Jones will be answering questions about worldbuilding, juggling a massive epic fantasy series with other obligations and why there was a significant mid-series gap in publication. Also expect her to get into the weeds of the engines of editing and publishing.

The AMA starts tomorrow at 7am PST and goes on until midday (2pm - 7pm GMT).

JV Jones completes ENDLORDS, the penultimate SWORD OF SHADOWS book

Fantasy author JV Jones has completed Endlords, the long, long, long-awaited fifth and penultimate book in the Sword of Shadows fantasy series.

To say the series has been gestating for a while is an understatement: the first book, A Cavern of Black Ice (1999) was published last century. It was succeeded by A Fortress of Grey Ice (2002), A Sword from Red Ice (2007) and Watcher of the Dead (2010), all very fine novels cumulatively building one of the greatest epic fantasy series of the last generation, with superb writing, characterisation and worldbuilding. But after Watcher's publication in 2010, Jones dropped off the radar and many years of radio silence followed. She finally resurfaced in late 2017 via Patreon, confirming that her writing career had been thrown off-track by a succession of personal crises (including bereavements and cross-country moves).

Since then, Jones has been working on a stand-alone urban fantasy novel called Sorry Jones to get back into the swing of things, and then Endlords, the fifth book in The Sword of Shadows. The book's writing process has been slow, due to Jones having a day job and other time commitments, but progress has been steady. Progress exploded in the last few months as she was freed up from those other time commitments and was able to work full-time on the novel to deliver it over the finish line.

The book consists of 62 chapters, which is more than any other in the series, although she notes this may come down in the edit. The full size of the book is unclear, except it is longer than Watcher of the Dead.

ETA: The book is about 250,000 words, compared to A Cavern of Black Ice's 293,000 words. This would make Endlords the second or third-longest book in the series, by a whisker either way.

When the book will be published is unclear. The previous four books were published by Tor Books in the US and Orbit in the UK, but the fifteen-year-wait for Endlords has exceeded all the timelines in her contracts. The prior books in the series have also become harder to find in recent years, and Jones' profile is lower than it was back in the late 1990s and 2000s. There'll likely be contract re-negotiations and extended publication timelines to consider. Tor may also be looking at how fast the sixth and final book in the series could come out, so they're not left hanging again for a long period of time.

Jones does have an interesting additional carrot in any such dealing though, as the rights to her earlier (and still very fine) Book of Words trilogy, set in the same world as Sword of Shadows, has recently reverted to her. This would give any new publisher an impressive eight books with a lot of critical acclaim (and Robert Jordan cover quotes) to relaunch the series.

Hopefully the publishers will be able to confirm a publication plan soon, though I think late 2026 to early 2027 might be the earliest we could realistically expect to see the book.

Jones is also the first (albeit least-known) of four fantasy authors who have left us hanging for over a decade for their next books to actually deliver the next one. Hopefully a good sign that George, Patrick and Scott can follow up soon.

JV Jones closing in on the end of ENDLORDS

Fantasy author J.V. Jones has provided a significant update on her novel Endlords, the fifth and penultimate book in her superb Sword of Shadows series.

The four extant novels in the series are: A Cavern of Black Ice (1999), A Fortress of Grey Ice (2002), A Sword from Red Ice (2007) and Watcher of the Dead (2010). The series is a loose sequel to her earlier work, The Book of Words trilogy, consisting of The Baker's Boy (1995), A Man Betrayed (1996) and Master and Fool (1997).

Since the publication of Watcher of the Dead, Jones has dealt with real life issues and problems that cut into her writing time. She began work on the novel again in 2017 and now reports that she is around six months away from finishing the book. The novel will probably be published some time in 2024, depending on the situation with her publishers.

In the meantime, Jones is already considering plans for the last book in the series, which now boasts the working title A Sword Named Loss.

The Book of Words was a solid opening trilogy, but The Sword of Shadows is one of the A-tier of epic fantasies of recent decades, comfortably sitting on a par with Robin Hobb's Ream of the Elderlings series, George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire and Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen (Jones provided a cover quote for Erikson's first fantasy novel in 1999 that was credited with helping boost sales). Getting another two books in the series will be very welcome indeed.

JV Jones releases sample chapter for new novel, SORRY JONES

J.V. Jones has released the cover art and a sample chapter from her new stand-alone novel, Sorry Jones.

Jones wrote the novel to get "back in the zone" after a long time out of the writing game. Since completing Sorry Jones a couple of years ago, she's written the majority of Endlords, the fifth and penultimate book in the long-gestating Sword of Shadows series. She hopes to complete Endlords this year for publication in 2022 or 2023.

Sorry Jones will be self-published in the near future.

The Barbed Coil by J.V. Jones

The formidable warlord Izgard has crowned himself King of Garizon and donned the Barbed Coil, the symbol of Garizonian rule. As Garizon's armies muster and prepare to invade the neighbouring kingdom of Rhaize, Camron of Thorn takes it upon himself to raise a defending army. Figuring strongly in his plans is Lord Ravis, the mercenary who engineered Izgard's rise to power. No-one knows more about Izgard's plans then Ravis. But the recruitment is complicated by the arrival of a mysterious woman called Tess, who claims to be from a distant land called California...

One-volume epic fantasies are a rare beast. The building of an entire world, the development of not just multiple characters but entire cultures and empires is something that can eat up not just hundreds, but thousands of pages. Commercial factors also convince many fantasy authors to flesh out their worlds for sometimes dozens of books at a time, cashing in long after the magic of the setting has gone.

The Barbed Coil is a rarity, then. It builds up a major military conflict between several nation states, develops an original magic system (based on the idea of painting and illumination) and features an expansive cast of both "good" and "bad" guys, all of whom are painted in some depth. It's a story with quiet moments and also packed with fast-moving action and some impressive magic, all delivered with Jones's formidable skills.

The Barbed Coil was released in 1997, between her debut Book of Words trilogy and it's sort-of sequel series, The Sword of Shadows. Book of Words was decent, with a nice improvement between volumes, but a far cry from Sword of Shadows, which is one of the finest epic fantasy series of the last generation (bearing in mind it's still unfinished). The Barbed Coil is a complete standalone, set in its own world unrelated to the two big series, telling one complete story with a beginning, middle and end. And it's a good one.

The novel delves into the character of Tess, someone who finds herself drifting through life on Earth with no purpose until she is borne off to a fantastical world and discovers that she is a smaller part of a much bigger pattern that goes back before her birth. Tess's journey of discovery is traditional, but well-handled. It's a pleasant surprise that Tess is less traumatised or freaked out by her arrival on this world than relieved, as various illnesses she was suffering from on Earth have disappeared in transit (shades of Thomas Covenant here, to a much less wrought degree). Our two male protagonists, Ravis and Camron, are also well-drawn characters, neither traditional heroes but who are drawn into having to choose whether to stand against Izgard, join him or flee. We also spend significant time with Izgard, his young bride Angeline and his scribe Ederius, who form an exceptionally well-written, monstrously dysfunctional triumvirate.

One of Jones's skills is combining the best elements of high fantasy - good fellowship, a sense of humour and a genuine ability for heroism - with the darkest - war, savagery and betrayal. The Barbed Coil bears comparisons with K.J. Parker, particularly the exacting detail given to the painting and illuminating side of things and the disturbingly complex relationship between Ravis and his brother, although it's not quite as unrelentingly grim as Parker's work. Still, that's not bad company to be in.

The Barbed Coil (****) is J.V. Jones doing what she does best, building an interesting world populated by complicated people, fleshed out with an interesting take on magic. The book is available now in the US but, regrettably, is out of print in the UK (even on Kindle). Hopefully it will become available again at some point.

JV Jones completes new urban fantasy novel

Author JV Jones has completed her first novel in six years. Sorry Jones is an urban fantasy thriller featuring a new character getting into supernatural hijinks on the American West Coast.

The new novel is short by Jones's standards, clocking in at 100,000 words or so. Jones has written the novel in just a few months, driven by her early success on Patreon. Originally, it seems that her plan had been to get straight into completing the partially-finished fifth Sword of Shadows novel, Endlords, but upon attempting that she found that her writing skills needed some honing before returning to her fantasy series. This is the project she undertook to do just that.

It remains to be seen if Tor or another publisher will pick up the new novel. But this is encouraging news given that Jones (who has suffered a major relationship crisis and a series bereavement during the past few years) had not written much that she was happy with in over half a decade, and her experiment with both Patreon and this new novel seem to have succeeded in recharging the creative batteries. In addition, Jones notes on her Patreon that writing the new book has already provided insights on how to complete Endlords, such as abandoning her previous strict practice of writing in chronological order in order to skip "difficult" chapters and double back to finish them later, rather than being simply logjammed for weeks on end on single chapters, which was apparently a major problem on Endlords.

Hopefully we'll see this new novel in 2018 and Endlords in the not-too-distant future.

ETA: Julie drops by in the comments to confirm that Endlords will be the penultimate book in the series.

JV Jones update on ENDLORDS and SWORD OF SHADOWS

J.V. Jones has reported on Patreon the status of her current writing projects, confirming that work is underway on Endlords, the fifth Sword of Shadows novel.

The Sword of Shadows series currently consists of A Cavern of Black Ice (1999), A Fortress of Grey Ice (2002), A Sword from Red Ice (2007) and Watcher of the Dead (2010). Work on Endlords began in 2010 but stalled after a few chapters as the author's life entered a tumultuous phase which was only recently resolved. Jones has resumed work on the novel, but cautions that after such a long break she is approaching the project slowly to get back into the same writing space as before and deliver a continuation of the same quality.

Writers are always trying to recreate what we see in our imagination, whether it's a landscape, an emotion, a person, a relationship. We're chasing that almost unattainable perfection that exists as a possibility in our heads. Some writers can manage this right-off-the-block with their very first novel or short story. They are extremely talented and lucky. It takes most of us years of practice to perfectly command all the tools we need to nail a scene.

I wrote over two million words to get there.

Now I have to see if I can do it all over again. 

Jones is also serialising another project, Sorry Jones, on her Patreon as part of a reward scheme for backers. Endlords is still under contract to Tor (in the USA) and Orbit (in the UK) and will be published by them, so Sorry Jones is a way of getting new fiction out to readers sooner and help with funding.

JV Jones breaks silence, joins Patreon

Fantasy author JV Jones has joined Patreon and restarted her Twitter account, breaking over three years of total silence.

Jones is the author of the superb Sword of Shadows series, consisting (so far) of A Cavern of Black Ice (1999), A Fortress of Grey Ice (2002), A Sword From Red Ice (2007) and Watcher of the Dead (2010). A fifth book, Endlords, has been promised, with the series overall expected to last for either five or six volumes. The Sword of Shadows is a sequel to her earlier Book of Words trilogy, consisting of The Baker's Boy (1995), A Man Betrayed (1996) and Master and Fool (1997). She has also written a fine stand-alone fantasy novel, The Barbed Coil (1997).

Jones reports that the last few years have been very difficult but she is now getting her writing career back on track, with finishing her current novel in progress (presumably Endlords) a priority. She is also planning to release blog entries and articles via Patreon.

This is excellent news. It's good to see Ms. Jones back writing and hopefully we'll be seeing the end of the story she started over twenty years ago soon.

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A History of Epic Fantasy - Part 19

The early to mid 1990s saw an explosion in the popularity of epic fantasy. Writers in the field went from a few dozen to hundreds as publishers chased the next Robert Jordan or Tad Williams. Sales were extremely strong, but market oversaturation led to a decline in the latter part of the decade. But several major, strong voices emerged from this period who would go on to great success.

The Last Wish

Epic fantasy is not just popular in the English language. Authors such as Tolkien, Pratchett and Jordan achieved fame worldwide, with translated editions of their books selling in their tens and hundreds of thousands, even millions, outside of their success in English. Some authors even enjoyed greater success: Tad Willias's SF/fantasy Otherland series sold very well in the USA and UK, but became a phenomenal bestseller in Germany. Paul Kearney had middling sales in English, but his books are quite popular in places from Spain to Israel.

More unusual, until recently, were authors from overseas being translated into English. Whether this was simple economics - the additional cost of paying a professional translator was not deemed worth it when there was so much homegrown talent available - is unclear. However, in the 2000s publishers began realising that by publishing non-English authors in the States and Commonwealth markets, they could often tap into a large back-catalogue of already-completed works. And the first author to benefit from this was Polish superstar Andrzej Sapkowski.

Sapkowski began publishing short stories about Geralt of Rivia, a "witcher" or monster-hunter, in the late 1980s. In 1990 he assembled these stories as The Witcher (re-released in 1993 in an expanded form under its definitive title, The Last Wish), which became a bestseller in Poland. Its success soon spread to the huge (and oft-neglected) Russian-speaking market as well as across Europe, from Spain to Germany. The book was followed by The Sword of Destiny (1992), a linked series of short stories which established the background and setting for a longer epic. This epic took the form of five novels, starting with Blood of Elves, published between 1994 and 1999 (with a prequel novel being published in 2012).

These books are notable for drawing on a broader range of European mythology than is the norm, and for a large degree of moral complexity. The reliance of the books on Polish wordplay for their humour made translating them challenging, and may have contributed to the delay in their appearance in English.

In 2007 the decision was made to bring the books into English. This was inspired by the release, by CD Projekt, of a tie-in video game called The Witcher. The game was a modest success and was followed by The Witcher II: Assassin of Kings (2011), which was a much bigger worldwide hit. This in turn was followed by The Witcher III: The Last Hunt (2015), which was a worldwide monster smash, selling six million copies in its first month on sale. The English translations proceeded in a haphazard manner, with the release of the later books delayed by immense legal complications. These were eventually resolved and the series was finally released in English to significant critical acclaim.

King's Dragon

Alis A. Ramussen started her writing career in 1988, publishing a stand-alone fantasy novel called The Labyrinth Gate, followed by the science fiction Highroad Trilogy in 1990. Sales were disappointing, so her publishers proposed switching to a pen name to relaunch her career. Now writing as Kate Elliott, her next project was the Jaran science fiction series. This was modestly successful, but she achieved greater popularity with the well-received Golden Key, a fantasy collaboration with Melanie Rawn and Jennifer Roberson. These marked out Elliott as an author watch.

Her next project, King's Dragon (1997), established her one of the top writers in the epic fantasy field. This was the opening volume of Crown of Stars, a series that grew to seven volumes and was completed in 2006. Crown of Stars is both a traditional epic fantasy and one that comments on the genre, with its strong female characters and deliberately low-scaled setting with armies typically numbering in the hundreds rather than the thousands and a much greater emphasis on the power of religion. The series is also notable for being set in an overtly parallel-universe version of Europe rather than a more loosely "influenced by" setting. Its musings on faith and religious power are impressive (particularly the expectation-defying storyline of Alain), and overall it ranks as one of the more interesting and underrated completed series in the field.

Elliott has since written the remarkable Crossroads and Spiritwalker trilogies, as well as the Court of Fives YA series.

Wizards' First Rule

After the immense success of The Wheel of Time, Tor Books began looking for authors who could repeat Robert Jordan's success for them. In 1994 they published the debut novel by an American author named Terry Goodkind.

Goodkind had come to writing relatively late in life, having had a successful career as a painter and cabinet-maker. Dyslexia had made him reluctant to tackle writing, but he overcame this to write Wizards' First Rule in 1993; Tor published it the following year, when the author was 46. The book was initially well-received and sold impressively, so Tor published several sequels. This became The Sword of Truth series, which by the time of its completion thirteen years later had expanded to eleven novels and sold over 25 million copies, making Goodkind Tor's second-biggest-selling author after Robert Jordan.

The Sword of Truth is unusual in that it is heavily influenced by the works of Ayn Rand, particular Atlas Shrugged and the socio-economic theory of Objectivism it popularised. Objectivism states that the will and importance of the individual is of paramount importance and that social systems should not limit the ability of the individual to seek happiness or promote their own success. However, some commentators have noted that this is merely a thinly-veiled excuse for unrestrained capitalist expansion and a justification for the selfishness of the privileged over the unlucky or socially-challenged. The Objectivist philosophy is fairly restrained in Wizards' First Rule but becomes more prominent in later novels (and then completely dominant in Faith of the Fallen, the sixth book in the series) when substantial chunks of the books are given over to the heroes of the series, Richard Rahl and Kahlan, expounding on the theory and its application to their fantasy world at some considerable length. Other political ideas also made their way into the series, such as Goodkind using carciatures of Bill and Hilary Clinton as villains in one novel and expounding on Communism as the primary evil in his world. Goodkind also began stating in interviews that he was not writing fantasy because he loved the genre, but because he saw it as a way of exploring "important human themes", to the bemusement of many reviewers and fans familiar with the series and concepts such as "nipple magic", the "noble goat" and "evil shapeshifting monster who attacks a primary protagonist whilst inexplicably disguised as a chicken".

Despite the naysayers, The Sword of Truth remains one of the biggest-selling fantasy series of recent times. Unusually, however, it's also a series whose profile and sales dipped as it continued. The concluding volumes reached the top of the New York Times bestseller lists, but Goodkind's attempt to launch a tangentially-related series set in the modern world, The Law of Nines, was not successful. A subsequent sequel series to The Sword of Truth, following up on Richard and Kahlan's later adventures, has also failed to achieve the same level of sales as the earlier novels. A television adaptation of the series, Legend of the Seeker, was also cancelled after two seasons (and having very little to do with the books). However, these failures are only relative, and Goodkind remains one of the more well-known - and some fantasy fans may say infamous - authors in the field.

The Baker's Boy

SFF publishing's ongoing quest to find the next big thing turned up an additional success in 1995. A British author residing in San Francisco, Julie Victoria Jones, had sent Warner Books a manuscript called The Baker's Boy, the opening volume of a trilogy called The Book of Words. With the trilogy already in an advanced state of completion, Warners (who used the series to reboot a moribund SFF line) decided to publish the series with a heavy blizzard of publicity, mirrored by Orbit Books in the UK.

The result was a trilogy that smashed onto the bestseller lists and achieved early critical acclaim, not for its story which was standard but for its dark sense of humour, overriding themes of tragedy and murky, complex morality. Jones also proved to be remarkably prolific, producing a fine stand-alone novel called The Barbed Coil in 1997 before embarking on The Sword of Shadows, a sequel series to The Book of Words, although not one that requires detailed foreknowledge of the original series.

Published in 1999, A Cavern of Black Ice represented not so much an improvement in quality but a quantum jump in skill and ability. Featuring substantially improved characterisation and prose skills over her earlier works, A Cavern of Black Ice was a fine fantasy novel that boded well for the rest of the series. Unfortunately, Jones's formerly spectacular production rate appeared to drop off a cliff, with long waits for the sequels: A Fortress of Grey Ice (2002), A Sword From Red Ice (2007) and Speaker for the Dead (2010). The fifth novel, Endlords, has been delayed several times.

Despite these disappointingly long waits, The Sword of Shadows remains one of the more accomplished works of epic fantasy of recent years. Its brooding, freezing atmosphere, its political intrigue and its tragic characters combine to form a series of much greater depth than some of its contemporaries, and if it ends strongly it could be regarded as one of the defining works of its time.

Hawkwood's Voyage

Paul Kearney, a writer from Northern Ireland, began his writing career with three stand-alone novels: The Way to Babylon (1992), A Different Kingdom (1993) and Riding the Unicorn (1994). These novels are notable for featuring characters from the real world intermingling with the fantasy world in some way. A Different Kingdom was particularly remarkable, coming across as a uniquely Irish spin on some of the same ground explored in Robert Holdstock's woodland fantasy, Mythago Wood. Riding the Unicorn hinted at a different direction for Kearney's work, featuring as it did massive battles and clashes between armies in a well-realised fantasy world.

Published in 1995, Hawkwood's Voyage was the logical next step in that process. Set completely in a fantasy world, the novel charts the clash between the western kingdoms of Normannia and the invading hordes of the Merduks of the east, who follow a different religion. The western kingdoms are divided by civil war sparked by an attempt by the fanatical Ramusian Church to press down on heretics and magic-users not sworn to their services. A number of these heretics flee into the western ocean as part of an ill-advised exploration mission seeking a rumoured new continent across the sea, whilst the kings of two of the great western nations break away in an attempt to protect their people. This leaves the eastern kingdom of Torunna to face the invaders alone, massively outnumbered and with only a single beleaguered fortress guarding the way.

The Monarchies of God, spanning five short novels published from 1995 to 2003, was a series ahead of its time. It was unusually bloody and grim, although never gratuitously so, but ended on a note of hope and cooperation. It featured vivid, memorable battle sequences reminiscent of David Gemmell, along with cynical military camaraderie in the style of Glen Cook. The religious turmoil is drawn straight from history (the opening fall of Aekir, the great religious centre of the east, is based on the capture of Constantinople in 1453), but the presence of werewolves injects a shot of sheer horror into the narrative at unexpected moments. The books are also remarkable for carrying a huge amount of plot and character development in relatively few pages (the combined page count for the series is roughly equal to George R.R. Martin's A Storm of Swords by itself). They also take place later in feigned history than most fantasy books, featuring gunpowder, arquebuses and cannons alongside the more traditional swords and crossbows. Other fantasy series have employed gunpowder (such as Tom Arden's Orokon sequence) but it remains an under-explored technology in epic fantasy.

An intermittent release cycle and the earlier books going out of print before the later ones could be published meant that The Monarchies of God did not achieve the success it deserved on its initial printing: its reissuing in two volumes (Hawkwood and the Kings and Century of the Soldier) by Solaris in 2010 proved more successful. Kearney has since written two volumes of a nautical fantasy series, The Sea-Beggars (the concluding volume has been held up by a rights dispute between the British and American publishers); a Gemmell-esque quasi-historical trilogy based on ancient Greece called The Macht; and a couple of tie-in novels for properties such as Primeval and Warhammer 40,000. His next book, The Wolf in the Attic, is a return to the more intimate, character-based fantasy of his early work. However, Kearney's immense skills at epic fantasy make him one of the more interesting, if underread, authors in the genre.

By the mid-1990s epic fantasy was looking for its Next Big Thing, a series that would come along and redefine the genre. Attempts to simply replicate Tolkien or Jordan hadn't really worked, and although some big sellers had emerged, there still wasn't any sign of a work that would elevate the genre further. When it did arrive, in August 1996, it wasn't from a bright and hopeful young author, but from a long-standing and respected author in the fields of science fiction and horror.

Tor expect to publish new JV Jones novel in 2015

Via Twitter, Tor Books have confirmed that they anticipating publishing the fifth Sword of Shadows novel by J.V. Jones, provisionally entitled Endlords, in 2015.

In response to a request for an update by a fan, Tor replied:

"J. V. Jones is currently hard at work on the 5th Sword of Shadows novel, which we're hoping to bring you sometime next year!"

The previous volume in the series, Watcher of the Dead, was published in 2010. Jones her not updated her website or her Twitter since 2011, leaving readers pondering the fate of the series. However, lengthy gaps between volumes are not unusual: the third volume, A Sword from Red Ice, was published in 2007 five years after the second, A Cavern of Black Ice.

Waterstones fail to recognise female fantasy authors

Fantasy author Foz Meadows recently published this article, in which she challenged the failure of Waterstones (the UK's only remaining nationwide chain of bookstores) to recognise female fantasy authors - or SF authors for that matter - in their 2012 literature on the SFF genre. No less than 113 authors are listed in the booklet but only nine of them are female, which is rather an eyebrow-raising imbalance.

Could do better.

Juliet E. McKenna expands on this by claiming to have seen lots of "If you like George R.R. Martin, why not try..."-style lists in bookshops, almost invariably consisting solely of male authors. Apparently, when she challenged one bookshop on why this was so, she was told "Women don't write epic fantasy." This is blatantly untrue, and it was rather idiotic of them to say so to an author with no less than fifteen epic fantasy novels under her belt. Indeed, when people have asked me what authors they should be reading after getting hooked on the likes of Martin or Abercrombie or Lynch, I often surprise myself with how many of the recommendations that come to mind are women.

So, without further ado, here is a brief list of female epic fantasy authors you should check out if you've gotten hooked on the genre via Martin or Game of Thrones:

Robin Hobb

Robin Hobb, aka Megan Lindholm (both pen-names of Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden), writes trilogies featuring epic battles and magical creatures (including dragons), but is resolutely focused on her characters. She enjoys writing characters who have their own motivations which make sense to them, no matter how they are painted as heroes or villains by others. Martin is a huge fan, as is Steven Erikson, and she has enjoyed a lengthy and prolific career. In fact, Martin has cited Hobb's use of animal magic as one of several influences on the warging in A Song of Ice and Fire.

Her best-known works are the five sub-series set in the Realm of the Elderlings, comprising the Farseer, Liveship Traders and Tawny Man trilogies and the Rain Wild Chronicles quartet, plus a forthcoming series currently planned to be a trilogy, The Fitz and the Fool. Hobb broke away from this series to write an unrelated work, The Soldier Son Trilogy, which was not as well-received. Writing under the pen name Megan Lindholm, she also wrote ten earlier books, mostly aimed at younger readers.

Key works
The Farseer Trilogy: Assassin's Apprentice (1995), Royal Assassin (1996), Assassin's Quest (1997)
The Liveship Traders Trilogy: Ship of Magic (1998), The Mad Ship (1999), Ship of Destiny (2000)
The Tawny Man Trilogy: Fool's Errand (2001), The Golden Fool (2002), Fool's Fate (2003)
The Soldier Son Trilogy: Shaman's Crossing (2005), Forest Mage (2006), Renegade's Magic (2008)
The Rain Wild Chronicles: Dragon Keeper (2009), Dragon Haven (2010), City of Dragons (2011), Blood of Dragons (2011)
The Fitz and the Fool: The Fool's Assassin (2014)

Kate Elliott

Kate Elliott is the pen-name of Alis A. Ramussen, under which name she published a fantasy, The Labyrinth Gate and an SF series, The Highroad Trilogy. After apparently disappointing early sales, she changed her writing name and returned with the SF Jaran series in the early 1990s. This was more successful and she has followed it up with a series of epic fantasies, including her more recent work, the Crossroads and Spiritwalker series.

However, Elliott's largest and best-known series is Crown of Stars, a seven-volume epic published between 1997 and 2006. If Martin's Song of Ice and Fire depicts a world set at the tail end of the medieval period, with armies in the tens of thousands, shining knights and full plate armour, Crown of Stars is set at the opposite end, when any army larger than a thousand is huge and kings tour their countries on endless processions rather than being tied to single capitals. Heavily influenced by real medieval European history (to the point where Crown of Stars can also be called an alternate history based on 9th and 10th Century Germany and Eastern Europe), Elliott weaves a large number of storylines focusing on themes such as war, chivalry religion and gender issues without dialling back (though also not over-emphasising) on the brutality of the period. Perhaps slightly overlong, but also genuinely thought-provoking.

Crossroads, which will eventually encompass at least seven novels set across three generations, is also interesting. Set in a world not based explicitly on any period of real history, it features a number of carefully-created original cultures clashing for control of a land called the Hundred. The original Crossroads trilogy will be followed by a new book later this year, The Black Wolves, set some years later.

Key works
The Golden Key (1996, with Melanie Rawn and Jennifer Roberson)
The Jaran Series: Jaran (1992), An Earthly Crown (1993), His Conquering Sword (1993), The Law of Becoming (1994)
Crown of Stars: King's Dragon (1997), Prince of Dogs (1998), The Burning Stone (1999), Child of Flame (2000), The Gathering Storm (2003), In the Ruins (2005), Crown of Stars (2006)
Crossroads: Spirit Gate (2007), Shadow Gate (2008), Traitors' Gate (2009), The Black Wolves (2014)
Spiritwalker: Cold Magic (2010), Cold Fire (2011), Cold Steel (2013)

Elizabeth Bear

Elizabeth Bear is an author I'm only recently acquainted with, thanks to her superb Eternal Sky Trilogy. However, she has published many novels in several different subgenres (including SF and urban fantasy), including her acclaimed Iskryne series, co-written with Sarah Monette.

The Eternal Sky trilogy is an epic fantasy set on an alternate version of the central Asian steppes, with a race of nomadic tribesmen who recall George R.R. Martin's Dothraki. However, whilst the Dothraki are (partly) based on the Asian nomads at the very start of their expansion and rise to power, Bear's series deals with a far more sophisticated and subtle people, depicted as intelligent warriors and capable engineers rather than just hordes of plunderers and rapists. It also features some intriguingly weird magic (the skies over each nation and culture are somehow different) and deliciously rich characterisation.

Key works
The Eternal Sky Trilogy: Range of Ghosts (2012), Shattered Pillars (2013), Steles of the Sky (2014)

J.V. Jones

Julie Victoria Jones hit the ground running with The Baker's Boy in 1995. Boosted by a Robert Jordan cover quote, it rapidly became one of the biggest-selling fantasy novels of the year and propelled her onto the bestseller lists. It was a rough novel, not unexpectedly for a debut, and she improved in leaps and bounds over the remainder of the Book of Words trilogy and a further stand-alone novel, The Barbed Coil. However, Jones found a different and far more sophisticated level of writing ability with her Sword of Shadows series, a decade and a half in the making and still incomplete.

Sword of Shadows is a (very loose) sequel to The Book of Words and picks up the story of the daughter of the previous trilogy's hero, as well as a whole host of new characters. It is set beyond the northern mountains in a bleak subarctic wilderness, heavily influenced by Scandinavia and the Inuit tribes. If you enjoyed those parts of A Song of Ice and Fire set beyond the Wall, this series is for you, with descriptions of snow and ice so vivid you may want to wrap up warm before reading. Unfortunately, Jones also seems to be emulating Martin's five-year gaps between volumes, but this is one of those series where the books are worth the long waits.

Key works
The Barbed Coil (1998)
The Book of Words: The Baker's Boy (1995), A Man Betrayed (1996), Master and Fool (1997)
The Sword of Shadows: A Cavern of Black Ice (1999), A Fortress of Grey Ice (2002), A Sword from Red Ice (2007), Watcher of the Dead (2010), Endlords (forthcoming)

Kameron Hurley

A relative newcomer, Hurley's works are challenging, direct and different. Her first trilogy is apparently SF, but magic (based around the manipulation of different kings of bugs) is liberally used. Her current series is an epic fantasy with a difference, set in a world which is being invaded by forces from its own parallel dimension, with the twist that only people whose doppelgangers are dead in the other universe can pass through. Hurley's books are complex, thought-provoking and vitally infused with life and action.

Hurley is also a prolific and essayist. She won a Hugo Award for "We Have Always Fought", an essay challenging the lazy gender assumptions prevalent in epic fantasy and science fiction based on erroneous understandings of history.

Key works
The Stars Are Legion (2016)
The Geek Feminist Revolution (2016)

The Bel Dame Apocrypha: God's War (2010), Rapture (2011), Infidel (2012)
The Mirror Empire: The Mirror Empire (2014), Empire Ascendant (2015), Broken Heavens (2017)

N.K. Jemisin

N.K. Jemisin is a relative newcomer, but made her mark on the genre with The Inheritance Trilogy (no, not that one) and the Dreamblood duology. The latter - which regrettably is so far all I've read - is set in a fantasised take on Egypt that completely avoids cliche: no cat-headed people fighting sphinxes, thankfully. Instead, it's a well-thought-out, intelligent take on the fantasy genre and its conventions about religion, power and gender roles, whilst also being a kick-arse adventure story set in a fantasy world refreshingly not based on Medieval Europe. Her next book, The Fifth Season, is out later this year.

Key works
The Fifth Season (2014)
The Inheritance Trilogy: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (2010), The Broken Kingdoms (2010), The Kingdom of Gods (2011)
The Dreamblood: The Killing Moon (2012), The Shadowed Sun (2012)

Juliet E. McKenna

Juliet E. McKenna is a prominent member of the UK SFF community, noted for her role in the writing collective The Write Fantastic. She has penned (as mentioned above) fifteen fantasy novels in four series, though all set on the same world.

I read her debut novel, The Thief's Gamble (featuring a female thief and rogue), when it was first released and found it highly enjoyable. Unfortunately, I haven't read the rest of her books but look forward to doing so.

Key works
The Tales of Einarinn: The Thief's Gamble (1999), The Swordsman's Oath (1999), The Gambler's Fortune (2000), The Warrior's Bond (2001), The Assassin's Edge (2002)

The Aldabreshin Compass: Southern Fire (2003), Northern Storm (2004), Western Shore (2005), Eastern Tide (2006)
The Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution: Irons in the Fire (2009), Blood in the Water (2010), Banners in the Wind (2010)
The Hadrumal Crisis: Dangerous Waters (2011), Darkening Skies (2012), Defiant Peaks (2012)

J.K. Rowling

You may have heard of her. And yes, I count her books as epic fantasy.

This is only scratching the surface here, so hit me with some more epic fantasies (or, sod it, fantasy in general) written by women in the comments.

ETA: When this article was originally published, it included K.J. Parker, at the time widely reported by the publishers to be female. It was later revealed that K.J. Parker is in fact comic fantasy author Tom Holt. As a result, the entry has been removed from the list and replaced by the more than deserving Kameron Hurley.

Bridging SWORD OF SHADOWS and BOOK OF WORDS

People occasionally ask what the connections are between J.V. Jones's first published trilogy, The Book of Words, and her ongoing Sword of Shadows series, and if it is necessary to read Book of Words first. I would definitely say no to the latter point, but here are some of the ways the works are related. Obviously spoilers ahead.

First off, they are set on the same world and on the same continent. This landmass is divided into three regions: the oft-mentioned but as-yet unseen and unmapped Far South; the Known Lands, where The Book of Words takes place; and the Northern Territories, the setting for Sword of Shadows. The northern edge of the map in the Book of Words novels is the same as the southern edge of the Sword of Shadows map, and the city of Bren is shown on both. Using this, I assembled the above combined (and very rough) map. The Ranges (known as the Northern Ranges in the Known Lands and the Southern Ranges in the Northern Territories) divide the two areas from one another. According to general usage in the books, it appears that the Far South, Known Lands and Northern Territories are considered subcontinents of the same landmass and they are sometimes even called separate continents (hence references to travellers from the Far South being described as having 'crossed three continents').

There is another continent across the eastern ocean. This is presumably the source of the 'barbarian raids' on Toolay mentioned in Book of Words, and also likely the location of the Sull Far Shore and the Sankang Empire. The locations of the Topaz Sea and Unholy Sea, mentioned in the Sword of Shadows, are not known, so are not shown on the map.

Sword of Shadows begins somewhere between sixteen and eighteen years after Book of Words, though the initial prologue takes place much sooner. The series opens with a woman named Tarissa giving birth outside the gates of Spire Vanis. Tarissa appeared in the middle volume of Book of Words as the lover of Jack, that trilogy's main character. It is assumed that Ash March is thus the daughter of Tarissa and Jack. The fact that Tarissa and Jack were (unknowingly) half-siblings and that Jack eventually became a powerful sorcerer is probably why Ash has strong magical powers. Whilst it is assumed that Tarissa died soon after, it should be noted that this is not explicitly shown in the text. Jack's whereabouts during the events of Sword of Shadows - and he'd only be in his mid-thirties - are not known. There is also a possibility that there was an old switcheroo and it's actually Raif who is the child of Jack and Tarissa (due to several curious mentions of Raif not having a true clanhold name), though that might be a bit cheesy.

More directly, Baralis, the prisoner of Surlord Penthero Iss in Spire Vanis, was the primary villain of the Book of Words. Baralis was an extremely powerful and amoral sorcerer who tried to conquer the Known Lands by arranging for King Kylock of the Four Kingdoms to take control of the city of Bren through marriage and then conquer the rest militarily. This plan failed when Jack burned the castle in Bren, killing Kylock and severely wounding Baralis. Baralis was taken to safety by his loyal but simple manservant, Crope, but they were ambushed by Iss's men whilst crossing the Northern Ranges. Baralis was imprisoned by Iss for seventeen-odd years, with Iss draining his magical powers to empower his own (much feebler) abilities.

For these connections, there are odd discontinuities as well. The Sull, the much-feared non-human race who dominate the eastern coast of the Northern Territories, go completely unmentioned at all in Book of Words, despite their lands lying just north-east of Bren. More bizarre, a powerful sorcerer lives on the eastern isthmus of the continent in Book of Words, north of the mountains, putting him pretty much in Sull territory. This discrepancy has also not been addressed. The real reason, of course, is that Jones likely did not begin planning the Sword of Shadows sequence until Book of Words was completed, and it was too late to go back and adjust some of the earlier books to match later concepts and ideas. Book of Words does make it clear that the northern lands beyond the mountains are inhabited by (relatively) primitive clans, however, and there is regular merchant traffic to them.

Whether further connections will arise - and it seems unlikely to me that Jack would not eventually learn that he had a child and would not go in search of it - in remaining one or two volumes of Sword of Shadows remains to be seen.

Watcher of the Dead by J.V. Jones

Raif Sevrance is in possession of the sword known as Loss. Unfortunately, he is also the 'guest' of a renegade group of Sull, who are determined to use him and his abilities for their own ends. Elsewhere, Ash March finds herself in the heart of Sull territory, knowing she will find in them her greatest allies...or her greatest danger. War continues to rage in the clanholds, with the armies of Blackhail, Bludd and Dhoone converging as Gandmiddich for a climactic showdown. In Spire Vanis the new surlord struggles to hold onto power, and in the wilds the ranger Angus Lok relentless hunts down a wily enemy.

Watcher of the Dead brings the Sword of Shadows series to its fourth - and hopefully penultimate (though Jones has hinted that the series may expand to six volumes) - instalment. It's a slightly slimmer novel than its forebears, being a clear 100 pages shorter than the third volume, and benefits from a tighter focus on the core storylines. Raif and Ash get a fair bit of attention, whilst Angus Lok returns to the fore after spending most of the third book missing. Effie's storyline also moves forward more satisfyingly, with her relevance to the main storyline becoming clearer. The Dog Lord and Raina Blackhail also benefit from contrasting storylines in which both seek to consolidate (or re-consolidate, in Vaylo Bludd's case) their authority in the face of opposition.

There are some drawbacks to this. The tightened focus mean there's no time or room for Crope and Baralis, who simply fail to appear. Also, a tight focus on a large cast in a more constrained page count means a relative lack of major progression in any one arc. So Effie spends most of the book in a roundhouse in a swamp and then takes a short trip in a boat (although a hugely important one). Raif spends almost the entire book as a prisoner of the Sull. Ash, having set out to reach the Sull Heart Fires at the start of Book 2, finally gets there halfway through Book 4 and has a couple of conversations (and the revelation of a 'major' plot twist which is tiresomely predictable, the first disappointing plot turn in the series to date). Important things happen in these chapters, but there is definitely a contrast to the very busy and forwards-moving first volume in the series.

Still, the series has never been action-packed and fast-moving, and Jones does give us some good battles. Raina Blackhail's storyline in fact is particularly strong, aided by the arrival of an intriguing new character, and Angus Lok's revenge storyline is extremely tense. Best of all is Raif's character arc. Back in Book 1 he was the very embodiment of the 'callow youth saves the world' trope, but by the end of this volume he is a severely traumatised, battle-hardened warrior desperately searching for himself. The subversion of the traditional fantasy hero's journey is very well-done.

Watcher of the Dead (****) benefits in some ways from a (slightly) shorter page count and tightened focus, but it also suffers from it, with a lack of plot progression in some storylines and some characters simply not showing up. The benefits to characterisation are clear and there are clear signs of the scattered characters starting to come together, but we're not on the home straight yet. The novel is available now in the UK and USA. The fifth volume, Endlords, is apparently still forthcoming but there has not been a firm update on its status from the author in more than two years.

A Sword from Red Ice by J.V. Jones

The armies of Spire Vanis have invaded the clanholds and are marching against Ganmiddich. The clans are responding, mustering their armies to defeat the invaders and claim the prize of the Ganmiddich roundhouse. However, events back in Spire Vanis are outpacing the armies and may soon render the whole conflict moot.

Meanwhile, Raif Sevrance has succeeded in defeating the Endlords at the Fortress of Grey Ice, but knows the victory is only temporary. His path takes him back to the Rift, where his fellow Maimed Men are besieged by a servant of the Endlords, but he must also strike out beyond, in search of the mysterious sword known as Loss.

A Sword from Red Ice was originally published in 2007, five years after the publication of the previous novel in the series, A Fortress of Grey Ice. It is fair to say it faced a mixed reaction, with some readers citing it as Jones's best book to date and others as a novel with very limited plot development and poor pacing.

I elected not to read the novel on release, instead waiting for additional volumes to appear. Reading A Sword from Red Ice immediately after A Fortress of Grey Ice, it is clear there's been no major drop-off in quality or indeed pacing. A Fortress of Grey Ice was a slightly weaker novel than the first book in the series, A Cavern of Black Ice, because it introduced several new POV characters and storylines and the need to service all of these plus the existing characters resulted in a lessening of focus. Actually, this seems to have been one of the two main reasons for the delays to the third novel (the other being the fact that the publishers sat on it for more than a year before releasing it, due to scheduling issues): Jones had introduced even more storylines and characters to the mix and seriously pared these back in editing, allowing her to spend more time on the core characters.

The result is a book in which, when taken as a whole, a lot happens: Raif crosses the continent (twice), undertakes a quest, saves a city and finally finds a home and place in the world; the biggest battle in the series to date is fought, with the consequences being enormous; and the political situation within both Clan Blackhail and Clan Bludd shifts dangerously and dramatically. However, other individual storyline progress more modestly: Angus Lok only appears in the prologue and the epilogue; what he's doing for the rest of the book seems rather unclear, especially given the months that have passed in the interim. Effie Sevrance spends the whole book (though that's only four chapters from her POV) going up a river on a boat. Ash March, despite being set up as the series' second main character after Raif, spends the whole book traipsing through a wood. There is a definite sense of a dislocation of time in the novel, with some characters spending weeks or months travelling and others apparently only having a few days unfold in their storyline (Lok, most notably). I am also rather uncertain what Bram Cormac's storyline adds to that of the series overall. He spends most of this book (and the previous one) wandering around unable to make a decision about his future and angsting about it, like an introverted student on a particularly chilly gap year. He finally does commit to a new cause at the end of the novel, but it's questionable if we really needed this amount of set-up for him.

Of course, epic fantasies which get so big that the author loses control a little bit of them and ends up (inadvertently or not) adding more material than we strictly need is nothing new. Fortunately Red Ice is much more of a Dance with Dragons - a novel with problematic pacing and some storylines that could have been handled better but also some very fine moments sprinkled throughout - than a Crossroads of Twilight, where the reader will have more fun reading the Wikipedia summary than suffering through the novel itself. Raif reaching the titular Red Ice is a satisfyingly mythic moment. Raina Blackhail finally taking matters into her own hands and seizing control of her own and her clan's destinies is an important moment in her character arc (especially as she is arguably one of the best-written characters in the series). Ash realising the full potential of her powers is a powerful scene. If A Sword from Red Ice disappoints in some areas, it excels in others.

A Sword from Red Ice (****) is well-written, particularly well-characterised and its strongest moments shine. At other times the pace falters and some storylines are left under-developed (Book of Words fans hoping to learn more from Baralis will be disappointed). But a few problems aside, this is a strong addition to the series. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

A Fortress of Grey Ice by J.V. Jones

Ash March has visited the Cavern of Black Ice and stalled the arrival of the evil Endlords, at least for now. She must now make her way to the homeland of the enigmatic Sull, where her true path will be revealed. Meanwhile, Raif Sevrance's role in events seems to have conclude, and he now seeks a life for himself amongst the exiles of the Maimed Men. But it seems that his destiny has not done with him yet, as he is called into the vastness of the Great Want in search of the Fortress of Grey Ice...

Middle volumes are always the most problematic part for any ongoing series. They don't have a clearly-defined beginning or end and structurally can end up as a bit of a mess if the author isn't careful. In the case of J.V. Jones's Sword of Shadows fantasy sequence this is even more of a danger. Planned to be five books in length, this gives her no less than three middle volumes to navigate through and retain the audience's attention.

She got off to an excellent start with A Cavern of Black Ice, one of the strongest opening volumes to an epic fantasy series ever written, one that showed an impressive growth in writing ability since her debut work, the somewhat more traditional Book of Words trilogy. With its considerably more nuanced characterisation, restrained toned and thorough-but-not-overwhelming worldbuilding (particularly showing that the clans may be relatively primitive, but they are not mindless savages and have complex systems of agriculture and mining), the Sword of Shadows is a more mature and interesting work.

This quality carries forwards into A Fortress of Grey Ice, though Jones is only partially successful in navigating through the problems of middle volume syndrom. On the plus side, she introduces several new storylines (particularly the civil war within Clan Dhoone) which make for interesting reading, expanding the scope of the story and the world without resorting to filler. Raif Sevrance's storyline, as he goes from rejected hero to a member of the Maimed Men to searching for the enigmatic Fortress of Grey Ice, is also structurally well-handled, giving the book a narrative spine with its own beginning, middle and end. Book of Words fans will also appreciate the arrival of Crope, a notable supporting character from that work, and his role in this novel (which ends in the death of a major character so impressively offhand that both Paul Kearney and George R.R. Martin would applaud it). Elsewhere, other characters and storylines suffer. Ash March spends the whole book on a journey from A to B and doesn't even get there at the end of the book. Raina Blackhail's potentially gripping story of political machinations within the Hailhouse are given very short shrift. The Dog Lord's storyline, though entertaining, seems to rely on a few too many obviously unwise decisions for it to be fully convincing.

The star of the book - and probably the whole series - is the wind-lashed, freezing cold landscape of the Northern Territories. Jones's research for this series appears to be formidable, with musings on the dangers of frostbite and how the climate works within an ice desert. George R.R. Martin's descriptions of the land beyond the Wall in A Song of Ice and Fire are impressive, but Jones's depiction of her frozen setting is even more impressive (as the whole series is set there).

A Fortress of Grey Ice (****½) is well-written and finely-characterise, with a formidably vivid setting. The plot and pacing is not as impressive as in the first book, and some storylines feel drawn out, whilst others are given relatively short shrift. However, this is still a well-above-average epic fantasy and the conclusion will leave readers eager to move onto the third book (which they can do immediately, rather than waiting five years as fans had to back when this novel was first published). The book is available now in the UK and USA.

A Cavern of Black Ice by J.V. Jones

The chief of Clan Blackhail has been killed, allegedly by raiders from the rival Clan Bludd. The new chief, Mace Blackhail, calls for war, but one of the witnesses to the attack, Raif Sevrance, knows that the Bludds were not behind it. When Blackhail's reprisal attack results in the unintended massacre of innocent women and children, Raif abandons his clan and family and flees in the company of his uncle, the city-born Angus Lok.

Meanwhile, far to the south in the city of Spire Vanis, Asarhia March is a virtual prisoner in the fortress of her foster-father, the city's surlord. When a chance to escape arises, Ash takes it without hesitation. But her adopted father has spent sixteen years preparing for the sorcery within Ash to awaken, and he will not surrender it without a fight.

A Cavern of Black Ice, originally published in 1999, is the opening novel in J.V. Jones's Sword of Shadows sequence. This series comprises five novels, four of them now available. Prior to this series Jones wrote a well-received trilogy, The Book of Words, and a successful stand-alone novel, The Barbed Coil.

The Sword of Shadows takes place in the same world as Book of Words, with A Cavern of Black Ice commencing about sixteen years after the events of Master and Fool. The two series share two characters in common, but otherwise there are no major links between them, and Sword of Shadows can be enjoyed by itself. This is helpful because Book of Words, though entertaining, was certainly not brilliant. The work of a new author, it was a mixture of clumsy writing mixed in with variable characterisation and a dark sense of cynical humour, its main distinguishing feature. Solid, but unspectacular.

Sword of Shadows is a very different series. A Cavern of Black Ice is subtle where the former trilogy was overt, restrained where the older work was indulgent. A Cavern of Black Ice is, basically, as good an opening volume to an epic fantasy as has ever been written, better than Gardens of the Moon, The Eye of the World or Magician and almost as strong as A Game of Thrones. It's an epic work but one that does not flounder or pad. It tells the reader exactly what they need to know whilst still sprinkling in enough worldbuilding details and secondary characters to make the setting feel alive and vivid. Jones seems to have grown immensely as a writer between the two series, an improvement in writing quality between books which I believe is unparallelled in the subgenre.

One of the things that sets the work apart is the setting. The clanholds and the northern territories are lands of freezing tundra; windswept, bare forests; and frozen, treacherous rivers. There is a constant chill on the air which Jones paints so vividly some readers may find themselves reaching for their gloves. The clanholds themselves are depicted with impressive depth and realism. Jones has clearly done her research on surviving in subarctic environments, and we learn about how these clans survive and live. Refreshingly, these clans don't just consist of warriors but also farmers, smiths and weavers, with women having an important and vital role to play, sometimes as chiefs. Jones doesn't go overboard with the details, but the clans are shown to be close-knit communities made up of individuals. Jones's biggest improvement has been with characterisation, developing an almost George R.R. Martin-like ability to introduce a character, nail their characteristics in a few words and ensure the reader remembers who they are when they next show up 200 pages later.

This extends to our supposed villains as well. Penthero Iss and Sarga Veys are fairly obvious antagonists (though still well-depicted) but the brutish Marafice Eye has a whiff of the Sandor Clegane about him, a brutish lackey with unexpected depths. Vaylo Bludd, the Dog Lord, who is set up early on as one of the main bad guys, is surprisingly humane in his own POV chapters but is still a violent and occasionally remorseless killer. Only Mace Blackhail really faills into the stock bad guy department, complete with psychopathic and rapist tendencies (for once, actually used to further the plot and character in a meaningful way rather than a random act of porno-misogynistic violence thrown in for supposed grit), though also a silver tongue which gets him out of some pretty tricky situations.

Our protagonists are more interesting this time around as well. Ash and Raif at first glance appear to be cover versions of Melisandra and Jack (the protagonists of the Book of Words trilogy), our callow youth heroes, but are altogether more complex characters. Ash discovers she was put on the world for a single purpose, and must thwart that purpose before thousands are killed by it, and Raif is apparently cursed to have death following in his footsteps at all times. Both characters have elements of tragedy attached to them, which makes their stories more compelling.

Jones rarely falters. The book is well-paced with only the conclusion feeling a little rushed. But otherwise A Cavern of Black Ice (*****) is an excellent, deftly-executed opening volume to a longer series. It is available now in the UK and USA.

Master and Fool by J.V. Jones

Melliandra, Maybor and Tawl are in hiding in the city of Bren as the mad King Kylock expands his power across the north. As armies march and cities burn, Jack discovers how to control his power and learns that his road leads to the forbidding island of Larn.

Master and Fool is the final volume of J.V. Jones's Book of Words trilogy. As is traditional with these sort of things, epic climaxes are reached, daring deeds are undertaken and destinies are fulfilled. However, Jones undertakes these actions with unusual cynicism, showing there is a cost to victory and no triumph is unmarred by tragedy.

Jones's writing skills have improved from book to book in this series, with the somewhat jarring tonal shifts of the first volume (from tragedy to black comedy and back again) now smoothed other by more natural transitions. Unlike the second volume, which was prone to time-filling wheel-spinning, this third book is fairly jam-packed with plot development. In fact, it's rather too full and a long and epic journey that fills the middle part of the book whilst events are on hold back in Bren feels a bit implausible. It may have been better for Jones to have restructured this series and allowed this journey to begin in the second volume (sacrificing the more tedious and disposable Jack scenes at the farm if necessary). As it stands, whilst Jack and Tawl are off having an epic adventure we have to endure quite a few unpleasant scenes of Melliandra being tormented in prison, which get redundant quite quickly.

In fact, given Melliandra's character growth in the second volume, it's disappointing to see her relegated to the standard damsel in distress role here, whilst Jack and Tawl get to do the whole traditional hero's journey, male-bonding thing. In fact, given that the trilogy moves away from the standard epic fantasy template several times in its earlier volumes, it's rather disheartening that the author returns so quickly to the genre's standard tropes in the final volume. Even one of the more interesting devices, of using castle guards Bodger and Grift to offer commentary on what's going on around them, is marred by having the two guards join forces with our heroes and become more central characters, which feels like an indulgence. More satisfying by far is Tavalisk's lazy villainy and attempts to manipulate events from afar, which backfire on him most amusingly.

Whilst the ending is problematic - and one character arc is left rather blatantly unresolved for the sort-of sequel series Sword of Shadows to address - there are still positives to take from it. Jones's actual writing and characterisation are reasonable and things are wrapped up satisfyingly without being too neat. The trilogy as a whole is definitely one of the better examples of mid-1990s epic fantasy, even moreso for being an example of the darker direction the genre was headed in regardless of A Game of Thrones (the first two volumes of Book of Words came out before it).

Master and Fool (***½) is a solid - if flawed - conclusion to Jones's opening trilogy, but is only a hint of how much better she gets later on. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

A Man Betrayed by J.V. Jones

Jack and Melliandra continue their flight through the lands of Halcus, seeking refuge in the distant city of Bren. Meanwhile, the mad Prince Kylock has seized his father's throne and embarked on a bloody invasion of Halcus, committing atrocity after atrocity. In Bren, Chancellor Baralis and Lord Maybor have arrived to arrange the marriage between Kylock and the Duke's daughter, to the Duke's disquiet, as well as continuing their own bitter feud. And in the fighting pits of the city, a disgraced knight struggles to find his redemption.

A Man Betrayed is the middle volume of the Book of Words trilogy and is a prime example of a novel that falls foul of 'middle book syndrome'. The book has no real opening and no real end (though there's a hell of a cliffhanger) and the plot is a mixture of dynamic forward movement in some storylines and some slightly tedious wheel-spinning in others.

In one of the more successful storylines, Melliandra is kidnapped (again), but this time around is able to turn her circumstances to her favour. She goes from victim to political player over the course of the novel in a transition that is convincingly-handled by the author. On the other hand, Jack's storyline becomes seriously bogged down. Jones clearly had to find something to do to prevent him from travelling straight to Bren and getting involved in events there, and somewhat unconvincingly lands him with a screwed-up family unit living in the backwoods and getting involved in a murder plot. There's some attempts to turn it into important character-building material for Jack but, aside from the titular betrayal at the subplot's climax, it fails to resonate.

More successful is Tawl's storyline, which is a more traditional arc of seeking redemption following the heinous crime he commits (though unwillingly) at the end of the first volume. Though there is little surprising in this storyline, it's handled well by the author, particularly in the use of the previously tedious 'lovable rogue' Nabber to help Tawl along his path. Elsewhere, Baralis is as fiendishly (if occasionally cartoonishly) evil and Machivellian as ever, Maybor becomes a more interesting character and Tavalisk's observations-from-afar of the main plot remain amusing. Bodger and Grift (the trilogy's answer to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) also get a bit more involved in the plot as well as providing the book's more comical moments.

Overall, A Man Betrayed (***½) is not without its shortcomings but is a stronger book than The Baker's Boy. Jones's writing has improved, and she juggles the multiple character arcs with confidence. Aside from Jack's repetitive storyline, this is an entertaining fantasy novel, though one that does not stray far from familiar ground. The book is available now in the UK and USA.