With the end of The Wheel of Time coming soon, book two of The Stormlight Archive barely begun, and who knows how long to go before we see hide or hair of what’s next from Messrs. Martin and Rothfuss—not to mention when—epic fantasy fans looked to be at a loose end this winter.
Enter David Hair.
An award-winning writer born and raised and returned to roost in New Zealand after living for a time in Britain and India, Hair has eight books behind him already—four each across two discrete series known as The Aotearoa and The Return of Ravana—but you’d be forgiven, I think, for never having heard of ’em. I hadn’t, and I’m all for YA fantasy.
Hair’s ninth novel, however, is his first aimed at an adult audience, and Mage’s Blood is likely to find legions of receptive readers. Those who had imagined spending the coming season counting down the days till the arrival of A Memory of Light may take heart in the fact that there’s at least one epic worth investing in before the arrival of 2013. Hair’s The Moontide Quartet isn’t as yet the equal of any of the aforementioned sagas, but like The Way of Kings before it, it lays the foundation for a commanding fantasy narrative that is at once familiar and ambitious.
Welcome, one and all, to Urte!
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