The Month of September is Self Published Fantasy Month!

Welcome to Before We Go Blog’s first Weekly Blog Roundup. I have been reading Black Sail’s Books weekly newsletter, and loved the format. If you haven’t checked out Black Sail’s reviews, you really should. It is a great site.

First and foremost, this last week was the start of Self Published Fantasy Month. I have had the great fortune of being one of the organizers for this years festivities and we have exciting things in store for this month. I am a lover of self published fantasy for a bunch of reasons, but the first is the high quality of writing that is coming out of the fantasy community. For my part of this months celebrations I will be reviewing four books:

Orconomics by J. Zachary Pike

“Brimming with swords, sorcery, and wit, Orconomics: A Satire introduces Arth, a world much like our own but with more magic and fewer vowels. For the licensed wizards and warriors of Arth, slaying and looting the forces of evil is just a job. The Heroes’ Guild has turned adventuring into a career, selling the rights to monsters’ hoards of treasure as investment opportunities. Corporations spend immense sums sponsoring heroes to undertake quests, betting they’ll reap the profits in plunder funds when the loot is divvied up.

Questing was all business for famous Dwarven berserker Gorm Ingerson, until a botched expedition wiped out his party, disgraced his name, and reduced him to a thieving vagabond. Twenty years later, a chance encounter sees Gorm forcibly recruited by a priest of a mad goddess to undertake a quest that has a reputation for getting heroes killed. But there’s more to Gorm’s new job than an insane prophecy; powerful corporations and governments have shown an unusual interest in the job. Gorm might be able to turn a bad deal into a golden opportunity and win back the fame and fortune he lost so long ago.

Promising fun, fantasy, and financial calamity, Orconomics: A Satire is the first book in The Dark Profit Saga, an economically epic trilogy. “

The first review, Orconomics has already posted to the self pub fan month site, and will be republishing it here next Tuesday.

Storytellers by Bjorn Larssen

“In March 1920 Icelandic days are short and cold, but the nights are long. For most, on those nights, funny, sad, and dramatic stories are told around the fire. But there is nothing dramatic about Gunnar, a hermit blacksmith who barely manages to make ends meet. He knows nobody will remember his existence – they already don’t. All he wants is peace, the company of his animals, and a steady supply of his medication. Sometimes he wonders what it would feel like to have a story of his own. He’s about to find out.

Sigurd – a man with a plan, a broken ankle, and shocking amounts of money – won’t talk about himself, but is happy to tell a story that just might get Gunnar killed. The blacksmith’s other “friends” are just as eager to write him into stories of their own – from Brynhildur who wants to fix Gunnar, then marry him, his doctor who is on the precipice of calling for an intervention, The Conservative Women of Iceland who want to rehabilitate Gunnar’s “heathen ways” – even that wicked elf has plans for the blacksmith.

As his defenses begin to crumble, Gunnar decides that perhaps his life is due for a change – on his own terms. But can he avoid the endings others have in mind for him, and forge his own?

The author is an ex-blacksmith, lover of all things Icelandic, physically located in Amsterdam, mentally living in a log cabin near Akureyri. He has published stories and essays in Polish and American magazines, both online and in print. This is his first novel.”

The Lore of Prometheus by

“John Carver has three rules: Don’t drink in the daytime, don’t gamble when the luck has gone, and don’t talk to the dead people who come to visit.

It has been almost five years since the incident in Kabul. Since the magic stirred within him and the stories began. Fleeing the army, running from the whispers, the guilt, and the fear he was losing his mind, Carver fell into addiction, dragging himself through life one day at a time.

Desperation has pulled him back to Afghanistan, back to the heat, the dust, and the truth he worked so hard to avoid. But there are others, obsessed with power and forbidden magics, who will stop at nothing to learn the truth of his gifts. Abducted and chained, Carver must break more than his own rules if he is to harness this power and survive. “

The Crown Tower by Michael J. Sullivan

“TWO MEN WHO HATE EACH OTHER. ONE IMPOSSIBLE MISSION. A LEGEND IN THE MAKING.

A warrior with nothing to fight for is paired with a thieving assassin with nothing to lose. Together they must steal a treasure that no one can reach. The Crown Tower is the impregnable remains of the grandest fortress ever built and home to the realm’s most valuable possessions. But it isn’t gold or jewels the old wizard is after, and this prize can only be obtained by the combined talents of two remarkable men. Now if Arcadius can just keep Hadrian and Royce from killing each other, they just might succeed.

The Riyria Revelations and The Riyria Chronicles are two separate, but related series, and you can start reading with either Theft of Swords (publication order) or The Crown Tower (chronological order).”

Upcoming/Posted Reviews and Articles

G.M Nair Reviews Cluster by Jess Conwell

cluster

G.M Nair reviews self published author Jess Conwell

“Kevin Smith’s Clerks – but with 90% of the Gen-X cynicism replaced with honest emotion”

Check it out here – Review – Cluster by Jessica Conwell

Beth Tabler Reviews The First of Shadows by Deck Matthews

The First of Shadows Cover Image

“How the twilight fades, The drying tears of our forgotten misery; Shadows lengthen, Rusted swords, Spewing from the mouth of yesterday. – From “The White Letters””

Check it out here – Review – First of Shadows by Deck Matthews

Beth Tabler Reviews A Killing Frost by Seanan McGuire

“All in all, this is a beautiful and exciting addition to the October Daye world.”

Check it out here – Review – A Killing Frost by Seanan McGuire

Ryan Howse Reviews Martian by Andy Weir

The Martian Book Cover

Mark Watney is stranded, alone, on Mars.

There are plenty of books whose success I do not understand. The Martian is not one of those books. The Martian has such a simple premise it’s amazing that it wasn’t done earlier.

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Check it out here – Review – The Martian by Andy Weir

Upcoming! G.M Nair Reviews Bill and Ted Face the Music

The ruler of the future tells best friends Bill and Ted they must compose a new song to save life as we know it. But instead of writing it, they decide to travel through time to steal it from their older selves. Meanwhile, their young daughters devise their own musical scheme to help their fathers bring harmony to the universe.

Upcoming! G.M Nair Reviews Her Crown of Fire by Renee April

In the dull, everyday world, seventeen-year-old Rose Evermore struggles to plan beyond her final year of high school. But when fire suddenly obeys her every command and her dreams predict the future, she becomes hungry for more of this strange power.