Today we have some exciting news for Emma Newman fans! She’s back with a brand new vampire adventure set in the world of Alexandre Dumas. The Vengeance is due for publication on 3rd December 2024 from Solaris Books. Before we check out the cover, let’s find out more… “Swashbuckle up for an adventure… Morgane grew up at sea, daughter of the fierce pirate captain of the Vengeance, raised to follow in her footsteps as scourge of the Four Chains Trading Company. But when Anna-Marie is mortally wounded in battle, she confesses to Morgane that she is not her mother. Then the captain of the ene ..read more

Black Shield Maiden by Willow Smith & Jess Hendel is a powerful coming of age story that follows Yafeu from her home in the Ghanaian Empire to Norway where she stands her ground and carves herself a place at the Vikings’ table with the help of their princess, Freydis. This story is thick with Norse and Ghanaian mythology and discusses power, courage, and women holding their own in the face of adversity, but most importantly, this is a story about Yafeu and her bravery and resilience as she survives and thrives in an alien landscape.  Yafeu is the badass main character that every YA ad ..read more

Sophie Keetch has a BA in English Literature from Cardiff University, which included the study of Arthurian legend. She is Welsh and lives with her husband and son in South Wales.   B: Hello Sophie, and welcome to the Fantasy Hive! For anyone unfamiliar with your work, your first book Morgan is my Name is coming out in paperback today, and then the sequel Le Fay is coming out 18th July, what can you tell us about them, what can they expect? S: The Morgan le Fay trilogy is a feminist retelling of Arthurian legend from the point of view of Morgan le Fay. She’s most famously a villainess ..read more

‘And God strike me down if it weren’t true. There it was, waves crashing at the window, coming to claim us all. I ran to see, but by the time I got there, the water was exactly where it should be, and when I looked back, so were you: born, alive and open-eyed. Your mother insisted it was the sea that delivered you, and so you were named.’ Morgan is my name Morgan is my Name is the debut novel by Welsh author Sophie Keetch. It’s a retelling of the story of Morgan le Fay from Arthurian legend, joining the recent popular surge of Arthurian retellings but feeling very much like a stand-out among ..read more

“Touch me and your blood will desecrate these sacred grounds. I assure you I deserve my legend.”   The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu was an absolute joy to read from start to finish. Though the author has written many books, this was the first I’ve read by him and I was suitably impressed. Chu superbly weaves together all the elements of a traditional old school epic fantasy with an added sprinkle of comedy.    This is a story of a hero and a warrior, their enemies and a prophecy gone to shit. Wen Jian is the Hero of Prophecy, Champion of the Five Under Heaven and he is destin ..read more

Today, we’re thrilled to share an excerpt from Aman J Bedi’s debut novel, South Asian epic fantasy KAVITHRI Before we dive into the excerpt, let’s check out the official blurb: An action-packed South Asian epic fantasy featuring necromancers, jinn, and one seriously fearless heroine… Meet Kavithri. Outcast. Underdog. Survivor. Kavi is a Taemu. Her people, once feared berserkers and the spearhead of a continent-spanning invasion, are the dregs of Raayan society. Their spirits crushed. Their swords broken. Their history erased. But Kavi has a dream and a plan. She will do whatever it takes to e ..read more

Welcome to this month’s Top Picks! Every month, we’re going to share with you our favourite reads of the month. We’ve rounded up our contributors and asked them each to recommend just one favourite read of the month. A big thank you to Nils for coming up with this feature, and our contributors for taking part! Let’s find out what the team has read this month…   Nils: The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu My three fantastic reads this month focused largely on fantasy tropes! First up was The Company of the Wolf by David Wragg which is the upcoming sequel to The Hunters. This second insta ..read more

We fight for the people we love. We fight for the ideas we want to be true. Evar and Livira stand side by side and yet far beyond each other’s reach. Evar is forced to flee the library, driven before an implacable foe. Livira, trapped in a ghost world, has to recover her book if she’s to return to her life. While Evar’s journey leads him outside into the vastness of a world he’s never seen, Livira’s destination lies deep inside her own writing, where she must wrestle with her stories in order to reclaim the volume in which they were written. And all the while, the library quietly weaves threa ..read more

Sylvie Cathrall’s debut novel, A LETTER TO THE LUMINOUS DEEP, is available now from Orbit Books. Sylvie holds a graduate degree in odd Victorian art and has handled more than a few nineteenth-century letters (with great care). She married her former pen pal and lives in the mountains, where she dresses impractically and dreams of the sea. Website | Newsletter | Instagram | UK book purchases | US book purchases     Welcome to the Hive, Sylvie. Congratulations on your debut, A Letter to the Luminous Deep. Let’s start by telling us a bit about it. What can our readers expect?  Th ..read more

James Logan was born in the southeast of England where he grew up on a diet of Commodore 64 computer games, Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, and classic eighties cartoons, which left him with a love of all things fantastical. He lives in London and works in publishing. The Silverblood Promise is his first novel.         Welcome to the Hive, James. A huge congratulations on your debut The Silverblood Promise, the first instalment of The Last Legacy series. Can you tell our readers more about it? What can they expect?  Thank you, and thanks for having me! The ..read more