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Nightchaser
Into the black
Release Out now
Writer Amanda Bouchet
Publisher Piatkus
Price £8.99Tess Bailey and her crew are
on the run with cargo stolen
from the villainous Dark Watch,
heading for the Rebellion to restock
their supplies.
However, the cargo turns out
to be something more than they
expected and when their ship needs
serious repairs, they are forced to
take refuge while the mysterious
Shade Ganavan fi xes what he can.
But he isn’t who he seems either,
and as he and Tess get closer,
secrets unfurl and the Dark Watch
creep closer...
Nightchaser is told mostly
from Tess’ perspective, with a
few occasional shifts to Shade.
Unfortunately, that means that
Tess’ crew get considerably lessWidow’s
Welcome
Storyteller’s world
Release 8 August
Writer DK Fields
Publisher Head Of Zeus
Price £18.99‘There’s power in stories and
this is a story of power.’
Stories are how the Union Of
Realms functions as a society in the
novel. We are not quite at Star Trek’s
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra levels,
but we’re close.
Everyone has their very own
story that they are living through,
which means that when it comes
to elections, it is the best story
that gets the most votes from the
population’s representatives, known
as The Audience.
Detective Cora Gorderheim has a
pretty serious problem in her story in
the form of a corpse.
When a Wayward man is founddead with his mouth sewn shut
ahead of an election in which he
was to play a crucial role, Cora
realises that all is not well in Fenest
and that the dead man’s story had a
potentially explosive power.
It’s a truly fascinating system for a
fantasy, one which lends itself to all
sorts of implications about truth and
ownership. How far is someone’s
story their own? Who gets to say
when someone else’s story ends?
Though Fields doesn’t delve fully
into those themes, they run like a
current through the plot, questions
that spring up as Cora’s investigation
intersects with the stories told as part
of the election.
Melding noir with the fantasy
genre, this is a rather clever read,
one which feels especially prescient
for our reality, where the concept
of truth has become somewhat
nebulous and the dominant
narratives come from the people
who manage to shout the loudest.
Becky Lea
focus and, aside from a few
basic histories and snippets of
personality, those characters feel
rather sketched in comparison.
Likewise, the villains feel far
too distant to feel overtly
threatening, but hopefully the
sequel to the novel will give them
more room.
Where Nightchaser really
succeeds is in the breakneck pace
of the plot and in Bouchet’s light
style, blending humour, danger,
and romance with ease.
The sparks that fl y between
Shade and Tess are a lot of fun too,
and there is also the promise of the
Rebellion vs the Galactic Overlord.
The ship might be grounded, but
the narrative really fl ies.
There are moments that are a
little cheesy and some that feel
a little bit rushed, but overall,
Nightchaser is the kind of operatic
space adventure that it is very easy
to immerse yourself in.
Becky Lea