Duskfall

July 11, 2016
Husberg's debut fantasy launches a projected five-volume series set in a standard high-fantasy world: quasi-medieval, populated by elves (who name themselves tiellan) and humans, dominated by a lightly camouflaged and very corrupt Christian religion. Tiellan are a fading race, persecuted in their ghettos. Winter, a restless young tiellan woman, is about to escape by marrying an amnesiac human man called Knot, but the ceremony is disrupted by attackers who kill most of the celebrants. Knot kills the attackers but is nonetheless blamed for all the deaths. He lights out for Roden, the city he feels strangely drawn to. Winter, who survives, soon follows him. Their parallel quest-journeys bring about the usual portentous meetings with mysteriously knowledgeable strangers. Interspersed are snippets about the priestess Cinzia, who's combating heresy in her family, but it takes too much time for her role in the overall narrative to become clear. Leisurely pacing and scant innovation make this story more workmanlike than enthralling. Husberg's prose is assured, however, and some of his tweaksâparticularly his variation on vampiresâindicate that the series may develop in intriguing ways. Agent: Sam Morgan, JABberwocky Literary.

June 15, 2016

Tensions are high between humans and the elflike tiellans they once enslaved. But when human Knot, suffering from amnesia, is pulled from the freezing sea by tiellan fishermen, he settles down with them by marrying Winter, a tiellan girl. The wedding is disrupted when unknown men in robes attack Knot. Upon recognizing his own killing instinct, Knot abandons Winter, but she pursues him, only to fall in with a group that sense in her a gift that should be impossible for a tiellan to possess. The couple's paths will intersect with religious dissident Jane and her sister Cinzia, a priestess of the Cantic religion. All seem to have an important role to play as darkness builds in a land across the mountains. While the pieces of this traditional fantasy debut--prophecies, magic squaring off against religion, political conflict, and even amnesiac heroes--are not particularly original, the storytelling is fresh and assured and the characters appealing. Winter is especially compelling, as her supernatural studies lead to a troublesome addiction. VERDICT This is a solid setup for a great new fantasy epic, perfect for fans of Daniel Abraham and Brandon Sanderson.--MM

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