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here some great fantasy websites:

Storm The Castle.com - Fantasy and creativity with an edge

Epic-Fantasy.com - website devoted to the genre of epic fantasy

The Fantasy Guide - The complete guide to fantasy on the web

The Heroic Dreams Fantasy blog - daily updates and info on the genre in movies books and more

The Heroic Dreams Forum - Come share your thoughts and opinions on the genre of fantasy

 

 

New Releases of Epic Fantasy

A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4) (Hardcover)
by George R. R. Martin
(Release Date: Nov 8)

From Publishers Weekly
Long-awaited doesn't begin to describe this fourth installment in bestseller Martin's staggeringly epic Song of Ice and Fire. Speculation has run rampant since the previous entry, A Storm of Swords, appeared in 2000, and Feast teases at the important questions but offers few solid answers. As the book begins, Brienne of Tarth is looking for Lady Catelyn's daughters, Queen Cersei is losing her mind and Arya Stark is training with the Faceless Men of Braavos; all three wind up in cliffhangers that would do justice to any soap opera. Meanwhile, other familiar faces notably Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen are glaringly absent though promised to return in book five. Martin's Web site explains that Feast and the forthcoming A Dance of Dragons were written as one book and split after they grew too big for one volume, and it shows. This is not Act I Scene 4 but Act II Scene 1, laying groundwork more than advancing the plot, and it sorely misses its other half. The slim pickings here are tasty, but in no way satisfying. Read More...
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Knife of Dreams (The Wheel of Time, Book 11) (Hardcover)
by Robert Jordan
(Released Oct 19, 05)

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The previous book in Jordan's massive Wheel of Time, Crossroads of Twilight, may have come out in 2003, but don't let that fool you; the 11th tome in this epic fantasy is the one Jordan fans have been eagerly waiting for the better part of a decade. The breakneck pace, lyrical beauty and astonishing scope of the early Wheel of Time volumes established Jordan as one of the top writers in the Tolkien tradition. While more recent entries have maintained that beauty and scope, the pace has slowed to a crawl as the central characters dispersed in six directions. In contrast, the latest explodes with motion, as multiple plot lines either conclude or advance, and the march to Tarmon Gai'don the climactic last battle between the Dragon Reborn and the Dark One begins in earnest. Faile's captivity with the Shaido, Mat's pursuit of Tuon and Elayne's war for Caemlyn come to a close, while Egwene's capture brings the Aes Sedai war to the heart of the Tower. Jordan has said that readers will be sweating by the end of the book, and he's probably right. Sweating or not, they'll also be dreading the long year or two before the 12th installment. Read more...
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Son of a Witch : A Novel (Hardcover)
by Gregory Maguire
(Released Oct 1, 2005)

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The death of Elphaba Thropp, the Wicked Witch of the West, brings about spectacular changes in this masterfully imaginative sequel to Maguire's 1995 blockbuster Wicked most notably, the startling possibility that Elphaba had a son. Scattered among the ruins of great portions of Emerald City, many residents have been skinned and bloodied, supposedly by the barbaric Yunamatas. Travel caravan leader Oatsie Manglehand stumbles upon the body of an unknown young man, badly beaten but still alive. She presents him to the wise Superior Maunt, who recognizes the hurt boy as Liir, rumored to be the dead Witch's secreted son. A mute waif named Candle revives him with her haunting, ethereal music and hidden affections. Meanwhile, Maguire supplies alternating chapters of extensive, mesmerizing backstory of Liir's boyhood, from the witch's watery demise, to the trek to the Wizard's Castle with Dorothy and company, his search for the imprisoned princess Nor, and a long stint in the Munchkinland Army, all while donning his mother's black cape and clutching her magic broom handle. Along the way, a headspinning cast of vividly described, eccentric characters emerges, but nothing prepares Liir for Candle's shocking surprise announcement. Tucked into Maguire's enchanting fable are carefully calibrated object lessons in forgiveness, retribution, love, loss and the art of moving on despite tragic circumstances. Ten years after Wicked (which is still on Broadway), fans will once again be clicking their heels with wonderment. Read More....
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Anansi Boys : A Novel (Hardcover)
by Neil Gaiman
(Released Sep 20, 05)

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. If readers found the Sandman series creator's last novel, American Gods, hard to classify, they will be equally nonplussed and equally entertained by this brilliant mingling of the mundane and the fantastic. "Fat Charlie" Nancy leads a life of comfortable workaholism in London, with a stressful agenting job he doesn't much like, and a pleasant fiancée, Rosie. When Charlie learns of the death of his estranged father in Florida, he attends the funeral and learns two facts that turn his well-ordered existence upside-down: that his father was a human form of Anansi, the African trickster god, and that he has a brother, Spider, who has inherited some of their father's godlike abilities. Spider comes to visit Charlie and gets him fired from his job, steals his fiancée, and is instrumental in having him arrested for embezzlement and suspected of murder. When Charlie resorts to magic to get rid of Spider, who's selfish and unthinking rather than evil, things begin to go very badly for just about everyone. Other character including Charlie's malevolent boss, Grahame Coats ("an albino ferret in an expensive suit"), witches, police and some of the folk from American Gods are expertly woven into Gaiman's rich myth, which plays off the African folk tales in which Anansi stars. But it's Gaiman's focus on Charlie and Charlie's attempts to return to normalcy that make the story so winning—along with gleeful, hurtling prose. Read More...
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Straken (High Druid of Shannara, Book 3) (Hardcover)
by Terry Brooks
(Released Sep 6, 05)

From Publishers Weekly
In bestseller Brooks's satisfactory conclusion to his High Druid of Shannara trilogy (after 2004's Tanequil), young Pen Ohmsford retrieves the "darkwand," whose magic will allow him to enter the Forbidding and find his aunt Grianne Ohmsford, the Ard Rhys of the lawful Druids and the Straken queen. Meanwhile, though the elven army has been defeated, Pied Sanderling leads a desperate (and well-depicted) commando-style operation to destroy a secret superweapon of the Federation. Pen's parents are simply trying to find their son. While the author may not equal the wit of his earlier Magic Kingdom of Landover series, his characterization has grown substantially more sophisticated over the years, and both his optimism about the triumph of virtue and his avoidance of graphic sex and slaughter make this series an excellent starting place for younger readers wishing to explore high fantasy. Read More...
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Promise of the Witch King (Forgotten Realms: The Sellswords) (Hardcover)
by R. A. Salvatore
(Released Oct 5, 05)

From Publishers Weekly
Jarlaxle Baenre, the drow elf, is once again on the trail to rollicking adventure in bestseller Salvatore's follow-up to Servant of the Shard (2000). At the behest of the dragon sisters Ilnezhara and Tazmikella, Jarlaxle and his assassin companion, Artemis Entreri, travel to far-off Vaasa in search of an unknown artifact belonging to the Witch-King Zhengyi. The intrepid pair infiltrate the Army of Bloodstone at the Vaasan Gate, becoming part of the elite group of seasoned fighters who defend the gate from goblins, ogres, bugbears and other monsters. Salvatore keeps the action hopping as the duo use every trick in their repertoire to achieve their goal—finding magical treasure hidden by the long-dead Witch-King. Lovers of all things elvish, especially those who like butt-kicking swordplay, dastardly intrigues and ingenious hocus-pocus, will relish this fantasy. Read more...
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.