Books

Books : reviews

Josiah Bancroft.
Senlin Ascends.
Orbit. 2013

Mild-mannered headmaster Thomas Senlin prefers his adventures to be safely contained within the pages of a book. So when he loses his new bride shortly after embarking on the honeymoon of their dreams, he is ill-prepared for the trouble that follows.

To find her, Senlin must enter the Tower of Babel – a world of geniuses and tyrants, of menace and wonder, of unusual animals and mysterious machines. He must endure betrayal, assassination attempts and the long guns of a flying fortress. And if he hopes to ever sec his wife again, he will have to do more than just survive – this quiet man of letters must become a man of action.

Josiah Bancroft.
The Hexologists.
Orbit. 2023

The first book in a mesmerizing new fantasy series wherein magical mysteries abound and only one team can solve them, the Hexologists.

Iz and Warren Wilby are quite accustomed to helping desperate clients with the bugbears of city life. Aided by hexes and a bag of charmed relics, the Hexologists never shy away from a challenging case,

Bet when they are approached by the royal secretary and told about a curious predicament involving the king, the Wilbies soon find themselves embroiled in a mystery that could very well see the nation turned on its head. Their effort to expose a royal secret buried under forty years of lies brings them nose to nose with a violent anti-royalist gang, avaricious ghouls and a bookish dragon who only occasionally eats people.

Armed with a love toughened by adversity and a stick of chalk that can conjure light from the darkness, Iz and Warren Wilby are ready for a case that will test every spell, skill and odd magical artefact in their considerable bag of tricks.