Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is The Iron Princess by Barbara Hambly!
Genres: Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy
Published on: 28th February 2023
Goodreads
A young woman rises from the streets to battle a sinister evil in this magical fantasy adventure by the bestselling author of the Darwath series.
Something is amiss with the world's magic. Spells don't work the way they used to--when they work at all. Only the powers of the Crystal Mages remain as they were, powers founded on the use of the mystical element adamis, the harvesting of which has enslaved the peoples of the Twilight Lands.
They need a hero.
At the same time, ravenous beasts have begun to appear, legendary creatures that seem to be proof against any magic. And Clea Stylachos, granddaughter of a great sage of the Twilight people, has reason to fear that the Crystal Mages, instead of seeking to defeat these insanely destructive monsters, are attempting to weaponize them in their quest for power.
Clea's only hope to save her people is a wizard who retains his power, one who will not betray her, either to the great merchant houses or to the all-entangling web of the Crystal Mages. But that wizard--Ithrazel the Cursed, destroyer of a city and magically imprisoned to suffer undying, unremitting torment--wants nothing to do with saving the world, helping a hero, or unraveling the terrible secret at the heart of the Crystal Mages' plans.
From the slums and tunnels of the slave-city of Morne, to the watery wilderness of the Twilight lands, to the halls of her father's palace and the spell-soaked mysteries of the Crystal Mages' House of Glass, Clea works to untwist the deadly riddles of magic and monsters--to free her mother's disenfranchised people from slavery under her father's conquering forces. To save her mageborn brother from the Crystal Mages' power; to control a sorcerer legendary for his deed of evil; to keep her own small band of friends one step ahead of her father's troops and the Crystal Order's spells.
She is the Iron Princess, and she knows she must prevail or die.
But at what cost to herself?
Hambly has some of the most beautiful prose I’ve ever read – which is why she’s the only author I’ve ever followed from Fantasy to Historical Fiction. (If a fantasy author I love also writes scifi, I will definitely read it. If they write horror, I will probably read it. But following an author to a genre that isn’t SFF? ONLY THIS WOMAN!)
And don’t get me wrong: her historical fiction is excellent! But I am SO EXCITED that we’re getting a new fantasy from her!!! And it sounds especially excellent; the blurb feels very 80s Fantasy – but as anyone who has read her fantasy knows, Hambly is THE BEST at subverting the classic forms and tropes. I can’t wait to see what she’s going to do with this one!
DON’T THINK I MISSED THE DRAGONS IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE COVER, EITHER!
Definitely one of my most-anticipated books of 2023 – and since we’ll be waiting till February, there’s plenty of time to familiarise yourself with her work if you haven’t read any of it yet!
And if you have, you can do what I’ll be doing and settle in for rereading some seriously excellent favourites!
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