Category Archives: Fantasy

The Lord of Stariel

Posted on 22 November 2019 by Barbara Howe

Twenty-something Hetta (Henrietta) Valstar, master illusionist, returns to the Stariel estate after six years of self-imposed exile. But it’s too late for this prodigal daughter to reconcile with her tradition-bound, disapproving father, the Lord of Stariel. She’s come home for … Continue reading →

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Volcano City: Earthcore Book Two

Posted on 5 October 2019 by Barbara Howe

In Volcano City, book two in Grace Bridges’s YA Earthcore series, the crazed and villainous Mr B is back, and out for revenge on Anira and the superpower-endowed Earthcore team. Only now, instead of paving over and hiding natural wonders, … Continue reading →

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Sorcery and Cecelia, or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot

Posted on 30 August 2019 by Barbara Howe

What do you get when two writers play the Letter Game, in which they take turns telling the story by writing letters to each other in character, with the only rule being that they must never reveal their ideas about … Continue reading →

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RotoVegas: Earthcore Book One

Posted on 9 August 2019 by Barbara Howe

Strange things are going on in the New Zealand resort town of Rotorua. Tourists targeted in a rash of pickpocket incidents seem dazed, unable to give a clear description of the thieves. Ghostly visitors drive a family out of their … Continue reading →

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The Kingfisher’s Debt

Posted on 14 July 2019 by Barbara Howe

“Aunty Tamsin, was Billy my dad?” I stopped applying my lipstick and and angled the rear-view mirror. … With grey eyes and auburn hair framing her face, Gwyn looked like her mother. She hadn’t inherited the blonde hair and blue … Continue reading →

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Lutapolii: White Dragon of the South

Posted on 7 July 2019 by Barbara Howe

Winner of the 2019 Sir Julius Vogel award for Best Youth Novel, Lutapolii: White Dragon of the South by New Zealand author Deryn Pittar is a story of a young dragon’s efforts to escape the tyranny of his flight’s abusive … Continue reading →

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Restoration Day

Posted on 15 June 2019 by Barbara Howe

Restoration Day: the ritual that Arcelia’s monarch performs every fifty years to replenish the ties between the land and its people. Without that ritual, the magic sustaining Arcelia will die. With less than a month to go until Restoration Day, … Continue reading →

Posted in Kiwi author, Noblebright Fantasy | 4 Comments

Weaveworld

Posted on 18 May 2019 by Barbara Howe

Have you heard of the Fugue? You may have caught glimpses in other stories of that alternate magical world overlapping our own. It is a fecund land filled with wonders and peopled by almost human creatures known as the Seerkind. … Continue reading →

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Moonheart

Posted on 21 April 2019 by Barbara Howe

Of all the settings in all the thousands of books I’ve read, Tamson House in Ottawa, Canada is among the ones I’d most like to visit. That world-straddling residence is a significant presence in the urban fantasy Moonheart by Charles … Continue reading →

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Mistborn

Posted on 23 February 2019 by Barbara Howe

The Final Empire is a grim dark place, caught for a thousand years in the iron fist of the Lord Ruler, a god-like immortal with a squad of fanatical minions, the Steel Inquisitors, bent on rooting out heresy and enforcing … Continue reading →

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