Category Archives: Noblebright Fantasy

Book Launch Reminder

Posted on 20 January 2022 by Barbara Howe

Reminder: the launch of The Forge, the fifth and final book in the Reforging series, will be held this weekend, on Sunday, 23 January, at 1:00pm New Zealand Daylight Time. If you haven’t been following the series, here’s on overview: … Continue reading →

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Deltora Quest

Posted on 25 April 2020 by Barbara Howe

Most of the children’s books I’ve blogged about are ones I read to my daughter. The Deltora Quest series, by Australian author Emily Rodda, is an outlier. My daughter discovered it for herself and read the entire series as a … Continue reading →

Posted in Children's Fiction, Epic Fantasy, Noblebright Fantasy | 2 Comments

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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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

The Spirit Ring

Posted on 19 January 2019 by Barbara Howe

Lois McMaster Bujold’s noblebright fantasy The Spirit Ring, set in Renaissance Italy, opens with a young woman, Fiametta, assisting her father, Prospero Beneforte, master craftsman and mage, in putting the final touches on a magical poison-detecting salt cellar. Their richly … Continue reading →

Posted in Noblebright Fantasy, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

The Silence of Medair

Posted on 6 January 2019 by Barbara Howe

I cried over Andrea K Höst’s noblebright fantasy novel, The Silence of Medair. That’s a compliment, you understand. To become so engrossed in a story that the real world gets put on hold for a few hours, to identify so … Continue reading →

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Spindle

Posted on 27 October 2018 by Barbara Howe

Although I love fairy tales, Sleeping Beauty, with its passive princess, is not usually one of my favourites. But in Spindle, Polyhymnia is no princess, Luck, the man who kisses her awake, is no prince, and being dragged kicking awake … Continue reading →

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Thirteen Orphans

Posted on 15 July 2018 by Barbara Howe

Years ago in the Land Born of Smoke and Sacrifice, a China-like alternate reality, the winners in a war exiled the losers into our reality. The exiles—the young emperor and his twelve advisors, each personifying an animal in the Chinese … Continue reading →

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The Lord of Dreams

Posted on 30 June 2018 by Barbara Howe

Be careful what you wish for, as you will surely get it. Claire Delaney, normal American teenager, wishes she could be a hero. She is immediately snatched out of her bedroom by a delightfully dangerous figure, transported into the world … Continue reading →

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The Traitor and the Thief

Posted on 20 April 2018 by Barbara Howe

In The Traitor and the Thief, debut novel by Gareth Ward, a fourteen-year-old boy named Sin is plucked off the streets and given an opportunity to earn a place in the Covert Operations Group (COG). COG is a clandestine organisation … Continue reading →

Posted in Fantasy, Kiwi author, Noblebright Fantasy | 2 Comments