The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath

Green’s debut epic fantasy and series launch offers a welcome combination of horror elements, including numerous shocking deaths, and fascinating mythology involving animalistic deities. The Ferron Empire is thrown into turmoil following the deaths of Lothal, the god-wolf, and his master, the Emperor, whom he’d served by holding the excesses of the Empire’s subjects in check. Now the land is beset by rotstorms, “clouds of jet black infused with streaks of gleaming purple lightning that cast a pulsing glow over the rolling landscape.” The precipitation changes people into crow-men, creatures “with arcane power and horrifying appetites.” Floré, a Stormguard veteran, survives battling the crow-men, only to encounter another daunting threat: glowing, wagon-sized orbs appear in the sky above her village of Hasselberry, and their manifestations coincides with the disappearances of the town’s animals, some of whom resurface as mutilated corpses. When her daughter is the next to disappear, Floré is forced back into action. The unrelentingly dark tone enables Green to maintain a high level of suspense throughout. Fans of Anthony Ryan will welcome this and its sequels. (May)