Warning: If you haven’t read the previous stories of the Queen’s Thief series, this review may contain some spoilers for you. Read at your own peril. ;-)
 
Sophos does not expect to be kidnapped. Then again, he is the next in line for the throne, after his uncle, the king of Sounis. As Sophos struggles to escape, aware that the slightest misstep might mean his death, he realizes that the nation is on the brink of war, undermined from within by enemies of Sounis. Saving the nation may mean making alliances with those who seem to be enemies, and making enemies of those who seem to be friends. And, most of all, it may mean becoming a man that Sophos never expected to be—the king of Sounis.

Ever since Rowen had a terible illness, she has had the mark—a white mark on the skin of her right hand. And when she touches others with her marked hand, she sees things that she never meant or wanted to see. Forced to flee her village, Rowen becomes the varor of Lady Astrea. But as war with the neighboring nation of Temanin embroils the White City in a bitter struggle for survival, a long-forgotten evil resumes its own war—the war against the followers of the Word and the ancient guardians who once kept the Lands safe. 

Summary
Cyrus’s dreams come true when he becomes an apprentice Hero to Reginald, aka “The Crimson Slash.” As Cyrus learns the rules of True Heroism (e.g. “Always fight Climactic Duels in Ridiculous Locations”), his path crosses with that of Voshtyr Demonkin, a Villain more devious, dastardly, and dangerous than the world has seen since the Twenty-Minute War. Or perhaps, since ever. Cyrus’ life soon becomes very tangled, involving a sharp-tongued cat-featured Katheni girl; a horrific P.L.O.T. device; confusing magic controlled by Arbitrary Numbers and Capital Letters; and a struggle to understand the mysteries and meaning of the Universe. Can Cyrus defeat Voshtyr—or will Voshtyr defeat him?

Summary 


Sandfly is a debugger, his life limited to finding and fixing malfunctions in the equipment of the Abduls. Any thought outside approved ranges results in instant pain for Sandfly. When he is sent to debug a robot on the mysterious space vessel known as DarkTrench, he unearths few answers, but many questions. What did the robot encounter near the star Betelguese that made it disassemble itself? What is the crew of DarkTrench hiding from him? And what was in the powerful, unearthly transmission that Sandfly begins to hear?

Everything changed the day that Sir Gavin offered to train Achan, a lowly stray, as a squire. Achan begins to hear voices in his head, calling out to him, asking his name. Among these is the Voice, which tells him things he cannot yet understand.

Vrell is a runaway, disguised as a boy in order to avoid marriage to self-centered Prince Gidon. One day, two knights arrive to claim Vrell as a new apprentice to their master, who has sensed in Vrell the ancient gift of bloodvoicing.

The journeys of Achan and Vrell lead them to the very doorstep of the Evenwall, which separates the sunlit lands from the lands trapped in a veil of Darkness. It is there that a deep and treacherous secret is revealed, and Achan must choose: Will he retain the safety of a stray, or will he leave that past forever for unknown dangers, and go where the Voice leads him?

Do you like free books? Me too! This summer, Enclave Publishing has been releasing a number of books for free. I've read one so far (BY DARKNESS HID by Jill Williamson) and have several more on my Kindle to read. (Guess who's gonna leap at the chance to run on the treadmill in order to read some new fiction?)

Of course, many of these books are the first in a series, hence the giveaway. "Like the first book? Buy the rest of the series!" Which I'm happy to do if I like the first book, so there's no problem there for me.

Here's a sampling of the titles available for free:

I said I would periodically review books of note within the speculative fiction category, so here's the latest: my Goodreads review on Writers of the Future, Volume 29. Since it's an anthology, I did mini-reviews on each of the following stories: