Fantastic Books is bringing Linda E. Bushyager‘s two fantasy novels back into print. Both novels stand alone, but are set in the same world.
In Master of Hawks, “the young man they called Hawk had always been a loner, seeking solace in the company of the hawks, eagles, and other birds that he could telepathically sense and control. When the forces of the Tarel Empire marched on the Kingdom of York, Hawk willingly became a scout, seeing the countryside through the eyes of his birds. But he didn’t realize he’d soon be thrust into the center of action, as a series of increasingly perilous adventures pitted him against another bird-telepath, soldiers, and deadly sorcerers. The key to York’s survival was an alliance with the Sylvan—forest dwellers with powers of their own. To win their friendship, Hawk found himself teamed with a beautiful, mysterious young woman and sent on a dangerous mission, where not only their survival, but the outcome of the war would depend on his avian mastery.”
Don D’Ammassa calls it “A fast-moving, entertaining story… written in a crisp, clear prose style that is all too rare in most fantasy fiction.”
In The Spellstone of Shaltus, “when Lord S’Carlton killed the evil wizard Shaltus, he didn’t realize the sorcerer had transferred his soul into the spellstone crystal that amplified his psychic abilities. Now Shaltus was back, as a powerful wraith whose one goal was to destroy S’Carlton’s family.
“Even S’Carlton’s half-breed daughter, Leah Carlton, was a target for the monstrous evil that had once been a man. Hated by both her human half-siblings and her mother’s people, the Sylvan who could shape enormous skytrees, Leah found herself caught in a web of intrigue and danger. Her only escape was to forge an uneasy alliance with a team of sorcerers hired by her half-brother to destroy Shaltus. But could she harness the might and magic of her two heritages into a strong enough weapon to defeat the Shaltus wraith before it destroyed her new allies and the house of S’Carlton?”
Kevin J. Anderson calls the book “an outstanding fantasy… superb, marvelous, exciting, refreshing, brilliant…”. And Don D’Ammassa notes “The Spellstone of Shaltus is particularly interesting in its use of a strong female lead character who isn’t simply a feminine equivalent to Conan.… Bushyager never loses sight of the fact that the first obligation of the writer is to tell an entertaining story.”
SFScope Editor Ian Randal Strock is the publisher of Fantastic Books.