The Godblind trilogy is now available to buy or borrow in English. There are also some translations, notably the whole trilogy is out in German, the first two in Dutch, and Godblind in French.
The Stone Knife, book one of Songs of the Drowned, is now also out in English and available in various formats, including audio and ebook, worldwide.
My first prose novel for Marvel Comics, through official tie-in partner Aconyte Books, is also available worldwide in ebook, with paperback copies due in North America on 28 September 2021 and the UK and Commonwealth (presumably) on 11 November 2021. It’s called The Serpent and the Dead and follows Lady Sif and Brunnhilde the Valkyrie on an epic, dangerous quest to recover souls that have been snatched at the moment of death and so have never made it to Valhalla.
OK, but why should I buy your books?
The Godblind trilogy is gritty, epic and dark, but never loses sight of the human relationships at the heart of the chaos. Gods and people do battle for the soul of Rilpor and its inhabitants while Dom Templeson, warrior and prophet, faces a much larger challenge – he is the key to Rilpor’s downfall or survival, and in him, the gods take a particular – and messy – interest.
Surrounding Dom are warriors, escaped slaves, priests and soldiers, who all must come together to stand against the Mireces and their allies. Each has a role to play, some more vital than others – Crys, a soldier and an officer and a man who isn’t all he seems; Mace, a general who may have to take up the mantle of king; Tara, a professional soldier making her way in a traditionally male world; and Rillirin, a woman who, upon finding herself, becomes key to it all.
As for the Mireces, led by King Corvus and the Blessed One, Lanta, they’re doing the glorious and bloody will of their gods, and will not be stopped. Epic battles and quiet assassinations, human sacrifice and unholy communion, political manoeuvring and religious extremism – whatever cost victory demands, they’re willing to pay the price.
And they don’t just want Rilpor; they want the souls of its inhabitants, dedicated to Blood, their feet upon the Path. And once Rilpor falls, so too will its neighbours, Listre and Krike. What the Mireces want – what their gods demand – is nothing less than total subjugation.
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In the Songs of the Drowned, there are similar elements to those present in the Godblind trilogy, because I’m not done with examining colonialism and Empire and slavery, which all take precedence in this trilogy. The books are heftier and possibly a little slower, but the themes are correspondingly bigger, so it all balances out.
Set in a queernom, gender-equal society, The Stone Knife follows characters in Tokoban fighting to stop the Empire of Songs’ conquest of their land, and characters in the Empire who believe conquest is ordained by the song that gives them their magic. There are shamans and politicians, courtesans and assassins, spies and rebels, all occupying and fighting over cities on the monsoon-swept, jungle-clad peninsula of Ixachipan. Whoever wins, the world will never be the same for colonised or coloniser.
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Godblind was Goldsboro Books’s June Book of the Month (2017), meaning they did a sprayed edges limited, signed first edition of 750 copies and it got its own window display!
“Has all the signs of being a sensational series”—5/5, SFX magazine
“If you’re a fan of the likes of Joe Abercrombie or George R.R. Martin, then you’ll be pleased to learn that Anna Stephens has joined this august pantheon of lovingly horrible and deliciously dark writers”—10/10, Starburst magazine
“Nobody does swordfights quite like Anna Stephens. We salute her with a bloody gauntlet”—The Mail
Book plates
Finally, if you would like a signed/dedicated book plate to stick inside and copies of the books, please send me your address via my Get in Touch page, and I’ll send you one out for free.
Yay! Hi Anna! I just felt like leaving you a YAY, such is my way.
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