If you’re studying for something like the LAMDA Speaking Verse and Prose examinations, this would be a very useful analysis of this fantasy novel. The review outlines the magic system, characters, setting and themes in The Riddler’s Gift very well, as well as making some detailed comments about the story:

“The magical system was one part science, one part high mathematics (those parts had me scratching my head a bit), one part spiritual, and one part philosophical.”

“… each person fights an intimate battle against evil [...] It might not be easy, but we can choose to do what’s right. We might fall, and fail ourselves and others, but that doesn’t mean the war is over. We pick ourselves up again to fight the next battle. So there is always hope, in the end.”

“… a story that had a shining heart, which was what stood out to me from the beginning, despite some of the very dark elements.”

Nip over to Daneille’s blog to study the review further.

The Slowest Bookworm mostly reads Young Adult fiction; occasionally adult romance, historical fiction, fantasy or thrillers. She’s not accustomed to tackling epic fantasy, which makes her reviews more interesting because she can form an opinion untainted by familiarity with the genre. She finally braved the mountain of words and disappeared into Eyri.

sounds of munching. a page moved. an i became an o, then a capital O, and suddenly, there was the bookworm emerging from the page, blinking, wondering where all the sprites had gone.

Now Zarost will tell you, it isn’t easy to get a worm on a hook, and this worm is crafty. Although she pretends to be idle she eats up words faster than the Wranglewrithe, so all that’s left of my copy of the review is: “… Main … Amazing … Great … In … Characters … And … Lifesong” but you can read the rest of The Riddler’s Gift review on the Slowest Bookworm’s site.

The verdict on The Riddler’s Gift? “Magical! I was hooked …”

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The Happy Booker reviews mainly epic, urban, and dark fantasy and most recently, Second Sight. Well it’s no fun being a parrot (just ask Zaul) and Zarost taught me that leaving out bits can make you holy, so I’ll recommend that you read the review of Second Sight on The Happy Booker’s book review site.

“I would recommend this to anyone that wants to be utterly swept away into a story of epic proportions. I was quite honestly blown away by this book …”

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Finally, Fantasy Book Review is on a mission to find the Top 100 Fantasy Books Of All Time. I would respond ‘I haven’t written them yet!’ but I’d better step quietly away from the whistling precipice. I’m glad to have impressed the reviewer enough for Second Sight to be selected to stand beside The Riddler’s Gift in their hall of fame and jostle merrily for position with the great names of fantasy.

You’ll find the review of Second Sight and other spellbinding fantasy novels on their website.

They made an interesting comment on similarities. “If you are a fan of Stephen R Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant books then you will find much within that pleases you, especially if you wished they were slightly more light-hearted!” I found much to admire in Donaldson’s writing. It’s not a conscious decision to ‘write like him’ but I do try to take the best of what I’ve read and infuse my writing with the themes that excite me. Thanks to Donaldson, Hobb and Pratchett (and many others) I have a rich world of fantasy literature to draw upon for inspiration … but the Tale of the Lifesong is my own.

“An epic tale of justice, forgiveness, beauty and temptation.”

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It joins The Riddler’s Gift (the first novel in the Tale of the Lifesong fantasy series) which has doubled its ebook sales since the release of the Kindle in the UK. Small sales figures when compared to the printed version, but this is the new wave. From a fantasy author’s perspective, ebooks are a shining light in a treacherous forest of dead trees, logistics monsters and bookstore dungeon masters.

Science fiction and fantasy are terrible genres to print: they are traditionally longer books and so they require bigger print runs to bring the unit costs down, they cost more to move around, they take up more shelf space, yet they sell for the standard fiction price. So the market pressure is to produce shorter fantasy; exactly what fantasy readers don’t want.I love epic fantasy and I want my fantasy novels to be big. I intend to continue writing that way.

A story is a world: if it’s worth telling, it’s worth telling in full, so you can get totally lost in its ideas. Ebooks enable fantasy authors to write to any length, and by cutting out so much of the publishing cost, they can be priced cheaper than printed books. With Amazon’s 70% royalty option, more of the money can get back to the authors, which means they can begin to make a living out of writing great fiction … and fantasy will flourish.

For that to happen, more people need to buy ereaders, many more. Amazon needs to reduce the cost of the Kindle even further to open the floodgates of demand. Publishers must drop the price of their ebook versions to stimulate buying and to prevent piracy. Yes there are development costs, but the potential market at a lower price point is massive.

Will Kindle (Amazon) beat the iPad (Apple)? Quick answer: yes, in the fiction market, because many many people already buy books on Amazon, and Apple has to build its own market against a brand that is established as being the cheapest and most convenient. Overall, I think the market will be divided: the iPad is great for textbooks, comics, newspapers, graphics, and exciting apps like virtual-reality overlays, mapping, astronomy, whatever. It’s got the cool factor. But the idea of a basic book, something you carry around everywhere for a quick read remains a special treat. The Kindle is lightweight, easy to read and has a one month battery life. It’s simple.

It’s the future of the fantasy novel.

Writing fantasy? It would be more fun to simply read the latest sparkling fantasy novel from Trudi Canavan, Patrick Rothfuss or Joe Abercrombie. But instead, I wrestle with words, because I believe I am crafting something different, something inspiring; something that must be written.

When it is done, I can’t judge if my book is good, because I wrote it: I stand inside the sculpture; I am the music. So I rely on my readers to evaluate the work and spread the Lifesong by word of mouth.

I sent a review copy of Second Sight to SFbook a while ago and I was really looking forward to Ant’s review, because I knew from his excellent review of The Riddler’s Gift that he could appreciate the deeper visions of the Lifesong. Even so, I was blown away by his five star rave review:

“Greg Hamerton is truly one of those rare breed of storytellers, where you forget the words written on a page and simply find yourself within the story and the characters around you – your friends and enemies.”
“… this is high fantasy at its very best. Quite simply breath-taking …”

He analyses the twisted paths that Ametheus takes, the darker nature of the story and the parallels with Tolkien within fantasy fiction.

Read the full review here >

“There are moments in this novel that are sheer magic … ”
“A very unique and individual style, I am at times reminded of Robert Jordan’s work alongside JRR Tolkien’s but only really in passing, The Riddler’s Gift is very much on its own …”

Read the full review here

Read the full interview on their website:
Enter South African fantasy author’s world of music and magic.

Although my books and specials are still available to US customers on greghamerton.com, the cost of international airmail makes some of the options expensive. So I’m delighted to announce that you can now buy the Tale of the Lifesong series from Amazon and save on the postage costs! See the bottom of the special deals page for details and links.

The Riddler’s Gift has been released in two parts, to make it more affordable for new readers who haven’t yet heard the Lifesong. Second Sight is in one volume, because if you have read The Riddler’s Gift, you’ll be wanting the whole of the sequel! It was also impossible to split Second Sight in the middle; the story is complex and spans more than 600 pages. The Riddler’s Gift was originally written in two parts, and so divides neatly in the middle of the story.

Bring an image from Eyri … a sprite, a mote, the last photo your friend took on his phone when he tried to raise a morgloth. Come surprise us with the image post, scratch a secret you stole from the Shadowcasters on the wall or simply hang out and enjoy the essence.

Dress code: Oldenworld style … so dress up your avatar (that’s your profile photo, dummy) Come fan the flames or just cause some Chaos.

You’ll be instantly famous! Your name will be sung in worship songs for years to come. You may even end up written into the future books as something memorable, like a mote … there’s three of ‘em, all huddled together.

Then the afterparty starts at 6pm over at The Crowbar (it will appear, as if by magic, on the homepage of greghamerton.com) I’ll be having a live chat there for as long as the party goes on for! Come terrify the guests.

Liviu wrote: “Second Sight” is the second Tale of the Lifesong following the author’s debut “The Riddler’s Gift”. While quite a traditional fantasy tale – the destined girl, the magical artifact, the mentor of the title, the nasty and tricky villains, the pseudo-medieval setting – “The Riddler’s Gift” enchanted me from the first pages with its beautiful and lyrical style and I followed the adventures of Tabitha Serannon and the assorted cast of characters to the superb and complete ending of the novel’s main thread.

Very high magic and big-words stuff, but despite my general avoidance of such, the beautiful writing and the great characters, especially Tabitha and The Riddler, compelled me to read and greatly enjoy this tale too.

Continue the review here >

A few advance reading copies of the new fantasy novel Second Sight went out last week. The first review has just come in from Samantha Shove:

“This book continues the promise of the epic fantasy laid down by Riddler’s Gift and follows the story with all the dry wit, humour, tenderness, magic, mystery and mayhem (actually there’s a hell of a lot more mayhem in this one, unsurprisingly considering where they’re travelling through) found in the first tale. Once again Hamerton’s writing pulls you deep into the story so you feel everything as they experience it, every victory and defeat, every moment of honesty and kindness, treachery and deceit, love and hate and most of all every moment of battle between Order and Chaos and of course the power of the Lifesong. Hamerton has definitely created a world and story to rival Tolkien’s LOTR (although this will always be the original and the best of the fantasy world) in all aspects of story-telling, character creation, other world creation and sheer epic-ness (not a real word, I know, nothing else would do). The only question left is…when oh when is the third instalment, so subtly alluded to by Twardy, going to be out?” > Read the full review on Goodreads