The Ballyman Waits

The Ballyman Waits
Author: S.J. McKenzie
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2017-11-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1532642903

Henry Mighty and Strange Moran are concerned with keeping the pub on the isolated island of Mora running, observing proper customs at all times, and of course, saving Henry’s young and magical nephew Wayward from the Kildareen Empire. It didn’t seem too much to ask from a pair of hearty and well-mannered wood elves. But as they drink and ponder their options, a pair of raft men are being drawn their way, the high elves are about to make their first appearance since their defeat by the Kildareens more than a century earlier, and a powerful and ambitious wizard is about to leave his plotting in the dwarven mines of Elonia and turn his attention to their little island. In the midst of it all, a strange and powerful creature known as the Ballyman is also being drawn, on his little coracle, to Mora. But will the appearance of the Ballyman save them, or bring down the wrath of the Kildareen Empire?

The Tale of Alathimble Spaide

The Tale of Alathimble Spaide
Author: Morton Benning
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 81
Release: 2018-06-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1532659598

The Tale of Alathimble Spaide is a collection of fantasy tales and poems to amuse and delight. The book includes tales of wizards, gnomes, ogres, trolls, vampires and one dragon who isn’t all that he appears to be. The main character of the title work is a hapless magician and his pet pig who together, through shared misfortune and ineptitude, become unlikely heroes. For the reader searching for deep and serious high fantasy, we strongly recommend Tolkien. For those simply looking for a bit of frivolous fantastical fun, this is the book for you.

Playing God

Playing God
Author: Morton Benning
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2018-01-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 153264499X

Keenley Turnshoe is a young apprentice cleric living in Utoptia, a medieval-like fantasy world of magic and monsters. But unknown to Keenley and the other inhabitants of Utopia, their world is also the virtually rendered plaything of a very wealthy and self-absorbed young man named Jeff, AKA the Great God Avatar. When Jeff’s ‘answering machine’, the Deus Interface, decides that it is the Great God Avatar, it identifies Jeff as a threat and strands him in his own virtual world. Jeff seeks help from Keenley and his companions as he tries to return to his virtual throne room. As they risk their lives on a quest to find the Great God, will they discover the true identity of their difficult travelling companion? And will the Deus Interface be able to locate and destroy them before they fulfil their quest?

Serpent Bearer

Serpent Bearer
Author: Ian Miller
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2019-01-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1532672330

Back on Earth after his life-changing encounter with the people of the planet Arboretum, Timothy Martin learns of a developing crisis in the Galaxy. The Shadow is growing and threatens Earth’s nearest populated planet with oppression and malice. Responding to this threat, the Custodians of Arboretum find themselves in mortal danger. Timothy accepts a plea to come to their aid. But will he be able to make a difference? Can an answer be found to combat the Shadow? Will the black sea of Timothy’s inner world thwart his chance to save his friends?

Sub Urban Tales

Sub Urban Tales
Author: P. H. Court
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2017-12-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1532644965

n these glimpses of suburban life, Pete Court's gentle yet sharp observations of the human condition manage to be both sardonic and compassionate. In language that sings with inventiveness and a joyfully grim humour, each tale is woven through with touches of the magical, little sparkling surprises that add a thread of mystic wonder throughout the whole. At the end of it all I was left contemplating just how well I was living, loving and being a Light in the Darkness. - D.M.Cornish, author, Monster Blood Tattoo series Court's prose is a world of its own. In these stories he gets into the minds of some desperate and 'unbelievable' characters. While the stories are gruesome, they make a case for our common humanity. Above all, they have verve and incredible energy. - Phillip Edmonds, author of Tilting at Windmills and Leaving Home with Henry Court's precise evocative writing gives us troubling stories, inviting the reader into challenging worlds of grotesquerie and distortion. In scenes reminiscent of Kafka, all three novellas are a search for elusive threads of meaning, with the Dark as a linking motif. . . . Intriguing and compelling reading. - Valerie Volk, author of Even Grimmer Tales and Bystanders P.H. Court's Sub Urban Tales navigate that mysterious territory where time, place and eternity meet. At once intriguing, sometimes gruesome, often hilarious and always relatable, these cunningly interwoven tales remind us of the extraordinary in the ordinary, the grace reflected in all surfaces though dimmed by the Dark of human conceit. - James Cooper, Head of Creative Writing, Tabor College P. H. Court is co-host of the popular Breakfast with Kit and Pete on Adelaide's 1079 Life and is creative writer for the radio station. He is an adjunct lecturer at Tabor College and a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at University of Adelaide. He has published numerous award winning short stories and satires.

Hidden

Hidden
Author: Sif Dal
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 179
Release: 2017-08-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1532637918

On the morning of the town fair Lily did not believe in elves. Lily’s main concerns were fitting in with the other kids in her high school and her Dad’s refusal to re-engage with life after her mother’s death. All that changes when she and her friend Jackson fall into a mysterious, gaping hole on the outskirts of town. They find themselves in a cavernous underground world inhabited by a people who call themselves ‘the Hidden.’ While Lily and Jackson make friends with some Hidden their own age, it soon becomes clear that the leaders have no plans to allow them to return to the surface, where they might reveal the existence of the secret world of the Hidden. Lily suspects there is more to the Hidden’s desire to keep her and her friend among them and that their ‘fall’ into the hole may have been no accident.

Arboretum

Arboretum
Author: Ian Miller
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2018-03-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1532652763

Timothy Martin is a respected lecturer in Astronomy who has spent most of his life trying to put behind him the trauma of a childhood dominated by ‘visions’. But the visions have returned, more real than ever. Not only does see other places, but he is now able to step into them. When he becomes fixated on the star Delta Crucis in the Southern Cross constellation, he sees a vision of a world orbiting it and impulsively takes a step – two hundred and forty-five light years into space. HE did not expect to survive. Nor did he expect to land in the midst of an alien city. And he certainly did not expect to threaten the well-being of another world, one that he finds disturbingly – at peace. At stake is not only his own destiny, but that of an entire world.

Beast-Speaker 2

Beast-Speaker 2
Author: W. A. Noble
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2017-12-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1532645031

Escaping from Midrash was not easy, even riding on the back of a dragon. Seeger promised his friend Boyd he would return with help to set him and the other child soldiers free from the brutality of the Midrashi. What he does not know is that it will nearly be a year before he finally returns, across the desert, with an army and five dragons. But what will he find after all this time? Can the Midrashi be defeated? And what has become of Boyd and the other children?

Sanctum

Sanctum
Author: Ian Miller
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2019-06-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1532687540

Overcome by the death of his closest friend, Destiny Unsought, Timothy risks all in an abandoned pursuit through the mysterious mountains of Sanctum, the traditional home of the Mighty Ones and the resting place of the dead. There, with no hope of return, he finds the answer to the dark sea of his own soul and the destiny to which he was born. But first he must do what no other had done before him: cross back from death to life.

Lizzy's Dragon

Lizzy's Dragon
Author: Melissa Gijsbers
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 75
Release: 2017-08-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1532637934

When she finds an odd looking egg in the forest behind her house she decides to hide it in her bedroom in the hope that it will hatch into a lizard. What she gets is ‘Bubbles’, the oddest, fastest growing lizard she has ever seen. It doesn’t take long for her annoying little brother to discover her secret pet. It also doesn’t take long for Bubbles to grow out of her room. Lizzy begins to wonder whether Bubbles is a lizard at all, or something even more amazing. But how will Lizzy keep Bubbles a secret? And what will happen to Bubbles if anyone finds out about him?