Why am I passionate about this?

An avid reader, and a spec-fiction/fantasy reviewer for CM Canada online, I’ve wanted to tell stories for as long as I can remember. I write “pantser-style” and let the characters run loose, looking at their motivation to steer the tale, often starting with little more than an idea and, if lucky, a character or two. My love of history led me to writing mediaeval or historical fantasy, as my first group of published novels attest, but to avoid stagnation added science fiction and a fantasy detective series of novellas. To date have fourteen novels and three anthologies of my novellas published and have appeared on panels at several cons.


I wrote

The Dark Lady

By RJ Hore,

Book cover of The Dark Lady

What is my book about?

Young Princess Nefasti wakes one morning to discover her father, the king, poisoned and her mother near death. She is…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of By Force Alone

RJ Hore Why did I love this book?

A brutal re-telling of the King Arthur legend, this novel reimagines the familiar story, retaining the feeling of weird magic, while pulling no punches about the characters. Arthur is a thug, Guinevere is no better, Merlin is a frustrated sprite beset by his female counterparts, and Britain is best described as a “clogged sewer that Rome abandoned just as soon as it could.”

The first of a five-book planned series to tell the story of the Matter of Britain, this is a ruthless and dark take that grabbed me from the beginning. I’ve always loved history, even a warped version like this. It left me eager for more and set me tracking down what else this author had written. I was not disappointed.

By Lavie Tidhar,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked By Force Alone as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

There is a legend...

Britannia, AD 535

The Romans have gone. While their libraries smoulder, roads decay and cities crumble, men with swords pick over civilisation's carcass, slaughtering and being slaughtered in turn.

This is the story of just such a man. Like the others, he had a sword. He slew until slain. Unlike the others, we remember him. We remember King Arthur.

This is the story of a land neither green nor pleasant. An eldritch isle of deep forest and dark fell haunted by swaithes, boggarts and tod-lowries, Robin-Goodfellows and Jenny Greenteeths, and predators of rarer appetite yet.

This…


Book cover of A Game of Thrones

RJ Hore Why did I love this book?

I discovered this volume quite by accident years ago while searching in a used bookstore for something to read on a sailing trip. I ended up devouring it twice while at anchor in a remote bay during bad weather. The opening salvo in a series about a dark and brutal world, overflowing with interesting players and complicated plots.

The characters cover the full spectrum of the good, the bad, and the very ugly. You may have watched the TV series, but have you read the books they were based on? I highly recommend them. This is a good place to start.

By George R. R. Martin,

Why should I read it?

24 authors picked A Game of Thrones as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

HBO's hit series A GAME OF THRONES is based on George R R Martin's internationally bestselling series A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, the greatest fantasy epic of the modern age. A GAME OF THRONES is the first volume in the series.

'Completely immersive' Guardian

'When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground'

Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun.

From the fertile south, where heat breeds conspiracy, to the vast and savage eastern lands, all the way to the frozen…


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Book cover of Call Me Stan: A Tragedy in Three Millennia

Call Me Stan By K.R. Wilson,

When King Priam's pregnant daughter was fleeing the sack of Troy, Stan was there. When Jesus of Nazareth was beaten and crucified, Stan was there - one crossover. He’s been a Hittite warrior, a Silk Road mercenary, a reluctant rebel in the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381, and an information peddler…

Book cover of Thunder Road

RJ Hore Why did I love this book?

The first volume of a series that eventually ran to three books. It opens with the main character, Ted, caught in an explosion out among the prairie oil rigs and badly shaken up when he faces a Norse fire god who announces he is about to burn the world. Ted wants his old life back, but now the creatures of Norse myology stalk among us.

If you think you might enjoy the characters from Norse mythology in a gritty modern mid-Canada setting, this one is for you. Described as a serious fantasy for grownups. I have to admit I ended up buying all three books as they became available.

By Chadwick Ginther,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Thunder Road as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In a flash, Ted Callan’s world exploded and amid the flames he saw the incomprehensible, the burning figure of the fire giant Surtur. Before long, Ted learns that the creatures of Norse folklore walk among us and his fate is forever tied to them.
Ted wants nothing more than to have his old life back. No more magic. No more smart-ass gods. To get it, Ted is willing to fight his way through any creature of legend. The problem is, if he succeeds, it might just be the end of the world.


Book cover of Half the World

RJ Hore Why did I love this book?

Ever read a book you kept putting aside because you wanted to extend the pleasure a bit longer? I didn’t want to set this down. Ready to submit my five picks when I came across this tale. Delicious! By the time I’d finished it replaced one of my choices. Treachery, deceit, blood, with vivid characters you might wish to meet, at a safe distance.

A fantasy world obviously based on the Norse and Byzantium; you are swept away on an adventure. Do you like vivid duel and battle scenes where you can feel every blow? How about devious work behind the scenes? Whom do you trust? Yes, there is even a tinge of romance, and the ladies get more than their equal share of top billing.

By Joe Abercrombie,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Half the World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Grabbed me and refused to let go' George R.R. Martin

Thorn Bathu was born to fight. But when she kills a boy in the training square she finds herself named a murderer.

Fate places her life in the hands of the deep-cunning Father Yarvi as he sets out to cross half the world in search of allies against the ruthless High King.

Beside her is Brand, a young warrior who hates to kill. A failure in her eyes and his own, the voyage is his last chance at redemption.

But warriors can be weapons, and weapons are made for one…


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Book cover of The Nightmarchers

The Nightmarchers By J. Lincoln Fenn,

In 1939, on a remote Pacific island, botanical researcher Irene Greer plunged off a waterfall to her death, leaving behind a legacy shrouded in secrets. Her great-niece Julia, a struggling journalist recovering from a divorce, seeks answers decades later.

Tasked with retrieving Dr. Greer’s discovery–a flower that could have world-changing…

Book cover of Black Leopard, Red Wolf

RJ Hore Why did I love this book?

Maddening, annoying, confusing, and I couldn’t stop reading this thing. A wild tale of a fantasy version of a medieval or earlier mythological Africa, and its strange kingdoms. A character known by such descriptive names as Tracker, Wolf, and Nose, tangles with shape-shifting leopards, vampires, witches, giants, wily buffaloes, and worse creatures, as he searches for a missing child.

A great read if you don’t mind oodles of violence and same-sex carryings-on. Hated and loved it at the same time, partially because the author gets away with things that come together and are phrased in ways my editors would never permit me. In his acknowledgements, the author admits, “My mother is allowed to read all but two pages of this book.”

By Marlon James,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Black Leopard, Red Wolf as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One of TIME’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time

Winner of the L.A. Times Ray Bradbury Prize 

Finalist for the 2019 National Book Award

The New York Times Bestseller

Named a Best Book of 2019 by The Wall Street Journal, TIME, NPR, GQ, Vogue, and The Washington Post

"A fantasy world as well-realized as anything Tolkien made." --Neil Gaiman

"Gripping, action-packed....The literary equivalent of a Marvel Comics universe." --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

The epic novel from the Man Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

In the stunning first novel in Marlon James's Dark…


Explore my book 😀

The Dark Lady

By RJ Hore,

Book cover of The Dark Lady

What is my book about?

Young Princess Nefasti wakes one morning to discover her father, the king, poisoned and her mother near death. She is about to become the sole heiress to the High Kingdom of Vadio. The deceased king’s three brothers soon begin to plot and quarrel over who will become Regent and control the kingdom until she becomes of age or dies. They squabble over their main solutions, marry her off under their control, or kill her.

If this were not enough of a problem, the greedy and much larger kingdoms surrounding them all desire to gobble Vadio up, and their ambassadors scurry through the castle, plotting and scheming.

Book cover of By Force Alone
Book cover of A Game of Thrones
Book cover of Thunder Road

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