Happy Monday! My holidays are starting early with early reviews of Spear starting to come in. Five so far: Grimdark (“Gorgeous!”), Salon Futura (“Magnificent. I am in awe”), Publishers Weekly (“A genuine pleasure”), Shelf Awareness (“Vibrant and dazzling”) and Tor.com (“Brilliant. Gripping…and all-around marvellous”). I also have a growing selection of delicious quotes from other authors, which you can read on Spear‘s very own page.

In the prepublication phase of Hild I noticed just how many comps I was getting in early reviews and author blurbs (Beowulf, Tolkien, Sutcliff, Renault, Mantel, Dunnett…) , so I started tracking them. And on publication ran a giveaway competition for those who came closest to the final numbers. I thought I might do something similar with Spear, this time focusing on high-test adjectives (“Dazzling!” “Gorgeous!” “Brilliant!”). I’m not sure what the prize will be yet, but it will be spiffy.

And thinking of holidays and Spear, tomorrow I’ll post a holiday pre-order offer for you.