FANTASY

THE COURT OF BROKEN KNIVES by Anna Smith Spark

(Voyager £12.99) THE moment that our hero, a drugaddicted, psychopathic, exiled prince, falls for a runaway high priestess of holiness and beauty, winning his one shot at redemption for his disgusting crimes . . . that’s when we know things are about to go really wrong.

We start in Sorlost, a desert Xanadu that sets new standards for ritualised horror and luxurious decline. When a ragged bunch of assassins — with our exiled prince in their midst — arrives to kill the emperor, we discover how bad good people can be, and how even the worst have their moments of grace.

This outstanding, unputdownable debut holds and horrifies like a blood-spattered tapestry. There’s rough humour, high drama and a love of storytelling that shines through every page. Plus it’s got dragons with bad breath. Brilliant.

THE WITCHWOOD CROWN by Tad Williams

(Hodder £18.99) FolloWing last year’s slim teaser, Tad Williams props open the portals of osten Ard with a treasure chest of delights, a book of epic geographic sweep and a cast of hundreds, including the return of old friends such as Simon Snow- lock, once potboy, now king. But King Simon is feeling his age, has succession issues and is facing trouble from the north as the norn Queen wakes from her 30-year sleep.

She is hell-bent on forging a new alliance against him, as well as upsetting Viyeki, her loyal servant and worrier-in-chief.

This is Williams’s great strength. While we thrill to the rise and fall of empires, it’s the small stories that enchant.

THE REGIONAL OFFICE IS UNDER ATTACK! by Manuel Gonzales

(Penguin £7.99) HoW Rose becomes a more rounded human after slicing an enemy in half, how Sarah evolves into a robot, how the forces of darkness that threaten our planet are dealt with . . . all is revealed in this insane and utterly gripping debut novel.

The Regional office is a supernatural trouble-shooting outfit, fronted by a do-anything, go-anywhere travel agency.

guided by mysterious oracles, it recruits young women with astounding potential and makes Buffies of them all.

And, like Buffy, characters are beset by doubts and weaknesses even while committing acts of extraordinary violence.

Superheroines Sarah and Rose are opponents and, rather sweetly, their expectations of assassin school are circumscribed almost entirely by their knowledge of lindsay lohan teen movies.