Former news editor at The Washington Post, Sabaa Tahir, makes a strong young adult fantasy debut in An Ember in the Ashes, with screen rights purchased by Paramount. In a brutal world resembling ancient Rome, 17-year-old Laia's brother is arrested for treason. To save him, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the Military Academy, where Elias, an accomplished, but increasingly disaffected, young soldier has been thrust into a contest to decide the next emperor. With their destinies intertwined, although from different social backgrounds, they emerge as Romeo and Juliet archetypes who "search for freedom and love even when society wants to crush them".

A CROWN FOR COLD SILVER
By Alex Marshall. Orbit. $29.99.

'It was all going so nicely, right up until the massacre" is the dramatic opening line of A Crown for Cold Silver, the first book in Alex Marshall's fantasy trilogy. Marshall is the pseudonym of a well-known author, who is yet to be unmasked. This publishing experience explains the narrative zest, dark humour and strong characterisation that puts life into many standard fantasy tropes. 50-year-old Crimson Queen Zosia had retired gracefully into quiet seclusion, When her village is destroyed and her husband murdered, she seeks revenge, reuniting with her her world-weary but battle hardened, former lieutenants, the Five Villains, despite their ageing bodies and internal conflicts,

THE SKULL THRONE
By Peter V. Brett. Harper Voyager. $29.99.

Peter V. Brett has established a strong fan following and significant global sales with his Diamond Cycle heroic fantasy series in which  humanity battles the Demons. The Skull Throne, the fourth in the series after The Warded Man, The Desert Spear, and The Daylight War, is another blockbuster at 750 pages. The Daylight War ended on a literal cliffhanger for Arlen and Jardir, possible Deliverers of the World.  Naturally, they survive to work out their differences, although they are largely offstage for much of the book, leaving something of a character vacuum. The final book of the quintet leaves much to resolve.