Waiting on Wednesday – Map’s Edge by David Hair

Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy. I run this segment in conjunction with the Can’t-Wait Wednesday meme that is currently running at Wishful Endings. Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them. In this week’s Waiting on Wednesday, I check out a rather intriguing sounding fantasy release that is set to come out later this year, Map’s Edge by David Hair.

Map's Edge Cover

David Hair is a New Zealand-born fantasy author who has been pumping out captivating novels since his 2009 debut, The Bone Tiki. Hair has so far produced four awesome-sounding series, including the Aotearoa series, The Return of Ravana series, The Moontide Quartet and The Sunsurge Quartet. I have had not had the pleasure of reading any of these books yet, although I have heard some good things about them, and a couple have caught my eye in recent years. In particular, I really like the sound of The Sunsurge Quartet, and I will have to try and check it out at some point.

In the meantime, Hair has not slowed down in the slightest, and even after finishing The Sunsurge Quartet earlier this year with Mother of Daemons, he already has another book coming out in a few months’ time. This book is Map’s Edge, which is currently set for release on 13 October 2020. Map’s Edge is the first book in Hair’s new The Tethered Citadel series, which I believe is not connected to any of his previous series or books, and which should hopefully be a good starting point for me to check out this author.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Dashryn Cowl has run out of places to hide. The erstwhile sorcerer of the Imperial College fled the Bolgravian Empire when his high-flying family fell from grace, but the tyrannical empire is still hunting for him.

So when he gets his hands on a map showing a place outside the known lands rich in istariol, the mineral that fuels sorcery, he sees a way back to power. There’s only one problem: it means masquerading as an Imperial Cartomancer (an instant death sentence) and finding some dupes to help him mine the istariol in secret, no questions asked.

But somehow, amid the dangers of the road (floods and avalanches, beasts, barbarians and monsters), a strange thing begins to happen: Dashryn starts to care about his ragtag followers and their strange odyssey into the ruins of an ancient forgotten civilisation.

But his past won’t let him be: the implacable Imperial Bloodhound Toran Zorne has caught his scent, and Zorne has never yet failed to bring his quarry to ground.

At the edge of the map, there’s no going forward and no going back . . .

Now that is a really impressive and exciting plot synopsis. Map’s Edge sounds like it is going to be an awesome and enjoyable book, and I am curious to see how this intriguing story pans out. The whole idea of a rogue wizard conning a whole lot of people in order to take them on an epic quest for power and riches has a lot of potential, and I am anticipating an extremely entertaining and action packed novel, with a lot of fun moments.

Due to the combination of its intriguing plot and the fact that it is a good starting point to check out an author that I am unfamiliar with, I am looking forward to reading this book. Map’s Edge has a cool premise behind it, and I think that it could turn out to be an extremely entertaining novel that I am going to have an amazing time reading, and I cannot wait to see where Hair’s new series goes.