Howard Andrew Jones

Howard Jones’s debut historical fantasy novel, The Desert of Souls (2011), was widely acclaimed by influential publications like Library Journal, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly, made Kirkus’ New and Notable list for 2011, and was on both Locus’s Recommended Reading List and the Barnes and Noble Best Fantasy Releases list of 2011. Its sequel, The Bones of the Old Ones, made the Barnes and Noble Best Fantasy Release of 2013 and received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. He is the author of four Pathfinder novels, an e-collection of short stories featuring the heroes from his historical fantasy novels, The Waters of Eternity, and the new novel from St. Martin’s, the second in a new fantasy series, Upon the Flight of the Queen, the followup to For the Killing of Kings, which received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

From Jones's Q&A with Elise Dumpleton at The Nerd Daily:

Upon the Flight of the Queen, the sequel to For the Killing of Kings, publishes on November 19th. If you could only describe your book in five words, what would they be?

Five words, eh? Stand and make a difference. I don’t think that would work as an elevator pitch, but it certainly sums up the feelings of the protagonists.

Upon the flight of the Queen and its predecessor, For the Killing of Kings, take the perspective of a woman soldier and a veteran officer as they stumble into a conspiracy that leads all the way to the throne. Truths have been twisted, facts invented, and the less powerful silenced and ignored. When Elenai and Kyrkenall ask the wrong questions, they’re framed for murder, declared traitors, and are forced to flee for their lives, their own friends in deadly pursuit. In both this book and the last, they have to stand up and make a difference.

By the start of book two the characters know their queen is corrupt, and they’re having to struggle to overturn her machinations while dealing with an invasion by their old enemies with almost no support. They have to go begging to their former allies, the winged lizards known as the ko’aye, because the invading Naor have control of immense dragons. Only the ko’aye can help them fight the beasts in the air.

Unfortunately, rather than helping the ko’aye defend their own lands as promised, the queen...[read on]

Visit Howard Andrew Jones's website.

View the animated book trailer for Upon the Flight of the Queen.

The Page 69 Test: The Bones of the Old Ones.

My Book, The Movie: The Bones of the Old Ones.

Writers Read: Howard Andrew Jones.

The Page 69 Test: Upon the Flight of the Queen.

--Marshal Zeringue