iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

You can donate to the RNLI here. Out of a desire to support people risking their own lives to save orhers from a horrible death. And as an intensely enjoyable performative f-you to a load of poisonous racist cowards. rnli.org/support-us/g...

rnli.org

Donate to the RNLI and help save lives at sea

Your donations really make a difference. We depend on your generosity to educate people to stay safe and prevent tragedies on and offshore. Donate here.

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

So happy to announce I'll be a guest at #stranimondi in Milan in October!

Anna Smith Spark è l’autrice della serie grimdark epica Empires of Dust, in pubblicazione in Italia per Lettere Elettriche. Il suo lavoro è stato definito «un capolavoro» e «ispiratore di stupore».

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Really actually rained for a good long time. Everything cool and wet. The cats are in a state of complete collapse about the evil magic water from the sky.

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

IT HAS RAINED!!! For about five minutes at most, granted. But it rained and I the ground was wet and I had to rush the washing in! So this also jut seemed ... appropriate. From Marian Gyste's The Silver Tree, Daljian’s translation. #books #booksky #booktok #fantasybooks #rain📚🌧️

Lord Tanis lives in a palace soaked with water, whose gardens smell always of damp and growth. But we men must live in the dry places. Until it rains, and we think we see, for a moment, what it must mean to be God.

Or so Maran Gyste had once written, anyway. But he wasn’t half as good a poet as everyone said.

The Court of Broken Knives by Anna Smith Spark

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

This is so cool! A copy of the superb GRAVE'S DAUGHTERS by Seth Lindberg - and a matching t-shirt with my blurb on the back print!

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

A SWORD OF GOLD AND RUIN. Out now in beautiful sprayed-edge hardback from @flametree.bsky.social #booksky #booktok #fantasybooks #books 📙📚📖🔥

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

@hannafordjenny.bsky.social is a hugely talented fantasy author who wrote the book (The Skin) about furious ab-human women. Listen to her wise words.

In the shadow of the eclipse and the heat of a thousand Hells, I felt it was appropriate to sit and enjoy In the Shadow of Their Dying! What glorious dark madness!!

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Being able to help and support other writers is one of the best things about being a published writer.

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

In the desperate hope that I might one day get bombarded with AI generated slop, obviously. Why else does anyone write a novel?

Image is a spam email saying: Hi Anna,

I recently came across The Court of Broken Knives and it caught my attention. I’d love to connect with the person behind the story, so I wanted to ask did you write this book?

Bellamy Rhodes
Content Director
Novirra Literary Book Club

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

One of my favourite passages from The Tower of Living and Dying. It just seemed … appropriate. One day .... one glorious, wondrous, impossible to imagine day ... I might be able to face rereading the descriptions of rain. #booksky #booktok #summer2026 #heatwave #PrayingForRain

Text reads: Curse this city in her burning. Her body and her soul are silver mirrors, heated with solipsistic lust. Like a dog she pants and scratches, the sweat of her lovers coalescing on her azure tiles. In her dust is her voice harsh as trumpets. Her dust chokes me as it fondles my mouth. Hot dry air of the furnace, drawing out all of my waters, salt fingers sucking me dry. In her desiccation her stones drip perfume. In her desiccation I am entombed in ecstasies of rain. Her rough stones enfold me, the arid depths of her passion, her kisses an abrasion dry as desert sand. Oh city of shit and sunlight! Oh city of dawn and the setting sun! In your embrace I dream of water. In your embrace I am withered to broken straw. Curse you, and yet I will lie forever in your burning, my body wracked with the heat of your love.

Serenet Vikale, The Book of Sand.

The Tower of Living and Dying by Anna Smith Spark.

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Squee in Italian and Spanish, and an English language squee thrown in too! Current mood:

Image shows a gorgeous person with a sword and a huge pet dragon.

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Both these scenes are based on the salt marshes around Dunwich Heath, an area I've visited since childhood. Now it's burned to ashes: it looks as if Amrath or Ikandera Thygethen have wrought a great destruction there. @nationaltrust.org.uk are fundraising to restore this precious habitat. #booksky

In the cool sunshine of an autumn afternoon, they turned the
horse away from the surf and rode inland, following a little
muddy creek trickling its way through thick reed beds. Wild duck
started up as they passed, and once a great white and black
goose, honking mournfully. ‘Snowgoose,’ Marith said with satisfaction.
‘Means a hard winter.’ The sedge grew up almost as tall
as a man, pressing in close around them with a hiss like whispers.
They rode on a small raised track, thick old planks banked up
over the creek. Another old road. Old as the keep. Old as the
lich road. Older than dragon blood and black-red hair. Still and
rotting, the land seemed in the frost. Heavy with bleak grey life.
Another duck burst up, startled by their approach, wing beats
vast in the still air. Then silence again save the whispering of the
reeds.

The Court of Broken Knives

The track turned to the south, to the east, leading them to the very edge of the marsh. Calian and Sal and Dellet looked with interest, they had never seen salt marsh before up close. Flat dark reeds stretching away, they were low now so that the world was lost behind the high reeds, the sky above was immense and seemed very low over them, everything seemed very low to the ground here, almost beneath the level of the earth with the sky pressed down heavy as a weight. But the sky seemed to go on forever above them also.

A Sword of Gold and Ruin

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

As I say on the cover, this is a very special book.

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

The marshes near Dunwich Heath were the inspiration for key scenes in my novels - Marith and Thalia ride through them in The Court of Broken Knives, Kanda walks through them in A Sword of Gold and Ruin. Now Dunwich Heath is dead ash. Please think about donating to help restore the devastation.

nationaltrust.org.uk

Devastating fire sweeps Dunwich Heath

Support the Dunwich Heath Fire Appeal. Your donation will help recover damaged habitats, protect vulnerable wildlife, and aid long-term recovery efforts.

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Wizard's Tower Press @wtpress.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Anna Smith Spark's magnificent Bronze Age fantasy, A Woman of the Sword, is part of this year's Best of British Storybundle. Being a legendary warrior is hard. Being a legendary warrior with kids in tow... storybundle.com/bestof

The cover of A Woman of the Sword by Anna Smith Spark. The image shows a woman with a sword on her back leading a child towards distant mountains.

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Buxton: day 2 (forget to post this yesterday, sorry). A Hattifatterner gathering in Poole's Cavern, Buxton.

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Buxton: day 1. The ruins of Errwood Hall in the Goyt Valley.

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Tom Lloyd @tomlloydwrites.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Don't miss out on the Storybundle Best of British SFF bundle - 15 e-books for just $30 / £20. Get it here: storybundle.com/bestof?utm_s... It includes my own DEVIL INSIDE, plus works from the Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social Emperor of Spiders @aptshadow.bsky.social and many more!

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

It's coming up to payday! Another reminder that you can get 15 e-books for $30 / £20 in the Storybundle Best of British SFF bundle. Including my 'tragic masterpiece' A Woman of the Sword and my lyrical comedy brat teenager sword and sorcery short in the Fight Like a Girl 2 anthology. #booksky

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

I have just seen some beautiful beautiful things that some of you will one day soon see....

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

It hasn't rained here for so long, the cats came tearing in this morning like, what is this witchcraft? Water? Falling from the sky?

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Antonio Torrubia 🔥📖 @toliol.eurosky.social · 25/07/2026

El jueves de la semana pasada estuve en el #FestivalCelsius232 de Avilés presentando a @annasmithspark.bsky.social y a @joshmalerman.bsky.social 🖤🎙️ Si os gusta el grimdark leed #EmpireOfDust (edita @ozeditorial.com) y, si os gusta el terror, probad con las novelas de Josh de @nocturnaed.bsky.social

La corte de los cuchillos rotos 🔪 y La torre de los vivos y los muertos ☠️ de Anna van in crescendo. Son poéticas y muy sangrientas. Leed a The Queen of Grimdark 👑

Llenazo en la charla y una lástima que no se graben. Anna emocionó y arrancó aplausos del público tras casa respuesta…

Con Josh Malerman no sabía a qué atenerme. Una estrella del rock, una de sus canciones es la canción de una serie TOP, 14 CD, 14 libros escritos y, los dos que han llegado a España adaptados a película con gran éxito. Llegué con media hora de antelación y me lo encontré algo nervioso, empezamos a hablar, hicimos unas cuantas bromas de false friends del inglés al castellano y al subirnos a presentar ante más de 200 personas nos lo pasamos pipa. Estoy deseando que pase por Barcelona de visita e irnos a echar unas cervezas.

Y como siempre, admiro el trabajazo de los buenos intérpretes. Lo de Diego García Cruz es MAGIA ARCANA.

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

You can get 15 e-books for $30 / c. £23 in the @storybundle.bsky.social Best of British SFF! Including my grimdark masterpiece A Woman of the Sword from @lunapress.bsky.social and my lyrical comedy sword and sorcery short from @wtpress.bsky.social #books #booksky #booktok #sff 📚🔥 Link below.

The Green Man's Heir by Juliet E. McKenna
Fight Like a Girl: Vol. 2 by Roz Clarke and Joanne Hall
Devil Inside by Tom Lloyd
The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar
The Anechoic Chamber by Will Wiles
The Hungry Gods by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Age of Ra by James Lovegrove
The Great West Wood by Philip Palmer
The Hamlet by Joanna Corrance
Make-Believe and Artifice by Rose Biggin
The Last Ghost and Other Stories by Marie O’Regan
A Woman of the Sword by Anna Smith Spark
The Light Ages by Ian R. MacLeod
The Broken Land by Ian McDonaldh Spad

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Miguel Peck @miguelpeck.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Pumped to finally have this in hand. Ian Whates and NewCon Press always assemble an awesome cohort for their anthology work, but this one may be off the charts. @aptshadow.bsky.social @annasmithspark.bsky.social @marklawrenceauthor.bsky.social @rjbarker.bsky.social @johngwynneauthor.bsky.social

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Lavie Tidhar @lavietidhar.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

The 2026 Best of British SF/F bundle is now available! storybundle.com/bestof w/ @ianmcdonald.bsky.social @julietemckenna.bsky.social @annasmithspark.bsky.social @aptshadow.bsky.social & more! Just $30 for 15 books! Plus supporting @locusmag.bsky.social! Reposts appreciated!

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

This is the worst thing I have ever seen on telly, and I sincerely hope is the worst thing I am ever forced to see. #worldcupfinal

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Your hourly reminder that you can get all these e-books for $30 in the @storybundle.bsky.social Best of British SFF bundle. Limited time only! #books #booksky #booktok #fantasybooks #sff storybundle.com/bestof

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

The view from my seat at my #celsiusfestival session. People were fighting to get in. I received a round of applause after every answer, moved people to tears, and was cheered and bowed to as the Queen of Grimdark at the end. Then I signed books for over two hours straight. Best. Day. Of. My. Life.

Image shows a marquee cramned with people.

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Spent last night trying to explain how English football works to some Americans. Me, at the kick-off: we'll lose. In a really horrible stupid undignified way. Right at the end. Them, after our goal: but ... you're winning. Me: just watch and wait.

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

I'm in Avilés for #festivalcelsius and having a wonderful time. A beautiful city, 'where the Spanish go in holiday to eat' because the food is so good and the portions so generous.

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

And finally and fittingly before I jet off to the comparative cool of Spain to celebrate LOS TORRE DE LOS VIVOS Y DE LOS MUERTOS at the #Celsius232 festival, snow and celebration from my #grimdark masterwork THE TOWER OF LIVING AND DYING. #fantasy #fantasybooks #epicfantasy #booksky

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

As the heat continues relentlessly, here's another reminder of cold winds, snow, and not feeling like you're sleeping in an oven, this time from my golden lyrical folkhorror fantasy masterpiece A SWORD OF BRONZE AND ASHES, from @flametree.bsky.social #books #booksky #booktok #fantasy #folkhorror

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Tom Lloyd @tomlloydwrites.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

What a great StoryBundle this is - and what great value! Check out the link below: storybundle.com/bestof?utm_s... featuring @danacea.bsky.social @willwiles.bsky.social @aptshadow.bsky.social @annasmithspark.bsky.social @julietemckenna.bsky.social & of course curator @lavietidhar.bsky.social

artwork for fifteen Best of British novels and collections

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

On this hot, weary day, here's a cold breath of winter air from A WOMAN OF THE SWORD, currently available as part of the @storybundle.bsky.social Best of British Science Fiction and Fantasy books selection for 2026. $30 for 15 ebooks!

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Hot and fed up? Sit down, stretch out and read this carefully curated Best of British SFF ebook bundle from @storybundle.bsky.social ! My 'tragic masterpiece' A Woman of the Sword even features some scenes set in winter snowfall! #books #booksky #booktok #fantasybooks

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Luna Press Publishing @lunapress.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Discover the new @storybundle.bsky.social ! Featuring our fabulous authors: @annasmithspark.bsky.social and @marieoregan.bsky.social. Head over to storybundle.com/bestof and order your Best of British SFF bundle now! Available until August 6th!

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Oz Editorial @ozeditorial.com · 10/07/2026

La reina del grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social, autora de "La corte de los cuchillos rotos" y "La torre de los vivos y de los muertos", es una de las invitadas al #FestivalCelsius232 en Avilés (Asturias) 📚 ENCUENTRO CON ANNA SMITH SPARK ⏲️ Jueves 16 de julio - 18:00h 📌 Carpa de Actividades

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Lavie Tidhar @lavietidhar.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

I'm delighted to launch the 2026 Best of British bundle today! storybundle.com/bestof w/ @ianmcdonald.bsky.social @julietemckenna.bsky.social @annasmithspark.bsky.social @aptshadow.bsky.social & more! Just $30 for 15 books! Plus supporting @locusmag.bsky.social! Reposts appreciated!

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

My tragic masterpiece A WOMAN OF THE SWORD from @lunapress.bsky.social is available as a cheap ebook in the @storybundle.bsky.social Best of British 2026! And my lyrical comic sword and sorcery short 'Lady Cona' is in there too in FIGHT LIKE A GIRL 2 from @wizardstower.bsky.social #booksky #books

A Woman of the Sword by Anna Smith Spark. 'This is Anna Smith Spark at her heart-wrenching, mythic-feeling, storytelling best, and completely unmissable', Grimdark Magazine. Cover shows a woman with sword and armour and two young children, watching a dragon destroy an army.

Fight Like a Girl edited by Roz Clarke and Joanne Hall. Cover shows a kick-ass teenage girl with a selection of weapons and magical items to chose from.

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Nicobobinus and Caecilius the Grimdark Cat snoozing.

Photo shows a snow Bengal cat asleep on a bed with a golden Bengal cat asleep using him as a pillow.

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Another amazing piece of fan art by Stas Borodin, inspired by the mother and daughters in A Sword of Bronze and Ashes and A Sword of Gold and Ruin .

Image shows a mother and a daughter back to back fighting a vast army with a dragon in the background.

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

A beautiful morning walk in the cool (finally!!!) of the beech trees in Birchanger Wood this morning. Then home to write the final pages of the final Making of This World Ruined book.

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Page One @ukpageone.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

This week it's our live recording from Cymera Festival, where we had the chance to speak with the brilliant @annasmithspark.bsky.social about grimdark fantasy, mythology, comics and more! Watch: youtu.be/Eig9BWPjC6M Listen: linktr.ee/ukpageone

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Oz Editorial @ozeditorial.com · 17/06/2026

El cierre de la trilogía de @annasmithspark.bsky.social (menos de un año después de su inicio) ⚔️ Empezamos con La Cultura, de Iain M. Banks, un clásico imprescindible de la CF 🚀 En 2027 traeremos a @mytholder.bsky.social y Miles Lyon con 2 libros fantásticos 🔥 ¿Qué os han parecido las novedades?

La casa del sacrificio (Empires of Dusk #3), Anna Smith Spark

Marith, el Rey de la Muerte, ha conquistado casi todo el continente. Debería envainar la espada... pero las voces que lo empujan al caos vuelven a susurrar. El cierre de una trilogía apasionante de un loco con poder. ¡MUERTE, MUERTE, MUERTE!

* Su trilogía arrancó con un debut finalista del Premio Gemmell.

Pensad en Flebas, de Iain M. Banks

Arranca La Cultura, una de las grandes utopías de la ciencia ficción: una galaxia post-escasez gobernada por lAs benévolas. Su protagonista, sin embargo, lucha contra ella, a pesar de que otros lo consideren el paraíso.

* «Banks es un fenómeno» - William Gibson

The Dungeon Book, de Gareth Hanrahan

Un dragón roba a una niña de su cuna y la deja en lo más hondo de una mazmorra. Pero los monstruos, en vez de devorarla, deciden criarla. Una vuelta de tuerca a El libro de la selva, narrada por Cornelius, una calavera con (mucho) morro.

The Price of Fear (The Wretched Trilogy #1), de Miles Lyon

Azreal aguarda su ejecución por matar al principe heredero de Inath. La investigadora criminal que debe arrancarle la confesión se juega también la vida: si él calla, ambos mueren al alba.

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Yes, I write like a deranged toddler.

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Book mail! This gorgeous, blook-soaked tome arrived this morning. THE SHATTERED LINE by Jasper Walker. Grimdark fantasy and horror. I read and thoroughly enjoyed an ARC copy, it's lovely have a real copy to put on my treasured 'books by friends' shelf.

The book The Shattered Line by Jasper Walker.

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

All set for Great Dunmow Bookfest! We're upstairs at De La Terre wine bar - come and say hello over a drink!

Image shows the book The Court of Broken Knives, The Tower of Living and Dying, The House of Sacrifice, A Woman of the Sword, In The Shadow of Their Dying, A Sword of Bronze and Ashes, and A Sword of Gold and Ruin by Anna Smith Spark. Anna also wrote Anderson Versus Death but has run out of copies.

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

I'm so excited to announce that I'm going to have a new duology published by @thebrokenbinding.bsky.social . The Golden Road to Thearanor opens with The Queen of the Sword and the Sun, a high fantasy battle-poetry fever-dream which will be published in September 2027.

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Queen of Grimdark @annasmithspark.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

I'm so excited to be able to reveal this ... my new duology The Golden Road to Thearanor will be published by @thebrokenbinding.bsky.social , with the first book, The Queen of the Sword and the Sun, a "high fantasy battle-poetry fever-dream", out in September 2027. #booksky #fantasy #fantasybooks

The Broken Binding Publishing has acquired Anna Smith Spark’s new duology, The Golden Road to Thearanor. Marcus Gipps, publishing director at the Broken Binding Publishing, acquired World English with audio rights in a two-book deal from Oliver Cheetham at Mic Cheetham Agency.

The first book, The Queen of the Sword and the Sun, a "high fantasy battle-poetry fever-dream", will be published in September 2027.

Spark is the author of the Empires of Dust grimdark epic fantasy series The Court of Broken Knives, The Tower of Living and Dying and The House of Sacrifice; A Woman of the Sword; and the folk horror high fantasy The Remaking of This World Ruined series A Sword of Bronze and Ashes and A Sword of Gold and Ruin.

She said: "To be published by the Broken Binding Publishing feels like a glorious epic fantasy dream. Their love of beauty and wonder shines from everything they do; I am so excited to be a part of the family creating brave new worlds for their readers to delight in (or perhaps tremble at)."

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