The Circle of Enemies post

Standard

Now that each book gets its own dedicated post, I’m going to put this one to be your one-stop shop for Circle of Enemies info.

For starters, the book trailer is here.

The first chapter is available free.

The book earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly. (That makes me three for three so far.)

Here’s the pretty, pretty cover:

Circle of Enemies

Trust me, it’s pretty. I just can’t get a decent scan Fixed. It’s a new design, and personally I really like it.

Here’s the plot description on the back cover.

Former car thief Ray Lilly is now the expendable grunt of a sorcerer responsible for destroying extradimensional predators summoned to our world by power-hungry magicians. Luckily, Ray has some magic of his own, and so far it’s kept him alive. But when a friend from his former gang calls him back to his old stomping grounds in Los Angeles, Ray may have to face a threat even he can’t handle. A mysterious spell is killing Ray’s former associates, and they blame him. Worse yet, the spell was cast by Wally King, the sorcerer who first dragged Ray into the brutal world of the Twenty Palace Society. Now Ray will have to choose between the ties of the past and the responsibilities of the present, as he and the Society face not only Wally King but a bizarre new predator.

What that doesn’t quite capture about the book is that this is the most personal and most emotionally-complicated book yet. It’s somewhat less violent than previous books, but the violence that’s there hurts more.

Now it’s time to do the blurbs:

“Ray Lilly is one of the most interesting characters I’ve read lately, and Harry Connolly’s vision is amazing.” — Charlaine Harris

“An edge-of-the-seat read! Ray Lilly is the new high-water mark of paranormal noir.” — Charles Stross

If you want to buy a paper copy:

| Amazon.com | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository (free int’l shipping!) | Books a Million | Indiebound | Kobo | Mysterious Galaxy | Powell’s Books |

20 thoughts on “The Circle of Enemies post”

  1. John F

    Cool! I’ll definitely be buying this on release day. Two questions:

    1. Somewhere online, I read that this is the last Twenty Palaces novel. Is that true (I hope not)?

    2. Is there any possibility of the books getting released in hardcover?

  2. John, it’s definitely not the last book. I have another one written, so even if Del Rey doesn’t want to publish any more, I’ll publish that one myself. However, it’s the last book I have on contract.

    Also, I should mention that, while the book forms a sort of set with the first two, it doesn’t end the story. Not by a long shot.

    As for your second question, there’s very little chance of that. However, SFBC is putting out an omnibus edition of all three books in hardback, so you might be able to pick up one of those.

  3. RKB

    I like how Charlaine Harris reads your work and thought it was good enough to blurb. That’s really saying something. :-)

  4. John F

    Harry – Thank you for allaying my fears! :-)

    Also, don’t count out hardcover editions. They did it for the first six books of the Dresden Files.

  6. Sam

    I just read Circle of Enemies. To be honest, I’m quite a fan of your books, and I’d like to encourage you more than the- what- dollar you get from me buying your latest book. Why don’t you make some 20 palaces t-shirts or something?

  7. Thanks, Sam.

    I don’t make T-shirts because I don’t have any skills in that area, and because my time is limited. Truthfully, there’s an opportunity cost to everything I do, and using my writing time to first, learn how to make a decent shirt design then second, go through all the iterations to make that happen and third, research online companies to choose one and set up an account then, finally, fourth to publicize it, well… That’s harmful to me. I’m not prolific enough to put out three books a year, so I have to guard my work time carefully. T-shirts would be cool, I guess, but they’d be a distraction from the important aspects of my career.

    Thanks again. I’m glad you like the books.

  9. I’ve seen the 1,000 True Fans thing before, but it’s not for me. There are a variety of reasons why (many, many reasons) but personally I’m aiming for 100,000 Casual Fans.

  10. Shawn

    Read Circle of Enemies it was good!. There is a strong thread of realism to all your books I really enjoy. I have a hard time of thinking of the book as fantasy or urban fantasy just seems like a great story good plot, characters etc. and very well written. Lily’s a bad ass!

    Impatiently waiting for the next one :(

  12. bookwench

    Just wanted to say, I adore these books. I’ve read a lot of fantasy books dealing with magic over the years, and right now yours are my favorites.

    Your guy Ray is really scared instead of just scared for half a line and then calm the rest of the time, and that makes the books so much better. He’s not some foretold doom of evil, he’s a little fish. But even as a little fish he’s a part of something greater than himself, he’s willing to go up in flames if it’ll save everything. That’s what makes these books so great – that he’s not all about himself. He’s not about the ego or the violence, he’s about the job.

    Too many books out there are all about the main character gaining a level in badass. “Oh, I was sooo afraid but this icy calm came over me and I slaughtered all the bad guys!” (That might be an exaggeration, but not by much.) Your books, everything you get you pay for with interest.

    So thank you for writing them. :)

  18. Ryan Lung

    Just finished reading Circle of Enemies… fantastic book! Last scene literally made me yell out loud at 1 in the morning! Thanks for all your hard work and I am eagerly awaiting the next installment

  20. Judd M. Goswick

    My nook has been feeding me a constant IV drip of your books of late. I am halfway done with CoE now.

    Excellent work with these! I look forward to more.

Comments are closed.