Prince of Fools (Red Queen's War, book 1) by Mark Lawrence

Having read (and loved) Lawrence's debut trilogy, you could be forgiven for thinking you knew what to expect with his latest effort. I see them as very different beasts, as the protagonists are almost polar opposites, so too are the tone of the stories.
Jorg was all action, bloodthirsty to a degree, but cold and calculating with a deliberate endgame. Jalan, the titluar fool, is none of these things. At all. An accidental hero from a war we only hear about second hand, a self confessed coward, with more than an ounce of pride accompanying that, he is thrust into an epic quest by being magically tied to the viking Snorri.
Told in first person by Jalan, he doesn't hide, from us, his eagerness to escape this entirely inconvenient predicament. Jalan would much prefer to be hopping in and out of pretty ladies beds, than in and out of near death scrapes with the Undead and assassins.
Jorg and Jalan are both anti-heroes, but there their similarities end. Lawrence has a rare gift of making his readers root for unlikely characters, but he has done this successfully again here. Despite Jalans protestations to the contrary he develops a genuine affection for his big norse companion and puts himself in harms way to aid him. While not completely redeemed of his cowardly ways by the end, Jalan certainly goes through a change and is all the stronger for being aware of this.
Lawrence writes absorbing tales, with a roundedness to his characters that enhance the telling of these tales.

Willful Child by Steven Erikson

The author of the high fantasy series The Malazan Book of the Fallen, has crossed genres with this comedic spoof of Star Trek. Similarities will inevitably be drawn with John Scalzi's Redshirts, but these are very different books. While Scalzi's novel took meta to a new level, this is pure, unadulterated fun. Captain Hadrian Sawback is all the worst qualities of Kirk rolled up into one gigantic sleazeball, and he is all the more wonderful for that! Tammy, the sentient computer is brilliantly disdainful and acerbic, and the supporting cast fills all the stereotypes you would expect to find in the original series.
A very good spin which cleverly riffs on the storylines and characterisations of Star Trek, which Erikson clearly has a lot of affection for.  Added to this, several laugh out load moments and a genuinely engaging plot make this an extremely readable book.

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy. (Via NetGalley)

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett

Sometimes a book comes along which exceeds already lofty expectations. Robert Jackson Bennett's City of Stairs is such a book, and more. Many reviews have been so positive I was prepared for the glorious prose, the incredible world-building, (even to a degree, Sigrud!). What I didn't anticipate was that the book would make me think so much.
The book begins as a simple murder mystery, albeit one set in a post-deity ruled landscape. As the story develops though, so does the theme of religion and how it affects society. The world Bennett created is no longer merely a setting in which the story takes place, but a living, breathing character all its own.
The biggest compliment I can pay this book is that I have tried to start three books since I finished this, to no avail. My mind returns to Bulikov, a wondrous city filled with echoes of dead gods. The questions raised by Bennett are fundamentally existential. Do the gods create the people in their own image, or do the people shape the gods to be who they need them to be? Bennet doesn't presume to answer this, but poses the question in a totally unique way.

Stop whatever you are doing and read this book.
You're already welcome.