Here's an exclusive excerpt from Swords and Ashes from USA Today:
"It looks like rain," golden-haired Varro said grimly.
Spartacus looked at him and smiled. He shifted his feet experimentally in the sand of the training ground, still damp from the previous day's shower.
"For a change?" he asked.
"Back inside, Rain Bringer," Varro said. "I do not wish to fight in rusty armor."
But Spartacus waited, ready, his wooden training sword and battered shield at the ready. The training space referred to simply as 'the square' resounded with the clonks and smacks of wooden swords on wooden shields.
"Look to the heavens," Varro continued. "They will soon break open."
"As will your head," Spartacus responded, "Before it has chance to get wet."
Varro turned pleadingly to Oenomaus, the towering African trainer who frowned down irritated god.
"Doctore, I beg you," he pleaded.
But the black man shook his head and stood with his arms folded, his whip twitching in his hand.
On 20 December 2011 I posted the news about the novels. Here's how to pre-order
Two new Spartacus novels are now available on Amazon to pre-order. They will be released on 27 January 2012 and 6 March 2012
Spartacus: Morituri
Released: 6 March 2012
Batiatus and Solonius vie with each other for the favor of one Marcus Licinius Crassus, an Equites who aims at the Praetorship. Thrilled by the bloody violence of the fights, Crassus decides to set up his own gladiatorial school. In the arena, the Batiati are ground down by injury and death, while Crassus' numbers never seem to shrink. Can the ludus survive against such odds?
Spartacus: Swords and Ashes (Spartacus 1)
Kindle Edition | Book
Released: 27 January 2012
The gladiator Spartacus, the new Champion of Capua, fights at the graveside of a rich man who was brutally murdered by his own slaves. Seeing an opportunity, ambitious lanista Quintus Batiatus plots to seize the dead man's estate.
Betrayed by the Romans. Forced into slavery. Reborn as a Gladiator. The classic tale of the Republic's most infamous rebel comes alive in the graphic and visceral new series, "Spartacus: Blood and Sand." Torn from his homeland and the woman he loves, Spartacus is condemned to the brutal world of the arena where blood and death are primetime entertainment. But not all battles are fought upon the sands. Treachery, corruption, and the allure of sensual pleasures will constantly test Spartacus. To survive, he must become more than a man. More than a gladiator. He must become a legend.
A brand-new original Spartacus novel
