De Wouden van Opaal #8

Two warriors — a golden-haired man clutching a dagger and a fierce blonde woman in battle-ready crimson — stand back to back among ancient, gnarled trees while a menacing skeletal dragon looms from the shadows above them. It's a striking image from Arleston and Pellet that perfectly suits the subtitle De Horden van het Duister ("The Hordes of Darkness"), promising a forest epic steeped in peril and dark fantasy atmosphere. This 2014 entry in the De Wouden van Opaal series delivers exactly the kind of lush, tension-filled cover that makes this Belgian fantasy saga so hard to put down.