British stand-up poet Tim Clare's debut novel The Honours combines fantasy, the supernatural and the spy novel – think Downton Abbey meets H. P. Lovecraft. The main character, the rebellious and feisty 13-year-old Delphine, accompanies her dysfunctional parents, in 1935, to the remote Alderberen Hall in Norfolk. Here, Delphine is convinced that a Bolshevik secret society is plotting against the government. Secret passages not only allow for eavesdropping, but also to confront strange bat-like creatures from another world. The Honours, although at times repetitive, is an intriguing mix of supernatural and conspiratorial mayhem through which Delphine's chutzpah and, sometimes misguided courage, is a constant.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE SMUG
By Tom Holt. Orbit. $19.99.

Those with a Terry Pratchett-deprivation condition could do worse than turn to the comic fantasy novels of Tom Holt. The Good, The Bad and The Smug, the fourth novel in his YouSpace series, sees Goblin King Mordak (Murdoch) in a grumpy mood, even though he has just won a lifetime evil award from the Academy of Darkness. Mordak recruits a young elf journalist to find out who is flooding the multiverse economy with gold. Could this be the fault of someone the Prince thinks is called Rumblestitsky? Holt ponders the nature of good and evil within a satire on social media, journalism, politics and ultimately merchant bankers.

A CRUCIBLE OF SOULS
By Mitchell Hogan. Harper. $24.99.

Australian author and former investment banker Mitchell Hogan won the Aurealis Best Fantasy Novel Award in 2013 for his self-published e-book A Crucible of Souls, which sold 15,000 digital copies. In this first book, the Sorcery Ascendant Sequence, Hogan follows a largely traditional fantasy path. A young boy, Caldan, is taken into monastic magic training after his family is killed but he is soon cast out into the real world, apprenticed to the Guild of Sorcerers, where he must learn to access and control dangerous old magic. A Crucible of Souls, while not particularly original, is nonetheless a solid fantasy debut, proving that self-publishing can be a viable option.