Summer Arts Preview

June

Books: Acacia

Article Tools

Release Date: June 12
Author: David Durham
Publisher: Doubleday

A wise but troubled king. His four beloved children. An empire built on dark, uneasy compacts. A rebellious northern tribe. A cold, unerring assassin. This is a big, fat, rich piece of history-flavored fantasy about an empire's fall and the struggle of its heirs to rebuild it, imagined with remarkable thoroughness. One never knows whether a new fantasy series is worth investing the time it takes to acquaint oneself with a new world and its sprawling cast of characters, but Acacia shows every sign of repaying the investment.

Summer Preview Podcast

TIME's Josh Tyrangiel, Belinda Luscombe, Lev Grossman and James Poniewozik preview the pop culture events of the summer

100 Best Novels

TIME critics Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo pick the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present

100 Best Movies

Presenting the 100 best films as chosen by TIME's movie critics Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel

All-TIME 100 Albums

A list of the greatest and most influential records ever by Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light