Find out the latest indie author news. For FREE.

ADVERTISEMENT

Formats
Ebook Details
  • 05/2017
  • 978-0-6480245 B0725BG529
  • 349 pages
  • $.99
Miriam Verbeek
Author
Skyseeker's Princess

Adult; Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror; (Market)

Ellen is the chosen heir to the Si'Empran throne. The premature death of her father sees her brother, Redel, take the throne. Redel's rule is both careless and cruel, continuing the genocide of the most ancient races on Si'Empra, plunging much of the population into poverty and threatening the very fabric of the island itself. Ellen becomes a refugee and is reluctant to openly challenge Si'Empra's leadership. She does, however, form alliances with foreigners, the ancient belowground Crystalmakers and the bestial guardians of Si'Empra, the Cryptals. With their help, she wages guerrilla battles. Though each of her alliances is immediately useful in the challenges she faces, none are without long-term consequences. Ellen must juggle both her immediate problems and those she creates by her actions.
Reviews
P Gilbert Roberts Amazon.au reader

This book is different. Different to what? Different to how I imagined it was going to be. I set out thinking: 'fantasy'.

I cut my fantasy teeth on JRR Tolkein, romped through Stephen Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, and feasted on Raymond Feist's Riftwar series and then . . . and then I lost my appetite for 'fantasy'. So it was with some trepidation I took up Skyseeker Princess.

But Skyseeker Princess isn't about yet another unlikely hero (or small band thereof) holding out against insuperable forces of gathering evil. It is far more nuanced than that. Rather, it seems to me, Skyseeker Princess is a parable about human behaviour; how we are capable of acts of individual kindness and cruelty and how, as a group, we can despise and persecute another group for no other reason than 'this is what we've always done', all the while apparently oblivious to our interdependence, one group upon another.

I am at risk here of making the book sound like a ponderous morality tale which it most certainly is not. No, Miriam Verbeek has conceived and brought to life a unique and wonderful set of characters, in an extraordinary setting, and has rendered it all in a beautiful narrative which makes it hard to put down.

So, why only four stars? To me four stars is reserved for an excellent book. Five stars is held in reserve for the truly outstanding. I've read Mann-Booker winners that I wouldn't give five stars. This is an excellent book.

Formats
Ebook Details
  • 05/2017
  • 978-0-6480245 B0725BG529
  • 349 pages
  • $.99
ADVERTISEMENT

Loading...