Posts tagged Gate to Kandrith

Soul of Kandrith is the sequel to Nicole Luiken’s fantasy Gate to Kandrith, which I really enjoyed.

I’ve omitted the book description because there is no way to avoid spoilers for book 1. If you’d like to read it, click here.

1) So. All kinds of stuff went down yesterday with the Department of Justice filing suit against Apple and five of the Big Six publishers about the agency pricing model for ebooks and most favored nation clauses. Hachette, S&S and HarperCollins have settled with the DoJ, while Penguin and Macmillan are fighting it. Read about it at Publishers Lunch, PW (settlement), Wall Street Journal (an early report), and Dear Author (today’s rundown).

2) Little, Brown has released details about J.K. Rowling’s first adult novel. It’s called The Casual Vacancy and will be released in multiple formats and territories on Sept. 27. Here’s the description:

When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

Blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults.

3) Carina Press editor Angela James blogs about some of Carina’s fantasy titles at The Book Pushers, with a giveaway for 3 fantasy books of your choice, including my recommendation Gate to Kandrith by Nicole Luiken.

For the next 5 days, I’m counting down my favourite books read (not necessarily published) in 2011. Some were harder to rank, but there was a clear winner for the #1 spot to be revealed later… So here’s starting with the fifth slot:

#5: Gate to Kandrith by Nicole Luiken (Carina Press)

I can’t say much about Gate to Kandrith because it won’t be released until March 2012. All I can share is a coming soon note on the author’s website. I read this book just last week when it came through for proofreading (one of the many benefits of working for Harlequin!). It’s a romantic fantasy about Sara, a noblewoman from a Roman-like society sent to a land of escaped slaves (Kandrith) to learn the secret of their magic. Accompanying her on the journey is Lance, an ambassador of Kandrith and Sara’s love interest. Meanwhile, someone has massacred a noble family and Sara’s father is on the brink of declaring war. She has to discover he reason for the massacre and the key of Kandrithan magic to stop the war.

I love the world-building of this story, and actually wish to have spent a bit more time in Sara’s homeland learning about their gods and to see different levels of their society. There is also a number of plot twists that surprised me just when I thought I knew everything that was going on. Sara’s an interesting character, and is flawed enough to avoid Mary Sue-ness. Fantasy fans, this one to look for next year!