(MENAFNEditorial)
Epic Fantasy enormous cats and social revolution:
DESERT RISING by *debut author* Kelley Grant
(Harper Voyager Impulse | on-sale 4/21/2015 | eISBN: 9780062382511 | $2.99)
“Grant draws readers into her unusual setting with lively well-rounded characters and a satisfyingly twisty plot. Thoughtful worldbuilding adds color and believability. Readers searching for a strong female protagonist and dangerous intrigue in a refreshing fantasy world will enjoy this impressive series opener.”
—Publishers Weekly *starred* review
The Epic Fantasy landscape is changing at a breakneck pace moving away from the traditional Western European settings and traditions becoming a more colorful and diverse reading landscape. Kelley Grant is one of the authors who continue to move the genre forward; her debut DESERT RISING is a unique take on the high-stakes stories characteristic of epic fantasy rife with social and moral dilemmas a richly drawn magic system—and it doesn’t hurt that enormous cats feature prominently alongside three-dimensional endearing characters. Publishers Weekly awarded it a starred review praising the “lively well-rounded characters and a satisfyingly twisty plot.”
The story follows two twins Sulis and Kadar born to a family of desert nomads and merchants. When they turn eighteen the twins must walk two separate paths: Sulis is determined to pledge herself to the One and make changes to the social and religious structure of the world from within the Temple at Illian. Although she has some allies and a feli—a large feline companion touched by the One—Sulis walks a dangerous path full of the cunning cutthroat maneuvering that was responsible for her own mother’s murder six years earlier. Kadar’s road is no less simple; he elects to stay on with his uncles in Illian and complete his merchant apprenticeship. However he soon realizes that the caste system which allows others to treat the Forsaken or lower caste members as slaves is more than he can stomach. While Sulis works to engineer social change from within the Temple Kadar does the same in the bustling streets of Illian.
About the Book:
”It frightens me knowing the One has called up two such strong individuals. It means that there are troubled times in our future and you must prepare yourselves.”
The Temple at Illian is the crown jewel of life in the Northern Territory. There pledges are paired with feli the giant sacred cats of the One god and are instructed to serve the One’s four capricious deities. Yet Sulis a young woman from the Southern Desert has a different perspective - one that just might be considered heresy but that is catching on rather quickly…
Sulis’s twin Kadar meanwhile is part of a different sort of revolution. When Kadar falls in love with a woman from a Forsaken caste he finds he’s willing to risk anything to get these people to freedom. But with Sulis drawing a dangerous level of attention from the deities and war about to break out on two fronts change may not come as easily as either twin had hoped.
An astonishing debut Kelley Grant brings to life a powerful new epic fantasy tale of determination and self-discovery.
About the Author:
Kelley Grant grew up in the hills of Ohio’s Amish country. Her best friends were the books she read stories she created and the forest and fields that inspired her. She and her husband live on a wooded hilltop and are owned by five cats a dog and numerous uninvited critters. Besides writing Kelley teaches yoga and meditation sings kirtan with her husband and designs brochures and media.
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