AWWC 2013: Shadow Bound by Deborah Kalin

Book 2 of The Binding, Shadow Bound is a worthy sequel to Shadow Queen.

Matilde of the House of Savanaten may have regained her throne and managed to rid herself of Dieter, the husband who slaughtered her family, but it came at a terrible cost. The Empire, under brutal general and one time slave, Sidonius, has overrun her country and her power is limited to that of a vassal. Determined to free her country but a virtual prisoner, Matilde needs all her skill to stay alive and forge the new alliances she needs. Meanwhile Dieter continues to attack the Imperial forces, making her task ever more difficult. But one certainty is that no-one should underestimate Matilde.

This book is full of strong, well drawn characters. Matilde in particular, always under threat and often misunderstood, struggles to survive and do her best for her country. She makes mistakes but she learns from them and retains the reader's sympathy as a result. Even the villains have depth and believability, something that's not always the case but which elevates a book in my opinion.

The storyline is unpredictable and its twists and turns kept me guessing right up to the end. The author says on her website that The Binding was written as a duology but the unexpected ending leaves the way open for another instalment that I for one would love to read.

Published by Allen & Unwin in July 2010, Shadow Bound is still available in printed form while the e-book is available worldwide from the publisher and amazon.com.

Deborah Kalin's website is deborahkalin.com

AWWC 2013: Daughter of Hope by Joanna Fay

In Siaris, a world contained under the outer shell of a planet, life is a continual battle between the winged Guardians, an immortal race, created eons ago and imbued with magical spell powers and the Morraeth. In an eternally snow and sleet swept fortress with an endless need for slaves captured from among elden, another immortal race less resilient than the Guardians, and humans, these ancient gods are served by the traitor Guardian, Xereth. Fuelled by an implacable hatred for his family he has allied himself with their enemies, becoming the lieutenant of their fortress.

Life in the fortress is as bleak and cruel as the eternal winter that surrounds it and those who live within it, whether they are half Guardian, human or elden, are all slaves to the Morraeth.

But something unexpected has happened in the Morraeth fortress. An elden slave is about to give birth to Xereth's child. Revetia (her self-chosen name means daughter of hope) is a unplanned child who should never have been conceived and her birth signals changes - for her siblings, her father, the Morraeth and her extended family.

On her website the author says the world of Siaris has been part of her imagination since she was a young girl and it shows in the way she evokes the brutal, freezing land of the Morraeth as cleverly as she does the more gentle world of the other parts of Siaris. Her language is lyrical, almost poetic, but never slips that step too far so we lose a sense of reality. Revetia's story is part of the larger one of Siaris and in a wide-ranging story where old wounds fuel actions that affect the whole of the world she is a catalyst for change.

I loved this book. The beautifully described world with its rich detail, the well drawn characters and the complex and satisfying story line drew me in and I was delighted to find it was only the first of a quartet of stories. I will certainly be revisiting Siaris.

Daughter of Hope was published by Urania, the fantasy imprint of Musa Publishing, in 2012 and is available as an e-book from Amazon.com and Musa  Publishing.

Joanna Fay blogs at her website here.

The Australian Women Writers Challenge 2013

I signed up for this challenge last year and real life got seriously in the way so although I read widely I  did not actually write any reviews. I'm hoping this year will be more successful - way more successful.

Part of the problem is that I read an enormous amount and that means I'm apt to move on to the next book before I review the one I've just finished. This has not proved a good strategy. So I'm changing the focus of this blog a little in that along with the chit chat about what interests me and is happening in my life I'm going to do some reviews. Those reviews of books by Australian women writers will also be posted on the AWW 2013 website. I'm not nominating how many books I intend to read or how many of them I will review - way too much pressure - but I will be endeavouring to review a reasonable percentage.

Well that's the plan. I've already read several eligible books and I'll get some, at least, reviewed soon, I hope.