AWWC 2014: Vow's Answer by Joanna Fay

Vow's Answer is Book 3 of the Siaris Quartet and continues the story of the magical world of Siaris, its Guardians and the other races they protect. Things have become even worse with the Morraeth continuing their attempts to force Riana to return to them and they have augmented Xereth's powers. His fury at the escape of his half Guardian children has not abated and he is more than willing to help his masters in any way to defeat the Guardians who rescued them. Adding to this there are cultural tensions with some of the other races who resent their protectors and insist on applying human standards to them and their relationships. When Xereth takes a terrible revenge and the Morraeth find a new and vicious weapon much must change but whether the Guardians and their elden allies can survive is open to question.

I loved Daughter of Hope and Reunion, the first two books in the Siaris Quartet, and I wasn't disappointed with Vow's Answer which I found just as engaging. The tension builds as Xereth and the Moraeth escalate their attempts to get what they want. They may not be driven by the same motivations but the end they aim at is the same. The writer has not made the mistake of making them entirely evil though. While our sympathies are with the Guardians and their seemingly endless battle to preserve the world and people they are bound to protect there are flashes of what makes the Morraeth what they are and explains why they behave as they do while Xereth's obsession with the past fuels his rage making both the fallen Guardian and his masters believable.

I recommend Vow's Answer highly and I'm waiting impatiently for the final novel in this engrossing series.

Vow's Answer was published in December 2013 by Urania, the speculative fiction imprint of Musa Publishing, and is available as an e-book from Amazon.com and the publisher.

Joanna Fay's website is here and she is also on Facebook.

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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.