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.

Guest Blogging With Joanna Fay

My fellow Egoboo WA member and writing and critiquing mate, Joanna Fay, has invited me to guest blog on her website about a favourite character. If you would like to have a look at how Seri, a character in my as yet unfinished novel, working title The Hidden People, came into being, you can find the blog post here.

Joanna has the first two fantasy novels of The Siaris Quartet, Daughter of Heart and Reunion, available as e-books from Musa Publishing.

Tin Ducks Awards

Yet another award list. The Tin Ducks are annual Western Australian awards for achievements in SF presented at the annual Perth SwanCon . It's always good to see those in the SF field being acknowledged and all the more when it's friends and people whose work I personally admire as it is this year.

The link to the award winners and the short list is here and I'm delighted that it includes three of my fellow Egoboo WA members - Joanna Fay, Satima Flavell and Sarah Parker.

Congratulations to all winners and finalists.

Jason Fischer and Ticonderoga Publications

I'm truly excited that my Clarion South mate, Jason Fischer, is to have a collection of short stories, Everything is a Graveyard, to be published by Ticonderoga Publications in late 2013. The press release is here. Ticonderoga Publications has recently put out some outstanding anthologies and Jason should fit well into their list.

I've just been working my way through some of their books that I bought at Swancon. Heliotrope by Justina Robson was a fascinating compilation of stories. This author is well established as a novelist but this is her first collection of short stories. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Her stories stretch the imagination and that is always a good thing.

I've also finished Dead Red Heart, a collection of Australian vampire stories, edited by Russell B. Farr, and there are some great stories in there. Who'd ever have thought that the vampire could adapt so well to our harsh, sun-drenched continent. My fellow Egobooers, Joanna Fay and Carol Ryles, figure here. Then came More Scary Kisses, edited by Liz Gryzb, a collection of vampire romances, including two stories by fellow members of the KSP Speculative Fiction group, Annette Backshall and Carol Ryles (yes, she's in two books recently released by Ticonderoga). What sexy creatures these vampires are but it's not at all the way the original vampire stories portrayed them either.

On my list of still to be read is The Girl With No Hands by Angela Slatter, (she blogs here)and another writer whose work I very much enjoy.