BL: Racing the Dark (Johnson, Alaya Dawn)
Alaya Dawn Johnson, Racing the Dark
Agate Bolden (2007[1]) ISBN: 1-932841-28-8
Score: 2
Start of the Spirit Binders high fantasy trilogy, which seems to be marketed as YA (the heroine is 13 when the book starts, but is nearly 20 by the end). This is a world where magic is done by controlling minor elemental spirits through a spoken geas powered by some sort of sacrifice. The great spirits (wind, water, fire, and death) were imprisoned thousands of years ago; earth was never bound and about 300 years ago wind got free and caused a lot of disasters and wars, but now things have settled down (without rebinding it). The book starts with hints that another great spirit is close to free, and the heroine does a lot of traveling, meeting lots of people and seeing lots of cultures (this is the author's first novel, and it shows somewhat in how numerous but shallow the characters and cultures are). As you would expect from the magic system, this is not a story about happy people making easy choices.
[1] The copyright page says 2008, but the back of the ARC and the publisher's website say Oct 2007, and Amazon says Sep 2007.
Next Book: Gregory Frost, Lord Tophet
Agate Bolden (2007[1]) ISBN: 1-932841-28-8
Score: 2
Start of the Spirit Binders high fantasy trilogy, which seems to be marketed as YA (the heroine is 13 when the book starts, but is nearly 20 by the end). This is a world where magic is done by controlling minor elemental spirits through a spoken geas powered by some sort of sacrifice. The great spirits (wind, water, fire, and death) were imprisoned thousands of years ago; earth was never bound and about 300 years ago wind got free and caused a lot of disasters and wars, but now things have settled down (without rebinding it). The book starts with hints that another great spirit is close to free, and the heroine does a lot of traveling, meeting lots of people and seeing lots of cultures (this is the author's first novel, and it shows somewhat in how numerous but shallow the characters and cultures are). As you would expect from the magic system, this is not a story about happy people making easy choices.
[1] The copyright page says 2008, but the back of the ARC and the publisher's website say Oct 2007, and Amazon says Sep 2007.
Next Book: Gregory Frost, Lord Tophet