Thursday, October 19, 2017

Virtual Book Tour + #Giveaway: Of The Divine by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes @AtwaterRhodes @GoddessFish


Of The Divine
by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
GENRE:   FICTION/Fantasy


BLURB:


Henna is one of the most powerful sorcerers in the Order of Napthol, and her runes ’s runes tell her that the future of Kavet is balanced on the edge of the knife. The treaties between Kavet and the dragon-like race known as the Osei have become intolerable. The time has come for the royal house to magically challenge Osei dominion. Prince Verte, Henna' lover, is to serve as the nexus for the powerful but dangerous spell, with Naples--an untested young sorcerer from the Order of Napthol--a volatile but critical support to its creation.

Amid these plans, Dahlia Indathrone’s arrival in the city shouldn’t matter. She has no magic and no royal lineage, and yet, Henna immediately knows Dahlia is important. She just can’t see why. 

As their lives intertwine, the four will learn that they are pawns in a larger game, one played by the forces of the Abyss and of the Numen—the infernal and the divine. 

A game no mortal can ever hope to win.


Excerpt:

The ocean that covered most of the Numen’s first level was clear and sweet. It lapped against diamond sand where tiny long-legged birds spread wings the color of honey as they raced back and forth, plucking drifting seeds from the air. The Numini—those perfect, beautiful sentinels who ruled the divine realm by might and decree—watched the birds’ antics with gentle amusement.

One Numini looked past the white sands and crystal waters below to a realm where the ocean was cold and tasted of salt, where verdant green cascaded across rich earth, and where the mortal creatures lived.

Soon, she thought. She was one of the three arbiters who ruled the Numen, second only to the high justice of her kind.

“I am concerned about the Abyssi,” remarked one of her brothers, a lesser judge. “We have worked for generations to nurture these lines of power, and now they could all be—”

“Have faith,” she assured him. “Abyssi scrabble at the mortal realm like dogs at a closed door. They always have. They lack the wisdom or discipline to do more than that.”

“But do the mortals have the wisdom to keep the door closed?” he challenged.

“Faith,” the arbiter said again. This time it was a clear chastisement.

She knew their children in the mortal world were defenseless. Humans had minds barely capable of comprehending their own existence, and as a consequence lived short and brutal lives. They needed their divine guardians to guide and nurture them. The Abyssi—vicious, mindless beasts of the infernal realm—could fight for sovereignty all they wanted. In the end, it wouldn’t matter.

In the mortal realm, all things served the divine.


Interview with Amelia Atwater-Rhodes


What inspired you to write Of the Divine
?

Divine is the second book in the Mancer trilogy, which I first began in 2006 as my first-ever attempt at a National Novel Writing Month project. It was meant to be a 50-thousand word escape from writer’s block, but I ended up becoming so engrossed in the world, the characters, and their story that it turned into a 300,000 word epic.

I can give a lot of cultural triggers that inspired me to write this trilogy. I was at Texas State at San Marcos as part of a national student exchange, so I was in the middle of a culture unlike the one I knew— Texas may not be a different country, but it might as well be, when compared to Massachusetts. I loved my time there, but among other things, I spent a lot of time acting as a cultural anthrapologist. It was natural, in that context, that I started creating a world.

Can you tell us a little bit about the next books in the Mancer trilogy, or what you have planned for the future?

Of the Divine is the second of three books; I am in the middle of editing the third book, Of the Mortal Realm, and it will be released in 2019 (probably in the summer).

Mortal will wrap up the main story that started with Mancer 1: Of the Abyss, but as is the case in real life, as one story ends others begin. In particular, I am looking at a story narrated by the Osei, the dragon-like villians of Of the Divine; they have the perspective necessary to witness the ongoing fallout from the Mancer trilogy, which goes beyond the boundaries of the island nation of Kavet.

Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Of the Divine?

Divine is narrated by four characters: Henna, a high-ranking sorceress; Terre Verte, prince of Kavet; Naples, a young sorcerer; and Dahlia.


Two of the four (Terre Verte and Naples) are characters that readers will recognize from Mancer 1, whose histories were mysteries in that novel. 



AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes wrote her first novel, In the Forests of the Night, when she was 13 years old. Other books in the Den of Shadows series are Demon in My View, Shattered Mirror, Midnight Predator, all ALA Quick Picks for Young Adults. She has also published the five-volume series The Kiesha’ra: Hawksong, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and VOYA Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror List Selection; Snakecharm; Falcondance; Wolfcry; and Wyvernhail.



Buy Link:
Giveaway:

A limited edition print copy of the book *U.S. only*




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