Book Blurb:
DAUGHTER OF THE DARK is
the second novel in the “Shadow Through Time” fantasy trilogy. It
follows the fate of Pagan of the house of Guardians. Only seventeen and
barely able to control his Guardian powers, Pagan has been given the
task of championing the most consequential child ever born, the newborn
child of The Light – Glimmer – who will grow to become the Catalyst.
Pagan is injured as he and the babe flee their brown homeworld of Ennae,
arriving in the strange rainbow-hued world of Magoria (our Earth),
helpless and friendless.
Small town funeral direct, Sarah McGuire
finds them and her home becomes their sanctuary, however Sarah’s
forthright manner takes some getting used to. Pagan struggles to adapt,
for he has little choice. He knows nothing of caring for a babe and
already shoulders the burden of not only hiding his own healing powers
in a world that is as confusing as it is contradictory, but as Glimmer
grows he must also hide the frightening intelligence locked inside her
child’s body.
On Ennae, the world they have fled, the fearful
firegod of Haddash, Kraal, has made a pact with The Dark, Glimmers evil
father. In return for a magical talisman now held by the Plainsmen,
Kraal will give The Dark sovereignty over Ennae, yet little does he know
that The Dark’s ambitions now lean towards power over all four worlds.
There is no place in either of their plans for Glimmer to live.
On
the airworld of Atheyre, The Light and her lover Talis watch on
helplessly, unable to protect Pagan or Glimmer from the evil that
conspires against them, and behind all is the inexorable Maelstrom,
growing in strength and momentum. Before it destroys the four elemental
worlds, Glimmer must return to Ennae and face those who would have her
dead. Only one thing can distract her from fulfilling her destiny, yet
that one thing is exactly what she needs to bring peace to the four
worlds
Toni's Review:
We were given this book by the author for a truthful review of the series. We have already rated book one of the series. Please be sure to read the series in correct order so you are not lost or confused.
I gave this book a 4/5 star rating.
I
love Fantasy. Period.
The second installment in this series finds
Pagan, Talis' cousin who has just barely earned his right to wear his
Guardian plaits in his glorious hair, through a portal with the newborn
Glimmer, child of Khaterine and the Dark ,staring into the eyes of a
human woman in the strangely bright and colorful world of Magoria. WOW!
There is evil amuck in Ennae with everyone it seems attempting to take
the Throne from its rightful heir, but there will be no easy answers.
Through war and death, love cannot be erased, even if it has been
decades. As for Glimmer, as the Catalyst to join the Four Worlds, it has
been an entire life of training for this moment in time. I really have
enjoyed these books so far and I would recommend them to anyone who
enjoys the fantasy genre.
About the author:
PERSONAL BIOGRAPHY:
One
of my earliest memories is of seeing Armstrong and Aldrin walk on the
moon on our grainy black and white television in 1969. While my
siblings ran around the yard playing, I spent the whole day lying on my
lounge room floor watching my wildest dreams come true - humans walking
on another world. I was in awe of the event, and I remember it
distinctly. It was the first time in my life that I thought I might
like to be anything other than a writer. Although in those days there
wasn't much question that a 'girl' would get to do anything exciting
with her life. Not in Brisbane in the Sixties. So time passed and I
went back to telling my class-mates that one day they were going to see a
book with my name on the cover.
Another 'peak experience' in my
life was when a Russians in Space exhibit visited our town. The show
was in a big tent with all the exhibits behind rope cordons, but I
begged, and the man running it let me slip past the barrier when no one
else was looking so I could touch one of the sputniks that had orbited
Earth. I can't begin to describe what it felt like to lay my fingers
onto that pockmarked surface and know it had been in the vacuum of space
- where I wanted to go. I get goose-bumps still, just thinking about
it.
My elder brother's obsession with Science Fiction was another
important factor in my development as a writer. Everything he read, I
read. Asimov, Heinlein, Herbert, E.E.'Doc' Smith. When I was thirteen,
he started sneaking pornography home and I was 'borrowing' that as
well, taking it under my mosquito net at night with a torch. Perhaps
that's how I developed a fascination for the psychology of sex - why
people become obsessed with the object of their desire and how lust
twists lives.
My family life was suburban, middle-class. When I
go home to Brisbane now, summer still smells the same way as it did when
I was a kid. We had a mountain near us that we used to climb - Peg's
Mountain - which is still a reserve. I went there a lot with my
brothers, we'd disappear for the whole day and come back for dinner. I
remember Guy Fawkes night vividly and still find fireworks to be a
magical thing. When I was eight I was in love with Prince Planet. When
I was thirteen I fell hard for Captain James T. Kirk. He was my first
big crush and I've never quite gotten over him.
In my teens I
forgot about writing and started 'living' instead. I hung around with
my tribe, a group of six girls who still keep in touch. We partied and
had opinions - I felt very passionate about politics then. In my
twenties I was an activist, first in the peace movement, and then with a
big-time commitment to Animal Liberation. I protested outside rodeos
with placards like "Real men don't rope baby calves", and did a lot of
work towards educating people about animal experimentation. I became a
vegetarian then and married.
By thirty I'd had children and I've
been passionate about motherhood ever since. However, shortly after the
birth of my last child I realised that the odd restlessness which had
begun when my father died years earlier, wasn't going away. I went back
to working part-time but that wasn't it. The problem was writing. I'd
somehow forgotten that I was going to be a writer. I remembered then
and I began.
For years I typed every day until I found characters
who would tell me their stories, rather than me having to 'make them
up'. Finally that happened and I started to get published. I don't
pretend to understand the alchemy that occurs when people appear
fully-formed in your mind to tell you about their lives, but I'm very
grateful that it happens to me and that I'm able to share it with
others. I adore the voyage of discovery that drags you along with your
characters to see how a story ends. Each new day finds me in front of
the computer doing what I love best, drinking heaps of coffee and
creating like a mad thing.
Who needs drugs when you can write!
PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY:
Louise
is an International award winning fantasy author whose best-selling
'Shadow through Time' trilogy with Simon & Schuster Australia was
selected by the Doubleday Book Club as their 'Editors Choice'. These
novels will be released as eBooks in 2012 by Momentum Books.
Louise
has been a Writer in Residence at the Queensland Writers Centre, and
has tutored hundreds of writing workshops at: the QWC, the NSW Writers
Centre, and libraries and schools in Brisbane and regional Queensland.
In
2006 she travelled to the U.S. to present the Queensland government's
'Queensland Writing Showcase' to New York agents and publishers at the
very swanky 21 Club.
She has also worked with a production company
to develop a computer game for children which unfortunately didn't get
off the ground, and in 2009 attended the South Australian Film
Commission 'Crossover' think tank in Adelaide to create cross-media
ideas and develop projects.
Louise mentors other writers through
residencies and her manuscript development business and lives by the
ocean in Queensland where she walks the esplanade and writes, currently
using research from her Italy trip to create a lost world adventure rich
with the Renaissance detail and romance she adores. Look for that on
bookshelves in 2012.
Contact the author:
Buy Links:
