Three Fabulous Reasons To Love Kim Falconer's Books

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Kim Falconer

Kim is currently recovering from a hospital visit -- and although she will be back very soon, I'm standing in for her today. And can think of no better topic than 3 fabulous reasons I love her books.

Reason 1: Worldbuilding

Whether you know Kim as Kim Falconer or AK Wilder, I think there can be no question: from her Quantum Enchantment and Quantum Encryption series, through The Blood In The Beginning, to her current trilogy, the addictive Amassia series, Kim is a maestra of speculative worldbuilding.

 

In the Quantum Enchantment books (#1 is The Spell Of Rosette), Kim splices technology with magic, and romance with adventure. The story spans Earth and a parallel planet, Gaela, contrasting climate change and environmental degradation with the beauty and abundance of Gaela where the inhabitants have made different choices. 

The Blood In The Beginning also contrasts worlds, but this time the nitty-gritty of mixed marshal arts and (near-future) LA nightclubs are juxtaposed with a deep ocean realm, where readers meet Kim's supernatural Mar for the first time.

In the far-future, fantasy world of Amassia,  Kim (writing as AK Wilder) has produced another tour-de-force with a world that is steeped in magic, and where the ecology and landscape are colorful and traverse the tropical to colder climes. The societies, too, are culturally and ethnically diverse -- and once again, readers encounter the time-and-distance traversing realm of the Mar.

Amassia

Reason 2: Heroines

If you love stories with strong engaging heroines, then it's hard to go past Ava, the MMA-trained bouncer of The Blood in the Beginning, or Ash, the insightful scribe who holds her magic-wielding friends together through edge-of-the-precipice adventure in the Amassia books. 

With "best-supporting" characters like the enigmatic Kreshkali in The Spell of Rosette and Salila, the capricious and sometimes bloodthirsty Mar of the Amassia books, Kim's storytelling is made for readers who like their fantasy heroine-centric.

Salila

Reason 3: Action and Adventure

I was tossing up between adventure and romantic elements for my third reason. But although Ash's relationship with the handsome, mysterious, and kickass Kaylin is key to the Amassia series, and a tall man dressed in Armani, smelling of cologne and faintly of blood, kicks off the action in The Blood in the Beginning, fast-paced action and adventure are a hallmark of Kim's books.

Ash & Kaylin

In The Blood in the Beginning, when Ava's bouncer job turns dark she must run and fight for her life in a desperate contest with supernatural forces. 

Crown of Bones (Amassia #1) also delivers rapid-fire adventure when Ash and her friends' routine journey to a school for magic users (savants) becomes a breakneck flight across wild country, in which they must dodge armies and elude magical traps -- action that is far from over when reach their destination.

And the adventure continues in Curse of Shadows (Amassia #2) with pirate attacks and sea pursuits, savants and phantoms, magical traps and battles amid snowy wastes that make the story hard to put down.

Conclusion

 So there it is, dear Supernatural Undergrounders -- three fabulous reasons to love Kim Falconer's books. If you feel I've missed the best reason, feel free to let me -- and Kim! -- know with a comment. 

And if you want to discover more and support Kim at the same time, consider buying the book, requesting it at your library, and/or posting a review online -- or all three! :-)

~ Helen Lowe

~*~

About Kim Falconer

Kim Falconer, currently writing as AK Wilder, has released Crown of Bones, a YA Epic Fantasy with Curse of Shadows as book 2 in the series. Currently, she is working on the third book, out in 2024.

Kim can be found on  AKWilder Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 

Throw the bones, read your horoscopes or Raise Your Phantom on the AKWilder.com site

~*~

About Helen Lowe:

Helen Lowe is an award-winning novelist, poet, and lover of story. With four books published to date, she is currently completing the final instalment in The Wall Of Night series.

Helen posts regularly on her “…on Anything, Really” blog, monthly on the Supernatural Underground, and tweets @helenl0we.

Welcome to Amassia

Rainaya by Alayna on DeviantArt

Welcome to my world of Amassia...

I'm AK Wilder, officially joining the Sup authors in our endeavour to share books that make the heart beat faster. Let's have some fun in the world of Amassia!

The Release Date

Some of you have been waiting for this story world, found in Crown of Bones, to hit the shelves and I thank you for your patience! We have a solid release date now, August 4, 2020, the warm and sparkling time of Leo. Yay!

And now, on to Amassia...

In a World on the Brink of the Next Great Dying

The Journey by lp ysg on artstation.com

From familiar everyday life, farms and crops and fish and seas, to the fantastic beings of Mar, Bone Throwers and Phantoms, Amassia has the entire range. You'll find elements so ordinary you feel right at home, until wham! You don't. For example, you'll come across...

A green-robe level savant
with raised Phantom (the owl).

Savants and Non-Savants

Savants and non-savants make up the 'human' population of Amassia. They look just like you or I would in a diverse-race, pre-industrial culture, but Savants have one big difference. They can raise their phantoms from the ground and direct them in various ways to serve the realms.

Phantoms

Phantoms fall into five classes, ranging from warriors to healers and take the shape of anything from plant to animal to elementals. They remain dormant in the Savant's soul unless raised from the ground and held to form. Children who show potential to become savant are trained in sanctuaries by high ranking masters. There they learn to control their phantoms, hopefully, to serve and protect the realms.

Bone Throwers

The black-robed Bone Throwers decide
the fate of every child on Amassia.

The black-robed Bone Throwers are savants who devote their lives to divination. They keep to themselves in underground temples near each sanctuary, carrying out their work – predicting times for planting, harvest, hunting and war.

The Bone Throwers also carry out the endless task of carving new whistle bones used in their oracles, including the casts that determine the fate of every child on Amassia. Which sounds ominous, because it is.

If a throw of the bones finds a child marred, those infants must be sacrificed to the sea.  

Mar

Are the Mar real or do they only
live in children's stories?

Most regard the Mar as they would water-dragons and voracious river nymphs—fodder for children’s stories or to strike fear into the hearts of seafaring voyagers.

Are they real?

If so, they dwell beneath the sea and are said to eat the children the black-robe send to them.

One thing is sure, if you met a Mar, you'll never know it. As legends have it, they look just like us, though are near-immortal and have little use for land or air.

* * * 

About AK Wilder

I write YA Lit for young adults, and the young at heart.

Meet me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, or check out my site, akwilder.com where you can read the Bare Bones Scopes, throw the bones and discover the latest news and giveaways.

My alter ego on the Sup is Kim Falconer...

Remember, when in doubt... Raise. Your. Phantom!

Mapping the Worlds

Click to view in Youtube

Hi everyone!

I've just finished a more polished version of the world Map of Amassia, the series I am currently writing. It's out in 2018 with Entangled Teen. I'm thrilled to be writing Young Adult Fantasy for this publisher.

About the Map

Amassia is a time so far in the future that the continents have reformed into a single landmass. (It's predicted to happen in another 250 million years.) Here's a glimpse at my original drawing, before I learned the open source image editor, Gimp.

My worn sketch and noted for the world of Amassia

Why Maps?

We humans have been making maps for thousands of years. From cave paintings to ancient Babylon, Greece, and Asia, to the 21st century, maps are used as tools to help us understand, and explain, the known world.

My Father's Dragon

It's no wonder that many fantasy authors choose to do the same, even though their worlds will only exist in their reader's imaginations.

It all started with Tolkien. The Hobbit, and the LOTR came with a map, and it's an unspoken expectation that authors of this genre will follow suit.

But for me, the longing to look at maps of imagined worlds began before LOTR was ever published, in a little book by Ruth Stiles Gannett called, My Father's Dragon. I loved hearing the story, and tracing the journey of on the little map.

Another classic map on the heels of Tolkein, Brooks, Goodkind (who apparently didn't like the idea of mapping at all), Eddings (who thought it was essential), Hobbs, Le Guin, Martin and countless other fantasy authors is the world of Harry Potter.

More recently is the Shadow Hunters, a TV version of The Mortal Instrument Series by Cassandra Clare. With this app, Mundanes can download and view an overlay of the Shadow World right on their phones.

Mundanes' Guide to the Shadow World

One of my favourite maps artistically is from our very own Helen Lowe's Wall of Night Series. I love this fantasy world!

Wall of Night's world of Haarth

And finally, here's the map from one of the more ingenious and mind bending story worlds from China Meiville - The City and the City. When you think about it, it't not that far from the Shadow Hunter world, where one city is superimposed over another.

The City and the City Map by Simon Rowe

What are your view on maps in books? Do you read them? Are they spoilers, or part of the adventure? Have a favourite?

All of us Sup authors would love to hear your thoughts.

xxKim

Kim Falconer's latest release is out now - The Blood in the Beginning - and Ava Sykes Novel. Find this novel in a store near you.

You can also learn more about Kim at AvaSykes.com, the 11th House Blog, and on FaceBook and Twitter.  Or on GoodVibeAstrology.com where she teaches law of attraction and astrology.

Kim posts here at the Supernatural Underground on the 16th of every month and runs Save the Day Writer's Community on Facebook. Check out her daily Astro-LOA Flash horoscopes on Facebook.