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.

The Band-of-Brothers in Helen Lowe's "The Gathering Of The Lost"

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So here we are, November 1 (eek!), with Halloween just behind us, Guy Fawkes immediately ahead, and Thanksgiving and Christmas hoving-to in the near-distance.

If you feel breathless reading that, I can assure you that I felt exactly the same as my fingers flew over the keyboard! Still, when the year is fleeting by and all the festivals and end-of-year commitments snowballing, what better time to relax with a little bookish and Fantasy 'verse blogging?!

The Wall Of Night series

In my case the 'verse is The Wall of Night world (for which the series is named), which I'm revisiting in the context of my 2023 post theme, which is -- of course -- the "band of brothers" in Fantasy fiction.

Last month I shone the spotlight on The Heir Of Night (The Wall Of Night #1) and today it's time for Book Two, which is -- ta-da! --

The Band-of-Brothers In The Gathering Of The Lost

When it comes to our theme, The Gathering of the Lost is band-of-brothers central. 

Book One, The Heir Of Night, ended with the two main characters, Malian and Kalan, vanishing into the wilds of the world of Haarth.

The world of Haarth

In The Gathering of the Lost, the ongoing story takes readers to the realm of Emer, famed as the home of the heavily armed Emerian knights. Starting with the castle of Normarch, a center for squires training to be knights. 

In last month's post, I spoke of how it "takes time, as well as adverse circumstances, to bridge division and create bonds of brotherhood." The squires of Normarch have been training together, and toward knighthood, for several years. So when adverse events strike, they have the skills and discipline, as well as the cohesion and motivation, to answer the challenge.

For those that survive the fighting and melees in Normarch -- which also include magical trials and combats, of course -- the bonds of brotherhood emerge stronger. Bonds that are then tested again when the newly made knights ride to the capital, Caer Argent, to compete for fame and glory in the midsummer tournament. Only to encounter plots, treachery, and dark magic, as well as contests of arms.

Events that end testing their loyalty to each other and the bonds forged in the Normarch years, as well as to the realm of Emer. 

As you can no doubt guess, too, The Gathering of the Lost is also bromance central in terms of the depth of the young knights' friendships and the trials they must overcome. But not only bromance. There may just be romance, too, with both springtime and starcrossed loves featuring in the mix. 

And yes, Malian and Kalan are definitely part of the action -- although being exiles with many enemies, they are very often disguised or traveling incognito. ;-)

~*~

Previous Posts:

February: Honing in on 2021—Celebrating the "Band of Brothers"
March: Celebrating the "Band of Brothers" in Fantasy #2
April: Celebrating the "Scooby Gang" #3
May: Celebrating the "Band of Sisters"
June: From Band of Brothers To Bromance!
July: Sister Acts: from the "Band of Sisters" to True Sisterhood
August: When Brotherhoods -- and Bros -- Go Bad!
September: "The Band of Brothers" -- A Few More Fantasy Favorites
October: The Band-of-Brothers in The Heir Of Night

~*~

About the Author

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.

Get a Spectacular Mar Fix While You Wait

 

Ava Sykes - before she discovers what she is

 

For those of you waiting for book three of the Amassia Series, but still want an instant Mar fix, I thought to bump this post so you could take a look at another kind of Mar...

Enjoy!

:) Kim

aka AKWWilder

Excerpt from the novel, The Blood in the Beginning. AvaSykes.com

Public speaking sucks. It's mandatory for final year medical science, so I put up with it. Still ...

    Ten a.m. came with the expected physical signs: burning eyes, stiff neck, headache. Oh, boy. My palms were sweat­ing as I walked to the podium, footsteps echoing through the virtually empty UCLA lecture hall. That was a plus. It lessened the potential for public humiliation. The only seats occupied were the front two rows. I squeezed my eyes shut a few times, trying to alleviate the sting ... eye drops might have helped, along with fresh contacts. They were prescrip­tion, for my mixed astigmatism, a near-far sighted combo, and tinted to keep down the glare. I had partial colour blindness too, but that’s another story. The bottom line, sleep deprivation wasn’t a good look. Hopefully, the examiners would be glued to the screen, and my riveting presentation, not my tired face.

It took a minute to password my way through security, log into my CloudBox — and bring up the visuals. I synched with the screen behind me and cleared my throat. ‘Good morning, faculty.’ My voice broke and I tried to humph without sounding like a cat coughing up a fur ball. This was not my favourite part of being fourth year: standing in front of a critical audience, my knowledge and abilities in question. Who in their right mind would want to try and explain auto-immune disorders to a group of scientists who knew hundreds of times more about the subject than any­one alive?

The mic gave an ear-piercing screech as I adjusted it, which didn’t help to calm me down. The lights dimmed and the large screen illuminated. The glare was so strong, I couldn’t read the notes on my tablet. Perfect. I sucked in a deep breath, and ploughed on.

‘Since the first wave of the Aftermath, auto-immune disorders have escalated, not just here in LA, but globally. These diseases cross all borders, cultures and peoples, tar­geting young and old alike. The epidemiology is hard to trace, but at its core is a potentially fatal flaw ...’ I choked on that. This topic got under my skin because I had one of those pesky flaws myself. At times like these, I could almost hear the clock ticking. I cleared my throat. ‘ … a potentially fatal flaw in the evolution of the human genome. Constant bombardment from microwaves, radiation and carcinogenic substances has caused an abnormal gene expression, includ­ing the conditional deletion of the Bcl-x gene from red blood cells, which becomes apparent when the body loses its abil­ity to tell the difference between self and non-self.’

I swiped the small screen on the podium, bringing up the next visual behind me. It showed a clip of a blood clot forming at 500x magnification, courtesy of APS — an­tiphospholipid antibody syndrome — in action. As I talked about causes and potential cures, moving on to my per­sonal favourite, hemolytic anemia and its variants under the umbrella of AADD — Aftermath associated degenerative diseases — my eyes came back to one of the examiners. 

From Avasykes.com

I’d never seen him before, which wasn’t uncommon. UCLA hosted the largest science campus in the western US, and specialists in the field were invited in to evaluate fourth year students, especially ones like me who hoped to land an internship with the LA branch of the CDC, the Centre for Disease Control. This guy looked too young though. Maybe an intern auditing my talk? Who are you?

The thought floated through my head. Not a welcome distraction. Every time I looked, he was staring at me, his expression a cross between curious and accusatory. It raised the hairs on the back of my neck. Oh, hell! I had the freak­ing wrong slide up. I pulled my focus back to the presenta­tion and kept my gaze well away from handsome mystery man in seat A15. Sure, it registered. Handsome. 

Not helping.

Twenty minutes later, the lights went up and there was a brief, but slightly more than perfunctory, applause. On a scale of one to ten, for senior lecturers that was at least a nine, nearly a standing ovation. It made me smile, and in a momentary lapse, my eyes drifted back to seat A15. Big mistake. The floor was open to questions, and he took it as a personal invitation.

‘You mention the fatigue associated with auto-immune hepatitis. What test would differentiate auto-immune liver disease from other hepatic disorders?’

I swallowed hard, not because I didn’t have a damn good answer, but because his eyes were boring into me. Almond-shaped dark eyes. They had a wild look, or was that the unruly hair? It was like being on a witness stand, which I guess was the point of the exercise. He wasn’t coming across as an intern. His voice was too confident. I reviewed the role of typical histological findings in both AILD and other chronic liver diseases, finishing with a discussion of immu­noglobulins and various

triggers for immune response. He questioned again, and for a while, we had our own private ping-pong match going on. Then others had comments and questions for me and, while I engaged, out of the corner of my eye I saw him check his phone. He nodded vaguely in my direction and left. As he walked out of the hall, a linger­ing thought again floated through my head.

Who are you?

From #TheBoodInTheBeginning An #AvaSykes #Novel
Read more ...

I'd love to hear who your fav characters are that DON'T enjoy public speaking! --Kim

***
 
Kim Falconer is a Supernatural Underground author writing urban fantasy, paranormal romance, YA and epic science fantasy novels. You can find out more about Kim at AvaSykes.com, and on FaceBook and Twitter.

She posts here at the Supernatural Underground on the 16th of every month .

Kim also writes as AK Wilder, releasing 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

The Band of Brothers in "The Heir of Night"

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Intro

2023 has been my Year of the "Band of Brothers" in fiction, and the Fantasy genre in particular. 

The Crows

From King Arthur and Robin Hood, to The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, or Leigh Bardugo's Crows and The Them in Good Omens, I could -- and do ;-) -- say that the "band of brothers" is to fantasy what flowers are to spring. :D

The Them

In addition to the band or company, there's also the more informal "scooby gang", both of which can can accommodate the "bro" or "sister"-mance. Over the next few posts, I'll be taking a closer a look at how this classic trope features in my own epic tale -- starting with The Heir of Night, Book One in The Wall Of Night series.

The Band of Brothers in "The Heir of Night"

My initial reflection, when thinking about this post, was that both "bands" and "scooby gangs" are in short supply in The Heir of Night.

But then I got to thinking how it's the set-up book for the series, as well as telling a story in its own right, and how that setup includes some of the brotherhood elements that are more prominent in books #2 and #3. (The Gathering of The Lost and Daughter of Blood respectively.) So I'm talking proto-bands and bro/sister/comrade-mance here. :-)

Right from the get-go, though, I can assure you there are no scooby gangs in The Heir of Night (Heir). The two main protagonists, Malian and Kalan, are both solitary characters until fate throws them together. Their subsequent friendship is the core of the Heir story, but it's too early to tell whether this is a budding romance, or alternatively a bromance. But the seeds are sown.

In the first part of the book, a company drawn from two divided sectors of society (the Derai) are obliged to embark on a joint rescue mission into dangerous territory. This is classic band-of-brothers stuff, where the dangers faced overcome the original divisions. That doesn't happen in the Heir situation, in part because the divisions are so deeply entrenched, but also because the mission is of short duration.

The implication being that it takes time, as well as adverse circumstances, to bridge division and create bonds of brotherhood. So there is no 'shining company' forged in Heir. But as with Malian and Kalan, there is a glimmering of future potential, particularly with a very slight softening of some divisions -- if only between a number of individuals.

And no bromances either. Although there is an instance where two individuals from either side of the divide fight side by side to stem an attack, with a greater sense of fellowship thereafter...

Having said "no shining company", I must immediately qualify because there is a small "band" that forms in the last part of the book. Although it does not bridge the same societal divide as the larger company, this smaller band is pitched into unforeseen danger and survival necessitates working closely together, and relying on each other to survive.

Whether they do or not is another question, but this is epic storytelling, where the stakes and dangers are equally high. The perfect conditions for forging bonds of brotherhood -- but only if the ongoing story allows the seeds sown in The Heir of Night to flourish. :-)

~*~

Previous Posts:

February: Honing in on 2021—Celebrating the "Band of Brothers"
March: Celebrating the "Band of Brothers" in Fantasy #2
April: Celebrating the "Scooby Gang" #3
May: Celebrating the "Band of Sisters"
June: From Band of Brothers To Bromance!
July: Sister Acts: from the "Band of Sisters" to True Sisterhood
August: When Brotherhoods -- and Bros -- Go Bad!
September: "The Band of Brothers" -- A Few More Fantasy Favorites

~*~

About the Author

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.

Book Review: "Curse of Shadows" by AK Wilder

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Introduction

Kim Falconer  is taking a well-deserved break this month, but here at Supernatural Underground HQ we're keen to celebrate her wonderful writing.

So although Kim will be back with her "More Than Meets The Eye" post series (which we've all been loving!) today we're featuring a review of Curse of Shadows, the recently released second novel in her Amassia series.

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Book Review: Curse of Shadows by AK Wilder

Reviewed by Helen Lowe

I enjoyed Crown of Bones, the first book in AK Wilder's Amassia series, but I think Curse of Shadows (Amassia #2) is an even stronger story.

The author writes as both AK Wilder and Kim Falconer. As readers here will know, Kim and I both post on Supernatural Underground. So I'm signaling upfront that we are friends-in-writing and fellow bloggers, "for the record."

What The Amassia Series Is All About

In Crown of Bones (Crown), Ash and her comrades traveled far from home and discovered that all life on their world of Amassia was threatened by the return of a binary star. Now, finding and learning how to use the crown of bones is vital in order to have any hope of survival, but because of its power, a large number of players are competing to find and control it. They include nation states and mages (called savants), but also the mysterious, ocean-dwelling Mar, with both magical and military forces being deployed to find and seize the crown.

The personal journeys of Ash and her savant companions are set against this backdrop of world-threatening events. Savants gain their power from raising "phantoms" that are usually animistic in form and reflect an aspect of the savant's being, which is key to their power. Ash has been raised a non-savant and trained as a cleric, but at the end of Crown, readers learned that she is, in fact, a savant, with a very powerful phantom. One that has been deliberately suppressed by her guardian and mentor.

When the story resumes in Curse of Shadows (Curse), both Ash's phantom and her memory of its rise have been magically suppressed for a second time. The cracks, though, are showing. Marcus, Ash's  childhood friend, also has struggles of his own. He has been disinherited and exiled, yet must continue to lead their company's quest for the crown of bones. As if that's not enough, Marcus struggles to manage his phantom, which is also extraordinarily powerful.

Similarly, the mysterious Kaylin, who saved and befriended Ash in Crown, is also striving to comprehend, and either fulfill or circumvent, orders that conflict with their friendship.

The world of Amassia

Although there are other characters in their company, as well as allies like the powerful, but also changeable, Mar called Salila, the storylines (or "arcs") of Ash, Marcus, and Kaylin drive the Curse narrative.

What I Liked in Curse of Shadows

"Almost everything" is the short answer. Despite the problems they confront, returning to Ash, Marcus, and their company---both savants and phantoms---felt like re-encountering old friends. Although important in Crown, Kaylin has a larger part to play and more point-of-view time in this book, as does Salila. Both are interesting and engaging characters, but their larger roles also deepen the story and the reader's understanding of the world.

The story, too, is a really fascinating one, with its interweaving of magical, ecological, and SF-nal elements, and Curse---unsurprisingly---enlarges on the foundations established in Crown. In doing so, the author expands the worldbuilding, which was an element I particularly liked. The ecology and landscapes are really different from Western European fantasy norms, and the societies and cultures reflect a similar diversity.

Salila

Where much of Crown was a pursuit, and accordingly raced along at breakneck speed, the pace of Curse reflects the company's mission to build alliances as well as having to hunt out the crown's component bones. I like the deepening of both world and characters that Curse's storytelling focus allows.

What I Didn't Like

Well, "nothing, really." :D The only point I remain unsure of is why Ash's guardian and mentor is so determined to suppress her phantom --- which may be because I've missed a crucial detail, or because all is yet to be finally revealed in Book 3. Needless to say, when that happy day arrives I shall be eager to read on and find out more.

Ash and Kaylin

Conclusion

If you enjoyed Crown of Bones, or books such as Kate Elliott's Cold Magic, Brent Weeks' The Black Prism , or Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone, then Curse of Shadows may also be in your reading wheelhouse.

I read the hardcover edition, 403 pp, published by Entangled Teen in December 2022, which was a gift from Kim (the author.) My only regret is that I haven't managed to read it and post here a whole lot sooner, because I feel the book merits the attention.

~*~

AK Wilder

About The Author

Kim Falconer, currentky 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

The "Band of Brothers" -- A Few More Fantasy Favorites!

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So far this year I've talked bands of brothers -- and sisters -- and how they lie at the heart of the Fantasy genre, as well as scooby gangs, the much-loved bromance, and sister acts. Last month, I also honed in on when brotherhoods and bromances go bad -- and although not nearly so many, they're definitely there in the genre.

Brothers in arms

This month, I'm going to share a few more favourite brotherhoods and where to find them, i.e. characters and books I have not yet mentioned in any other context. My plan is to feature some older and newer titles, starting with a subtheme of bridges...

The Bridgeburners that is, in Steven Malazan's Gardens of the Moon, which is the first book in his ten part series, The Malazan Book of the Fallen. The series has a ker-zillion characters and many bands of brothers, of varying degrees of hero to anti-heroism, but Captain Whiskeyjack and the Bridgeburners are my favourite. They're a very-rough-around-the-edges company of veterans who have been assigned a suicide mission to destroy infrastructure inside enemy territory. For my money, they're a quintessential "brotherhood" in the best epic style. If that kind of storytelling is your jam, I don't think you'll be disappointed. 

The Bridge crews, or Bridgemen, in Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings, Book One in the Stormlight Archive series. The Bridgemen are slaves, whose job is to carry wooden platforms (bridges) to wherever the armies they serve are fighting on the Shattered Plain, enabling the fighters to bridge the chasms that criss-cross the terrain. A former soldier called Kaladin turns his crew into a well-disciplined tight-knit band, which eventually becomes the personal guard of the army's overall commander -- although there's a lot more to it than that, of course!

Another of my favorite bands is the following that Hari (Harimad-Sol) pulls together in Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword. Perceiving a gap in her country's undermanned defenses against a demonic foe, Hari defies her leader and cobbles together an unlikely "band" of allies, comprising personal friends, enemy soldiers (think British soldiery like the Corp of Guides in colonial India), and legendary archers -- as well as fighting cats and warhounds.

No one does a Band of Brothers / Scooby Gang quite like Tamora Pierce, but the first I encountered was Alanna and her friends in The Song of The Lioness quartet. Alanna's 'gang' comprises Prince Jonathan and their page and squire friends, who grow up to become a true "band of brothers", fighting and serving together. It also includes less likely allies such as George Cooper, the Rogue or prince of thieves, and Sir Myles, a scholar knight. 

Although the star-crossed romance between Karou and Akiva is the heart of Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone (and the subsequent books in the trilogy of the same name), I've always liked the brotherhood between Akiva and his fellow seraphs, Liraz and Hazael -- especially when his love for Karou tests their warrior bonds.

When it comes to sisterhood, it's hard to go past Naomi Novik's A Deadly Education, and sequels in the Scolomance series. El, Aadhya, and Liu, and later Chloe, form a tightly knit unit to try and ensure their own survival and that of their fellow students. It's a kind of counter-culture on Harry Potter and Hogwarts, but in a world that is far darker and more dangerous from the outset.

From older titles to new, one with blue in its name but none -- so far as I know -- borrowed, if you haven't read 'em all already, I hope you find something to like. :-)

I'll be be back again on 1 October. In the meantime, read on! 

~*~

About the Author

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.

~*~

Previous Posts:

February: Honing in on 2021—Celebrating the "Band of Brothers"
March: Celebrating the "Band of Brothers" in Fantasy #2
April: Celebrating the "Scooby Gang" #3
May: Celebrating the "Band of Sisters"
June: From Band of Brothers To Bromance!
July: Sister Acts: from the "Band of Sisters" to True Sisterhood
August: When Brotherhoods -- and Bros -- Go Bad!