Release date: July 18,2015
Sub-genre: Fantasy, Steampunk, Metaphysical
About Mir: shamanworld Books 1-3
Follow the adventures of young shaman Annat Vasilyevich and her close-knit but eccentric family as they travel between worlds and fight fearsome enemies.
From quirky humour to deep sorrow, watch her as she grows from an awkward teenager to a young woman, trying to master her magical powers, understand her complex sexual nature and avoid getting killed by fanatical medieval lords, foreign wizards and the Inquisition.
Annat is a Wanderer and a shaman in a world where Wanderers are outcast and shamans are viewed with fear and suspicion. Will she survive to adulthood, or will she be killed and exiled to the underworld where shamans continue to travel even after death?
This boxed set includes the first three novels in this fantasy adventure series: Children of the Shaman, The Glass Mountain, and Malarat.
From quirky humour to deep sorrow, watch her as she grows from an awkward teenager to a young woman, trying to master her magical powers, understand her complex sexual nature and avoid getting killed by fanatical medieval lords, foreign wizards and the Inquisition.
Annat is a Wanderer and a shaman in a world where Wanderers are outcast and shamans are viewed with fear and suspicion. Will she survive to adulthood, or will she be killed and exiled to the underworld where shamans continue to travel even after death?
This boxed set includes the first three novels in this fantasy adventure series: Children of the Shaman, The Glass Mountain, and Malarat.
Excerpt:
Annat put on her black Kinsale cloak and looked at herself in the mirror. Out of the shadow of the hood, only one of her eyes shone brilliantly, seeming to reflect a thousand reflections itself. She covered her magical eye with her hand, not an eye-patch, and at once the illusion was gone. Why had they given her that eye, which seemed to work only in certain lights – what message had they been trying to teach Annat, when they put out her human eye and replaced it with one from faerie? And what had they been trying to teach Yuda when they maimed him – that no-one could possess infinite power?
Casildis had invited Annat to celebrate the worship of the Goddess with other women in the Alyscamps. Though Annat had not stopped believing in her Wanderer faith, she could not deny the existence of the Goddess, for like Govorin, she had met her. She knew the true power of the twofold deity with her dark and light aspects – and Casildis had hinted that there were other avatars of the goddess, which could not be divided into dark or light, good or evil.
Annat went down the stairs with the cloak rustling about her. She was herself a dark figure, dressed in black, with none of the festive colours that the other women would put on. I am like a shadow, she thought, and it was a thought that partly pleased her. Except for Malchik, she had always thought of her family as being shadow-like in their sombre dress. They were the black and white images of a camera obscura, briefly caught on a luminous surface. She felt that she held the thought cupped inside her, as if her hands held a flower, like a rose or a water-lily.
The other women waiting in the hall also wore cloaks and hoods, and they were masked – but it was easy to recognise Casildis by her stature and her long fair hair, let down from its usual set. Katya was holding her hand, and for once Annat was amused to see that her mother had persuaded her to put on a dress, a scarlet robe made from velvet. She wore a fox mask and was carrying her favoured doll, Loumi, dangling from her free hand.
Annat herself did not need to put on a mask because she was not a member of the sect. The Women, as they were known, did not prohibit their gatherings to outsiders, though men were not encouraged to attend every ceremony. Philippe would have been permitted to come, because of his age, but had decided that he was a man and did not wish to be young enough tonight. Casildis whispered this to Annat before they set out.
About Jessica Rydill:
Jessica Rydill was born in Bath, England but can trace her ancestry back to Ireland, Prussia and Yorkshire. With Irish Catholic and Jewish roots, she has always been obsessed with religion, myth and folklore, especially that of Eastern Europe. She did a lot of travelling in her twenties, including a spell as a volunteer on a kibbutz, and a visit to Swaziland as a volunteer, nominally. Latterly she preferred going to France, as her books were inspired by a workcamp in Drome in 1980, where she worked on restoring the village church. Two of the villages she visited, Eyzahut and La Garde Adhemar, appear in her first book, Children of the Shaman.
Jessica's novels are a cross-genre mash-up; they embrace fantasy with mediaeval warlords, and steampunk adventure with lightning-wielding shamans. Magic is used to solve daily problems, with unexpected results, and a myriad of underworlds and other dimensions are only a short step away.
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