Chaos&Flame von Tessa Gratton, Justina Ireland

Kategorie: Bücher
Seiten / Format: 336 S
Erscheinungsjahr: 2023
Verlag: Penguin Random HouseRazorbill
Sprache: Englisch
ISBN: 9780593619599
Auflage / Bände: INT

A gripping fantasy about betrayal, forgiveness, loss, and loyalty amid a magical war.Publishers Weekly<br><br>The focus on family bonds and support adds realism, while the inclusion of prophetic dreams and visions creates intrigue.Kirkus<br><br>This fast-paced, action-filled fantasy reads like a mix ofGame of ThronesandAvatar: The Last Airbender.BCCB<br><br>Political intrigue, magic, and intricate worldbuilding will draw in readers.SLJ<br><br>Gratton and Ireland are no strangers to new and fantastic settings, and this first of a duology should prove to be as enthralling as all their individual offerings.Booklist<br><br>An intriguing cast of characters and a diverse, queer normative fantasy realm make this novel stand out.Shelf Awareness<br><br>The first time the scion of House Dragon painted the eyeless girl, he was only six years old. She was nothing but a face shaped with finger smears of brown, a darker crooked line that might've been a sad smile, and huge, swirling black holes where her eyes should be.<br><br>"I don't know how to save her,"he said to his mother when he presented the art to her.<br><br>His mother accepted the soft parchment, doing her best to hide the horror she felt at the red-rimmed, furious eyeholes in her son's painting. Casually, she asked,"Why is she in danger?"<br><br>"I don't know."<br><br>"What happened to her eyes?"<br><br>"Nothing yet."The little boy shrugged.<br><br>Though the Dragon consort asked a few more delicate questions, he could give her no answers. But he drew the eyeless girl again and again, and told his nurse about her, and his aunt, and his father eventually. That was a mistake, because he was far too old for imaginary friends, his father growled. The consort promised her husband, the Dragon regent, it was only childish play, and their son would grow out of it.<br><br>Better an imaginary friend, she thought, than the truth she suspected deep in her heart: her son had been gifted with a boon, but it was a prophetic one, and prophecy always, always drove the wielder mad.<br><br>The people of Pyrlanum would never accept a regent with such a wild boon, and to shield her eldest son, the consort extracted a promise from him to stop talking about the girl, and certainly to stop painting her. He must never paint anything from a dream or vision. It was dangerous. The young scion agreed, thrilled to have such an illicit thing binding him with his mother.<br><br>And he kept his promise for two entire years, until his mother was murdered.<br><br>The day she died, the consort and the scion were pruning in their private garden. She injured herself on a few reckless roses, and when she gasped, the scion saw a flash of vision, in strokes of vivid paint: a fan of dark blue skirts against the harsh black-and-white checkered floor of his mother's solar, golden sunlight smeared in streaks, and a kiss of crimson splattered at her mouth and in her hair. A spilled cup near her hand, leaking sickly green.<br><br>It would have been a beautiful painting, had he been allowed to create it.<br><br>But the scion had learned his lesson well. His boon was a curse and he did not say or do anything.<br><br>Later, when his mother lay dead on the marble floor, the boy realized this was not a game, not a thrilling secret: it was a matter of life and death. Had he been braver, he might have saved his mother from the poison in that cup.<br><br>He wailed and clawed at his hair until his aunt, his mother's sister, gathered him up in her arms."What happened, little dragon, who did this?"<br><br>The scion hugged her neck so tightly."Don't tell anyone,"he begged."I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I couldn't save her, I didn't even try! I'm sorry! Please."<br><br>"Hush, hush, it's all right."<br><br>"I didn't save her,"he whispered, sobbing."I have to save her."<br><br>"It's too late, little dragon,"his aunt murmured.<br><br>"No,"he said again and again. He threw himself away from his aunt and ran to his rooms. Found chalk and old cracked paint pots and ripped paper out of books in a tantrum. The scion drew and drew, scrawling images of that eyeless girl. He refused food, he refused his father and his baby brother, he refused everything but paint, and finally locked the door, screaming to be left alone unless anybody was going to help.<br><br>When his aunt had the door kicked in, the scion's room was a disaster of paintings and spilled color. Wasted effort, childish, ugly pictures. Blurs and shapes that looked like nothing but the impressions of landscapes or people, castles and gardens and ships and massive, ancient creatures the Houses called their empyreals. A figure of fire, broad winged and gorgeous. The eyeless girl. His aunt recognized theFromNew York Timesbestselling author Justina Ireland and Tessa Gratton comes the first book in a ferocious YA fantasy duology featuring ancient magic, warring factions, and a romance between the two people in the world with the most cause to hate one another.<br><br>Darling Seabreakcannot remember anything before the murder of her family at the hands of House Dragon, but she knows she owes her life to both the power of her Chaos Boon and House Kraken for liberating her from the sewers where she spent her childhood. So when her adoptive Kraken father is captured in battle, Darling vows to save him even if that means killing each and every last member of House Dragon.<br> <br>Talon Goldhoardhas always been a dutiful War Prince for House Dragon, bravely leading the elite troops of his brother, the High Prince Regent. But lately his brother s erratic rule threatens to undo a hundred years of House Dragon s hard work, and factions are turning to Talon to unseat him. Talon resists, until he s ambushed by a fierce girl who looks exactly like the one his brother has painted obsessively, repeatedly, for years, and Talon knows she s the key to everything.<br> <br>Together, Darling and Talon must navigate the treacherous waters of House politics, caught up in the complicated game the High Prince Regent is playing against everyone. The unlikeliest of allies, they ll have to stop fighting each other long enough to learn to fight together in order to survive the fiery prophecies and ancient blood magic threatening to devastate their entire world.USJustina Irelandis theNew York Timesbestselling author of fifteen novels and four anthology contributions, includingDread NationandDeathless Divide. She is a former editor in chief ofFIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, for which she won a World Fantasy Award, and her work has been shortlisted numerous times for state and literary awards. She holds a BA in History from Georgia Southern University and an MFA in creative writing from Hamline University. Visit her at authorjustinaireland.com or followher on Twitter @justinaireland.<br><br>Tessa Grattonis the author of adult and YA SFF novels and short stories that have been translated into twenty-two languages, long-listed for the Otherwise Award, and several have been Junior Library Guild Selections. Her most recent novels are the dark queer fairy talesStrange GraceandNight Shine, and the queer Shakespeare retellingLady Hotspur. Her upcoming work includes the YA fantasyChaos and Flame(2023), and novels ofStar Wars: The High Republic.Though she has lived all over the world, she currently resides at the edge of the Kansas prairie with her wife. She/any.

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