Sorcery Rising by Jude Fisher

From the Publisher

DAW is proud to present Sorcery Rising-a book which we believe will prove to be one of the most exciting fantasy debuts of our time.

Its author, Jude Fisher, is a major U.K. publisher who oversees the British publication of all of J.R.R. Tolkien's work-which led to her writing The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings Visual Companion.

Filled with magic and magical quests, war and deception, sex and romance, and painted on a canvas rich with different fantastic cultures and exotic landscapes, and with one of the most dynamic and charismatic heroines to ever grace the pages of a fantasy novel, Sorcery Rising is a true blockbuster.

And to top it all off, the breath-taking jacket art is from world-famous artist Michael Whelan.

Publishers Weekly

Jude Fisher (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings Visual Companion) inaugurates his Fool's Gold series with Sorcery Rising, the story of a rebellious young knife maker's adventures at the great Allfair, held yearly in the shadow of a sacred rock that her people, the Eyrans, call Sur's Castle, and the Istrians (their former enemies) call Falla's Rock. Though Katla Aransen's boldness in climbing the mount puts her in grave danger, old feuds and strange sorcery seem equally threatening in a tale that asks as many questions as it answers. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

An accomplished knife maker and skilled rock climber, Katla Aransen travels to her first Allfair to ply her trade. When she unwittingly climbs a rock sacred to the people of the Moonfell Plain, she unleashes a storm of events that changes her life and that of her father forever. Even more world-shaking events take place in the land of Elda, and a fugitive albino mage, a woman with no memory, and a mysterious black cat hold secrets that have the power to alter the fate of the world. Fisher's (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings Visual Companion) series opener provides a fast-paced introduction to a world of magic-wielding nomads, ice-bound havens of magic, and royal courts filled with treachery and intrigue. Fans of epic fantasy should enjoy this tale; For most fantasy collections. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A fantasy debut from the pseudonymous Fisher (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Visual Companion), an established English fantasy/SF publisher and expert on J.R.R. Tolkien. Here, the aging master magician Rahe seemingly goes mad in Sanctuary, his arctic ice palace, and begins destroying the pathways to magic that he has taught Virelai, his 29-year-old sorcerer's apprentice. Rahe reduces and feeds his spells into his black cat Bete. In the process, he reveals to Virelai, by way of a scrying lens, the horrors and beauties of Elda and the island-kingdom of Eyra in the lands beyond Sanctuary, as well as the naked body of a supernally beautiful woman with silver hair (and no memory), a vision that stirs Virelai's member to its first-ever hardening (at 29, somewhat delayed). Upset, Virelai leaves a poisoned meal for Rahe, catnaps Bete and her bellyful of magic spells, and sails away from Sanctuary to see a world unknown. Meanwhile on Eyra, red-haired Katla Aransen, 19 and hungry for the world, with her twin brother Fent and merchant father, arrives by sail at the Moonfell Plain and the mount that Eyrans call Sur's Castle, to attend the Allfair and sell Katla's famous knives. Katla, a supernaturally gifted rock climber as well as blade-maker, commits sacrilege by climbing the sacred Falla's Rock, as the Istrians call Sur's Castle, her blasphemy doubled by her sex. Thus the Istrian elders declare death to Katla. Also arriving at the Allfair-to sell their bloodstock of tricksy and skittish colts-are the Vingo clan, and, after them, shimmering, pulsing caravans of magic nomads called the Footloose. At once, hearts groan as romances twist and turn. Also on hand are the gloriousbeauty scryed by Rahe, who causes all men to feel fire within. Nice touches but largely familiar hop-hop-hop kid stuff that never rises to the dramatically big or spineshaking.

Product Details

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents