Greetings, travelers! It’s been an Otherworld-filled week, and that shows no serious signs of stopping, as we pivot back from sci-fi to sword and sorcery. We have a lovely treat for you today in the form of an epic fantasy story by a dedicated author that you won’t soon forget. If that has you intrigued, read on to learn more about Forged in Gold, Book One of the Golden One Trilogy.
Katie Schoumaker has been honing her storytelling skills for over a decade, and it shows with the release of her wonderful debut, Forged in Gold, Book One of the Golden One Trilogy. An immense epic, filled with foundational lore about the world, this author knows how to develop something that is captivating. While books like these can sometimes feel a bit intense, Schoumaker balances it out with rich, dynamic characters, worldbuilding that feels expressive and interesting, and a story that grows as its secrets are revealed. And while it is vast and tremendous in its scope, the author helps to bring understanding to her readers not only through beautifully-crafted descriptions, but also with a glossary appendix that helps to keep things straight.
In a realm whose many civilizations have turned on one another after years of cultural intolerance, greed, and bloody battles for power, Aurelia Brentwood serves as Queen of Akkinor, the realm’s most influential nation. After only five years, her reign is interrupted by an uprising orchestrated by those who prefer to see a man on the throne. Alone and betrayed, Aurelia makes the harrowing journey to the western continent of Carthe: a treacherous, unfamiliar place predisposed to hatred of Akkinorians. Aurelia must put her faith in strangers as she travels to Taundosa, the City of Gold, in search of allies and answers.
As Aurelia’s negative opinions of Carthe and its people change throughout her journey, she’s given the opportunity to make history by securing the allies she needs to defeat her enemies. At the same time, she realizes that her own subjects aren’t the only ones desperately in need of a just, selfless ruler. The people she once viewed as heathens and barbarians may now turn to the Queen of Akkinor for salvation – all while the people of Akkinor wonder if their true leader will ever return to rescue them from a usurper’s cruelty.
What begins as a quest to reclaim her throne becomes the fulfillment of something long forgotten by all: an individual’s ability to restore peace to the realm by accomplishing the unknown. Aurelia’s story becomes the catalyst for a chain reaction of events that threaten to tear the realm apart even further – or, if the gods are kind, to unite the realm as never seen before.
Michael DeAngelo
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