If you have been looking for a speculative-fiction epic adventure in which three young people with only the sketchiest notion of their planet’s true history find themselves taking pivotal roles to save their world, may I suggest THE THARASSAS CYCLE by J. Scott Coatsworth? The third and final full-length entry in the saga, THE HENCHA QUEEN, drops on March 14! (Click highlighted title for universal buy links.)
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And continue reading for an excerpt from THE HENCHA QUEEN (copyright 2024 by J. Scott Coatsworth: All Rights Reserved):
A sharp crack filled the wine cellar. Kerrick swung the heavy mallet back and then assailed the flopwood boards that blocked the tunnel entrance again. The ancient wood splintered under the blow, sending shards clattering across the stone-paved floor.
It felt good to work out his frustrations. Still, the stubborn wood held out against his assault.
He rested the mallet on the black-tiled stone floor, wiping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. Even after a hundred years, the barrier was strong. He’d tried to pry the boards out of the solid stone, but they’d been fastened in too tightly. Brute force it is.
“You’re doing great!” Cor’Lea’s voice was artificially bright, and she was as tall as he was, maybe a little taller, peering over his shoulder at the sealed tunnel entrance.
Silya had tasked her with bringing him down here to check out these hidden caverns under the Temple, in preparation for the coming war. Important, sure, but also clearly an excuse to get him out from underfoot while she prepared for her official Raising.
He grunted. “Thanks. These boards are hard as iron.” And hard as Silya’s will.
One day things would be different between them, once this crisis was over. I just have to be patient.
Coral laughed. “I’m sure a big, strong man like you can break through them easily.” She squeezed his bicep appreciatively.
He shrugged her off. He wasn’t sure if the gawky initiate was flirting with him or just trying to encourage him to get on with it, but either way, he wasn’t interested. “Stand back.” He hefted the hammer again, and she scurried out of his way.
He suppressed a smile, swinging the mallet around for another heavy blow.
Craack.
This time the board buckled inward visibly. Another few hits should do it.
He pulled back the heavy iron hammer again and hit the same spot with blow after blow. Craack. Craack. Craack.
The mallet broke through and a board fell away into splinters, clattering across the stone floor. One down, three more to go. “Why did they seal this cavern up?”
Cor’Lea gestured at the natural chamber. “There was a winery here before the Temple. Sister Dor said they used to use it for extra wine storage.” She looked around the natural chamber, which was now filled with wooden shelving holding a variety of bottled food stores. “When Jas ordered the Temple to be constructed, they kept this wide cavern and blocked off the rest of the tunnels.”
“Just in case the gully rats got in?” That thief Raven had apparently made his home in one of the underground tunnels. Who knew who else—or what else—lived down there?
Cor’Lea snorted. “Maybe.”
Are tunnels all connected, somehow? That was one of Silya’s most urgent projects, to map out the network of caverns beneath the city. Another reason she sent me down here—to get me out from under her robes.
A few more whacks at the next board served to both break it and let out his frustrations at the situation preventing him from doing his sworn job and keeping them apart. And at what she said was coming.
Craack. Craack. Craack.
The board snapped in half, and he judged that he’d cleared enough space to step through into the blocked-off tunnel. “Hand me that lantern?
Cor’Lea complied, taking the opportunity to brush his hand.
He rolled his eyes. I should be flattered. But his heart was already taken.
It was times like these he wished his brother Enrick were still alive. He’d know what to do. He’d been absurdly confident about everything, even though he’d been younger than Kerrick.
Kerrick wasn’t great with women.
He took the lantern and stepped over the bottom board, holding it in front of him. The bright light temporarily blinded him as he sought to get his bearings.
“What do you see?” Cor’Lea peered through the hole behind him.
His sight adjusted, and the tunnel’s walls came into focus.
He whistled. Stacked along the side of the tunnel were hundreds of crates, all strapped together in groups and sealed. “It’s… I don’t know what it is. But I’ll bet Silya will be surprised.” They’d have to find a place to put all this stuff—whatever it was, it was likely rotten after all this time. Silya needed somewhere to store people, not ancient goods.
Cor’Lea stepped carefully over the splintered boards to join him. “What do you think’s inside them?”
The long row of crates disappeared into the darkness. Who knew what the ancients had considered valuable enough to stash down here. Coin? Lost treasure? “One way to find out. Does the Temple have a crowbar?”
Three key things about THE HENCHA QUEEN:
You’ll definitely get more out of it if you read the first and second books; there’s a ton of world-building, a large cast of characters, and interwoven story threads. If you’ve read THE DRAGON EATER and THE GAUNTLET RUNNER, you’ll be prepared for the shifts in point-of-view and aware of the tangled relationships.
About those relationships: the three main characters of THE THARASSAS CYCLE are Raven (a thief), Aik (a Guard), and Silya (a priestess Queen). Aik & Silya once had a thing. Raven and Aik have started a thing. When THE HENCHA QUEEN begins, they’ve all been separated for an entire book, and what with the existential threat looming over them, working through their personal stuff isn’t a high priority. But they are young, so personal stuff is never far out of mind. Additionally, all three are now in symbiotic relationships (in Aik’s case, a non-benign symbiosis) with other creatures or forces.
While this saga is in many ways High Fantasy, it also wraps in spacefaring technology. The world in which we find ourselves had native inhabitants of the type whose sentience is non-apparent to the humans who settled the planet centuries ago. Poor records and intentional secrecy impede our three protagonists in their race to save the world.
One last note. Gender diversity (and indeed gender fluidity) is a given in this saga. Emotional and physical relationships are pretty much all in the pansexual, panromantic space. The validity of nonhuman intelligence is also a given.
For these reasons, I appreciate these books — and hope you will too. Go get ‘em!