The Soul of Power
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
Magic. Romance. Music. The riveting conclusion to The Waking Land trilogy.
Sophy Dunbarron has always felt like an imposter. Separated from her birth mother, raised by parents mourning the loss of their true daughter and unacknowledged by her absent father, Sophy only desires one thing: a place and a family to call her own.
But fate has other ideas in mind. Caught up in Elanna Valtai's revolution, Sophy has been crowned queen - a role she has been groomed her whole life to fill.
But wearing a crown is quite different to keeping a crown. With an influx of magic-bearing refugees pouring in across the border, resources already thinned by war are stretched to the breaking point. Half the nobility in her court want her deposed, and the other half question her every decision. And every third person seems to be spontaneously manifesting magical powers.
When Elanna is captured and taken to Paladis, Sophy's last ally vanishes, and she is left to navigate a political maze that becomes more complex and thorny by the day. And worse, Sophy is hiding a huge secret, which, if discovered, could destroy her tenuous hold on the crown.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bates brilliantly concludes an impressive high fantasy trilogy (after The Waking Land and The Memory of Fire) with this tale of scheming and magic. The first book showed heroine Elanna liberating the potential for magic in Caeris and Eren, two antagonistic countries that share an island. The second concentrated on action and intrigue in the nearby empire of Paladis, where Elanna's lover, Jahan, struggled to accept and master his own supernatural talents. This volume is narrated by their friend Sophy Dunbarron, the insecure young queen of an uneasily united Caeria and Eren. Powerful enemies are plotting against Sophy, especially when she still unmarried reveals that she is pregnant. Meanwhile, though ignorant prejudice against magic persists, people all over the realm are beginning to dream odd dreams and develop strange talents, including Sophy herself. New alliances are made and excruciating physical tests met, and Sophy must grow up fast. Bates handles the characters' personal conflicts convincingly and skillfully works the strands of magic into their experience. This is a fresh, confident, powerful accomplishment.
