(jacket flap text)
HOPE and LOVE --
PRIDE and HONOR
Monsters wander the world of Mikon.
Caught in the aftermath of a vicious international war, thousands of refugees have fled the Coastal States, bringing their dangers with them into the wilderness near the untamed Middlelands.
Castaways from an imploding civilization -- fighting to find and to understand the most dangerous of treasures...
Portunista: innovative, ambitious, intemperate; a maga seeking her path to Imperial glory...
Seifas: dark and lethal, alienating, poetic; a hunter whose words are his tears...
Gaekwar: lanky, laconic, sardonic; 'only a cowherd', yet wielding exotic weaponry...
Othon: the Implacable One; a quiet, quick-thinking giant of a man...
Dagon: arrogant, insecure, buffoonish; a miserable commander with a knack for solving puzzles...
Pooralay: ruthless and compassionate, loud and brusque -- when he wants to be; a thug on a mystical quest...
Bomas: renegade killer, planning a subtle genocide; Artabanus: self-proclaimed Arbiter, drawing every power to himself; Praxiteles: incompetent madman, possessing and possessed by the Roguent Gamin...
In their increasingly desperate struggles -- for food, for knowledge, for life itself --
-- what will make the difference between brigades and bands of brigands?
......................................
I often try to do something in regard to my novels sometime around Valentine's Day each year. (The timing is semi-random, but the novels are romantic so that's one reason. :) )
This year I'm going to try posting the first half of my epic fantasy novel Cry of Justice to the forum.
CoJ won the inaugural Novel of the Year retailer vote held by the Christian Small Publishers Association back in 2008. (At the time it was for books published in 2007 or early 2008, so originally the award was for 2007; but since the years are rather split, they soon changed the enumeration to the year the vote is held. Thus officially it's Best Novel 2008, but I have a habit of calling it 2007 sometimes.)
This is as good a time as any to caution in advance that, yes, there's some religious discussion in the novel. For what it's worth, I was routinely refused publication by Christian publishing houses on the ground that I wasn't nearly Christian enough. ;D It's mostly a vague theism behind a paganism variant. It is most certainly NOT a version of the Narnian Chronicles--as will become especially apparent around Valentine's Day. ;)
If I can post at least five pages a day or one chapter's worth (some of my chapters are very short, especially at the beginning), I should be able to reach the end of Section Three, 137 pages, almost halfway through, by Feb 14 (one of the more romantic chapters by no coincidence of scheduling at all 8) ); and I'll probably continue afterward into Section Four to the end of chapter 45, a couple pages shy of halfway.
This is the announcement thread, and I'll use the next comment to create links to the chapters as I post them, with several chapters (or portions of chapter for long ones) per thread.
(Note: originally it was one chapter per thread but I compiled them to avoid swamping the Books category. Longblade or another ad/mod should delete the old original threads soon.)
Members can ask questions and make general comments in subsequent comments of this thread. The chapter threads themselves will be open for member discussion immediately after I post-create them.
Cry of Justice should be available for order at any major online book retailer, including Amazon (where the link in my signature leads to). Ebook versions are not currently available, except as locked pdfs from my distributor Atlas Books. (At the time I published, autumn 2007, Kindle and other eformats would have ruined some of the important formatting cues in the text. This still seems to be true, for the Kindle format anyway.) But Amazon has several members selling copies they received for free during various promotions in years past, at ridiculously low prices (for which I will receive no compensation ;) ), and the books themselves are well-made hardbacks with dustjackets.
Table of Contents [Links to be included at my convenience as I post]
Preface (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4378.msg100655#msg100655) 1
Introduction—To A World (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4378.msg100657#msg100657) 3
Section One—TURNING POINTS
Words that are Tears (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4378.msg100662#msg100662) 9
The Obligation of a Bleeding Soul (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4378.msg100668#msg100668) 11
The Cry (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4378.msg100745#msg100745) 15
Prices of Sheep (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4378.msg100748#msg100748) 18
To Deny and to Test (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4397.msg101271#msg101271) 24
Dances (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4397.msg101274#msg101274) 27
Fires, Composures and Any Sword (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4397.msg101276#msg101276) 30
No Easy Prey 35 Part 1 (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4397.msg101562#msg101562), and Part 2 (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4397.msg101900#msg101900)
Balances Regained (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4397.msg102525#msg102525) 46
Section Two—DOWNSLOPE
Sealed (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4439.msg102533#msg102533) 51
An Autumn Breeze (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4439.msg103010#msg103010) 54
The Cowherd (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4439.msg103012#msg103012) 57
Weeds and Oaks (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4439.msg103022#msg103022) 60
Parries and Ripostes (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4439.msg103023#msg103023) 62
The Monster Inside (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4439.msg103213#msg103213) 64
Adding Things Up (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4439.msg103214#msg103214) 66
Calculated Risks (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4479.msg103544#msg103544) 70
Signs of Change in the Weather (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4479.msg103830#msg103830) 76
Waiting and Humming (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4479.msg103831#msg103831) 78
Path Through the Woods (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4479.msg103832#msg103832) 81
Getting to Know (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4479.msg104657#msg104657) 85
Section Three—FIRST NIGHT
In with Him (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4540.msg105128#msg105128) 95
Together in the Dark (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4540.msg105131#msg105131) 99
Fazed (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4540.msg105528#msg105528) 106
Settling In (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4540.msg105529#msg105529) 110
Onward and Upward (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4540.msg106185#msg106185) 114
Living, Unliving and Chafing (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4540.msg106187#msg106187) 118
When Nothing Matters 121 Part 1 (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4540.msg106190#msg106190) and Part 2 (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4540.msg106639#msg106639)
Victory (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4612.msg107189#msg107189) 131
Facing the Facts (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4612.msg107906#msg107906) 137
When Something Matters (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4612.msg107908#msg107908) 140
To Believe and Not to Believe (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4612.msg107909#msg107909) 153
Matters of the Heart (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4612.msg108122#msg108122) 157
Opportunity (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4612.msg108123#msg108123) 160
As Silent as a Breeze (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4612.msg108602#msg108602) 162
How It Is to Be (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4612.msg108603#msg108603) 164
Good Morning (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4612.msg109099#msg109099) 166
Section Four—COMPLICATIONS
Shapes of History (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4718.msg109922#msg109922) 173
The Grass (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4718.msg109924#msg109924) 177
Eyes (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4718.msg110589#msg110589) 183
The Forest for the Trees (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4718.msg110593#msg110593) 187
Results (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4718.msg110896#msg110896) 198
Glimpses of Twisting (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4718.msg110897#msg110897) 201
Studies (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4718.msg111309#msg111309) 204
Heart and Stone (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4718.msg111863#msg111863) 212
[Note: halfway point of the book; posting target for Valentine's Day]
Convocation 221
Worsts 229
Indunas 241
House of Cards 250
Alone 258
Almost Perfect 267
Section Five—WITHIN
The Right Trust 275
Captains 282
Corners 290
Tensions 303
Call to Glory 307
The Man Behind the Door 315
Marshallings 329
Section Six—WITHOUT
The Heart of the People 343
Hearts of Sacrifice 348
The River Begins to Crumble 354
Butchery 358
Desperate Faces 366
Rain of Hammers 373
Enough 382
Avalanche Dancing 388
The Cry from Above 402
The Fall 409
Resolutions 416
Loose Ends 422
Accomplishing, Not Finishing 430
To Know and to Wonder 436
Threats and Opportunities 442 (final page 444)