First, let's meet one of the authors, Lee French. Then, an excellent excerpt from Fallen: Greatest Sin Book 1!
Lee French lives in Olympia, WA with two kids, two bicycles, and too
much stuff. She is an avid gamer and active member of the Myth-Weavers online
RPG community, where she is known for her fondness for Angry Ninja Squirrels of
Doom. In addition to spending much time there, she also trains year-round for
the one-week of glorious madness that is RAGBRAI, has a nice flower garden with
absolutely no lawn gnomes, and tries in vain every year to grow vegetables that
don't get devoured by neighborhood wildlife.
Fallen: Greatest Sin Book One by, Lee French and Erik Kort
For hundreds of years, the Blaukenev clan has wandered across
Tilzam, from one end to the other and back. Each wagon carries history, love,
laughter, pain, sorrow, and secrets. Their greatest secret of all may be
Chavali, the clan Seer.
Spirits claim/use/save/damn her.
With her gift/curse, nothing surprises her anymore, no one keeps
secrets from her. She, on the other hand, has more than enough secrets to keep.
Secrets of her own, secrets of her clan, secrets of the world, secrets she even
keeps from herself.
There are always people who want secrets.
Some will do anything to get what they want.
The Fallen is the foundation of the story of The Greatest Sin, of
a world adrift from its God that desperately wants Her back. Chavali's comfortable,
predictable life will be ripped apart and burnt to ashes as she's forced into
the middle of that struggle. Change, she hates it passionately. It hates her
right back.
Excerpt from The Fallen:
“Come in.” They did
not speak the clan tongue in front of Outsiders, not without dire need, lest
someone overhear enough to translate it and learn it. Instead, they spoke
Shappan, the dominant language of Tilzam. Nearly everyone knew it, regardless
of country or native tongue. Along with the words, spoken in the light accent
of the clan, she lifted a hand to gesture to the stool opposite herself. “You
are welcome here.”
He was timid as a
mouse and small like one, too. Keino could probably lift this man over his head
with one hand, or break him in half over his knee. Chavali watched him take
small steps and dart his eyes all around. “Um, you’re the Seer?” His Shappan
was obviously better than her own, she could tell even with so few words
spoken.
“Yes. No one can see
into the tent, it is safe, you are safe here. Sit, be calm.” Coaxing a scared
little man onto the seat was not her preferred way to spend her time, and she
stifled a sigh and a roll of her eyes. “If you do not sit, I cannot help, yes?”
“Oh, right. Of
course.” He moved quickly, practically jumped onto the stool while shooting
terrified looks all around the tent. “I’ve just never done anything like this
before, and, um, I’m worried about…”
Holding out her hand,
she kept her tone calm and patient. “Give me your hand. I cannot help if I have
no connection to you.”
His audible gulp made
her want to roll her eyes again, but he tentatively offered her his hand. As
she seized it, the spirits rushed him, eager as always for new people to
interact with. DearCreatorIhopeyoucanhelpmeI’mdoomedthisissocrazy
“Calm,” she told him,
shutting her eyes to make it easier to focus on this pile of crap. “If you do
not calm down, I see nothing, just a bouncing jumble of nervous. Deep breath in
through your mouth, out through your nose. Come, do this a few times.”
His thoughts began to
settle as he followed her orders. It became less a rushed mush and more actual
coherent ideas. Amy is going to kill me for this. I shouldn’t be
doubting her, but I am, and I need to fix that. She’s a sweet girl, this is all
my fault.
“I see a name.
A-something, Anna? No, Amy. Does this name mean something to you?”
As expected, he gasped
a little. How does she know that? Is this the real thing? If she knows
that, she must know if she’s seeing Marcus or not. “Yes, that’s my
wife.”
“You worry about her,
you think she is meeting someone else?”
“Yes!” His mind
flooded with images of Amy, who he loved, deeply, but also with images of a man
much more virile than himself. That other man wore armor and used a blade for
his work. A city guard, perhaps, or a soldier.
“There is another
name, with a…’c’. But not at the front, maybe in the end? No, no, the middle.
Arcu, Marcus. Yes, Marcus. He wields authority.”
“Yes, he’s in the
Order of the Strong Arm, one of their knights. I need to know.” He already
knew, of course. That was the beauty of what Chavali did. All the answers were
in his mind already, he just needed someone else to say it out loud because he
couldn’t, the poor fool. People really were the same no matter where she went.
Still, it wasn’t good
to just say things like this aloud with no feeling or props, or anything to
give her an air of more authority than just pulling things out of the air. Her
free hand dipped into the pouch tied to the thin belt around her waist (it also
held a small blade in a sheath at the small of her back), pulled out five
objects at random and tossed them on the table. Keeping hold of his hand, she
peered down at the bones, finding it amusing that all five were actually bones.
The pouch also had crystals, stones, and even bits of shell and wood, all
minimally shaped and etched with ink-stained runes by her own hand.
It wasn’t that the
bones were only props - they had meaning for Chavali. It was that they weren’t
tools for divining. In this context, she used them as prompts, as ideas for how
to word things. “Mmm.” Starting with the one closest to him, because she didn’t
like having them out of her control for any longer than necessary, she picked
up a chicken wing bone, displayed it, then deposited it back into her pouch.
“Pain of the soul, for you.” The next was a finger bone, from Seer Marika’s
dead body. “Betrayal. Face down, the betrayer is a woman.” A bone from the paw
of a dog was next. She liked that dog enough to preserve a part of him. “Love,
but face down, so actually just lust.”
This was all so stupid
and predictable. His mind raced as her words confirmed everything he feared.
The next, a horse’s tooth, was an amusing addition. “Secrets. Many secrets.”
The last one almost always turned up when she did this. It was a chunk of
unidentified bone, picked up some time ago just because of its odd shape.
“Fear. There is much fear through all of this.”
She needed nothing
more from this man to make her pronouncement, and she didn’t care in the
slightest if it turned out to be true or not. They would be gone tomorrow
morning, and likely wouldn’t return for several years, if ever. Letting go of
his hand, she gave him a mildly sympathetic look. “The bones have spoken. She
has betrayed you, and you must deal with that in your own way. The bones, I
think, suggest you confront it head-on, but this Marcus may not be wise to cross.”
He nodded, resigned.
“Thank you.”
“It is not a thing I
wish to be thanked for. Good fortune to you.” She watched him get up and leave,
and snorted at him as soon as the tent flap was shut again. Idiot. He was, of
course, the first of today’s parade of idiots and twits, each of them with a
story as uninteresting as the next, a story Chavali had heard dozens of times
before.
Reviews:
"As every reader knows there are certain books we don't want to
end, and when we finally do close the book, we seem to grieve it. Well, The
Greatest Sin, is definitely one of those books. The author did a great job
pulling me into the story immediately, and then keeping me there. The story
moves along at a good pace, allowing the reader to connect with the characters,
while keeping the action flowing. The main character, Chavali, is mystical,
strong, and caring, making her very likable. I found this book to have
everything a great fantasy needs, from humor to action. I can't wait to read
the next book in this series. Do yourself a favor and read it." - Kim S.
"The other reviewers are right. The Fallen is an excellent
fantasy read! As I was reading through it, I could almost picture this Lord of
the Rings type of hobbit village meets gypsies. And reading The Fallen was like
stepping into this fantasy world of theirs and getting a behind the scenes peek
at their lives. You'll want to read The Fallen when you have a lot of time on
your hands, it's not a short read! Also, I would describe this book as an EPIC
fantasy! The authors have created such a world that it would be a shame to not
continue this series." - Carrie January
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