AmazonIn a wondrous world where a frost-covered region is contrasted with a sultry realm of lava and fire, the forces of cold are threatened by armies of flame, and a princess must stand between them.
New fantasy novelist Selah J. Tay-Song has created a unique landscape where exotic beasts—hippoles, chirats, and slinks—roam the tundras and lava rivers of two opposing continents: Isklaon, inhabited by the Icers, and Chraun, the kingdom of the Flames.
Their territories are connected by underground tunnels, and both the Icers and the Flames derive subtle energies from the T’Jas, a kind of vibrational wave that emanates from extremes of cold and heat. Flames are protected by a layer of lava mesh on their skin, Icers by vaerce, a crackling blue glow. Humans, known as Semija, are kept as servants in this fantasy universe.
Stasia, an Icer princess, has been having dreams, the first person of her generation to be so gifted. She is haunted by visions of the legendary blue cavern of V’lthurst (“land of dangerous beauty”), and, certain her that dreams are always prophetic, she is convinced that she can and will find it.
But she and her sister princesses will first have to deal with Flame King Dynat, whose goal is to reduce Iskalon to a cinder. Aided by her friend and healer Larc and her guardian Glace, Stasia begins exploring the tunnel that links her icy home to Dynat’s fiery kingdom, even as he attempts to destroy her country in a horrific blaze.
Constructed in episodes told from the many character’s viewpoints, Dream of a Vast Blue Cavern projects a seamless, mythic atmosphere.
The author has invented imaginative fantasy names and terms that sometimes veer close to earthly language (“egla”, like “igloo”, for house), and has appended a helpful glossary and a list of Icer and Flame military ranks. It is a difficult task to keep so many threads of plot running concurrently, but the reader will soon feel comfortably immersed, because Tay-Song is a skillful storyteller and because at its core, her story is logical and consistent.
Tay-Song planned this book as the first in a series (Dreams of Qai Maj) with alluring mysteries at the end needing resolution.
Dream of a Vast Blue Cavern is a stirring saga featuring an ice princess with a warm heart, at war with a cold, heartless flame king in a shimmering world of crystal frost and blazing lakes.
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