THE STORM GATHERS

Three ambitious women struggle for control in a world descending into chaos in Holladay’s debut fantasy novel.

For the past five years, Alana Zaya has served unhappily as the queen of the jungle nation of Jaarin, where her sharp personality has won her the nickname “the Queen of Darkness.” She’s just received word that her mother, the queen of her homeland, Okaro, has just died. Alana is doubly pleased: she didn’t have much love for her mother, Emira (who recently tried to have Alana assassinated), and now she can return to her wind-swept island homeland and take its throne for herself. That is, if she can survive the trip across the wide Western sea. Elsewhere on the continent, Rae Toma is helping to lead a rebellion against Argos Vedros, the king of Siora, while serving as one of his royal guards. When an agent of the king manages to uncover her identity, Rae is forced to flee the country with an old friend, straight into a deadly collection of islands known as the Shatter. Witch-in-training Nur Del Sue grew up in the Shatter. Her father was a foreigner who washed up on an island—and vanished just as suddenly, with no explanation. Marked as an outsider by her people, Nur is desperate to prove herself. Fate has put these three women on a collision course, but will they help each other achieve their ambitions? Will bad things happen if they do? Holladay’s kinetic prose brings her characters to dramatic life, as here when Alana relishes a storm at sea: “Lightning splintered across the sky, and the rain fell harder, churning the ocean beneath them. Waves licked up the side of the ship like flames, spilling over the deck. She laughed. The sound came out of her with an explosion of joy. Yes. This was where she belonged.” Many of the elements of the setting and story will be familiar to fantasy fans; even so, Holladay’s worldbuilding is rich and subtle, and her protagonists are memorably bold. Readers will look forward to a sequel.

An electric work of epic fantasy.