****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Sit back, and grip the armchair: Welcome to the Queendom! (But make sure you've got a strong stomach as well as strong arms and bring a bottle of fresh water 'cause we ain't in ye olde Europe anymore!) Meet a cast of complex characters who will inspire, disgust, thrill, horrify, and teach you a thing or two in the process, all in a Persian-like desert world of drought, rebellion, shifting alliances, and war. Get to know mystics, healers, seers, magicians, royals, politicians, warriors, nomads, servants, and rebels who refuse to take it anymore. But be forewarned: these aren't elves and orcs but real people with genuine struggles and motivations.Storm Dancer is a fast-paced, character-driven journey on the dark side of what it means to be a good person (by your own standards) with at least one fabulous fatal flaw. How can we integrate our dark selves, which we need to survive, and transform ourselves into the heroes/heroines we were meant to be?Former siege commander, Dahoud of the Desert, once known as the Black Besieger, is a decent man beset with a cruel djinn... but this is not a clever beast from an ancient cave or a foreign world. This djinn eats inside him, a hunger he cannot sate. Nor escape. Like all real people, he fights the hardest battle against himself. He is a skilled warrior who yearns for battle and hungers for raping a strong woman who will give him the fight of his life. On the other hand, he knows his need is wrong and must defeat his djinn. He faked his own death and has removed himself from the victories that feed it. He wants to be a respected satrap living happily with the lordsdaughter he loves. But is he willing to risk feeding the djinn again to have both his wife and a lordship? When the sadistic Queen's consort, Kirral, dangling the carrot of what Dahoud most wants, sends the former besieger to vanquish rebellious and drought-stricken Koskara, it's time to find out if Dahoud can make amends for his past and win the people over rather than return to his old life and destroy them. The question is: who can he trust when the people he hopes to save don't want him to save them?While Dahoud is born of the fiery desert, Merida comes from the water, ready to "baptize" all into right living by her shining presence. Riverian by birth, she is the product of a refined northern culture of repressive virtues and individual value points-- a world where she has never completely measured up. She is head-strong and superior, but also well-meaning and curious, when she arrives in the Queendom, and couldn't dream that the gift of rain to save their drought-stricken world might be unwelcome. She has been assigned to bring rain with her magical dance, and this she does-- despite breaking a few serious rules. When Kirral decides to keep his successful rain dancer in his harem and break all ties with Riverland, Merida not only has to compromise but also let go of all she has valued in order to survive. She even escapes Kirral's harem only to be tracked down by Dahoud himself, little improving her situation. The question is: can she set all her virtues and preconceptions aside to see a greater world beyond herself that is worth saving?With the luscious stage set for insurmountable obstacles of both body and spirit and an epic conflict for this pair of fire and water, Dahoud and Merida must face both intrigue and betrayal before they inevitably collide. Their paths crisscross through personal struggle, political ambitions, animal attacks, battles and sieges, and tragic devastation until they are able to entwine for a greater goal: to save Koskara. Black and white may bleed into a beleaguered gray, but Merida and Dahoud's battered souls will mature and attempt to conquer their own fatal flaws with both courage and love. If you haven't read it yet, what are you waiting for?
