Graceling

Graceling has been so highly praised, that I needed to read it. I finally scored a copy and settled in, not really knowing what to expect.

Katsa is graced with the ability to fight. She can kill a man with her bare hands. Because of her skills, her uncle King Randa, uses her to frighten people into obeying his command. Katsa hates working for her uncle. When she rescues a king from the dungeons as part of the council's work, she has no idea that her life will change forever. When a relative of the man she rescued appears at court, she feels drawn to him. He's the first person to challenge her in a fight. Although she can pummel him, he makes her work. As their friendship grows, Katsa knows Po is leaving to search for answers. She can't bear the thought him him going without her. Katsa travels with him. Their path is as dangerous as their enemies. Can they survive the journey and face the the truth about the threat of the seven kingdoms.

I adored this book and never wanted the adventure to end. I'm anxious to read the rest of the books in the series.



Also check out the flair from facebook:

*************

The following is taken from Cashore's webpage, she also has a blog.

Fire, Graceling's prequel-ish companion book, takes place across the mountains to the east of the seven kingdoms, in a rocky, war-torn land called the Dells.

Beautiful creatures called monsters live in the Dells. Monsters have the shape of normal animals: mountain lions, dragonflies, horses, fish. But the hair or scales or feathers of monsters are gorgeously colored-- fuchsia, turquoise, sparkly bronze, iridescent green-- and their minds have the power to control the minds of humans.

Seventeen-year-old Fire is the last remaining human-shaped monster in the Dells. Gorgeously monstrous in body and mind but with a human appreciation of right and wrong, she is hated and mistrusted by just about everyone, and this book is her story.

Wondering what makes it a companion book/prequel? Fire takes place 30-some years before Graceling and has one cross-over character with Graceling, a small boy with strange two-colored eyes who comes from no-one-knows-where, and who has a peculiar ability that Graceling readers will find familiar and disturbing...

Fire comes out in October 2009 from Dial Books for Young Readers.

*************

Book 3, tentatively titled Bitterblue and currently in progress, is a companion book to both Graceling and Fire and takes place in the seven kingdoms six years after Graceling. As you may have gathered, the protagonist is Bitterblue. Yes, Katsa, Po, & Co. appear in the book. :o) Writing it is killing me softly, except for when it's killing me with loud death agonies. The less said about it for now, the better.