Songs of the Earth
David Gemmell Morningstar Award nominee 2012.
The Book of Eador, Abjurations 12:14, is very clear: Suffer ye not the life of a witch. For a thousand years, the Church Knights have obeyed that commandment, sending to the stake anyone who can hear the songs of the earth. There are no exceptions, not even for one of their own.
Novice Knight Gair can hear music no one else can, beautiful, terrible music: music with
power. In the Holy City, that can mean only one thing: death by
fire — until an unlikely intervention gives him a chance to flee the city
and escape the flames.
With the Church Knights and their
witchfinder hot on his heels, Gair hasn’t time to learn how to use the
power growing inside him, but if he doesn’t master it, that power will
tear him apart. His only hope is the secretive Guardians of the Veil,
though centuries of persecution have almost destroyed their Order, and
the few Guardians left have troubles of their own.
For the Veil
between worlds is weakening, and behind it, the Hidden Kingdom,
ever-hungry for dominion over the daylight realm, is stirring. Though he is far from ready, Gair will find himself fighting for his own life,
for everyone within the Order of the Veil, and for the woman he has come to love.
Elspeth Cooper
Elspeth Cooper was born in 1968 and raised in Newcastle upon Tyne in the north east of England. A fantasy reader from an early age, she began writing her own stories when still a child and never quite grew out of it.
In 2004 she was diagnosed with MS, which five years later forced her to give up a 21-year career in IT. Now she writes full-time. Songs of the Earth, published in 2011 by Gollancz, was her first novel, and the first in The Wild Hunt Quartet.
A sword-owning, tea-drinking imagineer, she lives in Northumberland with her husband and two cats in a house full of books.
The Wild Hunt
The veil between worlds is weakening, and behind it, the Hidden Kingdom, ever-hungry for dominion over the daylight realm, is stirring. The kingdoms of the earth have grown complacent in victory, and their rulers deny the power of magic. The guardians of the Veil have grown old and few. But there are still a few who can wield the power of the Song of the Earth - can they regain their power in time to stop the wild hunt from rending the veil and overrunning the whole world?
The Wild Hunt consists of three books, and the series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.