Allaigna’s Song: Chorale (Fantasy Novel)
The Allaigna’s Song trilogy is a love story, a family saga, and a coming-of-age novel that braids together the stories of daughter, mother, and grandmother.
Synopsis
In the six years since Allaigna left home, killed her betrothed, and
joined the Brandishear Rangers, she has hidden her family name and her ability
to sing music into magic. Confronted with the dire implications of her
grandfather’s exploration into long-forbidden arcana, Allaigna must swallow her
pride and summon her courage to return home with the ashes of her cousin to
prevent yet another war, or worse, an arcane catastrophe to rival that of the legendary
Cataclysm.
About the Author
In addition to her work as a writer,
editor, artist, and publisher, JM Landels teaches swordplay and horseback
riding — sometimes both at the same time — in Langley, BC. She drew on this
experience, as well as her time as a rock musician and childbirth educator, to
inform her fantasy trilogy, Allaigna’s Song. She is currently working on a new
series, La Bergère, featuring a shepherdess-turned-spy in seventeenth-century
France. Her debut novel, Allaigna’s Song: Overture was an Amazon
bestseller, and the sequel Aria was
published in 2020.
Publication Information
Publisher: Pulp Literature Press (pulpliterature.com)
Release Date: November 2022
Price: $24.95 USD / CAD
978-1-988865-41-6 (trade); 978-1-988865-42-3 (ebook)
Long
Bio
Her novels are:
Allaigna’s Song: Overture (Pulp
Literature Press, 2017);
Allaigna’s Song: Aria (Pulp Literature Press,
2020);
Allaigna’s Song: Chorale (Pulp
Literature Press, 2022).
Other works from Pulp Literature Press
include:
‘Masquerade’ Pulp Literature Issue 12 (Pulp Literature Press,
Autumn 2016);
‘Treason’s Fulcrum’ Pulp Literature Issue 25 (Pulp Literature Press,
Winter 2020);
‘The Shepherdess’ Pulp Literature Issues 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, & 34 (Pulp Literature Press,
Autumn 2019, Spring 2020, Autumn 2020, Spring 2021, Autumn 2021 & Spring
2022);
‘Allaigna’s Song: Oburakor’ Pulp Literature Issues 27, 29, & 31 (Pulp Literature Press,
Summer 2020, Winter 2021 & Summer 2021).
‘Gwannyn’s Song’ Pulp Literature Issue 35 (Pulp Literature Press, Summer 2022)
‘Zara’s Song’ Pulp Literature Issue 37 (Pulp Literature Press, Winter 2023)
In addition to her work as a writer,
editor, artist, and publisher, JM Landels teaches swordplay and horseback
riding — sometimes both at the same time — in Langley, BC. She drew on this
experience, as well as her time as a rock musician and childbirth educator, to
inform her fantasy trilogy, Allaigna’s Song. She is currently working on a new
series, La Bergère, featuring a shepherdess-turned-spy in seventeenth-century
France.
Her web page is at
http://jmlandels.stiffbunnies.com/.
Previously
in the trilogy
When Allaigna was a child, she nearly sang
her baby brother to sleep — forever.
Heir to neither her mother’s titles nor her secrets, she inherited her
grandmother’s dangerous talent for singing music into magic. Secrets are stock-in-trade for her
grandmother Irdaign, who married a
prince and turned the gift of the Sight into a double-edged weapon of state,
and her mother Lauresa, who
disappeared for two weeks en-route to her wedding to the Duke of Aerach.
At
the age of fourteen, Allaigna discovered that her nurse Angeley was really her
grandmother and former Princess High of Brandishear; and that Allaigna herself
is the product of a tryst that occurred when her mother was lost in the
Valnirata Greatwood en route to her wedding. Fuelled by hurt and anger,
Allaigna stole her mother’s only keepsake of the man who rescued her — his
Ilvan dagger — and fled from her home and her unwanted betrothal, hoping to
find her father by retracing her mother’s decade-and-a-half-old route.
Captured
by her intended husband, Lord Doniver, she avoided rape when she inadvertently
killed him with her unschooled magic.
Fleeing with her new-found mentor the travelling singer Morran Rhoan,
she forged new friendships in both Aerach and the Sandhorn. But any clues to
her birth father continued to elude her, and, stricken with grief over the harm
she’d caused in her flight from home, she enlisted in the Brandishear Rangers,
relinquishing her past and her magic.
Six
years later, Allaigna mustered out and took a private commission from her
grandfather, Prince High Chanist, which took her and a handful of mercenaries,
including her cousin Goff, to the wilds of Oburakor, tasked with exploring the
ancient arcane Lothgates, long thought to be inactive. After witnessing the
cataclysmic destruction of a gate, Allaigna and her companions travel through
hostile territory and mountain passes to make it back to the Ilmar, but not
without cost.
Now,
burdened by the loss of two comrades and the knowledge that the princes of the
Ilmar intend to re-open the Lothgates — an action that will surely incite war
and could cause a second Cataclysm to rival the destruction of Ulaonnor Mor —
Allaigna must decide where her loyalties lie: with her grandfather the Prince,
or with the people of the Ilmar.
Sample chapter
Reviews
of Allaigna’s Song: Overture
CC Humphreys, award-winning author of Plague and Shakespeare’s Rebel
Magically unputdownable! JM Landels not only
knows her magic, music, and swords, she knows how to weave all these elements
into an exciting, enchanting, and uplifting tale. More please!
Grady Harp, San Francisco Review of Books
An immensely satisfying epic.
Landels delivers her richly woven story with both grace and ardor as befits the
realm of her tale. Yes, the story includes magic, even beyond the quality of
the prose, and the loom is elaborated with line drawing illustrations. This is
a fine launch for a promised series – one that seems destined to become a
standard! Recommended.
Brandon Crilly, BlackGate.com
Elegantly constructed,
boasting a subtle and well-thought out magic system based on music, on top of
everything else. I’d highly recommend checking it out.
Myst de Vana, Netgalley.com
A compelling coming-of-age
story that launches a fantasy trilogy to watch for. JM Landels writes with
exquisite effect in this emotionally taut, action-imbued book set in a land
that battles to come to terms with different forms of magic. Three intriguing
women chart their own paths, creating a weave of intersecting consequences for
the heroine. There is no shortage of surprises for the reader, in no small part
because the characters in this tale refuse to fit into boxes. Good luck putting
Allaigna’s Song: Overture down – I
read it in a single sitting.
Sylvia Stopforth, author of Dragon Rock
Author Landels knows her
stuff. Whether it’s horses, sword-fighting, or midwifery, the details and
descriptions are well-chosen and convincing. And she makes magic out of music
... or music out of magic. Either way, it works.
Mel Anastasiou, author of Stella Ryman and the Fairmount Manor
Mysteries
From the very first page, JM
Landels draws me into Allaigna’s brilliantly observed world, a land rich in
conflict and magic. Landels is gifted with storytelling abilities and gives her
readers those greatest of rewards, surprise turns and great character growth
and transformation. Subtle and powerful, her writing always pleases.
Susan Pieters
Allaigna by JM Landels is satisfying
fantasy with the emotional grit and depth that could only be written by a
mother of girls. It’s part romance, part step-family dynamics, part magical
coming-of age story, braided together in narratives that have distinct yet
overlapping points of view.
Amanda Bidnall, author of The West Indian Generation
The fantastic detail of
Allaigna’s adventures would’ve been enough to keep me hooked. But it is her
spirit, and the emotional history tying her family together, that really makes
this an epic.
Alana Krider
For everybody out there who hasn’t been reading it in serialized form in Pulp Literature, do yourself a favour and buy it! Heck, buy it even if you read the serialized version already! It’s that good.
Reviews
of Allaigna’s Song: Aria
Alana K, 5-star Goodreads review
As
most fantasy fans know, the second novel in a trilogy is often weaker than the
first. This book is that rare and happy case of a second novel that’s even
better than the first. JM Landels hits the ground running in Aria and never
slows down. She draws us in, making us care deeply about her complex and flawed
characters, and steeps us in the reality of her world through wonderfully rich
and well-chosen details.
Landels’s
deft handling of non-linear storytelling from the points of view of Allaigna,
her mother Lauresa, and her grandmother Irdaign gives readers the thrill of
putting together the pieces of the past to discover the true shape of the
present. We’re treated to jaw-dropping moments of understanding, shifting our
perceptions of characters and world-changing events, even as we continue to
follow Allaigna’s adventures in the present.
And for once, we’re treated to a high fantasy tale that’s about three
generations of women. Aria doesn’t just
pass the Bechdel test; it casually stomps it into the ground and strides
forward to set a new bar.
Allaigna’s
Song: Aria is simply a joy to read; the words seem to flow off the page, making
it very difficult to put down. I can’t wait for the final instalment of the
trilogy. I need to know what Allaigna does next, and what happens not only to
her family and friends, but to the fragile peace in the land of the Ilmar.
Lyz, 5-star Goodreads review
I so
enjoyed the first novel in this series, Overture, and have been eagerly waiting
for this one to come out. I was not disappointed at all. I was quite the
fantasy series buff once upon a time but this is the first saga to grab and
keep my attention on a long while. I was a bit worried that I’d have lost many
of the threads established in the first book but I jumped right in to this one
without any issues. The short recap at the beginning was all I needed to catch
up on the plot. Last book I needed to flip back to the Dramatis Personae
several times but this round I sailed through. There’s no sophomore novel slump
here, Aria keeps you turning pages from beginning to end. Now to find the
patience to wait for the last book in the series to be written.
Victoria
Lee, Goodreads
I was hooked reading Allaigna’s Song: Aria, the second in a trilogy. I enjoyed the interweaving of the lives and stories of Allaigna, her mother, and her grandmother. Allaigna’s journey is a coming of age tale as she discovers more about her magical singing and the deceptions that exist everywhere in her life. I am looking forward to reading the conclusion to Allaigna’s Song. I highly recommend it!
Short
quotes for Allaigna’s Song: Overture
“Magically unputdownable,” CC Humphreys
“The compelling plot kept me hooked for
hours! It was addictive,” Nabila Fairuz, author of The Chronicles of Captain Shelly Manhar
“Loved, no, LOVED it. Superb,” Donna J
Saunders
“I love the characters and their stories. I
want to read them again and again,” Cathy Levinson
“Beautiful writing and gripping storytelling throughout.”
“Allaigna, Lauresa, and Irdaign are tough, flawed, and appealing
heroines”
“Superb writing, a gripping tale.”
“Great tension, big world, perfect pacing, intriguing politics
[and] lovely magic.”
Praise for JM Landels
“Author Landels knows her stuff,” Sylvia Stopforth
“Landels is gifted with storytelling abilities,” Mel Anastasiou
“JM Landels not only knows her magic, music, and swords, she
knows how to weave all these elements into an exciting, enchanting, and
uplifting tale,” CC Humphreys
For
review copies
Please
email Brooklynn Hook at Pulp Literature Press.
To
contact the author:
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