Today’s Free Fridays selection, The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer, is a captivating fantasy adventure tale.
In the city of Ninavel, people practice many kinds of magic. It’s a land beset by magicians plying their trade. But the bordering country of Alathia has outlawed all forms of magic, imposing harsh penalties on anyone who practices the craft.
The adept smuggler Dev has carved a niche for himself as a guide along the Whitefire Crossing that connects the two lands. But his guide duties prove the perfect cover for a lucrative smuggling business as well. Contraband magic charms are a valuable asset in strictly-controlled Alathia.
Now Dev's smuggling skills are being put to an even bigger test, as he’s asked to fulfill a friend’s dying wish by transporting a young apprentice who’s being hunted by a powerful mage. The young man, Kiran, posses the knowledge and skills that are forbidden in Alathia, and if he and Dev are intercepted along the way, they both face dire consequences.
Dev and Kiran’s harrowing journey awaits in this week’s Free Fridays selection, and you can continue the adventure in Schafer’s just-published sequel, The Tainted City.
Free Fridays Recommends
Each week, we ask our featured author to recommend a book or author that you may want to check out. Since authors are such passionate readers themselves, we thought you might like to find out what they love to read, too! Here’s what Courtney recommends:
I've adored Martha Wells's excellent adventure fantasy novels ever since I first stumbled across The Wizard Hunters on a library shelf many years ago - but with her recent Books of the Raksura series, she really hits it out of the park. The first novel in the series, The Cloud Roads, was one of my favorite reads last year. It's got everything I like most in fantasy: richly realized characters, heart-pounding adventure, and some truly fascinating worldbuilding. Wells sets the novel in a secondary world populated by a myriad of nonhuman races, all with their own cultures, appearance, and customs; and she does some very interesting things with gender roles, and the themes of loss, loneliness, and the struggle to find acceptance. The sequel, The Serpent Sea, is just as good; and I'm salivating to get my hands on book 3, The Siren Depths, which releases this December. If you have any taste for adventure fantasy, you simply must give the Books of the Raksura a try!
NOOK owners: go to shop and search for “Courtney Schafer” to download her captivating fantasy adventures.
