Hullo, friends! Today, we’re featuring The Ikessar Falcon by author K.S. Villoso. This is the follow up to The Wolf of Oren-Yaro which has gotten amazing reviews everywhere. The Ikessar Falcon officially releases this week, so watch out for it!
Read more about the book below and check the other tour stops for reviews of the book.
The Ikessar Falcon
Genre: adult, fantasy
Diversity tags: own-voices, authors of color (filipino author), poc representation (filipino characters)
Publication date: 24 September 2020
Publisher: Orbit Books
Cover artist: Simon Goinard
Synopsis:
The Bitch Queen returns in The Ikessar Falcon, the action-packed sequel to K. S. Villoso’s acclaimed fantasy debut, The Wolf of Oren-Yaro.
Abandoned by her people, Queen Talyien’s quest takes a turn for the worse as she stumbles upon a plot deeper and more sinister than she could have ever imagined, one that will displace her king and see her son dead. The road home beckons, strewn with a tangled web of deceit and unimaginable horrors – creatures from the dark, mad dragons and men with hearts hungry for power.
To save her land, Talyien must confront the myth others have built around her: Warlord Yeshin’s daughter, symbol of peace, warrior and queen and everything she could never be.
The price for failure is steep. Her friends are few. And a nation carved by a murderer can only be destined for war.
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About the Author
K.S. Villoso was born in a dank hospital on an afternoon in Albay, Philippines, and things have generally been okay since then. After spending most of her childhood in a slum area in Taguig (where she dodged death-defying traffic, ate questionable food, and fell into open-pit sewers more often than one ought to), she and her family immigrated to Vancouver, Canada, where they spent the better part of two decades trying to chase the North American Dream. She is now living amidst the forest and mountains with her family, children, and dogs in Anmore, BC.
Connect with the author on her Website, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads and Facebook.
The wolf and the queen (quotes from the book)
“They called me the Bitch Queen, the she-wolf, because I murdered a man and exiled my king the night before they crowned me.”
“A wolf of Oren-yaro does not beg. A wolf of Oren-yaro suffers in silence.”
“I thought a wolf of Oren-yaro was unyielding; I had no idea how deep the Ikessars’ own tenets ran.”
“You are a wolf of Oren-yaro. You do not bend to mere whimsy. We are swords first, servants first.”
“But Queen Talyien and Tali are different edges of the same sword — one a mask, the other a woman.”
“What strength I thought I had was laughable — I needed to be more than this. Jin-Sayeng needed me to be more than this. Thousands lost their lives to get me to where I was. If I faltered, thousands more would follow.”
“I tore my attention back to him, taking a deep breath and reaching inside to become queen of Jin-Sayeng once more.”
“Bitch Queen or frightened girl? What kind of gods would decree such an insurmountable battle for someone responsible for thousands upon thousands of lives?”
“If you were free to walk away from all of this, what would you be?” I stared at the fire for a long time. “I’d be free,” I murmured.”
I picked the Queen of Swords because I thought it was fitting. The Queen of Swords can represent independence, intelligence, objective thinking, constructive criticism and protectiveness. On the reverse of it, it can also represent being over-emotional, pessimistic, harsh, bitchy and unforgiving. I thought this card represents how Talyien struggles as a queen, a daughter, a protective mother, a wife, a woman.
Check out the first book in this series
The Wolf of Oren-Yaro (Book #1)
A queen of a divided land must unite her people, even if they hate her, even if it means stopping a ruin that she helped create. A debut epic fantasy from an exciting new voice.
“I murdered a man and made my husband leave the night before they crowned me.”
Born under the crumbling towers of Oren-yaro, Queen Talyien was the shining jewel and legacy of the bloody War of the Wolves that nearly tore her nation apart. Her upcoming marriage to the son of her father’s rival heralds peaceful days to come.
But his sudden departure before their reign begins fractures the kingdom beyond repair.
Years later, Talyien receives a message, urging her to attend a meeting across the sea. It’s meant to be an effort at reconciliation, but an assassination attempt leaves the queen stranded and desperate to survive in a dangerous land. With no idea who she can trust, she’s on her own as she struggles to fight her way home.
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Blog Tour Dates
Visit the other blog tour stops and find out what advance copy readers think about the book!
You can find the tour schedule and list of participating blogs here: https://caffeinebooktours.wordpress.com/2020/08/08/ikessar-falcon-tour/