Step into the incredible fantasy world of Kristin Cashore's Graceling and dream of never leaving.
From the blurb;
'In a world where people born with exceptional skill, known as a Grace, are both feared and exploited, Katsa carries the burden of a skill even she despises: the Grace of killing.
'Feared by the court and shunned by those her own age, the darkness of her Grace casts a heavy shadow over Katsa's life. Yet she remains defiant: when the King of Lienid's father is kidnapped she investigates and stumbles across a mystery. Who would want to kidnap the old man, and why? And who was the extraordinary Graced man whose fighting abilities rivalled her own?
'The only thing Katsa is sure of is that she no longer wants to kill. The intrigue around this kidnapping offers her a way out - but little does she realise, when she takes it, that something insidious and dark lurks behind the mystery. Something spreading from the shadowy figure of a one eyed king...'
Cashore throws us in to her exceptionally crafted fantasy world, asking us to keep us as she dives head first into the complex battle-field that is Katsa's life.
Filled to the brim with stunning action sequences, Graceling is a survival story, and a gripping fight for justice, carried by a compelling cast and set in a complex and magic fantasy world.
It takes only a few chapters to fall in love with Katsa, and for readers who love a strong female lead, Katsa does not disappoint. Gifted the power of fighting, Katsa's character is strong, agile and intelligent, but her heart is what makes her lovable. Despite all that she has suffered Katsa's unbending kindness and resolve to find the truth, makes her a character we can cheer for and for whom we long for better.
Starting off with a relatively simple mission Katsa soon finds herself in the midst of a far darker plot, and alongside her the reader must put together what's really happening in this complex world.
Cashore creates shock factor with the plot twists, and will keep your heart in a vice grip as she pushes her characters to their absolute limit. Yet while fighting for survival and for a better world, Cashore manages to lace a breathtaking love story into this fantasy, one that lifts the burden of the stories heavier plot points, and which gifts Katsa a new path.
An incredible read that deserves to be read several times over, Graceling is the fantasy epic no reader should skip.
We give Graceling Five Stars
ISBN - 978-0-575-09814-5 Cover Price - £7.99 First published in Great Britain in 2008 by Gollancz an imprint of Orion Publishing Group