In King’s
Crusade, when a team of scientists unearth scriptures older than the
Dead Sea Scrolls in a cave in the Eastern Desert mountains in Egypt, the
expedition is led by Dimitri Reznak, the Head of the Crovir Immortal Culture
& History Section. Alexa King, assigned to help him, is a covert agent for
the Crovir First Council.
Crovirs are a race of immortals. Are Dimitri and Alexa immortal? If so, what is their relationship to humans? How does Alexa work with her human assistant Zachary? Are humans subservient or equal? Why is Zachary assigned to the mission?
Crovirs are a race of immortals. Are Dimitri and Alexa immortal? If so, what is their relationship to humans? How does Alexa work with her human assistant Zachary? Are humans subservient or equal? Why is Zachary assigned to the mission?
Hello Marsha! Thanks for having me on your blog today.
Dimitri Reznak and Alexa King are indeed immortals belonging to the Crovir race. Currently, only a select few humans know of the existence of immortals, namely the political leaders of the most powerful nations on Earth, as well as the Secretary General of the United Nations. Dimitri and Alexa live alongside humans and interact with them normally, while keeping their immortality a secret. Zachary Jackson is recruited by Dimitri Reznak to assist Alexa on her mission; as a normal human, he is unaware of the existence of the immortal races. Jackson is a Harvard archaeology professor and one of the most intelligent humans on the planet.
In the modern world, humans are not subservient to the immortals. In fact, humans currently far outnumber immortals in terms of population size; this is as a direct result of the Red Death, the plague that wiped out more than half of the immortals races in the 14th century, and made most of the survivors infertile. Thousands of years ago, immortals ruled over an empire that stretched thousands of miles across Europe, Asia, and Africa; in those dark days, humans were the slaves and servants of the immortal races.
When Alexa is approached by her godfather for a mission that could help elucidate the enigma of her lost past, she finds herself delving into the dangerous and shadowy world of secret religious societies. What does she know about her lost past prior to beginning this mission?
Alexa’s earliest memories are of Dimitri Reznak finding her on the killing fields at the Battle of Narva in 1700. Dimitri assumes that her memory loss is due to the head injury she suffered at the time. She looked to be about eight years old when he found her and was holding a knife covered with blood, with a dead man lying at her bare feet.
In their search for the missing artifacts, Alexa and Zachary stumble upon the existence of a deadly sect whose origins are as mystifying as the relics they are searching for. Describe this sect. How might this group be dangerous?
Shortly after starting out on their mission, Alexa and Zachary come across a group of hostile men. During the fight that ensues, they get their first clue as to who might have stolen the artifacts in the cave that Reznak had discovered. The sect is suspected to be very old and and has been busy working behind the scenes for decades to achieve their goal. They are dangerous by virtue of ‘who’ they are, what they have already accomplished, and what their final aim is. Let’s just say that if they achieve their goal, it will be the end of human and immortal societies as they currently exist.
There is evidence of looting and half the priceless artifacts Reznak has been seeking for centuries have disappeared. Who are doing the looting?
The sect members are the ones who looted the cave.
Briefly describe the magical systems of your world. How do those who are empowered, the Crovirs and Bastians, gain their abilities?
There is no ‘magic’ as such in the series Seventeen, not in the sense of spells, wizards, or witchcraft. There are no vampires, werewolves, fey, or otherwise fantastical creatures. The clues to the origins of the immortals and the reasons for their supernatural abilities are given in tantalizing bits throughout the series. Well, to be fair, you get some very big clues in the first two books.
The reason I haven’t info dumped the whole backstory of the immortals, where they came from and why they have the abilities that they possess, is because much of that history has been lost to the immortals themselves, as in, even they don’t know the answer to these questions at the start of the series. Dimitri Reznak’s lifelong obsession has been to find out this ‘lost’ past. Why was it lost? The answer to that will come later on in the series, with ‘Immortal Origins’.
Dimitri Reznak and Alexa King are indeed immortals belonging to the Crovir race. Currently, only a select few humans know of the existence of immortals, namely the political leaders of the most powerful nations on Earth, as well as the Secretary General of the United Nations. Dimitri and Alexa live alongside humans and interact with them normally, while keeping their immortality a secret. Zachary Jackson is recruited by Dimitri Reznak to assist Alexa on her mission; as a normal human, he is unaware of the existence of the immortal races. Jackson is a Harvard archaeology professor and one of the most intelligent humans on the planet.
In the modern world, humans are not subservient to the immortals. In fact, humans currently far outnumber immortals in terms of population size; this is as a direct result of the Red Death, the plague that wiped out more than half of the immortals races in the 14th century, and made most of the survivors infertile. Thousands of years ago, immortals ruled over an empire that stretched thousands of miles across Europe, Asia, and Africa; in those dark days, humans were the slaves and servants of the immortal races.
When Alexa is approached by her godfather for a mission that could help elucidate the enigma of her lost past, she finds herself delving into the dangerous and shadowy world of secret religious societies. What does she know about her lost past prior to beginning this mission?
Alexa’s earliest memories are of Dimitri Reznak finding her on the killing fields at the Battle of Narva in 1700. Dimitri assumes that her memory loss is due to the head injury she suffered at the time. She looked to be about eight years old when he found her and was holding a knife covered with blood, with a dead man lying at her bare feet.
In their search for the missing artifacts, Alexa and Zachary stumble upon the existence of a deadly sect whose origins are as mystifying as the relics they are searching for. Describe this sect. How might this group be dangerous?
Shortly after starting out on their mission, Alexa and Zachary come across a group of hostile men. During the fight that ensues, they get their first clue as to who might have stolen the artifacts in the cave that Reznak had discovered. The sect is suspected to be very old and and has been busy working behind the scenes for decades to achieve their goal. They are dangerous by virtue of ‘who’ they are, what they have already accomplished, and what their final aim is. Let’s just say that if they achieve their goal, it will be the end of human and immortal societies as they currently exist.
There is evidence of looting and half the priceless artifacts Reznak has been seeking for centuries have disappeared. Who are doing the looting?
The sect members are the ones who looted the cave.
Briefly describe the magical systems of your world. How do those who are empowered, the Crovirs and Bastians, gain their abilities?
There is no ‘magic’ as such in the series Seventeen, not in the sense of spells, wizards, or witchcraft. There are no vampires, werewolves, fey, or otherwise fantastical creatures. The clues to the origins of the immortals and the reasons for their supernatural abilities are given in tantalizing bits throughout the series. Well, to be fair, you get some very big clues in the first two books.
The reason I haven’t info dumped the whole backstory of the immortals, where they came from and why they have the abilities that they possess, is because much of that history has been lost to the immortals themselves, as in, even they don’t know the answer to these questions at the start of the series. Dimitri Reznak’s lifelong obsession has been to find out this ‘lost’ past. Why was it lost? The answer to that will come later on in the series, with ‘Immortal Origins’.
*~*~*
King’s Crusade
Seventeeen Series Book 2
AD Starrling
Genre:
Supernatural thriller
The
perfect immortal warrior.
A
set of stolen, priceless artifacts.
An
ancient sect determined to bring about the downfall of human civilization.
The
exciting, action-packed follow-up to Soul Meaning and the second installment in
the supernatural thriller series, Seventeen.
When a
team of scientists unearth scriptures older than the Dead Sea Scrolls in a cave
in the Eastern Desert mountains in Egypt, a mystery lost to the tides of time
is uncovered. Heading the expedition is Dimitri Reznak, the Head of the Crovir
Immortal Culture & History Section. But the monumental discovery is spoiled
by evidence of looting and half the priceless artifacts Reznak has been seeking
for centuries have disappeared.
Alexa King
is a covert agent for the Crovir First Council. When she is approached by her
godfather for a mission that could help elucidate the enigma of her lost past,
she finds herself delving into the dangerous and shadowy world of secret
religious societies. Assigned by Reznak to assist her is Zachary Jackson, a
gifted human and Harvard archaeology professor.
In their
search for the missing artifacts, King and Jackson stumble upon the existence
of a deadly sect whose origins are as mystifying as the relics they are
searching for. From North Africa to the doors of Vatican City itself, they
unveil a centuries-old plan that aims to shatter the very structure of
civilized society.
With the
help of Reznak and a group of unexpected allies, King and Jackson must stop the
enemy and uncover the astonishing truth behind the missing artifacts and King’s
own unearthly origins before all is lost.
Soul MeaningSeventeen Series Book One
AD Starrling
Genre: Supernatural
thriller
ISBN:
978-0957282605
ASIN: B008L8IU8C
Number of pages:
420
Word Count: 108,187
Cover Artist:
Streetlight Graphics
Book Description:
A half breed immortal. An international manhunt. A race against time to
stop a terrifying plot that threatens to kill millions. The gripping, action-packed
debut novel by AD Starrling and the first in the supernatural thriller series
Seventeen.
‘My name is Lucas Soul.
Today, I died again.
This is my fifteenth death in
the last four hundred and fifty years.’
The Crovirs and the Bastians. Two races of immortals who have lived side
by side with humans for millennia and been engaged in a bloody war since the
very dawn of their existence. With the capacity to survive up to sixteen
deaths, it was not until the late fourteenth century that they reached an
uneasy truce, following a deadly plague that wiped out more than half of their
numbers and made the majority of survivors infertile.
Soul is an outcast of both immortal societies. Born of a Bastian mother
and a Crovir father, a half breed whose very existence is abhorred by the two
races, he spends the first three hundred and fifty years of his life being
chased and killed by the Hunters.
One fall night in Boston, the Hunt starts again, resulting in Soul’s
fifteenth death and triggering a chain of events that sends him on the run with
Reid Hasley, a former US Marine and his human business partner of ten years.
When a lead takes them to Washington DC and a biotechnology company with
affiliations to the Crovirs, they cross the Atlantic to Europe, on the trail of
a French scientist whose research seems intrinsically linked to the reason why
the Hunters are after Soul again.
From Paris to Prague, their search for answers will lead them deep into
the immortal societies and bring them face to face with someone from Soul’s
past. Shocking secrets are uncovered and fresh allies come to the fore as they
attempt to put a stop to a new and terrifying threat to both immortals and
humans.
Time is running out for Soul. Can he get to the truth before his
seventeenth death, protect the ones he loves and prevent another immortal war?
About the Author:
AD Starrling was
born on the small island nation of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean and came to
the UK at the age of twenty to study medicine. After five years of hard graft
earning her MD and another five years working all of God’s hours as a
Paediatrician, she decided it was time for a change and returned to her first
love, writing.
Soul Meaning is
her debut novel and the first in a supernatural thriller series entitled
Seventeen. She currently lives in Warwickshire in the West Midlands, where she
is busy writing the second novel in the series while drinking gallons of tea.
She still
practises medicine. AD Starrling is her pen name.
http://www.amazon.com/AD-Starrling/e/B008KS77GO/
Excerpt: PROLOGUE
November
1700. Battle of Narva. Swedish territory.
The
little girl stared into the dead man’s eyes, her expression steady and
unflinching. All around her rose the cries of soldiers and the clash of swords,
while cannons boomed on a distant hill, and the sharp reports of musket shots
echoed across the banks of the nearby river.
The morning’s blizzard had turned
the battlefield into a gray and bloody mire. The snow and rain that had been
falling steadily during the night had grown heavy at dawn, and visibility was
worsened by vicious gusts blowing in from the west. When the wind shifted to
the south at midday, it provided an unprecedented advantage for the
eight-thousand-strong army of Sweden’s King Karl the Twelfth. They had been
able to advance virtually unseen on the significantly larger Russian
contingent, which laid siege to the city of Narva in early November of that
year.
Although tired and hungry after
traveling across miles of treacherous back roads and countryside laid to waste
by the invaders, the better-equipped and more experienced Swedes managed to get
within fifty yards of the enemy’s front lines without being detected and led a
swift attack on two fronts.
After overcoming Russian General
Veyde’s and Prince Trubetskoy’s men, they now marched for the troops on the
adversary’s left flank, which were under the charge of Duke de Cröy, the field
marshal whom Tsar Peter I of Russia had left in charge of his army.
As he carefully made his way
across the treacherous ground, Dimitri Reznak glanced at the bruised skies
overhead. Though the worst of the storm had passed, heavy flakes still fell
from the low clouds that covered the land in eerie twilight. Interspersed with
rain and sleet, the snow melted rapidly in crimson puddles that dotted the
plain, forming brief teardrops on the cooling skin of the hundreds of Russian
and Swedish soldiers who had fallen since the start of the battle. Reznak
frowned at the gruesome sight.
Given that he was an immortal who
had witnessed countless wars and conflicts over the five centuries of his
existence thus far, he knew he should have been immune to the spectacle of
blood and gore that surrounded him. Yet, despite the fact that he and the two
hundred Crovir immortals under his command were assisting the young Swedish
King in his endeavor to keep the new territories his predecessors had acquired
during Europe’s bloody Thirty Years’ War, Reznak could not help but feel
overwhelmed by sadness at the needless loss of human life. Which was why he
headed straight for the little girl when he saw her standing on the knoll in
the middle of the battleground.
Although he hadn’t expected to
see a child in the midst of the war zone, Reznak was not surprised. Some
civilians had still been trying to reach the safety of the fortified city when
they were caught between the advancing armies, and those who had not succumbed
to the fierce blizzard perished in the subsequent crossfire. He could only
presume that the child had become separated from her parents during the ensuing
chaos. The chances of finding them alive, he knew, would be slim at best.
When he got within twenty feet of
her, the little girl finally looked up. It was not the panicked, wild movement
he had been anticipating. Instead, it was a slow and measured gesture. Reznak
froze.
Her eyes were a clear gray, the
irises wide and almost silvery in their sheen. Her skin, where it was visible
beneath the dirty yet elegant ivory dress she wore, was an alabaster white.
Thick, dark curls crowned her head and fell in waves to her shoulders, framing
a surprisingly slim face and neck. She looked to be about eight years old and
was without a doubt the most shockingly beautiful being he had ever seen.
Yet it was not her startling
appearance that stopped him in his tracks; it was the look on her face that
sent a sharp chill through his bones and a shiver down his spine, immobilizing
his legs.
There was only one word to
describe the expression in her eyes: fearlessness.
Pure and unadulterated, the
feeling seemed to seep through her pores and emanate from the very core of her
being, an almost palpable energy focused in a lance-like beam projected from
her dark pupils.
That was when Reznak knew she was
not human.
The little girl blinked. Reznak
suddenly found that he could move again. His gaze drifted down to her right
hand, where the handle of an ugly knife was clasped firmly between her slender
fingers. Red droplets still gleamed wetly on the edge of the blade and dropped
into an expanding pool by her bare feet. His eyes followed the crimson trail to
the dead man lying inches from where she stood. There was a deep, linear wound
on the left side of the soldier’s chest; by the looks of it, she had stabbed
him in the heart.
It would have taken the man less
than a minute to die.
Reznak’s gaze shifted to the
girl. ‘Hello,’ he said gently in German,
conscious of the weight of the sword at his waist. ‘My name is Dimitri. What’s
your name?’
The little girl remained silent.
He hesitated. Certain he would not get a reply, he repeated the question in the
local Estonian dialect. He was shocked when, in a clear and low voice that was
oddly devoid of emotion, she said, ‘Alexandria.’
Reznak took a cautious step
forward, his eyes never leaving hers. Her chin tilted as she stared up at him.
‘Where’s your mother, Alexandria?’ he continued quietly in the same vernacular.
A faint frown dawned on her face
at his words. ‘I don’t know,’ she said.
Less than two hundred feet from
where they stood, scores of soldiers fought to the death, their swords and
daggers carving through the flesh and bones of their enemies. The harsh breaths
of their nervous horses misted the cold air, while musket rounds peppered the
ground around them.
Reznak took another step forward.
‘Can you tell me where you came from?’
The little girl’s frown deepened
while she considered the question. ‘I don’t know,’ she repeated.
It was then that he noticed the
fresh blood matted in her hair. She had suffered a blow to the side of her
head. His gaze dropped to the red finger marks on her arm. His eyes narrowed.
‘Did that man hurt you?’ Reznak
asked stiffly, indicating the dead soldier at her feet.
Her chin dipped in a brief nod.
He stared at her for a moment
before slowly squatting down. With his face level with hers, he carefully extended
a hand. ‘Would you like to come with me, Alexandria? It’s not safe here.’
The little girl gazed at him
silently. Undaunted, Reznak stood up and waited. She turned on her heels and
stared through the thin veil of snow at the river and the city beyond it. The
wind picked up and ruffled her hair.
He peered at the back of her neck
curiously. Imprinted a scant inch beneath her hairline, in the very middle of
her delicate spine, was a triangular mark—a trishula. Although generically
shaped like a trident, the more intricate details of the design reminded him
strongly of the weapons he had seen wielded by fearsome Asian warriors in
battles past. It was not a tattoo. It looked more like a birthmark.
The knife thudded softly in the
deepening snowdrift when the little girl opened her fingers. Still gazing at
the battlefield before them, she raised her bloodied hand toward him. Reznak
clasped it in his own and was surprised at how warm her skin felt.
‘Are you my father now?’ she
asked calmly.
‘No,’ he said with a weak smile.
He glanced at the top of her head. The dark curls shivered slightly in the
wind. Beneath them, the child’s body was as still as stone. ‘Can I call you
Alexa? Alexandria is a bit of a mouthful.’
She gave this some thought.
‘Yes,’ she said finally with a curt nod.
Tour wide giveaway
1. 5 ebook copies
2. 3 signed paperback with a bookmark + postcard each
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